Just Add 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.

I do want us to stay in an attitude of worship just for the for the next few minutes.

I want to share a quick update with you guys, something that we're going to be making a minor adjustment on here.

And so as you guys probably noticed, we've adjusted our service flow, just kind of like how we're doing things to best maximize our time.

But a large part of that has also been making sure that we presence and prioritize worshiping God in the area of our giving.

Historically, we've kind of put it at the end of the service.

And what we felt is that we wanted to make sure that we presence it in a space where it's not an afterthought.

Because we truly believe that when we worship God with our giving, it's the same way as when we worship God with showing up at church, when we read His Word, when we lift up our hands.

And so we want to make sure that we give it its adequate space in our service as we prepare to worship God in the area of our giving.

And so I know many of you already give automatically online.

I know many of you have automated giving and all those things, and I'm thankful for it.

But we want to create space where we can just pray over the offering together as a family.

As I prepare to do that, I simply want to read a quick passage of scripture to you as it relates to our giving.

If you've been with us for the past couple of weeks, you know that we're in this series called Flourish.

And we've been talking a little bit about sowing and reaping and this idea of what does it mean to really flourish the way that God has intended us to flourish.

What does a successful life look like?

And what we'll find here in 2nd Corinthians chapter number nine, we see that same language used as it relates to worshiping God in the area of our giving.

You can read all of 2 Corinthians chapter 9 in its entirety to get the adequate context of what worshiping God and our giving looks like.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

Um, but I'm going to show you a highlighted portion and then we're going to pray and then we're going to get into the rest of the message.

Looking at verse number six, it says this the point is this the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will reap generously.

Each person should do as they decided in their heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always giving everything you giving him, giving you everything you need, you may excel in every good work.

As it is written, He distributed freely, he gave to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.

Verse number 10.

Now the one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed and increase your harvest through your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way for your generosity, which produces thanksgiving through us.

Paul uses this language and he goes on before that and after that to talk about the importance of the community of faith coming together and being generous and making a difference in the lives of other people.

And one of the statements he makes here is like, we just give we don't give out of compulsion.

We don't give reluctantly.

And if I can be quite candid with you guys, I'm not a big fan of talking and preaching about giving.

Um, because I realize that when you're in a church context, it's um it has a lot of baggage attached to it.

It's a lot of emotional things with it.

And so a lot of times people just check out whenever you hear someone talking about giving.

But what God has really challenged me with is that I also know that it's a biblical principle.

And if I'm not leading you on how to be generous, then it's possible for the world to still have a grip on you.

Matthew 6, 33 tells us about seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then everything we're in need of will work itself out.

And so I know for us, for Megan and I personally, that when we truly began to trust God with our resources, we've never had to worry about money.

Now listen to me, I'm not saying that money hasn't run low.

I could use a couple more zeros in my account right now.

But what I'm saying is we don't worry about it, we don't have anxiety about it, we don't stress about it because we know that ultimately that God has us.

So when we give, ultimately what it is is saying, I'm trusting God and I'm not gonna walk in worry.

That's what Matthew 6.33 is all about.

That's what this passage is all about, is being generous, trusting God, and watching Him move through our obedience.

So as we prepare to give, and again, you've already probably given, but I just want to pray, give you context, and then we're gonna jump into the rest of our message today.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for the resources that you've given us.

Your word declares that it is you that gives us the ability to gain wealth, Father.

Your word also reminds us that as we sow, we will also reap.

That when we sow into your kingdom, that not only does it benefit others, but it also reaps a harvest that benefits us.

So, Father, we return the tithe to you, the first 10% of all that you bless us with, prioritizing you, worshiping you, trusting you in what you've entrusted us with.

And God, we also give you our offering above and beyond, knowing that you're gonna use it to plant churches, to expand your kingdom, God, to allow us to do what you've assigned us to do.

So we surrender our resources to you, God, with an expectation that it's gonna make a difference in others, but it's also gonna make a difference in us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen, amen and amen.

Okay, I'm I'm I'm pumped to get into this message, but we're gonna keep it a little bit brief today because today is water baptism Sunday.

Can we get a what, what?

You guys ready for that?

Yes, it's gonna be a lot of fun.

We've had an amazing first service where incredible people have taken that next step, and then today we get to celebrate that um with many others here today.

So we're gonna preach a little bit shorter today, and some of y'all are like, man, amen.

Relax.

I'm still gonna go about 30 minutes.

Um, but but we're gonna we're gonna try to be uh a little bit concise.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to meet me um in the book of Job, chapter number 14.

If you're new to the things of faith, it is not the book of Job, it's the book of Job.

