Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.
We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.
We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will
encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.
We celebrate today, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit
mightily moved in their upper room at Jerusalem.
We are expectant of the same kind of move in these times in
our lives. We believe that the revival
reign of the Spirit will drench the body of Christ like never
before in order to bring about the harvest that the prophet
Joel spoke about. Are you ready for this revival
to reign over you and your church?
Hi Church. It's such a joy and a privilege
to be bringing God's Word to you today, even as we are preparing
ourselves for Pentecost Sunday, I believe God is stirring up the
Church to be prepared. God is asking us be expectant.
God is asking us that we'd be ready for His outpouring 2000
years back. His outpouring came on the Upper
room for the 120 odd people who are waiting.
I believe, as we wait a week from now to celebrate that day.
The reason we celebrate is a reminder that we are in
desperate need of the Holy Spirit today more than ever
before, and I love how the last two Sundays has set me up to
speak today. I know we didn't stream our
online service and we had a guest speaker here, but Jeremy
spoke on the recipes of Revival and he spoke to experiences.
Revival. We need to have certain things
in place. One is to be extremely
committed, to be extremely generous, and to be extremely
sacrificial. And even last week, as Tina
spoke about revival in families, she centered around this whole
thing that we need to praise and to pray.
We also saw that the river of God that she spoke about is
where God resides and he wants us to flourish.
And many at times it's us who's moving away from the river of
God. It's not the river that
disappears, but it's rather us which get so caught up with
everything that's happening around that.
We miss being around his presence.
We miss being in his presence. And today, as we continue on, I
have titled my sermon as Revival Starts with me, Revival Starts
with me. And I want you to repeat that.
Even wherever you're seated or wherever you're listening or
wherever you're watching, would you repeat this?
Revival starts with me. If you can just touch yourself
and say it starts with me. You know, many a times we've
seen and heard different outpourings happen.
The last we heard was it entered into a university campus and
they started experiencing the revival that got birthed out
there. When a lot of them started
coming in and just started experiencing Jesus, experiencing
His Holy Spirit, experiencing His presence, they were
convicted of their sin. They returned back to the cross.
They exchanged their sin, their shame, and they received His
grace and His life. We've heard from the Azusa St.
We've heard different expressions happen.
But many a times we are content knowing of these expressions,
but we rather are safe for many times hoping that you know it
doesn't. It shouldn't start with me, but
the Holy Spirit today is saying revival starts with you and with
me. Revival starts with me.
And so today, even as we dwell a little deeper, I want God to
really bring His word, enlighten His words, so that it'll not
just remain like an enlightenment moment, but rather
be a seed that falls in that this will become one of those
milestones or those one of those markings that we have to say
definitely it's after this that I have been intentional with
what the Holy Spirit is asking me to say.
And do you know when we think about revival, starting with me,
there's a bit of us that we are scared about.
You know, we we suddenly are so conscious of a lot of the
defects that we all have. If I have to ask you, do you
feel whole as a person? You know, you would say, you
know what, I've I I don't feel WHOLE, but I feel a lot.
I have a lot of HOLES. We feel we have a lot of holes
in US, and every time it's a shortcomings, it's the things
that we think we need perfection, we think we need,
needs to look right, that we think, You know what, if this is
not right, I don't think God can do any work in me, but I want to
remind you that when God created us, He created us whole.
When he thought of you and me in our mother's womb, when he knit
us together, he thought of us whole.
He didn't think. You know what?
I leave Geshom with a defect, or I leave Geshom with this gaping
hole in his in his life or in his physical form?
No. In who he was as God when he
created me, He created whole. But the problem is the condition
I'm born into. This world has sin in it.
So everything, that's what we are born into sin, we when we
are born, we are born with so many things that don't work
right for us. We find our upbringing, our
challenges, our hardships, our struggles, the way we look, our
colour, you know, everything adds up and we feel we're not
whole. But today God's saying, even if
you feel you're not whole, revival still starts with me.
Revival still starts with you. So today what is my emphasis to
say that you don't have to discount yourself thinking
you're not whole our end. In fact there was a message
which I just preached 2-3 weeks back and it was on the lines of
our we are exiled citizens. And in the conclusion I had
taken this passage from Haggai chapter 3 verse nine and in the
message it says this we who are his temple today.
It says this temple is going to end up far better then it
started out. A glorious beginning, but an
even more glorious finish. A place in which I will hand out
wholeness and holiness is the decree of the God of the Angel
armies. When we allow Jesus to come into
our lives, when we allow His Holy Spirit to work in and
through us, His residency is in our hearts, We become His temple
and in turn, the characteristics of God start coming into us.
