Participants: Pr. Doug Batchelor
Series Code: EG
Program Code: EG002833
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00:09 It's been 2,000 years since the glorious light of the Cross
00:12 illuminated a world veiled in darkness and confusion 00:15 about the character of God. 00:17 And still today, the greatest need of mankind 00:19 is a revelation of God's love as revealed 00:22 in the life of Christ. 00:23 Amazing Facts presents the "Everlasting Gospel" 00:27 with Pastor Doug Batchelor... 00:29 Coming to you each week from Sacramento Central Church 00:31 in sunny California! 00:33 Discover hidden treasures in God's Word today. 00:38 A few weeks ago, I needed to fly down to 00:43 Bakersfield for a meeting and I noticed that an awful lot of 00:53 the reservoirs are low on water and it's easy to see 00:59 from the air because, you know, there you'll have this great big 01:02 brown chasm with a little bit of water at the bottom, 01:08 and you could see what the water level should have been 01:11 because it's just dirt and then you've got the edge of the 01:14 tree line and all this dirt and then a little bit of water 01:17 in the bottom. 01:19 And then one of the members here took the boys and I 01:23 out to Folsom Lake a few weeks ago, 01:26 and it was really accented, now they're not even 01:28 allowing a lot of activities out there because 01:30 there's just not enough water. 01:33 Now that was accented by a string of fires 01:38 that we've had recently in California and I tell you, 01:46 if you've got the combination of low waters and high fires, 01:50 you've got trouble. 01:53 Water is life. 01:58 I was just impressed with the importance of it 02:02 even in the Bible. 02:04 If you're traveling through space, 02:07 what is it that makes our planet stand out 02:10 from all of the other planets? 02:11 That's because two-thirds of the planet is water. 02:16 I was looking at a definition... 02:17 Water - A clear, colorless, odorless, tasteless liquid. 02:23 They say it's tasteless in the definition here, 02:26 but you get thirsty enough, it tastes pretty good. 02:30 H2O - Essential for all plant and animal life, 02:36 and the most widely used of all solvents. 02:40 You know, water is interesting because it occurs in 3 states; 02:45 you've got solid, liquid and gas and all 3 states of water 02:49 occur in this planet. 02:51 Now they have found planets in the solar system 02:54 where there's evidence of water, but they're all frozen. 02:58 But on earth, you can have it in vapor form; 03:01 you can have it in solid form such as ice in the 03:03 arctic regions and of course, liquid form which is what 03:07 gives life to our world. 03:09 Someone had estimated that planet earth has 03:12 approximately 1.4 quadrillion tons, not gallons... 03:18 1.4 quadrillion tons of water! 03:21 What's interesting is, some of the scientists 03:23 are wondering how did it get here? 03:25 They theorize that a storm of comets filled with ice 03:32 struck the planet - billions of years ago, of course. 03:37 But that's not what the Bible says. 03:39 You know, even in the first few pages of the Bible, 03:42 the word "water" appears over 700 times in Scripture. 03:47 From Genesis to Revelation, this is a blue planet, 03:54 and from Genesis to Revelation you can see the evidence 03:57 of water in the Bible more than 700 times. 04:00 For instance, the second verse in the Bible talks about water. 04:05 In the first chapter, in the Bible, 11 times 04:09 there's reference to water. 04:10 I mean, God is creating and where there's no water, 04:14 there's no life! 04:16 I asked them to turn off the air-conditioner for this sermon 04:19 so you'll really appreciate it by the end... 04:24 Water is life - you can find the rivers of God being 04:30 created there in the first chapters of the Bible. 04:32 In chapter 2, it says, "From Eden, there flowed a river" 04:36 Evidently, this one river irrigated all of the planet, 04:40 and it divides into 4 parts; 04:42 that was, of course, before the flood. 04:44 Now when you read in the Bible about the journeyings of 04:50 the children of Israel, water is especially important. 04:55 I don't know if any of you have been to Israel... 04:58 At one time it was called a land flowing with milk and honey 05:03 But sometimes deserts move, they migrate. 05:08 As-a-matter-of-fact, parts of the Sahara right now, 05:11 the biggest desert in the world, they find evidence 05:15 that at one time, it was a land rich in water. 05:17 They find engravings, they find places where 05:20 flocks and herds were. 05:21 They find the bones of animals and evidence of swamps 05:25 that have disappeared. 05:26 And it was once lush, full of vegetation and now it's desert. 05:31 The land of Israel has experienced this desertification 05:36 that's a hard word to say. 05:38 A land once flowing with milk and honey 05:41 turned into a desert. 05:42 You know there's a number of reasons for that. 05:44 As you cut down the vegetation, it attracts less moisture 05:50 in clouds from over the ocean. 05:52 You know at one time, there was a Muslim king and he taxed 05:59 the people in Israel based upon 06:02 how many trees they had on their property. 06:04 Now if you're a landowner and you don't want to pay taxes, 06:07 what would you do? 06:09 They decimated the trees in the country, 06:13 and the Romans, when they conquered Israel 06:15 in order to teach them a lesson, they sowed it with salt. 06:19 And so, basically it was like spraying Roundup on the country. 06:23 It killed a lot of the vegetation; 06:25 the trees were cut down and it turned what was once 06:27 a land flowing with milk and honey into a desert. 06:31 But even back in the time of Abraham, 06:35 it was a fairly dry country in the summertime... 06:39 something like California if you wanted to get the idea. 06:43 And especially in the Sinai wilderness; 06:46 when the Lord brought the children of Israel 06:48 through that desert, water was very important. 06:52 The first thing the children of Israel did as they left Egypt 06:55 is they went through the waters. 06:58 That was a symbol of baptism. 07:01 This is typifying that for the Christian, 07:04 when you leave the slavery of the devil, 07:07 one of the first things we do is we go through the water 07:10 because water is a cleansing agent, 07:12 we'll talk more about that later. 07:14 They went through the sea. 07:15 They were baptized in the sea. 07:18 And then they came into this great desert, 07:20 and evidently they had to haul a certain amount of water 07:23 with them when they left Egypt knowing that they were 07:25 going on a journey; it's always a good idea 07:27 to have water with you, but water is life. 07:31 Turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 15:22 07:35 You can read about this first 07:36 experience of a miracle of water. 07:41 "So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, 07:46 and they went out into the Wilderness of Shur; 07:50 And they went 3 days in the wilderness and found no water." 07:57 Now I can appreciate what that must have been like... 08:00 I used to live in a desert and I've actually been lost 08:03 in deserts more than once. 08:05 I'm not bragging about that because it doesn't make 08:08 me sound very intelligent. 08:11 I remember one occasion, living in the mountains above 08:15 Palm Springs, I went hiking with a friend and he used to 08:18 always have a big old jug of water in his backpack. 