April 11, 2025 • 58 mins
We all have wants and desires, but how do we avoid being controlled by them? Pastor Steven shows that because Jesus experienced thirst on the cross, our thirst can now ultimately be satisfied.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're excited because write this down. Favor flows from strange places,
it really does. One time the children of Israel were
in the desert and water came out of a rock.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's weird.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, God do something for you, but not through the
person that you expected him to do it through. You
ever had God be good to you through somebody that
you weren't even good to, and then somebody you were
good to wasn't good to you, And it's almost like God,
it's almost like he wants to challenge your attachments, so
(00:52):
He'll keep on moving around his supply and springing up
from different places so that you don't camp out where he.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Called you to pass through.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
And that's why sometimes you get frustrated.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
But favor can flow from frustration.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sometimes you have to get down to the bottom of
something to find God there. And you know my study
has been like that. It was kind of weird. Can
I tell y'all something that I didn't tell any of
the other experiences. I did not want to do a
seven mile Miracle series. I preached this bad Boy. I
preached this sermon six years ago. I think it was
six years ago, five or six years ago, and my
(01:35):
publisher had the rights to the material because we had
them pay for the study guide for our groups and whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You don't even know all that, but we had them pay.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
The church, and they wanted to put out a book.
And I didn't want to write a book about seven
mile Miracle because I typically like to preach something and
move on.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
As a matter of fact, this is probably dysfunctional.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
But before I came out to preach to you, I
was writing my sermon for the end of April because
it started coming to me and I know what it
is telling you, because then you would skip. And but
the way it flows to me, I've had to learn
to get in the flow with God touch somebody say
get in the flow, get in the flow, Get in
the flow, because for me, creativity and insforration doesn't always flow.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
It's not always dependable.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
When songwriter said that creativity is like building your house,
from the sky down, especially when you're depending on God
to give it to you. So you feel kind of
vulnerable when you're waiting on God to give you something.
So it flows in strange places. Sometimes I get sermons
off of gatoraded commercials.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
And I just have to do it anywhere I can.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And this year has been interesting because God took some
things that I studied years ago, like this seven mile
walk on the Amaeis Road, and we taught an Easter
sermon on it, and then a whole series and a
book flowed out of it. But I was kind of
done with it, and God took something that I was
done with, like a seed that I thought was gone,
(02:56):
but it really wasn't gone. It was in the ground.
Some thing's in your life that you sewed in the
last season are going to come up out of the
ground when you least expect it, because favor flows from
strange places. So I've kind of been going through these
seven Statements of Jesus slowly, and I don't like to
(03:19):
go slow. If it were up to me, we would
study all seven of them. In the introduction to the sermon,
move on, you know. I like to cover a lot
of ground, so you don't get bored. Sometimes you gotta
slow down. And I started the series just talking about Cleo.
Were you here for that one? He's walking along with
(03:42):
a companion. Here comes Jesus, this stranger, and out of
this stranger's mouth comes a revelation that reverses their disappointment,
and they realize it when they get there, not while
they're going.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So it started to challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
The way I saw faith, because I thought faith meant
that I would know why I was going through everything
I went through while I went through it. Now I'm thinking,
maybe faith means not knowing why I'm going through it,
but trusting the one who makes a way where there
is no way to feed me what I need for
the season that I'm in, because He's God, and he
(04:24):
knows what I need when I need it. And so
when we were preaching about he broke the bread and
gave it to them, we kind of been breaking the bread,
haven't we.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
The bread represents the word of God.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And each week I've been giving you a little peace,
and I'm taking it from the last sayings.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
That Jesus spoke on the cross.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
There are seven Seven is the number of completion in
the scripture and so when we say seven, we're eventually
getting to resurrection, but to get there, we're going through crucifixion.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
We're eventually getting.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
To glory, but to get there we have to go
through the sufferings of this present time and believe that
they are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that will be revealed. But it's in the ground right now.
It's on Saturday that our faith is proven, waiting for Sunday.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
In the aftershock of Friday.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Now, we walked through a couple of different sayings, and
one was, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. That one challenged me because it is the
exact opposite of how I think when somebody disappoints me
or offends me. See, you're different, You're more sanctified than me,
and you've arrived. But when somebody breaks my heart, I
(05:37):
don't say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. I say, God, get them back, hurt them
worse than I could ever hurt, because they know exactly
what they were doing.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
But I'm challenged because, well.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Jesus says to a thief, he says.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Today you will be with me in paradise. Now I
don't think like that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I think if the guy is going to be in paradise,
he needs to do some good deeds that help some
old ladies across the street, and take a little membership
class and get baptized at our Concord campus, then he
can be in paradise. He didn't do any of that.
Jesus just saved him just because he asks. And now
I'm thinking, this must be a gift that you can't earn.
(06:17):
It must not have to do with my works at all.
It must be something that God gives, not something.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That I get about to do his receiver.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Then I'm a little convicted how he's on the cross
and he's thinking about his mom on the cross, because
I don't think about others while I'm going through good times,
let alone hard times. I don't even like to let
people merge in traffic on four eighty five because I'm.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
In a hurry.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Here's Jesus dying and thinking about somebody else. So all
of this has been challenging me. Wade gets up and
says that God was forsaken by God the Son, by
the Father, so that we would never have to be abandoned.
And then I'll come to this little phrase, and I
don't know what to do with it, because Jesus now
says one of his last sayings on the cross of
this is mile five, commonly known as the word of distress.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
It's called the word of distress.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
But after today you're going to see that it's actually
the word of destiny. I'm gonna show you because he
says something strange. Let's look at it together.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Say?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You got your yeasyesweight laced up and ready to run.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
What So.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
He's been mocked, he's been flogged, he's been sentenced, handed
over to die. He's bleeding, he's suffocating, and he's hanging
there after this, John says John nineteen twenty eight. Jesus,
knowing that all was now finished, finality, achievement would be
(07:55):
the original language that all was achieved, that he was
to do his assignment was achieved. Now that he knew that,
he said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst, which.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Is ironic because this is the same voice that spoke.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
The season too existence, and now he needs water.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You ever think about this?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
How how the same voice that told the Red Sea
to part now needs a drink? How can the voice
that could command the sea peace be still, and it
had to shut up so he could get some sleep.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
How could that same.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
God, Because the Bible says that he is the one
Colossians tells us by whom, for whom and through whom
all things were created. That were created in the beginning
was the Word, and the word was with God, and
the word was God.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's Jesus. Now he's wrapped in flesh, dying.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
At the hands of sinful men, a criminal's death, and
he says, I thirst He's the one who said he
was living water. How can living water be thirsty? He
is the one who was Jacob's well. How can Jacob's
well be dry?
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Do you see?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
What I'm saying is just strange to me. And on
top of the fact that it's kind of crazy that
the one who called the seas to be gathered together
so the dry land could appear, the one whose voice
is above the waters, the one who separated the water
above the firmament the water below the firmament, the one
who has a throne in heaven by the way in
(09:37):
the Book of Revelation that he sits on where the
streams of water flow and make glad the city of God,
pure and brilliant as jasper and diamond. Those waters slow
from the throne. But here we see him thirsting. How
can God be thirsty? How can water need rank y'all
(10:00):
are looking at me confused, and you should be because
it's confusing. I understand me being thirsty. After all, I'm
a thirsty man. That's what Holly said one time. She
told a server that in a restaurant. By the way,
if you're a server in a restaurant, first of all,
God bless you. You are an unsung hero, especially on
(10:20):
Sundays with hungry, cranky, non tip in Christians to put
a Bible Verse on the receipt instead of a tip.
Father forgive them.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
And it's.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Tough for me to meet this. But I am a
server's worst nightmare. And it's not because I'm rude. It's
not because I'm rude, and I'm not rude because I'm Southern.
So since I'm Southern, if I'm gonna be.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Rude to you, I'm going to do it behind your back.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I watch people from other parts of the country who
are so direct, and it's weird to me because I
can feel my mom putting soap in my mouth because
you we just weren't that direct. I watched somebody in
a restaurant. They're done. They just go check, like one word.
That's not how you. I can't do it like that.
I wish I could. I think it'd be cool just
holler check. I see it in the movies, and uh,
(11:17):
I'm gonna try sometime.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And I'm not rude like that. I'm not rude. I'm not.
I'm not even really that picky in a restaurant. I'm
really not. I'm simple. I'm basic. I like what I like,
but it's not that hard to fix it like I
like it.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Here's what I say. I'm not Chunk's Corbett.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Chunk's Corbett is the most embarrassing person to be in
a restaurant with because of the specificity with which he
demands his food be prepared and his wife.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Is nodding while I'm preaching this. He'll He'll walk in
a restaurant. I want a bloom an onion, but no onion,
and can you make it in the shape of an
eight because that's my favorite number.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And when I was here to play baseball, he says,
got the craziest stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So I'm not really like that.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
But my thing is if you can keep up with
me on the drinks, because I drink diet coke. Like
I just said, I shoot up heroin, you judgmental demon.
People will do it. Every time I say that, they'll
(12:20):
send me a link about aspartame.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
But it's all right. I already read about it. And
I want to.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Go to heaven and I'm kind of in a hurry
to get there. I'm at peace with my mortal nature
and I want to sip a diet coke.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
On the journey. So so my thing is, I tip great.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I tip great, especially if you bring me an Elevation
Church stolen ten to sign.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
The tip with. That'll be our thing. I'll bump it
up at least three percent. It's just read the word.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
But my thing is keeping my drink ful is kind
of hard because I'll drink five, six, seven.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Eight, nine, ten, eleven.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I've been to twelve class is before uh in a
in a long meal, so I know it's horrible. But
one time this server came over and she was kind
of giggling about how many drinks I was drinking.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
This has been years ago, and she.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Was probably she looked she looked like she was too
young to be legally uh, working at a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And she comes over to.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
The table and she's kind of giggling and uh, and
and I'm apologizing. I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm drinking so
many drinks. I'd just like to drink a lot of
that coke. I'm sorry about that. And I promise I'll
tip you good and just thank you for trying to
keep up with me.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
And she goes, and she goes, and Holly, Holly, feeling
the need to apologize, Holly goes, He's just a thirsty man.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
And she started laughing when Holly said that, but she
was laughing a little too hard. You know how people
can laugh a little too hard for what you said,
and you know that they took something different out of
what you said. And so she's laughing, just laughing, laughing,
And I said, what what what was funny about that?
