Introduction: Illustration
BAREFOOT
Campus Crusade for Christ’s founder Bill Bright tells the story of “a man who traveled to a certain city one cold morning. As he arrived at his hotel, he noticed that the clerks, the guests—everyone—were barefoot.
In the coffee shop, he noticed a fellow at a nearby table and asked, ‘Why aren’t you wearing shoes? Don’t you know about shoes?’
‘Of course, I know about shoes,’ the patron replied.
‘Then why don’t you wear them? The visitor asked. ‘Ah, that is the question,’ the patron returned. ‘Why don’t I wear shoes?’
“After breakfast, the visitor walked out of the hotel and into the snow. Again, every person he saw was barefoot. Curious, he asked a passerby, ‘Why doesn’t anyone here wear shoes? Don’t you know that they protect the feet from cold?’
The passerby said, ‘We know about shoes. See that building? It’s a shoe factory. We are so proud of the plant that we gather there every week to hear the man in charge tell us how wonderful shoes are.’
‘Then why don’t you wear shoes?’ the visitor persisted. ‘Ah, that is the question,’ the passerby replied. ‘Why don’t we wear shoes?’
Bill Bright says, “When it comes to prayer, many Christians are like the people in that city. They know about prayer, they believe in its power, they frequently hear sermons on the subject, but it is not a vital part of their lives.”
...Worldwide Challenge
Why aren’t we praying as much?
This woman would not have received anything from Jesus, until she saw TWO facts:
(1) who really is this man
(2) what really can this man offer
Jesus made TWO very important comments to this woman:
(1) John 4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and WHO it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
• You do not know – I have in my hands the key to life and happiness. If you had known, you would have asked Me!
• Why didn’t we pray more – perhaps we are not fully convinced that Jesus is the One we really need. And until something happens - usually bad events – only then are we forced to turn to Him and cry for help.
• We do not have full FAITH in the WHO, and therefore we did not ask Him.
(2) John 4:13-14 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
• What you have is a well. I can offer you a spring. What you have is temporary; I can offer you something permanent, and eternal..
• What the Lord give us is qualitatively different – not just life, but an abundant life; not just peace, but peace that surpasses our understanding; not just happiness but unspeakable joy; and unwavering hope!
• We did not ask from Him because we are not fully convinced that Jesus can offer us the best. Somehow we fear that He may spoil our plans and alter our choices.
• We do not have complete faith that WHAT He has to offer us.
IF YOU KNEW…
Until we are fully convinced of these two facts, we would not have asked Jesus for anything.
• That’s why God helps us sometimes, through trials and challenges.
• Experiences that cause us to take a look at Him and realize again what only He can offer us.
• When we are driven to a corner, by circumstances. When we’re forced into a dead end by problems beyond us – only then do we look up and PRAY, and begin to appreciate Him for who He is and what He can do.
This woman has a great need, and that’s not water.
• She lived a miserable life – five husbands left her (we do not know the causes). To be deserted by five friends is a sad thing, so you can imagine having 5 marriages and they all did not end well.
• She needs a life! A decent life. That’s what Jesus was so keen to give her – a new life!
• She needed happiness, fulfillment in life, some sense of hope and meaning. Not water. God can bless her with that anytime, He owns the well!
But she has to overcome her ignorance – we too have to overcome such ignorance today if we want a blessed life – she needs to know WHO is this man, and WHAT He can offer her.
We thank God for what Jesus did.
• She started off calling Him SIR, and then got to know Him as a PROPHET, and eventually the MESSIAH.
• And finally she realized what she got herself into – or who is the person she has met - the Messiah, the Lord of her life.
• Eager to tell the world, she ran back to the town – no longer ashamed of her past, no longer hiding from the crowd. She ran to them instead.
• And forgot her water jar. No longer is water really that important, when you’ve got the living water.
• She has met the One who knew all about her and yet accepted her!
YOU WOULD HAVE ASKED…
We have needs beyond just the physical, beyond what the world can offer us.
