SEVEN Series: Week 11 - Living Water

Amen.

Wow.

Worship team, thank you.

Praise God, huh?

Well, welcome everybody.

You may be seated.

And as you're being seated, grab your Bibles and start turning to the New Testament book of John, chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a Bible today, several of our friends are going to come around the worship center here in a moment with Bibles.

They would love to bring you a Bible.

All you need to do is raise your hand and let them know that you'd like a Bible.

And right where you're at, they'll bring you a Bible.

We encourage you to take this Bible with you when you leave today and be sure to bring it back with you next week and every other week when you come.

We're going to be in just three verses today.

John 7, verses 37, 38, and 39.

John 7:37

Now, before you get really excited about the fact there's only three verses and how quick you think the sermon's going to go, we're going to read John 7.

And I'll let you know that throughout today, we're going to jump to a couple of parallel passages that we'll spend some time in.

One will be in Deuteronomy, and the others will be in Numbers, and we'll get there in a little while.

Those will come up on the screens so that you can follow along, but I would encourage you, and I'll give you some space to turn there with me when we get to those places.

And then there'll be some others that you'll be able to write down and study on your own this week.

But let's begin together by reading John chapter 7, verses 37 through 39.

John 7:37–39

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.

Father, these are your words, powerful, authoritative, transformative, perfect, entire, and complete in every way.

And the whole church said, have you ever had your life interrupted where you were so used to something being one way and then out of nowhere, bang, interruption.

I found that as I get older, there are interruptions that I can't control.

It's a part of the biological process of getting older, and so now I could stop drinking water at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, and I'm gonna get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

It just comes with old age.

It's a apparently it's a thing.

In Nebraska, we lived in our house for eight and a half years.

It's the longest I've lived in any one place, over 48 years of life.

I tell you that to simply say that I know the footprint of that house, inside and out.

In our bedroom, the entirety of the time we were there, we kept our bed in the same place in the center of the wall with the nightstands on each side of the bed and where the dresser was, and I was very familiar with it, so I could get up knowing the footprint of the bedroom in the middle of the night, or really anywhere for that matter in the house, and find my way around.

Does anybody have kids?

Anyone ever have daughters?

I have five daughters.

I don't know about your experience with kids and the younger ones especially, but for us it's wild.

It doesn't matter where we're at or how large the space is that we're in.

We could be in a 10,000 square foot room with a little tiny sunroom off the side.

And our entire family, my wife and I, will go to the sunroom to get away, and all of a sudden the kids will all just come.

I mean, it's just they converge in that space.

They want to be where we're at.

The same is true of our little girls, now 11 and 13.

When we were living in Nebraska, they wanted to take their toy room with them wherever people were at.

In fact, they had suitcases.

One that was like a door, the explorer, the other one was like a Spider-Man, maybe, and they had wheels.

They would pack all of their toys in their suitcases, they would drag them around the house, and wherever the family was congregating, that became their toy room.

They would set up shop right there.

One night, I got up to go to the bathroom, which is my God-given right, in my house, in my bedroom as an old man.

And as I was walking to the bathroom in the dark, my life was interrupted.

Barbie.

Not just Barbie.

I stepped on Barbie, and I didn't just step on Barbie, I stepped on Barbie's feet.

And I began to speak in foreign languages.

I did everything I could to be quiet.

I began to bounce around the room trying to not fall over onto the bed to disturb my wife, Sleeping Beauty, or to knock into the dresser behind me and all the things off.

And as I'm bouncing around, my wife turned the light on and the dog started barking.

I was just, it was just, it was wild.

Everything I was intending to do with being quiet was thrown out the door because of Barbie.

My life was interrupted.

I was used to things being one way, and in a moment, it was something that I hadn't expected that I encountered.

As we pick up in our series that we've been calling seven, we're gonna talk about a life interrupted.

And my encouragement to you, it's an invitation that if you will allow the Holy Spirit into your space this morning, your head and your heart, that he'll interrupt your life.

In this series seven that we've been in, we've been looking at seven miracles that Jesus performed and seven messages that Jesus gave, knowing that every miracle substantiates the message.

And this series has been critical for us as a church because we've been operating with the framework that who God is, it informs whose we are and influences how we live our lives.

And if we're gonna call ourselves Christians, followers of Jesus, then it is not only incumbent upon us, but critical for us that we know all that we can know about Jesus, his person, his nature, his character, what he said, what he taught, what he called us to, what he commissioned to, what he did, who he met with, where he went.

