Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

If you have a Bible, you may wanna grab it now, and we're gonna be turning to Proverbs in chapter 13. We're gonna be reading a few verses from Proverbs 13. And then we're gonna go and turn to John chapter 4 so you may wanna finger in John chapter 4 and we'll read the first 15 verses of John chapter 4. So beginning at Proverbs chapter 13.

They will also come up on the screen. I'm going to read these verses verse 2. From the fruit of their lips, people enjoy good things, but the unfaithful have an appetite for violence. Verse 4. A sluggish appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligence are fully satisfied.

In verse 12, hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled as a tree of life. Verse 19, a longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but falls detest turning from evil. And verse 25, the righteous eat to their heart's content, but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry. And then turning to John chapter 4, verse 1, Now Jesus learned that the pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more decisive than John. Although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.

So he left Jude and went back once more Galally. Now, he had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called SICKAR near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus tied as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink?

His disciples had gone into the town to food. The Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you last me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of guards, and who is it who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from himself as did also his sons and his livestock. Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. Ben. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Welcome from me.

My name's Ben. A trainee pastor here at the Church. Welcome if you're joining us online. Keep your bibles open, please. We're gonna be looking at both those verses in proper and also that chapter in John.

And if you haven't got back into the habit of bringing a bible with you, then let me encourage you. Please that because it just really helps as we look at the passages in God's word. So just a little encouragement. Let me pray and ask for the Lord's help as we get started. Father, we thank you for this morning.

Thank you that we have the opportunity to gather under your word and under the teaching of it. We know that we don't live on bread alone, but from every word that comes from your mouth. And I pray, Lord, that if we have a hunger among us this morning for more than this world can offer, you would show us where we can go to be satisfied. We need your Holy Spirit's help. To see that, to understand that, to have a desire to taste that So help us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

I wonder whether you're a little bit like me, and you live in a kind of perpetual state of background anxiety that your favorite Chinese takeaway is going to close 1 day. Thomas. First world problems, I know, massive first world problems, but the our favorite Chinese takeaway closed for a few weeks in February a couple of years ago. And I'm not going to lie. It was quite a cagey time for me and Kerry.

We were like, what are we gonna do? This is our favorite place. Luckily, they opened after a couple of weeks. I think they were celebrating in Chinese New Year, so they just closed for that. But we actually have a little expression that we say as we drive past it, which might be overshare this, it might be think you into a little bit too too much information, but as we drive past, we say, WAN's, we salute you.

As we go past. Because it's fantastic for for almost a decade, it is never ever once failed us. Whenever we have a hankering for Chinese food. It's it's quick. You call Our number is saved in their database.

They know where we live. And they're happy to hear from us. They're like, oh, good customers. So they're quick They're cheap. It's cheap.

It's 15 quid for both of us and we get loads of food. It's nearby. We could walk there in about 5 minutes, but we drive. So that the Chinese is still hot when we get home. And it's always always reliably excellent, wham, recommend wands.

It's also the cause for the first time the rubber really hit the road in our marriage because day 1 of our marriage We were in Kingston. We were going on honeymoon the next day. And I cited the wedding vow, Kerry had just made to me the day before all that I have I share with you in regards to her prawn balls. I said, you said that to me yesterday. So give me a prawn ball.

There's nothing worse is there than having a hankering for something, a craving for something, and then not being able to satisfy that hunger There are many Chinese takeaways that just don't scratch that itch, and you think, well, I spent 20 quid. It was a bit cold and it was naf. But much rather have had wands for 15 quid. There's a there's a restaurant in Kingston by the river. Just on.

Don't take this is on. There you go, I'll just say. It will remain anonymous. But I once claimed this place to have the best burger in Kingston, which if you know Kingston is quite a statement because there's a lot of good burgers in this town. But I I was like, this is the best burger in Kingston, and we we we really wanted to take some friends to this place.

But 1 day, we had the opportunity to take some friends there. But when we arrived there, we found that they changed everything. So their chef had changed, their menu are changed, and even where they source their ingredients from are changed. And so a few bites into what was actually a truly awful bug here. The expression on our friends faces was very confused because they were like, this this is disgusting.

