Take advantage of opportunities to talk about Jesus Christ

How many here know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior? Raise your hand. Raise it high. If you have to think about it, it's already fried. Amen. You have to know that you know that you know that Jesus Christ is our Lord, our savior, our King.

And I want to talk about a woman who didn't know Jesus and who had the privilege of introducing himself to her. He approached her and spoke to her about his person and she had a direct encounter with the precious Lord Jesus Christ. It is found in John, chapter 4. It is the story of the Samaritan woman. Samaritan because she lived in a village of Samaria and the word begins in verse 1 of chapter 4 when the Lord comes to that village of Samaria, that village was called Sychar, it was a city, a Sycar town but it was part of a larger region of Samaria. We are going to start in verse 4 where it says that in order for the Lord to go to Galilee, coming from Judea, it was necessary for him to go through Samaria. And that is very significant in light of what we will see later.

It was necessary for him to go to Galilee to go through Samaria and then when he was on his way through Samaria he came to Sychar. And that village, city, was next to an inheritance that Jacob had given centuries ago to his son Joseph. And there was this well, which was called Jacob's well, that is, there was a very interesting story regarding that place specifically, Jacob's well.

And I think that place is interesting because Joseph, Jacob, that well, he talked about the history of Israel, he talked about Judaism, he talked about the patriarchs. That well was significant of very important things that had happened in Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ, which he represents as something new, something different, it is like the continuation of history but it is also the overcoming of Hebrew history.

But in that well, two worlds meet: the Hebrew world, the Judaic religion, the religion founded by Moses, directed by God, the world of the commandments, the prescriptions of the Old Testament. That world and another world that is the world that Jesus Christ embodies, the new dispensation so to speak, that he initiates. A new way of relating to God and the Father. Those two worlds, although there is continuity between them, but there is also conflict, but the Lord is there at that moment.

I believe that God, who is a symbolic God and tremendously intentional in his things, wanted a dialogue to take place there, in that place that reminded us of two worlds, the world that Jesus opened and the world that Jacob's well represented. And this Samaritan woman was like in a limbo, because she was neither one thing nor the other, she was neither chicha nor lemonade, as the Guatemalans say. It was something different. She was sort of in limbo because she wasn't Jewish, she wasn't a Christian, and she wasn't truly a Gentile either because Samaritans kind of identified with Judaism as well.

The Samaritans were such a rare, combined religion, some Samaritans still exist, in fact, in the Palestine area. They came from pagan nations, pagan tribes that had stayed in Canaan and many of them accepted Judaism, some had married Jews but had a hybrid religion, it was a mixture of religions. They were not Jews and the Jews saw them as impure people, disposable people, there were serious controversies, they despised the Samaritans because they saw them as impostors. They kind of thought that these people pretend that they are Jews, that they are part of us, that they are just like us, they claim Abraham as their father, but they are not truly Jews. They had a mixture of idolatry and other things.

So, the Jews did not want to know anything about the Samaritans and that is why they tried to go… if they had to go through Samaria they would make a strange turn, they would take a very long turn to avoid contaminating themselves with the blessed Samaritans. That is why it says that it was necessary for the Lord to go through Samaria, but he did not go around Samaria but through it, and there is a meaning there.

Then he comes to this city and Jacob's well was there. So, Jesus, tired from the road – that choir reminds me, tired from the road – sat down by the well. And it was about the sixth hour, more or less, it was noon. Imagine that stinging Middle Eastern sun at noon, it was about the 6th hour. And a woman from Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink,” for his disciples had gone into the city to buy food. And the surprised Samaritan woman said to the Lord, "Hey, how come you, being a Jew, ask me to drink because I am a Samaritan woman?" Because Jews and Samaritans don't treat each other, remember what I told you a moment ago.

That woman was able to identify Jesus as Jewish, perhaps because of his accent, perhaps because of his appearance, perhaps because it was a village and everyone knew each other and this man evidently had a style that made it sound like he was Jewish. And then she is surprised that a Jew asks her to drink.

