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467 | Only Jesus Satisfies · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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God is in control.
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She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
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at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
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like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
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to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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Living her life for Christ She's a happy girl.
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Music.
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She's a happy girl.
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Many people are trying all kinds of things to satisfy the longing in their hearts and souls.
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Nothing will satisfy you but Jesus. Join us in this podcast of Woman at the
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Well Ministries as Kim takes us on a journey through the scriptures,
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revealing the truth that because we are made in God's image,
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only He can satisfy our hearts and souls.
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Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast. of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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We all know of somebody who just goes from one thing trying to get a quick high to another thing.
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And I don't necessarily mean that it's always drugs, but a lot of people do
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use drugs to fill a void, to fill a hole in their life, to get them through
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the day, to energize them.
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But sometimes you'll see somebody just move from one obsession to the next obsession,
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to another obsession, anything they can to try to keep themselves thrilled and excited,
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to try to fill this void that is in their soul and in their heart.
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But the truth of the matter is, nothing will ever satisfy your heart and your soul but Jesus.
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God created us in his image, and he has put inside of us a desire for him.
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He says that he wishes that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
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And this desire that he puts in us is to fill that hole that is left in man
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because of the depravity of sin.
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As we look at Genesis 1 and verse 27, we read this.
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So God created man in his own image.
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In the image of man, created he him. Male and female, created he them. Let's pray.
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Our kind and most gracious to Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you thanking
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you for being a God that knows us personally,
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for being a God that loves us intensely, for being a God that provides a way
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where there is no way, for being a God that cares for us, that never leaves
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us, that never forsakes us.
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And Lord, I thank you that you satisfy completely,
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that a personal close relationship with you is what we need to have the peace
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of God in our hearts, to live the abundant life you promised us in John 10.
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And Lord, I would ask that you would remove me from this message,
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that you would allow me to speak the words that you give me in such a way that
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I can clearly articulate the need we have inside of us to draw close to you
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and to have an effective.
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Real, authentic relationship with you.
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And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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When we think about Genesis, we think about a lot of things.
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It's the book of beginnings.
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Many of us are familiar with several of the accounts that are in that,
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but I don't know how much time we really spend looking at the fact that we are created in His image.
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What does it mean to be created in His image? Now, I believe there's truth that
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when you look at a Christian, someone who is Christ-like,
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I believe that you should be able to see a resemblance of God in them.
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There should be an association between the family.
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So God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who makes up God,
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God the Son has given His life, and through His blood we are redeemed and we
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are purchased as the temple of God.
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And we are part of the family, and there should be a resemblance.
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So I do believe that you should have your father's eyes, and that you should
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be able to see the hurt and the pain and the need in those around you.
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I believe you should have his hands and his feet, and you should assist in ways that you can,
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and your feet should take you to be active and involved and to show up in people's
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lives and in the spread of the
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gospel, and that you should be involved in bringing light to the kingdom.
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But I believe that being created in his image goes way deeper than that.
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I believe that in Genesis 1.27, when he says God created man in his own image,
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that we need to stop and pause and think about that for a moment.
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We think about how our ability to reason and to think separates us from other creations.
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But it has to be more than that. The angels were not created in God's image.
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Yet the angels, they had conversations.
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They could think, they could reason, they were creative. not
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on the level of what we can can an
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animal think and reason and be
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creative but you think about the ant it works all the time so it has something
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in the winter you think about the amazing structure of a beehive that's creativity
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that's some sort of intellectual understanding,
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But what separates us is that we're created in God's image.
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We do think on a higher level. But the thing that truly separates us from all
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of the other creations that God has created is that we were created in his image.
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Only mankind has that distinction.
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What does that mean for us? how does that impact us i'll tell you it means we
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have a special stamp of god in us,
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And I believe that those individuals who are running to and fro,
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trying to find peace, trying to find joy,
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trying to get a feeling of accomplishment, trying to fill the void in their
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life with something so they could just sit down and go, oh,
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I believe the answer is Jesus.
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Regardless of the question, the answer is Jesus.
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But that longing in your soul, that need in your heart for something that the world cannot satisfy,
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is only found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that adopts you into the family of God.
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As we begin to look a little more closely at this concept of being created in God's image,
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In every temple in the Old Testament, in the old times, besides the Jewish temple,
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there was a picture of an image in that temple to remind those that were coming,
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who they were worshiping and what was going on and who they were to have allegiance to.
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The temple bore the image of the one being worshiped.
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We are God's temple.
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We are bought with a price. We are the holy temple of God, and we bear His image.
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All of mankind was created in the image of God, but not everyone created in
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the image of God walks in the ways of God.
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And those who do not walk in the ways of God, they are constantly looking for something to satisfy.
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They need one more big thrill. They need one more big victory.
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They are never at ease. They are most always anxious.
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They are looking for something they cannot find because the answer to their
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need will always be found at the foot of the cross in Jesus Christ.
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Who will satisfy them and fulfill them forever and completely.
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You ask me, how do I know this? I ask you to turn in your Bibles to John chapter 4.