• Do you want a well, or a spring?
• If we draw only from the world, we’ll have temporary satisfaction and fulfillment.
• But that’s not enough. We’ll always have to return to the well and draw again.
Our real need is spiritual. We need to draw from Jesus. Jesus says, Come to me and ASK!
• Prayer satisfies us, because we are drawing from Jesus. And life is a spring.
• Draw from this world, and your life will be a well.
It has nothing to do with things but a Person.
A SONG BY STYX – Fulfilment in Life
A song by the late 70’s, early 80’s rock group Styx describes the place many people find themselves spiritually these days. Listen to the words:
Another year has passed me by; still I look at myself and cry what kind of man have I become?
All of the years I’ve spent in search of myself,
and I’m still in the dark ‘cos I can’t seem to find the light alone.
Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness. I’m a lonely soldier off to war.
Sent away to die—never quite knowing why. Sometimes it makes no sense at all.
Ten thousand people look my way, but they can’t see the way that I feel.
Nobody even cares to try.
I spend my life and sell my soul on the road,
and I’m still in the dark ‘cause I can’t seem to find the light alone.
Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness. I’m a lonely soldier lost at sea.
Drifting with the tide—never quite knowing why. Sometimes it makes no sense at all.
(I’m alive) Looking for love, I’m a man with emotion.
(And my hearts on fire) I’m dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean. I’m alive!
Everybody has thirst; the issue is not about thirst.
• The issue is WHO or WHAT can quench our thirst.
You can be in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by water
• And yet you cannot drink a single drop of it to quench your thirst.
• The more you drink from it, the thirstier you become. The truth is, if you drink from it, you’ll die quicker.
You can either draw from the world, or you come to Jesus and draw from Him.
• Prayer satisfies us, because we are drawing from Jesus.
I WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU…
AN OVERWHELMING THIRST
During the liberation of Palestine in World War I, a combined force of British, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers was closely pursuing the Turks as they retreated from the desert.
As the allied troops moved northward past Beersheba they began to out-distance their water-carrying camel train. When the water ran out, their mouths got dry, their heads ached, and they became dizzy and faint. Eyes became bloodshot, lips swelled and turned purple, and mirages became common. They knew that if they did not make the wells of Sheriah by nightfall, thousands of them would die – as hundreds already had done. Literally fighting for their lives, they managed to drive the Turks from Sheriah.
As water was distributed from the great stone cisterns, the more able-bodied were required to stand at attention and wait for the wounded and those who would take guard duty to drink first. It was four hours before the last man had his drink. During that time the men stood no more than twenty feet (6m) from thousands of gallons of water, to drink of which had been their consuming passion for many agonizing days.
It is said that one of the officers who was present reported, “I believe that we all learned our first real Bible lesson on the march from Beersheba to Sheriah Wells. If such were our thirst for God, for righteousness and for His will in our lives, a consuming, all-embracing, preoccupying desire, how rich in the fruit of the Spirit would we be?”
... SOURCE: E.M. Blaiklock, “Water,” Eternity (August 1966), p. 27.
The ’Living Water’ is your life!
That’s why each time we hear a testimony, it always motivate us to pray again.
• Because we see again - we are made to focus again on God’s wonderful workings in our lives.
• We are made to see again – WHO He is, and WHAT He can offer us.
Something really unique in this encounter with Jesus
• John 4:26 - Jesus declared to her openly, "I who speak to you am He."
• Jesus did not reveal His identity to King Herod, King of the place.
He did not reveal it to the Sanhedrin Council, the highest Jewish authority.
He did not reveal that to highest governing body - the Roman courts.
BUT He revealed His identity to this Samaritan woman by the well.
• Deut 4:29 “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Jer 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
When you open yourself up to Him, He will show Himself more to you.
• The more you prayer, the more you know Him. The more you’re convinced of the great things He can really bless you with in life.
• And then the more you will ask from Him. The more you’ll pray.
