Drinking from the Well: Everyone Has Something to Offer

Devotional

Day 1: Everyone has something vital to offer.

The story of the woman at the well beautifully illustrates a foundational truth of our faith: every single person has something to contribute. This is not a conditional statement based on status, history, or perceived worthiness. It is a radical affirmation that God’s kingdom is built on the principle of mutual giving and receiving, where our vulnerabilities and strengths create the space for divine connection and service. This understanding transforms our mission from a one-way delivery into a life-giving partnership. [47:34]

John 4:7-10 (NIV)
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 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.) 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.”

Reflection: Consider a person or group you might have previously seen only as recipients of help or ministry. What is one thing they could offer you or teach you, and how might recognizing that change your perspective?

Day 2: Our assumptions often obscure a deeper truth.

We can easily fall into the habit of making quick judgments about others, often based on incomplete information or inherited biases. The common interpretation of the Samaritan woman’s life is a powerful example of how a story of potential tragedy and resilience can be misread as one of scandal. This challenges us to examine the lenses through which we view people, encouraging us to seek understanding before forming conclusions. [54:54]

John 4:16-18 (NIV)
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Reflection: Where have you recently made an assumption about someone’s character or circumstances? What would it look like to pause and reimagine their story with more grace and charity?

Day 3: We must choose which well we will drink from.

The world offers us many wells from which to drink—wells of outrage, division, suspicion, and cynicism. These waters leave us perpetually thirsty. The Lenten journey invites us to consciously choose a different source: the well of Christ’s love, which offers a more satisfying and spirit-led way of seeing ourselves and others. This choice determines the quality of our spiritual life and our interactions. [55:12]

John 4:13-14 (NIV)
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Reflection: From which "wells" of cultural or social messaging have you been drinking lately? How is that shaping your thirst, and what is one practical step you can take this week to drink more deeply from the well of Christ's perspective?

Day 4: Look for reasons to include, not exclude.

The encounter at the well was fundamentally unexpected because it crossed social and religious boundaries. Jesus actively looked for a reason to engage, not a reason to avoid. This models a proactive faith that seeks connection, assumes the inherent value in others, and actively looks for evidence of God’s work in every person we meet, especially those different from us. [59:36]

John 4:9 (NIV)
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.)

Reflection: Who is someone in your community or daily life that you might unconsciously overlook or avoid? How might God be inviting you to see them not as a stranger, but as a person who has something valuable to offer?

Day 5: True mission is a partnership of mutual need.

A modern understanding of mission flips the script from being the ones who have all the answers to being partners in God’s work. It recognizes that we arrive not to bring God to a place, but to discover where God is already at work. This requires the humility to acknowledge our own needs and the openness to receive from those we have come to serve, creating a relationship built on mutual giving and receiving. [52:30]

John 4:39-42 (NIV)
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 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 have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Reflection: In your own efforts to serve or help others, when have you experienced a moment where you were the one who received something you needed? How did that experience of mutual exchange deepen your understanding of community?

Sermon Summary

Announcements opened with staff introductions, upcoming Lenten study sessions, confirmation recruitment, and a fundraising appeal to send a young leader to a global United Methodist youth gathering in Ireland. Worship moved through scripture readings from Exodus, Psalm 32, and the Apostles’ Creed, then into a sustained reflection on John 4:5–42. The narrative of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well formed the sermon’s core, reframing common assumptions and calling for a renewed mission posture. Rather than a one-way supply line that brings faith to others, mission receives God’s grace already at work and insists on mutuality: everyone carries something the other needs.

Close reading of John highlighted literary signals—Jesus’s rare vulnerability and the noon hour’s symbolic light—to argue that the woman shows notable faith, not scandal. The dialogue at the well reveals reciprocal need: Jesus asks the woman for a drink, and she, in turn, gains access to “living water.” That exchange undergirds a corrective theology of mission that refuses to assume superiority and instead affirms dignity, capacity, and contribution across cultural and social lines. The long-standing habit of drinking from “wells of scandal and outrage” produced quick judgments about the woman’s marital history; an alternative reading imagines widowhood, levirate practices, or dependency, and invites charitable curiosity rather than suspicion.

