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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.
Living water.
| Sermon ID | 11423132977002 |
| Duration | 40:32 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | John 4 |
| Language | English |
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