And yet, they said this was the best Bergen Kingston. So, maybe there's a complexity here in the flavors and the textures that I'm missing. But actually, it was just bad and I put it down halfway through it. I said, I'm sorry guys, but this is really terrible. And they were really relieved and like, okay, good.

We don't have to like eat this out of politeness going. They think this is amazing. So that was a bit of a sad experience in all because we had hoped to have this lovely evening with some friends enjoying some good food, and we didn't get that experience. But we'd also eaten enough then not to be hungry. So, we couldn't go anywhere else.

So, we kind of had this unfinished, unmet expectation, this sort of desires, this craving that hadn't been met, it was pretty rubbish. And so WAN's always satisfies our cravings, but this restaurant failed satisfy my longing for a good burger. But it's not just food, is it that we desire in this world and have cravings for desires for. We've all got longings and hopes and dreams that we really first for. We've all got kind of deep set desire within us, that yearns for something, yearns for more than what we already have.

Whether it's things that we want to achieve, maybe states of mind that we want to dwell in, or experiences that we dream about. We sort of yearn, we we feel we haven't got something yet, and we yearn to get it. And so, we set out, don't we? All of us here in this room, we set out for these things. We pursue them.

Let's see if this it's gonna work now. It's not gonna work. Sorry. Can we go to the next slide? The United States declaration of independence famously says this.

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, but they are endowed by their creator with certain, unalienable rights. That among these our life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It's interesting to me that life and liberty, it says given to us by God. We have life, real life. We have liberty.

We chose to come here this morning, maybe, some of us. But happiness they serve is something that must be pursued. In other words, by nature, we haven't got it. We kind of come into this world lacking something. We feel a hunger for something.

And, biblically, you can see why that is in the Garden of Eden when we left the Garden of But what is given to us by our creator, what we still have in this after reading world is the desire to be happy. We've got this feeling that we're made for more than this world can offer. We're dissatisfied. Actually, with this world and with our lives, you could say that our creator has put in us, stomachs, that long to be filled with more than just food. Appetites that long to be satisfied with more than just the best Chinese takeaway.

He's given us hopes that we long to see fulfilled. He's set in us this pursuit of happiness. Now, the problem is that there are just so many false promises out there in the world that are gonna try and claim to solve this problem that we have. This hunger. It is strange, isn't it?

Every kebab shop claims to be the best kebab shop in the world. There's In fact, there is a kebab shop in Kingston called best kebab and pizza. I think, you How Why would you even think to be called that? You can't possibly be the best of both. And you just sort of know with a name like that.

It's false promises, isn't it? Oh, how about this? The next slide, please, Mandy. Sorry. These are some pic these are some books I took pictures of at at Waterstone at Glasgow Airport recently.

And they just kind of a false They're just false promises. So, this first 1, good vibes, good life. How self love is the key to unlocking your greatness. Yeah? Self love is the key.

That's the key we've been missing all this time. Or the miracle morning the 6 habits that will transform your life before 8 AM. There you go. Does your life need transforming? You can do it before 8 AM.

If the authors are here in this room, by the way, I'm really sorry. Healing is the new high, a guide to overcoming emotional turmoil and finding freedom. I mean, if you it's amazing these these sort of self help sections at book stops. If you took the title seriously, You would sell everything you had and buy these books, surely. You are going to get Freedom, you're gonna unlock your greatness, and you're gonna transform your life.

These things promise amazing things, but they're absolute nonsense. And so the question is, how do we actually get there? How are we actually going to get there? What are we looking for in life? How are we going to fill our stomachs with food?

That's going to satisfy us. How are we going to quench this thirst that we have? That is exactly what this chapter of Proverbs 13 deals with. And that's what we're going to look at today. It's over 2000 years old, this and yet it's more relevant this book of Proverbs than those books that are on the bookshelf at Glasgow Airport.

So, if you're sitting here today, maybe you aren't a Christian, And you think there has to be more to life, or maybe you've been stuffing yourself with food. Maybe you are a and you're still doing this. You're stuffing yourself with different foods. You go from 1 meal to another, but you're still hungry. So you go to another meal, but you're still hungry.

If you've been doing look, this proverb is for you this morning, what we're gonna see. And the way I want to start is by taking a look at 3 of the problems in this chapter. Which actually describe the wrong ways to be satisfied. So here are 3 ways that we often look to be satisfied in this world, but but failed to be. We're gonna keep trying this.

