Thank you for being here. Happy Memorial
Day with gratitude for those who have
laid their lives down in the history of our country. And I hope you have an
amazing Memorial Day weekend. Or, if you skipped church
to be camping or something and you're watching
this or listening to this down the road, we're
glad you're here as well. Thank you for listening to
us, giving us some time. Really glad. Hope you have an
amazing Memorial Day. We are in a season that
we've called the River Wild. The River Wild. We're getting in that
raft with Meryl Streep, and we're kicking Kevin
Bacon to the curb, and we are discovering
the power of the gauntlet. We're discovering how the
surging, racing floodwaters of a river in the
midst of rapid season is like the Grand adventure
of following Jesus. And we're in John,
chapter 7, this week, as we come to the last
message in the series. With the actual
text that originally inspired this series. Though we saved it for the end,
it was the passage of scripture that got originally-- just grabbed me with-- and
had me just focus us on rivers all this spring. It's been amazing, hasn't it? We do invite you back next week. I'm going to be kicking off
a three part message series. It's we're going to be
one message broken down into three weeks that I'm
calling the Secret to a Good Life. The Secret to a Good Life. I hope you'll come back. I hope you'll tune in because
this is going to be good and I can't wait to
preach it next week. Or over the next
three weeks actually. And, in the midst of that,
will be rock to city, and the climactic end of
it will be Father's Day. We're going to honor the
fathers at the Fresh Life house. It's going to be a
word for all of us. But the secret to a good
life starts next week. We hope you'll join us. John chapter 7-- we're
jumping in-- and verse 37. I have preached this passage-- I can't even recall--
maybe six times in my life. But God has shown me
so many new things, I feel like I had never read
it before when I began studying it this most recent time. It says in verse 37, "On
the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood
and cried out saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let
him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as
the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water. ' But this He spoke
concerning the Spirit, whom those believing
in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit
was not yet given, because Jesus was
not yet glorified. " I have always prided myself on
being the kind of person who has a pocket knife on him
at the appropriate moment that one is needed. I just like that. In my mind, see myself as the
kind of person in a situation where, even if it's not super
needed it's not drastically needed, it's not a
child's toy that you need a chainsaw to get out. What is it with these toys these
days, the packaging these days? But even if it's just like a
slightly necessary situation like, Oh there's this package. And someone's like
Oh and I'm like oh. In my mind, I see
myself as the person in a situation who has a pocket
knife and is ready to serve. Ready to do -- I see myself that way
in my mind, so I love-- I hate nothing more than
being in a situation and I reach and I don't
have a knife on me, don't have a tool on me. And I just feel so helpless. I feel so useless. And it's pretty much--
you want to guarantee you won't need a pocket
knife, put a pocket knife in your pocket that day. But the day that you
don't have one with you, there's going to come
a need, and you're going to just look for it
and feel for, it's not there. But there does come
some downsides, right? Especially if you travel
through airports ever. I have. Anybody ever try to get
a knife on an airplane? Yeah, that's a terrible feeling. One time I had this Leatherman
in my pocket at the airport. And I've realized it's
there just before I go in, which is lucky because
once you go in, you're not getting
that sucker back. You know what I'm saying? And so I realized I
can't mail it to myself. I don't have anyway to
go check it into a bag and so I thought I need this
knife to have a good home. You know I got into adoption
real quick on that moment. And so I left
security and I go on and I got to find
the right owner and I see this guy who's waiting
at the exit towards baggage claim, presumably to pick
up a family member who had been on a journey. And I studied everybody
there for a while before figuring who
was the worthy parent for my pocketknife. And I see this guy, he looked
like he worked with his hands. You could tell he had calluses. If I had to guess, I would say
from Mexico or South America where his families
descended from. And so I approached him. I said, hey man. And he immediately said
he didn't speak English. And I said OK, that's OK. I just want to
give you something. And so I tried, through body
language, to say I got to fly, but I had this knife. And I don't know what
I was getting across, but it ended with me with
both hands taking this pocket knife out and saying,
will you take this knife and love it all it's days? Will you honor it? Will you cherish it? Forsaking all of the
knives you may have owned? Will you live only
under this knife as long as you both shall live? And I think he
eventually, sort of, connected what I was asking
of him and/or he just wanted me to go my merry little way. And so he said gracias. He said thank you. And I walked off
and I watched him with great satisfaction put
the knife into his pocket. And I just imagined like
four generations from now this knife being handed down. And it being like
lore in his household. The day the gringo in the
aeropuerto gave me this knife. And this is now a part
of storied generations within his lineage and
dynasty, or at least that's how I imagine it. But what I love about
this particular knife is that it has a
bottle opener on it. That's one of the
funniest things. I love explaining this. Lennox loves to say, dad
tell me all about your knife. And I'll tell him all
the different things. It's amazing having
a three-year-old around because he's
so easily impressed. I want him to stay as easily
impressed as he is right now because this literally-- Last time he asked me about it
he said, tell me about this. I said it's got a screwdriver. It has scissors, I go,
it has scissors too. He goes, and a sharp thing too? I said a sharp
thing, a screwdriver. He goes dad, that
is a lot of tools. I was like, I know. I know. I know, son. I am very happy with
how impressed you are. I do love the
ability that it has, when needed, just to be
like, hey you know what? You need that bottle opened? Well, guess what? I am here to serve. Are you thirsty? Well here. Delightful. And it does occasionally
