Living Water | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, I want to thank you guys so much for coming to uh to worship with us uh today.

Um my name is Keith.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you and uh my wife Megan and I, we have the incredible privilege of serving as the lead pastors here um at Celebration Um Orlando.

If you're joining us online, welcome.

Can we put our hands together for those who are joining us online?

Um, those who are listening to our podcast, welcome.

We're we're so, so um glad that you are here um with us.

I want to draw your attention to our um connect card.

And what our connect card is, is it's really just that.

Um it allows us to connect with you and for you uh to connect with us.

I realize that that when you're part of a church community, um, especially the size that we are, um, it can be a little bit overwhelming.

Maybe you have questions or just want some direction on what your next steps are or what are some things that we offer as a church.

That connect card um is a great way um for us to do that.

Maybe you want to know what's next in regards to groups.

How do you get involved in serving?

How can you learn more about our church?

We have all these resources that are available, and so the connect card seems to be the entry point um that can help you take um your next step.

In addition to that, um maybe you have a prayer request or something that you even want to just celebrate um the goodness of God in.

Another one of our values is we celebrate um God's goodness, and it's something that we recognize that in community together, God is doing so many amazing things.

And so we love to celebrate those moments with us together as a community, but also if you have a prayer request.

So the connect card is a great entry point um to connect with us, us to connect with you, to have questions answered.

Also, it allows us um to celebrate with you as well as pray with you.

We have some team um that'll be outside at the end of service that would love to connect and answer any questions you may have and just help you with whatever your next steps may be.

Um, I'm excited to jump into our next um week um for this incredible series that we have been in.

If you have your Bibles, uh I want to invite you to join me in the Gospel of John chapter seven.

Uh the Gospel of John chapter seven.

We we we've been in a series parakletos, um, paraclatos or paraclatos, depending on which translation or what part of the country you are from.

And if you were here with Pastor Chris last week in his Louisiana accent, parakletos, um, you can look at whatever translation that works best for you, but ultimately it is a it is a word that is meant to communicate the spirit of God and his his comfort for us, his support for us, his help for us, and how he can strengthen us.

This year as a church, our theme has really been my life, um, God's way, our story.

And in just a real quick short version of that, what it means is that my life means acknowledging who I am, where I am.

It's taking ownership of where I am.

God's way is living a life of surrender, that I want to truly do things God's way.

Um, and then our story, recognizing that together um we are better together, that we're connected to community and how we believe that the body of Christ is intended to move.

So, my life, God's way, our story has really been our theme.

And in each week, every series, even beginning since January, has been an effort to lead us in the ways of Jesus and how we can implement these things in our lives so we can truly begin to thrive the way that scripture tells us that we are going to thrive.

And so, this spirit, this series that we're in about the Holy Spirit is really meant to conclude this one point.

It's impossible for me to live my life God's way without his spirit.

It's impossible to truly do what God's calling me to do if I haven't been empowered by his spirit.

It's impossible for me to be who God has called me to be if I haven't been empowered by his spirit.

So this series is really meant um to serve as a as a reminder, but also instructions on how we can activate and engage the spirit of God in our lives.

If you miss any of the previous weeks, go back and check it out.

But the overarching theme is that life requires lifestyle, and that we have a lifestyle of pursuing the things of God, we will begin to see it in our lives.

Um, for the text that we're about to jump into, um, it's it's around the time of something that we refer to as the the tabernacle or the feast of tabernacles or the feast of booths.

Now, now this is something I'll give you a little bit more detail on in just a few moments, but it was meant to be a celebratory moment where where the Jews who lived in all different types of places in the area would all come back together and they would celebrate the goodness of God.

They would celebrate God's provision and they would have a moment of prayer and reflection in hopes that that the blessings of God would continue to pour out on them as they're going into the new season.

It's a very high traffic time in Jerusalem.

So it's in that setting, it's in that moment where where Jesus is there, surrounded by his disciples and and and thousands of other people, that he uses this as an opportunity to make a very bold claim regarding himself.

Starting here at verse number uh 37, it says this on the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

The one who believes in me, as the scriptures has said, will have streams of living water flowing from deep within him.

He said this about the spirit.

For those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the spirit, for the spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

This is not the first time that that Jesus makes reference directly to living water.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 4, we we may be familiar with the narrative of of Jesus and a woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, but he he ultimately says a version of the same thing to her Hey, I can provide you with rivers of living water that will flow from your belly.

John 4 · chapter mention

I have access to eternal life, and if you have access to me, you can tap into it.

Jesus even says in his in his most profound teachings, the Beatitudes, he he says, Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

We we see in scriptures where it says, Taste and see that the Lord is good.

