 |
| Rev. Brent Russett |
By Rev. Brent
Russett
Pastor of
Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/ _______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, July 21st, 2013:
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/14775/good_news_062_july21.mp3
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‘Living Water and Broken Cisterns’
Good morning. And welcome to good news in the morning.
My name is Brent Russett. I am the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church.
It is my pleasure to look at some of life’s challenges, and then bring you some
good news in the morning.
This program is sponsored by Good News Christian
Ministries, Box 184 Rideau Ferry, ON K0G1W0. Or you can find us on the web at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca
Last week I talked about how Jesus came that we might
have life and have it to the full. We looked at all at how the Bible calls us
to “Take Hold of the life that is really life.” We looked at what it means to
really live. If you missed that you can listen to it on our website, Goodnewsinthemorning.ca
This
morning I want to remind you to accept no substitutes for the life that is
really life.
Music
My
Grandma and Grandpa house was located 4 kilometers down the road from the farm
where I grew up. In the kitchen of my Grandparents house was a wood cook stove.
By the time I came along my Grandma had an electric stove, but she still used
the wood stove, to bake bread and keep water warm – because-- you never knew
when you needed a cup of tea.
That
wood cook stove was more than just a stove. My grandfather would cut the wood
for that stove. My mother’s three brothers would split and pile the wood for
that stove.
It
was one of those old farm houses, and so in the winter time, when you were
getting out of bed, the upstairs rooms were freezing, so you would rush down
and gather around the stove. That stove was a focal point in the house of my
grandparents. There was a lot of life lived around that stove. A lot of
important things in terms of conversation and relationships went on around that
stove.
Of
course now if I want to heat up the house, I go to a little nob on my all and
turn it up. If I want to heat up water for a cup of tea, I just click on the
kettle. Life is either But neither do our houses have the same kind of focal
point where life is lived. It seems like as we gain technology in a world we
lose meaning.
When
it comes to taking hold of the life that
is really life –the technological advances of the last hundred years, have made
life easier, but we have made finding meaning and real life harder. It seems
like we lost something very important.
When
my Grandparents wanted to hear music, it would either happen in their kitchen,
or they would have to go out to the community hall. It was a community event. Now I can dial up Yo Yo Ma on my ipod, - and I
can bring the best music in the world into my living room, but at the same time
we have lost a whole lot of what is important that surrounded the music of days
gone by.
Things
like community, and interaction, and the satisfaction that those things bring
in life.
Now
don’t get me wrong, I am not a Luddite. I love technology. I love gadgets. I
just think that as we adopt gadgets, we may be missing out on life.
You
see nothing worthwhile comes easy. I don’t know if you have every tried to
learn to play a musical instrument, or paint a picture. When you first set out
– lets pick the violin. When you first set out to play the violin, it is
painful. It is not satisfactory at all. But if you work on it , you can get to
a level of competence, where there is real satisfaction in playing.
Compare
that satisfaction level to purchasing a C.D. You get the new music, you love
it. – but for how long after a couple days, a week, a couple of weeks the
satisfaction level starts to drop off. And if you want to get more satisfaction
you are going to have to go buy another CD.
We
live in a world that is losing meaning, and we are trying to buy our
satisfaction.
Now
all of what I have just said is true for both the Christian and the non
Christian. But for the Christian this world is exceptionally perilous to our
soul. For it is training us to try to buy satisfaction rather than finding it
in Jesus.
I
would suggest to you that learning to follow Jesus, and having you needs met in
Jesus – learning to be a disciple is kind of like learning the violin. When you
first start out it is hard. You are just trying to get your bearings. Learning
to pray, to find your way around the bible is hard. Learning to navigate the
spiritual life is challenging – but as you learn to walk by faith there is a
satisfaction that can only be found in Jesus – It can’t be found any other way.
There
are ways of trying to live your spiritual life where you lose track of what is
important, and you go for quick hits of spirituality that quickly lose their
appeal. This morning I want to urge you to take hold of the life that is really
life, and accept no substitutes.
Music
Let me tell you a Jesus story that
is found John 4.
