-we’ve done earth, we’ve done air, we’ve done fire. There’s only one left. Water.
-here’s the funny thing about water, it is necessary for life. This is why we hear so much about finding life out in space. Really, we have found nothing. There is no life. We haven’t even found an amoeba. What we have found is water.
-[POUR WATER] See, water is necessary for life. There is absolutely nothing on this planet that moves or breaths (including plants) that does not have water. Elements that are necessary for life cannot mix without water as a base to do that.
-and the amazing part is it cannot be created or destroyed, yet at the same time it is everywhere. Our planet is 70% water, water is on Mars, on Saturn’s moon, sometimes water falls into our atmosphere as ice and burns up and becomes steam (which will eventually cool and fall as rain).
-water is necessary for life. That’s part of our theme verse that’s in the newsletter every month. Who knows it? It’s from Jesus talking to the woman at the well.
**John 4:14 -> 14But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (ISV)
-so we need to be drinking God’s living water.
-and how we do that is by living out God’s living water.
-this is why we’ve put everywhere in our ministry five things we think everyone should be doing. Five things that help you grow spiritually. I know you’ve heard them a billion times, but it’s good to have them in your head.
1. WORSHIPPING
-we should be living a life of worship.
-the most basic way to do this, live your life for God.
-that means that no matter what you do, be thinking about you doing it for God. If you’re asked to clean up, you’re cleaning for God. How would you do it? Your homework, if you were handing it in to God, how hard would you work on it? Too often we make living for God about big things like mission trips. It’s not. It’s the small things.
-I have this verse taped to my computer at work
**Col. 3:17 -> 17And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. (NLT)
-you want the basic way to worship God, live your life in all you do like you’re doing it for God.
-that’s part of why I don’t take anything half-way. There are lots of times where I hear people say something like “not many people will show up so why work so hard?” like less people means we should do a bad job. If two people showed up, but one was Jesus, would you still do a bad job?
-this is part of the reason for worship, back in the days of sacrifices, we were commanded to give our best. It wasn’t a matter of just give something to God, it was our first-fruits, it was a lamb without defect.
-and we can still give those sacrifices today. We can sacrifice our money, our tithe, we can sacrifice our time, serving, helping, we can sacrifice ourselves, putting someone ahead of us and living the way Jesus asked us to.
-because that is true worship, putting God ahead of us, ahead of what we want, ahead of our desires. That is how we honor God, but living in a way that exalts Him above us.
**Ps. 29:1-2 -> 1Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings; honor the Lord for His glory and strength. 2Honor the Lord for the glory of His Name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His Holiness. (NLT)
-we should be living our lives in a way that honor and worship God. As much as I’m thankful for grace, I think we in America have swung too far the one way and just go “I have grace” and don’t live lives that honor God. Why bother, we are forgiven anyway, right?
-we should be living lives that honor and worship God.
2. ALLYING
-funny story, an adult in the church saw our signs in the youth room and got mad because I made that word up.
-sad part is, I didn't make it up. It’s a real world. It’s a military word. It means you are taking someone’s side, you are forming a team with them.
-a perfect example of this is World War II. England is getting the snot bombed out of them. They need help. America was England’s friend, and did nothing. Canada was England’s ally, and they were there the next day with troops.
-see, I don’t want you guys to be friends. You have plenty of friends. I want you to be allies. Allies don’t always agree, but even when they don’t they still work with each other for the good of each other. It costs you to be an ally, but you pay it because the other person is that important.
**Prov. 18:24 -> 24There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. (NLT)
-this is what we want for everyone here, to find people who you know will stick with you. That doesn’t mean you will all magically become bestest friends and all your problems will go away with fairies and pixie dust. But it does mean that you will work a little harder to be accepting of others. You will do what you can to make everyone feel welcome at church, what should be the safest, friendliest place in the world.
-and then, eventually you will find one or two people who you can get really close with and you will work to build each other up. Someone you can be honest with when you’re having trouble, or better yet, who can ask you tough questions not because they want to embarrass you, but because they want to help you.
**Prov. 27:17 -> 17As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. (NLT)
-that’s why we put the emphasis on allying, we want you to be sharpening each other, helping each other grow closer to God.
-and another way to do that:
3. TEACHING
-I mentioned something sad in NewSong last week. That so few people actually know the Bible.
-the sad part is how they are necessary for how we live and helping us know God.
**II Tim. 3:16-17 -> 16All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching how to live right. 17Using the Scriptures, the person who serves God will be capable, having all that is needed to do every good work. (NCV)
-let me ask, do you think that you have everything you need to do every good work? According to what we just read, knowing the Bible is what we need.
-the amazing thing about the Bible is it is the one thing, the only black and white message from God. Every other thing from God is through prayer, which Is great, but sometimes I wonder if God is speaking to me or last night’s tamales are speaking to me. If I have something that I know is for sure, I can check against it. God is never going to ask you to do something or tell you something that is the opposite of Scripture.
-this is why we push Downpour Bible Study so much. It’s one of the best ways to get to know God better, as we work together to talk through parts of the Bible and what God is saying to us.
-after all, the theme verse for that is:
**John 8:31-32 -> 31Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, “You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. 32And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (NLT)
-we hear that line so often, the truth will set you free. That came from here, Jesus saying if you know My truth, if you know the Scriptures and live them out, then yes, then you will be free.
