Wells of Salvation

We serve a good God, don't we?

Amen. The Creator of heavens and the earth

and the universe around us

knows you. He knows me. He wants to

commune with us. He wants a relationship with

us that would be eternal. I love that.

It's beautiful. Um,

and one of the beauties that we have in our church is we have lots,

and we have lots of babies, and babies are great.

Babies are a sign of the blessing of the Lord, the next generation.

And, uh, so we're gonna have a baby dedication in a couple of

weeks. Um, although there is a

sign up by September 7th. We're gonna start

doing baby dedications on a quarterly basis.

So this, this next one is going to be September 13th, and if you

have a baby and you are available to be a part of that service that

day, please sign up. We would love to

serve you in that way. And then that's in 2 weeks, and

then 2 weeks after that, we will be having a Baptism Sunday,

and that's gonna be a church-wide celebration.

We're not having an early gathering that day. It's at 9 o'clock.

We're not having the 12. We're gonna come in all

together and have a worship and Baptism service. And

there is also— I can't read it from here. I think the

14th. Does that say— is that what it says? But there's

also a limit for signups that ends after that day. So

please sign up. if you're interested in being a part

of that baptism service. There's some video

elements that we want to incorporate that will

require some time built into that, but we're

planning that here in 4 weeks from today, and it's

going to be a beautiful, beautiful service.

I know that we serve a good and a mighty God,

a God that has a word for us.

God that wants to speak to us this morning. And my

prayer for you is the same prayer that I've had for me this

morning. And I came in with an attitude

that I knew some people in my life that needed to hear what was being

said this morning. And then I realized I needed to hear what was being said

this morning. And

And so I invite my brother, my spiritual

pops, my elder,

my elder of elders. I'll

stop.

Pastor

Wayne.

Good morning. I actually probably should

stop before I start and get Dee to come back up

here. Yeah. And I think she— I glanced up. I think

she read it, which is fine. God can anoint reading.

But she should just— I'm not gonna

invite her 'cause it's— I was given the time.

But if she gets off book, you know, I mean, she

walked over into some water. She walked over into some flow.

That was, you know, I didn't hear enough of that.

So maybe we'll invite her back.

Yeah. Maybe we could do that. It's good to be

with you all.

Disclaimer right here at the top.

I don't hope that you

believe or agree with what I'm going to try and share.

I hope that you receive what the Holy Ghost has for you

today because that's

important. If you're open and

available, the Holy Spirit can work in ways that have nothing

to do with microphones and conversation and slides.

Yeah. If we're open and available to

that. So, About 2

and a half months ago or so,

Pastor Barbie asked me if I would

close out this series we've been doing the last

4 weeks, all of the month. And I told her

I would be honored to do that. And so

I'm going to. Amen.

When? Shortly. No, no, no, no, no.

This won't be a sermon. It's

not a message. It's more

of a review or a

reflect of the last 4 weeks

with a little teaching added in.

The reason I was prompted to do that,

when Pastor Barbie asked me to do it, you know, she just said, close it

out. So that's sort of up to me.

But the reason I felt like we needed to review,

that's actually another message. But this isn't

a message. So what needs to happen, I think, is that

we need, just like in any other classroom

structure, I think we just need refreshers.

Because there's stuff that's happened in the last 4

weeks that some of us perceive in ways that others

don't. Some of us have been like zapped by the Holy

Ghost. Some of us are still trying to figure out how

to spell 'wells'. That's okay. And that's body

life. That's the way body life works.

Everybody's at a different place at a different moment. But

depending upon what your learnings and depending upon how

the Holy Ghost works in your life, you could find yourself in

situations where something on a repetitive nature

becomes, oh, I get it. So that's really more

what this is about. That's how we're proceeding

from here. And what I'm doing is basically in 3

stages. The first being

context. The second being content,

and the third being conclusion. So that's where I'm going to

proceed with this. Can you put that slide up, please?

And I'm also going to pray

for and with us.

Father God, Our Abba,

in you we live and move and have our being.

Yes. And we are gathered

here for your honor

and your glory. I ask you to continue

to lead us down the path of righteousness for the sake of

your kingdom. And I ask that in Jesus'

name, sanctioned by the Holy Ghost.

So let me move. You don't mind if I

move? Most of— some of you know I'm gonna do that anyway,

whether you like it or not. That's just— it's sort of

quasi-old school, I guess, but I'm more than

quasi-old school.

See me after, would you?

I could push that a little bit. Old school would be a little bit more

disciplinarian than new school would be. So come see me afterward,

would you? Careful, Bill.

Oh, was that— who was— oh, stop, Ellen. Stop it.

