"Asking God: A Lesson from the Woman at the Well" By Brother Parrish Lee September 13th,
2015
What a gorgeous, beautiful, wonderful,
awesome day in the Lord. Amen? It is good to know the Lord today. What a wonderful time to come before Him and
just say, “Thank You, Almighty.” Giving honor to that same God,
giving honor to Him who created the heavens, put the stars in their place. Giving honor to the One who created the
angels, and to Whom they all bow down to.
The Creator of all good and perfect things, the Lover of our souls. Giving honor to that God. Giving honor to His servants, those who stood
in the gap to make up the hedge for this ministry here. To our founding pastor, he and his family; to
our pastor, he and his family; to all of those who have come along and stood in
the gap and made up the hedge. It’s
wonderful to see Brother Pat and Brother Jay—it’s wonderful to see brothers
like that, who—Pat, of course, talked about being a fellowship leader down
there, seeing souls saved. It’s
wonderful to see him. And, I know Jay’s
testimony. Actually, he and I used to
share an apartment for a while. And, I
can say this, both of them were dipping into the message. I watched his testimony. He and I both worked third shift. This isn’t part of the message; this is
free. But, this was something that
became a cornerstone in my own life. He
and both worked third shift by that time, and I was just starting out, you
know, so he allowed me to share an apartment with him. I didn’t have very much money; I was just
trying to work to bring in… I would
watch him every day when he got off of work.
I’d watch him go and brush his teeth, and then I would watch him go and
give obeisance to God, as he would find a place to kneel and pray, and not lay
his head down until he had gotten it off of his heart. I watched that, every single day, and it
became a cornerstone for my own life.
Giving honor to all those who love the Lord without condition; without
restriction. And giving honor to all of
y’all, to everyone who shows up to the House of the Lord, wherever that house
may be, presents themselves before that Almighty God, and says, “Lord, I
present myself to You, that You may do what You will unto me. Teach me, feed me; Lord give to me that which
is Thy will to give. Amen. As we said, it’s a wonderful day
to be saved, and it’s a wonderful day to be in the Lord. This being our second week of September. Our pastor, of course, was here the first
week, and what a wonderful time that was, wasn’t it? I wasn’t able to be there at the picnic, but
I heard it was tremendous, and when he was telling me about it, he was just
smiling. Wasn’t he, Andy? He just kept smiling. He got to visit with so many of the
parishioners, my brothers and sisters.
Oh, what conversations there were; what a presence of God there
was. He said it was awesome, it was
awesome. We want to go on to our theme for
the month. Our theme for this month: John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in
you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. That is our Scriptural theme for
the month, but our actual theme is, “The Process of, and Learning to, Ask for
More from God.” Let’s just get right into the
message. Somewhat familiar, but, let us
take our time and go through the scriptures this morning. John 4:5-15 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which
is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son
Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with His
journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw
water: Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the
city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman
of Samaria unto Him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to
thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have
given thee living water. The
woman saith unto Him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, which
gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be
in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this
water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. So, the woman at the well. The woman at the well. I listened as Pat and Jay were sharing
earlier, and thought, “Both of y’all keep dipping in the message. Both of y’all keep dipping.” But, the Bible says to have the same mind one
toward another (Romans 12:16). Amen?
Amen. So, the woman at the
well. Throughout history there has been a
lot said about the woman at the well. Well,
let’s talk a little bit about this excerpt from the Bible, but before we go and
directly relate to the Scriptures, let’s give a little history about what’s
going on there. We see, up there in verse six,
that Jacob's well was there, and the bible says that Jesus sat on it. Now, this well had a lot of significance. Its very name, by implication, gave
pertinence to all. And, it meant a lot
to the people there; Jacob’s well. After
all, Jacob was the patriarch. He was the
son of the child of promise; his father was Isaac, who, because God told
Abraham, “Go sacrifice your son,” almost lost his life on the mount. So, Isaac knew, from a very early age, about
this wonderful thing of God, him being the child of promise, born unto Abraham
when he was a hundred years old. That’s
his father. And his father gave him a
blessing. This Jacob, the Bible says he wrestled
an angel until the breaking of the day—it doesn’t call him an angel, it calls
him a man, but, what kind of man is going to give him the kind of blessing that
he gave? And he wrestled with him until
the breaking of the day, and the blessing was his name was changed to become
the father of Israel; his name was changed to Israel, and he had his children
through his two wives, and they became the nation, the nation Israel. So, this well had a large significance, as it
was passed on to Joseph; that was what Jacob gave to Joseph, that parcel of
land, that was a present for him. This
well had been around for a long time. It
had a lot of significance, not just because the people could draw water there,
but also, because whenever they would go there, it meant something to their
history, to their lineage. They could go
to the well, and they could say, “I am a person of the people of faith. I am a person of that great God that we keep
talking about. That’s what this well
meant, Jacob’s well. To give a little
history. To give a little more history, as
we see, the Lord Jesus sat on it. The
Lord Jesus sat on Jacob’s well, or, to put it more accurately, He placed
Himself on top of the foundational stones that fed this nation. To put it a little more accurately. And, along comes a woman from
Samaria. Yeah, we’re talking about
asking, and getting more from God.
