Are you thirsty? - John 7: 37-39 - Session 1 | 21 March 2026

Well, I'd like to begin by bringing

greetings from Millerville Bible Church.

And if

I feel right at home here, I I feel like

if our two congregation got together,

we'd have a lot of fun together. that uh

I remember John and Amanda one of the

times they were back to do a

presentation

one of the guys said to me afterwards

well they're just doing the same thing

in Ireland that we're doing here and

that that's the way it should be right

wherever you are around the world that

you're you know seeking to do the same

things to to love your neighbors to to

reach out to the lost to have those who

come to Christ grow up to maturity in

Christ and and continue to expand And so

we're I'm thankful to be here and it's

wonderful to hear the testimonies. Um I

I do represent Mills for Bible Church

and particularly the missions team and

you know we I'm really looking forward

to going back and giving the report even

even what you said this morning. What

what a wonderful testimony of how things

have changed in Ireland in the last

number of years and we trust that that

will continue.

Well, today's message, uh, are you

thirsty?

And I'm not I'm not talking about going

over here and getting a cup of coffee

right now. It's not what I'm talking

about. But are you thirsty? Uh, as I was

putting this together, a question that

is running through my mind. Can you ever

remember a time when you were extremely

physically thirsty?

Can you think of a time when you were

extremely

physically thirsty?

I can uh we we served in the northwest

of Haiti, which is a very arid place.

And one summer we took 31 teenagers and

we camped for the summer while we built

a church building.

And for a treat,

we decided to take them to the beach.

Got everybody into a big army truck and

off we went with our peanut butter

sandwiches.

and somebody forgot to load the water.

We got to the beach and discovered

no water

and

peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. To

make it worse, I will never forget on

the way back, we were going up this hill

and big dump truck started running out

of gas and we had to Yeah. Anyway,

there's lots of details, but uh I'll

never forget we got we finally got

almost to home and those kids jumped out

of that truck and they were running up

that hill to go for that water.

Are you thirsty?

Obviously, we're not talking about that

kind of thirst, but

um we're looking in John chapter 7. I'd

John 7 · chapter mention

like to read John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

Um just a couple of verses, verse 37-39.

On the last day of the feast, the great

day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If

anyone thirst, let him come to me and

drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture

has said, out of his heart will flow

rivers of living water."

Now, this he said about the spirit, and

I won't go into the rest of that.

In order for us to understand what's

going on here, we have to walk across

two bridges.

The first bridge, I mean, there's a lot

of probably old bridges in Ireland, but

the first bridge we have to walk across

is 2,000 years old that takes us back to

this. But to understand what's happening

here, we have to walk across another

bridge that's another 1,400 years old to

get us all the way back to when Israel

is leaving Egypt.

And as Israel left Egypt,

they encountered physical thirst.

They first camped at a place where

there's 12 uh 12 springs, but then they

were taking into an area called the

Refodm. It was an arid place and there

was no visible water

and you probably know the story that the

rock was struck and the water came out.

But that place is called a place of

testing,

a place of quarreling,

a place where the people ask, "Is God

among us?"

Remember these people had just been

delivered out of Egypt.

They had just crossed the Red Sea. They

had just camped at a place with water.

They had just begun receiving mana and

quail.

And they hit a test. And the first thing

they do is they say, "Is God among us?"

Is God among us?

Well, if you go a little bit further and

you go into Leviticus, how many have had

devotions in Leviticus in the last week?

It's actually a very important book to

understand. And the one chapter in

Leviticus tells us about the feasts

and one of the feasts is the feast of

booze.

It's not a day away, it's a week away,

right? And they lived in camp. They

camped in booze. And I understand in the

summer you have a week away here called

camp and tents and all. It's kind of

like that.

And it it tells us that the purpose for

which they did this feast of booze was

to remember how they lived

when God delivered them out of Egypt.

And really so that they would know that

the Lord God delivered them, that

Yahweh, Jehovah, the I am, the

self-existent one, was their creator God

who had delivered them. And that time

was for them to to know that

the Lord God

was their God. That they would know

that.

Well, that was a purpose. But Israel,

according to Jeremiah, had two problems.

In Jeremiah chapter 2,

Jeremiah 2 · chapter mention

um

Jeremiah 21:13 says that they had two

Jeremiah 21:13

problems. And let if you have your

Bibles, I'd encourage you to turn over

there. And if it's not a verse that

you're familiar with, I want to

challenge you to be familiar with it

because it's not just Israel's problem,

it's also our problem.

