[00:00] When the Spirit was given at Pentecost, the word was heard in many languages all at once
[00:16] that expanded the family of God to a people that included many different peoples of many
[00:22] different cultures and many different backgrounds.
[00:24] So I first this week in particular just want to acknowledge that tomorrow is
[00:29] Indigenous Peoples Day, a day when we recognize the lives and cultures of the
[00:35] first peoples of North America and Alaska, and also a day when we lament the
[00:41] colonization and mistreatment of many of those peoples. The land of Oregon, the
[00:48] land that we now occupy, was originally the home to many vibrant and native
[00:54] tribes, and so as inhabitants of this land who have been filled with the Holy
[00:59] Spirit, who makes many peoples one family, it's important as we gather to
[01:04] worship and move toward tomorrow that we both celebrate the cultures represented
[01:09] by our brothers and sisters, and secondly that we grieve with them for the evil
[01:14] and injustice that they have endured. Secondly, because when the Spirit was
[01:20] given, the word was heard in many languages, we will continue to hear the
[01:23] word in multiple languages that are represented from right here within this
[01:29] local church family each and every week during this practice. So I'm going to
[01:33] invite Mimi who's going to come now and read our teaching text for today if
[01:37] you would stand for the reading of the scripture.
[01:41] Salam and good morning my name is Hamrauit, but most call me Mimi. I listen to
[01:54] Bridgetown teachings for a while before calling this my home church over five
[02:00] years ago around the same time that I joined a Bridgetown community group, also
[02:04] recently a part of the Racial Justice Subcommittee for Women. I've been raised
[02:09] and spent most of my life in the United States, but my family is originally
[02:13] from Tigray, and in Tigray we speak Tigrinya, so I'll be reading for us in
[02:18] Tigrinya. Through spending a couple of years in the capital of Ethiopia, I
[02:22] learned how to speak Amharic, which is one of the more commonly spoken
[02:25] languages there, so we'll read or I'll read in Tigrinya and then Amharic, but
[02:30] first let's read together in English. So John 14, 25 to 27. All this I
[02:39] have spoken while still with you, but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the
[02:43] Father will send in my name, will teach you the things, all things, and will
[02:48] remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I
[02:54] give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts
[02:59] be troubled and do not be afraid.
[03:09] Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the
[03:14] world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
[03:19] Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the
[03:24] world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
[03:29] Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the
[03:34] world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
[03:43] Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as
[03:47] the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
[03:53] This is the word of the Lord.
[03:56] Thanks be to God. You have a seat.
[03:59] What is the first thing you did when you woke up this morning?
[04:04] I'm talking before coffee, before brushing your teeth,
[04:08] likely before you even got out of bed. What's the first thing that you did?
[04:12] You reached for your phone.
[04:15] That's the most common answer anyway. That's the first move for most people today.
[04:20] But that instinctive reach to check your notifications first thing in the morning,
[04:25] it's actually a very new phenomenon.
[04:27] I want to begin today, not in present day,
[04:29] but by taking you back to a far and away distant,
[04:32] mostly forgotten place called the 90s.
[04:38] What a time. Do you remember this place?
[04:42] The 90s were an era when you were constantly forced into situations
[04:45] where your mind was idle and undistracted.
[04:48] You were waiting in line with no tiny screen just alone with your thoughts.
[04:52] You walked down the street looking up at the direction that you were going
[04:56] and not down at your device.
[04:59] You rode the bus. You waited for a friend at a cafe.
[05:02] Try to imagine that people once lived this way.
[05:05] You waited for a friend.
[05:08] Just waiting for that friend.
[05:11] Just idly hoping that they would show up sometime soon
[05:16] with nothing to distract yourself with.
[05:18] We don't do that anymore.
[05:20] Smartphones have eliminated the idle undistracted mind from the western world.
[05:24] They've introduced us to this new way to start a day
[05:26] where a crowd of faceless strangers shapes our emotions first thing.
[05:30] Now you can wake up to FOMO at what you missed out on the night before,
[05:35] has so much information from so many news sources,
[05:38] can plunge into your consciousness first thing
[05:41] that you can't possibly process and much less act on it.
[05:45] Or it's just that mild panic that now intrudes on your weekend
[05:48] when you see that email from your boss about Monday morning's presentation.
[05:52] So our phones have made it possible for us to be connected like never before.
[05:56] Amazing.
[05:58] And our phones have made it possible for your boss to crawl into the sheets with you on a Sunday morning.
[06:04] Less amazing.
[06:07] So what kind of effect is all that connectivity having on us?
[06:11] Well psychologists are seeing a really troubling trend,
[06:13] particularly for today's generation of young adults.
[06:16] Since the year, I'm sorry, until the year 2012 the term anxiety
[06:21] was very rarely used in the world of mental health.
[06:24] But since that year there's been a massive spike in diagnosed cases of anxiety related to disorders,
[06:30] particularly among people born after 1995.
[06:34] That is the first generation of people who have grown up without conscious memory
[06:38] of a world before the internet was in our pockets.
[06:42] Jean Twinge is a psychology professor at SDSU, wrote a piece for the Atlantic
[06:46] which traced the spike in anxiety.
[06:49] She concludes, rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed.
[06:53] It's not an exaggeration to describe Ai-jen, that's her term for people born after 1995,
[06:58] as being on the brink of the worst mental health crisis in decades.
[07:03] Benoit Denizet-Lewis did his own digging and then wrote a piece for the New York Times
[07:07] that concludes that the only sociological factor
[07:11] to explain the modern anxiety crisis is the parallel spike in people carrying around a smartphone.
[07:17] The use of social media and smartphones look culpable for the increase in teen mental health issues.
[07:22] It's enough for an arrest and if we get more data it might be enough for a conviction.
