#1 LEAKING --- BROKEN CISTERNS!
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
This is part #1 of 2. I did part 1 in 2 parts.
I. LEAKING, BROKEN CISTERNS HAVE LITTLE VALUE.
Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
A. How foolish is it to allow a huge city to be built below the sea level?
Remember the story of the dyke leaking and the small lad placing his finger in the hole and saving his community?
B. LEAK, LEAKING:
To escape through an opening by fault or mistake.
Information that becomes known despite efforts to conceal
A crack or hole that lets something in or allows it to escape
C. CISTERN:
A reservoir dug out for collecting and holding water in a reserve.
IN THE BIBLE SEVERAL TIMES EMPTY CISTERNS WERE USED AS
PRISONS OR DUNGEONS.
Seems Joseph’s pit, may have been an old well or cistern.
Jeremiah was held in a deep cell prison.
D. A cistern is much different than a deep well or a spring that offered fresh, cool water.
E. A cistern could get slimy, stagnate and breed many germs.
F. THE BIBLE WARNS OF BROKEN CISTERNS --- leaking out the life that it holds.
A broken cistern has little value in keeping fresh, good water.
All water is wasted in a BROKEN CISTERN!
G. HAS OUR FATHER EVER INVESTED IN US RICH BLESSINGS AND WE LEAKED THEM OUT EVER SO SLOWLY AND GRADUALLY?
II. IS IT POSSIBLE TO DEVELOP LEAKING VALUE SYSTEMS?
HAVE YOU EVER PONDERED WASTE?
A. Do you ever waste?
What are some sad things that we waste?
B. WASTE:
Sparsely settled, barren regions, desert.
Uncultivated land
Broad and empty
Loss through break down
Damaged or defective
Rejection
Sewage
To damage or destroy by gradual and progressive steps
To cause to shrink
To loose strength
To wear away
To spend or use carelessly
To discard as worthless
C. My Mom always said, SON, THERE ARE PEOPLE STARVING TO DEATH ALL AROUND THE WORLD! Therefore, you must clean your plate!
I cleaned my plate. I would lick it clean to help the starving kids, and yet they were still starving.
D. WE WASTE:
WORDS
RESOURCES
TALENT
TIME
ENERGY
MINDS
E. I ponder wasting time?
He who kills time --- kills himself.
An inch on the sun dial can never be reclaimed.
1 Cor. 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
2 Cor. 6:2 NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME...
F. Many of us try to be good stewards of our money and resources, but we forget the great danger of waste. We do not value some very important things.
G. I think God shall hold us accountable for many things that we take very lightly.
H. DO YOU THINK THE FIVE FOOLISH VIRGINS HAD A LEAKING PROBLEM?
What was the sin of the five foolish virgins?
They were still pure, they were still virgins!
Part of their wrong was wasting their time and taking lightly serious moments.
The five foolish virgins never held the oil tanks accountable, and they took their responsibilities lightly.
I. Some of us use our talents wisely, and purposefully invest our talents into the seed bank expecting a wise harvest.
III. AS SAND IN AN HOUR GLASS SO OUR THE DAYS OF OUR LIFE’S!
HOW DO YOU SPEND TIME? DOES YOUR HOUR GLASS LEAK SAND?
DO YOU INVEST YOUR TIME WISELY?
GOD KNOWS HOW WE SPEND OUR TIME.
A. Notice that we use the words --- SPEND TIME --- TO CONSUME WASTEFULLY?
SPEND MEANS: to use up, to pay out, to exhaust, to wear out.
B. Poor stewards of time keepers. Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
Spend not your time in vain.
C. An inch on the sundial is worth more than diamonds.
D. Who steals my purse steals trash, but who steals my time robs me, and thou shalt not steal.
E. A stitch in time saves nine.
F. It is easy to spend life and not learn what is most important.
IV. SEEMS WE WILL WASTE MUCH TIME ON THINGS THAT ARE NOT IMPORTANT? OUR ENEMY USES TIME SO GRADUALLY --- HE SNEAKS by PROCRASTINATION TIMES THAT CAN NEVER BE RECALLED.
A. WE DON’T SEEM TO SEE THE VALUE AND WORTH OF TIME.
TIME, HE HAS US WASTE OUR TIME.
HE GETS US TO THINK WE HAVE PLENTY OF TIME?
B. We want to balance our bank books!
We count our calories and carbohydrates!
But what about time?
C. Time is limited, a rich man can buy no more time than a poor man.
There are 60 minutes an hour
1440 minutes a day
10,080 a week
43,200 minutes a month
Do we invest our time as well as we do our money?
D. Satan’s greatest trick is to get you to think .... There is Plenty of Time.
Rom. 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
1 Cor. 7:29 But this I say, Brethren, The time is short:
V. WE ARE PILGRIMS AND STRANGERS IN THIS WORLD.
LIFE AT BEST IS TEMPORARY! YOU PASS THIS WAY BUT ONCE.
WISDOM MUST LEARN TIME IS TEMPORARY!
Psalms 90:9 We spend our time as a tale that is told. ---
Psalms 90: 12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
A. As a Child --- time creeps;
As a teenager --- time walks;
As a young adult --- time runs
So little done --- so much to do ---
As a middle age person --- time flies;
As you age seems --- "Time is gone" Unknown
B. TODAY IS ALL YOU HAVE?
There are two days you should never waste time to worry about -----
Yesterday is gone ---
Tomorrow may never be!
VI. WE ARE SO BUSY--- WE LEAK OUT GOD’S BLESSINGS AND DO NOT REALIZE THEY ARE GONE.
A. WE GROW A SHALLOWNESS OF BUSYNESS AND LEAK GOD’S PRESENCE AWAY.
B. WE GROW A VENEER OF BUSYNESS, --- It is just a veneer of Busyness.
Many today have external problems from internal issues.
