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John 4.

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. Although in fact, it was not Jesus who was baptized, but his disciples. So he left Jidya and went once more to Galile. Now, we had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria, Paul Sicar. Near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman.

How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus said to her, if you knew the gift of god and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself? As did also his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered. Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I won't get to see and have to keep coming here to draw water. He told her, go to call your husband and come back. I have no husband. She replied. Jesus said to her, you are right when you say you have no husband.

The fact is you have had 5 husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What he have just said is quite true. Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that this place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman, Jesus replied, Believe me.

A time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Use Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know. For salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth.

For they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks. God as spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman said, I know that the Messiah called Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared, I, the 1 you're speaking, the 1 speaking to you.

I am he. Just then his disciples returned and was surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no 1 asked what do you want or why are you talking to her? Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, come see a man who told me everything I've ever done. Could this be the Messiah?

They came out of the town and made their way towards him. Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, rabbi, eat something. But he said to them, I have food to eat you know nothing about. Then his disciples said to each other, could someone have brought him food? My food said Jesus is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish this work.

Don't you have a saying? It's still 4 months until harvest. I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest, even now the 1 who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life. So that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.

That's the saying. 1 sows and another reaps is true. I sent you to reap where you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of their labor. Well, good, good morning.

My name is Rory Kanard. I'm 1 of the members of staff here at Cornerstone Church. And, if you've been here, with us in the morning, services, you'll know that we've been going through the life of Jacob. Tom's not here. And so he's he said we're gonna park that, and I have to come up with 2 sermons in a row, of what to preach.

I thought, no. What am I gonna do? Can't do more profits with just an ezeqiom. So what I decided to do is to do 2 semis 1 on on the passage that we've done today. And next week, we're gonna have a look at Rome's 12.

And and the reason why, I thought it would be good to spend time in these 2 passages. I mean, it doesn't seem like the league, but I think I think the reason why is because they both reveal to us the blessings of the gospel, but not just the blessings of the gospel, but what should our response be to the person of the lord Jesus Christ. And so, hopefully, as we go through these next 2 weeks, we'll get a get that from these 2 passages. So let's pray as we begin. Father, we thank you so much, that we can come as your people, and that we can come to your words and see who you truly are.

We have just sung a song about beholding you, that you are 1 who is worth our adoration and our praise. And so as we come to these verses and as we're confronted by a person of the lord Jesus Christ, we pray father that we will see that he is truly worth our adoration. We pray father that you will show us just how glorious he is this morning. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, if any of you, anyone interested in golf, well, that's 1 way to completely isolate the whole of the audience.

If you don't like golf, that's fine. Recently, there was a a tournament called the British Open. It's the most historical tournament in golf. And the the favorite for that tournament was a man called Scotty Sheffler. He is the number 1 golfer in the world.

He's done it all, really. He's earned a whole load of money, and he was the favorite to win the tournament. But when he was asked before the tournament about about golfers alive and whether or not this is gonna be great. This is what Scott and Shepherd said in response to that. This is not a fulfilling life.

It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart. It goes on to say it feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for, like, a few minutes. It only lasts a few minutes that kind of euphoric feeling. He says he I've worked my entire life to become good at this game and play for a living. But just because you win a golf tournament doesn't make you happy.

Doesn't make you happy. And I think Scott is Sheffield, and partly because I I believe he's a Christian, really is revealing to us what the Bible tells us in Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 13. And Jeremiah 2, Jeremiah says from the lord, My people have committed 2 sins. They have forsaken me the spring of living water and have dug their own systems, broken systems that cannot hold water. To get the picture?

The reason why people are not fulfilled in this life and when they go to things like golf to fulfill them, which, I mean, could you imagine, is because they've rejected a true water source that is guards that can give you satisfaction, and they've come, and they've got a spade, and they've got into some arid land and dug out a toxic, filthy, wasteful bit of water and drunk from that. Augustin, the, the famous theologian, says something very similar. He says about god you have made us for yourself, oh lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. We we long for safety. We long for security.

We long for satisfaction. We long for protection and provision and peace. We long for love. We long for rest, yet we find none of it. In this world.

