Parched Places In The Wilderness

WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH

PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN

SERMON TITLE: PARCHED PLACES IN THE WILDERNESS

“For God so Loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth in Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18

TEXT VERSE: Jeremiah 17:5 “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.”

There’s a lot of people out there today who are putting their trust in man. So we find in the word of God that if we start trusting in man or trusting in flesh our heart will automatically start departing from the Lord. Let me tell you a place we don’t want to be this morning and that’s away from the Lord. There’s a lot of people in the world that let trials and tribulations come in their life and they let them separate them from God. One place in the word it says that our sins and our iniquities have His face from us. I want you to be assured today that God will never leave you. There’s a lot of people however who have left God. You start trusting in man and flesh and in your own natural self you might as well write it down that you’re going to go away from God. You’ll not be in a position where God can use you. You’ll not be in a place where God can get to you and do what he wants to do with you in your life. You’ll start going down and going away from God. There’s a lot of people in that condition. Their going away from God instead of to God. Jesus said in His word to draw nigh’ tome and I’ll draw nigh’ to you. I want to preach to you on verse number six on parched places in the wilderness.

I pictured a picture of an old desert. I’ve never seen one in real life but I have seen one on television. But I pictured a desert where there was no water and there hadn’t been any water in a while and all there was, was heat. The desert began to crack. That’s what a parched place is. A place that’s without water. I want you to know that there’s a lot of Christians that’s dried up this morning. There’s a lot of Christians that’s dried out this morning. There’s a lot of Christians that have dry rotted this morning. We’re not the kind of Christian we need to be for God. You people better get into this. I’m not hungry for no earthly food. I’m hungry for the word of God. I’ll preach for two hours. There’s Christians in the world today that’s lacking in every thing. There in a parched place and their spiritually drowning, spiritually starving and they can’t get what they need from God and God knows it.

Psalms 107:5 “Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.” Let me tell you what Ezekiel said in Chapter 37:1-2 “The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. And caused me to pass by them round about: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo they were very dry.”

We’re living in a world where the Christians are very, very dry.

NUMBER ONE: they’ve gone away from God and their not working for the Lord like they used to work. They’ll work on their job all week and they’ll work for their neighbor, they’ll work at their parents house but when it comes to working for God you can’t find them. Jesus said the harvest is truly great but the laborers are few. That’s the world we’re living in today. Don’t you tell me their not spiritually dead. They are. Paul said if any should not work, neither should he eat. If you’re not getting blessed in the house of God then go out and do some work in the field and you’ll get a blessing. You say but Preacher I come to church every Sunday. Listen this ain’t the working house. This is the praying house. The worship house. The house of God is where you come in and learn and grow and pray and worship. The work is on the outside of the church.