Come and See: Encounters With Jesus “The Hopeful”

Come and See: Encounters With Jesus
“The Hopeful”
Matthew 8:1-4 (CSB)

 

- Key Truth: All are invited to come and see the truth found in Jesus.

- Biblical hope— The anticipation of a favorable outcome under God's guidance.

 

Main Question: How does Jesus provide hope for the hopeless and how can we be the messengers of that hope? 

1. The opportunity for hope. (vs. 1)

2. The need for hope. (vs. 2)

3. The answer to hope. (vs. 3-4)

After the Message: 
Read Matthew 8:1-4. In whom are you placing your hope? Will you trust Jesus to meet you at the point of your need?  

 

 

 

Free Indeed

Friday, June 19, 2026

Free Indeed – John 8:34-36 Submitted by Kay Crumley

In this chapter of the Gospel of John, John records Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts to a Jewish audience. Some had believed Him to be the Messiah. In Verse 32 He told them if they knew the truth it would set them free. They understood freedom meant not being enslaved. They believed they were a free nation as descendants of Abraham, even though there are many periods in their history that their ancestors had been in bondage to other nations. 

Jesus’ reply referred to a very different kind of slavery than being held in bondage politically, physically. The bondage we all experience outside His freedom is to our own sinful nature. 

34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

We are slaves to sin, to the hold Satan has on our lives as he builds a foundation of lies in our heart and soul. He is the father of lies and uses them to insidiously guide our thinking. These lies seem harmless in the beginning but build into convincing us that we are unable to free ourselves from them until they control our thoughts.   

One trick of the enemy is to use two truths and one lie to deceive and control us. As Christ followers we know that Jesus died for us. We know He strengthens us when we are weak. The Satan will tell us if He truly is our strength we shouldn’t mess up so maybe He didn’t really provide salvation to us, just to others. He finds the fear we have about our worthiness and assaults our mind with doubt. The result is that we believe that lie and may find something else to serve and worship. He keeps us enslaved to that sin until we believe we are without hope. 

The promise, in the words of Jesus Himself, is that we are His children, sons and daughters. A slave’s position in the family is temporary; slaves are property that are traded or sold. But a child is a permanent member of the family. We are His, in His family forever, for eternity. 

When we believe Jesus truly is the Son of God, we commit our lives to follow His way, then we are His forever. Therefore, we have the tools to counter all the lies of Satan and overcome that sin that causes us to be trapped. His truth defeats all Satan’s lies. 

We are set free from the power of sin when we become Christ followers. We are indeed free from the bondage of sin. To exercise that freedom, we must cling to His truth. Proverbs 3:3 Don’t let loyalty and faithfulness leave you.Bind them on your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. Remain steadfast in your faithfulness to Him.

How Jesus Changed the Woman At The Well and How He Changes Us

Thursday, June 18, 2026

The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw. He 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 correctly said, I have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly. The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.  John 4:15-19

How Jesus Changed the Woman At The Well and How He Changes Us

This week we have been talking about a woman Jesus met at a well and changed her life.  But to change her life, He first was honest with her about her life. When Jesus meets us in our sin, he will help us face the truth about our lives that we have tried to ignore. Until we examine our lives, and are honest about our sin, we cannot be changed. The Holy Spirit gently convicts us where we are so that Jesus can come into our hearts and change us forever.  

When Jesus met the woman at the well, He shows her she had a ... 

Self-problem ... she was avoiding the truth about herself.  We all have this problem, don’t we?  We like to tell ourselves that we are ok, or we deserve this or that, or that what we are doing is not so bad.  We like to sugar coat the truth about ourselves. 

Sin-problem ... she was in a lifestyle of sin.  She was convicted or embarrassed somewhat of her lifestyle, that is why she came to the well when no one else was there – the hottest part of the day. Hiding it from the rest of the world will not make it ok.  Nothing is hidden from God. Sin is sin, and not even coming to the well at the hottest part of the day will hide it from God.  He is always there waiting if we are willing to hear Him and accept His offer. 

Belief-problem ... where she worshipped was more important than the one she worshipped.  Religion can get in the way of spirituality.  Many people confuse church attendance or involvement with a relationship with Jesus.  

