Come & Drink

Take your Bibles and turn with me to Revelation 22. Revelation chapter 22. I forgot to mention this earlier, but I want to say something to you as you're turning. I'd asked you last week to pray about Memorial Day and the address that I was to give, and God wondrously answered that prayer. I don't say that he wondrously answered that prayer in coming up with a great and clever and eloquent and marvelous oration at the cemetery, but that God just gave me words to say and gave me an opportunity to minister the gospel to those that were there.

So I thank you for your prayers. I believe God answered them, and I am thankful for that. Revelation chapter 22. we're in the epilogue of this book that goes from 22 verses 6 through 21. You follow as I read our text for this morning. It's 13 through 17. You follow as I read God's Word.

And He said to me, these words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. And blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.

But he said to me, You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. And he said to me, Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil and the filthy still be filthy and the righteous still do right and the holy still be holy.

Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches I am the root and the descendant of David the bright morning star The spirit and the bride say come And let the one who hears say come. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

And if anyone takes away the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.

Father, now as we come to your word, we pray that you would open our eyes to it. I pray, Father, that you would help us now to heed what we hear. God, we don't want to just come here and hear something from the Bible and think we've come here to just do our Sunday thing. We want to leave here, Lord, having met with you in your presence, hearing you speak to us in your spirit, bringing these words to bear so that we will change for the glory of God. help us to do that we pray work in our midst work in our hearts we beg you in Jesus name Amen some of you may have never heard of the band called Arson's Daughter but it was a band that my sons formed some years ago and some of their friends one spring that band actually went on tour They went on tour in the South.

The boys played at a number of places there. And they had one engagement in a place in South Carolina. And the guy who had arranged everything, who set up the venue and all that sort of thing, I don't know all that goes into that sort of thing, but the guy who was in charge of it, the promoter, whatever he's called, had said, come to this place, I'll feed you, and we'll get set up.

So they came to this place, they arrived, and they walked into this patio structure on a bay. and they were really impressed. A number of people were already there. But what really caught their attention was this incredible buffet of unbelievably good food I mean it was out of sight And so they dug in This is some of the best food they had ever seen And so they dug in and they started eating.

They started wolfing that stuff down. And after a time of great feasting, they started to notice that most of the other people that were there were really dressed up. Like they were really dressed to the nines, you know? and they started wondering, I wonder what's going on here. Eventually, someone came up to them and asked them if they were members of this local yacht club and politely asked for their invitations.

Of course, they had none. They were in the wrong place. Now, what was the problem? They had no invitation. They had no invitation that authorized them to be there. It was that lack of an invitation that distinguished them as party crashers rather than members.

And they had no right to the free food. So, graciously and freely given. With that in mind, we come to an invitation in Revelation 22, 13-17. This is the fourth exhortation of five in the epilogue to the book of Revelation. We've already heard that this book of symbols and all its wild pictures is given first to call you to obey or to keep its words. Secondly, it's been given to us so that we would worship.

Thirdly, we saw that it was given to us so that we would be holy. Now, we come to this invitation. Now, it's not exactly an exhortation like the other ones were. This is more of an invitation than an exhortation. After watching and reading and hearing the contents of this book, after experiencing all of this book, you now receive an invitation to come and drink the water of life.

After seeing this whole book after seeing all these marvelous symbols these crazy wild pictures after all these things now with that in mind we have someone come and invite us to graciously and freely drink of the water of life. Let's take a look at this invitation. You find it in verses 13-17. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. The Spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Here's an invitation. Hear the invitation that comes with authority. Hear the invitation that distinguishes.

And lastly, hear this invitation that is full of grace. Now as we're reading here, suddenly without notice, the voice changes. I don't know if you noticed that, but in verse 13, suddenly the voice changes. This is no mere angel unworthy of worship. This is God speaking. You know it's God because of the titles used here.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. they are all titles of yahuwah of jehovah of the god of israel they are all titles of the only true god from the old testament look at isaiah 41 verse 4 isaiah 41 verse 4 who has performed and done this calling the generations from the beginning. I, the Lord, the first and with the last, I am He. Turn over a few more pages to Isaiah 44.

