Friends, would you stand with me as we read the Lord's Word this morning, taken from John chapter 4. We are looking at verses 7 through 14, primarily, but I will read the remainder of chapter 4 or up through verse 38 for the sake of context. Again, if you would listen now to the Lord's Word. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it was who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. She said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? You're not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw. He said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly said, I have no husband, for you've had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. At this point, his disciples came and they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, what do you seek? 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 things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it? They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything to eat, did he? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life. so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case, the saying is true. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. This is the Lord's word. Please be seated, friends. Again, our Lord, we thank you for your word and thank you, Father, for this passage of scripture and pray that your blessing would be upon your servant, upon these, your people, we come and ask, Father, that you would bless and give your power, your spirit, making this word effective to the end that you have designed for it, to admonish, to comfort, to challenge, to strengthen. We pray, O Lord, that your grace be upon us now and that you will help us. Help us to have ears to hear, hearts that are prepared to receive the seed of the gospel and to be brought to life. We humbly ask all of this now in Jesus' name, amen. There are those things that we think we need, and then there are the things we actually truly need. Christmas time is coming, and I hear my granddaughters saying things like, ooh, I need that. And my daughter wisely said, you know, that toy right there will get old real quick. You will play with it once, and you will never play with it again. It reminds me of how we live our lives. We think to ourselves, oh, I need this thing. I really want that thing, because in that thing, once I have that, I will be truly happy finally. And how many of those things are in our closets today or stuck in a barn somewhere gathering dust? As we come to this passage, at the center of it is a well. It's Jacob's well, a well that is deep, over 100 feet deep. It's a well that has a spring underneath it, feeding it. It is a well that was so good, it was bestowed upon Joseph, a favorite son, and upon Joseph's sons by Jacob. It was a well from which Jacob himself drank along with his sons and his cattle. And you all know the importance of water in a desert area, especially a good well such as this was. You can understand why this might be a very fitting picture, a very fitting object to bring about some very important lessons It was no accident that Jesus had to pass through Samaria, as we were told in verse four of this chapter. And it's no accident that he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph, and that Jacob's well was there. That a well should be the focal point of the conversation is interesting for what sustains life and brings thriving growth better than a good and abundant watering or a good and abundant well. It is plain or will become so that Jesus is not mainly concerned about what is down at the bottom of that hole, but rather he's concerned about what sustains life, what sustains spiritual life, what starts out with an everyday need turns into a discussion about everlasting life and our need for it. As I hope you recall from John chapter three, John three closes out with the reasons why Jesus must increase and why John and all ministers and servants of the Lord must decrease. This is not, uh, uh, uh, an inferiority complex or, or something of low self-esteem, which drove John the Baptist to say what he did. It is the way it must be as only Jesus Christ can save. summarizing these things from the past few weeks. If we put our faith in men, you will be disappointed. You will ultimately be let down. But your faith in Jesus Christ, if your faith be placed in Jesus Christ, you will never be disappointed and you will find eternal life. The very simple, very straightforward message here. John's disciples recall were very bothered by the success that Jesus was having and John corrected them. They shouldn't be upset that Jesus was increasing in popularity, that people were coming to him and that his disciples were baptizing. John's message is simple. This is exactly why I came. They're not supposed to worship me. I'm not the one who dies for people. I'm not the one who washes away sin. They should be looking upon Jesus Christ. John's disciples were bothered. The Pharisees, too, as we begin chapter four, the Pharisees, too, are bothered with the same thing, that Jesus is having this tremendous success. And we believe that this is the reason why Jesus, in verse three, we are told, left Judea and went away again into Galilee. where he had performed his first miracle, turning water into wine. Nicodemus, though, he changes throughout the pargus of John's gospel. And the Pharisees, they did not receive. Remember, Nicodemus questions Jesus. He doesn't get Jesus, not yet. And the Pharisees themselves, they don't get Jesus. But they don't want to get Jesus either. They believe themselves to be so good so righteous that they seriously... see no need of salvation. They see no need that they should have Jesus Christ. They hear about Jesus Christ, but we notice from the text, no one goes out to see him. No one goes out to talk to him. Nicodemus did. That's a, that's a good thing for Nicodemus, but the rest of them are hearing things and they're beginning to, to stew over the fact that Jesus has become so popular. They want nothing to do