God's Invitation John 7

We're going to be in John chapter 7 today. John chapter 7 is one of those chapters in the

Gospel of John that's kind of like the red -headed stepchild a little bit. It doesn't get talked about, but it is full of doctrinal implications and it is one of the most beautiful ones.

It's another ego of me. Another I am statement by Jesus Christ. We're going to be in verse 37 and we're just going to look at verse 37 through 39, but I encourage you in proper harmoneutical context, please at your leisure or later on today,

I gave you some study notes, please read the entire chapter because it gives a lot of background on to why this is such an important chapter.

Let's read John chapter 7 starting in verse 37.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out,

If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the

Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.

For as yet the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Out of the synoptic Gospels, and that's Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they had already been written and been in circulation for many years up until this point.

I always love when I hear people like Joe Rogan or others try to take

God's Word and dismantle it from an ad hominem or a lack of logic argument.

It's a logical fallacy. We know for a shadow of a doubt that God's Word had already been prolific among Christians and the region there for many years before John had even been written.

Now the reason Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as synoptic Gospels is because they contain a lot of the same teaching from different viewpoints, but from a lot of the same events that Jesus did.

John is an anomaly out of the four Gospels. He starts out in John 1 .1 saying, in the beginning was the

Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So right off the bat, there is a declaration of the deity of Jesus Christ.

Please read God's Word that is written and why it is written that way, because it will give you solace and peace when nothing else will.

It says first on the last day of the feast, that great day. There were three mandatory pilgrimages from the

Jews at that time. Passover, Pentecost, and this one, the day of the feast.

Now they had several feasts back in Leviticus 23 that God had commanded them to observe.

But these three were told to be observed as much as possible in Jerusalem.

Now this Feast of the Booths, or also known as Feast of the Tabernacles, had been for 2 ,000 years been being celebrated by the

Jews and continue to this day. And basically what they would do is they would show up in Jerusalem and they didn't worry about Days Inn or Holiday Inn Express.

They just built kind of these little lean -to's, if you will. Some of you bushcraft people in here, you know, they would just throw some leaves and branches over a structure there and that's where they would live for seven days.

And it was called the Feast of the Booths because what they were remembering and what they were celebrating was the journey of the

Israelites out of the land of Egypt to the Promised Land in that 40 years. In that time, they were nomadic peoples, lived in tents and so on and so forth, but because there were so many people and they did not have sources of water or food, having just been released from slavery,

God had to supernaturally attend to their needs, especially in the desert.

One of those things that He did was that He caused water to come out of a rock.

And if you want to go look online, Brother Bill and I have talked about this before, there is actually a rock.

You can go look it up right now. It exists in the desert route. We don't know for sure, but it's a rock with an unnatural split in it and it looks like water has come out of it from the erosion process.

But anyways, that is what they're celebrating. Now what this celebration included was, every day there would be this great parade, this great procession, and it wasn't solemn.

It wasn't a Catholic liturgical church service. It was a partay. As they marched down the road to the great temple, everybody would be dancing and jumping around.

There were no Baptists at this time. They were all jumping around and dancing and hooping and hollering and having a good time.

And they would get to the temple and they would withdraw from Siloam's well. They would draw from that pitchers of water.

They would then take that to the temple and pour it out as an offering to God.

That is the backdrop of Jesus' statement here.

And it makes sense when you understand that. He said this. The Word of God tells us that Jesus stood up and cried aloud.

Christian, would you say that you mimic Christ in the exhortation and the proclamation of the

Word of God? In other words, what's your spiritual life look like when you're witnessing to people? Is the height of your invitation to know the peace of God something like this?

You want to go to church with me on Sunday? Guys, that's not what a Spirit -led believer should be like.

It's amazing. I marvel at this. During our invitation times here at Witten, this altar is usually full.

And there is talking going on over. And years ago, I had a man say, Pastor, I love our invitation times.

I just wish they were more reverent. And I asked him, being a high school dropout drug addict,

I asked him, what do you mean reverent? And he said this, well, there needs to be silence.

Can you know anything in Scripture where reverence equals silence? In fact, Jesus said, if we are to remain silent, even the rocks and trees will cry out loud.

Our declaration of the saving grace of Jesus Christ in our life is something that we need to stand up and proclaim with a loud voice.

