“A Thirst That Cannot be Ignored” | Sunday AM | Pastor David K. Caruthers

Original Broadcast of Sunday Morning 11 AM Worship, 04/12/26

Speaker: Pastor David K. Caruthers

Message Title: "A Thirst That Cannot be Ignored" 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Read one verse in Psalm 63, verse number one, Psalm 63, verse number one. And uh I just want to read that verse with you. If you want to stay there as we go along, you can. I uh and uh so if I can just read that. Oh God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsts for thee, my flesh longs for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. You may be seated. And so today I've entitled this message A Thirst That Cannot Be Ignored. Have you ever been really thirsty? Have you ever been really thirsty? Have you been so thirsty that you could not think of anything else? In 1942, during World War II, a Chinese sailor named Pun Ling found himself alone on a wooden raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after his ship, the SS Bin Lemon, had been torpedoed. He had no land in sight, there was no rescue to reach him, and he only had a few supplies. Within days, his small supplies, and small supplies specifically of water, had ran out. The sun beat down relentlessly on him, his lips cracked, his tongue swelled, his skin felt like it was shrinking. He later said that the thirst became so overpowering that it drowned out every other thought in his mind. In fact, this is what he said in quoting When you're thirsty enough, you cannot think of anything else, not food, not danger, not even survival, only water. At one point, desperate to stay alive, he fashioned a crude device to catch rainwater using a canvas and some empty cans. And when the first drops of water finally fell, and he held the container with shaking hands and drank as if it was life itself pouring into him. He said the relief was so overwhelming that he collapsed, weeping to receive that small bit of water. For 133 days, thirst was his constant enemy. It shaped his decisions, it consumed his mind, and it drove his creativity, and his survival became one of the most documented and studied cases of human endurance on the sea. I ask you again, have you ever been so thirsty that you could think of nothing else? The psalmist writes in these words that I read to you a few moments ago, Psalm 63. He writes this song. There is a preface, there is some notes in preparation for this psalm. One of them lets us know that it is a psalm of David, that he is attributed as the writer of it. And the second note lets us know that he was in the wilderness of Judea, or what we would call the Judean desert. So that gives us sort of the context of the writing. Many believe that he wrote this psalm when he was fleeing from Absalom. Imagine with me for a moment, David, with those few supporters gathered with him, hastily fleeing to the mountainous Judea desert. It's dry, it's dusty, it's barren, it's rocky, it's unforgiving. The area is so rugged that people that were on the run used it as a hiding place so as not to be found. It was so dangerous to humans to pass through without the proper supplies. And the whole experience of fleeing, and the whole experience of going to this place, is physically and mentally and emotionally dry and draining to him. David is not unfamiliar to this place. David's been here before. He spent years hiding out from King Saul. He had traveled down its rugged paths and through its steep climbs and down its sheer drops. He knew how vital water was to his existence in this place and how quickly thirst sets in. He knows that to survive here, that he must constantly think and remember his supply of water. And from that experience and from that history and in that moment of fleeing into this desert, he writes this psalm and he is inspired by his surroundings and the experience there. When he said, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsts for thee. My flesh longs for thee. In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. The English Standard Version says it this way, O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land. A paraphrase, the New Living Translation says, 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. I read these to you because it's poetic verse, and it helps to kind of think about it and let it soak in our minds and in our hearts as it describes the desire, the thirsting, the longing of David for God. He describes that desire using three verbs. The first is seek. Early will I seek you. It literally means that that word seek. If you read it in the English, early will I seek you, it's only one word in the original because it describes and defines the dawn. It refers to the dawning of the day. From the beginning of the day, I will seek you. As soon as I awake, my heart reaches out to you. And then he uses the thirst that the word thirst, my soul thirsts for you. It desires for you. My soul cries out for your presence, for your refreshing, for your sustenance. And then number three, he uses this word longing, this longing that it longs for you. My flesh longs for you. And it literally means that it faints with longing, that my entire being faints with longing for you. God, I need you like a man dying from thirst. I'm longing for you. I'm seeking for you. Oh God, you are my God. Early I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Feel the sharp, the penetrating, the emotions, the rawness of it that comes out as he expresses this desire for God as a person that is seeking