Soul-Thirst II (3/11/18 The Book of John #21)

ATTN: About 10 years ago, I went to the Philippines for a short-term mission trip. Some of you men were there as well with me. We worked with teenagers while there and I just fell in love with them, as I’m sure that’s why a few men kept on going back there year after year. They just had this zest for life. They didn’t have much. Their dream was becoming a auto-mechanic, teacher, or a nurse so that they can help provide for their family. After school, they would climb trees, walk to the outdoor market, play basketball on the dirt ground, or simply play with dirt on the ground. No smartphones. No internet access. No computers. Their idea of fun was watching a 40 year old foreigner down a baloot and seeing his expression afterwards. So pure and congenial. Now, there  was a Christian school there that we worked with and the head of that school ran an idea by me. And that was to select some of the best students from that school and send them to America for a few weeks to observe and learn about the Western culture. You know how I felt honestly? Horrified. I didn’t think that would do any good for them at all. I thought that would be like taking a beautiful clean cloth and throwing it into a garbage can in hopes of improving it. If anything, I thought it would be a better idea to take some American students from the States and send them to the Philippines for a few weeks, so that they can learn that less is more. True happiness does not come from unlimited resources. You can live a very simple life and be perfectly happy in it. Actually, it’s easier to be happy when you have less than more.

There are two ways to destroy a life – one is by depriving them of essence of life. The other is providing over-abundance so that they would gorge on themselves to death… The enemy uses both. And I believe in America, he uses the latter. Have you ever considered that our problem might not be lack of something, but overabundance of things to distract us from the real thing we need? If the devil cannot prevent the true living water from being given to us, He will dig up many competing wells around it to drink from that will often taste better initially but will not ultimately quench our thirst. That, I believe is the strategy the devil is using in the U.S.

TRANS: Last week, we looked at a woman who was lonely even though she’s had 5 husbands. That’s drinking at the wrong well. Her soul was thirsty and Jesus comes and finds this woman. And He quenches her soul-thirst. How does He do it?

Last week: 1. By choosing and planning a meeting with her. 2. By breaking social norms to pursue her. Today: 3. By pointing out her failed attempts. And 4. By giving her Himself as the living water.

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

The conversation is going so well for Jesus. Jesus has set her up so that at this point, all Jesus has to say is, “I am that water. Believe in me and be saved!” She is asking for it! But Jesus doesn’t go there, yet. There is something she has to recognize first. V. 16-18: 6 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Why? Why is Jesus dredging up her shameful past and present? 3) Why is He pointing out her failed attempts at quenching her thirst? Because Jesus is the divine Physician. And he is diagnosing her true ailment in order to cure her. You see, what we discover about this woman is that her physical pursuit was to make up for her spiritual deficiency.  In other words, she had a spiritual thirst. But she didn’t know it. She just knew that she’s missing something in her life but she doesn’t know what it is she’s missing. So, she tries to quench her thirst or fill that void with marital relationships. Going from man to man.

If you could ask this woman, what would make you happy, what would make your life complete, she would say, “a husband who would love me, provide for me, and children that would respect me.” Her “only if” would be that. Not that different from what a lot of women would say is their only if these days… As educated, savvy, empowered today’s woman are, when I talk to them, down deep, what a lot of them really want is a loving family that she can be a part of…

But her “only if” was letting her down. She’s gone through five of them. And the one she is with her now is just living with her and not married. Now, we don’t know why this woman had had 5 husbands. Maybe they all died one after the other. Maybe she was abandoned by them all. Maybe she could haven’t children. Women were divorced just for that reason back then. But one thing we know for sure is that she considered it a shameful past. You see, the text tells us she came to draw water by herself at the 6th hour – that’s high noon.   

