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I tell you what, I wish you could have been

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on this side of it watching the worship this

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morning. There's something about

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having 5-year-olds up to about

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18-year-olds, close to, I don't know,

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probably 75 or 100 of them. And, you know, my mom

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used to tell me, she'd say, now, I'm not gonna cry. When you see a

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church where there's a lot of kids, God's got a plan.

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Amen. She said, when you see it just to

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become— the children become more scarce and the

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congregation ages and the replenishing of the children,

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you don't see that, then you really need to start interceding. Then you really

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need to start seeking the Lord regarding what's next. But she said, oh,

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when you see the kids, when you see the kids, know that God's got

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a plan. God's building something. And I'm so— so I'm so

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encouraged the next time we do it, and there will be a next

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time, because I think that this is right and proper for us to

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worship together. Don't you think so? Yes. And then next time, I'm

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just gonna invite the families to come and stand with

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their kids and worship together, 'cause that's so

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important. One of the greatest blessings of my life was

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sitting on that second row for about a decade and a half

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behind Pastor Ronnie and Pastor Margaret and the Meeks

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family, and to watch Ronnie and Margaret hold Bo, to

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watch them teach the kids how to worship and to be able to

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do that together. So I'm encouraged by that. Another

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thing that we're getting ready to do is on September

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13th, if your child, if you would like to have your baby

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dedicated, 17, 18, you know, 19 years old, usually— I

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know how some of you mamas are. They're 35 and you're

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like, well, that's my baby though. Those that are

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willing to be dedicated— On the 13th, you can sign up. We

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will have a baby dedication that day, and we have a few for

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that, and you can sign up for that. The other thing I wanna

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let you know is on September 27th, the last Sunday of this

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month, we are gonna have one gathering, and it will be

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your gathering. I had to tell the early service, sorry, nobody will

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be here. But anyway, it'll be your gathering, and it's going to be

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a worship and baptism service. So if

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you have not been baptized, and you're like, you know, the Holy Spirit has really

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been drawing me to this, You can sign up for that, and we would love

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for you to be a part of that. We would love to get in contact

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with you and let you know what that looks like here. And we're just gonna

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worship while the Lord does what he does in that day. So the

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27th of September, put it on your calendar, invite your

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family. It's gonna be full, it's gonna be rich, and God has

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a plan for that as well. So just mark it so you're a part

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of it. Speaking of God's plan, about, I don't know,

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Probably a dozen years ago, the Lord put on my heart to do a series,

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a teaching series entitled, The Young Lions. And we invited

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some of the gentlemen in this body who we knew had a calling on

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their life, a teaching calling on their life. And guys, we still got some

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lions in the room. So today, would you welcome Pastor

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Justin? Thank

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you. Thank you. Good morning.

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Good morning. Good morning. I just want to see

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if you were here in the room last week. Pastor Allen

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did a fantastic job. And but he said, I've only got

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about 25 minutes of stuff. And I looked at my wife

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and I said, well, I'm going to have about 90 next

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week after I take his time. So buckle up. Get locked

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in. Look, if we were watching Interstellar.,

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you'd have no problem, right? Sitting here for 2

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and a half, 3 hours. God forbid I say we're gonna

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learn about the Bible today, and you're going, oh,

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I'm hungry right now. Well, should have got something out of that

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cafe, right, Kate? So lock in, get comfortable,

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get your Bibles and your pens out. We're gonna journey through the Word this morning,

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okay? Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day that you have

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given us. I thank you for Waking us up this morning, keeping us in our

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right mind, giving us a reason to live. Father, we have

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gathered here together, young and old,

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new in our faith, seasoned saints. God, we're here to honor you,

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and I pray that our collective cry of praise would reach your throne, that you

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would be pleased with your people this morning, that you would root out

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sin and selfishness in our hearts, Lord, that we'd be open to

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an encounter with you. As we look through the scriptures, I pray that you

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would speak to us individually and collectively as a body, God,

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and that the name of your Son Jesus would be glorified through the power of

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the Holy Spirit. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. And amen. If you have

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your Bibles, go ahead and open them up. We're going to be in John chapter

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7, and this morning, uh, we're continuing in our To the Well

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series, and we have discussed re-digging

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wells and seasons where you have to leave the old wells

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behind. And go dig new wells. And we've— Pastor Barbie

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has shared with us her process of digging wells. We've

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examined Jacob's well historically and Jesus's

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encounter with the woman at the well. And so there's a theme

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that we're going to continue today. And this morning I want to talk to you

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about becoming the well. Okay?

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So we're going to be in John chapter 7. If you have your Bibles and

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you're there, say amen. Amen. Amen! All right.

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Yeah, man, that's how I get— listen,

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I'm telling you, when you open up the scriptures, you gotta be like,

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yeah! And if you ain't, then maybe you will be

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after I'm done, okay? We're gonna be reading in John

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chapter 7. I'm starting in verse 37. We're gonna read through 39, okay?

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It says, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus

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stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts,

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let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me,

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as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of

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living water. Now this he said about the Spirit,

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whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit

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had not been given, because Jesus was not yet

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glorified. This is the word of the Lord. So you guys know I'm big about

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context. You ever watch a movie and you come in on the back end of

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the movie and you have no idea what's happening because you missed the

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first, I don't know, 50 minutes of the message maybe? I

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don't know. That's an inside joke. Friends of mine

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said, hey, we were so excited to hear you speak this morning, we got here

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at 10 AM. And so I know how it ends, but I have no idea

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how we got there, right? So we literally read this

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passage. How many of you guys know how we got here? Right,

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couple of you guys, okay. And if not, that's exactly why I'm here. Do you

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know that part Oh, the reason we're here is to equip the saints for the

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work of ministry. We're here to learn, to grow, so that you

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can take all of this information, you can allow God to change you, and then

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we take it out to a hurt, broken, lost, and dying world. Come on. Okay?

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And then you bring those hurt, broken, lost people back in here, and they get

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trained up, and then they go out and minister to the lost,

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hurt, and broken. You got— you see how that kind of works? Okay? That's part

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of the design here. So let me give you a little bit of a background.

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Uh, we're in John chapter 7, and if you go back to the beginning of

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John chapter 7, this takes place in Jerusalem roughly

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6 months before Jesus is crucified. So when Jesus

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stands up and makes that statement, he's got about 6 months before

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they put him on a cross. Imagine, 6 months from now

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there's the crucifixion. The chapter opens with this

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tension in Jesus's own family. How many— well, is

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my mom in the room? Where are my parents at? Nah, we ain't got tension

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anymore. We went through a season of tension, many seasons of tension. How

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many people have had tension in your own family? Yeah. Right?

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There have been many tense moments, and we've had to learn

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how to grow. One of the ways we had to learn how to grow— forgive

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me, Mom. Me and my mom have a beautiful way

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of telling each other that we love each other, and that is by cutdowns and

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putdowns, right? It's— I don't recommend it. It's hurtful.

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Okay? We've had to grow in that. We don't do that anymore. But there was

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a season where I'd be like, Mom, these beans are terrible. Oh, hush up. You

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don't know how to cook beans. And I go, you're right, but you still put

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too much salt in them. And she's all, well, you over here eating them. And

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that was like, Mom, I really appreciate you cooking for me. And she's like, son,

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I love cooking for you. That's what I heard in my

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head. Everybody else at the dinner

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table was like, I can't believe he's speaking to his mother like that.

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And so, but here's the problem. I took that into my family, right? When I

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got— when me and Jess got married, it was like the Marines have landed,

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okay? And all my bonus kids were like, who is this guy that you picked?

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Like, is this the guy? Like, is this what we're doing? Praise God they all

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had vision and they get this version of Dad now. But

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sometimes you have to learn things that are

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hurtful, right? There was conflict in Jesus's own

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family. And part of the conflict was that Jesus has

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disciples and he has a following, and half of his own family don't

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even believe that he's the Messiah. Imagine the tension,

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right, that, that, that, that causes. You grew up with this guy,

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and now all of a sudden, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the

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sins of the world. Like, absolutely not. No, straight-A

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student. Like, geez, he's got his own— he knows how to build stuff. Like,

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they're sick of him. They're really not. That's speculation.

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Okay. But there's tension in his family.

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His brothers urge him to go to Jerusalem and display his works publicly,

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yet John notes that they didn't even believe in him. Jesus

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initially declines to go up openly, and then he travels to Jerusalem

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privately. The Gospel writer reveals when Jesus is making

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this statement. So Jesus is making this statement about living

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water at the Feast of Booths. Or the Feast of Tabernacles,

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the Jewish Sukkot. So we're going to read, we're going to go back and we're

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going to read John chapter 7, verses 1 through 6.

