Making the Most of Opportunities to Speak About Jesus Christ

How many here know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? Raise your hand. Raise it really high. If you have to think about it, you’re already sunk. Amen. You have to know that you know that you know that Jesus Christ is our Lord, our Savior, our King.

And I want to talk about a woman who did not know Jesus and who had the privilege of having him personally reveal himself to her. He approached her and spoke to her about who he was, and she had a precious, direct encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is found in John, chapter 4. It is the story of the Samaritan woman. She was called a Samaritan because she lived in a village in Samaria, and the passage begins in verse 1 of chapter 4, when the Lord arrives at that village in Samaria. That village was called Sychar; it was a city, the town of Sychar, but it was part of the larger region of Samaria. Let us begin in verse 4, where it says that, in order to go to Galilee from Judea, the Lord had to pass through Samaria. And that is very significant in light of what we will see later.

To go to Galilee, he had to pass through Samaria, and so, as he traveled through Samaria, he came to Sychar. And that village, that city, was near a piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph centuries earlier. And that well was there, the one called Jacob’s well; that is, there was a very interesting history associated with that specific place, Jacob’s well.

And I think that place is interesting because Joseph, Jacob, and that well spoke of the history of Israel, of Judaism, of the patriarchs. That well represented very important things that had happened in Israel, while the Lord Jesus Christ, who represents something new, something different, is like the continuation of the story, but he also transcends Hebrew history.

But at that well, two worlds meet, as it were: the Hebrew world, the Jewish religion, the religion established by Moses under God’s direction, the world of the commandments and the prescriptions of the Old Testament. That world, and another world, which is the world embodied by Jesus Christ, the new dispensation, so to speak, that he inaugurates. A new way of relating to God and to the Father. Those two worlds have continuity between them, but there is also conflict, and the Lord is there at that moment.

I believe that God, who is a symbolic God and tremendously intentional in what he does, wanted a dialogue to take place there, in that place that reminded us of two worlds: the world Jesus was opening up and the world represented by Jacob’s well. And this Samaritan woman was in a kind of limbo, because she was neither one thing nor the other, neither fish nor fowl, as Guatemalans say. She was something different. She was in a kind of limbo because she was not Jewish, nor was she Christian, nor was she truly a Gentile, because the Samaritans also identified somewhat with Judaism.

The Samaritans practiced a rather strange, blended religion. In fact, some Samaritans still live in the area of Palestine. They came from pagan nations, pagan tribes that had remained in Canaan, and many of them had embraced Judaism; some had married Jews, but their religion was a hybrid, a mixture of religions. They were not Jews, and the Jews regarded them as unclean people, disposable people. There were serious disputes; the Jews despised the Samaritans because they regarded them as impostors. They thought, “These people pretend to be Jews, to be part of us, to be the same as us; they claim Abraham as their father, but they are not truly Jews.” They had a mixture of idolatry and other things.

So the Jews wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans, and that is why they tried to go around—if they had to travel past Samaria, they would take a strange detour, an extremely long way around, to avoid being contaminated by those blessed Samaritans. That is why it says that the Lord had to pass through Samaria, but he did not go around Samaria; he passed through it, and there is meaning in that.

So he came to this city, and Jacob’s well was there. Then Jesus, weary from the journey—it reminds me of that chorus, “weary from the journey”—sat down beside the well. And it was about the sixth hour, more or less; it was noon. Imagine that scorching Middle Eastern sun at noon; it was about the sixth hour. And a woman from Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink,” for his disciples had gone into the city to buy food. And the astonished Samaritan woman said to the Lord, “Hey, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink when I am a Samaritan woman?” For Jews and Samaritans do not associate with one another; remember what I told you a moment ago.

That woman was able to identify Jesus as a Jew, perhaps by his accent, perhaps by his appearance, perhaps because it was a village where everyone knew everyone else and this man obviously had a manner that made him seem Jewish. And so she was surprised that a Jew would ask her for a drink.

Then the Lord answered her and said, “Ah, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” And the woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing with which to draw it, and the well is deep. Where, then, do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, from which he, his sons, and his livestock drank?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Anyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst. Rather, the water that I give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” And the woman said to him, “Sir, give me that water so that I will not thirst or have to come here to draw it.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.”