And and she said, you wife just said you're thirsty
And I said.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, I am.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You've seen it today night here in the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
I like to drink. She said, no, no, you don't
know what thirsty means to you.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
And I said, no, but tell me what thirsty means
to you, I need to know.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
She said, you don't want to know this.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
You're a preacher. She said, you don't. I said, no,
tell me. She said, well, it's kind of something we
would say. Younger people would say, say maybe if a
guy is a little too desperate, we would look at
him and maybe roll our eyes and say thirsty.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
So now I knew she was laughing.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
She said, we even when people post something on social
media where they want to get attention and they try
a little too hard, we call that a thirst trap.
I want to appreach to you today about the thirst trap,
and I want.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
To go show my title, show my time.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I want to go all the way back from Bonefish
Grill to John nineteen.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And see if I can work it together.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Because I gotta admit sometimes I'm thirsty. Sometimes I'm thirsty
like the guy who sends twelve text messages and none
of them get responded to those long text messes. Sometimes
I need too much from the wrong place. Sometimes I'm
thirsty because I love God and I know that he's
(15:32):
my shepherd and I'm not supposed to be in need,
and I.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Have his spirit.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But sometimes I gotta admit to you I'm I'm kind
of thirsty. Look at your neighbor and ask him, are
you thirsty?
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Not you You're you're filled with the spirit of God. Oh,
we get thirsty. And it's no.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Surprise we get thirsty because we're week. He knows our friend,
we're made of dust, came from the dust. Get thirsty
in the dust, dirty thirsty people. I mean that makes sense.
But for Jesus to say I thirst and watch this
when he said it, The Bible says, they came to him,
those soldiers around the cross, and he said, I thirst.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And there was a jar full of sour wine, cheap stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
What the executioners drank while they were waiting on the
person to die. Now, see, this was the second drink
that Jesus was offered on the cross, but the first
one he refused. When he was on his way to
the cross, when he got to the spot where they
would drop the cross the vertical beam and attach to
the horizontal beam because the cross works both ways. I
(16:43):
taught you that two weeks ago. When he got to
that spot, they offered him a drink. This drink was,
the Bible says, mixed with mir which was meant to
drug the person going to the cross.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
The women would prepare it, often as an act.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Of compassion or kindness, and when they offered him this drink,
perhaps in mockery, before he called himself a king and
they offered him a drink, Mark tells us in Mark,
I think it's like fifteen twenty three. They offered him
wine mixed with merv but he did not take it
because maybe he saw it as a trap, because he
(17:19):
was focused on finishing what God gave him to do.
And when he got to the cross, he refused to
drink and said, I don't need that. Now I want
you to do something for me. Okay, everybody do this,
Everybody do this. I want you to get something in
your mind that's trying to keep you from being on
the path of your purpose.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And when I say three.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Push it out the way like Jesus pushed the cup
of Myrrh and say I don't need it. One, two, three,
I don't need it. He said, I'm not drinking that.
I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
With his gaze set on the glory of God, he
went toward the cross.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
But now it's been six hours since he first got
to Gugatha, and he says, I thirst Remember, this is
the same voice of God that created the clouds.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And filled them with condensation.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
This is the voice that has the power to flood
the earth and only Noah and every animal on the
boat gets out of it alive, and he thirst. So
we're surprised by it, or at least we should be.
And we're surprised when they come to him and there's
a jar of sour wine and they offer to the
Lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of
(18:35):
the earth. You need to understand that what happened on
the cross didn't start on the cross, and it didn't
end on the cross.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
The cross was pointing.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
At the prophetic fulfillment of the purpose of God that
existed before time began.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So they take a hiss up branch, which was what
they used on.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Passover back when they would take the blood of a
lamb and put it on a door post. And so
they took that branch they would put the blood on.
And now the Lamb of God is bleeding. It is
not the shadow anymore. It's the actuality, the revelation of God.
The fullness of God is hanging on a cross in
the form of a man, and they give him vinegar
(19:14):
to drink for his thirst, and they put it to
his mouth, the same mouth that spoke them into existence,
and they gave him vinegar to drink. How could he
be thirsty? How could God struggle with a human sensation
(19:35):
like thirst? Struggle? If you want to write something down,
write down struggle, because to really understand why he said
I thirst on the cross, you would have to start
really in the garden of Gathsemene. Okay, the garden of
got Semene is where he went out to pray before
(19:58):
he drank the cup of suffering. And it's one thing
to come to church and talk about a calling, because
sometimes a calling is like a beautiful cup.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
But what's in it? Sometimes when it.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Comes time to really fulfill your calling, let me break
this down, because y'all are really looking at me cross
eyed and stuff. It's one thing to pick out a
name for your baby. It's another thing to have to
raise them in middle school.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
It didn't work. It still didn't work.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I'm trying really hard to bring this right where you are.
It is one thing to write down his last name
with your first name and think about how awesome it
would be to be missus so and so.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
But it's another thing to.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Deal with his bad breath and his bad spending habits
and realize that his mom didn't teach him how to
put the seat down on the toilet after he used it,
and work out the mechanics of marriage in the context
of the calling, not just the excitement of the concept
of something. So sometimes why we are very excited about
the concept of being used by God. Stay with me
(21:04):
because this sermon is about to do something.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
In your soul. Deep down in your soul.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I feel the spirit of God saying to somebody today,
what will you do.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
With the cup?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Because Jesus had a cup that he didn't want to drink,
and he prayed in the garden. He prayed, Father, if
there's any other way to get this done, if there's
any other way, let this cup pass from me, the
cup that was full of the wrath of God, the
(21:39):
just punishment that our sin deserved.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
And he drank it. But he struggled to drink it.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Do you know how I know he struggled because he prayed,
if there's any other way, let this cup pass. But
if there's not, if I have to drink it down,
if I have to suffer, you have to go to
the cross. I'm going to the cross. If I have
to be mocked, I'll be mocked. If I have to
(22:07):
be alone, I'll be alone.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
If I have to cry, I'll cry. If I have
to struggle, I'll struggle.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Not my will, but yours be gone. So the Son
of God is thirsty, and he's thirsty because he's trapped.
He's trapped in a place that we're all familiar with.
He's trapped between what he wants and what God wills.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Have you ever been trapped?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Three honest people, three thirsty people. All the thirsty people
make some noise, just be honest about it, because remember,
it's only those who and thirst that can be filled.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
It's only those who know what it's like. I mean,
he got.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Down in that garden and he prayed so hard about it,
and he heard so much about it while Peter.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
James and John slept on the side. But Jesus prayed.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
The Bible says he prayed to the point that his
sweat was like drops of blood struggle to surrender, and
he was. He was trapped in the garden between what
God had spoken and what his flesh wanted. I'm thirsty,
(23:43):
of course, he's thirsty. When you sweat like that, you're
going to be thirsty. I mean, if the Son of
God sweat like that, what makes you think you're going
to go through life and never break one yourself?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
So we think we're just.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Supposed to fulfill our call and never drink the cup.
We think we're supposed to have a vision, but no, vinegar.
I mean, the son of God is sweating drops of
blood and we're supposed to be able to sleep through.
Life is a struggle, he said, I thirst because he
struggled people.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I know he was thirsty.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I mean he's fully God, yes, but he's also fully man.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
In other words, he's trapped.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Because he's God, but he's wrapped in flesh because he's glory.
But he's wrapped in frailty because he's eternity. But he's
trapped in time because he's spirit, but he's trapped in
a body. Sometimes I feel trapped because what I want
to do I can't do, and what I do I hate,
(24:50):
and what I want to.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Do I don't have the will to do. I'm trapped.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Thirsty, Hi, I'm wearying, And he struggled, And see, I'm
not very comfortable with this.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I don't like it because I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I don't really want to see a god who struggled
like I struggle. I like that stuff where he opens
his mouth and says shut up to the wind and
the waves. I like that because that makes me think
he's just gonna walk into my situation smooth sailing.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But when he says I thirst.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
See, now I see him identifying with my shame, and
it causes me to look at myself, not as I
wish to be, but as I really am, Because now
I've got to picture him carrying my shame right down. Shame,
because shame will make you thirsty. Shame will make you
try to fill something with the words of people that
(25:59):
can really only be fulfilled by the word of God.
Shame will make you forget who you really are. Of
course he was thirsty. He was carrying your shame. Now,
I mean to an untrained eye, it looked like he
was carrying a beam that weighed eighty pounds and he
(26:21):
carried it up a hill. Now this is from Pilot's Palace,
where Jesus was sentenced by the Roman prelate. He had
already been handed over by Caiaphas, the High priest. He's
been going back and forth all night. He sweats in
the garden, He heads to the cross. He gets there,
they offer him something to numb the pain. He says, no,
I'm focused, No, not yet.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
He pushes the.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Drink aside, thirsty as he is carrying my shame eighty pounds.