Sorry. Next slide, please, Mandy. And I've got 3 characters that are gonna help us. Mister Unfaithful, Mister sluggish, and mister deferred. So these are the blokes who are filling their stomachs with wrong things.

So, first of all, next slide please, Mandy, Mr. Unfaithful. This is verse 2, I believe. Yeah, of chapter 13. From the fruit of their lips, people enjoy good things, but the unfaithful have an appetite for violence.

Have an appetite for violence. So, mister Unfaithful, he's got an appetite. He's woken up in the morning. He feels an emptiness in his stomach. In life, but the way he thinks he will be satisfied is by serving only himself.

You could call him mister faithful to himself. He's listened to the adverts, let's say he's worth it, he's listened to his work colleagues, who say to him, oh, man, you've got to put yourself first. Stop listening to what other people say. You you've got to take care of yourself. If you want to do that, you've got to go for it.

He's believed the advice that says that says, do what you like, man. Stop worrying about those people. He's read vex King's book on Self Love, and he believes that's how he's gonna unlock his greatness. But actually, as a result of all of this, putting that philosophy and mindset into practice, it's made him unfaithful. To other people around him when they get in his way or become an inconvenience to filling his stomach with self love.

So I want to go out and do this. Well, that's going to hurt me if you do that. Yeah? Well, this is more important that I'm I'm fulfilled. And therefore he's unfaithful to other people.

And so he becomes violent, actually. In his pursuit of self love, he's violent to others. And he leaves a kind of wake of destruction behind him. He might even start to angrily blame other people for unhappiness in his life. Yeah.

The reason I'm unhappy is because I'm being faithful to you. And that's bringing me unhappiness. I wonder whether you've noticed just how violent this world is at the moment. There are men injecting women in nightclubs to drug them. And abuse them.

There are university professors being violently harassed and forced out of their jobs for holding what is an increasingly unpopular opinion. I've even noticed the way people insist things like silence is violence. Or insist that you share the same kind of opinion as them. They do so in such a violent way. Even if what they're arguing against this violence.

They argue against violence violently. I mean, activists at cop 26 have been slashing people's tires. I mean, look, fair enough, you have a message, you want to get it across. But you see how people do it. Violence.

I used to work for a company that made body cameras, which police officers and security guards would wear on their chest, and it was brilliant, actually. I really enjoyed working there because the product was fantastic. I had a lot of conversations with customers who said, look, that really saved me on a few occasions because when people saw themselves, had a little screen on it. So as it was videoing, it showed people what was being And as people saw themselves, the physical abuse, the verbal abuse, they'd often change their behavior, because they could see how they were behaving. But when I first started working there, I never envisioned that after 7 years of working there, we would now be settling, not just to lease, but to nurses on NHS Awards and to receptionists at GP's surgeries.

And to shop workers behind hills, and to teachers in schools. It was unbelievable. All those people were saying, we need cameras because of the violence and aggression we're getting. And in all of those industries, the numbers are that violence and aggression is going up and up and up. So mister unfaithful, he feels a brokenness in life, he longs for more, but he's filling his stomach with the wrong thing.

Unlocking your greatness, but burning every bridge around you to get there doesn't actually satisfy you in the end. Being faithful to only yourself is actually violent to others. I wonder whether you can relate to mister Unfaithful or whether you know we're mister Unfaithful. That's the first 1. Next 1, mister sluggish, Mister Slugard, verse 4, a slugger's appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

So, mister Slugard, he he describes the kind of man who feels a desire in him for more, he he knows really that that there has to be more in life. He's got an uncomfortableness with the difficulties he faces. He has a hunger for something else. Yeah. I think he actually has a vague appetite for God, mister Slugard.

But he's got a number of questions, mister Slugget, or he's got doubts in his mind. He's heard other people sort of put up reasons not to believe in God. Or put up reasons not to believe in in Christians because they're hypocrites or whatever it is. And so he's got a number of arguments in his back pocket, which are substantially heavy enough just to kind of sit there, a little bit like a shop window display. Just enough for him not to have to bother looking into it too much.

