No Water

NO WATER

Ps. 63:1

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. The minister gave his Sunday morning service, as usual, but this particular Sunday, it was considerably longer than normal.

2. Later, at the door, shaking hands with parishioners as they moved out, one man said, "Your sermon, Pastor, was simply wonderful - so invigorating and inspiring and refreshing."

3. The minister, of course, broke out in a big smile, only to hear the man say, "Why, I felt like a new man when I woke up!"

B. TEXT

1. “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” Ps. 63:1.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” Isa. 55:1.

C. THESIS

1. Tonight I want us to see that there is no other way to find satisfaction than Jesus!

2. We’re going to see first that this world can’t satisfy us; secondly, see the source and value of water; and lastly, how to obtain these waters.

3. The title of this message is, “No Water.”

I. THE NATURAL WORLD HAS NO WATER

A. THERE’S NO WATER IN THIS WORLD

1. There is “no water” in this world. We often think that there is some spiritual refreshment in the natural world, but in reality there is NONE.

2. No other religion besides the worship of Jehovah has any water. They are empty man-made facades that offer peace but can provide none. The Creator God is not in them.

3. Human love, learning, pleasure, wealth, popularity, etc., all seem to offer inner satisfaction, but are mirages. They are clouds without rain. In the end, the searcher finds their soul still empty.

4. As Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man/woman that only God can fill.”

B. SUBSTITUTES ATTEMPTED

1. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the Fountain of Living Waters* and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” [Jer. 2:13; *KJV description; otherwise, NIV]

2. A cistern is a man-made, shallow collection tank, not having fresh, running water, but catching runoff rain water. It's dependent on rainfall. It can't refill itself. It's usually dirty water. They collect bugs, frogs, parasites and other trash. The water is stagnant.

3. Jesus is the Fountain of Living Waters. He’s like an artesian well: always flowing with clean, filtered, pure water. It's self-supporting. You don't have to pump it. It needs no filter. It doesn't need any rainfall.

4. We have many cisterns where we go to find a drink (relief) -- food, TV, counselors, religion, pain killers/ stress reducers, people, a book, shopping, diversions of all kinds, etc.

5. Who, after drinking at a fresh, clean artesian well, would desire to drink filthy, scummy, cistern water? What we need is the Fountain!

II. WHAT & WHERE ARE THESE WATERS?

A. WHAT ARE THE WATERS WE NEED TO DRINK?

1. What are the waters the Bible describes? The anointing of the Holy Spirit. Water is a type of the Spirit.

2. Jesus told the Samarian woman, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14. Jesus later promised “rivers of living water” which was identified as the Holy Spirit, John 7:38-39.

3. So Jesus offers us the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is what God intends to slake your thirst!

B. EIGHT CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER

1. WATER IS THIRST-QUENCHING

a. What water is to the physical body, the Spirit is to the spiritual body.

b. The world searches for something to satiate an unknown inner need; they stagger and search everywhere for it. But only the Holy Spirit is the thirst-slaker.

c. Ps. 42:1-2; “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Ps. 143:6; “I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.” Joel 1:20; “Even the wild animals pant for you.”

2. WATER IS LIFE PRESERVING

a. To the thirsty, a drink of water is worth its weight in diamonds. A wealthy man in the desert would surrender his fortune for a drink.

b. Where there is water, there is life, growth, plants, etc.; where there is no water, there is death.

c. In Jesus is life and life abundantly – Jn. 10:10. “In Him was life and that life was the light of men” Jn. 1:4. “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” 1 Jn. 5:11.