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So it says, after this, Jesus went about in Galilee.

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He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

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Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand, so

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his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea. that your

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disciples also may see the works you're doing. For no one works in

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secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things,

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show yourself to the world. So like, you need to go show everybody all this

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stuff you're doing, Jesus. Come on, get it out there. Quit doing this,

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this top secret ministry. Verse 4, it says,

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for no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you

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do these things, show yourself to the world. Verse 5, for not even his

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brothers believed in him. And Jesus said to

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them, my time has not yet come,

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but your time is always here. In

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the Greek, there's two— you know, Greek, man, we could probably

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learn a thing or two from the Greek language, like having words that

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actually mean what they mean, right? You can't love ice

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cream and love Jesus. Something's got to give there. It's got to— we got to

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figure out a different word. You can love ice cream and love Jesus. Let me

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Go ahead and retract that statement, okay? Yeah,

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everybody was like, I'm leaving, he's a heretic, right?

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What I'm saying is they're not the— I mean,

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they don't give you the same gumption and impact, you know

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what I mean? And so the Greeks had 2 words for time,

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kairos and chronos. Kairos, chronos.

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Chronos is chronological clock time. Kairos was

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a little bit different. Kairos were those intentional

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moments where chronological time seems to stop.

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Several years ago, I think it's— I had— I meant to text him, but I

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was like, I don't want to pull my phone out. We're in such a sweet

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worship moment. But there's a friend of mine, his name is Troy Ross. You guys

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probably, if you've been here for any length of time, I've, I've told you the

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Troy Ross story. Baptized the guy over here. Um, but just to give

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you a little brief snippet. I was doing this little thing called Reclaimed

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America where I'm riding around trying to tear down barns. I don't know why that

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was the idea that I had. And I was taking the

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barns and I was, uh, uh, turning it into different

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furniture pieces and, uh, selling it as, you now

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own a piece of American history, right? Beautiful

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marketing. Um, this guy has been trying to get

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access to this particular barn over here for the better part of 2

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years. Turns out I had access to the barn. His daddy

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finds out about it, ends up coming down there telling him. He comes to my

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shop, don't even know this guy, on a random Tuesday. I'm in

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my workshop working. It was an actual Tuesday. I'm working

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and he's talking to me and I stopped what I'm doing. We're having a conversation

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about woodworking and barn wood and he looks up and he

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sees this picture of Jesus that's as big as this screen right here in my

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shop. And he's like, what is this? Tell me about it. I said, oh, I

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was a part of a 1-year discipleship program for men with

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life-controlling problems. For those of you that need the explanation,

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that's a 1-year drug rehab that I went to. Okay, um,

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I like to church it up. Discipleship program sounds a little bit—

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you know what I'm saying? It sounds a little bit better, right? That's I love

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Jesus. That's the drug rehab. That's I love ice cream. You got it? Okay,

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so See how I'm connecting these dots? Anyway,

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so, so it's, it's 6 canvases that make

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up one picture of Jesus, and each canvas has something

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different painted on him. And I started telling him, I said, man, the

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guys that were in this program were all painting, and

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each one had a canvas, and they were doing fine

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until they started to look at the other canvas. And for some

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reason, they got to comparing their canvas to the guy next to him.

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And why does it— my canvas look like his canvas? canvas? Why does

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my life not look like— why does my marriage not look like their marriage?

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Why is my kids not growing up like their? Why is my this and

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this and this? And you start to fall into the comparison trap. And so I

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said, and in the skit, this Jesus character is trying to convince them that, hey,

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I've got a path for you. Focus on your painting. It's part of a beautiful

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picture. And some guys turn to drugs, some guys

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try to kill themselves, some guys turn to violence, and it's in the midst of

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this skit, and finally Jesus is able to vanquish the enemy

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and get them all back to their painting, and then he adds color to the

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outside of the painting, and they put all these pictures together, and it makes the

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picture of Jesus. And I've got it hanging up on the wall in my shop,

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and he's just— he's standing there like, wow! And then I looked at him, and

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I said, I don't think you came by here for barn wood. I

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don't even know this guy! And immediately he's like,

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oh, my life's a wreck, man! I'm just— Poor

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guy! just crying in the middle. It's just me and him

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on a Tuesday with no one else around. And I heard the Holy Spirit say,

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are you gonna go fishing or not? Yeah. Are you gonna— are you gonna go

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fishing or not? You've got the guys primed. He's ready. He's

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ready for the gospel. Just throw it out there and see what happens.

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This guy, uh, went home. He threw away his drugs, threw away his

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alcohol. He's been sober and walking in freedom for about 8 years now.

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Yeah! Like, yeah. And there's a much

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longer teaching and story about that. It's got— I got pictures of him sitting

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on top of that barn when we finally took it down. He, he

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takes barn wood. He was going to use it for something else. Now he takes

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it and makes crosses out of it and wrote his testimony down, and he gives

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out crosses with the barn wood. Isn't that crazy? Like, he came by there

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for barn wood, got freedom, and still got the barn wood.

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Right? It's amazing! Here's what I want you to understand.

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That was a Kairos moment in the midst of chronological time. Yeah.

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Do you see the difference there? So when Jesus says,

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hey, my time has not come, He's

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using the word kairos there. The moment

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that things are going to actually change is not here yet,

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and you keep trying to push me up to the front. You keep trying to

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throw me out there, and my time is not yet. Not that it's

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not literally time for me to do these things, but there is a

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pivotal moment in history, and if you push me out there too

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early, then you've had it your way.

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And Jesus says, there's a moment in time where everything's going to change,

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and it's about 6 months from now.

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So they're— once they're at the feast, Jesus begins teaching

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in the temple courts. He's astonishing the crowds with His

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knowledge. Jesus defends the divine origin of His

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teaching, and He challenges those who seek Him— seek to kill

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Him for healing on the Sabbath. The crowds are sharply

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divided. Some consider Him a good man,

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others a deceiver, and still others wonder if He might even be the

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Messiah. The festival

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is celebrated in autumn. Autumn is a

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Midwest term for fall, right?

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Nobody below the Mason-Dixon says autumn. We—

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it's fall, right? And if you live in Tennessee, fall is one of the 9

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seasons we have here. You're

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experiencing second summer right now.

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And then comes false fall, then real fall. Okay?

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The festival is celebrated in autumn. It is a week-long holiday

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remembering the Israelites' 40 years in the wilderness. So they

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spent 40 years wandering, and this festival is a week-long

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celebration where they remember God remembering

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them and taking care of them. Every day they walked

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outside and food was on the ground.

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And they found something to complain about.

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I had a kid come out to me the other day, Dad, there ain't nothing

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to eat in the house! I said, Tommy, hang on. Worked way too hard for

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them cupboards to be completely bare. There is no way there's not a drop of

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food in this house because I ate when I, when I came out here.

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What he meant was, there's nothing I want.

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I didn't get mad at him. My kids have historically been mad at me because

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I don't have I have ingredients.

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They get mad at me. They're like, Dad, there's nothing to eat. I'm like,

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Absolutely. And even Jess, she's like, What am I gonna cook? I was like, Oh,

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it's simple. Just throw this in. And she's like, How do you do that? I

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was like, 'Cause it's just— 'cause the beans were too salty. That's how I do

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that. I grew up being told, You're never gonna make

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anything of yourself. I'll show you. Give me some, right?

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So they're complaining, man, about God's provision!

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How? I'm gonna stop complaining about anything

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in my life when I realize how much God has provided.

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Yeah. So that's what this festival is. They get together for a week and celebrate,

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God, thank you for providing for us. Right? Thank you for providing for

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us. Each day for 7 days, the priest

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leads a procession With music from the temple to the Pool

318
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of Siloam. And in my mind, it's Pied Piper. He's out

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front, there's, there's music playing, the people are

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behind him. Don't mess this up for me. I don't know if that's exactly how

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it happened, but that's how I envision it. Okay, if you read your Bible, you

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can figure— you can envision it however you want. Okay. But you

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probably should do some research since those— you actually know we're not making up

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stories that become doctrine for people. Okay, that was for me.

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Each day they lead a procession. The priest fills a golden

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container with water and he carries it back to the temple while the

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people rejoice. At the altar, the priest pours the water

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out on the altar. On the other side of the altar, a priest

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pours a drink offering of wine on the other side.

