More Than A Conversation

We follow Jesus into Samaria and watch a simple request for water turn into a revealing conversation about worship, identity, and living water. We challenge the way we label people by their worst chapter and spotlight a grace that knows the truth and still stays close. 
• Jesus choosing Samaria as a divine appointment 
• Starting with water instead of starting with shame 
• Moving from religious arguments to revelation of the Father 
• Jesus revealing himself as the Messiah 
• Refusing to make someone’s past their identity 
• Being fully known without being rejected 
• Leaving the water jar as a sign of real change 
• Grace giving people a voice and a message 
• Living water as a better source within 
• The “Come and see” invitation as simple witness 
Make sure you’re here next week. Bring somebody with you. 

Transcript

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Heat In The Room And Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If it makes you feel any better, I promise you, up here talking with these lights is hotter here than it is out there. So if that makes you feel any better about the heat, I'm just as hot, if not hotter, than you are. Hopefully, opening these doors up and let a little bit of air come through here. I tried my best, I promise you, to shorten this thing up. That's what I was in there doing a while ago. Well, I was trying to go through, but it's hard to do that. Once you put the sermon together, it's hard to go through there and start taking stuff out because it just messes the whole thing up. You you can't, if you don't, if you take something out, it don't make sense what you're trying to trying to say and what you're trying to get across. So, what I am gonna do is I'm gonna do what I always hate to do, and I'm gonna try my best to stand here behind this podium. If I do that, I can get through this a little bit quicker. If you see me step out, I kind of get to go in a little bit. So uh I'm gonna do my best uh to stand back here behind this podium as much as I can and just get through. Um if you have to step out, listen, if you get too hot and need to step out, step out. You're not gonna you're not gonna offend me or anybody else. Uh it is warm. So uh we're just gonna as I'm preaching, just pray, pray for uh some cool air to flow through here. So um, but let's get started with it this morning.

More Than A Conversation

SPEAKER_00 1:16

As you know, we've been preaching on, we've kind of I pulled a thread on something a few weeks ago, and and now everything I look at seems to flow from that same thought process. Uh we talked about uh Esther being more than a queen. We talked about David being more than a giant killer. Uh we talked about what was the other one? Uh the woman with the issue of blood uh being more than a touch. And this morning we're talking about, we're gonna move into the woman at the well being more than just a conversation that she had with God. Uh there's much more to it than that. I'm not gonna read, you guys know that story again. It's very familiar, so I'm not gonna go through and read. It's about verse one through 42. I'm not gonna go through and read all 42 verses of this to kind of catch you up on it. Uh you know the story, and I'm gonna talk about a few different verses in here, and you'll you'll catch on pretty quick to where I'm at. Uh, but the one thought that I come up that that started this was uh just thinking about this. You know, if you've ever had a conversation that started one one way and then ended up somewhere completely different than what you intended, that's what happened in this story right here. And that's what I want you to see. Um again, I'm not gonna go and read every verse, but I do want to kind of catch up just real quickly.

