Wildfire!
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Fire is an archetypal symbol and a powerful reality in our lives. Even though fire in modern homes is typically confined to a few areas -- a fireplace, candles on the dinner table, stovetop burners, the pilot light on a furnace -- we put smoke alarms with fresh batteries in every room to guard against fire's destructive force. Recent news accounts of the vast acreage lost in several states remind us that fire can also burn wild -- as indeed it did throughout the church, beginning on the Day of Pentecost (as described in Acts 2:1-21). In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Barbara Jurgensen looks at the central role of fire in the Pentecost story. While we have developed a remarkable ability to harness fire and channel it in productive ways, we in the church need to be careful that we don't have such a strong fear of wildfires that we allow the fire of our passion for Christ to grow cold. Team member Scott Suskovic examines the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, a power so compelling that some confused it with drunkenness, and enumerates several characteristics of the Spirit's work. Illustrations, worship resources, and a children's message round out this week's material.
Wildfire!
by Barbara Jurgensen
THE WORLD
In the last few weeks, wildfires in Florida, New Jersey, Santa Catalina island off the coast of California, and in other states have sent hundreds of people fleeing for their lives.
Fire can do that.
On the Day of Pentecost, the flames that lighted on the head of each of the believers sent them running even farther -- out to the most distant corners of the earth, with the amazing, life-transforming announcement that we all can have new life in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Firefighters will eventually put out the blazes that are consuming homes and forests around our country -- or good, hard, driving rains will snuff out even the last few sparks.
But millions -- perhaps billions -- of people around the earth, down through the ages, have been lit by the Holy Spirit's fire, and that fire will keep on spreading. Nothing will ever be able to stop that wildfire.
THE WORD
The primary first lesson text for Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) stands in sharp contrast to the alternate passage from Genesis 11:1-9. In Genesis, the people are planning to make bricks, and stir up mortar, and build themselves a skyscraper that reaches high up into the clouds, an earthly kingdom to celebrate themselves, instead of building a community in which they can live together as the Lord's people.
So the Lord comes down and confuses their language, and they can no longer understand each other, and all they can do is scatter far and wide.
In the Acts text, the Lord does the exact opposite. He gives them the ability to speak in other, known languages, the languages of the people in the countries around them, so that they can do the Lord's work together
And at Pentecost, the faithful are not "babbling," as the people were earlier at Babel; they're speaking the amazing news of the Lord God's forgiveness and justice and love for us.
In our John text, Jesus tells his disciples that after he leaves them he'll be sending them an Advocate -- someone who'll be on their side, who'll be with them, who'll help them to live as his followers. This Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will help them -- and us in this later day -- to know the truth. This Holy Spirit will teach us what we need to know, and remind us of all that Jesus has taught us.
And then our Lord does a marvelous thing: he says that he is giving us his peace, a peace that the world can never in a million years give us. Therefore, he says, we should not let our hearts be troubled, and we should not be afraid, which reminds us of the words of Philippians 4:6 -- "Do not worry about anything."
CRAFTING THE SERMON
(NOTE: The following story could be told in the third person.)
A few years ago I flew out to Portland, Oregon to visit my daughter Jan, who was recovering from congestive heart failure. Her doctor was ordering her to get out and about, and to walk as much as she could.
So she'd gotten herself a walker -- not the bare-bones, stripped-down gray metal model that one might use to get around in one's house. She'd found a used bright candy-apple red model with wheels and a basket. It also had a narrow, padded seat so she could sit down and rest whenever she got tired -- and, of course, a ring-a-ling push bell to alert pedestrians that she was coming through.
I liked her spirit.
So one bright June afternoon we'd walked down to the nearby bus stop to catch a ride out to the fames Portland Zoo. As we stood waiting -- or rather, she was sitting on the padded seat of the walker and I was standing next to her -- as we were waiting, a woman of about 60 came along and we began chatting. Her husband was also recuperating from CHF, she said, so we were comparing experiences.
Then two tall, sturdy boys of about 14 or 15 joined us. Then the bus came, a bus equipped with a mechanical lift that the driver could activate to help people in wheelchairs or with walkers, or who had similar difficulties, get up onto the bus.
My daughter signaled that she needed the bus driver to put the lift into operation, and when it got down to her level she worked herself and her walker up onto it -- whereupon one of the teenage boys said, "She doesn't need to be using that lift!"
"That's for sure," the other boy said. "We saw her walking over here, and she can walk OK. Now we all have to wait while she makes a big deal out of getting up onto that bus. There's a name for people like her, but I won't say it."
While I was thinking about what to say to these boys, the woman standing next to me looked at them and said, "Young men, you're big and strong, and I'm sure you can get around just fine, wherever you want to go, and I'm sure you can't even imagine what it'd be like to not be able to do that.
"But someday it might happen to you that you'll have to use a walker. Sure, this woman can move along pretty well on a level sidewalk with the help of her walker -- if she rests often -- but it can be hard work for her to get up the steps of that bus.
"So try to be a little more careful about putting other people down when you don't know what all's involved."
The boys looked down at the ground, standing there, silent. Then one of them said, without looking up, "I'm sorry, Ma'am."
The woman nodded. "You didn't know. But now you know, so just be a little more careful next time before you speak."
I turned to her as we got on the bus. "Thank you," I said. "Thank you so much."
"Well," she said, "none of us are born knowing these things. Somebody has to help us with them. We have to be willing to do that for each other."
I've thought about that woman many times since then, remembering how she took upon herself, in a most gracious way, the task of speaking the gracious word to those boys. And I find that I can hardly get through a day without there being some occasion like that when I need to try to speak as graciously, in as grace-filled words, as I can.
