On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
By this he meant the Spirit... John 7:37-39
It’s interesting that God would use water to symbolize His Spirit.
In the beginning (when God created the Heaven’s and the earth) water was about all there was. It wasn’t until the 3rd day of creation God caused “dry ground” to appear (Genesis 1:9)
To this day - about 70 percent of the Earth is covered by water.
Water was one of the main elements God used in creation.
For example:
If you were to go outside and look at a tree in the field, that tree is made of at least 75 percent water.
If you go down to the local KFC, their chickens (when they were alive) had 75% water.
And the common pineapple has 80 percent water in it.
Then of course… there’s you
• Water comprises more than 60 percent of your body,
• 70 percent of your brain,
• 80 percent of your blood
• And nearly 90 percent of your lungs.
And water – on our earth - is seemingly everywhere.
The total water supply of the planet is estimated at 326 million cubic miles. To help visualize that vast amount of water, imagine if all of the planet’s water was poured onto the United States…it would create an ocean 90 miles deep.
That’s a lot of water - but not all of it is useful to us.
Fully 97 percent of the Earth’s total water supply is salt water found in oceans and seas. And most of the remaining 3% of fresh water can be found frozen in glaciers & ice caps.
(Philipp Harper)
We could not exist without water and yet most of the water on our planet is inaccessible to us.
Like I said … it’s interesting that God would use water to symbolize His Holy Spirit.
APPLY: The Bible tells me that God is omnipresent.
Like water He’s everywhere.
In fact, there’s no place that we could go to get away from His Spirit.
David wrote:
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Psalm 139:7-10
Like water, God’s Spirit is everywhere.
And yet, that Spirit isn’t accessible to everyone.
Jesus teaches us that ONLY those who believe in Him will have this fountain of living water within them.
Roman 8:9 tells us that
“… if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” Romans 8:9
God’s Spirit is everywhere - but Jesus tells us only we have access to it.
And just like water, God’s Spirit has been given to us so that our thirst can be satisfied.
In John 4:13-14, when Jesus talked with the woman at the well, He said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
In John 6:35 Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
In our text this morning Jesus stood in the Temple courts and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” John 7:37.
And at the very end of our Bibles, Revelation 22:17 declares:
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
So, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit is given – in part – to satisfy our thirst. But, what am I thirsty for. What kind of thirst does God’s Spirit satisfy?
ILLUS: Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the greatest authors of his age. He wrote numerous short stories and poems but he’s best known for his novels (Treasure Island; Kidnapped; Strange case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde). Many of writings are still required reading.
But most people are not aware of the depth and strength of the faith he had in God.
As a child, he was raised in Scotland in a very strict Calvinist home. But once he left home and began attending college, he rebelled against the teachings of the church. He called Christianity "the deadliest gag and wet blanket that can be laid on a man," and adopted a thoroughly worldly lifestyle. He called himself a "youthful atheist."
But, as he grew older, he began to have (as he described it) "doubts about his doubts."
He came to see that for all its claim to wisdom, the world had no satisfying answers to the deepest questions of life.
And thus, because the world couldn’t satisfy the thirst in his life… he returned to God.
Later Robert Louis Stevenson would write, "There is a God who is manifest for those who care to look for him." And he described his own religious outlook as a "cast iron faith."
Now notice, there was a thirst in Robert Louis Stevenson’s life that the world could not satisfy.
But then, God could have told him that.
God tells us, that without His Spirit, all of us would have that thirst.
But what thirst does God’s Spirit satisfy?
1. The Spirit gives me assurance of my salvation.
Eph 1:13b-14 tells us “Having believed, you were marked IN HIM with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession— to the praise of his glory.”
Because of this scripture, I have no doubt that God loves me. He’s sealed me. He’s given me a guarantee. He’s coming back for me.
AND I am comforted by the fact that I don’t have to jump thru hoops to get God’s Spirit as my seal of salvation. When the crowd asked Peter what they needed to do be saved, he replied:
Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive (what???) the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
I receive the Spirit –
NOT because of who I know
Or how righteous I am
Or what preacher I listen to
Or what church I attend.
I am assured by God, that if I believe in Jesus, repent of my sins, confess Him as my Lord and Savior, and am baptized for the forgiveness of sins…that’s all I need to do to receive His Spirit in my life.
2. The Spirit connects me to God
1 Corinthians 2:11 & 16 tells me “… who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. AND “… we have the mind of Christ.”
I have fellowship with God - because I’m tapped into God.
His Spirit inside me - means I’m accepted by God
It implies that I have a purpose in life.
ILLUS: Al Kaline, one of the great baseball players of all time (an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers) was entered into the Baseball Hall of Fame. During a dinner held in his honor, attended by 2500 people, he was introduced with a long litany of his accomplishments. As he approached the podium to make his remarks, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
During the course of his remarks he said this: "There must be something more to life than this -- chasing a lot of fly balls, getting a lot of base hits, making more money than you can spend." (Following Christ, Joseph Stowell pg. 28)
And God tells us – yes there is. There is a lot more.
The richest and most famous people in the world don’t have what you have.
You are you connected to God. Thus, you have value, and purpose and reason to exist.
And that is something that (unless they are Christians too) no one else can touch.
3. God’s Spirit has the ministry of making me righteous.
2 Corinthians 3:9 tells me that the Holy Spirit has a “…ministry that brings righteousness!”
His objective is to make me righteous.
