I tell you what, I wish you could have been
on this side of it watching the worship this
morning. There's something about
having 5-year-olds up to about
18-year-olds, close to, I don't know,
probably 75 or 100 of them. And, you know, my mom
used to tell me, she'd say, now, I'm not gonna cry. When you see a
church where there's a lot of kids, God's got a plan.
Amen. She said, when you see it just to
become— the children become more scarce and the
congregation ages and the replenishing of the children,
you don't see that, then you really need to start interceding. Then you really
need to start seeking the Lord regarding what's next. But she said, oh,
when you see the kids, when you see the kids, know that God's got
a plan. God's building something. And I'm so— so I'm so
encouraged the next time we do it, and there will be a next
time, because I think that this is right and proper for us to
worship together. Don't you think so? Yes. And then next time, I'm
just gonna invite the families to come and stand with
their kids and worship together, 'cause that's so
important. One of the greatest blessings of my life was
sitting on that second row for about a decade and a half
behind Pastor Ronnie and Pastor Margaret and the Meeks
family, and to watch Ronnie and Margaret hold Bo, to
watch them teach the kids how to worship and to be able to
do that together. So I'm encouraged by that. Another
thing that we're getting ready to do is on September
13th, if your child, if you would like to have your baby
dedicated, 17, 18, you know, 19 years old, usually— I
know how some of you mamas are. They're 35 and you're
like, well, that's my baby though. Those that are
willing to be dedicated— On the 13th, you can sign up. We
will have a baby dedication that day, and we have a few for
that, and you can sign up for that. The other thing I wanna
let you know is on September 27th, the last Sunday of this
month, we are gonna have one gathering, and it will be
your gathering. I had to tell the early service, sorry, nobody will
be here. But anyway, it'll be your gathering, and it's going to be
a worship and baptism service. So if
you have not been baptized, and you're like, you know, the Holy Spirit has really
been drawing me to this, You can sign up for that, and we would love
for you to be a part of that. We would love to get in contact
with you and let you know what that looks like here. And we're just gonna
worship while the Lord does what he does in that day. So the
27th of September, put it on your calendar, invite your
family. It's gonna be full, it's gonna be rich, and God has
a plan for that as well. So just mark it so you're a part
of it. Speaking of God's plan, about, I don't know,
Probably a dozen years ago, the Lord put on my heart to do a series,
a teaching series entitled, The Young Lions. And we invited
some of the gentlemen in this body who we knew had a calling on
their life, a teaching calling on their life. And guys, we still got some
lions in the room. So today, would you welcome Pastor
Justin? Thank
you. Thank you. Good morning.
Good morning. Good morning. I just want to see
if you were here in the room last week. Pastor Allen
did a fantastic job. And but he said, I've only got
about 25 minutes of stuff. And I looked at my wife
and I said, well, I'm going to have about 90 next
week after I take his time. So buckle up. Get locked
in. Look, if we were watching Interstellar.,
you'd have no problem, right? Sitting here for 2
and a half, 3 hours. God forbid I say we're gonna
learn about the Bible today, and you're going, oh,
I'm hungry right now. Well, should have got something out of that
cafe, right, Kate? So lock in, get comfortable,
get your Bibles and your pens out. We're gonna journey through the Word this morning,
okay? Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day that you have
given us. I thank you for Waking us up this morning, keeping us in our
right mind, giving us a reason to live. Father, we have
gathered here together, young and old,
new in our faith, seasoned saints. God, we're here to honor you,
and I pray that our collective cry of praise would reach your throne, that you
would be pleased with your people this morning, that you would root out
sin and selfishness in our hearts, Lord, that we'd be open to
an encounter with you. As we look through the scriptures, I pray that you
would speak to us individually and collectively as a body, God,
and that the name of your Son Jesus would be glorified through the power of
the Holy Spirit. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. And amen. If you have
your Bibles, go ahead and open them up. We're going to be in John chapter
7, and this morning, uh, we're continuing in our To the Well
series, and we have discussed re-digging
wells and seasons where you have to leave the old wells
behind. And go dig new wells. And we've— Pastor Barbie
has shared with us her process of digging wells. We've
examined Jacob's well historically and Jesus's
encounter with the woman at the well. And so there's a theme
that we're going to continue today. And this morning I want to talk to you
about becoming the well. Okay?
So we're going to be in John chapter 7. If you have your Bibles and
you're there, say amen. Amen. Amen! All right.
Yeah, man, that's how I get— listen,
I'm telling you, when you open up the scriptures, you gotta be like,
yeah! And if you ain't, then maybe you will be
after I'm done, okay? We're gonna be reading in John
chapter 7. I'm starting in verse 37. We're gonna read through 39, okay?
It says, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus
stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts,
let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me,
as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of
living water. Now this he said about the Spirit,
whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit
had not been given, because Jesus was not yet
glorified. This is the word of the Lord. So you guys know I'm big about
context. You ever watch a movie and you come in on the back end of
the movie and you have no idea what's happening because you missed the
first, I don't know, 50 minutes of the message maybe? I
don't know. That's an inside joke. Friends of mine
said, hey, we were so excited to hear you speak this morning, we got here
at 10 AM. And so I know how it ends, but I have no idea
how we got there, right? So we literally read this
passage. How many of you guys know how we got here? Right,
couple of you guys, okay. And if not, that's exactly why I'm here. Do you
know that part Oh, the reason we're here is to equip the saints for the
work of ministry. We're here to learn, to grow, so that you
can take all of this information, you can allow God to change you, and then
we take it out to a hurt, broken, lost, and dying world. Come on. Okay?
