What does this mean? It's a question we're responding
to throughout the message. Today we're going to start with
a clip from one of my favorite movies based on a true story.
I've shown a clip from this before, Chariots of Fire.
I don't think I've shown this clip.
I'm actually doing 2. I don't think I've shown either
of these clips here yet. So Eric Little is is a runner
for Scotland, for Great Britain in the 1920s and he's he's
training and preparing to compete in the 1924 Olympics.
And this is a race that he ran in preparation for that.
True story. So what you're about to see
represents actual events. So let's watch together.
At this point, I showed a clip from the movie Chariots of Fire.
The scene is of 1/4 mile race in which Eric Little is not down
early in the race but comes back to win.
I didn't include the audio here because the clip is mostly
visual and the audio alone wouldn't have added anything.
Now back to the sermon. What does this mean?
What does it mean that that Eric Little got knocked to the ground
early on in 1/4 mile race and was able to come back and win
the race? What does it mean when he throws
his head back while he's running and flails his arms in a crazy
way while he's running? It means the same kind of thing,
oddly enough, that it meant when Jesus's followers, the men and
the women, gathered in the upper room 50 days after the
resurrection, when the Holy Spirit descended on them and
they began telling the good news and languages that they did not
know themselves, but the hearers, the listeners knew.
What does it mean? What it means is that this
Easter life that we're living, one of the aspects of this life,
it's absolutely essential. Without this, our Easter life
doesn't exist. But the Easter life that we live
is a life that is empowered. Empowered not by our effort, not
by our energy, not by our intelligence, not by our
talents, empowered by God, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
That is how we live this Easter life.
It's how we live a life of faith.
It's how we live a life of service.
It's how we live a life of love. It's how we live a life in a
world that's been turned upside down is through the power, the
gifting, the presence, the indwelling, and the dwelling
upon in the community of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus promised his disciples you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit falls upon you. We're going to talk about that
here today. And, and I hate to do this
again, but Star Wars, it's such a great comparison because the
story is so well known and so popular and so widespread these
days. And, and, and it provides, I
think, a, a wonderful distinction to help us
understand the Holy Spirit by contrast, because in the, in
the, the universe of Star Wars, there is a great power.
They call it the Force. And the force, you know, if
you're in the first 3 movies, it's a, it's a mystical thing
that isn't really explained. If you're in the 2nd 3 movies,
it's the midichlorians. We'll forget about the
midichlorians for now. And, and now I'm way off in the
nerd weeds. So, but there's this force, it's
got a good side and a dark side, a good side and a bad side.
It's, it's got this power, this energy that exists that that the
Jedi and the Sith, they can, they can seize hold of the
force. They can use the force to
accomplish and do amazing things.
They can move things with the Force.
They can, they can run fast with the Force.
They can, they can kind of see a little bit almost into the
future with the Force. They can, they can fly better
their spaceships with the force. The force enhances them.
It gives them power to do things that no human being, no mortal
creature could ordinarily do. And when Luke is first asking, I
don't, I don't remember this conversation was with Obi Wan or
Yoda. I kind of think it was with Yoda
and and he's asking Yoda or Obi Wan, you know, how this works?
And he says, is it do you do you control it?
And and, and, and and and Yoda says, well, yes, partly you
control it, but also it controls you.
And that's the force. That's how the force works.
It's a it's a tremendous empowerment.
If a Jedi is filled with the Force or a Sith is filled with
the Force, the Holy Spirit is not the Force.
Not at all. I love the Star Wars movies.
They're, they're fun. They are.
Well, I love the first six Star Wars movies.
They're fun, they're exciting, they're great, they're
wonderful. The Holy Spirit is not the Force
because the Force obeys the will of the Jedi.
The Force follows the command in the direction of the Sith.
