Speaker 1: Well, good morning, it's good to be with you this morning.
Speaker 1: My name is Luke Jackson.
Speaker 1: I'm the missions pastor here at central and just so excited to share the word of God with you this morning and so if you have your bibles this morning, if you would turn with me to Genesis Chapter Twenty Six, Genesis Chapter Twenty six and we're going to be starting with verse 15 while you're turning there.
Speaker 1: Out of curiosity, how many of you had either a donut or some other kind of breakfast this morning?
Speaker 1: Anybody?
Speaker 1: Alright, you guys are in pretty good shape this morning, but what about those of us like me who haven't had anything?
Speaker 1: What if your raise your hand if you haven't had anything to eat this morning and you're really hung or you're really hungry.
Speaker 1: Anybody?
Speaker 1: Anybody in that boat with me?
Speaker 1: Everybody look around.
Speaker 1: Keep those hands up high.
Speaker 1: Everybody that's had something to eat.
Speaker 1: Look around and see who's hungry.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you why in a second.
Speaker 1: Alright.
Speaker 1: Well this morning I'm about to show you some of my favorite foods.
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 1: But before I do, we need to provide some accountability for those of us like myself who are hungry this morning.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: And so I'm gonna ask you guys just kind of look around, see you is hungry in your section and keep an eye on him and make sure they don't leave it early to go eat lunch.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: After I show you these, these pictures this morning.
Speaker 1: So you guys ready?
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 1: So one of my favorite foods is fried chicken.
Speaker 1: Anybody like fried chicken?
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: Fried Chicken is.
Speaker 1: I mean there's nothing like a good piece of fried chicken.
Speaker 1: Last week my wife made me fried chicken and it was so good that I made the mistake of leaving the bones up on the table in the living room.
Speaker 1: And my dog, like my dog came and got the bones.
Speaker 1: I mean he liked it, she liked it as well.
Speaker 1: And uh, got, got the fried chicken as well.
Speaker 1: So that's how good fried chicken is.
Speaker 1: Even dogs can't resist it.
Speaker 1: They had to keep an eye on her for a couple of weeks, make sure that didn't hurt her.
Speaker 1: So I think she's okay, thankfully, but won't make that mistake again.
Speaker 1: But uh, what about staking?
Speaker 1: They like steak and steak people here.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: Well whatever.
Speaker 1: I go to a restaurant, my, my cut of meat that I liked the most that I always want to get his rib eye steak.
Speaker 1: Rib Eye steak is so good.
Speaker 1: It doesn't even need seasoning salt.
Speaker 1: Or You could do salt and pepper.
Speaker 1: But I mean, but the thing that's amazing about ribeye steak is salt.
Speaker 1: Pepper is fine.
Speaker 1: You can marinate it, you can put some kind of seasoning, no matter how you cook it.
Speaker 1: It's really good.
Speaker 1: So I hope you guys are getting a little bit hungry, but my next thing, if you're not hungry at the next thing is going to really get you.
Speaker 1: So what about chicken and dumplings?
Speaker 1: Anybody like home cooking?
Speaker 1: Chicken and dumplings?
Speaker 1: Your mouth's got to be watering by now.
Speaker 1: And so chicken and dumplings is something that my grandma who passed away used to make us.
Speaker 1: When I'd go over to her house, my mom continued the recipe and so every time I go home I asked my mom to make chicken and dumplings.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite meals to eat and so there's a lot of good food out there, right?
Speaker 1: So if you didn't like all of those, surely at least one of those is really gotten you a little bit hungry.
Speaker 1: But we're in the summer, you know, it's kind of hot outside and we definitely need a good drink, you know, to quench our thirst in the summer especially.
Speaker 1: So my favorite drink is called a lemon berry.
Speaker 1: Slush from sonic, maybe ever had that.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately the lemon berry slush.
Speaker 1: I came to find out that sonic had the nerve to take it off the menu and a lot of places.
Speaker 1: So sometimes now when I asked for one, they don't even know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: So I have to say, well give me a strawberry slush with a little bit of lemon in it.
Speaker 1: But it's incredible.
Speaker 1: It's got real strawberries in it.
Speaker 1: It's got that number, that citrusy lemon flavor.
