Living Life with the Holy Spirit - Part 1: The Transforming Presence | Pastor Phil Holcomb

Hey, church. Raise your hand. How many of you

know what Pentecost is? Great. Good, good, good.

We have a Pentecost celebration planned. for

our church community coming up here. So for those

who may not be familiar with it, Pentecost comes

50 days after Resurrection Sunday. So it's this

time between leading up to Easter, Easter, and

then up to Pentecost of us as a church sitting

and remembering that. And the series that we

have been focusing on is above all. Looking at

the victory of Jesus in his birth, his life,

his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and

how that changes everything. But the greatest

waste of the Christian life is to accept what

we just heard and was taught about Jesus being

above all, and then continue to live as though

it doesn't change anything. The late Dallas Willard

described it this way. He said it's the great

omission of the great commission. So the great

commission is to go and make disciples of all

nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,

the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them what?

All that I have commanded you to do, and lo,

I am with you till the end of the age. And we

say, Jesus, thank you for gifting me new life,

and then we continue living on in the old life.

So the greatest waste of the Christian life would

not be to participate in the fullness of life.

And so we have a series that is focused on this

verse here. Since we are living by the Spirit,

let us follow the Spirit's leading in what part

of our life? What part of our life? Every part

of our life. And that's not him exaggerating.

That's Paul saying this is actually supposed

to be what we are to do. So the series we are

stepping into is focusing on living the life

with the Holy Spirit. He has been called all

kinds of things. The uncle that comes to a reunion

that nobody quite knows and is just over in the

corner. Or the familiar stranger, as Tyler Statton

has termed him. Who is the Holy Spirit? This

morning, we want to look at what... the Holy

Spirit does to change us. And so the question

for you is, how do we change? Have you thought

about this? How do I change? How do you change?

Or to use the biblical language, transformation.

What does transformation look like in the life

of a believer? And before we go on, I want to

invite us to just pause. We're going to take

a moment, and it may feel a little bit awkward,

just some time. Just be present where we're at

right now. Be aware to the Holy Spirit, of the

Holy Spirit. And after a moment, I'm going to

pray and invite us to receive according to that.

Lord, here we are. Would you speak to us? Your

servants are listening. And Holy Spirit, would

you bring to mind whatever resonates within us

or whatever we resist, and would you shape and

form us increasingly into the image of Jesus

Christ through your word, according to the Father's

will and the power of the Spirit this morning.

Amen. The New Testament uses this word transformation

only four times. Two of the times are used in

the Gospels of Jesus. And we're not going to

get into that story, but Later on, if you're

not familiar with the Mount of Transfiguration

where Jesus is transformed into his glorious

self, go back to that story at some point. It's

incredible. It's used twice in the Gospels of

that scene. And then it's used two other times,

transformation. This isn't about outward change.

This is about inward nature renewal. And Paul

is the one who uses it. So why don't we do this?

Let's look at Paul's life, and we're going to

compare who Paul was before he encountered and

journeyed with the Holy Spirit, and then look

at him as he kind of has journeyed along forward.

Now, to do this, we first need to understand

that Paul had two names. Can you go ahead to

the next slide? The clicker's not working. His

Hebrew name was Saul. or Shaul, which was meaning

the asked for one. Now, if you know the story

of scripture, King Saul was the asked for king.

And so this was his name based on this history

there. And so Saul or Paul would use this name

in context of his Hebrew brothers and sisters.

And when we first meet Saul, we believe he was

born sometime between 5 and 10 AD, so around

the time that Jesus was born. And we first meet

him, and he's kind of a rough character. But

there's a lot of things that relate to him. And

the words aren't going to be on the scripture

here. I just want you to listen as I read just

a short description of who this guy Saul is when

we first meet him. This is in chapter 9 of the

book of Acts. was uttering threats with every

breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers.

So he went to the high priest and he requested

letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus,

asking for their cooperation in the arrest of

any followers of the way. So he's uttering threats.

He's using the political system in a controlling

way to cause his ends to be met. asking for the

cooperation in the rest of those who are following

the way of Jesus. He wanted to bring them, both

men and women, back to Jerusalem in chains. Nice

guy? He's kind of a rough guy, huh? And a lot

of us are very familiar with this story of Saul.

