Pentecost 6
21 June 2026
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
W. Gregory Pope
STREAMS OF LIVING WATER: AN INVITATION TO THE RESERVOIR
John 4.7-15. John 7.37-38
On this Father’s Day and the day of dedication of Charlie Kitchens, it is fitting to point out that the goal of Christian parents is to raise our children in the ways of Jesus Christ. I cannot imagine a lesser goal for the church. In fact, when the church is being the church, it is helping every person walk more faithfully in the way of Jesus and it is helping parents as they seek to raise their children in the way of Jesus. Becoming like Jesus and living faithfully according to the teachings of Jesus is the most important task of the Christian Church. Everything we do: worshiping God, welcoming others, giving generously of ourselves and our resources is all for the purpose of becoming like Jesus and continuing his mission in the world.
So today I offer you an invitation to join me in a three-year spiritual formation project where we as followers of Jesus and the church of Christ seek to shape our lives in such a way that we become more like Jesus, live more like Jesus, and deepen our union with Jesus. Last week Leigh beautifully laid the foundation for this project by calling us to faithfully abide in Christ. In the weeks and months ahead we will seek to engage together in a comprehensive faith development pathway for all who enter our doors. The goal as expressed in my sermon a couple of months ago is to help shape all people into the most loving version of themselves: loving God, loving neighbor, loving self, loving God’s creation. This is what it means to be a Christian, to follow Jesus, and to become like him.
It begins with the decision to follow Jesus. In the gospels Jesus extended the simple invitation: Come, follow me. To follow is to be a disciple of Jesus. The word disciple means “learner.” Christian philosopher Dallas Willard likened discipleship to a kind of apprenticeship. An apprentice, he said, . . . is someone who has decided to be with another person under appropriate conditions in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become what that person is. A Christian apprentice or disciple then is someone who has decided to be with Jesus and to become the kind of person Jesus in order to become capable of doing what Jesus did – living as a citizen of the kingdom of God, standing with and speaking up for the poor, the outcast, the sinner, and the hurting, uniting our will with the will of God, living out our relationship with God in the world.
It begins with the decision to follow Jesus. It doesn’t just happen. We don’t drift into discipleship or apprenticeship. Apprenticeship is learning from Jesus how to live our lives.
In case you have not discovered, in case no one has told you, I want to offer this warning: Living your life according to the way of Jesus will not be the most popular or the most appealing in our American culture. The way of Jesus in his day appealed mostly to the poorest and most ostracized of the first century. The wealthy and the comfortable were not very interested in the way of Jesus. However, for those who have taken the risk the way of Jesus has also provided the
deepest personal meaning and the most profound world transformation than anything we’ve ever known.
Jesus spent three years training his disciples how to live their lives. So this morning I want to propose a three-year apprenticeship project of spiritual formation for our life together. There are three interlocking resources we will be leaning on for this project – all deeply rooted in scripture.
The first is a book written by Richard Foster entitled Streams of Living Water. The title comes from today’s scripture reading. A woman came to a well to draw water to quench her thirst, and Jesus said to her: Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.
Anyone here thirsty, longing for a life that will satisfy? Anybody here desiring a deeper relationship with God?
Several years ago Richard Foster took a deep dive into Scripture, the Life of Jesus, and Christian history in order to discover what has nurtured the greatest spiritual formation in the lives of believers throughout the centuries. He discovered six streams, six dimensions of Christian spirituality and practice.
On the last Wednesday night in August I will provide an introduction to these six streams. And then for eight weeks we will ask some big questions about spiritual formation – about our image of God, our image of ourselves, our understanding of the gospel, and how we change. Then we’re going to take a look at each of these six streams – one in the spring and one in the fall – over the next three years.
The six streams Foster discovered he categorized this way:
The first stream in which we will swim is The Charismatic Stream which is The Spirit-Filled Life (Spring 2027), where we seek to learn the role of the Holy Spirit in our life of discipleship and apprenticeship.
