It's strange how that every now and then we we get a a stronger sense that we are just passing through this life. That's what the Bible says, we are pilgrims passing through, we know that. There are certain times when we get that stronger awareness we've had in our fellowship in Hope. In fact, may I bring you the greetings from Hope Church, Ferndown, that's our Hope Fellowship. We had a young woman in the past year, go home to glory in her 40s, and she was one of those people you just would rather hang on a bit longer, you know. It sounds a bit unkind to say there are people that you want to don't want to die, you know, but she got to glory, born in her 40s, was at the heart, did all our admin work, and she had the nerve to leave us and go to heaven. Well, that was, we're still trying to fill the gap now. It's amazing how there are certain people in the church you don't really appreciate till they're gone. And, well, you used to do that. Oh, that was haze long. you know anyway and then this two weeks ago another lady in the church we were getting ready for the service there's a loud bang and and this dear saint of ours he went from the kitchen to glory and well that was it another one gone but that's what's happening isn't it one by one we're leaving this world and do you ever look around and think I wonder who'll be next but one of you will be next because we're leaving this life and we're going to glory now maybe that's something as Christians we take for granted we are going to heaven aren't we? saints we are going to heaven we're going to leave this dump and we're going to heaven oh praise the Lord Now I know there's that strange kind of tension, isn't there? The stuff we need to do down here. We are needed down here. And yet, to be absent from the body, present with the Lord. Do you have that assurance? Can I ask you? Do you know you're going to heaven? Some of you don't look sure, to be honest. You know, so important that we really know. I mean, what days these are we're living in? What days? How worse can it get? Now, for Bible people, we're saddened, but we're not surprised. As I said in my prayer, you know, in our day, we're seeing the Scriptures being fulfilled, outworked. You know, we're beginning to see the signs of the times. They've always been there, we know. but the frequency, the intensity of the events coming upon us and scripture being fulfilled even in our days. Now in the UK we might be far removed, well, not that far removed, but certainly some miles away from those scenes of devastation, but in the UK we're seeing devastation of a different kind, aren't we? just in one area alone the devastation of the family unit the sheer devastation we were visiting Gwen's brother and his wife in the week and they're not Christians but they were saying what has happened in their granddaughter's class there isn't one child with a mother and father just the sheer devastation of the family unit, and we're all affected by it. And that affects every one of us in some way, because it's broken relationships. At the very heart of all these things, whether it's war in the Middle East, or whether it's what's going on in our homes, in our families, it always comes back to broken relationships. The devastation of marriage, for those who get married these days, we're nearing 50% of those marriages ending in divorce. And when you look at relationships, I was looking at a statistic just recently, a recent survey revealed that the average relationship in the world, it lasts just two years and nine months. And so we can see these serial relationships and a man going here, there, and next family, please, and it's just devastating. When you add to that the confusion, confusion over gender and sexuality, throwing out of God's laws and God's ways, we will be tempted to throw up our arms in despair and say, what hope is there? well in John 4 what we find here is a soul falling from one mess to another because that's what happens isn't it? when sin reigns and yet we see and we know the story so well many of us and yet her life and situation completely transformed this is why we can't leave out grace and we dare not leave out grace from our situation And it's a lovely account and I'll be saying nothing new. But there are certain things we just need to be reminded of time and time again. Firstly, that God is interested in the ones. We are so numbers conscious, aren't we? And it can happen in the church, you know, we're numbers conscious and we think of statistics in terms of, you know, I don't know if you've been to those conferences or different meetings and normally one of the first questions asked, how large is your church? How many people do you get? You know, it does affect us, doesn't it? We are affected by numbers. And yet these are slow days, certainly conversion-wise, in any area in the UK. But what we find out here, when we look at the life and the ministry of Jesus, is that he was interested in the wands. You know, it's Samaria. He's going through Samaria. It's the sixth hour. It's noon. And here's the Lord Jesus. He was hot and weary. And we see this great fusion, don't we? This is the God-man. And he was weary and tired like any man would be. He wasn't half God, half man. He was fully God and yet fully man. He was in that warm body. And at times, we would see authority. We would almost, with great majesty, stride through these gospels, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead. And yet, other times, weary, hot, just wanting to rest. And here's this Samaritan woman. and um you know the and it comes out here there was this animosity between jews and samaritans The Samaritans, of course, they