The curse of modern Christianity is to
acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the
Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own
understanding in such high esteem.
Do we know
God and his love and remain unchanged?
Read 2
Corinthians 3
For a good
portion of the New Testament, Paul discusses the Law and Grace, the flesh and
the Spirit, or the Law and the Spirit.
Can’t we just believe in Jesus and be done with it?
You could.
Many have and many miss out on life—abundant life.
So why all the
confusion over the law and grace or the law and the Spirit? There’s a lot of
gaslighting going on these days, and I am not talking about politics but the
church.
You have
seen the memes, “If the law was nailed to the cross…” Stop right there, gaslighters. That’s a false
premise used to manipulate an audience of people who don’t want to read their
Bibles but want to be right because they keep up with their memes, reels, and disinformation
dump of the week.
The law
was not nailed to the cross, so don’t set that up as your premise. Our sins
and debts were nailed to the cross, but never the law. The false premise is
used to bolster the status of the law, directives surpassed by the glory that
we know in Christ Jesus.
The law
showed us our sin. It was given so that our trespass
might increase—now that sounds weird. The law showed us just how far away
from God and his goodness we had come and were going. The law showed us what
our human eyes instinctively turn a blind eye to—our own sin.
I think we
better understand this whole increase of the trespass like this. The more intently
we look into God’s law, the more we see the gulf between us and his righteousness.
Our knowledge and awareness of our sinful nature and lives become more and more
evident to us.
So too, does
the awareness of how much greater God’s love for us is, much more than our sin.
God’s love has overcome our sinful nature. In comparing ourselves to the law,
we see two things very clearly.
1. We are like filthy
rags. We can stop thinking highly of ourselves. We are humbled.
2. God’s grace goes beyond our worst
sins. He didn’t create us to throw us away. He desires an eternal
relationship where we are in right standing with him.
The law
brings us to death. The law convicts us of our trespass. The law says that
the wages
of sin is death, and so it is, but God did not end the story there.
We were already
dead in our trespasses but God saved us from our disobedience, wickedness,
and rebellion. God did it all so
that no one could boast.
The law
shows us that we are dead in our trespasses. Christ is our only hope for life.
We have crossed
over from death to life when we believe in Christ Jesus.
But how will
we live?
If we genuinely
want to please God, we will live by the Spirit he placed inside us. In so
doing, we will instinctively live by the guide to good living, otherwise known
as the law.
If we truly
love God, following his commands will not
be a burden. And if God’s Spirit within us leads us to live a life of love,
we will have fulfilled
the demands of the law.
So, why was
the law even necessary?
God’s law
serves to mitigate the evil in our hearts. It reduces the effects of our sinful
human nature, but the law is not the end of the story. Mitigation is not the objective.
God desires to
replace the heart
of
stone—our
hardened,
sinful, self-serving, and comfort-governed nature—with a heart of love.
God desires that
none perish but all repent and come to life in Christ Jesus. The longevity
of life does not matter as much as the love that proceeds from our lives in
Christ.
How can we
live such lives? By listening to God’s Spirit.
You both live at the same address. God’s Spirit lives within you. Let God’s
Spirit lead you to live by love.
Consider
Paul’s words at the beginning of the chapter.
Are we
beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters
of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on
our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from
Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of
the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such
confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in
ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new
covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life.
We are all Letters
from Christ, but how does our letter read?
The curse of modern Christianity is to
acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the
Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own
understanding in such high esteem.
I stole this
from my Marine Corps brethren and adapted it to my purposes here.
If you
were accused of being a Marine, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
To us, now:
If you
were accused of living a life of love, would there be enough evidence to
convict you?
If you
were accused of living by the Spirit of God who resides at your place now,
would there be enough evidence to convict you?
If you
were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict
you?
The law
shows us that we were dead.
The Spirit
shows us how to live with Jesus as Lord.
The law
shows us what we once were. We were sinners at best. I think Isaiah nailed it
with filthy rags, but sinners at a minimum.
The Spirit leads
us to live as a new creature.
The law had
a glory all its own.
The Spirit
shows us how Jesus surpassed the law.
The old self
is gone.
The new has
come.
One is about
death and the other about life. The law
brings death. The Spirit brings life.
Choose life.
Live by the Spirit!
Amen!
Read
2
Corinthians 2
We will take
the first part of the chapter here and the rest at the next service.
Forgiveness
for the Offender
If anyone
has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to
some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the
majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so
that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to
reaffirm your love for him. Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would
stand the test and be obedient in everything.
Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there
was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,
in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
OK, you
remember that guy I told you to kick to the curb? Check on him see if he has
come to his senses. It might be time for forgiveness and reconciliation. I’m
ready—and I’m the guy who told you to give him the cold shoulder—and so too
should you be ready to forgive.
Forgive.
That’s a powerful verb and we need to wield it more. Yes, sometimes we do the
cold shoulder thing in extreme cases so that someone's soul might be saved on
the Day of the Lord.
If we do it
out of selfish motivations, we are playing for the wrong team. We have fallen
for the Devil’s schemes and have taken his yoke.
We all have
enough screwball issues of our own. We don’t want to discount this forgiveness
thing. God, through Christ, has forgiven us. Let’s not heap problems on top of
what the world throws on top of people.
Forgive.
Let’s cover the
part about Satan outwitting us. In the name of Jesus, get away from me,
Satan!
That should
be our standing conversation with the devil. You’ve got nothing good for me. Go
to hell. Go directly to hell. Do not pass go and do not collect $200. Some of
you are too young for the reference.
You play
Bunco now.
In the
name of Jesus, depart! That’s all we need to say to
Satan. We don’t discuss things further with him.
But we do.
How. It’s the devil. We know it’s the devil, so how can we listen to him?
We let our
own understanding lead us into temptation and conversation with the enemy.
The military
adage is to know your enemy. It is sound advice for the warrior
of any age.
But this is
what you need to know about your enemy. Don’t talk with him. Don’t reason with
him. Don’t expound on anything.
Satan is the
Father of Lies. Don’t try to outwit him. Tell him to go away. In the name of
Jesus, go away.
If we need
to talk about something, talk to your Father in heaven.
If we need
to wrestle with some of our thoughts, do it with God’s own Spirit first. You
both live at the same address.
If we need a
sounding board, we can talk with fellow believers.
The only way
that Satan can outwit us is if we play his games.
Go to bed
angry.
Don’t
forgive.
Trust our
own understanding over what God is telling us.
Be known by
your pointing fingers instead of your love.
Do you ever
get the urge to tell someone to “Shut Up!”?
You can tell
the devil to shut up. Make sure you tell him to Shut Up in the name of Jesus,
not your own righteousness.
Tell him to
go away, then walk away from the conversation you're not going to have. Satan
is not entitled to equal time.
But, but,
but, I’ve never had a conversation with Satan in my whole life… Yes, you have. It takes place in your mind.
We have all engaged in discussions that we should never have begun.
Why do you
think Paul directs us to take every thought captive and make it obedient to
Christ?
Most of
Paul’s counsel is in the realm of forgiveness. Elsewhere, we are told not to
give the devil a foothold. The failure to forgive as God has forgiven us is an
embossed invitation for Satan to take a seat at the decision-making table of
our lives.
That dog
don’t hunt. Forgive and tell the devil to hit the road in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Read
2
Corinthians 2
We looked at the first part of this
chapter during First Light. Let’s consider the last part here.
But thanks be to God, who always leads
us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma
of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of
Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one
we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And
who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God
for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as
those sent from God.
I read this some years ago. Some of you might
have even stayed awake for it. It’s called simply, A Manifesto and it’s by Dr. Morris Pepper. Yes, the sermon this morning has a message
from Dr. Pepper.
Morris Pepper was a Cumberland Presbyterian—a CP. I will
preface this by asking you to consider that we are all ministers, so when you
hear minister in this reading, put that in the first person.
I have nothing to sell. Many people think the minister is a peddler whose commodity is
religion. Preaching is making a sales talk. Visiting means cultivating
prospects. Evangelism is doing a “hard sell.”
I have nothing to sell. Religion is not a commodity. God is not on the
counter or in a catalog. God’s love and mercy are not Wall Street
items. God’s blessings will not be found in bargain basements.
I have nothing to sell. I have a witness to make. There are some things
which I believe, convictions arising from my thought and life, which I know
from within. Of these I witness. They are not mere
blessings of tradition. They are real to me because God is
real. But they cannot be bought or sold. They can only be
witnessed.
I have nothing to sell. I have a message to communicate. It is a story of
Jesus Christ, a story of redemption. It is a promise, a promise of
what can happen here and now. It is the gospel, the good news of
God’s love told by one who knows it firsthand. I am a storyteller, a
proclaimer, an announcer—not a cocky salesman with a hot line.
I have nothing to sell. I have a friendship to offer. Some are like Job
who would like to recapture the days when “the friendship of God was upon my
tent.” Others have never known such a relationship. Many
are afraid of God. Still others are rebellious. To these
and others I say, “God loves you. Won’t you let God be your friend?”
