Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Could it be? The reason we feel so empty and restless and unfulfilled. Is that we're looking in all of the wrong places. In today's story from John chapter 4, we meet a woman who is longing for fulfillment.
Then she has a very personal and a very meaningful encounter with Jesus, and her life is never ever the same again. Welcome to the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Some people dedicate their entire life to a single goal or a special dream. hoping it will satisfy the longing in their hearts. But today, John reveals there's only one way to find true fulfillment.
Now continuing our series, Encountering Jesus. Here's Pastor John Monroe with today's message titled, Searching for fulfillment. Last time we considered the intriguing and quite unusual conversation between Jesus and a woman from Samaria. we learned that her relationships were dysfunctional. She had had five husbands, and was living with someone who was not her husband.
Can you imagine the pain, the hurt? The disappointment of this woman who must have felt used and discarded. She had been searching for fulfillment and meaning all of our life.
Now she has a personal encounter with Jesus. who knows all about her. and her life is forever changed. This is the good news of the gospel. The love of God embraces the whole world.
No one is excluded. This love? comes to every one of us. Let's look again at how Jesus responds to this woman's search. for fulfilment.
Let's open our Bibles if you have one. John chapter 4, the fourth gospel. Today our subject is satching for fulfilment. and their passage is John Chapter four. Let us read first of all the first nine verses.
John Four then. Verse one. When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and discipling more disciples than John, although Jesus himself was not baptizing. but his disciples were, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee. and he had to pass through.
Sumeria.
So he came to a city of Sumeria called Sycur. near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being weary from his journey was sitting thus by the well It is about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria.
To draw water, Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, How is it that you being a Jew ask Me for a drink. Since I'm a samarited woman. for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus answered, and said to her, If you knew The gift. of God. Let's just stop there. Let's think first of all Of this woman's past. This woman, like all of us, had a past.
and this woman's past, first of all, was disadvantaged. This woman was disadvantaged. This woman was dysfunctional. Third, this woman was dissatisfied. She was forever searching for meaning and fulfillment, but was never satisfied.
She had made some disastrous decisions which had caused her a lot of pain. A lot of heartache. Her life is about to change. She has a personal encounter with Jesus. In chapter three, last week we thought of Nicodemus.
This week we're thinking of a woman. What a difference! What a contrast between Nicodemus and the Samaritan women. Nicodemus Was a Jewish man. Highly educated, well respected, the leader in the community, moral, religious.
But he came to Jesus. This woman Well the contrast, she's a Samaritan. She's not a Jew, she's a social outcast, she's unschooled, she's immoral, she's despised. Nicodemus He comes to Jesus by night. Jesus comes to this woman.
At noon. Do you think John By telling us these Stories back to back is trying to tell us something? Of course, he is. is telling us that Jesus loves. The world.
not just men, but But also women. Not just Jews, but also Samaritans. Not just moral people, but immoral people. Not just people from the east, but also from the west, not just from the north, but also from the south, that Jesus' love. goes right round the world.
And when he meets this woman, Were you surprised? That he didn't attack her. Oh, he drew out from her. Her problem. You've well said you've got no husband.
He is a prophet in your heart. But you notice that he didn't judge this woman. Rather, he did something which shocked her. Verse seven give me a drink. A little phrase.
was going to change her life. Give me A drink. She's surprised. that Jesus enters into her world. Aren't you glad?
Jesus enters into your world. Her disadvantaged, dysfunctional, and despised background does not deter Jesus. There are barriers, yes, there's barriers of ethnicity, of race, of color, of religion, of culture, of gender, of protocol. All of these barriers are bridged by Jesus. With tenderness, and compassion Jesus weary from his journey.
Ask this woman for a drink. How about you? In life, Certainly many of you have experienced prejudice against you. Because of your background? Perhaps because of your race, perhaps because of the color of your skin.
Isn't it wonderful to know that these things mean nothing to Jesus? Whether you identify with Nicodemus or whether you identify with a Samaritan woman, we're all on the same level with God.
Some people may look down on you as they did this woman because you've made some very bad decisions in life.
