Dead Water and Living Water with Pastor Ryan Braley

Amen.

Thank you, Linda.

Let's pray.

God, we give you thanks this morning for your presence here.

As always, God, we recognize that you are here with us in this time and in this place, in this room, and in us and in our neighbor, and we pray that you would come and help us to have eyes to see that and ears to hear it.

Thank you for the story, both these stories of David and of this Samaritan woman at the well, and I pray that, God, you would help it to come alive to us.

All the ways in which these stories have maybe grown old for us, or ways in which we've uh we bring an uninspired self to them.

Would you inspire us to see them in new and fresh ways this morning?

Pray, God, that you would help capture our attention this morning.

Spirit, use something in the songs or the prayers of the sermon or the our neighbor next to us to encounter you in a deep way.

And would you meet our needs, God, so many of us come this morning with so many deep needs and hurts and woundings and burdens and aches and pains and hungers and thirsts, and I pray that you would come and as only you can, would you slake our thirst and satiate and fill our hungry spots?

And I ask God that you would help us to see that you are more than enough for us this morning.

And may we be whole in you.

And uh may you call us forward to yourself this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Well, good morning, everyone.

So, one of the things I love to do here is we love to uh call out our young ones when they do something awesome.

And uh, where's Andrew Schumacher?

Oh, here he comes.

I said, Be ready, Andrew.

You gotta be ready because I'm gonna call you out in the sermon.

So Andrew got his Eagle Scout like a month ago?

Yeah, give him some love.

Yeah, nice work, young man.

So I said, what's next?

The president sees.

He's thinking about it, so uh be praying for it.

So, hey, well done, Andrew.

If you know what it's like to become an Eagle Scout, not many of you will do it, and he's done it, so give that young man a high five.

Also, I'd like to give shout outs to those watching us online.

There's an online watcher all the way from Ohio, and so shout out to Desiree Stolzfust, who got her college degree.

She's 40-something.

I can't say exactly how old she is, but 40-something, and has been working under college degree for over a decade.

I think it's about that.

Maybe forgive me if I'm wrong, Des.

Uh, and also it's my sister.

So congrats, Desiree.

Love you, and way to go.

Uh, single mother of three beautiful young women, and they uh, you know, you know, surviving out there in Ohio, and I keep trying to talk her to moving to Minnesota, God's country, but uh we'll see.

But uh she's worked hard and they watch us almost all the time online, so it's great to have them.

And so if you're a young person and you do something awesome, let us know.

We'd love to give you some love.

And also, if you're online and want to shout out, let us know.

We'd love to have people joining us online.

This morning, I want to talk to you about dead water and living water.

Believe it or not, there's not only one kind of water, there's all kinds of water.

We're in our story, context, and symbol sermon series here at Central.

And it's this is basically how do we how do we uh explore?

I better do a timer here before I forget.

How do we explore text, Bible texts especially?

How do you interpret the Bible?

And this is a simple, three-step way to do it.

Examine first the story.

What's the story?

What's going on?

Where are the people?

What are they saying?

What's happening at that surface level?

Next, what is the context?

What's the context around that verse?

Some people will pull a single verse out of the Bible and hold it up and show you, and it's not a fair way to read or interpret the Bible.

It's just it's sort of like using it for as leverage sometimes, and it's not fair to the whole overall scripture when you pull out one verse.

Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it can be harmful or hurtful or bizarre.

So you want to always examine the context, what's happening around that verse, maybe in the whole chapter, what's the whole book say?

What's the whole book about?

And then also, how does it fit in the overall story of God or the Bible?

And then lastly, where are we in the course of human history that this story takes place?

So, story, context, and then down just a bit deeper is of course symbol.

Now, symbol is this idea that beneath all the story in the text and all that stuff, there are maybe these like symbols that are embedded in the story that point to something much deeper, more nuanced, more complex that's happening in the story that like sort of unlocks a door to a deeper meaning.

It's beautiful.

And there's all kinds of uh symbols, intentional, and by the way, also unintentional.

If you want to get crazy, you can read a book by Carl Jung called Man and His Symbols.

It talks about symbols and how symbols are all around us all the time.

