Living Water | Pr Steven Soon

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

I'm gonna start off first with a joke. Oh no,

some of you shaking your hat. Really?

Oh, here we go again, Here we go again. All right,

but let's let's let's let's let's try this. Okay, let's

try this.

Okay. Imagine yourself right now.

You're in biblical times, okay, and in biblical times, we

don't have that water, right, we don't have pipes, so

people drew water from the well. Okay, So imagine yourself

You're going to the well to draw water for your household.

Okay, just just imagine.

Get yourself into that, that that the environment, okay, and

then you do this.

Okay.

Then let's start there the story begins. Okay, So you're

drawing water, right, and then there's a person next in

line waiting to draw water. Also, okay, what do you

say to the person next in line after you've done

drawing water from the well?

Not really a good one. Maybe I'll at that. Yeah.

So after the person finishes drawing water, so the person

next in line, you know, I would say well done? Ah?

Then okay, okay, what do you say?

What do you say to the same person who asks you,

how is the water?

It is?

Well, what happens when you see the same person the

next day?

Close? Well, well, well if it.

Isn't, it's all you already say my next one? Oh

but never mind. Uh what do you say to me

after I delivered this joke? Well say, okay, do you

want me to go on?

Well?

Okay, all right, that's it, alright, just start having that

drill some cues into us. The title for the message

today is living well. Actually it's not. It's living water. Yeah, okay,

so hope that registers more okay the job job officially

finishally and say okay, no more, all right?

Some of you, yes, praise the Lord, no more, all right.

So the title for the message today is this is

living water. We sung about that just now, Living water. Now,

if I can get your attention to John chapter four,

all right, it's a story about the woman and the well.

I think that probably is gonna get stuck in your head. Well, right,

the woman at the well. Jesus met this Samaritan woman

at the well. So can if you can flee open

your scripture, We're gonna go through the story, or rather,

we're gonna go through what happened that in those days

when Jesus was there. Okay, right, so John chapter four,

and we're gonna just read through verse one to eight.

First, Are we there? Are we there? All right? So

follow along.

I'm gonna read from the NLT translation John chapter four,

Verse one to eight. Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard

that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John,

though Jesus himself didn't baptize them.

His disciples dead verse three. So he left.

Judea and returned to Galilee. He had to go through

some Maria on the way. I want you to highlight this.

He had to go through some Maria on the way.

Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sikar, near

the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's

wealth was there, and Jesus, tired from the long walk,

sat warily beside the well.

About noon time. I want you to highlight the time

as well.

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus

said to her, please give me a drink. He was

alone at the time because his disciples had gone into

the village to buy some food. Now, when during that

time you see Samaritans and Jews, they weren't friends. In fact,

they view each other as enemies. Enemies to a point

that when the Jews go through Samaria, the Samaritans may

actually rob.

Or kill them vice versa.

All right, And if you do a little bit of study,

it was because they don't quite agree that Jewish people

don't quite agree with Samaritans in the way they believe

in God because of obvious reasons, because there was a

mixed part of cultures that so there was some pagan

practices that they implemented in their own worship towards the

Lord as well. So you can do a bit more

studient and that I'm not going to dive into that,

but basically they want friends. So when they travel and

you can google, I didn't manage to put the map

in here. You can google the map of basically Judaea, Samaria, Jerusalem.

You realize that for and you see Jesus say, right,

He's going to travel from Judea and to return to Galilee.

Rights man in the middle is Samaria, and the Jewish

people all the time will not go through Samaria. They

will go around Samaria because they're not friends. They fear

for their lives, right and all that. But and having

that in mind, just not ask you to highlight this

part of the scripture. Jesus said I had to go through.

That means there was intention. Jesus was very intentional to

go through Samaria. It's not by the way thing. It's

not also happened I passed by, But Jesus had the

intention to go through Samaria on the way right. It

was also I highlighted I see highlighted the time as well.

It was also noon time, the hottest time of the

day that Jesus said at the well. It was also noontime,

the hottest time of the day that the Samaritan woman

decided to draw water.

Some of you have heard this before.

You notice people would draw water when the sun hasn't

risen up yet, very early in the morning, so it's

not hot.

Because they have to walk very far to the well.

They're traveling from different parts right of town to go

to that well to draw water. But yet, interestingly, Jesus

and the Samaritan women intersected in the most uncommon of times.

The place where people draw water I want to talk

about the well now. I hope he has drill into

here really well, well, well, well, every time you say

talk about well, hopefully you think about my joke.

Okay, But.

