The Thirst Trap

We're starting a series right now.

We're calling Water Works.

We try to have some fun throughout the summers with just um, you know, last year we did like lemonade, talk about when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

And so we looked at some different places in scripture on actually how to how to do that.

And uh this year we're gonna be uh doing this uh series on water, and I would encourage you, like sometimes and I know summer, man, especially when school lets out, uh people travel, they're all over the place.

If you can be here, uh please be here.

There's just nothing that quite replaces uh us being in one place at one time.

There's just something beautiful about it.

But if you are traveling, I would encourage you to take advantage of um whether it's the live stream or even uh just the messages, the services that we put online, it just helps us to stay connected, to stay on the same page and be learning and growing together.

Uh let me tell you kind of the origin of this series, Water Works.

If you look in the book of John, John chapter 2, verses chapters uh through seven, so in six consecutive chapters, water plays a prominent role.

John 2 · chapter mention

You've probably heard of or heard these stories separate, but when you look at them, that they're happening like one right after another, uh, that's what we're gonna study and we're gonna look at.

So let me give you the cliff notes real quick.

Um, John chapter two is the story of Jesus turning water into wine.

John three, Jesus says to Nicodemus, who is a religious leader, he says, unless you're born of spirit and of water, unless you're born of spirit and of water, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

What does that mean?

We're gonna look at that.

John 4, Jesus talks to the woman at the well.

Uh John 5, Jesus heals a man at the pool of Bethesda.

John 6, Jesus walks on water.

And John 7, Jesus goes to the Feast of Tabernacles, the festival of shelters, and he he says, uh, anyone who's thirsty, come drink of me, and rivers of living water will will come up from within you.

Okay.

So here's what I did.

I took six chapters, I studied, I prayed, I thought, I prayed, I studied, I prayed, I thought and prayed and studied and prayed and thought, and then I came up with four messages.

I'm gonna share them in the next four weeks, okay?

Um, we're not gonna go like two, three, four, five, six.

We're gonna jump all around.

Okay, so stay on the balls of your feet because we're gonna move and be flexible and quick.

Okay, we're gonna start today in John 4.

This is the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.

Uh, let me give you a quick context before we start reading.

If you don't have your Bible, it'll be on the screen in just a moment.

But John 4, um, Jesus uh goes into Samaria.

Samaria was a part of town or a place that a Jewish rabbi, a Jewish man, probably wouldn't go.

Uh, people would avoid, they would walk around Samaria, they wouldn't want to go into Samaria because there was a tremendous amount of racial tension between Jews and Samaritans that went back literally wars and lots of violence and hundreds of years where people just decided they were, you live there, we'll live here, and let's not cross paths.

Jesus crosses over the imaginary line, he walks right into Samaria.

When you start looking at the cultural faux pause in just the first few verses, it's it's astonishing.

Um, in that day, a Jewish rabbi would rarely speak with a woman in public.

Even if it was his own wife, a rabbi would rarely speak to his own wife, his own daughter, his own sister in public.

It was just rare.

It didn't happen very often.

In fact, some of the more staunch, uh legalistic rabbis wouldn't even look at a woman in public.

If they saw a woman, they would close their eyes or they would avert their gaze, they wouldn't even look at them.

And so here's Jesus.

He goes into Samaria, he begins speaking to a woman who is he's not related to.

In fact, she's a Samaritan woman, and they begin having a conversation.

She's so overcome by the social faux pas, she can't get over the fact that it's even happening.

She says to him, Why are you even talking to me?

What's going on?

And then uh then there's another social dynamic, which is, of course, you think you know we all know how important water is to just human survival, which is why in our current technology, you just turn on uh, you know, uh any faucet or you go to any drinking fountain, boom, it's right in your house.

You get it quickly.

None of us wake up in the day wondering, are we going to be able to get water?

But in this day, you didn't have that.

So they would go to draw water from the well consistently.

Again, in that culture, this was considered to be a woman's job.

And so women generally would go before the heat of the day, they would go in the morning to the well to draw water for their family or whoever they were doing this for.

Of course, if you were a man that was like wanted to know what women were available within the community, you may go to the well and put out a vibe.

You know what I'm talking about?