How is yours doing this week? Have you been so cultivated by the world in what you consider proper protocol or social skills that you don't want to be offensive?

The Gospel is offensive to sinners. But it must be proclaimed.

For there is no time left, like now in the present, that you will be able somewhere in the future as that soul dies and burns in hell to retroactively go back with the power of God.

Then it's the same power of God now and proclaim the life changing message of Jesus. Your work friends, do you like them?

Alright, well. Do you want them to burn in hell forever? Okay, good.

I'd hate to be at your job if you'd said yes. Guys, share the

Gospel, man. Jesus stood up and he cried out. He said this,

If anyone except those with tattoos, if anyone except the white trash that works at 201

Popular, if anyone except Methodists or Pentecostals, doesn't say that.

Now, I want you to wrap your head around this because some of you are like, okay, yeah pastor, I get it. But do you really?

Do you really? Because we've asked folks to leave from this place when they've looked down at other people for the way they were dressed or how they acted.

See, them doors right there are open. Them doors are open. I don't care whether you're gay.

I don't care whether you're an addict. I don't care whether you're a street walking hoe. Them doors are open.

The call of the Gospel is to us. And here's what we've got to remember. That the apathy of my devotion to Scripture, my apathy in worship and praise, is more disgusting in the eyes of God than a sinner who knows no better.

You see, with the grace of God comes much responsibility. Comes much accountability.

And yet we want to look down on those yet when the hypocrisy of our own actions is a stench in the nostrils of God.

Remember that great old saying by that great philosopher, fat bald guy. We all have exhaust fans in our bathrooms.

Let's act like it. Shall we? Let us take ourselves off that pedestal and hear the words of Jesus Christ, if anyone...

Here's the second thing. If anyone thirsts... You ever been thirsty?

If you played football, you know what thirst is. Now, I know people say, well, no,

I didn't play football, but I know what thirst is. No, listen. There used to be a four inch

PVC pipe from about here to those chairs. And they had holes drilled all in them like this.

And there were garden hoes stuck to the end of that PVC pipe.

Now, yes, you get hot and thirsty. I get it. You get hot and thirsty.

But here's the horrible thing. Lucy, Lucy. Lucy, strong right.

We used to have something called two -a -days when they really used to have football. Not the little Nancy stuff you all have now where it's too hot to practice.

We would be out there in 139 degree weather with 400 pounds of pads, sweat stinging your eyes.

And you would be out there, the ground was cracked. You had dust in your mouth and then over off in the distance, even with all the yelling, you heard, you heard that water coming out of that pipe and splashing wastefully upon the ground.

And it was a thirst, but there was a beckoning of that water to come unto me.

Come and partake. And as the whole time you were just waiting for that, go tweet.

That was supposed to be a whistle. Tweet. I can't do a whistle sound.

Go get some water, boys. There would be a mad dash. Now, every year, there was usually a freshman or a sophomore that thought that that water was an open invitation to go whenever you want to even though you weren't on the field practicing.

Bad move. I remember the coach said, if anyone drinks, we all drink.

If we all don't drink, no one drinks. And it was horrible because usually someone would be sitting over there and everybody out on the field who was already practicing was watching that water.

And if some little kid went over there and was like, he got rotated in.

And usually someone would say, hike, throw the ball that way. But that kid would be over there and there would be 11 guys pouncing on him.

Right? How thirsty are you? Do you understand the thirst?

Now you say to me, well, Pastor, I'm kind of parched but I had a Starbucks today. No, I'm not talking about that.

Here's why most people miss the grace of God. Because they don't understand their own thirst.

See, you think this because you walked down the aisle.

Because you joined a church. Oh, here's my favorite. Oh, I prayed Jesus Christ into my heart.

Like He's some Labrador puppy to go, come here boy, come into my heart. None of which is found in Scripture.

Yet, you're wondering why you still thirst. Here's the first reason. You don't understand how totally depraved you are in the holiness of God.

You see, you want to believe that there is some effort or motivation on your part to bring a pleasing eye of God towards you.

And so you never experience the satisfying, quenching thirst of the power of the

Holy Spirit because you want to add grace plus me equals my salvation. And you keep missing the boat.

