Refreshment! - Part B

It's not like a well standing stagnant water like in a cistern. This is the living water, the stream of water that bubbles up continually. And it's within you. It's because when Christ is within you, when you receive Christ in you, that's the source of it all. That's where the living water comes from. So if it's within you, you don't have to keep looking without you on the outside.

That search is over. Welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. I don't know if you've ever been really, really hot and thirsty. But when you are, there's nothing better than a nice cold refreshment. I remember one time when I was visiting Israel, we hiked up to the top of Masada near the Dead Sea, and then hiked back down. That was no easy trek, especially in the summer. And by the time we reached the bottom, we were so desperate for anything cold. Now, fortunately, there was a very smart businessman who decided to have an ice cream cart right there at the bottom of the trail.

I just had a really I think I had three ice cream bars and nothing tasted as good or refreshing in my entire life. Well, even that doesn't begin to compare to the refreshing experience we can have when the Holy Spirit brings living water into our lives. Turn once more to John chapter four and let's join Skip Heitzig as he resumes our study today. Here's the question that I have for all of us. Have you ever wearied yourself in the pursuit of the souls of other men and women? Have you ever been a place where you're uncomfortable, hot, or just tired from communicating truth to other people? Missionaries make a life of this.

In fact, we marvel at missionaries. And quite honestly, when we see somebody willing to leave our country and go to another country, the question is always, why are you doing this? Why would you go to a place where it's gonna be very difficult and hot and hard and there's persecution?

Why would you do that? There's one simple answer to it. Because Jesus said, go.

That's why. He said, go. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

And he went himself and it was not easy. I've told you this before, it bears repeating. Right now, the population of this dirt clod we call the Earth floating through space, 6.8 billion people on it. 6.8 billion people. The task of evangelism on that little ball is enormous because most of them don't know what we know in terms of truth or Christ. So it's been estimated that if you took all of the unsaved, lost people on planet Earth and they formed a line, the line would go around, single file line, around the Earth, around the whole Earth, 30 times, and the line is growing 20 miles longer every single day. The task is enormous.

It's huge. Now I don't say that to make you feel guilty, but to warn us as a church to not let church become all inward oriented. Many churches turn inward. It becomes a bless me club. That's your job, pastor. Here I am to be blessed. Now bless me.

And all of the energy and focus and programs are for the benefit of only those who come weekly. In 1963, it took the world two to three hours to hear about the death of John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas. In 1999, it took the world two to three minutes to hear of the death of JFK Jr. when his plane went down in the Atlantic.

Well, it's been 2,000 years since Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead, and we have a lot of technology today at our disposal. Most people around the world haven't heard it. I read something recently, 51% of the population on planet Earth, 51%.

It's just slightly over half, but it's significant. 51% have tasted Coke, Coca-Cola. Talk about a strategy for marketing. Here's a corporation that says, we gotta get everybody to drink Coke. 51% of Earth has tasted Coca-Cola. Now I know that things go better with Coke, but things go really better with Christ, eternally. And so here we have this task, and I know that we can't go all of us across the world, but how about just across town?

How about just across the street? Or how about just being partners with those who are willing to go across the world to be their prayer support and their financial support? That's part of the process. Here's the third reality about this refreshment and living water, and that is the heart is insensible. What I mean is simply without feeling.

They're numb to their own condition. The world needs it. It's a universal need. It's a formidable task because there are so many people, but the human heart is hardened to it, as revealed here in this woman. Verse seven, woman of Samaria came to draw water. Now watch, Jesus said to her, give me a drink.

The disciples have gone away to buy food, verse nine. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, now listen to her tone, see if you can pick it up. How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? John writes, for the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you'd have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with. The well is deep.

Where then do you get that? Living water. Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Now, it's a simple conversation and Jesus begins it with a simple request.

Give me a drink. Then he quickly moves the conversation into deeper spiritual levels as we go. All the while he's doing that, the whole concept of the spiritual level, the metaphor of living water, does this to her, right over her head. She's going, listen, right over, doesn't even get it. And she is revealing that she doesn't even get it. Listen to her tone. How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink of water? So Jesus says in verse 10, if you knew, which implies that she doesn't know.

She doesn't get it. And there's something that would help at this point. 2,000 years ago in Jewish vernacular, you know what living water was? Nothing more than flowing water. It was a contrast to water in a well or water in a cistern that didn't move. It was collected, but it was standing water. It was stagnant water. Living water was water on the move, a stream of water was living water. So that's what she's thinking of.

Jesus is meaning it spiritually, but she's taking it very, very literally. Like she's saying, where is the stream? Tell me where the stream is. Jacob didn't find the stream. He wouldn't have dug this 100 foot well if he found the stream. So you found this little living water stream.