In in chapter 2 and verse 13, it says,

"For my people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken me. They've forsaken

Jehovah Elohim,

the self-existent one, the creator God.

They they forsaken him

who's described as the fountain of

living water.

They've forsaken him and instead they've

heeded outistns for themselves. Broken

sistns that can hold no water.

Now, probably in Ireland, you don't do

much with sistns. I had the occasion to

be on an island where they had no

rivers, no springs,

no water.

And what the people would do is the

first thing they would do is they would

chisel through the rock and make a

sistern and then they would collect

rainwater.

That's what a sistern is, right? But

these people

were heing out of the rock systems for

themselves that did not hold water and

they were forsaking

God who's described as a fountain of

living water.

It's a temptation for everyone, right?

Forsake the living God.

Bind your own ways to satisfy your

thirst.

Well, that brings us back to the

setting. We've walked We've now walked

back across a 1400 year old bridge to

get back to the setting of chapter 7.

And here's a bit of a setting of what

was going on for Jesus at the time that

he speaks.

Well, the Jews were trying to kill him.

Uh, that's a good place to start. His

brothers did not believe in him, and

they had said to him, "Are you going up

to the feast so that you can show

yourself to everyone? If you're if

you're the Messiah, why don't you go up

to the feast?" And he said, "My time

hasn't come. You guys go ahead." Partway

through the feast, he shows up and

begins teaching.

The chief priests, the Pharisees, they

had they had come together to send

people to arrest Jesus.

And those people would come back without

him. And they said, "Why? Where's Jesus?

Why didn't you bring him?" No one has

ever spoken like this man.

That's the setting. Now, it's the last

day of the feast, the great day of the

feast. And the Bible says that he stood

up.

Teachers did not stand up. Teachers sat

down.

And I'd like to read again John 7. And

I'd like to read it the way I believe he

would have said it.

I didn't do this at first, lest I scare

you.

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me

and drink. Whoever believes in me, as

the scripture has said, out of his heart

will flow rivers of living water. I

believe that's how he said it because it

says he cried out. He he balled at the

top of his lungs. He wanted everybody

there to know

that these rivers of living water

could be theirs.

But much like Chris,

they tended to be looking for things in

rituals and rules

and those kind of things

instead of in a relationship with the

living God.

A little side note, um our family has

lived on the same property for a hundred

years and we had a celebration last

summer for that and invited people and

there was about 100 people there and uh

in the midst of that I gave my testimony

and the one thing I said

I did not know what it meant to having a

living relationship with a living God

through Jesus. is Christ our Lord.

And I want to say that to you.

Do you have a living relationship

with a living God through Jesus Christ

our Lord? Or do you just follow rules

and rituals and check boxes off? Because

that is not what Jesus came for.

Jesus came for us to have a living

relationship with him.

Whoever believes in me. This is what

Jesus is looking for. Jesus is looking

for people who will be people of faith

of people who will believe in him. He

said in in Luke, "When the Son of Man

comes,

will he find faith on the earth?" And

he's looking for a particular kind of

faith. He's looking for a particular

kind of belief.

There's some people who have

intellectual belief.

Oh yeah, I believe there's this guy

named Jesus and he came and he lived and

lived a perfect life and he died and

buried, rose again. Yeah, I I believe

all that. An intellectual belief.

There's so much more than that, right?

For some people, they they want a belief

that, well, yeah, he's my provider. He's

my deliverer. Yeah. And and and that's

better,

but there's still so much more than

that.

We we sang about it in in various ways.

Lord of all,

that that's the kind of faith he's

looking for. Lord

of all,

I believe that belief is based on your

level of thirst.

When you listen to Chris's testimony, my

testimony, you know, one of the things

that attracted us together, we both had

spiritual interest. We talked about the

Bible and we we talked about, you know,

uh all these things and what what kind

of relationship we could have because

that was what attracted to me and her

beside her beautiful green I you know

there's other things but that this

desire that she had it's a desire I had

we were so lost

we were so lost and do you know that not

one person when went to the new church,

talked to us about Jesus. They assumed

we knew. Don't ever assume that the

people around you know and understand

what a living relationship with the

living God through Jesus Christ. Don't

ever assume that. By God's grace, he he

reached down and draw drew us ourselves.

But but some people their thirst is is

really a thirst for knowledge.

Bible says in the last days that you

know terrible times will come. And one

of the descriptions of those last days

is people who are always learning and

never able to come to a knowledge of the

truth. They just keep adding

information, adding information. They

never come to a conclusion. Do you know

what a a conclusion is?

