Video Transcript: Session 34 The Role of the Spirit

Welcome back, we are definitely in the home stretch of this class on the making  and preaching sermons. And as I was thinking back over where we've been, we  started looking at what what is preaching? And how do you prepare to preach.  So you got to prepare yourself in prayer you got to have people praying for you  gotta be able to study the Scriptures the right way. And, and then you got to  determine what kind of sermons you're going to preach. And we looked at all  those different kinds of sermons. And then we looked at some of the nuts and  bolts like, you know, introduction, and how do you structure the main body of the sermon and conclusion? How do you conclude in a way that people say, I'm  going out with a sense of direction and purpose. And in other words, we've been looking a lot at the nuts and bolts, the details of making a sermon, the practical  parts of putting it all together. And that's a good practice. As we've looked at  many times that message of Paul to Timothy, you know, prove yourself a  workman worthy of your calling, who rightly divides the Word of Truth. So it's  good that we do this hard work, it's good, we pay attention to the details of how  we go about making a sermon, how we go about structuring it, how we go about presenting it with voice and gestures, and those sorts of things. But today, I want to look at what you'll see on the title, the role of the Holy Spirit. And this is  maybe the most important lecture you're going to get in this class. To begin with, I want to tell you about the worst sermon I ever preached. It was a Sunday  evening. At that time, the church I was serving in California had two services in  the morning and one in the evening, a different different sermon entirely in the  evening. And we had, it was Advent time was Christmas. And I had asked one of our former church planters, to come and preach the evening sermon that day, he had been with us for a year, and then we launched him into a new church plant  near where we were, and he took some people with him along that way. And I  asked him to come back and just give some reflections, of course, about Jesus  coming into the world, and then update us on what he was doing. And so I was  looking forward to that I preached in the morning, and then the evening service,  I knew was covered. I had a meeting Sunday afternoon, about three o'clock. And it was about four o'clock, somebody came into that meeting with a message that this young man that I had engaged for the evening service was not able to come something had happened and he had to be elsewhere. And I said no problem. I'll haul something out of my file. Meeting lasts until about 4:30. I quick ran home  and got my file. Now at that time, there weren't all that many sermons in the file.  And certainly not all that many Christmas sermons that I quickly paged through  them. And realize I didn't really have anything worth preaching. Of course, the  way I measured preaching back then was would this wow the people you know,  would they go away impressed with a sermon? Would they would they, in  colloquial terms, consider this a home run or not. And there was nothing like that in the file. And so now it's getting to be five o'clock the evening service is at  6pm. I quickly ran through some notes on one, and I went to church, someone 

else led the first part of the service. And so I was quickly going over these notes. And it was a sermon on the statement that you will call His name Immanuel,  which means God with us. Now I got up to preach that night, I wandered around  for 20 minutes around that thing saying in every way I could possibly think of  saying that God is with us, right? Now, when Jesus came, it was God present in  our world with us. God is with us wherever we are, and whatever we do. And it  was not aloud, there was nothing new, there was nothing all that insightful about it. It was just, it was just the kind of sermon mush that you quickly prepare and  put together. I was so frustrated by the end of that message that at the end of  the service, that it was my practice back then that I would go to the door and  shake people's hands as they exited the Worship Center. And that night, I didn't  do that I walked straight out of the Worship Center. I walked to my car drove  home, and on the way home, I was thinking, I don't care if I never preach again.  And that was a terrible experience. I felt like I had nothing to say to the people. I  felt like I said almost nothing to them. And now I go, man, I don't care if I go back next week, and I'm gonna really prepare because I gotta gotta hit that home run  next week. That was Sunday. Wednesday, I got a call from a woman in my  congregation. There was a group of women in my church that, you know, on  Tuesday nights, they would go around to each other's houses and they would  play card games. And that that was just their practice that we get together. It  was their fellowship time. It was the way they cemented relationships, they had  a nice meal together and play cards. She told me that previous evening she had been in an accident. Four women were in this car on the way to their game and  another car. I don't remember the details, but I think it was ran out a stoplight, a  stop sign and hit them. And the car, nobody was injured real seriously. But there  were injuries. But the car was smashed in such a way that they couldn't get the  doors open, couldn't get the people out. And so they had to call for the jaws of  life. They're called, they're this machine that can pull a car apart, right? They  had a call for that. And it took about 30 minutes for the jaws of life to arrive. And  she said, during that 30 minutes, she said the only thing that kept me sane that  she's inside the car she's bruised, she's got some cuts, the only thing that kept  me sane, she said, was I just kept repeating to myself, Emmanuel, God with us.  I remember, I hung up the phone, I got on my knees before God said, Okay, I  get the message. It's not so much what I say. But it's what you do with it. Right?  And that realization that, you know, my desire to hit a home run was about me,  not about God. And so today, I'm gonna reflect on that, because this is the way  the Holy Spirit works. So the role of the Holy Spirit, what is the role of the Holy  Spirit in our preaching? Well, first of all, we've got to admit that the role of the  Holy Spirit is engaged in even giving us the Bible. When we read the Bible, we  believe it is the inspired Word of God. We looked at this many, many weeks ago. But just to repeat these passages again, inspiration is the work of the Spirit. All  scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and 