Our text today from the book of Acts, with its quotation from the book of Joel in the Old Testament, tells us that in the last days the Lord God will pour out the Holy Spirit upon all people, "and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy," it tells us. "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy."
That's an interesting word, "prophesy." We usually think of a prophet, and prophecy, and prophesying, as having to do with foretelling something that's going to happen in the future, as predicting future events.
But from its Greek roots, prophesying refers to speaking for someone else -- in this case it refers to a human being speaking for the Lord, speaking the words that the Lord God wants spoken to the people. In the Old Testament, this often meant warning God's people what would happen if they continued in their selfish, self-centered ways.
So we're all the sons and daughters that our Lord is calling to prophesy, to speak the word of God's grace, as the woman did at the bus stop. You and I are called by our Lord to speak for him. Who will do it if we don't?
This week we celebrate Pentecost, a day we usually give far less attention to than we give to Christmas and Easter. The world has made a big thing of Christmas with Santa and his reindeer, and they've replaced the Last Supper, crucifixion, and resurrection with the Easter bunny. But so far they haven't figured out a way to commercialize Pentecost.
But just because the world around us doesn't celebrate Pentecost doesn't mean that it isn't a tremendously important day.
We in the church tend to think of Jesus' life in terms of four main sections:
1. His birth
2. His life and teachings
3. His crucifixion and resurrection
4. His ascension into heaven
But the main events of his life didn't stop there. After Jesus was crucified, his followers were so afraid that the Roman soldiers might grab them and do the same thing to them that they were hiding out together, with all the doors strongly locked. The Christian church could have died right there and never been heard from again.
What gave these frightened followers of Jesus the courage to later go out to tell far and wide the Good News of the whole new life he brings us? It was the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
In his last words to his disciples, on the night of the Last Supper, only hours before his crucifixion, Jesus promised them that he'd be sending them the Holy Spirit -- to those who love him and want to keep his commandments.
They no longer needed to live in fear for their lives. With God's full power in them, they could go wherever the Lord needed them to go, and say and do whatever the Lord needed them to say and do.
So the main events of Jesus' life are not just his birth; life and teachings; crucifixion and resurrection; and ascension into heaven. These are not complete until we add his giving us the Holy Spirit so that we can be his body, those who speak for him and do his will here on earth.
It's Pentecost, and we need to make more of this day, because we can't do the work our Lord calls us to do unless we have the power of his Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we're powerless. With the Spirit, the Lord can accomplish amazing things through each of us.
With the Spirit within us, we probably won't see tongues of fire atop our heads, or anyone else's, but we can know that our Lord is working mightily, within us and within them. Like a wildfire sweeping across the prairie, the Holy Spirit can transform us, as it transformed Jesus' earliest followers, into people who speak God's word with grace and power.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Scott Suskovic
I have never been called a drunk during a sermon -- at least not to my face. I've heard "interesting" or "inspired," couple of times "long-winded," never "boring." But I've never been called a drunk -- never.
What came over those first disciples when they began to speak? What did they sound like? How did they act in such a way that they were mistaken for drunks?
It was Peter who set the record straight. Raising his hands before thousands of people, he motioned them to be quiet and listen to him. Peter uttered the very first words of the newly born church on that first Pentecost: "We are not drunk." Don't you wish that the first recorded words of the early church would have been something more profound than "We are not drunk"?
But then Peter quickly launched into a sermon that hit them directly between the eyes. "You are guilty of killing God's son," he said. "Deliberately, hatefully, intentionally, and sadistically. For that you deserve death. But God raised Jesus up from the dead because he was not a troublemaker or a common criminal or a blasphemer as you supposed. Jesus was -- and he is your Lord." Wow.
The response? No one stood in the narthex shaking hands and making plans for brunch. No silent grumbling about a sermon that went five minutes too long. No eyes glazed over. No one casually wrote out a grocery list on the back of the bulletin. And no one dared to say, "That was a nice sermon. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you."
Instead, 3,000 of them asked, "What must we do to be saved?" Peter must have hit a nerve. "What must we do to be saved?" That's how much he bothered them. By then they knew he was stone sober. No drunk could hit a nerve so clearly, so completely, so condemningly. "What must we do to be saved?"
What's going on? This is a power that cannot be contained or harnessed. It is like a fire that is burning out of control. What's going on here?
Remember the sequence? When Jesus returned from the dead, he appeared sporadically for 40 days until he gathered the disciples back together before returning to heaven. His words were clear: "Just wait. You will receive power from heaven. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Wait, watch, and pray for that power to come. And you will do far greater things that these." About ten days later, Pentecost came with wind and fire as the Holy Spirit transformed them from a ragtag army of babbling idiots to powerful preachers, healers, teachers, and martyrs for Jesus.
How powerful? In 30 years with no printing press, internet, telephones, TV, or radio these Christians populated the Middle East and even 1,500 miles away into Rome with such numbers that Nero tried to blame the fires of Rome on Christians who were called depraved and had grown in vast numbers. That was 30 years and 1,500 miles -- and the Christians were already a threat to the Roman Empire. How is that possible?
This is the Holy Spirit. This is a power that is like no other. Let's take a look at how the Holy Spirit works in this story of Pentecost.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly... Suddenly. That's the first quality of the Holy Spirit -- It is sudden and unpredictable. That doesn't mean it is capricious or random. It means that we cannot predict or control it. Jesus said in John 3 that the Spirit blows where it will -- you don't know where it is coming from or where it is going. It is unpredictable. It's out of your hands.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire. Violent wind -- not a gentle breeze. Tongues of fire -- not a soft glow. The second quality of the Spirit is that it is powerful. When the Spirit blows within a church or within your heart, it blows with a violent wind and with fire. The power of the Spirit cannot be denied when it enters into your life.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. The third quality is visibility -- not that the Spirit is visible, but you can visibly see its effect on people. For these people, they began speaking other languages. For others, they are filled with patience and joy. For others, their goals turn away from money, power, and ego to service, humility, and faith. When the Holy Spirit enters your life unpredictably and powerfully, it also comes visibly. You will change and others will see that... visibly.