He also feels like if he looks into it too much, Christianity might be an inconvenience to him. So, safer not to decide 1 way or another. And he's got arguments like, you know, of course, The bible isn't really to be trusted, is it? It's been translated wrongly, actually. It isn't very reliable.

There's loads of contradictions all over the place. And Jesus actually never claimed to be god at all. So, I don't know what cushions are going on about. And they just sort of sit there and they make him feel like he's done enough work to explore Christian things, but actually in reality he's done nothing at all. And so from that perspective, He's actually a sluggard because he's he's content not to do any real hard work.

He's content just to sit and rest and sit And maybe people are even trying to interact with him. I've met some mister sluggards over the years and and you say, okay, what's what's your objection? What what question do you have? And they say, wow, this you go, okay. Well, let's talk about that.

Here's a book on it. Would you want to read it? Should we go through it? Here's a few lectures that you could listen to about it. And you guys, yeah, okay, fine.

Takes the book. Doesn't actually read it, not really. Because he's actually not that fussed about it. It's just a convenient sort of vagueness that doesn't demand anything of him. He's he's he's a sluggard.

But as a result, as you can see from this proverb, His God given appetite for more than this world offers is never fulfilled. He's like the man who lies in bed in the morning, starving hungry for breakfast. Maybe this is like you, I don't know. And you sort of are trying to psyche yourself up to go and get some food. Or or to do something.

And he's sort of he's sort of convincing himself, he's like, oh, well, lunch will come soon enough even if I miss breakfast. I mean, breakfast is overrated anyway. He wants have breakfast. I don't actually think there's any milk in the fridge. So what's the point?

I'll just get my hopes up for nothing. He's got lazy arguments got lazy thinking. He might even drift in and out of church. Maybe you've drifted in and out of church. And you've heard what to do a million times, but it's you know, you're not really doing much about it.

Well, look, his desire is never gonna be met. He's gonna feel this hunger because he's not pursuing this happiness, not trying to fill this stomach that God has put in him. To show him that he needs something more than this world. And then the next 1, Mr. Deferred.

Mr. Deferred, verse 12, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Now, mister deferred actually, I think, has got a good head on his shoulders. He set himself good goals in life. If you met him, he'd probably blend in here.

He wants to be successful at work. He wants to have a family. He wants to save up and be generous. Perhaps even to the church, but definitely to charities. But that word deferred in in the Hebrew means something like drawn out drawn out away from you, marching onwards away from you.

It's like when you're climbing a mountain and you think you're about to reach the top and then you arrive where you thought the top was and you see another peak sticking through the clouds and you'll you'll finish line and and your opportunity to sit down and take the hot flasker tea out and stuff your face with cake, that has now been drawn out away from you. And actually, more than just drawn out, it feels like it's gaining distance on you. And you're walking after it, but it's being deferred. It's being sort of postponed. It's being pulled out away from you.

And I think we all know. I think we can all think times in our life where we've experienced something like that. It makes you feel sick, doesn't it? It makes you feel sick when you've built yourself up, you have a hope for something, and then you reach that goal, it's just not what you thought it was gonna be. I think we experienced that in lockdown.

There are a couple of times when it looks like we're about to come out of it, and then the government extended it by 6 weeks, and we had plans for Christmas. And then when we got to Christmas, we couldn't do those plans. Our hearts were sick. Won't they? Our hearts were sick.

But in the same way, mister deferred thinks that when he gets that promotion, then he's gonna feel content with his job and the amount of money that he has in. He thinks once I have a family, once I get married and I have a wife, once I have children, once I've got that family house and that dog and all of the stuff that I dreamed about, once I have that, I feel like I've I've got to the place in Liferow I wanna be. Maybe if I can give away 10 and pounds to charity, then I'll feel like I've contributed meaningfully, but actually every time he reaches the goal, he realizes it's not quite satisfied me. His satisfaction is drawn out away from him. It's third.

It's marching on ahead of him, and his heart feels sick within him. Russell brand is a good example of this. You might have heard me say this before. His wish growing up was to be famous. He should say famous for what, Russell.

He goes, don't don't care. Just want to be famous. Actually is Russell Brown famous for? I don't really know. He's just famous.