You know, it weighs a lot more than that when
it's in your soul, a whole lot more than eighty pounds.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
It weighs a whole lot more.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
It'll weigh so much you can't even look people in
the eye when it's in your soul.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
And he carried that, He carried it the length of.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Six and a half football fields from Pilot's palace to Galgata.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Of course he was thirsty.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Come on, I can't even do a set of kettlebell
swings and not take a sip.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Of course he was thirsty.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Of course he said, I thirst And you know what,
this isn't the first time that Jesus said he was
thirsty in John's gospel. No, it's not man, not at all. See,
because one time, can I tell you a story from
the Bible. It's a Bible story from John chapter four,
(27:50):
And it's interesting because Jesus is going somewhere, but he
goes around to get there, and the place where he
goes is called Samaria. Now this is not a normal
place for a Jew to go, so the fact that.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
He went there was kind of surprising.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
But nobody asked him why he was doing what he
was doing, because by this time his disciples knew that
everything he did he did on purpose. Let me say
that again, everything he did he did on purpose. That's
going to come back, and that's going to be very
important when I finished this little sermonette today. Everything he
did he did on purpose. So the Bible says he
(28:29):
had to go to Samaria, he had to go. Why
why did he have to go to Samaria? Why did
he have to go to the cross? Why would he
go out of his way to Samaria where a Jewish
person would not normally go. Why would God go where
he was least expected? Do you ever wonder why God
(28:49):
would bother with someone like you?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Have you ever asked that question? Why me? God? Any
parents that have ever asked God? Why me? Why would
you call me to raise a kid?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
When I feel like a little boy myself? Sometimes See
the interesting thing to me about this little excursion Jesus
takes is that he's going to Samaria. He sits down
when he gets there, and he waits by a well
for a woman. Now, let me tell you something about
(29:22):
this woman, because she's coming out in the middle of
the day. And the only reason that you would go
to the well in the middle of the day in
a hot climate is so nobody else would be there,
because you're ashamed to be seen by people. So she's
going out in the middle of the day to get
some water at a time when she doesn't think anybody
(29:44):
else will see her. Because she's thirsty. I said, she's thirsty.
And she's not just thirsty for water, she's thirsty. She's
thirsty in the urban dictionary thirsty kind of way. So
Jesus sits by a well waiting for a woman and
(30:04):
sets a trap for a thirsty woman.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Y'all aren't even helping me appreciate this sermon. I work
so hard. All that's rude.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
So she comes up says, oh, crap, I thought nobody
would be here.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I don't even know this.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
God, have you noticed how everything we've been studying and
in the scripture says Jesus showing up to people who
didn't even recognize him when he did, just showing up.
And then he does something unthinkable. Okay, talk about a
thirst trap. Jesus the Living Water sees this woman come in,
(30:40):
knows what kind of life she's lived, and yet he
doesn't say anything about that. He says, hey girl, modernization.
But he said, give me look at for seven, give
me a drink. She didn't like that very much, so
she got real deep look at her. Because here's what
(31:00):
you do when God speaks to a place in your life.
When when God starts speaking to you, you get theoretical
and abstract because to be specific, to really have to
deal with the issue is actually sometimes painful. So she's like, hey,
how is it that you a Jew asked to drink
from me?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
A woman from Samaria? In other words, I know you're
not talking to me. That's what I want to saying.
I know you're not talking to me. And you can
feel that way sometimes.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I mean, some of you sit here and listen to
me preach and you think it's for your wife.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
I'm talking to you.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I'm talking to you, buddy, thirsty self.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
So everybody in here is thirsty.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Everybody in here is thirsty.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Some of y'all get it through sex, some of.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Y'all get it through success, some of y'all get.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
It through religion. But I got to tell you something.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
The person you're sitting now is thirsty.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
It's not a sin to be thirsty.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
It's just where you go to get your fixed that
determines whether or not.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Your soul will be satisfied. Because I found out there's
only one while that hasslewater, I need.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
We talk about the satisfaction, the satisfaction. Jesus says, hey,
I need a drink.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
And the woman thinks he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Water, but he's not talking about water. And the woman
is perhaps a shamed and offended, and so she goes
to push him away because see.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
That's what she's learned how to do. She's thirsty.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
So she's learned how to get what she needs from
who she thinks can give it. But none of it lasts.
She's learned, give me your phone. She's learned how to
get what she needs. So she wakes up in the
morning thirsty. Did they like my picture? Did they come
in on my posts? Did they frame me back? Did
they follow me back?
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Thirsty?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Somebody shall thirsty thirsty acting like that that's gonna fill you.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
It might for a minute, but there's one problem with this. Well,
Jesus said, if you.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Drink of this water, woman, you're gonna stay thirsty. And
I want you to know that if you put your
validation in other people's hands, you will have to go
back to them for it, and you can't. Don't make
me throw his phone, so Jesus, he just lays it
out there.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Oh yeah, I will make a work a while to
come to church today.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
So Jesus is like, hey, you know everyone who drinks
of this water, everyone who drinks of this water, I
ain't a gout on Facebook. Yeah, but why do you
go to the mall. Everybody drinks somewhere. Why do you
eat the ritos everybody drinks somewhere. Why you put so
(33:53):
much pressure on your kids to do what you never did.
Everybody drinks somewhere. Why are you texting her back? You
better take your phone. Man, something's coming over me while
I heard this same something demon in that phone, So
(34:16):
sit down.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
He says bye. Well, and he's like, now, I gotta
be honest.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
On the surface, it sounds like a pickup line, but
we know it's not because Jesus, he's not. He's not
thirsty like Dad. He's trying to get her something, got it,
He's not. He's not trying to receive something from her.
(34:44):
He's trying to release something to her because he knows
she's thirsty. So he's like, Hey, whoever drinks of the
water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
That troubled me because I was contrasting at what he
said fifteen chapters earlier with what he said in John
nineteen on the Cross, where he said at thirst And
(35:06):
I felt like I had caught Jesus contradicting himself because
he said he had water and we would never thirst
if we drank it.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
But he said he thirsted on the cross.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
But I noticed how he didn't say, you'll never feel
thirsty again. He said you'll never be He didn't say
you will never thirst again. You're see, you're gonna thirst.
You're gonna have days that you feel discouraged. If you weren't,
(35:38):
God wouldn't tell you not to be terrified or discouraged,
if you were naturally going to always be encouraged, if
you were never going to be discouraged and dehydrated.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
That's what the water is for.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So what he's saying is you'll always have somewhere to
drink from, not that you'll never have a need, but
that I will meet all of your needs according to
my glorious richest.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
That's the promise.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
So he tells the woman, I got something for you.
That's what he tells the woman. I got something for you.
And it's not like what you've been drinking. Because watch this.
He traps this woman. He totally traps this woman. Jesus
all through his ministry, people were trying to trap Jesus.
The Sadducees and the Pharisees and Judas trapped him in
the garden and the Roman official stuff. They had him
(36:31):
trapped on the cross, but Jesus was always the one.
Even when they thought they had him, they never really
had him because he was always in control, even on
the cross. There were over three hundred Messianic prophecies that
Jesus fulfilled in his life and in his death. And
so Jesus was Jesus was never he was never really trapped.
See here he is with this woman and he says,
(36:51):
I want to drink, But he's not really thirsty like that.
He's trying to give her something. God doesn't really need
anything from you. He can have another you in a minute.
I don't mean to go back to two thousand and
two because sometimes and so God really isn't needing something
from you when we talk about giving in the church.
How dare you, with your thirsty self get an attitude?
They just want my money. God doesn't need your money.
(37:13):
God wants to be in your heart. He wants to
set you free. You're the one thirsty. You're the one.
So he says, give me a drink. She says, well,
we don't have a bucket, and he's trying to get
her to see that she is the bucket.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
And he is the water.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
You know, I'm telling myself right now, focus verdict. You've
got to finish. These people have a life. They don't
want to be here with you for three more hours.
Give me ten minutes. The woman said, sir, if there's
some kind of water, if there's some bottomless well, if
(38:01):
there's free refills, somebody shout free refills, give me this
water so I won't have to be so I won't
have to be trapped, so I won't have to keep
coming back here. So so I won't have to keep
(38:28):
texting Travis that just made up the name, so I
won't have to keep performing, so I won't have to
keep being so.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Thirsty.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
And now Jesus, he's got her, all right, got her.
He came to some area and sat by the well.
And now she's trapped.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Watch us.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Hee goes, all right, go get your husband. And she
says what had happened was I don't have a husband,
which is true, but it's not the total truth.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
You know how you do.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Like right, I have no husband. Jesus said, you're right
and saying I have no husband, for you've had five
husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you've said is true. And you're thirsty, thirsty, and
(39:44):
you're trapped. And when I asked you for water, I
was trying to release you from having to go all
around to people and things and stuff that doesn't satisfy.
(40:07):
I want to give you something that comes from within.
I want to give you something that doesn't depend on
bank accounts, It doesn't diminish.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
No matter how the biopsy comes back.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I want to give you something that you can live
off of, something that only gets stronger in your struggle
I want to give you a limited supply, And she said, sir,
I think you're onto something. She goes back to Samaria
(40:52):
carrying living water that she didn't even expect to get,
comes back to Jesus, and the Bible says that many
and some are belief because of her testimony. See it,
it was a trap. Jesus used a thirsty woman to
transform an entire region. I wonder how he could use
(41:13):
your life, if you would receive his grace today.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
You've been coming here a long time. Have I ever
preached stronger than I'm preaching right now?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
I'm not even done yet, So sit back and let
me give you my fourth point. I want to talk
about the setup, because that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
It was a setup.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
That's why you went through Samaria. He was setting this
woman up. That's why he asked for a drink because
she was thirsty. That's why you went to the cross
a pill six and fifty the arts.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
That's why he said, I thirst.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
And I'm gonna tell you how I found out because
I thought about that thing so long. I thought, Okay,
how can living water be thirsty?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
How can I well need water?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
How can the one that spoke the oceans into existence,
now need water from the very same source that he created.
How could God, who rains above the waters, need water.
How could it be possible that God could come down
condescend to the form of human man. How could Christ
be made flesh? How could he die and suffer like that?
