Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Listen to these verses. After we read these verses, I want to find the reference, because I want you to turn there right after, to make sure I have the reference right.

Let me... Okay, yeah, I've got the reference right. And so let's notice this. I want you to be able to hear it, and then go right to the spot so that you can understand. Thus saith the Lord that may thee inform thee from the womb which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou, Jezirim, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. That's what we're gonna be dealing with today, but I want you just to briefly hold your place there, and turn just a couple chapters back to chapter 41, if you would do that. Okay. Isaiah chapter 41.

Don't have you turn a lot, and because I want you to be able to concentrate. Look at verse 17. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them.

I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

Let's pray. Lord, we love you, and Lord, I hope our folks will kind of catch a glimpse of how thirsty we need to be in our lives. How you have promised that you would pour water on those that are thirsty, that are longing for you, and Lord, I think that there's many times that we believe in you, we love you, we depend on you, but sometimes we're just not thirsty for you like we should, and Lord, I pray that you would help as we expound your word today that it would motivate our people to get a whole new thirst for you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. What's interesting here in Isaiah in chapter 44, as you have seen over and over in the scripture, and I try to always point it out, that before Isaiah tells you this is what God said, he describes who God is. If you know who God is, you will listen more to what he has to say. You know, oftentimes I think we can get up here and preach all day long, but if folks have not spent time with God during the week, gotten to know God more deeply during the week, know more about who God is during the week, they don't necessarily have a tendency to listen that great. It's just, well, I'm gonna go to church because I feel like I go to church, and I'm thankful that you go to church, but what would be an ideal scenario is that we come to church thirsty for God, longing for him.

Unfortunately, that doesn't normally describe how we enter God's presence in his house. I want you to notice first in verse two, he tells us who he is so that we will listen closely, more closely, to what he has to say, and so this is how he describes it in verse two. Thus saith the Lord first that made thee. Isaiah said, number one, he created thee.

Surely you will hear what he has to say. You wouldn't be here, is what he's saying, if it wasn't for him. You wouldn't have a family. You wouldn't have a job. You wouldn't have transportation to and from here.

We wouldn't have a building to meet in. We would have absolutely nothing without him. He created thee, notice secondly, and formed thee from the womb. He didn't just create thee, Isaiah says, he constructed thee. He made you who you are. He formed you, the personality that you have, the temperament that you have, little things about yourself, the talents, the gifts that every one of us have been given to serve God.

God formed all that. He created you, he constructed you. Notice what Isaiah says here third, he is committed to thee. He says the God that made thee and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee. So God made us, he formed us, and not only that, he's committed to us.

I'll help you. I'm not gonna leave you or forsake you. As he speaks here to Israel, you are my chosen. And dear friend, when you and I gave our heart to Christ and salvation, we are now his family. Notice this fourth thing.

I love this. And thou, Jezirim, whom I have chosen. Isaiah said he created thee, he constructed thee, he's committed to thee, and he's chosen thee.

Do you know that's how it works? God creates us, God constructs us. Literally, God is committed to us, and he has chosen us. When you got saved, you got chosen.

Excuse the English. Properly, when you were saved, you were chosen. But when you got saved, you got chosen.

You were called immediately. God did not save us to leave us, he didn't save us to sit us. He saved us for us to serve him. We've been chosen.

I think we all agree with that. So God says, well this is how this is gonna work. I created thee, constructed thee, I'm committed to you, I've chosen you. Look if you would at verse two. Fear not, oh Jacob my servant.

Fear not. You say, well what is he fearing? Well here, the very person that God created and constructed, formed him into the individual that he is, and literally is committed to help him, and he's chosen Jacob, and he's chosen Jezirim, just like he's chosen you and me to serve him and do things for him. And you and I often, well I just don't know how I'm gonna do it, and I feel so unable, and I don't know how I'm gonna pay bills, let alone do everything that God wants us to do. God says this is how I work. Notice in verse three. I will pour water on him that is thirsty. Now I love you, God says, I'm committed to you. But until you get thirsty, until you really want me, I can't do a lot in your life. But the moment you become thirsty, God says I will pour water on you.

Listen, can I put it this way, God says if you want me, you get me. Can I ask you something, how thirsty are you today? Some of you are like, well I'm a little parched, you know, it's been a little, no, no, no, no, no.