In fact, the people of Jerusalem were amazed at what they were witnessing -- simple Galileans speaking in foreign languages. It says in verses 12 and 13: Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." Ah, yes. The fourth quality of the Holy Spirit is that it is selective. Some people get it, and some do not. Two churches can be on the same road, ministering to the same neighborhood -- one is filled with people and the other is considering closing. Two people can be at church -- one is bathed in the presence of God and the other is writing out a shopping list. The Spirit is selective.
But Peter stood up, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. The last time Peter spoke he was swearing a blue streak, telling a young woman three times that he did not know Jesus. Now, off the cuff, to this gathering of thousands and with the skills of Billy Graham, Peter spoke boldly. The fifth quality of the Spirit is boldness -- boldness to do what you thought could not be done; boldness to feel what you have never felt; boldness to believe something you once thought incredulous; boldness to live for a savior who died for you.
And what does he speak about? Peter quoted the Old Testament saying: "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel." He recites from heart a scripture passage he has known his whole life. Suddenly, it all made sense. The Spirit's sixth trait is understanding. Martin Luther knew the Bible, but when the Spirit fell on him he re-read Romans 1:17 and finally it clicked, finally he understood. The just shall live by faith. Understanding. Salvation by faith alone.
The seventh characteristic of the Spirit is conviction. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" When the Spirit enters your life, it also opens up a new path to follow. And that path means intentionally turning away from another path, a wrong path, a sinful path. The first comes not from you wanting to make amends but from the Spirit convicting the heart, making us plead "What shall we do?"
Peter replied, "Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit's eighth trait is gifting. Some have the gift of teaching; others may have hospitality or healing or mercy. We all have spiritual gifts. As part of the body of Christ, each one of us has a spiritual gift to help out the community. What is your spiritual gift?
Peter had it right. "We are not drunk." This is a power that cannot be explained away by personal charisma or a cheap bottle of wine. This is an act of God that came to transform the world. This is Pentecost. This is a power beyond our control. This is the Holy Spirit. The world is on notice -- nothing will be the same again.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In 18th-century Britain, some thought the fire of Christianity was slowly burning itself out. The church seemed moribund, in decline. In the coal-mining regions, many of the miners never went to church, partly because, in their poverty, they couldn't afford decent clothing.
Taking Christianity to the people, John Wesley rejected formal, ecclesiastical settings and began to preach in open fields and at the entrances of the mines. Seeing the colliery fires burning on the hillsides, he interpreted them as the unquenchable fires of God's grace. His brother, Charles, wrote this hymn text to illustrate the nascent power of those fires:
See how great a flame aspires,
Kindled by a spark of grace.
Jesus' love the nations fires,
Sets the kingdoms on a blaze.
To bring fire on earth he came,
Kindled in some hearts it is;
O that all might catch the flame,
All partake the glorious bliss!
Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Luke 12:49)
***
Imagine a kind of medicine that possesses in full dosage a laxative effect but in a half dose a constipating effect. Suppose someone is suffering from constipation. But -- for some reason or other, perhaps because there is not enough for a full dose or because it is feared that such a large amount might be too much -- in order to do something, he is given, with the best of intentions, a half dose: "After all, it is at least something." What a tragedy!
So it is with today's Christianity. As with everything qualified by an either/or -- the half has the very opposite effect from the whole. But we Christians go right on practicing this well-intentioned half-hearted act from generation to generation. We produce Christians by the millions, are proud of it -- yet have no inkling that we are doing just exactly the opposite of what we intend to do....
The greatest danger to Christianity is, I contend, not heresies, heterodoxies, not atheists, not profane secularism -- no, but the kind of orthodoxy which is cordial drivel, mediocrity served up sweet.
-- Søren Kierkegaard
***
In her book Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Kathleen Norris tells this story from the desert fathers of the early church:
Abbot Lot went to see Abbot Joseph and said: "Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation, and contemplative silence; and according as I am able, I strive to cleanse my heart of bad thoughts; now what more should I do?"
The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like lamps of fire. He said: "Why not become all flame?"
***
On the great day of Pentecost, a mighty wind surged forth from heaven, pushing the followers of Jesus out of the house where they had been hiding and into the streets. Flames danced above their heads, their tongues began to wag, and people from all over the world heard what they said -- no matter what their native language.
Peter gave a sermon which would cause Billy Graham to turn green with envy -- and three thousand people were baptized. The Church of Jesus Christ was born!
On the day after Pentecost:
Peter's wife had to yell at him three times to get out of bed, so that he would get his sermon on the website before 9:00 a.m.
The deacons grumbled about cleaning out the baptismal pool.
And the apostles argued about who got to preach on Trinity Sunday, who would choose the hymns, and who would be stuck chairing the nominating committee.
Come, Holy Spirit, with your gracious language.
Come, Holy Spirit, with your passion for all people.
Come, Holy Spirit, with your uniting peace.
Come, Holy Spirit!
-- from Fire and Bread (Wild Goose Publications)
***
If you don't believe that people speak in tongues these days, you obviously don't hang around teenage girls. Just stand close to them when they are knotted together at the mall, or at a sporting event, or even in the fellowship hall after church. As they describe to one another what has been happening in their lives, the words just tumble out -- a marvelous mixture of excitement, joy, fear, dreams, giggles, hopes, worries. No one speaks in complete sentences, because no one can complete a sentence without someone chiming in with their words. There is a wonderful rush of sounds, grunts, sighs, even screams of laughter. Does it make any sense? Only if we recognize that in that moment the Spirit of God is present in a way of holiness which transcends ordinary speech.
