John 4
David Stockton - July 26, 2020

Good morning, Living Streams. Another Sunday here, July 26. It’s good to be with you. It’s real important that we continue to do this. I’ve been thinking about this. It’s so different. I mean, I’m here talking to a camera—you’re looking at your phone or a TV, something like. It doesn’t necessarily feel the same, but I know that, at least in the spiritual realm, but I also believe in the natural, it is bringing us together when we take the time to do this: worshipping together, hearing from the word of God together, having this common experience together. I really think it’s important we continue to push into this.

I know we’re going to be getting a new Executive Order or some new details from the governor as this last 30-day deal comes to a close. I want you to stay tuned to our website, and also on Sunday mornings we’ll be announcing what’s going on, what’s next for us at Living Streams. But please continue. I know summertime is going and school’s going to fire up, and all these changes, it’s easy to let this type of thing slide. But it’s really important we stay together as we go into whatever the Lord has for us, but also whatever the world’s going to throw at us. We need each other. Thanks for sticking with us.

Today we’re going to be in the book of John again. As we’re trekking through, as we’re trying to hear from the Apostle John about Jesus. John actually was writing his gospel, his book about Jesus long after the other three writers. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are called gospels, written about Jesus. And the three of those, Matthew, Mark and Luke were written probably a little closer to about 60 A.D., thirty years or so after Jesus was gone. And yet John was more like 90 A.D. It was the end of his life. The Roman persecution of both Jews and Christians had just been rampant. John and many other Christians had been forced out of Jerusalem. He landed up in Ephesus where there was a church going on up there.

As he was writing this book he had probably had that cultural context in mind. It was not necessarily Judaism he was writing into. He was probably more writing this gospel for the Greek mind as he was trying to translate to them who God is. We see that in John Chapter 1 when he says that Jesus is the “word.” The “word” in Greek is “logos” which is this powerful, intense Greek word that basically has to do with God’s logical argument used to convince the world that he is loving and just. That’s one of the definitions of it. It’s a logical argument.

The Greeks really valued philosophy and all those things. So he’s appealing to them saying, basically, the word, Jesus was God’s logical answer to all the questions humanity could ever have. In another place it says that the logos is the universal principle, the controlling principle of the world. Again, that’s a real ode to the Greeks that would be reading this later on.

We know from the book of John that his whole premise in writing this book, the thing that he wanted so badly—and he says this in John 20:31: “that you may believe. I have written every single word of this book, I’ve written all these stories, these signs and wonders that have taken place, these ‘I am’ statements of Jesus. All of this eyewitness accounts of what I experienced. I interacted with Jesus. I’m writing these things down so that you may believe in him.”

We’ve done some work to try to define what belief is. Obviously there are a lot of different things people say when it comes to belief. Is is more of a heady thing? Is it more of an experiential thing? And the way I really believe John and the New Testament writers try and define faith or believing in Jesus is to have a pledge of allegiance.

We do the pledge of allegiance to America. We know our country right now is experiencing a lot of division, a lot of unrest, a lot of challenge, a lot of stress, a lot of anger, even guilt. There are a lot of those things going on. And yet we pledge allegiance to this country that we will stand up for her, that we will fight for her. Though I don’t think that’s bad, the Scripture calls us to pledge our allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom. It calls us to no longer associate ourselves as Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free is what Paul was writing in his day and age. And we could say we’re not supposed to be identifying ourselves and camping primarily in black or white, Democrat or Republican, rich or poor. None of those matter when we come to the cross of Jesus Christ. We are now a new creation. We are now people of God. We are now citizens of his kingdom and we have to remember that that is our call. We are pledging allegiance—not to some political party, not to some social justice organization. What we’re called to do is pledge our allegiance to Jesus and his Spirit and what he’s at work in this world.

I want to remind you, church, to make sure and be careful not to get all caught up in the vain jangling, in the convincing philosophies of our day. But remember to keep about the gospel. Keep about what the Bible teaches and make sure that we’re really citizens of his kingdom above all else. It’s not wrong to be Irish. It’s not wrong to be African or to celebrate those things. That’s great. But when we come into the house of God, what we are is One. We are all the same at the foot of the cross. We’ve got to remember that as we go forward into this divisive time.

Not just pledging allegiance to God, but in some ways we order our lives in accordance with his, with his word. That’s what faith means. We reorient our lives. We set up our lives in accordance with who he is and what he did.