What was that?

Uh Dumb and Dumber.

You remember that?

He's like, he's over at the bar, he's like this.

That's what you might do at the well, okay?

Great movie, by the way.

I mean, just a lot of spiritual truths in that movie.

It's just someday I'll preach that.

Okay.

Um, that's where you would go to put out a vibe.

Well, okay, here's here's what's up.

Jesus shows up at this well, he's there at noon in the heat of the day with this woman.

What's she doing there at noon?

The reason you're there at noon is because you don't want to deal with the drama at nine.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Why does she have drama at nine?

Well, we're about to find out.

In the verse, we find out that she has been married five times, and the guy she's living with now isn't her husband.

She she she has done things socially, culturally, religiously that's caused her to be an outcast.

Did she have to go at noon?

I don't know, maybe.

Probably not.

She probably just was like, you know what?

I'm tired of the side eye before it's cool.

So I would rather deal with the heat than the drama.

And so she shows up at noon.

As Jesus goes and begins to talk to her, she likely thought he was hitting on her.

Likely thought she wanted something.

Because he comes up, he's like, hey, I'm thirsty.

I have and she says, You don't even have anything to draw with.

You didn't even bring a cup.

Like, what are you talking about?

And so he he begins this conversation, and of course, in John 4, we only have the cliff notes, but this is a very deep conversation that likely went on for a while, but we we we get sort of the broad stroke.

So let's look at this.

It says in verse 13, Jesus replied, Anyone who drinks this water, speaking of the actual literal well, anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again.

But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.

It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

Verse 15, she thinks he's talking about her literal thirst.

She says, Please, sir, give me this water, then I'll never be thirsty again.

I won't have to come back to this well, I won't have to deal with this drama, I won't have to deal with any of the won't uh and I won't ever have to come here to get water again.

What's Jesus doing?

Well, Jesus is doing what he does a lot, which is to talk about uh things that are deep with things that you can see, things that are unseen with things that are seen.

Jesus teaches so much with similes and metaphors, he uses parables, things that are tangible to give us a deeper understanding of the intangible, things that are physical to give us a deeper understanding of the metaphysical.

And so he's not gonna miss this opportunity because it says in the text, he was thirsty, she was thirsty, the sun is right above, it's hot, and Jesus thinks, what a time to really drive this point home deep.

If I was talking about something three states away, it might be hard to go there, but we're literally feeling it right now.

We're both thirsty.

So let me help her in a deeper way.

And of course, Jesus, being Jesus, could see past the surface.

Most of us tend to judge a book by the its cover.

We we judge people based on what we know about them, what we've seen about them, the pattern recognition.

Jesus is able to see all the way through what this woman has done into who this woman is and the woman could be and how she gets there.

And so they start to deepen the conversation quickly, and and she says, Give me this water.

Okay.

If you look at Jesus, by the way, if you look at his metaphors, he talks about water a lot, but he also compares himself to something else.

He compares himself to food.

In John 6, 48, Jesus says, I am the bread of life.

In verse 51, he says, I'm the living bread that came down from heaven.

Anyone who eats this bread will live forever, and this bread which I offer so that the world may live is my flesh.

Uh for a lot of uh people that were listening, they got very confused as to what was Jesus talking about when he's talking about eating his flesh.

It freaked a lot of people out.

It seemed a bit crass, it seemed a bit cringy.

You're talking about eating his flesh.

They asked him to clarify, he really didn't.

He left it metaphoric.

But think about this now.

Jesus compares himself to water and food.

Think about thirst.

Think about hunger.

Think about a craving for something you need but don't have.

Something you need, there's nothing wrong with needing it, but don't have.

Let's start with, let's uh take the food here.

Little Ruth's Chris.

How many of you are thankful for Ruth?

We got a steak, mashed potatoes, asparagus, got food, and water.

Jesus compares himself to food and water.

We we know that they have some things in common, like you need both of them to live.

But there's a lot of things different about these two things.

Let's think about what's different.

First of all, you need water more and more often than you need food.

You can go without food for weeks at a time.

But you can't go more than two or three days without water.

You could go all day with no food, you'd feel kind of hungry, whatever, you'd be fine, it really wouldn't affect your health.

