Full Service | Sunday, October 18, 2020

good morning nathan creekers hey let's all stand together you guys all ready to roll come on in find your spot let's get things rolling lord we pray your blessing on this sunday morning we're so so thankful to be able to worship your holy name to gather together lord and pray you bless those at home watch it online or watch parties lord whoever's out there lord i pray blessing upon them we just want you to draw near to us as we draw near to you lord you're so you're so faithful to meet us every sunday so be glorified be honored in jesus name amen hey uh don't be afraid to just jump right in sing hey this song eventually uh becomes like a clapper you got to clap along with it eventually so let's roll here we go creating me a clean clean heart creating me [Music] something beautiful [Music] [Music] so [Music] me [Music] me you're not finished with me [Applause] that's right and again you're not finished i can change oh again [Music] it [Music] oh something real something [Music] beautiful [Music] amen [Music] [Music] so [Music] god is our refugee a very present [Music] a very present [Music] [Music] know that he is god we will be still still know that he is god [Music] [Applause] hey there's a river there is a river [Music] he is [Music] though the mountains be carried into [Music] know that he is [Music] [Music] [Music] know [Music] [Music] know [Music] know that he is god [Music] and all who were thirsty and all who are weak just come to the fountain dip your heart in the streams of life let the pain and the sorrow be washed away in the waves of his mercy [Music] as the deep cries come lord jesus come lord jesus [Music] and all who were thirsty [Music] and all who [Music] just come to the fountain [Music] dip your heart in the streams [Music] be washed away in the waves of his mercy [Music] as the deep cries out to [Music] death [Music] come lord jesus say holy spirit come [Music] holy spirit [Music] [Music] as the deep cries out too [Music] as deep cries out to deal and we sing jesus christ [Music] [Music] so [Music] i'm afraid you pull me in from the shadows of my sins [Music] you lift the darkness from my soul [Music] no matter where i am at [Music] you will always take me back [Music] [Music] high above me all the glory be to you [Music] [Music] brokenness no matter where i am [Music] [Music] [Music] full mercy so high above [Music] worthy [Music] you were [Music] no matter where i am you will always take me back [Music] all the glory be [Music] is [Music] [Music] worthy [Music] [Music] so lord we lift your name high above all others lord we're thankful that we can gather in your name lord in this building lord your church gathers and we love you lord we love that weekend sing out your praises we love that we can open up your word so show us what you'd have for us lord speak to us may your spirit move through your word lord through the volume of the book so we love you father in jesus name we pray all god's people said amen amen make yourself comfy have a seat and uh good to see everybody glad you're here with us at this 10 o'clock service whether you're here or online glad you're all joining us this morning hey thanks 11 guitars nice job everybody yeah thank you 64 strings that's a lot of strings up here it's great if you break a string it's no big deal hey i got a few announcements for you don't forget a lot of good things going on with ac creek and the church check online there's good stuff one thing i want to tell you with all the musicians up here i'm reminded there's a lot of good music coming out of this group of we have a ton of volunteers who just help us out one thing you should know there's there's a lot of things that people don't know about worship teams and churches and stuff like that but um one thing here at atheists um all the people that lead worship or play instruments here are eighty creakers we don't like hire do hired guns and find some some guitar gunslinger to come and play some riffs on sunday i love that all our musicians are achy creepers they were here first as people that just love going through the bible and uh then they're they're part of the team here which is really cool i love that um and there's never tracks we've never used tracks here at ac creek that's something else i should boast of our musicians uh i but i'm not part of that i just i just want to say that a lot of churches there's all kinds of tracks going on in the background so it sounds huge which is great for them but i like that we have real people playing real stuff that's kind of cool and uh and then also they've been writing a bunch of great worship tunes and if you haven't checked athey music uh they're they're just it's free it's online uh youtube ac music and there's actually one of the fun things to do if you're at home and you just want some good praise music in the background just play through the list of youtube and just let it go and you might be just really blessed all the original songs and some some also some old hymns and stuff as well just to kind of go through your day with some good worship so check out all those platforms whether it's youtube or uh you know at ac music in instagram or wherever you are check it out it's it's kind of cool all the neat songs are coming out of this this team of people hey uh one other thing that's kind of cool is we're adding to our children's ministry now that we're kind of slowly opening things up we're uh starting next sunday we're going to go all the way up to fifth grade uh with our children's ministry so that's getting back in gear so you poor kids that are in here even right now the grade school kids you have to listen to pastor brett yak for hours and hours uh that next week you'll be back into children's church which will be great i'll miss you though i like having the kids in here with me uh this has been great um but anyway that'll be happening happening next sunday so that's kind of cool hey um on the ticketing thing i talked about that last week about why we do the ticketing thing and it has to do with kind of keeping the numbers controlled uh because we would pack this place out all four services elbow to elbow if we could and i would but um but that's why the ticket thing but one other thing i should mention and this is probably for people that are out there um uh on the internet uh you know the ticket ticketing if you get a ticket please use it if if if you're not gonna use it give it back because that means somebody can actually go to church if you're not going to um if you're a person says i get a ticket and then just not show up then that's bad because that means there's somebody who could have been at church that's not do you understand what i'm saying there that's important so if you do that you've lost your salvation and you're in big trouble no that's sorry that's bad doctrine sorry um now we're still we actually know that there's some people who've done this where they they just get tickets at all four services just to so they can get up whenever they want and kind of go whenever they want to go to church you're actually demonic if you've done that um no no i'm just messing with it but uh seriously it's really easy to give your tickets back and that way somebody can go online and be here when they really want to be so don't be you do you want to know the percentage of people that get tickets that don't show up anybody want to know what that is 25 that's the how many unsaved people there are out there no i'm i'm just kidding i shouldn't joke like that um but anyway uh something to definitely think about because it's real there's we like to have people in the seats so just a heads up on that we're going through the bible verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book