Continuing the theme of detoxification, we need to be careful what we drink.

Jesus offers us living water to drink (John 7:37-38), water that will slake our thirst and satisfy us, water that is pure and refreshing.

Instead of drinking from this water, however, we tend to prefer a host of other drinks:

sugary fizzy drinks

tea or coffee

alcohol

We prefer these drinks because they taste nicer to us or we like the effects they provide (more energy, fewer inhibitions, blotting out painful situations or memories and enabling us to see life through rose-tinted spectacles). We need to understand, however, that any substitute for God’s living water will not ultimately satisfy us or do us good. Too many sugary drinks rot our teeth and cause us to become overweight. Too much caffeine interferes with our body’s natural need for rest. Too much alcohol slows down our reactions and prevents us from thinking clearly.

Just as water is the only drink really with no adverse side effects (and the only fluid which is absolutely essential to life), so God is the only true source of joy and pleasure which will never harm us. Jeremiah said, ‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.’ (Jer 2:13)

Let’s cut out the fine-tasting but potentially harmful drinks from our lives and learn to slake our thirst in God alone. Let’s leave behind everything which is only a substitute for God and settle only for ‘the real thing.’

Detoxing is all the craze in many health circles. The abbreviation ‘detox’ is short for ‘detoxification’, meaning to rid the body of all toxic or unhealthy substances, and usually refers to periods when certain foods and drinks and substances are avoided and healthier substances substituted.

It’s a sad fact of life that we often ingest substances which may taste pleasant, but which often do us little physical good: junk food, a surfeit of sweet things, too much caffeine or alcohol and so on. To detox means to consciously abstain from such things in an attempt to rid the body of all harmful things so as to regain a healthy and more balanced equilibrium.

What is true in the physical realm also applies to our spiritual wellbeing. Prayer, Bible study, fellowship and wholesome, holy, obedient living based on God’s word are crucial to our spiritual health, but other things easily creep in. Sometimes the things that dominate our daily lives are not in themselves sinful, but anything which takes our attention from Christ needs to be firmly resisted. Work, hobbies, TV, sport, social media, even friends and family, can all become toxic to our spiritual health if we overdose on them. God is a jealous God seeking whole-hearted devotion, not because He is needy and demanding, but because He knows better than we do ourselves what is needed for spiritual health to flourish.

Is it time for a spiritual detox?

Is it time to fast not only from food or drink but from things which are getting in the way of our first love?

Is it time to pray ‘search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting’? (Ps 139:23-24)

Paul reminds us that God cannot be mocked and that we reap what we sow. (Gal 6:7) If we sow to please our sinful nature, allowing self free rein (and reign!), we will reap destruction. If we want to reap eternal life and to know peace with God, we must sow to please His Spirit. (Gal 6:8-9)

Nothing is more important than our relationship with God. His desire is for us to live holy lives that are set apart for His glory. Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (1 Tim 4:8) It’s time to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Heb 12:2)

‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ (Gal 2:20)

Sometimes others say what I struggle to articulate. Listen here.

‘In this obsession with the things this world says make us happy
Can’t see the slaves we are in all the searching all the grasping
Like we deserve much more than all these blessing we’re holding
So now I’m running free into an ocean of mercy unending

So come and empty me
So that it’s you I breathe
I want my life to be
Only Christ in me
So I will fix my eyes
‘Cause you’re my source of life
I need the world to see
That it’s Christ in me
That it’s Christ in me

Done with what holds me down the things I once was chasing after
Throw off these heavy chains that I have let become my master
So now I’m running free into an ocean of mercy unending

So come and empty me
So that it’s you I breathe
I want my life to be
Only Christ in me
So I will fix my eyes
‘Cause you’re my source of life
I need the world to see
That it’s Christ in me
That it’s Christ in me.’ (‘Christ In Me’, Jeremy Camp)

Tonight, Garry spoke from Acts 1:1-8, continuing our teaching on the Holy Spirit. Some say (particularly Jehovah’s Witnesses) that the Holy Spirit is a ‘force’, not a person, but Acts 5:3 makes it clear that the Holy Spirit can be lied to and Jesus drew comparisons between Himself and the Holy Spirit, saying that the Father would send another advocate (of the same type as Himself.) It is clear that the Holy Spirit is God (see Matt 29:19, Acts 5:1-4) and God gives us the Holy Spirit when we first believe (see Eph 1:11-14, 1 Cor 6:19).

However, Jesus told His disciples that they would be baptised with the Holy Spirit and would receive His power to witness, a promise fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. Witnessing involves living life according to God’s ways and loving as God loves. As we follow God, we need to live holy and chaste lives, forgiving others and receiving God’s joy and hope, but we also need to explain why we need salvation and how Jesus purchased salvation. It’s not a question of either/ or, but of using every method we can to draw others to God.

