Morning Message Text: John 15: 26-27; 16: 4b – 15
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,
5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:
9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;
10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.
15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Morning Message:
I titled this message, “Life in the Spirit”. In recent years I have refrained from preaching the usual text associated with Pentecost. After so long preaching what took place on that day, how the Spirit first fell upon the believers, I guess I have grown tired of living in the past. What happened on that glorious day was unique and powerful and inspiring and motivational, but it was not meant to be a one and done event. What is lost on us as THE CHURCH today, is the excitement that the Holy Spirit should ignite in us. We don’t need to hear about what the Holy Spirit did; we need to live in the excitement of what the Holy Spirit can accomplish through us. When was the last time you felt excited about coming to church? When is the last time that you felt excitement in your soul about something that God was doing in your life?
Let me read you something from my daily devotions. My prayer for Sunday. May we be expectant …for sometimes rocks cry out, donkey’s talk, dead people come alive, bushes burn, stuck people get freed up, lying brothel owners and religious terrorists encounter a scandalous grace, and religious know-it-alls get a black eye by hearing, “Prostitutes and tax collectors will get into the Kingdom of God before you”. May we remember nothing is impossible for God. May the wildfire of heartfelt devotion honor well the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the pleasantness of brothers and sisters dwelling in unity be real. Do your work again, Lord. Do it again. Do it again. Amen. With the Holy Spirit comes a sense of awe but we should also have a sense of expectation and excitement knowing that our God can do all things. Did you bring that attitude with you to church today?
The Holy Spirit is the power of God to overcome. In 2Corinthians 12: 9-10 we read this. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” For when I am weak, then I am strong. Listen to this short example. A boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was only ten years old and had lost his left arm in a car accident. He was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training, the master had taught him only one move. “This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. He won all three matches. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. He asked the judo master why he had won. “You won for two reasons. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.” The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength. God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Charles Spurgeon, one of my favorite preachers said, “Live daily, a life of dependence on the grace of God.” This is life in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives strength to believers and makes living the Christian life possible. The Holy Spirit can move constantly in our lives, not just on Pentecost.
We need to be more aware of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the power that God has bestowed upon his children. One more scripture and one more example from my devotional: “1Corinthians 6:19: ‘Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?’ Now we struggle a little with that last part. We like to think that we are our own; we are very full of ourselves. Listen to this example. Major Ian Thomas, a British expositor, described a foolish man who was trying to push his car when it was filled with gasoline and capable of running on its own. He said that’s how many people try to live the Christian life—in their own strength and by their own efforts. But only Christ can live a life of godliness, and He wants to do it through us by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. As we walk in the Spirit, we become more and more like Jesus because He is controlling more and more of us. What a blessing to have a Heavenly Father who desires us to be more like Him! As we walk with Him, let’s thank Him for the daily work of the Spirit in our life.” That comes from David Jeremiah.
I chose to preach to you today from John’s gospel because he is giving us a description of what life with the Holy Spirit should look like. In the book of Acts where we hear about the birth of the church, we see the power of the Spirit, we see the amazing things, the miracles that took place. All of that is still possible today in the power of God through the Holy Spirit. But in my opinion, what we need today is to rekindle the excitement, the expectation of what God can do in our lives when we walk with the Spirit. Pentecost is a day to be reminded of the power of God that Jesus bestowed upon all of us who believe. Today is a day to embrace the excitement of the power that we have within us, not our power, but God’s power. I know that I joke with you all the time about being such stiff Presbyterians. I am mostly joking, but there is a small voice inside of me that asks, “Why are we so quiet, why are we so motionless, where is the excitement that the Holy Spirit must surely stir in Gods people? Where is our life in the Spirit?”
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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