We become whole and we become holy.
Because wherever the Lord is there, His Holiness is.
And so today, for a lot of us who are in the corporate world,
for those of us who have gone through leadership courses and
all that, we probably have come across this work called
Enneagram. I completely agree with the
anagram test. It's kind of demarcates us.
It shows us how what we are, character are, what we have
built up about what we can do, what we cannot do.
And it has a very clear distinctive in terms of our
personality traits. And I want us to come to a place
to realize that even though we do all this, this helps us so
that when we're in a team, we realize that each anagram number
someone is different. You know?
And so me expecting something of someone to do it this way may
not be right because they they aren't wired that way, but
oftentimes even allowed that to be dictating what the Holy
Spirit can do in and through us. And God is saying today
irrespective of what your enneagram you know personality
traits are, there are totally 9 personality traits.
Whatever those nine personality traits are for each and every
personality trait revival is for each and every one of you.
So don't discount that. So the after effects of sin have
really left us helpless. When we see God move and want
revival, we do discount. We fall short.
We cancel ourselves. But every time the Spirit of God
came upon someone, the more we read the Bible, the more you
start meditating, the more you see his story intertwined with
each other. How he built an entire nation,
Israel, and how he led them on. And how in their disobedience,
how they went into exile and captivity, and how he brought
about the remnant doubt and how he established them.
And through that we see Jesus coming into this world so that
we all can be saved because his redemption was just not for a
nation but was for entirety of mankind.
We see at the end of it the revival that the Holy Spirit
brings is 1 where you and me are very much involved.
The story does not continue without us.
We find it easier to say. You know what I think it's just
for this particular group of people.
You know, It could be either for the apostles or for the
prophets, or for the evangelists, or for the
teachers, or for the past as it's for them.
Because we've come up with all these roles and we think, you
know what? If that person fits that role,
this is only for them. The word revival is for no
revival is for everyone, because you and me today are the hands
and feet of Jesus. I can't enter the spaces where
God has ordained you to enter, and you eventually become a
carrier of his revival into that very space.
But today, are you willing to deceive it?
Are you willing to receive it? Because today I want us to come
to a place to realize when we are talking about revival, we
are saying, Holy Spirit, you can take residency here.
You can make this your home. This is your house.
This is your place of holiness. Use me as you see fit.
Maybe all this while you've accepted Jesus into your heart
and you've not allowed the Holy Spirit to move.
Or you've said you know what, God, I don't want the Holy
Spirit. I don't know what background
they're coming from. Probably, you know, we have so
many backgrounds from Presbyterians, Baptists,
Pentecostals, non denominational, whatever it is,
we believe in God the Father, we believe in God the Son that is
Jesus Christ, and we believe in God the Holy Spirit.
And so today you need the Holy Spirit, He needs to move in and
through you. That Spirit is what breeds life.
And even as I was meditating and I was thinking, God, if that
revival has to start in me, where do you want me to, you
know, really look into your scriptures to really learn and
see this from? And he led me to this book in
John Chapter 4A story, which we, most of us have probably heard
of Jesus meeting the Samaritan word.
And so as part of our story today, we're going to see how
revival starts with each and every one of us included not
excluded. So the first thing I want us to
make a note is when revival has to start with you and me
involved in the mix. Revival first meets us in our
mundane. Revival first meets us in our
mundane. So what is that revival meeting
us in our mundane? You might think, OK, you know
what Revival will happen when we have a specific three day
prayer. The spirit of God will move,
yes, He will move. But us experiencing this
revival, us saying that revival starts with me, means I need to
take it into my Monday, into my Tuesday, into my Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It doesn't start on a Sunday and ends on a Sunday.
It starts on a Sunday and continues on all the way to
Monday, Tuesday, all the way through to Saturday.
And I want us to read today from John Chapter 4, to see what this
is reading from John Four. And this is what it says.
He had to go through Samaria on the way.
Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sikkur,
near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired from the long walk,
sat wearily beside the well about noontime.
Soon as Samaritan came to draw water and Jesus said to her,
please give me a drink. He was alone at that time
because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some
food. The woman was surprised, for
Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans.
She said to Jesus, You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.
Why are you asking me for a drink?
Verse 10 Jesus replied. If you only knew the gift God
has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me
and I would give you living water.
