November 4, 2018 - Pastor Carter Conlon - It All Began With a Thirsty Woman

this morning I want to talk to you about his spiritual awakening that came to a community that nobody would have expected it to come to came to a people that nobody would expect would be even hungry for the things of God and it came through a person that nobody would expect God would ever use for his kingdom and for His purposes and titled my messages it all began with a thirsty woman it all began with a thirsty one in John chapter 4 please if you'll turn there if you're thirsty today for the things of God you have no idea what God can accomplish through your life Father thank you for the touch of heaven in your evident presence here today Lord I ask you for the grace to speak for you today and that you would speak through me this word that you've placed upon my heart which I know has come from you and I'm asking you God with everything in me Lord give me the quickening of your Holy Spirit to be able to speak this and all God let it find its mark in every heart every mind Lord push away the Jericho walls that would want to keep us apart from this truth these great truths Lord that I found in every chapter of your word thank you for the ability to hear today for the ability to respond and to believe we thank you with all of our heart in Jesus name Amen it all began with a thirsty woman John chapter 4 therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples he left Judea and departed again into Galilee but he needed to go through Samaria so he came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph now Jacob's Well was there Jesus therefore being wearied from his journey sat thus by the well it was about the sixth hour a woman of Samaria came to draw water jesus said to her give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food 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 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 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 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 jesus answered and said to her whoever drinks of this water will thirst again 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 the woman said to him Sir give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw now the majority of this chapter John chapter 4 right up to verse 42 now speaks to us seemingly of two distinct but yet interconnected in inseparably interconnected things firstly now there are seasons where God is speaking to a people in a way that we are most likely not aware of did you know that this morning that God might be speaking to people in this society that you would never dream that he is speaking to them John chapter four verse eight said the disciples had gone into the city to buy food they were preoccupied with the needs of the day they were preoccupied with provision and food and that just the general concerns as you and I can become concerned with the things of the hour in which we're living in and right at that moment Jesus is undertaking something that they have no knowledge of whatsoever we think that were the only ones that can speak to our generation might I remind you that God is well able to speak to anybody that he chooses to speak to and secondly when we get near two-thirds of the way through the chapter he speaks to us as his church of a source of strength available to us if we want to consider it verse 32 he said to them his disciples when they came back they said master please have something to eat he said I have food to eat of which you do not know in other words I have a source of strength that you are not a partaker of yet you don't understand where this strength comes from how perplexing that must have been to those who spent their whole day finding food to bring it back and he says no I'm not hungry I have a source of food that you have no access to yet not yet but you will in the future now the whole scene in this chapter begins in a journey to a place where there lived two people whom the religious Jews considered unworthy of salvation they were a people who the Jews considered a culture of impurity and mixture and in their opinion if these people worshiped at all it was in the wrong place now they had been conquered at one point in their history and the conquering nation had brought in people of other cultures and other nations that's the way they hope to keep their stranglehold on nations that they conquered and so the people of that part of Israel had become intermarried and intermixed with people of other nations and so the the the Jew who considered his lineage pure as it is considered these a mixed people who worshiped in the wrong place in chapter 4 and verse 20 the woman who spoke with Jesus said our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship now everybody knows somebody like that in their life even today somebody that is mixed they have a form in your opinion of godliness of some sort everybody in our society today has a hope for the future they are striving in the best way they know how to for the for the concept of family for the concept of blessing some even have some marginal knowledge of God mixed in the midst of it and the Jews felt that those who were mixed like this even if they had a form of worship it was it was so in the wrong place the division had become so bitter that they wouldn't speak to each other does that sound familiar or is that just a historical thing there were two different cultures in the same geographical boundary and they were so juxtaposed one to another that they had ceased to speak with each other that ceased even traveled through each other's territory it thought was a phenomenal thing for Jesus who was a Jew to stop in the midst