Where is it? She doesn't get what Jesus is saying to her yet. Now, if she would have known her Bible just a little bit better, she would have picked up on it. Because all throughout the Old Testament, there is this analogy of refreshment using the term water, but it speaks of the inner refreshment of the soul. Psalm 42, as the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God, my soul thirsts for God, the living God. Isaiah chapter 12 promises, you will drink deeply from the fountains of salvation. That's all a spiritual metaphor. Here's the best Old Testament passage that fits right in with this. In Jeremiah chapter two, listen to what God says.

He says, for my people have committed two evils. Number one, they've forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug out for themselves cisterns that are broken cisterns that can hold no water. They've rejected me, the fountain of living water. They've dug out their own experiences, these wells, these cisterns, and they're broken because they can't even hold water. But she, again, is like, here's the woman, and here's what Jesus said, flew right over her head.

Now, what she reveals here is the condition, I believe, of every human heart, and here it is. People are massively thirsty, but they don't admit it. Many of them, frankly, don't even realize it.

They're not even in touch with the need. Do you find it interesting that both Nicodemus and the woman reacted to what Jesus said to each of them in a very wooden, literal kind of a way? Remember Nicodemus? Jesus said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. He goes, oh, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? And here's the woman at the well going, where's that stream?

I can't see that stream. Now, that is typically the condition of people today. We live in a culture that is a post-Christian culture.

I hope you know that. It is a post-Christian culture. It is a mechanistic, materialistic culture that says, science has all the answers. There's no room at all for spirituality. There's no room for God.

Well, that's what the Bible predicts. First Corinthians two, Paul writes, for the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

Did you get that? What is spiritual truth to the average natural man or unbeliever? Foolishness. You know how the world views us, right? We're like, the lights are on but nobody's home. We're like dimwitted. We're mental midgets in their view. We're not thinking people.

Bunch of idiots believe that stuff. I got this the first day of college. My integrated zoology professor, first day of class, stood up and these were his first words. How many people in my class are stupid enough to believe in creation? This is his opening remark.

I'm a brand new Christian. I put my hand up. I'm dumb enough to believe it.

Right over here, dumb. Believe it. There's maybe two other students but they sort of went like this. That's what we're up against. Have you ever shared with somebody the gospel and they don't get it? They don't see it. You've labored and the way you've crafted your talk, your witness to them, you're thinking, this is good.

I'm good. And they're going, huh? And you're wondering, why don't they get it? It's the same reason a blind person doesn't get a beautiful sunset.

You could all day, isn't that great? Look at the hues, the colors, look at the marvelous clouds. They don't have the faculties to enjoy it.

They lack capacity. If you were to describe a beautiful symphony to somebody who's deaf, they have other wonderful capacities but that's the one capacity that they lack. It's very difficult to convey the sound nuance to that person and so it is very difficult because of the insensibility of the heart to tell people the truth unless God opens up that heart, which he will to the Samaritan woman before the day's end.

Now, here's the fourth and final reality about the spiritual living water, this refreshment. The Savior is capable. He can do it. But he promises he can perform and he will in this woman's life. Verse 13, he says, here's the promise, two of them. Whoever drinks of this water, that's her water, that's the water from the well, will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The New Living Translation says the water that I give him will take away his thirst altogether. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. You could take verse 13 as the banner statement to write above every earthly pursuit. Think about it. Every earthly pursuit, short of Christ, you could write over that pursuit, drink of this water and you'll thirst again.

Oh, if I only had that person, I could marry her or him. Drink of this water and you will thirst again. Oh, if only I made that much money, drink of this water and you'll thirst again. Oh, if I could only live in that neighborhood, drink of this water and you'll thirst again.

Whatever it is, that's the banner statement for that experience. You'll just get thirsty again. The attempt to quench spiritual thirst with worldly things is like what happens to those ill-fated sailors when they're out at sea and they run out of food and water. You've heard the stories that get so desperate, you know what they drink? Ocean water.

It's the last desperate measure to get water into their system, but it's salty water, as you know, and it makes their condition worse and worse and worse and worse and more desperate and it can kill them. Now, this whole search begins when we're quite young. It's part of the human condition. That's why I began with a statement that satisfaction doesn't come naturally.

It comes supernaturally. When we're kids, you remember back? You were a kid and you were part of the if only syndrome that followed you through life. If only. So you're a kid and you go, if only I were a teenager.

Life would be good. Then you get there. It's not enough. Now you're a teenager and you say, if only I had a car. And though you get there, you get a car. You're a teenager, you got a car, but you also got parents. So now you're saying, if only I was out of the house on my own in college and so you get there.

