Jesus and the Woman at the Well Part 1: Fruitful Ministry Along the Way - John 4:1-6

1:47But I want to encourage you this morning to, as we look through this passage, is just to think about the in-between times of life, the in-between time that you may be in right now. And to recognize that God sometimes uses those in-between times more profoundly than he does the destination times. In fact, it's these in-between times in life that God prepares you for what is to come. And I want to caution you about going through life, seeing these in-between times as something to get through as quickly as possible.

2:32You know, the tragedy of many of us really fail to really live and really enjoy and really be fruitful in the present because we're too busy about thinking about what's coming next and so driven to get there that we push aside what's going on around us. But sometimes it is these in-between times that God uses so profoundly, like he did in the life of. Lord in Samaria. And I remember a few years back a young lady who came to our area, driven to do a four-year degree in two and a half years.

3:20And to her credit, she did it. You all know the drill, right? 21 hours a semester, full-time summer school, and just going hard. Well, to her credit, she did it. And she got out of here. She later said this about Bryan College Station. Don't go to AM. I hated my time there. Well, of course. Are you associated with just this incredible amount of work? And she said, I didn't make any friends there. I wonder why, right?

4:01Well, I think many of us live that way. Listen, God may have you in an in-between time and life. I mean, many of you may be living under your parents' authority right now, and you're kind of like, I can't wait to get out, write, and get on, make my own decisions, blah, blah, blah. God has a place for you right now. Whatever you're at in life right now, it's probably on the way to something. And I just want to encourage you to, as we We look through this passage and just see how Christ used two days, two days in his travel from Judea to Galilee and made a world of difference, not only in the life of one woman, but in a whole community, and forever marked his disciples. God has lots for you in the in-between times.

5:01And so that's what I want to look at this morning. It was necessary for Christ to go through Samaria. Well, let's look back and just start walking our way through this great portion of scripture, John chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. I'll particularly try to cover verses 1 through 6 today, but I plan on reading through the whole and making some comments just so you can have a good overview of what's to come. But look back, verse 1. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were, he left Judea and went away again to Galilee. Now, a move is precipitated here. Something precipitates a move for Jesus. Jesus Is in Judea.

6:02He's baptizing from John chapter 3, or his disciples are baptizing in John chapter 3. He is up near Anon or near Selene in Samaria, under the province of the Roman province of Judea. But at some point, something happened. You remember from John chapter 3, what was happening? Jesus had to increase, and John had to decrease. And sometime in this increasing of Jesus' ministry and decreasing of John the Baptist's ministry, guess what happened? Jesus started making a lot more disciples than John the Baptist. And then guess what happened? The Pharisees heard about it. The Pharisees heard about it. And if you will remember back in chapter 1 and verse 19, they sent a delegation to figure out who this John the Baptist was because he was making such waves. And now all of a sudden, here is Jesus who is making more disciples than even John the Baptist and has created even a greater threat. So if they consider John the Baptist a threat, how much more would they see Jesus as a threat? Well, at some point, Jesus realized that this was the situation, and he knew it was time for him to leave Judea and go to Galilee. And so he lives.

7:30In verse 2, a parenthetical statement is made. Jesus himself is not baptizing, but his disciples were. It's interesting to note that Jesus baptized by proxy then, and he baptizes by proxy now. We still carry on, still baptizes through his disciples. But look back at verse 3. He left Judea and went away again to Galilee. So point A on the map was Judea. Point C on the map was Galilee. Point B, Samaria. Let me just give you a little picture, put this just on the screen for you to see where he's at. He's in Judea, and he's going to go up to Galilee. You can see the green arrow there. It shows right in the middle of Samaria. It's a place where he meets Sicar, where he meets the woman at the well. This little red dotted line is the preferred route to go from Judea to Galilee. He would go across the Jordan and go up east of the Jordan, all the way up into Galilee. That's the preferred route because it avoided Samaria. And many of the people, many of the devout Jews would not go through Samaria. They would rather go the longer route. And go up. But something else has to be pointed out here.