We we see this idea of the reinforcement that Jesus is using to help his audience to recognize that this idea of being nourished, this idea about being um satisfied, this idea about having what you need taken care of.

He uses these passages of scripture as an opportunity to hyperlink the idea of saying everything that you're looking for is going to be found in me.

Today I want to continue our discussion um on the Holy Spirit.

Um, and I've entitled today's message, Living Water.

Let's pray and let's get into it and see what it is that God wants to speak to us today.

God, we we thank you so much for your goodness.

We thank you for your presence, God.

We thank you for opportunities for us to come together as a church family and to worship together.

My life, God's way, our story, collectively, us coming together.

We're reminded that we're two or three are gathered in your name, that you're here amongst us.

So, Holy Spirit, this is your space.

Um, we invite you to inspire us, to challenge us, to encourage us, to order our steps.

I decrease and ask for you to increase.

So, Lord, I pray for open eyes that I can see you.

I pray for open eyes or hearts that we can receive what you have for us and open ears to hear what it is that you want to speak to us.

Have your way in this place in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You know, family, I I want to um have a moment of of confession.

I feel like this is um this is a theme for me.

Whenever I get a chance to stand in front of you guys, I have an opportunity to kind of share a little bit of what's going on in my mind and what helps me to tick.

This is a little bit cheaper than therapy.

Um, so so let me let me share something with you.

Here, here's one of the things that I would consider to be a pet peeve uh for me is is when simple things get complicated for no reason.

I I don't know what it is, I don't know why I'm wired that way, but anytime I'm engaged in virtually anything, if I can see that there's a simpler way to do it, it gets under my skin.

I mean, I'm talking about if I'm standing in line at a grocery store and I see employees in the back and they're laughing and joking, I'm thinking to myself, like, hey, we could actually all get out of the store much quicker.

I just I can't turn off the leadership in me.

I'm like, man, like if you get over here, if you get over there, like I just feel a need to get things in order because I hate when simple things get unnecessarily complicated.

Whenever I'm traveling, and any of us that have gone to TSA anytime in a recent past, we know how chaotic it can be.

And sometimes I'm there, I'm like, man, there's a more efficient way that this line can run.

If they would just let me get in charge for just two hours, I could have this whole thing flowing so much more efficiently.

So for me, I I get frustrated when simple things get overly complicated.

And so there's nothing that makes me more frustrated or that can make something so simple get more complicated than when I'm going to the grocery store and and I have to pick up certain items from the store.

Let me walk you guys through what happens in the Pittman context.

And so a lot of times what'll happen is I will send a notice to my family in advance that says to them, Hey, I'm gonna be going to the grocery store.

Let me know now what you need because they know that I have the entire grocery store memorized.

I don't waste going down aisles and circling back.

If I go down an aisle and then I have to circle back and go to that aisle again, throw the day away, I missed it.

Just throw it away, let's start all over again.

So for me, it's all about let's stay, let's stay efficient.

And so when I'm going to the grocery store, tell me what you need so I can go and I can put it into my line items and I can make sure I can move out accordingly.

Now, occasionally, occasionally, I'll get the random text message.

Um, my wife's not in here, but I can talk about her.

Um, hey, are you still at the grocery store?

Are you are you still there?

Now, there are many times where I'm like halfway home and I'm and it's like, what do you do with that?

So this particular instance, this happened just a couple weeks ago.

Are you still there?

Now, I had already was making my way to the to to check out, but I was like, okay, you know, like we we none of us can all have it all figured out.

I'm trying to train my wife in the ways of how I shop, but I'm like, okay, I'll circle back.

I'm like, yes, I'm still here.

What do you need?

So, hey, can you go down the aisle and and pick up some water for us?

I'm like, okay, cool, I got this.

So I'm thinking to myself, I was gonna go to aisle number eight and check out with Emily, but the water is down by aisle number four, and and Beth is there.

She's not as quick, but she's a little bit more talkative, but I'll still work my way out.

Like again, I'm walking through and I know exactly what I'm doing.

I I walk down the water aisle and I am profoundly overwhelmed at what I see.

This is an example of how something so simple can get turned into something so complicated.

Let me let me tell you why.

When you go down the water aisle, it's like you enter into an alternate universe where there's so many different types of water.

Let me show you exactly what I'm talking about when I walk down the water aisle.

I walk down a water aisle, and the first thing that I see is life water.

I'm thinking to myself, when I see that, I want life.

And I want water.

This is clearly what is meant to hydrate me.

I'm walking over to it, and as I begin to grab it, I see another bottle there.

I see another one that says, well, no, you have essential.

You have essential water.

And this says that it has overachieving H2O.

So this says whole body hydration, but this has overachieving H2O in it.