of this place of mixture called Samaria to sit on a well and to start speaking with a Samaritan woman she was confused by that because her whole life experience was that you religious people you don't speak to us you don't consider us worth speaking to you consider us mixed and immoral and impure and you consider our even our quest for God to be so deficient that you don't even bother speaking with us and so she was rather perplexed that this seemingly good man sitting on the wall starts to engage her in a conversation now the history of these people in Samaria included a well now this world no doubt represented a promise that the blessing of God was or would one day be theirs as well as for others in John chapter 4 verses 5 to 7 it describes it as a plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph and Jacob had a well there and by this woman's testimony Jacob himself had drank from that well it was upon this well that this woman of Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her give me a drink it reminds me of when Christ was on the cross and he called out and he said I thirst it's amazing there's a thirst in the heart of God for every man for every woman for every child created in his every descendent of Adam that was lost because of that sin that got into the hearts of humanity is a thirst in the heart of God for you if you're not walking with right with the Lord today if you consider yourself outside of the place of the true blessing of God I want you to know something there's a thirst in his heart for you it wasn't physical water yes he was asking for a drink of water but the thirst was deeper than that you're gonna see that in this story he had come to do the Father's will and he says clearly in other portions of Scripture that is not the Father's will that any should be lost he had come to reclaim that which was had been taken captive because of sin now this particular well if you go with me to Genesis 49 I want you to turn there because I want you to see this in Genesis chapter 49 that's the first book in your Bible if you're new to the Lord today now this well was given to Joseph now remember Joseph he was separated from his brethren he was betrayed he was sold off and I think these people felt that way I think that they felt like we were betrayed it wasn't our fault we were taken into captivity and we were brought into this foreign place and as Joseph was we found ourselves intermingled with people of another nation just as Joseph was and they would say but but Joseph at the end of Jacob's days who was the father of Israel he gave Joseph a double blessing a double portion and he gave him a piece of land in the promised land and there was a well there that was established by him and there was a promise of God that they would have felt that came with this well now listen to this this promise in chapter 49 of Genesis beginning at verse 22 Joseph is a fruitful bough a fruitful bough by a well his branches run over the wall no soul there's a promise like the promise of God these people coming to this well everyday would be would know this promise even if it was passed on by oral tradition they would know this promise that this is a son and this land this well that God is going to bless us one day it's the promise of God even though we find ourselves mixed and in a place where the religious of our day says that these people are not worthy of even consideration and they tell us that our worship is all wrong and our focus is wrong and somehow we're not pure but there's a promise to us you see that that promise is resident in every heart no matter what they're pursuing no matter how they're looking for love in this world or where they are there's the promise that God plants in the heart that I'll come to you you may not listen to me but I'll come to you and there's a promise of blessing and a promise of life that's in every human heart it says in verse 23 of Genesis 49 The Archers have bitterly grieved him and shot had him and hated him how they would identify with this scripture but his bow remained in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong and by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob for there is the shepherd of the stone of Israel and by the God of your father who will help you and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lies beneath think of the well think of people coming every day remember she said the well is deep and they may have even considered that that was part of the promised blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lies beneath blessings of the breasts and of the woman other words blessings of family blessings of a future the blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors in other words Jacob said to Joseph I'm giving you a blessing that's bigger than any blessing anybody has ever passed down to me I'm telling you God is going to bless you up to the utmost bound to the everlasting Hills they shall be on the head of Joseph in other words no matter how far you are sold off or how far you get away you can't out run the blessing I'm going to send to you and on the crown of the head of him who was separated from his brothers now when I read this when I first read this I said God Almighty it has to be that the people of Samaria would have identified with this because they were shot at they were separated they were in their own mind betrayed they were put away from their brothers they were considered mixed and not worthy and yet there's this promise of blessing this promise of family this promise of life this promise of hope and so I see this woman coming out of the city every day knowing this promise that's only conjecture on my part but I think I'm unfairly safe