sermon -- O RIVER DEEP: The Holy Spirit

(Preached at Frederick Rescue Mission, Feb. 1, 2013)

This morning I want to share with you about the Holy Spirit.

I write a blog called NEW HYMNS AND SONGS, and I try to write at least one new hymn or song a week that I post on the blog.

At our church, the senior pastor has been preaching about the Holy Spirit, and last week I wrote this hymn, O RIVER DEEP, about the Holy Spirit.

When I was thinking about how to write this song, I was thinking about four different pictures of the Holy Spirit in the Bible: RIVER, DOVE, FLAME, WIND.

This morning I want to think with you about the RIVER in Ezekiel chapter 47:

^1-2 Now he brought me back to the entrance to the Temple. I saw water pouring out from under the Temple porch to the east (the Temple faced east). The water poured from the south side of the Temple, south of the altar. He then took me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the gate complex on the east. The water was gushing from under the south front of the Temple.

^3-5 He walked to the east with a measuring tape and measured off fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water waist-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet. By now it was a river over my head, water to swim in, water no one could possibly walk through.

^6-7 He said, “Son of man, have you had a good look?” Then he took me back to the riverbank. While sitting on the bank, I noticed a lot of trees on both sides of the river.

^8-10 He told me, “This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh. Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds. Fishermen will stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore from En-gedi all the way north to En-eglaim, casting their nets. The sea will teem with fish of all kinds, like the fish of the Great Mediterranean.

¹¹ “The swamps and marshes won’t become fresh. They’ll stay salty.

¹² “But the river itself, on both banks, will grow fruit trees of all kinds. Their leaves won’t wither, the fruit won’t fail. Every month they’ll bear fresh fruit because the river from the Sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.” (The Message)

The prophet Ezekiel is writing about a vision he had, of a great river flowing out from under the temple in Jerusalem.

The first thing I notice about this river is how BIG it is:

1500 ft. + 1500 ft. + 1500 ft. +1500 ft. = 6000 feet (over a mile) before the water is over your head, and maybe another mile at least to the other side of the river. So this river is at least 2 miles wide, which would make it a very big river.

If we take this RIVER as a picture of the HOLY SPIRIT, then it tells us that the Holy Spirit is big. And we would expect that, because the Holy Spirit is GOD.

My wife is a preschool teacher, and in preschool they sing:

My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, 
there’s nothing my God cannot do.

My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, 
there’s nothing my God cannot do.

The mountains are His, the rivers are His, 
the stars are His handiwork too.

My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, 
there’s nothing my God cannot do.

Our God is a big deal. He’s the beginning and ending of everything. Don’t think you can have Him as a little add-on to your life. In some ways, we are the little add-ons to HIS life.

He is big enough for you, bigger than any mountain that you face, big enough to rule the universe. In fact, I believe the universe is just a little piece of His domain.

For God is infinitely big and powerful. And when we put our trust in Him, we should be praying for BIG and POWERFUL things.

Again, the prophet Ezekiel is writing about a vision he had, of a river flowing out from under the temple in Jerusalem, down through the desert to the Dead Sea, which is about 1300 feet below sea level, the lowest place on Earth.

Jerusalem is about 2500 feet above sea level, so this river would flow down 3800 feet to reach the Dead Sea, about 13 miles away.

I’ve been to the Dead Sea. It is full of mineral salts, so slimy that when you swim in it, you come out wanting a shower. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea – no fish, no plants, nothing.

Notice what the man in Ezekiel’s vision tells him about this RIVER (vv.8-10): “When [the river] empties into [the Dead Sea], the sea will become fresh. Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds. Fishermen will stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore…, casting their nets. The sea will teem with fish of all kinds, like the fish of the Great Mediterranean.”

Get this picture in your head: Fishermen stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore, casting their nets. The sea teems with fish of all kinds…

The Holy Spirit is like this river of living water that BRINGS LIFE WHEREVER IT FLOWS…

Along the banks of the river are a lot of trees, fruit trees of all kinds. Their leaves won’t wither, their fruit won’t fail. Every month they bear fresh fruit because the river from the Sanctuary flows to them.

Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.

This is a picture of the Holy Spirit at work: He brings life wherever He flows. Without Him we are dead and dry and lifeless. Without Him we wither and stink.

But when the Holy Spirit flows through us in power, our lives are changed, even our basic character is changed. He fills us with love, He fills us with mercy and grace, He gives us life. And this life flows out to those around us.

We need the Holy Spirit in our lives…

I want not only to be born of the Spirit, I want to be filled with the Spirit, today, and again tomorrow, and the day after that.

PRAYER of BLESSING