backfire, though. Because, this of course,
being a pry off bottle cap, or crown as they
originally were called. I remember one time I was
with a gal who had a soda that looked just like it. And she had freshly
manicured nails. And so, as she went to
do it, I was like, oh, let me do that for you. So I grabbed my knife out
and she goes no no you -- And I go, no no. I got this. I do this all the time. And I am just-- She goes no I don't need it. I'm like yes, I will. And I'm going for forever. And then, she
finally says, that's actually a twist off cap. I was like, oh. Solid point. So it wasn't my finest hour. I will completely admit
that to you today. But that is exactly,
if you can believe it or not, what is happening
here that has caused Jesus to stand up and cry out. I don't know if you noticed
it, but it says here, at this feast--
and we'll explain what's going on-- that Jesus
stood up and cried out. Like the gal with the
manicured fingers, he was like no, you
don't understand. There's an easier way. You're struggling
here with this tool. You think that is so powerful. But all you need is your hands. Everything you
need to get it off is right there in front of you. The text says, on the last day,
the greatest day, the feast. Now, when you read
the Old Testament, one thing becomes
abundantly clear. God likes to throw a party. It's amazing. My dad likes to say that,
in the whole Old Testament, there's only one
mandatory fast, but there are mandatory feasts every
page turn you basically turn. If you want know whether God's
a killjoy or somebody who's a great joy to be around,
you immediately just look to God's schedule and you
see party, party, party, party, party, party, party. Oh, here this day to be fasting
and to have a heart that's more turned in of considering sadness
and being more circumspect. But the rest of it, he is just
constantly hiring a caterer, getting the disco ball out. He's got a special
case that it goes. Because it comes out and
goes back in so often, he's like well, that's
where the disco ball stays. There's parties everywhere. There were three great feasts,
Passover, and Pentecost, and you have, of course, this
that we're talking about here, the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles. And on the Feast of
Tabernacles, basically everybody sort of camped out. And, on this day, they would
build these little tents in their yards, or wherever
they could find open space, and it was, again, one
of the three feasts that you would travel to
Jerusalem for, if you lived in some other part of Israel. And it was a very exciting time
and there were special songs. God even gave them
the road mix-- road trip playlist mix. You know what I'm saying. Like this is the music
we listen to whenever we're traveling to Jerusalem. It's kind of like those
songs that you don't enjoy but you'll enjoy
them on a road trip. You know what I'm saying? Like it's just-- we have the
lowest standards for music when we're on a 19 hour drive. It's like anything
to give ourselves-- I love the Beach
Boys all of a sudden. Well I love a Beach Boy
playlist on a road trip. I'll tell you what. You got to do what you can do
and what you will do in order to survive, right? And so God gave them
these Psalms of ascent. There were songs they were
always singing to themselves to pass the time
with their families as they were traveling
up to Jerusalem. Always up to Jerusalem. And so they would travel,
and they would sing, and they would talk. And then they would
get there and they would assemble the materials
needed to build these tents. You would camp out. You wouldn't live in
your regular house. You live in this booth. And so the nickname
for this festival, the Feast of Tabernacles,
became the Feast of Booths because you would
live in this tent. It was technically
a seven day holiday, but God gave them
eight days to observe it, which tells you something
about how smart God is. How many of you all know you
need a day vacation to catch up from your vacation? Anybody with me? It is so smart not to
schedule your trip ending and then the next day you're
going to be back at work. How about a day to clean
the camping gear off? How about a day just to
orient yourselves with life? Right? So God said it's
a seven day feast, but I want you to take
eight days every time you do it because that
eighth days is going to be tearing down the
booths, to putting stuff away, to sort of reacclimating
your heart to what is needed to get ready before you jump
right back into your day to day life. And the high point of
the feast was, of course, the remembering of the water. The feast was all about water
because, during the wilderness, wandering during
the time when they lived in the desert,
their forefathers, before they got to come
into the promised land, they had to wander around. We preached about
it in the series. They had to wander
around in the wilderness. It wasn't originally
supposed to be that way. But, because of their
hard-heartedness, they were going to
stay in the wilderness until the entire
generation fell away and only their children, who
they accused God of not caring about, were going to get in. And during that time, they would
have died because, in a desert, y'all, you die if
you don't have water. Water. And God miraculously,
supernaturally, providentially supplied their need
with water, get this, that came out of rock. A river opened up. Got God opened up a river
that poured out of a boulder. And this feast, of course, it
was all about the wanderings. It was all about God
taking care of them, leading them by fire at
night, and cloud by day. But, at the center of it was
you met our greatest need and you still will, we believe. Water. It's really cool
how they did it. They're all camped out, right? And then they
would all assemble. And the population of Jerusalem
was up to 2 million people during the Feast of Tabernacles. It's a lot of people everywhere. And they would all sort
of try and get down to the temple, or where
they could see the temple or get a vantage
point of the temple. And what would happen
is the high priest had this golden pail,
a golden bucket, and he would fill it up with
water from the Pool of Siloam. And then he would travel
with that golden pail all the way to the temple. And as they traveled,
they would recite saw Isaiah 12, verse 3 which
says, therefore with joy you will draw water,
water that comes from the wells of salvation. They would quote from the Psalms
which read, save now Lord. Save us now. Psalm 118, verse 25, Oh
Lord, I pray you would now send us all your prosperity. And there was this big
ritual of the golden pail of water traveling to the temple
