The Cure For Spiritual Dehydration

The title is The Cure for Spiritual Dehydration. The Cure for Spiritual Dehydration. Of all the things I have seen in the church over the years, and you've heard me talk about this, of course salvation is number one, but a part, a close second is the spiritual condition of most Christians in America.

You really don't have this problem in the underground church in China. We've seen videos where Bibles will be delivered and they'll run and they start crying when they get the Bible and they'll meet at 4am on a Friday. You don't see this in the Middle East.

You don't see this in persecuted areas. They're not spiritually dehydrated. They're on fire for God because that persecution will weed out those who are not true followers and it will also make you take your faith very seriously.

You have to choose between Jesus and the world. In America though, our blessing has in many ways become a curse because we have been blessed by God, enormous blessings, but as with the nation of Israel, those blessings can begin to pull us away from God. Comfort is an enemy of conviction.

When we're comfortable, when things are going good, it's hard to really be desperate for more of God and so a lot of Christians are spiritually dehydrated. Their life is not full of the Spirit. It's full of the world and they know it and they're frustrated and they're angry about it and they want to do better, but there's a course of action that you actually need to take in order to make that change.

So let's start with, I believe we had John 4 up on the screen, verse by verse. So the Lord Jesus, He knew that the Pharisees had heard that He was baptizing people and even though He didn't baptize people, His disciples did. I don't know if it was causing an uproar, but He left Judea and He departed again to Galilee, but then the Bible says, but He needed to go through Samaria.

King James, if I remember correctly, said I must need go to Samaria. I have to go to Samaria. And I saw this, my daughter gave it to me in her devotional and it says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and so are His stops.

Isn't that good? The Lord will stop you sometimes. And it's in that stopping that can be very key, pivotal moments in your life. The Lord has stopped me before.

He stopped me earlier this year, of course, and He does that for pivotal reasons and important reasons. And so He had to go through Samaria and because of that, we have this incredible story in the Bible. And because I take the Bible literally, and I believe it's the Word of God for edification, for exhortation, for all godliness and to grow in our faith, I get excited about this type of situation that He was in.

I'll tell you why in a minute. So He came to a city of Samaria. So He went to the city and then He went to the plot of ground actually, where Jacob gave his son Joseph, of course, back in Genesis.

Now Jacob's well was there. So it's this very famous well. They all knew about it.

It took a lot of digging. I remember back when they used to dig those by hand. I've got a picture of my dad down in a well bricking it up, putting bricks along the side of it back when it was not against the law these days.

Kalosha would close down a lot of businesses. A lot of things we did back in the 80s and 90s. So anyway, he's at this well and he was tired.

Jesus was tired. Isn't that interesting? And so He sat down by the well. It was the sixth hour of the day.

So He's tired. It's hot. He sits down by the well.

And for those of you who don't know, I want to remind you about Hebrews 4.15. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in all points. So Jesus Himself was tempted. He never fell though.

He was sinless. He was tempted in all points. Well, how could you be tempted to cheat on your spouse? You were never married.

How could you be tempted with this, Jesus? You weren't this. Tempted in all points mean He was tempted by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Those three things.

And He was tired. He was weary. And so it goes on to say you have a high priest who can intercede on behalf of you.

He knows what you're going through. He's experienced it. That's very comforting to me.

And so the woman of Samaria, she came to draw the water, as you know, or if you don't know, they would usually put a big stick and the more water they could carry, the better. And so they would have that stick and they would fill up their buckets. And she was walking up there to draw water for her family.

And then she'd have to go back down the area and bring this water into her home. And so as she's drawing this water, that's a process, Jesus said, would you give me a drink? Because He didn't have anything to, I don't know why He just didn't miraculously bring it to His hands and things like that. But He said, obviously for a reason, give me a drink.

So He had no way to get water, no cup, no bucket, because His disciples had actually left and they went to buy the city. And so give me a drink. He's asking this lady, can you imagine Jesus asking you to give Him a drink? And I was reminded on this, often we must give in order to receive.

She's about to give Him something in order to receive. And it's the principle of sowing and reaping. Christian, we need to sow.