He's 1 of these people who's just famous. I think he's a comedian actually. But look, he he all he want All he ever wanted was fame, and then when he got there, there's a famous interview with Jeremy Paxman. He just says, it's ashes in my mouth. It is not what I thought it was gonna be at all.

I haven't got that thing that I was desperately hoping fame. And it's tragic really. Because his whole life was building up to this thing. That's all he wanted as a child. And then he gets there and it's just meaningless dead air.

In his mouth. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, same sort of thing. They won an Oscar for their film Goodwill Hunting, and they they won that in their early twenties. And they both said, we so pleased to have won an Oscar in our twenties because we realize it's just a little gold statue and a round of applause and a speech. And that's it.

And otherwise, they would have spent their whole lives working towards getting this thing, and they said that they were freed from that. And now the temptation for mister deferred is to maybe you can relate to this, is to constantly set new goals. I'm gonna set this goal, and I'm gonna reach it. And then just as you reach it, you go, right, I'm gonna set myself another goal. And then you live in that kind of constant, pushing myself, and pushing myself, I I haven't been satisfied yet, but maybe the next thing.

Maybe the next thing. Maybe the next thing. And that's the temptation for mister deferred, because then you've always got a possibility of finally reaching that finish line. Well, next slide. Mr.

Unfaithful, Mr. Slugard and are deferred. They're all trying to satisfy this hunger that they feel in their stomachs, but they're all doing it in the wrong way. They're pursuing happiness, I think they are, but they're not looking in the right place of doing the right things. Well, in the new testament, next slide, we see in John's Gospel in chapter 4 this Samaritan woman.

I'm calling her missus Samaritan. And Jesus, when he meets her, deals with exactly this problem. She is looking to satisfy her hunger in the wrong places. So, if she is unfaithful, that conversation between her and goes on, and we find out that she's actually had 5 husbands, 5 husbands, and the man that she's with now is not even her husband. So, the first husband didn't bring her happiness.

The second husband didn't bring her happiness. The third husband, it's like the inverted King Henry the eighth. None of these husbands are doing what she wants them to do in life. And so she's just working through them. And actually, the man that with currently, he's not even her husband.

He's at home, but he's not good enough for her, so she's going off with someone else. She's not found happiness. She's unfaithful. She's been pursuing herself. And so she's violent towards her husband.

She's also a sluggard. The conversation goes on, and and we find out she knows a little bit about the Messiah, but she uses the excuse that the Samaritans worship in a slightly different place to the Jews. And so she doesn't really look too much into what the Jews are talking about and going on about. So that's her convenient sort of argument. And then finally, her hope is deferred because she's at a well.

Every day, she gets up and goes to the well, gets her water, takes it home, drinks it, and then wakes up the next day firstly again. Every day, her hope is drawn out away from her. And she needs to keep going back to her well. And now look, we're we're actually meant to be surprised that Jesus is talking to this woman at all. Because the disciples come back and they're surprised to see hers as quite awkward moments.

It's almost a comedic moment. They come back and they don't know what to do. Jesus is just talking to this woman. And, the reason we're we're meant to be surprised is because, first of all, she's a crowd of 1. She's a crowd of 1.

So, Jesus is normally speak into hundreds of thousands of people, and he's ministering to them. And here he is, he's just been walking all morning, he slumped over the world because he's exhausted. And he's talking to just 1 person. Not only is she a crowd of 1, but she's a woman, which, culturally, in those days, was was a strange thing for Jesus just to be speaking to this woman. Not only is she a crowd of 1 woman.

She's a Samaritan woman. Now there's a reason Jesus uses a Samaritan in the parable of the good Samaritan, because that story is shocking. The Samaritans were as good as enemies with the Jews. And so why on earth would Jesus the a Jew be talking to the Samaritan lady? And she says to him in verse 9, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman.

How could you ask me for a drink. She's shocked that Jesus would ask her for a drink because anything that a samaritan normally touches becomes unclean. And most of all things that you eat and drink out of, because then you're putting their uncleanliness inside of you. And here is Jesus asking her for a drink. So we should be thinking, why is Jesus speaking to her?

There's no worldly reason Jesus would be speaking to her. But actually, this has been maybe the biggest encouragement that I've had this week as I've been thinking about this. Because when I feel unworthy of Jesus, and I think, why would he want to speak to me? Why would he want to deal with me? Why would he want me to be the person up here representing, speaking for him?