          Normally, women either draw water early in the morning or in the evening when it’s cooler, and with other women. But this woman came out at noon when she knew no one would be around. This was a small village where everyone knew everyone else’s business. Can you see it? She didn’t belong. She was of the wrong race. She was of the wrong religion. Her marriage failed multiple times. She was even ostracized and rejected by her own people. She was a nobody – the Bible doesn’t even mention her name. She had no hope of ever getting out of this. She didn’t even know her disease. But the divine Physician comes and diagnoses it – “you have a spiritual thirst! And you will never quench it by physical means! You need a Savior. You need a eternal  Husband who will love you like you were meant to be loved. You need me!” Her shameful relational past is simply a symptom of what she’s really missing – her relationship with the eternal husband in God. Her thirst was coming not as she supposed from a lack of successful marriage, but from a lack of relationship with the all loving God.

APP: Have you and I realized this about our soul-thirst? How is your spiritual thirst showing itself? Are you spiritually thirsty and don’t know it? Could we be masking off our spiritual void with something physical or emotional? The devil is so guile in this that he will use often what is good to prevent us from getting what is best. Men, could we be burying ourselves in work in order to feel significant and useful to the neglect of our family and our devotion to the Lord? Dallas Willard: The greatest enemy of  intimacy with God is service to God. As a pastor, it is so easy for me to do this. I’m serving God by serving the church. So, I am excused from having an intimate time with God in reading the Bible, and praying. My service to Him will substitute for it.

Ladies, could you be sacrificing yourself entirely to your family and children in order to feel at peace with your cultural upbringing rather than in the Lord? It is great that we sacrifice ourselves for someone else, but are we going overboard, and are we also looking at them as the reason to live and to draw our ultimate satisfaction from? Rachel, Jacob’s wife said to him, “Give me children or I will die!” Her whole worth and value as a person was wrapped around having children as her society dictated. This is especially prevalent in Asian culture where mothers do not hesitate saying to their children, “I live for you. You are the reason for my being. Your success is my success and your failure is my failure.” That is not healthy. That is unbiblical.

Young people, could you be burying yourself in social media never noticing that there is spiritual hunger in you and that is why you so incessantly pursue after the latest fashion, lingo, fad, and trend? Yes, obsessively watching Youtube or instagram to keep up with your peers so that you don’t get left out, could be a sign that you are spiritual thirsty, looking for something to satisfy you but never getting there. Some go out drinking to fill that void. Some go out clubbing. Some go out gambling…

When I hear of people move from boyfriend to boyfriend, gf to gf, or even physically move from place to place, church to church, job to job, I see people who are spiritual thirsty. It may mask off that thirst until the  newness wears off, but as soon as the newness wears off, they have to move….

One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes: “If I find in myself a desire which nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

But Jesus said something even better: Matthew 11:28  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

The ultimate answer to our soul-thirst is by going directly to the Springs of Living Water in Jesus.

APP: How do we do this? How do we drink from the well of Jesus? Subtract and add. Subtract extraneous lights and add the telescope.

If I know that I’m going to a fancy restaurant for dinner, I’m not eating anything sweet or a junk food that will ruin my appetite. Actually, I will have breakfast and then skip lunch altogether so that I can enjoy dinner. The same principle applies when we consume the bread of life that is Jesus.

Would you subtract neutral things or even good things from your life for the next 30 days, and then add spiritual disciplines. Think of athletes training for the olympics which is a biblical illustration because the apostle paul also uses illustrations from the world of athletes.

1. Remove distractions: Don’t have your phone next to you on the night stand when you go to bed so that it will not be the last thing and the first thing you touch. But I read my bible on my phone, pastor. Put it on airplane mode. If you find yourself checking other things, then it’s time to let go and leave it downstairs…
2. Subtract: Fast. Both food and media and shopping. Refrain – don’t buy anything new unless it’s an absolute necessity. You will not die if you don’t eat for 3 days, for example. You feel like you will, but you won’t. People have gone 20, 30 days with just water.
3. Add: the bible, and the preached word of God. Prayer. Working out. Driving. And then meditating. Take a walk in the park. Take the read through the bible challenge. I’m doing it and just catching up because I got a late jump on it…

I just don’t have the energy to do it. Have you realized that the very reason by you don’t have the energy might be because you are spiritual dying? The devil will tell us lies saying you don’t even have time to do all the physical stuff, how are you ever going to find time to do spiritual things? (12Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Hebrews 12:12)