I have nothing to sell. You can’t buy salvation. You can’t buy
faith. You can’t buy heaven. You can’t buy
God. Nor can you sell them. My job is to offer you an
adventure, not to sell you a bill of goods—to invite you to join a mission, not
a Cosmos Club.
I am not doing hard sell, soft sell, or using psychology. I don’t have any tricks to pull out of the
bag. So don’t raise your sales resistance. I am an
educator, a teacher, a pastor, a counselor—but please, not a
huckster! I am a witness, a communicator, an announcer, a reporter,
but never a peddler.
For we are not like so many, peddlers of God’s word; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from
God and standing in his presence
Witnessing is a mindset. What I have
in my relationship with God is too good to keep to myself. If I don’t believe
that, I should question whether or not I believe in the one true God. If I say
that I believe in God and his forgiveness, but am not compelled to share that
with others, do I believe at all?
When I consider the mercy of God
poured out in the blood of Jesus for my sins, I must testify to love.
As I consider the grace of God applied
to my life, I cannot be so selfish as not to tell others whenever I can.
When I think that God himself,
speaking as the person of Jesus Christ his Son, said be known by your love, how
can I grow deaf to his command?
We have nothing to sell. We have good
news to deliver. We have an example to make. We have believers to disciple.
We are not a country club.
We are not entertainment.
We are people who have repented.
We are people who carry the Spirit of
God inside of us.
We were sinners.
We have come out of our disobedience
to believe in the Son of God.
We were saved by grace.
We are a new creature—a new creation.
And that new creature can’t keep its mouth shut about the goodness and glory of
God that we know firsthand in Christ Jesus and the Spirit that lives within us.
We are people who walk by faith, not
by sight.
We have nothing to sell. We have a witness
to make.
But will we? Is this starting to sound
familiar?
The curse of modern Christianity is to
acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the
Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own
understanding in such high esteem.
If we have been changed, then we have
stories to tell, witnesses to make, and a message that we cannot contain within
us.
Amen.
Read 2
Corinthians 3
Paul talked
about the glory of the Old Covenant and the Law that came through Moses. Moses
had been in the presence of God, and he veiled his face because the people were
not ready to look upon one who had been in God's presence.
The Law that
came through Moses was glorious but could only show us that we were dead in our
sins. Its actions only mitigated the evil in our hearts, but the glory that
comes through Christ has surpassed the glory of the Law so much so that there
is no comparison.
Jesus wants a
wholesale exchange of our hearts of evil for hearts of love.
Listen to
where Paul goes next.
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are
very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent
the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds
were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is
read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to
this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone
turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with
unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his
image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
To this day,
people see the rules established by God without seeing the heart of God. They
have checklists but do not understand the divine intent. In the vernacular of 2025,
Paul was saying, “Prove you’re not a robot.”
We don’t
just go through the motions. Jesus has opened our eyes to the divine love of
God. He has brought us from death to life and is with us to the end of the age.
He is with us in the Spirit of God that lives within us.
People ask
me, “How to you make one person out of three?”
They are referring, of course, to the God in three persons
verbiage by which we know the Trinity of God.
The answer
is that we can’t make one out of three, but we can understand God, who is very
much beyond our understanding, manifest to us in three different persons. It’s
still one God but revealed to us as Father, Son, and Spirit.
So when
Jesus said that he would be with
us to the end of the age, he is very much present in the Spirit that lives
within us.
And Jesus,
the Spirit, and every part of God that we know intimately are working to
transform us. We don’t hide from the glory of God. We desire it. We seek it. We
want to live
a life worthy of the calling that we have received.
The law will
not transform us. It will show us that we have no standing before God on our
own merits. He made us good and we made a mess of it. The law will show us that,
but it can only mitigate the evil in our hearts.
God, who
lives within us, transforms us into his divine image. If we would just follow
his lead…
But our own
understanding says:
· The law makes more sense.
· I need to do something tangible for my
salvation.
· There’s got to be more.
We should celebrate
a life led entirely by the Spirit of God; instead, we are showing off our
acceptance letter to the School of Hard Knocks.
Yeah, I know the Spirit was leading me to do things God’s way, but…
Following
the Spirit that he placed inside of us can lead to freedom—that’s a good one
for this Independence Day weekend, peace, fulfillment, and pleasing God. Why
would we resist that?
Life and
Abundant life reside in following the Spirit’s lead. Why would we not want
that?
