We serve a good God, don't we?
Amen. The Creator of heavens and the earth
and the universe around us
knows you. He knows me. He wants to
commune with us. He wants a relationship with
us that would be eternal. I love that.
It's beautiful. Um,
and one of the beauties that we have in our church is we have lots,
and we have lots of babies, and babies are great.
Babies are a sign of the blessing of the Lord, the next generation.
And, uh, so we're gonna have a baby dedication in a couple of
weeks. Um, although there is a
sign up by September 7th. We're gonna start
doing baby dedications on a quarterly basis.
So this, this next one is going to be September 13th, and if you
have a baby and you are available to be a part of that service that
day, please sign up. We would love to
serve you in that way. And then that's in 2 weeks, and
then 2 weeks after that, we will be having a Baptism Sunday,
and that's gonna be a church-wide celebration.
We're not having an early gathering that day. It's at 9 o'clock.
We're not having the 12. We're gonna come in all
together and have a worship and Baptism service. And
there is also— I can't read it from here. I think the
14th. Does that say— is that what it says? But there's
also a limit for signups that ends after that day. So
please sign up. if you're interested in being a part
of that baptism service. There's some video
elements that we want to incorporate that will
require some time built into that, but we're
planning that here in 4 weeks from today, and it's
going to be a beautiful, beautiful service.
I know that we serve a good and a mighty God,
a God that has a word for us.
God that wants to speak to us this morning. And my
prayer for you is the same prayer that I've had for me this
morning. And I came in with an attitude
that I knew some people in my life that needed to hear what was being
said this morning. And then I realized I needed to hear what was being said
this morning. And
And so I invite my brother, my spiritual
pops, my elder,
my elder of elders. I'll
stop.
Pastor
Wayne.
Good morning. I actually probably should
stop before I start and get Dee to come back up
here. Yeah. And I think she— I glanced up. I think
she read it, which is fine. God can anoint reading.
But she should just— I'm not gonna
invite her 'cause it's— I was given the time.
But if she gets off book, you know, I mean, she
walked over into some water. She walked over into some flow.
That was, you know, I didn't hear enough of that.
So maybe we'll invite her back.
Yeah. Maybe we could do that. It's good to be
with you all.
Disclaimer right here at the top.
I don't hope that you
believe or agree with what I'm going to try and share.
I hope that you receive what the Holy Ghost has for you
today because that's
important. If you're open and
available, the Holy Spirit can work in ways that have nothing
to do with microphones and conversation and slides.
Yeah. If we're open and available to
that. So, About 2
and a half months ago or so,
Pastor Barbie asked me if I would
close out this series we've been doing the last
4 weeks, all of the month. And I told her
I would be honored to do that. And so
I'm going to. Amen.
When? Shortly. No, no, no, no, no.
This won't be a sermon. It's
not a message. It's more
of a review or a
reflect of the last 4 weeks
with a little teaching added in.
The reason I was prompted to do that,
when Pastor Barbie asked me to do it, you know, she just said, close it
out. So that's sort of up to me.
But the reason I felt like we needed to review,
that's actually another message. But this isn't
a message. So what needs to happen, I think, is that
we need, just like in any other classroom
structure, I think we just need refreshers.
Because there's stuff that's happened in the last 4
weeks that some of us perceive in ways that others
don't. Some of us have been like zapped by the Holy
Ghost. Some of us are still trying to figure out how
to spell 'wells'. That's okay. And that's body
life. That's the way body life works.
Everybody's at a different place at a different moment. But
depending upon what your learnings and depending upon how
the Holy Ghost works in your life, you could find yourself in
situations where something on a repetitive nature
becomes, oh, I get it. So that's really more
what this is about. That's how we're proceeding
from here. And what I'm doing is basically in 3
stages. The first being
context. The second being content,
and the third being conclusion. So that's where I'm going to
proceed with this. Can you put that slide up, please?
And I'm also going to pray
for and with us.
Father God, Our Abba,
in you we live and move and have our being.
Yes. And we are gathered
here for your honor
and your glory. I ask you to continue
to lead us down the path of righteousness for the sake of
your kingdom. And I ask that in Jesus'
name, sanctioned by the Holy Ghost.
So let me move. You don't mind if I
move? Most of— some of you know I'm gonna do that anyway,
whether you like it or not. That's just— it's sort of
quasi-old school, I guess, but I'm more than
quasi-old school.
See me after, would you?
I could push that a little bit. Old school would be a little bit more
disciplinarian than new school would be. So come see me afterward,
would you? Careful, Bill.
Oh, was that— who was— oh, stop, Ellen. Stop it.