How can it be that there are seasons in my
life when I call him him and nothing happens. How
can it be that I have divinity but I'm trapped
sometimes in my desperation. How can it be that I'm
(42:32):
full of the spirit, but sometimes I feel so dry?
Speaker 1 (42:37):
So I had to read again. I read that.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Verse like like twenty times in John nineteen twenty eight.
And I don't read Greek, although I took Greek. I
don't read Hebrew although I took Hebrew. I was not
very effective in my language studies. And I don't even
read Aramaic, which is what Jesus was probably speaking in
at the moment when he said I thirst.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
But what I do read really.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Well is English, and I know my punctuation marks. So
when I read John nineteen twenty eight, have y'all got
like seven minutes for me to tie this up? Seven minutes,
seven minute miracle, and so it said that after this,
(43:23):
after all you've been through, after all they've accused you off,
after all the people who walked away who should have
been there. After this, after they counted you out and
said you or nothing and mocked you. After this, after
a crowd of thorns was placed on his head, after
the blood ran from his brow, after this, after they
(43:45):
beat us back, after they.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Released for rabbis, after this.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
After the cock crow and Peter denied him thrice. After this,
knowing that now all things were finished, Jesus had one
more thing to say, one thing to do, because there
are three hundred prophecies, and he was on two ninety nine.
(44:13):
And see everybody standing around that day thought that death.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Had trapped Jesus.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Right, And the cross was a setup, But it wasn't
set up by Judas, and it wasn't set up by
the Sadducees, and it wasn't set up by the Pharisees,
and it wasn't set up by Herod.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
It was set up by Heaven.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Listen to me preach this sermon. Listen to me preach
this sermon. Listen to me preach on the parentheses. In
John nineteen twenty eight. I preached on a lot of
things in my little tenure preaching, but I've never preached
on a punctuation mark until today.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
After this, knowing that all things.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Had been fulfilled, knowing that he had drank down the
full cup of the wrath of God so that you
would never have to After knowing that he suffered like
a criminal, so that he could reign like a king,
after humbling himself, being obedient even to the point of
death on the cross.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
And it was then Jesus said parentheses to fulfill the scripture.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Huh. I wonder why John put it in parentheses. Probably
because he didn't know. That's why it was happening at
the time. See, when Jesus said I thirst, they thought
he wanted water, so they gave him vinegar to mock him.
And the thing they used to mock him was actually
(45:57):
the thing that he used to finish the work God
gave him to do.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
The thing that they put on a sponge to shame
him was that. See, because listen, I got to tell
you something. Stand up so I'll finish this sermon. Please. Oh,
I got to show you one more thing. See, because.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
When Jesus said I thirst, to fulfill the scripture parentheses.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Have you ever had to live in the parentheses?
Speaker 2 (46:31):
I mean, like not understanding why you were going through
what you were going through.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Please be real with me. I cannot preach this sermon
to close hearts.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
I'm trying to give you water today for your thirsty soul.
But sometimes you're in a wilderness and you don't know why.
And sometimes you're looking at a red sea and you
feel trapped. And Jesus looked trapped up there on that cross,
but John said no, he wasn't trapped.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Death didn't trap Jesus. Jesus trapped death.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
No, Now I know why, he said.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
I thirst.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Now I know why why the lips that spoke the
waters into their place on the earth set I thirst
to fulfill the scripture.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
God has a purpose.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
For every thurst in your lives. Death didn't trap Jesus.
Jesus trapped Dad.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
So one time David felt trapped in the Psalms and
then Psalm sixteen. He describes it in vivid detail. He goes,
the deep waters have engulfed me. I'm surrounded by enemies.
They hurl their insults at me. Does this sound familiar?
By the way, It's a messianic song. It's describing centuries
(48:16):
before the cross, what the cross would be like for Jesus.
It is David. Jesus is called the son of David.
It is David, pointing to the one who now says,
I thirst, And David says something that although he is
surrounded by what he calls deep waters of trial, he
says that the reproach has broken his heart. The shame
(48:42):
has brought him so low to this place that he
feels like he's drowning. And you can get to a
place where you feel trapped in doubt, and you can't
have dysfunctions in your life that have been there so
long that you feel trapped inside of yourself. That's the
worst place to feel trapped. Not in a bad relationship.
(49:05):
I mean, you can always block that number, But what
do you do when you're trapped inside of your own heart,
your own broken heart? David said, it's it's so bad.
It's broken my heart. And I am in despair. I
am in distress. But watch this, he said, I look
for pity. There was none for comforters. I found none.
(49:26):
Nobody could help me.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
I was trapped. I was trapped. I was trapped.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
He said, I got to the point where I asked
my friends for food. Go to the next verse, and
they gave me poison for food. The people who were
supposed to.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
Help me hurt me. They gave me poison for food.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
I was thirsty, But for my thirst, they gave me
sour wine to drink. And now I understand why Jesus
set I thirst. Go back to my scripture. It was
to fulfill the scripture. It wasn't about water. Jesus was
setting the trap for death. This was the last thing
(50:13):
he had to do before the spirit could be released.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's a setup.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
It's a set up.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
If he didn't suffer, salvation could not spring up like
a well. If he did not suffer, it could not
flow forth. If he did not die, he could not rise.
Somebody shout, it's a setup.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
It's not the end. It's in the parentheses. It's in
the parentheses.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Sometimes you gotta trust God in the parentheses, in the
type places when it looks like your trap, to know
that the very red sea that feels like it's gonna
kill you, it's.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Gonna drown your enemies behind you.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Somebody shot it staring the shouting. He said, I thirsted,
and they gave me vinegar. But watch this, David praying.
This is what I'm praying over your life today. Every
evil thing that the enemy has done to you, and
(51:24):
every trial that feels like is sweeping over you. And
for everybody who feels trapped. Listen what he prayed. Let
their own table before them, the thing that they brought
to destroy me. Let their own table become a snare.
And when they are at peace. So just when the
(51:44):
devil thought he had Jesus trapped, just when.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
He thought it was over, just.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
When he thought we got rid of that one, just
when he thought it was the end, just when they
rolled the snow become.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
I'm trapped, God said, I got you.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Set the trap. He set the trap. He set the trap.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
So God brought you here into this garden so you
could sweat out your insecurities.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
God brought you here into.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
This type place so that your dots could die and
your faith could live, and you will never curse.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
Again.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
He said, I thirst and they brought him vinegar. And
he said, good, I need that. I needed that vinegar.
I needed that trial. Sometimes victory doesn't look like victory.
Sometimes victory doesn't taste sweet.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
And when he said, I.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Thirst, and they gave him the vinegar for water. After that,
after he had received the sour wine, after he had
set the trap on death, hell and the grave, I
promise you we're gonna have the best Easter ever this year.
Speaker 1 (53:10):
I feel like Easter came early today. I really do.
I really do.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
I really feel like resurrection came in an unexpected time
for somebody who thought, you are trapped.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Here the word of the Lord.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
It's not a trap, as the triumph.
Speaker 4 (53:27):
Shall I the God.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
So Friday's trap was Sunday's triumph.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
He set up, first, set the trap, and after he
had received the sour he.
Speaker 1 (53:53):
Said, is finished. It's finished.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
The trap became the triumph. God's gonna take the thing
that looks. Ask the children of Israel. They thought the
red Seed was gonna be the end of them. It
was the end of their enemies. You're not trapped the
devil is You're not trapped, You're.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Not touch Somebody say, I'm not trapped. Come on, I'm
not trapped, and.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
I'm not your sea who the sun sets free? How
many believe that the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory that will
be revealed.
Speaker 1 (54:42):
How many believe Christ is in you? The humble glory?
Come on, shot like you believe that shot like you.
I'm on casting, So.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
I'm gonna tell you one more thing, and I promise
I'm gonna walk off this stage while I'm saying it.
I love to preach the word to you, not because
I like to hear myself talk.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
I love to preach the.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
Word of God to you because I know what this
seed is going to do if you get it down
in your heart.
Speaker 1 (55:11):
And I watched this favorite flows from unexpected places.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
Do you remember when we were writing the song Resurrecting
And it took about nine months to write the song,
and everybody on the team contributes in different ways. My
thing is, I like, I always like to write. And
Chris can tell you this because we've been knowing each
other forever, and you'll give it up for Chris Brown.
This man is a great man of God. Well, I'm
(55:41):
kind of weird because I like it. When the song
seems like it should be over, I always like to
put another verse.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
It's true, right.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
So we wrote the song and it was kind of done,
not really done. We thought it was done and we
finished the songwrit anything, and I started.
Speaker 1 (55:54):
Thinking, I wanted to write this fourth verse for this song.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
And you know, Chris is kind of laid because he's
a worship leader and uh no, I'm just kidding. He's
the hardest working man in the praise biz. But so.
Speaker 1 (56:10):
It took six months to get the verse right.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
But we ended up writing a declaration for our church,
lift your hands, whatever's got your trap today. We ended
up writing this verse to let you know that what
looks like it's got you locked in.
Speaker 1 (56:28):
Is going to be the place. See, that's what the
grave was.
Speaker 2 (56:30):
The grave of Jesus Christ was a garden in disguise.
That's what your trials are, That's what your weakness is.
So I want you to sing this fourth verse because
just when it seems like the song should be over,
just when it seems like your hope is gone, just
when it seems like the devil has dehydrated your.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Dream the solous. So they thought they had him right,
so they posted the guard right there.
Speaker 2 (57:13):
And now if he robbed the grave of its power,
if the guards couldn't keep his body at come on, church,
come on, I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (57:28):
You, Rivers. I'm living water you never nurse again.
Speaker 3 (57:33):
Would you get this spirit feed and the same spirit
He's body and.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
Rags some the You're got a.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
Stake wa God has robbed.
Speaker 4 (57:50):
Got up should dame?