[07:27] A number of writers have recently compared today's app developers to big tobacco
[07:31] and ad agencies in the 60s conspiring together in something that they know is killing the public.
[07:37] One media personality said, let's face it, checking your likes is the new smoking
[07:42] but tobacco just wanted your lungs, the app store wants your soul.
[07:47] If you work in tech I'm so glad that you're here today.
[07:51] Don't kill the messenger.
[07:55] Is the thumb swipe that has become subconscious with your morning routine killing you slowly?
[08:01] Now I'm not big on conspiracy and I personally think that sounds like an awful lot
[08:06] to put on the shoulders of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.
[08:09] So why don't we just set that aside for a moment and we will return to it later.
[08:15] We are in a practice right now titled Demonstrating the Gospel and it is all about the Holy Spirit.
[08:21] Now tragically in the modern church the Holy Spirit has become a familiar stranger
[08:26] and so we are beginning with a three-part reintroduction to the person of the Spirit.
[08:31] The scripture introduces us to the Holy Spirit primarily through metaphor.
[08:35] Three of the most common are water, breath, and dove.
[08:39] And so each Sunday we're following a similar pattern.
[08:41] We are starting with that conversation Jesus had with the twelve on the final night of his life
[08:46] when he said, essentially I'm going away but I'm sending you my spirit
[08:51] and my indwelling presence is asking to bring an upgrade to my physical embodied presence with you right now.
[08:57] And from there we're going to go all the way back to the beginning
[09:00] and we're going to trace a metaphor through the whole of the Bible
[09:02] to try to figure out what made that ludicrous claim actually seem logical in the imagination of Jesus.
[09:08] And as we trace this metaphor we'll also work our way through four movements.
[09:13] They're the same every week, the Holy Spirit with the Father, the Holy Spirit in the Son,
[09:18] the Holy Spirit fills us, the Holy Spirit through us.
[09:22] Last week we began with water, today we come to breath.
[09:26] So let's begin the Spirit with the Father.
[09:30] If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter one,
[09:33] we're going to begin on page one of the story, actually page one verse one of the story.
[09:39] So I'll begin reading from Genesis chapter one verse one if you would find your way with me there.
[09:45] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
[09:48] Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep
[09:52] and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
[09:55] Now the Holy Spirit is not a New Age mystical teaching that was introduced sometime after Jesus.
[10:00] The Spirit is present at creation named in the opening sentence.
[10:04] In Hebrew the original language of Genesis it reads,
[10:07] and the Ruach of God was hovering over the waters.
[10:11] Now Ruach is a Hebrew term that can be equally translated into English as either spirit or breath.
[10:18] So the spirit of God was hovering over the waters and equally valid way to translate that would be
[10:23] and the breath of God was hovering over the waters.
[10:26] Maybe with just a little bit of imagination you could say something like
[10:30] God was breathing on the unformed chaos.
[10:34] So the Spirit is God's breath.
[10:36] Now what happens when the breath of God meets unformed substance? Creation happens.
[10:42] God speaks creation into being, cosmos, land, sea, vegetation, animal life.
[10:48] All of it comes from God's voice, from his breath.
[10:51] Now it's important to note here that God the Father creates through the Holy Spirit.
[10:56] When God speaks his breath or his spirit goes out and then something happens.
[11:02] Now just turn the page with me to Genesis chapter 2.
[11:05] I'm going to pick up the story in verse 7.
[11:11] Then the Lord God formed a man out of the dust of the ground
[11:15] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.
[11:21] So last of all God creates people and something unique happens when he creates people.
[11:26] He puts his breath into them, setting them apart from every other created thing.
[11:31] Why? Why would God give his breath or his spirit to people to go on creating?
[11:39] See the first thing that we learn about God on page one of the stories that God is creative.
[11:44] Then he gives his creativity to us when he gives us his spirit.
[11:48] The first biblical command is to do what?
[11:52] To be fruitful and multiply.
[11:54] To create, rule over creation, work these raw materials into an ecosystem.
[11:59] That's the second command, go on creating.
[12:03] Now then of course there's that whole bit about the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree.
[12:07] People are deceived, they reach for greater freedom that actually turns out to be imprisonment
[12:12] and we call that the fall.
[12:14] Now I'd love for you to turn ahead to Ezekiel chapter 37.
[12:18] It's a good bit ahead in the story. I'm going to meet you there in just a moment.
[12:22] But to summarize the space between after the opening scene the story rolls on
[12:26] and we discovered this, that God is stubborn, that he will not go down without a fight
[12:32] and so he the betrayed becomes the pursuer fighting for the hearts of his people.
[12:37] That's you and me.
[12:38] Now what is God's strategy for redemption?
[12:41] He keeps on speaking.
[12:43] God recreates in the same way that he created at first through his breath or his spirit.
[12:49] That's why throughout the Old Testament God selected certain people
[12:52] and he communicated with them directly in a way that was not common.
[12:56] We call those people prophets.
[12:58] God breathed his spirit into a prophet just as he did at creation.
[13:02] He refilled the lungs of a particular person at a particular time for a particular purpose
[13:07] but it's not for everyone.
[13:09] Not yet anyway.
[13:11] There's a telling moment in the story in Numbers 11 where Moses says,
[13:14] I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets.
[13:18] What does he mean?
[13:19] Does he mean that he wished that everyone knew the future?
[13:22] No.
[13:24] Prophets are not Christian psychics.
[13:26] Old Testament prophecy is not about winning lotto numbers.
[13:29] It's about Jesus.
[13:30] It's a pointing ahead to the climactic moment in recreation
[13:34] when God himself will become embodied like one of us.
[13:38] New Testament prophecy is about Jesus.
[13:40] It's the revelation not only in general but very personally of who he is
[13:46] and how he lived and what it means for us now.
[13:49] Prophecy is always about Jesus.