ground and saying this no if she knew the history and she was a seeker of God because her first question when she perceived that Christ was a prophet by her testimony her first question was about worship where is the right place to worship our fathers said we worship here and you Jews say that we worship in Jerusalem so where's she was obviously concerned because day after day after day she's coming to this well she's dropping her bucket down she probably knows the promise that from this deep place this place of blessing you're going to have children you're going to have family and everyday she's coming out and by her own admission a little later on in the story she's given up on marriage there's no doubt about that she's given up on family she's had five husbands and finally decided not to marry again so now she's living with the sixth guy and I can just see her every day coming to this where is your promise you said you were going to bless me here at this Wow so one more time I come to the well and this one days he comes out to the well with this and this thirst is still in her heart and guess who is sitting there on that well remember the promise was there's a blessing coming your way Joseph that is deeper than anything my forefathers have ever given to me I'm passing on to you and here is the son of God sitting on the well the first person really that he fully tells I am the Christ tells her straight out it's a mystery to the religious he speaks to them in parables he never fully up to this point identifies himself but to this thirsty woman this thirsty woman is just looking for a place to worship and saying is there a blessing that God has from my life he tells her straight out I am the Christ I am the Messiah I am the one that God has sent to be the blessing for your life and for those in this world and he tells her whoever drinks of the water that you're drawing from this well will thirst again but I've come I've got water for you that if you will receive it you will never thirst again it will become water inside of you that will spring up into a well of everlasting life and the woman says to him Sir give me this water that I may not thirst no come here to draw you know that tells me she knows she knows that she needs physical water to survive she knows that but she's talking about something deeper because her questions are spiritual questions or questions I'm convinced are about the blessing of God that's supposed to be in this place for this group of people now he says to her go bring your husband here and she says well I have no husband and Jesus said you said well I have no husband you've had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband in that you spoke truly and the woman said sir I perceive you're a prophet our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place were one up to worship Jesus said to her woman believe me the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the father you worship you do not know what for we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and the truth for the father is seeking such to worship Him God is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth in other words you have to deal with the truth about where you are that's where it all begins a lot of people want the blessing of God but they're not willing to deal with the truth of where they presently are what they are presently doing in her case she was she had I think given up on the concept of family she was bound by tradition coming every day to this same place to draw from the same water hoping for a different result it's like the person today who comes to church week after week after week after week somehow hoping that you're going to hit the spiritual jackpot this Sunday and it's going to transform your life but you have no real desire to deal with the reality of where you are of what you're doing of how you're living what kind of relationships you're in if you're going to know the blessing of God if you're going to know the blessing of God there are certain things you have to get up and walk away from and things you have to get up and walk towards that's how you start on the road to the blessing of God this woman was tired of repetitive human effort and looking to the depths of this world to satisfy something in her heart that only God could satisfy they're going into this deep well that goes down deep into the earth and and there's somehow a promise connectedness to this thing but all of her human effort and all of her trying to obey the rules maybe in the early years of her life had come too nothing and she was finding nothing that could satisfy her at this spiritual wealth this is what prompted her to say give me this water give me this I hope that's in your heart today O God give me this water give me this promise of satisfying my soul in such a way that I won't have I won't have to look to the things of this world to tradition or effort or anything like that for satisfaction again O God give me that which was satisfied this thirst in my soul she firstly had to deal with truth about where she was but secondarily to worship God in spirit and in truth you have to also deal with the truth about where God promises to take you you can't stop him by unbelief you must in your heart say God I will leave I will leave trying to find happiness in my own effort and with my own resources and by my own strength and God I choose to believe that you will take me where I need to go you will give me the strength to become everything that you're telling me that I will be and you will take me there by the power of the Holy Spirit I will read the truth in your word and by the power of your spirit you will make me and take me and give me