Why are you still thirsty?

Let's go now to the word of the Lord, I would like you to look in the book of John, Chapter 4. Let me pray before going any further.

God we thank you once again for the blessing that we have to be able to go now and enter into a mediation, Lord, that has life because it is a life that comes from you, Lord. Words that come out of my mouth will only be words, but when those words are anointed and covered by your spirit, Lord, they have the potential to do great things, not because of one's merit as a preacher, but because of yours Jesus, because you are who brings life to the hearts that receive those words. So right now, Lord, I place myself in your hands and may this word, Lord, be a blessing to my brothers and sisters and bring them directly to the center of you, to the center of your life, Jesus. Thanks God. Amen. Amen.

Well, brothers, it is very interesting to be here today and share with you after all that has happened throughout this week. I imagine that many of you have had the opportunity to eat with relatives, some of you took advantage of last Friday, how many got up very early last Friday? Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you what you did wrong or something like that. How many got up very early?, and perhaps not necessarily to pray, but to take advantage of the specials that were happening in the..... let's see, how many dare to raise their hands for that? Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you that you are in a sin or anything like that, so don't worry.

But it is very interesting, I think that this stage of the year is a very interesting stage because one begins to transition from one stage to another. Some of us began to... that time of thanksgiving began to enter us into everything that this holiday season is, for many, and time with the family, and sharing, and eating a good meal with friends, giving gifts, buy, buy, buy and buy.

For many that is what this type of season means. But I would like to try to focus once again on something much more important that surrounds this entire season. Not just something, but rather, someone that encompasses this entire season. And that someone is found in the person of Christ Jesus. Just like our brother Jessie was saying, when one talks about God's mercy it can be a very emotional subject, because one starts to think to oneself, wow, all the things for which he has brought me and I see how that mercy has been working active One has to have a heart of stone not to cry. I believe that even hearts of stone break when God's mercy truly comes into our lives. It is something that cannot be resisted. So, brother Jessie, we understand when you feel that emotion and that passion. We're with you, my brother.

John, Chapter 4, verse 5, thus says the word of the Lord: “...So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, next to the inheritance that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, tired from the journey, sat like this by the well. It was about the sixth hour, -good Spanish, some understand that this was about noon- Suddenly a woman from Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, 'give me a drink', because his disciples had gone to the city to buy to eat. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'how can you, being a Jew, ask me to drink that I am a Samaritan woman?' –because Jews and Samaritans do not get along- Jesus answered and said to her, 'if you only knew the gift of God –and I do an emphasis on that phrase, if you knew the gift of God- and who is it that tells you, give me a drink, you would ask him and he would give you living water. The woman told him, Lord, you don't have anything to draw it out with and the well is deep. Where then do you have the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well from which he, his sons and his cattle drank?"

And to that question I return and I put that phrase 'if you knew, if you knew the gift of God.' I am sure, brothers, that many, most of all of us know it inside out, from beginning to end, we know it, we have heard it in many ways, but while I was reflecting on this passage, something struck me that I hadn't come across before.

We know from the telling of the story, Jesus was leaving Jerusalem because the Pharisees were plotting some sort of plot against him, when they started to say, oh, Jesus is making more disciples than John the Baptist was making. And that kind of comment was causing people to start paying more attention to the person of Jesus than before, but Jesus knew that that attention could bring him a kind of fame which he wasn't looking for.

And so To avoid that, Jesus decides to leave Jerusalem in the direction of Galilee, and to get to Galilee he had to go through the town of Samaria. And in this story it is then where we find this conversation between Jesus and this Samaritan woman.

See Jesus who is there present next to this well and this woman approaches and Jesus intentionally tells her, woman, give me a glass of water, or give me a cup of water or a jug of water, what whatever you have And the woman quickly confronted him, but how is it possible that you are going to ask me this, if you Jews and us Samaritans don't get along.

But something that caught my attention about this is that this woman, although she was from Samaria, had knowledge of the Jewish people that perhaps many of us are not aware of, and this is that this woman recognizes Jacob like his father too. The well where Jesus was sitting is known to be Jacob's well, one of the wells that Jacob himself planted out of the many that he had inherited at the same time.

Now, I don't know how many of us will be aware of something that is happening behind this story and that is something that I want to share with you, because that story of Jacob's well made me think of something. that I had not seen before. And it is the mere fact that that Jacob's well showed a promise from God to that offspring that was coming out of Jacob.

