A New Spirit (April 27, 2008)
April 27 2008
Text: Galatians 5:22-24; Romans 8: 29
Title: A New Spirit
Big Idea: When we have the Spirit of the God we bear the fruit of courage and love (forgiveness).
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What is the most important sign that a person really is a child of God?
I.e. what is the most important sign that a person has moved from the being in the family of “Adam and Eve” and has been reborn into the family of God through the help of Jesus Christ?
Some people would say the true sign that a person really is a child of God is that they embrace truth or correct, “orthodox” Christian belief. Embracing truth and having “orthodox” Christian belief are important, but according to Scriptures that is not the foremost sign that a person is truly a child of God. The devil knows the truth about God, but obviously isn’t part of God’s family.
Others may say that the key sign that a person really is a child of God is that they have had some kind of spiritual experience. Spiritual experience is very important, and if a person really is a child of God, they will have had some kind of spiritual experience, but that is not the preeminent sign that a person really is a child of God.
Still others may say participation in some kind of mission or service is the sign that we are the children of God… This community is known for its involvement in justice and outreach, but participation in mission or service, as important as that is, is not the number #1 sign that a person is a child of God.
The sign, that a person really is a child of God, is that he or she reflects the character and Spirit of Jesus Christ. Paul says in Romans 8:29: 29 For those God foreknew (would come into his family) he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ…
If you’ve been called by God, you’re also destined to become like Jesus Christ.
Paul told the church at Corinth that all those who are the true sons and daughters of God are being gradually transformed into Christ’s image (2 Cor. 3:18). Martin Luther said that the true follower of Christ becomes a “little Christ.”
But what would it look like to become “like Christ”?
Part of what it means to become like Jesus is that we exert greater boldness, greater courage.
In the Gospels we read how Jesus created a whip from some cords and drove out the livestock and then scattered coins of the money changers, turned over their tables, because these money changers were marking up the prices of things that the poor needed to purchase in order to worship God in temple, according to some commentators, by several hundred percent.
We see in Jesus’ driving out the money changers a spirit of boldness and courage.
In Acts 4:31 we read that when the Holy Spirit came upon those new followers of Christ, they spoke the Word of God boldly. When the Spirit of Jesus, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us we will become bolder and more courageous.
In 2 Timothy 1:7, a favorite verse of many, we read that the Holy Spirit has not given us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of courage and of self-discipline.
One of my heroes is William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce is the man featured in the movie, Amazing Grace, the British man who for 45 years fought in England for the abolition of the slave trade. As a young Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, was a rising star… bright, eloquent, well-connected to the Prime Minister William Pitt, the Younger. Wilberforce was considered a leading candidate to become Prime Minister himself, but in 1785, when he was in his mid-twenties, he was powerfully converted to Jesus Christ, and as a result of that, Wilberforce made it his goal, working with other Christians, to see that the slave trade abolished. He knew that standing up in Parliament to oppose slavery would cost him the prime ministership of England, perhaps be an act of political suicide, because slavery was (in inflation-adjusted dollars) a multi-multi-billion dollar industry, considered absolutely essential to uphold British wealth and privilege. But Wilberforce wrote in his journal just before standing up in Parliament to oppose slavery, “My Christian conscience will not allow me to stay silent on this issue.” As a result of his efforts and of the efforts those he was working with, after 45 years of fighting against slavery, the Emancipation Bill was passed in Parliament on July 26, 1833 and millions of slaves across of the Empire were freed and 3 days latter on July 29 night he died…and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
A sign that we are becoming more like Jesus is that we are becoming more courageous.
