The Thirst for Living Water - March 23, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

This morning we're going to continue on our journey with Jesus as we head toward

the cross and the subsequent resurrection from the grave, from death, and leading to victory.

Today we find ourselves in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

And as I was reading this, I was thinking about the many Native American myths

and folklore about not only their creation story, but just about water in general.

And when I thought about it, especially having some Hopi and some other Native

American friends at a tribe that I worked with several, several years ago, the Navajo tribe,

I was thinking about the stories they would tell me about the sacredness they saw in water,

and especially the raging water, the water that they considered alive.

And it was the kind of water that would cascade down from the mountains,

especially in the spring after the snow had melted in the Sierra Nevada mountains and.

The Colorado mountains and the Rockies, that the water was just incredible,

and the power in that water that it would bring, and how water would bring the

spring grasses to life and make the flowers go.

And they had this great belief from just observing nature.

It's what we would call in Christianity that natural revelation that Paul speaks

of in Romans, that they knew there was of God because they looked at creation,

but they took the water to hold some great meaning.

And they also had a belief about still water.

About water that was kind of not going anywhere, and they observed how that

kind of water, when there's no movement in it, can stagnate.

Algae can grow, and it just is not very pleasant to look at or to be with,

and after a while, you know, there's a stench that comes from water when it's

not moving, and when that water would be considered dead, or in some of their folklore,

some dead water that was just not good.

It was domesticated. It was tame.

And, you know, I appreciate those beliefs. I know we don't hold that there's

a sacredness to water, but there's a sacredness to the one who created the water.

And in the special revelation we have in Jesus Christ, we see the real and true

living water that Jesus talks about.

And as we think about the sacredness of the one who created the water today,

we know in John chapter 5 that we have just a power, excuse me,

John 5 · chapter mention

John chapter 4, that there's a powerful statement about what is true living water.

John 4 · chapter mention

What is the truth about this Jesus that will give us water that we don't have to be thirsty anymore?

You think about this, and we'll pick up the story as Jesus has gone to Samaria.

And while in Samaria, He breaks some social taboos.

He just goes against what the culture thinks and what the religious culture

thinks. And he has a conversation with someone.

And we're going to pick it up from in John 4, verse 5, and we're going to go all the way to 15.

John 4:5

But really, the sermon will cover that whole chapter. So hear the word of the Lord this morning.

From John chapter 4. So Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Sychar,

John 4 · chapter mention

near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about noon when a Samaritan woman came to draw water,

and Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink?

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.

How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews did not associate with Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it was that asked you

for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Sir, the woman said, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.

Where can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it

himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?

Jesus answered, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks the water I will give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and

have to keep coming here to draw water.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, God,

for the living water you do give us that quenches our spiritual thirst,

that quenches that thirst that we have deep down. God, thank you for that.

May all who are here this morning discover that or rediscover that again in your son, Jesus.

It's in his name we do pray. Amen.

Thank you for honoring God's Word today. We think about this,

and we'd all like to have something to drink that we would not have to ever

drink again. That would be wonderful.

And here, of course, Jesus was speaking of something spiritual,

because we do have those two thirsts.

We have physically a thirst, and we have spiritually a thirst, something we crave.

And I was told, especially as an athlete early on in my high school track career,

that when you're thirsty, it's too late because you should be well hydrated

before you come to the track.

Of course, you're going to get thirsty out in the heat and everything,

but to stay hydrated, that physical thirst, wanting that quenched.

I remember growing up and Gatorade was awesome.

Man, you couldn't wait to have that. I saw a graphic come up on one of those reels.

It said what the ingredients were in Gatorade a long time ago and then what they are now.

You kind of want to go back to what they were because they were simple ingredients

that you knew what the stuff was, right?

Sugar, water, and other stuff that I can't remember right now.

But we think of that, and we just don't want to be thirsty. We want to have that need met.

And it is true physically that we do need the water. We need to continue in drinking that.

But spiritually speaking, you know, there's a thirst that we have,

and we really, we thirst for good things.

We thirst for purpose. We want to know that my life has meaning and that I can find fulfillment.

We thirst for that. It's a need that we have.

We thirst for significance. We want to know that what we do or who we are makes

a difference in the world, makes a difference in the life of someone else.

And we just, we want that. We thirst for that. We thirst for satisfaction.

We just want to be satisfied. We don't want to keep longing after other things.

We have that thirst that there be satisfaction, that we're content with who

we are, that we're content with what we have in the midst of the world that

likes to make sure we know we're not content.

It likes to advertise, we just need this one more thing to be content.

