The Shepherd and Sheep: Being Watered

Lord Jesus, thank you for another wonderful day.

Another opportunity to come and worship you, another opportunity to be in your house, and

to receive your spirit into our lives to lead us and guide us in the ways that you

want us to go. Father, we're very blessed to be here. Lord, as I've said the past few

weeks, it's a privilege. Lord, it's a wonderful privilege to have the health, to

just come here as there are many people in our church who don't have that

privilege right now. So, Father, as we gather and we get to worship and

celebrate and fellowship with other people and sing songs, read scripture, God, we

pray for our many brothers and sisters who aren't able to do that today. Lord, I

especially lift up to you, Ms. Lullery and Sis, as they're just in a really

difficult stage of life right now. God, I pray that you would touch them in a

special way today that you would send your spirit to minister to them and give

them peace and joy in a very hard situation and circumstance. Father, I pray

for Ms. Jackie Scruggs as she gets ready to have surgery this week, Lord, that

you would be with her. Pray for Ms. Helen Scruggs as she prepares to have

surgery and pray for Mr. James Cranfield. God, that you would just touch these

people and guide the doctor's hands and the nurse's hands, and Lord, that you would

just work all these things out. I know there's many other needs, many other

situations in life that we're struggling through, and Lord, I pray that you would

work in moving those things as you see fit and as we need. But Father, in this

moment, let us hold our ears and our hearts on you. Help us to forget what's out

those doors for just a moment, and let us hone in on the things that you want to

do within our hearts and lives, because you love us and you care about us and

you paid a very high price for us. God, help us to come to you and to truly be

yours. Father, we love you, we thank you, and we ask all this in Jesus' precious and

holy name, all God's people said, amen, you may be seated.

We started our new series last week on the shepherd and his sheep. It's one of the

most common analogies for us as believers that it compares our relationship to

God to. That we are his sheep, he's our shepherd, and a lot of times as we

receive Jesus as Lord, if we cry out to him for forgiveness of sins and we won't

eternal life, we really don't understand what we're signing up for. And that's why

Jesus turned to the crowds and he says, look, before you follow me, you need to

count the cost, because even though salvation is free and I'm gonna pay the

price for your sins, as you follow me, there's still a cost that's associated

with it. And one of the costs that we talked about last week as we enter into

his fold, we're adopted into his family as we become his sheep, is that it's

his responsibility to feed us. Now as people, we all have cravings of the food

that we desire. I've mentioned some of those that I had last week and I came

Wednesday night to the Bible study and I had a pack of Reese's cups. I was very

thankful for that. I didn't need it, but I was very thankful for it. But we

all have cravings that we desire and a lot of times the things that we crave

and the things that we won't aren't necessarily what's the healthiest and

most beneficial for us. And that's a problem, that's an issue that we have

to resolve as people. And that could be in very broad aspects of our life, whether

it's food or whatever, hobbies, anything. We are typically drawn as people to

things that aren't really good for us. Like when you sit around and you're

trying to raise kids, 99% of the things that they want to do are dangerous and

bad for them. Everything that they want to eat is terrible. Everything that they

want to do, all the words that they learn and they want to say are the bad

ones, they never want to say the good ones. I mean it's just like that's what

we're drawn to as people. And we have to recognize that. So coming to God into

His flock and allowing Him to feed us is one of the first parts of that process.