Another sign that we are becoming like Jesus Christ is that we are growing in our capacity to love. One of the most counter-cultural and practical ways love is expressed is through forgiving others. In the movie, The Passion, I was so deeply moved by the scene where Jesus Christ is nailed to the cross and as he is being nailed to the cross, he cries out “Father, forgive them, because they don’t what they are doing!” One of the distinctive signs that the Spirit of God is at work in us is that we are able to love others, and specifically to forgive them. It does not mean that we are a doormat and doesn’t mean that we don’t hold people to account, but if the Holy Spirit lives in us we will have this new capacity to forgive…
Do you remember the story about Silas O’Brien from Cloverdale? Last month, apparently this 21-year-old guy Silas and two of his friends, Sam Dooley and Luke Stevens, were driving west on 16th Avenue in Aldergrove when they were intentionally run off the road into ditch by an angry man in a white Ford pickup. Driven off the road, but uninjured by the crash, the three young men scrambled out of the muddy ditch. Then the driver of the white Ford pickup truck apparently turned around and raced back. Two of the young men were able to get out of the way, but O’Brien was struck and killed and the driver sped off.
Of course, anyone who read that story was justifiably angry at the cowardice of the person who would hit Silas with his truck and then run off like that. But I was moved when I read the headline in the newspaper that Silas’ parents had forgiven the man who had slain their son, and I immediately thought they must be Christians… and sure enough they are devout Christians who attend a Christian Bible Church in Cloverdale.
For those who are followers of Jesus Christ, there seems to be this pattern of courage and the capacity to love and forgive.
I know this is a generalization, but people who are really bold by nature are often not gracious, or people who are really gracious, caring by nature are often not bold (btw, it’s probably generally true of dogs too. Our dog a Golden Retriever as some of you know is super loving, warm and gentle—but not very tough… I would bet on him in a sidewalk fight with another dog). One of the distinguishing marks of a person who really is a child of God is that they become like Jesus Christ—bold and gracious, tough and tender.
This combination was poignantly manifest in the lives of children who were part of that Amish school tragedy in West Nickel Mines Pennsylvania.
On October 2, 2006, was a dark day for the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. That morning as we know, a very troubled local milkman named Charles Carl Roberts barricaded himself inside the West Nickel Mine Amish School. He was armed with guns and over 600 rounds of ammunition. Roberts opened fire on 11 girls—all less than 14-years-old—killing 5. After these brutal acts, he turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide.
It was a dark moment; but there was also light in the tragic story… there were evidences of courage and love.
According to two of the survivors, when 13-year-old Marie Fisher began to understand what Charles Carl Roberts intended to do in the school room, she calmly stepped toward Charles Roberts and made a plea. "Shoot me first," she said, "and let the other ones go." He opened fire on her. She died.
Immediately after this request, Marian younger sister Barb added, "Shoot me second," she said. She stepped forward was shot, but survived the shooting.
According to Rita Rhoads, a local midwife close to the family of the two girls, their faith also affected their attacker. "Charles Roberts asked the Amish children to pray for him before he turned his gun on himself.” He recognized they had something he did not.
When we are filled with the Spirit of Jesus (this is the key), when we really are children of God, like those Amish children Marian and Barb, we become more like Jesus, we become bolder and more loving than we could be on our own, tougher and more tender that we are on our own.
But how do we become like this? How do we become like Jesus? How do we become the people we are destined to become—conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ?
The Book of Romans tells us that when we give our lives to Christ, Christ breaks the power of our sin nature, our shadow side. He deals it a lethal blow, it isn’t dead, but it doesn’t have the power over us that it once did.
The Book of Romans also tells us that when we give our lives to Christ, we experience the filling of the Holy Spirit… the Holy Spirit is in us… and, accordingly, when we are filled with the Spirit, we will bear in our character the fruit of the Spirit which the Bible describes as the fruit the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control… (in Gal. 5:22-23)…
But how do we encourage the Holy Spirit to pervade our being?
To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that we allow him to occupy and control every area of our lives…How much of you does the Holy Spirit have?
(illustration: bring two glasses of water and two packets of Alka-Seltzer. Drop a packet of Alka-Seltzer, with the wrapper on, into one glass. Then I plop an unsealed packet into the second glass, and watch it fill with fizz.
