Sermon

217 ~ REVIVAL STARTS WITH ME

We Are Zion - Sermon Podcast

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  1. Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

  2. We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.

  3. We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will

  4. encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.

  5. We are in the season of Pentecost and are awaiting the

  6. reign of God's revival on us. Today we look at how revival

  7. begins with each one of us, just as it did with the Samaritan

  8. woman at the well, whose encounter with Jesus changed not

  9. just her life, but an entire village.

  10. How ready are you for the Holy Spirit to meet with you

  11. personally and revive you from the inside out?

  12. Hi church. It's such a joy and a privilege

  13. to be bringing God's Word to you today.

  14. Even as we are preparing ourselves for Pentecost Sunday,

  15. I believe God is stirring up the Church to be prepared.

  16. God is asking us. Be expectant.

  17. God is asking us that we'd be ready for His outpouring 2000

  18. years back. His outpouring came on the upper

  19. room for the 120 odd people who are waiting, I believe, as we

  20. wait a week from now to celebrate that day.

  21. The reason we celebrate is a reminder that we are in

  22. desperate need of the Holy Spirit today more than ever

  23. before, and I love how the last two Sundays has set me up to

  24. speak today. I know we didn't stream our

  25. online service and we had a guest speaker here, but Jeremy

  26. spoke on the recipes of revival and he spoke to experiences.

  27. Revival. We need to have certain things

  28. in place. One is to be extremely

  29. committed, to be extremely generous, and to be extremely

  30. sacrificial. And even last week, as Tina

  31. spoke about revival in families, she centered around this whole

  32. thing that we need to praise and to pray.

  33. We also saw that the river of God that she spoke about is

  34. where God resides and he wants us to flourish.

  35. And many at times it's us who's moving away from the river of

  36. God. It's not the river that

  37. disappears, but it's rather us which get so caught up with

  38. everything that's happening around that.

  39. We miss being around his presence.

  40. We miss being in his presence. And today, as we continue on, I

  41. have titled my sermon as Revival Starts with me, Revival Starts

  42. with me. And I want you to repeat that.

  43. Even wherever you're seated or wherever you're listening or

  44. wherever you're watching, would you repeat this?

  45. Revival starts with me. If you can just touch yourself

  46. and say it starts with me. You know, many times we've seen

  47. and heard different outpourings happen.

  48. The last we heard was it entered into a university campus and

  49. they started experiencing the revival that got birthed out

  50. there. When a lot of them started

  51. coming in and just started experiencing Jesus, experiencing

  52. His Holy Spirit, experiencing His presence, they were

  53. convicted of their sin. They returned back to the cross,

  54. They exchanged their sin, their shame, and they received His

  55. grace and His life. We've heard from the Azusa St.

  56. We've heard different expressions happen, but many at

  57. times we are content knowing of these expressions, but we'd

  58. rather are safe for many at times hoping that you know it

  59. doesn't. It shouldn't start with me, but

  60. the Holy Spirit today is saying revival starts with you and with

  61. me. Revival starts with me.

  62. And so today, even as we dwell a little deeper, I want God to

  63. really bring His word, enlighten His words, so that it'll not

  64. just remain like an enlightenment moment, but rather

  65. be a seed that falls in that this will become one of those

  66. milestones or those one of those markings that we have to say

  67. definitely it's after this that I have been intentional with

  68. what the Holy Spirit is asking me to say.

  69. And do you know when we think about revival, starting with me,

  70. there's a bit of us that we are scared about.

  71. You know, we we suddenly are so conscious of a lot of the

  72. defects that we all have. If I have to ask you, do you

  73. feel whole as a person, You know, you would say, you know

  74. what, I've I I don't feel WHOLD. But I feel a lot.

  75. I have a lot of HOLES. We feel we have a lot of holes

  76. in US, and every time it's a shortcomings, it's the things

  77. that we think we need perfection, we think we need,

  78. needs to look right, that we think, You know what, if this is

  79. not right, I don't think God can do any work in me, but I want to

  80. remind you that when God created us, He created us whole.

  81. When he thought of you and me in our mother's womb, when he knit

  82. us together, he thought of us whole.

  83. He didn't think. You know what?

  84. I leave Geshom with a defect, or I leave Geshom with this gaping

  85. hole in his in his life or in his physical form?

  86. No. In who he was as God when he

  87. created me, He created whole. But the problem is the condition

  88. I'm born into. This world has sin in it.

  89. So everything, that's what we are born into sin, we when we

  90. are born, we are born with so many things that don't work

  91. right for us. We find our upbringing, our

  92. challenges, our hardships, our struggles, the way we look, our

  93. colour, you know, everything adds up and we feel we're not

  94. whole. But today God's saying, even if

  95. you feel you're not whole, revival still starts with me.

  96. Revival still starts with you. So today what is my emphasis to

  97. say that you don't have to discount yourself thinking

  98. you're not whole our end. In fact there was a message

  99. which I just preached 2-3 weeks back and it was on the lines of

  100. our we are exiled citizens. And in the conclusion I had

  101. taken this passage from Haggai chapter 3 verse nine and in the

  102. message it says this we who are his temple today.