Ultimately, I love how John has this idea of building trust over time. When he first met Jesus he was the Son of Thunder. He was this fiery guy. But towards the end of John, and as we go on, he’s the one laying against Jesus’ breast. He’s the one that Jesus loved. That’s how he was identifying himself. No longer this fiery kind of—maybe even arrogant or whatever he was—but now this person who is totally thankful to be part of the family of God, to have known Jesus.

I hope that’s what stirs in us in this time. We’ve called ourselves to this. From the very beginning of this COVID season, that God is asking us to be humble and to be generous. I really want us to be good at that and known for that as we through this. Both in our individual lives and as a church as a whole as well.

John 3:31-36 kind of sums this up, this whole concept of faith. Once again John reiterates what he’s trying to do:

The one who comes from above is above all;

Again, philosophical. You can see him speaking to Greeks here. The Logos.

the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard,

Only Jesus knows what is true because he has been with the Father. He has been outside of this corrupt world.

but no one [in this corrupt world] accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful.

Has basically pledged their allegiance. They’ve stamped their card in the truth. They’ve basically said, “I’m for the truth.” If we put our allegiance, if we put our faith in Christ.

For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God[ gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

So that’s the heaviness of what happens. Our faith really does determine our standing with God. By faith we can enter into his love and grace and mercy because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, the price that he paid. Or without faith in Jesus we find ourselves remaining under the wrath of God, where the punishment that was poured out on Christ is not taken on our behalf. So the wrath of God remains.

Faith is so important, so valuable. It really is what pivots us for all of eternity. So we need to continue to learn about faith, practice faith, teach our kids about faith. All of that.

That being said, let’s go to John 4 and we’re going to get another story from John about a person who came to faith in Jesus. He’s already given us John the Baptist, who came and put his faith in his cousin, that he was the Messiah. The reason he did that is because God spoke to him and said, “The one that you see the dove descending on, the Holy Spirit descending on, that is the Messiah. And John was out there one time and he baptized Jesus and, sure enough, the dove came down and descended. The Spirit like a dove descended on him. So John knew at that point, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

The next story we have that John tells us about is he and his disciple friends were going with Jesus to a wedding at Cana. There, at the wedding at Cana, Jesus turned water into wine. It says right after that story, “This is when the disciples began to believe in Jesus.” Because of a sign that he had done. They had been following and hanging out with him and listening to him because of the things he was saying and teaching. But now they knew there was something more than this being a man who was doing something special. They knew that this was God in the flesh. They knew that this was the Logos as John would later call him.

Now many believed on him after the signs and wonders and cleansing of the temple that he did. Which is interesting because they’re not hearing Jesus speak about the things of God. They’re not seeing some miraculous sign that we get recorded. They’re just seeing the righteous indignation of Jesus as he’s cleansing the temple, as he’s standing against the oppressors. He’s fighting with them. It says many began to believe that he was more than just a man, more than just someone who was coming doing something good. That he was the Messiah. He was God’s answer. He was God’s one that was coming to save and redeem the world.

So we have all of those and then today we get a story about a woman that Jesus meets at a well. So kids, before we jump into it, I want you to draw me a picture of the Samaritan woman at a well. I’m so thankful again for all the pictures that you’ve drawn. And adults, you could draw me pictures any time you want. One time I had adult draw me a picture. It was pretty cool. I liked it.

Just so you know I’m taking this seriously, I drew one. And you’re going to have to beat this, okay? This is my drawing that I’m going to show you right now Bam. What are you going to do about this? I would like to say my kids drew this, but it was me. I’m not great at it. My wife, she’s really good at it. This is my woman at the well and it ain’t pretty. But that’s okay. You’ve got to beat that. If you do, if you give me the picture and it’s the best one for whatever reason, you’ll get a little something in your mailbox. Many of you have already. And thanks for telling me thanks for that, but I’m really thanking you for what you’ve done, so we’re good there.

All right. John Chapter 4. The woman at the well:

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

So after talking to Nicodemus, after cleansing the temple, Jesus had a lot of people following him. And he did exactly what his cousin John the Baptist was doing, he would baptize them. There’s something very significant about baptism. I’m not going to talk a lot about baptism, but I do want to say, if you are someone who wants to pledge allegiance to Jesus, you believe in Jesus, you want to associate your life with Jesus, you want to hide your life in Christ, baptism is something that is all over the New Testament. In the life of Jesus, Jesus himself was baptized. So please don’t hesitate. Don’t wait. Contact us. Let us know you’re ready to get baptized. Bam. We’re going to do this thing. I know guys are getting baptized this week. I know there’s a few people we’re going to do a baptism for in the next few weeks. I think I might be baptizing one of my daughters tomorrow, which is exciting. Baptism is real, it’s biblical, it’s Jesus and if you’re ready to follow Jesus, Jesus would say, “Come into the waters. Die to the old life and be born again to the new life.” That’s the death under the water and resurrection coming out of the water. We’re following Jesus. You gain something in the waters of baptism you cannot gain any other way. So get baptized.

