Aug 1, 2021: The Holy Spirit gives life

I’m a big fan of flying. I really am.

But, I’ll never forget my first flight. The South Georgia Conference took a group of us out to Dallas for a UMC Conference on discovering God’s call on our lives. It was at Dallas/ Fort Worth airport and we flew on American out of the T gates at Atlanta. That day, the flight was particularly bumpy and it scared me to death. A friend said later that it probably was the most turbulent he had ever been on. What a way to start my flying experience!

When we first boarded the plane, I paid attention to everything. I remember thinking to myself, okay, the vest self inflates and the seat cushion can be removed, both to float on water. Then, they said something that has always stuck with me, both in terms of flying and metaphorically about life. They said, “If the flight loses pressurization, masks will drop. While it may be tempting to put on your child’s first, put your mask on first. Even if the bag does not inflate the oxygen will be flowing.” I thought to myself, “WOW!”

The idea is that we cannot help someone else if we’re passed out or lifeless. We need strength from a source outside of ourselves in order to live. And that’s what we’re talking about today in the Holy Spirit. We discussed the Trinity now for three Sundays… three parts of our one God. The Holy Spirit is often known as a wind, breath of life, a dove descending, and many other concepts. Today, our Scriptures give us this very image of the Holy Spirit giving life as Jesus is preparing to begin is ministry on earth and is baptized in the Jordan River by John.

Let’s look at today’s Scripture found in Matthew 3:13-17, NIV. Please stand for the reading and hearing of God’s word:

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

May glory be to God for the reading and hearing of His word today, “Thanks be to God.” You may be seated.

The Holy Spirit gives life.

The Holy Spirit gave life to Jesus’ earthly ministry as the Heavenly Father blessed Him and prepared Him for what would follow.

Immediately after his baptism, he is taken into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan. He resists the temptation and comes back to perform miracles, teach, heal, drive out demons, provide forgiveness of sin, and save souls from certain eternal death. The only requirement on the part of the hearer of the Word was to believe and receive the power of the Holy Spirit.

After Jesus’ death, the Holy Spirit did an unbelievable work in the Upper Room.

The weary and tired disciples were together. Scripture tells us in Acts 2, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all [a]with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them [b]divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Their hopelessness because of the loss of Jesus from their immediate presence became bold, confident proclamation of Jesus in the native tongue of those assembled. Outsiders criticized them because “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and [d]Arabs” they were hearing the Word of God in their own native tongue.

While the detractors didn’t like it, I would have loved to have been there! It must have been awesome! The Holy Spirit brought about a miraculous act of building the church through many nations simply because the Disciples were willing conduits.

Even in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was at work.

In Joel 2, 28-29, It tells us, 28 “And it shall come to pass afterward,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;

your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men shall see visions.

29  Even on the male and female servants

in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

Paired with Luke 12:12 which says, “The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say at the moment when you need them.”, we find that the Holy Spirit gives direction, not only within our own lives, but also in the Words that we speak to others… or perhaps sometimes int he words that we don’t speak.

In Ezekiel 37, God gives Ezekiel a view of how the nation of Israel would be reassembled as he tells how he will gather the dry bones and give them life:

In v. 2 is begins by saying, “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. As God puts life and breath back into the dry bones as a testament to what he can do, he says, “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'"

Not only does he give the Holy Spirit to bring actual life, but also to move in the world and bring outcomes that will help to build His kingdom here on the earth.

Let’s come back around to this idea of putting on our own oxygen mask first.

We know that without Oxygen, we cannot live. I believe that in order for us to live and thrive, we need the power of the Holy Spirit.

We need the Holy Spirit at work at White Bluff, both in the relationships within our Church and in the ways and which we seek to share Christ with others. We cannot do this tremendous work to which we’ve been called alone. It takes the Holy Spirit.

We need the Holy Spirit at work in our individual lives, both within our hearts and the relationships we share with one another.

We cannot account for the work of the Saints like Augustine, Luther, Wesley, and Graham except that they were gifted by the Holy Spirit. When Wesley was at his lowest, he came to a church on Aldersgate Street and during worship “felt His heart strangely warmed.” If we examine the evidence of Wesley’s ministry before Aldersgate and after, we find exponential growth in the church after this experience, leading many to believe that the Aldersgate experience was where the Holy Spirit got a hold of Wesley and finally enabled him to do far more than he could on his own power and strength as he built God’s Kingdom. They all evidence a life that is built not upon worship as a once a week activity, but through lives who continually worship God through the Spirit.

