All right. We've had a wonderful morning already.
And the word this morning that I felt the Lord
stir on me is in response really to the word
that Dennis gave a couple of weeks ago. How many
of you remember that on the well that the Lord
is opening up? And so I've begun, I just began
praying through that and I want us to... because
you can hear a word like that on Sunday morning.
And sometimes, especially if you're newer to
this, you're like, what does that mean? A well
is opening up, you know? Sometimes we use language
that if we've been around this a while, we understand.
But if you're newer, that might be new terminology
for you. So I wanted to dive a little bit into
that. So what we're gonna do is... Nick laughed
at me when I put my notes back there. He's like
we're gonna be here all morning I said no, we're
gonna move through this fast What are we gonna
do is I'm gonna I want you to have from the word
the Old Testament basic understanding of the
importance of wells in the Old Testament And
then we're gonna transition that into the New
Testament, okay? So you'll want a notebook in
your Bible this morning, because you're gonna
need to write these down, because we're gonna
move through them quickly. But how many of you,
I think there might be a couple of you in here
that would say, my dream life, if I could do
anything and had unlimited resources, would be
to begin and live on a homestead. I would like
to just. Yeah, a couple of you. I think most.
Oh quite a few of you. Connie really? Nathaniel
do you? Nathaniel shaking his head no. I'm trying
to envision you Connie having a homestead. I
don't know. As long as she doesn't have to go
outside. What she means is Nathaniel she would
like you to start the homestead and she could
just dwell in whatever dwelling you build for
her. That's right. So, Alexandra and I like to
watch this show called Homestead Rescue. Has
anybody ever seen Homestead Rescue? The Alaskan
family that comes all over the United States
to people who we believe, and we get a little
critical, quite honestly. We're like, have you
ever watched a YouTube? I mean, I feel like I
could because I watch enough YouTube videos on
the subject. There's some basic things I feel
like I could go and do. And so some of these
people that they have to go and rescue, we are
like, what is your problem? What were you? Like
they had a romantic idea of leaving the city
and living off grid. And then what happens is
they don't know what they're doing. I'm like,
really? I thought some basic research on how
to grow a garden might, you know, at least grow
a garden. And so they come in and they rescue.
Honestly, I don't know how they do it. I would
be too much like exasperated with people, but
they're invested in their homestead. So they
come in and they get them set up to succeed on
their homestead. And every time, here's what
the issues come down to. The issues come down
to their inability to hunt or trap animals or
raise animals. Or they might raise animals, but
when it comes time to harvesting the animals,
there's a problem. Or the garden, they cannot
successfully grow a garden. So they cannot provide
food for themselves. The other major issue that
you find is they cannot provide a water source.
Almost every time, it's one of these two issues.
They cannot provide food for themselves and they
have no water source. And there cannot be a successful
homestead where there is no food and where there
is no water. I mean... We do. We sometimes just
laugh and disbelieve over some of these. I mean,
some have legit issues, okay, but some of them
I'm just like, come on, watch a YouTube video.
That's all you need to do. This morning we're
going to talk about the importance of wells in
our life. And so we're going to walk through
here really quickly at the beginning because
I want to get where we're going at the end. So
there are five wells in the Old Testament that
we're going to take a brief moment to look at.
Okay, the first one is the well of being seen
and accepted. This is the first well that we
see in the Bible, and that is in Genesis chapter
16. This is the account of Hagar, and if you
know the backstory, you know the promise God
gave Abraham for a son, and then he and Sarai
could not have a child. So Sarai got tired of
waiting on God and said, here, take my servant
and have a child with her. That will be my child.
And so she sends Hagar into Abraham and they
have a child, Ishmael. And once she gets pregnant,
Sarai, unfortunately, begins to resent Hagar
and to be jealous of Hagar and to treat her poorly.
And so Hagar runs away from Sarai. She flees.
And so we take up the account in verse 6 of Genesis
16. Then Sarai mistreated Hagar, so she fled
from her. The angel, I'm skipping around in this
chapter, The angel of the Lord found Hagar near
a spring. A spring is also used interchangeably
with a well, and later on in the chapter it's
called a well. Near a spring in the desert, she
gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her.
So the angel came and visited her at this well.