training and righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly  equipped for every good work. The Spirit does that. Now that word God  breathed, there is the old word inspiration that God breathed the scriptures into  the writers. And they wrote what the Spirit led them to write. And so when we are reading the Word of God, there is power to it. We looked at that in the book of  Hebrews that is powerful, it's stronger than any two edged sword, dividing even  to the bones and marrow that pierces down, because it's empowered by the  Holy Spirit, or this one, which is, from II Peter, he says, For prophecy never had  its origin and the human will but prophets, though human spoke from God, as  they were carried along by the Holy Spirit that's carried along, you know, we've  talked about picture words that carried along as a picture word, and get the  picture in your mind of a sailboat. And the sailboat has caught the wind, so the  sails are full, and they're moving the boat forward powerfully. Now, that's the  picture that it gives us of how the Holy Spirit dealt with those people who wrote  those scriptures, in the Old Testament that time, but we believe the new as well,  that these writers were carried along toward their destination, by the Holy Spirit,  as part of what it means that the Word of God is inspired. We believe that the  Holy Spirit somehow embedded truth in there that has power that when it's read, it can make a difference. And so what's the role of the Holy Spirit in preaching?  Well, first of all, it's the Holy Spirit has put power into these words that we are  going to be explaining to people and presenting to people. And so as we  approach our job, we know the effect is created by the Holy Spirit's presence in  the scriptures. So the role of the Holy Spirit also is in the call your call to be a  preacher. I love this, Acts 13:2-3. It says when they were worshiping this is in the city of Antioch, they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,  I'd like to know how he said this. But somehow he did probably by giving a word  of knowledge to somebody in that crowd set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them. So it was the calling to say, okay, Barnabas  and Saul are going to go out into this mission trip, they ended up three mission  trips. So the apostle Paul, they're going out to spread this word beyond the  Jewish enclaves that they've been in beyond the beginnings of reaching out to  the Gentiles that are going to go beyond that whole thing of Jerusalem, Judea,  Samaria, and now they're going to head out to the uttermost parts of the world.  They're going to do that because the Holy Spirit has called them to go out and  preach. And so they preached and everywhere they went, churches were  established. Why? Well, because the Holy Spirit empowered their words,  empowered their words so that when they spoke to people, they recognize the  truth of the scriptures that were being explained the truth of the story about  Jesus that were being explained. And they received it and responded, because  the Holy Spirit was at work because of their call. Now, this is explained more  fully in Acts 1:8, Jesus is saying to His disciples, you will receive power when  the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And that power was seen in a variety of ways. It