[13:52] It's not about telling the future.
[13:54] So Moses realizes that his experience of God's nearness,
[13:58] God's person presence and power, his spirit, it's the exception, not the rule.
[14:03] The very best that he's experiencing of the life of God,
[14:07] others aren't experiencing with him.
[14:09] It's incomplete.
[14:11] Completion is when the spirit is speaking to and through everyone in a community.
[14:17] So the Hebrew word ruach continues to show up as the story builds,
[14:20] a recurring promise to recreate with God's divine breath,
[14:23] just like he did at first, to enter into a fallen world and breathe on it again.
[14:28] That's the theme of Job.
[14:30] It's within the Psalms.
[14:31] It's in the book of Isaiah and it's in Zechariah.
[14:34] But my favorite comes from another vision from our old palsyke.
[14:40] So this is Ezekiel chapter 37 this time.
[14:43] I'm going to read in verse one.
[14:45] The hand of the Lord was on me and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord
[14:50] and set me in the middle of a valley.
[14:52] It was full of bones.
[14:54] He led me back and forth among them
[14:56] and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley.
[14:59] The bones were very dry.
[15:01] Let's pause for just a second because Ezekiel's seeing a vision again.
[15:05] This vision was of a valley full of bones, human bones,
[15:10] dry, lifeless, long dead human bones.
[15:15] And he's walking around among them.
[15:18] And that's when God poses a question to him.
[15:21] We'll continue reading.
[15:23] He asked me, son of man, can these bones live?
[15:27] I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know.
[15:30] Then he said, prophesy to these bones
[15:32] and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
[15:35] This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones.
[15:37] I will make breath into you and you will come to life.
[15:41] I will attach tendons and make flesh come upon you
[15:44] and cover you with skin.
[15:45] I will put breath in you and you will come to life.
[15:48] Then you will know that I am the Lord.
[15:50] So I prophesied as I was commanded
[15:52] and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling sound
[15:56] and the bones came together, bone to bone.
[15:58] I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them
[16:01] and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
[16:08] Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath.
[16:11] Prophecy, son of man, and say to it,
[16:13] this is what the sovereign Lord says.
[16:15] Come breath from the forewinds and breathe into these slain
[16:20] that they may live.
[16:22] So I prophesied as he commanded me
[16:24] and breath entered them and they came to life
[16:27] and stood up on their feet a vast army.
[16:29] There it is, again and again and again in the vision.
[16:33] Ruach, breath, spirit, Ezekiel, breathe into these dry bones
[16:38] and they'll come alive again.
[16:40] It's a promise.
[16:41] It's a reenactment of Genesis
[16:43] when God breathed into Adam's lungs and he came alive.
[16:47] I'm going to send my spirit to my people again
[16:50] just like I did at first.
[16:52] The creator who breathed life into the dust,
[16:55] making people filled with his spirit,
[16:57] is also the recreator who breathed life into the lifeless,
[17:01] refilling fallen people with his spirit.
[17:04] That's the promise.
[17:05] And that vision becomes real in the person of Jesus.
[17:09] So let's jump ahead now to Mark chapter one
[17:11] and this brings us to the spirit in the sun.
[17:15] Mark chapter one, verse 22.
[17:22] So Jesus shows up and he begins teaching.
[17:27] The people were amazed at his teaching
[17:29] because he taught them as one who had authority,
[17:32] not as their teachers of the law.
[17:34] Now that sentiment gets repeated in town after town
[17:37] as Jesus travels about preaching in various synagogues throughout Israel.
[17:40] The English word translated here as authority
[17:43] is the Greek exusia.
[17:44] Can you say that with me?
[17:46] Nailed it.
[17:48] It means the power or the ability to act.
[17:51] So when this Hebrew audience noticed
[17:53] that Jesus spoke with authority,
[17:55] what they meant was that his speech
[17:57] seems linked to the action of God.
[18:00] See, God's speech and God's action are inseparable.
[18:03] They're one and the same.
[18:04] We've been saying this again and again,
[18:06] that God only speaks because he wants to act.
[18:08] God says, let there be light and bam, there's light.
[18:11] Jesus speaks like that too.
[18:14] He says it and his voice is inseparably joined
[18:17] to God's action.
[18:19] That's what they're saying about his teaching
[18:22] when they say that it has authority.
[18:24] See, the first thing that people notice about Jesus,
[18:26] the thing that set him apart from every other rabbi
[18:29] was his breath.
[18:31] It's not just the words he speaks.
[18:33] It's that when he says the words, they create.
[18:36] That should sound familiar.
[18:38] He's talking just like everybody else,
[18:40] but his talk creates where everyone else is just noise.
[18:43] When Jesus forgives, people receive forgiveness.
[18:47] When Jesus says stand up and walk,
[18:49] people lame from birth actually stand up and walk.
[18:53] When Jesus says be open to the mouth of the mute
[18:56] or the ears of the deaf or the eyes of the blind,
[18:58] they are opened and when Jesus says
[19:00] come out of him, you evil spirit,
[19:02] even the supernatural powers of darkness obey his authority.
[19:06] When Jesus kneels down in front of a woman
[19:08] caught in adultery and says, does no one condemn you?
[19:12] Neither do I go and sin no more.
[19:14] A woman who by law was bound to the death penalty
[19:17] walks away freer than she's ever been
[19:19] and most on the nose for us at the moment.
[19:22] When Jesus stands outside of the tomb of his dead friend
[19:26] who's filled with dry bones named Lazarus
[19:29] and says Lazarus, come out,
[19:32] his empty body is refilled with the breath of God
[19:35] and he walks out of his own tomb.
[19:37] The vision of Ezekiel has come alive in Jesus.
[19:41] But what started in Jesus doesn't end in Jesus.
[19:44] This brings us to our final movement,
[19:46] the spirit fills us.