And then the Lord answers him and says, "Ha, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that tells you to give me a drink, you would ask him and he would give you living water." And the woman said to him, “Lord, you don't have anything to draw it with and the well is deep, where do you get the living water from? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well from which he and his sons and their cattle drank?" Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst. Rather, the water that I will give him will be in him a spring of water springing up into eternal life.” And the woman said to him, "Lord, give me some of that water so that I won't be thirsty or come here to draw it." Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

This is where things get a little tight. The music changes, until now it's a romantic, soft, melodious music and at the moment there's a chord that's out of tune. And then the woman says, "I don't have a husband." Jesus said to her, "You have said well, I have no husband, because you have had 5 husbands and the one you have now is not your husband, you have said this truthfully." And the woman said to him, "Sir, it seems to me that you are a prophet, our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you say that it should be in Jerusalem where we should worship." Jesus told her, “Woman, believe me that the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will adore the Father in spirit and in truth because the Father also wants such worshipers to adore Him. God is spirit and those who worship him in spirit and in truth it is necessary that they worship. The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah, called the Christ, will come, when he comes he will declare all things to us." And Jesus said to him, “I am the one speaking to you.” Amen.

How cute, right? I would like to see that movie some day. When I get to heaven I'm going to say, "Lord, where is the video of when you met the Samaritan woman and this and that." It's going to be very interesting.

We see here there are several elements found in this passage. One of them is the importance of a soul, the value of a soul to the Lord. And how important it is for us to have eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to discern the moments that God puts in our way to testify to someone about Jesus Christ.

Another thing that I believe that no soul is unimportant to God. It doesn't matter how poor the clothing is around him or her. It could be a wandering person on the corner of Albany Street and Massachusetts Avenue, it could be someone who touches your window so that you lower it so that you can give him a penny on a corner here in the city. It may be a drunk or a homosexual person or whoever, it may be a neighbor you don't like, that soul is important to God no matter what outer clothing it has.

There is an eternal soul there, infinitely valuable, independent of its outer clothing. That soul has an eternal destiny, that soul has the seal and the image of God on it. That soul is of infinite value to God and we cannot waste an opportunity to plant a seed of goodwill, prepare the way for another to come later perhaps and continue to build on that seed of sympathy that we planted, through good-natured conversation. , a discreet word about the Lord.

But we are all sowers and we are always sowing for others to come and reap. But discerning that God always gives us opportunities to preach to others about the Gospel.

So, the Lord saw the importance. Wherever he went he seized opportunities, he never missed an opportunity to evangelize. And the reason for being of the church of Jesus Christ is to bring others to the knowledge of the Lord. The church does many things, it does charitable works, it does social work, it has times of fellowship, many things that we do, but the main call is to go to the nations and preach the Gospel to every creature.

And that is what we have to do. The Lord did that. The Lord preached to multitudes but he also preached to individuals, and some of the moments that most reveal his heart and his inner beauty are the moments in which he meets a sinner, be it Plunder, Bartimaeus, the woman with the flow of blood, this Samaritan woman, Levi, Peter, those individual moments when we see the Lord caring for a soul.

If you don't care about a soul there is something wrong with your life. A child is a soul, a 3-year-old child has a perfectly developed soul, an adult soul, what's more, an eternal soul is inside. The clothing of the child does not devalue the internal divinity that it has. That is why it is so important that we give value to each soul because God has made us fishers of men.

What did Christ say to Peter? From today you will be a fisher of men. And that's what you are and that's what I am. The Lord was a fisher of men. He said, "I have come to seek what was lost." That was his reason for being. And the Lord always took obstacles as an opportunity to minister to others.

Here was an obstacle, Samaria, the hostilities that were between Samaritans and Jews, racial ethnic hatred, that which is killing humanity today. Xenophobia, the fear of the foreigner, is what the word xenophobia literally means. That seeing the foreigner as a threat. And many are, it is true, in many cases it is like that, but also many others are a blessing in disguise. That is why the word tells us not to forget hospitality because without knowing it, many hosted angels.

