Take your Bible and go to the book of John chapter number four, John chapter number four. And thank you for that. And brother Mark, thank you for being here. I appreciate what you said about, and you didn't have to do that. I think, thank you for those kind comments. The older I get, the harder sometimes it is to get some of them notes. But anyway, John chapter number four, you're gonna know, if you've been in church any length of time at all, you're gonna know somebody that preached out of John chapter four. But I'm gonna go a little different direction than what you might be thinking, and this is our Building Fund Sunday, and I know what time it is. We had a little extra stuff going on today, and that's totally fine. And there's nothing wrong with that. We don't put a time limit on the Lord. And so John chapter number four, but I am respectful of the time and I know that. John chapter number four, I think I started. Now my screen is broke. We got to get that fixed. And I think we figured out what it was. And people that watch on the internet, see, I have the verses, same thing like that. And a guy told Dalton at work says, man, is he quoting that off the top of his head? Does he know the whole Bible? You know, I'm just standing here quoting it off screen. It looks like I'm quoting it, you know. Anyway, I thought, I don't know why I shared that with you, but anyway. Verse number three, are you there? He left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. Now Jacob's whale was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied of his journey, sat thus on the whale, and it was about the sixth hour, it's 12 noon, the sixth hour, Jewish time is 12 noon, the hottest part of the day, and Jesus, now this ain't the sermon, but I'm gonna work up a sermon on this, when Jesus, Jesus is the whale, and he was sitting on the whale. So the sermon's gonna be when the whale sat on the whale. Anyway, that's another sermon. Verse 7, there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said unto her, give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me the drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Woman said unto her, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep, from hence then hast thou that living water. Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, this morning for allowing us to be here. I thank you for my good friend, Brother Mark Lanier, being here with us to celebrate this day with us. And thank you for what they're telling me, over 90 people is in here today, and thank you for that. Lord, I just pray that you'd help us for the next few minutes. Lord, I know what you give me the thought, but Lord, now you're gonna have to help me get it out. and get it into the people and help me to explain it. And I just pray, Lord, that be the case. In Jesus' name, we pray, and all of God's people said, amen. Now, most time when people go to John chapter four, they talk about the woman at the well getting saved and Jesus giving her living water, and that's a good sermon. And we might mention it here and there, yonder, but here's something I want to draw your attention to. This woman at the well, Jesus says, I must need to go through Samaria. So he already knows he's fixing to meet this woman at the well. This woman, she's got a big past, a horrible past, a terrible past. And it goes on into that, she's been married five times and the guy she's living with now ain't her husband, it's just a mess. And so, and all the other town, they don't go draw water at the hottest part of the day, but this woman's going at the hottest part of the day, cause she won't be around nobody else for the, you know, all the people talking about her. So she goes at the hottest part of the day and draws her water and Jesus knows exactly where your address is. And here he comes, and he's headed over there, and he says, he just sets himself down on that well, just props himself down on that well, and here she comes, and she comes over here, she's drawing, she says, ma'am, can you give me some water? And she says, sir, you ain't got anything to draw with. And he's fixing to give her living water, and this is what this woman says. This woman says, this well is Jacob's well. This whale has been passed down from generation to generation to generation. This is Jacob's whale. Did you realize I did some research on Jacob's whale? And if you, they say they know where it's at. I don't know if they know where it's at or not. I don't have a clue. But I did do some research and they said that thing's about six feet wide, 100 feet deep. What they said, Jacob's well, still over there today in the city of Samaria, right outside the city of Samaria, and you could go 100 feet down him, and that water, and they got a bucket, and it's about six feet wide. And I got to thinking, Brother Larry, I got to thinking, that well got there somehow. 2,000 years ago from John 4, it'd be 4,000 years from today. But 2,000 years ago from where this woman meets Jesus, 2,000 years before, Jacob, in Genesis chapter number, oh, about 26 or so, he sees all of these shepherds coming around, and they're tired, and they're thirsty, and they don't have a place to sit down, and they don't have a place to get them a drink, and Jacob says, you know what, we need a well around here. We need a well around here for people to drink from. We need a well around here to where people can rest from their day's journey and just sit down a minute and get them a drink. I wanna compare Jacob's well to Christ Church Baptist Fellowship. Because there was a day when somebody looked out here in Millsville and says, man, we need a well out there. I'm not getting the help that I'm wanting right here. Brother Tommy, we need a well out there to where people can come and just rest a minute and get them a drink when they're thirsty. Maybe on Sunday mornings, they just wanna pull up on the parking lot and just rest a minute. And just so happened, Jesus might pass by this way and meet somebody here. And