was seen in the fact that people were healed. You know, later on in the next  chapters of Acts you get the first stories of the disciples healing people that lame man lying at the gate of the temple, and says, Yo, Peter says to him, we don't  have silver or gold but what we have we give you in the name of Jesus stand up and walk. And he stood up, and that was part of the power. But part of the power was that Peter in his his message on Pentecost, Sunday in Acts 2 spoke words  that were familiar to people. But explain them now in the context of Jesus Christ  coming into the world as the Son of God, who was going to die for sins. And  3000 people believed Old Testament passages that they knew, interpreted in a  new way. And now the Holy Spirit goes to work, and people are converted,  there's power, because the Holy Spirit enlivens our message. Another way this  is put is by Paul, I Corinthians 2 remember he didn't have all the best  relationship did Paul with the church in Corinth. And so some of his letters, his  letters, one or two, and there was another letter he refers to which we lost. But  they were kind of defending himself at times that we're not just teaching, but  we're, we're trying to solve the complex relationship he had with the church  there. And he writes, I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except  Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, I came to in weakness, and with great fear and  trembling, can you imagine that? I mean, when I think of Apostle Paul is not the  way I picture him. But this is the way he's preaching to these people in Corinth,  a very cosmopolitan city, one that was suffused with materialism because it was  a rich city. It was. It was just infested in greed, a sexual expressions were  Corinthianized is a term describing the sexual promiscuity that existed in this  city. And Paul says, I came there with fear and trembling. And then it goes on to  say, my message and my preaching, were not with wise, were wise and  persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your  faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power. What's he saying?  There, he's saying, you know, I didn't have this craft, finely crafted message that was so compelling, that you decided what this was truth and you were going to  act on he says, I came to you, my message wasn't all that great. It wasn't maybe organized the right way, maybe didn't have the right illustration to start or the  right story to end. But the power of the Spirit was present, and so people were  converted. Now, this is not a saying, not a time to say, don't organize your  messages. Don't focus on introducing them well, or in a in a attention getting  way or concluding them well, in a compelling way, sending people out. It's, it's a  reminder that when we preach, nothing of eternal good is going to happen. You  can have the best sermon possible, it might be something that can be published  in a book somewhere, and you might be invited to preach it before 1000s. But  unless it's empowered by the Spirit, nothing of eternal good is going to happen.  This is a story of the first church I served a little tiny sanctuary there, seated  about 100 people. At our height, we had about 192 crammed in there. But I  remember many, many stories from that first, four and a half years I spent in 

ministry in that little church, but one of the most compelling is a story about a  man named Jim. He ended up coming to our church, because his wife had a  return to the Lord and in her life, she had grown up knowing about Jesus, she  had gone through some really tough times and rejected all that and now was  

coming back to faith and she had found our church. And Jim was, at best an  agnostic he was, in fact, he was even a little bit hostile to religion, but his wife  wanted him to come along. And so he came along to church. And my practice  back then was with people like that I'd asked them if they would do a study with  me and explore the Christian faith. And Jim agreed. And for six weeks, we met  for like an hour and a half, two hours. And we just went through the story, I had  some material that I use back then, that went to the story of creation, and it was  all good. And then it fell into sin. Adam and Eve made choices that disobeyed  God. And so the creation and everything in the world got twisted. And that's why  the world is in such a mess, and God's still loved the world. And so he sent  Jesus to die for our sins so that we can have a relationship restored with him  and went through all this over six weeks. And at the end, there was opportunity  in the material which he had been studying and preparation for our meetings  together. And there's an invitation to pray to receive Jesus Christ in your life. And so I asked Jim, have you done this? Are you ready to do this? Do you want to  experience this love of God this connection with God that we've been talking  about. And his response was surprising, because almost everybody that I went  through this study with came to that point and prayed to receive Jesus Christ.  But Jim didn't. He said, You know what? He said, I think this is still on the level  of fairy tale. He said, Do you believe in Mother Goose too. And it was one of  those moments where it was kind of his breaking. So we talked about, well,  where do we go from here? And he said, Well, I'm willing to keep meeting with  you. I said, there's no reason. And so I cut it off. And Jim quit coming to church.  About two months later, one Sunday morning. Here's Jim in church with his wife. And back then, as I said, I went to the back of the worship area. And when  people were going out, I'd shake their hands. And Jim came out, shook my  hand. I say, it's good to see you here, Jim. And he responded by saying, well, he said, I got to talk with you sometime. He said, I'm a Christian now. I was blown  away. I got to hear this story. So we made an appointment for during the week  and I went to meet him. I said, Tell me, tell me about it. How did this happen?  And he said, You know, one moment he said, I was at my aunt's funeral. And  one moment I knew everything that was being said was fairy tale stuff. The next  moment, I knew it was all true. He said, I've been reading about that thinking  about that night, I think that it was the Holy Spirit. Yeah, I think so too now, he  had gotten good messages along the way that the Holy Spirit used to bring him  there. But in the final moment, it wasn't the persuasiveness of my words, or my  presence or my sermons. It was a momentary action of the Spirit that changed  his heart. Scripture says more about the role of the Holy Spirit. The role of 

