WEBVTT 00:00:01.100 --> 00:00:01.600 Thank you. 00:00:02.300 --> 00:00:03.260 Morning, everyone. 00:00:03.400 --> 00:00:05.720 For those of you who don't know me, my name is Micah. 00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:09.400 It's my privilege to work with the youth here at MCF. 00:00:10.060 --> 00:00:13.620 Me and my family have been coming for about five years 00:00:13.620 --> 00:00:16.240 and have lived here in Jordenthorpe. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:19.080 And today we're going to carry on chatting about John. 00:00:19.220 --> 00:00:20.780 So we've been, I don't know how long we've been in John. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:21.900 We've been in John for quite a while. 00:00:21.900 --> 00:00:24.160 So we're going to refresh your memories. 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:28.200 I would like you to come back to the beginning of John with me 00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:32.620 as we set where we have been so we can see where we're going, essentially. 00:00:32.860 --> 00:00:37.180 So in the introduction, it's quite a famous audience participation, I'm afraid. 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:41.520 So in the introduction, we start off with some very famous words. 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:42.420 Who can remember them? 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:48.320 Nice. 00:00:48.800 --> 00:00:49.980 In the beginning was the word. 00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:51.420 I was going to ask for a scribe, Andy. 00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:56.800 Thank you. 00:00:57.460 --> 00:01:01.200 In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:02.240 and the word was with God. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:08.540 he was there in the beginning. So here in the introduction. And so we have this beautiful 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:14.100 poem that introduces us to the majesty of who Christ is, but you don't have him named yet 00:01:14.100 --> 00:01:22.420 in the beginning. And then in chapters two to four, we look at various aspects of key Jewish 00:01:22.420 --> 00:01:27.900 institutions. Okay, so there are four between chapters two and four that highlight different 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:35.300 Jewish institutions. Who can remember them? Points if you get them in order. 00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:40.440 There's a wedding. I don't know who said that. It came from over here. Oh, well done, Catherine. 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:45.200 So the first one, you have a wedding, and there's this big miracle. It's the first time that Jesus 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:50.920 does a miracle, and he turns water into wine, which some people get very excited about. He then 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:58.050 goes to somewhere, which is really important to Pharisees. Temple, I think I heard. Yeah, he goes 00:01:58.050 --> 00:02:06.590 to the temple and you've got this big scene where he flips tables and casts out all of the money 00:02:06.590 --> 00:02:15.900 lenders. From there, he has a late night chinwag with Nicodemus. Yeah, late night chinwag with 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:23.660 Nicodemus. And we talk about the new birth, the spiritual new birth with Nicodemus. And the last 00:02:23.660 --> 00:02:32.400 meeting is with a Samaritan woman at the well and it's a sacred well within Jewish 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:42.320 culture and history is where they meet the Samaritan woman at the well and then so those 00:02:42.320 --> 00:02:48.540 are chapters two to four and then in chapters five we start talking about key festival dates 00:02:48.540 --> 00:02:57.720 within Jewish culture, and Jesus starts interacting with these Jewish feasts, and there's dates in the 00:02:57.720 --> 00:03:04.620 calendar that Jews will remember, and they will talk about, and they will tell stories, and they're 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:13.680 very, very well-known times, so we have two on chapter five, he talks about, he insults quite a 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:25.140 lot of people by doing something on a rest day. The Sabbath healing. I heard a voice. Yeah, in 00:03:25.140 --> 00:03:33.400 chapter five, there's a Sabbath healing, and the Pharisees get very angry. And then in chapter six, 00:03:34.420 --> 00:03:40.300 we look at a very key date that marks the beginning of our Easter period, 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:48.440 the Passover. So in chapter six, there's a story at the Passover. Someone over here is on it, 00:03:48.920 --> 00:03:56.260 Passover. So my little pictures were of a bouquet, of a temple, of a