WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:17.000 Last week we had an assembly out at Longford and your music team come out and did a brilliant job. So I just wanted to say thank you for releasing them and thank you for them to come and doing their job. It was awesome. The assembly was good and we all had a great time. 2 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Since then, life has been interesting. 3 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.000 Some of you may know that I have three daughters. 4 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.000 Two of them have had very contrasting fortnights. 5 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.000 One has taken delivery of a brand new car. 6 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:57.000 And this is the first brand new car she has ever had. And she is all excited that she gets to open the door and all of these little lights come on and it does its thing and wow. And her kids are, wow, look at this. I got a car. And telling all of their friends and they can't understand why when they go to school, all of their friends are not excited that they have a new car. 7 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:06.000 It just makes no sense to them at all. Everyone should be excited we have a new car. Yeah, okay. 8 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:12.000 One of my other daughters is having a very contrasting time. 9 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:26.000 On Monday, she went to a funeral of somebody who a week earlier was working with her at work, who went home and ended his life. 10 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:31.000 And she had the task of standing up and doing part of the eulogy. 11 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:33.000 And she struggled with that. 12 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:53.000 And she struggled with that, not just because it was somebody that she knew and worked with and spent so much time with, but because one of her other friends, this was the 10th person in the last five years that had been through this. 13 00:01:53.000 --> 00:02:05.000 And they, as a group of people, were just struggling with the weight that people are carrying in this world and the difficulties that they face. 14 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:14.000 And as we come together as a church in our midst, there are people that have had better weeks than the daughter who got a car. 15 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:20.000 And there are people that have had worse weeks than my daughter standing up, doing a eulogy. 16 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:33.000 We all come in here in different places. We all come from different backgrounds. And as we sit and we look across our rows, we struggle to see which is which. 17 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:39.000 But on most weeks, this is the reality. 18 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:44.000 But most of us, when we come in here, it's just another week. 19 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.000 It's just another thing. 20 00:02:46.000 --> 00:03:06.000 And for Jesus and the disciples, in going from Jerusalem up to Galilee, it was just another journey. They were just doing this because they'd done it before. And, you know, Jesus was a bit of a wanderer. And the disciples just went, well, where are we going this time, Lord? 21 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:15.000 Well, apparently we're going to Galilee, and apparently we're going to go through Samaria. Right, okay, awesome. 22 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:29.000 And we get to about noon, and Jesus Goes, I'm tired. I'm going to have a rest now. I don't know how long they'd been walking, probably from sunrise. So it's probably about six hours of walking. 23 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:44.000 And we don't know whether it's a hot day, a cold day, or what it is. But whatever happens, Jesus has got to the point where he's just going, I'm tired. I need a break. 24 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:51.000 Anyone ever felt like that when you've been halfway through doing something and you just go, I'm done. 25 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.000 I just want a break. 26 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:57.000 And he sits down by this well and relaxes. 27 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:07.000 Now, I don't know about you, but every now and again I tend to forget how human Jesus was. 28 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:19.000 I sort of get this little thing in my head that goes, he's this super person who can do all sorts of great things, but verses like this just remind us of his humanity. 29 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:24.000 He's tired, he rests, he's exhausted. 30 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:35.000 And as you read through different verses, you go, oh, yeah, and he wept at the tomb. Yep. And he wept over Jerusalem. 31 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:42.000 And, oh yeah, that's right, he went into the temple and got a little bit angry and chucked a few tables around. 32 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:52.000 And oh yeah, in Gethsemane, he wasn't exactly on top of the world either then, was he? He was a little bit stressed and struggling. 33 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.000 So, yeah, it's just another normal day for him. 34 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.000 Normal emotions, normal thing. 35 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:09.000 I sit down at this well and along comes this woman. 36 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.000 For her, it's probably a normal day, too. 37 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:18.000 She comes and gets water at this well most days. I reckon we don't know much about her, do we? 38 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:30.000 We don't know what sort of week she's been having. We don't know whether she's one of the most prettiest ladies in this town or one of the most despised ladies in this town. 39 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:38.000 We know nothing about her except that she's getting her water at noon. 40 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.000 When would you get your water if you had to go and get it at a will? 41 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:51.000 Would you go and get it in the heat of the day, or would you go and get it first thing in the morning? 42 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:55.000 From what I've read, most people get it first thing in the morning. 43 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:08.000 The very fact that she's getting it at noon suggests to me that she was a lady that was not well regarded by the other people of the town. 44 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.000 And perhaps she was a little scorned. 45 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:20.000 Perhaps the fact that she'd had multiple husbands was not well received by some of the other people in the town. 46 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.000 And we don't know why she had multiple husbands. 47 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:37.000 We know that that culture was a male based culture. So it wasn't her choice to have multiple husbands. It was the husband's choice to go, no, I've had enough of you. 48 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:45.000 Maybe she was barren and her husband wanted children and she couldn't provide. 49 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:56.000 Maybe she had an illness, a sickness of some form, and various husbands thought, oh, yeah, well, I can put up with that for a little bit. But no, too much, go away. 50 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:00.000 Maybe she had a mental illness, we don't know. 51 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:11.000 All we know is that this lady had been rejected by five husbands and put back on the scrap heap and had to go and find another. 