Sticking With The Source
How to Stay Connected to the Unlimited Supply
9/22/04
I. Introduction
Drama
II. Casting Down Idols
Tonight we’re talking about “Sticking with the Source: How to Stay Connected to the Unlimited Supply”
I don’t know if you noticed the symbolism in the sketch tonight, but the “Snappy Cap” is basically an idol. Something magnified above god. Chuck Waller would have you believe that the “snappy cap” can meet your every need and that you should look to it as your source.
While you may not have a “snappy cap,” you definitely look to something or someone as your source- the place from which you get everything you want or need. What are you looking to as your source? Is it your parents? Is it your boyfriend/girlfriend? Is it the latest reality show that’s going to meet your need? Is it a prized possession that you can’t live without?
Exodus 20 3 "You shall have no other gods before me. NIV
One of the Ten Commandments plainly points out that we’re to have no other source than God Himself, that we should look to Him, and stick with Him.
Acts 17 16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:|sc TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28’For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ’We are his offspring.’ NIV
Even in the New Testament, people were looking to things other than God as their source. But Paul, as he’s walking around, notices an inscription to “an unknown God” and he begins to tell the Athenians about this “unknown God.” And he explains to them that this unknown God is the one and only God, the source of life and breath that wants men to have a relationship with him. And from this context comes the verse, “in him we live and move and have our being” meaning that He’s our source and we’re nothing without Him.
III. Look to the Source
Psalm 121 1I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where will my help come from? 2My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. NIV
George Muller was a man of great faith in our God as a provider for the children in his orphanage in England. One day things looked bleak for the children in his orphanage at Ashley Downs. It was time for breakfast, and there was no food. A small girl whose father was a close friend of Muller was visiting in the home. Muller took her hand and said, "Come and see what our Father will do." In the dining room, long tables were set with empty plates and empty mugs. Not only was there no food in the kitchen, but there was no money in the home’s account. Muller prayed, "Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat." Immediately, they heard a knock at the door. When they opened it, there stood the local baker. "Mr. Muller," he said, "I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you had no bread for breakfast, so I got up at two o’clock and baked fresh bread. Here it is." Muller thanked him and gave praise to God. Soon, a second knock was heard. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in the front of the orphanage. He said he would like to give the children the milk so he could empty the cart and repair it.
There’s a word that comes to my mind after reading that incredible story. It’s not necessarily a spiritual word - but it’s the word I bet was also on the mind of the hungry children that day. WOW. What else can you do but take a moment to thank God that He’s the source?
He’s the source of supply, well, what else is He the source of?
Psalm 43 4There I will go to the altar of God, to God--the source of all my joy. I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God! NLT
Psalm 119 114You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my only source of hope. NLT
Isaiah 45 24The people will declare, "The LORD is the source of all my righteousness and strength." NLT
2 Corinthians 1 3All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. NLT
1 Corinthians 8 6Yet for us there is [only] one God, the Father, Who is the Source of all things and for Whom we [have life], and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through and by Whom are all things and through and by Whom we [ourselves exist]. AMP
God is the Source of ALL things. James wrote that every good and perfect gift comes from above- the Father of lights.
We credit God as being the source of every good thing in our lives. Now, does that mean that money grows on trees and cars fall from the sky when we need it? No. It means that when we look to God as our source, the things we need will have a way of getting into our hands. And we look to Him as more than just a source of money or finances, we look to Him as a source for everything we need: wisdom, grace, health, comfort, and strength- whatever we need.
Now, we’ve established that God IS the source. Now, let’s talk about what it means to stay connected to the source.
