Sermon
218 ~ REVIVAL RAIN ON THE CHURCH
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.
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We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.
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We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will
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encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.
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We celebrate today, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit
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mightily moved in their upper room at Jerusalem.
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We are expectant of the same kind of move in these times in
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our lives. We believe that the revival
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reign of the Spirit will drench the body of Christ like never
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before in order to bring about the harvest that the prophet
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Joel spoke about. Are you ready for this revival
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to reign over you and your church?
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Hi Church. It's such a joy and a privilege
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to be bringing God's Word to you today, even as we are preparing
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ourselves for Pentecost Sunday, I believe God is stirring up the
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Church to be prepared. God is asking us be expectant.
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God is asking us that we'd be ready for His outpouring 2000
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years back. His outpouring came on the Upper
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room for the 120 odd people who are waiting.
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I believe, as we wait a week from now to celebrate that day.
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The reason we celebrate is a reminder that we are in
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desperate need of the Holy Spirit today more than ever
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before, and I love how the last two Sundays has set me up to
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speak today. I know we didn't stream our
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online service and we had a guest speaker here, but Jeremy
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spoke on the recipes of Revival and he spoke to experiences.
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Revival. We need to have certain things
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in place. One is to be extremely
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committed, to be extremely generous, and to be extremely
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sacrificial. And even last week, as Tina
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spoke about revival in families, she centered around this whole
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thing that we need to praise and to pray.
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We also saw that the river of God that she spoke about is
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where God resides and he wants us to flourish.
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And many at times it's us who's moving away from the river of
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God. It's not the river that
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disappears, but it's rather us which get so caught up with
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everything that's happening around that.
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We miss being around his presence.
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We miss being in his presence. And today, as we continue on, I
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have titled my sermon as Revival Starts with me, Revival Starts
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with me. And I want you to repeat that.
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Even wherever you're seated or wherever you're listening or
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wherever you're watching, would you repeat this?
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Revival starts with me. If you can just touch yourself
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and say it starts with me. You know, many a times we've
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seen and heard different outpourings happen.
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The last we heard was it entered into a university campus and
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they started experiencing the revival that got birthed out
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there. When a lot of them started
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coming in and just started experiencing Jesus, experiencing
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His Holy Spirit, experiencing His presence, they were
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convicted of their sin. They returned back to the cross.
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They exchanged their sin, their shame, and they received His
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grace and His life. We've heard from the Azusa St.
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We've heard different expressions happen.
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But many a times we are content knowing of these expressions,
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but we rather are safe for many times hoping that you know it
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doesn't. It shouldn't start with me, but
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the Holy Spirit today is saying revival starts with you and with
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me. Revival starts with me.
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And so today, even as we dwell a little deeper, I want God to
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really bring His word, enlighten His words, so that it'll not
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just remain like an enlightenment moment, but rather
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be a seed that falls in that this will become one of those
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milestones or those one of those markings that we have to say
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definitely it's after this that I have been intentional with
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what the Holy Spirit is asking me to say.
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And do you know when we think about revival, starting with me,
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there's a bit of us that we are scared about.
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You know, we we suddenly are so conscious of a lot of the
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defects that we all have. If I have to ask you, do you
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feel whole as a person? You know, you would say, you
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know what, I've I I don't feel WHOLE, but I feel a lot.
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I have a lot of HOLES. We feel we have a lot of holes
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in US, and every time it's a shortcomings, it's the things
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that we think we need perfection, we think we need,
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needs to look right, that we think, You know what, if this is
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not right, I don't think God can do any work in me, but I want to
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remind you that when God created us, He created us whole.
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When he thought of you and me in our mother's womb, when he knit
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us together, he thought of us whole.
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He didn't think. You know what?
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I leave Geshom with a defect, or I leave Geshom with this gaping
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hole in his in his life or in his physical form?
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No. In who he was as God when he
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created me, He created whole. But the problem is the condition
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I'm born into. This world has sin in it.
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So everything, that's what we are born into sin, we when we
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are born, we are born with so many things that don't work
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right for us. We find our upbringing, our
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challenges, our hardships, our struggles, the way we look, our
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colour, you know, everything adds up and we feel we're not
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whole. But today God's saying, even if
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you feel you're not whole, revival still starts with me.
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Revival still starts with you. So today what is my emphasis to
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say that you don't have to discount yourself thinking
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you're not whole our end. In fact there was a message
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which I just preached 2-3 weeks back and it was on the lines of
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our we are exiled citizens. And in the conclusion I had
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taken this passage from Haggai chapter 3 verse nine and in the
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message it says this we who are his temple today.
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It says this temple is going to end up far better then it
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started out. A glorious beginning, but an
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even more glorious finish. A place in which I will hand out
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wholeness and holiness is the decree of the God of the Angel
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armies. When we allow Jesus to come into
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our lives, when we allow His Holy Spirit to work in and
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through us, His residency is in our hearts, We become His temple
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and in turn, the characteristics of God start coming into us.
