Introduction:
4 Things You Need to Know about the Gift of God (John 4:1-26):
- God's gift is for All people - even people whom You may not want to have it. (John 4:4, 9)
- God's gift brings true Satisfaction . (John 4:13-18)
- God's gift leads to true Worship . (John 4:20-24)
- God's gift is a Gift . (John 4:10)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:11-01:16
All right, open your Bibles to John chapter 4.
01:19-01:21
Doesn't the Christmas tree look fantastic?
01:22-01:24
But thinking about Christmas, we think about gifts.
01:26-01:33
And I don't know about you, but over the years, I've gotten a couple of weird gifts.
01:33-01:37
Has anybody here, show of hands, ever gotten a really weird gift?
01:38-01:45
that you're just like, that was very sweet, but I'm not quite sure what prompted this gift.
01:45-01:51
I've gotten a couple of those, and again, I'm not criticizing the gift giver whatsoever.
01:51-01:58
I'm just saying that I didn't quite understand perhaps the thought process that went behind in selecting that gift for me.
01:59-02:17
And probably one of the strangest gifts, I, when I say I, I mean we, Aaron and I, When we got married, we got a wedding gift that was a basket, and it had a few things in it, but included in this basket was a pair of Isotoner gloves.
02:19-02:20
How many people remember Isotoner gloves?
02:21-02:21
Show of hands.
02:21-02:22
OK, a lot of you.
02:23-02:25
All right, we're going to see less hands here in a second.
02:25-02:27
There was a price tag still on the gloves.
02:27-02:30
The gloves were purchased originally at Troutman's.
02:30-02:32
How many people remember Troutman's show of hands?
02:33-02:34
OK, all you old people.
02:36-02:37
Troutmints.
02:38-02:43
And I thought, well, that's sweet, I guess, by my wife and I for our wedding.
02:43-02:45
We got a pair of gloves.
02:45-02:46
I guess she gets one and I get one.
02:49-02:51
Got like a Michael Jackson thing happening, I suppose.
02:55-03:13
The gloves cracked me up, because they were actually like-- in the packaging, it wasn't just like on a hook or anything. It was actually in this really detailed box. It had all these instructions for gloves. And it gave you a list of ways that you can use the gloves.
03:14-03:27
You remember this, Aaron? There were a list of ways you could use a glove. One is you could wear them when driving. And I'm like, okay, I've seen people wear gloves when they're driving, I guess. But a couple of the other examples kind of cracked me up. It said fishing.
03:28-04:11
You can wear isotoners when fishing. Now, for those of you guys who don't know what isotoners or they're kind of like a leatherette on the outside and they were like fuzzy like a lamb on the inside and I'm like who's wearing these gloves when they're fishing but the weirdest thing it says that you could wear them while you're sleeping and I thought that was really weird how many people show of hands put gloves on to go to bed okay that's what I thought I mean that's never happened that's not never happened in our home anyways I'm like honey I'm I'm really tired, I'm going to bed. Have you seen my acetoners?" It was a sweet, sweet gift, but it was just a little confusing to me.
04:12-04:14
And that's our passage today.
04:15-04:22
Jesus talks about a gift, and it results in some confusion.
04:24-04:25
And we're going to go through this.
04:27-04:54
John 4. You there? Verse 1. It says, "Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee." What in the world is going on here? Long story short, Jesus was avoiding a confrontation.
04:56-04:59
The Pharisees hated John. Jesus was becoming more popular than John.
05:00-05:04
So Jesus was avoiding a premature confrontation with them.
05:04-05:09
So he went to Galilee, where he ministered over a year.
05:10-05:20
Verse 4, it says, "And he had to pass through Samaria." So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
05:21-05:29
Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well, it was about the sixth hour.
05:30-05:34
Interestingly, verse 4 says he had to pass through Samaria.
05:35-05:48
On one hand, you can say, "No, no, no, no, he didn't have to pass through Samaria logistically." Because most Jews in this day would not travel through Samaria.