A conclusion is when you stop thinking

and you do something.

That's what a conclusion. I had to come

to a conclusion. I could have kept

studying how to come to conclusion. Get

this ready so I could preach. Right?

Always learning but never coming to the

knowledge of the truth. That that

describes a portion of our society. When

I say our society, whether it's American

or Irish, you know, always learning but

never coming to the knowledge of the

truth.

I think there's a greater segment that

their thirst is a thirst for benefits.

There is many benefits in following the

Lord.

But we were singing about some of this

from John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you,

you are seeking me, not because you saw

the signs,

but because you ate your belly full,

you're filled with loaves. That that's

that's why you came." In Guyana, they'd

say, "You eat till your belly bust, man.

You eat your belly full." uh

we have those kind of Christians.

But in John six,

those same people, Jesus began to tell

them hard sayings.

And they said, "These are hard sayings.

Who can hear this?" And many of them

turned back.

If you're following Jesus just for the

benefits, there will come a time when

things become incredibly difficult for

you and you'll say, "I can't bear this

anymore." And maybe you'll be like those

Israelites and say, "Is God really among

us?

Is he? Is he?"

Shane's message last Sunday included

those thoughts, you know, those thoughts

of

even like the thoughts of Shadrach,

Meshach, and Abedneo. Even if he slays

me, yet will I trust him. That that's

what he's looking for. That kind of

belief that believes that the Lord God

can be trusted. He is the one who will

refresh

in amidst the most difficult of times.

He is the one who will give peace in the

most difficult of times. We had the pre

privilege of traveling to Truly the

other day and listened to sister

Eileen's testimony going through very

very difficult times and talking about

experiencing this peace that passes all

understanding guarding our heart and

mind in Christ Jesus.

That's what God wants to be for us.

But he's looking for those people who

say like we sang,

Lord, to whom shall we go,

you have the words of life.

We've believed and come to know that you

are the holy one of God.

Matthew says it this way, "Blessed are

those who hunger and thirst after

righteousness.

They're the ones that will be filled.

this passage in John

37:38.

Not only will your thirst be satisfied,

you will also have rivers of living

water flowing out of you, refreshing

other people. This is God's intent that

God would so work in your heart and life

that you would be satisfied

and you would become satisfaction to

others. I don't know if you've ever

heard the illustration. There's a

there's a geographical illustration of

this in Israel.

You have the Sea of Galilee where water

flows in, water flows out. It's a

turbulent place.

Lots of things happen there. lots of

fish and storms and all that. There's

another sea in Israel. It's called the

Dead Sea.

It takes in water.

Doesn't give any out and nothing lives

there. Right?

God's intent is that we would be

refreshed by the Lord and we in turn

would be refreshing to other people

because the streams of living water

would be flowing out of us.

What he's been talking about is about

the spirit, the spirit of God. And I

won't go into the following details that

that don't contribute to what we're

talking about right now. But we'll be

talking about the spirit of God more

this afternoon and in some ways tomorrow

morning as well. But it is the spirit of

God who is the one who comes in who

refreshes

and then enables you to be a refreshment

to others.

It's my heart's desire that what we're

talking about right now is a refreshment

to you. It's been a refreshment to me as

I put it together.

What about you?

How are you attempting to satisfy your

thirst?

The world attempts many different ways

to satisfy their thirst.

Ecclesiastes talks about it.

acquiring wisdom,

pleasure,

projects,

and if you're familiar with the book of

Ecclesiastes, Solomon, he he did more

than any of us in all of those things.

And he kept coming back to this one

word,

empty.

Empty.

So empty.

Not that any of these things are bad in

themselves, but if you think they are

going to satisfy your thirst,

they will not.

They will not.

Some of you might know a relatively

famous Scotsman.

I think name is Gordon Ramsay. I don't

know if you ever heard of him. I watched

uh something a documentary on what he's

attempting to do now in London. And as I

listened,

he's trying to fill a thirst that the

next project

will not satisfy

some of these very famous people. When

you listen the words his dad spoke over

him, he's still trying to get out of his

mind and he's still trying to prove

that he's worth it

and it will never satisfy.

Some of us uh part of my story is

athletics thinking that would satisfy.

I was a very good runner, distance

runner, not great, very good. I won a

lot of races and the longer the better.

So I I ran marathons and all that kind

of crazy stuff. And I my goal was the

Olympic trials.

