Digging in the Wrong Location
Do it For A Day • Sermon • Submitted
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· 11 viewsSince Jesus is the Living Water, quit digging wells in dry and barren places.
Notes
Transcript
Pre-Sermon Reading
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
Introduction
This year, the challenge make important changes in our lives…to make or break habits, one day at a time. Do it for a day. Quotes from Mark Batterson
Almost anyone can accomplish almost anything if they work at it long enough, hard enough, and smart enough
If you want to change your life…change your story
Show me your habits and I’ll show you your future
If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat
Mark Batterson
Statistics tell us that an average of sixty thousand thoughts fire across our synapses every day. How many of the thoughts you have each day are about you? If someone could write down all those thoughts about yourself, what would they reveal about how you think and feel about yourself?
I think most of us have way too much negative thinking going on each day…a lot of it is directed at ourselves.
You can’t do much right, can you? Why didn’t you make better decisions when you were younger? I don’t like you, self.....
Proverbs 23:7 says “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”
No matter what we say with our lips, what is in the heart points to what we really think
If you want to change your life…you need to change your heart, which will change your thinking, your words, your actions, and your relationships
You have to take your cues from Scripture. When you do, Scripture becomes your “script-cure” — Mark Batterson
Deuteronomy 32:47 says “These are not idle words for you — they are your life”
We all have areas in our lives where we need to make better habits into daily practices and where we need to break the patterns of bad habits
There are several I am working on presently
But here’s what I know: if you want to change your life in a way to effects everything else you say and do…it must begin with your attentiveness to Jesus
Your time spent listening to His voice
Through a lifestyle of prayer
Through time spent deep in His Word
What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible…assuming the Bible to be reality — the real story — to which we are called to conform ourselves? — Christopher Wright
Jesus made it clear that He is the source of the Living Water…the Water of Life
He is the Living Word of God
Listening to and responding to Jesus takes us to the wellspring of life…we have no reason to search elsewhere
Big Idea: Since Jesus is the Water of Life, why would you dig wells in dry and barren places?
Isolating Yourself from the Water of Life Never Satisfies
Isolating Yourself from the Water of Life Never Satisfies
How do we isolate ourselves from the Water of Life?
Exposition
In Jeremiah 2, the prophet begins by reminding the people of how devoted they were when they were a young nation, comparing them to a loving bride who would gladly follow her husband through even the most difficult situations
They followed God through the wilderness, the barren places nobody wanted to go.
God provided for them and protected them from enemies
But, over the generations, something changed…and it wasn’t good
Jeremiah 2:4–12 (ESV)
Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. “Therefore I still contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your children’s children I will contend. For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord,
When we isolate ourselves from God — we turn our backs on the Water of Life
Ungrateful
Forgetful
When we isolate ourselves from God — we find other sources to quench our thirst
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
“My people have committed a compound sin: they’ve walked out on me, the fountain Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns— cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.
In ancient times, cisterns were dug out of rock to store grain and food or to catch and store rainwater
Often they had to plaster the walls of the cistern to prevent leaking
It was common for the cisterns to leak…and all of their hard work would be for nothing because the water drained out
Another negative thing about these cisterns is that the water did not remain fresh…it became stale, brackish, contaminated, and unsafe.
Israel was like a man who decides to dig a cistern for water when, all the while, he has a beautiful artesian well on his property…full of sweet, fresh, and pure water that never runs dry.
A cistern was only a last choice…if no natural springs or wells were available
Application
They walked out on God…the one who had always supplied what they needed
They sought satisfaction elsewhere, by worshipping false, dead Gods....digging cisterns instead of enjoying everything God had already given them
Why would we walk out on God?
Why would we dig cisterns that never satisfy?
Digging for treasure in a location that no treasure exists.
What idols have taken the place of God in our lives?
…Jesus is the only source of true Life
The Water of Life Never Runs Dry or Goes Bad
The Water of Life Never Runs Dry or Goes Bad
No drought can stop the flow Living Water
You can never drink enough to cause a water shortage
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
…there is an open invitation
God Invites You to the Water of Life
God Invites You to the Water of Life
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Jesus Invites you to the sweet water of life
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Challenge
An idol is anything you turn to for help when God told you to turn to Him for help
An idol is anything that takes the place of God in your life
Devices
Politics or patriotism that becomes an idol
Celebrities, sports, etc.
TV
Material possessions
Popular opinion
Success
Pleasure — substances, sexual pleasure, etc.
Even friends and family
Identify your idols by identifying:
What you complain about most
What you invest your time and money into
What you worry about
Where you go when you are hurting
Whose approval you seek
Where you find your greatest joy
What needs are you trying to satisfy by pursuing these things?
Some good things and some bad things
But God is the one to go to for help, answers, satisfaction, peace, etc.
Do your habits keep you close to the Living Water or lead you to stinky, leaky, cisterns
Since Jesus is the Living Water, quit digging wells in dry and barren places.
If you are a follower of Christ but find yourself digging in the wrong location...
If you are not a follower...