Sermons

In the Name of Christ Jesus, Dear Christian Friends, For centuries it has been used to grind wheat and draw water from wells dug deep into the earth. More recently it has been farmed and harvested to produce a more environmentally friendly electricity. There is enough of it in the U.S. to provide 20% of our nation's power. If you haven't yet caught my drift, I'm talking about wind - the movement of air that you say you see when the trees bend or your hair whips you in the face. You can't really see the air moving, though. You just see its effects. The weather report says it comes from the northeast or the southwest, but talk to someone from there and they'll say they didn't send it - it came from somewhere else. No one can say where the wind starts. You just experience its effects. "Wind" is the word the Bible uses for the mysterious yet mighty one we know as God the Holy Spirit. We can't see him but we can see his effects. We can't pinpoint his exact location with radar technology but we can experience his effects. We can't harness his boundless energy but we can harvest some of its power for peaceful and productive living. Jesus once said, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). In other words, Heaven's Wind Blows. Human understanding cannot comprehend this Spirit of God. Scientific technology cannot contain him. Yet he miraculously blows his life-giving breath into the heart of every believer. Sometimes his gentle whisper welcomes a little baby into God's family through baptism. Sometimes God's Spirit blows with the strength of an inspiring sermon, an enlightening Bible devotion at home, or the powerful promise Jesus' true body and blood in the Lord's Supper sweeping you off your feet. Heaven’s Wind Blows and today is his day. Let him not be forgotten, this third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, our true God, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. Let him, with the Father and the Son, be worshipped and glorified. Heaven's Wind Blows today on us like that day of Pentecost long ago. As God's Holy Spirit blows into our heart 1) he empowers us to speak and 2) he fills us with knowledge, 3) he pushes us to the finish line. If the old saying is true, "A picture is worth a thousand words," then just imagine how much Jesus' followers had to tell about the last two months when they witnessed Jesus suffers die, rise from the dead, and ascend to his heavenly throne of power. But we find them hunkered down in a house instead of announcing to the world that Jesus is the Savior. Not that they didn't want to announce this. Jesus didn't want them to. Not yet, anyway. Jesus had given them specific instructions about what to do after he ascended. "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about ... in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:4,5). Jesus disciples were anticipating the winds of heaven to start blowing. Sure enough, heaven's wind arrives as promised. 'But his arrival on that day of Pentecost was not with a politely knock on the door. He came with the sound of a violent wind from heaven. He anointed the disciples with flames of his fire. He enabled them to speak in other languages they had never before learned. Foreigners staying in Jerusalem came to check it out and immediately the disciples could put their new language skills to work. What would they say? Listen to the reaction from the multi-ethnic crowd: WE HEAR THEM DECLARING THE WONDERS OF GOD IN OUR OWN TONGUES! Now they could announce to the world, represented right here right now in Jerusalem, that Jesus is the Savior. Like the rushing outflow of air in a sigh of relief, the disciples could finally let it out. They could finally tell the world what the world needed to hear and they needed to say. The Winds of heaven were blowing strong that day in Jerusalem. The winds of opportunity are still blowing in our family, at the work place, in the neighborhood. But all to often we just sit back and let the wind blow. We don't speak because someone may ask us a question that we don't know the answer. We don't speak because we might be labeled as a "Bible thumper" or be accused of being a soap-box preacher. We don't speak because we feel everyone already has what the need when it comes to religion. Why would anyone want to listen to what I have to say? And yet our Savior tells in the Bible, "A1ways be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have. " Stale air is bad especially when we’re talking about stale spiritual air. A stale smell had surrounded James and John at one time, too, when they didn't care in the least about other's needs or Jesus' instructions but instead wanted to know if they'd be recognized as special. The same stale smell had made Peter stink when he didn't want to answer those questioning him about his relationship with Jesus and chose to lie his way out of it. God wanted to be near Peter, James, and John but it was like getting too close to someone with bad breath. He had to turn away, as he does to us when we continue ignoring his commands to go and tell others about our Savior. But this is a very uncomfortable position for our God of grace who wants all to be saved. So, to clear the air Heaven's Wind Blows and he pleads with us to inhale him. With one big exhale we confess our state and sinful failures and empty our souls to be filled