Bro Gary Sunday Morning 11/6/11
Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
This was a feast to remind them of their journey through the wilderness and of God’s faithfulness at that time. On the last day, the great day of the feast they would bring in a calf, a goat, and seven rams and place them on the altar as a sacrifice. They would walk around that altar and sing the Psalms.
Another thing that made this day special was the priest would go to the pool of Siloam and would gather some of that water and they would pour this water and wine upon the altar of sacrifice. It was a great time of rejoicing for them. Trumpets sounded, and the people marched and sang praises with palms in their hands.
On this last day Jesus asked the question, “If any man thirst…” Many are still trying to quench the thirst of their soul with temporal things that will never quench the thirst.
All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Today there are millions that are trying to quench the thirst in their heart with the lust of the world. It is not wrong to like music that encourages you to live holy, it is not wrong to like to hike, or to enjoy the things of this life. But as I thought of this, I thought of how empty the world really is.
Solomon in his day had everything that would be nice to the ear, or to look upon. He had gardens, fountains and everything imaginable and said, “This is all vanity.”
Many have become confused with the thought of “Is it wrong to plant a lawn or grow a garden?” It is not wrong unless you think that it will satisfy.
Marriage will not satisfy; getting a degree will not satisfy. We have been shocked at how men that have aspired to high position and obtained it, reached a place of saying, “Nothing matters and there is nothing worth living for.” They filled their lives with tangible things but they failed to fill their life with God. Any one that fails to look to Christ to be satisfied will reach this dry position.
The sooner the world is dried up and one knows it and begins to seek God, the sooner a river begins in that life and flows out of it and begins to satisfy.
Never think for a moment that the world will satisfy the thirst within. There are two strong examples in this scripture and I am confident that study would reveal dozens.
Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
God worked upon Moses to have ‘respect for the recompense of the reward’. He was found almost as an infant by Pharaoh’s daughter and lived as one of the king’s family in Egypt. I don’t know what the pleasures of this day were, but Moses had a praying mother, dad, sister, and brother. He had something in him that he realized that all the pleasure of the palace wouldn’t satisfy.
All the opportunity, it is shocking that even in little places like Sanders County there are people that want to go to places where there is greater opportunity. What will it cost you spiritually?
Moses may have been in line to become the next king, he had opportunity.
God doesn’t want you lazy. He wants you to perform what you have been taught. God wants you to be industrious. He is not looking for and calling lazy individuals into His work. His work requires being able to take backsets and knowing how to persevere.
Moses was undoubtedly like us, he enjoyed things and they were all right at his fingertips.
Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
There are pleasures of sin. They are not going to last. We can take the attitude, if we want to, of: “I want something in this world.” There are men my age that so many pleasures of this world have dried up for but they are out there craving more.
You may have a personality that you like to be entertained. There are others where their pleasure is to work. Pleasure is something that attracts men and women. The rivers of pleasure of this earth: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, will dry up.
Springs dry up, other aquifers dry up. This is the way the pleasures of sin are. As young as children are the world has developed things that encourage them to love pleasure.
There is a whole world out there that will appeal to not only people my age, to people in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, it will also appeal to children. It has a design to cause the natural hunger and thirst to go to the world for something of satisfaction.
The world wants to turn that God given thing within us that thirsts to thirst for things of this world. It isn’t so very long until that which they thought would satisfy dries up and fills them with emptiness. They then go right back to the lusts of the flesh…
How scary for those that are so thirsty to turn to the internet. They turn to look for other satisfaction from something else because they are so dry.
I’d like to know how many were at the feast that were so thirsty that day when Jesus stood and said, “If any man thirst…”
Psa 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
Psa 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Psa 27:6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
We want to grasp how specific David was in that he got his desires lined up. This is a challenge sometimes.
Every spring and every fall I’m not sure what I should do first. The Indian summer was over soon and all of a sudden I had lots of work. I was enjoying watching the colors and the garden; I wasn’t thinking of all that needed to be done before winter. We must focus the things in our life.
This is especially true in the spiritual life. We must have one desire.
David said, “One thing will I seek after…, to behold the beauty of the Lord.”
One thing that we know is that our flesh doesn’t produce spiritual beauty. As good as your personality is it doesn’t produce spiritual beauty. We all have characteristics about us that we find out in the process of time aren’t too pretty.
David, the king, wanted to get a view of the beauty of the Lord. If we are going to see the beauty of the Lord, we must spend time worshipping God. In the Spirit of the Lord there is liberty.
2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
When we see the beauty of Christ, the beauty of the Holy Spirit, the beauty of God the Father, there is something within us that cries out, “I want to be like Him.” This is what David was talking about.
To enquire in His temple: Some of us God really brings up short. We tell God a whole lot, as if he has never been around or known anything. God brings me up short all the time. He says, “I know everything you are telling me plus I know all the other sides too.”
