Living Waters

Summary: There are two types of people in life: those who view life as a drudge, who are stagnant, and those who have the living water of God inside them. Jesus Christ came to this earth so that we might have that living water inside us, the living water which springs up unto everlasting life. He came for everyone, even for a Samaritan woman who had written herself off. God is speaking to you, by His Holy Spirit, as an individual. He wants to give you that living water: don’t push it aside, respond to Him.

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There was a time when a lady had made a mess of her life and the people who knew her knew the way she lived. In her own mind it was as if life had become a drudge. There was a certain framework to life, but there was something inside her which meant that she was never satisfied. She thought that she would be satisfied in a certain way, but it was as if her life was stagnant. She knew about religion and the fact that her people had certain ways of seeing things. She even knew where she should have worshiped and the scriptures her people believed in. These people only had the first five books of the Bible. But this all seemed irrelevant to her. The stagnant nature of her life was something which she thought was just way she was.

If you were to compare stagnant water with water that is alive, vibrant and flowing the difference would be considerable. Your life is either one that is stagnant, and it concerns you that it is, or it is a life where the life of Christ is flowing through your veins. What you are going to hear today? For those of you who have become stagnant, it is a word which will transform you on the inside.

When Jesus was on this earth He demonstrated the specific people He wanted to get hold of. He came to do Father’s will. Time and again He blessed the whole multitude, but He also centered on specific people. God constantly zeroed in on the individual. God is speaking, individually, to you this morning.

Matthew 10:5 – 7

The twelve were told specifically to go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. When Jesus was going to Samaria, and came to the city of Samaritans, the disciples were aware that this was a place where they were not supposed to be reaching to people.

John 4:1 – 4

That was the route. He was due to go through the area where the disciples believed, from what they had been told, that they were not supposed to be talking to people.

John 4:5 – 8

The disciples had come to the city with Jesus but had left Him to buy some food. So Jesus was now on His own. The one thing that God rejoices to do is to talk to you on your own - Jesus and you, one-to-one. It gets that personal when it comes down to what life is all about. It is you talking with Jesus and addressing the situation you are in, in your life. It is to do with Jesus changing you in your life.

John 4:9

Two prejudices He cut right through there: Jesus was talking to a Samaritan and He was talking to a woman. It does not matter what prejudices you came here with. You may have come wondering why you are in church again because it is always the same.

Jesus Christ is talking to you as an individual.

John 4:10 – 12

The Samaritan woman knew that as far as they were concerned, the Jews had got it wrong; Mount Gerazim is where they should have been worshiping, not Jerusalem. Her thought process was: ‘Here’s a man who is a Jew, who is talking to me when He shouldn’t be, and is asking me for water when He has nothing to draw with.’

John 4:13 – 14

So, if we are talking about stagnant water as opposed to living water, the source of that life is Jesus Christ Himself. Your response to the circumstances in your life is crucial. Circumstances are all about you discovering more about the love of God as He reveals His answer to you on time, every time. It is a gift.

If I’m coming into a church and I know I’m only here because it seems the right thing to do and my attitude of mind is stagnant, there is something wrong. God is saying to you that He is giving you what will be in you: the living water of life. It is water that springs up to everlasting life. It never stops springing up. It helps you know the right things to say to people. He’s there all the time.

If you feel guilty, it is that fountain of life springing up that banishes that guilt. When you see a fountain, it goes up, it goes down; here we’re talking about a fountain that does not come down. This means that in your life, the circumstances of your life are progressing to the end when you will see God face to face.

Today, God will show you that He is going to make something of your life better than you could ever have thought. It is a case of Christ’s life progressing in your life until you meet Him. Everything revolves around us reaching out to others so that they will have the life of Christ within them. There are people out there with no hope: they need Jesus Christ. What we are going to see in this church is the realisation, by you, of Who’s inside you. It is that living water inside you that communicates the life of God to others. You can stop analysing what’s happened in the past and instead focus on going forward in God with that living water inside. It is going to be God working through you.

John 4:15 – 18

Jesus knew all about her. Her sins were laid bare. To her, her past was something that haunted her. She never seemed to be able to get things right. She also seemed to get involved with the wrong people and each time she thought it was her.

It might be you’re not a Christian; Jesus Christ is speaking to you. Jesus is here to say to you that He is that living water, the One that you need. Jesus Christ is the One that will take the power of sin from your life. He has paid for the penalty of your sin. I don’t need to convince you about sin in your life, and this women did not need convincing either.