Try giving the Holy Spirit orders sometimes and see how
that works out for you. The Holy Spirit does not exist
to do our will. Jedi's can control the force and
use it to do what they want to do, but the Holy Spirit empowers
us to do what God wants to do. The Holy Spirit is not our
cosmic Butler. It's it's not our power up
package that we pick up. And now suddenly we've got more
health points and more strength points and more defense points
and all of these, the whole that's not how the Holy Spirit
works. The Holy Spirit doesn't exist to
make our lives better and easier and give us the power and the
strength and the energy to do all of the things that we want
and dream of doing that would make the Holy Spirit some sort
of cosmic Butler or bellhop or our personal trainer or our
personal advisor. It's really quite the opposite.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to do God's will, to do what God
wants, not what we want, not what we want.
Take a look at Luke, What Luke Jesus says at the end of the
Gospel of Luke, Just for where? His resurrect or just after his
resurrection, repentance for that he's talking again to his
disciples. Repentance for the forgiveness
of sins will be proclaimed in his name.
Jesus is talking here, referring to himself in the third person
in Jesus name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem.
Jesus prophesized this to his disciples on resurrection
Sunday. They've he's been to Emmaus.
Now he's gone back to Jerusalem and met the disciples in the
upper room, and he tells them that this is what's going to
happen. All nations beginning in
Jerusalem, all nations will hear the good news, the good news of
forgiveness of sins through repentance in Acts.
He says it this way just before he ascends.
This is 50 days later. I don't know.
This is a little less than 50 days later.
Pentecost was actually 50 days later, but this is might have
been right around today because next week is Pentecost.
Jesus says you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and the
ends of the earth. Said same phrase starting in
Jerusalem, going to the ends of the earth.
There's more stuff in it, he adds in there.
Samaria and Judea he puts in there when he's talking to them
and just before his ascension. But the Holy Spirit's going to
come and this thing that I've already told you about, you're
going to be my witnesses all throughout the world, all
throughout the world. Now let's remember who the
disciples were and who Jesus was talking to.
These were not highly educated people.
These were just regular folks. These were working class folks.
Many of them were women and, and, and, and would have had
most likely less education than the men.
None of them were world travelers.
And Israel existed at the crossroads of great
civilizations of the world. They would have known folks
traveling through Israel. They would have encountered
people from India, maybe perhaps even China.
They would have encountered people from from Rome and from
from parts other parts of Europe.
They would have encountered people from the great
civilizations of Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia.
They would have encountered all of these and known that there
were wildly different cultures of wildly different people
speaking wildly different languages.
And Jesus has told them, you are going to be my witnesses to the
ends of the earth everywhere in the world.
The disciples were not prepared for this assignment.
They were not adequate to this assignment.
They would almost certainly have been wondering how is this even
going to be possible. We don't even have where are we
going to get the money to go to the ends of the earth?
And once we're there, how are we going to tell people that we
can't understand and they can't understand us about the good
news of Jesus. They they were almost certainly
asking themselves these kinds of questions.
How can this possibly be and Jesus had given them the answer.
Although again, as as always is when God is leading us, even
though we know the words we really don't understand, until
it happens, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's going to fall upon
you and you will receive power. Not power to do everything
you've ever wanted to do, not power to live your best life
now, not power to be the best you you can be.
You will receive the power to do what I've told you to do.
You will receive power to live out the prophecies that I have
made about you. That is the power that you will
receive. And we see it happening right
there on the day of Pentecost. All of this was in Jerusalem.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
They were staying in there were staying in Jerusalem, God
fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
When they heard this sound, a crowd came together and
bewilderment because each one heard their own language being
spoken. That's just this is how it
works, beginning in Jerusalem where because of the the feast
of Pentecost that's being celebrated.
They're Jews from all over the world here right now, and you
can see it and experience it with your own eyes.
You speak the good news and they hear in their own language.
Because the Holy Spirit has come, the Holy Spirit has filled
you, the Holy Spirit has fallen upon you, and the Holy Spirit
has given you power to do my will in ways that are beyond
your own capacity. This is the empowered life that
we're called to. We're not called to be Jedi, to
go out and use the Holy Spirit to accomplish good in the world.
We are called to surrender to and receive the Holy Spirit.
And so we can be guided by the Holy Spirit to do God's work in
the world, whatever work that God gives us to do.
