The Gift of the Spirit

Good morning and welcome. i am so glad that we are here together. It is good to be in the house of the Lord this mornings. This morning we will be continuing our journey through the book of 1 Corinthians. Before we get to the scriptures this morning though I have a simple question for you.

Have you Ever had someone not hear what you said?

Now there is a specific example that i am talking about with this question. You will be having a conversation with your spouse, friend, sibling, or a parent and this is how the conversation will go. The person you are talking to is in the other room or nearby and you ask them to...

“I need you to do this (insert random task or project here).”

Or

“Would you like to do...”

and than nothing happens. You wait and you wait for the other person to finally start doing what you asked. Or they start doing the complete opposite of what you asked. You look at them and say...

“What are you doing”

This is a classic argument in my home. I don’t think a week goes by where either i don’t hear Angie or she doesn’t hear me or we think we hear one thing and they said another thing. It usually ends up in us arguing in a circle. Sometimes the argument is just dropped because there just isn’t any winning with her. I know i am right but she just won’t listen. She was clearly wrong but her stubbornness just won’t allow for her to admit she is wrong.

Does anyone have a shovel i think i will just keep digging this hole till i get out of trouble...

In all seriousness she knew i was going to say all of this. It is a real problem at times though where we just don’t hear what the other is trying to communicate. Somtimes in Angie’s case she literally can’t hear me. She has trouble with the lower register of my voice and i can be sitting right next to her and she still has no idea what i said.

It makes you wish that they could just know what you were thinking.

Do you ever wish you knew what someone was thinking? It seems like it would make it easier. This morning we are going to look at some scripture that helps us get some insight into what someone is thinking.

1 Corinthians 2:6–13 NIV

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

Have you ever thought about your faith and said what do I get out of this?

Now I know that questions seems like it might be a little sacrilegious or wrong to ask. Think about our faith. We are expected to follow a moral standard that at times may not feel easy. We give of our time our resources and so much more to share are faith with the world around us or at least we are supposed to be.

Yet, what is our reward. What’s in it for me?

We can be honest that is a selfish question. It shouldn’t be what is our motivation but guess what. We still are promised something when we choose to believe in God and to live our lives for him. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is that eternal life and heaven stuff too but we are talking about the Holy Spirit.

God’s Gift for us

This is a promise that he has delivered on too. Jesus had promised that the Spirit would come and he would be a source of help for us after he was gone and till the day he returned.

This was a gift that is the sources of so much of our faith and is the source of our strength as Christians. Without the Spirit we would be lost. Without the Spirit none of us would be here. Without the Spirit so much of our hope would be gone. The Spirit is there for us to guide and to comfort and to direct us through this world to give us insight into who God is each and every day that we walk on this earth.

Do we really understand what the Spirit does for us though? That is the question I sometimes ask myself.

What does the Spirit do for us?

This is a great question to ask ourselves.

Remember earlier how i was saying that sometimes i think it would be easier to just be able to hear what my wife is trying to say or if she could hear my thoughts.

This reminded me of a classic story we see in Hollywood.

It is the story of a man or a women, typically a man who has some kind of accident that involves electric shock or a blow to the head and they can suddenly hear the thoughts of the opposite sex around them.

There are a couple things i have noticed about movies or shows like this. They always depict women or men in the most stereotypical way.

Women are often shallow and focused on the outward experience our how they can hurt, manipulate, or get what they want from the men in their lives.

Men are often depicted as simple and quite honestly dumb.

Now that doesn’t mean there isn’t some truth to these views. There are many women in the world who match that description just like there are many men who match the description. If we are honest we know this isn’t a true depiction.

I can’t speak for women but I know I can speak for myself as a man. There are times that I think a women would be shocked at what happens inside the mind of a man. The fears, the struggles, the hardship that goes through our minds. The willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others the willingness to put myself in harms way on a regular basis if it means my family would be safe. This is just the tip of the iceberg on how complex my thoughts might be. I am willing to bet we can expect something similar from women. Men don’t begin to understand (though we admit this) what a woman wants.

The truth is that none of us fully understand what anyone else is thinking. Even my description of what goes on in the mind of a man is my opinion of what is happenign in my head. Many men may resonate with that but it isn’t the same across all men.

The Truth is as the scripture tells us the only person who is going to know their own thoughts is that person.

1 Corinthians 2:11 NIV

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Only we know the in most thoughts of our mind which is why we sometimes have a miss communication.

So what does this have to do with the Spirit. Its the second half of that verse that gives us the insight.

1 Corinthians 2:11–12 NIV

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

The Gift of the Spirit

WE gain a deeper access to God through the gift of the Spirit. Only the Spirit knows the thoughts of God and only the Spirit digs into the deepest parts of the mind of God and only the Spirit connects us to that. It is only through the Spirit that we can come to know God in new and exciting ways. It is only through the calling of God’s Spirit on our lives that we can come to our faith. It is only through the work and moving of the Spirit that we have any chance of being more than we thought we could be. The Spirit is our driving force and it changes the game.

We are called as both a church and as individuals to embrace the Holy Spirit to be praying and seeking the Holy Spirit. To look for more and to desire the Spirit’s leading. It is in the Spirit’s leading we can come to expect amazing things. We gain access to what the will of God is. We are able to speak truth into a world that is in desperate need of truth.

The Cup overflows

The truth is that many of us don’t think we can do these things. That we don’t have the ability to speak and to share the good news that is the cross. It is here that we look to v. 13

1 Corinthians 2:13 NIV

13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

We need to come to realize that through the Spirit we can speak and explain spiritual things because the Spirit is guiding us. God will provide us with the words that we need.

The Cup overflows

I once had a friend tell me this story. He went to the hospital to visit a family who was about to lose a loved one to the pains of death. They were in mourning knowing that the end was approaching. When he arrived he began to comfort the family. He went to the bedside of the older gentlemen who was dying and asked to pray with him. The man looked at him and was scared. He was afraid because he didn’t know if he was going to go to heaven.

He told him that if he prayed for forgivness and believed in the salvation of Jesus Christ he would be able to.

The old man looks at him and says “how can you be sure”

Sitting on the table infront of them is a small cup. He picks it up and says that his knowledge of God doesn’t even begin to fill this cup. The knowledge he has compared to God’s is not even enough to fill that cup. But of this he was sure. that the Spirit gave the knowledge he needs to be able to speak the truth. That his faith was enough to fill the cup full and to allow it to overflow. This was all possible because of God.

When he told us this story he shared with us that we are like that cup. The only way its full is if we let the Spirit fill it and let the Spirit lead.

Communion

I think of that night that Jesus took the cup and the bread and I see now the access he gave us to his spirit.