Jesus and the Immoral Woman | Sunday Message

A New Beginning presents a book from Pastor Greg Laurie, with help for those suffering loss, called Hope for Hurting Hearts. God has used this book over the years to touch many people. If you've lost a loved one, or if you know someone that's recently lost a loved one, it would be an excellent thing to get this book into their hands, because I really wrote it for them.

So we're offering you a copy of this book, Hope for Hurting Hearts, for your gift of any size. Available at Harvest.org. Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org. All right. Well, hey, we're going to jump into our time of Bible study now. If you want to turn in your Bibles to John chapter 4, we are continuing in our series, which we have titled Jesus and You. Jesus and You.

And my message title is Jesus and the Immoral Woman. Jesus and the Immoral Woman. One of the greatest passages in scripture. One of the greatest encounters that we see Jesus having.

Really so memorable, so iconic. And just the tact that Jesus had is something to really behold. But the first week was Jesus and the Doubter. It was good.

New take. I've never actually thought about John the Baptist as a doubter, but he did in that moment. It's a great message.

Go back and listen to it if you haven't heard it. And week number two was Jesus and Nicodemus, which we called Jesus and the Moral Man. And now week number three, we're looking at Jesus and the Immoral Woman. And I just love, you know, the way that Jesus, he meets every person where they're at. He meets them right where they're at.

He gives them exactly what they need. He never treated two people the same way. He talked to the influential and the wealthy. He talked to the sick and the poor. He talked to people that were the underbelly of society. He talked to people that were the most influential in the ancient world that you possibly could have. And he treated them very differently.

He always gave them the same message, but his tact, his approach was different for every person. And, you know, Jesus, he does the same thing 2,000 years later. If we went around this room and I asked each and every one of you, how did Jesus come to you?

How did Jesus meet your need? All of us would have a different story, right? Some of you were at rock bottom.

You're in a dark place. You were afraid. You were basically in a position where you had to call out to God.

You had nothing else that you could hold on to. And so you called out to him and he met you where you were. Some of you, you called out to God and you recognized after maybe a long time of loneliness or a long time of just feeling empty, and you just got sick and tired of being sick and tired, and you called out to God and he met you where you were at. I'm so thankful that God meets us right where we are and gives us exactly what we need when we need it.

Aren't you? That's such a beautiful thing. I've got to tell you my story. Jesus met me exactly where I was at. I was grieving. I was addicted. I was angry and I was fearful. In the immediate aftermath of my older brother Christopher going to heaven after a car accident, after colliding with a Caltrans vehicle, I was grief-stricken. I was devastated. I was addicted. I was using drugs and other things and I was in a really miserable place. I was angry because I wanted to hold somebody responsible for this and at the time I was looking at the driver of that Caltrans vehicle and we actually had an opportunity to pursue litigation if we wanted to, but we knew that wasn't going to bring my brother back.

And I was also fearful about the future, what that was going to look like. But I got to tell you is I gave those things to the Lord and not instantaneously, but over the course of time, the Lord met my grief with hope. He met my addiction with freedom. He met my anger and brought me to forgiveness. And He took my fear and He gave me peace. And I'm so thankful that He did that for me. And I know that He's done that for so many of you today as well. And if He hasn't, I want to tell you, if He's done it for me, He can do it for you.

That's for sure. And so, you know, as we talk about the process of sanctification, I mentioned that it happened over time. This wasn't something that just took place right in the moment. Yes, God gave me peace when I needed it. Yes, He led me to forgive and understand that and to understand the concept that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven, as we are taught in the Lord's Prayer.

That's something to behold for sure. But it became really clear that, you know, as time goes on, the Lord continues to clean us. It's the process of sanctification. He continues to wash us through His word and help us become more and more like Him. And I'm a long ways off still for sure. But I can tell you, I know that He has brought me to this place that I am at today. I know He's ministered to so many of you as well and brought you to the position that you are at today as well. And that reminds us of that famous saying, Jesus cleans His fish after He catches them.

Right? He cleans His fish after He catches them. Are any of you fishermen or fisherwomen you like to fish? Yeah, I like to fish too.