Speaker 1: That just makes it really, really good.
Speaker 1: And so we've got food, we've got, you know, my favorite drink, but you can't go without dessert.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 1: And my favorite dessert, there's just something about it is wedding cake, you know, something about wedding cake.
Speaker 1: I mean, wedding cake is different than any other kind of cake that a you eat.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, I don't know what it is but, but you know, I find myself, I got to be careful because sometimes when I go to a wedding I find myself really just wanting to go to eat the cake.
Speaker 1: Anybody else ever been there just to go and eat wedding cake.
Speaker 1: And so, so that's it.
Speaker 1: It's always tempting to want to eat wedding cake and you know, I've always even been tempted like sneak a piece to take home with me even though it's not, you know, my family or whatever's wedding.
Speaker 1: But uh, but anyway, so you've probably been there as well, but there's a lot of great food out there.
Speaker 1: But the reason I'm kinda talking about food this morning is because you know, no matter how much we eat and the things or drink of the things of this world, eventually we're going to be hungry and thirsty again.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: I mean, think about it.
Speaker 1: If.
Speaker 1: I mean I can eat a lot of fried chicken, I can eat a lot of chicken and dumplings, but no matter how much of that I eat, I mean if I just eat until I'm completely stuffed, eventually I'm going to be hungry and thirsty again.
Speaker 1: More than likely within the next 24 hours, I'm going to be ready, pretty hungry to eat something else again.
Speaker 1: And so we're always going to be hungry and thirsty when we're pursuing the things of the world and so.
Speaker 1: But our hunger and thirst for God, our hunger and thirst for the things that are eternal are so much more important than what we're having for lunch.
Speaker 1: And you know, when we think about that, when we first come to Christ, so many times we're so passionate, so joyful about a relationship with Christ, we're so committed to do whatever it is that God's called us to do.
Speaker 1: A lot of times it's the same thing with new churches and church plants.
Speaker 1: I mean they're focused, they're set on the mission, they're excited about this new church that's being launched and how they can make an impact in the community that they're in.
Speaker 1: And so we see that so many times, but we have an enemy and that enemy wants to do everything that he can to steal away our passion and our hunger and our thirst for God.
Speaker 1: He wants to do everything he can to eliminate that and leave us spiritually dry and spiritually empty.
Speaker 1: And this warning, we're going to look at a passage in genesis chapter 26 and the Old Testament that I think really speaks to this concept this morning.
Speaker 1: And so as your.
Speaker 1: If you haven't already turned there, go ahead and do that.
Speaker 1: We're going to be starting with verse 15, but before we do, you get a little bit of background on this passage.
Speaker 1: Abraham has died and there's a great famine in the land and his son Isaac is now kind of the focal point of the narrative of the biblical narrative and because of the famine is so great, Isaac is forced to move.
Speaker 1: God tells him to go to another land and you know he's obedient, following God and doing what God for the most part, what God is telling him to do.
Speaker 1: He's human, so he's not perfect.
Speaker 1: He has.
Speaker 1: He does make mistakes along the way, but he ultimately is trying to follow the Lord and be obedient to God and as he does and he moves to this new place, God begins to bless Isaac and he begins to bless him so much.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that he blesses him 100 fold, and so everything that he has is multiplied by 100 and he's.
Speaker 1: He was so blessed that the king in that area, the king of the Philistines, King of Bim, Molech, became jealous and became fearful of the power and the wealth and the influence that Isaac was having, and so this is where we're going to pick up the story this morning.
Speaker 1: What's going on in this passage, and so read with me.
Speaker 1: Genesis Chapter Twenty six.
Speaker 1: We're gonna.
Speaker 1: Start with verses 15 through 18.
Speaker 1: This is what it says now, all the wells which his father's servants had dug, and the days of Abraham, his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with earth.
Speaker 1: Then Abimelech said to Isaac, go away from us for you are too powerful for us, and Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of[inaudible] and settled there.
Speaker 1: Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father, Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham and he gave them the same names which his father had given them.
Speaker 1: Let's pray together this morning.
Speaker 1: Do you?
Speaker 1: God, we just thank you for your word, Lord.
