Keeping It Fresh 1979

A couple of verses from 1 Kings 11. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

For Solomon went after Asherah, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. When Solomon was a young man, he prayed for wisdom.

He became one of the wisest men that ever walked this earth. It was under Solomon's reign that Israel arrived at its golden age. He built the temple.

He wrote books. He established a reign of peace over a vast area. People came from the ends of the earth to hear his wisdom.

But with the passing of time, something went wrong. This man, who in his youth prayed with such humility for wisdom to guide his people, with the passing of time was turned away to other gods. Many of us have accepted almost as an axiom that with the passing of time, a certain staleness, a certain stagnation is inevitable, even in the things of the spirit.

The ravages of stagnation, of course, are all around us. Marriages that were once alive and fresh now dull. At 40 already, they're growing old together, like two of last year's potatoes lying together in the bin.

Congregations that were once on fire with the Spirit of God seeking to be obedient and serve him now settle down into things more comfortable. And while this comfortable routine seems to work in terms of numbers and in terms of money coming in, that thing has as much vitality as a mud-filled pond. Giant denominations which began their journey through this world really as vital movements driven by the Spirit of God are now lumbering along like ancient kingdoms getting old, whose one concern is their own survival.

And we can see this in our own lives. After that first fanatical stage, when we first began to follow Jesus and did all kinds of nutty things and were driven by enthusiasm to make wild sacrifices, after all that, we settled down into a more sensible walk with the Lord. A walk with the Lord which became so sensible we stagnate.

And we commonly accept stagnation in our own lives as part of the way things are. You know, like after youth comes middle age, then comes old age, then comes death. We're living simultaneously in two kingdoms, the kingdom of flesh and blood and the kingdom of God.

And in the kingdom of flesh and blood, it's true that we grow old, our bodies will age, our bones will get brittle, and we are going to die following the return of Jesus. You know, and it's not as if the young ones among us are lucky and isn't it too bad about the old ones among us, because the old ones had their turn to be young and the young ones will have their turn if they live long enough to be old. Don't pity them, pity yourself, you'll get there.

But in the things of the kingdom of God, the principle of aging and stagnation and death does not apply, no matter how old you are or how young you are. Listen to the Apostle Paul. So we do not lose heart, though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.

If our walk with God begins to sag with the passing of time, it's not because stagnation is in the nature of things, but it's because we have not allowed our inner man to be renewed every day. Or take a look at Anna. And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher.

She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity and as a widow until she was 84. She did not depart from the temple, but worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day. Coming up at that very hour, she gave thanks to God and spoke of him, Jesus, to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

So Anna is getting old. She's 84. Her body is wrinkled, but her spirit burns and shines with the brilliance she did not have when she was 25 or 30.

Because she's being renewed every day. Paul is being renewed every day. All is refreshed and solid.

They're alive and clear and alert and active inwardly. Getting old on the outside, but eyes that can see the unseen, minds that are saturated with the presence of God. And when they speak, God is in their speaking.

Eternal life for Paul or for Anna was not some reward waiting for them when they finally kick over. Eternal life was a present reality with them every day. Eternal life already was a spring burning and bubbling up within them, just keeping them alive all the time, driving them, refreshing them.

Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The water that I shall give him will become in him, inside a spring of water that is clear, that is alive, that is moving, that never dries up.

You get up in the morning, the spring is there. Go to bed at night, it's still there. You stop in the middle of the day to catch your breath, it's there.

That's what everlasting life is. If you have that, you know it's not a matter of guessing, wondering whether I'm going to make it when I get to the other side, like some kind of ticket. You go to the cleaners to redeem the coat you put in and wondering if it's still there.

If you had that spring inside, you know it. And it's the spring of the presence of Jesus inside. When Jesus says, Lo, I am with you always to the end of the age, how is he with us? Certainly not watching his clock or his watch and scratching his head and sighing and yawning and wondering how long he has to put up with boring people like we are.

But Jesus is with us with the same vitality, burning like that he had when he came forth from his grave. He's that spring of living water inside us. When he says, wherever two or three of you are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of you or of them.

You know, it's so often the only time we hear that quote is when we didn't get as many people out to the meetings we thought, you know, we're expecting 50 and we got seven. So I said, well, wherever two or three are gathered and, you know, we sag down, it's all so we're all depressed. You know, if we really believe that Jesus is with us, whether we have seven people or seven hundred, then we will see that he's with us as he is right now with the same freshness and reality and supernatural presence that he had when he had breakfast ready for the disciples on the shores of Galilee after the resurrection.

Jesus never gets stale. And he is able to teach us, help us so that we never get stale in our relationship with him. For instance.

Our relationship with Jesus will remain fresh. If we drink the living water. Whoever drinks the water that I shall give him, you don't just look at it, think about it, picture it in your mind, you take it in, you drink the living water and you listen to the words of speech, bring them into your heart.

When Jesus says, if you abide in me, I'm the vine, you're the branches abide in me. The abiding means that you drink in the words that he speaks. The place where our heart touches the living God is where we take in the word.

