What? - The Holy Spirit

Please stand for the reading of God's word.

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Romans 8:9-11

This is the word of the Lord.

Audience: Thanks be to God.

You may be seated.

Maybe you know this, perhaps you don’t. But I have actually struggled with anxiety for most of my life. Now, anxiety can be one of those words because of an over-pendulum swing towards better mental health, which people use a lot. It's kind of like trauma bragging. There is a difference between being stressed out and having anxiety. Anxiety wasn’t even a word that people used until the word had a resurgence in 2019. For me, I am 90% sure that my anxiety started when I was in middle school. Most of you know that my gut health isn't excellent, and by that, I mean I use the bathroom like 80 times a day. ( who knew you were getting a full breakdown of my medical history tonight?) But my anxiety would harbor in my stomach. If something were going on that would trigger my anxiety, I would become sick to my stomach and have awful stomach pain. Eventually, as I got older, I realized that I would ever so often experience intense anxiety attacks where I couldn’t breathe, and my chest would feel really tight.

After a couple of years of seeing a counselor and getting deeper into my walk with Jesus, I found that a lot of my anxiety stems from not feeling like enough. Because of my upbringing, whether my parents meant to or not, I had taught myself that I was never enough and always had to do better. That I was not good enough. That I didn’t know enough. I didn’t know God enough, and I did not have enough to offer. I did not have enough to help keep my mom from having an episode. That who I was as a person was not enough.

My issue was that I felt like I couldn’t do what needed to be done because I wasn't enough. Because I wasn’t enough, my mom would have another episode. She would react or become irrational because I had not done enough to stop that from happening. But when you really break it down, it wasn’t the fact that I was not enough that was the issue. In fact, I was and still am only a human being. I have limitations. My real problem was that I did not have control over the situation. I could not control how my mom would react, no matter how hard I tried to control everything that I could. There was no possible way, no possible amount of work or effort that I could put in that could make the exact outcome that I wanted to happen happen. I was not in control.

I know for a fact that most people in this room, at one point in their lives, have felt like they are not in control. That is one of the things about being alive that every human being has to come to terms with. No matter how hard you try, no matter what you do, how hard you try to control situations or elements of your life, you are, in fact, a tiny little human being in a massive universe. Feeling like you are not in control can feel like an overwhelming feeling. It can make you feel like the whole world is crashing down. All the work you have put forth was worthless. You start questioning, what was all of that for? If I try so hard, yet things never go my way, then what's the point of trying? Sometimes, when we feel out of control, we start asking what we could’ve done to make it better, and then we start spiraling at ever-increasing speed to the point of feeling overwhelmed and giving up. As human beings, there is nothing we can do about the circumstances around us. We can try our best; We can put forth effort. We can even try to control it, but it won't ever work out in the end. Or it will for a little bit, and then when things become out of control, you will be so put off that you won’t know what to do with yourself.

You don’t have control of your life. You don’t have control of your finances. Your schooling. Your friends, your teachers, the amount of money your parents make or don’t make, the parents you have or don’t have, the siblings that stayed, or the siblings that didn’t. You don’t have control over whether you will go to college, get married, or have kids. You don’t have control over whether you get cancer or not, whether your mom dies tomorrow or you die on the way home.

You don’t have control over whether the sun will rise, the moon will reflect the sun, or if a meteor comes flying into the earth at a million miles an hour. You don’t have control over who likes you and who doesn’t. How are you treated, what kind of athletic ability do you have, what type of skin color do you have, what kind of personality do you have, or how do people react to that? You don’t have control over your childhood. You don’t even have control over most things. And that can be terrifying, especially in a country that tries to convince you that freedom is real and autonomy is the goal.

We are in our fourth week of this series called “What?” where we are diving deep into the Nicene Creed, written over 1700 years ago, to figure out what, as christians, we actually believe. Because what we believe makes us who we are, and who we are determines how we live.

Can anyone remind me why the Nicene Creed was created in the first place? A guy named Arius was convinced that the word "begotten" in John 3:16 meant that Jesus was a created being, not eternal, like the Father. Remember that Emperor Constantine brought together over 300 bishops to hash out this heresy. Through the first ecumenical council, we have the document we are reading today that helps us understand what we, as christians, believe in.

People have always been out of control. People have always felt overwhelmed. People have always asked, How can I be in charge?

That issue, that problem of feeling out of control, is ancient, and there is an eternal answer for it.

Although this section is the shortest, as the main focus of this creed was about Jesus and the least discussed in our tradition as a non-denominational independent Christian church, there is so much wisdom and power in these few sentences.

Read this with me

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.

