My question for you after a passage like that is, have you ever been thirsty?
Like seriously, seriously, dangerously, you're feeling it, you're sick, thirsty.
Why don't you stand up, give yourself 20 seconds, turn to the person you've come with or people
that you know around you, stand up and just share that story, share that time where you've
really, really felt it right now.
So drinking is actually really important.
I'm one of the pastors here, my name is Nick, I'm used to playing the guitar at the front
and leading and doing a bit of stuff behind the scenes.
I'm not used to being at the front, whenever I get up in front of people my voice just dries
up, it's like a desert and I need to drink, so I'm actually really nervous and thirsty
right now.
But we really need water, don't we?
It's actually something that gets painful pretty quick and we're dead in two or three
days if we don't get it.
We're completely in need and we can go without sleep or food or light, like when you go to
Katoomba and go on kick.
You can even go without human contact for weeks on end, but you can't go without water.
After we breathe, we need to drink and everyone knows that thirst.
Our thirst for water is mirrored in us in heaps of different ways, other desires in our life.
And I'm sure you know a kind of thirst for other things, for practical needs and extravagant
desires.
Under the surface, these desires that are in us, under the surface of those, we're all chasing
satisfaction.
We long to be satisfied.
If we can't get no satisfaction, then we're discontent.
Now I know discontent and you know it too.
Our discontentedness demands action.
It says get happy and quick and it looks like a whole bunch of things.
It can be, I think for me, it's tiredness and hunger and apathy.
It's lots of things.
We want to fill our lives with things.
When I get tired and anxious, I raid the fridge and I put a TV show on and entertain myself.
I escape.
Those things I think I know won't satisfy me, but they're good distractions for my thirstiness.
What does your discontent look like?
Finish the sentence, I'd be satisfied if only I had.
I'd be satisfied if only I was or looked like.
What do you pursue to remove that discontentedness that you feel, that thirst in you?
And may I suggest today, and this is actually really exciting, that there is an end available
to our thirst.
Somewhere to run to for water that can fill us up.
A source to go to where we are satisfied forever, to return to ongoing, into eternity, and free
for absolutely everyone.
That's a pretty big talk.
But the exciting thing is that we get to come to a pretty big God.
So I need to hear about what this water is as much as you guys.
And we're all among the thirsty today.
You guys stood up and talked pretty loudly.
So I assume you know what I'm talking about.
So let's pray for God's help to hear him over what I say today.
Let's pray.
Lord God, we come to you as thirsty people with longing in us.
We long to be satisfied, God, and I pray today that you would do that by your spirit,
by the truth of your gospel.
Amen.
Guys, our yearning and our satisfaction, our thirst, is actually a really good thing.
It's created in us.
It's not an accident.
It's given to us by God.
And he didn't leave it as an unhelpful little burden that we have to carry.
We thirst for God because he satisfies.
If we only knew our creator completely, we would not have yearnings.
We would not need endlessly.
We would not thirst our way through this life.
But naturally, humans thirst for everything but God.
And we chase after the wrong things.
We've got to somehow come back to God and get satisfied again.
We're only ever going to be satisfied in God.
And this matters.
God did not come to tell us to ignore the desires in us for satisfaction.
He wants our discontent quenched.
He came to turn us around from our sin, to bring us back to the source that we were made to come to
and provide us satisfaction and joy that's going to last.
In the beginning, it was Adam and Eve.
They had full access to God and full satisfaction in Him.
That was a wonderful relationship where they had complete access to God.
They thirsted for nothing.
They worshipped with their whole lives.
They were enamored by God's creation, His perfection and His presence.
They were satisfied in Him.
But ever since Adam and Eve chose to find their satisfaction elsewhere, we have followed them.
Our sin cost us that access to God and we lost our satisfaction.
Jesus knew this.
He knew that we were without access to God and the satisfaction that that brings.
Look at Jesus' prayer for us in Matthew 11.
It's going to be on the screen.
There it is.
No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son
and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.
