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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey everyone, welcome to Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. This week we kick off our study of the Holy Spirit and what you're about to hear is our kind of overview kickoff class that really lays the foundation for what we'll be covering further. We cover really how we've been influenced in the churches of Christ, to what we believe about the Holy Spirit. I hope you'll find it interesting. We'll just jump right into it right now.
John Gunter:Thanks for listening. How are you? Good. How are Good. Good to see you.
John Gunter:It's been,
John Gunter:two weeks since I've basically stood in front of you. So that's, I was I was ready to get back. Last week, had a good week at my friend's church in Mississippi. They have shared a preacher for a little over sixty years now with another congregation. So, two churches and so I filled in for him and took a little pressure off of him.
John Gunter:So his morning routine is to get up and drive twenty three minutes away to the church, do class and service, drive twenty three minutes back, have about a ten minute break, go across the road from his house to where he preaches again, then he does the Bible class that he did that morning at the other church, he does that in the evening. And so I filled in for him for all of that and I'm glad he's doing it. I would need a few more mental breaks than he gets, but it was certainly good to be down there with them. They were kind of our family at Harding. And so when we moved away, was tough.
John Gunter:It was tough to leave folks you get close to. And today, that's you guys. We miss being with you. It's funny how quickly it goes from nobody, we don't know anybody, y'all don't know us, to man, I miss those people. Most of those people.
John Gunter:Yeah, I mean, yeah. Hey Shirley, glad you're here this morning. It's just messing. Well, I challenged you a couple of weeks ago to that we would be here doing the study of the Holy Spirit and I guess you guys are the ones who cared about that. Okay.
John Gunter:So, we'll give the others a hard time. But just to lay out, this is kind of the oddball class this week as we begin this. And if you remember as I explained it, what we're gonna do is kind of like what we've been doing in our small groups is we're gonna have a sermon today and then next week we're gonna have a class period devoted to the same thing that the sermon is devoted to. So, I will come and I'll make up some questions to ask you but what I want you to do is as we go through the sermon, I want you to think of, alright, questions I have about this topic and things I really wanna talk about. So, the class time is gonna be our time to really kind of deep dive even further into those questions.
John Gunter:That's, to me, that's the important thing. This is where I have the most fun is class because we can. We can learn from each other. We can ask those questions. And it's one of those things where I think a lot of times when we're sitting in the seat, we always think, well, I must be the only person that has that question.
John Gunter:And then you ask that question and that hits on something so many people were thinking. And so I think it's a very important time and I hope you'll be here for it. This morning, what I'm gonna do, you're gonna get both in the class and the sermons, gonna have a little overlap because I think it's important to kind of see and kind of lay a foundation about our beliefs, about our beliefs about the Holy Spirit. And so I'm gonna kinda lay that out. We're gonna have some time at the end that I want you to be thinking about questions you have right now as you sit here today that you'd like to see answered over the period of this series.
John Gunter:And I've kind of left this series as an open ended thing where if we have more questions and things we need to dive into, we'll just do that. We've got the summer to do whatever. And if we get through it and we feel like, yeah, I've kind of had my questions answered, we will go on to something else. So, like I said, just be thinking about those questions that you have. Where we're gonna start today is really our understanding of the Holy Spirit and where that comes from.
John Gunter:How many of you grew up in churches of Christ? Okay. Large majority of you. Okay. So, tell me this, how much was the Holy Spirit mentioned in your church?
John Gunter:How many of you would say not a whole lot? Okay. How many of you grew up in a church of Christ that the Holy Spirit was mentioned a whole lot? Okay. Good.
John Gunter:Yeah, far less. And that was my experience as well, not much mentioned. Like I said, we knew about God the Father. We love Him and what He has done for us. We love Jesus and the sacrifice He made and the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:Don't know what to do with that. Next verse. That's kind of the way I grew up. And so, those of you not raised Church of Christ, you will hopefully will benefit from this as well this morning. Because what we're gonna talk about is again, the way we have come to think about the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:And if you're like me, you come into Bible study or the way you think about things and you think all of this is just my conclusion. Like, I have come to this conclusion and what we forget is that we have all been influenced in some way from other people. Maybe you had a preacher who you loved and was very good and what he said or what he thought about something was kinda shaped the way you thought. And that's a lot of influence comes from those type of things. And in our movement, which is called the Restoration Movement from Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone, both of them Scotch Irish Presbyterians, They decided that what we need to do is go back to the Bible and figure some of this stuff out because they looked around and thought, I don't know that a lot of this is scriptural that they were seeing.
