Hi and welcome to the FBC Eldorado Sermon Podcast. We hope God will use this week's message to both inspire and challenge you as you seek to walk closer with the Lord. Now join me as we listen into this week's sermon.
Speaker 2:Good morning church, good, good to see all of you today. Here is a crimson thread that runs throughout this room that unifies all of the blood bought born again believers in Jesus, and I am so grateful for that crimson thread that ties us all together in unity and love. I'm grateful for the fountain that was initiated in sacrifice but culminated in love as Jesus went and paid for our sins on the cross. We've had a tremendous time of worship, a tremendous time of seeing the picture of life change occur in the Baptist tree waters, and so it has already been a really, really good day, and I hope that I don't mess it up. We are. Let me go ahead and just say this to you I am not Marcus Brown. Okay, some of you have already called me Marcus, and I know that we get that from time to time. I'm Marcus when he has ate too much salt and is bloated. Okay, so just know that I am not him. He is previously scheduled somewhere else, and so I'm happy to be here with you today, and if you don't show some life this morning, we are going to run you through the Baptist tree waters, and you will, you will have some life. Amen, brother Brian, amen, amen, all right, all right. Hey, listen, last time I was with you. I want to thank you because we had our evangelism conference that following Monday and Tuesday and we had some prayer time for that, and I'm very, very grateful for the pastors and staff that were able to come to our prayer conference and evangelism conference and we just had a tremendous time. God did a great, great work and so really thankful for that. Coming up in two weeks we have what we call our lead defend conference, where we spend some time with students seventh grade, through college, post grad talking through apologetics how to defend your faith in a post Christian world and we talk through some leadership principles of a culture that desperately needs some salt and light and people who follow the Lord and are able to live and to leverage in the culture, and so we're really, really excited for that coming up Now. I think we you know, last I checked had about 1500 registered, so a lot of students coming that way. If you don't mind praying for that, we would love for you to do that for us. Love the leadership of this church, love the staff that's here and love what you guys are experiencing in this time of interim. I know that God will use this season to grow you and to get you ready for a new pastor and his family. Be praying for that search team that we saw on the screen a few minutes ago. Make that a daily time of prayer as you seek for your pastor.
Speaker 2:Okay, let's talk about this Christian life. Let's talk about staleness for just a second. I'm a little bit strange. When I go to the bread sack at our house to make a sandwich, I'm one of those dudes that opens the bread and I go past the heel. I don't like the heel. Any heel likers in the house yeah, y'all are the weird ones. Yep, yep, suckered you right into that, didn't I? Now I go past that, I go. I'll even maybe sometimes, depending on how old the bread is, I'll go down a little bit further because I want that fresh bread. I'm at an age where I have to eat a lot of wheat bread, but back in the day, when we were on Wonder Bread and the kids and all that man, that was the good bread. That's when it got gummy. That's the kind of bread I want, right? And so we're.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, when we come to the scriptures and when we hear the things of God, we have this little bit of disconnect that we're working through, because we come to the scriptures and we hear things like abundant life and we hear things like newness, and we hear things like spirit filled and the truth be told. Sometimes we walk into the church house and that is not our Christian experience at the moment. We are sort of in this moment of staleness, we're not experiencing the freshness, and so we really need to find out what the Lord is talking about when he says you can have a fullness, you can have fruitfulness, you can have power in your life. And so if you would turn to John, chapter seven today, john chapter seven, if you're new to the church, if you're new to the faith and if you're exploring faith, maybe you haven't claimed Christ as your savior today. It is an honor for you to be here.
Speaker 2:John is a book in the New Testament. It's on sort of the right hand side of your Bible. It's part of the gospels Matthew, mark, luke. John, if you go too far, you'll hit Acts and Romans and we'll be in chapter seven. If you'll join us there and if you're keeping notes with me this morning, I'll try and help you as we go. Write some things down, because I'm going to call out two or three different scriptures that you may want to look at later on, but let me read to you John seven, beginning in verse 37.