Anxiety,
fear, worry, and the things of the world that debilitate us are kicked to the
curb when we follow the Spirit of God, who lives at our address now. That seems
like a good trade, right?
If we follow
the Spirit's leading, he will lead us to love-filled actions. Our love will
make us known as followers of Jesus. Let the Spirit lead.
That’s the
model we have be given. Let’s follow God’s Spirit.
Amen.
Read
2
Corinthians 1
In our last episode…
It’s like watching Batman and Robin. The
Caped Crusaders would catch the bad guys during the allotted time, but end up
in peril once again at the end of the show.
Paul was delaying his trip to Corinth
because he was realizing much success in Asia. Things changed.
They got bad, then worse. We don’t get
all the details, but apparently it was more than just the Judaizers opposing
Paul and his crew. He noted there was some existential risk. We call that
danger.
It was more than they could handle,
but not too much for God. In fact, only in these desperate times was God’s
presence manifest.
It was sort of like God
sending so many of Gideon’s warriors home so that it would be evident that
the victory could have come only from God.
It was sort of like God hardening
Pharaoh’s heart so that there would be no doubt that the Hebrew people were
released from bondage in Egypt, not because of the superior negotiation skills
of Moses, but by the mighty acts of God.
Paul noted that only God could have
delivered them. So, one day or month or year, Paul and company stopped going
from mountaintop experience to mountaintop experience. The next thing they knew
they were walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
But they lived to fight and spread the
gospel another day. Paul noted that the believers in Asia and those in Corinth
and Achaia were like fellow combatants.
They endured pain with each other, and
they celebrated victories together.
While the poetry is not there, I grasp
the same sentiment and warrior spirit as in the king’s speech in Shakespeare’s Henry
V. Do you remember how he summed it
all up? The words will sound familiar.
From
this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not
here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any
speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
I’m not doing a History Channel thing
on the Battle of Agincourt, the introduction of the British longbow into
fifteenth-century combat, or how few we happy few happened to be.
Paul noted that it was something
special to suffer for God, to suffer for the gospel.
Do you remember God telling Ananias
that he would show Saul—by this time we are calling him Paul—how much he must suffer for my name.
Paul knew that he would suffer as he
took the truth to a world that didn’t want to hear it.
Do you recall how the Beatitudes
concluded?
Blessed are those who are persecuted
because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult
you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same
way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Surely, Tom isn’t going to insert a
time of self-flagellation into the worship service or Sunday School. The one who jump-started the Reformation
practiced a little of that and the Cumberland Church is part of the reformed
tradition.
I knew I should
have gone to that meeting to see what they were up to.
The only form of self-inflicted suffering
you will get this morning is to make it through the rest of the sermon.
Understand that if we live the life of
a disciple, we will inevitably face persecution and suffering. Paul wrote to
the church in Corinth and said, “Let’s come out of this victorious together.” Close enough.
To live is
Christ. To die is gain. You know
the words. Paul noted that pressing on doing the work of an evangelist might
just be painful, but let’s enjoy it together.
I love seeing other veterans when I
cruise, especially my fellow Marines. And when you have been places that most
people never go of their own accord, you share something.
You may have been separated by miles
or meters, years or decades, allies and enemies, but you chewed the same dirt
or are still working the desert sand out of your ears today.
There is a connection that the timid
and those governed by comfort will never know. Paul noted that he and the
Corinthians were their own sort of band of brothers. Yes, the syntax reflects
the masculine but applies to all who have been persecuted for following the
Christ.
Those who never endured and emerged
victorious over what the world threw at them should hold their manhood cheap.
Enough for the band of brothers
bit. Let’s get to discipleship. This one
comes with some assurance. It is delivered in the course of Paul explaining his
travel plans, but we are not talking Google Maps and GPS routings.
But as surely as God is faithful, our message
to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was
preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,”
but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has
made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us
to the glory of God. Now it is God who
makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of
ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing
what is to come.
Ok, there is a little more Band of
Brothers in that, but we must extract from this the affirmative. When we ask,
how can God fulfill his promises to us in the middle of my mess, we know the
answer is in Christ Jesus, not in our own understanding.
So, there is your affirmation. Now,
let’s have our dose of discipleship. You have heard this from me before, and
probably will again.
The curse of modern Christianity is to
acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the
Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own
understanding in such high esteem.