Now I got to double check to see where I am yet.
Not quite there yet, OK? The Holy Spirit empowers us to
do what God wants. What God wants.
The Holy Spirit does not power everyone to do the same thing
though. Again, with Jedi, with Jedi,
when you look at the Jedi and you look at the Sith, they all
have the same, some of them have a few things that they can do
that maybe other folks can't do as well, but they all basically
the same skill set. And, and the Jedi all had kind
of 1 mission. They were, they were sort of
the, the, the Guardians of the Galaxy, although I know that's a
different cinematic universe. They were, they were there to
protect and defend justice and rightness in the Galaxy and the
Sith. We're there to, you know,
dominate and control and rule and destroy and those kinds of
things. But they all could do the same
basic kinds of things. The Holy Spirit doesn't empower
every one of us to do the exact same thing.
We are individual people. We're like members of a body,
you know, not the some parts of the body.
The hand doesn't do the same things the heart does.
The heart doesn't do the same thing the knees do.
The lungs don't do the same thing the ears do.
And each of us as followers of Jesus Christ, we don't do the
same thing that everyone else does.
God gives us, some of us some. Well, God gives us the things
that each of us as individuals, the things that we need, the
power that we need to do what God has called us as individuals
to do and to be what God has called us as individuals to be.
And that can be wildly different things.
I think I'm at where I think I'm supposed to be.
Nope. I got one more, one more.
This brings us back to Eric Little and and his ordinary
extraordinary example. Extraordinary because what Eric
Little did I think is extraordinary, Maybe not to the
same degree of extraordinary as the Day of Pentecost itself, but
certainly well beyond the ordinary.
It's ordinary because God does this a lot, not identically the
same thing in every person, but this is the sort of thing we can
expect from the Holy Spirit. Now we're asking what what is
Eric Little's race that we saw there at the beginning?
What does this have to do with the power of the Holy Spirit
living in the Spirit empowered life?
Little talks about that himself. And and then we're going to want
to watch a clip. We're, we're going to watch a
clip that's actually from the 1924 Olympics where Eric Little
is running in the 400 meters, not his event.
Why he's running an event that wasn't his event is a longer
story. Watch the movie, you'll get
that. But he's running the 400 meters.
He trained for the Olympics for the 100 meters and, and as he
runs, we're going to hear his thoughts.
And as we hear his thoughts, we're hearing things that he
actually said earlier in the movie when he was talking to his
sister and and a friend. Eric Little was in training to
be a missionary and he had been a missionary in China.
He was back in Scotland, he was planning to go back to China and
his sister and his friends from the mission field thought that
his time spent running and playing rugby as he was also a
rugby player. Skinny little guy for a rugby
player, right? I think he was bigger in real
life than the actor was. They thought it was a waste of
time, a frivolous waste of effort, a frivolous waste of
energy that was distracting him from the work that God has given
him to do. We're going to watch this clip
that we're going to talk a little bit more about Eric
Little's example. Let's let's watch together.
My computer has been doing weird things with the volume, so I'm
going to do that and we should be good.
Good luck, don't expect I'll see you till after the race.
What's the deal with this guy? Little coach?
Your problem. No problem.
He's a flyer. He's had two races today
already. He'll die.
Just swing along, you guys and wait.
After 300 meters, rigor mortis sets in.
You'll pull him in on a rope. Good luck.
Watch out for a little. Coach says no problem.
He's got something to prove, something personal, something
guys like Coach will never understand.
Says in the old book, he that honours me, I will honour good
luck. Jackson Shores.
So where does the power come from to see the race to its end
from within? Jenny, I believe God made me for
a purpose. He also made me fast and when I
run I feel his pleasure. The quotes we hear in his head
are partial quotes from what he said earlier in the movie when
he talks about where does the power come from, it comes from
within this full quotation. What he said earlier in the
movie and made perfectly clear was it comes from within, from
God dwelling within us. And when he said God made me for
a purpose, he said, God, Jenny, you're talking to his sister
Jenny. God made, I know God made me for
a purpose. God made me for China, but God
also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his
pleasure, his throwing his head back.
