How Thirsty Are You For God's Word And Way?

We're fantastic. Kids are wonderful. They are unique, and it seems like they never fail to come up with something. I'd heard a story about a dad who had put his little boy to bed, got him all tucked in, said good night, kissed him, went out of the room, and about five minutes later, said, and the dad says, what?

Can I have a drink of water? He says, no, you just had a drink of water. You're all tucked in, lights out. You had your chance. That's it. Good night. About five minutes later, dad... Anybody experienced this in their life? Okay, you know what we're getting at here, right?

But I'd really like a drink of water. No, lights are out. That's it. And if you have to ask again, I'm going to have to punish you. Well, five minutes later, dad... What? When you come to punish me, can you bring me a glass of water? Sometimes that's the way it is, isn't it? It just cannot resist.

And in fact, H2O, water, is so vital. Have you ever been truly thirsty? I think we all have. To some degree or another, there are times in our life if we're out working out, we've been physically active, we cannot wait to have that drink of water. Maybe even coming in off the beach here at the feast, you felt that. You've been out in the sun and you've lost a lot of moisture in your body. You've got to have a drink. But have any of us ever been lost in the desert? And imagine that scene that we're crawling through the desert.

Probably a few of us, if any of us, have ever been in that situation. But so many times throughout the Bible, it addresses that theme of thirst and water and how we can quench that thirst. And so the imagery of thirst in the Bible is one that appears over and over and over again. And maybe you hadn't thought about it, but it's also a feast theme. The concept of thirst and water are a theme for the feast. So H2O is an important thing to remember during the Feast of Tabernacles. Because really, before we can concentrate on anything else in our life, we've got to have water and food.

By physically speaking, we've got to have that. And Christ Himself spoke to that very concept. Over in Matthew 5, verse 4, Christ addressed this idea of H2O and how important it is for us. Not just physically speaking, but more importantly, spiritually speaking.

Spiritually speaking, it's an important thing. Christ was going through the Beatitudes, those different concepts about those who are blessed. Blessed are those who mourn. They'll be comforted. Blessed are the meek. They'll inherit the earth. And He goes through this whole list. By the time He gets to verse 6, in Matthew, Matthew 5, verse 6, He says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Now, it's easy to read through these things. Oftentimes, when we see this whole list of blessed are this and blessed are that and blessed are this, we can run over this so quickly. And yet, Christ says this in a way that He wants us to realize this very basic, this very all-consuming life or death desire. And not even desire, but the need for water. I ran across an example of this the other day.

I was reading a little bit about World War I. And I'd never read about this story before. But in World War I, in the area of Palestine, so we're talking about that Biblical area, the British forces, as well as those from New Zealand and Australia, were fighting the Turks. And they were driving them out of Palestine. And as they were in the midst of this battle, it was such a heated battle. And not only a heated battle, but the land was heated. It was hot. And they were forcing out the Turks. And they moved so quickly as they were fighting this battle that they did something you should never do in the midst of battle.

And that is, outrun your supply lines. And they pushed the Turks back so quickly and so far, they got so far ahead of their camel train that was supplying them with water. That suddenly, they were miles away from water. And the fighting was raging. And at Sharia, the soldiers completely ran out of water. It ended up they were days from water in any direction. That was a problem. That was a major problem. What happened?

Well, when you read the stories, it wasn't long before lips started cracking. Tongues began to swell. The soldiers began to hallucinate. They saw mirages. It was a very, very serious situation. Hundreds had died from battle, but now many, many more began to die from thirst. They were literally craving that water. But it wasn't there. Now, as they finally, ultimately drove out the Turks, they forced them from the wells that would supply that life-giving water.

Now, you'd think, alright, problem solved. But there was another problem that the officers faced. If they suddenly released thousands of soldiers, what would happen as they went toward these wells? There would be a stampede. Many, many more would lose their lives just trying to get to the life-giving water that was necessary.

So the officers decided, we're not going to let everyone drink. First, those who were wounded, those who were on the first watch, would have opportunity to drink first. Now, the question was, would the soldiers wait? Would those who were literally dying of thirst wait for their turn? Do you know what happened? They did wait. There was an orderly procedure that they followed, and the wounded, and those on first watch drank first, and the others waited.