Both glasses have the Alka-Seltzer, just as all Christians have the Holy Spirit. But notice how you can have the Holy Spirit and not his fullness. Our goal is to live in such a way as to unwrap the packaging around the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us.
How do we unwrap the packaging around the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit?
A big part of the way we unwrap the packaging around the Holy Spirit so to speak is by drawing close to Jesus Christ, to use an expression from the Gospel of John—“ by abiding in the vine.”
Like in a human relationship, whether it is romantic, or otherwise, we can’t completely control our level of intimacy with a person, but we can do certain things to foster intimacy.
One thing we can do to foster intimacy in a relationship with a person is build trust.
Have you ever had a friend or acquaintance lie to you… how did you feel?
How did that affect your relationship?
Have you ever had someone hold back information you had a right to?
How would it feel if two months after being engaged you realized your partner had throughout your relationship also been dating someone else? Or how would you feel if two weeks after being married you found out that your spouse had a 100,000 debt?
Have you ever lied to a friend?
Or have you ever withheld information that your friend had a right to—which is a form of lying…?
When you did that, didn’t that create a sense of distance from that person?
If we want to establish a really close relationship with someone, it has to be build upon a foundation of trust which is built on a foundation of total integrity.
So, it is with God… we know we can trust God… We don’t always understand or like God’s ways… but we can trust God… but can God trust us? God has acted with integrity in relation to us… but have we acted with integrity before God?
One of the ways we draw close is by becoming a person of total integrity… bringing each area of our lives: Sabbath, our talents, our work, our financial lives, our relationships, our sexual lives…. in alignment with the will of God. I want to be pleasing to God, in much the same way I would want to please those whom I love and admire most… I don’t take advantage of God’s kindness and love…
Another way we can become closer to God is by spending quality time together…
Whether it’s a romantic relationship or a friendship in general—we know that we can do certain things to foster intimacy in our friendship. And that so it is with Jesus Christ.
There are certain things that we can do to foster our and deepen our friendship with Jesus Christ.
As Daniel Koromi shared last Sunday, it might be as practical as setting our alarm watch each day for 10 p.m. and taking time to process the day with God… the bad and the good… Tanya Komori shared last Sunday as a mom of a young one--as hard as it is to do--she steals some time alone with God every day… in Scripture and in silence… meditation..
How do you stay close to God?
A third way to stay close to God… is by having friends who are close to God…
I have a mentor whom I stay close with in part because I am friends with people who are close to him.
One of the ways we draw closer to Jesus is by walking with people who are close to Jesus. It’s not just about getting information from these people about Jesus, but absorbing the energy of these people who walk close to Jesus.
I think this is especially important for those of us who live in a place like Vancouver where there is a relatively small percentage of followers of Christ.
I regularly meet people here who say I have no Christian friends… I have many friends who aren’t Christians, but no Christian friends… In a place like Vancouver it really is essential that we do not try to go it alone—that we walk with others who know and love God.
I stay close to my mentor in part because we have mutual friends, but also in part because I fairly regularly introduce people I know who want to connect to an older, mentor figure to him, especially if they are going to his neck of the woods, Charlotte, North Carolina.
An important way we can draw closer to Jesus is by drawing others to Jesus.
For my a wife a big part of what has kept her close to Jesus both when living in Tokyo and Vancouver is helping people, who don’t know Christ, find Christ and/or helping people who are new to Christ grow in Christ… She will often say, if you want to grow as a Christian you must have a baby and take care of one… i.e. a baby spiritually…
It’s when we become a literal or spiritual parent and guide others in things that matter that we can experience transformation…
A man from Australia exhibits this transformation powerfully. Nick Vujicic has drawn close to Jesus and as I think you’ll agree he bears the fruit of the Spirit
Close by showing clip of Man from Australia (if I can).
