Peace In The Middle Of Chaos

Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.

This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, Florida.

A lot of opportunities that I've had this um past week to try to figure out what an actual walking relationship with the Holy Spirit is.

And the beautiful thing with that is that it's an omni-shaped relationship.

So what that means is that if you are grieving, the Holy Spirit is present.

If you're really happy, he's present.

Um if you're really angry, he's present.

Uh if you're really confused, he's present.

Yeah, so um what that uh means though for us as um followers of Christ and following with the Holy Spirit uh what that means is that we have a choice to be aware of it.

So we don't step out of it, we don't lose favor with it, we don't lose um connection with the Holy Spirit.

We continue to be in it no matter what.

But what we get confused by, and what has been confusing for me this week, is feeling like my decisions or who I am is pushing me in or out of the Holy Spirit, but that the opposite of that is true.

The omni-shaped presence of the Holy Spirit means that whatever your shape is, whatever you're going through, means that the Holy Spirit can adapt.

I don't know if you've had um a friend or a family member who can adapt with you, but it is something peaceful when you know that there's someone who can be joyful when you're joyful, someone who can be sad when you're sad, someone who can be angry when you're angry, and all of these emotions that we experience are not bad.

All these experiences that we're feeling are not bad.

That God doesn't call the bad.

Wow.

Powerful.

Very good.

All right, and now I will welcome up Pastor Heather and Pastor Dennis.

Uh as a church family, we get to be a part of celebrating weddings, which we did in December for Rafe and Jenna.

And we get to be a part of babies coming and families being made, and we get to be a part of and the experience of just being with people as they live.

And that's the invitation for us in this Pentecost season to go, how do I live open-hearted to the things of the spirit?

How do I allow connection with the Holy Spirit to really be the wisdom that I live my life in?

And so the invitation for all of us is not just to rejoice with Rafe and Jenna, but yes, rejoice with them and pray for Jenna and her body and the things that she needs to do to make a beautiful baby.

We bless her and bless the work of the Lord's hands.

The scripture says to us that um David said this in the Psalms, when I was still in my mother's womb, you were there knitting me together.

And so if you want to know where Jenna is, she and God are working on a project.

And um, so that's a beautiful thing.

And I don't know if you could have a better partner in a project than God Himself.

And so there is a gift to us this morning in remembering that.

When when you think to yourself, well, where are the miracles?

Right now, a human being is being made right there, and we and we just must stand in awe of God and what he does, and that we get to be a part of that, that our family is added to.

And so we're just so grateful that you'd share that with us today, and we'll just continue to pray for you.

Uh, and uh we'll be looking uh for the uh when you tell us the uh uh baby shower is and and all those things, and we want to be a part of all that with them.

Amen.

It's beautiful, it's beautiful.

In this particular season, we recognize the un um the unknown.

And that's why I think it's so important for us to recognize the practice of staying attuned to the Holy Spirit.

Because as much as we can plan for the future or plan for uh what is coming, we can't plan because we just simply don't know.

And that in fact can terrise us because we don't know.

But we just read those verses together.

Jesus said, I'm gonna send you a helper, the Holy Spirit, and I'm gonna give you peace, not as the world gives peace.

I'm gonna give you lasting peace so that when things come up that you didn't plan, when you are in situations that you didn't get yourself into, but you find yourself in those situations, the Holy Spirit is present with us.

Oh, amen.

No matter what.

You know, uh Heather and I were talking uh today about how, you know, it's kind of, you know, when you're having a really good day, it's kind of easy to be surrendered to Holy Spirit and be, you know, this peaceful being.

But uh, but life will we'll throw you a curveball, we'll have pressures and we'll have times where where you just, I mean, you know, uh, there's a lot of uncertainty.

And and it's a it's to me, you know, in real time, it's such a practical uh thing to to can I find peace in there?

You know, what Tom was talking about is is I'm watching Holy Spirit speak to us in real time.

Tom is figuring that out in real time.

We're all doing Heather and I are doing it right now.

You know, uh Clace and I were root uh cutting down trees in my yard.

Yesterday morning.

Yesterday morning.

Got up early and we're working and tells exhausted.

And they sat on the couch and passed out, and uh, and all of a sudden, uh I heard a rainstorm kicking up.

And uh I'm like, man, you know, uh what's going on?

So I go to the window, open the curtains, and boy, it's like black.

And I stepped away from that window.

Long about that time, a tree just comes through our house.

And right where I was standing, opening that curtain, not five seconds later, there's a tree there all across the split the house basically in half, you know, uh, out into my shop and everything.

And so, and I was about at the uh about the fireplace by the time that, you know, because I was just stepping away from that window to open the curtains on the other side.

And so then I took off towards the kitchen because I didn't know if the house was collapsing, you know, what was going on.

And uh and all of a sudden everybody comes down because they hear the commotion, and and we just started working together.

What do I do?

Well, you move that couch and and uh the pianos getting filled with drywall and rainwater, just don't, you know, it was like a monsoon at that moment, you know, and and so we're pushing that piano out of the way, but the whole time wondering if the ceiling's gonna come down, you know.

So you're like pushing a little runaway, and then just you know, getting the furniture back and moving.

And and I just watched, you know, that that in the middle of all that chaos, you can have a peace, you know, and and of course we we get a little stressed, and maybe, you know, you're sad, you're maybe crying, scared, you know.

But I I wanna I want you to know that uh that that this is real what we're talking about today.