And something happens later with this proud,

this self -righteous, this arrogant, this guy

who's inflicting suffering on others, this guy

who's controlling where he's on the road to accomplish

some of these things and something miraculous

happens. And here it says right in verse three,

it says, as he, Saul, was approaching Damascus

on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly

shone down around him. He fell to the ground

and he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul,

why are you persecuting me? So he's changed,

right? How many of you, this is your experience?

Maybe not on the road, a light comes down, but

you meet Christ and 180 degree, you are a totally

different person from then on. And it's great,

right? For those of you who may be new to the

faith, I'm sorry, but it's actually a pretty

long journey that you're going to see. And so

we may turn forward just a few chapters in Acts,

and we actually come to where we are introduced

to Paul's first missionary journey in Acts 16.

So we're just a couple chapters forward, right?

Let's read about what he's done. A little context.

Paul has come in with his colleague, his missionary

buddy, Silas, and they're going around preaching.

And they do something that actually aggravates

the city. Not because they're being unkind or

cruel or inflicting suffering. He's not being

proud. He's actually freeing somebody from demonic

oppression. And that is what instills this aggression.

So here in verse 22, it says, a mob quickly formed

against Paul and Silas. And the city officials

ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden

rods. What was their crime? Speaking of Jesus,

fring people. They were severely beaten and then

they were thrown into prison. The jailer was

ordered to make sure they didn't escape. Now,

let's think about old Paul, Saul, and how he

was in this situation, controlling, inflicting

violence on others. Totally different here. Around

midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing

hymns to God. They're in the middle of this dungeon

with their feet clamped together, completely

in just accusations against them. They've just

been beaten and stripped, humiliated in front

of others. And what do they do? They're singing

out praises to God and they're praying to him.

And the other prisoners were listening. I would

too. I'd be like, do we have a doctor in here?

You can go check on these ones. Something is

not right with them. Suddenly there was a massive

earthquake and the prison was shaken to its foundations.

All the doors immediately flew open and the chains

of every prisoner fell off. Great, they're free.

The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide

open and he assumed the prisoners had escaped.

Knowing that this meant certain death for him,

he drew his sword and he went to kill himself.

But Paul, Saul, shouted to him, stop, this is

his enemy. that he's shouting to. Stop. Don't

kill yourself. We are all here. This is massive

transformation, right? You have somebody who's

humble. You have somebody who's Christ -dependent.

You have somebody who's actually absorbing suffering

rather than causing suffering. You have somebody

who's sacrificial, willing to give up his very

freedom. He had his opportunity to run right

then, right? But he's so submitted to God in

this situation that he's like, Lord, what would

you have me do here and now? So we ask the question

of what happened between our first story and

our second story? What was going on there and

how do we experience change, right? What does

it look like for us to be transformed from the

inside out? Well, to do this, we're first going

to do a little bit of heavy work in philosophy

and psychology. So I want you to just kind of

hold on to this for a little bit. It'll make

sense in the end. But what we're going to see

is that there's, as we try to understand what

it means to be a human being and what free will

is, we can understand then where Paul comes in

with the answer to this question here. What does

transformation look like? So to do that, we're

going to look at a guy by the name of Harry Frankfurt

who came up with this concept. He's a philosopher

and he said, you know, if I observe people and

the world around me, there's these things called

first order desires. These are my instinctual

things that I want and I reach out to. So my

alarm goes off in the morning and my instinctual

desire is go away, right? I want to keep sleeping.

But then he says, We're reflective beings. We

think through things and we realize, you know,

if I've prepared to gather with you this morning

with a sermon teaching and I sleep through that,

that might not be a good thing. So I have a second

order that I'm trying to move towards and it's

I want what I want to be my desire, right? So

there's the first desire, keep sleeping in. I'm

confessing before you. Keep sleeping in. The

second desire is actually get up and participate

in what? Your day has before you. This is your

second order desire. Make sense? Animals move

on their first order desires. Generally, children

are like very impulsive, first order desires.

