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“A Story of God’s Transforming Power” Easter Sunday April 4, 2021 I. Introduction: A. Have any of you ever been thirsty before? I am not talking about a physical thirst, but rather a soul thirst! A soul that craves to be satisfied? 1. A thirsty soul is the best way to describe my life before I knew Jesus Christ. 2. All I know is that my life was driven by the need to satisfy this unidentified nagging thirst. a) I found myself doing all sorts of things trying to quench this thirst, but everything came up empty, it only gave temporary satisfaction at best, but the thirst kept coming back even stronger. b) Jesus said in John 4:13-14 B. Today I want to tell you my story about how Jesus Christ quenched the thirst of my soul with his living water. I shared this on Easter Sunday 24 years ago and it is time to do it again. II. Life before Jesus Christ A. As a young boy I thought that I would go to heaven because I was a Catholic and if I lived somewhat of a good life. The problem though was that I was not a very good Catholic nor did I live a good life! B. The real trouble started when I went away to college and all of the parental restraints were off of me! I broke loose. I partied hardy. 1. Beer, wine, whisky, along with marijuana, hash and acid became what I used to quench the thirst of my soul at that time! 2. I would go out and party almost every night, then sleep during the day. Since I missed most of my classes I became a mini expert at cheating my way through the first 3 years of college. C. I remember one night being at a party and I was high on acid. I was walking down the hallway and I ran into another man who I never met before who was also high on drugs. 1. We began a conversation with one another and I discovered that we both felt the same way. We were searching for something and we did not know what it was. 2. We shared the common feeling that if we were at a party on the south side something inside of us felt like we should have been at the one on the north side. If I was with one person, something inside of me felt like I should have been with someone else. I felt like I was always at the wrong place, with the wrong people at the wrong time doing the wrong thing: and to quench the thirst of my soul something had to be different. D. In my junior year of college I transferred to Western IL Univ. A friend of mine there was named Greg. He was the star of the baseball team, was good looking and had a gorgeous girl friend who was a quality woman. 1. I thought “if I could just have a girl like Greg does then I know that I would be satisfied - the thirst of my soul would be quenched.” 2. One night Greg and I went out to drink and talk. 3. As we talked, Greg told me that he had broken up with his girlfriend that day. I was stunned! This guy had something that I thought would make me happy and he was letting it go. 4. I said Greg, “Why did you break up with her?” He said “Pat, I had to do it so that I could have peace of mind.” I said “peace of mind, what is that?” He said “peace of mind is knowing that you are in the right place, with the right people at the right time doing the right thing! 5. That hit my heart like a sledge hammer. That is what I had been looking for, ‘peace of mind.’ This unidentified nagging thirst in my soul was a thirst for peace, contentment and satisfaction deep down on the inside. E. A few months later at what we called a kegger, I got seriously drunk and got in the car and hit a tree on the way home! The car did a complete twirl around in the air and amazingly with 6 of us in the car no one was seriously hurt, just a few bumps and bruises. F. This accident not only sobered me up physically but also in my soul as I became deeply aware something was wrong inside of me and I was trying to fix it in all the wrong ways! 1. First thing I did was go to church and try to be a better person – back to where I started when I was growing up - religion and trying to live a good life. a) The problem was the same this time around – not only was I not good at either of them but I quit my efforts with them within 6 weeks! 2. Then I went to group counseling after that but did not find the peace I needed and still sensed something was wrong deep inside. G. The rest of that year was a downward spin as I could not find peace of mind and heart in anything that I pursued. So I dropped out of college at the end of my junior year. H. That summer I had no idea of what I was going to do with my life. I would go up on many of the weekends to visit my friends in a town in Michigan where I had worked the 2 previous summers. 1. One weekend I found myself sitting in this bar drinking at the counter with a man I did not know next to me who was in his fifties. 2. He was telling me dirty jokes. Sitting in some booths across from us were some people I knew, they were about 10 years older than me, 2 men and 2 women. All of them were married but not to each other as they were trying to pick one another up. Then the 4 of them left together in a car! 3. I think that the 1st time the Spirit of God ever spoke to me was while I was sitting in that bar. It was like someone deep inside of me spoke to my soul to take a look around. Is this what you want of your life? I thought to myself “this is not where I want to go with my life.” a) I do not want to be sitting at a bar at the age of 50 telling some kid the same dirty jokes that have been told for years. b) And I certainly do not want a marriage where my wife or I was out messing around with others. c) It’s like God opened up the eyes of my heart to see where my life was heading, and it was not what I wanted. I was deeply shaken on the inside. I. I had to do something drastic and I only knew of one other option to fix me and that was enlist in the Marine Corps. If anybody could do it, it would be the marines. So the next morning I left town immediately and came back home to Chicago to enlist! III. How I came to Christ A. During boot camp I did great since I was removed from all my old friends and substances and had a drill instructor watching over me 24/7 for 3 months. B. After boot camp, when all the external controls of the drill sergeants were removed, I began drinking again in a heavy fashion. Then I started having flashbacks of a bad trip. 1. My days were full of fear and my nights were full of horrifying night mares. 