Is anyone thirsty
Isa 55:1-13
1 "Say there! Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink-- even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine and milk-- it's all free!
2 Why spend your money on food that doesn't give you strength? Why pay for groceries that do you no good? Listen and I'll tell you where to get good food that fattens up the soul!
3 "Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, for the life of your soul is at stake. I am ready to make an everlasting covenant with you, to give you all the unfailing mercies and love that I had for King David.
Ÿ God was truely merciful to David!
4 He proved my power by conquering foreign nations.
5 You also will command the nations, and they will come running to obey, not because of your own power or virtue, but because I, the Lord your God, have glorified you."
6 Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call upon him now while he is near.
7 Let men cast off their wicked deeds; let them banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy upon them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon!
8 "This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours!
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours.
10 "As the rain and snow come down from heaven and stay upon the ground to water the earth, and cause the grain to grow and to produce seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry,
11 so also is my Word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It shall accomplish all I want it to and prosper everywhere I send it.
12 You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills, the trees of the field-- all the world around you-- will rejoice.
13 Where once were thorns, fir trees will grow; where briars grew, the myrtle trees will sprout up. This miracle will make the Lord's name very great and be an everlasting sign [of God's power and love].(TLB)
Ÿ Is anyone thirsty?
Ÿ Why spend your money(life´s energy and substance) on food that doesn't give you strength?(satisfy)
Ÿ "Come to me(stop waiting for him to come to you) with your ears wide open(ready to hear what he has to say).
Ÿ Seek the Lord while you can find him.(there comes a time that our hearts can get so hard that we can´t find him)
Ÿ Let men cast off their wicked deeds; (Lifestyle repentance)
Ÿ let them banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! (Change our way of thinking)
Ÿ Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy upon them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon!
Ÿ This miracle will make the Lord's name very great and be an everlasting sign [of God's power and love]
John 4:5-26
5 and around noon as he approached the village of Sychar, he came to Jacob's Well, located on the parcel of ground Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jesus was tired from the long walk in the hot sun and sat wearily beside the well.
7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink.
8 He was alone at the time as his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
9 The woman was surprised that a Jew would ask a "despised Samaritan" for anything-- usually they wouldn't even speak to them!-- and she remarked about this to Jesus.
10 He replied, "If you only knew what a wonderful gift God has for you, and who I am, you would ask me for some living water!"
11 "But you don't have a rope or a bucket," she said, "and this is a very deep well! Where would you get this living water?
12 And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob? How can you offer better water than this which he and his sons and cattle enjoyed?"
13 Jesus replied that people soon became thirsty again after drinking this water.
14 "But the water I give them," he said, "becomes a perpetual spring within them, watering them forever with eternal life."
15 "Please, sir," the woman said, "give me some of that water! Then I'll never be thirsty again and won't have to make this long trip out here every day." *(Natural relief only)
16 "Go and get your husband," Jesus told her. *(Jesus hits the real problem)
17 "But I'm not married," the woman replied. "All too true!" Jesus said. "For you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now."
19 "Sir," the woman said, "you must be a prophet.
20 But say, tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here [at Mount Gerizim], where our ancestors worshiped?"
21 Jesus replied, "The time is coming, ma'am, when we will no longer be concerned about whether to worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. For it's not where we worship that counts, but how we worship-- is our worship spiritual and real? *(Religious) Do we have the Holy Spirit's help? For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should. The Father wants this kind of worship from us. But you Samaritans know so little about him, worshiping blindly, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes to the world through the Jews."
25 The woman said, "Well, at least I know that the Messiah will come-- the one they call Christ-- and when he does, he will explain everything to us." *(Pushed off into the future)
26 Then Jesus told her, "I am the Messiah!" (TLB)
Five substitutes for the real thing.
1. Natutral relief and security.. money, easier life, security for the future etc.
2. Relationship fulfillment.. Romantic, love, sexual fulfillment, homosexuality (substitution)no longer alone..
3. Religious correctness..find a security and fulfillment in trying to please God.(difference between all religions and christianity)
4. It will be better in the future..wishing, after death etc...
5. Hoplessness.. atheistic, pesimistic, escapism through dropping out of society, drug or alcohol abuse, TV, books(romance etc), living the lives of make believe heroes and those that succeed.
John 4:10
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and whoI am, you would ask me and I would give you living water."