Many of us don't realize this, but we have a global water crisis right now. If you're watching this video, you can probably stand up and go over to your faucet and get a glass of clean water if you're thirsty. But over one billion people don't have access to clean water right now on our planet. The two major issues we have with water is an access problem and a quality problem. With the access problem, there are people all over the planet that cannot gain access to clean water.
This is where wells come in or other ways of getting access to them. The other problem is a quality problem. Many people get water through lakes or streams or rivers or rainwater harvesting, but it has disease-causing bacteria and contaminants in it. This is where filtration comes in, and that's why we're here in El Salvador. Ride for Water started in 2010. It was a bike ride that I went on when I finished grad school. On that bike ride, I would travel every day.
I slept in a hammock and met a lot of great people and went through 10 different countries on my bicycle. I learned along the way that I was a person that grew up in the U.S. and you just go to the tap and turn the tap on and clean water comes out, but that wasn't a reality for a lot of people. I decided that I'd start this thing called Ride for Water. The bike ride part of it lasted about a year, and that was an amazing journey.
When I moved back to San Diego, I started to talk with my friends about what it would look like for us to begin to ride together to help people in places where they need clean water. The last couple of years has been a journey. We've started to do some bike rides and do some stuff in skateboarding and do some stuff with surfing to try to help people out wherever we can.
This was our first trip to El Salvador, and this happened because we met Doreen, who walked into a coffee place that I work at in Ocean Beach, and through that contact, we decided that we would come down here and help her out. So we're here now and we've done several school assemblies. The need here is great. The government services are not what we have in the U.S., so we're here to come alongside and help provide some infrastructure for people that they can have healthy water to drink.
My role on this trip has been that of a translator. I speak fluent Spanish, so I've been here translating for the team and in the schools and the villages when we go in and deliver the water filters, just speaking Spanish and translating for the team.
So actually what Ride for Water does provides a huge impact in their lives because the hard work that they do to bring water back to their homes, it pays off when that dirty water can be transformed into clean water and it's drinkable and it's usable and it's healthy. It's also just been really cool to be able to come back to where I'm from.
I'm part Salvadorian, and just hearing my mom share stories from when she was younger and growing up in this community, in these areas, and it just makes me so happy that I can come back somewhere that I know I have roots in and impact a community that I could call family. Like, people here are my family because I'm connected to them. I'm hoping in the future that people will begin to ride however they want.
There's kind of no rules, and if people can use the activities that they're involved with on a daily basis that they're passionate about to raise minds, then we can raise money and begin to help people in areas of the world that need it. So that's what I'd like to see Ride for Waterhead in the future is that more and more people would say, what activity do I have? What influence do I have? So that I can leverage that beyond myself to help other people. Welcome to Ocean Water.
We hope you feel refreshed by the living water of Jesus Christ as we help people receive drinking water from the ocean for free. Thanks for joining us for this weekend's message, and if you enjoy it, please share it with a friend. Hi, I'm Ryan with Ocean Water. I'm here today at the beach where I live. It's 80 degrees. It's very warm. Forgive my sunglasses. It's very bright. But I'm really glad that you can be with us for this week's Beach Talk. Now, this week marks several new beginnings.
It's why I showed our Genesis video for Ocean Water and how we got started and how we've grown and changed along the way. Now, we're starting something new this weekend. We're beginning to read the Bible again. It's our goal to read or listen to the entire Bible in the next year. We have a group we put together for this. The first year, 56 people participated and 10 people completed the entire Bible. We're starting this again this weekend, and we'd love for you to join us.
We actually have four different reading groups this time, which is very exciting. We would like you to message us at Ocean Water to get you involved in hearing from God's Word every single day. You know, if we'll just make the space and the place for that in our life, we can hear about new and amazing things. We would love for you to be a part of that. Now, also, we're making another change this weekend. Each of my Beach Talks each week will be from our readings, from our reading group.
So today we're starting in Genesis chapter 1, and each week I will teach in my Beach Talks on one of the readings from the week. Now, this is very nice because all you need to follow along and read each day or organize a group during the week or listen to our Beach Talks is to be on the same reading plan. It's very simple and straightforward. Genesis 1 reads, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty.
Darkness was over the surface of the earth, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night, and there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. And God said, Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.
And God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it, and it was so. God called the vault sky, and there was evening, and there was morning on the second day. And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let the ground appear. And it was so. God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters He called the ocean, and God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let the land produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees that bear fruit with the seed in it according to their various kinds. And it was so. Now the land produce vegetation, plants bearing seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with their seeds in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning, the third day.
And God said, Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark the sacred times and days and years. And let there be light in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth. And it was so. God made two great lights, the greater of the light to govern the day, and the lesser of the night to govern the night. He also made the stars.
And God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning, on the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters team with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.
So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which water teams and moves about in it according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and increase in number, and fill the water in the ocean, and let the birds increase on the earth. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind. And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the land and the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female, He created them.
God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, and over every living creature that moves along the ground. Then God said, I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that has fruit with seed in it, they will be yours for food.
And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground, everything that has breath of life in it, I give every green plant and food. And it was so. God saw all that He had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning and the sixth day. Now today I want to focus on Genesis 1, 1 which says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You know, God created something out of nothing.
God created all the beauty in this world out of nothing, out of the immaterial. It's because that's His essence and that's His nature. God does this all the time. He creates something out of nothing. That's God's job description. He makes heroes out of zeros. He forms Pulitzer Prize winners out of dyslexic people. He makes the Sistine Chapel out of a depressed artist. God is infinitely creative and brilliant in everything that He does every single day.
