Obey Your Thirst

Obey Your Thirst

John 4:7-15 February 12, 2006

Dr. Mike Fogerson * Chester’s First Baptist Church, Chester, Illinois

Introduction:

A D L Moody was once asked why he urged Christians to be filled constantly with the Holy Spirit.

1 "Well," he said, "I need a continual infilling because I leak!" He pointed to a water tank which had sprung a leak. "I’m like that!" he said.

2 It’s a fact that living in this sinful world we do need to be replenished by the Spirit.

B The Pharisee’s had been trying to pit Jesus’ followers against John the Baptists’ followers so Jesus left from Judea to go to Galilee.

1 He could have taken one of three routes.

a Along the coast; across the Jordan and up through Perea; a straight through Samaria.

b There was a deep seated hatred between the Jews & Samartians.

2 The hatred stemmed back to 722 B.C.

a The Assyrian’s took the 10 Northern Tribes captive, and subsequent defilement of the Jewish bloodline disabled the Samaritans genealogy to Abraham. (Jacob)

b The Samaritans had their main temple at Mt. Gerizim.

c Some Jews hated the Samaritans so intensely that they prayed that NO Samaritans would go to heaven.

3 Jesus went through Samaria because He was on the way to keep a divine appointment.

a He had an appointment to meet a woman there and would change her life, and subsequently her whole village.

b 12:00 PM was not the normal time for a woman would get water.

c The disciples went to McDonalds to get some food; Jesus hung out @ the well because he was exhausted, weary, hungry, & thirsty.

C 7 There came* a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said* to her, "Give Me a drink." 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said* to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ’Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 She said* to Him, "Sir , You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." 15 The woman said* to Him, "Sir , give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw." John 4:7-15 (NASB)

1 Jesus wanted the thirsty woman to never be thirsty again. (ETS)

a We can only quench our spiritual thirst by drinking in the living water that is Christ Jesus. (ESS)

b I hope you’ll decide to drink daily from the well that holds living water. (Objective)

2 Where is your watering hole? (Probing Question)

a Let’s look at two watering holes that we can choose to quench our thirst from. (Transitional Sentence)

b Pray

I The first watering we can choose to quench our thirst from is the watering hole of the world.

A USMC Cpl. Bob Banner got separated from his platoon during Desert Storm.

1 He wandered in the desert for 40 hours hiding from Iraqi scouts.

a He was found by allied forces who happened to have reporters.

b He recounted his story to the reporters, all the while gulping water. One reporter said, "You sure are thirsty."

c Banner replied, "You know, I was busy running, I forgot I was thirsty."

2 We got so wrapped up with life that we forget to thirst after God.

B Our Samaritan woman mistook the material for the spiritual.

1 Jesus was offering her living water, but all our desperate damsel could think of was filling her jars again for the thousandth time.

a Getting water was hard work, 75 ft deep! (v.11)

b In her time she had probably filled thousands of jar, but her thirst always came back.

2 She was wrapped up in the hustle &bustle of life that she forgot all about her thirst soul.

a v.10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ’Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."