***
Aaron Hatfield
Better than granite, Spoon River,
Is the memory-picture you keep of me
Standing before the pioneer men and women
There at Concord Church on Communion day.
Speaking in broken voice of the peasant youth
Of Galilee who went to the city
And was killed by bankers and lawyers;
My voice mingling with the June wind
That blew over wheat fields from Atterbury;
While the white stones in the burying ground
Around the church shimmered in the summer sun.
And there, though my own memories
Were too great to bear, were you, O pioneers,
With bowed heads breathing forth your sorrow
For the sons killed in battle and daughters
And the little children who vanished in life's morning.
Or at the intolerable hour of noon.
But in those moments of tragic silence,
when the wine and the bread were passed,
Came the reconciliation for us --
Us the ploughmen and hewers of wood,
Us the peasants, brothers of the peasant of Galilee --
To us came the Comforter
and the consolation of tongues of flame!
-- Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology
***
In his book God the Spirit, Michael Welker reminds us:
"The church defined by the power of the Spirit may come across from time to time and from place to place as paltry, out of touch with the world, uninteresting, and insignificant, or may appear as suppressed, almost extinguished (cf. 1 Peter 4:14). It is always in need of the discernment of spirits: that is, it is always corrupted by other spirits, powers, and morals; by cultural, political, economic, national, and other interests and ideologies. Yet in the midst of seeming insignificance and de facto corruption, the Spirit of God joins together people called to communion with Christ among 'Jews and Greeks, slaves and free' (1 Corinthians 12:3; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11), men and women, old and young, out of many times and many countries of the world." (God the Spirit, Augsburg Fortress, p. 309)
In fact, the Spirit of God joins together that which the sins of the world have divided.
***
The challenge of how we understand the movement of the Spirit in our times is captured in the following description:
"The Charismatic Movement is considered to be the fastest growing religious movement of our time. It is the largest religious movement in history, period. At the end of the 1980s its membership was estimated at over 300 million people in 230 countries. According to an estimate made in 1988, the movement is growing at a yearly rate of 19 million members. Although the figures given in different estimates diverge widely, there is hardly an account that does not emphasize the breathtaking success of this movement, which in a quarter of a century has spread over the whole earth and 'in one form or another has found entry into all denominations and churches, both state and independent.' " (Michael Welker, God the Spirit, p. 8)
How does the non-charismatic church understand this phenomenon? As Jesus suggested, it is like the wind: "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes" (John 3:8).
***
Sometimes we view fire as a destructive force that must be controlled by the power and wisdom of humanity. At such times, it is good to recall the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3:19ff:
"Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary, and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown in the furnace of blazing fire.... [When they were not burned up,] Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, 'Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out!... And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over their bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them."
Fire is often used as a symbol of God, and sometimes it is within the fire that we meet the God who saves.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here!
God's children have gathered in this place:
People: we are transformed into God's family
by God's Spirit joining with ours.
Leader: Come, Spirit of adoption, and open our hearts to our sisters and brothers:
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: Come, Spirit of peace, and calm our trembling hearts:
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: Come, Breath of God, and overturn our conventional lives:
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Prayer of the Day
Holy God, Keeper of promises:
you fill the empty aching of our lives with the comfort of your presence;
you rejoice in us as your children even when we throw temper tantrums;
you re-energize us with your grace when we become most settled.
Jesus Christ, Giver of peace:
we are not orphans of this world, but claimed as your sisters and brothers;
you do not give up on us, but give yourself for our sakes;
you show us the way to God, when we have lost our way.
Holy Spirit, Gentle Teacher:
you go to bat for us when we are in a slump;
you whisper the language of faith when we have forgotten the words;
you remember us when we are most fragmented.
Heart of our hearts,
Flesh of our flesh,
Spirit of our spirits:
hear us as we pray as one people, saying,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
It is easy to assume we are on our own; Jesus has left us behind to take care of things.
But if we rely only on ourselves, we quickly fall into lives that do not reflect faithfulness.
Like the first believers, we can join our voices,
Praying that God's Spirit will come to us, bringing grace and hope.
Join me as we pray . . .
(Unison) Prayer of Confession
It is never easy for us to enter this time of confession, Abba God,
for we have trouble believing our failures, our lives, our sins
compare in any way to the evil and violence of our world.
Yet our hearts are troubled when we think of how we feast on the pain of others;
we are dismayed when we remember how we turn away from those in need;
we are afraid to be totally dependent on you.
Forgive us, Gracious God.
In your mercy, gather us up and embrace us with your love.
Open our hearts to receive your Spirit, that we might live more faithful lives.
Fill us with the peace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in whose name we pray.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: God's Spirit prays with us and for us;
God's hope strengthens us in times of weakness;
God's grace heals our brokenness.
People: God's forgiveness restores us to new life and new service.
Thanks be to God, to whom we sing our praises for ever and ever.
Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Wind of God
Acts 2:1-21
Object: a fan
Good morning! Today I want to talk about God in a different way -- I want to talk about how God works in this world. To do that I've brought with me this fan. Before I use this fan, I want to ask you about something. What can you tell me about wind? (let them answer) Do you believe in the wind? (let them answer) How can you believe in the wind if you cannot see it? (let them answer)
In some ways God is like the wind. You cannot see God, but you can see the effects of God in the lives of people. Just as you know there is such a thing as the wind because you can see the effects of the wind in the trees and on the water, so you know God is real by the effects God causes in the lives of people. After Easter the disciples were very much afraid. But Jesus had promised them a Helper. Jesus said God would send the Holy Spirit and that Spirit would make all the difference in their lives -- and did it ever!