[19:48] So if you would turn with me ahead to John chapter 20.
[19:51] Now the final place we're going to land today,
[19:54] or one of the final places,
[19:56] the scene is resurrection evening.
[19:58] Jesus is first appearance to his disciples
[20:00] since he pushed back his own gravestone.
[20:02] This is dinner time on the original Easter Sunday
[20:06] and Jesus appears to his disciples and says this
[20:09] in John 20 verse 22.
[20:12] And with that, he breathed on them
[20:16] and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
[20:21] Here's my breath for your lungs,
[20:24] my spirit for your dry bones.
[20:27] Now jump ahead to Acts chapter 2.
[20:29] This really is the last place.
[20:30] What Jesus promised in John 20 was given in Acts 2.
[20:34] He told his disciples to go to Jerusalem
[20:36] and wait and then at the perfect time
[20:38] they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
[20:41] So what Jesus showed us through his teaching,
[20:44] he then promised in John 20
[20:46] was then finally given as a gift in Acts 2.
[20:49] I'll begin reading in verse 1.
[20:51] When the day of Pentecost came,
[20:53] they were all together in one place.
[20:55] Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind
[20:58] came from heaven and filled the whole house
[21:00] where they were seated, sitting.
[21:02] They saw what seemed to be like tongues of fire
[21:04] that separated and came to rest on each of them.
[21:07] All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
[21:10] and began to speak in other tongues
[21:13] as the Spirit enabled them.
[21:17] Floating, flaming tongues
[21:20] and supernatural foreign languages.
[21:23] It just got weird, right?
[21:25] And I will admit, as an isolated incident,
[21:28] this is bananas.
[21:30] B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
[21:36] So what do we make of this?
[21:38] In the context of the, as an isolated incident,
[21:41] it's crazy, but in the context of the larger story
[21:43] it makes perfect sense.
[21:45] You see, Jesus promised them his breath.
[21:47] So they are filled with the Ruach,
[21:49] with the divine breath, with the Holy Spirit
[21:52] and instinctively they start speaking words that create.
[21:56] Just like God did in Genesis,
[21:58] just like Ezekiel and the other prophets promised,
[22:00] just like Jesus did
[22:02] and now it's for ordinary people like you and me.
[22:04] Speak words that create.
[22:06] They open their mouths
[22:08] and words spoken are then heard
[22:10] in the ears of the crowd
[22:12] in their native languages
[22:14] so that they can say yes and receive the invitation.
[22:17] And they become a community
[22:19] like one the world has never seen before
[22:21] that includes various people groups
[22:23] and cultures and backgrounds and languages
[22:25] all forming one family under God the Father.
[22:27] Their speech is in connection to God's action.
[22:31] That day the Lord added to their number
[22:33] many who were being saved.
[22:35] They speak and God acts.
[22:38] It's the rebirth of the world that God created,
[22:40] the one that he was too stubborn
[22:42] and too loving to give up on.
[22:44] Now don't miss this because the story is coming together here.
[22:47] In Genesis the world was born
[22:49] when the breath of the creative God filled
[22:51] the empty lungs of people and they started creating.
[22:54] In Acts the world is reborn
[22:56] when the breath of the creative God
[22:58] fills the empty lungs of people
[23:00] and they go about creating.
[23:02] That Ezekiel's vision is not an isolated incident
[23:05] for a special prophet at a special time.
[23:07] It's for everyone.
[23:09] All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.
[23:13] The gift of the Spirit is not for elites.
[23:15] It's for everybody.
[23:18] So they tell the gospel story and people's lives change.
[23:21] It walls between people groups fall down
[23:23] forgiveness heals and a new community is born.
[23:26] This community begins to pray
[23:28] and with the authority of Jesus
[23:31] and then doors are open and people are redeemed
[23:33] and diseases are healed.
[23:35] They speak a word of knowledge and kings fall to their knees.
[23:37] They offer a word of encouragement
[23:39] and the insecure suddenly become courageous
[23:41] and sometimes they get it wrong
[23:43] and they continue to wrestle with sin
[23:45] and they go through highs and lows.
[23:47] They're the recipients of supernatural miracles
[23:49] and ordinary conflicts
[23:51] because we are talking here about the Spirit of God
[23:54] filling ordinary people.
[23:56] That means that both realities are mingling together
[23:59] within individuals and in communities.
[24:02] They've got the same Spirit Jesus has
[24:05] empowering them on the same mission.
[24:07] There's something different about the way he speaks.
[24:10] It's like he's got authority
[24:12] and then all of a sudden that's not just
[24:14] for one renegade rabbi from Nazareth anymore.
[24:17] It's for all of them.
[24:20] All of them receive the Spirit.
[24:22] All of us, anyone who wants it
[24:24] anyone who says yes to the life death
[24:26] and resurrection of Jesus Christ
[24:28] then receives the Holy Spirit.
[24:32] And that brings us to our final place
[24:34] the Spirit through us.
[24:37] You see what started on the pages of Acts
[24:39] it doesn't end on the pages of Acts.
[24:41] The main character that's holding the whole plot together
[24:43] the Holy Spirit hasn't gotten anywhere.
[24:45] The divine breath that was in the lungs
[24:48] of the early church is within us.
[24:51] A really close friend of mine
[24:53] a fellow pastor was on a trip
[24:55] to speak at another church
[24:57] and the evening before he was meant to preach
[24:59] there was a prayer meeting for the church staff
[25:02] and their respective spouses and significant others
[25:05] and he had brought a small team of volunteers
[25:07] from his own church with him on this trip.
[25:09] One of those guys that he brought along
[25:11] was Greek and as they're praying
[25:14] the Greek guy has this strange word
[25:16] that keeps coming up into his mind
[25:19] and he thinks it's for the wife
[25:21] of one of these pastors who he's never met before
[25:24] and the word is skadoula.