Every one of us take our first breath of life into that situation.
We're born without access to God.
And with the discontentedness and thirst that comes from that, nobody knew Jesus when He came
and only Jesus knew the Father.
It's going to take God for us to know God.
It's a bit confusing, but honestly, we're out of that loop.
We're all undeserving.
It's going to take an act of grace for us to ever know God.
Unless God acts, we go on thirsting.
Unless He meets our needs, we're going to stay in need.
Unless God has a way for me to be satisfied beyond my abilities to do so,
I'm going to stay anxious and weak.
Unless God is your way to satisfaction,
every underlying thirst and need in you is going to go unmet.
So let's come together as thirsty people and see what God is going to offer us.
John 4.
If you don't have your Bible out or a screen on a phone or something in front of you, get it.
Put your hand up.
Someone will find you a Bible if you don't have it.
I'm going to be jumping around in John 4.
The situation is two people meeting near a well in Samaria.
One of those was a woman getting water.
The other was Jesus.
The woman was a local Samaritan.
Here's what we know about her.
She had been in and out of marriages more than most people.
She struggled with life and that wearisome daily trek to go get water.
And she worried if she really knew who God was.
She thirsted for much more than the water in her jar.
She was discontent.
She's just like us.
Guys, today, right now, put yourself in her place.
Because like her, we get tired of everything.
We struggle with sin.
And we're reaching out for God in some way.
We're thirsty like her.
We are her.
But because God is gracious and for no merited reason,
Jesus chose this woman on that day to be offered complete, lasting, eternal satisfaction.
The first to be offered that.
He starts the conversation.
Will you give me a drink?
It's astonishing that Jesus would do this.
It is crazy culturally for him to step out and start that conversation.
A Jew would never address a Samaritan.
Wouldn't speak to them.
They would never drink from a Samaritan's cup when they'd made or touched or even been seen near.
A Jewish man would never address a woman in public.
And in verse 27, his disciples were astonished that he'd been talking to her.
But Jesus saw her.
He saw and validated her need.
He shows us that we're all in her place.
Not just culturally, but actually without him.
He came for us all.
Now, when Jesus says, will he give me a drink?
Do you think he's just asking for water?
Honestly, I think he was actually thirsty for a drink.
It's hot in that part of the world.
Like, desert hot.
Like, hotter than Sydney in the humidity in February.
Hot.
It is crazy hot there.
And I bet Jesus knew a real human thirst.
But he didn't thirst for God like we do.
He knew God and was satisfied.
He was drinking and eating like us while completely satisfied.
In God.
Jesus proved to this woman, 17 and 18, that's on the screen.
He proved that he had access to God because he knows secrets about this woman that only God could know.
Hidden things about her relationships.
And we see later that that's proof for her.
She says later, he told me everything about everything I'd ever done.
He didn't.
He gave her a short list of things that proved to her that he knew God.
He is not thirsty like we are.
But he is full of grace and mercy and compassion.
He started the conversation that she could not start and that we can't.
To show us that he offers us satisfaction.
I've always been amazed at Jesus' ability with fasting and food.
I can barely even make lunch for my kids with a full fridge of food.
I'm useless when it comes to doing the simplest things like that.
But Jesus can make food for 5,000 people.
Bam!
It's there.
That's incredible.
And he can go for weeks without eating.
I can't go for more than about an hour and I feel like I'm going to die.
But Jesus went weeks in the desert without food.
It amazes me what physical needs Jesus could put aside while satisfied with God.
He talks about it in verse 32.
He says he has food that we don't understand.
He is completely satisfied in God.
But, and this is incredible.
And if you're really tired, just catch this today because it's so incredible.
He didn't hold on to that satisfaction.
He actually gave it up so that we could have it.
Look with me at John 19.
It's going to be on the screen.
Stay in John 4 on your tablet or your Bible.
Look up here.
Later, knowing this is Jesus on the cross.
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished
and so that Scripture would be fulfilled,
Jesus said,
I am thirsty.