Could you imagine that? If your tongue was frozen because it was so swollen that you couldn't talk anymore, and yet you were willing to wait for that life-giving water. Can you imagine how badly you would have desired that water? Yet here they were, just inches literally from those life-giving wells, and they waited just feet from water. What was their passion for days right before them? And yet they waited their turn, and eventually they all got through and got to drink. Now, none of us have probably experienced that kind of thirst. But when you read Matthew 5, when you read what Jesus Christ himself was talking about here, that's the kind of thirst He wants us to have.

He wants us to have that kind of a desire, that kind of a need for water, for the water that only God can provide. He's talking about dehydration, life and death, attitude and desire toward the righteousness of God. He wants us to have that. You know, when you read through that, you might easily just think, well, I thirst for water. I would like to have the righteousness of God. You know, I don't want all the water there is, but I just want enough for me. But you know, that's not what's written there.

That is not what Jesus Christ was talking about. The normal Greek would say, happy are those who hunger and thirst for just some of God, for just some of His righteousness. But not for all of it. But in actuality, the way that the Greek is written here, it's telling us, happy are those who have a craving, a yearning thirst that can never completely be satisfied for all that God is, for all of His righteousness. Or if you said it a little bit differently, happy are those who are thirsting for all the righteousness of our infinitely righteous God, for everything that He is with the kind of continual, all-consuming desire that is never completely satisfied.

That's what Christ was talking about. And the interesting thing is, if we are desiring that, if that is our goal, if that is our heart's desire, Christ tells us we will be filled. Isn't that amazing? God will satisfy it. It's almost like feeding an animal.

I know a lot of us have pets. And if you feed your pet and make food available all the time, eventually they become self-regulated. So they just eat what they need. They just eat what they need.

And they are filled, aren't they? They are filled. It's like feeding an animal so much that they don't need food any longer. They're satisfied with it. And so, in a way, I think Christ is asking us a feast question here. How thirsty are you? How thirsty are you for God's righteousness? Maybe we can look at that righteousness glass of ours. Imagine that glass of righteousness. Is that glass filled to the top? Or is it half full? Or maybe half empty? I guess depending on your perspective, is it half full? Half empty. What might it be? Are we optimistically looking at righteousness and filling ourselves up with the fullness of God through the power of His Holy Spirit?

That's what God wants for us. God doesn't want us to be pessimistic about the outlook ahead. The feast is a reminder of that. That we can have a positive, optimistic outlook as we are filled with the fullness of God. I know sometimes we're around people that have different perspectives on life. I heard about the optimist and the pessimist. One day the sun was beautifully shining like a beautiful day like today. And the optimist said, it is a beautiful day. What a great day! And the pessimist said, the stupid sun is going to sunburn me. Of course, the next day it rained. The optimist said, boy, we have really needed this rain. The pessimist said, stinking rain, I just washed my car!

Well, one day the optimist took his friend duck hunting. Took him out duck hunting. The optimist shoots a duck and sends his dog to go and fetch it. Immediately the dog takes off and runs right on top of the water. Right out there into the water, right on top, picks up that duck, runs all the way back. The optimist just cannot believe it. He says, wow, did you see that? The dog! Amazing! Ran right on top of the water out there. Got the duck, came all the way back. The pessimist said, stupid dog can't swim, can he?

You see, when it comes to our outlook, God doesn't want us to see it just as half empty or even half full. God wants us to thirst spiritually so He can fill us so that we're brimming over the top. And then we continue to get thirsty all over again. Every drink we take from that glass of the spirituality and righteousness of God just causes us to thirst and wets our appetite for that much more. He's given us His Spirit and He wants us to utilize that Spirit and realize we need God. It's not just, well, it's nice to have a relationship with God. No, more than that. We are suffering spiritually if we don't have a desire and realize our need for God. We need Him. And so that's the kind of thirst Jesus Christ offers to fill. He wants us to have that kind of thirst. In fact, there's an amazing passage over in Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 speaks to this. It gives us a feast image here as it tells us about the kind of water that we should be thirsting for. Because that water in the Bible, that H2O, is representative of God's Holy Spirit. God's Holy Spirit. And here Isaiah is inspired to record some amazing information for us. Isaiah 55, right at the very beginning, it says, "...ho, or come, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters and you who have no money. Come by and eat. Yes, come by wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy?" He says, listen carefully to me. Eat what is good. Let your soul delight itself in abundance. You see, God's telling us we need to recognize that we are an absolute need. We're like those soldiers in World War I. We may not realize it, but we need God. He alone can fill that thirst. Our own ability cannot do it. So we need to have Him. We need to repent and believe God's way of salvation. And so that H2O, that Holy Spirit, is what we absolutely need. There's some amazing physical connections as well. When you think about water, H2O, how much of our body is made up of H2O, of water?

