Sharon Knotts discusses how moments of honesty can lead to profound spiritual breakthroughs, using the example of the Samaritan woman who speaks truthfully about her life. Sharon emphasizes that genuine worship requires not just outward adherence but a heart aligned with truth. Through Jesus’ conversation with the woman, listeners are invited to reflect on their own spiritual journeys, evaluating the honesty of their relationship with God.
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message is a true heart uplifter. Jesus cares one-on-one. The Gospels are chock full of the messages and miracles Jesus ministered to the multitudes who thronged him everywhere he went. But he was never too busy to stop everything, to minister to just one hurting heart or sick body, because Jesus cares one on one. Let’s go to verse 15. Then the woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. She’s still thinking natural, right? And Jesus said unto her, Okay, but first go call thy husband. to come hither. And the woman answered and said, I have no husband. And Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, or you have answered honestly, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that you spoke truly. And the woman said unto him, Well, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. He’s really getting close now. So let’s look at verse 20. Our fathers, our fathers worshiped in this mountain. That would be the mountain in Samaria. And you say you’re a Jew and you say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Why would they say that? Because God said that’s where I’m putting my name and my house in Mount Zion. Amen? And Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. The Father. You worship you know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeks such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So let’s stop here for a moment. So Jesus says to her, he’s very tactful. Amen. And he says, I’m going to give you some of this water, but I want you to share this water that I’m about to give you. So I want you to go home and tell your husband to come here so he can drink of this water too. Amen. So now what? Did Jesus make a mistake? Didn’t he know that she wasn’t married? And so he made a mistake when he said, go call your husband. No, we already see that’s not true. Of course not. What he was doing was drawing her in. Amen. He was drawing her in. And instead of just jumping on her and say, you know, I know you’re living with somebody. He said, go get your husband. And because this woman, sinful as she was, quite sinful, married five times and now shacking up with somebody. As sinful as she was, she said, I have no husband. She was honest. And you know when somebody’s heart is honest, when they are ready to acknowledge their sin, no matter how crimson, no matter how scarlet, come sayeth the Lord and let us reason together. Though your sins be as crimson, I’ll wash them white as snow. Though they be as scarlet, I’ll wash them white as wool. But she said out of an honest heart and Jesus commended her. For her honesty. She said, I have no husband. He said, you have spoken well. You have spoken honestly. And one thing God wants is an honest heart. Give him an honest heart. I don’t care how broken down it is. I don’t care how black it is. I don’t care how sinful it is. Just be honest with the Lord. Jesus said there was a publican and there was a Pharisee. They went into the temple of God. And the Pharisee looked down his nose at that publican and said, I thank God I’m not like other men. But Jesus said the publican wouldn’t even raise his head up, but smote his breast and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus said that’s the guy who was justified. That’s the one God heard. That’s the prayer God answered. Amen? So she had an honest heart. Amen? And this is very important because this is how people get deceived. The Bible says sin is a deceiver. They get caught up in the deceitfulness of sin. And one of those things is to come up with rationalities about why what they’re doing is not really a sin. And we really live in a day when sin is not what it used to be. Amen? But Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, knew it had to be a word of knowledge that the Holy Spirit gave to him because they didn’t have Facebook back then for somebody to count the five husbands she used to be married to. Amen? The Holy Spirit had to tell him, you’ve already had five husbands. You’ve told the truth about that, and you’ve told the truth that this one is not your husband. Let me make this clear. You can’t make it any clearer than this. Living together does not constitute marriage. Because Jesus just said, he’s not your husband. Isn’t that what he said? He said, the man that you’re living with is not your husband. People today will say, I don’t need a piece of paper. Jesus said, he’s not your husband. You’re living with him. You’re living together. You’re cohabitating. But cohabitation is not marriage in God’s sight. Amen. So he says, you’ve had five husbands and the one you’re living with now is not your husband. Amen. You know, Christianity is the only true faith that deals with a person’s past. It’s the only one. that deals with a person’s past, no matter how sinful it is. And you know, David said in Psalm 25, 7, remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions. If I know every person here today, if you could go back and start over again, if you could go back and relive your teen years or your young 20s or even your 30s, how many would just lift your hand and say, I do a lot of things differently? All of you that are still in your teens and 20s, look at these hands. Keep them up. You see all these hands? Amen. And I will go so far as to say some of these people, many of these people were in the church during that time. In church. But if they could go back, they’d redo some things. But the thing I love about, I just read to you, he says, don’t remember the sins of my youth. And I love what he said in Psalm 103, 10. He has not dealt with me according to my sins, nor rewarded me according to my iniquities. He doesn’t deal with you according to your sins. Once you bring them to him and he cleanses them and washes them and cast them