Sermon Tone Analysis

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...

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.