And then you bring those hurt, broken, lost people back in here, and they get
trained up, and then they go out and minister to the lost,
hurt, and broken. You got— you see how that kind of works? Okay? That's part
of the design here. So let me give you a little bit of a background.
Uh, we're in John chapter 7, and if you go back to the beginning of
John chapter 7, this takes place in Jerusalem roughly
6 months before Jesus is crucified. So when Jesus
stands up and makes that statement, he's got about 6 months before
they put him on a cross. Imagine, 6 months from now
there's the crucifixion. The chapter opens with this
tension in Jesus's own family. How many— well, is
my mom in the room? Where are my parents at? Nah, we ain't got tension
anymore. We went through a season of tension, many seasons of tension. How
many people have had tension in your own family? Yeah. Right?
There have been many tense moments, and we've had to learn
how to grow. One of the ways we had to learn how to grow— forgive
me, Mom. Me and my mom have a beautiful way
of telling each other that we love each other, and that is by cutdowns and
putdowns, right? It's— I don't recommend it. It's hurtful.
Okay? We've had to grow in that. We don't do that anymore. But there was
a season where I'd be like, Mom, these beans are terrible. Oh, hush up. You
don't know how to cook beans. And I go, you're right, but you still put
too much salt in them. And she's all, well, you over here eating them. And
that was like, Mom, I really appreciate you cooking for me. And she's like, son,
I love cooking for you. That's what I heard in my
head. Everybody else at the dinner
table was like, I can't believe he's speaking to his mother like that.
And so, but here's the problem. I took that into my family, right? When I
got— when me and Jess got married, it was like the Marines have landed,
okay? And all my bonus kids were like, who is this guy that you picked?
Like, is this the guy? Like, is this what we're doing? Praise God they all
had vision and they get this version of Dad now. But
sometimes you have to learn things that are
hurtful, right? There was conflict in Jesus's own
family. And part of the conflict was that Jesus has
disciples and he has a following, and half of his own family don't
even believe that he's the Messiah. Imagine the tension,
right, that, that, that, that causes. You grew up with this guy,
and now all of a sudden, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world. Like, absolutely not. No, straight-A
student. Like, geez, he's got his own— he knows how to build stuff. Like,
they're sick of him. They're really not. That's speculation.
Okay. But there's tension in his family.
His brothers urge him to go to Jerusalem and display his works publicly,
yet John notes that they didn't even believe in him. Jesus
initially declines to go up openly, and then he travels to Jerusalem
privately. The Gospel writer reveals when Jesus is making
this statement. So Jesus is making this statement about living
water at the Feast of Booths. Or the Feast of Tabernacles,
the Jewish Sukkot. So we're going to read, we're going to go back and we're
going to read John chapter 7, verses 1 through 6.
So it says, after this, Jesus went about in Galilee.
He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand, so
his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea. that your
disciples also may see the works you're doing. For no one works in
secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things,
show yourself to the world. So like, you need to go show everybody all this
stuff you're doing, Jesus. Come on, get it out there. Quit doing this,
this top secret ministry. Verse 4, it says,
for no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you
do these things, show yourself to the world. Verse 5, for not even his
brothers believed in him. And Jesus said to
them, my time has not yet come,
but your time is always here. In
the Greek, there's two— you know, Greek, man, we could probably
learn a thing or two from the Greek language, like having words that
actually mean what they mean, right? You can't love ice
cream and love Jesus. Something's got to give there. It's got to— we got to
figure out a different word. You can love ice cream and love Jesus. Let me
Go ahead and retract that statement, okay? Yeah,
everybody was like, I'm leaving, he's a heretic, right?
What I'm saying is they're not the— I mean,
they don't give you the same gumption and impact, you know
what I mean? And so the Greeks had 2 words for time,
kairos and chronos. Kairos, chronos.
Chronos is chronological clock time. Kairos was
a little bit different. Kairos were those intentional
moments where chronological time seems to stop.
Several years ago, I think it's— I had— I meant to text him, but I
was like, I don't want to pull my phone out. We're in such a sweet
worship moment. But there's a friend of mine, his name is Troy Ross. You guys
probably, if you've been here for any length of time, I've, I've told you the
Troy Ross story. Baptized the guy over here. Um, but just to give
you a little brief snippet. I was doing this little thing called Reclaimed
America where I'm riding around trying to tear down barns. I don't know why that
was the idea that I had. And I was taking the
barns and I was, uh, uh, turning it into different
furniture pieces and, uh, selling it as, you now
own a piece of American history, right? Beautiful
marketing. Um, this guy has been trying to get
access to this particular barn over here for the better part of 2
years. Turns out I had access to the barn. His daddy
finds out about it, ends up coming down there telling him. He comes to my
shop, don't even know this guy, on a random Tuesday. I'm in
my workshop working. It was an actual Tuesday. I'm working
and he's talking to me and I stopped what I'm doing. We're having a conversation
about woodworking and barn wood and he looks up and he
sees this picture of Jesus that's as big as this screen right here in my
shop. And he's like, what is this? Tell me about it. I said, oh, I
was a part of a 1-year discipleship program for men with
life-controlling problems. For those of you that need the explanation,
that's a 1-year drug rehab that I went to. Okay, um,
I like to church it up. Discipleship program sounds a little bit—
you know what I'm saying? It sounds a little bit better, right? That's I love
Jesus. That's the drug rehab. That's I love ice cream. You got it? Okay,
so See how I'm connecting these dots? Anyway,
so, so it's, it's 6 canvases that make
up one picture of Jesus, and each canvas has something
different painted on him. And I started telling him, I said, man, the
guys that were in this program were all painting, and
each one had a canvas, and they were doing fine
until they started to look at the other canvas. And for some
reason, they got to comparing their canvas to the guy next to him.
