Each one of us knows where we live, don’t we? We know which state welive in, which county welive in and most of us even know what street we live on.
When we leave church today, we will go directly to the street we live on, and I doubt if there is anyone here today who will end up walking into the wrong house by mistake.
We know where we live, don’t we? At least we know where we live physically. I wonder, though, how many of us know where we live spiritually. God’s word says there are only two places to live, and they are not even close to one another. One has a great heating system and the other a great cooling system. Those two places don’t even look alike, but it seems that too many of God’s children have taken up residence at the wrong address.
How can we tell if we are at the wrong address? Are there any tale-tell signs that would give us a clue? Yes there are, but we have to be willing to look at them. For instance, if you are more concerned with what others think about you than what God thinks about you, you might be living at the wrong address.
If you go out of your way to impress people with how much you know, or even how Godly you are, you might be living at the wrong address. If you are all consumed with how you look to others, you could be living at the wrong address.
A lady went to her pastor one day and said she has a problem that has become a gigantic sin in her life. She said she sits in church and the only thing she can think about is how beautiful she is and how much better looking she is than others are.
The pastor told her to relax, that in her case it wasn’t a sin, it was just a big horrible mistake.
Turn with me to JEREMIAH 17:5-6
“5- This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6- He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.”
Today, we are gong to go through this passage and break it down. We will attempt to analyze it, understand it, and then find out how we can put it to use in our daily lives.
1. VERSE 5 - Talks about putting our trust in man rather than God.
Do we put our trust in man rather than putting it in God? Sure we do – all the time. One way we do that is to worry more about what someone else will think about us instead of what God will think about us.
For instance, you might be invited out to lunch and a movie on Sunday morning, but you don’t want to tell them you will be in church worshiping the Lord at that time, so you either don’t go to church or you just tell your friends that you already have other plans. Either way, you get out of having to tell them that you are going to church.
There are some in church who really feel the need to come forward at invitation and receive Jesus as Savior, or to rededicate themselves to Jesus, but they don’t do it. Why? Again, they are afraid of what others will say about them.
There are many ways in which we tend to trust in the world for our futures, for our careers, and for about everything else we have in life rather than seeking help from our Father.
People who live at the wrong address actually think those things. I know! I used to live there! They just cannot let God get in the way of their earthly lives.
Many preachers don’t rail against sin and proclaim salvation anymore because they think either many of their congregation would not come back, or that they would come back – just to chase the preacher out of town.
Some of our church leaders live at the wrong address, and through hollow and deceptive philosophy, or false teachings, they are leading their entire congregations down to their neighborhoods.
When we put our fear of what our fellow man will say above our fear of what God will do to us, we become the lukewarm and cold. These people are so distasteful to Jesus; He said He would spew them out of His mouth!
You are at a point in your life that you must make a decision. Either you are a Christian or you are not a Christian. Either you care more about what God thinks or you care more about what your friends think. You cannot be both and you cannot have it both ways. It is like a fork in the road; you either choose to go left or you choose to go right.
If you are a Christian, you must be willing to live that life fully, not just on Sundays. Jesus told us what we are to think of Him and the world. In JOHN 15:18, He said,
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first.”
If you walk under the bondage of the fear of what others will think of you, you are living at the wrong address.
2. VERSE 5 - Talks about depending on our flesh for our strength.
Too many of us seem to depend on our own capabilities for our strength. We think we can fix anything and take care of everything, no matter what it is.
I will let you in on a secret right now. You cannot fix anything. At very best, all you can do is put a very small band-aid on it. But, what happens when you put a band-aid on a sore? Does that band-aid heal the sore, or does it just cover it up for a small period of time?
If the truth be known, every one of us does that, don’t we? And what else do we do? When all of our attempts eventually fail, we always go right to God for Him to fix things, don’t we? It would really seem to me that we should finally get it together and always go to Him right off. If we go to Him first, we save ourselves most of the problems we face in life.
Many people say they do not believe in God, and they go through life depending on the world for everything. But what happens when there is a problem in their lives that they just can’t get fixed?
For instance, if there was a plane flying at 35,000’ and was full of atheists, I do believe that if the engines on that plane all went out, those atheists would be screaming out for God to help them.
Those who live at the wrong address will always go to God for help when the final chip is drawn, and the last card is on the table. Maybe somewhere down deep we all understand that our arrogance does not get us anywhere.
3. VERSE 5 – Talks about those whose hearts are turned away from God.
Do we ever turn our hearts away from God? Yes, all the time. All we have to do is focus more on something else than we do Him. That not only turns our hearts away from Him, but whatever it is that we are focusing on becomes our idol for the moment.
If we choose to skip church so we can watch the game on TV, or if we decide to not tell somebody about salvation so they won’t dislike us, we have turned our hearts against God. We have become His enemy.
Whether it is an individual Christian or a church, when we get too busy to focus on the salvation of those around us, we have become cold and bitter against our Lord.
We are all called to do everything we can to help someone else eternally. In JAMES 4:17, it says
“Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do and does not do it, sins.”
So, sinning is not just doing something we should not do, but it is also not doing something we should do. Now, how many of us sin by doing something we shouldn’t and how many of us sin by not doing that which we should?