I'm not great at it. I'm not a real avid fisherman, but when the opportunity comes up, I'll definitely take you up on it. I have a friend, he attends our Riverside campus, and he was recently out fishing. He went on a fishing trip to Nova Scotia, and he caught a 700-pound bluefin tuna, rod and reel. I think he's a beast. He thought he was doing great until his friend reeled in a 1,007-pound bluefin tuna next to him.

Insane. I've got friends that are avid fishermen, that are spear fishermen. I was into spear fishing for a little while. That was a fun thing to do. I was never really, again, avid at it. You have to, like, really commit to it.

But I was stoked. The one time I went out on a boat trip, we were patty hopping. That's where you go and look for kelp patties out in the ocean, and usually fish like to be hanging out underneath them. And the only difference is, you don't just cast a line out, you jump in the water and look if the fish are there.

So it's kind of nice. You just look right under the hood. Nope, there's nothing here. You get back on the boat. We caught nothing all day. All day, we caught nothing. We were so bummed out. And finally, on one of the, like, eighth patties that we jumped in on, we saw color. So basically, we saw that there were some fish close by.

We saw a school, and that was enough to give us hope. So we did, like, three, four, five dives. Never saw another fish the rest of the time.

So we were so bummed out, hadn't caught anything. And then on, OK, we're going to take one more dive. Dove down, and there's one yellow tail, probably 50 feet away, swimming away from me. And I just prayed. I said, let me just have one shot at this fish.

Let me just pull the trigger on my stupid spear gun one time today. And sure enough, that fish swam in front of me and showed me his broadside. And I was able to shoot him in the face and get that fish. Poor fish. No, it killed it right away.

It basically stoned it, which was great. And that was a 25-pound yellow tail. So I was very proud of myself that I got that. But coming back to that imagery of cleaning the fish before we catch it, I didn't jump in with a fillet knife and a cutting board and start chasing that fish around, obviously, right? I had to catch it. I had to bring it in. We had to bleed it. And then we brought it in.

Then we filleted it and did all that. And I think a lot of people feel like this about their relationship with God. They're waiting to clean their lives up before they come to Him. I'll come to God when I get free from this addiction. I'll come to God once I've had my time partying. I'll come to God once I clean my life up.

Friend, no, that's not how it works. You come to God with your sin. You come to God with your problems, with your addictions, and you allow Him to change you from the inside out. Because otherwise it's moral conformity. Otherwise it's moral conformity and what you're really doing is like putting lipstick on a pig or putting nice clothes on a dead corpse. Really, Jesus doesn't want to make you a more moral person. He wants to make you a living person. He wants to take you from death to life, not from bad to good, but from dead to being alive.

Psalm 51 says the sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart, those things He will not reject. Ultimately, it's not outward conformity that God wants. He wants our heart. He wants our love.

He wants our dedication. And when you learn just how good He is, you can't help but be obedient because of your love for Him. When I meet someone who's living in a same-sex lifestyle or I meet someone who's sleeping around every weekend and fornicating with their girlfriend or with other partners or someone who's using drugs on a regular basis or is just pursuing a life of, you know, outside of God and trying to find money and possessions and status and fulfillment outside of a relationship with Him, I'll tell you what I don't do. I don't stop that person and say, hey, you need to stop sinning.

What you're doing is a sin against God. No, I try and engage them. After learning about the way that Jesus talked to people, I try and engage them.

I try and have a conversation with them, build a bridge to them, and I ultimately try and help them see what the end result of this lifestyle is going to be. Okay, great. So you, you know, like using drugs? Okay, so what happens? You're going to keep chasing that high. And then what happens the next week? Well, I'm going to get high again and then again and then again. Okay, and then what? And then you're going to be old and you're going to look back on your life and you're going to say, what was it all worth?

What was the point? And then you're going to die. And then what? Well, I don't know. I guess I'll just die then.

Okay, well, I've got a better solution for you, right? I try and engage them. I try and ask them what they're hoping to achieve, what they're getting out of it, what is it they're looking for in that relationship or that pursuit and what happens when they arrive at it. What happens when they finally get that high that they were trying to chase after? What happens when they finally get into that relationship that they're hoping to get into? Finding that perfect guy, finding that perfect girl, getting that career, not all of it's destructive behavior.

