"If The River Leaves" - Scott Graham

Shh your trust surd your friendship thank you for allowing me the privilege to preach here I do want to throw my own bouquet to the staff of this local church pastoral staff and just everyone here the music team has been just exceptional and they've worked very hard and being prepared nightly as well as the team from the other church that was here on Friday night just it's just exceptional and I I do think God deserves our best God deserves our best and I appreciate so much the excellence that is demonstrated here a man I want to read tonight from you know what no though I'm a hold off on that I I know that we're so programmed preacher supposed to read a text and then preach a while I'm a preacher while men read a text well that just totally messed you up all right why don't you be seated tonight thank you so much it was founded in 1763 on the Mississippi River by the French now it has been a long time since my two years of high school French I realize that I am here in the midst of people much smarter than I who speak two languages regularly I speak one language irregularly so you will have to excuse if I butcher some what the French founded this little settlement and the best I can do they named it petit GU fray which means little Gulf that's not the word for golf that's sure what it looks like Gio uff re hoof ray GU free goofy I don't know they named it little golf and the reason that they did so was that it was seen as a much smaller sister community to the much larger New Orleans further south on that same waterway the Mississippi River which bisects the United States and drains a large portion of the continental shelf in time this small settlement passed from the fridge to the British and then from the bridge to the Spanish the Spanish in now in 1798 as odd as this may sound soul the entire town to one man his name was not gates his name was Thomas Kelvin and mr. Calvin bought this little community mr. Calvin had a very close friend who was a magistrate in that area his name was Thomas Rodney and so Thomas Calvin named the community for his friend and thus was born the city of Rodney Mississippi I'm wondering on any off-chance is there anybody here that's ever heard of it really that's amazing it really is because in its day Rodney Mississippi was one of the most prominent cities in the then still formative days of the United States of America in fact tracing in its history you can find at least two US presidents who visited and spent time in Rodney Mississippi Rodney was the home to one of the most prominent scientists in the United States one of the wealthiest scientists at that time his name and I'm sorry but his name was dr. rush Nutt and you don't like your name dr. nut is here it's hard to say it dr. nut is the man who is credited as raising up the south as the cotton Kingdom of the world cotton was not indigenous to the southern United States it did not grow well there because with the cotton would would mildew and mold in the bowls before it could be picked because of the intense humidity down in that part of the country and dr. Nutt managed to to produce a strain of cotton breed a strain of cotton that was resistant to mildew and therefore would grow in the south and his cotton strain became that on which the backs of that mighty empire in the southern United States was founded and for that invention in that development dr. Nutt became fabulously wealthy he I've lived in any city in the world he could have lived in one of the fine cities up in the Northeast he could have lived over on the European continent he could have lived anyplace he chose but dr. nut chose to build his palatial mansion in a place called rodney mississippi it was the cultural center of its day the city boasted banks and theaters and factories and schools churches a debating society a jockey club doctors dentists hotels and yes the requisites saloons by 1800 rodney mississippi only missed by three votes becoming the capital of the state of mississippi and yet it's not just because y'all live up here in the far frozen north i've asked this question all over the united states and i can't ever find anybody that's even heard of rodney mississippi and if just three guys had voted differently back in second grade when we learned all the state capitals y'all are blessed we got fifty to memorize we would have learned that instead of Jackson it was this place called Rodney and yet nobody has ever heard of it it was the most important port on the Mississippi River anywhere between st. Louis Missouri and New Orleans Louisiana it was the most important city in that entire region of the United States and yet today nobody has ever heard of it and there is a reason for that in 1870 the mighty Mississippi River began to make a course change it began to shift systematically yard by yard and mile by mile until in 1940 the river flowed a full three miles away from Rodney no longer having access to the shipping that went up and down that channel no longer having the barges to stop by there that city slowly dried up and went away oh you can still go there today you can walk the abandoned streets of a ghost town and see the crumbling remains of buildings you can go to they're nuts plantation but the only inhabitants there are the possums and raccoons and wildlife and rats that scurry in and out of the debris of the crumbling ceilings and the faltering walls there is nothing there no permanent resident no life no business no activity of any kind just crumbling remains of what had once been grand buildings just hollow shells of what had once held vibrant life just the silent testimony that no matter you hear me right now no matter how much else you may have going for you if the river ever leaves you die now I share that particular story with you because any