And I'm gonna get Pastor, or I'm gonna get Matthew to throw the Psalm 23 up on

the screen for you. I'm not gonna read it. It's a super popular passage. It's the

one that everybody uses as funerals. We talked about it last week, but I want

to remind you this morning that when this Psalm was written, it was written by

a living person. It was not written by a dead person. It was not written by

somebody who was dying. It was not written after someone had died. David wrote this

from as far as we know in the prime of his life when things were going

relatively well. He was acknowledging this relationship between Him and the

Lord, and this is one of the reasons why he was considered a man after God's own

heart, because he understood where he was and where God was in the

relationship of things. And we talked last week about how one of the shepherds

responsibilities is to feed the sheep, and how Jesus not only feeds us, He not

only leads us to green pastures, but He also prepares a feast for us in the

presence of our enemies. We love to talk about food. Food's important, right? Food

is not nearly as important as what you drink. Do you know that? It's not. We

spend most of our days thinking about what's for breakfast, what's for lunch,

what's for supper, where do you want to eat, or are you gonna cook, what's

gonna be the quickest, what's gonna be easiest, what I'm like craving on this

day. We talk a lot about food. We talk very little about what we drink,

because whether it's water or our drink of choice, it has become so easily

accessible we never think about it. You know your body's 60% of water. It takes

a lot of effort to maintain the moisture content of your body, so much

more effort than you realize you take it for granted. You know how long you can

go without food? A normal healthy person can go 30 to 70 days without food. You

know how long you can go without water? Three to four at max. You know what

happens when you go one day without water? The consequences are immediate. You

can feel it. There's a need for us in our lives to be hydrated, to have drink, and I

don't know about you guys, but I'm sure you probably have your drinks of choice.

How many of you love water? Culp's probably the only one who actually

really loves. All of you are raising your hand. Culp's the only person I know who

actually really drinks water. I love mellow yellow. It's like one of the worst

drinks you can drink. I love coffee. I love sweet tea. I love Pepsi. I love all the

things that are bad for you just like with food, and I have to make myself and

be very conscious of water, especially when I work some on the side and I do

outside work. I have to be very conscious of the amount of water that

you drink because it escapes quickly, especially in the weather that we've

had lately. Water is the most important thing you can drink, and it's amazing how

many analogies they are that God has that we're gonna read through the day of

Jesus inviting us to come to him to receive life-giving water. One of the

things about a shepherd is in Psalm 23 it says, he leads us beside peaceful

streams, and especially if you're a young person you think that sounds

boring. We want to go down white water rapids. We want to ride the roller

with calls, see the waterfalls. We want to drink from fire hydrants. We want life to

be exciting, and peaceful streams may sound boring. The older you get, the more

exciting peaceful streams sound, but that's where he wants to lead us. What

God has for us to drink is so much better than what so many of us have

been drinking. Same thing with food. There are gonna be things that you

prefer in life. There are gonna be things that you crave, but that's your flesh.

The Spirit has a craving, and a lot of times we're trying to satisfy that

craving, and we don't know how. In John chapter 7 verses 37 through 39, Jesus is

John 7:37–39

speaking to the crowds, and John records this, and he says, on the last day, the

climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, anyone who is

thirsty may come to me. Anyone who believes in me may come and drink, for

the Scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart. And 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. So notice this morning, that number one, when

we're talking about drinking water, we're talking about receiving the Holy Spirit.

Okay, that's the analogy. That's the common analogy. You see that all

throughout the passages we're gonna read. Invites us to come and drink, to receive

the Holy Spirit. It is an eternal source. It lives within us. It bubbles up.

It produces its own fruit. It quenches the thirst from within. It is what

gives us eternal life. Alright, that's what we're talking about, the Holy Spirit.

Now, notice also that it says it had not been given yet because Jesus had not yet

entered into his glory. But Jesus invited them in the moment to come and drink in

that moment because there is a process for us to come to Christ first in faith

to receive what he has to give. So I guarantee you, if you're in here

this morning and you never received Christ, chances are you have not

understood what it's like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And even if you have

received Christ, you may not yet understand what it's like to be

filled with the Holy Spirit. But it's something that God very much has for

you. Remember the disciples followed Jesus for up to three years, and then they had

to stay into Jerusalem for 40 days before they received the Holy Spirit in

the upper room, and they had to stay there and pray and wait for the Holy

Spirit to be sent. When the Holy Spirit was sent, it changed everything. Jesus

Christ's purpose for our life is not just to proclaim him as Lord and Savior,

but it is to receive the Spirit of God, the life-giving waters in our life that

flows, produces eternal life, and produces a fruit from him over and over

and over again. Because if you don't receive it, being a Christian is

exhausting. There should be an amen with that. Because if you've ever tried to do it

on your own, it's exhausting. You can't do it. You cannot be good enough to do

everything the Scripture requires you to do. You cannot treat others the way

the Scripture requires you to treat them. You can't love other people the way

Scripture requires you. You can't be obedient to the law. You can't seek God.