  103. It says this temple is going to end up far better then it

  104. started out. A glorious beginning, but an

  105. even more glorious finish. A place in which I will hand out

  106. wholeness and holiness is the decree of the God of the Angel

  107. armies. When we allow Jesus to come into

  108. our lives, when we allow His Holy Spirit to work in and

  109. through us, His residency is in our hearts, We become His temple

  110. and in turn, the characteristics of God start coming into us.

  111. We become whole and we become holy.

  112. Because wherever the Lord is there, His Holiness is.

  113. And so today, for a lot of us who are in the corporate world,

  114. for those of us who have gone through leadership courses and

  115. all that, we probably have come across this word called

  116. Enneagram. I completely agree with the

  117. Enneagram test. It's kind of demarcates us.

  118. It shows us how what we have character are, what we have

  119. built up about what we can do, what we cannot do.

  120. And it has a very clear distinctive in terms of our

  121. personality traits. And I want us to come to a place

  122. to realize that even though we do all this, this helps us so

  123. that when we're in a team, we realize that each N gram number

  124. someone is different, you know? And so me expecting something of

  125. someone to do it this way may not be right because they they

  126. aren't wired that way, but often times even allow that to be

  127. dictating what the Holy Spirit can do in and through us and God

  128. is saying today. Irrespective of what your

  129. enneagram you know personality traits are, there are totally 9

  130. personality traits. Whatever those nine personality

  131. traits are for each and every personality trait revival is for

  132. each and every one of you. So don't discount that.

  133. So the after effects of sin have really left us helpless.

  134. When we see God move and want revival, we do discount, we fall

  135. short, we cancel ourselves. But every time the Spirit of God

  136. came upon someone, the more we read the Bible, the more you

  137. start meditating, the more you see his story intertwined with

  138. each other. How he built an entire nation

  139. Israel, and how he led them on. And how in their disobedience.

  140. How they went into exile and captivity and how he brought

  141. about the remnant out and how he established them.

  142. And through that we see Jesus coming into this world so that

  143. we all can be saved because his redemption was just not for a

  144. nation but was for entirety of mankind.

  145. We see at the end of it the revival that the Holy Spirit

  146. brings is 1 where you and me are very much involved.

  147. The story does not continue without us.

  148. We find it easier to say, You know what, I think it's just for

  149. this particular group of people, you know.

  150. It could be either for the apostles or for the prophets, or

  151. for the evangelists, or for the teachers or for the pastors.

  152. It's for them. Because we've come up with all

  153. these roles and we think, you know what?

  154. If that person fits that role, this is only for them.

  155. The word revival is for no revival is for everyone, because

  156. you and me today are the hands and feet of Jesus.

  157. I can't enter the spaces where God has ordained you to enter,

  158. and you eventually become a carrier of his revival into that

  159. very space. But today?

  160. Are you willing to deceive it? Are you willing to receive it?

  161. Because today I want us to come to a place to realize when we

  162. are talking about revival, we are seeing Holy Spirit.

  163. You can take residency here. You can make this your home.

  164. This is your house. This is your place of holiness.

  165. Use me as you see fit. Maybe all this while you've

  166. accepted Jesus into your heart and you've not allowed the Holy

  167. Spirit to move. Or you've said you know what,

  168. God, I don't want the Holy Spirit.

  169. I don't know what background they're coming from.

  170. Probably, you know, we have so many backgrounds from

  171. Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals, non

  172. denominational, whatever it is. We believe in God the Father, we

  173. believe in God the Son that is Jesus Christ, and we believe in

  174. God the Holy Spirit. And so today you need the Holy

  175. Spirit, He needs to move in and through that Spirit is what

  176. breeds life. And even as I was meditating and

  177. I was thinking, God, if that revival has to start in me,

  178. where do you want me to, you know, really look into your

  179. scriptures to really learn and see this from?

  180. And he led me to this book in John, Chapter 4A story, which we

  181. most of us have probably heard of Jesus meeting the Samaritan

  182. moment. And so as part of our story

  183. today, we're going to see how revival starts with each and

  184. every one of us included, not excluded.

  185. So the first thing I want us to make a note is when revival has

  186. to start with you and me involved in the mix.

  187. Revival first meets us in our mundane.

  188. Revival first meets us in our mundane.

  189. So what is that revival meeting us in our mundane?

  190. You might think, OK, you know what Revival will happen when we

  191. have a specific three day prayer.

  192. The Spirit of God will move. Yes, He will move.

  193. But us experiencing this revival, us saying that revival

  194. starts with me means I need to take it into my Monday, into my

  195. Tuesday, into my Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and

  196. Sunday. It doesn't start on a Sunday and

  197. ends on a Sunday. It starts on a Sunday and

  198. continues on all the way to Monday, Tuesday, all the way

  199. through to Saturday. And I want us to read today from

  200. John Chapter 4, to see what this is reading from John Four.

    John 4 chapter mention

  201. And this is what it says. He had to go through Samaria on

  202. the way. Eventually he came to the

  203. Samaritan village of Sikkur, near the field that Jacob gave

  204. to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and

  205. Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well.

  206. About noon time, soon as Samaritan came to draw water and

  207. Jesus said to her, please give me a drink.

  208. He was alone at that time because his disciples had gone

  209. into the village to buy some food.

