My cup overflows.......

I want to visit again ‘my cup runneth over'. (click the title above to link you to a 'further study' on my regular blog)

At Pentecost, in my sermon, I said this:

We live through the most challenging of times. I don’t need to tell you that. It is a fresh outpouring, overflowing to the broken and lost, that we need today.
Peter said, ‘The promise is for you, right down the generations and right across the world.’
‘You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows.’
And Jesus said to his disciples, this: ‘If you, being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.’
This, friends is the key…. Asking.
Jesus makes it clear that God does not act if we are half-hearted in our asking. If however, we really mean it, we really want to serve and follow him, and we get down to serious persistent prayer asking God to act, He will.
A fresh out pouring of the Spirit is always preceded by persistent believing prayer.

I sensed after I said that, and I have now preached the sermon 3 times, that I needed to look at my own life (do I ‘really mean it’?) and whether the flow of the Spirit is uninterrupted, whether indeed my cup is overflowing, whether I am aware of God at work in and through me in answer to my prayers.
And as I meditated on this (this usually happens between 6 and 7 in a morning when having fed the dog and the cat I can be reasonably sure there will be no interruptions) I realised that although I was very much aware of God meeting my needs in response to prayer, there were blocks in my own life, unconfessed sin.
We all know Revelation 3:20 ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock etc.’ But what about the verse before it. Listen to this:
‘Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous (earnest) and repent.’ Rev 3:19 This and the verse following are addressed to believers, believers belonging to a church described as ‘lukewarm’. Believers who say ‘I am rich. I don’t need anything.’ … but whom Jesus describes as ‘wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.’ ..see Rev chapter 3.
The picture painted for us therefore when we come to read Rev 3:20 is of Jesus knocking on the door of the believer. Do you see what I’m saying? You’re a Christian, but you left Jesus outside!! You thought He was inside, didn’t you? When the cup stops overflowing, and even dries up, we must ask why? …And the reason may really be quite simple, we have made room for sin… and Jesus won’t share the house with sin. It really may be that simple.

‘Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous (earnest) and repent.’
What is it then that has blocked the flow and needs dealing with?
If we take time out and pray, God will reveal these things to us clearly. It is important at this point to say that if you are always feeling guilty that is unhealthy. The Evil One is constantly trying to drag us down with the discouragement that arises from our sense of unworthiness, and this develops into false guilt. Listen carefully: It is the work of the Holy Spirit when we pray to reveal the specific sins of which we need to repent. It is this sin of which you need to repent. There will be no nebulous sense of guilt.

Let me tell you of one of the specific sins the Holy Spirit showed me I needed to repent of: (at this point the congregation looks startled)
I have trouble with inanimate objects. Murphy’s law dictates that if it’s going to go wrong it will. That cable or string will always mysteriously tie itself into a knot. The bike chain will come off when you’re changing down 2 yards from the top of Leek Hill.
The computer will crash at the critical moment. You know what I mean.
And when that happens, irritation, anger if you like, so easily gets the better of me.
( here I tell the story of a typical wheel change after a flat tyre ... need I say more!!)

Underlying the symptom is the cause, and it is found in Galatians 5. Pretty well all the bad stuff is here on this list, and following it is the list of the fruit of the Spirit which is able to overcome it all.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Gal 5 v19-25.

Reading the bad list, we might say…oh’ I never do that!’ But how do we measure up to the good list. You see sin is best defined as ‘missing the mark’ (the picture is of the archer failing to get the bullseye). I missed the mark when it came to it. I lacked patience and self control, and could hardly say peace was at work in my life.
And so the Holy Spirit’s work in this context, is firstly to reveal your sin and mine specifically… so that we can see it clearly and repent of it. This is the rebuke. This is the dicipline.
‘Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous (earnest) and repent.’
See also Heb 12 v5-6….
5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son
A word of encouragement? !

So, people of God, if your cup isn’t overflowing, why not?
If you want to be a disciple, discipline is needed. And that means allowing God to reveal our sins and weaknesses to us that we may repent, and determine not to fail God again.

7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1John 1v7-9.
Walking ‘in the light’ is a key theme of John.
See also John 3 v 19-21:
19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
The light reveals the imperfections.
Walking in the light all day and every day…. In the power of the Spirit.
When we sin we grieve the Spirit, we quench the Spirit. How can we expect His streams of living water to flow in us and through us when we harbour unconfessed sin?
James 1v5-7 makes it clear that we have to be wholehearted in our asking:
5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
This should go without saying.
4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love[b] is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2v4-6.

Here is how the Spirit is going to flow in you says Jesus….
12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14v 12-14.
This is staggering, but we will only fully realise this, church, when we understand what ‘in my name’ means. The name of a person in Jesus’s day embodied the whole of that person’s character and purpose. ‘In my name’ means that we must wholeheartedly align ourselves to the will and purpose of Christ.
Then, and only then will the wells be unblocked and the rivers flow.

13 "My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water Jer 2v13

What an indictment!
What a contrast painted in this prophetic picture of Jeremiah!
Where do you and I fit on the scale?….
At one end…...Fount of living waters, freely available, fresh and powerful.
At the other end..Stagnant, leaky, requiring-hard-labour-to-achieve-nothing.

My cup overflows.
Does it?

Come Holy Spirit. Reveal our emptiness and therefore the sins of which we need to repent.
May we confess, and know our sins forgiven.
Make us wholehearted servants, ready and willing to endure discipline; to be your disciples. Let our cups overflow. Allow your Spirit to do His work in and through us.
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,
all his woundrous compassion and purity.
Holy Spirit divine, all my nature refine
so the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.
And so Lord, we come and we ask, in the name of Jesus, for your Holy Spirit.