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Anytime you read your Bible and there's something that seems like a coincidence,

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That's not a coincidence, right? There's water

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and wine, which was symbolic of blood. So you have water and

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wine being poured out on the altar,

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and 6 months from now, water and blood will

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flow from the side of Jesus

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on the ultimate altar, the ultimate sacrifice. The

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water and the wine is both poured out on the altar. That's

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right. Right? And the Holy Spirit is like, you think I just put this stuff

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in here? Like, you think that this just happens? No, it's for a

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reason. They

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do this to thank God for the rain and look forward to the prophetic

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promises of renewal. On the 8th day

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of the feast, which is the final day, the water

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pouring ceremony was not repeated. So this is the one day when there

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is no water. So now you got this picture in your head, okay?

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For 7 days they've had a party going to the Pool of

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Siloam. They get the water, they bring it back for 7

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days, and they pour it on the altar. There's one day of the feast there's

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no water, and that's the day Jesus says, I got something I need

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to say to everybody. Yeah. Does that not change the

351
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dynamic of the story? There's one day where there is no

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water, and Jesus says, hey, listen up.

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If anyone thirsts, let him come to me

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and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the

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scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of

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living water. And the people were

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astonished. They were

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astonished. Jesus— this is the

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exact proclamation He made to the woman at the well.

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Hey, uh, I'm pretty thirsty. Can you pull some water up? Matter

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of fact, I've got some water to give you, and if you drink of this

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water, you'll never thirst again. And then 3 chapters later, he

363
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says, hey, everybody listen up. Are you thirsty? Come to

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me, and out of your heart will flow rivers of living water.

365
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He is the true well of living water, and those who place their faith

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in him will become wells themselves.

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Jesus begins His statement with one particular requirement. There's

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only one requirement. There's actually 2, but I'll tell

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you the first one. The first requirement that He

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says is to thirst. If anyone

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thirsts. Have you ever been really thirsty?

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Really thirsty? Sure. You don't care about

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anything in that moment that does not quench your thirst.

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Your only desire is for water. Went to a volleyball game on Friday,

375
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okay? Didn't realize I'm a volleyball dad. Got kicked— I almost got kicked out.

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Not for what you think, Judgy McJudgers

377
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over here. It wasn't that I was cheering. I was in the

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wrong place to be cheering. So if you're sitting behind the

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scorer's table, you can't say anything. I was behind

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the people that were behind the scorer's table. And so the referee

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said to my wife, hey, is he with you? She said, yeah, he's mine.

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She said, hey, listen up, sir. If you keep talking like that, then you

383
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gonna have to go. My bad. I'll go over here and

384
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bump, set, spike. Bump, set, spike, right? Amazing

385
00:24:15,707 --> 00:24:19,256
match. It went all the way to the 5th set. It's a tiebreaker,

386
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game point, okay? Uh, our team pulled it out. Everybody's

387
00:24:22,730 --> 00:24:25,910
excited. I'm helping my wife clean up. She says, hey, I need you to take

388
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this trash out. I said, where does it go? She said, into the dumpster. I

389
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said, where's the dumpster? She said, on the other side of the warehouse at the

390
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back of the parking lot. Right? So I decided I should probably take 3

391
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children with me for backup. And, um, we're

392
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taking this trash out. We round the corner. Noah's trying to run ahead. I said,

393
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hey, you don't know what's around that corner. It's dark right now. Like, just be

394
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careful. We run around the corner, and the dumpster is as

395
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far as it is to the pavilion out here. I mean, it's a haul.

396
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And then all I heard was one of them said, race you to the

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dumpster. He didn't get the words to the dumpster out before I'm in

398
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a full sprint. Okay? Trash— don't listen. I

399
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don't need any reason other than I'll race you, and it's gone.

400
00:25:09,115 --> 00:25:12,794
So we've got 3 children and an adult running through the parking lot with trash

401
00:25:12,810 --> 00:25:16,492
bags. Full speed, full speed, right? We

402
00:25:16,492 --> 00:25:19,950
get there, we throw the trash away, we're huffing and puffing. One of my kids

403
00:25:19,950 --> 00:25:22,616
is like, that wasn't fair, I had the heaviest trash bag. They said, fine, let's

404
00:25:22,616 --> 00:25:26,438
race back. Boom, we take off again. And

405
00:25:26,438 --> 00:25:30,062
I'm telling you, it's a haul, right? And it's, it's late. We're—

406
00:25:30,401 --> 00:25:33,798
soon as we get back to the van, there's a cooler there that was for

407
00:25:33,814 --> 00:25:37,320
the concession stand. They ripped the lid open and was just

408
00:25:37,385 --> 00:25:40,860
immediately in the water. They didn't care what

409
00:25:40,860 --> 00:25:44,566
kind it was. They weren't worried about, is it mountain spring water?

410
00:25:44,791 --> 00:25:48,497
Is this Dasani? Like, is this premium, triple

411
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distilled? They would have drank the ice in the water that was holding the

412
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bottles of water. You see what I'm saying? In that mind— have you ever

413
00:25:55,876 --> 00:25:59,679
gotten to a place in your walk where it does not matter

414
00:25:59,871 --> 00:26:03,144
if you don't get to the source of water? Yes. When

415
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:06,722
Jesus says, if anyone thirsts, He's not saying, man,

416
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hey, is your throat parched? He said, if there is

417
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this place in your life that you realize that

418
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nothing, nothing is going to satisfy me,

419
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none of this stuff that the world has to offer, nothing that you

420
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think that the law has to offer, if you get to this place where you

421
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said, I don't— I'm so thirsty and I don't know, there's only one

422
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thing that can quench it and I don't know where to get it, Jesus says,

423
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that is me. I am that thing. That thing

424
00:26:36,730 --> 00:26:40,311
you've been searching for your whole life, it's me. That relationship

425
00:26:40,343 --> 00:26:43,635
you've been desiring and praying for for 50 years, it's me.

426
00:26:44,744 --> 00:26:47,377
Those children you want, I'm— I will fulfill that.

427
00:26:48,790 --> 00:26:52,452
I'm not saying those desires are bad or wrong. He—

428
00:26:52,532 --> 00:26:56,290
don't hear what I'm not saying. What I am saying is

429
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Jesus says, if you are thirsty, if you are truly thirsty,

430
00:27:00,353 --> 00:27:03,707
if you come to me, I am the fountain of living

431
00:27:03,820 --> 00:27:07,656
water. Oh, we try all types of things to fulfill

432
00:27:07,656 --> 00:27:11,462
our thirst instead of things that actually satisfy. Things that

433
00:27:11,462 --> 00:27:15,265
contain water but are not water. Many years ago, I told this story

434
00:27:15,265 --> 00:27:19,069
in First Gathering,, people didn't believe me. I just woke up one

435
00:27:19,069 --> 00:27:22,591
morning and said, I'm done drinking sodas. Say that a little

436
00:27:22,591 --> 00:27:26,180
louder. It's true. Just woke up one day and said, I guess I'm gonna stop

437
00:27:26,180 --> 00:27:28,065
drinking sodas now. She's like, who are you?

438
00:27:30,269 --> 00:27:34,080
Not like because she wanted somebody to help drink sodas. She's like, that's just what

439
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:37,720
I did. And, uh, she used to tell me

440
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,450
before, she's like, you need to drink water. And I said, there's water in Coke.

441
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,380
Amen. See, I knew it was coming. I told him I was going to

442
00:27:45,380 --> 00:27:48,080
tell the story again. He was like, will you tell? I said, stop spoiler alert.

443
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,720
He's out here telling everybody. And,

444
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,520
uh, she said there's water in it, man. How many of

445
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:58,184
us are looking things to quench our thirst that are

446
00:27:58,184 --> 00:28:01,935
not water but contain water? How many of us are going

447
00:28:01,967 --> 00:28:05,689
to food, and drugs, and alcohol, sex, pleasure, work,

448
00:28:06,013 --> 00:28:09,759
power, leisure, looking for things that

449
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:11,818
satisfy but only temporarily?

450
00:28:14,060 --> 00:28:17,446
The scriptures wouldn't talk about the passing pleasures of sin.

451
00:28:17,866 --> 00:28:21,478
It wouldn't describe sin as pleasurable if it didn't provide some

452
00:28:21,830 --> 00:28:25,575
temporary relief. Yeah. The problem is it's

453
00:28:25,575 --> 00:28:29,288
temporary. It can never satisfy you.

454
00:28:30,418 --> 00:28:33,881
But it's not just sinful or wasteful things either.

