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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

Thirst

Let's bow our heads in prayer as we prepare to hear a word from God.

Father in heaven, We are here today, Lord, because we need you.

And we pray, Lord, that as we come close to you, that you would open our eyes to see a character of God with new eyes.

May we see a God who cares, a God who loves, a God who is also thirsty.

So Lord speak to us and we thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus name, amen.

CBS reports that while most people know perfectly well that we must be hydrated in order to live a healthy and productive lifestyle, up to 75% of Americans are functioning in a chronic state of dehydration.

The majority simply just don't drink enough water.

Most health experts will commonly recommend 64 ounces or 8 cups of water a day as long as you don't exercise heavily or you're exposed to the heat of the sun for too long.

And this is normally sufficient, 64 ounces of water a day, unless of course you're running a full marathon as I was during the fall of 2011 in Michigan.

You know Michigan in the fall, the temperatures are already cool.

And it was the Detroit Free Press Marathon and I admit that I Completely misjudged my need of water You see I wasn't sweating very much in the cool of the day And so I didn't want to take the risk of drinking too much water.

For those who have ran a marathon here or any kind of long distance, you know what I'm talking about.

Especially if you're if you're pulling for a PR or personal record.

And you don't want to unnecessarily stop for a restroom break.

After all, a PR is what you're aiming for, and like I said, every second counts.

So I chose to bypass not just 1 water station, but several.

And by God's grace, and I truly mean by his grace, I crossed that finish line but when I did I nearly passed out.

I was tumbling from side to side, swaying to the left and to the right, until fortunately volunteers that were there went to my rescue and held me up.

And I was literally carried by volunteers to a medical tent where they found my blood pressure to be 76 over 43.

And they concluded that I was severely dehydrated.

My family finally found me laying on a mat with an IV stuck right there in my arm.

Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly, I should say, during the final 6 miles or so of the marathon, dehydration had slowed me down, causing me to miss a PR by less than 1 minute.

Believe me, it's dangerous to be dehydrated.

The results of dehydration can include muscle cramps, depression, constipation, hypertension, kidney stones, joint complications, and yes, even death.

Yet, though many, at least 75% of Americans, According to that study, many live on the verge of such grave and serious consequences.

In fact, 1 way to prevent dehydration is actually a biblical theme in both the Old and New Testament.

An ancient prophet received a message directly from God Himself.

He heard the words of God speaking to him, in which God gave him an invitation to a dehydrated and thirsty people.

Isaiah recorded God's Word in chapter 55.

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to open to Isaiah 55.

And God said, come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.

When your mouth is dry with thirst and your muscles feel fatigued, there's only 1 place to go to be invigorated.

Did you know that when you're actually thirsty, you are already dehydrated?

The moment you thirst, you have already lost as much as 1 to 2% of your body's water content.

And all your energy or your energy will decrease by as much as 20% when you simply thirst.

A 10% decrease in water and you'll be unable to walk.

What a creator God, to have created us with such a complex set of biological processes that trigger in the brain a thirst response for liquid.

We're amazing, amazing bodies that God designed, and if and when our body necessitates it, We have a trigger system that lets us know that.

But what that means is that when you have drank 64 ounces of water yesterday, yesterday, and you don't go to And you don't go to the waters today, you will thirst again.

But there's a deeper thirst, an innate longing to satisfy a persistent thirst that's deep in our being.

It compels us deep within To do something to fill, to satisfy that craving.

And all of us, With no exception, you have that deep longing, that deep thirst within your being.

That's what Jesus seems to hint at In His most famous discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5, Jesus begins with a series of statements.

Many of you are familiar with the Beatitudes.

Jesus spoke of those who are poor in spirit, of those who mourn, of those who are meek.

And then He goes on to say this, blessed are those, Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

The Greek word translated filled is found in Matthew 5 as tortasso, meaning to fatten, to fill, or to satisfy.

Jesus is recognizing that there are those who thirst for things other than water.

Athletes thirst for victory and achievement.

Business people, they thirst for market shares.

Politicians, they thirst for control and power.

See, robots with artificial intelligence and sensors could easily hear, detect smells, feel heat and cold and the like, but robots cannot love or fall in love.

This morning, today, I was in the restroom and we had Alexa with us.

She's a very artificially intelligent machine And I asked her this morning with my sermon in mind, I said, Alexa, do you love me?

She says, I don't have human love figured out yet.

Because robots cannot mature emotionally with age.

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Thirst

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