John Gunter: Hi, friends. Welcome to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Guenter. Again, we wanna thank you just for listening in. And today, we are on sermon number two of what about the Holy Spirit?
Last week we talked about Holy Spirit as creator and today we talked about how the Holy Spirit empowered people in the Old Testament. So we we talk about a few people and we'll continue this next week, but I hope you're blessed by this, by this study. And if you have any questions, hey, let me know. I'd love to answer those as we go through. Thanks again for listening.
Come see us sometime. I'd like to again thank you for being here this morning. I wanna also encourage you, we are so every sermon, the next Sunday morning Bible class will be over the sermon. It gives us a chance to kind of deep dive into these things, things we don't have time for or maybe even questions we don't anticipate. But hopefully you will be a part of that.
And also I want to encourage you on Wednesday nights we are going through a study called Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. And that is going to be a great study. Had a good kickoff this past Wednesday night. That is at 06:30PM on Wednesday. So, we'd we'd love for you to to be with us.
So, again, this is the sermon in the series we're calling, What About the Holy Spirit? Last week we talked about some of the foundations that were laid back in the mid eighteen hundred's for the restoration movement to start having this idea of what the Holy Spirit did or what it does now or does not do and how that has influenced us even today as we talked about Doctor. Robert Richardson and also Tolbert Fanning. We talked a lot about seeing God in creation. And what we find here, and there's Richardson and Fanning.
Did I put this in here? I cannot believe I put this. I did? Yeah. Okay.
This does seem like class material. Alright. Rewind. We also talked about John Locke and how he influenced Fanning. And just shortly, Locke said, our senses are the source of knowledge.
And for a lot of you, you may not have known kind of this language, but that's how we thought about the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit wasn't really doing anything today, it was all about our senses and God giving us the Bible. And because we read the Bible, we get smarter and that's how the Spirit influences us. Locke would say, Since God and spiritual things cannot be experienced by the five senses, we are entirely dependent upon the Bible for any knowledge or contact with God. And if you remember from last week, Richardson asked a very good question about this because if you think word only and the spirit doesn't do anything other than the word, Richardson looked at Alexander Campbell and Tolbert Fanning who were both devout men of prayer and he said, then, why pray?
Because if god does nothing outside of the scripture, your prayer is what? Basically, meaning Yeah. And and so, if if you come to today with the understanding that that god only works in the word, then you have to struggle with the same question. What is it about prayer? Why do you pray or do you pray?
Or when you pray, do you expect god to answer in some way? And that's what we struggled with or or wrestled with last last weekend in our our Bible class. This is where I thought we were going next. So, shame on me. From the dictionary of the Old Testament, Hildreth tells us this, The theme of creation in the Old Testament rests on the conception that the Spirit of God brings order out of chaos.
What god commands in regard to the created world, the spirit shapes into reality and that's what we talked about. I love this. I love this quote here. That's what we talked about last week. That that we come to the study of the Holy Spirit and everyone has their default when you think about what the Holy Spirit does and for some of you, we say, what does the Holy Spirit do today and you're thinking, speaking in tongues.
Could be thinking nothing as someone said. Speaking in tongues, we could be, you know, prophesying or or some of the things you see charismatic churches doing and that's your only idea of what the spirit of god does but scripture as we start out last week in Genesis one two, as god creates the world, it says, and the spirit hovered over the waters. The spirit hovering there just waiting for the word from god to create and what we talked about was was how much the spirit creates and sustains the world and often we're out looking for the big, miraculous thing. We're looking for the speaking in tongues or the person healed that we didn't think there was any chance they would be healed and and god tells us that as we even as we sit in here but as we walk out into creation in just a few minutes, everything out there being sustained is being done, is being sustained by the spirit of god. And we walk around like we don't even know what's happening.
And we pray and sometimes we don't get the answer we want and we think, God, you must not be doing anything today. And we've got a whole world out here built for you and me being sustained and even the birds of the air are being clothed and fed. Isn't that amazing? I talked last week about my cucumbers. We don't have any because Katie pickled them yesterday.