  210. The woman was surprised, for Jews refused to have anything to

  211. do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, you are a Jew

  212. and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a

  213. drink? Verse 10 Jesus replied, If you

  214. only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to.

  215. You would ask me and I would give you living water.

  216. You know, when we read the context here, we see that Judea

  217. and Galilee, and right in between that is Samaria.

  218. And we see as Jesus is leaving Judea and heading into Galilee,

  219. he has to go through Samaria. So it just lies here.

  220. And so from Judea is going all the way to some Samaria, and

  221. through Samaria he gets into Galilee.

  222. And here is where Jesus encounters A Samaritan woman.

  223. The enmity that we see happen time and again between the Jews

  224. and the Samaritan. Samaritans were considered 2nd

  225. grade citizens. They was count looked down upon.

  226. They believed in the God of Abraham and Jacob, but they had

  227. no other place to go and worship.

  228. So they had a place of worship within Samaria itself.

  229. And we see this long standing feud that existed.

  230. And so it was considered a taboo to actually talk to a Samaritan

  231. person. But here is Jesus as he's

  232. walking. He's tired, he's seated there.

  233. But what we see happen is a simatan woman is coming at noon

  234. to come and take water. And it's in that same place.

  235. He needs her. You know, we, when we think

  236. about it, is just an ordinary scene where she's coming to take

  237. water. But it's one of habit.

  238. It's one of discipline. When we.

  239. For those of you who are having a regular rhythm in life, you'll

  240. realize at this particular point in the morning you're doing

  241. certain things, you know, probably from 6:30.

  242. You're making coffee 644. You're putting the laundry in

  243. seven o'clock. You're doing a quiet time.

  244. These could be some of the things in which you have certain

  245. things in order. And probably this is where the

  246. Samaritan woman had this place where she had to go and take

  247. water for the rest of the day for her to use in the house.

  248. And it's in this special time she meets with Jesus.

  249. And it's interesting. As you know, Tina has been

  250. mentioning in her previous sermon about the Holy Spirit

  251. being to one of the river of God, the living water.

  252. It's beautiful how this is tying into that where Jesus is asking

  253. this woman, could you give me water to drink?

  254. And it got me thinking, what does it look like if I had to

  255. take this living water into my everyday life.

  256. You know, we we pray about it. We say God be with me today,

  257. even as I go to work. But are we specifically praying

  258. for everything that we are doing?

  259. Are we are we expecting God to show up?

  260. Because if God has to show up, we need to be open for certain

  261. disruptions to happen. The Samaritan woman made sure

  262. that this was her everyday thing.

  263. Her mundane was being disrupted. And I believe God wants us to

  264. to. And I believe God wants to

  265. disrupt our mundane a bit so that freshness can come in, so

  266. that there'll be a bit of newness that come in.

  267. There'll be life that's getting breathed.

  268. And his wind starts blowing and it gives as this breeze of

  269. comfort knowing he's in control. His living water comes in so

  270. that it wipes away everything that is weary and dry and

  271. encourages that parch and dry land to experience freshness.

  272. And you know, a sense of completion.

  273. For revival to rebirth. We need to be open for our

  274. mundanes to be disrupted. Mundanes are good.

  275. Mundanes Bring discipline. It helps us stay in focus so we

  276. can accomplish all that we set out to do.

  277. But may it also have room for revival.

  278. May it also have room to be disrupted so that the Holy

  279. Spirit can move and change certain things.

  280. Let's continue on reading John chapter 4, verses 10 to 14.

    John 4:10–14

  281. The previous few verses that she read were from NLT, but I've

  282. taken this John 410 to 14 from the message version and this is

  283. what it says. Verse 10, this is what it says.

  284. Jesus answered. If you knew the generosity of

  285. God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink and I

  286. would give you fresh living water, the woman said.

  287. Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with.

  288. And this well is deep. So how are you going to get this

  289. living water? Are you a better man than our

  290. ancestor Jacob, who ducked as well and drank from it?

  291. He and his sons and livestock and passed it down to us?

  292. Jesus said everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty

  293. again. Anyone who drinks the water I

  294. give will never thirst. Not ever.

  295. The water I give will be an artisan spring within gushing

  296. fountains of endless life. It's interesting that when we

  297. read this, Jesus is asking his human form was one which

  298. probably desired, was tired, was worn out, was probably tired and

  299. wanting to have physical water. But when he saw this woman, I

  300. believe he was moved with compassion.

  301. He wanted to touch up. He wanted something in her life

  302. to change. And he says I would give you

  303. fresh living water. And many a times this revival,

  304. this disruption that happens, God will do it in such way where

  305. our logic is questioned. The Samantha's woman logic was

  306. right. She said, hey, you don't have

  307. anything here. I'm the only person who can

  308. actually take and give you this water.

  309. And what are you saying? You'll give me fresh living

  310. water. I don't see a bucket in your

  311. hand. I don't see anything where you

  312. can draw water out from. And Jesus goes on to say this

  313. profound thing, and I believe this is the truth where we will

  314. need Jesus in our life, he says. Yet everyone who drinks his

  315. water will get thirsty again. If we are running after physical

  316. things, we acquire it, we get it, and then we feel we don't

  317. have enough of it's OK. Is this what I pursue?

  318. I think I need to pursue more. But Jesus saying, anyone who

  319. drinks the water, I give the water that Jesus gives.