moon, of a well, 00:03:56.260 --> 00:04:03.300 of a person going, yay, and of blood on the door. Just for you to remember, this is where we've been 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:09.320 coming from. Thank you very much. Now in chapter seven, the beginning of chapter seven, and for 00:04:09.320 --> 00:04:15.520 the next couple of chapters, we're in a collection of feasts for the tabernacle. This is what this 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:20.720 next section is. Jesus has gone to these feasts and at the beginning of seven, his brothers come 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:24.460 up to him and say, you need to come with me. I believe this is what you talked about last week. 00:04:24.740 --> 00:04:29.560 You need to come with us. And he goes, no, it's not my time yet. I'm not coming. I know that when 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:35.140 I go, they are going to try and kill me. But what he does instead is he goes in secret a little bit 00:04:35.140 --> 00:04:41.420 later on, and he waits before he comes out, and he does his first bit of talking. Last week, you heard 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:53.020 about it, and throughout John, we see that Jesus is performing signs and miracles, and we also see 00:04:53.020 --> 00:04:58.700 people's reactions to him, and he's often not very good. It's a bit of a spoiler. It doesn't end well 00:04:58.700 --> 00:05:06.820 for Jesus, not in our traditional sense anyway. He rubs a lot of people up the wrong way. And 00:05:06.820 --> 00:05:15.220 throughout John, we're looking at this balance between Jesus speaking and people getting quite 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:22.970 angry with him. So that is where we have been. And we're going to read today from chapter 7. We're 00:05:22.970 --> 00:05:27.930 about halfway through chapter 7. We're starting at 37. If you have a Bible, if you have a phone 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:31.950 with the bible on it if you have any kind of device for reading the bible we're going to read 00:05:31.950 --> 00:05:42.400 that now okay so it says on the last and greatest day of the festival jesus stood and said in a loud 00:05:42.400 --> 00:05:52.090 voice anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink whoever believes in me as scripture has said 00:05:52.090 --> 00:06:00.850 rivers of living water will flow from within them and by this he meant that the spirit whom though 00:06:00.850 --> 00:06:07.130 whom those who believed in him were to later receive up to that time the spirit had not been 00:06:07.130 --> 00:06:14.110 given since jesus had not yet been glorified on hearing these words some of the people said 00:06:14.950 --> 00:06:18.350 Surely this man is the prophet. 00:06:19.030 --> 00:06:20.150 And others said, 00:06:20.310 --> 00:06:22.010 He is the Messiah. 00:06:22.530 --> 00:06:24.050 Still others asked, 00:06:24.450 --> 00:06:26.650 How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 00:06:27.290 --> 00:06:31.210 Does not the scripture say that the Messiah will come from David's descendants 00:06:31.210 --> 00:06:35.410 and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived? 00:06:35.890 --> 00:06:40.530 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 00:06:41.010 --> 00:06:45.030 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. 00:06:45.550 --> 00:06:50.570 Finally, the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, 00:06:51.430 --> 00:06:54.030 Why didn't you bring him in? 00:06:55.030 --> 00:06:57.130 No one ever spoke the way this man does. 00:06:59.110 --> 00:07:00.150 The guards replied, 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:05.170 You mean he has deceived you also? 00:07:05.670 --> 00:07:06.990 The Pharisees retorted, 00:07:07.670 --> 00:07:12.150 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? 00:07:12.150 --> 00:07:18.710 No, but this mob that knows nothing of the law, there is a curse on them. 00:07:20.250 --> 00:07:24.690 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 00:07:25.490 --> 00:07:36.100 Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he's been doing? 