The Gospel and Clean Water
Newbreak’s Sermon Study Guide is an in-house resource that serves sermon-based Life Groups and/or individuals who want to reflect further on how the message contributes to their spiritual formation. In this week’s study, we talk about the next country we are aiming to bring clean drinking water and the gospel to–Egypt!
Icebreakers for Life Groups
- What brand of water is your favorite? Describe why it is your favorite.
- Dasani is not an appropriate answer 😂
There are a lot of problems in the world today, and sometimes it gets overwhelming to think about it all. After all, we cannot fix all the problems in the world. We cannot solve ALL the world’s problems...but we can solve the world’s water problem!
Read John 4:3–14
Point 1 – Be intentional to see and feel people’s most basic needs.
John 4 gives us a close-up of the kind of interactions Jesus had with people. Despite the cultural boundaries that typically kept Jews and Samaritans apart, Jesus intentionally embraced speaking with the Samaritan women. She was there to gather water, a basic need. Going at the time of the day she did insinuated that something was off, socially. In other words, she might have been the town pariah. It is likely that her unusual situations with multiple men was causing this. But all of this is beside the point–as crazy as that may sound! Because for Jesus, this woman mattered. And while she was going to the well for the basic need of water, Jesus was there to offer her the “living water” that only he could offer.
Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water” (John 4:10, NLT).
The Gospel comes in a variety of ways and is packaged in a diverse amount of metaphors–such as “living water.” Where there is water, there is life. And even in today’s world clean water remains a basic need that not everyone has access to. That is why Newbreak Church has been part of bringing clean drinking water, for the first time, to entire countries like Liberia (finished in 2021), Fiji (in progress), and now to Egypt as well. It’s more than a water project; it’s a people project, and through it, we bring not only the basic need of clean water–but the even more essential and eternal need of the gospel.
Questions for Group Discussion or Personal Reflection
- The conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well seems cryptic at first. Why do you think Jesus was coy about why he was talking with the woman?
- What does the metaphor of “living water” convey about the gospel? How does this speak to you, personally?
- How might providing clean drinking water provide an opportunity to also give the “living water” in people’s lives?
Point 2 – Move from compassion to action.
We have options and such a vast abundance of water. We can choose bottled water, boxed water, filtered water, flavored water, or fizzy water. We don’t even drink our tap water because we are in such luxury. The poor don’t have a choice... they drink the water they have in front of them!
Living in America, no matter what tier of economic success you experience, you are in the top 1% of the world’s wealthiest people!
Take Action:
- $35 provides clean drinking water to a family for 10 years!
- $350 provides clean drinking water to 10 families for 10 years!
We are aiming to serve 20,000 homes and through these efforts to move the current 3,000 house churches to 6,000 house churches! (Only 10% of Egyptians are Christian and the other 90% are Muslim.) That’s why the goal is to raise $180,000 over the next two years!
Give to this water project and designate your gift “Clean Water Egypt" in order to ensure your donation goes straight to the project! For weekly tithes, "Give Now" and designate the Newbreak campus you attend.
Questions for Group Discussion or Personal Reflection
- How did this week’s sermon educate you on the need (and solution) of water projects like the one in Egypt?
- Pray about what your part might be in this. What do you feel like God is challenging you to do in going above and beyond your tithe to give to Kingdom Builders and the water project?
Final Challenge Questions
- How are you going to think or live differently in light of what you have read, heard, and discussed this week?
- How does this week’s message shape or nurture your relationship with God?
- BONUS: For those of you with kids or around kids: What is one truth from this message that you can share with your kids in a way that they would relate to or understand?