52 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:27.000 And these two people, one tired and exhausted, sitting by a whirl, one scorned and rejected by so many, have this encounter on this day. 53 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.000 She didn't know that this encounter was going to change her life. 54 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:37.000 She had no idea that this was going to change everything. 55 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:43.000 Just like Mary and Martha had no idea that their encounter with Jesus was going to change everything. 56 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:59.000 Just like you. And I have no idea when Jesus comes and changes things in our life, and that can happen each and every day, God comes along and just changes things. 57 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:04.000 The conversation here starts with a very gentle request. 58 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:08.000 Jesus sitting there going, can you get me some water? 59 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.000 I'm thirsty. 60 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:23.000 And then with every back and forth, the conversation shifts from a simple discussion about water to living water. 61 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:26.000 What is living water? 62 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:35.000 From the temporal to the eternal, from the worship of routine to the worship of spirit and truth. 63 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:50.000 It's a very gentle discussion. But in the process, Jesus is shifting her focus from being a focus on the things that are here and now to a focus on the things that are of God and are of eternal. 64 00:08:50.000 --> 00:09:08.000 In the midst of her hurt and her pain and her rejection, Jesus is shifting stuff because who knows that hurt and pain and difficulty warps our perspective that we're in the midst of darkness. It's very hard to see, right? 65 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.000 It's very hard to balance things. 66 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:19.000 And Jesus is just calling her out bit by bit and going, hey, there's more. Look up. 67 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.000 See beyond, see above. 68 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:28.000 This passage reminds me of a woman in the Old Testament, a lady by the name of Hagar. 69 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:31.000 Some of you may know her. 70 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:38.000 Her story is in Genesis 16, but it's only a small part of the story. 71 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:47.000 You see, she was a lady who was given to Abraham as a slave. 72 00:09:47.000 --> 00:10:00.000 The Jewish writings that aren't in our Bible say that she was once a princess of Egypt, that she was one of Pharaoh's children. 73 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:14.000 And when Abraham went down and Pharaoh almost took Sarah as a wife in Compensation. He gave her Hagar. And Hagar become a servant. 74 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:22.000 Now you think for a moment that's a fall from being the princess to being a servant. 75 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:43.000 And Hagar comes along as this servant, and Sarah mistreats her, Abraham makes her pregnant, and the family gets a little bit rough and she runs away. 76 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.000 I understand that. 77 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:50.000 Just thinking for a moment of how I would feel in that situation. I would not be happy. 78 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:55.000 But you think of the pain that this poor girl would be feeling. 79 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:05.000 The separation from her family back in Egypt, the separation from all the hopes and the dreams that she would have had as a kid growing up. 80 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:13.000 And all of a sudden, here she is in the desert, pregnant and alone. 81 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:15.000 And in that place. 82 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000 Genesis 16:13 records this. 83 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:24.000 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her. 84 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.000 You are the God who sees me. 85 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:35.000 For she said, now I have seen the one who sees me in this spot. 86 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:45.000 God sends an angel who stands beside her and says to her, God knows your name. 87 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.000 God knows your situation. 88 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:57.000 God knows your problems, and he has a future for you. He has a place for you. 89 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:15.000 Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm in those dark places, I need someone to come alongside me and remind me that God sees me, that God knows my name, that I matter. 90 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:23.000 In speaking to the woman at the world, Jesus does exactly that by telling her about her husbands. 91 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:26.000 He points out, God has seen you. 92 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.000 God has seen your story. God has seen your journey. God knows who you are. 93 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:35.000 You are not alone in this. 94 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:42.000 And so often when we're in these difficult spots, isn't that what we need to hear? 95 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:45.000 That is God who walks with us. 96 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:51.000 It is God who's got his arm around us, and it is God that is leading us. 97 00:12:51.000 --> 00:13:02.000 John 4 goes on a little bit further in verse 39 and says, Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. 98 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:06.000 He told me everything I ever did. 99 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:11.000 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them. 100 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.000 And he stayed two days. 101 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:17.000 And because of his words, many more became believers. 102 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:30.000 They said to the woman, we no longer just believe because of what you said, but now we've heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the savior of the world. 103 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.000 This is the power of the gospel. 104 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:43.000 This is the power that starts with one person telling a story that brings hope and life to somebody else. 105 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:54.000 And I believe that in this place, every person here has a story of how Jesus has stepped in at a moment and helped you. 106 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:03.000 A story of how Jesus has changed something, opened your eyes, given you hope in a place that was dark. 107 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:11.000 That story is powerful and can change other people's lives. 108 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:16.000 See, Jesus starts with you and I. 109 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:22.000 He reached an entire town through one person. 110 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:28.000 His story starts with you and I realising that we matter. 111 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:39.000 Who's heard of the phrases the apple of his eye, the pearl of great price? 