Did you know that God desires for you to have a deep, abundant, and thriving life? If that’s really true, then why do we feel so dry and empty sometimes?

Transcript

It’s fun to kick off a new series. So we're kicking off a new series today called Life in the river. Now, what is life? In the river, what does that mean? Well, I thought I'd rather show you than first describe it. I thought I'd show you a couple of short video clips. We have a river in the back of our House. So I want to show you what that river looks like right now with a short video clip. 

So this is what that river looks like right now. Now, that's very common for a river in August, or September. But back in May, this is what that river. Same river. This is what life in the river looks like. God desires you to have a deep, abundant, thriving life. And God gives us lots of metaphors for what that life looks like. One of the metaphors He uses is a river. See the difference between this quiet little river and then this rushing, flowing, vibrant river. That's what life in the river is all about. God desires for you to have a deep, abundant, thriving life, and all through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation there is this reoccurring image used of a life-giving river. And so we're going to talk about that. So over the next three weeks, we're going to cover 3 topics. Today is: 

Live Refreshed

life in the river means that you live refreshed. Next week, you will hear what it looks like to live happy. What it looks like to live happy as part of that life of the river. And the third week is going to be live satisfied and Pang Foua is going to be teaching that one. So come back here that's going to be a great one, but it's live satisfied. So life in the river, if you want to live life in the river and see what it looks like, it is living refreshed, living happy and living satisfied. So today we're going to talk about living refreshed. So back after high school, I had the opportunity to go on a missions trip to the island of Haiti. And this was this was a short term mission for just a couple of weeks and I got a picture of our missions group that we went with. Now it's blurry because nowhere there we have like the old point shoots back there and film and all of that. But that's me back in the tank top. This was a whole bunch of southern Californians, and there's me and all Southern Californian beach coming up in my tank top. That was our missions team. 

This was back in 1989. And so here's another picture of some of the work we did. We did a lot of work with kids and all. We did a lot of VBS stuff. We did some games and activities and teaching. And I missed all of this. We took a break one day and went on a hike. Here's a picture of what the hiking trail looked like. Now what we were told was that we go on the short hike about 45 minutes up to this, beautiful lake with a waterfall. All kinds of beautiful stuff. So we're like, oh right, that sounds like a great thing to do on our day off our Sabbath day. so we packed up our stuff. But we didn't bring a whole lot of stuff for instance, we didn't break water. I know, nowadays that sounds pretty silly. Like what? 

We figure 45 minute walk that there's must be a fresh water stream up there, they say the water is safe to drink so like let's go for it. And so we just started hiking off. Well so this is tropical Haiti, which means it is hot. It is it is like really hot and really muggy, and so we start walking along and it gets about half an hour and we’re getting a little tired, and a little sweaty. Gets about 45 minutes in, no sign of water by the way. We start getting hotter and sweatier an hour comes by an hour and 15. It hits an hour 20 and we're still walking. And the guy is like, ohh yeah, just right up there. Yeah, we heard that one before. Just right around the. Corner we were exhausted. But by about an hour and ½, we finally found this guy on the side of the road, who was selling some coconuts. And Oh my gosh, that coconut juice was delicious, so he grabbed his machete and started chopping. Chopped off the top, put a straw in it and we started slurping it down. That was some delicious coconut water right there. And then we just keep on hiking because they said “you need to come, You need to go so we keep hitting.” This thing hits 2 hours. No water that, that sweet coconut milk that all we have and we start getting exhausted. We start getting really really tired. 

We start getting discouraged. We’re covered in sweat. They have mosquitoes the size of school buses down there. We feel like we should be grabbing one of the wings of the eagle and have it take us there. And we start getting exhausted. People want to give up. We were like, we should just go back. There is no lake over there. There is no waterfall. 

We should just go home like? But No. We've come this far. We need to keep going. So some people wanted to give up. Some people were like, no, we we just need to keep walking and some people started fighting. Because they're just getting angry. It became a pretty miserable walk. Well, you know, I think that's kind of what happens sometimes in our spiritual lives as well. We do a whole lot of walking. But we don't get a whole lot of water. And I think we're reacting. With different ways to that and I. Don't know how you react to being kind of spiritually tired. I don't know how you react. Maybe you get discouraged. You know you're supposed to keep coming to church. You keep coming to church and you keep helping out when they ask. 