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We become whole and we become holy.
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Because wherever the Lord is there, His Holiness is.
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And so today, for a lot of us who are in the corporate world,
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for those of us who have gone through leadership courses and
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all that, we probably have come across this work called
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Enneagram. I completely agree with the
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anagram test. It's kind of demarcates us.
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It shows us how what we are, character are, what we have
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built up about what we can do, what we cannot do.
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And it has a very clear distinctive in terms of our
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personality traits. And I want us to come to a place
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to realize that even though we do all this, this helps us so
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that when we're in a team, we realize that each anagram number
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someone is different. You know?
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And so me expecting something of someone to do it this way may
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not be right because they they aren't wired that way, but
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oftentimes even allowed that to be dictating what the Holy
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Spirit can do in and through us. And God is saying today
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irrespective of what your enneagram you know personality
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traits are, there are totally 9 personality traits.
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Whatever those nine personality traits are for each and every
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personality trait revival is for each and every one of you.
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So don't discount that. So the after effects of sin have
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really left us helpless. When we see God move and want
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revival, we do discount. We fall short.
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We cancel ourselves. But every time the Spirit of God
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came upon someone, the more we read the Bible, the more you
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start meditating, the more you see his story intertwined with
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each other. How he built an entire nation,
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Israel, and how he led them on. And how in their disobedience,
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how they went into exile and captivity, and how he brought
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about the remnant doubt and how he established them.
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And through that we see Jesus coming into this world so that
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we all can be saved because his redemption was just not for a
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nation but was for entirety of mankind.
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We see at the end of it the revival that the Holy Spirit
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brings is 1 where you and me are very much involved.
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The story does not continue without us.
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We find it easier to say. You know what I think it's just
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for this particular group of people.
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You know, It could be either for the apostles or for the
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prophets, or for the evangelists, or for the
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teachers, or for the past as it's for them.
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Because we've come up with all these roles and we think, you
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know what? If that person fits that role,
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this is only for them. The word revival is for no
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revival is for everyone, because you and me today are the hands
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and feet of Jesus. I can't enter the spaces where
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God has ordained you to enter, and you eventually become a
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carrier of his revival into that very space.
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But today, are you willing to deceive it?
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Are you willing to receive it? Because today I want us to come
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to a place to realize when we are talking about revival, we
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are saying, Holy Spirit, you can take residency here.
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You can make this your home. This is your house.
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This is your place of holiness. Use me as you see fit.
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Maybe all this while you've accepted Jesus into your heart
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and you've not allowed the Holy Spirit to move.
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Or you've said you know what, God, I don't want the Holy
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Spirit. I don't know what background
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they're coming from. Probably, you know, we have so
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many backgrounds from Presbyterians, Baptists,
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Pentecostals, non denominational, whatever it is,
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we believe in God the Father, we believe in God the Son that is
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Jesus Christ, and we believe in God the Holy Spirit.
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And so today you need the Holy Spirit, He needs to move in and
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through you. That Spirit is what breeds life.
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And even as I was meditating and I was thinking, God, if that
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revival has to start in me, where do you want me to, you
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know, really look into your scriptures to really learn and
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see this from? And he led me to this book in
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John Chapter 4A story, which we, most of us have probably heard
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of Jesus meeting the Samaritan word.
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And so as part of our story today, we're going to see how
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revival starts with each and every one of us included not
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excluded. So the first thing I want us to
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make a note is when revival has to start with you and me
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involved in the mix. Revival first meets us in our
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mundane. Revival first meets us in our
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mundane. So what is that revival meeting
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us in our mundane? You might think, OK, you know
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what Revival will happen when we have a specific three day
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prayer. The spirit of God will move,
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yes, He will move. But us experiencing this
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revival, us saying that revival starts with me, means I need to
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take it into my Monday, into my Tuesday, into my Wednesday,
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Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
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It doesn't start on a Sunday and ends on a Sunday.
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It starts on a Sunday and continues on all the way to
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Monday, Tuesday, all the way through to Saturday.
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And I want us to read today from John Chapter 4, to see what this
John 4 chapter mention
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is reading from John Four. And this is what it says.
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He had to go through Samaria on the way.
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Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sikkur,
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near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
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Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired from the long walk,
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sat wearily beside the well about noontime.
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Soon as Samaritan came to draw water and Jesus said to her,
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please give me a drink. He was alone at that time
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because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some
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food. The woman was surprised, for
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Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans.
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She said to Jesus, You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.
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Why are you asking me for a drink?
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Verse 10 Jesus replied. If you only knew the gift God
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has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me
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and I would give you living water.
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You know, when we read the context here, we see that Judea
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and Galilee and right in between that is Samaria.