08:21 And so we took off and I had a little backpack, 08:24 he had a backpack and we went hiking all through the desert. 08:26 We were looking for some new trails to from Tahquitz Canyon 08:28 over to Chino Canyon; dry, desert mountain and 08:32 we used to see how tough one another was and whoever 08:37 could go the longest without asking for a drink of water, 08:39 that meant you were tough! 08:41 And so, after hiking for hours without stopping for a drink, 08:45 finally I couldn't take it any more and said, "Okay I give in." 08:48 "Let's get a drink." 08:49 He said, "All right, well I was wondering 08:51 when you were going to say so." 08:54 And I kind of looked at him and he looked at me 08:56 and I said, "Well, I didn't bring the water, 08:57 you always have the gallon jug of water, I got some food." 09:00 He said, "I didn't bring any water, 09:01 I thought you had the water." 09:04 And so we're out there in this desert, just totally parched, 09:08 and out of water. 09:10 And so then we thought, well, we're in trouble, 09:12 we had food and no water. 09:14 Well, we thought this canyon over here probably has some 09:18 water in it, so we thought we'd go to this other canyon which 09:21 was in the other direction of where we knew there water was 09:24 because it was shorter. 09:25 We got there - there was no water. 09:27 And now we're really thirsty and it's the middle of the day, 09:31 in the summer, in the mountains above Palm Springs 09:33 it gets over 120 degrees! 09:35 And, this is just one day no water. 09:39 You know, they say you can live 40 days without food. 09:42 One man on a hunger strike in Ireland, went 80 days 09:44 before he died from no food. 09:47 You can live about 3 days with no water, 09:49 and that's if you're still and you're shaded. 09:52 One man in Mexico caught in an earthquake lived 9 days 09:55 without water but he was in a moist area. 09:58 But if you're in the hot desert, you can die in half a day. 10:03 It just sucks the water right out of your body. 10:06 They had no water and there are people of cattle 10:09 that drink water and they knew they were going to die, 10:12 they're cattle were going die and so they came to Marah. 10:17 They came to the springs, but they couldn't drink the water 10:21 because it was bitter. 10:22 It was either an alkali or a sulfur springs, 10:25 but something that made it bitter. 10:27 Riding around in the deserts of Nevada, 10:29 every now and then, you'll find one of these springs, 10:31 and they will even have a history marker there by it 10:33 ... how the wagon trains would come across and it would be 10:36 bad or poison water - you can't drink it! 10:38 What a disappointment to be that thirsty, 10:41 to find some vegetation and think, 10:44 Oh, there's a spring there, there's an oasis, 10:46 and to go there and to dip in and just spit it out! 10:49 As much as you want to drink it, you know it will kill you. 10:51 Like people who are lost out in the ocean, 10:53 and they're floating in water and they can't drink 10:55 the sea water - dying of thirst out there in the ocean. 11:00 And so the people cried out and they didn't know what to do! 11:03 So Moses prayed to the Lord and the Lord showed 11:07 showed him a tree. 11:09 Now we don't know exactly what the tree was. 11:12 God turned those bitter waters to sweet water. 11:16 And that may have been an Acacia tree like this one here 11:19 that they find out in the Sinai deserts. 11:21 It doesn't tell us what tree because I think it's 11:23 more important that tree was a symbol of something. 11:25 When you read "tree" in the Bible, Jesus died on a tree. 11:30 It says in Acts 2, "Whom ye hung upon 11:34 the tree," - that's crucifixion, 11:37 "In order to see Jesus, Zacchaeus climbed the tree." 11:40 "That tree cast in the water," represents the cross of Christ 11:44 that makes that which is bitter sweet! 11:47 And it says, "He cast His tree in the water, 11:51 and the waters were healed and they were made 11:54 not just drinkable; they were made sweet. 11:57 That doesn't mean it turned into Kool-Aid but it was sweet, 12:02 clear water that they could drink. 12:05 It makes me think of the story in the Bible when there was a 12:08 famine in the land and they had this spring that they 12:11 couldn't do anything with it because it was bitter 12:14 alkali water and Elisha put some salt in there and those 12:18 bitter waters remained sweet, 12:19 and I've drunk from that spring there, it's still running today 12:22 there outside of Jericho. 12:24 So God healed the waters. 12:27 Now that's not the only experience the children of 12:30 Israel had when they were dying from thirst. 12:33 Back in 1921, the British used to own the country 12:36 that we call "Palestine." 12:38 Now Palestine really has nothing to do with the Arabs that 12:42 live there today. 12:44 The real Palestinians are Philistines. 12:47 As-a-matter-of-fact, the name "Palestine" 12:49 comes from the word "Philistine." 12:51 It was the land of the Philistines. 12:53 The people that we call "Palestinians" today 12:55 are not really Philistines, they're Arabs 12:58 that live in that land. 13:00 But in the country, before it was divided, 13:04 the British occupied the land of Palestine, 13:08 and what we call Israel today. 13:12 And a unit of soldiers in 1921 got lost in a terrible sandstorm 13:19 ... it's a true story, we've used it as an amazing fact 13:21 before.. out in the wilderness there, out in the desert. 13:25 And they wandered for days, they ran out of water, 13:28 they were dying of thirst 13:30 and in desperation, they said, "Let's see if we could 13:32 dig in the sand and find some water." 13:34 And so they dug and they dug, but they came up dry, 13:37 there was nothing there. 13:39 And as they were about ready to completely give up, 13:41 one of the soldiers, looking off in the distance, 13:44 he saw this great rock outcropping and he said, 13:48 "You know, this is the country that the children of Israel 13:51 wandered in and I remember reading in the Bible, 13:55 when I was a boy, that Moses struck a rock 13:58 and water came out. 14:00 He said, "We might find some water in those rocks over there. 14:04 And they stumbled over to this rock outcropping 14:07 and one of them still had a pick and they began to pick away. 14:11 And you might think - This is a crazy thing to do, 14:13 but when you're desperate, and you're dying, 14:16 you'll try anything and they began to pray, 14:18 and they began to pick just into the rock out in the desert. 14:22 And would you believe, that they chipped off some of that 14:24 limestone rock and all of a sudden, water began to seep out. 14:30 And those men were able to get enough water out of that rock 14:34 to revive them all and keep them alive. 14:37 You know, it doesn't take a lot of water, 14:40 if it's steady, to keep you alive. 14:44 I'll tell you, a little later, about digging springs 14:46 out in the hill - I've got a neighbor that was 14:48 so excited, he started digging around and he found 14:51 this little seepage coming out of the ground and he was 14:54 able to capture that and he ran it from a pipe 14:56 and he ran it into a jug and it came to about 1 gallon a minute. 