9:06If you're in Judea, it looks like, okay, the most straight route would be to go through here through Samaria. But the last time we, in John chapter 3, where we hear where Jesus' location is, it's up here around Anon, around Selim. He's baptizing up there. Now, this is a disputed site. There's another site further down here. But there are two sites that either one of them are, it's difficult to understand why Jesus would double back and go through Sicar there, up through into Galilee. It seemed like a little bit of a lengthier route. So he had to pass through. But certainly you can see the middle.

9:56What is very clear is that he goes a different route than one would expect for various reasons. But let's look back at the text. So in verse 4, he had to pass through Samaria. So he leaves Judea, goes through, and he had to pass through Samaria. He comes to a place in Samaria, in verse 5. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sichar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well, and it was about the sixth hour. It's about 12 noon. Okay, so we're probably into late spring, early summer, hot noon, about that time.

10:49But I want to come back and focus on verse 4. And he had to pass through Samaria. That is that expression. It was imperative. It was necessary that he had to go through Samaria. Now, some commentators take the position that, well, it's just a matter of expedient position or expedient travel. He wanted to get from A to C as quickly as he can, so he went through B, and that it's just a matter of expedient travel. But if you just look up on the map, you kind of wonder, well, it doesn't even look like it's a route of expedient travel if he's still up there baptizing around Selim.

11:30No, I would say that what is clear is that Jesus had to go for different reasons. It wasn't just a had to for travel expediency, but out of divine necessity. And throughout John, you see this God-ordained necessity for Christ to do something or to go someplace. And we've seen a lot of it already in John chapter 3. If you look back at John chapter 3, verse 7, what does Jesus say to Nicodemus? Do not be amazed that I say to you, you must be born again of divine necessity for you to see or understand the kingdom of God and to enter the kingdom of God. You have to be born again of divine necessity. In verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. In other words, the crucifixion is absolutely necessary.

12:39Verse 30, John the Baptist says, he must increase of divine necessity. He is the groom. Of course, the groom takes the sinner's show. The best man does not. He must increase. Jesus in John chapter 20, or speaking of the disciples, in verse 9, says they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. This divine necessity mandated that Jesus go to the cross and rise again. That's the language. This is necessary. In John 10, 16, Jesus says, This, I have other sheep which are not of this fold, and I must.

13:30Bring them in. Divine necessity. I have to. It is God who is driving me to this task. And in John 9:4, he says this: We must work the works of him who sent me as long as it is day. We must do this. You get this picture. The crucifixion was necessary. The resurrection was necessary. The proclamation to other sheep. John the Baptist had to increase or decrease while Jesus increased. All this is divine necessity. And you can add to that, Jesus had to go through Samaria because God wanted it. God specifically had something to do in this little in-between time of life for our Lord. So this morning, I want to talk about some of those reasons. Oh, by the way, I guess I give you a little more picture there of a little blow-up of where Shechem is and Sekar and Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebo. We'll talk about that. We're going to go deeper in the weeks ahead and really draw out some of this significance of all this. But for this morning, I just want to introduce you to this wonderful portion of John's Gospel by kind of a way of broad overview. And I want to talk to you about four reasons why I believe Jesus had to. Go through Samaria. Four reasons why it was God's eternal purpose that Jesus spend a little time in Samaria. Two days of very fruitful ministry along the way that I want you to see. There are four reasons here. Four reasons why I believe Jesus had to go through Samaria. Number one, and I'm going to spend most of my time here because we'll cover most of the text here. But number one, spiritual drink had to be given. Spiritual drink had to be given.

15:39We meet a thirsty soul in verse 7. Look back at verse 7. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. She came to drink. It's this whole context of people didn't have running water in their house. They had to go to a well and they had to, or to a spring, and there was a number of springs in the area. And she went out, came to the well. I want to give you a little bit of a picture of this.

