Discipleship Lesson 4 – Teaching Them About The Source Of An Endless Stream Of Diving Power

141005AM ESH-28 Lesson-4 Spirit Fullness.docx

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Biblical Exercises for Spiritual Health & Fitness in 2014 Series

Discipleship Lesson-4: The Spirit of God

Teaching them about the Source of an Endless

Stream of Divine Power for Abundant Living

John 7:37-39

Transcript

This evening is preparing us for long term, but this morning is going to be exciting. If you open your Bibles to chapter 7 of the Gospel by John. I’m actually going to read a few verses after these here but you get to John 7:37. And we’re looking at the basics this morning. We’ve started just a look at personal discipleship in the setting of me pretending, if you can pretend in a group this size that we’re all alone. It’s just one-on-one. And I’m going through the basics. And basically, the next basic is the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God. This morning, my theme is that we’re supposed to, in discipleship, do what Jesus said in Matthew 28. Which is teaching them to observe everything He commanded. John 7 is a command of the Lord. It’s about the Holy Spirit. And so, the Spirit of God, we need to be taught that the Spirit of God is the source of an endless stream. In fact, we’re going to see in our text, 37 to 39, that Jesus said the Holy Spirit is like a torrent, like a river, like an overflowing river that just doesn’t end, of life-giving power. And that’s all for this purpose.

We’re supposed to go through life and by the way, this morning culminates with communion and this morning’s communion. Is each of us renewing our desire to live abundantly? Do people at work think you have an abundant life? Do people at school think you have an abundant life? Do people that live around you? Do people that just watch you from afar? Yesterday, I was I was driving here to the church to print some stuff off and I stopped for vitamin C. Any of you that listen, know what that is. And I stopped at a place that dispenses vitamin C, Water Street Coffee, and there is this man, and I’ve seen that man there before. And I looked to him and I caught his eyes and I saw other people and said hello to them, and finally I looked at him and I said, have I seen you here before? He said, I come here every day. I said, I’d like to meet you. He says, I already know who you are. He said, I sit in the back. He said, I watch you here. How many people are watching us all the time? How many people are watching you?

And the people that are watching you, what are they detecting? Are they detecting an endless stream of divine power for abundant living that’s flowing out of your life? Or do they just think you’re just like them, that you can barely make it through life and you’re scared of Ebola, wondering about the economy, and hoping everything will get better but you’re never able to get traction in life? See, that’s what most of the world is struggling with. And we’re dropped into this world by God to be filled with the Holy Spirit, not just a trickle, but overflowing so that we exhibit abundant life. That’s what God wants us to have.

As we open to John 7, discipleship is all about the basics. And the basics we covered, if you remember, we went through all the salvation wordings in the Book of Acts. And then we looked at all the baptism, times that baptism is talked about in the book of Acts. And after we talked through the basic of salvation and baptism, then about three/ four weeks ago, we began looking at the discipline of the scriptures and how we’re supposed to be in the Word and what the Word does to us. But this morning is the third broad area of salvation. And that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. And the work of the Holy Spirit is, and if you look down to text, at the instant of salvation each of us became a temple of God. He begins to live within us as God, the Spirit, the comforter. And Jesus says in this verse that He flows out of us. He flows out of us in John 7:37, like a river in verse 38 and verse 39 He said, it’s like the Holy Spirit in us. And that’s the basic that we need to really get our hands around this morning and really get our hearts wrapped around, what it means to yield and surrender to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And at communion is a time where we renew things that are true in our life. Where we renew thanking the Lord for saving us. Where we renew our acknowledgement that we must eat Him as our bread of life every day. Jesus said that I am the bread of life. Whoever eats of Me will never hunger, never thirst. And it’s also where we renew our longing, our passion, that the Spirit of God flow out of us in our lives.

The truth Jesus is offering in these three verses is a lifetime of wonderful blessings. And an endless supply of divine power. Now, verses… we’re going to read verses 37 to 39 in a moment but look over at chapter 10 in verse 10. Because you’re already in John, just go across the page. In my Bible it’s about a page and a half over. Jesus talks about the work of the Holy Spirit all the way through the Gospel by John. And in the, over the next few weeks as we look at the Holy Spirit, we’re going to see how He weaves it together. But 10:10 is where the abundant part comes. The river is in chapter 7 but look at the end of verse 10. Jesus said the thief doesn’t come except to steal and kill and destroy. So, that’s the devil, the thief. I have come, Jesus says, that they might have life. So, He saves us. And that they might have it more abundantly. See, this overflowing, abundant life is what Jesus always offered people. He didn’t offer them, just barely making it, squeaking by in life. He said, you come to Me, I’m offering you abundant life.

