Good morning, CHURCH!

(Opening joke)

Did you know that over the years there has been an epidemic of people falling to sleep in church on Sunday mornings.

There are all kinds of potential reasons why.

*Some think it’s because people like to hang out late on Saturday nights.

*Some think it’s because people are so used to being entertained that a sermon with information presented in a normal way is too boring.

Whatever the reasons are, there happens to be a lot.

They have also been doing research and tracking the numbers of how many people sleep in church service.

And with all the data they have compiled they discovered that if you took all the people in the world who fall asleep during church, and laid them head to toe in a straight line…

They would all be a lot more comfortable.

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Let’s go to the book of Luke 11:13 ESV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination Luke 11:13 ESV

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

How much more is God into giving his children good things that they need than we are.

The Holy Spirit is a gift from God.

The Holy Spirit is a good gift.

Finally, you must ask God for him. Him being Holy Spirit.

This summer on our vacation, Dr A and I went to San Diego.

We had an amazing time and while there we took a day to visit the San Diego Zoo.

Here are a few pictures of some of the animals we saw.

📷 Rhino’s under water

📷 Koala bears cuddled up

📷 Some elephants

Next, I want to show you a map of the zoo.

📷 Map of the zoo

Just so that you can get an idea of how big this zoo is; right at the bottom just after the parking lot is a statue of a lion that on this map looks rather small.

So, that you can have context of the size of the zoo, here is the actual size of the lion statue.

📷 The giant Lion statue

So, now just imagine how big the zoo actually is.

The day we came to the zoo happen to be a clear sunny day which made it feel hotter than normal.

What I didn’t know was that the zoo had extremely high slanted hills that would be tough to walk and very draining on a warm sunny day.

(Fortunately, they offered A free bus tour of the entire San Diego Zoo.)

📷 Picture of a zoo tour bus

Here is a picture of Dr A and I on the top of the double decker bus.

📷 Dr. A and I on the tour bus

As you can see the sun was shining.

The tour was guided by an expert of the zoo, with intimate knowledge of the animals and where they come from and information about their natural habitat as well as where to look if we wanted to see them.

The tour bus and tour guide saved us hours.

They probably saved us the better part of an entire day.

And they helped us avoid possible cramps, body-aches, and pains.

I can promise had it not been for the guided bus tour we would not have seen much of the zoo on that day.

At that time Dr A wasn’t much for walking and definitely not in the sun.

I would have been frustrated to finally be in San Diego and not get to experience much of the zoo.

This free guided tour was a life saver on that day.

I highly recommend it if you ever go to the San Diego Zoo.

As I thought about that day at the zoo, I thought, wouldn’t it be great to have someone to be our tour guide through life?

To help us navigate marriage and family. (How do two become one.)

To help us navigate business or work. (What career path to take.)

To help us navigate finances and our future retirement. (Money choices)

To help us navigate broken relationships of loved ones. (We family)

To help us navigate hurts and pains from life’s seemingly normal traumas. (Why did I go through this?)

Jesus we need some help.

John 14:15-17 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

You mean to tell me, there is help.

Today’s message title is:

Holy Spirit, our tour guide for life

Let’s walk through this passage of scripture today.

Point #1

Do you love Jesus

Jesus prefaced his promise of the Counsellor with verse 15 and the words If you love me, you will obey what I command or keep my commands.

Question? Do you love Jesus?

This love for Jesus is not based on a feeling.

It is expressed by keeping his commands, by responding to all he taught, with faith and obedience.

We also saw in other passages that Jesus’ teachings were described as something we were expected to accept and obey.

John 8:31 ESV

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

John 8:51 ESV

51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

John 12:48 ESV

48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

For a lot of people today, it doesn’t appear to be really easy to abide in his word, to keep his word, to obey his word.

It seemed a little easier for the disciples who walked and talked with Jesus.

Man, it sure would be awesome to have someone walking and talking with us and telling us the things that Jesus told his disciples.

Helping us build our faith.

Showing us nothing is impossible with the Father.

Giving us words of wisdom.

All we have to do is ask.

Holy Spirit is our tour guide for life.

Point #2

Do you want Jesus’ help

To those who love and obey him Jesus promised, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever—the Spirit of truth.

The word translated ‘Counsellor’ (paraklētos) occurs here for the first time in the Gospel of John.

It was not a common NT term and needs some clarification before we proceed.

Paraklētos is found four times in the Gospel of John (16, 26; 15:26; 16:7) and once in the First Letter of John (1 John 2:1), but nowhere else in the NT.

In the Gospel of John (paraklētos) consistently denotes the Holy Spirit being sent to be with the disciples after Jesus’ return to the Father.

In 1 John (paraklētos) denotes Jesus himself as an advocate for believers.

This makes since knowing that Jesus described the Holy Spirit as ‘another’ (paraklētos) advocate, implying that he also is a (paraklētos) or the original advocate.

1 John 2:1 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Listen, Jesus is not leaving us alone to fend for ourselves through this chaotic world.

He sent us a tour guide to help us navigate life.

In the Gospel of John, one of the functions of the (paraklētos) is to testify in favor of Jesus over and against a hostile world.

John 16:8-9 ESV

8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;

Holy Spirit is here to help us navigate through a world that is constantly attacking our belief in God and in the Bible.

Holy Spirit will help keep us from falling for the okie doke.

Let me ask this question.

Would that tour bus and tour guide at the San Diego Zoo, have been of any value to us on that day had we not went and asked for a ride.

Point #3

Jesus sent you help

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

The gift of the parakletos is made by the Father to those who love and obey his Son.

Let’s clarify some things about this verse.

This must not be taken to mean that our love and obedience somehow earns this gift; rather, it is to those who are in relationship with Him through his son that the Father gives the Counsellor.

Next

It is also important to note that while obedience to Jesus is the key on the human side to receiving the gift of the Counsellor, we must not turn it into some sort of super spiritual obedience that only extraordinary Christians can achieve.

Nor some type of ritual and rule-based obedience that takes us back to the law.

What is meant by obedience is belief in Jesus and a commitment to follow him.

Think about it.

Jesus’ first disciples were not some super disciples deserving the gift of the Spirit because of their extraordinary faith and obedience.

They didn’t understand some things.

Their thoughts were often the thoughts of mere humans just like you and me.

Remember at the time of Jesus’ greatest need, they bounced on him.

And Peter even denied that he knew Jesus at all.

But although they were not some super dope disciples, if we look at them in contrast to those of the world, who did not love and obey Jesus, they were obedient.

Why?

Because they did at least love Jesus and in their own imperfect way they were trying to obey him.

It was too disciples like these, Jesus promised the Counsellor, because he knew they needed him and he knew we need him.

(Closing illustration)

As you read the gospels and see the interactions of Jesus with the disciples think about that same interaction in your life today.

Only instead of Jesus in flesh and blood, it is Holy Spirit on behalf of Jesus.

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?