Speaker 1: We thank you so much for allowing us to be in your house and it being a place that we can hear it freely.
Speaker 1: God, Lord, I'm a sinner saved only by your grace, Lord, and so I pray that you would forgive me of my sins, make me a clean vessel to deliver your word to your people.
Speaker 1: Lord.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be my words, but it would be your words, God, and that we just pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would fall in this place this morning, that you would open every heart and every mind to what you had to say to them.
Speaker 1: God, Lord, we pray, God, that we wouldn't just hear your word this morning, God, but when we would respond to your word this morning, there's such a difference, God, that we would respond to your word this morning.
Speaker 1: Where would you thank you so much for this time.
Speaker 1: We just ask it in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: This morning we're going to first look at our problem.
Speaker 1: There's a problem.
Speaker 1: This percent presented in this passage in verses 15 through 17.
Speaker 1: We see that Isaac was once again in a difficult situation and he was asked to move to another place once again in this place, had no running wells or water and all of the wells had been stopped up by the Philistines.
Speaker 1: We see that in the passage and so the in the same way.
Speaker 1: We have a problem today spiritually, and the problem we have is the first one is the enemy is working to stop up the wells of our life and to leave us spiritually dry.
Speaker 1: The enemy hates us.
Speaker 1: The enemy wants to destroy us and anything that we're doing for God, he wants it to be squashed, destroyed to be nonexistent.
Speaker 1: So he's going to do everything that he can to stop up the wells of our life and to leave us spiritually dry.
Speaker 1: We see that he will also continually attack us to this terada distract us from following the Lord.
Speaker 1: So we have to take the enemy seriously.
Speaker 1: He's alive and well.
Speaker 1: He's real in our lives, and until we recognize that and realize that, then we're not going to know how to respond.
Speaker 1: We're not going to know how to fight against that and allow the Lord to fight for us so we see that we have a problem.
Speaker 1: We all have this problem, and sadly, because we all fail and we're all sinners, Satan is often successful in stopping up the wells of our life.
Speaker 1: And so the question this morning is, what about you?
Speaker 1: Have you been here before?
Speaker 1: If you're really honest with yourself this morning, if you're really open, if you're really humble, the other question might be, are you there right now?
Speaker 1: Are you there right now?
Speaker 1: Where God has stolen your passion and your joy and your wells had been stopped up with all of the other things of life?
Speaker 1: Because God, we can't allow God to work in our hearts and our lives until tour, truly honest with ourself and humble enough to admit where we are with him and so we see we have a problem in these first few verses, but aren't you glad that God doesn't just leave us in his word with problems?
Speaker 1: Aren't you glad that God gives us solutions?
Speaker 1: That God gives us a response and we see that we can learn from that response that Isaac gives until look at verse 18 again, looking at what it says in verse 18 says, then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug and the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham and he gave them the same names which his father had given them.
Speaker 1: And so in verse 18, we see our response or responses that we must read, dig those wells.
Speaker 1: We must not give up, but then we must trust in the Lord.
Speaker 1: You know, digging wells is hard work.
Speaker 1: When I was in high school, I did landscaping every summer and we dug a lot of holes and it was hard work.
Speaker 1: When I was in Costa Rica a few years ago on a student trip, we had to dig this six foot hole on one end and then about 10 feet down here it tapered up to about three feet.
Speaker 1: On the other end is for a believer the restroom or some kind of septic system they were building underneath.
Speaker 1: And so it was hard work, it took our whole team, I mean it took a whole week for our whole team to dig this hole and we did it the old fashioned way with pick axes and shovels and I mean somebody would go hard for a little while and then they would, they would dig and then they would pass it off to somebody else and we would just take turns all week long digging this hole and when we get to the point where it was stopped up with all kinds of things, all kinds of rock and every, every time you'd get like another foot, there'd be like another layer of something that you had to get through to dig this hole.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how hard of work it must have been for these, these men that worked with Isaac to dig these wells again to riddick these wells?
Speaker 1: It was hard work.
Speaker 1: And so we see that.
Speaker 1: But we also see that digging the wells, we must read dig the wells, but when we do, we must rely on our original foundation, right?
Speaker 1: They said they read, dug the well, so there was a foundation there and our ultimate foundation is the word of God and we know that and we have to always build everything.