Jesus does not condemn this woman.  He caused her to face the truth about her life and reached out to show her that she needed a drink of the living water that only He could give her.  He does not condemn us either.  We have to be honest with ourselves and with Jesus in confessing our sins, asking for forgiveness. We have to realize the habits of sinful behavior we have in our lives and change that behavior if we want the living water He offers.  He waits, He exposes our sin in truth and the Holy Spirit convicts us.  He offers us Living Water and when we accept His gift, He opens the wellspring of eternal life through Him.

The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." Jesus *said to her, "I who speak to you am He."  John 4:25-26 

How to Find Relief From Lingering Dissatisfaction

 Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

How To Find Relief From Lingering Dissatisfaction

We know that true satisfaction only comes from God, yet we look in the wrong places expecting them to do for us what only God can do. And we do it over and over again. Pastor Jim has said it before - Dissatisfaction Comes When We Replace God.

Anytime we look to something else to give us what only God can provide we are replacing God with that thing/person/experience, etc, and this is idolatry. We are giving something else God’s place in our lives, and it can happen quick, before we even realize it. 

Sometimes we may become dissatisfied with God and turn to other things to replace him. If we are replacing God with something else that we believe will give us satisfaction, we may have a wrong view of God. God is sovereign and in control of life. He is faithful and a promise keeping God. He is who he says he is. When we have a flawed view of God we can become dissatisfied. We want God to do things our way and our prayers exactly as we think they should be answered. We quickly become dissatisfied if it doesn’t go the way we think it should and we look to something else to make us feel better. If we believe God is who he says he is and we trust his sovereignty with our lives, we will trust him to answer our prayers in the very best way and we will be satisfied with whatever that answer is. 

Sometimes we believe we deserve everything we want, and we deserve to be happy. But what would it take to make us happy? More money? Different looks? A better job, car, house, or spouse? Believing these things can certainly breed discontent and dissatisfaction with God. We search for false gods to replace him with that we believe will make us happy, and they may for a minute. Then dissatisfaction sets in again and off we go. 

We can spend lots of money on what we think is bread that will satisfy only to find out it doesn’t. Only when we turn to him and his abundance will we be satisfied. All the wrong things we turn to only make us thirstier and hungrier than we were before. Only when we drink the living water that leads to eternal life will we be truly satisfied. The longer we spend searching, the longer the dissatisfaction will linger.  Satan loves for us to be dissatisfied. As long as we are dissatisfied and we keep looking somewhere else than to God, it keeps us from focusing on him and walking in a relationship with him. In his eyes, anytime he can turn us away from God it is a win. 

The woman that we heard about Sunday was offered living water – a wellspring of eternal life. It is water that satisfies forever. Whoever drinks this living water will never thirst. That living water is for us also and it is the only thing that will ever bring satisfaction to our soul. We drink from all the wrong wells looking for the living water that can only be found in Jesus. As long as we look other places to fill that aching dissatisfaction we will be forever thirsty – parched – and desperately seeking to satisfy the ache inside us. But it will never be satisfied outside of Jesus.

Maybe this woman was seeking to satisfy that ache inside of her or maybe her circumstances were because of things outside of her control. We don’t know her story. What is your story? What are you reaching for to satisfy that ache instead of the living water?

So how can we refocus and make sure we turn to him to find the satisfaction we desire? 

·      Focus on God and your relationship with him. The temptation to feel dissatisfaction will weaken when we are in a growing, transforming relationship with God. 

·      Believe God’s promises. Find and memorize scripture that is meaningful to you and reminds you of the satisfaction that only God brings. 

·      Put safeguards in place. What do you need to change in your life that will keep you from the temptation of dissatisfaction? What or who needs to go?

·      Know that the Holy Spirit brings victory. Remember that defeating dissatisfaction can only be found in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it in our own power. 

Why waste time and resources running after something you will never find. Like the verses above say, why spend money for what doesn't satisfy? And why drink water that only makes us thirsty for more?  Trust in God daily and lean into him. He can help us break free from dissatisfaction and help us find satisfaction in him. 

Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. Isaiah 55:2

Worship in Spirit and Truth

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

 

Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:21-24

 

Worship in Spirit and Truth

In this scripture, Jesus is talking to a woman He met at a well. Jesus knew this woman. He knew everything about her, all her sins and failures, how many times she had been married and that she was now living with a man she wasn't married to. When Jesus calls her out about the truth of her life, she tries to change the subject to religion.

The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that tin Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. John 4:19-20

She used religion to divert the conversation away from the uncomfortable subject of her personal life. And Jesus answered…

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. 

Jesus tells her that true worship is in spirit and truth and that God seeks such people to worship Him. This woman had so many strikes against her. Not only did her reputation precede her, but she was a Samaritan, a nationality that Jews traditionally despised and disrespected.  She had been rejected, shamed and shunned by the other women of the area because of her immoral lifestyle and choices. She came to the well when the morning rush hour was over because she was embarrassed and ashamed.  She did not want to face the stares and hear the whispers.  So instead of coming in the cool of early morning, she comes in the heat of the day to avoid condemnation.  And who does she run into? The King of Kings Himself. The Messiah. Her Messiah. Jesus Himself - the only one who is even worthy of condemning her - did not offer condemnation. He offered her living water.

It is easy to show up in church, looking like you got it all together and your heart is in the right place to worship. But so many times we show up in church with our hearts bandaged and when the layers of bandages begin to get so overwhelming that we cannot figure out which one is even the newest one, it is easier to ignore it and keep going. Minimize the bleeding and smile. Hands raised in praise because we know all the things, and we pretend we are OK. But how can we even begin to feel His holiness and worship Him until we rip the bandages off, look at our lives in reality and lay it at His feet? We hobble into church so hindered by our lives and burdens that we cannot worship Him in Spirit and Truth. Dealing with the reality of what it is and giving it to Him frees us and leaves us wide open to witness His holiness and power in our lives, and to fully focus on worshipping Him in Spirit and Truth.

Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth is to intimately know the God you are worshipping and to focus your affections on Him in worship - not on the wounds we bear. He waits for you and me, just as he waited for the woman at the well. He longs to take the burden from us so we can be free and worship. He wants worshippers who know him in spirit. When we worship in Christ, we are worshipping in the truth because he is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)

This woman didn’t know who she was meeting at the well. She couldn’t hide the wounds of her life with ripped and worn bandages because He already knew everything beneath the surface. She went away free, in worshipping in spirit and truth and told many others about Him and their lives were changed too. We have this freedom when we come to Him - to give Him our burdens, and worship. Only then can we truly worship in spirit and truth.  

When Jesus Meets You At The Well

Monday, June 15, 2026

Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.  John 4:13-14

When Jesus Meets You At The Well

This past Sunday we heard the story of a woman who met Jesus at a well.  She was an outcast and with her reputation she felt much shame, and probably ridicule from others.  For this reason, she went to the well when no one else would be there – the hottest part of the day.  She didn’t expect to meet Jesus there, and she certainly didn’t expect him to ask her for a drink, and then offer her living water.

This was the second sermon in the Come and See: Encounters With Jesus series.  In this series we will see that all are invited to come and see the truth found in Jesus. This woman at the well was unwanted. She had felt unwanted for a long time and was living in the shame of that feeling. That is why she came to the well in the middle of the day – the hottest part of the day - when no one else was there. But Jesus knew she would be there, and he was waiting for her. 

 

Jesus was there for her – one of the lowest regarded women in the town. She had already had five husbands and was currently living with a man that was not her husband.  Why would the King of Kings go out of his way, risk his reputation, and meet her at this well during the hottest part of the day?

How does Jesus bring life and hope to those who are unwanted? 

Why did Jesus do this?  Why does he meet you and me at the well?  Because that is where Jesus changes lives.  The well is where we go looking for something to save us, sustain us, fill us.  If Jesus is not at the well we go to, then we will not get the living water He gives that changes lives and satisfies for eternity.  If we go to a different well trying to find satisfaction, we will only find sand, again and again.  

He goes there to find us… 

In our sin…

In our shame…


He risks everything to get to us because He can bridge the gap between us and God.  He bridged the cultural and communication gap with this woman, and He didn’t care what the pious religionists of the day thought.  Her salvation, and the others that would be reached through her testimony were more important to Him. Are you willing to risk your reputation to see people’s lives changed?  

