Overflow: Through The Waters

Back in the 1960s, engineers built an enormous dam across the Colorado river between southern Utah and northern Arizona. And as the water backed up in the canyons, it created a giant reservoir called Lake Powell. And the idea behind it was pretty simple. The Colorado river doesn't carry the same amount of water every year. Some years it brings more, more than we need, and other years, it brings less than we need.

And so the idea was, why not capture some of it and save it for later? So the Bureau of Reclamation, that's the government organization over Lake Powell, they've described Lake Powell as like a bank account for water. In the years when we have plenty, we make deposits. And in the years when it's a little more dry, we make withdrawals. And for decades, that reservoir has been an incredible resource.

Actually, it's helped support cities and agriculture. The Glen Canyon Dam itself also produces an incredible amount of hydroelectric power. Tourism grew around the lake. Small businesses sprung up. Neighborhoods and entire economies and communities grew around this lake.

And over time, we started asking more and more and more and more and more of the lake. Today, more than 40 million people depend on water from the Colorado river, and about 5 million depend on the electricity that is produced there. For context, the entire Cincinnati region, including northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana, is 2.3 million people. So, 40 million relying on the water, 5 million relying on electricity. And the demand from Lake Powell has just steadily increased, but the Colorado river hasn't since 2000.

In most years, we've used more water from the reservoir than the river has put back into it. And of course, the water level at Lake Powell has been falling dramatically. In fact, just eight days ago, it reached the lowest point since more than 60 years ago when it started filling.

And as the water line goes down, anxiety goes up. States are arguing over who gets how much water. In fact, two days ago, the government stepped in and told California, Arizona, and Nevada that it will have to cut their water consumption by 40%. So farmers are worried, cities are worried. Power producers are watching the lake level because if it drops too low, they can't produce electricity anymore.

Everybody's trying to protect the system. They've built more and more and more and more and more of their lives around. Somewhere along the way, what was designed as a reservoir began to be viewed as the source. Now, there's nothing wrong with a reservoir. A reservoir can be an incredible resource, but a reservoir can't produce water.

It can only give what has been given to it from a true source. Now, all this hit home with me this week because this is exactly the tendency that all of us have. As humans, we regularly confuse the resource for the source. And as Christians, we regularly trust the resources of God, the resources he's given us to do what only he can do. But the resource can only provide what the Source has given it.

Last week, we started this new series called Overflow. We went all the way back to the Garden, to the beginning, where we saw a pattern that runs through the whole of Scripture. God's presence brings life so abundant that it overflows. And wherever it flows, more life begins. In the Garden, God is present there with Adam and Eve, and from his presence and comes life, abundance.

More than enough. God gives humanity what theologians call the cultural mandate, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And we all think, man, if we had been there with God, if He would have been walking with us, we would have never done what Adam and Eve did, right? And yet before sin and enters the world. And God makes his intentions clear, what he's after.

And his intentions never change. They keep running through and through and through. Hundreds of years after the Garden, the prophet Ezekiel is given this vision of a river flowing with water. And even then, they are there and they're broken, just like us.

But this river that Ezekiel talks about flows down to the Dead Sea. The deadest body of water on the planet can't support life. When this river that Ezekiel talks about flows down into the Dead Sea, it makes the Dead Sea fresh and brings life where there is death. Then in John 7, Jesus picks up the same imagery. He says that more that anyone who comes to him and drinks will have rivers of living water flowing from within them.

And then John says, that's the Holy Spirit. And suddenly we realize that this new dwelling place, this new temple of God's presence, isn't just a building or a tabernacle. God's spirit is now in those who believe. And now we become the new headwaters, the new place where from which his abundance and life can flow and the pattern stays the same. God's presence, the Source, brings life so abundant that it overflows.

And wherever it flows, more life begins. We were never meant to be the final destination of God's grace or his provision, or his gifts, or his hope, or the power of His Spirit. We were meant to become the new headwaters of God's abundant life, flowing out into dry and arid and dead places. And where this river flows, dead things come to life. But as we move from Genesis 2 to 3, even in the presence of the source, Adam and Eve almost immediately begin looking for their own reservoir to depend on.

Instead, they want security and provision, blessing and a future. They just don't want to have to depend on God for it. And our instinct isn't much different. Even when more than enough is flowing into our lives, we watch some of it flow out, some of it flow past us. And we think, that's getting wasted.

It's getting lost. So we start wondering what would happen if we could just capture enough of it, store enough of it, control enough of it. Maybe we could build a reservoir big enough that we'd finally feel secure. Maybe we wouldn't have to depend on the river anymore. That's the lie Adam and Eve began to believe in the garden.