455
00:28:35,185 --> 00:28:38,857
Some of us have a multitude of serving in our life that it—

456
00:28:39,098 --> 00:28:42,198
to the point that it becomes an identity, and we become angry with those who

457
00:28:42,247 --> 00:28:45,885
won't serve in the house of God. I caught myself

458
00:28:45,885 --> 00:28:49,384
telling somebody this the other day. I said, you know what? This is at our

459
00:28:49,384 --> 00:28:52,207
church, don't be mad. I said, man,

460
00:28:53,559 --> 00:28:57,326
serving in church is like a football game. You got 22

461
00:28:57,326 --> 00:29:01,078
people doing all the work and 1,000 people watching and yelling

462
00:29:01,174 --> 00:29:04,620
at you from the stands. It's the same 22

463
00:29:04,734 --> 00:29:07,259
people! And then the Lord was like, well, hold up, Martha.

464
00:29:08,392 --> 00:29:12,022
Don't get bitter now. Don't get bitter now.

465
00:29:12,201 --> 00:29:16,010
Yeah. Because you can wear that as an identity. Service in

466
00:29:16,010 --> 00:29:19,610
the church and ministry! I'm doing ministry all the time!

467
00:29:19,610 --> 00:29:23,360
That can become an identity, and then you've lost the reason

468
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,960
why you're trying to do it in the first place. Podcasts and

469
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,485
sermons and teachings that are about Jesus or Christian

470
00:29:30,485 --> 00:29:33,710
living that only increase our knowledge but not our

471
00:29:33,710 --> 00:29:37,535
dependence in the reality of our depravity on this planet.. I

472
00:29:37,535 --> 00:29:41,210
don't want to just know things about God. I want to know Him.

473
00:29:41,292 --> 00:29:45,046
Amen. And be found in the power of His resurrection.

474
00:29:45,656 --> 00:29:49,068
Yeah. I know all kind of stuff about Michael Jordan. I don't know Michael Jordan.

475
00:29:50,609 --> 00:29:54,187
Would you want that to be what your relationship with— is with the Lord? You

476
00:29:54,187 --> 00:29:57,700
just know all kind of things about Him? Just know all kind of stuff about

477
00:29:57,700 --> 00:30:01,186
how He acts? Now, it's important to know about Him because you can

478
00:30:01,251 --> 00:30:04,792
understand His character from reading His— reading

479
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:07,783
stories about how He's moved in people's lives. I'm not saying

480
00:30:08,138 --> 00:30:11,830
podcasts and sermons are not good. I'm just saying you can't keep drinking

481
00:30:11,879 --> 00:30:14,296
Dr Pepper thinking that that's water.

482
00:30:15,895 --> 00:30:19,561
All you Dr Pepper drinkers, see me outside. I don't— you know what?

483
00:30:20,497 --> 00:30:22,161
Catch me in the cafe. How about that? Right?

484
00:30:24,712 --> 00:30:27,682
Maybe switch to Diet Dr Pepper. I don't know. Look, he got a cold one

485
00:30:27,682 --> 00:30:29,878
back there. I see somebody swigging one. I love it.

486
00:30:32,791 --> 00:30:36,510
Earlier in John's Gospel in chapter 4,

487
00:30:36,591 --> 00:30:40,165
we covered this last week. Jesus meets a woman at the well

488
00:30:40,439 --> 00:30:44,279
and he's thirsty. And during the conversation, He tells

489
00:30:44,295 --> 00:30:47,923
her that if she thirsts, He could give her living water.

490
00:30:49,112 --> 00:30:52,371
During His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus

491
00:30:52,805 --> 00:30:56,209
opens with a discourse we refer to as the Beatitudes.

492
00:30:56,851 --> 00:31:00,305
Okay? And in verse 6, look what He says. He says,

493
00:31:00,305 --> 00:31:03,494
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for

494
00:31:03,494 --> 00:31:07,035
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. He

495
00:31:07,035 --> 00:31:10,576
says, if your sole desire is for righteousness,

496
00:31:10,576 --> 00:31:14,294
you'll be filled. You'll be satiated. So what does

497
00:31:14,294 --> 00:31:18,012
He mean by righteousness? Well, in this instance,

498
00:31:18,012 --> 00:31:21,554
Jesus is talking about right standing with God.

499
00:31:21,554 --> 00:31:24,565
When He says, if you hunger and thirst for

500
00:31:24,565 --> 00:31:28,371
righteousness, He's saying, if it is your desire to

501
00:31:28,371 --> 00:31:32,090
be in right standing with God, He will make a way for

502
00:31:32,090 --> 00:31:35,809
you to be in right standing. See, so you're telling

503
00:31:35,809 --> 00:31:39,439
me that if you're hungry and thirsty to be in right

504
00:31:39,439 --> 00:31:43,070
relationship, he has the one thing that will fill

505
00:31:43,070 --> 00:31:46,691
you? Yes. He told the woman at the well, that's me.

506
00:31:47,879 --> 00:31:51,540
He told all the attendees at the Feast of Tabernacles, that's me.

507
00:31:52,375 --> 00:31:56,196
Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living

508
00:31:56,244 --> 00:31:59,969
water. Living water is the evidence of right standing

509
00:32:00,017 --> 00:32:03,742
with God. It's not the only evidence, but living waters flowing from your

510
00:32:03,790 --> 00:32:07,456
life is evidence of being in right standing with God.

511
00:32:08,781 --> 00:32:11,529
Now I want to talk to you for a second about being full, filled, or

512
00:32:11,529 --> 00:32:15,294
overflowing. You got me? What'd I just

513
00:32:15,294 --> 00:32:19,045
say? Full, filled, overflowing. Okay, you're paying attention. Okay, all

514
00:32:19,254 --> 00:32:22,893
right, all right. It's

515
00:32:22,941 --> 00:32:26,065
important. So there are potential problems.

516
00:32:26,978 --> 00:32:30,482
It's not, it's not a problem, it's a potential problem. Okay,

517
00:32:31,043 --> 00:32:34,137
the Chinese word for crisis means danger and opportunity.

518
00:32:34,746 --> 00:32:37,872
Okay, there's some danger, but there's also an opportunity here.

519
00:32:38,818 --> 00:32:42,168
There are potential problems that arise with this because of our human condition.

520
00:32:42,569 --> 00:32:46,176
When Jesus tells us that we will be filled, if you hunger and

521
00:32:46,176 --> 00:32:49,334
thirst for righteousness, you'll be filled or

522
00:32:49,334 --> 00:32:52,748
satisfied, right? That's a

523
00:32:52,748 --> 00:32:56,099
positional thing. Ephesians 2:6 says,

524
00:32:57,110 --> 00:33:00,886
And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in

525
00:33:00,903 --> 00:33:04,485
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Let me ask you guys a question.

526
00:33:04,791 --> 00:33:08,603
Where are you at right now? Church. You're sitting

527
00:33:08,619 --> 00:33:11,993
right here in church, right? Mary Sue's sitting right there on the front row.

528
00:33:12,735 --> 00:33:16,545
You're sitting— you're seated right here in church with

529
00:33:16,609 --> 00:33:19,698
me, and yet the scriptures says you're also

530
00:33:19,893 --> 00:33:23,497
seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. Okay,

531
00:33:23,738 --> 00:33:27,415
I'm not fixing to get on some weird mystical stuff, some duality

532
00:33:27,929 --> 00:33:31,638
of realities. Don't worry, okay? Because

533
00:33:31,638 --> 00:33:34,688
that's not what he's saying. He's not— you're not in 2 places at one time.

534
00:33:35,379 --> 00:33:39,136
What he's saying is position. Your position with Christ

535
00:33:39,232 --> 00:33:43,022
is seated in the heavenly places. How many of you, when you committed your life

536
00:33:43,022 --> 00:33:46,859
to Christ, if you committed your life to Christ, that all your problems magically

537
00:33:46,859 --> 00:33:50,597
disappeared? Yeah. You still

538
00:33:50,629 --> 00:33:53,353
got— but if you're raising your hands, you still got problems, right? You're lying. You're

539
00:33:53,353 --> 00:33:57,136
still lying. You're lying, right? So they

540
00:33:57,136 --> 00:34:00,549
don't just magically go away. Matter of fact, Jesus says, in this world you will

541
00:34:00,565 --> 00:34:04,363
have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.

542
00:34:04,427 --> 00:34:07,921
That's what he says in, in the same Gospel of John. I have known

543
00:34:07,953 --> 00:34:11,030
people who have struggled with drugs and alcohol,

544
00:34:11,703 --> 00:34:14,332
um, and, and had a radical transformation.