But throughout the day, you you need water all the time.

In fact, how many of you ever seen one of these?

You ever hang out with somebody that's carrying around one of these at work?

You know a few things about that.

You know at least two things about whoever's doing this.

The first is they're trying to get healthy.

The second is they're gonna use the bathroom 75 times.

This is like pure discipline.

You know it's good for you, but it's a lot of work.

Good morning, 7 a.m.

It's like, yeah, right.

Keep chugging, 1 p.m.

Don't give up.

That's what it says.

Almost finished.

You did it.

But you but this is what you know.

You know about water is is you need it really bad.

Food, food is different.

You definitely need food, you need the calories, you need the nutrients to survive, but it's a little bit different.

Like food, you don't need it as much.

But food brings stuff to you that water doesn't bring.

Food comforts you.

No one's ever broken up with their boyfriend and went and chugged water.

He broke my heart.

Where are you at right now, girl?

I'm in my apartment.

What are you doing?

I just drank a whole case of water.

No one's ever done that.

I ate a whole carton of ice cream.

I ate two whole batches of brownies all by myself.

Comfort food.

Food is comforting.

Also, by the way, it just hits the taste buds different.

You have foodies, you don't have any wateries.

There's a billion cooking shows out there.

Iron Chef, Master Chef, nailed it, top chef.

I mean, okay, you know what I'm talking about.

People literally sit around, take their few hours they have of their life, and they watch people cook.

You go to uh whatever Pinterest, you go to uh uh uh TikTok, you get recipes.

Nobody goes to TikTok, it's like it's the food.

It's beautiful, it tastes good, it's you know you can prepare the same thing differently.

There's creativity, right?

If you're not in a big rush, like I mean, certainly you could just inhale the food, but like you know the value of slowing way down.

Enjoy every morsel, every note of the food.

It's an experience.

If you go to a foreign country to visit people, they want to know about the Eiffel Tower and whatever, but they'll ask you real quick, how was the nobody's like, tell me about the water.

So these are two different things.

Jesus positions himself as both.

What's the difference?

Well, let's let's simplify.

We're talking about the two things you're designed by God to need: security and fulfillment.

Security and fulfillment.

Water represents security because you have to have it to keep you alive.

Yes, quenching your thirst feels good, but it's more relief than pleasure.

It's more relief than fulfillment.

Think about the different sounds you make.

No one taught you how to make sounds after you eat and drink.

But think of the sounds you make different.

You're thirsty, you drink, you're like, ah.

You eat and it's real good.

Security, fulfillment, security, fulfillment.

Jesus says I'm both.

If you study psychology, I'll just veer away from the Bible for a minute into psychology because all it's doing is just amening the Bible.

But uh Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, he's like, you need air first.

Right after that, you're gonna need water, then you're gonna need food and shelter.

Once you do that, if you keep working your way up, relationships will matter more.

But I'm not worried about relationships if I can't breathe or eat or drink water.

But then you get relationships and eventually you get to your purpose self-actualization.

So now it's like, man, I know why I'm put here, man.

I'm not just taking up air and oxygen and water and food.

I'm actually here making a difference in people's lives.

And so, but he's like, but you gotta have water first.

And so Jesus is saying to the woman at the well who's not quite getting this because she's in a state of desperation, because she's going through life, taking things that should be fulfillment and using them as security.

So instead of drinking water and eating steaks, she's drinking steaks.

And you know this if you're thirsty, even a good steak makes you more thirsty.

In fact, I've been known to stop in the middle of a steak and wait on a refill because I don't want to take another bite.

It's really good.

I mean, it's really good.

But until I get a drink of water to quench my thirst, this will only make me thirstier.

So you have this woman who doesn't quite understand this, and because of this, she's taking things that could and should be good.

Still needs and cravings, something that you don't have, but you need, but she doesn't understand both of these.

And so she's drinking men.

One after another, drinking men.

And this is how you know it's out of control, is is uh, and listen here, I I want you to know, I'm gonna say some stuff.

I'm not trying to dog anybody out.

Worst thing, I don't I wouldn't want you to come to church and feel like somebody's, you know, I you there's enough problems at the well at 7, 8 a.m.

