Skit done by member of youth group

Jesus: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture said, streams of living water will flow from within him.

Disciple 1: Why does he always do that?

Disciple 2: Do what?

Disciple 1: You know!

Disciple 2: No. . .What?

Disciple 1: He’s always talking in hyperboles

Disciple 2. You mean parables don’t you?

Disciple 1. (said in anger) Hyperbole’s, parables, why doesn’t he just say what he means?

Disciple 2: I don’t know

(Pause)

Disciple 2: What do you think he meant?

Disciple 1: Maybe we’re supposed to ask him for  a drink?

Disciple 2: No, I did that once and he gave me a bottle of Aquafina

Disciple 2: So, what did he mean?

Disciple 1: I don’t know. (Short Pause) – Maybe he meant that we were supposed to drink a lot of water

Disciple 2: Yeah, maybe this is a test, we’re supposed to do this on faith. We’re not supposed to ask questions, we’re just supposed to drink A LOT like we’re really thirsty.

Disciple 2: (looks at small glass) What are you doing with that?

Disciple 1: I’m drinking!

Disciple 2: (laughing) That’s a little girl glass. (Deep Base Voice) This is a man sized glass, for a man sized thirst. (Drinking a lot)

Disciple 1: Do you see anything coming out of me yet?

Disciple 2: Nope. (Pause) Do you see anything coming out of me yet?

Disciple 1: Nope. I’m starting to sweat, do you think that counts?

Disciple 2: No! (Fidgeting like a little kid who needs to go to the bathroom) I need to really go. Do you think that’s what he meant by streams of living water coming out of you?

Disciple 1: No!

Disciple 2: Then what did he mean when he said, “If you are thirsty, come to me and drink, and out of you will flow streams of living water?”

Disciple 1: I don’t know.

Disciple 2: I’m not feeling so good!

Disciple 1: Yeah, you drank a lot of water.

Disciple 2: (Looking really sick, acting like he’s ready to vomit.) Vomiting

Disciple 1: (Looking at the audience, asking them) Do you think that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “Streams of living water will flow out of you?”

Disciple 2 I hope not!

Run off stage.

Message:

Jesus said, 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. And then John, the writer of this account of Jesus’ life said, by this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Generally speaking in our culture we try to take in, get more, make more, have more. We try to get better jobs so that we can make more money, so that we can buy more things and then that cycle repeats itself as often as we can in our life time, get a better job, make more money, so that we can buy more, have more, own more. That is the American Dream! It’s all about taking more in. Read the rest of this entry »

Edited from Shane Hipps’ message “From Your Belly.”

(Review of last week and recent ideas: physical birth and spiritual birth, physical thirst and spiritual thirst)

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “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. John 7:37-38

Last week I preached about a woman at the well and Jesus said something to her almost identical to this. What’s interesting about this is that anytime you see something repeated in scripture, especially when it’s close together, here it’s only three chapters apart, where Jesus uses the same basic metaphor and says the same basic thing, it means that it’s really important. Here Jesus is repeating himself because he wants to reemphasize his point because it’s important.

Now, the really interesting part about this is that Jesus doesn’t repeat himself exactly. Instead, he changes it ever so slightly, to reveal another layer to his teaching.

The first thing that makes this teaching of Jesus unique compared to the one we looked at last week with the Samaritan woman at the well, is that this one takes place on the last and greatest day of a very important feast or festival.

For these people, there were two major festivals that they celebrated. One was called Passover, you may have heard of it, and we celebrate it at Easter. This festival was to commemorate or celebrate when God, with 10 mighty plagues, freed the Israelites from 400 years of slavery under the mighty hand of Egypt. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt revealing His mighty power and giving the Israelites freedom where they had none. Read the rest of this entry »

8-1-10 Baptism: Are You Thirsty? (edited from Shane’s Hipp’s sermon called Stay Thirsty)

Is there anyone here who is thirsty? Why do you drink water? Because you’re thirsty, right? What makes you thirsty? It’s because your physical body is 70 percent water and it needs to have a fresh source of water all the time in order to stay healthy. We all know this, right? But what happens if we don’t have any water or enough water? We get dehydrated and eventually die is the condition persists, right? Our physical bodies need water.

A couple of weeks ago Jesus made it abundantly clear that there are two parts of our body.  We are called to be born again. We have a physical birth, but we are incomplete without being born of the Holy Spirit. We can be born physically, but we must also be born or “born again” spiritually.

 The physical body we know needs water in order to stay healthy, but what does our spiritual body need? What does it need in order to stay healthy? Is it ever thirsty? Does it have a strong desire that needs to be satisfied? If we ignore the desire of our spiritual body can we also become really unhealthy and die? These are some the questions that I’d like to look at answering today.

One day Jesus said something really unusual. He was in the temple area that was filled with people and he cried out in a loud voice,  

Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:37-38 (NRSV) Read the rest of this entry »