Monday, August 4, 2008
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We were tooling across the backside of the Navajo reservation in this borrowed station wagon. Actually, some friends had loaned it to us so we could take some of our reservation team sightseeing. We could have gone back on the main road, but the back roads were shorter. So, I checked my gas tank before we set out through these long, unpopulated stretches: three-quarters of a tank - plenty of gas. We went about 30 miles and the car started sputtering to a stop - really in the middle of nowhere - true nowhere! We spent several nervous hours hoping and praying for a way back until this dear Navajo man stopped for us and he drove 60 miles round trip to bring us back some gas. It turned out that our gas gauge was broken. It sure looked like we were almost running on full, but we were running on empty.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Suddenly Empty."
It's a feeling that we all take our turn experiencing - suddenly empty. We've been cruising along through our life, feeling secure, registering a pretty full tank. Then an anchor relationship suddenly runs out of gas or our dream gets stopped in its tracks. What we've been counting on spiritually or emotionally lets us down. The plans fall apart. Like me riding along thinking I had all I needed for the journey, we are living in a false security - and suddenly that security is gone. And we are feeling very, very empty.
That's a feeling that a woman in Jesus' time understood very well. Her story is told in our word for today from the Word of God in John 4 beginning in verse 13. Jesus met her at a well where He engaged her in a conversation about being thirsty and the need to keep coming to the well to quench that thirst. Gradually, this woman began to realize that Jesus wasn't just talking about physical thirst. He was talking about the emotional and spiritual thirst that we all have for something that's lasting, something ultimately fulfilling.
The conversation reveals that she has been through a series of relationships with men, hoping that those men would somehow fill her up inside. But every relationship had eventually proven to be disappointing. No love had ever quenched her thirst or made her feel complete inside. She kept hoping the next relationship would do it, but she kept ending up empty. If empty is a feeling that you know all too well, you need to hear what Jesus told this woman.
Referring to all the earth-securities and earth-loves that we count on, Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Jesus says that His "eternal life" is the only thing that can fill us up forever. In fact, we were never meant to be running on earth-stuff.
The search for fulfillment ends in the arms of Jesus Christ. Your search for a sense of significance ends at the feet of the One who made you. Your search for a love that will never disappoint you ends at the cross of Jesus Christ. That is where He died to remove the wall that keeps you from the God you were made for. The wall is made up of all the times that we've done it our way - all our "sins." Jesus loved you so much that He died the death penalty that you deserve so you could finally belong to God and you could finally experience that ultimate love.
That relationship begins when you tell Jesus that you're counting totally on Him to forgive your sin and to give you a relationship with your Creator-God. He's waiting for you to extend that invitation right now.
If you're ready to begin the one relationship that will finally fill up your heart, I want to encourage you to tell Jesus right now, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And I would love to send you my little booklet Yours For Life. And you can call toll free to get that. It will take you right through how to be sure you belong to Jesus. You can get it by calling 877-741-1200. Or you can go right to our website and get it at YoursForLife.net. Right there is all the information you need to know that you belong to Jesus Christ.
So many times you thought you had what would fill you up, but it ran out of gas. You're empty again, but maybe for the last time. Because you're about to let Jesus fill that hole in your heart once and for all.