You know, when we read the context here, we see that Judea
and Galilee and right in between that is Samaria.
And we see as Jesus is leaving Judea and heading into Galilee,
he has to go through Samaria. So it just lies here.
And so from Judea is going all the way to some Samaria, and
through Samaria he gets into Galilee.
And here is where Jesus encounters A Samaritan woman,
the enmity that we see happen time and again between the Jews
and the Samaritans. Samaritans were considered 2nd
grade citizens. They was looked down upon.
They believed in the God of Abraham and Jacob, but they had
no other place to go and worship.
So they had a place of worship within Samaria itself.
And we see this long standing feud that existed.
And so it was considered a taboo to actually talk to a Samaritan
person. But here is Jesus as he's
walking. He's tired, He's seated there.
But what we see happen is a samatan woman is coming at noon
to come and take water. And it's in that same place.
He needs her. You know, we, when we think
about it, is just an ordinary scene where she's coming to take
water. But it's one of habit.
It's one of discipline. When we For those of you who are
having a regular rhythm in life, you'll realize at this
particular point in the morning you're doing certain things.
You know, probably from 6:30 you're making coffee 644.
You're putting the laundry in seven o'clock.
You're doing your quiet time. These could be some of the
things in which you have certain things in order.
And probably this is where the Samaritan woman had this place
where she had to go and take water for the rest of the day
for her to use in the house. And it's in this special time
she meets with Jesus. And it's interesting.
As you know, Tina has been mentioning in her previous
sermon about the Holy Spirit being to one of the river of
God, the living water. It's beautiful how this is tying
into that where Jesus is asking this woman, could you give me
water to drink? And it got me thinking, what
does it look like if I had to take this living water into my
everyday life. You know, we we pray about it.
We say God be with me today, even as I go to work.
But are we specifically praying for everything that we are
doing? Are we are we expecting God to
show up? Because if God has to show up,
we need to be open for certain disruptions to happen.
The Samaritan woman made sure that this was her everyday
thing. Her mundane was being disrupted.
And I believe God wants us to to.
And I believe God wants to disrupt our mundane a bit so
that freshness can come in, so that there'll be a bit of
newness that come in. There'll be life that's getting
breathed. And his wind starts blowing and
it gives as this breeze of comfort knowing he's in control.
His living water comes in so that it wipes away everything
that is weary and dry and encourages that parch and dry
land to experience freshness. And you know, a sense of
completion. For revival to rebirth.
We need to be open for our mundanes to be disrupted.
Mundanes are good. Mundanes Bring discipline.
It helps us stay in focus so we can accomplish all that we set
out to do. But may it also have room for
revival. May it also have room to be
disrupted so that the Holy Spirit can move and change
certain things. Let's continue on reading John
chapter 4, verses 10 to 14. The previous few verses that she
read were from NLT, but I've taken this John 410 to 14 from
the message version and this is what it says.
Verse 10, this is what it says. Jesus answered.
If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be
asking me for a drink and I would give you fresh living
water, the woman said. Sir, you don't even have a
bucket to draw with. And this well is deep.
So how are you going to get this living water?
Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who ducked this
well and drank from it? He and his sons and livestock
and passed it down to us? Jesus said everyone who drinks
this water will get thirsty again.
Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst.
Not ever. The water I give will be an
artisan spring within gushing fountains of endless life.
It's interesting that when we read this, Jesus is asking his
human form was one which probably desired, was tired, was
worn out, was probably tired and wanting to have physical water.
But when he saw this woman, I believe he was moved with
compassion. He wanted to touch up.
He wanted something in her life to change.
And he says I would give you fresh living water.
And many a times this revival, this disruption that happens,
God will do it in such way where our logic is questioned.
The Samantha's woman logic was right.
She said, hey, you don't have anything here.
I'm the only person who can actually take and give you this
water. And what are you saying?
You'll give me fresh living water.
I don't see a bucket in your hand.
I don't see anything where you can draw water out from.
And Jesus goes on to say this profound thing, and I believe
this is the truth where we will need Jesus in our life.
He says he had everyone who drinks his water will get
thirsty again. If we are running after physical
things, we acquire it, we get it, and then we feel we don't
have enough of it's OK. Is this what I pursue?
I think I need to pursue more. But Jesus saying, anyone who
drinks the water, I give the water that Jesus gives.
The revival that Jesus gives will never thirst.
Not ever. The water I give will be an
artisan spring within gushing fountains of endless life.
