When You Walk Away From The Well Series

Souvenir. It’s from French, for “memory.” It’s an object a traveler brings home for the memories associated with it. Something you keep to help you remember where you were.

In my office, I found I have several: a rock that is a fossil from our place in Hillsboro; Mickey Mouse clock from Disneyworld; some currency from India; a plastic space shuttle from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; a mug from Lambert’s, one of my favorite places to eat.

Souvenirs, and pictures, help to cement important events so that we won’t forget. You visit someplace, and you leave with something as a reminder.

I like to go places I’ve never been and to see things that are new to me. Sometimes, we’ll even return to a place, to see it again, to remember, to see something we didn’t notice before.

I have a real interest in seeing places where significant people lived, and where important events took place. I also have a real interest in scenes where people go from being lost and hopeless to forever changed and on their way to heaven. I have a real interest in whatever it is that makes that difference – enough of an interest that I want to visit a place like that, and when I do, I’d like to be able to take something with me so I can remember that place.

You can leave here this morning with a used cup from the Lord’s Supper, or, if you’re a guest, with a cookbook, or you can have a T-shirt made: “I went to VHCC and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!” Or, you and I can walk out with something that’s useful and will help us remember where we were.

We’re going to walk into Jn 4 this morning, and pick up some souvenirs as we go. We were here not too long ago. Maybe we’ll see a part of it we didn’t notice before. Once we look into this part of Jn, there’s plenty we can take with us when we leave here this morning.

John 4:1-14

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 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." "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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."

First, notice and pick up this souvenir:

I. Jesus’ Heart for the Lost

If there’s one thing that I would ask for this congregation, and myself, one passion that I think I need and we as a congregation need more than anything else, it’s this. Go ahead and forget the other 2 points this morning, don’t miss this one: Let’s walk out those doors with a heart that cares about lost people! Look at Jesus’ heart for the lost...

A. He’s tired, but He’s doing the Father’s business

Jesus is taking a break here. It’s been a long walk. It’s hot. The disciples have run into Sychar to get some falafel burgers, so Jesus, “tired as He was from the journey, (v6)” sits down for a break. Sometimes, being our best for the Father means taking a break to refresh ourselves. Remember that – seems to me there are more homes ruined with overwork than with underwork.

Yet, even in the midst of a break, Jesus hasn’t taken a break from caring about the lost!