And why does it— my canvas look like his canvas? canvas? Why does
my life not look like— why does my marriage not look like their marriage?
Why is my kids not growing up like their? Why is my this and
this and this? And you start to fall into the comparison trap. And so I
said, and in the skit, this Jesus character is trying to convince them that, hey,
I've got a path for you. Focus on your painting. It's part of a beautiful
picture. And some guys turn to drugs, some guys
try to kill themselves, some guys turn to violence, and it's in the midst of
this skit, and finally Jesus is able to vanquish the enemy
and get them all back to their painting, and then he adds color to the
outside of the painting, and they put all these pictures together, and it makes the
picture of Jesus. And I've got it hanging up on the wall in my shop,
and he's just— he's standing there like, wow! And then I looked at him, and
I said, I don't think you came by here for barn wood. I
don't even know this guy! And immediately he's like,
oh, my life's a wreck, man! I'm just— Poor
guy! just crying in the middle. It's just me and him
on a Tuesday with no one else around. And I heard the Holy Spirit say,
are you gonna go fishing or not? Yeah. Are you gonna— are you gonna go
fishing or not? You've got the guys primed. He's ready. He's
ready for the gospel. Just throw it out there and see what happens.
This guy, uh, went home. He threw away his drugs, threw away his
alcohol. He's been sober and walking in freedom for about 8 years now.
Yeah! Like, yeah. And there's a much
longer teaching and story about that. It's got— I got pictures of him sitting
on top of that barn when we finally took it down. He, he
takes barn wood. He was going to use it for something else. Now he takes
it and makes crosses out of it and wrote his testimony down, and he gives
out crosses with the barn wood. Isn't that crazy? Like, he came by there
for barn wood, got freedom, and still got the barn wood.
Right? It's amazing! Here's what I want you to understand.
That was a Kairos moment in the midst of chronological time. Yeah.
Do you see the difference there? So when Jesus says,
hey, my time has not come, He's
using the word kairos there. The moment
that things are going to actually change is not here yet,
and you keep trying to push me up to the front. You keep trying to
throw me out there, and my time is not yet. Not that it's
not literally time for me to do these things, but there is a
pivotal moment in history, and if you push me out there too
early, then you've had it your way.
And Jesus says, there's a moment in time where everything's going to change,
and it's about 6 months from now.
So they're— once they're at the feast, Jesus begins teaching
in the temple courts. He's astonishing the crowds with His
knowledge. Jesus defends the divine origin of His
teaching, and He challenges those who seek Him— seek to kill
Him for healing on the Sabbath. The crowds are sharply
divided. Some consider Him a good man,
others a deceiver, and still others wonder if He might even be the
Messiah. The festival
is celebrated in autumn. Autumn is a
Midwest term for fall, right?
Nobody below the Mason-Dixon says autumn. We—
it's fall, right? And if you live in Tennessee, fall is one of the 9
seasons we have here. You're
experiencing second summer right now.
And then comes false fall, then real fall. Okay?
The festival is celebrated in autumn. It is a week-long holiday
remembering the Israelites' 40 years in the wilderness. So they
spent 40 years wandering, and this festival is a week-long
celebration where they remember God remembering
them and taking care of them. Every day they walked
outside and food was on the ground.
And they found something to complain about.
I had a kid come out to me the other day, Dad, there ain't nothing
to eat in the house! I said, Tommy, hang on. Worked way too hard for
them cupboards to be completely bare. There is no way there's not a drop of
food in this house because I ate when I, when I came out here.
What he meant was, there's nothing I want.
I didn't get mad at him. My kids have historically been mad at me because
I don't have I have ingredients.
They get mad at me. They're like, Dad, there's nothing to eat. I'm like,
Absolutely. And even Jess, she's like, What am I gonna cook? I was like, Oh,
it's simple. Just throw this in. And she's like, How do you do that? I
was like, 'Cause it's just— 'cause the beans were too salty. That's how I do
that. I grew up being told, You're never gonna make
anything of yourself. I'll show you. Give me some, right?
So they're complaining, man, about God's provision!
How? I'm gonna stop complaining about anything
in my life when I realize how much God has provided.
Yeah. So that's what this festival is. They get together for a week and celebrate,
God, thank you for providing for us. Right? Thank you for providing for
us. Each day for 7 days, the priest
leads a procession With music from the temple to the Pool
of Siloam. And in my mind, it's Pied Piper. He's out
front, there's, there's music playing, the people are
behind him. Don't mess this up for me. I don't know if that's exactly how
it happened, but that's how I envision it. Okay, if you read your Bible, you
can figure— you can envision it however you want. Okay. But you
probably should do some research since those— you actually know we're not making up
stories that become doctrine for people. Okay, that was for me.
