Jesus and the Woman at the Well Part 2: Blessing, Curses, and Living Water - John 4:7-10

1:09A man once said to me, not so long ago, I really want to be blessed by God. In fact, I want to be blessed like Joseph was blessed, like Daniel was blessed. I want that kind of blessing upon me. It's a good question to ask. How do we have the blessing of God? How does one go from being under the curse of God to being blessed by God? How does one go from having the frown of God upon your life to having the smile of God upon your life? It's one of the most basic questions that the Bible answers.

1:58And yet, I'm afraid many of us really don't know the answer to that question. And the Bible doesn't want you to be ignorant on this one. How do you go from being under the curse to being under the blessing of God? Well, I think intuitively, we just thought about it. We would say, well, you obviously have to do what God wants you to do. You obviously have to become what God wants you to become because God isn't going to bless the way that is completely contrary to him.

2:37But the question becomes more deeper. Yeah, we know how, we know we must do what he wants to do. We must become what he wants us to become. But then the question is, how do we do what he wants us to do? And how do we become what he wants us to become? Well, that's what we're going to be looking at this morning. Last week, I gave you an overview of the 42 verses that encompass this whole encounter with Jesus and the woman at the well. We covered a lot of space, but just the length of this section of scripture tells you how important it is, doesn't it? Jesus spent a lot of time here. John spends a lot of time on this account, speaks of its importance. Well, this week, I'm going to just look at these few verses, but as I do, I want to give you a geography lesson. Does that sound fun? I want to give you a history lesson. Does that sound even more fun? And I want to give you, get this, a hydrogeology lesson.

3:51A hydrogeology, you know, hydro deals with water, geology, earth's formation, movement of water under something only an engineer would get excited about, but it is exciting, okay? But it sounds like we're at the great TAMU, right? We're sitting there in a classroom. But I think the geography and the history and even the hydrogeology is going to open this passage up in a way that it probably hasn't been opened up to you before. I am excited about what is here and what God has to show us. But I want you to understand the significance.

4:30Of what Jesus offers this woman with this living water. I want you to understand the significance of it, and the significance of what Jesus offered her is tied to where he offered it to her. So, I want you to see the significance of the place where Jesus offered living water to this Samaritan woman so that you will understand the significance of what he offered her and what he offers you today. So, first, I want to spend a little time looking at the setting. Some of this will be review, but just going back to John chapter 4, verse 1, I'll just read this. 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. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sicar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour, about noon, straight up noon.

5:57So the Encounter that Jesus has with this woman happens at a very significant historic place. Several key individuals came through this place, and several key events happened at this place. I want to talk to you a little bit about the people. Then I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the geography. And then I want to talk to you about one particular event that took place that will help you get an appreciation for the setting in which we find ourselves in this text. Well, the first person of significance, Abraham. The first mention of Shechem in the Bible occurs in Genesis 12. Now, that's a long way back. Shechem has been around for a long time, and Sikar is near Shechem.

6:52You remember when Abraham came out of Mesopotamia, when he first came out? And I'm going to read, I'm going to spend some time going through some portions of Genesis and Deuteronomy. You're welcome to turn there. Or you can just listen. But in Genesis 12, chapter 12, verse 1, the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land where I will show you. So he's calling Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldeans. And by the way, Abraham is 75 years old at this time. So if you think you're all washed up at the age of 75, look again at the scripture. This whole thing begins with Abraham at 75. Verse 5, Abram took Sarai, his wife, and his lot, his nephew, and all their possessions, which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haron, and they set out for the land of Canaan. Thus they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem to the Oak of Morag. So the first place he comes is to Shechem. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants, I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. So the first place that Abram comes into the promised land is in close vicinity to where Jesus meets this woman at the well. And Abram builds an altar there as an expression of his faith in the true God.

8:33And keep in mind, this is the first place of true worship ever erected in the promised land. Right here, right close to this well. We'll be seeing. The second key individual, Jacob. Jacob, Abraham's grandson. He wrestled with God in chapter 32, and Jacob's name was changed to Israel. Father of the 12 tribes. And he built an altar when he came back from Mesopotamia. You remember, he's in Mesopotamia for quite a while. And then he comes back into the land, and guess what? He comes to Shechem, this very place.