I'm thinking to myself, I need H2O.

And I want it to achieve, I want it to overachieve, so so maybe that's what I want.

So I'm gonna go and get this essential water, but then I come across this other one.

Eternal water.

So I'm thinking to myself, in the scope of the things that are available to me, yes, I can have whole body hydration.

I I could I could absolutely have overachieving H2O, but who doesn't want eternal water?

Like, life is so limited, but eternity, that sounds way better than just regular life.

But like life is limited, but eternal.

So I'm like, well, clearly, these must be coming from the Mount of Moriah from God directly.

So so I'm thinking that I need to I need to drink from that one instead.

Then then I come across this one that's called core water.

And I see this one and I'm thinking, man, like the the case in and of itself is amazing.

It it looks beautiful.

It said that it's perfectly balanced and it's purified water.

I'm thinking, like, well, yeah, I want my water to be purified.

I don't want any toxins in it.

So the fact that they said that it's purified, does that mean that these aren't?

So am I drinking poison right now?

Like, why did they say theirs is purified and nobody else had mentioned anything about it being purified?

So so now I'm confused because I I was assuming that all of them were purified or went through some purification process, but they put it on the label, which means that nobody else is doing it, so I'm still standing in the aisle a little bit confused.

Then I see smart water.

And I'm in school right now.

So I'm thinking, man, like I need to be smarter.

So I I mean I'm juggling so many different things.

So so maybe maybe I need to get this, maybe I need to get this smart water.

Then then I see then I see coconut water.

Somebody's a fan of coconut water in here.

And and then I I was I was doing some research, and it looks like all the cool people are talking about coconut water.

They're looking at you like, oh, you're drinking regular water?

Well, I drink coconut water, it's better for my skin, it's better for my life.

I'm better than you overall.

So so I began to, I'm I'm struggling with this because something so simple has gotten complicated.

And then just when I thought I had it all figured out, and nobody probably can see this.

This is fancy.

So I'm thinking anyone that would go through the effort of putting water in a glass bottle, you definitely got something that's more valuable.

Here's also a side note not only will this hydrate you, but it will also give someone a concussion.

You're welcome, you're welcome.

I'm I'm looking, I'm looking at all of these options and I'm reading the labels and I'm looking at everything that they say they're supposed to do.

One says whole body hydration, one says extra hydration, and I'm literally thinking to myself, I thought all water was supposed to hydrate you.

I'm I'm so confused at how something so simple has gotten so convoluted and confusing.

I just turned around and picked up some Pepsi and went home.

At least I knew what I was getting.

Just give me the poison straight with no chaser.

My point is, something so simple as going to get some water has gotten so complicated because we've got so many options and so many things that's presented to us, it can overwhelm us a little bit.

Here's what I want you to know.

We we live in a world where it should be so simple in order for us to experience the life that God has for us.

There's a baseline of something that we all can agree on, no matter what your background is.

We we all want to live in a world that's filled with peace.

We all want to live in a world where we can have provision and our needs are being met.

We we all want to live in a world where we can experience safety.

These are these are things that are pretty much just at the core of every human being.

But but the problem is when we walk down the aisle and begin to look at all the things that's marketed to us, there's so many different things that the world is pushing to us that's claiming to give us the benefit of life.

You you you open up your app first thing in the morning and you look at social media and you thought you had a good night's sleep and you found yourself fairly content with where you are, only to look at where people are traveling to, what they're wearing, and what they're doing, and somehow you feel as if your life is inadequate because I don't have that anymore.

If if I open up the news app, they're telling me everything that is wrong with the world and that I need to be fearful and filled with chaos and don't know how I can move forward.

So I got that that I'm dealing with.

Then I have politicians that are standing in front of the TV and telling me that we need to be fearful of everything, and if we don't enact me as the savior for your family, then you're not going to experience peace.

We are so inundated with so many things that are promising to deliver and give us life, and we're finding that none of it is suitable.

This is why Jesus is cutting through all the chaos and he's saying, I understand what it is you're looking for, but if you come to me, you can get it.

This is the beauty of the gospel.

I want you to hear it.

When when Jesus was announced, he was announced as saying, good news for all people.

You know how something is the gospel?

Is that it's good for all people.

If your gospel is only good for you, then it's not the gospel.

If your ideology is only good for you, then it's not the gospel.

Jesus says, if you can come to me, if you're dealing with famine, if you're dealing with struggle, come to me because it will be good for all people.

Jesus begins to use this language of talking about this living water, this idea of this water that can come alive on the inside of us, that can nourish us and give us everything that we need in order for us to thrive and have a life of abundance.

When we look at scripture, we see that this idea of living water is not unique to the words of Jesus.

