Well, some of you've heard this story many times about the woman who bangs on the bedroom door and yells, it's time to go to church. And inside she hears the voice saying, I ain't going to church today. And she yells back, why not? And he says, the people aren't friendly. The songs are boring. The music's out of key and the sermons are too long and they're just ununderstandable. I'm not going. And she says, well, I'm going to give you three reasons you have to go. It's Sunday, the Lord's Day. It's the day for worship. God commands us not to forsake assembling ourselves together, and you're the pastor. Thank you for laughing. It's an old joke. You're always a little bit worried about old jokes, but I guess there's some young people in here. It's been a strange year for pastors. The last three years have been tough. I don't know if you saw the cover of Christianity Today last month, but it was talked about tens of thousands of pastors in our country who want to resign. who are looking for new jobs, and the problem is they don't have enough skills to get one. And they said the overwhelming problem is discouragement. The ministry is a discouraging job. It tends to be a discouraging job on the best of days, and the combination of the election and COVID just really just sapped everybody's energy for this job. And maybe you can relate. Maybe the spirit of your, the tenor of your spiritual life, maybe it's been more one of discouragement, of exhaustion, of almost robotic obedience than one of joy and fulfillment. If so, I've got good news for you. That is the very reason why we planted this church. If you feel like you have been burned out by Christianity and by the church, you are the reason why we're here. You really are. We planted this church for ex-Christians or for people who are on the edge of becoming ex-Christians. For people who are worn out and exhausted even though Jesus promised to give us rest. For people who've been compelled by guilt and shame even though Jesus came to take those things away from us for once and forever. And we based our entire church on this idea of being living water that brings life. that brings restoration, that turns brown leaves green, that brings healing, that brings grass and animals and fruit to the trees. Living water that refreshes. That's why this is our original... Here's something funny. When we first started this church, this is our entire marketing budget. I bought this, and I was a little embarrassed in the store. I thought it was too big. And I set this on the side of Mingo Road. You couldn't even see it. You couldn't see it if you were driving 10 miles an hour. I mean, it's the biggest waste of money. But we put it on the door at Cedar Ridge, and it was fine. But that's why we have this as our motto, as our logo, our original logo. We have the river, and bringing grass and fruit on the trees, and it's actually from the text we're about to read. Our original kind of pamphlet that I wrote up to explain who we're going to be. I've got two left. They're out there on the front table along with the original charter of the church, and I encourage you to look through those. But it's about being this river of life, being a place of restoration. being a place that replaces frustration and sadness with joy. And the thing I want you to understand is that the Holy Spirit brings light and life and healing and health to everyone that he flows through. The living water is still here. The pastors in Christianity today and the Christians who are leaving the church have just forgotten to drink. You can get so busy passing out the water that you forget to drink. But that river still brings all the promise it ever had. Please stand as we read from Ezekiel chapter 47. Now Ezekiel had an interesting ministry, I want to remind you of it. There are three contemporaries in the Bible. Jeremiah, who was the prophet to Israel, who was in the midst of Israel during all the captivity. There was Daniel, who was in Babylon during the captivity. And Ezekiel, who preached to the people who were taken to Babylon but refused to go into the city. And God told them when he went, they're stubborn, they're not going to listen to you. That's a discouraging call. Nobody there is gonna listen to you, but I'm gonna send them there and you're gonna kind of preach words of judgment, basically. And so to encourage Ezekiel, he gives them this vision. He brought me back to the door of the temple and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the temple faced east. The water was flowing down from below the south and the end of the threshold of the temple south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around the outside of the outer gate that faces toward the east. And behold, the water was trickling out of the south side. Going on eastward with the measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, and it was ankle deep. Again he measured a thousand, and he led me through the water, and it was knee deep. again, he measured a thousand and he led me through the water and it was waist deep and Again, he measured a thousand and it was a river that I could not pass through for the water had risen It was deep enough to swim in and he said to me son of man. Have you seen this? Then he led me back to the bank of the river. And as I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, this water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Araba and enters the sea. When the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And he said to me, this water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Araba and enters the sea. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live. and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, the waters of the sea, that they may become fresh, so everything will live where the river goes. And fishermen will stand beside the sea from Enigeti to Eniglium. It will be a place of the spreading of nets. Its fish will be very much of many kinds, like the fish of the great sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh. They are to be left for salt. And on the banks on both sides of the river there will grow all kinds of trees for food. The leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing. Thus far the reading of God's Word. All men are like grass and all of our glories like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but not God's Word. God's Word stands forever. You may be seated. The Holy Spirit takes the gospel and he makes it into a living water, makes it into a living river that brings life and healing and hope wherever it goes. And the first thing I want you to see is the source of the sea. Where does the river come from? The source of the river, where does it come from? It's coming out underneath the door of the temple. He says it's coming out from the south side around to the east, because that's where the altar is. Well, think about it, it's the Old Testament. The temple probably hasn't been destroyed yet, though it's about to be. And it makes sense. That's where the river would come from, right? The temple in that time was the place where people thought, it was kind of like an antenna. It's where you went to get a signal from God. This is where God was. And so you would go and you would meet God there and people would bring their sacrifices there and and the the priests would have them put their hands on the the gift whether it be a dove or a lamb or an ox if you're really bad you brought an ox everybody knew how bad you've been that week Oh no, Ricky's bringing in three oxes again. And he's about to run out. And you put your hand on it and your sins are transferred to that animal and this priest would slash its throats and burn its guts and sacrifice its blood and you'd be purified. So it makes sense that that place of purification, that's the place that the river was trickling from. But we're not in the Old Testament, in case you haven't noticed. There's no oxen out front. There's balloons, but no oxen. So how does that apply to us? Well, Jesus changes at first in this passage that we don't pay near enough attention to. In John chapter two, the Pharisees are accusing Jesus and asking him how he's able to do these things. What authority does he disrupt their worship with when he turns over the money changers tables? And he says, this is a sign I'll give you. Destroy this temple and I will raise it back again in three days. And John says the temple he talked about was his own body. We don't talk about that very much, do we? That's an important little verse. That's an important little throwaway. What's he saying? He's saying, my body. The body that we distribute every Sunday, my body. My body is where the final sacrifice will get made. My body is the place where your sins will be transferred. My body is a place where your sins will be punished. My body is the place where water and blood will flow from to cleanse you once and for all from your sin. I'm the temple. And if you want to meet God, don't go looking for a building, come to me. I am the one who is filled with the Holy Spirit. My body is the temple. Well, that makes sense to us. That's awesome. But that's not where the New Testament stops. See, in John chapter 7, Jesus gives us this strange promise, right? Josh read it for the call to worship. If you don't remember, he says, Jesus stood up on the last day of the feast, and it was the feast where they celebrate God providing water, bringing water out of the rock to Satisfy the thirst of all of Israel and and Jesus stands up on that great day. He's he's near the altar He's in the temple and he says if anyone thirst let him come to me And then he says this odd thing he says and out of his belly will flow rivers of living water It's gonna flow out of you you are thirsty, if you have needs that haven't been met, if you are if you're one of the millions who found yourselves to be restless and exhausted at the same time and unable to find rest until you rest in Jesus, if you will come to him then out of you will flow rivers of living water. You are the temple. Paul says that, right? He says that in Corinthians as one reason why we should not join our bodies to harlots because we are the temple of God. The only time I ever heard that verse used when I was a kid was like, why I shouldn't eat more than five Twinkies. Your body's a temple. You shouldn't treat a temple that way. Don't smoke. Your body's a temple. Guess that's a fair Whatever, maybe probably not but maybe I'll give you a benefit of the doubt. That's probably a fair Application that's about like using an atomic bomb to kill ants. No, you're taking this incredible Unbelievable promise and you're using it to say don't eat Twinkies Just kidding nobody ever said that to me But when Paul says you're the temple, what does that mean? That people come to you to meet God. People come to you for that drink of living water. That is why we establish community, friendship, as a central part of this church. And the lie, lie is a strong word, radical misconception I hear the most is, well, I can't do ministry. I haven't been trained to do ministry. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. It's not magic. You just love the people around you. And the blessing that this church has been to me over the last 16 years is that it works. It's happening all the time. You're really, really good at it. When a visitor walks in the door and stands around and Lisa Boyd runs up to him and introduces herself, what's she doing? She's inviting this guy to take a bath in the living water. When a single gal who hadn't been in the church very long at all shows up at Adrian and Yvonne's house and she's the only one there and Adrian answers the door and she looks at him befuddled and says, I guess we're not having community group tonight? And Adrian opens the door wide and says, but we sure are delighted to see you. Why don't you come on in? And Yvonne makes her a cup of tea, of course, and Adrian has her sit down and with that broad smile of his says, well, tell me how your transition to Tulsa is going. What's happening? The Holy Spirit is coming out. The river of living water is coming out. And she's being transformed and she's going from being lonely to being in the family. The river of life, it flows out of us. It flows out of us with every hug, with every smile. And that's why we wanna give you spots to develop intimacy. I can't give you intimacy, that's not a gift I can give you. I can give you spots to develop it, that's all we can do. We call those community groups, they're small groups, they're Bible studies, but I beg you, get in them. And experience that river of living water that's flowing. That's the source of the river, it's important. And then we have the success of the river. We see two huge things there, right? First, we see that it just keeps going, keeps getting bigger and bigger. It goes from being a trickle, it's a little bit, Ezekiel uses a lot of repetition, and it gets a little annoying for people like me. I'm a get-to-the-point kind of guy. But he says, you know, it starts out a little trickle, it's an inch deep, you can play in it, and then it's knee deep, and then it's waist deep, and we're like, we get it, Ezekiel. And then it becomes a river that no one can pass, and you can swim in it. Evidently, he was swimming with it because he says it gets brought back to the bank. That's just beautiful. It's beautiful for so many reasons. It's beautiful for you personally. Some of you were converted when you were very young. That's beautiful. That's great. We're thankful for that because the river starts out an ankle deep. You can play in it. Babies aren't going to drown in that river. They're going to splash around in that river. And then when you were a teenager, you started finding that you didn't always do the things you thought you ought to do, and so it was knee-deep. It was big enough for you. And as you became an adult, you started really doing adult sins, and you began to experience your heart and see your heart's not what it ought to be, and you don't even want to do what you ought to do, much less are you who you ought to be. And the good news is the river's deep enough for you too. It is deep enough for you too. I preached this sermon one time in my home church in Mississippi and a sweet lady named Ann Elizabeth A. Rant came to me. She goes, that sermon was so convicting. And I said, well, I hoped it was encouraging. That wasn't the point. And she said, oh, it was. Because every time I see a new sin, I know the gospel is deep enough. Every time I get convicted, I'm encouraged. Do you feel that way? That's an important question. When you get convicted of a sin, do you want to go run away from God or do you want to jump in that river? Do you rejoice that it's deep enough for you? That God's grace is enough for you? It is. It never runs out. It's big enough for the entire world. What a beautiful image for the growth of the church throughout history, right? It starts out with 12 somewhat bumbling men. That's it. And they're sitting around throwing dice to see who they're going to add to the group. And they don't know what to do. And the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they start preaching the gospel. And the church goes and it grows and it goes and it grows until it becomes a river that no one can pass. And it's still here 2,000 years later and it's still going and it's still growing. And it will continue to. That's the success of the river. That's not all the success of the river. Look at what it does. Oh, this is so beautiful. It goes down into the Araba. or actually I guess the Hebrew pronunciation would be the Arabah. Does that make me sound smart? Anybody bother to read their footnotes when you read that? Probably not because you're reading up on the screen, it doesn't have footnotes. But it tells you where the Arabah is. It's the Dead Sea. It's flowing into the Dead Sea, the lowest point on planet Earth. It is flowing into this place. Well, I've never been there, not gonna lie. I haven't been to Israel. But what I can exegete from the title, the Dead Sea is Dead. I don't know, I may be reaching. Is it dead? It's dead. All right, we got confirmation. I have a friend who went there and there were these signs everywhere. Caution, do not dive. Water may be corrosive. And he asked the Hebrew professor, the archaeologist he was with, is that true? And the professor, who was a very sarcastic man, said, I probably wouldn't be true for you. And so he just dove headfirst in. He saw his skin was eaten away around his eyes. It was awful. It's true for you. Don't go underwater there. But you can float. It's so salty you can float. All that to say, it's dead. But not forever. So what does the sea, what does that river of life do? It makes it alive. It makes it a place of fish, and all the world can come and fish on its banks. It makes it a place of fruit, and every kind of tree is gonna be planted there, and they're gonna grow and bear fruit. They're gonna bear more fruit every month. It's never gonna run out, and it's gonna be a place of healing. It's gonna be a place of healing. What a beautiful picture of the church in the world, the world, a place that bruises. the world a place that rejects, the world a place that leaves people feeling lonely, the world a place that leaves people exhausted and beaten up and not good enough. And this river of grace flows into it and changes it from the inside out. It makes this entire