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)
Text: Galatians 5:22-24; Romans 8: 29
Title: A New Spirit
Big Idea: When we have the Spirit of the God we bear the fruit of courage and love (forgiveness).
Add Photos?
What is the most important sign that a person really is a child of God?
I.e. what is the most important sign that a person has moved from the being in the family of “Adam and Eve” and has been reborn into the family of God through the help of Jesus Christ?
Some people would say the true sign that a person really is a child of God is that they embrace truth or correct, “orthodox” Christian belief. Embracing truth and having “orthodox” Christian belief are important, but according to Scriptures that is not the foremost sign that a person is truly a child of God. The devil knows the truth about God, but obviously isn’t part of God’s family.
Others may say that the key sign that a person really is a child of God is that they have had some kind of spiritual experience. Spiritual experience is very important, and if a person really is a child of God, they will have had some kind of spiritual experience, but that is not the preeminent sign that a person really is a child of God.
Still others may say participation in some kind of mission or service is the sign that we are the children of God… This community is known for its involvement in justice and outreach, but participation in mission or service, as important as that is, is not the number #1 sign that a person is a child of God.
The sign, that a person really is a child of God, is that he or she reflects the character and Spirit of Jesus Christ. Paul says in Romans 8:29: 29 For those God foreknew (would come into his family) he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ…
If you’ve been called by God, you’re also destined to become like Jesus Christ.
Paul told the church at Corinth that all those who are the true sons and daughters of God are being gradually transformed into Christ’s image (2 Cor. 3:18). Martin Luther said that the true follower of Christ becomes a “little Christ.”
But what would it look like to become “like Christ”?
Part of what it means to become like Jesus is that we exert greater boldness, greater courage.
In the Gospels we read how Jesus created a whip from some cords and drove out the livestock and then scattered coins of the money changers, turned over their tables, because these money changers were marking up the prices of things that the poor needed to purchase in order to worship God in temple, according to some commentators, by several hundred percent.
We see in Jesus’ driving out the money changers a spirit of boldness and courage.
In Acts 4:31 we read that when the Holy Spirit came upon those new followers of Christ, they spoke the Word of God boldly. When the Spirit of Jesus, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us we will become bolder and more courageous.
In 2 Timothy 1:7, a favorite verse of many, we read that the Holy Spirit has not given us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of courage and of self-discipline.
One of my heroes is William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce is the man featured in the movie, Amazing Grace, the British man who for 45 years fought in England for the abolition of the slave trade. As a young Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, was a rising star… bright, eloquent, well-connected to the Prime Minister William Pitt, the Younger. Wilberforce was considered a leading candidate to become Prime Minister himself, but in 1785, when he was in his mid-twenties, he was powerfully converted to Jesus Christ, and as a result of that, Wilberforce made it his goal, working with other Christians, to see that the slave trade abolished. He knew that standing up in Parliament to oppose slavery would cost him the prime ministership of England, perhaps be an act of political suicide, because slavery was (in inflation-adjusted dollars) a multi-multi-billion dollar industry, considered absolutely essential to uphold British wealth and privilege. But Wilberforce wrote in his journal just before standing up in Parliament to oppose slavery, “My Christian conscience will not allow me to stay silent on this issue.” As a result of his efforts and of the efforts those he was working with, after 45 years of fighting against slavery, the Emancipation Bill was passed in Parliament on July 26, 1833 and millions of slaves across of the Empire were freed and 3 days latter on July 29 night he died…and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
A sign that we are becoming more like Jesus is that we are becoming more courageous.