And in response, she named This well you are
the god who sees me for she said I have now seen
the one who sees me This is that is why the well
was called beer the high Roy the god who sees
Hagar had only known unfair treatment and rejection
There is something and that was all she needed
in that moment Was to know is the angel the Lord
came to her God sees me Because when God sees
her God accepts her and God takes away the rejection
that she's been under This is I didn't understand
the power of this really until After I had my
first two, my plan in life was to have two kids.
I got a boy and I got a girl, and I was happy.
And a couple of years later, the Lord began to
speak to me about having more children. And that
was on a Friday, and I said, I don't want to
have more children. But the Lord spoke it in
such a way, I knew he was asking me. I was like,
oh, no. And he said to me, I don't want you to
talk to anybody about this till you decide if
you're going to obey. And so I had a lady I was
praying with weekly and I knew I wasn't supposed
to say a word to her. Sunday night, we had a
church fellowship and she came up to me and she
said, Cami, I've been praying for you. The Lord
has spoken to me that you're in a battle and
it has to do with children. And He wants you
to know that He sees you. That's all she said.
That was all I needed to hear. And I said, yes,
Lord. There was something, there was a power
in knowing God sees me. He sees what He is, it
is empowering to do the hard things that He calls
us to do in life when we know He sees us. Because
really that's all I need in life, is to be seen
by my father. To be seen, to have his attention
upon me. You ever see kids, a lot of kids act
out, why? Because they're trying to get attention
from somebody. Might be a discipline issue, but
sometimes they just need to be seen by the adults,
right? There's something in us that was created
to be seen. And for Haggar, the Lord told her,
he said, you need to go back to Sarai. You need
to go back to your place of hardship, to your
place of unfair treatment. How many of you have
ever been treated unfairly? By family, by a job?
God sends her back to the place of unfair treatment
and she's able to do it why because He saw her
and it empowered her There's something in knowing
that God sees you and I feel like that's the
beginning place often for us and our faith journey
is To be at the well where you encounter him
And no, he's not looking and seeing your neighbor
next to you. Everybody look at your neighbor.
He's not looking at your neighbor. Darren, you
tell me to do this stuff all the time and you're
not looking at a neighbor. He's rebellious. He's
acting out. He needs attention. is true. He gets
honoring when he needs attention. Now I forgot
what I was saying. Okay, so God's not, he's not
looking at your neighbor and saying, oh, I see
Abigail. I don't see Vanessa. No, he's looking
at you. Right now, he sees you. He's not valuing
somebody next to you more than he's valuing you.
His son died for you. He sees you. He sees you.
This is the well of acceptance where he says,
all are welcome at my well. All are welcome to
this place of encounter. So our first well, the
well of being seen. The next well is the second
well of visitation for Haggard. And so Haggard's
story continues. And this is the well of provision.
And so Hagar had gone back, right, and gotten
pregnant, had the baby, and still Sarah is having
issues with this. And she can just no longer
take it anymore. And she says, send that woman
away. I don't want her in my household. Send
him away. Send her away. And so we come to Genesis
21. And so after, you know, Abraham really just
should have stood up to his wife. But early the
next morning, Abraham took some food and a skin
of water, this is verse 14, and gave them to
Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and sent
her off with the boy. She went on her way and
wandered in the desert of Beersheba. When the
water in the skin was gone, She put the boy under
one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat
down about a bow shot away, for she thought,
I cannot watch the boy die. And as she sat there,
she began to sob. All the mama hearts can understand
that, right? God heard the boy crying, and the
angel of God again called to Hagar from heaven
and said to her, What is the matter, Hagar? Do
not be afraid. I love the perspective of heaven
is so different God has heard the boy crying
as he lies there Lift the boy up and take him
by the hand for I will make him into a great
nation Then God opened her eyes and she saw a
well of water So she went and filled the skin
with water and gave the boy a drink I think that
her eyes were so, how many of you have cried
so much your eyes just get swollen shut, right?
Her eyes were so consumed by her tears. All she
could see was the despair that she was in and
her son was in. Because man's provision had already
failed her, right? Abraham had sent her out with
provision. But it was not enough and it never
will be. Man's provision will never ever be enough.
