Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - When Life Feels Empty | Deep Clean Part 4

Episode Date: April 25, 2021

The things of the world—like appearance, status, and knowledge—can satisfy for a minute, but end up leaving us feeling empty. In Week 4 of Deep Clean, we’re learning how to find fulfillment from the right source and enjoy an abundant life that can only come from God.ABOUT THIS MESSAGESometimes life can leave us feeling like a mess. The kind of mess that’s just too complicated to figure out. But it’s possible to start fresh. To experience life in a new way. Discover how in our new message series, Deep Clean.Start Your Deep CleanAs we talk through different topics in our current message series, Deep Clean, we want to equip you with tools specific to your personal needs. Visit http://www.life.church/howtoquit and https://www.life.church/mydeepclean to learn more.Learn more about Deep Clean: www.life.church/deepcleanStart the Deep Clean Bible Plan: http://www.go2.lc/cleanWE’RE OPENTo ensure safety at all of our Life.Church locations, our weekend services have been redesigned to create a sanitary, touchless environment that allows for physical distancing. Learn more about everything we're doing to keep you safe and how you can help by using hand sanitizer, washing your hands often, and more: https://www.life.church/updatesFind a time and attend a service with us: http://www.life.church/locationsNEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIIdiIO-Y20hRW9niR0CA8AFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschel#lifechurch #amygroeschel #feelingempty Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

bucket list are not a thing that I do. But I do have wishes and desires. Does anybody here like to have a bucket list and you've like officially got one? So I think I just keep my list in my mind. So a long time ago, like 18 years ago, I had this great desire, mostly me, not so much, Craig,

of my kids, they had to get to Disney. That was like the parent, the good parent thing that you did is get your kids to Disney World. And so we had four kids. kids, and I was actually expecting our fifth, and it worked out that we were able to save and prepare a trip to Disney over a Christmas break. And so I was so excited, and I wanted to give them this as their Christmas gift. And so I found the biggest cardboard box, and I said, we're going to put

clues, Disney-type clues, in the box, lots of missing toys from my girl's toy box, and we're going to wrap it up, and they will get the biggest surprise on Christmas morning. And so that's what we did. But, you know, the box was sitting there for days on end, and they're like, what's in it? And the anticipation is growing and growing. But then they get to that Christmas morning, and they're thinking, who knows what about what's in that box. And so when they open it, and it's mostly empty, we video, we think it's going to be a great moment. They are confused. And then even once they realize, and we have to explain, this is a trip to Disney World, they're not even excited.

They don't care. In fact, one of my girls was like, I don't want to ride rides with Disney characters. And she thought, like, from the commercials that you rode rides with them. No, no, no. So we get, we like, we leave a few days later. We pack them up and we fly and we go to Florida and we go to Disney World and have our great dream trip with the kids. The only thing is that it's Christmas break.

And this is the most crowded time of the year. to go to Disney. And we got our, my family at Disney, got a photo here with the kids. Aren't they adorable? And little Sammy. And I'm not in it because I'm taking the photo. And again, I'm pregnant. And that's just not a great time to go. Don't go at Christmas break. Don't go when you're pregnant. We were waiting in these long lines. We did not know what we were doing. So we didn't have those fast passes. Of course, we've got little ones that are always hungry, always tired and always thirsty. And as soon as they're thirsty, then it's time to go to the bathroom.

And you're in the middle of that long line. And we just exhausted ourselves. And we were like, we're not Disney people. Maybe you are a Disney person, and you've loved Disney, and you have a great time when you go to Disney World. That was not us. We never went again. And so, but the thing is, it's like the great trip was over,

and then great time or not, it was over. And then what? What's the next thing? Life is, you know, we can't just live it for those bucketless moments, but life can just feel like, now what? We get into this grind and it feels empty. And so today's title is when life feels empty. Heavenly Father, we need you, just to come Holy Spirit and reveal to us the ways that we're living life on empty and show us how to fill those things the way that you've called us to fill them in Jesus' name. Amen. So in our physical bodies, we know what to do for thirsty, right? You get some water, hopefully. Soda doesn't really do the trick if you really want to get hydrated. And we know that Dehydration is a big problem physically.