Each day they lead a procession. The priest fills a golden
container with water and he carries it back to the temple while the
people rejoice. At the altar, the priest pours the water
out on the altar. On the other side of the altar, a priest
pours a drink offering of wine on the other side.
Anytime you read your Bible and there's something that seems like a coincidence,
That's not a coincidence, right? There's water
and wine, which was symbolic of blood. So you have water and
wine being poured out on the altar,
and 6 months from now, water and blood will
flow from the side of Jesus
on the ultimate altar, the ultimate sacrifice. The
water and the wine is both poured out on the altar. That's
right. Right? And the Holy Spirit is like, you think I just put this stuff
in here? Like, you think that this just happens? No, it's for a
reason. They
do this to thank God for the rain and look forward to the prophetic
promises of renewal. On the 8th day
of the feast, which is the final day, the water
pouring ceremony was not repeated. So this is the one day when there
is no water. So now you got this picture in your head, okay?
For 7 days they've had a party going to the Pool of
Siloam. They get the water, they bring it back for 7
days, and they pour it on the altar. There's one day of the feast there's
no water, and that's the day Jesus says, I got something I need
to say to everybody. Yeah. Does that not change the
dynamic of the story? There's one day where there is no
water, and Jesus says, hey, listen up.
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me
and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the
scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of
living water. And the people were
astonished. They were
astonished. Jesus— this is the
exact proclamation He made to the woman at the well.
Hey, uh, I'm pretty thirsty. Can you pull some water up? Matter
of fact, I've got some water to give you, and if you drink of this
water, you'll never thirst again. And then 3 chapters later, he
says, hey, everybody listen up. Are you thirsty? Come to
me, and out of your heart will flow rivers of living water.
He is the true well of living water, and those who place their faith
in him will become wells themselves.
Jesus begins His statement with one particular requirement. There's
only one requirement. There's actually 2, but I'll tell
you the first one. The first requirement that He
says is to thirst. If anyone
thirsts. Have you ever been really thirsty?
Really thirsty? Sure. You don't care about
anything in that moment that does not quench your thirst.
Your only desire is for water. Went to a volleyball game on Friday,
okay? Didn't realize I'm a volleyball dad. Got kicked— I almost got kicked out.
Not for what you think, Judgy McJudgers
over here. It wasn't that I was cheering. I was in the
wrong place to be cheering. So if you're sitting behind the
scorer's table, you can't say anything. I was behind
the people that were behind the scorer's table. And so the referee
said to my wife, hey, is he with you? She said, yeah, he's mine.
She said, hey, listen up, sir. If you keep talking like that, then you
gonna have to go. My bad. I'll go over here and
bump, set, spike. Bump, set, spike, right? Amazing
match. It went all the way to the 5th set. It's a tiebreaker,
game point, okay? Uh, our team pulled it out. Everybody's
excited. I'm helping my wife clean up. She says, hey, I need you to take
this trash out. I said, where does it go? She said, into the dumpster. I
said, where's the dumpster? She said, on the other side of the warehouse at the
back of the parking lot. Right? So I decided I should probably take 3
children with me for backup. And, um, we're
taking this trash out. We round the corner. Noah's trying to run ahead. I said,
hey, you don't know what's around that corner. It's dark right now. Like, just be
careful. We run around the corner, and the dumpster is as
far as it is to the pavilion out here. I mean, it's a haul.
And then all I heard was one of them said, race you to the
dumpster. He didn't get the words to the dumpster out before I'm in
a full sprint. Okay? Trash— don't listen. I
don't need any reason other than I'll race you, and it's gone.
So we've got 3 children and an adult running through the parking lot with trash
bags. Full speed, full speed, right? We
get there, we throw the trash away, we're huffing and puffing. One of my kids
is like, that wasn't fair, I had the heaviest trash bag. They said, fine, let's
race back. Boom, we take off again. And
I'm telling you, it's a haul, right? And it's, it's late. We're—
soon as we get back to the van, there's a cooler there that was for
the concession stand. They ripped the lid open and was just
immediately in the water. They didn't care what
kind it was. They weren't worried about, is it mountain spring water?
Is this Dasani? Like, is this premium, triple
distilled? They would have drank the ice in the water that was holding the
bottles of water. You see what I'm saying? In that mind— have you ever
gotten to a place in your walk where it does not matter
if you don't get to the source of water? Yes. When
Jesus says, if anyone thirsts, He's not saying, man,
hey, is your throat parched? He said, if there is
this place in your life that you realize that
nothing, nothing is going to satisfy me,
none of this stuff that the world has to offer, nothing that you
think that the law has to offer, if you get to this place where you
said, I don't— I'm so thirsty and I don't know, there's only one
thing that can quench it and I don't know where to get it, Jesus says,
that is me. I am that thing. That thing
you've been searching for your whole life, it's me. That relationship
you've been desiring and praying for for 50 years, it's me.
Those children you want, I'm— I will fulfill that.