Some things are moral approaches or, you know, achievements and they're good, you know, in their right positioning. But this is ultimately a pursuit outside of God. It's going to be empty.

It's going to be empty and it's ultimately going to let you down. You see, everybody is looking for God in their own way. Everybody has a spiritual thirst.

Everybody has a spiritual appetite. The Bible tells us that we were created with eternity in our hearts. In a sense, we have a God-shaped hole inside of us that only He can fill. And so when we're looking to fill it with academia, education, fulfillment, status, you know, experience, whatever it might be, it leaves us emptier. It leaves us emptier than when we started off. Only a relationship with Christ is going to fulfill.

There is an emptiness that only God can fill inside us. So when we look at our text now in John 4, we're going to see Jesus give really the master class on how we as believers can draw someone out and reveal that spiritual thirst that they have just like He did with the Samaritan woman. So we're going to be reading together in John chapter 4 starting in verse 1. I'm reading from the New Living Translation if you want to follow along with us. You can also download the Harvest.Church app in the app store if you want to and you can do the fill in the blank notes. That's a great way to follow along. But John chapter 4 starting in verse 1.

Let's read together. Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard He was baptizing and making more disciples than John. Though Jesus Himself didn't baptize them, His disciples did. And so He left Judea and returned to Galilee and He had to go through Samaria on the way.

You might want to underline that. Verse 4. He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually He came to the Samaritan village of Sychar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well around noontime.

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, please give me a drink. That brings us to point number 1. Point number 1. Go where others won't. Go where others won't. When you're sharing your faith, you need to go where others won't. Again, look back at verse 4. It says Jesus had to go through Samaria on the way. Those four words we could so quickly pass over. He had to go.

We could pass over them so easily if we didn't know the context. If you've studied the Gospels, if you've studied the Bible, you will know that there was a deep rift between the Jewish people and the Samaritan people that went back around over 700 years from this time that Jesus is meeting with the Samaritan woman. Basically it all came down to the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom of Israel were ripped in two. Basically they split apart after King Solomon died. King, is it Jehoaz? No, I can't remember.

I blanked on his name. But he was the king, one of the kings and the kingdom was split in two and now you have the Samaritans in the north that were the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah in the south with the capital of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is where the temple was where everybody went and worshipped.

All the Jews made their pilgrimage to celebrating and remembering all the different religious festivals. And so there was a divide there because the Samaritans in the north ultimately began to intermarry with the Assyrians who had now conquered them and taken them into captivity out of the land and they were intermarrying with people that were not fellow Jews and with that marriage brought in the worship of false deities, false gods. They were worshipping Asherah, they were worshipping Moloch, they were worshipping Baal, the gods of old of the Canaanites, basically these false deities. And one of the wicked practices that they did was they would sacrifice their children.

They would pass their children through the fire. And so obviously this was absolutely appalling to anybody who truly followed God. And so this division began and over time it just got worse and worse and deeper and deeper and turned into this thing where now it was just a racial, cultural, religious divide. They believed that the Samaritans were heretics. They considered them to be half-breeds. Oh, you're only half-Jewish because you're mixed with a Gentile, a non-Jew. And so it was not healthy.

It was not good whatsoever. And so we see Jesus going and experiencing some of this pressure and some of this conflict in the conversation with the Samaritan woman as we'll see in a moment. But what does he do? He cuts right through it. Because Jesus went where others would not go.

He went across the bridge. He went out of his comfort zone to go and minister to them. I don't know about you, but I like to surround myself with people that are kind of like me. They're like the same hobbies as me. They think like me. They act like me. Right? It's really miserable.

No, just kidding. But that's human instinct. We want to be around our tribe. We want to be around people that are like us, people that worship like us. People that vote like us. People that support the Dodgers like that. And by the way, how about them Dodgers?