Practical application moved from exegesis to ethics. The congregation received a Lenten challenge to examine the wells that shape perceptions—media-fueled outrage, cynical readings of scripture, or default suspicion—and to instead drink from the well of Christ’s compassion. Mission work should adopt partnership, sustainability, and long-term commitment, resisting short-term fixes that treat hosts as passive recipients. The closing charge exhorted seeking reasons to include, to assume the best, and to cultivate relationships that reveal mutual needing; faithful service names both what is given and what is received, rooting outreach in love that looks for and creates life-giving wells.

Key Takeaways

1. Everyone has something to offer Nobody stands merely as a recipient; each person brings gifts, needs, and dignity that shape faithful partnership. This reading of John 4 insists that mission collapses if entitlement replaces mutual recognition. Cultivating a posture that expects contribution from every neighbor reorients service toward shared flourishing rather than charity alone. [43:34]
2. Jesus models reciprocal vulnerability Jesus asks the woman for a drink, revealing need before offering grace and teaching; vulnerability becomes a bridge, not a weakness. This reversal undoes hierarchies that place helpers above those helped and opens mission to genuine exchange. Imitating this pattern invites honest dependence and mutual transformation in relationships of care. [50:47]
3. Beware the wells of outrage Quick judgments about the Samaritan woman reveal how scandal-driven wells shape moral imagination and misread circumstance as character. Drinking from outrage numbs charity and hardens interpretive habits; replacing it requires disciplined curiosity and reinterpretation. Choosing different wells offers truer sight and rescues theology from cultural cynicism. [55:12]
4. Look for love; assume the best Searching actively for reasons to include rewrites default narratives of suspicion into practices of welcome and discernment. This discipline asks readers to imagine circumstances before casting blame and to prioritize invitations over exclusions. Persistent love reshapes communities into places where shared needs and gifts meet, producing deeper spiritual satisfaction. [58:31]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:17] - Opening logistics and greeting
[00:52] - Staff introduction and name tags
[02:27] - Lenten Bible study & fellowship news
[03:30] - Lily’s Ireland opportunity
[10:37] - Call to worship and opening hymns
[15:42] - Confession and opening prayer
[21:37] - Washington, DC reflections
[35:52] - Gospel reading: Woman at the well
[41:05] - Mission theology: partnership
[50:47] - Jesus asks for a drink: mutual need
[55:12] - Wells of scandal vs wells of love
[61:35] - Final charge and blessing
[65:56] - Offertory and closing hymn

Bible Study Guide

Based on the sermon summary and transcript provided, here is a Bible study discussion guide.

Bible Reading
John 4:5-26 (NIV)
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
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.)
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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
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.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Observation questions

What was Jesus’s physical condition when he met the woman, and what was his first request to her? [50:47]
What details about the time of day and the woman’s marital history are provided in the passage? [48:06]
What does Jesus offer the woman, and what does she initially think he is talking about?
How does the woman’s understanding of who Jesus is change throughout their conversation?

Interpretation questions

Why is it significant that Jesus, who is portrayed as superhuman in John’s gospel, shows vulnerability by being tired and asking for a drink? What does this teach us about the nature of mission and relationship? [46:52]
The sermon suggests the woman’s story could be read as tragic rather than scandalous. How does viewing her circumstances through a lens of potential widowhood or dependency change the traditional interpretation of her character? [54:00]
The concept of "drinking from different wells" is used to describe how we interpret people and scripture. What are the "wells of scandal and outrage," and how do they shape our perceptions compared to the "well of Christ’s compassion"? [55:12]
The interaction at the well is described as a model of mutual need. In what ways did both Jesus and the woman have something the other needed, and how does this redefine a one-way mission mindset? [52:30]

Application questions

Everyone has something to offer. [43:34] When you think about serving others, whether in your community or on a mission trip, what is a natural gift or skill you have to offer? What is something you feel you need to receive from those you aim to serve?
Jesus models reciprocal vulnerability by asking for help before offering it. [50:47] In your own relationships, especially those where you are in a position to help, what would it look like to be vulnerable and admit a need first? How could that change the dynamic of that relationship?
We are often quick to drink from the wells of scandal and outrage, making quick judgments about people. [55:12] This week, when you find yourself making a quick assumption about someone’s character based on a glimpse or a story, what is one practical step you can take to instead "drink from the well of Christ’s compassion" and examine their circumstances with charity?
The sermon charges us to actively look for reasons to include and assume the best about someone. [58:31] Is there a person or group you have struggled to understand or welcome? What is one "reason to include" them that you can intentionally look for this week?
Mission is about partnership and long-term commitment, not short-term fixes. [42:57] How does this truth challenge the way you’ve previously thought about helping others? What is one way you can move a relationship or a act of service from a transaction to a transformative partnership?
The woman at the well, often overlooked and unnamed, was vital to Jesus’s mission and the faith of her entire town. [44:36] Who are the "unnamed" people in your life or community that you might be overlooking? What would it look like to see them not as projects, but as partners with vital gifts to offer?