We study the patterns and the behaviors of Jesus, and those inform our beliefs, which influence how we live our life.

Today we're gonna pick up in John's gospel just these three verses that is one of the most prolific, transformative, life-interrupting conversations that Jesus has.

We're gonna jump back to John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

We're gonna go through these verses, just three of them, verse by verse.

Beginning again in verse 37, on the last day of the feast, the great day.

Now I know that some of you are absolutely interested in what last day we're talking about.

And I'm glad you're interested because I'm gonna tell you.

Hold your finger here in John chapter 7 and just flip a little bit to the left in John chapter 7, verse 2.

John 7 · chapter mention John 7:2

Like maybe one page or two, depending on your Bible.

In John 7, I'm gonna read John 7, 1 and 2.

After this, Jesus went about in Galilee.

He wouldn't go into Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

Now the Jews' feast of booths was at hand.

Leading up to this, you can go and watch it from last week's message.

Jesus has this discourse about the bread of life.

And he says some incredibly difficult things for the people to hear, some challenging things for the people to adopt.

Several, multiple.

In fact, theologian argue most people that were following Jesus at that time struggled so much with what he taught that they left him.

They abandoned him there.

Now, the day that we're talking about specifically is what we know as the Festival of Tabernacles or the Feast of Tents, also known as booths.

In the Hebrew, the word is sukkot.

It's an incredible celebration.

It's one of seven different celebrations of its kind.

To give us some context about the last day, the great day, I want you to hold your finger here in John, and I want you to turn to the Old Testament, to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 16.

Deuteronomy 16 · chapter mention

Deuteronomy 16.

The best way to find Deuteronomy, go to the very beginning of your Bible.

And the first book in the Bible is gonna be Genesis.

After that is Exodus, and then you've got Leviticus, Numbers, and the fifth book is Deuteronomy.

Turn to your fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy and chapter 20, and we're gonna look at verse 13 and on together.

In Deuteronomy 16, verses 13 through 17, I believe.

Deuteronomy 16:13–17

Here is what we read together.

You shall keep the feast of booths seven days.

When you've gathered in the produce from the threshing floor and your wine press, you shall rejoice in your feast.

You and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, in other words, the pilgrim, hold on to that, the fatherless and the widow who are within your towns.

For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

Three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose.

At the feast of unleavened bread, that's what we call Passover or Pasak.

At the feast of weeks, that's what we call in Hebrew Shavot.

And at the feast of booths, this is Sukkot, they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, as he has given you.

So, back over in John chapter 7 and verse 37, the nation of Israel has congregated together in the holy city of Jerusalem, and specifically at the temple.

John 7 · chapter mention

There are seven feasts that are practiced within Judaism, and three that are called pilgrimage feasts.

These three that we just referenced, which would be Passover, weeks, and tabernacles or booths.

The expectation from God is that individuals would, so long as they were able-bodied, gather together their families, which is where it said, bring your wives and your daughters, your sons and brothers and your servants and their families.

They were expected to gather together all within their family circle and extended family.

They were expected to make provisions, and so they would bake and take food, water, wine, sacrifices, and other necessities for the journey.

For some, it was closer than others, but the reality is there were people who were coming from hundreds of miles away.

And they were expected to go and make this a part of their pilgrimage, this celebration, this worship, this festival of tabernacles.

The festival of tabernacles is really unique.

When we think about it, we need to think about it not as a traditional liturgical worship service.

I think too often too many people assume that specifically even in Jesus' time in the early church that there was so much religiosity and that so many rules and regulations and stipulations about how worship was to happen.

And there were very specific ways that worship evolved and took place.

But we treat the church like a glorified library.

Going to church.

Shh.

The Festival of Tabernacles or Weeks Booth, excuse me.

I want you to think of it not like a library, but I want you to think of it like a state fair.

Not a county fair, like a state fair.

My wife Stacy and I, we lived in Minnesota with our family.

We lived in the Burnsville, Pryor Lake, Savage area, just outside of Minneapolis, near the Mall of America.

For five and a half years.

It's where I first pastored as a lead pastor.

And while we were there, we went to the Minnesota State Fair, which is the largest state fair in the United States of America.

Hundreds of thousands of people show up, and it is absolutely insane.

Guys, anything you can imagine, pick your favorite fruit and they'll deep fry it for you.

Unbelievable.

Music, lights, fanfare, booths, contests, craziness, and it's unbelievable.

Minneapolis is one of the most diverse communities in the United States of America.

