NewCity Orlando Sermons

John 7:37-39 | Vision

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Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to the sermon audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's prayer. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom.

Nadia Chong:

Church, please join me in this prayer of illumination. Church, please join me in this prayer of illumination. Breathe in us, holy Spirit, that our thoughts may all be holy. Act in us, holy Spirit, that our work may all be holy. Draw our hearts, holy Spirit, that we may love all that is holy. Strengthen us, holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard us, holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard us, holy Spirit, that we may 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 the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now, this he said about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. This is God's word.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Thanks be to God, you may be seated. Well, this is our last, our third, of three weeks in a vision series, and this series has been addressing or answering the question what does fruitfulness look like for New City? And so I'm going to spend a couple minutes just recapping the last two sermons. But you can go back and listen. You'll get the fuller kind of unpacking of this. But essentially we said, if we do nothing else except make disciples who make disciples, we are fruitful. If we do everything else except make disciples who make disciples, we are unfruitful. That's the simplest way to put it.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Neil Cole, a guy who's written a good bit on the church, says this ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing. I pause when I hear people make statements like that. I pause and lean in. Every church evaluated by only one thing it's disciples. He goes on and says this your church is only as good as her disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching programs or property are. If your disciples are passive, needy, consumerist and not moving in the direction of radical obedience, your church is not good. Okay, neil, what do you really think Like? Stop hiding the punchline here. So if that's true, or if there's any truth to that, if disciples really are such a big deal.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

What is a disciple? Well, at New City, we've defined a disciple as someone who's united to Jesus, in communion with God, community with one another and co-mission for the world. That's our definition. There's plenty of other ways you could define a disciple, but this is the one we're gonna go with, and the reason why I wanna name name that is because I want to name this. This is what fruitfulness looks like People becoming disciples that are not yet disciples, those people becoming disciple makers, people who are disciples of Jesus, deepening in their discipleship over time. That's what it looks like to measure what matters here. Now there's this image I want you to see here of all these circles and lines and all kinds of arrows and things like that. If that looks like hieroglyphics to you, just go back to the first in the series in August and I unpack it step by step and walk through it.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

But for now, I want to point out one thing the movement of this diagram here has both a centripetal flow and a centrifugal flow. For those of you who did not take whatever class you would learn that in I also didn't take it, but I have Google, and so I always get those two confused. But this is it Centripetal force, it moves in towards the center. Centrifugal force moves out from the center. Okay, this is significant. The way that this works is as the people of God are drawing on their union in communion with Jesus and as a community knowing and loving one another, and as they're sent out to work and to witness. There's this going outward, this momentum out from the center, but then there's a winsomeness to those kind of people and they begin to draw people from the margins in towards the center to be united to Jesus by faith themselves, and so that movement outwards and then inwards is constantly happening in what a healthy church looks like, with fruitful disciples. That's what we're aimed at.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Okay, and so with that, when we are wrapping up this series, we're just really going to focus on what is co-mission. What does it actually look like for us to? We kind of invented that word. Co-mission just simply means to be sent to be about what God is about in the world, with his spirit and with one another. That's what co-mission means. So what does that actually look like?

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Well, I want to look at how this co-mission always is an overflow of our communion, that you cannot get those mixed up, that they have to be in that order. Communion overflows into co-mission, and so if you have a Bible or a device or the worship guide, go ahead and get John 7 in front of you. We're gonna look at this very closely, word by word, verse by verse. Together, communion overflows into commission. That's my one sentence. My two points are communion looks like drinking in and commission looks like flowing out. Communion is drinking in and commission is flowing out.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Look with me at verse 37. John 7, 37 says this on the last day of the feast, the feast, the great day, what's happening here is the people of God are celebrating what's called the Feast of Tabernacles. It was one of, I believe, seven national holidays in Israel where they'd come together and they'd celebrate the faithfulness of God to them as a people. And this particular feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, is one where we celebrate that God provided for his people food and drink when they were wandering in the wilderness, and the relevance of that is that this was not just for the people of Israel. This is actually a picture of the human condition. To be human is to look like living in a world where you have inner thirsts with outer dryness, inner thirst with an outer desert that's what it means to live the human condition.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Our post-apocalyptic fiction gets this right. Okay, here's two examples. It always depicts kind of this waterless wasteland, or often does, like the book of Eli. Right, the book of Eli. You've got this guy named Carnegie who rules his town because he controls the supply of 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 his people Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you and you will resent its absence, like you could become addicted to the thing that you need to survive.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