John 4:19 – 24

She wanted to know where the true place was to worship. Jesus replied that it is not to do with the place, it is to do with Jesus Christ and you as an individual. It is one-to-one. God is a spirit and we have to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

When I come into church I am coming here to open up my heart to sing and to take knowledge of the words I am singing because I am in communion with my Creator. I come here to join with my brothers and sisters to praise Him. There is a linking from the life inside me with the Scripture so that I know that this is the way I am going to understand God more. Faith comes by hearing His Word.

John 4:25

The Samaritans only had the first five books of the Bible. In Deuteronomy it was prophesied that the Messiah would come Who would tell them all things. The woman knew about this prophesy.

John 4:26

Sitting on a well, in the middle of a day, this woman was talking to the Messiah. The same Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, is talking to you this morning. It excites me to know how God is going to develop that life in you and through you during the next few weeks. Stagnant water does not produce life. Viewing life as drudgery, or being in a situation where you wonder what is the point, needs to be discarded. We get rid of that point of view by concentrating on the words here: “I that speak unto you am He.” It is a case of you, engaging with Jesus Christ, one-to-one.

The disciples had been getting the food – that time was sufficient for Jesus to communicate with this lady – then the disciples came back.

John 4:27 – 34

When He was talking to the lady, Jesus knew that that was His work. The Gentiles had not yet had the Gospel preached to them. But Jesus knew that what He was going to do would have an impact, not only on the lady and the Gentiles, but on you today. His mind was probably so caught up with what He’d been talking about that He’d forgotten to eat. His meat was to do the will of His Father.

John 4:35 – 38

The disciples were thinking about what He was saying and could not figure it out. He was talking about fruit and the fields. He was talking about the joy that was going to be set before Him when He went to endure the cross. The joy was the Church, the bride of Christ. The fields are white, ready to harvest.

John 4:39 – 40

It was a joy to Him to be involved with people. He died that you might be set free. That means to have that living water inside. That living water affects how you react to situations in life. He is your provider and Saviour.

John 4:41 – 42

Today, you know for yourself that He is your Saviour. God has been speaking to you. You might push it away but He will come back because He loves you. Life is about living to the full and life can only be lived to the full when Jesus is on the inside. Jesus came for you, as He came for one Samaritan woman who had written herself off.

Put this into your situation today. This coming week are you going to continue in the viewpoint you know is wrong? Or are you going to let God, by His Holy Spirit, change your thinking?

Isaiah 12:2– 4

There’s living water flowing. To be involved with God is not stagnancy. To be involved with God is to be involved with the One who is life. You need to communicate to your children and to others what I’ve been saying today, by the way you live. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I am not going to be dismissive of Him. I’m going to embrace the One who has done everything for me.

Walking Through the Valley

The 6 verses that we will be looking at this evening will be incredibly familiar to most of you. So the danger is that you will switch off, thinking ‘Oh, I already know this’. But it will be relevant to us all.

As I’ve been talking to people this week, what God has been doing in many lives, he has been sorting out the foundations in our life. For David here, this encapsulates his whole understanding of who God is.

Psalms 23:1-6

V1. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Turning that verse around, He will always but always provide for my needs. I shall not want. It’s an impossibility with the Lord as my shepherd, that I will be in need of anything. The reason why it’s an impossibility is because the Lord places his name to what this psalm is all about.

Amplifying the words about God being our shepherd, this is Jesus speaking:

John 10:1-5

Jesus, in like vein to the psalmist, portrayed this whole concept of he himself being the shepherd. In verse 6 it says ‘Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.’ So then Jesus amplified his meaning:

John 10:7-19

I am the good shepherd (New Testament). The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want (Old Testament). I shall not be in a situation where God will not make provision in its entirety for me. I lay down my life for the sheep, Jesus says. When Jesus spoke about being the good shepherd, it was he himself. But it’s he himself who has laid himself down for you. He has made full provision for every single thing that you require both in this life and in the life to come.

I physically lay down my life for the sheep so that the sheep will be cared for; so that they will be able to find pasture; so that they will be able to go in and out. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Where we go through life; where there are pressures that some people are encountering that they never had to encounter before, your reaction to that pressure will determine how much you will rely on God for your provision.