We need to do good things. We need to help others. And that's how we get the return.

Not with the wrong motives, but our hearts should be on giving to others, helping. And then that's how we receive this abundant life that Christ spoke of. Check out Psalm 41 on this note of sowing and reaping and giving.

Blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive.

And he will be blessed on earth. You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness.

You will sustain him on his sickbed. By helping the poor, there's a physical benefit as well. And we don't know what causes a lot of disease or illness.

There's lots of different reasons. But we know that God will use what we give to others and use that to better ourselves as well. But the woman said then to him, how is it that you being a Jew? Oh, by the way, the Jews and the Samaritans did not get along.

They would call it half-breed. The Samaritans were half-breed. They were not fully Jewish, and it was not a good relationship, let alone a woman.

And that's what Jesus did. He broke down all these barriers. How is it that you being a Jew ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans? But in this case, Jesus didn't break the law.

He broke legalism. And I've heard people say, oh, Jesus broke the law for you. No, he didn't break the law.

He came to fulfill it. But he broke legalism. He broke out of that.

He began to elevate women and began to reach out to those, like the Samaritans or lepers or different people groups. And he crossed those boundaries and those barriers. And he said to her, if you knew, okay, I'm asking you for a drink, and now you're questioning me.

If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. And she's probably thinking, what is that? If you knew the gift of God, and I wonder if you knew how deep you could go in your relationship with the Lord. If you knew how on fire you could get.

If you knew that you could drink deeply of that well and be satisfied. And you would drink of a water of which you would never thirst again. You would run to that well.

You would run to the altar. You would grab hold of Christ and never let go. But living water, what does it do? It nourishes.

It sustains. It gives life. It restores.

It refreshes. And it renews. See, that's what happens when we reestablish that relationship with the Lord and we drink deeply of that well of living water.

It actually nourishes us spiritually. It sustains us. It gives life and it restores.

It refreshes. It renews our relationship for God. And let me tell you, it will renew your passion for life.

Do you know why so many Christians lose the motivation for life? Because they lose the zeal of the Spirit in their heart. They quench and grieve the Spirit. They're no longer full of that living water.

And as a result, that's a pretty depressing thing to be. We get depressed when we know we're not where we need to be. I know what I need to do.

And many people live in that difficult season. If people know, if you knew the gift of God, if you knew the gift of God, and if people knew the power of our testimony, if they knew how God could radically change their life, if they knew what He's done for you, and that's all testimony is. You don't have to worry about breaking down the Hebrew and the Greek and the nuances and the verb tenses and a degree in theology.

Let me tell you what God has done for me. Let me tell you how He has took me and set me back on a high ground, and He's rebuilt my life. And you begin to tell people your testimony.

But then another word here that really pops out, if you would have asked Him, if you knew the gift of God, and you would have asked Him, instead of me asking you for water, you would have said, if you knew who this was, you would have said, no, no, no, you give me the water. You give me the living water. And that word ask actually has a richer meaning.

That's one of the problems with translations is it's hard to get the exact meaning, but it means you would beg, you would seek, you would search for this living water. If you knew who I was, if you knew how I could change your life, you wouldn't just ask, you would seek, you would beg for this living water. And the majority of you have heard me talk about this topic before, and so I won't go into great detail, but one of my favorite words in actually the Hebrew language is the word for seek.

If you seek me, you will find me. And if you seek for me with all of your heart, you'll find me. And we miss, we're just like, okay, yeah, I'll start tomorrow.

You know, I kind of, I'll read that five-minute devotional, I'll pray a little bit more on my way to work. The word is an all-consuming passion. It's like losing your child.

Have you ever done that before? I took my two little ones, I think a couple years ago, I think it was the zoo or Magic Mountain, and they turned the corner and then they're gone. Oh my goodness. Everything, I'm not hungry anymore.

I don't have to use the restroom. I'm not going to run a quick errand. Everything, everything, my whole focus was about finding those two.

It didn't take long, praise God. But heart rate's up, sweating, nervous, anxiety. Now there's an urgency in my step.

Now, what am I doing? I'm seeking. The actual word is to seek in order to find. You don't stop pursuing until you find what you're looking for.

