Holy Spirit, week 4

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0:00 The rest of us I'm finishing up in this like season of Pentecost I've been reading rereading this book from seminary called the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus By Rhaenyra consolamese he was the preacher to the papal household and it's been giving me a lot of stuff to think about Which is really fun? Starting next week We're gonna go through this book by Thomas Keating. It's called the human condition It's Thomas Keating is the trappest monk and he gave a lecture at Harvard on the human condition

0:32 I've mentioned it here before and I just thought we should read it together So I got a stack of them if you're here with us this morning you can take one with you If you're not or they run out over there, they're easy to find online You can come look at this copy. It's Thomas Keating the human condition and it's not long But it'll take us a little while to get through So we'll do that for the next several weeks starting next week. So take one of those with you if you're here with us But this week I want to finish up this thinking about

1:04 What it means that we live in this age of Pentecost where we have the gift of the Spirit and We were talking about this a little bit on Pentecost how almost mechanical the sending of the Holy Spirit is like That God the Father wills the incarnation God the Spirit hovers over Mary and the word is constituted in her womb and so that the the second person Jesus Christ

1:37 Jesus the Christ is has the Holy Spirit from the time was born But at his baptism the Holy Spirit comes down upon him for the specific purpose And then we're watching these these different things that the Holy Spirit prompts Jesus to do and A couple weeks ago. We looked at how the Holy Spirit prompted Jesus right after his back is in the Holy Spirit prompts Jesus to go out into the desert where he is tempted by the enemy we talked about the reality of An enemy and the importance of things

2:08 Of equipping ourselves with the things of faith the helmet of salvation and the belt of truth and the shield of faith And that those things are actually practical and helpful not Not only kids messages and flannel graphs, right? And then we talked about last week how the Holy Spirit comes on Jesus for the specific job of anointing His good news that he's proclaiming Says that the Holy Spirit has anointed me come on me to preach this good news And he quotes the passage from Isaiah and then we looked at how

2:42 That good news takes shape and form in his life and then off into the life of the church And and that good news more often than not takes the form of hey the kingdom of God is here The reign of God is at hand at one point in Luke's account of the gospel He recalls a time when Jesus sent out 72 people in groups of two so the 36 locations Where it said that Jesus would come after them and we mentioned that man if Jesus is going to 3060

3:14 He's walking to 36 different villages. He's hustling right the longest ministry had the same Maybe three years that's one village a month Walking if he doesn't take any breaks, right? He's moving and they go to 36 and they come back and they can't believe that it works He sent them with nothing no food no extra staff no money no extra clothes He said just go and announce that the reign of God is here and people will give you a place to live and food And you'll be able to heal people and they come back and they can't believe that it works because the Holy Spirit

3:48 Annoying the good news that the reign of God is here and This week I want to look at the other thing that it seems like the Holy Spirit does for Jesus on a regular basis Because that might be the thing that he does for us as well. So these us the Holy Spirit equips Jesus for Temptation and the Holy Spirit equips us for temptation The whole spirit unnoins the words of Jesus when he's announcing the good news and the Holy Spirit does the same for us

4:19 When we announce the good news it carries the Holy Spirit in the world and today I want to look at the fact that the Holy Spirit prompts Jesus to pray which And seems like a good pious thing to do until you think about it for a minute Let's look at Luke chapter 10 verse 21 Luke Chapter 10 is where he records that story of Jesus sending out the 72

4:53 In pairs of two the 36th locations to announce that the reign of God has come And then And then in verse 17 of chapter 10 of Luke's account of the gospel it says the 72 returned with joy St. Lord Hey, even the demons are subject to us in your name and he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven and be full to be hold I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions over the Power of the enemy nothing still hurt you nevertheless not rejoice at the spirit subject you but that rejoice that your names are written in heaven

5:30 And then look at verse 21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said I thank you father Lord of heaven and earth That you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children Yes father for such was your gracious will Jesus praise and and and Luke actually records the words of his prayer probably because in this case There was enough people around him that he was able to piece together the actual prayer somebody was there that remembered the words

6:04 That Jesus spoke and and let Luke know in the story It'd be really interesting I think do have interviewed one of the 72 that went out and hear that experience for them when they walk into a House and say peace be upon this house and it stays and they get a place to live and they announce the reign of God and all Of a sudden people believe that the reign of God's like that that words are anointed with the Holy Spirit for the first time They come back to Jesus and they say something happened that has never happened when we spoke in before People listen to us in such a way that they changed the orientation of their life

6:38 Around the words that we spoke and it's not like we're geniuses or sent anything groundbreaking It's just that something was different about the words and Jesus says yeah This is the end of the rain and the beginning of a new one I saw Satan fall like light the end of a rain and the beginning of a new one and you just Inaugurated its coming into the world and then the Holy Spirit comes on Jesus and Jesus prays Talks to God the Father in front of the people and they remember