So when you go to the Minnesota State Fair for weeks, it is literally dozens and dozens and dozens of city blocks long and wide.

And you have people from multiple socioeconomic backgrounds, from various ethnic backgrounds, with serious racial diversity, different experiences and expressions of life all coming together and from morning until night, it is loud, it is ruckus, it is wild, it is crazy.

That is more like what the Festival of Tabernacles was like than what you and I would think of as a polished church service.

Jerusalem, on a typical day, was somewhere between 20 and 40,000 people in the vicinity population.

Over the course of this celebration, these three pilgrimages, historians and theologians have determined that with a fair amount of accuracy based on the census and how numbers were tracked and accounted for, that there could have been hundreds of thousands, but likely over a million people that would gather together in the holy city of Jerusalem.

And in the period that we're reading, it's the second temple period that was established before Christ, before Common Era, they would have come together all for an opportunity to get together, to celebrate, to play games, to joyously rejoice in what the Lord had done.

This was in October.

Usually, it's sometime around late September to early November, but October, primary, in fact, uh in October 2022, my wife Stacy and I, I got to lead a Bible tour to the Old Testament land in Israel.

And we were there during the Festival of Tabernacles.

And it's incredible what takes place there.

People will build on the outside of their house these temporary dwelling places.

They are three-sided huts with a thatched roof that consists of palm fronds and various other trees and branches that they would weave together and place over the top of the hut.

And it was intended to be this way, so that as a celebration of God delivering the nation of Israel out of captivity under the 400 years of slavery in Egypt to the promised land, during a 40-year period that was called the wandering years, these Jews became semi-nomadic and they would provide these temporary dwelling places where God would have them rest.

And as they were laying in this open space with one wall that was not there, just surrounded by three walls and a thatch roof, they could look out and they see they could see the expanse of the skies, they could see the sunset, they could see the horizon, they could see all of the land around them.

And it it was a constant remembrance of the glory and the goodness and the vast power of creation and God and all that he was and all that he had done for them.

And so, a part of this celebration, you've got hundreds of thousands of people that are gathering together for this huge celebration, and they're bringing with them sacrifices, and they're bringing with them different things that they can bring as an offering to celebrate what God has done.

There are three primary things that happen over the course of seven plus one days.

Seven days is how long the feast is, seven represents the number of completion, eight on the eighth day, the great day represents the uh the number of expectation.

And so for seven days, multiple things would happen, but three specific things the priests were known for.

They would get up before the sunrise, they would prepare the celebration.

The people with great anticipation would follow in kind, and they would get up, and as the sun began to rise, the priests and all the people would turn away from the sun in the east and face the west.

They would kneel down and they would pray to God.

Why would they do this?

Out of defiance.

Not defiance at God, but defiance for the ways in which they used to live their lives in idolatry.

There's too many seasons in the life cycle of Israel, and frankly, there are way too many seasons in our lives where we succumb to idolatry and idol worship.

In the nation of Israel, there was a period of time where they began to worship deities, little g gods, idols, and one of them was a god of sun, and they would pray to the east as the sun was rising to the sun god.

And when God got a hold of the nation of Israel and transformed their hearts and brought his people back unto himself, and the thing that they did was turn away from their idolatry and turn toward God, and so in defiance of the idolatry, they would turn away from where the sun was rising and they would put their face toward the Wests and pray.

There's some beautiful moments in this worship that you and I could stand to learn from.

What would it look like in our lives?

Church, what would it look like in our faith if we in kind turned our backs in defiance on the idols of this world to face God?

What if the things that we had worshiped that were false gods, the deities, the idols of this world that we clung to, that we worshiped with our time, that we worshiped with our energy, that we worshiped with our affections, that we worshiped with our expectations, and God delivered us from those things.

What if we, what would it look like if we just turned our backs on the idolatry in whole surrender to God?

That's one of three things they would do.

The second thing that they would do, well, that was in the morning, in the evening, as the sun was setting, the priests they would take retired priestly garments.

They would rip them into strips, cloths.

And in the temple, they would take these four menores, each with nine arms.

They would fill each one of these arms with olive oil, fresh, pressed olive oil, and they would put these priestly garments into each one of these arms of these four menores, and they would light things.

And from a distance, it looked like a burning bush.

And it was a significant, symbolic reminder to the nation of Israel in Exodus 3, the moment where God showed up in Moses' life and he said, Go to Pharaoh, go to Egypt, tell my people that I have heard their cries and I am here to deliver them.

