Water: Nothing Grows Without It | Tyrone P. Jones | Kingdom Ground

go to Psalm 107 and just two verses here. This actually sets the tone of where, well, I should say more so it's the foundational verse of this series that we're going into Kingdom Ground. This is the time of the year where we do a series that leads to our legacy commitment in December and then we go into Advent and then we'll pick back up in Acts 1st Sunday of January. Psalm 107 verse 37 and 38, "They sow fields and plant vineyards that yield of fruit for harvest. He blesses them and they multiply greatly." I'll read that again. "They sow fields and plant vineyards that yield of fruit for harvest. He blesses them and they multiply greatly." So far the reading of the word can you say amen. You may be seated. This series is just five weeks. It's going to culminate, I guess, or consummate thanks Grayson, into the last matches which will be on harvest. And the Scripture is so clear to us about God's desire for our life. Harvest is a theme, actually, very much throughout the Scriptures. It depends on what version you use. You'll see the word 50 times and I think that's the least of them. Some versions translations use it more. But the idea is that the Lord wants us to have a harvest in our personal life. He wants so saved, that's a harvest, harvest for the church, harvest for mission. If I was to give a thesis which is there on the screen, God alone gives spiritual life and growth yet He graciously calls the church, us, His church, to participate in the harvest. So that, the objective of God, obviously, is for heaven to be crowded. That's one way people can say it in a very common vernacular. But that means people would need to be saved. That means there needs to be a harvest. That was God's idea. Genesis 8.22, "While the earth remains sea, time, and harvest, cold and the heat, some in winter, day and night shall not cease." So God established a principle. As long as we're here on earth, there will be sea time and there will be harvest. That's a God-given principle. This is right around the no- no, no amic covenant, by the way, after the rainbow, the whole nine yards. And God is saying, this is something that will always take place. Just as much as you can be sure when you see a rainbow, I'm making you a promise that the earth will never be flooded again and destroy mankind. You can also be sure there will always be sea time and harvest. Isaiah 9.3, "You have multiplied the nation. You have increased this joy. They rejoiced before you as with joy and the harvest." So here He's given a real understanding that harvest time is a joyful time. It's a time of abundance. It's a time of blessings. Matthew 9, 37 through 38, Jesus is with His disciples

and He says the harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few. So pray earnestly that the Lord of the harvest will send out labors into the harvest. So here He's taken the principles. He does the same in John chapter 4 also, which will be on the screen. He takes the principle of natural harvest and He ties that into spiritual harvest. There will always be a natural harvest on the earth and there also will be a spiritual harvest. God established that. And honestly, all of us that are here, we're harvesting today because somebody planted yesterday. Every planet before us, watered the ground, gave the money, built the buildings, established the ministries. We're harvesting today because somebody planted yesterday. And for us to be the mindset, we want to plant today so somebody can harvest tomorrow. That should be the heart of us. Now, one thing I know, we have a lot of farmers in our church and I'm so thankful for them. I spent time with one last week. And I can tell you, farming is grueling work. It's grueling work. It can be stressful. It takes a lot of diligence. It's no magical thing. There's planning that has to be done. There's scheduling that has to be done, strategizing, in the ground ready irrigation. We're going to deal with an element, one of the elements of farming, water, soil, seed, cultivation, and harvest. It's gonna lead to our legacy Sunday, when the first Sunday of every December, we ask you to make a commitment for year-end giving that leads to our various initiatives, in this case for 2027. I'll share more about that as we get there. But here's what I know. Whatever we're doing as a church, it takes all of us to be part of it. Whatever is going on on a farm, on acres of land, it takes multiple people to get that done. From the watering, to the ground prep, to the planting of seeds, to the cultivating,

to the harvest, it takes people working together. That's a picture that the Lord used. He took an agricultural term, to indicate what happens when people come to Christ. Here it is in 1 Corinthians 3, 6 through 9. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollo's watered it. But it was God who made it grow. It's not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What's important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants, and the one who waters work together with the same purpose, and both will be rewarded for their own hard work for we are both God's workers. So every one of us have a role to play. No one comes to Jesus on their own. There's something that's been done. When people come to Christ, somebody prayed for them. When people come to Christ, somebody's planted a seed. When people come to Christ, somebody's had a conversation with him about the Lord. We're all workers. God is the one that does the work that, sorry, the finishing work and the increase, but we all work through this together. Now in our valley, you'll see some pictures of our valleys, I should say. You'll see some pictures on the screen of our valleys, whether it be Don Valley, whether it be Yuma Valley, et cetera. There's over 200 and 10,000 acres in our county that is used for farmland.