Speaker 2:This is Jesus is about to speak and say something really important about us having life and a fullness of life. On the last and most important day of the festival, jesus stood up and cried out if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him. Now, he said this about the spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the spirit, for the spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. We have an important promise here, don't we? That we would receive a spirit, we would receive something that would bring to us an abundance, a stream of living water, this idea of fulfilled life, this promise of power, this promise of abundance.
Speaker 2:And so I've got a few things for you to write down. Number one I need you to first of all ask yourself a question Are you living or dying? Are you living or dying? If we're gonna talk about this in reality today, we need to do a little bit of a gut check. We need to do a little bit of a test. We need to kind of ask ourselves really, where am I at in my Christian walk right now? Am I experiencing what Jesus just described in this passage? Am I living, am I alive in Christ, or am I dying?
Speaker 2:The spirit is an important person of the Trinity. He comes to believers and it's that spirit that brings us, according to what Jesus is saying here, this fullness that we're talking about, this power, this abundance, this truth to God's people. He is the very promise of God, he is the very presence of God. God said to us that he would come and dwell in us, with us, in us. Is that your experience right now? Are you living or are you dying? John 14, 16 through 17 says that the spirit will abide in you, be in you. John 14, 23 goes on to say that the Father and the Son dwell in you because the spirit is in you, god with us, god in us. So whether or not we're alive right now is totally dependent on how we are in relationship with this person called the Holy Spirit that comes to abide in us. Now Jesus is illustrating this and he uses something that would be very familiar to the folks of that day and very familiar to us, this idea of living water.
Speaker 2:Have you ever been to a stream of living water? Maybe you've been to the Rockies and you stood next to one of those bubbling rivers that are coming over the rocks and that ice cold water not a bad history, but ice cold water that seems to be just so full of intensity and life. Maybe you've seen that. Maybe you've gone to Hot Springs here in Arkansas and you've walked along the promenade and you've dipped your hand down into that hot, bubbling water that's coming out of the earth and it seems to be alive, there's a life to it, and you know the contrast. You've been to, maybe, a place where there is a dying pond we had a pond that actually died on us one time if you've ever had that experience. Or maybe just standing next to a puddle in just the middle of a road somewhere and it's murky and it's cloudy and it's dirty and it does not seem to have any life.
Speaker 2:What's the difference between the two? The difference between the two is, with the living stream, there's an inflow, there's a source of water, and then there's an outflow. It keeps going, it is on a journey, it's ready to give elsewhere A puddle. There's no outflow. There's no outflow, so that water gets trapped and after a while it's not full of life like it seems like it should be. Water that's stored by man made vessels becomes stagnant and becomes unclean. And so what Jesus is saying to us here is listen as you begin to capture this idea of the Holy Spirit of God walking in your life. I need you to understand the importance of inflow being in relationship with God and then the outflow expressing who God is to others, living in that power, going out in the fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit and exercising your gifts and giving to others and speaking life and truth and living as God has intended you to do.
Speaker 2:Some of us today, when we think about that question are you living or dying? We need to think in terms of am I just here, soaking this all in and there's no outflow? Am I just coming on Sundays and this is my time and give me 30 minutes and then that's it? We're not serving, we're not given, we're not speaking, we're not living in the precious promises of Christ. That's the question before us Are you living or dying? Number two write this down, and this is so simple You're going to be like, wow, this guy, he doesn't think very long about these sermons. Jesus, jesus provides life. Jesus provides life. I want you to back up because it's not a small statement in reality Back up to verse two of John seven.
Speaker 2:Something very interesting is happening in this chapter. Jesus didn't just use a trite, cute little statement here. In verse two of this chapter, it says what they're at the Feast of Tabernacles, or some of your translations may say the Feast of Boots. Now here's what's happening. The Jews celebrated this feast every year, this Feast of Tabernacles, where they would come together and they would remember for hundreds and hundreds of years how God had worked in their midst. And this particular feast there were several feasts. You've heard of Passover. We're going to celebrate that here really quick when we get closer to Easter.
