WWUTT 823 Living Water?

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Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

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That same invitation is given to us when we understand the text. You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online

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Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the Gospel of John, chapter four this week,

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Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. I'll begin reading in verse seven through verse 15.

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A woman from 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.

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The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans?

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Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

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The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.

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Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

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Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again.

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The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

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The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come up here to draw water.

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The location where this woman was going to draw water from Jacob's well was not right next to the town, and that might be what you have pictured in your mind.

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There's the town of Sychar, you just kind of walk to the edge of town and there's the well and you draw water from the well.

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No, it was probably a half mile or more away from the town. So you're walking up the hill to draw water out of the well and then walking all the way back down into the city.

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So that's the location of this particular well, and we still know to this day where that well is located, as a matter of fact.

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In the Old Testament, it was a town referred to as Shechem. Today, it is the modern day city of Nablus.

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About a quarter of a million people live in that city, just 30 miles to the north of Jerusalem.

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And as you would probably expect, it is a major tourist location since that's the very site where Jesus had visited with the

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Samaritan woman there at the well. There's also a traditional location for the bones of Joseph.

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Joseph, Jacob's son, who was buried in that particular region. If you'll remember back to the previous paragraph, it says that they had to pass through Samaria, so they came to a town of Samaria called

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Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Now we read about this in Genesis chapter 48, verses 21 and 22, and this is right after, or I'm sorry, right before Jacob was about to die.

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And he is blessing his sons, and he blesses Joseph's sons as well.

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And at the conclusion of that chapter, Israel, who was Jacob, said to Joseph, behold,

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I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.

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Moreover, I have given to you, rather than to your brothers, one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the

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Amorites with my sword and with my bow. And this is that very location, or at least the well was very, very close to there.

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In Joshua chapter 24, verse 32, we read about how the bones of Joseph were carried out of Egypt and into the promised land and buried in that very place where Jacob prophesied to Joseph they would be buried.

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As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamer, the father of Shechem, for 100 pieces of money.

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It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. So it's kind of neat to see some of these things from the

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Old Testament fulfilled in these exact locations is where Jacob, or I'm sorry,

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Jesus would be having this conversation with this woman at the well and reveal himself to be the

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Messiah. And this woman even asks Jesus this question, are you greater than our father,

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Jacob? Now she was asking it very sarcastically, but the answer to that question is yes.

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Jesus is indeed greater than your father, Jacob. And Jesus was actually descended from Jacob, whereas this woman probably was not.

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So once again, in verse seven, a woman from Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

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Now remember that this was taking place in the sixth hour, which would have been about noon.

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And typically when someone came to the well to draw water, they came early in the morning or later in the day so that they could avoid the heat of the sun.

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But here she is at almost the hottest part of the day coming and drawing water. Now, why is that?

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Because she was a woman of ill repute. Typically it was the women who came to the well to draw water, but she had a reputation among women, especially considering that she's had five previous husbands and the guy she's with now is not her husband.

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She's trading sex for lodging. Now, the Samaritans were not as virtuous of people as the

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Jews were, but even by Samaritan standards, this woman is considered to be somebody that women just don't generally associate with.

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They would try to avoid. So she's coming in a very hot part of the day in order to draw water from this well.

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And this is the woman whom Jesus is going to share the gospel with, even though she's a

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Samaritan woman and even like the lowest of the low among Samaritans, when you consider that the

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Samaritans were thought of as unclean by the Jews. And that's in this statement that John makes here about Samaritans.

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The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, this is verse nine, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

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Now that phrase in particular, have no dealings with Samaritans, means that the

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Jews thought of the Samaritans as unclean. Remember, I mentioned this, it was either Monday or Tuesday, but they were a group of people that were made up of a lot of different nationalities.

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They did not have a heritage that was descended from Abraham. And even the religion that they had was a corrupt religion.

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They had only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus numbers, and Deuteronomy, but they did not have the prophets.

