This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to day four of our look at chapter four of the book of
John, daily drive time devotions verses 31 to 42 today. We're at the end of this
conversation that Jesus has with a woman at the well. The woman and Jesus have
had this incredible conversation we've looked at the last few days together.

She leaves to tell everyone in town and then the disciples have come into the
picture just at the end of their conversation. Then Jesus and the disciples have
a conversation. It's a fascinating conversation.

Let me read all of it for you. Verses 31 to 38. Meanwhile, the disciples urged
him.

Rabbi eat something, but he said to them, I have food to eat that you know
nothing about. Then his disciples said to each other, could someone have brought
him food? My food, Jesus said, is to do the will of him who sent me and to
finish his work.

Do you not say four more months and then harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and
look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.

Even now the reaper draws his wages. Even now he harvests the crop for eternal
life so that the sower and the reaper may be glad. That's the saying one sows
and another reaps is true.

I sent you to reap what you've not worked for. Others have done the hard work.
You've reaped the benefits of their labor.

In this passage, turn from a talk about living water to a talk about spiritual
food. The disciples, you remember at the beginning of the story, had gone in to
get food from the town. They'd gone in to buy food.

And they come back and they say, here's some food, Rabbi. And Jesus says, I have
food to eat that you know nothing about. You want a good diet?

How about the John 3. 34 diet? Do the will of him who sent me.

That's the will of God. And Jesus says, that's my food. And the disciples are
totally confused.

What's going on here? We went to get you McDonald's, Jesus. We went to get you
some food and we brought it back.

And you said, you've already had some food? Did you get something from somebody
else? They missed the point entirely, just like I do.

When I see how often the disciples missed the point and they were right there
with Jesus, it's humbling to me because I realize I missed the point many times
in life too. The disciples missed the point because they were looking at the
physical and not the spiritual. What's the point?

Jesus was trying to help them to understand there's something more important
even than the food you just got. And that is God's will. God's will is the
deepest source of strength and satisfaction.

In fact, when Jesus says my food is to do God's will, there's something
important here. If what you're doing for God leaves you starving, spiritually,
something is terribly wrong. Because Jesus said that doing God's will is like
food to your soul.

If you're trying to do God's will, what you feel to be God's will, and yet
somehow you're drying up inside, you're feeling further and further from God,
you're spiritually starving, let me say to you, one of two things is happening.
Either you're trying to do God's will on your own power, which we were never
meant to do. We have to draw on his strength and that leaves you starved.

Or you're trying to do your will and not God's will. And many times we do that.
Oh, it might be good things.

I'm not saying selfish things. We just try to do too many good things. That's
what our will often is.

We try to do more than God intends us to do. And so we're tired and we're worn
out and we're spiritually starving because we never take the time to recharge to
be with him. My food, Jesus says, is to do the will of him who sent me.

And in these verses, he is very specific about God's will. What is God's will?
We could make a long, long list of what God's will is for our lives.

But in these verses, Jesus is specific. He says, God's will is laboring in the
harvest. That's what he says.

What is God's will? He said, it is to labor in the harvest. Look, he says, the
fields are ripe for harvest.

Now it's interesting. This word labor in verse 38 is translated weary in verse
six of the same chapter. It's satisfying, but it's tiring.

It's deeply satisfying. Just because you get tired doesn't mean you're not doing
God's will. Jesus got tired in doing God's will.

It's when your soul is drying up that you know that something is wrong. And
Jesus says, when you talk about God's will, don't forget to labor in the
harvest. Now the harvest he's talking about is people.

God wants to bring people into the family. And here he's using the picture of a
harvest and laboring to make sure that the crop comes in. And he says, the
fields are white to harvest.

And a lot of commentators have said, I don't know if this is what happened, but
it's an incredible picture if it is, that this may have been said at the very
time that the Samaritans were coming out of their city to see Jesus. It's the
whole city's coming to see him. Most people in that day wore white robes.

So you have the white robe Samaritans coming up. And just at that moment, Jesus
says, look, the fields are white to harvest. And he shows the disciples, all
these people walking towards him.

That brings up an interesting point. Something interesting in this passage. This
woman went back to the town and brought back the whole town to hear about Jesus.

Here's this woman. She's heard the message for the first time. She brings
everybody out to hear about Jesus.

And it's almost as if Jesus is saying, learn something from this woman. People
want to hear the message, the good news of who Jesus really is. And sometimes
there are things that keep us from laboring in the harvest.

These were Samaritans. And maybe for these disciples, even though they were
supposed to be a witness to them, they didn't think of them as someone they
would share the good news with. It may be a personal prejudice or a prejudice
toward a group of people that keeps you from laboring in the harvest.

Sometimes it's something far more insidious than that. For me, more than
anything, I get caught up. I get so caught up in the necessities of life that I
don't have time for the priorities of life.

