This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
Putting the Life Back into Life
Putting the Spirit Back Into Life
DATE: November 1, 1998
TEXT: Galatians 5

There was a funeral for an unsavory old character who had never even come near a church his whole life. The pastor performing the funeral had never met this man. But somehow he was caught up in the emotion and the occasion of the funeral and suddenly began pouring out praised for this old guy who had died. For about 10 minutes he shared with the people at the funeral what an example this man had been as a father, as a husband, and as a boss--what a model citizen he had been. As the widow sat there and listened to these words, her face grew more and more puzzled. Finally, she leaned over and nudged her son saying, "Son, go up there and look into the casket and make sure that's papa."
This morning is All Saints when we remember the members of our congregation who have died this past year, since last all Saints: Joan Downing, Evan and Ethel Lewis, and Harold Lange. I will remember each of them today in my private prayers. Each graced my life in a unique way.
What do you hope people will say about you after you die? What do you hope will be shared about your life? I think we all hope that some of the qualities that were read in our text for today will be considered part of our life: love, peace, patience, generosity, faithfulness, self-control. Over the past several weeks and for the weeks ahead, we are focusing on the theme, putting the Life Back into Life." We're really talking about the fruits of the Spirit. Today we're going to take a step back and ask the question, "How do these qualities become part of our life?" What's the source of life?
Before we talk about that, let's pray....
We remember before you dear Jesus our brothers and sisters who have gone before us this past year: Joan Downing, Evan and Ethel Lewis and Harold Lange. We remember them as fellow pilgrims and brothers and sisters in Christ. We offer our thanks for their lives and their love for this church, its people, its purpose. Bless them and receive them into your never-failing arms and mercy. AMEN
Are you fired up or burned out?
In Galatians 5 the Apostle Paul declares that there are two ways of living. There are two approaches to life and Christianity: one by our power the other by God's power. One leads to life. The other leads to death.
To help illustrate this point I'd like to ask my faithful assistant Ken to help demonstrate this difference. I have here two batteries (you'll have to use your imagination somewhat). I'll attach this first battery called "the flesh" to the back of this "energizer bunny." Wow! There he goes.
This is what the Apostle Paul calls "the flesh" or operating on OUR power. You and I wake up in the morning, we're charged up and we say, "I'm going to make it a great day today. I'm going to love people. I'm going to care for people. I'm going to work hard." Then, we get out of bed, stub our toe on the toy that our son left on the floor. We go the refrigerator and there's no milk. We open the newspaper to be bombarded with bad news and pretty soon our joy begins to dwindle. We get to work and find that our co-worker got a raise and we didn't. On our way home from work we get cut off on the freeway. And pretty soon we start to feel tired. This battery grows weaker...and weaker...and weaker...(Okay Bunny, you're worn out now, you can sit down a moment.)
That's what the apostle Paul calls living by "the flesh." Not skin flesh--but by human power. It's the way that the early apostles tried to live and felt the destruction of doing so. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says is a result of living by "the flesh" -- by our human power. Reading from a paraphrase of the New Testament called The Message, Galatians 5: "It's obvious the kind of life that develops out of trying to get your own way and doing your own thing all the time. Repetitive loveless, cheap sex. A thinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage. Frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness. Trinket gods. Magic show religion. Paranoid loneliness. Cutthroat competition. All consuming yet never satisfied wants. A brutal temper. An impotence to love or be loved. Divided homes and divided lives. Small minded and lop-sided pursuits. The vicious habits of depersonalizing everyone into a rival. Uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions. Ugly parodies of community....
A clear, vivid description of life trying to live by our own power.
Let's consider Peter, my favorite New Testament bible character. Peter had great intentions. Peter wanted to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. When Jesus explained that he was about to go to the cross, Peter said, "Oh, Jesus, even if everyone else denies you and leaves you, I will never deny you. I will always be there. You can count on me Jesus!" Moments later Peter finds himself head down with tears flowing, as the cock crowed twice. Peter had denied three times that he even knew Jesus let alone was a follower. Peter, who had great intentions, discovered the destruction of trying to live by his own power.
Days later after Jesus had risen from the dead and gone to heaven, Peter and the other followers of Jesus had retreated to lick their wounds. They gathered to pray in the Upper Room. As they were gathered together, something powerful happened. A wind blew inside the room Tongues or flames or fire hovered over each of their heads and they began to speak in languages that they didn't even understand. People around them who had gathered from other countries for the Pentecost celebrations suddenly heard these people speaking in their own language. They wondered what was going on! Others said, "They must be drunk with wine!" Then Peter -- the same Peter who had denied Jesus three times -- stood before thousands and said, "They are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only 9 o'clock in the morning! But this is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel 'I will pour out my spirit on all people.'" Then Peter delivered one of the greatest sermons every preached.
Later Peter healed People. He boldly proclaimed Jesus in front of the political authorities, risking his own life. Eventually he was nailed to a cross.
Notice the contrast between the old Peter and the new. The Peter empowered by his own energy and the Peter empowered by the Spirit.
And so the bunny comes up again. We take off "The Flesh" battery and we put on the Eveready energizer "spirit" powered battery. The spirit keeps sustaining us through tough times as well as good times. That spirit keeps going and going and going and going (Bunny leaves the room).
What is this spirit? How does this spirit infiltrate, invade and energize our lives?
