The Spirit Makes it Real  John 15:26- 16:14    5-31-09 

John Calvin is called the “Theologian of the Holy Spirit.”  In the church at the time, they were saying the Holy Spirit could not be experienced by an individual, it could only be experienced in church.  Calvin said the Spirit inspired scripture and also makes it real to us.  He said a lot that the Spirit speaks to our spirit.

                You know I have never met Barak Obama.  But I know all about him.  I know he is married to Michelle and has two kids Malia and Sasha.  I know he graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School.   I know he was a state Senator and a U.S. Senator.   I feel like I know him- but I have never personally met him.  How I know him is through the media- TV, the internet, and the newspaper.   This is how I experience him.  
                The Holy Spirit is how we experience God.   We have never been in the presence of God in heaven- we see in a mirror dimly, but God mediates his presence to us through the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the mirror through which we see dimly.  But without the mirror we’d be in bad shape.  He is the glasses through which we see God the Father and experience the presence of His Son.  When we read the Bible and it is meaningful for us- and we believe “God spoke to me” that is the Holy Spirit.   It is not that we hear God’s voice booming with our ears, but that the Spirit whispers to our heart.  When we are convicted of doing something wrong, and we feel guilty because it is wrong- that is the Holy Spirit.  It is not that God the Father suddenly appears with a sign that says “S-T-O-P” in front of us.  Rather, we experience that twinge of conscience.  Freud tried to secularize it into a super-ego, but it is more than that.  When I am assured of my relationship with God and that God loves me and forgives me- that is the Holy Spirit.  It is not that an angel appears with a scroll and says, “You’re saved.”  There are times when I am comforted by God, guided by God, strengthened by God,- and I know it is a power beyond myself doing this.   The Spirit is the reality of God experienced.  Or, The Holy Spirit is how we experience God is real.  
                The Spirit is like adding water to something that is dehydrated.  When I was in college and didn’t know how to cook, but was often hungry and wanted food in a hurry I began to experience dehydrated foods.  Quick grits- just add hot water, heat for a few minutes and there you go- good old rib-sticking grits!  Dehydrated mash potatoes- don’t even have to add milk.  When you are camping- dehydrated potatoes weigh less, don’t spoil, and are fairly quick.  Now if you’ve ever tasted grits without water, or dehydrated potatoes without water, you will not try that again.   They are nasty without water, but with water, they are at least edible- though some of you don’t think so- millions have eaten grits and hydrated mash potatoes and liked them!   The water makes it real.  And the Spirit makes the Bible real- illuminating it, and applying these old dusty words to our lives today.   The Spirit makes God real and relevant.   
                I have been dehydrated four times.  Once on a boat in the ocean- so hot salty didn’t know needed water; twice with sickness; another time hiking.  None of those times was I aware I was dehydrated.  Now I am very conscious, looking for signs that I need water. Pinch skin, think about it.  Are you conscious of  your need for God’s Spirit to fill you? 
                The Spirit is like oil in the car.  Some of you have thought you had oil in the car but didn’t, and the car overheated.  Without oil things do not go smoothly, and we tend to run out of energy, strength, power.  The Holy Spirit sooths, fills, and makes things go- but we are not always aware of Him in our lives. 