Well, the Mayo Clinic says about 60% of our body weight are those chemicals found in H2O. And water is an amazing thing. Every system in your body, every one of them, Mayo says, is dependent. On water. Every system. Water flushes out the toxins in our body. It carries vital nutrients to our organs, to every single cell in our body. And without water, we're going to be dehydrated. And when you don't have enough water in your system, what happens? Well, you may not be like those soldiers and be at a life and death moment, but your body can't function properly. Your body cannot do the thing, do its normal functions without enough water. Anyone experienced that at the feast this year? Oh, great. I'm the only one with my hand up. The other night, I jumped out of bed! I had an unbelievable charley horse, and it was like, oh, it was killing me! The first thing my wife said was, did you drink enough water today? Well, I guess not. No, I hadn't drunk enough water, and it was affecting me! And those things hurt, don't they? They hurt when you have those charley horses. Even mild dehydration. Just a little bit. Is that your energy? It can take away the energy and make you feel tired. Now, is it possible for us as individuals then, just a little dehydration? Are we at the spiritual level, when you think in spiritual terms, that we need to be at? How about as a church, as a body? Collectively, if we're just a little dehydrated, well, we're not drop-dead thirsty, but just a little thirsty. Is the body of Christ functioning the way that it should, when we're even just a little bit dehydrated? And so you see what Christ is offering here. Now, that's nothing new for Him. But He's making that point. He's the one! He brought Israel through the Red Sea, didn't He? We recognize that during the days of Unleavened Bread. And what did He do to the bottom of the sea? He made it like a desert. It became like a desert. God making a desert in the sea. Now, today He turns that around. He turns it around, and out of the desert, He makes the sea. You see, He provides an oasis in the desert of this world that we live in. We are to be an oasis for the truth of God. We're to be streams in the desert. That's the feast perspective. And how does that happen? How is that even possible? H2O. It's possible through God's Holy Spirit. Over in Isaiah 32, if you turn back just a few pages, Isaiah 32, verse 13, reminds us of this. It reminds us of this.

The New Living Translation says this in verse 13 of Isaiah 32. It describes the kind of society, the kind of world that we live in right now. It makes this connection between the kind of things that the land is illustrating and the connection to the world that we live in. Let's notice what it says. Isaiah 32, 13. It says, It says, See, even today, do we have places that we would call happy cities? Well, right now, PCB is happy, but that's because we're here. We're here. The people of God are here. But out there, it's not a happy place, is it? It says, You see, this world is a desolate place already and will be more so before the return of Christ. But when that fact occurs, verse 15, it says, It says, And because of H2O, it says, And the fertile field will become a lush and fertile forest. Justice will rule in the wilderness, righteousness in the fertile field. And this righteousness, it says, in verse 17, Will bring peace, quietness, and confidence, will fill the land forever. My people will live in safety quietly at home, and they will be at rest. And you see, finally, finally, the world will have that opportunity. God's plan is to restore the Garden of Eden all over again, and there will be peace, and there will be rest. The Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes that restoration process, and that all happens through God's Holy Spirit. So we, collectively, can be restored and refreshed. We individually, we have God's Spirit, and we can be restored. We can be forgiven of sins. We can be repentant, and we can be refreshed right now with that wonderful H2O of God's Holy Spirit. The Feast reminds us of that. And so how refreshed are you feeling? Hopefully you're feeling rejuvenated. Hopefully you're feeling restored. How refreshed are we? I was reminded of this when I heard the story about a man who was traveling down a country road. He was forced to stop as he was going down this gravel road because he came to a big puddle that was covering the entire road. And as he looked off to the one side next to the fence, he noticed a farmer was leaning against the fence. And so he rolled down his window, called out to the farmer. He said, hey, is it safe to cross? And the farmer said, sure, I reckon so. And so the man put it back in gear, took his car forward, immediately swallowed by this giant puddle. In fact, it was so deep, the man had to roll down his window and swim out to come to the top of the water. And as he swims to the top of this big puddle, he looks over at that farmer and he says, what were you talking about? I thought you said it was safe for you to drive through this puddle. The farmer said, I'm as confounded as you are. He said, it only comes up this high on my ducks.