And I think that is what we see in this story in John chapter 4. Now you may have noticed in John 4, that where it's situated as at Jacob as well, and you might think, well, well done, Rory, you've tried to link what we've been doing in the mornings with your, sir. I mean, that was not the case. That is absolutely the providences of god at play there. But when we could see Wells, and we think about Wells in the old testament, we might remember that Wells are often places where, marriage material is found.

So Rebecca is found for Isaac. Jacob meets his his wife Rachel. We've seen Moses himself, gets in touch with Jethro's family due to a well. This is a very different woman that we're faced here. We may not we may say she's not marriage material from her past history.

So let's have a little look at this, this scene. And first, I want you to see the scene of the encounter, the scene of the encounter. You'd have noticed in in verse 3. Jesus is traveling from Judea up north to Galile. And to get get to Gallalee from Judea, the quickest way to go is to pass through Samaria.

But Samar Samar is a bit like know when you're trapped, you have to travel somewhere, but you don't really wanna pass through that area. You have to get from a to b, but I I know the quickest way through that dark alley, but it's also a bit of a shady alley. Or, you know, I I looked up maybe the worst parts of the UK. And then, therefore, this is not my opinion. If you're from these places, hole, apparently, Bradford.

Anyone from Bradford? No. Okay. Middleborough, Yeah. These are these are gonna be the worst parts of the UK.

So imagine going from London to Edinburgh and having to pass through Middleborough. That's what Samaria is to the to the Jewish audience. Samaria is Middleborough full of pollution. And you'll notice that in in verse 3 0, sorry. Verse 4, it says he had to go through some area.

He had to go through some area. Now he has to go because in a geographical sense, he had that's the quickest way. But I think that there is a divine reason that he has to go through some area. He has a divine appointment with somebody. And so verse 4 to 6, you'll notice he goes to this place called Sikar, which is absolutely steeped in historical staff, you know, Jacob, that's where Jacob bought.

He bought it. He has a well there. He gave this land to his son, Joseph, And so here Jesus comes to this this place of historical significance, and it's bacon hot. You'll notice the time is noon. It's the heat of the day.

He's been traveling, and he is exhausted. Did you notice that? Jesus in verse 6, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. He's exhausted, which, as a side note, just shows us that Jesus is a true human that feels human emotions and gets absolutely fatigued. And so there he is, alone for his disciples, you'll notice in verse 8 are away buying food for him.

And here he sits and he waits. Until his 12 o'clock appointment comes along. Now usually you would think, well, this must be someone special for Jesus to travel to Samaria to sit down. This has gotta be a special person that he's he's coming to see here. But here's my second point.

The surprising or the sovereign encounter depending on whose eyes you're looking through. The surprising or the sovereign encounter. So here here, Jesus, as he's sitting on this well, maybe, and and over the hill, you start to see a figure cut, maybe a a jar, a clay jar on top of the head. And as you come through, suddenly, a a character emerges, in the distance and is drawing closer to Jesus. And so verse 7, it says when a Samaritan woman came to draw water.

This is not anybody special. In the previous chapter in chapter 3, Jesus encountered a man called nicodemus. This woman is the complete opposite to nicodemus. Everything that nicodemus is, she is not. See, nicodemus has a name.

This woman doesn't have 1. Nicodemus is a man. She is a woman. Nicodemus is a Jew. She is a Samaritan.

Nicodemus is a moral man who does what is right in the eyes of the law, who is important, who is educated. She is anything but educated. She is not moral. We've seen that. Haven't we?

Look at how many husbands she has. And so not only is she a moral to the Jewish audience, but she is a samaritan and samaritans and Jews. Don't get along. There's a big racist tension going on there. But not only is she rejected by a Jewish audience, the fact that she has had all these sexual encounters and all these husbands means that she is rejected and despised by her own society as well.

You noticed that it was noon. It's the hottest part of the day, and she's out getting water when no 1 is around. She doesn't wanna be seen. This is the woman that when she leaves the house, she's da darting and dodging into the doorways, into the shadow so that nobody sees, to give a a passing glance of disapproval, a sneering comment. This is a woman that doesn't want to be seen with the other women who judge her in gossip about her and whisper.