I could use a little spritzer, you know, whatever. Are you thirsty today? Are you longing for what God has? I'm gonna be honest, sometimes I'm more thirsty than I am at other times. Sometimes I'm just doing so much and concentrating on so much, got so many sticks in the fire and I'm going so many different directions like every one of you every day of your life that all of a sudden you turn around and your devotions are somewhat cold and your Bible reading is somewhat sporadic and literally during the day, you're more frustrated than you are faithful and we got all these things and it can overtake your life and I'm asking you to stop on God's day, on a Sunday as we meet on the first day of the week to worship his resurrection, to celebrate that fact. Are you thirsty for God?

We got revival coming in April. And I'm gonna be honest with you, we'll just have another meeting unless we're thirsty. And I'll be honest with you, you'll have just about the same week, this coming week as you did last week unless you get thirsty.

Unless you get to the point and say, God, I'm tired of this. I'm thirsty. I've got an appetite for something that I'm not experiencing in my life right now and God, I need you. I don't need things anymore.

I've tried it. I don't need more possessions. I've got it. God, I need you. God says, I'm not just gonna give you a drink when you get thirsty for me.

I will pour water on you. I'll give you abundantly above all that you could ask or think. Am I the only one that's excited about this today? I feel like I could go out there and preach the same thing, get the same reaction as I do in here. I'm picking. I wanted to read you something, Dr. Johnny Pope.

Sends stuff out once a week just to some preacher friends and things and I always enjoy getting it. And he sent something out this week about revival and I don't normally just read stuff but I want you to hear what he had to say about some revivals that took place. Just listen to me for a second. He said, it may be well said that there would have never been the greatness of America had America not been birthed in the labor of revival. Jonathan Edwards wrote these words in 1743 about the great awakening that shook England and America.

Listen to what Jonathan Edwards had to say. In the year 1740 in the spring before George Whitefield came to this town, there seemed to be a visible alteration. There was more seriousness about the things of God, especially among the young people. Those things that were of ill tendency among them were more foreborn and it was a more frequent thing for people to visit their minister as God began to move in their soul. In some particular persons, there appeared a great change about this time.

And thus it continued till Mr. Whitefield came to town, which was about the middle of October. He preached here four sermons in the meeting house and a private lecture at my house, one on Friday, another on Saturday and two upon Sunday. The congregation was so extraordinarily melted by every session. Almost the entire assembly being in tears for almost the entire sermon. Mr. Whitefield's sermons were suitable to the circumstances of what they were going through at that time, containing reproofs of our backslidings and in a most moving and affecting manner, making use of our great profession of faith and the great mercy God has given as arguments and motivation for us to return to God. No, I know that might seem like fancy lingo.

But this is what he said. Before the man of God ever got to town, there was a change in people. They got more serious. They began to want it more. They got thirsty for the move of God. You and I seem to have to drum up just enough thirst for one hour a week. To be honest with you, we're not even really thirsty for that sometimes, becomes obligation.

I don't know about you, when you really get thirsty for something, you want it. Survival swept. Thousands in that community were saved within weeks.

Why? Because a few people got thirsty. Listen to this, 1795 Timothy Dwight, who was the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, was elected president of Yale University. Yale had departed from the earlier awakening and needed revival, and they do again, by the way. Christianity Today records this account early in the spring of 1802. Two students were overwhelmed with conviction of their sin and a desire for closeness with their savior. In a short period, they came to faith in Christ and assurance of forgiveness. After making a public profession of faith, they joined the church there at the college. This made an impact on the other students. 10 days before Christmas vacation, 50 young men declared themselves to need Christ and receive Christ in Yale. Wherever the students gathered in their rooms, at meals or around New Haven, the great subject of conversion was eternal salvation. Many feared that when the students left for their spring vacation, the revival would cease.

Instead, the reverse occurred. The students carried home with them the news of Yale's turnabout, and the impulse spread. When they returned after the summer, more had offered their lives to God, and Mr. Dwight, Jonathan Edwards' grandson, president of the college, witnessed the conversion of 100 out of 160 students. More than half of Yale got saved. Could you imagine if half of Yale got saved right now? Could you imagine if half of our churches got saved? Let alone Yale.

Listen to this. A new awakening came four years later in 1808. It was almost as powerful as the first one. Succeeding revivals to the students in 1813, 1815. These awakenings marked only the beginning of a movement which swept Connecticut. Ultimately, the entire country was bathed in revivals of all sorts, from camp meetings to protracted meetings, from urban centers to the most remote parts of the American wilderness. The revival culture lasted until the outset of the American Civil War. The culmination of this revival was given a fresh win in 1859.