Or you or Fred, one of you over in the amen corner.
Most of you don't know what an amen corner is, but those 2 do.
Yeah. Okay. About 17 or 18 years ago, just for a
split second, just think where you were 17 or 18
years ago. That's all. That's all. Okay. About
17 or 18 years ago, we used to do a song here in
this building that was part of the hymnody of
the church. I used to stand roughly over there
where Johnny G is. And back then, I think Barbie
was still part of the worship team. She was
starting to teach more than she was in terms of
worship team ministry. But give or take, that's what was
happening. And so when she
asked me, to take this session, what came up in me
is this, because the
genesis, the starting point for that song was this verse.
With joy will you draw water out of the wells of salvation.
And this is the day we will say, praise the Lord. So I'm not gonna
work that whole verse. I want you to see the verse 'cause I'm setting this
up for content. Okay? So this is
not up there, but this is free. And I don't have time to open it
up. I'm just gonna call your attention to it. This says, with joy
will you draw water. The joy
is the bucket.
It's not saying with celebration or with happy
or with shout and dance. It's not defining joy.
It's not— that verse is not telling us what joy is
except that it says— bear with me— it says,
with joy will we draw out.
So if you read it that way, joy
becomes a bucket
because it's saying the way to get the water out of the well
is with something. Yeah. It's not saying—
it's not feeling an emotional way. It's not saying,
This is how joy manifests. That's another subject
at another time. But if you
permit me, and I have the mic, so I guess I can,
it's saying joy is the container
that will help me get the water. Yeah.
I'm leaning on that just a little bit because however you
understand joy, I'm not getting back into the original language. That's not where I'm going.
However you understand joy working, you can
keep that as long as you'll add what I'm doing today.
That says joy is how I will draw out
water. Yeah. So you see the connect. So that
would make, at least in Wayne speak, that would make
joy the bucket. Okay, now
the fact that we're living in the South makes this much easier to translate
Okay, or to elaborate on. The passage is
saying, with joy you, you see the asterisk?
Okay, it's a plural. And what it really says to
us is what y'all need to do is draw water. Yeah.
It's not written to individuals.
Individuals can receive it, but it's
written to us, us'uns. It's kind of you and—
thank you, Connie. You're not even from
down around these parts. You're from way up
north. I know. All right. No, it's just you and me. You know, I
tend to get real.
So what it's saying in the Old Testament prophetically,
it's a prophetic directive. It's
not a requirement. It's not a commandment.
It's a passage that's saying— think of— put it in the
context. It's thinking— it's saying, this is what
y'all are gonna do.
Look at it, okay, and wind the
clock back a few thousand years. So the
prophetic directive is the prophet is saying,
this is in your future. to real people at a real
time in history way back past us.
But the irony is, or the
majesty is, that it's speaking to us right now.
Right. So it's not saying
you need to draw water and y'all need to draw water
and y'all need to draw water. It's saying we all need to draw water.
Amen. But it's not saying find a well and draw water from it. It says
wells. It's plural.
And it's in your Bible. That's where the tune came from, and that's about
17, 18 years ago. And real briefly, at the bottom
of the slide, a well is a
fountain. It's a source of satisfaction, A flowing
spring. And salvation, if you work the language, is a
place of deliverance. Oh, Jesus. Aid,
victory, or prosperity. Sorry. A source of
health and welfare from a word meaning to be
safe or free. Those
definitions for wells,
those definitions for wells, Is magnificent.
It's splendid. It's awe, A-W-E.
It's awe-inspiring. The fact that
we have the potential to draw from wells
that have that in them.
Watch. How many people want that in their lives?
All of us. Watch this. Watch this.
Watch, old school, old school. Since I
didn't have any, I wasn't looking at anybody and I'm not,
my intention is not to step on anybody's toes. It's just an interesting
dynamic from here looking back to there.
What would keep anybody
when I said, how many of y'all want that in your lives?
And I did this. What would keep you from not raising your
hand? Right.
I'm not talking about salvation. I'm not talking about your level of
redemption or are you filled with the Holy Ghost. I'm going, wouldn't the
response to those definitions,
wouldn't the response be absolutely?
So let me ask again, how many people want those things in
their life? Yes. Okay, that's what
corporate community looks like.
That's what it looks like. Watch, watch.
So somebody's up with a mic and somebody says what I just said, I just
said, and somebody asks for that and raised their hand just like I did. And
I'm sitting right here and I don't move.
