Becoming the Well

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I tell you what, I wish you could have been

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on this side of it watching the worship this

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morning. There's something about

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having 5-year-olds up to about

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

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

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

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

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Amen. She said, when you see it just to

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become— the children become more scarce and the

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congregation ages and the replenishing of the children,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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just gonna invite the families to come and stand with

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

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important. One of the greatest blessings of my life was

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

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behind Pastor Ronnie and Pastor Margaret and the Meeks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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a worship and baptism service. So if

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Justin? Thank

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you. Thank you. Good morning.

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Good morning. Good morning. I just want to see

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

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

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

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

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

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in. Look, if we were watching Interstellar.,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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gathered here together, young and old,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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series, and we have discussed re-digging

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wells and seasons where you have to leave the old wells

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

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

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examined Jacob's well historically and Jesus's

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

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

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about becoming the well. Okay?

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

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

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Yeah, man, that's how I get— listen,

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

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

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

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

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

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stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts,

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

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

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living water. Now this he said about the Spirit,

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

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had not been given, because Jesus was not yet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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John chapter 7, this takes place in Jerusalem roughly

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6 months before Jesus is crucified. So when Jesus

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

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

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there's the crucifixion. The chapter opens with this

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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head. Everybody else at the dinner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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sometimes you have to learn things that are

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

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family. And part of the conflict was that Jesus has

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Okay. But there's tension in his family.

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

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

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

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privately. The Gospel writer reveals when Jesus is making

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this statement. So Jesus is making this statement about living

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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this top secret ministry. Verse 4, it says,

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

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

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brothers believed in him. And Jesus said to

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them, my time has not yet come,

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but your time is always here. In

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

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

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

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

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

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Go ahead and retract that statement, okay? Yeah,

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

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

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

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

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kairos and chronos. Kairos, chronos.

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Chronos is chronological clock time. Kairos was

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a little bit different. Kairos were those intentional

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moments where chronological time seems to stop.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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own a piece of American history, right? Beautiful

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marketing. Um, this guy has been trying to get

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

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

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

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

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

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

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about woodworking and barn wood and he looks up and he

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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up one picture of Jesus, and each canvas has something

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

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guys that were in this program were all painting, and

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each one had a canvas, and they were doing fine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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picture. And some guys turn to drugs, some guys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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hey, my time has not come, He's

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using the word kairos there. The moment

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

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

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

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

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

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early, then you've had it your way.

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

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and it's about 6 months from now.

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

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

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knowledge. Jesus defends the divine origin of His

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

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Him for healing on the Sabbath. The crowds are sharply

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divided. Some consider Him a good man,

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

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Messiah. The festival

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is celebrated in autumn. Autumn is a

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Midwest term for fall, right?

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Nobody below the Mason-Dixon says autumn. We—

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

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seasons we have here. You're

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experiencing second summer right now.

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

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

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

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

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celebration where they remember God remembering

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them and taking care of them. Every day they walked

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outside and food was on the ground.

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And they found something to complain about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I don't have I have ingredients.

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

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

Speaker: 00:19:15

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

Speaker: 00:19:17

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

Speaker: 00:19:20

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

Speaker: 00:19:24

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

Speaker: 00:19:30

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

Speaker: 00:19:35

How? I'm gonna stop complaining about anything

Speaker: 00:19:39

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

Speaker: 00:19:44

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

Speaker: 00:19:47

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

Speaker: 00:19:50

us. Each day for 7 days, the priest

Speaker: 00:19:54

leads a procession With music from the temple to the Pool

Speaker: 00:19:58

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

Speaker: 00:20:01

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

Speaker: 00:20:05

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

Speaker: 00:20:08

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

Speaker: 00:20:12

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

Speaker: 00:20:16

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

Speaker: 00:20:20

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

Speaker: 00:20:26

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

Speaker: 00:20:30

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

Speaker: 00:20:34

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

Speaker: 00:20:37

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

Speaker: 00:20:41

pours a drink offering of wine on the other side.

Speaker: 00:20:45

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

Speaker: 00:20:50

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

Speaker: 00:20:54

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

Speaker: 00:20:57

wine being poured out on the altar,

Speaker: 00:21:01

and 6 months from now, water and blood will

Speaker: 00:21:05

flow from the side of Jesus

Speaker: 00:21:09

on the ultimate altar, the ultimate sacrifice. The

Speaker: 00:21:12

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

Speaker: 00:21:16

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

Speaker: 00:21:19

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

Speaker: 00:21:22

reason. They

Speaker: 00:21:26

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

Speaker: 00:21:29

promises of renewal. On the 8th day

Speaker: 00:21:33

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

Speaker: 00:21:37

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

Speaker: 00:21:40

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

Speaker: 00:21:44

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

Speaker: 00:21:48

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

Speaker: 00:21:52

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

Speaker: 00:21:55

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

Speaker: 00:21:59

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

Speaker: 00:22:03

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

Speaker: 00:22:06

water, and Jesus says, hey, listen up.