Now, parallel that to seeking God. If you knew the gift, you would ask, you would seek, you would devote your life to this. Of course, you have to work.

Of course, you have school, some of you. We have jobs, we have to, but it's an all-consuming passion, which means that's the foundation of our life. Everything else is built on it.

My calendar, your calendar is surrounded or actually should be, God should be on the calendar. That's the priority. And then everything else falls in place.

The problem is when he's not the priority and he's on the back burner and we have things that come in like sports and family issues and this, and I'm too busy, and I've got this going on. And it's amazing to me how many hours, hours a day are spent scrolling. And we have a seeking problem.

And once you get back to that, once you reestablish that, again, on this side of heaven, I don't think we'll do it perfectly. I'll die trying. But there's a passion.

There's a zeal. There's a commitment. There's a priority.

There's a discipline. And it rewards because he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He knows half-heartedness.

He called it out in Revelation. I know your works, but you're dead inside. You've lost your first love.

The woman said, sir, you have nothing. How are you going to get the water out? Where's this living water? The well's very deep. And where do you get this living water? And too many people try to view the supernatural with the lens of the natural.

He wasn't talking about physical water. He was talking about living water. But she didn't understand.

Too many Christians, we even try to gauge, we try to view the supernatural with the lens of the natural, looking through the things, our experiences, our circumstances. But she said, where do you get this living water? I can see, at least in reading this, it doesn't seem like somebody who's bored and aloof and whatever. She's like, where do you get this living water? In other words, I want some.

I want some. Where do you get this? How do you get this? See, there's a big difference. I see this all the time.

There's a big difference between somebody who comes to church and says, I need to find God today. I need to lay hold of Him. I just need to touch the hem of His garment.

Oh, if I can hear from God today. If I can get a word. If I can get an encouragement.

Holy Spirit, Spirit of the living God, would You speak to me? Would You fall afresh in my heart? There's a difference when somebody's just coming in, chewing gum, sitting down and bored. Isn't it a huge difference? One will receive. The other will not.

And she was desperate. How? Where? Those are good questions. God, I want this.

How? Where? And sometimes you won't get an answer right away. Sometimes He'll remain silent like I talked about Sunday. When God is silent, that's the time to press in never before.

His silence doesn't mean He's not near. Delay is never denied. That silence means I want you to draw closer.

I want you to pursue Me. That's true faith. And she said, are you greater than our Father Jacob? Oh, no way.

Jacob gave us this well. Drank from it. Are you greater than Him? Boy, that would be just a good sermon in itself on the greatness of God and how great God is.

Sometimes before you pray, just take a minute or so and think about who you are praying to. A universe that still baffles NASA. Measuring the speed of light.

Hello. What is it? 176,000 miles per second. He is light.

In Him, there is no variation. He spoke things into existence. He hung the universe.

How many galaxies are out there? It is literally mind-blowing. How big is this thing? He holds all that. Why don't things just hit the earth? There's a lot of stuff out there flying by at 100,000 miles an hour.

Who sustains all that? And I love when He told Job, hey, let me question you for a minute. Where were you when I created the Pacific and the Atlantic? Where were you when I hung the moon in the stars? And if you just take a minute, that's who I'm praying to? Even today, I mean, as of today, when I came back to the Lord, it's been about 26 years now, I'm often just, I mean, sometimes you have words to express, but, and He'll listen. He'll hear you.

The God of the universe says, if you seek Me, you will find Me. Come to Me all your weak and heavy laden. I will give you rest.

Pray this way to the Father. My Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, hallowed be thy name, and you just, that God, that God will listen. He'll listen to you, Connor, Ray, Dave.

I mean, is that just amazing? Billions of people, like little ants. And He said, is that the cry of My child? Is that their desperation? Is that, are they seeking Me? Do they need Me? I mean, that just, it will just put you in awe, perspective. That's where that word awesome comes from.

When they try to describe God. And sometimes just take a break and think who you're praying to. The God who holds every breath you breathe in the palm of His hand.

Satan is underneath His dominion and control. Satan. He can't do anything.