John Gunter:And so, the way opinions and thoughts were shaped back in the restoration movement times was by having either debates, and that could be a public debate, but that could also be, I am gonna write something in this paper and you are gonna respond in your paper and everybody's gonna argue and somebody eventually comes out a winner. And that's really very influential and and we may not even know it. So, there's two people I want to, to talk about this morning. Robert Richardson and Tolbert Fanning. And in 1856 and you're thinking 1856, there's no way they influenced me.
John Gunter:I guarantee you they have. We just don't know it. They had a back and in their own papers. So Richardson was a good friend, Alexander Campbell, and would write in the Millennial Harbinger, if I could say that. And then Tolbert Fanning, he started things like the Gospel Advocate, you heard about that.
John Gunter:Those of you in Churches of Christ probably have used some things from Gospel Advocate. But Richardson and Fanning differed on the Holy Spirit. Richardson looked around and what he saw, what he perceived was that we have a lot of the form down like we want to do the the right things in the right ways but he said, there is no spirit here. There's no like excitement about what's going on. We're just so focused on we wanna do this thing and this way that we've abandoned the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:And Fanning would would go the opposite way and said, well, what Richardson's just want to do is put this mysticism out here. It just everything has to be spiritual. It is kinda, you know, blaming them for being the other way And so, they had this kind of back and And what's kind of ironic is Fanning would tell Richardson that you're just into all of these philosophies. You know, we're in a movement where we're trying to say only the Bible, right? We get things out of the Bible.
John Gunter:The Bible tells us what to think and Fanning looked at Richardson and said, you're just following all these other philosophy. But the irony here is that Fanning was following a philosophy, basically word for word. And what is influential is the teachings of Well, if I can get this to go forward, come on now. John Locke. You heard of John Locke?
John Gunter:So, the Lockean philosophy is this, our senses are the source of knowledge. So, I I need to be able to hear, see, taste, smell. What's the
John Gunter:other one?
John Gunter:What am I missing? Feel. Feel. Thank you. Touch.
John Gunter:Yeah, I need to I need to be able to do that or basically, it doesn't exist and 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 of or contact with god. And this is this is exactly what Fanning was was putting out there. That there is no need for for anything else that god has given you scripture and and basically, the way to interact with god is God has given you scripture, you go to scripture, you learn from that, and that is your way to God. Any problems with that that you see? What do you think?
Speaker 3:We all read it
Speaker 4:differently. We all
John Gunter:read it differently? Yeah, that's a problem that we have, isn't it? Some it. Some couldn't read it all. Yeah, okay.
John Gunter:So we are entirely dependent on the five senses in the Bible and some people can't read, some people read it differently. Okay, there's an issue there. It says, In short, the Bible and human senses provide the only pathway to the human soul. And that's a problem. Do you feel like this is your way to interact with God?
John Gunter:And before we, you can probably hear in my voice, I am not for Fanning's position. I don't want to get here today and bash Fanning, but just to recognize that this has kind of influenced us over the years. It says the system has been termed the dirt philosophy due to its dependence on material things. So I have to be able to sense it with all the five senses. So where is the room for spirituality, spirituality, if I can speak this morning?
John Gunter:Spiritual things. Where does that come into play? That's the sense. The sense. There you go.
John Gunter:That was a movie, I think. Was he dead or something? Yeah. But yeah, you see the focus on we need to take the spiritual out of this thing. Which way do you think Southern Churches of Christ went?
John Gunter:Richardson's way? We need to introduce more of the Holy Spirit and introduce more spiritual things. Or Fanning's way, we need to focus on the form and function and kind of leave spiritual things out of this. Fanning all the way, yeah. That's really the way most Southern churches of Christ went.
John Gunter:And so, without even knowing it, Fanning was really big fan of Locke. He didn't even recognize it at when Richardson said, no, you were following John Locke to a T. And his defense was, of all, he said, no, I'm not. So, completely denied it but over the course of the the back and finally, he admitted that, okay, what what Locke says is is good but it's not a philosophy because it's truth. So, he just said, you know what?