Speaker: 00:22:10

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me

Speaker: 00:22:14

and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the

Speaker: 00:22:17

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

Speaker: 00:22:21

living water. And the people were

Speaker: 00:22:24

astonished. They were

Speaker: 00:22:27

astonished. Jesus— this is the

Speaker: 00:22:31

exact proclamation He made to the woman at the well.

Speaker: 00:22:36

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

Speaker: 00:22:40

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

Speaker: 00:22:42

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

Speaker: 00:22:46

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

Speaker: 00:22:50

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

Speaker: 00:22:54

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

Speaker: 00:22:58

in him will become wells themselves.

Speaker: 00:23:04

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

Speaker: 00:23:08

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

Speaker: 00:23:11

you the first one. The first requirement that He

Speaker: 00:23:15

says is to thirst. If anyone

Speaker: 00:23:19

thirsts. Have you ever been really thirsty?

Speaker: 00:23:24

Really thirsty? Sure. You don't care about

Speaker: 00:23:28

anything in that moment that does not quench your thirst.

Speaker: 00:23:31

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

Speaker: 00:23:36

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

Speaker: 00:23:41

Not for what you think, Judgy McJudgers

Speaker: 00:23:45

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

Speaker: 00:23:49

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

Speaker: 00:23:52

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

Speaker: 00:23:57

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

Speaker: 00:24:00

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

Speaker: 00:24:04

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

Speaker: 00:24:08

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

Speaker: 00:24:11

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

Speaker: 00:24:15

match. It went all the way to the 5th set. It's a tiebreaker,

Speaker: 00:24:19

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

Speaker: 00:24:22

excited. I'm helping my wife clean up. She says, hey, I need you to take

Speaker: 00:24:25

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

Speaker: 00:24:29

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

Speaker: 00:24:32

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

Speaker: 00:24:36

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

Speaker: 00:24:40

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

Speaker: 00:24:43

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

Speaker: 00:24:45

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

Speaker: 00:24:49

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

Speaker: 00:24:54

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

Speaker: 00:24:57

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

Speaker: 00:25:01

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

Speaker: 00:25:05

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

Speaker: 00:25:09

So we've got 3 children and an adult running through the parking lot with trash

Speaker: 00:25:12

bags. Full speed, full speed, right? We

Speaker: 00:25:16

get there, we throw the trash away, we're huffing and puffing. One of my kids

Speaker: 00:25:19

is like, that wasn't fair, I had the heaviest trash bag. They said, fine, let's

Speaker: 00:25:22

race back. Boom, we take off again. And

Speaker: 00:25:26

I'm telling you, it's a haul, right? And it's, it's late. We're—

Speaker: 00:25:30

soon as we get back to the van, there's a cooler there that was for

Speaker: 00:25:33

the concession stand. They ripped the lid open and was just

Speaker: 00:25:37

immediately in the water. They didn't care what

Speaker: 00:25:40

kind it was. They weren't worried about, is it mountain spring water?

Speaker: 00:25:44

Is this Dasani? Like, is this premium, triple

Speaker: 00:25:48

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

Speaker: 00:25:52

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

Speaker: 00:25:55

gotten to a place in your walk where it does not matter

Speaker: 00:25:59

if you don't get to the source of water? Yes. When

Speaker: 00:26:03

Jesus says, if anyone thirsts, He's not saying, man,

Speaker: 00:26:07

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

Speaker: 00:26:10

this place in your life that you realize that

Speaker: 00:26:14

nothing, nothing is going to satisfy me,

Speaker: 00:26:18

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

Speaker: 00:26:22

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

Speaker: 00:26:25

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

Speaker: 00:26:29

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

Speaker: 00:26:32

that is me. I am that thing. That thing

Speaker: 00:26:36

you've been searching for your whole life, it's me. That relationship

Speaker: 00:26:40

you've been desiring and praying for for 50 years, it's me.

Speaker: 00:26:44

Those children you want, I'm— I will fulfill that.

