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John 4, 13, 14. 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. I start there because this is actually the longest recorded conversation that Jesus has with another individual in all of the Gospel accounts. And it's crazy, because this is a conversation Jesus is having with a woman, an unnamed Samaritan woman. And just to give you a little bit of context, Jesus is talking with this woman in Samaria. And the Jews and the Samaritans had a lot of beef. Like Jews and Samaritans did not associate with each other. Jews viewed Samaritans as disgusting, as ungodly as all of these different things. And so Jews would completely avoid Samaria, and in every way possible. But here is Jesus going out of his way, traveling to speak to this Samaritan woman. And not only did Jews and Samaritans not associate with each other, Jesus was a rabbi. Rabbis did not associate with women in public. They did not speak with women in public. And so Jesus is showing us in this longest recorded story in the Gospel accounts that he's having with this woman, that he came to break down walls, barriers, and anything and everything else that would separate anyone from coming to him, that he goes out of his way for those that feel they are unworthy. So Jesus is having this conversation with this woman over drinking water because they're at a well. And as we back up in this story, we learned that this woman had traveled to the well by herself in the middle of the day. And in this time, no one went to the well by themselves. And they also never went to the well in the middle of the day. Women always would travel in packs. They would always travel with each other. And they would go early in the morning, or they would go late at night, but never in the heat of the day. It was so hot. And it also was maybe a little bit of like a scary place in town, or they just, for whatever reason, always would travel together. But we know that this woman comes by herself in the heat of the day, which means she was trying to avoid people. She was trying to hide herself. She didn't want to go with all the other people I've seen in my own life. That shame puts up walls. That shame makes us want to hide, that we tell ourselves that it would be better if we were alone and isolated than to put ourselves in a vulnerable place where we might rejected, where we might feel like we're not good enough, or we might feel inferior, or where people might talk about us or make fun of us or whatever it may be. This woman, you could tell, was walking in a lot of shame. And here's the reality is that shame can stop us from drawing near to God, but it does not stop God from drawing near to us. Jesus goes out of his way to speak with this woman, to show her, I see you. I see the sin that you're living in. I see the shame that you're carrying. And I'm coming out of my way to show you that I love you and that there's more for your life. And that was my story for so long. I was this woman at the well. I felt disgusting. I felt unworthy. I felt because of secret sexual sin that I had committed and told no one about, I felt this shame. And I was living in this perpetual secret sin that I didn't know how to break free from. And we later find out that that was a lot of this woman's story. Jesus calls out that she had had five husbands and the man she living with was not her husband. And he has this conversation with her and calls it out not to hurt her or humiliate her like maybe other people had, but to heal her. How was it that this man, this man named Jesus, could speak about the one thing that created so much shame in her life, but he did it with a different level of authority and love that actually brought freedom and not shame and condemnation like when other people talked about it. And it's because he is the only one who has the authority to actually set us free from our sin or our shame. And so when you feel the Holy Spirit meet you where you're at out of love, yet lovingly call you out, call you out in your sin or in your shame, maybe he does that through a pastor or through a friend. Or maybe as you're reading the Word of God, or you're just spending time in prayer, you feel called out in that area of your life. He does it not to hurt you or humiliate you, but to heal you. Because you were made for freedom. You were made for eternal life. And you see, in this story, everybody searches for life somewhere. And either you're searching for it and shopping for it horizontally and yet coming up empty, or you found it to the fullest vertically, because only Jesus can fully satisfy the thirst you have. We were all born with a thirst that can only be satisfied by one. The One who created us, the One who saved us, and the One who gives us eternal life. And the verse I read that I started out with in verse 13, Jesus is saying, everyone who drinks from this water, who keeps coming to this well, will come up empty again and again and again, because you're going to keep running to that same thing. And it's going to leave you more unsatisfied, more confused, more empty than when you even came in the first place. But when you come to me, you will find life. You will never thirst again. He said, whoever comes to me. And I love that this whoever language is coming out. Because so many times people think Christianity is so exclusive, it's only made for certain people. It's so uninviting. But Jesus is saying, no. Everyone, anyone, whoever. Whoever comes to me. Anyone can come to me. Anyone means the drug addict. Anyone means the one who got the abortion and told nobody about it. Anyone means the one stuck in pornography and masturbation. Anyone means the person who was born into a family, who abused them. Anyone means the person whose parents got divorced at a super young age. And you've carried that shame for so long, feeling like it was your fault and your responsibility. Anyone means the person who looks at themselves in the mirror and hates what they see. Anyone means me. Anyone means you. Anyone means any. Everyone. Everyone is invited. The invitation is to everyone. But it's up to us to accept it, to receive it, and to live it out. And Jesus is inviting this woman. He said, hey, the wells you keep running to are not giving you life. It's creating bondage, it's creating shame, and it's keeping you from the life you were made to live. But if you come to me, I will give you life and life to the fullest. So come to me. Come to me. He's inviting her to a life of abundance. Jesus is saying, it's not about the water, it's about the well himself. Jesus is the only one that can satisfy your thirst. Jesus is the only well that will never run dry. When you go to him to find security, when you go to him to find identity, when you go to him to find purpose, when you go to him to find belonging, when you go to him to find peace and joy and freedom, only he can give you what you were made for. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, that God has put eternity on every man's heart, every person's heart was made for something that only Jesus can fill. The world can't give it to you. You can't give it to you. That person can't give it to you. Nothing that you See, physically in this world can give it to you. And that's why we were never meant to serve and worship creation like so many of us do, like so much of the world does. Romans 1:25 said they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. They worshiped and served created things rather than Creator, the One who created those things. And so many of us are so consumed and worshiping and focused on the created things that we forget there is a Creator, the One who made Me, the One who made them, the One who holds the whole world in his hands. And only he can give me what I'm looking for, what I was made for. And when you encounter Jesus, this is what happened to this woman. And this can be your story and testimony, too. When you encounter Jesus, the real Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, the One who loves you, that while you were still a sinner, he died for you. The real Jesus, King Jesus. When you encounter Jesus, you go from feeling like a disgrace to declaring his grace, from feeling bound to boasting in what once kept you bound. Those testings become your testimony. Your mess becomes your message. You begin to declare the very things that kept you bound and suffering for so long. And you declare it because he set you free. Free. And you testify about what he set you free from, and other people experience Him. And that's what happened in this woman's story. And it can happen in your life, too. And I would love to invite you into a time of prayer if you'll just bow your heads and close your eyes. I want you to literally go there with me. You have this empty bucket in your hand, and you're walking up to this well, to this place that you've come to so often. And it's so routine, and it's really miserable, and it's very lonely. And you're walking up to this well, and you're just asking, is there more for my life? There's got to be something more. And as you're asking that question, you look up and you see another person at the well. And that was super uncommon because no one was ever at the well at this time. You literally came to the well to avoid everyone. And yet you see this man, and there's something different about him. There's something different about his vibe, his spirit, his smile. He doesn't look like he's judging me. He looks like he wants to talk with me. He doesn't seem like he's repelled by my thirst. He actually seems like he wants to know more about it. And Maybe he wants to even redirect it. And I'm so curious about this man. And all of a sudden, you guys make eye contact. And now you're looking in Jesus's eyes. What do you feel? What do you feel? Like his soul is speaking to yours. You keep walking up to the well, and even though you're feeling all of these things, you try not to make anything of it. And so you, you know, start dipping your bucket into the water to pull up the water and kind of going about your normal routine. But this man, Jesus, he stops you and he makes conversation with you and he starts to speak to you. And again, you feel confused because no one ever talks to you. And you feel unworthy of people's love and attention. You feel, who am I? That you should be talking to me. But you stay in the moment, you stay in the conversation, and all of a sudden, this man somehow knows everything you've ever done. Your worst mistakes, your biggest sins. And yet as he's saying them out loud that you thought you would never say out loud, you thought those things you would take to the grave. He begins to say them out loud. Yet instead of the condemnation you thought you would feel, you somehow feel lighter. You somehow feel hope. What are those things Jesus is saying out loud that you said you would never tell anyone? And as he begins to say them out loud, you feel this little flicker of hope in you. And he offers you something more. He tells you that those relationships will never satisfy, that job will never satisfy. That thing will not give you what you're looking for. But when you come to me, when you run to me, you will find everything you were truly made for. And in this moment, you begin to feel the shackles, the weights, the chains, the pain, the shame fall off. You feel lighter. You feel freer. You feel joy. You haven't felt joy in so long. You feel joy. And you literally leave behind your bucket of water, the very reason you came to the well in the first place. You leave it behind and you run into the town, into your city, into your schools, into your home, and you begin to testify about this man you encountered, named Jesus, and what he did for you. You begin to tell everybody that he set you free. You begin to tell everybody the breakthrough you just experienced by encountering this man named Jesus. You begin to boast in the very thing that had kept you bound for so long. You are now filled and marked with joy, not shame. You are now running into conversations with people, not running from them. You were testifying about everything that you thought disqualified you. Because now you've been set free. You left behind the very reason you were at the well in the first place, because you're making the decision right now, in this moment. I'm not going to live like that anymore. I'm done. I'm done running to empty wells. Jesus, I choose you. And if that's your decision right now, I just invite you to say those words out loud. Jesus, I choose you. You are where joy is. You are where satisfaction is. You are where life is found. And so, God, let it be. Let this be our story, our testimony, and may we boast in the things that you have done. Died to set us free from. We love you, we praise you, and it's in your name. In Jesus name, Amen.