The Lord had no ethnic hatreds. The Gospel must not fall into that trap. That is why I say, for me the world is our field. We are Hispanic, we are Latino, but God has called us to evangelize the nations. Lion of Judah has a universal calling. León de Judá has a call to evangelize Afro-Americans, Asians, Haitians, Africans, Anglo-Saxons, Europeans. You name it. We do not trace those ethnic differences and I beg us that as a multi-ethnic, multi-national church, we see each other as souls in Christ Jesus, all brothers and that we appreciate each other in our diversity.

The Lord did not draw those barriers. He did not underestimate the value of a soul. Because we are all worth equally before him. The Lord is interested in your life, in what is happening, your drama. Perhaps you believe that you are struggling and suffering alone, the Lord is watching and is looking for an opportunity to enter your life, deal with you, become king and Lord and an inhabitant of your heart.

And he sees this woman and he reads her totally, he sees her interior, he knows her past, he knows her history, he knows which foot she limps on, but he also knows that there is a beautiful being there who has great potential and his computer tells him, how Do I enter this soul? How do I talk to him? And an idea occurs to him. She comes to get water and he takes that as a way of establishing a dialogue.

He tells her, “Give me a drink,” and in that expression he is winning her over. It is interesting, one of the things that I see here first of all is that at this moment the divinity and humanity of Jesus are mixed, the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus felt hungry, Jesus felt thirsty, Jesus felt tired, it says that he was tired from the road. One would think that Jesus had inexhaustible vitamins inside his body, he never got tired. No, the Lord was human, his body was a biological body. That is the mystery of the incarnation. He was perfect God and perfect man. And he says that he became a participant in our weaknesses to know in his being what happens to a human being. He was tempted like us, but without sin. He felt lonely, he felt despondent, he felt anxious even as he contemplated the cross as the immediate future. He felt anxious about what awaited him.

The Lord felt what we feel and felt hungry, thirsty, and tired as well. But he took that as an opportunity to talk to her. That humanity that Jesus experienced in his being allows him to identify with us. If he had been a distant God, floating in his universe, he could not have approached this woman and said, "Give me a drink."

And with that word he starts a whole chain of symbolism around water and around the human being's need for water. And we'll see that later. He feels thirsty and meets this woman and then starts his rescue from that moment.

We have to take advantage of the opportunities in our surrounding neighbors to start something. I have a neighbor nearby who one day is asking the Lord to allow this man to come to church. He is American, a blue collar type, a hard worker, and yet with a tender heart. And he likes to eat, so from time to time I bring him a cake, I bring him a loaf of bread, maybe I'm hurting him because I'm making him fatter, but it's a way to win him over. And I am asking you to help me take advantage of those moments to greet you. Whenever I go to church, that doesn't fail, he's always sitting on his porch watching and until I honk at him I think he doesn't feel happy on Sunday mornings. Bye, but I tell him, take care, man. See you later. Because I want him to see a pastor, he knows that I am a minister and that he sees me as a likeable and approachable person, not that I am better than him. I think he feels guilty that every Sunday he sees me come to church and he is sitting there in his seat. And I want him to feel guilty, okay, let's see if one day he reacts.

But I am throwing the bait, one day I want to invite him to church. I'm not going to feel comfortable until I see him one day here come to church. Meanwhile I'm sowing there little seeds in his heart. But we have to take advantage of opportunities, our neighbors, the people around us, we have to get out of the natural reserve of this nation. If you have someone around take a chance and make them some chocolate chip cookies or whatever and get closer in some way or if you see something they like then use that as a starting point.

The Lord used the water. He used sympathy, he won over that woman because he became fragile at that moment. When you make yourself fragile in front of a person, that often causes sympathy on the part of the person. He told her, 'Could you give me a glass of water, some water?' Because she is going to drink water, she is going to drink water at that moment. He asks you for a favor, he becomes fragile, he becomes simple.

I think that one of the things that people appreciate when they see a simple-hearted and fragile evangelical. We make people believe that we are spiritual giants, we have no problems, we are perfect, we walk around with our 7-pound Bible under our arms, looking up everywhere like… People like it when you say, “Look, I am a sinner like any other but forgiven by Christ Jesus." I have the same struggles that you have but I entrust myself to my God and he heals me, he forgives me.