Why Jesus Chooses Samaria

SPEAKER_00 2:40

We know that the uh the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was baptizing and and and growing the ministry in a sense, he was baptizing more people, uh, you know, and that caught the Pharisees' attention and all this, and all of a sudden they were leaving and they were going to a different place, and he told his disciples, he said, I have to go through Samaria. Now, truth be told, he didn't have to go through Samaria. There were other routes around to get back to where they were going to, but he made it a point to tell his disciples, I've got to go here. And the reason was because the woman at the well was going to be there, and he needed to meet the woman at the well. Now, we know the conversation when it started out, it was real brief the way he started it, but just to put it in a nutshell, he starts telling her, you know, about the water that he could give, and she's like, Where, and she kind of argued with him in the beginning. And then all of a sudden, you know, he says, Do you know who I am? I mean, if you knew who I was. So we'll read a couple of those verses in just a few minutes. But the main thing I want you to see is Jesus and the woman started talking about water. That's how the whole conversation started. He's sitting by the well. When she comes up to draw water out of the well, he says, Can I have some water? Nothing wrong with that. The only thing that was wrong with it was he was not, according to the tradition, was not supposed to be talking to her. Number one, he was a man, and you know, the Jew and Samaritans were not supposed to be talking. So they're talking about the things that she has spent years, I feel like, trying to avoid. They're, you know, they move from talking about water to talking about God, talking about worship, talking about identity. Those are things that she's been spent years trying to avoid. And eventually, in the end, they're talking about Jesus. That's what makes this story so fascinating. Jesus doesn't preach a sermon to this woman, he has a simple conversation with her. And somewhere in that conversation, she begins to see God differently, and because she starts seeing God differently, she begins internally to see herself in a different way. So John tells us that Jesus is traveling through Samaria, and that that alone is significant, like I said a while ago, because he did not have to go there. Okay? The Samaritans had a long history of hostility. Uh they disagreed about religion, about ancestry, about worship, about who actually, what group of people actually belonged to God. Who was God's people? There was a lot of arguments and debates on that. Yet Jesus walked straight into Samaria, and John says he had to go there. Not because there wasn't another road, but because he had, I believe, I call it a divine appointment with a woman out of well. So Jesus could have taken a different way, but he had to go meet this woman. And this wasn't, Jesus wasn't going to let geography or culture or religious hostility keep him from having this moment with the woman.

Starting With What She Knows

SPEAKER_00 6:06

This is important, a very important point because sometimes, see, we think that God is primarily interested in places and things. What do I mean by that? We think he's interested in what type of church building we have. Is it hot or is it cold? What type of altar do the people are people coming to the altar? See, we're thinking about altars and buildings and what type of services we have in the building and what type of programs are we running in the building. We think about things like that. But all through Scripture, Jesus keeps demonstrating something very different. He's interested in people. We see all these stories, and it shows that. He sets down at the well, and when she arrives, he simply says, Give me a drink. And that's it. That's simple. That's how simple the conversation started. That's how it begins. No sermon, no introduction, no altar call, just simply give me a drink. And she looks at him. You have to picture this scenario. She looks at him and begins to argue with him, begins to debate with him, because there's rules in place during this time. There's boundaries that set up during this time that is not that she is not supposed to be there talking to a Jew, and she is not supposed to be there alone talking to a man. So there's boundaries that's in place. There's things like that that are supposed to take place and things that are not supposed to take place. But here's what I love about it. Jesus does not let the religion and the boundaries stop him from doing what he knows he's supposed to do. I believe if most Christians were in this situation, knowing everything about this woman as Jesus did, they would probably start the conversation a little bit different. We would probably start the conversation saying, let's talk about the five marriages that you've had. Let's talk about the guy that you're living with now that's not even your husband. Let's talk about all the mistakes that you've made in your past. Why? Because religion has taught us that we need to clear all those things up and get them to repent of all those things before we can start the conversation. But Jesus didn't do that. He starts with water. That's interesting. It shows that Jesus doesn't always begin with the thing that we think needs fixing first. He's got a different mindset than we do. Sometimes he starts with the thing that we can actually talk about. She knew water. Because she came to this well probably every day to draw water. So she knew about water. So I think it's brilliant what Jesus done. He said, I'm going to go in and I'm going to begin the conversation with the one thing that she's familiar with that she can carry on a conversation about. Because, see, Christianity can easily become a list of things that we're supposed to know about ourselves, that we're supposed to do and not do. What are we doing wrong in our life? Where are we falling short in our life? What do we need to fix? What do we need to stop doing? What do we need to make sure that we do? All these lists of rules and regulations. But the conversation with this woman was totally different. I love what he tells her. He says, if you knew who you were talking to, that's an important point. Very important. Now I do want you to look at verse 20 through 24. A couple

