Thirsting for the Christ

You have heard about the Pope rewriting the Lord's Pray, right? Because it's not really good enough, so he's got to rewrite it because he doesn't believe that God leads us into temptation So he wants to rewrite it. I'm like, dude, what are you doing? You're going to add to scripture? Doesn't Proverbs I mean Revelation 22 speak concerning that? That those who add to the Word of God, He will add to Him the plagues that are written in this book. I'd be a little careful about doing that if I was the Pope. I'd tell you, that's a little dangerous to tread water to walk on right there

That whole phrase, deliver us from evil, is a great, great song when it comes to understanding God's call upon our life and how our Lord is the protector of his people, the sovereign creator of the universe You know, we are on the downward slide or the backward side of the foundations that fortify the family Last week, we were at the pivotal point: the awe-inspiring leadership and what that entails It's the pivotal point in terms of all the first five foundations leading to that one, and the rest of the five stemming from that one

And I in no measure want to think that we are going to be able to fix your marriage in 11 weeks Or that we can turn your family around in 11 sermons It doesn't work that way We're trying to lay for you the foundations that will help you understand the direction you need to go from this day forward And as you begin to build on those foundations one at a time, then you understand exactly what it is God wants for you and for your family And so that's the direction we're trying to go And if you begin to apply the principles and to understand exactly how you Put into practice these things

God will bless your family, your marriage, in a very unique and special way The scriptures don't give a quick fix to your solution or to your situation, to your problems It doesn't work that way It's true, our God does a great and mighty work in the lives of people, and God wants us to trust Him and live in obedience to Him And that's why we try to help you understand the foundations in a certain kind of way We tell you that foundation number one is a forgiving spirit You know, no home was ever built on bitterness and bad attitudes It doesn't work that way You have to have a forgiving spirit

And that's why that's all about the principle of alliance: how I align my will with God's will, how I align my life with the forgiving God's life, a forgiving spirit And if that doesn't happen, if you're an unforgiving kind of person, if you harbor resentment and grudges, then it's just going to be a bad experience for you You can't do that We are to forgive as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven us When you stand praying, you stand praying having already forgiven your brother So, forgiving spirit is the very first foundation And that leads you to overarching prayer

Prayer is that which over everything, that is all-encompassing to all that we do Yeah, that's the principle of reliance We need to rely upon the Lord unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain to build it And what better way to rely upon the Lord than to be on our knees in prayer, asking God to do a great and mighty work? That's why we looked at Psalm 145:1, that unless The Lord is near to all those who call upon him, but he's near only to those who call upon him in truth

So if you don't call upon him in truth, how can you expect God to do a great and mighty work? And so you have to learn how to do that And so we explained what that means And then you have to understand that foundation number three is an understand of mind That somehow Proverbs 24, 3, and 4 says very clearly to us that by wisdom a house is built, by understanding it is fortified, by understanding it is established, by understanding it stands erect Without an understanding mind, your house and home le back and sideways, and will fall over Unless you have an understand mind

That 's what the book of Proverbs tells us So he went through looking at Proverbs and what that means and how do you actually understand What the Bible says concerning having the kind of mind that says that we have the mind of Christ, as Paul says in the book of Corinthians, because we have his mind, we can have then an understanding mind And of course, that is the principle of compliance. I comply with all that God says in His Word concerning my mind And then foundation number four was a non-compromising life That's the principle of defiance

And you ask, didn't you review this last week and the week before and the week before and the week before? Do you have to keep reviewing it? Yes, you do Repetition is the mother of learning You got to keep reviewing them, going over them again and again and again, so you get them indelibly etched in your mind so you understand exactly what you need to do. A non-compromising life That's the principle of defiance. I am against everything that would cause me to compromise. I stand against sin. I stand against Satan. I stand against compromise. I stand against everything

