John 7:37-39 | Vision

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Episode Transcript

Rev. Benjamin Kandt (00:06):
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Benjamin.
You're listening to the sermonaudio from New City, orlando.
At New City, we long to see ourFather answer the Lord's prayer
.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at newcityorlandocom.

Nadia Chong (00:21):
Church, please join me in this prayer of
illumination.
Church, please join me in thisprayer of illumination.
Breathe in us, holy Spirit,that our thoughts may all be
holy.
Act in us, holy Spirit, thatour work may all be holy.
Draw our hearts, holy Spirit,that we may love all that is
holy.
Strengthen us, holy Spirit, todefend all that is holy.

(00:44):
Guard us, holy Spirit, todefend all that is holy.
Guard us, holy Spirit, that wemay always be holy.
Amen.
Today's scripture is from John.
On the last day of the feast,the great day, jesus stood up
and cried out If anyone thirsts,let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as thescripture has said, out of his

(01:07):
heart will flow rivers of livingwater.
Now, this he said about theSpirit whom those who believed
in him were to receive, for asyet the Spirit had not been
given because Jesus was not yetglorified.
This is God's word.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt (01:21):
Thanks be to God, you may be seated.
Well, this is our last, ourthird, of three weeks in a
vision series, and this serieshas been addressing or answering
the question what doesfruitfulness look like for New
City?
And so I'm going to spend acouple minutes just recapping

(01:42):
the last two sermons.
But you can go back and listen.
You'll get the fuller kind ofunpacking of this.
But essentially we said, if wedo nothing else except make
disciples who make disciples, weare fruitful.
If we do everything else exceptmake disciples who make
disciples, we are unfruitful.
That's the simplest way to putit.
Neil Cole, a guy who's written agood bit on the church, says

(02:04):
this ultimately, each churchwill be evaluated by only one
thing.
I pause when I hear people makestatements like that.
I pause and lean in.
Every church evaluated by onlyone thing it's disciples.
He goes on and says this yourchurch is only as good as her
disciples.
It does not matter how goodyour praise, preaching programs

(02:26):
or property are.
If your disciples are passive,needy, consumerist and not
moving in the direction ofradical obedience, your church
is not good.
Okay, neil, what do you reallythink Like?
Stop hiding the punchline here.
So if that's true, or ifthere's any truth to that, if
disciples really are such a bigdeal.
What is a disciple?
Well, at New City, we'vedefined a disciple as someone

(02:51):
who's united to Jesus, incommunion with God, community
with one another and co-missionfor the world.
That's our definition.
There's plenty of other waysyou could define a disciple, but
this is the one we're gonna gowith, and the reason why I wanna
name name that is because Iwant to name this.
This is what fruitfulness lookslike People becoming disciples
that are not yet disciples,those people becoming disciple

(03:12):
makers, people who are disciplesof Jesus, deepening in their
discipleship over time.
That's what it looks like tomeasure what matters here.
Now there's this image I wantyou to see here of all these
circles and lines and all kindsof arrows and things like that.
If that looks likehieroglyphics to you, just go
back to the first in the seriesin August and I unpack it step
by step and walk through it.

(03:32):
But for now, I want to point outone thing the movement of this
diagram here has both acentripetal flow and a
centrifugal flow.
For those of you who did nottake whatever class you would
learn that in I also didn't takeit, but I have Google, and so I
always get those two confused.

(03:54):
But this is it Centripetalforce, it moves in towards the
center.
Centrifugal force moves outfrom the center.
Okay, this is significant.
The way that this works is asthe people of God are drawing on
their union in communion withJesus and as a community knowing
and loving one another, and asthey're sent out to work and to

(04:15):
witness.
There's this going outward,this momentum out from the
center, but then there's awinsomeness to those kind of
people and they begin to drawpeople from the margins in
towards the center to be unitedto Jesus by faith themselves,
and so that movement outwardsand then inwards is constantly
happening in what a healthychurch looks like, with fruitful

(04:38):
disciples.
That's what we're aimed at.
Okay, and so with that, when weare wrapping up this series,
we're just really going to focuson what is co-mission.
What does it actually look likefor us to?
We kind of invented that word.
Co-mission just simply means tobe sent to be about what God is
about in the world, with hisspirit and with one another.