Let’s focus on that first section.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

The first observation is that the Holy Spirit is called Lord, just as the Son is called. The Holy Spirit is one of three parts of the Holy Trinity, and he, like Jesus, should be seen and revered with a sense of reverence and holiness. As we have talked about before, the spiritual realm is real. There are spirits everywhere, including here in this room, but this isn't just any spirit. This is the capital H capital S, Holy Spirit. He is set apart from all other spirits; he is the spirit. The lord. The God.

There is also an interesting statement here: not only is the Holy Spirit referred to as Lord, but there is another title following that.

The giver of life,

This blows my mind. It shows the beauty of the Holy Trinity, as every part of it has a key role in creation. Throughout the Bible, we can see the thread of every piece of the Trinity working in its specific way. The Nicene Creed points to the Holy Spirit being the giver of life.

“and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Genesis 2:6–7

Has anyone seen the sandlot? There is a scene where this kid named Squints fakes drowning so that he can receive mouth-to-mouth CPR from the attractive lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn. Wendy administers CPR to Squints, and the last time she breathes air into his lungs, he wakes up and kisses her right on the mouth. It’s a pretty great scene, as she takes him out all mad after he tricked her into kissing her.

Now, this is nothing like this scene. It has immensely more meaning, power, and holiness.

God creates man from the dust of the ground and, in a much more holy way, breathes life into man through his nostrils—not just any breath, but the breath of life. What was once dust, what once was a lifeless pile of dirt, turns into a living creature.

God, the Holy Spirit, breathed life into us. Before the Holy Spirit breathed his life into us, we were nothing; we were incomplete, a sack of meat and bones.

Although Michael Squints Palledorous wasn’t dead or dirt from the ground, he walked a little taller that day. And we, for the first time in existence, could stand at all because the giver of life breathed his soul into our very bodies.

Who proceeds from the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.

We, as Christians, believe that the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son but proceeds from the Father and the Son. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit was created. In the same way that we believe that Jesus is eternally begotten from the Father, we believe that the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds or comes from the Father and the Son. Not created, but proceeding from an eternal relationship.

John 14, 15, and 16 are pretty clear indications of this doctrine and God’s heart for us and why he wants to send his spirit to us. Jesus says in John 14:15-17 “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; he dwells with you and will be in you.”

Here, as Jesus is talking to his disciples about what will happen after he dies on the cross and resurrects from the dead, he comforts them by telling them that there will be another helper who will be with them forever since Jesus plans to go back to heaven with God the father until he comes back for the second coming. Jesus says clearly You know him; he dwells with you and will be in you… I want you to keep that in your mind as we move forward.

The disciples, being silly humans who were in their teens and early twenties, didn’t quite understand, so Jesus says a couple of verses later… “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14: 25 -27 He is like “look. I know this is a little confusing, but not only will he be in you, but he will also remind you of everything I have told you. So don’t trip. It’s going to be okay.

He continues, after explaining once again, in even clearer terms, that he will be hung on the cross and die for all of our sins so that we can have a relationship with the Father again; the disciples (rightfully so) become afraid again. So jesus comforts them once again by saying in John 16: 7-8 7 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. “

Jesus, who is God in the flesh, says that it is better that he goes away because if he didn’t, then the Holy Spirit would not come to the disciples and those who follow the way of Jesus. So Jesus says I will send him to you, he will be in you, and he will remind you of me, and as the creed states. He does not speak out of line with the father and the son, but rather, they all continue to glorify the other. Jesus says in John 16:13-14 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit, the Lord, will guide you into truth, glorify Jesus, remind you of Jesus, be sent to you, and be in you.

He has spoken through the Prophets.

In the early Church, some people believed that the Holy Spirit was not active in the world before the Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit came and rested upon the disciples and spoke in tongues to the masses proclaiming the gospel, but this view is incorrect. The Holy Spirit gave the prophets of the Old Testament the grace and courage to speak the mind of God. As we discussed last week, eternity is both in the past, the present, and the future, and the Holy Spirit was speaking to people in the past; he is now and will be in the future. I think of Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” The Holy Spirit has been working in the prophets, and he ultimately spoke through Jesus, and he will continue to do so because a couple of chapters later in John’s Gospel, after Jesus has died and resurrected, he appears to the disciples, and he says this “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” John 20:22-23

Do you see the connection here? In the same way that the Holy Spirit breathed life into man at the beginning of creation, here he does again, as Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit in the disciples, not just life, but a new life so that their infused bodies could receive the antidote that is the Holy Spirit, and start a new creation process within them. A redeemed creation. How insane is that? We are talking about an innumerable amount of time between these events, and here Jesus is redeeming creation in the same way that God the Father initiated creation in the first place.

But why does this matter to you? What do we believe about the Holy Spirit that makes this important to study? What does it matter that the Holy Spirit exists?