We don't always notice them, but there are these beautiful things that happen, they're almost unconscious many times.

Sometimes they're conscious and intentional.

But so in the Bible, it's full because it's a great ancient text, it's a wise, beautiful book, it's full of symbols.

So this morning we're gonna talk about story, context, and symbol.

Are you ready?

Okay, buckle up.

So, story.

David, now we're in the Old Testament, I'll show you where in a minute.

David is running for his life.

King Saul is chasing after him, wants to kill him.

And David runs out into the desert, the Judean desert, a dangerous, dry, hot, and dusty place to hide from Saul for his life.

And out there, David stumbles upon this oasis called Engedi.

That's the story.

Here's the context.

So here we are in the scripture.

Go ahead from me, Sarah, I believe, right?

Yeah.

So here's a basic Bible timeline.

On the far left is the creation.

Then you have the patriarch and also the matriarch.

You have uh Abraham and Sarah, and then you have the Exodus story.

This is all very in the beginning of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament.

Then you have the conquest, or you know, it's where they move into the land in the promised land.

Then you have judges, which like Israel's early leaders, Ben, preached on Samson a couple weeks ago.

That's where Samson falls.

Then the kingdom.

So we're in the early days of Israel's kingdom.

Israel is just beginning to kind of form itself under the king, uh, under the rulership of a king.

And by the way, many people argue whether or not God wanted them to have a king, in fact.

Some say that God only wanted God to be their king, which is true.

But also in Deuteronomy, if you read Deuteronomy, which is way before, Deuteronomy happens way before, God gives them qualifications for if you're gonna have a king, make the king like this.

And he gives them all kinds of qualities he wants that king to have.

Be good.

Basically, and essentially it's put God first, love God, serve the people.

It's not rocket science.

Uh put it back up for me, Sarah.

Sorry.

Then after the kingdom, uh, then you get the exile, the return from exile, then there's the silent years, then of course Jesus shows up.

I know you know this, but just so you know, in the New Testament begins the Jesus stories in the gospels, the church, the missions of Paul and others, and then of course, uh the future.

Sound good?

So Israel's king.

Go ahead, thanks, Sarah.

So Israel's king, Saul is Israel's first king.

They beg God for a king just like their neighbors have, which is maybe problematic because their neighbors were not God-fearing people in the way that Israel was supposed to be.

So God gives him Saul.

And Saul, as many kings do, he begins as a good king.

He's actually not a bad king.

But as often happens, leadership in leadership, Saul becomes corrupt, wayward, and all kinds of things happen under Saul that the kingdom begins to suffer under the leadership of Saul.

Around that same time when the kingdom is suffering, this young man comes onto the scene and rises to prominence.

He captures the hearts of the people and the heart of God as well.

His name, of course, is Joe Maur.

Oh, what'd you say?

Oh, David, my bad.

David.

What did I say?

David, of course, he comes onto the scene, and David captures the hearts of the people.

The people fall in love with David.

And of course, he is a man after God's own heart, and David rises to prominence, and of course, Saul resents it in every way.

And at this time when the kingdom's under immense pressure and duress, David could have split the kingdom in half, but he doesn't do it.

He had the power, he had the influence, the relational capital, also the might.

He could have done it, but he doesn't.

He wants to honor God, he wants to honor King Saul because he knows that Saul has somehow, even though Saul's corrupted a bit, he knows that Saul has been anointed by God and he fears God.

So he doesn't want to disrupt the kingdom.

He supports King Saul.

And what he does, he quietly sneaks out the side door and leaves the kingdom and goes outside.

All the while, though quietly, a bunch of his followers sort of follow him.

So David, and you might call him his merry men, his band of merry men, they all leave and they sneak out and they go out into the wilderness, hoping that they'll sort of like keep the kingdom intact.

Saul, though, still resents David and wants him dead because he's sort of power-hungry, and all kinds of things have gone on in his heart that have become wicked.

And he chases David out into the wild in order to then kill him.

And they end up in the Judean desert.

I think I have a picture of that, don't I?

Yeah.

Here it is.

And remember, deserts, that's a symbol as well.

Deserts are a place of trial and testing.

They're hard, they're difficult.

What's on the inside of you comes on display on the outside.

We find out what you're made of in the desert.

Remember what happens with Israel?

It happens with Jesus.

And then right in between there is David and his men and also Saul.

They're all out there in the wild of the Judean desert.

And there's testing, there's a humbling, there's drought out there, fear, there's wild beasts, there's danger.

It's tough, untamed land.

Like going to Costco on a Saturday.

You know I'm right.

Place is horrible.

And walking to the parking lot is like playing a game of Frogger for your life, though.

It's real.

It's like your whole life is at stake at Costco.

I hate that place on a Saturday.

That's what it's like.

They're in the desert.

And David is hiding out there for many months, afraid for his life.

They're ducking into caves, hiding on the run.

And in the desert, of course, what makes it a desert, there's little to no water out there.

There's hardly no water.

And in the desert, water is an absolute priority.

You need to have water.

If you don't have water, you will die.

If you have water, you'll live.

I put it in writing for you, just so you'd get the idea.

If a town or a tribe has a good water supply, you can survive and you can thrive.

If it does not, trust me when I say that you will die.

Now, in the desert, then David and all of his men go out there.

And trust me when I say that those men and David are thirsty.

They need water.

David is thirsty because it's a parched and dry land.

I will never forget the time I saw the thirstiest man I've ever seen.

You want to hear about it?

I was at the airport with my wife Katie.

And we're at DIA.

DIA or is it Minneapolis?

Yeah.

And we're like at gate 20.

And I see this man, there's a commotion coming down the concourse, like right at us.

And this commotion, this guy is running as fast as he can.

His shirts are torn open.

He's sweating profusely.

He's got a luggage in one hand.

His kids are in tow.

His wife is over here.

They're all sweating, like they're dragging their luggage as fast as they can.

There's teddy bears and toothbrushes flying everywhere.

And he's running the gate 21 right next to us.

Like, yo, that guy's hustling.

He's motoring.

And he's all business.

And they get to the gate, right next to us, we're like watching it because it's hilarious.

And like this big commotion, it's chaos.

And he gets there and he pulls out this bottle of water.

And they're like, sir, you made it.

We'll get you on the plane.

You're fine.

He's like, oh doing this.

Pulls out this bottle of water, opens the water, just starts chugging this water.

And I'm like, yo, that man is thirsty.

He's thirsty.

And then he did something I will never forget.

He takes the bottle of water and starts going like this, pours it all over his head.

I'm like, yo, my man forgot he's actually indoors.

He's not running the Boston Marathon.

He's like drizzling himself with water.

I'm like, Katie, do you say, yeah, I'm sorry, Ryan.

I'm like, dude, what is going on?

Didn't even share with his wife either.

My man was thirsty.

And David and his men undoubtedly are thirsty.

They need water.

In fact, while in the desert, David wrote this psalm.

This is what he says.

You, God, are my God.

And earnestly I seek you.

I thirst for you.

My whole being longs for you.

In a dry and parched land where there's no water.

He's thirsty.

He also writes this psalm while in the desert running from Saul.

As the deer pants for streams of water.

Have you ever been near a dog that's just panting for water?

Thirsty, man.

My soul pants for you, oh God.

I'm like that for you, God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

Notice David's thirsty for water, no doubt, because how could he not be?

They're in the desert.

But David's also thirsty deep in his soul.

He's thirsty for God.

He needs water to live, no doubt.

But he also is thirsty to know he's not alone.

He's thirsty for justice to be done.

He's being chased unnecessarily by Saul.

Saul wants to kill him just because he's jealous of him.

David's thirsty for justice, for encouragement, for grace, and for hope.

I was talking with a good friend of mine just a couple weeks ago, and he's a teacher in Minneapolis in a rough part of town.

He's like, Ryan, you got a minute?

Yeah, sure.

He's like, Ryan, I'm I'm just so tired.

I'm exhausted.

It is a daily grind.

And my students are just suffering every day.

And I hear about it, and there's not a lot I can do.

One student, a young woman, was attacked and brutally assaulted.

Another one was shot.

Another one, their parents were going through a horrible, tumultuous divorce.

And a number of them were struggling with their grades.

And he's like, I want to help.

I just, it's like a desert out there.

And he said, when I come home, every night I'm just, I'm exhausted, I'm worn out, I'm discouraged, I'm tired.

And there's so much more I would love to do.

I just can't do it.

And he's warned then you can hear it in his voice.

My friend is thirsty.

Thirsty.

And it's here in 1 Samuel that David and his men, when Saul leaves, they find Dave and his men, they stumble upon this oasis called Engedi.

And it's actually Hebrew for the spring of the young goat, which I love about.

The spring of the young goat.

Engedi.

It's a stronghold.

It's a place of safety.

It's hidden, it's covert.

In fact, I've been there.

This is a picture I took at Engedi.

You can't even tell it's there.

You sort of are walking through the desert near Masada.

It's hot and dusty, and you stumble upon it.

Like, I think I hear something.

And what you hear is running water.

And then you come across it, and it's this spring in the middle of the desert, where it's dry and parched, and deer are panting for water.

There's a spring that comes out of the rock and flows down into this canyon.

And it's called the desert, or it's called the oasis or the wadi of Engedi.

It's beautiful.

And for David, who's running for his life in the hot desert in Masada, stumble upon this beautiful paradise called Engedi with running water.

There's a spring.

And with springs of water, you see trees.

And trees, of course, provide shade.

In the heat of the desert sun, midday sun, it provides shade for David.

Of course, it brings wildlife, like birds that sing to you in this hot sun.

This place would have been an absolute paradise for David and his men.

It's a place of life.

In fact, when I was there, I was there with our friends from Israel a couple of, well, February, March, we found an actual natural water slide.

And you know, like you do when you're in Israel, if you find a water slide, you better go on it.

Are you with me?

Check this out.

That surely did.

Yep, I'm filming.

I had to make sure.

Katie, are you filming?

Yes, I'm filming.

Go.

Ross was there soon.

It was incredible.

Because, you know, like I said, it's a place of life, a vibrant life.

Imagine wandering around in the desert and stumbling upon this place.

It was paradise.

Because in the desert, water, which is of course our symbol for today, water is life.

It's everything.

In the desert, David finds not just water, David finds life that will replenish him and restore him, reinvigorate him.

In fact, in the desert, water is life.

So in Psalm 107, the psalmist writes this about water.

Check this out.

This is God.

God turns the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into flowing springs.

Can you hear the springs going?

There he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle.

And they sowed fields that planted vineyards, and they yielded a fruitful harvest.

He blesses them, and their numbers greatly increased, and he did not let their herds diminish.

By the way, who provided the water?

God.

In fact, on a number of occasions, God himself seems to be the water.

So David stumbles upon this beautiful spring.

And I imagine he just dunks his face in this water and finds refreshment.

This living water, running water.

God promises to provide water.

God is the water.

Now, in the Hebrew, they have a few different words for water.

One of them, they differentiate water that runs, running water, a spring, a river, and they call running water, they call it living water.

Living water is any water that's running.

It's fresh.

It's pure.

It sounds like this.

This is what Engedi sounded like.

And it's moving.

And they call this moving water.

They call it living water.

It runs, it's fresh, it's pure, it's clean, it's never stagnant.

How could it be stagnant?

It's moving all the time.

It's purifying itself.

I got a picture of some living water.

Here's my picture of living water.

Oh, how did that get in there?

What the?

No, hold on.

So my buddy, is Chad, is Chad Organ here?

I think he's watching online.

Chad is my fishing texting buddy.

We text back and forth.

I go, Chad.

He knew I was going off uh uh on Big Lake and I caught this that got this nice little large mouth.

I go, hey, here's a he's a little guy, but here's a picture of the fish I caught.

He goes, Oh, Brian, wonderful fish.

That's a beautiful fish, way to go.

And then he sent me his fish.

Oh, well, excuse me, Mr.

Fisherman.

But if you notice, look at how much of the screen my fish takes up.

And look at how small his isn't.

I mean, am I right?

Go ahead.

Yeah, his is way smaller.

My takes the whole.

Okay, here's a real picture of living water.

Go ahead for me, Sarah.

Yeah, this is the spring of living water.

David finds God is the source.

In fact, God is the living water.

It's clean, it's pure, it's fresh.

If you're about my age, or maybe even a little bit older, you know this living water.

Because when we were kids, our parents used to force us outside and lock the door behind us.

And if you were thirsty, you had to get that garden hose out.

That living water, am I right?

You know what I'm talking about?

That was some powerful water, man.

You drank that, you could see in the dark.

Or glow in the dark.

We don't know which that's living water when you're younger.

Let's go.

And God provides this water.

In fact, for Jews, they had these ritual baths, they called them mikvas, and they would cleanse themselves, these ritual baths, these baths had to be filled with water that was living water from the rain or from a spring or from a stream.

This is pure water, fresh, clean.

Living water.

And this is what David finds.

By the way, in John 4, then we heard Linda read it.

John 4, Jesus is walking around and he finds a well.

And at the well is a Samaritan woman there, and he asks her, Can you give me some water?

And she replies, Why would you ask me for living water or for water?

I'm a Samaritan, you're a Jew, you shouldn't be doing this.

And Jesus responds, here's what he says.

He says, Hey, if you knew the gift of God, and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink, and he would have given you living water.

If you'd asked me for a drink, I'd have given you some of this.

Then he says this.

He says, Everyone who drinks of this water from this well, I'll be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of this water that I can give you, they will never thirst.

This water that I give them will become in fact it's so powerful, so alive, that when they drink it, it'll become a spring within them, and they'll share it with others an eternal spring forever.

This water that Jesus offers this one is alive.

It's living water.

Now, that's one kind of water for the Jewish people.

Another kind is, of course, dead water.

Dead water is the opposite.

Now, I did not mean for this to be so nuclear green when I put that food coloring in there.

But you get the idea.

Dead water was often what they called water in cisterns.

A cistern's like a big water tank or holder, like a giant bowl in the ground.

And they would fill it, but then it would lay, it would sit there for a long time.

And it might become stagnant or rancid or it'd clutch little floaties like animals or insects or scum or whatever.

And you would drink it.

I'm not gonna drink it.

But it's not the same.

Not at all the same.

They call this dead water.

It's not fresh, it's stagnant, it's got mud, dirt, sometimes dead animals, insects.

It's not alive, it's not living, it's dead water.

In fact, just next door to Engedi is the Dead Sea.

Of course, this is dead water.

You can't drink that water out of the Dead Sea.

It's got too much salt in there.

It will kill you.

In fact, a couple of ounces of that water will kill a human being.

So on our way to the here's a picture of us in the Dead Sea, by the way.

Here we all are.

Yes, sir.

Let's go.

And no joke, you just float.

It's so bizarre.

You just lay in there and you float.

It just holds you up.

It's so dense with salt.

But you can't drink it.

And they warned us when you're there, don't drink it.

Don't put in your eyes.

Don't get in your don't put your face on the water.

And of course, Rod Thorson, a good friend of mine, he was like my wingman on the trip.

We were hanging out there, and all of a sudden he goes swimming by me.

He goes, Oh, uh, ah! I'm like, what?

Because I swallowed some water.

Don't Ryan, don't swallow the water.

Yeah, no, they told us on the bus.

They said that.

Don't do that.

About five minutes later, he's like, oh, Ryan, oh, Ryan, don't let it get in your eyes.

It's horrible.

It stings.

Yeah, Rod, they told us, I know.

They told us on the bus already.

This is dead water.

Just next door to Engedi, is this dead water?

Friends, God wanted Israel to drink of the living water.

To be refreshed and replenished by living water.

Not this water.

What good is this water?

Friends, God wants you to drink of living water.

Not this water.

But watch what happens in Jeremiah.

The prophet says this.

God says, My people have committed two sins, the people of Israel.

They have forsaken me.

The spring, I'm the living water.

And they've forsaken me.

And they've dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns to boot that can't even hold water.

Here's the question.

Why would anybody do that?

Imagine David out in the desert, wandering, longing, thirsty for water, and they stumble upon this, and they're dunking their face in this, and they're bathing in this living water, and it's fresh and cool in the shade.

Why would anyone forsake this for this?

You'd have to be crazy to do that.

Why would you do that?

In fact, many of us do that.

And we take this instead of the living water that God Himself provides for us.

We prefer cistern water, things we built with our own hands that we made, that we manufactured over water from the rock of God that flows with life.

And for some reason, we prefer this over that.

See, friends, life is in fact a desert.

And we've been called here.

We've got a job to do while we're here.

There's people to serve, cultures to impact, and many of us feel tired and exhausted from the day-to-day grind or weariness of life and the burdens that we all carry, the stresses we endure, and we're dry.

And we give and give and give.

And in our current digitally sat uh what's the word I'm going to digitally uh sort of um uh our our world that's full of digital stuff, that's what I was trying to say, we become tired and exhausted at the ends of our ropes.

Saturated, that's what I'm looking for.

Our digitally saturated world.

In fact, Cal Newport, who writes about this in this in this uh in a wonderful book, he says this the volume of obligations on our proverbial plates, vague projects, off-handed promises, quick calls, and small tasks, they continue to increase at an alarming rate.

You and I are getting busier and busier and busier, and the speed of life increases every single day, whether you know it or not.

There was a time, not too long ago, when the standard response to the query, how are you, was an innocuous, I'm fine.

Today, though, it's rare to encounter someone who doesn't instead respond with a busy, I'm busy, man.

I ran into my cousin yesterday at an Ulta.

I was shopping with my daughter for some cosmetics.

Not for me, for her.

And I was like, How's it going, man?

And I haven't I haven't seen him in a long time.

He goes, Oh, busy, just busy, busy.

He said it like three times.

You sound busy.

You and I are so busy.

There's more to do, and we're left being unproductive and unfulfilled.

You and I need engettis in our lives.

Places to go and unplug and drink from the living water.

Maybe it's an early morning prayer time where you get up early before anybody else.

You pray.

Maybe it's a walk in the forest, just to get away from all the sort of the buildings and the construction and all the development of the world, but to get outside, get back into nature.

Maybe it's to go out on a lake and go fishing.

Maybe it's to spend time with your grandkids or your neighbor, just lay in the hammock.

Maybe it's to stay up late at night and listen to the toads outside your window.

Maybe it's to read a good book.

A few years ago I got into this habit, I haven't in a while, but where I would sit in bed and read a book and listen to the Rockies play baseball online.

I just listened.

I didn't want to have the screen, I just wanted to listen to them.

It was the audio.

It was peaceful.

You and I need to unplug and find more and get these.

Quiet stillness with God to taste and see that God is good.

Maybe you're here and you're a parent, a student, a business person, a community leader.

You need to go away and refresh in God.

And stop drinking out of this.

Jesus, our source of living water, wants to pour into you.

And also so that you can then pour into others.

Because our world is dying and it's thirsty, and it's in a parched and weary land, and they don't know where to find water.

And they're busy drinking this and Dead Sea water.

And no one's told them, hey, come and be refreshed.

Maybe this morning you need an extra refreshing from God.

What I want to do is I want to invite Ben and Katie.

Can I call on you?

I'd love to have you guys come up to the front.

We're gonna have cups of water and we're gonna just pray over you.

And if you're here this morning and you're tired, or you're parched, or you're thirsty, or you're burdened, or you're heavy laden, or you're just sick and tired, you're exhausted, and you need a refreshment, just come forward, and as the band plays, we're gonna anoint you, of course, with water, living water, and just pray a prayer over you.

Just bless you.

And may you know the source of living water today.

May you drink deep.

May you put down these cisterns of dark and toxic and dead water and instead opt for living water.

To end, here's what the prophet Isaiah says.

I love this.

And this is my invitation to you this morning.

Come.

All you who are thirsty, come to the waters.

Come.

You who have no money.

Yeah, you can come.

Come and eat and buy.

Even if you have no money, it's okay.

Come on.

Buy wine and milk without money, without cost.

It's free.

You can have it, it's free.

Why spend money on what is not bread?

Why would you do that?

Don't do that.

You don't have to.

And why would you labor on what doesn't satisfy?

Why would you do that?

You don't have to.

Listen.

Listen to me.

And eat and drink what is good.

And you'll delight in the richest affair.

Amen.