Speaker 1 0:50

[inaudible]

Speaker 2 0:54

Well, Hey friends, I'm so glad to be with you today. If you're in the room so glad that you're here and that we get to experience community together. If you're with us online again , thank you for just for inviting us into your space. And as always, I want to let you know when you're ready, we're ready to have you back in person. We're trying to keep it as safe as possible. And again, just glad you're with us wherever you're joining us from. We are in a new series last week. I introduced this series and talked a little bit about why we do series, which is really just a larger conversation that we like to break up into a couple of weeks, because it's difficult to give you all the information or to, for us together collectively to unpack a lot about one specific subject or some specific scripture in just a short amount of time that we spend together on the weekend. And so we break that up over weeks. So we can go on a walk and have a conversation together. As we unpack things, you can think of it from a box and give you the opportunity to continue to unpack those things throughout the week. And so that's a fantastic opportunity for you to get into community where you can keep the discussion going and really the process of transformation going throughout the week. This isn't just a Sunday thing. We come here to pursue God, but that we build community and continue to pursue God and who he is throughout the week. And then the result of that is seeing transformation our own lives or becoming something new that Jesus wanted us to become. So this series is called embracing new. We just are coming out of Easter where we got to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. And it's because of Jesus, we're here and learning how to become a disciple of Jesus. And that was a new thing. This is a whole new covenant that we talked about last week. That we're a part of. And so we had a conversation last week of just being on the lookout for things that are becoming new things or being able to sense and to see what's going on and how we can experience God in a multitude of ways. And we talked about how last week, God could make a new wine in us that we can walk away from the old and begin to embrace new things. But it's difficult. I gave you the example of, you know, we we've just started opening up more spaces from the COVID situation and went to one of our favorite restaurants. And I went in and I went to my go-to thing and it wasn't on the menu. And I was like, so sad. Cause I was like, where where's the best thing you have in this place at, I don't see it listed here anymore. Is this like a speakeasy secret thing? And they were like, no, we don't have it anymore . And so suddenly I was forced with embracing something new and learning something new and trying new things and experiencing new things is similar. We get the same opportunity now, then we're gonna be talking about rivers of living water. We have a fountain out in their lobby and might have a picture of it to show you for those of you who are on the line with us. There's a fountain right there. This is what's in our lobby. This is this idea of us looking around and seeing what's going on. So we're going to talk about rivers of living water and what the scripture say about that and how we can connect with and embrace a new things because of water. And then we have a stump in the ground out there in the lobby as well. That's the prayer way , a stump . And so then we're going to have this conversation about a stump. And even in the old Testament, the Davidic line thought it was dead and it was over with, and it talks about how the , uh , chute came out of it, this new thing that ultimately led to Jesus. And so how we can see these things and understand how they point to God when we talk about a prayer wall and how we get to observe community together, observe what people are walking and going through or celebrating, and also be able to come alongside of each other as community and how God made that for us to be in relationship with him and others caring one another Spurgeon's. And that's a space we have out in the lobby that I encourage you all to participate in every week. Then on mother's day, we're going to do baby dedications, which is the 9th of May. So if you have a baby, we would love to get in contact with you and have a conversation about baby dedications. But we're also going to talk about the comfy chairs. So if you're in person right now, you know, you're experiencing a comfortable chair. If you've been here in the past, it wasn't as squishy. It was kind of like hard and it squeaked and you know , it's kind of cold, but there's this idea that we're going to talk about how this can relate to God and how we can learn from this as this idea of prophetic art. Then on May 16th, we're going to have a conversation about the tastes and smells of that sense . And maybe some of you have grown up or experienced different ways that you can taste and see that God is good and who he is. And then we're going to capstone this entire conversation by a weekend where we're just going to have worship and baptisms where this is something that we can Mark something significant in this faith community, in this space where transformation has taken place. This is something that we're going to get to do together for quite some time over the next couple of weeks. And then what we're going to do is we're going to walk into a series for about 11 weeks. We're going to talk about Jeremiah and what we can learn from him and the lament or the learning and what it looks like to be a disciple