Good morning. As you open up in your Bible to the two texts listed there in your bulletin, Genesis 29 and John 4, reaching down for my notes here, I'd like to, first of all, bring you greetings from your almost sister church in Daytona Beach, Florida. I am church planting again, which I very much enjoy, and we are in the Daytona Beach area. planting a church, really happy about the name of the church, Salt and Light Reform Church. Somebody in the OPC needed to use that name, it might as well be us, planting a church at the beach. And I know some of you snowboard and things like that, so come down and visit us in Daytona. We're offering free surf lessons in conjunction with evangelism training. I'm also just really grateful to be here at your church again. The last time I was here was early 2001, Believe it or not, it's been about 24 years, and my son Liam and I are just having a splendid time. We're looking forward, actually, to this afternoon to see your version of New York sand fall from the sky around 4 p.m., and then we're going to have a snowball fight. The subject of the sermon today relates very much to what I've been here talking about the whole weekend, which is evangelism, something very near and dear to my heart. It's also the subject I'll be talking about in Sunday school. And the first text I'm going to read is from Genesis 29. You're going to remain seated for that one. But the next one is a little longer, from John 4, the woman at the well. That's about 30 verses. And so for that one, if you're able, I'll invite you to stand. But let us hear now the reading of the word of God. Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it. For out of that well, the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large. And when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well. Jacob said to them, my brothers, where do you come from? They said, we are from Haran. He said to them, do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? They said, we know him. He said to them, is it well with him? They said, it is well, and see Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep. He said, behold, it is still high day. It is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go pasture them. But they said, we cannot until all the flocks are gathered together. and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well. Then we watered the sheep. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman, and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father. As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, surely you are my bone and my flesh, and you stayed with him a month. Now please turn to John chapter four, and if you're able and willing, please stand together with me. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Saqqara, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away in the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, You would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you're right in saying I have no husband, For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. 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 ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on 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 the hour is coming. and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman But no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. Thus far the reading of the word of God. Please pray with me. Dear Holy Spirit, we pray to you now because we believe that you inspired your own word. We believe that you've preserved your word and its integrity down to this very day. But we lastly and very importantly believe that it is your intention to bless the reading and especially the preaching of your own word. The speaker is frail. The listeners are frail. But we believe that you are strong. And so we ask that you would work faith in our hearts that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit would receive glory and honor from the church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Please be seated. So as I mentioned, I'm going to be talking about the subject of evangelism, and particularly addressing the question of motivation. What motivates us to want to see people come to Christ, and as a church, even be willing to engage people that are outside the church, outside the body of Christ? And I'd like to begin this topic by asking those of you who are married, and I recognize that not all of you are, though some of you were. perhaps in the past, or some of you maybe at some point in the future. But for those of you that are, I hope you don't get this one wrong, do you remember when you first met your spouse? Do you remember when you first met your spouse? When I was in Bible college, a young buck, many, many moons ago, I was praying for a godly, athletic hippie chick. It's in writing. in my prayer journal back at the time, and I'll remember quite fondly the day that my wife of 28 years now, Heather, came home. She was attending another college. Her dad was the president. of my college. She came into the cafeteria with her mom and her little sister. She was wearing this very modest broom skirt and a shirt that was kind of athletic. She had a long braid on one side