Staying Spiritually Sustained

December 31st 2023

Series: One-off

Sermon Title: Staying Spiritually Sustained

Topic: Staying Spiritually Sustained

Key Passages: Various

Sermon Blurb: Every New Year, we make resolutions and commitments. Make a spiritual assessment of our last year as we head into a new year, and make a commitment to grow in Jesus.

FAMILY MOMENT –

Talk about Christmas

Did you do the video service with your family?!?

New Year’s is just days away…

Are you already thinking about your “resolutions”? What are you committing to this year, anything?

PAUSE

I love statistics…

I was looking at various polls related to New Year’s Resolutions.

Not surprisingly, most of them are about health and wealth… fitness and finance.

One poll ranked the Top 8 New Year’s Resolutions over the last decade.

#8 - Reduce spending on living expenses #7 - Reduce stress on the job #6 - Spend less time on social media #5 - Spend more time with friends and family #4 - Save more money #3 - Lose weight #2 - Eat healthier

And the #1 resolution… wanna guess…

….unfortunately it was NOT read my bible more…

THE #1 New Year’s Resolution over the last decade……. Exercise more!

There you have it! The Top 8 resolutions over the last decade.

PAUSE

By a show of hands… have you ever made a resolution that you failed to keep?

It’s okay… my hand is up with you!

It’s just the nature of things, right.

We make these commitments and often we fail to stick to them.

We fail to stay away from the buffet.

We fail to make it to the gym especially on those cold winter

mornings when the warmth of our beds calls us.

We fail to save the money or stay off Amazon.com LOL

PAUSE

One of the commitments I made years ago was to drink more water.

Have you seen those MASSIVE jugs of water people are carrying around nowadays… that show you just how much water you are supposed to drink every day.

I mean, that’s a LOT of water, isn’t it?

Have any of you tried to drink the recommended amount of water daily?

Was it hard?

Did it help you feel better?

Did you have to pee a lot more?!? LOL

PAUSE

Like I said, I like statistics… not just for fun, but to learn from them.

Let me share a few statistics related to hydration… water consumption.

And this is going to tie into our message today…

Studies have shown that…

More than 80% of humans live in a constant state of dehydration.

In America, dehydration is noted to be the #1 most preventable medical condition today.

Research shows that hydrated people have higher metabolisms and stay slimmer than those who are dehydrated.

We have undisputable evidence that dehydration causes many to have continuing joint pains and suffer from migraines, kidney stones, and high blood pressure.

Further, dehydration has been linked as a root cause of memory loss and feelings of tiredness and weakness.

PAUSE

Think about that… this means that when your body isn’t properly hydrated, it causes you to forget, to fatigue, and to become frail.

Or to put it more plainly, dehydration makes you stupid, sluggish, and scrawny.

PAUSE

Now, this isn’t a medical lesson today…

I am no physician or nutritionist, but the point is this…

Just like our physical bodies need proper nourishment…

How much more does our spirit need proper nourishment?

By a show of hands, how many of you would agree that you could do a little better at taking care of your physical body?

How many of you would say that your spiritual person needs some attention?

PAUSE

I would speculate that some of us here today are spiritually malnourished.

We simply don’t take in a healthy adequate, or even consistent diet of God’s Word, worship, fellowship, and prayer.

Maybe you get filled up with Jesus every Sunday morning, but you don’t attend to yourself daily you’re just drained by the end of the week.

Maybe you once kept a consistent routine of bible study and prayer, but you’ve grown complacent and are no longer digging deep into God’s Word.

Maybe you keep yourself so, so busy that you can barely capture a few daily moments with Jesus, and you just aren’t making the spiritual progress you know you should.

Maybe you think you’ve already arrived at spiritual maturity and no longer need Jesus or the Bible to help you grow any more

Maybe, like many Christians, you’ve allowed the many distractions of life to become prioritized… and you aren’t pursuing Jesus at all.

Or maybe, you haven’t yet begun a relationship with Jesus and so today you may want to consider accepting Jesus as God and Savior in your life so that you can receive perfect nourishment for your soul today.

PAUSE

Wherever you are at… today’s message is NOT intended to discourage you OR cause you to feel bad for failure.

It is simply to take some time to evaluate.

To look back over the last year, the last month, the last week… and honestly evaluate our spiritual health.

AND to commit afresh and anew to grow spiritually.

PAUSE

Maybe you are going to commit to ….