There's the whispering. Here she comes that woman that whore. Do you know what she did this time? She is very different to Nikodemus. Yet both of these characters need Jesus.

And so Jesus asks a question to her. So you have any question he asks, sir. But this is the question that's gonna start at this course that is gonna draw her out and draw her into understanding more of who he is and draw her into understanding that He is the 1 who can meet the the the needs, the longings of her heart. He is the 1 who can satisfy that. And so what does he ask?

Verse 7, will you give me a drink? We give me a drink. Now you can imagine she probably nearly drops a jolly water jar. What? That clay nearly has smashed.

What? What? A Jewish man? Talk talking to me. Do you see how she responds?

You are a Jew, and and I am a Samaritan woman verse 9. How can you how can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans? There's such a a racial divide between these 2. The Jews see the samaritans as, ex Jews who have been polluted by gentiles who have been intermingled with a gentile land, and so they see them as defile of people as unclean people.

And so they don't associate with them, and they don't the word associate means they don't use together. So the fact that Jesus goes Can I drink from the same water jar as you? Is a complete no no. What are you doing Jesus? This is like you associating with somebody off of the of of of which nobody associates with.

This is like you guys at school sitting with that person that nobody wants to sit next to because of all the things they may have said, Donald, who they are. This is like associating yourself with the deepest of criminals. So she says, how can you ask me for a drink? I'm a Samaritan. I'm not just a Samaritan.

I'm a woman. I mean, in those days, women were not seen to be those of important status in which you would talk to. So Jesus though responds. Look what he says in verse 10. If you knew the gift of god and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

You got it all wrong. You've got it all wrong. You should have responded so differently. Do you not know who I am? If you just came to me and said, look, I can't give you a drink.

You're you're the person who can give me a living water if if you knew who I was, you would say, Don't ask me for a drink. I need to ask you for a drink. The problem for this woman though is that she's thinking on a very physical level. She's thinking, oh, he just must mean actual physical water. This happens all the time in John.

In the previous chapter, you might wanna flick back and look at it. Jesus says to Nikodemus, you need to be born again. Nikodemus, like, how can be born again? Wait. I have to climb back into my mother.

It's weird. You know, later on in the chapter, what we just saw today, Jesus's like, I am I've got my own food, and they're like, the just I was like, oh, has did someone else give him a snack? And because she's thinking on a on a physical level, she thinks this man is an absolute trickster. He's a fraud. He's a fake.

He's a phony. Or that or he's mad. And so you can can you hear the maybe the sarcasm or or the the ridicule in their voice or the suspicion in verse 11 to 12. Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank for him himself, as did also his sons in his livestock. She's saying, you haven't got a bucket mate. Are you gonna give me living water without a bucket? And this well that there are apparently was like a hundred feet deep. What you're gonna dive down there and spit it out are you Jesus?

And if if it's not from here, where are you gonna get this living water then? Well, so where are you gonna get it? Is it are you tied it in your pockets? You know, have you got it under your cloak? Do you think you're greater?

Than the great Jacob himself. I mean, although we we have been seeing Jacob's not that great, haven't we? But anyway but Jesus is patient with her. Isn't he patient with her? First 13, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.

You gotta have to keep coming back and back and back to this well. Because you keep on getting thirsty. Think of the greatest water that you might get. I actually looked it up. What's the best water?

Best drinking water? You'll never believe what country has the according to AI. What country has the best drinking water? Apparently, it's the UK. I mean, of all the things I've said today, that's the thing that got the biggest the biggest reaction.

I mean, I mean, all the news about the waste anyway. Dave laws will be happy with Temgewater. Although Switzerland and Canada were also mentioned. Although the sweetest water in the world is apparently from the Serovani River in India, Oh, no matter how much UK tap water you drink or the sweetest water from the Serovani river, you will first again. Jesus says.

But 14 whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The water I give you says Jesus is not 1 that that stops quenching. It is always quenching the thirst of the soul. The water I give you will will spring up and be overflowing in eternal life so that it will only not only be good for you, Samaritan woman, but it will be good for all who partake of it.

And so with that, in a mind's eye, she wants a bit of that, doesn't she? Who doesn't want that? Never quench. Never thirst. Verse 15.

Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. Give me that water. Come on. Give me some of that water, Jesus. Give me some of that water so they don't have to keep on coming back here and coming back here and having to dart and dodge and duck and die to avoid people's stares and so that I can just sit at home and be happy away from prying eyes and just, you know, enjoy my life and I never have to come out again.

Course, she wants it. So Jesus says, okay. Do you want this? Do you want it? I would have to deal with you then.

See, before conversion happens, there needs to be conviction. See, many people in this world, they want god on their own terms. They want the water that can that god can give them without wanting to change tall. And Jesus says that's not the way that I do things. And so look at verse 16.

What a cutting sentence. He told her, go. Call your husband and come back. A moment of silence. Maybe an involuntary twitch.

Affirmative look. The The tension in the air has just gone down a couple of degrees. And so she has has been confronted with herself. And so she responds verse 17. I have no husband's.

Maybe quickly, maybe, nervously, maybe very shortly. I have no husband. Maybe I can just keep him at arms length distance away. He might not have to know everything about me if I can just say I have no husband, but I can have the water. Don't don't pry too much Jesus.

That's hopefully, that will keep him away. Oh, Jesus. This is so good, isn't he? Look at him in verse 17 the second half. Jesus said to her, you are right when you say you have no husband.

The fact is you have had 5 husbands And the man you now have is not your husband's. What you have said is quite true. I love how Jesus addresses this woman. 1 of my favorite things is when authors or or people, they they write about people with, you know, gazes that seem to pierce the soul that seems to be able to x-ray you and understand when you're telling a lie or keeping I think that's what Jesus is like here. So 1 of the great things about the lord Jesus is that he truly sees people.

And so he looks at her. And with just incredible grace, he says I'll affirm you what you said is right, but I'm gonna tell you now I know you. I know you. And it's so lovely because he doesn't do it in a con con condemning way, does he? You're right.

You've had 5 husbands. And the man you're living with now is not your husband's. You are quite true. And so without condemning her, but gently revealing to her, her sin, her desire to find satisfaction in broken systems. That's what she's been doing.

She's turned away from the fountain of life, god himself, and she's gone to broken systems of relationship. She's looked to satisfy her longings in the in the wells of of of relationship and of sex and of romantic love. She's looked for her security in those places. That's where she's looked to satisfy those longings. She's looked for that security and that safety, that provision, and that protection in this area, and it's not satisfied her.

And so Jesus has shown her her sin. Now often when we're backed into a corner and we're feeling quite uncomfortable, We may do what this woman did, and we may try and change the topic. How do I get out of this? I was reading today that, if a if an animal is trapped in something, it might gnaw its own leg off just to get away. Well, that's kinda what she's like.

I need to get out of this conversation. And so she's she's she's been taken away from believing that this man is a Charlotte in his hands. She says, yes. Maybe you're a prophet. Look with me, verse 19 to 20.

I could see that you're a prophet. Our ancestors get out of this 1 with this whole argument that gets me out every time. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. See, let's get away from my sin. Let's get away from my personal problems, my immorality.

Let's talk a little bit of theology. We're very different in what we believe about god. What do you think about that, Jesus? And so now we're on the topic of worship. See, this woman has thought quick retreat.

Run. Get out of here. We'll get away from him and we'll we'll put us a smoke screen up. The problem is that Jesus and she's like amazing tactic in armies and has circled around and is waiting there and says, that's exactly where I wanted to go. This is the heart of your issue.

Is the issue of worship. And so verse 21 to 24 woman. Believe me, a time is coming when you were worshiped the father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, You samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Now Jesus is saying, look, there's a time coming where a physical place is not how you worship god.

Is not important where you are in the world. You don't have to be on Mount Jerusalem or Mount Gerism or Mount Eva, wherever you wanna say you're gonna be, that's where I need to be, or Mecca or wherever it is. You don't need a physical place because god is not physical. God is spirit. God is in all places and everywhere.

And so, yes, salvation comes from the promises that are given to the Jews. But it's so much bigger than that, says Jesus. It's so much bigger than a physical place. It's so much bigger than an ethnic place, an ethnic people. Look with me at verse 23 to 24.

