How Are you Quenching your Thirst?

Short Talk (SHT195) How are you quenching your thirst? © Jane Hulme 2020 SHORT TALK: “How are you quenching your thirst?” Aim of Short talk: Use of Short talk: Main themes: Biblical references: Lectionary: Props: Before the Service: To challenge people to quench their deep inner thirst through relationship with God. 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. Jesus, Thirst, Living water John 4:5-42 Year A – The 3rd Sunday of Lent You need a table on which you lay 4 small identical glasses. Fill the glasses as follows: • Glass 1 with a few interesting sweets like dolly mixtures • Glass 2 with a few brightly coloured sweets like Smarties • Glass 3 with a few tempting sweets like Haribos • Glass 4 with cold water In order for this talk to work, you will need to brief 3 volunteers before the service. Tell them that you want them to “drink” from glasses 1, 2 and 3, but not 4 and give the appropriate answers to your questions. .................................................................................................................. I wonder if any of you are thirsty today? • If you are, then you’ll be glad to know that I have some wonderful “drinks” up here to satisfy your thirst. I have the ordinary dolly mixture in glass 1, • or the brightly coloured Smarties in glass 2, • or the very tempting Haribos in glass 3, • or cold water in glass 4. Who would like to come and have a drink? (Receive your 3 volunteers) • So which glass would you like to drink out of to satisfy your thirst? (The 3 volunteers choose a glass each from glasses 1-3) So, go on, have a drink and satisfy your thirst! © Jane Hulme 2020 2 I don’t mind if you pour the “drink” into your hands and drink it that way! (The 3 volunteers eat some of the sweets from the glasses) • Now, has that drink satisfied your thirst? (The 3 volunteers say, “No”) • Well, try a bit more......you obviously haven’t had enough. (The 3 volunteers eat some more of the sweets from the glasses) I wonder if that drink has satisfied your thirst yet. • Maybe it has distracted you from feeling thirsty for a little while. • But, I can guarantee this, it won’t be long before you are really thirsty, having “drunk” all of that sugar. Now there is one drink on my table that will really satisfy your thirst. • It may not look as interesting as the dolly mixtures, • or as brightly coloured as the Smarties, • or as tempting as the Haribos, • but it is the only thing that will actually satisfy you when you are really thirsty, and it is of course, water. We all know that when we are thirsty we need to drink water. • But as well as our bodies thirsting for water, our spirits also thirst. • There is a deep longing within each one of us for something in life that will truly satisfy us. • We might call it our “deep thirst.” One day Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well, and he got chatting with her. • Jesus knew that this woman was deeply thirsty; • thirsting for something in life that would satisfy her. She had chosen to have endless relationships with men to try and satisfy her thirst, • but although they may have satisfied her for a while, she was still thirsty. Jesus, looking at the water in the well said to this woman: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” (John 4:13-14) • What Jesus said to the woman and what He says to us is that only He can satisfy our deep thirst. Now many of us are tempted to satisfy our deep thirst by having more and more things. • These things may distract us for a while, but it isn’t long before deep down, we feel thirsty again and we have to go out and get more. Others of us may be tempted to satisfy our deep thirst by watching hours of television, • or spending hours on social media, • or trying to achieve in all sorts of ways, • or distracting ourselves with food, wine, holidays, relationships and so on. © Jane Hulme 2020 3 Many of these things are good things but expecting them to satisfy our deep inner thirst for a satisfying life is no different from expecting dolly mixtures, or Smarties or Haribo sweets to satisfy our physical thirst. • They don’t work! But if we choose to come to Jesus, He has promised to give us the gift of “living water,” (John 4:10), • living water that will satisfy our thirst for a satisfying life; • not for a few moments but forever. This “living water” is the gift of relationship with Himself, • made possible through the Spirit of God actually living within us. I wonder..... • Are you drinking this “living water” or are you still deeply thirsty? © Jane Hulme 2020 4