Here things get a little tense. The music changes; until now, it has been romantic, soft, melodious music, and suddenly there is a kind of discordant chord. And then the woman says to him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have rightly said, ‘I have no husband,’ because you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” And the woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is also seeking such worshipers to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah, called the Christ, is coming. When he comes, he will tell us all things.” And Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.” Amen.

How beautiful, right? I would like to see that movie someday. When I get to heaven, I am going to say to him, “Lord, where is the video of when you met the Samaritan woman and this and that?” It is going to be very interesting.

We see several elements here in this passage. One of them is the importance of one soul, the value of one soul to the Lord. And how important it is for us to have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to discern the moments God places in our path so that we may testify to someone about Jesus Christ.

Another thing I believe is that no soul is unimportant to God. It does not matter how poor the clothing surrounding him or her may be. It may be a homeless person on the corner of Albany Street and Massachusetts Avenue; it may be someone who taps on your window so that you will roll it down and give him a quarter on some corner here in the city. It may be a drunkard, a homosexual person, or anyone else; it may be a neighbor you do not like. That soul is important to God, no matter what outward clothing it wears.

There is an eternal, infinitely valuable soul there, regardless of its outward clothing. That soul has an eternal destiny; that soul bears the seal and image of God. That soul has infinite value to God, and we cannot waste an opportunity to plant a seed of goodwill, preparing the way for someone else perhaps to come later and continue building on that seed of kindness that we planted through a friendly conversation, a discreet word about the Lord.

But we are all sowers, and we are always sowing so that others may come and reap, while discerning that God always gives us opportunities to preach the Gospel to others.

So the Lord recognized that importance. Wherever he went, he took advantage of opportunities; he never wasted an opportunity to evangelize. And the reason for the church of Jesus Christ’s existence is to bring others to the knowledge of the Lord. The church does many things: it performs acts of charity, does social work, has times of fellowship—there are many things we do—but the primary call is: go to the nations and preach the Gospel to every creature.

And that is what we have to do. The Lord did that. The Lord preached to multitudes, but he also preached to individuals, and some of the moments that most clearly reveal his heart and his inner beauty are the moments when he encounters a sinner, whether Zacchaeus, Bartimaeus, the woman with the issue of blood, this Samaritan woman, Levi, or Peter—those individual moments when we see that the Lord cared about one soul.

If you do not care about one soul, there is something wrong in your life. A child is a soul; a three-year-old child has a fully developed soul, an adult soul; indeed, an eternal soul is in there. The child’s clothing does not diminish the divinity within. That is why it is so important for us to value every soul, because God has made us fishers of men.

What did Christ say to Peter? “From this day forward, you will be a fisher of men.” And that is what you are, and that is what I am. The Lord was a fisher of men. He said, “I have come to seek what was lost.” That was his reason for being. And the Lord always turned obstacles into opportunities to minister to others.

Here there was an obstacle: Samaria, the hostilities between Samaritans and Jews, ethnic and racial hatred—that which is killing humanity today. Xenophobia, fear of the foreigner, is what the word xenophobia literally means. It is seeing the foreigner as a threat. And many are threats; that is true—in many cases it is so—but many others are also blessings in disguise. That is why the Word tells us not to neglect hospitality, because by doing so, many have entertained angels without knowing it.

The Lord harbored no ethnic hatred. The Gospel must not fall into that trap. That is why I say that, for me, the world is our field. We are Hispanic, we are Latino, but God has called us to evangelize the nations. Lion of Judah has a universal calling. Lion of Judah has a calling to evangelize African Americans, Asians, Haitians, Africans, Anglo-Saxons, and Europeans. You name it. We do not draw those ethnic distinctions, and I plead with us that, as a multiethnic, multinational church, we would see ourselves as souls in Christ Jesus, all brothers and sisters, and that we would appreciate one another in our diversity.

The Lord did not erect those barriers. He did not underestimate the value of one soul, because we are all equally valuable before him. The Lord is interested in your life, in what is happening, in your drama. You may think that you are struggling and suffering alone, but the Lord is watching and looking for an opportunity to enter your life, deal with you, and become the King, Lord, and inhabitant of your heart.