Jesus and Satan aren't equal. They're not going back and forth. Mike Tyson and Mike Tyson, Buster Douglas.

But that's not the God. This God hears. He listens.

My ear is not too heavy that I cannot hear. My hand is not too short that I cannot save, but your sins, your iniquities have separated you from Me and I cannot hear. How repentance restores that relationship.

Are you greater than our Father? Boy, is He. Sometime Google all the names of Jesus. It's the Alpha and the Omega.

At the beginning, in the end, in the Sabbath. He is my Sabbath rest. He is the King of kings.

The Lord of lords. He is my Shekinah glory. He is my only hope.

He is my rock. He is my anchor. I mean, it's just like incredible.

And so He didn't even get into this. He just said, He didn't even answer her. Of course, I'm greater.

Let me tell you how great I am. He said, woman, whoever drinks of this water will never thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water, oh, will thirst again.

I'm sorry. Whoever drinks of your water, this normal water, will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

How many of you know when you came out of the world, when you found Christ, you're done. You don't need to keep searching. You don't need to keep trying this or trying that or this hit that high.

Once you drink of this water, you'll never thirst again. But what happens is we become spiritually dehydrated because we stop drinking deeply of that well of living water. But the water I will give you, it will become in you a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

So, a couple things. He talks about this living water. What it is, water often represents the Holy Spirit.

Refreshing, live, baptism, things like that. It's just this living, life-giving, basically, without water you die. That's why Jesus said, I'm the bread of life, the water without food, without water, oxygen.

In Him I move and live and have my being. Right? He's communicating our relationship with God. And this water springs into, it turns into everlasting life.

That's how you have a relationship. You repent and you believe in Jesus. But what it also means is, have you ever seen a spring come up in the wilderness? Like just this bubbling out of the ground.

And they've got some up in the high Sierra mountains I've seen before. And it's just, it's coming out. There's a spring of living water and it's coming out.

And that's why Jesus said, if you believe on Me, not just know about Me, but truly know Me, as the Scriptures say, out of your innermost being is going to flow rivers of living water. So you've heard me say this before. So all these Christians have this relationship with the Lord.

And where is all this living water? Because I see a lot of stagnant, smelly water. I don't see Christians happy and joyful and content. Where's this living water that's supposed to be flowing out? And also, what's supposed to be love and joy and peace and contentment and long-suffering and gentleness? Where is all this at? If you believe on Me, as the Scriptures say, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.

Where is it? There's a clog somewhere. There's a clog in the pipe. Spiritually dehydrated.

We need to drink deeply again of that well. Again, out of the belly will flow rivers of living water. And I know it's challenging.

I wish I could say living water was coming out every day of me. But it's tough, isn't it? Life is challenging. That's why we need a Wednesday service because of Monday, Tuesday.

And that helps for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday. Don't you feel better after churches than just me? Like I love the after Sundays. Like it's going good.

And then Monday afternoon, it changes. But it does beg a couple questions tonight. Do you nourish people or do you drain them? What about your spouse? Kids, what do you do to your parents? Parents, what do you do to your kids? Do you restore with your words or do you tear down? Do you refresh or do you exhaust people? Why do I choose those words? Because that's what living water does.

Even water in the physical, doesn't it? It nourishes. It restores. It refreshes.

That's what should be coming out of us. Again, it doesn't mean we don't blow it now and then. Become critical and negative, but we say, you know what, Lord, that's not right.

We own it and we repent. That's all God's looking for is to own it, repent, and get back on track. Find one verse where He'll say, it says that you'll be perfect.

And if you deviate just a little bit, you're in trouble. Now, is our goal not necessarily perfection, but our goal is not to sin? God has given us the ability not to do that. I got it.

But also we need to learn to pick ourselves back up and keep fighting again. And the woman said to him, she had a choice. Here we go.

The woman said to him, she could have said, you're fake, you're phony. I'm not buying this. But I would love to have seen her expression.

Sir, because she just said, this is living water. This is living water on which you will never thirst again, springing up into everlasting life. Sir, I want this water.

I need this water. And that's why if we could get people that could be desperate for more of God again, to come to churches expecting God to move, to just, Lord, we need to hear from you. Lord, give me this water.

