Sermon Tone Analysis

*Spring Life, part 3*

 

/… Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!// //Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!

For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.”

(When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.

But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)/

*(John 7:37-39, NLT) *

 

   Jesus said, “/Anyone who is thirsty may come to me//.” /

    I fully believe that one of God’s objectives for our lives is to give us a life of significance, satisfaction and fulfillment.

These desires are built into our hearts and minds.

Now, just to be clear, I didn’t say that God’s objectives were to make us monetarily rich and famous; you can have significance without being famous.

I do believe that God wants you to live a life of significance and He wants to bring you satisfaction in all areas in your life, a satisfaction, where at the end of your life, you would be able to say, “I am fulfilled”.

There are various ways the Bible phrases these God objectives.

Let me show you a couple of them.

Look at:

/I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him.

Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit./

*(Romans 15:13, NLT) *

 

/"//The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.//"/

*(John 10:10, NLT)*

 

/May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God./ *(Ephesians 3:19, NLT)*

 

    You might use different words to describe it in different ways, but we all want to live a life of significance, to know that we really matter, we want a life of satisfaction, where we have a sense of accomplishment and we want fulfillment – to know that our has fulfilled our purpose.

How are you doing in these things?

In John 7, Jesus identified these desires by using the metaphor of thirst.

He said, “/Anyone who is thirsty, God says come to me//.” /

    We are thirsty people; so Jesus entered our world promising spiritual water in abundance for those who seek it from Him.

    Normally we think of this “thirst” as being identified with salvation.

And that certainly is true.

Yet, if we’re honest – even though we have been saved by Christ – many of us still thirst.

I think that by “thirsting” Jesus was referring to any wholesome unsatisfied desire, anyone who feels restless, and anyone who feels discontent about the way their life is going.

Let anyone who is dissatisfied, unhappy, discontent, anyone who hasn’t had a real good life, let him or her come to Me.

No doubt that the first and most important step in getting access to the river of living water is salvation, but that is only the beginning not the end.

Sometimes we falsely think that once we are in God’s forever family by grace, then we can live in that family on a different basis than when how we got in.

We know that the only way into God’s forever family is through a personal relationship with Christ.

But do you realize that you must also live in God’s forever family the same way.

Our desire for significance, satisfaction and fulfillment does not change when we become a Christ-follower, in fact in some sense these desires become stronger.

So when we forget that not only does salvation come through Christ, but so does the live we live after salvation – it’s the only way to experience significance, satisfaction and fulfillment, and when we forget that we tend to try to get our thirst quenched through our own efforts.

We take our focus off our relationship with Christ and onto other things.

Sometimes we do this by deciding that all we have to do is just try harder and do more.

But that just makes you tired and frustrated.

Sometimes we do what the ostrich does, stick our head in the sand and pretend things are better than they are; some people actually think faith is about just being positive so they just deny their thirst - as if it doesn’t really exist.

But no matter how many happy faces you paste on, the real fact is that we still thirst.

Other times we make rededications or seek spiritual highs.

And these work for a while, at least until you have to go back to your everyday life.

Other people think that maybe if they just changed churches then things would be different.

And the newness of a different church helps, for a while; but sooner or later they will discover that the problem with changing churches is that they are the same person, with the same dissatisfactions just sitting in a different chair.

Maybe they should try yet another church.

What I have found is that if people stay thirsty long enough they will do one of two things.

Some of these parched people go from trying to find the great adventure the Bible declares is theirs, to just attending church; putting in the minimum requirements of nominal Christianity.

For many others they just give up all together; they may retain a confession of being a Christ-follower, but they never really pursue Him in any significant way.

Usually people like this say things like, “I don’t need organized religion” or “I don’t need to attend church to have a relationship with Jesus” and things like this.

It is a very sad thing to me when I come across a once vibrant Christ-follower who has given up on the church and on God’s mission in the world; someone who has sidelined themselves because they just never learned how to tap into the living water that Christ promised.

If you have never learned how to drink from the river of Living Water, then you will, at best, be very frustrated and disappointed in your walk with Christ.

That is what we have been talking about for the last several weeks.

We have looked at God’s promise to give us power, we realized that this power flows out of a faith that acts.

If the Bible is true and God has provided for our thirst as Jesus told us He has; then there has to be this living water somewhere.

There has to be a river flowing with refreshing living water - a fountain of endless spiritual refreshment, a way to truly experience satisfaction, significance and fulfillment in life.

If that was not true, Jesus would not have said it was.

So we must find that flow that Jesus said He came to give thirsty people and jump into it.

But how?

From last week I pointed out that God wants to speak to you personally.

That the job of the Holy Spirit is to take God’s general promises and instructions found in the Bible and show you how to apply them specifically in your life.

In fact let me just say that as a Christ-follower, if you do not know when God is speaking to you, then you are in trouble at the very foundation of your life.

This morning I want to continue to build off these ideas.

I am going to attempt to draw you a map to the living water that Jesus offers anyone who is willing to drink from it.

Now before I do that, let mu just remind us all again where the living water will never be found.

Then I will try to show where it can be found.

There are a lot of places or in things that will never quench your thirst.

Let me given you two of them.

We will never find significance, satisfaction and fulfillment from owning things and you will never quench your thirst through the acquisition of positions and titles.

Now these things are not bad in themselves, but they do not contain living water.

We are thirsty people by design and if we really don’t understand where we can get our thirst quenched, we try through acquiring things, positions and even the praise of other people.

And if we are honest with ourselves these things have never really quenched our thirst.

In most cases they just leave us with a desire to acquire more and more, rather than brining us peace; so thirst quenching can not be found in the perusal of stuff, positions or the praise and attention of other people.

So where is this living water?

I feel like I should put a sign that says, “Caution sharp turn ahead” because the way to the river of life is a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction of what our culture proclaims.

So if you are really serious about drinking from this River of Life you’ll have to make a shift in direction and go through life in a direction that is different from most people.

You have to be willing to live like no one else, so that you can live like no one else.

So Hang on!

Here comes the curve.

The River that flows with living water is not found in the pursuit of possession or titles; it is not a place at all; the River of Life is found in a relationship.

The only living water that can truly quench your thirst is found in a relationship with a Person, - with God in Christ.

Now here is my concern.

Some of you might think that you got this when you don’t.

You might think that because you are in relationship with the Savior that you have all that you need to quench your thirst.

And that is what makes this so hard for me to communicate.

There is no doubt that we all need a Savior, someone who can do for us what we can’t do for ourselves.

So we definitely need a Savior and that is what Christ did for us when He gave up His life on the cross.

As to salvation, being adopted into God’s forever family, you need nothing more than what Jesus Christ did for you on that cross.

You cannot take anything away from it, nor can you add anything to it in any way.

But that is not all there is – that’s the beginning not the end.

Once you have a Savior you need a Guide; someone who will guide you through life, to help you make good decisions, to empower you to overcome life’s challenges, and to show you how to drink deeply from the River that flows with life.

Look at Jesus words again in John 7:37-39 and notice verse 39 specifically.

It says:

/When he /(Christ) /said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him…/ (*John 7:39, NLT)*

 

    The River that flows with living water is found in a positively responding relationship with the Savior, God the Son.

This new kind of life is tied to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, not spooky, weird kind of thing.

Nor is it a fall down and faint kind of thing; No it is much more significant than some emotional experience.

What I am talking about is a moment-by-moment positively responding relationship with Christ; by listening to God the Holy Spirit’s voice and positively responding to His leading, there is just no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.