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I want to thank you, Pastor Henderson, for this invitation to come and share with you. I’m a little disappointed though because by now I shared in the earlier session that I didn’t bring my Legos. I thought they would have a few blocks for me to play with up here, but I guess not. I’ll have to sneak over there and grab a couple of ‘em.

 

And then—he was talking about earlier—when he had the elders and deacons come up so that you could pray over them, he said that there will be a couple more that you would be selecting. I thought since I was here this morning I would be an elder or deacon by now. But I guess around here things take time!

 

But we do thank the Lord for this opportunity to come and to share with you. As it reads in the bulletin, we’ll be in John chapter 4; if you would turn to John chapter 4. I’m going to ask if you would stand with me as we just share a few selected Scriptures and then we’ll see what God has to say: John chapter 4. And again, it’s always a pleasure to have my wife and kids with me. We actually saved a seat up here for Jeremiah, but he didn’t come this time. Last time he came up front, so I guess you all scared him a little bit last time; so he decided to stay in the back.

 

John, the gospel of John, chapter 4 beginning with verse 3:

 

And he [speaking about Jesus] 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 to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being worried with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, “Give me to drink.”

 

Verse 27: And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, “What seekest thou?” or, “Why talkest thou with her?” The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, “Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”

 

Our Father in God, we thank you Lord for Your precious word—your word which is alive and sharper than any two-edged sword—which pierces our hearts, which convicts us, which draws us, which drives us. We thank You that Your word is Your living entity and it indwells those who accept Christ as Lord and Savior, and it gives us eternal life. Thank you, Father, for Your word which is so precious that You said even heaven and earth should pass away but not one jot or tittle of Your word. In Jesus’ name. And all God’s people said, “Amen!” Amen.

 

You may be seated.

 

We titled this message Waiting—Waiting At The Well: a familiar text of Scripture. Many of you have heard it before. And you know that Jesus after he left Jerusalem because if you read the end of chapter 3 it says that they heard—Jesus heard—that the Pharisees and Sagicees and others were being told that Jesus was now baptizing more people than John and so he did not want to cause a commotion. So, he told his disciples, “We are on our way to Galilee, but before we go to Galilee, I am compelled to stop in Samaria.”

 

I’ve been to Israel a coupla’ years ago [and I’m goin’ to try not to come too far out because I heard the thing will squeal on me, but at least that way somebody will talk to me!]. So, if you’re familiar with Israel. If you’ve ever been to a black Baptist church, they talk to you. There’s a conversation that goes on. [Comment from congregation] There you go! All right! All right! Who raised their hand? Next, I want you to run up and down the aisle! That makes me feel at home. You show me a little hospitality. Since they didn’t have my chair up here, you’d have to do some running.

 

But in Israel you have three main sections: Judea which is at the southern portion and Samaria which is in the mid-section and then at the top you have Galilee. Now, the Jews instead of going from Judea to Galilee did not want to go through Samaria. For you see, the Samaritans were this race of people that were half-breeds. You may recall back in 722 when the Assyrians captured the northern kingdom, they took most of the Jews and they transported them and they brought people there. And the ones who were in luck began to intermarry and so this was a half-breed; they were hated. This was a group of people that would rather cross the Jordan River—go miles out of their way—just to avoid going through their area.

 

If you remember, last time that I was here I shared with you that I was from Chicago. [Whew! Comment from congregant.]We have one Chicagoan here. Somebody has some culture! No, no: just kidding, just kidding. And so they would cross the river just to avoid going through Samaria and I was talkin’ about being raised in Robert Taylor Homes—a set of projects which the majority of those who had nothing would be living in and those who were the “haves” they would avoid driving through that area even though it was the middle section of town and the quickest way to get to downtown was to go through Robert Taylor Homes. Instead of going through Robert Taylor Homes, they built expressways so you can either go around or go over it, but not through. Why? Because no one wanted to go through Robert Taylor Homes.

 

But thank God that Jesus is intentional. Jesus had a need to go through Samaria. For you see, he had an appointment at the well. The appointment at the well was with those who would come and draw water. It was usually an older woman who would go to the well. And mostly it was unmarried women. And on this particular evening not only was there an unmarried woman that came, but as we would find out later in the story, she had five husbands. So Jesus had an appointment with her although she didn’t know it. But Jesus was intentional; he sought her. But Jesus came to seek and to save them which are lost. Jesus knew his purpose and he knew why he was here. He intentionally went to the well. Not only did he seek her out, but he sent his disciples away. For you see, if you’re going to engage others in conversation—especially those who don’t look like you or who don’t talk like you or who don’t act like you—you have to get rid of excess baggage because if you don’t, that may be a hindrance: that may stop you from interacting with someone else. And so get rid of that excess baggage. And it means different things to different people.

