Happy Thursday! Glad to be with you as we come to a weekly highlight in the Pastor’s Workshop – writing the message.
Our process has looked like this:
· Monday- we read and re-read the Scripture. We recorded our “random” observations and ideas.
· Tuesday – our thinking got more “structured” as we studied the structure of the text.
· Wednesday – we put the text in the context of its original setting and our current culture.
· Thursday (today) – we review all of the above. We see how our notes and ideas fit together and a “message” begins to emerge.
With all that being said, what about this week? In our New Normal series, we’re focusing on healthy choices for your spirit. We’re guided by John 4:3-15 and John 7:37-39. What message is coming forward for you?
Here are my thoughts for Sunday’s message:
The last couple of months of living with Covid-19 have been a tough and tiring “journey”.
As with any tiring journey, we develop a thirst. Covid-19 is no exception. We have experienced a thirst for connection, for safety and security, for activity and productivity, and for normalcy.
If thirst persists for long enough, and surely this one has, an “inner” drought develops that has its own consequences. The Bible says the ‘grass withers and the flower fades’. Something within our own spirits begins to wither and fade. We experience this spiritual drought as mild disorientation, low-grade depression, and a general sense of being adrift.
To satisfy this thirst and relieve this drought, we need medical breakthroughs and economic breakouts. But we need more! We need refreshment and renewal of inner Vitality. We need God’s Holy Spirit with our human spirits. We need “living water”. We need to “come to the well”.
The well is the centerpiece of this Scripture. The well is where Jesus and the Samaritan woman meet. What happens at the well is important. In the conversation between her and Jesus, she moves from being downcast in her daily chores to running, renewed and refreshed, to witness to Christ. What happened at the well?
As you look at the conversation in the Scripture you see that the “bottom line” for Jesus at the well is to bring the woman to the “Ask”. “Sir, give me this water…” (John 4:15). It indicates that she is ready to receive what Jesus is so ready to give – living water, God’s Spirit.
We have the same Christ, who is waiting for us to make the same “ask”.
In the church, we traditionally make our “ask” for the Spirit through acts of faith. These acts are healthy choices John Wesley called “means of grace”. They are means of grace because they are channels for the “living water” of God’s grace to flow into our lives.
Wesley enumerated five. And I’ll lift up five as well (four of Wesley’s and one of my own). The five means of grace we’ll look at are Worship, Bible Study, Prayer, Fellowship, and Service. Through each of these God can pour the Holy Spirit into our human spirits in ways that we know the revival of Vitality grace gives.
Jesus said, “the water I give will gush up within like a fountain of eternal life”. That’s the promise we hold to as we make our healthy choices and “come to the well”.
That’s a brief outline of how Sunday’s message is shaping up for me. What about you? How has the Spirit led you through these Scriptures? In what ways has God’s word spoken to you? That’s the wonderful thing about the Word, God speaks specifically to our situation and needs as we listen in faith. What is God saying to you about “living water” and “coming to the well”?
I look forward to worshiping with you Sunday. It’s one of my favorite days and ways of “coming to the well”. Moreover, I’m anticipating our time on Saturday, as we “prepare with prayer”.
In those blessings, I’ll see you then.
Prayer: Gracious God, thank you for the way you speak a message through the Scriptures by Your Spirit. We pray your “living water” would refresh us so that we might not only know your truth but live it with joy through Jesus Christ our Lord. In his name, we pray. Amen.