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[0:00] I just want to say thank you to David for asking me to read the word today. And we're reading from the Old King James Bible.

[0:10] And we're reading from John 4, verses 4 to 14. I'm not familiar with the Old King James Bible, so bear with me.

[0:21] I might struggle a bit, but bear with me anyway. And as I read, you can turn to the Blue Bibles on page 1066. Okay. Here goes.

[0:34] Verse 4. And he, Jesus, must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Asishah, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

[0:54] Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. And it was about the sixth hour. There cometh the woman of Samaria to draw water.

[1:09] Jesus saith unto her, Give me a drink. For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy some meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh a drink of me?

[1:27] Which am I, a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink.

[1:44] Thou wouldest, thou wouldest, I can't say the word, Thou wouldest have asked of him, he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

[2:01] From whence then hast thou living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

[2:14] Jesus answered and saith unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be to him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

[2:37] This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. Amen. Lovely to see everyone this morning. And thank you, Helen, for the reading this morning.

[2:52] Well, next week, you may be wondering, next week we'll be back again with our study in the book of Acts. But for this week, we're moving away from Acts, and as you can see, we've gone to the story of the woman in the well, at the well.

[3:12] And we're looking at this subject of need and satisfaction. And you know, the Bible says that the eyes of man are never satisfied.

[3:25] Proverbs 27, verse 20. And people are always looking for more. There's always that need there. And God has put within man a need.

[3:37] And that need can only be fully satisfied in God. Jesus said, in John 7, 37, he said, whoever believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

[3:56] And today, we are looking at this story. And Helen read 14 verses, but there's actually so much more. It goes on and on.

[4:06] It's the longest dialogue with Jesus and anyone in the New Testament. It's about 42 verses in all. So we haven't time to cover the whole story in any detail.

[4:19] So this morning, we want to really concentrate on those two verses at the very end of the reading that Helen read this morning. Verses 13 and verse 14.

[4:36] And also, verse 4. And it really speaks about the water that you can drink and thirst again or the water that you can drink and you'll never thirst again.

[4:49] There's a real contrast in the water. And you know, as I thought about that, I was thinking back to the time that we moved to our house that we're in now. and there was a well in the field nearby.

[5:02] It was in the neighbor's field. There was a well in that field and when we drank the water from the tap, oh wow, it was lovely water. It was so cool even in the heat of summer.

[5:15] That water was lovely. But it was lovely for a year and after one year, we turned the tap one day and there was no water. And so we called the plumber and the plumber had to pull up 150 feet of pipe and at the very bottom there was a foot valve and it was completely corroded.

[5:35] And so he replaced that and we had the water again. But a year on, the same thing happened. And a year on, the same thing happened. And then, one day we were in the shop, in the pet shop, and we said, oh, that's a lovely goldfish.

[5:49] We bought the goldfish, we brought him home, we put him in the bowl, we put him in the water and we put him in the water and put the water in the bowl first. So, and the following morning, whatever we did anyway, the goldfish was floating in the water.

[6:05] So, we went back to the shop and we said, maybe it was just a faulty goldfish. So, we looked at this fella, he was swimming around mad and we said, that's the guy, he's healthy.

[6:17] We brought him, we put him home, we put him in the bowl of water and we got up the following morning, he was dead. So, then, the tap stopped working again and we called the plumber again and then, we got a letter in the posting, there's mains water coming by and after all the years of struggling with water, I said, yes, sign me up.

[6:37] We got in the new water supply and we got, and the neighbour came and said, you know that pump and that well, do you want that anymore? I said, no, I'm finished with it, I've got a new supply of water and I used the new supply of water and after that, I never had a problem with water and in our passage today, it just reminds me of that, that in verse 13, there's two supplies of water, the one in verse 13, it represents the world and the one in verse 14 is the water that Jesus gives.

[7:16] It kills in a way that you'll never thirst again and it gives joy and satisfaction that the believer has through the Holy Spirit living in him in fellowship with God.

[7:28] At our house, I was thinking, we got a new supply of water and we were able to get rid of the old one completely but when a person believes in the Lord Jesus, they also get a new supply of water that Jesus promised this woman at the well but you cannot get completely rid of the old water because the old nature is still in there and the world still attracts you and we are never far from the old water because we are still in this world so we must be careful that we don't go after the things of the world because we walk in the Spirit and our failure to grasp this fully will rob us of the Christian possibilities that are ours when we walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.

[8:27] There may be great difficulties in our life, in your life and my life, there are difficulties and we need and our need is met only in looking to Jesus who gives us the grace to help in the time and the hour of our need.