Speaker 2:You've heard of, maybe, the Feast of Trumpets, but this particular feast, the Tabernacle, brought to mind the time when the people were led out of slavery. They were led out of Egypt, they were on their way to this place called the Promised Land and, after a few mistakes and things that happened along the way, they find themselves in the wilderness for 40 years. And the Feast of Boots harkens back to that time when they were in that wilderness experience when they really didn't have an idea of where they were going. They've heard of this promise, but it was a promise unfulfilled. And now they're kind of out here wondering in this desert land, wondering in this wasteland. Some of us feel like we're in the wilderness right now. And yet, all along that journey, even though they hadn't fulfilled their promises in God, god had provided for them.
Speaker 2:And the Feast of Tabernacles, or Boots, gave them the opportunity to remember back to that time. And there were several key components of the Feast that would help them to tell the story Because, remember, they didn't have the scriptures y'all. So the way they passed down their faith was for the fathers. I love this, this picture, I love this. The fathers would sit down with the children and the generations and would pass down the faith verbally, orally, but they would use all of these symbols in order to help them share the story. And so they gather around at the Feast of Boots and there would be what they called a fire offering. That sounds fun, huh? Let's do that sometime. A fire offering If they're remembering back to the wilderness experience and being led out of slavery on their way to the Promised Land. And all of a sudden there's a fire being offered on the altar. What are they remembering from that wilderness, the pillar of fire, by night, how God was in their midst, physically in their midst, leading them in the night. And so the fire would be offered and the fathers would turn to their children and recount the story and tell them everything that God had done all along the way For hundreds of years. They did this.
Speaker 2:Did you know there's also a water pouring ritual at the Feast of Tabernacles, the water pouring right Each of the seven days. The priest would go down to the pool. He would go down to the pool of Siloam by the temple. The high priest would take an earthenware vessel, he would go down and he would dip out of the pool all seven days and he would walk back up and the people would gather around and he would make his way to the altar and he would pour the water all around the altar. As he walked into the gate, the water gate, the people would sing the hallel, the Psalms 113 through 118, men would stand there all along the path and they would shout give thanks to the Lord three times. Give thanks to the Lord, give thanks to the Lord, and then the priest would pour out this water. Why? Because God had provided water in the desert. Do you remember the story? Do you remember Moses?
Speaker 2:The people were dry, thirsty. The people were dry, thirsty, could not be quenched. They were clamoring, they were angry, they were cynical. Oh wait, this is starting to sound like our society today, isn't it? Finally, they went to their spiritual leader, the guru Moses, and said you've got to do something.
Speaker 2:Moses, in frustration, is told by God to go to a rock. And in frustration, what does he do? He doesn't just touch the rock, does he? He smites Try and work that into your Sunday conversation, that word. He smites the rock, he hits the rock. But out of that rock, all of a sudden, in a dry desert land, is this continuous flow of water. It just starts gushing, it starts pouring out, and the people, they're all seeing this miracle in front of them and they start gathering up all of the earthenware that they can find and man, they're bringing it to the fountain that is just flowing freely and they begin to dip and they begin to drink and they begin to have satisfaction and finally they understand that God is still in the midst of them, even in that desert.
