Download shm09038_whatwillwedrink.pdf
Download shm09038_whatwillwedrink.epub

What will we drink?

Reference: SHM-S09-038-Mw-R00-P2

(Originally spoken on 15 September 2013, edited on 17 September 2013)

Web site: http://www.ajourneyinlife.org and http://www.ajourneyinlife.com

This message is protected by copyright © 2013 Lim Liong. Permission is given to reproduce part (where the meaning is retained and the part is not quoted out of context) or all, of it, for personal use or for distribution, on condition that no changes are made and the message is distributed free of charge. Please do so prayerfully and discreetly.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

The paragraphs above as well as this paragraph must be included when the message is reproduced so that others who reproduce it will be conscious of the conditions stated above.

Let us turn to John 7: 37-39.

John 7: 37-39

37. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
38. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'"
39. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

We are told that it was the last day, the great day of the feast - an important time for the Jewish people at that time, and on that occasion the Lord Jesus stood and He cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink."

What the Lord Jesus said to the people of those days is still applicable to us today. We may not be a Jew, we may not have been in that situation, but His invitation is still available to us: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink."

When we think of what this means, are we not amazed that God, the almighty God, would come into this world and speak to us in this way? God came into this world as a man and He invites us, if we are thirsty, to come to Him and drink. How wonderful that is!

We know that God is good and God is all-powerful, and therefore, what He wants to give to us must be the very best. And yet, the reality is that very few people truly come to Him to drink.

People throughout the world, they are thirsty, but they do not come to the Lord Jesus and drink.

And this applies even to Christians, who have come to know the Lord, who have tasted of His goodness, but in their daily lives, they are still drinking from other sources rather than from the Lord Jesus.

So what is it that we will drink? What are we looking for? What do we seek to quench our thirst?

All of us are thirsty in some form or other. We want something; we long for certain things; we seek for various things. So in our thirst: Where do we go? What do we do? And how do we respond?

The Lord Jesus had an encounter with a woman of Samaria and in His conversation with her, we read in John 4: 10:

John 4:10

• Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

What does the Lord Jesus offer us? He offers us living water. And He says: "This is the gift of God." Do we appreciate how meaningful this is - What God is offering to us: the gift of God, living water from the Lord Jesus?

But why is it that although God offers us living water, many Christians are not really alive? To the church in Sardis, the Lord Jesus said: "...you have a name that you are alive, but you are not."

So, many Christians, they have life, yes, to some degree but to a large extent, they are not really alive. The life of God is not rich in them. The living water is not abundant in their lives

Why is that so?

It is because we do not appreciate the gift of God. We acknowledge it, we recognize it is good - "God is good; the gift of God must be very good" - but in terms of actual living day to day, in terms of what we are pursuing in life, we are not seeking the gift of God.

What are we then seeking?

In many ways, we are seeking the gift of man and the gift of what the physical world can offer to us.

In the case of the Samaritan woman, when the Lord Jesus spoke to her about living water, she was preoccupied with physical water and she thought how good it would be if the Lord Jesus could give her living water so that she would not thirst anymore, she would not need to come here anymore to draw water. To her, that would be wonderful.

But the Lord Jesus was speaking of the moral and spiritual realm.

John 4: 13-16

13. Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
14. but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
15. The woman *said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."
16. He *said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here."

If we examine our own lives, if we think of the way we live each day, we may not be so surprised at the way that the woman of Samaria responded.

In many ways, we also respond similarly. We are very preoccupied with the physical and material things of this world. And if God were to give us something in the physical realm that is pleasant, helpful to us in our consideration, we would be so very grateful, we would be so occupied with this, and it would seem so very good to us.

But what is God offering us?

He is offering us something far beyond the physical, the material, the temporary. He is offering us eternal life. He is offering us living water.

But apart from physical things in this world, we are also seeking for the gifts of men. And one of the most powerful things that men can give to us is their opinion. If they hold a high opinion of you, then you will feel very comforted, you can be very happy and very satisfied. The praises of men are a very powerful force in this world and how much people seek for that: the favour of men rather than the favour of God.

Yes, there is a place to obtain favour from men if it is the result of our living our lives well. But we should not be seeking for the favour of men and what men can give to us as a primary issue in our lives.

Are we occupied with the gift of God? Do we really appreciate what God wants to give us and seek Him for this living water?

Bear in mind that when the Lord Jesus said He would give us living water, the implication is that outside of Him, there is not that living water. Although He may not have said it so specifically in this passage, but in other places, He makes clear to us we have no life in ourselves and the world cannot give us life.

Only God can grant to us eternal life, and the living water has to do with eternal life.

"...the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

The water that we get from this world is dead. There is no life in it. In whatever form we may obtain it, whether the physical realm or the praise of man or whatever position you may be able to attain, all that is dead in the moral and spiritual realm. We need to see this clearly. Otherwise, we will be wasting our time, our energy, our resources, and at the end of it all, we will regret it but too late. By the time we leave this world, we cannot reverse these decisions.

It is important for us now to consider: What are we seeking? What will we drink? How will we spend our time, energy and resources? What will we pursue? What is it that is truly worthwhile?

