October 15,
2006
Scripture
Galatians 5:16-26
16So
I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful
nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the
Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each
other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are not under law.
19The acts of the
sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish
ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the
22But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and
desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Ephesians 3:14-19
14For
this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his
whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you
with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being
rooted and established in love, 18may have power,
together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is
the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that
surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness
of God.
“Walking in the
Spirit”
One
of the great joys as well as challenges of parenting is finding the balance
between correcting your child verses allowing them to learn from their
mistakes. Each child is different, so just when you think you’ve found a balance,
child number two, or three, with their unique personalities, throws you off
balance again.
I
am finding that to be true with
These
days I see Sid’s attitude clearly whenever she practices her cello. She is a
very good player, but doesn’t want to be taught by a teachers or coached by her
mom; she would rather “figure it out” on her own. But as I often hear Carole
saying to
As I watched them “do battle” the other
evening, I realized how similar their relationship is to our relationship with
the Holy Spirit; that inner presence of God He has promised to all who put
their faith in Jesus. And as I admired Carole’s patience this past week, in
trying to help
This
hour I want us to celebrate the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives, and
highlight the everyday interaction we can have with this tremendous power God
has placed within us. For while the free wind of God’s Spirit manifests it’s
presence in occasionally dramatic ways; in healings, in prophetic words, in
speaking in tongues... today I want to highlight the everyday opportunities and
the motivation given us by God’s Spirit, which help us to daily grow into the
likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1.
God’s Spirit is in you.
Before
I speak of the opportunities and the motivation given us by God’s Spirit, let
me simply remind us of the Holy Spirit’s presence in us.
In the Gospel of Luke we find what was for
me a favorite Sunday School memory verse:
Luke 11:9-13
9".....Ask and it will be
given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds;
and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Then Jesus goes on to
say:
11"Which of you fathers,
if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask him!"
While
I loved this verse as a child, because it seemed to promise me a God who was a
whole lot like a candy machine; One in which I could insert a quick prayer and
get whatever I asked for.... what I didn’t appreciate as a child was the
context of this verse. For it was in the context of teaching His disciples how
to pray;
-
asking for God’s Kingdom to come,
-
asking for God’s will to be done,
-
asking for daily bread to be given,
-
asking for God’s forgiveness, and a willingness to forgive
others, and
-
asking for God’s deliverance from temptation and evil...
... it was in this context of everyday prayer
requests that Jesus says we can come to the Father in prayer, and He will give
us His Spirit. For you see, it is by the power of God’s Spirit working within
us that we further God’s Kingdom, that we accomplish God’s will, that we
rejoice in our daily bread, that we receive God’s forgiveness as we offer
forgiveness to others, and we are delivered from temptation and evil. And in
that very context, God is thrilled to give us His Spirit!
The
Holy Spirit is the means by which God touches us to transform us, and through
Whom we experience God on a day by day basis.
This is why the Bible declares that it is
serious for people to “grieve the Holy Spirit”; that is, to deny the Holy
Spirit’s work. For when we recognize God’s workings, but deny it, we are
rejecting God’s work of salvation. Just as Joshua laid it out clearly before
God’s people entered the Promised Land by saying:
Deuteronomy 30:19-20a
19 This day I call heaven and earth as
witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and
curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his
voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, ......
Just like Joshua, when the Holy Spirit manifests
Himself to you, setting before you life and blessing, and you turn away, you
are in essence choosing death and curses. The Apostle Paul fleshes out this
choice we have of living by the Holy Spirit or living by our sinful nature in
Romans 8:
Romans 8:5-14
5Those
who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set
on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man
is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit
to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the
sinful nature cannot please God.
9You,
however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the
Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he
does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you,
your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of
righteousness. 11And 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 through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12Therefore,
brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live
according to it. 13For if you live according to the
sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds
of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led
by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
The
Spirit of God comes to reside and to lead all who put their faith in Jesus. But
two important questions are;
-
Do we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit? and
-
Are we walking in the Spirit?
2.
The Holy Spirit gives us opportunity.
Earlier
we heard words similar to those just read from Romans when we read from Paul’s
letter to the Galatians. In both we are presented the choice between living
according to our sinful nature or living in the Spirit. Through the NIV translation
Paul offers a powerful exhortation in Galatians “25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the
Spirit.” or even more clearly to me,
in the NASB: “If we live by the Spirit,
let us also walk by the Spirit”.
Do you catch the subtitle nuance: the
difference between “live by the Spirit” and “walk by the Spirit”. Perhaps it can
be likened to a person living as a Christians and another walking in the ways
of Jesus Christ. The difference between “living by the Spirit” and “walking
by the Spirit” is action, for the latter describes those who are making the
most of the opportunity set before them.