There is something beautiful about these moments that we set aside to remember what God has done for us as well as who God is.

I think it's critical in the life of our lives as Christians and in the context of community that we remember who God is, what God has done, and what God has delivered us from, as well as the promises of what God is delivering us to.

These Ebenezers, these mile markers.

Do you have spaces or things in your life that remind you of where God has been faithful to you, where God has shown up in your life.

In three days, August 19th, it will be 18 years ago that God delivered me from a full blown stroke.

The entire left side, the left artery completely blocked a stroke that impacted my lower left cerebellum that landed me in the intensive care unit while my wife was three months pregnant with our now 17 year old daughter.

I was in the hospital six days with no understanding of what caused it or if I was ever going to be the same again.

Many of you are sitting here thinking, you're not.

August 19th will never be the same again.

That is an Ebenezer moment in my life.

That's a burning bush moment.

That's a man, it doesn't matter what I'm going through.

I can remember, I can look back on that day in that space in my life and remember God is faithful.

Do you have those moments?

It's important.

God instituted it as part of worship that we remember not only that we turn our backs from the idols of this world, but that we remember who God is in our life and what he has done for us.

And the third thing, it's a ceremony that is called water libation.

It's a fancy way of saying a water celebration.

So each day, the priest would assemble a processional.

And in this processional, there would be musicians and vocalists, and there would be heralds, and people would gather together.

Tons and tons of people would gather together, and they would follow the priest as the priest would go down out of the temple and through the water gate to the pool of Siloam.

And if that sounds familiar, it should, because there's a significant healing that takes place at the pool of Siloam.

And there the priest would take a golden jug, fill it with water, and would take it back through the watergate with people singing these Psalms of Ascent, beginning in Psalm 118, and they would celebrate.

This was uh loud and ruckus, this was a state fair kind of celebration, and the priest would then walk around the altar seven times, and on the seventh time, the day of completion, he would pour out the water on the altar as an act of worship to thank God for his provision, for how he brought them through the harvest, the success of the harvest, that it was the life-giving sustenance that they needed financially and physically, and this was an act of celebration to say, Thank you, God.

Thank you, God.

You didn't know that there was that much in just the half of a verse, did you?

This is why culture and context is absolutely critical because as we read this now, we're gonna read this through first century eyes and understand the significance of what the people are experiencing, what they've done to go to church, and the implication of how excited they are to be there.

Watch this.

In verse 37 again, on the last day of the feast, so seven days plus the eighth day, the great day, Jesus stood up and he cried out.

Oh church, you want to talk about life interrupted?

Let me explain.

For most, Jesus, as he's growing in reputation and recognition, they would have identified Jesus as a rabbi, a teacher.

But for few, they would have seen or accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the promised, anointed one.

Rabbis were individuals who had the responsibility of teaching specifically from the Pentateuch and then the traditions thereafter, the Mishnah.

They had disciples that would follow them, and here was the expectation for a rabbi.

The expectation for a rabbi is that they were polished and put together.

That when they taught, they would sit down.

And as they sat down, their disciples would sit lower than them, often on rugs or mats.

And the rabbis would teach very melodically, almost in a monotone voice, with a specific temperature and tone that would have been easy to follow.

And I know some of you right now are thinking that would be so nice.

Last week I had a wonderful woman of the faith come to me and say, Pastor, you talk so fast, but you're so much fun.

And I said, God bless you.

Hurry up and listen.

For Jesus to stand and make a public declaration would have been completely out of the norm and uncharacteristic.

It would have interrupted people's lives.

Oh, don't get me wrong.

Interruptions took place, but in the form of a herald, a paid orator, often by the government, that would send the orator into a space like that to get their attention and make a proclamation, a declaration, or to issue an edict or a decree.

Their job was to interrupt people.

But not a rabbi, a sensible, respectable rabbi would sit and so when Jesus now in the middle of church, you mean people Jesus got loud in church?

Yes.

Yes, he got, yes, he got.

He stood up and he said, If any of you is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Now I want you to understand what's happening.

This is incredible, this interruption.

With your finger here in John, I want you to turn to the book of Numbers, chapter 20, and we're gonna look at verses 1 through 9 together.

Numbers 20 · chapter mention

Numbers chapter 20, verses 1 through 9.

Numbers 20:1–9

If you're not familiar with the Bible, it's in the Old Testament.

You'll have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and then Numbers.

That's the fourth book of the Old Testament, Numbers chapter 20, and we're gonna look together at verses 1 through 9.