Now, back to chapter 7 and verse 37-39, because I want to share with you a truth. An overflowing life is a choice. If you’re saved this morning, and by the way, only born again people can partake of communion, so if you’re wondering about the end of the service, it’s only for the those who have received Christ. But if you’ve received Christ you need to ask yourself, do I have an overflowing abundant life? I’m not saying I’m happy all the time. Remember I used to be a youth pastor and we used to, a lot of times the youth group would work in VBS and we would teach the little kids, I’m in right outright, upright, downright happy all the time. And I used to always not like that song because I wasn’t in right, outright upright, downright happy all the time, I was joyful; but to me, happiness is giddiness. Woo hoo. I’m excited. Joy is a detachment from your circumstances. You no longer are like a bobber being pulled by a fish in a lake that boom, boom, boom, boom. That’s what happiness is like. It’s tied to whether you’re feeling good, and your job’s good, and whether you’ve got more than you need and can enjoy yourself, and that’s happiness. Joy is a settled awareness that as we saw last week, Jeremiah said that I’m called by your name. O God, I belong to you. I have an infinite future. I have You dwelling within. I have my sins forgiven. You are in charge of my life. Joy is something that is inexpressible and it detaches us from our circumstances. That’s an abundant life.

And people see that. They see a different, remember it says they took note of the disciples that they had been with Jesus. Why? Because they had this detachment. You could beat them, put them in prison, and threaten them. And they had this detachment from their circumstances and this evident joy. That’s a choice.

Jesus explained the Holy Spirit in our lives using this image in verses 37 through 39 of a strong river of water that flowed out of us. But each of us have to make a choice every day about whether we’re going to let Him do that. He doesn’t overwhelm our lives. He comes by invitation. It’s just like salvation is whoever calls the name of the Lord, so out of us flowing rivers of water, is a choice. So, at communion, we’re celebrating that we’ve made the choice. And let’s together, as we go through these words, examine it because Jesus describes salvation starting this, He says if anyone verse 37, thirst, let him come to Me and drink. By the way, that’s salvation. That drinking of Christ is a euphemism at one of the pictures, a metaphor, of salvation coming to Him in faith, being supernaturally saved. That’s the beginning of this verse.

Then Jesus describes the result. Look at verse 38. He who believes in Me as the scripture is said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Did you hear how Jesus describes the life of a normal believer? This is not some stellar saint. This is normal. Flowing out of our heart. God planned that the life of us, as born again believers, is like a flowing river of life. Not a little trickle. He said, rivers. Torrents. This is a picture of power and of great supply. What does that mean? Rivers of Water would mean that when we’re saved, the Spirit of God comes into our lives and makes us joyous and thankful. See, that’s one of the elements of this detachment from circumstances we’re filled with joy and we’re thankful because we know our lives are guided by God’s hands.

Basically, how Jesus described salvation is rivers of joy. That’s what a saved person is supposed to have. And when God’s Spirit flows out of our lives, we’re so excited about all of our sins being gone. I had this, deeply impressed on my heart as a newlywed. 31 years ago, Bonnie and I were married at Christmas of 1983 and then we, right from our wedding and the reception, we packed the car and went to California. And I went out to be on staff with Dr. John MacArthur. And so, I was there and that huge church standing with thousands of other people, our first Sunday in January and John was leading communion. And I was just in my element. I had prepared for this and couldn’t wait to come on staff and I was standing there and just singing away the communion songs as he led us. And I looked over at Bonnie and she was crying, and it just stunned me. I thought, what did I do wrong? She doesn’t like being here. She doesn’t want to be in the ministry. She doesn’t like the church. She’s upset at the Lord. I had every kind of thought possible, and I just, it ruined my whole service. And I started talking to her. I turned to her. I pulled out my handkerchief and handed it to her. And I said Honey, what did I do wrong? What’s wrong? And she looked at me in unbelief and she says, what do you mean? What do you mean? I said, you’re crying during communion. She said, I can’t believe how much the Lord has forgiven me of, and I’ll never get over it. She says, I was forgiven of so many sins. And it stunned me right there.