And you'll come back into church. You'll sit there and say, my marriage is a wreck. I'm struggling with my addiction again.

And I've heard people say it. I need to get back into church. Church don't save you.

Church never will save you. Getting back into it is an exercise in futility. Okay? Well, that doesn't sound like you're inviting people to church.

I want to invite you to Jesus Christ. What you do with that after that, I really don't care. Okay, I'm not interested in mega churches.

I'm not interested in driving a Bentley and wearing two $1 ,200 suits. I'm not interested in Jeff Shipley Ministries.

There's no such thing. I hate pastors when they name a ministry after themselves. This is so arrogant, isn't it?

Jeff Shipley Ministries. It'd be a hunting club is what it'd be. That's what it'd be. How thirsty are you this morning?

For some of you that have been sitting in church 30, 40 years, but there is no peace of God in you, there's no love in you for your fellow brothers in Christ.

1 John says, if you hate your brother and call yourself a Christian, you are a liar.

But you'll suppress that, push that down, push that away to sell us your own religious pursuits and ignoring the grace of God that is sitting there waiting to quench your thirst.

Where are you this morning? You want that drink? First, you have to realize how thirsty you are.

It says this, if anyone thirsts, let him come to whatever spiritual, ex -generation, millennial understanding of God they come to.

To on me. There is an exclusivity in this verse.

Listen, let them come to me. Now once again, I want you to see the power of these words.

Jesus is standing with the backdrop of the Solomon's Temple rebuilt standing right behind it.

600 ton stones, 80 feet high, gilded golden temple that had been around since the days of David and Solomon burned down and rebuilt.

All of this religion, tradition, power, culture, identity of the

Jewish people is standing right behind Him. Yet one man stands up and says this, that will do nothing.

If you are thirsty, forget your traditions, your religious rituals, and your parties, come to me.

These guys every day were having a religious festival and they would walk from a pool to a temple.

From a pool to a temple. I'm sorry, from a heathen lifestyle to a church building.

From a heathen lifestyle to a church building. Mutter a prayer and leave the same kind of person as when they walked in.

Why? Because you're bypassing Jesus trying to go to religion instead of religion in the background and focusing on Jesus.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.

Well, we can all get to heaven. You believe how you do, you all do Me. Well, okay, that's great testimony, that's a great idea, except Jesus Christ said,

I am the only Me you can do. I am the only way. Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, let them come to Me.

Now watch this. Let them come to Me. Whoever believes in Me.

I think those are four of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture. You know why? Because it's a complete, absolute thought as the plan of salvation.

Notice the verb there. Believe. Man, aren't you so glad it doesn't say circumcision?

Aren't you so glad it doesn't say give all your money to a religious institution? Aren't you so glad it doesn't say you have to wear a suit and tie?

Aren't you so glad it doesn't say never fail again? Praise God. Aren't you glad it says that you don't have to be perfect?

Whoever believes. Faith is the only way to know Christ. It's not by a prayer or a declaration of statement on your part.

It is simply by faith born of the Holy Spirit of God by the grace of God that will snatch you from the gates of hell.

Whoever believes in Me. Now, I want you to just look. Go back to verse 5 for a second.

Let me explain to you, Christian, just real quickly, how lonely you will be as a believer in Jesus Christ.

Look how lonely you're going to be. Verse 5. What's it say? It literally says

Jesus' family did not believe in Him. If you go back to the first part of this chapter, it was time for this feast, this tabernacle, this tabernacle of booze.

And Jesus had four brothers and two or three sisters. We're not really sure because they were off in the kitchen making sandwiches when the count came.

But He had several brothers and sisters. Okay? Sorry, Catholics.

Joseph and Mary watched Netflix. Okay? They had other kids besides Jesus.

Alright? So, they're sitting there and they come up to Jesus in that condescending way.

Hey, big brother. Love ya. Appreciate all you're doing. But can you gear it down just a bit?

Can you just slow down? Dude, you don't need to go up in the synagogue and call all the rabbis idiots.

Can you reel that back in some? Because it's blowing back on us. Mom's not happy.

We're not happy. You're ruining our reputation as good Jewish religious people.