And what these people are getting at in these dystopian futures? They're getting at the fact that we are all thirsty travelers in a dry land and there's this innate fear that we might not have what we need to satisfy our thirst. And so look with me again at the text. It says in verse 37, on the last day of the feast, the great day, jesus stood up and he cried out. That's a strong word. He cried out. If anyone thirsts, jesus cries out. He's making a scene here, but you've got to catch that this would be. People would be like what is going on right now? Why is he making such a big deal? Why isn't he using his inside voice? Why is Jesus right now getting so dialed up? Your thirst? That's why this deep desire that you have, this existential thirst that we all carry around with us.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

John Newton, who wrote the great hymn Amazing Grace, said it like this God has given the human such a vastness of thirst for happiness that God alone can answer, such a vastness of thirst for happiness that God alone can answer. And you see, living with unquenchable thirst is painful. And so all of us religious people, irreligious people, secular, whatever you want to say we all do this thing that the prophet Jeremiah called out. He said my people have committed two evils. Evil number one they've forsaken me, the fountain of living water. We don't really need you, god. Yeah, we're thirsty, but we're not going to you as the source. They've forsaken the fountain of living water. And the second one is they've hewn out for themselves broken cisterns that could never hold water. Everyone in this room has committed both of those evils.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

We've turned from God as the fountain of living water and we've made for ourselves. We've turned to our own little sources to sip on a little sustenance that always leave us thirsty again. And so God, in his kindness, forbids us from slaking our thirst in places that we ought not go. Not because he's a killjoy by definition, because he knows that when we go to those places to satisfy our thirst it's like guzzling salt water when you're running a marathon it only leads you thirsty again. And so he prohibits you from going to those places. He says do not go there.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

But some of us have gone there so frequently and realized we've been left dissatisfied so often that we become despairing of ever having our thirst satisfied. We just kind of numb out, check out, we become bored and listless and restless and we just live day by day, moment by moment, kind of going through the motions, thinking that there's no more on offer for us than we've already had. We've been in the desert and we've seen the mirage and we've gotten there and realized it was all for nothing. And so what do we do with this quote vast vastness of thirst for happiness that God alone can answer? Well, in our prayer meeting this past Wednesday we were praying through Psalm 63, which is about this thirst for God and someone. In our prayer meeting this past Wednesday, we were praying through Psalm 63, which is about this thirst for God, and someone in the prayer meeting said this God, give us courage to live with thirst. Courage, yes, yes, courage. We dare not sip the salt water that we know leaves us thirsty again, but also we dare not give up on ever being satisfied. That takes courage to avoid both of those two pitfalls. And it takes courage to dare to believe that maybe there is something or someone out there from whom we could drink deeply and find the satisfaction that we long for.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

And so, when it comes to Christianity, you can fake a lot. You can fake a lot about the Christian religion. You can, you know, do the outward motions. You can learn the Christian-y sayings you're supposed to say. You can be a good moral person. That's probably a good thing. We need more of those, but that's not a Christian.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

A Christian is someone who thirsts for God. A Christian is someone who recognizes that their desires have been awakened for the true and living God. So my invitation is do you desire more of God than you have right now? Do you want more of him than you have already tasted and experienced? This is what Jesus is after. That's why in verse 37, it says Jesus stood up and cried out if anyone thirsts Notice this is a conditional statement.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

If is a conditional word. In my home we have a condition every night for dinner, which is if you don't eat, you don't get a treat. It's a condition, a treat, it's a condition. What's Jesus's condition If? What is it? If anyone is qualified? Not what it says. If anyone's surrendered enough or deeply committed enough Not what it says.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