Speaker: 00:26:48

I'm not saying those desires are bad or wrong. He—

Speaker: 00:26:52

don't hear what I'm not saying. What I am saying is

Speaker: 00:26:56

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

Speaker: 00:27:00

if you come to me, I am the fountain of living

Speaker: 00:27:03

water. Oh, we try all types of things to fulfill

Speaker: 00:27:07

our thirst instead of things that actually satisfy. Things that

Speaker: 00:27:11

contain water but are not water. Many years ago, I told this story

Speaker: 00:27:15

in First Gathering,, people didn't believe me. I just woke up one

Speaker: 00:27:19

morning and said, I'm done drinking sodas. Say that a little

Speaker: 00:27:22

louder. It's true. Just woke up one day and said, I guess I'm gonna stop

Speaker: 00:27:26

drinking sodas now. She's like, who are you?

Speaker: 00:27:30

Not like because she wanted somebody to help drink sodas. She's like, that's just what

Speaker: 00:27:34

I did. And, uh, she used to tell me

Speaker: 00:27:37

before, she's like, you need to drink water. And I said, there's water in Coke.

Speaker: 00:27:41

Amen. See, I knew it was coming. I told him I was going to

Speaker: 00:27:45

tell the story again. He was like, will you tell? I said, stop spoiler alert.

Speaker: 00:27:48

He's out here telling everybody. And,

Speaker: 00:27:50

uh, she said there's water in it, man. How many of

Speaker: 00:27:54

us are looking things to quench our thirst that are

Speaker: 00:27:58

not water but contain water? How many of us are going

Speaker: 00:28:01

to food, and drugs, and alcohol, sex, pleasure, work,

Speaker: 00:28:06

power, leisure, looking for things that

Speaker: 00:28:09

satisfy but only temporarily?

Speaker: 00:28:14

The scriptures wouldn't talk about the passing pleasures of sin.

Speaker: 00:28:17

It wouldn't describe sin as pleasurable if it didn't provide some

Speaker: 00:28:21

temporary relief. Yeah. The problem is it's

Speaker: 00:28:25

temporary. It can never satisfy you.

Speaker: 00:28:30

But it's not just sinful or wasteful things either.

Speaker: 00:28:35

Some of us have a multitude of serving in our life that it—

Speaker: 00:28:39

to the point that it becomes an identity, and we become angry with those who

Speaker: 00:28:42

won't serve in the house of God. I caught myself

Speaker: 00:28:45

telling somebody this the other day. I said, you know what? This is at our

Speaker: 00:28:49

church, don't be mad. I said, man,

Speaker: 00:28:53

serving in church is like a football game. You got 22

Speaker: 00:28:57

people doing all the work and 1,000 people watching and yelling

Speaker: 00:29:01

at you from the stands. It's the same 22

Speaker: 00:29:04

people! And then the Lord was like, well, hold up, Martha.

Speaker: 00:29:08

Don't get bitter now. Don't get bitter now.

Speaker: 00:29:12

Yeah. Because you can wear that as an identity. Service in

Speaker: 00:29:16

the church and ministry! I'm doing ministry all the time!

Speaker: 00:29:19

That can become an identity, and then you've lost the reason

Speaker: 00:29:23

why you're trying to do it in the first place. Podcasts and

Speaker: 00:29:26

sermons and teachings that are about Jesus or Christian

Speaker: 00:29:30

living that only increase our knowledge but not our

Speaker: 00:29:33

dependence in the reality of our depravity on this planet.. I

Speaker: 00:29:37

don't want to just know things about God. I want to know Him.

Speaker: 00:29:41

Amen. And be found in the power of His resurrection.

Speaker: 00:29:45

Yeah. I know all kind of stuff about Michael Jordan. I don't know Michael Jordan.

Speaker: 00:29:50

Would you want that to be what your relationship with— is with the Lord? You

Speaker: 00:29:54

just know all kind of things about Him? Just know all kind of stuff about

Speaker: 00:29:57

how He acts? Now, it's important to know about Him because you can

Speaker: 00:30:01

understand His character from reading His— reading

Speaker: 00:30:04

stories about how He's moved in people's lives. I'm not saying

Speaker: 00:30:08

podcasts and sermons are not good. I'm just saying you can't keep drinking

Speaker: 00:30:11

Dr Pepper thinking that that's water.

Speaker: 00:30:15

All you Dr Pepper drinkers, see me outside. I don't— you know what?

Speaker: 00:30:20

Catch me in the cafe. How about that? Right?

Speaker: 00:30:24

Maybe switch to Diet Dr Pepper. I don't know. Look, he got a cold one

Speaker: 00:30:27

back there. I see somebody swigging one. I love it.

Speaker: 00:30:32

Earlier in John's Gospel in chapter 4,

Speaker: 00:30:36

we covered this last week. Jesus meets a woman at the well

Speaker: 00:30:40

and he's thirsty. And during the conversation, He tells

Speaker: 00:30:44

her that if she thirsts, He could give her living water.