You don't need that at church.

So, so we'll just pretend like I'm talking about the person next to you.

You ever met somebody that had to be in a relationship?

Had to be.

It's okay to want to be in a relationship, that's fine, that's normal.

Nobody wants to be alone.

But like, had to be.

Couldn't be single.

Why?

Because I feel insecure.

Apparently, I have no value.

Apparently, I'm not wanted.

Apparently, nobody cares about me.

Apparently, uh no one wants to attach themselves.

So, what do they do?

They jump right out of one relate bad relationship into another, into another, into another.

Because they can't step back long enough and be single long enough and be secure long enough to be able to find out what in the world is going on here.

So they're feeling this craving, they're parched psychologically, they're parched emotionally, and because of that, they eat another steak and get thirstier.

By the way, often, and you and you, you guys know this, I'm not giving you new information, I'm just connecting dots of things you already know.

Often, it's very common, people overeat.

They think they're hungry, but they're actually they're literally confused.

And if I can be that confused in my physical body, how much more in my psychological mind?

That I'm going, I think I need more food.

No, actually, you need a drink of water.

I think I need more fulfillment.

What I actually need is more security because I'm looking to things that should fulfill me, like relationship, like career, like hopes and dreams, like goals.

I'm going after these things and I'm hoping they'll be my security, but they're not.

And because of that, I'm getting thirstier and thirstier and thirstier and thirstier.

And so Jesus, he talks to her.

Let's let's outline the conversation real quick.

He talks to her about her relationships.

So he says, Go get your husband.

She says, I want this water, so I'll never be thirsty.

He goes, Go get your husband.

She's like, I don't have a husband.

He's like, That's right, you don't, you've had five, and the guy you're living with now is not your husband.

And she's like, Oh, and and so so then, so then she turns the conversation to religion.

She says, Oh, okay, okay, okay.

You're a prophet.

She says, Okay, I I've tried to drink that.

She's like, so I get I get you now.

I get what you're trying to do.

You're trying to get me to go to your temple.

Okay, Rabbi.

You're taking a risk at noon talking to a Samaritan woman because you're one of these do-gooders, and I realize now that you're not hitting on me, but what you're trying to do is get me in your temple.

So she's like, okay.

Your people think that God's in Jerusalem, and my people worship in the mountains.

And she's like, essentially what she's saying is, dude, I've done the religious thing and I'm still thirsty.

And Jesus says, Hey, a time is coming.

He said, in fact, it's here now.

Because of him.

It's here now, where he goes, if you stay in the mountain and we stay in Jerusalem, we're both gonna miss it.

He said, God's a spirit, and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

So in other words, it's the religion, it's not about the religion.

You see, you can drink church and come away just as thirsty as before.

Oh, absolutely.

A hundred percent.

I mean, yeah, it's great to have community, and I love worshiping with you guys, and I love being here and preaching God's word.

But if there's not a revelation of Jesus, all you've just done is just take a bite and get a little bit more salty.

Now it tastes good, you just got thirstier because I'm still insecure.

And so he goes, he goes deeper in this conversation.

Um, think about this.

Imagine it's noon, imagine you're doing work outside, you've been sweating, you've been really working hard, and you are really thirsty.

Your mouth is dry, your tongue is swollen, your lips are cracking, and somebody comes walking out.

You know, you just got off the lawnmower, you just got done.

Okay, you've been on the heat of the sun, and you're well aware of your thirst.

And somebody comes out and offers you water.

Why would you ever reject that?

Why would you ever reject that?

Jesus compares himself to that.

But I think some people would reject it.

Probably because someone's offered you a liquid before that promised to satisfy your thirst and it didn't work.

And they promised you it was good clean water.

But it was like salty.

Or it just didn't get it done.

And maybe it even tasted good at the time, but you came away and your spit was thicker and it was sugary.

And it was somehow I'm thirstier.

I'm thirstier.

You've been offered drinks before.

This is this woman, man.

She's been in six relationships.

Every dude promised I'm the one.

She'd been to church many times.

Oh no, if you just come here and do this, it'll be go through this ritual, do this thing.

It'll be no, and she's like, here I am.

I have a thirsting in my soul.