world eventually a place of love and life, of rest and restoration, of grace and of healing. The entire world. There's no place that it won't go. And there's no place that's too dead, too broken. It brings life to everyone it flows through. It brings life to everyone it flows through. No matter how sinful, it never runs. It's never too dark. It comes into those who are depressed and brings them joy. It comes into those who are broken and makes them healed. comes into those who are discouraged. It makes them hopeful again, and delighted again, and joyful again. Because that's the gospel, the message that your Lord is delighted in you. He's delighted in you. The source of the river is us. The success of the river is that it's unstoppable and quenching every thirst and bringing life and healing to everyone it touches. But what's the smell of the swamps? That's a stupid thing to have in there. Who put that there? Just kidding, I did. Verse 11, to the swamps and marshes it will not be fresh, but they will be left for salt. I grew up in West Tennessee and we had swamps there. Out in the country, there's not a single, just to tell you the kind of place I lived, there's not a single city you've heard of that's close. And across the street, I used to have to, you know, Jump in my truck and drive a long way to go deer hunting, I went across the street. Across the street from my house, big woods, walked back in there. Bianca says that's the home of all my insecurities and doubts and fascinations. I dream about that wood all the time. But anyway, if you went far enough back there, not very far off, you went far enough back there, it started stinking. The smell. And all the grass was gone and there were a few little roots that grow up in swamps, but no real pretty trees. And it was just nasty. And I always had to make sure my boots were tied high enough, and they never were, and I'd always get water down in them and come home stinking. Boys do that. And you know what makes a swamp? Stagnant water. Water that comes in and doesn't leave. Water that comes in but doesn't go out. It just stays there. What a fascinating picture of much of our country today. Swamp, this water that's supposed to bring life and make everything verdant and beautiful has just killed everything. because it just sat there. It just sat there. This gospel that's supposed to make us attractive and gracious and compassionate and kind, that's supposed to bring joy and healing to us, instead has made so many of us sour and bitter because we're self-righteous. And so we're mad at people all the time for not being as good as we are, not seeing things the way that we do. And we're frustrated that life hasn't gone the way we wanted it to go. And though we would never, ever say it out loud, everybody else knows we're mad at God because we have obeyed the rules of God and man all of our lives. And he's never given us anything for it. That water that was supposed to bring us life brought us spiritual death. Why? Because it never went out. It's not supposed to stop with us. We're not the dam. It's supposed to flow out of us. And if it's not flowing out of you, If you're not looking upon the world as people that you want to reach with compassionate, merciful grace, if you're looking upon them as people not worthy of this river of life, or just not looking at them at all, it'll choke you out too, and leave you self-righteous, and bitter, and angry, and frustrated. And that's a good question for us to ask. Are we a swamp? Is the river of life choking us out instead of bringing us life? It's a fair question. Well, what do we do if it is? If anyone's thirsty, let him come to me and drink. And out of his stomach will flow rivers of living water. I mean, the discouraged pastors need to drink. They need to stop seeing their congregations as obstacles and see them compassionately. The discouraged church members need to drink. And they need to remember that when they were dead in their trespasses and sins, God made them alive together in Christ. He loved them then and there when they had nothing going for them. If you're tired, come to me and drink. If you're thirsty, come to me and drink. Come to Jesus. Now, I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't necessarily know what that means. Sometimes I wish he would just stand in front of me so I could walk to him and go, I did it. But you know what I do all the time? When I'm alone, I'll pray, Lord, I don't know what it means to come to you, but whatever it means, I'm doing it now. I know that we're gonna have a table open for you in just a few minutes. And when you come to that table where Jesus says, this is my body, in some ways you are coming to him. You'll physically be coming to him. Come to him spiritually as well. Make it a real moment of refreshment, of renewal. Make it that moment when you look into the eyes of someone that you've loved for a long time, you've loved them so long that you're tired of them. Make it that moment when you look in their eyes and you remember why you loved them in the first place. Make it that moment when you get rest and you find light and you find hope and your thirst is quenched. Please pray with me. Jesus, sometimes the most clear and obvious things you said become the most difficult. What does it mean to come to you and drink? What does it mean that out of our bellies will flow rivers of living water? We hope it means that you would turn this church into a place that is pouring out grace and love. And the message of Jesus Christ is pouring out the Holy Spirit upon all who would come around. upon all who are within earshot, and they would come here and find rest, and they would be restored, and be revitalized. Would you give us that drink, and would you make us that fountain of life, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.