John Gunter:We're gonna take the term philosophy which he was railing against but no, because he says it and it's right, it's truth. It's not actually a philosophy. And so, that was the that was the back and here. So, one of the things one of the test I think that one of the best test that we can have of where we stand. How many of you, when we talk about the Holy Spirit, like things come up in your mind that make you uncomfortable?
John Gunter:Things like you might If you've gone to a church that was charismatic, that people are running around, people are making all kinds of of noises, dancing, all of that, kinda makes you uncomfortable. I remember my my buddy who went to a charismatic church when we were probably in elementary school, I don't know, but he looked at me one day. He said, you mean to tell me, you guys just sit there and listen? Yeah. That's all we do.
John Gunter:Sounds pretty boring, doesn't it? Y'all just sit there and listen? Yeah. And and so, I think a lot of times we we have a reaction to the Holy Spirit in a way that when we bring up this topic that you've you've you're thinking of something. Something very specific.
John Gunter:Now, as we've already covered, Fanning is the the person that we followed in Churches of Christ. Fanning is his way and again, following John Locke is the way we kind of all gravitated towards because the enlightenment is where we kind of started thinking, okay, we can put names to all these things. We understand a lot more and so it really took God out of it. You know, because I know how the heart works now, you know, there's no need for god. And what I think we had forgotten at that point is who makes it all work?
John Gunter:Who gives it all life? Who makes it all move. And so, when we examine this, I think, one of the best tests, if you're if you're thinking, you know what? I think Fanning's way sounds pretty good. I like that.
John Gunter:Maybe I'm more comfortable with that. The question you need to you need to ask yourself is do you pray? How many of you pray? Not only do you pray, how many of you pray expecting or desiring god to do something about it?
John Gunter:I prayed this morning before Ethan drove us to church. Amen. While he was
John Gunter:crying. Hedge of protection.
Speaker 3:All the the hedges.
John Gunter:All the hedges.
John Gunter:And you got your ears safely?
John Gunter:And you got your ears safely. And so that that is the test. And, actually, that's what Richardson brought up to so so Campbell was a friend to both men. Richardson had worked with Campbell at the Millennial Harbinger. Tolbert Fanning had been on like preaching expeditions with Campbell and Campbell actually leaned the side of Fanning to the point where Richardson and Campbell had their friendship broken up for a while and by the way, Richardson ended up writing the the biography of Campbell.
John Gunter:They trusted this family, trust him that much. So, it so it broke up, you know, people's relationships but both Fanning and Campbell were devout men of prayer and so Richardson said, why even pray? If you don't expect god to do something. And so that is that is your test. As far as do I do I believe that that god does anything today that through his holy spirit is there is there any direct connection because with with Locke's philosophy, there is no direct link to god.
John Gunter:It is me and the Bible and whether I whether or not I get smarter from reading it. Okay? Any questions about that? Any thoughts? Yeah.
John Gunter:I I just I My background comes up here,
John Gunter:but, you know, I I think my experience growing up
John Gunter:I grew up in the part
John Gunter:of Louisiana where the Church of Christ was very weak, but the charismatic churches were very strong, so they were just all around us. It was a lot of sermons and bible classes where it was just literally making fun of them. And and that I think the consequence of of that is that there was no discussion of the holy spirit. There was no discussion about feeling or, you know, how your faith should work. It was all an intellectual exercise because people were afraid.
John Gunter:Well, if I start thinking about the Holy Spirit and what it can do, next thing you know, we're dancing mistakes or something. Know? So there's a total total, you know, just revolt to to stay away from anything close to that. So, we don't ever go down that that path and as a you know, as a result, you you can't really think your way through what Jesus did and what god did. It it at some point, you know, when you start thinking about the supernatural part of it, I mean, being raised from the dead and some other things is not logical.
John Gunter:A lot of that, you can't get there with logic. You have to have something more than that. And, know, I heard a story one time where Elvis met with the Church of Scientology and when they left, he told his wife, his wife asked her, what do you think? And he said, they're all head and no heart. And I thought that was a good way to kind kinda sum it up the way I felt
John Gunter:we were headed is we're trying to do
John Gunter:it all head and no heart. Mhmm. You know, you can't you can't just get there. I I can't. Maybe some people can, but my faith is based on as much of what I feel as what I think.
