Did you enjoy the absolutely incredible weather of this past week?
It was totally fantastic.
All that rain, and drizzle, and wet. The slop. The mud.
        Wonderful!!

You didn’t think so?
        Should have been in my backyard. I had rhubarb plants that looked more like cheap rubber plants, all wilted and parched. They’ve been slurping up this rain like crazy.
        Last fall I planted some trees. They’ve been drinking, too.
        And flowers. So desperately dry.

Maybe you’re sitting there thinking that you’d really prefer a whole lot of sun.
And perhaps at times that’s OK. But only when you’re getting enough water.
If you had been as dried out as my plants, you’d have been out there singing and dancing this week.
        Even you guys who claim you couldn’t dance a step if someone held a gun to your head.
 

Water - we need it so much.
That’s why trees, which look to you and me like this:

Actually look like this:

There’s more below the ground than above - roots digging down, desperately searching for sources of water to stay alive and keep the whole tree growing.

Trees need water.
You need water.
Do you know how much of you is water?
Do you know how close to the truth people are when they call you a "drip"?
or "all wet" or a "wet blanket"? (Anybody still say things like that?)

Guess why people got all upset when pictures of these began to show up on the nightly news -
 

Images we know all too well!
        They are terrifying, because water is so crucial to our lives.

The human body can last weeks without food, but only days without water. The body is made up of 75 per cent water. Water forms the basis of blood, digestive juices, urine and perspiration.

• 80 per cent of blood is made up of water
• 73 per cent of lean muscle (including brain tissue) is water
• 25 per cent of fat is water
• 22 per cent of those solid-looking bones are water.

• Maintain the health and integrity of every cell
• Keep the bloodstream liquid enough to flow through blood vessels.
• Regulate body temperature
• Lubricate and cushion joints.
• Aid digestion
• Carry nutrients and oxygen to cells.
• Serve as a shock absorber inside the eyes, spinal cord and brain.

I’ve watched people die because they were unable to drink anymore.
        Slow, painful. It’s an absolutely awful thing!

We simply, totally, and completely must have water.
        It is vital.
        Get water........... or die.

Remember that next time it rains, OK?

The fact that water is so vital to our life is what’s behind a whole realm of prophecy word pictures in the bible - statements that Jesus made, or that prophets of God made.

Chad will read a couple to us - one from the prophet Jeremiah, and one from the book of John, words of Jesus. Please take your bibles and follow along:

Two kinds of living you can have, says prophet Jeremiah.
        Dry, dry living.
        Where you are as good as dead.
        Where everything around you is polluted, a wasteland.
        Living like a shrivelled up, scraggly little bush
                a bush so beat up you’re not sure, by looking at it, if it’s dead or alive.

You can live like that.
        OR
Get near the water.
Grow like a huge tree.
Roots deep down into a source of water that doesn’t dry up, no matter how hot it gets. Leaves green.
        Fruit growing.
        Really alive – you know it’s alive!

Two kinds of living.
        All depends on who you trust.
        You pick.

Jesus says:

"Thirsty? Then come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim up and spill out of the deepest places of anyone who believes in me...."

Friends -
        Did you know that your lives are an awful lot like that tree I showed you? Some of what goes on we can see out in the open. But there’s a whole lot more going on under ground.
        That’s where you ask questions about
                - how much people like you
                - whether you’re worth being liked at all
                - what’s going to happen to you in the future
                - what’s good and what isn’t
                - who you can count on.
                - how to handle the times people have really hurt you
                - what to do with the disappointments

Every one of us has a whole lot more going on under ground than we do out in the open. And that underground stuff needs something to nourish, to keep us from shrivelling up and dying slowly inside.

Question is -
        - where are we sinking our roots?
        - where are we looking for water that will keep our hearts and our heads, our lives, from shrivelling up and dying?

Do we want to live like that scraggly bush which Jeremiah speaks about?
Or the lush, healthy fruit tree?

See - fact of the matter is that every one of us runs into times in our life which are an awful lot like the spring we’ve been experiencing here in Ottawa. A lot of hot sun, and not near enough water.
        Dry times. We feel parched, shrivelled up.

How that shows up is different for different people:
        - perhaps friendships aren’t working out
        - perhaps one of your parents let you down big time
        - perhaps you got the boot at work
        - or someone has hurt you, bad, and you’re not sure how to handle it
        - or life just seems like one dull, draggy day after another.
Dry times.
When those times hit, where you have your roots sunk can make a huge difference in how you make it through....... or don’t make it.