The well back in those days is a social social spot.

That's where the women get it to draw water. I

can't imagine. They probably gossiped, you know, the next door neighbor.

You know, that's the spoiler. That's the spot, is the

draw water? You know I heard this girl's the spot.

I can't imagine. It's a social spot, right. It was

also a spot where romance happened. If you look at scripture,

all right, this is a place where Isaac when looking

for a partner the servant red and met his future wife.

Right is Isaac and Rebecca. There is also Isaac's son,

Jacob and Rachel same story, met at the well.

Moses. Do you know this? Moses met Zipporah at the well. Right.

So it's a very social spot, right where people probably

exchange information, catch up on each other. Right, draw water

as they are drawing water. They did that. Oh, just

I'm sharing this because so you know a little bit

that this is not just a place where people just

draw water. It's a social spot, right, And I want

you to also think not again, that Jesus met the woman,

the Samaritan woman, at the time where there was no

one there noon time.

Hot, right, the social spot was empty. Okay.

And this point I want to bring across Jesus being

there at that time at that place was not sheer

coincidence or convenience. It was a divine appointment. Jesus had

the plan. Probably at the time the disciples didanola, right,

the disciples probably asking Jesus why you want to go

through this route? And at that time, as you read,

the disciples Aso went off to get food, so Jesus

was alone. Hey, okay, we're gonna continue from verse ten

to verse thirteen, Jesus replied, And I really skipped through

some parts of really, but let's go to verse ten,

Jesus replied to the woman. So during that time, okay, context,

the woman was like, surprise, why is Jesus talking to me? First,

she didn't even know it was Jesus. Why is this

Jewish man talking to me. We're not supposed to be talking, right.

She probably felt quite inferior, right, because that's how they

are the Jews view.

Themselves higher than the Samaritans? Right?

Why are you talking to me? You know, a Jewish

man talking to a Samaritan woman.

We don't talk right, and you're asking me to draw

water for you. What's going on? Right?

And then Jesus said this verse ten, if you only

knew the gift God has for you and who you

are speaking to, you would ask me, and I will

give you living water. Wan need to highlight the word

living water. But sir, this is where the Samaritan woman replied,

you don't have.

A robe or a bucket, and this well is very deep.

When would you get this living water?

And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob,

who gave us this well? How can you offer better

water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?

Jesus replied, any one who drinks this water will soon

become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I

gave you'll never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh

bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. Again, familiar

scripture to many of us. I've got a question for us.

Have you ever ever asked this question? What is this

living water? Why is this living water. What do you

think is Jesus talking about We sing that a lot,

we say that a lot, we pray that a lot,

But what is actually living water? Okay, they're actually Jesus

answered this question. All right, We're gonna just flip through

a few more chapters later. Let's look at John chapter seven,

Verses they eight to thirty nine. Jesus answered this right,

Jesus say, is anyone who believes in me may come

and drink? For the scriptures declare revers of living water

will flow from his heart verse thirty nine.

This is where it is answered.

When he said living water, he was speaking of the

spirit who would be given to.

Everyone believing in him.

But the spirit had not yet been given because Jesus

had not yet entered into his glory.

Living water is the Holy Spirit.

So when Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman about

getting this living water, Jesus was telling her that this

is the gift that is prepared for you. The Holy

Spirit contacts again. The Samaritans probably were thinking us. If

you read more later, you'll find in the dialogue that

Jesus also addressed how the Jewish people were the chosen people,

but yet Jesus is now saying to a Samaritan that.

The Holy Spirit is for you. Okay. A lot of

a lot of things going on here, all right.

And when Jesus spoke in scripture, I did a bit

of study when he said, revers of living water will

flow from his heart. Do you guys know where this

is from? Okay, this is actually Jesus was quoting scripture.

He was quoting Ezekiel forty seven. So if you can

flee open to Ezekiel forty seven, we're going to go

through some verses there, all right, Ezekiel forty seven, verse

six to twelve. Ezekiel forty seven, Verse six to twelve.

All right, okay, let's go two days together. He asked me,

have you been watching Son of Men? Then he led

me back along the river bank. Now verse one to five.

You will see that actually he caught a vision. Is

he con caught a vision of water rising up?

Okay? Water rising up? Right?

So you're talking about this? He asked me, have you

been watching Son of Men? Then he led me back

along the river bank. When I returned, I was surprised

by the side of many trees growing on both sides

of the river. Then he said to me, this river

flows east through the desert into the valley of the

Dead Sea. The waters of this stream will make the

salty waters of the dead Sea fresh and pure. The

Dead Sea is the saltiest water body of water in

the world. All right again, contact, so when he said this,

it's actually quite powerful. The waters of this stream will

make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure.