05:48-05:49
We're going to talk about that in a second.
05:50-05:56
But there are actually two different ways to go around Samaria to get where He was going.
05:57-05:59
So logistically, He didn't have to.
06:00-06:07
When your Bible says He had to, what it means is He had to because He had a divine appointment.
06:08-06:14
Jesus is like, "I have something that has to happen here, so I have to go this way." That'll be so clear here in a couple of moments.
06:15-06:19
But notice it says in verse 6 that He was wearied.
06:20-06:21
He was wearied.
06:24-06:27
This was a 20-mile hike that Jesus was on.
06:27-06:30
And I don't mean 20 laps around the mall.
06:30-06:35
This was a 20-mile hike that Jesus completed.
06:35-06:41
And we've already talked about this, and we're going to continue to talk about it.
06:41-06:43
Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
06:45-06:50
And Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
06:51-06:56
He subjected himself to all of the things that humans are subjected to.
06:56-06:59
The Bible says Jesus got hungry, Jesus got thirsty.
07:00-07:02
Here, Jesus got tired.
07:03-07:08
Which is kind of a mind-blowing thing, but the words are very specific here.
07:08-07:17
He was exhausted as I would be, not even hiking 20 miles, even thinking about hiking 20 miles would exhaust me.
07:17-07:19
Jesus did that. He was exhausted.
07:19-07:24
Verse 7, it says, "A woman from Samaria came to draw water.
07:24-07:31
Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.' For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
07:32-07:42
The Samaritan woman said to Him, 'How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?
07:43-07:53
For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.'" The fact that Jesus even spoke to this woman is staggering.
07:54-07:56
And you see, she even acknowledged that.
07:57-07:59
Like, what was so staggering here?
07:59-08:08
But this woman, she checked the boxes of every type of person that a good Jewish rabbi absolutely would not talk to.
08:09-08:13
First of all, she was a woman.
08:15-08:25
And culturally, it was not the norm for a man, especially a rabbi, to speak to a woman in public like this.
08:25-08:27
That just did not happen culturally.
08:28-08:31
Okay, so that's one reason she was shocked.
08:32-08:37
Another thing we're going to find out here in a second, she was an immoral woman.
08:38-08:45
The Bible is very clear, it says that this was about the sixth hour, and the hours start counting from 6 a.m.
08:45-08:46
So this was noon.
08:46-08:53
You're like, "Well, what's the point?" The point is most people did not go to the well to get their water in the heat of the day.
08:54-08:58
They would go early in the morning, or late at night when it was cooler.
08:58-09:01
That's when most of the ladies from the village would go.
09:02-09:06
This woman went at noon to avoid the ladies of the village.
09:07-09:12
Again, we're going to see here as we read more about her story, she had a bad reputation.
09:13-09:18
and I think this woman was here isolated, alone at this well in the heat of the day.
09:19-09:20
She just wanted to avoid people.
09:20-09:21
I don't want to be around people.
09:22-09:23
I know what people think of me.
09:23-09:25
I know what people say about me.
09:25-09:28
And I don't want to be anywhere around that.
09:28-09:30
I'll just go to the well when I don't have to deal with people.
09:31-09:31
Right?
09:34-09:44
But the third reason, it's astonishing that Jesus spoke with her There's a reason that she very specifically brought up.
09:44-09:45
She was a Samaritan.
09:47-09:57
And you're like, "Well, what's the problem there?" "What about the good Samaritans? I thought Samaritans were good people." Well, here's what a Samaritan was.
09:59-10:00
A little history lesson for you.
10:00-10:18
When Assyria, when the nation of Assyria captured the northern kingdom of Israel, we're talking about 722 B.C., Many of the remaining Jews that stayed in Israel intermarried with the pagan Gentiles that were now occupying Israel.
10:19-10:26
So what resulted was you had this group of people that were half Jewish, and they were half pagan Gentile.
10:29-10:36
And full -blooded Jews had a racial and national bigotry towards Samaritans.
10:37-10:38
The text indicates this very clearly.
