Trading Shadows for Light
Caleb Mayfield
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 35:12
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2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.
1 “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!
2 Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods.
3 Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live. I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David.
4 Since I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples,
5 so you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you.”
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
11 so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
12 You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will come up; this will stand as a monument for the Lord, an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed.
Costly drink vs. free drink
Fake food vs. real food
Empty satisfaction vs. true satisfaction
Thorn bushes vs. cypress trees
This is all about Counterfeits vs. The Real Thing
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
God designed you to long for eternal things. Eternal things are the real things.
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex.”
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.”
“If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.”
“I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find until after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same.”
The good news is that God invites us to have the real thing! And he will pay for it!
1 “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!
Come to me…
Come and drink…
Come and eat…
Who or what is this really talking about?
God’s real eternal solutions to our cravings are unlocked by, received through, and found in Jesus
God’s real eternal solutions for our cravings…
are unlocked by…
received through…
& found in…
Jesus
Isaiah 55:2a (CSB)
2 Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? …
This isn’t just for people who don’t know Jesus
Each of us, including me, tend to turn to things, still, that do not satisfy.
What do we usually turn as an attempt to satisfy our cravings?
Again, this isn’t just about people who don’t become Christians.
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Not only do we run to bad things, but we also run to good things as if they are the best thing!
I believe we are all settling for shadows of what we truly crave.
Insert Cross and Shadow diagram
So, how do we turn from shadows and towards the light?
We have to continually be transformed.
18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
20 But that is not how you came to know Christ,
21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus,
22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires,
23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4 By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
We participate in our transformation by continually turning from shadows and turning to the light.
Turn from counterfeits and towards the real thing.
This requires…
slowing down to understand feelings
acknowledging the shadows desire you have
searching for the eternal desire that the shadow is impersonating
believing God’s promises to satisfy you and surrendering your desire to Him
asking God to help you run towards His light
For our remaining time together, I have a tool and exercise for us to do together, but individually.
HONESTlY, this type of transformation will be much harder for some of you and you may not experience a lot of breakthrough right now, so, next week, I’m going to teach on the thing that really unlocked the effectiveness of this tool and exercise.