That's farmland. We're the number three produce producer in the nation. Number three in the nation. It's a three billion dollar industry for us. Out of every four jobs in Yuma County, one out of four is somehow ag related. One out of four. Doing the season when harvest, actually harvest begins next week, there'll be a thousand trucks a day going out of our community, a thousand trucks. I love farmers, celebrate farmers, and thank God Yuma County farmers are feeding the nation and thank God for them. They're feeding you, by the way, and thank God for them. Now here's what I know. They can have the best seed, they can have sophisticated equipment, they can have experienced farmers, prepared fields, but they can't grow a dog on thing without water. No water, no produce, no growth. Nothing grows without water. Now God is so brilliant that throughout the scripture, you see things that are so natural to us that all of us understand, and he uses it as symbolism so that we understand him. And one of those is water. Throughout the scripture, you'll see where water is used to symbolize the Holy Spirit. Water is used to symbolize the Holy Spirit. So if you take that same metaphor that I just,

I think metaphor might be an analogy, but that same statement that I just made, if there is no water, you will see no crop. If there is no Holy Spirit in your life, you will see no growth. It's the same practice and same principle. What water is to the ground, the Holy Spirit is to your spiritual life. You got to have the water of the spirit of life in you. Am I talking to the right church? So here's Isaiah 44, three through four. Again, he is using natural terms to make a spiritual principle. He says, "For I will pour out water to quench your thirsty, "to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parts' fields. "And I will pour out my spirit on your descendants "and my blessing on your children. "They will thrive like water, grass, "like willows on a river bank." Listen to what the Lord is saying. You're a thirsty people. You are people that's parched. I'm going to pour out the spirit up on you to quench your thirst and to irrigate your fields so that your descendants and your children will be blessed and that they will thrive. They will thrive like water grass, like willows on a riverbank. What the Lord is saying to us is the spirit gives us life to do what human effort cannot produce. That is the spirit of the Lord that does that. So now I want to give you three principles in this message that's dealing with water and how that connects us to the water of life. The first one is this. Water cleanses and brings new life. Water cleanses and brings new life. This is Ezekiel 36, again 25 through 27. This will be on the screen. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. Your

filth will be washed away. You will no longer worship idols and I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you and I will take out your stony stubborn heart and give you a tender responsive heart and I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. Listen to what the word is teaching us. None of us are able to do the right thing based on the heart that we have. None of us will do the thing unto God if there's not a heart change. You can look at the scriptures of Adam and Eve and you can think well if I was there I wouldn't have made that decision. That ain't true. You would have made decision according to your fallen heart which was to reach for independence, to make a decision and action independent of God. We only make the right decisions when we become dependent on the Lord and we can never become dependent on the Lord unless our heart changes. The only way your heart can change is the Holy Spirit come in your life and change your heart. Your heart has changed, your mind has changed, your will are affected, your emotions are affected because the Holy Spirit comes in our life. The new comes in and the ole goes out. So before he's saying you would go after, you would go after worthless idols but once the Holy Spirit comes in you then there should be a desire for the things of God, things that have value, things of truth, not the things of worthlessness. Your heart becomes tender to what is right. Your heart becomes tender to what is good. You have a new love for him. You have a new love for the church. You have a new love for the kingdom of God. There's a reverence and an obedience to God and his word. Why? Because the Spirit of the Lord has come in and made you new. Can you say amen to that? Now here's Titus chapter three verses five through six. It's a wonderful passage that talks so particularly about what the Lord has done. Hear this. He saved us not because of the righteous things we had done but because of his mercy. Now you know the only reason you need mercy is you in trouble. Nobody ain't calling for mercy if everything's going wonderful and great. You only ask for mercy when there's a chance things don't go bad. He saved us not because of the righteous things that we had done but because his mercy. He washed our sins, washed away our sins. He gave us new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. So here is we understand the element of our salvation. Is the work of the Spirit in our life where we become people that are born again. There's a work that goes on within us that we want to repent. We've lived our life separated from God or apart from God. You know the Bible even calls us enemies of God. We've lived that kind of life based up on our own thinking, our own processing,