I'm not saying those desires are bad or wrong. He—
don't hear what I'm not saying. What I am saying is
Jesus says, if you are thirsty, if you are truly thirsty,
if you come to me, I am the fountain of living
water. Oh, we try all types of things to fulfill
our thirst instead of things that actually satisfy. Things that
contain water but are not water. Many years ago, I told this story
in First Gathering,, people didn't believe me. I just woke up one
morning and said, I'm done drinking sodas. Say that a little
louder. It's true. Just woke up one day and said, I guess I'm gonna stop
drinking sodas now. She's like, who are you?
Not like because she wanted somebody to help drink sodas. She's like, that's just what
I did. And, uh, she used to tell me
before, she's like, you need to drink water. And I said, there's water in Coke.
Amen. See, I knew it was coming. I told him I was going to
tell the story again. He was like, will you tell? I said, stop spoiler alert.
He's out here telling everybody. And,
uh, she said there's water in it, man. How many of
us are looking things to quench our thirst that are
not water but contain water? How many of us are going
to food, and drugs, and alcohol, sex, pleasure, work,
power, leisure, looking for things that
satisfy but only temporarily?
The scriptures wouldn't talk about the passing pleasures of sin.
It wouldn't describe sin as pleasurable if it didn't provide some
temporary relief. Yeah. The problem is it's
temporary. It can never satisfy you.
But it's not just sinful or wasteful things either.
Some of us have a multitude of serving in our life that it—
to the point that it becomes an identity, and we become angry with those who
won't serve in the house of God. I caught myself
telling somebody this the other day. I said, you know what? This is at our
church, don't be mad. I said, man,
serving in church is like a football game. You got 22
people doing all the work and 1,000 people watching and yelling
at you from the stands. It's the same 22
people! And then the Lord was like, well, hold up, Martha.
Don't get bitter now. Don't get bitter now.
Yeah. Because you can wear that as an identity. Service in
the church and ministry! I'm doing ministry all the time!
That can become an identity, and then you've lost the reason
why you're trying to do it in the first place. Podcasts and
sermons and teachings that are about Jesus or Christian
living that only increase our knowledge but not our
dependence in the reality of our depravity on this planet.. I
don't want to just know things about God. I want to know Him.
Amen. And be found in the power of His resurrection.
Yeah. I know all kind of stuff about Michael Jordan. I don't know Michael Jordan.
Would you want that to be what your relationship with— is with the Lord? You
just know all kind of things about Him? Just know all kind of stuff about
how He acts? Now, it's important to know about Him because you can
understand His character from reading His— reading
stories about how He's moved in people's lives. I'm not saying
podcasts and sermons are not good. I'm just saying you can't keep drinking
Dr Pepper thinking that that's water.
All you Dr Pepper drinkers, see me outside. I don't— you know what?
Catch me in the cafe. How about that? Right?
Maybe switch to Diet Dr Pepper. I don't know. Look, he got a cold one
back there. I see somebody swigging one. I love it.
Earlier in John's Gospel in chapter 4,
we covered this last week. Jesus meets a woman at the well
and he's thirsty. And during the conversation, He tells
her that if she thirsts, He could give her living water.
During His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
opens with a discourse we refer to as the Beatitudes.
Okay? And in verse 6, look what He says. He says,
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. He
says, if your sole desire is for righteousness,
you'll be filled. You'll be satiated. So what does
He mean by righteousness? Well, in this instance,
Jesus is talking about right standing with God.
When He says, if you hunger and thirst for
righteousness, He's saying, if it is your desire to
be in right standing with God, He will make a way for
you to be in right standing. See, so you're telling
me that if you're hungry and thirsty to be in right
relationship, he has the one thing that will fill
you? Yes. He told the woman at the well, that's me.
He told all the attendees at the Feast of Tabernacles, that's me.
Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water. Living water is the evidence of right standing
with God. It's not the only evidence, but living waters flowing from your
life is evidence of being in right standing with God.
Now I want to talk to you for a second about being full, filled, or
overflowing. You got me? What'd I just
say? Full, filled, overflowing. Okay, you're paying attention. Okay, all
right, all right. It's
important. So there are potential problems.
It's not, it's not a problem, it's a potential problem. Okay,
the Chinese word for crisis means danger and opportunity.
Okay, there's some danger, but there's also an opportunity here.
There are potential problems that arise with this because of our human condition.
When Jesus tells us that we will be filled, if you hunger and
thirst for righteousness, you'll be filled or
satisfied, right? That's a
positional thing. Ephesians 2:6 says,
And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Let me ask you guys a question.
Where are you at right now? Church. You're sitting
right here in church, right? Mary Sue's sitting right there on the front row.
You're sitting— you're seated right here in church with
me, and yet the scriptures says you're also
seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. Okay,
I'm not fixing to get on some weird mystical stuff, some duality
of realities. Don't worry, okay? Because
that's not what he's saying. He's not— you're not in 2 places at one time.
What he's saying is position. Your position with Christ
is seated in the heavenly places. How many of you, when you committed your life
to Christ, if you committed your life to Christ, that all your problems magically
disappeared? Yeah. You still
got— but if you're raising your hands, you still got problems, right? You're lying. You're
still lying. You're lying, right? So they
don't just magically go away. Matter of fact, Jesus says, in this world you will
have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.
That's what he says in, in the same Gospel of John. I have known
people who have struggled with drugs and alcohol,
um, and, and had a radical transformation.