  320. The revival that Jesus gives will never thirst.

  321. Not ever. The water I give will be an

  322. artisan spring within gushing fountains of endless life.

  323. If you're taking notes, if you want to make a note on artisan

  324. spring within gushing fountains of endless life, what does that

  325. look like? Revival that the Holy Spirit

  326. wants us to participate in is fresh and it's living.

  327. It's fresh and it's living. What is fresh and living?

  328. Which means every time you ask the Holy Spirit to come into

  329. that situation, every time you ask God, come into my mundane,

  330. come into my this He will bring a fresh anointing.

  331. He will bring a living anointing.

  332. He won't allow you to operate out of yesterday's anointing.

  333. I love that a lot of us have been carrying and breezing

  334. through life, carrying old water, carrying recycled,

  335. repurposed. But God saying no, I want to

  336. give you fresh and living every day.

  337. What does that look like for those of us who are parents?

  338. That's something we need every day of fresh and living water.

  339. The Holy Spirit is saying I can do that.

  340. For those of us who are married and are struggling in our

  341. marriages, he's saying I can give you that fresh and living

  342. water. Would you ask me, Don't look to

  343. your spouse, Ask me. Start praying about it.

  344. Ask for everything what however small it may be.

  345. If there are struggles, ask him. If there are communication

  346. problems, ask him. If there are struggles and

  347. getting along, ask he will find a way.

  348. He will can mend broken hearts, he can put broken hearts

  349. together, he can do everything. And the reason why I asked you

  350. to underline this word. Artisan Spring and I was just

  351. reading up on this. It's basically where this

  352. waterbed is locked in between 2 sections of ground level of dirt

  353. water and so usually what happens is this is where usually

  354. the water is not coming onto the surface at all, so it's right

  355. below in the deep. OK, so the reason why I talked

  356. about these artisan springs is it's a waterbed which is present

  357. between 2 confining beds. So these two layers can be

  358. different. In most cases it's a it's a

  359. layer where it doesn't allow the water to go.

  360. So eventually what happens as a pressure that gets formed

  361. between these two layers and the waters present there.

  362. And so when you stick an entire pipe which goes right down, it

  363. causes, it crosses through this confining bed.

  364. It could be clay, it could be a material, it could be a compound

  365. on of the earth which doesn't allow water to go through.

  366. And when you go through that and when you tap into that spring,

  367. you don't even need a water pump for the water to come out.

  368. It just starts gushing out. And that's what it says here.

  369. Gushing fountains of endless life.

  370. And God's asking today, whatever your confining beds are, would

  371. you push through so that you can put your pipe straight into my

  372. living water so that it can gush fountains of endless life?

  373. And this is what we all need. A lot of times our mundane has

  374. just gone by every day after every day, week after week,

  375. month after month, because because of us being in a place

  376. of running after EMI is making payments.

  377. You know what, I'm in this dead end job and I just have to do

  378. this because I have things to do.

  379. You need revival right now because there is something more

  380. that the Holy Spirit wants to do, something more in terms of

  381. the gushing fountains of endless life that he wants to pour into

  382. your life, into your specific life, into every area of your

  383. life. You can't discount that.

  384. You know, if I have to talk about a science experiment with

  385. this coming out of VBS, you can see it right over here behind.

  386. And if I have to take, you have these Tetrapack juices.

  387. And if you hold it tightly, there's a pressure that's

  388. formed. And what happens when I poke it

  389. with a straw? Juice just keeps coming out.

  390. I don't know how to do anything because the pressure causes the

  391. juice to come. And I believe sometimes in our

  392. most crushing of these confining beds that we are, it could be

  393. work, It could be relationships. It could be the pressure of

  394. being a child. It could be the pressure of, you

  395. know, walking through some of the trauma that you've gone

  396. through. It could be everything he's

  397. saying, The pressure of that. Would you dig your pipe deeper

  398. in so that my living water will start working in and through?

  399. It'll refresh you. It'll become your artisan

  400. spring. The clear representation for us

  401. today is are we willing to stick our pipes further in so that he

  402. will become our only source? Are you in a dry and parchy

  403. land? He is the water that you need.

  404. Are you struggling with thirst and you feel you're choking?

  405. He is the water that you need. Revival has to start with you

  406. and me. And so in our mundanes, when our

  407. mundanes get disrupted, we soon realize there's more to what God

  408. has placed me here for. It starts gushing out.

  409. It starts giving us this curiosity.

  410. God, what is it? And we start diving deeper into

  411. His word. We start spending those moments

  412. of being quiet around him. We tune our ears to His words.

  413. Not to the frequency of everything that culture is not

  414. dominating and to what social media and influencers are

  415. saying, but rather we tune it to what the Holy Spirit is saying.

  416. So as we heard, when we move towards this place and say God,

  417. and so today, even as I close the first point, I want to ask

  418. you in this revival, would you dig deep, put that pipe straight

  419. into that artisan spring so that his life would come out, his

  420. living life, The water that never runs dry, the living water

  421. would come into each and every one of our lives.

  422. The second thing that we see is Revival confronts our deepest,

  423. darkest secrets. Every day it it has to do it.

