Jesus Journey Through Samaria - Living Water part 3

We'll take your Bible this morning. Turn with me to the Gospel of John. John chapter 4. John chapter 4. We are still in our series, Christ the Son of God, Believe and Live. And we are seeing just how evangelistic Jesus is in His journey through Samaria. Now our text this morning will be verses 27 through 30. And you know the title of this portion of scripture by now, the title is Jesus Journey Through Samaria, Living Water. Because that's what Christ is all about here. Christ is presenting and He is offering living water to this woman, this Samaritan woman there at the well.

And then we will see as we progress that He ultimately offers living water to the Samaritans themselves. And it's a wonderful story as Jesus is journeying through Samaria. Now we're in the middle of this new setting in Jesus' ministry. We know by now that Jesus had not gone into Samaria before. He had been with the Jews previously, but now He is with the Gentiles, these Samaritans. Verse 4 tells us that He had to pass through Samaria. I believe that is the heart of the Father that Jesus had. It was not because of external pressures. It was a calling and impression upon His heart to go into Samaria on His way to Galilee.

Now Jesus is evangelizing there and He is evangelizing most people, a people that most Jews would overlook and go around. We've learned that. The Jews didn't wanna have anything to do with these Samaritans. I like how John MacArthur says it. He calls this cross-cultural evangelism. And that's a very relevant term, but it is very relevant to the text, is it not? Jesus is crossing cultural barriers to evangelize this lady. Now we see this heart of Jesus, and as it reaches an apex, remember last week in verse 26, what does He say?

He says to her, "I who speak to you am He." She had previously said when the Messiah comes, He will explain all this to us. So the apex of that sermon, I used it, that language, the sermon and the application was when Jesus openly revealed for the first time that He was the promised Messiah. Now, before we get into the passage, the Scripture this morning, I wanna take a little bit of a step back. And I gave you this breakdown of the chapter previously. If I can help you get your mind and your understanding around a big portion of Scripture, I like to do that. But let me give this to you again.

If we break down chapter four, we can look at it like this. We have Jesus evangelizing this Samaritan woman from verse one to 26. Then we have Jesus teaching or correcting or straightening out the disciples from verse 27 to 38. And then we have Jesus evangelizing the Samaritan people in verse 39 through 45. And then there at the end of the chapter, we have Jesus dealing with this nobleman and this sixth son in verse 46 through 54. Now, why do I give that to you? If you can understand the flow of the chapter, a big portion of Scripture, it will help you grasp the small things, the phrases, the words, the messages that we are going to look at.

Now this morning, we find Jesus teaching right in the beginning of His dealing with the disciples. Verse 27, He is beginning to deal with the disciples, teaching them and really straightening them out of some of their error. Now, in light of what we've been learning from verses one through 26, verse 27 really seemed like the disciples interrupt this evangelistic message and interaction with the Samaritan woman. Jesus had taught her about living water. He revealed himself as the Messiah. And right after that, it's almost like the disciples butt into this situation.

But we'll see that this is part of God's plan, part of Christ's work here on earth. Well, I'll give you the title of the message this morning. It is Jesus Journey Through Samaria, Living Water, Part Three, because we're still dealing with that theme, that evangelistic heart of Jesus to bring living water to the Samaritan woman and the Samaritans themselves. Jesus Journey Through Samaria, Living Water, Part Three, we will be in verses 27 through 33. And let's look at the text together. He has already confessed himself as Christ. And now, verse 27, at this point, his disciples came.

And they marveled that he had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "Why do you speak?" Or, "Why do you speak with her?" So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, "Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done." This is not the Christ, is it? Verse 30, "They went out of the city and were coming to him." In the meanwhile, the disciples were requesting and saying, "Rabbi," that means teacher, "eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." The disciples, therefore, were saying to one another, "No one brought him anything to eat, did he?" And Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish or finish his work." Those are the verses that we'll be in this morning.

We're gonna look at four main truths out of these verses. We're gonna look at the disciples and their return, right there in verse 27. We're gonna look at the departure of the woman from this scene in verse 28 through 30. This misunderstanding of the disciples, we see that in verse 31 and in verse 33. And then the last main truth, we're gonna look at the nourishment of Jesus. And that is verse 32 and verse 34. That is really tied heavily into verse 31 and 33 with the misunderstanding of the disciples. So what do we see?