of her hair. She was hiding this beautiful pair of blue eyes behind this very nerdy, frumpy glasses. And she was barefoot. And I just remember looking at her thinking that that was the woman that I was going to marry. And somehow, strangely, around the cafeteria, all the other young ladies began to grow beards. They all disappeared, and Heather alone remained. And the point is, I remember the day that I first met my bride. Do you? Well, in the Bible, there's a very interesting dynamic that often happens where people meet their spouses. And sometimes the Bible will use the same stage over and over and over and over. And one of the stages that the Bible often uses to display wedding bells are about to play is a well. Wells are very important in the Bible. Many important people in the Bible actually meet their spouses for the very first time at a well. And I'll give you a few examples that we've already read from one. In Genesis 24, Abraham is old and about to die, and he says to his servant, go find a wife for my son Isaac. Go down to the land of my people. He goes, and he gets to the land of Abraham's lineage, and he sits down beside a well, and he prays. Lord, might it be the case that as soon as I finish this prayer, you will bless and provide for your servant Isaac. And he prays, and he opens his eyes, and voila, there is this beautiful young lady named Rebekah. And for Rebekah and Isaac, there is a certain sense in which wedding bells softly begin to play. A little bit later in the Bible, and we read from it this morning in Genesis 29, there Jacob meets Rachel for the first time. And you notice the scene, they are at a well. Jacob is running from Esau at this point. He goes down to the land of Laban, he greets the friends and relatives of Laban. He asked about his well-being and Rachel comes walking onto the stage by this well. And did you notice the very interesting language that when he sees her, this strikes a father with daughters a little bit odd, the first thing the young man did was kiss her. And then the language that is exchanged there is surely you are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, which is language that comes out of Genesis 2. And the point of that language is to say we are fit to be married. And her father brings him home and welcomes him. And they certainly do get married. But the point is once again, by a well, wedding bells begin to play. And the pattern is repeated elsewhere in scripture. Exodus chapter two, when Moses flees Exodus, He goes out to the land of Midian, and he sits down beside a well. And not long after that, a beautiful young lady named Zipporah comes out. And for a third time, for a very important person in the Bible, wedding bells begin to play. And so the point seems to be, when we find some of the people of God single and by wells, that's where they often meet their spouses. There's a great little practical application here, I think, that if you're single and hoping, maybe you're going to the wrong place. And perhaps what you should do is start spending more time at a well. What about John 4 when Jesus meets the woman from Samaria at a well? Is there some sense in which as we hear this story that you know quite well, those of you that know your Bibles, should we similarly hear wedding bells and think about a wedding that is being staged? Well, there are several reasons why I would like to suggest that that really is the case. And I think the Gospel of John, quite intentionally, in a literary fashion, sets up the story exactly that way. If you go back a couple chapters to John chapter two, Where does Jesus perform his very first miracle? He does it at a wedding. And when he performs that miracle at a wedding, he takes ordinary water, and he turns it not into cheap wine, but really good wine, and all God's people say amen. Jesus made great wine. And he did it at a wedding. And when he does, the question is raised, who are you? And John the Baptist is asked the question, who are you? And so John has a wonderful way of answering the question, who are you? He says, you know what? I'm not the one you're looking for. I'm not the Messiah. In fact, if you want to think of who I am, here's an analogy. You should think of me as the best man at a wedding. I'm not the groom. I don't get the girl and ride off into the sunset. I'm simply here to be a servant and to set the table. Jesus is the groom. But if John is a best man and he's liking Jesus to a groom, if you've got a best man and a groom and you want to have a wedding, you need one more person. You need a bride. So who is the bride? And where is the bride? And so from John 2, with that question, you move into John 3 and you meet a likely candidate for a spiritual union in Nicodemus. Nicodemus is presented to us very strategically in John 3 as the best representative of Israel. He is the best of the best of the best, sir. He is a male pharisaical Jewish teacher of the law. He abounds in self-righteousness. He is, if you will, a champion among Israel. He represents the high watermark of Israel's spiritual pride. Nicodemus really is, as far as humanly thinking could go, the perfect Israelite. There's just one problem. Though he is a Pharisee and a teacher of the law, he doesn't