FEB - Stay Hydrated
TEACHING
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 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.)
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.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
John 4:7-15 NIV
We’re only going to look at the first part of this story for now:
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Jesus broke social, cultural, religious and racial barriers.
Jesus had water, but he wanted water from her. He didn’t had actual physical water, he was referring to his Spirit. The Holy Spirit.
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
John 7:37-39
He was telling the Samaritan woman, you’re trying to eliminate your thirst by drinking water. Her thirst, we later find out, are various relationships with other men.
But she hears, this is convenient for me! There’s water that will quench all my thirst? Give it to me so I don’t have to come back here. Why didn’t she want to come back to the well?
Convenience. Never carry water again.
She was ashamed.
Verse 4 says, “It was about noon.”
Nobody gets water at noon. It’s the hottest time in the day, they’re in Samaria, a desert. The bible says, she’s there by herself.
Many times God wants to work something new in us, but we’re caught up in shame from being in sin.
He wants to offer us living water, but we’d rather play dumb. We think Jesus is out to judge us, but he’s out to help us.
If we want to change our situation, in sin, personal struggles, mental health. We need to stay hydrated, we can’t keep going to the well hoping nobody will call us out. We can’t keep going to church, pretending everything is okay.
We need help, we need living water.
DISCUSSION
Who can relate to the Samaritan woman?
Are there moments when you feel like you’re running away from God’s freedom?
Does anyone need prayer and encouragement to deal with certain areas in your life?