So what Frankfurt is saying is as we grow older

and we wrestle through with life, we can learn

to be reflective and move towards a better good

of life, a second order desire. But then he brings

in this next thing, which is our second order

volition. Now that's just a big way of saying

it's our governing force. It's what gets to dictate

what is the good life. All right? So this is

kind of like the capacity to choose. Sounds good,

right? I can continue to journey through life.

The more I know, the more I reflect and understand

myself, the better I'm going to get. But if any

of you have been on a tireless journey of doing

that, it is extremely exhausting. This is what

Augustine calls the divided will, where you have

two different things that are pulling you forward.

Now these terms up here, let me use a real life

story that may bring some more meaning to it.

As a young kid, my father had a job where he

would travel around and he was equipping and

training and helping modeling what it looks like

to preach the gospel. And he would invite our

family along on these trips. And we would go

sometimes like six, seven, eight hours on these

long drives. And we had one of those tiny little

Suzuki's and I was the youngest. And those Suzuki's

are made for four people. Maybe you can fit a

third one in the back seat, but I was the fourth

one. So that meant I sat up on the wheel well,

right? And I love this spot because I could look

down over what was happening in the car and see

the siblings fighting and whatever else. But

one of the things that I noticed was my father

was sitting there and every single time he was

driving right next to him was a bag of carrot

sticks. And as I sat there and I looked down

upon him and I thought this poor creature, he's

never tasted the glory and the goodness of potato

chips or a fudgy that is so much sugar compacted

into it that for the next six hours, I'm just.

riding away in that Suzuki, right? And my thought

is, this poor guy doesn't know the goodness of

life. Maybe someday he can wake up to it, right?

What do you think I have in my car next to me

on every single long road trip now? Carrot sticks,

right? What happened? How did I move from one

to the other? Well, my first order desire initially

was, I want this thing that tastes really good.

Six hours of eating salty, oily, crispy chips

does not make you feel good after the six hours.

But as you're putting it in, man, it's good,

it's good, it's good. And then you're like, oh.

So I come around the age of 18, 19, 20, and I'm

studying a little bit of health. And I'm like,

oh, I can't believe I was putting that much sugar

and fat into my body. So now I have my first

order desire that I still want to eat that. But

my second order desire, based on my second order

volition, says, I want to be healthy. But my

heart's not there. But I'm making a choice to

eat carrots. But right now, if you put a bag

of chips and you put a fudgy bar next to me and

you put a bag of carrots, I will eat the carrots

every single time. And that's not me saying,

wow, look at what has happened. The thing that

switched inside me is a journey with my own father

relationally, who I trust and I love and who

loves me. And I've seen that he's participated

in the good life. And there was a relational

transformation that happened there with me that

moved me where my first order desire is now carrots,

right? That's a simple way of trying to understand

the human concept. So we try all kinds of forms

of power to move us to choose the better thing.

And we may try behavior modification. If any

of you know in psychology, Pavlo's dogs, right?

They had this experiment where they put food

out and every time they did, they would ring

a bell and then the dog would eat the food and

they were making the association between the

bell ringing and the food being eaten. But then

they took away the food and they would ring the

bell and the dog was conditioned, was through

behavior modification to want food. And so he

would start salivating, but there was no food.

And so they thought, ha, we figured out how to

change people. You just need to use behavior

modification. And this works, doesn't it? It

works to a certain degree with parenting, but

it has a limit. And same with Imitation, right?

Paul says this, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

But there's only a certain level of imitation

if I'm imitating somebody, a pastor or a theologian

or a guru of some sort, and I'm trying to make

my life better by imitating them. There's only

a limitation to what will cause me to do that.

What about information? Maybe if I just have

the next piece of information, the next book,

that'll fix my life. Or, Let's consider detachment

and all forms of it. There's religious systems

around this. Let me push away desire. Let me

kill desire. Let me control desire. Because if

desire is present, I may make choices that I

don't necessarily want to. So maybe I can get

rid of desire and I can just lower my expectations

in life. These all offer a vision of life for

you and for me. But how do they work? In 1952,

there was an event in the UK in London, a catastrophic

event. What was the event? Well, the UK empire

had built their entire power source, their way

of life based on coal. So coal was what ran their

economy. It was their electricity source. It

was what moved factories and, of course, all

the lights and stuff in the city around. 1952,

this thing happened where because of the weather

pattern, all the coal just stuck, the smog from

it. And within a few days, hundreds and hundreds

and hundreds of people died. And estimates of

somewhere around 100 ,000 people ended up with

long -term respiratory conditions because of

this. You see, coal had offered a great power

source for a while. but it came with bondage.