Speaker 1: We build upon the word of God, but we also know that we have a history.
Speaker 1: We have a history as believers.
Speaker 1: We have a history as a church and we must honor that history.
Speaker 1: We must recognize the good in that history and we must recognize the things have in our history as individuals and as a church that we must build upon.
Speaker 1: When you think about that, we live in a world today that's trying to water down prayer and it tells us the prayers not important.
Speaker 1: A lot of times, a lot of the younger generations, I don't even know how to pray anymore.
Speaker 1: We need to bring that back.
Speaker 1: We need to teach that.
Speaker 1: We need to show the importance of the altar and prayer and getting before God and spending time together in prayer together.
Speaker 1: We need to bring back the importance of the family to remember that God has a plan for, for the family, and we need to do it God's way.
Speaker 1: The world is trying to water down the family.
Speaker 1: He's trying to water the world is trying to water down the church to make the church and effective to make the church look like a bunch of crazy people that are narrow minded, right?
Speaker 1: We see that all over the place.
Speaker 1: We see that all in our culture and in the in the media and the news and everywhere we see that our world is trying to water down the word of God and it makes the word of God not only ineffective, but even regarded as being truth to begin with and they're, they're telling everyone that the world is telling everyone that you know, you can find your own truth.
Speaker 1: Whatever is true for you, as long as it's true for you, then that's okay and that's a lie straight from the enemy.
Speaker 1: And so we must rely on.
Speaker 1: Our original foundation was honored the past and we build on that past and we build on it with the foundation being the word of God, and so we see that, so we must dig the wells.
Speaker 1: It's hard work.
Speaker 1: We must rely on the original foundation, but we also must realize that the well will be different than it was before even though we're really digging that same foundation of the well wounded.
Speaker 1: The new well is done when it's read Doug.
Speaker 1: It's gonna look different.
Speaker 1: It's going to be different and at the same time as honoring our past and honoring the past of our our lives as individuals honoring the pastor of our church.
Speaker 1: In the heritage of that, we must also realize that God wants to do a new thing and a new day, and this is not the past.
Speaker 1: This is today, and God has plans for today that are going to look different than the plans of the past as long as it's founded on his word, on the right track.
Speaker 1: As long as our foundation is where it needs to be, we're on the right track, but we must realize that the will is going to look a little bit different sometimes and so we see that, but let's read on as we think about digging new wells as well.
Speaker 1: Look at what it says in Genesis Chapter Twenty six in verse 19 it says, but when Isaac's servants, Doug and the valley and found there a well of flowing water, the herdsmen of Iraq world with the herdsmen of Isaac saying the water is ours.
Speaker 1: So he named the well East Sec because of the content, because they contended with him.
Speaker 1: Then they dug another well and they quarreled over it too.
Speaker 1: So he's so he named it sitting up.
Speaker 1: He moved away from there and dug another well and they did not quarrel over it.
Speaker 1: So he named it right here, both for.
Speaker 1: He said at last, the Lord has made room for us and we will be fruitful in the land.
Speaker 1: So we see here that not only should we read, dig the wells and the rely on our original foundation, but God also wants us to dig new wells.
Speaker 1: He wants to dig new wells through us in our personal life.
Speaker 1: He wants to do dig new wells in our church and there's a lot of great reasons why.
Speaker 1: And the first reason why he wants to dig new wells is because it expands the work.
Speaker 1: Can we must be willing to go into uncharted territory, you know, there's so many opportunities around our church to go into unchartered territory and a dig new wells and to do new things that maybe we've never done before, that God is opening the door for us to do.
Speaker 1: But also as individuals, there's something in all of our lives that God wants to dig.
Speaker 1: That's a new will that we've never experienced.
Speaker 1: You know, my wife, uh, when we first started dating and then got married, um, I'm kind of one of those people that is real adventurous.
Speaker 1: I go by the phrase, variety is the spice of life.
Speaker 1: I love trying new things and doing new things and she's a little more hesitant.
Speaker 1: She's a little more reserved sometimes and so I'm always trying to talk her into trying a new food or trying some kind of an adventurous thing that maybe she's never done before and to have those things are a Sushi is one of them.