with Jesus. They have and view themselves as having no need of salvation. It is one of, if not the most difficult things that ever comes to us is trying to convince a man or a woman of their absolute need of Jesus Christ. If a man or a woman believe that they are good, indeed, it is impossible to show them their need. a Savior, just like it would be impossible to get anyone to wake up and get out of their bed at 3 in the morning if they weren't firmly convinced that their house was on fire. Friends, your house is on fire. Our house is on fire. We need Jesus Christ. So as we come to chapter 4, Christ had to pass through Samaria to get to Galilee. So again, The big picture is he's leaving Judea, where Jerusalem is, where all the Pharisees are, and where all these people are not receiving him. And he's got to go to Galilee, which is in the northern part of Israel. And to get to Galilee, he must and had to go through Samaria. He has to pass through that area. Not because it was the shortest route, but because he had a divine appointment with a sinful Samaritan woman who did not know of her need of something greater than this world. That's a very interesting contrast between chapter three and chapter four. We're showing here, my friends, Christ's loving kindness towards the sinner. He did not come to save people who think they are worthy of heaven, such as the Pharisees. He came to seek and to save the lost, says Luke. He came, Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 8. He came, though he was rich, yet for the sinner's sake he became poor so that the sinner, through Christ's poverty, might become rich. And here he is. We are told, so Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. That is, it's about noon. The sun is high overhead. It's hot. It's dry. He is wearied and he is thirsty. His resting place is not an accident or a mere coincidence. And friends, I really see this and there were people and commentators and I, I wrestle with this very thing because they, they will, will act as if, well, you know, it's just this place and it's, They almost act as if there's not a significance to these things. And I struggle with that, because you see here, as I believe you'll see, a great significance of what is taking place. I start off with this question. Why did he have to travel through Samaria? Again, it says he had to. And I don't believe this is accidental at all. And it is because he had to. First of all, he had to meet this Samaritan woman who did not yet recognize her need of Jesus Christ. So she goes, or Jesus goes. from the self-righteous Pharisees, now he's going to Samaria. Again, we read this in verses seven through nine. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. I believe it'll help us if we understand that this woman has a little bit of an attitude. I used to think that she was some demure, like, oh, of course, I'd be happy to. That's not what we're dealing with here. We're dealing with a woman who is a little bit snarky, has a little bit of an attitude. And I think it'll help us as we read through this text as you hear her with this in mind. And it really shows all the more the loving kindness of our Lord. She is, we are told, a woman of Samaria who has come at midday to draw water. As we noted last week, there were religious and theological animosities between the Jews And the Samaritans, these animosities did not occur overnight. They had been built over hundreds of years. The Samaritans are considered half-breeds. They're not pure-blooded Jews. They have a rotten history of idolatry, of golden calf worship, of rotten kings. Right? They were taken and sent into exile. They took the best Jews and sent them off other places and left the low life there in northern Israel. And then they brought foreigners in, and they intermarried, and they intermixed religions. And it just became a horrible mess. You can see this tension between the Jews and the Gentiles just by referencing Luke chapter 9, verses 51 through 55. I mentioned this last week. that the Samaritans did not want to receive Jesus and his disciples while they were on their way to Jerusalem. Jesus says, go prepare a place. And they said, no, you're not welcome here. And to that, James and John, Jesus's disciples, wanted to command fire to come down from heaven and to consume them. Remember, Jesus rebukes them and says, you don't understand the spirit that you are of. I didn't come to destroy lives like this. So indeed, just in that one little passage, Luke 9, 51 through 55, we get a glimpse of the animosity between Samaritans and between Jews. On top of this fact, or beside this fact, this woman was a Samaritan woman. She was a woman who some believe had a reputation. If you look at 17 and 18, she has not just had one husband, she's had five husbands, and the man she's currently with was not her husband either. One makes you wonder, whose husband was he? And so she has a reputation. She has a reputation, and it may explain why she's coming to the well at midday when no other women were there. Because typically, they would come first thing in the morning or late in the evening. This is the midday. Jesus is wearied. He comes there. He's standing by this well. And here comes this woman. One thing you can say about the Samaritan woman with attitude is she's got baggage. She has issues. Now, you compare the Samaritan woman with the Pharisees. The Pharisees saw no need of Jesus and likely were already planning on how we need to shut this guy down. Jesus knows this and it's time to go because it's time to die. had not yet arisen, and so what does he do? And as John records it, he goes not around Samaria, which was very customary for Jews to do, not always, but oftentimes he would go around Samaria to avoid those unclean people. Jesus decides to go right through Samaria. She has come to the well to draw water. She has need. She has need of water for her family, for cooking, for cleaning, for drinking, for her animals, whatever the reason, she has come as she has need of it. Jesus, too, has need of it. Again, recall he has taken upon himself human flesh. He knows what it is to need sleep, food, rest, and water. At this point, he is wearied. by his journey into Samaria. Here, the creator has taken upon himself the creaturely. The infinite one experiences what it means to be finite and to have limitations, to be tempted and tried just so he could represent the people that he came into this world for and yet to never sin. And he asks her a question. He says, give me a drink. His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. They are not there. The opportunity, his purpose for coming, has arrived, and need has presented itself. I want you to notice that she does not say, OK, or of course, or gladly. Rather, we are told, therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman, with this comment tacked on? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And commentators point out that this could be translated or should be understood that Jews do not use dishes that Samaritans have used. So clearly, the Jews view themselves as being quite superior to the Samaritans. And she, with her attitude, reveals, raises her ugly head with religious and theological animosity towards Jesus. Seriously? I'm reading that into the text. Seriously, you're asking me for a cup of water, for a drink? You've got to be kidding. You're a Jew. I'm a Samaritan. What gives? Why would you do this? Why would you even approach me this way? Who does this man think he is, coming and asking a Samaritan woman for a drink? It is highly unusual. Jews would be considered defiled for eating within the confines of the Samaritans. Furthermore, women who were Samaritan would be considered perpetually unclean, not just occasionally unclean, but perpetually unclean. And Jesus is there asking a Samaritan woman for a cup of water. She can't imagine what Jesus is even doing, asking her for a drink of water. Jews don't like us, and frankly, we don't like the Jews. But Jesus is different. He's a Jewish man who doesn't behave sinfully, a Jewish man who dared to speak to an unclean Samaritan woman in order to bring her to that which she truly needed. She treats him poorly, yet it does not drive him away. I want you to notice. She likely is offended that Jesus would even dare to ask her to wait upon him knowing how the Jews viewed the Samaritans My friends one simple point of application here Who do you know that you would that the church or the world would consider unclean and say they're beyond? Jesus's reach That's what I would ask you who do you know like that You know, we come into church, and we become believers in our lives. Old habits die away, and we start doing new things. And quickly, we forget what it was and the backgrounds that we come from. And we think, oh, this person would never be received by the Lord because of their history, because of their track record. I just want to point out here that very simply, Jesus very intentionally stops at this well And he's there, his disciples are gone, and here comes this woman, a Samaritan woman who was considered unclean, who has terrible baggage and a terrible attitude. And Jesus says, give me a drink. And she's flabbergasted. How could he ask me for a drink? You see the love of Jesus Christ for sinners. Do you see this? Do you understand that this is the love that God has for sinners and that we ought not to turn our noses up at these people who need the Lord? The very reason they're lost. Um, and as we will find out about this woman next week more, um, the very reason they suffer these things is because they don't have the Lord and they are ensnared and stuck in darkness And this the Lord calls us to understand, friends, we may think a certain way about people and think them unworthy, but Jesus Christ knows they're unworthy and still comes to them anyways. And that's the way the church ought to be. That's the way we ought to think. We're not a special group of people. What we are is a special group of sinners that God set his love upon. And so we don't turn our noses up at anyone but we would take time as Jesus did with this woman, because he came not to be served, but to serve. He comes not to be served, but to serve. And I know that sounds a little wonky, but listen to this again. Verses 10 through 12, we read this, 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. She said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle? The woman, as all are, was in the dark. She is spiritually dead. She is spiritually blind. She thinks Jesus is some kind of random Jewish guy. Friends, people don't know that what God has done for the sinner or who Jesus Christ is. And it is our job to tell them, inform them of who Jesus Christ is. She, this woman, seems offended at Jesus's request for a drink. In truth, Jesus has not come to be waited upon, but rather he has come for the express purpose to minister to this fallen woman. Who is this man and why has he come to this place at this time? Again, Jesus says, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says, you give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Again, the woman does not know yet who Jesus is. He's asking for a cup of water from her, but he has something far greater, far superior to give her if she only knew. If you knew the gift of God, friends, what is the gift of God? What is it that Jesus would offer? First notice that that which is given is not earned. It is a gift. So I'm not selling magazines. I'm not selling books, prescriptions. You don't have to worry that you come to the well and oh, great, there's a solicitor hanging out here and I really need to get this water. There's none of this going on. Jesus is there. to give, to bless the woman. If you knew the gift of God, if you knew what this gift is, that it comes from God, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Jesus is the gift. Jesus himself is the gift and the salvation that comes to the sinner who looks to him in faith. This is what Jesus Christ offers the woman. This is what