Sunday, November 16, 2008 
Scripture reading: John 7: 37-39
37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38and 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.” ’ 39Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit,* because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Sermon Title: "THE PLUMBING IS CRUCIAL" Sunday, November 16, 2008
PASTOR HUDSON: Let me ask you a
question I hope will frame everything that we discuss
for the next few minutes.
Are you happy? Are you happy in life? Basically
from day to day do you feel like you're content, you
have certainty, you're at peace, you are satisfied?
Maybe the very best old colloquialism would be, do
you live day to day happy? How would you answer that
question? Would you say, yes, I think life is good,
I'm at peace, or would you say something else?
In the passage that we've read today in John's
gospel, on the last great day of the feast that John
was attending, Jesus stood up and posed a very
important challenge to his audience: Everyone who is
thirsty, let that person come to me and drink. If
there was ever an image of the opposite of being at
peace or certainty, that's probably the moment, when
you are thirsty, especially if at the time it happened
you sensed there was nothing available to drink
anywhere.
Jesus says every one of you that thirsts, come to
me and drink, and out of your life will flow rivers of
living water. In this context Jesus is talking about
the Holy Spirit coming into the life of every believer
and being so wonderful in both its inward and outward
implications that you could always answer the
question, yes, I am happy, I am content, I am serene.
I do not thirst. Can you say yes to that this
morning?
Today we're talking about the plumbing of life,
and I'm choosing that language intentionally because I
believe the spiritual plumbing of our life involves
not only that which God pours into us, meaning the
gifts of Heaven that become our gifts, the things that
we receive, but also the outward flow from our lives
that has to do with the applied stewardship of how we
live.
I believe there are four areas which call us to
check our spiritual pipelines. Number one, when the
Holy Spirit truly descends into the life of a
believer, they discover something that maybe they've
only discovered for the very first time, that there is
vitality in life.
Secondly, there is optimism in life based upon
the deeply held, heart-felt conviction that God
finally is in control. Sometimes people say I know
with my head it's true, but my heart resonates with
pessimism. When you really get the pipes cleaned out,
you understand God is there and is the rewarder of
those who diligently seek him.
Friends, let me pose the question to you, if the
God who fills the pipes of our life with that kind of
living water, can raise the dead, when that day comes,
can he not also deal with your 401K?
Third, I believe that when the river of life
begins to flow out of our hearts, it takes the form of
generosity. If we can truly plug into the notion that
God is our source and we do not have to live with
clenched fists, then we open up our hands and allow
the river of life to become a stream of generosity
both into us as God blesses us and as we bless others.
John Wesley said it this way, make all the money
you can make. Save all the money you can save. Give
all the money you can give. He knew as God flowed the
river of living water out of his life it was going to
result in some significant things.
Fourth is engagement. What I mean by that is
there is engagement in the pipeline from Heaven, but
maybe another word that would help us a little better
would be simply purpose. In just a few days we'll
have a group of individuals making a medical trip to
Mexico. I will guarantee you they will all come back
with the inward feeling they have participated in
something significant. They engaged in a rich and
meaningful experience.
All four of these things, vitality in life,
optimism in life, generosity out of our life into the
lives of others, and the engagement that gives us
purpose, all of those things invite us to check the
pipeline. The challenge for us is to not just know
what's in the pipe, but to know what the conditions of
the pipe are.
One of the biggest struggles with stewardship
sometimes is the incoming source pipeline gets clogged
up or constricted down. We've not given it attention
and simply are not getting that river of life that
causes us to say, life is good, so we can respond
accordingly. Sometimes it's on the other side.
Sometimes we have to maintenance the pipeline.
For example, our main shower nozzle limed up and so I
trotted down to the hardware store and got a bottle of
CLR. Took the head of the nozzle off and dropped it
in a container. Let it sit for a couple hours, put it
back on, and life was back to normal.
God is always ready to pour out his spirit, but
he does not drill a hole in our heart, stick a funnel
in and do it without our willingness. Do we spend
time in the presence of God? Do we pray? Do we seek
God with a hungry heart?
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said seek and
keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking and the
door will be open to you. I think the initiative in
stewardship is also the same way. In all of the
parables which Jesus used to describe the life of
stewardship it was always that God had placed into the
possession of these stewards the gifts and the talents
that were under their control. It was left up to them
to do what was the right thing to do.
So let me return to the question I ask earlier.
Are you happy in life? If not, if that certainty is
not there, that peace or optimism is not there,
maybe today would be a good time to check the
pipelines and see if they have been interrupted. Make
the adjustments, make changes.
Good news is we do not have to make those changes
by ourselves. Scripture declares as we make the
incentives through the work of the Holy Spirit, God
will lead us, in my experience more than halfway, and
will open up that river that is the river of peace and
joy and life abundant. In the name of the Father,
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.