all that I need to become the person you have tested me to be I will worship you in spirit and in truth I will no longer call evil good I will no longer call good evil I will deal honestly with you God what you say is sin is sin I will not try to justify it anymore but I'm going to go where you call me to go and I'm going to become what you called me to become and I'm gonna do everything you called me to do by the grace of Almighty God and when I come back to church on Sunday I'm going to lift my hands and by the Spirit of Almighty God I'm going to open my mouth and say lord only you could have done this only you could have made me a nuclear only you could have given me this power now the scripture says in verse chapter 4 verse 28 the woman left her waterpot went her way into the city and said to the men come see a man who told me all the things that I ever did could this be the Christ so they went out of the city and came to him now it's not like the Jews have never pointed their finger at the Samaritans and told them what they had done right they they would have been very quick over the course of time to say you compromised you intermixed with other people of other nations you worship in the wrong place they would have been very quick to point out all the flaws all the failings the fact that they felt these people lived outside of a place of the blessing of God but there was something different about this encounter and here's what I feel that she's telling the men of the city this man a Jewish man a prophet as she felt he was or potentially even the Christ the Messiah who would tell us how to worship God he told me everything I've ever done but without condemnation he told me everything I've ever done but with such a love and an offer of hope for the future he didn't condemn me like others do come and see this man he knows everything I've ever done yet I still feel so loved in his presence and he still offers me eternal life he offers me a Walter that he says will satisfy my thirst come see this man and see was the most unlikely evangelist in her generation see the men of the city that I can just see the word starting to get around it's going all over the place and everybody starts gathering and they head out the gates of the city and start heading to Jacob's Well this place of the promised blessing that was supposed to come to them now the disciples came back from buying food a type of the church I guess in our time have been very concerned with about our daily our prayers give us this day our daily bread and just so concerned about ourselves so concerned about our futures our health our finances it's just very very self-focused and they come back out of the city to him now all this has been going on they're completely oblivious to what he's been doing although they're his disciples they're actually the people closest to him at this point in the world and they have no idea what's going on and now they urged him and say rabbi eat but he said to them I have food to eat which you do not know then the disciples turned and talked to each other did you give him food did you give him food did you give him food did you leave him food what food has he got has anyone brought him did anybody bring you something to eat while we were gone then jesus said to them my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work now here's where it gets interesting 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 on the fields for they're already white to harvest this is incredible he says you are you are constantly talking about this day of harvest but you're putting it way into the future you're always saying all there's going to be this turning to God one day the course the scripture promised it that people are going to come from the north they're going to come from the southeast the West the kingdom of God is going to advance and the harvest is coming the harvest and we hear it in our generation don't we the harvest is coming the harvest is coming but we we put it away it couldn't be today not possible you see because we haven't had time to get together and form our committees and strategize about how we're going to do this we've been busy buying food you see and Jesus says lift up your eyes and I think at that moment as the disciples they've all been looking in their bag for food and wondering who's been feeding him and did somebody come here with bread when we were gone there all these questions suddenly they they look up and there's a dust cloud in the horizon heading their way with a multitude of people coming towards them lift up your eyes he said the harvest is already why and he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life that both he who sews and he who reaps may rejoice together for this saying true one sows and another reaps now here's what gets interesting he said I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored others have labored and you have entered into their labors in other words the people are coming your way I've been speaking to them and now I'm asking you to reap what I have sown for those who can hear it today the city is coming your way the city is coming people you never expected ever to be interested in the things of God people you wrote off especially in these volatile times we're now living in you wrote them off as they're in the enemy's camp they're so mixed if they have any concept of god it's so adulterated now that they deserve to be cast away suddenly you lift up your eyes and they're asking you for a reason for the hope that is in you they're asking you what it is you believe and you stand there and say where did these thoughts come from while we were busy you see God has been speaking to them people are tired people