that I've got this morning. Most of you know me and my family as well, but if you're a new camera or visitor, I would like to introduce myself as Lord Wayne J. Kumar. I work here in Halifax.
I am married. I have two children. Last but not the least, I have only one wife. I am glad you're all awake.
Let us bow our heads and place ourselves in the presence of the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you. You promise to be with us always. We pray that you deepen our comprehension and broaden our thinking of what we are about to hear from you.
I pray each and every one of those who are gathered here and listening God's message. Lord open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit that we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Well, the title of my message is a questing. Will you give me a dream? Will you give me a dream? This passage also talks about a living water, the living water.
The word water is mentioned more than 700 times in our Holy Bible. We all know that water is very important to live in this world. Without water we cannot be able to survive in this world. Let me ask you a question.
Why is water necessary for life? This is not a technical or scientific question. This is a very simple question. Why you think water is so necessary for life?
Anybody? Perfect. Great answer. Thank you brother.
Anybody else? We all know that water is very important. According to experts, brothers said water is ranked second only to oxygen as essential for life. Water makes up 60 to 75 percentage of human body weight.
A loss of just fourth percentage of total body water leads to dehydration and a loss of 15 percentage can be fatal. A person could leave or could survive a month without food but within survive three days without water. So thankfully we are living in a place where we have plenty of water resources. According to World Health Foundation, currently 2.3 billion of people have limited access of safe drinking water and by 2025 they have estimated that half of the world's population will be living in water stress areas.
So we need to protect our water resources. Water is very important. Now I would like to draw your attention towards John Chapter 4. It is a very long chapter.
1 to 42 versus 1 to 42. We may not have that much time. So I would like to give you a summary. I would like to give you an abstract so that we all can understand the story better.
Three things. When I read this passage I found the first thing in this passage we can see at conversation and in the middle of that passage we see a revelation and finally we can see a transformation. What is all about the conversation? In this passage we see a conversation between the Lord's Savior Jesus Christ and the Samaritan women.
This Samaritan woman saw Jesus as a Jew or as a stranger in the beginning. Later on in the passage she saw him as a prophet and finally the Samaritan woman saw him as a Savior. In Revelation Jesus revealed himself as a Savior to the Samaritan woman. Jesus said to her I who speak to you am he.
This is a direct and explicit messianic claim Jesus ever made. This is an astonishing revelation Jesus made to the Samaritan woman. Finally we see a transformation. Samaritan's woman's chastity money was profound.
Verse 39 says many of the Samaritans of the city believed in him because of the word of the woman who justified. I would like to read a few verses then I would like to explain the story to you. John chapter 4 verses 5 to 10. So he came to a city of Samaria which is called Saikor.
Near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being buried from his journey sat thus by the well it was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her give me a dream. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him how is that you being a Jew ask a drink from me as Samaritan woman for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you give me a drink you should have asked him and he would have given you living water.
Here we see the story of Jesus evangelizing an outcast woman and outcast Samaritan woman. This is a very familiar story for most people who grew up in a church or chapel environment. I am not here to tell something which you do not know or I am not here to tell something which is hidden in the Bible. I am sure you learned this story many many times in your life.
I am sure you might have heard this story in your Sunday school as well. I am here today just to remind his love and the cost he paid on the cross to save us from our sins. The story is not about a good Samaritan but a good savior. That is a saying you never know what a day will bring forth.
I think it was certainly true for the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at Jacob's well. We are not here just by an accident. That is a purpose or reason why God brought us here to Northbrook Bible chapel. I would like to give you some background of this story so that we all can understand in depth meaning of the scripture that God wants to speak to us this morning.
I would like to give you some geographical information which will help us to understand the story better. This is an ancient Israel. Here you can see in the ancient Israel they divided into two provinces. So the southern part and the northern part.
So here you can see that this is a Judea. This is a southern part and on the top you can see Galilee. That is a northern part. In between you can see that is a Samaria.
So this particular incident that was happened here somewhere here is a psycho. This is the place where psycho that you can see Mount Yebal and Mount Gerysim. In between this is a psycho. So modern day they say that it is a place called Asca.
That is the place this particular incident that was happened. So Jesus was traveling from Jerusalem. Jesus was traveling from here. Jerusalem.
You can see Jerusalem. He wants to go to Galilee. Most of the time what happens because the Jews they don't like Samaritans. So you can see on the west side of it he is the Mediterranean Sea and you can see the Jordan River.
So whenever the Jews want to travel to Galilee from Judea they always take the eastern side of the root through Peria. This is the place. It is a long root but they don't mind. They don't want to interfere with any of the Samaritans.