But you're tired and you're discouraged. Somebody here might give up. When you feel spiritually tired, you just want to give up. They say I'm done with church. I'm out. And you walk away. Sometimes I don't know how you get when you get spiritually dry. Maybe you decide. I just have to keep doing it. If I keep doing the things, if I keep walking, if I keep coming out with the youth. If I keep going to Alliance men and Alliance women, then it will eventually come back. I'll eventually get refreshed. 

If I just decide to keep walking and keep watching, but the refreshment never comes. So what is it like feeling spiritually dry? 

Are you feeling almost spiritually dry these days? Are you feeling thirsty for something more than just coming to church each week? Maybe you're on the verge of giving up. Maybe you were giving up and then you heard about this thing called River Life Song on Facebook. If I give it one more shot. Maybe you are one more step away from washing your hands entirely of God and church and you're done. I don't know how you're feeling, but I'm willing to bet there are a lot of us in here who are feeling spiritually worn out. 

And if you're feeling that way. I've got good news. The are not the only people in the history of the world to feel spiritually worn out, and thankfully the Bible is filled with stories of people who are spiritually dry and tired and discouraged. And we want to look at just one little passage out of 1 little story. 

On that today. 

And it's about the Israelites. Now it's out of the Old Testament. So I'll give you a little bit of context. This is the book with his zekiel that we're going to be talking about. So the Israelites were in trouble, God had had already placed judgment upon them for their sins, for denying God walking away from God. Rebelling against God. And God placed his judgment upon them to let a neighboring people group come and conquer the Israelites. And that was just about to happen, and they've already gotten overrun, and some people have been taken into slavery, taken into captivity already. Not all people, just a few. And the Israelites were trouble. The Israelites were discouraged. Because now that that this God that was a part of their world had left them for a time and told them here's the consequences of your behaviors. I will let another country of Babylon take you over. So Israel was in trouble and a lot of the prophet books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Obadia; basically any book you find and you can't pronounce. And so Ezekiel was one of these prophets, and he was born into this world of spiritual discouragement and dryness and spiritual deadness. And he grew up watching Israel get trapped by their enemies. And he wrote the Book of Ezekiel. And I'll give you a little clue on the Prophet books.  

Many of them follow a very common pattern. The first section is judgments against Israel, and so there's a section that gives judgments against Israel. It's kind of like the court judge reading off what you're accused of, and here's what's going to happen. Then there's usually a section that gives judgments against the nations around Israel. But then after like 40 chapters of really depressing stuff, there's the ending section where God gives visions of hope and restoration to the nation of Israel. These are some of the most powerful visions of hope and restoration in the entire Bible. These are found in the Prophet books. In fact, the Ezekiel book alone has some amazing passages. If you've been in a church, you might have heard a sermon or a reference that Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd. He was quoting Ezekiel. Because Ezekiel had a passage that talked about judging bad shepherds.  He said: all you bad shepherd, you guys are bad, you guys are selfish shepherds. But one day I'm going to send you a Good Shepherd. One day I'm going to send you a true shepherd. And about 600 years later, he did. He sent Jesus as the Good Shepherd. So Jesus quoted Ezekiel. And if you're here at the beginning of service and watch the full video of Chris Tomlin and Lecrae. That song: Awake my Soul. Chris Tomlin and Lecrae are quoting Ezekiel. There's a passage in this this last section of the Prophet Book where God gives Ezekiel this vision of a valley of dry bones that God brings back to life. He puts tendons on the bones, muscles and flesh and tells Ezekiel, to breathe and these dry, dead bones back to life. It's amazing that it's actually a lot of thoughts now that you know that. Listen for it. You'll hear that a ton of songs. But especially that would add to that. Chris Tomlin, awake my soul with one of my favorites. It also has Lecrae, so how can you go wrong. 