Verse 4:

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

So it’s hot. Not a great time of day to be hanging out. And yet, he’s thirsty. So he stops at this well. And then it says:

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

So here we’ve got to really understand some context. Jerusalem is here. Galilee is here. Right in the middle is this place called Samaria. Samaria was a place that, basically, when the Assyrians came down and took all the northern ten tribes into exile, and later the Babylonians took the two southern tribes of Israel (twelve tribes of Israel) and took them into Babylonian captivity, the people that were left—they left the people that were impoverished, the people that were unable to make the journey, they left the people that basically, they rejected certain people and said, “You stay here. We’re not worried about you at all.” And those people ended up intermarrying with nations around that started to come into that time, as the Jews evacuated that place, people of other nations came in. So this is where the Samaritan group became part of Israel’s history.

So now, as the diasporas come back, as the exiles return, and Israel is filled with Jews who returned, now there’s this kind of separation. There are the Jews that would call themselves purebred Jews and then there’s the Samaritans that would be like halfbred Jews. And so there was this real separation, segregation. There was this real prejudice, racism, whatever you want to call it, that was taking place at this time, even to the extent where now, Jesus, who was a Jewish man, was sitting at a well and he’s thirsty. It’s noon. There’s a lady coming who’s a Samaritan, to the same well. She’s got a bucket and Jesus says, “Can I have a drink.

That seems very innocent. It seems innocuous. However, for this woman, it was startling. It was scandalous. And Jesus would have known that. His disciples had gone and so, now there’s one man, a single Jewish man, with a single Jewish woman, and you could only imagine what the tabloids would say that were following Jesus, how they would spin that. But this is a little bit scandalous all by itself, because of the way the traditions the culture of that day would have viewed the situation.

So Jesus actually extending this invitation to say, “Hey, can I have a drink? Can you and I join each other in this,” is actually a very, very provocative type thing. You can only imagine what started to spin in this Samaritan woman’s mind. She could have thought, Maybe this guy’s hitting on me. She could have thought all kinds of different things. But Jesus is asking her for a drink, obviously with pure intentions, and you will see all of that as it goes on.

But she kind of says, “How could you do this?” And maybe she’s being a little coy. Maybe she’s really offended. We don’t know any of that. But we know it’s startling. She just basically says, “How could you do this?”

John Piper, as he was unpacking this a little bit, he has this quote that I think kind of helps us understand a little bit about how intense this was.

He is standing by the fountain marked “colored”…

He’s harkening back to that segregation time, before the civil rights movement.

He is standing by a the fountain marked “colored” watching a black woman fill her water bottle and then, for all to see, says, “Can I have a drink from your water bottle?” She says, at the end of verse 9, “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” But more literally it says, Jews don’t “use together” with Samaritans…

We’re trying to create a separation. We don’t want anything do with each other.

…You can’t be asking me to use the same bucket. That isn’t done. –John Piper

And so here, I’m just trying to give us a little context, but to ultimately say Jesus didn’t play by these rules. Jesus was someone who saw people for who they were. He knew that all people were created equal and he valued them. He loved them. He was not worried about maintaining culture or maintaining really stupid cultural ideals He saw through all of that. He saw people as people. We, as the church, in particular, we’ve got to be better than this. We’ve really got to watch out for the divisions that are in our society seeping their way into our church, our family. It is not to be for the people of God. We are to be united. We are to, like we said, be citizens of heaven. We are to be at the foot of the cross. And all men are equal, all woman are equal at the foot of the cross. There is no difference. No difference at all.

We’re trying to say, “We’re on the good side. They’re on the bad side.” But here’s a news flash for you. All of us are on the wrong side. God is on the right side. God is the only one who’s not corrupt. God is the only one who sees things clearly. All we can do is hope to land ourselves on his side by his grace and mercy. By the filling with the Spirit and the revelation that he gives us in the word of God. We might be able to be on his side here and there, off and on. That’s the goal. But we should never try to villify each other or start to speak ill of each other. We just need to realize that we all come to the foot of the cross the same.