There will be swarms of living things wherever the water

of this river flows. Fish we're abound in the dead Sea. Now,

if you guys know the dead sea, fish will only

flow up to the surface. Basically, they can't survive as well.

Right for its water will become fresh. Life will flourish

whereever wherever this water flows. Fishermen will stand along the

shores of the Dead Sea all the way from Engeddy

to n Iglem. The shores will be covered with nets

drying in the sun. Fish of every kind will fill

the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean, but

the marshes and swamps will not be purified.

They will still be salty.

Fruit Trees of all kinds will grow along both sides

of the river. The leaves of these trees will never

turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit

on their branches. There will be a new crop every month,

for they are watered by the river flowing from the temple.

The fruit will be for food, and the leaves for healing.

The vision that Ezekiel caught was water coming out of

the temple, the place where the presence.

Of God is right.

And we of course know that back then, when people

want to go and encounter the Lord, the priests will

have to go into the temple, right, But how many

of us know today the tabernacl is us.

God is in us all right?

So when he caught this vision of water flowing out

of the temple, this water, as mentioned in here, could

bring life. Something as dead as the dead sea could

have fresh water again. Fishes and life could be within

this body of water.

Trees will grow along.

The river banks with leaves that will not grow brown

or fall.

Right.

So Jesus was quoting this scripture when he talked about

the Holy Spirit, when he talked about the living water

that he also promised will come when he assents to God,

the Father's right hand side and friend, this living water.

The time of the Holy Spirit is now, and it's here.

You see, we talk about revival this year. That's our theme.

God wants to bring revival. There is God's desire. He

wants to bring restoration. God wants to revive what is

dead in us. And you know how he does it.

He does it through living water. He does it through

the Holy Spirit. So friends, do you have the Holy

Spirit with you today? Because you can't have revival without

the Holy Spirit. We learn these true homes as well,

we can't have revival. The Holy Spirit is the catalyst

for revival. Without the Holy Spirit, that can be no revival.

There can be no restoration. That can be no We

need the Holy Spirit. That's why in Acts we talk

about the baptism of the Holy Spirit a lot because

it's important because it is also what was promised by

Jesus that after he has sents the Holy spiritual come

upon us. The moment we receive there is where John

seventhey nine says, anyone who believes in me may come

and drink. For the scriptures declare rivers of living water

will throw from his heart, meaning to say, revers of

living water will flow not from.

Out to inn, but in outwards.

And that can only happen when the Holy spirit resides

with us within us.

Are we okay? So far okay?

I want to bring your attention to verse eleven of

easy Quill forty seven Marshals, marshals and psalms will not

be purified. This caught my attention because writes back in

the middle of the Scripture of God saying, Oh.

It's gonna be live.

That's gonna be you know, uh, there's gonna be trees,

there's gonna be a life of fishes.

Of uh, you know, the they will be filled with

live again.

There in the middle is a scripture MUSHes and swamps

shall not be purified for the and they shall remain salty.

Does that mean why did God just allow everything to

be purified, everything to have life except marshes and swamps.

Marshes and swamps, if.

You know a little bit about what they do, is

they retain water. Marshes and swamps uh areas. But that's

why you see, if people want to prevent uh, you know,

uh flooding and all that, it's important for the swamps

to be taken care of. Right, they cannot be removed, right,

It's quite important. But you see, mushans and swamps, they

retain water. And what I call from this is any

time we choose to retain things from the Lord, any

times we want to keep things in our life that

God is asking us to let go to surrender. God

cannot bring restoration. Living water cannot touch these places. It's

not that living water doesn't want to or it's incapable,

but because it's up to us, we have free will.

We have to decide. So as long as we.

Choose to retain certain things in our life, we choose

to have things our way, the Holy Spirit will not

be able to touch those.

Areas of our lives.

That's why in verse eleven it says, but the mushans

and swamps will not be purified, they will still be salty.

I'm gonna move back to the Samaritan woman. Jesus met

the Samaritan woman. Get this, Jesus met the Samaritan woman

while she was trying to hide. That is why she

went during noon time.

Nobody was there.

She didn't have to talk about herself, she didn't have

to talk about things. And you know in this scripture

that Jesus actually ignored addresses the sin in her life.

Right don't you think the community would know what the

woman has been doing. So there was a lot of

shame probably that a woman felt. I don't want to

see anyone. I don't want to meet anyone. I just

want to quietly go get the water, go back home.