And he sees this woman and reads her completely. He sees inside her; he knows her past, knows her history, knows her weak spot, but he also knows that there is a beautiful human being there with great potential, and his computer tells him, “How do I reach this soul? How do I speak to her?” And an idea occurs to him. She comes to draw water, and he uses that as a way to establish a dialogue.

He says to her, “Give me a drink,” and with that statement he is winning her over. Interestingly, one of the first things I see here is that, at this moment, Jesus’ divinity and humanity come together—the mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus felt hunger; Jesus felt thirst; Jesus felt weariness. It says that he was weary from the journey. One might think that Jesus had an inexhaustible supply of vitamins inside his body and never grew tired. No, the Lord was human; his body was a biological body. That is the mystery of the Incarnation. He was fully God and fully man. And it says that he became a participant in our weaknesses so that he could know within his own being what happens to a human being. He was tempted as we are, yet without sin. He felt alone; he felt dejected; he even felt anxious when he contemplated the cross as his immediate future. He felt anxious about what awaited him.

The Lord felt what we feel, and he felt hunger, thirst, and weariness too. But he used that as an opportunity to speak to her. The humanity that Jesus experienced within himself enables him to identify with us. If he had been a distant God, floating in his universe, he could not have approached this woman and said to her, “Give me a drink.”

And with those words he begins an entire chain of symbolism centered on water and on the human need for water. And we will see that later. He is thirsty and meets this woman, and from that moment he begins her rescue.

We have to take advantage of opportunities like that with the neighbors around us in order to start something. I have a neighbor nearby, and one day I was asking the Lord, “Let this man come to church.” He is an American, a blue-collar guy, a rugged working man, but with a tender heart. And he likes to eat, so every now and then I bring him a cake, I bring him a loaf of bread—perhaps I am hurting him because I am making him gain even more weight—but it is a way of winning him over. And I am asking the Lord to help me take advantage of those moments when I greet him. Whenever I leave for church, without fail, he is always sitting on his porch watching, and I do not think he feels happy on Sunday mornings until I honk that horn at him. “Bye,” but I tell him, “Take care, man. See you later.” Because I want him to see a pastor—he knows that I am a minister—and to see me as a friendly, approachable person, not as though I were better than he is. I think he feels guilty because every Sunday he sees me coming to church while he is sitting there in his chair. And I want him to feel guilty; that is all right—let us see whether he reacts one day.

But I am putting out the bait; one day I want to invite him to church. I will not feel comfortable until I see him come here to church one day. In the meantime, I keep planting little seeds there in his heart. But we have to take advantage of opportunities—our neighbors, the people around us. We have to come out of this nation’s nature reserve. If you have someone nearby, take a chance and bake that person some chocolate-chip cookies or whatever, and find some way to reach out; or if you see that the person likes something, use that as a starting point.

The Lord used the water. He used kindness; he won that woman over because he made himself vulnerable at that moment. When you make yourself vulnerable before someone, that often elicits sympathy from that person. He said to her, “Could you give me a glass of water, a little water?” Because she was going to draw water at that moment. He asks her a favor; he makes himself vulnerable; he makes himself unassuming.

I think one of the things people appreciate is seeing an evangelical who is humble at heart and vulnerable. We make people believe that we are spiritual giants, that we have no problems, that we are perfect, walking around everywhere with our seven-pound Bible under our arm and looking upward as if... People like it when you tell them, “Look, I am a sinner like everyone else, but I have been forgiven by Christ Jesus.” I have the same struggles you have, but I entrust myself to my God, and he heals me and forgives me.

People like approachable people, people who laugh, people who do not take themselves so seriously. We evangelicals take ourselves very seriously, and that is a problem because then people feel like, “No way; I could never attain the glory in which that person dwells.” They have not seen us in our underwear at night watching television or a ball game, or yelling at our wife, or yelling at the children. People like to see a three-dimensional human being. Let us be unassuming with people; let us be friendly and let people see our humanity.