No roots, no fruits? Little roots, little fruits?
C. ARE YOU SURE THAT THE PROBLEM IS YOU ARE TOO BUSY?
TOO BUSY - The problem is not you are too busy ---
D. The Bee is praised for being busy! -
The Mosquito’s busy will earn it a swat!
The question IS WHY ARE WE BUSY?
E. Veneer is a layer of valuable over inferior. A false show ... We can live in a shallow frenzy with no deep friendships and shallow commitments.
Our days can have great promise and dreams, that seem to develop into hollow nightmares.
F. How easy could it be to slowly leak out the LIVING WATER?
We can be self feeding and selfish just feeding our egos and superegos and starve the inner man.
We can develop real good programs, without real change, and establish No Godly Priorities!
G. WE HAVE THIS ATTITUDE OF KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES? LIVING ON CREDIT? WE CAN SO LEAK AWAY GOD’S PROMISES --- THAT A SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE TAKES OVER OUR HEART?
We can have good cisterns that have leaked away God’s plan for us.
We just have to keep up ---- seems we can never be satisfied!
Just buy the kid a toy?
H. Churches can sell everything but the Gospel?
We have developed into professional shoppers and this spills into the church.
The size of the malls grow, we want to live at the mall.
Our kids live wishing as they read the catalogs...
We have a spirit that we Always have to upgrade...
Tricycle - skateboard - computer - friend - image ---
I. We can leak out God’s presence and become Empty ---
What we have?
Where we are?
What we are?
VII. WE CAN LEAK OUT AND COMPROMISE OUR VALUE SYSTEMS AND MAKE
THE CHURCH WORLDLY AND THE WORLD WANTS TO BECOME CHURCHIE!
1 Cor. 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
A. LET’S BE HONEST --- WE WASTE TIME BECAUSE THERE IS LITTLE SELF
CONTROL AND SELF DISCIPLINE!
B. WHAT IS DISCIPLINE?
We have a serious lack of Discipline ---
We need a system of rules.
We gain control Control by training.
We must train, teach, mentor, develop, grow and love instruction!
C. We do not have 10 Suggestions --- we have 10 Commandments!
D. It is easier to whip a kid than to correct a kid.
It is easier to be a dead fish swimming down stream than to fight peer pressure.
E. Many of the church’s people have no plans or no visions.
We have grown impulsive, or compulsive?
People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.
F. We are vacillating, --- up and down, --- in and out, on fire THEN COLD ---
It is easier to quit then correct --- I quit.
Today many will submit to no leader --- and commit to no church.
We grow independent spirits that will not hold our selves accountable.
We know how to start, but seems we never finish anything?
G. We accept SITUATION ETHICS TO DEFINE THE MOMENT ---
We need to step back to the basics.
Honesty and integrity are God’s heart.
We can not accept cheating and lying as acceptable norms.
Never leak away Biblical truths.
VIII. WE MUST SEEK A CURE! WILL WE PLUG THE LEAKING HOLE?
Eph. 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
A. REDEEM:
To buy or get back
To change for better
To free from captivity
B. YOUNG PEOPLE CANNOT REMEMBER:
S&H (Green Stamps) or Tops (Yellow) stamps that the grocery stores and gas stations used ---
They would give you stamps according to how much you spent.
You would lick the stamps and place them in a redemption book. One day when you had enough stamps to go to the stamp store, you would redeem the stamps for the gift you chose.
C. We need to redeem the time. To buy back, to free from harm.
D. Our families don’t need us to buy them another toy!
Jesus does not need just another program to leak the love? We need time!
Give your family time! Give Jesus time.
Give that old person some time.
IX. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN GUILTY OF THROWING DIRT BALLS AND THEN FIND THEY WERE HIDDEN TREASURES?
A. Did you hear about the man that found a cave way up in the cliff side over looking a river? He spent the day with his flash light exploring the cave.
B. While deep in the cave the man found a big cloth bag of dirt balls.
Someone while in the cave took the clay and made dirt balls. There were several hundred balls of clay in the bag.
C. The man decided to carry the bag out to the edge of the cliff and see if he could throw the dirt balls into the deep river below?
He had thrown over a hundred dirt balls into the river.
D. At one point his arm grew tired so he paused and broke open a dirt ball and there was a rare jewel inside the dirt ball. He opened another ball, there was a diamond, another ball there was a ruby.
The man got to thinking, I am rich, I am rich!
E. Then he got to thinking about all the dirt balls he had thrown into the river.
Each one of them had jewels in them?
What a waste to leak away those rare, expensive jewels.
F. In his excitement of what he had, he began thinking of the waste, he threw over a hundred dirt balls with rare jewels in them into the fast flowing river.
G. He could never reclaim the value of the jewels that had been needlessly thrown away. Wasted? Wasted?
H. IF YOU THROW MUD --- YOU ARE THE ONE LOOSING GROUND!
I. That is but a parable, a story to make a point.
But the truth is we wasted many valuable opportunities that can never be reclaimed.
J. God never throws the clay away, He makes it again!
Don’t throw the clay away!
We must not aimlessly drift from moment to moment and grow a vast waste
of our potential.
K. You can never reclaimed your:
WORDS
RESOURCES
TALENTS
TIME
ENERGY
MIND
QUIT IT! DON’T BE A LEAKY CISTERN ---
Spend your SELF on what really matters!
THE MAIN THING IS TO KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Help enlarge my hands and pass this on to someone else?
This is part 1 of a 2 part series.
