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."
b If she only knew who He was, what He had to offer, How she could receive eternal life!
c She’s at the wrong watering hole, nothing she could pull out of that well could quench her thirst for good (v.13).
C Every watering hole we drink from in this world will eventually leave us thirsty.
1 Today, we look in so many wells to satisfy us.
a Wells of sex, alcohol, money, food, exercise, power, family, . . .
b We won’t find living water in any of these watering holes.
2 Some us pursue the things of God so intensely that we forget that we’re thirsty.
a We get so wrapped up doing church, ministry that we forgot to thirst for God.
b Our misery is that we thirst so little for these sublime things, and so much for the mocking trifles of time and space. -C.H. Spurgeon
T.S.: God knows that the worlds watering holes really do not satisfy the spiritual thirst of His creation.
II The second watering we can choose to quench our thirst from is the watering hole of heaven.
A Do you know the importance of water to our physical bodies? When our bodies fail to retain the right amount of water, dehydration sets in. It is the water in our body that determines the vitality, strength, and energy associated with daily living.
1 Think about these facts associated with our body and water:
a The human body is 2/3 water.
b The body absorbs cold water faster than hot water.
c By the time you are 70-years-old, you will have required 1½ million gallons of water.
d If you loose 2% of your body’s water supply, your
energy will decrease by 20%. A 10% decrease in water,
you will be unable to walk, and a 20% decrease – you’re dead.
2 Well, I think you get the point. And what is true of the physical is also true of the spiritual.
a Because God has made you with a spirit, soul, and body that get thirsty, if you fail to satisfy that thirst, your spirit, soul, and body become dehydrated.
b Do you know where to look for satisfaction?
B Jesus made it crystal clear that he wasn’t talking about the water from Jacob’s well.
1 As she ponders the idea of receiving this living water, her spirit leaps.
a Joy, ecstacy of the soul, "Lord, give me this water."
aa She had to give up the well of Jacob.
bb Stop being satisfied with the normal watering hole.
b The prerequisite to receiving living water was to have a thirst for God and a dissatisfaction of the world.
2 Jesus was the possession of the living water.
a This gal would never be thirsty again, providing she keep drinking from Christ.
b If she ever thirst again, it was never going to be the waters fault!
C When we drink of Christ, we take in living water.
1 Living water is vastly different than the water from the worlds wells.
a World’s Well: Hard work to get it! Gotta work @ it!
b Heaven’s Well: Like a spring just bubbling up.
c Worlds Well: leaves us thirst after a while.
d Heaven’s Well: Quenches our inner thirst forever.
2 We can keep satisfied providing we keep drinking from Christ.
a If you thirst again, it’s not because Jesus moved.
b We stay spiritually hydrated as long as we drink in Jesus!
Conclusion:
A Jesus wanted the thirsty woman to never be thirsty again. (ETS) We can only quench our spiritual thirst by drinking in the living water that is Christ Jesus. (ESS)
1 We’ve looked at two watering holes that we can choose to quench our thirst from.
a The worlds (No matter how much we drink . . . we wind up dry)
b Heaven’s (We’ll never thirst again!)
2 I hope you’ll decide to drink daily from the well that holds living water.
a You’re drinking from one of these two wells.
b Walk up drinking, refresh your self through the day, take one more sip before you go to sleep.
B Where is your watering hole? (Probing Question)
1 Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained.
a The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle.
b The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience.
c When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience he gives them a signal to go back to drink.
d We must consent to God’s training and obey Him.
2 Where is your watering hole?
Notice to Sermon Central Users:
My name is Mike Fogerson, and I pastor a Southern Baptist Church in Chester, Illinois. I have been a long-time user of Sermon Central and truly appreciate its content and contributors. Some of the best sermons I’ve ever preached have been reworked material from this website. As you use the material from my sermon bank, understand that it is work that has been done from not just myself, but from hundreds of other pastors as well. If you see part of your message, or a bunch of your message with my name on it and this upsets you, please email me and I will quickly respond and cite you as the main source. My intent is not to claim someone’s work as my own. I am disclaiming up front that I use the resources from Sermon Central and appreciate the tool. I simply want all those who use my work to know that some of these messages were inspired by the Holy Spirit working through other pastors. Because I do use the messages of other pastors I waive all claims of originality or origin of creativity for the messages posted under my messages. I pray God blesses your preaching ministry for the glory of His Kingdom.
Respectfully,
Mike Fogerson