So they have to always travel along the way to the eastern side to the Peria to Galilee. I would like to tell you few more things about that story because there had been enemies for centuries. Why? The Samaritans both in blood and religion were moncrel Jews.
Moncrel Jews means were identified as mixed rice people. These Samaritans are mixed rice people. So Samaritans they were descended from pagans who had intermarried with the few of the remaining Israelites after the Assyrians. They conquered the northern kingdom somewhere 727-22 BCE.
So they had defeated the Israelites who lived there. The Jewish Samaritan quarrels was more than 400 years old. The Samaritans were considered unkind by the Israelites people. So both the Samaritans and Jews they both worship God but there were differences between the religions.
The Samaritans scripture consisted of the first five books of the Bible which contained the law. The Jewish scripture included many other books. In fact the whole Old Testament. The Samaritans they believed the mountain called Gerysim in Samaria was the correct place to worship God but the Jews worship the God in the temple in Jerusalem.
The encounter of the Samaritan woman with Lord Jesus begins in the town of Saikar at the place of Jacob's world. Verse 6 it says he was we read with his journey. On Jewish reckoning the sixth hour would be noon. That time of heat of the day.
I'm sure you can visualize this very well. I lived in a place where the Samar temperature can go more than 50 degrees Celsius. Whenever I returned from the field from my research field to my office I remember always my office assistant always provided me a glass of water. He always stored that water in an earthen vessel in a clay pot.
It keeps the water so cool. Whenever I consumed that water I always felt that it's worth a million dollars because of my thirst. It's always better than the cooling in our refrigerator. It's always good to have that water in the earthen vessel or the clay vessel.
Walking in the sun makes you or feel so tired. Here we see Jesus is so humble. He went all journeys on food. Jesus Christ who is God incarnate in human form was traveling and was tired and thirsty.
He is 100% God and 100% age man at the same time. As a man he exhausted so he sat on the well. That comes a woman of Samaria to draw water. Water was scarce in this part of the world.
I remember in 2004 International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage they invited me to deliver a presentation on water scarcity in the international conference that was held in Cairo in Egypt. At that time I heard that researchers from all over the world they came to that conference and talked about water scarcity. How we can able to overcome that water scarcity. I had an opportunity to travel such that the closest place to the Egypt and I found most of the places where this is over there.
Even today you can see that women walks several miles to get the pot of water. So it's very difficult to get in that part of the world. So here we see normally women go to the well early morning or in the evening time. But here you see the Samaritan woman she went to the well around the noon time.
I'm not sure why she went to the well during the noon time but I guess probably she don't have a good reputation. She don't have a good identity. She had lived with five husbands married and diverse. So now she was living in adultery.
Probably that was the reason she don't want to go to the well in the morning or in the evening time. So she went to the well in the noon time. Verse 7 says Jesus said to her, give me a dream. Verse 9 says the Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.
How can you ask me for a dream? I read J.C. Royal. He said I like this quote.
It's he said it was a gracious act of spiritual aggression on a sinner. It was a gracious act of spiritual aggression on a sinner. Jesus did not wait for the woman to speak but he was the first to begin the conversation. It is a shocking thing because Jewish men don't want to speak with women in public.
A rabbi might not even speak to his own wife or daughter or sister in public. Here she is not an ordinary woman. She is an outcast. She is a despised woman immoral woman.
It is absolutely shocking to talk such women according to their law and culture. Jesus have no, Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. She was also a woman of a notorious character yet Jesus spoke to her because he is concerned for the woman's soul and he decides to give the living water to the Samaritan woman. Here you can see Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a dream.
You would have asked him and he would have given you the living water. The word gift, wherever it was used in acts or in effils is always referred as a divine gift. The water that gives freely means the Holy Spirit. Jesus linked the idea of water and the Holy Spirit in John 7 verses 37 to 39.
It says on the last day that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me as the scripture has said out of his hot will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him could receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. But the woman thought that Jesus was referring to a physical water but Jesus spoke about the living water.
What he spoke figuratively, she took literally. This is what exactly happened with Nicodemus as well. Verse 13, Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
Here Jesus clearly differentiated the water of the well and the living water he offered to her. The doctrine here is the doctrine of eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst not come here to draw. So she still doesn't get it.
I think that is sarcastic. She thought she would not have to come to the well anymore. That's what she thought. And then in verse 16, 17 and 18, you can see Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here.
The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well said, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband. In that you spoke truly.
Here we can see something interesting. Women had five husbands in the past, married and diverse for five times. And now she's living with a man and having a conscious relationship. And he's not her husband.