Like if you get severely dehydrated, you are in trouble. And the symptoms can be miserable with dehydration. But we know, okay, if you are sick or you need to drink extra water. If you're in a hot area, you need to drink extra water. We know what to do when we get that thirst and we want to avoid the dehydration symptoms. And there's a lot, and I narrowed it down. that we can experience. We can get that thirst, of course. You get irritable. We get fatigued, confusion, weakness kind of sounds a lot like the Disney trip. It's, there's a lot more that can go

wrong when you're dehydrated. It's a problem, right? But, and we know what to do to fix it. We hydrate. We get ourselves that water. Now, but do we know, guys, what to do when our own soul feels empty? Do we know what to do when our spirit feels dried up? I know that the natural thing to do is just to look around and think what, you know, and think, okay, I'll just fix this. I'll quench this with, I just need some me time. I need some downtime. I need some bed time. I need to go get my nails done if you're a girl or whatever. Something that's, I need to read that book. I need to have that downtime. It might be that you are a big achiever and you think, oh, I just need that next accomplishment that will make me feel like life is good. I hit that goal. I've satisfied this

need to quench something. You might be looking at that relationship and thinking, okay, I need that. I need that relationship to help me to be something for me, to fulfill something in me, and really we're draining that relationship of life because we're becoming to it in a needy way. And sadly, for a lot of us, we will go to a substance, and a substance that's either legal or illegal, and we overindulge in food and in that special favorite thing of a substance, because we're looking to feel this dryness of our soul, this emptiness. It could be, always surviving for the weekend, for the day off, for the next thing to help. But these things, we know, we experience them. If you just live for a minute, we know they don't last. It can satisfy

for a minute. I mean, I love me some good cake, you know, and then I can overdo it, and it satisfies until I go, I had about 10, 10, too many bites of that icing and cake. So it just doesn't, last. The problem is when we are living in this life filled with constant emptiness and dryness, it's because we are often trying to satisfy that hunger, that thirst for the things that are temporary. And we know, if you're a believer in Christ, that the temporary things are not the lasting things. They are not the things that will satisfy us. But they're good and until we take them as our life source, right? So we're going to look at a great text today

from the first letter of John, John chapter two, starting in verse 15. And John says this, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust of our world. the lust of our flesh, those desires, the lust of our eyes, envy, greed, the pride of life, all of this is not coming from the Father God, but from the world. And the world and its desires will pass away. But whoever does the will of God lives forever.

It's a great verse, but let's make sure we understand. wait, what? Like, not supposed to love the world? Because for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. But the Bible has two ways that it can reference the world. And the first one, a definition, if there's two, the first definition for the world is just God's creation. It's what he made.

It's those visible things. It's us, humanity. And when he made all of us, everything, he said, it's good. That's a good world. That's the world he came. loved and died for. The second definition that the world would mean in this text references to is the worldliness.

Worldliness has a lot of nuances for us to understand, but I think the key is in this. It's how we would view and live life through our sin nature. It's our flesh. The created world and our self, us, we're center stage, okay, in this. A worldly mind is a mind that is self-focused, self-righteous, self-indulgent. It is, even though it's self-indulgent, it is discontent and really concerned with honoring ourselves, rather in looking for people to honor us

instead of looking for honor from God and to honor him. And so that's, the worldliness that we're told not to love. Why do we not love the world? I kind of feel like, man, sometimes I like, you know, I'm guilty, I like the world. This is, life can be good. But what does he mean to don't love the world? It's like, oh oh, this verse can get you.

Well, the Greek word for love, this is agapeo. And agapeo is a verb. It comes from the word agape, which is the noun, that's that love that God gives. And so this word agapeo, it's that verb that's an act of our will. It's when you choose, you prefer to highly value and place pleasure into a person or a thing. And it's a good thing that God would prefer and choose us

and agapeo and actively love us. But it gets in trouble, we get in trouble, when we begin to agapeo the world and begin to prefer the world. And so it's an important word to understand that preference is the key to this word. It's that choice. We actively choose one thing over another thing,

and that is what this word actively does. And so why would we prefer actively the things of this world to be our source that's supposed to give us life and meaning and hope? when the Bible says it's passing away. And Ecclesiastes says that when you're going after the things of the world, you're grasping at the wind. You're chasing wind. And I don't think I could get anywhere chasing wind.