The serpent convinces them that God is holding out on them, that his boundaries and his ways are withholding something from them, and that there's more life available if they stop depending on the trickle they feel like they're getting from him to provide for themselves by taking it. So instead of remaining connected to the source, receiving life from God and allowing it to overflow through them, they begin grasping for a life they can possess, control, and distribute when they see fit. They begin building their own reservoir. And we've all been building reservoirs ever since.

Not us. Like, we're good Christians, right? We came to church today. We sang out on that last song, like, surely we don't do that.

But actually our prayers give us a way. We pray for more money, better health, fewer problems, clearer answers, more wisdom, more opportunity, more stability, more margin, more control. And before we know it, our prayers sound a whole lot less like, God, we are desperate for you. We need you. And they sound a whole lot more like God, please remove every reason I might have to need you.

Give me enough money that I don't have to trust you to provide anymore. Keep me healthy enough that I don't have to deal with death or the fragility of my life. Give me enough wisdom that I don't have to wait on you, Open enough doors that I never have to wonder what you're doing. Make my life predictable and easy so that faith becomes unnecessary. We'd never actually pray that way, but sometimes this is what we're asking.

God, please build me a reservoir deep enough that I won't really need the source anymore. God, provide just enough that I could just pick it up from there and take care of things. And when we confuse the resource as the source, we start to believe that our life depends on what we can accumulate and protect. And suddenly anything that flows out of our reservoir feels like loss. And anyone that takes a sip of our water starts to feel like the enemy.

Instead of living open handed, peaceful, generous lives, trusting the source to keep providing, we become anxious, exhausted, busy people, constantly checking the water line. We work harder to fill the reservoir, spend more energy protecting it, and become terrified that anything might drain it. And we convince ourselves that we're building security, but really we're just becoming slaves to another master. Back in Genesis, Adam and Eve want what God gives, but they want it apart from him. And once humanity disconnects from the presence of God, everything begins to unravel.

By the time we get to Genesis 6, just 10 generations from Adam and Eve, things have become so corrupt and violent that we read some of the saddest words in all of Scripture. Genesis 6. Starting in verse 5, the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil. Or all the time the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. But as God does even in the darkness, he is looking for those who will be faithful to him to partner with.

And he finds Noah, who has favor in the eyes of the Lord. And he tells Noah to build an ark. And he places Noah in the ark and allows him and his family to pass through the waters of judgment. As God destroys the earth to start over again and the waters recede, dry land appears. It looks like a new creation.

Noah and his family step out into a renewed world. And God gives them the same command he gave in the garden. Be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. God's plan stays the same. But as we'll see again and again through scripture, because of sin and brokenness, the human heart stays the same too.

Humanity keeps trying to build life apart from God. We keep reaching for reservoirs. We keep confusing resources as source. And still, at every moment in history, God is looking for people who will stay close to the source, receive his blessing, and allow that blessing to flow through him into the world. Eventually, God finds Abram and he calls him.

He promises Abraham the land of Canaan, a land he says is the best land, flowing with milk and honey. He promises him a huge family, offspring that are greater than the number of grains of sand on the beach, a future and an abundant blessing that that doesn't stop with him. God says, through you I will bless all the peoples on the earth. Not all the people, all the peoples, every nation, tribe and tongue. Through him.

There it is again. God's presence brings life so abundant that it overflows. And wherever it flows, more life begins.

That promise passes from Abram to Isaac his son, then from Isaac to Jacob his son. Then Jacob's family continues to grow. And eventually the story gets to Joseph. Joseph's story is an incredible story. It's covered in Genesis 37 through 50.

We don't have near enough time to cover all of his story today. Please go read it. It's a beautiful story of God's faithfulness even through waiting and trial. But here's the short version. Joseph is sold into slavery.

He's betrayed by his brothers. They sell him into slavery and he's taken off. He's bought again and ends up as a slave in Egypt. But there's a phrase that keeps repeating through Joseph's story. The phrase is this.

The Lord was with Joseph. And because God's presence is with Joseph, life flows through Joseph, even as a slave in a pagan nation. Eventually, Pharaoh has a dream. The king of Egypt, he has a dream. And no one in his kingdom can interpret this dream.

And God gives Joseph this miraculous ability to interpret this dream. And the interpretation of the dream is this prophecy that there are going to be seven years of plenty. Plenty, grain and water and providence. And then that will be followed by seven years terrible years of drought. And don't miss this, because I want to point out something that we can miss.