Yet a time is coming and has now come. When the true worshipers will worship the father in the spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth. A time is coming and has now come. Jesus is saying, I'm here now.

I'm here to make true worship possible. And true worship is not on a physical plane. True worship is done in the spirit when Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit and is given with truth. When we understand the truth that god is who he says he is. When we understand the truth that Jesus is exactly who he says he is, that he is the 1 that can answer the longings of our heart.

So that wherever we are, we may know the presence of god with us forever and that we can glorify in him wherever we are. And so Jesus is saying to this woman, you have been seeking satisfaction in all the wrong places. You have been worshiping the wrong things. The place that you are worshiping is to worship the the sex and the love and the romance of a relationship. You have put all your eggs in that basket.

And the the all that you are doing is going to that broken system and finding no satisfaction whatsoever. So where can I find the satisfaction? Well, you must come to me says Jesus. You must believe in me. He he carries on this this thought in chapter 7.

You may wanna just flick over to it. In verse 37 to 39. He says this. On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, a scripture has said rivers of living water will flow from within them by this.

He meant the spirit to whom those who believed in him were later to receive. And so Jesus says, if you want your longings met If you want your your needs met, then you come to me, Jesus, and you find them met. You come to Jesus who says in verse 10. I can give you living water who in verse 14 says whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will be coming them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

You come to Jesus and you come to know that god is father. You see that? See where this woman has looked for safety, she will find in the safety of a loving father, where she's looked for protection and provision with men. She will find the provision and protection that god provides, all that she could ever want or needs, where you see that rest and that peace that is long for by this woman, and she hopes to get it in the loving embrace of a man. She'll find it.

No, that not there, but she'll find it in the loving eternal father's embrace where she is long for love. There is no greater than the love of the father god who would bestow his favorite upon us by giving us the son himself, the lord Jesus Christ. This 1 is truly greater than Jacob. And so here's our last defense. Maybe not maybe not just our last defense, but maybe a a slight question as well.

Look at verse 25. The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. I might not get it now, but at least at least the Messiah will Could you be? Could you be?

And then the words of verse 26. Then Jesus declared I, the 1 speaking to you, I am he. I wonder if they're the sweetest words that she'd ever heard. A woman who had longed and desired And finally, the 1 that she realized that she's longing for stands before her. It says, I am he and her heart melts.

And so here's the question. Who are you worshiping? And what are you worshiping? It'd be very easy to be like this woman. Our world's not much different, is it?

Relationship to relationship to relationship to relationship, looking for my security and my safety and my love in a relationship, but never being satisfied. Maybe it's in popularity. The need to be loved by those around me. So needed that I'm willing to gossip about other people so that I'm elevated. Maybe it's success.

Success in my career. If I just do well enough in my career, I'll have enough money. I'll have enough security there. I'll have enough safety there yet. The more I have, I haven't enough.

I mean, isn't it a Rockefeller who says who who got asked the question, how much more do you need? He said just a little bit more. You got an off man in your education, in your school. Is that the thing that's gonna define you? Is that the thing that you think's gonna meet your longing?

I mean, Scotty Shaffer is helpful, isn't he? He gets to the top the top of the world in the Gulf world. This is not a fulfilling life. If that is you this morning, friends, stop trying to find your longings found answered in broken systems, but come to the very 1 who says I can give you living water. I can give you a spring that will well up to eternal life.

I can give you water that always quenches your thirst. Come and trust in Jesus. No. Jesus know that he is the Messiah who came to give you life in abundance. And he'll melt your heart.

And if that is you, well, come with me to my final point. A Samaritan evangelist, a Samaritan evangelist. Look with me at verse 28 to 30. Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, come, see a man who told me everything I've ever done. Could this be the Messiah?

They came out of the town and made their way towards him. The very thing that she came for, she left behind. She was meant to go back with a big old jug of water. The water jug is left at the well, and she's gone. She's legged it down to the town.

So excited is she that she has met this man? And maybe it's symbolic. I don't know. Maybe it's like, I was trying to rely on the things of this world, but now I have the the source of eternal life. I don't know.

