Overflow: The Garden & The River

Well, it's good to be with you this morning. If we've never met, my name is Josh and I'm glad you're here. I don't know how this week affected you all. When tornadoes or talk of tornadoes were in the area, it was a bit chaotic for a lot of people. Several people lost trees or parts of their home.

We had several neighbors come over that day and come to this place, this building, for a safe place to come. And we had dogs and cats and kids and parents. And it was beautiful that we could just open up this place as a shelter, both literally and symbolically. If that affected you this week and you're still in need of some help, we'd love to know about that and find out some ways that we might be able to help. And if you have friends or neighbors or co workers who have experienced that, I just want to encourage you and challenge you to help.

Just help. When the body of Christ comes together, many hands make the work light, right? Amen. So if that affected you this week, please let us know. If you're newer around here, you should know you just walked into a room full of people who haven't figured it all out yet.

We're sinners desperately in need of grace, just like you. And that grace comes from Christ alone. And we believe deeply that he is the way, the truth and the life. And if you haven't connected here beyond attending a service, I want to encourage you to take a step today. You can just go out to the information desk out in the foyer and they would love to help you find your people a community to gather small in.

They would love to help you find a place that you can share your gifts and talents in serving here and building up the body of Christ together. It's such an important part of who we are here. So go and speak with them after the service, please. If you were here last week, I've lost some things here, but that's all right. If you were here last week, we gave out two things.

There were hands, little paper hands. If you have kids at home, I want to encourage you to grab one of those hands for each of your kids. And if you don't have kids at home, I want to encourage you to take one of those hands for yourself. And if you don't know what these hands are about, challenge. Go back and listen to last week's message and take them home and work on them.

Okay? There was also a half sheet that had lots of serving opportunities inside of next gen ministry and we would love for you to take one of those on your way out today and do one thing, pray over it, and ask God, is there anything that you want me to be doing to invest in the next generation? And whatever the answer is, just do that thing. That way. I'm not selling you an idea.

We're not strong arming you into anything. The Holy Spirit's the one doing the work because we believe that he does. So if you haven't grabbed those hands or that half sheet, I would love for you to grab those. Also, if you were here last week, you got to take part in a lot of fun with all the kids and students in here. Wasn't that awesome?

And if you were here last week, then, you know, I was supposed to have been here, but I did not show up.

Apparently the little light on the end of an airplane wing is important enough that the FAA will cancel your flight if it doesn't work. So a huge thank you to Russ for stepping in and preaching last week and to our team of volunteers and staff. If you don't know, we have an unbelievably awesome team of staff and volunteers, can we just give it up for them?

Well, today we start not only a new sermon series, we start what I truly believe is going to be the beginning of an entirely new season in the life of our church. You might know, this year, Whitewater Crossing celebrates its 110th birthday. Yeah, this church was founded in 1916. Like, think about that for a minute. 110 years after a group of people in Westwood first gathered together and dreamed about what God might do through a new church, here we are.

Think about the things that this church has seen since 1916. Two world wars, the Great Depression, the Korean War, the civil rights movement, the assassination of a president, Vietnam, recessions, cultural upheaval, 9 11, a housing crash, race riots, a global pandemic, and countless attacks on biblical values. This church has walked through all those things and many others and through seasons of enormous change in our community and in our world. And like every church made up of human beings, this church has also walked through sin and mistakes and disagreements and scandal and disappointment and brokenness. And there have been pastors and elders and leaders whose names most of us will never know.

Families who sacrificed, who prayed, people who served, people who gave generously to build buildings and purchased this land. People who taught children, who grew up to teach their children. People who took enormous risks like purchasing this land and moving from Westwood out here to build a building because they believed that God wasn't done yet. Again and again, as Whitewater came to another moment when it would have been much easier to just stay comfortable, defend what existed, turn in toward ourselves, there were people willing to ask God, what do you want to do through us next? And we're here because they faithfully listened and were obedient to that question.

Every one of us who calls Whitewater home today has inherited something that we did not build. And now we are the next generation. We are the ones who have been given the great responsibility to keep asking that question, God, what do you want to do through us next today? I've been the senior minister of Whitewater for almost exactly two and a half years. And when I got here, our church had just been through some very difficult days.

