SPEAKER_00: We are in a summer preaching series in the book of Genesis, learning how to live by faith, learning from a man named Abraham, how he survived, how he learned to thrive by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at this text.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 16, the first 16 verses.
SPEAKER_00: She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.
SPEAKER_00: And Sarah said to Abram, Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.
SPEAKER_00: Go into my servant.
SPEAKER_00: It may be that I shall obtain children by her.
SPEAKER_00: And Abram listened to the voice of Sarah.
SPEAKER_00: So after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarah, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
SPEAKER_00: And he went into Hagar, and she conceived.
SPEAKER_00: And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
SPEAKER_00: And Sarah said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be on you.
SPEAKER_00: I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord judge between you and me.
SPEAKER_00: But Abram said to Sarah, Behold, your servant is in your power.
SPEAKER_00: Do to her as you please.
SPEAKER_00: And Sarah dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Hagar, servant of Sarah, where have you come from and where are you going?
SPEAKER_00: She said, I'm fleeing from my mistress Sarah.
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress and submit to her.
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.
SPEAKER_00: And the angel of the Lord said to her, Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
SPEAKER_00: He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all of his kinsmen.
SPEAKER_00: So she called the name of the Lord, who spoke to her, You are a God of seeing.
SPEAKER_00: For she said, Truly, here I have seen him who looks after me.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore the well was called Beer Lahiroi.
SPEAKER_00: It lies between Kadesh and Bared.
SPEAKER_00: And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael.
SPEAKER_00: Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's beautiful word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's ask the Spirit's help.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving us unvarnished pictures of the saints in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So we can really relate.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for not holding back the truth.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we also thank you for not holding back your grace.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we need today.
SPEAKER_00: We need truth.
SPEAKER_00: We need grace.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, give.
SPEAKER_00: Give what comes from you alone.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We left Abram last week as Pastor Josh preached.
SPEAKER_00: We left Abram living by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It was a good day.
SPEAKER_00: Abram, we've seen some really good days in Abram's life.
SPEAKER_00: And we've seen some not so good days in Abram's life.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those days.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those days where he was struggling.
SPEAKER_00: After he rescued Lot, his nephew, and all of his possessions, God is making incredible promises to Abram, which we looked at last week.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that verse, chapter 15, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It was credited.
SPEAKER_00: Credit.
SPEAKER_00: Credit that was not from him, by him, through him, credit that came from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The same kind of credit that the Lord still gives today.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We see it again in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: It's so foundational to the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean if you're here for the first time and you don't understand this?
SPEAKER_00: Let me just take another minute after Ben spoke to it earlier as well.
SPEAKER_00: You see, if you understand that you're a sinner and you understand that you cannot save yourself, but you also understand that Jesus Christ came to this earth to do everything you could not do for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And you understand that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And he was raised from the dead on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: And he ascended into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And from there he reigns and he rules and he steeps down for people like us.
SPEAKER_00: And you believe that, and you exercise that faith and you trust and you put your trust in him, he will save you.
SPEAKER_00: He will save you from all of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: He will save you from the penalty of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is why it's such a precious verse.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 15 that we looked at last week is all about the promises that God makes.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 16 is about the pressure, the pressures of life.
SPEAKER_00: I think we'll all identify, if we're listening, pressures.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the first point of the message.
SPEAKER_00: We all deal with pressures in life.
SPEAKER_00: We all deal with situations that we try to find a way around or bulldoze through, depending on our resources, perhaps.
SPEAKER_00: We all know pressure.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I need to spend a lot of time on this first point.
SPEAKER_00: Sarah and Abram had no children.
SPEAKER_00: Ten years after God promised to give them a child, not just any child, a seed through whom all the nations on the earth would be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: This was going to be a special child.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Lord, this sounds great.
SPEAKER_00: Bring it on.
SPEAKER_00: And so put yourself in their shoes just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's been a few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, when's this gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00: Sarah says, I'm not getting any younger.
SPEAKER_00: And then a few months, and then a few years.
SPEAKER_00: And then they start counting the years.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, it's been like five years.
SPEAKER_00: Six?
SPEAKER_00: Seven?
SPEAKER_00: Eight?
SPEAKER_00: Nine?
SPEAKER_00: Ten?
SPEAKER_00: God.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna come through for us?
SPEAKER_00: This is where they were.
SPEAKER_00: Emotionally.
SPEAKER_00: This is where they were at this time.
SPEAKER_00: God, you promised us a child, a child through whom the nations would be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And it's been a long time, and there's no child.
SPEAKER_00: It's time, God, for you to do something about this.
SPEAKER_00: If you can, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't, or you won't, I will.
SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_00: Haven't we all done that?
