"I Thirst" Sunday AM

Introduction

Good morning church family, if it’s your first time with us my name is Brenden Griffith and I have the honor of serving College Heights as Youth Pastor!

As we enter into this time of worship today, I want you to reflect back with me to your time as a student in school, for some of us in this room you think back to all the memories made on sports teams and in club organizations.

Others in the room think of the famous afterschool nap that got each of us a time or two.

Some of us reflect back to our time in public school as being an academic breeze, for others that’s not so much the case!

I was one of the others….

See if you were to do a survey with every teacher I ever had from Pre-K up until I graduated high school, you would notice a common theme, In the classroom I was a respectful student to my peers and to my teachers, however, on the survey more often then not, you would also see statements such as he didn’t apply himself or he wasn’t getting it.

and that statement there couldn’t be closer to the truth. I wasn’t getting it!

I remember vividly it being my junior year of high school and the “what are you gonna do when you graduate?” talks really started ramping up.

It was at that point that I really had to sit down and ask myself, “What am I doing?” “Why am I here?”

Maybe you’ve had that moment in your life. That “Why am I here?” moment.

The reason I tell you that story about myself is not because I felt like telling each of you I was a terrible student, but instead it was because finally asking myself the question “Why am I here?” as a junior in High school changed the direction of my life.

Maybe you’ve never asked yourself the question “Why am I here?”

I believe there are many people in the American church today, particularly in the area we live in which is known as the Bible Belt who have never asked themselves that very question.

You might call them, the CEO members of the local church, the church on Easter Only crew, and year after year after year they fill the church pews with the American consumer mindset and they leave just for the cycle to continue.

If you look at statistics, some of us in this very room may fit the mold of a CEO type Christian, who time after time after time makes their way into these church walls, but they don’t really get it!

So as we enter into this time of worship, I’m going to ask you a question to consider, “Why are you here?”

PRAY

There are many biblical reasons to support the importance of the local church in our development as Christians and our mission to reach the world with the gospel, but today I want to focus on one particular reason to consider, for why we should be here and truly serve in the church as believers.

that reason is the price that Jesus paid on the cross…

we have been working through a series on Sunday Mornings titled, “Seven Sayings of Jesus from the Cross”

We have covered sayings such as:

“Father, Forgive them for They Do not know what they are doing”

“Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise”

“Woman, behold your son… Behold your mother”

“My God, My God ], why have you forsaken me?”

Which leads us to the 5th saying of Jesus from the cross today.

Please stand with me this morning as we join together in the honor of reading God’s Word together.

John 19:28 CSB

After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, “I’m thirsty.”

Body

Point #1 - Jesus was in Human Form

Anguish - Extreme distress of body, mind or spirit; excruciating pain or suffering of soul

That word anguish is a very fitting word for the pain that Jesus must have felt on the cross, imagine with me for a moment Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane…

Luke 22:44 CSB

Being in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.E

Story of trying to figure out what’s for dinner!

Can you imagine the stress that Jesus must have been under in the hours leading up to his cruxifixction? We get stressed out trying to work out what’s for dinner with our spouse, but Jesus literally knew the depth of the pain he was about to face on the cross, he knew he would be mocked and tormented, he knew a cat of nine tails would rip out his flesh until he was nearly unrecognizable.

and yet, he still did it, He still went to the cross and died for the sins of the world!

“The Mystery of the humanity of Christ, that he sunk himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.” Martin Luther

Why would he?

Jesus knew his mission and carried it to completion despite the tremendous pain and agony that he felt on and even before going on the cross.

Point #2 - Jesus is God

Why would Jesus die on the cross for us?

John 3:16–17 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

6432 Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but one who stands in the thick of the whole thing.

Oswald Chambers

Jesus felt the anguish of the cross for you and for me because he is a God who stands in the thick of the whole thing, He knew his mission and he carried it to completion because HE IS MIGHTY TO SAVE.

I could not comprehend the foundations of a golf swing for anything! Many club heads died in my pursuit of learning it.

Can I tell you something, I would have never figured out how to swing the golf club if someone who was a golfer didn’t show me. I learned how to swing a club because I was told how to swing a club by someone who was doing it!

1 Corinthians 2:6–15 CSB

6 We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived— God has prepared these things for those who love him. 10 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.

The world is not able to comprehend a love so big, a love so unconditional as the love of Christ who freely gave up his innocent life on the cross

If you’re a believer in this room today, God has given us a responsibility to show those who can’t comprehend who he is, to show those individuals HIS LOVE!

that’s what is popularly known as the Great Commission

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus is a God who is mighty to save and there are people in the world who can’t fully comprehend Him. The call of a Christian is to know God and make God known to people just like that!

Conclusion- Jesus is Lord

I’ll again ask you to consider the question, why are you here?

God created us to be with him

Our sin separated us from him

Sin cannot be repaid by good deeds

Paying the price for our sin Jesus died on the cross

Everyone who trusts in him has eternal life

Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever!

Share example of being a dirty teenager who would close off my bedroom door. It was too dirty and filthy for anyone to come in.

Jesus doesn’t want you to close off any door in your heart, but to fully open yourself up to Him and allow Him to be your Lord!

List reasons people might go to church:

Jesus defeated death and the grave to make us a pathway to a relationship with God!