ultimately, where we're heading. So you guys know is we're going to like dig in deep and embrace all the new things and understand what it looks like follower of Jesus. And we're going to go on a long journey through a book in the new Testament, one of the gospels where we get to unpack layer by layer verse by verse, what that looks like and what we can learn from that. So ultimately I'm going to encourage you to get to know our app on there as the Bible app, or you can also bring a physical paper Bible if you want, but I'm going to ask you to engage in those things because of the things follow along with us as well. So today embracing the new there's things that we get to learn from from true living water, really focusing on this living water and Jesus was really focused on something, particularly throughout the new Testament. When he had conversations with his disciples, people who were even far from God and those who were closer or felt like they were closer to God, at least from the outside. And you see a conversation where he talks about, it's not what you put inside of you. It's not the food that you eat. He's having a conversation with these Pharisees and these scribes and saying, Hey, you're getting upset that we keep breaking these rules and that we're breaking these laws of the Sabbath and ceremonial things like cleaning, right? Or financial things, these types of things. But I want to focus on something else. You're focused on this law, this rule, like we talked about last week, the law gave way then to grace and truth, it was a good setup. And so Jesus begins to talk about these things. And he's having a conversation with these disciples, with these Pharisees and scribes. And he's saying, Hey, you guys are getting upset right now because you feel like the things that we're putting our mouth aren't Holy or they're not sacred, or they're not clean. And that's not what defiles a person of what you put inside of your mouth. It's actually what comes out of you. The inside of you, the things that you say your heart later on, you find in Matthew 23, he's having this big gigantic Whoa conversation. If you look in Matthew 23, it's, he's giving all these woes to people who are really followers of God at the time, but he's saying, Hey, you don't get it. There's something new that's taken place. It was a new thing that you need to understand. And so he has this conversation, a bunch of different woes , and then he starts talking in Matthew 23. It's not coming up here. I mean , you guys can thank you Matthew 23 right here. And he says, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside there are full of greed and self-identified, and Dalton's blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and dish. And then the outside will also be clean. He's saying, Hey, the outside, you're cleaning up and you're making it look nice. But the inside of you, this stuff is full of greed and self, a dollar diligence . You need to clean the inside. You need to clean up and understand what's going on on the inside of you so that the outside then can also be clean, continues on and says, you're like whitewashed, tombs, slick , beautiful on the outside. But on the inside are full of bones of the dead. And everything is unclean in the same way. The outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy in wickedness. He said it is a focus that we have on the outside, right? We want to like present on the outside that these things are okay, but he's saying, you're not understanding it. This isn't about an outside thing. This is about an inside issue that you have. And this is an important issue. He talks about this in multiple ways throughout scripture, and the focus is cleaning the inside. And so what do you use to clean things right? Often, if you really want to clean something, you use water, right? Water has all kinds of connections and meaning of new life or cleansing, or we've talked about last week, the ceremonial cleansing stuff. And today, the first point I want to give to you right now is that Jesus wants to a life that flows deep within you. A life that flows deep within you. The main verse that I'm gonna focus on is just a short one. Today it's found in John seven 38. It says, whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from them. Whoever believes in me, you can go back in me. As scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow within them. Now this is in the new international version, the NIV, and a lot of people read different versions of the Bible and different things are translated a little bit differently. And so I wanted to show you just a different translation and the we're going to talk about that for just a second. In the NLT, the new living translation says anyone who believes in me may come and drink for the scriptures. Declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart, right? That's heart. Now the Greek word is this fairly consistently translated for heart in the new Testament all throughout or in the NIV you saw is within heart. Here is really the same thing. It's our English translation , translation of Greek and a couple of different people translate it a little bit differently, but this word is referring right here. And within is referring to this internal midsection . This , this belly part of you most often referring to like a womb or the belly. And these translations are more significant specifically because heart in ancient texts, which isn't what we're getting right here in ancient texts. This word would be referring more towards desire or like the depth of a person. But these translations, the belly was used more