get it. He actually is a long way from the kingdom, and his interchange with Jesus makes that very clear. Nicodemus, for all that he knows, is actually quite foolish and arguably asks one of the dumbest questions in the Bible. He and Jesus banter together back and forth about the nature of the kingdom, and finally, You almost sense that Jesus gets frustrated when he finally says to Nicodemus, look, it's not this complicated. You, even you, the best of Israel, must be born again. And then Nicodemus pops the question, so you mean I need to go back in my mother's womb? My mom is 84. She's the first woman I ever loved. She's heard me preach this sermon many times. And she tells me, yeah, that was a really dumb question. A grown male, a Pharisee, a teacher of the law, asking Jesus, do I need to go back into my mother's womb? It's hard to come up with a worse question. Very importantly, however, how does Nicodemus come into the scene? He comes at night. He comes in the darkness. He is hiding, if you will, darkness and night in the gospel of John or metaphors for spiritual darkness and unbelief. Nicodemus is almost like a snake. He slithers into the story in the middle of the night, unseen, and he slithers back out the same way, still in the darkness. Later in the book of John, he comes in by way of light. But in John 3, here's the point. Nicodemus doesn't get it. And if Nicodemus is a champion among Israel, a representative of Israel, it makes the point, Israel was not yet ready to receive the kingdom. And so if Israel, if you will, is not yet ready to be the bride of the Messiah of the I Am, who might be? This is how we get to John 4 and to a well. Jesus is on a mission trip. If you happen to be a fan of the King James, You'll like the way the King James Version translates verse 4. In the ESV it says, and he had to pass through Samaria. The King James puts it like this. Jesus had must needs to go through Samaria. It's intentional. It's not accidental. It's not coincidental. It's not random. He didn't just find himself there one day. This is the sovereign plan of God. Jesus knows where he's going. God knows where he's sending his son, Jesus. is on a mission trip and he comes to a well and we should wonder. We've been to wells before. Our wedding bell is going to slowly begin playing in the background. And this woman, is she not the perfect opposite of Nicodemus? Male, pharisaical, Jewish, teacher of the law. She is what? A woman from Samaria. The Samaritans were like me. They were mixed race, half breeds. The Jews looked down on them. They were the remnant. of those that were in the land during the exile that intermingled and married with the Gentiles. Not only were they impure ethnically, as the Jews would have viewed that, they built their own temple, which was a great offense. And Jesus will even say, yeah, that was wrong. She's as low as Nicodemus is high from an earthly perspective. Her life is in shambles. If he is full of self-righteousness, she is wrapped in nothing but sin and shame. But she and Nicodemus have something very similar in common. Nicodemus comes into the story hiding under the cloud of darkness late at night. She comes into the story similarly hiding, but not in the darkness, but rather the full sun of high noon. That's the time of day the text tells us she comes. There's no accident here either. She knows exactly what she is doing. If you're familiar with Jewish culture and custom of the day, women would go to the well every day, twice. They would go early in the morning when it was cool, and they would go again in the evening when it was cool. They did not come at high noon. This is willful isolation. This is a woman who is alone. This is a woman who is intentionally avoiding not simply other people, but even the women of the town she lives with. And very symbolically and poetically, she comes not simply alone, but with one companion, an empty bucket. That in so many ways becomes the summary and the emblem of her life. It is dry, it is parched, and it is well used. So here she is, alone, bearing her reproach, bearing her shame and her alienation, and she comes to draw water, and there is Jesus sitting, who asks her for a drink. Jesus is again surprised. She is a woman from Samaria. All the social stigma of the day would have said against this interaction, but Jesus rises above the social stigma of the day, and he often does this. It's a great little evangelistic tip-off. Jesus, does here, what he so often does, he uses the everyday stuff of ordinary life to talk about spiritual need and realities. Food and drink. The everyday stuff of ordinary life so often becomes the medium of spiritual conversation. And so he asks for water, and the woman is surprised. Jesus, verse 10, turns it and says, if you knew the gift of God, And who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him. And he would have given you living water. But the woman looks at him, and she responds, we might even say with a little bit of attitude. Look at verse 11. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? I haven't accomplished very much in my life. I turned 53 last week, and it was rather anticlimactic. But I've accomplished one little thing. I'm kind of celebrating a little bit. I created a word. One word. I'm not sure what you're going to do with your life. One word. It's not a bad mark to leave. And when I tell you what this word is, you're going to love it, and you're going to want to use it, and you may use it as freely as you like. You ready for it? Snarkastic. It makes you feel good when you say it. And immediately you understand what it is. It's snarky, enhanced, with a little bit of sarcasm on top. And it comes with a little dimple on the side of the cheek, that gotcha dimple. When you say something really sarcastic and you know in a moment you win, you're right. She gives Jesus a sarcastic response. Sir, you have nothing to draw water with. Can you see the dimple? And the well is deep. How are you offering me water when I have a bucket and you don't? And the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Notice her question. Sometimes you ask questions not realizing how brilliant they are. Are you greater than our father Jacob? If only she knew. He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. But Jesus now clearly takes the conversation in evangelistic direction, elevating earthly things to a heavenly level, verse 13. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, the water in the well, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. What does Jesus do? Her earthly need for water. He sees as a stage to talk about her spiritual need, her ultimate need, her absolute need, eternal life, not simply another cup of water to drink from this well. and he alone can give it. But the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Now this is where we begin to peel back layers of this woman's life. She's not simply thirsty, she's in a bit of a spot. She's come here willfully isolated in the middle of the day. Jesus just made an offer that he could provide water that would cause her to never have to come back to this well again. And all at once, she asked for this water because she doesn't want to come back. And we begin to wonder why, and begin to realize, and if you know the story, this woman has a secret, but it's not really a secret. This woman has a life, but it's not a book kept close to the chest. And so Jesus here, very importantly, brilliantly, strategically, and lovingly, he does not drop a John 3.16. You might have almost expected it. They've talked about eternal life. Jesus has mentioned things heavenly, but he doesn't drop a John 3 16. Rather, he does perhaps something that you find somewhere between awkward and unfriendly. In verse 16, he calls her out. Go call your husband and come here. You remember that sarcastic little dimple on the side of the cheek? I think it just left. Gone. All of a sudden, The table is turned, and the woman answered her. You could almost sense the heaviness, the emptiness, just like her bucket. I have no husband. And Jesus responded, not pulling back, if you will, but pressing in, leaning in. You were right in saying, I have no husband, for you've had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you've said is true. The language here is heartbreaking and pointed. In the ESV, in your English Bible, it says, you've had five husbands and the one you now have, in the Greek it literally reads like this, you've had five husbands and the man you're now having. It's an active participle. In other words, this woman's living in an open, adulterous relationship. But take a step back. In the modern age, in our world, it's not terribly surprising to run into somebody who's been divorced you know, two or three times. Five's getting up there. No offense if someone here has been divorced five times, it's not my point. But there is a shock value here. Five times this woman is divorced and now she is living with a man, she is having a man who is not her husband. She is effectively a serial adulteress. Imagine the way the town women in a small town like Saqqara might have thought of such a woman. She would be perceived as the town pariah. Take all the names that we have given to ladies that prey upon men, cougars. She would be somewhere in that description. This is a woman who has looked for love over and over in all the wrong places. This is a woman who has been used, abused, and objectified by many men. Many promises have likely been made to this woman, but how many times has she woke up cold, alone, and used once again. And now she has surrendered to the flesh. She is not married to the man that she is living with, that she shares a bed with. She has surrendered to the flesh. Her life is in absolute shambles. And Jesus did not pull punches. Is it unloving? Is it unkind? No. Actually, it's the opposite. John Calvin, a father in the faith, said very helpfully that in order for us to truly know God, we need to honestly and truly know ourselves. And in order for us to truly and honestly know ourselves, we must know God who created us and before whom we stand unclothed. She's been unmasked, to use the modern phrase. Jesus has shown her in story form the wages of her sin and the weight of the law. She is not avoiding what she is avoiding, which is the reality of her life. And how does the woman respond? In many ways, like you and I would respond, what do you do when you get cornered? What do you do when you feel trapped? What are your responses? Well, changing the subject sometimes works. And what's one subject you can always get the Jews to trip over at this time? Worship. They still argue about it today. Our fathers, oh, sorry, 19. Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on 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. The hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him." Why is Jesus at this well in Samaria? Is it accidental? Is it coincidental? Is it random? Or is He not on a mission trip, but to say it differently, seeking and saving His bride? And is not simply the will of the Son, According to Jesus, it is the will of the Father. It is the Father who is seeking. Just as Abraham sent his servant to find a bride for Isaac, here the Father is sending the Son. Go and seek, go and save, go and rescue that which will become your bride, your body, your church. There's a phrase that came about in the late 60s, early 70s, seeker-sensitive churches. And I want you to know, this will confuse you for a moment, that I very much applaud the idea of seeker-sensitive churches. But there's a catch. In the Bible, there's only one seeker, and it's not you and me that go seeking after God. It's God himself that comes seeking after us. This woman didn't wake up one day and say, I'm going to go find the Messiah. The Messiah woke up one day and came seeking after her. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, there's a crescendo building here. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. She references the Messiah, the coming Savior of Israel, the hope of the world, the light of the nations. I want you to notice so beautifully, so powerfully, so unambiguously, the way Jesus responds in verse 26. He doesn't say to her, yeah, I know, he'll come one day. Rather, he says, I who speak to you am he. In Greek, last time I'll mention it, but it's important here. In Greek, it reads like this, I who speak to you, ego eimi. I who speak to you, I am. Have you heard that before? What is Jesus saying to this woman? Not simply, is he the Messiah? It's brilliant. She references the Messiah, and he says, I who speak to you, I am. The same language that God used in Exodus 3.14 when Moses asked, who shall I say has sent me to Israel and to the Pharaoh? And God says, Yahweh says, the Lord says, tell them I Am has sent you. The I Am that made covenant with Israel, the I Am that made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the I Am of the Exodus, the I Am of Mount Sinai now stands before this woman clothed in human flesh. The I Am of Israel is the Savior of Israel, and he is on a mission trip to seek and to save his bride, not with the thunder of Mount Sinai does he address her, but with the tender entreaty of something almost like a wedding proposal. And notice what happens just as he says this, the disciples come back. And they're a little bit shocked that he's talking with a woman, but they're speechless. No one says to her or to him, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? So the woman, what does she do? I love this part. It's just so wonderful. So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? And they went out of the town and were coming to him. What has just happened? This woman woke up alone and isolated, the summary of her life, an empty bucket as her only companion, and then she goes to a well only to be sought, only to be found by a real man, not a man that will use her, abuse her, objectify her, ravish her body with no regard for her soul, but the very opposite, a man who will love her, esteem her more important than himself, a man that will lay down his life for her, that will wash away her sin and her shame, that will clothe her in his righteousness and his holiness, that will take away her reproach, that will grant her a new name, a new identity, a new standing, a new place in the world, a new voice in the world, a reason to hold her head up a reason to see herself in the mirror without her eyes dropping down, a reason to say to the world, I am beautiful again and I am loved because the I am of Israel has sought and found me. Have you met this I am? The one who tells us all that we ever did, all that you ever did and still loves you. still forgives you, washes you, clothes you, and unites you to himself, not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If you are here today as one who has never truly placed your faith in Jesus Christ, beloved, your life is nothing more than an empty bucket. Dry, impoverished, and empty. But Jesus offers that water of eternal life, rising above earthly things, that only he can give, and he freely gives, and he gives, and he gives, and he gives. Maybe you're not yet impressed with my suggestion that something like wedding bells are supposed to play, but I want to come at this from a couple more angles before we finish. One is if you are a Jewish reader of the text, numbers sometimes propose an interesting theological story. So I want you to follow my math here. I'm not very good at math, but even I can keep up with this one. I think you can too. How many husbands has this woman had? Five. And what has she got right now? One more guy that she's having, we'll call him