Now from up here, From up here,
I don't know why that person didn't move. And I'm not making any
judgment because I don't know why. So I can't fill in and go,
oh, I bet. No, I can't do that
because I don't know why that happened. All
I know from this side is they didn't raise their
hand. So I can make this assumption. Maybe they don't
want that. Y'all excuse me. Could I
pray for you? Is there—
did you not read that? Do you not understand
that? Or you want to see me after? Let me finish what I'm doing.
Okay, thanks. Because
from this side, that looks problematic.
Why would you not raise your
hand in faith? Not
presumption, not
artificialness.. Why would
your hand not go up? If you were
at a big ballgame and
something happened, both
your hands would go up. If
you're at a stadium rock
concert, you might lose your
mind. Wayne, come back, come
back, come back. So that's the
context of how we got here
today in my life, because I
have a history with this. So
we're going to move to content
now. The first Sunday that
Pastor Barbie was up when she
opened this series, what she
did was she started there. I
don't mean literally that
verse. I don't remember what verse she used, but she basically
started at ancient wells. She
went back historically to that. That's where she
started 4 weeks ago. That was her starting place.
And then she expanded from there. And what she was using
Is she was using, for me, she was using this verse
as a starting place. And then she brought her message. Now what
I'm gonna do today is I've asked Rhonda
to help translate or interpret
on my behalf for your sake.
Just let it sink in. Let it sink in.
Yes. What she's reading is from
notes from about 16 years ago that I
wrote based on the song that I just talked to you about, Wealth of Salvation.
And what I have been able to do because of my history, not only here
in this building, but my history in terms of the kingdom, I've been
able to see the last 4 services as
astounding. Astounding.
Yes. Here's why. Not because the sermons
were so powerful and the Holy Ghost moved
dynamically in an unbelievable way, but because
all 4 messages in the last 4 weeks all marry up
to the notes I wrote 17 years ago
in order. It does. So
I'll show you. She's doing this because
she has a real gift of speaking
so we understand, which I don't have.
And she has a— how do I want to say this?
She has an anointing. Oh, let's go there. She has
an anointing to get your attention.
Which I don't always have either.
So, Rhonda, if you would. Ancient wells.
Ancient wells are those which were dug out by our
ancestors, or tribal leaders, if you will.
These wells contain the doctrines and
theology that have nurtured saints since the days
when Moses and those wilderness children sojourned
through the desert on their long journey to the Promised Land.
They are in a very real sense the watering
holes that all saints must drink from
for the life of the Spirit to remain fresh and
vital in our lives. Without such
historical wells, all God's children would
surely die, as Psalm 63 says,
in a dry and weary land where there's no water.
Such ancient wells have been provided to us by God's
sovereign mercy and grace.
We've done nothing to dig them or preserve
them. They are gifts from the Father's hand,
and we may come— we must come
and drink freely and deeply
and often. As the Word says, let all
who are thirsty come.
Ancient wells, opening service 4 weeks
ago, 5 weeks ago today. Ancient wells are
historical wells. I.e.,
they're ancient. They're long before us.
They were dug thousands of years ago.
And some of them, some of them physically,
geographically, we could get on a big plane if we all—
somebody gifted us with a ton of money and we could all go to those
wells. We could literally go to some of those wells.
So ancient wells are historic on a
physical level, but on a spiritual level or a
metaphorical level, the concept of wells being
passed down, obviously it's generational, but it's
generational with time connected to it.
Now, the reason I'm stressing that point is for this reason. We have
lost all sense of— almost all sense of history. Yeah.
Humanity has, not the people in this room,
humanity. These folks are, yeah, these
younger folks here, y'all's, isn't, you have
less history on the planet. So unless
somebody imparts it to you, you have little or
no history of history or desire for history.
It doesn't— look, I'm looking in your faces.
It doesn't touch you. You don't care. I'm not
upset. I'm not saying it's your fault.
It's the planet you've inherited. The
responsibility of passing on history
isn't to the people that are supposed to be receiving history.
Right. It's supposed to happen from the people that
have the history that are able to pass it on. Yes.
So if our youth don't have it, just stop dumping on the kids.
You cannot share stuff
authentically if you haven't experienced it.
Now, what I mean is I don't mean these kids need to somehow go back
to the Dark Ages to get history. What I mean is they need to
have the experience of people that know something about the Dark
Ages, for example, or the Renaissance. Pick something in time,
you know, the Civil War, whatever.
They're not liable to pick it up unless
somebody imparts it. Yeah. So Ancient Wells,
which is where Barbie started this, Pastor Barbie started this series, has
to do with, if I could say it this way, looking back over our
shoulder. And going, are these wells wells that
we need to be connected to? And the answer to that is absolutely.
Yeah. Okay. So
the next thing that happened is this.
He established his testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in
Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach their children.