Speaker 3 12:03

For w the, the, the womb or

Speaker 2 12:06

Most, most of the vacation . This word shows in the new Testament that is referring to the birth of something. It's an interesting idea. If you think about this, that living waters then would be something that has given birth to, that can come out of you. And that , that gives a life to the one who believes in it that can birth something new in you. It's also something that speaks to the desire and the depth of who we are. Something being birthed out of you, something new that's coming forth. It's a bit like when you are personally transforming experience in your life, when you've been through something or even decided I'm going to experience transformation in this new version of you begins to show up, you were like this. Now you're like this. How about how you will li live or what you want other people to experience when they come into contact with you and how others experience you, it begins to birth something inside of you, the belly. If you think about it as like the deepest place that's inside of you, when you feel stressed, you experienced it in your gut, right? Have you noticed like all of a sudden you're like, Oh , I just feel this thing it's deep with inside of me. And you feel stressed when you feel anxious, you actually experience it in your gut. Right? A lot of us can say like our heart hurts, but often it's found us in this deep thing inside of us, just at our gut, this aching that can take place. It's a place within you that you've experienced those things in ways that move beyond words, that you can't really express it, but yet is experienced is this is the inside of you. That might be actually, if

Speaker 3 13:49

We had to put words to it today,

Speaker 2 13:51

This thing that's deep inside, all of us, that we have this common connection to you , you could characterize it as your conscience. You could characterize this as your conscience. Now, what is your conscience? What does this thing that is represented deep down inside of each and every one of us will . Conscience is your flow of thoughts,