The Lord has no pretensions at that moment, and he approaches her; he wants a relationship of friendship with this woman. And the woman is surprised; all at once, she marvels that a Jew, who appears to be an educated, serious man, asks her for water—such an intimate act, drinking from a vessel that she is going to provide. Any other Jew would have said, “No, that will make you unclean. This woman is a sinful woman; she is a Samaritan.” They did not know the rest of her history. If this woman gives you a drink, you will become ritually unclean. And she is surprised that this Jewish man asks her for a drink.

And once again, the Lord breaks through that barrier. She may feel rejected, and one of the things I believe the Lord wants to bring into our hearts is that peace of knowing that we are not rejected. God does not reject us. God is not hostile toward us. Rather, God desires fellowship. Even though humanity today is so separated from God and so rebellious, I believe God desires reconciliation with humanity. God does not yet want to destroy man.

One day it will become inevitable, but I believe that God still desires reconciliation with his creature. And many of us are asking, “Lord, send fire”; we sing, “Send fire, Lord, send fire.” But the Lord says, “Hey, I did not come to destroy souls; I came to save souls.” Let us love our city; let us love the people around it. The Lord does not want barriers; on the contrary, the Lord wants to be reconciled with us.

And she says to him, “But how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan, to give you a drink?” And there he sees another opening. It is as though he moves through different layers of intimacy. He wants to lead her to that final declaration we heard: “I am he, the one speaking with you.” But he takes her through a psychological process of descending into greater depth.

And the question she asks gives him an opportunity to say something about who he is. And he piques her curiosity. She says, “How is it that you, being a Jew...?” In other words, she is already alluding to his identity. But she sees only the Jew; she sees the man; she sees the person asking her for a drink in a practically everyday manner. Then the Lord says to her, “Ah, if you knew who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ not only would you give him a drink—no, you would ask him for water, and he would give you living water.”

And once again, a series of important elements comes into play. But notice that the Lord begins to point toward his own person. From this point on, things will revolve around who he is. And I tell my brothers and sisters—and I tell you this as well—not to get entangled in questions of theology and all these things. Let us introduce people to a person, Christ Jesus. Christianity is not primarily a system of laws; it is not a system of theological beliefs. It is a relationship with a person named Christ Jesus—a personal relationship.

The Bible says that the Lord stands at the door and knocks, and if anyone hears his voice and opens the door, who comes in? Judaism does not come in; Christianity does not come in; the commandments do not come in. “I will come in to him and dine with him, and he or she with me.” It is a relationship with an individual. That is how it is at all times.

The Bible says, “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.” The Lord is always alluding to himself. “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” It is a personal relationship. And that is something we have to emphasize continually to people.

People say, “Well, I am Catholic; I do this; I do not do that; I do not do this; I do not do that; I go to church; I do not need...” And we have to tell them, “Look, it is not about the church you attend; it is not about your being Catholic; it is not about crossing yourself every day or giving tithes to the church. The question is: Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord, as your Savior, as your counselor, as your master, as the one who guides you, who speaks to you, who heals you, who provides for you, with whom you communicate every day? Do you know Jesus? Does he dwell in your heart? Have you received him? Have you acknowledged him as your Lord and Savior?” Direct that person toward the person of Jesus, and encourage him to shake hands and make a covenant with Jesus Christ.

Everything else flows from that. It is good to come to church, of course it is. It is good to have a relationship with a community; in fact, one cannot be a genuine Christian without having a relationship with the body of Jesus Christ. I do not believe in cornflake Christians, watching television on Sundays while eating a bowl of cornflakes and believing that they are having church. No. The Bible says, “Let us not forsake assembling together, as some are in the habit of doing.” Come to your church. Do not be so sophisticated that you think, “No, I meet with God at home.” Yes, but there is something God has said: that we should come to the temple and worship the Lord. Something happens when the body of Christ mystically comes together and worships the Lord as one; that has its place and its beauty.

But having said that, I tell you that if church is a substitute for your personal relationship with Christ, then you are mistaken. A Christian has to pray at home, has to worship at home, has to read the Bible at home, has to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not a switch that you turn on when you walk through the church door—pop, now you are a Christian. When you leave, you turn it off again, and now you are an ordinary citizen. Some people have that idea. No. You are a Christian twenty-four hours a day, because Christ does not remain here while you leave... No, you go with Jesus every day of your life.

