Category: Holy Spirit (Page 7 of 15)

Stuff in the Middle

November 20, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

I don’t know where you are today. Maybe today you’ve already spent a few minutes alone in a chair by the window thinking, “I can’t believe this is my life.” Maybe last night you sat at your kitchen table and thought, “I can’t believe this is where I am.” Maybe you’ve been in a mess for the past couple of weeks. Or maybe you’ve been in a bad place for many years. Maybe sermons about transformed lives and blog posts about living by the Spirit discourage you. They might even depress you.

My life proclaiming the Kingdom of God? My life being a declaration of the lordship of Jesus? That’s not my life. Not today, not ever. My life is too messed up. I’m too far gone.

We all think we’re supposed to have an undefeated season. “This was going to be my year. This year everything was going to get worked out. This was going to be a great year. I was going to get everything on track and this was going to be a wonderful year. My family is going to be undefeated this year. My marriage. My career. My relationship with God. This is the year!”

And it’s not.

I’m sorry.

I want you to think about Judah in the book of Genesis. He’s the son of Jacob. His name means “praise God.” And he had sex with his daughter-in-law. He didn’t mean to, he said. He thought she was a prostitute. He had sex with his daughter-in-law, he left behind his keys and his wallet, and he got busted. It was a huge scandal.

Think about King David. The glorious king of God’s united nation. Personally chosen by God. David intentionally blows up seven of the ten commandments in one terrible weekend.

Think about Peter. The very first apostle chosen by Jesus. He publicly, loudly, and with great religious curses betrayed our Lord three times the night before the crucifixion. Told everybody he’d never met Jesus.

Can you imagine Peter standing in the room while the people were putting the Bible together? Can you see Peter looking over their shoulders? “Hey, can y’all just go from me throwing my nets down and leaving everything to follow Jesus to those letters I wrote at the end? Can you just cut out all that stuff in the middle?”

Can you imagine David in that same room? “Could y’all just skip from me killing Goliath to the geneaology of Jesus in Matthew? Would you please leave out all that stuff in the middle?”

Judah also is looking over the shoulders of the people putting together the Bible. “Um… can you go from my birth in Genesis 29 to those last words in Revelation that say the Messiah is the Lion of Judah? Could you delete all that stuff in the middle?”

That’s not filler stuff there in the middle. The stuff in the middle is there for a reason. To show us. To teach us.

Maybe you’re thinking, “I can’t believe this is my life.” Hey, let me tell you, your life’s not over! If you’re reading this right now (and you are!), the last lines of your life have not yet been written.

By the power of his Spirit, our Lord Jesus is standing right now between what is and what can be. He stands between what can be and what it can mean for generations of people you’ve never met. Jesus also stands right now today between what is and what won’t be, too.

Your life can be a powerful testimony to the reality of the lordship of Jesus and the eternal Kingdom of God. I don’t care where you are right now or what’s going on, your life can be a proclamation. Not by your power. But by the power of the Spirit and the grace of our God through Jesus Christ.

Peace,

Allan

Acting in Line with the Gospel

November 19, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

I’ve been preaching all week that our transformed lives are an important part of our Christian proclamation. The new reality that Jesus is Lord and that the Kingdom of God has been established is best declared by holy lives. The lordship of Jesus ought to radically impact the things we do, the things we say, the ways we think, our relationships with people, and our connections to stuff. Not following rules and commands. Not believing the right way about all the right things. Living a changed life is what’s required.

That’s why when Paul encourages Philemon to welcome back his runaway slave as a brother, he appeals to the love of Christ in Philemon, not to law or philosophy or tradition or culture. That’s why Paul prohibits lawsuits among Christ followers: it’s better to be wronged, to be cheated, than to dilute the proclamation that Jesus is Lord, not your desire to assert your rights or to get what you want. When Peter refuses to eat with Gentiles whenever any Jews might be around, Paul calls him on it: “You’re not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel.” Deitrich Bonhoeffer had a practice in his Confessing Church: No one in this community of faith can mention the name of anybody else in this community of faith, even to say something nice, unless that other person is in the room to hear it.” That threw the potential for gossip right out the window — even gossip in the name of prayer.

The truth of the Gospel — Jesus is Lord, he’s fixing everything, and we’ve got to get in on it — informs and shapes our lives.

Proclamation means bearing witness, giving testimony. If you’ve not experienced a changed life, then the Kingdom of God and the lordship of Christ is only a theory for you. You don’t know if it works or not. If you’re not transformed, how do you know it works? If the Gospel’s not transforming you, how do you know if it’ll transform anything? How are you going to proclaim?

Peace,

Allan

Holy Spirit Living

November 18, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

“We ought to always thank God for you, children loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.” ~2 Thessalonians 2:13

We’ve got a lot of rules. Bunches of rules. And while laws and regulations and commandments and edicts do matter, they’re not the main thing. You can tell people they have to obey the rule to be generous. But if someone gives you a present only because he’s obeying a rule or doing his duty, the glory of gift-giving, the beauty in blessing another person because your life is changed, is lost. God came to us in Christ Jesus, God has poured out his Holy Spirit, not to give us more rules, but to change our lives.