… pray more, … talk less, … tithe, … share your faith with someone,

And one thing I would encourage ALL of us to commit to is to READ our Bibles more?

Maybe you want to commit to the Daily Reading Plan that we do as a church. Or maybe another plan or book.

But, we need to commit to staying spiritually healthy.

To grow in our faith and know God more.

PAUSE

So…. “how did we do at that?”

Again, I do NOT want anyone feeling shamed or judged today… but I just to evaluate and recommit today.

We should always be evaluating our spiritual growth.

But there ARE certainly times that are more natural or obvious to assess… and the end of the year is a natural time to assess where we are spiritually.

As we prepare for a New Year, I think it is wise to consider how we can stay firmly rooted in God and in God’s Word.

PAUSE

In fact, Jesus Himself taught us that if we stay in His Word, we will stay in His will.

John 15:1-4 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.

Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

PAUSE

So, with all the crazy going on in the world… with all the different things vying for our attention…

How can we stay focused and rooted in God?

PAUSE

If the ONLY time you read the Bible is when you are in church… then unless you are here every day, it isn’t going to sustain you.

But if you have Jesus and allow Jesus’ Word to lead your life, then you will be a healthy Christian!

It really is that simple.

Write this down,

Being spiritually sustained comes through a personal and growing relationship with Jesus.

*repeat

It’s both.

It’s a personal relationship when you truly accepted Jesus, AND it is a growing, or active relationship with Jesus.

It isn’t enough to go to church, have religion, or even know ABOUT Jesus…

You have to KNOW Jesus personally and commit GROW in your relationship with Him.

PAUSE

Grab your bible and open to the Gospel of John 4

Look at an interaction Jesus had with a woman who was physically thirsty… and Jesus is going to tie her physical yearning into a spiritual truth.

John 4:7-13, “7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

8(His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)

9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.

How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews did not associate with Samaritans.)

10Jesus answered her, “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.”

11“Sir” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13Jesus answered, “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.”

Pause here.

What would our lives look like if we allowed the Living Water of an active relationship with Jesus to sustain and motivate us?

If we lived sustained by an active relationship and connection to Jesus?

Jesus offers a type of nourishment, sustenance…like no other.

He says, when you get your fill of H20 you will thirst again in your physical body…

BUT when you get your fill of Jesus, then He has a way of sustaining you perpetually.

PAUSE

Jesus utilizes the setting and analogy of a watering well.

In those times, someone had to draw water from the well routinely…… they didn’t all have pipes with running water.

In the same way, Jesus wants us to know that He is a well that doesn’t run dry and that when we come to Him then He will provide for whatever we are going through in that moment.

PAUSE

There’s so much in this passage that we can glean about spiritual health and wellness; and how to stay nourished or hydrated.

Again… we need to understand that Sunday Morning Church is not the catch-all or entire meal but should be viewed as a catalyst for our daily devotion to Jesus.

So, I want us to assess our spiritual vitality… to determine if we are staying spiritually hydrated, to ensure we remain healthy and on a steady growth cycle.

PAUSE

So with our time left I want to give you:

3 indicators that I am staying spiritually sustained:

Write this down…

LOVE to be with Jesus

*repeat

The first Commandment is to Love God with everything in you.

Are you totally in love with Jesus today?

Are you wholeheartedly seeking Him?

Are you constantly yearning for Him, just to be with Him?

Do you enjoy and long for moments to be with Jesus?

Are you desperate for His nearness or satisfied with minimal God-encounters?

Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with your whole heart.”

Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the House of the Lord.”

Psalm 84:2, “How lovely is Your dwelling place…my soul longs for you…my heart and my flesh cry out for you the living God.”

Do you LOVE to be WITH Jesus?

PAUSE

Have you ever been in love? If you’re married, you better raise your hand

I’ve noticed how often we start out relationships with a strong sense of desire and pursuit.

When your together you don’t want to leave and when your apart you just can’t wait to see her again.

You flirt and do crazy things to share your affections towards that person, in fact you create ways to impress them.

Unfortunately for many, there comes a point when the passion seems to fade; where we quit pursuing.

You’ve stopped loving being near her.

In 1964 a song was released by a group called the Righteous Brothers that addressed this very issue of how we tend to lose the passion and quit showing the affection that we start off with.

You know what song I’m talking about?