That the next generation might know them. See the process?
The children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God. They should set their
hope in God. They should set their hope in God and
not forget the works of God, but keep His
commandments. Not forget— I'm sorry.
Set their hope in God and not forget to keep His commandments.
Amen. This is an old passage.
This is not a contemporary passage. This didn't happen 200
years ago. This happened, I haven't done the
research, but this is probably 3,000 and change. I
don't give or take. Somebody?
You're there. That's close, okay. So when this was said,
when it was said to the people that heard it,
What they were being told to do is what I just spent 10 minutes talking
to you about just now. Yes. Yes. The
directive here is take the old data
and move it up to a place where the kid— where the next
generation might know them. It's in your Bible.
This is not provocative. This is not, gee, here's a new
paradigm to work with. It's ancient. Yeah.
And when it breaks down, you lose a
whole plethora of wells because you
don't know where they are. You don't
know how to look for them. And they
become irrelevant. And if I could be
so bold, If they become irrelevant,
then the process right there becomes
irrelevant. So week 2, Pastor Barbee
was up again. And this is how she
started. She said, after the first
message on ancient wealth, she said,
somebody contacted me this week.
This is 4 weeks ago, 5 weeks ago. And
she said, they asked me,
What's it mean to dig wells? How do you dig wells? What
does that look like to dig wells? I don't understand.
And then she said, I don't wanna do this,
but the Holy Ghost has told me to do it, so I'm going to do
it. Now, I've known Barbie for
32, 33 years. We know each other pretty well,
and I know a lot about her ins and outs and her habits and her
processing. So I know how she works.
And she goes over and she gets a blanket, gets a bag full of tools,
and she comes over and she sets it down. Then she— bless her heart—
she plops herself down in front of everybody for the whole message.
Never got up. She just sits there like she does in her office
or her house or in the woods. or in an automobile
or on a road trip or a vacation. I'll just keep going. That's what she
does. That's who she is. That's what she does. Not a
genius, not a, you know, not a super Christian. That's what she
does. And she showed us how she does it. Right. And the
reason she did it is pastoral. Somebody
asked her a question. What does it mean? How does— what does
digging wells look like? And her pastor's heart
went, if somebody— if they've sent me that email or met me
in the hallway, that represents more than one person. There's other
people in this church that have the same question. So what I should
do— Holy Ghost, what should I do? Holy Ghost goes, you just need to humble
yourself and pick up some gear. You don't want to do that. You really don't
want to draw attention to yourself. You really don't want to sit down on stage
for an hour. But you need to do that. And you need to show
them how you dig wells. That's what she
did. Everybody in this church should be thankful for that. Yes.
That is a tool. That is a pastoral
show-and-tell tool to explain not how
you should do it, how she does it.
Because the question was to her, what's it— how does that
work? The question wasn't, can I get the philosophy behind it?
What do theologians say? They asked her how to do it,
and she showed us how she does it.
Now, in the process of doing that, what she effectively was doing is this.
Barbie grew up in the hills of
Tennessee, up in Dolly country. Shout it down. Don't shout me
down. And she learned to
cook what we would call home cooking from
generations. If she learned it from her
mom cooking, she learned it from her mom's mom.
That's this. I'm sorry, that's the one we just looked at,
the process of passing it to generations. Barbie can make some
serious cornbread. Mm.
But Barbie didn't invent the recipe. Right.
But Barbie can make some serious cornbread.
So what she did as part of the family
is she sat down here and showed us
how to make cornbread. Come on. Come on. That's what she did.
Now watch, watch. I want a show of hands. I'm not
messing with you. Yes, I am. I want a show of
hands from these 2 sections, for real. And
you won't be embarrassed. I'm not going to put you on the spot. I want
to see a show of hands. How many of you can make good cornbread?
Could I see your hand? Keep your
hand up. Keep your hand up. Oh, I meant youngin'. Stop. Oh, youngin'.
Stop it. Stop it. You're always doing this. Can you not pull him
back a little?
Now, now watch, watch.
Literally watch one more time. Not
you, not you. Could I see a show of hands
if you know you can make good cornbread?
Do you see this? Do you see this? Let me say it another way.
Do you see the lack of this? Yes. Okay, now, if
I said to any one of these people, would you— could
you take— could I come over maybe Saturday? Could you make me some
cornbread? I can try. Oh, I appreciate that. She said she could try.
Look, that's good. Bless your heart.
The point is the process
has broken down. I
can't get good cornbread Other than,
you know, my wife's help. My wife would do well to pay
attention to Barbie. No, no, no, no. Whoa,
whoa, whoa. Whoa.