9:18Genesis 33, verse 18, I'll read you a portion of this. Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padam Haram. And he camped before the city. And he bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces of money. Then he erected there an altar, and he called it El Elohi Israel, God, the God of Israel. That's his new name. So he, this is, and by the way, he buys a piece of land. This is only the second piece of property in the province land that's actually paid for. So it becomes a center of the family. And in the same place that Abram erected an altar, so does Jacob. And although the Bible doesn't specifically say that Jacob dug a well while living in Shechem, it's safe to assume that he did. Both Abraham, his grandfather, and Isaac, his father, dug wells out of necessity. They had flocks. You needed water.

10:33And it's clear that both Abraham and Isaac dug wells, and Jacob would have grown up like this. But a very instructive text on this happens in Genesis 26 when Isaac, Jacob's father, is living down in the land of the Philistines. I'll just read you a portion of it. Genesis 26:18. Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham. For the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, I get this. A well, hydro geology, moving, water, moving under the, an underground, a well that connected to an underground stream, an underground movement. It was a living well, a water, a well of living water, flowing water. It's the idea, and that's going to be an important concept as you go through this, as we make our way through this passage. But there's a, the superiority of a flowing well over a stagnant well is pretty obvious. Number one, a flowing well is less likely to be polluted. And number two, It's less likely to be exhausted. It's reliable for a long term. Well, so what happens is Isaac finds this well of flowing water. But the herdsmen there, the Philistines, quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac and said, The water is ours. In other words, it's interesting, he doesn't say the well is ours. I think they knew who dug the well. What do they knew? They knew there was water under there. They understood the movement of groundwater.

12:34They said, the water is ours. So then Isaac goes and digs another well and hits water again, and he calls the place Rehaboth, meaning broad places. And he says, At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land. So a good well was necessary to being fruitful in the land. All your herds. So the bottom line is: water wells were necessary, and Jacob certainly dug his share. And the site of Jacob's well today is well attested by a continuous line of tradition. The modern site is almost certainly the same that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman. And it's worth noting that the word for well in John 4:6 is a word that refers to. To a flow of water. It is a running spring. It is a well, yes, it goes down, but it's got water springing up in it and moving through it. It was fed by an underground spring. And today, that well is still very reliable.

13:54Nearly four millennia later. Now, that was a good well. Reliable, living source. So I looked at Abraham, looked at Jacob. Another key person comes through here, and that's Joseph. Remember Joseph? He was that favored son of Jacob. And he traveled through this area, right through the two mountains that you'll see in a moment. Right through there, wearing his coat of many colors, looking for his brothers. He goes up a little to the north to Dothan, and guess what? They find him, and guess what they do? You know the story. They sell him to slavery in Egypt. He goes down to Egypt and he becomes exceedingly blessed by God. And years later, Joseph, on his deathbed, made the sons of Israel promise to take his bones back to the land and bury him there. Genesis 50, verse 25. And then 400 years later, Moses took Joseph's bones out of Egypt. Exodus 13, 19. And Joshua buried them at Shechem, Joshua 24, 32, which was the territory of Manasseh, his oldest son. So all that.

15:18Kind of a little history of the people. Now I want you to see a little bit of the geography of the area, okay? Talked about this last time. Jesus left Judea, goes through Sicar, which is right in the area of Shechem, and he goes right through kind of into Galilee, and he goes through a less traveled route. We covered that last time. But he comes to Sikkar, which is right between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Shechem is right there in the middle of those two mountains. So if you go there today, you're going to see something that looks like this. Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim separated by a valley. And in the middle, right in the middle of that is Shechem. And that valley between the two makes a natural amphitheater.