and this is where the book by book comes in we're starting a new book today we finished isaiah now we're into jeremiah starting right now uh so i'm glad if you're just joining us that's how we roll uh we don't skip a verse or a chapter and uh i love that we have a church that's willing to do the work and go through the bible so this coming wednesday night seven o'clock online we'll be uh you know tackling the introduction and chapter one we'll see how far we get into maybe even chapter two of jeremiah now before we get into the verse that we're gonna look at we take a small verse or section on sunday from our upcoming wednesday through the bible so that's kind of how we roll here but before i get into that let's let's talk about jeremiah you know the prophets of the old testament are kind of amazing um i love the prophets and they're they're kind of amazing dudes if you were to hand out prophet awards if we were at the uh sort of award ceremony of prophets you know the guy that's probably most successful the guy with the most successful award would go to jonah jonah was the prophet that you know was told by the lord to go to nineveh and you guys remember the story you know he didn't want to go god said go jonah said no and he bolted the other direction and so you know he's trying to get away but you can't get away from the lord and so eventually storm you know they throw him overboard he gets swallowed up by a giant fish and he's in the belly of that fish for three days it's a long time for those gastric juices of the whale or the whale or fish the big belly um you know of the whale and he's in there and then you know finally the fish swims back toward the direction of nineveh and then the fish barfs them on the beef beets that's a bad day you're a whale barf pretty much that's jonah a half digested whale barf and so he walks back into the city he's probably smelling like whale barf maybe looking like will barf and then he gets into the city says okay whatever repent everybody repent and the whole city repents everyone in the whole the assyrians were a godless horribly scary bunch of people and yet they all repented most successful goes to jonah we won't give him the best attitude award however you know if you want to give the most eloquent award that goes to isaiah we just finished the book of isaiah man that guy was eloquent he you knew how to use literary tools and techniques to create creatively just give us god's word to the people and isaiah a man smart intelligent like he gets that smart intelligent creative just the genius kind of award you know you could give ezekiel the most mystic mysterious mystical kind of award i mean when you read the book of ezekiel like huh what wheels spinning within wheels and all this stuff that he paints and portraits for us about the the temple and and stuff we're going to be getting into ezekiel here in a while but but uh man the guy was kind of the artsy one you know if you would and he gets the most creative award daniel might get the best prophecy award because man he prophesied the coming of the messiah perhaps to the very day when he would ride into the jerusalem there on the cult of a donkey and and also the end times and all that daniel and also he gets the best man award if you ask me daniel was the guy like what an amazing dude daniel was so when you're handing out the prophecy awards what do you give to the prophet jeremiah um well i'm going to be a little bit brutal here at first but uh and but then we'll pull up so don't get mad at me right out of the gate but we give jeremiah first the world for sure would give him the loser award jeremiah's the loser prophet from the world's perspective what do you mean brett well jeremiah ministered for 42 years that's how long the extent of his ministry was 42 years that's a pretty long time for anybody to have a career or a job but especially when you're a prophet of the lord that was a tough gig as we will see here in the book of jeremiah but he was doing that for 42 years but here's the problem how many people were changed transformed listened to the words of jeremiah the prophet in 42 years the answer zip not one person listened to one word jeremiah ever said nobody said oh jeremiah you're right we need to repent and now with isaiah and all the other prophets there was a repentance and the lord did some great things but not one person said jeremiah is right we got to repent but everyone said we don't like him what a jerk in fact they hated jeremiah so not only did they not listen to them but they treated him badly he'd be thrown into a dungeon uh that was filled with mud um he he was like uh just you know beaten and he would also as we'll find out be killed because ultimately he was a prophet of the lord but not one person listen to him so you might give him the world would give him the loser award even church people say well he's called the weeping prophet uh that's a term you'll hear attached to jeremiah all the time because he was that now was he a big crybaby because nobody listened to him nope that's not why he was weeping he would weep because of the sin of the people he'd see their debauchery and their behavior and their their you know distancing themselves from god and so jeremiah would just come and weep over the people he's called the weeping prophet so you say well brett what kind of award is that the weeping prophet the loser prophet but here's where i love the the thing about jeremiah did you know that there was someone that came in history that people thought this is jeremiah resurrected from the dead does anybody remember who did they think was jeremiah resurrected from the dead anybody anybody jesus you can say like this jesus it's always the answer did you know remember there when they when their jesus said who do men say that i am and some people said well he's not that prophet or you know he's this or that but one of the things that well he's jeremiah they said he's john the baptist come back from the dead but they also said there he's jeremiah the prophet why would they confuse jesus as being jeremiah the prophet maybe it's the weeping thing because remember when jesus rode down in jerusalem on the palm sunday he wept over jerusalem said oh jerusalem jerusalem if you'd known in this thy day you know jesus was the man of many sorrows now one thing about jesus you also i also have to kind of acknowledge he was anointed with the oil of gladness i don't think he was the the scary angry hippie of the movies of jesus you know that was maybe looked like he smoked a little too much weed uh that's not jesus jesus was when little children ran up and liked to sit on his lap he was probably a joyful guy on one side but we also know jesus was a man of many sorrows acquainted with grief and he even wept over jerusalem and that's why they said maybe he's jeremiah come back from the dead so now we start to say well there's something about jeremiah that was kind of christ-like that's pretty cool but here's where to me this is where the awards come in who of all the prophets of the old testament did jesus quote the most jeremiah isn't that awesome the guy that nobody listened to the guy that everybody rejected and nobody was saved nobody was transformed jesus quoted jeremiah more than he quoted isaiah the eloquent one more than he quoted daniel the cool one more than he quoted you know ezekiel the mysterious one he quoted jeremiah over and over again i love that what a redemptive thing jeremiah might just be the the you know the best prophet of them all because jesus chose to quote him more than all the others and that's why i'm going to love to read with you guys as a church through this book of jeremiah because man he's got some stuff to say that nobody