That will cause me to lose my integrity If you don't do that, your house is going to fall flat because there'll be so many cracks in your foundation, it cannot stand erect It won't stand erect So we talked about a non-compromising life and what that means And then principle number five, of course, was demonstrating faith That's the principle of appliance That is taking what you know to be true and putting it into operation, making it effective That is, you live out your faith You walk by faith and not by sight

It's a demonstrative action where people see What you belie, because you live it out every single day And then last week, all ins Leadership, that's the principle of suppl You are able to supply what is needed to everyone in your home because you Live and lead righteously, and you live and lead reverently And that causes there to be the radiant beauty of the Lord to shine and the refreshment of the Spirit to control your family Talked about that last week Absolutely essential Everything leads to that Because if the leadership in the home falter, then those who follow that leadership

Will falter That's why the Old Testament principle: like priests, like people If you learn anything from the Old Testament, You will learn, especially this evening, that as the leaders go, always go the people As the father goes, so goes the family That's why I always say that if you think that your family is in shambles, look no other place than in the mirror if you're a father Look at yourself Look at your own life If there are bad attitudes in my family, you got to look at my life If there are things crumbling down in my family, I got to look at my life As the leader goes, so go the people

Are there exceptions to that? Yeah, there are There are a few exceptions to that Where there were righteous kings who lived righteous lifestyles And the people Feigned obedience to what the king would say, but in their hearts they were still far from the Lord And when the king would die and go off the scene, Israel would go back to the way they were before that And so the bottom line is that we must lead that way That's why the first foundations all lead to that one Hub, that one axle that everything centers around And now the next five all stem from that one

And so as we look at them this evening, you'll begin to understand principle number seven, which simply is this, and that is foundation number seven is thirsting For the Christ Would it be that everybody in your family thirsts? For the Christ This is what we call the principle of allegiance We'll explain that to you here in a moment You'll see how it all comes together for you. A thirsty for Christ Wouldn't it be great if everybody in your family had the same thirst and drank from the same fountain and were able to be satisfied? By that living water

Listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 63. O God, you are my God. I shall seek you earnestly My soul thirsts for you My flesh yearns for you Ask yourself this question Could I write that song? Is that song characteristic of my life? My soul thirst for you, my flesh yearns for you In a dry and weary land where there is no water Thus I have seen you in the sanctuary to see your power and your gl Reminiscent of what the psalmist said earlier in Psalm 42 when the psalmist said these words, Psalm 42, verse number 1 Psalmist made it very clear that his passion was to follow the Lord

Psalm 42, as the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for you, O God My soul thirsts for God, for the living God Wow Can you write that? Can you echo that? Does your soul thirst for God? How about this? Psalm 7 The psalmist said these words Psalm 73, verse 25, Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I des nothing on earth Wow Can you say that? That's what the psalmist said. I desire nothing on earth My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever Verse 28 added, but as for me, the nearness of God is my good That's my good

Just the fact that God is near to me is all I need Can you say that? Do you have a thirsting for the Christ? If you go back to Psalm 63, listen carefully, because to thirst for Christ demands loyalty That's why we said that thirsting for Christ, that foundation has a principle That principle is the principle of allegiance Why? Because thirsting for Christ demands loyalty Look what the psalmist said Oh God, you are my God So his confession, his confession demonstrates to us he is loyal Oh God, you are my God

There was a conviction there, and that conviction was based on the confession that God was his God That's why a thirsty for Christ demands loyalty to that God You are my God And then he says this And I shall seek you earnestly Wow, earnestly Not only is there a confession But there is a craving bas on, listen, a cleaving. A craving based on a cleaving, my soul or early, I shall seek you earnestly My soul thirsts for you, my flesh year for you Look down at verse number eight My soul clings to you That's a loyalty