Jesus
is in the southern part of Israel called Judea, and he wants to travel to
Galilee, which is in the Northern part of Israel. Between Judea and Galilee was
a place called Samaria. Often travelers would take the long way around to avoid
Samaria. The Jews of Jesus day looked at Samaritans kind of the way we look at
country hicks or hillbillies. The Jews thought they knew better. They thought
they were better and they were just a little bit scared of the Samaritians. The
reality was that Jews and Samaritians did not talk to one another.
Jesus
did not take the long way around. He traveled right through Samaria. His
disciples had gone into town to purchase supplies and Jesus ended up by a well.
By
the well was a woman. Now this woman was aware of the political forces around
her. She could debate from different perspectives. She was probably a good
looking woman. She had no problem getting a man. She did however, have a
problem hanging onto a man, or maybe the men had a hard time holding on to her.
When
we catch up with her in the story, she has already been married 5 times. And
now she is living with a man that she is not married to.
It
was culturally inappropriate in Jesus day for a man to talk to a woman who was
not part of his family - alone. It was culturally inappropriate to for a Jew to
talk to a Samaritian. So after a long walk Jesus sat by a well around noon. In
a short time a Samaritian woman came to draw water from the well – and what
does Jesus do – He says hi there.
Well
actually what he said was please give me a drink.
9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have
anything to do with Samaritans.* She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a
Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for
you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living
water.”
Jesus,
as was his practice moved the conversation towards a spiritual end. Lady, God
has a gift for you. If you knew about it, you would be asking me – and I would
give you living water.
Just
a couple things to note: God has a gift, not just for this woman, but for
whoever would look to him. And you will note that Jesus gives this gift to whoever
asks, you are no exception.
Then
Jesus says, if you were to ask, I would give you living water.
The
question is, why does Jesus use this metaphor? Living water. It goes quite
nicely because he is sitting beside a well, and he had already asked for water.
But
Jesus could have went for the kingdom of God, or her need of life, or told her
about how she could find rest for her soul. Instead he uses a metaphor that
ties into quenching a thirsty soul. I think he did this, because he realized
and quite possibly this woman realized that her soul was thirsty. Jesus comes
along and says I can give you water for your soul that will really satisfy.
Why
is it that she went from man to man to man. There is something in her soul that
is thirsty.
But
this woman still hadn’t caught on that Jesus was talking about a spiritual
reality.
11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she
said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And
besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this
well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals
enjoyed?”
13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon
become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give
will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them,
giving them eternal life.”
Jesus
is saying, it is a different kind of water – if you drink it your soul will
never be thirsty again. In fact it will become like an artesian well that keeps
on bubbling up. It keeps on flowing. It gives you a constant supply of life and
gives you eternal life.
There
is a deep satisfaction of soul that happens when you drink from the water that
Jesus gives.
Often
when people begin with Christ, they are bubbling and overflowing with life. But
sometimes to continue into that deep satisfaction of the soul, it is kind of
like learning to play the violin. The journey is challenging but the satisfaction is deep.
The
bible says be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes allowing him to fill
us and to deal with the stuff that blocks us is hard. Sometimes dealing with
what this world hands us is hard, and instead of going to Jesus for the
satisfaction of our soul we turn to other things.
Have
you ever found yourself doing that. It would be nothing new. A little earlier
in the service we heard Jeremiah 2 read. This is written about 600 years before
Jesus.
Whenever
we look for something to satisfy our souls other than Jesus it is called
idolatry. We are putting our desire for a quick fix ahead of God.
Jeremiah 2
11 Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones,
even though
they are not gods at all?
Yet my
people have exchanged their glorious God*
for
worthless idols!
12 The heavens are shocked at such a thing
and shrink
back in horror and dismay,”
says the
Lord.
Catch this
13 “For my people have done two evil things:
They have
abandoned me—
the fountain
of living water.
And they
have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can
hold no water at all!
Jesus says that
if we drink of the water that he is offering, living water, we will never
thirst again. But sometimes what happens is we abandon that water and go
looking for other water sources.
