Reaching the Ravenous
Jesus Reaches the Lost  Part 2
John 4:1-23	11-10-2013
Summary: Jesus shares the gospel with this woman in a very different way than He did with Nicodemus. He gets her attention with startling kindness, then offers her water (as she was obviously unsatisfied). He showed the superiority of living water (satisfaction not temporary). When she tried to change the subject, Jesus accepted her topic, but not her emphasis. He pressed in talking about the heart. When she asked for the living water, He pointed out that she had to be a true worshipper (requiring a work of the Spirit and conforming with truth) to get it. 
Introduction
Review
Offer Water
Purposeful Acts of Kindness
Showcase the Water
Strategy for Sharing the Gospel – Get ‘em Thirsty
Two Sins
God is a Spring, not a Butler
Expose God-Thirst
Our Thirst is for God
He Will Satisfy
Require Worship
Focus on the Heart
In Spirit
In Truth
Conclusion: Counseling Center
James 1:25 Questions

John 4:1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."  17 "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."  19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 

Introduction
Review
The last time I preached (2 weeks ago) we learned from Jesus how to share the gospel with a person who thinks he is saved but you suspect he is not. You have to make it clear to people like that what a life of genuine saving faith in Christ really looks like, so they can see for themselves whether or not their faith fits the description. 
That was John 3. Now, in chapter 4 Jesus has another opportunity to share the gospel with someone, but He does not pull out His “You must be born again” speech. He does not say anything to her about being born again, He does not mention the kingdom of God, He does not even quote John 3:16. He does not repeat anything from chapter 3 – it is a completely different approach. Why? Because it is a different person. When Jesus talked to people, He engaged with them. He listened to them and responded to them. He dealt with people where they were.
For Jesus the gospel was not a spiel. When we turn the gospel into a canned, memorized sales pitch, and we don’t really listen to people or care about what they think, we miss opportunities to address the issues that are blocking their pathway to faith.
If you really love the person you are talking to, you will not only want to give them the truth, but you will also care about what is on their heart, and so you will ask genuine questions and really listen. Instead of spending your mental energy thinking of a clever comeback, you will think hard about what they are saying and how they feel and what it is like to be in their shoes.
But there is a problem with that. What if they don’t want to talk about the gospel? What if they are just focused on earthly things? Then what? How can you engage with what is on their heart, and still keep on track talking about what is really important? Jesus is going to show us how to do that.
Offer Water
Jesus takes this in two steps. Step 1 – offer water. Jesus is going to offer this woman living water. But He does not open with that. If you just walk up to someone on the street and say, “I would like to give you living water that will become a spring bubbling up inside you forever,” he’s going to say, “Weirdo!” and walk away. Jesus needs to get a conversation going and make this woman willing to listen to Him. And the way He does that is very simple – He shows her kindness.
Purposeful Acts of Kindness
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 
Go back to the deep south in the 1950’s, where you could walk into a store and there would be two drinking fountains – one that said, “White” and the other, “Colored.” They would build their whole plumbing system in a store just so white people could avoid drinking out of the same drinking fountain as a black person. Multiply that times about 100 and you have the attitude of the Jews toward drinking out of a Samaritan vessel. It was considered incredibly defiling to a Jew, and they would not dream of doing it. Add to that, that it was taboo for a man to speak with any woman in public because of the extremely low view they had of women in that culture. Add to that the fact that Jesus was a rabbi and this was an openly immoral woman – probably an outcast. Jesus is a famous Jewish rabbi. And this woman is at the bottom – immoral, outcast, Samaritan trash. And Jesus does not ask if He can drink out of this well. He wants to drink out of her cup! This is an act of startling kindness and acceptance – so startling that the woman asks for an explanation.
9 ...I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 
That act of kindness made her willing to listen. Kindness is a great way to start up a gospel conversation, but please understand, kindness in itself is not the gospel. I was meeting with a group of pastors in Boulder one time and they wanted all the churches to get together and hand out drinks to the runners at the Bolder Boulder race. And I asked the question about the purpose – what were we trying to accomplish? Someone suggested that it could be a witnessing opportunity, and then another pastor stood up and said, “No, we can’t have any ulterior motive.” He wanted it to just be kindness for kindness sake. Just give them the water and let them be on their way. Is that a good strategy? I don’t see Jesus doing that. When this woman asks Him, “Why are being so nice to me?” Jesus doesn’t say, “Oh, no reason. Just a random act of kindness.” I don’t think Jesus ever did random anything. He was kind to people and then He preached the truth to them. And when they showed no interest in the truth, He moved on. He fed the multitude, then preached, they weren’t interested in the message, and so when they came back wanting more food – even though Jesus could have effortlessly fed them, He didn’t, because He could tell they weren’t interested in His message.
