weekly sermon

9-21-08

Drink, Swear, Steal, And Lie!

I know the title of this message may be a little misleading, but go with me for a minute and you will see where I am going with this. I borrowed the title from a song that I heard a while back, but I wanted to use it to make a few points known.

Drink
Alcoholism has been a growing problem since very early times. One example we can find in a popular story about Noah. Let us look in Genesis 9:20-21, "And Noah began [to be] an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: (21)And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent." As we can see here, Noah had drank so much wine that he was drunk. This is just one of many other examples in the Bible of being drunk.

If you want to drink then you need to drink of the "new wine". Turn with me to Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;" It states here that we are not to drink wine in such excess that we become drunk, but we are to be filled with the Spirit. The Spirit is the "new wine" that I am talking about here. The new wine is mentioned in Acts when Peter was trying to explain the actions on the day of Pentecost.

Peter was talking to the unbelievers explaining how these men were drunk with "new wine" and not the wine the mockers were thinking. Let us look in Act 2:13-17, "Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. (14)But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all [ye] that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: (15)For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is [but] the third hour of the day. (16)But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; (17)And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:"

If we read this chapter from the start, we see that when the Spirit was poured out on the men they began to act differently than they did before. The unbelievers were questioning the situation, stating that the people there were drunk with new wine. Peter tells them here that they were not drunk with wine, but with the "new wine" of the Spirit. The Spirit we find here is Jesus and He is living water that we need to drink just as it states in John 7:38, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

Swear
Last week our message was about watching our mouths. Most people associate the word swear with foul language or making a pact with someone. The definition of the word that I want us to focus on here is "pact". To become a full believer, we need to make a pact with God, and the only way to do that is through the saving grace of Christ Jesus. Just as it says in John 6:40, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." This says that God sent Jesus that we would know Him and through Him we would find the Father.

I swear here my pact with my Lord. I will follow my Saviour to the last days that He speaks of in the passage above. I will swear my allegence to my Christ who has saved my soul and given me eternal life.

Steal
I will guard my salvation so the devil will have no authority to steal my soul. Only a thief will come to steal from us. Let us look at John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly." The thief here is satan that will come to steal our soul, kill our flesh, and destroy our life. I see from this passage that I want the life that has been offered and have it more abundantly. Once again the only way to receive this type of life is to stop the thief from stealing our soul and take a drink from the cup of the living water that we have talked about.

Lie
I want to lie in the hand of God. If we look in John we see that we are held in His hand for eternity. John 10:28, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand."

What have we learned from this message? If we drink of the "new wine" we will find living water, if we swear to make our pact with Jesus Christ then we will know the Father that sent Him, if we guard souls from the thief in the night we can have life and have it more abundantly, and if we have our salvation through Christ, we will lie in the palm of His hand where we can never be plucked out by any man.

This is the saving grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If you have never felt the power of this saving grace, all you have to do is say a simple prayer.

Say this simple prayer with me, Dear Lord, I want you to be the Lord over my life, forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.

If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.
 

With Love in Christ,

Pastor Stone