where it would be poured out as they would remember. That would happen for six
days, but on the seventh day, that great day of the
feast, which tells you how popular this holiday was. They didn't even
call it a feast. They called it the feast. This is the People's Choice. OK. This is the one they love this. This is in elf
parlance the show. All the other the elf
jobs not the deal. Christmas is the show. That's what this feast
was to the people. And, as they would
on this day show up, the priest would
have two golden pails and it would be twice as
much water they would gather. And then when they
got to the temple he wouldn't just pour it out. He first would do what's
called a Jericho lap. And a Jericho lap, of
course, is seven laps. And this spoke, of
course, the fact that once they got
into the promised land God continued to provide
for them by tearing down the biggest barrier
to their being inside the promised land
that was the city of Jericho. And then as that water
would all be poured out that was like the
ultimate moment. Everyone would cheer. That was the kickoff
of the great party. Everybody was just
losing their mind. And, at that moment, on
that day, the great day. Jay Vernon McGee says as
Jesus spoke these words, it would have been
as though water was splashing up to his ankles. Jesus stood up, which was not
how leaders, religious leaders, in that day spoke. They always sat and
everybody else stood. But Jesus, who was sitting,
stood up and cried out. Something made him
raise his voice. What was he saying? He was saying it's a
twist off, not something you got to pry off. Because he realized,
in that moment, these people were
looking to something to meet a need that couldn't
help but disappoint them. They were looking to
religion to hydrate them. They were looking to
ritual to hydrate them. They were looking to their
identity as Jewish people to hydrate them. They were looking to this
priest to hydrate them. They were hoping in
the past and what their forefathers relationship
with God looked like. He realized they were missing
it and so he cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let
him come to me and drink. And, if you do,
rivers of living water will come pouring from
your innermost being, gushing out into the world. You're hoping that this
religious experience will meet a thirst inside of you. And that's not the
only thing we look to. There's so many different things
that we hope will satisfy us. Every single one of us has
many things in this world that we've identified. If I could do that, have
that, be that, know him, sleep with her. If I could just-- we think that's what's
going to satisfy. But Jesus knew that they would-- the moment they put these
booths away into storage, they would still be empty. Still be the deficient. It made them feel
good for a moment. They got a buzz from this
experience, for a moment. But he knew it wasn't enough. It's the same thing
he told a woman who had been married and divorced
five times because she was so convinced that the next
guy was the guy who was going to complete her and meet
the deficiency that she felt was inside of her. And that's why he told
her and John 4:14, whoever drinks the water that
I give him will never thirst. But indeed the water I
gave him will become, what? A spring of water welling
up to eternal life. He's saying, honey
you think this guy's going to meet your need. This guy is going to make
you not thirsty anymore. But the only thing you're
going to find is more thirst. You're going to
get thirsty again. And that's how all
water in this world is and Jesus here is
saying religion too. Religion too. Church can't meet your need. These things can't satisfy you. Ritual can't satisfy you. Owning a Bible can't. Seeing yourself as the kind
of person who loves God can't define you. Only a relationship with me. Jesus said, come
to me and drink. Come to me and I will
quench your thirst. And here's the beautiful thing. He said, if you do
that, something's going to flow out from you. Not only are you not
going to be thirsty again, but you're going to find that
the drink that you receive leads to a river that
flows out of you. The drink that becomes a river. He's saying if you
take my life into you, something dynamic and powerful
is going to flow out of you. A drink comes in,
a river comes out. That has always
been God's promise. That has always been
what God has offered to people who will look
to Him and have faith to receive it from Him. It's in Isaiah 58:11, the
Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs
in a sun scorched land. He will strengthen your frame. You will be like a
well-watered garden, like a spring whose
waters never fail. Zechariah adds that
this flowing of water will be able to happen both
in the summer and the winter. He's saying it won't be
contingent upon whether it's a dry season or a rainy
season because this water is supernatural. It's from Heaven. He's saying you can
flourish and thrive even in the midst of
difficulties in life. He's saying there's
a river wildlife life that God has for you,
intends for your relationship with him to be like. Not just church as usual,
just business as usual Oh just another weekend, working
for it, looking forward to it, but disappointed
by it ultimately. He's saying your
life walking with Him can be this grand adventure. Like a pulsating river,
like a pounding current, like the way your
heart races when you hear it thundering, like
the idea of a waterfall. I'm telling you it can be
lush, it can be tropical, it can be dynamic,
your life with Jesus. Following Him, walking with Him,
it can be like a raging river. It taps into something
inside of you. A river is so visceral. It's peaceful when
you're around it, you sense it, you see it
you, smell it, you feel it. There's more oxygen in
the air being churned up. There's just something about it. And so Jesus said, that is what
it's like to do life with me, because when you
let me come in you, I will send my Holy
Spirit flooding out from you, out into this world. So no longer are you looking
to the things of the world to satisfy you, or fill some
emptiness inside of you. But that's already done. That's long since
been taken care of. And now you walk into this
world not needing the world to do something for you,
but you will have something to offer this world. You'll walk into situations
where you otherwise would have been asking, how do
I stack up, how do I measure up. Now you're walking in
so that a river of life can flood out of you into that
person, into that dry ground, into that hard place. I'm telling you, God wants
to not just meet needs inside of you, God wants to