Worship In Spirit And Truth

SPEAKER_00 9:56

of these verses I got to show you because you have to really see what's in it. He said, Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. Or she said, Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. And you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, I believe me, the hour is coming when you would neither worship on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship him. Verse 24. I know I'm reading it fast, but I hope you'll go back and read it and see what's really going on right here. He's moving her away from religious argument because she was arguing with him. She was saying, well, this is what they told us. Are you saying they're wrong? And she kept kind of going back and two with him. So he's moving her away from a religious argument toward a revelation. He wants her to get a revelation of what's really going on. She's asking about a mountain and he's talking about the Father. She's asking about which location is correct. He's revealing what God is actually looking for. And he then says something that I think probably sounded really radical in that day. He says, the Father is seeking worshipers. Now think about that. God is not sitting on a mountain waiting for people to figure out which mountain is the correct mountain. Because Jesus doesn't merely give her information, he gives her himself right here. He's telling her, it's not about a mountain, it's not about a place to worship. I'm telling you what God is wanting. So he's taking it to a no whole nother level with her. And now the conversation gets really interesting. Verse 25. He says something else right here. Oh, the woman says to him, I know that the Messiah is coming. Okay? Who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Now this is interesting. In other words, there's going to be somebody who explains all of this to us. And Jesus simply looks at her and says, I am he. I'm the one that you're waiting on. I'm the one that you're talking about. Now that might be the most important sentence in this whole conversation. Because Jesus doesn't merely give her information, he gives her himself. He says, I am he. I'm going to slow down a little bit because I'm trying to figure out some areas that I can skip. But here's a question. What if

Grace Over Shameful Labels

SPEAKER_00 13:06

the main point isn't about her past? We've made this story so much about her past. The five husbands, the man she's living with that's not her husband, all the mistakes she's made. We've made it about her past. We've preached this story so many times that we can really reduce it down to one sentence. She was the woman with five husbands. That's what we can reduce it down to. But that's not her name. That's not her identity. That's not the way that Jesus introduces her. And maybe we need to be careful about making somebody's worst chapter of their life, worst season of their life, the defining feature of the whole book. And that's what we do a lot of times. I think personally, we too often turn a story about grace into a story about shame. Because people love to grab on to shame and talk about it. But there's grace in here that we're missing throughout this story. See, it would be easy, and I've done it before, because I can tell you I know, it would be easy to preach a sermon about the woman's messed up life. It's so simple. But Jesus doesn't seem interested in making her the example of what not to do. He's interested in revealing himself to her. He knew her story from the very beginning, but he did not use it as a weapon against her. He used the truth to move the conversation forward. That's important. Because there's things about your past. Hear this now, there's things about your past that God already knows. You don't have to surprise him. You don't have to hide from him. You don't have to explain yourself to him before you can approach him. I think something important to notice here is that the woman didn't just discover that Jesus knew her. She discovered that Jesus knew her and still wanted to talk to her. See, most people would have said, as soon as he finds out what she's done, as soon as he finds out what this woman's all about, he's going to get away from her. He knew the story and said, Come closer. He knew the story and said, I want to know more. I want to get to know you. I want to tell you some things. I want to bring some revelation to your life. Verse 27. Look at what it says here. And at this point, his disciples came and they marveled that he talked. See, they could not believe that he was standing there talking to a woman who's had five husbands. And sitting there talking to a woman who's living with a man now that is not her husband. They marveled that he talked with this woman. Yet no one said, What do you seek, or why are you talking with her? They thought it in their head, but nobody had the guts to question him. Nobody came up and said, Hey dude, why are you talking to this? Insert whatever word you want. Because that's what she was known as. Okay? I'm not going to say it, but she was not the type of woman that everybody wanted to hang out with. And John says, nobody asked him why, but you can imagine they were all thinking it.