When people want to show kindness without any ulterior motive of sharing the gospel, it makes me wonder if they even believe the gospel. You have to wonder if they believe hell really exists. If your neighbors’ house is burning down you don’t just bring them a plate of cookies and tell them to have a nice day. We are not in the business of just making people feel more comfortable on the way to hell. Jesus shows this woman startling kindness. But how much time does He spend on that before He gets to the presentation of the gospel? One sentence. Small talk is great if it leads to big talk, but we need to make sure we get to the heart of the issue.
Showcase the Water
So how do you offer a person living water? First, get their attention – perhaps with an act of startling kindness. Then what? From there Jesus immediately begins telling this woman about the superiority of what He is offering over what she is running after.
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  
She thinks this water is so great – especially since the great patriarch Jacob actually dug this very well with his own hands. But as great as that is, Jesus points out to this woman the problem with Jacob’s water. And it is a problem she cannot deny – its effects are temporary. You drink it to quench your thirst, and it works great – for a while. But hours later what happens? You are right back to being thirsty. No matter how much you drink - just go one or two days and you will be completely dehydrated. A couple more days and you will be dead. It does not matter how much you drink or what you drink – the effects will only be temporary.
What we have to offer people is something they cannot get anywhere else – perpetual satisfaction. Do the things of this world satisfy? Absolutely. Jesus does not argue that. The pleasures of this world can be incredibly satisfying. But they only satisfy for a very short time, and then they leave you empty. Jesus is offering something that satisfies forever. So the way Jesus offers this water is by showing her how desirable this water really is.
Strategy for Sharing the Gospel – Get ‘em Thirsty
Now if you have been in this church any length of time, the concept of the hunger and thirst of the soul is nothing new to you. We talk about this a lot around here because the Bible talks about it a lot. God is forever comparing Himself to food and drink – water, wine, milk, food, a banquet, a feast – just as food and drink satisfy the cravings of the body, so the presence of God satisfies the soul. That is not new. But what might be new to you is the fact that Jesus used that principle as a strategy for sharing the gospel with an unbeliever. Share the gospel by showing the person how he or she can finally find satisfaction for the deep longing in his soul.
Now, that strategy will not work with everyone because some people insist they are already fully satisfied. You tell them, “You can find joy and satisfaction of soul!” and they say, “Oh, I already have that. I’m full of joy.” While people are enjoying the short-term, temporary pleasure of sin, they do not feel any great hunger or thirst. So when you are dealing with those types, the best approach may be the one Jesus used with Nicodemus in chapter 3 that we studied last time. But when it is clear that a person is not happy, and they are longing for something, that is usually a great time to take the approach Jesus took with this woman.
Someone comes to you and is struggling with overeating, a drinking problem, or she is beside herself because her marriage is so miserable, or he can’t stand his job, or has trouble with  depression, overspending, addiction, despair, enslavement to some sin – all of those things are symptoms of trying to satisfy the thirst of the soul for God with some earthly thing that cannot provide lasting satisfaction. And they are a perfect gateway to the gospel.
But let’s make sure we get the message right. The message is not, “Jesus can help you get a better marriage.” The message is, “A good marriage isn’t what satisfies the soul. But the presence of Christ will satisfy your soul even if your marriage never gets any better.”
Two Sins
Any time a person comes to me with any of those problems I always take them to Jeremiah 2:12.
Jeremiah 2:12 Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the LORD. 
The whole creation is called to shake in horror because of this massive sin he is about to describe. What is this sin that is so incredibly wicked? Actually, it is two sins.
13 My people have committed two sins…
Sin #1:
…They have forsaken me, the spring of living water
What does that mean? I always stop at that point to make sure the person understands the figure of speech. God is comparing Himself to water. In what sense is God similar to water? Just as water satisfies the thirst of your mouth, God satisfies a certain kind of thirst. And I go on to describe the thirst of the soul. When you feel empty inside, depressed, unfulfilled, bored, worthless, aimless, restless, unhappy – all those things the Bible calls thirst. Just as physical thirst is an unpleasant sensation in the mouth that drives you to seek relief, the thirst of the soul is the same way. It is an unpleasant feeling on the inside.