You will not want to pray. You will not want to read Scripture. You will not

want to go to church absent of the Holy Spirit. You can do it under your own

strength for a little while, but you will be very, very tired. But if you receive

the Spirit in your life and you have that bubbling up forth from you, what's

amazing is that you find joy in all of the things that some people find

exhausting. And that's the difference. It's the Spirit. It's the water that

Jesus gives. So point number one this morning is we are all thirsty. Whether

you realize it or not, we are all extremely, extremely thirsty. We all need

nourishment and we desperately need water. This is one of the greatest analogies

because food's important, but water is so much more important. At best three to

four days and within one day you begin to feel the immediate effects of not

drinking water. From the onset of one day without having water, the hydration

begins to set in. You have intense thirst. Your urine turns dark. You begin to feel

fatigued. You have headaches. You have digestive issues. I don't know if you

know this or not, but if you have digestive issues, you might just need to

drink more water. It's one of the main components for you to have a healthy

digestive system. Can't do it without it. Your kidneys begin to store water to

save fluid and so then you can't release the toxins from your body that

are there that's designed for your urine to do. Like it's to remove the toxins

from your body. Your body begins to hold in toxins as a result and then your

blood volume begins to drop because you can't produce blood without water. Your

body immediately begins to shut down one day without water and there's no

better analogy because what happens when we begin to be robbed of the Holy

Spirit that's supposed to be in our life, our spiritual body, our spiritual lives,

immediately begin to break down. We were meeting last night and there's

some guys who meet together and pray and stuff and we were there last night.

One of them quoted a theologian named Charles Spurgeon and he says, why do you

drink water? It's not that the Holy Spirit is not sufficient enough to fill us and

keep filling us, it's the fact that we live in an imperfect body. I don't know

if you know this or not but you can drink plenty of water and be hydrated

today but if you don't drink water tomorrow what's gonna happen? You're

gonna be dehydrated and if you spend all day drinking coffee which is a

diuretic you're probably gonna lose most of your moisture content even though

you're consuming fluids. You think I drink plenty but you're not

drinking what you actually need, what your body needs. You may crave the sugar,

you may crave the caffeine, you may crave the flavor but it's not giving you what

you're actually thirsting for. So we need the Holy Spirit in our lives and

chances are most of us this morning at some point in time before was trying to

fill the hole inside of ourselves with something that we were craving, our own

particular drink of choice that we wanted rather than filling it with the

Spirit. But the truth is is that the void that's within our life that makes us

thirst so much can only be quenched with the Spirit. I don't know if you know

that or not but you cannot quench your thirst without water and some of you

may say, man I hate drinking water, water's gross. It's like nah dude

you're not craving fluid, you're not craving water, you're not craving to be

hydrated. You're craving the sugar, you're craving the caffeine, you're craving the

taste, you're craving all the stuff that your body has gotten accustomed to but

really what you need like when you're thirsty you need water. Everything else

is just extra that you really don't necessarily need. Water is the best

thing for you. The Holy Spirit is exactly what God has created you to

have and so if you try to fill your life with other forms of drink of your

choice you're gonna find yourself being thirsty most of the time. You're gonna

find yourself wanting. You watch people who drink stuff like other stuff, they're

walking around, they're drinking coffee all day long. Never quenches the thirst.

