Rivers of Living Water

Short Talk (SHT206) Rivers of Living Water © Jane Hulme 2020 Aim of Short talk: Use of Short talk: Main themes: Biblical references: Lectionary: Props: To unpack some of the actions of the Holy Spirit within a believer’s life. This is a short All Age talk picking out one issue from the Lectionary Gospel reading of the Sunday main service. The talk stands alone and assumes that the Gospel Bible reading may not yet have been read to the congregation. It could be used for example, for the whole congregation before the children go out to their age specific groups, leaving the adults with a full sermon later. Pentecost, Holy Spirit, Water, Thirst, Satisfaction, Life, Cleansing, Transformation, Power, Equipping John 7:37-39 Year A – Pentecost You need the following items: 1. Aglassofwater 2. ThepictureinAppendix1projected 3. Awashingupbowl 4. Asmoothstone:thelargestyoucanfindsothatitcanbe seen easily SHORT TALK: “Rivers of Living Water” Items 1, 3 and 4 are placed on a table in front of you. .................................................................................................................. (Project picture from Appendix 1) I wonder if you can tell me what the 3 items on the table and the projected picture have in common. (Receive responses) • If you are struggling to see the link between them, ignore the stone and guess again. (Receive responses) What they all have in common is that in some way they are linked with WATER. • I wonder what water has to do with Pentecost Sunday, the festival that we are celebrating today. • Pentecost is the day we remember the pouring out of God’s Holy Spirit upon the disciples in Jerusalem; sending them out to share the good news about Jesus with the world. To discover what Pentecost has to do with water, we need to listen to some words that Jesus said beforehand. He said: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (John 7:37-39) © Jane Hulme 2020 2 One of the symbols that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit was water. • Let us see if we can understand how water can remind us of the Holy Spirit. When we are really thirsty, a cool glass of water satisfies us, doesn’t it? (Pick up glass of water) • Water SATISFIES THIRST. When we are thirsty for life and for love, Jesus invites us to come to Him. • When we do that, Jesus gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who comes to live inside us. • The Holy Spirit SATISFIES THIRST, not our physical thirst, but our spiritual thirst. (Project pictures of Atacama Desert) Moving on to our next item. Here are a couple of pictures of the Atacama Desert in Chile. • The first picture shows you the desert before the rains come. • The second picture shows you the desert after the rains have come. You can see from these pictures that water BRINGS LIFE. • After the rains, you can see evidence of life, with many flowers blossoming. When we turn to Jesus, we are given the gift of life. • The Holy Spirit BRINGS LIFE to our spirits that were once dead. • We can now have a relationship with God and call Him Father. Moving on to our next item. I wonder what we use this bowl for. (Pick up washing up bowl) • Maybe we would use it to clean dirty dishes, or to wash dirty clothes. • In order to do that we would fill the bowl with water because water CLEANSES things......it makes things clean again. When we turn to Jesus, the Holy Spirit CLEANSES us from our sins. • He washes us clean on the inside and gives us a fresh start. And finally, our last item. I wonder what a stone has to do with water. (Pick up stone) • Many of you have been to the seashore and seen waves pounding against the rocks. • Water can be very powerful and when it pounds against rocks, those rocks are changed. • Where there are rough edges, they are gradually removed until you get stones like this that are beautifully smooth. • Water CHANGES things. When we turn to Jesus, a new life begins for us. • Having cleansed us, the Holy Spirit is constantly at work within us, removing our rough edges, making us more and more like Jesus. • The Holy Spirit CHANGES us. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t simply change us to become more like Jesus in our characters. • He also gives us boldness and courage and power to change the world. • Like water in a river that is constantly moving, the Holy Spirit is constantly moving us out of our comfort zones to share the Gospel to others through our words, our actions and our lives. © Jane Hulme 2020 3 Next time you see a river or run a tap, let the water remind you that the Holy Spirit: • satisfies our spiritual thirst • brings us life • cleanses us from our sins • and changes us. Let’s be asking our Heavenly Father to be continually filling us with His precious Spirit. © Jane Hulme 2020 4 Appendix 1 – Pictures of the Atacama Desert in Chile 5 © Jane Hulme 2020