wanted to listen to but they should have before we dive into this let me let me say something about that you know there's an obvious lesson here just because someone's speaking and everybody likes what they're saying doesn't mean that what they're saying is true or even right and just because nobody's listening and everybody's rejecting what that person's saying doesn't mean that it's wrong um some of you you know that are really big on social media be careful with this one have you ever noticed who gets the most follows and who gets the most likes and who gets the most clicks and all that stuff um it you know like there's there's this guy um that um that is on social media uh that gives these great verses he's from ac creek i think he is on instagram uh shepard's heart and it's just great he gives some really cool verses and things and you know he's got several hundred followers and you know gets a few likes here and there but i'm like this is really great stuff but then there's the eyelash ladies now if you're an eyelash lady i'm not talking about you but there's eyelash ladies and they've got 150 000 followers and they show the latest eyelashes and they're blinking their eyes it's like you can feel the wind you're like whoa those are some serious eyelashes 150 000 followers and you know 10 000 likes on the latest you know you're like wow people are in the eyelashes apparently as it turns out who could care about a scripture or a word of encouragement but those eyelashes wow or or you know like you could go on that musician or drummer or you know the surfer you know or whatever they've got tens of thousands of followers but the person you know and that's sort of how we tend to measure success as an influencer today i'm not knocking the eyelashes or the you know uh bowel movements or whatever you're talking about on your instagram it is funny what people talk about click like like like like but but here's the thing here's the thing be careful because just because somebody has hundreds of thousands of followers doesn't mean that what they're saying biblically or scripturally or doctrinally is even right jeremiah was the guy everybody just shut down and didn't listen to although he was in fact what god was saying at that time and nobody was listening god forbid that you and i in a day of tons of communication with news media and you know internet sites and bloggers and worship leaders and people you know spewing what they say is their worldview and their doctrine according to what they think the bible says but there's so much misinformation i wonder you know uh you know and i it takes one to know i know here we are you know a church of you know 6 000 people um and so i'm probably talking the wrong but i wonder if there's pastors out there that just have churches of 50 people they're just speaking the truth but nobody wants to hear it you know i'm thankful that i get to speak the truth from the bible and go through the bible with you guys and for some reason you guys are willing to endure and i love it because in the last days the bible says people won't endure sound doctrine and there's a lot of i think there's a lot of big giant churches that just because they're giant doesn't necessarily mean they're speaking what is on god's heart jeremiah was the guy the lone ranger you know speaking god's truth only to find um that everybody hated him for it let's take a look jeremiah chapter two the the two verses i want to show you today from our upcoming wednesday 12 and 13. jeremiah chapter 2 verses 12 and 13. jeremiah is speaking the words of the lord and he says here in jeremiah 2 12 be astonished o ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid be very desolate saith the lord 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 before we get into the crux of the matter verse 13. verse 12 is interesting i mean here's god saying to humanity be astonished all universe oh ye heavens be what's the word astonished it could be like be shocked be stunned like like um what shocks you what are you stunned by um well this is god saying humanity and all the universe be stunned by this be shocked be astonished um oh heavens at this and the second thing you're supposed to do not only be stunned and shocked but be horribly afraid you know last week we talked about hell wasn't that fun um and yet what's funny about hell as scary and horrifying as this nowhere did god say be horribly afraid of hell we should be and the bible does imply that but god didn't directly say that be horribly afraid of hell but god does say here this is what you should be horribly afraid of when you forsake me god the fountain of living water for some old broken down cistern that doesn't hold water this admonition that we're about to study and meditate on this is something god says this is what you should be horribly afraid of hmm see when i read that in the bible when god is saying be horribly afraid don't you think you and i should be horribly afraid if god is saying to be horribly afraid about something um you know we're horribly afraid if our lashes aren't beautiful today you know i'm gonna harp on that one for some reason i don't know it's just so much fun talking about that um because i don't do lashes uh i won't i won't say anything that it really is close to home for me uh but but uh but no you know what are we to be horribly afraid of is to is to watch out for this admonition that jeremiah's about to unveil the people my people have committed two evils so these are evil things that people do it's interesting by the way what what does the world define as evil what is evil a lot of times we we you know put in the evil category murder which it is wouldn't you agree evil murder is evil of course it is you know rape murder evil there's things that are just evil but the bible calls things evil that the world doesn't even know that even is not even evil but they don't even know that it's bad or a little bit off a little bit this is one of those things what have they done well let's break it down there's two main points here for today number one this is the first point that he says two evils number one they have forsaken me the fountain of living water they've forsaken me the fountain of living water um notice that it's a it's sort of a metaphor here that god is saying i'm like a fountain of living water that's that sounds really refreshing doesn't it you know to have a nice refreshing bubbling cold brook see i grew up in southern oregon in the in the backwoods of you know roosh and applegate um and when i was a kid man you know we just had it made we had the applegate river right in my backyard um which was great but we didn't drink out of the applegate river and i'll tell you why because there were stagnant parts of the river that would sort of flow and there were also skinny dippers and stuff up the river you know a bunch of hippies and you didn't know what they were doing in the water you know what i'm saying so we were kind of like yeah we would never drink on that but me and my buddies my next-door neighbor kurt we'd get on our dirt bikes and head up into the mountains and we'd just go ride up there and then there was there was streams that would come right off the snow fall you know and and it's ice cold water and it was just you know bubbling little brooks coming down the rocks and that's where we would just oh so great you just get some water we get crawdads out of there and you boil them up and you know it was just like fun as a kid growing up with this this uh fresh water you just you could just drink it and not worry about sickness or anything like that that's what i think of as is when when this you know fountain of living water that's what it's talking about what a picture but here they have