They'll drink energy drinks, they'll drink coats like you watch people drink

in soft drinks, sweet tea, they just drink it all day long. It never quenches

thirst. Water is the only thing that truly quenches your thirst. Other than

that you're just constantly gonna be thirsty. In Revelation 7 verses 15

Revelation 7:15–17

through 17 John gives us one of the very few

imageries that we have of what heaven is gonna be like and look at what he said

about the people around God's throne. In verse 15 of chapter 7 he says, that is

why they stand in front of God's throne and serve him day and night in

his temple and he sits on the throne and he who sits on the throne will give

them shelter. They will never again be hungry or thirsty. They will never be

scorched by the heat of the sun for the lamb on the throne will be their

shepherd and he will lead them to springs of life-giving water and God will

wipe away every tear from their eyes. We are a thirsty people who need to drink

and you have to decide this morning in your life what your drink of choice is

going to be. Are you gonna drink from the fountain of life-giving water that

Christ has for you? Are you gonna continue to drink from the fountains or

your drinks of choice in this life that you're trying to satisfy yourself with?

And you know in your heart this morning whether or not you're drinking from

Christ or you're drinking from something else because you can feel it, you know

it, and whatever this is being said right now and the scriptures being read

is convicting you. And you have to decide whether or not you're gonna be

obedient to that. Point number two, we cannot satisfy our own thirst no matter

how much we try. Every drink that we have that exists, people may love it,

people may want it, but every single one of them leaves us thirsting for more

water is really the only thing that you can drink till you get to the point

where you're just like, I don't want anything anymore. And it can quench you

for a time. It can quench that thirst for a time, but guess what? You'll need

to drink it again eventually, but it's truly the only thing that quenches our

thirst. In John chapter 4 verses 10 through 16, Jesus is passing through

John 4:10–16

Samaria. He comes to a well. He sits down beside the well and he sends the

disciples into town to go pick up some supplies. And as he's sitting there

a Samaritan woman comes to the well and he has this amazing interaction with her.

And what's funny is is if you don't know like biblical history and stuff,

Samaritans and Jews were not supposed to associate with one another. They hated

each other. And we can get into all that later on, but they despise one another.

And so as the Samaritan woman comes, it's very obvious that Jesus is a

Jewish person, and so he's sitting there and she comes up and he says,

can you get me some water? And she said, sir, if you knew who I was, you wouldn't

be asking me for water. And then this is how he responds. In verse 10, Jesus

replied, if you only knew the gift God had for you and who you are speaking

to, you would ask me and I would give you living water. But sir, you don't have

a rope or a bucket, she said, and this well is very deep. Where would you get this

living water? Pretty good questions, right? I don't know if you've ever looked down

into a well, usually they're pretty far down. It's not something that's easily

accessible. Extremely difficult to dig a well and to do it in a safe manner.

Extremely difficult to draw water out of it. Now thankfully we have technology

that helps us in America, but when you go to somewhere like Haiti, we actually

saw these guys digging a well with like some reed bar, a frisbee, and a

five-gallon bucket. And they were about 20 feet down whenever we were there. It

was amazing to watch. But when you start talking about the questions that

this woman's asking, very practical questions. She's looking at Jesus and

she's saying, look, you can't give me water. You don't have what it takes to

give me water. And there's some of us who sit here this morning and we think

we're talking about this like, dude, you don't know what my life is like. You

don't know how deep of the hole I'm in. Jesus don't have a rope long enough and

a bucket big enough to give me what I need. And there's questions there. There's

hesitations, there's reserves, that she's not ready to buy into what Jesus is

offering because she truly doesn't understand what Jesus is talking about.

In verse 12 she continues to say, 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 enjoy? I don't know if you realize this or not, but

Jacob existed way before Jesus and this woman are having this talk. This well

was dug hundreds of years prior to this moment. This well had been

producing water to sustain life for people for hundreds of years. This is

pre-going down to Egypt before the famine. This is pre-Exodus. This is pre 40

years in the wilderness. This is pre hundreds of years of the judges and the

prophets and the exile and returning to Jerusalem and then the 400 years of

silence leading up to Jesus coming in the New Testament. Hundreds of years!