It came with a cost. It came with a price. And

so any change or transformation that is outside

of what Paul is going to highlight is going to

come with a cost. You're going to think I'm free,

but it's going to come with a cost. And it doesn't

mean it doesn't help you move forward, but if

you ultimately rely on that, it comes with a

cost. This is because of what Paul calls our

flesh, our sarks. These are our disordered, self

-directed desires. And what this means is even

if I wake up and I think I'm going to have the

right desires, my willpower, which is next, is

this choosing thing within me and it's super

weak. My willpower is really weak. And if you

think, oh, my willpower is super strong, enjoy

continuing living along in life, you'll find

that as you are pressed into a place like Paul,

when he's in prison, and his enemy is facing

there, that your willpower disappears really

quickly, or it's not strong enough to withhold

that. So Paul's going to consider both of these

things and say, hey, we're understanding what

it means to be human, but now let's look at what

true transformation, how that happens. Any of

these other things are going to be the absence

of true change, and you're going to experience

that. Please don't hear me wrong. I'm not saying

don't engage in any of these. There's things,

there's wisdom found within a lot of this, but

it doesn't mean that that will ultimately change

you. So what happened between the story we read

about Saul and then the story we read about Paul

later on? What was his transformation? How do

we change? Well, here's the verse again. Since

we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the

Spirit's leading in every part of our life. And

here's the part that we often will skip over

if we're just reading an Acts. There is a time

between when Saul was converted and when he goes

on his first missionary journey in this situation.

And God is working in and through him this entire

time. But there's a three -year period where

he's up in the desert of Arabia. We don't really

know what he's doing up there. Except that in

Galatians 1 .17, he says, God was teaching me

how to live and be transformed, essentially.

how to live my life. And then Paul goes to Tarsus,

his hometown, and he's there for a long time,

also preaching the gospel. But there's something

happening in this timeframe that I wish Paul

would have written about. Luckily, he did. We

see it in his other books. 25 % of the New Testament

was written by Paul. And so we're going to jump

into 2 Corinthians, and we're going to look at

those verses that Selina read for us. as what

true transformation looks like. So I want you

to read together with me. You ready? But whenever

someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken

away. Okay. If you're not familiar with the whole

back end story, you're thinking, what is this

veil? What is Paul talking about there? Well,

Exodus 34, there's a story of Moses where he

encounters God on behalf of the people and he

goes to speak with God and then he'll come back

to the people. And when he comes back from the

people, he's actually physically glowing. His

face is glowing and the people are terrified

and they're like, what is going on here? And

Paul will then speak whatever message it was,

but the people are really scared by it and it

fades away. So then Moses goes back into the

glory of God. His face shines again. So what

he realizes is, let me put a veil over my face

after I've spoken to the people so that they're

not seeing it fading away and are like panicking.

Oh no, God has left us. How many people were

able to go into the extreme presence of God?

How many? Just Moses, right? Only Moses. A few

years ago, we, We're gifted the privilege by

an upgrade of renting a car that happened to

be a Tesla. And I was so excited. I was like,

we've got an electric car that can drive itself.

And I'm like, this is going to be awesome. But

you see the picture behind me here. This was,

so let me back up. One of my favorite things,

life -giving realities. that I enjoy is being

in nature, going on hikes, getting up into mountains.

And we were traveling some of the most beautiful

part of the world, the west coast of the US,

down the line there through the mountains and

all this. And I'm so excited because I'm thinking

I'm going to get to do all these wonderful hikes.

But this was an older Tesla, right? Nothing comes

free. It's an older Tesla and the battery was

a little worn out. And so we found ourselves.

doing this most of the trip, not most, but it

felt like it, sitting along the highway, looking

at the mountains that I should have been enjoying

while the car was trying to recharge itself.

