Diving into the story of the women at the well, we explore what would happen if women truly knew Jesus. 

<p>Diving into the story of the women at the well, we explore what would happen if women truly knew Jesus. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Mountain View SDA Church

Felecia Lee

If Women Knew Jesus

This morning we spoke about having a quiet, unruffled spirit, heart.

But 1 of the things that I find my spirit tends to get very unruffled is when I'm hungry.

When I get hungry, I am not as smiley as I would like to be.

I'm not as amicable as I would like to be.

And a few years ago I was attending a conference and I arrived late.

I arrived late at the lunch session and by the time I arrived there, unfortunately, they ran out of food.

I had been traveling for a while and I just really wanted rice.

I arrived there and there's no food, there's about a dozen people on the line and I'm like, oh I should probably just go to Chipotle.

So as I turn to walk off the line, this gentleman is standing behind me with his wife and he's, I've never seen him before, did not know him.

He says to me, I think you should wait for the rice.

So I stand there for a few more minutes and I'm like, it's okay, I'll just go to Chipotle and grab something.

He's like, no, I really think you should wait for the rice.

I ended up standing there for about 30 to 40 minutes waiting for this rice.

By that time I have a headache, I am frustrated, I am irritated, I am annoyed that I let this total stranger convince me to stand on this line to wait for rice.

Everyone else left the line and this gentleman is just, this is going to be the best rice ever and in my mind I am just not feeling it, not in the mood.

After that, another gentleman walks onto the line and, you know, he asks, are you guys waiting for food?

By this time, I do not feel like networking.

And the gentleman asked me my name and I mumbled something.

To this day, I cannot remember what I said.

But obviously, unfortunately, the look on my face said that I was not in the mood for talking.

And the gentleman began to walk away, and I said, no, you need to wait on this rice too.

So the 3 of us, the 1 who convinced me to wait for the rice, me in not a good mood, and this other gentleman who was trying to have a conversation, standing there waiting for rice.

Shortly after, the second gentleman walked onto the line, the rice came.

To this day, I, it's not so much regret, but regret how I responded to that second gentleman.

And I find myself wondering every once in a while.

If only I knew that that gentleman who I did not have a good attitude with, I would end up marrying.

Thank the Lord how I responded That moment did not faze him very much.

But I still find all these years later, if only I had known how different would I have responded.

And thank God, God is always able to take our mistakes and turn them around for the best.

But I cannot remember what I said that day.

I just remember I was not in a good mood and I was like, how would I have responded if I knew This was the man I was going to marry.

By that time, I was like, Lord, I would like to be married and so forth.

If only I knew, how would I have responded?

And so today, we're going to be sort of looking at this phrase, if only I knew.

Bow your heads, let's say 1 more prayer and then dive into this passage.

If only we knew how much you loved us, if only we knew who you were, if only we knew how much we needed you, How would we respond?

And I pray that in this moment, by the power of your spirit, you would touch our hearts, you would open our minds, so that we could know something that is not possible to know without the help of your spirit.

Speak through me, speak to each of our hearts, in your name I pray, amen.

This is 1 of my favorite stories that I love to go back to, especially today as we are looking at women's ministry.

I think this is a passage that of course is great for women but anybody.

And as we read, because the Bible is so rich and it's so packed, sometimes you need to slow down, let your mind just park in a particular verse.

Jesus said to her, give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." And this is the verse that we're going to unpack today.

Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God, who it is who says to you, give me a drink, if you knew, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

If you knew the gift of God, if you knew who it was who was asking you for water, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

The first part that I would like us to unpack for a moment is the part where it says, if you knew the gift of God.

1 thing about gifts is that of course we know we cannot work for it.

In Romans chapter 6 23 it says the wages of sin is the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is is Eternal life.

Now for those of you who grew up in church or you've been going to church for a long time, we hear a lot, certain phrases, and unfortunately we can get so used to hearing something that after a while it just loses its value.

We sing about eternal life, we sing about Jesus, we sing about heaven, we pray about it, we talk about it, we read about it, and it just becomes this thing that we just do on a regular basis.

So I'm from the Bahamas, we're surrounded by the most beautiful waters.

I did not realize until I left the Bahamas, I moved to Michigan.

I love Michigan, but I remember 1 time we were in college And they invited us to the beach, and I was so confused.

This is my first time living in the US, and they say the beach, and I'm like, we're in the middle of the US, how are we going to the beach?

Because we're so far from the ocean, so I'm confused.

So we go, And I see this great body of water, and it was Lake Michigan, and the water, there is no sand.

I'm used to sandy white beaches or pink sandy beaches.

The color of the water, I am used to, you can see all the way down in the water all the fish and all the turtle this water the color of it is like chocolate milk and I am like I am not getting in a body of water that's the same color as my skin I cannot get around this And they are so excited about the beach.

Growing up in the islands, I could not understand how people could spend hundreds, thousands of dollars to leave their country to come to the beach.

I'm like, do you all not have beaches where you are?

And then you leave, again, because it's there.

You could have a whole strip of beach all to yourself.

The idea of other people just being around you in your spot off the beach, unfathomable, it's a crime.

And then you come here and the beaches are crowded.

So you grow up with it, you see the ocean, it's just there.

And that's when you realize how beautiful it is.

So when it comes to talking about the gift of God and eternal life and heaven, for a lot of us it can become like growing up in the Caribbean.

You see it all the time and you think it's always going to be there.

And so when Jesus says, if you knew the gift of God, it is very important for us to remember that this gift of Eternal life is just what it says, a gift.

And it is very easy for many of us, for all of us, to give into the lie that living a good life is enough for me to make it into heaven.

As long as I do not do the egregious things, lying, killing, doing all that stuff, committing adultery, I am good with God.

There's a little boy, 8 years old, his name is Javier Velez.

He was sleeping in a car, his father and brother were outside fishing, and a 25-year-old man speeding down the highway, this road, at 107 miles per hour, drunk, slams into the car and kills this sleeping boy.

I want you to imagine that 25 year old going to those parents and says, I'll make it up to you.

I'm going to give money to the poor to make up for the life of your child.

But so many of us do the same thing with God.

We think somehow we can appease God, that heaven is cheap enough, that if we simply don't do bad things, that God would be satisfied with your version of a good life.

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If Women Knew Jesus

Transcript

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