[25:27] Now skadoula is a Greek slur
[25:30] for human excrement.
[25:32] It is the Greek version of a four letter
[25:35] English curse word beginning with s
[25:37] and that is as specific as I can get
[25:39] about the lexicon in this setting.
[25:41] So he's having a silent argument with himself
[25:43] going no way God
[25:45] what's wrong with me how filthy is my mind
[25:47] we're in a prayer meeting here get it together
[25:50] and then my buddy the leader of the group
[25:53] looks at him and says I've got this really strong sense
[25:55] that you have a word for this woman.
[25:58] This is a true story and the Greek
[26:01] the Greek dude is pretty new to all this prophetic stuff
[26:04] and his pastor just put him on the spot
[26:07] and so he's sitting there thinking
[26:09] okay if she doesn't speak Greek
[26:11] this is gonna make no sense at all
[26:13] and if she does speak Greek it's even worse
[26:15] because then it gets significantly offensive
[26:17] and he pauses unsure of what to do
[26:19] and he can't really come up with anything
[26:21] that sounds like generally spiritual in that moment
[26:23] and so he just goes for it
[26:25] and says okay sure
[26:27] I think
[26:30] God might want to tell you
[26:33] that you're not a skedula
[26:36] and when he says that
[26:38] she just begins weeping hysterically
[26:41] now at this point in the story there's a couple of details
[26:43] that I need to fill you in on
[26:44] the first one is this
[26:45] that when the spirit is speaking to a person
[26:48] sometimes not always but sometimes
[26:50] it's accompanied by a great amount of emotion
[26:53] and that's alright it actually makes a whole lot of sense
[26:56] because Jesus calls the Holy Spirit a counselor
[26:59] so I just want you to think about
[27:01] a visit to a human counselor's office
[27:03] there's typically a lot of conversation
[27:05] and the counselor is digging around
[27:07] they're asking questions trying to open up space
[27:09] where the heart can find its voice
[27:11] and then there's that one question
[27:13] where the counselor puts her finger on something
[27:16] and you just fall apart
[27:18] there's tears or sobs or maybe even
[27:20] shouts of anger some buried emotion
[27:22] suddenly resurfaces
[27:24] and that's not immaturity it's the beginning of healing
[27:27] and that's what's happening
[27:29] when someone has a sincere encounter with the spirit
[27:31] and it's accompanied by a lot of emotion
[27:33] it's not immaturity it's not fanaticism
[27:35] it's counseling
[27:36] it's counseling from the spirit of God
[27:38] second thing you need to know
[27:40] is that this woman who was married to one of those pastors
[27:42] that was her second husband
[27:44] her first marriage was to a Greek man
[27:46] and they lived together for years in Athens
[27:48] he was extremely abusive
[27:50] their whole marriage
[27:52] he never called her by her first name
[27:54] he called her my little skedula
[27:56] and so in the home
[27:58] he would say hey skedula come here
[28:00] in front of his friends skedula
[28:02] can you get us some drinks
[28:04] when they went out he would introduce her in social settings
[28:06] he says oh and here's my little skedula
[28:08] so she lived that way
[28:10] for years hugely painful
[28:12] hugely painful
[28:14] completely dehumanizing
[28:16] so even to set spirituality aside for a second
[28:18] just psychologically speaking
[28:20] brain plasticity
[28:22] means that you can write new neural pathways
[28:24] into the human brain by repetition
[28:26] it's the same thing as how a trail gets created
[28:28] in a forest when people take the same route
[28:30] again and again
[28:32] and again until a pathway is worn
[28:34] trails or pathways are created
[28:36] in the human brain by traveling
[28:38] the same way again and again
[28:40] and so for this woman
[28:42] repeated abuse in her most intimate
[28:44] relationship had shaped her
[28:46] so deeply
[28:48] that it was even beneath her logical processing
[28:50] so that at this point
[28:52] years later she's remarried to a loving
[28:54] and attentive husband
[28:56] and she still has her guard up
[28:58] she's still keeping him in a safe distance
[29:00] because another relationship at another time
[29:02] with a different person is informing her present
[29:04] her current life
[29:06] is still shaped by a demeaning undignifying
[29:08] name she was called by someone who was supposed to
[29:10] love her and so when God
[29:12] put that word in the mouth of a complete
[29:14] stranger he was doing it for the purpose of
[29:16] healing for recreating
[29:18] in the midst of her own chaos
[29:20] and the mess that followed
[29:22] was the counseling of the Holy Spirit
[29:24] the spirit of God overpowering
[29:26] the grip of pain on this woman's life
[29:28] you see the New Testament gift of prophecy
[29:30] it's an expression of love
[29:32] because it's one thing to be told
[29:34] that God loves you and redeems your past
[29:36] it's another thing to be given
[29:38] God's love and redemption in the most
[29:40] personal way possible targeted to the most
[29:42] painful moment in your story
[29:44] and it's one thing to be told no matter
[29:46] what you've done no matter what you've been
[29:48] through God sees you and he loves you
[29:50] it's quite another thing to have a complete
[29:52] stranger speak right into the most painful
[29:54] secret that you've got buried
[29:56] that's God's way of saying I've always
[29:58] seen you I've always been with you
[30:00] I've always loved you and I'm healing
[30:02] every last wound that's the Holy Spirit
[30:04] traveling the neural pathways
[30:06] of someone's brain to redeem
[30:08] their past and rewrite their future
[30:10] and that is what
[30:12] Jesus was getting at on the
[30:14] final night of his life when he said
[30:16] this all this I've
[30:18] spoken to you while still with you
[30:20] but the advocate the Holy Spirit
[30:22] whom the Father will send in my name
[30:24] will teach you all things and will remind