And don't get me wrong. It's so important that, especially as Christians, we have spiritual community. We have brothers and sisters in Christ that we can talk to and share our heart with and ask for prayer for. No question, we need that community. We need a strong spiritual community. It's a pillar of the Christian faith. But as my dad has said before, God has called us as Christians to infiltrate and not isolate.

To infiltrate and not isolate. Now Jesus had his 12 disciples. Very easily he could have just said, guys, I'm just going to pour into you and I'm going to disciple you. And then when you have families, you're going to disciple them. And as people come to you, you're going to disciple them and teach them the way of Jesus. Right?

Okay, that could be a way. But what Jesus actually did, he went to places like Samaria. Which was like going to enemy territory and preaching to them and ministering to them. And so we too are called to build bridges.

We're called to build bridges without compromising what we believe. That's right, you can go to that person who is living in sin and you don't have to, in order to build a bridge, say that their sin is okay. And God is okay with your sin. God's okay with that lifestyle just as long as you love him. That's not what Jesus did.

He presents us, we'll see in a moment, this woman with her sin, with her immorality, and still he builds a bridge and leads her to himself. I would challenge you as we're discussing this message to think who in your life are the Samaritans? Who are the Samaritans in your life? It could be the kids who sit at the other lunch table from you. It could be the guys or girls that work in a different department than you do. It could be that it's a group of moms that you don't get along with. It could be the person who lives across the street from you who has the other candidate signs in their yard saying, oh my gosh, I could never talk to them, they're so annoying, how could you vote for that person?

You hear it on both sides, no question. But don't miss the point here. Like Jesus, our goal is not to clean our fish before we catch them.

We want to go and clean up a person's lifestyle. No, no, you can't live that way. You can't vote that way. You can't think that way. You can't do this.

You can't do X, Y, Z. We need to lead them to Jesus. We need them to see their ultimate need is not a political one. It's not a cultural one. It's not whatever.

It's not a pharmaceutical one. It's a spiritual one. It's a spiritual thirst that they have. And we need to help identify that in their lives. And so we need to go where others won't.

We need to go where others won't. I heard the story about a guy who was coming out of a bar. He had had a few too many drinks and he was holding onto a street light for dear life.

You've seen this guy usually down at the Newport Pier or Huntington Pier holding on for dear life. You know, the world's spinning around him. And it appeared that he was looking for something on the ground.

And so somebody noticed this across the street and walked over to him. Sir, are you okay there? Do you need any help? Yeah, I lost my wallet. I can't find my wallet.

Oh, okay. Well, when's the last time you had it? Well, I was over at the bar over there and I came outside and somewhere along the way I dropped my wallet. Oh, so you didn't lose it here? No, I didn't lose it here, but there's no street light over there. I can't see over there.

So the joke is, you know it's always a good joke when you have to explain the punchline. The point is he was going where he was comfortable. He didn't want to go where it was dark because he couldn't see there. Well, that's not where his goal was.

That's not where his wallet likely was. He needed to go where it was dark and we too need to go where it's spiritually dark. We need to go where maybe we don't feel comfortable. We're out of our comfort zone. We need to infiltrate, not isolate. And so when you hear about that gay pride event that's going to be happening wherever, you might think, oh, we need to protest and all the companies. Okay, yeah, maybe, sure.

But did you ever think about actually going there and trying to have a conversation with someone? Maybe having a conversation with one of those people who are confused and tell them that Jesus loves them. And he can fill that void inside of their heart that no relationship, no sexual experience, no whatever can, no identity is going to be able to.

A relationship with Christ will. That spiritual thirst inside of them. How about that person again with all of those political banners in their yard, right? They're probably terrified at the idea that the opposing candidate could win. Oh, man, if so and so wins, it's all downhill from here, you know. Nation's going to hell in a handbasket, that's for sure.

That person's probably terrified. How about you go over to them and say, hey, you know, I just want to tell you, whatever candidate wins, I want you to know that God is on the throne. And the Bible tells us that the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord.

And you can have confidence in that. Build bridges. Ask Jesus to help you address that spiritual need. As we'll see, Jesus has supernatural insight and was able to reveal to this woman all the things that she had ever done. And ultimately, we need to ask the Lord, too, in a similar way. God, give me some insight here.

