Spirit & Truth

but before I get started on today's message let's pray heavenly Father we just thank you and praise you Lord to be

in your house we thank you God that you've given us a place where we freely

worship you and that we can worship you Lord in the spirit and truth and we're

careful to give you all the praise and all the glory in Jesus name and everybody said "Amen." So today's

message is spirit and truth that's what we're going to talk about and uh it's

coming out of John chapter 4 before we go there I want to ask you a question does

it say in the Bible wherever two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the

midst of them amen so when we come to

church and there's two of us here or three that means Jesus is here

we don't have to struggle we don't have to search we don't have to beg him to show up he's already

here and when we come to church because he is already here we can have all our needs

met every time we come to church if when we come before him we worship

him in spirit and truth and that's what we're going to talk about today so if you have your Bibles turn to John

chapter 4 this is the story of the woman in the well at the well and uh there's

some things in here that we really need to look at because there's some statements Jesus

made to her that are profound so it says uh it started in

verse one it says when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees remember the

religious hypocrites are always looking to see what you're doing first um had

heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John though Jesus himself baptized not

but his disciples but listen to what Jesus did he he's been dealing with

hypocrites for a while it says he left Judea and departed again into Galilee in

other words he left Judea and he's headed home because he's tired of dealing with the hypocrites he needs a

break but listen what he does because this is what's amazing to get from Judah to

Galilee he had to go through Samaria and it says right here he left Judea and departed again into Galilee and he must

need to go through Samaria now how many of you know who the Samaritans

were how many of you know the kingdom of Israel how many tribes made up the

kingdom of Israel the whole kingdom

12 After Solomon died the kingdom was split and became two kingdoms the

northern kingdom of Israel the southern kingdom of Judah well the northern kingdom of Israel is the Samaritans when

they came back from the Assyrian bondage the southern kingdom of Judah is the is the tribes of Judah and

Benjamin when they came back from the Babylonian conquest when they were held

captive for 70 years so they're mad at each other and have been since Solomon died they've been fighting with each

other the Jews don't have anything to do with the Samaritans samaritans don't have anything to do with the Jews they

both think they're right then cometh he to a city of

Samaria Samaria which is called Sikar near to the parcel of ground that Jacob

gave to his son Joseph now Jacob's well was there and

Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey remember he's all man all God even he got tired and he slept in the

front of the boat he got tired on his journey

here and sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour if you don't understand that the Jewish clock it's

noon that's the sixth hour because the night and the day are divided into 12

separate time zones it's the sixth hour they start the day clock at 6:00 a.m so

it's noon middle of the day and there cometh a woman of Samaria

to draw water this and and this is kind of funny and this is something that you really

need to understand this woman coming to draw water at noon is not

normal because the women of the city would come out to draw water first thing

in the morning or at the end of the day in the evening they didn't come out to get

water at noon so there's a reason she's out there getting water at noon and it's

because she's she's got a reputation that's why she's coming to get water at dune she has a reputation

you ever ran into somebody had a reputation okay and

Jesus say saith unto her "Give me to drink." Now let's put together the list

she's a woman with a reputation as far as the Jews concerned she's

unclean and Jesus asked her and they and they weren't supposed to have any any kind of association with somebody that

was considered unclean and Jesus asked her for

water and his disciples this verse 8 for his

disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat then saith the woman of Samaria

unto him now she's shocked listen to her statement how is it that thou being a

Jew askest drink of me which am a woman of

Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans she's shocked first of all

she's got a reputation she's a woman that's out in the middle of the day getting water and

then Jesus a Jew asked her for water and she can't believe what she's hearing

because he's a Jew and he's not going to have anything to do with her for the simple fact she's a Samaritan but she

also knows she's unclean and he asked her for water anyway so she's already

stunned okay the who is this guy that asked me for

water and Jesus answered and said unto her If thou kneest the gift of

God and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have

asked of him and he would have given thee living water and the woman saith unto him Sir

thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep from whence

then hast thou that living water he's got her He's got her curiosity up now

what's he talking about what is this living water and then she asked him a question

a second question art thou greater than our father Jacob which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his

children and his cattle and Jesus answered and said unto her Whosoever drinkketh of this water

shall thirst again but whosoever drinkketh of the water that I shall give

him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a

well of water springing up into life everlasting life and when you present the

truth of the gospel to someone and it's the truth of the gospel that's the

question they ask and the desire that comes they want that life because they

know they got a big old hole here and there's a whole lot missing and they're

hoping that what you're telling them will fill that

hole and every single person in this world has that hole bar none you me doesn't matter