(05:00):
That's what co-mission means.
So what does that actually looklike?
Well, I want to look at how thisco-mission always is an
overflow of our communion, thatyou cannot get those mixed up,
that they have to be in thatorder.
Communion overflows intoco-mission, and so if you have a
Bible or a device or theworship guide, go ahead and get

(05:22):
John 7 in front of you.
We're gonna look at this veryclosely, word by word, verse by
verse.
Together, communion overflowsinto commission.
That's my one sentence.
My two points are communionlooks like drinking in and
commission looks like flowingout.
Communion is drinking in andcommission is flowing out.

(05:43):
Look with me at verse 37.
John 7, 37 says this on thelast day of the feast, the feast
, the great day, what'shappening here is the people of
God are celebrating what'scalled the Feast of Tabernacles.
It was one of, I believe, sevennational holidays in Israel
where they'd come together andthey'd celebrate the

(06:04):
faithfulness of God to them as apeople.
And this particular feast, theFeast of Tabernacles, is one
where we celebrate that Godprovided for his people food and
drink when they were wanderingin the wilderness, and the
relevance of that is that thiswas not just for the people of
Israel.
This is actually a picture ofthe human condition.

(06:24):
To be human is to look likeliving in a world where you have
inner thirsts with outerdryness, inner thirst with an
outer desert that's what itmeans to live the human
condition.
Our post-apocalyptic fictiongets this right.

(06:45):
Okay, here's two examples.
It always depicts kind of thiswaterless wasteland, or often
does, like the book of Eli.
Right, the book of Eli.
You've got this guy namedCarnegie who rules his town
because he controls the supplyof water and he enforces this
control through violence.
Or, fast forward a little bit,you got Mad Max Fury Road, where
Immortan Joe says this to hispeople Do not, my friends,

(07:06):
become addicted to water.
It will take hold of you andyou will resent its absence,
like you could become addictedto the thing that you need to
survive.
And what these people aregetting at in these dystopian
futures?
They're getting at the factthat we are all thirsty
travelers in a dry land andthere's this innate fear that we

(07:28):
might not have what we need tosatisfy our thirst.
And so look with me again atthe text.
It says in verse 37, on thelast day of the feast, the great
day, jesus stood up and hecried out.
That's a strong word.
He cried out.
If anyone thirsts, jesus criesout.

(07:50):
He's making a scene here, butyou've got to catch that this
would be.
People would be like what isgoing on right now?
Why is he making such a bigdeal?
Why isn't he using his insidevoice?
Why is Jesus right now gettingso dialed up?
Your thirst?
That's why this deep desirethat you have, this existential

(08:12):
thirst that we all carry aroundwith us.
John Newton, who wrote the greathymn Amazing Grace, said it
like this God has given thehuman such a vastness of thirst
for happiness that God alone cananswer, such a vastness of
thirst for happiness that Godalone can answer.
And you see, living withunquenchable thirst is painful.
And so all of us religiouspeople, irreligious people,

(08:34):
secular, whatever you want tosay we all do this thing that
the prophet Jeremiah called out.
He said my people havecommitted two evils.
Evil number one they'veforsaken me, the fountain of
living water.
We don't really need you, god.
Yeah, we're thirsty, but we'renot going to you as the source.
They've forsaken the fountainof living water.
And the second one is they'vehewn out for themselves broken

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cisterns that could never holdwater.
Everyone in this room hascommitted both of those evils.
We've turned from God as thefountain of living water and
we've made for ourselves.
We've turned to our own littlesources to sip on a little
sustenance that always leave usthirsty again.
And so God, in his kindness,forbids us from slaking our

(09:21):
thirst in places that we oughtnot go.
Not because he's a killjoy bydefinition, because he knows
that when we go to those placesto satisfy our thirst it's like
guzzling salt water when you'rerunning a marathon it only leads
you thirsty again.
And so he prohibits you fromgoing to those places.
He says do not go there.

(09:43):
But some of us have gone thereso frequently and realized we've
been left dissatisfied so oftenthat we become despairing of
ever having our thirst satisfied.
We just kind of numb out, checkout, we become bored and
listless and restless and wejust live day by day, moment by
moment, kind of going throughthe motions, thinking that
there's no more on offer for usthan we've already had.

(10:05):
We've been in the desert andwe've seen the mirage and we've
gotten there and realized it wasall for nothing.
And so what do we do with thisquote vast vastness of thirst
for happiness that God alone cananswer?
Well, in our prayer meetingthis past Wednesday we were
praying through Psalm 63, whichis about this thirst for God and
someone.
In our prayer meeting this pastWednesday, we were praying
through Psalm 63, which is aboutthis thirst for God, and

(10:26):
someone in the prayer meetingsaid this God, give us courage
to live with thirst.
Courage, yes, yes, courage.
We dare not sip the salt waterthat we know leaves us thirsty
again, but also we dare not giveup on ever being satisfied.
That takes courage to avoidboth of those two pitfalls.

