A dear friend of mine emailed me some cute little "church stories" that I’d like to share with you this morning:

The story is told of a Father who was trying desperately to explain the concept of marriage to his four year old daughter who was having a very difficult time grasping the concept of what marriage is all about. As a last resource for illustration he got out the wedding album, thinking visual images would help, and explained the entire service to her.

Once finished, he asked if she had any questions, and she replied, "Oh. I see. Is that when Mommy came to work for us?"

Another story told is that after church one Sunday morning, a mother commented: "The choir was awful this morning." (Which would never happen at First Baptist)The father commented: "The sermon was too long."

Their 7-yr. old daughter added: "You've got to admit it was a pretty good show for a dime."

And finally, a mother was watching her four-year-old child playing outside in a small plastic pool half filled with water. He was happily walking back and forth across the pool, making big splashes.

Suddenly, he stopped, stepped out of the pool, and began to scoop water out of the pool with a pail. "Why are you pouring the water out, Johnny?" the mother asked. "Cause my Sunday School teacher said Jesus walked on water, and this water ain’t working."

Sometimes the things that you and I understand take on an entirely different dimension through the eyes of a child. Yet there are many things within the realm of Christendom that even adults have a hard time understanding.

In our Christian calendar today is known as the "Day of Pentecost." Pentecost is one of those gray areas that unfortunately many do not understand. In fact let me go out on a limb here, most Christians do not understand the Day of Pentecost. And because we do not understand it we become afraid to talk about it and by doing so we miss out on a HUGE blessing!

With that said, like the Father who brought out the wedding album in hopes that a visual presentation might help his daughter understand the concept of marriage, I have prepared some things this morning that hopefully will help us all to understand the value of celebrating the Day of Pentecost.

(Take the large pitcher of water and fill one of the empty glasses on the communion table with water)

John tells us that Jesus stood up in the temple and said,
"Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink."
(John 7:37)

These words were spoken on the last day of the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles.

During this religious festival the ancient Hebrews would live in booths or tents. They did this to remember and teach future generations about how they lived in the wilderness.

For forty years they wandered in the desert living in tents and being led by God. Water was a very important part of the festival. When they were in the desert they might have died from lack of water. But God gave them water from a rock.

So every day of the festival, water was brought into the temple in a procession. Gold vessels were used to carry the water and each day the water was poured out into a vat in front of the congregation.

This was to remind the people that God had sustained them every day of their journey through the wilderness.

But this water represented more than God quenching their thirst for water centuries before. To the Jews of Jesus day it also represented the promise to quench their thirst for salvation. To fulfill the promise that God would provide for all their needs, physical and spiritual.

The pouring of the water at the festival was a demonstration that God was pouring out grace upon them. And ultimately it represented the hope and promise of a Savior or Messiah to bring them safety and peace.

It was in the context of this religious use of water that Jesus said, "If anyone thirsts let them come to me." Jesus wasn't just offering them a glass of water. He was offering them the answer to all their prayers. Every day for seven days as the water was brought in the people remembered how God saved Israel form Pharaoh and the desert and they prayed that God would do it again.

So Jesus, hearing those prayers, stood up and said, "Here I am. I am the source of salvation. If you are thirsty for God's Spirit, I will give it to you." ***

You and I are like this glass. (Pick up the second empty clear glass) Look at this glass for a moment. What can we learn about this simple glass that we can assimilate into our own lives? First of all this glass is transparent. If I hold this glass up I can see right through it.

We need to understand that to God, our lives are transparent. There is never anything in our life that God does not see. Now that can be a word of comfort, or it can be a word of great trouble. You see it brings me great comfort to know that when I am hurting on the inside, God knows about my pain because God sees my pain. When I am frightened God knows. When I am worried God knows. Whenever I go to the oncologist, there is a fear in my heart of the "unknown." When my children sit on my lap and say "Daddy where are you going?" and I say "To the Doctor," they always say "Why." I am always able to say "Oh just for a check-up. I’m not sick, I just need a tune up." My children never realize that deep down inside I am scared. But God knows. God always knows.

God also knows when there are things in our life that are displeasing to Him. I often say that when Adam and Eve had sinned, realized their nakedness and hid from God, that God wasn’t yelling "Where are you?" because He didn’t know. God always knows. What He was doing was making Adam and Eve realize where they were in relationship to God. If there is sin in our life - God knows it. When we fail to honor and worship Him with our very lives - God knows it. There is no such thing as hiding from God. God’s eyes see everything.

Proverbs 15:3 says:
"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good."
(NRSV)

Another thing we need to notice about this glass is that this glass was made for a purpose. I will never forget the first Sunday I stood here as your pastor. I had some friends from school sitting in the back of the church. Larry had prepared for me a glass of water much like this one sitting here on the table this morning. The only comment one of my friends made to me about the service that day was "Man that glass of water sure looked good!" This glass was made for a purpose and that purpose is to be used as a vessel to hold something which will sate a person’s thirst. Without the contents then the glass remains empty and useless. Notice I didn’t say without value, I said "useless."

