Hello and welcome to Walk the Walk. We are now in our third influencer of our influencer series or influencers of the Bible. And we're just trying to take a closer look at those people in the Bible who were considered, well, today we would consider them influencers. Now I know when you think of an influencer, you're looking at somebody who has a large, huge audience, or or you have some platform that you're able to use and that you could not be an influencer since you don't have all of those things. Well, that's not true. What if I told you that one of the first influencers for the gospel was a woman who didn't even have a good reputation in her town? Today we're talking about the woman at the well. Now in John chapter 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Now she's shocked that Jesus is even talking to her. She's probably even more shocked that Jesus is even there. But he does speak to her. She's a woman, a Samaritan, and somebody with a complicated past. Now, Jesus sees her, he knows her story, and he offers her something greater than the water that she was getting from the well. I don't know if you know much about the woman at the well. She would go at the well after everybody had already been there, so which probably meant she would go in the hottest part of the day because she didn't want to encounter other people. But Jesus offered her living water. And that moment, when he offers her that, it completely changed her life. Now she was considered an outcast and she became an influencer. And let me tell you where her influence begins. She doesn't keep quiet. She doesn't wait till she's cleaned up her reputation or gone to Bible school. But she runs back to her town and says, Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Now, and if you know anything again about the woman at the well, everything she's ever done was not good. She says, Could this be the Messiah? And people listened to her because she spoke from a personal experience, and her story carried power. Now I know you're you probably have a past just like I do. I think we all have a past. As a matter of fact, we may be still working on our past in our current day lives, but we all have a story, and a lot of us are so afraid to share our stories with other people that we're afraid they're not going to listen. But I can tell you that probably more people will listen to a person that has a past that is overcome. In her testimony, she's influenced an entire community. Scripture says that many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of her words. Imagine that influence. Imagine you having that type of influence over a group of people who may not want to believe or wasn't able to believe. This woman's willingness to share her encounter brought a whole town to Christ. That's true influence. Now I know there's many people, like I said, who have a platform where they have a podcast, they have the ability to speak to thousands of people, and and out of their mouth comes the words of that Christ wants them to hear. But we're talking to the people that don't have thousands of people listening. Maybe only one person listens to you, but that's still cons you're still considered an influencer. She showed us that influence was not about status, because you may be saying, Oh, I'm just a nobody. I I I don't even have a job. I don't this, I don't that. But Jesus chose her. Somebody society overlooked to carry his message. She broke cultural barriers by stepping into her role as a witness. That's what makes her story timeless. You know, God can use anyone at any time to make an impact. And that means you. God can use you at any time in your life to make an impact. The woman at the well teaches us that influence isn't about perfection, it's about authenticity. You don't need a platform, a title, a following to make a difference. You just need the courage to share what Jesus has done in your life. And I'm going to be honest with you, my podcast doesn't have thousands of followers. And I join these other podcast groups, and their their goal is like, I need more listeners. I need more listeners. How do I get more people to listen? What do I do? And I think people just need to relax and say, you know what? Those who want to listen will listen. Give them the opportunity to listen. Share your story, share your past, share your life now. Oh, and you may say, well, I'm I'm not through it. I'm I'm still struggling. Well, people like to know that other people are struggling. They want to hear that because people feel isolated when they think they're the only ones who are struggling. When in fact, that's so not true. Probably 99% of people across the United States have some type of struggle and need to hear the word of God. Now, there are some people who don't want to hear it and who won't let you speak it to them. They close their ears to it because they're so full of Satan and the devil that they just can't even hear the words that you speak. They can't. They're almost ear-deaf. That didn't even sound right, but deaf to uh the word of God. So the next time you hear the word influencer, don't just think social media. Don't think of those who have thousands and hundreds of people that listen to them every day. Think about your life and the people that you influence. That could be your family, your children, your husband, your wife, uh, your neighbors. And I'm not asking you to think, oh, how can I get hundreds and thousands? Just one. All the angels rejoice when one person says, I accept you, Jesus Christ, as my Lord and Savior. The woman at the well was just an ordinary woman, probably like you and probably like me. But she had an extraordinary story, probably like you and probably like me. Your story has influence. By the mere fact that you're listening, somebody influenced you. Who was it? Was it your church? Was it your friend? Was it your parents? Those people are all influencers. They helped shape the minds of those who now believe in Jesus Christ. Now, your influence may not have a direct impact right away. You know, sometimes it takes more than one influencer to influence a person. Sometimes they need to hear you. They need to hear somebody else. They need to hear another person before they finally say, Yes, Jesus, I believe. So don't feel bad if what you're doing doesn't make a change right away because you have no idea what God's doing behind the scenes. And you just may be one of those dominoes in that person's walk. So, are you an influencer? And if you're not, do you want to be? I would venture to say most of us would say yes, but we just don't know how to do it. There's no class, there's no rhyme or reason. It's sharing your story, just like the woman at the well. She did not go to the well that day thinking, oh, I'm gonna learn how to go back and talk about Jesus. As a matter of fact, I bet she thought at first, should I tell them or shouldn't I? Look at my checkered past. But she did. And it says that all these people believed because that one woman with the past that she had and with the encounter that she had influenced these people to believe in Jesus Christ. That could be you, that could be me. Don't turn that opportunity down. Be an influencer.