10:41-10:48
Notice the woman says, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" Here's a question.
10:48-10:51
How did she know that he was a Jew?
10:52-10:53
How did she know that?
10:55-10:59
The best guess is how he was dressed.
11:01-11:01
But we don't know.
11:02-11:02
But she knew.
11:04-11:04
But we don't know.
11:04-11:05
Look at verse 10.
11:06-11:07
He knew he was Jewish.
11:08-11:25
Verse 10, "Jesus said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying, 'Do you give me a drink?' You would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'" Kind of neat, isn't it?
11:25-11:26
Jesus turns the tables.
11:27-11:31
When a conversation started, He was thirsty, and asked her for a drink.
11:31-11:32
Now, He says, "Oh, you're thirsty.
11:32-11:42
You should be asking Me for a drink." In verse 11, the woman said to Him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.
11:43-11:44
Where do you get that living water?
11:46-11:48
Are you greater than our father Jacob?
11:48-11:57
He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." I think she was sort of mocking Jesus here.
11:59-12:01
Like, "Oh, you're offering living water, huh?
12:01-12:02
Okay. Okay.
12:04-12:05
How are you getting this living water, by the way?
12:06-12:10
By the way, our father Jacob, I'm sure as a Jew, you've heard of Jacob.
12:10-12:13
He's sort of a legend among your people, right?
12:13-12:14
He dug the well.
12:14-12:17
And are you telling me right now that you're greater than him?
12:17-12:20
I mean, he dug this water well, but you have this living water well.
12:20-12:21
You're greater than Jacob?
12:21-12:22
Is that what's going on here?
12:23-12:24
I think she was kind of mocking him.
12:27-12:35
Look at verse 13, "Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.
12:38-12:43
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
12:45-13:07
The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." So Jesus drives this spiritual point home.
13:10-13:12
He's like, "I'm talking about something spiritual.
13:12-13:16
I'm talking about water for your soul." And obviously at this point, she still doesn't get it.
13:17-13:19
She's like, "Oh, okay, you're telling me I'll never have to be thirsty again?
13:20-13:22
Alright, okay, offer accepted.
13:22-13:25
Can I have some of this magic water that you're offering me?
13:25-13:28
This living water?" Okay, great.
13:31-13:35
She doesn't get it. Look at verse 16.
13:37-13:46
"Jesus said to her, 'Go, call your husband and come here.'" What?
13:47-13:48
Doesn't that seem kind of random?
13:49-14:01
Having this conversation about water and Jacob, He's like, "Hey, go get your husband." "What?" Look at verse 17.
14:02-14:09
"The woman answered him, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right in saying I have no husband.
14:12-14:19
You've had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.
14:20-14:24
you've said is true. Wait, what just happened?
14:26-14:27
What just happened here?
14:27-14:32
We're talking about water and wells and Jacob and living water and we're...
14:32-14:55
And the woman's like, "Okay, now all of a sudden we're talking about my man situation?" But the lights are starting to come on for this lady now. Because look at verse 19, "The woman said to him, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.'" Like, okay, you're not some wacky guy by the well." She goes, "No, there's something about you.
14:58-14:59
You're a prophet.
15:01-15:01
You're legit.
15:03-15:17
Like, how would you know all this?" Well, then in verse 20, she does, quite honestly, what any of us would have done, when the conversation gets a little too uncomfortable.
15:19-15:20
She changes the subject.
15:21-15:21
Look at verse 20.
15:22-15:33
She said, "Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Again, it starts to get a little uncomfortable.
15:33-15:46
So she goes, "Let's talk about worship." She's like, "You seem like a pretty legit spiritual man, And so, Samaritan worship versus Jewish worship.
15:46-15:50
Worship on Mount Gerizim, worship in Jerusalem.
15:52-15:53
What do you think about that?
15:54-16:08
Verse 21, "Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.'" This is another shocking reply.
16:09-16:13
Jesus answered to her question, not really a question, more of a statement about worship.