Who was Jacob's dad? Let's see, to you who have gone through discipleship: Isaac, right? And who was Isaac's dad? Abraham.

In a story in Genesis, Chapter 26, there is a story that every time I read it catches my attention. In Genesis Chapter 26, and if you want to look it up you can feel free to do so. Genesis Chapter 26, we see Isaac beginning to settle in the land of Abimelech and Isaac at that time had already received a promise from God, and it was a promise that he had first received from his father.

What was the promise that God gave to Abraham? I will multiply you, I will make your offspring like the stars of the heavens, like the sand that is in the sea, and I will distribute all this land to you and your offspring. Wherever you go I will be with you and I will prosper you. That was the promise that God gave Abraham and do you know when that happened? When Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac, however, God stopped him. That gesture was the one that started a chain of promise that was going to be carried out throughout that entire generation.

And that promise comes to Isaac. It's the same promise to him. I am going to extend your descendants. I will prosper you wherever you go and I will distribute this land to you and all your descendants. And it is very interesting because that land was often measured by the material possessions that they could have. And in this passage from Genesis, Chapter 26, we see Isaac enter into a time of contention with the people who dwelt in King Abimelech's land.

Look, for example, at verse 12, verse 26, it says: “.... and Isaac sowed in that land and reaped that year a hundredfold and the Lord blessed him. The man grew rich and prospered and grew until he became very powerful”

Verse 15 says: “...and all the wells that the servants of Abraham his father had dug in his days, the Philistines had mowed them down and filled them with earth, then Abimelech said to Isaac, get away from us because you have become much more powerful than us. And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there and Isaac digged up the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, and which the Philistines had mowed down after the death of Abraham, and he called them by the names their father had called them.”

But look at the interesting part”... But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of springing water, the herdsmen of that area of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen saying, the water is ours –because perhaps it was on their land- that is why he called the name of the well Esek because they had quarreled with it.”

Esek is another word for lawsuit, there was a lawsuit there. Then, verse 21, “....then they dug another well and they also quarreled over it and he called its name Sitna –which is also a name similar to that kind of lawsuit, there was an argument there between Isaac, his servants and the inhabitants of that land-.....and then Isaac withdrew from there and dug another well and they did not quarrel over it and he called his name Rehoboth and said because now the Lord has prospered us and we will be fruitful in the land."

This story was so interesting to me, my brothers, because although Isaac had a promise from God that God was going to prosper him, that God was going to be with him, that God was going to multiply his offspring, there was a part that Isaac also had to do. There was a job he had to do. It is like saying, God, if you have given me a blessing, it does not mean that I have to sit and wait for that blessing to come to me, but that I have to do my part.

Isaac went and worked, he sought to work with the sweat of his brow, the labor of his hands, the pain on his hill, but in the midst of that action, those were the actions that God was blessing and thriving. But even in the midst of all these things, Isaac encountered conflicts along the way, people who wanted to take what he had managed to achieve, and they fought, they quarreled against those things. Because? Because he was fighting for God's blessing. Those material things, that well of water meant a sense of survival.

The water was what provided life, not only for them but also for their cattle, also for the crops that they could sow. The water was what kept all those things moving. They were material things that could be touched and measured, but Isaac knew that behind all those things there was a promise from God that was over his life. Isaac was willing to fight and move and seek until he got those things that would allow his life to be preserved for all those who came after him, and after him, those wells were inherited then, by whom? Jacob, his son Jacob.

After Jacob, if you keep looking at the whole chronology, my brothers, and believe me I'm going to come to a point with this, it's very important that we understand. If one looks at all this chronology, from Abraham to Isaac, from Isaac to Jacob, from Jacob, who was one of his sons who made a very big impact on the people of Israel? Joseph was the one who, as they say, helped them settle in the land of Egypt.

Hundreds of years passed after that and who was the next leader to rise up after Joseph? Moses. Moses was the one who took the people of Israel to another level and from there different leaders continued to rise. The people of Israel went into exile. They were exiled to other lands and there the Jews mixed with other nations, with other ethnic groups. When they are supposed not to have done it, more nevertheless they did.