545
00:34:14,748 --> 00:34:18,322
And sometimes if you're on certain type of

546
00:34:18,434 --> 00:34:21,724
drugs or, or deep in alcoholism, like

547
00:34:22,045 --> 00:34:25,818
immediately stopping has a physiological impact on your

548
00:34:25,818 --> 00:34:29,591
body, right? Sometimes that can kill you, like because you've—

549
00:34:29,848 --> 00:34:33,620
your body has been used to having that much narcotics or

550
00:34:33,684 --> 00:34:37,521
alcohol in its system. And I've known people that should have not been

551
00:34:37,537 --> 00:34:40,603
able to just stop cold turkey, have a radical

552
00:34:40,603 --> 00:34:43,975
transformation. God can do that. But

553
00:34:43,975 --> 00:34:47,667
sometimes he will allow in his sovereignty what he can

554
00:34:47,667 --> 00:34:51,477
prevent in his power. Right. And we run

555
00:34:51,526 --> 00:34:55,142
around here complaining about it. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well,

556
00:34:55,175 --> 00:34:56,375
first off, are there good people?

557
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:02,332
Second off, second off, if God can

558
00:35:02,769 --> 00:35:06,085
prevent it and He does not, then I have to trust in His sovereignty.

559
00:35:08,990 --> 00:35:12,715
I don't— when we enter into covenant with

560
00:35:12,715 --> 00:35:16,071
God, you don't get to determine the terms of the covenant. That's

561
00:35:16,103 --> 00:35:19,790
right. You guys, we didn't— when He says, when He says, come to me

562
00:35:20,495 --> 00:35:23,637
all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest, that rest

563
00:35:23,637 --> 00:35:26,218
doesn't mean that you get to go sit up on the couch for the rest

564
00:35:26,218 --> 00:35:29,969
of your existence. If it was only about you being set

565
00:35:29,969 --> 00:35:33,672
apart and you being saved and that you get to go to heaven with Him,

566
00:35:33,720 --> 00:35:36,542
then the moment you commit your life to Christ, why are you still in the

567
00:35:36,542 --> 00:35:39,940
mess that you're in? Because there is a sanctification

568
00:35:39,988 --> 00:35:43,483
process that God wants to work out progressively in your

569
00:35:43,579 --> 00:35:46,833
life. When you say things like, I don't talk the way I used to, I

570
00:35:46,865 --> 00:35:50,476
don't I don't walk the way I used to, right? I've become a different

571
00:35:50,476 --> 00:35:54,071
person. I'm a new creation in Christ, and I'm becoming

572
00:35:54,809 --> 00:35:58,597
something new. I'm positionally seated with

573
00:35:58,597 --> 00:36:02,352
Him, but I'm becoming something new on this planet. Are you

574
00:36:02,352 --> 00:36:05,931
tracking? Yes. Okay? So when

575
00:36:05,979 --> 00:36:09,558
He says, you'll be filled, that's what He means.

576
00:36:09,671 --> 00:36:13,442
Positionally, you'll be with me. But many of us take

577
00:36:13,442 --> 00:36:16,219
this filling, and we equate it with being full.

578
00:36:17,341 --> 00:36:19,635
I'm gonna tell you a story. You're gonna think it's made up, but it's real.

579
00:36:22,868 --> 00:36:25,892
Anybody knows me, I don't tell jokes. I tell real life stories. They just sometimes

580
00:36:25,892 --> 00:36:29,487
are funny. Um, my wife has banned me from

581
00:36:29,552 --> 00:36:32,403
jokes. Tried one the other day. She looked at me, said, don't ever say that

582
00:36:32,403 --> 00:36:35,092
again, ever in your life.

583
00:36:36,834 --> 00:36:40,238
I have a cousin. You can guess which side it's on. My mom and dad

584
00:36:40,238 --> 00:36:41,802
will take offense to that. Um,

585
00:36:45,407 --> 00:36:48,972
Right. Uh, I'm with him one time and he takes— and he,

586
00:36:49,117 --> 00:36:52,697
he has a bottle of ibuprofen and he pours out 16

587
00:36:52,713 --> 00:36:55,844
ibuprofen in his hand and takes them all. I said, hey man, what are you

588
00:36:55,844 --> 00:36:59,521
doing, trying to kill yourself? What are you doing right now? What is happening?

589
00:37:00,019 --> 00:37:03,808
He said, oh no, I take, I take 16 on Sunday

590
00:37:04,194 --> 00:37:07,550
and it lasts me all week. Shut

591
00:37:07,550 --> 00:37:11,210
up! I said, man, give me the keys to your car

592
00:37:11,210 --> 00:37:14,970
right now. Give me, give me all the knives in your kitchen. Give me

593
00:37:14,970 --> 00:37:17,490
your driver's license. You don't need to be out in public. You don't need to

594
00:37:17,490 --> 00:37:20,910
be out loose. You're a danger to yourself, to everybody around you. You

595
00:37:20,910 --> 00:37:24,190
cannot think— I'm dead serious. He said it lasts me all week. I said, man,

596
00:37:24,190 --> 00:37:27,970
that's not how that works. Your liver, man, is

597
00:37:27,970 --> 00:37:31,190
like, what is this guy doing to me? I don't know what day it is,

598
00:37:31,190 --> 00:37:34,941
but one day out of the week, this guy just hammers in the ibuprofen,

599
00:37:34,957 --> 00:37:38,792
right? Dead serious! I said, man, you're

600
00:37:38,792 --> 00:37:42,418
going to kill yourself. You're going to kill yourself. You laugh.

601
00:37:44,292 --> 00:37:47,855
You laugh. How many of us come into this building

602
00:37:52,474 --> 00:37:55,850
on Sunday and take 16

603
00:37:56,170 --> 00:37:59,348
ibuprofen and think it's going to carry us through the week? Come on!

604
00:38:02,242 --> 00:38:05,868
Yes! How many of us come in here and we go, well, I got my

605
00:38:05,868 --> 00:38:09,656
sip of water for the week? What are you going to do when the

606
00:38:09,656 --> 00:38:13,362
guy walks into your shop and his life is broken? What are

607
00:38:13,362 --> 00:38:17,068
you going to do when your parents die? What are you going

608
00:38:17,068 --> 00:38:20,853
to do when your kid's gone? What do you want to do when your

609
00:38:20,853 --> 00:38:24,479
kids run out to the world and have nothing to do with the

610
00:38:24,479 --> 00:38:28,184
Evangelical church anymore? Do you know the retention

611
00:38:28,184 --> 00:38:31,889
rate? of Jewish children, of Amish children, of Muslim

612
00:38:31,889 --> 00:38:35,593
children compared to evangelical children? From 70 to

613
00:38:35,593 --> 00:38:39,137
90% to down to 25 to 30% of evangelical kids keep their

614
00:38:39,137 --> 00:38:42,762
faith once they leave the house. And we're acting like

615
00:38:42,762 --> 00:38:46,387
that 16 ibuprofen on Sunday is going to solve it. Ain't

616
00:38:46,387 --> 00:38:50,012
talked about it at our dinner tables. Isn't modeled in

617
00:38:50,012 --> 00:38:53,074
our marriages. We're not working through the

618
00:38:53,074 --> 00:38:56,538
scriptures with our kids. I got so convicted my wife

619
00:38:56,538 --> 00:39:00,324
bought a Bible game at the homeschool conference. And we

620
00:39:00,324 --> 00:39:04,110
come back and it's like a trivia game, and I am dominating

621
00:39:04,110 --> 00:39:07,081
my family with this trivia game. Come on now.

622
00:39:09,624 --> 00:39:13,350
I'm so ashamed, man. Not for that,

623
00:39:13,366 --> 00:39:13,561
but—

624
00:39:17,889 --> 00:39:20,628
well, my kids were so sad. He was like, Dad, I don't know this stuff.

625
00:39:21,426 --> 00:39:25,151
Come on. I don't know it like you do. And I know I've got

626
00:39:25,151 --> 00:39:27,113
a lifetime of studying the Word,

627
00:39:29,036 --> 00:39:32,726
but in that moment I felt like I had abandoned my responsibility as

628
00:39:32,759 --> 00:39:36,319
a God-fearing man, that I wasn't pouring that information into my kids. Not just so

629
00:39:36,319 --> 00:39:39,627
he can know Bible trivia, you know, and they do the JBQ, but I was

630
00:39:39,643 --> 00:39:43,155
like, man, that his heart was in that place. He's like, man, I want to

631
00:39:43,155 --> 00:39:46,521
know it. I want to know the scriptures like you, Dad. How's he going to

632
00:39:46,537 --> 00:39:50,164
know it? How's he going to know it if I don't teach him

633
00:39:50,212 --> 00:39:52,492
that? How will he know?