It’s even been sung by Elvis Presley and… even Tom Cruise “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” sing it

Maybe it’s time for some of us to bring back the love and pursuit in our relationship with God today!

PAUSE

And what do we find when we are with Jesus? What benefit is found in God’s Presence?

“My Presence shall…give you rest” – Ex. 33:14

“In Your presence is fullness of joy…pleasures forever” Ps 16:11

“In Him we liveand move and exist…” we have life Acts 17:28

In God’s Presence we find solutions to our problems, help for the helpless, healing for the hurt, freedom for the addict, provision for the poor, peace for the weary and strength for the weak

PAUSE

Have you ever thought about this… one of the primary reasons Jesus died so we’d have access to God’s Presence?!?

Do you love to be with God?

If you don’t, perhaps today you should ask God to reignite the passion and help you return to Him.

LONG PAUSE

Let’s look at another indicator of spiritual vitality

Write this down

LONG to be like Jesus.

*repeat

Look at Luke 6, Jesus says…

Luke 6:46-49, 46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.

48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock.

When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.

49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.

The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.” –

PAUSE

Every successful coach, leader, strategist, business owner, and so on has learned that in order to succeed you have to study the successes and failures of others

“Greatness isn’t something you get; it is something you earn.” – NBA Commentator speaking about Kobe.

Kobe wanted to learn every intricacy of MJ’s game (he longed to be like MJ so he spent years studying, practicing, and imitating MJ).

…MJs shot and release, his finesse and finish, his determination and work ethic, he even learned MJs body posture and facial expressions

You see, Kobe knew one thing: if he wanted to be great, he needed to learn from someone who had already achieved greatness

PAUSE

Jesus Christ is spectacular!

He is the One and only superstar, the Great I Am!

I wonder today if spend time searching through Scripture seeking to be like Him and learning Who God is?

… His persona

… His passions

… His Personhood

… His purposes

Do we truly understand and comprehend the character of God?

Do we really feel what He feels and are we motivated by what moves Him?

1 Timothy 6:11, “But you, man of God, flee from all of this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.”

Ephesians 5:1, “Be imitators of God.”

PAUSE

Are you longing to be more like Jesus? Am I?

Do we cling to integrity even if it causes us to lose status?

Do we pursue purity and avoid things that aren’t of God?

Do we seek humility at the cost of looking weak?

Do we speak honestly even when it’s tough?

Do we strive to love others even when they are unlovable?

Do we search for truth in conflict before pre-determining the outcome?

PAUSE

Jesus said…

John 14:15, “if you love me, keep my commands.”

This means we will commit to DO what He says!

That we will learn to become…

… A person who loves unconditionally

… A person who forgives others quickly

… Be a person who relates to others peaceably

… Be a person who serves others with humility

… Be a person who examines His heart routinely

… Be a person who shares with others generously

… Be a person who doesn’t judge another too quickly

… Be a person who maintains a life of purity

… Be a person who manages their money wisely

… Be a person who works with others patiently

… Be a person who goes through tough trials joyfully

… Be a person who leads their followers gently

… Be a person who handles their business honestly

…. Be a person who lives their life with integrity

Here’s the point… believing in Jesus and becoming like Jesus ought to be one in the same.

So… do I LONG to be like Jesus?

That is a good indicator of our spiritual health.

PAUSE

There IS one more indicator we can evaluate today…

I want to close with this final but VERY telling point……

write this down

LOOK to share Jesus

*repeat

Mark 16:15, “And He told them, Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.”

Jesus said, “GO” – While you are on your way, as you are going, as you live out your day

The proving ground of a true follower of Jesus is that we look to give Him away to others… to share our faith with others!

“If he has real faith, the believer cannot be restrained. He betrays his own nature. He breaks out. He confesses and teaches the Gospel to people at the risk of life itself” – Martin Luther

PAUSE

The mission statement of Family Church is to help people learn how to fully Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples.

This ONLY happens when we are spiritually healthy.

When we stay connected to Jesus personally.

When we have a growing relationship with God and allow His Word and Spirit to lead us.

PAUSE

So, evaluate your own life today.

Do I love to be WITH Jesus?

Do I long to be LIKE Jesus?

Do I LOOK to share Jesus?

As we head into a New Year… we can reflect over the last year and rather than regret our failures or mistakes, let’s start fresh!

Let’s start with a renewed commitment to Jesus.

A new love, new longing, and looking for new opportunities to share Jesus this year!

PRAY

OFFERING