7:08 His words and tell Luke and Luke writes it down right so you and I can learn from it One of the things that always happens almost always happens in Jesus's prayers is that he calls God father calls God father That that they might have called God Lord before They might have called God God before they were very careful about not saying the proper name of God Maybe maybe you've heard that before even sometimes they would they would not write out God if they were trans

7:43 Lady net they might write a dash it might not fill in the vowels properly to the consonants They they had such a respect for saying the name of God that they wouldn't even say the generic name for God Because they didn't want to get close to saying the proper name for God And Jesus prays and he calls God a very intimate Personal he says like dad

8:13 I realized this Two weeks ago Non-profit in Seminole County gave my dad this like Lifetime leader award they they give it to people at a certain stage in their career It's a it's a large county wide Non-profit that focuses on leadership and once a year they picked someone who they call a leadership legend and

8:46 And they they gave it to my dad, which was really cool Also because he retired this last year So like it just happened that it lined up where he retired in January And then they gave him this award and there was a luncheon and they made a video and I realized that For all the my dad and I don't always agree on everything we have conflicts like any relationship But for all the conflict and growing pains. I realized I really

9:17 Like my dad. I felt I was really proud of him at that lunch I really I really loved what he had gotten done and I was I was grateful that he had For not being perfect Left a track record. I could follow and emulate for me the term dad is Like personal but also like makes me feel in a healthy way like a kid

9:48 Like someone who can trust The person on calling dad like when I call him dad. I feel like I can be safe and cared for When Jesus calls God the father dad, it's not like a proper now. It's like a like there's rest in the term dad There's safety There's provision in the word dad

10:18 So much though that it was scandalous at the time of Jesus that he would call God Dad It's like this like how can he presume to have such a close relationship with the God of all things This is why Paul on several occasions in Romans in Galatians letter to Galatians Says do you know that we have the same spirit in us that Christ had the spirit by which we cry?

10:51 Abba Spirit that allows us to call God dad In in all the positive affirming caregiving provisional sense we can call God dad and What's interesting to me is that Jesus calls God dad a lot. I mean Jesus craves a lot you know the the House of the the gospel is Matthew Mark Luke and John

11:25 Those are not autobiographies, right? So Jesus didn't write them himself Matthew was a disciple mark was maybe a secondary like he might have been there at the last supper, but he was a little bit younger Matthew was a disciple mark was younger Luke was definitely second-generation We think maybe Luke was a follower of Paul. It seems like he comes into the story of Acts John was one of the disciples. He wrote the gospel of John at the very end of his life

12:00 He it might be the last book written in the New Testament. So it's old recollections, right? And and so all of these stories are at best second hand in Luke's case Maybe even like third like he's hearing from someone who heard from someone He's getting a firsthand account and what's interesting to me is even in the second and third person accounts We get stories of Jesus praying. It's not because Jesus is a showy prayer. He says go off into your closet and pray

12:31 It's because Jesus is a dude who prays and I think that's interesting because He because he's not a showy prayer. It's very rare that we hear the content of his prayers We just hear that he's praying Right I wrote down a couple and asked the people to read it so that you didn't hear my voice all the time So Luke chapter six verse 12 is one of those times where it mentions Jesus praying

13:09 I Mean he doesn't say they just noticed that he was gone all night and He was praying it you didn't do it for our benefit. We don't even know what he said Is that interesting and then Luke chapter 9 verse 28 and 29?

13:39 That's the famous Mount of Transfiguration story, you know and console Messa points out that when you read that story in order Jesus doesn't know he's going up to glow and talk to Moses and Elijah Like he just says hey guys Let's go pray because it's morning and he prays a something loitian think that Jesus followed that Israelite

14:09 Traditional at the time of the first century of the three times prayer pray in the morning pray in the middle of the day Pray at night that he was praying on a regular basis So it was normal for him to get up in the morning before everybody else go up to a high place And this time he just decided to take Peter James and John and he starts glowing in the middle of his prayer Luke chapter 11 verse 1 is another one of those He's praying in a certain place

14:44 Yeah, he was praying in a certain place Got to let the point out do you pray in a certain place and there was something about the way he was praying where the disciples says Different from how we do it Like something else is going on in your prayers there. Would you teach us how to pray? This is when he teaches them the Lord's prayer because he's such a person of prayer and then Luke chapter 22 verse 41

15:16 Yeah, that's when he goes to get 70 and he and he prays at a critical point Well, I'm trying to get you to see is that like Jesus is praying all the time It's part of his regular pattern of behavior And he's doing it not to teach us something but because he's getting something from it Like he's not teaching us we don't even know what he prayed and it doesn't even seem like it's usually Like a thing that's coming before something like Jesus was off praying and he came right right before he walks across the water