Speaker 2:And so it's the Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus is here celebrating with his people. And it doesn't say this explicitly, but I'm imagining that, as that priest, on one of those seven days, has gone in and dipped from the pool and come back to the temple complex, and as he's pouring out, I am just imagining that at some point there, as the people are gathered around telling their stories of the rock that was struck for them, that Jesus stands up in the middle of it and says I will give you streams of living water. And that is an earth-shattering statement. All of a sudden, the fathers start telling the story and they turn. There's a hush that grows over the crowd. What did he just say? I will give you streams of living water. Jesus just made himself to be God in the midst of his people. He just made himself to be the fulfillment of what happened in that desert scene. He just said I will be the God that needs all of your needs. I will be the one that fulfills everything that you see in this feast. I am going to be the miracle worker, the miracle maker that brings sustainment and fulfillment to your life. Jesus just proclaimed himself to be God Is he? Did he? Does Jesus provide that kind of life? Write down John chapter 19 in your notes. I don't have time to turn you there real quick, but John chapter 19,. I'll start reading verse 32,.
Speaker 2:The soldiers came to the crosses. They broke the legs of the first thief who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus they saw he was already dead. They did not break his legs, but instead one of the soldiers took a spear and he thrust it in anger into the side of our Savior. And what does the scripture say?
Speaker 2:Coming out of Jesus' side was blood and water. Blood and water, a great sacrifice. Pouring out of his side. The blood that Jesus shed stood for death. That provided forgiveness for our sin. The blood that Jesus shed on the cross is that fountain that we just sang about. It provides every need that we could possibly have, because our greatest need is for us to move out of spiritual death and move in to spiritual life, to see the kingdom of God, to see the eternity of God, to see who God is and what he has for us. That is our greatest need. And because we have such a desperate need, god came himself and hung on a cross and was struck and beaten for us and, in that sacrifice, paid the debt for sin that we owe, took the death that we were supposed to die on across for us, and the scripture says that the blood and water poured out of him. The rock that was struck in the desert is the rock of ages that hung on a cross for you and me. Today, he does provide streams of living water. He is the one that provides life, and that is no small statement. No small statement. Are you living or are you dying? That is dependent on whether you know the sacrifice and the resurrection of Jesus, because when we believe and have faith in a story that started in Genesis 1 and beautifully unfolds itself over and over again, hundreds upon hundreds of years, god is telling you redemption is coming In that desert. Redemption is coming Through the prophets. Redemption is coming Through the wisdom literature. Redemption is coming Through every hero of faith and every story that we see in the Old Testament. Redemption is coming and then, finally, jesus comes and redemption was before us and he brings us streams of living water. So write down this third thing that I want you to see this morning that life is transforming. Are you living or dying. Jesus provides life and that life that he gives us is transforming. Watch the crimson thread continue to weave itself through the scriptures. You don't have time to go there, I'm just going to give you the reference. Write it down, you'll want to see it.
Speaker 2:Ezekiel 47. This is many, many, many years after Moses and the story this is way after David. This is the time of the prophets. God's people have made their way back into captivity because they've been disobedient. They had stopped following God doing their own thing, and the prophets have come. The prophets are speaking to them. Ezekiel has a vision. Now listen to me. In this vision he's taken up and he gets to go to the temple and he's there at the temple scene, and a brand new temple for God, not the physical temple on earth, but this new city, this new city of God in Ezekiel 47. And as he's standing there, he begins to see all of the sights and sounds of heaven, of glory, of the very chambers of God. And here's what he writes and we just kind of gloss over this stuff, but so important.
Speaker 2:Ezekiel 47, verse one he brought me the guide who was giving Ezekiel the grand tour. He brought me back to the door of the temple and listen, there was water and it was flowing under the threshold toward the east verse three. And then when we came out, we went to the east and he actually measured out. He measured out a thousand cubits and he brought me to the water again and I stepped into the water and it was ankle deep. And then he measured out another thousand cubits and I stepped into the water and it was knee deep. And then he measured out another thousand cubits and I stepped in and it was waist deep. And then he measured out another thousand cubits and the water was so high, the river was so strong that one couldn't swim in it, it could not be crossed.
Speaker 2:A water flowing from the throne of God who is issuing out, going out. And this prophet says this, and it was that every living thing that moves this is verse nine that moves wherever the river goes Listen closely Wherever the river goes will live. There will be a great multitude of fish, there will be waters, there will be healing. He says it again Everything will live where the river for the river grow goes. There's this river that's coming out of the throne of God and it's called the Holy Spirit and we want to be in that river. It's a transforming current, a mighty river that comes out.