Some of the problems that you are experiencing today Not to put too fine a point on it. you're responsible for. And You're suffering the consequences of these bad decisions. And some people, knowing the mess you have made on your life, may look down on you. as they did this woman.
But there are no secrets to Jesus. Jesus knew all about this woman. He knew he was going to meet her. He knew her marital status. He reveals that to.
Her and Jesus knows all about you. And he reaches out to you this morning. as he does to this woman in love. in grace and forgiveness. Not wonderful to know that Christ does not reject us But loves us and longs to forgive us and to transform our life.
Notice his wonderful invitation, verse 10. 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. She said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where, then, do you get that living water?
You're not greater than our father Jacob, are you? Who gave us the well and drank of it, himself, his sons, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water, She'll thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water, sprinkled. Bringing up.
Into eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here. To draw. What's Jesus doing? He's reaching out to her.
He's building a bridge to her. Through this illustration of water. He's building a bridge over the barriers and prejudices as he explains the glorious truth of the gospel. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, give me a drink, you'd have asked me for this. Living.
Water. And this woman, like Nicodemus, thinks that Jesus is talking on physical, literal terms. Remember, Nicodemus thought when Jesus talked about the new birth, he was. He was talking about going a second time in your mother's womb. And as Jesus is talking about water, she's thinking of the water of the well, of physical water, but Jesus is talking about something else.
He's talking about living water and saying there is a water that you don't yet know about, but which now, even now as I speak, I'm offering to you, living water. And if you drink of this living water, you will never thirst again. Why? Because it will be inside of you. A fountain of water.
Springing up. And to life. Eternal. Do you understand that amazing claim? The woman had been trying to quench her thirst in many ways, as we do.
including her lifestyle. Jesus offers her living water, which will be in her and which will spring up to eternal life. Jesus is claiming as God to be the only one who can satisfy her deepest longings.
Now just as water satisfies your physical need for liquid refreshment, the So, this living water, this spiritual water which Jesus Christ offers, will satisfy your deep spiritual longings. I've got a bottle of water here. which before I came up to preach. I drank from. It's called Spring Reflections.
and I've drunk from it a few times. this morning, brother. You look as if you'd like a drink, but you're not going to get it. Will I be thirsty? Before I go to bed tonight, again, of course I will.
This is helpful now. But an hour from now Two hours from now. I'm going to have to drink again. says Jesus, that's like what the world offers you. Is there some degree of pleasure and satisfaction in drinking from this water?
Yes. Is there pleasure in accumulating staff? Is there joy in the pleasures of this world? Yes, there is some. But it will never last.
and you'll keep coming back again. Were you excited? Mrs. Samaritan woman at that first wedding. Yes, I thought he was the best man in the world, and he seemed to love me so much, and I found some joy in it, but.
Perhaps before the honeymoon was over. The marriage was beginning to fail. And so she drinks again marriage number two. Let's try marriage number three. This one is going to be different.
I've learned from the past. Let's drink again. It fails again. Let's try marriage number four. It's gone sour.
Marriage number five, he's worse than the rest. He's an alcoholic, he beats me. He's totally useless, doesn't work for a living. And furthermore, He likes younger women. And so she goes on.
And on. I don't know where you have looked for satisfaction. I'm not saying it's in your a series of marriages, Whether it's in stuff, whether it's in your career, whether it's in pleasure, but all of us look for satisfaction and joy in things out there, don't we? And Jesus is saying, when you do that, remember this, that you will continue to thirst. But in contrast to that, I am going to give you living water, which is not out there, but which is in here.
It's a supernatural. fountain of water springing up to life eternal. It comes, as we saw last week, through the new birth. The new birth is a personal relationship, a living, growing relationship with Christ. It's not saying that Christ is out there.
That I must go through certain religious hoops and therefore be a Christian. No, it is receiving Christ. being changed from the inside out And on one occasion Jesus shouted John seven. If any man is thirsty, Let him come to me and drink. Only God can do that.
Only God can say that. If anyone is hungry, let him come to me. I'm the bread of life. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me. I'm the fountain of living water.