634
00:39:53,423 --> 00:39:56,971
Train a child in the way that they would go. Yes.

635
00:39:57,019 --> 00:40:00,551
Stop letting them pick their habits and their

636
00:40:00,551 --> 00:40:03,890
extracurriculars. Make it a point of emphasis.

637
00:40:04,581 --> 00:40:08,000
Stop taking 16 ibuprofen on Sunday and thinking it's going to last you

638
00:40:08,498 --> 00:40:11,629
for the rest of the week. One glass of water is not going to do

639
00:40:11,645 --> 00:40:15,432
it. He said, if you thirst, Guess

640
00:40:15,432 --> 00:40:19,208
what? There was a moment in your life where you came

641
00:40:19,240 --> 00:40:23,058
to the foot of the cross. Have you gotten to the

642
00:40:23,058 --> 00:40:26,853
place where you're not as thirsty as you was on that worst day of your

643
00:40:26,853 --> 00:40:30,354
life when you recognized and realized, I am a wretched sinner.

644
00:40:31,191 --> 00:40:34,346
Come on! I am a wreck. My life is

645
00:40:34,379 --> 00:40:38,227
unmanageable. I cannot do this apart from you. I do not want

646
00:40:38,227 --> 00:40:41,981
to spend eternity separated from you. Yeah. What has changed

647
00:40:42,126 --> 00:40:45,395
from then to now? Because we're not as thirsty anymore,

648
00:40:45,926 --> 00:40:49,614
because we've gotten a taste of water and we think we're filled and

649
00:40:49,710 --> 00:40:51,737
now we're full, but we're not overflowing.

650
00:40:54,585 --> 00:40:58,374
Do you guys know why the children of Israel were carried into Babylonian captivity a

651
00:40:58,374 --> 00:41:01,994
second time? Let me ask you this, uh, how many of you

652
00:41:02,010 --> 00:41:05,744
even know there was a Babylonian captivity? I don't mean that as a

653
00:41:05,792 --> 00:41:09,275
slight. I was talking to Pastor Jonathan

654
00:41:09,275 --> 00:41:12,805
on midweek and I said, hey man, I got a problem, like,

655
00:41:13,207 --> 00:41:16,705
when I teach. Excuse me. I said, I

656
00:41:16,754 --> 00:41:20,589
assume everybody either knows every Bible

657
00:41:20,589 --> 00:41:24,265
reference I'm ever talking about, or I assume you know

658
00:41:24,313 --> 00:41:28,132
nothing and this is day one. Like, I'm nowhere in between. So

659
00:41:28,132 --> 00:41:31,727
when I ask you, do you even know that there's a Babylonian captivity? I'm

660
00:41:31,776 --> 00:41:35,579
not being snarky. I genuinely think either you know everything or you know nothing.

661
00:41:35,818 --> 00:41:39,445
Okay? So for those of you that know everything, I'm going to explain it every

662
00:41:39,804 --> 00:41:40,882
single time.

663
00:41:45,145 --> 00:41:48,943
So they're liberated from Egypt, you know the Red Sea, they're liberated from

664
00:41:48,991 --> 00:41:52,659
Egypt, right? And they're wandering in the wilderness, which is

665
00:41:52,788 --> 00:41:56,534
what the Feast of Booths was recognizing, and then He takes them into the

666
00:41:56,534 --> 00:42:00,234
land of promise. They're in the Promised Land and then they lose their

667
00:42:00,234 --> 00:42:03,629
mind. They get comfortable. They,

668
00:42:04,030 --> 00:42:07,609
they say, thank you, God. This is my bus stop. We know where we're

669
00:42:07,641 --> 00:42:11,477
at. Thank you so much for delivering us. I've got it. We'll take it

670
00:42:11,477 --> 00:42:15,152
from here. And God says, all right, well, how about we'll just come

671
00:42:15,265 --> 00:42:19,052
and conquer Jerusalem and then we'll march all you jokers right back out into

672
00:42:19,116 --> 00:42:22,920
captivity since that's how you want to act? Okay, I know a thing

673
00:42:22,968 --> 00:42:26,258
or two about being set free and then having to go back in and then

674
00:42:26,258 --> 00:42:29,548
being set free and having to go back. I was on the same 4-year probation

675
00:42:29,548 --> 00:42:33,319
for 13 years. Yeah. How does

676
00:42:33,351 --> 00:42:36,743
that happen? They can start it over at any time, just know

677
00:42:36,888 --> 00:42:40,543
that. Here's what the Lord has to say

678
00:42:40,559 --> 00:42:44,006
about this. Let's pick up in Jeremiah

679
00:42:44,299 --> 00:42:46,416
chapter 2, verse 1, okay?

680
00:42:49,630 --> 00:42:53,454
The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing

681
00:42:53,503 --> 00:42:56,949
of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your

682
00:42:57,081 --> 00:43:00,770
youth I remember the devotion of your

683
00:43:00,962 --> 00:43:04,665
youth, your love as a bride, how you

684
00:43:04,665 --> 00:43:07,743
followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

685
00:43:08,192 --> 00:43:11,959
Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of

686
00:43:11,959 --> 00:43:14,748
his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt;

687
00:43:15,085 --> 00:43:17,585
disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.

688
00:43:18,836 --> 00:43:21,978
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of

689
00:43:21,978 --> 00:43:25,504
the house of Israel! Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your

690
00:43:25,504 --> 00:43:29,175
fathers find in me, that they went far from me and

691
00:43:29,255 --> 00:43:31,728
went after worthlessness and became worthless.

692
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:37,306
Can you imagine God saying, what did I do?

693
00:43:38,295 --> 00:43:42,044
What did I do that was so wrong that you forgot about me? I

694
00:43:42,044 --> 00:43:45,816
don't know, I brought you out of bondage? I provided for

695
00:43:45,816 --> 00:43:47,322
the entire country?

696
00:43:50,339 --> 00:43:54,091
I watched over you, I shepherded you, I gave you

697
00:43:54,318 --> 00:43:58,150
food every single day! You did nothing for it! You

698
00:43:58,425 --> 00:44:01,862
woke up and it was there! And y'all traded my

699
00:44:02,087 --> 00:44:05,937
love for worthless things that don't even matter. What did I do

700
00:44:05,937 --> 00:44:09,722
that was so wrong? They did not say, where is the Lord

701
00:44:09,722 --> 00:44:13,395
who brought us up, up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the

702
00:44:13,460 --> 00:44:17,021
wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep

703
00:44:17,069 --> 00:44:20,902
darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?

704
00:44:22,121 --> 00:44:25,682
And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy

705
00:44:25,907 --> 00:44:29,564
its fruits and its good things, but when you came in, you defiled my

706
00:44:29,580 --> 00:44:33,284
land and made my heritage an abomination. The

707
00:44:33,349 --> 00:44:37,131
priests did not say, where is the Lord? Those who handle the law did

708
00:44:37,131 --> 00:44:40,498
not know me. The shepherds transgressed against me. The

709
00:44:40,562 --> 00:44:44,024
prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not

710
00:44:44,024 --> 00:44:47,336
profit. Therefore I still contend with you,

711
00:44:47,336 --> 00:44:51,127
declares the Lord, and with your children's children

712
00:44:51,127 --> 00:44:54,664
I will contend. For cross to the coast of Cyprus and

713
00:44:54,664 --> 00:44:58,117
see, or send to Kedar and examine with care. See if

714
00:44:58,117 --> 00:45:01,739
there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its

715
00:45:01,739 --> 00:45:05,444
gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have

716
00:45:05,444 --> 00:45:09,235
changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be

717
00:45:09,235 --> 00:45:12,940
appalled, O heavens, at this! Be shocked! Be utterly

718
00:45:12,940 --> 00:45:16,646
desolate! Declares the Lord. What did I do to make you

719
00:45:16,646 --> 00:45:20,352
stray? What has the Lord done to make us stray from his

720
00:45:20,352 --> 00:45:23,889
good and loving hand? Even the pagans don't change

721
00:45:23,889 --> 00:45:27,510
their gods. Did you notice that? He said, the world,

722
00:45:27,510 --> 00:45:31,216
they worship false gods, but at least they're honest

723
00:45:31,216 --> 00:45:34,333
about worshipping false gods. You guys keep

724
00:45:34,333 --> 00:45:38,123
flip-flopping around, making requests on Facebook.

725
00:45:38,310 --> 00:45:41,722
I need a church and it's got to have a dynamic worship set, and it's

726
00:45:41,722 --> 00:45:45,011
got to have a good children's ministry, right? And it's kind of— and they got

727
00:45:45,011 --> 00:45:48,089
to have this type of outreach. Man, oh my God.