Learning to, and the process of asking for more from God. Along comes a woman from Samaria; that means
she was a Samaritan. A Samaritan. The Samaritans were descendants from when
Jews had intermingled with other nations.
They would have been called half-breeds, outcasts; they were the result
of mixing Jews and Gentiles. In one
place, if we were to go to the Book of Ezra, and Nehemiah, when it came a
cleaning, they had to be put away (Ezra 10, Nehemiah 13:23-30). Yeah.
So, they had multi-ethnic heritages.
Today, if we were to—to make it a little more plain—whenever somebody,
in today’ society, considers themselves to be of one particular lineage,
whatever that might be, and someone else comes along who might not be that entire lineage; they might have more
than one in their ethnicity, the people that have only one lineage, especially
if they’re in their own community, mixed.
Mixed. Personally, I hate that
word, personally, because the truth of that whole thing is that we are all
mixed. But this is he eyes that the Jew
look at the Samaritans with. “Those
dirty, mixed people!” To the pure people,
they were impure. The Samaritans. And she comes to the well to draw. Did the Lord know she was going to
even be there? Was it of great
significance that He placed Himself on this well, on the foundational stones of
Jacob’s well? Was it of great
significance that He placed Himself there at that time? The Bible says it was about noon day, or
about the sixth hour, the sixth hour of the day- which puts it about noon. At this time is when the shepherds would give
their flocks a chance to rest, which meant that that was the time for the
shepherds to have refreshments. So, that
was the time for those that were going to go get refreshings, or refreshments
to bring to the shepherds, and, yes, did the Lord Jesus know she was going to
be there? Of course He did. Now, as she comes to that well to draw, and,
the Lord knowing she’s going to be there, because, in fact, this is the Lord
Jesus we're talking about. As she comes
there, there is this situation that happens.
I don’t know another way to bring this message out. This has been dealing with me so much.
As God dealt with me, that’s all I had.
So, if we were to go to verse
number ten John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to
thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have
given thee living water. Now, I want to do an excerpt on
relationships. There’s this book that many
of us are familiar with—we’ve talked about it before—it is called, “The Five Love
Languages.” And this is to a point; this
is to make a point. In this book, it
talks about how we, as people, communicate differently. We communicate differently; we receive
differently. But it mentions five
specific ways—those aren’t the only ways—but five specific ways where people
feel communication, and he called them love languages. He said one of the ways is by words of affirmation,
and one of the ways is by gifts—giving gifts—one of the ways is by acts of
service, one was by touch, and—what was the other one? Words of appreciation, gifts, acts of
service, touch, and quality time. Five
different ways—general was—that people can receive and can hear what you’re
trying to communicate in those actions.
And eh truth behind that whole book is that God speaks all of our love
languages; no matter your language is, God speaks your language. Did
you ever talk to somebody, and you feel like, “The more I tell you, the
less I feel like I’m being understood. It feels like I’m getting further and further
away. I keep trying to explain it over
and over. I feel like I’m beating a dead
horse.” Did you ever try to communicate
with somebody, and, a lot of times, that’s where a lot of friction comes from,
because somebody will say, “Well, you said this!” “Well, that’s not what I meant. You’re taking it out of context; what I was
trying to say was…” Whatever. But, when we try and communicate, we want to
express, we want to receive what we have determined in our mind. The issue here is that God speak all these
languages. Oh, yeah. Words of affirmation? The Lord said I have
loved you with an everlasting love Jeremiah 31:3). Gifts? Does God give gifts? For He so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son (John 3:16). Quality time?
He said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, that you could open up, and we
could sup together, and spend some time together.” (Revelation 3:20) Acts of service? He says, “But in everything
by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God, and the peace
of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and your minds
through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
And the last one was touch.
Touch. For the grace of God that
brings salvation has appeared to us all, touching us (Titus 2:11). Absolutely.