I grew up in church. We went Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and any other time the doors were open. I went to church before I was born. My mother was carrying me, all this. She raced from the hospital to church. We sat there. I don’t think they ever let me go to the nursery. I had to just sit through service and soak it in. I needed all I could get. And I really got used to it. Saved at a young age, six years old. The worst thing I did, was stole some candy and other stuff when I was about five years old, and lied, and got angry, and would’ve killed a few people, and was rebellious, but nothing big. And it was all many years ago. So, I just stood through communion and enjoyed the music. I enjoyed looking at the words of the slides. I enjoyed the sound of thousands of voices at Grace Community Church singing. I enjoyed watching the precision of how the elders and deacons served us. I enjoyed the way John wove the service. But I was never struck until Bonnie stunned me with the fact that we, when we’re full of the Spirit, to whom much is forgiven, the same loves much, and we have this overwhelming joy of our sins forgiven.

But it’s not just that when God’s Spirit flows out of our lives, the Bible seems like having God talking to us. Did you know that when you’re full of the Holy Spirit, every time you pick up this book, it’s just, it’s even more exciting than the latest news. It’s even more exciting than waiting in line for the latest release of a movie. It’s even more exciting than breaking open that newest game or that newest electronic device and finally having the newest and latest, it’s God talking to us.

Now, if it’s been a long time since you’ve felt that joy of your sins forgiven, it could be a danger sign that you’re in a drought. And if the Bible, if either last night, I said this last Sunday, didn’t I, if either last night or this morning you didn’t have an overwhelming desire to get into the Word, you might be in a time of spiritual drought. California’s in drought. That used to be my territory, Tulare and all the Central Valley, I used to work when I was in seminary. I’d work in the summers in California driving around, sell them Advil and Anacin and stuff like that. And they don’t even have water coming out of their faucets anymore. They have to truck the water in. They’re in drought. The land is actually sinking because the water table is empty and depleted, the aquifer. And the land, they have poles showing how far the farmland has sunk. Some places 27 feet, it’s sunk down. They’re in drought and they know it.

You know what, there’s a lot of believers that are, their joy of being forgiven level is sinking. They’re not even aware of it. Their hearing of the voice of God and the Word is depleting. They’re not even aware of it. That’s spiritual drought. That’s what Jesus said. I came to give you abundant life. When God’s fear flows out of our life, prayer is so natural, it’s uncluttered. It feels like the stars overhead were pardoned, and we’re walking right into Heaven at God’s throne. We just talk and walk with the Lord and every day. All of life seems brand new because we are communing with our creator. That’s the rivers of joy that come with salvation.

Now, let me ask you honestly. Now, let’s go back to the table at the coffee shop. I would pause at this point. I would look right in the eyes of whoever I’m talking to. I say, are you overwhelmed that your sins are forgiven? Tell me some, that the Lord’s forgiven you of. If we know they’re forgiven we can just say, oh man, I was formally a blasphemer and a murderer, like Paul did in Titus 3. And we can say how much He’s forgiven us of, and I look him right in the eye and say, how hungry are you for this book, for the God who reveals Himself through this book? How natural is it for you to pray? Do you find that you just you just can’t wait to have a quiet moment in your day where you can just reconnect with the Lord and commune with Him? That’s the rivers of joy.

Salvation, by the way, starts that river of joy out of our lives. That’s what it says. Look at verse 38. Rivers. Literally, torrents. Cascading, gushing, waters come out of us. That’s the normal Christian life. God wants us to have a mighty river of the Holy Spirit flowing out of our life. That’s life as God made it. That’s how He designed it. He is the master designer, the builder, the originator. He’s the one that invented salvation. He said, when I save people a river gushes out of them. It’s a river of life that fills them. We are alive. People around us are dead compared to us being alive. I’m not talking about excitement and loudness. I’m talking about the powerful joy of confident living. That’s what abundant living is. That’s what God wants us to have. At salvation, we were refreshed, we were victorious, we were rejoicing, we’re serving joyfully. The Holy Spirit flows out of our lives like rivers of water.

But what happens when we slowly neglect making that choice to surrender and seek the Lord? I call this our new House lesson. It was exactly 20 years ago that Bonnie and I moved into the very first new house of our life. Neither one of us ever lived in a new house. We were in Tulsa, and I was happy as a clam with my 5,000 books. And we moved there with six children. And you know how men are. As long as we had a roof over our head, I didn’t pay much attention to it. And so, we were living in basically a three bedroom apartment with eight of us. And we had four kids in one room, two in another, and us two in one. And the elders and deacons didn’t like that. And I said, why? It’s a step saver. Bonnie can stand in one place and sweep the whole place. And they said no. And so, a group of the elders and deacons, I mean they were builders and everything else, they just said, we’re going to build you a house. And I said, I don’t want a house. They said, we’re going to build you a house and so you have to be obedient. And they did. It was unbelievable. And it was. It had everything that you could imagine. The play set, the swings, and the trees, and the swimming pool. It was just unbelievable.