Speaker 3 14:12

Your feelings, your

Speaker 2 14:15

Intentions, your choices, the things that you are thinking about constantly, that thing that tells you, like, I just knew in my gut this right, the feelings I just had this feeling, you know, like the butterflies, right? This nervous feeling, or this exciting connective, this romantic feeling, right ? Your intentions, like what you're intending to do, what you're thinking about, doing the choices that you're making in the response physically that your body has from making these choices. This is the inside of each and every one of us, this conscience, whereas the outside of us like Jesus was talking about is your behavior, right? You can put on all kinds of behavior. You can show that you're this type of person, you know, there's that, there's a, there's a story that had been around for a long time of , of , uh , businessmen who had this really beautiful house and this really cool car. And it was really big. And he was dressed in a suit all the time, but then you went into the house and it was just empty, right? He couldn't afford what he had done. It was just a big show to put on because he felt like he had to show on the outside. He was put together and had accumulated things and stuff, but I'm inside. It was empty because it was a mess, right? It didn't, he wasn't able to live that life. It's just your behavior on your outside. Now, I'm going to tell you this, that the art of managing your conscience, the battle of life, this is the battle that every one of us deal with the art of managing the inside of us. And this is why Jesus talked about so important to us is actually the battle of life. When John talks about this, this rivers of living water will come from within you. He's likely referencing this idea of Exodus 17. This is when the Israelites and the old Testament, Moses had taken them out of Egypt and they're going through the desert. And they find themselves beginning to like die a first or feel like they're their , their children and their cattle. Everything is dying because they're so thirsty. They're traveling through the desert and they get near Mount Sinai, or Horeb in the Lords in suddenly miraculously provides water for everyone. It happens through the Lord telling Moses to strike a rock. And from that rock came water, water that both quenched their thirst, their physical thirst, but reminded the people of God that God is with them in their difficulty, that he is trustworthy and he's going to provide for their needs, any of their needs, either in the midst of a desert, even the midst of a difficult situation. When they're unable to see a way to actually provide for themselves or comfort for themselves, you see friends, it's the very deepest place of our being that Jesus says that he will produce life and flourishing this living water, and that he can be trusted, that he can be trusted to do so, and that he will do so, even in times in ways where we don't see how it's even possible. I love the way author and pastor John. Ortberg put this in a book called the me. I want to be, he said, the only way to become the person God made you to be is to live with the spirit of God, flowing through you like a river of living water. So when , uh , when a river flows life flourishes, right? And when a river dries up, you see that life ceases. Psalm one, if you go back into the old Testament, someone describes the person who's connected with a river, get connected with the way of God, in a way that becomes like a tree that is planted by streams of water, a tree that yields its fruit. It produces what it's supposed to. It's living in harmony. It's flowing next to it has this living water. And so it's able to do what it was created to do what it was created for, but without a connection, it shows that the , the flowing water that it misses it, it misses what it was created for and the way it was best supposed to live. The water produces this flourishing, which is something that is functioning in the way that it was meant to be. It's like being in the flow. Those of you are familiar with psychology. There's this thing called the flow state, right? So there's this big study that's done of like, Hey, when are we at our best, right? When do we feel like we're producing the most, or we're feeling the most healthy we're like in the zone, right? You've heard that maybe like from you've worked and you're like working on a project and you're getting 10 hours of stuff done in like an hour, right. You're just knocking it out. Or you see this from an athlete and they're just in the zone. They don't even, they're not even having to try there to, so in that spot, right, this is the flow state what's called the flow state. And in a flow state, this is where you're working on something that you are over, or that you've a task that you've been given or you're trying to accomplish. And it's matched up with what particular skill you have, right? Or the way that you were created, your unique individual gifting, the image of day , the image of God has an image bearer you're created in which to be able to accomplish such task. And when those things match up where you're being pushed, right? And the task is a little bit difficult and it's challenging your skill, you are in, what's called a flow state, but when the things that you're trying to manage or accomplish, or where you're trying to see transformation happen, and it doesn't take much effort to do, then it's , it gets to where it's not very fun, right? It's like bored when the task is easy. And you've a way more skill for this leads to boredom and vice versa. On the other side, it leads to frustration and confusion and irritation because the task is too much. You don't have the skill in which to accomplish it. Kind of like the spelling bee. That was a part that was, I gave you more time to laugh at that one. That's good . Yeah . Thank you. I appreciate it. That's good. Just hold on. Waiting for the people on line. You're good. I got you. So you're in the flow state. This is like where we're all like the best. And I really believe that this relates to this idea of living in the flow, the flow of living water, the way that God created us from the inside to be in a groove. And here's the deal friends is that flow either leads towards God or away from God, the way that we're embracing new things and