It's my experience that many of us are confused by the Holy Spirit. I spent some time this past Sunday in worship explaining the Holy Spirit and then talking about how we can live a Spirit-led life. Below are the two talks I gave. They can be viewed by following the links at colpres.org.
People have always been confused by
the Holy Spirit. That’s why some people
thought that was happening in the story was a drinking party. Of course we know what really happened. The Holy Spirit moved in this foundational
story in Acts 2 in such a powerful way that 3,000 people were baptized. The church was born. It was born because of the movement of the
Holy Spirit.
To be a church we need to have a clear
understanding of the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit not only started us, it’s at the heart of Jesus.
Today I’m completing a four week
sermon series called “Caring with the heart of Jesus.” This is a teaching series as I’ve taught you
about wisdom, gentleness, compassion and the Holy Spirit—four qualities of the heart
of Jesus.
We’re doing something a bit
different in that I’m starting off by sharing content about each of these
qualities.
Then we’re singing a song. Then I’m sharing how we can apply each
quality into a situation.
So I want to encourage you to get
out this brochure that is in the bulletin.
This week I’ve written a devotion on the Holy Spirit. In the middle of the devotion is a place to
take notes. I believe God might say
something to you that you’ll want to write down. On this brochure you have a list of our
congregation’s prayer requests.
Let me share right away what I’m
going to do in this first talk.
SLIDE
What
the Holy Spirit is not
What
the Bible shares about the Holy Spirit
One
place where the Holy Spirit resides
What
the Holy Spirit does
When
you leave Chain of Lakes today you’ll have answers to these four topics.
One of the creeds of the church is
the Apostles’ Creed. Around the year 180
the church developed the first form of the Apostles’ Creed.
SLIDE I
believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus
Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy ______.
God as a ghost. This was one of the worst descriptions of God
I can imagine. God is not a ghost. The
Holy Spirit is not the Holy Ghost.
What is a ghos? A ghost is this:
SLIDE Something covered in a
white sheet with two eye holes
A
ghost is scary
SLIDE
A
ghost is not looking out for our well being.
Ninety times the King James Bible
describes the Holy Spirit as a ghost. God is not a ghost.
It is worth knowing that the
definition of the word ghost is different today than it was even 200 years
ago. Then ghost meant the living essence
of a person. It didn’t mean the spirit
of a dead person who might appear to us.
What the Holy Spirit is not? The Holy Spirit is not a ghost
Second part to this. It’s Memorial Day weekend where we remember
those people who have died in service for our country. As a church we don’t believe in war, but we certainly
people who have served in the military.
SLIDE
What is the lowest rank of officer
in the military Private
What is the highest rank of officer
in the military General
Where
does the Holy Spirit rank in a relationship with God the Father or Creator and
Jesus? Is the Holy Spirit a private or general?
The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is just as divine as God the
Father/Creator and Jesus—fully God and fully human. The Holy Spirit is God.
It’s appropriate to pray to the Holy
Spirit; it’s appropriate to talk about and talk to the Holy Spirit; it’s
appropriate to be led by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God
It’s my experience that many are
confused by the Holy Spirit. We’re
confused because at times people respond to the Holy Spirit in a way that seems
strange.
Holy Spirit—we might think of people
speaking in tongues.
Holy Spirit—we might think of people
waving their hands or praying intensely with their eyes closed and hands out
Holy Spirit—we might think of a
televangelist putting their hand on someone and then the person fainting
I’m not sure about the fainting, but
these are legitimate expressions of the Holy Spirit. I have many friends who speak in
tongues. Speaking in tongues is a
spiritual gift. It’s a legitimate faith
expression to wave hands or pray intently with our eyes closed and hands out.
That leads us to the question, What
is the Holy Spirit? What does the Bible
say?
One way to think of the Holy Spirit
is the wind of God.
Genesis
1:1-2
SLIDE
In
the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a
formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God
swept over the face of the waters
Genesis
1:1-2
Wind
of God.
Wind
comes from a Hebrew word, Ruah. Ruah is
translated as wind and it is also translated as the Spirit of God or the Holy
Spirit.
The
New International Version translated the verse in this way
SLIDE
Now
the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the the
deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters Genesis 1:2
When
We see the word “wind” in the Old Testament most of the time the word is ruah
or Holy Spirit.
Let
me give some other example.
Moses and the Israelites were
escaping Pharaoh. Pharaoh and his
chariots were racing to catch up with the Israelites.
SLIDE Then Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea. The Lord drove the sea
back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the
waters were divided. Exodus 14:21
The word wind is Ruah. Say that with me, Ruah. Holy Spirit.
Wind—Ruah
Another story. Noah was in the ark for 40 days. What caused the water to start to evaporate
and go down so that Noah and his family and the animals in the ark could leave
the ark and go on dry land.
SLIDE But God remembered Noah and all the
wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and
the waters subsided; Genesis 8:1
Ruah
is the wind. Holy Spirit is the wind of
God
A second way to describe the Holy
Spirit is the breath of God. John 20
John
20
Disciples were scared and had locked
the door of their house
Jesus was able to enter the house
despite the door being locked
First words of Jesus—peace be with
you.