He says if anyone thirsts, who is not thirsty? So if we find ourselves thirsty this morning, what do we do? Look what Jesus says If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. I love the radical inclusivity of Jesus. If anyone thirsts, far as to the corners of the earth, like if anybody is thirsty, jesus is saying here but then look at the radical exclusivity of Jesus. Let them come to me. Nowhere else Jesus will be many things to you, but he will never be second in the satisfaction of your thirst. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me. Let him come to me. Jesus promises to satisfy your thirst by thrilling you with himself.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

But here's the thing. Jesus is really putting himself out there, because we ask the question can you really meet me here Like can you really satisfy my deepest longings? Those of us who've been walking with Jesus for years, maybe even decades, we look at this and we're like, yeah, this should be provable by experience. Either he slakes our thirst or he doesn't. What do we seem like? This seems so little proven in experience for many Christians.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Why is it that, if this is true, we see so much boredom and addiction and distraction, so much looking forward to the next experience or purchase among people who belong to Jesus? What do we make of that? Because there's something in the nature of thirst we have to pay attention to here. You see, when you come and drink, I mean your physical thirst. When you come and drink, your thirst goes away and then it's just gone for the rest of your life, right? No, in fact, you feel refreshed, but then you become thirsty again. The cause of our thirst is beyond remedy. God has made you with an incurable desire for himself, and so when Jesus says come to me and drink, he means come and keep coming. He means don't just sip, but drink and drink deeply and constantly, and continually and habitually. 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 other way. And so another piece to this, though, is, as you come to Jesus, your thirst is quenched a little bit and it also grows. St Augustine says oh Lord, you have put salt on our tongues that we might thirst for you.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

There's a woman from the early founding of our country named Sarah Jones. She lived in Virginia, and on November 18th 1790, she wrote a letter to her cousin and said this brother, I want more than a little religion. I want my desires and soul in every faculty extended, that I may drink seas and rivers and running streams of Jesus's dying love. And what I cannot drink, I want to swim in continually. My Jesus is no broken cistern, but he is a well of life without bottom, boundless, matchless, adorable Jesus. Does that touch anything in you? Do you hear Sarah's words there and 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 be totally quenched, the fountain will never run dry, and so I want to point out the simplicity of the gospel, the simplicity of what Jesus is doing here.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Drinking is one of the first things a human can do. I've got a six-month-old. He can do it. He can drink, let me tell you and he's been doing it since day one, drinking is not complicated in that way. But listen, when you're thirsty, truly thirsty, you know this experience that nothing else matters except for finding water. Spiritual thirst does the same thing. Like I want to point out that thirst has this ability to strip away the non-essentials.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

In May of this year I was training for a half marathon and it was I run in the afternoon. I just assume it's part of the training. It's like why people do hot yoga, and so I'm running. It's 4 pm, 90 degrees, super humid, 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 turn off my audio book because I can't really focus on anything else. My mind cannot be distracted. I'm just thinking about where am I going to get water.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

And I run by a woman's house and she has a hose that looks very attractive and I was tempted to just like sneak through the bushes. But I saw her in the front yard. Good thing I didn't sneak through the bushes and I said, ma'am, would you mind if I took a drink from your hose? And she said no, please don't do that, I'll get you a Gatorade. And so she brought me a Gatorade. It was amazing. I said to her I don't know if you believe in Jesus, but he tells us that he won't forget a cup of cold water offered to a disciple. She was like okay. I was like Gatorade might be bonus points. I don't know how it works, but thank you, I got to keep running and so I kept on keeping on, and this is why I'm telling you this. I was thirsty. She gave me a drink.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