You're a maverick. You're a rebel. Just kind of go with the crowd. And verse 5 says, even

His brothers did not believe in Him. What's really cool is two of His brothers end up writing books in the

New Testament. You know why? Because there's something that happened to them.

You see, they saw their older brother beat until he was a chunk of meat nailed to a cross and watched him die.

And then three days later, Jesus is like, son, that'll change your mind a little bit about who and what

He is. You know what I'm saying? Thomas said, until I see the scars in His hand and I put my hand in His side,

I will not believe. Jesus showed up and said, hey, Thomas, come here. Yes, sir?

Put your hand here in my side. And Thomas said, my Lord and my

God. The deity of Christ. Christology. Kinetic theology.

Whatever you want to put it. You see, seeing a resurrected Lord will soon change your mind.

You say, well, pastor, I've never seen a resurrected Lord. Then you've never been saved. I promise you this.

Your eyes, the scales, the paradigm. By the way, these are paradigms. Right now, y 'all are a blur.

There's some pink there, pink there. Man, there's a lot of pink in here. A bunch of fruits. You know, y 'all haven't changed how

I view you changes. When I put the paradigm on, I'm able to see what's really there, not by my own subjective interpretation, but what's a reality, right?

When you see Jesus Christ, when you receive by faith the power of the Holy Ghost, you start seeing this as much more than a religion or a moral accountability group.

It becomes life -changing. 2 Corinthians says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away.

Behold, all has become new. Not your Sunday morning attendance. Not your moral understanding about smoke and weed.

It all becomes new. Your whole life is jacked up and twisted and turned around.

But you've been preached to for so long, you think having some sort of little feeling at some certain little song is the power of the

Holy Spirit of God. No, that's either your emotions or gas. The power of the Holy Spirit of God will make you do things that you know you can't do on your own.

Especially for you introverts. I always love introverts. I do. I enjoy greatly making them feel uncomfortable.

Guys, do you know every Sunday morning before I get up here, I'm nervous? There have been some

Sunday mornings, I asked Pastor Josiah, I've gone in that bathroom and puked. And here's why.

Not because I'm afraid to speak. I'm afraid of what I am speaking. You see,

I truly believe in God. And I'm scared that I might do something wrong.

I am. The Word of God says, for those of you that preach and teach, you will be held to double accountability.

Dude, I'm just barely making this accountability, now I've got to go up to this level? Man, I'm a loser.

Who and what am I? Jesus said this, understand that the power of the life -changing message of Jesus Christ is not a declaration of faith on a

Sunday morning. When you become a Christian, you give all of your life to Him.

Your pornography, not just your sins, but all of your weaknesses as well.

Look at all the people who the Holy Spirit of God touched. It turned shepherd boys into kings.

It turned quiveling cowards into preachers. Here in just a few chapters, Peter's going to go from a skeptic, loud -mouthed, brash, religious idiot to standing up in the middle of everyone when they're trying to hunt them down and kill them and say,

I'm right here, let me tell you who Jesus Christ really is. It takes fear and crush under the feet of God.

And from that absence and that vacuum of where that fear was, the dwelling and the power of the

Holy Spirit come and you become a brand new person. Guys, have you ever experienced that?

Have you truly ever experienced that life -changing measure of God?

Not only does family not believe, look here in verse 40 and 41. Check this out.

If this is not the church in America today, I don't know what is. Verse 40 and 41 says this.

It says, so when the Samaritans... Sorry, wrong chapter. How did that happen?

Verse 40 and 41 says this. When they heard these words, what Jesus just said, some of the people said, this really is the prophet.

Some others said, this really is the Christ. But some said, is this

Christ come from Galilee? Had not the Scripture said that Christ would come from the offspring of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?

Let me explain what this means. They started having denominational squabbles from the word go.

They started saying, how do you see Jesus? What's your theology? What's your understanding?

Now remember this. Theology does not matter. It's our interpretation of how we're studying

God. But what does matter is doctrine and absolute truth that is found in Scripture.

In other words, when Jesus Christ said, I am, He was making a no -bounds, absolute, bare declaration that I am

Yahweh, I am God. Well, pastor, I don't really believe in that. God's Word doesn't require that you do believe in it.

Okay? It's fact. Like breath and gravity. Okay? Jesus sits there and He's sitting there and as He's preaching, different people view differently.