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And then there was a hodgepodge of other religious practices that were kind of mixed in with the things that the

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Samaritans believed. So all of this together is why the Jews thought of the Samaritans as being unclean.

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And here Jesus is asking this woman for a drink, a woman who was even considered to be immoral by Samaritan standards, not to mention that she was a

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Samaritan whom the Jews thought were unclean and Jesus is asking her for a drink from her water jar.

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Like he's saying, I will drink from your jar. And that request has stunned this woman.

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How is it that you, a Jew, are willing to drink from my jar, a woman of Samaria?

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For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. They were unclean. They were not gonna eat with them. They were not gonna drink with them.

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Remember that the Pharisees had this law that they made up that you had to wash your hands before you ate anything.

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And if you did not wash your hands and you touched food, it was the same as if you violated any of the dietary laws.

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Well, you take that mentality and you apply it to this association with a

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Samaritan. And of course, the Pharisees would have discouraged any Jews from associating with Samaritans.

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It would have been the same as violating any of the dietary laws. So what is Jesus' response to her?

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Verse 10, Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

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Now he's speaking in the third person here, but of course he's making reference to himself. He's saying to the woman, if you knew who it was who was asking you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

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Now, later on in John chapter seven, verses 37 through 39, we read, on the last day of the feast, the great day

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Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

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Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

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Now this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive for as yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

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And we don't read about the Holy Spirit being poured out until Acts chapter two.

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That of course is after Jesus had ascended into heaven to his father. Now, the statement that Jesus makes here, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

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And he says, as the scripture said, there's not any place in the Old Testament that is worded exactly like that, but there are certainly themes like that throughout the

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Old Testament, talking about living water. I mentioned some of that when we were going through John three,

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Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. You have the references in Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37, where God says,

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I will sprinkle clean water on you and I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses. So there's one of those areas in the

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Old Testament where we have a reference to being cleansed by water. And then you also have a reference in Isaiah 58, 11, the

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Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong.

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And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

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One of my favorite passages is in Proverbs chapter four, verse 23, which says, keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life.

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So again, we have this reference to living water, flowing water, all throughout the

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Old Testament. It's thematic. One of the most famous passages you would even recall in Psalm 23, the

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Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.

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He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

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He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Now you might say, well, of course that's metaphorical, just like a lamb is led to the quiet waters so that they may drink.

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So Jesus, my shepherd, leads me beside the still waters. But there's still that understanding that this water that Jesus gives never runs dry and it is constantly refreshing and it is living water.

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It's not just satisfying a temporary thirst, but it will satisfy our thirst forever.

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As Jesus even said here to this woman, where he says, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

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The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

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And as I haven't gotten to that verse yet exegetically, so I'm gonna come back to it again here in just a moment.

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Psalm 42, another Psalm where David says, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, oh

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God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall

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I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long, where is your

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God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts of songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

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Why are you cast down, oh my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my

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God. David praying there for relief for his thirsty soul and he knows that only

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God can satisfy the longing that is in his heart. In the final words that we have to the entire

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Bible in Revelation chapter 22, it says in verse 17, the spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come.

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Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

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This water is freely given to us by God through our Lord and savior,

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Jesus Christ. And when we drink from this living water and we have the Holy Spirit in our souls, we are completely satisfied, content and we need nothing else for we know with Psalm 23, the

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Psalmist again, in that Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

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There is nothing else that we need but God and we are fully satisfied in our savior and all of the hope and promises and grace and love and forgiveness and charity that he gives to us because he has died on the cross for our sins, he has taken the wrath of God upon himself and now what is left for us is nothing but blessing forevermore.