number six. If you're a Jewish reader of things, numbers like six and seven are important. Six is the number of frustration, brokenness, darkness, sin. It's the number of the beast, right? But what about seven? Seven is the number of completeness. fullness, satisfaction, and wholeness. So if she's had five husbands, and she's now being had by Mr. Number Six, who will be Number Seven? The perfect husband, the true measure of a man, it is Jesus. And when she meets him, her life will never be the same. One very apt theologian, Thumper put it quite well. She has become Twitterpated. And notice how, I'll create a phrase here, unscary the world becomes when she meets Jesus. The story begins with her avoiding people, avoiding town women. I'll say this gently, but you know it's true. Women can be vicious sometimes. How would you think about a woman with a past like this moving into your neighborhood, getting on speaking terms with your husband, coming to your church. This woman, willfully isolated herself, comes into our story avoiding all people, particularly the town women. And now at the end of the story, what does she do? She goes back to the town people, but notice what she did first. She leaves her bucket. If we rightly suggest that that bucket in some ways is a summary of her life, how fitting it is that she left that bucket where? With Jesus. It's the way Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians. The old is gone. New things have come. She has died to her past. and found life in Christ, who has given her a new life. But not only that, the people of the town become unscary to her. So she leaves her water jar, and she goes away into town. And she says to the people, come and see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? And they went out of town and were coming to him. Several things of note. Number one, look carefully at the text. Where does Jesus tell her to do this? He doesn't. There was no command. Do you know what happened? She met Jesus, and she fell in love, and this broken world of hers can no longer be the same. Even the town people she looks at now differently. And this in many ways, beloved, is the engine that fuels evangelism. It's not me browbeating you over the head. guilting you, manipulating you, standing you down, saying that if you're not out doing this, you're bad Christians. You know what really warms our heart to the subject of evangelism, makes town people unscary again, and even causes us to want them to know Jesus? It's to be ourselves reminded of His love. His deep and boundless, forgiving, cleansing love. Notice also what doesn't happen. She doesn't go to church. She doesn't get baptized. She doesn't take a class on evangelism explosion. She doesn't go to seminary. She doesn't get ordained. All that happened, beloved, when she met Jesus and the world can never be the same. And the town people are so impressed with her language that they come out of the town and were coming To Christ, you might say that her approach was a little bit clumsy. Just imagine her walking back into town, the town pariah, now saying, come meet a man, and notice how she leads, who told me all that I ever did. Her honest confession, and yet how beautiful is Jesus now in her sight. The day that I proposed to my wife, Heather, we were in North Carolina. I was doing something like an internship. I had two jobs. We would go to the beach often and do devotions, have breakfast. She would always cook for obvious reasons. It was not my strong point. But on one day, I decided to make muffins and take her to the beach and had intentions of proposing to her. And so we did our devotions. It was a cloudy day, and I'm kind of old school. So I drew a circle around the two of us with a stick on the beach, got down on one knee, and proposed to her. And my wife is a brilliant woman. She has great taste in everything except husbands. So she said yes. And just as she did, the clouds broke. Cherubs came down playing. Just kidding. But my wife is as introverted as I am extroverted. I will talk to a tree. I like talking to people. They don't bother me a bit. My wife is the opposite. She doesn't like it. But it was her habit to often jog home from the beach, and I would go to work. So she jogged home, and as she's jogging home, she sees a lady pruning her rose bushes in her front yard that Heather had never seen before. And she just had to stop and tell this lady, look at this. I just got engaged. Some crazy guy decided he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. She was Twitterpated. That, beloved, is what makes us want to talk to other people about Jesus, to his love, far greater than all the loves of this world and far more satisfying than that empty bucket we've drugged for so long. Maybe you're yet unconvinced about this whole wedding analogy. So I'm going to take one last shot at it, and then I quit. So I want you to turn to the end of your Bible, literally the last chapter of the Bible. It's so easy to find, because if you go one page too far, you'll either be in the table of contents or weights and measures. The author, John, who wrote the Gospel of John, is the same author that wrote the Book of Revelation. In the Book of Revelation, the last chapter ends