We value The Holy Spirit’s guidance and correction

Our Preaching theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”

This year we are going to be revisiting and refocusing on some foundational things - beginning with our church values.

When we began to formulate a vision for the church, we began with values.

What is really important to us? What are our priorities?

Our vision must reflect our values, so we begin with values.

You may be listening to this teaching sometime in the future and I hope that while our themes and perhaps even our vision statement have changed, our values are pretty much the same.

Last week we talked about the importance of the Word and the Spirit, but mostly the Word.

The Spirit and the Word work together to communicate from God to us.

Today we are going to focus on the Spirit.

Two out of our seven value statements are about the Holy Spirit.

Lester Zimmerman, the Apostolic leader of the Hopewell Network has described our churches as a convergence of Pentecostal/ Charismatic, Evangelical and Anabaptist streams.

The Pentecostal/ Charismatic stream focuses on the empowering work of the Holy Spirit and that will be covered in statement number five.

Evangelicals and Anabaptists usually pay more attention to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and that is our focus for today.

3. We value The Holy Spirit’s guidance and correction as we are being transformed into the image of Christ. We want to be compassionate and inclusive to all who are on the journey toward freedom and healing as Christ is formed in us. We also want to hold each other accountable to be moving forward in our spiritual growth and in integrity. (Rom 12:1-2, Matt. 5:43-48, Eph 4:17-24, Col. 3:1-17, 1 John 3:1-3)

The Holy Spirit makes us more like Jesus.

He guides and corrects (convicts) us, shaping us into the character of God as seen in Jesus Christ.

The Hopewell Network grew out of the Mennonite Church. Those of us who grew up in the Mennonite Church have seen dramatic changes in how the church perceives and practices sanctification.

Most of you know my father and some of you know my mother. When they were young adults growing up in the church, outward forms of conduct were extremely important, sometimes more important than inward holiness or a heart toward God.

My father tells a story of a time when he spilled coffee on his plain coat. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, that was the approved clothing choice for church. A lapel coat was OK without a tie. But ties were considered “worldly” He was scheduled to lead singing in the evening service but he wore a different coat, and was reprimanded for it.

That led to a series of experiments by him and my mother to see if clothing was really the standard by which they were being judged. They were disciplined for their choices and “silenced” which means that they were no longer allowed to lead worship or teach Sunday School.

At that time in the Mennonite Church, the outward appearance of holiness had evidently become more important that the inner working of the Holy Spirit.

I believe that missing ingredient contributed to the hunger for the work of the Holy Spirit which I witnessed in the Spring City Bible Study and which birthed revival in the Hopewell Churches.

Christianity has to be more than just rules, it is power.

Where is the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit that transforms us?

That is what this value and this message is all about.

The Holy Spirit transforms us by the renewing of our mind.

We participate in this process by putting off some things and putting on others.

And ultimately the goal of the Holy Spirit in sanctification is that we be perfected in love.

Renewing the mind

Were going to begin with a scripture that we used in regard to worship, but it continues...

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Renewing the mind begins on the inside.

Sometimes the church has inadvertently conveyed the message that to be a good Christian you need to appear to have it all together, while you may be falling apart on the inside.

That was what my parents experienced.

The church actually had a doctrine called “non-conformity” from the first part of this verse - “do not be conformed to this world”

But they neglected the second part - be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

The Mennonite Church was not the only place this was happening; it was all over the place.

Larry Crabb, one of the pioneers of Christian Counseling wrote a book in 1991 called “Inside Out.” In this book, Crab exposed the superficial attempts of people and churches to make changes on the surface while ignoring the inner pain that, when acknowledged, can produce real change.

“The awareness of what’s inside forces me to admit that I am utterly dependent on resources outside my control for the kind of change I desire, if helplessness really is at the core of my existence, I prefer to live on the surface of things. It’s far more comfortable. To admit I cannot deal with all that’s within me strikes a death blow to my claim of self-sufficiency. To deny the frightening realities within my soul seems as necessary to life as breathing.”

This book was one of the early influences that changed my life and my view of what it means to be a Christian.

It moved me from thinking I have to act like I have it all together

to realizing that I need to let myself fall apart

in a safe environment

where God, and other people that He has put in my life,

can reshape and restore me in the power of His Holy Spirit.

Oh, and BTW this value is also expressed in our second process step “restore”

Renewing the mind is a process.

I talked about how this value was shaped by what we learned from our Anabaptist or Mennonite roots.

A similar problem developed in Evangelical churches around the misconception that if a person was properly “saved” that the transformation was somehow instantaneous.