And do you know what the people of Samaria are, if we go back to the passage from John? The Samaritans were a group of Jews who had mixed with other pagan tribes as well. That was the Samaritans, that is why when this woman dares to say, our father Jacob, she also identifies her as part of her descendants who were Jewish. It was a Jewish descent that was mixed with another type of ethnic group that they had been in.

And that is why there was a fight then with the Samaritans and with the Jews. Because the Jews saw the Samaritans as a hybrid race, so to speak, not pure, because it was mixed with another and they could not receive them then. The Jews were concentrating on their worship in Jerusalem and so the Samaritans decided to make a temple, an altar in that area of Gerizim where they could worship in the way they understood they should do.

That's what's behind all this lawsuit. And that promise of God, my brothers, look how interesting, that promise of God continued, continued throughout all those generations. What happens is that in the generation of this Samaritan woman, or of that Samaritan people, that promise had been diluted with many things that had contaminated the mind, the emotions, the beliefs of that particular group. His mix was so, as I can say, it was such a mix, I'm not going to say mixed but I already said it, it was such a diverse mix that the promises that those patriarchs brought were diluted throughout all those generations until he arrived the point where this woman met Jesus.

And look how we can start to connect the dots. God only asked for a simple glass of water, but that glass of water was like a hook to go to something much greater. Jesus knew where he was. Jesus knew that he was at Jacob's well. And that phrase of Jesus, 'if you knew the gift of God'.

Look at that verse 10, “if you knew the gift of God and who it is that tells you to give me a drink, you would ask him and he would give you living water”. Look how the woman answers Jesus: "Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us this well from which he, his sons, and his cattle drank?"

I imagine that when Jesus heard that question, he must have gone 'ehm', 'if you only knew'. ‘If you knew that I was the one with your father, Jacob, when he was sleeping with his head on a rock, and he saw a ladder coming down from heaven, angels coming down, angels going up. And it was I who gave him the promise, it was I who spoke to your father, Jacob, the promise that God was going to be with him, that God was going to prosper his offspring, that God was the one who He was going to extend his entire generation like the stars in the sky and like every grain of sand. If you only knew, woman.

But obviously Jesus didn't want to kick himself in the chest, so he left him alone. But I want to direct our attention, my brothers, to that phrase, because I wonder if we ourselves understand this too. There is a big difference between me saying, if I knew, and me saying, if you knew.

Tell the person next to you, if you knew. What does that imply, brethren, if you only knew? We usually use that phrase when what? Someone is laughing, look, shsh, if you only knew what happened! Oh boy, if you only knew how much food so-and-so ate at so-and-so's table. If you knew who was the one who asked for the neck of the turkey. Oh, if you only knew.

If you knew comes from knowing. Knowing is the mere fact of having knowledge, of having information. That is what the I could say implies, if you only knew. And Jesus was not interested in transmitting to this woman a mere knowledge or a mere fact of information. What Jesus said to this woman was, if you knew the gift of God.

And there is a very big difference because I say, if you knew. What does that imply? Not only experience, that also implies your knowing someone. When you ask him, look, do you know so-and-so or so-and-so. What does that imply? It's if you personally know the person, if you've been able to shake their hand, or if you've been able to give the person a hug, right? That is what knowing implies, it is not only that I have information recorded in my mind, but that I personally have had an encounter with that person, I have been able to shake their hand, I have been able to speak with that person face to face. That is what it means to know.

How do I get to this? Look, for example, in the verse, the conversation between Jesus and this Samaritan woman, let's call her Elena, just in case. There's no one here named Elena, right? Okay. Elena and Jesus were talking, look at what he says in verse 19:

Elena told him “... Lord, it seems to me that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain – once again, look at the word he uses, our fathers. She continues to identify with the people of Israel when referring to her parents. And who were the parents? Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Those were the parents. And she said, our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place to worship.

This woman was talking about information that she had in her mind that had been passed down from one generation to the next. However, what Jesus wanted was to bring him living knowledge. What Jesus wanted to do was resume once more, revive once more, that promise that had been given to those patriarchs of the people of Israel. That was what Jesus was doing. He was taking that promise and bringing a totally new revelation to this people that for many seemed to be a people rejected by the rest of the people of Israel, but Jesus was bringing this people once again to that promise of a generation that was leaving. to multiply, a generation that was to conquer, to fill the rest of the whole earth.