-we need to know what is in here. We need to know this book. We need to know God as best we can and this is one of the best ways to do it.
-but as much as there is sitting at home reading, there is also going out and living it by helping others.
4. EQUIPPING
-we used this term for serving, that we are equipping people with the love of God, we are giving them love they can see so they’re heart will open to who God is.
-we talked about it last year at the winter retreat.
**Gal. 5:13-14 -> 13My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self. Serve each other with love. 14The whole law is made complete in this one command: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (NCV)
-the whole Bible is made complete when we love others.
-because I know you all know this just like I do. I can say all day how much Jesus loves you, how amazing He is, how He is love, but if I don’t do anything to show it, what good does it do?
-after all, we are not considered disciples of God because of what we believe. We are not considered disciples because of what we have heard. We are disciples of Jesus by what we do.
**John 12:26 -> 26Anyone who wants to be My disciple must follow Me, because My servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves Me. (NLT)
-we are disciples through our service.
-this is part of why we push the mission trip so much, a great chance to serve (forms now available in the student lounge), but we should be serving more than just once a year.
-I know you can all think of people who seem to disappear and come back again about the time of the mission trip. It shouldn’t be like that. We should be serving God all the time.
-and it doesn’t need to be some big planned event with permission forms and a banner that lets people know FUMC is serving. What about helping someone at school clean up? What about volunteering your time somewhere? What about something really simple like helping out at home?
-I know, crazy. But we are supposed to be serving in all we do, equipping others with Jesus’ love.
-and there’s one more:
5. REACHING
-we are supposed to be telling people about Jesus.
**II Cor. 5:18 -> 18All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and Himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with Him. (NCV)
-this is our job, this is something we are supposed to be doing.
-I’m not saying this to point fingers, but something to think about. We spent the last year talking about reaching, about telling people about Jesus, even giving some ideas in the Search and Rescue series. And yet, our attendance on Sunday nights has been going down the last two years. Now, I realize that not every single person you talk to about God is going to come to church on Sunday night, but if everyone is doing it, you’d think it would go up a little, right?
-and I’ve heard the stories too that all your friends at school are already involved in a church. That tells me one of two things, either everyone at the high schools are involved in church, or when at class, we are looking for people who go to church because we’re safe with them.
-it’s like somehow the church has turned into Field of Dreams, if you build it they will come. Like people will drive by the church and magically want to come in and hear about a God they know nothing about. Does that make sense?
**Ro. 10:14 -> 14But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? (NLT)
-where does it all start? With us telling them. With us stopping the assumption that everyone has heard about Jesus. They have, I agree, but for a lot of people their idea of Jesus is not correct. He’s simply a curse word that brings them gifts at Christmas.
-we need to be telling people about Jesus and His love for them.
-notice I’m not saying we have to change their minds. You can’t do that. Only they and God can do that. But you can help them open their minds. You can be the catalyst that starts life, just like water is supposed to do.
-those are the five things we think everyone should be doing to grow here at Fire & Water. But there’s a key there.
6. YOU HAVE TO BE DOING THEM
-they are not good ideas. They are not dead pieces of paper. They are things that we should all be living.
-there is a reason when we wrote those up years ago that every single one ends in “ing”. That denotes doing it. Worship is a thing, until you add “ing”, then you are doing it, you are a part of it, you are worshipping.
-all these things are no good unless they are flowing out of your life.
-see water is life. It is necessary for life. There is life inside of it. But there is one exception. When water stops moving. If water stops it becomes stagnant and is useless.
-when I lived in the mountains, we did lots of hiking and you would have to find water. I used to hike with a local guide and learned a lot from him, but one thing was the water. There were lots of places in the spring where there was water, but some of it was snow that melted and went to a river, some was snow that melted and formed a puddle and stayed there. Which one can you drink? Only the moving water.
-if water stops moving, it dies. This is why the Dead Sea is dead. There is water flowing into it, but there is nothing flowing out of it. It sits and collects. So now there is nothing alive in it, it is too full of salt and other elements. If it poured out somewhere, it would be alive. But now, there’s nothing. Death. It is the largest source of dead water on the planet.
-we don’t want you to be dead. You need to have an outsource, something flowing out of you in faith. Worship needs to come out, the traits that make you an ally need to flow out, even passion like we talked about yesterday, it all needs to be flowing out.
**Is. 58:11 -> 11The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. (NLT)
-see, God’s water, His Holy Spirit works two ways. It flows into you so you grow like a garden, but it also flows out of you like a spring, watering others.
-we need to constantly be doing both. If we aren’t growing inwardly, we’re dying. If we stop flowing outwardly, we’re dying. It’s both and. We need to be doing it.
-but really, that decision is up to you. I can only take you so far. If you think you know it all, then that’s all you’re going to know. Henri Nouwen said this: “He who thinks that he is finished is finished. How true. Those who think that they have arrived, have lost their way. Those who think they have reached their goal, have missed it. Thos who think they are saints, are demons.” (The Genesee Diary)
-don’t stop. Get dirty and grow in God’s earth. Seek after God’s Holy Spirit and breath Him in. Keep your passion alive and feed the fire so it burns, and don’t just drink in God’s water, let it flow out of you.