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And we see as Jesus is leaving Judea and heading into Galilee,
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he has to go through Samaria. So it just lies here.
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And so from Judea is going all the way to some Samaria, and
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through Samaria he gets into Galilee.
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And here is where Jesus encounters A Samaritan woman,
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the enmity that we see happen time and again between the Jews
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and the Samaritans. Samaritans were considered 2nd
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grade citizens. They was looked down upon.
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They believed in the God of Abraham and Jacob, but they had
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no other place to go and worship.
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So they had a place of worship within Samaria itself.
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And we see this long standing feud that existed.
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And so it was considered a taboo to actually talk to a Samaritan
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person. But here is Jesus as he's
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walking. He's tired, He's seated there.
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But what we see happen is a samatan woman is coming at noon
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to come and take water. And it's in that same place.
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He needs her. You know, we, when we think
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about it, is just an ordinary scene where she's coming to take
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water. But it's one of habit.
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It's one of discipline. When we For those of you who are
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having a regular rhythm in life, you'll realize at this
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particular point in the morning you're doing certain things.
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You know, probably from 6:30 you're making coffee 644.
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You're putting the laundry in seven o'clock.
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You're doing your quiet time. These could be some of the
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things in which you have certain things in order.
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And probably this is where the Samaritan woman had this place
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where she had to go and take water for the rest of the day
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for her to use in the house. And it's in this special time
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she meets with Jesus. And it's interesting.
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As you know, Tina has been mentioning in her previous
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sermon about the Holy Spirit being to one of the river of
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God, the living water. It's beautiful how this is tying
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into that where Jesus is asking this woman, could you give me
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water to drink? And it got me thinking, what
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does it look like if I had to take this living water into my
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everyday life. You know, we we pray about it.
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We say God be with me today, even as I go to work.
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But are we specifically praying for everything that we are
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doing? Are we are we expecting God to
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show up? Because if God has to show up,
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we need to be open for certain disruptions to happen.
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The Samaritan woman made sure that this was her everyday
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thing. Her mundane was being disrupted.
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And I believe God wants us to to.
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And I believe God wants to disrupt our mundane a bit so
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that freshness can come in, so that there'll be a bit of
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newness that come in. There'll be life that's getting
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breathed. And his wind starts blowing and
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it gives as this breeze of comfort knowing he's in control.
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His living water comes in so that it wipes away everything
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that is weary and dry and encourages that parch and dry
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land to experience freshness. And you know, a sense of
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completion. For revival to rebirth.
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We need to be open for our mundanes to be disrupted.
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Mundanes are good. Mundanes Bring discipline.
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It helps us stay in focus so we can accomplish all that we set
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out to do. But may it also have room for
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revival. May it also have room to be
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disrupted so that the Holy Spirit can move and change
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certain things. Let's continue on reading John
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chapter 4, verses 10 to 14. The previous few verses that she
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read were from NLT, but I've taken this John 410 to 14 from
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the message version and this is what it says.
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Verse 10, this is what it says. Jesus answered.
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If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be
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asking me for a drink and I would give you fresh living
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water, the woman said. Sir, you don't even have a
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bucket to draw with. And this well is deep.
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So how are you going to get this living water?
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Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who ducked this
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well and drank from it? He and his sons and livestock
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and passed it down to us? Jesus said everyone who drinks
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this water will get thirsty again.
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Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst.
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Not ever. The water I give will be an
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artisan spring within gushing fountains of endless life.
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It's interesting that when we read this, Jesus is asking his
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human form was one which probably desired, was tired, was
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worn out, was probably tired and wanting to have physical water.
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But when he saw this woman, I believe he was moved with
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compassion. He wanted to touch up.
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He wanted something in her life to change.
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And he says I would give you fresh living water.
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And many a times this revival, this disruption that happens,
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God will do it in such way where our logic is questioned.
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The Samantha's woman logic was right.
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She said, hey, you don't have anything here.
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I'm the only person who can actually take and give you this
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water. And what are you saying?
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You'll give me fresh living water.
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I don't see a bucket in your hand.
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I don't see anything where you can draw water out from.
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And Jesus goes on to say this profound thing, and I believe
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this is the truth where we will need Jesus in our life.
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He says he had everyone who drinks his water will get
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thirsty again. If we are running after physical
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things, we acquire it, we get it, and then we feel we don't
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have enough of it's OK. Is this what I pursue?
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I think I need to pursue more. But Jesus saying, anyone who
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drinks the water, I give the water that Jesus gives.
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The revival that Jesus gives will never thirst.
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Not ever. The water I give will be an
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artisan spring within gushing fountains of endless life.
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If you're taking notes, if you want to make a note on artisan
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spring within gushing fountains of endless life, what does that
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look like? Revival that the Holy Spirit
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wants us to participate in is fresh and it's living.
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It's fresh and it's living. What is fresh and living?