The Bible says, “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” We are Christians in church, outside church, on the street, at work, on the road—wherever we may be. It is a person; it is a relationship. And the Lord is leading her toward that understanding because she is immersed in her traditions and her own things.

Then he says to her, “If you knew, you would ask him, and he would give it to you.” And here begins a series of different symbols that he embodies, symbols that are so important and that we need to understand. The first thing I see is all of this imagery surrounding water.

First, he tells her that there is a difference between living water and dead water. And he says to her, “And he would give you living water.” Why? Because the well from which this woman was drawing water is just that: a well. Its water comes from underground seepage that filters and flows by gravity through the earth until it reaches a place where a well collects it, but it is dead water. That water does not spring up; it has no current, because it is simply a reservoir. A well is a large pot of water sitting there, and it always has water because water is flowing underneath, seeping into it and filling it, but it is dead water; to some extent, it is stagnant water.

And the Lord plays with that image and says to her, “If you knew, he would give you living water.” What does that mean? He would give you joy, abundance; he would give you the Holy Spirit; he would give you gladness. It says, “He who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from within him.” The Lord always identifies his person and his entrance into a life with living water, water that springs up. I believe Christianity has to be joy; it has to be gladness; it has to be optimism, hope, expectation.

We were talking one Wednesday, two Wednesdays ago—and, by the way, I invite you to come on Wednesdays; they are precious times. The apostle Paul says, “Rejoice; again I say, rejoice.” Brother, if you do not have moments when you laugh by yourself while taking a shower, there is a problem in your life, because a Christian has a right to rejoice, yes or no? I believe no one should have a better sense of humor than a Christian, looking toward the future with great expectation, with his heart and body trembling with joy from time to time.

We cannot be like little birds held captive in a cage that no longer know how to sing. A Christian has to live joyfully even when we are going through tribulations and difficulties. There are moments when I know that my passport has been stamped and that a heavenly homeland awaits me, that I am going to travel among the planets without a visa or anything else, without documentation, because my soul will be completely free, and that God has delivered me from sin and from death, and that I have the power of God dwelling within me. That should be a reason for joy in my life.

We Christians have to be dynamic; we have to be enterprising; we have to dare to do great and serious things because we have an almighty God who is with us. There is joy, living water. If you do not feel that joy, hypnotize yourself; go into a room and simply shout so that you can learn to shout with joy and gladness. Practice it, and you will see that one day it will come naturally from within you. But the Gospel has to be joy; it has to be hope; it has to be gladness; it has to be exuberance. Let us teach our children to laugh and rejoice, and let us show the world a Gospel of gladness and hope.

The Lord says, “Hey, you would drink from the water that I am going to give you.” It is water of exultation, exuberance, enthusiasm, joy, and gladness. I do not believe in dead churches where everything is a gloomy nineteenth-century organ. No, it is good to worship the Lord as we do, raising our hands, jumping, and giving glory to the Lord.

Joy, abundance, rivers of living water. I would give you that water to drink. And then he continues. The woman says to him, “Sir, you have nothing with which to draw that water.” She is caught up in... because people who do not know the Lord and do not know the Bible always think in literal terms; they do not understand symbolism. You may not realize what a privilege it is to be a Christian and come to church. You do not realize everything you are often learning when you come to church. And one of those things is that a Christian learns to think in abstract terms, in philosophical terms.

We come here and study ethics, philosophy, theology, history, politics—all of that. If you did not know that, well, look, now you know, so give more money to the Kingdom of God because you are receiving a great deal. Tithe with greater enthusiasm.

There are many beautiful things that we receive from the Lord, and your spirit is being enriched. If you were to go back to school now after fifteen years away, you would discover that your mind has broadened because you have been involved in the things of the Lord. In other words, she thinks only in literal terms.

The great wise man Nicodemus, when the Lord tells him, “You need to be born again,” says to him, “Lord, how is it possible for a man to enter his mother’s womb and be born again?” He is thinking in literal terms; his spirit is coarse, his mind is coarse.

I talk with people who are merely religious—and I am not going to mention religions right now—but you talk with them and they are like spiritual children; they do not know how to discern, because they do not engage with or work with the symbolism of the Gospel, of the Word of God.