God calls Joseph to come up with the idea of building a reservoir. Because reservoirs aren't really the problem. It's what we think a reservoir is that is the problem. And Joseph builds a reservoir, but the entire time he knows it's a resource and not the source. Eventually, the famine is so severe that people from all over the region, they come to Egypt to be fed to buy grain.

God's presence with Joseph produces abundant life. And Pharaoh has so much gratitude that he says, joe, bring your whole family. They can live in the choice land of Egypt. It's called Goshen. It's the most productive area in the Nile Delta today.

Still, it is the highest producing agricultural area in the entire region. And as we move from the end of Genesis into the opening chapter of Exodus, here's what we read. Exodus 1:7. Now, Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died. But the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful.

They multiplied greatly, increased in numbers, became so numerous that the land was filled with them. This is perfect, right? Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. God has finally found somebody to work with, right? It's fantastic.

They're fulfilling this Cultural mandate. And then one verse later, everything falls apart. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. Look, he said to his people, the Israelites have become far too numerous for us to count. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or they will become even more numerous.

And if war breaks out, they'll join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country. I want to point out the difference between kingdom thinking, God's kingdom thinking, and the world kingdom thinking. God says, I got more than enough. That's more than enough. That's more than enough.

That's more than enough. So be fruitful and multiply. The kingdom of this world says, when there is life and abundance flowing, I better kill it and take mine. God's abundance flows outward and creates life. Worldly abundance has to be controlled and protected and defended against.

And suddenly the Israelites find themselves becoming a threat to Pharaoh's reservoir. So he enslaves them. He forces them into brutal labor. He makes them make bricks and storehouses for him, and they keep multiplying. And so he tells the Hebrew midwives, if a boy comes out, kill it.

I can't have them growing up to become warriors someday. Kill all the male babies. Well, they don't really think that's a great idea, so they refuse to do that. So he tells his own people, since they won't do it, if you see a Hebrew baby boy, toss them in the river so they'll drown and die.

Now, I've read this story so many times, but as I was reading through it this time for this message, something stuck out to me for the very first time. I love how the Bible does that. I'm sure you've all experienced it. Spend any time in the Bible, you're like, wait a second, I never knew it said that. How did I miss that?

But this story seems to be off pattern. Here's what I mean. Later in Scripture, there is a regular pattern to the way that God's people end up finding themselves in exile and captivity. It always comes from God's people turning away from him, looking to other gods, other nations, other sources of power and security, and eventually the things that they are putting their hope in and their trust in that are not God, become the things that rule over them. But when we read Exodus, the pattern is missing.

In one verse, Israel is being fruitful and multiplying. It looks like they're just going about their faithful lives of obedience. And in one verse later, Pharaoh unjustly enslaves them. Why did God let this happen? If they are doing exactly what God asked them to do, why is he letting them fall into captivity again?

That doesn't sound fair.

So I kept digging. There's a Hebrew word that the Jewish rabbis use to describe what it means to really meditate on a scripture and study it. It's the word hagah.

It's an onomatopoeia. They say that's similar to the sound that a lion makes while it stands over its prey and picks the meat all off the bones. The idea is that sometimes we can't just read Scripture once and understand it. Sometimes we have to stay over the text, consuming it, turning it over, chewing on it some more, asking another question and another question and another question and finding another answer and another answer and another answer until something clicks. It's a sense that if we don't understand things, there must be something there that we just haven't seen yet.

So that's what I did. I started hagah ing. I'm pretty sure that's not actually a verb. But as I kept digging in, here's what the Holy Spirit uncovered. This story isn't off pattern after all.

The first clue is at the very end of the book of Genesis, chapter 50, verse 24. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land, to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob before they have been turned into slaves. Joseph knows Egypt isn't supposed to be home. He remembers the promise to Abraham, the promise to Isaac, the promise to Jacob, the promise of a land that God had prepared for his people. Egypt has been an incredible act of God's providence.

He uses it to preserve his family and provide for them and bless them. But Egypt was only ever intended to be a stop along the way. It was a resource God provided for a season, but it was never supposed to become their source. And eventually Joseph dies, his brothers die, that whole generation dies. And you can just imagine being one of the younger generations at time.

The you look around and you're like, why would we ever leave? I mean, the land provides everything we need. Our families are growing, our flocks and herds are multiplying, the Nile keeps flowing, we've got a pretty awesome government to just take care of our needs and protect us. Why would we ever leave? And somewhere along the way, the place that God used to provide for them becomes the thing.