(10:49):
And it takes courage to dare tobelieve that maybe there is
something or someone out therefrom whom we could drink deeply
and find the satisfaction thatwe long for.
And so, when it comes toChristianity, you can fake a lot
.
You can fake a lot about theChristian religion.
You can, you know, do theoutward motions.

(11:10):
You can learn the Christian-ysayings you're supposed to say.
You can be a good moral person.
That's probably a good thing.
We need more of those, butthat's not a Christian.
A Christian is someone whothirsts for God.
A Christian is someone whorecognizes that their desires
have been awakened for the trueand living God.
So my invitation is do youdesire more of God than you have

(11:31):
right now?
Do you want more of him thanyou have already tasted and
experienced?
This is what Jesus is after.
That's why in verse 37, it saysJesus stood up and cried out if
anyone thirsts Notice this is aconditional statement.

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If is a conditional word.
In my home we have a conditionevery night for dinner, which is
if you don't eat, you don't geta treat.
It's a condition, a treat, it'sa condition.
What's Jesus's condition If?
What is it?
If anyone is qualified?
Not what it says.

(12:16):
If anyone's surrendered enoughor deeply committed enough Not
what it says.
He says if anyone thirsts, whois not thirsty?
So if we find ourselves thirstythis morning, what do we do?
Look what Jesus says If anyonethirsts, let him come to me and
drink.
I love the radical inclusivityof Jesus.
If anyone thirsts, far as tothe corners of the earth, like

(12:41):
if anybody is thirsty, jesus issaying here but then look at the
radical exclusivity of Jesus.
Let them come to me.
Nowhere else Jesus will be manythings to you, but he will
never be second in thesatisfaction of your thirst.
If anyone thirsts, let him cometo me.

(13:01):
Let him come to me.
Jesus promises to satisfy yourthirst by thrilling you with
himself.
But here's the thing.
Jesus is really putting himselfout there, because we ask the
question can you really meet mehere Like can you really satisfy
my deepest longings?
Those of us who've been walkingwith Jesus for years, maybe

(13:22):
even decades, we look at thisand we're like, yeah, this
should be provable by experience.
Either he slakes our thirst orhe doesn't.
What do we seem like?
This seems so little proven inexperience for many Christians.
Why is it that, if this is true,we see so much boredom and

(13:43):
addiction and distraction, somuch looking forward to the next
experience or purchase amongpeople who belong to Jesus?
What do we make of that?
Because there's something inthe nature of thirst we have to
pay attention to here.
You see, when you come anddrink, I mean your physical
thirst.
When you come and drink, yourthirst goes away and then it's

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just gone for the rest of yourlife, right?
No, in fact, you feel refreshed, but then you become thirsty
again.
The cause of our thirst isbeyond remedy.
God has made you with anincurable desire for himself,
and so when Jesus says come tome and drink, he means come and

(14:26):
keep coming.
He means don't just sip, butdrink and drink deeply and
constantly, and continually andhabitually.
It's in this continual coming,moment by moment, day by day,
bringing our thirst to Jesus,that we learn to find him to be
one who can satisfy us no otherway.
And so another piece to this,though, is, as you come to Jesus

(14:50):
, your thirst is quenched alittle bit and it also grows.
St Augustine says oh Lord, youhave put salt on our tongues
that we might thirst for you.
There's a woman from the earlyfounding of our country named
Sarah Jones.
She lived in Virginia, and onNovember 18th 1790, she wrote a
letter to her cousin and saidthis brother, I want more than a

(15:14):
little religion.
I want my desires and soul inevery faculty extended, that I
may drink seas and rivers andrunning streams of Jesus's dying
love.
And what I cannot drink, I wantto swim in continually.
My Jesus is no broken cistern,but he is a well of life without
bottom, boundless, matchless,adorable Jesus.

(15:37):
Does that touch anything in you?
Do you hear Sarah's words thereand go?
I want what she wants.
Oh Lord, give me that ache.
Let me not deaden my thirst.
There's an invitation here.
While your thirst will never betotally quenched, the fountain

(15:57):
will never run dry, and so Iwant to point out the simplicity
of the gospel, the simplicityof what Jesus is doing here.
Drinking is one of the firstthings a human can do.
I've got a six-month-old.
He can do it.
He can drink, let me tell youand he's been doing it since day
one, drinking is notcomplicated in that way.