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Which means every time you ask the Holy Spirit to come into
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that situation, every time you ask God, come into my mundane,
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come into my this He will bring a fresh anointing.
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He will bring a living anointing.
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He won't allow you to operate out of yesterday's anointing.
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I love that a lot of us have been carrying and breezing
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through life, carrying old water, carrying, recycled,
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repurposed. But God's saying, no, I want to
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give you fresh and living every day.
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What does that look like for those of us who are parents?
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That's something we need every day of fresh and living water.
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The Holy Spirit is saying I can do that.
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For those of us who are married and are struggling in our
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marriages, he's saying I can give you that fresh and living
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water. Would you ask me, Don't look to
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your spouse, Ask me. Start praying about it.
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Ask for everything, however small it may be.
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If there are struggles, ask him. If there are communication
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problems, ask him. If there are struggles and
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getting along, ask he will find a way.
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He will can mend broken hearts, he can put broken hearts
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together, he can do everything. And the reason why I asked you
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to underline this word. Artisan Spring and I was just
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reading up on this. It's basically where this
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waterbed is locked in between 2 sections of ground level of dirt
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water and so usually what happens is this is where usually
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the water is not coming onto the surface at all, so it's right
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below in the deep. OK, so the reason why I talked
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about these artisan springs is it's a waterbed which is present
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between 2 confining beds. So these two layers can be
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different. In most cases it's a it's a
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layer where it doesn't allow the water to go.
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So eventually what happens is a pressure that gets formed
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between these two layers and the waters present there.
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And so when you stick an entire pipe which goes right down, it
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causes, it crosses through this confining bed.
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It could be clay, it could be a material, it could be a compound
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on of the earth which doesn't allow water to go through.
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And when you go through that and when you tap into that spring,
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you don't even need a water pump for the water to come out.
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It just starts gushing out. And that's what it says here.
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Gushing fountains of endless life.
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And God's asking today, whatever your confining beds are, would
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you push through so that you can put your pipe straight into my
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living water so that it can gush fountains of endless life?
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And this is what we all need. A lot of times our mundane is
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just gone by every day after every day, week after week,
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month after month, because because of us being in a place
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of running after EMI is making payments.
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You know what, I'm in this dead end job and I just have to do
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this because I have things to do.
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You need revival right now because there is something more
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that the Holy Spirit wants to do, something more in terms of
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the gushing fountains of endless life that he wants to pour into
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your life, into your specific life, into every area of your
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life. You can't discount that.
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You know, if I have to talk about a science experiment with
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this coming out of EBS, you can see it right over here behind.
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And if I have to take, you have these Tetrapack juices and if
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you hold it tightly, there's a pressure that's formed.
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And what happens when I poke it with a straw?
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Juice just keeps coming out. I don't know how to do anything
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because the pressure causes the juice to come.
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And I believe sometimes in our most crushing of these confining
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beds that we are, it could be work, It could be relationships.
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It could be the pressure of being a child.
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It could be the pressure of, you know, walking through some of
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the trauma that you've gone through.
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It could be everything he's saying, The pressure of that
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would you dig your pipe deeper in so that my living Water will
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start working in until it'll refresh you?
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It'll become your artisan spring.
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The clear representation for us today is are we willing to stick
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our pipes further in so that he will become our only source?
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Are you in a dry and parchy land?
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He is the water that you need. Are you struggling with thirst
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and you feel you're choking? He is the water that you need.
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Revival has to start with you and me.
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And so in our mundanes, when our mundanes get disrupted, we soon
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realize there's more to what God has placed me here for.
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It starts gushing out. It starts giving us this
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curiosity. God, what is it?
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And we start diving deeper into His word.
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We start spending those moments of being quiet around him.
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We tune our ears to His words. Not to the frequency of
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everything that culture is not dominating and to what social
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media and influencers are saying, but rather we tune it to
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what the Holy Spirit is saying. So as we heard, when we move
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towards this place and say God, and so today, even as I close
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the first point, I want to ask you in this revival, would you
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dig deep, put that pipe straight into that artisan spring so that
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his life would come out, his living life, The water that
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never runs dry, the living water would come into each and every
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one of our lives. The second thing that we see is
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Revival confronts our deepest, darkest secrets.
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Every day it it has to do it. It it confronts our deepest and
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our darkest secrets. To access this artisan spring,
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it has to go through some hard peeling and digging.
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And a lot of times it's confronting the emptiness and
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the lack that our lives have. You know, in the last few months
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I've been walking through some my own personal journey and I've
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realized I've had layers and layers of areas where I've just
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masked it, thinking, you know what, It won't come up.
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It won't come to the surface. But over time, I've realized the
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Holy Spirit causing me to nudge that space.