I'm going into a store. I've got 10 minutes to get in and get out and get this
and get that. And if someone comes across my path that might have a need,
someone I might even know.

I might not even notice them because I'm trying to get in and get out as quickly
as possible because I've got the task to get done. More than likely, that's what
would happen with these disciples. Jesus was hungry.

They had to get in and get out. Jesus is saying, don't forget the harvest.
There's something more important than even this food.

The fields are ripe to harvest. In fact, if you want to do a study later of this
passage, this is a passage about God's principles of the harvest. The principles
are that there is a harvest.

Just look, Jesus says. The principles are that there is joy in the harvest. And
another principle you find in this passage is that one sows and another reaps
for the harvest.

Another principle you see is that there's a right time for the harvest. You
might want to go back and look at this passage in John chapter four and just
think about what are the principles for the harvest in this passage? Moving on
from this conversation of Jesus and the disciples, here's what happens when the
people arrive to see Jesus in verses 39 to 42.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's
testimony. He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him,
they urged him to stay with them and he stayed for two days.

And because of his words, many more became believers. They said to the woman, we
no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we've heard for ourselves
and we know that this man really is the savior of the world.

There's a pattern here and it's a pattern that still happens today. You have a
message to share. You have a good news to share if Jesus Christ has come into
your life.

And some people, just because you share the message, you say, Jesus Christ made
a difference in my life. Look at what he did. They will believe just because you
share.

They'll say, yes, I need that too. I want to pray that prayer. Other people,
they won't immediately make a decision.

They'll be drawn though, they'll be curious. And so like some in this crowd,
they came out to hear Jesus and then some of those became believers. And then
Jesus stayed two days and others became believers because they needed a little
bit longer to think about it.

That's a pattern about how people think. But the interesting thing to me about
this pattern is where it starts. It starts with someone trusting your testimony
about Jesus Christ.

This woman's testimony is not very fancy. He told me everything I ever did. When
you talk about three minute testimonies and how to write them out and the
pattern of them and first you say what God did then and then what God did then.

This doesn't follow any of that. He told me everything I ever did just based on
that people believed. Why, because it was the truth is what Jesus Christ had
done in her life.

That's what your testimony is. What has Jesus Christ done in your life? And the
greatest opportunity you have for telling the good news to someone else is to
tell them what Jesus has done in your life.

That is your testimony. If you think I don't have much of a testimony, you're
dead wrong. Just think of what your life would be like without Christ.

That's your testimony. If you think my life is filled with problems, I don't
have much of a testimony for Jesus Christ. You are wrong.

Just think about how differently you're handling those problems. You're able to
face those problems because of the strength of the Lord in your life. We all
have problems.

We all have problems. And this woman's testimony, the simplicity of it is a
reminder to me that as long as I'm honest about what God has done in my life,
God will use that testimony to let other people know there is good news. That's
the greatest opportunity, the greatest tool that any of us have.

And just because you share that, what God's done in your life, the same thing
will happen that happened to this woman. Some people will believe. They won't
believe in you.

They'll believe in Jesus Christ. They'll look and they'll say, he wouldn't be
saying those things. She wouldn't be saying those things except for the fact
that someone's done something in their life.

In fact, they believe to the extent that they were able to say, now we know that
you're the savior of the world. At the beginning of this conversation, the woman
at the well and Jesus were arguing about Jews and Samaritans and where to
worship. Well, here it is.

You're the savior of the world. No longer is it just Jews or just Samaritans.
Jesus, you are the savior of the world.

This town had tremendous faith. So they say, come and stay with us, Jesus
Christ. And their faith is built.

This woman, she didn't know very much. And there's a thousand questions they
could have asked her that she would not have had the answer to. No idea.

She'd had just one conversation with Jesus Christ. But in that one conversation,
she'd heard enough to want to go and tell someone else. And that made them want
to hear.

It made some of them believe. So as we pray today, first, thank God for your
story. Say, thank you, Jesus Christ for what you've done in my life.

For how you've, in a way only you could, changed my life. Thank you for the
forgiveness you've brought, for the new direction you've brought. And then say,
Jesus Christ, would you give me the opportunity, would you open the door so I
could tell someone else what you've done in my life?

You might want to pray about someone specific here or just pray in a broad way.
Open the door. Help me not to be embarrassed about my testimony.

Help me to realize it's what you've done in my life. I don't need to add
anything to it or make it fancy. It's what you've done in my life.

And you will use that, like you use the story of this woman. You'll use that.
Give me the chance.

Open the door for me to tell someone else the story of the good news of Jesus
Christ. I pray this, Jesus, in your name. Amen.

Well, join us tomorrow. We're going to be looking together at a different story
and a whole different story in this fourth chapter of the book of John, the
healing of the nobleman's son in verses 43 to 54.