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Saved but Not Spiritual- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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  Speaker 1: Hi friends, I'm Max Locato. Welcome to Fresh Hope. I
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  Speaker 1: am so glad you've joined me. In the first episode
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  Speaker 1: of the series based on my book, Come Thirsty, we
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  Speaker 1: learned a wonderful truth. You don't have to live with
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  Speaker 1: a dehydrated heart. Again this week, our God invites you
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  Speaker 1: to treat your thirsty soul as you would treat your
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  Speaker 1: physical thirst. Let's visit the well together and drink deeply.
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  Speaker 1: A while back I took a road trip to a
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  Speaker 1: place called Tuckertown. It's just north of Stress Village and
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  Speaker 1: a few miles east of Worryville. Her residents live up
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  Speaker 1: to the name. Eyes down, shoulders slumped. I asked them
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  Speaker 1: to explain their sluggish ways and they pointed to the cars.
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  Speaker 1: You'd be tired too if you had to push one
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  Speaker 1: of these, they said. And that's what they do. Shoulders pressing,
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  Speaker 1: they muscle automobiles up and down the street. Rather than drive,
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  Speaker 1: they push. The sight puzzled me. Citizens of Tuckertown turned
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  Speaker 1: the key and slip the car into neutral, and shove.
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  Speaker 1: A young mother rolled her minivan into the grocery store
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  Speaker 1: parking lot. Ever thought of pressing the gas, I asked. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I do, she replied. I press the gas to start
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  Speaker 1: the car, and then I take over. I saw a
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  Speaker 1: trucker do the same with his semi. Why not use
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  Speaker 1: your accelerator, I asked. Oh, because I'm a Tucker trucker,
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  Speaker 1: he said, and we're strong enough to do our own work.
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  Speaker 1: Who would live in such a way? Well, Paul asked
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  Speaker 1: the Galatian church an identical question in Galatians 3 and
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  Speaker 1: verse 3. You began your life in Christ by the Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Now you are trying to make it complete by your
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  Speaker 1: own foolish power. That is foolish. Is God nothing more
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  Speaker 1: than a jumper cable? Corinthian Christians pushed a few cars too.
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  Speaker 1: Paul said to them, You are still not spiritual. 1
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  Speaker 1: Corinthians 3 and verse 3. What was he saying? Are
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  Speaker 1: they saved? Yes. He addresses them as brothers and sisters.
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  Speaker 1: He considers them to be God's children, saved but not spiritual,
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  Speaker 1: plugged in but not flipped on. Brothers and sisters, he says,
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  Speaker 1: I had to talk to you as I would to
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  Speaker 1: people without the Spirit. Babies in Christ. You are still
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  Speaker 1: not spiritual because there is jealousy and quarreling among you,
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  Speaker 1: and this shows that you are not spiritual. You are
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  Speaker 1: acting like people of the world. That's in chapter 3,
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  Speaker 1: verses 1 through 3. I used to think there were
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  Speaker 1: two kinds of people, the saved and the unsaved. Paul
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  Speaker 1: corrects me by describing the third, the saved but unspiritual.
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  Speaker 1: The spiritual person is spirit-dependent and spirit-directed. This person seeks
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  Speaker 1: to walk in the spirit, as Galatians 5, 16 says.
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  Speaker 1: The unspiritual person cranks the car and hunkers behind it.
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  Speaker 1: These people act like people of the world, 1 Corinthians 3, 3.
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  Speaker 1: They let God save them, but not change them. We
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  Speaker 1: call this carnal Christianity, and it frustrates Paul. He says
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  Speaker 1: in Galatians 3, 3, that is foolish. Foolish and miserable.
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  Speaker 1: You don't want to carpool with unspiritual Christians. They have
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  Speaker 1: no kind words to share. There is jealousy and strife,
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  Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians 3.3. The only joy they know graduated from
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  Speaker 1: high school last year. And gratitude? Gratitude for what? The
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  Speaker 1: two-ton hummer they have to push uphill? The saved but
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  Speaker 1: unspiritual see salvation the way a farmer sees salvation. Hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of acres of untilled soil, lots of work, church attendance,
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  Speaker 1: sin resistance. No wonder they're tired. No wonder they argue.