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It's a familiar account.
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Jesus goes out of his way and puts himself into harm's way.
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He has to go through Sychar to get to Samaria, and he comes and he sits down on a well.
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Shortly thereafter, here comes a woman from Samaria to draw water.
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And Jews and Samaritans, they weren't buddy-buddies. So Jesus puts himself in harm's way.
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He sits and he waits on the woman.
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The woman comes and Jesus speaks to her, and no doubt that was startling.
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Jesus says unto her, Give me to drink.
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Jesus requires an acknowledgment of who he is before he blesses you because of who he is.
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There has to be an acknowledgment of his presence, his splendor,
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his glory, his character.
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There has to be a transfer of you feeling nothing towards him or animosity towards
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him to a transformation of placing your faith and your trust and your love in him.
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And so he asked her to give him a drink.
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I also want to point out that he acknowledges her first.
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Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is drawing every individual into
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a close personal relationship with Jesus.
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But many of us, we reject him as Savior, and those of us who have received him
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as Savior, many of us reject him as Lord of our lives and King of our hearts.
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We believe him for salvation, but we don't want that close personal relationship,
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the one where when he whispers, you hear.
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When he speaks, you're in awe.
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And there's a calling on your life to serve the one who loves you beyond measure.
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There's a satisfaction in walking hand in hand with Jesus.
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See, that image that you are created in, that image of God is in alignment with God.
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And so as God stands as the mirror of our life, and we are looking into that
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mirror, we are in full alignment because of the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And when we are following after his commandments, and we are in the center of
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his will, there is a direct reflection of the King.
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There's nothing between you and the mirror of God. there's no sin, there's no doubt.
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There's just a pure blessing of redemption and relationship.
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See, when we were created in his image, it's he stamps himself in us.
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And so that when we're in alignment, we can see him and he can see us.
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He sees us always, but we can see him clearly. And when we see him clearly,
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high and lifted up, then we follow after what he has for us to do.
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This woman that comes to the well in Samaria, she is absolutely a picture of
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us wandering around in a lost world.
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She's trying to figure out how is it that you, a Jew, are going to ask me,
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a Samaritan, why are you talking to me?
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See, for some of you, that's where you're stuck.
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You may be stuck. I'm not good enough to be saved.
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I cannot be saved by a holy God because I'm anything but holy,
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and I can't get anything right.
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He said we are all as filthy rags. Our sins are all as filthy rags.
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We all come to Jesus just like the woman at the well.
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We don't clean ourselves up. We don't have that ability.
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Our righteousness is as filthy rags, and we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
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But instead, we come to Jesus, and we believe, and whosoever believes will be saved.
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And he transforms us from an old creature in sinful, wicked ways to a new creature
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in Christ Jesus, lifted up into the righteousness of God with the faith in Jesus
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Christ that moves mountains,
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that lightens the dark, that lives according to the purpose of serving him and
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fulfilling his will and his ways in our lives.
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We're about to see this woman from Samaria meet the master.
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You're going to watch a woman who's been left and right of the direct center
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of the mirror of God trying to fill her hole in her void in her heart.
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As you begin to continue through this account in John chapter 4,
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you're going to find out that Jesus begins to speak to her.
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And he says in verse 10, these words, Jesus answered and said unto her,
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If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that sayeth to thee, Give me to drink,
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thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
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He's calling her to him. He's patiently waiting, and he's revealing himself
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to her because she's staying in his proximity.
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She's seeking him, and the Scripture says that when you seek him, you will find him.
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And when you search for him with your whole heart, you will find him.
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Jesus wishes that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
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And so as we begin to see this woman, the woman says, Sir, but I don't have
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anything to draw with in the wells deep.
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Where does this living water come from?
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And she's confused about who she is and who he is. And she asks,
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Are you greater than the father Jacob?
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Jesus answers in 13. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh
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of this water shall thirst again.
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When you drink of the water, out of a well, out of a spigot,
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even your purified, sifted, filtered water, you will need more,
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and you'll need it pretty quickly.
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But this water that he's talking about, in verse 14, you'll never thirst again.
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But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
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But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
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up unto everlasting life.
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That void in her life is about to be filled.
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She has not led the life of one who is righteous because she isn't righteous.
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And I don't care what your good works spell out on a piece of paper.
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The scripture says you're not righteous either.
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Only the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed in us makes us righteous.
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Only his blood washes away our sin. Only trusting in him gives us salvation.
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We are not capable of saving ourselves.
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But Jesus is drawing us just like he stood at the well and was drawing her.
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We begin to think about this woman.
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He begins to explain who she is, not to condemn her,
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but to let her know that he loves her and he knows her, that there's nothing
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she can say, there's nothing that she can do to make him not love her.
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In Romans 8, 38 and 39, we are told that nothing separates us from the love of God.
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It grieves the heart of God for one to be lost and spend eternity in hell.
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It was never the intent for his creation created in his image.
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To spend eternity in hell.
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So he tells her of his water. He tells her who she is.
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He tells her of her multiple husbands, the five she'd had, and that the one
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that she's living with isn't her husband now.
