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[0:00] What's your life filled with? What are you filling your life with? Your life is like a glass, it's like a container, it's like a vessel, the Bible calls it, and a vessel contains things, it holds things.

[0:29] What is your life fuller? Some of you might have things like your family, sport, study, friends, money, hobbies, various things, music, maybe churches in there somewhere, or entertainment. What is your life filled with? For some of you, your life is filled with the world and the things of the world. For some of us, our life is filled with Jesus, our life is filled with God.

[0:59] In 2 Timothy chapter 2 it says, Paul writes to Timothy, he says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

[1:16] Paul says, keep from sin. He says, but in a grey house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth. Some of our lives are like a clay pot. Some of us might be like of gold or silver. Some of us as of vessels of wood or of earth.

[1:35] And some to honour and some to dishonour. So your life can be filled with things that bring honour or that bring dishonour. The choice is yours. Whether you're going to have a life that's filled with that which brings honour or that which brings dishonour.

[1:52] And Paul goes on how we should cleanse ourselves and be a vessel unto honour. God wants you, wants me, wants every one of you to be a vessel that is filled with that which is good and pure and right and true.

[2:15] He says, flee youthful lust. Okay, desires that are wrong, flee from those things and instead follow that which is good.

[2:26] God wants you to be a vessel unto honour. Set apart, fit for God to use and ready to do good works. Will you be a vessel unto honour? And there's a couple of things you need to do.

[2:41] Paul says to Timothy, he says, flee from youthful lust. Flee from desires, sinful desires, wrong desires, wrong feelings and attractions that are taking you away from God.

[2:53] He says, run from that. Run from sinful desires and follow, instead follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace.

[3:04] With them that call on the Lord from a pure heart. God wants you to be a vessel unto honour. So flee from what is wrong and instead of going that way, to follow that which is right.

[3:16] So it's a change of direction, isn't it? We flee from that which is wrong and we follow that which is God's way. And the world that we live in is full of traps and dangers.

[3:27] We need to consult the owner's manual for our lives. Because if you're a Christian, you've got an owner's manual. You belong to the Saviour, to the Master, to the Lord Jesus. This is the owner's manual.

[3:39] We know people who are interested in cars. I know some of you boys are interested in cars. If you want to find out how to fix your dancing or your holding, you go and get the owner's manual for that vehicle.

[3:50] And this is the owner's manual. This shows us how to live. How to live God's way. To live life to the full. With his fullness. And it says in Titus 2 that God's grace has come.

[4:03] And it brings salvation. And it has appeared to all men. This is Titus 2 verse 11. And it teaches us. It's training us. You know, runners need a coach.

[4:14] We need a trainer. And we need, likewise, to live the Christian life, we need the Lord Jesus to be our coach. To be our trainer. To teach us how to live. And he says in Titus 2 verse 11 and then verse 12 it says that God's grace is teaching us that denying ungodliness, so turning from ungodliness, so the things that are not of God, denying them, turning away from them, that instead we should live soberly, righteously and godly.

[4:46] Soberly, righteously and godly. That's how God's grace teaches us to live. Now soberly, what's the opposite of being sober? It's being drunk. God doesn't want you to chase after drink, buzz your mind with that kind of thing.

[5:01] He wants you to have a clear head. He wants you to be sober. So to have a sound mind. To think straight. To live soberly. To live righteously. That means to live right.

[5:11] To live God's way. To live in a way that is pleasing to the Saviour. And to live godly. To live a life that is pleasing to God. Your maker. Your creator. So God's got a purpose for us.

[5:23] And he wants to rescue us. It says there that in verse 14, Titus 2.14, that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, he's given himself for us.

[5:35] That he might redeem us. That word redeem means rescue. It's like this picture here of a fireman saving someone from a burning building. God wants to rescue you.

[5:45] Some of you may not realise it, but you're in great danger. You're like someone in a burning building. If you don't know the Saviour, if you're not following Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you're like someone in a burning building.

[5:57] You need someone to rescue you. And that's what God does. He redeems us. He rescues us. And not only does he redeem us from all iniquity, from all sin, but he wants to purify unto himself a peculiar people.

[6:10] He wants to make us pure and special for his use. And he wants you to be zealous of good works. He wants to activate you. He wants to cleanse you, make you clean. Like a clean, like a pure water.