Then I remember here that he spoke to this woman, and he loved her. Actually, when he saw her, he didn't see her as a crowd of 1, a woman, a Samaritan woman, an enemy. He saw her, and he loved her, and he had compassion for her. And he saw her like a sheep without a shepherd, and he saw that she had been living her life, trying to fill her stomach with things, and she was getting nowhere. And he wanted to show her where she could her stomach with living water, with real life, with food that is going to satisfy.

And if that is what Jesus will do for her, that is what Jesus is trying to do with all of us. We don't deserve to have our stomachs filled, me, least of all, and yet Christ loves us, and wants to fill our stomachs with things that is going to fill us. So here we go. Finally got to it. How do we satisfy our hunger?

Well, actually, notice in verse 10 if you have your bibles open of John chapter, whatever it is, chapter 4. Jesus answers her, he says, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. So the gift of God to this world, that's gonna satisfy our hunger, is a person. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. And Jesus goes on in verse 13, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, referring to the well, referring to this world.

In other words, samaritan woman. This water does not satisfy your soul. The pleasures of this world do not satisfy your soul. The 5 husbands you've had and your current lover haven't satisfied you. Verse 14, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never first, indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

And what is this water that Jesus offers? What is the gift of God? It's nothing less than himself. The same son of God who remember last week we saw, eternally satisfies the father, the father who is infinite. How can you fill an infinite God?

With Jesus. He's full of He's and the infant God is full with Jesus. The same son of God who's eternally satisfied the eternal father is the gift of God to us that we would also be satisfied in Him. Jesus declares in John's gospel, which we had read at the start of the service. I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me, will never go hungry, whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. He is who we'd be made for. He is who we long for. Actually, heaven, if you imagine heaven without Christ, it's an empty barren hungry land. But Jesus said to the man on the cross, didn't he?

Today, you will be with me in paradise, because Jesus is the 1 who our stomachs were made for. He's the 1 who we are satisfied in. So look, Jesus, maybe you've heard Jesus presented like this before. Do what you like in life. Go to church, enjoy the the church family, and have Jesus on the side.

Okay. You probably won't ever hear that, but maybe you think like that. I wanna say, look, Jesus isn't just another drink you have in a range of drinks that satisfy you, unlike Pepsi, Coke and then Jesus. It's not just a drink. Jesus is not just a drink that you'd quench your thirst with and later on, you'll be thirsty.

He is the wellspring of life. A spring is where it's like the source of water. It's where water rushes out from. It's not just a little glass that you dip in, and then you have your glass, you take it away for a week. You drink it and then you have to come back to church to dip it again.

Christ is the source, the fountain. He's the well within you. That that satisfies you, eternally, that never runs dry. In fact, in Revelation chapter 22, we have this up. You see this here.

We see this water from Jesus in action. So then the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the land down the middle of the great street in the city. So in other words, this water is coming from Jesus on the throne, and on each side of the river stood the tree of life. Bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nation. So Here we see actually the remedy for mister deferred.

So if we have the next slide please, Mandy, back to mister deferred. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is the tree of life. So what we really long for is Jesus Christ. That's who we long for. He's this tree of life.

And so look, mister deferred, other things in life are good. But actually, do you think having a family is gonna be the thing that satisfies you? Do you honestly think getting that dream job is gonna be the thing that satisfies you? You need something infinite, mister deferred. And here's the grid news.

Jesus Christ is the longing fulfilled, which will be a tree of life in us. He is what we've been looking for the whole time. So stop setting goal after goal after goal. Come to Christ. Ask another Christian.

Are you satisfied in Christ? I'm pretty sure I know what they can that they'll be able to tell you. We also have the remedy for Mr. Slugard. Next slide, please.

So a sluggish appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent fully satisfied. So it's the diligent who are satisfied, because Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, if you remember, he said, if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asks you, you would have asked him. You would have got up and done something. And the woman responds to him in verse 15, which we had read, sir, give me this water. Give it to me, that I won't have to keep coming back here to draw water So she's diligent, she does something about it, she gets up.