Between Covid a senior minister transition that became very difficult and led to being without a senior minister for more than nine months, massive budget and staffing cuts, we saw more than a 50% drop in attendance from 2019. And since then we've been in a season of healing and rebuilding. And by God's grace, we have grown physically and financially and spiritually in ways that none of us could have anticipated in the last two and a half years.

Here are some of the ways in the last two and a half years, our attendance has grown by almost 50%. Our giving has consistently outpaced our budget. We've been aggressively paying off debt. This last fiscal year that ended in June, we paid just shy of $1 million on principle. We've developed and funded a 10 year capital improvements plan to make sure that we're caring for this facility well.

We've increased our attention and energy more and more towards disciple making, towards being a people of the word, a people of prayer, and a people led by the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit series that we finished up not too ago has breathed this fresh wind and fire into this place in ways that some of you have never seen before. It's been beautiful. We've increased our local and global giving and impact. We've seen over 200 people step into the waters of baptism and give their lives to Jesus.

And the more God blesses and the more that we watch him work, the more that this one word just keeps swelling up inside of me. The word is overflow. And I believe overflow is the answer to the question, God, what do you want to do through us next? And overflow isn't something that we just came up with in a strategic session with a bunch of smart people. It's not a new church growth strategy that I read in the latest book.

It's what God has been up to since creation. And over the next eight weeks, we're going to trace this enormous biblical theme of overflow all the way from Genesis to revelation, from finished creation in the garden all the way to the new creation as the kingdom of God in heaven is fully realized. And as we do this, we're going to see a remarkably consistent pattern. Wherever God's presence is, blessing and life abound and overflow. And that blessing in life and overflow moves outward in every direction, bringing more life wherever it flows.

And on week eight, after we've traced that story through the whole Bible, we're going to turn our attention very practically to what does this mean for the next season of Whitewater. On what we call Vision Sunday, we'll talk about what overflow means for us in this next season of our church and where we believe God is calling us to flow outwards together. God, what do you want to do through us next? And church? I believe that over the past few years, God has been preparing us for this moment, pruning and providing, challenging and encouraging blessing and equipping.

And I believe he's been answering our prayers by filling this church with life and people and resources and gifts and faith and opportunity so that more of his life and blessing can flow through through us, into the world around us. This is an incredible time to be a part of what God's doing on year 117 of the life of this church. And before we dig in, let's pray.

Mighty God, we just say whatever you want. We are willing and we ask, what do you want to do through us next?

Father, thank you for everyone who came before us, who laid the foundation that we stand on from creation all the way forward to now. Thank you.

Help us to carry the torch well in this next season. Speak to us through your word throughout this sermon today, but throughout this entire series and help us to see what you're up to across the pages of scripture. Speak through me now. Mighty words, your words that will serve as seeds of eternal significance planted in ourselves and in this body of believers that will one day be a mighty harvest for your kingdom. In Jesus name, Amen.

The opening words of the Bible In Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heavens, the earth.

For those of us who've been around church for a long time, I think these words can just become plain and normal like, well, of course God created the heavens and the earth. But this sentence is foundational to everything else that followers follows. Over and over we've come back to this question, what if God really is who he says he is. And if Genesis 1:1 is true, if God really is the creator of everything that exists, if he really is who he says he is, then some enormous conclusions can follow from this. First, God surely understands his creation better than anyone else possibly could.

Nothing about this world, about humanity, or about you, is mysterious to the one who created all things. Second, it stands to reason that the Creator gets to define how his creation works best. If God designed life from scratch, then surely God knows what causes this life to flourish and what kills and destroys that same life. Therefore, his boundaries for his creation must be perfect, no matter how we feel about them. And third, when the Creator speaks about his creation, we can trust him because he's not offering an opinion as one outside observer, a guy that read a book about a thing, he's uncovering design as the one who created every intricate detail of all things.

So Genesis 1:1 tells us where everything came from, and it establishes who gets to tell us what everything is for. In the verses that follow, God does his mighty creative work. Light and sky, sea and land, plants and animals are all made. And finally, Adam is formed from the dust of the earth, and God breathes life into his nostrils. And then Eve is formed from Adam's side, and mankind is created, uniquely distinct from the rest of creation as those who are image bearers of the Creator.