Whoa. Look, look, look, look. We've been married
46 years. What I said that she heard ain't a
problem. It's not a problem, okay?
I'm not being deferential to my wife.
You see, you jumped ahead of me. You heard the
punchline when there was no punchline. What I'm
inferring, watch, this is the way my world works.
What I'm inferring is Jeanne grew up in St. Louis and
her mom was Italian and her mom's mom was Italian and
they immigrated to California. Historically in
their life, Jeanne didn't learn how to make good
Southern cornbread. It's not her fault. Right.
She makes good cornbread, but it's not as good as Barbie's
because Barbie's got several generations
of cornbread makers. So what they know how to do
is make some serious cornbread. And I don't even
have to embellish that by going, Think of the other ingredients,
y'all. Think of the— you don't— think of the other
side items that go with that
cornbread. If I come back over here and go,
do you know how to start from scratch? Start from scratch
with dried beans and make some good beans? Hands won't— they won't go up.
Oh, stop. You're not a kid.
You— have I made enough of that point? Where this
breaks down is we lose ancient history
and we lose family connectivity. Y'all want some good
banana pudding? Yeah. Would you raise your hand?
Look, Justin will take orders.
And knowing him, there'll probably be a surcharge.
It's not 99. Right. But the
point I'm making is it's generational
transfer. It's how to get from one
generation to another generation. And when a break— and
a generation I'm rounding out biblically is 35 years, give or take.
When enough generations go by where there's been a dent or a
violation or a gap, You look up 100 years, 200 years,
300 years down the road and you go, I don't have a clue
about this or this or this or this or this.
Doesn't mean people are stupid. Doesn't mean they're not
interested in having a fully orbed life. It means nobody
showed them what to do. Yes. Oh my
God.
Our responsibility is not to grow ourselves up in the kingdom.
Our responsibility is to help grow others up in the
kingdom.
Take up a note.
So that's what she did. Now, have you?
Would you please? Thank you. Thank you.
Family wells are shown to us by those from within our household.
These wells are the ones that we are led to by our family
elders. They've been dug out or fashioned to
suit the needs of those within a specific community.
Throughout our generational history, these wells have been
maintained by those who have raised us to make
certain that we would not have to do without.
Life-giving water from these wells have been provided
through the direct actions and stewardship of others
within our family of faith. They are the ones who
paid the price so that we can have a
spiritual life source to drink from wherever we choose.
Like these, like ancient wells, these family wells
were not of our doing. They too have been provided for
us and to us. However, they're more localized and
smaller, in size and resource. In a sense, they
could be called chosen wells, ones which
have been established to sustain specific family groups in
specific areas. You could think of your local church congregation
as a place where such family wells can be found. Right.
Please consider this: you must go
where they are, the wells and the
water they contain cannot come to you.
You must position yourself near them if you
expect or desire to drink from them.
Third Sunday. Sorry,
third Sunday, my bad.
Pastor Allen, Brought the Word that Sunday.
And the text that came to my mind in these notes from
15-plus years ago is this: O God, Thou art my God.
I seek Thee. My soul thirsts for Thee. My flesh
faints for Thee as in a dry and weary land
where there's no water. I'll dig a well.
Amen. It's personal wealth. Hold
your thought.
No, would you— did you just read this? No.
That's what I thought. Okay. Remember elder, elder?
In the second service when Pastor Al was up, he was
talking to everybody. He was talking about the need
to dig our own wells, the need to own
up to our personal responsibility to do this
independent— no, no, no, in conjunction with ancient wells
and family wells. This is the next
extension of the process.
And in his message, he walked over here.
Not at the expense of the rest of the church, but he walked over here
and this is what he did. He said, I'm
paraphrasing, he said, I just need to talk to the young folks for a minute.
And he didn't challenge you. He wasn't heavy-handed, but
he encouraged you all
to learn how to dig your own wells.
Now, the beauty of that for me, because
I was already carrying a bunch of this before I got here today,
is when he did that, my heart leapt
because what he was doing as an elder, as an older man, and as a
spiritual elder and as a pastor, what he was doing
is he was functioning pastorally to say to the
kids, not, I challenge you, learn to
memorize the book of Isaiah. No, no, no, no, no. He
was saying, it's your
responsibility.
Yours. And since he was saying it to y'all
at your age, he's sowing
into your life to get a head start so that you don't lock
up and— 20 years or 25 years or 45 years ago, I
wish somebody had told me. Yes.
Because he did tell you. He told us all.
He said, we have— do this,
do this. Take your finger and point directly at your heart.
Please, everybody, just talk. It's no energy involved. You'll be fine.