John Gunter:Sure. But how much the question to the rest of the room, how much focus have we had in our churches over whether or not you believe the right thing? We put much more focus on that over are you actually doing the right thing. Like we come together and we're about agreeing on that thing. And then we kind of break, huddle and go away.
John Gunter:We're okay with not doing it, but you better believe the right thing. Come to that intellectual point. What he said there about kind of their church's reaction to being around a bunch of charismatic churches is actually the exact thing that Campbell and others were reacting to when all of the restoration came about. So, they would see all these tent revivals and things like that and these charismatic groups would say, You are only saved if you have this manifestation of the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues, all of these other things. And like we do with a lot of things, we pendulum swing as far away from that as we can.
John Gunter:And so we went from, no, people would walk away from these tent revivals and they didn't they thought they were saved, but they never spoke in tongues or anything like that. And so they didn't know what to do. I guess I'm not saved. And Campbell offered them by going to this Lockean philosophy, All you need is your mind. Now, I think we would all agree you don't have to have a manifestation of speaking in tongues or anything like that for salvation.
John Gunter:We don't see that in Scripture. Some people have it, but even when Paul is discussing this in one Corinthians fourteen fifteen, 16, somewhere in there. He says, Not everybody is gonna have it. You can desire those things, but not everybody is gonna have that. But the reaction was, we're gonna go so far away from this that we're gonna take all of this out of it.
John Gunter:Okay? And so I think, I think what I've got queued up next I need notes sometimes. I'm just too hard headed, I guess. If it's not, I'll set it up and look like a fool. I don't know.
John Gunter:What I wanna give you this morning that we won't have in
John Gunter:the
John Gunter:sermon is something to wrestle with. I wanna I wanna start with a question. Do you believe healing happens today? Do you believe god heals? Yes.
John Gunter:Or do we pray and someone is healed and we think, it's probably the doctors. We pray for the doctors, right? Nurses, everybody taking care of the person. But does god heal today? What do you think, church?
John Gunter:Okay.
Speaker 4:And sometimes two doctors but sometimes without. Without them.
John Gunter:Yeah. Okay. K. Now now some of you, if you don't know, think that, now you're scared to say anything. That's okay.
John Gunter:Found something cool this past week. Rebecca's already seen this. Katie's already seen this, I know. But basically, there's a pastor named Dwayne Miller. And Dwayne was pastor of a pretty large church but he got sick.
John Gunter:He had this I don't know what all was wrong with him. Can't remember what all he said, but basically at the end of this sickness, this illness, he was left basically with no voice. He had some kind of injury to his vocal cords and he just
Speaker 4:talked like this all the time.
John Gunter:And so much so, the doctor said, We can't tell you that this will ever heal. And so he resigned as pastor of his church. He said, Because you guys need someone to take care of you who can actually speak. And so he went from pastor to private eye, and he said the only things those things have in common is they both start with the letter P. But he did that for four years after this injury and resignation from his church.
John Gunter:But he was asked one Sunday to come back and teach a class, and he said, I didn't want to do it at all. He said, if I could have gotten out of it, I would have. He didn't want to do it. It's kind of a kind of a reminder of what he had lost. You know, and and being able to speak.
John Gunter:If I if I lose my voice, that is a major toll on my life, right? Uh-huh. But what we see in this is amazing. I want you to see this. Let's see.
John Gunter:I'm gonna get through these scriptures real quick and I'll come back to em. I'll come back to them. Oh, you got it? Yeah. Click on the click on the video.
Speaker 5:All of my diseases, let me say to you that I believe God still heals. That hasn't ended. That is not over. Now you have to be careful about how you do this. Because there are folks who carry things to an excess and it becomes a show.
Speaker 5:And God has never intended that that be what it is. God heals in his sovereign will. I don't know why God does things that he does, but I know that he does. And the only thing he requires of me is to allow him to be God and me to be me and let it be. To say that every single person will always be healed because Jesus died on the cross is a misinterpretation of scripture.
Speaker 5:Not true. Won't work. Isaiah 53 doesn't talk about physical healing. I'm sorry. That's just not the context.