Give me a connection. Give me an edge, an angle that I can come at this conversation. The Lord loves all of mankind and he gave his son to die for them. Not just people that vote like you and think like you and look like you. It's all of mankind and all mankind needs Jesus. Let's look back now at verse 7. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, please give me a drink.

He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. Now the woman was surprised for Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans. And so she said to Jesus, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. What are you doing asking me for a drink? And Jesus replied, if only you knew the gift that God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water. But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket.

Zoom right over her head. And she said, and this well is very deep and where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?

Again, you see her bringing it back to this cultural divide. And Jesus replies to her again going for the heart. Anyone who drinks this water, speaking of the water in the well, will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. And the woman said in verse 15, please, sir, give me this water.

Then I'll never be thirsty and I won't have to come out here to get water again. That brings us to point number two. Offer only what matters.

Offer only what matters. Notice in verse 12 and also in verse 6 that they were at Jacob's well in a Samaritan village of Sychar. Now, I never noticed this, but the village of Sychar where Jacob's well was dug was the ancient city of Shechem located in Canaan, a.k.a. the Promised Land. And here it is now where God back then, over 2,000 years earlier, appeared to Abraham and told him, through you, all the nations of the world shall be blessed. At this exact location, God appeared to Abraham and said, through your seed, through your descendants, all the nations of the world will be blessed. Of course, God was speaking of the coming Messiah. And here he is 2,000 years later, the fulfillment of that prophecy, standing at that exact location God had promised to Abraham 2,000 years earlier, now speaking to this woman, the Samaritan woman, who is so far from God, this immoral lifestyle she had been living, and Jesus is meeting her spiritual need.

Just a great little insight there. But you can see right away the hostility rising up in the conversation. Did you pick up on that, saying the stuff about Jacob and are you better than him and all that? You can likely hear her escalating tone and reverting back to those arguments. You probably heard since she was a little girl sitting around with her family around the campfire and hearing them talk about how the Jews betrayed them and whatever else might have been happening. And she picked up on a lot of that stuff. She said, you know, you're a Jew.

I'm a Samaritan. Why are you talking to me? And then she said, do you think you're better than our ancestor Jacob?

I mean, that's an antagonistic thing to say, isn't it? But Jesus doesn't let this distract him from keeping on task. And he continues on in verse 16. He says, OK, I'll tell you what. Hey, why don't you go get your husband?

You want some of this living water? Go get your husband. Jesus told her. Well, I don't have a husband, the woman replied. And Jesus said, yeah, you're right.

You don't have a husband, for you have had five husbands and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now. Yeah, you spoke the truth. Sir, the woman said, I perceive you to be a prophet. Yeah, good insight there.

Round of applause for the Samaritan woman. Jesus is a prophet, completely called her out. I love that statement, though. You certainly spoke the truth, Jesus said. That's as though he's saying, yeah, you said a mouthful by saying you don't have a husband.

You've had five and the guy you're living with, shacking up with, isn't even your husband currently. But Jesus, he sees that this gal, she's not getting it. She is not getting it. He's throwing up all kinds of little hooks trying to get her to bite. And she just keeps going right past them. She is not getting it. The gift of God that he spoke of, the spiritual thirst, the living water, it seemed to just go right over her head every time. So Jesus confronts this woman with her immorality.

Holds up a mirror and he just goes for the jugular. Go and get your husband then. What?

What did you say? I don't have a husband. I have no husband. Yeah, that's right.

In fact, you've had five husbands and the guy you're living with right now isn't even your husband. That's the kind of person you are. For whatever reason, this woman was choosing to satisfy her spiritual thirst with something that only God could fill. We see this happen today.

People do it all the time, as we were talking about earlier. They try and satisfy that thirst with sex or drugs or relationships or status or education. She was choosing to fill this spiritual thirst, this emptiness inside of her with men, with relationships, for whatever reason.

And it's really no different today. We see the same thing happening. There is a pandemic in the world where fathers are leaving their families. They're leaving their wives.