Because of the Spirit, their lives were totally turned around. Can some of you tell me what all happened on that day called "Pentecost"? (let them answer) They went from fear to courage; from inaction to action; from silence to speech. The difference was God's Holy Spirit. That same Spirit is here today. It is still changing people's lives. It is working in your life right now. I'm glad God has given us this wonderful Helper. A fan like this is a wonderful helper on a hot day; the Holy Spirit is a wonderful Helper always!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 27, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
Wildfire!
by Barbara Jurgensen
THE WORLD
In the last few weeks, wildfires in Florida, New Jersey, Santa Catalina island off the coast of California, and in other states have sent hundreds of people fleeing for their lives.
Fire can do that.
On the Day of Pentecost, the flames that lighted on the head of each of the believers sent them running even farther -- out to the most distant corners of the earth, with the amazing, life-transforming announcement that we all can have new life in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Firefighters will eventually put out the blazes that are consuming homes and forests around our country -- or good, hard, driving rains will snuff out even the last few sparks.
But millions -- perhaps billions -- of people around the earth, down through the ages, have been lit by the Holy Spirit's fire, and that fire will keep on spreading. Nothing will ever be able to stop that wildfire.
THE WORD
The primary first lesson text for Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) stands in sharp contrast to the alternate passage from Genesis 11:1-9. In Genesis, the people are planning to make bricks, and stir up mortar, and build themselves a skyscraper that reaches high up into the clouds, an earthly kingdom to celebrate themselves, instead of building a community in which they can live together as the Lord's people.
So the Lord comes down and confuses their language, and they can no longer understand each other, and all they can do is scatter far and wide.
In the Acts text, the Lord does the exact opposite. He gives them the ability to speak in other, known languages, the languages of the people in the countries around them, so that they can do the Lord's work together
And at Pentecost, the faithful are not "babbling," as the people were earlier at Babel; they're speaking the amazing news of the Lord God's forgiveness and justice and love for us.
In our John text, Jesus tells his disciples that after he leaves them he'll be sending them an Advocate -- someone who'll be on their side, who'll be with them, who'll help them to live as his followers. This Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will help them -- and us in this later day -- to know the truth. This Holy Spirit will teach us what we need to know, and remind us of all that Jesus has taught us.
And then our Lord does a marvelous thing: he says that he is giving us his peace, a peace that the world can never in a million years give us. Therefore, he says, we should not let our hearts be troubled, and we should not be afraid, which reminds us of the words of Philippians 4:6 -- "Do not worry about anything."
CRAFTING THE SERMON
(NOTE: The following story could be told in the third person.)
A few years ago I flew out to Portland, Oregon to visit my daughter Jan, who was recovering from congestive heart failure. Her doctor was ordering her to get out and about, and to walk as much as she could.
So she'd gotten herself a walker -- not the bare-bones, stripped-down gray metal model that one might use to get around in one's house. She'd found a used bright candy-apple red model with wheels and a basket. It also had a narrow, padded seat so she could sit down and rest whenever she got tired -- and, of course, a ring-a-ling push bell to alert pedestrians that she was coming through.
I liked her spirit.
So one bright June afternoon we'd walked down to the nearby bus stop to catch a ride out to the fames Portland Zoo. As we stood waiting -- or rather, she was sitting on the padded seat of the walker and I was standing next to her -- as we were waiting, a woman of about 60 came along and we began chatting. Her husband was also recuperating from CHF, she said, so we were comparing experiences.
Then two tall, sturdy boys of about 14 or 15 joined us. Then the bus came, a bus equipped with a mechanical lift that the driver could activate to help people in wheelchairs or with walkers, or who had similar difficulties, get up onto the bus.
My daughter signaled that she needed the bus driver to put the lift into operation, and when it got down to her level she worked herself and her walker up onto it -- whereupon one of the teenage boys said, "She doesn't need to be using that lift!"
"That's for sure," the other boy said. "We saw her walking over here, and she can walk OK. Now we all have to wait while she makes a big deal out of getting up onto that bus. There's a name for people like her, but I won't say it."
While I was thinking about what to say to these boys, the woman standing next to me looked at them and said, "Young men, you're big and strong, and I'm sure you can get around just fine, wherever you want to go, and I'm sure you can't even imagine what it'd be like to not be able to do that.
"But someday it might happen to you that you'll have to use a walker. Sure, this woman can move along pretty well on a level sidewalk with the help of her walker -- if she rests often -- but it can be hard work for her to get up the steps of that bus.
"So try to be a little more careful about putting other people down when you don't know what all's involved."
The boys looked down at the ground, standing there, silent. Then one of them said, without looking up, "I'm sorry, Ma'am."
The woman nodded. "You didn't know. But now you know, so just be a little more careful next time before you speak."
I turned to her as we got on the bus. "Thank you," I said. "Thank you so much."
"Well," she said, "none of us are born knowing these things. Somebody has to help us with them. We have to be willing to do that for each other."
I've thought about that woman many times since then, remembering how she took upon herself, in a most gracious way, the task of speaking the gracious word to those boys. And I find that I can hardly get through a day without there being some occasion like that when I need to try to speak as graciously, in as grace-filled words, as I can.
Our text today from the book of Acts, with its quotation from the book of Joel in the Old Testament, tells us that in the last days the Lord God will pour out the Holy Spirit upon all people, "and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy," it tells us. "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy."
That's an interesting word, "prophesy." We usually think of a prophet, and prophecy, and prophesying, as having to do with foretelling something that's going to happen in the future, as predicting future events.
But from its Greek roots, prophesying refers to speaking for someone else -- in this case it refers to a human being speaking for the Lord, speaking the words that the Lord God wants spoken to the people. In the Old Testament, this often meant warning God's people what would happen if they continued in their selfish, self-centered ways.