15:51 He prays right before he selects the 12 disciples He prays as he's going to transfiguration as he's going to guess that many Jesus is praying all of the time Jesus is a person of prayer and the question that came to me is would people say that about me? If people followed me around would they notice oh, he's just coming from a time of prayer Like I wouldn't like it's just is it a part of my day like Jesus needed prayer

16:26 conversation with God and the spirit in on more than one occasion a noise like came on him in order for the purposes of prayer and And Jesus is is established and constituted by the Holy Spirit like Jesus is Lips the life as a human fully submitted to the spirit and he needs prayer and here am I? all mixed motives all Ciner and saints at the same time right

16:57 I might need conversation with God and I don't think if I'm being honest I don't think like the people who are around me the most would say that about me I Have a friend who I do say that about I don't know if it's true or not But I've told the story before some of you may have heard it. I have a friend to it. He's very busy He's like hard to get time with because he's like Everyone wants to meet with him all the time. He's got a lot of great work He's always doing great work and any time you get time with him. You might pass him on the street

17:31 You might have scheduled to get a coffee with him. It doesn't matter Every time I see him it's like he just came out of 45 minutes of prayer preparing just to have a conversation just with me He's like so present and available all the time We had a pastor in college Actually, he was the deacon at the church We went to in college that had a specific room I never made it into the room But I heard when you went into the room you could tell he had prayed there every day which he did

18:02 It was his praying room and his praying chair and the whole place felt different. There are people Who are known as people of prayer? And I don't think this is a special calling or gift When I when I thought about that would people call me a person of prayer actually the next image that came to my head was this is a Little bizarre, but it was Adam and Eve running away from God

18:37 Isn't that interesting in my personal prayer the next thought I had was Adam and Eve running away from God And then I thought something about that interaction that I'd never thought before I thought why did they run away from God? Like at this critical point in their life When like they have no idea what to do They're experiencing something completely new They run and hide I Think I thought of that because that's what it feels like for me if I think about why am I not found in prayer more often

19:16 Adam and Eve did not know what to do and they thought I've got to get a handle on this before I get in front of the God And I think if I ask myself honestly why am I not found in prayer more? It's because that's my attitude. It's like I've got to get a handle on this before I get in front I can just deal with this. It's not worth bothering And I thought well in the case of Adam and Eve that's pretty justified

19:47 No human had tried to be God before Their experience of shame and guilt Embarrassment and fear was brand new in the world. Nobody knew how the God would respond to Humanities trying to usurp his power in their world and chart their own course in the world that he gave him with bodies that he made To carry his own image, right nobody knew how he would respond safe to hide for a minute

20:19 We know how he responds You know how God responds to you You know how God feels about you God closed Adam and Eve ushered them out of the garden to protect an eternity with him forever instead of separated from him forever and set about the course of Remaking in humanity and in the person of Christ upon the cross puts the death the worst parts of humanity and resurrect something

20:55 All together new with the capacity at Pentecost to carry the spirit in order that prompted by the spirit at Moments of fear and trepidation at moments of joy and exaltation Together with the spirit we would go and be with God we get to be people of prayer We get to be people in conversation with the God of the universe. This is what it means to live on this side of Pentecost conversation with the dad of all dads

21:29 With the creator God of the universe with the origin and completion of love With the ideator and the fulfillment of justice with with provision and joy with mercy and generosity with creativity and hope in good times and bad times We carry the spirit in order that we could be people in the presence of God

22:01 You and I All the time Whenever it occurs to us actually More than it occurs to us that doesn't occur to us nearly enough Last thing I'll say about this is I remember the first time I started to be frustrated with my the frequency of my prayer Was in college I'm odd

22:34 But it started to occur to me in college, so that's all I should I should I should I should I started to read about prayer I started to think about prayer. It's actually when I found this book Oh, sorry, which will we'll go in too soon? But I remember I remember thinking Why don't I pray and then the next thought was You know what like anything Conversation with God is this like gift it builds on itself. I

23:06 Found this verse in a fusions Let me make sure Ephesians 430 where Paul says that you can grieve the Holy Spirit Where your actions can slowly move you away from the regular cultivation and Experience of the Spirit of God and I started to think if I can if I can grieve the Spirit of God Perhaps then I can cultivate the Spirit of God

23:40 Perhaps then there are times and places where action might proceed attitude where I can build rhythms into my life To remind me to move towards God rather than away from him right When I eat fruits of my inclination to be towards God rather than to run and hide And this way then like the three times the prayer might be a good idea morning lunch time before bed

24:10 Because Whether we believe it or not Whether we understand that or not There is great gift in communion with God There we find the Holy Spirit and it grows and can Multiply in our life let me pray now that we might be people of prayer on this side of Pentecost Hey Lord, thank you for the gift of your spirit

24:41 And the testimony of Jesus the Christ who prays Teach us also to be people of prayer to take advantage of the gift of your spirit and the presence Your presence or in our lives Give us the confidence of your love your grace your provision That we might not run and hide in the situations of life, but we might run toward you