Whatever it takes, I want a deeper, more abundant, passionate relationship with you. Lord, give me this water. I'd never want to thirst again.

He will answer that prayer. Even though she didn't quite understand it, she desired it. And I run to people all the time, unless they understand exactly creation story in Genesis and the end times, how it's going to play out.

And why is God allowed this? And why, you know, they got to understand everything. Good luck. His ways are higher than our ways.

I'm not going to go to hell over a mystery. I'm not going to go to hell over a question mark and doubt God. She didn't quite understand, but she said, I trust you enough.

I desired it. I want it. And so Jesus, I think he's really getting to the heart to the issue.

I don't think this really had much to do with it because, you know, she's going to get her living water. It's all going to come to pass. But he said, go, go get your husband.

And the woman said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you well said, because you have no husband for you have had five. And the one whom you now have is not your husband in that you spoke truly.

The power of repentance and confession, the power of repentance and confession, and Jesus exposing the true condition of her heart. Let me tell you, that's actually how you get to the living water. You get a fresh feeling of the living water by repenting and confessing.

And I know a lot of Christians are Christians, but boy, are they prideful. The Pharisee Christian. I've been a And they've developed a very critical heart.

Very critical heart. No matter how long you've been a Christian, there's a call always to come back and drink deeply of that well of living water again. And you must begin with repentance and confession.

Lord, I repent. I have left my first love. You know how healthy that would be? And many of you hearing my voice, maybe not here tonight, but radio, internet, many people hearing my voice need to repent of apathy and lukewarmness.

Jesus said it. It's in the Bible. Jesus calls out churches because he loves them enough to tell them the truth.

Oh, you do all these good works. You point out false prophets. You've got sound doctrine, but you have left your first love.

And that becomes a passionless church where the straight is a gun barrel theologically, but they're empty inside. They've lost their zeal. They've lost their passion.

That's why Paul said, I can speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have this great gift. And I can have great faith to move mountains. And I can give all of my things to the poor.

But if I have not love, I have nothing love always hopes and perseveres and, and love will never be let you down. It doesn't keep a record of wrong done against it. And, and that, that, and that's where real ministry comes from guys.

It does not come from sound doctrine and theology and knowing the Bible. I love that stuff. We need that stuff.

This church is built on that, but that is the, the love and compassion and our attitudes, the outworking of the gospel. If not, you become a hard Pharisee, a modern day Pharisee pointing out sin, everybody's life being judgmental, thinking you got it together, that you're super spiritual. Yeah.

I don't need a drink of the living water. I've got enough. I did that when I was 24.

Well, no, you need, you, you've been drinking prune juice, lemon, lemon juice. You need to, you need to return. You, many people need to return and say, Lord, I've been cold.

I've been callous. I've been hard. I've been critical.

I've drifted from that tender. Are you tender? Are you known to be tender and loving and compassionate? Has that drifted from you? Listen guys, again, I'm not preaching at you as a type a alpha male. Tim, you can relate, right? Those things are not, don't come easy.

What comes easy is the opposite of the fruit of the spirit. And we have to repent and confess and say, Lord, I need that. I need to be tender.

I need to be loving. I need to, my words carry weight. Give me that compassion again.

And because he called her out, she said, Oh, I perceive that you are a prophet. Boy, are you ever our fathers worshiped on the mountain, but you juice. In other words, Jesus, while I have you here, let me ask you some questions.

I perceive that you are a prophet. You know, your stuff, you just called me out. So do we worship on the mountain, but you do say to worship in Jerusalem.

Where should we worship? Worship is a big deal. And he said, woman, believe me, the hour is coming. You will neither run this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the father because you worship what you do not know.

We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. In other words, it doesn't matter where you worship. That the time is coming where this temple will be destroyed from when he's talking, say 30 AD, about 40 years later in 70 AD, a general by the name of Titus decimated Jerusalem, killed a million Jews, no more worship.

But the hour is coming and it is now is when, in other words, it's coming and it's now when true worshipers, if you want to be a true worshiper, you will worship the father in spirit and in truth. Don't make that too complicated. Worship the father in spirit means you have a right relationship with him.