In fact, it's a it's a phrase, it's an ideology that is connected all throughout the course of scripture.

We see in Genesis chapter 1 that the water was essentially baptized in water, and then the Spirit of God was hovering over it, and he calls life out of it.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

It's this life coming out of water.

We see it there.

Then in Genesis chapter 2, we're given this detailed image of the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And in the middle of the Garden of Eden is the tree of life, and then from the tree of life flowed this river of water that nourished everything all around it.

Jesus is trying to help us to recognize that he is the tree of life, and from him flows this water that is able to nourish everything all around us.

This idea of living water was was used to purify.

This this idea of living water was was used to cleanse.

This is why, even in the Old Testament with Naaman, we see that he had to go and cleanse himself in the water that the scripture continuously represents this idea of this living water that has the ability of purifying and restoring and bringing ultimate satisfaction to the people that partake of it.

This is why famines were such a big deal in the Bible.

Because when there was no water, there was no there was no life.

That meant that the that the life could not be sustained, that meant that the wildlife couldn't be nourished, that meant that the grounds couldn't be nourished, that meant that they weren't able to produce any produce.

That was a really big deal when there was a famine.

This is why we see in scripture that whenever there was a famine, that people would move in order to get in a position where they could be nourished.

That whenever there was a famine, when there was dryness, they would say, Where do I need to go in order for me to be nourished?

Because they didn't want to just stand still and be content with living in a desert environment.

They had to reposition themselves so that they can be in an environment that they could benefit from the life-giving water.

My question is, have we gotten content with being in a famine when God has made an abundance available to us?

Are we willing to get out of our comfort zone and pursue the place and go to environments that maybe we're not comfortable with, but we know that's absolutely what God has for us.

This idea of famines being an evidence of God's hand being held against the people of God for disobedience or some version of that.

Even for the children of Israel.

The Bible tells us that they were in bondage for 400 years, and while they were being led out of Egypt, that the first place they go to is this place of Mara, which means bitterness.

They get there and they begin to drink of the water, and the Bible says that the water was very bitter and they couldn't even drink from it.

So they go to Moses, and Moses then puts a piece of wood inside of the water, the water becomes sweet, and the water is magically and powerfully transformed by the Spirit of God.

I want you to catch this.

That they went to a place that was bitter to the taste.

It didn't taste good, it didn't feel good, it wasn't nourishing to them.

But Moses had put some wood in that water, and that water was transformed and now became life-giving water.

Let me make it a little bit more plain.

Maybe we're standing in a place that we're tasting the waters of bitterness right now.

It doesn't feel good, it doesn't taste good, but maybe the wood that's missing from it is the wood of the cross that brings redemption and transformation.

That even if I'm standing in a situation right now, it means that redemption and restoration is made available for us as a result of us putting ourselves in the proper position.

See, for the children of Israel, as they were going through this period of going through the wilderness, God had continued to provide for them.

That he allowed rain to provide and nourish the ground so they could eat the fruit of the land.

That God literally allowed water to come from a rock when they were in desert environments.

Visualize this for a moment.

Water coming from a rock.

Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation.

Jesus saying that from me flows these rivers of living water.

What I'm helping you to see is these hyperlinks to scripture of Jesus saying that everything you need is going to flow through me.

These rivers of water, this river of life that He's making available for us.

So if we were the children of Israel as they're on this journey, God tells them, I want you to remember my provision for you even while you were in the wilderness.

I don't want you to forget because here's the reality: you're going to find yourself in some environments where it's going to be easy for you to forget what I've done.

You're going to it's going to be easy for you to forget my faithfulness.

So I want to institute these holidays and these holy days for you to have these rituals and routines to remind you of my goodness and of my provision.

And one of those holy days was the Feast of Tabernacles.

And what this feast was meant to be was a day that they would all come together collectively.

They would set up tents outside.

Come on, I'm talking to my people that like to go outside camping and sleeping outside and all that type of stuff.

This is the holiday for you.

I see you.

That's not me.

I pay too much money to have a roof over my head.

Why would I willingly sleep outside?

But we're all different and we're all loved in the eyes of God.

But but they would go outside and then for seven days they would sleep outside as an opportunity to remember what their ancestors went through, but also to recall that God was with them even in that season.

So for seven days they would they would read these scriptures.

For seven days, they they would be in community, for seven days they would they would have these parties and celebrate.

This is what they did, but on the last day, it it took a bigger turn.

See, this is why the text says on the last day, on the most important.

Important day, this is when Jesus makes that statement.

Why is that so significant?

Because on the last day, what they would do is they would go into the temple, they would then go to the pool of Bethesda, and they would pull, take the water out of it from a golden pitcher, they would then take it and pour it on the altar.