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  Speaker 1: One translation of 1 Corinthians 3.3 puts it this way.
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  Speaker 1: You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other.
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  Speaker 1: Doesn't that prove you're controlled by your own desires? Harsh words,
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  Speaker 1: joyless days, contentious relationships, thirsty hearts. Who wants to live
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  Speaker 1: in Tuckertown? Who wants to move there? Nothing repels non-Christians
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  Speaker 1: more than gloomy Christians. No one wants a free truck
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  Speaker 1: if you have to push it. And God doesn't want
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  Speaker 1: it for any of us. His word for tuckered out
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  Speaker 1: Christians can be found in Colossians 2.6. As you received
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  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him.
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  Speaker 1: How does one receive Christ? By becoming thirsty and drinking deeply.
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  Speaker 1: How then does one live in Christ? By becoming thirsty
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  Speaker 1: and drinking deeply. And when you do, saving power becomes
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  Speaker 1: staying power. Philippians 1.6 says, God who began the good
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  Speaker 1: work within you will continue his work until it is
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  Speaker 1: finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.
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  Speaker 1: Christ did not give you a car and tell you
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  Speaker 1: to push it. He didn't even give you a car
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  Speaker 1: and tell you to drive it. He threw open the
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  Speaker 1: passenger door and told you to buckle up for the
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  Speaker 1: adventure of your life. When Christ enters tuckered towns, he
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  Speaker 1: declares what he did in John 7, 37 through 39.
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  Speaker 1: If you're thirsty, come to me. If you believe in me,
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  Speaker 1: come and drink. For the scriptures declare that rivers of
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  Speaker 1: living water will flow out from within. And when he
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  Speaker 1: said living water, he was speaking of the spirit who
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  Speaker 1: would be given to everyone believing in him. Come to me,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus said, not come to my church or come to
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  Speaker 1: my system, but come to me. Come to me and drink.
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  Speaker 1: No sipping, no tasting. Thirsty throats gulp water. Thirsty souls
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  Speaker 1: gulp Christ. The margin notes of the New American Standard
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  Speaker 1: Bible state, keep coming to me and keep drinking. Annual
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  Speaker 1: fill-ups won't do. You aren't sampling wine at a vineyard.
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  Speaker 1: You're hiking through Death Valley. And that mirage you see
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  Speaker 1: is not a mirage, but really is the river you need.
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  Speaker 1: Dive in and drink. And as you do, look what happens.
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  Speaker 1: Rivers of living water will flow out from within, verse 38.
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  Speaker 1: The word for rivers can be translated as floods. We've
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  Speaker 1: seen torrents, torrential enough to carry homes. What is this
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  Speaker 1: force that can float a house? One smaller than the
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  Speaker 1: power who floods you, as verse 39 explains. He was
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  Speaker 1: speaking of the Spirit who would be given to everyone
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  Speaker 1: believing in Him. God's Spirit. God's powerful presence pulsating through
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  Speaker 1: heart canals. John 4.14 describes it as a spring of
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  Speaker 1: water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life. God's
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  Speaker 1: spirit rages within you. Now, whether you feel him or
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  Speaker 1: not is unimportant. Jesus said, living water will flow out
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  Speaker 1: from within. Chapter 7, verse 38. Not may flow, could flow,
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  Speaker 1: or has been known to flow, but will flow. Now
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  Speaker 1: you may be wondering, if God's Spirit lives in me,
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  Speaker 1: why am I so tired, so angry? Why is it
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  Speaker 1: hard to forgive or have compassion? Well, Paul answers that
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  Speaker 1: question with five words in Ephesians 5.18. Be filled with
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit. The verb tense is imperative. With the same imperative,
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  Speaker 1: he instructs, forgive, pray, and speak truth. God commands, be filled.
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  Speaker 1: Not only does Paul give a command, he gives a
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  Speaker 1: continuous collective command. Continuous in the sense that the filling
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  Speaker 1: is a daily privilege. Collective because the invitation is offered
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  Speaker 1: to all people. You all be filled with the Spirit. Young, old, businessmen,
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  Speaker 1: seasoned saints, new converts. The Spirit will fill all. You
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  Speaker 1: don't need to persuade him to enter. He already has.