Speaker 1 (58:05):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
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Speaker 1 (58:23):
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Speaker 1 (58:30):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're excited because write this down. Favor flows from strange places,
it really does. One time the children of Israel were
in the desert and water came out of a rock.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's weird.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, God do something for you, but not through the
person that you expected him to do it through. You
ever had God be good to you through somebody that
you weren't even good to, and then somebody you were
good to wasn't good to you, And it's almost like God,
it's almost like he wants to challenge your attachments, so
(00:52):
He'll keep on moving around his supply and springing up
from different places so that you don't camp out where he.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Called you to pass through.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
And that's why sometimes you get frustrated.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
But favor can flow from frustration.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sometimes you have to get down to the bottom of
something to find God there. And you know my study
has been like that. It was kind of weird. Can
I tell y'all something that I didn't tell any of
the other experiences. I did not want to do a
seven mile Miracle series. I preached this bad Boy. I
preached this sermon six years ago. I think it was
six years ago, five or six years ago, and my
(01:35):
publisher had the rights to the material because we had
them pay for the study guide for our groups and whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You don't even know all that, but we had them pay.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
The church, and they wanted to put out a book.
And I didn't want to write a book about seven
mile Miracle because I typically like to preach something and
move on.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
As a matter of fact, this is probably dysfunctional.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
But before I came out to preach to you, I
was writing my sermon for the end of April because
it started coming to me and I know what it
is telling you, because then you would skip. And but
the way it flows to me, I've had to learn
to get in the flow with God touch somebody say
get in the flow, get in the flow, Get in
the flow, because for me, creativity and insforration doesn't always flow.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
It's not always dependable.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
When songwriter said that creativity is like building your house,
from the sky down, especially when you're depending on God
to give it to you. So you feel kind of
vulnerable when you're waiting on God to give you something.
So it flows in strange places. Sometimes I get sermons
off of gatoraded commercials.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
And I just have to do it anywhere I can.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And this year has been interesting because God took some
things that I studied years ago, like this seven mile
walk on the Amaeis Road, and we taught an Easter
sermon on it, and then a whole series and a
book flowed out of it. But I was kind of
done with it, and God took something that I was
done with, like a seed that I thought was gone,
(02:56):
but it really wasn't gone. It was in the ground.
Some thing's in your life that you sewed in the
last season are going to come up out of the
ground when you least expect it, because favor flows from
strange places. So I've kind of been going through these
seven Statements of Jesus slowly, and I don't like to
(03:19):
go slow. If it were up to me, we would
study all seven of them. In the introduction to the sermon,
move on, you know. I like to cover a lot
of ground, so you don't get bored. Sometimes you gotta
slow down. And I started the series just talking about Cleo.
Were you here for that one? He's walking along with
(03:42):
a companion. Here comes Jesus, this stranger, and out of
this stranger's mouth comes a revelation that reverses their disappointment,
and they realize it when they get there, not while
they're going.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So it started to challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
The way I saw faith, because I thought faith meant
that I would know why I was going through everything
I went through while I went through it. Now I'm thinking,
maybe faith means not knowing why I'm going through it,
but trusting the one who makes a way where there
is no way to feed me what I need for
the season that I'm in, because He's God, and he
(04:24):
knows what I need when I need it. And so
when we were preaching about he broke the bread and
gave it to them, we kind of been breaking the bread,
haven't we.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
The bread represents the word of God.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And each week I've been giving you a little peace,
and I'm taking it from the last sayings.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
That Jesus spoke on the cross.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
There are seven Seven is the number of completion in
the scripture and so when we say seven, we're eventually
getting to resurrection, but to get there, we're going through crucifixion.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
We're eventually getting.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
To glory, but to get there we have to go
through the sufferings of this present time and believe that
they are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that will be revealed. But it's in the ground right now.
It's on Saturday that our faith is proven, waiting for Sunday.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
In the aftershock of Friday.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Now, we walked through a couple of different sayings, and
one was, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. That one challenged me because it is the
exact opposite of how I think when somebody disappoints me
or offends me. See, you're different, You're more sanctified than me,
and you've arrived. But when somebody breaks my heart, I
(05:37):
don't say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. I say, God, get them back, hurt them
worse than I could ever hurt, because they know exactly
what they were doing.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
But I'm challenged because, well.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Jesus says to a thief, he says.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Today you will be with me in paradise. Now I
don't think like that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I think if the guy is going to be in paradise,
he needs to do some good deeds that help some
old ladies across the street, and take a little membership
class and get baptized at our Concord campus, then he
can be in paradise. He didn't do any of that.
Jesus just saved him just because he asks. And now
I'm thinking, this must be a gift that you can't earn.
(06:17):
It must not have to do with my works at all.
It must be something that God gives, not something.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That I get about to do his receiver.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Then I'm a little convicted how he's on the cross
and he's thinking about his mom on the cross, because
I don't think about others while I'm going through good times,
let alone hard times. I don't even like to let
people merge in traffic on four eighty five because I'm.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
In a hurry.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Here's Jesus dying and thinking about somebody else. So all
of this has been challenging me. Wade gets up and
says that God was forsaken by God the Son, by
the Father, so that we would never have to be abandoned.
And then I'll come to this little phrase, and I
don't know what to do with it, because Jesus now
says one of his last sayings on the cross of
this is mile five, commonly known as the word of distress.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
It's called the word of distress.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
But after today you're going to see that it's actually
the word of destiny. I'm gonna show you because he
says something strange. Let's look at it together.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Say?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You got your yeasyesweight laced up and ready to run.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
What So.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
He's been mocked, he's been flogged, he's been sentenced, handed
over to die. He's bleeding, he's suffocating, and he's hanging
there after this, John says John nineteen twenty eight. Jesus,
knowing that all was now finished, finality, achievement would be
(07:55):
the original language that all was achieved, that he was
to do his assignment was achieved. Now that he knew that,
he said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst, which.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Is ironic because this is the same voice that spoke.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
The season too existence, and now he needs water.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You ever think about this?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
How how the same voice that told the Red Sea
to part now needs a drink? How can the voice
that could command the sea peace be still, and it
had to shut up so he could get some sleep.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
How could that same.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
God, Because the Bible says that he is the one
Colossians tells us by whom, for whom and through whom
all things were created. That were created in the beginning
was the Word, and the word was with God, and
the word was God.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's Jesus. Now he's wrapped in flesh, dying.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
At the hands of sinful men, a criminal's death, and
he says, I thirst He's the one who said he
was living water. How can living water be thirsty? He
is the one who was Jacob's well. How can Jacob's
well be dry?
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Do you see?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
What I'm saying is just strange to me. And on
top of the fact that it's kind of crazy that
the one who called the seas to be gathered together
so the dry land could appear, the one whose voice
is above the waters, the one who separated the water
above the firmament the water below the firmament, the one
who has a throne in heaven by the way in
(09:37):
the Book of Revelation that he sits on where the
streams of water flow and make glad the city of God,
pure and brilliant as jasper and diamond. Those waters slow
from the throne. But here we see him thirsting. How
can God be thirsty? How can water need rank y'all
(10:00):
are looking at me confused, and you should be because
it's confusing. I understand me being thirsty. After all, I'm
a thirsty man. That's what Holly said one time. She
told a server that in a restaurant. By the way,
if you're a server in a restaurant, first of all,
God bless you. You are an unsung hero, especially on
(10:20):
Sundays with hungry, cranky, non tip in Christians to put
a Bible Verse on the receipt instead of a tip.
Father forgive them.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
And it's.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Tough for me to meet this. But I am a
server's worst nightmare. And it's not because I'm rude. It's
not because I'm rude, and I'm not rude because I'm Southern.
So since I'm Southern, if I'm gonna be.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Rude to you, I'm going to do it behind your back.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I watch people from other parts of the country who
are so direct, and it's weird to me because I
can feel my mom putting soap in my mouth because
you we just weren't that direct. I watched somebody in
a restaurant. They're done. They just go check, like one word.
That's not how you. I can't do it like that.
I wish I could. I think it'd be cool just
holler check. I see it in the movies, and uh,
(11:17):
I'm gonna try sometime.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And I'm not rude like that. I'm not rude. I'm not.
I'm not even really that picky in a restaurant. I'm
really not. I'm simple. I'm basic. I like what I like,
but it's not that hard to fix it like I
like it.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Here's what I say. I'm not Chunk's Corbett.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Chunk's Corbett is the most embarrassing person to be in
a restaurant with because of the specificity with which he
demands his food be prepared and his wife.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Is nodding while I'm preaching this. He'll He'll walk in
a restaurant. I want a bloom an onion, but no onion,
and can you make it in the shape of an
eight because that's my favorite number.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And when I was here to play baseball, he says,
got the craziest stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So I'm not really like that.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
But my thing is if you can keep up with
me on the drinks, because I drink diet coke. Like
I just said, I shoot up heroin, you judgmental demon.
People will do it. Every time I say that, they'll
(12:20):
send me a link about aspartame.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
But it's all right. I already read about it. And
I want to.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Go to heaven and I'm kind of in a hurry
to get there. I'm at peace with my mortal nature
and I want to sip a diet coke.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
On the journey. So so my thing is, I tip great.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I tip great, especially if you bring me an Elevation
Church stolen ten to sign.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
The tip with. That'll be our thing. I'll bump it
up at least three percent. It's just read the word.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
But my thing is keeping my drink ful is kind
of hard because I'll drink five, six, seven.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Eight, nine, ten, eleven.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I've been to twelve class is before uh in a
in a long meal, so I know it's horrible. But
one time this server came over and she was kind
of giggling about how many drinks I was drinking.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
This has been years ago, and she.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Was probably she looked she looked like she was too
young to be legally uh, working at a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And she comes over to.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
The table and she's kind of giggling and uh, and
and I'm apologizing. I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm drinking so
many drinks. I'd just like to drink a lot of
that coke. I'm sorry about that. And I promise I'll
tip you good and just thank you for trying to
keep up with me.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
And she goes, and she goes, and Holly, Holly, feeling
the need to apologize, Holly goes, He's just a thirsty man.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
And she started laughing when Holly said that, but she
was laughing a little too hard. You know how people
can laugh a little too hard for what you said,
and you know that they took something different out of
what you said. And so she's laughing, just laughing, laughing,
And I said, what what what was funny about that?