Numbers 20 · chapter mention

Beginning in verse 1.

And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zen in the first month.

And the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there.

Miriam is a critical character in the life of the nation of Israel.

It's Moses' sister, and she's a prominent leader for the nation.

Verse 2 says, Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

And the people quarreled with Moses and said, Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord?

They hold a churchwide congregational meeting to complain about the pastor.

And they they they not just the pastor, but the executive pastor was there, Aaron.

And their complaint is, Why didn't you just kill us when we were back there?

Why would you drag us out here to die in the middle of nowhere?

We don't have any water.

The people quarreled.

Verse 4.

Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into the wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle?

And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?

It's no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates.

I think they're describing Michigan.

And there is no water to drink.

Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent meeting and fell on their faces.

Oh, that we as church leaders would take, listen, and take learning from this rather than going to business insiders or political science experts or industry experts, that we would go read all the latest pop culture and articles and figure out.

No, that we would go before the assembly, before where God was and fall on our face and lean into Him for leadership in our lives.

I love this sample and this example that Aaron and Moses set before the Lord and the people to say, you know what?

This is difficult.

These people we love, that we care about, they're upset again.

I mean, we can't get anything right.

One week they like the coffee, the next they don't.

How dare the nations get the seating assignment all backwards?

Don't they know that that's where the Levites sit?

Anyway, we know nothing about this church.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, first saying, saying, Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron and your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.

So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.

And Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he had commanded him.

This is what they're celebrating, church.

This is the water libation that God, in the middle of the most desolate place, provides living water for the people.

It is so symbolic of our lives that when we find ourselves in the middle of the most desolate places of our lives, God provides living water.

So we celebrate that.

This is the celebration on the eighth day.

Get this.

On the eighth day, as the great day, as the priest is leading this processional, instead of walking around the altar seven times, it's once.

And as he dumps over the jug, guess what?

It's empty.

There's no water.

And they use this as a cry and prayer to say, Lord, it's empty now, but fill it this year.

Give us another successful harvest.

Fill it so that we can have sustenance, so that we can be successful, so that we have food to eat and wealth in our pockets.

They use this empty as an illustration of a desire to be filled.

And Jesus, in the midst of this, where everybody's watching as the priest pours out nothing, Jesus says, Oh, that?

Yeah, don't worry about that.

If you're thirsty, come to me.

I've got you.

I will give you living water.

That would have interrupted the church.

Now, in verse 38, whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

So Jesus now, he doesn't quote one specific prophetic word, but instead he brings together a culmination of the nature and the characteristic of God.

And in fact, he knows that they know that we know that there are several places in the Old Testament where God speaks of this living water.

In fact, church, I just want to share three of them with you.

They're gonna come up on the screen.

We're gonna read them together.

These are three examples in the Old Testament, beginning in Isaiah 58, 11, and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong.

And you shall be like a water gardened, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

In Zechariah, in one of the most profound examples, we see on that day, living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem.

And we'll talk about this in a little bit about Hezekiah and Hezekiah's tunnel.

Living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, and the other half to the western sea.

It shall continue in summer as in winter.

And finally in Psalm 42, 1 and 2, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?

These are just a small sampling of examples from the Old Testament that these individuals hearing Jesus would have been well aware of.

They would have been more than acquainted with.

And as Jesus stands up and he interrupts this worship service, he does what rabbis don't do, and he interrupts all that's going on and he makes this declaration.

If anybody here is thirsty, come to me and I will give you living water, just like the Old Testament promises.

What Jesus does here by drawing a parallel between the words of God and his words in this moment is he helps them understand that he is God.

That he is the living water.

Last week we we looked at this.

We looked at Jesus in one of the most difficult teachings that he gave the people at that time about the bread of life.

And any of you want to have anything to do with me, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood, and what that would have meant, how that would have interrupted the people's lives there.

And now again, Jesus is drawing a parallel from the Old Testament into the new called typology, where he says, Listen, I will give you living water.

This goes all the way back to John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

This woman at the well in Samaria says, Where can I go to get that kind of water?

And Jesus said, You're looking at it.

Don't worry about that empty jug.

I'm gonna give you living water.

Can I explain the living water piece to you?

This is really substantial.

And if we understand context, it changes how we see this.

So in Jerusalem, 2,000 years ago, there's no natural water source.

Any collection of water would have been stagnant water.

A breeding ground for bacteria where insects would mate and then carry diseases.

The ingenuity thousands of years ago blows my mind.

I think about Hezekiah's tunnel.