Fantastic, by the way. But just to sit out in the garden and watch bees pollinate where I don't have to and think about god did that for us. Isn't that amazing? And so, god is is doing things and the holy spirit is doing things and I think we don't we don't default to when we think about the holy spirit and and that is true for today as well. From Psalm thirty three six, just a couple of verses to go with creation.
By the word of the lord, the heavens were made their starry host by the breath of his mouth. Remember, that that pneuma or ruach can mean breath, wind, but I like to quote last week that in in Genesis one two, when the spirit of god hovered over the waters, the scholar said, wind does not hover. Spirit hovers. And also, Isaiah forty thirteen, who can fathom the spirit of the lord or instruct the lord as his counselor? Because the spirit of lord is is in all things and is all powerful, right?
And so that's what we should see. Not not only the the things we're asking for, the miraculous or or whatever that what we see outside is miraculous, isn't it? That you're breathing right now. Karen said in our class that your heart is beating. How how many of you had something to do with that?
Well, I took the breath in. It must be all me, right? No. God does that. The spirit of god sustains us.
So, this morning, we talk about a couple of other ways that god works. Maybe in ways you don't think about. So, the one we're going to start with. I'm sorry that font is so, it is tiny, isn't it? My goodness.
You think I'd know by now. We're gonna start with Joseph. Remember the story of Joseph? I love that we're we're in the story because all of these people I'm talking about, we have just studied, haven't we? And if you're confused right now, you need to come to church a little more, okay?
We have been through the old basically the entire Old Testament in the in the last few weeks since since January actually. But Joseph, you remember the story of his life, someone who we don't read really did anything wrong but he finds himself in all of these precarious situations. His brothers turn on him. Well, he was sporting that fancy coat though, wasn't he? And brothers being brothers said, well, we ought to sell him into slavery because of that coat.
That's a normal reaction. But Joseph, Joseph ends up getting out of some of the trouble he's in because of his gift. Do you remember what the gift Joseph had was? What was it? Interpreting dreams.
And and we don't know. It's not it's not explicit like like god doesn't say and I poured out the spirit on Joseph to do this but this is a gift of the spirit, isn't it? So, so much so that there's actually commentary about that. Genesis forty one thirty eight. So, Pharaoh asked them, can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of god?
So, you have an outsider looking at this situation going, that has to be the spirit of god. Now, this is this is implicit because god doesn't tell us but you gotta look at this and say, yeah, that is the spirit of god and so Joseph because the the spirit is poured out on him, he has been gifted in this way, is able to use this in a way that he ascends to the highest position that he can ascend to and because you have been here, we know the rest of the story, don't we? Thing that has been done with the spirit of god is that the spirit just empowers people. We saw it with Joseph with the way that he can interpret dreams and we also see this in in the way that the spirit empowers people to do very creative things. He says in Exodus twenty eight three, tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom, you catch that, in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron for his consecration so he may serve me as priest.
So, this idea that god pours out his spirit in a way that gives people wisdom and ability to do things. Do you ever any of you creative or know somebody that's just super creative in a way that you can't fathom? Like, I wish I could draw. I wish I could do that. I wish I could be creative.
Like, I can't even I can barely see pictures in my mind. I had a a buddy one time who I I showed a a brand new video. You know, back when you had to sit in front of the TV to watch a music video, y'all remember that? You had to be there at the right time. I'm still trying to explain that to my kids.
You Can't just pull it up. I mean, my goodness, it's easy. But I showed my buddy a video and and the next day, he drew the entire band. I knew them. He did not.
And I just can't wrap my mind around that. Right? But god does this. He he he gives people wisdom and and ability. Normally, I wouldn't if I ask you who these people were, I I might expect to see confused faces.
I may still see confused faces today. But these two people were instrumental and we have read about them recently. You've already forgotten. Bezalel and Ohalia. If you wanna name your kids something interesting, that'd be good.
They'll be that'll be with them for the rest of their life. Till they're 18 and they'll pay to to have that change. But look at this, then Moses said to the Israelites, see the Lord has chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, the son of Hur, the of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the spirit of God. This is the time that that is said in scripture, explicitly. That God has done this and Moses is saying that.