Leaving The Jar And Saying Come See

SPEAKER_00 16:33

And then the woman leaves her water jar. I think there's something very powerful about that. It wasn't just that she forgot she went down there to draw water. She came to do something ordinary, but she encountered something extraordinary. Okay? And now the ordinary thing that she was coming to do did not have the same importance that it did before. It had changed. She runs into the city and says, Come and see. Listen to that. Come and see the man who told me everything about my life. She didn't say, Come hear my testimony. She didn't say, Come and let me tell you all about my past. She said, come and hear about what this man told me. Come and let me tell you about the man that told me everything. She's pointing away from herself. And she's pointing to him. See, that's when you know that you know that something deeper happened in her life. Now look at the last part of verse 29. Come and see a man who told me all the things that I ever did. All the things that I ever did. Listen to that. That's an interesting statement that she makes, even though it's not literally true. I hope we know that. He did not sit there and tell her every single aspect of her life. So why did she make that statement? Because it's how she experienced the conversation. The things that he told her were so important to her that she forgot about everything else and said, This man just told me everything about my life. She drilled in, drilled down on the important things. That's how she experienced the conversation. Because maybe for the first time in her life, someone knew her story and did not reject her. That was probably a first. That's what amazes her. Now that he knows, he knows everything, and he stayed. He knows everything. And he revealed himself as the Messiah. He knows everything and he still offered me living water. Maybe that's the revelation that we need to focus on. God already knows and he's still there. He already knows what you've gone through and he still loves you. He already knows and he's not forsaken us. Even though he already knows, we don't hide nothing from him. The worst thing you've ever done, don't holler it out, but God already knows. And he's still there. He hasn't forsaken you. So the question isn't whether he knows. The bigger question is whether you believe that his knowledge of you will bring rejection or bring relationship. This is the story of this woman. And what I love about it is that what I just said, does it bring rejection or does it bring relationship? This story gives the answer. Many other stories too, but this story that we're talking about today gives a definitive answer to that. There's something about grace that makes people uncomfortable sometimes. I don't know why. But we need to realize that grace doesn't require us to pretend. Jesus never asked this woman to pretend that she was perfect. He never asked her to pretend that her story didn't exist. He never asked her to pretend that she didn't have five previous husbands. He never asked her to make up a story and try to look better than what she really was. He never said, Let's just forget about your past. He acknowledged. He's the one who brought it out. He said, Go and call your husband. She was probably never going to say anything about having five husbands. But see, he had to go deeper. And he knew that if I say this, I'm tapping in to one of the things in her that is important to her because it brings shame and it brings guilt. So I'm going to tap into it and I'm going to call her out. He wasn't calling her out to embarrass her, he was calling her out to reveal something to her. So he brought it up and he said, Go call your husband. She said, I don't have a husband. He said, I know you've had five, and the one you're living with now is not your husband. He said, What you said, you told the truth. I mean, he busted her out. You wouldn't think that was Jesus doing. That, but he had a he busted her out with a purpose. He had a reason for what he was doing. See, the past is still real. Your past is still real, but it doesn't have to be what names you. Things you've gone through are part of the story, but it doesn't have to be the conclusion of the story. Jesus is not intimidated by the parts of your story that you're ashamed of or the parts of your story that's uncomfortable. Here's verse 39, right here. I want to hit on this. This is where the story takes a turn at. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all that I ever did. Think about who God chose to use. He didn't use the disciples. He sent the disciples into town and said, basically, get out of here. Okay? He didn't use them, he didn't use a rabbi, he didn't use a religious leader. The woman at the well, the woman who had every reason to be rejected, the woman who had every reason to stay quiet, he chose to use her. She's the one going into town saying, come and see. She's the one that's going in there and drawing people to the man that she just spoke to. And guess what? According to verse 39, many of the Samaritans believed they come when she said to. That's what grace does. It doesn't just forget people or forgive people, it gives them a voice. It doesn't just remove shame, it gives them something worth talking about. She didn't come to witness, become a witness because she had a perfect history. Okay? She became a witness because she encountered Jesus. See, we we we teach in the church that you got to get everything right and you got to forget about that past and you got to make sure that everything is perfect, and then you can work for God. Man, I want people to work for God who's got a messed up life. I want people to work for God who knows they've been through some stuff, who knows they have come to the other side of it, because you will have a bigger impact. And I believe the Samaritans that believed, as it said here, probably believed because they looked at this woman, they knew her, and they said, if she just had an encounter, then I want to have that same encounter. If her life can change, I want to go see what she's seen. I want to talk to the one that she talked to. Because it was such a change in her.