This just progression from Jesus interacting primarily with the Samaritan woman, the disciples come back on the scene and he begins to teach them to really straighten them out and try to deal with error that was in their minds and in their hearts. So I trust that you're taking notes. I hope that you do for your own personal study. I hope that you study on your own and you try to get all that the Lord wants you to get. So in your taking notes, let's look at truth number one, the disciples return. Truth number one, the disciples, they return. We see that in verse 27.

At this point, his disciples came and they marveled that he had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, why, what do you seek? Or why do you speak with her? Like I said earlier, this seems like an interruption by the disciples right in the middle of this one-on-one evangelistic meeting between Jesus and this woman, this Samaritan woman. But I wanna show you, nothing happens with Christ and in his ministry by accident or coincidence. Everything has a purpose and Christ is in full control of the circumstances. But let's look at some truths out of this verse that will help us see what's going on right here with the disciples returning.

First, notice their timing. Notice their timing. Now, the new American that I read from, study from, says at this point, the English Standard Version says, just then his disciples came back. Now, this speaks of the timing of their return in the middle of this event. They came back directly after he had revealed himself as the promised Messiah in verse 26. Remember, that was the apex of this one-on-one. I called verses one through 14 the sermon and verses 15 through 26 the application, because he takes the sermon of the living water and he begins to apply it to her own life. This is right after the apex of that interaction.

And they had they returned earlier, we could see that they would have been a distraction for the woman. They could have gotten in the way of this interaction. No doubt they would have never gotten in the way of Christ, but what we see is their timing. They came in right at the end of this sermon and this illustration from verses one through 26 or the application from verse one through 26. Second, notice their astonishment. Notice their astonishment. At this point his disciples came and they marveled that he was speaking with this woman. They were astonished that he was speaking with this woman. I like the amplified of what it says.

It says that they were surprised and astonished. So whether or not your translation reads marveled or astonished or surprised, they were taken back by this situation between Jesus and this woman. Now a question, why this astonishment? Why, why were they taken back? We must see that they were taken back because first she was a woman. You might say, well, pastor, wouldn't they been more surprised that she was a Samaritan? Yes, they were surprised by the fact that she was a Samaritan, but first and foremost, it was because she was a woman. You gotta understand that in that day that men did not interact with women in public.

As a matter of fact, in that day, if you study background and context and culture, a man would not even converse with his own wife in public, much less about spiritual things. So it was a complete surprise that he was talking with a woman. Second, it was because she was a Samaritan. We know that this was a cultural thing. The Jews did not even like to travel north through Samaria. Many of the Orthodox and conservative Jews would go around and go across the Jordan and up the eastern side of the Jordan and cut back across to the north to Galilee when they would go from Judea to Galilee.

But they were astonished, they were marveling at the fact that he was breaking so many social barriers, conversing with a woman and conversing with a Samaritan woman. Now, a question. Again, we're dealing with the disciples. Is this terribly wrong of the disciples? Think about that for a minute. For them to have this mindset, is this a terrible thing? I ponder that question for a moment. It is important for us to see that we most likely view the disciples according to our social standards. You have to remember the social norms and standards of that day. And what I want you to see is the disciples were bringing true to their culture.

One of the commentators that I read said that the disciples were men of their times, and that is true. What we see is the disciples, they were viewing the woman, viewing the situation like any good Jew would. They were men of their times and they were reacting out of their culture. So this wasn't necessarily evil in itself, but we will see that Jesus makes a correction. Now, if we continue, if we understand that Jesus understood who the woman was, and if we see that if the disciples would have understood who the woman was, they would have been astonished for three reasons. First, she was a woman. Second, she was a Samaritan.

And third, they would have been astonished because she was a very questionable reputation. But at the end, in the end of this verse, what do we see? They're saying, what are you doing here? They're thinking about the woman, they're thinking about Jesus. Look at the scripture. At this point, his disciples came and they marveled, they were astonished that he had been speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, what do you seek? Talking about the woman. Yet no one said, why do you speak to her? Talking about Jesus. Because why? Many times they had seen Jesus do things out of the norm.

Now, in this, I want you to take a step back and notice something. We've not seen this so far, but right here beginning in verse 27, we have two stories colliding. The story of the Samaritan woman and the story of the disciples interacting with the Samaritan situation. Two stories, two situations coming together starting in verse 26. And with that said, there are certain things that we must learn. And we must see that God's love and the gift of eternal life through Jesus is not reserved for a certain people or for certain people groups.