Verse 6. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer. the Lord of hosts. I am the first, and I am the last. Beside me there is no God. A few more pages. Chapter 48.

Chapter 48, verse 12. Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel whom I called. I am he. I am the first, and I am the last. So these titles, I am the first and I am the last, belong to God. And you will notice in Revelation 1, verse 17, although it takes a little bit different form, we read this, I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God.

Okay? Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet in which the book of Revelation was written. Alpha is like our A. Omega would be like our long O. But it's the last. It's like their Z.

Alpha and omega. So I'm the first and the last. I'm alpha and omega. All of those are attributed to God in the Old Testament and even here in the book of Revelation. And yet, notice this, that the One who is speaking is not just God. It is Jesus.

Verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. It is Jesus who's speaking here. By the way, that ought to say something to you. What does that say about the divinity of the Son of God? This is Jesus, the faithful witness. He is the Alpha and the Omega.

He is the first and the last. He is the end and the beginning. Jesus speaks not for God, but as God. so you hear Jesus here speaking as the one and only incomparable and eternal God He is the Alpha and the Omega He is the first and the last He's the beginning and the end that is to say He stands sovereign at history's dawn and at history's sunset He is the beginning and the end You wonder well how does that mean he sovereign Think about this If he just said I the alpha I the one who got it all started Well he doesn know what going to happen down there.

Suppose he said, I'm the Omega, I'll be there at the end. He doesn't know what's coming down the pike. Right? But he's at the beginning, he is the beginning, and he is the end. He is sovereign over all history. He is in control.

That is to say, he will accomplish all that he sets out. to accomplish. And that means if he sends out an invitation to come and drink the waters of life, he'll make sure that you have the waters of life to drink from. He's the Alpha and the Omega. Have you ever received an invitation? You remember when you were a kid and you received an invitation from your friends' parents to go with them to Cedar Point?

And then when you got to their place on the day you were supposed to go, you were awfully disappointed because they didn't get the tickets. They couldn't get the tickets. Somehow something had happened and they couldn't do it. You remember how disappointed you were? That's not going to happen with God. When he says, come and drink of the water of life freely, he's there to make sure you have water of life to drink from.

He's the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Nothing will escape. When he sets out to accomplish his purpose, he will do it. Nothing will stop him. Nothing will stop him. you must hear the invitation here that comes with authority. This is an invitation that comes with authority.

You know, a few years ago, it's dying down now, but there was a very, very popular thing sweeping through churches called open theology. And, you know, some of us, you know, it didn't sweep through here. his open theology says you know God is not omniscient God does not know he does not know what's going to happen he's wiser than anybody is but and it was an attempt to make God more like us to well basically it was an attempt to to guard free will of man is what it was and it just took it to its logical conclusion which was God doesn't know God doesn't know the future no some of you are looking at me like no that's not true it is true came out of a small school in Minneapolis called Bethel a professor there and it just spread like wildfire let me ask you something if I did not think that God did not know the future then how do I know there going to be a spring of the water of life How do I know I'm ever going to get there? If he doesn't even know, this is the best guess, good grief, how do I know I'm ever going to drink from that spring?

You see, he's not a God who doesn't know anything, he's a God who has control of everything, he's the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, there will be a spring to drink from. But notice that Jesus is also the one whom God chose to bring peace as a Davidic ruler. Jump down to verse 16, because there it says, I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

He can promise water to quench our thirst because he's the one who's going to come. He's the one who's God in our humanity, who's going to come with the intention of conquering our foes and bringing peace. He is the root and the descendant of David. This is a clear allusion to or a clear reference to Isaiah 11, which you heard this morning in the Old Testament reading about that shoot that springs up from the stump of Jesse and that becomes this fruitful branch that brings peace and that brings this righteous judge who will bring justice and the knowledge of God over all the earth like the seas.