Speaker 5:And to impress that there causes a misinterpretation of scripture. That's wrong. On the other hand, to say that since we don't have anything after the book of Acts, that miracles ended in the book of Acts and they never happen again is equally as wrong because you have put God in a box both ways and he doesn't wanna be in a box. So the psalmist says, I'm excited. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
Speaker 5:One of his benefits is that he heals all of my suck diseases. And in verse four, he says, and he redeems my life from the pit. Now, I like that verse just a whole lot. I have had and you have had in times past pit experiences.
Speaker 4:We've both had we've all had times when our life seemed to be in a pit, in a grave, And we didn't have an answer for
Speaker 5:the pit fire cells in. And I
Speaker 4:don't understand this right now. Put over the ground at the moment. I'm not quite sure what to say or do. Hi, mom. Sounds funny to say the last four words.
Speaker 5:Thank you, Lord. I
Speaker 4:he redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love and compassion. He satisfies my desires with good things so that my youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. The Lord is compassionate and gracious. The Lord is slow to anger.
Speaker 4:Lord is abounding in love. The Lord will not accuse nor will he harbors anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. That's mercy. Or repay us according to our iniquities, that's mercy.
Speaker 4:For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the East is for the West, so far as he removed our transgressions from us.
John Gunter:Chase, would you put that up to the scripture where the scripture started? What just happened there? What just happened there? Four years after. While he was reading through the scriptures, you hear that voice coming back and he doesn't even know what to do with that.
John Gunter:That bring chill bumps to you. You can you can go back and you can see Dwayne talking about this. Again, his name is Dwayne Miller, D U A N E. If you wanna look him up. He ended up writing a book after this too but you hear the shock in his in in his voice.
John Gunter:I don't know what to do with this. Because there at the you can tell he's trying to project. He's trying and it's just this wheezing basically, right? And you hear it slowly coming back and and he explains that he just felt in that moment as you read the scripture just all pressure that he had for four years go away. How many of you are skeptical like by nature?
John Gunter:I'm pretty skeptical by nature. And scripture talks about we should test things and that's okay. That is okay But I think at some point, we gotta look ourselves in the mirror. If we are skeptics and and say, do I really believe this? Do I really believe that god heals?
John Gunter:Do I pray for god to heal? And do I give god the credit when he does? When he heals in in our own lives. And and what I liked about that whole thing is is he taught through it and he said, listen, god is not gonna heal everyone. To come and think that it's that because god can heal that that everyone gets healed or anything like that.
John Gunter:That's just not the case, right? And what I wanna point out to you is that everyone that that god or Jesus healed in scripture, they eventually died, didn't they? Sometimes we forget that. And and sometimes we think death is is god just not being there. Well, everyone, even the people that god saved eventually died.
John Gunter:That is part of life. We don't like it. I don't like it but it's part
Speaker 4:of life.
John Gunter:And whether that comes on from old age or someone else being careless or stupid and killing. It is part of life. But I think when we see some of these things, we ought to give God the credit and God the glory. Everything I looked up on this guy, I didn't see anything that said this is any kind of hoax. To me, you can hear it in the audio.
John Gunter:It's just not you're not faking that. And like I said, he had quit his job for four years because of it. Just what an amazing thing. There's some scriptures I want to kind of have on the forefront of your mind as we go through this because one of the things that that we've wrestled with, what to do, kind of what about the Holy Spirit since Acts is a lot of the questions we have had is is the Holy Spirit still active, okay? Again, taking you know, Fanning's approach.
John Gunter:We, well, no. God has given us scripture and that's all we need and that's all we go with but I want to point out some some scriptures I want you to keep throughout this series. Acts two thirty eight, Peter said to them, repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven and you will receive the gift of
John Gunter:what? Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:Holy Spirit. Okay? So, a question that we have to ask here, Fanning would say is that this was only for those people. This was only for those people. Now, scripture never says that it was only for those people.
John Gunter:That's what Fanning would say. These are only for those people right then, both the apostles and the people that were having the spirit poured out on them.
John Gunter:What about the repent and be baptized? Is that only for
John Gunter:those people? That's what I'm saying. That's if you're gonna say it's only for those people, how much other stuff right here is only for those people? Okay? That's something I want you to wrestle with.
