The Overflow — Jim Cymbala

Jesus’ Promise of Living Water

One of the most important prophecies that Jesus ever gave in the New Testament is found in John 7. On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, loud voice, he said it, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams or rivers of living water will flow from, from within him, out from within him. By this, this water and this metaphor of river, by this he meant the Spirit, capital S, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Up to that time, the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Up until that time, the Spirit had not yet been given. What did that mean? The Bible says John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from in his mother's womb.

Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon him in the river Jordan. But what John is telling us, that in the way God intended for his family, his children to experience the Holy Spirit, he had not been given yet in that way.

The Spirit Given After Christ’s Glorification

Why? Because Jesus had not yet been glorified. What does that mean? He had not died yet, been buried in a tomb, and raised up and glorified. After he did that and was glorified with his resurrection body and later ascended after 40 days to heaven, then the Spirit was poured out.

It had not yet been given in that way, in that measure, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. So just think about this, and then we'll go back to praising the Lord, but in a different way. Jesus said, the day is coming when I accomplish my work on the cross, which we celebrated in the communion.

After I accomplish on the cross what I was sent to do, then a new era is going to begin. It's going to be called the era of the Holy Spirit. Not the era of the law, but the day of the Spirit. My people will have my Spirit living inside of them.

My Spirit will work in their mind. My Spirit will work in their heart. I will pour out the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So it's a new day. But notice the picture that Jesus paints. He says, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Drinking the Water Jesus Gives

Not just come to me, but drink. Not everyone who comes to him, I think, drinks. Let him come to me and drink. Anyone who's thirsty, let him come to me and drink. I have a water, like he told the woman at the well.

I got a water. If you ever drank the water I give, you'll never thirst again. And she said, what kind of water is that? He was speaking of his Spirit, which is another word sometimes for the gospel, because the gospel is the dispensation or the covenant of the Spirit.

Early believers were known by one thing. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. That's how you knew a believer. The definition of an early Christian to them was, do you have the Spirit in you or not? Because if you don't have the Spirit, you don't belong to Christ.

But if you have the Spirit in you, that's a sign that you're a believer. So there's a thirst in all of us that only God can satisfy. Sex can't satisfy it. Money won't satisfy it. A house, a car, travel, clothes, nothing in this world can satisfy the craving of your soul, but the water of the Spirit that Jesus gives.

He gives the water of life. And when you drink his water, you're never thirsty again. And you continually come and drink to be re-satisfied, but when you drink of that water, the things of this world that meant so much to you, you go, no, that never touches me where the river touches me.

So there's satisfaction. There's quenching of thirst in the pouring out of the Spirit. How many say amen? How many have experienced that in your own life? He quenched your thirst. He satisfy your soul, right?

We say Jesus satisfies your soul, and it's true, he does. And he does this by the gift of his Spirit because he's seated at the right hand of the Father, but he sent the Holy Spirit to quench that thirsty.

And oh, I can think of all the days when I've been so thirsty in my life, in my soul. And he's come and met me, and he's refreshed me. If you're dry tonight, if you're all dry and wrinkly and crumbly inside and parched, the only thing that will satisfy not going to church is taking a big drink of the Holy Spirit.

Right, he satisfies. Now, then he goes further. You're not just satisfied, but out of his belly, out of his most innermost being will flow rivers, streams of living water. What does that speak of? Well, reception of the Spirit.

From Personal Satisfaction to Overflowing Ministry

When you're born again, and you keep coming and drinking, there is satisfying, satisfaction, quenching of thirst. But Jesus doesn't want us to just get our thirst quenched. He just don't want drinking little glasses of water.

This is fine when you're thirsty. But he says, no, I have something better for you. Out of your innermost being is going to flow rivers of living water out from you. Not just satisfying you. I'm going to pour in so much that it's going to become like a river, and now it'll flow out through you to other people.

Because other people are thirsty. Other people need ministry. Other people are hurting. Other people are sad. Other people's lives are broken. Other people need someone to care for them. Other people need a word from the Lord.

And he says, I'm going to enable you to do that because even you're just hugging them, and the way you'll react to them, it'll be like a river of my life going out through you to others. So water satisfies, but the river flows out to others.

Building a Church Where the River Flows

And that's the great need today. There aren't that many churches that have a river. I want to have a church where there's a river flowing out from us. Haven't you ever been blessed by somebody who was full of the Holy Spirit?

I have. Oh my goodness, thinking back in my life how blessed I've been by God, not only meeting me in prayer, but by blessing me through people who were just full of the Holy Spirit. Oh my goodness. They just prayed for me.

One day I was at the end of my wits about something and just discouraged, and we were in the other building, and I got through praying with leading the prayer meeting like I'm doing tonight. And the prayer band used to sit up on the risers, which were smaller than these, but ample in the other theater that we were in.

You remember those, those of you who were in 290. So they would sit up there with other people because we couldn't fit everybody into the prayer meeting. So I said, you know what? You all can leave, you can pray, but I'm going to go and just sit there.