You will come to the end of man's provision,
of this world's provision. It will take you only
so far and then you find yourself saying, what
now? We're left to die. All along, though, there
was a well. She couldn't see it, but there was
a well. And in that moment, heaven opened over
her and began to speak over her. And suddenly,
she finds herself at another well. The well of
compassion. He had compassion for their desperate
place. for their destitution. You know God has
a well for you in your place of lack, in your
place of destitution. Maybe it's a destitution
of relationships. You have no relationships and
you're lonely. Maybe it is a financial, maybe
it is a physical. There's a well of provision
that He gives. But what it takes is us censoring
ourselves around the well and not the provision
of man. I just discovered that I had some blood
work and found out I have like a thyroid that's
in the tank. Like it's way off almost to the
top of the chart. And Darren was praying for
me last night and because I have a hole I deep
dived into. all about thyroid, and I've got a
whole protocol I've got myself on. I've got to
make a note to know what I've got to do. And
so I'm faithful to steward it, but do you know,
there's a supernatural well for me that will
refill it, that will restore it, that I put my
trust in. Man's things will take me so far, and
then there is the provision of heaven. And so
I position myself around the well of provision.
So we have our first well was the well of being
seen, the second well the well of provision,
and our third well, and this is good news for
you, I've named this well the well of yes and
amen promises. How many of you have promises
that God has given you and years later you are
still waiting? You know He spoke to you. you've
yet to see it come to pass. Well today you can
be encouraged. We're going to look at Genesis
24. Eventually Abraham and Sarah had their own
child, the promised child who was Isaac, and
there came the time that they wanted a wife for
Isaac. And so Abraham sends out His servant to
find a wife for Isaac and So I love what his
servant does his servant obviously knew the ways
of their household and in 24 verse 42 The servant
came to the spring So he found the well in town
and he said Lord God of my master Abraham If
you will, please grant success to the journey
on which I have come. See, I am standing beside
this spring. If a young man comes out to draw
water, and I say to her, please let me drink
a little from your jar, and if she says to me,
drink, and I'll draw water for your camels, too.
That's a big job. That's a lot of water. Let
her be the one the Lord has chosen for my master's
son. Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebecca
came out with her jar on her shoulder, went down
to the spring, drew up water and said, I said
to her, please give me a drink. She quickly lowered
her jar and said, drink and I'll water your camels
too. He immediately went to the home of Rebecca.
Rebecca became Isaac's wife. This is the well
of where God's promises that he made to you are
yes and amen. So let them be You receive a prophetic
word and you're believing for it God speaks direction
over your life over your future and you have
yet to see it come to pass What you need is not
to in your own strength and ability fulfill God's
promises what you need to find is a well Abraham's
servant could have gone door to door, knocking,
looking for relatives of Abraham. He could have,
in his own mind, come up with a plan of action
to find a wife, you know, matchmaker .com. He
could have done something like that, but he didn't.
He went and he found a well. And he trusted that
God would, in that place, at that well. Bring
the yes and the amen. God's promises for you
are not fulfilled in your own strength, in your
own abilities. They are fulfilled at the well.
They are fulfilled at the well. If his servant
had not found the well, He would have missed.
He would have missed the provision of the Lord,
the fulfillment that the Lord had for Isaac's
wife. And so don't get discouraged over these
promises. You just say, I'm going to stay at
this well until Lord you send it. I'm going to
stay at the well of your presence until the fulfillment
comes. Okay, that takes us into well number four.
We're moving through these fast to get somewhere
Genesis 26 This is still his son Isaac and Isaac
we're gonna come back to this passage a little
later on but Isaac He went up to bear Sheba and
that night the Lord appeared to him And he said,
I am the God of your father Abraham. And what
he's doing here is he is reaffirming the covenant
that he had made to his father Abraham, to Isaac.
And he says, don't be afraid for I am with you.
I will bless you and will increase the number
of your descendants for the sake of my servant
Abraham. In response to that encounter, here's
what Isaac did. He built an altar there and he
called on the name of the Lord. This is how we
see them worshipping the God of Abraham in those
days. They would build an altar and they would
call in the name of the Lord. This was their
act of worship. And so he did that. The first
thing he did was build an altar and then it says
he pitched his tent and there his servants dug
a well. Dug a well. This is my favorite well
the well of worship and encounter There's just
really nothing else this for me. This well is
not about what I can get from God This is a well
of where I can worship him. This is the well
where I can just enjoy his presence I Love this
well He pitched his tent and he there if you're
going to listen digging a well is no easy thing
it's not like we have the drills that we have
nowadays right can you imagine digging a well
is a big deal but digging down through bedrock
to get to the water table and so this is no easy
task but he was committed he had encountered
god at this place And now this place was a sacred
place. So he pitched a tent and he dug a well.