water is their only focus, their only purpose, just to find a drink of water to survive another moment, not another day, just another moment. This longing, this desire, this compelling force that narrows all the focus down to one thing. And he's crying out to God, my soul thirsts for you. This kind of longing, this kind of desire, this kind of seeking of God, God never ignores. When the heart cries out with a thirst, with a desire, with a passion, saying, I need you, God. God never ignores that cry. He always hears, he always understands, and he always receives and responds as we cry out to him from our heart. It's a thirst that compels us, it's a thirst that cannot be ignored. It's a thirst that drives us. In our land of plenty, in our land of so much, in our land of wealth and prosperity, we seldom get to a place unless it's some tragedy of our lives or some health crisis we would get to that moment. But David is not talking about a moment necessarily. He's talking about a life. He's talking about an existence, a person who wants God more than anything else, who desires God, who hungers for God, who thirsts for God, and he says, that's the way my thirst for God is. The Bible describes him as a man after God's own heart, a man pursuing the heart of God, a man seeking the heart of God, the man wanting the heart of God in his life, wanting to follow after him. Where is those, where are those that are hungry and thirsty in such a way seeking God? Calling on the name of God. I do want to tell you something. If you feel like you're in that wilderness today, if you sense that dry and thirsty land, if that's where you are today, if that's where you are as you walk into this place, because we don't know what everybody else is experiencing. We just know a handful well enough to know that kind of information. But we don't know where you are today. But you're in that dry and thirsty land, that wilderness, that Judean desert today. If you're thirsty and hungry and compelled because of the circumstances of your life, I want you to know that God does miracles in the wilderness. God does miracles even in the wilderness. God works even in the middle of our problems, of our challenges, of our difficulties, of things that overwhelm us. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, God provided for them. And God will give you what you need in your wilderness. He gave them, Exodus 16 tells us, he gave them manna from heaven. He gave them food to sustain them. He didn't give them, you know, I tell people all the time, I want one big miracle that solves all of my stuff, you know, all of my needs. But that's not what he gave them. He didn't give them one big miracle to feed them for the rest of their time in the wilderness. He gave them a miracle every day as he provided for them, as he prepared for them, as they got what they needed. And sometimes you and I are in a wilderness, and we want God to give us a miracle that resolves it all, that settles it all, that clears everything up, that relieves all the stress and the pressure. But often God gives us a man a manna that resolves our problem right now, that gives us strength right now to make it through this day as God provides. So God provided from heaven and he also provided from a rock. And out of that rock, God made water flow. Somehow God did that miraculous thing. And miraculously, through their time in the wilderness, even though it was a wilderness, even though they uh spent so long there because of their disobedience, God provided for them. God took care of them, God sustained them, God can provide for you even in the middle of your wilderness. God does give you what you need every day, every moment, even in the middle of your wilderness, God will do it. But that's not all. God gives you power and strength in the wilderness. Matthew chapter 4 tells us that Jesus had gone to this same wilderness, this same desert, and there he was tempted by the devil, and he prevailed against the devil, as recorded in Matthew chapter 4, through the word of God, as he spoke God's word. God's word is still alive, even in your wilderness. God's word is still powerful, even in your wilderness. God's word still overcomes the enemy in your wilderness. Whatever your circumstances are, the word of God is still alive and real in our lives. I think it's interesting to note, interesting to note the power of the word of God and how powerful it is. It was in that same Judean desert where Jesus was tempted and overcome the enemy through the Word of God that the Dead Sea Scrolls were that were preserved for centuries were discovered. The word stayed there. Now I don't know, I don't know, I don't want to assign too much to that. I don't want to stretch that too far, but it just seems uh uh more than a coincidence that God took that same wilderness, and in that same wilderness, he preserved his word for centuries that people didn't know about, but it was still there. Don't worry about what you don't know. The word of God is still powerful. Don't worry about what you can't see when you're in the wilderness. The word of God is still powerful, it still works, it still stands, it's not gone, it's not diminished from your life. God is not absent in your dry and dusty, barren land of a wilderness. He will provide through his miraculous power and the authority of his word, even in the wilderness. But you don't have to be in the wilderness to be thirsty for God. You don't have to be in a wilderness to be thirsty for God. You don't have to be without. You don't have to have