as far as the east is from the west. And they’re under the blood. There’s nothing to deal about. And Christianity is the only faith that does that. Amen. So now he’s done put her on the spot and told her, well, now you’ve had five husbands and now you’re just shacking up. And we know whether you call yourself a Samaritan, whether you call yourself a Jew or you call yourself a half breed, whatever you want to call yourself, that is sin. So now she says, well, sir, I perceive you are a prophet. I don’t know if she’s trying to compliment him a little bit. I don’t know if she’s trying to butter him up. I don’t know. I can’t say I’m not her, but I think he’s getting real close to stepping on her toes and she’s trying to find a diversion. A diversion tactic here. Amen? But you see, Jesus is not going to fall for that. Now, there may be some folks today, well, I see that you’re really an apostle of God. You’re an apostle. You’re a prophet. And then all of a sudden, their ego kicks in. And the soul winning mission kind of gets pushed to the back. But Jesus wasn’t going to fall for that. People love to change the subject when they’re under conviction. That’s what they’re going to do. They’ll try to come up with some religious controversy. Well, where did Cain get his wife? Well, he got his sister, obviously. Because God allowed it then to get the human race going. And Adam lived to be over 900 years old. I don’t know how many kids he had, but in 900 years you can have a lot of kids. We all go back to Adam and Eve. Every one of us go back to Adam and Eve. And so once Adam and Eve were now, you know, after they sinned and all of that, they began to live life the way God created them. He said, be fruitful and multiply. That’s what he told them to do. Be fruitful and multiply. So obviously Cain had to get his sister. Amen. For that matter, we know that Sarah and Abraham were half brother and half sister. Amen. It wasn’t until the law of Moses that God then defined what he would and would not allow. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. Amen. You know, we can’t say to somebody, we’re going to take you to court for trespassing. You walked on our property unless we have a no trespassing sign. And then it’s got to be a legal thing. And then they’ll try to say, why are all these babies dying over there in Africa and India? They’ll do anything to try to get a diversionary tactic going. And if they know even a little tiny bit about the Bible, if they just know a little here and a little there, they will try to come off like they’re some theological expert. Amen? And so when they do that, human nature, even for Christians and born-again people, we want to show them the error of their ways. We want to, hey, I’m picking a new argument now. I’m going to show you where you’re wrong and get off the whole point. You’re thirsty. You need something. You need something you don’t have. Your spirit is crying out for the living God. Amen? So he wasn’t going to let her get away with that. So what does she say? Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but you Jews say we’re to worship in Jerusalem. That’s exactly true. They said worship in Jerusalem. See, they had perverted the Jewish faith. They had their own temple in Samaria. They had their own house of God. They went and worshipped in Samaria. So that was so obvious that it was against what God had said when he set up Israel and Zion and the house of God in Jerusalem. So you see the corruption right there. Amen? And so she’s still trying to divert the argument. But Jesus brought her back to the real, real issue. And the issue was this. Lady, do you know God? Do you really know God? Do you have a relationship with God? Because I tell you the hour is coming and it is right now that they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth because worship is not a place. Worship is a person. Amen. It’s not where you’re worshiping God geographically or positionally on this earth, but do you have a relationship with him? Amen. Do you have a relationship? The hour is coming now is when the father, see now he’s bringing in relationship. When the Father seeks those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. So if there is true worship, that tells me there is false worship. Like I preached a few weeks ago, you can’t have error, you can’t have false, you can’t have lies unless you have truth. Because lies and error is a distortion of truth. Amen? So if there’s true worship, there’s got to be false worship. And Jesus showed you one of the ways that false worship is manifest with this woman. She claimed that she worshipped in the mountains somewhere like the Samaritans did. Well, first of all, now you’ve got false doctrine. I don’t care what kind of church you have and you’ve got the greatest choir and the band and the orchestra and all of that to go with it. If you’re preaching false doctrine, you’re not worshipping in spirit and in truth. Amen. Or even if you are in a church that preaches true doctrine and you’re up there on the platform and you’re part of the worship team or the choir or the musicians or whatever, and you are living in sin, you’re living in fornication, you’re living in adultery, you’re living in homosexuality, whatever it may be, that is not true worship. Amen. That’s false worship. If you want to worship in truth, you got to live in truth. The other day, my daughter Sarah was telling me about these neighbors that they have next door, and she said that they have these a lot of parties, and they get really loud and rowdy, and sometimes they have to say something to them about, you know, could you tone it down some? So she was shocked the other day when she was talking to the woman, and the woman said to her, if you see us sometimes going in and out on Sunday mornings with guitars… It’s because we’re going to church because we’re the worship leaders. Sarah almost fell down. Now, the thing about Sarah is she knows sin, and she knows when she’s not doing right and living right. Amen? But she was shocked to see that these people were the worship leaders. Amen. During the week, they’re having these loud parties and drinking and smoking, the whole thing that goes with it. But on Sunday mornings, they get on their Sunday clothes