Speaker: 00:30:49

During His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus

Speaker: 00:30:52

opens with a discourse we refer to as the Beatitudes.

Speaker: 00:30:56

Okay? And in verse 6, look what He says. He says,

Speaker: 00:31:00

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for

Speaker: 00:31:03

righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. He

Speaker: 00:31:07

says, if your sole desire is for righteousness,

Speaker: 00:31:10

you'll be filled. You'll be satiated. So what does

Speaker: 00:31:14

He mean by righteousness? Well, in this instance,

Speaker: 00:31:18

Jesus is talking about right standing with God.

Speaker: 00:31:21

When He says, if you hunger and thirst for

Speaker: 00:31:24

righteousness, He's saying, if it is your desire to

Speaker: 00:31:28

be in right standing with God, He will make a way for

Speaker: 00:31:32

you to be in right standing. See, so you're telling

Speaker: 00:31:35

me that if you're hungry and thirsty to be in right

Speaker: 00:31:39

relationship, he has the one thing that will fill

Speaker: 00:31:43

you? Yes. He told the woman at the well, that's me.

Speaker: 00:31:47

He told all the attendees at the Feast of Tabernacles, that's me.

Speaker: 00:31:52

Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living

Speaker: 00:31:56

water. Living water is the evidence of right standing

Speaker: 00:32:00

with God. It's not the only evidence, but living waters flowing from your

Speaker: 00:32:03

life is evidence of being in right standing with God.

Speaker: 00:32:08

Now I want to talk to you for a second about being full, filled, or

Speaker: 00:32:11

overflowing. You got me? What'd I just

Speaker: 00:32:15

say? Full, filled, overflowing. Okay, you're paying attention. Okay, all

Speaker: 00:32:19

right, all right. It's

Speaker: 00:32:22

important. So there are potential problems.

Speaker: 00:32:26

It's not, it's not a problem, it's a potential problem. Okay,

Speaker: 00:32:31

the Chinese word for crisis means danger and opportunity.

Speaker: 00:32:34

Okay, there's some danger, but there's also an opportunity here.

Speaker: 00:32:38

There are potential problems that arise with this because of our human condition.

Speaker: 00:32:42

When Jesus tells us that we will be filled, if you hunger and

Speaker: 00:32:46

thirst for righteousness, you'll be filled or

Speaker: 00:32:49

satisfied, right? That's a

Speaker: 00:32:52

positional thing. Ephesians 2:6 says,

Speaker: 00:32:57

And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in

Speaker: 00:33:00

the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Let me ask you guys a question.

Speaker: 00:33:04

Where are you at right now? Church. You're sitting

Speaker: 00:33:08

right here in church, right? Mary Sue's sitting right there on the front row.

Speaker: 00:33:12

You're sitting— you're seated right here in church with

Speaker: 00:33:16

me, and yet the scriptures says you're also

Speaker: 00:33:19

seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. Okay,

Speaker: 00:33:23

I'm not fixing to get on some weird mystical stuff, some duality

Speaker: 00:33:27

of realities. Don't worry, okay? Because

Speaker: 00:33:31

that's not what he's saying. He's not— you're not in 2 places at one time.

Speaker: 00:33:35

What he's saying is position. Your position with Christ

Speaker: 00:33:39

is seated in the heavenly places. How many of you, when you committed your life

Speaker: 00:33:43

to Christ, if you committed your life to Christ, that all your problems magically

Speaker: 00:33:46

disappeared? Yeah. You still

Speaker: 00:33:50

got— but if you're raising your hands, you still got problems, right? You're lying. You're

Speaker: 00:33:53

still lying. You're lying, right? So they

Speaker: 00:33:57

don't just magically go away. Matter of fact, Jesus says, in this world you will

Speaker: 00:34:00

have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.

Speaker: 00:34:04

That's what he says in, in the same Gospel of John. I have known

Speaker: 00:34:07

people who have struggled with drugs and alcohol,

Speaker: 00:34:11

um, and, and had a radical transformation.

Speaker: 00:34:14

And sometimes if you're on certain type of

Speaker: 00:34:18

drugs or, or deep in alcoholism, like

Speaker: 00:34:22

immediately stopping has a physiological impact on your

Speaker: 00:34:25

body, right? Sometimes that can kill you, like because you've—

Speaker: 00:34:29

your body has been used to having that much narcotics or

Speaker: 00:34:33

alcohol in its system. And I've known people that should have not been

Speaker: 00:34:37

able to just stop cold turkey, have a radical

Speaker: 00:34:40

transformation. God can do that. But

Speaker: 00:34:43

sometimes he will allow in his sovereignty what he can

Speaker: 00:34:47

prevent in his power. Right. And we run

Speaker: 00:34:51

around here complaining about it. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well,

Speaker: 00:34:55

first off, are there good people?

