Living Water Series

Text: John 4:1-30 (NASB)

Introduction: This morning we will begin a series of messages entitled “How to Find Freedom from Sin?” Through this series of messages, we want to teach you how you can be completely free from anything sin in life that has you bound. Out of all of us, here this morning, we can all be sure that we have at least one thing in common. That is, all of us have sinned. Some of us since we have been Christians have never learned how we can be free from things in life that have us in bondage. However, sometimes we classify and justify our sins to the point that we become unaware of the stronghold that they have on our lives.

Good names for these sins are “hang ups.” These are the sins in your life that you ask God to forgive you for, yet you continually go right back to those sins. Sin separates us from God and distances our relationship with God at the same time. As we understand, that sin separates us from God, we must also understand that sins that are hang-ups in our lives can also be the things that can cause us to loose our salvation if we do not allow ourselves to be freed from this bondage.

Do you want total and complete freedom from your sin? Do you want your relationship with God to be like never before? Some of you may say, “What’s the use I will always sin anyways.” To that I answer, “We should be so concerned about becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ and growing up to be like him that we desire complete freedom from every sin that has us bound.” We simply cannot grow to the place where we need to be in Jesus Christ if we are in bondage to things that distance our relationship with Jesus Christ.

As we begin the series this morning on “How to Find Freedom from Sin,” I want to tell you that at times I may share some of my personal testimony concerning things that I have bound and/or addicted to in the past. I will also share the results of these battles that I have fought to be free from these sins. I will not be sharing these experiences as bragging but I will be sharing these experiences with the hope that you can see something as ugly and awful as the things that I have done and realize that there really is hope in Jesus Christ.

I also want you to know and understand that although my past sins may seem really bad compared to what you are dealing with, or maybe they are not bad at all compared to what you are struggling with. Regardless of how bad or how miniscule you think your sin may be, sin is still sin and God hates all sin.

If our desire is to grow stronger in our relationship with God then we must draw closer to God. If we are to draw closer to God then we must allow Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all sin and unrighteousness.

I. Two kinds of water mentioned in our text

A. The water from Jacob’s Well

1. The water from Jacob’s Well was a place where one could find water with which to quench a natural thirst.

2. However, the water from Jacob’s Well would not satisfy the spiritual thirst of this Samaritan woman.

3. The natural water from Jacob’s Well would require the Samaritan woman to return to the well every day to have her thirst quenched.

B. The Living Water that Jesus gives.

1. John 4:10-14 (NASB) 10Jesus 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." 11She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12"You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" 13Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

2. What did Jesus mean by “living water?”

a) In the Old Testament, many verses speak of thirsting after God as one who thirsts for water.

b) Psalm 42:1, 2 (NASB) 1As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. 2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?