JULY 2017 - John 4; 7-26 and Ezekiel 37; 1 to 10

A while ago I heard a story about a lady who had a vision while she was in church. And the first thing she noticed was that there were angels dotted around the church building while the service was going on. She was really surprised as she’d never seen any before.

And then she noticed some of the people sitting in front of her had a sort of light around them. In fact, they seem to be surrounded by a light that was emanating from them.

Others though had no light around them. She hoped there was light emanating from her.

I mention this partly because I think it’s an interesting little story and who knows perhaps the idea of halos isn’t quite so silly after all.

I mean Paul tells us that as Christians we are to shine like stars in this dark world, and if the spirit of Jesus - the light of the world - lives in us – perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if this is somehow visible in the spiritual realm.

But whether or not there is light around some of us, the point I really want to make is that as we’re sitting here this morning, according to the apostle Paul - there is a distinction between us.

There is a distinction between those who have genuinely repented and invited Jesus into their lives - who are spiritually alive, and those who haven’t, who he describes in his letters to the Colossian and Ephesian churches as “spiritually dead.”

And I chose today’s passage from Ezekiel because it speaks of God’s bringing people spiritually alive. It speaks of him putting his breath into people that were dead so that they come to life and so that they will know he is the Lord.

Ideally God would like every one of us sitting here today to be spiritually alive rather than spiritually dead and cut off from a relationship with him.

He would love us all to be filled with his life and his spirit so that we can truly know him and worship him.

I think lots of people come to church hoping there may be a God and there may be an afterlife – but they’re not really sure.

And they perhaps hope from some divine insight or revelation but it doesn’t seem to come – and perhaps they’re a bit disappointed.

Well if that’s you, I believe God is speaking to you today – and he wants to make his breath – his life and spirit – enter you so that you come to life spiritually.

And then over time, he wants to flesh out your faith – so that you become a strong mature Christian – not a weak emaciated Christian.

And he wants to enrol you in his army – a vast army of believers - to work and fight for the advancement of his kingdom in the world.

But this can only happen as you make the decision that you truly want God in your life. That you want to live your life from now on with God and that you want to live life his way.

And this is what is at the heart of repentance. And it’s not a negative thing. It’s the moist positive decision we can ever make.

It’s coming home to God, the author of our lives, our creator – the one who knows us intimately and loves us perfectly.

The one who wants to bless us and help us and heal us and deliver us and guide us through life.

The one who gave is life on the cross to save you personally – because your life matters enormously to him.

The one who took upon himself all our sin and wrongdoing and paid the penalty for it himself so that we could go free.

The reason we all start off spiritually dead is that we all turn our backs on God and go our own way in life because we think we know best.

Just like Adam and Eve, each of us initially rebel against God and seek to live independently of him.

But then as we go through life some of us come to a point where we are prepared to admit that actually we don’t know best and that we do need God.

And this is reversing the step of rebellion that Adam and Eve took.

We realise that we need God’s forgiveness and help in this dark and scary world – so we cry out to him and say sorry Lord – I was wrong to try and live my life independently of you – and we invite him to be our Lord and Saviour.

And he responds by welcoming us home and breathing his spirit and his life – the Holy Spirit into us.

Just as after his resurrection Jesus breathed on the first disciples and said “receive the holy spirit” – in the same way when we invite him wholeheartedly into our lives - he breathes his spirit into our very beings.

And at this point we are re-born as his children and our lives are changed forever and we become truly alive as God always intended we should be.

And the things we do and say in church start to take on an entirely new meaning and significance.

We start to know that God is alive and real. That he is our creator - an almighty powerful loving spiritual being – and we start to relate to him through our own spirits.

We understand what Jesus was saying in today’s gospel reading to the woman at the well when he said “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

So, when we come to church we come in order to worship the living God. We understand by faith that his presence is always among us when we meet.

As Jesus said, “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

And then we relate to God spiritually during the service by exercising faith.

We confess our sins to him – we sing his praises – we listen to his word and the talk afterwards and the Holy Spirit enables us to receive spiritual truths through our own spirits to strengthen and encourage our faith and discipleship.

And as we read God’s word we can pray that God will speak to us through it – to build up our faith and our understanding of his kingdom and his purposes.

But the only reason we can do this is because God has made us spiritually alive. He has spoken words of life over our lives and breathed his life-giving spirit into us.

And our spiritual thirst is quenched because we have been reconciled to the author of life and the very source of all life - and his life lives in us.

Our search for spiritual meaning and significance is fulfilled and our lives take on a new purpose.

This is what Jesus means when he says “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

I think some people are perhaps afraid of receiving the Holy Spirit and being born again – but until this happens we don’t function as the people God intended us to be.

We may be alive mentally and physically but our spirits are dead and we are cut off from God and his kingdom.

Worse we remain unforgiven and face the prospect of being cut off from God and judged when we die.

The Holy Spirit is very gentle and unobtrusive. Most of the time in my life although I know that he is with me by faith – because Jesus promised - I will always be with you – I will never leave you or forsake you - I don’t particularly feel his presence with me.

And when he asks or prompts us to do something its normally just a little thought or idea popping into our minds.

Whether we then act on that thought or idea is up to us. We always retain our free will. God won’t force us to do anything.

But hopefully we will want to obey God because we know that whatever he asks or prompts us to do will bring blessing to others and ourselves.

Personally, I like being filled with the Holy Spirit because when I am I feel more loving and joyful and peaceful and patient and willing to forgive.

And having God in our lives is the very best thing – because we do live in an evil, scary and unpredictable world.

Being able to know and to pray to the one who is in ultimate control of the world and our lives, the one who loves us and understands us better than we understand ourselves and the one who wants to bless and help us – is the most valuable gift we can ever receive.

Knowing that whatever the world may throw at us, that ultimately with Jesus in our lives we are eternally safe – is a tremendous comfort.

Of course, when we become spiritually alive and start to understand all that Jesus has done for us – and that the water of his spirit – like cool fresh water is refreshing and life enhancing – we want to share it with others.

And then sharing our faith isn’t so much a chore – something we’re told in church we ought to do – it’s something we want to do because we believe it’s good and we want to share what we’ve discovered.

If you read on in chapter 4 of today’s gospel reading you’ll see that this Samaritan lady is so excited about having discovered that Jesus is the Messiah – that she forgets her water jar and forgets trying to hide away from her fellow townsfolk and goes rushing back to tell them – come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done.

And then lots of people from her city come to believe in Jesus as he stays there for two days.

So, to tie up what I want to say this morning we have two bible passages that speak of God bringing people spiritually alive.

One passage talks of dry bones coming to life and the other passage speaks of a spring of water in the centre of our being gushing up to eternal life.

Perhaps one of these resonates for you. Perhaps you come to church regularly and you try to live by Christian principles but somehow your faith has never really come to life and if your honest it does all feel a bit dry and dusty.

Perhaps you are spiritually thirsty and you’ve reached a point in life where you really would like to know God and to have a living faith – and you are thirsty for the living water that Jesus offers.

Perhaps you have a living faith but you feel weak and tired and you’d like God to refresh and revive you.

I’d like to close now with a time of quiet prayer where we can each share what is on our hearts with God and if you’d like God to make you spiritually alive – you can ask him.

I’ll start this with a short introductory prayer and then you can share your own hearts and prayers quietly with God.

Lord Jesus thank you for your presence with us this morning and your great love for each one of us. Hear us now in this time of quiet as we share what is on our hearts with you and come to each person here this morning who asks for the touch of your spirit upon their life.