And I remember when we moved in at Thanksgiving 20 years ago. I. And we just walked around. And I remember we had six kids in that bathtub. I could lay all the way down and my feet and my head did not touch either end. It was way too big. You could drown in it, and so I turned on the faucet. The water came out of that thing like Niagara Falls. You could fill that giant thing in about two minutes. It’s just, you had to watch out. If you didn’t turn it off, it would overflow. The washing machine. They bought an oversized stainless steel thing. It was so big. Bonnie could put everyone’s clothes in one load a day we were down to, but when you turn it on it filled up like that. And we were just walking around in amazement. The shower, it knocked you over. It was just unbelievable, everything. Especially the water pressure.

And so, we were getting ready to have our first visitors at Christmas, and so we were gearing up to have our family come and see this new nice house and between Thanksgiving and Christmas, slowly something happened. Bonnie said, honey, did you know that when I turn on the washing machine, it takes it over an hour to fill up with water? This is the week before Christmas. I said, maybe it’s getting old. The washing machine’s getting old after a month. And then I went to do the kids’ baths. And the water just dropped. It didn’t gush; it just dropped. And then I went and turned on the shower and it was dark in the morning; I never noticed that you have to stand right under the head for it to get on you.

And what had happened is the entire water supply of our house… now you say, oh, that’s nothing. It is in Oklahoma. They build houses on slabs. The pipes are cemented in the slab. To get anything which has crisscrossed with rebar and tension, post tension slabs. You have to jackhammer and cut with metal saws to do pipe work. And then of course, the whole front was this gigantic approach with a basketball hoop and the water came under that. And so, I sat there talking to Bonnie with visions of backhoes and jackhammers because something had broken between the city waterline and our faucets. And so finally it was just before Christmas Eve and I said, honey, I’m going to call the builder. He was in our church. You don’t buy stuff from people in the church because then you feel bad if something goes wrong with it. And so, I him-hawed and waited around until Christmas Eve and I finally called him. And I said, Paul. I don’t know how to tell you this, but our house is broken. I said the toilets, the toilets wouldn’t… you know how long, when the water’s out it takes for the tank to fill. And with all those people in the house, the toilets wouldn’t flush because there was no water in the tank. And I said, the bathrooms are broken. The washing machine won’t work. The dishwasher, it takes all day for one load and it just seems like it never gets rinsed. I said, the whole house is no good.

And I could hear him smiling over the phone and he came over. Drove over to our house just before Christmas Eve Service knocked on the door, came in whistling and he took us over to the entryway to our house. And there was a big grand staircase and underneath that open space, he had designed a tornado closet for you to hide in when there’s tornadoes in Oklahoma. And he put lights and carpeted it. And the kids just lived in there. They just thought it was the greatest thing. And he went over to that thing and he just got down his knees, crawled in for a second and crawled back out and said, go try your shower. And I turned on the shower head and it knocked me over. I turned on the tub and it filled like that. I turned on the dishwasher and it just like that. And I said, what did you do? And he held out in his hand a little faucet handle. He said, do you have a little 2-year-old that plays in the tornado closet? He said, that’s the emergency shutoff for the water coming in from the street. And he said, your little 2-year-old every day was enjoying like driving and he was turning that thing. But what he was doing was he was incrementally stopping the flow of water into your house. So, he handed me the handle and he says, you’re in charge. If you want to have another disaster, don’t guard the shutoff.

That’s my old house lesson. But now let’s apply that to our lives. Think about this. Think about what God wants us to have, and are you quenched? Jesus talked about in verse 37, He says, on the last day, the great day of the feast. Jesus cried out and said, if anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. So, get saved. Verse 38. He who believes in Me, as the scripture is said out of his heart, the very core of his life will flow rivers of living water. Verse 39, but this He spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in Him would receive. Jesus said, I want rivers of life to flow out of your life. I want you to not just be barely squeaking through life. I don’t want you just barely making it. I don’t want you just hanging on by one thread. I want you to have an abundant life. Abundant life during disaster, abundant life during success, abundant life during… at the pastor’s meeting, one of the pastors said, you know what? Most of life is not disaster or great ebullient living. It’s just normal life. Taking the trash out, going to work and putting gas in the car. It’s just normal life. The Lord wants us to have an abundant life. Disaster, normal life, and during those hard struggles, everything He wants to overflow.