The rich young man runs up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was keeping all the rules, right? Jesus starts listing the ten commandments: “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal…” And this guy interrupts Jesus, “Yes, I’m obeying all the rules. I always have. What else do I need to do?”

He’s keeping all the rules. But he senses, “There’s got to be more.”

And Jesus says, “Yeah, there is.”

“‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'” ~Mark 10:21

This young man wants his life to be right. He wants to live correctly now so he can live with God forever in the future. He knows he lacks something. And Jesus says, “Yeah, you need to turn everything inside out.” Your whole life needs to become part of a larger, outward-looking orientation. You need to put God’s Kingdom first. You need to put the needs of your neighbors ahead of your own — especially your poor neighbors. That’s the challenge. It’s not just add a couple more commandments to set the moral bar a little higher, but to become a different kind of person altogether. Jesus says, “You need a transformed life.”

Notice, just a few verses up, in the same chapter, some Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce. And Jesus gives them an answer that goes back to God’s original, divine intention for male-female relationships: “If you’re married, stay together.” Right after the rich young man story, James and John ask Jesus if they can sit by him on his throne in the coming Kingdom. And Jesus gives them an answer that goes right to the heart of God’s original, divine intention for how human power needs to work: “If you want to be great, you need to be a servant. I didn’t come to be served, but to serve and to give my life.”

As N. T. Wright points out, in this one chapter Jesus talks about sex and money and power and reframes all of it, not in terms of rules and regulations, but in terms of character. In terms of a changed life. Jesus calls us to see ourselves as having a role in the Story of God. And that role is to proclaim the reality of his lordship by the kinds of lives we lead.

Well, Allan I have to cheat just a little bit on my taxes this year. Just a little. I’m not doing anything lots of other people don’t do. But I have to. We haven’t made enough money the past three years. I have to either fudge the lines a little bit on my return or overbill my customers for the past six months. I’ve got to do one of the two. I don’t have a choice.

Yes, you have a choice. In God’s name and by the power of the Holy Spirit, you have a choice. How about downsizing your house or skipping the summer vacation? How about canceling the membership or selling a car? You’ve got lots of options that would declare Jesus is Lord over your money, over every dime and penny that goes into and out of your pockets.

My girlfriend and I are having sex. We’re going to get married in a couple of years but, yes, we’re having sex right now. I have to have sex, Allan; we can’t wait that long. I’m a 20-year-old red-blooded American male. What am I supposed to do? If we don’t have sex, I’ll be forced to use pornography to relieve the situation. We either have to have sex or I have to go to pornography. I’ve got to do one of the two. I don’t have a choice.

Yes, you have a choice. In the name of Jesus and by the power of the Spirit, you have lots of choices. How about abstaining? How about bringing your personal urges and personal desires into subjection to the lordship of Jesus? How about you and your girlfriend declaring together that Jesus is Lord over your sexuality, over every square inch of your bodies that he created for his holy purposes?

I’m going to call the police to come run the homeless people away from the park by my house. Either that, or I’m going to start a neighborhood petition to get the ordinance changed. I’ve got to do one of the two. It’s such an eyesore and it’s not safe. I don’t have a choice.

Yes, you have a choice. How about praying with and for those people? How about making them a plate of food or delivering to them a couple of blankets? There are lots of ways to serve instead of be served, lots of ways to give up your rights instead of asserting your rights, lots of ways to proclaim that Jesus is Lord over your power, over all the ways you might use your influence.

God has graciously given us his Holy Spirit to change us so that all of our lives can be brought under the lordship of Jesus.

Proclamation means bearing witness, giving testimony. If you’ve not experienced a changed life, then the Kingdom of God and the lordship of Christ is only a theory for you. You don’t know if it works or not. If you’re not transformed by the Gospel, how do you know it works? If the Gospel’s not transforming you, how do you know it’ll transform anything? How are you going to proclaim?

Peace,

Allan

Holy Spirit Witnesses

November 13, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” ~1 John 1:1-3

But I haven’t heard Jesus with my own ears. I didn’t see Jesus with my own eyes or touch his resurrected body with my own hands. Those apostles, those first Christians in the New Testament, had lots of advantages over me. They were real witnesses. I’m not really a witness at all. How can I be expected to proclaim the same ways they did?

As we established in this space yesterday, you have Holy Spirit power. You have the Spirit of God, the personal Spirit of the Christ, living inside you. I don’t know how that works. I promise you right now I don’t know how to explain it. But I believe it. And I trust it.

The Gospels tell us there is a continuity of personal experience with Jesus for all generations of disciples, not just the first generation. In John 14, Jesus promises he’ll never leave his followers as orphans: “I will come to you,” he says.

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” ~John 14:23

Scripture says that Jesus ascending to his throne at the right hand of God in heaven does not mean the end of his presence with his followers. Jesus lives inside you.

“Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” ~1 John 3:24

“We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the World. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.” ~1 John 4:13-15

The power of God’s Spirit belongs to you. It belongs to all disciples of the Christ. The Spirit inside you gives you an ongoing personal experience with our Lord. You know him. And you testify to that by the things you say and the way you live.