Do you? No. So preferring the world, preferring self and me and all the things that I do that are so good and understand. Over our glorious creator, that's crazy. And when we do that, we're grasping at something that's not real. It's not life. It's an illusion.

The illusion, guys, that word is, it means that we are deceived. We're looking at something and believing at something that it isn't. This illusion is a trap. It's how the enemy will bait our flesh into things that are good that we think will bring something that it can't. And so it brings emptiness instead. It brings absolute. despair and hopelessness instead as we continue to grasp and we can't get it. And as believers, it makes us ineffective. It makes us unproductive when we're grasping at things instead of

clinging to our Savior and living from him, we get absolutely nowhere. And what I think about the illusion of the world, I have to go back to a time when my firstborn Katie was about four or five years old. And we have a picture of her up for you. She's adorable. She's angelic. She's even got her little Scooby-Doo outfit on. And Katie, we took her to Disney on Ice. Yes, another Disney illustration. We took her to Disney on Ice and to the Little Mermaid production. And she's mesmerized. She's so captivated, leaning in. And these figure skaters all in their costumes looking like water creatures and she is so captivated and I remember never will forget it she looked over at me and then she looked back at them look back at me and she said mom are they is this real are they

real and I said no babe they're they have on costumes and then she looked at me again and look back and she said, mom, are we real? Because it was such a deep and great illusion that she had lost all sense of reality. What is real, Mom? I don't even know anymore. Oh my gosh. What a great picture.

When we think about how we can get fooled by things that are counterfeit, we get an illusion that there's something that looks like it's life-giving when it isn't. And this is what really happened all the way back in the beginning with the first created people, Adam and Eve in the garden. They fell for the illusion that there would be something more from the forbidden tree when actually God had already given them all that they needed. And it not only happened then, but it's been happening ever since. And it happened with God's

chosen people, the Israelites. And I want to show you a text in Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 11 that has always gripped me. And starting there, it says, these are words of God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, but my people, God's people. They have exchanged their glorious God. They've agapeoed. They've chosen to prefer, right? They've exchanged this glorious God for worthless, worthless things, worthless idols that have zero benefit. Be appalled, God says at this, you heavens. Shutter with great horror. Another translation says, be afraid, be desolate.

Desolate means be dried up. This is horrific, declares the Lord. My people, they've committed these two great sins. First, they have forsaken me. And who is He is the spring of living water. The living water of God. And what they've done is they have agape-o, they've gone over, and they've dug and made cisterns, broken cisterns,

that cannot hold water. Cannot hold water. Doesn't work. But they go and they try to craft. from the culture that they've been living in and looking at. They've been conforming to, and they begin to create these cisterns of trying to create life from what is not life.

And so what is a cistern? First of all, let's understand that. A cistern is just a water storage container. It holds the water. It is not a source for water. A well is where you can tap into underground water sources and actually pull out something that's actually there. But cisterns, they can be above ground, they can be underground, but they were

where we store the water, not as source. What this is a great metaphor is God is saying, look, these cisterns, these storage places, this is your idolatry. This is your heart that's been captivated and unfaithful and wandered off into something that it isn't real. It's not life-giving, and you have fallen for an illusion, and you have fallen for these false gods, and you're off the mark. So you might think, this is really bad. You know, that's sad and bad, but what does that have to do with me? I'm not worshiping idols, Amy. Do I really need this message?

Well, let me just say that, unfortunately, we do. We do need to hear this word. because, and I hope maybe that you don't, but I think that so many of us do because we so quickly can fall for illusions. And the early church struggled with this. The Church of Christ is still struggling with it today where we're trying to fill a need

from something other than Christ. In the early church, Paul told us, guys, you need to grow up. You're still acting worldly. You're still fighting. You're still jealous. You're still quarreling. and you're saying, I follow this guy, I follow this guy, and it's all about yourself.