I had to learn that myself the the hard way.

Um, and as I mentioned, we're we're in this series, this series called Flourish, and this idea of making sure that our lives begin to produce the fruit, living a life that looks like what scripture describes for every single one of us.

One of the things I love about the Bible is that it uses this technique of metaphor in order for us to really get a glimpse and an understanding of what God's vision for our life is.

And so when God is using language that speaks about us being fruitful, he to He directly is connecting us to the imagery of a flourishing garden.

He wants us to kind of look at these things and say, like, this is what I want your life to look like.

I want your life to flourish, I want you to produce fruit, I want you to be successful, I want you to be a person that people can look to and see that you belong to me.

I need you to be an example.

But as we all know, that when if anything, with every garden, it requires work.

That typically, if you go out and see a yard or a garden that looks beautiful, they didn't pray that way.

They they had to do the work, they had to cut the yard, they had to do some things in order to ensure.

In other words, they had to cultivate it.

And I truly believe that for our lives, that there's some things that the scriptures tell us about our lives, some things that God describes for every single one of us, but we have to cultivate it.

We have to do the work, we have to do what God's telling us to do if we want to see what God is telling us He wants us to see.

And so now as we as we transition into the book of Job, we find that with Job he it's a it's a literary masterpiece.

It's a it's an incredible book that that really is a reflection of the human condition because it's dealing with a man who was a good man, a righteous man, as scripture describes him, but he's also a man who was dealing with insurmountable suffering, a man who was dealing with so much pain and was really trying to reconcile the life that he was living, but also looking at the pain that he was experiencing.

Many of us probably can relate to those moments where you're trying your best to do the right things, but it doesn't seem as if you're getting the right results.

And so Job had some people that came into his life, some friends, and they provided commentary on what was going on.

And that commentary was like, listen, um, Job, you had it going on, now you don't, you've done something wrong.

Like that was that was their theology.

Their theology was if everything is going good, then you're doing good.

And when things start going bad, it's your fault.

How many of us have ever felt that way?

Where, man, when things are going good, then then I must be doing something right.

And when things aren't going good, it absolutely has to be God's wrath and judgment being poured out upon me.

What the book of Job is meant to show us is that that's not really always the case.

That sometimes bad things happen to good people because we live in a fallen and broken world and it's just the environment that we live in.

But what really marks the believer is how do we respond in those moments?

What is our reaction in those moments?

And so when you read the book of Job, it almost reads like a Shakespearean play, where there's moments where it introduces an idea, but then there's other moments where he goes into these long monologues about his life and trying to understand, which is why this is considered wisdom literature.

But in that, in those moments, he utters some phrases and some statements that are just profound truth.

And today we're going to look at one single passage that I think is so saturated in truth that I think it can help us.

Here's what it says here at Job chapter 14, looking at verses 7 through 9.

Job 14 · chapter mention

Really, really simple.

He says this there is hope for a tree.

If it is cut down, it will sprout again and its shoots will not die.

If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump starts to die in the soil, the scent of water makes it thrive and produce twigs like a sampling.

He's saying that there's hope for a tree, that even if it's cut down, that that even if it begins to grow old, that that even if that that even if it starts to die in the soil, there's still hope.

Because if you can just get enough water in that thing, it can still produce a newness of life.

I believe that this is a word for some of us in here right now because I'm I'm confident that in a room of this size, and for those who are joining us online, there's some of us that that may describe us where things feel a little bit cut down, where we feel a little bit disconnected, but I want to let you know that there's hope if we can make sure that we have access to the living water.

If you're taking notes, and of course we are, because it's Celebration Orlando, we know that note-takers have a fast pass into heaven.

Um, I don't make the rules, guys.

I just I just communicate them.

Um, I want you to write this message titled down, Just Add Water.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for your presence.

We thank you for your word, and we thank you for opportunities for us to come together to gather in your name and to experience your presence in community.

Father, I just pray over the next few moments while we're together that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear your truth, and open hearts to receive what it is that you want to speak to us.

Holy Spirit, you're welcome.

We invite you to inspire us, to challenge us, um, to encourage us and to order our steps.

Uh, we surrender this time to you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You know, when I was doing a little bit of research on this whole idea of the importance of water, I really found that there was a statement that I saw that I was like, I gotta say this.

It says that water is the lifeblood of our planet.

Like it's it's a it's a vital, it's a vital component of our planet.

In fact, entire ecosystems are described on whether or not there is water there or not.

Like it literally is such a big deal for us.

In fact, there's no living organism that can escape the need for water.