They're leaving their children. Or they're getting a girl pregnant outside of wedlock and they're abandoning that responsibility. And as a result, many little boys and girls are growing up without their fathers. And I believe that is one of the primary reasons for so much chaos in our society, so many problems we face. Because when a young girl grows up without a father who supports her, who affirms her, who tells her she's beautiful, who is present and available to her, and she grows up, there's a hole there.

And that's maybe what happened with this Samaritan woman. So what happens? Some creep comes along and says, wow, you're hot, you're beautiful.

How you doing? And she just melts at this compliment and on this cycle continues. I want to tell you today that if you grew up without a father or you grew up with an absent one, or worse, you grew up with an abusive and neglectful father, know this, God can fill that void inside of your heart. God can fill that void. It's true. He loves you with a sacrificial love and peace. And you can't find anywhere else. None of those things are the answer, achievements and money and religion even, drugs, sex.

None of them are the answer. It's a relationship with Jesus Christ you are looking for and it will change you from the inside out. Jesus offered this immoral woman only what mattered. Only what mattered. He didn't talk about her morality. He didn't talk about her behavior or her dress. The fact that she was out at the well at 12 o'clock noon in the heat of the day tells you she wanted to avoid some uncomfortable conversations.

The women of the city would go out to the well early in the morning to get their water, not in the heat of the day. She was going out when she didn't want to be seen. She wanted to avoid those awkward conversations. And so Jesus, he doesn't address her morality. He addresses her spiritual thirst. He spoke of satisfying a need that can only be met by God. And so for us, when we engage with someone about God and we're trying to share our faith, don't bring politics into it.

They may want to. I've found that before. I've started to share my faith with someone and they immediately ask me, who did you vote for? And it's like, what does that have to do with anything? But you've got to walk that line. Don't bring politics into it. Don't bring your church drama into it.

Oh, I used to go to such and such church but they taught this and now I don't like that so I go to this church and now I'm just waiting for them to do something wrong so I can trash them too. Don't go down that road. Don't play that game. Don't bring your drama into it. Don't bring your politics into it. Keep it about Jesus.

Only what matters. I once was blind. Now I can see. I once was lost. Now I'm found. He did it for me.

He can do it for you too. So that's what our message is. Let's continue in verse 20. And so we read the words of the Samaritan woman after this exchange. I perceive you to be a prophet, she says to Jesus. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim where our ancestors worshipped? And Jesus replied, believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or on Jerusalem. The fact is, you Samaritans know very little about the ones you worship while we Jews know all about Him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming.

Indeed, it's here now. When true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him in that way. For God is spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. And the woman said, finally arriving where she needed to, I know the Messiah is coming, the one who is called Christ. And when He comes, He will explain everything to us. Truer words were never spoken by the Samaritan woman. And Jesus responded to her in verse 26, I am the Messiah.

The one speaking to Him, the one of whom you speak is here now. I love that. I love that. And so number one, go where others aren't. Number two, offer what matters, and that brings us now to point number three, as we just read those verses, the gift of true worship. The gift of true worship. You know, as Christians, one of the greatest things that we can do, the greatest experiences that we can have is worshipping God, is removing ourselves out of the equation and laying it down at the feet of Jesus. I found that when you lay down your expectations and your desires, and you open yourself to what God has for you, that is the place you find the most peace.

That's the place you find the most fulfillment. Worshipping God is a true gift. And so we see Jesus say, true worship, true worshippers will worship Me, will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For God is spirit, so those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. It's kind of an interesting statement that Jesus makes there. Those that worship Me must worship in spirit and in truth. A little bit cryptic, but as you dig into it, I find it's really an amazing verse that's so insightful, and I believe is really one of our philosophies here at Harvest that really describes our ministry philosophy.

We must worship in spirit and in truth. There's a couple of different ways you can interpret it, and the one way I'm going to talk about now is kind of like left brain, right brain. Have you ever heard about that? Left brain, right brain. Left side of your brain is very logical and methodical.

And then there's right brain, which is more creative and spontaneous and extemporaneous. Some of you are very right brain creative people, and you are terrible at administrative stuff. And some of you are left brain people, and you're OCD, and you make the world go round.