Then we will swim in The Contemplative Stream which is The Prayer-Filled Life (Fall 2027), where we will learn different ways of praying and take a deep dive into transforming waters of The Lord’s Prayer.
Then there’s The Evangelical Stream which is The Word-Centered Life (Spring 2028), where we will focus on the living Word of God (which is Jesus) and the written Word of Holy Scripture.
Next is The Holiness Stream which is The Virtuous Life (Fall 2028), where we will learn how to become people whose lives display life-giving virtue.
Then there is The Social Justice Stream which is The Compassionate Life (Spring 2029), where we hear from Jesus and the prophets about going beyond charity and addressing the needs of our world.
The final stream is what Foster calls The Incarnational Stream which is the Sacramental Life or the God-Saturated Life (Fall 2029) where we stop separating one part of life into the sacred and another part of life into the secular and begin to see God in all things.
These are the “streams of living water,” the foundational dimensions of a deeply rooted Christian spirituality designed to help us nurture our faith and become more Christlike. I plan offer a Sunday sermon on each stream as we begin each one.
Depending on how deeply you want to dive into this project, you may want to pick up Foster’s book, Streams of Living Water. Foster provides examples of Jesus and others in history who have embodied these spiritual streams. I have found this to be a helpful resource to use for navigating the waters of spiritual growth and nurturing our life with Christ.
A second navigation guide came along just a few years ago. Richard Foster founded what he called a Renovare team and this team put together a 2-minute daily devotional where believers can spend eight weeks on each of the six streams. The devotional resource is called The Reservoir. The devotionals are designed to encourage you to daily drink the living water Jesus promised until we become like a reservoir where we are filled and can then overflow into the world continually replenished rather than constantly drained.
We can read these devotionals together as a congregation. Then come together on Wednesday nights during those eight weeks where I will summarize the previous week’s readings (that way you can participate even if you choose not to read) and together we will reflect upon the material and scripture passages. This is also something your Sunday School class can choose to do. Or you can just gather with a group of friends and dive in.
We will kick off this piece of the project on Wednesday night August 26th, just about the time the “holy season” of college football kicks off. We will begin the devotional readings together on Monday, August 31st. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book. It’s available today in the anterooms off of the sanctuary as well as in the church office where you can make a suggested donation of ten dollars or just take one if you can’t afford it right now. We will not allow cost to keep anyone from participating. So these daily devotionals are the second resource we will use to swim in the streams of living water.
The final interlocking piece to this project will be a Sunday morning sermon series from The Sermon on the Mount beginning August 2nd. The Sermon on the Mount in chapters five through seven of Matthew’s gospel provide the core teachings of Jesus and show us the kind of person the streams of spirituality are shaping us to become. We will move slowly and deliberately verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount taking us through May of next year.
The invitation today is to commit your life or recommit your life to an intentional apprenticeship with Jesus. And to join others in the journey. As you consider this commitment, let me offer two quick but important reminders about apprenticeship: One: An apprentice does not have to be as good as the master in order to be an apprentice. You don’t have to be as good as Jesus to be a follower or an apprentice of Jesus. (Some of you perfectionists out there can breathe a sigh of relief.) Two: Some apprentices are better than others. However, the question of discipleship is not, “Am I as good a Christian as Jack or Jill?” but rather “Am I a better Christian, a better human being than I was yesterday, a year ago, five years ago? Am I growing and maturing in my faith?” Apprenticeship is a life-long process. And as long as we are seeking to learn from the master, we are all apprentices.
When Jesus told the woman at the well about the living water he offered that would quench her thirst forever, she said to him, “Sir, give me this water!” Will that be your response this day? Will you join me in this journey together? Whoever you are this living water is for you. On the last day of the Festival of Tabernacles, what John the gospel writer called “the great day,” Jesus stood and cried out for all to hear: Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. For out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water. Will you come and drink? As Johnny Pierce would ask: Are you up for it? I think we are. Today can be “the great day.” Let’s do it. Let’s become reservoirs of living water filled to overflowing with the love and grace of God.