Jesus says, if you ask it will be given to you. If you seek, you will find. You knock the door will be open to you. And that that is exactly what the Samaritans did. So if you have your bible, you see verse 39 of John chapter 4.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I did. So, when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them. So, the Samaritans hear what Jesus has said, and then they urge him They get up, they do something. And I want to say actually that if we do the same with Jesus, he won't leave us.

He won't walk past us. URge Jesus Christ stay with you and he will, exactly as he's done here. But you also get the impression with this that if they had not urged him, he would have walked by. Jesus isn't going to pour his eternal life giving water on you against your will. Get off the couch, be diligent, ask Jesus to stay with you, and he will.

And of course, we see the remedy for mister Unfaithful. Mister Unfaithful, from the fruit of the lips, people enjoy good things, but the Unfaith will have an appetite for violence. So this woman's lips were incredibly fruitful. We read that the Samaritan said to her, we no longer believe just because of what you said We did believe because of what you said, but now we no longer just believe because of what you said. Now, we've heard from ourselves, we know that this man really is the savior of this world.

So this woman's lips were worth listening to. Her testimony was worth listening to. And the next slide, please, Mandy. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death. The wise teach Jesus.

He's the fountain of life. He's the living water He's the water of life, and he turns people from the snares of death. And mister unfaithful needs to listen to her fruitful lips. Next slide, please, Mandy. Maybe this proverb sums everything that we've looked at this morning the righteous eat to their heart's content, but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry.

That actually makes me think of the beata lest of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Well, who are the righteous? The righteous are those who live by faith in Christ Jesus. Who trust that he's the gift of God to us. He's the gift of the world to fill our hungry stomachs.

He paid the penalty for our sin upon the cross. And that we might be in paradise with him forever. And the diligent get up, they listen to him, they listen to the teaching of the wise, They set their hope in Him, and they're faithful. And those people who put their trust in Christ will eat to their hearts can then. And just to finish, I wanna I wanna speak to those of us here who maybe haven't got an appetite for Jesus.

Maybe you think, well, this is all good, but that's not me. Sorry. Or maybe you think I want to have more of an appetite for him. I do. I've tasted a little bit of Jesus, but I want more of an appetite for him.

Well, Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20, the last slide can help us. I really think is an amazing piece of practical advice. This is a rule for life, actually, a rule for your life. How do you get the right longing for us from the right appetite, walk with the wise and become wise. Walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools, suffers harm.

If you want to grow an appetite for Jesus, then walk with people who are satisfied with Jesus. And that word walk doesn't actually just mean like this, like go on the walking group. It means sort of living alongside surrounding your life with, staying in step with. It's actually the same word for how Enoch walked faithfully with God for 300 years. So look, if you want more of a hunger for Jesus, if you want less of a hunger for stuff that this world gives you, then just spend your time, live your life in the steps of the wise.

You will inevitably see how they act in disappointments. Well, they have Christ. You will see how they act when things go well for them. Well, they have Christ. You will see how they pick you up on things and say, sorry.

That's not how we walk in this group. Come on. Follow us this way. Go this way. And if you walk with the wise, you'll become wise.

Conversely, if you walk with the fools, you'll suffer harm. You will suffer harm. And you will go in the steps that they go. Self love, the couch, violence. And if you go that where you will never experience the joy of being fully satisfied, fully filled with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So who are you walking with? Who are you in step with? Are they satisfied with Jesus or are they hungry? Can you hear rumbles in their stomach when you walk alongside them? They're looking for more, are they filling themselves, perhaps husband after husband after husband, figuratively.

Or are you walking in good company? Let me pray. Father, we thank you so much for the Lord Jesus Christ who tells us plainly that he is the gift of God to this world to satisfy our stomachs. Father, if here we are hungry, if our stomachs are rumbling, if we have filled our lives with things that aren't satisfied, us. Help us to hear this message.

Help us to listen to the words of Jesus. Help us to put our trust and hope in Him and help us to in the company of those who have done as well, help us father to walk with the whys that we would become like them and follow you. Father, please kill our appetite for things of this world. Would you show us even if it's painful that these things will just will not satisfy by us, that we would turn to you before it's too late. And father, thank you, that as Jesus said to the thief on the cross.

Today, you'll be with me in paradise. Thank you, that we will be with him in paradise forever. And we thank you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.