Speaker 2:Revelation 21. Write it down. Revelation 21 and 22. Verses one and two no-transcript. This is John. He's being captured up. He's getting to see the city of God. He's getting to see the temple, the new Jerusalem that we'll all get to see one day.
Speaker 2:The angel showed me what the river of the water of life. Do you see how scripture is all tied together? Are you beginning to get the story and how it beautifully comes together? The water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God, and the lamb through the middle of the street of the city, on either side of the river, the tree of life with his 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. Wherever the river goes, the water that comes from the throne, you see life, you see abundance, you see fruit. And Jesus stood up and he said I will provide you streams of living water. The Holy Spirit is going to come and the Holy Spirit will bring life for you. Life on this earth, even in the midst of the wasteland. You can have life. I will provide that life.
Speaker 2:So whether or not we are living or dying depends on the source that we're plugged into this morning. Whether or not we're stale or we have this freshness about us depends on where we are drawing from, and much of us, many of us, keep going to these same old wells, hoping for life. We keep going to this same old junk and this same old mess, and you know it and I know it because we're in the same boat this morning. We keep doing it and we keep expecting it to provide us some sort of fulfillment. But God has said all through his book listen, if you'll come to me, you can draw from a stream that will never go dry and you will have life and there will be fruit as you come, and it's transforming. Here's what happens when we take from the river of life, when we come to the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:I want you to imagine that you're on an ancient Pacific Island, okay, and it's way back, way back when they had customs that we don't have today, way back when things were just not quite like they are in this modern time, and it was a custom on this island let's pretend that it's a custom on this island that when a young man would propose marriage, he would announce his intention to the island and it was going to be a great celebration and as that day came, where he was gonna actually ask for a bride's hand, everybody in the island community would show up. They wanted to be a part of the celebration and often the tradition would be for that young man to offer the bride's father something in exchange for the bride's hand. I like this side. As a parent of a daughter, I think this is a good idea. Let's bring it back y'all. This is a good thing, especially as expensive as weddings are these days.
Speaker 2:So the prize possession on the island? Of course it's an island, it's an archaic island, right? The prize possession is a cow. So often when a young man would go to find his bride, he would offer a cow for her hand and the record on the island because guys are like this, we care about this stuff the record on the island was four cows. So somewhere along the way, some lady her daddy received four cows and he gave away her hand in marriage. Feminism was not in place on this island at the time, right?
Speaker 2:So there's this guy on the island. Let's keep pretending His name is Johnny. Oh, johnny's cool. Johnny's the dude. Johnny's the guy on the island that has everything. He's wealthy, johnny has good looks, johnny's smooth. And so everybody's kind of wondering man, when is Johnny gonna ask for somebody? When Johnny does it, it's gonna be a big deal. And so Johnny, let's say one day he announces hey, I found the person I'm gonna marry. And so the island people, they all gather around, they're all anxiously wait, who is it? What are we gonna see here?
Speaker 2:And Johnny begins trekking through the streets and all of a sudden there's a little bit of a crowd that's kind of following him and they're all kind of wondering where is he going? Whose house, what? Who's the lucky girl that gets Johnny? And Johnny stops at Lisa's house and everybody's shocked. And if your name is Lisa, please this has nothing to do with you, please. But Lisa's a little bit plain, she's shy, she doesn't have confidence, she's not all that attractive. And the guy starts saying, godly, maybe Lisa's daddy's going to offer Johnny some cows. It's kind of tall, that's the kind of tall. And they follow as Johnny heads up to the doorstep and Lisa's dad comes out for the bartering to begin. And they are shocked, they are blown away. When he doesn't offer one cow, he doesn't offer four cows. He says, sir, I'll give you eight cows for Lisa's hand. And people are just what in the world? And before daddy could even think, he says yes, sir, absolutely, let's go, eight cows. So when you go home tonight or today, guys, and you're sitting lovingly across the table from your bride, hey, just tell her you're an eight cow woman, you're welcome, you're welcome. You know what they did.