with an echo of John 4. The language is intentional, it's hard to miss the connection between the two. So notice now Revelation 22, 17. The spirit and the who, bride, say what? Come. And let the one who hears say, come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Notice here, it's the spirit and the bride, the bride of I am, the bride of the Messiah, the bride of Jesus, the church. speaking with a corporate collective voice, the spirit empowering the church to speak to the world. At the end of the Bible, to the end of the age, this is the voice of the bride to the world. And what does it say? What does the church say to the world until the end? What was the woman's, I love this, what was the woman's first word out of her mouth? when she went back to the town of Saqqara, come. Come and meet the man who told me all that I ever did. The same word, first word off her lips is the last word of the church to the world. Come to Jesus while there's still time. Come to Jesus and leave your earthly buckets behind. Come to Jesus and meet not simply the one that told you all that you ever did, but all that he ever did that is so much greater than all our sinful deeds. Come, as the pastor read earlier from Isaiah, come and let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. To make it very simple, as I've been standing here the last couple days, I've noticed a lot of people walking by thirsty. carrying their empty buckets, going from one earthly well to another, missing the well that always satisfies. I'll put in the briefest version, something I want to use as a landing point. I grew up outside the church. My parents are not Christians. My dad was career military. He abandoned our family when I was 12. And when he did, I began with my younger brother doing all the dumb stuff that no parents want their children doing. By the time I graduated high school, I had been shot at twice. I went to jail. I failed my senior year of high school and had to repeat it. I was voted by my senior class the most likely to live in a Volkswagen van forever. I still don't know if that was a compliment or an insult. I had dreadlocks down to here. That part I still think was pretty cool. But I spent a lot of years being very broken. And I feel like in many ways I have a lot in common with the woman at the well. whose life could easily be summarized with an empty bucket. In my early 20s, I began to attempt college, dropped out, wasn't ready for it. So I sold everything I had to follow a band called The Grateful Dead around the country, selling sheets of acid and doing all kinds of dumb stuff. And after a year of that, couldn't take it anymore. Couldn't take the smell of hippies anymore. Couldn't take the smell of patchouli anymore. It's not a bad smell, but when you're just stuck with it in your face for a year, it gets overwhelming. And so I decided to go back to North Carolina, where I was from, And at a bus station, my older sister was the first in my family to experiment with Christianity. And she offered me her Bible that I had no interest in. I really disliked everything I perceived about church and Christianity from my time in North Carolina. But I'd never read the Bible. And after three days on the bus playing guitar, my fingers tapped out. So I pulled out the Bible, trapped but curious. Saw my little brother's name in the table of contents, the Gospel of Mark. That's my brother's name. Read it. Got converted. It wasn't a well, but it had the same effect. Many years now, and I'm leading to a point that's more about you than about me. Many years now, by God's grace, I've been married for 28 years to a wonderful woman. I have four adopted kids, one of which is sitting here. And I love sharing the story not only of how I came to Christ, but his story. And I want to end on a point, because I know many of you probably have the opposite story of you. Some of you have gone to hell and back on your way into the church, maybe quite literally. But there are a lot of you Covenant kids, whether you're young or old, who haven't gone to jail, who haven't been shot at twice, who haven't failed your senior year of high school, that didn't start experimenting with drugs at age 12 and doing all the dumb stuff that come come along with it. In fact, maybe you're tempted to think your story's kind of boring. You grew up in the arms of parents that loved you and in their imperfect best attempted to love one another. You grew up being drugged to church against your will over and over and over. You grew up being preached to and having elders and deacons and normal people in your life. And maybe you're tempted to think, you know, I don't have a story like the woman at the well or the crazy guest preacher from Florida. But I want to say to you not simply as a pastor, hear me now, as a dad, you who think your stories are boring have the far better story. I don't want my story for my kids. I don't want my story for your kids. But whether you came in through the side door or were drugged by your parents through the front door and baptized as a child, if by God's grace you belong to Jesus, You have a beautiful story and the world needs to hear that story and the soft, gentle invitation to come and to meet Jesus. Let's pray.