forsaken that for something else we'll talk about what the what the cistern and broken cisterns are like but why would anybody forsake something so wonderful now before we get into this too much you know you have to ask yourself do you even know what the fountain of living water is have you ever tasted the psalmist declared oh taste and see that the lord is good you know sadly sadly there's some that might be watching online or maybe even here this morning who you've never tasted and seen that the lord is this refreshing source of total satisfaction people look to everything else in this world to try to satisfy their thirsty soul only to find that it's it's an empty broken down cistern that doesn't have any real water and you're going to be thirsty again oh man i can't you know speak about this without reminding you of john's gospel chapter 4. remember when john told his disciples hey disciples we need to go through samaria and the guy's like samaria what area some area no like samaria the place called samaria yeah okay we'll go to some area what's the problem with samaria well the jews hated samaritans see the samaritans were a people that used to be the jews and then when they were attacked by the assyrian people centuries earlier they they were taken prisoners and they became sort of half jew half assyrian and then they came back into that region as sort of jewish slash assyrians so the jews said you guys are half breeds that's what they called them and you're that's why they hated the samaritans and the samaritans hated the jews so when jesus told his disciples we need to go through some areas the guys are like what we're not going through some area we're going to some areas so jesus goes to samaria and he goes to this well where this woman is drawing water and and he says woman would you give me something to drink and she looks at him stunned speaking of being shocked and astonished that's what she was and she says how is it that you being a jew are asking me a woman of samaria see there's already um strikes against her there's three strikes number one um a jew they would not even be caught dead in some area but there's just houses you're a jew strike one um in samaria talking to me a woman strike two because in in those days you know there was this weird cultural thing that treated women horribly and for a man to talk to a woman let alone a jew to talk to a woman but not only that strike three she was a woman of samaria at the well at a certain time of the day what time of day what does that matter well later on the story reveals this woman she uh she's a woman that's probably a prostitute the town prostitute how do you know that a couple bits of evidence jesus is going to remind her and we're going to find out that she has lots of guys that she's had as husbands and so that she's sleeping with and all this stuff and that's kind of who this woman is she she's that but also the time of day that she goes well the people that would go at that time of the day were the lowest of the low there were certain times where the wealthy happy people would be but the people that were low low low that's where jesus went so he talked to this woman at the well in samaria who was probably a prostitute and he says would you give me something to drink he says how is it this is crazy that you would even be here asking me a woman to give you drink well i love the story because jesus he starts talking in a way that's a little bit mysterious he says if you knew the gift of god and who it is that said do you give me to drink thou would have asked him and he would have given you speaking of himself living water now jesus is getting very spiritual with this woman and the woman said to him sir i have nothing to draw with the you have nothing to draw with the well is deep where do you get this water this living water are you greater than our father jacob which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and here's where jesus nails it down check this out and this is you know you can jot it in your notes john 4 13. jesus answered and said unto her whosoever drinketh of this water probably pointing to the well you'll thirst again but whosoever drinks of the water that i shall give him shall never thirst but the water that i shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life see jesus is revealing to this prostitute woman of samaria that he is the fulfillment really of jeremiah he's this found you see how that says they have forsaken me the fountain of living water as it turns out jesus who is god in the flesh he's the one who is the fountain of living water and he's telling this woman you know i asked you for some water from this wall but you'll thirst again with this but if you drink of the well of the water that i give you're never gonna thirst again i'm the one who's gonna satisfy whatever you have need and not only that eternal life well the woman says man you know she says please give me this water that i thirst not neither come hither to draw now before jesus says okay i'll give you the water he says first before we do this would you go home and get your husband now why did he ask that well one of the things that when the lord wants to save us he's got to deal with something called sin we have to realize we're sinners and kind of be be repentant of those sins so jesus says hey why don't you go get your husband and then we'll talk about this water and the woman says on them i have no husband. and jesus said unto her liar no didn't say that i just made that up sorry but that's what she was but i love how jesus so gently deals with her and she says i have no husband and jesus senator now it's well said you have no husband for the last five husbands and he who is now your husband is not your husband at all in that you have spoken truly i love how jesus is kind of affirms yeah good word that you have nothing because you have five and the guy you're sleeping with right now is not even your husband and the woman says unto him sir i perceive thou art a prophet i love that i think you yeah you know stuff now as soon as she realizes he's a spiritual prophet guy she says our fathers worship in this mountain the jews worship in jerusalem which mountains is a proper place to worship and jesus said you know it's neither place but there's come in the day where the father will seek those who will worship him in spirit and in truth and the woman and he's taught they start talking about this and then she says well there's supposed to be a messiah coming when is he going to come who is the messiah she says she realizes this guy is something he's a prophet who knows stuff so who's this messiah and jesus says to her i that speaketh unto thee am he that's something and the woman right then you know what she does i'll read it to you it says as soon as she saw that she left her water pot at the well and went into the city and she said to the men of the city come and see a man which told me all things that i ever did is not this the christ now think with me for a second the town prostitute comes running in town hey everybody and all the men come out all the men she says i met a man he's out here and he told me everything i ever did do you think that made some of the men of the town nervous the town prostitute yeah this guy told me everything uh everything everything and all the people went out to see this guy jesus i love this it's like the whole town had some sins to deal with but jesus is the place you bring your sins not for condemnation but for salvation and i believe that whole town would be blessed because jesus was there the messiah it's great stuff and this woman her sins were forgiven but i love the story because the thing she came for was for water and a well but i love how she left her