Spewing Forth Living Water

Date: 01-19-03

Title: Spewing Forth Living Water

Bible Text: John 7:37-44

Subject: How can we have streams of living water flow from us?

Complement: - By believing in Jesus as the Scripture has said.

Main Idea: Living water flows naturally down hill!

Intro: I once read in a 1989 Reader’s Digest the following; A 747 was halfway across the Atlantic when the captain got on the loudspeaker: "Attention, passengers. We have lost one of our engines, but we can certainly reach London with the three we have left. Unfortunately, we will arrive an hour late as a result."

An hour later the captain made another announcement: "Sorry, but we lost another engine. Still, we can travel on two. I’m afraid we will now arrive two hours late."

Shortly thereafter, the passengers heard the captain’s voice again: "Guess what, folks. We just lost our third engine, but please be assured we can fly with only one. We will now arrive in London three hours late."

At this point, one passenger became furious. "For Pete’s sake," he shouted. "If we lose another engine, we’ll be up here all night!"

Obviously the man had no sense of what powered a jet to stay in the air. But I wonder if his comment is any different, any more ridiculous than the person who believes the commercials we see on TV today. You know the ones, …some pro athlete is playing some sport and is all sweaty and hot and then he lifts up a bottle of some particular drink and instantly all his carbs are restored, his electrolytes level off and he is ready for more action. He is empowered by this mystical liquid concoction that is a miracle drink with all the nutrients needed to make you into a super man or woman of physical prowess. And it taste good too! Were expected to believe that this drink has the power to quench a persons thirst, restore their strength and give them power to go on. About as likely as a jet plane staying aloft with no engines.

This is of course ludicrous, and yet people buy it. Wouldn’t we all love a thirst quencher that had the power to make us into super men and women? Able to be empowered to do whatever needed to be done. Especially in the spiritual realm?

What would you say if I told you their really is a thirst quencher that can make us empowered in our walk for God?

No more how hum Christianity. No more flat line, going no where, going through the motions walk with our Lord.

Even in Jesus’ day people wanted to quench that thirst, fill that void, to be able to know the power of God in their life. That’s a thirst that has been desiring to be quenched by people for a long time. How can we quench our spiritual appetites so as to be powerfully used by God so as to know His blessings? The commercials on TV promise thirst quenching power for the athlete in us. God’s Word today promises us thirst quenching power for the godly man or woman in us.

John 7:37-39.

I. A Common Phenomenon Being Spiritually Thirsty.

A. The people in Jesus’ day were thirsty.

1. It is most likely that Jesus said these words found in verse 38 on the last day of what the Bible calls the great feast.

a) The great feast was a feast that lasted seven days.

b) On each of the seven feast-days a priest would fill a golden pitcher from the pool of Siloam.

c) Accompanied by a solemn procession the priest would return to the temple and amid the sounding of trumpets and the shouting and rejoicing of the multitudes he would pour the water through a funnel which led to the base of the alter of burnt offering.

d) The people were in a joyous and euphoric mood.

2. These people had several things come to mind during this feast.

a) They were reminded of the blessings granted to their forefathers in the wilderness when Moses hit the rock with his staff and water flowed forth for the people who were dying of thirst.

b) They also looked forward to the future when the people of Israel would experience the spiritual bounty of a day when the messiah would walk among them.

3. Now it may have been right after the completion of this symbolic rite of water-pouring and the chanting of the familiar lines from Ps. 118 that the loud, clear voice of Jesus was heard to say, “If anyone is thirsty…”

Trans: But Jesus, as we know, wasn’t speaking of H20. He was speaking of a spiritual thirst. A thirst of a person’s soul.

B. Today, people are looking to have their thirst quenched.