FILLING THE VOID (2 OF 2)
by Steve Jones
Scripture: Matthew 12:43-45
This content is part of a series.
Filling the Void (2 of 2)
Series: Pornography
Steve Jones
Matthew 12:43-45
INTRO: I'd like to begin where we left off last week. Matthew 12:43-45 ''When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So, it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.'' Last week we talked about how to overcome a sinful addiction in our lives. We used pornography addiction as our example. However, we noted at the end that once we've overcome pornography addiction, we might find that there is a void left behind in our hearts. It's the void that the addiction was attempting (unsuccessfully) to fill. Unless we learn to fill that void with God, the addiction will eventually return with a vengeance, or we will go on to fill it with some OTHER idol.
I want to spend a LITTLE time this morning making the case that the ''desire'' we're trying to meet with our various idols is the desire for God himself. I'm not sure we all believe that. Then I want to spend the rest of the time with a ''how to'' fill that void with God.
PART I - THE GOD-SHAPED VACUUM Ps.42:1-2 ''As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.'' Blaise Pascal, ''Pensees'', 1670 ''This infinite abyss, can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.'' In 1968 Bill Bright paraphrased Pascal as follows: ''There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.'' (Jesus and the Intellectual, Campus Crusade for Christ International, Arrowhead Springs, San Bernardino, CA, 1968). The idea here is that this God-shaped vacuum is what ...
Series: Pornography
Steve Jones
Matthew 12:43-45
INTRO: I'd like to begin where we left off last week. Matthew 12:43-45 ''When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So, it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.'' Last week we talked about how to overcome a sinful addiction in our lives. We used pornography addiction as our example. However, we noted at the end that once we've overcome pornography addiction, we might find that there is a void left behind in our hearts. It's the void that the addiction was attempting (unsuccessfully) to fill. Unless we learn to fill that void with God, the addiction will eventually return with a vengeance, or we will go on to fill it with some OTHER idol.
I want to spend a LITTLE time this morning making the case that the ''desire'' we're trying to meet with our various idols is the desire for God himself. I'm not sure we all believe that. Then I want to spend the rest of the time with a ''how to'' fill that void with God.
PART I - THE GOD-SHAPED VACUUM Ps.42:1-2 ''As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.'' Blaise Pascal, ''Pensees'', 1670 ''This infinite abyss, can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.'' In 1968 Bill Bright paraphrased Pascal as follows: ''There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.'' (Jesus and the Intellectual, Campus Crusade for Christ International, Arrowhead Springs, San Bernardino, CA, 1968). The idea here is that this God-shaped vacuum is what ...
There are 23324 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
