Flatland/Pics: We Are the Water

Although this ser­mon was point­edly focused on those of us who are part of Flatland Church the basic mes­sage is still valid for all Christians. Unfortunately, I pretty much lost all my notes that I took Sunday. Fortunately, you can lis­ten to the pod­cast at flatlandchurch.com Pastor Jeff taught us from Isaiah 54:2–3 [show]Isaiah 54:2–3 [2]“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the cur­tains of your habi­ta­tions be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. [3]For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your off­spring will pos­sess the nations and will peo­ple the des­o­late cities.
, Gal 4 [show]Galatians 4 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no dif­fer­ent from a slave, though he is the owner of every­thing, [2]but he is under guardians and man­agers until the date set by his father. [3]In the same way we also, when we were chil­dren, were enslaved to the ele­men­tary prin­ci­ples of the world. [4]But when the full­ness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5]to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adop­tion as sons. [6]And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, cry­ing, “Abba! Father!” [7]So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. [8]Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. [9]But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worth­less ele­men­tary prin­ci­ples of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? [10]You observe days and months and sea­sons and years! [11]I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. [12]Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. [13]You know it was because of a bod­ily ail­ment that I preached the gospel to you at first, [14]and though my con­di­tion was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. [15]What then has become of the bless­ing you felt? For I tes­tify to you that, if pos­si­ble, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. [16]Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? [17]They make much of you, but for no good pur­pose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. [18]It is always good to be made much of for a good pur­pose, and not only when I am present with you, [19]my lit­tle chil­dren, for whom I am again in the anguish of child­birth until Christ is formed in you! [20]I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am per­plexed about you. [21]Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not lis­ten to the law? [22]For it is writ­ten that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. [23]But the son of the slave was born accord­ing to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. [24]Now this may be inter­preted alle­gor­i­cally: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bear­ing chil­dren for slav­ery; she is Hagar. [25]Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she cor­re­sponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slav­ery with her chil­dren. [26]But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. [27]For it is writ­ten, “Rejoice, O bar­ren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the chil­dren of the des­o­late one will be more than those of the one who has a hus­band.“ [28]Now you, broth­ers, like Isaac, are chil­dren of promise. [29]But just as at that time he who was born accord­ing to the flesh per­se­cuted him who was born accord­ing to the Spirit, so also it is now. [30]But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” [31]So, broth­ers, we are not chil­dren of the slave but of the free woman. (ESV)
, Act 1:8 [show]Acts 1:8 [8]But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my wit­nesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (ESV)
 that we need to take on God’s desire to see the lost saved, that we need to be the refresh­ing water  on the dry land of the world. Here are my extremely abbre­vi­ated ser­mon notes, all that I man­aged to save.

• God is obsessed with grow­ing His church
• God has no bound­aries, He doesn’t limit where He brings salvation
• God is agres­sive, don’t hold back.
• God cares about the next generation
• God wants both cohe­sion and adhesion

As I look at those notes, I think they say it all except maybe the cohe­sion and adhe­sion part. We have before us a call, a call to to bring refresh­ing to peo­ple in need, seek the lost, to preach the Good News, and to love peo­ple no mat­ter where they are or who they may be. We are God’s hands, feet and voice. God has com­mis­sioned us to ful­fill His work. As Nike says, “Just Do It!”

Let me explain what Pastor Jeff meant by “God wants both cohe­sion and adhesion.”

• Water has a cohe­sion fac­tor in which water droplets want and even seek other water droplets that they may be together. We as a church must  seek one another out to help each other, to sup­port each other etc.
• Water has how­ever an even stronger fac­tor called adhe­sion which causes water to stick to what­ever it touches so that it spreads out as well. We as a church also must be “sticky” in the world, that the world may be changed by the mes­sage of the cross. In other words, we can’t just stay com­fort­able with each other but we must also go out and bring refresh­ment to the world.