IV. Stay Close
Revelation 3 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, ’I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. NIV
Verses 15 and 16 contain the diagnosis for this church in Laodicea, which applies directly to the church today. (Read vs. 15-16) This is where a lot of people get confused, and are confused today. The common misinterpretation has been that the word “hot” means spiritual fervor, or excitement, for God… “on fire for God,” and that the word “cold” means outright rejection to the things of God. If this were the case, then it would mean that God prefers outright rejection than spiritual “lukewarmness”? Let’s look at it this way, my father would much rather me be on his team, or his side, or just close to him, than to disagree, or to run away from him and join another family. He wants me to be close to him. This is the same way with you and God.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
God wants everyone to be close to him! Let me enlighten you about Revelation 3:15-16. You see, Laodicea was near two other cities…Hierapolis and Colossae. Hierapolis had springs that produced hot water, and Colossae had springs that produced cold water. (Illustration with two cups and bowl. Label one cup Hierapolis, a red cup if you have it. Label the other, a blue cup if you have it, Colossae. Pour water from each cup into the bowl while having someone hold it. Tell them this while doing so.) What happens is that the hot water from Hierapolis runs down a stream to Laodicea, and the cold water from Colossae does the same thing…basically they meet in the middle like you see here, and by the time the hot water gets there and meets the cold water, we have water that is lukewarm. Here’s the deal…hot water has a purpose, it’s good for something. Hot water is good for hot tea, hot coffee, hot chocolate or a hot tub. I love the hot tub!!! It’s so good after you’ve been working out, or you have sore muscles…it’s good for something, right?
Ok, well, cold water is good for something, too. It’s refreshing after a long run, or playing basketball, it’s soothing to wet the whistle. Athlete’s NEED cold water. A cold pool feels great on a hot day. If cold water gets really cold, it freezes and makes ice, which makes drinks much colder, or a warm drink cold. So, you see, both hot and cold water are useful and efficient for how we live. But what is useless is the lukewarm water in Laodicea. It has no purpose…the word lukewarm is only used once in the New Testament, right here. The exact sense of the word is unusable, or barren. If I get a glass of lukewarm water or take a swig from a water fountain that’s lukewarm after I play basketball, then I automatically spit it out, because it doesn’t refresh me, it makes me want to vomit. This is just how we are if we’re away from the source…we’re like the useless lukewarm water of Laodicea. We are good for nothing.
We are just too comfortable being lukewarm. We like our baths at a medium temperature and we don’t want to be challenged, or stretched. (Illustration) Many people remember the woman from Albuquerque, who was scalded by McDonald’s coffee in 1992. She was awarded nearly $3 million dollars in punitive damages by a jury. Fewer people remember that in an out of court settlement the money she received was reduced to a far smaller, still secret sum. And almost nobody recalls that the jury found the woman to be 20 percent at fault. This woman suffered a severe case of the stupids! Coffee is supposed to be HOT! Hot chocolate is supposed to be hot!! We must be Hot, or Cold. We must move closer to the cold springs to be cold, or closer to the hot springs to be hot…God is our source. We can’t go too far away from Him.
In vs. 17-19, he gives us the prescription, the antidote, per se. (Read vs. 17-19) Laodicea was known for it’s banking center, it’s black wool textile industry, and it’s medicinal school that provided salve to cure eye disease. It’s interesting that God hits on all these aspects in his antidote. They were so self righteous that they did not even realize the condition they were in. They didn’t know they were wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. He counsels them to buy gold from him, which symbolizes righteous character. The gold refined in the fire is real gold, not fool’s gold. It goes through the test, the fire may be uncomfortable for the gold, but it purifies the gold, fire sterilizes and refines. He counsels them to buy white clothes which also symbolize righteousness to cover their nakedness which is unrighteousness. He also counsels them to buy salve, so that they can see, really see. They claimed to have spiritual insight, but they did not possess Christ’s wisdom. When God tells them to buy these things, he doesn’t mean they have to literally buy them, he offers all these things for free…the only price He asks for is repentance. Vs. 19 says that he loves us and that’s why he rebukes and disciplines…he’s just like the father that wants his son close to him.
Proverbs 3:11-12 “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.”
Repentance expresses a turning, and the earnestness that he calls for expresses an ongoing attitude. Sin is just like a dead end street, there’s only one way out…turn around and go the other way, and continue in that direction.
We can’t stray from the source or we’ll become lukewarm and we’ll fall away from God and His provision for our lives. We have to stick with the source.
When a water hose is not connected to a faucet, it’s basically useless. And when we’re not connected to our Source, it’s the same thing for us. We gotta stay connected to the unlimited supply.
Let’s pray.
