Living Water

A Holy Cleansing

Did You Get Enough to Eat and Drink?

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To appreciate the impact of Jesus’ promise we need to understand the first-century water-pouring ritual during this feast [], For the first six days of the feast they used to fill a golden flagon with water from the Pool of Siloam and carry it back to the temple. When they reached the Water Gate, three blasts from a ram’s horn, trumpet were sounded. When they arrived at the temple, they processed around the altar and sang from , “The Hallel which is a Jewish prayer of praise and thanksgiving, everybody joined in. Sounds like they were getting there praise on. The flagon was taken to the priest on duty at the altar who had two silver bowls, one for the water and the other for wine. These bowls were filled and then the contents poured over the altar. On the seventh day they processed around the altar seven times. People believed that when the Messiah came he would provide water (as he would provide manna) just as Moses had done.

My Sermon Focus: Looking at our Spirit Man, and Woman. We put so much mess into our bodies, knowingly, and unknowingly. Sin of Commission, and sins of omission. Our time clocks are on a constant gotta get there yesterday! Jesus was not a hurry get there type of guy why because, scripture tells us in there is nothing new under the sun.

Purpose: We have all the power of the Holy Spirit at our disposal. We have not because we ask not [ ] Lets not be passive in our direction of seeking Gods promises on our lives.

Question: What must happen for a cleansing to take place?

· By focusing on our task at hand, not letting our objective become over bearing, and asking ourselves what would Jesus think about how I’m reacting.

1) There must be a willingness to commit to going then distance.

You don’t want to be the one that leaves early.

Practical Application: Store your treasures in heaven!

· By purposefully surrounding ourselves with Godly things.

Read ; People are going to judge you, things are going to break, cars are going to break, clothes are going to get a little tighter. If what you are doing is bringing God the Glory and its’ for God’s sake, shout it to the mountain tops what a blessing. Everything in this life God will provide for you.

See there is a Kingdom of God being erected right here on this planet…. Don’t miss that! Kingdom minded is not judgmental minded, see when I said a Kingdom of God is being erected right here on Earth, some of you might a cringed. I didn’t say a New Heaven and a new earth, I said a Kingdom of God. Look at “The Sermon on The Mount”

See being judgmental can bring on a self-righteousness, and just plainly saying, sometimes we are our biggest headache. We will call sister so in so, cut sports center on, take a walk, go for a drive, now walking and taking a drive are not bad things, but my God is a way maker. The righteous thereof; this means that God knows what you need, when you need it, and how you need it. If we knew what was going to happen in our life next year we would kill ourselves trying to prepare for it. vs.27 There should be a visible consecration of your seeking God first.

Practical Application: Grow your Kingdom Agenda

· By understanding the painful, sinful, and unprofitable evil way we allow anxiety to control our thoughts and our actions.

Read ; Most of our anxieties are due to our bondage to a world of pleasure seeking, or looking for approval from our peers. When we don’t get it we begin to rebuke those that are not on our team, or those that are working harder than us for the Kingdom of God, (HATERS IS WHAT WE CALL THEM). Preacher ain’t no haters in the Bible, what about Martha hating on Mary in . The slave of God can enjoy the things that the world can’t offer. He who rejects the true God for a false one (v. 24) loses this world as well as the next. Business is not Godliness, see Mary was prepared.

It drives me crazy when I see a man on the side of the road with a flat tire calling for road assistance (Sorry) but it does. DON’T JUDGE ME if you don’t have a jack in the car that’s not prepared. We must not torment ourselves SAINTS,

today with fears of what may be tomorrow; but every day cast our burden of care upon the living God who daily cares for us, this prepares us for any situation that may arise in our lives.

Practical Application: Use the Bible as your guide for sufficiency.

Jesus stood—On this high occasion, then, He who had already drawn all eyes upon Him by His supernatural power and unrivalled teaching—“Jesus stood,” probably in some elevated position.

and cried—as if making proclamation in the audience of all the people.

If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink!—What an offer! The deepest cravings of the human spirit are here, as in the Old Testament, expressed by the figure of “thirst,” and the eternal satisfaction of them by “drinking.” To the woman of Samaria He had said almost the same thing, and in the same terms (, ). But what to her was simply affirmed to her as a fact, is here turned into a world-wide proclamation; and whereas there, the gift by Him of the living water is the most prominent idea—in contrast with her hesitation to give Him the perishable water of Jacob’s well—here, the prominence is given to Himself as the Well spring of all satisfaction. He had in Galilee invited all the weary and heavy-laden of the human family to come under His wing and they should find rest (), which is just the same deep want, and the same profound relief of it, under another and equally grateful figure. He had in the synagogue of Capernaum () announced Himself, in every variety of form, as “the Bread of Life,” and as both able and authorized to appease the “hunger,” and quench the “thirst,” of all that apply to Him. There is, and there can be, nothing beyond that here. But what was on all those occasions uttered in private, or addressed to a provincial audience, is here sounded forth in the streets of the great religious metropolis, and in language of surpassing majesty, simplicity, and grace. It is just Jehovah’s ancient proclamation now sounding forth through human flesh, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no Money!” &c. (). In this light we have but two alternatives; either to say with Caiaphas of Him that uttered such words, “He is guilty of death,” or falling down before Him to exclaim with Thomas, “My Lord AND MY God!”

38. as the scripture hath said—These words belong to what follows, “Out of his belly, as the scripture hath said, shall flow,” &c. referring not to any particular passage, but to such as ; ; ; Ez 47:1–12; in most of which the idea is that of waters issuing from beneath the temple, to which our Lord compares Himself and those who believe in Him.

out of his belly—that is, his inner man, his soul, as in .

rivers of living water—(See on ). It refers primarily to the copiousness, but indirectly also to the diffusiveness, of this living water to the good of others.

39. this spake he of the Spirit—who, by His direct personal agency, opens up this spring of living waters in the human spirit (), and by His indwelling in the renewed soul ensures their unfailing flow.

they that believe, &c.—As the Holy Ghost is, in the redemption of man, entirely at the service of Christ, as His Agent, so it is only in believing connection with Christ that any one “receives” the Spirit.

for the Holy Ghost was not yet given—Beyond all doubt the word “given,” or some similar word, is the right supplement. In the Holy Ghost is represented not only as the gift of Christ, but a gift the communication of which was dependent upon His own departure to the Father. Now as Christ was not yet gone, so the Holy Ghost was not yet given.

Jesus not yet glorified—The word “glorified” is here used advisedly, to teach the reader not only that the departure of Christ to the Father was indispensable to the giving of the Spirit, but that this illustrious Gift, direct from the hands of the ascended Saviour, was God’s intimation to the world that He whom it had cast out, crucified, and slain, was “His Elect, in whom His soul delighted,” and that it was through the smiting of that Rock that the waters of the Spirit—for which the Church was waiting, and with pomp at the feast of tabernacles proclaiming its expectation—had gushed forth upon a thirsty world.

[1] Kruse, C. G. (2003). John: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 4, pp. 190–191). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.