And you know what? It's okay if you're a pan -millennialist in here. It's okay. It's okay that you're a pre -tribulationist.

It really is. How many of y 'all actually understand what those words mean? That's wittin', baby.

I love it. But at the end of the day, does it really matter?

Nah. Not really. How many of you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died, resurrected, coming back to get us?

Those of you who didn't, raise your hands. We're going to have a moment for you in just a second. Guys, there is no kumbaya with Jesus.

Sorry. There is no, the whole world's going to have a coke and a smile and be a bunch of dope -smoking, tree -hugging hippies.

Jesus actually said, I didn't come to bring peace from the world, but to take peace.

For father will be against son, husband against wife. Here we are today. It's not just that sometimes as a

Christian, your family won't believe in you. If you choose to become a Christian, there will be times where the world will hate your guts.

Hate your guts. Trust me. Okay? Trust me.

You want to have a lot of Facebook friends? Don't preach Jesus. You know? If you want to have a bunch of Instagram videos or flash chat or whatever that crud's called, don't be posting no

Jesus stuff because you ain't going to be cool and accepted and be an influencer, i .e.

a little sissy. But anyways, watch this. Watch this. Notice what they said.

This is so funny. We know this can't be the Christ because this is Jesus of Nazareth.

We know from Micah 5 .2 that it was written 400 years before Jesus was even born that He was going to be born in Bethlehem.

Do you understand what arrogance will do? When you take your mental learning abilities and superimpose them over Scripture, you're going to look like an idiot.

The very verse, ironically, that they were quoting to saying it didn't apply to Jesus, even

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts knew Jesus was born in Bethlehem. I saw the video, the cartoon.

Didn't you see it? You know, Linus is on the piano. Scripture said, out of Bethlehem will

Messiah come. And guess what, Bob? That's exactly where He was born.

Jesus didn't come to destroy the Old Testament. He fulfilled it. Notice this next thing.

Almost done. Y 'all stay with me. It says this, as the Scripture said.

Jesus' words said, whoever believes in Me as Scripture has said.

Can I talk to y 'all just for a second? I know some of y 'all cheat on Me. I do.

I know you do. I know you do. And it hurts. It cuts. Some of y 'all watch

Andy Stanley. Listen, Andy Stanley used to be a good guy.

He has lost his ever -loving mind. Turn it off. If you don't believe me, come talk to me and I'll share it with you. I'm not going to publicly degradate him.

I don't think that's helpful. Some of y 'all watch Joel. Now, I want you to know that Jesus Christ loves you just the way you are.

He doesn't love you just the way you are. You see, He died to change you. Just the way you are sends you to hell.

Only taking on the image of Jesus Christ sends you to heaven. Some of y 'all listen to Dr. Adrian Rogers, blessed be his name.

It really don't matter. Guys, some of you like other pastors and preachers. It really doesn't matter.

God, what a church we would have if we would take the personality of pastors out and only have what

Jesus said. Jesus Himself used Scripture to validate what He is saying.

You want to know if you have a good preacher, pastor, who you're listening to is good? Here's a test.

Two tests. How much Scripture we do here on a Sunday morning, we can't get through a praise and worship song without Scripture read.

It breaks the mood. Do you know what I'm saying? You've got to have the drums playing. Carla, you need to play a little bit softer in the background.

There needs to be some woman up here with a microphone with a little tear coming down her eye going, Jesus! You know what

I'm saying? And then we would get more of the feeling of the Holy Spirit. That looked a little gay, didn't it?

But you understand? No, we don't want that. According to what Jesus just said here, the mitigating factor, not mitigating, the absolute factor of who and what you should be listening to is dictated by God's Holy Word.

You will never know the will of God for your life without the

Word of God. You'll never know it. I don't care who tells you. I don't care if your church believes your pastor said or whatever.

If it doesn't line up with Scripture, it is wrong. And it is a poison to your soul.

Poison to your soul. Keep reading. As Scripture said, Jesus said this. Now listen.

He said this. Out of His heart will flow rivers of living water. Now verse 39 could almost be parenthetical, but it is defining what

Jesus just said. Now this He said about the Spirit whom He believed in Him were to receive.

For as yet the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not been glorified.