One of the commentators that I like to read said this, his message was for everyone, those of every culture and standing in society, he was truly cross-cultural in his perspective and concern for others. But yet the disciples, they were not quite there yet because of the social norms and the social standards. Immediately I thought about my experience when I was in India. Many of us might not quite understand, but they have a very strict what's called caste system. We use the word class. We might be familiar with language like upper class, middle class, low class. But what they have is a caste system.

It is a very rigid system, especially in certain portions of the country. But they have some that are considered of the low caste. But yet in the low caste, there are what's called the Dalits. And in that language, the word Dalit means untouchable. Literally no one in that culture will even touch the Dalits, the untouchables. Even the low caste will not touch them. And when I was in Delhi, India with Monsieur Daniel, and we would go into the slums, those who live in the slums are called the Dalits, the untouchables. Society is overlooked them. They are not even on the radar. They're not even in the filing cabinet.

They have no paperwork, no social security card, no social security number. They're not even acknowledged by the government. They are the untouchables. Matter of fact, they have to even be careful how they interact with other Indians in society. And what we see right here is Jesus broke similar standards and rules and expectations. And the disciples came into that and they walked headlong into a surprise. A collision of two circumstances, two stories, and a headlong collision of their ideas and expectations and norms. So what do we see? The disciples, they returned to this evangelistic one-on-one situation between Jesus and this woman.

Let's move on. Number two, let's notice the woman's departure, verse 28 through 30. This woman's departure. It almost seems abrupt, but notice what he says. So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all things that I have done, this is not the Christ, is it? And they went out of the city and they were coming to him. Now here we have what seems to be an abrupt reaction by the Samaritan woman. There's an abrupt interruption by the disciples and now there's this abrupt reaction, it seems, by this Samaritan woman. Now make no mistake, she is not leaving because of the disciples.

She is leaving because of what's taking place in her own heart and in her own life. She is leaving because of the impact of Jesus and this message. There is something going on on the inside in her mind and in her heart. But let's notice some things out of these verses. First notice that she left her pot. Verse 28 tells us that. She had been there to the well to draw water had she not. Remember in the middle of the day, not in the normal time, the morning or the evening, she was all alone. That was not the custom. The women would go in groups to the well to draw water.

But she was all alone with that water pot but she leaves that water pot behind. Verse 28 says, many have speculated as to why the woman left the water pot behind. Some have tried to even give this a symbolic meaning. In other words, some have tried to explain that that water pot is a symbol of her rituals and her Samaritan religion and she's leaving that behind. I think that's really more of a stretch. The most simplistic explanation is that the water was just not important anymore. There was something more important. There were things going on in her heart, going on in her heart and her mind and her thinking.

And those things were more important than the physical water that she had gone for previously. Second, notice that she invited others to come see Jesus. Look at verse 29. Come, see a man who told me all things that I have done. This is not the Christ in the form of a question. Now, verse 29 is a hotly debated verse and I need you to really pay attention to this. There are some who say that this confession, see she's making a confession here. There are some that say that this confession indicates true conversion in this woman's life.

Some say that this is not true conversion, but the beginning of a true conversion, but this is part of the process of her being drawn to conversion and she is not converted yet. Let me break the verse down. First, she does confess that her sin was revealed. Go back to the verse. Verse 29, come see a man who told me all the things that I have done. Isn't that what he did previously? He said, go call your husband. She says, I have no husband. And Jesus exposes the depth of her sin. And what is she saying here? This man's telling me everything I have always ever done. So she does confess that her sin had been revealed.

But second, her confession of Christ is in doubt. Go back to the verse. Come see the man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it? And it's in a question mark. Now, in the original language, this phrase, this is not the Christ, is it? Is negative in its construction. The translation, the translators deal with this negative language in our English translations by putting it in the form of a question. Go back and look. Come see a man who told me all the things I've ever done. This is not the Christ, is it?

So the English translators deal with this negative language in the original by casting this confession in the form of a question. And it is important for us to see. She is not making a definitive statement concerning the person of Christ. She is questioning who this prophet is. Remember, she asked if he was a prophet or proclaimed that she was a prophet. She is questioning if he is a prophet or if he could be the Christ. No question. What do we see here? If she's not openly professing Christ, what do we see here? She is pondering, she is questioning, she is debating in her own mind, in her own heart if this truly is the Christ.