16:14-16:22
Jesus said, "Yeah, none of the above." Samaritan worship at this time was sort of like Judaism, but it was off track in a lot of ways.
16:22-16:25
But Jesus said, "The day's coming.
16:25-16:33
Worship's really not going to happen specifically in either place." Verse 22, Jesus continues.
16:33-16:35
He says, "You worship what you do not know.
16:37-16:38
We worship what we know.
16:39-16:43
For salvation is from the Jews.
16:43-16:49
But the hour is coming, and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
16:50-16:54
For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.
16:55-16:56
God is spirit.
16:57-17:02
And those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
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Jesus is telling this woman, Everything is changing about worship.
17:08-17:11
It's all about how, not about where.
17:11-17:16
And two times, I'm sure you saw it, verse 23 and 24, Jesus talked about Spirit and truth.
17:17-17:18
Spirit and truth.
17:18-17:33
It's worshiping God from your whole heart, and at the same time, according to who He actually is as He's revealed Himself from the Bible.
17:34-17:41
That's why He said to her, "You worship what you do not know." He said, "As Jews, we have the Scriptures, we have an understanding of who God is.
17:41-17:50
You are trying to worship, but you don't really know God." It has to be Spirit and truth. We're going to circle back to that in a minute.
17:53-17:55
Look at verse 25 of the woman's reply.
17:55-18:05
"The woman said to Him, 'I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ.' When He comes, He will tell us all things.
18:08-18:22
Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." Interestingly, in the original Greek, there's no "He" in this verse.
18:23-18:33
Jesus literally said, "I who speak to you am." Jesus is calling Himself the "I Am." That comes up over and over and over and over.
18:33-18:35
John, you're going to see it over and over again.
18:36-18:37
That comes from Exodus 3.
18:38-18:39
Moses was sent by God.
18:39-18:41
Moses is like, "Well, they're not going to believe me.
18:42-18:49
What's your name? Who should I tell to send me?" And God said, "His name is I Am Who I Am." That's God's name.
18:50-18:55
And that's the name that Jesus uses for Himself throughout the Gospel of John here again.
18:56-19:10
"I who speak to you, Am." Now, so far in John, if you've been following us in this series, we've heard testimony of who Jesus is from John the Apostle.
19:13-19:14
That's how the gospel started.
19:14-19:17
We've heard testimony a couple of times from John the Baptist.
19:17-19:20
We saw testimony of who Jesus is from the very first disciples.
19:21-19:27
But do you realize this woman is the first person in John's gospel to hear it from Jesus himself.
19:28-19:32
She's the first person to hear it out of his own mouth.
19:33-19:57
And in this unveiling of himself, he tells this woman, and it's preserved in God's Word for us, verse 10, where he says, "If you knew the gift of God..." He's telling her church, and he's telling us, You have to know the gift of God. You have to know it.
19:59-20:06
Again, the gift was a little confusing to her, maybe more so than a pair of isotoners.
20:06-20:07
She was confused.
20:11-20:13
But understand that the gift of God is Jesus.
20:16-20:20
And this year we're going for knowing Jesus.
20:21-20:24
So if you want to know Jesus, you have to know about the gift of God.
20:24-20:25
Right?
20:25-20:27
You have to know about the gift of God.
20:28-20:32
So in your outline, here's four things you need to know about the gift of God.
20:34-20:37
Four things you need to know about the gift of God, it all comes from the text.
20:39-20:46
I wanted to sort of go through that conversation to get the context, but now we're going to circle back a little bit.
20:47-20:50
Here's the first thing you need to know about the gift of God.
20:50-20:52
God's gift is for all people.
20:54-21:00
Like, "Oh yeah, I knew that. Hang on." Even people you may not want to have.
21:03-21:09
"Oh, I don't want to hear that." Listen, church.
21:09-21:22
The fact that Jesus Christ reached out to a Samaritan woman This is something that some people may not want to hear.
21:23-21:26
There are some people sitting here that aren't going to want to hear what I'm about to say.