And as they're pouring it on the altar, they're declaring scriptures that talk about God's provision, God pouring out his blessing on God's people.

It was a very, very sacred moment.

It's in this moment as they're going in, getting this water out, as they're going out and pouring this water out on the altar and inviting God to perform a miracle in their life, that Jesus then at that exact moment says, Hey, anyone who is thirsty, let them come to me.

He is connecting thousands of years of Jewish tradition and saying, All of these routines, all of these rituals, all of these holidays, they're all pointing to me.

And if you can just truly come to me, I will nourish you and give you every single thing that you need.

It all flows from me.

You can imagine the confusion of the people as they understood what they were doing and what they were inviting, and Jesus is saying, Here I am.

I'm right here.

Maybe there's some of us that have showed up here today, and we're doing the exact same thing.

We're looking at scriptures, we're singing songs, we're inviting God to move in areas of our lives.

And I'm here to let you know that Jesus is in here right now when he's saying, I am everything that you need.

I know that you need a job, but I am your provider.

I know you need healing and I am your healer.

I know that you need breakthrough and I'm the one who brings in freedom.

This is why we celebrate the goodness of God in these moments like that as a community.

Jesus was speaking specifically about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The text even says that he was referring to the Holy Spirit who had not yet been given to the believers yet, because he hadn't been glorified.

He was speaking specifically of the Holy Spirit.

Now, now Jesus was speaking from the prophet Joel, chapter 2, verse 28, where he says, There's going to come a time where I'm going to pour out my spirit on all of humanity.

Joel 2:28

That I'm going to pour my spirit out and make it available to everyone.

In the Old Testament context, certain people were endowed with power from the Holy Spirit.

But Jesus is saying there's going to come a time when every single one of the people that say that they believe in me, as Scripture says, they're going to have access to my spirit.

But I want you to notice what he says.

Those who believe in me as Scripture has said.

Not as what culture says.

Not what my feelings say.

Not what my preference is.

But for those who believe in me as Scripture says, then I'm going to make my spirit available to them.

The outpouring of his spirit.

And he's speaking specifically of two things.

He's speaking of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and he's also talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

A lot of times we think that those are two of the same things, but they're actually two distinct experiences that take place when we become followers of Christ.

I want to take a couple of minutes to talk a little bit about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The idea of the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of us is something that takes place the moment that we confess our faith in Christ.

What the Bible tells us is that there's a moment when the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the life of the believer.

See, we are triune beings.

Triune means three parts.

We're body, we're soul, and we're spirit.

Body is how we engage the tangible world.

Soul is our our mind, our will, our heart, our emotions.

That's how people will say that's the true you, and then we have our spirit.

Our spirit of God is how we engage the things of God.

So we're a triune beings.

And what Paul would say is before we become followers of Jesus, we are dead in our trespasses and our sins.

In other words, what that means is that our spirit man, or our spirit on the inside of us, is dormant.

He's inactive, he's not doing anything.

But the moment that I confess Christ, what the Bible says is that my spirit comes alive, or as Jesus would say to Nicodemus, we become born-again Christians.

It's in that moment that my spirit comes alive, and that is what activates this war between my flesh and my spirit.

Because my spirit is how I engage God, my flesh is how I engage the world.

And so the enemy is trying to influence my flesh so that I don't do things that are in honor to God.

But at the same time, my spirit is trying to do things that allows me to honor God, but my flesh is fighting against it.

It's the my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak.

How else can we explain how we can come to church on Sunday, lift our hands in worship, take notes, highlight our Bibles, and walk out of here and be ready to cut somebody out because they cut us off on the highway?

What what how else can we explain these moments where we feel so close to God but yet so far from doing what he's called us to do?

Paul says, When I want to do good, evil is yet with me.

How else can I explain that I can be a whole pastor of a church leading people, but if I'm standing in a line unnecessarily, I'm ready to flip the tables over?

It's amazing how we are so in tune with God, but also so readily to snap out in the things of the world.

It's this delicate balance that we all walk in, where I want to do the things of God, I want to honor God with my life, but there still seems to be this barrier or that tension that seems to exist.

That struggle that we all have on the inside of us, and what can happen a lot of times, as a result of that struggle, we can feel that we're no longer saved.

If I could be real with you, when I first got saved, I felt like my salvation was constantly in the balance.

Meaning this if I didn't come to church one day, God was done with me and I had to start all over again.

If I if I made a mistake one time, then then I then I would fall short of God's glory and then I had to start all over again.

I had to go through a whole bunch of confessions and I had to step my game up in order for God to love me again.

But Paul reminds us that there is nothing that separates us from the love of God.

Paul reminds us that there is nothing that separates us from the love of God.