16:17Some of these are some pictures that I took from Malawi. And here is a picture of a this is very common, some Malawian. Women at a local well. By the way, I'm doing this to also alert you. We're about to go again to Malawi and encourage you to be praying. But these are some pictures. These are some drive-by shootings, right? Drive-by, just driving by, taking pictures, right? Well, that's what this is. And this is a very common scene, a very common scene. And it will help you understand the custom of the day in Jesus' time as well. But you saw this all over the landscape. You saw a well or wells. As you drove by, you'd see people coming to get water. They would travel some significant distances, some not so significant, to get some well, or get some water from the well. And you can see the buckets. Now, the buckets were probably clay back in Jesus's day, but pretty much everything else looks about the same, except for maybe some of the asphalt pavement there and the well, a different kind of pump. But anyway, so what you see there is a little bit of a gathering.

17:35They would carry the water, okay, carry the water back. And by the way, that's a lot of water to put on your head. I mean, there is a, that is really impressive to be able to walk. I was very impressed. Here's some women returning home from the well. Now, I want you to picture these four women back here. Only one. Of them has water that she's carrying. The rest are kind of along for the conversation. And it gives you a little bit of a snapshot into the culture that Jesus would have been very familiar with and came to declare who he was to. Going back to this picture of these Malawian women at the local well, I want to point out a couple of things. That this is a practical gathering. Everybody needs water, but there's a little bit of social gathering going on, too, right? This woman here smiling at this one. This one's pumping water. This was just a quick snapshot, okay? This scene's all over. You have a lot of water that needs to be filled. You see a lot of empty buckets there. So they're going to spend some considerable time there. You've got some people, maybe the little kids came with them. They're sitting over there waiting for their turn to draw. And certainly, you get this picture. Let me tell you how news traveled. This is where news travels, right? This is how you get the scuttlebutt on what's going on, right? You can see some people just go along for the walk. It's a time of social connection, not just gathering water, but it's a time for people and neighbors to come. A lot of them would come in the morning. Some would come in the evening, especially during. The hot months, it's interesting to know that this woman comes at noon and she comes alone. It tells you a little bit about this woman at the well in our text this morning. But I give you that, I'll leave that, but just to give you an image of what this would have looked like.

19:55So back to verse 7. They came a woman of Samaria to draw water. And Jesus said, Give me a drink. Verse 8, for his disciples who had gone away into the city to buy food. Very simple. It's noon. He's been walking. It's thirsty. We could use a technical language, a technical word for thirst. I actually looked it up to really get into what is thirst. Now, here's a technical description of thirst. Thirst is an essential mechanism that involves fluid balance. Okay, that's pretty easy. It arises from a lack of fluids or an increase in the concentration of certain osmolites, such as salt. If the water volume of the body falls below a certain threshold or the osmolite concentration becomes too high, the brain signals thirst. You get it, right? So you can run out of water or you can go down to Double Dave's pizza and get a bunch of pepperoni pizza and dip it in all that garlic, salt, butter, and you can get thirsty, right? So, we could say this about Jesus. After walking a half day in a dry climate in the heat of early summer, his body experienced a significant decrease in water volume and a corresponding increase in the concentration of osmolites. His brain signaled to his mouth, and he opened it and said to the woman, Give me some drink. We could go that way, or we could simply just go with what the text says. Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting by a well because he was thirsty, right?

21:41But the bottom line is something on the inside was signaling he needed something from the outside, right? We could draw a little bit of a parallel between spiritual thirst as well. Something is exhausted on the inside that needs something from the outside to satisfy. But the thirsty soul in our passage is not Jesus. The thirsty soul is the woman who came to draw the water. Let's keep reading. Look at verse 9. Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, 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.

22:36So, the main theme, living water. Now, what's that? The main theme of this section is living water. Remember, in John chapter 3, it was the image of the new birth. And now we're going to talk about living water. And that's why I want to spend some time going deep with this concept because it is rich and it is beautiful. And you need to understand what Jesus is communicating here. But we can say this about this thirsty soul that we meet. First of all, she was a woman. It's obvious. Second, she was a Samaritan, a group of people. We'll say, leave it at this for right now, despised by the Jewish establishment. She was obviously a woman of poor morals. As you read along, she had five husbands and was living with somebody who wasn't her husband. She was alone, probably did not come out with the women earlier in the day or later. She appears alone. All this speaks that she is marginalized or outcast in many ways. I would say this: she was probably middle-aged or older. I just for laughs, I did some.