When I think about the violence which seems to be infecting our schools and streets I have said unapologetically that parents need to accept a large portion of the responsibility. We need to teach our children the value of human life. Perhaps we don’t teach the value of human life because we don’t see it ourselves. Jesus gave His life for every single human being in this world - past, present, and future without exception. Ladies and gentlemen that makes human life, every solitary human life a valuable commodity.

We can sit this glass on a shelf all day long and never fill it. Many people do that you know. They collect different glasses and set them up high on a shelf or in a glass cabinet and they never use them for anything except to look at. I’m not saying anything against collecting glasses. If you do that I think it’s wonderful that you are doing something you enjoy. But a glass that simply sets in a cabinet or on a shelf and never gets used, unless it was designed for collecting and not using, it never fulfills the purpose it was created for.

Like the glass, You and I are vessels created for a purpose. There is a purpose for every single life that God creates. Purposes for you and I, like glasses, come in many different shapes and sizes. There is no doubt in my heart of hearts that I am doing exactly what God has pre-ordained for my life. The purpose of my life is to love people, to care for people and to proclaim the hope found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Your purpose may be somewhat different. God didn’t create all of us to do the same things. He made each of us unique and for a different purpose in life. In our Corinthian text, the Apostle Paul tells us that

"there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ."
(1 Corinthians 12:4b-10 NRSV)

Some He calls to be preachers and others He calls to be listeners of the preaching.

After listening restlessly to a long and tedious sermon, a 6-year-old boy asked his father what the preacher did the rest of the week. "Oh, he's a very busy man," the father replied. "He takes care of church business, visits the sick, ministers to the poor.... And then he has to have time to rest up. Talking in public isn't an easy job, you know."

The boy thought about that, then said, "Well, listening ain't easy, either."

Amen?

I promised last week that I would not mention anything about the golf tournament that our church participated in. Well, that was last week! Just kidding! But one thing I have noticed is how incredibly thirsty I become whenever I play golf. It’s almost as if I become more consumed with where is the next water jug than I am about what the next hole looks like!

Our lives are like that too. We become so incredibly thirsty for something but the problem is we just don’t know what that something is. All we know is that no matter what we try our thirst is never sated.

There are only two things that will ever cause that thirst to be satisfied. First we must encounter the salvation of God through Christ. Remember earlier I spoke about a festival and every day of the festival, water was brought into the temple in a procession. Gold vessels were used to carry the water and each day the water was poured out into a vat in front of the congregation. This was to remind the people that God had sustained them every day of their journey through the wilderness.

But I also said that this water represented more than God quenching their thirst for water centuries before. To the Jews of Jesus day it also represented the promise to quench their thirst for salvation. To fulfill the promise that God would provide for all their needs, physical and spiritual.

That the pouring of the water at the festival was a demonstration that God was pouring out grace upon them. And ultimately it represented the hope and promise of a Savior or Messiah to bring them safety and peace. Remember that?

I believe that when we are born that God places deep inside each one of us the desire to have a relationship with Him. We may not realize that it is THAT desire that we are craving, but there is no other experience that will ever satisfy that desire. We must have a relationship with God which is only possible through an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Once we have that encounter with Jesus, (begin filling the second glass with water) He fills us with His Holy Spirit. But what is the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit water such as this? No. The Holy Spirit is God's presence with us. The Holy Spirit is that part of God which is always with us to comfort us, to strengthen us and to guide us. The Holy Spirit is what we feel when we feel like we can reach out and actually touch God or Jesus. It is through the Holy Spirit that the Father and the Son make their presence known in our lives. It is through the Holy Spirit that our lives are transformed by the Potter’s hand, by God’s hand and we are crafted into becoming what He wants us to be. It is then that we find that purpose for which we were created.***

It is He, the Holy Spirit of God who calls and leads us to a place unknown to us previously yet always known to God and gradually revealed to us. A place where God wants us to be.

Jesus said, "Let the one who believes in me drink." What beautiful words are the words:
"Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water."
(John 7:38)

We are vessels created by God to be filled with His Holy Spirit. God's Holy Spirit had been poured out upon you and upon me and on all who believe. We can drink of it as Jesus has commanded. But how? By simply trusting in God. Trusting in His presence in your life. Trusting that He will strengthen you.

Everyone of us has been given a purpose by God. We must seek out that purpose. We must ask God to show us what that purpose is and then we must willingly become obedient to His purpose and call upon our lives! It is through the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we will find that purpose and call. Once we do? We can let that purpose flow out from our hearts as a mighty river. Sharing that call and purpose with a world filled with persons desperately needing the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in their lives. Jesus says "Come and drink." Will you?

(***Indicates credit to be given to Reverend Alex Stevenson.)

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