And and she said, you wife just said you're thirsty
And I said.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, I am.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You've seen it today night here in the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
I like to drink. She said, no, no, you don't
know what thirsty means to you.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
And I said, no, but tell me what thirsty means
to you, I need to know.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
She said, you don't want to know this.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
You're a preacher. She said, you don't. I said, no,
tell me. She said, well, it's kind of something we
would say. Younger people would say, say maybe if a
guy is a little too desperate, we would look at
him and maybe roll our eyes and say thirsty.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
So now I knew she was laughing.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
She said, we even when people post something on social
media where they want to get attention and they try
a little too hard, we call that a thirst trap.
I want to appreach to you today about the thirst trap,
and I want.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
To go show my title, show my time.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I want to go all the way back from Bonefish
Grill to John nineteen.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And see if I can work it together.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Because I gotta admit sometimes I'm thirsty. Sometimes I'm thirsty
like the guy who sends twelve text messages and none
of them get responded to those long text messes. Sometimes
I need too much from the wrong place. Sometimes I'm
thirsty because I love God and I know that he's
(15:32):
my shepherd and I'm not supposed to be in need,
and I.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Have his spirit.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But sometimes I gotta admit to you I'm I'm kind
of thirsty. Look at your neighbor and ask him, are
you thirsty?
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Not you You're you're filled with the spirit of God. Oh,
we get thirsty. And it's no.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Surprise we get thirsty because we're week. He knows our friend,
we're made of dust, came from the dust. Get thirsty
in the dust, dirty thirsty people. I mean that makes sense.
But for Jesus to say I thirst and watch this
when he said it, The Bible says, they came to him,
those soldiers around the cross, and he said, I thirst.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And there was a jar full of sour wine, cheap stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
What the executioners drank while they were waiting on the
person to die. Now, see, this was the second drink
that Jesus was offered on the cross, but the first
one he refused. When he was on his way to
the cross, when he got to the spot where they
would drop the cross the vertical beam and attach to
the horizontal beam because the cross works both ways. I
(16:43):
taught you that two weeks ago. When he got to
that spot, they offered him a drink. This drink was,
the Bible says, mixed with mir which was meant to
drug the person going to the cross.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
The women would prepare it, often as an act.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Of compassion or kindness, and when they offered him this drink,
perhaps in mockery, before he called himself a king and
they offered him a drink, Mark tells us in Mark,
I think it's like fifteen twenty three. They offered him
wine mixed with merv but he did not take it
because maybe he saw it as a trap, because he
(17:19):
was focused on finishing what God gave him to do.
And when he got to the cross, he refused to
drink and said, I don't need that. Now I want
you to do something for me. Okay, everybody do this,
Everybody do this. I want you to get something in
your mind that's trying to keep you from being on
the path of your purpose.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And when I say three.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Push it out the way like Jesus pushed the cup
of Myrrh and say I don't need it. One, two, three,
I don't need it. He said, I'm not drinking that.
I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
With his gaze set on the glory of God, he
went toward the cross.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
But now it's been six hours since he first got
to Gugatha, and he says, I thirst Remember, this is
the same voice of God that created the clouds.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And filled them with condensation.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
This is the voice that has the power to flood
the earth and only Noah and every animal on the
boat gets out of it alive, and he thirst. So
we're surprised by it, or at least we should be.
And we're surprised when they come to him and there's
a jar of sour wine and they offer to the
Lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of
(18:35):
the earth. You need to understand that what happened on
the cross didn't start on the cross, and it didn't
end on the cross.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
The cross was pointing.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
At the prophetic fulfillment of the purpose of God that
existed before time began.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So they take a hiss up branch, which was what
they used on.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Passover back when they would take the blood of a
lamb and put it on a door post. And so
they took that branch they would put the blood on.
And now the Lamb of God is bleeding. It is
not the shadow anymore. It's the actuality, the revelation of God.
The fullness of God is hanging on a cross in
the form of a man, and they give him vinegar
(19:14):
to drink for his thirst, and they put it to
his mouth, the same mouth that spoke them into existence,
and they gave him vinegar to drink. How could he
be thirsty? How could God struggle with a human sensation
(19:35):
like thirst? Struggle? If you want to write something down,
write down struggle, because to really understand why he said
I thirst on the cross, you would have to start
really in the garden of Gathsemene. Okay, the garden of
got Semene is where he went out to pray before
(19:58):
he drank the cup of suffering. And it's one thing
to come to church and talk about a calling, because
sometimes a calling is like a beautiful cup.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
But what's in it? Sometimes when it.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Comes time to really fulfill your calling, let me break
this down, because y'all are really looking at me cross
eyed and stuff. It's one thing to pick out a
name for your baby. It's another thing to have to
raise them in middle school.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
It didn't work. It still didn't work.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I'm trying really hard to bring this right where you are.
It is one thing to write down his last name
with your first name and think about how awesome it
would be to be missus so and so.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
But it's another thing to.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Deal with his bad breath and his bad spending habits
and realize that his mom didn't teach him how to
put the seat down on the toilet after he used it,
and work out the mechanics of marriage in the context
of the calling, not just the excitement of the concept
of something. So sometimes why we are very excited about
the concept of being used by God. Stay with me
(21:04):
because this sermon is about to do something.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
In your soul. Deep down in your soul.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I feel the spirit of God saying to somebody today,
what will you do.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
With the cup?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Because Jesus had a cup that he didn't want to drink,
and he prayed in the garden. He prayed, Father, if
there's any other way to get this done, if there's
any other way, let this cup pass from me, the
cup that was full of the wrath of God, the
(21:39):
just punishment that our sin deserved.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
And he drank it. But he struggled to drink it.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Do you know how I know he struggled because he prayed,
if there's any other way, let this cup pass. But
if there's not, if I have to drink it down,
if I have to suffer, you have to go to
the cross. I'm going to the cross. If I have
to be mocked, I'll be mocked. If I have to
(22:07):
be alone, I'll be alone.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
If I have to cry, I'll cry. If I have
to struggle, I'll struggle.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Not my will, but yours be gone. So the Son
of God is thirsty, and he's thirsty because he's trapped.
He's trapped in a place that we're all familiar with.
He's trapped between what he wants and what God wills.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Have you ever been trapped?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Three honest people, three thirsty people. All the thirsty people
make some noise, just be honest about it, because remember,
it's only those who and thirst that can be filled.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
It's only those who know what it's like. I mean,
he got.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Down in that garden and he prayed so hard about it,
and he heard so much about it while Peter.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
James and John slept on the side. But Jesus prayed.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
The Bible says he prayed to the point that his
sweat was like drops of blood struggle to surrender, and
he was. He was trapped in the garden between what
God had spoken and what his flesh wanted. I'm thirsty,
(23:43):
of course, he's thirsty. When you sweat like that, you're
going to be thirsty. I mean, if the Son of
God sweat like that, what makes you think you're going
to go through life and never break one yourself?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
So we think we're just.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Supposed to fulfill our call and never drink the cup.
We think we're supposed to have a vision, but no, vinegar.
I mean, the son of God is sweating drops of
blood and we're supposed to be able to sleep through.
Life is a struggle, he said, I thirst because he
struggled people.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I know he was thirsty.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I mean he's fully God, yes, but he's also fully man.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
In other words, he's trapped.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Because he's God, but he's wrapped in flesh because he's glory.
But he's wrapped in frailty because he's eternity. But he's
trapped in time because he's spirit, but he's trapped in
a body. Sometimes I feel trapped because what I want
to do I can't do, and what I do I hate,
(24:50):
and what I want to.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Do I don't have the will to do. I'm trapped.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Thirsty, Hi, I'm wearying, And he struggled, And see, I'm
not very comfortable with this.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I don't like it because I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I don't really want to see a god who struggled
like I struggle. I like that stuff where he opens
his mouth and says shut up to the wind and
the waves. I like that because that makes me think
he's just gonna walk into my situation smooth sailing.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But when he says I thirst.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
See, now I see him identifying with my shame, and
it causes me to look at myself, not as I
wish to be, but as I really am, Because now
I've got to picture him carrying my shame right down. Shame,
because shame will make you thirsty. Shame will make you
try to fill something with the words of people that
(25:59):
can really only be fulfilled by the word of God.
Shame will make you forget who you really are. Of
course he was thirsty. He was carrying your shame. Now,
I mean to an untrained eye, it looked like he
was carrying a beam that weighed eighty pounds and he
(26:21):
carried it up a hill. Now this is from Pilot's Palace,
where Jesus was sentenced by the Roman prelate. He had
already been handed over by Caiaphas, the High priest. He's
been going back and forth all night. He sweats in
the garden, He heads to the cross. He gets there,
they offer him something to numb the pain. He says, no,
I'm focused, No, not yet.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
He pushes the.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Drink aside, thirsty as he is carrying my shame eighty pounds.