There's one more vision. There's one more vision that we see in the book of Ezekiel and it's this vision of a river in Chapter 47. It's this river that comes out of the temple of the Lord. And then some pretty amazing thing happened. That's what we're going to look at today. We're going to look at Chapter 47 of Ezekiel. Now let me give you a little bit of background before we hit the passage. So Ezekiel was a priest. He was born into a priestly family. He had a priestly lineage. As a prisoner in Babylon, he never knew his homeland. And he was born at Babylon when they were held captive as slaves and prisoners. And he grew up along this place called Camar River and another river. And then one day, in this river, God gave him a vision. So he wrote a whole lot. There's a whole lot in the book of the of the condemnation against the nations. Jerusalem was taken over. It’s like Independence Day where the aliens come down and destroy the White House. That's what it was like when Jerusalem got destroyed. And so Ezekiel wrote about this. One of the visions that God gave was about this angelic tour guide who took Ezekiel in a vision and took him to different places and allowed him to visions of his homeland. And he never really left. But it was his vision that God gave him, and that's where we see one of the. Visions that happened. There was this vision of this life giving river. 

Ezekiel 47:1-12 

“The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.” 

It’s a lot but the main idea is that the water was trickling from the south side. 

“3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits (about ¼ mile) and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” 

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. 9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. 10 Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. 11 But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” 

So those 12 verses are kind of divided up into three sections. That first section, all the navigational stuff, that kind of described the source of the river. It was the beauty, it was the origin of the river. Now that middle paragraph was sort of a description of the river; it was a trickle, it was ankle-deep, and it was waist-deep. That that middle section. And then the last section was about the effect or the impact of the river. That's where we had trees and fish and fishermen. Fruit and all of that. So now, as you heard and read that hopefully a few things sounded rather unusual there because that was not just a normal river. That was actually a miraculous river. Did you catch that? That was a miraculous river. Here are a few things about it. First, it started as a trickle and ended up the deep end of the pool. I know I'm not a river genius, but last time I checked, rivers don't get deeper the farther away they go. Unless they have more rivers coming into it, rivers will get deeper. They get shallower. So here's this amazing miraculous river that got deeper and deeper and deeper. And what else? There is a great number of trees. We live in Minnesota. We are surrounded by a great number of trees. But Minnesota is not Jerusalem. Here's a picture of what Jerusalem looks like? OK. That's what the area South of Jerusalem looks like. That's very close to the Dead Sea. My wife and I actually had the pleasure of going out to Israel this past year. And so this is, this is my own picture. Not something off the Internet. That's what South of Jerusalem looks like. Right. And there's us, you can actually see a little bit. That's the Dead Sea in the background. But you mean? This is dirt rock.  

There are no areas where great numbers of trees bloom. That doesn't happen in this land except with God's life giving river. Then that's why the Dead Sea becomes salty. Now, the only thing about the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea has a very high salt content. Is that it is 35%, it has a salinity or a salt rate of 35%. If you've ever been in ocean water, that's 3%. In fact, it is so salty, one, it actually burnsyour eyes. Trust me, it does. That the other thing. It does is actually allows you to flow really, really high. So here's me chilling in the Dead Sea. Now, if you know water, you know we don't float like that in water, right? I sink in water. But because the salt is so high, you're actually super buoyant. The Dead Sea is not fresh water. It is miserable salty water. And through this life giving river, it becomes fresh. Now you don’t have to be a water genius to understand this. Take a little glass of water and put a little salt and it's now salt water forever. You don't unsalt water it like you have very expensive desalinization plant and you don't unsalt water. But God does. They also swarms of living creatures, see.  

The thing about the Dead Sea. Is it has such a? High salt content. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. Literally the only thing they have living in the Dead Sea are microscopic organisms like bacteria. That's all can survive there. Everything else dies. But in the river of God; to bring life to a dead lake. And then lastly, fruit trees. I'm a city boy. I'm not a country boy. You guys have, right? Like you guys have done, farmers market you guys helped your parents out in the Garden and stuff. I'm still amazed that you can put seeds in the ground, and food comes out. That's still an amazing thing to me. But fruit trees last time I checked, fruit trees don't bloom every month. But these ones do. 

Our fruit trees give fruit for a season. Not God's fruit trees. With this miraculous river of life. God's fruit trees. Give fruit year round. All right, man. Fruity apples year. Round fresh mangoes year round. That's what I'm talking about. This is a miraculous river, and that means for the first big idea of this passage, God refreshes miraculously. God refreshes miraculously, so if you're feeling like you need a little refreshment. A little bit of that life in the river. First thing to keep in mind, God refreshes, miraculously. But that's not the end of the story. And that's not the only thing we see in this passage, because what God refreshes he wants to use to bless. What God refreshes he wants to use to bless. So look at the Dead Sea. It becomes this fisherman's paradise, not just for the Dead Sea. But the Dead Sea blesses fishermen. No one fishes in the Dead Sea. But it's like white Bass mating season. Have you been fishing in that? I went fishing in that one time and we were casting and pulling, casting and pulling, casting and pulling.  