John Gunter:You don't have to respond right now but something I want you to wrestle with. Thank you, Heath. Romans eight five through 17, we read this at Easter. We read I think one through 17 that that day but for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.
John Gunter:For this reason, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to god. It does not submit to god's law. Indeed, it cannot and those who are in the flesh cannot please god but you are not in the flesh. You are in the what? Since thee, what dwells in you?
John Gunter:Spirit of god dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. That's a tough verse if you're if you're going with just the senses. We're just going with senses and what I can what I can grow intellectually or how I can grow intellectually. Since the spirit of god dwells in you.
John Gunter:Again, Paul's talking to Christians. He's talking to to people part of the church. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. That's a strong statement as I can get this morning. Okay?
John Gunter:And so when we we come to the Holy Spirit study, you've got to have this on the forefront of your mind. But if Christ is in you though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that dwells in you. So, you don't have the Spirit, you are not in Christ. If you have the Spirit what you are promised is the same power, the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead will raise you.
John Gunter:I don't want to throw that away to anybody else. Like, I want all of that you can give me, Lord, that dwells in You. So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
John Gunter:For all who are led by the spirit of god are children of god. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit of adoption. Remember us talking about that on Easter when we cry Abba Father. It is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of god. See this interaction here.
John Gunter:Spiritual interaction. And if children then heirs, heirs of god, and joint heirs with Christ. Christ. If in fact, we suffer with him so that we may be glorified with him. Any part of that sound like this is gonna end and you're not gonna have this.
John Gunter:No, there's nothing in scripture that that even suggests that. From John fourteen fifteen through 18, If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate or some translations helper to be with you. How long? For a short period of time? I'm just giving you this.
John Gunter:This is not gonna make sense to other people because they're not getting it. Just you guys? No. And Jesus promises this. And Fanning would say, he's just promising the disciples.
John Gunter:I don't believe that at all. The advocate will be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. That sounds like the senses right there, doesn't it? You know him because he abides with you and he will be in you.
John Gunter:I will not leave you orphan. I am coming to you. That is a promise of the Holy Spirit. And in John 16, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the advocate or helper will not come to you but if I go, I will send him to you.
John Gunter:Can you imagine Jesus sitting here this morning and he says, you know what guys? Eagle community, it is better that I go away and we go, Jesus, you're you've lost it. You don't know that. We're glad you're here. We've got some good cooks here.
Speaker 4:We're going
John Gunter:to keep you fed. It is better that you stay and he says, no. It is better that I go away so that you get this advocate or helper. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment, about sin because they do not believe in me, about righteousness because I am going to the Father and you will see Me no longer, about judgment because the ruler of this world has been condemned. A lot of times when we think of the Holy Spirit, we again go to that mental picture of running up and down the aisles or speaking in tongues.
John Gunter:But what was all this? What did He just say the Spirit's going to do? Convict? What does that look like in your life? That the Holy Spirit convicts you of things.
John Gunter:Well, somebody tell me what that looks like.
John Gunter:It doesn't look like anything. Feels like
John Gunter:something. Uh-huh. Anybody ever felt convicted of something you did or did not do? Or is it all head knowledge? You ever felt it?
John Gunter:Tell me. Yeah?
Speaker 3:Like to help someone or, like, you know, you're busy and you don't really wanna be bothered sometimes, but, you know, you feel convicted, like, this is the right thing, and and it's I know that I'm being called to do this thing, so I'm gonna do everything even though it's Yeah. Hard or inconvenient or whatever. Yeah. It's not a it's not a logical thing because, logically, you can talk yourself out of it. But it's Sure.
John Gunter:Yeah. How many times is our response logical? I mean, that's that's the thing. Because we can certainly talk ourselves out of it. Ever talked yourselves out of giving money to someone asking for it?
John Gunter:Well, they'll just go over and buy alcohol. Well, I'll give them food instead. Well, guess what? If you give them food, then they don't have to spend money on food. Now they have more money to go spend on alcohol.
John Gunter:Now what you gonna do? Right? We can talk ourselves out of anything. The Holy Spirit is there to convict. It was the other day at on 146 right there at the corner getting off of the interstate.