This well has produced water and she's like, you think you have something better

than what this well can offer? It's been producing water for hundreds of

years. Very practical question because there's some of you in here right now

and you think, man, Jesus can't give me any more than I got. I got a job. I got

money. I got food. I got everything I need. What more does he have to give

than what I already have? And the truth is that he has infinitely more to give.

But a lot of times we can't see it because we're so focused on the world.

We're so focused on what's right in front of us. We can't see beyond for

what Jesus has for us to give us not just now but also in the future. Remember

Jesus told the people in our focus passage in John 7, come and drink. But

yet the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not entered into his

glory. He called them to come in faith to receive what was going to come later.

And for a lot of us in this room in our lives, we've had to come in faith

years ago. Some of us may still need to come in faith now to receive something in

the future. You may not understand it at this moment. You may not understand it

tomorrow or next week or next month, but eventually as you have trust in faith

in Jesus Christ, you will experience the wonderful amazing provision that God has

for you in your life. And the water that he gives is most certainly better

than the water that this woman's been enjoying. In verse 13 Jesus replied,

anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink

the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh bubbling spring

within them, giving them eternal life. What we all have sought after as we have

professed Jesus as Lord and asked him to forgive us of our sins, we were seeking

after eternal life. And Jesus is telling this Samaritan woman, look, the source of

eternal life is the living water, the Spirit that comes and dwells within us

and produces a never-ending spring that gives us eternal life. That is part of

the process. It was always meant to be part of the process. And in verse 15 the

woman says, please sir, the woman said, give me this water. Because that sounds

right. That sounds great, right? I mean, think about it. For several times a day the

woman had to go to the well and draw water. She'd never have to walk to the

well again. She'd never have to draw the water. It's like one major convenience.

We take it for granted because we just go in the kitchen or we go in the

turn the faucet on and we enjoy our water that's basically free. And we just

think, oh, it's easy. This woman would never have to say, please sir, give me this

water because that sounds really good. I'd love to not have to thirst again, to

not have to come after this again, because the woman is still focused on

the physical and Jesus is talking about the spiritual. So there's still a lack

of understanding. They're not meeting eye to eye in this moment. And in verse

16, Jesus drops the bomb on her. This is the one that we all hate. Like we like

all the other parts, but then verse 16 makes it real hard. He says, go and get

your husband, Jesus told her. And if you know the story, you know the woman

doesn't have a husband. She's living with a man out of wedlock and she's

had five previous husbands. And truthfully, she's been drinking her

drinks of choice for this whole time. She's been maneuvering throughout life

for what best suited her, surviving the best that she knew how, probably doing

the best that she could, making sure that she was provided for to just be

with a man and doing the best that she could. And Jesus drops a bomb on her,

says, look, because I want you to think about this today. Jesus sat there and

waited on her. He had an ordained meeting with her. He did not despise her

for her mistakes. He did not despise her for her wrongdoings or whatever

was going on in her life. He called it out because he had something way better

for her. Jesus does not despise us because of our sin. He despises us

because we refuse to submit to him and let him take care of it. So he drops the

bomb on the woman, says, go get your husband, but she can't, she doesn't have

one. And that whole area of her life has been a mess. And that's been the fountain

or the mud hole that she's been drinking out of her entire life. And the truth

is, is that Jesus has a fresh spring of water that's never-ending, that provides

everything that she needs to sustain her and keep her and to give her eternal

life. And as much as that appealed to her, there was something in her life that she

had to deal with and surrender before she could receive what God had for her.