The God who was satisfied beyond needing anything at all,
stooped down to identify with our needs and become a man
and on the cross took on our thirst for God.
I don't think he's saying,
as he gasps for breath and bleeds out on the cross,
I don't think he's saying,
I'd really like a glass of cold water, guys.
This sucks.
He is putting his satisfaction in God aside
as the Father turns his face away from him on the cross
because he's wearing a sin.
So we would never have to be thirsty and without God ever again.
That is amazing.
Jesus became thirsty for us
so that he can offer us this drink
that we hear about in John 4.
Let's see what he's offering us exactly.
John 4 verse 10.
Have a look with me.
If you knew the gift of God
and who it is that asks you for a drink,
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.
Jump to verse 13.
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give them will become in them
a spring of living water welling up to eternal life.
Jesus was promising to quench this woman's thirst forever.
What did he mean?
It's clear in the story
that the woman thought she knew what he meant.
She asks for this mysterious water
so she'd no longer have to go out every day
and get water for herself.
That's exactly what we would do.
We would take our understanding of God
and then demand it of him.
Give me a drink, Jesus.
She's thinking like Spielberg
in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
You know, the chase for the Holy Grail,
the cup of Christ.
Assuming that drinking from a cup that Jesus offered
would keep us young and alive on earth.
But Jesus is promising us so much more
than something so silly as that.
He's actually promising access to the living God,
not just a long-term hydration solution,
but a longer-than-life-long satisfaction.
So how do I get this living water
if it's not from a cup that Jesus offers?
Not a literal cup.
Look again at verse 10.
Look at how it starts.
It begins,
if you knew.
It seems that knowing God
is the way to get this drink.
The woman caught the cue
about knowing God.
When I read this passage,
I didn't.
I got really confused
as to what this woman asked Jesus.
If someone comes up to you,
tells you all your hidden secrets
of your life,
and then kind of leaves
the conversation open,
you can ask them anything.
What would you ask for?
What answers to life
would you demand from that person?
And I'd probably say,
how do I,
you know,
get more money?
Or can you help me
with all the stuff
that I do wrong?
Or can you help me?
I've got a list of like
a zillion practical things
that I could think of.
I want this,
I want that,
I want a guitar,
I want my kids to be healthy,
I want to be secure for life.
But she gets this cue,
she wants to know
if she really knows God.
She asks a religion question.
I always found that really weird,
but she gets this cue
about knowing God.
She was convinced
about Jesus' connection.
Why not see
if she knows God
like he does?
So she asked him
if Samaria's way
of knowing God,
their religious practices
were correct.
Because if they were right,
then she'd already have access
to this water, right?
Right?
Often people think
that religion
is about having our lives
in order already
to get us access to God.
Surely Jesus will just
tell us here
who is right
and who really knows him
so we can all get on board
with that one religion
and then move on, right?
No.
He says it's no longer
about how you get access
to God,
but who is
your access to God.
Not a list of things
to do
to know God.
He
is
how we know God.
He is
our access to God
and it's by his grace,
not by what we do.
He is offering
to meet our greatest need
in him.
So let's look at
Jesus' answer
to our discontentedness.
How will Jesus
do for us
what we need?
And the answer
is in two words,
spirit
and truth.
Look at verse 21
with me.
It's going to be
on the screen as well.
Woman,
Jesus replied,
believe me,
a time is coming
when you will worship
the Father
neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem.
You Samaritans
worship what you do not know.
We worship what we do know
for salvation
comes from the Jews.
Yet,
a time is coming
and has now come
when the true worshippers
will worship the Father
in the spirit
and in truth.
for they are the kind
of worshippers
the Father seeks.
God is spirit
and his worshippers
must worship
in the spirit
and in truth.
In the spirit
and in truth
is Jesus'
mysterious answer.
It is
how we can know
God
through him.
So it's
really important.
These are the two
things that we need
to get satisfaction
in God.
So first,
the spirit.
God inflames
our hearts
to faith
by the Holy Spirit.