passage of Scripture in John 7 and 37 in the last day that great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living and this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus who was not yet glorified but are there any witnesses in the house that Jesus has been glorified and the Holy Ghost has been given and it is worthy of note to me that Jesus said this Holy Ghost is not a reservoir that you go to three times a week and dip your little praise dance into it and get a little bit to get you till the next day he said I'll tell you what I want you to have down out of your belly I want there to be a river springing up out of you there supposed to be this artesian flow of the Holy Ghost somebody preached with me that up out of your belly on Sunday night but it comes up out of your belly on Monday morning and he rolls out of your I'm not talking about religion I'm talking about an experience that Wells up out of you in the midnight hour on Tuesday that rolls out of your spirit on Thursday night he said it is a river of living water but I have to tell you it is no different for us then for that ghost town in Mississippi if we ever lose contact with that river we will come down here on my ship listen I thank God for everything we've got okay here we go it's gonna get ugly thank God for all those folks do you realize how much we enjoy that they didn't have they didn't have fancy paper crinkled walls with colored lights on them I'm not making fun of it I love it we took pictures they did have projectors and shine on front screens and back screens they did have cameras and webcast I'll tell you what they had they had all-night prayer meetings one of the rivers started flowing they add worship that didn't have to be pumped and pride they understood that the one thing they had was the power of the river and I'm telling you if we ever lose that power of the river of God's Spirit I don't care what else we've got we will come I'm going on us tonight to fall in love with the river I'm calling on us to remember tonight we've got to have the movie of the Holy Ghost say preacher we just we come from a little church we don't have all this you know what thank God for all this and brother Woodward's my friend but not any of this sets the drug addict free shut down the lights turn off the PA ain't none of that setting anybody free anyway when they came in the back door they didn't come to see a production they didn't come to see a show somebody told them their addictions could be broken here somebody told them that cancer could be healed here somebody told them their life could be changed here and you don't change that with technology and you don't change that with program and you don't change that with production I tell you what does that it's a bunch of people that stay in touch with the river we are people of the spirit now that is not the only statement of its kind that's true of us we are people of the name we're people of the word we are people of a holy lifestyle but it is right and proper to recognize that we are meant to be spiritual people it is easy for us to get so caught up in the affairs of this life and in the matters of this life that pertain to our flesh that we can't become distracted from the fact that this existence is not our principle one we are not first people of this world we are people of that world I'm sorry you didn't hear me we're not people of this world waiting to go to power that world we're people of that world temporarily housed in this world you are not a body that for a little while houses of spirit you are a spirit that temporarily lives in a body this flesh will fail it will weaken it will die away but the spirit will abide therefore it is the spiritual existence that has had the preeminence in our lives it has to be our focus line is clearly drawn in Romans eight and five for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit they mind the things of the Spirit I just wonder if anybody would let your heart beat it course would mind tonight as a man of God I want to be after the spirit as a I want to be after the spirit there's a father I want to be after the spirit as a preacher I want to be after the spirit as a congregation I want to go after the spirit as a district let us go after the spirit come on somebody I want to go where he goes I want to do what he approves up I want to be what he directs I'm getting hungry for that attitude of Moses to come on us Moses who said these words in Exodus 33 and 15 and he said unto him if they present go not with me carry us not up hence you understand where he said that about he said that about the promised land let's not glamorize this too much they've been 40 years in the wilderness not in the resort in the wilderness 40 years don't don't make it well what was wonderful God was with him no no he fed them every day same food 40 years how'd you like to eat the same thing every day for 40 years some of you right now trying to get where you're gonna go eat after church because you do went there last I ain't going again ladies yeah I know their shoes never wore out ladies they wore the same pair shoes for 40 yes does anybody need to come to the altar right now I know God took camera but don't make it out like this was great they wore the same outfit for 40 years it's easy to pack I'll give you that ain't that same bread every day Oh what not awesome God gave it to him yeah I was for a while and then toward the end of and they said this stuff is contemptible it's disgusting I'm tired of it wandering around the wilderness for 40 years and now just the other side of that River there's houses they didn't build Wells they didn't dig vineyards they didn't plan olive trees they didn't groom and still Moses says I don't care how much my flesh might like it if your spirits not there I don't want to go