were a mixed race. We would trace it right the way back to the Assyrian captivity. And there was this kind of a mix of Jew and non-Jew. And faith was corrupted. And so the Jews looked down on the Samaritans and despised them. So here is a woman. a Samaritan woman and a morally corrupt woman. But she was one written-off person. That's what we see in her. She was a written-off person in a written-off nation. The kind of no-hoper that we often see. And we are tempted to make judgements, aren't we? We look at certain people, and we look at certain situations and we write them off. If we're honest, we might not say it, because we believe in grace, don't we, as Christians? But we write people off, we look at them, and often if we're honest, we look down on them, put people in pigeon holes, Anyway, there you go. It's self-righteousness. I don't know if you find that. The longer you've been a Christian, the more prone we are to self-righteousness. As if, I'm not surprised God loved me. You know, he saw something good in me, didn't he? No. God, if you're a Christian, God will love you despite what you are. This omniscient God, he looks at us and he sees our lives and yet it's grace always that triumphs. So here is this woman and we can see her sad background, this string of failed relationships. I don't know, maybe it's reading too much into it, but maybe disappointment was written all over her face. just total disillusionment with men with relationships just one after the other and sin is a cruel master, isn't it? and often you can see on a person's face someone, it's evident in their whole demeanor that they come from a life of sin and she was notorious, this woman was notorious everyone knew about her and but as I say there were certain people not always but you just look at their lifestyles and you you just think they were a million miles away from from God and certain categories of people maybe if we're honest we were doing open air in Southampton and this happened a couple of months ago now and I wasn't preaching I was in the little crowd and One of our guys was preaching, and this little woman came up. She was a wiry little woman. She had the loudest voice I've ever heard. And she started to let rip, because she was a lesbian. And so she's thinking, Christian, they hate lesbians. So she let rip at my colleague who was trying to preach. And of course, I found that when she had the loud voice, I found out after she was a sergeant major in the army. Anyway, there we go. I was in the Air Force, but anyway, she had a loud voice. And she was used to shouting at people, put it that way. I never heard such a loud voice in my life. Anyway, there we go. My friend was trying to preach. Hopeless. He could have quite a good voice, but she was ranting and raving. I thought, well, I'd better try and do something. So I tried to sort of draw her aside, and in the end, I succeeded. And we sat down on this bench, if you know Southampton, above bars, a nice wide pedestrian precinct with lots of seats. Anyway, we sat down and I was able to engage in conversation. I was sat down, but she was still shouting at me as if I was a couple of yards away. My head was standing on end and shaking this woman's voice. Eventually she calmed down and I asked her about her background. Anyway, it was such a sorry, sorry story, really. And then she began to weep. And it turned out that she was adopted as a child. And she went from home to home, foster home, brought up. But what was significant is that one of the homes, one of the mothers was a Christian. And she just remembered the kindness of this foster mum that she had and well I'd like to say that woman was converted but certainly there was a mellowing there with her but I guess what I'm saying is we look at people and we've got no idea what their background is. We've got no idea what they've been battling with, they are struggling with. And normally there's a reason why people are as they are. Well, I don't know. Here is this woman now. And maybe it was etched on her face, the struggle that she'd had for years, just falling from one mess to another. But all was to change. I do suppose that on this particular day, she would have had any idea when she got up how her life would have been changed. I mean, we can see that the way that she would have gone at noon, she was trying to avoid people. Who would draw water? Who would go on the hottest part of the day to draw water apart from someone trying to avoid others? But here is this man that she meets, and he's not just any stranger. On this well, sitting down weary, is the Messiah. No coincidence. This was a meeting. This was a divine appointment. We often pray for those in our open air work. We pray, Lord, give us a divine appointment, so that there is a person whose heart is prepared, and there is a person who's got the gospel message, and they're being brought together. this is what we're happening is happening here divine appointment and for me I think in the in the Christian life is one of the most glorious things I know when you just have that awareness you're in the right place at the right time saying the right things to the right person in the right way You know, it's God overruling, in a sense. There's that awareness. You're like a chess piece being moved around. This is God bringing you into a certain situation. I think one of the first times I knew this, when I was in Wales, in Bible College, Barry, years ago, they used to send out the students into the valleys, scatter these students, different churches in the Welsh valleys. I was at a church in Porth, and it was such a struggle. It was an evening service, and I think most