If you're taking notes, if you want to make a note on artisan
spring within gushing fountains of endless life, what does that
look like? Revival that the Holy Spirit
wants us to participate in is fresh and it's living.
It's fresh and it's living. What is fresh and living?
Which means every time you ask the Holy Spirit to come into
that situation, every time you ask God, come into my mundane,
come into my this He will bring a fresh anointing.
He will bring a living anointing.
He won't allow you to operate out of yesterday's anointing.
I love that a lot of us have been carrying and breezing
through life, carrying old water, carrying, recycled,
repurposed. But God's saying, no, I want to
give you fresh and living every day.
What does that look like for those of us who are parents?
That's something we need every day of fresh and living water.
The Holy Spirit is saying I can do that.
For those of us who are married and are struggling in our
marriages, he's saying I can give you that fresh and living
water. Would you ask me, Don't look to
your spouse, Ask me. Start praying about it.
Ask for everything, however small it may be.
If there are struggles, ask him. If there are communication
problems, ask him. If there are struggles and
getting along, ask he will find a way.
He will can mend broken hearts, he can put broken hearts
together, he can do everything. And the reason why I asked you
to underline this word. Artisan Spring and I was just
reading up on this. It's basically where this
waterbed is locked in between 2 sections of ground level of dirt
water and so usually what happens is this is where usually
the water is not coming onto the surface at all, so it's right
below in the deep. OK, so the reason why I talked
about these artisan springs is it's a waterbed which is present
between 2 confining beds. So these two layers can be
different. In most cases it's a it's a
layer where it doesn't allow the water to go.
So eventually what happens is a pressure that gets formed
between these two layers and the waters present there.
And so when you stick an entire pipe which goes right down, it
causes, it crosses through this confining bed.
It could be clay, it could be a material, it could be a compound
on of the earth which doesn't allow water to go through.
And when you go through that and when you tap into that spring,
you don't even need a water pump for the water to come out.
It just starts gushing out. And that's what it says here.
Gushing fountains of endless life.
And God's asking today, whatever your confining beds are, would
you push through so that you can put your pipe straight into my
living water so that it can gush fountains of endless life?
And this is what we all need. A lot of times our mundane is
just gone by every day after every day, week after week,
month after month, because because of us being in a place
of running after EMI is making payments.
You know what, I'm in this dead end job and I just have to do
this because I have things to do.
You need revival right now because there is something more
that the Holy Spirit wants to do, something more in terms of
the gushing fountains of endless life that he wants to pour into
your life, into your specific life, into every area of your
life. You can't discount that.
You know, if I have to talk about a science experiment with
this coming out of EBS, you can see it right over here behind.
And if I have to take, you have these Tetrapack juices and if
you hold it tightly, there's a pressure that's formed.
And what happens when I poke it with a straw?
Juice just keeps coming out. I don't know how to do anything
because the pressure causes the juice to come.
And I believe sometimes in our most crushing of these confining
beds that we are, it could be work, It could be relationships.
It could be the pressure of being a child.
It could be the pressure of, you know, walking through some of
the trauma that you've gone through.
It could be everything he's saying, The pressure of that
would you dig your pipe deeper in so that my living Water will
start working in until it'll refresh you?
It'll become your artisan spring.
The clear representation for us today is are we willing to stick
our pipes further in so that he will become our only source?
Are you in a dry and parchy land?
He is the water that you need. Are you struggling with thirst
and you feel you're choking? He is the water that you need.
Revival has to start with you and me.
And so in our mundanes, when our mundanes get disrupted, we soon
realize there's more to what God has placed me here for.
It starts gushing out. It starts giving us this
curiosity. God, what is it?
And we start diving deeper into His word.
We start spending those moments of being quiet around him.
We tune our ears to His words. Not to the frequency of
everything that culture is not dominating and to what social
media and influencers are saying, but rather we tune it to
what the Holy Spirit is saying. So as we heard, when we move
towards this place and say God, and so today, even as I close
the first point, I want to ask you in this revival, would you
dig deep, put that pipe straight into that artisan spring so that
his life would come out, his living life, The water that
never runs dry, the living water would come into each and every
one of our lives. The second thing that we see is
Revival confronts our deepest, darkest secrets.
Every day it it has to do it. It it confronts our deepest and
our darkest secrets. To access this artisan spring,
it has to go through some hard peeling and digging.
And a lot of times it's confronting the emptiness and
the lack that our lives have. You know, in the last few months
I've been walking through some my own personal journey and I've
realized I've had layers and layers of areas where I've just
masked it, thinking, you know what, It won't come up.