 

Those of you who live in this town who may be affiliated with Purdue University, you may encounter some who don’t go to Purdue—who grew up on the other side of the tracks. And yet we sometimes, if we went to Purdue and if we grew up in that environment, we will not associate with those who are on the other side of the tracks because we see ourselves as better than them. But Jesus did not respect person. He came to seek and to save anyone who would hear his message of love because everyone who has been created has been created by God. And God loves them and Jesus died on the cross for them. So Jesus wanted to communicate to his disciples that these Samaritan peoples that they considered their enemies were important enough to love—important enough to meet one-on-one. And so he met her at the well. He sent his disciples away, so he was intentional. Not only was he intentional, but he was inspirational.

 

He inspired her to converse with him. They had something in common. For you see, this well was a well that Jacob had purchased for his son. It was a well that the community would come to. So it was a place where you could come and have conversation, and Jesus was there and he wanted to inspire her to engage in conversation with him. He had already eliminated the excess baggage. Now, he wanted to carry on with his mission; he wanted to minister to her. He inspired her with his question by just asking for some water. He met her at a point of common ground: something that they both could identify with—small talk, if you will. And then once she began engaging in the small talk, he began to penetrate and he began to get to the heart of the issue. It was something more that what he wanted. He wanted to actually give her something that she needed. He wanted to give her eternal life. If you knew who it was that was asking for a drink, you would ask me for a drink and I would give you living water. It inspired her to try to find out how she could receive this water. “You don’t even have a bucket to pour the water out of the well with. But where can I get this water, so that I don’t have to come back here again?”

 

Jesus was willing to give it to her but one of the things he wanted to do is he wanted to, first of all, unmask who she was. “You’re more than just a woman coming here to the well to draw water. In fact, why don’t you go tell your husband so that whatever I share with you I can share with him?” She said, “I have no husband.” “Indeed, you’re right. You have no husband. In fact, you have five husbands and the one that you’re with now is not your husband.” She perceived that he was a prophet because he was beginning to unveil and unravel her entire life before her. And he told her that he was the Christ: he was the Messiah, the one that they were hopin’ would come. Not only did he inspire her with his words, but he inspired her to go back and tell others about what he had shared with her.

 

That leads me to another point. We have to sometimes attend training sessions before we’re ready to go out. Being as we don’t know what we really know. Whatever Scripture God used to bring you to the Savior, you can use that same Scripture to share with someone else. And so you don’t have to wait until you take lesson upon lesson or study Scripture upon Scripture. Just take the few Scriptures that you’ve learned and share that with someone else. Tell them how God reached you where you are. Tell them how He exposed your sin: how you recognized that you were a wretch undone and that you needed a Savior and you realized that God paid the penalty for your sins through Jesus Christ, His son.

 

‘Cause when the disciples came back and they were inquisitive as to why he would be speakin’ with this woman and what they were talking about, they dared not ask him. But it was an opportunity for Jesus to instruct them. They began to ask him a question about eating and he said, “I have food you know not of.” They were curious about that because the twelve of them went into the city to buy food for thirteen and now they’ve brought food back; he’s already eaten. What’s wrong with this guy? Where did he get this food from? But he told them that, “My food is to do the will of the Father who sent me.”

 

Aren’t you glad that we have people that will do the Father’s will? Just like Jesus was intentional in meeting this woman at the well, we have tremendous examples of people in Scripture: people like Joseph who intentionally shared what God had revealed to him—so much, in fact, that God made him second in command and he saved a whole generation of people from starvation. Joseph was willing to be intentional about what God had given him and sharing that with others. Men like Daniel who was willing even though he was a fugitive, even though he was a slave and he was taken away from his homeland as a young lad and placed in Babylon willing to not defile God by eating food that was unclean, but to honor God and still serve Nebuchadnezzar.

 

Have you been put in a place where you’re told to serve those who you don’t want to serve? Some of you may be social workers where you’re called to go into some places where others won’t go. What was shared earlier is that I worked with a group of students in Indianapolis; these are low income students. And so typically these students would not go on to school. Statistics tell us that unless there’s intervention, less than ten percent of the population that I work with would go on to college. Most of ‘em believe that they can’t go on to college because of finances. Most of ‘em believe that they can’t go to college because they’re not smart enough because their parents haven’t gone. But guess what? When you look at the tests, they have the ability, they have the aptitude. What they need is somebody to challenge them to do the right thing, challenge them to take the right classes because if not, they’ll take the easy way out.