He said, I'm driving my roots down right here.
The well of worship and encounter. Man, visit
this well, live in this well. This should be
a well that's day in and day out of your life.
The place of encounter. Which leads us to the
last one that I'm going to briefly touch on the
well of refreshment We come later on to the Israelites
and their exodus from Egypt in Exodus 15 and
You know, this was a great wilderness. They were
often hungry. They were often thirsty But in
chapter 15 verse 27, it says that they came to
Elam where there were 12 springs of water and
70 palms. This is the well that enables us in
Psalm 84, 6 to pass through the valley of weeping,
where they make it a place of springs and of
pools of refreshment. How does that happen? Because
There's a well that God gives of refreshment.
It's a well for you to drink from. And so these
are wells that we find, and they're literal wells,
but they're places of God encounters as well.
Right? You can drink actual water from these
wells, but they were also these God encounter
places. In the New Testament, there are two wells,
and this is where we're going. And you can't
get to the second well unless you go to the first
well. And the first well is found in John chapter
four. And I'm gonna be moving around in here,
but we're gonna start in verse six. This is where
Jesus comes and he meets the Samaritan woman
at a well. His disciples have gone in to get
him food and he comes to Samaria and he sits
at the well of Jacob. And in verse 6, it says,
Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey,
sat thus by the well of Jacob. It was about the
sixth hour, and a woman of Samaria came to draw
water, and Jesus said to her, Give me a drink,
for his disciples had gone to buy food. And the
woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that
you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan
woman? For Jews had no dealing with Samaritans.
They would have nothing to do with each other.
A huge racial issue right here. And Jesus sees
her. She's not used to being seen, especially
by men or by Jews. And Jesus sees her. Jesus
answered and said, If you knew the gift of God
and who it is who says to you, give me a drink,
you would have asked him and he would have given
you living water. And then the woman said, I
have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.
Where then do you get that living water? Are
you greater than our father Jacob who gave us
the well and drank from it himself? as well as
his sons and livestock. Jesus answered and said,
whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.
But whoever drinks of the water that I have will
never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him will come in him a fountain of water springing
up into everlasting life. And the woman said,
Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst
nor come here to draw it. And then Jesus gets
real personal with her. He's offering her the
gift of salvation. But in order to do that, he
has to touch on some things in her lives. How
many of you, when you came to salvation, the
Lord had to touch on some things in your life,
right? And he still has to touch on things in
my life. But he says, go call your husband and
come here. And she says, I have no husband. And
Jesus says, you have well said, I have no husband,
for you have five husbands. You have had five
husbands. And the one whom you now have is not
your husband. In that you spoke truly. And the
woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are
a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on that. Actually,
let's stop there and go over. to verse 28. So
she perceives he's a prophet in verse 28. They
have a whole nother conversation, but in verse
28, it says after her encounter with Jesus, she
left her water pot, went into the city and said
to the men, come see a man who told me all things
that I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Then
they went out of the city and came to him. And
so she brought all the men of the city out to
see Jesus. What was she doing in that moment?
She was testifying. She was evangelizing. Go
over to verse 39. After the conclusion of this,
It says, many of the Samaritans of that city
believed in him because of the word of the woman
who testified, he told me all that I ever did.
So when the Samaritans had come to him, they
urged him to stay with them and he stayed two
days and many more believed because of his own
word. Then they said to the woman, now we believe
not because of what you said, For we ourselves
have heard of Him, and we know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Savior of the world. Hallelujah.
This is what all the other wells build up to.