It's still not enough. Because now you're thinking, if only I could get married. So you get there, you get married. Now it's, if only I had children, I'd be happy.

And so you get there and then it's like, if only my children would grow up and get out of the house, I could have some peace and quiet called retirement. And on and on and on it goes, it's rather like eating Chinese food for dinner. Doesn't matter how much you have, couple hours later you're hungry again. Drink of this water and you'll thirst again.

But Jesus is capable of fulfilling the promise. Not only to give you refreshment, but did you notice what he said? It's permanent refreshment. He says, you're not just gonna be refreshed.

It's permanent because he says, look at the end of verse 14. The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. That's a perpetual spring. It's not like a well standing stagnant water like in a cistern. This is the living water, the stream of water that bubbles up continually. And it's within you. It's because when Christ is within you, when you receive Christ in you, that's the source of it all. That's where the living water comes from. So if it's within you, you don't have to keep looking without you on the outside.

That search is over. It's a spring of water. I recently got a new puppy at home. It's a little Welsh terrier.

He's about six, seven months old now. His name is Mac. And Mac is the happiest creature on planet earth. You know how dogs are.

I marvel at how happy he is. That little tail goes wagging. You know, when I come home, if I've been gone all day and I come home, it's like I hung the moon. Because you came home, you came home. And the tail, it's like wow, right?

And it's like you feel great so much. And I was watching him this week wagging that little tail, just getting so happy at nothing. And it reminded me of a story of a little boy who was promised a puppy. And he was taken into the pet store. His dad said, you can have any puppy you want. And he looked around and he saw this one dog wagging its tail and he goes, Daddy, I want the one with a happy ending.

And you know what? If we could take every human being into the store of life and say what life do you want, they would inevitably say, I want the life with a happy ending. You can have it. In fact, it doesn't just have to be a happy ending. It can be a refreshed, satisfied middle as well.

Please understand, I'm not promising you a Sears catalog or 500 of your greatest needs met. I'm talking about an inward spiritual refreshment that comes from having Christ within. Oh, you'll have the happy ending. That'll come with it.

But you'll have the happy, satisfied, refreshed middle to go along with it. I can just hear Jesus saying to some of us what he said to this woman. If you only knew, if you only knew the gift. The gift, and some of us are still listening and going, oh, if you only knew.

That's what he promises. But I do have a concern. Because some of you are believers and you're thinking, yeah, I hear what you're saying, but you know what? I'm a Christian, Skip, and I haven't been really, I haven't been satisfied.

I haven't been refreshed. I'm not gonna try to analyze you all, but I will say this. If it were just a well, you could cover it up. If it's a spring, you can't cover that up. If it's a well, you can put dirt in it and nobody sees it. But if it's a spring and you cover it up with dirt, eventually it's gonna reveal itself, right? Water's gonna keep coming up. And sometimes believers try to cover up the spring. And all you do when you put dirt over a spring is make a muddy mess. When all the while you should be drinking deeply from that spring, get back to that spring.

Go back to him, drink deeply from him and taste that satisfied life again. Well, contrary to what the song says, I can't get no satisfaction. We can find satisfaction, not only in this life, but for all eternity as well. That river of living water can come flowing out of all of us to refresh not only our soul, but the souls of everyone we encounter.

Doesn't that sound great? Doesn't that sound exactly like what you hope following Christ will be like? You can't experience it.

All it takes is a little humility and a whole lot of the Holy Spirit. Well, that's going to do it for today. But before we go, let's find out more about this month's Connect with Skip resource offer. Our lives are punctuated by defining moments, pivot points that shape who we are now and who we'll become, such as choice of marriage partner or where we choose to work as Skip Heitzig observes. There's predictable events that happens like in your life, but every now and then life sort of hits you by surprise. It comes crashing down on you. You are going a direction, your day is planned out, but you get a phone call from a doctor or a friend.

The news is not good, the prognosis is not good and you didn't see it coming. God's word has the direction to get you through the planned and unplanned pivot points in your life. The pivot point package speaks to marriage, death, depression, recovery, fear of the future and moving to a new location or job. Get these teachings that include written personal direction from Skip on each of these topics. You'll receive this package when you give $50 or more today to this Bible teaching ministry. We'll send you Pastor Skip's pivot points collection of six messages plus an encouraging letter from Pastor Skip so you can strengthen your faith in defining moments.

A faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. Get these critical pivot point messages today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. That's also how you can get in touch with us for a copy of today's study.

It's available for just $4 plus shipping when you call 1-800-922-1888. We'll continue to talk about the refreshing waters of eternal life and how to share them when we resume our series next time right here in Connect with Skip weekend edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing.

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