Peace,

Allan

Holy Spirit Power

November 12, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

I’m in Dallas this week for the Preacher Initiative and ElderLink, both being held at the great Highland Oaks Church of Christ. And what a great week it’s already been. I’ve been blessed to spend a couple of days and nights with my great friend Jason Reeves and his family, I had dinner last night at the home of OLD friends Glen and Becky Burroughs, I’ve reconnected with and been inspired by some of the best preachers and teachers in our church fellowship, and I spent a couple of hours this afternoon with Sally Gary, one of the Church’s most important leaders today. Tonight, it’s dinner with the Four Horsemen and all the wives (except Carrie-Anne who’s in Amarillo) at Kevin and Anita’s new house in Sunnyvale. And then ElderLink begins tomorrow.

Now, the only pressure of the trip besides writing a sermon in the middle of this busy week on the road, comes Saturday when I begin my journey back to Amarillo. There is an empty ice chest in the back seat of my truck. My daughters have told me I cannot come home without a half gallon of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream and a half gallon of Blue Bell Cookies and Cream. I’m not completely convinced I can make this happen. Can ice cream in those paper cartons last for six-and-a-half hours in an ice chest in the back seat? I’m going to be severely distracted over the next 48 hours with engineering in my mind a way to make this happen. I’d welcome your input and suggestions.

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What God has done and what’s doing is real. “We’ve seen it!” the apostle writes. “We heard it, we touched it! It’s real! This is what we proclaim. This is about eternal life. We testify to it and we proclaim it!” As Paul would say, “I am compelled to proclaim the Good News! Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Good News!” Those who experience the salvation of God in Christ, those live in the lordship of Jesus, can’t help but proclaim it.

You’re the same way about a lot of things.

You probably tell your friends when you discover a new soap: “It makes my skin so soft! You’ve got to try it!” You see a good movie and you tell everybody: “Wow! It blew me away! You’ve got to go see it!” You experience a new restaurant and you won’t shut up about it: “Man, we love that place!”

That’s how disciples of Christ are about the Good News of the lordship of Jesus.

Yeah, but I don’t have that kind of personality. I don’t have much Bible knowledge. I don’t have a complete grasp of theology. I don’t have all the answers to all the questions. I don’t have any influence. I don’t have a Christian college education. I don’t have the confidence.

OK. I’ll give that to you. All of that may be true.

But let me tell you what you do have: If you are a Christian, you do have the power of God’s Holy Spirit. You, Christian, have Holy Spirit power. And the reason you have Holy Spirit power is so you can proclaim and so your proclamation will be effective.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ~Acts 1:8

The part we play in Act Five of the Story of God — Proclamation — can only be fulfilled by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is so important. The mission of Jesus is urgent, the Good News must be told. But Jesus wouldn’t let them start until they had received the Spirit. They were prepared, they had been taught, they were witnesses, they were ready. But not without the Spirit. They had to wait for the Holy Spirit. It won’t work without the Spirit. And when the followers of Jesus did receive the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, they could not be stopped.

The Holy Spirit’s main purpose is to speak to people about Jesus. Throughout the New Testament, the Holy Spirit fills the disciples with strength to meet special witnessing challenges. He gives boldness and courage. He provides the right words to say and he provides the power to say them.

The disciples had no academic advantages. They had no political connections or financial strength. They had no upper hand in any way. What they had was Holy Spirit power. By that power they proclaimed the lordship of Jesus. And by that power the proclamation could not be stopped.

Peace,

Allan

Holy Spirit Lives

September 26, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

West Texas A&M is celebrating its Homecoming this weekend, which means we wound up at the WT Homecoming Parade in Canyon this morning supporting our Little Middle and her Zeta sisters and cheering for their float. The whole week has been hippie-themed: “Peace, Love, and Buffs!” Perfect for Valerie. She’s always been our flower child.

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The faithful proclamation of the Kingdom of God springs from the experience of a changed life. Transformed lives just explode with Christian testimony.

“Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” ~Galatians 5:16-25

Our lives will not be changed without the Holy Spirit. I mean changed, radically transformed. Our lives must be different, obviously different, if we’re going to effectively proclaim the Lordship of Jesus.

But I’m not sure about the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do in our lives? I have a lot of questions about the Holy Spirit. I don’t feel the Holy Spirit. Are we even sure about the Holy Spirit?

Part of the disconnect for us with the Spirit is our nominal discipleship, our Sundays only Christianity. You don’t need the Holy Spirit to achieve a comfortable lifestyle. Our problem is that our churches are only asking you to come to serves, write a check, be friendly, don’t go to R-rated movies, and don’t cuss.

Well, I don’t need the Holy Spirit to do that.

Listen, you don’t need to be a Christian to do that! If you won’t get out of your comfort zone, why would you need the Comforter?

A changed life is the loudest and clearest declaration that Jesus really is who he says he is and he is really doing what he said he would do. But your life won’t be changed until you submit and start paying attention to God’s Spirit.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Holy Spirit (Page 7 of 15)

Stuff in the Middle

Acting in Line with the Gospel

Holy Spirit Living

Holy Spirit Witnesses

Holy Spirit Power

Holy Spirit Lives

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