(16:19):
But listen, when you're thirsty, truly thirsty, you know this
experience that nothing elsematters except for finding water
.
Spiritual thirst does the samething.
Like I want to point out thatthirst has this ability to strip
away the non-essentials.
In May of this year I wastraining for a half marathon and

(16:40):
it was I run in the afternoon.
I just assume it's part of thetraining.
It's like why people do hotyoga, and so I'm running.
It's 4 pm, 90 degrees, superhumid, and I'm like 10 miles in
and realizing I'm in bad shape,like I'm overheating, for real,
for real.
And so, as I'm running, I turnoff my audio book because I

(17:01):
can't really focus on anythingelse.
My mind cannot be distracted.
I'm just thinking about wheream I going to get water.
And I run by a woman's house andshe has a hose that looks very
attractive and I was tempted tojust like sneak through the
bushes.
But I saw her in the front yard.
Good thing I didn't sneakthrough the bushes and I said,

(17:23):
ma'am, would you mind if I tooka drink from your hose?
And she said no, please don'tdo that, I'll get you a Gatorade
.
And so she brought me aGatorade.
It was amazing.
I said to her I don't know ifyou believe in Jesus, but he
tells us that he won't forget acup of cold water offered to a
disciple.
She was like okay.
I was like Gatorade might bebonus points.
I don't know how it works, butthank you, I got to keep running

(17:46):
and so I kept on keeping on,and this is why I'm telling you
this.
I was thirsty.
She gave me a drink.
That's the simplicity of thegospel.
Are you thirsty?
Come to Jesus and drink.
That's the invitation.
That's how simple and basic itis.

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Come and drink.
But what does that mean?
Jesus tells us in verse 38,.
He says whoever believes in me,you see, coming to Jesus to
drink is simply trusting him.
It's simply receiving, by faith, whatever he has to offer to
you.
What does that mean for us whowant to continue walking with
Jesus, not just the first time,coming to him to drink, but
ongoing drinking, continually,habitually, as I said?

(18:30):
Well, let me tell you a quickstory about what that means.
To do that, how do we come toJesus to drink, practically
through scripture and in prayer,two of the common rhythm
practices.
Well, in September 19, 1853, at21 years old, hudson Taylor left
London to bring the gospel toChina.
In 1870, he buried his firstwife, maria.

(18:55):
You see, she died at age 33after giving birth to their
eighth child, who also died,taylor had to send his surviving
children back to England fortheir education and their safety
, and in his loneliness in Chinawith no one around, he writes
this perhaps 20 times in a day.

(19:16):
As I felt my heart thirstcoming back again, I cried to
the Lord.
You promised me that I shouldnever thirst, he says.
Eventually the Lord came andmore than satisfied my sorrowing
heart.
You see, hudson Taylor learnedto take the promise of Jesus in
John 4, that if you come to himto drink he'll give you a

(19:37):
fountain of living water.
You'll never thirst again.
That's what he says in John 4.
And so Hudson Taylor says this.
He goes.
What a promise.
Shall never thirst.
To know that shall means shall.
That never means never, andthat thirst means any
unsatisfied need may be one ofthe greatest revelations God
ever made to our soul.
You see, if we learn thissecret of coming and keeping to

(20:03):
come over and over and overagain saying Jesus, you promised
, this is what you said.
I'm taking you at your word.
You begin to find that thirstquenched, but you also find
yourself thirsty again.
And so if this is true, that ifwe learn this secret of having
a deep aquifer for our souls ina parched land, what happens

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next?
Well, communion overflows intocommission.
Look with me.
Commission flows out.
Look at verse 38.
Whoever believes in me, as thescripture has said, out of his
heart will flow rivers of livingwater.
Scripture has said out of hisheart will flow rivers of living
water.
Mysteriously, drinking waterfrom Jesus becomes flowing water

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from us to others around us.
That's what it says here.
What is this living water?
It's the Holy Spirit.
Look at the verse right there,verse 39.
Now this he said about the HolySpirit whom those who believed
in him were to receive.
Listen, christianity says thatthe third person of the Trinity,
god himself, is poured out intothe hearts of those who believe

(21:13):
in Jesus Unbelievable.
If I had time, I'd do a littleaside about how we cornered the
market on body positivity y'all.
If the Holy Ghost is living inyour body, that's something.
It's something that the spiritof the living God is in us.
It says in verse 39, now this hesaid about the spirit whom
those who believed in him wereto receive.