2. Internally I was a mess. I went and talked to a counselor and he put me on tranquilizers. C. A few weeks later, a Chaplain came in to speak to us men. He said if we ever needed help that he was available. 1. I immediately went and talked to the man. He told me how he could help me and that he would be available to me at any time. I left with a sense of security knowing someone could and would help me. 2. A week later I was having a very difficult time so I went over to the Chaplain’s office. He was not in. They called him at his home but he could not come in. My last hope was dashed. 3. I asked the woman in the office to please call the base drug rehab center to come and get me. She called and they said they would send a jeep for me. D. As I was waiting a different Chaplain came in and asked the secretary what I was doing there. He said that he would talk to me if I wanted. I wanted. 1. Rather than offering himself to me as able to help and always available he told me that Jesus Christ could help me and would be always available to me. 2. He told me of story after story of how Jesus Christ had changed the life of other men and women on the base who had struggled with drugs and alcohol. 3. He told me it was not dependent upon what denomination I was with nor how good I had lived my life nor anything I could do for God. Rather it depended on how good Jesus is and what he did for me. 4. He told me how my sin separated me from God and that Jesus died to pay for my sins. 5. Then he shared this verse with me. Rev 3:20 6. He told me that Jesus wants to come into my life and walk with me and help me with my problems! Then he asked me if I wanted to invite Jesus into my life? a) I asked for time to think about all of this. It was all so new to me. b) Went into the next room and prayed to God. For the first time I did not come to him with some recited prayer that I learned as a child but rather I spoke to him from my heart. I said “God, I do not know if this is some weird religion or what, all I know is that I need your help.” c) And guess what, that same inner voice in my heart that spoke to me about 6 months before in the bar was back. He said “Pat it is ok, this is the right thing to do.” 7. I just knew it was right. I got off of my knees and I went back into the room and told the Chaplain that I wanted to trust Jesus Christ. E. He led me in a prayer that was in essence something like this “God, I know that I am a sinner, thank you that Jesus Christ paid the price for my sin and offers me a brand new life. Right now I transfer my trust from anything I can do and put it all in what Jesus did for me! Right now I invite Jesus Christ to come into my life.” IV. What Jesus has done since trusting Him: A. Instantly my heart was filled with peace. That which I had for so long searched for was now deep down inside my soul like I never knew before. 1. For the 1st time in my life I felt like I was in the right place with the right people, at the right time doing the right thing! For the 1st time I experienced what Greg was telling me about. a) For the 1st time my thirsty soul found the drink that it was craving for, the drink that could satisfy it. b) Jesus said in John 7:37… 2. For the 1st time I felt clean inside. This heart that felt dirty because of the way that I had lived all of a sudden felt clean and filled with joy! 3. The best way I can describe it is that I felt like I had a 2,000 pound back pack on me and someone had cut the strings and I was free of it. 4. My soul felt light and free and clean and joyful and above all full of peace! B. Those were some of the things that God did instantly. Other things God has worked in over a period of time to change, things like attitudes, motives, and mindsets. Many things He is still working to change in my life. V. Conclusion A. Maybe you are here today and you have a thirsty soul. Maybe you find yourself in circumstances that are bigger than you are strong and smarter than you are smart. Maybe you are at the place where you are tired of trying to find the road to peace, or satisfaction or freedom from habits, hurts or hang-ups. Maybe it is something else. B. This is the very hope of the Resurrection. Not only do we celebrate on Easter the historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead, but also the implications of that Resurrection. 1. Without the Resurrection all we would know of Jesus is that He was a man who was executed for claiming to be God himself! Listen to Acts 2:22-24 impossible 2. When Jesus was raised from the dead He proved in the most powerful way to not only be God but also the Lord and our Savior and the Judge of all! 3. The Resurrection also shows us Jesus is the Author of Life and He offers to you and me a brand-new life. a) 1 Pet 1:3 b) John 3:16 C. Today may be the day you are hearing that same voice speaking to your heart that I first heard in the bar and then in the Chaplain’s office telling you “this is the way, walk in it!” D. Pray my prayer “God I know that I am a sinner, thank you that Jesus Christ paid the price for my sin and rose from the dead to offer me a brand new life. Right now I transfer my trust from anything I can do and put it all in what Jesus did for me! Right now I welcome Jesus Christ into my life.”