Receive The Holy Spirit
The Thirst of the Soul
Well, good morning and welcome. My name is Josh and I have the joy of serving as one of our campus pastors here. Normally on Sundays, I’m over at our Fig Garden campus, but today I have the honor of opening God’s word with you as we conclude our summer teaching series called Invitation. Throughout this series, we’ve been looking at various invitations Jesus extends to those who would follow him.
Speaking of invitations, a little earlier in this gathering, we celebrated some of the things God is doing at Hume Lake in the lives of our students and leaders. If you’re like me, you probably have some memories of how God worked in your life at Hume Lake. I have many great memories from Hume, but I have one that is a little different. For years, when my three sons were growing up, my dad and I would take them camping every summer in Kings Canyon National Park. On the last day, we would usually head over to Hume Lake to swim.
One day, my son Noah, who was only six years old at the time, said, “Hey Dad, why don’t we swim across the lake?” Now, at that time in my life, I was not exercising at all—except maybe to curl a donut to my mouth. I had no business attempting to swim across a lake. But I looked across and thought, “It can’t be that hard. Let’s do it.”
We started swimming, and about halfway through, Noah said, “Hey Dad, I’m tired, I can’t swim anymore.” We were right in the middle, so I told him to get on my back. I started swimming for the shore, and about 50 yards out, I started to lose all the strength in my arms and legs. I could barely breathe. My limbs felt like Jell-O. I literally thought we were going to die. By God’s grace, we made it back to shore, and I just plopped myself on that beach. I didn’t care how stupid I looked; I was just gasping for air. When I finally regained my senses, I realized I was extremely thirsty. If I didn’t get something to drink immediately, I was going to pass out.
It made me think later about how, in our lives, we sometimes experience that sort of exhaustion. Not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, relationally, and most importantly, spiritually. I wonder if that story might be a metaphor for how some of you are feeling today. You’re going hard at life, you’re struggling, and you’re carrying responsibilities that feel like heavy burdens. You feel like you’re barely keeping your head above water, and your soul is thirsty.
To us, Jesus has an invitation that we’re going to look at today in John chapter seven.
John 7:37-39 (NASB)
Now on the last day, the great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ’If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ’He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The Context of the Feast
To understand what Jesus is saying, we need to look at the context. We’re told this happened on the last day of a great feast. This was the Feast of Booths, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. The purpose of this feast was to commemorate God’s faithfulness when the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years. They would have a week-long camping trip, setting up makeshift tents out of tree branches to remember how God provided for them.
It was a festive environment, but it was also hostile. We know from earlier in the chapter that the religious leaders were looking for an opportunity to kill Jesus. A very important part of this week-long feast was a specific water ceremony. Every day for seven days, the priests would march to the Pool of Siloam, fill silver pitchers with water, and pour them into a basin next to the altar. This symbolized three things: looking back at God’s provision of water in the wilderness, asking for rain for the coming harvest, and looking forward to the future promise of the Messiah pouring out the Holy Spirit.
The prophet Zechariah spoke of this future hope.
Zechariah 14:8-9 (NASB)
And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be [the only] one, and His name [the only] one.
It is into this specific moment—surrounded by the symbolism of water—that Jesus stands up and cries out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” Everyone there would have known exactly what he was saying. He was claiming that the entire feast pointed to him. He was saying, “I am the living water. I am the fulfillment of your past, your present, and your future.”
Seven hundred years earlier, God had invited the weary people of Israel to quench their spiritual thirst through the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 55:1 (NASB)
’Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.
Now, Jesus stands there and says that he is indeed that living water. The invitation is simple: come to Jesus and drink.
Drinking for Salvation
The first part of this invitation is that we come to Jesus and drink for salvation. A simple question for you today is: Have you come to Jesus for his salvation? Have you embraced him as Lord and Savior? We have to take that initial drink of coming to Christ. If you feel a tug in your heart today, that is a blessing. It means the Spirit is beginning to work inside of you.
John 6:44 (NASB)
’No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
I experienced this in my own life when I was 19 years old. My parents had come to faith during the Jesus Revolution of the 70s, so I grew up in a Christian home. However, while I believed things about Jesus, I didn’t really believe in Jesus. I rebelled. In high school, with the last name Holly, I even earned the nickname “Alcoholie.” That tells you what I was “drinking” from back then.