It's a thirst that is capitalized on. Some of us have a thirst because something is missing in our lives.

Life is not the same anymore And we just want to get back to what it used to

be Kind of like the Gatorade I like what it used to be Now there's all different

kinds of flavors And it makes it impossible to choose which one Except for the

zero sugar Gotta have that,

We think about what we're thirsting for in life For some it's deliverance We're

tired of being slave To something or someone over and over again in life And

we just want to be set free And so we thirst for that We long for that We need that.

Freedom from anxiety. We thirst for that. We don't want to worry.

We don't want to have all these thoughts and feelings come up that we can't

really deal with at one time.

And so we thirst to have freedom from that.

We have a thirst to fill the emptiness that might be present in our life.

Now, all these are good things because these are needs that touch our lives.

Just as water, we need water and it touches our life. And the right amount of

hydration is critical, no matter at what age you are.

For your physical well-being, well, for your spiritual well-being, it's the same.

But too often, what do we do spiritually is we dip our ladle into the most stagnant

water we can find to take a fresh drink of water when it is not fresh at all.

I don't know. I was looking at some news articles this week about stagnant and

stale water, old water, and I came across several stories.

I was surprised about people that went swimming in some old yucky swimming pools

or some old yucky ponds or deep down in a cave somewhere.

And several died from what they call a brain-eating amoeba.

Had anyone ever heard of that before?

I could not believe it. This little microscopic organism getting into their body.

I'm not trying to freak you out, but it freaked me out when I was reading this,

just from going swimming in a non-chlorinated, non-moving water kind of pond,

how they got this amoeba and it just multiplies in their brain and they get

the syndrome and ends up killing them.

We kind of take that kind of water in sometimes. We try to quench our thirst with stagnant water.

And it may be trying to fulfill the lust that we have, like we've preached before,

especially this last month, the lust of the flesh, trying to fulfill that,

the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,

trying to fill our life and fill the voids with those things that are only temporary.

It leads us to immorality, to things that are not right, that are not good,

that are not lovely, that are not pure.

We think about how we indulge in those things and it really never satisfies.

We try to work hard and get lots of money and lots of things and it just never

fills the hole that is there, the hole of our thirst, which is really a thirst

for God, that is really a thirst for the peace that he brings.

We try to fill our lives with houses and lands and stuff, just lots of stuff.

And when the stuff isn't good enough, we try to seek out power and try to lord

it over other people, whether it's our family or other people that we might have some sway over.

And still, that doesn't satisfy.

See, stagnant water will not satisfy your thirst. It will only make you sicker.

It will only bring more death and destruction into your life.

But it's good and there's good news in the

passage we read today that there's a

guy named Jesus who says you can quench your

thirst that spiritual that deep thirst through me because I am the living water

and so I want to look for just a minute at the five qualities of living water

that our scripture passage today tells us so that you can truly receive the living water,

And by that, I mean the water that brings life to you.

As Jesus said in John 10, later on a few chapters here, the thief comes only

to kill, to steal, and to destroy.

But I have come, Jesus said, to give you life and to give it to you most abundantly.

Are you ready to receive that life today? Have you received that life today?

That abundant life that Jesus gives you that may not be in cars and houses and

money and lands, but might be in the simplest things that you can imagine,

the peace of heart, the freedom from anxiety,

having a purpose fulfilled, and finding out who you are in Jesus Christ and

living that life that blesses others.

Jesus wants to give that to you. So let me go through these five qualities quickly this morning.

First of all, we know that living water can only come through one source.

It's not the tap water that when you turn on your faucet, you don't get living

water there. It's not the garden hose, however refreshing that might be in an

Idaho summer to go out and take a drink from that.

It's not going to be on the shelf at Albertsons in a bottle that says living water.

The only source, the only way that you can get this living water is through Jesus.

Jesus reiterates what he says here in John 4 over in John 7, and listen to him again.

In John 7, 37, on the last day, at last and greatest day of the feast,

Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

This festival was held during one of the hottest times of the year,

during one of the driest times of the year.

So Jesus knew his audience. He knew that they were going to be thirsty,

and he had a message for him.

We'll pick up chapter 7 in just a minute, but you go all the way to the end

of the book in Revelation chapter 21. Here's what Jesus says too.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

He said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the

end. to him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the spring of water of life.

Jesus wants to give you life, folks. If you want true life, if you want true

satisfaction in life, if you want a life, I'm not going to say it's free from

problems, but you've got someone to help you out in the problems,

then you go and you get that drink from Jesus.

You go and you quench your thirst, there's only one source, and that's Christ.

You see, this living water, secondly, keeps one from getting thirsty again.

