#3 Living Water

Opening

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• It's Sunday morning prayer time. Pastor asks if anyone needed to be prayed for for anything. Up to the alter went Boudreaux. Pastor asked Boudreaux what is your need my brother? Boudreaux said: I would like for you to pray for my hearing ? Pastor begin praying with his hands on Boudreaux's ears. After a few minutes of praying. Pastor asked how's your hearing Boudreaux? Boudreaux says : mas I don't know Pastor it's not until tomorrow morning at da courthouse.

Message Opening

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Hebrews 12:1–2 NKJV

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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• Story for today:

John 4:4–14 NKJV

4 But He needed to go through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

• Much to interpret

• “Living Water” - what is it? What does he mean?

• And how does it become a “fountain of water springing up into everlasting life”?

• To understand, we must start here:

The “Living Water” referred to by Jesus is the Holy Spirit which was not yet given.

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John 7:37–39 NKJV

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

• Take HS for granted

• Speak lightly of him

• Forget the HUGE import and impact he has and can have on our lives

• So living water and HS are synonymous

• The difference is that, when referred to as LW, Jesus is speaking of the impact it should have on us and on our lives.

• But how do we sort that out?

• Paul gives us a hint:

1 Corinthians 15:44–46 NKJV

44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.

• many parallels between the natural world and the spiritual

• Entire OT is in the natural, yet it points plainly to our spiritual lives

• When Jesus used the term water - LW - to describe the HS, keep in mind, he is the creator

John 1:3 NKJV

3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

• he, more than anyone, knew what water means to the natural body, and I think that in using the term, he meant to apply it to our spiritual bodies - our spiritual walk

• Just as our body and its organs thirst for water, the living part of us, the spirit, also longs for refreshing.

• We have tried to satisfy it with things of this world - wealth, fame, power, things, but none of them work.

• The only quenching for the thirst of the Spirit IS the Spirit of God - the living water.

• And in having that effect on our spiritual (and natural) lives, that water will eventually spring up into everlasting life

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What Does Water Do?

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Water can help you eat healthier

• In a study of more than 18,300 American adults, people who drank just 1 percent more water a day ate fewer calories and less saturated fat, sugar, sodium, and cholesterol

• helps keep you full

• satiates you

Living Water helps you live healthier

Ephesians 5:15–20 NLT

15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. 20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Water breaks down and delivers essential minerals and nutrients to the body to keep it healthy

• Mayo Clinic

• without water, these things would pass right trough the body without every doing you one bit of good

• Things that our body would never get the benefit of become available through the power of water

• bodies crave the nutrients that keep it healthy and strong

• if water does that for us, what does the living water do?

Living Water breaks down and delivers essential spiritual nutrition

• look at this text:

Ephesians 4:18 NKJV

18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;

• There are essential elements of the life that God intended for us tpo have that we will never be able to breakdown or absorb without the living water

1 Corinthians 2:9–12 NKJV

9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

• Spirit gives understanding

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Water Keeps Your Cardiovascular System Healthy

• Lev 17:14 tells us that life is in the blood

• blood carries life to all parts of the body

• lack of water lessens the supply of blood - heart has to work harder, dizzieness, weakness

Living Water keeps the Spirit man healthy

John 6:63 NKJV

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

Water intake keeps you from becoming dehydrated

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John 4:4

Living Water is a well inside of you that never runs dry

• A living source -

• Well can be stopped up with junk and refuse

• But if kept open, it flows continuously

John 4:14 NLT

14 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.”