This is the whole enchilada. It is salvation
that has been given at this well. And this woman
had been thirsty. She was so thirsty she had
tried to find in all of these husbands and men
Something that would satisfy her and she couldn't
find it Until she encountered the Christ the
Savior of the world This is the well This is
the well that you cannot move beyond This is
the well that satisfies the longing of your heart
the longings You don't even understand but have
been put inside of you to be satisfied by the
Christ He says to drink deep Drink deep of the
salvation. I love in Isaiah It says come all
you who are thirsty come to the waters you have
no money Come buy eat Come by wine and milk without
cost." And again, he calls out and says, with
joy you will draw from the water the wells of
salvation. Listen to me, if you are here this
morning and you've said, I have never drank of
these waters. I have a thirst that I've been
trying to satisfy and I just can't seem to quench
it. There are waters available for you all are
welcome at the wells of salvation and He would
love for you today to draw deep and to drink
from the well of salvation Once we have drank
of the well of salvation though Here's here's
where we're gonna land this next well of the
New Testament And so a couple of weeks ago, Dennis
gave this word. And it says, the word that came
was, the Lord would say, surely that there is
a fresh well that is beginning to flow. It will
soon gush forth with the oil of the spirit that
the world has not known before. It will bring
forth fresh revelation, fresh understanding,
fresh flow of the spirit that the nations have
not experienced before. Reformation will come
forth in a mighty way that the world has not
known. For surely those who would want to stand
by the old, the old was for an appointed time,
for an appointed season. Although the source
is the same, it is going to be a fresh revelation
of the Spirit of God that the world has not known.
Come and drink, come and be transformed, come
and be renewed by the power of the Spirit, says
the Lord. We were going through this on Tuesday
night at our leader meeting and and Katherine
was pointing out to me that this is not a well
of water in this word But it is a well of oil
of the Holy Spirit And once we have drank of
the wells of salvation What was the first question
that the apostles would ask in the book of Acts?
They would come unto groups of new believers
and they would say, have you received the gift
of the Holy Spirit? It was the first question
they would ask. Have you received this gift?
The well of oil. And you're not going to necessarily
find this term, the well of oil, but really all
a well is, is a source, right? It's a source.
And Jesus, when he was doing his ministry, after
he was baptized, he went into the temple and
he began to read in the temple from the book
of Isaiah. And he read, the spirit of the Lord
is on me because he has anointed me. He anointed
me to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim
freedom to the prisoners, recovery of sight for
the blind, the oppressed free, to proclaim the
year of the Lord's favor. But he was anointed
to do that. How did they anoint in the Old Testament?
It wasn't just these little bottles, man. They
poured on the oil. There that oil was gonna Everybody
knew the priests have been anointed the king
had been anointed with oil it permeated I Mean
even one little dot of this and you'll know you
were anointed with oil today and they were permeated
with it and So Jesus was saying I have been anointed
by who the Spirit of God anointed me. And so
when we talk about oil, what the association
is in the word is with the Holy Spirit. Because
it was the Holy Spirit, nobody poured oil on
him, the Holy Spirit came down upon him and anointed
him. And so we see that the the oil in the Holy
Spirit that Association and so Jesus he was ascending
into heaven after he died and Resurrected and
he said this you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you And you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends
of the earth. And in fact, Jesus said in John
14, these things that I'm doing, you're gonna
do even greater things. You're gonna do even
greater things. What I want us to see is that...
After we have drank of the wells of salvation,
there is the oil of anointing, the oil of the
Holy Spirit that is now available for us. And
just as it anointed Jesus to proclaim freedom
and set people free, it is what he has anointed
us to do. It is what he has sent his Holy Spirit
to do. to empower us to be witnesses, to move
outside these walls and for the Holy Spirit,
the oil of the Holy Spirit. Just as it would
permeate those kings and those priests when you're
at work, so should the oil of the Holy Spirit
permeate your life. The aroma of the oil should
be very evident in your home, should be very
evident in your workplace, should be evident
in your school, wherever you are, the oil of
the Holy Spirit. it should be evident that we've
been filled with and touched and baptized with
His Spirit. The oil, the well of oil is the Holy
Spirit. And so Jesus, Jesus said in Matthew 25,
He had just been teaching the previous chapter
about the end times, about His second coming.