Listen, I don't read a lot normally, but listen. A prayer revival under the burden of Jeremiah Lampure. After the Civil War, evangelists such as Dwight L. Moody in the north, Sam P. Jones in the south, were used of God to carry the torch once again, and they later handed it off to evangelists such as Wilbur Chapman, Billy Sunday, Bob Jones Sr., Mordecai Hamm, and to think this 100-year legacy was kindled by two students at Yale. You say, well, preacher, why in the world are you talking about all this? Well, in the 1940s in America, a new movement among young people called Youth for Christ was born.

They attracted tens of thousands of high schoolers for their rallies. God used a man named Jack Wertzen in New York and Torrey Johnson, a Baptist pastor in Chicago, to become the spearheads of this movement. Dr. Wertzen had roots to family that had been saved in the revival that I just told you about that started in Connecticut. They began to want that exact same thing, and Johnson became the first president of Youth for Christ, and they brought in a young evangelist from North Carolina who had this unreal desire for God named Billy Graham.

He was just finishing up at Wheaton College. He became the first full-time evangelist for Youth for Christ. This spiritual team effort that began with youth was the beginning of one of the greatest moves of God in the 20th century. From this came mass revival, crusades, the rebirth, the personal soul winning. It fueled literally the growth of Sunday school in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and literally millions were saved just under the ministry of Billy Graham that was literally birthed out of a desire from one man whose family had experienced the 100 year revival from Connecticut.

And it all started with just a few individuals. God will pour water on him that is thirsty. And I'll say this, listen, we don't have to be everybody else, and we're not against anybody else, but if any church in this area oughta be thirsty, it's Kerwin Baptist Church. We've seen revival, we've experienced it, we've felt it. And over time, we lose our thirst.

This is a reminder. God said I'll pour water on him that is thirsty. Number two, Isaiah says God talks about literally a man that is thirsty. Number two, he talks about ground that is dry. God said I will pour water on him that is thirsty, but notice what he says secondly, and floods upon the dry ground. Say well preacher, that's pretty much the same thing, and I'm here to beg you that it's not the same thing.

If it was the same thing, God wouldn't have said it. You see, dry ground needs more than a little bit of water. When ground gets dry and parched and cracked, it needs more than a sprinkle or a light rain.

Can I have an amen right there? Listen to me, dry ground needs an overabundance. Dry ground needs some flooding.

Dry ground needs an outpouring. And God said a man that's thirsty, I'll pour water on him, but I'll tell you what I can do. This dry ground that has slowly dried and become cracked and parched, like many of our churches, like many of our families, God said listen, if you get thirsty, if you get to where you desire me, I will literally give water to you, but I can flood dry ground.

I don't know about you. Some of us are walking on dry ground. And we've let it dry up. And here's what happens, we have one emotional service. We get a little bit excited at a song or we like a little something that the preacher says and we think that that's gonna fix everything. But when we've let our ground get dry, we need a flood. Listen to me, when our ground gets dry, we don't need just a normal Sunday morning to go on with life, we need time in God's house.

We need repentance, we need praying, we need calling on God, we need to change some things at the house. Dry ground needs a whole lot more than a little water. And God said, guess what I do? I flood the dry grounds. You don't have to turn back to it, but chapter 41 that I had read, he said literally, I will make the wilderness a pool of water. Do you know how much water that takes?

To make a pool out of an entire wilderness? That's nothing to God. If we just want it, he'll do it. Number three, he talks about seeds that are fruitless. I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground, and I will pour my spirit upon thy seed. Now, a lot of people would say, well, he's talking about our next generation. No, he talks about the next generation in the next phrase. You have to understand something.

Listen to me, I want you to get this. Have you gotten to the point in your life that you really desire to bear fruit? Have you planted or scattered seed, but just don't feel that you're seeing fruit?

Is there anybody else like that sometimes? Feel like you're working and you're doing and you feel like you're just treading water, you're not seeing results and you're being faithful, but Lord, I keep doing this and I keep teaching this and I keep running this route and I keep helping here in the Awana class and I keep doing this and I keep teaching this Sunday School class, but God, I just don't see you doing anything and I don't see any fruit. And this is what God said, sometimes your seed, we will scatter it, but what we need to make it grow is the Holy Spirit of God. Listen to me, what makes fruit grow is the power of the Holy Spirit. And you and I can be busy scattering seed, but if we don't have the power of the Holy Spirit in our life, we will not see fruit.