So we're all the sons and daughters that our Lord is calling to prophesy, to speak the word of God's grace, as the woman did at the bus stop. You and I are called by our Lord to speak for him. Who will do it if we don't?
This week we celebrate Pentecost, a day we usually give far less attention to than we give to Christmas and Easter. The world has made a big thing of Christmas with Santa and his reindeer, and they've replaced the Last Supper, crucifixion, and resurrection with the Easter bunny. But so far they haven't figured out a way to commercialize Pentecost.
But just because the world around us doesn't celebrate Pentecost doesn't mean that it isn't a tremendously important day.
We in the church tend to think of Jesus' life in terms of four main sections:
1. His birth
2. His life and teachings
3. His crucifixion and resurrection
4. His ascension into heaven
But the main events of his life didn't stop there. After Jesus was crucified, his followers were so afraid that the Roman soldiers might grab them and do the same thing to them that they were hiding out together, with all the doors strongly locked. The Christian church could have died right there and never been heard from again.
What gave these frightened followers of Jesus the courage to later go out to tell far and wide the Good News of the whole new life he brings us? It was the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
In his last words to his disciples, on the night of the Last Supper, only hours before his crucifixion, Jesus promised them that he'd be sending them the Holy Spirit -- to those who love him and want to keep his commandments.
They no longer needed to live in fear for their lives. With God's full power in them, they could go wherever the Lord needed them to go, and say and do whatever the Lord needed them to say and do.
So the main events of Jesus' life are not just his birth; life and teachings; crucifixion and resurrection; and ascension into heaven. These are not complete until we add his giving us the Holy Spirit so that we can be his body, those who speak for him and do his will here on earth.
It's Pentecost, and we need to make more of this day, because we can't do the work our Lord calls us to do unless we have the power of his Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we're powerless. With the Spirit, the Lord can accomplish amazing things through each of us.
With the Spirit within us, we probably won't see tongues of fire atop our heads, or anyone else's, but we can know that our Lord is working mightily, within us and within them. Like a wildfire sweeping across the prairie, the Holy Spirit can transform us, as it transformed Jesus' earliest followers, into people who speak God's word with grace and power.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Scott Suskovic
I have never been called a drunk during a sermon -- at least not to my face. I've heard "interesting" or "inspired," couple of times "long-winded," never "boring." But I've never been called a drunk -- never.
What came over those first disciples when they began to speak? What did they sound like? How did they act in such a way that they were mistaken for drunks?
It was Peter who set the record straight. Raising his hands before thousands of people, he motioned them to be quiet and listen to him. Peter uttered the very first words of the newly born church on that first Pentecost: "We are not drunk." Don't you wish that the first recorded words of the early church would have been something more profound than "We are not drunk"?
But then Peter quickly launched into a sermon that hit them directly between the eyes. "You are guilty of killing God's son," he said. "Deliberately, hatefully, intentionally, and sadistically. For that you deserve death. But God raised Jesus up from the dead because he was not a troublemaker or a common criminal or a blasphemer as you supposed. Jesus was -- and he is your Lord." Wow.
The response? No one stood in the narthex shaking hands and making plans for brunch. No silent grumbling about a sermon that went five minutes too long. No eyes glazed over. No one casually wrote out a grocery list on the back of the bulletin. And no one dared to say, "That was a nice sermon. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you."
Instead, 3,000 of them asked, "What must we do to be saved?" Peter must have hit a nerve. "What must we do to be saved?" That's how much he bothered them. By then they knew he was stone sober. No drunk could hit a nerve so clearly, so completely, so condemningly. "What must we do to be saved?"
What's going on? This is a power that cannot be contained or harnessed. It is like a fire that is burning out of control. What's going on here?
Remember the sequence? When Jesus returned from the dead, he appeared sporadically for 40 days until he gathered the disciples back together before returning to heaven. His words were clear: "Just wait. You will receive power from heaven. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Wait, watch, and pray for that power to come. And you will do far greater things that these." About ten days later, Pentecost came with wind and fire as the Holy Spirit transformed them from a ragtag army of babbling idiots to powerful preachers, healers, teachers, and martyrs for Jesus.
How powerful? In 30 years with no printing press, internet, telephones, TV, or radio these Christians populated the Middle East and even 1,500 miles away into Rome with such numbers that Nero tried to blame the fires of Rome on Christians who were called depraved and had grown in vast numbers. That was 30 years and 1,500 miles -- and the Christians were already a threat to the Roman Empire. How is that possible?
This is the Holy Spirit. This is a power that is like no other. Let's take a look at how the Holy Spirit works in this story of Pentecost.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly... Suddenly. That's the first quality of the Holy Spirit -- It is sudden and unpredictable. That doesn't mean it is capricious or random. It means that we cannot predict or control it. Jesus said in John 3 that the Spirit blows where it will -- you don't know where it is coming from or where it is going. It is unpredictable. It's out of your hands.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire. Violent wind -- not a gentle breeze. Tongues of fire -- not a soft glow. The second quality of the Spirit is that it is powerful. When the Spirit blows within a church or within your heart, it blows with a violent wind and with fire. The power of the Spirit cannot be denied when it enters into your life.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. The third quality is visibility -- not that the Spirit is visible, but you can visibly see its effect on people. For these people, they began speaking other languages. For others, they are filled with patience and joy. For others, their goals turn away from money, power, and ego to service, humility, and faith. When the Holy Spirit enters your life unpredictably and powerfully, it also comes visibly. You will change and others will see that... visibly.