Everything God has made is good. Sin has not entered the story yet, and fractured creation. Adam and Eve are in the garden, living in unbroken fellowship with God and experiencing the incredible gift of his presence without shame or fear and no sin. In this brief window before sin, we get a glimpse of what God intended His good creation to be. Now, for most of my life, I've just pictured the Garden of Eden like this little perfect container, like this little biodome.

If you saw that movie in the 90s, it was terrible, that little biodome of perfect life. And God intended everything to stay in this 90 little bubble where everything stays perfect. But when we look at the few instructions God actually gives Adam and Eve, we start to see something different than that picture. We begin to see that God's plan was never for everything to stay in the garden. In verse 28, God gives Adam and Eve what theologians call the creation mandate or the cultural mandate.

Verse 28, God blessed them, that's Adam and Eve, and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Fill the earth. Not the bubble, not fill your container, Fill the earth. God designs people and all living things to grow, multiply, and expand out in every direction.

In chapter 2, verse 10, this is what we read, a river watering the garden. That's his primary job right there. Watering the garden flowed from Eden. From there it was separated into four headwaters. And these four headwaters are the beginning of new streams of life.

The next verses go on to describe these four headwaters. It even names them the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. In all my life as a Christian, the only time I've ever heard about those headwaters discussed is in some, like Indiana Jones epic treasure hunt trying to figure out where the Garden of Eden is or maybe was. And while I'm fascinated by that too, I think God named those rivers on purpose. I think he gave us a location on purpose.

I'm not sure what for, but I think our focus on the names and location of these rivers has caused us to miss something really important. God's showing us a pattern that he built into creation from the beginning. God places a river in Eden, yes, to water the garden. But the source of life is so rich in that river. That river is so full that it flows and overflows well beyond the needs of the garden.

It flows out and then it divides and multiplies, spreads, and it moves beyond the garden to bring life out into the world around it. From the very beginning, there's a design and a pattern. This is it. God's presence brings life so abundant that it overflows. And wherever it flows, more life begins.

God's presence brings life so abundant that it overflows. And wherever it flows, more life begins. And once you see the pattern, you can't unsee it again and again. God's presence gives life an abundant blessing. And that blessing moves outward to bring new life and new blessing into new places.

We see it in God's promise to Abraham. In Genesis 12, God says, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. And it doesn't end there. Abraham's life is like the river flowing out of Eden.

God says, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Abraham is blessed not just to be blessed. Abraham is blessed to pour out that blessing into new places. We see it in the tabernacle and eventually the temple. As the presence of God comes to dwell in the middle of his people, God places his presence among them.

And Israel becomes a light to the nations and a people through whom the world encounters the blessing, abundance and life of God. And then, fast forward, Jesus comes and with his coming now immanuel God with us. God's presence reaches beyond a garden and a tent and a temple. God comes to dwell among us in human form. But it keeps going.

Jesus, the greater temple, the presence of God begins talking about life and rivers of living water. But he doesn't just say they're available in him. He says they're available to others. In John 4, Jesus meets a woman at a well and she's coming to look for a physical drink of water. And he tells her, you can drink this water, but you're going to be thirsty again later.

But I have a water, and the water that comes from me, if you drink of that, springs of life will well up inside of you. In John 7, Jesus expands the picture even further. He stands up and says that anyone who's thirsty should come to him and drink. And he says that anyone who does will have rivers of living water flowing from within them. From within them.

And I love that. John immediately answers the question that he knows that we're all going to ask, what does this mean, Jesus, what are you talking about? How could that be possible? And he says, by this Jesus meant the Holy Spirit. And after Jesus is crucified and resurrected and glorified and ascends to the Father, the Holy Spirit is poured out into his people.

And all at once the presence and life river of God is no longer located in a garden, a tabernacle, a temple, or even in the one body of Jesus. With the resurrection of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for those of us who believe, we become the new holy temple. The Spirit of the living God takes up residence in us. And now, like the Eden, like life of God, the Abraham like blessing of God, the Jesus like resurrection life of God are meant to flow through us. We become the new headwaters of God's life and blessing far beyond what we need for ourselves.

Spilling out to bring life wherever we go, into our homes and workplaces, our schools and neighborhoods, into hospitals and restaurants and ball fields and grocery stores. Here's how Paul puts this incredible reality. In Second Corinthians 5, he says, we are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal to through us. See, with the living indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we now carry the very presence of God into this world. And we now get to participate in the pattern he established in Genesis 1.