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And as I've been putting my pipe deep in, it's those pipes that
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aren't defining me. It's that it's the joy of his
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word that causes me to go deeper in always so that I'll enjoy
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what comes out of him. It says here in John four was 15
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to 20 and let's go on to read it says please Sir, the woman said,
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give me this water then I'll never be thirsty again and I
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won't have to come here to get water.
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Go and get your husband. Jesus told her I don't have a
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husband, the woman replied. Jesus said you're right, you
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don't have a husband, for you have had five husbands and you
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aren't even married to the man you're living with now.
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You certainly spoke the truth. So the woman said you must be a
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prophet. So tell me, why is that You Jews
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insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship while we
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Samaritans claim it here in the mount of Gethism where our
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ancestors worshipped. We can see here the minute Jesus
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talks of this life giving thing, she's ready to accept it.
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There's a void in each and every one of our lives which only the
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Holy Spirit can fill. There's a sense of purpose and
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direction that only the Holy Spirit will cause us to have
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contentment in. Yes, things may not change, but
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because he's present, we'll have contentment.
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We will start seeing things his way.
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And here She asks Jesus, give me this water so that I won't be
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thirsty again, thinking that I may don't have to come back to
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the well. But she goes on to and Jesus
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goes on to say conference by asking her where's your husband?
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And even as she answers saying I don't have a husband, she Jesus
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goes on to tell her history in just a verse.
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And that's what many a times we are unable to participate in
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revivals because we have a story cooked up.
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We have a story that we've time and again told ourselves and
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made it the truth. But Jesus saying, hey, when you
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come to me, I know everything. I know everything.
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I know your intentions. I know how the story came about.
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I want you to admit the real truth.
-
And we can see here that when Jesus points that out, she puts
-
a guard on and says you are a prophet.
-
What does this look like? We can pass off by saying our
-
version of the story, but the Holy Spirit knows us inside out.
-
It is there. He wants us to be real to
-
ourselves. We need to come to our place and
-
say admit this is my wrongdoing. This is something that I'm God,
-
I've, I've been struggling with. I've covered it up.
-
I've probably fabricated a good story so that I'll be acceptable
-
by people outside or I'll be it'll be OK for people to know
-
who I am. But Jesus is saying and the Holy
-
Spirit is saying today, if revival has to be birthed in
-
you, we need to come to terms with the story and with the sins
-
that you're dealing with. Not an embellished version, not
-
something that looks well. Because today we're living in a
-
world of filters. Filters look good, but sin is
-
sin and we need to come to the Father and say God, I'm sorry, I
-
need your forgiveness. Jesus does not need any
-
convincing of our story. He knows all of me, even my
-
intentions, in which I'm telling the story.
-
And I love how the Samaritan woman did not try to justify
-
what Jesus said. Oh, God, I'm lonely.
-
That's why I've been, you know, switching partners.
-
Oh, you know what? I don't know if this guy's
-
committed. He's probably just here for a
-
fling. He didn't.
-
She didn't elaborate. She came to terms where this is
-
my life, This is where I'm rock bottom.
-
And that's where Jesus met with her, started giving her the
-
truth, and said you can experience this living water.
-
She deflects it by saying why do you insist that we come to
-
Jerusalem and we see? In the next few verses?
-
Jesus addresses that. But the truth is, today, are we
-
willing to allow the Holy Spirit to revive us so that he can take
-
everything of us? When he wants to use us and
-
shape us and mold us, he wants to take everything.
-
And we sometimes are scared to show our sin, our brokenness,
-
our emptiness to the Creator himself, you know Genesis
-
chapter one verse 2 says the earth was formless and empty and
-
darkness covered the deep waters and the Spirit of God was
-
hovering over the surface of the water.
-
The Spirit of God was in holding over the earth, which was
-
formless and empty and dark. There's no amount of darkness
-
that will scare him away. If he can shape and bring life
-
into the earth, he can do that same into you.
-
So quit trying to cover up and tell God or put it in good words
-
to explain to God. Go out there and just say God.
-
This is who I am. These are my intentions.
-
This is what I think. My, my, these are things that
-
I've struggled with. These are my my closeted issues
-
lot, which no one else knows. But I'm willing to open it up
-
because I want revival to come in.
-
I want revival to come in. The Holy Spirit is I love what
-
it says in the message version. In fact, it says he's owe
-
everything that is formless, empty and dark.
-
Earth was a soup of nothingness, A bottomless emptiness, an inky
-
blackness. Today, if you have to describe
-
sin, it will come under the any of this category.
-
You might feel like it's nothing.
-
You might feel the sin that you're in.
-
You are struggling to break the cycle of guilt.
-
You give up, you feel guilty, and then you go back to it.
-
You feel guilty again. You go back to it and it's just
-
seems like a bottomless pit and you just feel that part of your
-
heart is just marked with blackness.
-
But God saying, I want to touch that very part and revive it.