Paul also uses the phrase “led by the
Spirit” in Galatians. But as the saying goes in our culture: “You can lead a
horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
When we place our faith in Jesus
Christ, God places His Spirit within us to do what we cannot do by our own
power. One of the great early creeds of the Church, the Nicene Creed,
refers to the Holy Spirit as “The Lord and Giver of Life”, referring to the new
life, the redeemed, holy and true life we cannot attain by our own efforts or
power. This Holy Spirit is placed within
us by God to led us to this new life. All of us, because of the presence of the
Holy Spirit, have opportunity to experience this new life, but it is up to you
and me to “walk by the Spirit”; to make the most of the opportunity given us.
Imagine, if you will, going for a
midnight hike down into the
Friends... that is what sin is.... it
is believing that despite God’s clear word... His guidance, we believe we know
the way better, and so we venture out on our own.
Everyday the Holy Spirit offers us
guidance; it reminds us of everything Jesus taught and leads us to life. It
helps us to recognize the temptations set before us, and gives us a means of
escape. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Do we recognize the presence of God’s Spirit with
in? Do we make the most of every opportunity to walk in the ways of the Holy
Spirit... in the ways of Jesus Christ?
Where is God’s
Spirit leading you these days?
-
Is He convicting you of sinful
living?
-
Is He pulling you away from a
relationship which fails to honor God?
-
Is He prompting you to build up your
prayer life?
-
Is He preparing you to lead a new
& exciting ministry through this family of faith?
The Holy Spirit leads
us, giving us opportunity, but you have to choose to walk in the Spirit, we
have to choose to experience new life.
Today I want to
celebrate the daily opportunities given us by God’s Spirit, but I also want to
celebrate that
3.
The Holy Spirit gives us motivation.
What
is it that causes you to do something?
-
To give someone a call,
-
To lose weight,
-
To volunteer with the Scouts,
-
To run for political office,
-
To run a
-
To start a new business,
-
To sacrifice your life for others (Navy Seal... grenade)?
While the answers will vary, they will all
come under the heading of “motivation”. For whatever motivates us causes us to
do something, and if that motivation is strong enough, a person might be
willing to do just about anything.
Our
world has witnessed the motivating power of money, of drugs, of sex, of power,
of fame, of anger & rage. But I would argue today that none of these
motivators come close to the power that love has to motivate human beings. Love
is the most powerful motivating force.
Can
we not affirm the power that loving parents can have in motivating even the
most difficult child to change?
Can
we not affirm our own willingness to respond to the needs of those who have
loved us in our lives?
It
is in the truth of love’s motivating power that we see how the Holy Spirit
gives us motivation. For we earlier read the Apostle Paul’s prayer in
Ephesians:
Ephesians 3:16-19
16I pray that out of his glorious riches he
may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I
pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may
have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high
and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love
that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the
fullness of God.
Even as the Holy Spirit leads
us to new life by teaching us... by bringing to mind all Jesus taught, the Holy
Spirit also motivates us to walk in the way of Jesus by filling our hearts with
God’s love for us. For I am convinced that if we understand just know much God
loves us, demonstrated most powerfully in Jesus death on the cross, there is
nothing, absolutely nothing that will keep us from wanting to be transformed by
the Holy Spirit into the image of Jesus and to do the will of our Father in
Heaven.
Almost two weeks ago the world was stunned by the
apparently meaningless shooting of seven Amish schoolgirls in
- Did you see the Spirit’s power as the Amish families who
lost daughters walked that very evening to the killer’s home, to share words of
comfort and forgiveness with his family?
- Did you see the power of the Holy Spirit when, in the
midst of grieving their own dead, Amish neighbors attended the killer’s
funeral?
I remember being spellbound as I heard these
stories being reported by morning news programs. One morning TV show, unable to
understand the Amish ability to forgive, took time to interview a Rabbi and a Presbyterian
minister about forgiveness. Both of then conquered that it was because of the
Amish’s emphasis on forgiveness... their day-by-day practice of forgiving one
another that they we able to do what none of us could even imagine doing, or
could we do by our own power.
In
an internet blog, Ann Curry of the NBC Today Show, recorded the words shared
with her by one Amish woman:
An Amish woman told me perhaps the good that might come of
this tragedy is, "We can tell people about Christ and actually show you in
our walk that we forgive, not just say it, but in our walk of life. You
know you have to live it, you can't just say it. "
Ann Curry ended her blog entry by typing
“I realize I did not know what forgiveness was until now.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15134112/
During the past two weeks I did not witness miraculous
healings, perceive prophetic utterances, or hear people speaking in tongues,
but I have witnessed the immense power of the Holy Spirit to transform deeply
wounded people into the Children of God. And I pray that God will accomplish in
me what He is accomplishing among the Amish.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, motivated by the love
of Christ Jesus our Lord, let us use the opportunities given us by God, so that
we too will walk as the Children of God.
AMEN
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (r).
Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
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