open up a well of living water, springs in the desert
that are going to flow out of you into dry places. And everywhere you go,
and everyone you touch, and every experience you're
in, it's going to be better. It's almost like there's
just this river flow and people aren't
even going to know. They're just sensing
what is happening here being around you. And I want to show you
four different ways the Holy Spirit wants
to work his life, his river wildlife in you. The first is that you're
going to become more curious. As you walk in the power
of the Holy Spirit, as you give in to the Spirit's
leading, and His guiding, and His tugging. Like I said, sometimes
you're going to feel like, Oh I missed it. I put my foot down
in the wrong shoe. And you're going to take
a couple of steps back in and wonder where did you want
me to go that I missed it. You're going to, at
times, sense that and as you follow those
promptings, remember it's a still small voice. It's not some big loud overt
thing we're looking for, words a billboard, the
clouds giving us pictures. It's just that
sense of His peace. It's being still with Him
long enough to know his voice. And as you do that, as he
works through your pleasures, as he works to your desires,
random things, little things. I'd love to do this one day. Hold on to that dream. Believe for that dream. In God's due time,
it will come to pass. As that happens, here's what
I want you to watch for, notice that there's going to
be a greater curiosity in you. I really believe one
of the greatest unsung assets and benefits of doing
life filled to overflowing with the Holy
Spirit of God, only possible through a relationship
with God's son Jesus Christ, is that you will become
a more curious person. It's amazing how
powerful curiosity is. I was, in fact, listening
to, this week, an interview with Walter Isaacson. Walter Isaacson is an
author, who is amazing. He generally writes biographies. But he wrote some
definitive biographies on Leonardo da Vinci,
Albert Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin. I mean good for a life's work. And I originally had
read the biography he had written on Steve
Jobs, which was amazing. He was given access to Steve
at the very end of his life and very powerful book. And so I made it
my goal this year of my life to read every
book, other than that one, that Isaacson's
written and my family got them for my birthday. And I'm so excited about it. But I was listening to
this interview with him, just kind of get to
know him as a person. And he was asked--
he said, you know you wrote Benjamin Franklin
and Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein's
biographies. Was there any similarities
between these three? He said, it's funny
that you should ask. There's one thing that I
found combing through letters, combing through
historical documents that really knits them all together. And he said they were
all very curious people. They were extremely
curious people. He went on to say,
the pattern wasn't that they were smart people,
because you and I have met lots of smart people
and they don't usually amount to much. Brutal. The pattern, he
said, tends to be curiosity across disciplines. And he expounded,
passionate, playful, and, occasionally,
obsessive curiosity. Take Franklin he, said. Why did he fly a kite
with a key on it? He was curious. What's going to happen or
how could this possibly go wrong, right? How did he discover the
Gulfstream and bifocals? He was curious. I don't know. He's always tinkering. Always, always looking. Like Bill Gates,
willing to be confused. Da Vinci. When you read Da
Vinci's journals, you will find funny things
at the top of his to-do list. One day he wrote,
want to figure out why a woodpecker's
tongue is so long. He was curious. He's got stuff to do. Paintings, I presume,
waiting to be done. And yet, when he wakes up
in the morning, Da Vinci, his to do list is today-- What are you going to do today? I'm going to figure out why a
woodpecker's tongue is so long. Turns out he was
on to something. Because a woodpecker's tongue is
4 times the length of its beak. And many people,
for a long time, were wondering how does a
woodpecker not bash its brain every time it peckers. Pecks. They say that if
you were to smash your head into a tree at the
same speed a woodpecker does, it's 10 times the
amount of strength that your brain could withstand. You would be dead 10 times
over if you head butted a tree like a woodpecker does. But apparently scientists have
figured out that every time it goes to do its pecking thing,
that its tongue actually wraps around its brain and
forms an airbag protecting its brain from what's
happening there in the moment. So Da Vinci was on to something
going, I need to figure out-- He was on to something. I don't know if he ever figured
that out in his lifetime, but he was curious
about the woodpecker. Albert Einstein actually, we
don't have to wonder about it. Because he actually wrote, I
don't have any special talents, but I still have my
childlike curiosity, which is why I wonder what
it would be like to ride alongside a light beam. Why I wonder how gravity
makes things move. Smartest person in the world? Not so much. Just endlessly curious. I bring this up because
we know Jesus was curious. How do we know that? Well, he has a lot of questions. Did you know that Jesus
was asked 183 questions. If you come through
the New Testament, 183 times people
asked Jesus questions. Do you know how many of
those questions He answered? Three of them. Almost every other time
you asked Jesus a question, do you know what
his response was? They call it the
Socratic method. Really, it's just--
what would Jesus do-- He would respond
with a question. In all, if you add up the
questions that Jesus asked you will come up
with 307 questions. Every situation, everywhere
He went, Jesus was curious. He was asking. Of course, he wasn't
asking to know. He knew everything. He was asking to
help us understand. He was trying to provoke
a greater curiosity. I believe, when
the spirit of God is inside of you, hovering
over the waters as it were, like in Genesis, you're going
to notice there's curiosity. You're asking
questions about God. Questions about other people. And here's what I
want throw at you, you'll be better at asking
questions of yourself. When you really triggered. When you're in a foul mood. Instead of just
going with it, you'll stop and ask yourself, why
do I feel like this today. What's going on here? Why will you do that? Rivers have currents. And do you know what
informs currents? Things happening
beneath the surface. To understand a river, to
understand its movement, you got to look at
