An encounter with Jesus is no accident. He makes it his intention to meet with his chosen girls. It’s why you’re listening today. He has intentionally moved toward you to give you what you most need.

What is it you need today? What have you come here seeking? He is here to meet your needs and fill you to overflowing. You will not leave this encounter with him without receiving what you are seeking. He promises, seek and you will find. Our problem comes when our busyness, our overwhelm, our distraction, our frustration, and our desire to gain control cause us to stop seeking. When we are not seeking, it’s hard for us to find. When we are not listening, it’s hard for us to hear. When we’re not asking, it’s hard for us to receive. Jesus wants us to come to him with a thirst for more.

My friend, are you really thirsty for more? Or are you settled with where you are, what you know, and what you feel comfortable doing?

Scripture tells us about an unlikely woman’s encounter with Jesus at a well. You likely know the story, but there’s more for you to see here today.

Jesus was leaving Judea and going to Galilee. To get to where he was going from where he was, there were two routes. The preferred route avoided the despised people of Samaria. But Jesus doesn’t avoid anyone, does he? Which route does he choose? Of course, he chooses to go right through the region everyone else avoided.

Reading the story in John 4, beginning in verse 4-6, it says, “Jesus had to travel through Samaria, so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.”

Remember Jesus didn’t HAVE to travel through Samaria, there was another more preferable route. Jesus had a very strategically planned encounter, and that encounter would require him to be at a very specific place at a very specific time. Jesus “had” to travel through Samaria – not out of reluctance, and not out of lack of a better choice, but instead because of destiny that required he be in just the right place at the right time. Other translations say he “needed” to travel through Samaria, or it was “necessary” for him to be there.

What if Jesus has a planned encounter with you today? What if he has a destined meeting with you, and it’s not because he “has” to … no, girl, it’s because he wants to! He will go to the most undesirable places on the most unlikely routes to meet you. He has no problem with meeting you right where you are.

Did you know Jesus will come to you? I don’t care if you’re in the trenches, he will come to you. He will meet you in the alley, in the gutter, or in the ghetto. He will meet you in the crack house, the frat house, the liquor store, the bar, the hospital room, or the bathroom where you hide and cry. And he’s met you here today. You’ve been asking where he is … well, honey, he’s right here for an encounter with you. Today is the day, he said he NEEDED to meet with you. It was NECESSARY for him to find you here.

Notice scripture is very specific in what time it is. It says, “it was about noon.” This is important because noon is not the time of day to be at the well to draw water. You get up early and draw your water for the day before it gets hot. But on that day, at a very unlikely time, there was a woman who Jesus had intentionally come to meet.

Verses 7-15, “A woman of Samaria came to draw water. ‘Give me a drink,’ Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.’ Jesus answered, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying this to you, you would ask him, and he would give you living water.’ ‘Sir,’ said the woman, ‘you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this living water? Jesus said, ‘Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life. ‘Sir,’ the woman said to him, ‘give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.’

Thirst is a very literal example of our need for Jesus. Jesus is the living water. What he gives quenches the deepest parts of us that are continually longing for more. For real, my sister, you know that part of you that feels like there’s something missing and you don’t know how to fill it … that’s your space for Jesus. Only he can fill that. Only he can take away that longing and give you a continual supply of happiness regardless of circumstances. Only he can give you the confidence you lack. Only he can give you the supernatural strength you need. Only he can guide your next steps. It only comes from him.

We are literally thirsty for what we don’t have. When we don’t have Jesus filling us, we start trying to quench our thirst with other things. Temporary things. We go online and we shop. It’s exciting to put it in the cart and check for the delivery date. It’s exciting to receive the box and open it up. But that excitement is short lived and soon we feel thirsty again.

We pour that glass of wine, we mix that next drink, we order the next round, or we pop another little pill all to feel better for a moment and numb the pain. We melt away the stress, remove our mind from the reality, and that thirst for escape is quenched for a bit. But then, it comes back and we feel even worse. Isn’t that true? You just feel worse after wards?

We are chasing after what we are longing for, and anything short of Jesus will only leave us wanting more.

I’ve heard we’re each born with a God shaped hole within us and nothing else will ever fill that hole. I’ve found that to be true.

I’ve lived in both extremes of not enough money to make it through the month, and all the money I wanted … there was still that hole.

I’ve been marathon level fit where every piece of clothing I put on looked dang good, and I’ve been in that ‘nothing fits’ stage where I hate my reflection don’t recognize myself … there was still that hole.

I’ve met all my goals, stepped into my wildest dreams, and lived the life I always wanted to live … there was still that hole.

A vacation won’t fill it. No beach is good enough. No man is good enough. No drink or pill or next hit lasts long enough. You were created with a need … and girl, Jesus is going out of his way to intentionally meet your need and fill that hole.

That is his living water. We work, we long, we search, we reach, but only Jesus gives satisfaction to the deepest pars of our soul that lasts.

Think about thirst. Have you ever been really thirsty? It’s greater than hunger. Thirst will make you absolutely miserable and truly desperate more than anything else. But just thinking about water doesn’t do anything for you. Even looking at water doesn’t help you. Walking in water, swimming in water, diving right in doesn’t quench your thirst. You have to do one thing … DRINK THE WATER.

They say you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Drinking the water is a necessary choice to quench the desperate need felt in thirst.

And Jesus says, I will give you living water. If you drink from the water I give you, you will never get thirsty again.” In fact he says if you drink his living water, then something awesome will happen inside of you – then you will have a well of water springing up IN YOU!

To be filled with what Jesus has for you, you must RECEIVE it. Knowing about Jesus isn’t enough. Talking about Jesus won’t do it. Only RECEIVING Jesus will fill that God shaped hole inside of you that you’ve always felt. To receive, you must believe.

Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

You are only filled by truly believing. Believing is as practical as receiving a cup of water and drinking when you’re thirsty. Believing is what fills that hole.

Here’s what is truly amazing about this living water Jesus offers us … anyone can drink it. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or how long you’ve been there, you can take a drink from the cup. It doesn’t matter how dirty you are, how much shame or guilt you carry, the cup is offered for you. But no one can drink from that cup and quench your thirst for you. Only you can do that.

But please understand, YOU CAN. The offer is there for you. There’s nothing you need to do to earn it, You are already God’s chosen girl, destined for an intentional encounter with him. This is what you’ve been missing! This is what you’ve been searching for. Not the man, not the career, not the body, not the money, not the success, not the fame, not a single thing … only Jesus.

And through this story, we understand we’re all qualified for take that drink with faith.

The time of Jesus being at the well is important because it shows this woman was an outcast for being at the well alone. She wasn’t allowed to come to the well in the early morning with all the other women. Why? Keep reading in the story. She has a checkered past. 5 husbands, likely some failed marriages and some great losses. And now, she’s living with a man who is not her husband. Her guilt and shame, grief and pain were on display daily as she drew water from the well in the heat of the day. But that’s precisely where Jesus met her.

He shows us ANYONE can be filled by him. You don’t have to clean your life up first. You don’t have to have it all figured out. You simply have to believe.

And when you believe and receive what only he can give, that’s when something starts happening inside of you. His living water becomes a spring of water in you. You are filled over and over again. Regardless of circumstances, you can feel peace. No matter the situation, you can have strength.

That longing you feel within you is a thirst. A thirst can only be quenched by the action of receiving. Your action of receiving the living water of Jesus is simply BELIEVING.

May you be filled today, truly filled. Filled with more than a temporary fix or momentary escape. May you be filled with ALL JOY and ALL PEACE that comes in BELIEVING.

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