  424. It it confronts our deepest and our darkest secrets.

  425. To access this artisan spring, it has to go through some hard

  426. peeling and digging. And a lot of times it's

  427. confronting the emptiness and the lack that our lives have.

  428. You know, in the last few months I've been walking through some

  429. my own personal journey and I've realized I've had layers and

  430. layers of areas where I've just masked it, thinking, you know

  431. what, It won't come up. It won't come to the surface.

  432. But over time, I've realized the Holy Spirit causing me to nudge

  433. that space. And as I've been putting my pipe

  434. deep in, it's those pipes that aren't defining me.

  435. It's that it's the joy of his word that causes me to go deeper

  436. in always so that I'll enjoy what comes out of him.

  437. It says here in John four was 15 to 20 and let's go on to read it

  438. says please Sir, the woman said, give me this water then I'll

  439. never be thirsty again and I won't have to come here to get

  440. water. Go and get your husband.

  441. Jesus told her I don't have a husband, the woman replied.

  442. Jesus said you're right, you don't have a husband, for you

  443. have had five husbands and you aren't even married to the man

  444. you're living with now. You certainly spoke the truth.

  445. So the woman said you must be a prophet.

  446. So tell me, why is that You Jews insist that Jerusalem is the

  447. only place of worship while we Samaritans claim it here in the

  448. mount of Gethism where our ancestors worshipped.

  449. We can see here the minute Jesus talks of this life giving thing,

  450. she's ready to accept it. There's a void in each and every

  451. one of our lives which only the Holy Spirit can fill.

  452. There's a sense of purpose and direction that only the Holy

  453. Spirit will cause us to have contentment in.

  454. Yes, things may not change, but because he's present, we'll have

  455. contentment. We will start seeing things his

  456. way. And here She asks Jesus, give me

  457. this water so that I won't be thirsty again, thinking that I

  458. may not have to come back to the well.

  459. But she goes on to and Jesus goes on to say conference by

  460. asking her where's your husband? And even as she answers saying I

  461. don't have a husband, she Jesus goes on to tell her history in

  462. just a verse. And that's what many a times we

  463. are unable to participate in the revivals because we have a story

  464. cooked up. We have a story that we've time

  465. and again told ourselves and made it the truth.

  466. But Jesus saying, hey, when you come to me, I know everything.

  467. I know everything. I know your intentions.

  468. I know how the story came about. I want you to admit the real

  469. truth. And we can see here that when

  470. Jesus points that out, she puts a guard on and says you are a

  471. prophet. What does this look like?

  472. We can pass off by saying our version of the story, but the

  473. Holy Spirit knows us inside out. It is there.

  474. He wants us to be real to ourselves.

  475. We need to come to our place and say admit this is my wrongdoing.

  476. This is something that I'm God, I've, I've been struggling with.

  477. I've covered it up. I've probably fabricated a good

  478. story so that I'll be acceptable by people outside or I'll be

  479. it'll be OK for people to know who I am.

  480. But Jesus is saying and the Holy Spirit is saying today, if

  481. revival has to be birthed in you, we need to come to terms

  482. with the story and with the sins that you're dealing with.

  483. Not an embellished version, not something that looks well.

  484. Because today we're living in a world of filters.

  485. Filters look good, but sin is sin and we need to come to the

  486. Father and say God, I'm sorry, I need your forgiveness.

  487. Jesus does not need any convincing of our story.

  488. He knows all of me, even my intentions, in which I'm telling

  489. the story. And I love how the Samaritan

  490. woman did not try to justify what Jesus said.

  491. Oh, God, I'm lonely. That's why I've been, you know,

  492. switching partners. Oh, you know what?

  493. I don't know if this guy's committed.

  494. He's probably just here for a fling.

  495. He didn't. She didn't elaborate.

  496. She came to terms with This is my life.

  497. This is where I'm rock bottom. And that's where Jesus met with

  498. her, started giving her the truth, and said you can

  499. experience this living water. She deflects it by saying why do

  500. you insist that we come to Jerusalem and we see?

  501. In the next few verses? Jesus addresses that.

  502. But the truth is, today, are we willing to allow the Holy Spirit

  503. to revive us so that he can take everything of us?

  504. When he wants to use us and shape us and mold us, he wants

  505. to take everything. And we sometimes are scared to

  506. show our sin, our brokenness, our emptiness to the Creator

  507. himself, you know Genesis chapter one verse 2 says the

  508. earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the deep waters

  509. and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the

  510. water. The Spirit of God was in holding

  511. over the earth, which was formless and empty and dark.

  512. There's no amount of darkness that will scare him away.

  513. If he can shape and bring life into the earth, he can do that

  514. same into you. So quit trying to cover up and

  515. tell God or put it in good words to explain to God.

  516. Go out there and just say God. This is who I am.

  517. These are my intentions. This is what I think.

  518. My, my, these are things that I've struggled with.

  519. These are my my closeted issues lot, which no one else knows.

  520. But I'm willing to open it up because I want revival to come

  521. in. I want revival to come in.

  522. The Holy Spirit is I love what it says in the message version.

  523. In fact, it says he's owe everything that is formless,

  524. empty and dark. Earth was a soup of nothingness,

  525. A bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.

  526. Today, if you have to describe sin, it would come under the any

  527. of this category. You might feel like it's

  528. nothing. You might feel the sin that

  529. you're in. You are struggling to break the

  530. cycle of guilt. You give up, you feel guilty,

  531. and then you go back to it. You feel guilty again.