And in a certain sense, this was Moses' experience

in the Old Testament. You plug in for a little

bit, and you've got a little bit of energy, and

then you go back out, and it's good. But then

it has to happen again and then it goes again

and it goes again. So Paul is addressing it.

He's saying, hey, actually we're going to remove

the veil. The curtain is going to be torn when

Jesus rises from the dead or when he did rise

from the dead. So the key is that the Holy Spirit

now becomes what? For the Lord is the Spirit

and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there's

freedom. Who's the Lord? Usually it's Jesus or

the Father, but in this situation, Paul references

the Holy Spirit as being the Lord. The Lord is

the Spirit. What Paul is talking about is that

the Spirit is the agent of transformation. It

doesn't mean that he doesn't use other things

to help transform us, but the ultimate primary

reason for our transformation is the person,

presence, and power of the Holy Spirit within

us. Everything else will feel at best like that

Tesla and at worst like coal. We are plugging

into things and hoping to move along in life.

But there is something actually gifted within

those who have had the veil removed, who are

reconciled with God Almighty, where the power

source is actually inside me to move my will.

And Paul continues on and he says, so all of

us who have had that veil removed, can see and

reflect the glory of the Lord. This see and reflect

is a difficult word to translate between the

Greek and what we have today in English. It's

probably better to say contemplate or behold.

It's not about like I'm walking by and I see

you and I move on. This is maybe akin to a wedding

where the groom is standing there and the bride

walks in for the first time and there's a contemplating

or a beholding, a gazing upon and just being

taken up by what this person is seeing. So Paul

says you have had that veil removed. Now you

can see and reflect. You can contemplate. You

can spend time. having that energy source and

person and presence actually change you. Just

sitting before God. So the means is the awareness

of God's love within us. I was speaking with

a brother within our community a few weeks ago.

And he was telling me some of his story and he

said that, you know, his background was extremely

difficult. So much pain. There had been awful

things that had happened. And he found himself

outside of his home country in a small community.

And at one point, the rest of his roommates all

went away for a trip. And he was left alone there.

And he's left alone with all of what was in his

past. And as he sat there and he went out onto

the balcony, there was something inside him that

said, I should just end this. Now, he didn't.

Obviously. But that point, that story in it was

not the end because later on, as he shared, he

said he was doing something that's called a manual

journaling. And this is where you are entering

into your story and placing it before scripture

and before God. And you're saying, Lord, would

you help me to see where you were in all of this?

Would you help encounter me, Emmanuel meeting

God with us? I want you to be here with me in

this. And you know what the Holy Spirit brought

to mind for this brother? He brought to mind

a vision in that time of him sitting on the balcony

and he wasn't alone. Jesus was there holding

onto him and pushing against him. His desire

was something very different, but the love of

God through the power of the Holy Spirit brought

to light what was happening in that moment. This

is the type of transformation that begins to

move us in a different way than behavior modification

or all these other things that we have for us.

We become what we behold. What you focus on,

what you gaze on, that's what you will become.

We become what we behold is what Paul is saying

here. He's not done. He says, in the Lord who

is the spirit. Okay, we got this, Paul. You said

that at the beginning. Now you're saying it again.

This is because our will wants to think I'm the

one who's in control. The Lord who is the spirit

makes us more and more like him. as we are changed

into his glorious image. Now the language here,

if you've heard this passage preached before,

it's that of a caterpillar to a butterfly, metamorphosis.

It's this transformation that is, you participate

in it, but it kind of happens to you. It's a

both and reality, but the heavy lifting is not

your part. And this change is gradual. And that's

why I asked that question at the beginning. How

many of you have changed? You came to know Jesus

and you're like, I'm just like him. Get a community

around you and they'll let you know you're not.

And then it'll be a long journey, right? Join

a life group. So here's what we come to find

out. That God is telling through Paul that there's

a process. Sometimes there's sudden moments and

sometimes gradual. John Mark Comer uses the word

breakthrough and process moments. Breakthrough

moments are very rare. Process moments are the

heavy, the long -term thing that God uses. I

like the breakthrough moments. I want to be one

and done type situation. But you know what's

going to happen if God meets me in that way every

single time? I'm going to forget I need him.

