COME

Transcript

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Everyone, this is Pastor Dean Thompson with a word of hope. Come.

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The spirit and the bride say come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Revelation twenty two verse seventeen. The whole vast book of Revelation, with all its thrones and seals, its beasts and trumpets, its conflict and its new creation, comes down at the end to a single word, repeated like a heartbeat come. The Spirit and the bride say come. And let the one who hears say come. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. The last invitation of the Bible is not a threat or a warning, it is a welcome. Consider who is doing the inviting. First the Spirit and the bride say come. The Holy Spirit and the whole church of God together with their voices in one great welcome to the thirsty. Then the circle widens. Let the one who hears say come. Everyone who has received the invitation becomes in turn an inviter. The welcome is contagious. To hear it is to be drawn into the giving of it. The bride does not hoard the invitation. She echoes it to the world. Notice how gentle the conditions are. There is only one qualification to come thirst. Let the one who is thirsty come. Not the worthy, not the accomplished, not those who have lived who have who have their lives in order. The thirsty, the only thing required to receive the water of life is to need it. If you are aware of an emptiness, a longing, a dryness in your soul that nothing in this world has been able to satisfy, then you are precisely the one this invitation is for. Your thirst is not a disqualification, it is your ticket. And the water is free. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. This is the gospel distilled to its essence. The water of life, the very thing your soul most deeply needs, cannot be bought because it has already been paid for. The Lamb purchased it with his own blood, so that it could be given to you without cost. You do not earn your way to the water, you do not deserve your way to the water. You simply come thirsty and take it freely, because another has paid the price in full. Revelation could have ended with the conquering Christ on the White House or with the abolition of God's enemies.

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Or with a new creation in all its glory.

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Instead, it ends with a hand extended to the thirsty and a door held open. The last note heaven sounds over the human race is not condemnation but welcome. This invitation is for you today. Wherever you stand, perhaps you have walked with God for decades, or perhaps you have never truly come at all. Perhaps your faith is strong, or perhaps it has run dry. The invitation does not change. The spirit and the bride are still saying it. The water is still free. The only question is whether you are thirsty enough to come and take it. So let this let it let this be where the journey lands. After all the visions, after all the conflict, after all the glory of the new creation, the book of Revelation leans toward you and speaks one final word of love. Come, come thirsty, come empty handed, come as you are. The water of life is free, the door is open, and the one who holds the keys is still calling you home. Come.

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Oh Lord, we are thirsty and we come.

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Not because we are worthy, but because you have paid the price and the water is free. We thank you that your last word over us is come.

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Help us to take the water of life from your hand and live.

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Please let your grace abound towards us and help us to come. And help us also, oh God, to sound the invitation to others, telling them to come. Amen.

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God bless you, brothers and sisters.