of these kinds of churches, certainly Colin would know them, it was simply packed with chapel goers. There were people who would just go to chapel on a Sunday night because it was the thing to do. probably the remnants of the Welsh Revival, where people would go to the chapel and you would hear in the prayer, you would hear the sweets coming out and the rustling of papers. It was part of the Sunday thing, you know, oh good to go to chapel now. but no they'd heard the gospel you know for years and they could tell it to you but then on the way out you'd all nice nice message minister thank you very much soon it you know we preach on the glories of heaven and the the horrors of hell thank you very much so anyway it was so depressing because you could well anyway you don't want to judge people you think What a waste of time this is. I'm coming in here, there's no interest. So I drove home, so I went back from Porth in the Rhondda Valley, driving back to Barry. And I was so depressed. Is this what it's about? Just preaching the gospel to people who don't want to hear, preaching the word of God. Anyway, so I'm deep in my thoughts, and as I'm driving down the valley, I looked over, I thought it was a mirage. There was this long queue, about a 50-meter queue of young people. Anyway, as I drove past, it was a nightclub up on the side. Anyway, I drove past. But I felt God stirring me. I felt the Holy Spirit say, go back and preach to them. No way. So I carried on driving down the valley. But the Spirit wouldn't let me go until I stopped the car, turned around, drove back. And as I got nearer the car, parked the car, I got nearer this great long queue. I'm thinking, no. So I had my black suit and my black tie and my black Bible. As I got nearer, I could hear all the boys, oh, here comes the undertaker. Here comes the rent man now. Got the rent book, you see. So I'm thinking, oh, no, no, please. As I preached, I knew such freedom and liberty, the thing I didn't have back in the church, I now had now. I just felt God was striving with people here. world in my pocket, little bunch of tracks so I went down the queue and gave everyone a track and well who knows what was going on that day but I just felt God was striving with people and but it's this whole thing about this is Jesus Christ this is the Savior who loves people and to go out of his way for one person and here she is and what we see is just his wise and tender dealings and he starts by speaking about water, physical water, well they're in a well a master class in evangelism really and he's speaking about physical water and in verse 8 he asks her for a drink he humbly puts himself in in her debt there's something very disarming about that Some people find it hard to receive. Sometimes it's easier to give. And yet what happens is there's going to be something very disarming. So he's putting himself down and asking her. We find it hard at times, if we're honest as Christians. Well, I don't want to ask. There's a kind of false humility there. But he puts himself on the deck and asks her for a drink. Of course, he's going to speak about another water altogether, but he's using this wonderful illustration. And the water says, sir, you've got nothing to draw with. She's trying to grapple with this whole fact of, well, you know, this is a deep well. And then this living water you're talking about. And so there's a kind of, no doubt, a confusion in her mind. But he's speaking about the life of God within a person. Verse 13, the Lord says, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst. That water will become a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. I wonder at this time, is there something inside of her stirring? It's like that, isn't it? Before you're a Christian, you haven't got the foggiest of spiritual things. you're dead to the things of God I don't know if this is you this morning that you know it all seems a mystery you're on the outside you come in here and prayers are said and things are said but really you're still you're still a stranger to these things because there's no life-giving power inside of you most of you know my story that before I was a Christian an alcoholic and dead to the things of God and a young man witnessing to me at work for some time I didn't have a clue what he was saying he was speaking good biblical truths but I didn't have a clue and yet there came a particular day when God was stirring in my heart and I still didn't understand he was putting the gospel looking back he was explaining the gospel simply and clearly but it was all like a foreign language to me but there was a stirring within there was a desire beginning that was given by the spirit and I think that's what's happening here he's speaking about living water but still she's grappling with this she still doesn't understand but there is a longing because again bear in mind she's been let down she's been given promises before there was a man coming along with some other promise and there was always a hope in her heart that this will be the one that will really love me I mean let's face it folks isn't this the one great common denominator we all have we just want to be loved is that right? whether it's a parent's love whether it's a partner's love, a child loving a parent, but we just want someone who will actually love us, be kind to us, be true to us. And she went from one to another, and every one was a disappointment. And I don't want to be cynical, but no human being can give you the love that God can. There's no one who can do it. Every relationship will be a disappointment from that point of view. No wife can love her husband, no husband can