about one that we haven't seen yet, his return
for this church. And so in the next chapter,
he says, at that time, here's what it's gonna
be like. The kingdom of heaven is gonna be like
10 virgins who took their lamps. and went out
to meet the bridegroom. Five were foolish, five
were wise. Five took their lamps but no other
oil. Five took their lamps and brought oil and
jars. And so the bridegroom was a long time in
coming. And so what began to happen, they became
drowsy, they fell asleep. And then at midnight
came the cry, the bridegroom is coming, the bridegroom
is coming. Oh, what began to happen, the foolish
ones ran out of oil. And so they turned to the
wise ones and they say, give us some of your
oil. And the wise, like, sorry, we only have
enough for us. You need to go buy oil. By that
time, it was too late. The bridegroom had come
and taken them and the doors had shut. Listen,
your person sitting next to you, cannot give
you the oil that you need. Teenagers, you can't
rest on the oil of the Holy Spirit of your parents.
You guys gotta be filled. Kids, you gotta be
filled for yourself. I cannot give my kids oil
anymore. They gotta get their own oil. As much
as that hurts our hearts sometimes, it's the
truth. We cannot provide oil for others. We can
only go to the source for ourselves. Everybody
has to go to the Holy Spirit for themselves.
But I love that Jesus at the end of time is saying
here, are you going to be a foolish or a wise
virgin? The wise ones are carrying oil. The chief
concern for these virgins while they waited for
the bridegroom was that they would have light.
Right? It wasn't enough. They just had the oil.
They had the lamp that the oil filled so that
what? The light could be shining forth while
they waited. Are we connecting the dots here?
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit that you would be
a light. And he then becomes the source. for
the light, the oil for the light. Our chief concern
as we await the return of Christ is light, is
being a source of light for our world, and that
requires oil. We cannot be our own source. We
cannot be the source for the light The call is
for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit to be
a witness and So we have to keep drinking because
what happens in those lights they do they burn
the oil And as you are sharing the light If you
are not continually drawing from the source,
from the well of oil, you will burn out. The
source has to flow through you to be a light.
And so, finally, I want us to see the importance
of these wells, because we have an enemy That
desires to stop up your well to cut you off from
your source When we read in Genesis 26 About
Isaac remember pitching his tent If you go back
to that verse what he had been doing up until
that point was reopening the wells of Abraham
Abraham had dug a lot of wells And then the Philistines
had come in and stopped up all of his wells.
And so Isaac was going through the land and he
was reopening the wells of his father. There
are wells of our forefathers. There are sources
that are important that the enemy would love
to stop up in your life. If he can cut you off
from the filling of the Holy Spirit from the
source of oil, if he can cut you off from the
wells of salvation, this is what he wants to
do. This will knock you out if he's able to stop
up your wells. On October 31st, how many of you
are history buffs? Any history buffs? Really,
not very many of you. I'm surprised. Well, you're
getting a little history here. October 31st,
1917 was the Battle of Beersheba in World War
I. And this is actually one of It's remembered
as the last great cavalry charge of history.
And so they were in battle and the Allies had
tried a couple of times to take this ground of
Beersheba. And the importance of it is this.
There were 17 wells. in the city of Beersheba.
There were 17 wells. It was a water source. And
all around them was a desert. And they had tried
a couple of times to take it and had not succeeded
until an Australian force rose up and said, we're
going to do this. And so the Australian Light
Horse Company executed a daring charge, riding
four miles in the desert under machine fire.
Four miles under machine fire. They did lose
a great number, but they are famous for using
their bayonets as swords to take the town and
capture the wells. For Australia, it's their
moment of fame. Because they taking that city
and those wells changed the course of World War
I. It really is what enabled England to come
in and to finish off the war. It turned the tide
and it had a lasting political landscape. for
the Middle East, laying the groundwork for the
return of Israel. All over water wells. All over
water source. Your enemy wants to cut you off
from your source. And there has to be this same
kind of tenacity as the Australian light horse.
company to say, I'm not letting my source get
cut. I'm going to be like Isaac and I'm going
to pitch my tent and I'm going to drive down
deep. And I'm going to, I think about, I think
about all of the believers in this region before
us decades and decades ago that have prayed prayers
for this region. That we are praying. prayers
of. Do you know what those are? Those are wells.
And every time we pray, we pray in, we are reopening
those wells for this land. For those of you that
came to our newcomers class last week, you heard
the story of us moving here and finding out that
Darren's great -grand - Was it your great -grandfather?