Jacob said, you know what? This area needs a whale. No doubt. Jacob says, well, I'm going to have to, we're going to have to have some, I found this out. Jacob's whale is a solid rock. Now today they have those rails. I mean, you go a hundred feet deep, but you know, just like that, you know, and it'd be done. 4,000 years ago now, Jacob's well on solid rock. I think the Bible says something about don't build your house on the sand, build your house on the solid rock. So if you're gonna build a church out here in Millsfield, if you're gonna build a well, it's best to put it on the solid rock foundation. but now it's gonna take some, you don't have a drill. You don't have the big equipment 4,000 years ago. You don't have that, so it's gonna take a shovel. It's gonna take a pick. It's gonna take an ax. It's gonna take a hammer. It's gonna take a lot of buckets. It's gonna take a lot of sweat. It's gonna take a lot of work. It's gonna take a lot of people pulling together, working together. to get a whale duck. And I'm telling you, out here in Millsfield, I remember, let's see, there was a building, said there was another building. Matter of fact, if you've ever paid attention, when you come into, if you look right up over the door, when you come in, up it says Bryant's Chapel, and people's like, what in the world? This is Christ Church? What's Bryant's Chapel? Bryant's Chapel used to be a church that sat here before the tornado came through in 2006. Tornado came through in 2006, it wiped this, the building that was sitting here, and they had to have church over there in the gymnasium. And I got a call, and I had a call, and there was just a handful of people, just a few people. And they said, Brother Jeremy, could you help us? Could you help us? I said, well, I'll try. They said, we need a whale out here. I said, we got a bunch all over town. And they said, well, some of them ain't got water in them. We need something out here that's got water in it. I said, all right, I'll try. That's where the whole 10 o'clock service come from. And so we started. Our first Sunday, right over there, Brother Mark, right over there, had eight people showed up. You talking about, and eight people. And son, I preached like it was 5,000 in that gymnasium over there. And we started digging. We started hauling rock. And you know what? It took some sweat. It took some work. It took some people with some gumption. It took some people working together. And some of those people are dead and gone now. But boy, if they could see. If they could see what God has been doing. Now, let me give you the introduction really quick. This is the introduction really quick. Let me just give it to you real quick. Now, when they first started, Jacob put it in the paper. He put it on Facebook and Twitter. We're going to build a well out here. And everybody's like, Jacob, I wanna help you. I heard you was gonna put a whale out here. I wanna be a part of it. Boy, I wanna be a, give me a shovel. Give me an ax. Give me a whatever. Give me a bucket. I'll be out there. And boy, it started out with delightful, delightful thoughts. Boy, we gonna have a whale out here in the middle of Millsfield. We're gonna have it. And I'm telling you 100 feet, 100 feet deep. They got about 25 feet deep down there and those delightful thoughts turned into defeated thoughts. You'll start hearing mumbling and complaining. Well, I don't know whose idea it was to put a well out here and have to dig through all this rock. I don't know whose idea, it's too much work. There's whales on every street corner in Dyer County. Like I said, some of them, they drive. It reminds me of a revival I preached one time. It was dry. Boy, I'm talking about dinner and four o'clock in the morning in that church. Son, I pulled every joke I had. I did everything I knew to do and they just sitting there. I'm talking about, it looked like they just left and left pictures of their self sitting in the seat. And a guy, he was about on second row or so, and the guy had a heart attack. Well, they called the ambulance. And the ambulance people, they took out 15 people before they found the right guy that had a heart attack. That was dead, I'm telling you. But those delightful thoughts turned into defeated thoughts, and then from those defeated thoughts, it started getting disgruntled thoughts. Somebody got my hammer. I've had that hammer ever since we started. Somebody's got my shovel. If you don't stop throwing dirt on me, am I preaching good? It started out real delightful, and then it gets disgruntled real quick, cause the devil knows how to get us. Cause he don't want a well out here. He don't want anything with water out here. And so boy, he'll get out there and man, he'll turn those things into disgruntled. And then it turns into discouraged thoughts. People get discouraged. People, they get discouraged. They get down and they get out. But this is the funniest thing, funniest thing. I don't know if I get to preach all this or not, but it's the funniest thing. People can get discouraged. And I just preach here, I just can't come, I'm discouraged. But they go to Walmart discouraged. They go out to eat discouraged. They go to the mall discouraged. They go to Walmart, people will run up on you and take your parking spot. I've had people not speak to me at Walmart. The door greeter wouldn't even shake my hand. Boy, we preaching good now, ain't we? Discouraged thoughts. But then they get down there about 75 feet, and boy, they're really discouraged, and all of a sudden, they keep working, and faithful members, and they keep plugging at it, and they keep working hard, and just stay faithful to the work of God. And all of a sudden, they're down there about, remember, they don't know where the water is, but they're still going, and they're 99 feet, and they're 99 feet and 10 inches, and boy, they hit one more, and it sounded like a hollow sound. And boy, he hit it again. And boy, sheep started hitting it again and shoveling some more. And all of