I want to be where I’m saying, “God what do you want to talk to me about today, what graces do you see that I stand in need of today? What position do you want me to be in so that a river flows in and then out of me?” If nothing flows in from God then nothing can flow out from God.
David became ambitious, “I will seek after God.” David had a heart cry to inquire, “Oh God what is Thy heart cry to Thy servant?”
You and I had seasons in our life where after we were saved we enjoyed so much. The season of having a young family, the season of being young is a wonderful season. When you are young there are a lot of people that want to know you and are attracted to you. When you are hard of hearing and can’t see too well, people may not want to know you. There are a lot of things that dry up.
David wanted to enquire what God’s word was to him.
Difficulty helped David to place himself in this position of having one desire.
Psa 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Psa 27:6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
If you live very long, you will not have to put very much effort into it, someone will desire to be your enemy. Sometimes it is from afar and you are blessed, at least you can see the arrows coming. Don’t think that the world is your friend. It happened to David, someone tried to get as close to him as he could in order to harm him.
If the world is not being influenced by you then the goal is that they will be an influence on you.
Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
I believe that there was an audience there at that great day. Many of them had palms in their hand. They were really being moved. This was the last day, a real celebration. They were marching around and singing and remembering.
It was during all this festival that Jesus stood up and cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me… out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
We are blessed to know God. Jesus said that the day was coming that a river of the Holy Spirit would flow into his children and flow out as rivers of living water.
Thousands before me have had the rivers of their life go dry. You may be sitting here thinking that the world is really offering you a lot. From where you’re looking it may be offering you a lot. There is one thing that is very evident: everything that the world offers goes dry.
I talked to a friend of mine in the last week or two and asked how his sister was. He told me that his sister really needed me to talk to her. She would probably have been queen of Plains High School all four years. She was beautiful, she was smart and the world offered her a lot. She went after all that it offered. He told me that she had gotten into some strange things.
The river of the world dries up. When you realize that you are thirsty, where will you go to drink? The parents in this audience will do all they know to do for their children. We’ve seen it over and over: a son or a daughter’s river dries up and the parents ask for prayer, “may this be the time that my son or daughter gets saved.”
There is always a choice there: “Will I go back seeking what the world has to offer, or will I look for what the Holy Spirit has to offer me.” There must first be a thirst and then there must be repentance.
When there is a death, when there is a heartache, when there is a disappointment, when there is a reality that life is not what they thought it would be, people either turn to God or turn away from God. When people come to the knowledge that life is serious, they may choose to seek satisfaction from the things of the world or turn to God.
The devil was a liar from the beginning; he’ll say, “If you do this than it will really satisfy.”
Thousands have come to the last day of the feast. They have come to that day where they say, “I want something more than what the world has to offer; I want a river that flows from above. I want a river that has holiness in it. I want a river that not only flows in but also flows out.”
It is wonderful when you have your eyes anointed and you see every child as an opportunity for God, you see a broken heart as an opportunity for God. You defy the American ideal that youth is everything and you see opportunity in the aged.
You see every time that God allows your path to cross son or daughter. “My children are so torn up.” With that river of life you see that river going and quickening them as they face that death of a loved one. Oh that they would turn to the river of life!
That last day, Jesus stood and said…
You must come to that place where you realize that “I love my children, but that is not a river that will satisfy.” This doesn’t mean that you‘ll not love them, but that it is the last day.
You look at the house plans, your job and career and say, this is the last day that I’m going to seek satisfaction from this.
We are so blessed that He stood and said, “If any man thirst.”
Thousands have come to the last day, “I’m finished trying to satisfy the thirst for God that I have with substitutes.”
My heart aches, people are running up and down this road looking for things that will satisfy.
Psa 36:7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
Psa 36:8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
Psa 36:9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
When the prodigal son came home, the elder son was upset. The father said, “But son all this is yours, are you going to be unhappy over a fatted calf?”
Think of all the father has for you. Drink of the river of His pleasures. We love the thoughts of God that he has toward us of bringing us to an expected end.
God wants that river flowing into us so much that we drink of the pleasures. We drink of the fellowship of God and of each other. The pleasure of praying for a request, of seeing a broken body healed. It isn’t your doing; it is the river flowing through.
“With thee is the fountain of life.” I noticed as I read this two things, life and light.
If you desire to do more spiritually, avail yourself to the Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” He’ll cause you to bear all of them.
Psa 36:10 O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.
Psa 36:11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.
Let the Holy Ghost be a river going through you so that the foot of pride doesn’t cause you to stumble.
Someone getting it in for you is a part of life. Don’t give it much focus, let the river flow through you.
Psa 36:12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.
No comments:
Post a Comment