Of course, we're talking spiritually. Once you find the real thing,

I'm not talking about Coca-Cola, but once you find the real thing,

the real living water that is in Jesus, you're not going to get thirsty again.

Going back to the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah says, the Lord will guide you always.

He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isn't that exciting?

The spring is never going to dry up. You're going to have that perpetual water over and over again.

I'm a connoisseur of Western movies, Western TV programs. I love the old westerns.

And so many often in the plot of one of these Westerns, there's a little family

that has a little outpost somewhere in the desert somewhere,

but it's an oasis in the desert.

They've got trees that are growing. They've got the only spring for miles around,

and it's always the source of controversy.

You've always got a gang wanting to come in and control that spring.

Then you've got the hero that comes along to protect that family.

You see, it's these springs that are so valuable in a parched,

as Isaiah said, in a sun-scorched land.

We want this kind of spring in our life. We want this kind of spring that's

available to us all the time.

This kind of water, this living water that keeps us from ever getting thirsty again.

Another quality of living water is that it becomes a river flowing out of one's heart.

Again, going back to John that I started reading before, Jesus continues,

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture says, has said, streams of living water will flow from him.

John puts a little note in here for us.

By this, Jesus meant the Spirit from those who believed in him were later to receive.

Up to that point, the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

This is exciting about this living water because it becomes a river,

not just that we drink from, but then that becomes a stream,

a stream that flows out of us.

The Holy Spirit of God put into us so that we could use our gifts,

our talents, and we could bless

other people in that so that we could help other people who are thirsty.

And we become the spring. We become the source, not through our own power,

but through what God has done because his spirit is within us.

It kind of gives a greater mindset to the scripture which says,

do not quench the Spirit of God. Do not...

Put a cap on the spring that is within you. Do not stop the Spirit of God flowing

in you because that Spirit will go and God's Holy Spirit will bless other people.

That river that comes flowing out of your heart, you don't want to stop that up.

You don't want to be like the beaver and put a dam on that river because not

only are you hurt, but those around you are hurt. That's another sermon for another time.

But living water also gives one joy in the never-ending supply.

Isaiah 12.3, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Living water will give you joy, folks. Hey, maybe you don't know that you've

been drinking out of stagnant water.

You've tried and you've tried and tried to satisfy these longings that are just not being satisfied.

Well, what's one of the signs of drinking out the living water and having the

Spirit of God in you is joy.

The scripture says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, gentleness, you know, down the road.

That joy second only to love in that list.

You will have that joy within your heart when you are drinking from this never-ending

supply that comes straight from God, this river that God has put in your heart.

You can't buy joy. You can buy happiness for maybe a little bit.

You can pay, I don't know, what is it, 20 bucks now to go to a movie,

and you'll laugh for an hour, hour and a half maybe.

So you get a little bit of happiness, but then you leave the movie theater,

and it's back to real life.

There's lots of things that will satisfy only a short time, but the kind of

joy that we're talking about here is that not just a sense of happiness,

that sense of contentment, that sense that everything is right with God,

and that brings a different kind of happiness to your life.

We think about a last quality here of not just joy, but living water brings everlasting life.

Again, to the end, Revelation.

Revelation 7, 17. For the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.

He will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear

From their eyes Thinking about eternity That forever and ever Starting now folks

You can have access to this living water You can drink fully from it.

You can have God's presence, his spirit within your own life and heart every day.

Not just feeling it when you come together to worship with God's people,

but every minute of every day that God's spirit can be with you.

Don't turn off the tap to God. Let that stay open. Let that conduit flow.

Say another way, keep that irrigation going. It produces a good crop in your life.

We think about this. We recognize that we have a thirst And that thirst is not

just a physical thirst But a spiritual thirst We know that we can receive the

living water And it has a power in our life A power to transform us,

What do we do with this?

Some of those westerns I talked about If they found a spring And it was a good

spring And it never ran out They would not tell anyone else,

One, that might have been their source of livelihood For their livestock For

their family But two, they knew if they shared it with anyone that it would

get taken away and usually by force.

And if there wasn't a hero around to save them, it would be ugly.

The thing with living water is that we are told to share the source of living

water with those that are thirsty.

It does us no good to keep it to ourself, that we need to share it.

You see, living water, it transforms us. Think about this lady here,

the Samaritan woman in John chapter four.

Jesus revealed something about her that she didn't know he knew,

that she had trouble in her relationships with men.

She had had husbands before, but now the guy she was living with,

she wasn't married to him.

Jesus revealed this to her, this deep need that she had, this deep thirst that

she had, where she wasn't satisfied in her relationships.

