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John Wesley
John Wesley (1703 - 1791). English Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and co-founder of Methodism, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, to a rector’s family. Educated at Oxford, where he earned an M.A. in 1727, he was ordained in 1728 and led the Holy Club with brother Charles, emphasizing disciplined faith. After a failed mission to Georgia (1735-1737), he experienced a transformative conversion in 1738 at Aldersgate, London, feeling his “heart strangely warmed.” Wesley preached over 40,000 sermons, often outdoors, sparking the 18th-century Evangelical Revival, and traveled 250,000 miles on horseback across Britain and Ireland. He authored 400 works, including A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1777), and edited The Christian’s Pattern. Founding Methodist societies, he trained 650 preachers and ordained ministers for America, influencing millions. Married to Mary Vazeille in 1751, their childless union strained, but his brother’s hymns enriched worship. A tireless advocate for the poor, he opened dispensaries and schools, and his 1787 sermon against slavery stirred abolitionism. Despite tensions with the Church of England, he never left it, shaping global Protestantism. His maxim, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” inspired generations to active faith. Wesley’s journals and letters, still widely read, reveal a legacy of practical holiness and social reform
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Sermon Summary
John Wesley explores the deep spiritual thirst expressed by the Psalmist in Psalm 42, illustrating the longing for God's presence during times of suffering and distance. He emphasizes that, like a deer searching for water, our souls yearn for God, especially when we feel abandoned or dry in our spiritual lives. Wesley encourages believers to recognize that this thirst can stem from neglecting spiritual practices or from a divine sense of distance, yet reminds us that we can always return to God, who invites us to come and drink from Him. The sermon highlights the importance of engaging in the means of grace to quench our spiritual thirst and maintain closeness to God.
Scriptures
Are You Are Thirsty?
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42:1&2 The Psalmist presented to us in these verses, and in the rest of the Psalm, is a sad and downhearted person. It is unclear why, but he is certainly going through some kind of suffering, which is leaving him feeling thirsty for God. It is as if God is not there. The picture he gives us is of a deer longingly looking for streams of water, panting, breathless and thirsty but not finding the streams that were once there. It would seem that animals always remember where they have found water in the past and it must be very frustrating to go back and find none. The Psalmist remembers going to the Temple, leading the crowd, shouting for joy and praising God but these things are now only a distant memory and seem to bring as much comfort as a dry riverbed. We sometimes feel like the Psalmist but, if the truth be told, we are hesitant to advertise the fact. Why is this so? Well, sometimes because we know it is of our own making. In the turmoil which is sometimes our busy lives we are tempted to neglect those things which keep us close to God: prayer, reading the Bible, receiving the Sacrament, fellowshipping with other Christians and fasting to name but a few of the means of grace that God has put in place to keep us satisfied. The means of grace are like streams of water and they water us when we come under them, satisfying and refreshing us. But sometimes, this longing is not of our own making. God just seems to be distant and the more He seems to be distant the more we believe that He is distant. What can we learn from the Psalmist if this is our situation? Well, notice that he still calls out to the God who is distant, just as Jesus would one day cry out to the God who He felt had forsaken Him and commend His spirit into His hands. Just as the thirsty dear returns to dry river beds, so too the born-again soul knows it can return to the Christ who said: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” For thee my thirsty soul doth pant, While in this desert land I live; And hungry as I am and faint, Thy love alone can comfort give. (425)
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John Wesley (1703 - 1791). English Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and co-founder of Methodism, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, to a rector’s family. Educated at Oxford, where he earned an M.A. in 1727, he was ordained in 1728 and led the Holy Club with brother Charles, emphasizing disciplined faith. After a failed mission to Georgia (1735-1737), he experienced a transformative conversion in 1738 at Aldersgate, London, feeling his “heart strangely warmed.” Wesley preached over 40,000 sermons, often outdoors, sparking the 18th-century Evangelical Revival, and traveled 250,000 miles on horseback across Britain and Ireland. He authored 400 works, including A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1777), and edited The Christian’s Pattern. Founding Methodist societies, he trained 650 preachers and ordained ministers for America, influencing millions. Married to Mary Vazeille in 1751, their childless union strained, but his brother’s hymns enriched worship. A tireless advocate for the poor, he opened dispensaries and schools, and his 1787 sermon against slavery stirred abolitionism. Despite tensions with the Church of England, he never left it, shaping global Protestantism. His maxim, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” inspired generations to active faith. Wesley’s journals and letters, still widely read, reveal a legacy of practical holiness and social reform