It is sourced in you. It springs up to eternal life and it never ever runs out. Every Sunday morning I have to get a new bottle of water. It soon runs out, doesn't it? Not so, this.
living water. This woman had drunk deep. of the seeming joys and pleasures of the world, They had left her dissatisfied, empty, disappointed and chipened. In our society, we have a multitude of experiences offered to us. But why do we have so many board and discontented people.
We have so much fun offered to us. but so little lasting satisfaction and joy. We have a great variety of pleasure offered to us, but so many people who end up feeling used and cheapened. I thought of that when I saw the pictures on T V, as some of you did, of the students at spring break. These young men and young women.
behaving more like animals than people made in the image of God. getting drunk, exposing themselves, promiscuous sex Having a great time. It seemed drinking from the well of the world's Water. As we saw in John 2, The devil offers you his best wine first, doesn't he? He says, Drink this.
It's going to be really good. Go down to spring break. Get your mindset. Get your body full of booze. Have a good time.
Grope some young woman, have sex with her.
Next day there's another one and another one and another one. And as I'm listening to this and watching, I think How are they going to be when they get back to college? And how are they going to be when they're sober and they put their head down on that pillow? and think, is this what life is about? Don't tell me that these young women don't, at the end of the day, feel cheapened and used.
That's exactly what they are. Cheap. and used. In contrast, Jesus says Remember in John 2 the new wine? The wine that I give you is kept the best is kept to last.
Satan gives you his best first. With God, as we have the well in us, it gets better and better all of the time.
So Jesus says to this woman, If you drink of the water that I will give you, you will never thirst again. This woman is confronted for the first time in her life with the only person who can satisfy her deepest needs. and that is God. himself. She has a past.
She has an encounter with Jesus. I trust you have a living encounter with Jesus. Thirdly, change. the women's change. Her past, The woman's encounter, the woman's change.
Verse 28.
So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the man, Come. See a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it? They went out of the city and were coming to him. The woman left her old life behind.
Did you notice she left her water pots behind? I like that. She wasn't concerned now about the old water pot. She had come for physical water, but she had tasted of the living spiritual water. Leaving her old water pot behind was symbolic of her leaving her old life, her old religion, her old futile ways of trying to find satisfaction and meaning in herself and in her relationships.
That's what it is to be a Christian. If you have a true living encounter with Jesus, you are never the same again. Jesus never leaves you where you are. Paul says, If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come.
And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, And if at a person's relationship with Christ, one of the differences, one of the things that happens is it makes a difference. She goes back to her town. She's despised, doesn't suffer witnessing. come see a man that told me Everything that I did This must be The Christ. The first time she sees Jesus, she sees a Jew.
Then she understands he's a prophet. Then she understands he's the messiah. Then she understands he's the savior. of the world, her Saviour. Your search for meaning and fulfilment begin.
As mine does. with a personal relationship with Jesus. We We quench our thirst, not in our work, our pleasures, our career, our family, but in Jesus, the living water. Only the eternal triune God, our Creator, can meet our deepest needs. Or that we really believe that.
Only God is big enough to fill the restless void that you have in you. Only God can give you this living, lasting water. Your deepest thirsts can only be met by God. Himself, have you drunk of this living water? Have you?
Perhaps you're saying John. I'd like to believe, I'd like to drink of this living water, but I'm afraid to take the step of faith. I know it's going to mean a fundamental change in my life. I don't know if I'm ready to hand over control of my life to Jesus. This seems a little scary.
C.S. Lewis illustrates that tension in his book, The Silver Chair, one of the Narnia. Books.
Some of you have read it. Jill bursts into an opening in the forest. She's thirsty. She spies a running stream not far away. But she does not rush forward to throw her face into its refreshing current, but she stands still in fear Why is she afraid there's a great lion?
lying on the ground just this side of the stream. Most of you know that in CS Lewis's writing in the Narnia, The lion. is a picture. of Christ. The line speaks to her.
Are you not thirsty? said the Lion. I'm dying of thirst, said Jill. Then drink, said the lion. May may I could could I would you mind going away while I do, said Joe.
The lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, She realised that she might have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her near frantic. Will you promise not to do anything to me if I do come? said Jill.