It was incredible. I've never seen something like that before. Take your best fishing day. That is crumb cakes compared to the fisherman's paradise that God created in what was previously a dead body of water. That water God used to bless the industry of that land. Also, the trees. One of my favorite lines here is that the trees that the food is good for food, and the leaves are good for healing. God didn't just create a bunch of trees. He said okay trees now bless the people. Bless the people with food. Bless the people with medicine. As for what God refreshes. He wants to use the Dead Sea to bless fishermen. And the refreshed land blessed people. So that gives the second-half. Of the big idea out of this passage. That God refreshes miraculously, but we bless practically. God refreshes miraculously, but we bless practically. Remember the Haiti hike that I went on? I didn't tell the whole story. There's a little bit more to that story. We finally did hit the lake. After almost 3 hours of hiking, we came to this like 45 minutes ago. 

We came to this lake. We immediately jumped in, clothes and all. The whole group of us. It was amazing. 

It was absolutely. There was a waterfall just like they promised. And I remember going under that waterfall and I opened my mouth and I was like, drinking out of the waterfall. I swear if my mouth was big enough, I would drunk the whole water fall. And just kept coming and it was so refreshing. It literally brought life back to this exhausted body, and I still remember, 25 years later, what it feels like to be refreshed. And that's the promise of what life in the river looks like. Imagine being refreshed with this whole gushing of of water, of living water from God that refreshes you down to your very soul. That's what that lake was like with me. That's what that waterfall was like. So for those of you who are tired. 

Hearing the whole body, you are. I have a lot of conversations with folks who are tired. I'm tired of working and doing church. It's time to stand under that waterfall like God. Open up your mouth. And take it all in. What would that look like if we did that? What would that look like if we as a church family, as a Riverlife family lived refreshed? Well, I want to paint 4 pictures for you. 4 pictures. Make that 3 pictures. First, what would it look like? 

In our relationship with God. Imagine us so refreshed, we overflowed. I think so many times. We give out of emptiness. Imagine giving out of abundance and overflowing. With God, I think one thing we would see is that we're growing. Look back on the last year for those who kind of claim Christ. Look at the last year. Have you grown? Have you grown in your faith? Have you grown in your knowledge of God? Have you grown in your obedience to God? Have you grown in your relationships? When you're living in the river, you're growing. Imagine all of us growing. In our understanding of God. And lastly, church, what would it look like in church? You know what I think it would look like in church? We would have people serving. We have a ton of people who serve to make this service happen? 

But I know a lot of times. We serve out of emptiness. Because we're tired and we haven't been filled. But imagine being refreshed. Imagine serving in a church, volunteering, but doing it out of an abundance, not an emptiness. Doing it because it's just pouring out of you guys were refreshing. It's just pouring out of you imagine doing that. That's what life in the river looks like. And then lastly, what would it look like to live refreshed with your friends and family? So let's get really practical, I think what it would look like living in the river is if we were living blessing other people. Would your friends and family see you as a blessing to them. Or you kind of pain. Do you bless those around you just like once in a while? Or just as a natural outcome of who you are imagine that having more peace in your household. With your spouse, with your kids, with your brothers and sisters. Imagine more patience, less fighting, less yelling. I think a lot of that happens. Because we're sort of afraid, we're afraid at the edges and. So our fuse is really short. But imagine being refreshed. Things kind of don't get on your nerves as quickly as they used to. That's what God is working a miracle in you. So imagine this church body. Imagine your homes refreshed. That's what God wants to do in you. 

He wants to refresh. Refresh you from your labours, refresh you from working really hard at being a good son. A good daughter, a good wife. He wants to refresh you from being exhausted. So that's kind of promise of Ezekiel, if we come to him, he is the one who refreshes miraculously. Once he is refreshed, miraculously we turn. Around and bless practical. We can be like those trees. Imagine the people who have heard about river life. Imagine if we did develop the reputation of they are good for food and good for healing. Imagine if that's what your friends and your cousins and your nephews and uncles and aunts describe the church to be they're good for healing and they're good for nourishment. That's what God desires for us. God refreshes miraculously, and then we turn around and we bless practically.