It won't come to the surface. But over time, I've realized the
Holy Spirit causing me to nudge that space.
And as I've been putting my pipe deep in, it's those pipes that
aren't defining me. It's that it's the joy of his
word that causes me to go deeper in always so that I'll enjoy
what comes out of him. It says here in John four was 15
to 20 and let's go on to read it says please Sir, the woman said,
give me this water then I'll never be thirsty again and I
won't have to come here to get water.
Go and get your husband. Jesus told her I don't have a
husband, the woman replied. Jesus said you're right, you
don't have a husband, for you have had five husbands and you
aren't even married to the man you're living with now.
You certainly spoke the truth. So the woman said you must be a
prophet. So tell me, why is that You Jews
insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship while we
Samaritans claim it here in the mount of Gethism where our
ancestors worshipped. We can see here the minute Jesus
talks of this life giving thing, she's ready to accept it.
There's a void in each and every one of our lives which only the
Holy Spirit can fill. There's a sense of purpose and
direction that only the Holy Spirit will cause us to have
contentment in. Yes, things may not change, but
because he's present, we'll have contentment.
We will start seeing things his way.
And here She asks Jesus, give me this water so that I won't be
thirsty again, thinking that I may don't have to come back to
the well. But she goes on to and Jesus
goes on to say conference by asking her where's your husband?
And even as she answers saying I don't have a husband, she Jesus
goes on to tell her history in just a verse.
And that's what many a times we are unable to participate in
revivals because we have a story cooked up.
We have a story that we've time and again told ourselves and
made it the truth. But Jesus saying, hey, when you
come to me, I know everything. I know everything.
I know your intentions. I know how the story came about.
I want you to admit the real truth.
And we can see here that when Jesus points that out, she puts
a guard on and says you are a prophet.
What does this look like? We can pass off by saying our
version of the story, but the Holy Spirit knows us inside out.
It is there. He wants us to be real to
ourselves. We need to come to our place and
say admit this is my wrongdoing. This is something that I'm God,
I've, I've been struggling with. I've covered it up.
I've probably fabricated a good story so that I'll be acceptable
by people outside or I'll be it'll be OK for people to know
who I am. But Jesus is saying and the Holy
Spirit is saying today, if revival has to be birthed in
you, we need to come to terms with the story and with the sins
that you're dealing with. Not an embellished version, not
something that looks well. Because today we're living in a
world of filters. Filters look good, but sin is
sin and we need to come to the Father and say God, I'm sorry, I
need your forgiveness. Jesus does not need any
convincing of our story. He knows all of me, even my
intentions, in which I'm telling the story.
And I love how the Samaritan woman did not try to justify
what Jesus said. Oh, God, I'm lonely.
That's why I've been, you know, switching partners.
Oh, you know what? I don't know if this guy's
committed. He's probably just here for a
fling. He didn't.
She didn't elaborate. She came to terms where this is
my life, This is where I'm rock bottom.
And that's where Jesus met with her, started giving her the
truth, and said you can experience this living water.
She deflects it by saying why do you insist that we come to
Jerusalem and we see? In the next few verses?
Jesus addresses that. But the truth is, today, are we
willing to allow the Holy Spirit to revive us so that he can take
everything of us? When he wants to use us and
shape us and mold us, he wants to take everything.
And we sometimes are scared to show our sin, our brokenness,
our emptiness to the Creator himself, you know Genesis
chapter one verse 2 says the earth was formless and empty and
darkness covered the deep waters and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the surface of the water.
The Spirit of God was in holding over the earth, which was
formless and empty and dark. There's no amount of darkness
that will scare him away. If he can shape and bring life
into the earth, he can do that same into you.
So quit trying to cover up and tell God or put it in good words
to explain to God. Go out there and just say God.
This is who I am. These are my intentions.
This is what I think. My, my, these are things that
I've struggled with. These are my my closeted issues
lot, which no one else knows. But I'm willing to open it up
because I want revival to come in.
I want revival to come in. The Holy Spirit is I love what
it says in the message version. In fact, it says he's owe
everything that is formless, empty and dark.
Earth was a soup of nothingness, A bottomless emptiness, an inky
blackness. Today, if you have to describe
sin, it will come under the any of this category.
You might feel like it's nothing.
You might feel the sin that you're in.
You are struggling to break the cycle of guilt.
You give up, you feel guilty, and then you go back to it.