You know, it weighs a lot more than that when
it's in your soul, a whole lot more than eighty pounds.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
It weighs a whole lot more.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
It'll weigh so much you can't even look people in
the eye when it's in your soul.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
And he carried that, He carried it the length of.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Six and a half football fields from Pilot's palace to Galgata.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Of course he was thirsty.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Come on, I can't even do a set of kettlebell
swings and not take a sip.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Of course he was thirsty.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Of course he said, I thirst And you know what,
this isn't the first time that Jesus said he was
thirsty in John's gospel. No, it's not man, not at all. See,
because one time, can I tell you a story from
the Bible. It's a Bible story from John chapter four,
(27:50):
And it's interesting because Jesus is going somewhere, but he
goes around to get there, and the place where he
goes is called Samaria. Now this is not a normal
place for a Jew to go, so the fact that.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
He went there was kind of surprising.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
But nobody asked him why he was doing what he
was doing, because by this time his disciples knew that
everything he did he did on purpose. Let me say
that again, everything he did he did on purpose. That's
going to come back, and that's going to be very
important when I finished this little sermonette today. Everything he
did he did on purpose. So the Bible says he
(28:29):
had to go to Samaria, he had to go. Why
why did he have to go to Samaria? Why did
he have to go to the cross? Why would he
go out of his way to Samaria where a Jewish
person would not normally go. Why would God go where
he was least expected? Do you ever wonder why God
(28:49):
would bother with someone like you?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Have you ever asked that question? Why me? God? Any
parents that have ever asked God? Why me? Why would
you call me to raise a kid?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
When I feel like a little boy myself? Sometimes See
the interesting thing to me about this little excursion Jesus
takes is that he's going to Samaria. He sits down
when he gets there, and he waits by a well
for a woman. Now, let me tell you something about
(29:22):
this woman, because she's coming out in the middle of
the day. And the only reason that you would go
to the well in the middle of the day in
a hot climate is so nobody else would be there,
because you're ashamed to be seen by people. So she's
going out in the middle of the day to get
some water at a time when she doesn't think anybody
(29:44):
else will see her. Because she's thirsty. I said, she's thirsty.
And she's not just thirsty for water, she's thirsty. She's
thirsty in the urban dictionary thirsty kind of way. So
Jesus sits by a well waiting for a woman and
(30:04):
sets a trap for a thirsty woman.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Y'all aren't even helping me appreciate this sermon. I work
so hard. All that's rude.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
So she comes up says, oh, crap, I thought nobody
would be here.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I don't even know this.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
God, have you noticed how everything we've been studying and
in the scripture says Jesus showing up to people who
didn't even recognize him when he did, just showing up.
And then he does something unthinkable. Okay, talk about a
thirst trap. Jesus the Living Water sees this woman come in,
(30:40):
knows what kind of life she's lived, and yet he
doesn't say anything about that. He says, hey girl, modernization.
But he said, give me look at for seven, give
me a drink. She didn't like that very much, so
she got real deep look at her. Because here's what
(31:00):
you do when God speaks to a place in your life.
When when God starts speaking to you, you get theoretical
and abstract because to be specific, to really have to
deal with the issue is actually sometimes painful. So she's like, hey,
how is it that you a Jew asked to drink
from me?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
A woman from Samaria? In other words, I know you're
not talking to me. That's what I want to saying.
I know you're not talking to me. And you can
feel that way sometimes.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I mean, some of you sit here and listen to
me preach and you think it's for your wife.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
I'm talking to you.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I'm talking to you, buddy, thirsty self.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
So everybody in here is thirsty.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Everybody in here is thirsty.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Some of y'all get it through sex, some of.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Y'all get it through success, some of y'all get.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
It through religion. But I got to tell you something.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
The person you're sitting now is thirsty.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
It's not a sin to be thirsty.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
It's just where you go to get your fixed that
determines whether or not.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Your soul will be satisfied. Because I found out there's
only one while that hasslewater, I need.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
We talk about the satisfaction, the satisfaction. Jesus says, hey,
I need a drink.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
And the woman thinks he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Water, but he's not talking about water. And the woman
is perhaps a shamed and offended, and so she goes
to push him away because see.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
That's what she's learned how to do. She's thirsty.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
So she's learned how to get what she needs from
who she thinks can give it. But none of it lasts.
She's learned, give me your phone. She's learned how to
get what she needs. So she wakes up in the
morning thirsty. Did they like my picture? Did they come
in on my posts? Did they frame me back? Did
they follow me back?
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Thirsty?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Somebody shall thirsty thirsty acting like that that's gonna fill you.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
It might for a minute, but there's one problem with this. Well,
Jesus said, if you.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Drink of this water, woman, you're gonna stay thirsty. And
I want you to know that if you put your
validation in other people's hands, you will have to go
back to them for it, and you can't. Don't make
me throw his phone, so Jesus, he just lays it
out there.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Oh yeah, I will make a work a while to
come to church today.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
So Jesus is like, hey, you know everyone who drinks
of this water, everyone who drinks of this water, I
ain't a gout on Facebook. Yeah, but why do you
go to the mall. Everybody drinks somewhere. Why do you
eat the ritos everybody drinks somewhere. Why you put so
(33:53):
much pressure on your kids to do what you never did.
Everybody drinks somewhere. Why are you texting her back? You
better take your phone. Man, something's coming over me while
I heard this same something demon in that phone, So
(34:16):
sit down.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
He says bye. Well, and he's like, now, I gotta
be honest.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
On the surface, it sounds like a pickup line, but
we know it's not because Jesus, he's not. He's not
thirsty like Dad. He's trying to get her something, got it,
He's not. He's not trying to receive something from her.
(34:44):
He's trying to release something to her because he knows
she's thirsty. So he's like, Hey, whoever drinks of the
water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
That troubled me because I was contrasting at what he
said fifteen chapters earlier with what he said in John
nineteen on the Cross, where he said at thirst And
(35:06):
I felt like I had caught Jesus contradicting himself because
he said he had water and we would never thirst
if we drank it.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
But he said he thirsted on the cross.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
But I noticed how he didn't say, you'll never feel
thirsty again. He said you'll never be He didn't say
you will never thirst again. You're see, you're gonna thirst.
You're gonna have days that you feel discouraged. If you weren't,
(35:38):
God wouldn't tell you not to be terrified or discouraged,
if you were naturally going to always be encouraged, if
you were never going to be discouraged and dehydrated.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
That's what the water is for.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So what he's saying is you'll always have somewhere to
drink from, not that you'll never have a need, but
that I will meet all of your needs according to
my glorious richest.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
That's the promise.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
So he tells the woman, I got something for you.
That's what he tells the woman. I got something for you.
And it's not like what you've been drinking. Because watch this.
He traps this woman. He totally traps this woman. Jesus
all through his ministry, people were trying to trap Jesus.
The Sadducees and the Pharisees and Judas trapped him in
the garden and the Roman official stuff. They had him
(36:31):
trapped on the cross, but Jesus was always the one.
Even when they thought they had him, they never really
had him because he was always in control, even on
the cross. There were over three hundred Messianic prophecies that
Jesus fulfilled in his life and in his death. And
so Jesus was Jesus was never he was never really trapped.
See here he is with this woman and he says,
(36:51):
I want to drink, But he's not really thirsty like that.
He's trying to give her something. God doesn't really need
anything from you. He can have another you in a minute.
I don't mean to go back to two thousand and
two because sometimes and so God really isn't needing something
from you when we talk about giving in the church.
How dare you, with your thirsty self get an attitude?
They just want my money. God doesn't need your money.
(37:13):
God wants to be in your heart. He wants to
set you free. You're the one thirsty. You're the one.
So he says, give me a drink. She says, well,
we don't have a bucket, and he's trying to get
her to see that she is the bucket.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
And he is the water.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
You know, I'm telling myself right now, focus verdict. You've
got to finish. These people have a life. They don't
want to be here with you for three more hours.
Give me ten minutes. The woman said, sir, if there's
some kind of water, if there's some bottomless well, if
(38:01):
there's free refills, somebody shout free refills, give me this
water so I won't have to be so I won't
have to be trapped, so I won't have to keep
coming back here. So so I won't have to keep
(38:28):
texting Travis that just made up the name, so I
won't have to keep performing, so I won't have to
keep being so.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Thirsty.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
And now Jesus, he's got her, all right, got her.
He came to some area and sat by the well.
And now she's trapped.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Watch us.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Hee goes, all right, go get your husband. And she
says what had happened was I don't have a husband,
which is true, but it's not the total truth.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
You know how you do.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Like right, I have no husband. Jesus said, you're right
and saying I have no husband, for you've had five
husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you've said is true. And you're thirsty, thirsty, and
(39:44):
you're trapped. And when I asked you for water, I
was trying to release you from having to go all
around to people and things and stuff that doesn't satisfy.
(40:07):
I want to give you something that comes from within.
I want to give you something that doesn't depend on
bank accounts, It doesn't diminish.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
No matter how the biopsy comes back.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I want to give you something that you can live
off of, something that only gets stronger in your struggle
I want to give you a limited supply, And she said, sir,
I think you're onto something. She goes back to Samaria
(40:52):
carrying living water that she didn't even expect to get,
comes back to Jesus, and the Bible says that many
and some are belief because of her testimony. See it,
it was a trap. Jesus used a thirsty woman to
transform an entire region. I wonder how he could use
(41:13):
your life, if you would receive his grace today.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
You've been coming here a long time. Have I ever
preached stronger than I'm preaching right now?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
I'm not even done yet, So sit back and let
me give you my fourth point. I want to talk
about the setup, because that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
It was a setup.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
That's why you went through Samaria. He was setting this
woman up. That's why he asked for a drink because
she was thirsty. That's why you went to the cross
a pill six and fifty the arts.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
That's why he said, I thirst.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
And I'm gonna tell you how I found out because
I thought about that thing so long. I thought, Okay,
how can living water be thirsty?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
How can I well need water?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
How can the one that spoke the oceans into existence,
now need water from the very same source that he created.
How could God, who rains above the waters, need water.
How could it be possible that God could come down
condescend to the form of human man. How could Christ
be made flesh? How could he die and suffer like that?