If I can do it at my age, you can do
it. He's functionally
saying, nobody can do this
for me except me with the help of the Holy
Ghost. Yes. Okay? That's what he's saying.
And I rejoice. I'm going, this is huge. This is fabulous in
this church because we're in this church. We're not in
another church. So, when Will mentioned something about baby
dedications and he said, you know, a healthy sign of a church is when you
look, there's babies everywhere. Well, he's right. That is a
sign of a healthy church. It's also signs of an active marriage.
They can't fire me. I'm no longer on staff.
And to push that point, I'm speaking today because Pastor
Barbie said, will you do it? So if this is problematic,
take it up with her. Oh, wait, she's not here.
Oh, no, that's no fun if you do that. Okay,
so would you now read that? Thank you.
Personal wells. Personal wells are those which we have dug out
with our own hands through the power of the Holy Ghost at work in us.
and through the revelation that God has shown us personally.
These wells are not due to the labor of others or
someone else's personal sacrifices.
These wells have required a price to be
paid by us and no one else.
We did not stumble upon them. We followed a
pathway which the Lord led us down. Along
the way, we were shown by the Spirit, shown by
the Spirit where to stop and dig.
Not only did we have to travel some
distance seeking and following the
Lord, but we also had to lean in and
learn to listen for his direction—
where to stop, what to lay aside, to dig
down into what he has shown us through
Personal struggle, divine guidance,
and holy insight. We've acquired
blisters on our hands, muscles in our
arms, stronger backs, deeper
emotional and mental resolve so that
these personal water resources have
come into being. Although they may
from time to time serve others by
providing them with much-needed
refreshment through our witness, our
story, our song, our teaching or
preaching, our testimony, for the
most part these wells are for us to
drink from and to be renewed on a
regular basis. They are the wells that
could— we could perhaps Hang a sign on
that has our name on it because they're
ours, like our own property. But that
too is a gift from God, a gift coming
down from the Father of lights, in whom
there is no shadow of turning.
3 weeks ago, at the end of Pastor Allen's
service, between services, Justin and I ended up
here. And
we were having a random conversation. I have no idea how we got
into it, but we're right here.
And Justin turns to me and he says, I'm paraphrasing,
He says, let me tell you
how I'm ending my service, or the service,
which was last week. But this is the week
before that. You know, that's important. That's important. That's
important to where we're going for the next 10, 12 minutes. Okay?
Really. He says,
he tells me, He tells— he quotes me or almost quotes
me. He quotes me how he's going to end the service.
So I look back at him and I said, really?
That's how I ended my notes 15-plus years ago.
Same verse. And Justin goes—
Justin didn't do this often. Justin went—
My point is, my point is his mouth is
open, but there's no words coming out.
I don't have my wallet. I'll pay you after. Okay.
Not only that.
So when he said that in me,
I said, well, I'm not going to use that verse to end
because, you know, however you treat it
in Justin's universe, how— that's a dangerous
place to hang out. However he treats it
will be enough. I don't need to go back and push that again
or put— Push it. Yeah, push that again. And so I told him I was
going to change it. And then during that week
between 3 weeks ago and the end of his message
last week, the Holy Ghost went, no, you need to go
back to that verse because that verse needs to be unpacked
in a way, not right or wrong, other, in an
other way than what Justin did.
So would you read that?
Polluted wells. Polluted wells are sources we
should no longer drink from, regardless of who dug them
or how we were led to them. Such wells are
dangerously unhealthy and should be sealed up and left
deserted so that no one after us can try to draw
water from them. They are poisoned and should be
avoided at all cost. The enemy of our soul
knows that if he can cut off our water supply,
he can kill us. So anything and everything he
can do to pollute the wells in our lives, he will
try to do. He'll sneak up and pour all sorts
of unholy, unhealthy, impure,
vile things into them to sicken us. Or to
make us so spiritually ill that our souls die from
lack of pure, clean drinking water.
That's one way that wells get polluted, but there are other
ways that have nothing to do with the work of the enemy.
These other ways are pollution done by us.
We allow stagnation to set in.
From lack of use, we stop
dropping the joy bucket down. We no longer stir
up the water. We allow it to stagnate where all
types of impurities grow and fester and spread
into the water source. When that happens, the
water is harmful if you drink from it again. The best thing
to do when that happens to a well Is to board it up
and simply walk away.
I would be remiss if I didn't do this. Would you please
put your hand on your forehead and say to
yourself quietly, engage.
Okay, for the next 10-ish minutes. Hold
that thought.
But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked.
Be utterly desolate, says the Lord.