God speaks all of these languages. So, if she had known what was
there before her, she would have gladly John 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband,
and come hither. Whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa! What does that have to
do with anything? “Give me this water,
that I may drink…” “Go, call your
husband.” John 4:17-18 The woman answered and said, I have no
husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had
five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst
thou truly. “You have had five husbands, and
the one that you’re with now, he ain’t your real husband.” Talk about revelation. Talk about yanking the sheets off. Talk about that Scripture that Kirk mentioned
on Wednesday in a great Bible study that three brothers got together and
presented—thank You, Lord!—talking about Heaven, but, does the Scripture say,
are we going to be known as we are known? No, that’s not what the scripture
says; the scripture says that we are going to know as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12). Amen.
Yeah, so, “The one you’re with now, ain’t your real husband. Now, before we run off and think, "Oh, what
a tramp! Ooh, what an unscrupulous
woman! Oomph, doing all that stuff." Before we run off and say that, let's get a
little bit of background about what was going on at the time. At the time this was going on, there were a
lot of things going on that God didn’t plan on going on with people. God’s plan, of course, wasn’t to have so many
husbands, and so many wives and all this intermingling, and all this stuff that
we can’t mention properly in church. In
fact, what actually was going on was a certain amount of liberty. If we could go to the Book of Deuteronomy 24:1;
the Bible says: Deuteronomy 24:1 When a man
hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour
in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write
her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his
house. Moses wrote that. The Jews had gotten to the place where they
were—it’s amazing; did you ever meet somebody that finds one scripture, one
Scripture. They’ll find one verse, and
they’ll hold onto it. They don’t try to
dig to see how that verse relates to the rest of the Word of God. “Ooooh, that’s it right there! That’s the one I’m holding onto. Yeah!
Yeah, that one right there!”
Never mind rightly dividing the Word of God; never mind that. “I got my scripture!” “When a man hath taken a wife, and married
her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath
found some uncleanness in her…” The Jews
had gotten to the place where they were going to define what this uncleanness
was. Now, this was written in the time
of Moses, so this was several hundred years, over a thousand years later. They had taken this Scripture, and you can
imagine how they had warped it, and wrestled with it, and expounded on this
scripture, depending on the attitude of their heart. Yes, this Scripture comes down to the woman
at the well. Now, some rabbis of the day
had come to say that this ‘uncleanness’ meant adultery and fornication. That’s what that ‘uncleanness’ means. But, there were other people who had a
different opinion on this one, and they would say, “No, no, no, no, no, it don’t
just mean that. She’ll also be unclean
if she’s out on the street talking to another man. That makes her unclean and you can divorce
her.” Yeah, true. And not just that, there was other rabbis who
said, “If she walks out of the house and her hair is uncovered, then she’s
unclean.” There was some that had taken
such a liberty on Scripture that they actually would say, “Oh, she’ll be
unclean if she wrecks your dinner.”
True, true; true statement.
Yeah. So, no wonder the disciples
would ask the Lord, “Is it lawful to put away your wife for every cause?” In other words, “Lord, Jesus, please, tell us
what this is talking about.” And He told
them, “Oh, that’s wasn’t the way it was supposed
to be, but because your hearts are hard, that’s why it had to come up. Because, you know, at the beginning, it was
man and wife, and that was the way it was supposed to be.” But, we come down here to the woman at the
well. So, we see, if this is the spirit
going on, if this is the attitude, if this is the prevalent thought that’s
going on at the time, no wonder a woman might have five husbands. What was it?
Did she wreck his meal? Or was
she found outside of the house talking with somebody else? What was the cause of the divorces, that
somebody wrote her off and sent her away?
Yeah. No wonder it had gotten to
this place. And, it was a lot worse; we
don’t have time to talk about it, but it was a lot worse at the time it was
going on. So, not only is this woman
married five times and then divorced, and not only is she living with somebody
that ain’t her husband, she’s also a Samaritan.
Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty on all counts, and now she is meeting with
Jesus. Asking. Learning to, and the process of, asking. So, now she is meeting with Jesus, and the
Lord, the Lord Jesus, bring it up. Now,
why, after she asked Him, give me this water, did He bring it up? Why’d He bring it up now? Why now?
There’s two reasons. One is that
this was a situation between the Lord and her, and the Lord doesn't want
anything between Him and His people, those He loves. He doesn’t want anything to—that’s why,
whenever we go together in prayer, whenever we get on our knees and we start
giving obeisance to God, that’s why there’s such a spirit of conviction,
because the Lord is purging out everything that’s between us, because he doesn’t want
competition. He doesn’t want obstacles;
he just wants a relationship. Yeah, so
he wanted all things cleared out of the way; “Confess them all! Get them out of the way; get them removed!” That’s what the Lord wants. And, number two, number two: the second reason the Lord is bringing this
up now is because this is the living water.
This is that she might know the things that are in her life and be able
to receive from Christ and to feel this purging from her life, that she might
know, “Oh, somebody actually cares for me.
Somebody is willing to go that far in love for me. Somebody is willing to come here and tell me
what the problem is without judging me.