That's the simplicity of the gospel. Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus and drink. That's the invitation. That's how simple and basic it is. 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 who want to continue walking with Jesus, not just the first time, coming to him to drink, but ongoing drinking, continually, habitually, as I said? Well, let me tell you a quick story about what that means. To do that, how do we come to Jesus to drink, practically through scripture and in prayer, two of the common rhythm practices.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Well, in September 19, 1853, at 21 years old, hudson Taylor left London to bring the gospel to China. In 1870, he buried his first wife, maria. You see, she died at age 33 after giving birth to their eighth child, who also died, taylor had to send his surviving children back to England for their education and their safety, and in his loneliness in China with no one around, he writes this perhaps 20 times in a day. As I felt my heart thirst coming back again, I cried to the Lord. You promised me that I should never thirst, he says. Eventually the Lord came and more than satisfied my sorrowing heart.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

You see, hudson Taylor learned to take the promise of Jesus in John 4, that if you come to him to drink he'll give you a 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, and that thirst means any unsatisfied need may be one of the greatest revelations God ever made to our soul. You see, if we learn this secret of coming and keeping to come over and over and over again saying Jesus, you promised, this is what you said. I'm taking you at your word. You begin to find that thirst quenched, but you also find yourself thirsty again. And so if this is true, that if we learn this secret of having a deep aquifer for our souls in a parched land, what happens next? Well, communion overflows into commission. Look with me. Commission flows out.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Look at verse 38. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Mysteriously, drinking water from Jesus becomes flowing water from us to others around us. That's what it says here. What is this living water? It's the Holy Spirit.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Look at the verse right there, verse 39. Now this he said about the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive. Listen, christianity says that the third person of the Trinity, god himself, is poured out into the hearts of those who believe in Jesus Unbelievable. If I had time, I'd do a little aside about how we cornered the market on body positivity y'all. If the Holy Ghost is living in your body, that's something. It's something that the spirit of the living God is in us.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

It says in verse 39, now this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive. Do you see how to believe and to receive are synonymous here. And so when we come to Jesus in communion, we simply believe him and we receive from him. But look here it says those plural, those who believed in him. That's community. So communion flows out through the channels of community. Our communion with God is structured through our community with one another.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

For all who believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit not only indwells each of us, but all of us. You can't lose either side of that. The one and the many, individual and communal, both of them matter. Get a hold of that intention. The Spirit is here with all y'all and in each of you individually. That's what the scriptures teach. And so, as a result of this, as a result of this, there's a humble boldness that characterizes our body image as the church. This is what I mean. We're humble because we recognize that we're simply thirsty like the rest of the world, that we are parched in a dry land, but we're bold because we've come to Jesus and we've learned, even if it's just a little symbol full, or a little shot glass full, or a pint glass full, or a bucket full. For some of you, we've learned what it looks like to drink from Jesus. We have a place that gives us a boldness. So the church, those who believe in him, are characterized by a humility and a boldness simultaneously. And as we constantly come to Jesus, we get this constant inflow, and then we find the Spirit to be a constant outflow. Communion overflows into commission. This is so important.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Look at verse 38. It says this Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Notice that we cannot contain the spirit that we receive. The spirit is, we are filled with the spirit, but then it flows over. He flows over through us, out of our hearts. That's what Jesus is saying here.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

William Temple put it like this no one can be indwelt by the Spirit of God and keep that Spirit to himself. Where the Spirit is, he flows forth. If there is no flowing forth, he is not there. He flows forth. If there is no flowing forth, he is not there. Believer's boat get and give this overflow of the Spirit. And so the text says rivers, rivers. That's important because in times of drought, which we all live in, in times of drought, brooks may run dry, canals may fail, lakes recede, but rivers flow, deep and wide. Rivers of living water out of our hearts to bless the world around us. That's the promise here, and so the question I found myself asking as I was preparing for this morning Holy Spirit, what hinders the flow in my life? What is it that hinders the flow of these living waters that are supposed to flow from my heart? More and more and more? Reveal that to me, and I want to get rid of it. I want rivers of living water flowing from my heart to bless the world around me.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