challenging ourselves to grow, right. Either flows towards God or away from God towards being a more generous person, or it's more self-service or greed towards compassion towards or towards vengeance and apathy, right? Or towards grace or towards judgment or towards reconciliation and righteousness or towards brokenness. And so my question for you is where is there a gap in your life between who you are and the life that flourishes, where is there a gap right now? Where is there a gap in your life between who you are and a life that flourishes in, in what areas of your life in your, in your, in your gut or in your belly or in your heart, within you, you feel like something is off where you might not have words for it, but you feel it, you sense it. And what if, what if you surrendered that place to Jesus and his spirit, that, that, that part that feels more stagnant and stale, that doesn't feel like you're in the flow of this living water, the life that you were created for. What if you surrendered that right now, here today to Jesus in his spirit, believing that he's with you and your difficulty, that he's trustworthy, that he can provide for you, even when you can't see a way to provide for yourself. Is it possible that even in that place where you find yourself, streams of living water could flow within you, it's the abiding in Jesus that we begin to move towards this and actually experience this a tree doesn't have to work hard to begin to move towards this . It doesn't have to work hard to it's fruit. Rather. It just abides in the streams in this living water, in this flow, it happens. It's this natural thing that takes place streams of living water flowing in those places looks a bit like surrender. It looks a bit like trust. It looks a bit like a biting, the phrase, water of life or living water refers specifically to running water. That's contrasted with stagnant Stillwater. This is how we embrace the new. We don't keep coming back to this stagnant place. Or we start to address the place where it just looks like there's this stagnant, still water in us, deep within us. And we embrace the new and go after that. And the reason this is another thing that Jesus wants for you and from you, Jesus , Jesus, his life. Then we'll flow through you to bring the life to others. Jesus is life will flow through you to bring life to others. Now because of the way that John seven 38, that we registered a couple of minutes ago, his phrase , there's two primary interpretations that have been debated. And these interpretations, hang on this word out too . This is the Greek word out too , which is like, he, she him, it, they same and this word. And when it's translated, really can tell us who it's prescribed to. So this first version that you could read has given us the one who believes in me is like the scriptures have said a river of living water that will flow through me. Right? Let's see if I can get this right here. Throw me, Oh, it did it sweet. So this is , this is , this would be who it would be prescribed to in this, in this part, as you would read out to right here where this next version, when you go to it , it is through them, right? So it's focusing on them, Hey, right? So you have me or you have them. So either it's given to Jesus as me, it's flowing, as Jesus saying, it's prescribed to Jesus. This is what's going to flow through me. Or it's given to the believer, you and I, where it's going to flow through them. And we're the them, right? So Jesus is both the rock that provides water in nourishment. But he's also the one who creates the same thing within us as the believer that you become, then the rock for others because of the work that Jesus has done inside of you, because of him and his spirit that gets to flow in you. And then through you, that life that flows on to other people's this verse can really be read either from this deep within Jesus is life that is provided or as Jesus providing life that flows deep within you. I think perhaps both are what's happening here in this phrase that the spirit flows into us nourishing us, comforting us, providing this deep well of life. That only comes from Jesus. That brings about this flourishing. Well also the spirit throws through us to others so they can flourish as well. We see throughout scripture that God uses his people who are being renewed in order to be agents of renewal. That that's actually a calling that we have is to be agents of renewal for others and creation. Paul writes this and second Corinthians. He says that thing , custodians one four says that the God that comforts us and our trouble so that we can then comfort others with what we have received that comfort us. So then later on, it can be used to comfort others that are going through something difficult, a part of the way that we discover the unique ways that God is calling us to be a part of renewal of others is based on the way that God has actually renewed us. It's that line that we can use here. That's me too. Right? I've I've experienced that too. I've been hurt like that too. I've been broken like that too. I have lost like that to this stagnant part of our life. That just feels desolate, instill and broken. They've been renewed. And now there's a new life. It's the places where our own aches have been met with the nourishment of living water. That we're so often to be a call , to be in a part of, to bring in that place to others. So we would ask, how do we tap into the flow of living water? I know the whole time I've just been like, Larry , just telling me , how do I get this living water? Right. Well, one the really easy answer is Jesus too . It's this? We need to practice spiritual disciplines. We need to become a disciple, not just talk about being a disciple, becoming a disciple. It's a constant thing that never really ceases. It's an investment that it's a journey that you continually take a walk towards to be a disciple, is to be in training to be like, Jesus, not trying to be like, Jesus, let me tease this out a little bit more to be a disciple is to be in training to be like, Jesus, not trying to be like, Jesus, how many of us haven't seen no results because we're just trying on the outside to be like, Jesus, but we're not training for anything. I'm going to tell you right now. If I tried to go run a marathon, next weekend, I'm going to fail.