love her wife. We just can't provide what the Lord alone can provide. So he's speaking about something and maybe for the first time there's just a glimmer of hope. Here is this strange man And yet, he's speaking of things, and there's a stirring in her heart. So there's a thirsty soul here. But she's confused by false religion. She's a Samaritan. He's a Jew. And verse 20, she's caught up in the where to worship. Is it to do with a city? Is it to do with Jerusalem? Is it rather than the how? he's going to speak about worship is in spirit and truth God is looking for something from the heart a heart devotion it's not where you meet it's not the clothes you wear it's not the Bible you read all of these things might have their place you know folks we can get caught up in all kinds of secondary things can't we in the church You know, I don't know. I'm on Twitter. And I think, how long am I going to put up? Oh, the stuff that Christians get caught up with, you know, and the unkindness on Twitter. And again, we have to bring ourselves back time and time again to what really matters here. And so this woman, to her, religion was just an empty formality it's about buildings and rules and rituals but Jesus here is speaking about a relationship and this is what he's longing for and there's that inner longing where it surfaces in verse 15 so give me this water she doesn't really know at this stage what it is yet there's a hunger, there's a desire, there's a thirst, and this is what I find in our days, and again, just in terms of open air work, there's an increasing desire, it's strange, we see our nation going further and further away from God, and yet there is definitely an increase in some young people, predominantly, I guess, The two major groups we find, those from overseas are coming in. God is bringing people from other nations here. So we're seeing. Again, a couple of weeks ago, Southampton, preaching, and a Chinese girl, been in the country two days. She's hearing the gospel, never heard it before, wide open, takes a Bible, linked up with the church. That same day, in between the preaching, I'm giving out tracts. And a young man comes by. I give him a tract. I don't normally speak, but I gave him this tract. As he walked by, I thought, I'll just say a word. So I said to him, do you believe in God then? And he stopped. And he turned around. He said, yes. He stopped us. I said, do you think it's possible to know God? Yeah. I said, good. Then I started thinking, well, what are you doing to get to know God then? He said, well, I've just bought a Bible. I said, really? wow it's been a great conversation with him linked up with the church so there is a hunger there is a growing desire a thirst in the context here um so people we would be tempted to write off so um i guess our job is to try and detect where is there a hunger where there is a thirst but very often we're surprised at those who are showing the interest but what we see here because first there's some spiritual surgery required that all necessary conviction of sin and here's the Lord Jesus here and he says go and call your husband Well, after showing that interest, her head must have dropped like this. She has to come clean. He's hit a raw nerve here. That's the very subject she didn't want him to bring up. The head drops. She's been exposed, as it were. She's got nowhere to run apart from running to Jesus. She's cornered, really. and uh... so what's happening here is that the lord is is dealing it might seem cruelly but he's bringing something up he's trying to bring it to the point of where there is genuine repentance and there has to be repentance doesn't there is no real faith without repentance a real awareness i really am sinful who wants to come there who wants to be told that they're sinful? It's hard, isn't it? I don't know, if you're a Christian today, can you remember that first time when you realized you weren't good enough? It's hard, isn't it? And the older we get, the harder it is. I remember with my mum and dad, when I became a Christian, for me to come to my mum and dad, who were in their late 60s, early 70s, for them to come to the place where they could see that nothing in their life had been acceptable to God that's hard isn't it? you mean son I've lived these 60, 70 years and I've not done one, everything is sin? I'm afraid so have you come now? you know even our religion our hymn singing our bible reading our praying that nothing is good enough unless we come to Jesus Christ and say Lord will you forgive me the old hymn nothing in my hand I bring simply till I cross I cling well maybe I could ask you today what are you relying upon to get you to heaven you know in the open air we we we if someone's not sure I sometimes say, do you think you'll get to heaven when you die? When someone says, well, I hope so, ooh, I think, right. What should we do here? If you're hoping so, that's a bad sign. And so we ask that good old question. Well, here's a question. Do you mind if I ask you a question, just to try to help you in your own mind to find out where you stand? if you were to die tonight God forbid but if you were to die tonight and God were to say to you listen why should I allow you into heaven? this is a holy place no sin can come in here and you've sinned why should I allow you in? well if someone says well I've been to church sorry well I've done my best and I'm sorry because all we can say is that I'm trusting that Jesus Christ loved me died on the cross for me and has washed away my sin so how would you answer that question? if you should die tonight and God were to say to you why should I allow you into heaven what would