That's why a thirst for Christ demands loyalty based on my confession of who God is And my craving for God so much that I cleave, cl to that God And the word cling is a word that means to follow hard after It's a word of desper, it's a word of deep commitment It's a word of being glued together Does your heart cl to God? Do you follow hard after God? I'm not talking about meandering behind him, kind of looking at the things of the world as you follow far behind Remember Peter on the night he betrayed the Lord? It says that he followed the Lord from a distance From a distance He wasn't up close

He wasn't right behind him because if he was, it would cost him his life So he didn't want to follow too close, just from a distance But the psalmist says, My heart clings to you, I follow hard after you You see, the thirst for Christ demands loyalty And not only does it demand loyalty, it demonstrates long It says, My soul thirsts for you That's desire My flesh yearns for you That's devotion in a dry and weary land where there is no water There is this long to be with Christ

And then he says, Thus I have seen you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. A modern translation of that would be simply, Thus I have seen you in church In church. I go to the sanctuary because that's where the glory of the Lord dwells That's where His power is seen That's where His beauty is seen And I got to be there. I have to be there That's a soul that thirsts after Christ And you got to ask yourself the question: is that me? Because if it's not you, you have to ask yourself why it's not me

Why is it in me? And what is the problem as to why my soul doesn't thirst long By having this desire and yearning in my soul to be closer to the Christ. I'm going to answer that for you. I'm going to make it crystal clear for you So you understand that Let me see it this way Everyone in the room has a th Everyone does We are all thirsty You're born thirsty You're Because you're born separated from God You're born dead in trespasses and sin So you're born with this innate desire To fulfill the thirst in the depths of your soul Everyone has the same thirst Everyone does

In fact, you can say this: that the only motivation That a man will ever have is a desire to fulfill that thirst That would be true And there's nothing wrong with that The only thing wrong with that is the path you choose to fulfill the thirst Because the thirst you have in your soul is put there because you're separated from God And therefore, God puts it there, so you'll long for Him Isn it Augustine who said that my heart is, our man's heart is restless till he finds his rest in God? So true So true Listen to what the psalmist said Psalm 107, verse number nine

For he has satisfied the thirsty soul and the hungry soul he has filled with what is good In other words, every man has a thirsty, hungry soul And the Lord can satisfy the thirsty soul and fill the hungry soul with that which is good But everybody has a thirsty soul Everybody has a hungry soul In fact, The prophet Isaiah said this way in Isaiah 55: Ho, every who thirsts Who 's that? Everyone Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters And you who have no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money, without cost

Why do you spend your money for what is not bread? And your wages for what does not satisfy Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance Incline your ear and come to me Listen, that you may live Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 55 makes it very clear that everyone is thirsty But if you go to the wrong fountain, Drink from the wrong source The water is bitter, not sweet The water does not satisfy, but everyone is thirsty The Lord would pick up on this from Isaiah's words in John chapter 7

During the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, if you've been with me to Israel and you've had a chance to go down to the bottom part of the old city of David at the pool of Silom, Siloam means scent It was a pool that would be reminded that the waters were sent there, but it was symbolic of the Messiah who would soon be sent to Israel And they would go down, and the priests would take water from the Pool of Silom, and they've excavated the path which they would take up to the temple to pour out the water

Symbolizing that one day the Messiah would be sent because during the Feast of Tabernacles, they celebrated how the Messiah would take care of them Or the Lord God of Israel would take care of them in the wilderness And they were celebrating the fact that one Messiah would come And dwell among them and feed them and care for them and protect them and provide for them as the Lord God of Israel did in the wilderness So the Feast of Tabernacles becomes a supreme celebration For a Jewish person

It was on the day, the eighth day, some would say it was the seventh day of that feast, when they poured out the water that Jesus said these words with a loud voice In John 7, 3, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink So, as they would pour out the waters, the pool of the scent, they would then hear the words of the one who was sent, the Messiah About if anyone's thirsty, let him come to me

And then in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter. 21 It says in verse number 6, then he said to, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God He will be my son Chapter 22, verse number 17: The spirit and the bride say, Come, let the one who hears say, Come, and let the one who is thirsty come And let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost

So the Lord would pick up on the water of life from Isaiah 55 and how you can obtain the water without cost because it's the free gift of eternal life But Jesus Christ was the one who fulfills the thirst Everyone has a thirst, a hunger in their soul Because they're separated from God And the legitimate motivating factor in your life, in my life, is that thirst And that's okay, unless you fulfill that thirst on a path that leads you further from God So, think of it this way We all have a thirst. I have one of two paths: this one or this one Okay? I have the path

Of pleasure or the path of pain. I choose one or the other If I gave you the choice today, you'd choose the path of pleasure But the path of pleasure always leads to pain, and the path of pain always leads to pleasure Because the path of pleasure is temporary pleasure, and the path of pain is temporary pain Illustrated in the life of Moses in Hebrews chapter 11, he chose rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God, the path of pain Than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin for a season the path of pleasure

Made the right choice, right? The path of pleasure always leads to pain because there is a way with writing to a man, but the ends thereof are always the ways of death, not life, right? The wages of sin is death Okay? So the path of pleasure always leads to pain because the pain is always separation The path of pain to endure ill treatment with the people of God, to take up your cross and follow Christ, always leads to pleasure because at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Right? But we all have the same thirst

And we will fulfill that thirst in one of two ways: the path of temporary pleasure Or the path of temporary pain Temporary pain always leads to pleasure Because in thy presence is fullness of joy The path of temporary pleasure will always lead to pain, because there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are always the ways of death And it might not be physical death, it might be a death-like ex But everybody has the same thirst And that is illustrated very clearly in the book of Jeremiah in the second chapter So if you've got your Bible, turn to Jeremiah chapter 2

Jeremiah chapter 2 Why is it I am not like the psalmist? My soul thirst for thee My soul yearns for thee Earnestly will I seek thee There is a deep commitment that's there There's a longing that's there There's a drive that's there There's a passion that's there Why is it I read that and it takes no effect in my life Why is it I read that and I'm like, wow, I wish I was that way Why is it I read that and I'm like, I'm yawning

Why is that? Why is it when I read that, I'm not like, wow, man, that's got to be me. I got to go there. I want to drink from the well of living water. I want to be with the Christ Instead, it's like, well, maybe What happened? What happen? Same thing that happened to Israel Jeremiah preached to Israel for forty years And they never listened. I've been preaching here for it, it'll be our 24th anniversary here in a couple of weeks, 24 years And we got a whole bunch of people who listen And I praise the Lord for that But Jeremiah preached, nobody listened They threw him in a pit Pit

And yet, he preached for 40 years Preached to Judah about their apostasy and the impending judgment of God And he preaches a sermon that is so uniquely orchestrated because it's under the inspiration of the Spirit of God It's so uniquely put together that when you read it, you think, wow, that's just like today Because God's Word is living and abiding and powerful, and it just crosses all generations and times because God's Word is so clearly applicable to our lives So listen to what the word of the Lord says through the pen of Jeremiah the prophet Jeremiah chapter 2

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the Lord, I remember the concern Concerning you, the devotion of your youth Now, remember, Israel is the wife God God is the husband, right? And God is looking at the wedding album The wedding album You ever gone and looked at your wedding album? You go back and you reminisce about how things were? You say, wow, sure wish they were like that again Boy, it was so great back then

And the Lord, it's like opening the wedding album of Is, his wife, his betrothed. I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth God is helping Israel to understand from whence they've come The love of your betrothals, you're following after me in the wilderness. I remember when, as a bride, you were a submissive bride Submissive wife, following after me. I remember your devotion, how clearly you had devoted yourself to me You're following after me in the wilderness through a land not sown And then he says, Israel was holy to the Lord, the first of his harvest And as God is rem through