water pot and she followed jesus from that day forward the thing that would satisfy her thirsty soul long term so before we even get into the the cisterns that are broken and forsaking the fountain man i hope first of all like the woman at the well you've found that jesus is the source of life you might be trying to find it with so many other things but it's just going to be a dead end trust me anybody who's older in here knows what i'm talking about the things we chase after that we hope that will satisfy our thirsty souls is it wealth those of you that have achieved a wealth you don't even know it mostly you're like i remember i remember when donald trump back in the 80s they asked how much is too much money for you and he said i will never have enough and they said are you happy no he said back in the 80s and they said well when is enough money enough money and he said never i remember that in the 80s and i thought wow it's funny how one of the richest guys in america you know back in the 1980s was saying that that you know wealth is is fleeting the bible says don't put your trust in uncertain riches but if it's not wealth maybe it's your career maybe you thought that's the thing that will satisfy my soul having a career where i'm important and people think i'm a person of substance and talent and giftings the problem is retirement is coming whether you like it or not and all you get at retirement is a stupid gold watch maybe a plaque and there you are as a grandma and grandpa going well grandkids listen i used to work in this department and i used to do this and the grant goes yeah now computers do that that's not even a position anymore it's like nobody even cares like like and then you think man i put my whole life now there's now i got to say the bible can combine commends a person who gets a job and works hard and has a career it's not that it's bad but if that's the thing that you think is going to satisfy your soul but the problem is once you realize the career doesn't do it people will go to other things and and eventually there's a lot of people get to a point in life they're like what what is it and so they they drown their sorrows and they think just one more drink then i'll be satisfied just get me out of my misery one more drink or one more you know you know the the addictive things you know the things that we keep feeding our souls to try to patch things up whether it's you know smoking your weed you know i i i have to say as a pastor the legalization of marijuana has not been good for for christian people i got to say that because i'm a pastor of a church and i see what's happening you know the thing is whether people want to admit it or not it is in fact whether you want to admit it or not i know some of you weed people out there like but no that's not true um i'm just smoking an arab of god god created the arab well he also created poison oak you're not smoking that um it's a nerve um no i'm just messing with but the gateway drug thing is something we see in ministry all the time people start smoking weed or you know even alcohol and stuff and then it becomes stronger and stronger and you start seeing lives really starting to get messed up um there's a interesting thing that happened years ago i remember this young girl she was very pretty young she'd come to church every sunday and and she always sat in the same exact place um you know uh and it was always you know i knew if she was there or not is that kind of thing some of you that sit in the same seat every time it's like i know you're like i know your attendance when you're not here it's like well there's ten o'clock in there they're not in their normal spot i wonder where they are vacation maybe no i i'm not checking up on you that much but but but uh she was in the same spot and uh and and she just got to sit there and then um and then eventually she started coming with her boy a boyfriend and the boyfriend and her would sit there and and i remember after several years um she actually one sunday looked up and and accepted christ and raised her and said i want to become a christian and i was kind of shocked like ben she's been here for years you know but it was kind of cool and then about a year later she called the office and i never met her or talked with i just saw her there you know but she she called judy slaughter our women's you know counselor and and judy and i sat down with her and she said brad i just want to tell you and judy kind of my story and as she told us her story i was stunned she was a person who um liked to smoke a little weed before church because it made her feel like she was just a little more calm and and she would come in and like more worshipful somehow i was more anointed that she was smoking her weed and she'd come in and be a part of the you know the church thing but but but then she met this guy who said oh it's not about the weed it's about these other drugs and she started taking drugs with this guy before church her boyfriend and she come in and sit back there with her boyfriend and they were high stoned wasted um and then and then he got her into meth and they were doing hardcore meth for like a year and uh and she said man nobody knew that we were just sitting there totally out of our minds and and then she said one sunday she said she was high on meth i don't even know what that really even means but she was and she said when i gave that invitation she doesn't even remember the sermon at all but she remembers when i gave that invitation to accept christ and repent of her sins she said she felt this heavy hand of god on her head like god just like he was pushing saying it's time to stop it's time to repent and she just said it was like the hand of god pressing on my shoulder or whatever and and that's when she looked up and said i want to become a christian right then and from that day forward she never took another drug she never once and she wanted to tell us that story because she she was reminding us you know don't don't just think because people are sitting happily in the service that everybody's all rosy and their lives are squared away and that's something as a pastor i just know for sure don't be a person who thinks if you're in this service with a bunch of people they're not all pristine stained glass christians there's a lot of people that are still struggling with life and still trying to find out what's right and what's wrong and how to live this life but i love this that this girl she said man once i realized that jesus was the answer she forsook the meth and the weed and the drugs and all that stuff and she and meant you know her life was already spiraling you know the meth you know you see these pictures of people who've been on meth for any length of time their teeth are gone they look like a 90 year old person even in their 20s you know and she was headed there fast but it's so cool to see how the lord redeemed that and and she's walking with the lord to this day um one of the things if you have not tasted that the lord is the answer if you've not accepted christ what you do is so simple to be saved to be a christian doesn't mean it doesn't mean you have to go to church or give money or any of that stuff being a christian is realizing you're a sinner and you need to be saved from your sins being a been a person who repents of their sins what is repentance it means to change your mind and go the opposite direction it's that simple so you confess with your mouth romans chapter 10 says and believe in your heart that jesus died on the cross for your sins was buried and then rose from the grave and by rising from the grave it shows us that he was the messiah he was a he was more than just a man he was god who visited us died on the cross for our sins