Jesus comes and he just shares a simple truth by asking for a drink of water from her.

We know it was socially taboo. Even the scripture lays it out.

Jews and Samaritans weren't supposed to interact with one another.

There was a little racial tension, if I could say it that way.

Samaritans by the Jews were considered half-breeds, partially Jew and partially

pagan, if I could use that word. There's another word for it.

And so they were kind of considered lower, and Jews made sure they know that

Samaritans, uh-uh, now don't go near them.

Samaritans held that the mountain of God was right there in their land,

not over in Jerusalem, and that if you're really going to truly worship God,

you would need to come to Samaria to worship.

Of course, you can see how that would cause little tension with the Jews,

who had had several good temples, at least two of them, built right there in Jerusalem.

And so there was a little tension, a lot of tension there.

But also there was a societal tension because men and women weren't supposed to interact like this.

You see, this lady, she was there at noon, the hottest part of the day,

going to get her water because she didn't want to be gossiped about by all the

other ladies there at the well who came early in the day.

Socially, she was an outcast. Socially, there was shame upon her.

So Jesus isn't afraid to reach out, to break social barriers in order to reach out to somebody else.

And I love what Jesus does so often in the scripture when he goes to women and

he shares the good news of the gospel.

And then those ladies go out and they become missionaries themselves to share

the good word. They become preachers themselves to go out and to proclaim to others.

Hey, I found the Messiah. And that's exactly what the Samaritan woman does.

She goes and tells everyone else. Hey, everyone knew her because they gossiped about her.

She was the one that, oh yeah, I seen that lady down at the well at noon the other day.

There she is again and bringing up the stories that no doubt have made the round several times.

Everyone knew who she was, so she had a great, not reputation,

but she was very well known.

So she had a good audience when she began to say, hey, I found the Messiah.

I found the Christ. I found the one. He told me everything about me.

It transformed. Jesus transformed her life.

We know that she goes and she shares with her town, with her community there.

And we know that living water has to be shared We can't just hold it into ourself.

If someone's thirsty, we need to give them a drink. Someone is in need of salvation,

is in need of life transformation, is stuck and dead in their sins and trespasses.

We need to help them, to share with them the living water that Christ brings,

so their lives too can be transformed, no matter how much shame is heaped upon

them, no matter how low on the social ladder they think they are.

Jesus values them, and he values us in sharing the water, the living water with them.

When I think about this, that lady went and told everyone, can you imagine being

someone that heard from this lady?

Maybe seeing the excitement on her face?

Maybe just seeing the spectacle that was this lady going around town here.

It must have been something because they were intrigued by it.

They're intrigued by the prospect that she actually did see the Messiah, meet the Messiah.

And so they came rushing out. The scripture says here later on in chapter four,

the disciples finally come back from going to get some food and see Jesus talking to this woman.

They're a little confused about it. Jesus goes on to tell them in a parable

here and in some teaching.

In verse 32, Jesus says to his disciples, I have found food that you know nothing about.

The disciples were confused. Jesus, dude, we just bought food and we're bringing

it to you. What do you mean? You already ate?

Man, we went down and got your hamburger and everything and you've already eaten?

Come on. Of course, that's my 21st century paraphrase.

Because they question in verse 33, could someone have already brought food to him?

But Jesus says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Jesus was continuing to be about the mission of giving this living water.

He brings in another concept, another sermon for another time about this food that comes from him.

When we think about living water being shared, the woman went and shared it, and people came out.

You see what happens when you start sharing that living water?

It impacts communities, whole communities.

It has a transformative effect, not just on the person, but on every person in that town.

Kind of like those old western movies again Those old country songs even You

know when the town drunk gets saved Everybody knows about it When their life

turns around Everybody sees the evidence of that.

Same thing with sinners, when they repent and when God transforms their life

with living water and they're no longer the same, they come alive in Christ.

It has an impact on everyone around them.

We see again in the scripture, going over to verse 28, says,

Then leaving the water jar, the women went back to the town and said to the

people, Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?

They went out to investigate, and it says that many believed in verse 39.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

He told me everything I ever did. And then as they began to interact with Christ himself,

as you close out this little passage of Scripture, it says in verse 41,

and because of Jesus' words, many more became believers.

They said to the woman, we no longer believe because just of what you have said.

Now we have heard for ourselves. We know that this man really is the Savior of the world.

There's value in sharing that. There's value in receiving the living water.

There's value in having those needs met, those eternal needs that are within

each of us. There's great value in sharing it too.

So as we close this morning, I just want to ask you a few things.