our own independence. But when the Spirit of the Lord comes in there's this thing that takes place that's called repentance where you surrender going in a way that was opposite of what God wants and you turn toward what the creator of life wants for you. That's repentance. When you make that move the Scripture says there's a forgiveness of your sins. Your sins are washed away by the Spirit of the Lord and you are now in a right relationship with him. That cleansing, that washing comes by the water of the Spirit of God. Now here's the second thing. Your thirst is for the water of life. Your thirst in this life is for the water of life. Now And you know it as, you heard of it as a woman at the well. Here are the elements of this. John 4, 7 through 14. Soon as Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink." He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. The woman was surprised for Jews who refused to have anything to do with the Samaritans. She said to Jesus, "You are Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?" Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you're speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water." But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket. And this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoy? It's so much I can unpack here, but here's what she's saying. First of all, you're talking about giving me water. You don't even have the ability to get water. The well is deep. Now this well was built by Jacob centuries ago before this woman is alive. If you go to Israel now, that well is still running water. It's still running water.

But listen, she's speaking about how important water was to their community. She's saying, "Listen, this water provides for us. This well provides for us. If it wasn't for this well, we wouldn't have water in our community. None of us would be able to survive. None of our children would be able to survive. None of our livestock would be able to survive." Are you saying that you're greater than Jacob? You're greater than Jacob who provided what we need to live. That is such a set up for Jesus because she just called Jacob great because he built a well. Jesus said to her, listen to verse number 4, 13. Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. Do you hear what Jesus is saying? Of course I'm greater than Jacob because this well you've got to come to every day to get water. And yes, it helps you survive, but you're coming here to fill the thirst that only this water will give you from day to day. Why am I greater than Jacob? Because I can give you water that satisfies you, gratifies you for all of your life. For all of your life, yes, I'm greater than Jacob because you will no longer thirst if you receive the water that I want to give you. And here's the thing when it comes to thirst. God has designed the human body to recognize this need for water. He's designed it. And you know, as well as I do, if you don't partake of enough water, it can be life threatening. It's not just a desire for something refreshing. It's an absolute necessity. The human body is approximately 50 to 60 percent of water. All of our organs need it, dependent upon it. Our brain needs it. All of our cells need it. And when we lose water just by breathing, we lose water with sweating, you know, urination, just normal body functions. As we lose water and not replenish our cells, our blood becomes more concentrated and then also the volume of our blood can decrease. The brain, there's receptors that automatically say something is wrong.

There's not enough water coming into the body. It goes into all kinds of mechanisms that on one hand try to preserve water within you. But also it's motivating you and telling you that you need to drink. The signal that God or the alarm that God has made within us as people is thirst. When we feel thirst, that's God's way of saying within us, you need to drink water. You need to get water in you so you can live. You don't have to teach your body to be thirsty. God already put that design in it. It will get thirsty when you've got more water going out than you've got coming in. Just as God has done that with our physical bodies, the Scripture says that's the same thing with us. If we don't partake in and receive of the living God, the living water that comes from Him, there will be a depletion of us. And eventually, as you well know, a spiritual death. And the alternative of that is not good. We need the life that comes from the water of the Lord. Here's Psalm 42, one through two, and again, some more brilliant language from the psalmist, given a picture that He knows everybody who's reading this can understand it. He says, "As the deer pants after the water brooks, my soul pants after you, O God, my soul thirst for God for the living God." The psalmist knows that everyone in his community, that reading that, they know a deer has to go get water. They know that a deer will search for water and make tracks to get to water, otherwise that deer won't survive. He's making a real picture. He's saying, "We are no different than the deer."

The deer needs natural water, but we thirst after God. We need Him, we need a relationship with the God. Water for us, the spiritual water, I should say, it's not a luxury, it's an absolute necessity. The way that water absolutely quenches our thirst is the moment that we start to hit those phases where our receptors in our mouth and our throat send signals to our digestive system. The moment we take in water, it begins to let our whole system know that water is coming. It doesn't hydrate us immediately, but there's a real relief that comes. An immediate relief, the moment you drink a drink of a fresh cup of water, there's a relief that starts to come. Many of you, if you work outside, work in fields, work in a farming, on the farms, or do any kind of outdoor work. If you've been done any kind of activity, sport and activity here in New Arizona, whether it's soccer, whether it's football, and you get thirsty, when you run to the sideline, after being sweating and all those things that take place on that field, and you're starting to feel depleted and you want to be refreshed, when you come to the sideline, you're not asking anybody to give you entertainment. You're not asking nobody to give you money. You're not asking anybody for a relationship.