what's happening, but deduce what's
happening down below. Is there a shelf
that's dropping off? Is there structure here? Is there a rock here? That's what makes
rivers dangerous and that's what makes
humans unpredictable. Not what we're seeing
above, not what's going on, but what's happening down below. What is this touching? What wound is this tapping into? What is this bringing up? What happened before? When you watch
people act bad, when you watch people frustrated,
you have to almost get curious. And I wonder what's
causing this. What would cause such
a strong reaction? What's happening
below the water? And the Holy Spirit is going
to help you to be better at being curious with yourself. Instead of just lashing
out when you're frustrated, but to stop for a second and
ask yourself some questions. To stop in a moment and
ask why would someone respond so strongly. What's happening here? And we're going to
be curious enough to go back to God
every single day going, I need to know who you are. You need to show
me something fresh. I'm not satisfied with
the level I've received. I want to know you more. I want to know you better. I want to experience you. I want everything
that Jesus has for me. I'm telling you that you can
tell when the spirit of God is involved in your life. When you're curious. Secondly, when you're content. When you're content, content
with who He made you to be, content with where
you're at in life, you will know the
spirit of God is moving through you and in you
and out of you like a river wild. When you look at your
life and you say, you've done all things well. My cup runs over. The lines have fallen to
me in pleasant places. And the spirit needs to help us
do that because, by nature, we are so often insecure. By nature, we are
so often jealous. By nature, we so often don't
appreciate what's in our hands because we are so busy staring
at what's in someone else's. Did they get something
better than me? Did you get my blessing? Did you get my promotion? That was supposed to
be my opportunity. But it takes the secret, and
only the secret things of God belong to God, so
only the spirit of God can help us tap into
the secret things. And Paul said, I have discovered
the secret of being content. How does the Spirit do that? We learn of Him. Philippians 4:11, to be content,
whatever my circumstances are, just as happy with as
little as he gives us as if he gives as much. Just as happy with as
much as with little. He said I found the recipe,
the recipe for being happy, whether I'm full, or
whether I'm hungry, whether my hands are full,
or my hands are empty, here's the secret. Are you ready? The Spirit is going
to teach you this. Whatever I have. Wherever I am I can
make it through anything in the one who
makes me who I am. I'm telling you
something you come to Him to drink when you feel thirsty. You come to Him when you feel
like, wait I don't have that. Now that thirst has come back. You go back to Jesus. You go back to the
one who made you. Go back to the one
who died for you. Go back to the one who raised
you to life in His Resurrection power. And all of a sudden
you're going to start to feel the river flowing. You're going to start to
feel that spring bubbling up in that dry land. You're going to start to
realize my cup runs over. You're going to start to
realize my lot in life is good. The lines have fallen to
me in pleasant places. And it's going to be two
things that are going to help you to be more content. Two things. This is going to help you today. The first thing is
you're going to remember that social media is all fake. I'm helping you today. If you want to tap into the
river wild in your situation, just remind yourself that
social media is fake. I'm going to show you this. This doesn't make me look good. This is the real story. I was in I was in Charlotte,
North Carolina this week and I was packing
at the last minute. Some friends of ours
said, hey, do you want to do a hike
while you're here? And I was like probably. A North Carolina hike? As much as I would love to
walk around your flat state. But for the people
and experience and it actually ended up
being a great hike. I was taking some
stuff up for the hike and then I was also
doing a wedding. I felt like James Bond. Here's my suit and here's
my hiking outfit in the bag. And I saw my pocket and
I was like I should bring that just survival situations. You know it's good to
have a knife on you, and then I was like
how ridiculous is that. It's a North Carolina
little cute mountain. It'll be wonderful. And so I didn't bring it. And I remember that moment
of leaving it there, and then we got to the trail
head, and we did the hike and, at the very end, the person
we were hiking with was like, hey I got a cooler full of
chilled Topo Chicos in the car for the post hike. Topo Chico and all
of us just rejoiced. There's nothing like the
knowledge of a cold bubbly drink when you're at the
end of a hike in the sun. It was 90 degrees with humidity,
so we were all just soaked head to toe at the end of it. But then we were rummaging
around in the car and nobody had a pocket knife. No one had a bottle opener. She could have sworn
she threw one in. I would never shame
Holly [INAUDIBLE] for forgetting
the bottle opener. But there's Topo Chicos
all there, with ice, but there's no bottle opener. I will-- I'm not
going to lie to you. I spring to life. This is what I was born for. I thought of my life,
was sad for a moment, then I remembered
how resourceful God has made us to be. And so this is what I
posted on my social media. You probably saw
this little clip here of my resourcefulness. Oh. Oh. Whoa. MacGyver. Did someone call MacGyver? Did someone call MacGyver? Which looked good and it
was amazing a little clip. But that's not
the whole-- that's not the whole- that's
not the whole story. I'm going to show you the
longer version that I did not show for my Instagram. Now hold on. Run it again. I need-- you got
to hear the ending. You got to hear the ending. So check out the longer version. Check out the longer
version of this video and listen very carefully. We got to hear the ending of it. Something I say
right at the end. You got to trim that video. You got to trim that video. I instinctively knew
the second it happened, you've got to trim that video. You've got to trim that video. And I did. I trimmed it down to
4 seconds from 14. Because the 4
seconds I showed made it looked like the first try. Look at this everybody, bang. It's open. So here's my point,
we're all doing that. We're all trimming
in that video. And because we live our lives
jealous, watching videos that somebody trimmed. We all are trimming