16:13So if you went there today and stuff, you'd see there's a major amphitheater. It's about a mile across. On one side, you have Mount Ebal, and you have on the other side, Mount Gerizim, Shechem right in the middle. If you stand on Mount, Gerizim, this is the view that you would see. You would see over here Sikkar. You would see Jacob's well over here. You would see Joseph's tomb. And you'd have the historic Shechem, the tell there of Shechem. You could see Mount Ebal off to the side. You're starting to get a feel for the landscape. Now, this happens to be a picture from the early 1900s from about the same vantage point. So you can see what it looked like before the modern city sprung up all around it. But there you have Jacob's well, Joseph's tomb, city of ancient city of Shechem, and Sikkar over here on the slope of Mount Ebal. So you'd be standing on.

17:18So coming back to this picture, you have right here in the center of this a well, Jacob's well. Okay, so in the background, you have Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim. This is the land of blessings and curses when you look at a historic event. And I'll just talk to you. Oops, I'll just leave that up there for just a second as you're thinking about this. I want to talk to you about a historical event that takes place. A historical event that takes place here on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

18:00Last few chapters of Deuteronomy, really, the whole culminating emphasis of the whole Torah. Okay, the first five books of the Bible, the culminating emphasis comes to chapter 27, 28 and deals with the issue of blessing and curses. That's where the Torah takes it: blessings and curses, and what God expects of those He's going to bless. And He wanted those blessings and curses to be remembered. He wanted to make sure that as the children of Israel went into the land, He wanted to make sure that it was well ingrained into their who they were and their national identity. And so they have this blessing and curses ceremony on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

18:58The ceremony took place as it says in Joshua 8:33. So it took place when they entered, but the instructions and the details of the ceremony are laid out in Deuteronomy 27 and 28. Now, keep in mind, this is again one of the first places as Israel comes into the land that they go. Something very significant about this location, this place. Abraham came there, built an altar. Jacob. Comes there, builds it. Joshua comes there and builds an altar, and you can go and see the ruins of it today.

19:38The curses. So the curses, the ceremony are laid out. And I'll just start reading to you some of Deuteronomy 26 and go in your mind back to this event. Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you today. So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones and coat them with lime and write on them all the words of this law. So white stones. And you're to write all of the words of the law on these stones. And you're to put them on Mount Ebal. That's where they go. Make these stones. Write out all the law. Put it on the mountain there. Okay?

20:35You shall write, verse 8, on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly. So, you know, if you wanted to get out of the house and be spiritually, hey, honey, I'm going to go up and read my Bible. You know, you hike up to the top of Mount Ebol, right? And you read. You get the Torah right there. That's the idea. Verse 11, Moses also charged the people on that day when you make these stones. And you set them up. On that day when you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. They're to stand on Mount Gerizim. Okay, and they're going to bless the people.

21:20For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dad, Dan, and Naphthali. So, other six tribes are standing on Mount Ebal. Then the Levites shall then answer and say to all the men with a loud voice, Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image. And all the people shall say, Amen. And in this natural amphitheater, you could hear the voice would travel and make its way through. Okay, so you have this mass of people on both sides saying, Cursed, and they're to yell out the curse. And then the people on Mount Ebel should say, Amen. And you go through the curses. Cursed is the man who makes an idol. Amen. Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother. Amen. Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary mark. Cursed is he who misleads the blind. Cursed is he who distorts justice due to an alien, orphan, or widow. And then he goes on to curses for all kinds of sexual sin. And then Gets down to verse 26. Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them, and all the people shall say, Amen. I mean, this is a real, huge ceremony.

22:45The way to confirm your belief in God's commandments is by doing them. And that's how God establishes this early on. Same true today. The way you confirm you believe is by obeying. So you have this volley of curses. Well, then, in chapter 28, they have this volley back. It's safe to assume that they have this volley of blessings that go back. And this is beginning in verse 1. It's what it says. 28, verse 1. Now it shall be if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord. And then they start in these: Blessed shall you be in the city, blessed shall you be in the country, blessed shall your offspring, blessed your produce, your herd, blessed your basket, your kneading bowl. Blessed, blessed, blessed. He will establish you as a holy people to himself, as he swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his way. And so all the people of the earth will see you, verse. Verse 10 and be afraid of you. Verse 13, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail.