And verse 28 says she goes to the city, she goes to the men, and she poses this question to them. She had used the word prophet, and now she's saying, could this be the Christ? Not a definitive confession of Christ is the promised Messiah, but questioning. And this is part of Christ and the work of the Spirit drawing her to Christ Jesus. The third thing I want us to notice is that they went out to Jesus. Verse 30, these are the men of the city. They went out of the city, and they were coming to him. Simply those who had heard of Jesus from this woman went out to see for themselves.

There is a great curiosity here, not only in the woman, but in those who had heard the story. And I want you to see, here we have this work of God, this work of the Father drawing this woman to Christ. This is none other than John chapter six, verse 44, when Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And that's all that's going on here. Jesus has preached the message of eternal life and eternal water and living water. He has made application to her life. He has pointed out her sin and her faulty religion.

And now she is at the very place where she is pondering and questioning, and that is none other than a work of the Spirit drawing her to Christ Jesus. And see, for you, for me, for us, we must see and understand how God the Father works through the work of the Spirit. God draws people by the work and power and the mysterious work of the Spirit to Christ Jesus the Son. And this is a mysterious work. It is an experiential work, and it is a powerful work. Any person who has come to Christ can tell you about how they experience the work of God.

Sometimes they might say that there were things that seemed like a coincidence that went on in their life, but looking back, it wasn't a coincidence. It was the work of a sovereign God. They will be able to look back and explain the mysterious work of the Spirit purposely drawing them to Christ. I've seen people start attending church for various reasons, and then all of a sudden, through the workings of the Spirit, they become born again. I've seen outreach events go and touch people's lives. I've seen people in the life of the church go and minister to people, and what some might say would be just happenings and coincidence.

No, they were a work of God. And what I want you to see is, this woman, she leaves and she goes and she brings a crowd back, but this is all part of, now listen, the mysterious, experiential, purposeful, powerful work of the Spirit. We cannot see it, but we see its results and effects. And we must understand this today, because see what's happened to us in the life of the church is what we have done is we've moved away from the workings of the Spirit, and we want to have tangible things that we can put our hands on, tangible, purposeful events and methods that will seemingly get people to Christ when they really don't work.

When really what we should do is trust in the work of the Spirit. Jesus did, the disciples did, and we see it in this woman's departure. Let's move on. Truth number three, I want us to see the misunderstanding of the disciples. This misunderstanding of the disciples. Look at verse 31. In the meanwhile, the disciples were requesting him saying, "Rabbi, teacher, requesting him, "Rabbi, teacher, eat." And then look on down to verse 33. "The disciples therefore were saying to one another, 'No one brought him anything to eat.' Did he?" So what do we see here? This is the misunderstanding of the disciples.

Now, people misunderstanding Jesus was a very common problem, was it not? Nicodemus didn't understand Jesus in John three. This woman, the Samaritan woman, she didn't understand Jesus previously in John four, and now the disciples, they don't understand either. Now, I want you to look at me. If you are having trouble understanding Jesus in a certain set of circumstances, you're in good company. If you are having trouble understanding Jesus in a certain set of circumstances, you are in good company. All you need to do is listen to him and wait on him, and listen, he will come through to you. And that's what he does with the disciples.

He did it with Nicodemus, he did it with the Samaritan woman. Listen, if we'll listen to him and keep our eyes on Jesus, he, now listen, he will come through to us. All we have to do is listen attentively and wait by faith. But I want us to notice a couple of things out of these verses. First, they were concerned with physical food. Isn't that what we see in verse 31? In the meanwhile, the disciples were requesting him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." What we see here is that they were concerned with physical food. We will see that Jesus was speaking about spiritual food, but they were concerned about physical food.

Now, this is a legitimate concern, is it not? This is a real issue at hand. They needed to eat, Jesus being fully man needed to eat. So they were concerned with physical food. Second, notice they questioned among themselves. Look at verse 33, the disciples therefore, they said to one another, "No one has brought him food to eat, have they?" Isn't that what they're doing? They are expressing the fact that they do not understand what Jesus is saying, what he is doing, and what he is experiencing. They misunderstand the whole thing, and they're thinking about physical things.