15:01 Now that may not sound like a lot, when you turn on your 15:04 spigot at your house, it runs a lot faster 15:07 than a gallon a minute but if you get 1 gallon a minute, 15:11 if you get 1/2 a gallon a minute, 15:14 you get 700 gallons a day, actually more 15:16 than 700 gallons a day. 15:18 One gallon a minute is about 1,440 gallons a day. 15:21 Now do you use 1,440 gallons a day? 15:25 Can you see how just a little bit, a little trickle of water 15:29 in the desert, if it's constant, 15:31 it can keep a whole unit of soldiers alive. 15:35 They did that, they picked there and they found the water 15:38 and it kept them alive and that brings us to our 15:39 other story about water from a rock. 15:43 Turn in your Bibles to Exodus 17:1 15:45 This was not the only time that they needed water 15:49 out there in the desert. 15:53 Exodus 17- "Then all the congregation of the 15:59 children of Israel set out on their journey 16:01 from the Wilderness of Sin according to the 16:04 commandment of the Lord. 16:05 And then camped in Rephidim, but there was no water 16:09 for the people to drink." 16:11 "Therefore, the people contended with Moses and they said, 16:14 "Give us water that we might drink," 16:16 and Moses said to them, "Why do you contend with me? 16:19 Why do you tempt the Lord?" 16:21 "And the people thirsted there for water and the people 16:24 murmured against Moses, and they said, 16:26 "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to kill us 16:28 and our children and our livestock with thirst?" 16:31 "And Moses cried out to the Lord." 16:34 So when they needed water, you notice what they do? 16:37 Twice now it says, "They cried out to the Lord." 16:40 This is going to make sense before we're done. 16:43 So Moses cried out to the Lord saying, "What shall I do with 16:46 this people; they're almost ready to stone me?" 16:49 "And the Lord said to Moses, "Go before the people and 16:52 take with you some of the elders of Israel; 16:54 Also take in your hand, the rod with which you 16:58 struck the river and go and behold I will stand before you 17:03 there on the rock in Horeb and you shall strike the rock 17:07 and water will come out of it that the people might drink" 17:11 "And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, 17:16 so he called the name of the place "Massah and Meribah" 17:20 because of the contention of the children of Israel 17:22 because they tempted the Lord saying, 17:24 "Is the Lord among us or not?" 17:27 They were questioning God was among them because 17:29 they were dying of thirst. 17:30 You know sometimes you get thirsty and it doesn't mean 17:33 the Lord is not with you - What do you need to do? 17:35 You need to pray for the water. 17:38 You know this is interesting because it makes me think 17:41 of that verse in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 10, 17:44 it talks about Moses striking the rock and water 17:47 coming out of a rock and it says in 1 Corinthians 10:4... 17:51 "And they all drank the same spiritual drink; 17:55 For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them... 17:59 The rock that followed them? 18:02 ... And that Rock was Christ." 18:04 Now what does this mean? 18:05 The rock that Moses struck - did he find some boulder 18:08 out there in the wilderness and he struck it? 18:10 And water came out of that rock and as they went from 18:12 place to place somehow, they hoisted this rock 18:15 with them or maybe the rock rolled and it followed them? 18:20 You know, most scholars don't 18:22 think that's what it's talking about. 18:23 When it says, "the rock that followed them" 18:26 it's talking about the water that 18:28 came from this rock followed them. 18:30 Adam Clarke in his commentary, sums up what the Jews believed. 18:34 The ancient Jews believed the streams followed them 18:38 in all their journeying. 18:39 So Moses struck that rock and as they journeyed 18:43 through the wilderness, miraculously, the stream just 18:45 continued to follow them wherever they went 18:48 there was the water that was flowing from God. 18:51 It failed one time and God gave them the opportunity 18:55 to see if they trust, but they lost faith again 18:57 and they complained and that's when Moses got upset, 19:00 and he struck the rock twice when he was only 19:03 supposed to speak to it. 19:04 But the rest of the time, God had this stream evidently 19:08 following them through the wilderness. 19:11 It says, "When they came to the camp, the waters formed 19:14 themselves into cisterns and pools and the rulers of the 19:17 people guided them by their staves into rivulets 19:20 into the various tribes and the families, 19:23 and this is the sense that they get in Numbers 21:17 19:26 where it says, "Spring up oh well." 19:29 Wherever you go, wouldn't it be nice to know that 19:32 you got rivers of water following you. 19:35 And the Bible says in Psalm 1, "Blessed is the man that 19:38 walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, 19:43 nor stands in the path of sinners, 19:45 nor sits in the seat of the scornful, 19:47 but his delight is in the law of the Lord. 19:50 In his law, he meditates day and night. 19:52 He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water 19:56 that brings forth its fruit in season." 19:59 A man of God is like what? 20:01 Someone who is planted by the waters. 20:04 What does the Good Shepherd do? 20:06 Psalm 23:2... "The Lord is my Shepherd, 20:09 I shall not want; He makes me to lie down in 20:12 green pastures. 20:13 He leads me besides the still waters." 20:18 You know, water cleanses and it protects us. 20:22 Water cleanses - that's what baptism is a symbol of. 20:27 People go down in the water and it's a symbol of the old 20:30 life is washed away. 20:31 And it's also a symbol of new birth because water 20:33 not only cleanses, water protects. 20:36 Your brain is encased in a meninges of water, 20:41 and it's protected - that's why you get bumped on the head 20:43 ... with a normal bump, you'll be able to resist it 20:46 because that water is protecting and the water cleanses. 20:50 It's a solvent that purifies. 20:53 And all this ties together because Jesus says 20:56 that he's offering us that living water. 20:58 Christ is that Water that cleanses. 21:02 He is that Water that protects. 21:04 You know, in the Bible, meetings often happened at water. 21:09 I think it's interesting that you find the story of 21:15 ... where was it that Rebecca was tested 21:19 to be a mother in Israel? It was at the well. 21:23 And the test was... Will she give a drink to me, 21:27 and will she water the camels? 21:29 That's what Eliezer set out. 21:30 It was a test about giving water. 21:34 She was a type of the church there. 21:36 The church is supposed to dispense the living water 21:39 to a thirsty world. Amen? 21:42 Where does Moses find his wife? It's at a well. 21:47 The shepherds were striving with the daughters of Jethro, 21:51 and Moses delivered them and he helped them water their flocks. 21:55 How is it that Jacob meets Rachel there at a well? 22:00 He uncovers the mouth of the well 22:06 that their sheep might get their water. 22:08 And then Jesus meets the Samaritan woman 22:10 there by the well. 22:12 We'll talk about that, John 4:7... 22:18 This was in our Sabbath School lesson too, 22:21 but I didn't plan it that way. 22:24 "A woman of Samaria came to draw water, 22:26 and Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." 