He has filled him with the spirit of God with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of anybody got a guess on that one? Ahisomach, I like that. Of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. So, not only can they do it, they have the ability to teach.
And if you've ever taught or tried to teach, you know that is a gift, right? He has filled them with skills to do all kinds of works, engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet, yarn and fine linen, and weavers, all of them skilled workers and designers. And, yeah, so didn't put the scripture on there. So, Bezalel Olohoyeb and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary or to do the work just as the lord has commanded. When you think of the spirit of god, do you think about empowering people to do artistic work?
I wish god would bless me with a little more of that. I found out after I met some of my biological family that a lot of the men on my dad's side are artists and I couldn't wrap my mind around that. I really can't. I I can draw and I've actually tried to to work on that since meeting them at all. Maybe I've got a gift here.
I don't even know about. But I need to I need to be looking at something. I need to see and I know some people could just see a picture in their mind and just go after it. That's not me. But god, the spirit of god is poured out and you see that they were given this mission to create.
I want you to notice that they accepted this. That like with all things, god gifts us and he doesn't make us do anything, does he? We have the ability to choose and so what we see here is a a good example of I have gifted you to do these things and these people go to work making all of these fantastic, artistic, creative designs that I can't even fathom. I always have the motto, you know, show it to me and I'll tell you whether or not I like it, but I can't create it. I I love when we moved here, Katie had Tammy come over and tell us what we need to do, how do we need to decorate this place.
Because we've got an empty canvas and I don't know what to do with it. Right? And some people are gifted with that. Have you ever thought about using that kind of gift for the Lord if that's been blessed? Have you been blessed with that?
Again, if we're only thinking about this one thing, this miraculous thing over here, we may miss what has been given to us. Another person and people are really, that are empowered by the spirit of God are the judges. We're gonna talk about Samson more than others, but I want you to notice this. We asked the question last week in class. Somebody asked, what did the Hebrew people how how did the Hebrew people understand the Spirit of God?
And the short answer is that really developed over time. So, as we go through the series, you'll see the development of thought that that we start in creation and then we see, oh, well people are empowered by God. And Scripture really starts talking about that in Judges. Notice this, the Spirit of the Lord came on him, so and that was Othniel, so that he became Israel's judge and went to war. The Lord gave Cushion, yeah, king of Aram into the hands of Othniel who overpowered him.
Notice that, the Spirit of the Lord. Judges six thirty four, Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet summoning the Is that right? Nobody is going to argue with me on any of this, are you? To follow Him. The idea here that the translation what we get here is is really the spirit like use Gideon as a coat.
I mean, it's just like, we're all over each other with this. The spirit of god coming on him in this moment. Then, the spirit of the lord came on Jephthah. He crossed the Gilead and Manasseh, paced through Mispah Of Gilead and from there, he advanced against the Ammonites. Empowering Jephthah to go.
To get moving. And the woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord began to stir him. Notice that.
We really see this idea of empowering people through the judges. Now, Samson's story is interesting, is it not? Samson is involved in a lot of different things. Let's let's read here in Judges 14. The spirit of the lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands.
Anybody picture that in your mind? Men, talking to you right now, I know you feel like if you go on a walk today and you see a lion, I've got a good shot. If I can just get my hands on him, you know. We went to the Houston Zoo last year and got to the lion exhibit and looking all around there, you know, and couldn't find him. I was this is disappointing until we realized they were up on those big rocks.
And as soon as I saw, I thought, I got a little worried. I knew there was a cage between me and him. But, yeah, we can't even really I mean, we're we're a little a little crazy. Bear gets us? No.
Let's, let's run away from that. But the spirit of the lord was on him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. I can't imagine tearing a young goat in half. I'll just tell you that right now. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.
Few verses later, Then the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down 30 of their men, stripped them of everything, and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Remember Samson telling the riddle there, burning with anger, he returned to his father's home. Isn't that interesting? That doesn't seem like a very positive thing.