I don't want to talk in uh you know hypotheses, you know, and theories, because we need to have a the a tangible Holy Spirit because we live in a real world, you know.

And I had my conversation with my trees on the property.

I said, hey, wait a minute.

It was the neighbor that tore all the trees down.

I'm planting new trees.

I'm a tree guy.

And you and you went through my yard, you know, we got to, you know, things that, you know, I'm the man of God.

Shouldn't my house be protected?

Should we never have calamities?

What God is saying to us is not is the contrary, not that that we'll avoid troubles, but that in them, in this world there will be tribulation, but take courage, what?

For I have overcome them, that God has made a way of escape for us, that there can be a peace for you and I, even in the middle of that.

And that's what God gives us, you know?

And it was amazing just in a couple, you know, 20 or 30 minutes, there's a guy from the county there and telling us that stacking a red tag on our house that we can't live there anymore.

Unplanned.

That was not planned for.

Then all of a sudden we're homeless is like not something we planned.

But you know what?

There's still a grace in the middle of this.

And for those people that have offered us uh homes and and spaces, uh, I don't want to seem ungrateful.

I'm just overwhelmed.

I don't know what we're supposed to do, you know?

And so we're gonna figure it out.

But we knew one thing.

We were having church the next day.

It's we're getting together with our family.

Because this is what is important.

Because one day all that those other people are gonna live on that property, and other people are gonna have all that all that response, all your jobs and all things that you're gonna go to.

But what matters?

This right here.

Amen.

Amen.

Don't shut me down because I'm preaching real good.

We text Catherine, she's in Paris, and sent her a picture.

First, I said that I before any pictures were sent, I put we're okay, and then sent a picture.

And at that point, we had already been cleaning up.

And Silas was understandably very upset.

And um, I said, None of us kind of know what to do right now.

We've never done this before, we've never been in this exact situation.

So we'll use wisdom.

And this really applies to what we're talking about today, because wisdom is a presence the Holy Spirit uses for us, gives us invitation, follow wisdom.

Wisdom goes even before faith.

And so there's this invitation to follow wisdom, and so we do this.

And so I had said to Silas, none of us know what we're doing, but you know, what you're given a job, just do it.

And we were all working together.

I'm not kidding, I think we could have gold meddled.

If it was an Olympic event, like the house falling in and everybody helping, that we would have done it.

I think we would have meddled.

And um, and that was a beautiful thing.

But Catherine sent a text back.

She goes, What do you mean you've never prepared for this?

You didn't know this.

This is what we've all been doing our whole life.

When something happens, we all just say, What can I do?

And that's how things get done.

And so we weren't ever in our minds thinking the roof would fall in, except for when it did fall in, we all said, What can I do?

And and so there is this grace, and that's the practice of community.

That's the practice of saying, How do I show up and say, What can I do to be a blessing to someone else, to bear someone else's burdens, to be the hands of Christ, to be peace to someone while they're stressed or suffering, or to be joyful with Rafe and Jenna, or to celebrate with someone and say, This is the good stuff.

This is the savoring of life, not just the sweet, but also the bitter, but the bitter not alone, but the bitter not without the presence of spirit.

You know, and I think about uh, you know, what Thomas said, and uh and I think about our situation here, like there's the Holy Spirit with such joy in the birth of a baby.

There's us struggling with this.

There's, you know, uh Ricky in real time at home taking care of his mom, who just had a surgery and the stress that that comes through that.

And my brother called me and said my mom had to go back into the hospital because of an infection, and and uh after that big surgery.

And so, you know, there's uh that you might you might be angry, you might be going through a situation, uh breakup, uh a divorce, or or whatever, and there's all this emotion and stuff.

And I just love that we remember that that God-shaped hole that we have only God can fill.

And the Holy Spirit will come in and and and not just be you know be resistant because of of your anger, but but come in and meet you at that place of anger.

And I love that, you know, that oftentimes people say the Holy Spirit's like a little bird, and if you mess up, the Holy Spirit will just fly away.

I'm just so grateful.

The Holy Spirit is is ever-present help in time of trouble and is not freaking out when you're freaking out, and is is is coming alongside you with that sadness and with that anger and with that fear.

You know, let's let's be reminded of the necessity uh for us to understand, learn, and learn to depend on the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Some people give that illustration because at Jesus' baptism, the scripture says the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and what it looked like in the form of a dove.

So some people talk about that.

But if you look in the scripture, I feel like a better invitation is to look at Elijah, who has had it up to here.

He's gonna die.

The Jezebel is gonna come and gonna kill him.

He has done these incredible feats for God, and he's like, I'm done.

I've already done as much as I can do.

I'm the only one who follows you.

Um, and he is mad.

And God says to him, I want you to go by the brook by the little river there, and um, I want you to take a nap.

And I'm gonna send you some food.

And that's good.

And the Holy Spirit comes as ravens who bring lunch.

And I'm thinking, you know, and it said that that food sustained him 40 days until he got somewhere else.

And so, this understanding that the Holy Spirit, I thank you for saying that, is not flighty, is not afraid, that whatever situation you find yourself in, our job or our practice is how do I attune to the presence of God who is with me right now?

Because what all of us feel is I'm alone.

Whenever something happens, we feel like now it's all on me.

And this understanding of saying, there, here's just the opposite Christ in us.

We get to read today from Romans chapter eight, and again, you'll see the spirit working in here.

And during this time of the season of Pentecost, we look at the scriptures that teach us or give us a view of the spirit.

