In my filing cabinet resides approximately 10 years worth of sermons. Outlines that have been pieced together from reflection, study, experience and a personal walk of faith with God.
Now, here is the frightening reality: the realization that I could preach at Marble Falls for the next 9 1/2 years and never study one whit. That's right, just recycle what's already been prepared and voila, microwave sermons with minimal prep time.
Jimmy has a saying when someone trots out an idea covered with re-tread, "(his) ideas have dust on them." Well, I don't want my sermons to have dust on them and, because of that desire, I awaken every morning filled with the thrill of what new thing God will teach me.
I say all that to say this, this coming Sunday evening, I'll begin a new series on the Holy Spirit. Back 6 years ago at Hot Springs Village, I did a series on the Holy Spirit and appreciated the reception of the congregation to what was shared. Now, the easiest thing to do would be to just trot out the same outlines for a church filled with people who've never heard them.
But that is, in my estimation, a lose-lose proposal. The church loses because some of my ideas regarding the Spirit have, no doubt, grown a little dusty in the last six years. And, I lose because, nuggets of truth regarding the Spirit's place and purpose in my life would go unnoticed.
One of the books I'm sifting through in my renewed search to understand God's Holy Spirit is Jim McGuiggan's Where the Spirit of the Lord Is... McGuiggan writes on the Spirit from the perspective of our heritage and lays out a rich, theological framework for the activity of the Spirit in the life of the believer.
McGuiggan writes with wonderful insight on the role of the Spirit in transforming believers into the image of Christ.
"God in Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, refuses to offer us less than moral and spiritual grandeur. The presence of the Spirit and his implacable hostility to what's evil, cheap, dishonorable, and pathetic is our assurance that for those who abide in Christ there can be nothing less than glorious Christlikeness -- we will be like him!
It's true that we're continually wrestling with wickedness, but it's also true that the Spirit is our helper. 'For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.'
This is not simply the statement of unending struggle; it has the tone of assurance. The tone isn't, 'Well, it's too bad, but we're always going to be stymied by the flesh because it is always at odds with the Spirit.'
The passage doesn't avoid tough reality: it insists that, despite our being in Christ and despite our rejection of 'the flesh,' we still have an inner struggle against wickedness. But it also insists that a tougher reality exists -- the Spirit within us who opposes the evil! That means we won't be swallowed up by sin, because greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.
In some ways, it's those of us who are most familiar with the Spirit's promises who are in the greatest danger. Someone said that familiarity may not breed contempt, but it takes the edge off awe. Something like this is true about rich texts and glory-filled promises the drop the jaws or widen the eyes of newcomers but provoke no more than a raised eyebrow in the old-timers who have ceased to dream.
We need to say it aloud -- not only to one another but to ourselves, in front of a mirror -- 'God did it, so don't tell me it can't be done!'"