In fact, the people of Jerusalem were amazed at what they were witnessing -- simple Galileans speaking in foreign languages. It says in verses 12 and 13: Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." Ah, yes. The fourth quality of the Holy Spirit is that it is selective. Some people get it, and some do not. Two churches can be on the same road, ministering to the same neighborhood -- one is filled with people and the other is considering closing. Two people can be at church -- one is bathed in the presence of God and the other is writing out a shopping list. The Spirit is selective.
But Peter stood up, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. The last time Peter spoke he was swearing a blue streak, telling a young woman three times that he did not know Jesus. Now, off the cuff, to this gathering of thousands and with the skills of Billy Graham, Peter spoke boldly. The fifth quality of the Spirit is boldness -- boldness to do what you thought could not be done; boldness to feel what you have never felt; boldness to believe something you once thought incredulous; boldness to live for a savior who died for you.
And what does he speak about? Peter quoted the Old Testament saying: "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel." He recites from heart a scripture passage he has known his whole life. Suddenly, it all made sense. The Spirit's sixth trait is understanding. Martin Luther knew the Bible, but when the Spirit fell on him he re-read Romans 1:17 and finally it clicked, finally he understood. The just shall live by faith. Understanding. Salvation by faith alone.
The seventh characteristic of the Spirit is conviction. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" When the Spirit enters your life, it also opens up a new path to follow. And that path means intentionally turning away from another path, a wrong path, a sinful path. The first comes not from you wanting to make amends but from the Spirit convicting the heart, making us plead "What shall we do?"
Peter replied, "Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit's eighth trait is gifting. Some have the gift of teaching; others may have hospitality or healing or mercy. We all have spiritual gifts. As part of the body of Christ, each one of us has a spiritual gift to help out the community. What is your spiritual gift?
Peter had it right. "We are not drunk." This is a power that cannot be explained away by personal charisma or a cheap bottle of wine. This is an act of God that came to transform the world. This is Pentecost. This is a power beyond our control. This is the Holy Spirit. The world is on notice -- nothing will be the same again.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In 18th-century Britain, some thought the fire of Christianity was slowly burning itself out. The church seemed moribund, in decline. In the coal-mining regions, many of the miners never went to church, partly because, in their poverty, they couldn't afford decent clothing.
Taking Christianity to the people, John Wesley rejected formal, ecclesiastical settings and began to preach in open fields and at the entrances of the mines. Seeing the colliery fires burning on the hillsides, he interpreted them as the unquenchable fires of God's grace. His brother, Charles, wrote this hymn text to illustrate the nascent power of those fires:
See how great a flame aspires,
Kindled by a spark of grace.
Jesus' love the nations fires,
Sets the kingdoms on a blaze.
To bring fire on earth he came,
Kindled in some hearts it is;
O that all might catch the flame,
All partake the glorious bliss!
Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Luke 12:49)
***
Imagine a kind of medicine that possesses in full dosage a laxative effect but in a half dose a constipating effect. Suppose someone is suffering from constipation. But -- for some reason or other, perhaps because there is not enough for a full dose or because it is feared that such a large amount might be too much -- in order to do something, he is given, with the best of intentions, a half dose: "After all, it is at least something." What a tragedy!
So it is with today's Christianity. As with everything qualified by an either/or -- the half has the very opposite effect from the whole. But we Christians go right on practicing this well-intentioned half-hearted act from generation to generation. We produce Christians by the millions, are proud of it -- yet have no inkling that we are doing just exactly the opposite of what we intend to do....
The greatest danger to Christianity is, I contend, not heresies, heterodoxies, not atheists, not profane secularism -- no, but the kind of orthodoxy which is cordial drivel, mediocrity served up sweet.
-- Søren Kierkegaard
***
In her book Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Kathleen Norris tells this story from the desert fathers of the early church:
Abbot Lot went to see Abbot Joseph and said: "Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation, and contemplative silence; and according as I am able, I strive to cleanse my heart of bad thoughts; now what more should I do?"
The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like lamps of fire. He said: "Why not become all flame?"
***
On the great day of Pentecost, a mighty wind surged forth from heaven, pushing the followers of Jesus out of the house where they had been hiding and into the streets. Flames danced above their heads, their tongues began to wag, and people from all over the world heard what they said -- no matter what their native language.
Peter gave a sermon which would cause Billy Graham to turn green with envy -- and three thousand people were baptized. The Church of Jesus Christ was born!
On the day after Pentecost:
Peter's wife had to yell at him three times to get out of bed, so that he would get his sermon on the website before 9:00 a.m.
The deacons grumbled about cleaning out the baptismal pool.
And the apostles argued about who got to preach on Trinity Sunday, who would choose the hymns, and who would be stuck chairing the nominating committee.
Come, Holy Spirit, with your gracious language.
Come, Holy Spirit, with your passion for all people.
Come, Holy Spirit, with your uniting peace.
Come, Holy Spirit!
-- from Fire and Bread (Wild Goose Publications)
***
If you don't believe that people speak in tongues these days, you obviously don't hang around teenage girls. Just stand close to them when they are knotted together at the mall, or at a sporting event, or even in the fellowship hall after church. As they describe to one another what has been happening in their lives, the words just tumble out -- a marvelous mixture of excitement, joy, fear, dreams, giggles, hopes, worries. No one speaks in complete sentences, because no one can complete a sentence without someone chiming in with their words. There is a wonderful rush of sounds, grunts, sighs, even screams of laughter. Does it make any sense? Only if we recognize that in that moment the Spirit of God is present in a way of holiness which transcends ordinary speech.
***
Aaron Hatfield
Better than granite, Spoon River,
Is the memory-picture you keep of me
Standing before the pioneer men and women
There at Concord Church on Communion day.
Speaking in broken voice of the peasant youth
Of Galilee who went to the city
And was killed by bankers and lawyers;
My voice mingling with the June wind
That blew over wheat fields from Atterbury;
While the white stones in the burying ground
Around the church shimmered in the summer sun.