They are not married. They are just living together. Living together does not make a marriage. According to Bible, marriage is a God ordained covenant relationship between a man and woman.
Jesus knows everything about her life. She might have thought Jesus doesn't know about her personal life, but Jesus knows everything. I would like to tell you a story of a woman who had four husbands. It's a funny joke.
So don't think too much on that. This is also a story about a man who married, a story about a woman who married again at the age of 80. She married for the fourth time. Therefore it was a bit of news in her local town.
You know, somehow the news reached to the local radio station and they decided to interview her. So one fine morning they invited her to the radio station and the interview said, ma'am, congratulations. And would you like to say about your husband's profession? And she said, well, I'm happy and my husband's profession is a funeral director.
That was quite interesting. And then the interviewer thought, okay, and he was curious to know about what happened with the first three marriages. So he said, ma'am, would you be comfortable to share what happened for the first three marriages? And she passed a little bit and smiled, just thought recollecting some things.
And she smiled and said, why not? I can't share my experience in the past. So she said, at the age of 20, I married a banker. And I had a great time with him.
And after some time I was team. At the age of 40, I married a movie star. Then I had a great time with him and then I was team. And at the age of 60, then I married a preacher.
And I had a great time with him. And then later on, I was team. And at the age of 18, I married a funeral director. Then the interviewer looked at her quite astonished and I asked why you had married four men with such a diverse career.
She smiled and explained, I married one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go. It is interesting. Don't think too much on this funny story jokes about. Let's focus on John Chapter four.
Jesus knows everything about her past and her present situation. He knows her history. He knows our history as well. I saw her Chapter 49 was 16 says, behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hand.
We need to be very careful. She has no idea how this stranger has such intimate knowledge of her. Here we can see her response is so amazing and it's so wonderful. Was 19, the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
She immediately realized that she's not dealing with an honorary person. She's not dealing with an honorary person. She never met him before. He's a Jew.
Then she quickly changed the topic, quickly changed the subject of the conversation. I think probably it is too personal to her maybe. She started to talk about the correct place to worship God. It says verse 20, our father's worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.
Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming. When you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father, you worship what you do not know. We know what be worship for salvation is of the Jews. Verse 23, but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
The Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Verse 25 says, the woman said to him, I know that messiah is coming. When he comes, he will tell us all things.
Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am he. Worshiping God in Mount, Gary same or Mount Zion doesn't matter. True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. We need to worship our Lord in spirit and truth.
That is important. It means true worship is still about. It's all about loving God, honoring God, praising God, obeying God and following God. And so I had 29, verse 13 says, the Lord says, these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship, their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. It has to be real. It has to be come from the bottom of our heart. It should be authentic.
Remember, we need to worship him in spirit and truth. It must be counted. She said, I know the messiah is coming. Probably she is thinking about the Deuteronomy chapter 18.
In Deuteronomy chapter 18, it's saying they're coming of the prophet. Still she didn't get it. That was an expectation among the Samaritans. She also anticipated the coming of messiah.
But we can see the most glorious movement in this passage. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am he. What a marvelous story. What a great transformation Christ will manifest himself to those who truly seek him.
If you truly seek him, Christ will manifest her. There is no doubt about it. Later in verse 39, it says, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all that I have did.
What a wonderful, what a great transformation. Many people, they believed Jesus Christ because of her witness. She's an outcast. But because of her witness, many believed the Samaritans called Jesus the savior of the world.
When I read this passage, the verse touched my heart or hammered my heart. John chapter 4, verse 7. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink.
Give me a drink. In Revelation chapter 22, we see, I am the alpha and the omega. The first and the last, the beginning and the end. Psalms 103 says, he opened the rock and water gushed out.
It flowed like a river in the desert. Exodus 17, we see, I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink.
He is the king of kings. He is the lord of lords. He is the creator of this universe. He is the one who created the water for us.
Colossians chapter 116, this morning, Brother John was talking, it reminded us everything that comes from, everything what we receive. It all comes from the Lord. Colossians chapter 116, we see for by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible by the thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
So I don't think He needs something from us. But He would like to give something special for us to fulfill our thirst. That is the living water. Here Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the living water.
Living water is a symbol of salvation and a true knowledge of God. I saw you chapter 61 verse 3, to appoint unto them that more in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the government of price for the spirit of heaviness that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified. When He said, give me a drink. In this verse you can see, He is telling, give me your ashes.
I will give you beauty. Give me your mourning, I will give you the oil of joy and He is telling give me the spirit of heaviness and I will give you the government of price. Jesus is telling us this morning. Give me your anxiety, give me your depression, give me your worry, give me your tears, give me your sickness, give me your disease, give me your pain, give me disappointments, give me a shame, give me a loneliness, give me a failure, give me a financial crisis, give me a loss, give me a dread addiction, give me a brokenness, give me a lust.