22:30 You know, it's interesting that Jesus would say, 22:32 "Give Me a drink." 22:33 Is Jesus thirsty? 22:36 What is it that satisfies Him? 22:40 That His people might dispense living water to others. 22:43 You remember, after this woman accepts Jesus, 22:45 and brings others to Him, He tells the disciples, 22:47 "I've got food and water that you don't know about." 22:50 It satisfies Jesus. 22:52 When He was on the cross, what did He say? 22:54 He was thirsty. 22:58 She said, "Why are you, a man who is a Jew, 23:02 asking me, a woman of Samaria, for a drink of water? 23:04 We're not supposed to have any dealings with each other." 23:07 He said, "Oh but if you knew who I was, 23:08 you'd ask from Me, living water." 23:10 She's still thinking about the earthly kind of water 23:13 that I've been talking about so far and He's now 23:15 transitioning to a different kind of water. 23:18 "Bless is he who hungers and thirsts after righteousness." 23:25 Are you thirsty? What is Jesus thirsty for? 23:28 Righteousness among His people. 23:30 "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." 23:35 Are you thirsting for that like you're thirsty for water? 23:39 How bad do you want it? 23:42 Do you ever have that longing? 23:44 Do remember when David was in the cave of Adullam, 23:47 and you feel sorry for David because here, he was a shepherd; 23:51 as a boy he had lived out in the open fields, 23:53 he was able to freely - whenever he was thirsty, he'd just run, 23:56 and he'd dropped this bucket down into to the well of 23:58 Bethlehem - he'd get himself as 24:00 much as he could possibly drink and that well is 24:02 still there today in Bethlehem. 24:04 And now he's running from King Saul and he's living in a 24:07 dark cave and he's out in the badlands where they've 24:11 got the bad water. 24:13 And one day, he just longingly says, 24:16 "Oh, if I could have a drink of water from the 24:17 well of Bethlehem." 24:19 Just kind of talking out loud... 24:22 Three of his soldiers, they loved David so much, 24:24 they went all night long to the City of Bethlehem 24:28 where the Philistines had a garrison, 24:31 a contingent of soldiers there and they fought their way 24:34 past the soldiers; 2 of them cutting and slashing 24:39 and they lowered down this pitcher and filled it back up 24:42 and brought it back to David risking their lives, 24:44 just because he was longing for a drink of water from that well. 24:50 Have you ever been somewhere where the water is bad 24:53 and you miss the water that's good? 24:56 You know one of the things that I do as 24:59 I travel around, I drink a lot of water! 25:02 And when I go to a hotel in the town, 25:05 I take the hotel cup that they provide, 25:07 I understand that's not always safe, 25:10 and I taste their tap water. 25:13 Believe it or not, some of the cities that are tested 25:15 with the best water, you wouldn't think so, 25:16 New York City - supposed to have comparatively good water. 25:20 You would think it would be terrible there. 25:22 And there are some places, you drink the water 25:24 and ohhh - it either tastes like copper 25:27 or it tastes like sulfur. 25:28 Have you ever been to some of those places 25:30 where the water smells like rotten eggs? 25:32 Or have you been to those places where people got water 25:34 in the bathtub and all the appliances are brown 25:37 because there's so much iron in the water... 25:39 and it always tastes like you're drinking rust. 25:43 And you put up with that for a while and you'll start 25:45 longing like David for a drink of the water from Bethlehem. 25:50 And you know, when his soldiers brought him that water, 25:52 he dumped it out. 25:54 He said - You risked your life to get this for me, 25:56 I'm not going to encourage that, this is an offering to the Lord. 25:59 And, they loved David for that because he didn't want them 26:04 to jeopardize their lives for him. 26:08 So here, Jesus is saying - I'm willing to give you 26:11 this living water. 26:15 Some of you were at Redwood Camp Meeting, 26:16 you heard me tell this story. 26:18 On my way to Redwood Camp Meeting a few weeks ago, 26:21 I was driving up this long stretch of road between 26:26 Ukiah and Willits, there's a big, long hill there. 26:29 Halfway up the hill, I saw this man... 26:32 He looked like an older man because he had gray hair 26:33 and a gray beard, a little bit heavy, had a jacket on, 26:38 and it was one of these 100 degree days, 26:40 and he's walking up hill. 26:42 And I thought... You know I often pick up 26:44 hitchhikers - I thought he probably needs a ride 26:46 because this is no town, I know the area. 26:47 There's nothing between those 2 cities. 26:50 But I was in the wrong lane to pull over, 26:52 and there were truck-cars around, I couldn't pull over, 26:54 and so I went zipping on by and I said - 26:56 Well, maybe someone will give him a ride... 26:58 And the Lord said, "Doug," 27:00 I said, Lord, "I'm going to camp meeting, I'm late." 27:04 "Doug," I didn't hear it audibly, 27:08 but you know what I mean. 27:10 And I said, "Well, but Lord this is concrete barrier, 27:12 I don't know where I'm going to turn around." 27:13 There was a concrete thing between the lanes, 27:15 you can't just flip a U-ey. 27:17 And so I thought, all right, I'm not going to be happy 27:20 unless I do and so I go up the road, I keep waiting, 27:23 I had to go up the road quite a ways and finally I found a 27:25 turnaround and I turned around, I came back 27:27 and I saw the guy but now there's still a concrete barrier 27:30 and I thought - Oh man, I don't know how far... 27:32 I had to go like 2.5-3 miles down the road 27:34 before I could find another turnaround to pick this guy up. 27:37 I know I'll probably get no credit from God for this, 27:41 because I'll telling everybody else... 27:43 So you know, if you have your reward, this is it. 27:46 And so, I'm going to milk it for all I can... 27:49 So I went all the way down 3 miles, turned around 27:53 and came back up again and sure enough the guy was there, 27:56 I pulled over and boy, he was happy. 27:57 And it wasn't a real safe spot to pull over; 27:59 fortunately there was no traffic now. 28:01 He jumped in the car and the first thing he said... 28:04 He didn't tell me where he was going; 28:06 he didn't tell me who he was; 28:08 he said - "Do you have any water?" 28:10 And I could see the guy was red in the face and he was 28:13 perspiring; he was older and he had forgotten to take 28:16 water with him and he was walking uphill with all 28:18 his clothes on - he had a jacket and everything, 28:22 and I thought - "Well, I do," but under my armrest I keep 28:26 2 of those little plastic, about half the size of one of these. 28:30 I felt bad - I didn't have anything more. 28:32 And I said, "Well I do," and I gave that to him 28:35 and it wasn't as much as he wanted but he just 28:38 sucked that down in one drink. 28:40 And God told me to turn around and pick this guy up. 28:45 And, he told me that he was a Christian; 28:48 he was on his way to a mission and he said he was dying of 28:53 thirst - he said, "I was praying that somebody would 28:56 pick me up that could give me a drink of water." 28:59 And that's why I felt that strong impression that I 29:03 was supposed to turn around and give this guy a drink! 