Speaker 1: So whenever we started dating and then got married, I've always tried to talk her into trying Sushi, Sushi because when I was younger I didn't think I'd like Sushi either.
Speaker 1: I mean, who?
Speaker 1: Who, who thinks that raw fish sounds appealing, right?
Speaker 1: But now we know there's all kinds of different Sushi.
Speaker 1: Some of it's cooked, some of it's fried and so I started trying Sushi and I started liking it and I was trying to tell her.
Speaker 1: I was like, Kayla, you got to try Sushi.
Speaker 1: It's not what you think it is.
Speaker 1: It's really good.
Speaker 1: You're going to like it.
Speaker 1: So I taught, finally talked her into try and Sushi and at the after the very first time that she tried Sushi, now she wants Sushi all the time.
Speaker 1: Like she absolutely loves Sushi.
Speaker 1: In fact, after the first service today, she was here with me in the first service.
Speaker 1: She said, now you know, you gotta take me to into Sushi, right, and get some Sushi somewhere.
Speaker 1: So she loves Sushi.
Speaker 1: But what if she would have never tried it?
Speaker 1: What if she had never been willing to step out of her comfort zone and try something new?
Speaker 1: The same thing is true with Whitewater rafting.
Speaker 1: We went on the student, another student trip a few years ago, the middle school trip to Maui, and as most people know that I've ever been there the last day you do Whitewater rafting, it's kind of like the highlight, the fun part of the trip, the highlight of the trip.
Speaker 1: And so Taylor went with me that year as I was one of the student pastors at that time and she went with me and she said she.
Speaker 1: At the very beginning of the trip, she was worried about the Whitewater rafting.
Speaker 1: I think weeks before we ever left, she was worried about the Whitewater rafting.
Speaker 1: She might've even been tempted not to come because of the Whitewater rafting and she was scared.
Speaker 1: She didn't know if she was going to do it and so we finally got to the day where there was whitewater rafting and she said she finally just said, okay, I'm going to give this a shot.
Speaker 1: I mean, we got over with the whole youth group.
Speaker 1: I think we talked her into it and she finally was willing to do it and at first she was scared.
Speaker 1: The first couple minutes we're probably pretty frightening, but over time as that trip went on, I think by the end she loved it and she was glad that she did it and she might even say she had to do it all over again.
Speaker 1: She would do it again, but what if she wouldn't have never stepped out of her comfort zone, stepped out in faith and tried that new experience?
Speaker 1: What should, what would she have been missing out on?
Speaker 1: No, we haven't got to roller coasters yet.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that maybe some point I can get her on a rollercoaster, but we're not there yet, but we're working on it and so the same thing is true in our lives spiritually.
Speaker 1: Whenever we are not willing to allow God to dig new wells in our lives, what could we be missing that God has for our life?
Speaker 1: What can we be missing out on?
Speaker 1: So many times we focus on what we, what we don't want to do or what is fearful or scared, what were scared to do, but a lot of times we don't even think about what we're missing by not doing it.
Speaker 1: I believe God has so much more for us as a church and as individuals, if we're willing to step out and to dig those new wells, and so we must see that when we dig new wells, it expands the work, but it also increases the harvest.
Speaker 1: As new wells were dug, more people receive water that they can drink.
Speaker 1: There's more water for the crops that will produce the bigger produce, a bigger harvest.
Speaker 1: And the same thing is true in our lives spiritually.
Speaker 1: When we dig new wells, there's more water to be spread among those around us in the church and as individuals.
Speaker 1: God will increase the harvest in our lives, but we see here that even though God wants us to rejig the wells, even though he wants us to dig new wells is not always easy.
Speaker 1: As I said, it's hard work and one of the things that we can count on is that we will always be met with opposition when we dig new wells, and the reason is, as I said earlier, Satan hates anybody trying to expand the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: He hates it and he's out to destroy it.
Speaker 1: He's out to keep us from doing anything that would advance the message of the Gospel and expand the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he uses things, sometimes he uses people.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he uses people outside of the church who don't know Christ and are lost and that are completely against anything for the Kingdom of God, and sadly sometimes they even use people inside the church to disrupt what God wants to do and to disrupt the new work that God wants to do.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's because of sin.