To prove that he was Jesus, he
showed them the marks on his body.
Disciples rejoiced that Jesus was
alive—that he was resurrected
SLIDE Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be
with you. As the Father has sent me, so
I send you. When he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ John 20:21-22
The Holy Spirit is literally
described as the breath of Jesus or the breath of God.
SLIDE
What
the Holy Spirit is not
What
the Bible shares about the Holy Spirit
One
place where the Holy Spirit resides
What
the Holy Spirit does
One place where the Holy Spirit
resides? The Holy Spirit is everywhere,
but in particular we recognize that the Holy Spirit resides within each of
us. Two weeks ago we celebrated the
baptism of Miah, an infant. A baptism is
a sacrament. It was originated by
God. We describe this as a sign and seal
of grace. In a baptism we can
practically see grace and the joy that grace creates. We also recognize that grace is sealed within
a person. A person who is baptized
carries this grace with them for all of eternity. What the person carries with them is the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always part of us.
This can lead to some fun
conversations. Ever since my daughter
Hannah was young my wife, Amy, and I have taught her that God is in her heart. A very long time ago A was driving Hannah to
her day care. Hannah said that she
didn’t want God inside of her anymore.
This seemed a bit strange. Amy
asked Hannah, “why don’t you want God inside of you anymore.” Hannah said, “because my stomach hurts.”
That’s not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit resides in more places than
inside of us, but we believe we carry the Spirit with us. We don’t have to do anything to bring the
Holy Spirit to us. The Holy Spirit
already is present.
Finally What does the Holy Spirit
do?
The Holy Spirit renews us. The Holy Spirit is constantly prompting us
and encouraging us to go deeper into God.
All the time the Holy Spirit is giving us hints and details about following
God. We go deeper by loving more, we go
deeper by forgiving others, we go deeper by the way we share our character and
the spirit. We’re renewed.
If we are being held back in some
part of our life, the Holy Spirit can help us.
The Holy Spirit can work through our obstacles, our sins, in ways that
we can’t do by ourselves. Say we are
suffering from an addiction. For
example, say we are suffering from alcoholism.
The Holy Spirit will prompt us to go get treatment, or to join an AA
group, to get help. The Holy Spirit
doesn’t do all of the work for us, but the Holy Spirit is constantly prompting
us.
Another way to say this is the Holy
Spirit convicts us of our sins. Through
the Holy Spirit we can come to terms with what holds us back from being complete
people. We’re nudged or encouraged to
work through this part of our life. When
we are successful we can look back and say, “I’m a different person.” We know that we couldn’t have done this
without the Holy Spirit. If you are
struggling with some part of your life your recognition is often the work of
the Holy Spirit.
Then share this pray, “Holy Spirit,
help me work through that which holds me back.
We don’t see the Holy Spirit, but we
can see the results of the Holy Spirit.
Just like in a wind storm we can’t see the wind, but we can see the results
of the wind.
Finally, the Holy Spirit leads us to
experience God. Let me share an experience I had from this
past week.
As you know my wife, Amy is the
Administrator of St. Joe’s by the Lake Catholic Church. Ever since she’s had that job both of us have
sung in their choir. We go to Mass on
Saturday nights and sing. We worship
here at Chain of Lakes on Sunday. One
church/two cars.
Last week a woman, Joanne Fishbach
passed away from pancreatic cancer. She
was just diagnosed a month ago. We
prayed for her family last week here at Chain of Lakes. Joanne is a long-time member of the choir at St.
Joe’s. She was the librarian for the
choir. I decided to pay my respects by
singing with the choir at her funeral which was this past Monday.
I wasn’t the only one who came to
sing. I’m guessing that close to sixty
people came to sing in the choir at the funeral. Many—like me—were taking time off from work.
The service was very emotional. It was very emotional for us who were singing
in the choir. Many times while we were
singing this wave of emotion came over us.
We would tear up. We couldn’t
help it. All of us would feel this same
thing. This was an experience of the
Holy Spirit.
We don’t need to be afraid. The Holy Spirit is always trying to help
us. Encouraging us, nudging us, helping
us. The Holy Spirit is our friend.
Let’s review
SLIDE
The
Holy Spirit is not a ghost
The
Holy Spirit is not a lieutenant—the Holy Spirit is God
The
Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit is
Ruah—wind of God
Breath of God
The
Holy Spirit resides in each of us
The
Holy Spirit renews us
The
Holy Spirit helps us work through the worst parts of ourselves—convicts us of
our sins
We
have experiences of the Holy Spirit
Talk Number 2
In this second
talk I want to share how we can live a Spirit-led life. For time reasons I’m just sharing a bit about
how this happens.
The best way to live a Spirit-led
life is to orient ourselves to the Holy Spirit.
It’s like having a red-car focus.
A while ago leaders of Chain of Lakes watched a video about red
cars. The point of the video was when we
orient ourselves to something, we see that.