My people have committed 2
evils. They have forsaken
me, the fountain of living
waters, And they've hewn
out cisterns, wells, for
themselves, broken
cisterns, wells that can
hold no water. Now, when
this was spoken by the
prophet, it too is at least,
give or take, 3,000 years
ago. So through the
prophet, what he's saying,
speaking for Jehovah, is
that's a problem.
Hallelujah. And it's a
problem for those people
back then. But it's a
problem right now.
Yes. Okay.
Jehovah says there are 2 problems.
First, they have forsaken me,
Jehovah. The fountain of living water,
comma, and then the second problem arises.
Now watch, please. The second
problem only arises because of the
first problem. Right.
Had the first problem not arisen,
the second problem wouldn't be in the text.
Yes. Because in order for the people that heard this prophetically,
in order for them to do the second part, which is
dig their own wells or their own cisterns
without any direction from the Holy Ghost or any scriptural
narrative or any reflecting to the Torah or any thus saith
the Lord from anywhere, they just went Why not?
I'm a free agent. Oh,
push it, Wayne. I'm free in Christ. I can do pretty much what I
want to because Jesus loves me. He's given me all kinds of warm
and fuzzy grace. You better come on now. You better start
preaching.
They wouldn't have dug wells that would
hold no water if they hadn't forsaken the
fountain of living waters. Right. Now,
here's why I wanted you to put your hand on your head and engage.
Everything that we know or think we know
about Scripture that references water— out of your belly flow living water,
the streams of the Lord are full— there's any number of verses that we
sort of know or kind of know that reference how
water works or living water works or the
water of life works. Any of those things, they're
not necessarily wrong. But when we have those
things in our head, when we read passages,
we read them in a way— help me, Jesus—
predicated on what we think we know from these little pieces of
Scripture. Amen. That we sort of kind of think maybe they connect.
And they don't necessarily connect. Now I'm going to show you why.
And I'm going to refer you back to my disclaimer. You don't have
to believe me. I just hope you
receive what the Holy Ghost shows you. That's where I started.
Yes. Forsaken. can mean
disregard. It can mean pay no attention to.
It can mean that's irrelevant or he's
irrelevant. That's what it—
if you work the language, that's what forsaken— forsaken doesn't mean, oh
gee, I overlooked. Right. Oh, will you
forgive me? I made a boo-boo.
That's not what it means. It means that's really
how He wants to do this. It's not really an
issue for us. Oh my God.
And then He says, they have forsaken me,
the fountain. Stop. This is what I was
just talking about. Don't run over to living water. Don't go
there. Stop. Back up.
They have forsaken me, the fountain.
Now this is what happens in our heads. Some
of us. This is what happens. We read, they
have forsaken me, the fountain of living
water, and we equate living waters with
all these little pieces of passages and
nuances that we think we know, and we
connect it to the fountain of living
waters. So what, Wayne? So we make
everything we understand about living
waters connected directly to the
fountain. But the living waters are
manifestations coming from the
fountain. Living waters, however you
know that phrase, However you know it,
living waters has to have someplace to
come from. That's right. It comes from
someplace. And in this
series, where it comes from is it comes from
one or more living wells of salvation,
which is where we started about the song from almost
20 years ago. So this is what takes place.
Fountain can mean source.
Out loud one time to humor me, just say, my source. My
source. Say it again with a little more gusto. My source.
One more time with a little more gusto. My source. Thank
you. Now, the problem with the first difficulty
is not an issue about living waters.
No! It's about an issue of being unengaged or disengaged
or unconcerned or seeing the
fountain as being irrelevant. Right. The
fountain is where the water is! That's
right. You can't get water out of something that doesn't have
water in it. Amen. And what we do is we
take this whole thing about— now I'm jumping
to the New Covenant— Jesus being the, you
know, the source of living water. Right,
right, right, right, right. I know, I know
that's going off in your heads. But what we do
is we disconnect— no, no. We connect the water
itself to the source and we ignore the source.
Which is what they did right there. And that's
what we're doing right now in the body of
Christ on the planet. Because talking to—
Jesus— talking to people about the living
water coming out of our lives when we're not
clear about where that source is in our lives
is a big problem. Yeah.
Because it tears our witness to pieces. You've
got no leg to stand on. You've got no
sponge to squeeze out with water in it. It's
not there in the same way that the cornbread's not there.
Come on. It's the same dynamic.
What they did here— how am I? Okay. What they did here
Is they did exactly, exactly
what happened when Moses says to Aaron,
what's this? And Aaron goes, oh, this?