Speaker: 00:34:59

Second off, second off, if God can

Speaker: 00:35:02

prevent it and He does not, then I have to trust in His sovereignty.

Speaker: 00:35:08

I don't— when we enter into covenant with

Speaker: 00:35:12

God, you don't get to determine the terms of the covenant. That's

Speaker: 00:35:16

right. You guys, we didn't— when He says, when He says, come to me

Speaker: 00:35:20

all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest, that rest

Speaker: 00:35:23

doesn't mean that you get to go sit up on the couch for the rest

Speaker: 00:35:26

of your existence. If it was only about you being set

Speaker: 00:35:29

apart and you being saved and that you get to go to heaven with Him,

Speaker: 00:35:33

then the moment you commit your life to Christ, why are you still in the

Speaker: 00:35:36

mess that you're in? Because there is a sanctification

Speaker: 00:35:39

process that God wants to work out progressively in your

Speaker: 00:35:43

life. When you say things like, I don't talk the way I used to, I

Speaker: 00:35:46

don't I don't walk the way I used to, right? I've become a different

Speaker: 00:35:50

person. I'm a new creation in Christ, and I'm becoming

Speaker: 00:35:54

something new. I'm positionally seated with

Speaker: 00:35:58

Him, but I'm becoming something new on this planet. Are you

Speaker: 00:36:02

tracking? Yes. Okay? So when

Speaker: 00:36:05

He says, you'll be filled, that's what He means.

Speaker: 00:36:09

Positionally, you'll be with me. But many of us take

Speaker: 00:36:13

this filling, and we equate it with being full.

Speaker: 00:36:17

I'm gonna tell you a story. You're gonna think it's made up, but it's real.

Speaker: 00:36:22

Anybody knows me, I don't tell jokes. I tell real life stories. They just sometimes

Speaker: 00:36:25

are funny. Um, my wife has banned me from

Speaker: 00:36:29

jokes. Tried one the other day. She looked at me, said, don't ever say that

Speaker: 00:36:32

again, ever in your life.

Speaker: 00:36:36

I have a cousin. You can guess which side it's on. My mom and dad

Speaker: 00:36:40

will take offense to that. Um,

Speaker: 00:36:45

Right. Uh, I'm with him one time and he takes— and he,

Speaker: 00:36:49

he has a bottle of ibuprofen and he pours out 16

Speaker: 00:36:52

ibuprofen in his hand and takes them all. I said, hey man, what are you

Speaker: 00:36:55

doing, trying to kill yourself? What are you doing right now? What is happening?

Speaker: 00:37:00

He said, oh no, I take, I take 16 on Sunday

Speaker: 00:37:04

and it lasts me all week. Shut

Speaker: 00:37:07

up! I said, man, give me the keys to your car

Speaker: 00:37:11

right now. Give me, give me all the knives in your kitchen. Give me

Speaker: 00:37:14

your driver's license. You don't need to be out in public. You don't need to

Speaker: 00:37:17

be out loose. You're a danger to yourself, to everybody around you. You

Speaker: 00:37:20

cannot think— I'm dead serious. He said it lasts me all week. I said, man,

Speaker: 00:37:24

that's not how that works. Your liver, man, is

Speaker: 00:37:27

like, what is this guy doing to me? I don't know what day it is,

Speaker: 00:37:31

but one day out of the week, this guy just hammers in the ibuprofen,

Speaker: 00:37:34

right? Dead serious! I said, man, you're

Speaker: 00:37:38

going to kill yourself. You're going to kill yourself. You laugh.

Speaker: 00:37:44

You laugh. How many of us come into this building

Speaker: 00:37:52

on Sunday and take 16

Speaker: 00:37:56

ibuprofen and think it's going to carry us through the week? Come on!