Another sign that we are becoming like Jesus Christ is that we are growing in our capacity to love. One of the most counter-cultural and practical ways love is expressed is through forgiving others. In the movie, The Passion, I was so deeply moved by the scene where Jesus Christ is nailed to the cross and as he is being nailed to the cross, he cries out “Father, forgive them, because they don’t what they are doing!” One of the distinctive signs that the Spirit of God is at work in us is that we are able to love others, and specifically to forgive them. It does not mean that we are a doormat and doesn’t mean that we don’t hold people to account, but if the Holy Spirit lives in us we will have this new capacity to forgive…
Do you remember the story about Silas O’Brien from Cloverdale? Last month, apparently this 21-year-old guy Silas and two of his friends, Sam Dooley and Luke Stevens, were driving west on 16th Avenue in Aldergrove when they were intentionally run off the road into ditch by an angry man in a white Ford pickup. Driven off the road, but uninjured by the crash, the three young men scrambled out of the muddy ditch. Then the driver of the white Ford pickup truck apparently turned around and raced back. Two of the young men were able to get out of the way, but O’Brien was struck and killed and the driver sped off.
Of course, anyone who read that story was justifiably angry at the cowardice of the person who would hit Silas with his truck and then run off like that. But I was moved when I read the headline in the newspaper that Silas’ parents had forgiven the man who had slain their son, and I immediately thought they must be Christians… and sure enough they are devout Christians who attend a Christian Bible Church in Cloverdale.
For those who are followers of Jesus Christ, there seems to be this pattern of courage and the capacity to love and forgive.
I know this is a generalization, but people who are really bold by nature are often not gracious, or people who are really gracious, caring by nature are often not bold (btw, it’s probably generally true of dogs too. Our dog a Golden Retriever as some of you know is super loving, warm and gentle—but not very tough… I would bet on him in a sidewalk fight with another dog). One of the distinguishing marks of a person who really is a child of God is that they become like Jesus Christ—bold and gracious, tough and tender.
This combination was poignantly manifest in the lives of children who were part of that Amish school tragedy in West Nickel Mines Pennsylvania.
On October 2, 2006, was a dark day for the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. That morning as we know, a very troubled local milkman named Charles Carl Roberts barricaded himself inside the West Nickel Mine Amish School. He was armed with guns and over 600 rounds of ammunition. Roberts opened fire on 11 girls—all less than 14-years-old—killing 5. After these brutal acts, he turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide.
It was a dark moment; but there was also light in the tragic story… there were evidences of courage and love.
According to two of the survivors, when 13-year-old Marie Fisher began to understand what Charles Carl Roberts intended to do in the school room, she calmly stepped toward Charles Roberts and made a plea. "Shoot me first," she said, "and let the other ones go." He opened fire on her. She died.
Immediately after this request, Marian younger sister Barb added, "Shoot me second," she said. She stepped forward was shot, but survived the shooting.
According to Rita Rhoads, a local midwife close to the family of the two girls, their faith also affected their attacker. "Charles Roberts asked the Amish children to pray for him before he turned his gun on himself.” He recognized they had something he did not.
When we are filled with the Spirit of Jesus (this is the key), when we really are children of God, like those Amish children Marian and Barb, we become more like Jesus, we become bolder and more loving than we could be on our own, tougher and more tender that we are on our own.
But how do we become like this? How do we become like Jesus? How do we become the people we are destined to become—conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ?
The Book of Romans tells us that when we give our lives to Christ, Christ breaks the power of our sin nature, our shadow side. He deals it a lethal blow, it isn’t dead, but it doesn’t have the power over us that it once did.
The Book of Romans also tells us that when we give our lives to Christ, we experience the filling of the Holy Spirit… the Holy Spirit is in us… and, accordingly, when we are filled with the Spirit, we will bear in our character the fruit of the Spirit which the Bible describes as the fruit the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control… (in Gal. 5:22-23)…
But how do we encourage the Holy Spirit to pervade our being?
To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that we allow him to occupy and control every area of our lives…How much of you does the Holy Spirit have?
(illustration: bring two glasses of water and two packets of Alka-Seltzer. Drop a packet of Alka-Seltzer, with the wrapper on, into one glass. Then I plop an unsealed packet into the second glass, and watch it fill with fizz.