John Stott says notice the disparity between the water we drink in and the water that flows out. We can drink only small gulps, but as we keep coming drinking, believing by the mighty operation of the Holy Spirit within us, our little sips are multiplied into a mighty confluence of flowing stream. He says this this is the spontaneous overflow from spirit-filled Christians to the blessing of others. Listen y'all, sadly, the Spirit of God is functionally unemployed in many churches. Let it not be so among us.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

I want New City to be characterized by quote a spontaneous outflow from spirit-filled Christians to the blessing of others. But communion has to overflow into commission. That's why we gotta get first things first. But what would that functionally look like? Well, we say here that disciples of Jesus, they're united to him in commission through work and witness. So I just want to talk about those two things. What does this look like for the Spirit to flow in our work? Let's talk about the Spirit at work. Here's a true question. I'm researching, I'm thinking about a lot. This is it searching? I'm thinking about a lot. This is it.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

What if the gifts, person, power, presence of the Holy Spirit was not just for us in here as the church, but for us as the church out there in the world? What if that was true? Another way to say that would be would it make any difference if you led your company or your classroom with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control? What if the Spirit of God wasn't restrained or constrained to us, church gathered, but also church scattered and sent throughout our city? What if the Spirit didn't only transform your character but also gave you greater skill to do your job?

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Some of you are like Pastor come on, dude, my job's super secular. I just fundamentally disagree and you know, tell that to Joseph in Egypt or Daniel in Babylon. These are people who are the people of God in pagan governments and so filled with the Holy Spirit that their pagan neighbors don't even have language for it. But they say things like that dude's filled with the spirit of the gods Remember, they're pagans. Something's different about him or her and they are pointing out, actually, their gifts of administration. So this isn't just like God show up, blow up, do all kinds of wild things. This is like you're good at crunching numbers by the Spirit of God, filled up to the brim and flowing over into that spreadsheet. That's what happened with Daniel and Joseph. They didn't have spreadsheets. I get it, but track with me here.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

And so let me ask you, what would it be if that could be? What would it be like if that could be said about you in your warehouse or in your boardroom that person's filled with the spirit of the gods, because people don't even have language for it. Or what if, like Bezalel in Exodus 31, you could be filled with the spirit of God, giving you, quote ability, intelligence and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs and to work in every craft? This is how the Holy Ghost functions through his people throughout history. This is Bible. This isn't Ben Like.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

The Spirit of God is made to fill you and to flow through you came to. Spirit of God was not made. Spirit of God is an eternal person in the Trinity existing before all time in creation. The Spirit of God is meant to fill you and flow through you into the world for the blessing of your neighbors in your work. Because what if Jesus came not just to redeem our quote-unquote spiritual lives, but all of life? What if it was true that Jesus came to redeem, to set free and to give back everything that was taken from us in the fall? What this would look like is what if all the building and processing and sculpting and baking, and dancing and meeting and accounting and studying and driving that was stolen away was actually returned to us by Jesus?

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

In the gospel, the Spirit is at work in every sense of the word. But how? The best way I know how to put this into practice is using the language of second corinthians 13, 14. It calls this quote the fellowship of the holy spirit. Let me make that plain. You dialogue with the spirit about everything, everything, spirit. Let me see what you see and feel what you feel about this situation.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Like, imagine you're brainstorming a new product line, going Spirit, you know what will meet people's needs, because he does. Imagine you're problem solving some situation. You're like Spirit, you already know the answer. Will you lead me Like is that too much, or could we get a sanctified imagination of what it would look like for rivers of living water to flow through your workplace? And so, if that's work, what about witness? Well, I preached two sermons at the end of July on witness, so I'm not going to spend as much time here, but the Spirit flows in our witness, alex and Hannah Absalom, a couple that I've learned a good bit from.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