Jesus said, I want rivers of water to flow out of your life. Rivers of water would mean that when we were saved, He would flow out of our lives, making us joyous. He says, I want you to be excited about your sins being gone. I want you to read your Bible like I’m talking to you. I want you to flow into prayer.

He says, basically, I want you to have the river flowing out of your life, the Spirit, because you believe and receive the Spirit. I want you to know that you have salvation that’s abundant because that’s the way I designed it. But if it’s not that way.

Then slowly something has happened and what we have to do is, to see if the joy of our salvation has gotten slowly, like my 2-year-old son did, slowly quenched, it wasn’t overnight, it was over a month. Everything just slowed down and the water pressure left.

What are the signs that this is happening in our lives?

Basically, I just have a handful of them. If you have gone from first being saved and excited about your salvation to now not even being sure you’re saved, it’s a sign of spiritual drought. Did you know, that’s the number one complaint of most believers. They don’t even feel like they’re Christians. And when we go from the excitement of knowing that we have eternal life to not even being sure we’re saved. That’s a drought warning.

Number two, if you’ve gone from an overwhelming desire to fleece in and resist temptation and now, you’re so discouraged you don’t resist anything, you’re just taking whatever comes. That’s how life has gotten. It’s kind of like you’re just numb. That’s a drought indicator. If you’ve gone from voraciously reading your Bible, marking it, underlining it, memorizing to; now, you’d rather just sit and fall asleep in front of the television. Those are drought warning signs.

And what the Lord says is it’s time to call your builder for a repair visit. As simple as it was for me to go to the phone call Paul Reed and say the house you built isn’t working the way you said it would work is exactly what the Christian life is all about.

We’re supposed to call the Lord. And we’re supposed to say, Lord, You’ve told us… And by the way, this is Ephesians 4. And the Lord says, you know what the handle of your life is? And this is what we’re going to study in the weeks ahead. What keeps us from being full of the Holy Spirit? Any untruthfulness if we’re not speaking the truth, the Spirit of God is quenched. Anger that isn’t glorifying to God. Wrath. Giving places in our life to the devil. And dishonesty, stealing in any way. Corrupt talking. This is all Ephesians 4.

All of those grieve the Holy Spirit and we’re supposed to put those away. We’re supposed to call the builder and say, I don’t want to be quenched anymore. I want what your Spirit offers. Kindness, tenderhearted, forgiving spirits being godly in Christ.

I want to be filled again. Ephesians 5, now verse 18 says, I want to be, I want that river flowing out of my life again. I want that river. So that it just feels like when I open the Bible, I’m in God’s presence. When I pray, it’s like I know I’m talking to Him. I’m so aware I’m forgiven. I’m so aware that I belong. I’m called by God’s name. That’s what fullness of the Spirit is all about. We need the Spirit’s power to glorify God to live this way.

We, it’s like the water coming into our house, everything came to a standstill in Tulsa at Christmas of 1995 because the water wasn’t coming in, the river wasn’t flowing. We need the river of God’s Spirit to glorify God.

And so, we’re supposed to remember that our, and this is an outline of what we’re going to do. Our body is the temple. We have the Spirit from God. We’re not our own. We’re bought at a price. We’re supposed to glorify God in our spirit because we belong to Him.

Glorify. The Holy Spirit’s making headquarters in us. He does everything necessary for our lives, and we have to make every effort to surrender to Him.

So, this morning at communion, here’s a question. If you’ve gone from being saved and excited and now not even being sure you’re saved, as we bow our heads in a moment, call your builder. Say, I’m not, it’s not like You promised. What I want to repent. It’s not You that’s changed, it’s me. I want to come back. No matter how many steps away, it’s only one step back. If we’ve, if we don’t resist sin, we have to confess that and say Lord, I want Your grace so I can say no and deny ungodliness. If we’ve gone from voraciously feeding on the Word of God, we have to say Lord, I want You to change that.

It’s time to call your builder for a repair visit.

And basically, what the Lord says is. I want to flow out and make you excited about your sins being gone at this communion. I want you to go out of here, having a hunger for the Bible and say God, I want you to talk to me. And I want to make prayer like tonight. You know when I made that announcement about prayer meeting, you know what some of you thought? I can’t imagine spending 45 minutes praying. I don’t know what I’d pray about. Did you know what fullness of Spirit makes us want? We never have enough time. There’s so much to pray for, there’s so much benefit in communing with God that we want and need and seek Him.

