Receive the Holy Spirit

Intro

Story of encountering spiritual laughter

Coming across a book that 

The sense is that we get to pick and choose one or the other

You cant have any meaningful Chrisitan life, joy, victory without him. 

Set up the series

Set up the text

Focus on 3 things

Who is this Spirit What does the spirit do? Why Does Jesus breath to receive the spirit? To Help, will look at Trinity Hebrew word ruach A valley of bones Aslan the Lion Mission And what this means for us tomorrow 

Who is the Spirit?

Trinity 

Notice the Trinitarian nature in

Father sends Jesus, Jesus sends the spirit. Some of you new to Christianity might struggle with this idea.  This has been a core believe by christians for millennia.  We worship a god bigger than what we can fully comprehend  Trinity in Genesis  Gods word is an agent Spirit isn’t a force of gas or mist.. Hover is only used of mother bird.  Hence why the spirit is usually associated with dove or sorts. Study: over 50% view the spirit as an energy force. Star Wars  The Nicene Creed includes this affirmation: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified Ruach: wind, breathe,  Ruach of God. Its the way the biblical writers speak of Gods Personal Presence or Empowering presence.  Few thousand years later. Jesus is chatting with a religious person. And he uses the word Pnema which is the greek counterpart..  The  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. We don’t get to dictate where the spirit goes. He’s not owned by any party, any particular denomination. Any team.  He’s remains a free agent. We’re not surprised when we hear hes blowing in other parts of the world.  Our job is to recognize where he is blowing…  Walk by the spirit... It seemed good to the Holy Spirit…. And us.  What does the spirit do?? Central role of the Spirit is empowering and breathing life  Many people think the Spirit is a New Testament concept… Let me walk you through the old testament and see this central role being played out.. The spirit hovering over the water Spirit on Joseph, artist, kings, prophets.. For special people.   The prophets announced a day when Gods spirit would be poured out.  That everyone would posses ruach.  Not only would they possess ruach… but that there would be new life.  To follow, to serve.  Ezekiel was bold enough to long for this too, and God gave him the marvellous vision of the valley of the dry bones (chapter 37) as an assurance that the longed-for day would indeed come. God's ruach, his breath, could infuse new life into dry bones; God's ruach, his Spirit, could bring the people of Israel out of their graves, and give them life. Prophecy that ruach would enter into the dead bones. 

Jesus fulfills these words. 

POst resurrection.. The first day of the new creation. 

He breathes on them and says receive it. 

Hes fulfilling the ancient stories and not only that.. 

Hes echoing creation. 

 God breathes on Adam

Sin separates us from God… 

We want nothing to do with Him.

But he is life… and its the work of the spirit to bring that about. 

To unite us with the source of life… god himself.

c.s. Lewis Video of Aslan. 

This is why we have church..

This is why we follow Jesus

This is why we believe in the Spirrit

Its our firm commitment that the spirit is still in the business of bringing new life… New creation. 

This here is primarily what it means to be a christian..

It aint being a good person

It aint knowing every doctrine in perfect recitation.

Its having the spirit of God come and dwell in you.

Why does the Spirit indwell? 

Why does Jesus breathe?

It say in the text… so they can have the spiritual equivalent of a day at Disneyland??

He sends them on mission..

Reached out to the marginalized He healed the sick Preaching good news Announcing forgiveness of sins Announcing that Gods kingdom is here.  That the evil powers will be defeated.  What Jesus was for Israel, the church was now supposed to be for the world.

"The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.”

We announce that Jesus is Lord… and we hope, anticipate that the spirit will give life. 

We cant do this work without the spirit.

Practical Application 

3 types of people in this place.

You love the idea You fear the idea— the words of king Julian  You’re confused.. skeptical.  Youre all welcome… all belong Are there moments when you know the right thing to do, but realize you don’t have the strength to actually do...you need spirit are there moments when Christian faith seems remote, foreign,  do you notice that following the way of Jesus, clashes with the priorities of our culture. And you struggle  hard time forgiving your spouse, kids. Parents... 

Western church needs the spirit

Story of Daniel Wallace

“Through this experience, I found that the Bible was not adequate. I needed God in a personal way—not as an object of my study, but as friend, guide, comforter. I needed an existential experience of the Holy One…I believe that I had depersonalized God so much that when I really needed him I didn’t know how to relate. I longed for him, but found many community-wide restrictions in my cessationist*1 environment. I looked for God, but all I found was a suffocation of the Spirit in my evangelical tradition as well as in my own heart.”1

Personal fear. 

If we will be a church that will change the fabric of this city. 

We wont do it because we are the most gifted, brightest, prettiest. 

Only if the Spirit decides to show up. 

You might not be sure. 

During this week and this series. 

Some things that we can do???

 wake up and before checking the latest tweet, the latest baby a Kardashian had.  Spend 30 seconds asking the spirit for leading for the day.

Your a teen. Ask the spirit to lead at school. Show someone whose hurting.

once a month attend Tuesday prayer. Prayer for spirit to change the landscape of the city.

We live in information overload.

We need the spirit

Not against information. 

Benediction 

May you sense where the spirit is moving

May you be thirsty

May we hear the words afresh over our lives… Receive the Holy Spirit.