and that's how you're forgiven you didn't deserve it you didn't we didn't earn it we just have this free gift of salvation through jesus christ that's the fountain of everlasting life and and man that's the key i hope you've first of all accepted that and believed that but here's where this story gets a little scary in jeremiah these people had forsaken the fountain implication they once were drinking of the fountain they knew about the fountain but for whatever hair-brained reason they forsook the fountain i wonder if it's possible for we that have been saved and we've been able to drink the cold refreshing water of jesus and and we know that it's true and you know academically mentally we know that it's right but are we still tempted to go and drink of the other broken down cisterns the answer is absolutely yes i worry about this you know lockdown era all you know this era that we've lived 2020 has been a tough year and we see rioting and you know and and trouble and people are locked down and all this stuff and you know one of the reasons we're opening our church again is because lives are being really ruined people need fellowship they need to come into into church and have a a place to meet and and be with each other and stand alongside of each other um but you know we've seen addiction on especially alcohol uh skyrocket we see suicide on the rise across the nation but i also am concerned that the longer people just sit at home on sunday morning um that they they forget the fountain of living water they don't have old pastor brett to remind them weekly of what the word says about jesus and so they're sitting at home going man our troubles and life is depressing and anxiety is creeping in and so they're turning to the old broken down water holes what are some of those old watering holes that you would go to you know there's things that can't even be good but they become bad have you ever seen a person that becomes you know so obsessed by working out to get their bodies in shape that you're kind of concerned for them i don't have that problem but i know people uh you know you go to the gym and it says insane workout workout and you're going to be in great shape guess what did you know that 10 out of every 10 people die the statistics on death are alarming and there's going to be a day where gravity will win you can work out and i'm not saying that's a bad thing that's great working out but i've seen people where that is the watering hole that they're thinking if i can only get in great shape and man they just start living eating breathing sleeping working out working out working out or we can talk about you know whether it's alcohol drugs sex pornography people i think in this lockdown era people are looking for things as they find themselves kind of stuck don't forget don't go to the old watering holes that never satisfy but stick with the fountain of living water and you know it to be true you know that jesus is the one that refreshes our thirsty soul but man somehow along the way we can be like the jews of jeremiah's day that we forget that jesus is the one that satisfies our thirsty soul by the way you know why do we forsake the fountain of living water we i think there's a hint here in our text uh can we do a sneak preview of wednesday night would you back up a few verses here in jeremiah 2 look at verse 5 i think we learned why the jews got to this place it says in verse 5 of jeremiah 2 thus saith the lord what iniquity have your fathers found in me the lord saying that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and have become vain neither said they where is the lord that brought us up out of the land of egypt that led us through the wilderness through the land of deserts and of pits through the land of drought and through the shadow of death through the land that no man passed through where no man dwelt and i brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof but when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage abomination when did they forget the lord the fountain of living water when they got into the promised land the land flowing with milk and honey and they got their vineyards and their houses and they got their stuff and they were all like yeah we're good we don't we're comfortable we're happy forget the lord that's what the lord said you forgot me after i did all those things for you you forgot me when you got fat and happy living comfortably in the promised land and you know what frankly you and i as oregonians and some of you that are online man if we're americans we live we live pretty large you know we live pretty comfortably and i think that's why we forget the lord we don't even know we have a need for the lord and and we all the while we're wondering why why we're miserable and we've forsaken the fountain of living water because we got a house and a car we got food and we got no real serious worries that was the condition of the people of israel they were comfortable living peaceably and they forgot the fountain and they forsook the fountain of living water so number one they forsook the fountain number two what was the second evil my people have committed two evils number two they have hewed them out broken cisterns now what does this mean well in bible times this is a very practical image that the jews would have known exactly what the prophet jeremiah now we don't talk as much about cisterns um i i have to say i've studied cisterns to a certain degree and i've traveled all over the world and seen all kinds of cisterns i'll show you some of my favorite ones there's a cistern here uh and uh this you can't see very good here if you're live but if you're online you're getting an hd uh live and in color but uh you can look at this later if you're really interested online but um this is nimrod's castle and i want to show you a little video footage that we got last time we're there um this is a ancient crusader era castle but it was built actually by the ottomans which is strange because they were the enemies of the crusader but they built a crusader castle but this castle is pretty cool because there's there's parts of it that are still in totally intact and i was doing a little teaching right there um but as you go into this uh turret there's this little staircase that goes down this dark little staircase that goes down into this is their water cistern right here and uh you know the roofs off of it now but they they dug out this pit out of stone and then built stones around it and then the water would flow into that lower part that's solid rock uh and they'd carve that out and then the people would come down and bathe and get their water this was nimrod's castle um but this was probably not like the cistern that's hold water uh that the jeremiah was talking about i'll show you this is petro i take groups there when we go to israel we cross the border into israel this is the treasury um you know indiana jones movie that whole thing um but all that to say uh as you go through this this is in the middle of the no of nowhere out in the desert and uh it's so fun to visit and it's about a 13-mile hike that we do in a morning uh just going through this place um you can ride camels if you really want to but uh but these these facades carved into sandstone are just impressive but see this this is an ac creaker walking right next to this trough see that little trough carved into sandstone these two troughs on the two sides of the walkway those are cistern gutters and water flows down these cliffs down into the gutter you can see the gutter in the left side they're all worn out now because of thousands of years and the earthquakes have broken stuff up but you can see this little cart going by those two troughs on the right and the