And sin #1 is when people fail to look to God to satisfy those longings and to fill that emptiness. But what is sin #2?
13 … and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
A cistern is a holding tank for water. So I ask them, “What does that figure of speech mean? What does it mean to dig a cistern that cannot hold water?” And they always get it – it means going to some other source besides the Spring to find satisfaction for the thirst of your soul. And at that point it is not uncommon for the person to break down in tears. As soon as they realize what sin #2 is, it really hits them. For most people, it does not really dawn on them when you explain sin #1, because most people don’t think they have forsaken God as a spring. They think they have been running to God for satisfaction of their desires. They have been praying and praying and praying for God’s help. So they don’t think they have turned their back on God until they understand sin #2. When you look to some other source for satisfaction, you are forsaking God as the spring.
And if you back up to verse 11 you see that is at the heart of idolatry. Trying to fulfill the longing of your soul through other sources is to put those other sources in the place of God, because God alone is the spring of living water. It is like being married and trying to fulfill your sexual desires outside of your marriage – it is unfaithfulness.
Psalm 62:1 My soul finds rest in God alone
God is a Spring, not a Butler
Now, when you explain all that to someone, most of the time they will interpret it in a self-centered way rather than a God-centered way, and they will completely misunderstand. When you tell them that God will satisfy their cravings, they will take that to mean God will help them gain greater access to the things in this world that they think they need in order to be happy. So instead of seeing God as the spring, they see God as a water boy, or a butler, who just brings them the stuff they want. And that is what happens with this woman.
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." 
She heard Jesus’ offer and took it to mean, “Oh - fewer chores. An easier life. That sounds good – sign me up. I wouldn’t mind having God as my butler, serving up the things I want.” That is the natural response of the unredeemed heart. That is why there are so many millions of people who flock to the prosperity “gospel.” People like Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen, and T.D. Jakes, who tell people, “If you become a Christian, you can use God to get money and health and prosperity and all the things you need to make your life more pleasant.” That is a popular message. There is no shortage of people who are very eager to go to church, read the Bible, pray, put money in the plate – do whatever they have to do to get God to make their life easier or give them the stuff they want. (I’m not suggesting that everyone who listens to those preachers is buying into the prosperity gospel. Some people listen and don’t even realize that’s what they are saying.) But it’s important to realize that the prosperity gospel is heresy because it’s all about using God to get earthly treasure, rather than preferring God above earthly treasure. So this woman doesn’t get it at all. Jesus offers her living water, and all she can see is a chance to get out of one of her daily chores.
Expose God-Thirst
That is not a heart that is ready for salvation. This woman will never be able to drink of the living water until she realizes that her thirst is actually thirst for God – not for earthly things. She feels this ravenous appetite in her soul, and her soul is interpreting it as an appetite for earthly things – an appetite that could be satisfied with things in this world. She feels this ravenous appetite in her soul, and her soul is interpreting it as an appetite for relationships with men. She thinks it’s a longing that marriage could satisfy. And she needs to understand that is a malfunction of the taste buds. It is like being thirsty and craving sawdust. If you took a blow to the head and got some wires crossed in your brain so that every time your body needed water you craved sawdust, you would need a doctor to go in and repair that defect, so that you could get back to craving that thing that will actually satisfy the need. That is what Jesus is about to do for this woman. He is going to expose the fact that what she thinks is water – the things she thinks will satisfy her soul cravings, are not really water. They are leaky, broken cisterns that cannot even hold water. 
Watch how He does it. He offers her living water, she responds by saying, "Sir, give me this water." And Jesus says, 16 "Go, call your husband and come back." What is that about? Did Jesus lapse into a fit of ADD or something? They are talking about water and all of a sudden, “Go get your husband”? Since when do you have to have your husband with you to become a Christian? You don’t. And it is not a change of subject at all. The woman is the one who is off topic thinking that He is talking about physical water, so Jesus brings this up to show her what kind of thirst He is talking about. He is talking about the thirst of the inner man.
14 ... Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
This is something that will perpetually supply you with satisfaction from the inside – in your soul. But Jesus needs to show this woman that what she is running after is not working. She has a taste bud disorder, so that whenever her soul craves the presence of God, she interprets it as a craving for relationships with men. She needs to know that she is committing sin #2 – digging her own cisterns. So Jesus exposes that.
16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."  17 "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.”