                Do you know that people have been saying Christianity is irrelevant since its inception?  There have always been people who think they can get along without God- but it’s like trying to get along without water.   There is always a testimony that  there are some people who still get stuff out of the Bible, out of their relationship with Christ, to the point that they sacrifice their time on Sundays and throughout the week to Him.  They sacrifice their money to Him.  God is so real to them that they sacrifice their reputations, even their lives for Him.  How can they do that?  It is by the power of the Holy Spirit.   I want to say that the Spirit is the most relevant thing about life.  Everything else is really irrelevant.  The Spirit and those attached to the Spirit will go on forever.  But everything else fades and passes away.  The Spirit is the most relevant thing about life- for the Spirit in many ways IS LIFE.  God breathed His spirit into a human, and they began to live.  That’s relevancy- that’s living!
                I want to talk about true spirituality.  People speak about how to get close to God, but we can’t get close to God without the Holy Spirit.  In fact, the experience of many is that God finds us, more than we search and find God.  God finds us by giving us the will and desire to seek Him by the Holy Spirit! 
                There are times, when we feel empty, and times when we are empty and do not even know it.  We all need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.   We are like a glass of water that has been left outside for a long time, we slowly, invisibly, and sometimes visibly become evaporated.  We need to be filled again. 
There are different tools that God has given us to get closer to Him, but they are all gifts from God’s Holy Spirit.   People try to fill the emptiness up with other things- with alcohol, drugs, friends, sex, but only the infinite, Holy Spirit  can fill your emptiness.      The Holy Spirit intersects with us in three ways. 
                Time- Need to take time to listen, reflect.  Don’t just do something- stand there.  Often experience God when not busy, at a time of seriousness- like birth of a child.  There is a great country song by George Strait- that is entitled, “I Saw God Today”  about a man experiencing God when he had his baby born.  God also is experienced in sickness-when we have to slow down and recognize we are not in control.  God is recognized often at a time of death- it can be a spiritual renewal for us all.  God is recognized when we stop and take the time to look for Him.  This frankly is one of the reasons God gave us the Sabbath- so we might take time for Him, and experience Him.  Today the church is busy doing- little time seeking
                Space- The Spirit uses spatial or physical things so that we might experience God.  The Bible is a spatial thing but it is a means of grace.  It is a way the Spirit intersects our lives.  Baptism uses spatial water- but there is a spiritual element to being cleansed and claimed.  The Lord’s Supper uses the physical bread and cup- but Calvin said that the spiritual presence of Christ is always there at communion.   Baptism and communion are visible signs of God’s invisible grace.  They are physical things God gives us in which we may experience the Holy Spirit.  I would also add church is one of those as well.  You come to a physical place, but church is a place where so many have experienced God that they continue to come back. 
                God is the Potter, we are the clay- several times in scripture this image is given.  The Spirit takes the formed clay and breathes life.  The Spirit takes the Father’s work and gives it meaning, relevancy, life. 
                Our Spirit- Romans 8 says “The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”   The spirit speaks to our deep inner souls- our spirits.  It is only by the Holy Spirit that we have the gift of assurance of salvation.  It is only by the Holy Spirit that we are able to grow in our faith (that’s what theologians call sanctification).  It is only by the Holy Spirit that we are convicted inside of us that something isn’t right in our own spirits.  It is only by the Holy Spirit that we know we are on the right path.  I have had some people that I have never met talk to me about their faith- they said they knew I was a believer.  This too is by the Spirit’s bond.  Deep down the Holy Spirit gives us gifts and talents.  The spirit is the deep part of life, and the Holy Spirit connects with our deep part- our soul.  
                Outside of my house today is a big, long, thick orange cable.  It has been there for three weeks- as we have some new neighbors who ordered cable service.  A week ago they started painting my lawn with blue and orange stripes to locate where other pipes are.   That cable will come to a box, and in that box It connects with other cable, that will go to my house, that will connect with another cable.   Cable is meant to connect with cable.  It doesn’t connect with telephone wires.  It doesn’t connect with electrical wires, it doesn’t connect with wood or concrete- it connects with other cable that has a receptacle.  Well the Holy Spirit connects with our spirit- deep inside.   Some of us have a loose connection.  Some of us need to get plugged into the Holy Spirit.  

Without the Holy Spirit we are just wasting time.  Without the Holy Spirit we are the same molecules, without the right kind of stuff within.  Have you ever felt like you were just going through the motions?   Without the Holy Spirit we may be alive, but we are walking zombies missing out on the joy of life. 
                There was a movie that came out called “I am Legend” that was a remake of an older movie called “The Omega Man.”  It is about a survivor of an infection catastrophe where a mutated virus kills 90% of humanity.  The rest, except for a very few were turned into walking zombies.  They were alive, but they were infected, and had no pleasure, no life, and were full of meanness- like angry animals.  A lot of people are alive, but they are walking zombies in need of a cure.  The cure is found in the Holy Spirit.   Some of us have turned into zombie Christians.  We are alive- we are Christian, but we are missing the power of God to transform our time, our lives into wonderful things.

Pentecost was the day the church experienced God.   The church experienced God beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Even unbelievers who were there would say, “Something is happening to those people.”   It affected them so, that some thought they were drunk, but they weren’t.   No Christian there thought that they didn’t know God at that point. There was no doubt at Pentecost.  No Christian at Pentecost thought God was irrelevant, or dry as dust.  That is because they were filled with the Spirit.  That is what we are told to seek.  Do not be afraid to be filled with God’s Spirit – for that is what the abundant, the joyful, the real life is all about.  Amen.