Why is it that in spite of the fact that we all know that the Lord Jesus gives us living water, we still do not come to Him?

Well, there are people who do come to the Lord Jesus but they do not receive living water. Why?

The apostle James tells us: "You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss. You are seeking your own pleasures. You are seeking for the wrong things. That is why you will not receive."

The Lord Jesus offered us living water, but we are looking for something else. We want Him to give us dead water. He will not do that. We want His favour and we want it the wrong way.

The woman *said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw." What was the Lord Jesus' response to her? Did the Lord Jesus then give her living water since she asked, "Sir, give me this water"?

We are told: He *said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here."

Why did the Lord Jesus say that? Why did He not just give to her living water?

It is because coming to the Lord Jesus requires the right spirit. Coming to the Lord Jesus to receive living water requires a right motivation; it requires a right approach in life. There was something wrong with her life and the Lord Jesus had to bring it to the surface for her to face it and to recognize it and to deal with it. If she truly wanted living water from the Lord Jesus, she had to face the realities of her life and deal with these areas.

He said: "Go, call your husband and come here." And what was her reply? "I have no husband." So she could not go and call her husband to come here. The Lord Jesus told her, "What you say is true. You have no husband. But you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. In this you have said truly."

So the woman came to recognize that the Lord Jesus knew everything about her, and this helped her to face the issue. Would she deal with her own heart, would she come to the Lord with the right attitude?

This is something that all of us will have to face.

The woman of Samaria went back to tell her people: "Could this be the Saviour of the world, the Messiah? He told me everything that I did." So she acknowledged what the Lord Jesus said about her. To what extent she faced it and was repentant we are not told, but the underlying issue is that for each one of us, we need to face our lives properly before God.

If we truly want the very best from God, which is living water to the fullest sense of it - rivers of living water, a well of water springing up into eternal life - if we want that, we want that kind of abundance of spiritual life and meaning and reality that God wants to give to us, then we must make sure that we come to God in the right spirit, what we are pursuing is pleasing to Him, is good in His sight, and He can give us out of the abundance of His perfection.

But if we are seeking for the wrong things, then we will not receive from Him the spiritual, everlasting life that He wants to give to us.

So, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink."

First, we need to make sure what are we thirsty for. If we are thirsting for the wrong things then do not expect the Lord Jesus to grant to you. We must first sort it out: what are we thirsting for? What do we really want that will be pleasing to the Lord?

And this is an area that all of us need to ponder over day after day, year after year, throughout our lives. It is something that we can grow in appreciation at ever deepening levels. What is it that is truly precious that we want? What is it that God would approve and God would gladly give to us - the gift of God?

And if we sort that out and we know what we are thirsting after, then the next step that we need to take is: Come to Him.

It is not just a passing statement, a passing request: "Lord, yes, I want. I want spiritual life and meaning. Give me." Coming to the Lord Jesus requires first that we truly appreciate Him, we recognize who He is.

The Lord Jesus said to the woman of Samaria: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

Do we know who is the One who is speaking to us? Do we know that this is the Lord Jesus, the Lord of lords, the King of kings; the perfect, the holy One of God? Will we come before Him in the right spirit, and will we persist in coming to Him until He gives to us the very best? He wants to, but we need to come in the right way and we need to persevere until we receive from Him the very best that He wants to give to us.

Pilate, when he was examining the Lord Jesus, he asked, "What is truth?" and he walked way.

And this is a picture of many Christians. We come to God and we say, "Lord, grant to me this" and soon after that we just walk away. We do not spend time to specifically seek God to understand, when we ask God to give us such a thing, is this really pleasing to Him, is this something meaningful to Him?

Will we listen to what He has to say?

If we do, then we may find that many a time, the many things that we ask of God are really useless things, are not important things, are things that will actually hurt us. So if we deal with them properly, we hear what God has to say, then we can come to Him in the right way and He will grant to us what is truly good.

Therefore, having come to Him, we must persevere until we receive what He wants to give to us and drink, and keep on drinking, keep on receiving from Him.

We must be partakers of the divine nature, receive the life of God more and more to transform our being, that we can become like Him. Are we interested in that, is it important to us?

Sad to say, we agree it is important, but we do not live by it. To a large extent, that is true.

But it can change. It is up to us.

How much you want to pursue this direction is entirely your choice. But it is true, as we pray for one another, God can speak to us, God can help us, He can encourage us to pursue that direction. But ultimately, it is your choice: What is it that is important to you? What do you want to give yourself for? What do you want to live by?

So as we come before the Lord, let us ask Him to help us understand what is truly valuable in life.

We need to spend time to evaluate before God so that we know what we are doing, how we are living our lives and what we are pursuing.

Do not let each day just pass by without deep consciousness of the direction of our lives: what we are preparing for, for the future, and what we are developing in the present, and what we are contributing to the lives of others - how are we influencing the lives of others? Is it truly for their good? Are our lives a hindrance to people truly coming to God in a deeper way?

Let us ask the Lord to help us to appreciate more deeply the gift of God, the living water, and to be grateful and to pursue according to His provision, His call in our lives.