You see, the challenge for us when it comes to the Spirit, when it comes to God's H2O, are we only chest-high in righteousness, or are we fully submerged in righteousness?

There's an interesting song that we sing in our hymnal. It's page 121. I think we're going to put it up on the screen at the moment. It's become a favorite, it seems, of so many people. Do you recognize that song? Maybe we could sing a little bit of this. Can we sing a little bit of it together? We don't need the piano. We can do it acapella. How's that? You know how it goes. It goes like this. Sing it with me. As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you. You guys are good. Keep singing.

Let's sing the chorus anyway.

Beautiful. Very beautiful. Isn't that a beautiful song? That's Psalm 42. That's Psalm 42, and it's an amazing Psalm. Because it expresses that desire that God's H2O brings to us. Just like that deer. If you can imagine, if any of you are hunters, you know what it's like to chase after a deer. And in Palestine, if you can imagine chasing a deer through the wilderness, and that deer is getting away, what is this desire as it's running away from the hunter?

It wants the brook. It wants that water brook. And it's panting, desiring that water. Just like those World War I soldiers, it's got to have the water. It is a deep-seated desire. And so for us, the psalmist says, we should be thirsting for God just like that, dear. I long for I've got to have the water that only comes from God, the living God. He alone sustains me. And it's interesting, there's kind of two parts to the song, two parts to the psalm, that I'm thirsting for the living God.

And that's such an important thing, that each and every one of us, whether the world realizes it or not, we certainly must realize it. Every one of us, every human being has been created for the need of God in our life. Not just a nice thought, but we absolutely need God. We have the strong desire for a fellowship with God, for a relationship with God. Each and every one of us has a vacuum in our heart and in our mind that can only be filled by God the Father and Jesus Christ.

There is no other way to fill it. But we pretend we can fill it in other ways. So girls, the boys can't fill it. Boy, it seems like they can, and we go after those guys, and maybe they can fill that desire that we have. Not the desire that God created you with. They can't. Boys, video game ain't going to cut it.

It's not going to fill it. It'll take up your time. But you know, like Solomon said, it's all vanity. That is all youth. When it comes right down to it, what's going to bring us significance? You know, we think our job is going to bring us significance. Is that going to bring us security? Is our family, our physical family, going to bring us satisfaction? Is some hero going to help us to have the security that we need in this life? Absolutely not. That's like the little hamster on the treadmill. We're going to be running and running and running and running and running and never get anywhere. And that's what is said in that psalm. God is the only way to find what truly is missing in our life.

Now you may say, well, yeah, you can see that because you're old. You're old. You want God in your life because you're about to die. The hard part, young adults, teenagers, is that's the way it is. Because you can run around and try to fill that void with all the things that this world has to offer.

Some of them are good. But the problem is, more often than not, the good is mixed with evil. Because that's the tree of human nature, isn't it? The knowledge of good and evil. And Satan's smart enough to mix it up, just enough to fool us, to deceive us. Don't be taken in by that. God says true happiness is found in a relationship with Him. That's what we've got to put first in our life. That's got to be the goal in our life.

It's interesting that in that song that we sing, it also focuses on the need for us to be together. It's not only a relationship with God that was written about. It also says, When shall I come and appear before you, Lord? When will I come together? Collectively. When will I stand before you in the temple? When can I come before the living God?

Well, where do we do that? When do we come to what's often called the sanctuary in the Old Testament? Well, that's coming to the temple. That's coming together as a people, as a church. We come together on the Sabbath. And so we find that there was this longing, this separation that, more than likely, David wrote. He was separated from Jerusalem. He was separated from the church. Do we feel that desire? Do we understand that there's only certain things that can be filled in our life by being at church, by coming together as the body of Christ?