We'll stop here. Listen to me for a second. You have to understand dispensationalism.

And basically what that means is a fancy word for God giving knowledge over time.

In other words, if Adam and Eve were sitting there and Adam and Eve sinned, God did not sit there and go, okay, in about 4 ,000 years from now,

I'm going to send my Son incarnate to earth to be a vicarious, substitutionary atonement for your sins that you may be justified, adopted, from your totally depraved, sinful, imputed state.

Adam and Eve go, say what, Willis? What you talking about? Right? God, our church is so young.

They don't get that. But anyways, so God had to dispense a little bit out.

He told Eve this. Hey Eve, your sin is going to crush the head of Satan.

I learned in my 9th grade biology class, I don't have sin. I don't have seed.

Right, but your seed, the seed of a woman, will crush the head of Satan.

Jesus was born from Mary without the seed of a man. Things that make you go, hmm.

By the way, it's one continual thought process, the restoration of man back to God. It's so beautiful.

God looked at Noah and said this, Hey Noah, I promise you this,

I'm never going to destroy the world with water again. Noah's like, whew, that's cool.

Whew, I can relax. And then He said, go fruitful and multiply. Noah's like, whew, amen.

Right? And they went out. And God said, go and subdue the whole earth. And they said, no, we're good right here

God. We're going to just hang out right here. And we're going to keep hanging out with a bunch of sinful humans.

And we're going to keep propping each other up. And our arrogance and pride are going to get bigger and bigger. And then this is what we're going to do.

We're going to build a tower to God. They hadn't had no engineering degrees, but they're going to build a tower to God?

Okay. God said, watch this. Some of them started speaking Chinese, Mexicanese, and all these other eases.

And they couldn't even hang out with each other. Pass me a brick. What did you say about my mama? You know? And so they had to subdivide into groups.

And then guess what they did? They go out and they split up and they subdued the earth.

All God's plan. He wasn't caught off guard. So different dispensations, God revealed little bits of His plan to mankind.

When God said, sacrifice animals, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. They were like, huh, that's weird.

But okay. Jesus said, I am the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Ah, I get it now.

I get it. In the Old Testament, here's how the Holy Spirit worked. Let's say

God told Pastor Josiah, Pastor Josiah, I want you to go and bring forth a male child.

Okay? Pastor Josiah obviously says, well, God, I can't do that. You know?

And so Pastor Josiah says, though, I am going to obey God. Then the

Holy Spirit would come and you can do this. Yes, you can. If you can't do it, no one can. Josiah.

And he would come on the individual until that task was accomplished, and then the

Holy Spirit would leave. With Samson, with David, all of it. You'll see in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon them, then the

Holy Spirit left. But that was never God's plan. Just like the Garden of Eden, God wants to commune with us all the time.

Kind of like my wife when we were younger. Why don't you talk to me? You know? All the time.

Yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak. Marty and I go hunting. We drive for two hours. We don't say a word to each other.

No time does He ever look at me and say, are you mad at me? That's the

Holy Spirit. He wants to talk to you. Right? It says here that yet the

Holy Spirit hasn't come forth yet because of what? Christ had not yet been justification, sanctification, glorification.

You want to know what Heaven's going to be like? It's real simple. We're never going to know fully, but how

Jesus acted after the resurrection, that's what we're going to be able to do. See, Jesus was glorified.

Glorification doesn't mean that you go to Heaven when you die. Glorification says, yeah, I paid for that too.

I want that too. And your body is resurrected with your soul. That's going to happen to all of us one day.

And what's really cool is that Jesus could eat. Mmm. Jesus could...

What's up? How you doing, man? It's good to see you. Sorry, that was a little hard. Sorry. But He had a physical body you could touch.

Yet He was not subject to the laws of physics anymore. He wasn't subject to space, time, and matter.

No more. It's going to be so cool. Pastor Jeff, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Jeff.

I can't be everywhere at once. Guys, it's going to be so awesome.

But watch this. The Holy Spirit hadn't shown up yet because Jesus Christ had not been glorified.

Now, this is the last thing I promise. If you read this one more, listen. Some of y 'all are yawning.

Hang with me. It's okay. Pop a speed or something. No, don't do that.