If my people....3

2Chron 7v14 ‘If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.’

What are our wicked ways?
My wicked ways. Your wicked ways.
If this condition for God to come and forgive and heal, even to hear from heaven in the first place, includes repentance, what do we need to repent of?

Let’s just examine the basics of the gospel and consider where we as believers have come to in our journey of faith..
God is a holy, loving God and will have no truck with sin.
The Bible says ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. This we know. We may not have murdered anybody, but we know if we’re honest that we’re sinners and we’ll never measure up.
That’s our position….and like the monkey in the Jungle Doctor story, we can pull and pull upwards by our bootstraps but the quicksand will still take us down. We have no hope…unless someone throws us a lifeline. God came in Jesus to do just that.
Jesus bore in his own body on the cross the full weight of the world’s sin…including mine and yours. The price was paid in blood. His blood avails for me…is available, works for me here, 2000 years later.

The Bible says that if we repent, that is turn from our sin, and believe in Jesus, we will be saved. Turn, take, trust is one of the simplest ways of describing what we must do to avail ourselves of the finished work of Christ for us:
Turn from sin
Take the free gift of forgiveness, and eternal life
Trust in God and follow Jesus for the rest of your life.
If we do this in sincerity of heart, we are saved, and Jesus by his Holy Spirit comes to live in us. We know for ourselves that we are on a journey to heaven, and set out with joy and determination.

But the devil, having lost someone from his dominion to the Kingdom of God, is equally determined to try and get us back. So he appeals to our human nature, what the King James Version of the Bible calls ‘the flesh’, and subtly over time leads us to displace Christ from the number one place in our lives. In the old days it was called backsliding. The early joy we experience slowly disperses and we look around and observe that other Christians are also like this, become highly suspicious of people who never lose their joy, stop talking with each other about what God is doing, and in due course He doesn’t appear to be active in our lives any more.
When our consciences were sharp we used to know right from wrong, and avoid evil, and confess and receive forgiveness whenever we sinned. Now, we may feel guilty from time to time, but we gloss over our sins, declare that we are after all better than ‘him’ or ‘her’, and wonder what went wrong.

Every Sunday morning, backsliders gather as they have always done….and they go home unchanged and unchallenged. They are gospel hardened. They have become convinced that this is all there is….but there must be more than this!

There is!

But let us look at the consequences of all of this nominal Christianity. The salt has lost its savour. The light has grown dim. No longer to people look at Christians and want what they’ve got, because they don’t look any different.

Here’s a quote from John Henry Howard writing in 1910:
"We leave our places of worship and no deep and inexpressible wonder sits upon our faces. When we get out on the streets our faces are as one with those of the people coming out of the theatres and music halls. There is nothing about us to suggest that we have been looking at anything stupendous or overwhelming. I remember an old saint telling me that after some services he liked to make his way home alone by quiet paths so that the hush of the Almighty might remain on his awed and prostrate soul. This is the element we are losing."

A hundred years ago... What has changed?
Well. we have become even more 'worldy'.
Slowly but surely society has changed for the worse. Abortion, drugs, broken families, increased crime, overcrowded prisons, laws passed which are anti-Christian, selfishness is rife, bitterness, cynicism and hatred, while the church declines and fails to make any impact.
Two of our churches have recently closed. A number of the others are going nowhere and will soon no longer be viable.
Are we going to sit on our hands and let this happen?
How can we recover our Christian heritage?
How can we make this land a Christian country once again?

Well, God’s got plans. And they involve you and me. Revival will come. Instead of a handful of people as we are, there will not be enough room here for everyone to get in, there will be such a hunger for God’s word.

It’s Pentecost next Sunday. The first Pentecost 3000 people were converted through one sermon. Nowadays (as someone said)it takes 3000 sermons to convert one person.
I have done a few less than that:
In the last couple of years, however, I preached five sermons on Cell values...
Jesus at the Centre,
Every Member Ministry,
Every Member Witnessing,
Every Member Growing,
a Community of Love.
And then I began to preach four sermons on the Future of Methodism, and how we are going down the tube unless we rediscover Prayer, Worship, Evangelism and Small Groups. I called them 'Getting Serious'.
Then I preached on encouragement, remember? Part of the verse from Eph 4 reads: "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behaviour. Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you."
Then I began a series on the key verse we visit today.
I have been honestly telling you what I believe God is saying.

All of this is preparation for what God is about to do. But He is waiting for us to really get serious, to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our wicked ways…repent. That’s the theme tonight. Then the answer will come. When there is the deep and sincere desire to get rid of our 'idols', get self off the throne and serve God alone. Then He will hear from heaven, forgive, heal the land…Hallelujah!

So I’m calling you, and calling me too, to prepare for this Pentecost by prayer and repentance. Saturday is a special prayer day. But let’s do something now. We’re going to make it personal.
Write down your sins. No-one is going to see what you’ve written, only God. Go to be alone in different parts of this sanctuary. Be alone with God. Will you get serious with God? Say to God ….I turn from my sin. I want to be free again. I repent of all my wicked ways.

Then we’ll proclaim together that our sins are forgiven and put the bits of paper through this shredder.

Prayer:
Thankyou Lord that you died and bore all my sins and you are here to forgive and give me a fresh start. Cleanse me deep within and fill me with your Spirit. Go with me every moment of every day. …Make me a bright light in the darkness, help me to be unselfish, loving, and determined to stand up for truth and against injustice. To give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to labour and not to seek for any reward save that we know we are doing your will.
Holy Spirit we wait for you.