Both glasses have the Alka-Seltzer, just as all Christians have the Holy Spirit. But notice how you can have the Holy Spirit and not his fullness. Our goal is to live in such a way as to unwrap the packaging around the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us.
How do we unwrap the packaging around the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit?
A big part of the way we unwrap the packaging around the Holy Spirit so to speak is by drawing close to Jesus Christ, to use an expression from the Gospel of John—“ by abiding in the vine.”
Like in a human relationship, whether it is romantic, or otherwise, we can’t completely control our level of intimacy with a person, but we can do certain things to foster intimacy.
One thing we can do to foster intimacy in a relationship with a person is build trust.
Have you ever had a friend or acquaintance lie to you… how did you feel?
How did that affect your relationship?
Have you ever had someone hold back information you had a right to?
How would it feel if two months after being engaged you realized your partner had throughout your relationship also been dating someone else? Or how would you feel if two weeks after being married you found out that your spouse had a 100,000 debt?
Have you ever lied to a friend?
Or have you ever withheld information that your friend had a right to—which is a form of lying…?
When you did that, didn’t that create a sense of distance from that person?
If we want to establish a really close relationship with someone, it has to be build upon a foundation of trust which is built on a foundation of total integrity.
So, it is with God… we know we can trust God… We don’t always understand or like God’s ways… but we can trust God… but can God trust us? God has acted with integrity in relation to us… but have we acted with integrity before God?
One of the ways we draw close is by becoming a person of total integrity… bringing each area of our lives: Sabbath, our talents, our work, our financial lives, our relationships, our sexual lives…. in alignment with the will of God. I want to be pleasing to God, in much the same way I would want to please those whom I love and admire most… I don’t take advantage of God’s kindness and love…
Another way we can become closer to God is by spending quality time together…
Whether it’s a romantic relationship or a friendship in general—we know that we can do certain things to foster intimacy in our friendship. And that so it is with Jesus Christ.
There are certain things that we can do to foster our and deepen our friendship with Jesus Christ.
As Daniel Koromi shared last Sunday, it might be as practical as setting our alarm watch each day for 10 p.m. and taking time to process the day with God… the bad and the good… Tanya Komori shared last Sunday as a mom of a young one--as hard as it is to do--she steals some time alone with God every day… in Scripture and in silence… meditation..
How do you stay close to God?
A third way to stay close to God… is by having friends who are close to God…
I have a mentor whom I stay close with in part because I am friends with people who are close to him.
One of the ways we draw closer to Jesus is by walking with people who are close to Jesus. It’s not just about getting information from these people about Jesus, but absorbing the energy of these people who walk close to Jesus.
I think this is especially important for those of us who live in a place like Vancouver where there is a relatively small percentage of followers of Christ.
I regularly meet people here who say I have no Christian friends… I have many friends who aren’t Christians, but no Christian friends… In a place like Vancouver it really is essential that we do not try to go it alone—that we walk with others who know and love God.
I stay close to my mentor in part because we have mutual friends, but also in part because I fairly regularly introduce people I know who want to connect to an older, mentor figure to him, especially if they are going to his neck of the woods, Charlotte, North Carolina.
An important way we can draw closer to Jesus is by drawing others to Jesus.
For my a wife a big part of what has kept her close to Jesus both when living in Tokyo and Vancouver is helping people, who don’t know Christ, find Christ and/or helping people who are new to Christ grow in Christ… She will often say, if you want to grow as a Christian you must have a baby and take care of one… i.e. a baby spiritually…
It’s when we become a literal or spiritual parent and guide others in things that matter that we can experience transformation…
A man from Australia exhibits this transformation powerfully. Nick Vujicic has drawn close to Jesus and as I think you’ll agree he bears the fruit of the Spirit
Close by showing clip of Man from Australia (if I can).
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)
posted by Shigematsu at 6:33 PM
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