Your grandfather? Great -grandfather, Airy Vanderhorst,
had been a president over at Lincoln College.
We didn't know that until we moved here. There
was a great move of God that happened on that
campus the years he was the president. What is
that for us? That is a well. That is a well.
Gary and Kathy worked hard re -digging those
wells as we dig Chi Alpha on that campus. That
was in 1930. There are wells. There are wells.
My father dug a well for our family when he came
to Christ. He dug a well for my family. The enemy
wants to stop up those wells so that future generations
can't benefit from them. There has to be a tenacity
in us that says I am not going to settle. I am
going to live my life around the source, around
the source, around I will release the Holy Spirit.
It doesn't matter. My kids have to choose for
the well for themselves, but my responsibility
is to camp us out as a family at the well. My
job as a parent was to make sure we were drinking
from the well as a family. Then comes the moment
they've got to choose for themselves. But as
much as in my power, I'm gonna make sure there's
an open well, an open source for my family and
for every person that the Lord brings. Now listen,
there is, we are living in this time and I love
the word that came. that Dennis brought. And
in 2 Chronicles, if the team wants to begin to
come up now, at 2 Chronicles chapter 26, we have
King Uzziah. And he started out as a really great
king. He ended up in pride, but he started as
a great king. And it says in verse 9 that Uzziah
built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate
and the valley gate and at the angle of the wall,
and he fortified them. He also built towers in
the wilderness and it says this he dug many cisterns
Because he had much livestock in the foothills
and in the plane and He because he also had a
lot of people working in his fields in his vineyards.
So he needed a lot of water sources We are living
We are living in a culture that requires many,
many water sources. It is a dry land out there.
And it isn't enough to say, oh, the pastors can
be the water sources. No, you have been filled
with the Spirit of God. You are a source for
this community. We need everybody to be filled
as a source for our community, filled into overflowing
in your light shining. And so this morning, I
want us in this moment, There may have been,
as we went through these wells, a certain well
that just gripped you for now. But ultimately,
what the mission, the heart of God is, is that
we be wells filled with the oil of the Spirit
so that we would shine in this world, so that
we would have power for living, so that you would
have power to overcome your difficulties so that
you would have power to overcome what the enemy
would try to bring against you. So that you would
have power to overcome in your family troubles.
So you would have power to overcome in your physical
troubles. So you would have power to overcome
in your workplace troubles. You don't have to
struggle. You don't have to struggle in lack,
you have been filled with the Spirit of God.
You have in you what is needed. You have become
a well yourself. You have become a well yourself.
And so this morning, this morning, what I'm asking
is that we would all in some way in our heart,
just respond to the Lord. And so I want you to
just stand with me for a moment. And the first
thing I want us to do is, listen, if you have
never drank from the wells of salvation, today
is your day to do that. Today is your day to
say yes to the living water that Jesus offers
you. And so before we go any further, I want
us to all just pray this together. And if that
is you, I want you in sincerity of heart to join
with us in this prayer. Lord Jesus. We acknowledge
that we need you. Without you, we have no source
of life. And so we receive your life -giving
waters. We draw upon your salvation, and we receive
it as our own. I choose you, Lord. I choose your
waters of salvation. I'm pitching my tent at
the well, and I will not be moved. In Jesus'
name. If you prayed that today, we want to know.
And so, at the end of the service, either one
of the elders or Darren and I, come and tell
us that you prayed that prayer, because we want
to help you. in that. And now for the rest of
us, I want us for a moment, Brianna's gonna lead
us in a moment of worship, and I want us to just
take a fresh drink from the oil of the Holy Spirit.
I know some of you are, you need it desperately.
Life has sucked you dry situations have sucked
you dry and for a few moments You just need to
be filled up again with the Holy Spirit And so
if as we worship you need some people to pray
with you We want to pray with you that you would
be have a fresh Infilling of the Holy Spirit
the oil of his spirit for you. He's longing to
source you He's longing to give. He wants to
give you more than you could ask or imagine.
And so as we worship, hey, life will continue
on in a few moments, but for the next 10 minutes
or so, let's just say, fill me again. Fill me
again, Holy Spirit. And so Brianna, lead us here
just for a moment. If you need a prayer, I want
you to just come up to the altar. We would love
to pray with you this morning.