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Do you see how to believe andto receive are synonymous here.
And so when we come to Jesus incommunion, we simply believe
him and we receive from him.
But look here it says thoseplural, those who believed in
him.
That's community.
So communion flows out throughthe channels of community.
Our communion with God isstructured through our community

(21:58):
with one another.
For all who believe in Jesus,the Holy Spirit not only
indwells each of us, but all ofus.
You can't lose either side ofthat.
The one and the many,individual and communal, both of
them matter.
Get a hold of that intention.
The Spirit is here with ally'all and in each of you

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individually.
That's what the scripturesteach.
And so, as a result of this, asa result of this, there's a
humble boldness thatcharacterizes our body image as
the church.
This is what I mean.
We're humble because werecognize that we're simply
thirsty like the rest of theworld, that we are parched in a

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dry land, but we're bold becausewe've come to Jesus and we've
learned, even if it's just alittle symbol full, or a little
shot glass full, or a pint glassfull, or a bucket full.
For some of you, we've learnedwhat it looks like to drink from
Jesus.
We have a place that gives us aboldness.
So the church, those whobelieve in him, are

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characterized by a humility anda boldness simultaneously.
And as we constantly come toJesus, we get this constant
inflow, and then we find theSpirit to be a constant outflow.
Communion overflows intocommission.
This is so important.
Look at verse 38.

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It says this Whoever believesin me, as the scripture has said
, out of his heart will flowrivers of living water.
Notice that we cannot containthe spirit that we receive.
The spirit is, we are filledwith the spirit, but then it
flows over.

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He flows over through us, outof our hearts.
That's what Jesus is sayinghere.
William Temple put it like thisno one can be indwelt by the
Spirit of God and keep thatSpirit to himself.
Where the Spirit is, he flowsforth.
If there is no flowing forth,he is not there.
He flows forth.

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If there is no flowing forth,he is not there.
Believer's boat get and givethis overflow of the Spirit.
And so the text says rivers,rivers.
That's important because intimes of drought, which we all
live in, in times of drought,brooks may run dry, canals may
fail, lakes recede, but riversflow, deep and wide.

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Rivers of living water out ofour hearts to bless the world
around us.
That's the promise here, and sothe question I found myself
asking as I was preparing forthis morning Holy Spirit, what
hinders the flow in my life?
What is it that hinders theflow of these living waters that

(24:52):
are supposed to flow from myheart?
More and more and more?
Reveal that to me, and I wantto get rid of it.
I want rivers of living waterflowing from my heart to bless
the world around me.
John Stott says notice thedisparity between the water we
drink in and the water thatflows out.
We can drink only small gulps,but as we keep coming drinking,

(25:14):
believing by the mightyoperation of the Holy Spirit
within us, our little sips aremultiplied into a mighty
confluence of flowing stream.
He says this this is thespontaneous overflow from
spirit-filled Christians to theblessing of others.
Listen y'all, sadly, the Spiritof God is functionally

(25:36):
unemployed in many churches.
Let it not be so among us.
I want New City to becharacterized by quote a
spontaneous outflow fromspirit-filled Christians to the
blessing of others.
But communion has to overflowinto commission.
That's why we gotta get firstthings first.

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But what would thatfunctionally look like?
Well, we say here thatdisciples of Jesus, they're
united to him in commissionthrough work and witness.
So I just want to talk aboutthose two things.
What does this look like forthe Spirit to flow in our work?
Let's talk about the Spirit atwork.
Here's a true question.

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I'm researching, I'm thinkingabout a lot.
This is it searching?
I'm thinking about a lot.
This is it.
What if the gifts, person, power, presence of the Holy Spirit
was not just for us in here asthe church, but for us as the
church out there in the world?
What if that was true?
Another way to say that wouldbe would it make any difference

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if you led your company or yourclassroom with love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness,gentleness and self-control?
What if the Spirit of Godwasn't restrained or constrained
to us, church gathered, butalso church scattered and sent
throughout our city?
What if the Spirit didn't onlytransform your character but

(27:01):
also gave you greater skill todo your job?
Some of you are like Pastor comeon, dude, my job's super
secular.
I just fundamentally disagreeand you know, tell that to
Joseph in Egypt or Daniel inBabylon.
These are people who are thepeople of God in pagan
governments and so filled withthe Holy Spirit that their pagan