And in that promise, brothers, where I see that Jesus says to this woman, he says to her, woman if you knew the gift of God, if you knew that gift of God, if you knew that the God's promises are a gift to you. Every promise from God is a gift. Do you know why? Because a gift is something new, it's like it gives me hope that someone loves me, that someone cares about me, that someone is watching over me, and to show that care that person has, they give me something. And I appreciate that kind of gesture.

It's the same with a promise when God spoke with a promise to his people, he was letting them know, this is my gift to you. I am promising you a long life. I am promising a long life to each of you. That is what Jesus was doing with this woman when he told her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, give me a drink, you would ask him and he would give you living water.

A verse later Jesus responded and said to him, “....anyone who drinks from this water from the well will thirst again, but whoever drinks from the water that I give him, what does he say? He will never thirst, but the water that I will give him will be in him or her a spring of water that springs up to eternal life.

Did you see what the promise looks like? Which begins to be revealed in a new way here. God had revealed to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, I am going to give you a long life, it is going to be demonstrated in your descendants, they are going to conquer the whole earth, and that is how I am going to bless you. And he was talking about a long life here on earth, but nevertheless the promise that is given to each one of us now in Jesus, is not just a long life here on earth, but it is a life that lasts forever. the eternity. That is the promise that is given to us now, that is the promise that Jesus was revealing to this woman, that it is not about the time that one lives here on earth but about God's time and how one lives for eternity in God.

That is the kind of revelation that Jesus was bringing there at that moment and you know what, my brothers? That is the kind of revelation that Jesus continues to bring to each of our lives today. Today, my brothers, God continues to bring that type of revelation to us through his son Jesus, in the midst of each one of us.

You know why. I start to think, trying to see how the images of this entire passage can be applied here to us now. I imagine how we, like this woman routinely or habitually, come here to this place, to this temple, to this building, we come to this building to draw water. We come here to this building to draw water, we come with our pitchers, we arrive, we put the rope on it, we throw it around, waiting for it to fill with water, we take it out and when we take it out we go back to our houses and then maybe the that they come on Wednesdays, well they come on Wednesdays. We return again, we pour the pitcher, we draw water, and we return once more to our houses. And then we usually have to go back one more time to dump our pitchers, pour water on them, fill them up again and come back one more time.

But if you realize what I am saying, my brothers, I am saying, a habitual gesture. Like what this woman was doing. As this woman continued to live off the water that was in this well, what happened? He was thirsty again, and since he was thirsty again, what was he to do? He went back to draw water again, as usual, as something routine, he had to return once more. It was a cycle that kept repeating and repeating and repeating.

But it wasn't until he met Jesus Christ that the story changed completely. And that is, my brothers, what I want to bring our attention to now because there are times when I wonder, and I am not pointing at anyone, that the droplet that gets wet falls, but there are times that I wonder, how many times do we we come to this building, we come to this temple, and look at the words I'm using. I'm not saying church, I'm saying temple, I'm saying building. Because we think that the mere fact of coming here is nothing more than that, I'm already coming to look for water for the rest of my days and that's where it's all over. I continue living the rest of my days, for the whole week and then when Wednesday comes, or when Sunday comes, well, I come back again with my pitcher on my back and I draw water once more.

But what difference does it make when we come to this building on a regular basis, looking for a solution that can satisfy an internal thirst, when I come to this building looking for something that can give my life a new meaning of life.

And I am not saying that this is bad, what I am saying is that when we come here, what is the true source of water from which we are nourishing ourselves, brothers? What is the true source of water to which we come with our jugs to be able to fill ourselves completely?

It is one thing for me to be able to believe with the mere fact that I come here on Sundays and my problems are going to be solved. Another thing is when I recognize that I come before the presence of the one who is the true resource of that water. That source of living water that can sprout in me in an endless way, in a continuous way. When I come to that resource, when I come there, to that person of Jesus, that's when my life truly finds a sense of direction that I didn't have before.

And that was what Jesus did with this woman, brothers. Jesus brought this woman a sense of direction that her life had not had before. Jesus reminded this woman of a sense of promise that she had not experienced before, a promise that over the years lost its value, lost its strength, and now she was living in a routine, she was not living in a routine. genuine experience. However, what Jesus was doing in that meeting was saying, look, this is the true meaning of the promise. Today that promise that was given to your parents is face to face with you and I bring you not only life that can last in all your days here on earth, but a life that can last for much longer than the life that you can have here.

