Monday, December 3, 2018
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For many years, my wife's father managed to squeeze out a living for his family on this little farm in the Ozarks. It was always a battle financially, but the battle got really intense the summer of the long drought. My wife talked about it so many times. First, he emptied all three of their ponds to get water; then all of the ponds on his parents' adjacent property. Then a friend let him use his well that had never gone dry. Well, it did go dry that summer. Finally, Dad had no choice but to find water and dig a well on his property. But that meant mortgaging a lot of his cattle. And as the well diggers had to go deeper, it eventually meant mortgaging all his cattle. And they never found water. His farming days were over.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Soul Thirsty."
My wife's dad had the frustrating experience of desperately needing something to satisfy thirst and pouring everything into looking for it...and coming up with nothing. That's a feeling a lot of people have-maybe you. But the search, in this case, is an emotional one; actually, it's a spiritual one. Where is the spiritual water that will satisfy this lifetime emptiness, this lifetime loneliness, this lifetime restlessness in my soul?
Maybe you have a lot of empty ponds you've looked in. Maybe you've gone looking in a special relationship, but it ultimately turned out to be a dry hole. Maybe you've searched in your work, your religion, your studies, your children, your success, but here you are today as thirsty in your soul as you were when you began. It's been the season of the long drought.
It had been a very long drought for the woman Jesus talked to in our word for today from the Word of God in John 4:13-14. In her case, her "wells" had been a series of relationships with men that she thought would satisfy the needs of her heart. No one had. One day she meets Jesus at, of all things, a well. And He begins to talk to her about a source of spiritual fulfillment that would have that quality nothing and no one on earth could offer her. It would be (in his words) "everlasting."
Here are Jesus' words to all of us who are tired of sinking everything we have into what we hope will be a well, only to find out it's ultimately a dry hole. "Jesus answered (her), '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." Notice Jesus said, "I will put the source of your peace and your satisfaction in you." See, that's where no drought can ever touch it.
Jesus is actually making that same offer to people everywhere today. He's making an offer to you today. See, the reason He came to this planet was because we were all cut off from the source of everything we're looking for. We're cut off from God by our sin; by a life of doing it "my way" instead of God's way. In fact, instead of the eternal life Jesus is offering, the Bible says we're facing eternal death because that's what our sin costs. But Jesus loves you so much that He took your death penalty for your sin when He died on the cross. So now God can forgive you and come into your life and let you into His heaven when you die.
But it isn't enough just to have Jesus around you, which you may have a lot of because maybe you've had a lot of Christianity. But maybe you've never opened up your life to Jesus to be in you. All around you maybe, but that's never going to satisfy the thirst of your soul-only Jesus in your heart, in your soul. And He's in you only if you've pinned all your hopes on Him to be your Savior from your sin.
If there's never been a time that you've done that and you want this, let it be today. If you want to begin a relationship with Him and finally find the love you were made for, tell Him today, "Jesus, I believe you died for my sin. I'm not running my life anymore, you are. I'm Yours."
I'd love to help you cross that threshold which the Bible calls "from death to life". And that's what our website is there for. It's called ANewStory.com. It would be a very good time for you to visit there in the next few minutes or hours. ANewStory.com.
For you, that long drought can end today, right where you are. It really all depends on one thing: what you do with Jesus.