[6:25] He wants to make you clean. Not with any contamination. Not with anything that fouls it up. Who's ever seen? Sometimes you get rainwater and you get those little wriggly things in it. You seen that? Or you might see water can be contaminated.

[6:38] But God wants us to be like pure water. He wants pure purity in your life and in your mind, in your thinking. Our world is full of dirt. It's full of things that will contaminate you.

[6:50] You see it often on the internet, on the TV. The world is barraging your minds with that which will make you think thoughts that are not clean. Thoughts that are dirty.

[7:01] To speak words that are dirty. The music that some people hear. You'd be better off deleting it and chucking it in the bin. If you've got music that's got swearing in it, trash it.

[7:14] Burn it. Dump it. God doesn't want that trash in your mind. God doesn't want that sort of dirty talk. That kind of dirty thinking. That kind of dirty teaching to go in here.

[7:26] He wants your mind to be pure. He wants you to live soberly, righteously and godly. He wants to redeem you, rescue you. He wants to purify you, cleanse you.

[7:36] And he wants to make you zealous of good works. He wants to switch you on and fire you up for that which is right. So that you're burning hot to serve God and to be full on for Jesus Christ.

[7:50] And not to be a half-hearted kind of Christian. But he wants you to be an active Christian. To serve him. So what are you filling your lives with? That's the question here tonight. And as a container, you can fill your life with things that are good and bad.

[8:06] It's like this picture here of someone's mind. Like I was saying before, there's a lot of things going in, isn't there? We all face it. You face it even when you walk down the street.

[8:17] You see billboards or you see magazines at the shop. You see things that are trying to fill your mind all the time. And sometimes it's not good.

[8:28] It's bad things. And the alternative to going God's way, the alternative to going that which is pure, that which is pure and clean and wonderful and pleasing to God, is to think things that are impure and unholy.

[8:45] Things that are dirty that will defile your mind. The alternative to God's way to live is to choose the world's way. It's up to you tonight. The choices ultimately boils down to you.

[8:58] And I know that some of you might come to church for a few days, a few weeks, maybe even a year or two, and then maybe drop out. Because the world is drawing you like a magnet.

[9:11] It's drawing you. It's pulling you. It's taking you away from that which is right and true. There's a magnet out there. And it's wanting to take you away from Jesus Christ.

[9:21] It's wanting to take you away from God and His love and His purity and His goodness. And to fill your mind with all the rubbish and trash and filth and wrong thinking of the world around us.

[9:33] Don't get fooled by it. By the world's way of thinking. It's not going to be a thing to beckon you and lure you away from God's truth and life. Paul says to the Colossians in chapter 2, he says, Beware.

[9:48] He says, Watch out, lest any man spoil you or take from you through philosophy and vain deceit. It's allegiance to another Lord.

[9:59] The philosophy of the world is contrary to the teachings of God's word. There's people in positions of power in the government, in the education system, in the media, that have got the world's programming.

[10:18] And they're teaching people to turn from God. They're saying it's okay to kill babies. In the mother's womb, they operate on the baby and kill it.

[10:31] While it's partly born, they kill the baby and they think that's okay. They think it's okay to do sinful things. It's another allegiance. You see, when you become a Christian, you switch allegiances.

[10:47] When you become a Christian, you change your allegiance. You have a new master, a new king. You don't want to go the world's way and think the world's way anymore. You have a different way of thinking.

[11:00] And you have a different Lord. And often the world is referred to as like a system that is influencing people. It's like what some of you were wearing just before.

[11:11] The trash that's going in your brain from filthy music. It's programming you to hate God. It's programming you to do sinful things.

[11:22] It's programming you to want to sleep around you and not care about what is right and pure and true and holy. Seriously. Kids, it's true. Don't listen to that rubbish.

[11:35] If it's rubbish, that's turning you away from God. It's turning you away from His truth. Don't listen to it. Burn it. Seriously. Burn it. Destroy it.

[11:45] That's what God would have you to do. Alright. And we see this influence. It's all around us. It's in the fashion world. Alright. It's in the entertainment industry. Alright.

[11:56] There's a programming. There's a lot of rubbish going on. See, the world's fashion. The world's wisdom. The world's music. The world's education.

[12:07] All of these systems that are contrary to the principles of God's Word. And God talks about these things. The wisdom of this world. He talks about the fashion of this world. I can give quotes later than references.