And here Jesus is cutting through all of that.

Let's go deep.

Let's go deep.

I'm gonna I'm gonna go personal here from me.

I say this a lot, and I mean it.

I'm probably the last person I know that should anyone should ever feel sorry for.

Truly.

I have a really good life.

I was born into a family with both parents.

Both my parents are still alive.

They both love me.

They both they always told me they love me.

I never questioned.

In fact, they gave me an unbelievable gift because by the time I understood the gospel of Jesus and his sacrifice and his unconditional love and all this, I was like, yeah, that makes sense.

I experienced that from a young age.

And there are some of you, by the way, who grew up and you your story is the opposite of mine.

And I want you to know, God wants to heal you, God wants to bring you through that, and God wants to use you to give someone else a story like mine to be the demonstration, to be a demonstration of his unconditional love, even though you didn't get it.

There's nothing beyond his redemption, but I did grow up in a good family.

I have a good family.

My relationship with my wife is she's my best friend, truly.

I we don't have a perfect marriage, but I can't imagine it being better.

It's really great.

My favorite place in the world is sitting around a fire pit with her at the end of a long day having a conversation.

I don't even care what we're talking about.

I'm not making this up.

I'm not trying to make out with her later.

I'm just telling you, like, this is God's honest truth.

I've got a really, really good marriage.

I've got a great relationship with my kids.

I love my job.

I don't say thank you enough, but I'm overwhelmed with gratitude.

You guys let me do this.

You give me this opportunity.

I never wonder if we're doing a good job.

I know we can do better, we can do more, what blah, blah, blah.

But I know we're doing important work here, man.

God's doing great things here.

You guys are so kind to give me affirmation and feedback all the time, people letting me know the things God's doing.

I hear testimonies all the time.

So there's not a day of my life I wake up going, you know, I wonder if it's worth it.

So I've got purpose-filled work, I like most of the work I do.

I've got a healthy body.

That's part of my fulfillment.

You know, I rip up tendons every once in a while, but I can still walk.

I can't run, but I can jog.

Um, I can see, I can hear.

I've got good physical health.

I've got a very fulfilled life.

Now you would go, well, nice, nice to be you, man.

Must be nice.

Thanks for showing off, okay?

That's not what this is about.

Because here's what I'm gonna tell you.

You could have it all and much more than I have and be living unbelievably insecure.

Because if you think this is your security and you have it, you live with a visceral fear of losing it.

Because you you gotta be rational enough to go, if I if this is my security, if if my wife or my family, these people that I love, or my job, my career, my calling, my dreams, my body, my physical health, if these are my security, not my fulfillment, what happens if and when they get taken away?

And now it goes away, and now I have nothing to live for.

I I'm I'm fully and totally insecure.

So here's the reality.

If you can understand that Jesus is he's your security and fulfillment, he's going to like seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then he'll add the other pieces to it.

But but but if you if you know this, he is my security, and if I lost something off of this plate, I'm I'm still living.

I want to go here because I know some of you you you you have had steak walk off your plate.

Somebody took your asparagus.

Things you loved, you cared about, they tasted good, it brought great fulfillment, you loved it, and it went away.

It left your life, and it's really painful.

I'm gonna say this.

If and when I lose people I love, will it be painful?

Absolutely.

Food may not taste good for a while.

There may be a season of time that it feels like I can't find fulfillment anywhere.

But though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for I know you're with me.

I can make it quite a long time.

I can go weeks without this.

I can't, I can't go.

Would it hurt?

Oh yeah.

Let me tell you, when you get this right, when you get this right, it puts things in order in a way it would be hard for me to fully describe to you.

Let me say it like this.

If I understand my wife, as crazy as I am about her, and as much as I love her, if I understand that if she walked out of my life, if she left me, or if she was taken out of my life in some way, if she died, okay, that's a horrible thought to think about.

I feel pain, I feel sad just even thinking about it.

But if I know deep down, look, I would I would grieve.

It would be really hard, but you know what?

I would that will not only affect what would happen if that happened, it will affect how I do that relationship because I'm less desperate with her, I'm less jealous with her, I'm less possessive.

You show up at work differently knowing that if they fire you, God's gonna bring you another job.

You really do.