You're going to get water, because that is the only thing that's going to refresh you at the time. That is the same thing that happens with us on a spiritual level. We have to have that first quench. If it's natural water, there's stages you go through before you get to overwhelm and dehydration that can kill you. That first stage is your thirst, and you've got a dry mouth, and maybe your urine gets darker. Then there's stage two, where you start to experience fatigue, and headaches, and dizziness, and reduce concentration. Then that third phase, low blood pressure, then rapid heartbeats and confusion. And then there's that fourth stage, which could be absolutely fatal. That severe hydration can take you into shock. Organ failure, and ultimately death. Every one of us here knows what it's like to feel dehydrated or get to that point. And you know how important water is. I've never in my life been to a doctor's appointment. And before I left that doctor's appointment, the doctor said, "Hey Tyrone, by the way, drink less water."

You know as well as I do, every doctor will tell you, "Make sure you drink enough water." Make sure, "Why?" Because it's that important for us on the natural. Physical dehydration will threaten the life of the body. Spiritual thirst will reveal the deepest need of your soul. And here is what Jesus is speaking to for this woman. She's saying, "Hey, I can come to this well "and get water every day." But what Jesus is driving at is the greater spiritual need that she has. He's making a great distinction, a profound distinction between physical water, which must be replenished repeatedly and spiritual life which only Jesus can give. Here's the tragedy. The tragedy is that some of us become so accustomed to living spiritually thirsty that we don't even recognize what our soul is missing. We don't even recognize what our soul is missing. We may become so successful, but absolutely empty. So busy, but unfulfilled. Surrounded by people all the time, Grab ahold of everything that the world can offer and still have a sense that something is missing. The reason being is because our human soul was created to be in fellowship with God. Our soul was created to have a relationship

with the living water that comes from God alone. Here's a passage that'll be on the screen. It's Isaiah, sorry, Jeremiah 2, 13. Listen to how the Lord, even though he spoke this 2,000 years ago, this speaks to us today. For my people have done two evil things. They've abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and they've dug for themselves crack cisterns that can hold no water at all. Listen to what he's saying. The only one that can give them living water is me. I'm the fountain of living water, and they've abandoned me. But it doesn't mean that they haven't made cisterns of water. They got pots of water, but it's water that's holding success. It's water that's holding achievement. It's water that's holding relationships. It's water that's holding money. As if those are substitutes for the living water. And those cisterns have cracks in them, which means no matter how full you get those cisterns of the things of life that you're putting in them, it can never hold them. It can never satisfy you. It can never gratify you. Jesus is making this point to this woman, and he does it from a standpoint of letting her know, "I know you. "You are searching for life." Jesus says to her, "Why don't you go get your husband?"

He's so slick. He set the woman up. And honestly, if I can just say something to you, there's never a reason to try to lie or hide something from God, because he knows it intimately. Jesus set this woman up, "Hey, why don't you go get your husband?" She said, "I have no husband." "Ain't, oh man, okay." Now that's true. What I do know is you have five of them, and the one you live in with right now, ain't even the one. Jesus knows her intimately. He knows her history. He knows her circumstances. He knows the things that have defined her, whether it be by her own actions or by people. And yet he still gives her the invitation. Are you seeing the grace of the gospel here? The Lord never told her, "Listen, "why don't you go get your life together? "Get rid of those old crackpots "that you've been trying to make life with. "Why don't you do all that? "Then come back to me." Jesus in his grace and of the gospel, he says, "Your life is pretty messed up "like the rest of us, but right now, even now,

"with all of that, I'm saying you can have life. "You can have everlasting life. "You can have eternal life. "He doesn't wait for her to get her life together. "He offers her life right now. "He does that for every one of us that are thirsty. "Every one of us that are searching for something. "Every one of us looking for significance. "Every one of us has tried so many things "and realized none of this really satisfies me "at the end of the day." I'm gonna tell you. I can't tell you how many people I've ministered to before they died. I have not found one yet that's laying on their deathbed and said, "Pastor, I got all the money I wanted. "I've had all the relationships I've wanted. "I've accomplished everything I've wanted. "I've done all of that, and I am doing good in this death. "I've heard this over and over again. "I have this, I have that, I have that, "but the only thing that's given me peace right now, "knowing I'm going into eternity, "is that I got the living God, "living within me." That's it, folks. That's it. There's no satisfaction with that other stuff in the end. And so Jesus tells this particular woman