There's not a track coach in the world that will ever tell one of
their athletes to imitate Eric Little's running style.
He threw his head back, closed his eyes and flailed his arms as
he won a gold medal. And that's how he ran, as an act
of worship and an act of praise, feeling the pleasure of God.
So my question for you is what? What do you do that lets you
feel God's pleasure? It's probably not going to be
the same thing as the person sitting next to you.
Some, some of you wouldn't. It might be might be sports, it
might be. It might be.
It might be some sort of book worker academically, it might be
some kind of of skill or talent you use caring for others.
Maybe it's teaching, maybe it's healing, maybe it's serving,
maybe it's building, maybe it's growing.
What? I don't know what it is.
I don't know what it is, but what do you do that lets you
feel God's pleasure? Whatever that is, do that.
Do that. No matter what folks around you
say, do that. Now listen to your parents.
You got to throw. I don't want to get in trouble,
you know, just wait till they're not looking.
Then it wasn't a waste of time. It wasn't a distraction from his
purpose. Eric Little went on to go on
China, had a very effective, very tremendous ministry in
China where he experienced some great suffering as World War 2
came along. Why did God make Eric fast?
Why did he give him that gift? Why did he empower him to run
that way? And Eric himself will tell you
that his winning that gold medal was not his power.
It was the power of God in him. Why I, I don't know.
I don't know. I know it's an amazing story.
I know it's a tremendous witness of the good news and the power
and the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
But why that and not something else?
I why the thing for you and not something else?
I don't know. I don't know.
God doesn't give us all the same thing.
God doesn't make us all tremendous athletes, doesn't
give us all the gift for singing, the gift of music.
God doesn't for each individuals, and God gives us
what we need in order to do what God has called us to do,
whatever that thing is. God calls different people to do
different things. And so we got to let other
people do their thing while we do the thing that when we do it,
we feel God's pleasure. We feel God's joy in our life.
We got to be careful. It's not just something that we
like and something that makes us happy, that there's a difference
between feeling happy and feeling God's pleasure, but we
can work those things out. The Holy Spirit will guide us in
that, and we got to let other people do their thing as well.
At the same time, there are some things that the Holy Spirit
empowers you to do whatever God calls you to do.
There's some things that are across the board for followers
of Jesus Christ. We get this promise when the
Holy Spirit falls upon us, when the Holy Spirit fills us.
These are the things that God we can.
These are signs, evidence of the Holy Spirit and anyone and
everyone. And essentially Paul is saying
in that letter to the Galatians that that Elena read earlier
that that when you see this in people, this is a sign of God.
This is evidence of the Holy Spirit in their life.
What is the Holy Spirit empowers all to do whatever our specific
calling is, these common things that we have, the Holy Spirit
produces this kind of fruit in our lives.
Love. That screen just went blank.
It didn't stop at love I'm oh there, it's back.
Wow, weird hasn't done that. Lovejoy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. And by the way, there is no law
against doing any of these things.
Paul says he was writing to the Galatians.
They were, they were sliding back into legalism or sliding
into legalism. And they're like, we can't do
these things because the law says we can't eat that with law
says we can't go hang out with these folks.
And, and, and Paul says, you know what?
There is no law that says you can't love someone.
There is no law against joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
This is what the Holy Spirit produces in us.
There are some folks that that that say when they read this
list that that's really just one fruit because the Greek is
singular. It's not the fruits of the Holy
Spirit. Paul says the fruit of the Holy
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, and, and, and there's
some folks that say that love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and
all of those other words are just descriptors of love.
It is loving with joy, loving with peace, loving patiently and
kindly, and loving with goodness, loving faithfully,
loving gently, and loving with self-control.
However, you read it as a bunch of different things or one thing
with different aspects. It's all empowered by the Holy
Spirit and and that fruit and that empowerment often comes
together with that, that sense of joy and giving God's
pleasure. I want to give you an example
from my life and Amy's life and and she, she had something else
she had to tend to this morning and she's not here.
She didn't know I was going to tell this.
