Satisfied in the Savior

Intro

You ever wake up in the middle of the night and feel extremely thirsty?

I experience this once every few weeks, it’ll be like 3 in the morning and I will wake up and feel like I hadn’t had a drink of water in a week.

So I get up, start stumbling around my room, trying not to fall down, wake my roommate up, or knock over a bookshelf right next to a bathroom door.

When I finally get to the bathroom and start drinking water, and in that moment, it is one of the most satisfying feelings I could have.

All of us feel this need to be satisfied by something

However, bc of sin, we crave things other than God.

Sin changes our desires to the point where we don’t naturally search after God to satisfy us.

Maybe you feel this way.

We all innately feel a need to be satisfied, but we often don’t turn to the true source of satisfaction

HOOK: We were created to be satisfied by something eternal. When that satisfaction isn’t found in Christ, we go looking for it in all the wrong places.

Today we look at substances: Drugs, Tobacco, Alcohol

All of us are affected by these in one way or another

From 2016-2020, Drug use went up 61% among 8th graders

62% of teens in Sr yr of HS have abused alcohol

50% of teens have misused a drug at least once.

This shows us two things:

Some of you have yourselves been exposed to drugs and alcohol, or will be exposed to it

Someone close to you probably has used drugs or alcohol

This effects every one of us.

The question to ask is why do we turn to these things? I believe it is because people look for it to satisfy some desire of theirs.

We all long for something, but people can often times look to the wrong things to satisfy

Maybe you want to feel accepted or seen

Maybe their is a pain you are trying to numb

Maybe there is a void inside you that you are trying to fill with substance.

Whatever it is, know from the get go that none of these things can ever bring you what you are searching for. They will pull you down, and leave you there.

So where do we turn when we are seeking satisfaction?

Introduce the Women at the Well

Turn to John 4

Call And Response: When Life Pulls You Down, ____________.

In John 4, we read about an interaction Jesus has with a Samaritan women.

Historically, Jews and Samaritans have never had a good relationship.

Chiefs and Raiders

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders have been in a heated rivalry for every bit of the last 60 or so years.

Both teams have historically battled for the top place in their conference, and it has been nothing but intense.

One incident in particular in 2020 occurred when the Raiders and the Chiefs were battling it out, and after the Raiders won, they took a victory lap around Arrowhead field. One can only imagine the disdain these two teams have for each other.

if you think that this rivalry is bad, the heat between these two was way worse.

A few interesting things to note as we move in,

Women usually would not go to draw water at this hour of day

Women would not go to draw water by themselves

Chances are, this women had a reason she went in the manner she did, she probably did not want to be seen, and now we see that she is going to experience radical transformation.

Main Idea: Your true satisfaction should not be found in a substance, it should be found in the Savior.

In this passage, we see how Jesus satisfies our desires.

Jesus Shows Us our True Desire (vv. 7-12)

Exp.

Often, when someone turn to things like drugs or alcohol, it is because they have a desire for something more than that.

No matter what, there is a deeper reason for searching out those things.

John 4:7–12 ESV

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 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.) 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.” 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? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

In this passage the woman goes to the well and Jesus asks her for water, and when she asks Jesus why, he turns it around on her.

In v. 10, Jesus makes a reference to living water, using a common illustration to reveal a deeper meaning.

This entire conversation is not about physical water for the women, it is about a deeper spiritual need that she has.

He shows her that people who go back to the well always return because they are still thirsty.

We all thirst for something, and often times, people can use drugs or alcohol to quench that thirst. They think that chasing the next high will give them the satisfaction they long for. However, just like the women, it never fully satisfies, bringing them back again.

Jesus in this altercation shows us that we all truly have a desire for something.

When Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink, he turned it into a spiritual question.

All of us have a spiritual desire, something our hearts are truly after.

Ill.

think back to the water glass

When i take a sip of water, i still feel thirsty and have to take another sip. My desire still hasn’t been fulfilled

Apl.

what is it that you desire? What is your heart truly after?

Do you realize the reason we are tempted to turn to substances like drugs and alcohol is because we have a deeper desire that we think they can satisfy.

However, just as the women at the well shows, we can never be satisfied with them.

Jesus Offers Us True Satisfaction (vv. 13-15)

Exp

John 4:13–15 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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.” 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.”

Jesus shows that the only thing that satisfies is living water

Jesus continues using the water as an analogy for real spiritual thirst.