We heard about it in the feast film. There are only certain things that can be filled in our life by godly people, by others who have that H2O, that Holy Spirit that God has provided. And when we miss it, we're left out. There is something missing in our life. David found that. Are we sensitized to that? Are we sensitized to that need? David writes about the futility and the despair he felt as he was running away in the wilderness and running and sought after and people were trying to kill him. He knew that despair. Part of that despair was not just the fact that Saul was out to kill him.

Part of that despair was his separation from the church, his separation from Jerusalem, the separation he felt from the presence of God within the temple. We are the temple of God. So when we miss, there's something missing in our lives as well. Never take that for granted. Because that's the amazing thing about water. Don't we take it for granted? I do. I just walk over to the faucet, turn on, and there it is.

Voila! Water! Wow, that's really cool. It just comes right out. So it's easy to take it for granted because it's there. Especially we as Americans are so spoiled. We turn on the tap and there's the water. We can drink it whenever we want. But you know, it wasn't that way in the Middle East.

It isn't that way in the Middle East, even today. Water is scarce. They were very much aware of their dependence of God for water. They needed that vital H2O. Because in Israel, it doesn't rain that much.

It doesn't rain that much. Usually it would stop raining in March and there wouldn't be any rain. It would be highly unusual for it to rain for guess how long? Not one month, not two. But probably more than seven months there would be no rain. No rain. So they realized if God didn't provide those early rains in the end of October after the feast, if God didn't provide those rains in October in November, guess what wouldn't grow back in the springtime then? Perhaps we're going to grow. And so you see, that should draw the attention to us to realize, have we become complacent when it comes to the availability of God's water, of His Holy Spirit, of His H2O?

And do we try to quench our thirst in all the things that don't last? You see, normally we do. Normally we do. Can we really say when it comes to our relationships, we're quenching our thirst at the right well? How about in our entertainment? The movies we watch, the music we listen to.

Would we sit down with Jesus Christ and watch that same show? Or if we realized He was there, we'd change the channel. But He's not around, so I watch it anyway. You see, have we become desensitized? Have we become calloused in some ways? Because we're not as bad as the rest of the world. We're not that bad.

Yet are we really enveloped with the H2O, with that perspective that God wants us to have? Not only in entertainment, but all of our relationships. You see, that should envelop our marriages, so that our marriages are not desensitized. So the way we treat our husband or our wife is the way that Jesus Christ would treat us and the way that we would treat Him.

You see, we can't forget that. We can't just turn on the water and take it for granted. We have to put that into practice in our life, in our family, in our friends, in our acquaintances. And it goes out from there. How do we treat the strangers? How do we treat our enemies? You see, Christ said, we better have the water on, because we're supposed to love our enemy.

You see, that's desiring for all that God is, when we can truly look at that. And so, what are our values? What are our priorities? What is it that we pursue most in our life? You see, those are important feast kinds of questions. How thirsty really are we? You see, that H2O, it's something that we must constantly drink of, constantly utilize God's Holy Spirit in our life. I mean, aren't we told to do that physically? How many glasses of water are we told to drink every single day?

Well, I know it's more than I probably do. We're told to drink eight glasses of eight, or eight eight-ounce glasses of water a day. So, eight eight, eight glasses of eight ounces every single day. Now, we all know we're supposed to drink water every day, right? But, I think what happens sometimes is kind of like exercise. How many of us know that exercise is good for us? Yay! All right. How many of us know we're supposed to exercise every day? All right. How many of us do it every day? Yeah. All right.

Some of you are great. You are amazing. You are amazing. You see, we know these things to be true, don't we? We know it to be true. We know we're supposed to do that. But do we really put it into practice? And that is the challenge, because Satan is out here working against us constantly. Nothing would please him more, not only just to hinder us, but he wants to stamp us out. He wants to put his thumb right on us and grind us into the ground.

He doesn't want anyone to come to repentance. He wants no one to achieve salvation. He doesn't want anyone to have a relationship with God. And he's going to do everything he can to hinder that, to break those glasses of water so that we cannot drink. And yet, Christ said, become perfect. Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect. That's Matthew 5, verse 48. That's right after those beatitudes that we read about earlier. So when we're drinking in those eight-ounce glasses of God's Holy Spirit a day, and it's recognizable in our life, we're growing in maturity.