They begin depending on you to provide for them. The resource becomes their source. Egypt becomes their reservoir. Now I Think that's enough to show that they were unfaithful and disobedient? But Scripture gives us at least another clue in a place I had never thought to look for it.

Ezekiel, chapter 20. Ezekiel, chapter 20. Starting in verse five, this is what the Sovereign Lord says. On the day I chose Israel, I swore with uplifted hand to the descendants of Jacob and revealed myself to them in Egypt. With uplifted hand, I said to them, I am the Lord your God.

On that day, I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. And I said to them, each of you, get rid of the vile images you have set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt, the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me. They did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said, I will pour out my wrath on them and spread my anger against them in Egypt.

God says, I know it's good. I've got better. Put that trash away and let's go. I've got more life for you. And they said, no, I think this is good.

I think this is good. And two chapters later, in truly R rated content that's written in the Bible, God describes his people as prostitutes who gave themselves willingly to false gods. And there it is. Israel hasn't simply been living in Egypt, Egypt is now living in Israel. The people of God have begun worshiping the gods of Egypt.

They've begun looking to Egypt itself for life and security and provision and hope. The resources become the source. And once that happens, the source becomes our master pattern. Same for us. Whatever we look to for life eventually gets the power to tell us how to live.

Trading dependence on God for dependence on another source doesn't make us free or secure. It just gives us a new master. Here's how Paul says it in Romans 6. He says, don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey? Whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.

Israel has chosen another source and that source has become their master. And God says, if you want another master, you can have another master. They've given themselves to Egypt's gods spiritually and according to Ezekiel, they have no interest in getting rid of them. And still unbelievably God's not done with them. You yet.

Eventually, after years of slavery, the Israelites can't take it anymore. And Exodus says they groan under the weight of their slavery and cry out. And God hears them.

Like, did he forget what they did? Even in that, his ear is always waiting for the cry of his people. And he hears them. Not because they finally gotten everything right, not because they've cleaned up their worship, not because they've proven they deserve another chance. In fact, Ezekiel makes it abundantly clear.

Egypt is still very much in their hearts. And they will go through the desert and prove it over and over and over. Egypt is still in their hearts. They're just desperate enough to cry out. And throughout Scripture, God has an incredible way of responding to people who finally come to the end of themselves.

David, after he has committed murder and adultery, he cries out to God, and God rescues him. And David says in Psalm 51, God does not despise a broken heart and a contrite spirit. There's something about finally admitting, this thing I trusted can't save me. This reservoir is empty. This master is killing me.

God, I need you. And God hears them. Exodus says, God hears their groaning, remembers his covenant, looks on his people and comes to their rescue. What kind of God does that?

In Exodus 3, God tells Moses, I have heard the misery of my people. I have heard them crying out, and I have come down to rescue them. That is Grace, the mean old judgmental God of the Old Testament. We've gotten him all wrong. His people said, we don't want you.

And he said, that means death. And they said, yep, that's what we want. And then he rescues them. The second that they say, we can't do this anymore. We need you.

God sends Moses. He confronts Pharaoh through the plagues. He begins visually dismantling the gods of Egypt, both for Egypt and for Israel. He says, let me show you how I have power over every single God of Egypt. And eventually, Pharaoh lets them go.

And for the first time in generations, they walk out of Egypt. And they are free. At least they think they're free. But Pharaoh changes his mind. He gathers up an army, a massive army of chariots, and comes after them.

Just civilians. And suddenly, Israel finds itself trapped between the life that they're trying to leave behind.

I could preach an entire sermon on just that picture. And a body of water that they can't possibly cross. Egypt is behind them. The sea is in front of them. There's no way forward that they can create for themselves.

All they can do is depend on God. And this is where one of the great patterns of scripture starts to come into focus again and again. When God brings his people out from an old way of living into a new way of living, there's water in between them to pass through. Noah passes through the waters, steps onto dry ground in the new creation. Israel passes through the Red Sea on dry ground into the promised land.

A generation later, they pass through the Jordan and step onto that land that God promised, Canaan. And eventually, Jesus invites every one of us into this same pattern through the waters. Next week, we're going to slow down and look at all of these moments and just see this pattern from scripture because it leads somewhere incredibly important for all of us. It leads us directly to baptism. And before we get there, listen how Paul finishes the section.

He was just saying, don't you know, if you give to one master, this happens. If you give to another master, this happens. Here's the other half. He says, but thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become sl.

Slaves to righteousness. That's the other half of the story. Paul doesn't say that we go from having a master to having no master. He says, you will have a master. We're set free from the old Master that leads to death and brought under the rule and reign of the new master, the one, the Source, God himself, who brings life.