Let's be honest, OK? But if you've lived long enough, you realize you need people with different brains than you have, right? If everything was just OCD all the time, it would be a miserable place.

But if everything was just creative and exciting and fun and enjoyable and play and whatever all the time, that also, you would never get anything done, and we'd still be living in caves probably. And so the way that I've understood this verse, this statement, is that to worship in spirit is to be passionate, is to be enthusiastic, is to be heartfelt, sometimes emotional, always enjoyable, and sometimes experiential. Now, people that are going to be more, I guess, right brain or lean in that just way of living a little bit more, that's what their personality type is, they're going to pursue that more often.

Oh, I just love to sit in this seat at church, and I love to raise my hands up high and sing loud, and I love this one song, and I love just feeling the Lord's presence, and I didn't feel it as much at that church over there. I really felt it here at this church, and they rely a lot on their feelings. Okay, there's a danger to that, but there's also something that we need to understand. God created us that way. He created us mind, body, and spirit, right? And so our emotions are, yes, a very important part, but they're not the only part. So it's an important thing to take into consideration, but it's not the only thing. And so that's more the spirit, the experiential, and then the truth side, you see a lot of these churches, these are the ones that usually have a lot of commentaries that they've written. Their pastors are usually very sound theologians and have contributed a lot into the Christian academia world, and we have their books on our shelves, and they're so important, because that's really what the church is framed by, is sound theology and sound doctrine and making sure that we're not going heretical.

Well, I feel like God is like a cloud and a rainbow. No, shut up, you're a heretic, be careful. That's where you've got to be conscious of that.

And so you have to have the two. You have to have the two, because I've gone to churches that are extremely stoic, and they sing only hymns, and everybody wears suits, and the teaching is like, wow, that was so insightful and so great, but maybe there's not a lot of application. And then these other churches, wow, that was an experience, that was a lot of fun, there's a lot of things that were happening there, and it was enjoyable, but there wasn't a lot of edification. There wasn't a lot of understanding and leading us to the deeper truth.

And so here at Harvest, it brings me to my point, we try and do both as much as possible. We try and have great spirit-filled worship, filled with great lyrics that are full of sound doctrine, and our teaching, we try and make it palatable, understandable, where anybody could come into church here on a Sunday morning and understand what it is we're talking about, but also have it be edifying and deep enough to where it's challenging you in your faith and calling you into a deeper relationship with Christ, trying to blend those two things. And Jesus says, those that worship me must worship in spirit and in truth. We try to expose the deep, rich spiritual truths found in scripture, while also making it understandable for everyone.

Clearly, the best model for this type of preaching is Jesus himself, who used symbolism and illustrations and nature, and he made it so simple to grasp. Dr. Ed Clowney, an American theologian, said, there's an order to worship and there's an ardor to worship. Emphasis on ardor.

Order, of course, we know what order is. It's theological, it's systematic, it's left brain, it's orthodox that the church is framed in by today. And ardor is a word we don't use very much today, but ardor speaks of passion, fiery, zealous, burning with emotion and excitement over what God is doing. It can't contain itself because of how the Lord is working in new ways. You need both of those things in your worship.

It was Dr. D.L. Moody who said, good preaching is knowledge on fire. As believers, we have a lot to be thankful and to enjoy.

And we also have a God who is so rich and insightful and wise that we only deprive ourselves when we fall into whatever left brain, right brain nature we default into. And so the Samaritan woman, she again tries to lure Jesus back into the religious debate question, talking about the difference between Jews and Samaritans, trying to create some distance. And Jesus addresses it, but then he comes right back to the main point. He does the weave, right? He does the weave. Nobody does the weave better than Jesus. He shifts back from her question, he addresses it, then he comes right back to what really matters. I am the Messiah.

I am the Messiah. And if you continue on in that text, you see that the Samaritan woman was so impacted by what Jesus said. She went into her town, she left her jug of water behind, and she went back into the town. And she told everybody that would listen, come and hear a man who told me everything that I ever did. Now you have to think that statement coming from her piqued a lot of the townspeople's interest when they heard that. And so they all came streaming in to hear Jesus. And it said, many of the people in Samaria believed as a result of the testimony of this Samaritan woman.