Paul reminds us that there is nothing that separates us from the love of God.

He he goes on even further in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14.

Ephesians 1:13

He says this, in him you were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation when you believe.

The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of possession to the praise of the glory of God.

I'm not sure if you caught that.

What he says is that when you confess Christ, the Holy Spirit took up residence on the inside of you, and you were now sealed in the name of Jesus.

Here's what a seal does: a seal makes sure that nothing bad can get in and nothing good can get out.

If you ever go into a store and if I'm about to buy this water bottle and I see that this seal is broken, I'm not going to drink from it because I don't know if it's been contaminated or what has gotten into it.

But but Peter reminds us that when we confess Christ, that we are born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God.

That means that my spirit, it cannot be corrupted by the things of the world, even if I fall short, even if I make mistakes, even if I'm doing something that doesn't honor God, I am sealed.

Paul is using this language specifically to help to highlight this idea of them understanding that whenever a king would send a message and a letter, he would send the letter and it would have a seal with his special insignet on it.

And that signature was meant to communicate that this message hasn't been tampered with.

It was meant to communicate that it can't be altered, that whatever has been written by the king, you can take it to the bank and trust it.

Well, God has given us the Holy Spirit and saying that the gospel says that when we believe in Jesus, that we are saved.

So I am sealed, my salvation is sealed, my blessings are sealed, that the eternal destiny that God has for me, it is sealed.

I am sealed in the name of Jesus.

But you know there's always going to be a but, but the way that I live my life does matter.

The things that I do in this body, it does matter.

See, Paul also is talking to a different audience with the Corinthian church.

And if you really want to understand like drama in the church, just do a little bit of a background on the Corinthian church.

To put it plainly, and the most theological phrasing I can give you, the Corinthian church was a hot mess.

They were a hot mess.

Their theology said that we have confessed Christ, so it doesn't matter what we do with our life because our spirit has saved us.

That means that we are followers of Jesus when it's convenient, we we engage in the things of God when it's convenient, we we live life on our own terms, and then when we fall short, we make statements such as, well, but God knows our heart.

He understands what we're going through, he knows that we're not perfect.

And so for them, they didn't even bother trying to live a life that honored God.

So Paul's like, man, I need to I need to recorrect this because yes, you are saved, and if you fall short, you are not going to disqualify yourself from heaven.

Watch this.

I can't perform my way into heaven and I can't perform my way out of heaven.

Someone needs to catch that.

We're in heaven because of Jesus' performance and our belief in it, and then living a life that demonstrates it.

But I can't perform my way in and I can't perform my way out.

But Paul does say, if you don't begin to see it in my life, am I really saved?

Because at some point, my my faith should be seen in the life that I live.

So what Paul says to the Corinthian church, he says, Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own.

Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Paul is talking to a community that understood the dynamics of a temple.

They were surrounded by temples, and what they understood was is that temples were were well taken care of.

Temples were treated with deep levels of respect.

Temples were were you had to approach a temple a certain way.

So he was saying to them, the same way that you engage a temple in the natural because you recognize that it's the house of God, well, God doesn't dwell in a house made of hands.

You are the temple of God.

So the same way that you respect a temple, how about you start living your life as if you recognize that God lives on the inside of you?

How about you start truly stewarding your life in a way that you truly believe that the Holy Spirit is living on the inside of me and the way that I live my life, it truly does matter?

That Paul is challenging them to recognize that when we become people that are surrendered to Jesus, the Holy Spirit begins to demonstrate his evidence in our lives with the fruit of the Spirit.

It becomes very evident of who we are.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit assures our salvation and it empowers us to live a life that looks like Jesus.

The other dynamic that Jesus is talking about is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And I'm going to unpack this in a little bit more detail next week.

But but to give you the Cliff Noit Notes version of it is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that moment when the power of God is on us to do what God has called us to do.

I like to say it this way: the Holy Spirit is in me for me.

I need the Holy Spirit in me for me.

But the Holy Spirit is on me for others.

In me for me, on me for others.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is when God saturates us in such a way that it activates our gifts.

He's in me for me.

So as I begin to recognize that the Holy Spirit is on the inside of me, it is so that I can be who God has called me to be.

When I'm baptized with the Holy Spirit, it's so that I can do what God has called me to do.

In me for me, on me for others.

God wants us to recognize that there's this power that's made available to us.

There's been many instances and many environments that I've been in where I could feel the presence of God that has been on me, and it's not anything that I could have done in my own strength.

Many years ago I remember being at a at a youth retreat, and as I was preparing to pray for the students, God just began to give me words that I didn't even plan on saying.

I ended up speaking and praying for people that were walking through burdens that I didn't even know that they were doing.

That's what we call the anointing of this prophetic gift and discernment.