Jesus Himself lived life on earth in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21-22, Luke 4:1). His ministry involved the gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Cor 12; He displayed heavenly wisdom (Luke 20:21-26) and knowledge (Luke 6:8), demonstrated gifts of healing (Matt 4:23), fed thousands through miraculous provision (see Matt 14), prophesied (Matt 24:1-2) and used the gift of faith on several occasions (see John 11, Matt 14 and Mark 1).

The book of Acts shows us that Jesus’s disciples displayed these gifts too (see Acts 2:1-4, Acts 8:14-17, Acts 10:44-48, Acts 19:1-7) and we need these gifts today in the church. 1 Cor 12:31 tells us to ‘desire the greater gifts’ (spiritual gifts). We need to earnestly seek God, for we too need to see these gifts in evidence and need the power of the Holy Spirit to witness to the amazing things God has done and continues to do in our lives. Are we ready to plead with God as our forefathers did for the baptism of the Spirit and for Him to re-ignite us? Nothing less than the fire of the Holy Spirit will change our world.

Ps 123 reminds us that if God is Lord over all, we are His servants. We much prefer to be friends of God and co-heirs with Christ than to acknowledge God as our Master and Lord. But Paul reminds us ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price.’ (1 Cor 6:19-20) Formerly, we were slaves to sin, but Christ’s sacrifice for us means we now are urged to ‘count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.’ (Rom 6:11-14) Becoming a Christian means a transfer of ownership: God now is our Lord and Master and our eyes now look to Him.

Often, we find this idea off-putting because our experience of earthly masters is so negative. In the world, we have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant and contempt from the proud. (Ps 123:4) Instinctively, we assume that God will be like that too. However, what we find when we approach God is that He is merciful and gracious towards us. He is the God ‘who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s’ (Ps 103:3-5) and ‘who does not treat you as your sins deserve.’ (Ps 103:10)

We pray ‘have mercy on us’ ultimately because we know that is how God acts. We know something of His heart and His character. Kutless sing,

‘Even though You reign high above us,
You tenderly love us.
We know Your heart
And we rest in who You are.’ (‘Even If’, Kutless)

When we realise the generosity and kindness, grace and mercy of God, being His servant is no hardship. We serve a God who demonstrates servanthood to us through His Son (see John 13:13-17, Mark 10:42-45) and so we choose to give ourselves freely to God, to be bound to Him by the cords of love, to have our ears pierced as the masters did to those slaves who, when given their freedom chose to remain with them out of love. (Deut 21:5-6) It’s a choice only we can make, but it’s the wisest choice we ever make, for ‘the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.’ (Deut 4:31)

This morning’s sermon continued our series on the Songs of Ascent by looking at Ps 123, a short psalm that reminds us of our relationship with God as servants. Ps 121 started with us lifting our eyes to the mountains, but with Ps 123:1, our gaze is lifted even higher! Having an upward gaze is vital if we are to make sense of life and to keep going on the pilgrim journey towards God. Paul reminds the Colossians that the secret to success is to keep our hearts and minds fixed on God: ‘Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.’ (Col 3:1-2)

God sits enthroned in heaven. Ps 9:4 says that God sits enthroned as the righteous Judge. Ps 80:1 says that God sits enthroned between the cherubim, a phrase which brings to mind Isaiah’s great vision in Is 6:1-8 when he saw ‘the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne,’ with angelic seraphim flying around crying out ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.’ These visions continue in the New Testament, for Paul reminds the Ephesians that God’s power raised Christ from the dead and ‘seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.’ (Eph 1:20-21) We will never make any progress in our journey with God if we’ve got our eyes fixed down on what we can see all around us. This psalm reminds us that if we want to get anywhere in life, we need to spend time looking up at God. We need to be alert to what is going on around Christ, because ‘that’s where the action is’! We won’t find the answers we are looking for or the help we need from the media; watching the news and reading newspapers can only tell us about this visible world, not about the invisible, spiritual realm where God is working all things together for good for those who love Him. We won’t find answers or help from social media, however interesting we find other people’s opinions and views. We won’t find answers from our friends and family ultimately, because they too are fallible people like ourselves. Only God can satisfy the ache in our hearts; only God is strong enough to meet our needs and help us every day of our lives; only He can give us the answers and help that we require to make sense of life. Jesus reminds us that our heavenly Father knows all our needs and that worrying is unnecessary (see Matt 6:27-34). We have a God who is more than capable to taking the initiative and more than capable of providing for us. Our everyday human concerns will be met in God. Our part, the thing we have to do, is steep our lives in this God-reality and understand that He is Lord and Sovereign over all.