he said I'd rather wander in the wilderness with God's Spirit then live in Paradise for my flesh without it come on somebody dig deep and say God I don't care what it costs me I'm not interested in my flesh the spirit don't want to do anything his spirit can't bless I don't want to preach anything his spirit can't bless I don't want to sing anything his spirit can't bless I don't want to wear anything his spirit can't bless I don't want to watch anything his spirit can't bless I don't want to listen anything his spirit can't bless I don't want to be in a relationship that is spirit you can't bless I wish somebody just say God I want the river I want the river I want the river that story lady to you it's about more than just a dead village in Mississippi it's more than just a unique historical fact it is a picture of what the scripture tells us will happen if we ever abandon a spirit-led life oh I got Bible for it thank you for asking romans 8 and 9 but ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his verse 12 therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if you live after the flesh you shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of this body ye shall live for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God leave that verse up there minute cuz as much fun as it may be to shout about that verse it's also a little troubling to understand what it's also saying if I'm led by the Spirit of God then I'm the child of God but the unspoken message is if I don't be allow myself to be led by the Spirit of God I am not living like a son of God lives tell me he's your father and the Spirit of God never leads you through this life folks we can't do this in our own strength I'm not smart enough to build a church in this crazy age people are messed up you hear me folks I had it figured out by time I was in kindergarten what bathroom to go to and in today's age we got grown-up folk can't figure out what bathroom they belong in now I'm sorry they didn't teach me how to handle that in Bible School we did have a class on that nobody taught me how to deal with that there's no good sinners anymore don't win anybody's first marriage and our kids both gainfully employed you have people to rock down on drugs and third marriage and his arse we're not sure who that one is I'm not mocking it's the ravages of sin I'm just telling you when they walk in that door with that kind of mess I don't have a book on my bookshelf that tells me how to fix it I'm not clever enough to preach something to fix it but I'll tell you what'll work if they come in and the worship leaders start singing thank God for the part thank God and the congregation rises up and forgives them magnify Jesus and the Holy Ghost gets them moving that will do what all of our fleshly pursuits can't never come on Church we got a river I know that Paul was riding to those who would attempt to bring the believers back under Jewish law but I think the principle still applies Galatians three and three are you so foolish having begun in the spirit you think we're gonna perfect this thing in the flesh I wish I could give the mic to those folks who are in those pictures because you know how they started this thing in the spirit I've talked to the elders founding members of our church that go back 60 years back they're on Hanley Road and they'll tell you know what they didn't have webcasting that may come as a surprise to you when they started back in nineteen whatever it was 61 there was no webcasting they didn't have I had on the screen they sing out of a hymn book versus one two and four generally they clapped on the beat for God had to overcome all that how in the name of God did they dig out a church I'll tell you how because they tell me about going in that church on Saturday night and they were still praying on Sunday morning when church started they tell me about times they opened the door and people there wasn't room enough to shout inside so they'd run outside and shout in the yard and the neighbors had called the police you say you just wanted to be foolish no but I don't want us to think that what started in the spirit we're never gonna make it perfect in the flesh I'm getting opened up now to preach like this we're handing something off to you we're giving you something that started out in youth camp just like he described where the one in the music but we laid on the floor and we wept and cried and sought God I charge you in the Holy Ghost don't lose it I thank God for that report stay there stay there stay there stay but we are not relegated just to those that are teenagers that need to be something owners let's say I can still show you how to find the way to the prayer room I can still show you what it means to serve God faithfully I've got a sweet little lady in our church most folks our church don't even know her name they just call her granny granny foster she's older than dirt sneeze and dusting combing cobwebs she sits back yonder on one of those services that is just kind of going that's a Greek word by the way I know you don't ever have services like that here in New Brunswick every now and then we'll have one that's just kind of one of those moments dear sister granny foster gets down there to the front I'm pretty sure both her feet are never off the ground at the same time it don't look near as exciting as when some of these good but I've never seen one time the Holy Ghost didn't go oh there's something powerful with every generation in the church from the old white-handed elders down to the children that don't even understand all about it say there's just one thing the spirit say that's just a bunch of emotion I'm not after the oh boy yes Harlem oh ho folks we better recognize what we've got stop listen listen stop driving down the road look at the big charismatic church