And that's what we have to understand this morning. We cannot satisfy our own

thirst. We cannot drink from our own mud puddles and garden hoses and all these

other places of life that we think, man, they're just great because it's all

you've ever known. It's all you've ever done. It's like, why is this so bad? Why

does this have to be simple? Look, man, I would love to give you a great

explanation. It wasn't me. I didn't decide it. The only thing I can read to you is

what Scripture says. But I promise you, and I believe with all my heart, that

whatever God has for you to drink is infinitely better than whatever it is

that you've been drinking. Because what he gave me to drink was infinitely better

than what I was drinking. And I know that personally. And we can't satisfy our own

body. We have to go to him for our drink. We're all thirsty. We all need

spiritual nourishment. We all need the Holy Spirit in our life. And we can't

survive without it. To go one day without water is basically your body

beginning to shut down and die. That's kind of scary to think about.

And Hannah talks about this with little kids and stuff, that keeping kids

hydrated affects their bodies and their moods and their ability to learn. And all

these things, significantly, hydration is so important. And to go one day

without it, your body begins to shut down. To go one day without the feeling

of the Holy Spirit in our life, we begin to shut down. We begin to deteriorate

immediately because God did not design us to be apart from him. He designed us

to be filled with himself, to be filled with his Spirit. And another awesome

part is, in Isaiah 55 verse 1, Isaiah is prophesying about the coming of Christ.

Isaiah 55:1

He's prophesying about the forgiveness and goodness of the Lord. And he says,

is anyone thirsty? Come and drink. Even if you have no money, come and take

your choice of wine or milk. It's all free. And I don't know if you've ever been

in this situation before, but yes, after you drink enough water after a while, you

kind of become like, I don't want water anymore, I would just really like a soft

drink, or I want something, I want some sweet tea. You just want something else

to drink besides water after a while. And God understands that. This is exactly why

God led the people of Israel not to a place flowing with streams and rivers,

but to a land flowing with milk and honey. Why he invites people to come, come.

Even if you don't have money, come and drink, because it's free. Wine and milk,

because God doesn't just have the Holy Spirit and this whole idea of

boringness and these peaceful streams, like you're just gonna lay around all

time and you're not gonna do anything. No, God has so much more for you

than that. But truthfully, we have to come to him and receive what he has

for us to be nourished and to get to the point where we are so hydrated and we're

exactly where we're supposed to be and then he begins to give us more. He begins

to give us milk, honey, wine, all the good things that he has for us because we

need those things too. We can receive nourishment and vitamins and all those

things from all those other things and it's all free. So this morning as we sit

here, it's all free. There's nothing holding you back from being filled with

the Spirit of God. God designed your relationship with him to be receiving

him as Lord and Savior and then to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It was

always part of the plan. The only thing that's keeping us from being filled

with the Holy Spirit is the inability for us to surrender to the Lord. Some

of us have been drinking out of a fire hydrant and we just think it's normal.

Some of us have been drinking from a waterfall and just drowning and think,

well, this is just life. Some of you's been drinking out of a toilet. Some of

you's been drinking out of a mud hole and you don't know any different and

God has so much better than that. God has so much better for us than to just

consume what we think is normal and what we think is okay. Do not rely on your own

judgment. I cannot rely on my own judgment. I'm not a good judge of what's

right and wrong. God is the ultimate judge. He's the one that we will

stand before and give an account of. Trust in him. Come to him all who are

thirsty and he will give you streams of life-giving water that bubbles up from

within and produces eternal life. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for the

opportunity to come and to cry out to you. Thank you for the opportunity to

come and sing and pray and read your word and thank you for being a shepherd

who literally wants to provide for us. Lord, you want to feed us and you want to

give us drink. And Lord, I pray that you would help us not to be stubborn. Help us

not to be people who think that we can just do it ourselves, but Lord help us

to just lean into you and allow you to take care of us because you can do it

so much better than we can. Lord, help us to have faith and trust in you and

not to just say it, but to show it with the way that we act and live by surrendering

fully to you. Lord, we love you today. Thank you for this opportunity and we

ask all of us in Jesus' name. Amen.