He confirms
we're saved
by the Holy Spirit's
dwelling in us.
He speaks
through his word
in the Bible
by his spirit.
And the spirit
is a Christian's
connection
to God.
The spirit
does not let go.
The Holy Spirit
is like
the hand
that takes
hold of ours
and leads
us to God.
It is our
constant comfort
and assurance
that we are saved.
It's his grace
in action
drawing us
to him.
But it is
the spirit
and truth
together
that bring us
to God.
So
the truth
part of it
sounds a little
confusing.
So let Jesus
clarify it for you.
Can we have
John 14
up on the screen?
verse 6.
I am the way
the truth
and the life.
No one comes
to the Father
except
through me.
Jesus
himself
is
the truth.
Everything
he was
and said
and achieved
his life
his death
his resurrection
it is all
the truth.
The truth
is
the gospel
of Christ.
All we know
from him
from the gospels.
His perfect
life for us
that we might
live.
His death
is an innocent
man that he
died for
sinners.
His resurrection
that proves
that Jesus
won us
a way
back to God.
The gospel
is what Jesus
came to live
out so we
could get
God back.
It's what we
sang about
in that first
song
from the
squalor
of a stable.
virgin born
walked our
road
felt our
pain
defeated
death
crowned
with glory.
So the
truth
is
the whole
gospel of
Christ.
So then
we get
God
by the
spirit
by means
of the
gospel
itself.
The gospel
is like
an open
door
door.
An open
door
to God
and the
spirit
is like
the hand
that leads
us through
it.
They go
together
to open
access to
God and
to
satisfaction.
In spirit
and in
truth
we are
satisfied
and connecting
with God
through the
gospel by
the spirit
is drinking
living water.
It is that
action.
We can only
come to
God through
the door
of the
gospel.
We are not
getting in
any other
way.
And when we
do, we
revel in it
and soak it
up.
We respond
with prayers of
thanksgiving and
praise.
Those overflow
into singing
and serving
and loving
and giving up
our lives
for the
gospel.
The gospel
becomes our
joy and
our motivation.
It becomes
the source
of our
worship.
But it is
only by the
spirit that we
come at all.
The spirit
is our
reminder of
the gospel's
effectiveness.
The spirit
speaks through
God's word.
The spirit
inspires our
prayers.
The spirit
guides us,
inspires,
upholds,
holds,
and remains
with us.
Together the
gospel and
spirit satisfy
because through
them, through
the door, by
the hand of
God, we
get God.
And we
know we're
satisfied because
our satisfaction
overflows in
worship.
have you
ever had a
really nice
cold drink of
water on a
sweltering day?
For me, it's
a cold beer
with dinner
because,
honestly,
that's as good
as it gets
for me.
Do you know
that elation,
that
after you've
taken that
first swallow?
If I did
that every
night at
dinner, I'd
kind of get
frowned on,
but do you
know that
that
is
worship.
Thankfulness,
joy, and
pleasure just
erupt out of
us.
It's worship.
We're responding
to the
satisfaction that
we've found in
the drink.
the
worshipers
Jesus is
after aren't
doers of
worship.
No, Jesus
was the
doer for
us, and
now is our
reason to
worship.
We're
responders in
worship, and
can you see
how that
undoes the
woman's
expectations?
The
ah
isn't a
set way of
doing church
or life.
It's entirely
dependent and
responsive to
his provision
for us.
That
ah
is the
mark of
our
satisfaction
in Jesus.
There's got
to be some
sort of
response that
has to be
part of
our every
day.
It's got
to be the
boldest
colour of
our Sunday
services.
if we
don't
look
satisfied,
are we?
Jesus'
offer to
come and
drink is
open to
you.
Be
satisfied
once and
for all.
Jesus'
offer does
satisfy once
for all.
I've got to be
honest, life
stays hard.
We're sinful
and we're
still kind of
yearning for
something.
As a
Christian, the
yearning is
still there.
The
discontentedness
often remains.
Does that
mean that
Jesus hasn't
satisfied us?