That's what John is referring to here. This is Isaiah 11. Okay? That there's coming One who's going to triumph over His enemies and will bring justice and peace. This is the One who will accomplish God's purposes. and not only that but he's the he's the bright morning star boy that goes a long way back do you remember a prophet named Balaam you remember he was supposed to curse the people of Israel and he went there to curse him and the and Balaam was going to pay him tons of money and he gets up there and he looks over his own he says can't be done can't curse those folks and he keeps up in the king keeps up in the ante he just can't get the job done he's the guy who brings this to light turn back to numbers 24 numbers 24 look at verse 15 This is Balaam speaking the last time I know, you're thinking, oh yeah, Balaam, he's the guy whose donkey talked to him.

Well, let's think of him in a different way now, okay? And he took up his discourse and said, the oracle of Balaam, the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is open, and the oracle of him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty falling down with his eyes uncovered. I see him, but not now.

I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and the scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. There is the first reference to this star that's going to rise. What's he talking about here? Even Balaam didn't see all that was going to happen.

This was going to be Jesus, the royal champion of God, who would arise from Israel and conquer all of God's enemies. He couldn't see it clearly, but now where we stand, we can see that's Jesus. He's conquered all our enemies. He's conquered even the worst enemy we have, which is death. And He conquers every enemy less than death. Now He hasn't conquered them all yet.

Not even death, but there's coming a day when he will. Now, he's already begun that. Because notice, this is not saying that Jesus will be the descendant of David, the bright morning star. That he is. He's already begun the work. He's already begun the work of conquering our enemies and will finally bring it to conclusion when he comes again.

You can count on the satisfying taste of the water of life. Because the invitation to drink comes from the sovereign of history who will certainly accomplish all his purposes. It comes from the one who brings about life and peace and justice and the knowledge of God. Hear the invitation that comes with authority. God will accomplish it. So when you get the invitation, when you hear this invitation, know God will deliver.

God will deliver. But notice this as well. As you listen, you hear the invitations. that distinguishes. This invitation will make a distinction in humanity. Verses 14 and 15. It distinguishes the blessed and the cursed.

The blessed and the cursed. There are two peoples. Those who are blessed, those who are cursed. Verses 14 and 15. Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Here you see a distinction. There are those who are blessed or will be blessed and those who will be cursed. The invitation makes that distinction. The blessed are those who have their robes washed. You see that they have their robes washed, but you look at that and say, washed in what? What are they washing them in?

Well, we've seen this phrase once before in this book, and I think the writer expects us to make the connection. You see it back in chapter 7. Chapter 7, where you see this same picture. Chapter 7, verse 14. I said to him, well, this verse 13. And one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothed in white robes?

And from where have they come? And I said to him, sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. In the blood of the Lamb. These are the ones who have been clothed in white robes, washed by the death of their Redeemer.

God's wrath has been appeased and they are dressed in the garments of acquittal. They have those garments that identifies those as acquitted before God, as those who are not subject to the wrath of God. These will respond to the invitation because they desire Jesus and His promise of forgiveness more than the promise of security and prosperity. Listen, we live in a world that promises us.

Remember what the book of Revelation has said. there are enemies who will come against us, who will persecute us, who will hate us, who will make our lives miserable and the temptation will be what I want security I will not be loyal to Jesus or I hedge my bets so that I won suffer But then you remember, not only are there the enemies, there's the whore, Babylon, who seduces us with her charms of prosperity. And we get sucked in. Those in white robes are not those who have done things right all the time, they are the ones who desire Jesus and His promise of forgiveness more than security and prosperity.

They may say, I may suffer, but I want Jesus. I want Jesus more than the good things of life. I want Jesus more than my stuff. He means more to me than that. I'm going to trust Him. And notice they have a right to enter the city gates and to eat of the tree of life that's within the city.