24:08Verse 14, and he will set you above, and do not only observe them, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today to the right or to the left, or go after other gods. It's a big volley of blessings. 14 verses of blessings. But then starting in 15 in Deuteronomy 28, he goes through another 54 verses of curses. Now, he's already been through 26 verses of curses, and then he's going to add another 54. You can do the math. That's 70 verses of curses, 14 verses of blessings.

24:50Now, if I'm standing there, I might say something like, hey, boss, why are you talking so much about the curses, right? And we're going to go in and let's talk about those blessings more, right? Well, just it was evident that the curses, that these people going into the land, were going to experience the curses. And the culminating expression of the curses is found in chapter 28, verses 64 and 66. And it basically boils down to being separated from the good land that God promised them. Moreover, the Lord your God will scatter you among all the people. Peoples from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your feet. But there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. So your life shall hang in doubt before you, and you will be in dread of night and day, and have no assurance of your life. Scattered.

26:00Speaks very well of what has happened to the Jewish people, does it not? In fact, I remember a Jewish lady who left Israel, and I talked to her and I said, Why did you leave? She said, I had to give out. I had to leave. She said, I got tired of my life hanging in the balance. No assurance of a stable land. That's well, the bottom line is: Israel defiled the land by worshiping other gods. And so God took the land away.

26:34And listen, just as a side note, if God gives you something, don't defile it. If he gives you a wife, don't defile her by leading her into manners of sin. If he gives you gifts, if he gives you brothers or sisters, if he gives you friends, do not defile it. If he gives you a gift, if he gives you a singing voice, whatever he gives you, don't defile it. You can learn anything from Israel. Learn this: don't defile what he's given you.

27:16But what is implied in Deuteronomy 27 and 28 is explicitly stated in Deuteronomy 31:16. The Lord said to Moses, Behold, you're about to lie down with your fathers, and this people will arise and play the harlot with strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake and break my covenant which I have made for them. He said, This is what's going to happen, Moses. They're going to go into the land, and they're going to experience the curses.

27:55In Deuteronomy 30, verse 6, God lays out what the solution is to Israel's defection. They have a defecting heart. Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. In other words, God has committed himself early on to change. The heart of Israel. And he's going to do that by circumcising, by cleansing their heart. And at some time in the future, I believe this is going to happen.

28:47But now, let's go back to John chapter 4 and verse 7. We've looked at the setting for this encounter. Now I want to look at the encounter itself: blessing, curses, and the living water. First of all, look at Jesus's request. Jesus's request. Verse 7. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Now, stop for there for a second. Picture this woman coming to draw water from this well. What's looming large in the background? The great mountains of blessing and the great mountain of curses. Mount Ebal was a daily reminder of the law's demands and the curses upon lawbreakers. A daily you lived. That's what you woke up and just saw.

29:46And she, as this woman makes her way, she's very mindful of the law's demands and mindful of her painful shortcomings. This is the woman coming to the well. And it's here. It's here, at a well between this mountain of blessing and this mountain of curses, that God steps into her world. Right in the center. The light shined. The living word spoke. You can imagine that day. It started out like any other day. She was busy with her normal routine, and it's there that God totally interrupted her life. And it was never the same. Such is the work of God's specific grace.

30:41So keep going. There came a woman from Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. So here's the paradox, the whole thing. The word, the one who created the world and everything in it, is thirsty. And it's real thirst, by the way. He's not just pretending to create an occasion for a discussion. He is, and some in history have, who have denied the true humanity of Jesus, have taught this. No, it was true thirst. And keep in mind, he could have caused the water to come springing out, right? Just like he could have commanded the stones to become bread, he could have made this water do jumping jacks right in front of him and have a drink without doing anything. Right, but he never used his powers to serve himself, he uses what he has to serve, to honor God, and to serve humanity. What a scene! What a scene. Here's Jesus, God, sitting by a well, relating to this woman. I mean, God is about relating to people.

32:04He came to interact with people, he set up a world for interaction that he himself could step into and interact with people in the normal routine of things. He created the laws of nature, and he himself interacts and relates to people within those laws. And the times when he superseded him, he superseded him for our sake. He superseded him so that we would know who he is, and he superseded him for our well-being. You see, he came to give himself, and he came to give of himself. And so, the whole paradox of this whole scene is the one who is thirsty or the one who first asks for the drink is really the one who is offering the drink.