God's presence brings life so abundant that it overflows. And wherever it flows, more life begins. This is God's design. You sound very excited about it.

This is his beautiful way. And now we have this great responsibility to be the new headwaters and flow out in every direction. But between fear and consumerism and insecurity and scarcity mindset instead of being flowing rivers, the vast majority of us as individuals and churches missing it.

We love to read and quote verses like Isaiah 40, 29, 31. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.

They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. We read 2 Corinthians 9:8 and God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work, like Philippians 4:19 and my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ. Ephesians 3:20 now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we all ask or imagine, according to his power, that his work is at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.

We love Psalm 23:5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows. We love John 10:10. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full and still, instead of living as if all this is true, as if God has given us far more than we need, as if we truly are those who carry streams of living water inside of us.

We function less like flowing rivers and more like ponds and reservoirs. A pond has no real inlet and no outlet. It just sits there. The sun slowly dries up the water. Ponds are desperately dependent on the next rain to keep them from drying out.

And some of us are living spiritual lives exactly like that. We limp from Sunday to Sunday, hoping just to have enough encouragement, just enough worship, just enough truth, just enough water, just enough God to survive another week. We live spiritually dehydrated, always desperate for another rain, never able to share what we have because it's barely enough for us. Or we live like reservoirs. A reservoir, on the other hand, it might have an inlet, but it's designed properly, primarily to hold on to what it receives.

Water comes in walls, keep it contained, and only at planned times or when necessary does anything get released, and this becomes our posture. God blesses us with resources and time and experience and relationships, influence gifts Grace, knowledge, life, opportunity. And we just store it and protect it and preserve it and only consider letting any of it out if we feel like we have more than enough for ourselves, and even then, only in bits and spurts. But church. We were never meant to be pawns desperately waiting for the next rain.

And we were never meant to be reservoirs accumulating the blessing of God behind walls. We were meant to be rivers flowing from the abundance of an unending source, receiving life from God and allowing that life to create new headwaters, bringing life to new places. We were meant to live in a way that when God gives us encouragement, we don't just enjoy encouragement. We become someone who encourages. When God gives financially, generosity begins to flow through us to others.

When he gives us a home, we begin to ask, who might you want me to invite to my table? God. When he carries us through pain, our story becomes hope for someone walking through the same thing. When he gives us influence, we use it to lift someone else up. When he gives us forgiveness, we use it to forgive more quickly to someone else.

When we experience grace, we become more gracious. When Jesus gives us hope, we carry it into the world around us. We were never meant to be the destination of God's abundant life. We were meant to become new headwaters from which his life flows into places it has not yet reached. In Ezekiel 47, God gives the prophet Ezekiel this vision of the new temple.

Now he gives him this vision. Think about this. He gives him this vision in the 14th year after the fall of Jerusalem. At this point in history, God's people are in exile in Babylon, year 14 of 70 years of being captive slaves. The temple that they have known, Solomon's glorious temple.

Excuse me while I choke on air.

God's glorious temple has been destroyed to rubble. But in this vision, there's a new temple, the place where the presence of God dwells. And in this vision, water begins to flow out from underneath the threshold of the temple. Now, at first it's just a trickle, but as the water moves away from the temple, it gets deeper and deeper. Ezekiel walks out into it.

At first it's ankle deep, and then it's knee deep, and then it's waist deep. And then eventually it becomes a river so deep and so that he cannot even cross it. And then God shows Ezekiel where the river is flowing. The river flows out and eventually makes its way to the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea. And it makes the saltiest dead place on the planet teem with life. That water flows out of the Temple. This abundant life of God's blessing. It flows out of the temple and into the deadest places.

And that water becomes teeming with life. There are fish and all down its banks people are fishing and receiving life. And there are trees with fruit, and they don't stop bearing fruit. Every month they bear new fruit and their leaves bring healing. This is the picture of what it looks like to be the headwaters of God's abundant life flowing through us and not just into us.

Where God's river flows, dead things come alive. This is the model that's overflow. That's the kind of life that God is calling us to as individuals and as a church. And it's time that we start living like ponds and reservoirs or dried up mud puddles and start living like the headwaters of mighty new rivers of his presence that brings life to death.