We're becoming mature. That's really what that word means. We're becoming mature like our Father. Not the ruler of this age, right? Not the God of this world, but the true God, the Creator of God. We're growing in maturity. We're growing in godliness. We're putting on the mind of Christ. We're growing in the character of God. And so we're reaching and growing in the proper height when it comes to integrity.

And we're reaching that maturity of Jesus Christ Himself. The feast is a good reminder of that. So we have to drink in of that water. But you know, it doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop there. When you think of an interesting example during the feast, we talked a little bit about this deer panting for the water as it's running through the wilderness. You know, Jerusalem isn't exactly the best place for water. If it wasn't for the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem, especially at the time of David, the time of Christ, wouldn't have had much water at all.

That spring provided the water so that there could be a settlement there. In fact, the Gihon Spring is one of the major springs in the world, even today. But there's something interesting about that spring. It's an intermittent spring. In other words, it's not always pouring forth all kinds of water.

So what did they do about that? In the time of David, in ancient Jerusalem, in order to have water all year round, they built the pool of Siloam. And they excavated that out so the water could be stored there, and it flowed through there. And it stored a lot of water so that the town could have life, so the plants could be watered. They used it as an irrigation system as well for the Kidron Valley.

And so they would use this pool of Siloam where much water was stored. And they used that spring and that pool for something amazing during the Feast of Tabernacles. During the Feast of Tabernacles, there was a ceremony that they did every single day, right after the morning sacrifices. What would happen would begin at the temple, and there would be a huge procession. The priests would lead this procession, and they would carry a beautiful gold pitcher. And they would lead this procession through the streets of Jerusalem, and the temple musicians were there. So you can't have a parade without a band, right? So you've got to have the band.

So the band was playing along, and they would march from the temple, and the people would accompany them. So imagine what this must have been like. A whole parade of worshippers, leaping, dancing, playing instruments, singing, chanting, praising God as they led and proceeded all the way down to the pool of Siloam, where this beautiful water that supplied life to the city was.

And so as they marched down there, they were carrying something as well. You know what they carried? Now think about the Feast of Habbernacles. The Feast of...what's another name for the feast? The Feast of Booths. They built booths, didn't they? Well, they would carry branches of the various types of plants that they used to build their Sukkot, their booths. And they would have those branches, whether it was myrtle or willow, and they would wave those branches, and they would sing the Psalms as they were going down to the pool of Siloam.

When they finally reached that pool, the priest would dip that golden pitcher into the pool, fill it with water, and then guess what would happen? They started marching back to the temple. They'd go a different way through the streets, but they had that wonderful water. Not any old water, but this was living water. This wasn't a stagnant pool filled with al...this was living water, moving water, water that brought life to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, brought life to the plants around. And so they brought that water of life back to the temple, and they marched right through the gate.

But you'll never guess which gate they marched through as they came back into the temple. Right. The water gate. Right? They walked through the water gate back into the temple. As the priest came in, the trumpet would sound as the priest came into the temple.

Oh, that sounds vaguely familiar of the time we're celebrating, doesn't it? When the trumpet is going to sound and our high priest returns to earth. And as they came to the altar, the priest would pour that pitcher of water with another pitcher of wine as an honor to God, as a drink offering to him. And it was such a joyful occasion to people who were laughing and dancing and singing and praising God. In fact, a rabbi wrote that if you never saw the water ceremony, you have never seen rejoicing in your life.

And of course, one of the things we're commanded to do at the feast is rejoice. And so this happened every single day during the feast. The six days of the feast, this procession would go down, they'd get that water, come back to the altar, and the priest would walk around that altar one time and then present it before God and pour it out before him.

And the people would sing and they would shout and sing the psalms before God. But on the seventh day of the feast, something different happened. Yes, they did the processional. They went down the singing and the dance.

They get back to the altar, and instead of walking around that altar once, guess how many times they walked around that? This is in the time of Christ. In fact, Christ was there on the seventh day of the feast. And the priest marched around, in fact, all the people marched around seven times, kind of like Jericho. They remembered Jericho and what they did way back then. And they remembered that in the desert, God provided water in the desert as well.

