Sermon Summaries - Jesus Is - Week 5

Starting with a note of explanation here -- yes, I'm playing "catch-up" with the January services. My weekends were unusually busy last month. I'll be catching you all up this week, so by next week, we'll all be current.

Let me just ask you all, who likes coffee?? Raise your hands!! (I'm not raising mine because caffeine keeps me up at night, so BTH, coffee is not a huge part of my life. Not for a lack of enjoyment, just physical results) I can, however, agree that coffee is a delivery system for cream and sugar. ;) So what does this have to do with Jesus?? Read on, dear ones --

In John 7, we see Jesus at the Festival of Tabernacles (or Booths). This was a time God set for them to remember their ancestors' escape from Egypt. A celebration of water in the desert. On the last day, the Priest would take water from the pool, carry it back into the city through the gate to the Temple, and pour it on the altar.

Verse 37 has Jesus making a rather unexpected statement... "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." He claimed to be the Living Water as opposed to the "average, traditional" water being carried by the Priest.

Different things in this world can be addictive like coffee w/ cream and sugar. Whether it's news, numbers, new clothes, or "numbness" (drugs, alcohol, social media), we all have our cravings or addictions. Some people think coffee tastes like dirt. What kind of "dirt" are you addicted to in life?? What's your "cream and sugar"?? In what way do you want to feel some level of control during these crazy times?? As we all know, too much of most anything can be bad for us. There is a price to be paid whether it be health issues due to too much caffeine and sugar, depression over the news, credit card debt due to over-spending...

The good news is that Jesus shows us a better way and invites us into it. He is the Living Water and as we all know, water is life. We've all probably heard that so many times that it may have lost its significance for us. Water is life!! Save the environment!! ( ... yak yak yak... )*

But truth is truth. We need water to survive. We're mostly MADE of water, after all. And if you go back to Genesis 1, you'll find that water was here before we were. So, yeah, it's fairly important.

The Water Jesus offers, of course, is Spiritual. He offered it one-on-one to the woman at the well, and in a public display at the pool of Bethesda. Our text today from the Festival was even more public, indicating a wider audience. (vs. 38-39 "Whosoever believes... streams of living water will flow from him...") Jesus wants us to not only receive the water, but share it with others.

Jesus offers us refreshment for our souls in a barren wasteland of life. What is your deepest need today?? You know, sometimes we may tend to "over-formalize" prayer, but if we look back at the Psalms we can see just how deeply David prayed. Look, for example, at Psalm 22:1-2, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent." Down to verses 14-15, "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death." Now that's honest praying right there!! Talk about "keeping it real"!! And now look at David's heart in Psalm 63:1 - "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

Finally, look at what God tells John in Revelation 21:6 "...To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life." Did you catch that -- "without cost"!!?? We said earlier that "dirt" or "coffee" comes with a price, the Water Jesus offers is FREE!! How cool is that!!?? (both literally and figuratively) <3 -- God Bless!!

* note from above -- It's not that I'm against saving the environment or have any disrespect toward Natives (I have Abenaki blood myself), it's that I favor domestic resources and jobs. Drilling for oil is going to ruin "someone's" back yard, why not our own and save the shipping costs?? God wouldn't have placed it there if He didn't want us using it, right?? (I know I said no politics, but just wanted to clarify my words)