It's a sin nature still going on. Instead of walking from being a new creation and living in love towards other and forgiveness towards other, you're living worldly, guys. So that was true then. And now we live today as Christians, and we should know better, but we still look at the things in our life as that illusion, that counterfeit source instead of the source of the living water, and we go to these as substitute containers to try to fill us. I just wanted to bring some examples to you in case you needed a reminder.

This cup can be our sister and that we tried to make for ourselves with relationships. And these things are, relationships are wonderful. God wants us to have them. But when we make them our everything, when we look to relationships, our families, our children, that romantic relationship, your marriage, whatever, in your friendships,

if you try to make this the way that you will get filled up, you are going to come up empty. And another example would be when we look to this world to find all the ways that we can find pleasure. in life. We're looking at hobbies and those experiences like Disney. We're looking at substances and the food we eat, anything that will just give us entertainment, give us some pleasure. And again, God wants us to enjoy life, but we cannot find our soul, feel our soul and our dryness and

our emptiness with just going to the next pleasure and delight. And then Third, this one gets me because, okay, this is a university that is here in Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, but this cup represents knowledge. And I think that so many times we can get distracted in thinking that the very next thing that I could learn is going to be, we get puffed up in it. The Bible says knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. And we can start to think that what we know, is the important thing, and that's what makes us important.

It makes us better than. It's what I have learned about in the pandemic, what I have learned about in politics, whatever that thing is, and intellectualism, and I'm smarter, I have a better degree. We put this in place of a life-giving relationship with God. And it lasts.

Maybe it's status. This is my status cup. It's so beautiful. So, you know what? We're just looking at life going, whatever this success could be. Maybe it's my job. I'm putting my hope in.

It's the influence that I could have. It's that possession. It's my appearance. So much of this, guys, is about self, self. We're trying to fill our lives with just exalting, again, worldliness exalting ourself but guess what these are good things god gives us these things in our lives and their blessings but the problem is is that they we go and we start to seek the gift instead of the giver and it is these things in life just point us all of creation you could be like a word a nature

lover all of creation and all the good things they are pointing us to the one who is worthy the creator to who is forever to be praised. That is what they're given. Every good and perfect gift is from above, but they are gifts. They are not the prize. The prize is Jesus. And so we need to recognize in this moment,

just if you have wandered, and you have followed, start realizing that instead of following Jesus, pursuing him wholeheartedly, that you're actually following the kingdom of you, the kingdom of me, that you have agapeo preferred the world, living for its glory, seeking its wisdom, prioritizing the world's agenda, clinging to what is temporary,

then what you're doing is you're slowly emptying yourself, you're depleting yourself of what is truly life. And so how do we fill it? How do we fill all of this? emptiness, well, we need a deep, clean from the Holy Spirit. And guys, all we need to do is just listen to the voice of the Spirit. If he's convicting us in any little way, however great or small that you have gotten off track and tried to fill it with the world, things of the world, we humbly first, we need to repent and humbly, humble ourselves before God. We humbly repent before God.

go to him like James four says. And in James four, it says whoever wants to be a friend of this world will make himself an enemy of God, of this worldliness. Or do you think the scripture says in vain, the spirit of God, Christian, who dwells within you, yearns, jealousy. We have a jealous God who's jealous for our hearts. He's worthy of it of our hearts. But he gives us more grace. there's grace here God of course he resist the proud so it is so important

that we humble ourselves he gives grace to the humble praise God for that he gives grace to the humble therefore we're going to submit to God we're going to resist the evil one and just draw near draw draw near that's the solution

don't draw to the empty cisterns they will not hold water draw near to God Draw near to God. And so humbly repenting is so important. And the second thing we're going to do is we're going to live from the right source. Jesus is that source. And when he comes and lives in us by the Holy Spirit, we live by the Spirit.