So they marched around this altar seven times while singing and praising God. They specifically concentrated on Psalm 118.25. Psalm 118.25 says, Save now, we pray, O Lord. Send now, prosperity. That's interesting. The pool of Siloam literally means sent. Send now, save now, Hoshana, save now. And they prayed, the priest would pray about rain. And so after that seventh circle, after this whole situation would happen, they would take those willows, and they would beat them on the ground, and they would separate the leaves from the stem.

Just like separating our sins from us, and they would present that before God. It would be an amazing, amazing tribute as they honored God. Like the harvest festival we celebrate, like separating the wheat from the chaff. So only what is good and nutritious and right is what remains. And so imagine this whole festival, this whole ceremony taking place at this time. And in fact, it was at that part of the temple that used to be the threshing floor where they separated that grain. So what was good and right remained. And so as the singing and shouting took place, at that very moment when they were crying out, Psalm 118, verse 26 says, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Imagine silence for a moment. Turn over to John 27, 37.

With all this wonderful joyousness taking place, all the singing and the shouting and the dancing and the praising God and the worshiping, all the symbolism of that water, that living water being poured out before the priests and the people, the chanting, the willows, the sin being removed, at that moment they're crying out, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Christ stood up. John 7, 37.

It says, on that last day of the feast, amidst all the celebration, Jesus stood and cried out. And I can just imagine it as that was taking place. The singing and the dancing. It all comes to a stop as they cry out and sing that psalm. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Christ stands up and he says, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Can we even begin to imagine how startling that must have been? To have all the singing and dancing suddenly silence.

And this voice, this voice of authority and power just rings out and says, Come to me, come to me and drink.

You can just imagine the crowd just turning and looking at Jesus Christ, because it's only through Christ we can receive that spiritual living water. Rivers of living water. A plentiful, constant supply of water. In fact, he says, out of his heart or out of his belly, some translations say, will flow rivers of living water. Once we drink that water that starts from the source of God the Father and Jesus Christ, we see we have that water then within us. We have Christ living his life in us. There is a fullness, a constancy in Christ, and out of our heart, out of our mind then, should flow living waters. So no wonder Christ is concerned with what we thirst for, what is most important in our life, what our heart's desire is. God is concerned about that. Are we looking to Christ? Have we come to Christ? Are we utilizing that H2O of God's Holy Spirit? There's an amazing prophecy about this in Zechariah 14. In Zechariah 14, verse 8, it talks about this living water flowing. In fact, he's telling us right now, right now since we have come to Christ, we have been baptized, we have received that H2O, that living water, that water should be streams flowing from us, from each of us individually and collectively as the church. That water should be streaming from us. Zechariah 14, 8 says, In that day there shall be that living water shall flow from Jerusalem. And that's talking about literal waters, but it's also talking about spiritual waters, half of them toward the eastern sea, half of them toward the western sea. In both summer and winter it shall occur... Well, wait a second. The Gihon Spring was only an intermittent spring. But this living water, always constant, sure, both summer and winter. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. And in that day it shall be the Lord is one, and His name one. And so we have that opportunity to be a type of that right now. We don't have to wait to reign and rule with Christ. We have that opportunity now because we have God's Holy Spirit. We have that H2O. Do we have the H2O? That's doing its job, the job that God designated that for. We heard a lot about that in the Feast film. It referred over to Ephesians 4, verse 15. Maybe we can turn there very briefly. Ephesians 4, verse 15. Because it gives us some direction. It gives us some guidance for how that water should flow and where that water is flowing from. Ephesians 4, verse 15. He talks about having the unity of the faith in verse 13. He says we're not supposed to be like little children just tossed to and fro. But verse 15 says we're supposed to speak the truth in love and grow up in all things into Him who is the head. That's Christ. So there we have that life-giving water that's going to help us to mature with the mind of Christ. The feast should remind us of that maturation. And then in verse 16 it says, The whole body is joined and knit together by what every pastor supplies.

No. What does it say? By what every joint supplies. So the body is joined and knit by what every one of us, every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does it share. That, it says, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. You see, if I didn't say that's a feast challenge for us. Are we supplying the part that God intended for each of us, every one of us? What's my part? What is it that God wants me to supply?