But ultimately, the Holy Spirit is not something to know in your head.

The Holy Spirit is something to embody and to live with, a living presence of God with us.

And so many of the things that someone will tell you about the Holy Spirit, it's great that they know those things, but ask someone who lives with the Holy Spirit, ask someone who has heard the voice in the middle of the night tell them to do something and they did.

Ask someone who is a dreamer, ask someone who has an expansive view of the spirit, and then listen for that spirit yourself, because you have the Holy Spirit in you.

And so in Romans chapter eight, I do stand this morning before you.

This letter was given to the church at Rome, written by Saint Paul, but given to Phoebe.

And Phoebe took this letter to the church at Rome, and then Phoebe was the one who began to discuss that this letter, and it's an incredible book of, we call it a book, but a letter to the Roman church.

And so this morning I come to you in the lineage of Phoebe, who was the first to decide this is what it means.

In Romans chapter eight.

I love this verse.

If you're gonna have something um cross-stitched on a pillow, I think this would be another great thing to have.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Thank you for that kind of thing.

Now this is true for us.

None of us condemned, none of us.

Jesus has said, I do not condemn you.

That is the hope for all of us, none of us condemned.

And that is celebration, that is liberation, that is worthy of this hope.

And so many of you and I have spent way too many hours, uh, months, years, you know, in condemnation and believe that it was your religious duty or duty to do so.

And I want to remind you that it is your responsibility to reject that condemnation because it will come.

It is it is it is uh um, you know, in in in really entangled in religion.

And when I use the word religion, I mean by the definition of about God, without God, you know, that kind of a thing that we think that we can do to somehow get to God.

Uh and and with with many of us, we we have this lifestyle of condemnation and somehow think God is pleased by it when it holds us back, it hinders us, it it's it's it's terrible, it's a plague on humanity.

And we have the answer, and as uh followers of Christ, given the Holy Spirit, there's a discernment.

When I recognize that, I reject that thought, I reject that emotion and that feeling.

And some of us are addicted to it.

It's it's it's familiar and that breeds comfort.

And sometimes we would choose to be comfort over to grow and to be transformed.

So if the word says there's no condemnation, then why are you in condemnation?

And now I said that now you're in condemnation overhead condemnation.

You're missing the point.

I'm reminding you of your freedom, reminding you that the cell door has been opened to that prison.

Now walk free.

Thank you for those three amends.

And then free the other people who are around you.

Remind themselves.

Yes, yes, loose their chains.

And because you belong to him, and because you belong to him, your belonging, your worthiness is not an option, it's not up for debate.

No one gets to vote you out.

This is hopeful.

Because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Now, this verse is so beautiful because it reminds us it is the spirit's power that we have to be able to change, to be able to be transformed.

It is not our power that we rely on, it is the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that spirit living in us, that spirit freeing us from illusions that say we're separate, or illusions that say we should regret and stay in pity or stay in ways of thinking that lead to death.

And I think that for you to to uh understand that it's such a temptation and such kind of like a you know, a fundamental doctrine of religion is that it really, you know, you got to look at your performance.

And it's gonna be somehow there's there's some in and some out, and some did it and some didn't.

And so we we always looked ourselves and we always judge ourselves as just not enough, you know, and so uh the the because is you belong to him, and not because you did enough, or not because you didn't do quite enough, because we're always gonna feel that way.

And so, you know, again, those are the things that we need to cast away, those kind of thoughts and those kind of uh um ideas that that they said to us in a comfortable way, and they've been handed to us probably by our family of origin and probably by places that we've trusted, but they're erroneous and they um mean to uh chip away at your confidence in your the foundation of who are as follows.

It's because I'm in Christ.

It's because I belong to him that I am free, not based on my performance, you know, unless anyone could boast, you know, it's not about you, quit making it about you.

Well, I didn't do enough.

I didn't no, listen.

It was never about that.

You belong to God, so of course He He is He is gonna reveal God's self to you.

Come on.

I just preached.

Later, St.

Paul reminds us of this when he says, What can separate you from the love of God?

What can separate you from the love of Christ?

You're absolutely right, Ryan.

Nothing, nothing you do.

It says, Neither hell nor angels, nothing, not above, not below.

There is nothing that can separate you from the love of Christ.

That is good news for us.

And so if we are not separated from the love of Christ, then our choice is to live in it.

The law of Moses wasn't able to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.

So God did.

And this is who our God is, beloved.

We cannot do it ourselves, and so God did.

So you do not have to worry about those things.

Now, the invitation is to live as one who is free, as one who doesn't have to ruminate on the ideas that are negative or feel like they're going to lead us to death.

There's something else.

What the law could not do, he sent his own son in a body like the bodies we have.

And in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving us his son as a sacrifice for our sin.

This verse reminds us so beautifully that Jesus came for us, and now the illusion that we had that we have to somehow make it right, that we have to find a way back to God, we have to, you know, build a monument or something.

The idea is that God has come to us.

That is what the annunciation is like.

Jesus has come to us, he has a body like we do.

And so this also means that I do not have to change my humanity in order to meet up with God.

God already showed us Jesus came.

I don't have to despise my humanness to have a conversation with the creator of all things.

That I look at these things and say, How do I get out of ideas and traps that lead?

To death.

He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the spirit.

Here is the different path.

Here is the pattern interrupt.

That we become people who follow the Holy Spirit, that we follow where the Spirit is going.

And we see this exemplified in the life of Jesus.

We see what the Spirit was up to, what the Spirit has always been up to.