president of the United States Billy Graham doesn't matter we all have that hole only Jesus can fit it and he's the

only one that fills it

and the woman said unto "Sir give me this water that I thirst not neither

come hither to draw." And Jesus saith unto her now this

is the cool part about Jesus this is where and we're going to really get into the nuts and bolts of this jesus saith

unto her "Go call thy husband and come hither." Now she's already in an attitude of

worship and listen to her answer the woman answered and

said I have no

husband and Jesus said unto her Thou hast well said I have no

husband for thou hast had five husbands and he whom thou now hast is not thy

husband in that sets thou truth doesn't matter what your spiritual condition is

when you come to Christ and he asks you the question he for you to receive what

he has for you to get requires you to be honest you have to answer him

truthfully and that's the hard thing go to the next slide Mikey we're going to get down here in

just a minute and that's a hard thing

because I can remember when I was a kid my dad would ask me a question and I

knew I was smart enough to know this was a loaded question my dad just asked me no matter how I answer this question I'm

in trouble doesn't matter how I answer it I'm in trouble

but if I answer it in a way that pleases him I'm going to be in less

trouble even though he asked me to tell him the truth and when we we do that to kids we

are actually teaching them it's okay to tell a lie it's going to get you out of trouble right and Jesus asked her a

question now remember he's a Jew she's a Samaritan he's in Samaria and he asked

her for water he asked her a question and she wants something from

him which is this living water he's talking about and then he asks her

another question he actually makes a statement go get your husband and bring him here he gives her an opportunity to

come clean and the woman said unto him

"Sir I perceive that thou art a prophet our fathers worshiped in this mountain

and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship now we have to listen to what Jesus said

and this is what's on the up here on the screen it says "Woman believe me the hour cometh

when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father

you worship you know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the

Jews but the hour cometh and now is when

the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the

Father seeketh such to worship him god is a spirit and they that worship him must

worship him in spirit and in truth and the woman saith unto him I

know that Messiah cometh she's talking about the Christ which is called Christ when he is

come he will tell us all things and Jesus saith unto her I that speak unto

thee am he now she's not Jewish she's

Samaritan they have the scriptures same as we do

they're looking for the promise to be fulfilled just like the Jews

were and then Jesus tells her "Who you're looking for is me." Now listen to what happens after

this and upon this came his disciples his disciples these are those religious

people that can follow you wherever you go and when you say something that and they're they marvel at what you said

because it doesn't line up to what they were taught and they marveled that he talked

with the woman i had I talked to someone one time and I had someone come up and

says "You know she's a prostitute right?" And I went "Uh yeah I know she's

a prostitute but guess what jesus loves her just as much as she loves you." And the lady didn't want to talk to me

anymore she turned around walked I can't believe you talked to that person turned around and walked

away which one needed Jesus both of

them one to be delivered from being a prostitute and the other one delivered from being a a

hypocrite and he talked with the woman yet no man said "What seekest thou or why talkst thou with her?" Now listen

this is what the woman does and this is what happens when you have a real true spiritual experience with

Jesus the woman left her she left and she left her water pot sitting right

where it was she didn't even worry about that water pot and she goes back into

the city and saith to the men "Come see a man which told me all things that ever I

did the truth." It says "If you receive the truth then the truth will set you

free." She received the truth he told her the truth and she accepted it

is not this the Christ then they went out of the city

and came unto him now while this is going on and she's

over here talking to the men in the city Jesus is having a conversation with his

disciples about the true harvest we all talk about you know the fields are ripe

and white with harvest right this is where it takes place but after he finishes the conversation with her we're

going to skip down to verse 39 he comes back in and the people of this city in

in Sikar which is in Samaria come out they come out to where Jesus is says

"And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the

woman which testified he told me all that ever I

did." When you tell somebody about

Jesus and what he did for you they hear you

they listen because you're telling them about something that changed

you in a dramatic way and they want they it makes people hungry they want to know

what changed you so when the Samaritans were come

unto him they besought him that he would tarry with them and he abodeed there two

days he just broke the law again he was a Jew they have nothing to do with the

Samaritans first he talks to the woman at the well then he talks to the people in the city and now he spent two days in

Samaria before he finished up and went to

Galilee and many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman now

remember she's the witness right she's the one that went into the town she's the one that told him "You got to meet

this guy you have to come and meet him." And said unto the woman "Now we

believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him

ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ the savior of the world."

