Sermon Tone Analysis

It was about 9:00 at night when I made a fairly normal evening that night—I don’t remember anything significant happening.

I just remember opening the basement door to check on the washing machine and being surprised to hear that it was still running.

This was the first time we had used this particular washing machine, and we got it second-hand.

I turned on the light, and a quick trip down the stairs to the basement presented me with a sight that no one wants to see: Our laundry room floor was filled with water, and it was seeping under the paneling on the walls and into the finished rooms in the rest of the basement.

To complicate matters, the previous owner of the home blocked off the floor drain, so there wasn’t anywhere for the water to go.

I immediately stopped the washer, called my dad, and started cleaning up.

So what went wrong?

The sensor that tells the washer when it is full was not properly connected, so instead of stopping when it should have, the water just continued to overflow.

It would have run forever if we hadn’t stopped it that night.

It was connected to town water, so it would have kept overflowing as long as it stayed on.

Although it was a troubling sight that night, it gives us a great picture of the principle Jesus is outlining for us today.

In fact, here’s the main thing I want you to see this morning: If we have come to Christ, our lives should overflow with him.

We are going to see Jesus use a picture today that he has already used in several chapters recently.

Again, he is going to call the thirsty among us to drink deeply of him.

If you have been with us, that should sound familiar.

We saw that back in chapter 4, where Jesus talked to the woman at the well and told her that anyone who drinks the water he gives will never thirst again.

The emphasis there was that we need to recognize our need for Jesus, and that he alone can satisfy our deepest needs.

Last week, we saw him use this picture again in chapter 6, especially in verse 35:

As we went through the rest of the chapter, we saw that feeding on Christ requires belief that goes down to the very core of who we are.

We don’t need a surface-level tasting of Christ; instead, we need to believe in him with everything we have and are.

Finding that lasting satisfaction, then, calls me to give up everything.

Now, as we revisit that same picture in chapter 7, we are going to focus on what happens when we do turn to Christ and feed on him or drink the living water he offers.

We are just going to focus on verses 37-39, but we need to talk about what is going on in the rest of the chapter to make sense of it all.

Let’s read these verses first...

This is where we get our main idea: if we have come to Christ, our lives should overflow with him.

Now, let’s back up and get some context.

Look back at John 7:1-2...

Everything in chapter 7 takes place around the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles/Booths/Shelters.

This is a festival that took place five days after the observation of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement.

It was at the end of the grape, olive, and fruit harvest, and it was a time of celebration.

People would flock to Jerusalem and build shelters all over the city to remember the time when they wandered in the wilderness.

Every day, the priests would take a golden pitcher and draw water from the pool of Siloam.

They would then take that water to the temple and carry it around the altar while the people sang psalms of praise and thanksgiving to the God of the harvest.

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All week long, the Jews have been looking for and talking about Jesus.

The leaders are ready to have him arrested, and they even want him killed.

He has been teaching, but no one is willing to actually arrest him.

On the seventh day of the feast, the priests would go through this water ceremony seven times.

It appears that, right in the middle of the celebration and praying for water, Jesus stands up and calls out to the crowd.

In essence, he declares that he is the water they are seeking!

We are going to use three different words to describe our reaction to what Jesus says.

1) Thirst.

I don’t want us to spend a lot of time on these first two words, because we have talked about them a fair amount recently.

However, I want to remind those of us who have been here and bring anyone up to speed who hasn’t been a part of what we have been talking about.

Jesus says, “If anyone is thirsty...”

What we have maintained over the last few weeks is that, whether we acknowledge it or not, everyone’s heart is thirsty for something that will give them lasting satisfaction and identity.

When we looked at the woman at the well, we saw that she had tried to fill the thirst in her heart with relationships.

Ultimately, her multiple marriages were not able to soothe the ache in her heart.

We are all looking for something to fill the void that we feel in our hearts, whether we look for it in relationships, pleasure, comfort, hard work, or whatever we think will make us happy and valuable to ourselves and others.

Most of us live our lives trying to ignore that thirst.