24:00Studies of some of the artwork of the woman at the well and kind of just looked at some of the different artist renderings. And a good bit of them, not the majority, have a nice, beautiful, young woman sitting by the well, right, talking to Jesus, probably a woman in her 20s or something. Well, I think she's probably a little older. I mean, in our culture, it takes a long time to cycle through five husbands, right? I mean, she probably takes some time and probably took some time back then as well. I don't think this was a spring chicken, but somebody who was well worn and had seen much of life and had been disappointed on many, many levels. Well, she was thirsty. That's obvious. She was physically thirsty. She had to have water. But more importantly, she was spiritually thirsty. Life was not at all what she had envisioned or what she had hoped, perhaps.

25:05The sin that promised her so much, the sin that had promised her a satisfaction, left her disappointed, shattered, cynical, and isolated. She was somebody who is in need of living water. And you know what? She's going to be watered. She is going to. Meet her soul is going to be satisfied, and that's what comes next. So, reasons: four reasons why Jesus had to go through Samaria. First reason, spiritual drink had to be given. Spiritual drink had to be given, right?

25:53And now, I want to keep going with this. I'm sorry. We've met the thirsty soul, and now I want you to see how this living water is poured out. Just want you to see that and how it takes place. But look back at verse 10 and make an observation: Jesus is the one who's going to offer this living water, and you have to see how freely he likes to give it. Look in verse 10. Jesus answered and said, 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. Notice the verbs: if you knew, you would have asked, and I would have given.

26:39Very simple. If you knew who I was and what I have to give, you would have asked me, and I would have freely given. And you see that beautiful picture of Jesus' generosity with what he has to give. He's never stingy with what he has. To you. That's the whole reason he came in the first place. It was to give. He came to satisfy thirsty souls. Are you thirsty today? Do you want what only God can give?

27:16Do you want to know the person who He gave to give it? If you do, just ask. He gives, it's Jesus. Let's keep reading. She said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get this living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. So we see this promise in Jesus, verse 10, ask. And now we see this request, right? Jesus says in verse 10, if you knew who I was and what I have to offer, you would have asked. Now, circle the whole verse 15. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw.

28:31So, verse 10: Here's the promise. If you knew who I was, you would ask, and I would give it. Verse 15, she asks for the water. Now, of course, she doesn't know what she's asking for, but what you can pick up with her is she communicates a trust in Jesus. She sees Jesus as legitimate. She's not calling into question, but there is a, almost like a childlike faith. Okay, whatever you have, it's what I want. Now, I want you to see the delivery. How Jesus is going to give her this living water.

29:08You have to pay attention because it takes us down a path you might not first think about. But, verse 16, he said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. Thus you have said truly. See, Jesus told her something that only Christ could know. He told her something that only God could know. And the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

29:44There's no other way that you can know this except God give this to you. Then she turns the whole idea to worship. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and your people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And then Jesus does something. He says something that only Christ would say. Not only knows something that only Christ would know, but he knows something that only Christ would say. Jesus says in verse 21, Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshipers. So here's the true seeker. God is seeking you, is what Jesus is saying. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

30:52So he takes her to worship, and he's saying, you know, let me tell you what God is looking for. He's looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth. That's what he's looking for. And then Jesus goes on to reveal himself as the Christ. Look at verse 25. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. And when that one comes, he will declare all things to us. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.

31:30Interesting. Jesus declares himself to be the Messiah in Samaria. First time you see these words on his lips, right? I am he. And remember, what he says in verse 10: if you knew the gift of God and who it is who speaks to you, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water. You see, Jesus says, you need to know who I am so that you can have the living water. But at this point, we're going to come back to this. It's profound. But at this point, the conversation is interrupted by the returning disciples.