Let’s bow for word of prayer and as we bow, I invite the elders and deacons to prepare to serve us. But for us here, we need to prepare to receive. And what I would encourage you to do is call your builder right now. I’m going to be calling mine. I’m going to say Lord, I want to be filled constantly. I want Your power. I want Your Word to just come alive to me. I want prayer to be natural. I want to, at this communion, be so aware that my sins are forgiven. Let’s invite God to give us that abundant life as we bow before Him.

Father in Heaven with our hearts bowed. With our minds fixed on You, I pray that each one of us would say, am I overwhelmingly aware my sins are forgiven? If not, Lord, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Am I hungering and thirsting after You and Your Word? If not, Lord, I want to repent of whatever has blocked my appetite for You. I want to come back to that voracious hunger and thirst. Do whole days go by without me calling in and checking in with You in prayer? I want to repent of that. That’s what this communion is about. It’s about abundant life that Your Spirit wants to give to us. You’ve done everything, oh Lord. You have paid the price. You have taken away the debt of our sin. But now we need the blessing of cleansing. If we forsake, confess and forsake our sin, You are faithful and just to cleanse us and restore to us the joy of our sins forgiven, of Your Word speaking to us, and of prayer flowing from our lives. That’s what we want, this communion. I pray that You would work as we hold these elements in our hand and sing these songs that you would find us asking for Your Spirit to refill and to overflow our lives like a river. In the name of Jesus, we thank you for this bread. Such a reminder that You paid for our abundant life with Your own body on the tree. In Your name, Lord Jesus we pray. Amen.

Notes

As we open to John 7 today, we are doing so because:

Discipleship is all about the basics:

1. Salvation: First we covered understanding salvation & baptism.
2. Scriptures: Next we covered the Scriptures and feeding our souls daily.
3. Spirit Fullness: Today we learn about the Holy Spirit.

At the instant of salvation each of us became the Temple of God: Who begins to live within us as God the Spirit, the Comforter.

That truth is the source of a lifetime of wonderful blessing, and an endless supply of Divine power in order for each of us to live the abundant life promised by Jesus Christ our Savior.

Welcome to the lesson in personal discipleship when we introduce the work of Spirit of God in our lives as believers. The best place to start is where Jesus explained what the Holy Spirit does inside of us. Turn there with me to John 7:37-39.

An Overflowing Life Is A Choice

Jesus explained the Holy Spirit in our lives by using the image of a strong river of water flowing out of us. Each day we must choose to seek after God in our lives as believers. Not making a choice is the choice to neglect God. We either choose or neglect God each day.

Just as getting into the Scriptures is a choice each day, so also is staying filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s not automatic, like an online payment. Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, and Spirit-prompted life is a series of choices. Choices to love, obey, follow, surrender, and seek God’s control and power.

A lot of people think the Christian life is like auto-pay—it’s not. We have to discipline ourselves to be remaining full and controlled by the Holy Spirit. In John 7:37, first Jesus describes salvation when He said: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” That is salvation. That is coming to Him in faith and being supernaturally saved. Then Jesus described the result of salvation in verse 38: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Did you hear how Jesus described the normal life of the believer? God planned that the life of a born again person become like a flowing river of life. Not anything like a little trickle—He said Rivers of water.  What does that mean?

Rivers of water would mean that when we were saved the Spirit of God comes into our lives making us joyous and thankful.

Rivers of Joy

When God’s Spirit flows out of our lives we are so excited about all our sins being gone. In fact when we are involved with communion, it is such a time of remembering of what Jesus did.

This morning as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we remember that He gave Himself for us. I have known about that since I was old enough to sit up and stay awake in church. I had been in church every Sunday of my life except when I was sick or my parents were on vacation; and even then we acted like we were at church on Sunday. You know what? I got used to it.

I remember when I first married Bonnie and we were standing at Grace Community Church, our first time as a couple. We were at a communion service and all of a sudden I looked over and my brand new bride had tears run down her eyes—she was just crying. I said what’s wrong? She said nothing’s wrong, I just can’t believe the Lord forgave me. I said—to cry about it? And then I thought, yes.

The joyous streams of the Holy Spirit cause us to be so thankful that we are forgiven.

When God’s Spirit flows out of our lives, the Bible seems just like having God talking to us. When we are full of Him as you read this Book and start over again, perhaps in the New Year, it’s just like having God talk to us. That’s what it’s like Jesus said- when out of us flow rivers of living water.

When God’s Spirit flows out of our lives, prayer is so natural and uncluttered. It feels like the stars overhead have parted and we are walking right into Heaven before God’s Throne. We just talk and walk with the Lord. Each day it seems like all of life is brand new.

