John Gunter: Hey, everyone, and welcome to the Eagle Ford Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Guenter. Thanks for listening to our, sermons each week. This week, we're talking about, again, about the holy spirit, but we're talking about the coming spirit. What did Israel expect God to do in this time?
They had come back from captivity but they still didn't feel like they were free and so they really expected God to do something great. And so that's what we talked about this week. I hope this has been helpful for you. Next week, we kind of we talk about Joel and go into the New Testament, so it'll be a lot of fun. Thanks again for listening.
Have a great week. Again, it's again great to be with you and so many of you are out and I don't know about you guys, what you expect in the summer, but this this summer has been fantastic. We have had so many people in here and I know we've we've had so many people on vacation, yet we keep filling up this room. That's a good problem to have. And so, I'm glad that you've, again, just given out of your day, given out of your time to come and worship God with us right here.
We talked last week, we talked about this was it was our anointing chapter two sermon. Last week, we talked about the mission of God, how important it is to make sure, a, we know what the mission of God is and b, to come alongside that. To join God in his mission, to be a part of what God wants to do right here with us. And that's what we've been reading about as we've read about the Holy Spirit, and we're kind of to the point here where we've we've done all the back almost all the backstory. We've done almost all the Old Testament about the spirit of God, and this this sermon today kind of acts as the almost last Old Testament sermon.
Next week, we'll kind of transition into the New Testament. We'll talk about Joel and then we'll go into the New Testament. And so for some of you, know you're probably celebrating because that's what you thought about when you thought about the Holy Spirit, but I hope this has also been beneficial. And one of the questions we asked early on when we started this series, somebody asked in class the question, what did the the Israelites think or know about the Holy Spirit? And hopefully, what you have seen through these last several weeks of of study is is how Israelites recognize the holy spirit.
Number one, creating the universe and sustaining life. At the very beginning in Genesis that it was the spirit of God that hovered above the water just waiting for the word to create. Right? And number two, we talked about how the spirit of God was used in powerful leadership, but powerful leadership in the way that the spirit of God worked was humbly in Moses. Not as as someone just barking and yelling and commanding, but someone humble, and someone who was just willing to walk alongside people who were kind of hard headed.
Number three, we've seen and the Israelites recognized prophets who stood for truth and justice, and they saw the work of the spirit in that. That it's not easy to do. It's not easy to stand before people and say, this is what God wants of you, knowing that they're not gonna take it very well. That what they're gonna do is look at you with crazy eyes and try to kill you possibly, try to run you out of town possibly, just like they did Jesus, but they recognized the holy spirit of God was active in these prophets' lives and being able to stand before and deliver the very words of God. And number four, what we've seen in the last couple of weeks is the spirit of God anointing kings and the expectation of the coming anointed one.
That we saw Saul anointed, and that his reign began very well, but then he drifted away. And then David comes after him, anointed as well. Remember, anointed means commissioned for a purpose. He is there to help further God's will to come alongside that. And David was different because he came back to God when he messed up, unlike Saul.
But even with kings being anointed, there was still this expectation of the one to come, the one who would do things correctly. The expectation of the people at this time was really that that God would would come back and God would renew everything they knew of. That even though they had come back from this captivity far away from home, that they had come back from that, what they found in themselves was a people overtaken by the Roman authority. And I I don't know if we can even wrap our minds around the idea that if we were here and country x y z controlled our land, that just doesn't seem very American, does it? How would you handle that?
But because of all these circumstances, they felt like God needed to act, God needed to move to take them out of their situation. And what they expected was a fresh outpouring of God's spirit. They expected in the coming years for God to show up and show out. That through the spirit of God, something bigger and better than ever before would happen. Now, hopefully, as you hear those words this morning, you think, well, what do I think about the spirit of God?
How much do I anticipate God working through his spirit in my life? Right? They expected it. They hoped for it. And often, at least the way I was raised, we kind of feared it and went around it and skipped over it.
But they expected God to show up and show out. In Isaiah 32, what we see this morning is this we're gonna read several verses out of Isaiah 32. But what they expected was the ideal king. Again, Saul started well, didn't end well. David, up and down.
Right? But what they expected was someone to come along and to take them out of that, and that someone would have to be ideal or perfect or do things the right way. And Isaiah 32 verse one says, see, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. How many of you know that that does not happen perfectly today? Some of you just laughed, didn't you?
And that's exactly what they looked around and saw. Right? That, yeah, yeah, you've been anointed by God for a purpose to fulfill his will, but as I look around, it is far less than perfect. And so what that that bread in them is the the really desire to see someone come in and do it right. Because it's all well and good, it's all theoretical until you're the one not getting the justice.