SPEAKER_00: God, we're waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And we're waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And we're still waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't, I'll find a way.
SPEAKER_00: So Sarah comes up with a plan.
SPEAKER_00: That's the second point.
SPEAKER_00: Point two is.
SPEAKER_00: There's point one is there's pressure.
SPEAKER_00: There are pressures in life.
SPEAKER_00: Point two is there are plans that we concoct, that we come up with.
SPEAKER_00: Sarah comes up with a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Abram, take my servant, Egyptian, handmaid, slave girl from Egypt and sleep with her.
SPEAKER_00: That had to be hard.
SPEAKER_00: That had to be hard for the wife Sarah to say that to her husband.
SPEAKER_00: And she'll give us a child.
SPEAKER_00: And it's very clear from the text that Sarah is blaming God.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has prevented me, which is true.
SPEAKER_00: But you just get this undertone of resentment.
SPEAKER_00: You get this undertone of disappointment with God.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's why we can relate to this.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us have been disappointed with God at some time in our life, more than once.
SPEAKER_00: God, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: She blames God, and then she blames her husband.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: She said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be on you.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord judge between you and me.
SPEAKER_00: And what's Abram thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, this was your idea.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This was your idea.
SPEAKER_00: Don't blame me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, she is.
SPEAKER_00: Because the frustration was so deep.
SPEAKER_00: The pain was so great.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we like to share the blame, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Abram did what many men do when they don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And let that sink in for a moment, guys.
SPEAKER_00: What do men do?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about at work.
SPEAKER_00: You know what to do at work.
SPEAKER_00: You were trained, you were schooled, prepared.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about at home.
SPEAKER_00: When things are hard and there are family issues and challenges and problems, and you don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes we do nothing because we want to be right if we're going to do something.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes there's no guarantee that we're going to be right.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get passive.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not good.
SPEAKER_00: Abram should have done something more.
SPEAKER_00: Abram should have mustered up his courage and said something like, No, honey.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: God made a promise.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to wait and we're going to continue to pray for God to fulfill his promise.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: He just really folded.
SPEAKER_00: My friend from seminary, who went on to be a Hebrew scholar, Professor RTS Richard Belcher, said this about the contrast in the book of Genesis as he studied it.
SPEAKER_00: It seems that the author of Genesis is drawing a comparison between Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve, and Abram and Sarah in chapter 16.
SPEAKER_00: Like Eve, Sarah took and gave to her husband, except Sarah is not giving fruit from the tree, but she's giving her servant Hagar as a wife to bear fruit, to raise up a family.
SPEAKER_00: Like Adam, Abram listened to the voice of his wife and was complicit.
SPEAKER_00: This plan did not require faith.
SPEAKER_00: It was purely a human response to the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to solve this problem through our own ability.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds very familiar, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: If you're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: If you're with me.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds familiar, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Taking things into our own hands.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're not sure God's going to come through.
SPEAKER_00: The plan.
SPEAKER_00: This plan did not require faith.
SPEAKER_00: It was purely a human response to the problem.
SPEAKER_00: They were trying to solve this problem through their own ability, which is why, if you don't do it now, but maybe this afternoon would be a great time to do it, to go back and read Galatians chapter 4 in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and see what the Apostle Paul has to say about how Hagar and Sarah represent the two different covenants, the old and the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: This plan did not require faith.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Abram and Sarah tried to solve this problem through their own ability.
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul bases his argument for justification by faith on the same principles inherent in this Genesis narrative.
SPEAKER_00: The response of belief and the promise of God to produce an heir corresponds to justification by faith and produces children who are free, not slaves.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul is trying to impress upon us that God has not called the Christian to live in slavery.
SPEAKER_00: We've been freed.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't go back.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go back to that spiritual slavery in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Whereas the old covenant, Hagar seems to obtain the promise through human effort.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're learning.
SPEAKER_00: Now the man now, the man of faith, is not living by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Do you live by faith every day?
SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
SPEAKER_00: Do I?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we take our eyes off of the promises.
SPEAKER_00: And that's never good.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we take our eyes off of the God who makes these promises.
SPEAKER_00: And that's never helpful.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, we are not the first ones to feel the pressures of life, the frustration of unfulfilled desires, to come up with our own strategies to try to control the things that we can't control.
SPEAKER_00: We're not the first generation to do this, nor will we be the last.
SPEAKER_00: And so let me ask you this morning: are you feeling the pressure today to take something into your own hands?
SPEAKER_00: Things into your own hands when God is saying it seems to be wait.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me to provide what you need.
SPEAKER_00: Keep praying.
SPEAKER_00: Keep trusting.
SPEAKER_00: I will come through.
SPEAKER_00: That's the second point.
SPEAKER_00: The first point, the pressures.