left where water flows down the cliff flows into this little trough and then flows from this little trough and then these nabataeans back in the you know 200 bc carved these little gutters that flowed miles uh down into these big cisterns and i don't have pictures of i couldn't find any of my pictures of these giant cisterns but we're hi there's this one up on the top of a cliff right here where they carved a little cistern um that that we got a shot of that i was able to show but um this is like an example of a cistern now question if you're thirsty would you rather have the creek that i was telling you about in southern oregon in the mountains coming off the freshly fallen snow where it's bubbling and it's flowing or would you rather drink this right here this reminds me of my freshman year in football when uh we'd get to the water cooler and the seniors had already dipped their helmets in and were drinking out of the hole in their home the juniors the sophomores by the time we freshmen got there the water looked kind of like this green and murky but we got all the vitamins and iron that you need you know what i mean i mean some of you guys go to these juicer places and buy stuff like that all the time so uh you'd love it probably but i'm just messing with you guys you juicer people but um maybe you should start a an instagram site on juicers and get a hundred thousand followers um but but but i'd take the bubbling brook wouldn't you but see here's the problem these cisterns they they what happens with earthquakes and stuff like that these cisterns would start to crack and break and then what what good is a cistern after that this is important to our lesson because here when a cistern cracks or breaks it's only good for one of two things and and and you can see archaeological evidence in petra of this when a cistern broke and cracked it would never hold water so that it was good for two things it was either a dungeon number one this one's too shallow to be a dungeon but there's other ones you drop a person and there's no way you can get out number two a tomb they would use broken cisterns for dungeons and for tombs um there's an example of this by the way um in uh in jerusalem this is the garden tomb some people believe this could be the very tomb that jesus was buried in we don't know for sure but it is a tomb in jerusalem from the first century and it's a beautiful spot we do some worship there and we walk around but our tour group they don't even know we're walking on top of this giant garden cistern that's under the ground here at the garden tomb and there's no pictures of it hardly anywhere and and you can't see it that's why i don't talk much about it with our groups because you can't see it there is a little hole that you can go kind of look in it's just a big dark hole and you can like whistle and you know it and it echoes through the this giant cistern that's not the whole um but but water kind of trickles in to the cistern that's in the garden tomb area here i'll show you the hole here in a second where where you can kind of look down into the system the reason i want to show you this one this could have been the cistern jeremiah was talking about because this is in the middle of jerusalem and jeremiah is talking about hewn-out sisters that were hewn out of solid stone so here's a picture of the cistern underneath the garden tomb and this is probably me shooting this footage because it's kind of shaky uh micah shoots all the good stuff but this is me trying to get my way you can look down into this this little this little hole and there underneath there is this and this is a picture that you can get from there at the garden tomb place but that's what you're standing on this is a hewn-out cistern out of solid rock jerusalem limestone in jerusalem this was the very kind of cistern that jeremiah was talking about and that's why you can picture this being a dungeon can you imagine being lowered in by a rope down into there there's not it'd not be very easy even if you're good at mountain or rock climbing it'd be hard to get out of that dungeon so as a prison or it became a tomb and here's the thing that i want you to see when it says you've hewn out these cisterns broken cisterns um in a way you can almost imply that jeremiah the lord speaking through jeremiah saying you know you think it's going to satisfy you and give you water and sustenance but it actually brings death it's a tomb and it's a prison you think that alcohol thing is going to give you sort of a reprieve and and your soul will be relieved but it's actually a dungeon and it's a prison you think that pornography addiction is gonna be the next thrill that's gonna somehow satisfy your thirsty soul but it only leads to more you know clicking away on the internet and thinking that it's going to make you better or happier somehow but it only leads you empty it's a dungeon it's a tomb the cistern that you're looking for water becomes a dungeon or a tomb what you're looking for is jesus you got to fill your life with christ you got to look to jesus to satisfy your thirsty soul you know jesus is the only one who truly satisfies and whatever you're longing see and that's what you have to ask yourself each one of you what is my proclivity when i feel empty inside what do i do for some of you lazy boy click away watching tv well just check my brain out and i feel empty so i'm gonna watch this show and you watch the show and guess what you feel emptier after the show have you ever noticed that or maybe it's it's you know not you know maybe it's shopping some of you might say yeah shop do you drop man i feel so depressed i think i'm gonna go shopping now it's dangerous man amazon click click click click click click click click and man the amazon trucks just keep spinning around the front door you know it's like man wait till those drones start coming just dropping presents at your you know you know like some of some of you that's your that is your cistern that you're ewing out that brings about death and prison because you can't pay your bills they throw you in prison what is it that you are tempted by and see the problem is we have to ask ourselves because the lord says be horribly afraid about this forsaking the fountain of living water and going to those old broken down sisters lord said be afraid of that that's why i want us all don't be thinking about somebody else but what is your thing what is your go-to that you somehow maybe not even purposefully but you kind of move away from jesus and you know jesus satisfies you've tasted and seen but you you you keep going back thinking i'm gonna if i could just get that chicken coop and have eggs and chickens that'll make me happy but where are you getting all these things these are real examples i'm giving you from people in church that we think if i could just get that house or that car or if i can go faster or jump higher or be stronger and and people just chase after old broken down cisterns i worry because corey ten boom you know i always quote this quote it's one of my favorite quotes when she said as a former you know victim of nazi germany who was thrown in a concentration camp and all her family was killed and she was skeletal and almost dead when finally you know the allies came and freed up everybody out of those concentration against but the only she all she had was just skin and bones and lice and death all around her and she's the one who said this she said you'll never or you may never know that jesus is all you need until jesus is all you have see and you and i we have so much we go oh yeah jesus is good yeah yeah whatever but eyelashes or losing weight or that car that house or new job or the career and we miss that g and i worry that she might be