I didn't plan for that, I didn't strategize for it, but the Holy Spirit came on me for the benefit of other people.

But there are other moments when I just need, I just need God for myself.

That there are other moments where I just feel depleted and I can't do it in my own strength.

There's other moments where I just need God to strengthen me because of the journey that I'm on.

Many of you guys are are familiar if you've been around our church for the past couple of months, but I share with us about six, maybe seven weeks ago, that that our family is going through a very, very difficult season.

My my son's best friend had died unexpectedly.

And and and this was a family that is deeply intertwined with me and my family.

This this young man was kind of like a nephew or a son to me.

So so the measure of grief that we've been walking through has just been something that I can't even describe.

Walking through it, myself, walking through it with my wife, walking through it with with his mother, walking, walking through it for myself and even for my son, just seeing the measures of grief.

And there's no words that I can truly use to adequately be able to summarize all of it.

Well, well, this past week on Saturday, we we had our our final celebration of life service um for this precious young man.

We we had been in a month and a half of grieving in Colorado, grieving, kind of waiting for us to get to what would have been last Saturday.

And I was scheduled to speak.

Now I've I've preached countless funerals, more than I care to admit.

I I've I've done this for close family members, I've I've done it for so many people, and it's not that it ever becomes normal, but there's a grace that comes with it that it just becomes a part of what we do.

But here I am on Friday night prior to me going and speaking at the celebration of life, and I just didn't have the words.

I I knew that this day was coming, I I knew that this moment was coming, and I knew that it was expected of me to stand in front of the people of God and and encourage them and stand in front of the people of God and tell good stories about Josiah.

I knew it would be uh my responsibility to to shift the atmosphere with providing words of hope, but if I can be honest with you, I wasn't feeling any of that.

I told Megan, I said, Hey, I just need to go back to the hotel room, I just need some time to get alone.

So I I go back to the hotel room, Megan is there with the family, and and I just I'm in the room and I'm staring at a blank screen that should have been occupied with a bunch of words that I am skilled at being able to do in my own strength.

I can I can pull from other sermons, other moments I did this, but I just felt depleted.

I felt what was required of me I didn't have in me.

Have you ever felt that something was required of you to give, but you just didn't have it?

Man, it's I'm supposed to give words of encouragement, but I don't feel encouraged right now.

I'm supposed to speak words of hope, but I don't feel hope right now.

I'm supposed to speak words of strength, but I feel pretty weak right now.

And I'm thinking to myself, God, I I don't know how I'm gonna be able to do this.

My emotions are all over the place.

But but then the Holy Spirit reminded me of John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

That this moment where Jesus says, Man, if you can just come to me, I will let you have rivers of living water that can flow out of you.

He's talking about a life of overflow.

That means that I can't give what I don't have, so maybe what I needed to do, instead of trying to figure out a way to perform for others, is I just needed to sit still and allow the Holy Spirit to fill me first.

As I sat in that room, I just began to say, Lord, I need your help.

Lord, I I need the paracletus right now because I need a comforter that can comfort my emotions.

Lord, I I need strength so that I can be able to walk through this journey with my family.

Lord, I need I need peace because I don't have peace right now.

Lord, I need stability because I don't feel stable right now.

Lord, I I need your help.

And I'm not telling you that this phrasing was some kind of weird Harry Potter incantation that magically made me feel better.

But what I can tell you is I began to simply sit in the presence of God and invite him into the situation.

And as I began to do that, something on the inside of me had begun to fill up.

Something had begun to remind me about the goodness of God.

And I began to be reminded of God's word where it says, We don't grieve like those who don't have hope.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

I was reminded of the word of God where it says that death does not have the final day.

Oh, death, where is your sting?

Oh, grave, where is your victory?

The Bible began to remind me of those moments that have helped me to understand that I will be reunited with him one day.

And I began to feel my faith rise up on the inside of me, and I was no longer discouraged.

I began to recognize that God will be glorified through this.

I began to recognize that God is faithful, that God is with us, that we will overcome this, that God is with us through this valley of the shadow of death.

We will survive this.

When I was filled, then I was able to stand before the people of God and speak a word of hope.

Then I was able to stand before the people of God and give encouragement.

I was able to look his mother in the eye and say that God is still with you even in the midst of all of this.

I could not do that in my own strength, but because I asked the Holy Spirit to rise up on the inside of me, it was able to flow out of me.

Maybe there's some of us right now that we're experiencing a famine right now.

That maybe some of us right now we're in our own wilderness right now.

That maybe for some of us right now, we're standing at our own bitter waters.

Maybe this is the moment that God is saying, Can you bring the cross to that?

Let's simplify this.

I know that there's a lot of three steps that can make you feel better.