an overwhelming need. You don't have to be in a circumstance that is, you know, is pulling your life apart to be thirsty for God. It's a way that we live in pursuit of God, in hunger for God, and seeking God. And it's not that God can't be found, it's God promises that he will be found. In fact, the Bible is filled with instructions for us to seek God, but it's also filled with the confidence that God responds to our seeking. That we knock and the doors are open, that we seek and we find, that we pursue and God responds. God is not hiding himself from you. He wants you to reach out to him to seek him out, but he responds to that heart that is thirsty for his presence, for his power. Moses writes it in his historic words from God in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 29. But if from this place, from thence, thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him. If you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. Jeremiah writes it in a prophetic word in Jeremiah 29, and you and you shall seek me and find me, and when you search for me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, I will gather you from the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place where I have caused you to be carried away. And then Jesus reiterated again in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, verse number 6, it's recorded, Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. I want to tell you today, if you are thirsty, if you are hungry, that you are desiring for God, God responds to that desire. You don't have to be in crisis, you don't have to be at a critical moment of your existence, just hungry and thirsty for God, wanting God to do something in your life. God will respond. He's not withholding himself from you, he is not hiding from you, he is not distant from you, he's not reluctant to deal with your stuff. He's not afraid of the mess of your life, he's not afraid of your circumstances, he's not afraid of the difficulty that you may live in. He's not afraid of any of those things, but he reaches into our lives. He responds to that hunger and that thirst of our lives. And when we are thirsty and we were seeking God, when we are pursuing God, the effort is never wasted because not only does God come, but God gives us what we need. That searching, that seeking, that hunger, that thirsting for God produces something. It changes something, it fills something of our lives. We seek God, he gives us his direction. Psalms 32 and 8 says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with my eyes. He gives us power and boldness when we seek him, when we're hungry for him, when we're thirsty for him, when we're following after him. Acts 4.13 says, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. It became apparent that they had been with Jesus. It was obvious that they had been with Jesus. Their hunger, their thirst, their desire to know God, to be in the presence of Jesus somehow worked in their lives and empowered them and gave them a boldness. When others saw them, they said, These people are people that are seeking God, that are searching out God, that are doing something different. They are reaching the throne of God, and you can see what's happened in their lives because when we pursue God, he gives us that boldness, that power. When we seek him, he gives us peace and assurance. Isaiah 26 and 3, it says, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee. In perfect or complete peace, no matter what the storms or the circumstances, because why? Because everything else is in the shadows of this vision. Only God is the focal point. It's sort of like Peter when he got out of that boat walking by faith, and don't harass Peter too much, he did walk on water. He got out of that boat and he walked on that water, going to Jesus as Jesus had called him. But then he began to notice all the other storm around him, the winds and the waves and all the boisterousness of what was going on around him. And he began to sing. But when Jesus called him and he reached out to him, all of his focus now turned back to Jesus. All of his eyes got fixed on Jesus now. And Jesus was able to make him rise back up and walk on that water until he was in safety. And that's the way it is for you and I when we have a thirst, a desire, a long for God that causes our attention to be focused on him. God responds and he works in our lives, and in spite of our circumstances, he does the miraculous in our lives. When our eyes are fixed on him, when we're searching him, when we're seeking him, when we're thirsty for him, he produces works in our lives. John 15 and 5 says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in him the same, brings forth much fruit. It'll bring forth much fruit in our lives. If we fix our eyes on Jesus, if we're thirsty for him, we're pursuing him. It brings much fruit in our lives. But he didn't stop there. He also said the very next phrase for without me you can do nothing. Well, that sums it up, doesn't it? Without me, you can do nothing. But something miraculous happens when we get our eyes on God, when our thirst, our desire for God drives us to focus on uh just Him and what He wants to do in our lives and to close out all the other things. You know how that goes because you kneel down to pray sometimes and you start thinking of all the things you need to do. And your prayer time is so unproductive because the best that comes out of that kind of prayer time is a to-do list. Because that's all you can do. Your brain is