I finally gave up on that goal thinking

it's not worth it. But I've won a lot of

races. And after a while, you'd win a

race and go,

go do it again.

Gonna do it again. Athletics are

wonderful, but they're a terrible god

and they will not satisfy you. They will

not satisfy your soul

whether you watch them or play them.

They're I love athletics. And John and I

went to watch a football game last

night. It was quite fun. He's the

chaplain there in case you don't know

it. But but um it just won't satisfy.

It will not satisfy.

Self-focused following

will not satisfy.

I think for many Christians,

you you get past this. Yeah, I I know

that these other things aren't going to

satisfy, but for many Christians, the

greatest danger is

I I want this I I want Jesus to do for

me

as opposed to

Jesus, here I am.

Here I am.

Use me.

You know, people ask us about a story.

One of my friends said, "Your story

doesn't make any sense to me.

The pieces don't line up."

Following Jesus doesn't have to make

sense to anybody else,

right? Your story doesn't have to make

sense to anybody else.

In what way is the Lord leading you? And

are you willing

are you willing to to let him

refresh you?

and then be a refreshment to others.

Are you willing?

But it says it this way in Proverbs

Proverbs 11:25

11:25.

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched

and the one who waters will himself be

watered. You have to believe that that

the greatest way to really experience

the blessing of God is seek to love God

and love others and let him figure it

out. you know, not not be so concerned

about ourselves.

Um,

want to wrap up by thinking about this.

I ask you to turn to the book of

Hebrews, chapter 3,

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

and it's a return really

to

where we started

because in Hebrews chapter 3, there's a

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

warning. A warning to Christians.

Hebrews chapter 3 starting in verse 12

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

says, "Take care, brothers, lest there

be in any of you an evil unbelieving

heart leading you to fall away from the

living God.

But exhort one another every day, as

long as it's called today, that none of

you may be hardened by the deceitfulness

of sin."

In the context, it's talking about what

happened

at Meabbah

when the people said, "Is God among us?"

H how do you refresh others? How do you

yourself be refreshed?

Every day you wake up, do you know what

day it is,

Amanda? What day is it?

>> It's today. It's always today. And

this is a day the Lord has made. I will

rejoice and be glad in it. That's what

Jesus sang as he got ready to go to the

cross. If you read Psalm 118, it's

always today. It's always a day to

rejoice and be glad in it. And according

to Hebrews, every day when you wake up,

it is the day for you to refresh others

by encouraging one another, by exhorting

one another, so that none of us would

give way to a sinful, disbelieving heart

like the Israelites did when they asked

the question, is God among us or not?

Because at times our life gets very

hard.

We talked about that last Sunday. Talked

about with some folks outside of last

Sunday. At times our life becomes very

hard. Um tomorrow as part of the message

I'll share a few details of things that

the Lord has done in my life. Some of

them are wonderful and some of them are

terrible.

Life at times can be extremely hard and

there's a great temptation

to get away from the refreshing streams

of the Lord to reject the Lord to doubt

and ask the question is God really among

us. So my real challenge to you if you

don't know the Lord is whatever place

you're trying to find refreshment will

ultimately fail you.

But faith in the cleansing, refreshing

fountain of of Jesus Christ will give

you life.

And out of that life,

you can daily be being refreshed

yourself and be a refreshment to others.

and that the people around you

would not give way to the temptation

to be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

This is the day the Lord has made. As

long as it's called today, we're

supposed to encourage and exhort one

another.

There's such

>> there's such temptations

to turn away from God.

I I've seen

one of the benefits of getting old is

you get to see a lot of things. Um you

know, we're kind of some of the older

people around here, you know, most of

you. Yeah. But I've seen many people

start. Well,

I wish I could say I've seen many people

finish. Well,

I've seen many people fall along the

way.

Some fall and then get back up. And some

fall and they're just done.

If you want to finish well, I want to

challenge you. Every day when you get

up, this is the day the Lord has made.

I'm going to rejoice and be glad in it.

And I'm going to seek to be a

refreshment to other people today by

encouraging and exhorting those around.

And according to Proverbs, if that's the

way you approach your life, you yourself

will be refreshed as well. Father,

thank you for your word.

And Father, I can hear the agony in the

voice of Jesus Christ.

If anybody's thirsty, let them come. Let

them believe.

Let them be refreshed.

Let them be a refreshing stream, not

only to themselves, but to flow into the

lives of others.

Let them learn what the spirit of God

wants to do in the life of the children

of God. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.