728
00:45:50,228 --> 00:45:51,718
I had to kick myself out of groups.

729
00:45:57,695 --> 00:46:00,283
Your behavior follows your belief 100% of the time.

730
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:05,087
Behavior does not put you in— let me go and say this— your behavior does

731
00:46:05,087 --> 00:46:08,401
not put you in right standing with God. There's nothing you can do to earn

732
00:46:08,401 --> 00:46:12,017
your way to the cross. Behavior should flow from the cross.

733
00:46:12,856 --> 00:46:16,426
That's what the book of James says. He says, hey, you tell

734
00:46:16,426 --> 00:46:18,703
me that you have faith, I'm gonna tell you that I got works. That's right.

735
00:46:19,003 --> 00:46:22,836
The reason why I'm telling you I got works is because works prove my faith.

736
00:46:23,512 --> 00:46:26,379
The way I live my life is what will show you what I actually believe.

737
00:46:26,830 --> 00:46:29,727
James verifies that your behavior will follow your belief.

738
00:46:32,150 --> 00:46:35,959
Behavior does not put you in right standing, but somehow we've been led

739
00:46:35,959 --> 00:46:39,639
to believe that it doesn't matter how we live because after all,

740
00:46:40,398 --> 00:46:44,019
His mercies are new every morning. We don't mind

741
00:46:44,116 --> 00:46:47,900
grabbing that verse out of Jeremiah. We don't mind running to, I know the

742
00:46:47,900 --> 00:46:51,641
plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper

743
00:46:51,657 --> 00:46:55,270
you and not harm you, plans to give you a future and an expected end.

744
00:46:55,625 --> 00:46:59,144
Do you know who that verse was written to? These same

745
00:46:59,338 --> 00:47:03,105
people that were in captivity! The same ones that

746
00:47:03,219 --> 00:47:05,131
went back to the open prison cell!

747
00:47:07,479 --> 00:47:09,778
Don't

748
00:47:12,710 --> 00:47:16,248
make— don't mistake God's mercy for His grace. My

749
00:47:16,377 --> 00:47:20,079
lack of discipline and self-control when it comes to my speech and

750
00:47:20,079 --> 00:47:23,510
behavior are disrespectful to a God who created me for purpose.

751
00:47:24,568 --> 00:47:26,651
When you come to Christ, you don't get to live any way you want to

752
00:47:26,651 --> 00:47:30,258
anymore. Right. If you don't— I'm sorry that you don't like that.

753
00:47:30,499 --> 00:47:34,314
You don't get to determine the terms of the covenant. You

754
00:47:34,330 --> 00:47:37,680
accept God on His terms or you don't accept it at all.

755
00:47:38,657 --> 00:47:41,799
We got to stop coming to Jesus with our list of demands and

756
00:47:41,799 --> 00:47:45,530
expectations. Amen. I was

757
00:47:45,530 --> 00:47:47,670
so irritated last night, I wanted to watch

758
00:47:47,670 --> 00:47:51,390
a movie. Couldn't even watch it,

759
00:47:51,390 --> 00:47:55,150
man. Not because it was a bad movie,

760
00:47:55,190 --> 00:47:58,950
because the Lord was like, man, you don't need that. I'm like, yes I

761
00:47:58,950 --> 00:48:02,790
do, I need to unwind before I preach tomorrow. He said, what you really need

762
00:48:02,790 --> 00:48:06,250
is to come in here and pray and read these scriptures, which you— you go

763
00:48:06,250 --> 00:48:10,092
on and shut that off real quick. Text my wife, said, I'll see you

764
00:48:10,092 --> 00:48:10,532
tomorrow.

765
00:48:14,242 --> 00:48:18,012
This is what the Lord says to them in verse 13. For my people

766
00:48:18,012 --> 00:48:21,737
have committed 2 evils. They have forsaken the fountain

767
00:48:21,737 --> 00:48:25,026
of living water, and they've hewn out cisterns for

768
00:48:25,026 --> 00:48:28,863
themselves. Broken cisterns that can hold no water. So the

769
00:48:28,863 --> 00:48:32,307
Lord says, what did I do that was so wrong that you guys

770
00:48:32,307 --> 00:48:35,830
abandoned me? You forgot about me? You've got this DIY

771
00:48:35,830 --> 00:48:39,666
attitude to your faith? Here's what you've done. I'll tell

772
00:48:39,666 --> 00:48:43,345
you, you keep blaming me for this. I'm gonna tell you what

773
00:48:43,345 --> 00:48:47,024
you did. First off, you've forsaken me, your fountain of

774
00:48:47,024 --> 00:48:50,547
living water. You've dug a well that has no fresh water

775
00:48:50,547 --> 00:48:54,306
running in it, and you're trying to pour from an empty cup.

776
00:48:54,306 --> 00:48:58,065
And matter of fact, the cup that you picked up has got holes

777
00:48:58,065 --> 00:49:00,636
in it. It can't even hold water to begin with.

778
00:49:01,993 --> 00:49:05,167
What an indictment. What an indictment.

779
00:49:11,167 --> 00:49:14,956
The people were full, but they were not filled, and they were certainly

780
00:49:14,956 --> 00:49:18,697
not overflowing. When Jesus says, if anyone thirsts and

781
00:49:18,697 --> 00:49:22,470
whoever believes, what He's saying is that the thirst is what

782
00:49:22,551 --> 00:49:25,473
draws you and the belief is what keeps you.

783
00:49:26,019 --> 00:49:29,728
Believe and keep believing. And then He says this, rivers

784
00:49:29,857 --> 00:49:33,588
of living water will flow from you. Amen. Let me

785
00:49:33,588 --> 00:49:37,212
tell you guys, the river is not the source. The river

786
00:49:37,212 --> 00:49:40,836
itself— every time you've ever seen a river, what is

787
00:49:40,836 --> 00:49:44,461
happening? No matter where you see that river at, if

788
00:49:44,461 --> 00:49:47,919
you're up close on its banks, if you're up high on a

789
00:49:47,919 --> 00:49:51,713
perch, that water is always moving, and it is carrying

790
00:49:51,713 --> 00:49:55,253
life all the way down its banks. Rivers carry water

791
00:49:55,253 --> 00:49:58,792
from one place to the next. They're supplied from a

792
00:49:58,792 --> 00:50:02,501
source, but they are not the source. They give life to

793
00:50:02,501 --> 00:50:06,211
those who contact its banks. So what am I trying to say

794
00:50:06,211 --> 00:50:09,919
here? If we're talking about becoming the well, if we

795
00:50:09,919 --> 00:50:13,543
want living water to flow from us like a river, we're

796
00:50:13,543 --> 00:50:17,337
required to do 2 things. And God wants us to be a source.

797
00:50:17,337 --> 00:50:21,129
You know, it gives me great joy and honor when somebody

798
00:50:21,129 --> 00:50:24,922
says, hey, would you pray for me? Or, hey, what do I do in

799
00:50:24,922 --> 00:50:28,696
this moment? Hey, I need some advice. Can you give me some counsel and

800
00:50:28,793 --> 00:50:32,504
wisdom? And they're coming to me and they're looking for something from Me,

801
00:50:33,580 --> 00:50:37,287
and the temptation is to give of myself. Well, here's what I would

802
00:50:37,287 --> 00:50:41,124
do in that situation, or here's what I think you should do. And what

803
00:50:41,124 --> 00:50:44,719
the scriptures actually tell us is you need to dig a big old

804
00:50:44,831 --> 00:50:48,539
hole and put a bucket at the top, and you need to dig deep enough

805
00:50:48,764 --> 00:50:52,246
and far enough down that you find water that is moving

806
00:50:52,295 --> 00:50:55,697
underneath, because that's the source. And all you are is a big old hole,

807
00:50:56,692 --> 00:51:00,288
and you're responsible to keep the critters out, to keep the walls

808
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:03,907
clear. So that the water that's poured out of it,

809
00:51:04,620 --> 00:51:08,084
even though it came from your well, you're not the source.

810
00:51:11,088 --> 00:51:14,501
One of my greatest dangers or fears in my

811
00:51:14,647 --> 00:51:18,157
life is not giving somebody advice that ruins their life.