scattered, you're thinking about all those other things and all these to-do lists and all these activities, all these things. I I think most of us have plenty to do. I don't think we're looking for a lot to do. It's you know, all those modern conveniences require something of you. But if we stop and we get our attention on God and we let the thirst, the desire of our hearts for God, to begin to come forward in our lives, to push past all the noise of our lives, and let that thirst drive us to focus our attention on Jesus, then something changes. And something happens, and in spite of all the list of stuff you have to do, in spite of all the things waiting on you to accomplish, and all the responsibilities of your life, something happens when your eyes get fixed on Jesus, when your thirst drives you to the place to focus on him. And God ministers to your life, and God gives you his strength, and God touches you by his power. And then you can get up and go do what needs to be done. Our hearts long for God. Whether in difficulty or in blessings, our hearts long for God, and he responds to that thirsting. He responds to that desire for him. And I'm here today simply to challenge you, to dig down into your heart and to cry out for the presence of God, to let the thirst rise for God in your life, to let it come forward in your heart, to let that desire for God get beyond the stuff of your life and come to the forefront today as you somehow focus on God and let him minister to Him. I want to challenge you not to try to find something else or distract yourself with something else, but let that thirst for God arise in your life. Let it rise up in your heart, let it rise up in your mind, and let it focus your attention on him, thirst for him, and let that thirst drown out everything else. Oh God. We long for you. The psalmist in the skillful way of the songwriter makes this exclamation in Psalms 42 as the deer pants after the water brooks. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My soul pants for you, my soul reaches for you, my soul desires you. Paul made exclamations too in the scriptures, and he exclaimed in Philippians chapter 3 in the New Testament that I, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformal to his death, that I may know him, that hunger spilling out of his life, that hunger spilling out of his heart, his heart stretching and reaching and trying to contact with God because that hunger and is there anybody that has a thirst and a hunger and a desire to God? God will feel that desire. God will feel that if there's nothing else that will feel that. There's no special meal that's gonna feel that. There's no special celebration that's gonna feel that. There's not even a special person that's gonna feel that. It's God calling us and us being thirsty for Him so that He can fill the void of our lives and touch our hearts. God fills the servant thirsty, He satisfies the seekers, He responds to the heart of the hungry. And I'm simply here today to ask: are you hungry for God? Are you hungry for something? Are you thirsty for something? Something in your heart that says, I need God in my life. I need God in my life. It's all this this outpouring of God in our lives is almost always preceded by someone expressing a hunger, a thirsting, a desire for God in their lives. And so today I'm I'm just challenging you, I'm calling you to have a thirst that cannot be ignored. To have a thirst that drives you to say, God, I want to shut out everything else for a few minutes. I want to stop everything else for a few minutes. I want to come to you. I want to come into your presence. I want your power to minister to my life. And as I come to a close today, I want to speak to you. I want to call you that are thirsty. Not a physical thirst, but a spiritual thirst. A thirsting in your soul, a hunger in your heart, something that says, God, I want your presence to touch my life. I want your power. You don't have, if you have a need, it's fine to come in that need. If you don't have a need, it's still right to be hungry and thirsty for God. And so we're not trying to single out just somebody that's got a crisis in their life this morning. I'm just asking, is somebody thirsty for God? Is somebody thirsty enough to push past all the schedule of the day? Somebody thirsty enough to push back the call of lunch or the call of responsibility or the call of something else in your heart and mind today, is someone thirsty enough to receive a touch from God today, to receive God's mercy and grace in their lives. Maybe you do feel like David and you're in a dry and weary land where there is no water. You've been walking through your own wilderness. You're in a season where joy feels scarce. You're in a season where your heart feels dry. You're in a season where you've been running on empty. If that's you, you're in the right place today. Because Jesus wants to meet with you. Lift that thirst to God, lift that desire to God, He wants to minister to you today. He wants to embrace you and fill you. He wants to overflow you again and again and again with that spring of living water, his presence that springs forth in your soul, refreshes you over and over again. You're in the right place today. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness. They shall be filled. Not might be filled, not could be filled, but shall be filled. It is his promise to you. But you don't have to be in crisis today if you're just thirsty. I want to challenge you to come and receive what God wants to give you.