Speaker 2:They took off that day and they went to Johnny's place. It was an adjacent island. He had his own huge mansion and spread. They left the island, went to Johnny's island and for one year they were gone until one day, on the day of their anniversary, they decided it was time to go back and visit the Kenfolk and the friends, and so the communities of buzz. They hear Johnny and Lisa are coming back home and the boat pulls into the dock and they get off the boat and everybody's down to sort of greet them and not one person's looking at Johnny anymore. They're all looking at Lisa because she's been transformed. She is a picture of grace. That's confidence, poise, charm, beauty. They are just blown away. Wow, what happened to Lisa?
Speaker 2:And they make their little visit and they see their friends and their family, but one of Johnny's buddies pulls him aside. He said dude. I got to know, I got to know what has happened to Lisa and he said this. He said you know what? For years Lisa was told that she wasn't worth anything and people treated her like she wasn't worth anything. And then I came along and I told her that she was worth even this much and more extravagant kind of love. And he said this to his friend. He said you know what she's become? She has become the picture of what she sees every day in my eyes.
Speaker 2:I've got great news for you guys this morning church. There is a God who loves you extravagantly and deeply and if you'll pause for just a second and if you'll see how he sees you born again son, born again daughter, if you'll see him how he sees you seated in the heavenlies, a kingdom of priests to God, if you'll see him, if you'll see who you are in him an overcomer in Christ Jesus, bearing fruit for the kingdom If you'll just pause, if you'll just see it this morning for just a second, how he sees you, you'll be in relationship with the spirit of God and he'll start to change you in ways that you've never thought you could be changed before. He'll transform your life. That is the stream of living water that is being offered to you today. What vision do you have of yourself? Will you find the vision that Christ has for you and envision who you can be in Christ? God was willing to give his son so that you and I can be changed. Will you be changed today? Let's pray together With your heads bowed and your eyes closed.
Speaker 2:I want to read one last passage of Scripture to you. It's one of my favorites 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. Starting in verse 17,. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and we all, with unveiled faces, contemplate. We see the Lord's glory and we are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Speaker 2:Three questions for you this morning. Is there something that's damning up the stream in your life right now? There's sin. It's got a hold, you're in its grip. You keep going to that. Well, it is dry, but you keep going to it because you've never discovered anything else and you are damning up the stream of living water in your life. Will you come this morning and let it go? Let it go Be released. This morning, you come.
Speaker 2:Maybe you need to pray at the altar. Maybe you need to come. Take one of these staff members myself by the hand. Question number two are you needing a place to express the great life that God has given you? Maybe you need to come and join this church. Maybe you need to be baptized, like these young, courageous warriors that we saw this morning. You need to give your life to Christ, be baptized into Him and give your life to something that is bigger than yourself Service to God, service to the kingdom. A place to express no more just inflow. God, give me a place for outflow, that I can be alive. But finally, are you at the source? Do you know Jesus? Have you come to the fountain and have you received the forgiveness that Jesus offers today? Won't you come this morning If you know you're still dead in your sins? Come and have life.
Speaker 2:Brian, myself, many others, colby, we'd love to share with you. We're about to sing a song of imitation reflection. You come this morning. Whatever decision is on your heart and mind, you come, let's live. Come on church, let's live. Father, thank you this morning for this great time we've had celebrating you. We want to walk in life. We want to walk in freedom, under the name of Jesus, the great and mighty name, the name above any other and all other names. That's where we'll find life. So help us today to make decisions to do that. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and sing a song of imitation reflection today. Brian's down at the front. I'm down here if you need to speak to me, amen.