Or you're the one not seeing righteousness in your life. People deciding that's not the way they're gonna live around you. And so they expected something bigger and better. Later on in the chapter, Isaiah 32 verses 15 through 18 is what we're gonna read. What we see is this expectation of several realms, orders, I don't know what you wanna call it, but all these things are set right.
I'll I'll just read these together. Till the spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field. And the fertile field seems like a forest. The Lord's justice will dwell in the desert. His righteousness live in the fertile field.
The fruit of that righteousness will be peace. Its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. Well, doesn't that sound amazing? But that was not what they were experiencing.
And I'm guessing that's not what you're experiencing either. That when we look around, this is not exactly perfect. That though God's kingdom has begun to come on this earth, we understand that it is not here fully. We've had a great bible class on Wednesday nights and we've had some discussion over exactly this, why don't the why didn't the Jews believe? Or why do they still not believe, many of them, that Jesus was the Messiah?
And I I had the privilege of of getting to meet a rabbi of a synagogue, actually went through Lipscomb, got his got his degree, got his doctorate. And what he would say, he would point exactly to this verse. And he would say, the scriptures say that when God does all of this, what we will see is peace. And how many of you, as you look around today, think, what I see is peace? And so, that's the question for you, what do the Jews or why do they not accept, that's why.
But I wanna point out a couple of things that in in verse 15 that we just read that the created order is set right. Look at this. For the spirit is poured on us from on high. Again, spirit of God, this expectation, the spirit of God will be poured out. The desert, which was my front yard until last night I kept you know, we kept mentioning rain last night, but I know so many of you didn't get a drop, and so I felt pain for you as we prayed for the rain we got.
I did get some last night though, so No. But but we know how important the rain is. Right? Because the desert places aren't good for a whole lot. Right?
What we see here is that is set right. The desert becomes like a fertile field, and the fertile field doesn't stay a fertile field. It seems like a forest. That when God sets things right, he sets them right. That he can bring something out of nothing, that he can take what is there and make it that much greater.
In verse 16, we see kind of this moral order set right. The Lord's justice will dwell in the desert. His righteousness live in the fertile field. Read that in a way that it's the Lord's justice and righteousness and not mine or someone else's that is not perfect. But God will set things right.
And finally, in verses seventeen and eighteen, we see kind of this social order set right. The fruit of that righteousness. So after God's justice and righteousness, the fruit we see of that righteousness will be peace. Its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. Boy, quietness is a big word right there, isn't it?
Is that how you would define your life? A life of quietness. Mine's a life of noise most of the time, I would just say. But God sets it right and then it is peace, it is quietness and confidence. He said, my people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
That needs to be hanging over our doors. Quit grabbing that verse from Jeremiah. God told you it's gonna be seventy years, okay, on that one. This one says, my people will live in peaceful dwelling places, secure homes, undisturbed places of rest. I need an amen on that.
Some of y'all living too good to even even care about this. I need peace. I need security. Undisturbed places of rest. I'd ask how many introverts we have in here but nobody would raise their hand.
But when I read this, I read those times, and I've told you guys before I'm kind of borderline, I have tendencies on both sides. Sometimes I need my place of rest. The introverts, a lot of times, get into books. I need to go home, I need to be in a quiet place, and I need to read, and that's for me, that's when I read that. In peaceful places, undisturbed.
And when God comes and he sets all these things in order, this is what happens. That's okay. I've got a quick response. That's not your fault. My own phone has done that before.
I'll tell you, one time I was preaching up here and somebody was looking up a scripture in their Bible app and all of a sudden they accidentally pushed play on the audio and could not get it to be quiet. So it read nearly a chapter before, but that is okay, you don't worry about that at all. But I look forward to God setting things right, don't you? That we can try, and I hope we do, and that we come along in God's mission, but there's gonna be a point in our lives, maybe before we die or maybe after, where we get to experience perfection in that. And I can't tell you that I know what that looks like, perfection.
But God will be able to set it all right. Ezekiel Ezekiel talks about the spirit of God in in like seven different places. And Ezekiel also he saw and and really looked for greater restoration than, again, this return from exile, this return from captivity. He saw more than this. From Ezekiel 36, He said, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.
I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. Let's start right there. Remember what we said heart was in the old testament thinking? Like it is the the thought center.
Like, again, and I'll use the example, we we still say things like, it's from the heart. Right? But for them, it was it was the way you decided, the thought center was your heart and see a small s in that spirit. That was really a way of just saying, you need to think differently, I'm gonna put a give you a new heart, you're gonna think differently, I'm gonna give you put a new spirit in you, you're gonna feel differently. Tell me you know what the difference in those two things are.
Right? I can know something intellectually, but inside I've got all these feelings and emotions. Right? And God says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
So, for those of you who are hard headed and haven't raised your hand, because you're hard headed, God said he is able to remove that heart of stone, to get that out of the way, and it says, to give you a heart of flesh. This idea that now God is able to get in there. And we put so many things trying to block God. Maybe we don't even think of it that way, but we we we just harden ourselves off. Maybe we feel like we've got all the answers or, you know, it's my way or the highway.