And baptism is where Jesus gives us a way to step into that story with our whole lives. We step into the waters. We go down into the water representing the death of our old self, being raised to life in resurrection with Jesus and declaring that we belong to him now. The old Source doesn't own us anymore. The old Master doesn't get to tell us how to live anymore.

Our lives now belong to Jesus. And on September 13th, we're gonna celebrate Baptism Sunday. If you've been around here for very long, you know, we pick at least one date on the calendar that we just put a pin in it and say, this day, we're doing baptism Sunday. Because what we've learned is so many of you have been thinking about it, and very often that last little nudge that you needed to take is like, well, it's baptism Sunday. Why not be baptized like the Ethiopian eunuch?

That's like, well, there's water. Why shouldn't we do it now? So if you have been thinking about baptism, if you're Ready for baptism. If you got questions about baptism, if you got a kid who's ready for baptism or asking questions about it and you don't know how to have that conversation, we would love to come alongside you. So we're offering a class on August 30th and September 6th called All About Baptism.

It'll be at the 10 o' clock hour between services on August 30th and September 6. You can register on our events page. You can stop by the info desk and talk to somebody about it. We also have QR code cards appear on the front of the platform, at the exits, on your way out that just say, baptize me. We got a lot of ways for you to engage with this and we're just inviting you into pass through these waters.

But as we close today, there's a question that we all need to answer and it's a question that I want to force on us today. Because if we don't ask this question, we will leave unchanged. What's your reservoir?

What's your reservoir? Man? This question's been rattling around in my head and heart this week. And God has so graciously and brutally, at the same time, he just keeps showing me the stuff that I am trusting in. The stuff that I thought that'll be there tomorrow and it's not there tomorrow.

The stuff that I put my faith in, the stuff that I'm hoping and the stuff that I'm like, God, this is good, this is a guaranteed future, and it's not there. He's showing me so many ways that I have built reservoirs in my life and I'm tapping into them and instead of staying abiding, connected to him.

So what's your reservoir? What's a thing that may have started as a good resource, maybe even something God provided, but something along the way that you started asking to do for you what only God can do for you.

Here's how you know what your reservoir is. It's the thing that you keep checking, protecting, feeding and worrying about. It's the thing you're most afraid to lose. Because if you started trusting it to give you what only God can give you, it will always disappoint you. Maybe it's money, maybe it's your career, maybe it's your health, maybe it's your relationship, your family, even your reputation, your plans, your politics, your intelligence, your ability to solve problems.

Maybe it's just this lie in your head that you are maintaining control of the world around you. What's the resource that you are most Afraid to lose. That's your reservoir. And maybe you realize today that you're tired of watching the water line. You're tired of wondering whether there will be enough.

You're tired of protecting those who seem to be enemies. You're tired of trying to control every variable. Maybe you're finally ready to admit, this thing can't save me. And if that's where you are, you got to hear the best part of the story. Every time in the Bible that God's people wander from him, even worshiping other gods, allowing the resources to become their master.

Even when they turn their back on him. When and if they finally cry out and they say, God, I need you. He doesn't look at them and say, you made the bed, you sleep in it. He comes to their rescue. What kind of God does this?

That's grace. Abundant, unending, unfair, grand grace. I love this old song from Hillsong United. They call it the scandal of Grace. What have you done?

Grace.

A God who only requires that we cry out and say, I need you. And he says, I have heard your cry and I'm on my way to rescue. That's who he still is. Church. That's the God we sing to.

That's the God we praise. That's the God we have given our lives to. The God that says, I know, I know, I know. Come on. There's more.

There's more grace. There's more grace. And you can keep coming back to the source. You can surrender the thing that you've been asking to give you life, and you can come to the one who actually gives you life. And you can say, God, God, I need you.

I need you. And if that's all you got today, that's enough. Because God's grace is a well that is un dryable. It will never dry up. His well of grace is more than enough and more than enough and more than enough and more than enough.

Yes. You're sitting there asking right now, even for the thing I did. Yes. Yes. His grace is enough.

This is the God we serve, Church. This is the God we serve. And it's time that we put away the reservoirs that will always fail us. And we come to the one who never fails us. This is grace.

And we're going to stand and we're going to sing. Would you stand? We're gonna have our prayer team on either wall, and we're gonna sing about this grace. And if you want to be baptized today, if you want to be baptized on baptism Sunday, if you're ready to stop belonging to the old master who only brings you death. Let's go, church, let's go and let's sing of his grace.