Over 1700 feet long, tapping into a spring, they bring, they create this aqueduct and they bring fresh water into a pool called Siloam.

And in this pool, the water, almost like what you and I would think of as a fountain that we would see today, where the water goes in and it's recycled, the gravity will pull this water down.

And in the story of the pool of Siloem, if you remember this story, it says that the people would traditionally stand, or many of the sick, would lay around this pool waiting for the waters to turn, and then they would go into or have somebody take them into the pool because they believed that the turning of the waters were the spirits over the water.

What we now know is that it wasn't spiritual, that that was mysticism, and that was that was tradition, and that was uh that was hyperbole, it was uh uh uh uh superstitious.

What the bubbling was was the water turning over from this aqueduct.

What blows me away even more is having I've I've taught at the pool of Sylloon, I've seen this this ingenuity with my own eyes.

It's incredible to think about how these engineers, not an electrical engineer, probably a civil engineer, what's the cool engineer?

Okay, anyway, without CAD computers or or draft paper or protractors or or or the tools that we have, they literally, over 1700 feet, drew waters from a fresh spring down into the pool of Siloam because in order to participate in the sacrifices, they had to be washed with fresh water, not stagnant.

So now we've gone to the pool of Siloam every day for seven days.

We've drawn living water from the spring.

We brought it up, we poured it out on the altar, okay?

Now Jesus is saying, I am the living water.

And my life will be poured out on this altar, and it will never run dry.

Church, you've got to understand how this is gonna interrupt their day.

This is crazy what Jesus is saying.

All the the the things that Jesus is expecting here now.

Yeah, I want you to see verse 39.

Now, this he said about the spirit.

Look at this.

It's a capital S, which means a proper pronoun.

This he said about the Spirit, one-third of the Trinity, whom those who believed in him were to receive, future tense, for as yet the Spirit had not been given present tense, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

I need to explain this because if we aren't careful, we think then, looking at something like this, that there are contradictions in the Bible.

I want to help us understand this.

Do you?

I'm gonna do you a favor.

Hold your finger here.

Go all the way.

I'm gonna make this really, really easy.

Go to the first page of your Bible.

Genesis 1.

If you're not sure where the first page of your Bible is, talk to your neighbor.

Genesis 1.

Genesis 1, and looking at verses 1 and 2.

It's not gonna come up on the screen because we're kind of we're just going with it.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

All the way to creation, from day one, we see the spirit of God present.

We have multiple examples in the Old Testament where the Spirit of God is present.

I'll share just three with you briefly.

Think about King David on the heels of one of the most egregious mistakes, sins that he's ever committed.

He says, Lord, please don't take your spirit from me.

How can you take something you don't have?

So the spirit had been given to David.

Oh, how about before David?

There was a guy named Saul, first king of Israel.

The spirit of God was upon Saul.

Until, that is, Saul directly, deliberately disobeyed God.

The Spirit of God was lifted from Saul and replaced with evil spirits.

Ah, just one more.

Just for fun.

The prophets.

There's two prophets that work together, Elijah and Elisha.

On Elijah's deathbed, Elisha asks Elijah for one thing.

Do you know what that is?

If you're familiar with the story, then you know that Elisha asked Elijah for a double portion of the Spirit.

Those are just three examples of where we see the Spirit of God in the Old Testament.

So as you read this now, it looks like if we take it out of context, there's some contradiction.

Now, this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Now here's the deal.

Let me explain this.

God gave the Spirit, anointed individuals with the Spirit, that he saw fit.

But a time was coming when Jesus declared, he said, Listen, I know it's good that I'm here with you, but it's actually better that I go away from you because when I leave, I am going to leave you with a promised one, a Holy Spirit.

So up until this point, there was an anointing that God would give individuals where the Spirit would be on them.

But when Jesus ascends, the the disciples gather together, which is why we celebrate one of the three pilgrimages, which is the Passover, and the Holy Spirit descends on them like tongues on fire, and everyone is filled with the Holy Spirit.

And now the word of God begins to take form in their lives.

The Holy Spirit works in them.

Is is see, life interrupted.

It's crazy.

It's crazy.

It's always disservice, too.

It's what the Holy Spirit does in you, to you, and through you.

And you can read about that in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Jesus declares, he promises, it's better that I go because of what the Holy Spirit is going to do in you, to you, and through you.

So when we read here, what we read and what we should understand is Jesus is saying, listen, it's great that I'm here now, but I'm going to give you living water.

And the Spirit's going to come upon you, and the Holy Spirit's going to transform your life.