[12:20] He talks about the cares of this world. And the evil nature of this world. The world is against God. God tells you. He says that if you're going to be the friend of the world.

[12:31] Then you hate God. Friendship with the world is hatred. It's amnesty towards God. It means that if you're going to go the world's way. Then you're headed the wrong direction.

[12:43] You need to switch on. Turn around. You're in great danger. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4. It tells us about the God of this world. He's like an angel. I could have maybe found a beautiful picture of a very appealing looking person.

[12:59] That's how the angel of light appears. The God of this world. Satan, the devil. Your enemy and God's enemy. It says that he appears as an angel of light.

[13:12] And he blinds the minds of those who do not believe. Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ. Who is the image of God. Should shine unto them. Worldliness means being devoted to this world.

[13:28] It means following the God of this world. You can choose to live worldly and godlessly. Or you can choose to live for God and for his truth. It tells us in God's word in the Psalms.

[13:41] It says, You that love the Lord hate evil. We should have a hatred for that which is evil. A hatred for that which is ungodly. A hatred for that which is of the world.

[13:52] The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. It says in Proverbs 8. And 1 John it says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

[14:05] So don't love the world and the things of the world. Cut the ties. Cut it off. And throw it away. Paul says, Be not conformed to this world.

[14:16] Don't let the world shape you and squeeze you into its way of thinking. But instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We're constantly barraged with the world's philosophy.

[14:27] Because the God of this world wants you to follow him. The God of this world doesn't want you to hear this. The God of this world doesn't want you to get the gospel that can set you free from the chains that hold you.

[14:41] The chains of sin. The God of this world wants you to be kept in his captivity and kept in darkness. He might give you his angelic light, but he wants to keep you from the true light, the gospel, the light of God, the light of the world who is Jesus.

[14:59] He wants to trick you to follow him. And by and large, most of the world is following this God, the God of this world and the world's philosophy. And the world's philosophy will say that it's okay to you to not care about what's right before God.

[15:21] And even as a Christian, sometimes you can get so sucked in by what the world is telling you all the time that you can think some things are okay to do, which God says they are not right to do.

[15:33] Things like sex and relationships outside of God's order of marriage. Okay? God's given us some very clear instructions about these things. About how we dress and behave.

[15:45] About our language and our morals. About our principles. About what we think is right and wrong. It's got to be guided by God's word. This is the ultimate authority.

[15:57] And we can take God's word as true and sure. And that we are guide for us. And we as God's children, we're not governed by all of that philosophy, by that thinking, by that world's kind of way of thinking and by the devil's kind of tricking.

[16:15] But instead of following the world's philosophies and ways of thinking, we want God to guide us, don't we? We want his truth to lead us and to show us the way to do.

[16:27] Philo, sophie. Philo means love and sophie means wisdom. Philosophy means the love of wisdom. The Bible talks about how there is the wisdom of this world.

[16:38] The wisdom of this world thinks it's okay to do all kinds of things that are wrong. It's about people's opinions as to what is right and what is wrong. But no, this is the guide that tells you what is right and wrong.

[16:51] God's truth. God's word. And if you want to find God's truth, this is where it is. It's in the pages of this book. And the ultimate and real source of truth is the Lord Jesus.

[17:05] He says, I am the way, the truth and the life. And he says that no man cometh to the Father, no one can get to heaven except by me, he says. He's the one way.

[17:17] I know there's a song that I've heard before and it's called One Way Jesus Christ. One Way for you and me. He is the truth and the life. One Way for you and me.

[17:30] One Way Jesus Christ. There's only one. There's not many paths to God, as many as the world's philosophy would kind of say. There's only one Saviour and he is Jesus Christ the Lord.

[17:44] And so, think about, again, back to this question, what is filling your life? what is filling your life? What is filling your mind? What is filling your time and energy?

[17:56] Is it the world and the things of the world? God tells you, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

[18:07] Don't be misled to think that that the world and its ways, its fashions, its idols, its heroes, that they're the ones to follow.

[18:21] The Lord Jesus is the one to follow. He will take you all the way to heaven and give you eternal life. And most of all, he'll fix your biggest problem.

[18:32] The biggest problem. We'll get to that. It's like we're a jigsaw puzzle and there's a piece missing. And that piece for many in our world is Jesus Christ. Have you ever got a big jigsaw out and there's just one or two pieces missing?

