How to Have a Full Water Pot - John 2. 1-5 - Tim Barlas

·1 hr·5 clips

Tim Barlas reveals how his wife's nursery schedule accurately predicts when he'll be asked to preach.

The episode is a sermon delivered by Tim Barlas at Anchor Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio. He opens with a personal anecdote about how his wife's nursery duty schedule has repeatedly predicted when he would be asked to preach. Barlas then reads John 2:1-5, focusing on Jesus' interaction with his mother at the wedding in Cana. The sermon is structured around three main points derived from the passage. First, he discusses 'unquestioned obedience,' using the analogy of children blindly trusting parents and warning against outside influences that erode simple faith. Second, he examines 'unwelcome difficulty,' calculating the substantial physical effort required to fill the six stone water pots (each holding 21-32 gallons, weighing 180-270 pounds of water) as a metaphor for the effort God sometimes demands. Barlas shares personal experiences, including his career shift from aviation mechanic to administrator, where he learned not to assume manufacturer manuals were always correct. Third, he talks about 'unequaled results,' where God's transformations surpass worldly expectations, like turning water into superior wine. He illustrates this with a story from jail ministry about a man's salvation, described as a 'spiritual circumcision' separating soul from flesh. Throughout, Barlas weaves in references to his family, his church's teen camp ministry, and his theological education at TBDI, emphasizing themes of persistence, trusting God's timing, and the importance of a Bible-based church.

As heard by us

A water-pot sermon on obedience, church disappointment, and trusting God through roads nobody planned.

The sermon turns the water pots in John 2 into a reflection on obedience before there is anything to show for it. It begins in a familiar church register, moving from a warm-weather joke about nursery duty and Elizabeth's supposed prophetic gift into a sharper concern: the…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a sermon that turns a nursery-schedule joke and the water pots in John 2 into a test of patient obedience.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Anchor Baptist Church 1611 Dayton, Ohio