stuff to make it look like this is how it was. It was so easy and
effortless, but the reality is, every one of us bang our
hands into stuff sometimes. That doesn't work. We're just not putting
that stuff on the internet. And so anytime you're not
pleased with the stretch of the river that God
has dedicated to you, just remember A, social media
is all curated and fake. And the second thing
I want you to remember is this, seasons change. Seasons change. A river looks so different
if you walk up to it in January versus if you
walk up to it in July versus if you walk up to in September. And the seasons and the
ebb and flow of life and the different times that
we all face, just remember, if you're not happy
where you're at, just remember that
river's still moving, and stuff is still
happening, and God is sending clouds upstream
to lead to a deluge that's going to come for you. If you're not happy
today, then just keep trusting, and keep walking,
and believe the season that you might leave the river to
go find it was actually headed to you the whole time. And you're going to be so
much more thankful for it, if you don't give up. And how many people walked
away chasing something that God actually had
on the way to them. It was headed there. It was going to get there and
it was going to mean more to you when you didn't short
circuit things to get it in your timing. But God, instead, had it
coming for you in His timing. As you listen to the Spirit,
you're going to be content. And then thirdly you're
going to be confident. Confident. Those two words that
God just, in a moment, I was just sitting there
and these two words, curiosity and confident. The other things
flowed in later. But those two words God said,
that's what my spirit wants to do in my bride. I want a curious people. I wonder, I wonder, I wonder. I want those people
childlike, playful, flying some kites with some
keys on it a little bit. What discoveries are here
in this church to be. I'm not just talking
about ministry stuff. I'm talking business
ideas, and inventions, and paintings, and songs. Curious. Then confidence. And maybe I'm just
preaching this message to me a little bit, but
this last year there's been some hits that I feel like
I've experienced and faced. That have robbed me of
some of my confidence. It's tough to make a
decision and automatically know half the country is going
to dislike what you're doing. And, no matter what
you do, there's going to be people in
the church who think you made the wrong decision. It's tough to make a call. And sometimes I
make the wrong one. Sometimes I made the right one. But other people don't see
it that exact same way. And what it can do, over time,
is take out your confidence. And when you've tried and failed
or when you've had things just end up difficult or
hard, eventually it can make you resistant to
the idea of putting yourself out there. Maybe some of you have been
through some relationship difficulties that have made you
just feel like maybe there's no one for me. Or your journey with trying to
have a family and have kids. You can get a little bit
discouraged where you just lose your confidence. And you stop believing
that you're actually capable of doing something,
growing something, building something, trying something. And you start to believe
lies like maybe my best days are behind me. And maybe I just
wasn't cut out for this and maybe this is something
other people can do. Maybe this just isn't for me. And then you can
just resign yourself to mediocrity where
God has called you to greatness and to impact. I feel the Holy
Spirit is so strong that He today wants to flow
his water through you and out of you. And one of the things
that he wants to do is he wants to bring
your confidence back. He wants to bring
your confidence back. That you're going to step
out and try like you've never tried before. That you're going to
dust off the failure. You're going to keep going. You're going to keep believing. You're going to keep dreaming. He's trying to bring
back your confidence. How does He do that? He does that by reminding
you that you are not your productivity,
or performance, or accomplishments. You are, wait for it,
His son or daughter. That's going to
bring you confidence. And that is what the
Spirit is all about. Romans chapter 8
says, for you did not receive a spirit that makes
you a slave again to fear. That's the confidence trap. Where your confidence
is only tied to what you've done recently
and what you've been able to do and the numbers you've been
able to pull in at work. When you pull your
identity down to that, it's going to make you
a slave now because even on a good day you
have to top it. And you're going to
be a slave to fear. But, instead, you received a
spirit, the spirit of sonship. And by that spirit,
we cry Abba, father. The Spirit Himself
testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Church, God's Holy Spirit, if
you listen to what He's saying, He's just saying to
you, you are my son. What are we saying to
ourselves sometimes? You suck. Is that just me? You suck. You're the worst. You're so stupid. You're so fat. I can't believe
how dumb you are. Nobody wants you nobody. Wants to be around you. That's what the
slavery to fear says, but the Spirit, when we
listen, the spirit when we let the river flow, the
spirit when we're spending time with Jesus, is always
saying you're a son. You're a son. You're a son. You're a daughter. You're a daughter. You are loved. The River Wild is setting
someone free today from the slavery of fear
to the peace and serenity that comes through sonship. And when you get along
with God, the raging river and the peaceful tranquility
is going to remind you you're just loved. Just get up here
and let me love you. Why did Jesus get
told by the Father, you are my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased at the beginning and
at the end of His ministry. Because He wanted Him to know
before He ever lifted a finger to touch a demoniac, before
He ever fed anybody, before He ever preached a sermon,
that He was just a loved son and that wasn't going
to change, and even the cross couldn't change that. Even the cross
couldn't stop that. Even his most
difficult dauntingness He was saying no matter how
this goes, no matter what I love you. I'm telling you,
when you are armed with the Spirit's
voice in your ears, it'll give you your
confidence back. You'll try new things
because you'll know, even if this doesn't
turn out, I'm loved. If it goes well,
I'm not loved more. If it goes badly,
I'm not loved less. Y'all, I'm getting
my confidence back. We're going to
walk in confidence. We're going to dream new things. We're going to dare greatly and