And see, here we have the disciples thinking of the physical, while Jesus is speaking of spiritual things. One writer I ran across said, "This was a problem of perception." I like that. They could not understand, they could not perceive the situation. And see, for you, for me, for us, we must see that there are times in our lives as true born-again Christians, where we will struggle for perception and spiritual understanding. We will be caught up in the physical, and we will struggle to see, or we will miss altogether, the spiritual matter at hand. You hear me? Didn't we not learn these truths in the book of James? Remember?

We learned about trials, did we not? James chapter one, what does James says? "Consider it all joy, my brothers, or brethren, when you encounter various trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." Verse 12, "Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial." What is James saying? James is saying, "Listen, trial is going to come. All kinds of trial, all types of trial, various trial, just count it as pure joy." And what happens is, in the life of a Christian, many times, we will misunderstand what's going on, we will think about the physical, and we will miss the spiritual. That's what the disciples were doing.

It was all about physical, physical, physical, and they could not hear when Jesus was talking about the spiritual. And remember what I said, if you are having trouble understanding Jesus in a certain set of circumstances, you're in good company. James is writing to you for a reason. If you will listen to him, and you will wait on him, he will come through to you. He never leaves us as children of God, out there to suffer on our own. He has a purpose in that trial, in that darkness, in that silence. And listen, we must get our eyes off the physical and keep our eyes on the spiritual, even when we can't see it.

Y'all know from time to time, I do mention my old home church pastor, and I remember little phrases that he had, and one he used to say, one he had was, he would say, "Guys, if you can learn how to hold on to God in the dark, when the lights come on, you'll be somewhere." That's all the disciples had to do. Just hold on. He would come on through and show him what he was talking about. Of course, they were fleshly, they were human, they're dealing with the physical, but Jesus is patient, and he helps them come on through. Let's move on to the fourth main truth. Let's notice the nourishment of Jesus.

This is tangled up, this is tied together in verses, with the verses 31 and 33. Let's look at verse 32. And he said to them, "I have food to eat "that you do not know about." The disciples, therefore, were saying, has someone else brought him food? Verse 34, and Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me "and to accomplish his work." See, in these verses, we see the opposite of the disciples. They struggle to see spiritual matters, and Jesus is perfectly, listen, perfectly in tune with all spiritual matters. We will see the true heart of Jesus for the Father and kingdom work, just in these two verses.

First, notice Jesus had spiritual food. Jesus had spiritual food. The King James reads, "I have meat to eat "that you know not of." We understand what that means, food, meat. Remember that the disciples, they were sent to town for physical food, and they came back on the scene with this physical food. This is a legitimate desire and a legitimate need in Jesus' life and theirs, but there's something important here, and listen close. Jesus is speaking over and above this physical food, and what we see is Jesus is saying that he has a hunger for something more than physical food.

Several writers commented that this was an echo of what Moses had taught in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 8.3 says, "Man does not live by bread alone, "but man lives by everything that proceeds "out of the mouth of the Lord." That's exactly what Jesus is saying. Listen, I'm gonna eat one day physically, but he's saying I have a spiritual food that you don't know anything about. Second, notice that Jesus had spiritual nourishment. Notice how verse 24 really ties together with verse 32.

He said, "My food is to do the will of him "who sent me in to accomplish his work." Previously he said, "I've got food "that you don't know about." Now he's saying the food I have is to do his will to accomplish his work. What do we see? This is merely an explanation of verse 32, and it is an attempt by Jesus to explain the situation to the disciples. Jesus is saying that his nourishment, his sustenance, his inner satisfaction comes from doing the will of the Father, and that's greater than the physical food. I like what the Bible commentator, D.A. Carson says. He said, "Jesus came to do the Father's will "and always did no less." You see?

Here we have the true heart of Jesus and his approach to the Father and kingdom work. Jesus walked with the Father perfectly. Jesus lived according to the Father's will perfectly. Jesus finished the Father's work perfectly, and that is where Jesus got his greatest satisfaction, his greatest nourishment, his greater inner sustenance was from doing the will of the Father perfectly. And so as we apply this to our own lives, as we dig into it and look at the principles here, we must ask ourselves a question from where do we derive our greatest pleasure and satisfaction? Is it always physical things?