I make no promise, said the lion. Jill was so thirsty now that without noticing it, she had come a step forward. Do you eat girls? she said. I have swallowed up girls and boys, men and women.
Kings and emperors, cities and realms, said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor if it were sorry, nor nor. As if it were angry, it just said it. I daren't come and drink, said Mm-hmm. Then you'll die of thirst, said the lion.
Oh dear, said Jill, coming another step nearer. I suppose I should go and look for another stream then. There is no other stream, said the lion. What's Lewis saying so powerfully in in picture form? You got to come to Christ on His terms.
You don't come on your terms. You come on Christ's term. The lion. A picture of Christ will not Move. You say, Can he be trusted?
If you approach him, of course he can. He's the savior of the world. He loves you, he's come to you. Will you come and drink From the living stream of God's grace and salvation today, there is no other living water. Many of you today would say, John, I've tasted of this living water.
In God's grace, I've received Christ as my personal Savior. I've had a personal encounter with Christ. I have received this eternal life. But what's your problem? You're not enjoying the fullness of the Spirit.
You're not enj enjoying the joy of the Lord. What has happened? and confess sin. has come into your life. The water is pure, the water is living, there's no problem with the water, but the waters are muddied.
Mud has come into your life. the mud of sin. of whatever it is. and that mud Needs to go. Have you allowed some unhealthy habit, some sinful attitude?
to come into your life Are you quenching? The Holy Spirit. Impurity, other sins have crept into your life. muddying the living waters. You need once again To be purified this morning, you need to confess your sin, you need to repent from your sin.
God is faithful and just to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, but you must come. In Jeremiah the Lord says, My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain, the spring of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Two evils. Can you imagine?
Here on the one side is pure, fresh. water. It's a fountain springing up. into perfect water. On the other side, there is a cistern.
and it's leaky. And it's salt water, it's brackish. It's brown. It's got insects in it. It's stale.
It It's putrid. is polluted. Why on earth would anyone drink from that well rather than the pure well? And the Lord is saying during Jeremiah's time, My people have committed two evils. They've left that fountain and they've drunk of this one.
Are some of us doing that today? Instead of feeding on Christ, Instead of growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you've turned back to the old ways. to get satisfaction. and the mud has come into your life. I ask you, The Spirit of God prompts you.
Will you get right with God?
Some of you need to come to Christ. You've never yet drunk of his living water. Will you come forward, kneel, stand, as God may lead you, receive Christ? Will you do that? Or perhaps you are a believer in Jesus Christ and the mud has come into your life, and you need to get right with God so that once again, You're not quenching the spirit.
But they're living. A spirit for life Enjoying the joy of the Lord. This is the verdict, and Pastor John Monroe is concluding a message about purpose. titled Searching for Fulfillment. Be sure to stay with us, because John will return in just a moment with some closing remarks for today's lesson.
Our series on encountering Jesus is helping us realize that the only source of fulfillment and purpose in this life is Jesus Christ. and yet sometimes, in the moments we need him the most, we have trouble putting our full trust in him. That's why John wrote a booklet titled Trusting God in Tough Times. It addresses real questions like how How do we cope when things are so uncertain? Why should we trust God?
And how can our perspective on God make a difference in real life? The answers to these questions are essential. And that's why we'd love to equip you with this helpful resource today. Just go to our website. The verdict.org and request your copy of the Trusting God in Tough Times booklet.
And while you're on our website, you'll have the opportunity to play a part in what God is doing through the verdict with a simple one-time donation of any amount. Your support will help us share God's Word with new listeners in your community and across the world. You can easily give whatever amount you feel led to by visiting theverdict.org. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Verdict Podcast. featuring John's weekly podcast exclusive called Avizandam.
It's available on your favorite podcast app or through our website. Again, that's theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Where are you looking for meaning and purpose? Are you dying of spiritual thirst? Does life feel hopeless and without meaning? encounter Jesus.
you will find your search fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Come. and drink of the supernatural. and eternal living water. I'm praying that today you will turn from your sin and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
This is your fulfillment. There you will receive eternal life. And join me next time as we learn that Jesus can change the unchangeable. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies.
Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mm.