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That is our hope and peace. And it is this water that God has poured into our hearts by his

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Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ, our savior. Jesus says, if you knew who it was that was asking you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

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Now, as I said to you yesterday, this idea of living water is water that is constantly flowing, it's constantly moving, constantly refreshing, there is no lack, there is not ever a point where the water stops moving and if you've ever had a babbling brook going by your house, my grandmother used to have this stream that went behind her house and as kids, we went down there all the time and it was a wonderful, beautiful stream, had this very silky bottom sand and so we would take off our shoes and we would stand in that creek, it was wonderful,

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I loved that creek and it was always flowing, there was never a time that the water was not moving and so it was always crystal clear, it was always cool, it was always refreshing and that kind of moving water is what is referred to as living water, it is always giving and that's the reference that Jesus is making here.

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The water gives whereas Jacob's well that's right there, contrast it with Jacob's well, the water is stagnant, it's just there in the well, it's not moving, it's not going anywhere plus it's really deep and it's hard to get to, you have to drop your jar in there with a big rope on it and it goes all the way down to the bottom of this well and has to fill up, you have to take from the well but this living water is constantly giving and this is what

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Jesus gives to us freely when we ask of him, Lord fill me up and he will do it.

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The woman said to him though, after Jesus said this to her, the woman says, sir you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep, of course she's taking him literally, she thinks that he's actually offering her a water of some kind and she's observing there, he doesn't have any jar, he doesn't have anything to take water up from this well so how can he offer me a drink?

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That's kind of you but I think you're a little bit mad, you know, that might be the response that she has of this man.

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Why is he just sitting here all by himself and why is it that he's offering me a drink when he's got nothing with him?

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He just asked me for a drink, now suddenly he's offering me a drink. You have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep, where do you get that living water?

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It's not anywhere around here because we're just talking about water down here in the well, this flowing water that you're talking about certainly is not here, so what are you talking about?

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Are you greater than our father Jacob? And as I said a moment ago, the answer to that question is yes, he gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock.

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See, she actually has a lot of pride about this particular location and the Samaritans did because the

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Samaritans and the Jews were constantly battling back and forth with one another as to who had the better plot of land.

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And so there was kind of like a sports competition that was going on there. We're better because we have this and the

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Jews were saying, well, we're better because we have the city of David. Now, of course, this was much deeply, a deeper seeded resentment for one another than just a sports conflict, but anyway,

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I'm just trying to use a metaphor there. So she is boasting about the fact that they have this well and she's talking to a

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Jew. So she's like, hey, we've got Jacob's well here. There's kind of some chest thumping there.

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He gave us this well and he drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock. And Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

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The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

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And the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come up here to draw water.

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Now she's probably not being serious. She's probably not intrigued by what it is that Jesus has just said.

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Whether or not you recognize it, the Samaritan woman is arguing with Jesus. Every time he says something, she's got something to fire back at him.

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And he's speaking very kindly to her, but she is the one who is being combative. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about that next week.

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For there are ways in which she argues with Jesus that are pretty common arguments that we might even encounter today when it comes to trying to share the gospel with somebody else.

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And I'll talk about that and the way that Jesus handles it when we come back to this study in John 4.

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Let's conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you for seeing the emptiness that was in our hearts because of our sin and our rebellion against God, these empty wells that we had, and you have filled us up with living water, the living water of your

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Holy Spirit who dwells inside of us and who is growing us, constantly refreshing us, constantly we are being cleansed and made more like Christ, this activity that continues in our spirits and will go on until the day that Christ returns and we die and go to be with him in glory.

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And then we will reach the fully sanctified selves that we are to become, that the spirit is constantly working us into.

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And we thank you for this blessing and this work and may we be patient and humble to receive it, however painful it might be, whatever areas of our lives need to be ransacked, torn down, cleansed and made obedient unto you.

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We pray that you would expose those things so that we might be wholly in your sight, matured and shaped more into the image of Christ.

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You are a wonderful God and a loving father. And I pray that we would know, especially as we continue throughout this week, this holiday week with Thanksgiving, that we would be thankful to you for all that you have done.

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And we know that we don't need anything else because you've given all things to us in your son,

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Jesus Christ. Help us to continue to be refreshed day by day by the promises and the hope and the assurance given to us in your word.

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And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.