Now when you tell somebody about Jesus and it's honest from your own

experience and it's real and people see the truth of it it changes lives go to

the next slide Mikey worshippping in the spirit and truth requires two

things the first one is you've got to be honest with God and with yourself

and you have to have a humble and contrite spirit you have to come to that place

and know there's nothing you're doing of yourself it requires Jesus to make those

changes and that that's from salvation to receiving healing to learning from God you have to be honest with God and

with yourself and you have to approach God with a humble and contrite spirit in

other words the humble and contrite spirit says "It's you Lord and not me i know it's you that does all these things

and I can willfully submit myself to hearing from you." Without those you can't even enter

into a place of worship and God's presence have you ever heard of the shikina glory of God you ever heard that

phrase do you know what it is when Moses came down from the mountain and they built the wilderness

tabernacle God's presence in the form of a cloud moved into the

tabernacle when Solomon completed the temple and they put the ark in

there the shikina glory of God that same cloud went into the temple and it

inhabited the Holy of Holies that's the shikina glory of God guess

what when you got saved the shikina glory of God moved

into you god's presence in

here we have direct access to God because he lives in here the shikina

glory of God if you ever I've experienced it twice in my lifetime i mean physical presence and what the

shikina glory of God means the physical presence of God that's what it means

literally two times it's happened in my life one time it happened in that side

room i was in there i was praying brother Chen was in here and he was

That's right after we got the electronic piano I think but anyway two times I've seen the shina glory of God and two

times I've heard God's voice with my ears and one of those times happened in

that side and people's

lives were changed by the presence of

God when you allow that presence that moved into you

when you got saved to be in control it changes people's lives

you guys heard this word before anointing that's what happens when you

allow God's presence that is already in you to come out of you that's the rivers

of living water it changes people's lives and that's what that's what our

whole purpose is my purpose your purpose anybody who says they're a Christian that says they're saved they confesses

Jesus as Lord and Savior we're supposed to be changing lives not just our own

but those we meet go to the next slide Mikey

so you have to get you have to become this bold you have to never worry about

who will be offended if you speak the truth you have to be worried about who will be

misled deceived and destroyed if you

don't if I don't tell you the truth God comes back and asks me

why that's part of being a watchman go to the next slide

mike I said this last week this is the actual statement

truth is like a surgery it hurts but it

heals you got when you have an abscess like I had an abscess to I went

to the dentist the dentist didn't give me a bunch of antibiotics and tell me to come back later he pulled the tooth and

gave me antibiotics and says you'll be fine it hurt but you know what by that afternoon

my face was all the way back to normal my mouth didn't hurt anymore the tooth wasn't killing me

anymore same thing happens when you tell somebody the truth it might

hurt but if you're if you're saying the truth to them not out of

maliciousness but out of genuine concern it causes them to heal

but a lie this is this is when I tell you guys that I'm not nice i'm kind but

I'm not nice a lie is like a painkiller if I tell you something to make you feel

better am I addressing the issue

that if I tell you the truth it might

hurt but you're going to grow because I didn't lie to you i I put

you in the situation having to face it your face whatever it is because when

you uh when you lie to somebody to make them feel better that's what being nice is it gives instant relief oh you make

me feel better but the side effects last forever you've just set this per person

up for a fall you You've not told them the truth they needed to hear in a way

and I'm not saying say it in a malicious kind of way i'm saying you're telling them the truth out of compassion out of

love and out of caring for them it's kindness because you don't want them to

continue doing this it's the hardest thing in the world for men that come to my father's house to accept is the fact

that I won't sugarcoat the the fact that they're

addicts and they need help and it doesn't matter whether

they're addicted to alcohol drugs sex whatever it is because I'm honest enough with them

and I care about them enough to tell them you screw you have screwed up your life or you would not be here

if you hadn't screwed up your life you wouldn't be here you wouldn't even know who I

am but because you did those things and you've been to prison or you've been to jail and you've been to rehab five times

and so on or so forth you're here because you need help and help begins

with honesty if I'm not honest with you you can't change

and no I wasn't being nice and yes it probably hurt your feelings when I said

that but it wasn't said to hurt your feelings it was said to help you move

forward to actually heal from that situation is there another slide Mikey

or is that the last one so one of the keys to worshiping God in

spirit and truth and I've shared this with you guys before is you have to bear

with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance

against someone that's not just in the church that's outside the church forgive

them as the Lord forgave you

at that point you can lump them remember I and I told you guys this

before for forgiving someone is not for them it's for you and if you look in the

mirror or you look at your own heart you

say "Am I bearing a grudge against this person am I still hurting over something

that happened 25 30 years ago am I still upset when I think about this

person because if you have an emotional reaction outside of I need to pray for

them um you're the one that's in the wrong it's tough pill to

swallow but if you swallow it it reminds me of Mary Poppins you know she's a

spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down uh Jesus didn't give you any sugar to go with the medicine he just said