And it's not. I think what we see in the comparison of the two, the spirit of god is given generously and we never see that god controls someone robotically where I'm gonna pour out my spirit and now you must do this. I think we see the the willingness to to go with god and create with with off or not with off Neil, with Bezalel and Oholiab. Yeah. I'm not naming all my kids that.
I can't even say it. We see them going along with that. But then with Samson, you see the highs and lows that I can kinda relate more to Samson, right? Some days it's good and god, I'm going with you and let's go together and I feel like I'm on the right track and sometimes, I'm veering off somewhere. I think that's what you see with Samson.
He was gifted with this incredible strength and sometimes he used it for good and sometimes he just decided to use it on his own. We don't get a whole lot of commentary on a verse like the one we just read but I can't imagine that the writer there intends for us to think, oh, that's always good when I go and attack people with the spirit of god. But the question kind of left for all of us is, how is god empowering you? Well, I think for a lot of us, we look around and we think, man, god has blessed you and I see how god is working in your your life and and Tyler, you you've been blessed with with song leading and man, I'd rather be able to do that and we get so focused on other things that we forget or we we're not we're blind to the the ways that god has empowered us to work for him. And I talked about this some.
I think back in the fall and and my recommendation to you is not to try and come up with your own but ask someone who knows you very well. How has god gifted me? Because we overlook and we overvalue other things that we don't have. When we could be living into the way that god has gifted us. I think that's what you see here.
Last week, god, the holy spirit is is empowering creation and sustaining us. This week, god empowers us to go to work for him. The question is, given these abilities, how are you using them? Are you using them at all? And are you using them for god?
Because like anything else, we have free will and we can go about doing whatever and I love that we have creative people. I I love that we have hospitable people here. I I know sometimes it is tough to open your homes, but I think that is a gift from God. I I think I I told you before about miss Joyce back home in Mineral Springs. That woman is a saint with the gift of hospitality.
That her door is always open type of thing. And as I've been here the last couple of years, we have the same kind of gifts right here in this place. Some of you have been gifted with the ability to open your home. Some of you have been gifted with the financial means to provide for other people, to help other people. How many other ways have we been gifted here as a church?
And as we look at really putting a foundation down in this community, we need to answer these questions. How is it that God wants to use me? Because it's easy to sit back and, as Jordan kind of explained, trying to get volunteers. It's easy to sit back and think, Well, they'll do it. Or, I'm sure there are plenty of people here that will do it.
I don't wanna embarrass her, but we have a lady in here who does a fantastic job with our website and our social media. And I told her to take off with it because you're doing a fantastic job. And she said, I I was just here sitting here thinking someone else would do a much better job than me. And I think a lot of us kinda hold that feeling, don't we? That God hasn't gifted me like all the others.
Maybe not. But God has gifted you. How are you using it? So I just wanna encourage you this morning that if you, have been kind of, what's the word I'm looking for? Self conscious about the way God has gifted you.
Maybe you've been blind to the way that God is empowering you that maybe it's a little scary. I'll tell you, when I started realizing that I wanted to preach, was kinda like excitement butted straight up with being scared to death. That I know God wants me to do this and God, I kinda want to. Does that make sense? I kinda wanna step through that door but that means a That means I might have to put myself out there.
I think a lot of ministry, unfortunately, is laying yourself out there just bare for anyone to just take a shot at you. They they you try to do something, you try to put all this energy into something and something, you know, nobody shows up and it crushes your soul. Or someone says everybody loves something or everybody loves the fact that I'm not gonna tell them everybody's talking to them and one person comes up and says, man, I didn't like that. And that's the thing that sticks with you. And so I know how easy it is to kind of withdraw and try to keep yourself safe in that way.
But again, we were not given this spirit of timidity, are we? But one of power just like we read about this morning. So if you haven't lived into that, we wanna encourage you to do it. We'd love to pray with you if we if you have anything to, that we can pray with you about. If you haven't begun that walk with Jesus, we'd love to see that happen today.
Put him on in baptism. We'd love to see that happen. Would you come as we stand and sing?