Anything that's alive, water, whether it be plants, animals, us, like there's a need for water that you just simply cannot ignore or avoid.

That somehow this odorless and often tasteless substance is so vital for life.

And so I've often heard when I was coming up the importance of making sure that I stay hydrated.

We've all heard that phrase, like make sure you stay hydrated.

Like if you're outside doing anything, make sure you drink a lot of water, you gotta stay hydrated, which I think cognitively we understand that.

But let's be honest, man, have you ever seen the recommended amount of water they think that we should drink?

Like, you can drown in that much water, like it's it's it's a lot.

So if I if I get like two glasses in in a day, I'm like, bro, I've done it.

Like I might be good for the rest of the week.

Like, I mean, like, it's it's a lot.

I mean, let's let's let's call it what it is.

But when you have those moments where you actually do experience dehydration, it it may change something in you when you recognize just how much at some point our body can break down.

Let me let me tell you something that happened to me.

Um, it's an embarrassing moment, um, but we're family, and this is much cheaper than therapy, so I'll just air it out right here.

Um, I remember um many years ago, many, many years, probably like 10 years ago, um, it was a Christmas time, favorite time of the year.

Megan and I were on our way to go to a Christmas gathering.

It was gonna be absolutely amazing.

The gathering with one of our friends from the church, we we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some items to also take with us to the gathering.

It was a great moment.

We're outside, I'm high-fiving the Salvation Army, Santa while he's ringing the bell.

It was just a great overall Christmas season vibe.

We go inside, we get our stuff, and as we're walking outside, things begin to get a little bit weird.

Like, I didn't realize that I had gone the entire day before and up to that moment without eating or drinking anything.

I think I was just running around busy.

Sometimes you're so busy you forget to eat.

And so now, like, for whatever reason, like I just started feeling like this overwhelming weakness hit my body.

So as I am walking outside, Megan and I are walking literally hip in hip.

I'm talking to her, like, girl, you so fine, man.

You are I am so lucky to have a woman like you.

My God is good.

When the Bible says that he who finds a wife has found his favor, I'm looking at my favor, favor, favor.

Like I'm I'm I am I am in my happy place, man.

It is all good.

But then everything starts to slow down.

So I just remember in slow motion as I'm walking, Megan starts to kind of get a little bit ahead of me, and I don't understand why my legs aren't moving anymore.

Like I'm like, I'm trying to move, but it's almost like I'm in quicksand, and so as I'm trying to step, I can't pick my legs up, I can't pick my feet up, and in my brain, I'm thinking to myself, like, yo, I'm about to go down.

Like, I'm I'm literally about to fall down on my face.

And so in my brain, as I'm having this matrix moment, I just pause and I just say to myself, like, don't you dare scuff your new Jordans.

One, and then two, don't knock out your teeth.

The sad thing is I said it in that order.

Jordans first, teeth second.

Like, I don't want to know what's wrong with me, but I said, okay, don't fall.

And so as I'm going down, and I literally see myself going and down, I'm feeling myself go down, I like lunge with my last bit of energy left, and then I pass out.

Because I'm just again, I'm trying to make sure I don't scuff the top.

So I lunge forward, I literally land on the ground, but it wakes me up.

I roll over, jump back up, and keep on walking.

Megan is so confused right now.

We're walking out hand in hand, then she just sees me drop, then I roll and get back up.

Like, she's like, what is going on?

I'm like, just keep walking, just keep walking.

We're not gonna stop.

Just keep people are looking.

The Salvation Army standard, stop ringing the bell.

He's just looking like, bro, you okay?

Like, you know it takes a lot for them to stop ringing that bell because that's how they get their money.

So even he stopped and was like, bro, are you good?

I'm like, Megan, so Megan's asking me a million questions.

I'm like, yo, keep pushing, keep going, keep going.

I am so embarrassed, but I refuse to be laid out here on these streets.

So I'm like, let's keep going.

I am confident that right now in Jacksonville, Florida, that that's the public that has footage that they're laughing at me right now as we speak.

I haven't gone back since.

Like, it was so, so embarrassing.

So we get into the car, I'm like disoriented, I'm dizzy, and then I said, Mike, just just just give me just give me a little bit of water.

So I start drinking the water, and literally, as I start drinking the water, it's like it's like pot pie with spinach, like, oh man, I feel great now.

I can go out and beat up 20 men.

Like, I felt great.

But it was amazing how the lack of water eventually caught up with me, and it just caused me to collapse right there on the spot.

But the moment that I got a little bit of water in my system, it began to wake me up, it began to activate parts of me that had begun to shut down.