I won’t want. I won’t be in need. The answer and the provision to meet the requirements, have already been sorted. And bang on time and at the right time, those answers will be there for you, so then you will say, “God, only you could have provided the answer and provided in that way, because I wouldn’t have been able to sort it out in that way.”

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

So there’s a place of peace in my life, as it says in verse 2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. But that isn’t the place where I’m meant to remain in. I’m not going to be in a place where peace prevails and that’s the only place I’m going to be. That’s not how you are going to live your Christian life. God will provide that peace in the midst of adversity. I am walking through this situation; I am not going to stop in this situation and let fear grip my heart or stop and let the whole circumstances overwhelm me. I am going to be able to say, later, I can see the way God has led me and the paths of righteousness that he has led me into, and I know that it has been God. At times, I have looked around and I’ve seen the problems and I’ve listed them. But I learned, in the middle of the situation (this is what you will be saying when you look back) that I somehow managed to keep going and look forward.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

They’re the key four words: for his name’s sake. Everything in your life is set so that when you go through the circumstances you’re in, when you walk through that, you will be able to proclaim, loud and clear, it’s Jesus Christ who has made provision all the way through; he has kept me and it’s for his name’s sake that I'm saying this because I want to give the glory to him. That’s what I'm going to do.

Don’t ask the question, “Why am I in this situation?” It doesn’t help to analyse. No, I’m in this situation and I’m going to look to God as my provider.

Hebrews 20:13-14

He’s the shepherd of the sheep. But the purpose of what you’re going through at the moment, is to make us perfect in every good work, for us to do his will, for him to work in us and to do that which is pleasing in his sight. If we try to plan it out, we get it totally and utterly wrong. The way God sorts our life out, he loves us, he causes us to walk in the paths of righteousness and the outworking of this is that he works in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight. We’re not here to make a camp, we’re here to walk through. And the outworking of this will be that it is well pleasing in his sight.

In your reaction to what is going on in your life at the moment, is it that you are going to go like a clam into its shell and hope against hope that something will happen. OR are you going to be like the man with that pound and think “Right I’m going to do something with my life. There’s no way I’m going to blame God for where I’m at.” I’m going in and out of new pasture. Whatever it is, the outworking of what I’m doing and my reaction to these pressures is crucial. Because those reactions will either work out something that is well-pleasing in his sight or like the man in the parable where he just kept the pound safe and did nothing with it. We want to be like those men who did something with the pound and saw how God provided through our situation.

The concept of walking through is there in Psalm 23V4:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

I’m walking through. It’s an active verb. It is not something that I’m becoming stuck in; so absorbed in the analysis of the situation that I’m like a rabbit in the headlights; I can’t move. NO I’m walking through; I’m trusting God; the Lord is my shepherd...’and he has already prepared the answer. And It will come bang on time, every time, always. Never too early and never too late; bang on time.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

V5: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Psalms 92:10-16


Fruit is possible in old age. Fruit as unto God; communicating the life of God to someone else. If you’re of old age here, God wants to bring forth fruit in your life. God has brought pressures to you because He loves to communicate to you his faithfulness and his love and who he is. He wants to freely make available that knowledge of him.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

It doesn’t matter what age you are, you can still flourish.

V5: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Let me just read you the Psalm in a more paraphrased version,

Eugene Peterson - The Message:
1-3 God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction. 4 Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure.5 You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.6 Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. All the days of my life.

He used the word ‘pursue’ as the verb there. Goodness and mercy pursuing me, following me, surrounding me. By his holy spirit, God’s life is inside you. Christ in you the hope of glory is prompting you that the opportunities that you have at the moment, despite all the pressures, is to prove his faithfulness and his love and who he is to you. I don’t know your circumstances but I know that God uses these to convey to you his love and how he can provide. He loves you.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

In Revelation 19:9 it refers to the marriage supper of the lamb. When you look back, what is going to be the testimony of your life? It is going to be ‘the Lord is my shepherd and I know the Lord has brought me through.’ It is God who has put that faith in your heart. And what we have examined tonight is timely for you. He loves you. It makes you think, if someone doesn’t have a faith of Jesus Christ in their life...The pressure you’re in is not too much. The circumstances of your life are not impossible.

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Not some days, not when you’re being good. ALL the days of my life. And what we need to do is align our thinking with who God is and so that our reactions to the circumstances in our life is to bring gory to him. There is no way I am going to get bitter in any situation that I’m going to throw something at God, “Why!?” No. He has given his life for me. He is the Good Shepherd, I shall not want.