“Christians shouldn’t have problems, at least not “sin problems” and if you are still having those problems you need to go back and get saved all over again” - that was the message.

That misconception was reinforced by glorious testimonies of dramatic conversions that made it look like everyone who gets saved is changed instantly.

We now know and understand that nothing could be further from the truth.

While its true that God saves people by changing their hearts and renewing their minds so that they no longer desire the things that they once did, it normally takes time and is a process, even a struggle for most people - but a struggle that can be and is often won.

The struggle is real!

That is why I included the language that I did in describing this value.

We want to be compassionate and inclusive to all who are on the journey toward freedom and healing as Christ is formed in us.

Today we have have a generation people, many of whom have written off church because they and or their parents have been wounded by the pressure to be perfect.

The world has changed and people are more open about their sin and their struggles and they want a church that will accept them as they are.

The church has been afraid to accept people with their “issues” for fear that we might be perceived as saying that sin is OK.

We’re not saying that what the Bible calls sin is normal or OK, just that it is normal to struggle and that healing and freedom is a journey.

And if that is your journey, we know that you need a safe place to heal and be restored.

We want to be that safe place because we understand that journey because we have been on it and are still on it to some degree.

Renewing the mind is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Renewing the mind, according to Crabb and others begins with recognizing that we are helpless to change ourselves.

That’s why being “religious” in the sense of promoting outward behavior modification is such a big lie.

Not only does it deny that problems still exist, but it denies the real power of God to heal and to transform.

If you could change yourself, you wouldn’t need God.

That is why we consider the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification to be a high value.

We have workshops and seminars here at SCF that are part of our “restore” process.

We encourage people to come are benefit from the teaching and the small groups.

But what this value means is that this is not ”self-help” but is the work of the Holy Spirit.

These seminars and workshops are bathed in prayer because the Holy Spirit, “God’s Presence and Power are vital to what we do.

The Holy Spirit is not just empowering teachers to teach, but is helping those who attend to listen and apply what they are hearing.

The Holy Spirit searches our hearts and knows our minds.

The Holy Spirit uses us to minister to one another.

As we recognize that this is the Spirit’s work and open ourselves to that work, the Holy Spirit is able to heals us and change us from the inside out.

Putting off and putting on

Now that we have established that the process of sanctification is from the inside out, that it is a process and that it is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit - you need to know what is your part in this.

Ephesians 4:17–24 (ESV)

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Recognize that you have choices.

Paul is writing to Gentiles and telling them not to live like Gentiles.

I know that sounds absurd, but they know something now that they didn’t know before which means that they have a choice.

You can just go with what you know and what is most convenient, familiar or comfortable or you can make a choice to do something different.

The problem with having a free will is that most of us do not use it.

Choices require effort.

My wife spends a lot of time thinking about what to prepare for meals. She will will ask me, “what do you want for dinner?” To which I usually reply, I don’t know. What I really mean is, “I don’t want to take the effort to decide.’

Meals are usually determined them by whatever we have in the refrigerator that is going to spoil if we don’t use it or whatever is taking us space in the freezer.

Actually, it is a huge privilege to have access to and to be able to afford such a variety of food. But so often that privilege is eclipsed by the paralysis of having to make a choice. In America we call it “choice overload” too many choices makes it harder to choose.

When it comes to how we live our lives and the choices that we make, there are also an infinite number of possibilities.

Most people will make the choices that they were raised to make unless they encounter other influences.

Just like you would probably prefer the food your mother made until you tried something else.

Once I tasted my wife’s cooking… I never wanted to go back.

Once you have made a choice to live for Christ, your focus has shifted, but it may take a while for your other choices to catch up.

It’s process of putting off and putting on.

When I went to Bible School (a long time ago). I had a list in my mind of things that I wanted to work on. Changes that I wanted God to make in me. Well I was surprised, my list only took about three weeks because God did amazing things in my life.

But I found myself feeling strangely discontent. Like I thought I would feel great, confident, like I have it all together now. But I was even more aware of my weakness and insecurity and wondering how what I felt was really progress?

Then someone told me about putting off and putting on. If I’m going too get a new set of clothes, i will have to first take off what I am wearing. The problem is that by putting off, I’m naked and vulnerable until I put something else on.

Was I was feeling was that in between stage of having put off some pretty significant things, but not yet having discovered what I am putting on.

So choices don’t just mean putting off the old, but putting on the new.

Let the Holy Spirit inspire your choices.

Colossians 3:1–4 ESV

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Putting on the new means that we think differently and therefore choose differently.

That’s why we need our minds renewed.

Or as it said in Ephesians - the spirit of our minds is renewed.