And here’s Jesus just shooting right through all these prejudices, all of this racism. He just shoots right through it and goes straight to the heart. And we’re going to see this unpacked a little more here. Verse 10:

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

So in this next section Jesus is basically saying to her, “Hey, I know what the world has told you. I know what maybe your own soul has told you. I know that you feel like I think I’m superior. You think you’re superior. There are all these arguments that go back and forth between Samaritans and Jews.” But he’s saying, “Look, if you had any idea of this moment that we’re in right now. If you had any idea who it is that is offering you living water, you wouldn’t be worried about buckets. You wouldn’t be worried about prejudices, stereotypes, you wouldn’t be worried about all of those things. You would be able to receive water. You would be able to receive refreshment that would last forever. Not just today. Not just a few hours.”

He’s obviously speaking to her of the spiritual water that comes when he brings salvation to a person. That, like we said, with faith, she could pivot into eternal life. That’s what Jesus is offering her. She doesn’t get it at all yet. She’s still caught up in theology, or the political stances of the day. But Jesus is saying, “No, no. It’s not about that.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.

We don’t know the emotion that she says that with. We know because of what’s about to happen that it was a loaded statement.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

You can see this moment where all of a sudden the air gets so thick and so tense, as Jesus says to her, “Hey, go call your husband.”

Whether he knew because of something he’d observed, or she’s coming a strange time of day so he knows there’s something off there, whether it’s a revelation the Spirit has given him, but he speaks to her about this place in her life that is painful. And she has had five husbands that either she has left, but that’s probably not true in that society. It’s more likely that she has been rejected by them. And maybe she’s a very beautiful woman. We don’t know. Maybe she’s really given herself to these men physically. We don’t know exactly. But we know that five times she’s been rejected. And here she is in a new relationship. Thirsty as can be. Trying to find some satisfaction. Trying to find something in what a man, what a husband can give her. And the one that she has now is not legitimate.

In this moment you can see her eyes probably were widening a little bit. She might have started sweating a little bit more. And she says to him, “I see you’re a prophet.” And instead of saying, “I would like to know more about living water. I do need help. I have a problem,” she says, “Well you Jews say this and that. And we say this and that.” So she goes to kind of this religious, theological division, and philosophies that have gone on. Again, totally missing the point. Totally deflecting.

In the New Testament it says that we are supposed to watch out for “vain janglings” in the King James Version, which I think is such a funny phrase. But we’re also supposed to watch out for endless genealogies and cunning philosophies. And you guys, please know, what you’re seeing on your social media feed, what you’re seeing on the news, it really has to be taken with a lot of filtering. You can’t get caught up in what’s going on. It is exhausting. It is humanism. It is not of God. Jesus speaks of things of God that are not corrupt They’re not human. They’re not temporal. But right now we have just go so many “vain janglings” going on.

So please remember to every once in a while get out of there. Take a deep breath. Read some scripture. Put on some worship music. Just cleanse your mind. And before you go into those worlds, before you turn on the news, before you do social media, pause, relax, say, “Am I ready for this?” Pray before you go in. I really think it’s an important practice that we’re doing because of how powerful these things are in our day and age right now.

She’s got Jesus in front of her and she’s still not able to connect because she’s so caught up with these things. Then they go on and Jesus begins to talk to her. He says:

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

I am statement. Jesus is using this powerful Jewish language to say, “I am he.” That’s this moment of truth right there. Where Jesus kind of just drops the bomb and he says, “Look. We talked about living water and what I can offer. We talked about where you’re at truly in your life. Now I’m telling you you’ve got to get off these things. What God is interested in is you and your worshiping him in Spirit and in truth.”

In Spirit and truth, there’s a lot of ways to define it. It simply could be worshiping with your emotion, with your expression, all of that. And truth could be more your mind. I think that’s the safest way to unpack a little bit of Jesus’ teaching in the other gospels, that we should worship the Lord our God with all our heart and our soul and mind and strength. I think this is the way that God is saying to this woman, this is what God is after. He wants you to worship him. As you do, you will find in him all that you need to satisfy your soul.

Really an intense moment. It’s funny. Just then the disciples come back. We’re not going to get into that. But I want to pick up in verse 39. The disciples just got back. They were totally wigged out. Why is Jesus talking to this woman? What’s been going on? This is not going to look good in the press reports. All this stuff. Then the woman, she’s wigging out because of this moment. And she runs back into town. And then it says in verse 39:

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

So many more began to believe. At first ,they believed on her word as she was wigging out. Again, this lady in that society was probably not known as someone who was very trustworthy as she’s gone from husband to husband. But here she comes. And there was something so compelling about what she was saying about her interaction with Jesus. And many more believed. But they did the right thing. They didn’t leave it at that. They actually went out to where Jesus was. They sought him out and said, “We want to know for ourselves. We don’t want to just live off the testimony of someone else. We want to know for ourselves.”

