Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, it's with a great deal of pleasure that I welcome back Pastor Steve from the Rockingham Mandurah Lutheran Church and welcome. Steve.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Good to be here. Alan, nice to see you again.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And Brad. Mary. Got something to do with your.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Yep. My theme for the day. Well, I'll give you. I've got to ask you a question first.
What is it that you can't live without as an essential?
Couple of things.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: A couple? Well, oxygen and.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Okay. How long can you go before you're gonna end of life if you don't have oxygen?
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not sure about that one.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Three minutes they reckon three minutes before you're nearly gone and probably after that it doesn't matter because you'll be brain dead. Right.
Then after that. Water. Yep. How long can he go without water?
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Oh, I've probably been a day or so without water and not carked it.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Three days.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Three days.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Three days, I reckon. And then you'll be in serious trouble.
And the last one? Possibly. What else couldn't you do without?
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Well, in the physical, if we're talking about the physical, obviously food.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Yep. So how long with food?
Roughly?
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Well, interesting there because our pastor at the Red Door has done a 40 hour
[00:01:29] Speaker B: fast.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Fast. Yep, yep.
Much the same as Jesus did when he was in the wilderness.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Forty days.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: That was 40 days.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: That's a biggie.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Did I say 40 hours?
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Yes, yeah.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: No, no, he did.
Pastor did 40 days.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Yes.
In that time he would have probably had some sustenance like juices and stuff like that, which would have been just more than water.
Interesting. Yeah, yeah, I knew that there's a bit of a rule of thumb that they reckon that you go three days, three minutes without oxygen, three days without water and depends on your physical makeup, your energy burn and what's in. But three days, three weeks without food, sort of. 333. That's roughly it.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Interestingly, with. With the food side, years ago I used to regularly participate in the World Vision 40 Hour Famine. Yeah, right. And the first day was really tough.
The second day, not a problem.
The pangs of hunger seemed to ease off.
I can't explain that one, but there you go. Sorry to.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Oh no, no, that's very good. So that's excellent actually. So I got thinking about the essentials for life. And so I was very fortunate to be brought up on the land in South Australia.
And part of that was the little strip of land in Bethany in the Barossa Valley had the Bethany Creek running through it and all the properties that were Settled there. There was a mile between that road at one end and the road at this end and the creek flowed through the middle. And it's quite unique actually, in the world where a settlement was planted, settled with water flowing through the middle and they got their strips of land.
The thing about that was that the water supply was pretty good and there was some springs and some deeper holes along the way. And so even during the summer, a lot of the farmers could actually get water for their stock or their fruit trees. But nearly everybody also sunk a well with a hand pump next to their house because the water table was, you know, pretty high. Yeah, it was pretty good actually. And so it got me thinking a little bit about there's not a person on the face of the planet and let's also say now floating around up there in the sky that cannot be too far away from water.
And the things that we. And not an animal as well, that can't do without water. So water is the essential of life. We breathe, of course. And so even the early hunters and gatherers had to did most of the hunting and gathering around a water supply. You could just hide yourself next to a water hole and sure enough, sooner we'll add to something to come along for a drink and bang, there's dinner, you know, sort of stuff.
But it also got me thinking about how we don't look after our water supplies very well and, you know, we can conserve it. I grew up with a couple of big dams on our property and as well and a pump and all of that sort of stuff. So you'd have a water supply all year round.
And then when we were chasing sheep in our paddocks, you know, we were in some hills on the edge of the Barossa Valley, and the first thing any farmer would do would be dig a hole, dig a dam and catch some of it, you know, make sure that the creek still flowed and all that sort of stuff.
And so we've got this water supply and there's a lot millions of people around the world, sadly, who don't either have a consistent water supply or a clean water supply.
And so one of the beautiful things that we can do for our fellow human beings around the the planet is to make sure that they've got a good water supply.
And so one of the beautiful things that an any quality aid agents would do agency would do was to go around and find in where it doesn't matter where it's Africa, Asia, South America, doesn't matter where their water tables are, and you can sponsor them to sink down a bore or a pump or a well.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Can I put in a plug here?