32:13But John intends to communicate by the end of this narrative that this woman embraced Jesus as the Christ and drank in the living water that he gave, that he gives. Look at verse 27. At this point, his disciples came and they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, What do you seek? Or why do you speak with her? So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, Come and see a man who told me all the things I have done. This is not the Christ, is it? They went out of the city and were coming to him. Interesting. Now we've got the Samaritan woman saying, Come and see.

33:00You remember, we first see this invitation in John 1:39 when Jesus says to John the Apostle and Andrew, come and see. They said, Where are you staying? Come and see. And then Andrew, right? He goes and finds Peter. We have found the Messiah, Eureka, we found him. And then Philip, same thing. He goes and he finds Nathaniel, and Nathaniel says, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? And what is what does Philip say? Come and see. Come and see. And now we've got this woman picking up the same theme, going to her neighbors, Come and see. We have found the Messiah. This isn't he. This is he. Could it be?

33:51So, the question: why did Jesus have to go through Samaria? Well, first, first thing that jumps off the page, is that a soul had to be watered. Spiritual drink, living water, had to be given to a thirsty soul. And that's why he had to go. He had to go. A life was changed along the way. A little bit of fruitful ministry on the in-between time. Let's keep going. Four reasons why Jesus had to go through Samaria. First, spiritual drink had to be given. Second, spiritual food had to be understood. Understood. These last three go more quickly than the first.

34:38But the focus has shifted. The focus has shifted from the woman to the disciples. Spiritual drink had to be given to the woman at the well, but spiritual food had to be understood by the disciples. Look back, verse 31. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, no one bought him anything to eat, did he? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. See, the disciples had three very important lessons to learn on this little two-day layover in Samaria. And this was the first one. They needed to understand that doing God's will gives strength to the soul.

35:36Just like food nourishes, doing God's will nourishes the soul. It's food. You see, doing God's will does not drain your spiritual reserves, but on the contrary, it charges them. It charges them. Doing God's will will bring a vitality to your soul. I can imagine that at this point, Jesus is smiling. This is one of those times when Jesus got excited and he was smiling when he said to the woman, I am he. I don't think it was one of those stoic, I am he. It was a one you're talking to, I'm he. And she got it. I think there was a smile on Jesus' face. But there's a lesson for all of us: true ministry isn't going to wear you out, it energizes you. I think it's all the other non-true ministry activities that we get in that wears us out.

36:36I think that's why so many burnout in ministry. Let's just keep going. Second lesson the disciples had to learn is spiritual labor had to be envisioned. Four reasons why Jesus had to go through Samaria. First, dealt with the woman. Spiritual drink had to be given. Second, spiritual food had to be understood. And number three, spiritual labor had to be envisioned. Look back at verse 35. Do you not say that there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case, the saying is true: one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that. For which you have not labored, others have labored and you have not, and you have entered into their labor.

37:38From this, I think we can clearly see that God is about people. God is about people. And buildings, furniture, and programs, and monies, and events, they're only tools to promote spiritual awakening. God is not, the spiritual labor is not about buildings and programs, although those may be necessary tools, but it's about living souls coming in contact with living water. I should say, maybe dead souls coming in contact with living water. But on the way through Samaria, Jesus gave a vision to his disciples for their lives. He says, Let me tell you what your lives are about. It's about God's project, about spiritual awakening, spiritual renewal. You are an instrument to that end. And so, same with us. This is who we are.

38:47We're engaged in an enterprise of spiritual renewal, spiritual awakening, and spiritual revival. And this is what the disciples saw Jesus do as he took two days in Samaria. And this is what we are to be about as well. Number four. Four reasons why Jesus had to go through Samaria. Number four, the Savior of the world had to be revealed. Let's keep reading. Look at verse 39. From that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all the things that I have done. So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word, and they were saying to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the Savior of the world.