People like approachable people, people who laugh, people who don't take themselves so seriously. We evangelicals take ourselves very seriously and that is a problem because then people feel like, what's up, I can't achieve that glory in which that person inhabits. They haven't seen us in our shorts watching TV at night, the ball game, or yelling at the wife, or yelling at the kids. People like to see a 3-dimensional human being. Let's be simple with people, let's be friendly and let people see our humanity.

The Lord has no pretensions at that moment and he approaches, he wants a friendly relationship with this woman. And the woman is surprised, for the moment she is amazed that a Jew and who seems to be an educated, serious man, asks her for water, such an intimate act, to drink from a receptacle that she is going to provide. An ordinary Jew would have said, no, that will make you impure, this woman is a sinful woman, she is a Samaritan. They didn't know the rest of her history. If this woman gives you to drink ritually you will become impure. And she is surprised that this Jewish man, male, asks her for a drink.

And the Lord, again, breaks down that barrier. Perhaps she feels rejected and one of the things that the Lord wants to bring to our hearts is that peace that we are not rejected. God does not reject us. God has no enmity with us. God wants rather fellowship. Even this humanity today so separated from God, as rebellious as it is, I believe that God wants reconciliation with humanity. God does not want to destroy man yet.

One day it will become inevitable, but I believe that God still wants reconciliation with his creature and many of us are asking, Lord, send fire, we sing, send fire, Lord, send fire. But the Lord says, hey, I have not come to destroy souls, I have come to save souls. Let's love our city, let's love the people around it. The Lord does not want barriers, on the contrary, the Lord wants to reconcile with us.

And she tells him, but how can you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan, to give you a drink? And there he sees another entry. It's like he goes to different layers of intimacy. He wants to take her to that final confession we heard, I'm the one talking to you. But it takes her through a psychological process of descent in terms of depth.

And the question that she asks him opens up the opportunity for him to say something about who he is. And her curiosity is piqued. She says, how are you being a Jew, in other words, she is already alluding to her identity. But she only sees the Jew, she sees the man, she sees the person who is asking her for a drink in a practically daily way. Then, the Lord tells him, ah, if you knew who it is that tells you to give me a drink, not only would you give him a drink, no, you would ask him for water, and he would give you living water.

And there again enters a series of elements that are important. But notice that the Lord begins to point towards your person. From here on things are going to revolve around who he is. And I tell him that my brothers and I tell you that too, that we not get entangled in matters of theology and all these things. Let's introduce people to a person, which is Jesus Christ. Christianity is not first of all a system of laws, it is not a system of theological beliefs, it is a relationship with a character named Christ Jesus, a personal relationship.

The Bible says that the Lord knocks at the door and knocks and if someone hears his voice and opens the door, who enters? Judaism does not enter, Christianity does not enter, the commandments do not enter, I will enter him and have dinner with him and he or she with me. It is a relationship with an individual. It is like that at all times.

The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." The Lord is always alluding to himself. I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. It is a personal relationship. And that's something you have to stress to people all the time.

People say, well, I'm Catholic, I do this, I don't do that, I don't do this, I don't do that, I go to church, I don't need to... and we have to tell them, look, it's not to the church that you go to, it is not that you are Catholic, it is not that you cross yourself every day or that you give tithes to the church, it is do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord, as your savior, as your counselor, as your owner , like the one who guides you, the one who talks to you, the one who heals you, the one who provides you, with whom you communicate every day? Do you know Jesus? Does he dwell in your heart? Have you received him, have you recognized him as your Lord and savior? Direct him to the person of Jesus and encourage him to shake hands and make a covenant with Jesus Christ.

That's where everything else comes from. It's good to come to church, of course. It is good to have a relationship with a community, in fact, you cannot be a bona fide Christian without having a relationship with the body of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that there are corn flake Christians, watching television on Sundays while eating a plate of corn flakes, believing that they are having church. No. The Bible says, let's not stop meeting as some have in the habit. Come to your church. Don't be so sophisticated that you believe, no, in my house I meet God. Yes, but there is something that God has said, that we come to the temple and that we adore the Lord. There is something when the body of Christ mystically unites and worships the Lord together, it has its place, it has its beauty.