And Galatians 5 tells me that if I walk in the Spirit, I will gain that righteousness by bearing the fruit of the Spirit: “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness…” and so on
The Spirit’s ministry is to make me righteous.
His job is to change me
To tinker with my mind
To work on soul
To soften my heart… so that I become more and more like God.
Now, non-Christians can be nice people… maybe even nicer than you and I are.
But without the Spirit’s ministry inside me I’d never be as nice as God could make me.
4. The Spirit of God is there to comfort me.
In John 14:16 Jesus promised “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter (the Holy Spirit), that he may abide with you for ever” KJV
One of the ways that He comforts me is in prayer life
Romans 8:26 tells me that “… the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
Even when I can’t find the words to express my emotions God’s Spirit steps in and “intercedes” for me; He understands my sorrows and difficulties and communicates those directly to God.
The Spirit of God supplies me with things that you couldn’t BUY with money
You can’t obtain these blessings by being famous or well-connected.
The high, the mighty, the rich, the powerful in this world - they have nothing on us.
Because the Spirit of God satisfies our thirst and fills us to overflowing with the blessings of God.
(pause…)
Now - if that’s all true - then why don’t more Christians have those blessings in their lives?
I mean, have you ever met a Christian who was unhappy and discontented?
Why don’t they reflect the blessings of God’s Spirit in their lives?
Well, here’s the deal.
In order to enjoy the blessings of God’s Spirit… we need to let Him do His thing.
Galatians 5:16 says that we should “… live by the Spirit…”
Galatians 5:25 teaches us “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
In order to receive the blessings from God’s Spirit we need to let Him work inside of us.
ILLUS: One man told of the time that he sat on the bank of a river. He said “I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries.”
(Sadhu Sundar Singh; 1889-1929)
In the same way, there are Christians that sit right in the middle of Spirit filled churches, but they never let Him do anything in their lives. They never open their lives up by living and walking in God’s Spirit.
So, how do I do that? How do I live my life in God’s Spirit? How do I walk in God’s Spirit? You might even ask “How do I fill my life with the Spirit of God?”
I’m glad you asked.
Turn with me to Ephesians 5:18-21
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
How do I become filled with the Spirit? The next few verses tell us:
Verse 19 says “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord”
Surround yourself with songs that glorify God.
If you like Perry Como… there’s Godly music out there by that kind of singer. If you like Gregorian Chants, there are CD’s on the market with that style. There are channels on cable, radio and the internet to meet any style of music suits your fancy.
Play the music, sing it, hum it, whistle it, but surround yourself with music that makes you feel good about being in God’s presence.
Now, of course, you can still be a Christian and not listen to music like this. You can entertain yourself in any way you wish and still be a child of God.
But this verse assures me that – if I want to be filled with God’s Spirit - this is something I’ll want to make part of my lifestyle.
Verse 20 says: “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
How often should I give thanks? Always.
For what should I give thanks? Everything.
There are people in this world that don’t do that. They wake up every morning and their unhappy with how their life is going. They’ll moan and groan about all the things they don’t have, all the troubles and challenges of their lives. They’ll tell you all about their sciatica and their psoriasis. They are thankful for little but unhappy about much.
But Spirit filled Christians aren’t like that.
They wake up every morning with a list – a list of all the blessings they’ve received.
They think about that list every morning, afternoon and night. And they have the blessings of God’s Spirit because they are thankful for all things, all the time.
Now you can still be a Christian if don’t do this.
You can moan and groan… and still be a child of God
But you won’t enjoy the full blessings of God’s Spirit in your life.
Lastly, verse 21 says “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
This means to be filled with God’s Spirit – we need to become servants of others.
You need to honor your parents.
Love your wife.
Respect your husband.
Serve your boss as if you were working for Jesus.
Pray for that politician you don’t like… and on and on and on.
Now, you can still be a Christian and not live like that, but you’ll miss out on the blessings God’s Spirit can give you.
My point is this – “walking in the Spirit” requires me to think differently than the world does.
The world doesn’t listen to music glorifying God. Why should they, they don’t belong to Him.
And the world doesn’t focus on giving thanks. They’re more focused on what they believe they deserve and don’t have. They don’t have a God who is looking out for their needs, so they have no hope for anything better.
And the world doesn’t focus on submitting to other people. With no God to protect them, the main focus is on looking for number one. If they don’t look out for themselves… who will?
The world promises satisfaction, and yet it always comes up empty.
The reason is… the world looks in all the wrong places for the answer to its thirst.
CLOSE: After WWI, Lawrence of Arabia brought some of his Arab friends to Paris. He showed them the sights of the city: the Arch of Triumph, the Louvre, Napoleon’s tomb… but none of these things impressed them as much as something they saw in their room.
What really intrigued them was the faucet in the bathtub of the hotel room.
They spent much of time in the bathroom turning the faucets on and off. They found it amazing that one could turn a handle and get all the water he wanted.
Later, when they were ready to leave Paris and return to the East, Lawrence found them in the bathroom with wrenches trying to disconnect the faucet.
"You see," they said, "it is very dry in Arabia. What we need are faucets. If we have them, we will have all the water we want."
They looked for water in the wrong place.
And the world looks for its satisfaction in the wrong places.
God tells us that our thirst in life can only be satisfied by allowing His Spirit to guide our lives.