in some great language here. He didn't tell her that you'll get a bucket of water here and there. He says it's gonna spring up. In eternal spring in your life, that's the miracle of salvation. Because Christianity is not just an elite religious system of how people ought to live. Christianity is a life that God gives us, that God brings into us, and He lives in us. He doesn't just give us a mere set of rules. With Christ Jesus, we absolutely have a new life. He's not trying to change what you do merely. That's not the end of what God is doing, it's just changing what you do. He wants to change the source of how you live. He wants to change the source of your life. And so just like the Lord has created our bodies to thirst for water, that can only satisfy it. and we can ultimately only be satisfied by Him. We just cannot fall into the human condition and the tragedy of trying to live our lives to satisfy ourselves with the things that were not designed to quench the thirst. Success was not designed to do it. Relationships wasn't designed to do it. Pleasure wasn't designed to do it. Those things have some temporary enjoyment, and thank God God allows us to have those things, but none of them can take the place of the living God.

None of them can take the place of Him. And that actually leads me to the last point. Because Jesus makes this invitation to this woman, and He makes a very similar invitation in John chapter seven. He tells that woman that if you ask me, I'll give you a living water. In John chapter seven, he makes it real clear that if people want to have everlasting life, they're to believe in Him and to come to Him. Listen to this in John chapter seven, verses 37 and 39. On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out. If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink. The one who believes in me as the scripture said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within Him. He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were gonna receive the Spirit for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. So He's making a statement to them, this statement of glorification, I should say. It's after Jesus ascended, of course, that He poured out the Holy Spirit. But He's telling the people that you have a thirst that only I can satisfy. The setting of this is what's called the feast of tabernacles or the feast of booths, which still goes on in Israel now with the Orthodox Jews.

And the feast celebrates that when the children of Israel were going through the wilderness, all of those 40 years that they were tracking, that the Lord always provided for them. We talked, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago about, you know, the shoes never wore out, God always provided water when they needed water, always provided food when they needed food. But they lived, you know, they traveled in, we would call it kinda like tent living, they traveled in tents. Every year when they go to Jerusalem and they re-enact living that life. And they live in tents in Jerusalem for a number of days, seven days or eight days, I think it is, that they live in tents because they wanna thank God that even though we were living in tents, the Lord provided for us. And the way they would consummate that at the end is the priests would go get water out of the pool of Ceylon and pour out the water as another reminder that we never even lacked water in the wilderness because God provided. Now what Jesus knew though, because remember he had done this all of his life, growing up as a Jewish boy, go to that ceremony, he knew that every year that had to be done again. And people had to be, A, they would celebrate what God has done, and B, be encouraged that God would provide for them for another year

so that they can see that water being poured out again and being reminded, okay God has sustained us for another year. There was no satisfaction though to that because they had not accepted that the Messiah had come. So every year was always a reminder and a hope, a reminder and a hope. But Jesus comes and he stands on that last day and he says if any man is thirsty, if any man is trying to be gratified, if any man wants to be satisfied fully and entirely and not just have to keep looking forward hoping one day that all this will be fulfilled, Jesus says if you've got that kind of thirst you come to me and drink. I'm the one that can fully satisfy you, finally bring gratification. He makes that declaration with the significance of the word of the people who were hearing it, knowing that they are thirsty people and they were hoping that the religious ceremony would satisfy them. And Jesus is saying it's not satisfying you because you have to come back every year and do this again and hope that one day you'll be satisfied. You'll never find the satisfaction in the religious ceremony. You'll only find satisfaction in me. Jesus saying it's me and me alone that satisfies you. I love the fact that he says if any man thirst,

he doesn't limit that invitation just to the religious elite or the morally successful. He extends that to everyone, that every one of us on a search. I think it was the young lady, Caitlin, that was being baptized. She said it wasn't that her life was falling apart, but she was just wandering with no direction, no satisfaction, not finding that place of rest. Jesus said, "If any man is like that, let him come to me." That's an invitation of the gospel, the answer to all of our spiritual thirst is not religious activity. It's not even simply more information. It's not personal achievement. It's only a thirst that can be satisfied with the relationship, with the living Savior, with Christ Jesus alone. And he's not saying, "I'm just going to bring out of you a few drops of water." He says, "Your life will be a life that's living water that's running out of you." I think it was also Caitlin who said in her testimony that all the things in her life, they're not all resolved, but what she does have is peace. What she does have is joy. What she does have is hope that only comes from the living Savior who gives us the water of life. Can you say amen? Now here's the question, honestly, that each of you need to answer. Are you simply trying to survive spiritually? Are you just trying to spiritually survive? Or are you absolutely experiencing the overflowing life that Jesus provides? That's a question you've got to answer. Are you experiencing overflowing life? Life of abundance? Life that's full of peace? Life that's full of joy?