Knowing that the saints here in this
body and in those across the road or the nation are called to put the words of
our Master into practice…
Knowing that the saints across the
ages, not just in this modern century, are called to put the words of our
Master into practice…
Knowing that all of God’s promises are
true and will be fulfilled in the name and the work of Christ Jesus…
Knowing all these things…
How can we not be
changed? How can we grip our own understanding
so tightly? How can we let our fellow warriors—our fellow saints—down by not
surrendering it all to Christ Jesus and putting his words into practice?
Let us live as if our very souls
believed that every promise is “Yes” in Christ Jesus. We are not in this alone.
We have brothers and sisters in this fight with us as we invade a pagan world
with the good news.
We are in league with every believer of
every century. We are fellow warriors in Christ in every clime and place—couldn’t
pass that one up—with every geography, regardless of where the boundaries are
now drawn.
Some church bodies engage in a lot of
worldly, feel-good activities. Some of you may wish we didn’t have so much
scripture and did some feel-good stuff every once in a while.
Not because it feels good, but because
it reinforces Paul’s words, I will give you the end of the Shakespeare quote to
close. It’s a relevant affirmation.
From this day to the ending of the
world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood
with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so
vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they
were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles
any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint
Crispin's day.
In Christ, all of God’s promises are
fulfilled.
We are not in this alone.
Imagine one day in eternity, coming up
on a young, ruddy-looking man picking out stones from a stream. You say, “What’s
up?” The strapping young man says, “I’m
fixin’ to go kill me a giant or two. You comin’?”
We are in this fight together with the
saints
from all ages, and some of them are excellent warriors.
We face this mean and tumultuous world
with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ across time and geography. We
are in good company when the world persecutes us for following Christ.
Enjoy the company of your fellow
warriors.
Amen.
Read Acts
2
I am going
to start with a story that most of you have heard a few times, if not from me,
from someone.
An old
Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life.
“A fight is
going on inside me,” he told the young boy, “a terrible fight between two
wolves.”
“One is evil,
full of anger, sorrow, regret, greed, self-pity and false pride. The other is
good, full of joy, peace, love, humility, kindness and faith.”
“This same
fight is going on inside of you, grandson… and inside of every other person on
this earth.”
The grandson
ponders this for a moment and then asks,
“Grandfather,
which wolf will win?”
The old man
smiled and simply said,
“The One You
Feed.”
Today we
celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We are not celebrating
Pentecost, though some still do. We are not celebrating the end of the Feast of
Weeks. In fact, much of the harvest is still in the fields.
Realize that
on Pentecost and because of this culmination of these fifty days since
Passover, many people from many nations were gathered in Jerusalem when the
Spirit came upon the Apostles.
Because of
the Spirit, communication was not a problem.
If you don’t know what I am talking about, go read the second chapter of
Acts.
Let’s talk
present day. When we professed Jesus is Lord, the Spirit came to live
within us.
In your genuine
profession
, you passed
from death to life in that very moment, and the Spirit of Holy God lives
within you.
Guess what?
The Spirit of the world also lives within you. So as in the story of the two
wolves, we have a simple dichotomy.
Which spirit
has our full attention?
For most
people, it’s like watching a tennis match, back and forth again and again. Spirit of God then the spirit of the world.
God, world, God, world, God…
Before I
depart this place, we might just have a Proverbs
3:5-6 Boot Camp. What would that
look like?
We would say
proverbs 3:5-6 at least 100 times. Then we would take a break and say Hebrews
11:1 a dozen times then back to Proverbs 3:5-6 for another hundred or so
repetitions.
It’s
indoctrination for sure, but exactly what we need. Why?
Because the
world is doing a better job of indoctrinating us than we are taking on the yoke
of our Master.
It’s not
like we have to walk to the temple chanting psalms along the way to have our
encounter with God.
God lives
within us. The Spirit of God lives within us!
Why are we
still so vested in our own understanding?
The wrong
wolf is winning far too often and we are without excuse for we know that the
Spirit of God is within us.
We don’t
have to feed the Spirit. We are told to fan the flames of the Spirit and if we
do that, it feeds us.
Too often we
find ourselves throwing water on the flames of the Spirit. What water? Doubt,
our own understanding, and little faith.
You are
going to hear this again in the next service. It is a Tomism, so chew on
it before you accept it. But I’m not saying this because I wanted some filler.
I don’t do filler. When I say what I was meant to say, I just stop talking, but
take note of this.
The curse of modern Christianity is to
acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the
Spirit lives within us and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own
understanding in such high esteem.
It’s time to
fan
the flames of God’s Spirit within us. It’s time that our lives were changed
by the Spirit of God that lives within us.
Amen.