I wonder for many of us if we believe that a practice of a Christian faith is just for our afterlife.

Beloved, this tells us right now, this is for now.

This is what Jesus was talking about when the kingdom comes now among us.

The kingdom right now, as close as your own mouth, as close as the words that you speak, as close as the thoughts that you have.

Instead, follow the spirit.

Well, that's really a great idea, beloved.

But when Nicodemus said to Jesus, How am I going to see the spirit?

How do I know?

And he said, The spirit is like wind.

What?

What?

Well, I just tell you, the wind caused a big commotion last night at our house.

But we didn't see a thing.

And and so I say that to say I understand so much the struggle of saying, follow the spirit.

Great.

If I could see what the spirit was doing, I would do it.

If I, if you gave me a note, a post-it note with the instructions on it, we wouldn't, we already have those.

It's called the Beatitudes and all the other things.

We don't follow those things.

The Spirit comes to us and says, Let me live alongside of you.

Let me live as you live.

But the choice is ours to follow the Spirit.

I think what Heather said really should be uh uh meditated on, you know, that idea that um that the Holy Spirit um is uh I forgot how you said it just then.

It was so profound.

Where am I in the tape?

But it's not for our afterlife, it's for this right now.

That is so powerful because we figure like, well, one day I'm gonna be this spirit floating around and I'll figure out how to live spiritually then.

But we miss the importance of right, you know, of of the spiritual life and and its importance now.

You know, uh my Achilles heel, I know I've noticed is work.

There's something there, some covenant or something maybe with my uh family of origin or whatever.

But when I got a job to do, I got a job to do.

And I have stepped all over my children, my wife, anyone who is there in order to get that job done.

Look, just do it.

Shut up and do the work, you know, because the job was the important.

And and I and I think that what I'm realizing, and it and it's and it's this idea of listening to the Holy Spirit, because I'm I I will still have a job to do.

I will be in the in the in the flesh doing a job, but I can also be aware during that job, how am I treating the people around me?

Right?

And and is this job more important than my relationship with my son?

If I can be aware of that, I'm in the spirit.

If I'm not aware of it, I'm what?

In the flesh.

And so what is what what are we really talking about here?

It's learning how to live not just as those little robots who are just living in their carnal lives.

I'm going to work, I'm doing my thing, I'm gathering my belongings and my, you know, I'm I'm happy right now that that my house split in half because I built that house with anger.

You know what I'm gonna rebuild it with?

The Spirit of God.

And lo.

Amen.

I'm committed to that right now.

I'm so excited for the opportunity that I've got I've been given a second chance.

I just realized it right now, right?

And we're gonna do that, and and and it won't be at the cost of my my sons and and my wife and and my friends and and whatever.

You know what I mean?

And and but what is what does that mean for you?

Where is it that we just robotically live in a carnal thinking?

Let's talk about, though, not just somebody else's work, but how do you view work?

Is work how you define yourself?

Is work what gives you uh permission to be loved or to be worthy?

And so we need to be mindful, not just outwardly, but say, how do I view work?

Is work an invitation to live with God, or is work something I have to do so that I can prove I'm worth something, so I can prove that I belong somewhere.

And so I appreciate very much what Pastor Denis said there with, you know, how do you treat other people, but how do you treat yourself?

Beloved, here is the invitation for us to be people of the spirit who understand what the Sabbath is for.

We are made in rest.

We were made, and it was very good.

Before anybody did any job at all, God looked at us and said, Oh, it's very good.

It's very good.

And so every Sunday when we gather together, we remember the resurrection.

But every Sunday when we say we give up our work on this day, it's we give up any kind of false idea that gives us value.

What gives us value is that we are made in the image of God.

What gives us value is that we are our unique expression of God with us.

And so the invitation is not to in any way diminish work.

Work is good if you understand that work does not define you.

Right.

If work can be something that you can offer to someone else because it can help them or it can be a part of the bringing the kingdom here.

You know, I wanted to order, I love that so much.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading my mail in front of everybody.

Okay, that's good.

Uh, but that's exactly what I'm doing, you know.

Uh, but but you know, I want us to think about that um that idea of the Holy Spirit.

Oh, I had something really powerful I wanted to say, got distracted.

I'll I'll keep going on.

You'll bring it back and he'll interrupt, but we'll go back there.

And then I'll go, hey, let me go.

Okay, okay.

I want to read from the verse.

I do, I just wanted this.

Is not the whole sentence.

So he did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the spirit.

You know how the Bible says that like you're given the spirit in part, you know, and then and then you get the baptism of the Holy Spirit and you get more and stuff like that.

And you know, and so I'm I'm kind of realizing that you know that we have the spirit and and it's connected with your consciousness, you know, your awareness of your being, because you're a spirit.

And so it's not like that I'm Dennis this by.

I'm I'm I'm the person inside there that's experiencing this, right?

And we're having and and so oftentimes that gets pushed aside, and we just you know, go to work and do the job, put put the thing together or do the thing that we're supposed to do.

And we forget that we can commune with Holy Spirit.

And so, so what I'm saying is that there's more than just even that that place of consciousness, that there's a place where we can hear the spirit say go up and be kind to that person, go say this to them, and then you then you begin to see them, you know, you know, it respond in such a way that you recognize that was that was a God thing, what happened there.

You follow me?

So I want you to to realize that that there's more that that God wants wants us to experience.

So uh when it comes to learning how to be in the spirit, it is a process.