Speaker 4 29:21

But

Speaker 2 29:21

Then you can give me a trophy because at least I tried, right. But what do I have to do if I actually want to see fruit? If I actually want to see change happen, if I want to actually be able to accomplish the task and then improve on that, what would , what do I need ,

Speaker 4 29:36

Do I need to train? Right?

Speaker 2 29:39

You got to train. This is a constant thing. If you want to see transformation

Speaker 5 29:42

Take place in your life . Discipleship is about training. It's about doing the things that it's about getting up and experiencing, practicing spiritual disciplines. Not just trying like, well , I tried a little bit to read something. Oh , I tried to listen to, I don't know Kayla for a little bit. I tried to , I tried to do this. This trying versus training is a game changer for a lot of us. This is where we actually see water, do its job to clean out the inside of us, right? This, this training expert. And this is where we experience the, the growth, the newness. I know for me personally, as a, as a father, as I continue to learn how to be a dad from a almost 14 year old to and on a six year old, this span right here, you know what, like the thing that I've learned is become the most frustrating phrase in my house is I tried. Right. And what do you do? You look at him and you're like, no, you didn't try. You know, I couldn't, I couldn't get the door open while you didn't problem solve. You didn't learn how to , you didn't take the next step. Right? Go out there , learn how to accomplish some tasks, whether it would be. And it's so easier as fresh just to be like I tried, I tried to be a disciple. I tried to pray to God just didn't work. Like I wanted it to , this is the process friends of training in this is when you find the flow. This is when you get into the flow state. This is where Jesus promises, Hey, I will do something on the inside of you when you are constantly working at. And you're trying to not trying to be like Jesus, but you're training to be Jesus for others. And in and through that cleansing takes place. One of the spiritual practices that I think has been so powerful for me has been a couple of one has been learning to meditate on his word when I needed to clean something out, some thoughts or some hurt, or just some struggles in my life. It's been finding a place where I can meditate on his word where I can sit there and I can picture and say like, Hey, you have said, you're making new things and I have to actually write out, okay. So what are some new things that you've done? What are some things that I would like to see new things happen, some transformation to change, God. Okay. Then can you show me what training I needed to do to actually see those new things accomplished ? So meditating on God's word, looking at that and saying, where do I fit into this? But the other one is solitude. I have not ever typically been a solitude person because I felt like I was always just distracted. And I've always felt like I got to accomplish something and he'd come up with a solution and it'd be like doing something right. And so this idea of like taking a walk in nature and just in solitude and quiet sounded like miserable. Cause that'd be like, you know, like bird, right? And they're like, Oh, there's a bug crawling around. And it's like, what am I even doing? Like God. And you're supposed to be closer to me right now. But this solid tune leads to this idea that an unaided mind tends to chaos. Let me explain with this meaning unaided, mine tends to chaos, which is why solitude can be difficult for us. It's it's easy to outsource the managing of our consciousness. Let me explain this. What happens when you to the airport? And you're waiting in line at the TSA line to go through security. What's everybody doing? They're all looking at their phones, right? No. One's standing around taking in . What's going on. That may feel we're having a conversation. They're looking down at their phones. This is the outsourcing, the managing of our conscious it's aiding our minds. It's giving our minds something to do because in unaided mind, hence the chaos. And what is it ? Chaos to our mind naturally goes towards fear and anxiety and the what ifs and boredom or just the stagnant state in what unfortunately has happened to us is we haven't trained ourself to aid our minds or to live in that in some sort of tension in the comfort way to see a cleaning, a cleansing of the inside of us, the inside of our consciousness, what we're feeling, what we're thinking, what our intentions are, our emotions and the beauty of solids is that you're left with an unaided mind and you learn what's there. You learn. What's there. And then you can get to the bottom of that. And you can talk to God about that stuff. You can say, Hey, here's the stagnant stuff. That's in me. Here's this fear. That's in me. Here's this brokenness. That's in me. Here's this confusion. That's in me. Here's where I'm feeling bored. That's in me. And then he let him clean it out. You get to talk to him about that and let him do the cleansing. Let the waters flow from deep, within you living water to Kenya . This conversation. I have some questions you can take out your phone and take a picture of this on the screen or something for you guys to continue the conversation today or over this next week, which is thinking about your own life. What needs to be renewed? What stagnant isn't flowing, what is it about your life right now that needs to be renewed. That's staggered that isn't flowing and where is an opportunity to be in community with someone and allow them to experience the living water flowing through you. Whereas somebody that's outside of this community or in your community that you can come alongside of them. And you can say, me too, this is how God refreshed me and how he nourished me and provided a quenching thing for me. And lastly, how are you training? And not just trying that one's at the end, cause that's, that's a deeper question right now. How are you training to be a disciple to actually walking through the process to be like Jesus training, to be like Jesus and not just trying, not just like checking a box and saying, Hey, the outside looks good. Look at what I did or that made me feel good. Or actually that didn't work because you tried and it didn't feel like it accomplished the results, but how are you training? And then how can you be training? Where do you need to come alongside of and plant yourself alongside of a stream? So you can bear the fruit meant to bear where with a life with God will produce the living water that flows through you. I think right now, as we, as we kind of just mull this over and allow space for the spirit to do what he wants to do and you, and those of you need courage and comfort or healing or challenge that that can be done in just a space of worship. And so I'm going to ask that you would stand or wherever you're at, just to find yourself, quiet your heart , still in focus on who God is and allow the spirit to do what he needs to do in this place.