Or you or Fred, one of you over in the amen corner.

Most of you don't know what an amen corner is, but those 2 do.

Yeah. Okay. About 17 or 18 years ago, just for a

split second, just think where you were 17 or 18

years ago. That's all. That's all. Okay. About

17 or 18 years ago, we used to do a song here in

this building that was part of the hymnody of

the church. I used to stand roughly over there

where Johnny G is. And back then, I think Barbie

was still part of the worship team. She was

starting to teach more than she was in terms of

worship team ministry. But give or take, that's what was

happening. And so when she

asked me, to take this session, what came up in me

is this, because the

genesis, the starting point for that song was this verse.

With joy will you draw water out of the wells of salvation.

And this is the day we will say, praise the Lord. So I'm not gonna

work that whole verse. I want you to see the verse 'cause I'm setting this

up for content. Okay? So this is

not up there, but this is free. And I don't have time to open it

up. I'm just gonna call your attention to it. This says, with joy

will you draw water. The joy

is the bucket.

It's not saying with celebration or with happy

or with shout and dance. It's not defining joy.

It's not— that verse is not telling us what joy is

except that it says— bear with me— it says,

with joy will we draw out.

So if you read it that way, joy

becomes a bucket

because it's saying the way to get the water out of the well

is with something. Yeah. It's not saying—

it's not feeling an emotional way. It's not saying,

This is how joy manifests. That's another subject

at another time. But if you

permit me, and I have the mic, so I guess I can,

it's saying joy is the container

that will help me get the water. Yeah.

I'm leaning on that just a little bit because however you

understand joy, I'm not getting back into the original language. That's not where I'm going.

However you understand joy working, you can

keep that as long as you'll add what I'm doing today.

That says joy is how I will draw out

water. Yeah. So you see the connect. So that

would make, at least in Wayne speak, that would make

joy the bucket. Okay, now

the fact that we're living in the South makes this much easier to translate

Okay, or to elaborate on. The passage is

saying, with joy you, you see the asterisk?

Okay, it's a plural. And what it really says to

us is what y'all need to do is draw water. Yeah.

It's not written to individuals.

Individuals can receive it, but it's

written to us, us'uns. It's kind of you and—

thank you, Connie. You're not even from

down around these parts. You're from way up

north. I know. All right. No, it's just you and me. You know, I

tend to get real.

So what it's saying in the Old Testament prophetically,

it's a prophetic directive. It's

not a requirement. It's not a commandment.

It's a passage that's saying— think of— put it in the

context. It's thinking— it's saying, this is what

y'all are gonna do.

Look at it, okay, and wind the

clock back a few thousand years. So the

prophetic directive is the prophet is saying,

this is in your future. to real people at a real

time in history way back past us.

But the irony is, or the

majesty is, that it's speaking to us right now.

Right. So it's not saying

you need to draw water and y'all need to draw water

and y'all need to draw water. It's saying we all need to draw water.

Amen. But it's not saying find a well and draw water from it. It says

wells. It's plural.

And it's in your Bible. That's where the tune came from, and that's about

17, 18 years ago. And real briefly, at the bottom

of the slide, a well is a

fountain. It's a source of satisfaction, A flowing

spring. And salvation, if you work the language, is a

place of deliverance. Oh, Jesus. Aid,

victory, or prosperity. Sorry. A source of

health and welfare from a word meaning to be

safe or free. Those

definitions for wells,

those definitions for wells, Is magnificent.

It's splendid. It's awe, A-W-E.

It's awe-inspiring. The fact that

we have the potential to draw from wells

that have that in them.

Watch. How many people want that in their lives?

All of us. Watch this. Watch this.

Watch, old school, old school. Since I

didn't have any, I wasn't looking at anybody and I'm not,

my intention is not to step on anybody's toes. It's just an interesting

dynamic from here looking back to there.

What would keep anybody

when I said, how many of y'all want that in your lives?

And I did this. What would keep you from not raising your

hand? Right.

I'm not talking about salvation. I'm not talking about your level of

redemption or are you filled with the Holy Ghost. I'm going, wouldn't the

response to those definitions,

wouldn't the response be absolutely?

So let me ask again, how many people want those things in

their life? Yes. Okay, that's what

corporate community looks like.

That's what it looks like. Watch, watch.

So somebody's up with a mic and somebody says what I just said, I just

said, and somebody asks for that and raised their hand just like I did. And

I'm sitting right here and I don't move.