Does it always seem to be temporal things, things that are temporary? Listen, to be right with God, it is a must. And listen, in two places, we must be right with God. In walking with God and in our participation with kingdom work. And I want you to listen close. To be right with God, we must be satisfied to walk with God and to participate in kingdom work. And that's why when you run across people who say they love God and they don't walk with God, they have, now listen, an appetite that is a miss. It's not biblical.

And when you run across people who claim to be Christian and they say that they have a heart for kingdom work, but they don't have a heart for the church, that is a miss because the center of God's activity is in the church. That's exactly what Jesus is saying. My nourishment, my satisfaction, that I crave to do from the inside out is to do the will of the Father, to walk with my Father, to finish his work, to finish his call. And listen, our heart should echo the same. To walk with our God, love our God, serve our God, and to participate in kingdom work.

Because listen, if you wanna look all over the world and see where God's working, you just find the church. The real church, the true church, the Bible church, a lampstand church we're learning in Revelation 2 and 3, a lampstand church where the Spirit of God is walking among the lampstands and it is right-hand, he has the leadership of the church. That's where you'll find Christ. And our nourishment, our inner satisfaction must be satisfied by him and his work. And if we as Christians are receiving nourishment elsewhere, we must question that. Now we do know their physical things. Did Jesus eat? Yes. Did he have his stomach full? Yes.

Did he thirst for water? Yes. Those were physical. But they never came ahead, now listen, of the spiritual. Now, as we transition into our conclusion, I think that we need to learn two major lessons here in these two stories. Remember this collision of two stories. Jesus and the Samaritan woman, the disciples, come back on the scene in verse 36 and Jesus is taking these two situations and he's running down the road with them. And I want us to see that we need to learn two lessons here. First lesson is we must see the workings of the Spirit in the Samaritan woman. And we must see that that is the way the Spirit works today.

We must trust the work of the Spirit. We must depend on the work of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is not an it. The Spirit of God is not a thing. The Spirit of God is a he. He is the third person of the Trinity. We believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And we must trust and believe and expect the work of the Spirit. That is the only way your lost spouse or your lost child or your lost neighbor or lost coworker will ever come to the place of conversion the same way as the Samaritan woman.

The Spirit of God dealt with her sin, dealt with her misunderstanding of true religion and dealt with her false religion and brought her to the end of herself and bringing her to Christ. That's the same way people are converted today. And we must understand the workings of the Spirit. I remember back in my seminary days, we had an older professor. A lot of times he had some good things to say and I remember he stood up one day and he said, "Boys, the Charismatics and Pentecostals have made us afraid of the Holy Spirit of God." All the quacky things we see on TV, that's not the Spirit.

All the goofy things that we see in those denominations, that's not the Spirit. Those are angels of life. But what we believe is, we believe in the working of the Spirit just like the Samaritan woman. That's the only way your lost loved one will be saved. That's the only way you'll be saved if you're not converted by the power and the work of the Spirit. The second lesson I want us to see is that we must see that our food and our nourishment and our inner satisfaction must come from him. You know, I thought about this in relation to that. Did you know even a hungry man will dig in the garbage to eat?

Did you know even a hungry woman will dig in the garbage to feed her children? That's that physical hunger. What am I showing you? Humanity will go to great extremes to satisfy that physical hunger. But what we see in Jesus is Jesus went to great extremes to satisfy that spiritual hunger, to know the Father, walk with the Father, and do the Father's will. And I want to ask you, do we have a hunger and a thirst, much like Christ? Or are we too satisfied with physical temporal things? Maybe we do not see the power and the work of the Spirit through us because we are too caught up in physical earthly things.

Maybe if we would evaluate our lives, evaluate our time, evaluate our affections, evaluate those things that we love and those things that satisfy us, maybe if we would take the time and let the Spirit of God evaluate us and examine us and turn us over and look in every secret corner of our heart. Maybe if we would allow the work of the Spirit in our own life, He would show us that we're too busy satisfying ourselves on physical things that do not matter. And that's why we do not have the working and the power of the Spirit, now listen, through us. You think that the Lord could have used the disciples with the Samaritan woman?

No, but He sure could use the Son. So what do we see this morning? Jesus, on His journey through Samaria, offering living water, but now we have a parallel story and He is just straightening and correcting and teaching the disciples. So that one day, now listen, how good this is, they will be able to go out and offer a living water as well. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, I thank you for this wonderful story, these two stories. Lord, it's so rich to see these verses and how they all tie together.