And there, though my own memories
Were too great to bear, were you, O pioneers,
With bowed heads breathing forth your sorrow
For the sons killed in battle and daughters
And the little children who vanished in life's morning.
Or at the intolerable hour of noon.
But in those moments of tragic silence,
when the wine and the bread were passed,
Came the reconciliation for us --
Us the ploughmen and hewers of wood,
Us the peasants, brothers of the peasant of Galilee --
To us came the Comforter
and the consolation of tongues of flame!
-- Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology
***
In his book God the Spirit, Michael Welker reminds us:
"The church defined by the power of the Spirit may come across from time to time and from place to place as paltry, out of touch with the world, uninteresting, and insignificant, or may appear as suppressed, almost extinguished (cf. 1 Peter 4:14). It is always in need of the discernment of spirits: that is, it is always corrupted by other spirits, powers, and morals; by cultural, political, economic, national, and other interests and ideologies. Yet in the midst of seeming insignificance and de facto corruption, the Spirit of God joins together people called to communion with Christ among 'Jews and Greeks, slaves and free' (1 Corinthians 12:3; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11), men and women, old and young, out of many times and many countries of the world." (God the Spirit, Augsburg Fortress, p. 309)
In fact, the Spirit of God joins together that which the sins of the world have divided.
***
The challenge of how we understand the movement of the Spirit in our times is captured in the following description:
"The Charismatic Movement is considered to be the fastest growing religious movement of our time. It is the largest religious movement in history, period. At the end of the 1980s its membership was estimated at over 300 million people in 230 countries. According to an estimate made in 1988, the movement is growing at a yearly rate of 19 million members. Although the figures given in different estimates diverge widely, there is hardly an account that does not emphasize the breathtaking success of this movement, which in a quarter of a century has spread over the whole earth and 'in one form or another has found entry into all denominations and churches, both state and independent.' " (Michael Welker, God the Spirit, p. 8)
How does the non-charismatic church understand this phenomenon? As Jesus suggested, it is like the wind: "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes" (John 3:8).
***
Sometimes we view fire as a destructive force that must be controlled by the power and wisdom of humanity. At such times, it is good to recall the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3:19ff:
"Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary, and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown in the furnace of blazing fire.... [When they were not burned up,] Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, 'Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out!... And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over their bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them."
Fire is often used as a symbol of God, and sometimes it is within the fire that we meet the God who saves.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here!
God's children have gathered in this place:
People: we are transformed into God's family
by God's Spirit joining with ours.
Leader: Come, Spirit of adoption, and open our hearts to our sisters and brothers:
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: Come, Spirit of peace, and calm our trembling hearts:
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Leader: Come, Breath of God, and overturn our conventional lives:
People: Come, Holy Spirit!
Prayer of the Day
Holy God, Keeper of promises:
you fill the empty aching of our lives with the comfort of your presence;
you rejoice in us as your children even when we throw temper tantrums;
you re-energize us with your grace when we become most settled.
Jesus Christ, Giver of peace:
we are not orphans of this world, but claimed as your sisters and brothers;
you do not give up on us, but give yourself for our sakes;
you show us the way to God, when we have lost our way.
Holy Spirit, Gentle Teacher:
you go to bat for us when we are in a slump;
you whisper the language of faith when we have forgotten the words;
you remember us when we are most fragmented.
Heart of our hearts,
Flesh of our flesh,
Spirit of our spirits:
hear us as we pray as one people, saying,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
It is easy to assume we are on our own; Jesus has left us behind to take care of things.
But if we rely only on ourselves, we quickly fall into lives that do not reflect faithfulness.
Like the first believers, we can join our voices,
Praying that God's Spirit will come to us, bringing grace and hope.
Join me as we pray . . .
(Unison) Prayer of Confession
It is never easy for us to enter this time of confession, Abba God,
for we have trouble believing our failures, our lives, our sins
compare in any way to the evil and violence of our world.
Yet our hearts are troubled when we think of how we feast on the pain of others;
we are dismayed when we remember how we turn away from those in need;
we are afraid to be totally dependent on you.
Forgive us, Gracious God.
In your mercy, gather us up and embrace us with your love.
Open our hearts to receive your Spirit, that we might live more faithful lives.
Fill us with the peace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in whose name we pray.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: God's Spirit prays with us and for us;
God's hope strengthens us in times of weakness;
God's grace heals our brokenness.
People: God's forgiveness restores us to new life and new service.
Thanks be to God, to whom we sing our praises for ever and ever.
Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Wind of God
Acts 2:1-21
Object: a fan
Good morning! Today I want to talk about God in a different way -- I want to talk about how God works in this world. To do that I've brought with me this fan. Before I use this fan, I want to ask you about something. What can you tell me about wind? (let them answer) Do you believe in the wind? (let them answer) How can you believe in the wind if you cannot see it? (let them answer)
In some ways God is like the wind. You cannot see God, but you can see the effects of God in the lives of people. Just as you know there is such a thing as the wind because you can see the effects of the wind in the trees and on the water, so you know God is real by the effects God causes in the lives of people. After Easter the disciples were very much afraid. But Jesus had promised them a Helper. Jesus said God would send the Holy Spirit and that Spirit would make all the difference in their lives -- and did it ever!
Because of the Spirit, their lives were totally turned around. Can some of you tell me what all happened on that day called "Pentecost"? (let them answer) They went from fear to courage; from inaction to action; from silence to speech. The difference was God's Holy Spirit. That same Spirit is here today. It is still changing people's lives. It is working in your life right now. I'm glad God has given us this wonderful Helper. A fan like this is a wonderful helper on a hot day; the Holy Spirit is a wonderful Helper always!
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 27, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
