Sermon Summary

This week, Dani Cole with World Vision shared a testimony of how the Lord reversed things in her life dramatically after her daughter’s cancer diagnosis. In this particularly difficult season, Dani found herself identifying with the woman at the well. Jesus accepted this woman, affirmed her inherent dignity, and restored her broken circumstances. The woman responded radically, sharing the good news of what Jesus had done for her. Dani shared the heart of World Vision’s child sponsorship program called Chosen, which puts the empowering choice of sponsorship in the child’s hands. By partnering with World Vision, we have an opportunity to affirm a child’s dignity and take steps toward restoring their broken circumstances.

John 4:7-14 (ESV)

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[a] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Discussion Questions

  1. Have you ever participated in child sponsorship? If so, what did it teach you?
  2. Why do you think World Vision reverses the choice in this new child sponsorship program? What is the significance of this change?
  3. How can child sponsorship affirm a child’s inherent dignity and restore their broken circumstances? 

Application Questions

  1. Read John 4:7-14 this week. How does Jesus affirm the woman’s dignity and restore her circumstances? How has he done so for you? Take time to thank Him this week.
  2. Sign up this week to sponsor a child through Chosen. Text “CCC” to 51670 and change a child’s life today!
  3. If you’re unable to sign up to sponsor a child, be in prayer for District 4 in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam where the children we are sponsoring live. Pray for the Lord to restore their broken circumstances in a significant way.