But having said that, I tell you that if the church is a substitute for your personal relationship with Christ, then you are wrong. The Christian has to pray at home, he has to worship at home, he has to read the Bible at home, he has to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It's not a switch you turned on when you walked through the church door, pup, now you're a Christian. When you left you turn it off again and now you are a common citizen. Some people have that idea. No. You are a Christian 24 hours a day, because Christ does not stay here and you go… no, you go with Jesus every day of your life.

The Bible says, "I am with you always until the end of the world." We are Christians in the church, outside the church, on the street, at work, on the road, wherever, it is a person, it is a relationship. And the Lord is leading her to that understanding because she is into their traditions and their things.

So he tells her, “If you knew, you would ask him and he would give you.” And so here begins a series of different symbolisms that are so important that he embodies and that we have to understand. The first thing I see, all this around the water.

First, he tells her, there is a difference between living water and dead water. And he says to him, “and he would give you living water,” why? Because the well where this woman was drinking water is that, it is a well, it comes from underground water leaks that are filtering and running by gravity through the earth, they arrive at a place and a well collects that water, but it is a dead water. That water does not jump, it has no current, because it is simply a deposit. A well is a large sitting pot of water, which always has water in it because the water is running under it and it is percolating and it is filling it up, but it is dead water, it is stagnant water to a certain degree.

And the Lord plays with that image and says, "if you only knew, he would give you living water." What does that mean? he would give you joy, abundance, he would give you the Holy Spirit, he would give you joy. It says, "he who believes in me will flow rivers of living water from within him." The Lord always identifies his person and his entry into a life with living water, springing water. I believe that Christianity has to be joy, it has to be joy, it has to be optimism, hope, expectation.

We spoke one on Wednesdays, 2 Wednesdays ago, by the way I invite you to come on Wednesdays, precious times. The Apostle Paul says, “rejoice, again I say to you, rejoice.” Brother, if you don't have moments when you only laugh when you are taking a bath, is there a problem in your life because the Christian has the right to enjoy himself, yes or no? I believe that no one should have a better sense of humor than a Christian and look to the future with great expectation, and from time to time his heart and body tremble with joy.

We cannot be like captive birds in a cage that no longer know how to sing. The Christian has to live joyfully even though we are going through tribulations and difficulties, there are times when knowing that my passport is stamped and that a heavenly homeland awaits me, that I am going to travel the planets without a visa and without anything, without documentation, because my soul will be completely free and that God has freed me from sin, from death, that I have the power of God dwelling in me. That must be a reason for joy in my life.

Christians have to be dynamic, we have to be enterprising, we have to dare to do big and serious things because we have an almighty God who is with us. There is joy, living water. If you don't feel that joy, hypnotize yourself, go into a room and just scream to learn how to scream for joy and joy. Try it and you will see that one day it comes naturally from within. But the Gospel has to be joy, it has to be hope, it has to be happiness, it has to be exuberance. Let's teach our children to laugh and rejoice and show the world a Gospel of joy and hope.

The Lord says, hey, would you take some of the water that I am going to give you. It is a water of exaltation of exuberance, enthusiasm, joy, joy. I don't believe in dead churches where everything is a gloomy 19th century organ, no, it's good to worship the Lord as we do, raising hands, jumping, giving glory to the Lord.

Joy, abundance, rivers of living water. I would give you that water to drink. And then he continues, the woman tells him, "Lord, you don't have anything to draw that water with," she is involved... because people who don't know the Lord and don't know the Bible always think in literal terms, they don't know the symbolism. You may not know what a privilege it is to be a Christian and come to church. You don't know everything you are learning many times when you come to church. And one of the things is that the Christian learns to think in abstract terms, in philosophical terms.

We come here and study ethics, philosophy, theology, history, politics, all of that. If you didn't know it, look, now you know it and then give more money to the Kingdom of God because you are receiving a lot. Decimate me with more enthusiasm.

There are many beautiful things that we receive from the Lord, and your spirit is being enriched. If you went to school now, after 15 years away, you would discover that your brain has widened because you have been in the things of the Lord. I mean, she only thinks in literal terms.