00:07:36.580 --> 00:07:37.420 They replied, 00:07:37.420 --> 00:07:46.340 Are you from Galilee too? Look into it and you will find that a prophet does not come out of 00:07:46.340 --> 00:07:55.580 Galilee. Thank you. So that's what we're going to be doing today. And what I want us to do is to 00:07:55.580 --> 00:08:01.840 start with the second half of the passage first, and then we'll go back to the first half. I think 00:08:01.840 --> 00:08:09.560 it's amazing because the book, the Bible is not a book about you and me. It's a book about God and 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:16.040 who he is and who his people are but we can use it as a mirror on our own lives 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:23.420 as a reflection of who we are and where we stand before Christ 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:31.300 after reading the passage my first questions to you will be who do you say that Jesus is 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:41.660 who do you say that Jesus is and who does your life say that Jesus is because they're not 00:08:41.660 --> 00:08:48.310 necessarily always the same thing right you can say with your mouth one thing but if your actions 00:08:48.310 --> 00:08:54.530 say another then it doesn't really mean very much as I tell my children all the time 00:08:54.530 --> 00:09:05.880 who do you say Jesus is and who does your life say Jesus is? Because who you say Jesus is will 00:09:05.880 --> 00:09:11.100 influence every aspect of your life. It will influence how you spend your time. It will 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:21.000 influence how you spend your money. It will influence how you interact with those around 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:27.560 you. Who you Jesus is will change every aspect of your life. So therefore, it is imperative that 00:09:27.560 --> 00:09:33.280 you answer this question. It's such an important question for your life. Who do you say Jesus is? 00:09:35.070 --> 00:09:42.230 In the passage, we read in John's gospel lots of different answers, and he's really good 00:09:42.230 --> 00:09:48.930 at showing us different responses to who Jesus is. What are some of the responses that people 00:09:48.930 --> 00:09:56.800 in the passage give us to the question, who do they say Jesus is? You need your Bibles open again. 00:09:59.750 --> 00:10:06.620 Yeah, one of them says he's the Messiah. So the Messiah, anybody know what Messiah means? 00:10:10.390 --> 00:10:17.320 The anointed one. Thank you, Kath. The anointed one, the chosen one. And John has said at the end 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:24.840 of his gospel, the reason that he has written, the reason that he has written the gospel is because 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:34.170 he wants us to believe in the Messiah. He says, oh let me find my, let me get it right. He says, 00:10:34.230 --> 00:10:40.090 so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that by believing you might have life 00:10:40.090 --> 00:10:44.650 in his name. That is the reason that he's writing the gospel, that we may believe in the Messiah 00:10:44.650 --> 00:10:49.230 and through that have life in his name. But what else does the crowd think about Jesus? 00:10:49.230 --> 00:11:00.260 that he's a prophet so a prophet one sent to share God's words speak God's truth to others 00:11:00.260 --> 00:11:11.080 and how are these counted any ideas these are counted counted these people they speak against 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:15.760 this and say there's no messiah coming out of Nazareth do you not know your Torah there's 00:11:15.760 --> 00:11:18.920 nothing that says that there's going to be a messiah coming out of Nazareth the issue is they 00:11:18.920 --> 00:11:25.060 don't know that Jesus was a refugee and that he was born in Bethlehem but had to flee as a refugee 00:11:25.060 --> 00:11:33.410 before he came back. They accuse the guards of being deceived. They say that the mob is cursed. 00:11:33.570 --> 00:11:40.570 They say that Nicodemus is biased. They counter every single one and say, you are just voices, 00:11:40.570 --> 00:11:45.890 you're being conned, it's no good, it's all a lie. And I wonder how many of you have those voices 00:11:45.890 --> 00:11:52.210 over your lives now, that Jesus is not who he says he is, that you are conned, that people around you 00:11:52.210 --> 00:12:02.800 are biased, that you are not believing the truth. And those voices can seem overwhelming, but we 00:12:02.800 --> 00:12:07.420 don't counter it in our power because we are presented with who Jesus is through the Bible 00:12:07.420 --> 00:12:14.400 story, and he doesn't just leave it as a load of words at the beginning. He, as we carry on reading 00:12:14.400 --> 00:12:21.440 through John, he moves in a way that says that I am irrefutably the son of God. If Jesus hadn't 00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:26.580 died and come back to life again, then the Pharisees would have been correct. 00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:31.880 Maybe you're happy sitting on the fence. Maybe you're like, well, it doesn't really matter what 00:12:31.880 --> 00:12:37.540 I think Jesus said. It doesn't really matter. It's okay for me to just sit here and be around people 00:12:37.540 --> 00:12:43.380 who love Jesus, who love Christ, but I'm quite happy sitting on the fence. And I'm challenging 00:12:43.380 --> 00:12:49.440 you to review your vision of who Christ is because he doesn't give us space to sit on the fence. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:55.260 C.S. Lewis said, I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people 00:12:55.260 --> 00:13:01.120 often say about him. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:07.040 to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would 00:13:07.040 --> 00:13:12.740 not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on level with a man who says he is a 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:19.240 poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and 00:13:19.240 --> 00:13:26.060 is the son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can 00:13:26.060 --> 00:13:33.760 spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God 00:13:33.760 --> 00:13:38.620 but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. 00:13:38.620 --> 00:13:47.840 he has not left that that open to us and he did not intend to who do you say Jesus is 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:54.430 so having started with the end of the passage we're going to come back to the first two verses 00:13:54.430 --> 00:14:00.990 let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said 00:14:00.990 --> 00:14:10.010 living rivers of living water will flow from within them so are you anyone is the person next 00:14:10.010 --> 00:14:25.020 to you anyone? Can you turn to the person next to you and say, you are anyone. Let anyone who is 00:14:25.020 --> 00:14:31.820 thirsty come to me and drink. And this is a beautiful invitation because it's not caveated. 00:14:32.420 --> 00:14:39.360 It's not a statement that says, come all who are wealthy, come all the English speakers, come all 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:47.040 the beautiful or go to Jesus everyone else but me. This is an invitation that is open to everyone 00:14:47.040 --> 00:14:52.420 and no one is discounted or disqualified because when he is issuing the invitation it isn't around 00:14:52.420 --> 00:14:57.120 a dinner table around people that he loves. It's in front of people he knows want to kill him 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:03.680 and he's saying to the people who want to put him to death come anyone who is thirsty 00:15:03.680 --> 00:15:14.160 and come to me and drink. So is anyone thirsty? I have a drink. Is anyone thirsty? You've got a 00:15:14.160 --> 00:15:20.390 drink. Oh, right. Oh, I was going to throw it to Jonathan. He put up his hand first. You ready? 00:15:20.970 --> 00:15:27.750 Right. Jonathan, you are thirsty. Good job. So come to me, all who is thirsty. There is no bar 00:15:27.750 --> 00:15:35.650 that you have to reach to be accepted by the Lord incarnate. Hallelujah. But firstly, 00:15:35.650 --> 00:15:40.490 you must realize that you're thirsty. All of us will recognize what it means to be thirsty, and we 00:15:40.490 --> 00:15:47.850 have this physical thirst, but the text isn't really talking about physical thirst. He isn't 00:15:47.850 --> 00:15:55.550 saying, if you want a drink of water, I am your man. He's saying that if you have a spiritual thirst, 00:15:55.590 --> 00:16:02.300 and how do you recognize that you have spiritual thirst? This is the thirst in your soul, the hole 00:16:02.300 --> 00:16:09.220 in your being that is never satiated, is never satisfied, and you can try to satisfy it with 00:16:09.220 --> 00:16:14.600 lots of things. There are lots of things that we satisfy this thirst with, with relationships, 00:16:14.860 --> 00:16:21.300 career, money, family, fame, scream, drugs, porn, sex. It could be any list of things that you try 00:16:21.300 --> 00:16:31.550 to satiate that hunger, that need with, but they will never fulfill you. The drugs will never be 00:16:31.550 --> 00:16:37.030 enough. He'll just go back for more. The career will never satisfy you properly because they're 00:16:37.030 --> 00:16:41.470 not designed to satisfy you. We are only designed to be satisfied by our creator. And it's only in 00:16:41.470 --> 00:16:49.560 being as created beings and being with our creator that we find satisfaction. And Jesus is inviting 00:16:49.560 --> 00:16:57.120 you to satiate, to satisfy that thirst by coming to him. So how will you respond to that offering? 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:10.230 so person um Jonathan with a drink did that drink help your thirst no why not because he hasn't 00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:16.190 drunk it you can't you can't be satiated from thirst unless you drink you can now drink it 00:17:16.190 --> 00:17:23.130 so you not only do you have to recognize that you're thirsty but you actually have to drink 00:17:23.130 --> 00:17:29.410 you actually have to come so how do you get your soul to drink like you can take a donkey to water 00:17:29.410 --> 00:17:35.510 but you can't make it drink. How do you get your soul to drink? And in this passage, it is talking 00:17:35.510 --> 00:17:41.890 about the Holy Spirit. So later on, it says, by this he meant the spirit whom those had believed 00:17:41.890 --> 00:17:46.110 in him were later to receive. And up to that time, the spirit had not been given since Jesus has not 00:17:46.110 --> 00:17:51.130 yet been glorified. But I can tell you that Jesus has been glorified now. That as he went to the 00:17:51.130 --> 00:17:58.250 cross and he gave his life for us and then rose three days later, that was how Jesus was glorified. 