32:59Well, that's true. Jesus' request. Very simple. Give me a drink. Look at the woman's response. 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. You see, the woman was obviously surprised. Number one, she probably didn't expect this Jew to even talk to her, let alone ask her for a drink, and third, to drink out of the same utensil that she was going to draw it out of. That was hers. I mean, she's a Samaritan woman, right?

33:35They don't, that's what John's parenthetical statement: for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. It's an expression, it's probably best translated, or probably means something like this: that Jews do not use the same utensils as Samaritans. It's probably along the line of thinking, because the very word means Jews are having no togetherness, no close associations with Samaritans. Obviously, the disciples are out looking for food in the area of Samaria, so there is some interaction. So it's not like an absolute blockade. I mean, we can think of it, so they're out interacting, buying food. But what's happening here is it's like Nancy and I, Sometimes, get this, hold on, we'll drink out of the same straw with Dr. Pepper, something like that. I won't do that with other members of my household, but I will with her. And here's kind of the concept: this woman, like, you're going to drink out of the same thing that I'm drawing with. Well, there's two reasons for her surprise, and both are observed in her response. First of all, she was a Samaritan. You being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan? I mean, there was quite a separation, quite a separation between Jews and Samaritans. And it wasn't just geographic.

35:18They were close neighbors geographically, but there was a political difference, there was an ethnic difference, and there was a religious difference. You remember Solomon and his lustful appetite for women led Israel into gross idolatry, which in turn brought about a divided kingdom, right? And Jeroboam, civil war, split off, ten tribes go to the north. Only two remain in the south. And King Omri set up Samaria as the capital city for the northern kingdom. And they go further into gross idolatry. And then I. God brings the Assyrians against them. And the Assyrians in 722 and 21, they come in and they conquer this land, Samaria and Shechem. And they deported all the Israelites of substance. They only left kind of the lower categories in the land. And then they imported a bunch of foreigners. This was their battle plan. You conquer an area, you deport people out, put them in another land, you switch the peoples around, so then the people don't really have a homeland. This was how the Assyrians did things. Pretty smart, actually. And so, what you end up having is this intermingling of ethnic groups.

36:46And religion, religion also was mixed in this whole deal. So the Jews at this time saw the Samaritans as political rebels, half-breeds, and apostate in their religion. So you could say, really, like to a Jew, Samaritans looked differently, they acted differently, and they thought differently. Kind of the way Aggies view longhorns, right? Just differently. Well, there are two reasons for her surprise. First, she was a Samaritan. Second, look back, she was a woman. And this is.

37:30Pious Jews really stigmatize Samaritan women. In fact, just a generation later, the Jewish leaders are going to codify in the Mishnah of popular sentiment that was certainly around at the time Christ was there. And I will quote it: this is what they say about all the daughters of the Samaritans. The daughters of the Samaritans are menstruants from their cradle. In other words, what he's saying is they are perpetually unclean from the cradle to the grave, which means do not touch them. Number one, number two, don't touch anything that they touch, or you will be unclean. Now, that's some stigma, right? So you can understand, you can understand the woman's surprise. I remember when my dad was growing up, he told me the story that they would put the dinner plate, when he was a little boy, he'd put the dinner plate after he got through down on the floor so that the dogs could lick it off. And they would make it spotless clean, and then he didn't even need to wash it. He could just put it back in the shelf. Now, how would you like to eat off that plate?

38:49Well, that's exactly the stigma of drinking out of a cup that a Samaritan woman had used. Now, that's. Why she is surprised. Well, so that's her response. Now look at Jesus's offer. Jesus 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. This is one of those if-then statements. If two things were true, then two things would have naturally followed. Look back. If two things, if number one, she knew the gift of God, she would have, and number two, if she knew who it was who was asking her for a drink, two things. If she knew the gift of God, now what is the gift of God? Wow, the differences of opinion on this. And I don't think John wants us to be ambiguous about this at all. But is the gift of God the Torah? Certainly, Jews saw the gift of God as the Torah. Or is he speaking about eternal life or even the Holy Spirit? Or is it the grace of God? Or is it this gracious opportunity? Or maybe the gift is the living water itself. All of these, all of these have their merits. But I think it's very clear, at least in my mind, that none of these are the gift of God, though they are all gifts of God.