Now from up here, From up here,

I don't know why that person didn't move. And I'm not making any

judgment because I don't know why. So I can't fill in and go,

oh, I bet. No, I can't do that

because I don't know why that happened. All

I know from this side is they didn't raise their

hand. So I can make this assumption. Maybe they don't

want that. Y'all excuse me. Could I

pray for you? Is there—

did you not read that? Do you not understand

that? Or you want to see me after? Let me finish what I'm doing.

Okay, thanks. Because

from this side, that looks problematic.

Why would you not raise your

hand in faith? Not

presumption, not

artificialness.. Why would

your hand not go up? If you were

at a big ballgame and

something happened, both

your hands would go up. If

you're at a stadium rock

concert, you might lose your

mind. Wayne, come back, come

back, come back. So that's the

context of how we got here

today in my life, because I

have a history with this. So

we're going to move to content

now. The first Sunday that

Pastor Barbie was up when she

opened this series, what she

did was she started there. I

don't mean literally that

verse. I don't remember what verse she used, but she basically

started at ancient wells. She

went back historically to that. That's where she

started 4 weeks ago. That was her starting place.

And then she expanded from there. And what she was using

Is she was using, for me, she was using this verse

as a starting place. And then she brought her message. Now what

I'm gonna do today is I've asked Rhonda

to help translate or interpret

on my behalf for your sake.

Just let it sink in. Let it sink in.

Yes. What she's reading is from

notes from about 16 years ago that I

wrote based on the song that I just talked to you about, Wealth of Salvation.

And what I have been able to do because of my history, not only here

in this building, but my history in terms of the kingdom, I've been

able to see the last 4 services as

astounding. Astounding.

Yes. Here's why. Not because the sermons

were so powerful and the Holy Ghost moved

dynamically in an unbelievable way, but because

all 4 messages in the last 4 weeks all marry up

to the notes I wrote 17 years ago

in order. It does. So

I'll show you. She's doing this because

she has a real gift of speaking

so we understand, which I don't have.

And she has a— how do I want to say this?

She has an anointing. Oh, let's go there. She has

an anointing to get your attention.

Which I don't always have either.

So, Rhonda, if you would. Ancient wells.

Ancient wells are those which were dug out by our

ancestors, or tribal leaders, if you will.

These wells contain the doctrines and

theology that have nurtured saints since the days

when Moses and those wilderness children sojourned

through the desert on their long journey to the Promised Land.

They are in a very real sense the watering

holes that all saints must drink from

for the life of the Spirit to remain fresh and

vital in our lives. Without such

historical wells, all God's children would

surely die, as Psalm 63 says,

in a dry and weary land where there's no water.

Such ancient wells have been provided to us by God's

sovereign mercy and grace.

We've done nothing to dig them or preserve

them. They are gifts from the Father's hand,

and we may come— we must come

and drink freely and deeply

and often. As the Word says, let all

who are thirsty come.

Ancient wells, opening service 4 weeks

ago, 5 weeks ago today. Ancient wells are

historical wells. I.e.,

they're ancient. They're long before us.

They were dug thousands of years ago.

And some of them, some of them physically,

geographically, we could get on a big plane if we all—

somebody gifted us with a ton of money and we could all go to those

wells. We could literally go to some of those wells.

So ancient wells are historic on a

physical level, but on a spiritual level or a

metaphorical level, the concept of wells being

passed down, obviously it's generational, but it's

generational with time connected to it.

Now, the reason I'm stressing that point is for this reason. We have

lost all sense of— almost all sense of history. Yeah.

Humanity has, not the people in this room,

humanity. These folks are, yeah, these

younger folks here, y'all's, isn't, you have

less history on the planet. So unless

somebody imparts it to you, you have little or

no history of history or desire for history.

It doesn't— look, I'm looking in your faces.

It doesn't touch you. You don't care. I'm not

upset. I'm not saying it's your fault.

It's the planet you've inherited. The

responsibility of passing on history

isn't to the people that are supposed to be receiving history.

Right. It's supposed to happen from the people that

have the history that are able to pass it on. Yes.

So if our youth don't have it, just stop dumping on the kids.

You cannot share stuff

authentically if you haven't experienced it.

Now, what I mean is I don't mean these kids need to somehow go back

to the Dark Ages to get history. What I mean is they need to

have the experience of people that know something about the Dark

Ages, for example, or the Renaissance. Pick something in time,

you know, the Civil War, whatever.

They're not liable to pick it up unless

somebody imparts it. Yeah. So Ancient Wells,

which is where Barbie started this, Pastor Barbie started this series, has

to do with, if I could say it this way, looking back over our

shoulder. And going, are these wells wells that

we need to be connected to? And the answer to that is absolutely.

Yeah. Okay. So

the next thing that happened is this.

He established his testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in

Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach their children.

