The SermonCentral.com Weekly Newsletter
—November 10, 2003

Theme: John 4: A Well of Living Water (The Samaritan Woman)

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In This Issue

1. Top 5 Sermons On A Well of Living Water

2. Top 5 Illustrations On A Well of Living Water

3. Go PRO!

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1. Top 5 Sermons On A Well of Living Water

The Road Less Traveled by Paul Decker: John 4:1-42
A family was in vacation in Montana visiting the grandparents, and when the grandmother drove her car past a church in the small town, she pointed to it, told the children that it was the First Baptist Church. “It must be a franchise,” her eight-year-old grandson said. more

Confronted By Truth by Rodney Buchanan: John 4:1-26
Charles Swindoll, in his book Growing Deep in the Christian Life, tells the true story of a man who bought fried chicken dinners for himself and his girlfriend to enjoy on a picnic one afternoon. He was in for a surprise because the person behind the counter mistakenly gave him the wrong paper bag. Earlier, the more

Christ the Living Waters by Lynwood Morriss: John 4:1-26
I’d like to introduce you to a woman, who is a lot like us. All of us before we come face to face with our Creator are like this woman. In listening to her story, we discover our own story. As we see her receive something from God, we ourselves learn to receive from God. I want to introduce you to the woman at the more

Fountain of youth found! by Chris Talton: John 4:1-38
In the early 1500’s, soon after the discovery of the New World, Europeans began making the long journey across the ocean in hopes of finding something. Some were hoping to find a new life. Others wanted adventure, the chance to explore a place where no white man had ever been. Some wanted religious freedom. But more

What God wants to do with a broken Woman by Rick Stacy: John 4:1-39
What God Can do with a broken Woman? Much has been said about the woman in John 4. She like many women today think that there is a certain man who will meet all their needs. she became the “Liz Taylor” of the New Testament looking for her perfect man. If I can just meet that one man – he will fill my life more

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2. Top 5 Illustrations On A Well of Living Water

RIGHT BY HIM
People genuinely want to be right with God. Sparky Anderson, was the manager of the Big Red Machine (the Cincinnati Reds) back in the mid 70’s, and the manager of the Detroit Tigers the year that the Tigers won the World Series. He made this open admission in a major Detroit newspaper back in 1984:

”...I’m not lying when I say that this (religion) is so important to me. If I had one great wish, it would be that I could honestly say that I was one of His (God’s) people. That’s the one emptiness I have. I’d give up all the pennants and all the honors just to know that I was doing right by Him. “

SOURCE: Croft M. Pentz, The Complete Book of Zingers (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1990). Russell Brownworth in “The Woman at the Well” on www.sermoncentral.com.

THE JOY OF PREACHING
Mother Teresa said, “A person filled with joy preaches without preaching.”

Contributed by: Wayne Major

WATER FOR FREE!
The depression took the fun out of 1932. It was no time to go into business. But Ted and Dorothy Husted bought the little drug store in their town. Grasshoppers had eaten all the crops in the region. This, in turn was followed by a dust bowl, a long drought, temperatures for ten days at a time of over 100 degrees. So the drugstore seemed about to fold.

Ted and Dorothy asked themselves: How can we get people into the drugstore?" They decided on the billboard marketing strategy...so, they went 25 miles in each direction and put up signs that read,

FREE ICE WATER AT THE WALL DRUG STORE, Wall, S.D.

They put up signs at 10 miles; and at 5 miles the sign read:

HOLD ON! IT’S ONLY 5 MILES TO THE WALL DRUG STORE AND FREE ICE WATER.

Now there are signs all over the country telling you just how far it is to free ice water at the Wall, S.D. drugstore. Today more than 15,000 people crowd the drugstore on a busy day in a town of 800 people. It remains the most spectacularly, successful drugstore in the entire industry. Druggists had been handing out free ice water for generations. But Ted & Dorothy were the first people who ever thought of advertising it.

Actually, somebody else came up with an advertisement for free water -- living water!

SOURCE: Russell Brownworth in The Woman at the Well on www.sermoncentral.com.

THE SEARCH FOR MEANING
Following the news of ex-Beatle George Harrison’s death, "Today" show anchor Anne Curry interviewed Anthony DeCurtis, a writer for “Rolling Stone” magazine. DeCurtis talked at length about Harrison’s search for a meaningful spiritual life. Curry said, "Apparently Harrison was the most spiritual of the group [speaking of the Beatles]; in a recent interview, he said, ’Everything else in life can wait, but the search for God cannot wait.’"
Citation: Dave Slagle, Lawrenceville, Georgia; source: NBC’s "Today" (11-30-01)

Contributed by: SermonCentral PRO

ANTS AND TRUTH
In Youth Worker Journal, Will Eisenhower tells of a typical experience he had as a counselor at a youth Bible camp: “It had been an exhausting day; the guys in my cabin were asleep, and I was dead to the world. Then there came a dim awareness: Ants were crawling all over my body. I was so tired, and sleep felt so good, that I actually resisted rousing myself. I knew that if I were roused even a little bit, I would have to acknowledge that my sleeping bag had become an ant freeway. I didn’t want to know the awful truth, so for at least several seconds I tried to fight it. At some deep level, I told myself that sleep was the reality and the ants were a dream.”

Truth can be like ants in our sleeping bag. Truth attempts to rouse us out of our sleep and confront us with reality. But we keep trying to ignore it and go back to sleep. Waking up means that I have to face reality and see the truth about myself, and also do something about the truth claims of Jesus Christ. More than that, it means I may have to change.

SOURCE: Rodney J. Buchanan in “Confronted by Truth” on www.sermoncentral.com.

3. Go PRO!

This is where we tell you about a great feature of SermonCentralPRO and how to use it.

Featured Illustration Archive

Have you ever been preaching on a certain topic, say prayer, and thought, "I wish I could see the 10 best illustrations on prayer all in one spot." If you were a subscriber to SermonCentralPRO, you would be able to by using our Featured Illustrations Archive. Each week we feature our 10 best illustrations on a certain topic, many of them brand new additions to the site. When the week is over, these great illustrations move to an archive, and still remain grouped by their topic.

To check out this feature, click on the "Archives" link under the red bar marked "Illustrations" in the left hand column of the home page. When the archive page comes up, click on the "view illustrations" link next to the topic you are interested in.

The next time you are searching for great illustrations, start with the SermonCentralPRO Featured Illustrations Archive. It's possible that we've done all the hard work for you.

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