Now Pete, you might be saying, well what could God do with my life? Stay tuned. You have no idea. Isn't that great news? God spoke this world into existence with His spoken Word. The physical elements heard His Word and reacted. Now we hear God's Word and we react. God's Word is the lion that is released into the universe and changes things and reverberates with everything that interacts with it. It's like a nuclear power.
It has the ability to soften the human heart, to reorganize energy in real time. That's the most powerful force in the universe. It causes atoms to reorganize and the material to form and unform. Now this was God's spoken Word. Now today we have God's written Word. 2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we're wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
All God's Word to us is available every day. Let me ask you a question. Isn't this a great time to hear from God? You know the last few months have been a giant global game of he said, she said and people have frankly never been more confused. God's words are there for us to comfort us and to give us peace. It will just take the time to listen. There's never been a better time for that. God shouted to the universe through his spoken Word and now he whispers to the human heart. He says, I am.
I'm here. I made you. I have a plan. Jeremiah 29.11 says, for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I'll listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.
I'll be found by you declares the Lord and I'll bring you back from captivity and I'll gather you from the nations and places where I have banished you declares the Lord and I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. God's just waiting. Now God wants to speak to you as powerfully today as he did in Genesis 1.1 when he says in the beginning, I created. God wants to create something out of our lives and out of ocean water.
Now I'm not talking about religion or religious people. Frankly, both of those are very exhausting. Jesus had some words about this in Matthew 11. He says, come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and humble and heart. And you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Well, how do you know if you're religious?
Well, a lot of us organize ourselves by groups and ideologies and Jesus doesn't do that. He will do that. Jesus only calls us to himself full of love, full of grace, full of kindness, full of humility, full of truth, full of power. Jesus comes to give us freely the grace that is ours. Matthew 21 says Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling does.
It is written, he said to them, my house would be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. Jesus isn't about money or control or religion. He's about prayer. He's about healing and he's about freedom. And he wants us to come to him and wants us to give our burdens to him. Jesus is about that relationship. Religious people and religion is about control. Jesus is about freedom, about letting go, the call to serve the poor, the call to meet the needs of the oppressed.
What's that? Those who don't have water, those who don't have food, those who don't have housing, the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed. These are the people that Jesus speaks to us about and calls us to and beckons us to meet the needs of. Those are the people that Jesus wants to help us love. We need to pray for God's grace and guidance to do that every day. Now we want to follow Jesus and the teachings of Jesus and the practice of Jesus and the word of Jesus.
We can do this a few different ways. The first way is we love God by following his word, his spoken word, his written word. He says, if you love me and keep my command, you will keep my commands, John 14, 15. Now are there people who mock God's words? Of course. It says, you hate my instruction and cast my words behind you in Psalms 50 verse 17. The second thing we can do is know that God's word is how we discern.
It says, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword that penetrates even to the dividing of soul, spirit, joints, and marrow and judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrew 412. God's word judges our thoughts and our ideas. It gives us discernment. I saw somebody on Facebook this week post, who do you listen to right now? I rode my bicycle with my friend last week and he asked me, where do you get your news from these days?
Because trust in sources of information is at an all-time low. I recommend putting trust in God's word, which can be at an all-time high. Stop following the trends of today and put your hope and your trust in the timeless truths of God's word. Trendy thinking versus timeless thinking. God's word gives us discernment. Boy do we need that these days. The third thing is we want to do what God's word says to us. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1.22.
Many of you remember Allen Iverson, one of the all-time greats to play NBA basketball, who famously quoted in this following clip where he talked about practice. Watch this, it proves a great point. Come it up when you just talk about practice. We sitting here, I supposed to be the franchise player and we in here talking about practice. I mean listen, we talking about practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game. We talking about practice. Not a game.
Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last. Not the game. We talking about practice man. I mean how silly is that? We talking about practice. I know I supposed to be there. I know I supposed to lead by example. I know that. And I'm not shoving it aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important. I do. I honestly do. But we talking about practice man. What are we talking about? Practice? We talking about practice man. All we have is practice.
There are no games, it's just practice. Life is one game. That's it. So habits matter, which leads me to my last point. God's word, his spoken word, his written word that he used to bring this world into existence helps us think clearly. It says take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Bad advice is everywhere these days. In fact, most of it invites us.
We invite it into our lives as we just scroll through the different media themes that we've created in our own virtual worlds. Stanford recently released a study that showed the average human being has about 70 thoughts a day. How many of our 70,000 thoughts each day are shaped by God? How can your thoughts be shaped by God each day? If you don't hear from God each day.
How can we not hear from God each day if we don't take the time to hear his spoken and written word to us each day with our subconscious and our conscious thoughts? In the beginning, God spoke and he is still speaking today. Are we listening? Now every week we end our time together with a simple prayer that we should walk with God this week and follow him in our lives. Would you pray this simple prayer with me? Would you say, God, I thank you for this day, a new day to follow you.
I repent from my sins. I know I fall short. Help me to follow you today and this week. Help me to listen to you each day through your word. Help me to serve you by serving others. I put my trust in you. Take control of my life. In Jesus name. Amen. Now I want you to go online today to Oceanwater.com. I'd like you to pray and think about what you can offer up as part of your worship. We're most like God when we give.
And in the next 12 months we're going to be doing work in four different parts of the world. And that's really important because God's a global God and he wants us to serve the poor and meet their needs. So I'd like you to pray and be led by the Holy Spirit what he puts on your heart. Please be obedient to. Thank you for being with us today and have a beautiful week. You'd like more information about Ocean Water Church. How to join us on an upcoming trip.
How to be part of one of our Clean Water projects. How to financially support our movement. Or even information on how you can start an Ocean Water Church yourself. Please look us up at Oceanwater.com.