Do you know why this was so crazy?

The life interrupted.

For generations, every year, these same people would come to this same place with these same people and do the same thing.

They believed and they knew religion, but up until this moment, they did not have a relationship with Jesus.

Do you know what is scary about that?

The thought that we could have people sitting here right now that are coming to church week in and week out to listen to the teaching and you believe what's being taught to you, but you have yet to receive the transformative power that is the life of Jesus in you.

And make no mistake about it, there is a difference between believing something and receiving it.

Too many people come to church just like these people.

They're checking off a box that was expected.

They couldn't wait to get back to Jerusalem because they got to be at the state fair.

They got to be a part of all the lights and get to meet with all the people.

And too many people treat the church like that.

We come because we want an entertaining message, or we want the kind of music we love to listen to, or we want the coffee that's in the in the lobby, or we want the great programs that are all around us.

And we want to come in and we want to do our thing and just kind of be fed a little bit.

But we also want, maybe hopefully we can connect with people.

Like we treat the church a bit like LinkedIn, where maybe I could just uh you know kind of associate with others and we could exchange cards and maybe you know you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

And and I'm not saying that any of those things, in and of themselves, is inherently wrong, but none of those things transforms your life.

For eternity, it doesn't matter what I preach up here.

I don't have the power, the authority, or the ability to transform your life.

The word of God, the authoritative word of God, when you do more than believe it, but you receive it, will transform.

Doesn't have the ability to, it absolutely will transform your life.

When you do more from believing and into receiving, you will never be the same again.

The word of God is active and alive, and when you believe it and receive it, you become active and alive.

And this is what Jesus is saying that when you step into a right relationship with Him, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and you will become like Hezekiah's tunnel, living water.

You don't have to go to the pool and hope that the water is fresh.

You don't have to wait for an empty jug and beg God to fill you.

You are filled.

That is so important contextually.

It's verse 38.

Sandwich between verse 37 and 39, verse 38.

Jesus says, if any of you is thirsty, come to me, and I will give you living water.

That word in the original language, it represents movement, but it's a unique movement.

When you study that word in the original language, it actually represents two sides moving in a common direction and meeting.

James 4.18 explains it this way.

James says, if you draw near to God, he will what?

Draw near to you.

Church, I don't want to dumb down the gospel.

I don't want to insult your intelligence.

But as I was studying this, I need you to know what actually came to my mind.

Have any of you seen Lady in the Tramp?

You have two dogs across the table and a huge bowl of spaghetti.

They begin eating, or rather slurping, from one side each until they meet in the middle.

That was the first image.

The second image that came to my mind, which is a little less holy, is from a movie called Hitch, where Will Smith and Kevin James, he's learning how to kiss and he says 50-50, not 80-20, and he slaps him.

But that's a little less unsanctified.

I don't want us to get lost in the significance of this moment because of the silliness.

But I do want you to understand that that is exactly what Jesus is talking about here.

It's a mutual movement.

That as we move toward God, come to me.

If you're thirsty, I will fill your life.

It's a mutual movement.

God is waiting for us to move.

But it's up to us to step into that.

What keeps us from the living water?

Several years ago there was a man who was a special counsel to President Nixon.

He was powerful, wealthy, feared.

And as he served the president, he was known for his influence in putting people in prison.

By all standards of this world, he had arrived.

That was until Watergate.

After the Watergate scandal, this man, Chuck Coulson, would be arrested and would end up accepting a plea deal that would land him in federal penitentiary.

The night before voluntarily taking himself in, he met with a man who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him.

A man that had everything, who was going to have it all taken from him.

Met with a friend who shared the gospel.

And then the same friend gave him a copy of the book, Mere Christianity by C.S.

Lewis.

Coulson would go to prison and he would serve several months, I believe like nine months, seven to nine months, somewhere in there.

And it was in prison that he gave his life to Jesus.

It was in prison where he realized that the words that he told his friend in this car was that for the first time in my life, there's nothing I can do about my circumstance.

His friend said, Except surrender.

In the same way that you're surrendering to the warden, to the jailers, you surrender your life to Jesus, and you'll never be the same again.

Coulson gave his life to Jesus, and when he got out, he didn't run as far away from the jail as he possibly could.

He started a ministry called Prison Fellowship.

And in prison fellowship, Coulson would begin to minister to tens and then to dozens and then to hundreds and to thousands and tens of thousands and over hundreds of thousands of incarcerated individuals all over the world have been impacted by prison fellowship.