your response be? it can only be that Jesus Christ has died for me every blessing flows from Calvary so we look back all those years and humanly speaking you know who can really accept that my only hope of getting to heaven is that the young Jew two thousand years ago died on the cross in my place and then rose again that's it by faith and not alone will do And there's a two-fold heavenly flow, really, because the stream of forgiveness flows from Calvary. And then the stream of power flows from the Holy Spirit, the Pentecost. So in other words, take a person like me. Rotten, drunken, lousy. Gwen will give you the rest. Hopeless, you know. I not only needed forgiveness now when I say not only that's a massive thing I needed forgiveness but I needed more than that I needed a power to come into my life so I wouldn't go back to my old life you know a love for God that I didn't have and that's what Jesus does so here is the Lord here He's speaking to this woman here and it's this transforming life so He's speaking about the work of the Spirit this fountain of water. In other words, why am I not drunk at home with a hangover today? Well, it's because the Jesus who saved me over 40 years ago is living within me. Why are you here this morning? Do you want to be here? Well, sort of. Well, it's God who keeps us. The God who saves us, then keeps us. And our love for him, though it might be cold at times, yet we still love him. I love the Lord because he heard my voice, he heard my cry for mercy. I used to get, you know, talk about not being able to keep things up. I was always having to change things. When we got fed up with being out of a beard, one day he shaved it off, and the next day I shaved it off. always wanting something new yet when Jesus Christ came into my life I thought that's what I'm looking for this is what I'm longing for there's a satisfaction a joy that stays with us all through the years those rivers of living water so I get up tomorrow morning and the preaching is over I thought got through that okay or not Monday morning comes so I get out of bed drug myself to the kettle get my cup of tea and I sit down and get my bible out I know what will help the streams to flow is I read God's word and I pray and there's a stirring again and God is giving us means isn't he and that's why we're here today of course Well, let me just close with this, because this woman is changed. She's totally surprised. She never thought when she got up that day that her life would be changed. And yet, and she becomes the most surprising evangelist. And in verses 28 and 29, she leaves her water pot. She's straight away. Something's happened to her. and she then dashes out and says come and see a man who told me all the things I ever did what a strange thing to say come and see the man who showed me what a sinner I am and yet now she's forgiven and she doesn't care and yet the whole town is impacted this is the power of a changed life isn't it you just share your own story it doesn't have to be sensational we just say what the Lord has done for me and so she is saved then the village is turned around and I guess what we need to remind ourselves today is that this is the power of God, isn't it? no matter how weak and sinful we feel in Jesus Christ there is fresh cleansing fresh forgiveness fresh power from on high so what's your greatest need today? what's your greatest need today? Is there an awareness of God in our lives? Maybe I can put it the other way around. Are you happy with the way you are today? Are you happy? If so, I can't do anything for you. Do you have any thirst today? Do you want to change? Do you want to say, Lord, would you come to me? This is what revival is, folks, isn't it? It's not something, you know, in the past. is people come and say Lord I'm not happy with the way I am I want you to come to me to change me to create in me a thirst that you might come with this living water and change me well Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever we don't deserve to be blessed do we? nope but he longs to bless us The same Jesus. So are there any hopeless people you can think of today who need Jesus? Any hopeless people? Jesus loves hopeless people. Any hopeless situations? There's nothing too hard for God. So this little account here, the Samaritan woman, it reminds us that Jesus Christ, Jesus is seeking the wanderers yet, why do they roam? Love only waits, do you remember the hymn? To forgive and forget, come weary wanderers home. Well, the question as I close is, will you come? Will you come today with your thirst, with your little empty cup? Say Lord, will you come to me today? as you came to that woman years ago. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are the same today. You're the one that visits individuals and visits churches. Lord, you're in the midst today. Could we see, have the eyes to see you in the midst of the candlesticks, that lovely picture in Revelation? Lord, come to us, we pray, see our need today forgive us lord for our unbelief and lord we are fearful very often but we pray lord that we might have a new desire for you a new thirst a new craving for that living water that you might flow you might bubble up within us and overflow through us we pray into this desert, this howling wilderness of a world that we might irrigate it with the grace of God because we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's sing our last hymn. 5-7-1 O what a foretaste of glory divine, air of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. Now can you sing this? This is my story. This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. 5, 7, 1. Blessed assurance.