Like when you really think about what happens to the body when it is dehydrated, it is so hard to function.

Like things begin to shut down.

One of the symptoms is dizziness, you're disorientated, you're confused, like it is so hard to function, and you can even pass out like I did.

But but oddly enough, if you can just have enough water, that the part of you that that shuts down can be activated and allows you to continue to mobilize and move forward.

What occurs to me is this I realize that for some of us, that there's areas of our lives where we stop having mobility.

There's areas of our lives that have begun to shut down, there's areas of our lives where we begin to lose confusion and begin to have just a little bit of dizziness and we're losing focus because maybe we're not hydrating that area of our lives the most.

What Job describes for that tree sounds a lot like what we would describe as dehydration.

He says that, man, if a tree is cut down, cut down means that there's no more growth.

What are the areas of your life where you don't feel like you're growing anymore?

He says, he then goes on to say, not only is it cut down, but then it begins to, its roots begin to rot.

Roots speak about stability, vibrancy.

So now not only am I not growing, but I don't even feel like I'm able to reproduce anything.

I have nothing left to give.

And then lastly, he said, you begin to die in the soil.

I want us to put this together for a moment if we really think about it.

Because for this tree, it was planted there many years ago, it had flourished there, it had thrived there, it was doing well there, but there is a moment where it was cut down, there's a moment where it began to grow old, and there's a moment where it just was beginning to rot away.

You know, it's possible for you to thrive in a place in one season and feel like you're dying in that exact same place in another season.

It's what do you what do you do when the place that I used to be so successful in is the place that I feel like I'm gonna take my last breath in?

What do you do when when I thought that things were gonna be great here, but but something has happened and it's not so good?

It's it's possible.

I just want y'all to hear this.

It's possible for in one season your marriage is thriving and it gives you life, but in another season your marriage seems like it's taking the very essence of what it means to be alive.

It's it's possible to even have a job that at one point you were so happy to be a part of and now you loathe getting up to go to it.

This condition is literally like spiritual dehydration.

That means that I'm pouring out more than I am receiving.

And eventually, if I do it too long, it's gonna cause me to shut down.

If I do it too long, I'm gonna begin to experience these gaps.

If I do it for too long, I start to experience these deficits that don't seem as if it's producing life.

Maybe that describes some of us right now.

Maybe, maybe there's areas of our lives right now that when we when we look at it, man, I used to be doing good, but in this very same area, I feel like I'm dying in this soil.

I'm not flourishing anymore.

Things are cut off, I'm not growing anymore, I'm exhausted, I'm I'm I'm I'm filled with confusion.

I don't feel as if I can move forward.

That that place is not the place that God intends us to be.

So I love how Job doesn't leave it there.

He describes what happens, but he also says that there is hope.

He says, I want you to understand that there is hope, that even if you find yourself in this condition, that even if you find yourself cut down, that even if you find yourself not having any stability, that even if you find yourself beginning to lose the reproduction that you know that God has given you, that God's not done with you, yet there's still hope.

And what he says is the hope is found in this living water.

He says that there is hope if at the scent of water you allow it to come and it's going to produce a freshness of life.

Now, now when I talk about living water, what am I talking about?

Because if you read the Bible long enough, you will see that water is used in a in a multiplicity of ways in scripture.

There's a lot of symbolism that is connected to water.

We see in scripture that a lot of times that water is connected to the Holy Spirit.

We see that in the in the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit came, we even see with Jesus saying that for those that come to me, out of their belly shall flow rivers of living water.

He was speaking about the Holy Spirit in John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

So we see these moments where water is absolutely a reflection of the Holy Spirit.

But but there's also another reflection that we see in water that I want to spend a few moments talking about today, and that is that water is often seen as the word of God.

Water is often seen as the word of God.

And this is why this is so important, because what we're seeing is that what Job is trying to help us to understand, what scripture is trying to help us to understand, is that if we can have a healthy relationship with God's word, that is going to give us the strength and the stability and the nourishment that we need.

More often than not, when you find a Christian who is spiritually malnourished, you're talking to someone who stopped engaging God's word.

That more often than not, that what ends up happening when we can be people that are full of faith, but we start losing hope is because we stopped engaging God's word.

Because God's word has an ability of changing everything.

I loved when Megan and I first got saved and being a part of community, coming to incredible services.

But I also knew that I needed to spend time in God's word and for in order for me to really understand who I was in Christ.

I needed to spend time reading the word of God for me to understand and to renew my mind.

I needed to spend time in God's word in the context of community so I can grow and really begin to see myself the way that God sees me.