  532. You go back to it and it's just seems like a bottomless fit and

  533. you just feel that part of your heart is just marked with

  534. blackness. But God saying, I want to touch

  535. that very part and revive it. The Holy Spirit is never afraid

  536. to handle our mess, be it whatever shape, whatever size,

  537. however cracked it is when we allow the Holy Spirit to come,

  538. and even when we're looking at the Holy Spirit, this time as a

  539. river of God, as living water. Water can take up any shape, it

  540. can come into any crack, it can come in and flood that space.

  541. But would you give room if an iceberg could break a section of

  542. the ship on the board of the Titanic and cause the entire

  543. ship to sink? I believe water can come in.

  544. Give him, give him room so that he'll be able to enter and give

  545. him room so that he'll be able to come in and shape you and

  546. break you. Break that pattern of sin.

  547. Break the clutches of what Satan is having over you, John 421

  548. goes on to say in message. And So what?

  549. It says the response. Believe me, woman, the time is

  550. coming when the Samaritans will worship the Father.

  551. Neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem.

  552. You worship guessing in the dark.

  553. We Jews worship in the clear light of day.

  554. God's way of salvation is made available through the Jews.

  555. But the time is coming. It has, in fact come when when

  556. what you're called will not matter, and where you go to

  557. worship will not matter. It's who you are and the way you

  558. live that count before God. Your worship must engage your

  559. spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the

  560. Father's looking out for those who are simply and honestly

  561. themselves before him in their worship, God is sure being

  562. itself spirit. Those who worship Him must do it

  563. out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves in

  564. adoration, the woman said. I don't know about that.

  565. I do know that the Messiah is coming.

  566. When he arrives, we'll get the whole story and Jesus response.

  567. I love it. He says I am, he said.

  568. Jesus, you don't have to wait any longer or look any further.

  569. The very question what the Samaritan woman posed was to

  570. come into the technicality of it.

  571. Saying you say that we're to come to Jerusalem, but we are

  572. worshipping here, But Jesus goes to the important issue.

  573. Saying no, when you worship the way you live counts before God.

  574. Our worship must engage in pursuit of truth.

  575. God is looking for those kind of people.

  576. And so today when you and I are in this walk moving towards

  577. worshipping God for asking for his revival, may he invade every

  578. area of our lives. May there be no area that is not

  579. where he's not able to convict us about or we are so sensitive

  580. that we don't allow God to push the buttons.

  581. God should have a free reign over us where he's able to push

  582. us whereas he's able to say, you know what if you're stuck up in

  583. this, this is the very area I'm going to push you.

  584. I'm going to train you in this so that you allow me to be

  585. controlling of allow me to be in control.

  586. I don't want you to be in control.

  587. So today what happened When the Somatin woman heard this, she

  588. could put two and two together and realized they said of a

  589. Messiah who's coming, who will, who will set right, who will be

  590. able to worship. And Jesus says I am that person,

  591. I am that person. And so today church, I want us

  592. to ask us personally, each and everyone of us asking ourselves,

  593. God, would you come into those areas where I have left undealt

  594. with? I've I've probably brushed

  595. through it thinking you know what is allowed.

  596. It's OK. It's permissible.

  597. But God, is it permissible to you?

  598. Would you convict me? Would you show me?

  599. I pray God There are areas in my life which I've hidden away from

  600. you. I've failed to confess it,

  601. thinking that if I confess it I might be the worst Sinner.

  602. But God saying nothing would scare me.

  603. Would you come? Would you allow my living water

  604. to flow through? For those of you who are really

  605. struggling to give up sin patterns, I would request you.

  606. Would your hearts cry be for revival, To come and let the

  607. living water flow through you? Let him go.

  608. Go to him. Go to the source every day.

  609. Dig deeper your trenches so that you go in.

  610. Don't let the markings of your trenches cause you to not dig

  611. deeper. Dig deeper so that when the pipe

  612. hits the living water, you'll experience life, you'll

  613. experience liberation. You'll experience truth.

  614. So as we've seen two things. First, the revival.

  615. As it starts with us, it meets us in our mundane.

  616. The second thing when it meets us in our mundane it deals with

  617. our deepest, darkest secrets so that God can do his work in and

  618. through us, so that we can have living water.

  619. And the third thing is this revival experience that we've

  620. had moves others towards transformation.

  621. John chapter 4, verse 39 to 42, goes on to say many of the

    John 4:39–42

  622. Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him

  623. because of the woman's witness. He knew all about the things I

  624. did. He knows me inside and out.

  625. They asked him to stay on. So Jesus stayed two days.

  626. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him.

  627. When they heard that, what he had to say, they said to the

  628. woman, we are no longer taking this on your say so.

  629. We've heard it for ourselves and know it for sure.

  630. He's the saviour of the world. The revival starts in me.

  631. When it meets with me, when it deals with all my the deepest,

  632. darkest areas of my life. I'm unable to contain it.

  633. Why? Because I start understanding

  634. that I can live in freedom. Jesus gave her the living water

  635. and when she experienced it, she in fact left her thing there.