[30:26] you of everything I've said to you
[30:28] so the Holy Spirit's a teacher
[30:30] but a particular kind of teacher one
[30:32] without any original material
[30:34] the Holy Spirit's going to remind
[30:36] you of everything I've said to you
[30:38] later in the same conversation
[30:40] Jesus adds this he will not
[30:42] speak on his own authority he will take
[30:44] what is mine and declare it to you
[30:46] so the Spirit is less of a teacher
[30:48] and more of a translator
[30:50] Jesus came to reveal
[30:52] the heart of the Father to the world
[30:54] the Spirit was given
[30:56] to translate the teachings of Jesus
[30:58] from the head down to the heart
[31:00] from intellectual understanding
[31:02] to soul level identity and a new
[31:04] floor for your life that you can build an identity on
[31:06] the Holy Spirit pushes
[31:08] the teachings of Jesus from the head
[31:10] where they can be understood down into the
[31:12] heart where they can heal and become a new foundation
[31:14] for us to live from
[31:16] this is what Romans chapter 5
[31:18] is getting at God's love
[31:20] has been poured into our hearts
[31:22] by the Holy Spirit
[31:24] and across the board in church
[31:26] history from Augustine to and some
[31:28] to the medieval mystics the Holy Spirit
[31:30] has been understood as the personified
[31:32] love that exists between
[31:34] the Father and the Son
[31:36] Jesus made us sons and daughters of
[31:38] God that is an unchangeable fact
[31:40] based on his grace not your performance
[31:42] but in spite of that
[31:44] most of us feel nearer
[31:46] or further from God based on our
[31:48] recent performance
[31:50] we feel good before God based on our
[31:52] recent good performance and bad before God
[31:54] based on what we would call our recent bad performance
[31:56] we can't seem to unwind
[31:58] our emotions that are connected to our performance
[32:00] by reciting an intellectual credo
[32:02] so how do we actually experience
[32:04] what Jesus taught how does that
[32:06] go from a logical principle in our heads
[32:08] to the emotional foundation we live from
[32:10] well that's the work of the Holy Spirit
[32:12] Bernard of Clairvaux said this
[32:14] the kiss of God
[32:16] is the gift of the Holy Spirit
[32:18] ten years ago
[32:20] I stood in front of my family
[32:22] and my closest friends in a dangerously
[32:24] bad pursuit and made promises to Kirsten
[32:26] for better or worse
[32:28] for richer or poorer
[32:30] till death do us part
[32:32] oh in sickness and in health that was in there too
[32:34] and she made those same promises
[32:36] back to me on our wedding
[32:38] day we sealed a covenant
[32:40] but the experience of that covenant
[32:42] it's a whole bunch of ordinary
[32:44] moments in the days, weeks, months
[32:46] and years that followed that day
[32:48] it's when she shows me affection
[32:50] and when she listens to me empathetically
[32:52] it's when she smiles and hugs me
[32:54] when I walk in the door after a long trip
[32:56] it's when she laughs hysterically
[32:58] with me across a dinner table
[33:00] and it's when I get back home
[33:02] after a long Sunday
[33:04] and she couldn't care less how good or bad
[33:06] I thought the sermon went
[33:08] she just wants to make sure that I've got a little bit of company
[33:10] that sees me beneath the roll that I carry
[33:12] and welcomes me back into my home
[33:14] that's how I
[33:16] experienced the covenant
[33:18] that we sealed ten years ago
[33:20] within the ordinary moments
[33:22] of the ordinary life that we're building together
[33:24] and the same holds
[33:26] in our relationship to God
[33:28] you see the father makes a covenant to Israel
[33:30] and to the world then the son is the bridegroom
[33:32] coming out to meet his bride
[33:34] for her wedding day
[33:36] the holy spirit is the kiss of God
[33:38] the experience of the covenant
[33:40] the experience of the love
[33:42] sealed for us in Jesus
[33:44] the spirit takes biblical rumors
[33:46] and then makes them real to us
[33:48] that God is Father
[33:50] the spirit makes that real to me
[33:52] the scripture teaches me that God is love
[33:54] the spirit makes that real to me
[33:56] the scripture teaches me that God is running out to meet me
[33:58] clothing me in royal robes
[34:00] welcoming me to the home that I walked away from
[34:02] before I even knew that there was a home for me to leave
[34:04] but it's the spirit that makes that real to me
[34:06] as high as the heavens
[34:08] are above the earth
[34:10] so great is his love
[34:12] for those who fear him
[34:14] but it's the holy spirit that is the experience
[34:16] of that love
[34:18] as far as the east is from the west
[34:20] so far as he removed our transgressions from us
[34:22] but it's the holy spirit that is the experience
[34:24] of that forgiveness
[34:26] Ezekiel gets at this part too
[34:28] he's not a one-trick pony
[34:30] he's got a lot of things to say
[34:32] Ezekiel 16 says
[34:34] I spread the corner of my garment over you
[34:36] and covered your naked body
[34:38] I give you my solemn oath
[34:40] and entered into a covenant with you
[34:42] declares the Lord and you became mine
[34:44] God made a covenant with us
[34:46] we're used to that theme
[34:48] but spread the corner of my garment over you
[34:51] is a Hebrew sexual metaphor
[34:53] it's jarring imagery
[34:56] written into the middle of the Bible
[34:58] to say God does not only tell us he loves us
[35:01] he offers us the experience of that love
[35:04] in Hebrew the word for know
[35:06] or knowledge is yadah
[35:08] and it does not refer to intellectual understanding
[35:11] that's a very new western way
[35:13] to think about knowledge
[35:15] in the Hebrew imagination something wasn't known
[35:17] until it was understood relationally
[35:19] and experientially
[35:21] and so yadah is a relational
[35:23] experiential kind of knowledge
[35:25] and that's why the word know
[35:27] is used throughout the Old Testament