Sermon Clips

Story as tragic rather than scandalous. Yet most of us assume the latter. Why? Why? It makes me wonder, what wells are we drinking from. There's no doubt that there are wells of scandal and outrage all around us. There's no doubt that there are wells of scandal and outrage all around us. But we don't always have to choose to grab our bucket and go to those wells. [00:54:45] (39 seconds) #ChooseCompassionNotScandal

What kind of difference would it make in our lives and in the world if we were to slow down and imagine the circumstances and character of the people that we encounter just a little bit more charitably? Because here's the thing. If we're looking for love, then let's look for love. Let's look for reasons to include. Let's look for reasons to invite. Let's assume the best about someone. Let's just try it. Let's assume the best about someone. [00:59:04] (40 seconds) #MissionAsPartnershipLongTerm

You are not bringing God to that place. God is already in that place. God was there before you got there. God is there as you serve, and God will be there long after you leave. And believe it or not, I think that's a change from a lot of the mission theology that we have received in the past. I think that on mission trips in the past, on mission journeys in the past, we were told and so we believed that we were going to a place in order to bring Jesus to the people there. We have something that they need, and we're going to take it to them. [00:41:47] (48 seconds) #RethinkJudgmentBias

Have we not seen example after example of Jesus showing kindness and love and forgiveness? Have we not seen the unexpected from Jesus enough times? What theological wells are we drinking from? Somewhere along the line, we heard and we accepted this interpretation about this woman, that she's scandalous, that she's a hussy. Somewhere along the way, we decided that, yeah, we're going to accept that. Or it's our own unexamined bias, or that it's we're just used to we're just used to the bible being pretty tough on women. [00:55:25] (54 seconds) #ExamineYourWells

This woman could have very easily been widowed or have been abandoned or divorced, which in the ancient Near East in her time, it was the same thing. It was the same thing. Five times would be heartbreaking, but certainly not impossible. Certainly not impossible. When life expectancy was 40 at best, do you think it's impossible for a woman to be widowed five times? Not impossible at all. [00:53:42] (29 seconds) #ContextMatters

And she could now be living the person that she's living with now according to ancient Near East culture could have been someone on whom she was dependent. She could have been in what was called a levirate marriage, where a childless woman is married to her deceased husband's brother in order to produce an heir. In that situation, in a levirate marriage, she would not have been considered the wife of the brother. And so Jesus saying, yeah, that guy that you're living with now, not your husband. Yeah. [00:54:11] (34 seconds) #MissionIsService

One of the things that I am certain that you've gotten to know about me is I love mission. I love mission work. I think that that's one of the most important things that we do as the church. One of the most important things we do as the church is serve other people. We exist for the people who have not yet walked through these doors. And so I love mission and service and mission journeys. [00:40:50] (32 seconds) #CulturalSensitivity

And one of the things about modern mission understanding that we look at a lot is cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity. And a main teaching in that idea is that when you go on a mission journey, when you go on a mission trip, you are not bringing God to that place. You are not bringing God to that place. God is already in that place. God was there before you got there. God is there as you serve, and God will be there long after you leave. [00:41:22] (38 seconds)

It makes me wonder, what wells are we drinking from. There's no doubt that there are wells of scandal and outrage all around us. There's no doubt that there are wells of scandal and outrage all around us. But we don't always have to choose to grab our bucket and go to those wells. [00:54:58] (24 seconds)

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Drinking from the Well: Everyone Has Something to Offer

Devotional

Day 1: Everyone has something vital to offer.

Day 2: Our assumptions often obscure a deeper truth.

Day 3: We must choose which well we will drink from.

Day 4: Look for reasons to include, not exclude.

Day 5: True mission is a partnership of mutual need.

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Chatbot

Drinking from the Well: Everyone Has Something to Offer

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