For lack of a better phrase, the wedding album of He and Israel, he switches to himself to show you the deep commitment of God to his people He was passionate about his people He says, Israel was holy to the Lord, the first of his harvests They were set apart by the Lord This was his passion They were the first fruits of his harvest They were the best They were the choicest people Not because they were bigger or better than anybody else, but he chose them And all who ate of it became guilty Evil came upon them, declares the Lord In other words, he was their protector

All who came against Israel was guilty, and evil would come upon those who came against God's people He was fiercely protective of his people He was fiercely passionate about his people And he was fiercely the provider of his people And it says down in verse number seven: I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things Wow. I provided for you. I protected you. I was completely passionate about you That's me And then in verse number 4, he says, Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel Thus says the Lord

What injustice did your fathers find in me that they went far from me? And walked after emptiness and bec empty Was there some injustice in me? God is saying, Look, I didn't dump you, you dumped me You left me. I didn't leave you You went far from me Because there was no injustice with me. I was your provider. I was your protector. I was faithful. I was passionate But somehow, some way, you went far from me and in your journeys, what did you find? Emptiness and therefore you became empty There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of de, always

They did not say, Where is the Lord? No one asked that question Who brought us up in the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of deep darkness, through a land that no one crossed and where no man dwelt Where is the Lord? Who did all that for? Where'd he go? No one asked that question Well, how come nobody asked that question? You got two million Jews, nobody asked the question

How come no one asks the question? It says, I brought you into the fruitful land to eat of its fruit and its good things, but you came and defiled my land and my inheritance You made an abomination And this is this: the priests, your leaders Your spiritual leaders did not say, Where is the Lord? Not even those who lead you spiritually asked the question So, not only did two million Jews not ask the question, but the spiritual leaders of the two million Jews didn't ask the question either And those who handle the law Did not know me Wow

Just because you have a holy call doesn't make you a holy man Right? Even the priests who handled the law had no idea who I am The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked into things that did Not profit They walked into things that were empty So you went away from me, you left me to go far away from me And what did you find? Emptiness, futility The leaders never asked, Where is the Lord? And what did they find? Emptiness No gain, no profit Just loss

So, pre tell how does that happen? What took place in Israel's life? What took place in the priest's life that would lead them far away from God and never to ask the question, where's the Lord? Where is the Lord? Verse 17 says, Have you not done this to yourself? By your forsaking the Lord your God when he led you in the way? Did you not do this yourself? The old adage, if you feel far away from God, guess who moved? applies to Israel God didn't go anywhere He was still there You went far away from me You did this to yourself You sought to fulfill your thirst To the path of temporary pleasure

And what did you get? Just more thirst, emptiness, futility, zero And you know what? You did it to yourself Can't blame Satan Certainly can't blame your husband God the Father can't blame the great God Jehovah So who are you going to blame? And no one to blame but yourself So it says in verse number nine, Therefore, I will yet contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your sons, sons I will contend. I'm going let you know something. I'm going to speak the truth, the Lord says. I'm going tell you what happened So everybody knows exactly what took place, why you are so empty

Why you are so broken, why you are going into captivity, and why you will be there for 70 long years. I'm going tell you why Ac the coastlands, this is verse number 10 of Kidd That's Cyprus in the west And send to Kad That 's the tribe in the east And observe closely So go as far to the west as you can Go as far to the east as you can and observe this very, very closely He says, and see if there has been such a thing as this You can go as far as you want to the west and as far as you want to the east and you will never ever find an abom such as Israel had committed Against their God

Listen to what he says So profound Has a nation changed gods? When they were no gods? Have you ever met a nation who worshipped a pagan god who ever changed pagan gods? Answer never Did the Canaanites ever switch from Baal to somebody else? Nope Did they ever switch from Ast to somebody else? Did the Babylonians ever switch their gods? No You can go all the way to the west, you can go all the way to the east, and you will find nothing like this You will not find one One pagan nation who ever chang gods ever