Jesus met the Samaritan woman while she was trying to hide.

And actually that's what God does for us as well.

In the same way. He meets us, not when we

are prim and proper. He meets us, not when we

are well and happy. He meets us when we also

have things to hide, because those are the very things

that cause brokenness. Those are the very things that let's

not talk about it. Those are the things that deep

within our hearts that only we know many times. But

you see, God met the woman at the time when

she was trying to hide. Are there things that you're

hiding from the Lord? Are there things that you're hiding

from people? All of us, I think, have something like that.

Things are not too proud of, things are broken in

our lives that we don't quite dare to acknowledge because

acknowledging hurts. But Jesus wants to meet us in the

places where we are trying to hide, just just like

how in Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned. God came

into the garden and said, where are you, Adam? But

they were hiding. I think God knows where they are

at are but God was reaching out to them with love.

Where are you, Adam? And I believe that invitation is

the same to us as well. Where are you Stephen?

I want to meet you where you're hiding. I want

to meet you where you're feeling shame, where you're feeling broken.

And this is where it gets interesting. Notice the woman's

response when Jesus pointed out her sin a very sore spot,

the most broken, shameful part of the woman's life. Jesus

pointed out, yes, you've had multiple husbands and the person

you're staying with now is not even your husband.

If you're in that woman's shoe, imagine what.

Would your reaction be? Would it be self defense? Being

very defensive?

What do you know? Who are you? Again?

Women didn't know of Jesus before that inkling of a

This person's quite interesting Jewish men talking to me, But

she didn't know who Jesus was. If anyone comes out

to you and brings up something you're hiding, what would

be your first reaction?

It's a very source spot of our life. Think about that.

For a woman, I think I will be quite angry.

Who are you to say this to me?

I don't even know you, right, But I want you

to notice the woman's reaction. Not only did she not

get angry, not only did she not get defensive. Not

only she didn't deny, Because maybe there's many times our

reaction as well when people pointings out, no, my god, no,

I think it's okay, I'm okay. She this woman acknowledged

what Jesus said was true, and she really received.

What the Lord revealed.

When the Lord revealed that this is a problem in

your life, she responded by saying, Lord, you're right?

Are you a prophet? Lord?

And I think this is the word that is to

encourage us, because I really believe, even as believers, that

things we are hiding, sore spots, pain, brokenness, that sometimes

we even hide it from ourselves and pretend we're okay,

we're okay, okay, things that happened in our past. It's

in the pascity, Okay, we're all right. But again, remember

MUSHes and swamps, we'll not have living water. Are we

retaining those things and not surrendering to the Lord. Revival

and restoration will only come when we allow the most

broken parts of ourselves to be uncovered and exposed.

By staff. Right.

It's painful, sometimes even shameful, but here's the thing. If

we keep it covered, it will continue to rot and

it will cause problems that will manifest elsewhere. You'll start

to have Imagine for a moment, you have a wound

that's not healing. You just pretend it's not there, put

the plaster over it, put it right, pretend it's not there.

And if the wound is not treated, you'll continue to rot.

There will be infection. What happen is you start having fever.

You may even start having body ache, and you'll start

because the immune system is low, you'll start to invite

other viruses.

It will manifest.

Anything that we any brokenness that we can't try to

cover up or we try to pretend it's not there,

it will not only continue to be there, but it

will continue to become worse. And that's where the good

news comes in. The Lord wants to restore the broken

parts of our lives, but something has to happen first.

You have to open up the bandit and look at

the wound and it hurts her. Oh, man, they know

it was this bad. Oh there, I have a problem,

or that's very hard to acknowledge. Sometimes I have a problem.

No longer pretending that it's not there. But Jesus with love,

pointed out the woman's problem, And you know what was deeper.

Jesus was actually answering to her, You'll be looking for

fulfillment and love in all this men, But the answer

is in the living water that's going to come to you.

That's where you'll find true fulfillment. That was what Jesus

was telling her. I'm giving you a solution. Not only

did Jesus point out the issue, Jesus pointed out the solution.

Right.

The biggest step towards restoration is the humble, honest, acknowledgement

that there is a problem. And sometimes it is the

toughest thing for a Christian to do. I've got God

in my life, everything is okay, right, And sometimes it

becomes lipservice. You know, we just say it, how are

you okay? God is good? How are things in your life?

Okay? God is wayful?

