2012 06 10 Ash AM Fresh Fire Living Water
I was shopping in Tesco the other day and I wanted to buy some Cheddar Cheese.
Easier said than done.
With a choice of Mild, Medium, Mature, Extra Mature, Seriously Strong, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Canadian, Pilgrim’s Choice, Wyke Farms, Cathederal City, Own Brand, Everyday Value, McLellands, Creamfields, Lake District, Colliers Powerful Welsh, Illchester Applewood, Organic, Davidstow, Mu, and many many others its a hard choice.
A hard choice, but a really simple choice, do you know what I chose to buy?
I bought the one that was buy one get 3 free.
Can’t remember what it’s called - but it’s Cheddar and it tastes like Cheddar, and it looks like Cheddar and in a few weeks time I will probably be fed up with it, but a deal is a deal.
And buy 1 get 3 free is a deal that seemed too good to be true.
Have you ever been offered something that seemed too good to be true?
Humanly speaking, maybe you have been offered some amazing deals.
Maybe you have accepted them, maybe you have rejected them - you have a choice in what you do.
This morning I want to ask you if you have accepted or rejected the most amazing offer you could ever receive.
I want to ask you have you accepted or rejected Jesus?
Have you accepted Jesus as your Saviour?
Yes you, personally, not the person sitting next to you, in front of you or behind you, you.
Have you accepted Jesus as your Saviour?
Have you accepted the free gift of Salvation that comes by accepting Jesus as your personal Saviour?
Have you made Jesus Lord of your life?
Have your sins been forgiven?
Have you come in repentance to God?
Have you accepted the free gift of eternal life?
Are you certain of your place in Heaven,
not because you have earned it,
but because you have placed your trust in Jesus?
Or have you rejected Jesus?
Have you rejected all He freely offers you?
If you have rejected Jesus, what have you chosen instead?
Jesus said He was the Way the Truth and the Life.
The Bible teaches that Jesus is our only hope,
our only Saviour, our only way to Heaven.
So what have you chosen instead of trusting Him?
What have you chosen to satisfy you?
Are you satisfied?
Or has what you have chosen left you feeling dry and parched?
Is today the day for your thirst to be quenched?
Is today the turning point in your life?
Everything we have in the natural world can only bring temporary satisfaction.
The things of this world may sustain you for a little while but they will never fully satisfy.
What will you choose today?
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2000 years ago Jesus met a woman at a Well,
in the heat of the day,
the time of the day when “nice” people did not go to the Well.
And Jesus knew this woman needed more than the water from the well in her life.
Jesus knew that this woman had a spiritual thirst.
And Jesus gave her an opportunity to make the right choice.
John Chapter 4:3-14 says this:
Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee. 4He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
9The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
10Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
11“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? 12And 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 enjoyed?”
13Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
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“If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
Have you experienced this living water for yourself?
Have you asked Jesus into your life, to fill your life?
Have you asked Him to satisfy you?
Have you asked Him to save you?
Have you accepted all He is willing to give you?
Have you asked to be filled by The Spirit of the Living God?
Do you desire to know God?
Do you desire to be in a real living relationship with God?
Do you desire to be filled with His Spirit?
Do you desire to tell others about Jesus?
Do you Thirst?
The Psalmist expressed it this way in Psalm 143:6
I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain.
And again in Psalm 42:1-2,
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
Do you have that kind of Thirst?
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
I once heard an Old Welsh preacher speak on this verse. He was from the Valley’s and spoke welsh more than he spoke English.
After he preached on this verse he prayed,
Lord help the people with their pants.
Lord some of them have big pants, some of them have small pants, and some have no pants at all.
It’s a funny way to put it but it’s true.
Some of us desire great big gulps.
Some of us only seek the smallest part.
And some of us behave like we don’t need anything at all.
We come to church… surrounding by the ocean of “Living Water”
We can buy Men’s Study Bibles, Women Bibles, Devotional Teen Bibles and we are thirsty.
We can buy Christian stickers and t-shirts; go to the Christian bookshop regularly. Thirsty.
We come to church sing the songs that quench our souls listen to the Scripture that waters our lives and we still are thirsty!
We walk thru a Coca Cola culture of opportunity with a Sahara desert soul?
Why?
Why can’t we drink from the well that never runs dry?
Why do we feel shrivelled and dehydrated?
Is it because we refuse to drink?
Be honest, Does your soul thirst for God?
Imagine you have been wandering in a desert for several days.
You’ve been totally without water.
You are almost delirious.
Your lips are parched;
your skin is cracked from the heat of the sun.
Then all of a sudden, you come upon a river.
Let me ask a silly question
What would you do?
You would drink…quench your thirst.
That is exactly what Jesus calls us to do.
But,
So many go to the river bank,
so many look at the water,
so many watch the ripples and the waves
so many even see the reflection of their face on the water, but they refuse to drink. --------
God will lead you to the water,
but He won’t force you drink.
If you want to be filled, you must choose to drink.
When we come to Jesus, He will provide us with living water ... a spiritual satisfaction ...
a spiritual contentment that we will not find anywhere else.
If you are tired of living without a spiritual thirst, a spiritual passion, a zeal for God…
if you are tired of just going through the motions…knowing deep down inside you are spiritually dry, Jesus invites you this morning to come to Him for spiritual refreshment.
We will never have a close relationship with God until we thirst after Him.
His Words are simple…”if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”
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Isaiah gives the promise in 58:11 “ The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.”
Are you dry, are you thirsty?
Are you thirsty for God?
Are you thirsty, do you want to be filled?
Do you know the gift God has for you?
Have you asked and received the living water only He can give?
Come to Jesus and drink,
Never be thirsty again and receive the gift of eternal life
Let Him fill you until you overflow and become a river of living water that will bless others as well.
Come to Jesus and drink.
