The Real Living Water

Welcome

Welcome back to INDE!! We are ready to see what God is going to do this semester, and it begins tonight!

When you came in, you may have noticed the Check-In Kiosks around the room. Make sure to check in before you leave, if you haven’t already! We’ll be using those check-ins for some cool stuff, like giveaways and such during the semester!

Tonight, Our goal is to encourage you as you enter into the new school year. But sometimes there are some things that need to happen before we can be encouraged.

Sometimes we have some business that we need to do with the Lord in order for us to be in a place where we are ready for the Lord to work in our life.

So tonight, as we enter into a time of worship, My prayer is that you will use this time to Evaluate your life, tell God thank you, and let go of the burdens that are holding you back from having the relationship with Jesus that you need!

So if you would, let’s stand together, and sing! Knowing that the creator of the Universe is listening!

Pray

Worship Set

Semester Plan

Over the Past several Years, we’ve seen the culture shift like never before. You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it. We’ve seen a post Covid world that realized that the way they were doing life before the pandemic, is not how they want to continue doing it.

Where making a ton of money used to be the goal, now more and more people are looking for ways to make their lives matter.

The Big bank account, the cars, the toys don’t have the same shine that they used too.

While we all aged physically at the same rate, our emotional age was either stunted or accelerated.

Some are still just as obsessed with all of the other stuff, but some grew up faster than normal and realized something that used to be reserved for those in the latter parts of their lives.

We are not promised tomorrow, so let’s make the most of today.

Let’s not wait until we’re married with Kids to follow Jesus. Let’s do it NOW!

Let’s not subscribe to the lie that “Kid’s are gonna be kids” so that we can live sinful lives.

Let’s not wait for someone to tell us, Let’s start a movement of God, A Revival here in Arab NOW!!

But how do i do that?

I’m glad you asked. This Semester, we’re going to be giving you the tools to do exactly that! To go out and start a movement among your peers.

Whether or not you do it, is up to you!

Sermon Body

Grab your Bibles and go with me to John 5.

If we look at any great movement throughout history, the first ingredient is always the same.

Belief brings movement

We join things because we believe they will bring our lives value.

We follow people because we believe in what they are doing.

Movements begin because a group of people believe that the world needs what they believe in!

Passage background

That’s exactly what we see in John 5.

Someone who is worth Believing in.

John 5:1–9 ESV

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

Transition

To understand this passage, we have to first understand some things about Jewish Culture.

This is picture of Jerusalem during the time of our passage.

People from all over would come to back to celebrate the different feasts.

Jerusalem was a walled city, so people would have to enter through different gates. You’ll see several on the picture.

Here, Not only is Jesus entering into Jerusalem, He would have also been preparing to enter into the Temple. Which means that He would have to cleanse himself in “Living Water”.

Basically, they Believed that only water that had naturally moved could clean you, like rain runoff water, stream water, etc.

Stale dingy still water wouldn’t do the trick.

So the created these things called Mekveh’s. Places at each gate where people could be cleansed.

This is what the ours would have looked like.

Archaeologists have actually found it.

Now that you understand, let’s look at verses 1-5

The Reality of Brokenness

John 5:1–5 ESV

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

So Jesus has come to this pool before he enters the temple for the feast, and finds a ton of poor, sick, people who were living in filth.

The Sheep Gate was for sacrificial animals, not people. but for some reason people were here.

But why?

It’s believe that the people believed that this place had angelic healing properties.

If we look back at the picture of the mekveh, the pool. (Explain the water storage and transport process)

So they would see the water bubbling and think that whoever the first one to make it into the water would be healed.

The people had come here because they were desperate for anything that could heal them. Anything that could give them relief. Anything that could save them.

One of these stands out, because He’s been dealing with this for 38 years.

So Jesus asks the:

The Priceless Question

John 5:6 ESV

6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

It was a simple question. That has the same simple answer today as it did then.

OF COURSE!!

We all want to be healed. But life has taught us that there’s always a catch. There’s always more. There’s always a reason to doubt.

We’ve been taught that it’s a dog eat dog world, and only the strongest survive.

So we do one of two things.

We give up, or Give in to the Lie.

John 5:7 ESV

7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

As soon as Jesus asked Him if He wanted to be healed. He immediately went on the defensive.

It’s like he thinks Jesus is criticizing him for not having made it into the water yet. But that wasn’t what Jesus was doing at all!

Jesus saw the lie that Jon Courson put to paper so well.

“Tradition said the first one in the pool after the water stirred would be healed. That's what the law, religion, and man's regulations always say. "Be the first. Be the best. Try harder. Fight your way to the top. God helps those who help themselves."

This man had given in to the lie for so long, that He had gotten to the point of giving up. Because the truth was, that the water didn’t have the power that they thought it did. And the one who did, was standing right beside him.

It’s here that we see a beautiful picture of what following Jesus is really like. We see

The Undeserved Delivery

John 5:8 ESV

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

Even when Jesus seeks him out, he responds with an ugly comment, complaining about no help. What does Jesus do? He doesn’t say, “Well, if only he had asked me,” or, “He deserves to be alone and miserable,” or, “I gave him a chance, and he failed.” In his grace he looks past the man’s failure, the man’s sin, and he restores him. He makes him whole.

He didn’t expect this man to understand everything right away. To know all of the right answers. To know the scripture. None of that. He knew that all of that would come later. He just Healed him.

Jesus can do the same for you. He has eyes to see past your hard exterior, past your brokenness, and he can make you whole.

He Loves us!

and because of His power and love we see:

The Immediate Change

John 5:9 ESV

9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

No Surgery, No Therapy, No Soreness, No recovery time. The Man who had spent most of his life without the use of his limbs, stood up and walked as though nothing had ever been wrong.

I am sore after sitting the wrong way for like 20 minutes, but this man stood up and walked away.

How many of us are holding back something as a back up plan to Jesus?

We are willing to give Him a portion of our trust, a portion of control, a portion of our lives. But in the back of our minds we’re still believing in the lie that for some reason we’re different from this man. Somehow because of our past, because of our family, because of our upbringing, the Lord can’t, or won’t, take care of us like He did this man.

He knows that we feel empty.

He knows that we feel depressed.

He knows that we feel hopeless.

He knows that we feel unheard.

He knows that we are thirsty for something better than this world can give.

Hear Jesus’s words tonight. Hear his:

Personal Call

John 7:37–38 ESV

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

Do you want to see a movement of God in this community?

Do you want to be a part of that movement?

Before you can do that. You must first Believe Jesus is where that movement must start, and follow Him.

If you’re a Christian, maybe you need to refocus your life on Him tonight. You can do that where you are, or you can come forward and pray.

Or maybe you’re not a Christian, and you’d like to be. I’ll be in the back, along with several of our leaders.

Know that we are available to pray with you, whether it be for things going on in your life, or lead you in praying to receive Jesus as your Savior, and to answer any questions that you may have.

As our band gets ready, I’ll Pray, They’ll Sing, and we’ll see what the Lord has in store for us!

Pray

The door is open, you just have to walk through it.