Nothing wrong in declaring God's goodness, But if you're not

careful we may be hiding her, and the worst thing

is we are hiding, but yet we don't even realize

that we are doing that. Coming to an end now,

John fort thirty nine forty two, many Samaritans from the

village believe in Jesus because the woman had said, he

told me everything I ever did. Now this is after

Jesus has talked to her. Of course, they talked about

the whole worshipingtain in the mountain or in Jerusalem, that

one we won't be It's actually quite rich, a lot

of things in there, but I won't be touching that

because of time. So after the whole conversation, after being exposed,

after the woman is like, oh no, this man talk

about everything that I ever did. Exposed, this is what

the woman did. The woman went to the village where

she was hiding from, taking notre of that, went to

the village the very people she was hiding from, and

said this, he told me everything I ever did. When

they came out to see him, they begged him to

stay in their village. So he stayed for two days,

long enough for many more to hear his message and believe.

Then they say to the woman, now we believe, not

just because of what you told us, but because we

have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he's indeed

the savior of the woman of the world. And the woman,

having encountered God, get this. She has experienced a very,

very deep transformation because from a place of being afraid

of meeting people there, she was running to the village

proclaiming that he has revealed everything I ever did. Do

you think she's talking about drawing water, cooking day to

day life. She's talking about the sin, the brokenness. From

a place of fear and shame, she was able to

then just declare, this man revealed everything I ever did.

What happened here.

When she encountered Jesus, a deep transformation took place. She

acknowledged her sin, and when she encountered Jesus, shame was

taken away and in its place was freedom. That's why

she was able to go to very people that she

was hiding from and say the very thing and admit

the very thing that she was doing. Freedom and encourage

to live came into her life. And it all started

with allowing ourselves to be open to the lawn by revealing,

already acknowledging the things that we're hiding. Jesus meets us

where we are hiding. He doesn't meet us when we

are trying to impress. He meets us at times where

we don't want to meet him. How many of you

have had that? Me many times. God confronts me many

times I don't want to have anything to do with him,

when I want to pretend nothing happened. But God meets

us there because it's only true. Then we can experience restoration.

When living water, holy Spirit can do a workinness where

we no longer have these marshes and swamps to retain

the things that we're hiding, but to release. Then this

water of life can come into that area and bring restoration.

I've had the privilege of journeying with different ones who

I also resonate with, where there are things in the

past that's happened, maybe in our lives, either causing us trauma,

causing certain things to cause us to reac certain ways,

and sometimes we don't even realize. You see, we think

that I think, okay, well, there is in the past,

I've recovered, I've healed, do anything about it. But in Manifest,

right in Manifest, we respond reactions and that you heard

me share this before. I like saying sorry, even though

I didn't do anything wrong. When I preach a little stronger,

I would say sorry, but I have to ask myself,

why am I apologizing for preaching the truth. But I

realized it is actually a trauma reaction, trauma response from

my past, and I had to bring that before the Lord.

I just say, God, is there something that that needs healing?

And I needed to bring that rip off the band

aid ouch say God, I have a problem. I thought

I I have not, and it's causing problems right now.

In other areas of my life, I have the privilege

of journeying with people, talking to people who also have

the same thing, and many times we don't even realize

that we are covering up because we are so used

to saying I'm okay, I'm fine, it's not an issue.

But when you.

Really start to dig deeper, you start to realize there

are wounds in our past that has not been healed.

And God never meant for those wounds to stay as

wounds because God wants to make us whole, that is

his heart. God wants to make us well. God wants

to give living water to us, the Holy Spirit. I

don't know how many of us here are the Samaritan

women today where we are hiding.

We're afraid.

But why not take this opportunity to be vulnerable before

God and say, Lord, you reveal this in me. Maybe

you're confused about certain things? Why do I react like

this all the time? Why do I respond this way?

Let the Lord reveal to you. Because the Lord will

do that. Just say how Jesus spoke to the woman. Yeah,

you have this problem. The Lord will do the same

for us too, and he'll reveal. But we must first

be opened to not be swamps and Marcius, God, you

cannot touch this, cannot cannot It's okay God, no need,

no need. God wants to do a restoration work in you,

if only you will open yourself up to Him.

Amen.

I pray that we will truly experience revival in our

own lives, personal lives, because God is interested in that.

God is not interested in our performance as a Christian

in attendance.

No. God wants to see.

Us restored our relationship with Him, restored, our relationship with ourselves, restored,

our relationship with our family, restored. That is God's business.

He wants that for you. But do you want that

for yourself.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit aschurch do org. We

are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that

this week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you. God bless