John Gunter:There was a lady sitting there and I think it was Logan. I said, dad, can we give her money? And we were, like, I don't know, five or six cars away.
Speaker 4:I
John Gunter:said, well, don't think she's heading this way. We got up there and and we drove by and she was sound asleep. I mean, she was rocked back in the sun. And you you heard you heard kinda this, you he's trying to wrap his mind around what all is going on. He said, well, we couldn't have given it to her anyway.
John Gunter:She's asleep. I was convicted in that moment, like, man, we shoulda I shoulda just I woulda had to stop the flow of traffic because like I said, we were so far back. But I shoulda just done it just to see just so my son could know, yeah, we can we can give to people who are asking. We don't have to be skeptical. And guess what?
John Gunter:I got my toes stepped on one time. I asked a question about how do you know when they actually need it? The person responding worked with different groups that were underprivileged and all these things. And he said, you know, church members walk around all the time just worried about these things. And what's the worst thing that's gonna happen?
John Gunter:Somebody's gonna get over on you? Like, God hasn't blessed you enough that you can get over that? Because you were given it anyway. But we walk around with a scarcity mindset serving a God who gives generously. So what do you do with that?
John Gunter:I think that was all the scriptures I had up there for this morning. What I wanna we just gotta what time y'all been shutting that class down? Forty five, Scott? Yes. Forty five.
John Gunter:Four minutes. So we don't so when Scott gets up. Okay. Three. We don't have a bell in here.
John Gunter:Just assume Scott is the bell. That's the bell. Questions that you have either about this morning or things you would like to see answered, questions you've had about the Holy Spirit. You can even phrase it as my friend wants to know and that's fine. My friend sent me this morning and and they would like to know x, y, and z about the Holy Spirit.
John Gunter:So, questions. What do you have going forward? Thoughts that you'd like to see explored? Anything challenge your your upbringing? I think a question
John Gunter:I had from a scripture we just read a while ago, maybe you could dive into this later, talks about the Holy Spirit being an advocate for us. I don't know what the Greek word is behind that or what it means, but I'd be curious to wonder what does that look like. Is it other places that talks about that?
John Gunter:Yeah, absolutely. And I should lay this out, what we're gonna do in this series is really touch on all the things that the Holy Spirit does in scripture and that will be part of that.
Speaker 3:I'm curious about the connection with either scripture and and the New Testament.
John Gunter:Sure.
Speaker 3:Because we just have such big gaps or I do.
Speaker 4:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:With with Hebrew scriptures. So, I think understanding maybe what their understanding was of the spirit and then how that changed with Jesus or I don't know. Just the connection between the two, I think, would be interesting.
John Gunter:Okay. Absolutely. Great question. Other thoughts?
Speaker 4:It's a questionnaire. K. It's always you know, I believe that healing happens. Obviously, I said that before. It was odd to me that sometimes you feel like why this guy and not that guy.
Speaker 4:Yeah. You know, especially when it comes to age. Yeah. So that's some old geezer that's ready to go anyway. Yep.
Speaker 4:Or some small size. So that that
John Gunter:That's the hardest part. You absolutely. Great question.
Speaker 4:I don't if there's an answer.
John Gunter:Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm I don't think there'll be a Sunday where I get up and you go, well, Let's we gotta figure it out. We gotta figure it out. Out.
John Gunter:But I appreciate you saying that because that's something we all wrestle with. You know, why did, you know, the young man that died here, what, six, eight months ago from a, you know, a tumor he had in his brain stem. Why did my son have to go to a funeral of a kid that small? Those are things we wrestle with, you know, absolutely. And we'll we'll absolutely talk about that.
John Gunter:Okay? Other thoughts? Questions? We got some good ones. That is Heath, not Scott.
John Gunter:Hey, yay, there you go. Last chance. Anybody else that, I mean, we may cover it anyway, but if you got something that you question, what about? Anybody curious about spiritual gifts? Does that make you nervous?
John Gunter:We'll probably talk more about that in these class settings where we can actually have questions back and We'll we'll mention that in the sermon, but, you know, not as much. We'll cover that. Alright. Well, thank you so much for being here this morning. Hope it's beneficial to you, and we'll put the class stuff online as well.
John Gunter:Thanks for being here. You're dismissed.