In fact, say it this way: there has never been a pagan nation who worship a dead God who changed their dead God But you Switch a living God for a dead God That's why he says you will never find anything like this ever That's how profound it is He says, but my people have changed their glory for that which there's not profit Again, he goes back Same thing he said in verse number 8, same thing he said in verse number 5 You changed my glory You changed the glory of the living God for a dead God You change the beauty and the br of the great God Jehovah

For a dead God who gives you no profit, who gives you no life, who gives you nothing but futility and emptiness and worthlessness That's what you did Who does that? You'll be surprised Not just Israel But we do the same thing We choose the path of temporary pleasure over the path of temporary pain more often than you ever would want to admit For whenever you sin, you've chosen the path of temporary pleasure, and you have forfeited the path of temporary pain, only to realize that the end is futility and emptiness Not life and joy

So the Lord says this Be appalled, O heavens. I mean, who's he to talk to? He's going to talk to the angels, right? Can't talk to anybody on earth because they don't get it His chosen bride, they went the other way, they went far away from him Who's he going to talk to? The heavenly hosts, be appalled, O heavens, at this and shudder Shake uncontrollably under what you're about to hear Be very desolate, declares the Lord For my people, I've committed, ready? Two evil This is what they've done This is why they no longer thirst for me That's why they no longer yearn for me

They've committed two evils They have forsaken me The fountain of living waters And they have hewed for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can h no w Wow This is what they've done They have forsaken me The God who Who provided, who protected them, who was passionate about them, who loved them uncond They forsook all that They walked away from it Far away from it They walked away from the fountain of living water Now remember, Israel is a very arid land, it's very dry And water is of great importance And God says that He is the living water

That is, the living waters are throughout the scriptures symbolic of eternal life Okay? And so they forsook that which was eternal for that which was temporal and material They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water In other words, they dug for themselves cisterns That give them nothing, that give them temporary pleasure for a moment, but then it's all gone, it all wisps away It's gone That's why it says back in verse number five: they walk after emptiness It's a word that means mist or vapor

They walk after something that's gone in a second And therefore, they become empty This is what they've done God defines evil this way He doesn't define evil by saying adultery, homosexuality, drunkenness, immorality He defines evil this way: seek j outside of the living God Anything that you seek outside of God to fulfill a thirst that only God can fulfill is ev in the eyes of God Imagine that it's evil It's an abomination to him They walked far away from me It says down in verse number 19, your evil is bitter You thought it was going to be sweet, but it became bitter

It was bitter in your mouth For you to forsake the Lord your God, and the dread of me is not in you, decl the Lord God of hosts You don 't fear me anymore Back in Deuteronomy chapter 6, he said, You be careful that when you go into a land and you live in houses you did not build and drink from cisterns, you did not dig and grow grain and fields, you did not plow You be careful that you don't forget God and no longer Fear me and no longer serve me You be careful about that They were careful about it They forgot their God They forgot their God They have forsaken me, the living water

And dug for themselves cisterns that hold no water Look at this, verse 20 For long ago I broke your yoke and tore off your bonds, but you said, I will not serve you Wow God set him free God set him free that they might serve him and that they might worship him And their response was: uh-uh, I'm not serving you. I'm not going the path of temporary pain. I'm not going to endure ill treatment with the people of God. I'd rather enjoy the passing pleasures of sin for a season. I'm not going to serve you No way That was their response

For on every high hill and under every green tree, you have lain down as a harlot They committed spiritual adultery Because you see, they had sought their j in a source outside the living God, and that's called idolat You commit spiritual adultery Listen, you commit spiritual adultery every time you seek pleasure outside of the living waters Because you sin, and that's an evil in the eyes of God, and you have played the spiritual harlot That's what God says That's so profound So much more He says, verse 23: You are a swift young camel entangling her waist