Speaker 1: Most of the time it's because of sin.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's because of change that we don't like or inconvenience or because it makes us uncomfortable or maybe it's because our priorities are wrong or our motives are not in the right place, but maybe it's we're lazy or we just don't understand.
Speaker 1: We just don't understand this new well that God wants to do, but whatever it is, we have to be willing to be open to what God wants for our lives.
Speaker 1: When we have to be willing to be open to get out of our comfort zone and know that opposition will come.
Speaker 1: But we see in this story that Isaac doesn't stop with the wells of opposition, does he?
Speaker 1: He continues and he moves on.
Speaker 1: We see that in this passage and so we see that we have a problem.
Speaker 1: We see that God gives us a response through the example of Isaac, and then the third thing that we see is that God gives us our reward.
Speaker 1: As the passage continues, Isaac continues to trust God to bless his work by building new wells, and the Lord rewards him for that and we see that God's favor is on him.
Speaker 1: So much so that the king of the Philistines, King Abimelech, we're finally realized is that the one true God, knowing this man was probably a pagan, that the one true God had had given favor to Isaac.
Speaker 1: It was going to bless Isaac no matter where he went, and he probably was so scared of what Isaac could do if he didn't make peace with them that he went to Isaac.
Speaker 1: We see later in this passage, we goes to Isaac and he makes the peace treaty with Isaac in Verse Thirty Two light later in the passage, we see that that same day it says now it came out the same day that Isaac servants came in and told him about the well, which they doug and said him.
Speaker 1: We have found water that same day, the king.
Speaker 1: Also the same day, the king goes and makes a treaty that same day they find water, and so the reward in this story is the water.
Speaker 1: It represents an opportunity to live.
Speaker 1: It represents an opportunity not just for Isaac's people to survive, but to thrive.
Speaker 1: It gives an opportunity for them to prosper and to continue to use all of that water that's been dug and is available for the crops and to for people to drink and for people not only just to survive, but to prosper and to thrive, and the same thing is true for us this morning that God is offering us the opportunity to thrive.
Speaker 1: He is offering us spiritual water in this spiritual water is the only thing that will satisfy us eternally.
Speaker 1: So the question is where is, where does the spiritual water come from?
Speaker 1: We see this clearly in the new testament, thousands of years later within a hundred miles of these same wells.
Speaker 1: There's another well and the other well is found in John Chapter Four.
Speaker 1: If you want to turn there with me this morning and we see the story of the woman at the well.
Speaker 1: Most of you know this story very well.
Speaker 1: John Chapter Four, starting in verse 10, we see the woman at the well.
Speaker 1: The Jesus speaks with, and it's going to answer this question for us this morning.
Speaker 1: Where does the spiritual water that God gifts come from?
Speaker 1: Look at what it says in verse 10, Jesus says to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is, who says to you, give me a drink you would have asked him and he would get, he would have given you living water.
Speaker 1: The woman goes on to question Jesus on how he gets this living water and who he is, and then in verse 13, Jesus Answers and says there everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, talking about the water in the well, the physical water, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.
Speaker 1: So the question is, where does this spiritual water come from?
Speaker 1: The answer is very clear.
Speaker 1: The answer is always Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the living water.
Speaker 1: He is the only one, only thing, only one that will truly satisfy us.
Speaker 1: We don't have to be hungry and thirsty ever again.
Speaker 1: When we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and walk with him, we are no longer spiritually dry.
Speaker 1: Not only do we have living water, but we also have the opportunity to share that living water with other people with those around us and help them no longer be thirsty and spiritual spiritually dry as well.
Speaker 1: So the question, why do we spend so much time pursuing all of the struggle with it?
Speaker 1: Because we're all sinners.
Speaker 1: I struggled with it.
Speaker 1: Why don't we send, spend so much time pursuing all of the things of the world?
Speaker 1: They're going to make us hungry and thirsty again.
Speaker 1: When God is offering us his living, water is spiritual water.
Speaker 1: They completely satisfies us.
Speaker 1: That will never leave us hungry and thirsty again.
Speaker 1: Why do we spend so much energy and time doing that?