a sudden, a little water started coming out. It just started getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And then it got up on the ankles and it got up on the knees. And then you heard one of them holler 100 feet up, there's water in the well. There's water in the well. I'm just here to tell you this morning at Millsfield, there's water in the well. It may take, I don't know what it'll take, but I'm here to tell you, I can promise you this. I remember when Johnny came and got saved by God's marvelous grace. Somebody just hollered, it's water in the well. It's water in the well. Somebody got a drink. I remember when others got saved. Oh, Ava Kate, I think she was the last one got saved, I think, over there in Children's Church. Got a drink of water from the well that's out here. And I'm just here to tell you folks, it's worth investing in something that'll last. It's important to invest in something so important that somebody can just come by, just come by and just rest. How many of y'all tired all week long, and you just need to sit down at the well, and you just need to get you a cool drink of water? Couple of them songs that Brother Mark was singing, boy, I was like, boy, that's good. Woo, I needed that. I needed that little thirst quencher. And then just by chance, Jesus just might show up and set out at the well beside you. That has happened around here a few times. Now let me give you, that was all introduction, let me give you the sermon real quick. Sermons real quick. There's gonna be dry times. There's gonna be winter times. There's gonna be dead times. But I'm telling you what, keep on digging, keep on working. There's water in the well, there's water in the well. Now, let me give you this. Jacob invested in a place where Jesus came by. Jacob invested 2,000 years before the Samaritan woman. 2,000 years! Jacob never knew that Jesus was gonna come by and set out on his whale. He didn't know. He just did what God told him to do. He put a whale there. 2,000 years later, Jesus just come by We put a well out here and I'm telling you, it's worth when Jesus, listen, I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for a church where God ain't welcome, where he can't come in and sit down and fellowship with his people. I want a place, I want a place, I preached in all of them, but I want a place where I can feel God's presence and he's welcome to come in and sit down at the well. Jacob invested in a place. You think if you were to ask Jacob, if you were gonna ask Jacob right now, Jacob, was it worth it? Was it worth it going 100 feet down, six feet wide? Was it worth it? He says, yeah, if Jesus comes by, it's worth it. If Jesus comes by, it's worth it. Number two, I told you these points go real fast. Jacob invested in a place where Jesus come by, but Jacob invested in a place where thirst was quenched. This woman at the well over there, what was it, verse 13? Over here, verse 13, it said, Jesus answered, said unto her, whosoever drinketh this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh the water that I shall give him shall never thirst again. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. But then, watch this. Boy, this is an extra point. I just got this one, hallelujah. Listen, just come to me, I'm gonna add this in there. Jesus sitting on the well. Woman come over here. Jesus said, I need something to drink. She said, you ain't got nothing to draw with. You can't get no water here. You didn't bring nothing to draw nothing out with. Let me ask y'all something. Did y'all come to church this morning, did y'all bring a bucket? Did y'all bring something to get a little water out? You ain't got nothing to draw with. Did you bring something to get some water out of the well? You can't get a drink. Water's way down there. You can't get a drink unless you brought something. Haven't you ever heard this? You'll get out of the service what you put in. Now, every church, every service is a little different. Sometimes we're swinging off the chandeliers, hallelujah. And sometimes, you know, it's like one of them old sermons last week, boy, you just, you know, punching people in the face. And hallelujah, I love that. But anyway. And every service is different. But it takes somebody that'll get down in there and just give them a little drink of water. Jacob invested in a place where the thirst was quenched. Now let me give you this, Jacob invested in the place where the gospel was preached. You say, preacher, that ain't in the Bible. I didn't see the gospel. Well, Jesus is the gospel, ain't he? He is the good news. So he was being preached that day. Jacob invested in a well where Jesus was gonna preach the gospel to this dear lady. Aren't you glad? We got a place out here. Now, listen. Now, listen, folks. I, you know, I understand. When you dig in a well and it takes all kinds, sometimes people go out and say, I didn't like what Brother Jeremy said. I didn't like what he posted. I know he just put verses on there. He didn't say nothing else. He just put what God said on there, but I still didn't like it. I just put on there what God said. Oh, I still didn't like it. You brought the Bible in on it. I'm glad I can go to a place to where they're not afraid to share the gospel. They're not afraid to preach the truth. Amen. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That after thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believing thine heart that God has raised him to death, thou shalt be. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be. The gospel is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to a place, I'm investing in a well where they preach the gospel. Now let me say this. Jacob invested in a place where sinners' lives were transformed. Jacob invested in a place where sinners' lives was transformed. What if Jacob, what if Jacob would have never dug that well? He said, Lord, I know you want a well out here, but I just don't, let somebody younger do it. I ain't gonna do it. I'm too old, I ain't put no well out here. Boy. 2,000 years ago. How many people got a drink of water? How many people wouldn't have been able to get a drink of water? If that well wouldn't have been there. Now I'm rushing through. I shouldn't, but. Let me say this, two more things, let me say this. The whale was out there and it brought God and mankind together. He said, now we come to church, you know, we come to church, look here, I come, yes, I come to church, but I come here to meet with God. I want God and mankind to come together. When I pull up on these grounds, I want God and mankind to meet together. and lives will be transformed. But not only that, I'm gonna build you up a little bit, but not only that, it brings God and man together, but it also brings man and man together. Some of the best friends I got, I meet them at the well every week. Some of the best friends I got, I meet at the well. It brings mankind together. Now, here's something you'll notice. Here's something you'll notice. Now, this is extra. This won't cost you anymore, but it's a little extra. When we first started, you can tell a lot about a church. I've been doing this a long time. I'm not that old, but I have been doing it a long time. And I know a little bit about church. I don't know nothing about changing the oil, but I know a whole lot about church. Know everything, but I know some about it. And you can tell a whole lot about a church when you say the last amen. If they hang around and talk, they don't want to leave the well, they might still be getting a drink. And there's some, now look, I know some people, they got other places to go and they gotta hurry and get out, and I ain't talking about y'all. I ain't even talking about y'all, I'm talking about other churches. But when they say the last thing, you gotta get out of here. Fast as you can. I done got all the drink I want, I gotta get out of here. And some people, I know some people, I got it, they gotta go other places, I got it. I ain't talking about that. But now around here, used to, when we first had eight people, man, when you said the last amen, within 45 seconds to a minute, you could be cutting all the lights off. You'd be in your car, headed to Grecian. Now, it ain't like it, man. Y'all stay around. I start flicking the lights. I'm like, would y'all go home? I start flicking the lights. I say, hey, church is over. Y'all know church is over. Why? People like hanging around where they can get a drink. Why? Because man and man come together. They get to come together and see people they ain't seen all week. They get to visit. Say, why don't you have a fellowship meal about once a week so we can hang around the well a little bit. Because not only does it bring God and man together, it brings man and men together. We fellowship. Now, let me think. Oh, last point, here we go. Jacob invested in a place where there was great benefits. Now, I'm close. Sammy's coming to the piano. People love it when I say that. When I say, Sammy's coming to the piano, it's like... They start shutting their Bible. They put their jacket on. They're like, you know, I'm getting ready to get out of here. Got to get out of the well, you know. This is in the white part, between the lines in the white part, between the verses. But I wonder, this Samaritan woman got to heaven. She run up on a fella, she said, hey mister, is your name Jacob? He said, yes ma'am, my name's Jacob. She said, Jacob, I just want to say thank you. for putting a whale out there where you did. It wouldn't have been for you digging that whale, I might not have ever met Jesus. What about when we get to heaven? I don't know. I don't know. I bet you this might happen. I told you it's just sort of in the middle there. But I bet you would get up there and people say, hey, did you used to go to Christ Church Babies Fellowship out there in Millsfield out in the country? I said, yeah. Was you a member there? Yeah. You know, I was sitting there one time. I came to visit one time. I didn't come down. I was just a visitor. But when the preacher said, bow your head and ask Jesus Christ to come in your heart, I bowed my head and asked Jesus Christ to come in my heart and save me. I sure am glad for that church. Missionaries, Mike. Some of them missionaries we support. And what was it? Where's them boys going? I know they went to Africa, Nigeria, somewhere else. wonder. We get to heaven. Some of them missionaries, people got saved over like we ain't never met before. We get to heaven. They say, hey, I appreciate you supporting the missionaries, investing in the missionaries. If you wouldn't, I might not have ever met Jesus. Here's a sermon. Investing in something that's gonna last. Invest in something where Jesus comes by. Invest in something where people can meet the Lord. Out here in Millsville, I know we have people come from all over and they're just not from this area. But you've been around work all week, people talking any kind of way. You can't help it, you gotta work with them. And sometimes on Sunday you just want, man, Charlie, I'm tired. Man, I need this service. I need some good music. I need a little drink. I need that little drink just to quench my thirst. Help me get through another day. I'm glad we got a place like that. heads bowed, eyes closed, if you don't know the Lord like we do, I invite you to come get a drink. Jesus just might be passing by your way. Those of you that do go to church here and all the time, whether you remember or not, don't make any difference whether you claim this is your church. I ask you to pray right there in the seat. God, pray for this church right now. God, I lift this church up to you right now. Lord, I want a place where my kids can grow up and they might one day walk that aisle and kneel down at the well and walk out with living water. Thank you, thank you. Let's all stand out of the building. I appreciate your patience today. Just a few minutes, Sammy's gonna play a minute if you need to come to the altar for any reason.