First of all the Spirit of God is a gift from God freely given. In Hebrew the word spirit is the work "ruach" which also means "breath." The breath of God. When the wind blew through that room on Pentecost Sunday people sensed the breath of God flowing into them. Breath gives life. Without breath there is no life. Throughout the Old Testament, the spirit was given to certain people--kings and prophets--to lead and to prophesy. But as Joel proclaims and predicts in the last days (the days you and I are living in now), the day that began that first Pentecost -- "in the last days I will pour my spirit on all people." Not just the preachers, not just the musicians or the teachers, but upon every one of us.
God gives the spirit as a free gift. It is not some medallion, reward or merit badge of accomplishment in your Christian life. It is not some level spirituality that we can achieve and attain. It is not some emotions that we have to stir up within us--it's a gift from God.
Paul talks about the Charismata, from which we get the word charismatic, which literally means grace gifts. Gifts from God given by the Holy Spirit. The spirit is a gift for you from God. Everyone who believes in Jesus has the Spirit. If Jesus is in your life, the Spirit is there.
Secondly, the Spirit of God energizes our whole life. I hopefully illustrated this by our bunny and battery. The Spirit comes to fill us--our spirit, our emotions, our thoughts, our imagination, even our physical being. The Spirit comes to energize us.
As this point you may be saying, "Well, that's nice, Pastor Stan, but I don't feel this energy. Where is it? Where's the Spirit or fire that hovered over the apostle's heads? Where's the fire of God in my life? I don't feel 'fired up.'
Let me answer that this way. When I was a Chipper, a young boy back in the fifties I remember something called Fizzies. Can anybody else remember them? They were little pills that came in ten foil wrappers (kind of like "upset stomached medicine"). We had red fizzies and purple fizzies. We'd tear out the Fizzie and plop it in the water in our cup and it would fizz into a juice. It tasted terrible, but it was really fun to watch it bubble! The water took on the character of the Fizzy.
So it is with us. When the Spirit of God enters our life, that Spirit seems in infiltrate and energizes our whole being. Unfortunately, we carry in us little "fizzy lids." The Spirit who is in us wants to take over, but I push it down into the corner and put on my Fizzy life. This lid is spelled S-E-L-F. It's my own will and desire to want to be in control rather than let God be in control. It keeps that fizzie covered and doesn't allow it to come and permeate my whole being.
The Spirit comes to us. God then invites us to allow that Spirit to come and take over. You may have experienced that sense of God's presence at certain times in your life--say, a very meaningful time of worship, a time of prayer, a time of loving and caring for others--where that Spirit's been allowed room to flood our lives and move through the corridors or our heart. We know that joy and the power of that.
In 1987, Linda, Skip and Stacy and I were in Birmingham, England, where I attended a Spiritual healing series of classes. That week I met pastors from Japan, Zimbabwe, France, and of course England. I was the only American. We found that we all had very different thoughts on the Spirit. But one of the most memorable moments of the week, was a gathering in an upper room of Selly Oak College where we all shared Holy Communion. For many it was against their church's polity to do so. We, however, believed differently. It was a very moving experience as we gathered together that afternoon from our different persuasions and cultures. It was a Spirit-filled event. The Bible says, "Keep on being filled with the Spirit." It's not just a one-time experience; God continually comes to energize us.
Which leads to my third point. The Spirit of god, the Living God, always points us to Jesus Christ. After Peter and the followers were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, what happened? Peter stood up and preached a message about Jesus. Thousands of people became Christians--followers of Jesus Christ. This is a good test for you and for me--any message you hear here or on television, from a preacher, or any book you read about the Spirit or about spirituality should always point to Jesus Christ. The Spirit lifts up Jesus Christ. If the focus becomes the experience or focusing on the Spirit, that's not what the Spirit wants--it wants to lift up and glorify Jesus Christ.
Finally, the Bible says that the Spirit always sends us out. After the earlier followers of Jesus were empowered that day, what happened? They went out. They proclaimed. They healed. They helped as Jesus foretold. He said, "You shall receive power when the Spirit of God comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses...in Jerusalem, in Judea, to the utter most parts of the earth you will go." God sends us out.
A couple of weeks ago our Service Team went out to visit our homebound members. I can remember the first time that was suggested. All I saw was fear and panic. What would we talk about? What would we say? What would we do? Now, a couple of years later, I see confidence in their eyes. I see joy in their smiles. I see Spirit in their eyes as they share the good news of Jesus Christ. And judging from the thank yous we have received in the office, they are just as grateful.
I have an apology to make here. I have been hoarding all that Spirit for myself. I have visited our homebound for over a decade and a half and realized the joy that comes from their smiling faces when I visit. Its time I let go and share that joy with you. When the Spirit of God fills our life, energizes us, and we go out, that Spirit keeps growing, and growing and growing!
So today, the Spirit of God is a free gift who energized you. The Spirit of God is a free gift who energizes you. The Spirit of God gives glory to Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God sends you out and desires to come and energize you.
Are you fired up? Are you burned out? If you're fired up, great. Let the Spirit keep burning the fires within you. If you're weary today--maybe you've been a Christian for a long time but this Christian life seems to lack energy; you feel like the battery that is wearing down. Today, right today, we can let that Spirit come and fill us and energize us.
Maybe you're new in your faith and you thought Christianity was somehow a great effort that you had to put out to make a good impression, or to do the right things, or be a "good law abiding Christian." Paul says, "No, that's not it! That leads to death." Instead, let the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, put his life into you. And live in that joy! Live in the freedom that the Spirit will bring fruit to your life.
Here's what happens when we live God's way--by God's power--God brings gifts into our life much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard. Things like: "Affection for others. Exuberance about life. Serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things. A sense of compassion in the heart. A conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves in loyal commitments. Not needing to force our way in life. Able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.."
Is that what you want? Let the Spirit energize you today.
AMEN