The Point of Purity Podcast

Quenched

• Steve Etner • Season 4 • Episode 191

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Thirst can be a powerful motivator. When thirsty, you might do just about anything to quench that thirst. The longing begins to dominate your thinking, leaving you with a “gotta have it no matter what” mentality. Eventually, all you can think about is quenching your thirst. You begin to dedicate all of your time, your energy, your resources, your will, toward the singular goal of eliminating that nagging thirst. In this episode we will discover that ONLY GOD can truly quench your thirst!
 
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Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast. A weekly study filled to the brim with the all the tools from Scripture you will ever need to build a lasting life of Biblical purity. I’m your host Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #191. This week’s Episode begins a new series taken from a book that I am currently writing. I am entitling this series “Overcoming Self Worship: A Journey to Godly Living.” This week’s episode is simply entitled “Quenched”

 

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; … Why spend … on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” (Isaiah 55:1-3)

Consider what it means to be truly thirsty. Thirst can be a powerful motivator. When thirsty, you might do just about anything to quench that thirst. The longing begins to dominate your thinking, leaving you with a “gotta have it no matter what” mentality. Eventually, all you can think about is quenching your thirst. You begin to dedicate all of your time, your energy, your resources, your will, toward the singular goal of eliminating that nagging thirst.

While wandering the wilderness, the children of Israel “were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses” (Exodus 17:3). The problem was “There was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, ‘If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? There is no water to drink!’” (Numbers 20:2-5)

The Israelites were indeed thirsty, and understandably so. However, they chose to go to the wrong source to quench their thirst. Instead of turning to God, they went to Moses and Aaron. Instead of talking with God about their needs, they complained to men about their wants. Instead of trusting their Sovereign Creator, Sustainer, and Provider to meet their real need, they moaned and groaned to two men who had absolutely no power, no ability, no way to do anything to fulfill their basest of desires let alone provide for their greatest need.

When you are “thirsty,” when you are feeling like you’re about to shrivel up and die if your perceived “needs” (those sinful desires that constantly hound you) are not being met, what do you typically do? Where do you usually turn to find fulfillment and satisfaction? God said (Jeremiah 2:13), “My people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me – the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”.

Does this verse describe you? How many times over this past month, or this past week or even the last 24 hours have you repeatedly chosen to turn your back on God in favor of the whims and wishes, the passions and desires of King Me? Let me boldly and pointedly ask: What “cisterns” have you been digging for yourself, and why aren’t they meeting your “need?”

Do you recall how God responded when the children of Israel griped and complained in the wilderness that their “needs” were not being met? He did not grow angry with them and destroy them. He did not respond in kind and grumble about them. He did not strike them with an unbearable curse. Instead, “[He] gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst.” (Nehemiah 9:15) "He led [them] through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for [them] out of the rock of flint.” (Deuteronomy 8:15) “He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring. He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river.” (Psalm 78:15-16) 

God hadn’t turned His back on them. He cared about them and for them. As a result, “They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert.” (Isaiah 48:21)

Don’t let this miraculous act of grace and mercy slip by you without grasping the significance of this event. God in His mercy chose to graciously and miraculously provide in an extraordinarily phenomenal way: the water came out of a rock! Let that sink in. It’s not like He led them to a large pool or took them to a row of drinking fountains and said, “Here you go, drink up!” He made the water flow out of that which was totally incapable of producing that life-giving substance on its own – a dry, lifeless stone.

God said in Isaiah 41:17-18, “When the poor and needy search for water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst, then I, the Lord, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will never abandon them. I will open up rivers for them on the high plateaus. I will give them fountains of water in the valleys. I will fill the desert with pools of water. Rivers fed by springs will flow across the parched ground.”

Isaiah 58:11 promises, “The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.”

The fact is, Jesus is The Rock. He is “the bread of life; whoever comes to [Jesus] shall not hunger, and whoever believes in [Jesus] shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Jesus declared, “those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 4:14) Jesus is the only source you will ever need. He not only quenches your thirst, He promises to meet all your needs, all the time. This is absolute truth, but do you believe it?

Jesus said, “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ [or “Who will meet my needs the way I want them to be met?”] For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” (Matthew 6:31-32)

Numbers 23:19 says “God is not a man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” Titus 1:2 declares that “God...does not lie.” And Hebrews 6:18 tells us “it is impossible for God to lie.” 

Here’s my point: God not only knows your every need, before you even ask, but God (who cannot lie) has also promised to “meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19). All God wants us to do is simply focus our energy, our attention, our will on faithfully and consistently pursuing Him, worshiping Him, and walking in obedience to His Word. God gives you His unbreakable promise that when you “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

In John 7:37 we are told that Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Yes, you are spiritually “thirsty.” Every one of us is thirsty. We all have a longing deep in our soul. But what exactly are you thirsting for? In Matthew 5:6 Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” And the Psalmist writes, “For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” (Psalm 107:9 NIV’84)

Your King Me choices, your sinful behavior will not ever quench you real thirst. They will not, simply because they cannot. Oh, the enemy is working tirelessly to convince you that you don’t really need God to quench your thirst. The devil is devoted to persuading you that the pleasures your sinful habits and fleshly desires presently provide are precisely what you are thirsting for. “After all,” he whispers, “what you really need is just a little bit more and you’ll be satisfied.”

Understand this: Satan “is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) Every time he whispers in your ear, he is lying to you. Satan is “the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9) and He is constantly trying to mislead you. He is giving it everything he’s got so as to draw you away from God’s divine truth. Scripture clearly states that what you think is so desperately needed to satisfy is actually not what you are truly thirsting for. God’s Word is clear that your thirst is for something different, something much deeper. Your soul is searching for something only God can give. This is why all of your King Me choices and sinful habits are continually failing to genuinely satisfy. This is why you keep going back for more, never having that thirst genuinely quenched.

Satan is working tirelessly even now to convince you that there is “water” that the world has to offer and if you give yourself over heart and soul to the desires of King Me you will find that water and be satisfied. Let me reemphasize here that what the world, the flesh, and the devil provide will not satisfy because that’s not what you are actually thirsting for. 

In Psalm 63:1 David prays, “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.” And in Psalm 42:2 he exclaims, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

Let’s take a moment here and revisit Isaiah 55:1-3. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the water; … Why spend … on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you.” 

Think about the question God is asking. Why spend your time, why waste your energy, and your resources on what does not satisfy when God promises to meet all your needs all the time? God is saying, “Listen to Me. Choose, right here and right now, to invest your time with Me. Let Me feed you what is truly good for you. Let Me fill you. Let Me satisfy you and give you everything you so desperately need. And if you do, your soul—not your flesh but your soul—will delight in the richest of fare.” God has so much more to offer you: far more than anything you could possibly dream or imagine.

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus admonishes us to “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else.” How are you doing with that? When you choose to daily dethrone King Me and live for God, you find yourself “delighting in the richest of fare,” enjoying all God has to offer in life. Your “thirst” is quenched deep down in your soul.

OK. Let’s hit the pause button until next week’s episode – where we will continue our new series entitled “Overcoming Self Worship: A Journey to Godly Living.”

In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about today’s study, or if you’re interested in learning more about The Pure Man Ministry (what we do to help men across the globe find freedom and victory over sexual sin), be sure to visit our website to see the multitude of resources we’ve made available to you – you can find our website at ThePurityCoach.com.

And if you haven’t subscribed to this podcast yet, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes!

So, until next time this is Author, Speaker, Certified Professional MentorTM and Purity Coach Steve Etner reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.