21:27-21:30
There are people who are going to listen to this online later that are not going to want to hear this.
21:31-21:32
This is in the Bible.
21:33-21:36
At Harvest Bible Chapel, we believe in letting the Word of God speak.
21:39-21:43
God's gift is for all people, even people you may not want to have it.
21:43-21:51
As we touched upon earlier, That was a deep-rooted racial and national hatred that Jews have for Samaritans.
21:51-21:53
Look back at verse 9 again.
21:53-21:54
Quickly with me, please.
21:54-21:56
Do you see the parenthetical statement?
21:56-22:03
It says, "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." That sounds very proper the way that's worded.
22:03-22:04
Do you know how that's worded in the original Greek?
22:05-22:06
It's this.
22:07-22:12
"They use not anything together." That's literally how it is.
22:12-22:14
"Use not anything together." Do you know what that means?
22:15-22:20
A Jew would say something like this, "I would not ride in a chariot with a Samaritan.
22:20-22:23
I would not sit at a table with a Samaritan.
22:24-22:26
I would not ride in an elevator with a Samaritan.
22:29-22:34
I wouldn't eat at a restaurant where we might use the same plates.
22:34-22:35
I wouldn't do it.
22:35-22:37
I would not touch something a Samaritan touched.
22:37-22:41
I wouldn't do it." That's how Jews felt about Samaritans.
22:41-22:42
Hated them.
22:43-22:44
Hated them!
22:47-22:50
Hatred has become the norm in our culture.
22:52-22:53
True or false?
22:55-22:56
Think about racial hatred.
22:59-23:00
Think about political hatred.
23:02-23:09
Think about hatred towards people of different sexual orientations or confusions.
23:11-23:12
about religious hatred.
23:15-23:18
And you're like, "Oh no, not me, Pastor Jeff.
23:18-23:22
I love everyone." Do you?
23:25-23:47
Let me just ask you, when you watch the news and you see LGBTQ protests or allowances for boys who identify as girls to be able to change in girls' locker rooms in a place in Illinois this past week, you've never felt any disdain?
23:49-23:54
You've never seen that and just had this, like, hatred in your belly?
23:54-23:55
That's never happened to you?
23:57-24:02
Or you see on the news people protesting to murder babies.
24:02-24:05
You've never felt just a little bit of hatred towards those people?
24:06-24:06
Never.
24:09-24:32
or you're following all this circus on the news, and whatever political party you're a part of, you look at the opposite political party, and you've never felt any loathing, whether it's for the president or for Pelosi or for whoever you don't like, you've never felt any hatred.
24:35-24:49
You remember years ago, videos surfacing of radical Muslims lining up handcuffed Christians on their knees, shooting them in the back of the head.
24:51-24:53
Or putting them in cages and drowning them.
24:53-24:54
Do you remember that?
24:57-25:00
And then you see Muslims in our culture.
25:01-25:02
That's what you think of.
25:03-25:06
You've never felt hatred towards those people.
25:09-25:24
If you're honest, and you've felt anything towards any of the above that I mentioned, and you get a sense as to what was going on here with Jesus reaching out to a Samaritan.
25:28-25:37
And these people that we might be tempted to hate, I'm like, "Dude, I'm not even tempted. I do hate you." Listen, they're lost.
25:39-25:41
They're dead in their sin.
25:42-25:45
And they're heading to hell without Jesus Christ.
25:46-25:49
And they aren't people that prevent us from going into the mission field.
25:49-25:50
They are the mission field.
25:53-25:56
So let me ask you, how likely are you to be like Jesus?
25:56-25:58
How likely are you to be like Jesus?
25:59-26:06
I think I try to be like Jesus." Well, what if at your workplace, somebody was hired that was a homosexual?
26:08-26:09
Would you look for ways to bless that person?
26:10-26:11
Love that person?
26:11-26:12
Share the gospel with that person?
26:13-26:14
Invite the person to church?
26:14-26:14
Would you do that?