SPEAKER_00: And it may not be immediately present evident to you right now what the pressures of your life are right now.
SPEAKER_00: You may, in all fairness to you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it takes time to think.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it takes time to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a good discipline.
SPEAKER_00: That's a very good spiritual discipline.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you show me how this might apply to my life?
SPEAKER_00: That's a good prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Would you show me?
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't always see it immediately.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes other people have to point it out to me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, Lord, you directly by your Holy Spirit, you get my attention sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And it's oftentimes when the trouble is bubbling up, and I realize I need God.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good exercise for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, lastly, the provision.
SPEAKER_00: We read in the text, beginning in verse 7, the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, not an angel.
SPEAKER_00: Many believe, and I concur, I think this is a pre-incarnate Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus showing up in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord appears to Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
SPEAKER_00: She's going back to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Sarah's mistreating her.
SPEAKER_00: She's had enough.
SPEAKER_00: She's going back to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Hagar, servant of Sarah, where have you come from and where are you going?
SPEAKER_00: I'm fleeing from my mistress, Sarah.
SPEAKER_00: Then the angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress and submit to her.
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.
SPEAKER_00: And the angel of the Lord said to her, Behold, you are pregnant and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the word, the name Ishmael means?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to take Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: Al is the word for God, Ishmael.
SPEAKER_00: God hears.
SPEAKER_00: That was a good name for God to give.
SPEAKER_00: Ishmael.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't sure.
SPEAKER_00: God hears.
SPEAKER_00: And so God provided for Hagar, the Egyptian slave woman.
SPEAKER_00: He provided.
SPEAKER_00: Return to Sarah and submit to her.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what she's thinking?
SPEAKER_00: That's the last thing I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But God was working in this Egyptian slave woman's heart.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it beautiful how God reaches our hearts like nobody else?
SPEAKER_00: She heard the voice of God and she responded to the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that's part of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Like today.
SPEAKER_00: To hear the voice of God and to submit to the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the last thing she wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00: And yet that's exactly what she did.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing I want you to hear me to say today.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord reaches outsiders.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord knows how to reach people who feel overlooked, unseen, unheard.
SPEAKER_00: This was not a woman in the line of the covenant directly.
SPEAKER_00: This was not a woman.
SPEAKER_00: This was not a Jewish woman.
SPEAKER_00: This was a woman who thought she had no rights.
SPEAKER_00: This is a woman that had felt that she had no voice with God, no hearing with God.
SPEAKER_00: This is a woman who would have easily thought, I'm outside the circle.
SPEAKER_00: And you may feel this morning right now that you're outside the circle.
SPEAKER_00: You may look around in this room and you might think to yourself, you know, there's a lot of godly people in this room.
SPEAKER_00: And there are.
SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't put you outside the circle.
SPEAKER_00: We see this portrayed so beautifully by our Savior Jesus through all the gospel accounts.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks outside the circle.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks to the ones who feel like they're excluded.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks at the ones who feel like they are marginalized.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks at the ones that feel like they're all on their own.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I love him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I want to trust him.
SPEAKER_00: Is that you?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord was providing what Hagar most needed.
SPEAKER_00: And just two points of application, what that was.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, a refreshing spring in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: This was the desert where she was.
SPEAKER_00: This was rough travel.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: Sharon and I are gonna get in a car tomorrow, and we're gonna drive to Lake George.
SPEAKER_00: That's not rough travel.
SPEAKER_00: Our car is air conditioned.
SPEAKER_00: It usually operates like it should.
SPEAKER_00: There's a gazillion rest stops on the way.
SPEAKER_00: We're going right through Jersey and New York.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of people.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Now this was a desert.
SPEAKER_00: And she was all by herself.
SPEAKER_00: And she was scared and felt vulnerable and felt threatened.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes when I think about this in my mind, I um the Lord really touches my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is your story.
SPEAKER_00: Not you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean not a lot of you, but some of you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm so blessed to be able to pastor this congregation.
SPEAKER_00: God has brought some of you from all over the world.
SPEAKER_00: And God has delivered some of you.
SPEAKER_00: Rescues that only He could have provided.
SPEAKER_00: And you've persevered.
SPEAKER_00: And you've held on to Jesus when you had nothing else to hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: I think about you a lot.
SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful for you.
SPEAKER_00: Those of you who have taken this journey, you've made our church a stronger, more godly, unified body.
SPEAKER_00: That's just a personal note of thanks for those of you who have taken this journey.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a journey I've taken, but it's a journey I've seen.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a journey that has strengthened my faith.
SPEAKER_00: God provided Hagar a refreshing spring in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, as we trust God in the deserts of our life, he will provide refreshing springs when it feels like we can't go on.
