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An encounter with Jesus is no accident. He makes it his intention to meet with his chosen girls. It’s why you’re listening today. He has intentionally moved toward you to give you what you most need.
What is it you need today? What have you come here seeking? He is here to meet your needs and fill you to overflowing. You will not leave this encounter with him without receiving what you are seeking. He promises, seek and you will find. Our problem comes when our busyness, our overwhelm, our distraction, our frustration, and our desire to gain control cause us to stop seeking. When we are not seeking, it’s hard for us to find. When we are not listening, it’s hard for us to hear. When we’re not asking, it’s hard for us to receive. Jesus wants us to come to him with a thirst for more.
My friend, are you really thirsty for more? Or are you settled with where you are, what you know, and what you feel comfortable doing?
Scripture tells us about an unlikely woman’s encounter with Jesus at a well. You likely know the story, but there’s more for you to see here today.
Jesus was leaving Judea and going to Galilee. To get to where he was going from where he was, there were two routes. The preferred route avoided the despised people of Samaria. But Jesus doesn’t avoid anyone, does he? Which route does he choose? Of course, he chooses to go right through the region everyone else avoided.
Reading the story in John 4, beginning in verse 4-6, it says, “Jesus had to travel through Samaria, so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.”
Remember Jesus didn’t HAVE to travel through Samaria, there was another more preferable route. Jesus had a very strategically planned encounter, and that encounter would require him to be at a very specific place at a very specific time. Jesus “had” to travel through Samaria – not out of reluctance, and not out of lack of a better choice, but instead because of destiny that required he be in just the right place at the right time. Other translations say he “needed” to travel through Samaria, or it was “necessary” for him to be there.
What if Jesus has a planned encounter with you today? What if he has a destined meeting with you, and it’s not because he “has” to … no, girl, it’s because he wants to! He will go to the most undesirable places on the most unlikely routes to meet you. He has no problem with meeting you right where you are.
Did you know Jesus will come to you? I don’t care if you’re in the trenches, he will come to you. He will meet you in the alley, in the gutter, or in the ghetto. He will meet you in the crack house, the frat house, the liquor store, the bar, the hospital room, or the bathroom where you hide and cry. And he’s met you here today. You’ve been asking where he is … well, honey, he’s right here for an encounter with you. Today is the day, he said he NEEDED to meet with you. It was NECESSARY for him to find you here.
Notice scripture is very specific in what time it is. It says, “it was about noon.” This is important because noon is not the time of day to be at the well to draw water. You get up early and draw your water for the day before it gets hot. But on that day, at a very unlikely time, there was a woman who Jesus had intentionally come to meet.
Verses 7-15, “A woman of Samaria came to draw water. ‘Give me a drink,’ Jesus said to her,