First and foremost, I want you to reflect on that time when your spiritual thirst was met.

Have you had one of those experiences where you drank deep of the living water?

If not, I want to invite you to have that experience today, not just to drink

from a little tiny bottle of water that we got right here, but to full on just

stand under the waterfall of the living water of God.

Let him just drench your life with the good things that he has for you,

with the goodness, with the grace that he wants to bestow upon you.

Drink deep and meet the Messiah.

Meet Jesus. He will transform your life.

Transform your life for good. He did with this woman. You might say,

well, Mike, man, I'm not anywhere near that lady.

I mean, I might have some issues, but, you know, I don't have all the baggage

she has, but I'll tell you this.

Everybody has baggage. It's called sin. And the scripture says,

for all have sinned and fallen short of what God expects, fallen short of the glory of God.

Each one of us, doesn't matter where we've come from, where we've been,

we could have grown up in a great home. The fact remains that everybody's a sinner.

Everyone has that need to have that sin forgiven. There's nothing we can do

to have that sin wiped out in our own strength.

All we can do is kneel and ask God to forgive us. Ask Jesus to cleanse us from those sins.

And I want to tell you, he will. He will cleanse you of every sin you've ever committed.

Ever a sin you ever thought of committing. All that will be wiped out.

The forgiveness that Jesus Christ brings.

He will continue to help you grow in that grace. So have you taken a big drink

of Jesus, of the living water?

If you have, don't let the enemy come and remind you of those past things that

you've been forgiven of.

Because I'll tell you, that's the devil's ploy to keep you back,

to keep you down, to help you not to grow in grace.

The devil will be like many probably were with this Samaritan woman.

Well, yeah, how are we supposed to believe you? We know your reputation.

We know who you are. Well, you dated my cousin's brother's cousin two times

removed. I know the story's there.

The devil likes to bring up the past, but if you've been forgiven by Jesus Christ, that's history.

It's gone. Jesus Christ has forgiven you. It's wiped out, blotted out.

So have you accepted the living water? Have you received that spiritual nourishment for yourself.

If you haven't, I just want you to see Jesus as the true source of fulfillment.

Don't let the world, don't let anyone else lie to you that there's another way,

that you need Jesus and something else. No, you just need Jesus.

You just need Jesus to cleanse you of your sin, fill you with his spirit,

to send you out on mission, to go out and to bless other people just in the

way that God has created you. That's all you need.

Have you sought Jesus as that true source

and are you still seeking him and last

but not least this morning I just want to encourage you share your

experience of Jesus transforming your life with others it

don't have to be from a pulpit like this if God's called you to that hey we'll

give you the opportunity but just in your conversation with your family with

your friends as it comes up as the spirit of God leads you don't be afraid to

share don't be afraid to be like this woman in this aspect to go to tell everyone,

I have found the Messiah.

I have found the Savior. I have found the source of living water.

Come and drink deep and I'll show you how to do it.

How powerful that is. In Romans 10, we see the great passage.

If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart

that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

You will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified,

and it's with your mouth that you profess faith and are saved.

Down a little bit further, Paul quotes Joel, everyone who calls upon the name

of the Lord will be saved.

And then immediately after that, it says, how then can they call upon the one

they have not believed in?

And how can they believe in the one in whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone proclaiming or preaching to them?

And how can they preach unless they are sent? Folks, you are all sent.

You're all called. Jesus authorized you when he said, go and make disciples of all nations.

It wasn't just an ordained folk like me. He was saying, all of the disciples,

you are authorized to go.

So folks go, not right now. We've got a song and a benediction.

I know you're excited too. Share that living water.

Go and share it. Share it with others. Boy, they got to know the source of this

hope that we have. You know the source.

Don't keep it to yourself. Go and share.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for Jesus. Jesus, thank you for the living water.

God, thank you for your spirit that dwells within us, that is a constant source

of joy, that's a constant source of having our needs met.

Lord, thank you, and thank you for the mission that we have,

the mission, God, that we join Jesus in to seek and save that which is lost,

to really believe that, God, you are not willing that anyone should perish,

but that all should come to repentance.

Lord, we trust in you, and we trust in this, and God, we know that you're trusting

in us to go and to share this message, to share how others can find this living water.

Lord, as we've journeyed with Jesus and are doing so up until Easter,

up until Resurrection Sunday, God, we just pray that we will be able to continue

to share this good news that we have found the Messiah, that we have found the living water.

Lord, in the same way this Samaritan woman saw her whole community transformed,

Lord, may we be ones that will transform our communities with the good news, the gospel of Jesus.

Lord, empower us, we pray with your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.