Citizenship in the New Jerusalem and the benefit of free access to the tree of life are not wages earned through self-improvement. You've got to see that. It's not because we've done well. It's not because, oh yeah, I'm good enough. I get in. Listen, folks, if you want to wear the robes of self-acquittal, I'm going to trust in how well I do.

You're going to end up at the gates of the New Jerusalem with robes that are spotted and corrupt. You know, you'll end up and you go, not so good after all, at least not good enough. that those whose robes are washed in the blood of the Lamb will have access to the city. These are not wages earned through self-improvement. Instead, they are free gifts that flow from the sacrifice of the Lamb to those who humbly trust Him, thirsting for the water that He alone supplies. there are however many who are barricaded forever outside the city gates says that in verse 15 now remember the context of this book Remember the context of this book These are the counterfeits.

Certainly it applies to anybody who is not trusted in Jesus. But this is primarily aimed at those counterfeits in the original seven congregations and in every congregation that follows. those who flirt with sexual immorality and idolatry so that they don't lose their livelihood. Right? You remember as we looked at that in chapters 2 and 3? Let's go to the guild feast.

If we don't go to the guild feast, we will lose our livelihood. And if we go to the guild feast, you know there's going to be idolatry and sexual immorality involved, but I've got to support my family. I can't, and I compromise. They flirt. with the security that the prostitute Babylon offers. They are the ones who are forever barricaded outside the city gates.

They are the ones in the congregation who would go along with the murderous ways of the beast and the idolatrous ways of both the beasts in order to escape persecution. They're the counterfeits. And notice the last phrase. And everyone who loves and practices is falsehood. They love, listen, they love duplicity. They love lying.

Now what could that mean? You know anybody who actually just really loves lying? I've met people who are really terrible, I mean, or is it good, liars, but I don't know that they loved it. It was like almost a compulsion with them. But this says they love their duplicity. It's not that they love lying in general.

But that they desire the benefit that comes from church membership but they also desire the economic security of participation in the ungodly world order. They love that lie. I want both worlds. I want both worlds. You see? Are there any here who love both worlds?

You want the security of church membership but you the benefits of it but you also want the security You don want to compromise You don say yeah I follow Jesus no matter what the cost But you don't. It's not saying to us, oh, Lord, I failed yesterday. These people love their duplicity. They love both. The invitation goes out, but those who desire safety and security don't respond.

They don't respond. Their own desires and deeds exclude them from the new Jerusalem. As you hear the invitation, take note that it invites everyone, but it ends up making a distinction of two humanities. Those who are really thirsty for what Jesus offers, and those who want it both ways. So this invitation comes to you. It comes with authority.

It results in making a distinction. But when you hear it, you hear an invitation full of grace. You hear an invitation full of grace. Verse 17. The Spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come.

And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Do you see that the water of life is offered without price? This certainly is taking up the call of Isaiah 55.1, our call to worship today and saying, here it is. The prophet Isaiah spoke of this. Come and drink.

Come and buy milk and wine without any money. Don't you love that phraseology? I love that in Isaiah. Come and buy with no money. You can't buy it. You've just got to come and grab it.

That's all there is to it. And so the invitation goes out. We say, aha, here's the ultimate invitation. Here's the water of life offered without price. There is nothing you need to do to get the water. Nothing you need to do to get that water. have you ever been like at cedar point or something and you're dying of thirst i mean it's you know the sun's blazing and you've been standing in line for every ride for an hour and 20 minutes And after your 15 seconds of death-defying joy, you go to the next one, and the sun is blazing hot, and you are so thirsty.

And there is no free water anywhere. You've got to pony up to $2.50 for that 10-ounce bottle of water, you know? That's not the picture here. The picture is here. you're thirsty, I've got the water, and it's free. You don't have to pay a thing. You don't have to do a thing.

There is no admission price to drink from that spring. You know why? Jesus paid the price for your admittance. There's no one who has to say, I'm not worthy to drink from that spring. Surprise! Nobody's worthy.