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See Jesus came to seek and to save those which were lost.
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He isn't looking for your credentials. He's not looking for your skills,
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talents, and abilities.
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He's looking for your availability. He's asking you to believe in him.
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He's asking you to trust him. And when you do, he fills that void that is needing
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to line up with him because you're created in his image.
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You read further on, and you see that she drinks of the water,
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and she's never the same.
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She came to the well head bending low. She came to the well at midday where
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no one else would see her.
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Much less likely to run into people that were going to ridicule her and shame her.
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But she comes to the well and she meets Jesus.
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And in John chapter 4 and verse 29, she says, Come see a man that told me all
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things that ever I did is not this, the Christ.
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She leaves transformed. she leaves change, she leaves renewed, she leaves filled.
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And in verse 39, it says that many of the Samaritans of that city believed on
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him for the saying of the woman, which testified, he told me all, ever I did.
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She came longing for something. She came ashamed. She came broken down.
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He's waiting for her. He draws. She doesn't know who he is, but he patiently
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explains who he is and says, this water that I give you will never thirst again.
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And she comes empty, but leaves filled.
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The image of God that she had been created in is aligned now with her being.
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She's been filled with living water, and she's just like you, and she's just like me.
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Some of us have never tasted of the living water. We've not given our heart
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and our lives over to Jesus Christ.
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But some of us, the vast majority of us who are listening to me right now,
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are people who have given their life to Jesus.
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They've given their heart to him, but they're holding on to pieces of their life.
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And so that angled mirror, that mirror from heaven to here, that we are refracting
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the light of Jesus and the love of God and the grace and the mercy to others,
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it's a little side-goggled.
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And there's not peace and joy.
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There's stress and distress and chaos because we're filling our heart just a little bit with Jesus.
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But there's still a void because we won't turn our whole lives over to Him.
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We won't give him our whole selves.
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We don't allow him to be king and to be Lord and to be ruler.
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And so this image that we have inside of us is not in full view.
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We don't have a full view of God because we have stuck so much between us and him.
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Maybe it's our children. Maybe it's our home. Maybe it's our career.
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Maybe it's our pride. Maybe it's our job. Maybe it's our finances.
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Maybe it's our hobby maybe it's our looks maybe it's our exercise i don't know
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what it is but you can't see that god can't have the clear view to him because
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you've put something between you and him,
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He's saying, let me fill it. Let me fill the hole. Let me fill the void.
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And you'll leave transformed.
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Paul tells it like this in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.
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I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present
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your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
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And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
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mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
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Paul is telling you the image of God is stamped inside of you and you need to
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give your heart and your mind and your life over to Jesus Christ so that you
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stand in perfect alignment. So there's nothing between you and God.
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So the mirror of God reflecting into you shows the image of God and you're the light of the world.
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And he says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
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works and glorify your father, which is in heaven.
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In Matthew 5, 16, the image of God is stamped in your heart.
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And until you come face to face with Jesus and you allow him to wash you white
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as snow, until you drink of the fountain of life, where you'll never thirst again.
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You will never have true peace in this world. That void, that hole that you
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have in your life will remain unsealed because there is only one thing,
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can fill it, and fully satisfy it.
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And that is a true, authentic, close relationship with Jesus.
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Now, for those of you who don't know him as Savior, now is the day,
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and today is the accepted time.
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Confess your sins, believe in him, and acknowledge that you're a sinner in need of a Savior.
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For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
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that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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But I want those of you who have claimed him as Savior, who have trusted in
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him, to listen very clearly to me.
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Only the things that you have done for Christ will last. Everything else will
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burn like hay and stubble.
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Every energy and effort that you've expanded for something that is not for the
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sake of Christ is useless, worthless, and wasted.
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And those troubled nights that you have where you haven't trusted in the Lord
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with all your own understanding, when you've leaned on yourself instead of him,
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all the times that you've gone from one thing to the next, to the next,
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to the next, to the next, just trying to find peace and quiet and stillness,
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your futile attempts to be still and know that he is God is all rooted in the
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fact that you have not allowed God to line up directly in your view because
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you're dodging left and right because there's too much of the world in you.
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One foot in the world and a part of a foot in the Lord. And he says,
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you'll have no other gods before me.
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He says, if you're lukewarm, he'll spew you out.
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He says that you can't straddle the fence, that you can't have two masters. It's him or nothing.
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So if you want the peace of God, the love of God in your heart and your mind
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to give to others and the grace of God to freely give,
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if you want to walk hand in hand and know the true abundant life that he gives,
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you've got to move to the center, line up with his image, and allow him to fill you to overflowing.
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1 John 1.9 says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us
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our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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It's never too late as long as you have breath.
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The desire to serve Him, the desire to know Him, is evidence enough that the
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Holy Spirit is dealing in your heart.
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Throw away all the other gods in your life. Push away your time robbers and your distractors.
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Place Him first. give him top priority, align with his will,
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his ways, and his word, and be filled to overflowing.
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Remember you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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Music.
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Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
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Music.