[18:46] Isn't it frustrating? That's how life is for people who don't know Jesus Christ. They've got the most important part missing. He makes our life complete. Without Jesus, there's a big hole in our heart.

[18:58] There's a big emptiness. There's a big vacuum that only he can fill. And God can fill you. It says that he fills us. There's many scriptures that talk about God filling us.

[19:11] Alright? Think about the picture again. You are a container. What is your life filled with? Alright? As a Christian, it says that Christ fills you with all knowledge.

[19:24] Fills you with knowledge. Don't you want to have knowledge? I'd like to know a lot more than I know now. He fills you with all goodness. With goodness. Don't you want goodness in your life? That which is good and right and true and wholesome.

[19:37] Fills you with joy. I'd like a bit of joy in my life, won't you? Joy and peace in believing. He fills your life with all the fullness of God. He fills us with the Holy Spirit.

[19:49] With God's very Spirit and nature. He fills us with the fruits of righteousness. He fills us with the knowledge of His will. Don't you want to know God's will? He can fill you with it.

[19:59] But the question for you, for me, is what are you filled with? Is it the world? Are you wanting your life filled with God? Are you filled with Jesus Christ? And having that completeness talks about you are complete in Him.

[20:13] When you become a Christian, He makes life complete. He puts all the pieces together. He fills in all the blanks. And you know why you're here. You know the reason you're living. You know the ultimate reason for why you're alive and why you're here on planet Earth.

[20:30] He makes life complete and full. And man's biggest problem, he's the answer to it. What is the most deceitful thing in the world?

[20:41] Question for you. What do you think is the most deceitful thing? The most tricky thing? You know, I've seen, I've had some people in my life who have tricked me.

[20:52] Well and truly, they deceived me, they tricked me, I gave them money and I didn't pay it back. They lied and cheated and stole from me. Alright? And yet, I thought they were my friends.

[21:03] It's not a false prophet. There's lots of them around. It's not a false cult or voices of others or influences around about you. The most deceitful thing is your very heart.

[21:15] Your very heart. The heart is deceitful. Some people say trust your heart. Paul says don't trust your heart. It's deceitful. It's going to trick you and it's desperately wicked.

[21:27] Who can know it? That's Jeremiah 17, verse 9. You can be deceived. Some of you are deceived tonight. You don't know it, but you're deceived.

[21:39] You're lost. Alright? Some of you here tonight, you don't know Jesus as your saviour. Alright? There's a possibility. Some of you do not know Jesus. You're deceived.

[21:50] You're tricked. In your heart, you might think, oh, I'm alright, Jack. She'll be right. She'll be apples. No worries, mate. I'm fine. But your heart is tricking you.

[22:02] It's wicked. It's deceitful. It's dirty. And you need Jesus Christ. And you're missing the completeness of God. You're missing Christ who makes life complete.

[22:13] And the question for every one of us is what is the condition of your heart? It says we should guard our heart. We should guard it. We should keep it. And also we should guard our lips, what we say.

[22:25] Guard what we say as well. Set a watch, oh Lord, before my mouth. There's a completeness and God wants your heart to be complete. To be cleansed, to be complete.

[22:37] And just lastly, think about the purity again. Don't you want to be pure? I know that my heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

[22:50] And before I knew Jesus Christ as my Saviour, my heart was dirty with sin. Alright? It was dirty. It was foul.

[23:01] It was filled with sin. But when I became a Christian, Jesus cleansed my heart from all that sin. Made it pure and clean and fresh.

[23:13] Free from that which is wrong and contaminating. And God's people, He wants us to have that purity. And I know as Christians, sometimes, Christians can sometimes slip and impure things can come into our lives.

[23:30] Impure words or thoughts or thinking. God wants us to be clean and to have that purity that goes through our whole heart and our whole behaviour. It says in 2 Corinthians 7, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.

[23:52] Sin is talked about as being something that's filthy and defiling. You can be clean today. You can be clean. You can be washed.

[24:04] Your heart can be made clean. And it's not about our trying. You know, we could, there's actually some religions where there's a dirty river that they jump into to try to clean themselves.

[24:18] Alright? The river Ganges, I think, they somehow jump in the river and think that that's going to make them clean. But water can't wash your way of sin. Good works can't make you clean.

[24:32] Good works can't make up for all the badness inside. All our trying and effort, religion can't help you. No religion, no religious works, good works, giving, trying.

[24:48] You're hopelessly dirty on the inside. And the only one who can reach on the inside of you is Jesus Christ. And he can take the heart, that real you, the inner you, and make you clean from the inside out.

[25:04] And how does he do it? With the washing of water by the word. So it's his word, it's hearing the truth of salvation through faith in Christ. It's reading God's word that will keep us clean.

[25:16] And it says in 1 John 1 that if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanser us from all sin.

[25:28] The blood of Jesus Christ is the only way that you can be clean. The blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse our heart. What it means is that the Lord Jesus, when he died on that hill 2,000 years ago, it says that he bore our sins in his own body on that piece of wood.

[25:52] He took our sins, he carried them in his very own body. And when he was nailed there, bleeding, dying for you, his very blood was the price paid to wash away your sin, to cleanse your heart.

[26:10] But you need to receive that work that he did for you. You need to receive that forgiveness that he offers to you. You can't receive it unless you call that to him and ask him to cleanse your heart.

[26:25] I know for some here tonight, maybe this is something you're not really sure about. You're not understanding. I'm trying to make it as simple as I can by the pictures that I'm drawing, these pictures that I'm showing.

[26:39] What is your life filled with? What is your life filled with? What is your life filled with? You can fill your life with the world and the things of the world.

[26:50] You can follow the God of this world and he'll make you happy. He'll give you joy and pleasure. He'll give you warm and fuzzy feelings and he'll give you lots of fun and simple pleasure for a season.

[27:06] And then he'll take you to hell with him. That's what the God of this world will do. He can fill your life. He can fill your mind with that trashy music. The God of this world would love to pour that trash in your mind.

[27:21] That dirty, won't be clean water, be dirty water. He wants to fill your thinking. He wants to fill your heart with lust and sin. He wants to fill your mind with trash.

[27:33] He wants you to hate your parents, to disobey your parents. He wants to make you disobey the law and not care about your purity of your body and soul and mind.

[27:49] Don't follow the God of this world. Switch around. Turn around. You're going the wrong way. Flee from that and instead follow Jesus Christ. Alright?

[28:00] And what will God fill your life with? Most of all, he'll fill you with himself and you'll become more like Jesus. And you can be filled with the fullness of God.

[28:11] You can be filled with who Jesus is and you can be made complete in him because without Jesus you're incomplete. Without Jesus you're empty on the inside.

[28:22] Without Jesus you're only filled with that which is going to hurt you and take you to hell. But Jesus Christ, when he fills us, he fills us to overflowing. I might make a mess if I do that but you can see Jesus fills your life and he overflows your life.

[28:37] He says that I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. In other words overflowing life. Life that is overflowing and flowing out to others.

[28:53] A life that is full and flowing and abundant. Without Jesus your life is incomplete and you're missing the most important part of being alive.

[29:05] and that's how the devil wants to keep you. But the question for you is just one more time I'm going to say what are you filled with? Do you want your life to be filled with sin and Satan or do you want your life to be filled with Jesus Christ and his life his eternal life?

[29:24] He says come unto me he says whosoever will let him drink let him drink of the everlasting life of the everlasting water he says whoever you are whosoever will anybody whoever can come and receive it he welcomes you he invites you to receive him and it's just like I drank of that water just then it's that simple really it's receiving it says to as many as received him to them gave him power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name it's receiving him you can fill your life with trash or you can fill your life with good things and the best thing you can fill your life with is Jesus Christ Jesus Christ he's the one who wants to fill you with himself alright we're just going to close in prayer just now and think about your life like a container you don't want to be filled with that which is going to hurt you you want to be filled with that which is going to help you and most of all you need to be filled with

[30:41] Jesus Christ you need to ask him to cleanse your heart and the only way to be clean is because of his blood that he shed because of the sacrifice that he offers to cleanse you and your heart so let's pray Lord I thank you tonight for everybody here help us Lord to take this simple message and think about what we're filling ourselves with what we fill our minds and lives with what occupies our life what we spend our time doing help us Lord instead to turn away from the things of the world and the love of this world and to develop that love for you the love for the truth and to fill our lives with good things and blessings we pray Lord for anyone here today who doesn't know you as saviour that they'll cry out Lord Jesus help me save me take this heart of mine and make it clean I need you to save my soul I want you to fill my life with you and that which is right and true to cleanse me from sin and to keep you clean as I follow you in Jesus name

[31:49]  Amen Amen