812
00:51:18,513 --> 00:51:22,053
It's giving them something that they are successful in and then

813
00:51:22,183 --> 00:51:26,024
thinking that I gave them anything. I'm terrified of that

814
00:51:26,171 --> 00:51:29,987
because I don't want I don't want you building on your life

815
00:51:29,987 --> 00:51:33,766
on something Justin said unless I gave

816
00:51:33,766 --> 00:51:37,610
you the word. Then build your life on that. I— you know, it's one

817
00:51:37,610 --> 00:51:41,186
of the greatest honors of my life to stand

818
00:51:41,186 --> 00:51:45,020
here in a long lineage of men who have

819
00:51:45,294 --> 00:51:46,875
shared and taught the gospel,

820
00:51:48,947 --> 00:51:52,541
like just some of the 17th and 18th century

821
00:51:52,655 --> 00:51:56,183
theologians. And then you think back and you're going, Man, Peter and

822
00:51:56,280 --> 00:52:00,052
Paul and the disciples were sharing the same thing, man, and

823
00:52:00,132 --> 00:52:03,343
I get to be counted among them? I'm telling you guys, I feel like a

824
00:52:03,359 --> 00:52:06,923
bug. This is not

825
00:52:06,971 --> 00:52:10,471
important work, this is dangerous work. Yes. This is

826
00:52:10,648 --> 00:52:14,131
dangerous, 'cause there's a danger to

827
00:52:14,260 --> 00:52:17,133
give of myself and to think I've given you something

828
00:52:18,514 --> 00:52:22,030
if I'm not connected to the source, if I'm drawing from anything

829
00:52:22,569 --> 00:52:26,333
That is of me. Yes. If

830
00:52:26,333 --> 00:52:30,167
you want to become a well, you got to do 2 things. Thirst is

831
00:52:30,215 --> 00:52:33,856
the first thing. To the degree in which you thirst will determine the

832
00:52:33,856 --> 00:52:36,803
size of stream that flows from your life.

833
00:52:37,817 --> 00:52:41,663
Do we really need him? Do you really thirst for

834
00:52:41,663 --> 00:52:45,227
God truly? And the

835
00:52:45,227 --> 00:52:48,800
second thing you have to do is believe and keep believing. Yeah.

836
00:52:49,107 --> 00:52:52,389
That word means rely upon, to continually

837
00:52:52,502 --> 00:52:55,849
trust. Stop taking ibuprofen

838
00:52:56,609 --> 00:52:58,808
once a week. That's what that means.

839
00:53:00,450 --> 00:53:03,134
So how do we do this? Duh, you dig the well.

840
00:53:05,509 --> 00:53:09,072
You would do whatever it takes to get to the water if you was thirsty

841
00:53:09,072 --> 00:53:12,829
enough. How deep are we willing to dig for the source?

842
00:53:14,298 --> 00:53:17,634
I didn't care about what water was in that cooler when we got there.

843
00:53:19,390 --> 00:53:23,216
I just needed the water. I'm gonna read this verse and I'm gonna

844
00:53:23,216 --> 00:53:26,163
close with this, and we can, we can pray if you want to come down

845
00:53:26,163 --> 00:53:29,834
here and pray about anything, um, if you have a need. And then

846
00:53:29,866 --> 00:53:33,494
also I got 2 specific requests that you might hold off because people are gonna

847
00:53:33,527 --> 00:53:34,909
think that's what you're struggling with.

848
00:53:37,854 --> 00:53:40,512
I love the way that the writer of Hebrews says it in the King James.

849
00:53:40,561 --> 00:53:44,394
He says this: But without faith it is impossible to please him,

850
00:53:46,304 --> 00:53:50,010
for he that cometh to God must believe that

851
00:53:50,010 --> 00:53:53,157
he is. He is what? He is

852
00:53:53,996 --> 00:53:57,539
whatever you need him to be. This is my

853
00:53:57,539 --> 00:54:01,289
favorite part though. He is a rewarder of

854
00:54:01,466 --> 00:54:05,192
them that diligently seek him. Did you notice

855
00:54:05,192 --> 00:54:08,304
something? He didn't even say you got to find him.

856
00:54:09,594 --> 00:54:12,009
He says, I'll pay you for looking for me.

857
00:54:13,619 --> 00:54:16,774
Do you see that? You want to know what else is not

858
00:54:17,547 --> 00:54:21,183
a parameter here? When he says, if anyone, that's not an age

859
00:54:21,281 --> 00:54:22,815
requirement or an age limit.

860
00:54:24,855 --> 00:54:27,904
Anyone. Anyone

861
00:54:28,888 --> 00:54:32,598
thirsts. And you want to know what the

862
00:54:32,598 --> 00:54:36,433
reward is that you get for looking for him? You'll

863
00:54:36,465 --> 00:54:40,054
be found by Him. You will find Him.

864
00:54:40,328 --> 00:54:44,159
He says, I'll pay you for looking for Me, and the reward you'll get is

865
00:54:44,497 --> 00:54:47,908
you'll find Me. You'll find Me. I'm not hard to find.

866
00:54:48,150 --> 00:54:51,964
You've just got to dig. If you'll get your shovel out and dig,

867
00:54:52,255 --> 00:54:56,061
you'll eventually hit water. Have

868
00:54:56,061 --> 00:54:58,717
you dug a little bit and got frustrated and be like, ah, this ain't for

869
00:54:58,717 --> 00:55:02,307
me. God must not be there. So I'm gonna stop

870
00:55:02,358 --> 00:55:06,096
digging. James only had to dig a little bit and that water just

871
00:55:06,096 --> 00:55:09,471
started bubbling up. Don't get caught in that comparison trap.

872
00:55:13,490 --> 00:55:16,534
Dig and you'll hit water. Seek and you'll find.

873
00:55:16,952 --> 00:55:20,536
Thirst and you'll be satisfied. Believe and keep believing

874
00:55:20,728 --> 00:55:24,328
and you'll be the conduit that carries the much-needed water to others.

875
00:55:25,610 --> 00:55:28,765
Thirsting and believing allows us to become wells

876
00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:32,707
that Others are able to draw from. Only if you're

877
00:55:32,707 --> 00:55:36,280
connected to the source. So this morning, if you have a need, uh,

878
00:55:36,506 --> 00:55:39,359
and if you want to pray, we're going to worship. I'll have some people over

879
00:55:39,359 --> 00:55:41,537
here. I'm going to come down here if you want to pray for anything.

880
00:55:43,240 --> 00:55:46,654
But if you have taken on this DIY attitude in your

881
00:55:46,654 --> 00:55:50,154
faith, if you're coming in on Sunday mornings and

882
00:55:50,154 --> 00:55:53,995
thinking that this is going to sustain you, or using it

883
00:55:53,995 --> 00:55:57,834
to sustain you, Then let this season end today and come

884
00:55:57,834 --> 00:56:01,589
and drink from the fountain of living water, because

885
00:56:01,589 --> 00:56:05,257
there are people that need to draw from your well and

886
00:56:05,257 --> 00:56:08,841
it's not full, filled, or overflowing. It's not an

887
00:56:08,841 --> 00:56:12,682
indictment, that's the reality. And also, if you have

888
00:56:12,682 --> 00:56:16,437
hewn out for yourself, if you find yourself giving of

889
00:56:16,437 --> 00:56:20,107
yourself and out of your own understanding, of your

890
00:56:20,107 --> 00:56:23,861
own wisdom, if the If the cistern that you've hewn out

891
00:56:23,861 --> 00:56:27,616
is for yourself and it's got holes in it, then come and

892
00:56:27,616 --> 00:56:31,370
lay it down this morning and take the container of the

893
00:56:31,370 --> 00:56:34,869
Lord and allow Him to fill you up. Amen. So they're

894
00:56:34,869 --> 00:56:38,540
going to lead us in worship. We're going to come down

895
00:56:38,540 --> 00:56:42,125
and pray and we're going to close it out. Church, my

896
00:56:42,125 --> 00:56:45,794
prayer for you is that you're as thirsty on your best

897
00:56:45,794 --> 00:56:49,634
day as you were on your worst. Jesus says that if you do 2

898
00:56:49,634 --> 00:56:53,472
things, then rivers will flow from your heart, rivers

899
00:56:53,472 --> 00:56:56,460
of life-giving water to those who need it.

900
00:56:57,382 --> 00:57:00,899
Thirst is the first thing. Believe and keep

901
00:57:00,899 --> 00:57:04,674
believing. Yeah. Raise your hand. Let me give you a blessing. May the God and

902
00:57:04,674 --> 00:57:07,099
Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

903
00:57:08,126 --> 00:57:11,065
increase your thirst for him.

904
00:57:11,820 --> 00:57:15,611
May he satisfy that thirst and fill you

905
00:57:15,611 --> 00:57:16,622
to overflowing