All I Want Is Living Water

All I Want Is Living Water

Introduction:

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

In 1996, a young marine corporal named Joey Mora was standing on a platform of an aircraft carrier patrolling the Iranian Sea. Incredibly, he fell overboard.  His absence was not known for 36 hours. A search and rescue mission began, but was given up after another 24 hours. No one could survive in the sea without even a lifejacket after 60 hours. His parents were notified that he was "missing and presumed dead."

The rest of the story is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" events.  Script writers would pass it up as "not believable."  Four Pakistani fishermen found Joey Mora about 72 hours after he had fallen from the aircraft carrier. He was treading water in his sleep, clinging to a makeshift floatation device made from his trousers -- a skill learned in most military survival training.  He was delirious when they pulled him into their fishing boat.  His tongue was dry and cracked and his throat parched.

Just about two years later, as he spoke with Stone Philips of NBC Dateline, he recounted an unbelievable story of will to live and survival.  Who would not give up?  He said it was God who kept him struggling to survive.  His discovery by the fishermen makes searching for a needle in a haystack a piece of cake.  The most excruciating thing of all?  Joey said that the one thought that took over his body and pounded in his brain was "Water!"  [NBC Dateline: Nov. 1998]

Joey Mora was thirsty. His thirst was so powerful that it kept him alive as he waited for just a drink. Thirst is that "sensation of dryness in the mouth and throat associated with a desire for liquids." Thirst is that "bodily condition (as of dehydration) that induces this sensation." It is "a desire or need to drink." It is "an ardent desire." Thirst is a craving, a longing.

Our physical bodies are created to thirst when the balance of fluids is not right. Our bodies signal our brains and the craving begins, the thirst begins. Thirst extends our physical lives because it makes us drink. When we become thirsty our bodies will not be satisfied with just anything. Our bodies will continue to thirst for as long as there is a need. Our bodies will not be satisfied with less than what they need to find themselves in balance.

Thirst is a part of the human experience physically. There is also a spiritual thirst. In the Gospel of John the word thirst is found on the lips of Jesus five times.

He asks the woman at the well for a drink and then talks to her about thirst.

He talks to the crowd that He miraculously fed about thirst.

In the seventh chapter of John verses 37-39 it reads:

John 7:37-39

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

In this text the Lord Jesus speaks to us of our deepest thirst and how it can be satiated. There is something that only the Spirit of God can satisfy. There is a spiritual drive, a craving that only one thing will quench...

All I Want Is Living Water

BACKGROUND OF TEXT:

For seven days the Jews celebrated the Feast of the Tabernacles living in tents or booths (Deut. 16:13; Num. 29:12).

On the eighth day they had a solemn assembly (Num. 29:35; Lev. 23:36; Neh. 1:18). This eighth day was seen as symbolic of the entrance and establishment of the people in the land of Canaan. Abandoning their tents/booths they went in a procession to the temple and from there every one returned to his house.

It was then that the Lord spoke out and said "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink" (John 7:37).

The allusion to the water was due to the fact that during the Feast of Tabernacles, after the sacrifice, the people, led by a priest, went down from the temple to the fountain of Siloam, located almost next door. The priest filled a golden pitcher at this fountain and carried it through the streets amid joyful shouts of the crowd with the sound of symbols and trumpets.

During the jubilation, the people shouted the words of Isaiah 12:3, "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."

This was a prophecy of the Messiah.