But God says, I am able to to remove this, to give you a heart of flesh, and that Israel, and then consequently us, you're gonna have to think differently and feel differently. What we see in this is is God does the work. You don't see, you know, you work hard enough to get this. He says, I will give you a new heart. I will do that.
But we understand that that God doesn't just force things on us, we have to accept the gift. Right? We have to say yes. We have to say, okay, I submit to your will. Anybody else have a will of their own or is it just me?
Right? There are desires, things I wanna get done, all these things that just pull from my attention. Submission is a big word, is it not? I don't know if it's that word has kind of fallen out of favor in our culture, I think. But we must submit to the will of God and he said he will do exactly this, I will fix you up.
But what we see in this is God still demands obedience, doesn't he? Verse 27, and I will put my spirit Notice that capital s. I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. God still requires obedience, doesn't he? But notice, as we've talked about every week, God does not leave us alone to that.
Beginning of this verse, I will put my what? Not just flippantly, not just because, so that you can live the kind of life that you wanna live with God. You can decide, I want to be on mission, I wanna be on this mission with you God, and God said, I will take care of you and you will have my spirit. And what we're gonna talk about in the New Testament, again, because we we're Church of Christ and we love baptism, we believe in baptism, we know it by heart. Right?
Acts two thirty eight. Repent and be baptized every one of you and you will receive the gift of what? The Holy Spirit. Ezekiel saw that, was told that back so many years before. Ezekiel experienced something that's really hard to explain, so we just we're just gonna read it from Ezekiel, just the next chapter in chapter 37 verses one through 14.
The hand of the Lord was on me and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of the valley. You notice how Ezekiel's tuned into this. Ezekiel sees this as the spirit of God was at work. That's only way I can explain it. Spirit of the Lord set me in the middle of a valley and it was full of bones.
He led me back and among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. What does that mean? They've been there a while. Right? This is not fresh, this is old.
He asked me, son of man, can these bones live? I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know. What a great answer. God ever asks you a question, that's I let me just go ahead and tell you that's the way I'd answer right there. Lord, you alone know because I'm not gonna speak up here.
Then he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones, I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
You see how God doesn't do it just for whatever, it's for a reason. Then you will know that I am the Lord. God's been trying to get our attention every step of the way. And often times, we're walking on the path with our head down going, I wish I could speak to God. I wish I knew what he wanted.
And God's out here like a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man trying to get our attention. Then you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I I was commanded, and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together bone to bone. I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath.
Prophesy, son of man, and say to it. This is what the sovereign lord says, come breath from the four winds and breathe into these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them. They came to life and stood up on their feet as a vast army. Then he said to me, son of man, these bones are the people of Israel.
Ouch. You're the people of Israel. Do you think God would say that about us? These folks are dried up. They say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone.
We are cut off. There's no hope, really. Therefore, prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says, my people, I am going to open up your graves or open your graves and bring you up from them. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord.
I'm trying to get your attention. Right? Then you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and I have done it, declares the Lord.
How many of you, if God did this for you, you believe that would be the sign I needed to know that God is the Lord? But what was the result of this? Certainly, some believed, but how many people walked away not believing that this was true? That God wasn't who he said he was and he certainly didn't work through Jesus in that way later on. Right?
And so I think sometimes we get in our minds, if God would only do what he did there, I would believe. But as we just mentioned a few minutes ago, God is giving every one of us that has put on him in baptism, put on Jesus in baptism, we've all been given this gift of the Holy Spirit to empower us to do things we didn't ever think we could do. And so many of us are so afraid to lean on the spirit, to lean on faith, that we never see the work of the spirit because we're holding him back. Because we've already decided, I can't do that. When all God wants is to empower you to come alongside him, to be on mission, to walk with him every step of the way.
I am Through this study, I think more and more about the spirit of God. How about you? Are you becoming more aware, more conscious? As we get into the New Testament study, I hope that if that hasn't been the case for you, that you will see it soon. That God, we read over and over in scripture, that that's so vast.
This is why I have given you the spirit. To live the kind of life that I want you to live. And so, wanna encourage you this morning, if you haven't been living that life, start giving it up to God. Learn the words submit. Take a long healthy look in the mirror and say, how is it that I've strayed from God?
Because I wanna come back to you. And he will make it right. He is able. You believe he's able to remove a heart of stone and to give you a heart of flesh. Francisco's got an invitation song picked out.
We'd like to offer this time if, you haven't begun that walk with him and like to be baptized. We don't have a baptistry here, but it is hot enough we can find a pool close. And we'd love to see someone start that walk with Jesus. If you have any other needs this morning, would you come as we stand and as we sing?