39:55This is an interesting confession of the Samaritans. He is the Savior of the world. He revealed himself. Now, let's think about what's taking place between chapter 3 and chapter 4, what John the Apostle is doing. Chapter 3, we meet Nicodemus, the best of men, the best that Jewish society could produce. I mean, he was at the top of the game. He was the teacher. He was the leader. He had grown up strictly in. Conformity with all of the scriptures and all of the traditions attached to those scriptures. He was a teacher himself.

40:38He was a man of the highest morals. And in chapter four, we turn a corner. We seem to go from the highest to the lowest. She's a woman, a Samaritan woman, permanently unclean. She was a woman of poor morals. Society didn't commend her. She was alone. She had nothing to commend her to God. I think one could hardly be lower in the eyes of society than this woman. And if you just put all of us here on the spectrum between Nicodemus and this woman, we're somewhere in the middle from society's eyes. What's God doing? What's John doing by showing us these two-day layover?

41:31He's showing us what the whosoever will believe in John 3:16. He's showing us the scope of the world from the ones that can commend themselves to the greatest to the least. But one thing both of these had in common: both of these, Nicodemus and this woman had one thing in common. They both needed mercy. All of Nicodemus's learning, and he didn't know what Jesus was talking about by being born again. They both needed mercy, they both were empty without God. Well, Jesus is indeed the Savior of the world, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus is for all.

42:31The distinction is not a class that separates people, but belief or unbelief. That's what separates. That's what is going to separate humanity. There's so much more to say, and that's why this is just an introduction, because we're going to get into some very rich theology, and I hope you'll be with us for the next couple of few weeks as we continue to mine our way through this great passage. But God had an eternal purpose for Jesus to go through Samaria. He had an eternal purpose for a two-day layover. Number one, spiritual drink had to be given to a thirsty soul. Spiritual food had to be understood by his disciples. Spiritual labor had to be envisioned by his disciples.

43:24And the Savior of the world had to be revealed, even outside. That close little group of the Jews. I hope that you will see that even our Lord embraced those little in-between times in his life. There's a picture of us as I think of one of the most beautiful landscapes I think that I've seen has been in Montana at the time of the wheat harvest. They have these mountains and fields and rows, just as far as you can see, dry wheat ready for harvest all over.

44:09It's one of the most prettiest landscapes I think I've witnessed in my life. But picture yourself there. I think a lot of us go through life like this. There's a mound up there, and we say, that's our place of harvest. That's where I'm going. And then you run through the harvest field, trampling over all kinds of wheat along the way. And you get to that mound, and you find out it's barren because you haven't taken time to cultivate the harvest along the way. You've trampled over. And I think many of us live that way. We're so driven to get to the next phase that we miss the opportunities of fruitful ministry and fruitful life and fruitful growth all around us.

45:01Yeah, I don't know what in-between time you may be in life right now, but God has a purpose for you being here, and it may be far more profound than you will imagine. Even, and I asked Marilyn's permission that I could share this, but even in times of cancer, that may be an in-between time. But I never will forget Howard, as he was struggling with Howard Atkinson, a former elder here, for those of you who do not know Marilyn, his wife back here who leads our ladies' shelter here.

45:40Even in times of cancer, I watched Howard use that time for fruitful ministry. As he'd go down to MD Anderson, here is the protocol. Howard said, Sweet baby, I'll take the nursing staff. You take the waiting room. Remember that? I mean, what a place of ministry, right? Be fruitful along the way to the end, through every place that God has you, all those in-between places. God has a purpose for you, and there's fruitful ministry in all of these places. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, just thank you for your church and for your people.

46:30Thank you for this message. I thank you for this two-day layover that John the Apostle has recorded for us under the inspiration of your Spirit. We're thankful for what it says about us. We're thankful for what it says about you and your generosity to give of your spirit to anyone who asks. And, Father, that is what we ask for today, that you would come and have your way by your spirit in all of us. And I pray for those here who do not know you that today they would open their heart to you, like this woman, and say, I need you. Please come and give me what you have to offer, and I will receive it. In Christ's name, amen.