She has cycled through five marriages and then finally gave up on marriage and opted for fornication. Obviously she has a ravenous appetite for something. No woman goes through sexual relationships with six men without a cavernous void of desire for something that is not being satisfied. And when she met man #1, she thought she found what she was hungry and thirsty for. So she married him, because that craving was satisfied – for a while. But it didn’t last. So then she thought she found what she was craving in man #2, then 3, then 4, 5, and 6. Jesus brings up her disastrous love life to show her, “Look, this water you are drinking only satisfies temporarily, and you have to keep going back to the well of relationships again and again.” These marriages are sawdust, and each time it doesn’t satisfy she thinks what she needs is some different sawdust. It didn’t work with the first guy because he was abusive, and it didn’t work with the second guy because he was insensitive and lazy – no doubt she had a reason why each one didn’t work. But it still seems like if she could just find the right guy, that craving inside her soul would be satisfied.
Not everyone tries to quench the thirst of the soul through serial marriages, but most everyone seeks it through serial something. For some people it’s serial friendships. Every friend disappoints you, every friendship leaves you frustrated, but you keep moving on to the next one to try to satisfy that craving in your soul. For others it’s serial jobs – one after the other. For some it’s churches – just can’t find that perfect pew. Others are cycling through hobbies, or hairstyles, or wardrobes, or cars, or tattoos, or locations – always moving. For some people it’s food. Every craving of emptiness in their soul is interpreted by their brain as a hunger pang. And if it hits right after a meal they just figure the food was not good enough. And every new meal, every new place, every new church, every new outfit – it just seems so satisfying at first. But a little bit of time passes, and that emptiness is back. And they say, “I feel the Lord is calling me to move on.” They think it’s God’s call but in reality what they are feeling is not a call – it is a craving. An unsatisfied craving that they think they can satisfy with another change.
And Jesus says, “Don’t you see the problem with the water you’re drinking?
13 Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
Does that mean you will never experience desire or longing again? No. He goes on to say, “Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Why would you want a bubbling fountain if you never felt any desire to drink again? When Jesus says you will never thirst again, He is saying you will never have to go without water again. You will never have unsatisfied thirst again. You will still feel desire and longing in your soul, but you will always, always have access to a fountain of satisfying water. But that water is not anything in this world. It is the presence of God.
Our Thirst is for God
That appetite you have in your soul that feels like a desire for food or sex or time off or a better job – that is really a craving for the presence of God.
Psalm 63:1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 
Isaiah 26:9 My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.
Psalm 84:2 My soul yearns, even faints,  for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out  for the living God.
Psalm 143:6 my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Psalm 73:25 earth has nothing I desire besides you.
When we present the gospel to people like this we need to show them that the cravings they are having are coming from an appetite for God. And that appetite can finally be satisfied if a person discovers how to experience the presence of God.
He Will Satisfy 
And if you experience the presence of God, there is a 100% chance you will come away satisfied.
Isaiah 55:2 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 your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Psalm 103 He satisfies your desires with good things
Psalm 17:15 And I--in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness. 
Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
It is impossible to experience the presence of God and come away empty or unsatisfied. You cannot say that about marriage or food or sex or career. They can sometimes fail to satisfy – but God’s presence always satisfies. Nothing can make you miserable while you are enjoying the presence of God. And if you are feeling miserable right now, that statement is not intended to make you feel guilty. It is intended to make you feel thirsty. Interpret your misery for what it really is – thirst for the presence of God. Nothing will give lasting relief to that ache in your soul except drinking deeply of that living water. And unlike any pleasure in this world, it is a perpetual satisfaction. As God’s children, we always have access to His presence. You never get caught in a situation where you have no access to joy.
Require Worship
So all of that is step 1 – offer the person living water. Then what? Once the person finally says, “Yes, I want that living water,” where do you go from there? Do they automatically get the water just because they decided they want it? No. This water is available for free to absolutely anyone at any time, but there is something you must do to get it. You have to come to God in a certain way. Just like we saw with Nicodemus. Jesus told Nicodemus, you have to come in true faith, which will put you in a posture of broken repentance, looking to Christ for mercy and forgiveness (like the people in Nm. 21). That is the posture of faith, and it is the only way to come to God. Jesus is going to say the same thing to this woman, but puts it in terms of the topic she is interested in talking about. The topic she doesn’t want to talk about - her love life.
18 “The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."  19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 
How is that for a graceful change of subject?