The Bible becomes like a door into the into the kingdom or into the world where we are spoken to by God through his son. You know, you don't read the Bible in order to put in your time or I read my three chapters this morning. Now I'm all set or I got and now I got the argument to beat him over the head with.

You go into the Bible to listen to Jesus speak. And when you go there like that, you begin to hear the voice of the shepherd. And once this begins to happen, there is absolutely no limit to the ways in which Jesus can speak to us or the means that he will use.

And there is no need for us ever to go through a single day without hearing something from him. And whatever it is that he speaks to our hearts, that's the living water. That wells up to eternal life for that day.

Our relationship with Jesus will remain fresh. If we keep weeding, cleaning out the thorns from our lives. As for what fell on the thorns among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and their fruit does not mature.

There are things which distract our hearts from God. And they fall into these three categories, cares, riches, pleasures. Now, that doesn't mean nobody should have any of those.

Everybody has cares and riches and pleasure. They become thorns when they begin to crowd out the life of God in us, when they begin to pollute the living water. See, when when these things begin to to choke and squeeze and overrun the life of God in us, then our spirits begin to age.

Our spirits never age, they remain fresh, they will not stagnate so long as we keep pulling out the thorns. You pull out the thorns, for instance, by saying, Lord, this anxiety that has been with me now for the last month over this particular matter is draining all my strength and it's not worth it. I'm going to give it to you every time it comes and hits me.

I'm going to give it back to you. Or, Lord, I'm aware of the fact that I'm caught up in the pursuit of things. I'm going in too many directions in your name.

I'm going to start trimming down. I'm going to cut things out. I'm going to simplify my life.

Not I'm going to simplify Sister Sue's life, I'm going to tell Ruth what she has to get rid of. Watch that. Take care of yourself.

Or. Lord, I can see that my spirit is getting flabby because I've been taking in too much sugar, spiritual sugar. I'm in the fun realm, you know, I've been believing the commercials and I believe I can really have fun, all the time fun, but the fun lets me down every time I think I'm going to get gusto.

All I get is sugar water. Lord, help me to find my delight in you and pull out those thorns so that your life and me may grow and rule and control and leave. Our relationship with Jesus will remain fresh if we concentrate on doing what he tells us to do.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, Jesus says. You know, and oh, yeah, well, his words abide in me. You know, I've memorized 15 chapters.

I know 35 psalms. You know, I take my memory verses every time I wait for the bus. Memorize scripture all you like.

That's beautiful. But don't ever deceive yourself into thinking that because you've memorized scripture, you've got the word in you. Oh, you have the word in you when you're doing.

For the words of Jesus to abide in us means that we're doing those words, that's the only way to become part of us. Not everybody who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father, who is in heaven, the scribes and Pharisees were loaded with scripture. They knew more scripture than any of us here.

Perhaps all of us put together and they were dead because they weren't doing what they knew. To have oil in your vessel with your lamp is to be doing the word to convert your one talent into 10 is to be doing the word. To feed Jesus when he's hungry, give him drink when he's thirsty, hold him when he's naked, welcome him when he's a stranger, visit him when he's sick, go to him when he's in prison is to do the word.

Nobody ever stagnated by doing the word of God. We stagnate when we think about it and meditate and dream and criticize and talk, but never do. Finally.

Our relationship with Jesus will remain fresh if we give it our best. Half-baked service, mediocre prayers, songs, performance on our jobs. After all, I'm not getting paid for this, so what does it matter? Or even if I am getting paid, I can get away with it.

I know your works. You have the name of being alive and you are dead, awake and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death. For I have not found your works perfect, wholehearted, quality in the sight of my God.

We all know what we can get by with the places where we can slip through with shoddy work, unthought out, careless labor, and we say to ourselves, what does it matter? Matter. You know, why should I work my little heart out when nobody appreciates it anyway? Nobody sees but the Lord and he won't mind. He understands what we have to understand is that he is looking for quality.

And it's to him that we give the quality, only him, not the advancement of our careers. But the glory of his name, Abel's sacrifice was fresh because it was quality. Kane's sacrifice was stale because it was mediocre.

Mediocre service, mediocre listening on the telephone, you know? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you have a good, you know, you're thinking about a million other things, mediocre prayers, mediocre singing of the hymns, mediocre performance on our jobs will absolutely kill, stagnate our relationship with Jesus. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

The water that I shall give him will become in him, in her a spring of water welling up to eternal life. So we do not lose heart, though our outer nature is wasting away. Our inner nature is being renewed every day by the living water.

There is no reason that any of us should spend one day in stagnation. The son of God is in our midst right now. With all the glory and the power and the mercy and the goodness that he has ever or will ever have, if we will, we can have a relationship with him that will never grow old or stagnate or die.

Let's stand up and work again. We just want to fix our hearts and minds on you, Lord Jesus, in our midst right now. I want to turn ourselves away from all the other things that have cluttered our lives and all the things that we see wrong with everybody else and just worship you.

Thank you and pray to you.