And this woman says to him, “But how is it that you are going to give me water, and where is the utensil that you… and where are you going to get living water? This is a well; where is the river from which you are going to give me living water? Are you perhaps greater than our father Jacob, who himself had to drink from this water?” But he is speaking about a different kind of water. He is speaking about internal water—not external water, but internal water. Another controversy, another conflict that arises here.

He is speaking about water that flows inside a person, and that is why he tells her later, “Anyone who drinks from that water you are drawing will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never thirst.” So he is speaking to her about internal water, water that flows. He is not speaking about physical water, but about that water that refreshes us, that water that is within us.

You know, the world continually heats up our blades. But there is water flowing inside us that cools them. Some time ago this image occurred to me: have you seen those men sometimes working in the streets, especially in the summer, cutting concrete with an electric blade? And very often someone is pouring water on those blades while the blade cuts the concrete so that it does not overheat and burn out the motor or burn the blade; they pour water on it. They are spraying water so that the blade will stay cool while it cuts the concrete.

And I believe that is what we are like, to a certain extent. The world heats up our blade. When you work, when you have a marital problem, when your children turn out to be disobedient or difficult, when the bills have not been paid, your blade heats up; but you have water flowing inside you that continually refreshes you. It is the water of knowing that God is within you. The Holy Spirit is within you.

When I feel anxious and worried, where do I go? I go to my Heavenly Father. I go to his promises, lay my chest against him, and say to him, “Lord, I need you to stroke my head. I trust in you; you are my God, you are my Lord. You have gotten me out of so many tight spots, and you will get me out of this one too.” And that calms me. In a sense, it pours water on my blade; it gives me calm, it gives me peace.

We have internal water flowing inside us. It is not water that the world gives. It is living water that blesses us and refreshes us. Man needs external water; he needs to go to a nightclub to feel happy. And when there is a party, what do unbelievers do? Liquor. Sometimes you go to a restaurant and sit next to a group of people. They arrive at the restaurant, sit down, and everyone is subdued, quiet, somewhat gloomy. They order their first round of wine. Twenty minutes later they are all talking cheerfully, happy, laughing, telling jokes. Why? Because the liquor has relaxed them; it has opened their mouths. And they go to a party and it is the same: everyone comes in gloomy and quiet, they have three drinks, and forget about it—they become conversational geniuses. That is because they need external things—paying off their debts, this and that, having a good car, external things—to feel happy.

The Christian has inner joy, the water of life flowing inside us. It is permanent water; that water flows continually inside us. He says, “Anyone who drinks from this water will be thirsty again.” That is how it is, isn’t it? If you physically drink water, after a while you are thirsty again. But he says, “Whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

I say that the Christian is like camels, which carry water in their gourds. I would like to find a more elegant animal, but the only one that occurs to me is the camel. You carry water with you. Camels have water in there; that is why they store it. Did you know that? If you did not know it, that one is free. Camels store water; that is why they are desert animals. And we are like camels: we have water inside us, and we continually nourish ourselves with it—the water of the Lord.

We experience physical thirst, but we have water… as soon as thirst comes, we can appeal to prayer, to communion with the Lord, and that quenches our thirst. When you feel sad, when you feel troubled, go to the Lord and bring him your need. Many of our brothers and sisters have experienced this discouragement over the recent decision the court has made. As we were saying this morning, it is an opportunity for you to pour out your concern before God and for him to give you water. That water that is there—he will turn on the faucet inside you and give you calm and peace. Do not be afraid; the Lord is with you. He is the owner of the earth. Everything lies open before him.

He makes decisions. There are times when the world seems closed off and there appears to be no solution, and in an instant the Lord opens something up and everything is resolved. So place your hope in the Lord; leave your burden with him. It says, “Cast your burden upon God, and he will carry it.” When you feel burdened and troubled, appeal to the water that is in your heart.

And finally, she says, “Lord, give me that water so that I will never thirst.” There is one thing, there is something we must do in order always to experience rest in our souls. And that is why I say that no matter how generous the Lord is, no matter how gracious he is, and how kind and fatherly he is, there is something he will not change, and that is that the truth is the truth. And he cannot have fellowship with sin.