Speaker: 00:38:02

Yes! How many of us come in here and we go, well, I got my

Speaker: 00:38:05

sip of water for the week? What are you going to do when the

Speaker: 00:38:09

guy walks into your shop and his life is broken? What are

Speaker: 00:38:13

you going to do when your parents die? What are you going

Speaker: 00:38:17

to do when your kid's gone? What do you want to do when your

Speaker: 00:38:20

kids run out to the world and have nothing to do with the

Speaker: 00:38:24

Evangelical church anymore? Do you know the retention

Speaker: 00:38:28

rate? of Jewish children, of Amish children, of Muslim

Speaker: 00:38:31

children compared to evangelical children? From 70 to

Speaker: 00:38:35

90% to down to 25 to 30% of evangelical kids keep their

Speaker: 00:38:39

faith once they leave the house. And we're acting like

Speaker: 00:38:42

that 16 ibuprofen on Sunday is going to solve it. Ain't

Speaker: 00:38:46

talked about it at our dinner tables. Isn't modeled in

Speaker: 00:38:50

our marriages. We're not working through the

Speaker: 00:38:53

scriptures with our kids. I got so convicted my wife

Speaker: 00:38:56

bought a Bible game at the homeschool conference. And we

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come back and it's like a trivia game, and I am dominating

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my family with this trivia game. Come on now.

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I'm so ashamed, man. Not for that,

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but—

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well, my kids were so sad. He was like, Dad, I don't know this stuff.

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Come on. I don't know it like you do. And I know I've got

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a lifetime of studying the Word,

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but in that moment I felt like I had abandoned my responsibility as

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a God-fearing man, that I wasn't pouring that information into my kids. Not just so

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he can know Bible trivia, you know, and they do the JBQ, but I was

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like, man, that his heart was in that place. He's like, man, I want to

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know it. I want to know the scriptures like you, Dad. How's he going to

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know it? How's he going to know it if I don't teach him

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that? How will he know?

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Train a child in the way that they would go. Yes.

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Stop letting them pick their habits and their

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extracurriculars. Make it a point of emphasis.

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Stop taking 16 ibuprofen on Sunday and thinking it's going to last you

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for the rest of the week. One glass of water is not going to do

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it. He said, if you thirst, Guess

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what? There was a moment in your life where you came

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to the foot of the cross. Have you gotten to the

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place where you're not as thirsty as you was on that worst day of your

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life when you recognized and realized, I am a wretched sinner.

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Come on! I am a wreck. My life is

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unmanageable. I cannot do this apart from you. I do not want

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to spend eternity separated from you. Yeah. What has changed

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from then to now? Because we're not as thirsty anymore,

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because we've gotten a taste of water and we think we're filled and

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now we're full, but we're not overflowing.

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Do you guys know why the children of Israel were carried into Babylonian captivity a

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second time? Let me ask you this, uh, how many of you

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even know there was a Babylonian captivity? I don't mean that as a

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slight. I was talking to Pastor Jonathan

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on midweek and I said, hey man, I got a problem, like,

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when I teach. Excuse me. I said, I

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assume everybody either knows every Bible

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reference I'm ever talking about, or I assume you know

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nothing and this is day one. Like, I'm nowhere in between. So

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when I ask you, do you even know that there's a Babylonian captivity? I'm

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not being snarky. I genuinely think either you know everything or you know nothing.

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Okay? So for those of you that know everything, I'm going to explain it every

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single time.

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So they're liberated from Egypt, you know the Red Sea, they're liberated from

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Egypt, right? And they're wandering in the wilderness, which is

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what the Feast of Booths was recognizing, and then He takes them into the

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land of promise. They're in the Promised Land and then they lose their

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mind. They get comfortable. They,

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they say, thank you, God. This is my bus stop. We know where we're

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at. Thank you so much for delivering us. I've got it. We'll take it

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from here. And God says, all right, well, how about we'll just come

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and conquer Jerusalem and then we'll march all you jokers right back out into

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captivity since that's how you want to act? Okay, I know a thing

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or two about being set free and then having to go back in and then

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being set free and having to go back. I was on the same 4-year probation

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for 13 years. Yeah. How does

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that happen? They can start it over at any time, just know

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that. Here's what the Lord has to say

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about this. Let's pick up in Jeremiah

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chapter 2, verse 1, okay?

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The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing

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of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your

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youth I remember the devotion of your

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youth, your love as a bride, how you

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followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

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Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of

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his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt;

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disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.

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Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of

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the house of Israel! Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your

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fathers find in me, that they went far from me and

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went after worthlessness and became worthless.

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Can you imagine God saying, what did I do?

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What did I do that was so wrong that you forgot about me? I

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don't know, I brought you out of bondage? I provided for

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the entire country?

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I watched over you, I shepherded you, I gave you

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food every single day! You did nothing for it! You

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woke up and it was there! And y'all traded my

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love for worthless things that don't even matter. What did I do

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that was so wrong? They did not say, where is the Lord

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who brought us up, up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the

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wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep

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darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?