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Absolutely. Go for it.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: A guy from our church who was a plumber went over to Africa and saw the. Well, he was in Tanzania and saw the situations that the villagers have, the distances they've got to walk to go and collect water and the quality of water.
And he thought, well, you know, I can do something about that. So he has established over a number of years now a group called Water for Africa.
And they're constantly. It cost them about $500 a bore. They put down bores, go from village to village and they're changing the quality of life for all those people. So if anyone wants to donate Water for Africa is the.
Is the go.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: That is great to hear. And I'm also part of a.
An organization within the Lutheran Church. There's a. A world aid agency arm called the Australian Lutheran World Service, which works in conjunction with ACT International and some of their projects in Africa and Asia is. And I've just done exactly that. I've just bought a gift, it's called Gifts of Grace as well. And you can go on to Australian Lutheran World Service website and buy a water pump.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Fantastic.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: For a village somewhere in. In a needy area as well. So it's great to hear that there's these beautiful projects around the world.
I'll follow on because one of the things that we can do with water, we've just heard Credence and Proud Mary. We're floating on top of the water. We're talking about water under the ground.
I love to swim. We're only a few hundred meters from a beautiful beach here. One of the best kept secrets in wa, isn't it?
[00:07:46] Speaker A: Like to keep it that way too?
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Well, yeah. Don't tell anybody. All right. But you know, where we live is just as beautiful. I was only thinking about that the other day when it got to 35 or 37 on the weekend. And you know, the, the cameras go to all the Perth's northern beaches, you know, and there's hundreds and thousands of people along them. And if you went to our local beaches, you would know we got a kilometers of this beautiful big bay. And I reckon they'd be lucky if there's 500 people on the whole thing.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Yeah, the. Well, just if I might interact.
The beauty about our beaches here is there are a lot of access points along the bay. And so you don't get a big conglomeration of people in one spot. They're just sort of scattered right throughout the Bay. And yeah, it's fantastic.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: It is. It's. It's one of the best kept secrets. And so you and I will just keep it to ourselves.
But then I got thinking again about this. So we always think very temporal, like how the world affects us. But our good Lord Jesus had an amazing conversation with a lady who went to a well to fetch water in the middle of the day. And she was there because she was an outcast of the town and she'd been in and out of a few relationships. And so there she was fetching water about midday and Jesus asked her for a drink. Now, normally a Jew wouldn't speak to a non Jew Samaritan.
And so she's curious as to why he'd start up a conversation. And then he goes, well, look, if only you knew.
He says he here, he asked her if you'd give me a drink. And Jesus answered her after she questioned it, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock. And Jesus answered, this is John 4:13.
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
The obvious response to that is, what she gives. Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. And then yes, gets into the conversation. But there's Jesus saying, I will give them spring of water welling up to eternal life.
If people only knew where the true water is to be found in the person of Jesus and what it is that he's offering them, not only in this life, but the one to come.
I think if people were desperate enough for the essentials, they look further than what they do. But at the moment we think of our very temporal needs in this life, and indeed we need to. Don't get me wrong, but there's another life to come.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: And the beautiful thing is that Jesus says, well, you're going to need something to get you there. And I'm it. And not only am I it, but I'll supply when you get there the essentials. Heaven is this beautiful picture of the. The river of life flowing down the middle of the golden city, heaven itself, with all these trees planted on the edges, and they will just supply this constant supply of food as well. So Jesus gives us this amazing picture, and he recognizes that living water is going to be needed even in the world to come, but it's from him that we find it. And so I just encourage everybody, if they're turning on the tap or having a shower or whatever it is, to think of one step further and say, what do I need in the life to come?
And it's the living water himself, none other than Jesus.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: And so to round us off, you've requested a song called Holy Water the Kingdom. You love the song.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Oh. And the reason is, if you listen so beautifully, the.
The lyrics take you into being just washed and rejuvenated, covered in this holy water, which is Jesus and washing clean. So sit back if you're listening, crank it up and enjoy. Thanks, Ellen. Amen.