The best gift, brothers, if we truly knew that gift of God. I am not saying that we do not know it. If we know you, for example, last Wednesday, brothers, when we were here in our Thanksgiving service, we had the opportunity to hear testimonies from different people about how God has worked in their lives, incredible healing testimonies that I myself when I listened to them I shuddered when I heard it. People who have been healed of cancer, people who, when they thought they were not going to find a job, found it; people who have received housing; all because they have trusted in God and because they have known how to reach that resource where all things come from.

And when I listened to those testimonies I said to myself, this is what it is about, this is what it is really about. It is not only about the material benefits that I can receive from God, but about how I can experience the true power of God working in my life. That goes above, my brothers, it goes above any material resource that I may have in my life or in your life. That is where it has to do, in us being able to know that gift of God.

If we could truly know that gift of God that I do not come here to this building for wanting to know that resource that can only provide for my physical and material needs and that once I already have all those things Well, then I disappear from the planet because I no longer need. That is a person who has not known the gift of God.

On Wednesday night we were also reflecting on the passage of the ten lepers when they met Jesus from a distance and from a distance they shouted at him, Jesus, have mercy on us, please heal us. In a gesture of faith, Jesus told them, go and show yourselves before the priest so that he can confirm that you are truly healthy. And truly in a gesture of faith the ten left believing in the word of Jesus. And as they were walking their skin was completely healed. More, what does the story say? Only one, only one came back and fell on his knees before Jesus. Only one had the opportunity to truly know the gift of God. That one was the one who took the privilege, the best gift that not only his skin has been cleansed, but that his entire life had found salvation. That is what makes the difference between those who know and those who know.

That is the real difference between those who know and those who know. Many know, many know, many know of God from up here. But few know God from inside here. And that is the best gift that we can give, brothers. But for us to give it we have to know it first.

I want to invite each one of you brothers, I am trying to make a very big effort here not to really break myself, because I want you to receive this message. God wants you to know that true gift. It doesn't matter how many years you have been coming here to this place. No matter how many years you have been walking in the footsteps of the Lord, there is always something new to learn about this wonderful gift from God. There is always something new that our lives can receive so that we can then give.

The Samaritan woman, Elena, received living water and did not keep it, she shared it with others. And those others came to know that gift of God and their life was not the same.

Today, my brothers, I want to share this with you, I want to share Christ Jesus with you. There is no thanksgiving special that can get you the happiness and fulfillment that only Christ can give you. There is no line in a box that can satisfy more than the line of me being able to stand before God to receive a hug and a touch from him.

That is a row that I am willing to do, no matter how long it is. And that is what I want to offer you, brothers, in this time in which we are. Look closely, brothers, Jesus is the well of living water that you need. Just as it happened to Isaac who had lawsuits to be able to keep those wells open, but nevertheless they were covered with sand once more, and he kept moving from place to place until he could open a well that could supply his entire family. You know what? In the same way, situations around your life will try to cover and sink the well of water that Christ has placed there, they will try to cover that well of water, but you keep moving, keep looking, keep touching, keep asking for that that well of water can remain open and that you can experience that water of life that only flows from Jesus.

Guess what? I need that water of life. As a pastor, I need that water of life and I am not saying that I am wrong, but as a person I need that water of life that is constantly flowing in me. I recognize that I alone do not have the strength to do everything. I need God.

And I invite you, my brother, this morning if you want to taste that water of life one more time, today that well can open up in your life. Today you can know the best gift that God can give to any man or to any woman.

So I want to invite you today, if you have not known that gift, if you have never made the decision to know that gift, I invite you today to make this moment that opportunity where you you can know that gift. I invite you to raise your hand wherever you are, if you had not done so before you can raise your hand and say, I want to know that gift of God.

What's more, I'm going to invite you to do something else. I imagine Jesus sitting on the edge of that well saying, if only you knew the true gift of God.

Brothers, this is where we truly stop being who we are and deliver everything we are into your hands. Jesus revealed the condition of that woman, what prevents us from hiding who we truly are in front of him? Nothing. Nothing.

Jesus knows what you did yesterday, what you did this morning, what you are going to do tomorrow, Jesus already knows. In the midst of all these things he continues to offer living water. I invite you, my brother, my sister, if you want to taste once more that water of life, I invite you to come here, that you join me, that we can say, Lord, I want that water of life. I want to renew that water of life once more in my heart.