That the next generation might know them. See the process?

The children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,

so that they should set their hope in God. They should set their

hope in God. They should set their hope in God and

not forget the works of God, but keep His

commandments. Not forget— I'm sorry.

Set their hope in God and not forget to keep His commandments.

Amen. This is an old passage.

This is not a contemporary passage. This didn't happen 200

years ago. This happened, I haven't done the

research, but this is probably 3,000 and change. I

don't give or take. Somebody?

You're there. That's close, okay. So when this was said,

when it was said to the people that heard it,

What they were being told to do is what I just spent 10 minutes talking

to you about just now. Yes. Yes. The

directive here is take the old data

and move it up to a place where the kid— where the next

generation might know them. It's in your Bible.

This is not provocative. This is not, gee, here's a new

paradigm to work with. It's ancient. Yeah.

And when it breaks down, you lose a

whole plethora of wells because you

don't know where they are. You don't

know how to look for them. And they

become irrelevant. And if I could be

so bold, If they become irrelevant,

then the process right there becomes

irrelevant. So week 2, Pastor Barbee

was up again. And this is how she

started. She said, after the first

message on ancient wealth, she said,

somebody contacted me this week.

This is 4 weeks ago, 5 weeks ago. And

she said, they asked me,

What's it mean to dig wells? How do you dig wells? What

does that look like to dig wells? I don't understand.

And then she said, I don't wanna do this,

but the Holy Ghost has told me to do it, so I'm going to do

it. Now, I've known Barbie for

32, 33 years. We know each other pretty well,

and I know a lot about her ins and outs and her habits and her

processing. So I know how she works.

And she goes over and she gets a blanket, gets a bag full of tools,

and she comes over and she sets it down. Then she— bless her heart—

she plops herself down in front of everybody for the whole message.

Never got up. She just sits there like she does in her office

or her house or in the woods. or in an automobile

or on a road trip or a vacation. I'll just keep going. That's what she

does. That's who she is. That's what she does. Not a

genius, not a, you know, not a super Christian. That's what she

does. And she showed us how she does it. Right. And the

reason she did it is pastoral. Somebody

asked her a question. What does it mean? How does— what does

digging wells look like? And her pastor's heart

went, if somebody— if they've sent me that email or met me

in the hallway, that represents more than one person. There's other

people in this church that have the same question. So what I should

do— Holy Ghost, what should I do? Holy Ghost goes, you just need to humble

yourself and pick up some gear. You don't want to do that. You really don't

want to draw attention to yourself. You really don't want to sit down on stage

for an hour. But you need to do that. And you need to show

them how you dig wells. That's what she

did. Everybody in this church should be thankful for that. Yes.

That is a tool. That is a pastoral

show-and-tell tool to explain not how

you should do it, how she does it.

Because the question was to her, what's it— how does that

work? The question wasn't, can I get the philosophy behind it?

What do theologians say? They asked her how to do it,

and she showed us how she does it.

Now, in the process of doing that, what she effectively was doing is this.

Barbie grew up in the hills of

Tennessee, up in Dolly country. Shout it down. Don't shout me

down. And she learned to

cook what we would call home cooking from

generations. If she learned it from her

mom cooking, she learned it from her mom's mom.

That's this. I'm sorry, that's the one we just looked at,

the process of passing it to generations. Barbie can make some

serious cornbread. Mm.

But Barbie didn't invent the recipe. Right.

But Barbie can make some serious cornbread.

So what she did as part of the family

is she sat down here and showed us

how to make cornbread. Come on. Come on. That's what she did.

Now watch, watch. I want a show of hands. I'm not

messing with you. Yes, I am. I want a show of

hands from these 2 sections, for real. And

you won't be embarrassed. I'm not going to put you on the spot. I want

to see a show of hands. How many of you can make good cornbread?

Could I see your hand? Keep your

hand up. Keep your hand up. Oh, I meant youngin'. Stop. Oh, youngin'.

Stop it. Stop it. You're always doing this. Can you not pull him

back a little?

Now, now watch, watch.

Literally watch one more time. Not

you, not you. Could I see a show of hands

if you know you can make good cornbread?

Do you see this? Do you see this? Let me say it another way.

Do you see the lack of this? Yes. Okay, now, if

I said to any one of these people, would you— could

you take— could I come over maybe Saturday? Could you make me some

cornbread? I can try. Oh, I appreciate that. She said she could try.

Look, that's good. Bless your heart.

The point is the process

has broken down. I

can't get good cornbread Other than,

you know, my wife's help. My wife would do well to pay

attention to Barbie. No, no, no, no. Whoa,

whoa, whoa. Whoa.