29:05 If Jesus knows when we're physically thirsty and He cares; 29:10 if we pray and God cares about taking care of our thirst, 29:13 if He's willing to make water come out of a rock for soldiers, 29:16 then does He care if we're spiritually thirsty? 29:20 Which thirst is more important? 29:22 You know, they say that as you get older, 29:27 the mechanism that helps you know that you're thirsty, 29:31 doesn't operate as effectively, and sometimes you'll 29:35 see people who are older and their lips are dry 29:37 and they forget to drink. 29:39 You need to drink even if you don't feel like it. 29:43 And that's also true of living water, 29:45 you need to discipline yourself to drink water every day. 29:49 The first thing I do when I get up is I heat up water, 29:52 and I drink water and I drink several glasses of water. 29:55 First thing I do is I go into the bathroom, I drink water, 29:57 I go downstairs, I drink more water and I try to tank-up 29:59 for the day because you kind of dehydrate, 30:01 especially in a dry climate, during the night. 30:04 And even if I don't feel thirsty, 30:06 I know how much I need and I make myself drink it. 30:09 I keep bottles in my car; I got them in my drawer 30:13 at the office; we keep them here at the church. 30:15 Just before I went on the platform, I said, 30:16 "Helen, get me some water." 30:17 I wanted to be able to have you at least see that. 30:22 You need to also discipline yourself about 30:25 the spiritual water. 30:27 You may not know how thirsty you are. 30:29 You might be thirstier... as-a-matter-of-fact, I can 30:31 almost guarantee you need more than you're drinking. 30:35 Have you ever heard someone tell you that before? 30:36 They say you need - what is it, 3 liters of water a day? 30:40 And of course, if you're in drier climates, 30:42 I'm sure you need more. 30:43 You need more spiritual water that you probably think. 30:46 Jesus said if you invite Him into your heart, 30:50 He actually provides an artesian source of 30:53 water that will spring up. 30:55 Artesian wells are the best kind of wells. 30:59 You know I like reading the stories in the Bible 31:02 about when God provided His living water. 31:08 In John 4:13- Jesus said to the woman, 31:12 "Whoever drinks this water will thirst again, 31:15 but whoever drinks the water that I will give him 31:18 will never thirst; but the water that I will 31:20 give him will become in him a fountain of water 31:22 springing up into everlasting life. 31:25 You know, most water needs to be pumped or drawn, 31:28 but it's really something when you find artesian water 31:31 where it bubbles up to the surface. 31:33 Jeremiah 2- He says here in verse 13, 31:38 "For My people have committed two evils; 31:42 They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water..." 31:45 And that word "living water there means "springing water." 31:49 "And they've dug out cisterns for themselves, 31:52 cracked cisterns that can hold no water..." 31:55 You know, this is a problem is we all need that water, 31:58 and Jesus is the living water. 31:59 We're trying to get it by manual effort, 32:02 and He's offering it by divine. 32:05 We try to dig it and it's so wonderful if you can have it 32:08 come on its own. 32:09 You know, this has been of great interest to me... 32:14 You may not get anything out of this sermon, 32:15 but it's really interesting to me because 32:18 I've been thinking so much about water power. 32:21 All the years up there at our place in Covelo, 32:24 we've had solar power. 32:26 We've never really been able to have water power. 32:29 We tried it once, but 12 volt alternator turning a little 32:33 Pelton wheel because you lose so much electricity 32:36 with 12 volts - you get very far from your house, the voltage 32:40 drops - I tried it for a year and it just didn't work. 32:44 But they now came out with 110 volt alternator 32:49 and a little Pelton wheel and I've ordered one. 32:53 And we got lots of water but it's at the house, 32:56 and it runs away from the house, 32:58 but now we can run water 1/4 mile away from the house, 33:02 and just the natural flow of that water, 33:05 without it being pumped, is going to turn the 33:08 Pelton wheel that will provide 33:09 112 volts for the cabin in the winter. 33:11 Solar power is great in the summer, 33:14 but in the winter, you got weeks with no sun, 33:16 and you got to run a generator for power. 33:19 This gives you a power of natural water - it wonderful! 33:22 Most of the power in California comes from hydropower. 33:27 I don't know, it's kind of nuclear and hydro, I think. 33:30 But it's wonderful with just the power of water, 33:33 the gravity of water gives you power! 33:36 Jesus is offering us this naturally-powered water. 33:40 So I've been thinking so much about water lately... 33:43 Then my friend told me, he dug and he found this spring. 33:46 Kind of made me want to go and start digging. 33:50 So while I was up there this week, I talked to my 33:53 buddy, Dave, and he knows our place pretty well, 33:56 he said, "Doug, you know, you got a patch of berries 33:58 that's been there for 30 years, 34:01 and wherever you've got this spring grass, 34:02 there's probably water there," and I said, 34:03 "Aw, I've seen that and it's never gotten to be anything 34:05 more than just mud." 34:07 Well I was talking to some friends and something 34:10 interesting happened - All these fires in 34:12 northern California - he said, "Springs that have not 34:17 run for years, have started running in the places that have 34:21 burned." Did ya catch me? 34:24 Springs - fire goes over some hills and all of a sudden 34:29 the springs start running. 34:30 He said, "What happens is there are springs in the hills, 34:33 but when there's water, vegetation starts to grow, 34:38 and the more and more of these trees and these plants 34:40 and things begin to grow down around the springs, 34:42 and they send their roots down sometimes hundreds of feet down, 34:45 and they're sapping up gallons of water every day, 34:49 and you get an acre of land of trees and vegetation just 34:52 soaking up all the water, it never reaches the surface, 34:55 and all the trees die, they stop drinking and the 34:58 springs have no where to go, they start bubbling up again." 35:02 He said, "The water is there, you just have to dig for it." 35:06 So I thought, "Well, I've got to try this." 35:08 By the way, let me pause on that point for a second, friends 35:10 Some of you are dry right now in your lives 35:14 because there are too many weeds 35:16 that are growing around the spring, 35:17 and nobody knows that there's any water in there 35:21 because it's getting all soaked up by these other things, 35:23 and you might need a fire to go through and clean it off 35:27 so those springs begin to flow again. 35:28 Sometimes God allows us to go through fiery trials 35:32 in order to get the water running again - 35:34 did you catch that? 35:37 And so I thought, "Wow, I'm going to go check that out." 35:41 And so I'm just talking 2 days ago, 35:42 so I'm really excited about this. 35:44 This happened after I picked the sermon title, 35:46 but I thought that was providential. 35:49 Dave said, "Doug, you ought to check that out." 35:51 And I called him up and I said, "You got a couple of hours 35:52 ... let's go see." 35:54 I got a backhoe and drove the backhoe... 