  636. And she goes into the village to go and tell group of people who

  637. probably knew her and the way she was living.

  638. There's a man here who knows me inside out.

  639. She probably didn't have a very good reputation, but in spite of

  640. that, she went. And when she went as a man who

  641. knows everything I've done come and meet this man.

  642. They took her at a word because if someone had to know

  643. everything that she's done, it definitely had to be someone

  644. like God. So they came and they found out

  645. it was God. The personal story of the

  646. Samaritan woman caused a stir in her itself, she realized.

  647. This is my story. The living water that is coming

  648. has is starting to work in me is my story.

  649. And many times we think when we have to share, we always are

  650. wanting a story to share. Share from your own life, share

  651. of what God's done. Even if it sounds small, it's

  652. OK. God is not looking at the

  653. quantity of our story. He's just looking at the fact

  654. whether he's present in that story.

  655. Because if he's present in that story, the same living water

  656. that worked in you will start working in others.

  657. Too. Many times you're thinking, you

  658. know what? I need to have a perfect story.

  659. I need to have a good intro and a good outer.

  660. I need to have a hook. If you have the Holy Spirit and

  661. if he's intertwined in your testimony, that's more than

  662. enough. We see when the living water

  663. came into the life of the Samaritan woman, it transformed

  664. her, It changed her. And she went about telling what

  665. God had done in her life. And I'm asking you today, if

  666. revival has to start spreading from us, It has to start with

  667. us. It has to start with you and me.

  668. It has to start with us telling about our encounter with the

  669. Holy Spirit. So what is God telling you

  670. today, two days from now? What has God been speaking to

  671. you? What has He been doing in and

  672. through you? What is He revealing you?

  673. What are some of the dreams and the visions that He's given to

  674. you? What are some of the deeper

  675. insights that he's been talking to you from His word?

  676. Is it coming in alignment? Because when you start doing

  677. that, you'll start seeing connecting pieces time and

  678. again. That's why when we gather as a

  679. church, when we gather as communities, when we gather as

  680. fellow believers together, and when we see that a lot in the

  681. early church, when they gather together, the reason why they

  682. were able to have a lot of community time was the fact that

  683. in their personal time they saw. Some revelation the Holy Spirit

  684. gave them come into, you know, some another person have

  685. probably got a song or a word. And when they came together and

  686. everything came together, they knew this was what God was

  687. calling them to do. This is what God's calling us to

  688. step into. This is what God is calling and

  689. speaking to us as a generation. This is an indication of what

  690. freedom looks like for what the samatan woman did.

  691. Because when she walked out of the power of darkness into the

  692. power of light, when she walked out of the freedom that came

  693. because the clutches of sin were broken, that living water, she

  694. was able to go and testify. And the fruit of that was people

  695. came to see who this God was, who this person was, that was

  696. able to identify her and tell her whatever wrong she did.

  697. She probably came to that well alone, knowing that she'll be

  698. talked about, she'll be scorned, she'll be looked down.

  699. But what she received, she took it out there, and she came and

  700. draw. A lot of her brokenness was

  701. hers, but when she laid it at the altar for Jesus, when his

  702. living water redeemed it, it became a testimony in her

  703. brokenness. She felt empty, and she could

  704. have kept the door shut, sitting all by herselves because she was

  705. already judged, ridiculed, mocked, scorned.

  706. But rather her brokenness made room for a saviour who wanted to

  707. change her state. In Two Corinthians chapter 12,

  708. verses 9, This is what it says. But he answered me.

  709. My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power

  710. finds it's full expression through your weakness.

  711. So I'll celebrate my weakness, For when I'm weak, I sense more

  712. deeply the mighty part of Christ living in me.

  713. The power of Jesus is evident when we are allowing Him to move

  714. in, and through our weakness His grace and His power finds its

  715. full expression. So today, whatever it is, allow

  716. him to invade you with His living water.

  717. Because what will come out of that will be glorious.

  718. What will come out of that will be a Jesus testimony.

  719. What will come out of that will be the outworking of the Holy

  720. Spirit. And then through you, what will

  721. come out of that will be you saying this is not me, but this

  722. is of the one who is in me, that I'm able to do all this.

  723. And what do you see in the conclusion in John Chapter 4 is

    John 4 chapter mention

  724. the people asked him to stay. And I love this section where

  725. they tell her, you know what, we no longer are believing this

  726. because you told, but we are. We've heard it for ourselves and

  727. know for sure that he's a saviour of the world, are

  728. starting. The igniter would be a

  729. testimony, but the sustaining part will be his Holy Spirit's

  730. work. So a lot of us today what God's

  731. preparing us as a nation? What God's preparing us as

  732. individuals? What God's preparing us as

  733. churches and as marketplace people and as His children who

  734. are in this world, not of this world, is that we will be ready

  735. for a revival that starts with you and me, ready for a revival

  736. that will change us, which will change, transform us personally.

  737. So when we take it out, our testimony with him will bring

  738. transformation to others. And I'm sure at the end of the

  739. day, that living water cost a revival in that own village, in

  740. that own town. And so today, can you and I be

  741. partakers of that? A lot more people entrusted

  742. their lives to him, and they heard what he had to say.