What a powerful story that is. This woman who had a reputation for bad, she was known by the people in her community for doing these bad things and this immoral behavior, all her husband and whatever else. But God chose to use her. Jesus chose to use her as an instrument to go and lead people to himself. Jesus stayed in Samaria for two days and taught there and ministered there.

And many people in Samaria believed as a result. He met her exactly where she was at. And Jesus meets you. He meets me.

He meets all of us exactly where we are. Whether it's rock bottom, feeling the weight of our mistakes, or sensing a void inside of us that nothing can fill, Jesus offers us living water that quenches our deepest thirst. And maybe you're here today and you've been searching for fulfillment in relationships or through education or through success or pursuits that ultimately leave you empty time and time again. I want to tell you today that Jesus offers you the only thing that can fulfill you, and that is living water.

That is to satisfy your spiritual thirst. He offers you that freedom today, that hope, that peace, that forgiveness that I experienced. He can do that same thing for you. He's not interested in making you a moral person, a better version of yourself. He wants to make you altogether a new creation, born again, new from the inside out.

He wants to give you a new heart and a new life. And so in closing, if you'd like to receive that forgiveness, that hope, that freedom today, respond to this invitation now. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the gift of your son Jesus, who lived on this earth and taught so wisely, so insightfully, so clearly that even a child could understand it, Lord, but it's so deep that I don't think we'll ever get to the bottom of all the insights and the fulfillments of prophecy that your word reveals to us. And so, Lord, we just say thank you today. We're thankful that we get to read the words of Jesus.

We're thankful that we get to be impacted by them. And, Lord, as we now go on about our week and we encounter people that are like the Samaritans at the job site or at school or at the gym or in our neighborhood, Lord, we pray that we would be like you. Jesus, help us to be like you. Help us to build bridges. Help us to address the deeper spiritual need. We don't want to just make people into little moral clones of ourselves.

That's just grasping at straws. That's not going to accomplish anything. And so, Lord, help us to address that spiritual need. Help us to build bridges. Help us to love people and see people the way that you did and you still do to this day.

And when our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together, I know there may be some who likely have not yet put their faith in Christ. And it could be that you're going around still trying to find that fulfillment much like the Samaritan woman. You're looking for fulfillment. You're looking for that spiritual thirst to be satisfied through a relationship, through a sexual experience. It could be that you're looking for it in academia or looking for it through a status, an education, or it might just be, oh, I'm a moral person.

I'm pretty happy with where I'm living. And you're like Nicodemus. I would ask you, what happens when you face God? Are you good enough to get into heaven? The Bible tells us no.

There is none righteous, no, not one. That's why Christ came, so that you could have the hope of heaven. So by putting your faith in Him today, you can have that hope. If you'd like that, if you'd like to put your faith in Christ, wherever you are watching today, would you just raise your hand up, and I want to lead you in a prayer.

Whether you're like the Samaritan woman or you're like Nicodemus, whatever life you may have lived, you have a need for God. Don't walk out of here today without knowing that you're right with Him. So if that's you, and you'd like to put your faith in Him today, just raise your hand up, and I'll lead you in a prayer. God bless you. God bless you. Over on the side. God bless you.

Anybody else? Raise your hand up. I can't see those of you that are watching over on the island of Maui, and here in California, in Riverside, I can't see you, but the Lord sees you, and so you two, you raise your hand up, and I'll lead you in that prayer. God bless you in the back there. Little guy there. God bless you in the back there as well.

Awesome. For those of you that raised your hand, or even if you didn't, but if you want to put your faith in Christ today, would you just pray this prayer wherever you are out loud after me? Pray these words. This is you talking to your Father in Heaven. Pray this. Dear God, I know I'm a sinner, but I know Jesus is the Savior who died on the cross for my sin, and I turn from my sin now from this moment forward. Would you fill me with your Holy Spirit, and would you satisfy my spiritual thirst?

Thank you for loving me and for forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you that prayed just now. Number of people, raise their hand across the room. God bless you. That's amazing.

Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.