Labor That Refreshes | John 4:31-38 | 6-10-26 | Wednesday

**Pastor Andrew Montoro** (0:00)
We're going to be in John chapter 4 tonight. John chapter 4, and so we're going to step out of our series in Nehemiah, and just want to, even just looking at the summer concert and trying to see the Lord work and being involved in the work of the Lord.
There's a passage in John chapter 4, in verse number 31, where Jesus is teaching his disciples about the joy and the satisfaction that comes from serving God. And so, we're going to take some time and just work through that. I'm going to try to make some specific application even to serving the Lord this Friday night, and what the Lord is going to do, what we want to see the Lord do, and how the Lord wants to use us. But John chapter 4, verse number 31, this is the context of Jesus and the woman at the well there, and the woman at the well, Jesus, has spoken to her. She has returned to the city, and now Jesus is waiting for her to return, and Jesus is there with the disciples once again, who have returned from the city where they went to buy food for Jesus. And the Bible says, in the meanwhile, verse number 31, in the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat, that ye know not of. Therefore, said the disciples one to another, hath any man brought him to eat? Where did Jesus get lunch? Right, that's what they're asking.
Jesus sayeth unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap whereon ye bestowed no labor, and other men have labored and ye have entered into their labors. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified, He told me all that ever I 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 own word. And so tonight, I wanna, I'm gonna try not to be long tonight just to give us some time to pray, but I'm gonna try to speak on this subject, Labor That Refreshes. Labor That Refreshes. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight. Lord, I need the reminders of your word. I pray that you would turn our hearts, open our understanding, Lord, to what you've called us to do, and I pray that you would use us, and Lord, that we would see you work through us, even in the coming days. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Most of the time, we do not associate labor with refreshing. Right? Usually we do not connect those two. In our culture, and even by our human nature, we are taught that if we want refreshment, we need to relax. Right? We need to take some time off. We need to have the me time. Right? Many people spend their days simply trying to get to the weekend. So they can have some relaxing. So they can have, enjoy life. And there is a great emphasis on self care and a great emphasis on, you know, taking care of you and relaxing and refreshing yourself. The problem is, the more our society spends time and resources on entertainment, self care, relaxing, the more unsatisfied people seem to be.
Doesn't that describe our society? There is more vacation days. There is more money spent on hobbies, relaxing, whatever it happens to be, than ever in our history. And yet, people's mental health, and I'm not trying to make fun of that necessarily or mock that, but people's thinking and levels of satisfaction and levels of just being able to operate in society has gone, has plummeted. The more money that is spent on relaxing, and that's supposed to help with that, it seems the less people are satisfied with life. Okay? Now, I do know, and we do need to emphasize, the greatest need for people is their salvation. There is not satisfaction, there is not fulfillment outside of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And that is the greatest need of our society. And one of the reasons why we've seen in our society such a rise in mental illnesses and different things is because there's been a pulling away from the things of God. But we're here on a Wednesday night, and I want to talk to those who have professed Christ as their Savior. And I want to talk to myself, I want to allow God's Word to speak to me, and allow God's Word to speak to those who have said, no, I know Jesus Christ as my Savior, I want to serve God. The problem is, it's easy for even us as Christians to follow the way of the world and the way of thinking that we seek refreshment and we seek satisfaction in the things of this world. And we can have the same problem, it's easy for us to look for refreshment in the same places that the world does. And there's nothing wrong with taking time off. Jesus told his disciples, come apart and rest for a while. God gave his people the Sabbath day to rest. And that's not what Jesus is speaking against here. But he is teaching his disciples, he's teaching those who know him, about what it means to serve him. And the satisfaction, the fulfillment and the refreshment that is found in doing the Father's will. And in serving God. The disciples had, just setting the context here, the disciples had left Jesus to go into town to buy meat, right? In the first part of John chapter 4, they had left Jesus wearied from the journey. The Bible says there, if you could turn back to the beginning, he came to the well of Sychar there, verse number 6, now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. And so he sat down, his disciples went into town to buy meat, that would, meat would not necessarily be steak, but it would be food. So in your Bible, it's an old English word, meat would refer to grain, it would refer to bread, it would refer to anything that would bring nourishment, any type of food stuff that would bring and sustain life. Okay, so that when it says they're going in to buy meat, they're going in to buy lunch or dinner or the food that is there. Jesus was 100% man.