They say that in order to be a competent witness, you need two things boldness and intentionality. Intentionality you can solve that problem one of two ways either by scheduling time with not yet disciples or by taking interruptions as invitations. That's how you could be intentional. That one's pretty easy. Boldness, which every time I talk about boldness and witness, you got to hear me say the Apostle Paul asked for people to pray for him, for boldness. So if you feel a little timid opening your mouth about Jesus, it's okay. So did he, so do I, so do many of us. And so what do we do? Well, boldness is a fruit of the Spirit.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Not in Galatians 5, but in Acts 4, it says and when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness. So again, fellowship with the Holy Spirit, moment by moment. Holy Spirit, would you, I wanna tell this person about my hope in Jesus. Will you help me? Will you be with me? Will you fill me, will you enable 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 text ends here. Look with me at verse 39.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

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

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Before glorification came Jesus's humiliation, and so, if it's true that we've all been drinking from broken cisterns. What that means is that the filth got on the inside. Jesus regularly rebuked the religious leaders of his day, saying you can't clean the outside of the cup, it doesn't matter, the inside has to be cleansed. How do you cleanse the inside of a person? Nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. And so on, the cross of Christ. Jesus cleanses us with his blood so that we can be clean vessels for the Spirit of God to be poured out into and through us into the world. That's why Jesus had to be humiliated before he could be glorified.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

But how can we trust that Jesus really knows what the thirsty need? Well, because Jesus became thirsty like us in every way. He had quote, the courage to live with thirst. In fact one of Jesus' seven sayings on the cross as he was dying, in John 19, he cried out and said I thirst. He knows what that existential ache feels like. He's acquainted with it. He became a thirsty man in a dry land, so that when his side was pierced, it says that blood and water flowed out.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

The church has reflected on that and one of the interpretations is that the blood represents the cleansing that we need, and the water represents the spirit that would be given. Jesus is not only here to deal with your past although he does that, and he does that famously well. Jesus is also here to prepare you, to give you life, his Holy Spirit for the present and for the future, and so, on the cross, he makes it possible so that everything that we need could be accomplished by him, which leaves us to come to him as nothing else but thirsty saying more please Come to me and drink. Jesus says you don't bring anything to that table Now. I wish I could get in the nuanced theology here, but just bear with me.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

In Acts 2, it says that Jesus ascended to the Father and the Father poured out the Holy Spirit on his son, jesus. And because all who are united to Jesus, whatever happens to Jesus happens to them, the Spirit's poured out on Jesus and therefore poured out on all of his people. So Jesus is glorified and gets the Spirit, and the Spirit is on all who are in Jesus. That's one of the reasons why the Spirit came once Jesus was glorified. But another thing here to say is that when Jesus goes, the Spirit comes. Why? Because Jesus gave us a job, he gave us a mission, he gave us a task and he promised I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. And then he gave us the Holy Spirit In Matthew 28,. It says I will be with you always, to the very end of the age. And then he gave us the Holy Spirit. You see, the Spirit is the very presence of Jesus, so much so that Paul can call the Spirit the Spirit of Jesus. And so now Jesus his words, not mine seems to think it's better that the Spirit of God is here with us than he is with us himself. What does that actually mean? How does that actually help us? Well, if we really do want fruitfulness here at New City, we have to recognize that's beyond our capacity. We can be faithful and we can ask and trust and expect God to bring fruitfulness by his Holy Spirit. Let me tell you a story about what that would look like as we close.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Here there's a guy named Duncan Campbell. He was a Presbyterian minister and he tells this story of a revival that broke out in the Hebrides Islands off the north shore of Scotland. He said men and women had been praying one promise for months. Track with that. Imagine just like not wearing out 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 the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. Three I will pour water upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Duncan Campbell records it like this. He says one night at about 1 am, a young man like late teens, early 20s. Young man rose to his feet and prayed. Here's his prayer Lord, you made a promise. Are you gonna fulfill it? We believe that you are a covenant keeping God. Will you be true to your covenant? You have said that you would pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I don't know how others stand in your presence, but if I know my own heart, I know where I stand, and I tell you now that I am thirsty, oh, I am thirsty for a manifestation of your right hand. Lord, before I sit down, I want to tell you that your honor is at stake. Man, I bet some of our 20-year-olds could pray like that, though. I'm pleased with that.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Campbell then says this happened after that young man sat down. The house shook like a leaf, the dishes rattled in the cupboard and someone said to me it's an earthquake. He said yep Walks out, and he found, quote the community alive with an awareness of God. In a moment, just a moment, the Spirit of God could make the city of Orlando aware of the presence of God, alive with an awareness that God is real and he is present.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