This woman and her lifestyle represent all of us. We are all sinners and until we know the freedom of salvation we live in guilt and shame, coming to the well in the hottest part of the day so no one sees us.  We are looking for the same thing she was looking for.  We are thirsty and going from one empty cistern to another, filling our souls with nothing, and dissatisfied we run even faster to the next empty cistern.
  

Like the woman in this story, when we finally drink from the right well, we will get the living water that will satisfy forever.  And we need to run with abandonment to others, offering them this living water that will never leave them thirsty again.  It is time to stop running from dry well to dry well, seeking something that is only found in Christ.  He is the living water that gives eternal satisfaction and life to all who drink. 

Come and See: Encounters With Jesus “The Unwanted”

Come and See: Encounters With Jesus
“The Unwanted”
John 4:1-30; 39-42 (CSB)

 

- Key Truth: All are invited to come and see the truth found in Jesus.

Main Question: How does Jesus bring life and hope to those who are unwanted? 

1. The unwanted’s circumstance. (vs. 1-26)

a. Religious outcast

b. Social outcast

2. The unwanted’s response and impact. (vs. 27-30; 39-42)

 

After the Message: 
Read John 4:1-30, 39-42. Do you feel unwanted? Are you shackled to your past? Will you allow Jesus to set you free?  

Rejoice Always

Friday, June 12, 2026

Rejoice Always – Philippians 4 Submitted by Kay Crumley

 

Each time I read verse 4 the chorus comes into my mind that we have sung many times.  I hope the tune comes to mind for you as you read the lyrics. 

Rejoice in the Lord always 
And again I say, and again I say 
Rejoice, Rejoice and again I say Rejoice. 

Rejoice in the Lord always 
And again I say, and again I say Rejoice. 

 

Now that I have gotten that stuck in your head, you can spend the day humming or singing and Rejoicing.   

 

Paul had written to the church in Philippi and was ending his letter to them in Chapter 4. In the opening verses he exhorted them to stand firm in the Lord and to get along with each other, to be of the same mind in the Lord.  We ‘stand firm in the Lord’ by being secure in our belief and not to be easily swayed to beliefs that do not align with His Word.  But how are we to be ‘of one mind’? We are to be ‘on the same page’, think the same way in what we believe and how we act to glorify God.  We are to be unified because we are on one team, the body of Christ.  Our mission is to glorify God and reflect Him to the world around us. 

 

Then, as a unified body of believers, how are we to live?  Paul gives us some guidelines in the verses we are focusing on today. 

 

Philippians 4 

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. 

We have already touched on verse 4, Rejoice, when? Always.  We rejoice because we believe in God’s promises. We are commanded to rejoice; we can always choose to praise the Lord. Our feelings should never prevent us from rejoicing, praying, giving thanks, showing respect, or acting kindly. Biblical joy has to do with stability and celebration on the inside regardless of circumstances on the outside.  We rejoice in His promises, He never fails.  Our interactions are to be with gentleness, showing grace, because He is always near.   

 

Rather than waste our time worrying about our circumstances, we are to pray.  We take all our requests to Him with thanksgiving knowing He will hear and answer our prayers.  The more we worry the less we pray but the more we pray the less we worry.  Offering thanks is a demonstration of faith in God’s goodness and provision. The peace we have in Him doesn’t make sense to the world; it surpasses understanding.  The peace of God surrounds our minds and heart when we surrender our fears and worries to Him.   

 

We hold on to that peace by what we set our minds on.  Paul tells us, in verse 8, to put our minds on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and praiseworthy.  Those are things of God, not of the world.  Satan is the father of lies and wants to steal our joy and peace.  We must focus on the truth of our Father.   

 

Paul is encouraging them to learn from his teaching.  He declared, in 1 Cor 2:2, that he would only teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We have the luxury of having a copy of His Word and can always find His teaching, the truth.  We must then put that knowledge into practice.  We must live out the teaching by exemplifying His character.  The result is that we will always know the peace that only God can give, that peace is beyond anything the world understands.   

 

That is the reason for giving thanks all year.  Rejoice in the Lord and be glad in Him every day.