Jesus is speaking, why he's there. And if you knew who it was who says, you give me a drink, but she doesn't know what is right in front of her, and she doesn't realize who is right there who has come to bless her, Jesus says to her, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. So again, here's a well, the woman is there to get water from the well. Jesus says, give me a drink. She's offended, put off by the fact that he's a Jew asking this Samaritan woman for a drink. And why are you offended? If you ask me, I'll give you something a billion times better than a drink out of this well. This phrase living water, this description, it's an expression that allows for two levels of meaning. One, it denotes fresh running water from springs. Or two, the expression living water has a rich metaphorical background that it speaks of deeper things than mere water. If you imagine this, just as running water and not still or stagnant water would be necessary in desert regions, one could understand how living waters would serve to illustrate what is needed for barren souls. So we read this in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 2. Jeremiah prophesying says, has a nation changed gods when they were not gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this and shudder Be very desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. D.A. Carson says, that is, they have rejected the fresh running supply of God and his faithful goodness, choosing instead the stagnant waters of cisterns they themselves prepared discovering even then that their cisterns were cracked and leaving them with nothing to sustain life and blessing. And this is as much for us today, friends, as it was for them. This one, speaking to the Samaritan woman, says to us, ask of me and I will give you this living water. I will be to you your fountain of living water. I will be the one who comes and gives you life. I will give you life. If you but ask me, I will give you a life. I will give you, I'll satisfy those things that you could never have satisfied in this world. It is clear, after Jesus says this, that she is still not tracking with Jesus. And she says to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle. Friends, at this point, she thinks Jesus is referring to the waters at the very bottom of the well. Again, Jacob's well was well over 100 feet deep. He had dug it. It was fed by the spring. And so even Dr. Harris, he reminded me or told me last week that back, when was it, John, in the 80s or the 90s, you were in Israel and that you drank from Jacob's well. It's still going strong, right? Still giving up water to be drunk from. And she thinks that Jesus is referring to the spring at the bottom of that hole in the ground, that somehow he's going to give her water. And she says, you have nothing to draw with. You have no bucket with a rope on it to dip way down and to pull it out for me. Jacob himself had to get this water, and it was hard work for him, extremely difficult to dig a well. I can't even imagine how you would dig a well in that day over 100 feet deep, and yet he managed to do it and to draw the water out. She says, now listen, this gets interesting, you are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle? Of course, she is stating rhetorically that Jesus isn't greater than Jacob, he cannot deliver upon what he has just said. Why would she say this? Because she doesn't know and doesn't understand to whom she is speaking. And this is true today for so many who think that Jesus Christ is just some Jewish guy making outlandish claims that naive people cling to. But I want to point out to you again, where I think this text becomes very interesting. If you turn back to verses five and six, again, listen to what John said. And he had to pass through, verse four, had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. We read in Genesis 33, 19 through 20, this. Then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. When he came from Paddan Aram, he pitched his tent before the city, and he bought the parcel of land which he pitched his tent from the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces of silver. Now listen to this. Then he erected an altar there, and called it El Elohei Yisra'el, meaning God, the God of Israel. Jacob, we're told, built his altar at Shechem, where Abraham built his first altar in the promised land. Now, you see here that Abraham built an altar there And God had made promises. Just prior to his building this altar, Abraham received promises of God. God's going to bless him. He's going to make him a great nation in his seed. The nations of the earth are going to be blessed. And Abraham worships, and he builds this altar. Well, Jacob gets this parcel of land, and he puts an altar on it as well. And he names the place El Elohe Israel. It's a bit curious to me that Jacob is remembered for his well, and this is why he was considered great, and not the fact that he built an altar there where Abraham, his grandfather, had, and worshiped the God of Abraham and Isaac, and who is there now looking at this poor, pathetic woman, but the very God that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all worshiped. He has come, friends, to bless her with the blessings of Abraham. I think that's important. I think that that's key for understanding this text above everything else. He has come to show her that he is, in fact, greater. She asks, are you greater than our father Jacob? And what's the answer? She says, I don't think so. And Jesus is saying, uh-huh, I am greater. I am greater, and you're gonna see why I'm greater. Listen to verses 13 and 14. Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. Jacob is great, the well is great. He drank from it, his sons drank from it as well as his cattle. It's been around for all of these years. It's been around for all of these centuries. If it was good enough for them, it is good enough for me. I have all that I need. Thank you very much. What Jacob had left them, this well I maintain, while a sustained physical life was never intended to be anything other than a means to an end, a way to keep the household, to make a living, to wash, to do those things which are necessary. Necessary, of course, in God's providence. But they are, while necessary, they are not ultimate things. And I think this is the crux of this passage, is that this woman is looking at that well and she's thinking of her heritage, and she's saying, I've got it really good, and I have no need of anything else. And Jesus lovingly shows up, resting at that well, asking for water, drawing her into this conversation, and pointing out to her that you're offended that I'm asking you for a cup of water. You should be asking me for something, and I can give you something so much greater. She doesn't yet understand to whom she's speaking, and she will. Well, next week when we get into this, she will see it abundantly. I'm convinced this is why Jacob built the altar. He should be remembered for the altar, not for the well. The well's good. It's still around to this day. But you, Samaritan woman, should be remembering Jacob, your father, for the altar he built, and not for this. You mustn't, friends, place ultimate priorities upon things that are finite and that are limited in importance. And we all do it. Careers, homes, human relationships, stuff, closets full of stuff. And we end up thinking that true life is found in these things. And we get them. And then we are left wanting, dissatisfied. And then we continue to look, a new job, a new home, a new husband. How many has she had? Five. And the one you're with isn't even your husband. I don't need anything. I have no problems. Everyone in town seems to know that you have problems but you. You keep looking for more and more and more. You're never satisfied. And you will never be satisfied. 10, 11, 12 husbands, what's it going to take? Another car, another house, another job, another spouse. What are you going to take? What does it take to finally satisfy your soul? You see, she's drinking of the world. drinking of things that are finite, that are limited, and that can never bring about true satisfaction, because my friends, you were designed to have that relationship with the Lord. And that is why Jesus Christ came. And that is why people are lost in drugs and alcohol and all of these things, because they never quite scratch where we itch, because they can't. I'm not saying that there aren't job changes to be made, and there aren't legitimate reasons to get rid of that ugly jacket that you bought in 1970, but simply that people are looking to have their deepest and ultimate needs met in very superficial ways. And this world cannot and will never be able to satisfy what your soul needs, what you were designed for. Thus Jesus answered. To her question, are you greater than Jacob? What does he say to her? Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. It's a good will. And you can keep coming back to it for the rest of your life. And it'll satisfy you temporarily. But you'll end up needing more. The things people. Things and people and movements of this world will never satisfy what you ultimately need. They leave you thirsty, wanting more, leave you dissatisfied, and going back for more and more, leaving you restless and unsettled. You know, it's a really interesting thing. You'll hear of these people who are going through sex changes. I'm a 13 year old girl, and I want to become a boy and so I will undergo the knife and Parents and doctors are all applauding look at this individual isn't she? Enlightened isn't she awakened woke and then they turn 22 and they say why didn't anyone tell me this was dumb and I've mutilated my body and some of the sweetest testimonies are of people I've heard who have de-transitioned, who have gone from being a girl to a boy back to a girl, and they say things like, I found my life and my purpose when I found Jesus Christ. They're looking for something to satisfy them. And the world keeps saying, drink this, drink this. This will help you. This will satisfy you. And you know what they're saying? It doesn't work. It doesn't satisfy. And meanwhile, we rush after all of these things. And all the while, Jesus Christ says, if you only knew who was sitting here asking you for a cup of water, you would have asked me. and I would have given you living waters. I would do this for you because I love the sinner. I love the sinner. Jesus offers something more and only he can. He says in verse 14, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. I believe Jacob understood this. Jesus certainly teaches this. Jesus Christ brings that which ultimately satisfies a grace that is greater than our sins. He brings between us and our God a peace. He removes the fear of condemnation. He makes us, as we read in Galatians 4, sons of God. and gives to us a hope that will never be snatched away that results in eternal life. That's what Jesus Christ offers, friends. And Jesus had to pass through Samaria. He had to in order to reach this woman that she too might have life in that eternity. And that same Jesus offers to us today that life, that same living water that will never come to an end, that will sustain us until the day we reach heaven's shores. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, again for your passage, for this word, and we pray that we would learn this lesson as we read and study and open up this passage of this woman, this dear woman, who had no idea how lost she truly was until Jesus found her and led her to where she might find life. We thank you for this for many reasons. One, because Lord, you are the God who loves sinners. And you came to seek and to save the lost. And two, because Lord, we know that in you there is nothing better. Lord, please grant that we should learn these lessons not to look for our satisfaction in the things of this world around us, but that we would be satisfied in Jesus himself. We thank you, Lord, again for your love. We pray all of this now in Jesus' name. Amen.