SPEAKER_00: He has a way of finding us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the verb in the Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord found her.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that you don't have to find him?
SPEAKER_00: He found her and refreshes us to stay on the journey.
SPEAKER_00: He has a way of finding us and refreshing us to stay on the journey.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder where you will find that spring today.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what the pressure is that you're dealing with today in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what desert you're in today.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder where you're going to find that spring today.
SPEAKER_00: Is it going to be directly through the preaching of the gospel this morning, right now, through the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Is it going to be through the encouragement from a friend before you leave today?
SPEAKER_00: Is it going to be a clear answer to prayer that God is going to bring into your life?
SPEAKER_00: Whether you feel mistreated, misunderstood, or overlooked like a Hagar, therefore, the well that she found, God provided a well right in the middle of the desert.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't provide this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure she would have been grateful for a cup of water.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure she would have.
SPEAKER_00: And wells that keep giving water.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to remember that.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't give you just a little sip.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm going to show you a well that you can come back to and you can drink from whenever you need it.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you feel like your soul is parched, whenever you feel like you can't go on, I'm going to give you a well.
SPEAKER_00: This is who He is, our God.
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, God provided by multiplying Hagar's offspring so many children so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.
SPEAKER_00: You can't count that high.
SPEAKER_00: Ishmael, the God who hears.
SPEAKER_00: God hears the cries of the afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: God hears your cry.
SPEAKER_00: Abram called the name of the boy Ishmael, confirming that that was the right name.
SPEAKER_00: Abram had the last rights to name the boy.
SPEAKER_00: I suppose he could have given him another name, but Abram said, no, no, that's the right name.
SPEAKER_00: That's the right name.
SPEAKER_00: God hears.
SPEAKER_00: God saw what, excuse me, Abram saw what God had done for Hagar and confirmed it by the naming.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, Hagar says, You are a God of seeing, not only hearing, you are a God of seeing truly here, here, at this well, in this desert, I have seen him who sees me.
SPEAKER_00: Can you relate to Hagar?
SPEAKER_00: Today in your worship, as the glory of God burst forth in some new way to you, is the Holy Spirit giving you faith right now to believe these promises?
SPEAKER_00: Can you say right now, I see a God who sees me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel that you've gone unnoticed?
SPEAKER_00: Unheard?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He sees you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like an outsider that he answers other people's prayers but not yours?
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel that way?
SPEAKER_00: You ever feel that way?
SPEAKER_00: It seems like he answers everybody else's prayer but mine.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Pass me not, O gentle Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Hear my humble cry.
SPEAKER_00: While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out from your heart today.
SPEAKER_00: As an act of your worship.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go home and yeah, go home and think about it more, but don't wait to go home.
SPEAKER_00: That's not worship.
SPEAKER_00: Worship is responding as the Holy Spirit is working on your heart right now.
SPEAKER_00: Worship is responding to what the Holy Spirit is showing you right now about your wilderness, your parched soul, your lack of faith.
SPEAKER_00: You ask the Spirit to give you that faith right now, to believe that God sees you, that God hears you, and that God will provide for you.
SPEAKER_00: He sees you.
SPEAKER_00: Yet this seed, this seed, the seed, experienced the total darkness.
SPEAKER_00: He experienced a desert not like Hagar experienced on the day that he was crucified on the cross at Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't see him.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't hear him.
SPEAKER_00: And he cried out with all of his energy, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
SPEAKER_00: And God didn't answer him.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Son, you must be abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: So that I will not abandon these.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There was no refreshing spring for him that day on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So that one day there would be refreshing springs for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: Wells, wells of springs of water to refresh, to renew, to renew my hope in yours.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is strong and kind.
SPEAKER_00: I should come to him.
SPEAKER_00: No one else can satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: I should come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said if I'm weak, I should come to him.
SPEAKER_00: No one else can be my strength, I should come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that if I'm lost, he will come to me.
SPEAKER_00: And he showed me on that cross, he will come to me.
SPEAKER_00: Because he came to us, we're going to go to him right now.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we are the lost and we are the wayward.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you that we're not justified by perfect faith.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have perfect faith.
SPEAKER_00: We have a faith that struggles.
SPEAKER_00: We have a faith at times that stumbles.
SPEAKER_00: We have a faith at times that denies the power of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: We're asking you right now to open the eyes of our hearts to not only see the wildernesses in our lives, but we're asking for far more than that.
SPEAKER_00: We're asking that you would open the eyes of our hearts to see a gentle Savior who doesn't pass by when people cry out.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, would you please give us all that we need?
SPEAKER_00: Give us the water, give us the spiritual water, give us the spiritual healing, give us the physical healings, give us all that we need that only you can provide.
SPEAKER_00: Because you are strong and you are kind.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.