35:57 This berry patch has been there 30 years - 35:59 it was there hundreds of years, I never checked. 36:02 It's above the house - if you find water running 36:05 above the house, it's pretty exciting. 36:07 So I started digging - that's me digging. 36:09 Dave also helped me dig. 36:11 And first, we had to clear out the berries, 36:14 got to get rid of the vegetation, 36:15 we scraped all that off. 36:17 There were some fir trees around there, 36:18 they weren't too big and so we pushed them over. 36:20 I got a lot of fir trees, so don't talk 36:22 to me later about it - I'm not a tree-hugger. 36:25 And see all the trees back there are plenty of trees. 36:28 And so we got rid of the trees 36:29 because they were soaking up the spring. 36:30 Pushed them out of the way, scraped off the surface 36:33 and it was nice - all of a sudden, 36:34 I mean, it's 100 degrees out, this is a dry time of year. 36:37 I saw some wet ground, I thought - wow, this is great! 36:40 So we started digging and pretty soon I found a little bit of mud 36:43 I said, "Oh this is great, we found water." 36:45 And Dave said, "Don't stop there you have to get below 36:49 that layer of clay." 36:50 He said, "There's a layer of rock underneath these hills, 36:53 and if you get into the layer of rock, 36:54 if there is water above it, you get to the layer of rock,." 36:57 So I went down 8 feet; I said, "Look, I see a little 37:00 water." He said, "No, no, keep going." 37:02 And so I kept digging! 37:04 And then, we would take turns, he kept digging. 37:06 And pretty soon, you put your bucket in and it's the 37:09 sweetest sound in the world; it's a slurping sound... 37:15 and you hear that when you're digging a spring, 37:18 that's like the Halleluiah chorus. 37:21 If you're in the dry hills and you're dying of thirst, 37:24 and you hear that, it's a wonderful sound! 37:29 And the bucket went like that and I took picture. 37:31 I was so excited, I wanted to show Karen. 37:33 And I took a picture and the water just began to pour 37:37 into the hole and you're probably thinking, 37:40 "Doug, I don't like you anymore... 37:42 You're just bragging about all your water 37:45 that you got up there in the hills." 37:46 This is good news, friends, I am so excited. 37:50 It just doubles the water flow that could 37:53 go to the Batchelor pad up there in the house. 37:57 And so, just be happy for me. 38:00 I was so excited, I actually - you know what I did, 38:03 I just wanted to see where it was coming from, 38:05 and we dug it even deeper than that and I hopped down 38:08 in the hole - don't ever do that. 38:10 Kids, don't do that at home. 38:13 I got down in this ditch, it was 12 feet deep 38:15 at that point - I wanted to see where is it coming out. 38:18 I want to put my finger in the spot where this miracle 38:20 was happening and I went down and I could see where it was 38:23 gushing out from several places coming into the hole, 38:25 and we took a picture and then I climbed out, 38:28 and a few minutes later, the whole side caved in, 38:31 it would have killed me if I was still in there. 38:34 And so that wasn't very smart 38:36 but you already knew about me, right? 38:38 Anyway, but I got so excited because now we're going to 38:42 end up developing - we know there's water there. 38:44 Once you know there's water there, you can figure it out. 38:46 You'll find a way to get it, we'll take the bulldozer 38:48 or something like that, but it just was so exciting 38:51 to see that water up there in these dry hills, 38:54 especially when there's a drought. 38:57 You know, the Bible tells us in the last days, 38:59 there's going to be a famine. 39:00 What is it that usually brings on a famine? 39:04 It's a drought - the days are coming says the Lord, 39:08 there's going to be a famine - a famine for the Word of God. 39:13 And it's a drought of living water that causes this famine. 39:17 Now, I've talked a lot about water... 39:20 What is the "living water?" 39:23 Is it - you know, we talk in terms, we talk in these symbols, 39:26 what does the Bible say it is? 39:27 Turn with me in your Bibles, John 3:5... 39:37 "Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of the water 39:42 and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." 39:45 How important is water? 39:46 Jesus said, "Unless you are born of the water, 39:48 you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." 39:50 That "being born of the water," has a couple of meanings. 39:54 No, it does not mean being born of a baby. 39:56 Some people think it means coming out of the water 40:00 that a baby is in - the water sac - that's not it because 40:04 why would Jesus say that? 40:06 He that is born of the water... You must be born of the water, 40:08 and born of the Spirit... 40:09 How many here were born of a woman? 40:13 Everybody is born of that water, right? 40:15 It's talking about the cleansing of the Spirit 40:19 on the inside and baptism - the cleansing 40:21 of the Spirit on the outside." 40:22 So it's talking about the new birth and the cleansing. 40:26 Isaiah 44:3... "For I will pour water on him 40:32 that is thirsty and floods on dry ground." 40:34 Have you ever felt dry in your heart? 40:36 "I will pour My Spirit on your descendents 40:41 and My blessing on your offspring." 40:43 So what is this water? 40:44 "I will pour My Spirit..." 40:47 What is it the church is supposed to be praying for 40:49 in the last days? 40:50 You've heard of the former rain... 40:52 We're praying now for the latter rain, 40:56 and that latter rain is that water coming down, 40:58 it represents a rain of what? 41:00 The Holy Spirit being poured out on the church. 41:03 And by the way, back in the days of Elijah, 41:07 the Holy Spirit or the rain came after God's people prayed. 41:12 They humbled themselves 41:14 before the Lord and it's going to happen again. 41:17 John 7:37... This was our Scripture reading. 41:20 "On the last day of the great feast, 41:22 the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and cried out saying, 41:26 "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink; 41:29 He that believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 41:33 out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." 41:37 Rivers of water flowing out, an artesian supply of water! 41:41 "But this He spoke concerning the - you still got your Bibles? 41:46 I'm reading, we stopped there... What is that water? 41:49 "This He spoke concerning the Spirit." 41:52 So that living water is talking about God's Spirit 41:54 inside that refreshes us from within, 41:58 and Jesus picked the optimum time to do this. 42:00 He waited for the "Feast of Tabernacles." 42:02 Now, it's not in the Bible, but the Jews had a custom 42:06 back then, during the feast, where they would draw water 42:09 from the pool of Siloam. 42:11 The pool of Siloam was formed because Hezekiah had dug 42:14 a tunnel - how many of you have heard of Hezekiah's 42:18 tunnel before? 42:20 See, back in Bible times, you could withstand a siege 42:23 for quite a while - they could store food, 42:25 but you had to have water in the city. 42:28 And if your water was outside the wall, 42:30 the enemy would block it and you couldn't get to your water. 