What does that mean except that our minds are led by our spirit.

Our subconscious orientation

Our internal compass

Our guiding sense of reality.

And then Colossians clarifies that our new reality is centered on Christ.

We are in Christ.

Our home is above.

Our future and our destiny is resurrection life.

Now the role of the Holy Spirit becomes much clearer.

We need help living in this new reality.

We need a guide to this heavenly life.

We need inspiration -something or someone to influence us to think beyond what we are used to thinking.

We need the Holy Spirit to inspire our choices - help us to see beyond what we would normally see or choose.

Colossians 3 goes on to name what some of those choices are.

Paul gets specific about what these Gentile believers are to put off and to put on.

Your choice of what to put on is guided by who you are in Christ.

So lets just say this...

Choose a life surrendered to God.

Colossians 3:14–17 ESV

14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Let the peace of Christ rule...

You were called to one Body...

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..

Whatever you do …do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ

These words imply one choice that influences all of your other choices - the choice to surrender.

It’s a choice that says, “I have tried doing things my own way and i just keep messing up. I wan’t to do things your way.”

It’s a choice that says, “I don’t know whats right or what’s best for my own life. God you created me. You know better than I do.”

It’s a choice that says, “I can’t do what I want, even when I want to do it. I need the power of the Holy Spirit just to live.”

If you make that one choice, then the Holy Spirit will help you with all of the other choices. But it has to be your choice.

So where is this going? What’s going to happen? What is the Holy Spirit going to do to me?

He’s going to make you more like Jesus.

Perfected in love

The goal of our faith is Christ- likeness.

1 John 3:1–3 ESV

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Some of us may have been under the impression that being a Christian is about being a member of a church, following the rules and doing what is expected of us.

The Bible say it is about identity.

It is about who we are and about whose we are.

It is about being in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit and becoming children of God.

God doesn’t want a bunch of people who blindly follow His rules.

He wants fellowship - real relationship.

That is what He has wanted from the beginning.

He wants us to know Him and to obey Him because we know Him and because we have chosen His way over our own.

Living lives as Christians on the surface deprives us of that relationship with God and with others.

We can’t let people get to close or they will find out our faults.

But when the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us we don’t have to be afraid to open up to God and to others,

because we know that whatever is there is in process and God will see that process through to completion.

We need to talk a bit more about what that looks like.

The goal of sanctification is holiness.

Sanctification literally means to become holy.

God is holy, perfect, set apart from sinful humanity.

Whether Mennonite or Evangelical or any other church back ground, the goal has always been sanctification or holiness.

The problem is when we try to look like we have arrived at the goal but we have not surrendered to the Holy Spirit and the process.

Have you ever seen a movie set? They are just fronts of buildings made to look like a street, but there is actually nothing behind them. There doesn’t need to be anything back there because all that matters is what you can see through the camera. It’s just a facade.

The world is full of facades built by people who only have an earthly point of view.

The church is sometimes one of them.

As long as people think we look good, that should be all that matters.

Except if God is who we say He is, then He sees everything.

What we call holiness may be just a facade.

The alternative is to be real about our human failings and not deny it.

But at the same time, who we are doesn’t not define us because of what we are becoming.

That’s why even though we want to be accepting and inclusive of people wherever they are in the process, we don’t stop there.

We also want to hold each other accountable to be moving forward in our spiritual growth and in integrity.

Holiness is something we will never achieve on our own.

We need each other and the power of the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus.

We need to love each other and help each other as the Holy spirit is working in each of us.

But the Bible doesn’t even stop there… with living each other.

Matthew 5:43–48 ESV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The goal of perfection is love.

The story that I told at the beginning of this message about my father‘s experience with the church shows a church that is trying to be holy by isolating from the world.

Most of the churches that I know have figured out that it doesn’t work.

Perfection is not first and foremost about behavior.

Perfection is about love and loving the way that God loves.

If perfection were about behavior, God could have made robots who would do exactly what they were programmed to do.

If perfection were the absence of sin or imperfection, God could have wiped everyone out and started over.

But instead we see a God who is extremely tolerant of a humanity which generally ignores and sometimes even opposes Him.

But if God’s goal from creation until now has been to have a people who will love Him the way He loves them, then it all makes sense.

It was worth all of the mistakes and the failures.

It was worth all of the pain and the suffering.

It was worth patiently waiting for.

To have a people who recognize that God has loved them when they didn’t deserve it and decide to learn to love God and others the way God loves them.

That is the first job of the Holy Spirit, to convince you of God’s love and then to bring you to the place where you can love like He does.