Charquia turned around and goes, no, no speed, baby. But just listen, one more thing. Listen.

Listen. It says, and out of Him shall flow living waters.

Now, we already know those living waters are analogous of the Holy Spirit. Guys, do you have living waters flowing out of you?

Seriously. I mean, like, when you come in contact with people that are just dying of thirst, they're broken.

Some of them, you know, are snaggletooth, crackhead, meth -head, losers. Some of them are going through adulterous affairs.

Other of them just feel nobody loves them, nobody cares. And you just walk by and you keep all that water to yourself.

If you're a Christian, let me ask you a question. What is the manifestation of your

Christianity not to yourself, but to those around you? What do they see?

Are you one of those people that you're known for your Christianity debate because you're against everything?

I mean, Mickey Mouse is from hell. I mean, God forbid, Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse don't scare me, guys.

The hypocrisy in the church scares me. God hates transvestites.

I am more than He hates your gossiping tongue. Clean up your own house, sister.

Shut your mouth. Focus on you. You want to know how you do and decrease the thirst and increase the fulfillment?

Go and serve something other than yourself. What ministry are you involved here at this church?

We've got a bunch of them and we need some help. We need some help.

Well, pastor, I don't have that gift. Please do not use that old church sophomoric term.

If you are born again, child of God, you have the gift of the Holy Spirit. I don't know what else you need.

Okay? Go to work. And I'm not saying this to pick on you or to lamb blast you or to make fun of you.

I'm giving you the recipe to know fulfillment. Because here's what's really cool about the

Holy Spirit of God. You can't outpour His pouring. You can't outpour it.

The more you give, the more you receive. And I'm not talking about financially. Okay? That's between you and God.

I don't want to know nothing about that. I'm talking about your service to God. Who is this? Sorry, Tracy.

Where are you? Now listen to me. If you're in here this morning, music dudes, come on.

If you're in here this morning, listen. If you're in here this morning and you ain't sure where you are with Christ, do me a favor.

Let's slake that thirst. I can't save you. This church can't save you.

I am just simply one man telling you guys about truth. I have no special powers within me.

None. Zero. Zilch. I'm just one beggar showing another beggar where the food line is.

I'm just one addict showing another addict where peace is. I'm just one individual broken and bruised showing another one where Jehovah Rapha, the great healer, is.

Okay? I can't fix you. But I can show you who can. If you're not 100 % sure that you're a child of God, I want you to come down here and talk to a pastor.

We're going to show you in Scripture how you can know. 1 John 5 .13 says, These things have I written unto you, i .e.

Scripture, have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life.

It ain't a guessing game, eternity. It is a fact that you can know. And I promise you, if you have doubts, it has more to do with you than it has to do with the sovereign

Word of God. If you're in this room and you are a Christian, you know you're a Christian, but you're weak and you're struggling, find another

Christian and get them to pray with you. Find another Christian not only to pray with you, but then to hold you accountable in the next coming weeks.

If you're struggling with pornography, dudes, well, nowadays, did y 'all know this? Did y 'all know that women are only seven points behind men in pornography usage nowadays?

I'm not kidding. Thirty years ago, it was like a huge gap. Playgirl went out of business.

Playboy didn't. You hear what I'm saying? Now, awesome feminism, it's now almost equal.

Almost equal. If you're struggling with pornography and you're trying to do it on your own, it ain't gonna work.

Hey, focus right here. It's not gonna work. If you're trying to get out of alcohol and drugs, it ain't gonna work by yourself.

You need accountability. You need support. We offer that. Come up here and say, man,

I need help. Maybe you're not in love with your husband anymore. Maybe you're not in love with your wife anymore. Maybe your kids are in rebellion.

God's Word has an answer to all of that. Come and find it. Maybe you need to join a church where you're not church hopping and floating and no one can really peg you down.

You're cool walking in being camouflaged with no expectations. That is a recipe for a disastrous and very dry life.

You wanna have excitement in your life? Walk out these doors today with a new pull and a new idea that I'm gonna die serving

Jesus Christ. I promise you, life will get real exciting real quick. I'm gonna ask you all to stand with me and if God has spoken to you today,

I want you to do something. If you're a believer in here, go to work and be the church. I'll encourage someone as God leads.