(27:25):
neighbors don't even havelanguage for it.
But they say things like thatdude's filled with the spirit of
the gods Remember, they'repagans.
Something's different about himor her and they are pointing
out, actually, their gifts ofadministration.
So this isn't just like Godshow up, blow up, do all kinds
of wild things.
This is like you're good atcrunching numbers by the Spirit

(27:45):
of God, filled up to the brimand flowing over into that
spreadsheet.
That's what happened withDaniel and Joseph.
They didn't have spreadsheets.
I get it, but track with mehere.
And so let me ask you, whatwould it be if that could be?
What would it be like if thatcould be said about you in your
warehouse or in your boardroomthat person's filled with the

(28:07):
spirit of the gods, becausepeople don't even have language
for it.
Or what if, like Bezalel inExodus 31, you could be filled
with the spirit of God, givingyou, quote ability, intelligence
and all craftsmanship to deviseartistic designs and to work in
every craft?
This is how the Holy Ghostfunctions through his people

(28:28):
throughout history.
This is Bible.
This isn't Ben Like.
The Spirit of God is made tofill you and to flow through you
came to.
Spirit of God was not made.
Spirit of God is an eternalperson in the Trinity existing
before all time in creation.
The Spirit of God is meant tofill you and flow through you
into the world for the blessingof your neighbors in your work.

(28:51):
Because what if Jesus came notjust to redeem our quote-unquote
spiritual lives, but all oflife?
What if it was true that Jesuscame to redeem, to set free and
to give back everything that wastaken from us in the fall?
What this would look like iswhat if all the building and
processing and sculpting andbaking, and dancing and meeting

(29:11):
and accounting and studying anddriving that was stolen away was
actually returned to us byJesus?
In the gospel, the Spirit is atwork in every sense of the word.
But how?
The best way I know how to putthis into practice is using the
language of second corinthians13, 14.

(29:32):
It calls this quote thefellowship of the holy spirit.
Let me make that plain.
You dialogue with the spiritabout everything, everything,
spirit.
Let me see what you see andfeel what you feel about this
situation.
Like, imagine you'rebrainstorming a new product line
, going Spirit, you know whatwill meet people's needs,

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because he does.
Imagine you're problem solvingsome situation.
You're like Spirit, you alreadyknow the answer.
Will you lead me Like is thattoo much, or could we get a
sanctified imagination of whatit would look like for rivers of
living water to flow throughyour workplace?
And so, if that's work, whatabout witness?

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Well, I preached two sermons atthe end of July on witness, so
I'm not going to spend as muchtime here, but the Spirit flows
in our witness, alex and HannahAbsalom, a couple that I've
learned a good bit from.
They say that in order to be acompetent witness, you need two
things boldness andintentionality.
Intentionality you can solvethat problem one of two ways

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either by scheduling time withnot yet disciples or by taking
interruptions as invitations.
That's how you could beintentional.
That one's pretty easy.
Boldness, which every time Italk about boldness and witness,
you got to hear me say theApostle Paul asked for people to
pray for him, for boldness.
So if you feel a little timidopening your mouth about Jesus,

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it's okay.
So did he, so do I, so do manyof us.
And so what do we do?
Well, boldness is a fruit ofthe Spirit.
Not in Galatians 5, but in Acts4, it says and when they had
prayed, the place in which theywere gathered together was
shaken, and they were all filledwith the Holy Spirit and
continued to speak the Word ofGod with boldness.
So again, fellowship with theHoly Spirit, moment by moment.

(31:24):
Holy Spirit, would you, I wannatell this person about my hope
in Jesus.
Will you help me?
Will you be with me?
Will you fill me, will youenable me Remember?
It's simple faith, trust,confidence that the Spirit is
not only with you but within you, and wants to bear witness to
that person more than you do.
So I wanna end where the textends here.
Look with me at verse 39.

