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Good morning Church family. I hope your week was full of blessings and peace, if not don’t fret we have invitation time coming up and we sure can pray for you and if you had an awesome week come forward and give us your testimony of praise. But as for now, we are going to continue our study on The Cup. If you would go ahead and turn to in your Bibles we will be in verse 8 this morning. If you don’t have a Bible that’s OK there is one in front of you or you can follow on the screen. We will be in . You know sometimes to fill our cups we have to draw on the waters that Christ gives to us, but that is not always easy and sometimes we don’t quiet get a full cup, but the important part is that we know our position and we continue to draw upon the Lord as it says in : Read

Pray

I have this cup here, I know it doesn’t really look like a cup, but I needed you to be able to see through it. But I do want you to take a look at this “Cup.” Now I want you to answer, to yourself, honestly this question, is the cup half empty or half full? This is no right or wrong answer here and there will be some that say different things, but seriously I want you to answer the question honestly because it can determine your reality. Do you see the cup half empty or half full? Our perspective can often determine our proximity to God. And if we are sitting on ½ empty, its OK, we just need to recognize what it means and where we can go from there.

I. ½ Empty –

A. Nothing goes your way

1. Everyone is against you

2. No one cares for you

3. Feels like you are drowning

B. Don’t see the light –

1. Hopelessness

2. No purpose

3. Draw us away from God -

a. God is the light

b. The Devil will cast shadows

i. shadows are harmless

c. All you have to do is turn on the light

C. Dangerous place to be

1. Relies on self –

a. Own power

b. Own wisdom

c. Own authority

2. Leads to Despair

a. Depression

b. Discouragement

c. I can’t

i. Right you cant

ii. God can

3. Tools of Satan -

a. Distracts from truth

b. Will lie to you

4. Used to drown us

5. Hard to get out of

i. Draw other in with you

6. Will destroy your cup

i. Happening to many young people

ii. No coping skills

iii. No Christ

iv. Too busy trying to make them feel good

II. ½ Full –

A. Positive perspective

1. Keeping the eye on the prize

2. Creates persistence -

a. Nature of positive thinking

b. Understands that persistence pays off

3. Relies on prayer –

B. Understand God’s in charge –

1. Relies on God’s power

2. Knows God’s authority

3. Relies on the truth

C. Know things are going to get better

1. Focused on the end –

2. Not worried about right now

3. Lives in both worlds

a. Eternity

b. Mortal nature

4. Has both in mind

III. Perspective determined by proximity –

A. Drawing

1. like from a well

2. Two choices

a. Negative

b. Positive

B. Closeness to God –

1. Will equal positivity

2. Even in sorrow and pain

3. Gives us perspective

C. Peter’s Move

1. Was half empty –

a. Denied Christ

b. Headed for trouble

c. Lost and Depressed

2. Turned it to ½ full

a. Jesus Reinstated –

b. Had to be asked the hard question

c. Had to realize and repent

d. Becoming self-aware

i. Helps us turn it around

ii. We can always change

iii. Not strong enough but God is

e. Peter changed

i. Half full headed to overflowing

ii. Just realize and repent

Conclusion:

Jesus is always willing to bring us back from the brink. He is always willing to turn us from ½ empty to ½ Full and rising. It is OK to mess up as long as we repent. You know that is what really makes us different from the World, it isn’t that we are perfect it is just that we realize our fault and repent. When I repent it means I am drawing on the living waters of Jesus again. It means I have changed from down to up, I have changed from despair to hopeful, from depressed to comforted, and from disgraced to forgiven. That is the power of perspective. When we draw on the water and draw close to God, He draws close us. When we draw close to Him, the enemy flees in terror, when we draw on Him, our greatest hope is realized, and we are rescued from the storm. Won’t you draw close to Him today and see your cup as half-full and moving upward.

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