rise again with the confidence that the spirit has
decided and declared that we're His children and
it's never going to change. We'll become more
compassionate too. Spirit working in us is
going to remind us we're not the only ones
struggling with the stuff. And the Spirit's going to
open us up to the revelation that all that water
flowing through you, it's not just for you. It's for everybody who's
thirsty around you. You think you're
the only one who ever struggled with your worth? You think you've ever
only everyone who's ever had debilitating
difficulties with depression or darkness? That river's for someone else. That river's for someone else. Why have we always
been a church wanting to expand to other cities? We must go to other places. We must go. It's not for an ego trip. It's because there are other
people thirsty, broken, just like us and we want
to tell them about it. We're going to become
more compassionate and that compassion
is going to cause us to rise up in action
because true compassion always leads to righteous action. We will always do something. We're not just going to feel
love, we're going to show love. We're going to give love. That's why we are a
church that will never be ashamed to talk about
money, because the budget is going to have an impact. It's going to feed people,
heal people, save people. God uses what we put it
His hand to multiply. In comes the drink,
out goes the river. That's like an offering. What little offering
we give to God it leads to a river of
him touching people. I'm telling you those
little mouthfuls of water you get as you give are nothing
compared to the river of what's going to be unleashed as you
receive the blessing of giving, which is always what a man
sows, the same he shall reap, except multiplied. You're going to become more
compassionate because listen rivers-- this is so important--
rivers have upstream and downstream. And God not only
blessed other people, who gave to this
ministry and others so that you could be reached,
but there's downstreams too. And downstream is the obligation
of the reached is to reach. The obligation of
the saved is to save. The obligation of the
touched is now to touch. If you've received
a blessing, it's your opportunity and
chance to pay it forward to rising up in compassion. I think about-- I wrote down the
word dependence. Rivers are full of dependence. If a river dies, the flora,
the fauna, the fish, everything is impacted by a
river going away. So you better keep drinking
and receiving and letting him turn into a river
because there's other people looking to you
going, will you now save me. Will you now heal me? Will you now send
that river on to me? Isaiah 44, verse 3
says, I will pour water on the thirsty land and the
streams on the dry ground. I will pour out my
spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your,
say it with me, descendants. You can't give up. Your descendants
need to be impacted. You can't give up. Your great-grandchildren
need to be touched by Jesus. You can't give up. I know it's hard right now. You want to throw in
the towel right now, but you got to keep
fighting forward because someone's got to tell
your grandchildren about Jesus. And who's going to do
it if you give up today? We need to populate this world
full of people who know Jesus and love Him and are sent
into the world on mission. And we need to do
that fearlessly. And only the Spirit
can take away the fear. Now we've talked about
being content, confident, compassionate. We've talked about
being curious. And I said there were four
things the Spirit's going to do, but all these four things
have one overarching thing that knits them all together. And that's this, the Spirit's
going to make you courageous. The Spirit's going
to make you brave. Because you got to be
brave to be content. You got to be brave
to be curious. You've got to be brave to be
confident and compassionate. And the spirit, if He's
going to do anything, He's going to make
you courageous. And here's the funny thing,
as Jesus talked about it, he was talking about it
to disciples who were going to need that bravery. Because the spirit coming for
us meant them losing Jesus. Did you catch it in verse 39? The spirit had not yet been
given because Jesus was not yet glorified. But the day he got glorified,
ascending to Heaven in a cloud, they lost their
own personal Jesus. They lost BFF Jesus they
were chilling with for three and a half years. So they had to
cheer up buttercup. It's better, trust
me, it's better. It's better not just
for you, but it's better for every
single person who's going to be touched by you. It took courage and
the Spirit not only is the solution for
our fear, but as He comes into our
hearts, the power He gives us is the power of courage
to face all the difficult dark things. In fact, that's
Acts 1:8, but you shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you. Even as I preach this message,
I could feel and sense some of you objecting
to different things. But I would be curious,
but you do understand. I would be this,
but you don't have any idea how many discouraging
things I have faced. It's easy for you to say be
content, but what about-- And all of those
things start to pop up. And what God is saying,
in every single situation, is just come to me
and trust me because I know you don't feel like
you have the courage to step out in faith right now. I know you don't feel
like you have the courage, but if you come to
me, living water is going to flow through you. And that living water is
going to be full of power. It's no mistake that
water turns into power. Water. Water churns over flywheels. Niagara Falls powers
cities in two countries. I'm telling you,
where water thunders, the result is always power. You might not-- It's finally time
for the sermon title. The title of this message is
what God wants to give you. He wants to give
you liquid courage. He wants to give
you liquid courage. He's got liquid courage for you. You see. You see because in
our world, when people need a little liquid
courage, they might open up a bottle of vodka. I need confidence to
talk to that girl. I need confidence and so
what we think is, we think, I need confidence. I need a little self-assurance. I need you to pour me up
a little liquid courage. But God doesn't want you to
turn to vodka for courage. He wants living water. He wants living water
to flow into you and that living water
is going to turn into power that comes upon you. I'm telling you the
self-assurance, the confidence, the ability to handle
debilitating difficulty and darkness, it doesn't
come from a bottle. It comes from above. It doesn't come. It doesn't come from