Whoa. Look, look, look, look. We've been married

46 years. What I said that she heard ain't a

problem. It's not a problem, okay?

I'm not being deferential to my wife.

You see, you jumped ahead of me. You heard the

punchline when there was no punchline. What I'm

inferring, watch, this is the way my world works.

What I'm inferring is Jeanne grew up in St. Louis and

her mom was Italian and her mom's mom was Italian and

they immigrated to California. Historically in

their life, Jeanne didn't learn how to make good

Southern cornbread. It's not her fault. Right.

She makes good cornbread, but it's not as good as Barbie's

because Barbie's got several generations

of cornbread makers. So what they know how to do

is make some serious cornbread. And I don't even

have to embellish that by going, Think of the other ingredients,

y'all. Think of the— you don't— think of the other

side items that go with that

cornbread. If I come back over here and go,

do you know how to start from scratch? Start from scratch

with dried beans and make some good beans? Hands won't— they won't go up.

Oh, stop. You're not a kid.

You— have I made enough of that point? Where this

breaks down is we lose ancient history

and we lose family connectivity. Y'all want some good

banana pudding? Yeah. Would you raise your hand?

Look, Justin will take orders.

And knowing him, there'll probably be a surcharge.

It's not 99. Right. But the

point I'm making is it's generational

transfer. It's how to get from one

generation to another generation. And when a break— and

a generation I'm rounding out biblically is 35 years, give or take.

When enough generations go by where there's been a dent or a

violation or a gap, You look up 100 years, 200 years,

300 years down the road and you go, I don't have a clue

about this or this or this or this or this.

Doesn't mean people are stupid. Doesn't mean they're not

interested in having a fully orbed life. It means nobody

showed them what to do. Yes. Oh my

God.

Our responsibility is not to grow ourselves up in the kingdom.

Our responsibility is to help grow others up in the

kingdom.

Take up a note.

So that's what she did. Now, have you?

Would you please? Thank you. Thank you.

Family wells are shown to us by those from within our household.

These wells are the ones that we are led to by our family

elders. They've been dug out or fashioned to

suit the needs of those within a specific community.

Throughout our generational history, these wells have been

maintained by those who have raised us to make

certain that we would not have to do without.

Life-giving water from these wells have been provided

through the direct actions and stewardship of others

within our family of faith. They are the ones who

paid the price so that we can have a

spiritual life source to drink from wherever we choose.

Like these, like ancient wells, these family wells

were not of our doing. They too have been provided for

us and to us. However, they're more localized and

smaller, in size and resource. In a sense, they

could be called chosen wells, ones which

have been established to sustain specific family groups in

specific areas. You could think of your local church congregation

as a place where such family wells can be found. Right.

Please consider this: you must go

where they are, the wells and the

water they contain cannot come to you.

You must position yourself near them if you

expect or desire to drink from them.

Third Sunday. Sorry,

third Sunday, my bad.

Pastor Allen, Brought the Word that Sunday.

And the text that came to my mind in these notes from

15-plus years ago is this: O God, Thou art my God.

I seek Thee. My soul thirsts for Thee. My flesh

faints for Thee as in a dry and weary land

where there's no water. I'll dig a well.

Amen. It's personal wealth. Hold

your thought.

No, would you— did you just read this? No.

That's what I thought. Okay. Remember elder, elder?

In the second service when Pastor Al was up, he was

talking to everybody. He was talking about the need

to dig our own wells, the need to own

up to our personal responsibility to do this

independent— no, no, no, in conjunction with ancient wells

and family wells. This is the next

extension of the process.

And in his message, he walked over here.

Not at the expense of the rest of the church, but he walked over here

and this is what he did. He said, I'm

paraphrasing, he said, I just need to talk to the young folks for a minute.

And he didn't challenge you. He wasn't heavy-handed, but

he encouraged you all

to learn how to dig your own wells.

Now, the beauty of that for me, because

I was already carrying a bunch of this before I got here today,

is when he did that, my heart leapt

because what he was doing as an elder, as an older man, and as a

spiritual elder and as a pastor, what he was doing

is he was functioning pastorally to say to the

kids, not, I challenge you, learn to

memorize the book of Isaiah. No, no, no, no, no. He

was saying, it's your

responsibility.

Yours. And since he was saying it to y'all

at your age, he's sowing

into your life to get a head start so that you don't lock

up and— 20 years or 25 years or 45 years ago, I

wish somebody had told me. Yes.

Because he did tell you. He told us all.

He said, we have— do this,

do this. Take your finger and point directly at your heart.

Please, everybody, just talk. It's no energy involved. You'll be fine.

If I can do it at my age, you can do

it. He's functionally

saying, nobody can do this

for me except me with the help of the Holy

Ghost. Yes. Okay? That's what he's saying.

And I rejoice. I'm going, this is huge. This is fabulous in

this church because we're in this church. We're not in

another church. So, when Will mentioned something about baby

dedications and he said, you know, a healthy sign of a church is when you

look, there's babies everywhere. Well, he's right. That is a

sign of a healthy church. It's also signs of an active marriage.

They can't fire me. I'm no longer on staff.

And to push that point, I'm speaking today because Pastor

Barbie said, will you do it? So if this is problematic,

take it up with her. Oh, wait, she's not here.

Oh, no, that's no fun if you do that. Okay,

so would you now read that? Thank you.

Personal wells. Personal wells are those which we have dug out

with our own hands through the power of the Holy Ghost at work in us.

and through the revelation that God has shown us personally.

These wells are not due to the labor of others or

someone else's personal sacrifices.

These wells have required a price to be

paid by us and no one else.

We did not stumble upon them. We followed a

pathway which the Lord led us down. Along

the way, we were shown by the Spirit, shown by

the Spirit where to stop and dig.

Not only did we have to travel some

distance seeking and following the

Lord, but we also had to lean in and

learn to listen for his direction—

where to stop, what to lay aside, to dig

down into what he has shown us through

Personal struggle, divine guidance,

and holy insight. We've acquired

blisters on our hands, muscles in our

arms, stronger backs, deeper

emotional and mental resolve so that

these personal water resources have

come into being. Although they may

from time to time serve others by

providing them with much-needed

refreshment through our witness, our

story, our song, our teaching or

preaching, our testimony, for the

most part these wells are for us to

drink from and to be renewed on a

regular basis. They are the wells that

could— we could perhaps Hang a sign on

that has our name on it because they're

ours, like our own property. But that

too is a gift from God, a gift coming

down from the Father of lights, in whom

there is no shadow of turning.

3 weeks ago, at the end of Pastor Allen's

service, between services, Justin and I ended up

here. And

we were having a random conversation. I have no idea how we got

into it, but we're right here.

And Justin turns to me and he says, I'm paraphrasing,

He says, let me tell you

how I'm ending my service, or the service,

which was last week. But this is the week

before that. You know, that's important. That's important. That's

important to where we're going for the next 10, 12 minutes. Okay?

Really. He says,

he tells me, He tells— he quotes me or almost quotes

me. He quotes me how he's going to end the service.

So I look back at him and I said, really?

That's how I ended my notes 15-plus years ago.

Same verse. And Justin goes—

Justin didn't do this often. Justin went—

My point is, my point is his mouth is

open, but there's no words coming out.

I don't have my wallet. I'll pay you after. Okay.

Not only that.

So when he said that in me,

I said, well, I'm not going to use that verse to end

because, you know, however you treat it

in Justin's universe, how— that's a dangerous

place to hang out. However he treats it

will be enough. I don't need to go back and push that again

or put— Push it. Yeah, push that again. And so I told him I was

going to change it. And then during that week

between 3 weeks ago and the end of his message

last week, the Holy Ghost went, no, you need to go

back to that verse because that verse needs to be unpacked

in a way, not right or wrong, other, in an

other way than what Justin did.

So would you read that?

Polluted wells. Polluted wells are sources we

should no longer drink from, regardless of who dug them

or how we were led to them. Such wells are

dangerously unhealthy and should be sealed up and left

deserted so that no one after us can try to draw

water from them. They are poisoned and should be

avoided at all cost. The enemy of our soul

knows that if he can cut off our water supply,

he can kill us. So anything and everything he

can do to pollute the wells in our lives, he will

try to do. He'll sneak up and pour all sorts

of unholy, unhealthy, impure,

vile things into them to sicken us. Or to

make us so spiritually ill that our souls die from

lack of pure, clean drinking water.

That's one way that wells get polluted, but there are other

ways that have nothing to do with the work of the enemy.

These other ways are pollution done by us.

We allow stagnation to set in.

From lack of use, we stop

dropping the joy bucket down. We no longer stir

up the water. We allow it to stagnate where all

types of impurities grow and fester and spread

into the water source. When that happens, the

water is harmful if you drink from it again. The best thing

to do when that happens to a well Is to board it up

and simply walk away.

I would be remiss if I didn't do this. Would you please

put your hand on your forehead and say to

yourself quietly, engage.

Okay, for the next 10-ish minutes. Hold

that thought.

But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked.

Be utterly desolate, says the Lord.