We get like little kids who are tired and refuse to take a nap.

Have you ever been around a kid who promises you they aren’t tired, but they nod off or stare blankly at the TV?

Or, have you ever been around someone who assures you they aren’t sick, all the time coughing, blowing their nose, and looking at you with bloodshot eyes?

You won’t get well until you acknowledge that you are sick and you go get medicine or treatment.

That child won’t get rested until they lay down and take a nap.

In the same way, your heart won’t find the satisfaction it is crying out for until you recognize that you are spiritually thirsty.

We all are thirsty; the question is whether or not we will admit it.

Jesus’s words here in John 7 are directed at those who are willing to admit it—those who are willing to be man enough to admit that they can’t fix the mess of their lives on their own, or those women who are willing to let down their guard and acknowledge that they need him.

Jesus calls anyone who will recognize their thirst to come to him and drink.

Elsewhere, he even said that acknowledging your hunger and thirst is part of the way to be blessed:

Doesn’t that run contrary to what we think life is about?

We often think that the way to live a blessed life is to be self-sufficient—to have enough money or influence or stability that I don’t want or need anything from anyone.

Jesus says that true happiness, true blessing, is found in the opposite; it is found in recognizing a hunger and thirst for being right with God.

We have asked it several times in recent weeks, but let me ask you again: Have you ever acknowledged that you are thirsty?

Have you realized yet that nothing you can do on your own can ever satisfy that thirst?

If you never have, but you are reaching that point this morning, can I just tell you that you are in a great place right now?

You may feel like confused or disoriented because you just figured out that you have been going about life all wrong.

That is actually a tremendous thing, because it is only when God brings us to a point of acknowledging our thirst that we can move on to the second word we are focusing on this morning:

2) Drink.

Look back at verse 37.

Remember what is happening around Jesus as he is saying this.

The crowds are singing praise to God as the God of the harvest, and the priests are carrying golden pitchers of water as a reminder of the fact that God is the one who gave them water in the desert and provides the rain for their crops.

In the middle of all of that, Jesus stands up and declares that he is the one that they are talking about!

He is the God who gave rain for their harvests, and even more importantly, he is the God who gives life to our souls.

If your heart is thirsty and needs water, you need to come to Jesus and drink!

What does that look like?

How do we actually drink from Jesus?

Is that why we got a new water fountain in the Foyer?

No; the next verse actually gives us a hint.

Look at the first words in verse 38— “the one who believe in me...”

We come back to this idea that we have seen throughout the book of John: the way we receive this living water is by believing in Jesus.

Remember, that’s why John is writing this book!

If you are thirsty today, come drink deep and believe in Jesus.

Believe that he really is the Son of God who came in the flesh.

He really performed miracles that demonstrated his power over everything in creation.

He really did love the world so much that he would die in your place and mine and be raised from the dead so we didn’t have to keep looking for satisfaction and meaning and purpose and power in ourselves, but instead could surrender to him and live as a part of his kingdom forever.

This belief is more than just head knowledge; it is trusting him with everything we have and everything we are.

John returns to this over and over again because the message of the gospel is so essential.

You need your heart to settle on the truth that believing in Jesus is the only way to find eternal life and lasting satisfaction, and you need to be able to tell your friends where they can find life as well!

If you have never put your trust in Jesus, you need to believe in him.

Don’t just sip; drink deeply of the truth that he is in charge of everything in the world, and yet he loves you and wants you to know him and wants to work in you to help you find the life you were created to live.

Drink deeply by believing in him!

If you know you have received the living water that Jesus supplies, then let me ask you: what are you doing to help those around you find that water?

When is the last time you talked with someone you don’t think knows Jesus and helped them discover who he is?

You can’t save anyone; you can’t make them drink.

However, God can use you to help them hear about what Jesus has done, and he can use that to draw them to himself.

I mentioned at the beginning, though, that much of that is review for us.

What else does this passage have to say for those who have been saved, who have believed and have had a drink of that living water?

That brings us to our last term for today:

3) Overflow.

Read verse 38 with me again...