Sermon Central
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Out Of The Pit
Contributed by Antonio Silveira on Nov 7, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: Evangelistic Sermon that also Encourages Christians to help others
Out of the Pit!
By Tony Silveira
Other Studies at http://www.carismachurch.com
"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.
Isaiah 35:6 tells us, “For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.” Jesus came into this world with a river of life in order to make alive our dry and dusty lives. He came to wash away the filth of all of our sins and give us eternal life that we would take root in him and be in full bloom for all eternity, as a beautiful desert blossom.
Jeremiah talked about to evil things
They have left springs of living water
They have dug cisterns for themselves, which cannot hold water.
Illustration
“Many Palestinians were dependent upon cisterns, laboriously carved from the rock. Cistern water at best is flat and tasteless; it is easily contaminated with various types of growth that produce a smelly scum. When the cistern is cracked, even the stale water leeches away; the person who turns to the cracked cistern is totally disappointed. The religious forms of idolatry might look quite impressive, but they did not contain the spirit of the living God.”-Andrew W. Blackwood Jr.
Jeremiah pointed out the evil things that those people where doing and some years latter they decided to punish him for prophecyzing agains the city.
6 So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon or cistern pit [in the charge] of Malchiah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down [into the pit] with ropes. And in the dungeon or cistern pit there was no water, but only mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire.
1. Sometimes bad things happen to good people!
Illustration
Sir Alexander Mackenzie is a Canadian hero. An early fur trader and explorer, he accomplished a magnificent feat when he led an expedition across Canada from Fort Chippewyan on Lake Athabasca to the Pacific Ocean. His incredible journey was completed in 1793, 11 years before Lewis and Clark began their famous expedition to the west. Mackenzies earlier attempt in 1789, however, had been a major disappointment. His explorers had set out in an effort to find a water route to the Pacific. The valiant group followed a mighty river (now named the Mackenzie) with high hopes, paddling furiously amid great danger. Unfortunately, it didnt empty into the Pacific, but into the Arctic Ocean. In his diary, Mackenzie called it the River of Disappointment. You know, many of us find ourselves paddling up rivers of disappointments of our own.
19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all;
Jeremiah was thrown into the pit and he hit the bottom. Have you ever hit the bottom? The reason why we hit the bottom may be related with circunstances of life, persecution, like in the case of Jeremiah, but most of the times we hit the bottom because of sin in our lifes.
Jeremiah hit the mud and started to sink, however it came to a point were he had solid ground. I have some good news for you. Maybe you are at the bottom like Jeremiah but you are alive and God kept you with your head out of the mud so you are still able to cry for help.
The Roman historian Josephus wrote that the cisterns in that region were many times used to punish people and that usualy were 20 to 30 feet deep and that the layer of mud was up to the chin of an adult person. Jeremiah was at the bottom but the Lord allowed him to survive and left his head out of the mud so he was able to cry for help.
Illustration
The story is told of a former world chess champion player who was taken by a friend to see a picture which had been hung in a famous art gallery, and which had attracted much interest. The artist had portrayed a young man sitting despairingly at a chessboard, while opposite him sat the devil with a look of malicious triumph on his face. The title of the picture was a single expressive word: "Checkmated". For a long time the champion player stood before the picture, his brow furrowed by concentration. Suddenly his voice rang out in the art gallery: "Bring me a chessboard. I can save him yet!" Sure enough, the mastermind had discovered the way out. And just as surely Christ can give victory to the person who will trust him implicitly. Naturally speaking, there may not seem to be a way out, but never limit God for he’s the supply of our comfort.
