The Holy Spirit in the Church

Before his feet touched the floor this morning, before he looked at his phone, before he fed the cat, Pastor Brady prayed three words: Come, Holy Spirit. He has done it every morning for about nine years, in every country and every circumstance. This message is about why that prayer is not optional for anyone who wants to follow Jesus.

Why the Spirit is not optional

Brady starts in John 6:63, a verse he says turns the world upside down. The world tells you your flesh is the source of every pleasure and every bit of power, and that the spirit does not really exist. Jesus says the opposite: nothing good is coming from the flesh, and everything good is coming from the Spirit.

The Spirit gives life and the flesh counts for nothing.

He notes that John, of the four gospel writers, had the clearest grasp of the Holy Spirit; by his count the Spirit is mentioned 21 times across John's 21 chapters. The disciples understood the presence of God in the temple and the holiness of God in the law, but they had never experienced the indwelling of the Spirit. Jesus kept promising it to them anyway.

From there Brady goes to the Nicene Creed, the 1,700-year-old statement The Village Church treats as its theological footprint. He had the room confess the third stanza out loud: we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, with the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified, and he has spoken through the prophets. Every word was argued over, fasted over, and chosen on purpose. So he takes it three phrases at a time.

The link between the empty tomb and the living church

Notice where the creed puts the Spirit: between the resurrection of Christ and the birth of the church. That is not an accident. The Holy Spirit is the link between the resurrected Christ and the living church. Jesus' last instruction before ascending was not go. It was go back to Jerusalem and wait.

Do not attempt the great commission without the great empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

The disciples waited, fasted, prayed, and stayed in unity, and then came the rushing wind, the tongues of fire, and the gospel spoken in languages the crowd outside could understand. Thousands came to Christ almost overnight. Brady's read on why so many churches are dying is blunt: they are trying to fulfill a religious responsibility without the power that makes it a church. The places where God is moving right now, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, even a small flame in Europe, are the places that invited the Spirit in.

And the same power that went through the walls of the tomb and brought Jesus back to life is at work in the people of his church. Brady said he knows the valley of the shadow of death well and has walked it recently himself. If that is where you are, his word is simple: keep walking. He has not abandoned you, and there is a chapter five coming.

Giver of life

The Spirit shows up two verses into the Bible. Genesis 1:2: the earth was formless and empty, and the Spirit was hovering. Brady's point for anyone whose life feels formless and empty, without purpose or assignment: the Spirit is hovering over you right now, whether you sense it or not.

The Holy Spirit shows up in places that everybody else has given up on.

Every salvation story is proof. Nobody comes to Jesus without the Spirit first making them aware they need saving. The veil falls, the eyes open, and a person who was walking one direction turns and starts walking toward the Father's house. If you are praying for a prodigal, that is the promise Brady spoke over the room: they are going to come to their senses.

A person, not a force

The second phrase: the Spirit is worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son. In other words, the Holy Spirit is God. Not pixie dust, not a Jedi force, not a warm feeling, and not your Bible either. The writers of the creed doubled down on this so nobody could separate the Spirit from the Father and the Son.

Brady's practical challenge follows from it. We talk to the Father. We talk to Jesus. Why are we not talking to the Holy Spirit?

We don't see signs and wonders because we're only talking to two-thirds of God.

When he prays Come, Holy Spirit, he is not asking for magic powers or a fuzzy feeling. He is asking the person of the Holy Spirit to walk with him through the day the way Pam has walked with him for 37 years of marriage. Think of the Spirit as a person and it changes how you talk to him.

He speaks, and the Bible talks back

Third phrase: he has spoken through the prophets. Scripture is alive with the voice of God, which is why Brady still holds the old-school line that Christians should read their Bibles every day. Read it with a listening ear and it starts talking back. Sometimes it sasses back.

Second Timothy 3:16 says all Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Everyone likes the teaching. Nobody likes the other three, and that is exactly why the enemy works so hard to talk you out of reading it. Stop being rebuked and corrected, and you stop being trained.

The Spirit's job, in Jesus' own words in John 14:26, is to teach you all things and remind you of everything he said. Brady admits most Sunday preaching is not new revelation; it is reminding us of what we already know but may not be obeying. And the result of that teaching and rebuking, John 14:27, is a peace the world cannot give and a heart that is not afraid.

Without limit

He closes on John 3:34.

For God gives the Spirit without limit.

The question he put to the room: have you put limits on how much of the Holy Spirit you want? Not wanting to be weird is a fair sentiment, and Brady shares it. But are you willing to take bold steps, to obey when God asks for something that feels out of bounds? At almost 60, he says he is hungrier for the Spirit than he has ever been.

A practice for this week

This sermon is easy to turn into a habit, because Brady already did it.

Pray three words before your feet hit the floor: Come, Holy Spirit. Ask for the person, not a feeling. Then open your Bible and ask one question: what are you saying to me today? Expect teaching, and expect the other three too. And when you pray, talk to all three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not two-thirds.

From the field: four churches, not one

The Village Church is four weeks old and already rebuilding. What began as one church in Nigeria destroyed by terrorism is now four, because of this congregation's giving. Brady mailed the check this weekend; it will be hand-carried into the country, and within about 90 days those congregations should be worshiping inside new buildings. Seven Christians were killed in the same region last weekend. Keep praying for them.

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