It may be just day one for you to realize I am a spirit.

And uh, and and and write and and then how do I but I but I hurt so many people I did, and then that I get distracted off in condemnation and I'm derailed.

If I can stay and learn, well, how do I hear the Holy Spirit?

Well, I would recommend that you get around people that do truly hear the Holy Spirit and ask some questions.

Read scriptures about the Spirit, you know, listen to the discussions that we have in church, because what we're doing then is we're becoming more and more inclined and obedient and and uh understanding of Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And in that way, you're going to grow and be less likely to sin, which leads to death, be mean to people, to miss the mark, to really to to just let this world be just about what you can gather and what you can get, but realize wow, the real the real gift of this world is what we're able to allow the Holy Spirit to give through us.

Amen.

Am I making sense there?

So I want you to understand the that that it's it's okay if you know maybe you're not doing amazing things like uh you've seen some person, you know, that you look up that some real spiritual person, and so you're in condemnation.

But we're learning, and so there's growth to this.

And so allow yourself to be alive, to be okay with where you are, and then desire to go deeper, to go more.

Amen.

And I want you to know that there will always be more.

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I also want to talk for a second about the work because I think that it's important for us.

A lot of things in our culture are given to us, and we are not even aware that we hold those thoughts.

And so I do want to remind us that we will not be people who retire from the work.

The work is not the job that you do, the work that we that we have is to become love, that every bit of us would be radiating with the love of God.

And that we never retire from.

And hopefully, as we get older, wisdom will allow us a bigger um opportunity to surrender.

So that is who we will be.

So I remind you, beloved, that work is not the job that you do.

Work is becoming, is allowing yourself to become love.

In this verse five, it says, Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things.

I want to take a moment and talk about in this text when P when the Apostle Paul is talking about sin, he's talking about the illusions that we have that are separate from God.

Sin is not you um uh thinking um about uh cheating someone or anything like that.

This is the idea that that you're separate from God, that you have a life that you could lead and squander on trying to cheat people.

Don't think those thoughts, beloved.

Think the thought of love that says, How can I be a blessing to all people?

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.

We see this in the life of Jesus, who when he saw a hungry person, said to them, Here's some food.

When someone was sick, how can I help you?

What do you need?

And he healed them.

When someone was outside of a circle and the margins, Jesus came to them and brought belonging to people.

So if you say to yourself, I don't know what the spirit would do, I think you do, beloved, because again, the scripture tells us, and Jesus is our witness of what the spirit does.

Jesus is showing us how to be fully human and allow the fully divine part of us that's made in the image of God to be intertwined.

So we are to be people who ourselves becoming love, but then demonstrate that love by service, by giving to someone else.

Love is patient, beloved.

Love is kind.

Love does not think only of itself.

Love prefers someone else.

Love has self-control.

Love, the scripture tells us, is gentle.

And so we know what the spirit looks like.

And so finding that within ourselves takes practice.

Oh, that's so good.

You know, I love the the experiences I've had where I've surrendered to the Holy Spirit and have experienced, you know, how it's blessed others.

Um, and and I'm given over to it to a degree.

Uh, sometimes I get tired, then I want to rest and watch TV or something like that.

And inevitably Heather goes, Hey, can I read you something?

Or you know what the Lord's saying to me.

That's like think about that scripture right there of, you know, like the lesson we were just on, uh, you know, thinking about those things of spirit.

Sometimes I want to say to Heather, you know, I thought about the spirit for a couple hours today.

Now I'd like to think about nothing.

I'd like to veg out and watch the movie or something like that.

You know, and and and so in and of itself, it's not wrong that I would want to veg out, but I do need to understand that that serves me nothing.

And that will, that will, that will not benefit in eternity in any form or fashion.

And so sometimes I'll say, no, don't read me anything right now.

But most of the time I'll I'll shift gears.

Almost always I'll I'll go, uh, yeah, yeah, tell me one, you know, and I'll stop the doom scrolling, which wasn't helping me anyway, put it away.

And then what and then her and I will begin to have this beautiful conversation, and what she said becomes alive, and I become more submitted to spirit.

But but there, for me, I'm recognizing those moment by moment or daily opportunities to surrender to spirit, to learn about the Holy Spirit, and then be honest about the selfish times where I have decided not to, and then just and not get in condemnation, but realize why, why am I choosing that?

What would what did it benefit me?

I almost think that you know it is that flesh just, you know, you because we can either desire the flesh or the spirit.

So the flesh wants to just kind of doom scrolling, fall asleep, and and and you say, There's no sin, it doesn't really wrong.

I'm not saying you're sinful, bad.

I'm just saying, is it it's clearly not choosing spirit?

And I'm and I'm and I will testify that every time that I will decide to put down the flesh and focus on the spirit, even though I might have been doing church all day, because she's like this all the time.

Lord have mercy, Chris.

It's a lot, it is a lot, it's a lot of people.

You know, and it's awesome when she's preaching here, but then you know, I laid down in bed and she's preaching again.

Mercy.

But it's so good when we learn to surrender to that, and then the conversations and the experiences that her and I have, you know, when when I and so I'm watching myself learning how to follow Holy Spirit and to surrender and recognize what that means.

Like God's not mad at me if I chose if I chose that phone, but I do recognize what it cost me.

I gave up an opportunity to get closer to Holy Spirit, to learn Holy Spirit.

And when a tree goes through your house, when struggles happen, we want to have had some acquaintance with the Holy Spirit.

Because we're gonna need to draw on the Holy Spirit to keep from freaking out.