If you tell her and she gets mad, you didn't hear it from me.
But we had Amy's mom who lived with us for three years and then
was in an assisted living for three years, and she had
Alzheimer's when she was with us.
And I'm going to say this. Amy's mom's name is Phyllis.
Phyllis lived a too much information kind of life.
You could spend 15 minutes with Phyllis and know things about
her that only your doctor knows about you.
So I'm I'm going to be over sharing a little bit here.
Phyllis wouldn't mind. That's how she lived.
Phyllis was a hard person to get along with.
And there was a point a few years earlier on when when we
were interacting with Phyllis and I looked over at Amy after
Phyllis had left, and I said, I don't care what happens to her.
She is never living with us. And Amy agreed.
She's like, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right.
But there was a moment when we saw the Alzheimer's, we saw the
disease, and it was undeniable. And we looked at each other and
we said she needs to come live with us.
And there was not a moment's hesitation.
I make promises all the time that God says shut up.
Just stop talking, Blevins. You're just embarrassing
yourself. You might be thinking that right
now. We had said deaf.
Never, never. Phyllis is not an easy person to
get along with, but we knew we needed to and and she moved in
with us. And I don't know how.
If you've spent a lot of time caring for someone with
Alzheimer's, it's the hardest thing we have ever done in our
lives by far. And it was a period in our lives
when we were both absolutely convinced on the hardest of days
that we were doing exactly what God wanted us to do.
And we experienced throughout that time the power of the Holy
Spirit to do it. Because I can swear to you on
the Bible that what we did for her I could not do on my own
strength. It's not in me to do that.
And yet we did that. And, and I believe that that was
the Holy Spirit working in us to, as Jackson Schultz wrote in
that note to Eric Little, to honor those who honor him.
And Phyllis was not a perfect person, but she worked really
hard in her life to honor God. And I believe the whole reason
that God gave that to us was so that God could care for Phyllis
and provide a place for her, not for us.
But we had that ongoing, what is hard?
There were tears, there was anger, there was frustration.
But through it all, there was that sense of God's pleasure of
when we're cleaning up the messes.
We were feeling God's pleasure when we were telling her the bad
news for the 10th time in a week that she had Alzheimer's.
We were it hurt, but there was that sense of God saying this is
right, this is what you need to be doing right now, and I'm
giving you everything you need to do it.
And when it was done and Phyllis passed on, it was the the
exhaustion was real. But it's the Holy Spirit that's
a it's not the happiness. Taking care of a loved one with
Alzheimer's is not an occasion for happiness, but the pleasure
and the joy of God were there. And, and and it's hard, but I I
was at that gone a couple times for spiritual retreat to a
monastery. Jesuit monastery or not, it's
not Jesuit. I've forgotten which Benedictine
maybe in New York and got spiritual direction from one of
the monks there at one point. And I was whining about
something, I can't remember what.
I was whining about how hard something in life was.
This old guy looks at me and said, yeah, he said, you suppose
it was uncomfortable for Jesus being crucified?
All right, fine, if that's where you're going.
It's not about us being comfortable.
Jesus suffered in his faithful obedience to God, but God
sustained him through that. And it's the same for what God
calls us. It's not about being
comfortable. It's not about being happy.
It's not about doing the thing that makes us feel
self-righteous and morally superior.
It's about God giving us the power to do whatever God calls
us to do as a church and as individuals.
That is the spirit filled life. That is a spirit empowered life.
And that means surrendering things like seek conceit and
jealousy and envy and and pride, letting go of all of those
things because those are incompatible with a life of love
and they're incompatible with a life empowered by the Holy
Spirit. It's about surrendering every
part of our lives. Let us follow the spirits
leading in every part of our lives, whether it's when we're
alone, or when we're with family or friends, or at work or at
school or at church, wherever it is, even at the ball games, no
matter how bad the refs are. We live by the Spirit following
the spirits leading in every part of our lives.
This is the Easter life, a life empowered by the Holy Spirit to
do whatever God calls us to do, wherever God calls us to do it,
in Jesus name. Amen.