 “As long as we’re talking about my fornication and sexual immorality and failed marriages, which mountain is the appropriate place for the Temple?” 
She can’t get off the topic of her failed marriages fast enough. So what does Jesus do? Does He say, “Don’t try to change the subject – you’re not getting off that easy...”? No. She asks about worship, and Jesus answers her question about worship. The whole rest of the conversation is about worship – He never comes back to the marriage issue.
Is Jesus just being led around by the nose to talk about whatever this woman wants to talk about? It might look that way at first glance, but that is not at all what is happening. Jesus is sharing the gospel with this woman, and He does not need to be on any certain topic to do it. He can share the gospel from any topic, because the gospel touches on every topic. He wants to tell her the same thing He told Nicodemus. But if this woman wants to talk about worship, Jesus is happy to explain it in terms of worship.
Jesus is not diverted for a second. In fact, He is being relentlessly persistent. No matter what she says, He keeps focusing on one thing – her heart. Look at it again. She starts out wanting to talk about physical water, and He brings up spiritual water. And He points out the obvious unsatisfied thirst in her soul that she is trying to satisfy with relationships. So she turns the subject back to an external thing – where is the right place to worship?
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 
She is concerned about where.
“Who is right on the geography question, Jews or Samaritans?”
“You want to talk about worship? Fine, I’ll talk worship. But not mountains and places. Let’s talk about the kind of heart God seeks in a worshipper.”
Focus on the Heart
People who are spiritually dead do not want to talk about the heart. They are fine talking about religion. They are fine talking about God. They are even ok talking about worship, as long as you stick to the external observances. But trying to talk to them about their heart is like pulling teeth.
But Jesus won’t give up. No matter where the conversation goes, He brings up her heart. When you share the gospel with someone, you can talk about whatever topic they want to bring up – whatever is important to them. In fact, the more important it is to them the better. But whatever you talk about just remember – if you are not talking about their heart – the things they desire, their posture before God, their attitude toward sin – you are not getting anywhere.
So how does Jesus point to her heart and the need for conversion using the topic of worship?
23 a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
You can have the thirst of your soul satisfied, but only if you come to God as a true worshipper. You do not come to Him as a vending machine that just responds to religious rituals. You do not come to Him as a personal assistant, who is all about helping you accomplish your agenda. And you definitely don’t come to Him to enable further pursuit of your idols. The woman who thinks she can’t be happy until her husband starts treating her a certain way, and she comes to God to help her get her husband to give her what she wants - God will not be used that way. He is not interested in giving you greater access to the leaking, broken, worthless cisterns that you have been running to for satisfaction. What He wants is to give you living water. But the only way to drink of that water is from a posture of true worship.
In Spirit
So how does one become a true worshipper? Jesus points to two things: spirit and truth.
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
In spirit means it must come from the heart and must be brought about by the Holy Spirit. Just as He told Nicodemus that he had to be born again through a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, this is another way of saying the same thing. True worship must be something driven and inspired by the Holy Spirit, which means before you can do it, you must be born of the Spirit. Until the Holy Spirit comes and makes you a new person, all your worship is nothing but superstition. No matter how earnest you are, no matter how heartfelt – it is all nothing but empty ritual if it is not a product of the work of the Holy Spirit on your heart. All the singing and bowing and saying prayers and reading your Bible and procedure and religious observance and doing and saying all the things you’re supposed to do and say – apart from the Spirit it is all just an empty shell. Calling that worship is like calling a wedding dress a bride.
And so we are right back to the necessity of conversion. Will God satisfy the cravings of your soul? Yes, but it can only be received by a true worshipper. The word translated worship means to be flat on your face before God - humble, reverent fear and awe mixed with desire for and delight in God’s presence. Worship is a response of delighted amazement at the glory of God, and a humbling of oneself under Him. It is a recognition that He is God, and I am a creature. He is the great King, I am a subject. His will is supreme, my will is secondary. And His glory is so marvelous and amazing that I owe Him the most profound adoration and awe and love.
In Truth
True worship is spiritual worship. And secondly, true worship must conform to reality. It has to be spiritual, and it also has to be based in truth. God revealed in the Bible how we are to approach Him, and there is no other way. If we try to say, “I don’t buy in to organized religion. I just do it my own way” – that won’t cut it. That is like trying to fly an airplane while ignoring gravity and the laws of physics because you don’t buy into organized science. Whether you like the way science is organized or not, you still have to deal with reality. And it is the same with spiritual things. God has given us one path to Him – the path of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take any other path and it is like trying to get to the North Pole without going north – it will never work.