You feel guilty again. You go back to it and it's just
seems like a bottomless pit and you just feel that part of your
heart is just marked with blackness.
But God saying, I want to touch that very part and revive it.
The Holy Spirit is never afraid to handle our mess, be it
whatever shape, whatever size, however cracked it is when we
allow the Holy Spirit to come, and even when we're looking at
the Holy Spirit, this time as a river of God, as living water.
Water can take up any shape, it can come into any crack, it can
come in and flood that space. But would you give room if an
iceberg could break a section of the ship on the board of the
Titanic and cause the entire ship to sink?
I believe water can come in. Give him, give him room so that
he'll be able to enter and give him room so that he'll be able
to come in and shape you and break you.
Break that pattern of sin. Break the clutches of what Satan
is having over you, John 421 goes on to say in message.
And So what? It says the response.
Believe me, woman, the time is coming when the Samaritans will
worship the Father. Neither here at this mountain
nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the
dark. We Jews worship in the clear
light of day. God's way of salvation is made
available through the Jews. But the time is coming.
It has, in fact come when when what you're called will not
matter, and where you go to worship will not matter.
It's who you are and the way you live that count before God.
Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.
That's the kind of people the Father's looking out for those
who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their
worship, God is sure being itself spirit.
Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their
spirits, their true selves in adoration, the woman said.
I don't know about that. I do know that the Messiah is
coming. When he arrives, we'll get the
whole story and Jesus response. I love it.
He says I am, he said. Jesus, you don't have to wait
any longer or look any further. The very question what the
Samaritan woman posed was to come into the technicality of
it. Saying you say that we're to
come to Jerusalem, but we are worshipping here, But Jesus goes
to the important issue. Saying no, when you worship the
way you live counts before God. Our worship must engage in
pursuit of truth. God is looking for those kind of
people. And so today when you and I are
in this walk moving towards worshipping God for asking for
his revival, may he invade every area of our lives.
May there be no area that is not where he's not able to convict
us about or we are so sensitive that we don't allow God to push
the buttons. God should have a free reign
over us where he's able to push us whereas he's able to say you
know what if you're stuck up in this, this is the very area I'm
going to push you. I'm going to train you in this
so that you allow me to be controlling of allow me to be in
control. I don't want you to be in
control. So today what happened when the
somatic woman heard this, she could put two and two together
and realized they said of a Messiah who's coming, who will,
who will set right, who we'll be able to worship.
And Jesus says I am that person, I am that person.
And so today church, I want us to ask us personally, each and
everyone of us asking ourselves, God, would you come into those
areas where I have left undealt with, I've, I've probably
brushed through it thinking you know what is allowed.
It's OK. It's permissible.
But God, is it permissible to you?
Would you convict me? Would you show me?
I pray God There are areas in my life which I've hidden away from
you. I've failed to confess it,
thinking that if I confess it I might be the worst Sinner.
But God saying nothing would scare me.
Would you come? Would you allow my living water
to flow through? For those of you who are really
struggling to give up sin patterns, I would request you.
Would your hearts cry be for revival, To come and let the
living water flow through you? Let him go.
Go to him. Go to the source everyday.
Dig deeper your trenches so that you go in.
Don't let the markings of your trenches cause you to not dig
deeper. Dig deeper so that when the pipe
hits the living water, you'll experience life, you'll
experience liberation, you'll experience truth.
So as we've seen two things. First, the revival.
As it starts with us, it meets us in our mundane.
The second thing when it meets us in our mundane it deals with
our deepest, darkest secrets so that God can do his work in and
through us, so that we can have living water.
And the third thing is this revival experience that we've
had moves others towards transformation.
John chapter 4, verse 39 to 42, goes on to say many of the
Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him
because of the woman's witness. He knew all about the things I
did. He knows me inside and out.
They asked him to stay on. So Jesus stayed two days.
A lot more people entrusted their lives to him.
When they heard that, what he had to say, they said to the
woman, we are no longer taking this on your say so we've heard
it for ourselves and know it for sure.
He's the savior of the world. The revival starts in me.
When it meets with me, when it deals with all my the deepest,
darkest areas of my life. I'm unable to contain it.
Why? Because I start understanding
that I can live in freedom. Jesus gave her the living water
and when she experienced it, she in fact left her thing there.
And she goes into the village to go and tell group of people who
probably knew her and the way she was living.
There's a man here who knows me inside out.