And the point is not about me being fixed. The

point is me being with God. So the process moments,

the slower movement that keeps transforming us

step by step gives me that space to really encounter

and be with God and have that relationship come

to a deeper awareness for me. We are loved into

loving. This is back to that carrot story. My

behavior changed because I trusted my father

and I trusted what he was doing and I participated

in it. And as I was beholding him there, first

with judgment, later it was with a sense of deep

appreciation for how he had raised me in that

situation. So we are loved into loving. For the

Lord is the spirit and wherever the spirit of

the Lord is, there is what? There's what? Freedom.

So anytime there's this feeling of like, oh,

I don't want to choose that. You know, you have

a choice right there, right? It's that choice

is to say, okay, but I'm just going to grit my

teeth and do it. Or it's going to say, Lord,

meet me here. Spirit, empower me to this end.

And just so you don't come to talk to me later

and you say, I tried it and it didn't work. Remember,

it's a slow, gradual movement. And your change,

where that second order volition begins to become

your first order volition, happens over time.

And it will be complete one day, as Paul says.

Jesus is committed to the fact that he will transform

us. So the presence of true change has the outcome

of freedom as well in it. This is going to be

the experience of increased freedom that we participate

with the Holy Spirit. Here's another way that

Paul says it in the book of Philippians. For

God is working in you, and go ahead and read

this second part with me together. What? Giving

you the desire and the power to do what pleases

him. The desire and the power. So go back to

this whole framework and we look at what the

question of how do we change and consider Frankfurt's

model. If I'm left with first order desires,

second order desires, and my governing or second

order volition, I'm going to be an exhausted

human being. But if I participate in it and realize

that the Holy Spirit comes into that very center

of who I am and begins to transform me from the

inside out, in participation with me, some beautiful

things can begin to happen. And it goes out from

not only the worldview, but then my very values

and my behaviors, my attitudes, and what I choose

to have around me, the artifacts around me. And

so what you see around me is this complex reality,

but at the inside is the Holy Spirit with me,

moving me towards that end. So we kind of come

to the end here with a question for you. What

would it look like? Church, what would it look

like for you to truly welcome the Holy Spirit

in every area of your life? What might that look

like? If this is where freedom is found, if this

is the greatest participation in the news of

being a follower of Jesus, if this is what life

in the presence of the Holy Spirit is like, what

would it look like for us to be increasingly

open? To not think of the Holy Spirit as some

strange uncle that's in the corner of our family

reunion, but actually host him in a hospitable

way and participate with him in our very lives.

And what we are going to be doing here in celebrating

communion is one of the ways you can respond.

Because see what the Holy Spirit is going to

do in and through this time, so long as you surrender

to it, is to take the gift of Jesus Christ, sacrificial

death for you and bring it into who you are.

Not just a story out there to think, wow, that's

a really amazing story, but to take that truth

and impart it relationally into who you are.

So I want you to hold that posture. Say, Lord,

what would it look like for you, Holy Spirit,

to bring this time of communion? actually very

personally to me now. This is actually a way

of us remembering the death of Jesus Christ,

the sacrificial way he gave of himself. His body

was broken on our behalf. His blood was spilled

as an eternal lifelong covenant for you and for

me. And he did this as a once and for all victory

because he is above all. And those who follow

him continue to be shaped in and from this story

as it goes forward. What you hold before you,

brothers and sisters, is a small reminder of

the most significant gift that has ever been

given. The all -powerful, almighty God, who is

in all places at all times, has been forever

in the past and will be forever in the future,

who holds the cosmos together, said, you are

worth me giving my own life for because I love

you. And so as you partake in this, remembering

the body that was broken and the blood that was

spilled, we do this out of gratitude, remembering

what Jesus has done for us. It brings a combination

of sorrow for what he went through and joy for

what we get to experience. And his blood that

was spilled, an everlasting covenant, say I'm

forever yours, you are forever mine. Jesus, thank

you. Thank you once again. for bringing to mind

what you have done. Holy Spirit, we ask that

you would, based on the righteousness of Jesus

Christ, continue to form us more and more like

him, increasingly so that we can reflect your

glory to the world around. We pray this in the

wonderful, matchless name of Jesus. Amen. Thank

you for tuning in to the ECB sermon podcast.

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And remember to join us next week. God bless

you.