You what you're like? You're like a newborn camel If you've ever seen a newborn camel, they have what we call C A D D It's called CAD It's called Camel att def dis Every young camel has CAD They never stay in one place longer than three seconds They're here, then they're there, then they go, then they go Yeah, they're everywhere, everywhere, everywhere That's Israel Well, that doesn't work Let's go here That doesn' Let's go here Oh, that doesn't work Let's go here That doesn't work So let's go here That you entangle yourself in all kinds of evil You're like a young camel

You don't sit still long enough to listen And then he says this: this is even worse. A wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness that sniffs the wind in her passion in the time of her healing. heat who can turn away her turn her away you're you're like you're like a a donkey in heat who must Search and find a partner that somehow will satisfy you None of them do None of them do Verse 31, O gener, heed the word of the Lord Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, We are free to roam We will no longer come to you

What? Am I darkness to you? What am I to you that would cause you to say, I'm free, I'm free to roam the plains of sin and to fulfill my longings Can the Virgin forget her ornaments or bride her att? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number The Lord God of Israel, through the pen of Jeremiah the prophet, chronicles the process through which Israel moved away from their God My people, he says, committed two evils They have forsaken me, the well of living water They have left me Be appalled at that, O heavens Be astonished

It's like the angel was saying, Really? Why would they do that? How could they possibly do that after all you've done for them? But they did They have forsaken me, the well of living water, and they've dug for themselves cisterns that hold no. water He says, you've never seen anything like this You can go all the way to the west, you can go all the way to the east, and you'll never ever find anything as absolutely ludicrous As to what my people did And every time you choose the path of temporary pleasure to fulfill the thirst of your soul

What you have done is committed spiritual adultery and harlotry against your God And that's evil Say, wow. I need to thirst How do I do that? How much time do I have left? Do I have five minutes, ten minutes? Five minutes? All right, let me give it to you If I'm going to develop a thirst for God, I'm going to go back and be like the psalmist, it necessitates, it necessitates a putting as of every single wickedness that I have Necessitates that Colossians chapter 3 Listen to this

Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, which amounts to idolatry For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked when you were living in them, but now you also put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, abuse of speech from your mouth

Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him Paul uses in Colossians, Ephesians, and Peter uses it in 1 Peter chapter 2 We'll look at it in a second, of the putting off and putting on When you were baptized in the early church, you came with your old clothes

And you discarded your old clothes, were baptized, and when you came up out of the water, you were given new clothes by the church. I think we need to adopt this practice in our church. I really do Take your old clothes, throw them away Trish could buy you brand new clothes and you could put them on Because it was symbolic for them Symbolic of the garments of God He clothes you with the robes of righteousness The garments of God Going down to the water, coming back up out of the water, symbolic of dying with

Christ being raised with Him, the putting on the new garments symbolized the garments of God that you are clothed in God's garments And so you put aside the old and you put on the new See? Well, they did And Paul is picking up on that analogy and said, you've got to put aside all anger, in wrath, in malice And those things like impurity and immorality and idolatry, all you gotta put, that's what the world does You gotta put all that aside Peter says it this way, First Peter chapter 2 Therefore, putting aside the same phraseolog Strip them off

Put aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, all slander It's an all-encompassing kind of thing You got to get rid of it all Not just some slander, and some malice, and some hypocrisy, and some envy You've got to get rid of all the malice and all the wickedness, all the deceitfulness, all the phoniness, all of the foolishness You've got to get rid of all of it All of it, he says That's why he emphasizes three times all, all, all You have to Rid yourself It necess a putting off, a putting away of all w

The putting away, listen carefully, the putting away of all wickedness, okay, gener a passion for the word of the Lord Why is it we don't passionately desire the word of the Lord? We have yet to put away malice and envy and jealousy and deceit And the word malice is a word, a general word, dealing with all wickedness We kind of hang on to those things And one of the foundations for the family, to build a strong family, is you got to put that stuff aside It's got to be put away It necessitates a putting aside of all that is wicked, which generates a passion for all that is worthy

And that is the Lord God himself Because he says then in verse number two, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect of salvation You ever watch a newborn baby? As newborn babes, you need to desire the pure mother of the Lord You can't do that if you have yet to put off all malice, all hypocrisy, all envy, all jealousy All slandering, unless you put that off, you are not going to generate a passion to long for the pure milk of the word Not going to do it Notice he says if you put all that stuff off, now you can teach the word

Nope, didn't say that Well, now you can study the word Nope, didn't say that either Well, now you can meditate on the word Nope You can put away all these things You cannot preach the word Nope, didn't say that either What did he say? Now you can long for the pure milk of the word Because unless you long for it, you can't preach it, can't teach it, can't demonstrate it, right? Can't memorize it, can't study it You got long for it And the reason we're not longing for it is because we have yet to put aside all those things that hinder me from an undistracted life

You ever watch a newborn baby when they're hungry? They just scream until they are able to latch on to their mother's breast, and then they're like at ease And you ever notice that a newborn babe is undaunted and undistracted? They know what they want and they know where to get it And they kick and scream till they get it When was the last time you kicked and screamed until you got the pure milk of the word? When's the last time you cried uncontrollably until you got the pure milk of the word? See that? See the difference? Set aside all these things

It necessitates a putting away of all that's wicked, which generates a passion for all that is worthy the Word of God The Word of God That's how it comes together Sounds kind of simplistic, but it really isn't It truly is the truth of God You know, think about Christianity: it's not rocket science Okay? You don't have to have a Ph to understand Christianity Christianity In fact, most people with PhDs don't get Christianity Right? You know, it's like Stephen Hawkins in his final book, who came to the conclusion that there is no God Smartest man who ever lived That was his conclusion

He was the dumbest man that ever lived. I don't care what he created or what he knew Because he came to the conclusion that there was no God Seriously? What planet did you live on? Oh, guess what? Now he knows Now he knows Now he understands that there is a God He's held accountable to all that he said and all that he did And so there's just so much to understand And I don't have time to cover it for you, which makes it difficult for me because there's so much I want to say It necessitates a putting away, a putting aside of all that's wicked

And that generates a passion for that which is worthy, the word of God, and that eventuates in the pursuit of doing the will of God, and that accelerates the practice of the ways of God, and that perpetuates the participation in the work of God Boy, I wish I could I cover all that for you because that's exactly what happens But you need to know this: if you leave tonight, don't miss this You all have a thirst, you all have a passion, you all have a drive Every single one of you has that It's innate to human nature to thirst

To long because you're separated from God, and you will always be thirsty until you drink from the well of living water And those who do are never disappointed Just never are And yet, in the book of Jeremiah, God chronicles everything for Israel and for you and me to understand what happened He just simply says, This, look, you just need to be astonished at this This is kind of un in the human realm That is, they have forsaken me They have forsaken me

Can you imagine turning away and walking as far as you can from me? So much so, you're like a little camel that's been born and trying to go every which way you possibly Possibly can You're like a donkey in heat, looking for more people to lay with and sleep with to satisfy the depths of your soul And it's empty, it's futility, it's worthless, there's nothing there, you can't do it So be appalled That's what they did They forsook me and they dug for themselves broken cisterns That hold no water Wow

So just remember this: that evil In the eyes of God, not what I say, but in the eyes of God, is turning your back on God And choosing the path of temporary pleasure to satisfy a thirst that only he him can satisfy That is life's ultimate evil We need to thirst for the Christ and only the Christ We pray with you Father, thank you for tonight. A chance to be in your word We've gone extra long Yet, Lord, it's so true to read what we have read this evening, to realize the severity of walking away from you May we be like the psalmists who truly thirst for the true and living God

May we not go after that which is empty and futile and worthless, broken cisterns that hold no water But the living water, Christ Himself, to satisfy our deepest longings We pray in your name Amen.