What Are You Really Thirsty For

SPEAKER_00 24:45

So I think a good question to ask at this point is what was this woman really thirsty for? It wasn't water. Maybe she was thirsty for water, but maybe there was something deeper underneath. A thirst to belong, a thirst to be known, a thirst to be loved without having to perform for it. A thirst to find something that another relationship couldn't give her. Look again, real quick, at verse, well, we didn't look at it, but go to verse 14 for just a minute. I want to show you one thing right here. And we're going to try to close it up here. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. Notice the direction. She's thinking, what can I get from this well? But Jesus says, What I can give you becomes a well within you. She's been going back into to the same well, using the same bucket, the same daily routine, the same thirst. And then Jesus comes along and offers something that doesn't require her to keep going back into every day. He says, I'll put the source of water inside of you. And that's why this really isn't a story about a woman getting a better water supply. It's a story about discovering a better source. We got to see that. This is also where the story can get uncomfortable for some people because we have our wells too: relationships, success, religion, even ministry. We keep going back over and over and over again, thinking maybe this will finally satisfy me. And it doesn't. So we go back again and again and again. See, the problem may be that we're trying to satisfy a legitimate thirst with something that was never designed to satisfy it. And then Jesus comes along as he did here and says, Come to me. That's what the gospel does. It doesn't tell thirsty people to stop being thirsty, it introduces them to living water. So let's get ready to end right here with this. This is where she goes home different. The Bible doesn't tell us to every detail of what happened after she encounters Jesus, but we know something changed. She came to the well one way and she left another way. Not because Jesus gave her a new personality or erased her history, but because suddenly every circumstance became perfect. It didn't change up and become perfect because Jesus spoke. She simply encountered Jesus. And suddenly she had something to say. Maybe that's what revival looks like. Not everybody becomes experts, not everybody becomes preachers and pastors, not everybody has all the answers, but ordinary people becoming so captivated by Jesus that they start going out wherever they go in the community, in the schools, in the grocery store, they get so captivated by their encounter with Jesus that wherever they go, they simply say, Come and see. Come and see.

A Better Source For Identity

SPEAKER_00 28:22

See, I see this story a little different now than what I used to. I don't think the question of the story is how many husbands she had. That's the details everybody remembers. I think the better question is, what did she truly discover about Jesus? What changed her life about this encounter? She discovered that Jesus would cross boundaries and reject religion to meet her. That he wasn't afraid of her questions. She discovered that he knew her history and that knowing her history didn't make him reject her. She discovered that worship wasn't ultimately about a mountain. She found out that the father was seeking people, and most importantly, she discovered that the Messiah wasn't merely someone who was coming one day in the future. That he was standing right in front of her. And then she figured out something else as well that was even more important. The person she thought was disqualified from being useful because became the person God used to bring an entire city to Jesus. That's powerful. That's the gospel, that's the good news. This is such a simple story, but there's something powerful that I want you to take away from it. She walked, was walking toward a well that she's probably visited hundreds of times. Nothing about this day looked significant. And then she sees a man sitting there. She doesn't know his name, she doesn't know what's about to happen. She doesn't know that this conversation is going to become part of Scripture. She doesn't know that thousands of years from now, people's gonna be standing behind a pulpit telling my story. She's just going to get water. And Jesus starts talking. That's how simple it begins. A conversation, a question. And then suddenly she's looking eye to eye with the Messiah. Maybe that's how Jesus has been approaching some of us. Not with condemnation, not with a list of rules that we need to complete, but with a simple invitation. Talk to me. Spend some time with me. Have a conversation with me. And maybe you've spent years trying to solve a thirst that only Jesus can satisfy. Maybe you've allowed your history to become your identity. Maybe you've believed that because Jesus knows everything about you that you have to hide from him. The woman at the well tells us a different story. He knows your past and he's still talking. He's still there, he's still revealing himself. He's still calling you every day. And when you finally discover, finally discover who he is, something happens. You don't have to spend the rest of your life explaining who you used to be. I don't have to try to explain myself to people. That's why I so often make the comment, and people take it the wrong way when I say, I don't care what you think about me. Because I really don't. Why? Because I don't have to explain my past history to you. My past history is gone. If it ain't important to him, I don't, it ain't important to you. Okay? And we need to realize that. You don't have to hide behind your past. You don't have to convince everybody that you've changed. You can simply point to him and say, come and see. Because the greatest thing that happened at the well wasn't the woman, wasn't that the woman got her questions answered. It was that she met Jesus. And once she met Jesus, that well was never the same anymore. And neither was she. Her life changed. And I'm going to get into something.