 

Don’t you and I do the same thing? If it’s doing the tough job or doing something simple, we’d rather take the easy way out. But God doesn’t always ask us to take the easy way out. He tells us to take the mountain. But He tells us that He will be with us all the way. He will never leave nor forsake you. And so God is calling you to take that mountain just like when Joshua and Caleb before they spied the Promised Land, they came back and they gave a good report and the other ten spies gave a bad report and so the children of Israel didn’t go into the Promised Land. When those had died off in the wilderness and they finally were about to go into the Promised Land, Caleb said, “Give me that mountain because with God on my side, I’m able to capture that mountain. I’m able to subdue the people that are there. Even though I’m eighty-something years old, I don’t want to rest on my laurels. I will go in and I will take that mountain.”

 

God is challenging each of you; He’s challenging each of us to go into places where we dare not go because He is with us and He’s commanded us to reach the utmost parts of the world. Jesus was demonstrating the mere fact that he started in Jerusalem and now he was in Samaria sharing the gospel and he would go to the utmost parts of the world through his apostles, through his disciples.

 

Not only do we have examples from the Old Testament of being intentional, but in the New Testament a familiar story most of us have read—a short story: the story of Philemon. I love the story about that. That’s another message that I did. Maybe he’ll invite me back again sometime! But Onesimus was told by Paul to go back to Philemon. I can see and hear Onesimus right now: “O, Paul, you don’t know what I’ve done. Don’t send me back. It’s going to be terrible for me if I go back.” Paul says, “No. You’ve got to go back, but I’m not sending you back alone. I’m going with you—not physically, but this letter. And whatever you owe Philemon, I’ll pay it. Are you willing to pay the price for someone else to get to where they need to be because you know that God has good and great things in store for us ‘cause every good and perfect gift comes from above and God has the best intentions for each of us because He wants to save us to make us a part of His family, to be in relationship with Him—relationship we once had before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden?”

 

God has that kind of relationship and He wants it for us.

 

So Jesus was intentional. Jesus was inspirational and he was also invitational. He was inspiring her and giving her an invitation to receive this eternal life: the eternal life that he wants for each of us, every one of us. He said, “I would that they all might be saved.” But he’s a gentleman. He won’t force himself upon us. But even as she was being sent back to share with others, even as she inspired them to come see if Jesus was indeed the Messiah, Jesus was instructing his disciples as he told them to look at the harvest. It’s ripe for harvesting.

 

Jesus has a harvest out there and many of you know that when the harvest is ripe, you have a short period of time to gather all the harvest into the barn. Otherwise it dies. If the harvest is ripe and there are few laborers, Jesus is asking the question just as he asked those disciples: “Do you truly see the harvest?” because there were the Samaritans on their way to see Jesus. Jesus wanted to give them the water that was springing up unto eternal life. That was the message that he was communicating with his apostles: that he wanted them not only to hear but to see. They were watching his example how he interacted with them. And not only did they believe first of all because of the woman’s testimony, but many more believed because of Jesus’ testimony. He wanted them to see that a woman who had spent a few minutes with the master had the ability to carry the gospel message to others. And so she will be rewarded in the kingdom for her witness.

 

Will you receive a reward for your witness like she did?

 

These apostles as they watched, they learned a valuable lesson—a lesson that they would take on later on: God is teaching us through His word by the examples that He shows us, by the demonstration that He performed in front of ‘em. So He was invitational. But then He was also willing to be interrupted. They asked Him, “Would you stay with us a little while longer. Would you continue to minister to our hearts, share with us what we need to do now as we begin to worship God in spirit and in truth?”

 

God is asking us not only should we take the message of love to those who need to hear it, those who are on the other side of the tracks, those who don’t look like us. First you begin in your own household and then you carry it to the utmost parts of the world. But then are you willing to disciple someone? Are you willing to take them up under your wing? Are you willing to share what God has given you with them? Because everything that God gives you is not for you. God gives each of us gifts and talents and those gifts or talents are for the body of Christ and so anyone who accepts Christ as Lord and Savior no matter whether they look like us or they look different than us, each of us is created in the image of God and God loves us and He wants us to share that which we have with others.

 

That sharing may be your time. It may be your talent. It may be your treasure. I don’t know, but you know because God will reveal to your heart what it is He wants you to share. You then must either accept or reject that. But Jesus was willing to share everything he had. Not only was he willing to share, but he taught the disciples that I am doing the will and the work of my Father. That’s the food that God gives us to feed our spiritual souls. What is the will of God in your life? Because the will of God will lead to the work of God. That which you are challenged to do ought to be based on the will of God in your life. And one thing that we know for sure is God told each and every one of us to make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you.

 

That is God’s word. Jesus was willing to engage a woman at the well. He was willing to encourage her with the Word. He also exposed her sin. But he was also willing to eliminate any baggage and he encouraged her to receive eternal life. And he also educated his disciples.

 

Will you hear God’s message and carry it to those who don’t look like you, those who God is sending you to?

 

Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, Our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion and power both now and forever.

 

And all God’s people said, “Amen!”