convicting is the word here, it says when he comes he will prove the world to be  in wrong. Older translations say He will convict the world about sin and  righteousness and judgment about sin because people do not believe in me  about righteousness, because I'm going to the Father where you can see me no  longer and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands  condemned. Or here's how the Revised Standard Version puts it. When he  comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and  judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning  righteousness because I go to the Father, and you will see me know more  concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world, or prove there is the word, convict elencho, it means to expose, to rebuke, to convince, to prove guilty. Now we have evidences of that in Scripture. Isaiah 6 is one of those moments when  Isaiah has this vision of God, and he's on his throne. And there are angels flying  around the throne saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And you  remember Isaiah's response, he was convicted in that moment of his sin, he fell  on his face, he says, Woe is me, but I am an unclean man. I live among the  people of unclean lips. And it's only when an angel offers to purify him with with  coals from the fire that are burning before the throne, that he can stand before  God. But it's that kind of conviction that the Holy Spirit brings that I am a sinner,  and I have no recourse in my life, except that God would come to forgiving my  sins through Jesus Christ, that's the Holy Spirit works of convicting. So we have  to realize that it's not going to be the incredible organization of our messages.  It's going to be the work of the Spirit. Not that we shouldn't pay attention to how  we structure in the words we choose that the Holy Spirit uses that too. But  ultimately, it's his business. And the Holy Spirit guides people into truth. But  when he John goes on to say, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all  truth, He will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. And so the Holy Spirit is the one who leads us into  truth, but leads the people that we preach to the truth too so that it rings true  with them when we tell them about God. That's what that means. That was  wonderful illustration of that, in the story of Jim Lovell. Now, Jim Lovell, if you've  ever watched the movie, Apollo 13, or read about Apollo 13, he was one of the  astronauts on that trip. And one time before they took that moon trip where the  Apollo spacecraft was damaged, and they somehow miraculously it seemed got  back to Earth with the help of people on the ground. Someone asked him, you  know, how do you go about experiencing guidance, guidance, guidance,  guidance? How do you figure out where you're going to go in your life and he  told a story about the time in 1953 that he was flying planes off the USS  Shangrila. Now, this is a picture of it in 1946. And the title says, But he tells  about one time they were in the Sea of Japan in 1953. And his cockpit lights  went out and so all of a sudden, he couldn't see the the instrument panel. And  so he decided to try to turn on a flashlight so he could see the instrument panel 

more clearly. And then he said all of a sudden, something flashed, and all of a  sudden, everything was out. It was black and even his light. And he knew that  the aircraft carrier who was going to land on was flying with lights out too  because they were in the sea in Japan, in an area that was still considered  under rebuilding, it was dangerous to be in. And this is how he put it said I  flipped on my map light and suddenly zap everything shorts out right there in my cockpit. All my instruments are gone, my lights are gone. And I can't tell either  what my altitude is. I know I'm running out of fuel. So I'm thinking about ditching  in the ocean. I looked down and then in the darkness, there's this green trail. It's  like a long carpet that's just laid out beneath me. It was algae. It was the  phosphorescent stuff that gets churned up in the wake of a big ship. It was  leading me home. If my cockpit lights hadn't shorted out, there's no way I would  have been able to see that you would see that you never know what events  transpired to get you home. Now, the point is the Holy Spirit works like that  algae. And he ended up finding the way home because of that phosphorus and  green that was showing in the dark. In a dark world, the Holy Spirit guides us  into what is truth? And boy, doesn't the world need that today? So what does  this mean for us? So what it means several things, pride is out, you know,  somebody compliments your sermons, you can take credit only a little bit. In  fact, others this first, that last part has become part of my themes for my life, I  will God says I will not yield my glory to another. In other words, I cannot take  the glory that belongs to God. And it's all his dependency is in. When I write my  messages when I'm preparing them when I'm practicing them. I want to get it  right so that I'm not a distraction. But I am fully dependent on the Holy Spirit.  And I know that nothing of eternal good is going to happen unless the Holy Spirit inspires that word. And then wonder is the general rule. I have to sit in absolute  wonder. Every time I hear that the message has been applied to somebody's  heart in a powerful way. And so when people say to me, that was a great  message, I say, isn't God good. Man, that really meant something to me, too. I  preach to myself first, those kinds of things because I can't take the glory. It's  God's he's using me as he uses you. And so depend on the Holy Spirit. That's  where this this class has to ultimately end. And we have two more sessions.  We're not ending today. But that's where we have to go depending on him. So  spend your time in prayer reflecting on that, and go in confidence, knowing that  it's not so much what you say, as the fact that the Holy Spirit empowers through  you. And we'll see you next time.