For some of us, I think that we experience these deficits because we had not allowed the water of God's word to bring the strength to our lives that we need, so we end up experiencing spiritual dehydration.

Moments where we feel cut down, moments when we feel dizziness, moments where we we don't feel like we're flourishing, but that is not the vision that God has for your life.

That God's idea is that there's hope for you, that one word from God has the ability of changing everything, that all it takes is one message from God that has the ability to renew your mind that can shift and activate something on the inside of you, that all it takes is engaging God's word and has the ability to change everything.

Why do we think that the enemy fights us so much when it comes to consistently reading God's word?

We can do so many things, we can find time to do everything, but when it comes to consistently reading God's word, there's always challenges connected to it.

Could it be that the enemy wants us to live our lives as emaciated Christians with a form of godliness, but we don't have any power?

What if he knows the moment that these people really begin?

To engage God's word and they understand who they are in Christ, they see themselves the way that God sees them, and they begin to walk with the authority and dominion that God has given them.

It's going to change everything.

I believe that what we have a responsibility to do is cultivate this.

But again, in that same way that God wants us to flourish, we have to cultivate it.

We have to be intentional.

We have to do the things in order for us to experience God's best for our lives.

There's a couple of points that I want to give you guys before we go out and celebrate some baptisms.

And these things are what I want you to write down to keep in mind.

See, I I love whenever there's a I love whenever there's a recipe and it says just add water, right?

Like we all love those recipes that say just add water, because I can't mess that up.

I can't mess it up.

If it's just add water, it's simple.

I take the measurement, I add the water, it's all good.

But but here's here's what I learned.

I have this protein drink that I'll that I'll use.

And it's very simple.

There's a powder, there's a water, I add it to it.

But here's the thing: I have to shake it up.

If I don't shake it up, then the protein doesn't dissolve, and now it actually doesn't become something that I can drink.

The protein will either drift to the bottom or it's at the top and it's hard to digest it.

But if I shake it up, it allows it to dissolve it, and now I'm able to drink it all as one source.

Here's what I want you to understand that God's word is available to us, but he will bring us to seasons where we have to shake it up so it can be fully integrated into our lives, so it can actually bring us the nourishment and strength that we need.

It's not good enough just to read a word of God, highlight it in your Bible, and put it over there, but he wants us to actually shake it up in our lives so it can be fully integrated, so we can walk with authority, we can walk with dominion, we can walk with the newness of life, we can walk understanding who we are in Christ Jesus.

But some seasons we're presented to shake it up so that it can have the adequate application.

There's three things that I want to share with you that I believe is going to help us understand.

What does the water of God's word do for us?

Here's the first thing I want us to write down.

The water of God's word provides nourishment, it gives us nourishment.

Jesus says it this way in Matthew chapter number five.

He said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

You can write this down and go and look at it later.

You can look at John 4.14.

You can look at John 7.37 through 39.

That these are scriptures that speak to how we're nourished by spending time in God's presence and his word.

Here's what I want you to know.

Every single one of us loves a home cooked meal.

I I know I do.

I actually enjoy cooking.

Y'all know, man, I love to get out on my grill and do some smoking, man.

I love it, but it takes a lot of work.

I gotta get ahead of it.

I gotta I gotta figure some things out in order for me to do it.

But when I do, it is so satisfying.

But when I don't, when I haven't got a chance to do it, busy or whatever the case may be, you know what you gotta resort to?

Stopping at a fast food restaurant.

You know what you gotta resort to?

Getting whatever's available to you.

And here's what I can tell you it never satisfies the way that it's marketed to you.

I know I can't be the only person that has not seen a commercial, and I'm like, yo, that burger may be the best burger I've ever seen in the entirety of my life.

We're gonna pull up, we're gonna go get that burger today.

You go and get it, it never matches the pictures.

It never, it never matches the pictures.

You look at it and it looks like a hockey puck.

It looks like somebody ran over it.

It looks like it's going through all, it looks like I had a hard life.

Like it's it looks it looks so different than what was presented to me with the image that we get.

Not only that, then have you ever like been eating something and you're just you just know straight from the rip, this isn't even that good.

This literally was our lives for the past two days.

Like tired, didn't prepare anything.

Okay, what are we gonna get to eat?

And as I'm eating it, I'm like, this is so not satisfying.

But I paid for it and I'm going to pay for it.

Y'all catch what I said there?

Okay, so it's it's so not satisfying.

But when you can get like a really good home cooked meal, man, like this week, let me tell you what's on the Pittman menu this week.

I'm gonna get back to doing my bourbon smoked salmon, I'm gonna get back to doing my brisket, I'm gonna get back to maybe even doing some pool pork, Megan.