Salvation Starts the River Flowing Out of Our Lives

That’s what Jesus says in verse 38—Rivers, literally torrents, cascading, gushing waters coming out of us. That is the normal Christian life. God wants us to have a mighty river of water of the Holy Spirit flowing out of our lives.

New life as God made it, is to be with that mighty river of water flowing out of our lives.

At salvation we were refreshed, we were victorious, we were rejoicing, we were serving joyfully. The Holy Spirit was flowing through our new lives like the rivers of water. That is the life of a believer as God intended it to be.

But what happens when we slowly neglect to make that choice to surrender and seek the power of the Spirit filling our lives?

Our New House Lesson

In 1995 through the love, prayers, and hard work of so many friends we moved into our very first new home of our lives. I still remember walking around that house—everything worked. It was fun—every fixture, every faucet, every light, every door shut, it was unbelievable. It was fantastic, especially considering the size of our family.

The bathtub was the size of our old plastic swimming pool, and easily held all three of the little buddies and all their toys in an ocean of warm water. In fact the water roared out of that new plumbing with a roar and flow that sounded an awful lot like the Niagara Falls. It seemed the water lines into our house were enlarged and very strong.

The washing machine was stainless steel, oversized and of such oceanic capacity — that any mountain of laundry would just disappear into that huge cavern. It was a small wonder to hear and see how fast the load would start as a torrent of water cascaded down upon the clothes like a geyser. It seemed like the water pressure into our house was like a fire hydrant.

The dishwasher was huge and once the dishes were parked in their spaces the roar of water and swishing was amazing. In fact it seemed that it started almost as soon as we shut the front because the water pressure of this new home was so strong.

And the shower, whew, what an experience. Hot and strong came that flow. It was almost like we had built the house over Old Faithful the geyser. Just turn the handle and POW, out came the waterfall. What a shower system we had.

We thought it was a great house and we all loved it. That was just before Thanksgiving. We had family coming in for Christmas to show off our new house.

Bonnie used to be able to get a load of clothes done in a half hour. But something happened one day the week before our first Christmas there in Tulsa. Bonnie noticed that the washer slowed down day by day until it took all day to just do one load. We didn’t think any thing about it after a while.

Then we noticed the dishwasher took 3 to 4 hours to do one small load, instead of 30 minutes. Then, the shower began to wilt, until the only way to get wet was to stand directly under the trickle out of the showerhead, and even then it was pitiful.

At first it was just a bother; but then even the toilets, joined the bathtub and washer slowing to nearly a stop. We were horrified, our new home was ruined, it was broken plumbing we thought. A pipe burst in the slab or worse, the city waterline that ran under our cement approach to the garage. We had nightmare scenarios of backhoes and mud and a torn up lawn and yard as we called our builder. He smiled over the phone and said he knew exactly what was wrong.

In 15 minutes he arrived whistling and still smiling. While we wrung our hands showing him all the terrible non-functioning appliances and fixtures – he just smiled. And then after all our grief and disappointment at our new home was all spilled out he said to follow him. He walked to our coat closet, a.k.a under stairs tornado closet, a.k.a. kids hideaway; and knelt down chuckling.

He asked “Do you have any two or three year olds that play in here?” In a moment he stood and said, go try the shower.

We ran and voila, Niagara Falls was back. He opened his hand and there was the small shut off valve handle that one of our precious buddies had been slowly turning bit by bit each day, until the rivers of water into our home were choked, quenched and nearly shut out of the house.

Why am I giving you the My Old House show? Because the experience of the water, slowly getting choked out of our home, is so clearly a picture of what happens so often to so many believers!

ARE YOU QUENCHED

Jesus talked about such a strong flow of water in a spiritual sense. Lets turn there to John 7.37-38. Rivers of water is the way Jesus describes the normal life of believers, His children. Please stand and join me reading these verses:

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus said I want rivers of water to flow out of your lives. Rivers of water would mean that when we were saved He flowed out of our lives making us joyous and thankful.

I want you to be excited about your sins being gone.

I want you to read the Bible like it was God meeting with you and talking to you.

I want you to be flowing in your prayers to Me. He flowed out of our lives making prayer was so natural and uncluttered. It felt like the stars overhead had parted and we were walking right into Heaven before God’s Throne.

The Joy of Our Salvation

You know what? That’s how people are when they get saved. It’s unbelievable. They just can’t get enough of the Bible, they can’t get enough of the fellowship with God’s people, they can’t tell enough people that their sins are forgiven. They can’t tell enough people how they can be saved.