  743. And I love that again. I am repeating that again.

  744. We've heard it for ourselves and know it's for sure he's the

  745. saviour of the world. They will taste and see that the

  746. Lord is good. That when they look into our

  747. lives, when they see our change, when they see what God's doing

  748. in and through us, they will be encouraged to seek for

  749. themselves and they will find him.

  750. We do not know who God will bring into salvation through our

  751. story. We can discount it because of

  752. our low self esteem, because of the nature of our brokenness,

  753. because of whatever we've been through.

  754. But when we bring God into the mix, when we bring the Holy

  755. Spirit and His living, what into the mix, His grades, His

  756. strength, His redemption power gets mixed into our battle of

  757. our lives. And we are not our we're not us

  758. anymore, We are His. And we start pointing everyone

  759. to Jesus because He's in the mix.

  760. He, he, his hand is in that battle.

  761. He's starting to shape us. He's shot, starting to mold us.

  762. And I pray and ask that the living water will become ours

  763. forever. So church, even as I close, I

  764. just want to ask specifically that as we prepare for Pentecost

  765. Sunday, we won't be ashamed. We won't be stiff, but we would

  766. rather be flexible. We would allow him to say, Lord,

  767. would you move in and throw us today I want that artisanal

  768. spring. I want that revival to happen.

  769. Lord Jesus, in you, in me, in everyone that gathers, in

  770. everyone that calls on the name of Jesus that they'll be

  771. revival. So today when I say pray, can we

  772. just pray together that we'll experience his revival?

  773. Lord, I pray even right now for all those who are listening,

  774. for, who are watching. I pray even right now.

  775. Holy Spirit, would you Would you just flood open into their

  776. lives? Lord, no longer, Lord, will they

  777. be so worried. I pray every worry, every shame,

  778. every guilt will be broken in the name of Jesus.

  779. We pray for your blood covering to Pierce through everything.

  780. I pray every abuse, every torment, everything that's been

  781. spoken off and spoken about and spoken into will be completely

  782. broken. Lord Jesus in the name of Jesus

  783. that they'll find deliverance. Every shackle will be broken.

  784. Every shame and guilt will be gone.

  785. Every cycle will be broken, every addiction will be broken.

  786. That you will set your people and your children free.

  787. Lord, we are about your mission. Lord Jesus and I thank you for

  788. the word revival. I breathe revival into my own

  789. life. I breathe your revival into each

  790. and everyone. Right now I ask you to breathe

  791. it in. Lord Jesus, I pray living what I

  792. pray we will all take our pipes and dig in to find that

  793. artisanal spring. Lord, I pray we will

  794. breakthrough every shackle, every everything that's taken

  795. shape to get that living water gushing out so that we will live

  796. in the fullness that comes from you.

  797. Lord, I pray even right now that our mundanes will see revival,

  798. disrupt our mundanes. I pray, Lord, our deepest,

  799. darkest secrets will experience a revival and they will get

  800. extinguished, gone once for all, Lord Jesus, the marks of it.

  801. Lord will be ones of redemption, one of grace, one of strength,

  802. one of overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of

  803. your testimony, Lord Jesus. It'll happen right now, Lord.

  804. I pray, Lord, that revival will just not stop with us, Lord,

  805. That we will be able to share our story with you and it, Lord,

  806. so that it'll bring about many others to find truth.

  807. And they'll be able to experience that living water, be

  808. glorified, be honored, be praised.

  809. Thank you for all that you're doing.

  810. Go before us. I pray, Lord, for your blood

  811. covering over each and every one of us, that he would strengthen

  812. us. I pray even as we are in the

  813. peak of summer. Protection will be upon each and

  814. everyone. I pray your hand of mercy and

  815. grace upon each and everyone. Lord, we thank you.

  816. Strengthen us, take charge, be glorified.

  817. We thank you for all that we get to do, Lord Jesus, because we

  818. are your children. I pray that we'll have testimony

  819. after testimony of your living water flowing in and through our

  820. lives, and we will see a revival.

  821. I pray even as you wait expectantly for this week, Lord,

  822. we ask that you would show up. Lord, there will be a revival

  823. that starts birthing out in different parts, in different

  824. sections in our online community, in our physical

  825. gathering, we'll see revival happen.

  826. Lord, so that you'll be glorified.

  827. In your most holy name, we pray. Amen.

  828. Amen. So, church, even as you step out

  829. into your mundane, even as you start working through and seeing

  830. all your deepest darkest secrets, I pray revival will be

  831. birthed. I pray as living water will flow

  832. through and leave you changed. I pray your story and the

  833. experience of that revival with Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the

  834. mix will bring about, will bring about a revival in others.

  835. That you will be the reason that many are able to see Jesus

  836. clearly, will be filled with the Holy Spirit and live in the

  837. holiness that He is called us. I pray that you have a blessed

  838. week ahead. God bless you all.

  839. Thanks for listening to this message.

  840. We hope you are blessed to hear more messages like this.

  841. Make sure to subscribe and check out our podcast channel for past

  842. episodes. If you like what you are

  843. hearing, consider rating US, subscribing and even sharing it

  844. with friends. That would really help us.

  845. For more content from Via Zion and to connect with us, go to

  846. Via Zion dot in. Remember, whoever finds Jesus

  847. finds Life.