[8:45] This woman that Helen was, in the reading this morning that Helen gave us, she came to the well and she was not expecting to meet anyone at the well because it was the hottest part of the day when no one would be there and she wouldn't have to talk to anyone because her life was a bit of a mess and she just didn't want to talk about it and she had five husbands and the man she was now living with was not her husband, verse 18.

[9:21] And you may read her story and say, well, I'm not as bad as her, I live a good life and in the sight of all the people out there, I'm pretty good living and you know, I read the Bible, I sometimes go to church or whatever, so I think that I have a good living life.

[9:38] So, you might say, I'm the opposite to her and so, she needed Jesus but I don't need Jesus in the same way because I'm a good living person.

[9:51] So, I would say this morning if we were to turn back one page in the Bible, back to chapter 3 of John, we would see there a man who was the complete opposite to this woman.

[10:08] First of all, he was a man and she was a woman. Second of all, he had a name, he was called Nicodemus whereas this woman is just called the woman at the well or the woman of Samaria.

[10:21] Thirdly, he was living a very good life. He read his Bible, he went to church every day. He was high in the eyes of everyone whereas this woman was low in the eyes of everyone.

[10:37] He came out to Jesus by night because he was popular and he was well respected. He didn't want anyone to know. She came out by day because she didn't want to meet anyone.

[10:49] So they're totally opposite and they represent in a way different groups of people. But there's one thing that the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus had in common and this was it.

[11:05] They both needed new life in the spirit that Jesus offered them. And that's what every one of us have in common with the two of them. And in verse number four it says that Jesus must needs go through Samaria.

[11:23] Jesus was traveling from Judea to Galilee. But very few Jews took the route through Samaria because of their dislike even hatred for the Samaritans.

[11:36] So they would go around Samaria and when it says that Jesus must go through Samaria must needs go through Samaria it was not a geographical necessity seeing that there was another way around that he could have gone but it was a divine necessity.

[11:57] And it's very much the case that Jesus must go through Samaria because he needed to meet this woman at the well. Salvation is of the Lord.

[12:10] And that's the starting point for all of us that Jesus must break through into our lives through the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said to the woman if you knew who it is that who asked you.

[12:26] Now the woman she was thinking fully about the world was really in her head and you know the woman did ask for water she said you know give me this water so that I won't have to come here every day to draw water because I'm kind of weary from that.

[12:47] But Jesus said to her first if you knew because it's all about knowing Jesus. The woman wanted the joy and the satisfaction what she thought Jesus was offering but it was about knowing Jesus first.

[13:05] You can't have that full deep satisfaction in life without knowing Jesus. Everyone wants the joy everyone wants the satisfaction but it's about knowing Jesus first and having that relationship with him that's what gives us the full deep satisfaction in life.

[13:28] Even through the most difficult of circumstances you can have circumstances in your life that are so so tough but you can have a deep down satisfaction that's almost unexplainable when you know Jesus.

[13:43] It may not appear in your face. You don't have to go around with a big massive smile to say I'm happy. It's down in your heart. That's where it is. It's down deep in your heart.

[13:55] The woman she didn't want to discuss her life and as we read the story she tries to wriggle her way out of the discussion about her husband and that's in the later verses and she changes the subject.

[14:08] She says you know when Jesus speaks about her husbands that she's had and the man she's living with she tries to wriggle out of it. She says you know all fathers worship here in the mountain and you worship in Jerusalem.

[14:21] She's changing the subject but Jesus perseveres with what he's saying until she ends up seeing that he is the Christ of God.

[14:33] And in verse 29 she comes away and she says to the people come see a man who told me everything I ever did is not this to Christ.

[14:47] Her life was never the same afterwards. People believed in her because of her words and others came to see Jesus for themselves and believed in Jesus because of Jesus' own words to them.

[15:02] She came to know him as Christ the one who had pursued her through it all and the one who would not let her go. The Bible says we love him because he first loved us.

[15:16] And this morning we have been remembering the Lord. We have been remembering in the communion all that the Lord has done for us and we remember that in the Lord's supper.

[15:27] And it reminds us that God's wrath against our sin has been fully satisfied in the death of the Lord Jesus. And this is why we can have that wonderful joy and that well of water that God has given us.

[15:44] And we sang this morning, thank you for the cross, Lord. Thank you for the price you paid. Bearing all my sin and shame in love you came and gave amazing grace.

[15:57] And you know we can have confidence this morning in our life and in our walk with the Lord. The Bible says we are confident of this, that he who began a good walk in you will perform it until the day of Christ.

[16:13] We need him in everything we do. Jesus said without me you can do nothing. And I think that throughout the history of the church it's when the church grabs hold of this that it needs Jesus.

[16:27] that we can do nothing without him. Because when we see our need of Jesus it will drive us to seek Jesus. It will drive us to pray.