But she's so can you see her transformation here? She's completely transformed. And you know how we know she's transformed? Because she's now telling people about Jesus she's engaging in evangelism. And so she legs it back to the town, the place where she would look to look for the shadows for comfort.

She now comes out and says to the people. There's the there's the women that were always gossed in about me come and see the man. There's this man in the in the town that they think that they can take advantage of me. Come and see the man. And and maybe they get that first.

They're like just come and see a man. They're like, not again, woman. You've already had 6 of them. A seventh. I mean, I know it's a complete number.

Said it. But this is not a man like the other men before. She's not a man like the man before. She says, come and see him. Come and see him.

He told me everything I've ever done. Come and see the 1 whose eyes are blazing fire who penetrates your soul and knows everything about you. Come and know the 1 who knows everything about you and knows all that you are. Could this be the Messiah? And as a transformed woman, goes and tells people about this man, the Samaritans cannot do anything, but go in the droves to go and see him.

And in verse 39 to 42, they urge him to stay for 2 days, and because of his words, many more became believers verse 42, they said to the woman, they honor the woman no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the savior of the world. All in her testimony come and see the man. The man is there. Wow.

He's the savior of the world. So what about you? Have you seen Jesus? Have you seen him? And if you have truly seen him as he is for who he is, how will you respond?

Her response is wonderful. She goes and she tells. She goes and she invites. Were you? If you call yourself a Christian, who says that your longings have been met by the lord Jesus Christ, will you go?

Just as she did and tell people about Jesus. I think there's a few things we can learn in terms of how we tell people about Jesus. Number 1, understand humanity. Jesus understands humanity. I don't know what you see when you look at the people around you.

Sometimes we we get lost and we think they've got it all together. They're they're so they're so comfortable. They're so happy. Yet when Jesus will look at those people, he will see that they have a longing that cannot be answered. That eternity has been set in their hearts and that nothing can itch that.

Nothing can quench that apart from the lord Jesus Christ himself. We need to understand humanity. We need to understand that if the person who's going out and looking for a good time every night or the person who's working hard every day to long hours, the person at at home that is all about his kids, all of these people have the same longings. And Jesus gets it. Do we get it?

Understand humanity, but secondly understand Jesus. Jesus is the only 1. He's the only 1 who can save us. He's the only 1 who can give us water to eternal life. He is the only 1 in verse 34 who will go and be able to die a death for us.

And be raised to eternal life so that the promise of eternal life may be ours for sure. And so if you get him, if you understand him, If you understand humanity and their needs, just as Jesus, when he looked out at crowds and saw sheep without a shepherd, just as he saw people for who they are, let us go and tell them about Jesus. Now you might be thinking, well, Rory, it's easy for you to say. You're 1 of the most eloquent persons I've ever heard. I've and I wouldn't disagree with you.

But isn't her testing just so simple? She doesn't say much. Does she? All she says, let's come and see a man. Come and see a man.

Come and see a man. Could this be the Messiah? Testing is are incredibly powerful. And maybe our witness and our engagement with the lost world is just to say, come and see him. I can't I haven't got all the answers.

I don't know all the the big words. I can't argue evolution versus whatever, but I can show you Jesus. Come and see Jesus. And so will you hear the words of Jesus at the end here? Open your eyes.

Now some of you might have closed them. Don't know why? Open your eyes. Look at the fields. Look outside.

Look at Kingston. Look at the people walking in and out. Look at the people on the buses on the trains. The many thousands of people around us. Look at them.

It's a harvest fields. And it's ripe for harvest. And so will you go? Understanding humanity, understanding Jesus and invite people to come. And to see the man.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this amazing story. This true story. We thank you that the lord Jesus Christ is so sweet. We thank you that he is the 1 who knows us truly.

He knows all about our longings. He knows all about our failings. He knows all about our desires. But we thank you as well that he came to offer satisfaction for all of those things. Forgiveness for our failings.

Salvation for our sins. And so we pray father that you will give us such a vision of Jesus that he is the true 1 messiah savior of the world that can satisfy us. And with that in our hearts, and make it big in our hearts father. Let us go and let us invite people to see the man who transforms. We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Oh, man.