As long as you conceal your sin and try to call your sin something else and give it another label instead of acknowledging it for what it is and coming before the Lord and confessing your sins to him—as long as you do not settle accounts with God, he himself cannot afford to have fellowship with you. And that is why I resist this idea of cheap grace, easy grace. “No, God knows those people, and he knows their problems, and the poor things, and this and that.” All God wants is this: confess your sin, talk with the Lord. But do not call sin a virtue; do not pretend that something is not there when it is.

He is almost ready to enter into a relationship with her, and he says to her, “Well, go and call your husband.” “Husband? I have no husband.” What did she want to do? Conceal her sin. When a man or woman conceals their sin, they cannot have a relationship with God. Then he says, “Yes, you say you have no husband. That is true, because you have had five husbands, and you are not even married to the man you have now. So it is true that you have no husband, but you have gone through six men.”

He goes straight for the liver. Because that is how the Lord is. That is what I see in the Lord: his gentleness, but also his integrity, and we must try to imitate the Lord in that way. He is not a strand of spaghetti that you move and that bends whichever way you want. No, the Lord is a mighty steel bar. He is clear and strict in his affairs.

She had to put that right first. The Lord had to open that up, and I ask you, my brother, my sister: always be transparent in your relationship with God; always be sincere. The Bible says, “I concealed my sin, and my bones grew old within me.” When you conceal your sin, your sin is like an ingrown toenail that digs into you and does not allow you to be at peace with God. Confess it; acknowledge it.

If you are in a difficult situation in your life, come before the Lord, talk to him, confess, ask for forgiveness, and make things right with him, and he will be right with you. So he says to her, “Settle accounts”—that is what he is telling her. And she implicitly acknowledges it. She says to him, “Lord, you are right. No one could know that unless he were a prophet, unless he were…” And she asks him, “Are you the Messiah?”

Then there is an allusion to the Messiah that we are not going to go into right now, but it is one final controversy here between religion and this new system that is being established, which is Christ Jesus. Because she talks about Samaritans and Jews and where the correct place to worship is, and the Lord says to her, “Look, it is not about any of that. We are Jews, and we know who the true God is, but even we are not yet where we need to be, because the day is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. And those are the people the Father wants to worship him.”

It is not Jews, it is not Samaritans, it is not Catholics, it is not Evangelicals; it is those who know Jesus as Lord and Savior, those who can attune themselves to his Spirit. When you pray, when you cry out, when you worship, with whom are you connecting? You must be connecting with him alone.

There has to come a moment while one is here in the sanctuary when the sanctuary disappears, the chairs disappear, the people around you disappear, and you are alone with God, in a virtual realm, with nothing but space. I ask the Lord, “Father, give me five seconds in which the congregation disappears and Roberto, the pastor, disappears, and I am alone with you. Let the wood of the balcony, the chairs, and the floor beneath me suddenly disappear, so that I see only emptiness and your throne receiving my worship.”

If I manage to connect with that moment for three seconds, I am free; I have worshiped; I feel stripped bare. I have achieved what I wanted. Ask the Lord to take you to that moment of intimacy in your life when you can establish direct contact with God wherever you may be. That is your place of worship. Connect with the Father—not with a religion, not with a church, not with a man. Connect with Christ Jesus, and that will give you everything you need.

These are the times in which God is seeking true worshipers who worship him in spirit, who know him. The Lord concludes by saying, “I am he who is speaking with you. I am the Messiah; I am the true object of your worship. I am the one to whom all the prophets have pointed. I am greater than Moses, I am greater than Joseph, I am greater than this well. The water I give is better than the water he gave.”

And that is what he wants: for us to connect with him and live in him every day of our lives. Bow your head for a moment; incline your heart toward him. Enter into communion with him this morning. Perhaps the Lord wants you to connect with him right now. Perhaps you have come to church and have been here for many years or months, but like the Samaritan woman, you have not drunk from the water he gives you, and he is calling you and inviting you to drink from the water he wants to give you and is willing to give you. And if you have not yet drunk from that water, I want to invite you this morning to do what the Samaritan woman did. She accepted his claims as Lord, as Messiah; and not only that, but she went and brought others so that they too could benefit from that good news.