26:16-26:19
Or would you do everything possible to avoid that person?
26:23-26:25
Are you like all the other Jews in Jesus' day?
26:25-26:26
Or are you like Jesus?
26:29-26:33
What if you found out in your workplace that they hired a guy that is a Muslim?
26:36-26:38
And he works right down the hall from you.
26:40-26:41
Would you reach out? Would you love him?
26:42-26:43
Would you share the Gospel with him?
26:43-26:44
Would you invite him to church?
26:47-26:49
You're like, "Listen, Pastor Jeff, they don't deserve it.
26:51-27:01
None of us deserve it." Do you know how many people in heaven right now that deserve it.
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You know how many?
27:03-27:03
One.
27:05-27:06
His name is Jesus Christ.
27:07-27:11
As for the rest of us, we need grace.
27:14-27:31
So, I think, because I'm in the category of the grace-needing people, like all y'all, I'm very thankful that God's gift is for all people, even for people that you may not want to have it.
27:33-27:35
Secondly, I'll draw this down.
27:35-27:39
God's gift brings true satisfaction.
27:42-27:44
God's gift brings true satisfaction.
27:47-27:49
Why did Jesus tell her to call her husband?
27:52-27:54
You know, at first that seems kind of random, doesn't it?
27:55-27:57
There's actually a couple of things going on here.
27:59-28:02
You look at the history of prophets through the Old Testament.
28:03-28:03
What do prophets do?
28:04-28:06
They show up and they identify people's sin.
28:07-28:10
That's one thing that Jesus was doing here, but there's something else.
28:12-28:19
Jesus was pointing out to this woman what she was looking for in order to obtain satisfaction.
28:20-28:21
That's what he was doing.
28:24-28:27
It's just so common even in our day.
28:28-28:29
It's common in our day.
28:30-28:42
Women think, some women, some women think, if I just give a man what he wants, he's going to give me what I want.
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And I'll make myself available to him, to be my Prince Charming.
28:51-28:56
This woman was on strike five and swinging the bat at number six about the minute.
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And look, I'm not criticizing the woman, overly criticizing, trying to be harsh, because there were, at this point at least, five loser men that didn't do the right thing either, right?
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But for some women, that's what they think is going to satisfy.
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I'm going to get this Prince Charming.
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He's going to come in on his white horse, and he's going to make everything great!
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And she's like, again, six guys in.
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And men, look, we're the same, guys.
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My life is going to be perfect, I'm just going to find the right woman.
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I'm going to find the right woman, my life is going to be perfect.
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Men and women hop from person to person, married, divorced, living with this one, moving out, living with that one.
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This one is the one that's going to do it!
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That's what she was looking to for satisfaction.
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What about you?
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What do you look for you think is going to satisfy your soul.
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For some of you it is the opposite sex.
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For others it could be drugs.
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It could be food.
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It could be your position at work.
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It could be your income.
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Any of these earthly, physical things that we think are going to satisfy us spiritually.
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Do you know what Jesus said about that?
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He said it in verse 13.
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He says, "You're going to be thirsty again." All these things, they might temporarily stop a craving, or they might stroke your ego for a minute, or they might give you this one second of contentment.
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But you will be thirsty again, because they will not satisfy your soul.
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That's what Jesus was pointing out to her.
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He said, "I have living water.
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What have you been trying to satisfy yourself with?
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There's only one thing.
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There's only one thing that's going to satisfy you, and that is the gift of God.
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That's why Jesus said there, "If you knew the gift of God..." Water in the Bible is the picture of life and satisfaction.
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That's why Jesus later - we're going to get to this down the road, Jesus calls the thirsty.
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Like, if you're thirsty, come to Me.
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Come for life.
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Come for satisfaction.
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Jesus is living water.
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The only one that can quench the thirst.
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Earthly things can't do that.
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Thirdly, God's gift leads to true worship.
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God's gift leads to true worship.
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And I can't underscore the importance of this point because worship is the most important thing in the world.
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It's the reason you're created.