down the street with their mega building and million dollars for putting up billboards and stop going man we don't have what they've got they need to drive by our church and say we don't have what they've got I can't compete with their program I can't compete with their lighting I can't compete with all that stuff but they can't out holy ghost us they can't out power us we we've got what this world is looking for stop feeling like a second-class citizen and just stay in touch with the river this is what our world is looking yes there has to be born in us a desperate hunger for the Spirit of God desperation and it has to be both a collective hunger that will never happen until it becomes an individual desperate hunger because the real message I have for you tonight is not we need the river the real message I have for you tonight is you need the river if you try to live for God disconnected from the river you will dry up and die well let you be seated just a moment I'm not killing anything I promise I cannot depend on the flow of the Spirit in my life and therefore think I do not need collective worship well I don't need to go to church because I have the touch of God you're going to hell I'm sorry is that a rude American route United States citizen no that's just the truth you need the church don't you tell me you're so spiritual you don't need the church you don't need a pastor you're so carnal you don't want a pastor that's what's going on so there's no way we could just say well I have the Spirit of God I have the river in my life I don't need it collectively oh yes you do however there is a greater danger among us of relying on the collective River as a substitute for a personal encounter with the river well I've come to church on Sunday that's really impressive you felt god did you good for you so did the devil measure of God of your intimacy with God to say that you walked into the house of God on Sunday night the choir was singing people who rejoice in God I must be okay no you're just still breathing congratulations you have a pulse barely if we have an air among us it is that second air well I'm part of a great church therefore the river in my life is not all that important and I tell you tonight that it is a false measuring stick to measure my spiritual life by what I experience when we're at summer summit the real measure of the river in my life is how often do I touch it when I'm not here and so and so I come to the focal point of tonight because this begs the question then what can divert a river I mentioned the other night I grew up in this little podunk town that you've also never heard of called grave Hill Illinois it's a place of almost as much renowned as Rodney Mississippi gravel sits on the border of the state of Illinois in the state of Indiana because it sits right on the banks of the Wabash River well at least it used to gray Ville sat right on the bend if you look like Google Maps or something Google Earth II there was this great big bend in the river like this big like peninsula thing that stuck out in Indiana and gravels sat right on that point on the outside of the curve on this side on the Illinois right on the right on this little point out here of the river it was the only place for about 30 miles around that was a good place to put a boat in the water and so down there at the end of North Street there was a boat ramp it was a little fish shop fish Shack down there they sold fish they called out of the river and there was a bait shop for people who wanted to go for man on summer afternoons and evenings week it's particular place was a beehive of activity there were trucks or trailers everywhere people putting boats out in the water and I mean people came from all around 50 60 70 miles away to drive in there to put their boats out on the river his big deal I mean it was it brought a lot of Commerce it was it was all there in about 15 years ago or so during a spring flood that river cut across that peninsula and cut a new channel and began to flow there and left Grable sitting out on the end of a large stagnant pool of water they called in the entity in the United States that would deal with such things are called the Army Corps of Engineers and they brought them in to study the matter and to see what could be done and the colonel the army there that examine that matter met with the city fathers and explaining to me said the reason that the river has left you is really very simple he said over the course of time so much debris began to settle here in the bend of the river and there wasn't enough regular current to keep it clean and so much silt and trash and stuff settled here in the river that over the course of time it just got easier for the river to go someplace else the city father said well tell us how can we bring it back he said well there's a few things I guess we could try we could build a Rock levee along that breach over there were cut there we could build a Rock levee there he said that would work for a few years but it won't last long yeah we can try there's a special kind of fence thing that could put up that's got fabric on it I don't know how it works well we could put that up and that would work maybe a little longer but he finally looked at him and he said words and I would like to leave you with and I know I'm not leaving you shouting I didn't plan to that man looked at the city of gravy Illinois and said here's what you've got to understand sooner or later he said that river is gonna go where it's welcome try to prop it up all you want try to force the issue all you want but sooner or later he said that river will go where it's welcomed read in there somewhere where he said if these don't praise me I'll go where I'm welcome to folks I don't know how to tell you this from here to there I'm apostolic all the way