"Take the medicine." Um it's important because you can't deal with

stuff without honesty so if we're worshiping

God in spirit and truth we have to be willing enough

to open ourselves up to God for him to take a look and check

under the hood see why your check engine lights on because it's

important because if we're not honest with God and how and and when he's trying to deal with us we're never going

to overcome whatever it is that we're facing look at this woman the woman at

the well what did she do she answered him

honestly and at the end of the [Music] conversation she brought the whole city

to Jesus and they all believed on him everybody that came out believed on Jesus not because of her testimony but

because they heard it himself but they wouldn't have been there if she hadn't went back into the city and said

"Hey you got to meet this guy there's something different about him." Yeah he's a

Jew but he told me all about my life and never met me before

today knew how many husbands I had knew that I was living with someone I wasn't married

to offered to get me living water something that would

never end you got to come and hear him and when they did they they were so

hungry for his message they asked him to stay for two

days and he's a Jew and they didn't associate

that's the life-changing power that you need to grab a hold

of that's the lifechanging power that your friends and family need how many of

you are praying for lost members of your family that they get saved they come to know the Lord well they

need that they need that living water

and if it doesn't flow into them from you who's it going to flow into them

from is there one more Mikey and I want you to keep this in

mind you run into a lot of people that tell you they

believe you talk to them you witness to them about Jesus oh I believe in Jesus that's to get you to shut

up the devil is a believer i mean come on he knows

Jesus but he's not a Christian and you need to know the

difference when somebody brushes you off like

that you say you know the devil's a believer but he's not a Christian if you

really want to see how they're going to react you'll find out real fast if they're a believer

and I'm being serious because I've done it it works i had a guy at at my father's

house a few years back that was talking "Well I believe in God." And I said "Well the devil does too but he ain't a

Christian." He goes "Oh you I can't believe you said that oh my god." And I

said "Well stop acting like a

heathen." Yeah in case you haven't figured it out I'm confrontational at times but when I say things or I do

things like that there is a reason there's a purpose for it i just don't do it because I want to be a mean person

i'm doing it because they need help and they're denying the fact they

need help they think they're okay and they're not

and when you run into people who think they're okay you're going to have to confront

them you're going to have to tell them "The devil's a believer too but he's not

a Christian." Do you know the difference because you got a lot of

people out there that like I said they will tell you they know Christ because they want to get you to shut

up and you can tell if you spend any time praying at all when they say

something like that you can tell i mean it comes off the page oh this person's just trying to make me shut

up they don't really believe or they're religious and being religious is is it's

death jesus told the

Pharisees he called them hypocrites for the things they did religious practices

but if you're talking to someone whether you agree with their

denominationalism or not and they truly have an experience with Christ they're

not going to answer you with just "Oh yeah I believe." They're going to have something to say

in response to you and you're the spirit that's in you is going to witness to the spirit that's in them and you're going

to know that even though you may not agree in the dynamics of your belief system the core belief is

the same they've accepted Jesus as Lord and

Savior and that's what it is that's what Paul said we all have to we all have the

same the same standard to meet when it comes to being saved if you believe with

your mouth or if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that God has raised Jesus from the

dead you shall be saved romans 10:9 and 10 that's it in a

nutshell i can't tell somebody if they say "You know what i confess Jesus as my Lord and

Savior and I'm doing the best I can to serve him." At that point I need to be an encourager they're

saved they need some disciplehip they need to learn they need

to know how to grow and I need to pour water on them so they will grow i need to give them

living water to help them grow

there's no big eyes or little U's in the sight of God we're all the same in fact he tells us that he esteems every man

the same that's man or woman you come to Jesus with an open heart he's going to

do for you exactly what he does for anybody else you come to him with a closed heart he's going to do for you

exactly what he does for everybody else that comes to him with a closed heart the bottom line is come to

Jesus with an open heart sometimes we need open heart

surgery in fact a lot of times we need open heart surgery we need God to reach in and take things

out things that are killing us spiritually that are preventing us from doing what God's asking us to do

and it can be the most blessed amazing thing when

he takes those things out and all of a sudden you're

free that when you're going forward from that point you're no longer dragging that that chain behind you attached to

that two-tonon rock because he took it off

that only comes when you are worshiping him the way he asked to be worshiped in spirit and

truth so let's stand