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Everyone worships something.
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God's gift leads to true worship.
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I want you to look again at verses 23 and 24.
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Jesus said, "But the hour is coming and is now here." "When the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
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For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him." Verse 24, he takes another run at it to make sure that we're clear.
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Jesus says, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Notice that Jesus talked about, in verse 23, true worshipers.
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Do you see that? True worshipers.
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If there are true worshipers, that implies that there are false worshipers. Right?
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Boy, this doesn't fly today, does it?
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"Hey, hey, the way you worship is wrong." How can you say that?
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How can you say the way that I worship is wrong?
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God said it. God said it.
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God says that he's seeking true worshipers, not people that worship how they want.
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Like, "I worship God the way I want to." That's not what God's looking for.
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He's looking for true worshipers.
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The person that's like, worshiping God in an emotionally detached way.
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Like, "I make sure my worship is in line with the Word of God, and I sort of keep my heart out of it." That's wrong too.
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Jesus points out twice here.
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with spirit and truth.
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And church, there is something in us as human beings, where we want religion and worship to be about external things, right?
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That's where the woman went when she changed the subject.
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"Let's talk about worship here or there.
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What do you think?" It was all about external things.
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And we can't point the finger at her Because we have that same tendency.
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We want religion, we want worship to be about externals.
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We wear the saint medal, or it's the way that we dress for church, or having stained glass, or I cross myself when I drive past a church, or we call this room the sanctuary.
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This room is not the sanctuary.
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This room is no holier than the parking lot.
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This woman was so hung up on where worship, where worship, where worship.
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And Jesus took her to how?
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Spirit and truth is a hard thing.
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Jesus said it's not about a place.
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Worship is about loving, honoring, and serving God from a sincere heart according to His That's worship. Spirit and truth.
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We've taught so much on worship in this church.
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Just a quick reminder, I know some of you have heard this before, and you know what I'm going to say.
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But some people are all spirit and no truth.
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Some people are all spirit and no truth.
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They look at worship as purely an emotional experience.
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It's about lasers and fog and interpretive dance and screaming and barking.
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Yes, barking, that's what some people do for worship.
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"My dog is a worshiper." That's what some people do.
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And it's just purely this emotional thing.
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But some people are all truth and no spirit.
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That they think worship is...
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"A mighty fortress is our God." Yes, that is true and correct.
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And I can tell you the book, chapter, and verse That's where that comes from.
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And there's no spirit!
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What did Jesus say?
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It's spirit and truth.
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True worship is 100% both.
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My whole heart is according to God's truth.
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God's gift leads us to that.
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And finally, number four.
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Jot this down.
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Things you need to know about God's gift.
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Or God's gift is a gift.
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God's gift is a gift.
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You're like, "Wait, what are we paying you for?" I know.
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It took me like a day and a half to come up with that.
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God's gift is a gift.
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I think Pastor Jeff needs to sit back.
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Now, do you know why I included this?
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I think this is the easiest thing for us to overlook, to be honest with you.
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I think we can go through this passage and we can try to reach the depths of all these glorious truths, and I think we can miss probably what is to me the most profound and awesome and beautiful and glorious truth in this whole passage, and that's this.
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God's gift is a gift.
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That's what makes the gospel of Jesus Christ, as presented in the Bible, different than every other religion in the world.
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Every single other religion in the world - and I've studied all of the major ones extensively - every other religion says, "Here's what you have to do to get right with God." Where the Bible, the Gospel, says, "Here's what God has done to get you right with Him." That's what makes the Bible different.
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Jesus Christ died.
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the penalty for your sin.
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He rose from the dead to give you the very thing He talked about in verse 14.
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Eternal life.
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Salvation is a gift from God to anyone who is willing to receive it.
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Christmas is coming up.
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Kate, how many days until Christmas?
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32. I knew He would know that.
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He didn't practice that, I just knew he would know.
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And if you ask our children's director, Mandy Moult, I bet you she can tell you how many hours until Christmas.