Paul says in Romans 8:9-11, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Do you see what I am saying here? If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior and believe that what Jesus did on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice so that you could have eternal life, in the past, present, and future, with God, then the Spirit of God dwells within you! You are the new tabernacle. You are the new dwelling place of God. It was the ark of the covenant, the womb of Mary, Jesus himself, and now you. He is in you! Although our earthly bodies are stained by sin and death, he is working within us to heal us. And even on this side of heaven, we won't be fully healed, but the restoration process, sanctification, and theosis have started! Do you see how insane that is? Most religions belive in a god that is distant and angry and wants nothing to do with his creation, yet christianity dares to claim that not only is he an inmate father, but that he died on a cross and rose again so that he could dwell in you! And if the spirit of Christ is in you, then you, through the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead, is in you, then you will be resurrected from the dead as well! You will be made perfect. You will be made anew. You will look like Christ.

A couple of years ago, my anxiety got really bad. I mean really, really bad. My anxiety attacks were awful, and it got pretty dark. At one point, I didn’t know the purpose of anything or why I needed to be here. I ended up going to the hospital from a terrible anxiety attack and coming home a few days later. Leann Gabel came over that day, and I was a mess. At that point, no one else had come to see me. No other pastor. No other person. But Leann came. I don’t know how well you know Leann, but I call her my spiritual aunt. She is one of the most Holy Spirit-filled people in my life, and she came over that day, anointed my head with oil, and prayed for me. She told me that I had been grasping for control. That everything in my life, I had felt like I had to be in charge of, that I wasn’t enough to hold it all together, that I was walking around trying to hold everything I did in a tight, gripped hand. She helped me realize that everything I have isn't mine. Nothing. Not my house, my car, my wife, my job, or this ministry. None of it is mine, and it is all God’s. And that I can't handle the weight because it was never mine to carry. It’s all his, and he is in control.

Which is such a paradigm shift. I thought it was all mine. I thought it was what he had given me to steward, and everything that was happening or wasn’t happening was because of me. But what Leann taught me that day is that I am not supposed to walk around with tight fists, but rather, I should have open hands waiting to receive.

In CPR, one of the first things you are supposed to do is open up the airway so that more air can get to the lungs. If not, there is a blockage. The air can't get through, or it can, but not effectively.

When God, the Holy Spirit, is trying to work in our lives, we must open ourselves up. We must allow the Holy Spirit of God to dwell in us to heal our souls, bodies, minds, thoughts, and wills. We have to enable that airway to be open. We can’t tighten up and grasp for control because we can’t handle it. We weren’t ever meant to. That wasn’t the design. We were always supposed to work alongside God. We were always supposed to know that he was in control and that we were not.

God is in control, and when we let him work through us, He does so through his Holy Spirit.

And The more control you give the Holy Spirit in your life, the more you will look like God.

And The more control you give the Holy Spirit in your life, the more you will look like God.

As Christians, it is our job to walk alongside God in bringing the kingdom of God to earth, and we do so through the Holy Spirit. We do so by giving up control and allowing him to work through us. To allow God to work through us. Let the Holy Spirit align our souls and wills with his and work through the specific gifts that he has given us to glorify God.

You don’t have control because you were never supposed to. You don’t have control because none of this is yours. You don’t have control because you aren’t God. We don’t like the idea of giving up control because that causes anxiety, but I am telling you, when you realize that it's not yours and that it is in the creator of the universe’s control, then there is a weight that is lifted off of you. You are safe in his hands. Just receive the peace that comes with knowing you don’t have to carry the weight because he already did.

So, this week, I want to challenge you. Open up your airway…and what I mean by that is I want you to give God control. I want you to think of all the things you are stressed out about, and I want you to relinquish the chains that are bearing you down. I want you to write down everything in your life that you are grasping control over, and I want you to allow the Holy Spirit to overwhelm you with peace, knowing that he has it handled. I want you to write it all out and then either pray out loud or write it down and say, God, I give you control in these areas of my life because they were yours to begin with, and I am just now seeing that.

And then I want you to write down the things that you practice, like lying or watching or doing something you shouldn’t, withholding forgiveness, gossiping, speaking bad about someone, sexually crossing that line, or not honoring or obeying your parents, and confess them to the Lord. Because in the same way that an airway can be blocked, it can be hard to allow the spirit of life to flow through you when you have a blockage of sin.

The more and more you become like Christ, the less sin there is to block the holy spirit from flowing through you. Because The more control you give the Holy Spirit in your life, the more you will look like God.

And I know that if we can do this, if we can give God control, then we can be a youth group that is filled with the Spirit even more so then we are now. We can bring heaven to earth, as we allow the Spirit to fill each and every one of us, and we can be so filled with the spirit that we can help but tell people about how is in control of our lives, and how he is healing us now, and forever when we die.

He is here. He is present. And he wants to be with you.

Just give him control, and he will carry it for you.

Prayer