42:33 So what Hezekiah had done, he had some brilliant engineers 42:38 that went to the Spring of Gijon outside of Jerusalem, 42:41 and they dug down, down to the source of it. 42:45 They then dug a tunnel; they dug down within the 42:48 City of Jerusalem and they dug toward each other, 42:51 and how they did this back then, with their primitive technology 42:54 is absolutely miraculous. 42:56 We don't know, to this day, how they did it, 42:57 but they had teams going from 2 opposite sides, 43:00 and we can see, right now, where they met 43:02 because the pick marks are going like this in an arc 43:04 on one side and then you can see the pick marks 43:06 going like this in the walls on the other side, 43:09 and finally when they meet, 43:10 they were only off a couple of inches. 43:12 But they managed to meet and know exactly what depth 43:16 and level they were outside the wall and inside the wall, 43:19 and the water began to flow from the spring into the city, 43:22 and it formed the Pool of Siloam... 43:24 And that was like the lifeline of the city 43:27 whenever Jerusalem was besieged was that pool. 43:30 And so, they would take water from the Pool of Siloam, 43:34 and they'd walk up the steps into the temple with trumpets 43:38 playing and the people praising God. 43:40 They put a little bit of grape juice in the water, 43:42 which is interesting - the water and the grape juice from the 43:46 side of Jesus, when He was pierced, what came out? 43:49 Water came from the side of Christ and blood... 43:54 symbolizing that we are washed by these things, 43:58 washed by the blood, washed by the water. 44:00 And then they would pour it out on the alter. 44:03 During that feast where there was this great ceremony 44:06 of water, Jesus speaks these words... 44:09 And He says that He offers us the living water. 44:13 John 7- "If anyone thirsts...?" Who? Anyone! 44:18 Was that just anyone back there then, 44:20 or is that anyone here, today? 44:22 "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink." 44:27 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 44:30 Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." 44:34 And we just quoted that Scripture there in Isaiah 44. 44:37 But He spoke concerning the Spirit. 44:40 If you believe in Him, He can give you that Spirit 44:42 that will cleanse your sins and that joy will be flowing 44:46 out of your heart like it was with the Samaritan woman 44:48 and so many others. 44:49 Isaiah 58:11... "The Lord will guide you 44:51 continually and satisfy your soul in drought; 44:56 And He'll strengthen your bones. 44:58 You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water 45:01 whose waters do not fail." 45:04 You know it's wonderful to know that you've got 45:06 a dependable source of water, 45:08 especially if there's a famine in the land, 45:10 and to have that artesian well to be available. 45:14 You know, back in the days of Abraham, 45:19 everywhere Abraham went, he did two things... 45:21 Do you know what those two things were? 45:26 He built an alter to God and he dug a well. 45:30 And oh, he's a shepherd; he had a household 45:32 with hundreds of servants. 45:33 We know he had 300 that could fight in battles. 45:36 This is actually a picture of a very ancient well 45:39 that's in Beersheba - they call it Abraham's well, 45:41 and to this very day, it's got water down there. 45:44 They argue that it dates back to the time of Abraham, 45:47 and it was one of his wells. 45:48 Well after Abraham died, the Philistines were afraid 45:51 at how powerful he had become; 45:53 they went around and they filled in the wells of Abraham 45:56 with debris, with rocks, with dirt to try to prevent 46:00 the people of Israel from settling in that land. 46:04 And one of the things Isaac did is he went and he 46:07 cleaned out the wells of his father, Abraham. 46:12 Everywhere Isaac went, he cleaned out the wells 46:17 that his father had dug. 46:19 Here you've got Genesis 26:15: 46:23 "The Philistines had stopped up all the wells that his 46:26 father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham, his father, 46:29 and they filled them with earth..." 46:32 Because where there's no water, there's no life; 46:33 trying to drive them away. 46:34 What does the devil do? 46:36 Does he try to plug the wells? 46:38 Does the devil put all of his weeds around the spring 46:41 and try and soak up the water? 46:43 He's trying to keep us thirsty. 46:45 Genesis 26:18... "And Isaac dug again the wells 46:49 of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham, his father. 46:53 For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, 46:56 And he called them by the names that his father had called them; 47:00 And Isaac's servant dug in the valley and they found a well 47:04 of running water there." 47:06 What do you think that means? 47:08 They were digging with their backhoe? 47:11 No, they did it the hard way back then. 47:13 They'd lower a guy by his feet down in the hole. 47:16 He'd chip away until he couldn't stand it anymore, 47:18 and they'd pull him out and they'd get another one. 47:20 Can you imagine them - chip, chip, chip, 47:21 and all of a sudden you hear, gurgle, gurgle and he says, 47:23 "Quick get me out of here," and the water began to rise up 47:27 of its own power and flow out of the well. 47:32 It's wonderful when you get living water. 47:35 It's miraculous - sometimes you wish you had x-ray vision. 47:39 Some people claim to be able to water-witch. 47:42 They walk along with these willow sticks, this iron, 47:45 and they try to say, "Where is the water." 47:47 If you could only know where to dig. 47:50 I'm sensitive about this! 47:52 I know a couple of unscrupulous realtors 47:54 that sold land to people and they said, 47:56 "I'm sure you could put a well in here, 47:57 there's no water on the land, aw, you can put a well in." 47:59 And there was no water and they spent thousands drilling, 48:02 came up dry and I know families that they put every penny 48:06 they had into a piece of land and then every extra penny 48:09 into trying to get a well in and they're now living 48:12 on that land and they're hauling water in barrels 48:15 to wash their dishes, to take their showers 48:17 because there's no water. 48:19 And it's so sad - I mean we take it for granted 48:22 living in a city like this, you turn the spigot, 48:24 it may not always be that way. 48:27 And I think sometimes we take Jesus for granted too, 48:30 and we don't realize what a gift it is to have such 48:33 an abundance of water for life, for our gardens, 48:37 for our yards, for our bodies, for cleansing, for drinking. 48:42 And Jesus says that He is offering us that water. 48:45 The Bible begins by God creating a river in the Garden of Eden 48:49 that irrigated all that life. 48:52 And then, you know, you get to the end of the Bible... 48:55 In Revelation 22, the last chapter 48:58 of the Bible you find this. 49:00 "He showed me a pure river of water of life." 49:04 Water of life... 49:06 Not only is there a Tree of Life, 49:07 there's a Water of Life - Clear as crystal proceeding 49:10 from the throne of God and from the Lamb. 49:12 Water coming from God's throne and from the Lamb. 49:16 "In the middle of its street on either side of it 49:18 was the Tree of Life." 49:20 You know, it says in Isaiah 32:2 "A man will be as a hiding 49:27 place from the wind and a cover from the tempest, 49:30 as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow 49:33 of a great rock in a weary land." 49:35 "A man will be as rivers of water in a dry place." 