That's why we can have service after service after service and nothing changes. That's why we can do a ministry and do a ministry and do a ministry and can't see any fruit because the Holy Spirit is lacking. Now, am I getting loud? Am I getting too intense for you this morning? I'm just a bit passionate because I need this.

Maybe if you don't, just nap, whatever you need to do, but let me get this out for me. Dear friend, I'm all for loving people and being kind and generous. You know, I don't preach on a bunch of junk.

I just don't do it, but I will call it as I see it. And I believe that you and I need to get a little bit more thirsty. And I believe you and I can be so busy, but we can lack the presence of the Holy Spirit in the things that we do. And if the Holy Spirit is missing or lacking, we will not bear the fruit that we could bear. And I don't know about you, if we're, good Lord.

Who put that there, anyway. If I would have fallen, you would have really laughed. I know you would have. It would have been like this, oh, and then laughter.

I know it would have happened. Soon as I got back up, okay, we can laugh now. Listen to me, if we're gonna work and if we're gonna put the time in and if we're gonna be involved, why not have the Holy Spirit's power upon it so we can see some fruit? There's people all around that are working hard, but seeing no fruit. And God said, when you're thirsty, I'll pour water. And when you're on dry ground, I can flood it if you want me to. And I can literally pour my spirit on your seed. Number four, He speaks of generations that are blessed. Remember, God's talking to the people that He created, that He constructed, that He's committed to, and He's chosen.

Look at what He says. I love this. And my blessing upon thine offspring. God said, I can do that.

Look at me, think about this. You get thirsty, God pours water on you. And the more you begin as people see that, all of a sudden we realize the ground is dry too. And God floods that. And as the water now has returned and the ground is now fertile, we need to start throwing out seed everywhere we can. But without the Holy Spirit, we'll never see fruit and it won't grow. Do you see how it goes from one person to more people to fruit? And God said this, that literally, if you'll get thirsty for me, it can end up to the point that I'll bless your offspring.

That means we're not just in this for us, folks. We got another generation coming up. And we better get thirsty, or they're gonna grow up in a dry and thirsty land.

But if you and I get thirsty, God begins to flood this dry ground. But I got three boys that I want them to experience, to understand, to begin to get a taste, and from them to crave a real, genuine move of the Holy Spirit of God. We can't, as parents, sit back and say, well, let's see if the youth pastor can make them thirsty. Well, my kids have a bad attitude. It must be the church's fault.

Oh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You know, your kids spend more time at school than they do at church, but the church gets blamed. Do you know they spend more time at your house than they do at school, and somehow, the school and church get blamed?

Can we just get real? It's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. And if I get thirsty, it'll make my family thirsty. And if my family gets thirsty, and God begins to pour waters, it's gonna make my friends thirsty. And if my friends get thirsty, then my church is gonna get thirsty.

And that's how it spreads. But it starts with one man getting thirsty. And God said, if you do, I will, I will, I will, I will. All you gotta do is get thirsty for me. And I don't know about you, whatever God's doing in my life recently, I'm getting thirstier. I'm getting tired of vain repetitions. I'm getting tired of just going through tradition, just going through something. I want to see real.

I want to see something that the Holy Spirit is all over it. You agree with that? Can I challenge you today, are you thirsty? It's a fair question. God said, I'll pour water on him that is thirsty. Lord, I love you. And Lord, as we read of great revivals that have swept through as a result of just a few people getting thirsty. God, would you somehow touch the hearts of our people to get a thirst, a longing for you? Not church as usual. Not ministry as usual.

Not a Wednesday night as usual and a Sunday morning as usual or Sunday night as usual. And Lord, I'm preaching to one of the greatest churches I've ever been around. I'm preaching to a church that is faithful, that we are here three times a week, that they are busy and they are giving. But God, if we became thirsty, imagine what you could do through us.

Oh dear Lord, please. It's still you, you have the same power, you have the same ability, you have the same requirements and we just believe you can do it again. But God, we have to get thirsty. And Lord, we're just not thirsty for you anymore. We're thirsty for so many other things that the world has to offer. But God, make us thirsty for you. Because all those things just make us more thirsty and more discontent and more unhappy.

But when we get thirsty for you, you pour water on us. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kirtland broadcast today. God bless you. We'll see you next time.