112 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.000 These phrases mean something. 113 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:44.000 That's how God views you and I. 114 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:50.000 He sees us as precious and valuable and important. 115 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:57.000 Is that how we see ourselves? 116 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:00.000 And yet God sees us that way. 117 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:17.000 And God wants us to know that when we understand that, then we are in a place to show others that they too are precious and important and valuable and meaningful, and that their stories matter. 118 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:26.000 Because isn't it so easy in this world to think that our story is immaterial and small and nothing? 119 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:32.000 That the things that we do don't matter, that the things that we do don't change stuff? 120 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:38.000 But the reality is, the things that we do have greater impact than we can possibly understand. 121 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:41.000 Because we don't do it alone. 122 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.000 We do it with God, with us. 123 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:48.000 This is the day of Pentecost. 124 00:15:48.000 --> 00:16:01.000 This is the anniversary. This is the day when the church was born, when the Holy Spirit was poured out and dwelt within each one of us. 125 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:09.000 Jesus said, there's a day coming when you will worship in Spirit and in truth, in spirit. 126 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:19.000 Because the Spirit has now come, dwells in us, lives in us, leads us forward. 127 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:35.000 Romans 8 says this. In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know how we ought to pray. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 128 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:38.000 And he who searches the heart knows the mind of the Spirit. 129 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:45.000 Because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. 130 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:47.000 Isn't that awesome? 131 00:16:47.000 --> 00:17:02.000 That the Holy Spirit dwells in us and knows our thoughts, our fears, our doubts, and brings the groanings of those before the Father. 132 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:11.000 And the Father responds and knows our hearts, our fears, our doubts and acts. 133 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:15.000 I don't know about you, but I get amazed at that sort of stuff. 134 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:26.000 That the God who would create the universe cares enough to know that detail about me and you and everybody else on the earth. 135 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:31.000 It blows my mind. 136 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:39.000 You worship in truth because truth, our understanding, is opened. We no longer live in condemnation. 137 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:43.000 We no longer live in a place where we've got to prove ourselves to anybody, do we? 138 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:59.000 We don't have to justify ourselves because we walk in the love of God. We walk in his grace, in his mercy. We stand because He Makes us stand because of his strength. 139 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:05.000 God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son. We all know that verse, don't we? 140 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:16.000 That whoever believes in him should not perish, should have eternal life, because God did not send his Son to the world to condemn, but to save. 141 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:22.000 We know these verses, but do they rest in our hearts? 142 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:29.000 Do they sit inside of us and beat inside of us that we can stand? 143 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:39.000 Because as a church, every week there are people that walk through this door that will be at the bottom. 144 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:41.000 They will be struggling. 145 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:46.000 On the outside, you might look at them and you might never know. 146 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:53.000 But on the inside, they're fighting hard to stop the tears rolling down the cheeks. 147 00:18:53.000 --> 00:19:00.000 And sometimes as you walk into church, there will be people and they'll be sitting there and they'll just be. 148 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.000 But on the inside they go, oh, what an awesome week. It's been a great week. 149 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:08.000 And they're containing it for others. 150 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:19.000 But whatever the season is, as the children of God in the middle, our job is to make sure everybody is seen. 151 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:28.000 Our job is to make sure everyone knows there's someone here that can put an arm around them, that there is someone here that cares. 152 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:34.000 Because God cares and he wants his church to act the same way. 153 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:42.000 My call for each of you today is simply know that God sees you. 154 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:47.000 Know that he sees every part of your life. 155 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:52.000 Allow him to reframe the way you see things when it's necessary. 156 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:59.000 Allow him to lift your eyes when you get focused on the things of the earth. 157 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:01.000 Allow him to show you eternity. 158 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:20.000 When you're worried about temporal things, know that he has seen the absolute ugliest parts of you and the people. Biggest mistakes you've ever made and goes, I love you. 159 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:27.000 Rest in him because he really is the Savior of the world. 160 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:31.000 Let's pray together. 161 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:36.000 Father, you are awesome. 162 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:39.000 You are the creator of everything. 163 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:49.000 All that we see around you, it's yours. You made it and you made us and you love us. 164 00:20:49.000 --> 00:21:05.000 Regardless of the things that we've done, the mistakes that we've made, the rejections that have happened, the stuff that goes on on planet Earth, you still look at us and go, we're special, that we're worth something. 165 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:10.000 So much so that Jesus would come and die for us. 166 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:15.000 Father, help us to live out the knowledge of that truth. 167 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:24.000 Help us to know our value in your eyes, that we are seeing, that we are valued. 168 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:32.000 If we're struggling with that this morning, Lord, let your spirit rest upon that person and help them. 169 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:39.000 And Father, if we're on top of the world, help others to rejoice with that. 170 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:51.000 But Father, let your spirit be upon each and every one this morning we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.