The list goes on, give me a dream. There may be so many things going on in your life and my life and sometimes it is so difficult for us to share with our friends or parents or anyone. But my dear brothers and sisters, I tell you, we have a father who can listen all of our problems and he can be able to provide peace and comfort in our life. He is telling us, give it to me.
Jesus is telling us, my dear son and daughter, it is too heavy for you. I lived in this earth. I walked in this earth. I know the problems and challenges and temptations you face every day.
I know everything. Don't carry it by yourself. Give it to me and I will turn everything into a blessing for you. Give me a dream.
I will take it from you and I will provide you a living water and you will never thirst again. I would like to show you one more passage from the Bible and I would like to finish with a word of prayer. Please listen very carefully. Numbers 5, verse 11 to 29.
I don't have much time to explain it in detail but I would like to give the essence of this passage. It is all about the test for adultery. There was a law. It was called the law of jealousy.
People also called the ordeal of bitter water. This law was recorded in the books of numbers that gave regulations to the Israelites for testing of a wife who was suspected by her husband to have committed adultery. If a man who suspects his wife of infidelity, he takes her to the priest and make a formal accusation. The man would have to pay a regulatory fee of one tenth of an ephah of barley floor on behalf of his wife.
Then the priest takes the holy water in an earthen vessel and he takes the dirt from the floor of the tabernacle and he puts those dirt into the holy water and makes it bitter. Then the priest would loosen her hair and place the offering made by her husband in her hand. It is an indication of unclean and shameness. Then the woman would be put under woth.
The priest write the curse, the woth with ink and dissolve into the holy water. Then the priest shall make the woman drink the bitter water. If the woman is guilty, Bible says her bellies shall swell and her thighs shall rot and never to be able to be her children again. The woman would then accept this curse by saying amain to be it.
If the woman is innocent, then she shall free and make conceived children and escape from the curse. In the world testament time, even if the woman is accused of adultery, just accused of adultery, one has to go through such a painful and shameful process in front of everybody. My dear brothers and sisters, we can see the parallel in John 4 when Jesus met a Samaritan woman who had five husbands, married multiple times and living in an adult's relationship instead of cursing her. Instead of punishing her, Jesus said, give me a drink in exchange.
He offered a living water to the Samaritan woman. She deserved the punishment. She deserved a curse. She deserved to drink the bitter water.
But Jesus said, give it to me. Give me a drink. Every one of us, every one of us, including me, we are supposed to be forced to drink a bitter cup for our sins. That would have destroyed us.
That would have destroyed our life. But Jesus drank it for us. This morning Jesus is telling us, give me your sin. Give me your shame.
Give me your brokenness and come to me. Matthew 11, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. And I will give you the rest. When Jesus said, I thirst, it is all about salvation.
He experienced the thirst of all mankind in the cross. And in that test, he wants us to give the living water. The living water of his divine mercy and love. The Lord Jesus Christ thirsted for us on the cross.
That we may never thirst again. He has consumed the cup of God's wrath. A cup that has accumulated with all kinds of sin, all types of sin, crimes, lies, adultery, anything. Because of his sacrifice on the cross, we are saved from our sins.
That was the message we heard from Brother John Wells last week. We are saved from sin. First Corinthians chapter 5, 21, for he made him who knew nothing to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. When Jesus had received the sour wine on the cross, the bitter cup on the cross, he said, it is finished.
That will stop. The mission was accomplished. Pay it in full. There is no thirst in heaven.
Revelation chapter 7, 16 says, they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. My dear brothers and sisters, we thirst after many things in this world. We thirst after money, prestige, position, power, and we put our trust in them. Are we ready to put our trust in God?
The question is, do we have a thirst for his kingdom? Do we have a thirst for salvation? Do we have a thirst for the living water? It is a free gift this morning.
David Hanson mentioned, it is a free gift. Salvation is a free gift. If we say, yes, Jesus, I am thirsty for your kingdom. I am thirsty for the salvation.
I am thirsty for the living water. I invite you to stand and I would like to close with the word of prayer. All what we can say is, forgive me. We are not worthy.
We are unworthy people. Even we could not be able to come to his presence, but he loved us. All what we can say is, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord for your sacrifice.
Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ to save us from our sins. Thank you for your amazing love and grace. Thank you for providing us new life in Christ and indeling Holy Spirit.
Thank you for providing us the fountain of living water for our eternal life. Be with us now and forever more in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.