Shut me down because I'm preaching good.

And it's not just in situations that feel like they have calamity in them, but what does it look like for you when you're heartbroken?

When you feel so alone, when things did not go the way that you planned and worked really hard for them to go.

How do you invite the Holy Spirit to become present to you?

The Holy Spirit is with you, but it is our awareness that we give consent to.

I consent to being able to see the spirit at work here, or just even the accompaniment of the spirit, that I do not sit in grief alone, but the spirit is with me.

Can you go back to verse 9 for me, please, Ricky?

Thank you.

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature.

You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.

And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.

The next verse.

And Christ lives within you.

So even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit will give you life because you have been made right with God.

That is so beautiful.

That this idea that you have the spirit of love living in you, you have connection with the Holy One.

At one particular verse here, I'm gonna ask you to go back to it is verse um, I think it's five, six, seven.

Can you go back to seven for me, please?

My little remote is not working.

For the sinful nature is always hostile to God, it never did obeys God's laws, and it never will.

The next one?

And no, so it should be seven, eight, nine, ten.

Yeah.

That is why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

The next one, please.

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature.

You don't have to.

You don't have to.

Can you go to eleven?

I don't think it's eleven.

I'm gonna read it to you from this text in just a second.

I'll read it to you from here.

You can look it up like Thomas said earlier.

Or Rafe said earlier.

You get to read outside of this time.

Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.

Oh no, you weren't letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

Letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

Beloved, we have an opportunity to make a choice, to live differently, and we do that by choosing what we think about.

Now, we all have brains, thank the Lord for that, and our brains give us thoughts.

They just come.

You don't even have to know why.

You could be having a great day, and all of a sudden a terrible thought will come.

And your brain is like, would you like to think about this?

Your brain says to you late at night, would you like to think about what you said to that person and how bad they felt?

And so you could lay in your bed at night and you could rehearse a horrible conversation.

You could rehearse a horrible situation.

But the invitation is not to do that.

The invitation is to have a pattern interrupt.

When we think thoughts that are not ones that bring us life, we can choose another way of thinking.

And this is the invitation.

This is the hope for us that a mind that follows the spirit will lead to life and peace.

A mind that follows the spirit will lead to life and peace.

And so the invitation is to allow Jesus to renew our minds, which is what he said would happen if you follow me.

Come follow me, and I'll renew your mind.

You'll renew yourself by renewing your mind.

And so the apostle Paul says the same thing: take control or take inventory and take responsibility for what you allow yourself to think about.

Now, sometimes when you're in pain, you know what your body can do is only think about the pain.

And that's to protect you.

It really is.

It's to make sure that your leg isn't hanging off and you're just carrying on down the road.

I mean, we have pain signals that tell us there is a problem.

And in no way is the scripture saying, don't pay attention to the pain signal, but do that and don't try to distract yourself from the fact that something really matters.

And so do the invitation is how does wisdom lead us to care for the painful parts?

How does wisdom lead us to care for parts that we cannot control ourselves?

This invitation is to understand the spirit is for our embodiment so that we can choose different ways of thinking.

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, uh, the uh we had a big rainstorm and it flooded uh where I lived, and there was a creek back behind.

And uh, and so it currently it was it would just be like a little drip all the time.

But this time it was just like really high, and it was really going.

So me and uh Brian Lowe got uh tubes and started going down the creek.

This is Not wisdom.

Beloved, don't behave like that.

That is not wisdom.

And it was fun.

It was fun until and he even had his dog on the tube.

We were having a blast.

Until we got to this, there's part of the creek where there used to be a sewer pipe.

It was about ten feet over the creek.

Well, today the water went right up to the sewer pipe.

Halfway.

And the water was going underneath the sewer pipe.

And I'm 12 years old and I don't understand suction of water and what's about to happen to me.

And I thought we were just going to go bump on the sewer pipe and I'd throw my I didn't realize it was the force of tons of water pressure.

Just and so me, inner tube and all, just got sucked under the water.

And I'm fighting for my life, and my life flashed before my eyes.

You know, that thing they say right before you're gonna die, and I'm under the water for a really long time.

And um and I didn't know which way was up even.

And all of a sudden I popped up in the corner on the side of the before you went underneath the water, and I was in all this like silt, like this white foamy stuff, and it was all nasty.

And I never forget popping up in that, but being so happy that I was alive because I had almost exhausted how much I could hold my breath.

It may not have been very long, but when you're panicking, your heartbeats going up, but it was it was all I had left from being dead, you know?

And um, and I think about that a lot of times because I honestly have so much compassion for so many people that attend this church or have attended this church, because I I can feel their life is just like the circumstances are coming at a million miles an hour, and they're absolutely trapped by them.

And what you're going through is terrible, and all you can see is peril.

And and and I know what that's like, and I and I believe it's really a strong driving force in my life to be a pastor, because I believe there's a way to live this life above that kind of mental and emotional turmoil.

I believe that the things that we're talking about, though it might not be overnight for you, it these practices, you don't have to be depressed all the time.

Because depression is unfortunately a physical thing.

There's there's things where you probably and might need to get meds and whatnot, and there's things you need to discuss with therapists.

I'm not belittling those things at all, but what I'm saying is that through all of those things that are available by God for us, there is a path of escape for you.

That you don't have to live constantly afraid, constantly angry, constantly scared, constantly, you know, tormented in this world.