The great sage Nicodemus, when the Lord tells him, needs to be born again. He says, "Lord, how is it possible for a man to enter his mother's womb and be born again." He is thinking in literal terms, he has a rough spirit, a rough mind.

I speak with people who are merely religious, and I am not going to mention religions right now, but you speak with them and they are like spiritual children, they do not know how to discern, because they do not trade, they do not work with the symbolism of the Gospel, of the word of God .

And this woman tells him, but how is it that you are going to give me water and where is the utensil that you… and where are you going to get living water. This is a well, where is the river where you are going to give me living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who himself had to drink of this water? But he is talking about a different water. He is talking about an internal water, not external water, but internal water. Another controversy, another conflict that occurs here.

He is talking about a water that runs inside one, and that is why he tells him later, "Anyone who drinks from that water that you are drawing will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will not thirst." never." So he is talking about an internal water, a running water. He is not talking about physical water, that water that refreshes us, that water that is within us.

You know that the world warms our knives continuously. But there is a water that runs within us that refreshes it. The image occurred to me some time ago, have you seen those men working in the streets sometimes in summer especially, cutting cement with an electric knife? And those knives are often poured with water while cutting the cement so that it doesn't get hot and burn the motor or burn the knife, they pour water on it. They're spraying water so the blade stays cool as it cuts through the concrete.

And I think that's how we are to a certain extent. The world warms our razor, when you work, when you have a marital problem, when your children are disobedient or difficult, when the bills are not paid, your razor heats up, but you have a water that runs inside you that refreshes you continually. It is the water of knowing that God is within one. The Holy Spirit is within one.

When I feel anxious and worried, where do I go? I go to my Heavenly Father. I go to his promises and I lay my chest on him and I say, Lord, I need you to put your hand over my head. I trust you, you are my God, you are my Lord, you have gotten me out of so many troubles, you will get me out of this one too. And that calms me down. It pours water on my razor in a sense, it gives me calm, it gives me peace.

We have an internal water that runs within us. It is not water that the world gives. It is living water that blesses us, refreshes us. Man needs external water, he needs to go to a disco to feel happy and when there is a party, what do the unbelievers do? Liqueur. Sometimes you go to a restaurant, you sit next to some people and they arrive at the restaurant, they sit down and everyone is calm, quiet, half gloomy, they order the first order of wine. After 20 minutes they are all talking content, happy, laughing, telling jokes. Because? Because the liquor has relaxed them, it has opened their mouths. And they go to a party and just like that, everyone walks in gloomy and quiet, they have 3 drinks and forget that they are conversational geniuses. Because they need external things, paying debts, this, that, having a good car, external things to feel happy.

The Christian has internal joy, the water of life that runs within us. It is a permanent water, that water runs continuously within us. He says, anyone who drinks this water thirsts again. It's like that, isn't it true that if you physically drink water and after a while you're thirsty again? But he says, whoever believes in me will never thirst.

I say that the Christian is like the camels that carry the water in the totuma. I would like to find an animal that is more elegant but the only one that occurs to me is the camel. You carry water with you. The camels have water there, that's why they store it, did you know that? if you don't know that's free. Camels store water, which is why they are desert animals. and we are like camels, we have water within us and we are continuously nourished by it, the water of the Lord.

We are physically thirsty, but we have water... immediately when thirst comes we can appeal to prayer, to communion with the Lord and that quenches our thirst. When you feel sad, feel troubled, go to the Lord and bring your need. Many of our brothers have experienced this discouragement from the recent decision that the court has made, as we were saying this morning, it is an opportunity for you to unload your concern before God and he will give you water. That water that is there, he is going to open the key inside and it is going to give you tranquility and peace. Do not fear, the Lord is with you, he is the owner of the earth. Everything is open before him.

He makes decisions. There are times when the world seems closed and there is no solution and the Lord opens something in an instant and everything is resolved. So put your hope in the Lord, leave your burden on him. It says, cast your burden on God and he will carry it. When you feel burdened, troubled, appeal to the water that is in your heart.

And the last thing, she says, Lord, give me that water so that I will never thirst. There is one thing, there is something that we have to do to experience rest in our souls always, and that is why I say that no matter how generous the Lord is, no matter how kind he is, and how kind and fatherly he is, there is something that he is not going to change and that is that the truth is the truth. And he cannot commune with sin.