Somebody wants to give me a love that is merciful, kind, and gracious. That won’t flee away and that won’t divorcing
me.” That’s what she saw in Him; that’s
what the Lord is giving her, giving her that love that fadeth not away. But, this isn’t the whole
story. There’s more to this story here,
and, actually, it stems from the Book of Zechariah. Andy, I need your help on this one. Could I get you, and some of the singers and
musicians to come up and help me get this particular point across? This is not a new concept, what the Lord is
telling her about this living water, here.
This is not something that they never heard of before. –As it says in Zechariah: Zechariah 14:7-9 But it
shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it
shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living
waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and
half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be king over all the
earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. The Waterway It
shall be light in the evening time, The
path to glory you will surely find; Thru
the water way, it is the light today, Baptized
in Jesus’ Name. Young
and old, repent of all your sin, The
Holy Ghost will enter in; The
evening Light has come, It
is a fact that God and Christ are one. This is what they’ve been waiting
for, and she didn’t even know it. Living
waters. John 4:19 The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I perceive
that Thou art a prophet. “I
perceive that You’re a prophet.” John 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and
ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. So, she’s giving to Him,
“Well, I don’t know all that stuff You are kind of discerning, but this is what
I do know: You, You, You might be
somebody of God. You know, we’re
supposed to be coming here to this mountain, and this is where we worship. This is where we do it. This is our tradition. This is our routine. This is what we got. This is where we come.” John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in
this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. He was telling her, “It’s
going to be all over the world, this thing.” John 4:22-24 Ye worship ye know
not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the
Father seeketh such to worship Him. God
is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. This is the Living water: Knowledge in salvation; the Truth being made
known. This is what she could drink of
and not thirst for anything outside of the Truth. This is what she was asking for when she
didn’t even know what she was asking for. John 4:25 The woman saith unto Him, I know that
Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when He is come… “When He gets here, when he
is come, I’m telling You, Lord, when that guy gets here, He’s going to tell me
all things. He’s going to do it.” John 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He. “I’m right here. I’m who you’re looking for, who you’re
talking about. And you haven’t
recognized Me. You
could almost say, “That woman.” John 4:27 …yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why
talkest thou with her? And the Bible says that they marveled
that He talked with this woman, the disciples
marveled that He talked with her, with this undesirable Samaritan. This half breed, with this been around the
block, non-loyalty woman. After all they
were the disciples. After all, they were
the ones who had an inside track. And
the key was that they marveled that He talked with her, the Lord Jesus talked
with her, but they didn’t marvel that He talked with them. After all, He is the Lord manifest in the
flesh. “Oh, but we have a discerning.” What they didn’t realize is that he sent them
away on purpose. What they didn’t
realize was that He made an appointment to get there, at Jacob’s well. What they didn’t realize was that He was
looking for her. What they didn’t
realize was that this Gospel wasn’t going to be just for those holy, righteous,
men of God. This Gospel was for—as my
brother said in your sermonette- everybody. “I’m looking for everybody.” So, this is then
a problem for the disciples down through the ages. And, whenever we think about God’s moving in
his life… “Huh?” …in her life… “Huh?” what we really need to do, any
disciple, any disciple, is to quickly go find a mirror, and point into it and
say, “You?” Yeah. God’s looking for you, and him, and
her. John 4:28-29 The woman then left her waterpot, and went
her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all
things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto
them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as
a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to
yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. If you have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, you could ask what you would.
You could ask that this mountain be removed, and plucked into the sea,
and it will obey you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed. Now, it’s too easy to get caught up in the
size of a mustard seed, but He said, “…as a grain of mustard
seed.” And, there are three
points that we have to make about mustard seed: 1. Size
doesn't matter, to be real. The size of
your faith doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s real faith. 2. This
mustard seed has therapeutic qualities.
Yeah, it fixes everything. It fixes
everything from digestion to hair-loss.
I’m sure, after this, a bunch of men are going to run out and say,
“Yeah, I got the secret!” And it also
helps cancer. It helps fix, yes. It has medicinal properties, this mustard
seed. So, your faith has to have medicinal,
or ministerial properties. It has to be
willing to help. If you have selfish
faith, that’s not the kind of faith 3. Lastly,
and possible the most important, a mustard seed doesn't mix with anything. If you plant it with anything else, it is
still going to come up as a mustard plant.
So, when we have our faith, we don’t want to mix doubt, we don’t want to
mix selfishness, we don’t want to mix carnality in our faith. That pollutes our faith, we wouldn’t see any
mountains moved. But if we have that faith, as that
grain, according to this, we can move mountains, because, and this is my final
statement: Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
|
|
|
|