And that is life as God made it to be with that mighty river of water flowing out of our lives. We were refreshed, we were victorious, we were rejoicing, we were serving joyfully. The Holy Spirit was flowing through our new lives like the rivers of water that flowed in that new house of ours. That is the life of a believer as God intended it to be.

Then slowly something happened. You know what? The little “turning off the water valve” of the grieving and quenching of the Holy Spirit starts constricting little by little the water pipe of the Holy Spirit in their life.

Almost imperceptibly things start drying up in their life; and almost without knowing it, their lives become waterless and barren and dry.

Watch Out For Signs of Spiritual Drought

That is exactly what happens when the water valve of our spiritual lives is twisted shut by sin. And that is what the Bible describes as Quenching and Grieving the Holy Spirit. We are given the command to keep our lives filled with the Holy Spirit.

We are to walk in Him, live through Him, bear fruit by Him, and overcome sin with Him as our Sword of the Word.

Look at Ephesians 4:30 with me.

Have you entered a time of spiritual drought in your spiritual life? You have:

—If you have gone from first being saved and excited to: now being not even sure you are saved;

—If you have ever gone from overwhelming desire to flee sin and resist temptation to: now you are so discouraged you can’t resist anything and you are just taking anything that comes;

—If you have gone from voraciously reading your Bible and marking and underlining and memorizing to: now you would rather sit and fall asleep in front of the television…

Time to Call  Your Builder for a Repair Visit

Then let me give you a little diagnostic here because I think you need the Builder to come by and go into your closet and find out what has turned your water valve off—OK? This is what it says in Ephesians 4 starting in verse 25:

²⁵ Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. ²⁶“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷nor give place to the devil. ²⁸Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. ²⁹Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Now that’s an imperative- a command- a direct command from God. He said your responsibility verse 30- do not grieve the Holy Spirit. He is the one who has sealed you for the day of redemption. What are some grievers? Well, verses 25 to 29 are a bunch, verse 31 continues:

 ³¹Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³²And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

For all of our earthly life it is God’s Holy Spirit that is our lifeline for all that we need to make it. It says in verse 30 if we grieve the Holy Spirit of God, it is like we are cranking down the water line of our life. We grieve Him and cause his influence to be abated in our lives. That is what happens- the spiritual water valve of our lives is twisted shut. That is what the Bible describes as grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit. We are to keep our lives—- in fact, look at chapter 5 and verse 18 because here is the parallel commandment—- as much as the Holy Spirit—- we are commanded by God in the imperative mode not to grieve Him. We are equally commanded in chapter 5 and verse 18–

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.

Be constantly being filled.

Make it your constant endeavor to never allow the Holy Spirit to not be filling and overflowing your life is what Paul is telling us.

That is what the great training coach of the winning lifestyle believers—the apostle Paul tells us. Let’s look at a little theology of the Holy Spirit and I want to make this morning, this communion a morning of preparation for the fullness of God’s Spirit.

We Need the Spirit’s Power so We Can Glorify God

Look back with me at 1 Corinthians 6, and ponder whether or not the Holy is cascading out of your life or whether you are in spiritual drought.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (this is His headquarters, His abode, His ministry center, His home, His holy place, this is where He comes and abides) who is in you, whom you have from God (He is a gift from God), and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify  (aorist active imperative this is God’s request) God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Whenever you bump into these imperatives and there are 562 of them in the New Testament and they are a great study as you are reading through the Bible—you ought to find them and underline them—but as you go through these are not the options, these are the commands, these are what God wants).

Therefore glorify: What He is saying is because the Holy Spirit is making headquarters in you, do everything necessary to keep Him from being grieved and quenched.

It is my duty to say no to any thing that will shut off the valve of the Holy Spirit’s working in my life. It’s my job to make sure that nothing constricts Him, nothing stops the flow of the Spirit in my life. That’s a command.

Have you entered a time of spiritual drought in your spiritual life? You have:

—if you have gone from first being saved and excited to: now being not even sure you are saved;

—If you have ever gone from overwhelming desire to flee sin and resist temptation to: now you are so discouraged you can’t resist anything and you are just taking anything that comes;

—If you have gone from voraciously reading your Bible and marking and underlining and memorizing to: now you would rather sit and fall asleep in front of the television…

Time to Call  our Builder for a Repair Visit

He Can Restore Those Rivers of Joy

When God’s Spirit flows out of our lives we are so excited about all our sins being gone.

When God’s Spirit flows out of our lives, the Bible seems just like having God talking to us.

When God’s Spirit flows out of our lives, prayer is so natural and uncluttered.

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