[35:29] as a euphemism for sex
[35:31] then Adam knew Eve and they conceived
[35:33] and bore a son because
[35:35] know was an experiential
[35:37] and relational kind of knowing
[35:39] the holy spirit was given
[35:41] that you may know
[35:43] that you might experience
[35:45] and relationally know the true life
[35:47] of everything that Jesus taught
[35:49] Jesus' life death and resurrection
[35:51] is a covenant that can never be broken
[35:53] it is finished
[35:55] as he said from the cross
[35:57] but the holy spirit is the experience
[35:59] the life and the affection
[36:01] that reminds you that that covenant
[36:03] is the one that you live in
[36:05] even today
[36:07] it's pretty good
[36:09] Brendan Manning says
[36:11] if I'm not in touch with my own belovedness
[36:13] then I cannot touch
[36:15] the sacredness of others
[36:17] so the spirit assures us
[36:19] of our belovedness
[36:21] and that assurance then frees me
[36:23] to get in touch with the sacredness
[36:25] of others and draw it out of them
[36:27] so it's not just that the spirit
[36:29] gives us the experience
[36:31] of our covenant love
[36:33] the spirit then fills our ordinary
[36:35] lungs with his ruach
[36:37] his life, his spirit
[36:39] so that the words we speak
[36:41] can be carriers of healing power
[36:43] and 1 Corinthians 14
[36:45] right in the middle of a whole bunch
[36:47] of practical instructions for how to
[36:49] steward the gifts of the spirit
[36:51] responsibly within a church
[36:53] in a worship gathering we read this
[36:55] since you are eager for manifestations
[36:57] of the spirit strive to excel
[36:59] in building up the church
[37:01] in other words are you eager for
[37:03] manifestations of the spirit
[37:05] when it comes and wonders
[37:07] then love one another
[37:09] because in the kingdom of God power
[37:11] always serves love
[37:13] never the other way around
[37:15] in the early church they never
[37:17] imitated the miracles of Jesus
[37:19] without equally imitating the sacrificial
[37:21] love of Jesus
[37:23] they moved toward pain, toward hurts
[37:25] toward annoyances and grievances
[37:27] and needs in one another
[37:29] they learned to forgive and to ask
[37:31] for forgiveness and they saw
[37:33] the power flows through love
[37:35] let's go back to that
[37:37] schedule story the setting
[37:39] was in a church prayer meeting
[37:41] and the inciting incident
[37:43] to the deepest kind of healing it was
[37:45] one ordinary person awkwardly
[37:47] stammering in a moment of prayer
[37:49] hey I know that I don't even know
[37:51] your name but I'm thinking
[37:53] of this Greek word and maybe there's
[37:55] a chance God's put it in my mind
[37:57] to say something to you through it
[37:59] and then as a result that woman was healed
[38:01] and was banded up so tight
[38:03] she hadn't even looked at it in years
[38:05] and that healing then got
[38:07] worked out of her in deeper love
[38:09] she was able to share both with God
[38:11] and with her family
[38:13] a simple word
[38:15] shared from a relative stranger washed her past
[38:17] and renewed her future
[38:19] and it could have so easily been ignored
[38:21] it could have so easily been dismissed
[38:23] by that man as foolish
[38:25] so easily it could have been shrugged off as I gotta focus
[38:27] this is a prayer meeting
[38:29] he had the courage to speak and as it turned out
[38:31] the breath of God was in his lungs to heal
[38:33] but the only way
[38:35] that he found that out
[38:37] was by having the boldness to risk
[38:39] a potentially awkward moment and speak up
[38:43] all of them were filled
[38:45] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
[38:47] in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them
[38:49] God has breathed into you
[38:51] bringing you alive
[38:53] so that when you speak
[38:55] God creates
[38:57] so let's just get super practical
[38:59] as we get towards an ending
[39:01] three ways the Spirit in us
[39:03] creates through breath
[39:05] encouragement, blessing and prophecy
[39:07] okay they're all connected
[39:09] first encouragement
[39:11] encouragement is I notice and name something good
[39:13] in what you do
[39:15] Hebrews 10 says
[39:17] and let us consider how we may spur one another on
[39:19] toward love and good deeds
[39:21] it's what you do
[39:23] so to encourage literally means to put
[39:25] courage in someone it is
[39:27] to notice the action of someone else
[39:29] and then have the courage to tell them
[39:31] to keep on acting that way
[39:33] to be bold and expressing that part of themselves
[39:35] when you did blank it looked a whole lot
[39:37] like redemption
[39:39] keep playing your part in redemption
[39:41] did you know that when you encourage
[39:43] someone you're not just being nice
[39:45] you're being like God
[39:47] you're joining the work of God in someone else
[39:49] so how often do you use your breath
[39:51] for that purpose
[39:53] blessing is closely related to encouragement
[39:55] but it's more personal it's when I notice
[39:57] and name something good in who you are
[39:59] so in both ancient Greek
[40:01] and Hebrew the word
[40:03] blessing means to speak the intention
[40:05] of God on someone
[40:07] it is to view someone through the eyes of
[40:09] God and then say out loud what you're
[40:11] visualizing and that is deeply
[40:13] personal and it's incredibly powerful
[40:15] I can remember a couple
[40:17] of years ago sitting at a dinner at a restaurant
[40:19] with a good friend
[40:21] another couple and Kirsten
[40:23] just kind of in the middle of the meals we were trying to
[40:25] decide what to order said
[40:27] to this guy I've noticed
[40:29] a quiet steady integrity about you
[40:31] and it comes out of you when you talk
[40:33] about your parents and the kind of husband
[40:35] that you are the kind of friend that you are
[40:37] to us and when she said that
[40:39] the atmosphere changed
[40:41] because she was speaking something to his identity
[40:43] I mean one minute we're deciding