Speaker 1: So many times we get focused on spending our life working so hard to be wealthy or successful or respected or comfortable or maybe love by man instead of God, when what we really need is right in front of us through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: If we do this, if we spend our life on things that will leave us hungry and thirsty again, then we are wasting our lives with things that are empty.
Speaker 1: In the end, all of those things will die with us.
Speaker 1: In the end when we leave this earth, we see that scripture makes this very clear to us that Jesus is the only thing that we ever could ever need.
Speaker 1: We see that John tells us not only is he the living water, but this morning I want to read some scripture over you from the New Testament just to remind us who Jesus is, just to listen, so I don't want you to turn that.
Speaker 1: I just want you to listen to the word of God because it speaks for itself and I want you to hear who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: This warning, that is everything that we could ever need.
Speaker 1: John Chapter one verse one says the work that Jesus is the word of God.
Speaker 1: In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
Speaker 1: John Six 35, I am the bread of life.
Speaker 1: He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.
Speaker 1: John Eight, 12, he says, I am the light of the world.
Speaker 1: He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Speaker 1: John Eight, 36 says, if the son sets you free, you will be free.
Speaker 1: Indeed.
Speaker 1: He is the one who sets us free.
Speaker 1: John Ten, nine.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the door.
Speaker 1: If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
Speaker 1: John Eleven, 25.
Speaker 1: He claims to be the resurrection and the life, the one who believes in me, even the one who believes in me will live even though they die.
Speaker 1: Acts 10, 42, he is the one who got appointed as the judge of the living and the dead.
Speaker 1: Philippians two, chapter 11 tells us that he is the Lord of all, at the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Every knee will bow and those are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.
Speaker 1: Colossians 1:16 through 17 years, creator.
Speaker 1: Overall, all things have been created through him and for him.
Speaker 1: He is before all things and in him all things hold together.
Speaker 1: Revelation 17, 14 says they will wage war against the lamb and the lamb will overcome them because he is the Lord of Lords and the king of kings and those who are with him are called and chosen and faithful.
Speaker 1: And then finally in revelation 22 verse 13, Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Speaker 1: The Jesus Christ is everything.
Speaker 1: He is everything that we could ever need.
Speaker 1: He is the living water.
Speaker 1: He is all that matters in this life.
Speaker 1: Do you have that living water today, this morning?
Speaker 1: It's.
Speaker 1: We know, we all know that we're in a time of transition.
Speaker 1: We as a church, we know that the Lord is really digging the wells or church.
Speaker 1: We know that the Lord is digging new wells of fresh water in our church.
Speaker 1: And so the question that I think we all need to ask ourselves this morning in regards to our church is, do we see this as a great opportunity to experience the living water of God, to overflow in our church, to allow God to use us to dig new?
Speaker 1: That we've never seen before in our church, or do we just see this as something that's getting in the way of where we actually want to be?
Speaker 1: Do we see this as something that's just messing up what we want?
Speaker 1: In the end, you see, there's two very different ways to look at this time of transition in our church.
Speaker 1: How are you seeing it this morning?
Speaker 1: Digging his hard work.
Speaker 1: Transition is hard work, but it is worth it in the end because of the living water that God will give us, the new wells and rejigging old wells that God will give us and as he digs the wells of our church, God is going to use this process, I believe because his word says that God is going to use this process to spread more living water to more people around us and they got, I believe, is going to do some things that we have never seen in the history of central church.
Speaker 1: I believe that God is going to do some things.
Speaker 1: It's a new work that we could never even imagine if we trust him and we follow him as Isaac has done in the midst of difficult times.
Speaker 1: So at believers this morning and on an individual basis and your personal life, what do you need to allow the Lord to reading this morning?
Speaker 1: We all have something.
Speaker 1: There's none of us who are exempt.
Speaker 1: We all can be more like Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: We all have areas that God needs to really dig in our lives.
Speaker 1: You know, uh, even though I gave you some pictures of food and a lot of, you're probably hungry like me right now, uh, and you're probably going to be tempted to leave early to go get lunch.
Speaker 1: I'm pleading with you to stay this morning for this time of invitation.
Speaker 1: Will you stay for this time of invitation and really use it for what it's meant for.