My people have committed 2

evils. They have forsaken

me, the fountain of living

waters, And they've hewn

out cisterns, wells, for

themselves, broken

cisterns, wells that can

hold no water. Now, when

this was spoken by the

prophet, it too is at least,

give or take, 3,000 years

ago. So through the

prophet, what he's saying,

speaking for Jehovah, is

that's a problem.

Hallelujah. And it's a

problem for those people

back then. But it's a

problem right now.

Yes. Okay.

Jehovah says there are 2 problems.

First, they have forsaken me,

Jehovah. The fountain of living water,

comma, and then the second problem arises.

Now watch, please. The second

problem only arises because of the

first problem. Right.

Had the first problem not arisen,

the second problem wouldn't be in the text.

Yes. Because in order for the people that heard this prophetically,

in order for them to do the second part, which is

dig their own wells or their own cisterns

without any direction from the Holy Ghost or any scriptural

narrative or any reflecting to the Torah or any thus saith

the Lord from anywhere, they just went Why not?

I'm a free agent. Oh,

push it, Wayne. I'm free in Christ. I can do pretty much what I

want to because Jesus loves me. He's given me all kinds of warm

and fuzzy grace. You better come on now. You better start

preaching.

They wouldn't have dug wells that would

hold no water if they hadn't forsaken the

fountain of living waters. Right. Now,

here's why I wanted you to put your hand on your head and engage.

Everything that we know or think we know

about Scripture that references water— out of your belly flow living water,

the streams of the Lord are full— there's any number of verses that we

sort of know or kind of know that reference how

water works or living water works or the

water of life works. Any of those things, they're

not necessarily wrong. But when we have those

things in our head, when we read passages,

we read them in a way— help me, Jesus—

predicated on what we think we know from these little pieces of

Scripture. Amen. That we sort of kind of think maybe they connect.

And they don't necessarily connect. Now I'm going to show you why.

And I'm going to refer you back to my disclaimer. You don't have

to believe me. I just hope you

receive what the Holy Ghost shows you. That's where I started.

Yes. Forsaken. can mean

disregard. It can mean pay no attention to.

It can mean that's irrelevant or he's

irrelevant. That's what it—

if you work the language, that's what forsaken— forsaken doesn't mean, oh

gee, I overlooked. Right. Oh, will you

forgive me? I made a boo-boo.

That's not what it means. It means that's really

how He wants to do this. It's not really an

issue for us. Oh my God.

And then He says, they have forsaken me,

the fountain. Stop. This is what I was

just talking about. Don't run over to living water. Don't go

there. Stop. Back up.

They have forsaken me, the fountain.

Now this is what happens in our heads. Some

of us. This is what happens. We read, they

have forsaken me, the fountain of living

water, and we equate living waters with

all these little pieces of passages and

nuances that we think we know, and we

connect it to the fountain of living

waters. So what, Wayne? So we make

everything we understand about living

waters connected directly to the

fountain. But the living waters are

manifestations coming from the

fountain. Living waters, however you

know that phrase, However you know it,

living waters has to have someplace to

come from. That's right. It comes from

someplace. And in this

series, where it comes from is it comes from

one or more living wells of salvation,

which is where we started about the song from almost

20 years ago. So this is what takes place.

Fountain can mean source.

Out loud one time to humor me, just say, my source. My

source. Say it again with a little more gusto. My source.

One more time with a little more gusto. My source. Thank

you. Now, the problem with the first difficulty

is not an issue about living waters.

No! It's about an issue of being unengaged or disengaged

or unconcerned or seeing the

fountain as being irrelevant. Right. The

fountain is where the water is! That's

right. You can't get water out of something that doesn't have

water in it. Amen. And what we do is we

take this whole thing about— now I'm jumping

to the New Covenant— Jesus being the, you

know, the source of living water. Right,

right, right, right, right. I know, I know

that's going off in your heads. But what we do

is we disconnect— no, no. We connect the water

itself to the source and we ignore the source.

Which is what they did right there. And that's

what we're doing right now in the body of

Christ on the planet. Because talking to—

Jesus— talking to people about the living

water coming out of our lives when we're not

clear about where that source is in our lives

is a big problem. Yeah.

Because it tears our witness to pieces. You've

got no leg to stand on. You've got no

sponge to squeeze out with water in it. It's

not there in the same way that the cornbread's not there.

Come on. It's the same dynamic.

What they did here— how am I? Okay. What they did here

Is they did exactly, exactly

what happened when Moses says to Aaron,

what's this? And Aaron goes, oh, this?