But how do we start? How do we start? Let me suggest that we start this week by asking two questions, one of ourselves and one of God. Here's a question for ourselves. Am I staying connected to the source?

Am I staying connected to the source? If you are nothing more than a cistern or a pond or a container, you will always run out and you always have to keep going back. And most of us are operating this way like we do our cars. We go and fill the thing up and then we drive around till it runs out. And then we go and fill, fill it up and we drive around till it comes out.

This is not God's model. God's model is that we would stay so close to the source that his blessing in life would flow through us. Overflow doesn't begin with trying harder. Have you ever noticed how hard a river works to flow?

It doesn't. There's just a source and it goes into that place and it moves through that place. You cannot manufacture the life of God. You cannot fake spiritual abundance. It's exhausting and impossible.

And maybe if you are dried up today, you need to hear that God has designed you to be the hose through which his blessing flows, not the pool that all your friends jump into.

A river only keeps flowing when it has a source. The life that Jesus wants to pour through you begins with the life that Jesus is pouring into you. So are you staying close to Him? Are you spending time in his presence in His Word? Are you abiding in Christ?

Are you in community with other believers who are helping fill each other up? Are you walking in the Spirit like we talked about in that last series? Are you allowing him to restore what's depleted and heal what's wounded? And forgive what's sinful and fill what's become empty? Am I staying connected to the source?

And the second question is the question we need to ask God. God, what have you put in my life that you never intended to stop with me? God, what have you put in my life that you never intended to stop with me? What if God has encouraged you because there's someone around you who desperately needs encouragement? What if God has given you experience that could help someone who's walking a road that you've already traveled?

What if he's given you a home or a family to share with someone who's lonely? What if he's entrusted you with resources because someone else is in need and you can meet that need? What if he's carried you through pain and grief and hardship so that your story isn't a dead end, but so that your story can become life and hope for someone else's story? What if he's given you grace because there's someone in your life who desperately needs to experience something they've never tasted before, Real grace.

Instead of only asking God to bless me and provide for me and notice me and care for me, what if every time I receive something from God, I asked God, what did you have in mind when you blessed me? Who did you have in mind when you blessed me? So who's downstream from you who could experience the love of Jesus because it flows through you? We were never meant to be the destination of God's abundant life. We were meant to become the new headwaters from which his life flows into places it has not yet reached.

And wherever his river flows, dead things come alive.

This is the invitation in front of Whitewater in this next season. This is where we're going. God has spent these last few years pruning and healing and rebuilding and providing and preparing. And now he's inviting us to ask what generations before us asked God, what do you want to do through us now? Imagine what would happen if the life God has poured into this church didn't stop here.

Imagine if we all viewed ourselves as gospel epicenters and new headwaters for God's blessing and life. Imagine if we didn't just release a little bit here and there in bits and spots. What would happen if we overflowed out of this place and out of our lives, not just in bits and spurts, but like a river that flows and grows and grows and grows and grows into our homes and workplaces and neighborhoods and communities and around the world. What if we were overflowing so much that it was spilling out in every direction, creating new streams and new rivers of life that are flowing into new places. This is the model of Creation Church.

This is what he's calling us to and inviting us to imagine what could happen if we all viewed the grace and hope and generosity we receive as grace and hope and generosity for someone else. Where the river flows, dead things come to life. But in order for us to live like that, we're going to have to stay connected to the source. And we're going to have to keep asking God before we walk into every new space and start every day, before we leave a room, before we spend another dollar, before we watch another season of whatever on Netflix, before we sign up for another activity to take our time, before we pile up our resources in bigger piles and tear down our smaller barns so that we can build bigger barns and put more stuff into our bigger barns. God, what have you put in my life that you never intended to stop with me?

Overflow was God's beautiful design from the beginning. It's not new, and it's what he's calling us to here and now. Wherever the river flows, dead things come alive. That's the dream that we have for this people. In this time, in this season, in this part of God's kingdom, will you stand?

My prayer for you over the next eight weeks is that your mind and your spirit and your eyes would become more and more and more aware of the river of life that's flowing into you and that was intended to flow out of you. And that we might be a garden kind of church, a new kingdom kind of church. Are you with me? Both of you?

Let's go church. Let's go.