If you think about it, it’s really wonderful news to know that we get the living water simply by coming to Jesus and believing in Him (and as we saw yesterday, asking Him for it). Jesus didn’t say, “if you’re thirsty just keep digging because someday you’ll find water.” No, He just invited us to come to Him and receive it.
We don’t have to clean up our lives first, we don’t have to join a church first, we don’t have to reform, do better, try harder or any of those things. We just come to Jesus.
Notice how another passage in the Bible makes this same invitation:
Isaiah 55:1-2 NIV "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. (2) Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Again the invitation is to “the thirsty”, and we are invited to come to the waters and drink freely. And then a question is asked, and we should consider this question today: “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?”
In other words, there is living water within your grasp, water that will quench your thirst and satisfy your desires forever. So why are you spending time and money on what doesn’t satisfy? For our purposes in this course, we could ask, “Why do we spend time and money on gaming? Why do we turn to media to satisfy our cravings, or our boredom, or our longings? Why do we look for water where there is no water?”
Notice from John 7:37-39, we see that to get the living water we must come to Jesus and believe in Him.
Believing in Jesus means that:
Jesus came to this earth for the purpose of living perfectly and obeying God’s law perfectly, so that all His good living and all His obedience to the Law could be put to your account.
It is as if God looks at you and sees that you have perfectly obeyed His Law, that you have not done one single thing wrong your entire life (from birth to death)—all because of Jesus’ perfect living that gets credited to your account.
Similarly, you are believing that Jesus took your sins, all the wrongs you have done-every bad word and every wrong act—off of you, and took them on Himself. He then suffered under the guilt of your sin so that you might never have to suffer for your sins yourself. God, the Father put Jesus on a cross to pay for the wrongs you have done, so that when you believe you are seen as completely without sin. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, you have no sin and no guilt, and you are viewed by God as perfect, holy and righteous (no matter what you have done). “But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—“ (Colossians 1:22 NIV).
This is what it means to come to Jesus and believe in Him.
Question 5. According to John 7:37-39, what is the “living water” that Jesus gives to thirsty people who come to Him and believe in Him?
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Yes, now we understand that the “living water” is the Holy Spirit. When you believe in Jesus, God gives you the Holy Spirit to live inside of you. He comes into your life, and He’s like a river that washes us inside, makes us clean and fills our hearts and satisfies our desires. The Holy Spirit flows through us, and even out of us to other people who are thirsty, and now we have not only received but we also have something to give. We will talk more about the Holy Spirit in later lessons.
In the next lesson, we are going to finish the story of the woman at the well, and we are going to see something amazing. We are going to see the effect this encounter with Jesus had on the woman. This effect has a direct connection with media addiction. I think you’ll see the application as soon as we study it together tomorrow.
I look forward to seeing you then!
Question 6. How is everything going for you right now? Please share with us anything that you would like for us to pray with you about.
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