She probably didn't have a very good reputation, but in spite of
that, she went. And when she went as a man who
knows everything I've done come and meet this man.
They took her at a word because if someone had to know
everything that she's done, it definitely had to be someone
like God. So they came and they found out
it was God. The personal story of the
Samatar woman caused a stir in her itself, she realized.
This is my story. The living water that is coming
has is starting to work in me is my story.
And many times we think when we have to share, we always are
wanting a story to share. Share from your own life, share
of what God's done. Even if it sounds small, it's
OK. God is not looking at the
quantity of our story. He's just looking at the fact
whether he's present in that story.
Because if he's present in that story, the same living water
that worked in you will start working in others.
Too. Many times you're thinking, you
know what? I need to have a perfect story.
I need to have a good intro and a good outer.
I need to have a hook. If you have the Holy Spirit and
if he's intertwined in your testimony, that's more than
enough. We see when the living water
came into the life of the Samaritan woman, it transformed
her, It changed her. And she went about telling what
God had done in her life. And I'm asking you today, if
revival has to start spreading from us, It has to start with
us. It has to start with you and me.
It has to start with us telling about our encounter with the
Holy Spirit. So what is God telling you
today, two days from now? What has God been speaking to
you? What has He been doing in and
through you? What is He revealing you?
What are some of the dreams and the visions that He's given to
you? What are some of the deeper
insights that he's been talking to you from His word?
Is it coming in alignment? Because when you start doing
that, you'll start seeing connecting pieces time and
again. That's why when we gather as a
church, when we gather as communities, when we gather as
fellow believers together, and when we see that a lot in the
early church, when they gather together, the reason why they
were able to have a lot of community time was the fact that
in their personal time they saw. Some revelation the Holy Spirit
gave them come into, you know, some another person would have
probably got a song or a word. And when they came together and
everything came together, they knew this was what God was
calling them to do. This is what God's calling us to
step into. This is what God is calling and
speaking to us as a generation. This is an indication of what
freedom looks like for what the samatan woman did.
Because when she walked out of the power of darkness into the
power of light, when she walked out of the freedom that came
because the clutches of sin were broken, that living water, she
was able to go and testify. And the fruit of that was people
came to see who this God was, who this person was, that was
able to identify her and tell her whatever wrong she did.
She probably came to that well alone, knowing that she'll be
talked about, she'll be scorned, she'll be looked down.
But what she received, she took it out there, and she came and
draw. A lot of her brokenness was
hers, but when she laid it at the altar for Jesus, when his
living water redeemed it, it became a testimony in her
brokenness. She felt empty, and she could
have kept the door shut, sitting all by her cells, because she
was already judged, ridiculed, mocked, scorned.
But rather her brokenness made room for a saviour who wanted to
change her state. In Two Corinthians, chapter 12,
verses 9, This is what it says, But he answered me.
My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power
finds it's full expression through your weakness.
So I'll celebrate my weakness, For when I'm weak, I sense more
deeply the mighty part of Christ living in me.
The power of Jesus is evident when we are allowing Him to move
in, and through our weakness His grace and His power finds its
full expression. So today, whatever it is, allow
him to invade you with His living water.
Because what will come out of that will be glorious.
What will come out of that will be a Jesus testimony.
What will come out of that will be the outworking of the Holy
Spirit. And then through you, what will
come out of that will be you saying this is not me, but this
is of the one who is in me, that I'm able to do all this.
And what we see in the conclusion in John chapter 4 is
the people asked him to stay. And I love this section where
they tell her, you know what, We no longer are believing this
because you told, but we are. We've heard it for ourselves and
know for sure that he's a savior of the world are starting.
The igniter would be a testimony, but the sustaining
part will be his Holy Spirit's work.
So a lot of us today, what God's preparing us as a nation?
What God's preparing us as individuals?
What God's preparing us as churches and as marketplace
people and as His children who are in this world, not of this
world, is that we will be ready for a revival that starts with
you and me, ready for a revival that will change us, which will
change, transform us personally. So when we take it out, our
testimony with him will bring transformation to others.
And I'm sure at the end of the day, that living water cost a
revival in that own village, in that own town.
And so today, can you and I be partakers of that?
A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they
heard what he had to say. And I love that again.
I am repeating that again. We've heard it for ourselves and
know it's for sure he's the saviour of the world.
They will taste and see that the Lord is good.
That when they look into our lives, when they see our change,
when they see what God's doing in and through us, they will be
encouraged to seek for themselves and they will find
him. We do not know who God will
bring into salvation through our story.