whiskey and wine. It comes from a wind,
mighty and rushing, triumphant, freely
given, offered to you any time you need it, every
time you are asking for it. He wants to pour out
water and that water is going to lead to a wind. Wind. When the spirit finally showed
up, they were ready for power. All right. Earthquakes. And they heard it
before they saw. Before any of the early church
spitfire, they heard a wind. I was in Dallas two
weeks ago and my computer wasn't working right. The space bar was stuck. Big deal because I had allocated
the six hours of the flying time to work on the
edits for my new book. And I had a real big time
table and it's a big deal so that I could finish that so
I can move on to the next thing. And I get on the plane
I can't do anything. My space bar won't work. I said, God I guess you're
just trying to give me a gift. So I bought a book
in the airport and I just spent the rest of
the flight reading the book. And it was a beautiful gift. I was it was wonderful. And it got to the church,
and I was in a meeting, I said could someone from
the IT department come up. My space bar won't work. I gotta get through
these edits tonight. And this guy came back
and he got a can of wind. That's what he said. He said, I got a can of wind. It can get rid of what's
sticking your space bar. He grabbed this can
and all of a sudden-- it was more mighty and
rushing than that-- and then he walked
out of the room. My space bar was totally fine. That's all it took. I'm like really / I'm like
cussing mad on this airplane. And all it took for him was And I just wonder if there's
some stuck people today. And you don't realize. You're looking to this. You're looking to this. You're looking to this. You're looking to this. You think this big
elaborate problem. You think you need a whole new
computer and God's solution to things is always
to send a wind. It's always His Holy Spirit. It's his liquid courage. It's going to flow into you. It's going to cause the
stuck places in your heart to become free. What Paul said in Ephesians
5, don't be drunk with wine, because that will
ruin your life. Instead, be filled
with the Holy Spirit. Why would He put a spirit on one
side and spirits on the other? Not because there's
not liberty to enjoy the gift of a glass of wine,
if you have that liberty. He's just saying
that that's not where your help's going to come from. That's not going to solve
any problems in your life. That'll turn down the volume
and turn down your ability to care about
things temporarily, but tomorrow the
problem's still there. When the Spirit comes
flooding into your life, when the Spirit comes upon you,
when God's gifts begin to flow through
you, when God causes you to be awakened
to who your identity is as a blood-bought son
or daughter of the King. I'm telling you we're not
mighty rushing wind flows. I'm talking about
when you're filled with that kind of
liquid courage, now you can walk and
look at the problem-- the same problem the alcohol
wants to dim our view of-- and now you can look
at that problem, and you're not scared of
it because you realize you're walking and
rolling with the one who's bigger than any problem,
any difficulty, any darkness, any danger. You're not scared anymore. What a thing in life to be
eyes wide open, totally aware, completely looking
at the same problem you wanted to shut out before,
but to now speak faith over it and say this will be the
source of a river of love flowing to other people. But here's the key. Here's the key, people,
and we're almost done. The key in life is to never
ever, ever confuse a pry off with a twist off. A pry off with a twist off. You see, in the
moment when we think we have to have all this
force, and all this force, but really it's
just a twist off. I think we do the same thing all
the time with the Holy Spirit and with walking with Jesus. What did I tell you that
the Feast of Tabernacles was commemorating? The water from a rock. Paul says that that
rock represents Jesus. 1 Corinthians 10, they all drink
from the same spiritual drink. They drank and
that spiritual rock that followed them, and notice,
and that rock was Christ. Jesus was a drinking fountain. First miracle he ever performed
in the New Testament, water into drinking fountain. Coming to Him to
receive what you need. Coming to Him to
see things change. Coming to Him to
survive when you can't. So the rock was
Jesus and what was keeping them alive
in the wilderness so they didn't
know it was Christ. And how did the water flow? We're told in Exodus
chapter 17, that Moses stood before the people
and he struck the rock. And when Moses struck the
rock, water flowed out of it so the people could drink. Now they got thirsty
again later on and Numbers picks up the story. And the same sort of
situation, the people are complaining and afraid. And so God told Moses
to the exact same thing. Numbers 20, verse
8, take the rod, the rod that you
have in your hand, go in front of the people. But he said, this
time is different. He said speak to the rock. If you speak to the rock
now, it will yield its water. But Moses was sick and
tired of these people. They got on his last nerve. And so he got up in front
of the people and he said, how long will you
quit trusting God? How long do I have to deal
with you, you rebellious people And so the Bible says on
that day, he grabbed the rod and he smashed the rock. Now it worked and the
water came out because God so he'll bless us even when we
don't get the blessing of it. He'll bless other people
through us even when we don't get the benefit of it. But it cost Moses something. He wouldn't get to go into
the promised land because of his striking a rock that
he was supposed to speak to. It wasn't a pry off
cap, it was a twist off. Why? Once the rock is struck, it
never needs to be struck again. The rock was struck on the cross
and blood and water flowed out. So you don't need
to strike yourself. So you don't need
to beat yourself up. So you don't need to think
I need to pay some penance. I need to do something. I need to keep
striking that rock. I feel like I've
really messed up. I need to do something
to honor God. You never need to strike a rock. It's already been struck. You don't ever have--
what do you do now? Speak to the rock. Speak to the rock. If you speak to the
rock, the water will flow and Christ is that rock. So if you need a spirit, if
you're feeling the shame, if you feel like
you're dirty, if you feel like you're traumatized,
speak to the rock and the water will flow. Speak to the rock and
the river will pour out. Speak to the rock, church. Speak to the rock and
believe for that Holy Spirit to come upon us.