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Now this Jesus said about theSpirit whom those who believed
in him were to receive.
For as yet, the Spirit had notbeen given because Jesus was not
yet glorified.
What is that about?
What does this mean?
The Spirit would only be pouredout after Jesus was glorified.
That's what it says here.
For us to receive the spirit,jesus first had to give his life

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on the cross.
Before glorification cameJesus's humiliation, and so, if
it's true that we've all beendrinking from broken cisterns.
What that means is that thefilth got on the inside.
Jesus regularly rebuked thereligious leaders of his day,
saying you can't clean theoutside of the cup, it doesn't

(32:32):
matter, the inside has to becleansed.
How do you cleanse the insideof a person?
Nothing but the blood of JesusChrist can do that.
And so on, the cross of Christ.
Jesus cleanses us with hisblood so that we can be clean
vessels for the Spirit of God tobe poured out into and through

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us into the world.
That's why Jesus had to behumiliated before he could be
glorified.
But how can we trust that Jesusreally knows what the thirsty
need?
Well, because Jesus becamethirsty like us in every way.
He had quote, the courage tolive with thirst.
In fact one of Jesus' sevensayings on the cross as he was

(33:15):
dying, in John 19, he cried outand said I thirst.
He knows what that existentialache feels like.
He's acquainted with it.
He became a thirsty man in adry land, so that when his side
was pierced, it says that bloodand water flowed out.

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The church has reflected on thatand one of the interpretations
is that the blood represents thecleansing that we need, and the
water represents the spiritthat would be given.
Jesus is not only here to dealwith your past although he does
that, and he does that famouslywell.
Jesus is also here to prepareyou, to give you life, his Holy

(33:58):
Spirit for the present and forthe future, and so, on the cross
, he makes it possible so thateverything that we need could be
accomplished by him, whichleaves us to come to him as
nothing else but thirsty sayingmore please Come to me and drink
.
Jesus says you don't bringanything to that table Now.

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I wish I could get in thenuanced theology here, but just
bear with me.
In Acts 2, it says that Jesusascended to the Father and the
Father poured out the HolySpirit on his son, jesus.
And because all who are unitedto Jesus, whatever happens to
Jesus happens to them, theSpirit's poured out on Jesus and
therefore poured out on all ofhis people.
So Jesus is glorified and getsthe Spirit, and the Spirit is on

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all who are in Jesus.
That's one of the reasons whythe Spirit came once Jesus was
glorified.
But another thing here to sayis that when Jesus goes, the
Spirit comes.
Why?
Because Jesus gave us a job, hegave us a mission, he gave us a
task and he promised I will notleave you as orphans, I will

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come to you.
And then he gave us the HolySpirit In Matthew 28,.
It says I will be with youalways, to the very end of the
age.
And then he gave us the HolySpirit.
You see, the Spirit is the verypresence of Jesus, so much so
that Paul can call the Spiritthe Spirit of Jesus.
And so now Jesus his words, notmine seems to think it's better

(35:28):
that the Spirit of God is herewith us than he is with us
himself.
What does that actually mean?
How does that actually help us?
Well, if we really do wantfruitfulness here at New City,
we have to recognize that'sbeyond our capacity.
We can be faithful and we canask and trust and expect God to

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bring fruitfulness by his HolySpirit.
Let me tell you a story aboutwhat that would look like as we
close.
Here there's a guy named DuncanCampbell.
He was a Presbyterian ministerand he tells this story of a
revival that broke out in theHebrides Islands off the north
shore of Scotland.
He said men and women had beenpraying one promise for months.

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Track with that.
Imagine just like not wearingout on one promise for months
until the Lord answered it.
Oh, did he answer it?
Here's the promise Isaiah 44,3,.
I will pour water upon thethirsty and floods upon the dry
ground.
Three I will pour water uponthe thirsty and floods upon the
dry ground.
Duncan Campbell records it likethis.
He says one night at about 1 am, a young man like late teens,
early 20s.
Young man rose to his feet andprayed.

(36:35):
Here's his prayer Lord, youmade a promise.
Are you gonna fulfill it?
We believe that you are acovenant keeping God.
Will you be true to yourcovenant?
You have said that you wouldpour water on the thirsty and
floods upon the dry ground.
I don't know how others standin your presence, but if I know
my own heart, I know where Istand, and I tell you now that I

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am thirsty, oh, I am thirstyfor a manifestation of your
right hand.
Lord, before I sit down, I wantto tell you that your honor is
at stake.
Man, I bet some of our20-year-olds could pray like
that, though.
I'm pleased with that.
Campbell then says this happenedafter that young man sat down.

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The house shook like a leaf,the dishes rattled in the
cupboard and someone said to meit's an earthquake.
He said yep Walks out, and hefound, quote the community alive
with an awareness of God.
In a moment, just a moment, theSpirit of God could make the

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city of Orlando aware of thepresence of God, alive with an
awareness that God is real andhe is present.
And so we ask for that Spirit.
Would you do that in our time,in this place?
Let's pray, lord.
You have put salt on our lips.
You have put salt on our lipsthat we might thirst for you.