are tired in this generation of the evil speech people are tired of the lies people are tired of the propensity to violence people are tired of the division people are tired of the destruction of home and family people are tired of confused children people are tired of opiate addiction in our cities people are tired and while they're tired God's been speaking to them God's been speaking to their hearts about something he's been speaking about life he's been speaking about living water he's been speaking about something that he alone is able to give he's been speaking to them about their sin speaking them about the practices in their lives that I've kept them distant from the incredible blessing that he wants to give to them and don't be surprised when they something to get up and start heading your way don't put the hardness far down the road folks the harvest is here Jesus said lift up your eyes lift up your eyes the fields are already white to harvest that people are already under conviction the people are already tired the people are under the voice of the least likely evangelist in the world just a woman that was hungry was spiritually hungry and heard something from the Son of God and went to those in her community that you couldn't reach and started talking to them about the words that have been spoken to her heart and suddenly they get up and start heading towards those that are the closest to him and he said you see I'm sending you to reap some something that you haven't labored for somebody else did the work and I'm just sending you now to enter into their Labor's in other words you can bring it home you can you can bring it to completion there is a hunger now there's a hunger it doesn't seem like it all there's a few radicals at the top I guess that try to convince us this is the way we are this is the way we're going but the rank and file population are not like that people just want like like this woman they just want life they want to raise a family they want peace they want to live in a safe neighborhood they they want a blessing on their home what makes you think they're any different than you are they want these things and there's that there's this hunger and say well where is worship if we serve God's there any point to it how do we find life and even though the Church of the time is not there Jesus is that's what I love about this story he is there and he is speaking when we won't or can't or don't he is speaking all the mercy of God the grace of God is so far from us it's so much bigger than we are and he's reaching out to this modern-day church and saying I'm speaking will you enter into this labor with me and if you do you will find a source of stress I have food that means I have us I have a strengthening that you're not a partaker of yet you'll find that source of strength that only comes when we're doing the will of the Father which is the saving of the loss which is reaching out to the addicted the afflicted the marginalized the hopeless we're reaching out the arrogant we're reaching out to those who think money will satisfy them we're reaching out to those who lust for power we're reaching out to all people surprisingly finding a hunger in their hearts in 2001 I was invited to speak at a gathering of about a hundred top executives in Canada and America gathered together most of these people are almost at the top of the ladder I was supposed to speak to them about the needs of orphans in Africa but something started stirring in my heart and I got up and I said you're all business people and if you want to write a check to this organization you know how to do this so I don't have to tell you how to do it you're all financial people I said but I want to talk to you today about a debt that you owe that you can never repay and as I begin to speak for the next 25 or so minutes as I began to speak tears started flowing in that room people were at the second third rung from the top and many of these big corporations and I remember I made a statement I said if some of you are so afraid that if you make it to the top rung and life is not any better than it is now that there's no reason to keep on living and I remember the tears began because God was speaking right to the people's hearts you would never think that that room had any spiritual hunger you would think that these people have everything this world has got to offer whatever well they were going to every day had left them thirsty thirsty for a meaning in life thirsty for a reason to live thirsty for truth that lasts thirsty for something that satisfies so don't write anybody off there's a thirst in our generation may God help us may God help you may God help me to understand that for those that are thirsty and you're tired and you want a living in a real relationship with God that can be yours today it can be yours admit who you are without God and let the let his word start to give you life the entrance of the words of God the scripture says bring gives light and gives life so open your heart and let him begin to speak to you about where he wants to take you don't play games with God don't think that you can live any way you want and somehow still have the blessings of heaven know deal with truth the father's seek such to worship Him in spirit and in truth it's by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can put away the old things it's by the power of the Holy Spirit that all things become new this is the promise of God and for those like you and me who know Christ who walk in proximity to him maybe for a season we've been preoccupied with ourselves but if you want the strength that God promises it's time to get involved in his work that's where your strength will be