And guess what? The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit for the believer, is our great reminder. He will remind us of our calling. Our calling is to be holy, to not to live. in the world, but not to live of the world. The Holy Spirit will remind us that we should walk and live by the spirit and by faith, and we need to be feasting on the word of God, the life of God, and not conforming to this world, but we are called to live as Christ. Live as Christ to become like Him. He reminds us to view people as the object of God.

God's great compassion, the people that he wants to reconcile to himself, through us, his church, as his ambassadors. And so, you know, like Paul, he lived by the spirit, and he reminds us, we're going to walk. We're going to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh. We're going to be filled by him. If we are empty, look, you can live empty, and you can live dried up, but the dehydration symptoms are real, guys. They are giving you things that will keep you dried up. When you live in this world, you are thirsty and dried up. But when you live by the Holy Spirit, you get so

much more than what's on this list. You get the contentment from God instead of thirst. You're filled with the peace of God instead of irritability. You are filled with love for people in good deeds that you walk in, you're not tired and fatigued anymore, but you're filled with life. God, when you go to him, he gives you rest. He fills you with the hope of, and if you're confused and you're living in the world through Christ and walking by His spirit, you are filled with faith. You have, you're walking with the mind of Christ. And when you have weakness because the world leaves you weak and spent the joy of God, when we live, you're walking, you're going to by the Spirit. It's the joy of God that is our strength. And we have a choice. This is a choice.

It's who will we agape? Are we going to agape O the world or our Savior? Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will be satisfied. And everyone who drinks this water, Jesus said in John 4, will be thirst. thirsty again, the water from the well, natural water. But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. This water will well up to them in like a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. The most meaningful verse in scripture to me that resonates with me so well as I,

as I talk about this message of dryness that is so near to my heart that I cling to is Psalm 63. And in Psalm 63, the Psalmist David, his heart, he's explaining where life is so well when he says, oh God, you are my God. earnestly, I seek you. My soul, it thirst for you. My flesh, it faints, it's fainting for you. As in a dry and weary land where there is no water, because your steadfast love is better than life,

better than this world. My lips will praise you. I will bless you. I will bless you. God as long as I live and in your name. I will lift up my hands, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food and my mouth will praise you. It will praise you with joyful lips. Guys, the opposite of loving the world is to seek and love and delight in God and live. And live, for His will and the glory of His kingdom. Truly, this is where life fulfillment and joy are found. Father, we thank you and praise you, that you reveal yourself to us as living water. And that's what we hunger for, that's what we thirst for.

That is what we need. Forgive us when we forget and we get distracted by the things of this world. we know only you will satisfy. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. All of our churches, let's continue in an attitude of prayer. Father, thank you. We pray that the power of your spirit, you would do what only you can do. At all of our churches today and those of you online, if you find yourself with that emptiness of this world, and you want the fullness of God. Would you lift up your hands right now? Just type it in the chat. I need the fullness of God. Father, we pray that we would not be empty,

but we be full of your living water. Satisfy us with the goodness of your kingdom, we pray. As you keep reflecting today in prayer at all of our churches that are online, some of you realize that you've been searching for something that can't satisfy. You've got a spiritual thirst that only Jesus can meet.

If you find yourself hurting, broken, lost, or afraid, let me tell you about the goodness of God. It's living water. His name is Jesus. He is God in the flesh. He is perfect in every way. He gave his life and God. God raised him from the dead so that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name,

would be saved, forgiven, and made new at all of our churches, and those online who'd say, yes, I know I've sinned, I know I need his forgiveness. I'm searching and I can't find anything that satisfies today. Let me introduce you to Living Water, his name is Jesus. Turn away from your sins and call on him. He will make you new at all of our churches are online, those who say, I need his grace. I'm giving my life to Jesus. that's your prayer.

Lift up your hands now. All of our churches say, yes, Jesus. I surrender my life to you. Those of you online, just type that into the chat. I'm giving my life to Jesus. Wherever you're watching today, would you just pray aloud with those around you? Pray Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins.

Jesus save me. Fill me with your spirit. That I would love you and not this world. Thank you for new life. I give you all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Could you celebrate big today? Welcome those born into God's family.