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And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy

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its fruits and its good things, but when you came in, you defiled my

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land and made my heritage an abomination. The

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priests did not say, where is the Lord? Those who handle the law did

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not know me. The shepherds transgressed against me. The

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prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not

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profit. Therefore I still contend with you,

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declares the Lord, and with your children's children

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I will contend. For cross to the coast of Cyprus and

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see, or send to Kedar and examine with care. See if

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there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its

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gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have

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changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be

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appalled, O heavens, at this! Be shocked! Be utterly

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desolate! Declares the Lord. What did I do to make you

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stray? What has the Lord done to make us stray from his

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good and loving hand? Even the pagans don't change

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their gods. Did you notice that? He said, the world,

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they worship false gods, but at least they're honest

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about worshipping false gods. You guys keep

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flip-flopping around, making requests on Facebook.

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I need a church and it's got to have a dynamic worship set, and it's

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got to have a good children's ministry, right? And it's kind of— and they got

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to have this type of outreach. Man, oh my God.

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I had to kick myself out of groups.

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Your behavior follows your belief 100% of the time.

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Behavior does not put you in— let me go and say this— your behavior does

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not put you in right standing with God. There's nothing you can do to earn

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your way to the cross. Behavior should flow from the cross.

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That's what the book of James says. He says, hey, you tell

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me that you have faith, I'm gonna tell you that I got works. That's right.

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The reason why I'm telling you I got works is because works prove my faith.

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The way I live my life is what will show you what I actually believe.

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James verifies that your behavior will follow your belief.

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Behavior does not put you in right standing, but somehow we've been led

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to believe that it doesn't matter how we live because after all,

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His mercies are new every morning. We don't mind

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grabbing that verse out of Jeremiah. We don't mind running to, I know the

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plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper

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you and not harm you, plans to give you a future and an expected end.

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Do you know who that verse was written to? These same

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people that were in captivity! The same ones that

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went back to the open prison cell!

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Don't

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make— don't mistake God's mercy for His grace. My

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lack of discipline and self-control when it comes to my speech and

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behavior are disrespectful to a God who created me for purpose.

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When you come to Christ, you don't get to live any way you want to

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anymore. Right. If you don't— I'm sorry that you don't like that.

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You don't get to determine the terms of the covenant. You

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accept God on His terms or you don't accept it at all.

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We got to stop coming to Jesus with our list of demands and

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expectations. Amen. I was

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so irritated last night, I wanted to watch

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a movie. Couldn't even watch it,

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man. Not because it was a bad movie,

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because the Lord was like, man, you don't need that. I'm like, yes I

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do, I need to unwind before I preach tomorrow. He said, what you really need

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is to come in here and pray and read these scriptures, which you— you go

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on and shut that off real quick. Text my wife, said, I'll see you

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tomorrow.

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This is what the Lord says to them in verse 13. For my people

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have committed 2 evils. They have forsaken the fountain

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of living water, and they've hewn out cisterns for

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themselves. Broken cisterns that can hold no water. So the

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Lord says, what did I do that was so wrong that you guys

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abandoned me? You forgot about me? You've got this DIY

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attitude to your faith? Here's what you've done. I'll tell

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you, you keep blaming me for this. I'm gonna tell you what

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you did. First off, you've forsaken me, your fountain of

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living water. You've dug a well that has no fresh water

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running in it, and you're trying to pour from an empty cup.

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And matter of fact, the cup that you picked up has got holes

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in it. It can't even hold water to begin with.

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What an indictment. What an indictment.

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The people were full, but they were not filled, and they were certainly

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not overflowing. When Jesus says, if anyone thirsts and

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whoever believes, what He's saying is that the thirst is what

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draws you and the belief is what keeps you.

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Believe and keep believing. And then He says this, rivers

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of living water will flow from you. Amen. Let me

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tell you guys, the river is not the source. The river

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itself— every time you've ever seen a river, what is

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happening? No matter where you see that river at, if

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you're up close on its banks, if you're up high on a

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perch, that water is always moving, and it is carrying

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life all the way down its banks. Rivers carry water

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from one place to the next. They're supplied from a

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source, but they are not the source. They give life to

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those who contact its banks. So what am I trying to say

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here? If we're talking about becoming the well, if we

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want living water to flow from us like a river, we're

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required to do 2 things. And God wants us to be a source.

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You know, it gives me great joy and honor when somebody

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says, hey, would you pray for me? Or, hey, what do I do in

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this moment? Hey, I need some advice. Can you give me some counsel and

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wisdom? And they're coming to me and they're looking for something from Me,

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and the temptation is to give of myself. Well, here's what I would

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do in that situation, or here's what I think you should do. And what

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the scriptures actually tell us is you need to dig a big old

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hole and put a bucket at the top, and you need to dig deep enough

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and far enough down that you find water that is moving

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underneath, because that's the source. And all you are is a big old hole,

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and you're responsible to keep the critters out, to keep the walls

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clear. So that the water that's poured out of it,

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even though it came from your well, you're not the source.