Nobody. but Jesus was worthy in your place and you can drink this water of eternal life is offered to you without cost do you hear it you're not going to work your way to heaven you're going to walk through the gates of the new Jerusalem with the robe that's been washed in the blood of the Lamb and you will have access to the water of life because of what Jesus did. It is free for you. It cost Him everything.

But it is free. It is free and will be free for you. That is an invitation that is full of grace. You know, if you're here struggling, you've got to know it's free. How many of you, how many of you do this? when you get an invitation to come over to someone's house for dinner, someone calls you and says, Hey, come on over for dinner. We want you to come over for dinner.

What's the first words out of your mouth? What are they? What can I bring? Okay? Don't ask me that when I call you, okay? Don't ask me that.

I hate that question. You know why? I'm inviting you to eat my food. I'm not inviting you to bring your food and we all have a tendency to do that right God says you can do anything to drink from this water you can do a thing And you say what should I bring Ah You can bring anything This is free. Free. F-R-E-E.

G-R-A-C-E. It's free. Stop trying to bring something to this. You can't. You can't. You bring nothing to this spring.

You only bring one thing. You know what it is? Your thirst. Do you want it? That's the only thing you bring. You can't bring anything else.

Right? Wow. Who extends this invitation? Who extends this invitation from God to drink? Notice it. It is the Spirit as He speaks through the church.

We are the ones, we are the ones, or I should say we are the voice of the Spirit of God in the world today calling people to this free offer of eternal life. We are the ones who offer this gift to all who claim to be thirsty for a different life. It's us. You know, some years ago, Jim Greer was here for a Bible conference. You remember that Bible conference where he took us from Genesis to Revelation in four days?

We went through the whole Bible. The whole Bible. And we had a conversation. He and I had a conversation. Here's what he said to me. He said, Tim, never forget that the church has a corporate responsibility to invite people to this spring.

Now, here's what he meant by that. And I'm glad he said that to me because I've been guilty of something, I think, that has impeded the growth of our church. I've been guilty of it. It's this. We gather here for worship, and then we scatter to go share the gospel. That's true.

That is true. we need to scatter to share the gospel but you know what church our body our body as Jim was trying to say to me our body is responsible to call people to Christ So even though we go out and we witness to people and call them to Christ we as a church need to be calling people to Christ. All of us. Using all of our gifts. Alright? So, for example, as our church through Josh has been involved with other churches in Marion, and the Fairview outreach, trying to reach those people, not everybody's going to be doing all the talking.

There'll be some people there cooking. There'll be some cooking the hot dogs. There'll be some people knocking on doors. Some people doing something else. But use your gifts. Alright?

I'm not trying to make an excuse now that you keep your mouth shut. Oh, I'm not good at witnessing. None of us, except for maybe Jim and Paul and a couple others are really good at witnessing. Personally. All of us have to do that. But listen, we get so upset because, oh, I just don't do it well.

Listen, use your gifts in the body to call others to Christ. Our body must be involved in spreading the gospel, not just us as individuals. We have many opportunities as a church, and I think we're starting to get in the groove of that. Our whole body involved in reaching out in different ways. We're doing a lot more things in our community. You know, last Monday when I spoke at the Memorial Day thing, I don't see myself as the guy standing up there.

I see someone who is part of a body. I'm just kind of the mouth, right? At that moment, I'm the mouth. But a lot of things go into that. Invite people to church. invite people to flock. Invite your unbelieving friends to flock so that they can sit there and they can watch the body at work and say, wow, I want to be part of that.

These people love one another. These people are concerned for one another. They're concerned for me. You see what I'm saying? It's the whole body that goes out with that message, not just individuals. What an opportunity for us.

We can do a whole lot more together than we can alone, can't we? Wow, and so when you're asked to come and do something, when you asked to say hey get involved in this get involved Use your gifts Right And even if you scared do it anyway Folks if it depended on confidence you would not see this guy ever. I would be locked up in my office with my books, just loving every minute.

