John 5:39 (KJV)
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Sermons
Encouragement from the Lord, placed on my heart and shared with you.
“Living Water”
Delivered at The Blue Sky Cathedral Outreach – Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sometimes in the Church you hear words that they don’t use anywhere else.
Call them Church Words.
Some of them need more explaining to understand.
Iniquity – injustice; unfairness; wickedness; sin.
The acts or actions that lead to sin and to bringing it about.
Luke 18:11 (NIV)
The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
I DIDN’T GET IT
The water from the lake comes up on the beach.
The birds chirp in the trees.
The wind blows through the air.
The horns and the tires of traffic make noise on the street.
All these sounds are always there but I don’t listen to them.
I here them but they have become all too common in my life.
I don’t get it.
Why should I pay attention to them?
They’re just sounds and they don’t concern me.
That’s how iniquity is… and I didn’t get it.
My focus was on what affected me personally and I give no concern to anything else.
As long as it wasn’t me it was O.K. I didn’t care, it didn’t matter.
I give no mind to it and I didn’t take it to heart.
I just didn’t get it.
Big Sin vs. Little Sin
The thing is I went to Church, I believed in God, and I wasn’t that bad.
I could point out a whole bunch of “them” that were a whole lot worse than me.
I didn’t get it.
Just like the Pharisee, I was not one of Them.
I saw myself as not doing what They did.
Sure I told a few lies, but that was O.K.
Later I told bigger lies and that – became O.K.
When I started drinking and drugging it was O.K. because – my guy’s did it.
Money was short and I started cuffing stuff; it was O.K. because – I had a habit.
It was O.K. to grab my thumper and start taking stuff because – I wasn’t scared.
If they wouldn’t give it up it was O.K. to use the thumper because – they were my Vic’s.
Finally when I got locked up it was O.K. because – it’s all part of the game.
It was about ME.
I listened to MYSELF.
I did what I wanted to do.
Me – Myself – and I
I just didn’t get it
Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
There is no “Big” sin or “Little” sin; there is only SIN…period!
Every big sinner started as a little sinner and all sin leads to DEATH.
James 4:1-3 (NIV)
What causes fights and quarrels among you?
Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
You desire but do not have, so you kill.
You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
You do not have because you do not ask God.
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,
that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Drive by’s, bulling, sufferings, and injustice of any kind; All unrighteousness is wrong.
It’s not just wrong when it happens to ME or the people I care about.
If I say it’s O.K. when it happens to somebody else then I’m also saying it’s O.K. if it happens to me.
Jesus said to love your brother as you love yourself.
Any time that WE say anything other than what Jesus said, then… in iniquity… We’ve stopped listening.
Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)
The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.
Why is one little sin O.K. and why do we keep telling ourselves that it is?
The reality is that all sin is the same.
It’s all bad.
It’s never good and that’s the TRUTH.
The effects of Hitler in World War II were very bad, but so are the effects of an average liar on society.
Which do you think is worst?
If you’re trying to choose an answer to the question… STOP.
Both start when we choose to start believing a little wrong is alright, that it doesn’t hurt.
The little stuff just gets bigger.
We don’t understand what wrong is, and… when we do understand – we somehow think its O.K. to still do wrong under certain conditions.
When I get thirsty… I need a drink.
I don’t just want one… I need one.
It’s the same way with the Living Water that flows from Jesus Christ;
I needed to understand that I need to need Him.
That’s what I didn’t get.
The law, the Ten Commandments didn’t change or stop sin at all.
Even when I know what sin is… I still won’t stop sinning.
My sinful nature keeps me in it’s grip; I’m powerless.
I needed to understand my NEED for needing Jesus.
Not just a need for Jesus, but…
A NEED FOR NEEDING HIM!
It wasn’t until I knew that I needed to need Him, that I started wanting Him.
Only then did it start to matter to me personally.
That’s when I became concerned, and finally it was not O.K. to go a day without Him.
Psalm 27:4 (NIV)
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.
When you need that water you drink it in and nothing else will satisfy your desire.
The LIVING WATER is the HOLY SPIRIT of Christ.
I had to get to know my need for needing to take it in.
That day came and I thank God it did.
That’s the day that I was born again, born of the Spirit, taking Christ to heart.
1 John 2:29 (NIV)
If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Blessings,
Matt.
In the Spirit 