We were— the people, really not me, Moses,

but the people were concerned. You've been gone and

it's dark up there. There's clouds and lightning. They were concerned, we're going to be

stuck here in the wilderness and you're not coming back. So they

all fell back on the history of how they dealt with

spirituality. And they went, we need an idol.

And so I just trying to accommodate the people, I said, give me your jewelry.

I love this. Don't y'all? We threw it in the fire. That's

right. And out came this calf. Yeah.

Tower of Babel. You know what we

should do? We got this covered. We got

off at this bus stop and we told Yahweh

we can get off here and we've got it

covered. So let's build a tower. And

you go, well, Okay, sure, we can build

a tower. And then somebody else says,

you know what let's do? Let's build it

to the heavens. And

people go, great idea. That's this. Yes,

it is. That's what this is.

It's idolatry.

The broken cisterns

are idols.

And our lives are full of broken cisterns.

The problem isn't the broken cisterns. The

problem is we disengaged from our source.

Yes. Because the outworking from the source is living water.

It's healing. It's hope. It's salvation. It's freedom. It's all the things

in those definitions that I asked you to raise your hand about. All of those

things are in the source. All of those things are in the source.

If those things are not in your life, you have a source problem. Right.

Yeah. I didn't address your salvation. I'm

not talking about redemption. I'm talking about

working this out in our

lives. So what we have to do,

I think, is we have to sort of pony up. Can

I— does that phrase still work? Do you have any idea what pony up would

mean? Not a clue. Do you know what a pony is?

We need to step up to the plate. You know what that means? Yeah.

Okay, I'm just messing with y'all. We have to own,

personally and corporately, we have to own

how disengaged we've become from the source.

Yes. I'm not talking about salvation.

I'm not talking about redemption. I'm not talking

about infilling of the Holy Spirit. I'm not

talking about any of that. I'm talking about where

is your source? When you define your source and the

stuff that comes out of the source, not the stuff,

not the stuff, not the stuff. The stuff is all

byproducts from the source. You get connected to

the source, you get the stuff. It's so quiet in

here. See,

at my age— don't shout me down. I might not get

another shot at y'all.

Michael.

We're gonna— we're gonna open the altar up.

If you're here to help pray, would you come please?

Quickly, please. And the altar's open for 2

reasons specifically. If you have a prayer request, a

prayer need that you need to bring up,

you should do that. If

there's a prayer need in your life based on the

last hour, That has to do with

recalibrating or refocusing or realigning

or redirect— redirecting how you

understand your source. And you need somebody—

you need to actually— look at, look at me, look at me— you actually need

to open your mouth to another saint and go,

I'm not as connected to my source as I need to be. I'm saved,

I'm redeemed, I'm going to heaven when I die, but I'm just not

connected to the source like I need to be. You need to

confess that.

Watch. Conviction—

this is free— conviction comes

either from the Holy Ghost or through the Holy

Ghost in other people or circumstances. In

other words, the Holy Ghost can go zap

You're convicted. Or the Holy Ghost can set up

circumstances where you go, uh-oh. Or he can put people in your

path going, you know, that's problematic. And conviction

sets in. Conviction moves to confession.

You don't get to confession till you've been convicted.

You do not confess stuff that you aren't

feeling convicted of. problematic about. This is

Psalm 51. If you move from conviction to

confession, the next step after opening

your mouth— I have a, I have a, I have a, I have a

problem. I'm not connected to my source like I need to be.

What would— now that I've told you that, would you pray for me about that?

That's confession. When that happens

The next step is repentance, and

repentance boiled down is changing the

way we think. Watch, and

I'll stop. Changing the way we think—

repentance is not flipping a light switch and

it's done. Oh, don't shout me down.

Repentance is— it will take whatever

However, whenever, for how long, until how I

think that got me into this problem is now

corrected. Right. You can't get to

restoration and renewal and revival without going through

repentance. And if you think repentance is a one-shot deal,

you make a confession, they lay hands on me and I go, I'm going

to repent. I'm not going to do that anymore. And I turn and

walk away. If you think you're through, you are kidding

yourself. Amen. That's just not biblical. Repentance is a

process. It's not an event.

Conviction is an event, more than likely.

Confession is an event. Will you pray? I

messed up. Repentance is not, well, that's

done. Excuse me, and I'm through. Youngins,

youngins. Hear what I'm saying. If you're

like— not today, not tomorrow. If your life—

if you look up and go, I'm— I've kind of gotten out of kilter here.

The process is conviction, confession,

repentance, restoration, renewal,

revival. Amen. That

process, any one of those steps you break out, Messes

the process up. So now that I've made everybody feel

really guilty, if you want to come, come. And would you all

please get me out of this?

Oh my goodness.