But God has pushed me to the edge over and over and over again. Pushed me over the edge of my fear. So you just go. I'm part of the body. I'll use my gifts. Lord, what can I do?

But the church isn't the only one. Do you notice who the second one mentioned is? Those who have ears. Those who have ears say, come. What is that about? He refers to those in the congregations.

You remember in chapters 2 and 3, Jesus comes and says, this is what I love about your church, but boy, you've got some real problems here. Then he says, let him who has ears hear what the Spirit says. Here's what... Listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. You remember that? These are the ones who've been awakened to the danger of compromise in the congregations.

These are the ones who go out and conquer. These are the ones who are awakened within those congregations. And what's He saying? These are the ones who say, Lord, I hear You. I want what You have to offer more than what the beasts offer and more than what Babylon offers. I want that.

Lord, I hear You. I want You more than the economic security that comes in compromise. I want You more than the safety that comes from compromise. And then these in turn are then to go to others and say, heed the warning. Jesus offers more. drinking of the water of life without cost. What do you want?

What do you want? This is, if you will, a call to congregations everywhere to say, some of you are beginning to compromise. Jesus offers something better. You notice this doesn't say, this does not say, at this point, It does not say, don't compromise. You're in big trouble. Oh, we've heard that already.

Here, the book ends this way. At least at this point, Jesus comes to us and says, are you thirsty? Don't drink from that polluted stuff over there. Come to me. And you know what? That costs.

Mine's free. Mine's better. It's Jesus saying, look, drink the water of life without cost, without payment. To whom do we address this invitation? Well, obviously, to believers. To believers.

Those tempted to escape persecution or succumb to the ease of prosperity. You say, look, Jesus has something better. Jesus has something better. Come and drink. It's to unbelievers. Those who've never tasted the goodness of God.

Jesus has something better than what you're experiencing. Eternal life of peace and the presence of God. Come and drink. Come and drink. Jesus has something better. Don't ever be afraid of saying that to people.

Don't ever be afraid of saying that to unbelievers. You know, I see your life and what you're doing. How that working out You miserable Jesus says come and drink of the waters of life without cost What Jesus offers is better than anything you've got. Who does this invitation go out to? To anyone who's thirsty. Anyone who's thirsty.

You thirsty? Hey, here's an invitation for you. So, that's the question we have to end with, right? Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty? I don't know all the hearts that are here.

I don't know any heart that's here. Maybe you haven't believed. And maybe, just maybe, you're beginning to get thirsty. maybe you're starting to see that life is futile. It's just plain miserable. And you've pursued your dreams and they've become ashes. You've pursued your desires and found out that instead of being satisfied, those desires just capture you and are constantly screaming in your ears I want more And you just you can get away from it Right?

You're starting to get thirsty for something better. Here's the invitation right here. The only thing you have to do is come to the Lamb and have your robes washed white. See? You see? and maybe believers here. Are you thirsty enough?

Are you thirsty enough? Are you? I think sometimes we're not. We're not thirsty enough. We dabble a bit here and dabble a bit there. We come to the edge of what the world has to offer, just to the edge, and we kind of start licking the frosting or taking just a little bit. and God says, Jesus says, look, it's better.

Don't go that way. Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty? If you are, then respond. And God doesn't say, you've got to go through this mourning period. He doesn say you got to just beat yourself up He says are you thirsty will then just come I give you the drink That all You don have to bring anything Just your thirst Just your thirst Respond.

Respond in faith. And trust yourself to Jesus. And drink. Lord God, we are here at this table because you have given us to drink of the waters of eternal life. And we are so thankful for that. Father, this invitation, come, come and drink to you who are thirsty to those who desire to take of the waters of eternal life come Lord you just send that invitation out we pray that people would respond Lord God we ask that you would do that thank you for a savior who purchased for us the right to drink from that spring with no cost we thank you for your mercy that sent Your Son and the Son that came willingly.

Lord God, as we come to this table, help us to love You for the springs that You give us and to desire You more. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.