-
The Holy Spirit is never afraid to handle our mess, be it
-
whatever shape, whatever size, however cracked it is when we
-
allow the Holy Spirit to come, and even when we're looking at
-
the Holy Spirit, this time as a river of God, as living water.
-
Water can take up any shape, it can come into any crack, it can
-
come in and flood that space. But would you give room if an
-
iceberg could break a section of the ship on the board of the
-
Titanic and cause the entire ship to sink?
-
I believe water can come in. Give him, give him room so that
-
he'll be able to enter and give him room so that he'll be able
-
to come in and shape you and break you.
-
Break that pattern of sin. Break the clutches of what Satan
-
is having over you, John 421 goes on to say in message.
-
And So what? It says the response.
-
Believe me, woman, the time is coming when the Samaritans will
-
worship the Father. Neither here at this mountain
-
nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the
-
dark. We Jews worship in the clear
-
light of day. God's way of salvation is made
-
available through the Jews. But the time is coming.
-
It has, in fact come when when what you're called will not
-
matter, and where you go to worship will not matter.
-
It's who you are and the way you live that count before God.
-
Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.
-
That's the kind of people the Father's looking out for those
-
who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their
-
worship, God is sure being itself spirit.
-
Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their
-
spirits, their true selves in adoration, the woman said.
-
I don't know about that. I do know that the Messiah is
-
coming. When he arrives, we'll get the
-
whole story and Jesus response. I love it.
-
He says I am, he said. Jesus, you don't have to wait
-
any longer or look any further. The very question what the
-
Samaritan woman posed was to come into the technicality of
-
it. Saying you say that we're to
-
come to Jerusalem, but we are worshipping here, But Jesus goes
-
to the important issue. Saying no, when you worship the
-
way you live counts before God. Our worship must engage in
-
pursuit of truth. God is looking for those kind of
-
people. And so today when you and I are
-
in this walk moving towards worshipping God for asking for
-
his revival, may he invade every area of our lives.
-
May there be no area that is not where he's not able to convict
-
us about or we are so sensitive that we don't allow God to push
-
the buttons. God should have a free reign
-
over us where he's able to push us whereas he's able to say you
-
know what if you're stuck up in this, this is the very area I'm
-
going to push you. I'm going to train you in this
-
so that you allow me to be controlling of allow me to be in
-
control. I don't want you to be in
-
control. So today what happened when the
-
somatic woman heard this, she could put two and two together
-
and realized they said of a Messiah who's coming, who will,
-
who will set right, who we'll be able to worship.
-
And Jesus says I am that person, I am that person.
-
And so today church, I want us to ask us personally, each and
-
everyone of us asking ourselves, God, would you come into those
-
areas where I have left undealt with, I've, I've probably
-
brushed through it thinking you know what is allowed.
-
It's OK. It's permissible.
-
But God, is it permissible to you?
-
Would you convict me? Would you show me?
-
I pray God There are areas in my life which I've hidden away from
-
you. I've failed to confess it,
-
thinking that if I confess it I might be the worst Sinner.
-
But God saying nothing would scare me.
-
Would you come? Would you allow my living water
-
to flow through? For those of you who are really
-
struggling to give up sin patterns, I would request you.
-
Would your hearts cry be for revival, To come and let the
-
living water flow through you? Let him go.
-
Go to him. Go to the source everyday.
-
Dig deeper your trenches so that you go in.
-
Don't let the markings of your trenches cause you to not dig
-
deeper. Dig deeper so that when the pipe
-
hits the living water, you'll experience life, you'll
-
experience liberation, you'll experience truth.
-
So as we've seen two things. First, the revival.
-
As it starts with us, it meets us in our mundane.
-
The second thing when it meets us in our mundane it deals with
-
our deepest, darkest secrets so that God can do his work in and
-
through us, so that we can have living water.
-
And the third thing is this revival experience that we've
-
had moves others towards transformation.
-
John chapter 4, verse 39 to 42, goes on to say many of the
-
Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him
-
because of the woman's witness. He knew all about the things I
-
did. He knows me inside and out.
-
They asked him to stay on. So Jesus stayed two days.
-
A lot more people entrusted their lives to him.
-
When they heard that, what he had to say, they said to the
-
woman, we are no longer taking this on your say so we've heard
-
it for ourselves and know it for sure.
-
He's the savior of the world. The revival starts in me.
-
When it meets with me, when it deals with all my the deepest,
-
darkest areas of my life. I'm unable to contain it.
-
Why? Because I start understanding
-
that I can live in freedom. Jesus gave her the living water
-
and when she experienced it, she in fact left her thing there.
-
And she goes into the village to go and tell group of people who
-
probably knew her and the way she was living.
-
There's a man here who knows me inside out.
-
She probably didn't have a very good reputation, but in spite of
-
that, she went. And when she went as a man who
-
knows everything I've done come and meet this man.