As long as you cover up your sin and try to call your sin something else and put another label on it instead of acknowledging it for what it is and coming before the Lord and confessing your sins before him, until you settle accounts with God he himself will not can afford to commune with you. And that's why I resist this idea of cheap grace, easy grace. No, that God knows those people and he knows their problems and the poor and this and that. The only thing that God wants is to confess your sin, talk to the Lord, but do not call sin, virtue, do not pretend that there is not something that there is.

He's almost ready to get into a relationship with her and he says, well, go call your husband. Husband? I do not have a husband. What did she want? Cover up your sin. When a man or a woman covers up their sin, they cannot have a relationship with God. Then he says, yes, you say you don't have a husband, it's true, because you've had 5 husbands and the one you have now you're not even married to, so it's true you don't have husbands but you have 6.

He goes to the liver directly. Because the Lord is like that. That is what I see of the Lord, it is his gentleness, but also his integrity and we have to try to imitate the Lord like this. He is not a spaghetti that you move him and he moves where you want. No, the Lord is a mighty steel rod. He is clear and strict in his things.

She had to fix that first. The Lord had to open that and I ask you, my brother, my sister, always be transparent in your relationship with God, always be sincere. The Bible says, I covered up my sin and my bones grew old within me. When you cover up your sin, your sin is like a nail that grows inward and digs you in and doesn't let you be at peace with God. Confess, acknowledge.

If you are in a difficult situation in your life, come before the Lord, talk to him, confess, ask for forgiveness and settle with him and he will be fine with you. So he tells her, settle the score is what he's telling her. And she implicitly acknowledges, she tells him, Lord, you're right, no one can know that unless they're not a prophet, unless they're not… and she tells him, are you the Messiah?

So there is an allusion to the Messiah that we are not going to go into right now, but it is one last controversy that exists here between religion and this new system that is established to be Christ Jesus. Because she talks about Samaritans and Jews that where is the right place to worship, and the Lord tells her, look, it's not about any of that. We are Jews and we know who the true God is, but we are still where we need to be, because the day is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. And those are the ones that the Father wants to be worshiped.

They are not Jews, they are not Samaritans, they are not Catholics, they are not evangelicals, they are those who know Jesus as Lord and savior, those who can get in tune with his spirit when you pray, when you cry out, when you adore, with who are you connecting to? You have to be connecting with him only.

There has to come a moment when you are here in the sanctuary where the sanctuary disappears, the chairs disappear, the people around you disappear and you are alone with God, in a virtual zone, space alone. I ask the Lord, Father, give me 5 seconds where the congregation disappears and Roberto, the pastor, disappears and I am alone with you. For the moment the wood of the balcony, the chairs, the floor under me disappear, and I only see emptiness and your throne receiving my adoration.

If I manage to connect for 3 seconds with that moment, I am free, I have adored, I feel deprived. I have achieved what I wanted. Ask the Lord to bring you to that intimate moment in your life where you can make contact with God directly wherever you are. That is your place of worship. Connect with the Father, not with a religion, not with a church, not with a man, connect with Christ Jesus and that will give you everything you need.

These are the times when God is looking for true worshipers who adore him in spirit, who know him. The Lord concludes by saying, “I am the one speaking to you. I am the Messiah, I am the true object of your adoration. I am the one to whom all the prophets have pointed. I am greater than Moses, I am greater than Joseph, I am greater than this well. The water that I give is better than the water that he gave.

And that is what he wants, that we connect with him and that we live in him every day of our lives. Bow your head a moment, bow your heart to him. Commune with him this morning, perhaps the Lord wants you to connect with him right now. Perhaps you have come to church and you have been here for many years or months, but like the Samaritan woman, you have not drunk the water that he gives you and he is calling you and inviting you to drink the water that he wants to give you and that is willing to give you And if you have not drunk that water yet, I want to invite you this morning to do what the Samaritan woman did, she accepted him in his claims as Lord, as Messiah and we only that, but she went and brought another who also could benefit from this good news.