And if you want to do it for the first time in your life, I invite you to leave behind everything that prevents you from truly receiving that touch that can transform your being. Leave it behind. Come and run to meet him. Come and run to meet him, the only one who can truly quench everything that is in your being.

Man, you listen to me, I talk to you too. If you knew the gift of God. If you knew how powerful your life can be when your life is truly in the hands of the one who formed you, of the one who created you. If you knew and knew everything that God can do through you.

We would be one of the first to run here and give ourselves completely to him. If we only knew.

Woman, if you also knew, if you knew that gift of God and how that gift of God can transform your being completely, and the vitality that it can bring to your being so that you become a well of living water also for others, for others.

Young man who listens to me, you who are in university or who are in school, if you knew that gift of God and how that gift of God can make you an instrument of grace, an instrument of mercy, an instrument of restoration, there in those schools, in that university where you are.

Or your young professional who works in an office day after day, if you only knew that gift from God, that can make you an impact in that environment where you work. If we only knew.

Lord Jesus, your people are before you right now, both those of us who are sitting here and those of us who are standing here at this altar. Jesus you want us to know you. There are new dimensions of you to know at every moment, why are we going to settle for what little we have. Why do we insist, Lord, on making our lives a habit, a ritual so monotonous at times, when we know that it is your Lord who can bring a new adventure, Lord, every day, God, every hour, every minute that passes , you are the one who can bring a new adventure, Jesus.

Jesus, I ask you that our hearts do not harden, that our hearts do not become like stones, Lord, due to the different circumstances in which we go through, Lord, that many of them are fleeting, trivial, Sir, and many if they are of great importance.

Oh, Lord, if only we could know how you can act in the midst of those situations and not only when things are going wrong, but also when things are going well for us. How can we know a new dimension from you when things look peaceful around us, when everything seems normal, when everything seems to be falling into place, Jesus.

Do not allow, Lord, that... do not allow, Lord, that we only seek your direction only when we are in need. Do not let us fall into that circle, Lord, so often so wrong, but allow, God, that we can live in that living water that only you give, that living water that only, Lord, can be experienced when we are in a constant relationship vital with you, Lord, a relationship in which we know your love in a new dimension, in a new way, at every moment, Lord, a love, Lord, that material possessions around us can never, never replace it, but you are only you, Lord, the one who maintains, Lord, that life running in our midst.

Jesus, you are the center of our lives. Lord, please forgive us when we lose focus, when we lose our north. Forgive us, Lord, when we keep coming to a well that only gives water that can supply for minutes. Forgive us Lord, when we do not make you the central axis of our lives, the only one that truly brings meaning and direction to what we can be.

Jesus, please pour your living water on us, pour your water on us on your sons and daughters here today. Be born again in us and may that water, Lord, heal and restore our entire being, Jesus. Quench our thirst for you, Jesus. There are so many things that we can do outside, there are so many works that we can do with our hands, but all these things remain null when you are not in the midst of each one of them. Return us to you, Lord. Return us to you once more.

Cleanse our lives, Jesus. To my brothers and sisters who are here at the altar, give them that water of life, Jesus, that water that only comes from you. You are the water of life, Jesus. You are the living water that you can take away with a torrent, Lord, all those ugliness of our lives, Lord, you can take them away, Lord, completely, that living water can come like some gates of a dam that open and They destroy, Lord, with all the rubble that they can see. And at the same time it can be that river, Lord, that flows in a fluid, smooth way, Lord, and brings healing, brings restoration, brings peace, brings relief, that brings fruit, Lord.

Father, please, allow your water today to do those things of cleansing our being of all sin, of any obstacle that may be in us that can be completely removed with those fresh waters of yours and that at the same time our being can be rejuvenated by you, Lord. Rejuvenate our lives and that now that we are heading towards Christmas, Lord, let us be clear, Lord, that you are, you are Christmas, Lord. You are the author and consummator of those things that we celebrate today, you are the one, you are the promise that is behind all those things and we are a people who live according to those promises, Lord.

Our hope is based on that promise of eternal life and we thank you, Jesus, thank you for that eternal life that only you know how to give, that only you can give, Lord. Thank my Lord. Thank my Lord. Amen.