But when I was 19, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes. For the first time, I realized my sin for what it was. I knew I was guilty before God and that there was a thirst in my soul that nothing else could quench. I understood that God had to incarnate himself in the person of Jesus, live the perfect life I couldn’t live, and die the death I deserved. In that moment, I realized I wasn’t just invited to a religion; I was invited to a Person. I came to him and tasted his living water for the first time.
Drinking for Transformation
The second part of this invitation is that we are invited to continuously come to Jesus and drink for transformation. When we put faith in Christ, we are secure. Jesus promised that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NASB)
’For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
But the Christian life doesn’t stop at the moment of salvation. That’s just the starting point. The words Jesus uses for “come” and “drink” in the Greek are in the present active form, meaning “keep coming” and “keep drinking.” Just as we need physical water to survive, we need the living water of Christ to survive spiritually every single day.
We need this because old habits are hard to break. We are often tempted to turn back to what the prophet Jeremiah called “broken cisterns.”
Jeremiah 2:13 (NASB)
’For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.
In ancient Israel, a natural spring was reliable and fresh. A cistern was just a hole in the ground that collected stagnant rainwater. Often, these cisterns would crack and leak. God is saying that when we turn to sin, we are walking away from a fresh spring to drink muddy, stagnant water from a hole in the ground. Sin always over-promises and under-delivers.
For me, one of my broken cisterns has been gluttony. It’s a tricky one because it can be too much of a good thing. Whether it’s food, alcohol, or binging media, these things are not “functional saviors.” They cannot satisfy the soul. We must intentionally choose to spend time in God’s presence to drink what actually satisfies. This isn’t about legalism; it’s about love. We develop spiritual practices—reading the Word, prayer, community—that create space for the Holy Spirit to work.
The Gift of the Spirit
Look at how Jesus describes the source of this living water in verse 39. He is speaking of the Spirit. He promised his disciples that he would not leave them alone.
John 14:16-17 (NASB)
’I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; [that is] the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, [but] you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
The Holy Spirit is the permanent guarantee of our salvation and the power behind our transformation. We don’t change ourselves; he changes us. But we join him in the process.
Earlier this year, I was having a time of prayer and journaling. I was feeling the heavy weight of the loss of my parents, both of whom passed away recently. As I sat in the Lord’s presence, some thoughts came to my mind that I believe were from the Spirit. I wrote them down: “Your dad and mom are experiencing the joy of eternal bliss. Do not weep for them. If they could tell you one thing right now, it would be this: Live for God’s glory, son. Lay it all out for the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
In that moment, I was powerfully reminded that Jesus is my living water. When I feel pain, I have a choice: I can turn to unhealthy sources to numb the ache, or I can come to the Spring and drink.
Rivers of Living Water
The third part of this invitation is that as we drink, his life begins to flow out of us.
John 7:38 (NASB)
’He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’’
As we walk with the Lord over years and decades, he changes our innermost being. He changes our desires. He aligns our hearts with his. He also changes our character.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
We become like rivers. I saw this many years ago with my Uncle Nick. He was a tough man, a combat medic in the Vietnam War. He was a bit scary to us as kids—you didn’t mess with his stuff. After ten years of little contact, our relationship was rekindled. One day, we took him to see the movie We Were Soldiers.
It turned out Uncle Nick was in the same military unit depicted in the movie. He had been flown into the very spot where that battle took place. The movie was graphic and intense. When it was over and we were dropping him off, my wife, Chris, felt the Holy Spirit prompting her to say something. She got out of the car, walked up to this tough veteran, and said, “I’m sorry for your pain. I believe God sees your pain and is proud of you. We love you.”
I watched my Uncle Nick, a man I had never seen hug anyone in thirty years, give her a massive bear hug. In that moment, I witnessed the overflow of God’s Spirit like a river of living water flowing through my wife to a hurting man.
What might that look like for you today? Where has God placed you? Where do you work, study, or play? It will look different for everyone because we are uniquely designed, but God wants his life to overflow through you to the people around you.
This summer we’ve looked at many invitations: to abide, to find peace, to rest. But ultimately, it is a singular invitation. It is not an invitation to a “thing,” but to a Person. It is an invitation to a living Savior who calls you into relationship with himself.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for this time. Thank you that you are here. Thank you for your Word and the presence of your Holy Spirit. I ask that each one of us here would sense your loving, firm invitation to come. May we drink for salvation, drink for transformation, and let your life flow through us like an overflowing river to bless others. We love you and thank you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.