Larry Crabb describes it this way,
“Digging leaky wells highlights our
desire for immediate satisfaction on demand and on terms we can control. This
is an immense problem. We experience soul-pain, a profoundly empty space that
demands to be filled. We settle for lesser satisfactions than living water. We
want pleasure that will fill us with joy. We dig wells when we are ruled by urges
to feel good now. Whatever provides even a brief experience of ache-free
happiness becomes irresistible. And we assume the responsibility to arrange for
the pleasure we want. We dig our own wells. We don't like being at the mercy of
an unpredictable God.”
Here is the dynamic he is
describing. We thirst so we dig a hole. Then we find that we are not satisfied
and so we dig another hole. We try to dig our own wells. We abandon the spring
of living water for cisterns that can’t hold water at all.
Doesn’t that just sound like us
sometimes?
I have watched people make idols of
work, or careers, of family, of food, or entertainment, of alcohol, of
adrenaline rushes, of sex, of hobbies, and each time they dug a hole, they
would get a little satisfaction, but those holes just won’t hold water – and
you end up unsatisfied.
It is kind of like buying the C.D.
It is great for the first little while, and then it gets old real quick, and
fails to satisfy, and so you have to buy another one.
It is not that the things I
mentioned are bad in their place, it is just that that is not where you are
going to find life.
But learning to pray is sometimes an
unsatisfactory experience. Learning to hear God’s voice through scripture and
through others and through his Spirit is sometimes an unsatisfactory
experience. Learning to worship, or to have fellowship, or to serve, or to use
your spiritual gifts are sometimes challenging.
But as your soul learns to have
communion with God, as you learn to uncover the spring of living water, there
is a deep sustaining satisfaction that goes one in you.
The bible instructs us to be filled
with the Spirit. The way it is written, it is an ongoing process. Here is what
I have found – it is a learned process. I have to make space for God in order
for God to have the opportunity to fill me.
But God doesn’t seem to work on my
schedule. Sometimes the stress is overwhelming and a simple prayer does not fix
it. Sometimes, the pain of betrayal, or grief, is deep, and God doesn’t seem to
work bring peace right away. Sometimes the fear is consuming –and I look for
courage – but it is challenging to find God.
In those times it is really tempting
to go out and dig our own wells. Depending on where you find immediate confort,
you may be tempted to over eat, or get drunk, or high. There are thousands of
ways to dig wells – but they are really a substitute for what God wants to do.
Here is what I have found. God’s
word is still true.
1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No testing has overtaken you that is not common to
everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your
strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may
be able to endure it.
God is faithful. He will come
through.. It may not be on your time table but he will come through. Wait and
accept no substitutes. For you will find as you wait, that he is your real
source of strength and help. He will be with you.
Prayer:
Lord, I pray
that you would give the people who are listening, the ability to take hold of you,
because you have come that they might have life, and have it to the full. I pray
Lord, that they would accept no substitutes for life: that they would find their
real life in you. I pray Lord that you would speak into the core of who they are,
with your blessing of life.
We pray this
in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thank you, Listeners for your words of encouragement,
and for keeping us in your
prayers., Keeping this program
on the air continues to be a work of faith. As you probably know, the summer
month are financial struggle. If you can help with that, please make out a cheque
payable to Good News Christian Ministries, Box 184 , Rideau Ferry , On.
K0G 1W0. Or you can give online by going
to goodnewsinthemorning.ca
If
you go to that website, goodnewsinthemorning.ca you can also follow us on
twitter, or our blog.
Alan Churchill,
the founding pastor of this ministry is writing a monthly devotional. Alan is
well known for his spiritual insight and ability to communicate the truth of
God. If you would like to receive this devotional, go to our website at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca and sign up to start receiving it right
to you e-mail inbox. We know that God will bless you through this ministry.
(It has been a pleasure to spend
this morning with you. My name is Brent Russett. You can follow me on twitter.
@brentrussett)
May you know
Jesus Christ personally and profoundly.
May the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart . And may the heavenly Father surround you with
His constant and abiding and accompanying love
Music -
- Rev. Brent Russett
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To listen to
the above broadcast, click on the following link: http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/14775/good_news_062_july21.mp3
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