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 lips that we might thirst for you. Forgive us for our broken cisterns, forgive us for all the ways and places we've turned to satisfy our thirsts apart from you. We return now we come back. We're asking that you would let communion with you flow, overflow into commission for the world, that your spirit would fill us to the brim and flow over to the blessing of the nations. We pray in Jesus's name, amen.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Okay, for our time of response. We receive the word of God. We respond in prayer. I'm putting the promise from John 7 up here and you choose your own adventure here. You could do number one, which is take this promise to Jesus. Now, jesus you promised, come through on your promise. I'm thirsty. I want what you promised here or two. You can ask the question I was asking this week, holy Spirit. I want to know what hinders the flow, and we'll come to the Lord's table in a moment.

Rev Benjamin Kandt:

Amen, thank you, satisfy our thirst now it's in your name we pray. Amen, church, hear this promise of God from Isaiah 58, 11, and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your thirst and scorch places and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. I love weeks like this, weeks where the Lord feeds us and satisfies our thirst with his word. But we see how his word and sacrament are so beautifully and harmoniously woven together. You see, the scriptures tell us Jesus, he's the bread of life. As we feast on him, our hunger will be satisfied. Jesus is the one who gives us these living waters, who satisfies the thirst of the deepest parts of our hearts. Not only are we fed through his word, but also through his sacrament. And, as Ben has taught us this morning, communion overflows into commission. And so this means at least two things for two groups of us here in the room here this morning. First of all, if you are here in the room and you have not drank deeply of Jesus, that is to say you do not call him Lord, at least not yet here's the invitation for you, right here and right now Go to Jesus, confess your sins to him, believe in him, put your faith and hope and trust in him and allow Jesus to satisfy your thirst that you might come to this table. But then here's the second invitation. It's to those who are followers of Jesus. Remember communion leads into commission. So come to this table, hopefully hungry. Come to this table, hopefully, thirsty. I hope you're aware of how deeply even now you need Jesus to satisfy your thirst. But remember this it doesn't end there. Come to this table that you might be satisfied, but come to this table that your cup might be filled and you might go. Take that cup out into the world. Church. Orlando needs you, church, the world 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 here this morning.

Rev Benjamin Kandt:

Again, the invitation is not to come to the table, but the invitation is to drink deeply of the Lord Jesus. And if you are here, if you are a follower of Jesus, come hungry and come thirsty, knowing that he will satisfy. But he will satisfy that you may be sent In just a moment. We'll come to this table together. Before we do, let's affirm the faith that has been handed down to us throughout the generations. I invite you to stand Christian. I ask you this what do you believe? We believe in one God. Thank you, you may be seated.

Rev Benjamin Kandt:

I would like to go ahead and invite our servers up here now. In just a moment, followers of Jesus are going to be welcomed to the table. How we take communion here at New City is you're going to make a left and then a right. You come up and we would like to extend an invitation for everybody to come up. How this works is if, for any reason whatsoever, you are not going to take this morning, you can simply just cross your arms and we would love to pronounce a brief blessing over you, followers of Jesus. Would you hear now these words of institutions?

Rev Benjamin Kandt:

On the night in which he was betrayed, jesus took bread and, in breaking it, said this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In a like manner, he took the cup and he said remembrance of me. In a like manner, he took the cup and he said this cup is the new covenant of my blood. Shed for the forgiveness of sins. Drink in remembrance of me. Would you pray with me, father? We see what love has been lavished out upon us through the work of your son. We thank you that his body was broken, that ours would one day be made whole. We thank you that his blood was shed, that our hearts may be purified, that our thirst may be quenched in you. So feed us now by your Holy Spirit. Make Jesus real and known to us. Bless your people.