Get ready.

Like we're gonna be throwing down this week.

And and here's what I can tell you when you when you actually have home cooked meals, not only does it sustain you, but then there's leftovers.

Bless God for leftovers.

What I'm saying is that it's something left for you to be able to give to other people.

But the problem is we are looking at the world's menu and we're thinking that it's going to bring us nourishment, that it's gonna bring us satisfaction, that it's gonna give us purpose, that it's gonna give us value.

And no matter how much we look at that menu, we know it's never gonna deliver on the promise.

It's never gonna truly satisfy us, it's never gonna give us what we know that we're supposed to have.

It doesn't define us the way that God does, it doesn't show us the value that we have in the kingdom of God.

All it does is take from us and it never gives anything to us.

But when we begin to engage God's word and look at the menu of his truth, we begin to shape the way that we think about things differently.

We look at people differently, we look at ourselves differently because we're being nourished by God's word that never lies and never falls short, that we can stand on his promises, knowing that if God says it about me, then it is truth.

I don't care what the world says, I don't know what the world standard is, but I know what God's word says about me.

The word of God is definitely the only thing that can truly nourish us.

The psalmist says it this way: as a deer longs for water, so does my soul longeth after thee.

The idea that my soul is only going to be nourished when I'm engaging in the word of God, because everything else is just not going to satisfy, that we know that the water of God's word, it absolutely provides us with nourishment.

Here's the other thing that God's word does for us.

The water of God's word, it provides cleansing, it cleanses us, it allows us to begin to walk in the fullness and the righteousness of God.

I believe this is illustrated beautifully in 2 Kings chapter number 5, verse number 10.

I want to read this to you and give you some context.

It says, But Elijah sent a messenger out to him with this message Go wash yourselves seven times in the Jordan River, then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.

Context is this leprosy was a contagious skin disorder.

It was often reflected as the consequence of sin.

And so what Naaman wanted is he wanted the prophet to come outside and do a magic prayer over him.

He was like, If you can just pray for me, that would make it better.

He says, No, but what I need you to do is I need you to go out and submerge yourself in this water and allow that to bring the cleansing.

Yes, I could do the prayer, but some things you just need to spend time being soaked in God's word.

You just need to spend some time and allow that to be the thing that changes you.

I have been in seasons of my life where I just wanted the prayer.

Like I don't want to have to look at God's word, I want to fast track.

Somebody just pray for me, fix it in a spot.

But when I can understand that what God is commanding of his people is to begin to submerge ourselves in his truth, that it allows us to walk in a level of freedom and wholeness that the world simply can't provide and the world can't give.

Many of us know that feeling after a long day, maybe after you've you've been working all day, you've done a bunch of things, that refreshing feeling of when you get a chance to take that nice hot shower or bath, whatever works best for you and your household, whatever that is.

Because here's the thing: as the day grows older, it's easy for the elements of the world to attach itself to us.

And it leaves an aroma on us.

And but that moment when you get a chance to get in a shower, it just cleanses it right off of you.

But I want you to understand that every single day, we are living in a world that is filled with brokenness.

We're living in a world that is filled with hatred.

And if we're not careful, that stuff can begin to get on us.

And if we don't get it off of us, what's on you gets in you, then what's in you comes out of you.

I'm trying to help somebody here because there's some people that you can say they proclaim to be Christians, but what's coming out of you doesn't look Christ-like.

I I I've looked at your social media feed, and what you're speaking does not correlate with what God says in any way.

How is that possible?

Because you've allowed yourself to be situated in the world for so long that it got on you, then it got in you, and now it's coming out of you.

But if I can find myself submerged in the truth of God's word, what it does is it cleanses all of that bitterness off of me, it cleanses all of that anger off of me, it cleanses all that hatred off of me, and it allows what's outside of me to get washed off of me, and then the Spirit of God to rise up on the inside of me.

By their fruit, they shall know us.

Whatever we put ourselves around will eventually get in us.

What is what are you putting yourself around?

Because you can tell it by what comes out.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And what I believe God wants us to do is to not allow our feelings to determine what we say.

We position ourselves and submerge ourselves and allow God to cleanse our minds, to cleanse our hearts, to cleanse our hands.

What God's will is for our lives is to position ourselves enough with His Word so it can cleanse us of the things of the world.

This is why one of the most popular Bible reading methods is called the SOAP method.

It's called SOAP.

And literally it's an acronym.

S stands for scripture, O stands for observation, A stands for application, P stands for prayer.