(38:02):
Forgive us for our brokencisterns, forgive us for all the
ways and places we've turned tosatisfy our thirsts apart from
you.
We return now we come back.
We're asking that you would letcommunion with you flow,
overflow into commission for theworld, that your spirit would

(38:23):
fill us to the brim and flowover to the blessing of the
nations.
We pray in Jesus's name, amen.
Okay, for our time of response.
We receive the word of God.
We respond in prayer.
I'm putting the promise fromJohn 7 up here and you choose
your own adventure here.
You could do number one, whichis take this promise to Jesus.

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Now, jesus you promised, comethrough on your promise.
I'm thirsty.
I want what you promised hereor two.
You can ask the question I wasasking this week, holy Spirit.
I want to know what hinders theflow, and we'll come to the
Lord's table in a moment.

Rev Benjamin Kandt (39:52):
Amen, thank you, satisfy our thirst now it's
in your name we pray.
Amen, church, hear this promiseof God from Isaiah 58, 11, and
the Lord will guide youcontinually and satisfy your
thirst and scorch places andmake your bones strong, and you

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shall be like a watered garden,like a spring of water whose
waters do not fail.
I love weeks like this, weekswhere the Lord feeds us and
satisfies our thirst with hisword.
But we see how his word andsacrament are so beautifully and

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harmoniously woven together.
You see, the scriptures tell usJesus, he's the bread of life.
As we feast on him, our hungerwill be satisfied.
Jesus is the one who gives usthese living waters, who
satisfies the thirst of thedeepest parts of our hearts.

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Not only are we fed through hisword, but also through his
sacrament.
And, as Ben has taught us thismorning, communion overflows
into commission.
And so this means at least twothings for two groups of us here
in the room here this morning.

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First of all, if you are herein the room and you have not
drank deeply of Jesus, that isto say you do not call him Lord,
at least not yet here's theinvitation for you, right here
and right now Go to Jesus,confess your sins to him,
believe in him, put your faithand hope and trust in him and

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allow Jesus to satisfy yourthirst that you might come to
this table.
But then here's the secondinvitation.
It's to those who are followersof Jesus.
Remember communion leads intocommission.
So come to this table,hopefully hungry.

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Come to this table, hopefully,thirsty.
I hope you're aware of howdeeply even now you need Jesus
to satisfy your thirst.
But remember this it doesn'tend there.
Come to this table that youmight be satisfied, but come to
this table that your cup mightbe filled and you might go.
Take that cup out into theworld.

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Church.
Orlando needs you, church, theworld needs you.
May you be his witness bearers,wherever it is you go If you
don't know Jesus.
We're so glad that you're herethis morning.
Again, the invitation is not tocome to the table, but the
invitation is to drink deeply ofthe Lord Jesus.

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And if you are here, if you area follower of Jesus, come
hungry and come thirsty, knowingthat he will satisfy.
But he will satisfy that youmay be sent In just a moment.
We'll come to this tabletogether.
Before we do, let's affirm thefaith that has been handed down
to us throughout the generations.
I invite you to stand Christian.

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I ask you this what do youbelieve?
We believe in one God.
Thank you, you may be seated.

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I would like to go ahead andinvite our servers up here now.
In just a moment, followers ofJesus are going to be welcomed
to the table.
How we take communion here atNew City is you're going to make

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a left and then a right.
You come up and we would liketo extend an invitation for
everybody to come up.
How this works is if, for anyreason whatsoever, you are not
going to take this morning, youcan simply just cross your arms
and we would love to pronounce abrief blessing over you,
followers of Jesus.

(45:27):
Would you hear now these wordsof institutions?
On the night in which he wasbetrayed, jesus took bread and,
in breaking it, said this is mybody given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
In a like manner, he took thecup and he said remembrance of
me.
In a like manner, he took thecup and he said this cup is the

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new covenant of my blood.
Shed for the forgiveness ofsins.
Drink in remembrance of me.
Would you pray with me, father?
We see what love has beenlavished out upon us through the
work of your son.
We thank you that his body wasbroken, that ours would one day
be made whole.
We thank you that his blood wasshed, that our hearts may be

(46:12):
purified, that our thirst may bequenched in you.
So feed us now by your HolySpirit.
Make Jesus real and known to us.
Bless your people.