Bridgend Sun Pm 10 Feb 2008

Place: Bridgend AOG.           Date: Sunday Pm 10th Feb 2008.

Text: John 4:7-18.                  Theme: Living water.

Introduction:                          Reading: John 4:7-14.

Have you ever taken the time to sit back and take a look at your life? What are you looking for out of life? Have you ever been thirsty for something? That nothing else would satisfy or refresh your thirst. Each of us is looking for something in our lives. This woman at the well was looking for refreshment in her life.

This woman went to a well to get some water, but what she got was something that would satisfy her thirst for the rest of her life and for all of eternity. We are going to look at three steps to real refreshment.

1ST POINT: KNOWING WHERE TO LOOK, VERSES 10-11.   

“Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?”

This woman at the well, which Jesus spoke with, went looking for something to refresh her physical thirst and need. Yet, she did know what she was going to receive from Jesus? Jesus tells us a little bit about where we can find real refreshment. He tells this woman that real refreshment is a gift from God that can be found through Jesus Christ.

In John 7:37-38 Jesus said “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” In our lives, we tend to look for refreshment or some relief from the everyday activities of life in all the wrong places. If we are going to find real refreshment, we need to know where to look for it.

This woman was looking for refreshment all of her life and until this point she did not know where to look. Jesus knew what was in the woman’s heart; He knew what she needed most have all in her life. Jesus knows what you need also. One of the steps that we need to take, so that we can have real refreshment is to know where to go to find it.

2ND POINT: KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, VERSES 11-12.

          “The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

When Jesus spoke of living water, the people of His day understood that term to be talking about a body of water that was moving, like a stream or a flowing spring or river. As Jesus is speaking to this woman, she still does not know what she is looking for. She tells Jesus that He does not have anything with which to draw water out of this 100 foot deep well.

Jesus is standing before this woman and she does not know what He can offer her. Today, nothing much has changed. People really do not know what they are looking for when they come to Jesus. Many times people will come to Jesus and just want Him to take care of their physical thirst or physical needs. They want this but they do not want to seek the real refreshment that Jesus has to offer.

In her life it appears that she was seeking worldly refreshment through the relationships that she had with men. Jesus was telling her that she was drawing water out of a dead source and He could give her living water that would refresh her.

The gift of God is the living water of a personal relationship that we can have with the source of life. Jesus was offering her this. As you grow in Christ, your life will begin to have meaning and satisfaction. A relationship with Jesus is one that grows and matures.

3RD POINT: KNOWING WHY YOU NEED TO LOOK, VERSES 13-18.

          “Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

The last step in the process of finding real refreshment is knowing why you need to look for it. As Jesus carries on His conversation with this woman, she is starting to understand that Jesus is not talking about the water found in the well.

Here are some reasons why we need to seek the real refreshment that Jesus offers to us.
1. We need to be cleansed.

Have ever been hot tired and sweaty? Remember how good it felt to get into the shower and how refreshed you felt when you got out of the shower? If you are dirty, you will not feel good until you hit that shower!

This woman needed to be convicted of her own sin and her need to be cleansed. Once we understand how much we need Jesus, it will help us to want to look for Him. This woman had asked for God’s grace and she needed to know just how much she needed it, she needed to be made aware of her hidden thirst.

2. So we can be truly satisfied.

Jesus tells us in verse 13 that whoever drinks from the dead water of the world will never be satisfied. Think about it, how many people are satisfied by what the world has to offer? Can we ever have enough money, power, or possessions?

Jesus said in John 6:35 “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”

3. The living water will spring up to eternal life.

Verse 14 tells us that the water Jesus has to offer will become in us a well of water springing up to eternal life. What in the world will lead to eternal life? But the blessings that Jesus has to offer will spring up to eternal life.

CONCLUSION.

          What are you trying to fill the empty hole within you with? Are you tired, weary and in need of some refreshment in life? If you are, you need to seek the living water that is offered to you by Jesus. And never thirst again!