[40:45] on appetizers and the next someone's getting
[40:47] blessed and when that happened
[40:49] the presence of God became noticeable
[40:51] with us there at the dinner table
[40:53] why? because there's divine breath
[40:55] in your lungs and so when you speak
[40:57] blessing over the life of someone else
[40:59] you are participating with God
[41:01] in the redemption of that person
[41:03] and then finally there's prophecy
[41:05] and I know that word might make a few of you nervous
[41:07] so I would just say relax
[41:09] it's all over the Bible
[41:11] it's gonna be fine
[41:13] prophecy simply means this
[41:15] it's to hear God's voice on behalf
[41:17] of that group
[41:19] so you know that feeling you occasionally get
[41:21] when God's inviting you to respond
[41:23] it's this it's go up
[41:25] that invitation is for you
[41:27] receive prayer today
[41:29] call her and see how she's doing
[41:31] turn around go back buy him a meal
[41:33] it's that little nudge
[41:35] prophecy is just that thing
[41:37] that you're familiar with turned outward
[41:39] it's an ear that is maturely tuned to God
[41:41] on behalf of others
[41:43] and prophecy is always strengthening
[41:45] according to 1st Corinthians it's a source of healing
[41:47] that's why Moses said to Israel
[41:49] and Paul later wrote to the Corinthians
[41:51] I'd like all of you to prophesy
[41:53] all of you
[41:55] yes because all of you have been
[41:57] filled with the Holy Spirit
[41:59] all of you now permanently carry
[42:01] what the prophet Ezekiel carried
[42:03] but as a particular person
[42:05] at a particular moment for a particular purpose
[42:07] that's why this gift is called
[42:09] prophecy because what was extraordinary
[42:11] for one special person before Jesus
[42:13] is now ordinary for
[42:15] all of them after Jesus
[42:17] it's a new normal because
[42:19] we've been filled by his spirit
[42:21] and later on in this teaching series Christian Dawson
[42:23] is going to bring an entire sermon
[42:25] dedicated to the gift of prophecy
[42:27] and if you're hungry and you want to get more practical on this
[42:29] I'm going to lead us through practical ways
[42:31] to pray blessing over one another
[42:33] at a prayer training tomorrow night
[42:35] here at 6.30 so come
[42:37] you're invited in summary
[42:39] you are filled with the Holy Spirit
[42:41] pouring the teachings of Jesus
[42:43] directly into your heart
[42:45] and the breath of God directly
[42:47] from your mouth
[42:49] so on a land here full circle
[42:51] you ready for it
[42:53] that first move of your day
[42:55] it might just be killing you
[42:59] reaching for your phone
[43:01] flooding your thoughts with the unfiltered clutter
[43:03] of your digital world that's a very shaky foundation
[43:05] to live from
[43:07] so is there a practice
[43:09] that can put us in touch with the Ruach
[43:11] breathed back into us by Jesus
[43:13] yes give the Holy Spirit
[43:15] the first word
[43:17] what if you began to spend the first two minutes
[43:19] of every day listening to the one who pours
[43:21] the love of God directly into our hearts
[43:23] what if you committed
[43:25] to rewriting your habit so that your
[43:27] instinctive first move was to tune your ear
[43:29] to the spirit I wonder how your emotional
[43:31] world would be different
[43:33] I wonder how your motivations would be different
[43:35] I'd wonder if you'd know the sort of peace
[43:37] that cannot be taken by the world
[43:39] because it wasn't given by the world
[43:41] I wonder if you'd be free enough to love other people
[43:43] with the love you've been given
[43:45] and speak to other people by the power
[43:47] that has filled you
[43:49] the Holy Spirit is a person to know
[43:51] not a force to capture remember
[43:53] it is impossible to know
[43:55] the person of the Holy Spirit
[43:57] through the teachings of someone else
[43:59] you have to take the risk of relationship
[44:01] so give the Holy Spirit the first word
[44:03] very practically just leave your phone plugged
[44:05] to the charger make yourself a really nice
[44:07] cup of coffee and then close your eyes
[44:09] open up your hands and say come Holy Spirit
[44:11] would you speak to me this morning
[44:13] just wait two minutes
[44:17] and trust that whatever enters
[44:19] your imagination next after that
[44:21] invitation is from God
[44:23] just a reminder about the way he sees
[44:25] you through his eyes and invitation
[44:27] to over to turn over
[44:29] to him something that you're anxious about
[44:31] or maybe it's someone else in your life
[44:33] that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise
[44:35] now do not misunderstand me here
[44:37] I'm not advocating for a new lifestyle
[44:39] hack this is not the spiritual equivalent
[44:41] to cycling and kale smoothies
[44:43] I'm talking to you about tuning your ear
[44:45] to the voice of God
[44:47] who has come closer than your very breath
[44:49] and whose native language is a whisper
[44:51] I'm talking about giving God
[44:53] a chance to guide the conversation
[44:55] see where he takes then acting on it
[44:57] going out that day
[44:59] and encouraging that friend that came up
[45:01] paying attention to his presence in the place
[45:03] that came to mind which was filled with anxiety
[45:05] before trusting that you're secure
[45:07] and who he reminded you that you are
[45:09] I bet if you give God the chance
[45:11] the spirit would speak and I'm talking about
[45:13] two minutes here
[45:15] so we've created a resource for you
[45:17] it's up right now at practicingtheway.org
[45:19] slash demonstrating to practice first
[45:21] this week in your communities and then
[45:23] ongoing daily for the next couple of months
[45:25] as we continue to make our way through this practice
[45:27] but we believe that the spirit speaks
[45:29] and when the spirit speaks
[45:31] it takes the teachings of Jesus
[45:33] from the head down into the heart
[45:35] it's yadda
[45:37] a foundation we can lift