49:40 So how do we get the living waters? 49:41 You know, there's a story, I just heard it this morning 49:46 on my way to church again. 49:48 H.M.S. Richards, Sr., was sharing. 49:50 I was listening to an old tape, 49:53 and he talked about during the Civil War. 49:57 They had this notorious prisoner of war camp 50:00 that was in Georgia, called Andersonville. 50:02 Have you ever head the history or the story about Andersonville 50:04 It's as bad as any story you've heard, or almost as bad 50:10 of a concentration camp. 50:13 I mean, at this point, at the end of the war in 1865, 50:18 the South had no food for their own soldiers. 50:21 There was really no food for their prisoners of war. 50:25 And they had so many soldiers stacked together 50:28 in Andersonville within this one swampy area that 50:34 they barely had a place to lay down, 50:37 and they were dying like flies. 50:38 There was a stream that came from the hills that kind of 50:43 ran through the camp that really was the sewer 50:46 and that's all they had to drink and finally it dried up. 50:51 And there was this one summer when they were just dying; 50:54 they had no water; they had no food, 50:56 and all those Northern boys gathered together 50:58 and they had a prayer meeting. 51:00 You know, back then a lot of people went to church; 51:03 a lot more than they do today. 51:05 And they all came from homes, different denominations, 51:07 but they believed in God, and they started to pray... 51:11 And it was hot, the ground was dry because of the 51:16 red clay there in Georgia. 51:18 It was filthy and they just said we need water. 51:21 They were dying of thirst and they had a prayer meeting 51:24 specifically praying that God would give them water. 51:27 And right about the time that they were praying, 51:29 a thunderstorm moved into the area and it began to rain. 51:34 Well that was a temporary answer, but during 51:37 the thunderstorm, lightning struck the parade ground 51:41 in the middle of that prison of war camp, 51:43 and where the lightning hit the ground, water began to spring up 51:48 and it's still running today. 51:50 It's called the miracle of Andersonville, 51:52 and it was happening as those soldiers were praying for water. 51:56 Does God still answer prayer? 51:58 If He had saved those British soldiers 52:00 out in the desert when they prayed for water... 52:02 Oh, by the way, we knelt down Thursday and prayed 52:04 before we started digging, that God would help us 52:06 find water and we did - so I'm excited about this! 52:11 I think if the Lord cares about giving us that physical water - 52:15 You know one of the last things Jesus says in the Bible... 52:17 Last chapter in the Bible, Revelation 22:17... 52:22 "Let him who thirsts come; whosoever desires 52:30 let him take the water of life freely." 52:33 Isaiah 55- says, "Ho! Everyone 52:35 who thirsts, Come ye to the waters." 52:37 Jesus is offering living water to everyone, 52:39 and yet people are dying of dehydration spiritually. 52:43 They don't even know it. 52:45 Why will you die? 52:48 Why would you want to be so thirsty? 52:49 If you ask God, He'll give you His Spirit. 52:51 He'll give you that living water. 52:53 He'll give you that cleansing if you pray and you ask Him. 52:56 Does Jesus care if we're thirsty? 52:59 Yes He does - look at all the miracles 53:01 He did to satisfy physical thirst. 53:03 Does He care about our spiritual thirst? 53:05 He'll give you that living water - He said if you ask Him. 53:08 That's what He said to the woman at the well, 53:09 if you ask Him. 53:11 Would you like to ask Him today 53:12 that He gives us that living water. 53:14 Let's stand and we're going to sing together 432, 53:18 I believe that's the right number. 53:22 We're going to sing about "Shall We Gather At The River" 53:25 I'm hoping to gather by that river in heaven, Amen? 53:27 And there are streams that flow today. 53:29 Let's sing this together and then we'll pray. 53:41 Shall we gather at the river 53:46 Where bright angel feet have trod, 53:50 With its crystal tide forever 53:54 Flowing by the throne of God? 53:59 Yes, we'll gather at the river, 54:04 The beautiful, the beautiful river; 54:09 Gather with the saints at the river 54:13 That flows by the throne of God. 54:19 I think there may be some people that are thirsty here today, 54:23 and I'm not just talking about physical thirst. 54:27 I actually went to the store yesterday thought about 54:29 buying a whole pile of the bottled water, 54:32 and having them out in the foyer, 54:35 but I just thought about it, I didn't do it. 54:38 Because I wanted you to tangibly think about 54:42 drinking that spiritual water that Jesus is offering, 54:46 and I wanted to save the environment from all those 54:47 plastic bottles - that's why I didn't get it. 54:51 But there may be some of you here today that 54:54 you sense that inner thirst; you know the need for 54:56 the Holy Spirit. 54:58 Maybe you have not experienced that cleansing that Jesus offers 55:02 ... that new life on the inside. 55:05 Without water, there's no life; it's true in the 55:08 physical world, it's true in the spiritual... 55:10 And you'd like to have special prayer 55:13 that you can receive that living water. 55:14 If you have a need and you'd like to come for prayer, 55:18 why don't you come as we sing verses 2-3 together. 55:23 On the margin of the river, 55:30 Washing up it's silver spray, 55:34 We will walk and worship ever, 55:37 All the happy golden day. 55:43 Yes, we'll gather at the river, 55:47 The beautiful, the beautiful river; 55:52 Gather with the saints at the river 55:57 That flows by the throne of God. 56:03 Soon we'll reach the shining river, 56:08 Soon our pilgrimage will cease, 56:13 Soon our happy hearts will quiver 56:17 With the melody of peace. 56:22 Yes, we'll gather at the river, 56:27 The beautiful, the beautiful river; 56:32 Gather with the saints at the river 56:36 That flows by the throne of God. 56:44 Father in heaven... Lord, we are so thankful 56:49 that You have sent a virtual fire hydrant of water 56:55 into our lives through Jesus. 56:58 Lord, we praise You and we thank You. 57:01 We know that Christ, when His very heart was pierced, 57:03 that water flowed out, that it might irrigate 57:07 the souls of everybody that asks, 57:09 that everybody that believes can have that refreshing. 57:13 Lord, I pray that you'll work that miracle right now; 57:16 do right now, Lord, for those that are here, 57:19 for those that might be listening, 57:21 in opening up the ground and providing water, Lord, 57:25 in a miraculous way. 57:27 You did it for Hagar when she wandered in the wilderness; 57:30 You did it for Samson when he was dying of thirst, 57:34 and we believe that You'll hear our prayer today. 57:36 We pray that You'll send Your Spirit, that living water, 57:39 send the latter rain on Your people. 57:41 There's a famine in the land, Lord, and we need life. 57:44 Bless us in our church and be with each person 57:47 who has come forward with a special request, 57:49 and help them to believe and to experience that refreshing, 57:53 we thank You and we pray, in Jesus name... Amen |
Revised 2014-12-17