Sin sneaks up on us in many forms and it always seem to catch us unaware. Sin will take us where we never want to go, keep us longer than we want to stay and cost us much more than we ever want to pay.
And, when you live in the wrong place, you end up going to all the other wrong places.
4. VERSE 6 - says ‘He will be like a bush in the wastelands.”
Talk about being in the wrong place, how would you like to be a bush in the wastelands? When a person puts their trust in mankind, they always end up somewhere they should never be.
Many people will tell you how they have been to places they should have never gone to, and many a man will tell you that even if they didn’t do anything else wrong, by just going somewhere they shouldn’t, they got in trouble.
There is the story of a bunch of politicians in a van who went driving in the countryside to see any damages done by a recent flood. While they were driving, they ran off the road and hit a pole, wrecking the van and throwing all of them out.
An old farmer, sitting on his porch, saw the whole thing, so he went over there and buried all the politicians. The next day, the sheriff came out and saw the van and asked where the men were. The farmer said he buried them all.
The sheriff asked if they were all killed, and the farmer said, “Oh, there were a couple that said they weren’t, but you know how politicians lie.”
I would say those politicians were definitely at the wrong place, weren’t they?
Now, we must be alert each day to where we are going and where we are. Not just physically, but especially spiritually. Where have you been today in your walk with the Lord? Spiritually, have you been like a bush in the wastelands?
5. VERSE 6 – Says “He will not see prosperity when it comes.”
There are too many people that frown on using the word ‘prosperity’ in church. I don’t understand that, because it is God’s word, not ours. He used it long before you or I did, and it is not a dirty word, it is a holy word.
Of course, I know that there have been many people who have distorted it to suit their own selfish agendas. But, God does promise prosperity. And, He might make you prosper financially. But, He might make you prosper in His love instead; or in other ways, too, such as kindness, peace or fulfillment.
We all know people who claim that they cannot see how they have been blessed in their lives. Of course, just the fact they are still living shows that God has blessed them, but like it says in verse 6 of the Scripture that I read, those that live at the wrong address cannot see their blessings when they get it.
6. VERSE 6 – says, “He will dwell in the parched places of the desert.”
Think about that for a minute. Coming from the deserts of Arizona, I can tell you that a parched place is not a place any of you really want to be. You can become dehydrated in less than 30 minutes and go into heat stroke. To see what parched really looks like, let’s read JOEL 1:16-20.
“16- We watch as our food disappears before our very eyes. There are no joyful celebrations in the house of our God. 17- The seeds die in the parched ground, and the grim crops fail. The barns and the grainaries stand empty and abandoned. 18- How the animals mourn with hunger! The cattle wander about confused because there is no pasture for them. The sheep bleat in misery. 19- Lord, help us! The fire has consumed the pastures and burned up all the trees. 20- Even the wild animals cry out to You because they have no water to drink. The streams have dried up, and fire has consumed the pastures.”
That is a pretty accurate description of a parched place. I think that is what JEREMIAH is describing in JEREMIAH 17:6b. This describes where everyone lives that does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior. And, the worse part is they do not realize they live there.
People who do love Christ, however, live in another part of town; a much better part of town. What part of town do you live in? Do you live there full time, or do you hope between houses, depending on the day or the circumstances?
7. VERSE 6 – says that person will live, “In a salt land where no one lives.”
There have been many times in our marriage that Diana had to travel from Arizona to Ohio or Florida due to health issues in her family. Mostly, I had to stay home with the dog because we were unable to take the same time off from our jobs.
Even though I would have never stopped her from going, I was lonely for her when she was gone. Now, I love my dog, but after a few days with just him, and me I felt like I was living in a salt land where nobody else lived. I felt alone.
If you have ever gone to a movie alone, or to a restaurant alone, you know the feeling. It just does not feel natural. People look at you like you couldn’t get a date if your life depended on it, or they wonder exactly what is wrong with you.
When we feel this way, we are being overly concerned with what someone might be thinking about us, and if we go back to verse 5, we will see that we are not to depend on flesh (that would be other people) but to depend solely upon our God.
There are many who choose to be alone in their hearts. They spend their entire life shielding themselves against relationships with other people. They think they are keeping safe, but what they are actually doing is keeping isolated.
They live at the wrong address, and they have no neighbors. In fact, they have nobody to call upon when calamity strikes. God made us to fellowship with others, but to properly do that, you must also fellowship with God.
CONCLUSION
I have tried to show you today that there are only two places you can choose to live spiritually. The right place or the wrong place. Too many of us keep going from one to the other so much you would think we are snowbirds.
One place is restricted for Christians. One place is open to everyone else. In the Scripture, it tells us that the person who relies on the world instead of on God is cursed.
If you are living at the wrong address, you need to move, and I will let you know right now that there are many people here today who will gladly help you move. At the wrong address, the world will always be willing to see you suffer.
A man became lost in his travels and wandered into a bed of quicksand.
Confucius saw the man’s predicament and said, “It is evident that men should stay out of places such as this.”
Next, Buddha observed the situation and said, “Let that man’s plight be a lesson to the rest of the world.”
Then Mohammed came by and said to the sinking man, “It is the will of Allah.”
Finally, Jesus saw the man and said, “Take my hand, beloved, for I will save you.”
INVITATION