I know there's a lot of ideas on how you can get over this.

The only way that you will survive this is by my spirit.

My spirit is the thing that will strengthen you.

My spirit is the thing that's going to give you life.

My spirit is going to be the thing that gives you hope.

My spirit is going to be the thing that gives you strategy.

My spirit will give you endorsed.

My spirit will give you peace.

My spirit will give you the wisdom and discernment on how you need to navigate through this.

If you can allow yourself to be surrendered in my presence, out from your belly shall flow rivers of living water, not dead water, not water that doesn't lead you anywhere, but living water, water that's going to produce hope, water that's going to produce life, water that's going to produce peace, water that's going to produce breakthrough.

I will not be in this stagnant place any longer.

I'm turning away from Mara and I'm turning into the living water that God makes available if I'm willing to surrender my life to Jesus.

God, I need you to fill me.

I need you in order for me to be a good husband.

I need you if I'm going to be a good father.

I need you if I'm going to be a good pastor.

Lord, I can do nothing in my own strength, and all I can do is say, Lord, fill me.

I'm in a famine right now, fill me.

I'm in a dry speech right now, fill me.

My resources are low, fill me.

Because when God begins to fill you, there's a life that comes from him that the enemy cannot take from you.

I am sealed in the presence of God.

I am baptized in his spirit, and I'm walking in victory because I have been empowered by the Spirit of the Living God.

The Holy Spirit, He strengthens us.

And when we live a life that's fully surrendered and submitted to Him and allow Him to rise up in us, we begin to live a life of overflow.

I can't wait to preach next week to us about the gifts of the Spirit, the power of the Spirit, and how we can make a difference in the environments that we go into.

But I want to seal this day out with us going into a moment of worship.

With everyone standing on our feet as we prepare to go into this time of worship, a time of reflection.

I want us to just have a moment of meditation, a moment where we honestly say to ourselves, What are the areas in my life that I feel a famine?

What are the areas of my life that I feel a dry spell?

What are the areas of my life where I'm I'm not feeling the hydration spiritually that I know that God wants me to live in?

I see a discrepancy in scripture when it talks about life to the fullest.

I see a discrepancy when scripture talks about me being in a life of abundance, and I feel that there's a dry spot.

What I want to do in the next couple of moments is I want this to be a space where we can worship together as a family, and we're inviting the Holy Spirit to breathe on our situation.

That we're inviting the Holy Spirit to fill us so that we can do what God has called us to do.

The Holy Spirit is in me for me, but he is on me for others.

Maybe this is an opportunity for us just to stand still in the presence of God, for us to lift our hands up, for us to sing these words, for us to invite the Holy Spirit to fill us so that we can do what God has called us to do.

With every hand lifted up, I want to pray this blessing over us and I want to invite you.

Don't let this moment pass you by.

Take inventory of what's dry in your life, and let's invite the Holy Spirit to flow in it.

Lord, you see every hand that's lifted.

God, you know the areas of famine and struggle that we all wrestle with.

God, some of us are feeling a famine in our marriage.

Some of us are feeling a famine in our professional career, some of us are feeling a famine in our own minds and our bodies, God, areas where we're not feeling hydrated by your spirit.

But your word reminds us and we stand true on what your word declares, that if we come to you, that you will allow rivers of living water to flow out of us.

That means that you're gonna fill us and you're gonna flow out of us, God.

Fill us so that we can be who you've called us to be, flow out of us so that we could do what you've called us to do.

Father, I pray in the name of Jesus for every person that's in here, God, that you fill us with your spirit.

It's nothing weird about it, it's nothing magical about it.

It is simply us living a life that is surrendered to you and empowered by your spirit to be who we're called to be.

We are sealed, we are saved, we are blessed in your presence, God, but there are still work for us to do, God.

So I pray a blessing over your people.

And as we engage you, we know that you engage us.

So as we go into this time of worship, meet us where we are.

Fill us, God.

We're not looking for feelings, we're looking for power.

We're not looking for emotions, God, we're looking for clarity, God.

So, Father, I pray for a filling of your spirit that gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding, and we can walk out with our minds and our hearts.

Guarded, knowing that we are sealed in the personhood of Jesus, that Christ in us, and because greater is He that's in us than He that's in the world.

No matter what we're facing, we have victory because of the spirit of the living God that is cultivating holiness and life on the inside of us, that we can live a life that honors you, that we can walk according to your word and your will, that we are forgiven and that grace is available, but you've called us to make a kingdom impact and to be set apart from this world, Father.

We don't want to complicate it any further.

What we need is you.

So meet us where we are and fill us in Jesus' name.

Come on, family, let's worship together one more time.

Thanks again for listening.

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