with the Holy Spirit's breath of life-giving forgiveness, comforting peace, and energizing power. With these we also take in the Spirit's special blessing of giving us the right words, at the right time, to say the right thing that someone needs to hear. "Do not worry about what to say or how to say it, " Jesus had once reassured his disciples, "At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit of your Father speaking through you " (Matthew 10:10). Like the disciples on Pentecost, what we say may not sound right to us as much as a foreign language didn't sound right to them, but the Holy Spirit makes it right. That's what happened with Peter, James, and John, who had "blown" it previously because of their sinful selfishness. The Holy Spirit breathed his grace on them and empowered them to speak. We're told that on Pentecost Peter, along with James, John and the other disciples, stepped forward confidently like a speaker who is very familiar with his or her subject, and they spoke out loudly and clearly. "Let me explain this to you, " Peter announces as the unofficial spokesperson of the disciples. He could explain it because he knew what it all meant, how it all connected, and where it was all going. Peter gets it, because when Heaven's Wind Blows he fills us with knowledge, and that's exactly what happened to these uneducated fishermen from Galilee. Not knowledge in the sense of street-wise worldly wisdom or a keen grasp of trivia, but faith-filled spiritual knowledge. "We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, " the apostle Paul explains about believers, "This is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words " (I Corinthians 2:12-13). If you want only worldly knowledge then you'll be like a Styrofoam cup tossed around by the wind with the other trash, blown this way and that way by whatever fills you at the moment or blows the hardest, only to be aimlessly lost. But when you seek spiritual knowledge, you hook up to the nozzle of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible and Heaven's Wind Blows into you like blowing up a balloon. The Spirit fills you with knowledge and releases you, taking you places, giving you a direction that you may not choose or understand but he does, propelling you through decisions and hardships that would otherwise overwhelm you. Forward by faith to the finish with a strength and determination and energy you have because Heaven's Wind Blows. To the finish. Yes, the end is near, but first, the home stretch. That's always the most difficult part of a race or a drive home after a long weekend. You've used up all your energy and efficiency and you're still not quite there. If it weren't for the finish line or a comfortable bed and pillow waiting for you when you arrive you'd stop at that very moment and quit. Ever feel like that in your spiritual journey? "What's the use, I can't beat this temptation anyway ... it's such a pain saying no to myself all the time. I'll just never have the prayer and devotional life like those super committed Christians I'm tired of being picked on for doing the right thing." Don't give up. Heaven's Wind Blows, and he pushes us to the finish like a second wind gives a new boost of energy to a tired runner or a wind gust carries your wimpy tee shot over the sand trap and onto the green. These are "the last days" when the countdown has begun for Christ's return, the world is becoming more evil, and it's easy to run short on spiritual power to keep going. But keep going we will, not by our own breath and stamina but by the Spirit's breath and stamina because Heaven's Wind Blows on us, pushing us to the finish. Fight the good fight, my friend. Keep the faith. Always be prepared. Finish the race. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. " With such bountifully available wind power at our fingertips, it should be our hope that we can better tap the wind resources in our nation. The state of North Dakota alone is theoretically capable of producing enough wind-generated power to meet more than one third the U.S. electricity demand. Heaven's Wind Blows with much more bountifully available and capable energy. Pray for a windy day. Open the sails of your Bible's pages and catch the Spirit's own breath that empowers you to speak. Listen for the gentle, constant whisper of baptism's promise that fills you, from infancy, with faith-filled spiritual knowledge and use it in your everyday decision making. Experience yet another second wind in the body and blood of Christ refreshing your life with the fresh air of forgiveness and the powerful gust of Christian obedience. Heaven's Wind Blows today on us like that day of Pentecost long ago. He is here, right now in this house. The Holy Spirit enflames each of us with greater faith and with special skills to go out and tell the world about the wonders of God. The Holy Spirit moves us to sacrifice our valuable resources for the work of the church because our resources are even more valuable to those who do not yet believe. The Holy Spirit breathes into us the air of God's grace and goodness we need to live now and forever. So enjoy the air. The weather forecast calls for the air in Fond du Lac to be at least 70 degrees. The forecast for the air all around the world during these last days calls for it to be windy. Very windy, because Heaven's Wind Blows. Amen.