And sometimes if you're on certain type of
drugs or, or deep in alcoholism, like
immediately stopping has a physiological impact on your
body, right? Sometimes that can kill you, like because you've—
your body has been used to having that much narcotics or
alcohol in its system. And I've known people that should have not been
able to just stop cold turkey, have a radical
transformation. God can do that. But
sometimes he will allow in his sovereignty what he can
prevent in his power. Right. And we run
around here complaining about it. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well,
first off, are there good people?
Second off, second off, if God can
prevent it and He does not, then I have to trust in His sovereignty.
I don't— when we enter into covenant with
God, you don't get to determine the terms of the covenant. That's
right. You guys, we didn't— when He says, when He says, come to me
all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest, that rest
doesn't mean that you get to go sit up on the couch for the rest
of your existence. If it was only about you being set
apart and you being saved and that you get to go to heaven with Him,
then the moment you commit your life to Christ, why are you still in the
mess that you're in? Because there is a sanctification
process that God wants to work out progressively in your
life. When you say things like, I don't talk the way I used to, I
don't I don't walk the way I used to, right? I've become a different
person. I'm a new creation in Christ, and I'm becoming
something new. I'm positionally seated with
Him, but I'm becoming something new on this planet. Are you
tracking? Yes. Okay? So when
He says, you'll be filled, that's what He means.
Positionally, you'll be with me. But many of us take
this filling, and we equate it with being full.
I'm gonna tell you a story. You're gonna think it's made up, but it's real.
Anybody knows me, I don't tell jokes. I tell real life stories. They just sometimes
are funny. Um, my wife has banned me from
jokes. Tried one the other day. She looked at me, said, don't ever say that
again, ever in your life.
I have a cousin. You can guess which side it's on. My mom and dad
will take offense to that. Um,
Right. Uh, I'm with him one time and he takes— and he,
he has a bottle of ibuprofen and he pours out 16
ibuprofen in his hand and takes them all. I said, hey man, what are you
doing, trying to kill yourself? What are you doing right now? What is happening?
He said, oh no, I take, I take 16 on Sunday
and it lasts me all week. Shut
up! I said, man, give me the keys to your car
right now. Give me, give me all the knives in your kitchen. Give me
your driver's license. You don't need to be out in public. You don't need to
be out loose. You're a danger to yourself, to everybody around you. You
cannot think— I'm dead serious. He said it lasts me all week. I said, man,
that's not how that works. Your liver, man, is
like, what is this guy doing to me? I don't know what day it is,
but one day out of the week, this guy just hammers in the ibuprofen,
right? Dead serious! I said, man, you're
going to kill yourself. You're going to kill yourself. You laugh.
You laugh. How many of us come into this building
on Sunday and take 16
ibuprofen and think it's going to carry us through the week? Come on!
Yes! How many of us come in here and we go, well, I got my
sip of water for the week? What are you going to do when the
guy walks into your shop and his life is broken? What are
you going to do when your parents die? What are you going
to do when your kid's gone? What do you want to do when your
kids run out to the world and have nothing to do with the
Evangelical church anymore? Do you know the retention
rate? of Jewish children, of Amish children, of Muslim
children compared to evangelical children? From 70 to
90% to down to 25 to 30% of evangelical kids keep their
faith once they leave the house. And we're acting like
that 16 ibuprofen on Sunday is going to solve it. Ain't
talked about it at our dinner tables. Isn't modeled in
our marriages. We're not working through the
scriptures with our kids. I got so convicted my wife
bought a Bible game at the homeschool conference. And we
come back and it's like a trivia game, and I am dominating
my family with this trivia game. Come on now.
I'm so ashamed, man. Not for that,
but—
well, my kids were so sad. He was like, Dad, I don't know this stuff.
Come on. I don't know it like you do. And I know I've got
a lifetime of studying the Word,
but in that moment I felt like I had abandoned my responsibility as
a God-fearing man, that I wasn't pouring that information into my kids. Not just so
he can know Bible trivia, you know, and they do the JBQ, but I was
like, man, that his heart was in that place. He's like, man, I want to
know it. I want to know the scriptures like you, Dad. How's he going to
know it? How's he going to know it if I don't teach him
that? How will he know?
Train a child in the way that they would go. Yes.
Stop letting them pick their habits and their
extracurriculars. Make it a point of emphasis.
Stop taking 16 ibuprofen on Sunday and thinking it's going to last you
for the rest of the week. One glass of water is not going to do
it. He said, if you thirst, Guess
what? There was a moment in your life where you came
to the foot of the cross. Have you gotten to the
place where you're not as thirsty as you was on that worst day of your
life when you recognized and realized, I am a wretched sinner.
Come on! I am a wreck. My life is
unmanageable. I cannot do this apart from you. I do not want
to spend eternity separated from you. Yeah. What has changed
from then to now? Because we're not as thirsty anymore,
because we've gotten a taste of water and we think we're filled and
now we're full, but we're not overflowing.
Do you guys know why the children of Israel were carried into Babylonian captivity a
second time? Let me ask you this, uh, how many of you
even know there was a Babylonian captivity? I don't mean that as a
slight. I was talking to Pastor Jonathan
on midweek and I said, hey man, I got a problem, like,
when I teach. Excuse me. I said, I
assume everybody either knows every Bible
reference I'm ever talking about, or I assume you know
nothing and this is day one. Like, I'm nowhere in between. So
when I ask you, do you even know that there's a Babylonian captivity? I'm
not being snarky. I genuinely think either you know everything or you know nothing.