What's God's expectations for me? Well, if we've been given His Spirit, there is an expectation. There is a part that only you can supply. And God doesn't expect anyone else to do your job. It's your job to do. And you know, if you don't do that job, the body's not going to work right. It's not going to work right. We're not going to be filled the way He wants us to be.

And we can't get caught up into thinking wrong about growth. You see, is it right to say, well, there aren't many people here. We're just not growing. We haven't had that many baptisms. The church just isn't growing. I might have missed it here, but I didn't see anything that says anything about numbers. Did you? Is that the kind of growth that He's talking about here? I don't think so. I don't think that's what He's talking about here. When He says, when we're joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, He says, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

So we need to be submitting to God's Spirit more and more and more. And what's going to take place? Spiritual growth. Yeah, hopefully the numbers are going to come, too. I believe that's going to be the case as well. But when the body is right, the body is going to grow that much more spiritually. It's going to be that much more like Christ Himself. The bride will be making herself ready. It will be growing in grace and knowledge.

You see, that's not about numbers, is it? Is righteousness about numbers? Or is righteousness about character? Is righteousness about responding to the Spirit of God? Is righteousness about that H2O? We've got to have it. That's the H in H2O. But, you know, it's not enough just to have the Spirit of God. H is not enough. You've got to do as well. You've got to take it and drink those eight glasses every single day. We've got to have it. We've got to H, we've got to have that, to take it.

Drink that water in. So I've received God's Spirit, but what am I doing with it? Is it engulfing me? Am I drinking it in constantly? And oh, it's not only for me, but it's for others as well. We need to offer it to others. We've got to give. We've got to serve this life-giving water to others.

Isn't that what Christ said? Living waters would be flowing out of us. So are the things that we say living waters. Or what comes out of our mouth is a stagnant pool of algae and slime. You see, that's a challenge for us. We've got to have it. We've got to take it. And we've got to offer it to others.

Serve others. Silo meant sent. We have all been sent to the pool of living water so that we can have it, we can drink it in, become more like Christ, and it will flow out of us. That's what God's purposes ultimately are for us. So when you look back a couple of pages, look at John 4. John 4, verse 13, this theme must have constantly been on Christ's mind.

Because as he talked to the woman at the well, he made a reference to that. He made a reference to that. Jesus talked to this woman at the well, and he said, whoever drinks of this well, whoever drinks of the water out of this well, he says they'll get thirsty again. It's not going to completely satisfy them. But, he says in John 4.14, whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, the water of his Spirit, the H2O of God, he says he will never thirst.

But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. You see, God's Spirit in us is that record, I guess you could say. You could say it's that earnest of eternal life that's been given to us. But it's not for selfish purposes. Yes, it's for us. We've got to have it. We've got to take it. We've got to drink it in. And now's the time to go forward and give it to others and pass it on. Since we're thirsting constantly for a closer and closer relationship with God, and because we are drawing closer to him, because we have put on the mind of Christ, now we continue to offer it to others in our example, in what we say, in what we do.

And it's becoming more and more Christlike every day we live. That's what the feast should remind us of, because when we turn to the very end of the story, go all the way to the book of Revelation, Revelation 22, verse 17. You get to the end of the story, and there's an amazing connection here as well. Revelation 22, verse 17, right at the very end of the story, which really is the end, but the beginning.

It says, and the Spirit, not just God himself, but it says the Spirit and the Bride. Who's the Bride? We are. We are. The Spirit and the Bride say, come, and let him who hears say, come, and let him who thirsts, come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. And so we, as the Bride, should have that water flowing out of us, just like Jesus Christ. And so don't look to the wrong things in this life for that kind of fulfillment and happiness, because we're not going to find it out there.

Let's stay spiritually thirsty. Let's have that harsh feeling that we've got to have God in our life at all times, not just some of the time, not just a Sabbath thing, not just a Holy Day thing, not just a feast thing, but an everyday kind of thing, because that kind of thirst is a passionate thirst. Let's have a passion for God and His way, and let's let the feast remind us we need that living H2O, a deep-seated desire to quench our thirst with God's Holy Spirit.

We've been granted that source of life. We've been granted that source of water, that H2O. Let's have it. Let's remember to take it, and let's remember to offer it to others, and let's drink deep of the waters of life, and let that river of living water flow out of you.