through I believe this from Senator circumference but we don't own God if we don't want it God can land in the First Methodist Church this Sunday and pour out the Holy Ghost on every hungry heart that's there come on folks we better realize we don't have a patent on this thing we don't just open the doors and demand that God show up because we happen to be Pentecostal I'll tell you what we gotta be we gotta be hungry for the river cause if we start letting the debris settle in our life sooner or later that river is gonna go where it's welcomed so they said well what's the answer they said he said there's only one you're gonna have to pay whatever is necessary to come in here and dig deep he was preaching and didn't even know it he said if you want the river it's gonna cost you something and you're gonna have to dig deep I would love to tell you there's some happy-clappy self-help book in Barnes & Noble's rivers for dummies but there's not one if Scott grape what's the river - Floyd my life I'm gonna have to be willing to get on my face and pay whatever price is necessary to dig out all the junk that accumulates in my life and say God forgive me for let that stuff get there but dig it out of me dig out all the anger dig out all the bitterness dig out all the hurts dig out all the cardinality stand with me probably oh I don't know maybe a year ago or so they told him it'd cost a half million dollars or so to dredge out that River that little city didn't have a tenth of that sort of my knowledge they never did anything about a year ago I was passing by there on the interstate I was a little road weary so I just I I drove around town you know a little home town I grew up and went by the school or went schooled by the park where we used to go out and play I know you don't know what that is drove up pass old house I grew up in see it and then I went down through town I went down to the end of North Street and I got down there and hey folks there was the river and it it looked like hell jumped out of my car see it still look stagnant steak I looked over fish shack is closed out nobody's buying fish it comes out of that bait shops gone there's nothing to fish for there looked around the park of ugh there's no boats there's no trailers there's nothing there's no life this accomplishes nothing there looks like a river still a service on Sunday and Wednesday still looks like a river they still sing three songs and take up an offer to preach truth it still looks like a river there's no fear there's no spirit here boy aside I will go to still looks like a river come on table two countless nights right hazel in Missouri it sure looked like a Pentecostal church sounded like one they dress like it same thing I look like a river but still the same as I was put in their ass believe got a great thing here man you've got the team led by brother wouldn't man what a crazy thing you got happening but what does it benefit you and me four hundred plus people come into this place on Sunday brain River and no longer satisfied it just waving a flag that says I'm United pretty coastal where are the miracles where's the prayer meeting so velders head where's the worship that did not have to be propped up with 17 instruments haha boy is soluble are we as hungry for the river as that generation that was pictured before us or have we substituted in its place production and program and professionalism and we sacrifice power and anointing out of my belly there is supposed to flow it would have been a lot easier to end a few minutes ago when we all were worshiping it that's what my ego would have liked to have done but the Holy Ghost constrains me to act tell you you will have to dig deep because the measure of the river is not what you feel right here measure of the river is what flows with your my ego would rather leave you shout the Spirit would rather leave us seeking now there is a brother I can't even see him all I could see is his feet sticking out of there I wish there were about 50 dozen other people that were that sincere to just say god I am so desperate for the touch of the river if I have the elbow ESR diamo Hokuto Bohol I am so desperate I wish there were some pastors about humble yourself and come and put yourself on your face and if there's not room down here come up here lay out on the platform somewhere it's all right if you do it in your view that's all right I don't care but I wish there'd be some old white head and elders that led us into this thing that would come up here and say God I am committed to being tied into the river I wish surfeit some young married couples that come up here and join hand-in-hand and say I've been trying to do this on my own and it's not working we gotta have the river operating in our house there need to be some young people that say I'm not just gonna shout dance at YouTube I'm gonna go home and find out where the prayer room is in our church and I'm gonna put my face in that carpet because I'll lead the next generation in to the touch of the red eye if that River leaves we will this service is yours and I would to God that you would let your hunger come welling out of your mouth with deep intercession and profound prayer would you let your desperation be given voice and come out of your lips from the front to the back and in the balcony would you lift your voice that call out to God dig deep dig deep that River will go where it is welcome

Channel: Capital Community Church

Views: 17,092

Rating: 4.9386973 out of 5

Keywords: scott, graham, if, the, river, leaves, preach, preaching, sermon, atlantic, district, summer, summit, upci, upc, united, pentecostal, church, apostolic, ccc, capital, community, fredericton, nb, new, brunswick, canada

Id: DWhqFOcqpIU

Length: 44min 11sec (2651 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 07 2016