So, in chapter 3 we saw that when you are dealing with a self-righteous person, there are two steps: Get ‘em lost, then get ‘em saved. And now in chapter 4 we see a different approach (also 2 steps) - Get ‘em thirsty, then get ‘em satisfied. In chapter 3 the way Jesus did step 2 (get ‘em saved) was through a detailed description of what true faith looks like. Now in chapter 4 the way Jesus does step 2 (get ‘em satisfied) was through a description of what a true worshipper looks like. And surprise, surprise, true faith and true worship look the same! It is the same message presented to different people in different ways. 
It is a message that can be presented to any person in any context because the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is good news about every aspect of life. It is good news about your financial hardship, because it promises something that will take care of all your needs even if you go broke. It is good news about your health, because it promises resurrection from the dead. It is good news about your depression because it promises joy. This is why even a person who has been saved for decades never gets tired of hearing about it because the more you learn about how the gospel applies to every detail of life, the more joy you have.
Conclusion: Counseling Center
But how do we put those principles into practice in our culture? We have two obstacles. One is getting people to listen. If you just walk up to someone on the street and do this cold, they will blow you off before you even get started. How can you get people to be interested enough to listen? That is one obstacle. The other one is once you get them to listen, what do you say? How can you become skilled at explaining these things in a way that will be likely to move their heart?
I believe there is an opportunity that our culture has presented us that can overcome both those obstacles. It is a massive and wonderful opportunity that does not exist nearly as much in other cultures, but for now it does in ours. And I believe if we seized upon this opportunity, we could actually have a situation where we could have as many unbelievers as we want come to us and ask us to teach them from the Bible. We would not even have to go out and find them. They would come to us.
Most of the time, when the church tries to get unbelievers to come to them, the way they do it is by offering something other than the Word of God. They offer a concert, or a carnival, or free food, or some sort of draw to get folks who are not really interested in the gospel to come anyway.  The problem with that is you get mostly uninterested people, so when you start sharing the gospel with them, most of them reject it. But I believe if we take advantage of the opportunity I mentioned, there is a way to filter out the ones who are most likely to be receptive and interested and get them to come to our church in droves, and actually ask us to teach them from God’s Word. And it wouldn’t cost any money (or very little).
“What is this opportunity?”
 It is simply the fact that our culture happens to be in love with counseling. Many people are eager to seek out counseling for their problems. That wasn’t true 30 years ago. I can remember a time when going to a therapist or psychologist or counselor was an incredibly embarrassing thing. It meant you were mentally ill, and something was very wrong with you. It used to be a major stigma. But now it’s not like that anymore. It has become more and more acceptable to seek out counseling - not just for insanity, but for common, everyday kinds of problems (like depression or anger or fear or anxiety or obsessive thoughts).
Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, Indiana is a place where I have received a lot of my training in biblical counseling. And at that church, they decided years ago to offer free biblical counseling to their community every Monday night. They have a team of 25 counselors who are there from 1:30 to 7:45 every Monday, (over 100 hours/wk) and all the counselors are full that whole time every week. They have never advertised it, and yet there is always a waiting list of several months. They tell everyone right up front, “We are not licensed, we’re not trained in psychology - all we do here is talk about what the Bible says - that’s it.” And still the people in the community are literally waiting in line to get in.
I don’t know if the same thing would happen here or not, but based on what I have observed about how eager people are for counseling, it definitely wouldn’t surprise me. God has given us this location on a busy intersection - I would love to be able to just put a big sign out front that said, “Free counseling.” If nobody came, it wouldn’t be any loss. But if they did - what an incredible opportunity - to have the world come to us and ask us to teach them from the Bible!
If you are interested in that, I want to invite you to an informational meeting Monday, Nov.18. At that meeting I will be explaining the various types of counselors – if you just want to share the gospel, or if you also want to get into other aspects of counseling – there will be various levels of training for whichever type of counseling you are interested in. So on the 18th there will be an informational meeting; you can decide if you are interested, and each Monday evening after that we will be doing the training.

Benediction: Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
James 1:25 Questions
1)	The best spokesmen for living water are not those who have memorized the best speech about it, but those who are drinking deeply and finding thorough satisfaction in it. In what areas do you tend to run to earthly water rather than to the presence of God for satisfaction?
2)	How do you feel about your competence in the area of counseling? And what is your interest level in receiving more training?