Because this man who had prominence, power, wealth, authority, influence, all the things, had his whole world come crumbling down and realized that the only thing that could fill him was the living water that he gave his life to.

Since then, there's been the Colson Fellowship that has been formed.

It's apologetics, understanding what you believe, why you believe what you believe, and being able to articulate that.

Chuck Colson has had profound influence and impact all over the world, but it began with the living water.

He was left with an empty jug, and Jesus says, I'll fill you with living water.

He gave his life to Jesus.

And he was changed forever.

Even here this morning, are you are you here just because this is kind of what you do?

Or do you know Jesus Christ?

Have you experienced his salvation, his transformation?

The guarantee of our God is that if you know Jesus, not just believe him, but know him, that you will never be the same again.

That when you experience the living water, you became a new creation.

The old way of living is gone, and the new way is upon you.

You are brand new.

And so I believe there are probably three types of people this morning that are hearing these words.

I'm gonna address each one of you quickly and then we're gonna wrap up with some worship.

There are probably some people here this morning that are deep in their faith.

You believe in Jesus, you've you've put your trust in him.

But you need to be reminded of the significance of why we gather together like this.

That when we come together, we come together on purpose with a purpose for his purpose.

And when we come church, we don't come empty-handed.

These people, as they prepared to worship, they prepared well in advance everything that they would need to bring with them because God was so faithful to them in the harvest that they brought it to the church and they gave it to God.

And not that God needed to use their resources, but God utilized their faithfulness to do good to others and bring glory to his name.

We need to be reminded that God has tasked each and every one of us to be great stewards with what he's given us.

You know, two things we celebrated to start the service.

One is the backpack drive.

But what you don't know about the back to school batch is that the week before that, we partnered with Richmond County Backpacks, and we gave out almost 3,000 backpacks right in this worship center.

Oh my goodness.

Hundreds of people prayed for, hundreds of Bibles given out, hundreds of shoes given away, backpacks of I mean, literally, that doesn't happen without your generosity.

Thank you.

And then we celebrated Pastor Jomes seven years ago, which started out with an idea, became a dream, and then it formed into Dream Church, and now Dream Center.

And Crossroads has been the largest contributor to their ministry.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone into making that ministry what it is, and God has used it.

So we need to be reminded today that God, God not only requires, but He's glorified in our generosity.

The second individual that I need to talk to today is a person that's here going through the motions.

Just kind of lost sight of why we do what we do, of whose we are.

You treat your faith the same way that you treat brushing your teeth.

You don't even think about it, you just do it.

I don't think you got up this morning to brush your teeth and thought, man, I'm doing this so that I could fight the ginger vitis, gum disease, and halitosis.

How many of you give real consideration to why you're coming to church today?

Who you're coming to worship, what you're called to do.

And so if that's you this morning, let this be an incredible reminder.

Let this be a catalyst of why we're here, whose we are, and what he deserves.

Let's worship on purpose.

Let's praise on purpose.

And finally, if you're here this morning and you've never placed your trust in Jesus Christ, you're still searching, but you haven't found what you're looking for, you feel like it's an empty well, you do not have to leave here the same way you came in.

You can know with certainty Jesus in your life.

By believing in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and confessing with your mouth that God raised him from the dead, you can know with absolute certainty of your salvation today, and Jesus will transform your life.

Won't you stand with me this morning?

I want to pray for you.

As we prepare to pray together, I would be remiss.

I would be irresponsible.

In fact, if I didn't encourage you and if I didn't invite you this morning.

If you're here and you have never placed your faith in Jesus, but you want to know the transformative power of Christ in your life and the hope of eternity, you can today.

Can I challenge you?

Can I encourage you?

Can I implore you right where you're at so I can pray with you unapologetically?

Raise your hand if you want to give your life to Jesus today, right where you're at.

Raise your hand.

Praise God, I see that hand.

Praise God, I see the hand.

Yes, sir.

I see the hand.

Praise God, I see the hand, praise God.

Hands all over the back.

Thank you, God.

Anybody else?

Praise God.

I see that hand.

Yes, praise God.

Anybody else?

Anybody else?

Anybody else?

Ah, praise God.

Thank you, Lord.

I see that hand.

You pray this prayer in your heart and you pray out loud.

Father, I give my life to you.

I ask that you'd forgive me for my sins, that you would make me brand new.

I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to love me, live for me, and die for me.

And I believe He's coming back.

Father, all that I am and all that I have, I give to you.

My life is yours.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.