Take the Plunge

John 4:4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." 11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

Our VBS this year is called “Take the Plunge”. We’ll be challenged to make a splash with Jesus. The main verse for this theme comes from a familiar story, the woman at the well.

As Jesus traveled south out of Galilee, he crossed through Samaria. And it was the sixth hour (that is, it was high noon.) And as he came to Sychar, he went to Jacob’s well, he found a woman drawing water from the well and he asked her “Are you willing to give me a drink?”

Now the Jews and Samaritans got along about as well as the McCoy’s and the Hatfields. The Jews refused to recognize the Samaritans as Jews because they had intermarried with other peoples during the exile. Because of this, they cut them off from worshipping in the temple. So the Samaritans build their own temple area in Samaria. A war of words ensued until, during the time between the OT and NT, the Jews raised and army and destroyed the Samaritan temple. So here is Jesus, a Jew, asking a Samaritan for a drink at a well dug by their common ancestor, Jacob.

And it was worse than that. According to the Jewish tradition, a man did not speak to a woman in public, especially not one to whom he was not related. By asking for a drink, Jesus was violating cultural rules that had been in place for centuries.

The woman was so taken aback, that all she could do was ask him, “How can you be asking me for a drink? I am a Samaritan and a woman.” (v. 9)

Jesus answered, “If you knew who was asking you for a drink, you would be asking me for the living water. For everyone who drinks of it will never be thirst again. The water I give will spring up to everlasting life.”

The woman answered, “Sir, I want a drink of this water.”

I want to make a couple of quick points about this story and how it relates to us today.

First, this week, we’ll have the opportunity to welcome into this church many children and parents who like this woman are thirsty. They may have some church background, they many come for Kid’s church, but they don’t have any real grasp of the Love God has for them.

Second, though many of them are looked down on by culture and society, we can follow the example of Christ and cross over those cultural boundaries to show them we genuinely care about them. It amazes me that it is those who are the most unchristlike that most desperately desire to hear the good news and are most impacted by it.

How can we be like Christ? There are three things we need to do:

1. Listen. The Unchurched so desperately want someone to listen to them and really hear what they are saying. This week there will be times that we have to tell the kids to be quiet and listen to what we have to say, and there that is fine, but we also need to take the time to listen.

2. Love. Find the ones who don’t fit in and love on them. Find the ones who are the worst behaved and love on them. Find the ones who act like they don’t care and love on them. You see, if we want them to see Christ, we have to show them His love. And Christ’s love is unconditional.

3. Pray. Now I know there are some who can’t be here this week. I want you all to be praying. Pray over the kids, the teachers, the helpers, the games and crafts, and food, the music. Pray that God will open the hearts and minds of all those that are there that we may have an eternal impact on the lives of these children. Those who are here can be Praying too. Pray for God to prepare hearts to hear the word and to respond. Pray for the words to say, for the patience to listen, and for Christ’s love to so fill you to overflowing that it can spill out on those who are here. You see, prayer and work have to go hand in hand. Without prayer, we’ll have a good program, but that’s all it will be.

So Adamsville, what do you think? Can we take the plunge and make a Splash with Jesus?