-
They took her at a word because if someone had to know
-
everything that she's done, it definitely had to be someone
-
like God. So they came and they found out
-
it was God. The personal story of the
-
Samatar woman caused a stir in her itself, she realized.
-
This is my story. The living water that is coming
-
has is starting to work in me is my story.
-
And many times we think when we have to share, we always are
-
wanting a story to share. Share from your own life, share
-
of what God's done. Even if it sounds small, it's
-
OK. God is not looking at the
-
quantity of our story. He's just looking at the fact
-
whether he's present in that story.
-
Because if he's present in that story, the same living water
-
that worked in you will start working in others.
-
Too. Many times you're thinking, you
-
know what? I need to have a perfect story.
-
I need to have a good intro and a good outer.
-
I need to have a hook. If you have the Holy Spirit and
-
if he's intertwined in your testimony, that's more than
-
enough. We see when the living water
-
came into the life of the Samaritan woman, it transformed
-
her, It changed her. And she went about telling what
-
God had done in her life. And I'm asking you today, if
-
revival has to start spreading from us, It has to start with
-
us. It has to start with you and me.
-
It has to start with us telling about our encounter with the
-
Holy Spirit. So what is God telling you
-
today, two days from now? What has God been speaking to
-
you? What has He been doing in and
-
through you? What is He revealing you?
-
What are some of the dreams and the visions that He's given to
-
you? What are some of the deeper
-
insights that he's been talking to you from His word?
-
Is it coming in alignment? Because when you start doing
-
that, you'll start seeing connecting pieces time and
-
again. That's why when we gather as a
-
church, when we gather as communities, when we gather as
-
fellow believers together, and when we see that a lot in the
-
early church, when they gather together, the reason why they
-
were able to have a lot of community time was the fact that
-
in their personal time they saw. Some revelation the Holy Spirit
-
gave them come into, you know, some another person would have
-
probably got a song or a word. And when they came together and
-
everything came together, they knew this was what God was
-
calling them to do. This is what God's calling us to
-
step into. This is what God is calling and
-
speaking to us as a generation. This is an indication of what
-
freedom looks like for what the samatan woman did.
-
Because when she walked out of the power of darkness into the
-
power of light, when she walked out of the freedom that came
-
because the clutches of sin were broken, that living water, she
-
was able to go and testify. And the fruit of that was people
-
came to see who this God was, who this person was, that was
-
able to identify her and tell her whatever wrong she did.
-
She probably came to that well alone, knowing that she'll be
-
talked about, she'll be scorned, she'll be looked down.
-
But what she received, she took it out there, and she came and
-
draw. A lot of her brokenness was
-
hers, but when she laid it at the altar for Jesus, when his
-
living water redeemed it, it became a testimony in her
-
brokenness. She felt empty, and she could
-
have kept the door shut, sitting all by her cells, because she
-
was already judged, ridiculed, mocked, scorned.
-
But rather her brokenness made room for a saviour who wanted to
-
change her state. In Two Corinthians, chapter 12,
-
verses 9, This is what it says, But he answered me.
-
My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power
-
finds it's full expression through your weakness.
-
So I'll celebrate my weakness, For when I'm weak, I sense more
-
deeply the mighty part of Christ living in me.
-
The power of Jesus is evident when we are allowing Him to move
-
in, and through our weakness His grace and His power finds its
-
full expression. So today, whatever it is, allow
-
him to invade you with His living water.
-
Because what will come out of that will be glorious.
-
What will come out of that will be a Jesus testimony.
-
What will come out of that will be the outworking of the Holy
-
Spirit. And then through you, what will
-
come out of that will be you saying this is not me, but this
-
is of the one who is in me, that I'm able to do all this.
-
And what we see in the conclusion in John chapter 4 is
John 4 chapter mention
-
the people asked him to stay. And I love this section where
-
they tell her, you know what, We no longer are believing this
-
because you told, but we are. We've heard it for ourselves and
-
know for sure that he's a savior of the world are starting.
-
The igniter would be a testimony, but the sustaining
-
part will be his Holy Spirit's work.
-
So a lot of us today, what God's preparing us as a nation?
-
What God's preparing us as individuals?
-
What God's preparing us as churches and as marketplace
-
people and as His children who are in this world, not of this
-
world, is that we will be ready for a revival that starts with
-
you and me, ready for a revival that will change us, which will
-
change, transform us personally. So when we take it out, our
-
testimony with him will bring transformation to others.
-
And I'm sure at the end of the day, that living water cost a
-
revival in that own village, in that own town.
-
And so today, can you and I be partakers of that?
-
A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they
-
heard what he had to say. And I love that again.
-
I am repeating that again. We've heard it for ourselves and
-
know it's for sure he's the saviour of the world.
-
They will taste and see that the Lord is good.