We can discount it because of our low self esteem, because of
the nature of our brokenness, because of whatever we've been
through. But when we bring God into the
mix, when we bring the Holy Spirit and His living, what into
the mix, His grades, His strength, His redemption power
gets mixed into our battle of our lives.
And we are not our you're not us anymore, We are His.
And we start pointing everyone to Jesus because he's in the
mix. He, he, his hand is in that
battle. He's starting to shape us, He's
shot, starting to mold us. And I pray and ask that the
living water will become ours forever.
So Church, even as I close, I just want to ask specifically
that as we prepare for Pentecost Sunday, we won't be ashamed, we
won't be stiff, but we would rather be flexible.
We would allow him to say, Lord, would you move in and throw us
today? I want that artisanal spring.
I want that revival to happen. Lord Jesus, in you, in me, in
everyone that gathers, in everyone that calls on the name
of Jesus, that they'll be revival.
So today, even as I pray, can we just pray together that we'll
experience his revival? Lord, I pray even right now for
all those who are listening for, who are watching.
I pray even right now. Holy Spirit, would you Would you
just flood open into their lives?
Lord, no longer, Lord, will they be so worried.
I pray every worry, every shame, every guilt will be broken in
the name of Jesus. We pray for your blood covering
to Pierce through everything. I pray every abuse, every
torment, everything that's been spoken off and spoken about and
spoken into will be completely broken.
Lord Jesus in the name of Jesus that they'll find deliverance.
Every shackle will be broken. Every shame and guilt will be
gone. Every cycle will be broken,
every addiction will be broken. That you will set your people
and your children free. Lord, we are about your mission.
Lord Jesus and I thank you for the word revival.
I breathe revival into my own life.
I breathe your revival into each and everyone.
Right now I ask you to breathe it in.
Lord Jesus, I pray living what I pray we will all take our pipes
and dig in to find that artisanal spring.
Lord, I pray we will breakthrough every shackle,
every everything that's taken shape to get that living water
gushing out so that we will live in the fullness that comes from
you. Lord, I pray even right now that
our mundanes will see revival, disrupt our mundanes.
I pray, Lord, our deepest, darkest secrets will experience
a revival and they will get extinguished, gone once for all,
Lord Jesus, the marks of it. Lord will be ones of redemption,
one of grace, one of strength, one of overcoming by the blood
of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony, Lord Jesus.
It'll happen right now, Lord. I pray, Lord, that revival will
just not stop with us, Lord, That we will be able to share
our story with you and it, Lord, so that it'll bring about many
others to find truth. And they'll be able to
experience that living water, be glorified, be honored, be
praised. Thank you for all that you're
doing. Go before us.
I pray, Lord, for your blood covering over each and every one
of us. That you would strengthen us.
I pray even as we are in the peak of summer.
Protection will be upon each and everyone.
I pray your hand of mercy and grace upon each and everyone.
Lord, we thank you. Strengthen us, take charge, be
glorified. We thank you for all that we get
to do, Lord Jesus, because we are your children.
I pray that we'll have testimony after testimony of your living
water flowing in and through our lives, and we will see a
revival. I pray even as you wait
expectantly for this week, Lord, we ask that you would show up.
Lord, there will be a revival that starts birthing out in
different parts, in different sections in our online
community, in our physical gathering, we'll see revival
happen. Lord, so that you'll be
glorified. In your most holy name, we pray.
Amen. Amen.
So, church, even as you step out into your mundane, even as you
start working through and seeing all your deepest darkest
secrets, I pray revival will be birthed.
I pray as living water will flow through and leave you changed.
I pray your story and the experience of that revival with
Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the mix will bring about, will bring
about a revival in others. That you will be the reason that
many are able to see Jesus clearly, will be filled with the
Holy Spirit and live in the holiness that he has called us.
I pray that you have a blessed week ahead.
God bless you all. So church can I close the
service. May the love of the Father, the
grace of his only Son, Jesus Christ, and the sweet fellowship
of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us now and
forevermore And all God's people said, Amen.
Amen. Have a blessed week.
God bless you. Thanks for listening to this
message. We hope you were blessed to hear
more messages like this. Make sure to subscribe and check
out our podcast channel for past episodes.
If you like what you are hearing, consider rating us,
subscribing, and even sharing it with friends.
That would really help us. For more content from Via Zion
and to connect with us, go to Via Zion dot in.
Remember, whoever finds Jesus finds life.