Your spirit is crying Abba father. That's how we worship God. Unbelievers can't really worship.

They think they are. They can do yoga poses. Do you know those are poses to God's? By the way, just call it Christian stretching if you're going to do something like that.

Side note, don't call it yoga. Don't participate in it. But true worship is you have a relationship with God.

You're worshiping Him in spirit, the Holy Spirit. Isn't that when we worship and Ernesto's singing? Isn't that what we're... Our spirit is engaged. Man, if I go grab some unbelievers from schooners right now and go bring them in, they're going to be bored out of their mind.

Aren't they? What is this? Holy Spirit, you guys are weird. You're weird. I'm weird and you got George Strait on the jukebox, if they still have those things.

You're going to be vomiting tonight and hung over tomorrow and destroying your marriage and I'm the weird one? See, they can't worship. They're worshiping the wrong guy, actually. So when you worship Him in spirit and truth, so our worship, our theology, our teaching, we have to have the truth as a compass, a truth as the boundary lines.

We can't just, hey, if it's odd, it's God. Let's just do whatever is weird. Because that will get you really off course.

And this is interesting, the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is seeking those to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Again, God is looking for true worshipers. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him. Those who are worshiping.

Why? Because worship, why is worship so important? It breaks the gates of hell. It pulls down strongholds. It dismantles demons.

It annihilates deception. It restores brokenness. It restores marriages.

It restores the broken relationship that people have with God. If you can't worship and you have a problem with worship, there's something wrong with your heart. And over the years, I've talked to people.

They'll come in maybe after worship or they'll leave during worship. They got their word open, but they can't worship. Why not? Because there's a heart issue going on.

True worship is not bound by physical locations, sacred sites, or outward rituals. True worship happens in the heart. And so to close, the woman said, I know that Messiah is coming.

Boy, she changed, didn't she? Because now they're talking about worship, worship God in spirit and truth. Where do we worship? This mountain, that mountain. Oh, I know that the Messiah is coming.

He was called to Christ. And when He comes, He will tell us all things. In other words, I hear you, but I'm going to wait for the Messiah to tell me about worship and what really worships.

You're a good prophet. And then can you imagine the look on her face? Woman, I who speak to you am He. I mean, talk about dropping your pot.

And I talked about this Sunday, so I won't go into a lot of detail, but no versus no. I know the Messiah. I know that when He comes, I know that when Jesus comes, a lot of people, they know about Jesus intellectually.

Maybe that's you, but that doesn't save you. We were taught about Jesus in Sunday school. We were taught about Jesus at church.

When you come to church, you know, oh, I know He died on the cross. That's intellectual knowledge. To really know Him is repentance and confession and faith.

That's heart knowledge. That's internal knowledge. I know about someone, but I don't know them.

There's a big difference. So make sure you know Him the right way. And just to help you this evening, here's four things.

They're not new. What we talk about is never new, but we always need to be reminded, don't we? So to rehydrate, here's what you need to do. Ask.

Ask. Ask the Lord. It begins with that.

Lord, I need to drink of that living water again and truly desire it. Many people don't desire because they're like, oh, Shane, then I can't have fun anymore, and then God's going to ruin my life, and it's going to be so boring. Let me tell you, it's the complete opposite.

Complete opposite. Our world is a mess. Look at what they're actually considering at that court case this week with the lady who killed her kids and might get off.

Yeah, look it up. Postpartum depression. She killed her kids.

And the jury might not convict her. That's the world we live in. Ask.

Desire that relationship with the Lord. Pursue. And then you pursue.

You pursue Him. Because if you just ask and you don't pursue, guess what will happen? Nothing. Because often with God, there's a responsibility on your part.

He has a responsibility. He's bound by His Word. But there's a lot of times it says, if.

If you seek Me, you will find Me. If, My people. If you make no provision for the flesh.

If you seek Me with all of your heart. If you turn from your wicked ways. There's got to be that pursuit.

See, Lord, I ask, I desire, and then you begin to pursue Him by praying, God, give me that desire. And then, of course, you repent. And you restore that broken relationship with Him.