So I was surrounded by people in the prayer band, and they loved me, and they knew I loved them, and we're sitting. And then suddenly some of them put their hand on my knee or hand on my shoulder, and they started to pray for me.

And they were praying for me. And I just sat there, and you all were dispersing, but some people were still in the balcony, some people were at the altar. And I'm just there, and I'm receiving their prayer.

And suddenly I hear a voice behind me, woman's voice. I didn't recognize it. And she starts to pray for me. Are you kidding me? She read my heart. She knew everything I was going through. She started to say it.

My heart started to pound. Who's this woman behind me reading my mail and knowing what I'm going through? And when she prayed, she spoke words of life into me. I was like, praise God. I was reinvigorated.

And then I was broken, and I prayed, and then some people dispersed. And then 20 minutes later, when I finally get up to leave, I looked behind me, and there was nobody there. She had left. But one Holy Ghost prayer helped this soldier fight for another day.

Come on, can we thank God for Holy Spirit prayer, Holy Spirit words, Holy Spirit. Come on, Holy Spirit words, Holy Spirit prayer, Holy Spirit love. Listen, not just for ourselves. Yeah, quenches our thirst, yeah.

The Church’s Need for the Overflow

But how about the world? How about the world? My goodness. We need Christians now that have the overflow. Too many Christians, it would seem to me, are living with just enough to stay alive. They're living off of the little drips.

And it's keeping them alive, and they're praising God, and I'm happy for that. But that's not God's will. Jesus said rivers, not a little drink. River, I want a river. How many want a river? Wave your hand at me if you want a river flowing out of your life.

Well, Jesus promised it. Now, there's an interesting thing that commentators have done, and I'm done. No big sermon here. So, this He spoke of the Spirit, which those who believe in Him were later to receive, but the Spirit had not yet been given because He had not yet been glorified.

Christ Glorified in the Believer’s Life

Now, that has a literal application of, remember what He said? It's good for you that I go, because unless I go, I can't send the Spirit. And when He comes, it'll be better than me being here. Come on, what could be better than having Jesus walking with you, the Holy Spirit in you?

Because Peter and all the disciples were weak with Him three years, and when He got arrested, they all fled. Where were they? They were nowhere. But oh, my goodness, after the Spirit came and that river started flowing, now you see different men.

Now you see Peter getting up, preaching, and doing all kinds of things. Now, some interesting commentators have said this, and I believe it's true. There's a double meaning to that sentence. The Spirit was not yet given because Christ had not yet been glorified.

It hadn't been poured out from heaven because Christ had not been glorified by dying, raising from the dead. But 30 years ago, I read in some devotion, it was good, it said, you know what's wrong with a lot of people, why they don't have that river?

The Spirit's been given, but Christ isn't glorified in their lives. And if they would just start glorifying Christ and worshiping Christ and exalting Christ, the river would begin to flow. Isn't that true?

When you're moaning and groaning and negative, do you ever feel the river flowing? I never have. Not the river, but when you just start praising God, you just start praising the Lord. That's what we need to do right now.

Worshiping Christ for the River to Flow

Right where you're sitting. Come on, lift your hands. Just begin to praise him out loud. Come on, just begin to glorify Christ. And the Spirit will come like a river in you. We glorify you, Jesus. We bless your name.

We praise your name. Glorify your name in all the earth, Lord. Glorify your name in all the earth, Lord. We bless your name. We praise your name. We praise you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We magnify you, Lord.

We glorify you. Don't be embarrassed. Come on, lift your voice. Glorify Christ and see what God will do. Don't glorify yourself. Don't glorify a church. Glorify Christ. We glorify you, Lord. We worship you.

We bless your name, Jesus. To close the meeting, I'm going to ask you to do what we did before. We did it over requests. What I want you to do, instead of so much praying over each other, I want every man to find a different partner, every woman find a different partner, and then just join hands together and kind of maybe lift them up together and just start glorifying Jesus Christ.

That's all. Don't even say anything. He knows we want a river. We already said, we lifted our hands. Lord, we want a river flowing out of our lives. We want that river flowing in our church so that we can bless and help and see people saved.

Praying for a Spirit-Filled Church

Come on, everybody find a partner. Lord, you know my prayer has been since the first week I was in the ministry that you would build a church that would be known not by the preacher or music, but that people would want to come because they sense the presence of God.

Let the river flow in this place. Let the river of God flow through our lives. River of God flow out through us, through our mouth, control our minds, touch our hearts. Give us faith. Make us bold. Help us to minister.

Use us this week to speak, to love, to pray, to have faith, to invite, to win souls. Use us, Lord. Time's running out. Use us, we pray. Not me just or the pastor, but use all of us, Lord. Everyone in the balcony, use all of us, Lord.

But it's not by might nor by power, but it's by your river, your river flowing out through us. Make us sensitive to it and let it come in power. We ask all of these blessings in Jesus' name. And everyone said.