Today at Lake Hills Community Church we heard an interesting sermon based on the following verses. I hope what follows challenges and motivates you.
Ezekiel 47 The Message (MSG)
Trees on Both Sides of the River
47 1-2 Now
he brought me back to the entrance to the Temple. I saw water pouring
out from under the Temple porch to the east (the Temple faced east). The
water poured from the south side of the Temple, south of the altar. He
then took me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to
the gate complex on the east. The water was gushing from under the
south front of the Temple.
3-5 He
walked to the east with a measuring tape and measured off fifteen
hundred feet, leading me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured
off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was
knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me
through water waist-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet.
By now it was a river over my head, water to swim in, water no one could
possibly walk through.6-7 He said, “Son of man, have you had a good look?”
Then he took me back to the riverbank. While sitting on the bank, I noticed a lot of trees on both sides of the river.
8-10 He told me, “This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh. Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds. Fishermen will stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore from En-gedi all the way north to En-eglaim, casting their nets. The sea will teem with fish of all kinds, like the fish of the Great Mediterranean.
11 “The swamps and marshes won’t become fresh. They’ll stay salty.
12 “But the river itself, on both banks, will grow fruit trees of all kinds. Their leaves won’t wither, the fruit won’t fail. Every month they’ll bear fresh fruit because the river from the Sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”
In the New Testament we are called the Temple, 1 Corinthians 3: 6. Jesus describes himself as the living water, John 7: 37-39. The living waters in Ezekiel flowed into the Dead Sea making it alive. The living waters flowing from thE new temple would bring life to those dying apart from Christ, Ephesians 2: 1.
Here is the rub in this sermon. Those who are in darkness today will not see the light apart from getting around someone who has God's Holy Spirit flowing from them. The questions for the body of Christ is this: 1. "Are you looking for opportunities that are around you." 2. "Are living waters flowing through you to this dying world?" 3. "If not why not?"
Contact me if you have a heart for those who are troubled, who are apart from Jesus or who have had a bad religious experience but do not know how to use to gifts God has given you.
