11-03-2018
Do not give up.
Grow in the
knowledge of God.
Just tell it.
John 4 New King
James Version (NKJV)
A Samaritan Woman
Meets Her Messiah
4 Therefore, when
the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His
disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to
go through Samaria.
5 So He came to a
city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave
to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied
from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of
Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His
disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 Then the woman
of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me,
a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered
and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you,
‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living
water.”
11 The woman said
to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then
do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who
gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his
livestock?”
13 Jesus answered
and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but
whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the
water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up
into everlasting life.”
15 The woman said
to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to
draw.”
16 Jesus said to
her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman
answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to
her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five
husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke
truly.”
19 The woman said
to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on
this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought
to worship.”
21 Jesus said to
her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not
know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is Spirit, and
those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said
to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes,
He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to
her, “I who speak to you am He.”
The Whitened
Harvest
27 And at this
point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no
one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
28 The woman then
left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come,
see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30
Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
31 In the
meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But He said to
them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
33 Therefore the
disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”
34 Jesus said to
them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 35
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’?
Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are
already white for harvest! 36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers
fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice
together. 37 For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I
sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and
you have entered into their labors.”
The Savior of the
World
39 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.” 40 So when the Samaritans had
come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41
And many more believed because of His own word.
42 Then they said
to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves
have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ,[a] the Savior of the
world.”
1) Don't give up
This woman is
probably ashamed of herself. He drew water at the sixth hour (12noon) when it
was very hot. She probably didn't want to see the crowd. Because she had a
history of having married five men before. The current man she's living with
was not her husband. She lived a lonely, rejected, empty, broken life.
A professional
counsellor said, "You are spot on."
Sometimes we
don't understand why things happen one after another.
The wonderful
thing about this woman, she did not give up despite all the brokenness and the
pain.
It's all right.
Come back to Jesus--the river of life.
Romans 5:3-5 New
King James Version (NKJV)
3 And not only
that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces
perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope
does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Despite
everything that has happened, God is still there.
Sometimes
hardships come because God wants to expose certain things in our life and He
wants to make it good, and make it right.
Don't give up
because the best is yet to come!
Whatever way God
sends, take it. Don't be choosy.
Isaiah 42:3
Amplified Bible (AMP)
3“A broken reed He
will not break [off]
And a dimly
burning wick He will not extinguish [He will not harm those who are weak and
suffering];
He will
faithfully bring forth justice.
Jesus purposely
went to Samaria because He knew there was a woman.
2) Grow in the
knowledge of God
V19-20
This woman knew
about God but she did not really know God.
There are two
kinds of faith:
a) Saving faith
b) Non-saving
faith:
i) blind faith -
just believe, just follow without really knowing the real Savior, the real God
who loves you;
ii) head
knowledge - knows the bible from cover to cover but does not have relationship
with Christ;
iii) temporary
faith
We need to have
saving faith. Grow in our walk with God.
2 Peter 3:18 New
King James Version (NKJV)
18 but grow in
the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be the
glory both now and forever. Amen.
Have you grown in
the Lord, and have you grown really knowing God?
Spiritual growth
takes place:
a) Feeding on
spiritual food
Ephesians 4:11-16
New Living Translation (NLT)
11 Now these are
the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip
God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13
This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge
of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and
complete standard of Christ.
14 Then we will
no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by
every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick
us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the
truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head
of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As
each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the
whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Moses himself was
trained in the courts of pharaoh, and Paul was trained under Gamaliel.
Teaching and
training will give you the cutting edge.
Your life will be
so inspired by other ordinary men and women who let their hair down and humble
themselves to teach and train.
God wants all of
us to be mature, and growing in the knowledge of God
3) Just tell it.
V29-30, 40-42
The woman went
back to the city and told a man.
In that city, a
lot of people would've known her and judged her.
What changed the
attitude of the woman?
V34-35
God did something
in the heart of the woman and God transformed the hardened heart of the man
because God loves them.
The primary
reason why people should be saved is that, every person should worship Him
because He deserves the glory and honour.
God asks,
"Do You hear my heartbeat now? Go and do My heartbeat."
2 Peter 3:9 New
King James Version (NKJV)
9 The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering
toward us,[a] not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance.
Ezekiel 47 New
International Version (NIV)
The River From
the Temple
47 The man brought
me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under
the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The
water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the
altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the
outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the
south side.
3 As the man went
eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand
cubits[a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off
another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He
measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the
waist. 5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could
not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river
that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?”
Then he led me
back to the bank of the river. 7 When I arrived there, I saw a great number of
trees on each side of the river. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the
eastern region and goes down into the Arabah,[b] where it enters the Dead Sea.
When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. 9 Swarms of
living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large
numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh;
so where the river flows everything will live. 10 Fishermen will stand along
the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets.
The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. 11 But
the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. 12
Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves
will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit,
because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for
food and their leaves for healing.”
The Boundaries of
the Land
13 This is what
the Sovereign Lord says: “These are the boundaries of the land that you will
divide among the twelve tribes of Israel as their inheritance, with two
portions for Joseph. 14 You are to divide it equally among them. Because I
swore with uplifted hand to give it to your ancestors, this land will become
your inheritance.
15 “This is to be
the boundary of the land:
“On the north
side it will run from the Mediterranean Sea by the Hethlon road past Lebo
Hamath to Zedad, 16 Berothah[c] and Sibraim (which lies on the border between
Damascus and Hamath), as far as Hazer Hattikon, which is on the border of
Hauran. 17 The boundary will extend from the sea to Hazar Enan,[d] along the
northern border of Damascus, with the border of Hamath to the north. This will be
the northern boundary.
18 “On the east
side the boundary will run between Hauran and Damascus, along the Jordan
between Gilead and the land of Israel, to the Dead Sea and as far as Tamar.[e]
This will be the eastern boundary.
19 “On the south
side it will run from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribah Kadesh, then along
the Wadi of Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. This will be the southern boundary.
20 “On the west
side, the Mediterranean Sea will be the boundary to a point opposite Lebo
Hamath. This will be the western boundary.
21 “You are to
distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You
are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners
residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as
native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance
among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you
are to give them their inheritance,” declares the Sovereign Lord.
Don't give up!
The best is yet to come!
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