The woman had to learn that there was nothing that could satisfy other than this living water.

the one who drinks of the living water will never thirst again

Can you imagine what that must have felt like?

This women came to the well every day to draw water so that she could have something to drink, now Jesus is saying that she can have a water that will completely quench her thirst.

Jesus then says that this water will satisfy in the moment and for eternity

Jesus calls this a spring of living water

When we turn to Jesus, our needs are met for all time.

A spring of living water insinuates something you can go to time and again

The woman didn’t just receive satisfaction in that moment, but a source of satisfaction for all time.

When we turn away from our desires and toward Jesus, we receive a source of satisfaction that renews us daily

Drugs and alcohol can never do that for you

You may feel like they can bring you joy in the moment, but it is only temporary, if that. When we trust in Jesus, we receive satisfaction that lasts for eternity.

Drugs, alcohol, and other substances may make you feel slightly less thirsty in the moment, but that actually end up making you MORE thirsty.

*Emphasize this*

Once Jesus revealed to her this water, she realized how much she needed to be truly satisfied.

The Woman requests a drink of the living water

She knows that once she tastes this living water, she will never have to go back for more.

Ill

Imagine your hiking on a hot summer day, and you get very thirsty. You have some water, but not enough to satisfy your thirst.

Then you come across a mountain stream of crystal clear water.

You start taking a drink and go to get more and realize that as much water as you take, the stream continues to flow. While you may have already ran out of water in your water bottle, this stream doesn’t seem to be losing water anytime soon.

Apl

talk about the vicious cycle

When we turn drugs or alcohol, they may give you a temporary satisfaction, but will leave you wanting more. In some cases, this can you cause you to go back to them again and again. Later you begin to realize that the very thing you think will satisfy you makes you want more than before.

It is a vicious cycle.

There is only one thing that can truly satisfy our desires, and it’s Jesus.

Are you completely satisfied in Jesus?

What does it mean to be satisfied in Jesus?

Is he enough, is he your delight. Do you feel like he truly meets your every need. Are you completely content in him?

If not, how are you cultivating a relationship with him to get there?

The more we spend time with Jesus, the more we recognize how He satisfies us in every way.

Transition Statement: Once we find our satisfaction in Jesus, not a substance, we have to turn away from the other things in life that we look to

Jesus Calls Us to Truly Surrender (vv. 28-29)

Exp

John 4:28–29 ESV

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

notice the women’s response after seeking the living water.

She left her water jar.

The very thing that brought her to the well, she left at the feet of Jesus and ran to tell others about what she had experienced.

Once she found satisfaction in Christ, she could leave her old way of living and pursue a new purpose, telling others about Jesus.

Once she surrendered, she could live in the freedom that she was always meant to live in.

Not giving into drugs and alcohol is about way more than just not drinking or smoking, it is about surrendering yourself to God and letting him be the one who fulfills your desire.

Just like the woman, anyone who struggles with substances can still turn to God and be freed from the burden of trying to fulfill their desires on their own.

The woman at the well shows us an example of what true surrender is like.

Ill

Imagine having something that you are continually going to for satisfaction again and again

You don’t know the danger of it

Every time you try to leave, you are urged to come back.

This is what the women experienced, and it is the same feeling that Drugs and Alcohol can give someone.

Apl

The women left what she brought at the feet of Jesus, she experienced freedom and you can to.

addiction to things like drugs and alcohol will only leave you wanting more. You need to truly surrender everything.

For some this may mean surrender your desire to be fulfilled by something of this world.

For others, you may need to surrender your whole life.

What is the Water Jar you need to surrender?

GOSPEL

Without the living water, we can never be fully satisfied, only when we trust in Jesus we can be satisfied.

Believe the Good News

GOSPEL

Our sin separates us from God, and causes us to look for things to fill the void in our life that he was meant to fill

When we trust in Jesus, he becomes the thing that we find the most joy in.

No longer do you need to seek out a substance to give you temporary joy, because there is a savior who has given you eternal joy.

We can always be satisfied in him, because he has given us eternal life.

Conclusion

Now imagine a day when you wake up in the morning and never feel thirsty, never feel like you need a drink of water again.

That is the satisfaction Jesus gives us.

So when you feel like you need to look to drugs or alcohol to satisfy, look instead to Jesus, and he will satisfy your every need.