Speaker 1: The invitation is a time for us after we've heard the word of God, it's a time for us to listen to what God is saying to us.
Speaker 1: And I asked him how he wants us to respond.
Speaker 1: It's a time for us to reflect on what he said in his word and be willing and obedient and humble enough to say, okay, God, here I am.
Speaker 1: How do you want me to respond to what you've said to me in your word today?
Speaker 1: What is it in my life that needs to change?
Speaker 1: What is it in my life that needs to be reevaluated so this time is so important for us this morning?
Speaker 1: I'll ask those of you that know Christ.
Speaker 1: Are you willing to just come meet me at the altar?
Speaker 1: I'm going to be down here and doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: Just come and ask the Lord, say, God, here I am.
Speaker 1: What do you want to say to me this morning?
Speaker 1: You know, there's the ultra.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it gets a stigma, like if I go up there, then maybe somebody's going to think I have this terrible secrets in that nobody knows about, but that's not what it's about.
Speaker 1: It's about coming before God and just saying putting feet to our, to our action or to our heart and to what God's saying to us and coming forward and just saying, God, here I am.
Speaker 1: What do you want to say to me this morning?
Speaker 1: I'm available.
Speaker 1: I'm yours.
Speaker 1: I'm going to.
Speaker 1: I'll do whatever you say to do.
Speaker 1: Are you willing to come this morning and just with that state of humility in your heart, some of you that can't come to the and do that, maybe just in your chair there, you can do the same thing this morning.
Speaker 1: I believe it is.
Speaker 1: Are you willing to ask the question, what needs to be re dug in my life, but also what new wells is God wanting to dig in my life?
Speaker 1: What could I be missing out on if I don't allow God to dig these new wells they wants to dig in my life?
Speaker 1: Are you available this morning believers to those of you that are here this morning that would say, I've never received Christ as my Lord and Savior?
Speaker 1: The first step is allowing God to dig that well in your heart.
Speaker 1: In the first place to allow his living water to come inside of you and flow through your heart and through your life and to bring that joy and that peace and that excitement and passion that we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 1: I can promise you it's the greatest thing that you would ever do.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest decision you could ever make because it's what life truly is all about.
Speaker 1: It's why we were created.
Speaker 1: It's our wired.
Speaker 1: It's exactly what God has created us is to follow him, to serve him, to glorify him and anything outside of that relationship with Jesus Christ will never satisfy you will always leave you hungry and thirsty again.
Speaker 1: You can come today and make that commitment.
Speaker 1: There's going to be leaders at the front here that would love to pray with you and show you how to come to know Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: There's going to be leaders in the back as well and we would love for you to come this morning and make that commitment to follow Christ with your life.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is this morning, I ask that you be obedient to whatever it is that God is saying to you.
Speaker 1: If we're obedient to God and we as Isaac was, when we follow him with whatever he tells us, he is going to do things in our church.
Speaker 1: He's going to do things in our lives that we could never imagine.
Speaker 1: It's not about us at all.
Speaker 1: It's all about him and why were we we were created, which is to glorify him, and so this morning you come in and respond.
Speaker 1: However the Lord leads you as we go into this time of meditation.
Speaker 1: Let's pray together.
Speaker 1: God, we thank you so much for this group of people that are here this morning.
Speaker 1: Lord, we thank you for your word.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 1: I pray all across this room or that your Holy Spirit would fall in this place.
Speaker 1: God, I pray that every heart would be open to whatever it is that you want to say to us this morning.
Speaker 1: Lord, I pray that we would not just hear the word of God, but that we would truly respond to it.
Speaker 1: Lord, whether that's in our hearts at at our seat, whether it's coming to the altar, whether that's going and seeking prayer with someone that's here to pray with us, God, whatever it is that you're calling us to do this morning, God, we just pray that you would just help us be obedient, God, the you would bind the enemy from this place and that your spirit would move in a way that we have not seen God in a long time now that you would move in our church, that you would move in our lives and that any of us in this room that are spiritually dry, Lord, that you would refresh us this morning with your living water.
Speaker 1: The you would refresh us as a church this morning, God with your living water and Lord we pray that you would do what only you can do this morning through your power and your son, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: The spirit would move and we just ask it in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen.