Discover Missions

Jul 19, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Water as Barrier and Blessing in the Wilderness

The wilderness tests our vision. Isaiah’s God parts seas to break barriers yet carves rivers in deserts to sustain life. What once drowned armies becomes the same element that revives jackals and owls. This paradox mirrors our calling: to discern when to dismantle obstacles and when to channel abundance. Just as desert dwellers learn to treasure weekly water, we’re invited to see scarcity and provision as two rhythms of the same faithful God. [52:59]

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people.” (Isaiah 43:19–20, ESV)

Reflection: Where has God removed a barrier in your life that once felt insurmountable? What “desert place” in your community is longing for the streams of His provision?

Day 2: When Holding On Becomes a Barrier

Fists clenched around comfort block the flow of grace. Like water tanks hoarding a week’s supply, we’re tempted to grip resources, time, or control until safety feels guaranteed. But the Jordanian pipes that only flowed once taught dependence, not lack. God asks us to release what we’ve stored—not when surplus feels easy, but when trust outweighs fear. Barriers crumble when open hands replace guarded hearts. [01:01:40]

“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7, ESV)

Reflection: What are you holding tightly today out of fear or self-reliance? How might releasing it create space for God’s unexpected provision?

Day 3: Pouring Out When Others Don’t Understand

Chocolate chip cookies in Jerusalem, Wednesday night church in Amman—these puzzled outsiders. Yet bewildered questions about “why” became bridges for the gospel. Bearing life often looks irrational: serving when unseen, giving when uncredited, loving when misunderstood. Like rain on a Middle Eastern balcony, joy comes not from practicality but obedience. The world notices when our actions defy its logic. [01:06:15]

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16, ESV)

Reflection: What faithful act have you hesitated to do because others might question it? How could that very action become a testimony?

Day 4: Christ’s Hands, Feet, and Eyes in the Desert

Saint Theresa’s charge stings and stirs: Christ has no hands but ours. When jackals honor God for desert streams, it’s because someone dug the well. Our eyes either overlook needs or fixate with compassion. Our feet retreat to comfort or march toward brokenness. Being His body means letting His priorities redirect our routines—whether teaching German, fixing leaks, or sitting in the rain to marvel at grace. [01:08:26]

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:9–10, ESV)

Reflection: Which part of Christ’s body—hands, feet, or eyes—is He asking you to actively embody this week? Where will you start?

Day 5: The Costly Generosity That Carries Living Water

True giving aches. It’s the widow’s mite, the missionary’s farewell, the budget withheld to fund local mission. Water that costs nothing quenches no spiritual thirst. But when we sacrifice—whether funds, time, or pride—we join Isaiah’s desert stream, turning wastelands into worship. Like Wednesday night laundry in Jordan, joy erupts when we pour out until it hurts, trusting the Source never runs dry. [01:02:20]

“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” (Proverbs 11:24–25, ESV)

Reflection: When has a costly act of generosity deepened your trust in God? What step could you take this week to “water” others sacrificially?

Sermon Summary

Isaiah brings God’s people back to the Exodus story, where the Lord made a way through the sea and broke the power of Pharaoh’s army. God took what stood as a wall of death and turned it into a path toward freedom. The water that could have been a barrier became the place where God showed his saving power.

The passage also says God is not finished doing that kind of work. God says, “I am doing a new thing,” and the new thing is water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Water becomes the big image here. When water blocks life, God removes it. When water is needed for life, God provides it. God gives so much life that even the jackals and the owls honor him, and his chosen people proclaim his praise.

The image of water lands differently when water is not always available. A life shaped in Jordan, where water came once a week and had to last for days, understands the joy of hearing the tanks fill. Water meant cleaning, drinking, laundry, plants, order, relief, and joy. So Isaiah’s promise is not just pretty language. It is life coming into dry places.

The question becomes simple and searching: what do actions say about who God’s people are? The contrast is between being a barrier and being a bearer of life. Barriers happen when God asks for release, but comfort is protected instead. Barriers happen when generosity waits until it no longer costs anything. Barriers happen when compassion is blocked by fear, convenience, or control.

The call to be bearers of life comes when God’s people trust that what is given is not lost. Service that nobody sees, time poured out when others do not understand, and love offered across cultures all become signs that Christ is not only believed in but embodied. The living water Isaiah speaks about is not meant to be held tight or released once a week. Christ calls his people to let it flow freely into the world.

The Great Commission then becomes more than a missions idea somewhere far away. The mission belongs to every follower of Jesus. Some are called across oceans, some across the country, and most right into workplaces, neighborhoods, homes, and ordinary relationships. The church is called to become a disciple-making people, to carry the gospel with conviction, generosity, and courage, and to support those who go while faithfully reaching the mission field right outside its own doors.

Key Takeaways

1. God removes and provides water Isaiah’s image holds both sides together: water can be a barrier, and water can be life. God is powerful enough to move what blocks his people, and generous enough to give what dry souls cannot produce for themselves. The same Lord who made a path through the sea also brings streams into the wasteland. [55:50]
2. Comfort can block compassion The barrier is not always open rebellion. Sometimes the barrier is a protected comfort zone, a delayed obedience, or a generosity that waits until nothing is really being risked. Compassion often begins at the point where convenience stops being in charge. [62:01]
3. What is given is not lost The logic of the kingdom says that what is placed in God’s hands is not wasted. Money, time, unseen service, and poured-out love become living water when Christ uses them for his glory. Hidden obedience may look small, but it can become a stream in somebody else’s wasteland. [63:01]
4. Christ is embodied through his people Faith is not meant to stay in the head as something merely believed. Christ looks with compassion through human eyes, walks toward need through human feet, and blesses the world through human hands. The church becomes a bearer of life when Christ is visible in ordinary acts of mercy. [68:07]
5. The mission is in every hand The Great Commission is not only for families who travel the world. The same calling rests on the believer at work, in the neighborhood, across the street, and around the dinner table. The question is whether the gospel will be carried where Christ has already placed his people. [72:19]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[51:37] - Scripture Devotion Begins
[52:20] - Barriers or Bearers of Life
[52:59] - Isaiah 43 and the Exodus
[54:33] - God Makes a Way
[55:50] - Water as Barrier and Life
[56:42] - Growing Up with Scarce Water
[60:14] - What Actions Say
[61:40] - How Barriers Form
[63:01] - Giving Is Not Lost
[66:15] - Christ Embodied Through the Church
[68:07] - Christ Has No Body But Ours
[71:19] - The Great Commission Calling
[76:36] - Carrying Hope to the World
[80:10] - Commitment to Mission Support

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Isaiah 43:16-21
“Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.” [52:47]

Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Exodus 14:21-22
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.”

Observation questions

In Isaiah 43, what two different things does water become in the passage: first in connection with the sea, and then in connection with the wilderness and desert? [55:50]
What details in Isaiah 43 show that God’s provision is abundant, not minimal? What creatures and people are affected by the water he gives?
What are some specific ways a person can become a barrier instead of a bearer of life? [01:01:40]
What are some ordinary examples of poured-out service that were named as ways people bear life to others? [01:03:31]

Interpretation questions

Isaiah connects God’s saving work at the sea with God’s promise to do “a new thing.” What does that suggest about how God’s people should remember the past without getting stuck in it? [55:35]
If God removes water when it threatens life and provides water when life is dry, what does that reveal about God’s character and the kind of help his people can expect from him? [56:04]
The contrast between barrier and bearer of life raises a searching question about comfort. Why can protected comfort become a spiritual problem, especially when compassion requires costly movement toward others? [01:02:01]
Christ is not only to be believed in but embodied through his people. What does that mean in real life, and how might others notice the difference? [01:06:29]

Application questions

Where is there a real risk of becoming a barrier right now: in a relationship, in generosity, in forgiveness, or in willingness to serve? What is being held onto tightly that God may be asking to release? [01:01:32]
When compassion starts to cost comfort, convenience, or control, what usually happens in the heart? What would one small step of costly compassion look like this week? [01:01:53]
Generosity that waits until it costs nothing is still delayed generosity. Is there a way of giving time, attention, money, or hospitality that has been postponed until it feels easier? What would it look like to act before that window closes? [01:02:16]
What is one unseen or easily overlooked act of service that could become living water for someone else this week? It may be simple, but how might God use it? [01:03:43]
Living water is not meant to flow only once a week. What would it look like for the grace of Christ to flow through everyday routines—at work, at home, in the neighborhood, or in a hard conversation? [01:07:11]
Christ looks with compassion through human eyes, walks through human feet, and blesses through human hands. In what situation this week is there a need to see, go, or bless in a more intentional way? [01:08:17]
The Great Commission belongs to every follower of Jesus, not only to those who go across the world. Who has God already placed nearby that may be part of the mission field right now, and what is one faithful next step toward that person? [01:12:19]

Sermon Clips

60s

#ShareTheGospel

“``But here's the the thing. Church, if we don't share the gospel, what's gonna happen at the end of three years if this church doesn't learn how to be a discipling making church, if we don't invite others into the church, if we don't grow? There's ramifications of the lack of faith that'll affect not only us but churches around the world. So the mission is in your hands. It's a beautiful mission. There is nothing more beautiful, more sacred than carrying the hope of eternal life to the world around us.”

49s

#EverydayMission

“Father, do not allow what we have heard today to simply become an interesting story about what you were doing somewhere else in the world, let it remind us that your mission belongs to all of us. You may call some to go across an ocean. You may call others to walk across the street, but you call every follower of Jesus to participate in your mission. So give us eyes to see the people around us who need Jesus. Give us courage to speak. Give us compassion to love, give us generosity to send and support, and give us willing hearts that will simply say, here I am, Lord. Use me.”

36s

#EmbodiedFaith

“We become bearers of life when we pour out ourselves when others don't understand. When it the world when it does not make sense to the world, that is when we are bearers of life, when Christ is not only believed in, but embodied through us. That's he that is what he asks us to do, to reflect Christ to the world. When Christ is not only believed in, but embodied through us, that is when we become bearers of life.”

43s

#GodMakesAllThingsNew

“God never gives up and never gave up in his pursuit of humanity miraculously, again and again, God provides a way for people to return home. Home to him. And Isaiah tells us that god is about the business of doing new things as well. And in this sacred story, when one was a barrier a barrier to life, a barrier to God's people, God removes it.”

54s

#NoMoreBarriers

“We become barriers when we hold on tightly to what God is is asking us to release. Because then we are no longer trusting in him. We become barriers when we hold on tightly to what God is asking us to release. We become barriers when we protect our comfort instead of stepping out into compassion. That is do I something I remind myself with over and over. Am I stepping out in out of my comfort zone in compassion, or am I being a barrier to god's compassion? Barriers when we when generosity is delayed until it no longer cost us anything.”

48s

#LivingWaterEveryday

“That life that Isaiah speaks about, that life that brings praise, that the whole earth praises God. That same living water that Isaiah is talking about is in us, and we are not called to hold on tightly to it. We are called to let it flow freely into the world. In the same way, it flowed well, in Jordan, it flowed only once a week, but that's not what God wants us to do, that our water only flows out of us once a week on a Sunday. Or maybe on a Monday because on a Sunday, we were at church. We're still, you know, a little bit of grace is still there and we can let go of some of it. No.”

52s

#GiveWithTrust

“We become barriers when generosity is delayed until it no longer cost us anything. And again, this is not who we are as a church. The evidence was clear this morning. As a church, we are the opposite. We are and I believe this wholeheartedly that we are bearers of life. We are we become bearers of life when we trust that what we give is not lost. I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hands, but who is giving to church? I'm I'm I'm I'm sure everybody is. And we are giving with that trust that what we give to God is safe in his hand, and he will use it for his kingdom's glory. And that is how we become bearers of life, when we trust that what we give is not lost.”

39s

#WeAreAllMissionaries

“Church, two years ago, under much prayer, much debate, much counsel, we believed in a mission, and we had to make some decisions because of that mission. I believe in the great commission. I believe it is the greatest calling of the church. I believe that it is what every single Christian is called to, that we, at the end of the day, are all missionaries.”

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South Lake Nazarene This sermon · AI assistant

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