40:26This is the gift. I believe that Jesus is referring to himself. As the gift of God. And this fits well with everything John has said in the book so far. This fits very well with John chapter 3. God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him as an expression of love, God gave. And what do you give? You give gifts. And the gift that God gives the world is his son. That is the gift. And I don't believe John wants us to be unclear about this at all.

41:13So Jesus is the gift of God. And he's the gift of God who gives living water. So think about this. The gift of God is a person. The gift of God is a relational being, a person who knows you, a person who loves you, and a person who gives to you. That's a gift. You know, a good father is a gift to a family. A good leader is a gift to a nation. God's good gifts are people. And the best gift, the gift, is the Son. So if she knew the gift of God, and if she knew who it was asking her for a gift, Drink, she would have responded very differently. That God's gift, His Son, was the one talking to her.

42:10Two things. So, if she knew two things, then two things would have naturally followed. First of all, you would have asked, and He would have given. Look at that. You would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water. You would have asked, and He would have given. What is the living water? It's interesting. Again, another issue that I don't think John expects us to be unclear about. And we're going to answer this question a little more over the weeks to come as Jesus is going to elaborate more on this living water. But right now, I think it's sufficient for us to make a few comments based upon what's already been said in John and what the metaphor itself means.

42:58You can say this about living water: it's spiritual in nature. We get that. He's not talking about physical water, talking about something spiritual in nature. The living water is something dispensed by Jesus, it's something he gives. The metaphor itself speaks that living water is life-giving, life-transforming. Living water is something that refreshes and satisfies the soul. Takes us to one conclusion. The living water is the Holy Spirit. He is the one. Jesus is the baptizer, right? This is already what John's been telling us. Jesus, the one who you see the Holy Spirit upon, this one, he is one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. So he's using another metaphor. But it is this living water that is necessary for one to go from the curse of God to the blessing of God.

44:04And I'll tell you what really impresses me about this is the freeness of the offer. If you knew the gift, if you knew who it was, you would have asked, and he certainly would have given. This is what he gives. He himself is a gift. And what he gives, he gives of his Holy Spirit. How else are you ever going to desire to keep the ways of God? How else are you going to delight in the ways of God unless you have a spirit that delights in the law of God?

44:45It has to be given. He gives us new hearts, hearts for God. This is the work of the Spirit. He gives it because, so that we would delight. We need that. We need to delight. In the things of God, if we're going to have a heart to obey them, if you really don't like the things of God, you're not going to obey. Well, as we bring this to a close, you know, he had to go through Samaria, verse 4. And it wasn't because of expedient travel, but for something far more profound, far more weighty. Here is Christ standing between the mountain of blessing, the mountain of cursing, at a well, offering living water. You want to know how you go from being under the curse of God to being under the blessing of God? You receive what He is giving, you receive who He sent, and you receive what He gives.

45:56You have to drink. That is, you have to take in who Jesus is and the living water that He offers. You have to take in in order to become, in order to do all the things that please God. So, where are you this morning? Where do you stand? Do you stand in the crossroads between the curses and the blessing? You know, we don't. Have the law written on white stones overshowering, overshadowing our every move, do we? But we do have the written record, and our conscience bears witness. We know the difference between right and wrong.

46:46So you need to receive that living water, and you receive it by surrendering. First of all, I believe who you are. I receive what you have to give, and I will respond by following you. And that's consistent with the language of John. Surrender, receive, take in, respond. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, such profound truth. Father, we know that you are the one who stands between the blessing and curses. We know that you sent your Son as that mediator, as the one who gives, as the one who cleanses, as the one who heals, restores, forgives. And so, Father, we come before you knowing our dependence upon Him.

47:44And we ask that you would, in Your providence, lead us all to this well today. That we would desire the living water, the soul satisfaction that only you can give through your Spirit, through the cleansing and renewing. Work of your Holy Spirit. And so we come today. In Jesus' name.