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One of my greatest dangers or fears in my

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life is not giving somebody advice that ruins their life.

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It's giving them something that they are successful in and then

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thinking that I gave them anything. I'm terrified of that

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because I don't want I don't want you building on your life

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on something Justin said unless I gave

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you the word. Then build your life on that. I— you know, it's one

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of the greatest honors of my life to stand

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here in a long lineage of men who have

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shared and taught the gospel,

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like just some of the 17th and 18th century

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theologians. And then you think back and you're going, Man, Peter and

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Paul and the disciples were sharing the same thing, man, and

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I get to be counted among them? I'm telling you guys, I feel like a

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bug. This is not

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important work, this is dangerous work. Yes. This is

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dangerous, 'cause there's a danger to

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give of myself and to think I've given you something

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if I'm not connected to the source, if I'm drawing from anything

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That is of me. Yes. If

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you want to become a well, you got to do 2 things. Thirst is

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the first thing. To the degree in which you thirst will determine the

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size of stream that flows from your life.

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Do we really need him? Do you really thirst for

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God truly? And the

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second thing you have to do is believe and keep believing. Yeah.

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That word means rely upon, to continually

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trust. Stop taking ibuprofen

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once a week. That's what that means.

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So how do we do this? Duh, you dig the well.

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You would do whatever it takes to get to the water if you was thirsty

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enough. How deep are we willing to dig for the source?

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I didn't care about what water was in that cooler when we got there.

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I just needed the water. I'm gonna read this verse and I'm gonna

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close with this, and we can, we can pray if you want to come down

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here and pray about anything, um, if you have a need. And then

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also I got 2 specific requests that you might hold off because people are gonna

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think that's what you're struggling with.

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I love the way that the writer of Hebrews says it in the King James.

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He says this: But without faith it is impossible to please him,

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for he that cometh to God must believe that

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he is. He is what? He is

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whatever you need him to be. This is my

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favorite part though. He is a rewarder of

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them that diligently seek him. Did you notice

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something? He didn't even say you got to find him.

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He says, I'll pay you for looking for me.

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Do you see that? You want to know what else is not

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a parameter here? When he says, if anyone, that's not an age

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requirement or an age limit.

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Anyone. Anyone

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thirsts. And you want to know what the

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reward is that you get for looking for him? You'll

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be found by Him. You will find Him.

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He says, I'll pay you for looking for Me, and the reward you'll get is

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you'll find Me. You'll find Me. I'm not hard to find.

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You've just got to dig. If you'll get your shovel out and dig,

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you'll eventually hit water. Have

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you dug a little bit and got frustrated and be like, ah, this ain't for

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me. God must not be there. So I'm gonna stop

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digging. James only had to dig a little bit and that water just

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started bubbling up. Don't get caught in that comparison trap.

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Dig and you'll hit water. Seek and you'll find.

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Thirst and you'll be satisfied. Believe and keep believing

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and you'll be the conduit that carries the much-needed water to others.

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Thirsting and believing allows us to become wells

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that Others are able to draw from. Only if you're

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connected to the source. So this morning, if you have a need, uh,

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and if you want to pray, we're going to worship. I'll have some people over

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here. I'm going to come down here if you want to pray for anything.

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But if you have taken on this DIY attitude in your

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faith, if you're coming in on Sunday mornings and

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thinking that this is going to sustain you, or using it

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to sustain you, Then let this season end today and come

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and drink from the fountain of living water, because

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there are people that need to draw from your well and

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it's not full, filled, or overflowing. It's not an

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indictment, that's the reality. And also, if you have

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hewn out for yourself, if you find yourself giving of

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yourself and out of your own understanding, of your

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own wisdom, if the If the cistern that you've hewn out

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is for yourself and it's got holes in it, then come and

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lay it down this morning and take the container of the

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Lord and allow Him to fill you up. Amen. So they're

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going to lead us in worship. We're going to come down

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and pray and we're going to close it out. Church, my

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prayer for you is that you're as thirsty on your best

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day as you were on your worst. Jesus says that if you do 2

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things, then rivers will flow from your heart, rivers

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of life-giving water to those who need it.

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Thirst is the first thing. Believe and keep

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believing. Yeah. Raise your hand. Let me give you a blessing. May the God and

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Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

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increase your thirst for him.

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May he satisfy that thirst and fill you

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to overflowing