We were— the people, really not me, Moses,
but the people were concerned. You've been gone and
it's dark up there. There's clouds and lightning. They were concerned, we're going to be
stuck here in the wilderness and you're not coming back. So they
all fell back on the history of how they dealt with
spirituality. And they went, we need an idol.
And so I just trying to accommodate the people, I said, give me your jewelry.
I love this. Don't y'all? We threw it in the fire. That's
right. And out came this calf. Yeah.
Tower of Babel. You know what we
should do? We got this covered. We got
off at this bus stop and we told Yahweh
we can get off here and we've got it
covered. So let's build a tower. And
you go, well, Okay, sure, we can build
a tower. And then somebody else says,
you know what let's do? Let's build it
to the heavens. And
people go, great idea. That's this. Yes,
it is. That's what this is.
It's idolatry.
The broken cisterns
are idols.
And our lives are full of broken cisterns.
The problem isn't the broken cisterns. The
problem is we disengaged from our source.
Yes. Because the outworking from the source is living water.
It's healing. It's hope. It's salvation. It's freedom. It's all the things
in those definitions that I asked you to raise your hand about. All of those
things are in the source. All of those things are in the source.
If those things are not in your life, you have a source problem. Right.
Yeah. I didn't address your salvation. I'm
not talking about redemption. I'm talking about
working this out in our
lives. So what we have to do,
I think, is we have to sort of pony up. Can
I— does that phrase still work? Do you have any idea what pony up would
mean? Not a clue. Do you know what a pony is?
We need to step up to the plate. You know what that means? Yeah.
Okay, I'm just messing with y'all. We have to own,
personally and corporately, we have to own
how disengaged we've become from the source.
Yes. I'm not talking about salvation.
I'm not talking about redemption. I'm not talking
about infilling of the Holy Spirit. I'm not
talking about any of that. I'm talking about where
is your source? When you define your source and the
stuff that comes out of the source, not the stuff,
not the stuff, not the stuff. The stuff is all
byproducts from the source. You get connected to
the source, you get the stuff. It's so quiet in
here. See,
at my age— don't shout me down. I might not get
another shot at y'all.
Michael.
We're gonna— we're gonna open the altar up.
If you're here to help pray, would you come please?
Quickly, please. And the altar's open for 2
reasons specifically. If you have a prayer request, a
prayer need that you need to bring up,
you should do that. If
there's a prayer need in your life based on the
last hour, That has to do with
recalibrating or refocusing or realigning
or redirect— redirecting how you
understand your source. And you need somebody—
you need to actually— look at, look at me, look at me— you actually need
to open your mouth to another saint and go,
I'm not as connected to my source as I need to be. I'm saved,
I'm redeemed, I'm going to heaven when I die, but I'm just not
connected to the source like I need to be. You need to
confess that.
Watch. Conviction—
this is free— conviction comes
either from the Holy Ghost or through the Holy
Ghost in other people or circumstances. In
other words, the Holy Ghost can go zap
You're convicted. Or the Holy Ghost can set up
circumstances where you go, uh-oh. Or he can put people in your
path going, you know, that's problematic. And conviction
sets in. Conviction moves to confession.
You don't get to confession till you've been convicted.
You do not confess stuff that you aren't
feeling convicted of. problematic about. This is
Psalm 51. If you move from conviction to
confession, the next step after opening
your mouth— I have a, I have a, I have a, I have a
problem. I'm not connected to my source like I need to be.
What would— now that I've told you that, would you pray for me about that?
That's confession. When that happens
The next step is repentance, and
repentance boiled down is changing the
way we think. Watch, and
I'll stop. Changing the way we think—
repentance is not flipping a light switch and
it's done. Oh, don't shout me down.
Repentance is— it will take whatever
However, whenever, for how long, until how I
think that got me into this problem is now
corrected. Right. You can't get to
restoration and renewal and revival without going through
repentance. And if you think repentance is a one-shot deal,
you make a confession, they lay hands on me and I go, I'm going
to repent. I'm not going to do that anymore. And I turn and
walk away. If you think you're through, you are kidding
yourself. Amen. That's just not biblical. Repentance is a
process. It's not an event.
Conviction is an event, more than likely.
Confession is an event. Will you pray? I
messed up. Repentance is not, well, that's
done. Excuse me, and I'm through. Youngins,
youngins. Hear what I'm saying. If you're
like— not today, not tomorrow. If your life—
if you look up and go, I'm— I've kind of gotten out of kilter here.
The process is conviction, confession,
repentance, restoration, renewal,
revival. Amen. That
process, any one of those steps you break out, Messes
the process up. So now that I've made everybody feel
really guilty, if you want to come, come. And would you all
please get me out of this?
Oh my goodness.