[16:38] It will drive us into the Bible, into the word of God. It will enhance us as we meet to break bread in the Lord's Supper. It will have real meaning and significance in our life when we see our need of Jesus and what he has done for us.

[16:54] And because when you know in our lives every day, not just alone in church, it's really in our individual life. Every day as we're out there in the supermarket or whatever, we need Jesus every day in our life.

[17:11] And you know, that's where revival starts really in the church and individuals. It's God working in us when we are depending on God and not upon ourselves.

[17:26] So, let us also be aware of this, that I was looking in the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 11 and 13.

[17:38] Jeremiah says there that the Lord says, has a nation changed their gods that are no gods? You know, we're in a very godless nation now that it's getting more godless and more godless all the time.

[17:54] They're bringing in things now that are saying are right, which are not right. But that verse goes on to say, but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

[18:07] You know, their glory was the Lord and their relationship with the Lord. There is an old question that many dominations have written down and it says, what is the real meaning of life?

[18:21] What is the chief end of your life and mine? And the answer, the correct answer that they give to that is this, the chief goal of your life is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

[18:36] And you know, Jeremiah says that the Lord says that the people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. They've gone after the things that the world goes after and they've left God.

[18:53] And this is, you know, going after the world and drinking of verse 13. You know, it's as Jesus said, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. It's going after 13 when you shouldn't be there.

[19:07] And Jeremiah also says that God says, my people have committed two evils. The first is this, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water.

[19:19] And the second one is this, they have dug their own cisterns that cannot hold water. They are depending on themselves, in other words, they're digging out cisterns when God is the source of the fountain of living water.

[19:36] They don't see their need of God. And the greatest of evil was forsaking God. Because God has given us this well of water that Jesus gives us.

[19:49] And when it's activated, it's so powerful that it springs up and it springs up and it's going to go on for all eternity. Now that's a long time, springing up into eternal life.

[20:01] There's going to be this joy and wonderful satisfaction in the Lord Jesus that's never going to end. And as I pondered these thoughts of our need in God, I was sitting in the kitchen and just thinking of our need of God every day, a hymn came to my mind and it's a very old hymn and I looked it up on YouTube and there it was and it's a hymn called I Need Thee Every Hour.

[20:34] And so I wanted to see what was the background of that hymn. And the background of that hymn was that it was a woman called Annie Hawks who was at the kitchen sink and she just saw her need of Jesus and the presence of God was in her kitchen and she just felt the need to sit down and get a pen and paper and write and she wrote the words of that hymn, I need thee every hour.

[21:07] And you know, she says later on that when her husband died, she knew the real power of that, of her need for Jesus became such a reality.

[21:20] God and I think that it's a powerful thing when we realise how much we need him and that without him we can do nothing because it drives us to him.

[21:35] That in turn it drives that springing water from the well that's within us and the joy of full satisfaction that will last, springing up to eternal life.

[21:47] The Bible as we were looking at this morning it says my people have dug cisterns that hold no water. We cannot manufacture the joy. We could buy a hundred tambourines and hand them out to everyone there and we could all start clapping and jumping and you know trying to create joy.

[22:06] But that is what the world is doing. It's trying to create joy. But that joy we would try to create would be just coming from the outside in.

[22:21] But the joy that Jesus gives he gives the well within. It is from the inside out. And if we come in here with that joy that we've had all week of the presence of the Lord when we come together you know that that will be a powerful thing as we come together.

[22:39] when we truly see our need of the Lord Jesus in everything in our life there can be no boasting of self or of anything on us but a total dependence upon God.

[22:54] The Apostle Paul said God forbid that I should boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.

[23:09] That's in Galatians 6 and 14. He had no need to drink of verse 13. We have no need to drink of verse 13.

[23:21] We're in the world but we don't have to drink from it. He had no thirst for it. We should have no thirst for it. Because we have verse 14. The true water.

[23:33] From the fountain of living water. The well. The rivers of living water. You know it starts and it ends with Jesus. In our story this morning it started with Jesus and if we had to cover the whole 42 verses we would end up at verse 42 with the Samaritan saying now we know ourself.

[23:56] He is the Christ the saviour of the world. is he our saviour this morning? Is he your saviour? The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 12 that he is the starter and the finisher of your faith and it also tells you and me today to run the race of life looking unto Jesus.

[24:24] Jesus. No matter how difficult your experience in life may be you may be facing severe difficulty deep down there is a deep satisfaction that is only found in him and never look anywhere else only to him.

[24:42] We need him all the time in our life and may that need drive us to him and may we glorify him in our life. Amen. We're going to sing that hymn and maybe another hymn as well and then Rob's going to finish in prayer.

[25:03]  So we're going to sing that hymn that Annie Hawkes wrote at the sink of our kitchen.