The Miracle Well

Greeting

I want to put in a real plug for next Wednesday night, which is our Youth-led service. This will be a monthly event. We want to support and lift up and give opportunity to these awesome students of ours.

I was at a Men’s Conference some time ago, and the man preaching said something that has forever stayed with me: “I have decided firmly in myself that I am going to love my family to greatness.”

That stuck with me, about my own family; my wife and my daughter. But I believe it applies to these students: we are going to love them to greatness.

Don’t hover and shelter and keep from danger. 

Love to the point they can soar. 

Feel the responsibility of that. 

That’s what we want to do with these students. And they are doing great things and the future is bright!

Text

Psalm 51:1–3 NKJV

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.

Psalm 51:4–6 NKJV

4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Psalm 51:7–9 NKJV

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.

Psalm 51:10–13 NKJV

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.

Isaiah 12:1–3 NKJV

1 And in that day you will say: “O Lord, I will praise You; Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’ ” 3 Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.

TITLE: “THE MIRACLE WELL”

Sermon

Psalm 51 Background

You know when you ain’t done right!

When one of our dogs messes up, they know what’s coming - and they bail out of there!

When Anna doesn’t do right - she knows that she’s going to hear about it.

When Bro. Ryan doesn’t do right… Sis. Kierstin has a particular look about her!

You know when you’ve messed up.

David, in Psalm 51, knew that he had not done right. The prophet Nathan had told him such.

He begins pouring, out of the depths of his soul, a Psalm that expressed the despair of being sinful, along with the right way to repent and come out of it!

After he speaks to God about “purging” him and “giving him a clean heart” and “renewing a right spirit” within him, he says:

Psalm 51:11 NKJV

11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

To David, being removed from the presence of God… WOULD BE DEVASTATING! He had watched it happen with others. He had seen the life play out of the one who dealt carelessly with the holy things of God.

Somewhere in your spirit - there needs to be a hefty conviction: “I’ve got to be in His presence EVERY DAY!”

The JOY of Salvation

But then… David says:

Psalm 51:12 NKJV

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

David is shifting toward RESTORATION. He wishes to be restored.

But I want you to pay attention to what he is petitioning God for, here. He is not merely asking for God to restore his salvation. He says, the JOY of his salvation!

Throughout Scripture, salvation and joy are paired together very often.

In another Psalm of David:

Psalm 16:10–11 KJV 1900

10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Jesus said:

John 15:11 NKJV

11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 17:13 NKJV

13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.

And Paul said this:

Romans 14:17 KJV 1900

17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

There is a JOY that comes naturally in the Holy Ghost that is sometimes unexplainable (joy unspeakable). We know that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians.

And this is not to say that a Holy Ghost-filled person is always happy or always laughing or always tickity-boo. BUT - joy IS a fruit of the Spirit. And so, if we are full of the Holy Ghost as we should be, joy will be the natural byproduct of that and it will be our default!

Why does all of this matter? I’ll tell you why!

Some of you may remember a time when your walk with God was much stronger than you can say it is now. Prayer. Worship. Time in the Word. 

There was a joy of your salvation. And if David was saying he needed his joy to be restored, then that means that somewhere along the way, it had been lost! 

But the good news is, IT CAN BE RESTORED! 

Psalm 51:12 NKJV

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

And I just believe that there are some here today who, in fact, need the joy of your salvation RESTORED! 

I’m telling you: it’s time to GET IT BACK.

This is not something you can simply wait around on for it to fall back in place on its own. This is not something that you can afford to wait until the right service or preacher or season of your life! GET IT BACK NOW! 

The Miracle Well

And then, importantly tonight, I want to draw your attention to this verse:

Isaiah 12:3 NKJV

3 Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.

It’s one thing to just draw normal water from a well. You need it. It’s a chore. It’s necessary. Not really a lot of joy in that. It’s just routine and it’s just life. 

But when you draw waters from a well of salvation, EVERY TIME, IT’S A MIRACLE. BECAUSE THAT WATER SHOULDN’T BE THERE.

Therefore, we draw with joy! 

You may need to open your eyes up and look down at the well that you’ve been drawing from for some years now! It’s been there all along! He’s sustained you day by day! But your joy hasn’t always been there! 

GET IT BACK!

Remember Your Salvation

“Nobody Like Jesus” by Chicago Mass Choir:

“Early one Sunday morning a thought came in my mind, where would I be if the Lord Himself had never turn back the time. I would still be lost in the state that I was in, if the hand of God would’ve never come along and brought me out of sin. But when the devil thought he had me, I sure got away. And as a result of my gratitude, there’s one thing I can say: Lord I thank you for, for your loving grace. Lord I thank you for, new mercies every day…”

You need to think about: Where would I be??? And how should I respond???

God wants to ignite a fire back in you today! Get it back and turn loose in God! 

Plus, Pro, Max Marketing

There’s Plus. There’s Pro. And there’s Max. We need to god Max!!! There’s a lot of things we get ourselves invested in that are very trivial and very temporary. But my life needs to show that it’s been lived for something eternal!

Why live for things that aren’t going to last?! Go Max!!! Max on faith! Max on prayer! Max on your church!

Conclusion

Why Joy? Why Now?

Paul and Silas

Acts 16:25–34 KJV 1900

25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. 34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

God is now responding to your worship here in the prison. Why now?

You went door knocking and no one came to church.

You have family problems and marriage issues and your job isn’t going well and you been sick… it seems all hell is breaking my loose and you don’t know why God has put you in this prison!

But the revelation to get today is that HE PUT YOU IN THE PRISON BECAUSE THERE’S A REVIVAL IN THIS PRISON! He put you there because there’s someone that you can relate to and reach out to and they are depending on your worship right now!

So, yes! I can have joy even in the prisons of life - because the overflow of that joy is getting ready to loose somebody else instantly! Something is getting ready to shift QUICKLY!

WALK IN JOY! Don’t walk in negativity! Don’t walk in condemnation!

By government rules, we’re not even supposed to walk into a condemned building - you shouldn’t live a condemned life!

Leave it at the altar! Make up your mind: I’m not staying this way!

I’ve come to get my worship BACK!

I’ve come to get my peace BACK!

I’ve come to get my joy and my life BACK!

Somebody - GET IT BACK! IT’S TIME FOR SOME PERSONAL REVIVAL!!!