So they came and they got to spend two days with Jesus, the Logos. The guiding principle of the world. God’s logical argument. To show that he is loving and just. Jesus, God in the flesh. They got to spend two days with him. And according to his words, they heard his words and they really started to believe. They even declared that. “We no longer believe because of what she said. We believe because we’ve heard with own ears, seen with our own eyes who you are.”

This week, again to try to unpack this idea of faith, my wife was actually listening to a podcast. I’ve told you before she’s my teacher. She teaches me almost everything I’ve ever learned. As I was listening to it, there was this concept that this guy was putting forward. He was saying there’s reasonable faith, there’s blind faith, and then there’s forensic faith. This guy actually was a forensic scientist. He was a cold case detective. He sought to disprove Christianity but ended coming to Christianity because he said it’s the most logical, reasonable thing he’s ever experienced.

I think it’s important for us to unpack. Unreasonable faith is the kind of faith where, against the evidence you see, you continue to believe. Flat earth. Sorry some of you out there. I know you still love it. But it’s against all the evidence that we’ve seen. Now you can discredit the evidence or whatever. But the evidence shows that the earth is round. We’ve seen pictures and all of that. But if you continue to believe in that flat earth, you’re going against what evidence would say. So it’s an unreasonable faith. I would apply to that to people who believe that there isn’t a Designer, all those type of things. But again, that’s a whole other thing.

Blind faith is where you’re believing based on something you’ve heard from somebody else, or something you haven’t experienced or you haven’t known firsthand. Or something you believe without really caring about evidence. Maybe it’s just the way you were raised so you continue to go that way, believing in Jesus, or believing in whatever else you believe or you were raised to believe. Or, like these people, some them could have believed according to this woman’s testimony. Blind faith is not necessarily bad, because sometimes you end up in the right spot by blind faith. But it’s still not the faith that I think John is writing to help people experience It’s not the faith that I think the New Testament writers and Paul would really encourage.

Forensic faith is faith that is based on evidence. It’s, “I believe and yet I’m going to test this belief. I’m going to try these things out. I’m going to try and go get my own experience and understanding and revelation.” I think this is an important thing to remember as Christians in our day and age, that we need to spend time with Jesus.

Right now you can go online and you can hear the greatest bible teachers. You can hear worship songs that really are powerful and somebody you know, out of the secret place with the Lord they’ve brought these things out. You can feel like you’re having a secret place experience with the Lord based on a song. Nothing is wrong with these things. But if that’s all there is, it could be that our faith is a little blind. And my fear is that, as our faith gets tested, and I believe testing has come and will continue to come for a season, if our faith is not really forensic, if it’s not rooted and grounded and deep and strong, then it’s going to get blown away, washed away. Like Jesus said, “Those who build their house on the sand, when the storm comes, it’s over.”

So I really want to call our church to really try and dive into a forensic faith. Really put our faith to the test. Really study the scriptures. Really search things out. When you hear somebody say something, don’t just take it because they’re cool looking or whatever. But actually process it through. Put it through the filter of the scriptures. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral. You can look that up later if you want. It’s really helpful to filter it and help us understand truth.

That’s the call from John. He’s really trying to get us to grow in faith. My call as a pastor, and to myself and my own family, is to help us grow in faith, not just have easy answers or kind of, “This is the way it’s always been.” I’m always trying to tell my kids, when they say “Hey what do we believe about that?” I say, “Well, your mom and I have decided that we believe this because the scriptures say this, but you’re going to have to decide what you believe.” I’m trying to encourage that because the faith that we have, I think for a season might cover them, or sanctify them as the scripture teaches, but there’s going to come a day when they have to express their own. They have to have their own relationship with God. So we need to be helpful in that regard, as well.

We’re going to wrap things up. We’re going to have a response time. A slide will appear on your screen. You at home, if you’re in a group, you can interact with that. Someone step up and be bold and say, “I’ll take the lead and do this,” If you’re by yourself you can just interact with it as well. As always you can put comments down below. We love to hear from you in any way, shape or form, what the Lord’s been speaking to you, what you need a prayer request for. We love all of that. Go ahead and take a little time to let this word settle in and respond.

Jesus is pursuing you just like the Samaritan woman. He has time for you and wants to give you living water.
Take amount and see if you feel pursued by Jesus. If not, ask Him to show you His love.
Take another moment and assess if your faith in Jesus is strong right now. If not, ask Jesus to help you believe.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

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