No.
He has.
But we
yearn and
hurt and
struggle and
even doubt
because we're
waiting for a
final satisfaction
in eternity
with God.
And we're
not there
yet.
But we
have the
glorious
opportunity to
go there
every day
and drink.
The
gospel
is there
to satisfy
us
ongoing
every day.
Look,
cover to
cover,
this thing
is all
the water
you will
ever need
ever.
that's
what you
need to
survive as
a Christian.
Everything in
here points
to Jesus,
it's about
Jesus and
it's leading
us to look
forward to
an eternity
with him.
It provides
our hope in
hurt and
struggle and
turns back the
strongest doubts
and fears.
This good
news, this
gospel, this
word of God
is there every
day for us as
a reminder of
Jesus'
provision for
us.
But as
Christians, we
still don't
always drink from
satisfying the
satisfying source of
the gospel.
We go elsewhere.
I still stand
over an empty
fridge and wonder
why I'm standing
there.
We still go in
all the wrong
directions, chasing
desires.
We go to money
and to power and
to other stuff
that will not
last.
And as a
Christian, if
you aren't
drinking regularly,
you're needlessly
thirsty and
missing out on
joy that Jesus
is offering you.
Doubt and
pain and fear
and uncertainty
get continually
pushed aside
when we drink.
So why don't
we do that?
Why don't we
drink a little
together?
Look with me
at the
culmination of
the gospel's
promises to
us, to the
end of our
thirst, the
satisfaction of
eternity with
Jesus.
Guys, this is
the hope for
every Christian.
Never again
will they
hunger.
Never again
will they
thirst.
The sun will
not beat down
on them, nor
any scorching
heat, for the
lambs at the
centre 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.
Compare
our
discontented
cries from
earlier.
I'd be
satisfied if
only I had.
I'd be
satisfied.
That
discontentedness
is, how
does that
compare to
how you
are lifted
up and
given joy
by what is
there in
Revelation 7?
Does your
lack of
satisfaction
now pale in
comparison to
how you
yearn for what
God will have
in store in
the future
for you?
That Jesus
himself will
be leading
us, feeding
us, and
wiping away
our tears?
things.
And the
heat of the
day and
struggle will
soon be over
and we will
thirst no
more.
That picture is
complete
satisfaction.
Revelation 7
is what we
are thirsting
toward.
And we're
crazy if we
do not come to
the Spirit and
the truth of
the gospel to
drink.
guys, in
the last
few weeks,
friends of
mine and
Sam's lost
their baby at
30 weeks of
pregnancy.
It was a
shock and it
was awful.
A guy I
went to
college with
this week
actually committed
suicide and
it's devastated
everyone I
knew at
college.
We've got a
church member,
530 member,
staring death in
the face,
fighting cancer
right now,
tonight.
How do
those involved
in this stuff
get satisfied
in God while
life serves up
this mess?
How do we
stay satisfied
while we're
watching it?
By the
Spirit of
God, through
the truth of
the gospel,
Christ.
And if we
go anywhere
else, we're
drinking dust.
And it's
going to leave
us empty.
As the band
come up right
now, soon
we're going to
sing together
and respond to
what we just
drank in
Revelation 7.
But before we
sing, remember,
we will
go to the
God.
We will
be satisfied
in God.
Jesus offers
satisfaction free
to anyone.
No matter who
you are, he
offers it now,
once, and
every day, and
on into
eternity.
And if you
find discontent
in you now,
and it's
still raging,
as a
Christian,
already knowing
satisfaction, yet
struggling,
know he is
ready to deal
with your
discontent by
the Spirit and
by the means of
the gospel.
And this,
he took your
discontent,
thirst, and
yearning for
God, and he
wore it on the
cross, so you
never have to.
You can have
satisfaction now,
and you can have
it forever, by
the Spirit, by the
means of the
gospel and his
word.
So let's come to
God by his
grace, by his
spirit through the
gospel, come as
thirsty people, and
get satisfied.