Sermon Series: Spirit Filled
Message 4 of 5: Pour Out Your Truth
Scripture: John 14:16-17, 25-26
Notes from a message offered Sunday, 6/30/19 at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sarasota Florida.

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John 14:16-17
Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

• The Holy Spirit is the Presence of God with us right now.
• The Spirit is with you and in you. Now and Forever!
• God’s presence, sustaining, and blessing is all around us. You have the power to ignore and push away the Spirit. You have a choice. The Spirit will not be forced upon you.
• The Holy Spirit is the Advocate = Helper/Counselor/Parakletos. One set from the Father. Exactly like the Father and Christ.
• The Presence of God is a Help. The Presence is for you.

John 14:25-26
Jesus said, “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

The Spirit Teaches us and Reminds us
One of Jesus’ main missions was to teach. Jesus would refer back to the Old Testament, reminding his hearers what it really meant and really said. Jesus brought the promises of God into his time period and thus our time period. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, will continue to do that.

What the Spirit teaches us and reminds us is seen in how the Spirit is revealed in the Scriptures. Think 4 B’s: Bird, Breath, Blow, Burn.

Bird – Click here for the sign language motion

• We are named and claimed by God in our baptism. Our true identity is found in Christ Jesus, rooted in the eternal, not in how the world wants to label and stereotype us.
• The Love Dove of Jesus’ Baptism- The heavens were opened to Jesus. He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. This is my Son the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:16-17)

Breath- Click here for the sign language motion for breath

• We are made alive in Christ, awakened and empowered to love and serve
• Holy Spirit as the sacred, life-giving breath of God
• the gift of life in Genesis 2:7
• God instructs Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones to prophesy to the breath (Ezekiel 37:9-14)
• After his resurrection, Jesus breathes on the disciples, offering the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 20:19-23)

Blow- Click here for the sign language motion for wind

• The Holy Spirit is God, and thus beyond our control. Like the coming and going of the wind, the movement of the Holy Spirit is unseen and mysterious.
• We hesitate to surrender to the Spirit because we want to be in control. We’re afraid of change and loss. We know our normal and we want to keep it.
• In the Beginning, a wind from God swept over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2)
• “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
• Pentecost- The coming of the Spirit was like the sound of the rush of a violent wind and it filled the entire house (Acts 2:2)

Burn- Click here for the sign language motion for fire

• The fire of God reminds us of passion, our mission/calling from God, and the refiner’s fire which burns away what isn’t good for us so the gold is revealed.
• Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3)
• The pillar of fire leading God’s people through the darkness and across the wilderness to the promised land (Exodus 13-14)
• God consuming the offering in the battle between Elijah and the false prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18)
• Isaiah’s lips being cleansed by a lump of burning coal from the heavenly altar
• God companioning and rescuing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3)
• God described as a Refiner’s Fire (Malachi 3)
• John the Baptist’s prophecy that the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3, Luke 3)
• The tongues of fire dancing on the disciples’ heads at Pentecost (Acts 2)

When you think of Fire, what comes to mind?

• Fire takes- burn down the house, forest fire, burn my skin- sunburn, radiation treatment. Devastation. Destruction. Consuming. Devouring. If I surrender to the Spirit, what will he take from me?
• Fire gives- candles on Christmas Eve, campfire, warmth, light.
• We get scared of the Spirit. Not sure if we want it.

What the Fire Gives by Jan Richardson, from her book Circle of Grace
You had thought that fire
only consumed,
only devoured,
only took for itself,
leaving merely ash
and memory
of something
you had believed,
if not permanent,
would be long enough,
enduring enough,
to be nearly
eternal.

So when you felt
the scorching on your lips,
the searing in your heart,
you could not
at first believe
that flame could be
so generous,
that when it came to you—
you, in your sackcloth
and sorrow—
it did not come
to consume,
to take still more
than everything.

What surprised you most
were not the syllables
that spilled from
your scalded,
astonished mouth—
though that was miracle
enough,
to have words
burn through
what had been numb,
to find your tongue
aflame with a language
you did not know
you knew—

no, what came
as greatest gift
was to be so heard
in the place
of your deepest
silence,
to be so seen
within the blazing,
to be met
with such completeness
by what the fire gives.

Holy Spirit, Pour out your truth
“That flame could be so generous.” I needed that reminder.

What we believe about God matters. If we believe God is angry, ready to punish, always watching, distant it will color everything. But if we believe God is generous, strong, good, and near, then the gift of the Holy Spirit is generous, good, and near.

We have our normal we know really well. It’s comforting and comfortable in a world that’s always changing. But, what God offers us is a new normal beyond circumstance. It is generous.

The first thing God always offers is to be heard and seen. Being before doing. God knows me just as I am. God sees me just as I am. God loves me just as I am. God invites me into all I can be.

I long to be known and seen and understood like this. That’s what I find in the presence of God. No need to hide. This knowing and seeing are so generous you can surrender to it. It is trustworthy and it is truth.

What do you most need today from the Spirit?
What do you most need to be reminded of?

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Holy Spirit, Pour Out Your Truth © 2019 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
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