And then you begin to worship, which renews your faith. And that living water, that's how you, you don't drink this water physically. You drink spiritually.

So you're saturated with the Word of God. In your mind, you're saturated with worship. Can't you tell the different atmospheres? Have you ever went somewhere with a terrible atmosphere? It's like, oh, wow.

Oh, I got to take a shower when I get home. You can feel the demonic and the darkness. And it's tough.

Places you go. And so worship is an atmosphere. Worshipful atmosphere.

And I'm just going to give you a few extras. I don't know if we even have a screen for this. God would often say, if we had time, we could go to a few of the prophets.

But, return to Me with fasting. Return to Me with fasting. Joel.

We've had sacred assembly meetings before. God tells Joel, call the sacred assembly. Tell the people to come into the house of God and pray and fast.

Why is fasting so, I mean, man, it's Esther, David, Nehemiah, Ezra, all the disciples, Jesus, Moses, Elijah. Sure we could keep going if I had a few minutes. Why, what's it, it says, the reason is, this is so important that I'm going to deny this area to seek you.

This means, I will not give God that which costs me nothing. There's a cost. I'm putting away this appetite because I want to increase my appetite for God.

And it also plays a role with, believe it or not, your flesh leads you more than you think. Many of you are wondering where you're going to go eat afterwards, and you're already thinking about it. And you're hoping worship doesn't go too late.

Doesn't it control us? And then we get up in the morning, tired, let me go grab my Christian crack. Now I'm going to go buy Krispy Cream on my way home, on my way to work. Let me stop by A.M.P.M. and get a Snickers bar, or a Big Gulp, or a Monster's drink.

And at lunch, I want to do this, and I have some snack and chocolate in my desk drawer. Right? Can you see? It's all day long. It's just, feed me, feed me, feed me.

And fasting says, shut up. Shut up. I'm seeking God.

This is important to me. Lord, I'm putting this desire to the side because I have a greater desire to seek your heart, to hear from you. And that's why we do fasting this month and next month.

Whatever God puts on your heart, pray about it. Dehydration from food rehydrates with fasting. You can dehydrate, leave the food, rehydrate with fasting.

And here's the interesting thing, what I love, just as a side note, maybe a little motivation, we do it for spiritual reasons, but fasting is one of the best things you can do physically for your body. Because the majority of illnesses and diseases and things that are happening in our country, the vast majority are caused by an overconsumption of food. Bad food, primarily.

I mean, would you like to start diabetes? Heart disease? Most cancers, because your body can't, the immune system is being suppressed. Feed, feed, feed. It's a toxic overload.

So God in his wisdom, it actually has also physical benefits. Many of you guys have heard all the things out there on Instagram, autophagy. How it increases autophagy, where your body will go and begin to break down damaged cells and tissues.

Because your body's either repairing or it's building. And if we're always eating, always eating. Some of you guys, you'll be able to relate to this.

You're pouring concrete, but at the same time, you're breaking it down with a breaking bar, digging bar. You either have to build it, you can't do both. So your body's constantly in this eating, consuming mode.

So fasting allows the body to take a break, let the gut bacteria reprogram, let the physical, I mean, I could get into brain-derived neurotrophic factor for Alzheimer's and I could get into diabetes. It actually cures type 2 diabetes within six weeks, high blood pressure, clogged arteries, and many cancer tumors are consumed as fuel. I mean, it's an amazing physical gift that God has given, and spiritual.

And many of us need to really consider that. So that's how you rehydrate. Ask, pursue God, repent, and worship.

That call to fall, that call to come to the altar and just say, you know what? My heart has grown cold and callous and hard. Here's the hard part that I've seen all the time. Those who need to do that don't do that because they've grown hard and cold and callous and pride gets in the way.

It's funny. The very people who need to do that don't do it. And the people who, you know, they're good.

They still, they want to do it. They want to keep pursuing God. Of course you don't have to, you can stay seated.

You can just seek the Lord tomorrow morning as well. And, but there's got to be, there's got to be a time where you say, Lord, I need this. I need that fresh filling of the spirit.

I need that living water again.