This idea of if I can read God's word on a daily basis, if I can look at what God is speaking to me on a daily basis, if I consider how it apply to my life on a daily basis, and I can pray about it, you will have a life that's thriving.

You will have a life that produces fruit.

That is what we call cultivating it.

But if I don't have a consistent rhythm of engaging God's word, it's impossible for me to walk in God's truth.

This is this is the facts of what God wants from us.

Spend time with me.

Allow me to change the way that you think and look.

We understand that Jesus is the way to God, but Jesus is also the ways of God.

And when I spend time in his word, I look to Jesus and I begin to model him.

I begin to walk in his steps, I begin to look like him, I begin to talk like him.

This is why when the Bible was talking to the priests and they used to have to wash themselves with mirrors in the bottom of the bronze lava, the whole idea is that as I'm washing myself, I'm grooming myself until I look more and more like Jesus.

What if I were to tell you that every time you read God's word, that you should be altering yourself to look more and more like Jesus?

Many of us were looking in the mirror just this morning.

I know I was.

It takes effort to look this good.

Gotta brush it over here, gotta make sure my hair is intact.

I'm grooming myself to make sure that I'm presentable.

What if we approach God's word the same way?

That when I look at how I look and I see what God's word says, okay, that's not right.

I gotta I gotta trim that down because that's that's not Jesus.

That's what it means to engage and submerge ourselves in God's word.

Here's the third point that I want to share.

I don't invite the worship team to come back up and to join me.

Um, the water of God's word provides freedom.

The water of God's word provides freedom.

We're gonna we're gonna hit this quick.

Um, it provides freedom for us.

Um, Exodus chapter 14, verses 15 through 31.

Exodus 14:15–31

We won't read it in its entirety, but let me give you let me give you the Cliff Notes version.

The children of Israel have been in bondage in Egypt for 400 years, right?

They've been in bondage for 400 years.

They have the mentality of slaves.

That's all they know is working hard every single day.

They've never had a day off.

Like all they know is bondage, all they know is suffering, all they know is their broken condition.

So now Moses, of course, shows up and says, Hey, I want to give you a vision for your life that God has.

He wants to lead you to a place called the Promised Land.

You are his chosen people.

He has a better life for you.

So we need to begin this journey.

And so after a bunch of plagues and a bunch of things go down, what ends up happening is we see they begin this journey.

But they get to the Red Sea.

And maybe you're familiar with that story.

They get to the Red Sea and now they don't know which way to go.

But what they also are aware of is that the people that had kept them in bondage changed their mind and began to chase them down.

Maybe you understand what that looks like.

That God uses the Israelites and He uses this moment to execute a judgment for them.

Because what he wanted was this.

He wanted to make sure I need to get some distance between the life that you used to live and the life that I'm calling you to live.

Because if if you stayed on this side of the Red Sea, you're going to continuously be wondering when are the Egyptians going to come and take us back?

When are we going to lose everything?

We have to understand that people that benefit from your bondage will not be happy with your freedom.

It's impossible for people who benefit from your brokenness to be glad when you're whole.

And instead of us walking in freedom, we end up living like escaped prisoners.

Looking over our shoulder, wondering when the other shoe is going to fall.

That is not the life that God had intended you to live.

The scriptures tell us that whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

Free indeed and free in deeds.

That means that God wants you to move forward with confidence and freedom.

You are free to love, you are free to forgive, you are free to walk with vision, you are free to walk in dominion, you are free to love again, you are free to have kids, you are free.

You'd be amazed at how many of us are being held hostage to a past situation because we haven't allowed the water of God's word to set us free.

This is why the Bible said there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

We don't want you to feel condemned.

So as we engage God's word and God's word begins to wash over us, you begin to truly see Him separate us from our past so we can live a life of confidence and wholeness the way that He intended us to be.

That God's word, it absolutely sets us free.

See, the last thought I want to give you guys is that the water of God's word, it gives us a new life.

It produces a newness of life.

You know the story of Noah's Ark and how God ultimately, as Peter would describe it, baptized the entire world, and a newness of life came afterwards.

The book of Acts, chapter 8, it's a story of a an Ethiopian man who had just coming back from Jerusalem and he's reading the word of God and he's trying to understand what does what does Jesus mean to me?

Acts 8 · chapter mention

He gets this revelation from Philip, and then he he comes to this point where there's water and he says, Man, like look, there's water.

What's what's keeping me from getting baptized?

What Philip had explained to him is the statement that Jesus made to his disciples before he ascended up into heaven.

He said, Listen, this is what it means to be a follower of me, and this is your assignment.

