While I was preparing for sharing a message on Sunday night with our Sr. High Students, I thought it would be cool to continue the discussion after the evening teaching time on the website. So here we are. Sunday evening, I shared this passage from John 4 with the students:

^4-6To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.

^7-8A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)

⁹The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

^11-12The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”

^13-14Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

¹⁵The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”

¹⁶He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”

^17-18“I have no husband,” she said.

“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”

^19-20“Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”

^21-23“Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

^23-24“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”

²⁵The woman said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”

²⁶“I am he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”

We use water in every part of our lives. Water to clean things, water to nourish things, water to kill things. This essential part of our life is something that we can use to learn about our lives and how God wants to shape our lives. However, in the passage above, you can see that Jesus offers the Samaritan woman a different type of water.

During youth group, we primarily talked about the difference between stagnant and living water and how it relates to our lives as christians.  According to Merriam-Webster Online, stagnant is defined as 1. Not flowing in a stream and 2. Not advancing. In this instance, we were using the second of the definitions. “Stagnant” meaning to not advance or to develop.

We focused on verses 6 through 10. We talked about how Jesus Christ has the living water that can quench any thirst that we need. How his spirit flowing through us can quench any need and preserve life. We compared “living” water with “stagnant” water in our lives.

Here are some questions for you to think about as we prepare for October 4th:

• Because we’re human, we need water. We can only survive around 3 days dependent on other factors that could affect that. So everyone has their own little water bottle that they always need to be filling. Are you filling that water bottle with Stagnant water or Living Water?

• What is living water? What does it look like?

• In the verses above, what did the Samaritan have to do to get the water?

• What does Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan tell us about Jesus and the water he offers? Remember: Jesus, a jew, normally would not be caught dead with a Samaritan woman.

• What do you try to replace the living water with in your life?

As you are using water today, tomorrow and the next day, think about the differences between living water that is always moving, always growing and stagnant water that just sits and becomes filthy.

On October 4th, we’re talking about those things we use to replace that “living” water that Jesus offers and the benefits of pouring out the stagnant water in our lives.

I hope to see you there!

-Pastor Dane