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But it's Christmas coming up, and let's say you go out and you want to buy me a gift.
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And you're like, "I can't wait until Christmas.
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I'm going to come to Pastor Jeff's house early.
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And I'm going to give him this gift that I bought him." There's four ways I can respond to that.
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Come to my house, you knock on my door, and you're like, "Merry Christmas, Pastor Jeff!
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"I got you a gift!" And I slam the door in your face, and I say, "I don't want your stupid gift." I would not do that.
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I'm just saying that's an option, right?
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Hypothetically speaking, that's something I could possibly do.
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I wouldn't, but that's a possibility.
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There's another option.
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You knock on my door, I open it up, and you say, "Merry Christmas, Pastor Jeff, "I got you a gift." And I'm like, "That is so kind of you." And I pull out my wallet.
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I'm like, "How much was it?
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"I'm gonna pay you for it.
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"How would you feel?" "Not great." Right?
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"I bought you a gift." Or, you come to my house, you knock on the door, I open it up, and you're like, "Here, Christmas pastor Jeff, I got you a gift." And I take the gift and I'm like, "This is so cool." And I set it right there on the porch.
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I'm like, "I think I like it." And then you come back to my house next year, and it's still sitting there.
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Now it's got dust and leaves, and it's been weathered.
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You can tell it just hasn't been touched in a year.
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I just set it down, I never really did anything with it, I just kind of set it aside.
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Or, you knock on my door, you say, "Merry Christmas, Pastor Jeff," and I take the gift, and I say, "Thank you so much." And I receive it.
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And you understand that those are four ways that you can respond to God's gift.
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Those are your options.
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"I'm going to show you today Jesus Christ has a gift for you." You could take option one, and say, "You know what, Jesus, I don't want your stupid gift." I wouldn't recommend that, but that's one option that you do have.
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That's one option I've seen people take.
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"I don't want your stupid gift." Another option, some people, they think they have to pay for it.
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Remember I said I pull out my wallet, how much do I owe you?
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Some people try to do that with the gospel.
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"Oh, this is great!
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If I'm going to receive the gift of Jesus, that means I have to have perfect church attendance, and I have to be a better person, and I'm going to work in the soup kitchen, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do all these things to earn this." You can't earn it. You can't earn it.
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He said it's a gift.
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And just like you would be insulted if I tried to pay for your gift, I think it's insulting to the Lord and we try to pay for hits.
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But you know what I think a lot of people do in churches?
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I think a lot of people take option three, and they take the gift of God, and they set it by the door.
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I think a lot of people come to church, and they're like, "Oh, this is great!
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Yes, Jesus! Yes, eternal life!
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Yes, transformation! Yes, new way of living!" And I think they just sort of set Him aside.
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They're not opposed to Him, And they're not really ready to receive Him either.
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They like the idea of having the gift.
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They've never taken the step to actually receive it.
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Do you know what option Jesus wants you to take?
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He's made it so clear.
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He wants you to receive.
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He wants you to believe in His name.
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If you knew the gift of God, Jesus said, if you knew the gift of God, I would add, then you would gratefully receive it.
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Father in heaven, this time of year we think a lot about gifts.
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Some of us are thinking about trying to get that perfect gift for somebody right now.
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But God, we thank You that with the Gospel, You have given the perfect gift.
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Father, I think so many of us find ourselves just like that woman.
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We're sort of exposed to the Messiah.
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a little bit of confusion regarding.
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We know about Jesus, but we don't know Jesus.
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I pray, Father, for the person here who needs that faith, that You would grant them repentance.
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Your Spirit would draw them to You.
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And they would truly come to understand.
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to know the gift of God and to receive Him.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 4:1-26
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Reread John 4:23-24. Explain what it means to worship in “spirit and truth”. Do you tend to be more spirit or truth in worship? How can you adjust to be more “balanced”?
What are some things YOU have looked to for satisfaction before you came to Christ? How have you found Christ to be the living water that keeps you from being thirsty (John 4:14)?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another!