Jeff's sermon yesterday was both encouraging and convicting. The sermon is now posted on the SLCC blog ("Going Against the Religious Flow-Part 6"). Please listen to it when you get a chance. After having an afternoon and morning to chew on what was presented, here are two summarizing/challenging points:
1. What is flowing from your life? Yesterday’s sermon was focused on John 7:37-38 where Jesus, in the middle of a huge crowd, declares “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!”
We should all, like the crowd who heard Jesus, be shocked at what He said. Not in the sense that we are startled at the fact that Jesus yells something in the middle of a huge ceremonial service. We should be shocked and amazed that Jesus offers exactly what we all are seeking-- Living Water: perfect and eternal sustenance, provision, strength, encouragement, joy, satisfaction, security, hope, spiritual fruitfulness and peace.
Scripture portrays God as “the spring of living water” (Jeremiah 17:13). Jesus offers living water to the Samaritan woman at the well calling it the “gift of God” that will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:10 & 14). And now Jesus proclaims that this same living water will also flow out from the person who believes in Him.
So, let me ask you again, what is flowing from your life? Is it life giving, grace filled, love producing, redemptive Living Water? How about this, would people around you classify the streams pouring from your life as Living Water? You see, it doesn’t count if others don’t see it.
This is exactly why Jesus says, “by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). And just in case you think that this particular passage only refers to the disciples…read I John 3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” (For a crash course on what biblical love is please read I Corinthians 13:1-13 thirteen times)
The non-negotiable atmosphere of our lives and of our church must be filled with the fresh breeze of love that is constantly stirred by the streams of Living Water that rush out of the heart of every redeemed person.
2. What flows from your life is determined by what you are drinking! If your life is not characterized by God’s Loving and Living Water then you must take an honest look at what you are drinking. As Jeff mentioned yesterday, Jesus more than likely made His shocking statement after the priest read Isaiah 12:2-3 which declares, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
The source of the living water of Scripture is obviously God. He is our salvation and therefore He is where we go in order to draw from the wells of salvation. Salvation simply means deliverance from the power and effects of sin and preservation from destruction. Drinking from the well of salvation is therefore constantly remembering what God has done for us in salvation. Instead of pouring out justice and judgment on His rebellious, treacherous creatures, God mercifully pours out Grace and compassion. We are to constantly drink of the grace and mercy of God. This incredible “drink” gets better the more you understand your own sinfulness before the perfect, almighty and Holy God.
It is no mystery then that Isaiah goes on to declare, “Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.” This takes us right back to what should be flowing out of our lives. Scripture repeatedly describes the redeemed child of God as one who joyfully sings praises to God because of His amazing act of merciful kindness.
So, if you recognize that flowing out of your life are streams filled with things other than God’s Loving and Living Water then you MUST take an honest look at what and who you are drinking from. Jesus makes it perfectly clear, “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!”
What is flowing from your life? Are you truly drinking from the well of Salvation, the spring of Living Water?
In Christ's Love,
Pastor Don
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