Going, I don't need this.

I can go without for a while, I I can rock with this.

Even if you took all of this away, you you you take all of this away.

Well, I'm gonna shoot, I can.

I mean, it's not my favorite, but I mean, there's a hard-boiled egg in there.

That'll get me through for a while.

I mean, I like everything.

Are you kidding me?

Crumble bacon, dude?

Come on, I can go with that.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with Roosec, but I can make it with this and this.

As long as I got this, I got this, I'm gonna be alright.

I'll even get through the stuff the devil put in there, the blue cheese.

No weapon formed against me is gonna prosper.

I got this.

And so Jesus shows up to the woman at the well, and she's been drinking religion, or she's been trying to drink religion, she's been trying to drink relationship, she's been trying to drink hopes and dreams.

It's all good.

But that's your fulfillment.

And if you'll find your security in Jesus, look, man, I love you guys.

I hope I hope we grow old together.

But if you run me out of here, God's gonna provide for me.

God's gonna open up a door for me.

Guess what?

That's gonna affect how I lead.

I can lead better when I'm not scared of you.

I can lead better when I don't think you're my provider.

You're my ultimate fulfillment.

When I can imagine life without you, now I can love you better, I can lead you better, I can be more open-handed, I can be more generous.

I'm not dealing with visceral fear because I want you.

I want to be together.

But if not, I'm gonna be alright.

I'm gonna be alright.

Give me two minutes.

Look what Paul says through the lens of what we just had talked about.

Look at Paul and Philippians 4, 11 through 13.

I have learned to be content with whatever the circumstances.

I know what it is to be in need.

I know what it's like to eat Roose Chris, I know what it's like to get to get the thing at uh at uh Whole Foods, I know what it is to live on almonds and beef jerky and pure protein bars if I have to.

I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether fed, well fed, or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, whether I'm in a nice house or an apartment, just put a roof over my head.

As long as I've got my water, I can do all things through Christ.

Give me my water.

This is the last thing.

Jesus gets done talking to this woman.

Man, I would have loved to get the whole manuscript, the whole transcript of the conversation.

Would have been great, a great book to read.

A great conversation to eavesdrop into, but we only get the cliff note.

But here's this she goes back to her hometown and she's like mind-blown.

And look what she says to her people back home.

She says in in uh verse 39, many from the Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman said, Look at this, he told me everything I ever did.

If I told you everything you ever did, you and I were having a private conversation, I started telling you everything you ever did, would that make you more secure or less secure?

Less secure.

I told you everything you're like, how the heck do you know that?

I thought I had that one safely tucked away.

I thought I had covered my tracks.

If I start pulling the skeletons out of your closet and telling you everything you ever did, the stuff you thought nobody was gonna find out, the stuff you plan to take with you to your grave, and I'm telling you about it, does that make you more secure or less secure?

That's terrifying.

Yet somehow, when she took a drink, when she had a revelation of Jesus, telling her everything she ever did, made her more secure.

See, that's the difference.

The revelation of Jesus, who he actually is.

Because only with Jesus can you be completely vulnerable and completely safe.

Sad to say, usually it doesn't happen at church.

Sad to say, sometimes it doesn't happen in family.

Most of the time we're fully exposed, we are insecure, at risk.

And yet here is the thirsting of her soul, the longing, the craving of what she always wanted, which was to be to know someone to know everything she'd ever done, and to be loved like that.

How do you make it through a season when stuff is leaving your plate?

Relationships, dreams, health, these things that we're fulfilling.

You never know what you got till it's gone, and then it's gone, and now it's a and I'm craving.

It is a constant, consistent revelation of who Jesus is.

We call it prayer, and sometimes it's prayer and it's crying out to God, but often it's just to sit back and to be reminded a fresh revelation that you are fully known and fully loved, fully exposed, fully vulnerable, and fully secure and safe at the same time.

And friend, the reality is sometimes the only place in the world you can find that is from Jesus.

I ask you again, I ask you again.

If you were thirsty, if you were thirsty, why would you ever turn down and reject pure water?

Today I don't offer you a new church.

I don't offer you a religious ritual.

I don't offer you a false promise.

I offer you Jesus.

Jesus.