How can it be that there are seasons in my
life when I call him him and nothing happens. How
can it be that I have divinity but I'm trapped
sometimes in my desperation. How can it be that I'm
(42:32):
full of the spirit, but sometimes I feel so dry?
Speaker 1 (42:37):
So I had to read again. I read that.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Verse like like twenty times in John nineteen twenty eight.
And I don't read Greek, although I took Greek. I
don't read Hebrew although I took Hebrew. I was not
very effective in my language studies. And I don't even
read Aramaic, which is what Jesus was probably speaking in
at the moment when he said I thirst.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
But what I do read really.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Well is English, and I know my punctuation marks. So
when I read John nineteen twenty eight, have y'all got
like seven minutes for me to tie this up? Seven minutes,
seven minute miracle, and so it said that after this,
(43:23):
after all you've been through, after all they've accused you off,
after all the people who walked away who should have
been there. After this, after they counted you out and
said you or nothing and mocked you. After this, after
a crowd of thorns was placed on his head, after
the blood ran from his brow, after this, after they
(43:45):
beat us back, after they.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Released for rabbis, after this.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
After the cock crow and Peter denied him thrice. After this,
knowing that now all things were finished, Jesus had one
more thing to say, one thing to do, because there
are three hundred prophecies, and he was on two ninety nine.
(44:13):
And see everybody standing around that day thought that death.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Had trapped Jesus.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Right, And the cross was a setup, But it wasn't
set up by Judas, and it wasn't set up by
the Sadducees, and it wasn't set up by the Pharisees,
and it wasn't set up by Herod.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
It was set up by Heaven.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Listen to me preach this sermon. Listen to me preach
this sermon. Listen to me preach on the parentheses. In
John nineteen twenty eight. I preached on a lot of
things in my little tenure preaching, but I've never preached
on a punctuation mark until today.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
After this, knowing that all things.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Had been fulfilled, knowing that he had drank down the
full cup of the wrath of God so that you
would never have to After knowing that he suffered like
a criminal, so that he could reign like a king,
after humbling himself, being obedient even to the point of
death on the cross.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
And it was then Jesus said parentheses to fulfill the scripture.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Huh. I wonder why John put it in parentheses. Probably
because he didn't know. That's why it was happening at
the time. See, when Jesus said I thirst, they thought
he wanted water, so they gave him vinegar to mock him.
And the thing they used to mock him was actually
(45:57):
the thing that he used to finish the work God
gave him to do.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
The thing that they put on a sponge to shame
him was that. See, because listen, I got to tell
you something. Stand up so I'll finish this sermon. Please. Oh,
I got to show you one more thing. See, because.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
When Jesus said I thirst, to fulfill the scripture parentheses.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Have you ever had to live in the parentheses?
Speaker 2 (46:31):
I mean, like not understanding why you were going through
what you were going through.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Please be real with me. I cannot preach this sermon
to close hearts.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
I'm trying to give you water today for your thirsty soul.
But sometimes you're in a wilderness and you don't know why.
And sometimes you're looking at a red sea and you
feel trapped. And Jesus looked trapped up there on that cross,
but John said no, he wasn't trapped.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Death didn't trap Jesus. Jesus trapped death.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
No, Now I know why, he said.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
I thirst.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Now I know why why the lips that spoke the
waters into their place on the earth set I thirst
to fulfill the scripture.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
God has a purpose.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
For every thurst in your lives. Death didn't trap Jesus.
Jesus trapped Dad.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
So one time David felt trapped in the Psalms and
then Psalm sixteen. He describes it in vivid detail. He goes,
the deep waters have engulfed me. I'm surrounded by enemies.
They hurl their insults at me. Does this sound familiar?
By the way, It's a messianic song. It's describing centuries
(48:16):
before the cross, what the cross would be like for Jesus.
It is David. Jesus is called the son of David.
It is David, pointing to the one who now says,
I thirst, And David says something that although he is
surrounded by what he calls deep waters of trial, he
says that the reproach has broken his heart. The shame
(48:42):
has brought him so low to this place that he
feels like he's drowning. And you can get to a
place where you feel trapped in doubt, and you can't
have dysfunctions in your life that have been there so
long that you feel trapped inside of yourself. That's the
worst place to feel trapped. Not in a bad relationship.
(49:05):
I mean, you can always block that number, But what
do you do when you're trapped inside of your own heart,
your own broken heart? David said, it's it's so bad.
It's broken my heart. And I am in despair. I
am in distress. But watch this, he said, I look
for pity. There was none for comforters. I found none.
(49:26):
Nobody could help me.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
I was trapped. I was trapped. I was trapped.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
He said, I got to the point where I asked
my friends for food. Go to the next verse, and
they gave me poison for food. The people who were
supposed to.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
Help me hurt me. They gave me poison for food.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
I was thirsty, But for my thirst, they gave me
sour wine to drink. And now I understand why Jesus
set I thirst. Go back to my scripture. It was
to fulfill the scripture. It wasn't about water. Jesus was
setting the trap for death. This was the last thing
(50:13):
he had to do before the spirit could be released.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's a setup.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
It's a set up.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
If he didn't suffer, salvation could not spring up like
a well. If he did not suffer, it could not
flow forth. If he did not die, he could not rise.
Somebody shout, it's a setup.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
It's not the end. It's in the parentheses. It's in
the parentheses.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Sometimes you gotta trust God in the parentheses, in the
type places when it looks like your trap, to know
that the very red sea that feels like it's gonna
kill you, it's.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Gonna drown your enemies behind you.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Somebody shot it staring the shouting. He said, I thirsted,
and they gave me vinegar. But watch this, David praying.
This is what I'm praying over your life today. Every
evil thing that the enemy has done to you, and
(51:24):
every trial that feels like is sweeping over you. And
for everybody who feels trapped. Listen what he prayed. Let
their own table before them, the thing that they brought
to destroy me. Let their own table become a snare.
And when they are at peace. So just when the
(51:44):
devil thought he had Jesus trapped, just when.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
He thought it was over, just.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
When he thought we got rid of that one, just
when he thought it was the end, just when they
rolled the snow become.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
I'm trapped, God said, I got you.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Set the trap. He set the trap. He set the trap.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
So God brought you here into this garden so you
could sweat out your insecurities.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
God brought you here into.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
This type place so that your dots could die and
your faith could live, and you will never curse.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
Again.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
He said, I thirst and they brought him vinegar. And
he said, good, I need that. I needed that vinegar.
I needed that trial. Sometimes victory doesn't look like victory.
Sometimes victory doesn't taste sweet.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
And when he said, I.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Thirst, and they gave him the vinegar for water. After that,
after he had received the sour wine, after he had
set the trap on death, hell and the grave, I
promise you we're gonna have the best Easter ever this year.
Speaker 1 (53:10):
I feel like Easter came early today. I really do.
I really do.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
I really feel like resurrection came in an unexpected time
for somebody who thought, you are trapped.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Here the word of the Lord.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
It's not a trap, as the triumph.
Speaker 4 (53:27):
Shall I the God.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
So Friday's trap was Sunday's triumph.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
He set up, first, set the trap, and after he
had received the sour he.
Speaker 1 (53:53):
Said, is finished. It's finished.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
The trap became the triumph. God's gonna take the thing
that looks. Ask the children of Israel. They thought the
red Seed was gonna be the end of them. It
was the end of their enemies. You're not trapped the
devil is You're not trapped, You're.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Not touch Somebody say, I'm not trapped. Come on, I'm
not trapped, and.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
I'm not your sea who the sun sets free? How
many believe that the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory that will
be revealed.
Speaker 1 (54:42):
How many believe Christ is in you? The humble glory?
Come on, shot like you believe that shot like you.
I'm on casting, So.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
I'm gonna tell you one more thing, and I promise
I'm gonna walk off this stage while I'm saying it.
I love to preach the word to you, not because
I like to hear myself talk.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
I love to preach the.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
Word of God to you because I know what this
seed is going to do if you get it down
in your heart.
Speaker 1 (55:11):
And I watched this favorite flows from unexpected places.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
Do you remember when we were writing the song Resurrecting
And it took about nine months to write the song,
and everybody on the team contributes in different ways. My
thing is, I like, I always like to write. And
Chris can tell you this because we've been knowing each
other forever, and you'll give it up for Chris Brown.
This man is a great man of God. Well, I'm
(55:41):
kind of weird because I like it. When the song
seems like it should be over, I always like to
put another verse.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
It's true, right.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
So we wrote the song and it was kind of done,
not really done. We thought it was done and we
finished the songwrit anything, and I started.
Speaker 1 (55:54):
Thinking, I wanted to write this fourth verse for this song.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
And you know, Chris is kind of laid because he's
a worship leader and uh no, I'm just kidding. He's
the hardest working man in the praise biz. But so.
Speaker 1 (56:10):
It took six months to get the verse right.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
But we ended up writing a declaration for our church,
lift your hands, whatever's got your trap today. We ended
up writing this verse to let you know that what
looks like it's got you locked in.
Speaker 1 (56:28):
Is going to be the place. See, that's what the
grave was.
Speaker 2 (56:30):
The grave of Jesus Christ was a garden in disguise.
That's what your trials are, That's what your weakness is.
So I want you to sing this fourth verse because
just when it seems like the song should be over,
just when it seems like your hope is gone, just
when it seems like the devil has dehydrated your.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Dream the solous. So they thought they had him right,
so they posted the guard right there.
Speaker 2 (57:13):
And now if he robbed the grave of its power,
if the guards couldn't keep his body at come on, church,
come on, I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (57:28):
You, Rivers. I'm living water you never nurse again.
Speaker 3 (57:33):
Would you get this spirit feed and the same spirit
He's body and.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
Rags some the You're got a.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
Stake wa God has robbed.
Speaker 4 (57:50):
Got up should dame?
Speaker 1 (58:05):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
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information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Thanks again for listening. God bless you
Host
Steven Furtick
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