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  Speaker 1: Your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who
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  Speaker 1: is in you, says 1 Corinthians 6.19. As a Christian,
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  Speaker 1: you have all the power you need for all the
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  Speaker 1: problems you face. So the real question is not, how
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  Speaker 1: do I get more of the Spirit? But rather, how
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  Speaker 1: can you, Spirit, have more of me? We'd expect a
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  Speaker 1: Mother Teresa-size answer to that question. Build an orphanage. Memorize Leviticus.
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  Speaker 1: Do this and be filled, we think. But God says,
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  Speaker 1: do this on your own and be tired. Do you
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  Speaker 1: desire God's Spirit? Here's what you do. Ask. In Luke 11,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus says, everyone who asks will receive. You know how
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  Speaker 1: to give good things to your children. How much more
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  Speaker 1: your heavenly father will give the Holy Spirit to those
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  Speaker 1: who ask him. The spirit fills as prayers flow. So
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  Speaker 1: welcome the Holy Spirit into every room of your heart.
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  Speaker 1: I did something similar with the air in our house. Outside,
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  Speaker 1: the sidewalk sizzles in the brick oven heat of a
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  Speaker 1: Texas summer. But inside, I'm as cool as the other
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  Speaker 1: side of the pillow.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Open vents. I did not install the air conditioning, but
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  Speaker 1: I did open the air blockers. Cool air fills the
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  Speaker 1: house because the vents are open. I went from room
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  Speaker 1: to room, lowering the levers and releasing the air. The
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit will fill your life as you do the same.
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  Speaker 1: Just try this. Before you climb out of bed, just
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  Speaker 1: mentally escort the Spirit into every room of your house.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe you have anger in a bedroom or unpayable bills
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  Speaker 1: on a desk or conflicts in an office. Invite him
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  Speaker 1: to fill each corridor of your life. Then, having welcomed
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  Speaker 1: him into your whole heart, go to your garage, climb
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  Speaker 1: into the passenger seat, buckle up and thank your driver
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  Speaker 1: that you don't live in Tucker Town anymore. Just receive
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  Speaker 1: his living water today. No heart is too dry for
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  Speaker 1: his touch.
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  Speaker 3: Loving you alone feels so beautiful.
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  Speaker 2: It hurts the most.
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  Speaker 3: You became my quiet sunrise, the dream I never dared
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  Speaker 3: to say. Every smile you gave so freely took my
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  Speaker 3: breath a little away. I held this love like fragile glass,
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  Speaker 3: so precious, soft and true. But every beat inside my
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  Speaker 3: heart was only reaching out to you. Unspoken love is
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  Speaker 3: sweet and painful, like honey mixed with rain. A tender
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  Speaker 3: hope I hold so tightly while it Slowly breaks me.
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  Speaker 3: Loving you from just one side now leaves.
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  Speaker 2: My soul in silent blue. Cause the deeper that I
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  Speaker 2: fall alone, the lonelier I do.
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  Speaker 3: I can't blame my heart for choosing someone it could
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  Speaker 3: never keep. So I smile through hidden heartache and love
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  Speaker 3: you quietly.
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  Speaker 2: Unspoken love is sweet and painful like honey mixed with rain.
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  Speaker 2: A tender hope I hold so tightly while it slowly
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  Speaker 2: breaks me. Loving you from just one side now leaves my.
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  Speaker 1: Soul in silent bloom.
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  Speaker 2: Cause the deeper that I fall alone, the lonelier I do.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe loving you in silence is the closest I can stay.
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  Speaker 3: Though it leaves behind a sorrow that may never fade away.
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  Speaker 2: Unspoken love is sweet and painful like honey mixed with rain.
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  Speaker 2: A tender hope I hold so tightly while it Slowly
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  Speaker 2: breaks me loving you.
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  Speaker 3: From just one side now.
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  Speaker 2: Leaves my soul in silent blue. Cause the deeper that
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  Speaker 2: I fall alone, the lonelier I do.