Using red cars as an example, when we look for red cars we suddenly see
them. The same idea applies to the Holy
Spirit. When we orient ourselves towards
the Holy Spirit we will find ourselves acknowledging and experiencing the Holy
Spirit.
How do we orient ourselves to the
Holy Spirit? One way we can do this is
to pray. Perhaps you could put a piece of paper in
your pocket and every time you touch it you can pray:
SLIDE “Holy Spirit help me be oriented to
you”
Or if you have a phone you can put
an alarm on your phone and when the alarm goes off you can say this prayer.
I’ve had many times when I’ve put an
index card in my pocket. When I put my
hand in my pocket I’ll say a prayer. Try
that this week. Write a prayer card and
put it in your pocket. When you put your
hand in the pocket say a prayer to the Holy Spirit.
A second way to live a spirit-filled
life is to practice our faith. I gave a
talk about this at Starting Point called faith practices for spiritual
health. The practices are worship,
prayer, service and being involved in a community (small group or the wider
community)
Let’s take worship, for
example. How does participating in
worship lead us to have a Spirit-led life?
One of the reasons we come to
worship is to have an experience of the Holy Spirit. I hope that every time you worship you
experience the Holy Spirit—God. This
experience might not be an intense experience like I had at this funeral this
past week. But somehow—whether it’s
seeing someone, or singing a song that touched us, or hearing a word from a
sermon, or a word from a prayer, or just feeling a connection. We come to worship hoping for an experience
of the Holy Spirit. It’s as if we’re
transported even if it’s for a short time to a different place. When we have these experiences of the Holy
Spirit we leave worship in a different place than when we came to worship.
Tell Kristel or me about these
experiences of God you have during worship.
If you’re not having an experience of God every week, then tell us. We’ll make changes.
We come to worship to experience
God. We don’t come to worship to do our
duty. WE come to worship to experience
the Holy Spirit. I encourage us to
worship every week. If we’re out of town
like many people in our congregation are out of town this weekend, find a place
to worship.
Worship is one faith practice that
can help us with a Spirit-led life.
Two ways to have a Spirit-led
life. Pray and worship. Service and community are just as important.
What ultimately happens when we are
led by the Spirit is we operate at a very high level as humans.
Think about all the emotions and
thoughts that we experience during the day.
Let’s just say we are not orienting ourselves to the Holy Spirit and
we’re not practicing our faith.
A person wakes up with a lot of
thoughts going through their mind. You
don’t pray. You have a short amount of
time to get your kids ready for school or Day Care. Your daughter spills milk on the carpet. You erupt in anger right away. You wonder how your child can be so dumb. You notice the rage in your face.
Traffic is terrible on the way to
work. You beat yourself up for not
getting a traffic app on your phone.
When someone cuts in front of you, you honk the horn and give share the
longest finger at them.
When you get to work someone
immediately tells you the most juicy piece of gossip. You spend
twenty minutes talking about this. You
get this “rush” from this gossip. You
don’t know if the gossip is true, but you like the rush. Your boss walks by the two of you and you
immediately move to your desk hoping that he didn’t notice.
During a break someone makes a
snarky comment about God. You say
nothing.
You get home mad because of
something that has happened at work. Your
spouse does something dumb and you yell again.
Your daughter walks out of the room.
Your feel some pressure in your chest.
Your spouse goes downstairs and you don’t see your spouse for the rest
of the night. You go to bed exhausted
and overrun with anxieties.
Isn’t there a better way? Yes!
It’s having a Spirit-led life.
You wake up with a lot of thoughts
going through your mind. But this day
you spend ten minutes reading the Bible and praying. Your last prayer is “Holy Spirit, help me be
oriented to you.”
You’re very busy getting your kids
off to school and day care. Your
daughter spills mile all over the carpet at the most inopportune time. Every takes a breath to see how you are going
to respond. “Accidents happen,” you
say. You clean it up.
Traffic is bad on the way to work. You still don’t have that traffic app, but
you don’t beat yourself up. You use the
time to pray or listen to KTIS. In a way
you’re grateful for the traffic.
When you get to work someone shares
a juicy bit of gossip. You smile and
say, “that’s nice” and then ignore what they are saying. You’re filling your Spirit up with something
else.
At work someone makes a passive
aggressive comment about you when you say something about your church. They call you a goody two shoes. It doesn’t bother you. You say a prayer for the person. In an appropriate way you talk about God and
your church at your work site. You’ll
respect the rules of your work site, but you’ll still talk about God. If someone says something negative about God
it doesn’t bother you. It just bounces
off you.
You come home and your spouse does
something dumb. It doesn’t bother
you. It bounces off your heart because
you’re heart is filled with God. You
smile and gently suggest a way that your spouse can do better the next
time. Your spouse walks away feeling
encouraged. You go to bed with a smile
on your face. Nothing really special happened
during the day, but you have this lightness that you appreciate. You look forward to getting up tomorrow and
telling God about your day.
That’s caring with the heart of Jesus—it’s
being led by the Spirit.