right you may never know that jesus is all you need until jesus is all you have um you know as saint augustine he said this our hearts are restless until they find rest in you that is jesus christ even old ben franklin had something to say that even though he wasn't necessarily a jesus follower he knew the principle even the world knows of the principle contentment makes poor men rich discontentment makes rich men poor see it becomes an issue of am i content to know that jesus satisfies my thirsty soul and i'm going to pursue christ all my life i'm going to worship jesus i'm going to read the scriptures about jesus i'm going to be around people that love jesus and as you do that more and more you find your soul satisfied because you're drinking of the refreshing source of joy jesus or you can go back to the old watering holes though broken down cisterns that don't even hold water the bible says man i'll tell you today as we think about this would you would you do business with the lord today and say lord are there things that i give too much emphasis on my what i'm chasing after and it's okay to chase eyelashes and cars in a house and all that stuff that's okay there's nothing wrong with that unless it becomes something that you think it's going to make you really happy it's going to satisfy your soul and that will only lead to disappointment what is it that you needed to say lord i give that back to you i'm gonna i'm gonna give back to you this stuff that i've been going these old broken down cisterns that i think they're gonna make me happy but they really aren't and they never will what what is it for you and just go back to jesus one of the things i love about being a christian is when you find yourself in sin and doing stupid things which we do all the time i do all the time don't you love how you're just one repentant prayer away from the lord and the lord says i forgive you for that he doesn't hold it against you well we'll see how you do i mean that's what other people do when you apologize to somebody you you've wronged i'm really sorry well okay we'll see if you really learned your lesson it's not god god just says you're sorry i forgive you and i remember your sins no more i'm going to put that sin as far as the east is from the west an infinite space and and i look at you as a brand new creation a new creature right now don't you love that god is that forgiving that his grace undeserved unearned favor that the lord shows to us it's sufficient for you the bible says it's for that reason i'd like to close this service out by what jesus told us to do um it's been something that's been a little hard to do during the coronavirus season and that is go to the table of the lord and um you know churches are not doing that because you know the coronavirus but we have these nifty coronavirus free packs that you got on the way in uh and these are these are cool uh and so what we'd like to do is is go to the table the lord and remember what jesus did jesus said do this often in remembrance of me um and if you didn't get one of these there's the guys they're going to be they're going to walk down and just raise your hand when you see them come by to make sure if you didn't get one of these now now before we do this i got to say if you're not a christian you shouldn't take communion because it means nothing to you the bible says you're eating and drinking like even damnation to your own soul if you if you do this like whatever kind of attitude so this is for the christian who says i believe what jesus did for me and when you take this little piece of bread what you're doing is you're saying i remember jesus laid down his life his body he laid it down for me and he took the hit the nails in the hand the nail in the feet the crown of thorns the whipping on his back jesus did that for me and what what a blessing to be able to know that substitutionarily christ stepped in the in the path of of what you deserved what i deserved and because jesus died on the cross was buried and rose from the grave we're forgiven for our sins man don't you love that i love that that we can know that jesus took that on our behalf and his blood shed innocent blood jesus never sinned the bible says that's why he was the legitimate sacrifice for all he sacrificed for you and for me listen as we take this communion take it with reverence in your heart don't just do it ritualistically but but you and the lord this is the time for you and jesus to sort of um just have a time of being thankful loving jesus i think in a way you know there's this metaphor we're using of drinking of the living water i love that jesus gave this on a real practical level as we eat and drink of the lord i think your thirsty soul will be satisfied right now today you'll walk out of this room after having communion knowing man my sins are forgiven i have heaven to look forward to and my my sins are no more and you'll find yourself refreshed and encouraged and that's what we get to do we get to drink of the lord and eat of the lord right now would you please bow your heads with me lord how thankful i am that we get to eat and drink of you lord for the unsaved i pray that they would just confess right now their faith to accept you to believe to be become a christian by confessing that they believe that you died on the cross for their sins and that you rose from them if they confess that if they believe that in their heart that they might be saved like the bible says but for those of us that have been saved maybe even for a lot of years lord forgive us where we've gone to the broken down cisterns the old watering holes to try to satisfy our thirsty souls lord we turn back to you and we thank you for being the fountain of living water so we eat and drink deeply of you today praying for that just that refreshment that's so needed thank you lord in jesus name if you would there's just there's two layers pull off the clear layer the cellophane on the top and that gets you to that little piece of bread lord for this bread now we eat of you and thanking you for the hit that you took in jesus name and let's all eat of the lord together [Music] nothing but the [Music] nothing but jesus oh precious is the flow that makes me [Music] nothing but the blood of [Music] if you would then take that second layer the foil section and pull that back lord this cup that we hold is just a great reminder this this juice that was pressed out of the grapes lord it's it's a reminder of how you were bruised and beaten on our behalf and your precious innocent blood shed lord as we drink of this jesus taught us lord just there in the word that if we eat and drink of this there's healing and forgiveness so lord i pray for those that have been wounded by their own sinful things and messed up in their lives lacking in whatever way i pray as we drink of you that you give us a fresh clean start lord bless these your people we ask as we drink of you in jesus name and let's all drink of jesus together [Music] this is all my hope and peace this is all my righteousness nothing but the blood of the chief oh precious [Music] would you guys all stand with me let's sing amazing drinks [Music] [Music] was [Music] would you see clearly when you're with us father we thank you that your love is just right there for us we thank you that we can meet with you at the table of communion lord would you just bless us as we go our way now we love you father in jesus name we prayed amen amen hey you guys have a great rest of the weekend y'all are dismissed you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 4,339

Rating: 4.8532109 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: vOBuvqaPJs4

Length: 77min 18sec (4638 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2020