that's where your provision will be it's reaching out and believing that as you speak to other people that and offer them what Christ has offered you and you consider no person unworthy to speak to nobody too far nobody too distant don't just look for people of your own persuasion there's a hunger no it's a hunger this might be one of the finest moments in the history of this nation I don't know for sure I don't know how deep it will go but I know that people are coming it's the father I thank you with all my heart for the truth of your word I thank you Lord that you are speaking to this generation if we can hear it I thank you lord sometimes it's so hard to believe that the city could be hungry for you how perplexed your disciples must have been when they lifted their eyes and saw this crowd heading towards Jacob's Well how stunned they must have been to see that there was a genuine spiritual hunger for truth Oh God would you open our hearts would you open our doors to people who are going to come in that don't know our ways but Lord you are speaking to them and you are drawing them to your house and to your heart would you give us the grace to embrace your work in a new way and father we thank you for it God with all my heart I praise You Lord Jesus Christ for the miracle of salvation in this house today in Jesus name if you're hungry thirsty for God if you're tired we're gonna stand in a minute please just get out of your seat and make your way down here he promises living water that's for you it's not for somebody else is for you promises life promises Hope promises blessing promises family this is the promise of God it promises to give you his Holy Spirit and to give you the strength to become the person that God has destined you to be not the person you've tried to be in your own strength promises to give you fulfillment you'll never find in anything of this world you will not find it in one ounce of religious tradition you will only find it in a living relationship with God and if that's in your heart today say oh god I'm just so tired I'm just so thirsty I'm just so sick a living for myself I you're giving me this promise that I'm I'm here to take it today I'm here for it God I want life I want life I want the life that you promised I want to be taken out of darkness and brought into light thank God he's bringing strong men down here today thank God thank God thank God [Applause] and if you've been reluctant to be involved in the work of God and are wondering where's my strength going to come from this is where it's going to come from reaching out to people that you never thought would ever be interested in the things of God and becoming that body of believers that says God you're speaking so I'm going to join you I'm going to I'm going to become part of your work in this generation and you can bring the people to me because I will speak to them thank you lord thank you lord just pray this simple prayer with me open your heart to God just open your heart to God and I'm gonna ask you just to repeat after me but make it your own prayer Lord Jesus Christ thank you for meeting me here today and you know everything about me you know the wrong things that I've done and I'm sorry for them but you don't condemn me you love me and you promise me forgiveness and you speak to me about new life you said you would give me a life that would spring up from inside of me like living water so I opened my heart to you Jesus and I invite you into my life as my God my Lord and the one who saves me God helped me now to believe your words to me help me Lord to let you lead me into the future to become the person that you desire me to be thank you Lord for not turning me away in my struggles my failure but giving me hope for the future Oh God I'm so thankful this day helped me now and give me a voice to tell my friends and to tell my family about who you are and what you have done for me you are the son of God you died for me you paid the price for all of the wrong I've done and you were raised from the grave as proof to me that I too will be raised up with a new life an everlasting life a wonderful life a god breathed life Lord through these things I am eternally grateful help me to not turn back but to keep going forward drinking of the word of God believing that your Holy Spirit will give me the strength to become the person that you've always longed for me to be this is the first day of a brand new life in Jesus name Amen Pauline it is the first day of a brand-new life it is the first day of a brand-new life it is the first day of a brand-new life praise be to God praise be to God praise be to God praise be to God praise be to God bless your Holy Name hallelujah hallelujah you will never be the same again you will never be the same again you will never be the same again you're a child of God hallelujah to the lamb of God glory to the name of Jesus glory glory glory glory glory to the name of Jesus praise be to God praise be to God praise be to God hallelujah to the lamb of God thank you lord thank you God thank you God thank you God thank you lord [Applause] thank you Jesus you will never be the same again you will never be the same again the Spirit of God has come to you the Spirit of God living water hope that God alone is able to give thanks be to God thanks be to God thanks be to God thanks be to God hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you lord thank you lord thank you

Channel: Times Square Church

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Keywords: Pastor Carter Conlon, Sermon, Times Square Church

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Length: 42min 25sec (2545 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 07 2018