Life that's full of hope? Life that gets you to overcome anxiety when it threatens you? Fear when it threatens you? Doubt when it threatens you? Are you living a life that is overcoming because you have the living water or you're just trying to spiritually survive? Your only hope is in Christ, the living God and the living Savior. As the team comes, let me close out with this. I don't know how many of you have heard of C.S. Lewis. How many of you have actually read any of the chronicles of Narnia? Okay. More of you than -- and you're smarter than the other services. More of you have read it. Chronicles of Narnia are wonderful novels C.S. Lewis wrote and the idea was there's four people primarily that go from the life they're living in U.K. in this fictional world into the land of Narnia where they experience what it is that have life in the kingdom of God. And in the book The Silver Chair, it's the second chapter, Jill is the young lady that was sent to go handle something for the group. As she is walking through the forest -- now mind you, they're in this strange land of Narnia that they're just becoming to know -- as she's walking through the forest, she gets frightened because she's just in this forest, it's a strange place, she's trying to get someplace in a place that she really doesn't know. She's frightened, she's confused, and the more she walks, the more thirsty she gets. She's -- she's just wandering through the forest, just like a lot of people in life. They're on a mission but they're just wandering, going through life oftentimes frightened oftentimes confused. And then this thirst starts to overwhelm her. She hears some running water somewhere, the sound of running water. And so even though she's just wandering and not totally sure how to get to where she believes she's supposed to get to, she gets more desperate for the drink.

So she makes her way to the stream. When she gets to the stream, she looks for a place where she can actually go down and get a drink of the water. When she sees where that place is, she realizes she's got a bigger problem because standing in front of the spot where she can actually drink from the stream of water is a lion. It's a beautiful lion. All of the chronicles of Narnia speak about this lion named Azlon because Azlon represents Christ. Azlon is even killed and resurrected. She looks up and she sees Azlon. she approaches him very quickly. Azlon speaks back, "Yeah, you're thirsty. I really want to drink." He said, "Sure, you can get a drink." Well, but you're in the way. I need to get to the stream. He says, "You can come to the stream." Well, will you move and let me get to the stream? No, you've got to come toward me. But I'm afraid to go toward you. You're a lion, are you safe? I'm not going to tell you I'm safe. Are you going to do anything to me? I'm not going to tell you I won't do anything to you. But I need to get to the stream. You're thirsty, and yes, you need to get to the stream. So you need to come to me. And I love reading it. I love the, because you could feel the tension in Jill when you ever watch a movie or read a book

and you're in the character. You can feel it. You could feel her being so desperate to get to the water. But at the same time, her mind is thinking, "I cannot go toward that lion to get to the water. I can't do it." So finally she says, "I'm so afraid to come toward you. "I'm just going to go find another stream." And what Azlon says is brilliant. He looks at Jill and he says, "Jill, there is no other stream." Some of y'all got that, some of y'all didn't. There is no other stream. The only way you can get to the water is to come to Azlon, to come to Christ, to get to the water. There is no other stream. There's no other place to go. If you want living water, you come to Jesus. He's the only one that can satisfy that thirst. There is no other stream. He's the only source of living water because there is no other savior. Jesus Christ and Him alone is the water of life that satisfies us for all eternity. Everybody stand if you would, prayer team come. I'm going to pray with you. And Matthew Hovinnov is going to lead us into communion. What we receive at the table of the Lord. Father, I want to thank you for this opportunity we have now to hear about you, the life that you offer us.

You have given us Jesus. Who is the living water? None of us have to live this life in wonder, in fright and in confusion. If we simply come to Jesus. So, Father, I pray that every one of us here that's here in the words of this message would embrace the call of Jesus to come unto me and drink. And out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. Let us be thirsty enough. Let us be desperate enough. Let us have enough desire to have a life of meaning and purpose and significant that we come to Jesus. Father, we thank You.