Okay? So for those of you that know everything, I'm going to explain it every
single time.
So they're liberated from Egypt, you know the Red Sea, they're liberated from
Egypt, right? And they're wandering in the wilderness, which is
what the Feast of Booths was recognizing, and then He takes them into the
land of promise. They're in the Promised Land and then they lose their
mind. They get comfortable. They,
they say, thank you, God. This is my bus stop. We know where we're
at. Thank you so much for delivering us. I've got it. We'll take it
from here. And God says, all right, well, how about we'll just come
and conquer Jerusalem and then we'll march all you jokers right back out into
captivity since that's how you want to act? Okay, I know a thing
or two about being set free and then having to go back in and then
being set free and having to go back. I was on the same 4-year probation
for 13 years. Yeah. How does
that happen? They can start it over at any time, just know
that. Here's what the Lord has to say
about this. Let's pick up in Jeremiah
chapter 2, verse 1, okay?
The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing
of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your
youth I remember the devotion of your
youth, your love as a bride, how you
followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of
his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt;
disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of
the house of Israel! Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your
fathers find in me, that they went far from me and
went after worthlessness and became worthless.
Can you imagine God saying, what did I do?
What did I do that was so wrong that you forgot about me? I
don't know, I brought you out of bondage? I provided for
the entire country?
I watched over you, I shepherded you, I gave you
food every single day! You did nothing for it! You
woke up and it was there! And y'all traded my
love for worthless things that don't even matter. What did I do
that was so wrong? They did not say, where is the Lord
who brought us up, up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the
wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep
darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?
And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy
its fruits and its good things, but when you came in, you defiled my
land and made my heritage an abomination. The
priests did not say, where is the Lord? Those who handle the law did
not know me. The shepherds transgressed against me. The
prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not
profit. Therefore I still contend with you,
declares the Lord, and with your children's children
I will contend. For cross to the coast of Cyprus and
see, or send to Kedar and examine with care. See if
there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its
gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have
changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be
appalled, O heavens, at this! Be shocked! Be utterly
desolate! Declares the Lord. What did I do to make you
stray? What has the Lord done to make us stray from his
good and loving hand? Even the pagans don't change
their gods. Did you notice that? He said, the world,
they worship false gods, but at least they're honest
about worshipping false gods. You guys keep
flip-flopping around, making requests on Facebook.
I need a church and it's got to have a dynamic worship set, and it's
got to have a good children's ministry, right? And it's kind of— and they got
to have this type of outreach. Man, oh my God.
I had to kick myself out of groups.
Your behavior follows your belief 100% of the time.
Behavior does not put you in— let me go and say this— your behavior does
not put you in right standing with God. There's nothing you can do to earn
your way to the cross. Behavior should flow from the cross.
That's what the book of James says. He says, hey, you tell
me that you have faith, I'm gonna tell you that I got works. That's right.
The reason why I'm telling you I got works is because works prove my faith.
The way I live my life is what will show you what I actually believe.
James verifies that your behavior will follow your belief.
Behavior does not put you in right standing, but somehow we've been led
to believe that it doesn't matter how we live because after all,
His mercies are new every morning. We don't mind
grabbing that verse out of Jeremiah. We don't mind running to, I know the
plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper
you and not harm you, plans to give you a future and an expected end.
Do you know who that verse was written to? These same
people that were in captivity! The same ones that
went back to the open prison cell!
Don't
make— don't mistake God's mercy for His grace. My
lack of discipline and self-control when it comes to my speech and
behavior are disrespectful to a God who created me for purpose.
When you come to Christ, you don't get to live any way you want to
anymore. Right. If you don't— I'm sorry that you don't like that.
You don't get to determine the terms of the covenant. You
accept God on His terms or you don't accept it at all.
We got to stop coming to Jesus with our list of demands and
expectations. Amen. I was
so irritated last night, I wanted to watch
a movie. Couldn't even watch it,
man. Not because it was a bad movie,
because the Lord was like, man, you don't need that. I'm like, yes I
do, I need to unwind before I preach tomorrow. He said, what you really need
is to come in here and pray and read these scriptures, which you— you go
on and shut that off real quick. Text my wife, said, I'll see you
tomorrow.
This is what the Lord says to them in verse 13. For my people
have committed 2 evils. They have forsaken the fountain
of living water, and they've hewn out cisterns for
themselves. Broken cisterns that can hold no water. So the
Lord says, what did I do that was so wrong that you guys
abandoned me? You forgot about me? You've got this DIY
attitude to your faith? Here's what you've done. I'll tell
you, you keep blaming me for this. I'm gonna tell you what
you did. First off, you've forsaken me, your fountain of
living water. You've dug a well that has no fresh water
running in it, and you're trying to pour from an empty cup.
And matter of fact, the cup that you picked up has got holes
in it. It can't even hold water to begin with.
What an indictment. What an indictment.
The people were full, but they were not filled, and they were certainly
not overflowing. When Jesus says, if anyone thirsts and
whoever believes, what He's saying is that the thirst is what
draws you and the belief is what keeps you.