Jeremiah’s challenge to each one of us is to sink those roots deeply into God. As deep, as far, as much as you can.
        Don’t be satisfied with a few roots.
        Don’t be satisfied with roots close to the surface.
        Don’t be satisfied with roots going off in all kinds of crazy directions.
                Sink yourself deep into God.

He’s a river of water for your life that’ll never run dry.
        No flash in the pan - here today and gone tomorrow.
        Not like some friends who say they’re for ever...... but don’t answer the phone when you really need to talk
        Not like the one who says, "You can trust me" and then goes off sharing your secrets behind your back.
        Not like the person who says, "I respect you..." and then.......

Grounded..... and growing.
        Life in Jesus.
        It’s the only way!

Psalm 1 says:

Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people
Who do not follow the example of those who have no use for God.
Instead, they find joy in obeying the Will of the Lord
They study it day and night.
They are like trees that grow beside a stream,
that bear fruit at the right time,
and whose leaves do not dry up......

Those who reject the Lord are not like this at all;
they are like dry leaves that the wind blows away.....
Those who plant their lives in the Lord
are guided and protected by Him
But those who live apart from Him are on their way to doom.

Let me tell you about Wayne.
        His life was a mess. Literally skid row. As I got to know him Wayne told how he ended up in the gutter. His life was one huge sexual mess. One disaster and painful incident after another. Disease. Rejected. Raped. And as best Wayne could see it, he was getting what he deserved. Drugs and booze were a short but easy escape. He was about 20, but looked at least 45 — real old.
        It was the water he drank from.
        Tried to introduce Wayne to Jesus.
        Tried to let him see that Jesus didn’t see Wayne as a disaster. That he was a diamond in Christ’s eye. That God didn’t condemn or reject him.
Wayne had real trouble with that - that anyone would care... at all.
        He kept pushing Jesus away. Wouldn’t let go.
        And as he pushed, I watched him die a little more. Wouldn’t drink.
And then I moved.
        Don’t know where he sunk his roots.
        Don’t know if he’s alive or not.

Let me tell you about James.
        James is nobody who would stand out in a crowd -
        - Joe Average in every way: Looks. Car. Money. Sports.
But there was something about James that made him different. When garbage hit, and it did, somehow he kept going. When other kids got the first invites to the parties and he ended up hugging the walls, somehow he wouldn’t bottom out. When scratching his head and wondering what to do as high school was coming to an end, he didn’t get totally stressed. Ask him what kept him going, how come he didn’t get all frazzled or down - know what he’d say?
        Just pointed a finger up and said, "I’ve got help."

Not everyone is as down as Wayne. Or as quietly calm as James.
But these real life people show us the choices.

There’s help for you and me.
Question is - will we take it?

Let me ask you – Where are you going to sink your roots?
        Not in the desperately dry times – ‘cause then it’s too late. That’s when you need the roots to be in place and strong.
        But right now, when things are running about average. Where are you sinking your roots? In what direction are they headed - towards the river of life that is Jesus? Or off into a desert of some sort?

Can you say, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." (Ps 42)..... Have you?
        God’s not going to just sneak up and pour water of joy into you.
        You’ve got to ask.
                Have you?
                Consciously? Deliberately?

Where are your roots headed?
Like the fellow from Psalm 1 - he built his life around God’s will.
        Roots take time to grow. You can prune and train them.
        Every time you choose language in a conversation you prune and direct the roots of your soul.
        Every time you make a choice how to behave sexually while on a date, you prune and direct the roots of your heart.
        Every time you make a decision of how to act when your shift supervisor isn’t right there, you’re pruning and directing.
        Every time you pick up your bible and bend your knee, or just zoom right off into your day - pruning and directing.
        Taking time to be at youth group and spending time in church or.... to the park – it’s root forming stuff.
        What you watch by way of videos, internet sites you visit.
                Don’t ever say – "Ah, doesn’t really matter."
                You’re either helping roots to sink deep, or you’re ripping them out of the ground.
                You choose!

And as you make your decision, whether to head Wayne’s direction, or James’
        As you think about that
        think also about Jesus’ words:
                "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Bow your heads and pray with me.