and get their guitars and go to church and they lead the worship. And folks, this is not something that’s unusual. It’s not an anomaly. It happens all across churches in America today. All across churches in America today. Amen. There are Christian bands, they play in church and they play in bars. Amen? This is what’s going on. I do not believe that you can interpret. You must worship the father in spirit and in truth and worship with sin in your life. Amen. And you’re not a pure vessel before the Lord. He says the father is seeking such to worship him in spirit and in truth. And getting back to what I said a minute ago about Chris Lombard. I mean, how in the world can Christians and Muslims come together in a Christian church and say we’re worshiping the same God? Because one of the pivotal pillars of Islamic faith is Allah has no son. That’s one thing they quote. They quote it every day. Allah has no son. How many know that to be true? Allah has no son. Well, if Allah has no son, then Allah is not a father. How many follow me? If he doesn’t have a son, then he’s not a father. And Jesus said the father, the father is looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. You will never get a Muslim to say that Jesus is the son of God. They will not do it. And they even like Jesus. They like him. They say he’s a good man and a good prophet. But they will be highly offended if you say God has a son. Jesus or anybody else. Because they say Allah has no son. So there’s no way the Christians and Muslims can worship together, worship the Father in spirit and in truth. And let the church say… So this woman had to face the truth that she was living in sin and that she did not know God as her father. She didn’t know him as her father. And that’s what people do. They’ll tell you all about their religious activities. They’ll tell you all about the things they do. But you’ve got to bring them back to that point. Do you know God as your father? An honest heart will have to say, well, not really. Amen? Because if you know God as your Father, there’s only one way that you can know God as your Father. I already quoted John 14, 6. No man comes unto the Father but by me. You can’t know God as your Father unless you know Jesus as your Lord. You have to know Jesus as Lord and Savior in order to know the Father. But there are many religions and faiths, they want to bypass Jesus and claim they know God. They do not know God. They are not worshiping God in spirit and in truth because you can’t know God without Jesus. Let’s look at verse 25 where we left off. The woman said unto him, I know that Messiah comes, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. And Jesus said unto her, this is one of the most remarkable passages in the whole New Testament. To a Samaritan woman of ill repute, he said, I speak unto thee, and he answered. what he would not say to the religious leaders, what he would not say to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all those other people, what he would never come out and say to them, he looked at this sinful Samaritan woman and said, I’m him. I am Messiah. I am Messiah. That is so powerful. I tell you, it’s another message altogether, but the gospel was the game changer for women. Amen. The gospel was a game changer for women. And this is one of the episodes right here why I say that. Amen. So she says, I know when Messiah comes. And he goes on to say, and upon this, what happens? His disciples came and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, what seekest thou or why are you talking with her? The woman then left her water pot and went in her way into the city and said to the men, come and see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ, the Messiah? Wow. So she’s still trying to be religious. Oh, I know when Messiah comes, he’s going to tell us everything. And he said, oh, he that speaks to you, I am Messiah. And as soon as he said, I am Messiah, two things happened. The disciples showed up with lunch. And when they showed up with lunch, the woman dropped her water pot and took off. But she wasn’t running away from Jesus. She wasn’t running to hide from him. She ran into the city. And she ran to the men. I think some of them might have known who she was. I think she might have known some of those guys. She ran to the man and she said, I want you to come and see a man. And he told me everything about me. Jesus is the only one that can tell you all about yourself, all about your sin, all about your wickedness, all about your evil, and it’ll make you happy. Jesus is the only one that can do that. Amen. And here comes the disciples. And we already read in the beginning what happened. They were shocked. They didn’t know what to say because here he’s speaking to this Samaritan woman that just messed up all their theology real bad. And then they thought, well, gee, somebody else must have beat us here with lunch. Amen? But you see, Jesus was in his element. He was ministering to a soul. Didn’t matter it wasn’t a multitude. Didn’t matter it wasn’t a packed church house. It didn’t matter if it was just one wretched sinner of low, low degree. He said, this is what fills me up. This is what satisfies me. He done forgot about it. He wasn’t even hungry anymore. Amen. Because he got to witness to this one woman. Oh, the power of the gospel and the power of the testimony of one person whose life has been radically changed by an encounter with Jesus Christ. Never discount your testimony. Amen. Oh, the impact, the testimony of one wretch that was saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. There is no greater pulpit than a changed life of what God has done for you. Now let’s look at verse 39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, he told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. Oh, hallelujah. See, her testimony got them to Jesus. Your testimony gets them to that brink, gets them to that place, gets them to that point. Amen. So it got their interest. It got them. They thought, you know, this is a woman that, like I said, I think a lot of them knew, had maybe some experience with this woman. Amen. So for her to come in the city in the middle of the day, telling everybody, come and see this man who told everything I did. Maybe they were getting nervous. Maybe they were afraid he was going to start telling what they did. Maybe they thought they needed to go there so that they could see what was going on. Wasn’t anything like that. She brought them to Jesus. Now, we are not told what he said to them, but believe you me, Jesus could do a lot in two days. When he left there, they had to be healed from the crown of their head to the soles of their feet. They had to be full of the spirit of God and truth and all their theology. He probably got it all out and fixed it all up and showed them the lies and showed them the error and got them all corrected. Got them in the truth. So they could worship God in spirit and in truth. Amen. So they came because she said, he told me everything about me. And they looked at this woman and she was happy. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t ashamed. Amen. Amen. Because Jesus is the one person that you can open up your heart to and share with him anything and everything. No matter what it is, you can share it with Jesus. And he will never shame you. He will never shame you. Amen? You are safe with Jesus. You are safe with him. Oh, he just wants you to come and unbear your heart and your soul. There may be things in your heart that trouble you and you have not shared them with one human being. Because you’re afraid if you did, they would judge you harshly. And you would be so embarrassed and so shameful to admit that you did such and so or were a part of whatever it might have been. But you are safe with Jesus. Amen. Amen. You are safe with the Lord. So they came to Jesus to hear him, to see him. Boy, their curiosity really kicked in and they wanted to come and see who is this guy she’s talking about. Her testimony, her words, her enthusiasm, her joy brought them to Jesus. But it was his words. That set them free. Because they said now we believe. Now we believe. Amen. And that’s what we need to do. We need to tell them what God has done for us. Amen. All the things that I’ve been through. And I’ve been through a lot of things. But the Lord always sends somebody my way that’s going through something similar. And I not only can give them scripture and the word of God, which I do, but that I’ll say, let me tell you. Let me tell you what the Lord did when I was going through such and such. And there’s something about a personal testimony that you can actually identify with what they’re going through. Amen. What they’re going through. And so many things in my life. I remember when my first marriage was really bad and it was a lot of abuse, a lot of abuse. And I didn’t understand all of that. But anyway, at one point the Lord said to me, I have strengthened you so that you can strengthen others. I brought you through this so you can strengthen others. And I’ve had many opportunities through the years to speak to many hearts of women one-on-one and tell them, I know what you’re going through. I’ve been there. And I tell you, God is faithful. He will bring you out. He will bring you through. You’ve got to trust the Lord. And a lot of times they are shocked because they didn’t think that I’ve been through anything. I’ve been in church since I was born. What do I know about trouble? What do I know about things? I’ve been through some things, folks. I’ve been through some things. And I can use my experiences to help others. And you have all been through some things. And some of you are going through something right now. And the devil likes to sit on your shoulder and say, how come? Why? When? And you know you are coming out. And when you come out, you’re going to have a testimony. And you’re going to be able to say, oh, come and see my Jesus. Come and see my Lord. Come to my Jesus. He can heal your broken heart. He can heal your wounds. He can make you whole. He can fix your troubled mind. He can deliver you. He can deliver you from those appetites and those cravings. You want to be free, but you don’t know how to get free. Amen. If you have some sort of bondage in your life and you want to be free, I want you to get up here right now. I want you to come up here. We’re going to pray that Jesus sets you free. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. Your coming up here is not saying you’re a sinner, okay? I’m saying there’s some kind of bond that you need to be free from. Amen? And from time to time, we all have something we need to get set free from. The lies of the enemy, spirits of fear and rejection. Amen? And if you do have some kind of something going on that you’re falling into, you’re falling into drugs or alcohol, you’re falling into sin, You’re falling into sexual sin. Amen. The Lord can deliver you. God can deliver you. Amen. Amen. I trust you’re being uplifted by Jesus Cares one-on-one. The multitudes mobbed him. The disciples sought to keep people away. But Jesus often went out of his way to minister to just one hurting soul, to loose one captive from his or her prison of pain or shame. And never was this so powerfully and poignantly illustrated than when he went to Samaria and encountered a woman at the well. A woman, a Samaritan woman, A sinful Samaritan woman. But Jesus gently pressed his way into her heart, revealing her shameful past. When he had uncovered her sinful secrets, she ran into the city with great joy to tell everyone Jesus was the Messiah. Because Jesus is the only one who can tell you all about your sinful past and make you happy. Because you are safe with Jesus. And there is no greater pulpit than a changed life. Jesus Cares one-on-one can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more to help us pay for radio time. When you order ministry CDs, you build up your own spiritual resources or that of friends you may be led of the Spirit to share with. And you are keeping sound of faith on this station. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request offer SK194 or order online at soundoffaith.org. Remember, for Jesus Cares one-on-one, request SK194. But even if you don’t want to order the CD, we need to hear from you if you enjoy the program. Please tuck in your best love gift to help us pay for our time on this station and mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Otts saying, Maranatha.