Believe and keep believing. And then He says this, rivers
of living water will flow from you. Amen. Let me
tell you guys, the river is not the source. The river
itself— every time you've ever seen a river, what is
happening? No matter where you see that river at, if
you're up close on its banks, if you're up high on a
perch, that water is always moving, and it is carrying
life all the way down its banks. Rivers carry water
from one place to the next. They're supplied from a
source, but they are not the source. They give life to
those who contact its banks. So what am I trying to say
here? If we're talking about becoming the well, if we
want living water to flow from us like a river, we're
required to do 2 things. And God wants us to be a source.
You know, it gives me great joy and honor when somebody
says, hey, would you pray for me? Or, hey, what do I do in
this moment? Hey, I need some advice. Can you give me some counsel and
wisdom? And they're coming to me and they're looking for something from Me,
and the temptation is to give of myself. Well, here's what I would
do in that situation, or here's what I think you should do. And what
the scriptures actually tell us is you need to dig a big old
hole and put a bucket at the top, and you need to dig deep enough
and far enough down that you find water that is moving
underneath, because that's the source. And all you are is a big old hole,
and you're responsible to keep the critters out, to keep the walls
clear. So that the water that's poured out of it,
even though it came from your well, you're not the source.
One of my greatest dangers or fears in my
life is not giving somebody advice that ruins their life.
It's giving them something that they are successful in and then
thinking that I gave them anything. I'm terrified of that
because I don't want I don't want you building on your life
on something Justin said unless I gave
you the word. Then build your life on that. I— you know, it's one
of the greatest honors of my life to stand
here in a long lineage of men who have
shared and taught the gospel,
like just some of the 17th and 18th century
theologians. And then you think back and you're going, Man, Peter and
Paul and the disciples were sharing the same thing, man, and
I get to be counted among them? I'm telling you guys, I feel like a
bug. This is not
important work, this is dangerous work. Yes. This is
dangerous, 'cause there's a danger to
give of myself and to think I've given you something
if I'm not connected to the source, if I'm drawing from anything
That is of me. Yes. If
you want to become a well, you got to do 2 things. Thirst is
the first thing. To the degree in which you thirst will determine the
size of stream that flows from your life.
Do we really need him? Do you really thirst for
God truly? And the
second thing you have to do is believe and keep believing. Yeah.
That word means rely upon, to continually
trust. Stop taking ibuprofen
once a week. That's what that means.
So how do we do this? Duh, you dig the well.
You would do whatever it takes to get to the water if you was thirsty
enough. How deep are we willing to dig for the source?
I didn't care about what water was in that cooler when we got there.
I just needed the water. I'm gonna read this verse and I'm gonna
close with this, and we can, we can pray if you want to come down
here and pray about anything, um, if you have a need. And then
also I got 2 specific requests that you might hold off because people are gonna
think that's what you're struggling with.
I love the way that the writer of Hebrews says it in the King James.
He says this: But without faith it is impossible to please him,
for he that cometh to God must believe that
he is. He is what? He is
whatever you need him to be. This is my
favorite part though. He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. Did you notice
something? He didn't even say you got to find him.
He says, I'll pay you for looking for me.
Do you see that? You want to know what else is not
a parameter here? When he says, if anyone, that's not an age
requirement or an age limit.
Anyone. Anyone
thirsts. And you want to know what the
reward is that you get for looking for him? You'll
be found by Him. You will find Him.
He says, I'll pay you for looking for Me, and the reward you'll get is
you'll find Me. You'll find Me. I'm not hard to find.
You've just got to dig. If you'll get your shovel out and dig,
you'll eventually hit water. Have
you dug a little bit and got frustrated and be like, ah, this ain't for
me. God must not be there. So I'm gonna stop
digging. James only had to dig a little bit and that water just
started bubbling up. Don't get caught in that comparison trap.
Dig and you'll hit water. Seek and you'll find.
Thirst and you'll be satisfied. Believe and keep believing
and you'll be the conduit that carries the much-needed water to others.
Thirsting and believing allows us to become wells
that Others are able to draw from. Only if you're
connected to the source. So this morning, if you have a need, uh,
and if you want to pray, we're going to worship. I'll have some people over
here. I'm going to come down here if you want to pray for anything.
But if you have taken on this DIY attitude in your
faith, if you're coming in on Sunday mornings and
thinking that this is going to sustain you, or using it
to sustain you, Then let this season end today and come
and drink from the fountain of living water, because
there are people that need to draw from your well and
it's not full, filled, or overflowing. It's not an
indictment, that's the reality. And also, if you have
hewn out for yourself, if you find yourself giving of
yourself and out of your own understanding, of your
own wisdom, if the If the cistern that you've hewn out
is for yourself and it's got holes in it, then come and
lay it down this morning and take the container of the
Lord and allow Him to fill you up. Amen. So they're
going to lead us in worship. We're going to come down
and pray and we're going to close it out. Church, my
prayer for you is that you're as thirsty on your best
day as you were on your worst. Jesus says that if you do 2
things, then rivers will flow from your heart, rivers
of life-giving water to those who need it.
Thirst is the first thing. Believe and keep
believing. Yeah. Raise your hand. Let me give you a blessing. May the God and
Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
increase your thirst for him.
May he satisfy that thirst and fill you
to overflowing