John 4:23-24 says, “23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

How do we worship God in Spirit and truth? Maybe the more appropriate question might be, “How do we change our mindsets from worshipping one hour a week to everything we do being an act of worship?” If we started asking ourselves if what we do next is an act of worship to God, then maybe we might be compelled to do some things that we sometimes shy away from and then we might not do some things that are either detrimental to us and/ or to building the Kingdom of God.

Erin loves to talk about God winks. The idea is that there are times when God smiles upon us and reveals himself when we least expect it.

This past week, I experienced two in short order on Thursday. The one I’ll tell you about was when I was ordering Dominos at Thursday lunchtime for the family. I was busy making phone calls in the office and doing other things, so I placed an online order for Dominos to be delivered to the house for the family about the time that I would arrive home. I was passing Dominos, but it was just easier to have it delivered. The delivery time was supposed to be around 12:15. When I arrived home at 12:20, there was no pizza, so I called the store and said that I wanted to find out an ETA on the pizza. The manager said, “It will be atleast n hour because we are understaffed.” I thought for a moment and said, “I’m coming to get it.” I drove back to near the Savannah Mall and walked into the location. I talked to them for a second as they got the pizza. I look at the receipt and it was half of what I thought I owed. When I questioned the manager about it, he said, “I get cussed out a lot. You were kind. Thank you.” My first thought was to think back through what I had said and hoped it was all good. He asked what I did for a living; I shared about White Bluff and invited him. He mentioned that he attended Southern Baptist churches at a younger age and now lived in Statesboro. He said that it was easier to run a pizza joint than to teach high school. I said, “Maybe so!” I thanked him and left. I was elated about the price, but even more elated that something I did or didn’t do brought joy to someone else. I was reminded that my life should be an act of worship to God at all times and that I should apologize to others when it is not because whether I like it or not, people are always watching to see what Christianity is all about.

It’s a tall order to live up to, but with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, we can do it. Our goal should be to live our lives as an act of worship to God. We worship God at all times through a strength and power of the Holy Spirit that lives in us.

I challenge us that through the power of the Holy Spirit, everything we do this week will be an act of worship to God.

The Spirit gives life, and we want to live life to the fullest! How brightly the Spirit shines in us is determined by how much we are willing to surrender to God. The more we surrender and let go of our need to be in control, the more the Holy Spirit can guide us. It’s kind of like a lighthouse. The light can be as big and bright as it can be, but if the windows are dirty, no light can get out. The light is there but the ships are still adrift simply because the windows prevent the light from getting out. In the same way, if don’t get out of our own way sometimes, then we cannot make the transition or shift to the power of the Holy Spirit. You’ve heard the old phrase that says, “Let go and let God.” When we do, God cleans the windows of our hearts so that the Spirit which indwells in us can shine out for all the world to see. They Holy Spirit then guides us and others into safe harbor as we trust in God to do a work far greater than anything we could do on our own.

This week, I want White Bluff Church members and guests to intentionality in prayer. Delilah does a marvelous job of keeping our prayer network going. In addition, I want us to sign up for prayer blocks so that each week, you have a particular hour that is yours to pray for White Bluff and its ministries. I humbly ask that you pray for me, your staff, and appointed leadership as we seek to lead through the direction of the Holy Spirit. I also want you to be intentional about where God wants us to go with a God sized vision as we seek His will together in prayer.

Someone correctly said that the Holy Spirit and Father are bookends with the Son of God in the middle. In other words, the Father and the Holy Spirit always point us back to Jesus.

As we come into this time of Holy Communion today, we prepare to take the body and blood of Jesus so that we can be forgiven of our sins and receive eternal life as we believe in Him. We also have the opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to indwell in us so that every thing we do this week can bring honor and glory to God as we continue to build the Kingdom of God here on this earth.

I invite us to join together in the Sacrament of Holy Communion as we begin with the Invitation, Confession, and Pardon as listed on page 12 of the United Methodist Hymnal.