Grace, mercy, and peace be to each of from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let’s pray as we open ourselves up once again to the teaching of God’s Word …
Dear Heavenly Father, you sent your Son to reveal your will and grace, and to restore us to You. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to receive Your word, to focus our lives around Jesus’ redeeming grace, and empower us for witness. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen
I am going to start with this story. A single traveler had hiked for many miles across the desert. His water supply was gone, and he knew, if he did not find water soon he would die.
In the distance he saw what looked like an abandoned cabin, and when he arrived he discovered an old rusty pump with a tin can tied to it with a note inside.
The note said this … “Dear Stranger, the well has never gone dry, but the pump needs to be primed in order to bring up the water. Under the white rock, I buried a jar of water, away from the sun. There is enough water in the jar to prime the pump. Pour half of it into the pump to wet the leather. Wait, then pour in the rest of the water, and begin to pump.
When you are finished, please fill the jar, and put it back as you found it for the next traveler who comes this way. Have faith and believe.” (Pause)
So, would you believe that the well has never gone dry? You have no evidence to inspect or research before you make a decision.
You are simply going to have to believe the note or not. It is no more complicated than that.
And your future life will depend on your conclusion. In the short term, you may drink the jar of water and live for a short time, but in the long term, you will perish for lack of more water.
In the long-term, if you believe and prime the pump, you will not only get short-term relief, but you will get water for the rest of your life from a well that never goes dry.
All of this being said, would you dig the water jar from the sand and drink it?
Or would you believe … and in believing, pour every drop of water from that jar into the pump … knowing that if it did not prime the pump, it would cost you your life?
Will you take the risk, not only for yourself, but for the next thirsty traveler that may pass that way? What would you do? Drink the water from the jar, or prime the pump? (Pause)
You may have already realized that this story is a metaphor. Of course, you are the traveler, the stranger to whom the note is written. God wrote the note and is asking you to seek out the living water, Jesus, through His Word the Bible.
He’s asking you to take a risk, to trust, to prime the pump. In this life you must believe the note.
Refill the jar for other thirsty travelers searching for the truth of God’s Word in Jesus Christ for their salvation.
Do you Trust? Do you Have faith? The only way for one to really know these things is to be tested … is to suffer a trial in this world. How do we react or respond in a trial? Does it build our faith, or do we work backwards?
Think about that story again … do you believe the written note? Do you have faith that it is honest and true? Do you have faith to act on that written note?
You do not know who wrote it … even if someone signed it, you still would not know who wrote it. So, what would you do?
Don’t you see … you have to make that same decision every day of your lives now!
God has laid before us a written note. A note that we call the Bible. A note was written by more than 40 authors over a 1,600-year time frame.
So, shouldn’t we ask the same questions that we asked at the end of the earlier story of the wandering traveler in the desert?
Do you believe the written note … the 66 Books of the Bible? Do you have faith that the note is honest and true? Do you have faith to act on that written note?
You do not personally know those inspired authors, who wrote those 66 Books, but even if they had signed their Books, you would still not know them personally. So, what would you do?
Drink, or prime the pump? (Pause)
Fundamentally it comes down to this … do you believe God’s Word or not. Do you have faith in the message of God’s Word or not?
Our lesson this morning from John’s Gospel … calls us to believe … it calls us to a life of Faith. Someone in the crowd asked Jesus, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God … that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
Then Jesus goes on…
“I am the bread of life; Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35
We are called to believe and to act on this belief through …
Faith.
Every one of us daily must express our faith in something. No one can live a single day without exercising faith in something. Faith is never something just to be talked about … it requires an action to exercise it. Faith is something that must be demonstrated in the way that we live. (Pause)
It was once said, “If you do not live it, you do not really believe it.” And there is a Biblical basis for that statement. Listen to what James wrote…
“Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” James 2:18
Believing is one thing, but it is not the same as faith. So, the question right now is “Do you have an action filled apostolic faith?” Do you?
Everyone places their faith in something or someone. And the truth is, your faith is only as good as the object or the person or the ideal in which you place that faith.
The Bible is clear that we as believers are only to place our faith, our trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what God says in Acts 4…
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
The writer of Hebrews also portrays what real biblical faith looks like…
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1
True faith brings forth a confident obedience to God’s Word, His note to us, who are deemed thirsty, weary travelers.
Consequently, faith can be described in this two-fold way. It is “confidence in what we hope for,” AND it is “assurance of what we do not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
Faith is the action foundation that gives a believer the confidence to stand firm in their beliefs. The Holy Spirit is the indwelling presence of God enabling us to live a life of Faith.
If we proceed under our own strength, under our own efforts, in the end we will remain thirsty for Jesus. Our thirst will never be satisfied.
But there is a transforming power available to us, who call ourselves followers of the Christ.
And it is this “Faith-Action-Faith” process that is the key to unlocking this power.
And to receive this transforming power through this process, we must open ourselves up to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit works through ACTING faith. We must learn to walk in Faith.
And for a Christian, faith is not spelled…
“F-A-I-T-H”, but it is spelled…
“R-I-S-K.”
… for if something is not a Risk, then it really DOES NOT require faith, does it?
And the Scriptures are really clear on this point as the author of Hebrews says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God”. (Hebrews 11:6).
A risk-free life is a faith-less life.
A risk-free life is a victory-less life.
It means a lifelong surrender to the mediocre, which in a way is the worst of all possible defeats.
It is time for all Christians to break free of being mediocre, of being stationary, of not growing our faith.
Satan and his army are a present reality in our lives whether we believe it or not. (Pause) Each one of us is engaged in a spiritual war … a serious battle.
Paul put it this way to young Timothy…
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…” 1 Timothy 6:12
The war we are involved in is that good fight. We must all be prepared for that battle. There is no escaping it. There is no time for idol sideline watching.
Satan and his army are scattering and destroying, while Jesus and His followers are gathering and building.
So, are you gathering and building for the Kingdom? Because that is what a maturing faith is all about.
It is impossible to be neutral in this spiritual war … Satan will scatter and destroy, if you don’t get there first with the message of Jesus, the Living Water.
Faith requires us to trust God’s Holy Word … Faith requires us to take action … Faith requires … RISK.
This interesting tidbit appeared on the internet, and it is insightful…
“Faith is like Wi-Fi … it is invisible, but it has the power to connect you to what you need.”
If we do not have faith, if we do not trust in God, it is as if we drank the jar of water that was buried in the sand instead of priming the pump. (Pause)
Remember the story? A traveler with no water finds an old pump in the desert with a note tied to the handle that said, “I have buried a jar of water to prime the pump, do not drink any of it. It is all needed to prime the pump”
The moral of the story is to have faith and believe … prime the pump, then draw water to drink, and refill the glass jar for the next traveler. Have faith and believe.
Similarly, imagine you are a traveler in this world. And you come across a book composed of 66 books within it. As you read it, you see the eternal truths that lie within.
Through this Book, God gives you the assurance, the strength, the conviction to live life to the fullest in His Kingdom … starting right here and now.
But His Word also asks you to surrender yourself to another. It asks you to surrender yourself to Jesus … the author and perfecter of your faith. So, what will you do?
The Bible proclaims that today is the day of Salvation. Since you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord, I encourage you to thank God every day for His grace and love.
We are people of the Cross … called to share the living water with weary travelers that God places in our lives.
So, what will you do? Will you believe and trust and prime the pump, or will you drink from the jar? I pray you will always prime the pump. Amen