Next Week Teaser And Prayer

SPEAKER_00 32:31

I told you I cut this short. I am done. That was quick. We're going to keep going. Make sure you're here next week. Error will be working. But here's the thing. I cut it short a little bit, but I also had so much in the very beginning that I could not put it into one sermon. So I made a part two of this for next week. I'm already done with next week's sermon. And it's going to just basically go a little bit deeper than what we talked about today. And it's going to tell us, looking through that lens of the finished work, we're going to see the finished work in this story. If you didn't already pick up on it, maybe you did. But if you didn't, we're going to bring it to you specifically and let you look at how the finished work is seen in this story. The finished work is not a created thing that we started in 2026. It is all through the Word of God. It's all through these stories. And we're going to go just a little bit deeper and show you specifically how the finished work is shown in this story. It's not made up, it's not just a buzzword. It is in this story, just like it was in every other story we talked about. So be here next week. We're going to go a little bit more into it. We're going to also talk about something that she said in here, and I'm going to show you the progression of something. Because she started out arguing with this guy, with Jesus. She started out arguing with him, and then you'll notice, and we'll go step by step and show you. You'll notice that she started out arguing, and then she called him sir. That's a change. And then after she called him sir, and he said, I can give you the water, she said, give me the water. She believed him. So she went from argument to sir to believing him. And then when he said, Go call your husband, and she said, I don't have one, she said, I perceive you to be a prophet. So she went from believing him to perceiving. There's a difference. We're going to talk about what the word in Greek is perceive. It's amazing. It means take a deeper look to see something, a little bit deeper, to have a perception of something. Yeah. It's more than just an understanding of or a belief in. I can believe something for years and be wrong. But when I perceive something and I have a knowing on the inside of me, you will not change it. I believe in the finished work. I will not stop preaching it. I believe in teaching the things we're teaching. I will not stop. Not because I just believe it, but because there's a perception there. There's a knowing, there's a seeing something there that's different. So we're going to continue to talk about it. So be here next week. Bring somebody with you. Again, the air will be working. I apologize for this. We couldn't help it, but thank you for sitting through it. Let's pray real quick and get you out of here. So y'all can go wipe your sweat off. It is hot with these lights. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you. Even as hot as it is in here, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you're continuing to speak to us, continuing to open our eyes and our hearts up, continuing to show us deeper revelation. We're getting more than understanding and just information, Father, but you are moving us to a place of truly perceiving the truth of your word, seeing things deeper than we've ever seen them before, taking simple stories, familiar stories, and seeing the finished work in that story, Father. We thank you for what we're getting and what you're showing us in this. And Father, we just thank you for every person in here. I pray, Father, again, for the prodigal sons and daughters to come back to this place. Lord, you called them here. You've anointed them to be here. And we thank you for each one of them. We pray for each one of them. We pray that every excuse and every uh boundary or every uh barrier that keeps them from coming home, Father, that you remove it in the name of Jesus and that they come back to this place. We thank you, Father, that Jason is back, the prodigal. He came, he was here, he left, but he's back today, Father. We thank you for him and we thank you for the others that's coming in behind him, Father. And we just pray that you continue to bless them every day on their jobs and their home, wherever they go, whatever they say, whatever they touch. We call it blessed in the name of Jesus. Father, we'll continue to give you honor in everything that we do. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.