That when we talk about this, that that I'm talking about a practical way that you can learn to have a place in Christ, in the spirit, where those emotions, and they will still happen, you know, sometimes trees go through your house.

But it doesn't mean that that all that drama has to take you under.

Amen.

That there's a place in the Holy Spirit for you.

And I promise you, if you'll listen to the things that Heather says and that we're teaching here, and you'll begin to practice them.

And so that and a lot of times there's everything in your mind, no, no, no, you can't, Heather, it just can't be that simple.

And people, I my whole life have been saying to me, Well, that's just your wife.

And they belittle the practices that she's doing.

And that's to your own peril to belittle those.

Because these practices are, yes and amen, they're for all of us.

But they are things that need to be developed, and there's things that you choices that you have to make.

And you make the choices on the calm days, and you make the choices when it's not raining, and you make the choices that I'm going to serve and I'm going to love and I'm going to submit to the Spirit of God.

And then when the when the crisis happens, it doesn't hold you under that water.

That that the momentum from that flesh and the and the experience and stuff, because in this world there will be tribulations.

But I'm telling you, I promise you, there's a way to learn to follow the Holy Spirit.

And and it's good news because you don't have to always feel like you're feeling now.

There's a time when anxiety so tormented me I was afraid to go to sleep for years of my life.

The panic attacks were so terrifying and so horrible.

And I was introduced to Christ.

And I was introduced to this life.

And I've been learning how to climb out of that pit.

And I believe that there are mountaintops for all of us.

But I'm not promising you to get in some prayer line and we'll just or sell you our book.

It's not how it works.

You tell stories of the uh of that horror.

First of all, we should not get in wastewater canals.

Well, we know Heather wouldn't have done that.

Heather would not have done that.

But uh my point is not any condemnation, but also there are things again, wisdom leads us, the spirit leads us.

But you missed a good story if you didn't get in the one.

Well, there's other stories you could have.

And uh you just get into a rubber uh thing.

And don't take your dogs in in places that they could get hurt.

That's just I'm just gonna make that a rule here.

You know, like you have your adventure, but leave the dog at a place where the dog can be safe.

Um, and that's just my that's not Bible, that's not spirit, that's just a rule that I'm saying at the mom of the house.

Leave the dog where it doesn't have to pay for that.

But you were talking about the inner tube.

And again, for those of you who've been here, I won't go through the whole story because we've told it many times, but I think it matters.

Um, maybe you always had a thing for inner tubes, and I didn't know about it.

But anyway, at one particular time, in fact, when I was pregnant with Nathaniel, so it would have been that long ago, Dennis had an idea we would take our youth group um and we would go whitewater river rafting.

And um, I think I said we shouldn't do that, but I think he said we should, and we went whitewater rafting.

And so we took a bunch of teenagers um on a class four river.

I don't know if you know this, but class five is what we use for the Olympics.

And so let's start at four.

Five is the top, and we're like, we're beginners, so we'll start at four.

And I just want to tell you again, it was thrilling.

These kids were so excited to go.

And a bunch of kids, and it's hot.

Of course, it's summertime, they're out of school, so it's just terrible.

And I am very pregnant.

And we get to the place, and they said, Um, uh, I don't know if we even have a um a life vest that's gonna fit around you and be able to close.

So we might have to bungee it.

And I'm thinking, I'm not gonna go.

I didn't plan on going to be able to do that.

Let's tell this the part of the story.

I'm gonna put the the clipboard.

But when we got there, they said every boat had to have an adult, and uh we were one.

I needed to go.

So we were like, Can you fit a uh life vest on the pregnant lady?

No, so anyway, we get I get in the boat because these kids are going and we're gonna do what they say.

But we did have life vests on.

I would tell you, that's the one bit of wisdom that Dennis didn't choose when he was doing it 12 years old and doing it in the in the alley gutter thing.

But my point is this we're still on the class four river rapids.

We're in the class four river rapids, and um, I am not dressed as I would have dressed if I was gonna go down a rapid.

She had a skirt on.

I did, and I had very nice sandals on, and I would not have wanted them to be in the river.

But I get into the boat and I was thinking, is this a good idea?

Probably not, because I'm really pregnant.

And um, and then anyway, I have all these ideas in my head, like I said, maybe I should just stay.

But then what do I say to the 10 kids who can't go because they're not in my boat?

You know, and can I just get over myself and go?

And I'm having this like normal anxiety, I would think.

And I get into the boat and we have to prep before we go.

And in our boat gets a guide.

He comes over and he looks the part.

Like if there was a magazine or a brochure with somebody who is a river guide, it's this guy.

And he's strapping his chin strap on and he said, I just want you to know the river is my lover.

I am on this river all day long.

This has been my life for 15 years.

If you do what I say, you will have the best trip you have ever had.

If you don't do what I say, I guarantee nothing.

And I thought to myself, this is very much like the Holy Spirit.

I want that kind of guide where the river is his lover in the boat.

This is not just someone who looked at the river.

I mean, he had relationship with this river, and he had done so for years, and I want to listen to him.

So I just looked calmly, and there's a look I know that I give, and I don't see it coming out of my eyes, but people who have on the other side tell me I have a look.

And I said, We are gonna listen to every single thing he says, and all of us are going to do it exactly.

And the guide said to me, That's really good advice.

And I said, Yes, I know, because we want to live.

And so we're going to do our thing.

Dennis was in his boat, all these other things.

Can I say this to just interject?

Yeah.

That then on dry land, they had us all sitting in our positions and they practice.

And it was he had commands.