00:17:58.250 --> 00:18:06.030 and he sent the Holy Spirit so that we no longer are with the incarnate God, but we are with the 00:18:06.030 --> 00:18:12.730 Holy Spirit, and we are no longer with God, but the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and there is 00:18:12.730 --> 00:18:17.350 no longer any separation. We don't have to go to Israel to meet the Holy Spirit. We don't have to 00:18:17.350 --> 00:18:29.630 go to a specific place because the Spirit lives inside of us. As created beings, we are created 00:18:29.630 --> 00:18:40.950 to live with the Holy Spirit in us and we we have that now when when we believe when it says 00:18:40.950 --> 00:18:47.710 as it continues as the passage continues it says whoever believes in me and when we believe in 00:18:47.710 --> 00:18:52.370 Christ he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to live in us and that is what satisfies us 00:18:52.370 --> 00:19:01.480 that is what means that we have rivers of living water flowing out of us that's something that 00:19:01.480 --> 00:19:06.040 doesn't stop that's not something that's battery powered and has a lifeline it's not something that 00:19:06.040 --> 00:19:13.140 goes off that is a promise that when we give our lives to Christ and we accept him as God incarnate 00:19:13.140 --> 00:19:19.790 as our savior as the son of God that the Holy Spirit will come and live inside of us 00:19:19.790 --> 00:19:26.630 drinking is a step of obedience and it's a choice to stand with Christ acknowledging him as Messiah 00:19:26.630 --> 00:19:31.230 the chosen one and our Lord and Savior as we have spoken about before God's love language 00:19:31.230 --> 00:19:41.270 is obedience I've said that before the shema the hear and obey so to all those who choose to follow 00:19:41.270 --> 00:19:48.800 him to choose to believe and follow him that is what he is offering so my questions are have you 00:19:48.800 --> 00:19:59.610 shemaad? Have you heard and obeyed? The last sentence, as I said, it says, whoever believes 00:19:59.610 --> 00:20:04.010 in me, as the scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. 00:20:04.870 --> 00:20:10.570 And there's so many things that I could talk about, how the Holy Spirit transforms our lives. 00:20:11.070 --> 00:20:16.650 The living water is in abundance. It's life to the full and a life that never runs dry and never 00:20:16.650 --> 00:20:21.130 runs out. It's relationship with the Father that doesn't require a power bank, as I said. 00:20:21.390 --> 00:20:32.490 And this relationship is fundamental to our identity. Understanding of who Jesus is does 00:20:32.490 --> 00:20:38.490 fundamentally change us. I'm not the same person now as I was when I was 14 and first met the Holy 00:20:38.490 --> 00:20:46.070 Spirit and gave my life to Christ. He is in this work of continual redemption and changing of my 00:20:46.070 --> 00:20:54.400 life. And when you give your life to Christ, that is a continual journey that carries on and on and 00:20:54.400 --> 00:21:01.380 on for your entire life after that. When we understand Jesus as the Messiah, as the chosen 00:21:01.380 --> 00:21:06.760 one, it means that when we read in the Bible who we are, that everything it says is true. 00:21:10.430 --> 00:21:15.070 So here we go. We've got some affirmations. I am conformed to his image. I am free from 00:21:15.070 --> 00:21:24.940 condemnation. I am more than a conqueror through him that has loved me. I can rejoice because he 00:21:24.940 --> 00:21:34.440 makes all things possible. Thank you. I am a truth bearer. I have self-control. I have a new heart. 00:21:34.560 --> 00:21:41.440 I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. There are more. I am a new creation. The old has 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:48.560 gone and the new has come. Hallelujah. I am united with Christ. I no longer a slave to sin but made 00:21:48.560 --> 00:21:54.260 alive in him. I am part of the body of Christ and you here are my brothers and sisters and bear 00:21:54.260 --> 00:22:00.320 witness to that fact. I am united with Christ and no longer a slave to sin, but have been made alive 00:22:00.320 --> 00:22:06.340 in him. And you can carry on. Your image is no longer the same as it was before because Christ 00:22:06.340 --> 00:22:11.640 looks at us and when he looks at, when God looks at us through Christ, this is what he sees. He sees 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:19.360 a new creation, accepted and loved, adopted by him. And the biggest miracle of all is that 00:22:19.360 --> 00:22:25.240 as we abide in him, we are transformed and it's not for our blessing. He doesn't say, I bless you 00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:30.560 because I bless you. He says, I bless you because you will now bless those around you. We are blessed, 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:34.640 brothers and sisters, to be a blessing to the people that we meet and the people that we come 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:41.260 across, which is why when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, it changes the way that we live. 00:22:43.070 --> 00:22:48.910 We are blessed to be a blessing. And how is this immense transformation possible? It's because of 00:22:48.910 --> 00:22:54.590 who Jesus is and was. He is the word in the beginning, fully God yet fully man, triumphant 00:22:54.590 --> 00:22:59.070 over death, ascended to the right hand of the Father in glory. He is a joy bringer, a truth 00:22:59.070 --> 00:23:04.290 speaker. He is the beginning and the end, the thirst quencher, the hunger stiller, the light giver. 00:23:05.210 --> 00:23:13.520 And you can go on. Jesus is worth everything. And many of you know this. I have the real blessing 00:23:13.520 --> 00:23:18.200 of being part of a church family that knows and loves Jesus with all of their heart. And together 00:23:18.200 --> 00:23:25.450 we encourage one another we go to him and he is the one who satisfies our souls I don't go to my 00:23:25.450 --> 00:23:31.430 pastor expecting him to be the one that makes me okay because he can't because only Jesus can I 00:23:31.430 --> 00:23:35.550 don't go to my husband I don't go to my children because they cannot satisfy the yearning in my 00:23:35.550 --> 00:23:42.420 soul that I have for my creator only the creator can do that but this is a daily choice when I 00:23:42.420 --> 00:23:46.900 started writing this preach I said to Jesus mate I don't think I can do this I don't have it in me 00:23:46.900 --> 00:23:55.480 I am dry. I am tired. I feel, it is hard. I feel hard. And then I got to the end of this preach 00:23:55.480 --> 00:24:02.260 bouncing because this is who God makes us. He changes you. He transforms you. And he looks at 00:24:02.260 --> 00:24:11.480 you and says, you're my precious child. It is a daily thing that we come before our creator and 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:19.590 we say thank you for who you are thank you that you let anyone and the person next to you is anyone 00:24:19.590 --> 00:24:24.530 and you are anyone anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink and they will be satisfied and out of 00:24:24.530 --> 00:24:32.110 their soul out of his heart and soul will flow rivers of living water because they have believed 00:24:32.110 --> 00:25:01.220 in who christ is it's powerful because she drank she was thirsty and she drank and so she had a 00:25:01.220 --> 00:25:10.860 revelation of who she is in christ and that's why this message is so powerful because she was thirsty 00:25:10.860 --> 00:25:20.060 and she drank well she didn't move away she stayed until she her thirst was satisfied 00:25:20.060 --> 00:25:22.540 and that's the invitation today 00:25:22.540 --> 00:25:25.420 because sometimes we just come to God 00:25:25.420 --> 00:25:27.020 and just, oh, I'll just have a little drink 00:25:27.020 --> 00:25:28.580 and then I'll go off and do my own thing 00:25:28.580 --> 00:25:29.820 and then I'll come back and have a, you know. 00:25:30.220 --> 00:25:32.720 He's saying, no, stay and drink. 00:25:33.300 --> 00:25:36.240 Stay and let me transform you 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:38.760 so that when you look in the mirror, 00:25:39.520 --> 00:25:42.760 you will see what I see 00:25:42.760 --> 00:25:44.860 because what God sees 00:25:44.860 --> 00:25:48.080 is that I am more than a conqueror. 00:25:48.080 --> 00:25:57.860 I am a truth bearer I am conformed to the image of Christ I am free from condemnation 00:25:57.860 --> 00:26:08.940 so the challenge is are we thirsty where are we drinking and the second question was 00:26:08.940 --> 00:26:20.240 who is Jesus but who is Jesus in my life is that how you turned it it was a really good 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:32.310 we might say that we're jesus followers what does my life say thank you what does my life say 00:26:32.310 --> 00:27:01.480 oh it's okay i'm gonna be a bit quiet for a bit it's a good word it's a powerful word 00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:09.850 so just right where you are at home on holiday wherever you are watching and listening 00:27:09.850 --> 00:27:19.180 and us right here let's just take a moment we've got time 00:27:19.180 --> 00:27:53.860 who do we say jesus is if we're just saying that he's a good teacher and a prophet kind of missing 00:27:53.860 --> 00:28:06.350 aren't we the fact that he's our messiah he is the christ who do you say jesus is 00:28:06.730 --> 00:28:24.300 and who does your life say jesus is come on come on who does your life say jesus is 00:28:24.300 --> 00:28:36.610 let's be honest with ourselves right now and with God this isn't about there's no condemnation 00:28:36.610 --> 00:28:45.490 we're free from condemnation this is a invitation to say I've been keeping this to myself God you 00:28:45.490 --> 00:28:51.010 can have all the other rooms in the house of my heart but I'm going to keep this one closed 00:28:51.010 --> 00:29:01.700 and so the invitation today is open that room there's some words that Micah said we fill our 00:29:01.700 --> 00:29:11.810 lives with when we're trying to find something to drink. And we drink from lots of different 00:29:11.810 --> 00:29:24.240 places and pools. And you know what they are. She named some of them. And what do we do with that? 00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:31.150 Well, we repent. We turn. We say, God, I'm sorry. I've been drinking from a pool that 00:29:31.150 --> 00:29:41.840 isn't actually satisfying my thirst. I'm sorry. I repent. And I turn. And I choose. 00:29:43.860 --> 00:29:48.060 To have you water my soul. 00:30:00.450 --> 00:30:08.200 Holy Spirit, come and transform our hearts and our minds. 00:30:13.130 --> 00:30:16.580 Transform it by the truth that we've heard today. 00:30:18.500 --> 00:30:24.070 Not by our feelings, not by our circumstances, but by truth. 00:30:24.490 --> 00:30:36.380 And while you're in this place of reflection and prayer, 00:30:38.130 --> 00:30:39.790 and you might be feeling uncomfortable, 00:30:40.050 --> 00:30:42.250 and you might be feeling like, oh my goodness, where is this going? 00:30:42.850 --> 00:30:45.610 I want to invite you to look in the mirror. 00:30:49.580 --> 00:30:50.300 Look in the mirror. 00:30:51.720 --> 00:30:52.420 What do you see? 00:30:54.610 --> 00:30:56.110 Are you seeing what God sees? 00:31:00.430 --> 00:31:02.310 Because sometimes I think we look in the mirror 00:31:02.310 --> 00:31:04.230 and we're like, I know you say that, God, 00:31:04.250 --> 00:31:05.710 but actually this is what I think. 00:31:06.230 --> 00:31:13.430 I think that I'm going to stay stuck in this habit. 00:31:14.130 --> 00:31:17.370 I'm going to stay stuck in this view about myself 00:31:17.370 --> 00:31:18.550 or this other person. 00:31:19.010 --> 00:31:20.070 I'm going to stay stuck 00:31:20.070 --> 00:31:21.610 because that's just what I've always known. 00:31:21.610 --> 00:31:31.810 but you see what we've heard today is when we when we are thirsty and the Holy Spirit satisfies us 00:31:31.810 --> 00:31:45.330 he changes the Holy Spirit changes how we see ourselves so how God sees us so when we look in 00:31:45.330 --> 00:31:53.430 the mirror we need to be seeing a man a woman a young person who is free from condemnation 00:31:53.430 --> 00:32:01.170 We need to look and stand and say, this person in front of this mirror is a truth bearer. 00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:09.140 This person standing in front of this mirror is a new creation. 00:32:10.140 --> 00:32:22.070 There might be voices telling me I'm not new, but Jesus is reminding me today through the Holy Spirit that I am a new creation. 00:32:23.360 --> 00:32:25.600 The old has gone. 00:32:26.200 --> 00:32:27.500 Who needs to hear that today? 00:32:27.500 --> 00:32:30.340 The old has gone. 00:32:30.540 --> 00:32:44.130 it's gone. The new has come. You can rejoice. He has and is and will be making all things new. 00:32:44.490 --> 00:33:00.830 There's hope today. He is going to make things new. I have a new heart. I have a new heart. 00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:12.180 I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. You might not feel like it. You might feel like 00:33:12.180 --> 00:33:19.980 you are in a desert and God is silent but the truth today is I have been blessed with every 00:33:19.980 --> 00:33:42.900 spiritual blessing shall we have the worship band up please we're going to move this back a little 00:33:42.900 --> 00:34:05.640 bit and there's an opportunity if you feel that you actually need to come out of your seat and 00:34:05.640 --> 00:34:13.190 look in the mirror and even for those who aren't here with us if you're at home or as I said 00:34:13.190 --> 00:34:18.490 somewhere else maybe you need to physically move out from the space that you're sitting in right 00:34:18.490 --> 00:34:25.960 now and find a mirror find somewhere to be in a different place because sometimes it's quite 00:34:25.960 --> 00:34:38.120 significant to change our position so we're gonna worship but the invitation is if you need to come 00:34:38.120 --> 00:34:39.100 and look at this mirror 00:34:39.100 --> 00:34:42.140 to remind yourself what God says about you. 00:34:42.280 --> 00:34:43.100 Come and do that 00:34:43.100 --> 00:34:49.860 and we'll see what God else 00:34:49.860 --> 00:34:50.280 is saying.