-
That when they look into our lives, when they see our change,
-
when they see what God's doing in and through us, they will be
-
encouraged to seek for themselves and they will find
-
him. We do not know who God will
-
bring into salvation through our story.
-
We can discount it because of our low self esteem, because of
-
the nature of our brokenness, because of whatever we've been
-
through. But when we bring God into the
-
mix, when we bring the Holy Spirit and His living, what into
-
the mix, His grades, His strength, His redemption power
-
gets mixed into our battle of our lives.
-
And we are not our you're not us anymore, We are His.
-
And we start pointing everyone to Jesus because he's in the
-
mix. He, he, his hand is in that
-
battle. He's starting to shape us, He's
-
shot, starting to mold us. And I pray and ask that the
-
living water will become ours forever.
-
So Church, even as I close, I just want to ask specifically
-
that as we prepare for Pentecost Sunday, we won't be ashamed, we
-
won't be stiff, but we would rather be flexible.
-
We would allow him to say, Lord, would you move in and throw us
-
today? I want that artisanal spring.
-
I want that revival to happen. Lord Jesus, in you, in me, in
-
everyone that gathers, in everyone that calls on the name
-
of Jesus, that they'll be revival.
-
So today, even as I pray, can we just pray together that we'll
-
experience his revival? Lord, I pray even right now for
-
all those who are listening for, who are watching.
-
I pray even right now. Holy Spirit, would you Would you
-
just flood open into their lives?
-
Lord, no longer, Lord, will they be so worried.
-
I pray every worry, every shame, every guilt will be broken in
-
the name of Jesus. We pray for your blood covering
-
to Pierce through everything. I pray every abuse, every
-
torment, everything that's been spoken off and spoken about and
-
spoken into will be completely broken.
-
Lord Jesus in the name of Jesus that they'll find deliverance.
-
Every shackle will be broken. Every shame and guilt will be
-
gone. Every cycle will be broken,
-
every addiction will be broken. That you will set your people
-
and your children free. Lord, we are about your mission.
-
Lord Jesus and I thank you for the word revival.
-
I breathe revival into my own life.
-
I breathe your revival into each and everyone.
-
Right now I ask you to breathe it in.
-
Lord Jesus, I pray living what I pray we will all take our pipes
-
and dig in to find that artisanal spring.
-
Lord, I pray we will breakthrough every shackle,
-
every everything that's taken shape to get that living water
-
gushing out so that we will live in the fullness that comes from
-
you. Lord, I pray even right now that
-
our mundanes will see revival, disrupt our mundanes.
-
I pray, Lord, our deepest, darkest secrets will experience
-
a revival and they will get extinguished, gone once for all,
-
Lord Jesus, the marks of it. Lord will be ones of redemption,
-
one of grace, one of strength, one of overcoming by the blood
-
of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony, Lord Jesus.
-
It'll happen right now, Lord. I pray, Lord, that revival will
-
just not stop with us, Lord, That we will be able to share
-
our story with you and it, Lord, so that it'll bring about many
-
others to find truth. And they'll be able to
-
experience that living water, be glorified, be honored, be
-
praised. Thank you for all that you're
-
doing. Go before us.
-
I pray, Lord, for your blood covering over each and every one
-
of us. That you would strengthen us.
-
I pray even as we are in the peak of summer.
-
Protection will be upon each and everyone.
-
I pray your hand of mercy and grace upon each and everyone.
-
Lord, we thank you. Strengthen us, take charge, be
-
glorified. We thank you for all that we get
-
to do, Lord Jesus, because we are your children.
-
I pray that we'll have testimony after testimony of your living
-
water flowing in and through our lives, and we will see a
-
revival. I pray even as you wait
-
expectantly for this week, Lord, we ask that you would show up.
-
Lord, there will be a revival that starts birthing out in
-
different parts, in different sections in our online
-
community, in our physical gathering, we'll see revival
-
happen. Lord, so that you'll be
-
glorified. In your most holy name, we pray.
-
Amen. Amen.
-
So, church, even as you step out into your mundane, even as you
-
start working through and seeing all your deepest darkest
-
secrets, I pray revival will be birthed.
-
I pray as living water will flow through and leave you changed.
-
I pray your story and the experience of that revival with
-
Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the mix will bring about, will bring
-
about a revival in others. That you will be the reason that
-
many are able to see Jesus clearly, will be filled with the
-
Holy Spirit and live in the holiness that he has called us.
-
I pray that you have a blessed week ahead.
-
God bless you all. So church can I close the
-
service. May the love of the Father, the
-
grace of his only Son, Jesus Christ, and the sweet fellowship
-
of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us now and
-
forevermore And all God's people said, Amen.
-
Amen. Have a blessed week.
-
God bless you. Thanks for listening to this
-
message. We hope you were blessed to hear
-
more messages like this. Make sure to subscribe and check
-
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Remember, whoever finds Jesus finds life.