I need you uh to go out and reach people, I need you to go out of your comfort zone, I need you to find people who are away from me.

What I need you to do then is I need you to begin to disciple them, I need you to begin to raise them up.

Then I also need you to baptize them, and then I also need you to teach them to obey my word.

These are the words of Christ given his assignment to the church.

I need you to go out and reach the hurting, reach the loss.

I need you to develop people, I also need you to baptize them, and I also need you to teach them how to be obedient to my word.

That structure produces a newness of life.

And the beautiful thing is every one of those things I described have connections to water, every single one of them.

The early church moved with that same rhythm that I just described to you, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

What I recognize is that every single one of us has a next step.

You know, my backyard there was this brown patch that um it just it was brown, and I kind of just accepted it for what it is.

Megan would go out there and she's like, Oh, look at that ugly brown patch in the backyard.

I'm like, listen, man, I don't got no green thumb.

It's gonna be all right, I'll cover it up if you don't want to see it.

Like, I was, it is what it is.

But Megan would often talk about this one brown patch that was just so ugly in our backyard.

And then um one of our one of our neighbors, one of our just super ambitious, just that neighbor that just loves to look at people's yards, just retired, you know what I mean.

Just he ain't got much going on.

So he's like, Hey man, like I noticed that you got this brown patch in your yard.

I'm like, Yeah, I got a brown patch in my yard.

Um he's like, Man, I just think it's not getting enough water.

I don't think it's getting enough water.

What we need to do, do I have your permission to adjust your sprinklers and and to change your water flow?

Because I think that could that I think that could help.

And I was like, all right, man, yeah, go for it.

So he adjusted the sprinklers, he he changed the the sprinkler time, and I'm telling y'all, within two weeks, this brown patch that I thought was gonna be dead forever.

I start seeing like green come up.

Three weeks later, like it is flourishing.

By the end of the month, it it looked brand new.

My water bill went up just a little bit.

I'm okay with that.

I bill them for it every month.

But but here's what I saw: we just needed to increase the water so that we could begin to see what I thought was dead flourish.

What I what I realized is that for some of us, it's possible that we may be looking at the landscape of our lives, and this area is green and lush, but this is the dry patch.

What is that dry patch for you?

Because maybe instead of just writing it off and saying that this is as good as it's ever going to get, maybe we just need to make sure that we position you where you can get more water.

Maybe you need more water on your marriage, maybe you need more water on your finances, maybe you need more water at your workplace.

But what I believe is if we can just simply get that sense of water and that proximity, it will produce the life that Job was talking about.

There's hope for you.

I believe that every one of us has a next step.

Maybe for you, you just need a fresh touch from God and you just need a filling of His Holy Spirit.

Maybe for some of us, we just need to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

But for others of us, maybe your next step in that newness of life is to get water baptized.

I know some of you came prepared to get water baptized, but maybe God is stirring your heart right now that maybe you feel that there's an area of your life that you're stagnated and that what you need is to go through the water so that newness of life can be birthed as a result of it.

We all have a next step in here.

In a moment, we're gonna go back into worship.

And when we do that, I'm gonna ask you to stand on your feet.

And for those who came prepared to get baptized, you can begin to slip out and make your way out where you can change.

Maybe you're processing what your next steps need to be, but I believe that every one of us has a step to take.

Let's stand on our feet.

Let me pray for you, and we're gonna go back into worship.

Again, if you came prepared to get baptized, this is your moment that you can go ahead and begin to make your way outside.

But while we're doing that, I want to pray for us.

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your goodness.

I thank you for your grace.

I thank you for the love and the peace that surpasses all understanding.

And God, we are thankful that we have access to the living water, the water of your spirit, the water of your word that has the ability to transform our lives, to cleanse us, to define us, God, to order our steps, God.

So, Father, I pray that Lord, you begin to reveal what it is that we need from you today.

What are the dry patches in our lives that we just need a fresh touch from heaven in?

God, I pray for a fresh outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

Your word tells us that when we confess Christ, that that we begin to experience this newness of life that is found in the Holy Spirit.

But we're also told to be continuously filled with your spirit.

So, Father, I pray for a fresh filling of your spirit.

Lord, I also pray for those who know that their next step is simply to surrender their lives to you, that you give us the boldness and the confidence to make ourselves known so we can begin this journey.

But Lord, I also pray for those who are getting water baptized, those that you're stirring to get water baptized so that they can have this anchor moment that captivates a new season, a newness of life.

Whatever that is, wherever we are, I pray that we have the courage to take the step that we need to take.

Holy Spirit, do what only you can do in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, church, let's worship together.

Thanks again for listening.

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