I can't remember what they were.

It was like left, forward, right back.

And then he we're like, and then before they pushed us off, you know, you had to do do it right.

And he's shouting commands, and because in a minute it's gonna be to your peril not to, right?

So so he's got, and so my boat's kind of playing around, and I look at hers, and it's like, you know, militant.

We are doing it.

You know, and they're and they're doing this thing.

And then when I look over, and the people that were before us, there was like 10 boats of uh foreign people who didn't understand the language.

English.

They spoke no English, and so those are the people not filled with the Holy Spirit.

That is not in this story.

None of those people were filled with the Holy Ghost.

Uh, and so the guide's trying to tell them left side, and they just start going there holding their rows, oars, I mean, and uh it's like and so you knew it wasn't going good, uh you know.

Uh and so I don't know how much of this story you're gonna tell.

Well, we're and we're gonna get to communion because we're gonna get there, but I think it matters to the end of the story, too.

You will hear something that we say in this church a lot, or at least I do.

The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you.

Beloved, you are not powerless.

If you face a situation that looks enormous, you are not powerless.

The same spirit that lives in you is the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

That is hopeful, that is beautiful.

So we are traveling on the river, and it is wonderful.

So the boat of uh the mass of Asians took off, and then we waited until they got around the corner, and then our group went.

And we got around the first corner, and there was rapids just immediately, and there were Asians everywhere.

In the river, in the water, in the water, bobbing like little corks.

And as God is my witness, I'm back because I waited on the back for the last one to launch, and Heather's boat was up front, you know, the militant one.

And so by the time I got around the corner, my wife is standing up in a boat in a riff raft in a riff, in the middle of raffins, one handing Asians into the boat at a time, rescuing them.

Souls.

I swear to you, it happened.

It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

Pregnant and just one handing these little people and getting them in the boat.

It was awesome.

They had done something that was helpful to my rescue.

They had life jackets on with hooks.

Like they there was a loop.

And so it wasn't like I was, I just grabbed the loop like you would a small child and just fling you in the boat.

And our guide was like, I think that's enough.

And I'm like, there's a lot in the water, we're gonna need to get more.

And so this idea of I think that's enough, that wasn't the Holy Spirit.

That's not what the Holy Spirit would say.

The old hymn was singing in her head, just one more, Lord, just one more.

The beauty, and then of course, they wouldn't sit down, they were standing and bowing because their lives that would say I bring that point in that story of So at the end of the service, we're all gonna bow to head.

No, that is not what we're doing at all.

What I am saying is this at some point, you're you might find yourself in the river, and that's not what you planned, and you're overwhelmed, and life might be flashing before you, and you're in the gross part where the foam is over you.

Be with people who are also coming down that river and who can pull you out.

Yeah, that's what a healthy church does, and that's who you guys are.

I'm so proud of you.

The what I find out all the time, like weird, horrible things have happened to people, and then I go, Well, why didn't you tell us?

Well, because this group we all went, we did, we handled it.

It's like, thank you, Jesus, that we are a community that really gets what it means to be part of a family.

The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Holy Spirit living within you.

God will give life to you.

Beloved, you won't have to conjure it.

God is giving life to you, and the life that God gives you is with the Spirit, the Spirit who will never leave you, the Spirit who will give you comfort, the Spirit who will be your guide, the Spirit who will be your teacher and companion, God with us.

This is what Emmanuel is God with us.

Wherever you find yourself right now, Spirit with you.

So, how do we practice?

We give consent to the Spirit.

That's it.

And it is an awareness going, Holy Spirit, I allow you to change my mind about this.

Holy Spirit, I ask you to let me see this differently than I've seen it before.

Holy Spirit, I ask you, whatever it is that you're involved in, show me how you're here and I'm not alone.

And things like Holy Spirit, how do I live through this heartbreak?

The Spirit is not afraid of our weaknesses.

Jesus had a body as we do, and the spirit is given to us for life.

One of one of the things I think is important too is that is uh giving trust to your own discernment of the Holy Spirit.

Because so many times afterwards, I'll be like, Man, I knew that was the Holy Spirit telling me.

Or I think about it's like I was supposed to just take that thing out of the house.

I walked by it three times and then now I needed that to really help someone, it would have solved a problem in the situation.

It's like learn to trust yourself to that that I can hear Holy Spirit.

Because I think sometimes we get like, well, it's a big ego thing.

It's it's just it's who you are, it's how you were wired to be.

It's just it should be as normal as breathing.

That is something that you have developed, thankfully, and it keeps you alive.

And in the same way, I can learn to give consent to the Holy Spirit.

Yes, I'll I'll pay attention.

Yes, I will be obedient.

I will try uh I I will try to step out and I will try to answer that, you know.

And so just I I just want to remind you that that's an important thing, too, is trust that that is the Holy Spirit that's speaking to you.

Amen.

One of the things that we do to learn the presence of the Spirit is to practice the things that Jesus told us to do.

And Jesus told us it is simple, it is returning to the table, it is coming back over and over again and remembering the way of Jesus.

But it's not over and over again just because we have nothing else to do.

It's every time we do this, we have an invitation to meet the Holy Spirit in the bread and the wine.

Every time we do this, we remember.

Every time we do this, we remember we're not alone.

We're part of something bigger.

That the body has already been given to us, the the blood has already been given for us, that there is no separation between us and God.

We are loved.

The forgiveness of our sins is given to us, and we walk in freedom and in liberty.

We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon.

If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.