Latest / Mental Health and the Mission of the Church / Never Thirst Again!

Transcript

Never Thirst Again! · Mental Health and the Mission of the Church

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, how you doing today?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Just want to continue in this vein.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: We've been kind of talking around this whole uh strange stretch we've been in with COVID-19, quarantine and all that, and just trying to help you kind of maximize what you walk out of it with.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, um, you know, people talking about the new normal and all that kind of stuff.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: The bottom line is I believe this.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: You may have a new normal.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not sure it's going to be as drastic as some people think, but it's not necessarily going to be a good one unless you do something intentionally, unless you do do some thinking, some reflecting, and uh just some life assessment of what do I want to be different after this COVID-19?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what do I want to protect that I've learned and practiced during it?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: What do I want to not go back to?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we've been kind of talking around that.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: We've been using Philippians 3.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, Romans 8, that uh God is able to make all things work together for good, uh, meaning that no matter what it is, virtually any situation can be used for good.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um so that was one of our first thoughts.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh Philippians 3, where Paul talks about this one thing I do.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: This one thing I do.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's what we have been talking about last week, I believe.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: We kicked it off.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you ask me, what's the one thing that I could work on, not just because of the COVID-19, but what's the one thing that I could work on, you could work on?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: We could teach young Christians, what's the one thing that, in my opinion, would make the most impact in our lives and quite honestly, through our lives and the lives of others?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe another way to ask the question is this.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you, you know, you we were riding the elevator together and and and you ask me, what's the what's the biggest thing you've learned since becoming a Christian?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: My answer to that question is what we're talking about, and that is this.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why did God create you?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: What's the one thing you could do that would make the most difference in your life?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Undercut the patterns and cycles of troubling behavior, sin as we sometimes call it.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I believe it's the key to pulling the plug, uprooting the roots of your most destructive cycles of thought, belief, and behavior.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: This one thing affects everything about us.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is it?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we talked last week about why.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why did God create us?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I just try to make you think.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I try to say things in a way that makes you think, maybe catches you from a fresh direction.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, we talked about why did God create us so well to worship him, serve him, all that.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't agree with any of that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I believe God created us for one thing.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: All those other things are are our return benefits.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: God created you and I so that he could love us.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if this is a new thought to you, go back to last week's eight-minute mind shift and listen to it.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: But God didn't need you to love him, he's he is love.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: He needed somewhere to share the love that he is and that he's full of.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he created you and I so that he could love us.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why does that make a difference?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's the deal: uh, that's where you start.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you begin the game.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: You don't start with, well, I've got to do this for him, I've got to do this for him.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: He wants me, he created me to do this for him.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: He created you to allow him to love you.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we jokingly said last week, you know, you didn't have kids to mow the grass and do the dishes.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, some people laugh and say, Well, I kind of did.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but but we know deep down, hopefully, that's not why you had kids.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, this one thing I do, um, Jesus talked in John 4 and John 7 about thirst.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um, Dallas Willard, uh, a hero in the faith or of the faith for me, who's passed away not that long ago, um defined thirst in those contexts this way.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thirst is the pain or discomfort of unmet need.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: The pain or discomfort of unmet need.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, what does he mean by that?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when we need love, when we need encouragement, when we need affirmation, when we need a sense of belonging, he equated that to your soul thirsting, your soul being parched and needing something.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the interesting thing.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: How do you quench your thirst?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: How do you, who do you go to?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Who do you rely on to meet your deepest needs would be the way that I would say it to you.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I believe most of what gets us in trouble in life is not having inappropriate needs.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think most of what we need is healthy and appropriate.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Where the problem comes in is where we've learned to run when we are thirsty, when we are feeling uh a deprivation or a lack in an area of need, whether it be love, encouragement, significance, whatever it may be.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus in John 4 and John 7 tells stories about thirst.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: In one, uh, it's the woman by the well.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he says to her uh that if you drink this water, and he's pointing to the well, if you drink this water, and this is the Chipjud translation, from the outside in, you're gonna stay thirsty.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do I mean by that?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: If we build our life around the right people liking us, loving us, affirming us, encouraging us, and our thirst or lack of thirst depends on being approved by them, loved by them, uh, them saying nice things about us, then here's the deal.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna stay thirsty because your source are is or are other people that are trying to do the same thing you are.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're trying to get their needs met from what I call the outside in.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: In that context, Jesus says, but I have water.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I have a source of water that if you drink it, and he said these words, you'll never thirst again.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never thirst again.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, what are you trying to say to us?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Jesus was saying to us that if you learn to turn to him, to turn to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, if you learn to turn to God first and most, first and most, if we were in an event together, I'd have you say that out loud.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: First and most, first and most, first and most.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you learn to turn to God first and most, for everything you need, you'll never thirst again.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because his need for all of those things is fully met.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he's never going to be an inconsistent source.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's never going to withhold, he's never going to be in a bad mood, he's never going to be short on supply of his own.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's always going to be ready, willing, and able to provide for you everything you need.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So then you go over to John, I can't remember which is John 4 and John 7.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I always get them mixed up.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: But in the other one, it's at a uh uh one of their festivals and um equate it to a conference like we would have today, maybe, although obviously more historically rooted.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: But uh he and he said this he stands up at this conference and he says, Is anybody thirsty?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: So here you are at a feeding moment.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're you're there to celebrate your beliefs and your practices.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of all that, he stands up and says, Is anybody thirsty?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because he knew this this wasn't quenching their thirst.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know you can do all the right things?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can, man, I read my Bible, man, I worship, man, I do this, I witness, I do all this up, and you can still be thirsty.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, If any man's thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Come to me and drink.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh, we need to learn how to do that.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are you serious?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm serious.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Come to me and drink.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, come to me and drink?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I believe God wants us to learn how to live.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this now, it's important.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: God wants you to live from fullness, not for fullness.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: God wants you to live from your needs being met, not for or to get them met.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I go to God and I receive from Him the love that I need, the encouragement that I need, the sense of affirmation that I need.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I engage you, my wife, my kids, my friends, I engage you, listen to me now, I engage you from fullness, not for fullness.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm not engaging you to get something from you.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm engaging you because I spent time with God and already got everything I need.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: God created you to live from love, not for love.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: God created you to live from approval, not for approval.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: God created you to live from fullness, not for fullness.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is an extraordinarily life-changing practice.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: We love him because he first loved us.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: What if that was the first thing you did every day, every day, every day was come to God and drink.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, lately my wife and I have a little routine we do every morning, and you know, we we uh read scripture and then we pray about 30 minutes.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times I'll pray and I'll say, God, well, what, you know, you know, what gear, what gear do you want to be in?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I I you know I believe in different gears of prayer, you know, uh communion, fellowship, petition, warfare, whatever.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh more often than not, I'll start out and I'll say, Well, God, you know, what what what gear do you want to be in?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm really paying attention, more often than not, what he'll do is say, let's just hang out for a minute.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: What I just I just would kind of like to hang out with you for a minute.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we I mean, but there's things to do.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah, there are.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd really like to just hang out with you for a minute.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it just it arrests my soul that God He just wants to connect.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: He just wants to cement that moment, and and He wants me to carry it with me throughout the day.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I ask you, I beg you almost, think about this one thing I do learning to receive and rest in the Father's love.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're gonna talk about next week.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Learning to receive and rest in the Father's love.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Love you guys.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.