05.30.2020 SER The Holy Spirit
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📷Do you remember September 28, 2014? I do. It was a Sunday that began like every other Sunday. Early rising to prep for worship. Leading worship at 8 am . Everything was the same as a typical Sunday morning until just before the start of the late service when my shoulder blades began hurting. At 11 am the service started. I joined in the singing, preached the message, served communion. Halfway into the sermon, I noticed that I was feeling a tightness in my upper chest and neck. By the time holy communion over, the ciborium containing the bread, the body of Christ, felt like a 10-pound weight in my hand. When the service ended, I greeted people as usual. I said, half-jokingly to someone as we were leaving, "I think I'm having a heart attack." When I arrived home, "I'm going to chew a couple of aspirin and lay down for 20 minutes, if the pain doesn't go away, I'm going to the hospital."
When 20 minutes had passed, the pain was worsening by the minute. I FINALLY said to Patti, "I need you to drive me to hospital." By the time we arrived at the Kennestone hospital, I was grasping my chest; the pain was unbearable. They didn't fool around. In less than 5 minutes, I had an EKG, which revealed I was having a heart attack and was rushed to the heart-chat lab, where I waited for the cardiologist on call to arrive at the hospital. When Dr. Bladuell arrived, she introduced herself quickly, asked me how I was doing, and began her focused work. Throughout the procedure, she kept asking, "Are you feeling any better? How is your pain?" My response was the same, "No, it still hurts." Then, all of a sudden, I said, without her asking, "I'm starting to feel better." She barked back with a focused response, "NO, you're not." I responded, "YES, I am." "NO, you're not. "Those were my last words I spoke or heard until "my lights came back on." There were four people at my side, reassuring me I was okay. I remember asking in a panic, "Where am I? What's going on?" The next day, when the cardiologist stopped by my room to check on me, she explained what had happened. She said, "When I broke through the 100% blockage in you LAD, your heart went out of rhythm. I had to shock your heart to get it beating correctly again.
On September 12, 1954, I was born with heart disease, and so were you. It was a fatal heart matter.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
Sin is fatal. Then, in a most marvelous moment,
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
That happened for me, sixty-five years ago, on another Sunday morning, October 31, 1954, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, shocked my heart so that my heart would start beating for HIM, for God. That day the Holy Spirit came to me, a poor miserable sinner, a lost and condemned creature. He handed to me, what Christ won for me, not in a card game, but a death requiring bloody battle, on a cross. He won me from sin, the sin that so easily entangles. He delivered me from death, that last feared enemy. He overcame the devil by His innocent suffering and death, and I thank God that the devil can't touch me anymore, for he has no hold on or power over me.
For 65+ years ago, the Holy Spirit made faith in God – Father, SON, and Holy Spirit - a reality for me.
Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
NO ONE calls Jesus LORD, without the Holy Spirit, which means that my faith was not my accomplishment. It was an amazing work of grace.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
I cannot take credit for the fact THAT I believe. My faith, your faith, everyone who believes has received the same Holy Spirit so that by the Spirit’s grace and powerful presence we all believe in ONE true God.
Today is the 50th Day since we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Today is the Day of Pentecost, a big day in the life of the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints.
To today is a day of celebration that what GOD requires:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
God gives. We celebrate today that God has given us a new birth by water and the Spirit, which has made us new in Christ.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
You have the ever-present power of The Holy Spirit living in you, which is why you believe that the baby born in a manger 2000 years ago is the Savior of the world.
Without His presence, you would not believe that a man born in a country 10,000 miles away who died on a cross, 20 centuries ago, died in your place, that He died the death your sinful, SELF-CENTERED life deserved.
The Holy Spirit living in you is the only one who could convince your stubborn, prideful, self-centered heart to believe that three days after Jesus died, He came back to life, never to die again.
Impossible! Science won't accept the miracle of the resurrection, or explain the origin of the universe, or how life isn't the masterwork of a Creator, by God, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and eternal.
Luther maintained that reason was an essential element of our faith, but without Divine revelation, you can't believe unto salvation.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
The Holy Spirit never leaves you, Jesus promised.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
He is with you 24/7, 365, forever. Thanks be to God, for the Holy Spirit who makes the ascended Christ truly alive in us through Word & sacrament.
Which means, every time you open your bible, which by the way he is waiting for you to do, He promises this every time:
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
The Holy Spirit will make certain that the Word accomplish God the Father's desired work and purposes in your life.
Have you ever noticed when reading the bible, sometimes you feel guilty? That's the Spirit pointing out sin in your life. It's a great thing, when the Word of God, keeps us from sinning or points out the errors of our ways and and redirects us, with Divine light, toward God's path we've sidestepped.
At other times when you are struggling, feeling empty or alone, the Word of God directs us to the cross for comfort and strength.
So, if the Holy Spirit abides and guides in the WORD, shouldn't the Word have a greater place in our daily schedule?
Jesus called him, the Holy Spirit, the helper, for a good reason. He is there for you and to help you, especially when you pray.
Romans 8:26 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
He turns our mediocre, sinful requests into prayers that align with the Will of God, our Father. How does He do that?
Romans 8:27 (NIV) And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
He searches our hearts; He knows our minds. He intercedes for the saints, the "Holy ones." That's who you are now that the HOLY Spirit lives in you. You are "a holy one?" We are holy ones, and so is everyone who has received the Holy Spirit in baptism.
Want more of Him? Then, Seek him. Look for Him, where He is found. Invite him into your every day. His presence makes you a better you! After all, The Holy Spirit stands ready to bear His fruit in You.