Getting Our Bearings
Let me show you what I mean with two verses from the Bible that pinpoint the outside help without diminishing human responsibility. Look with me at Phil ippians 2:12-13. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Verse twelve says, Continue to work out your salvation – the implications and possibilities of your salvation – with fear and trembling, as if everything depended on our efforts. The mystery of the Church is that although we can’t do on our own steam what we need to do, God doesn’t belittle what we can do on our own steam.

Verse 13 says: It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose, as if everything depended on God. The mystery of the Church is that although God doesn’t belittle what we can do on our own steam, He provides the power to make our efforts effective. That’s the outside help we need.

Maybe an example from ordinary life will help us picture the paradox of these verses and the spiritual drama that goes on in us everyday. The stunning thing about a healthy baby is that from the moment of conception the child has genetically everything it will need for the long journey through this world. The powers to walk, to play the piano, to think, to weep are all there.

Parenting, health care, religious training, and teaching the child to read don’t put those powers into the child. But those powers will never come to maturity without all the nurture that goes into rearing children. And, as all parents can tell you, it takes many years and many ups and downs before that child reaches maturity.

The same kind of thing is going on in us. Through Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit has been given to the souls of Christian men and women. The Holy Spirit imparts to us enough of God’s life to make us fully human and fully free. The powers to love, to believe, to hope are all there.

Sermons, worship, Bible studies, small groups, and teaching people the faith don’t put the power of the Holy Spirit into us. But the power of the Holy Spirit in us will never come to maturity without all the nurture that goes into making followers of Jesus Christ. And it takes many years and many ups and downs before we reach the kind of spiritual maturity that God has in mind for us.

As Sure and Elusive As the Wind
Our journey today takes us into the realm of the Holy Spirit. As your guide in this realm, I think we should begin with an orientation to how things work here. To do this I have asked our sound engineer to play just over a minute of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major. As you listen to the music, I want you to listen for the one non-musical sound that takes place during the playing of the Canon.

(Play 70 seconds of James Galway’s rendition of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, and then fade out.)

The one non-musical sound was the human sound of James Galway’s taking in breath to continue playing. In more than 68 minutes of flute music, this is one of the few times on the CD that we can hear him, as he draws in breath. This ordinary sound reminds us that the glories of Pachelbel, Handel, Bach, and Vivaldi come to life only if human breath brings the flute to life.

The Holy Spirit is the breath of God, and the possibilities of the Man in the image of God come to life only if God’s breath brings the Church to life. The Holy Spirit is as unobtrusive and as indispensable in the life of the Church as is Galway ’s breath in the cylinder of a flute.

With this orientation to the realm of the Holy Spirit in mind, I think you may have a new appreciation for the words of Jesus in John 3:7-8. Jesus said, “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.”

The Holy Spirit is not only unobtrusive and indispensable in the life of the Church; He is also as unpredictable and beyond our control as the wind itself. That doesn’t mean the Spirit is capricious in His action. Neither does it mean that we are passive in the Realm of the Holy Spirit, any more than it means that a sailor is passive to changes in wind direction. As your guide, I’d like to show you how we can adjust our sails, so to speak, to catch the wind of the Spirit. This will take us first to Romans 8:3-5 and then to Galatians 5:19-25.

Walking in the Spirit
Romans 8:3 teaches us that the gift of the Holy Spirit results from the accomplishments of Jesus Christ. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man. Jesus Christ condemned sin in sinful man. That doesn’t mean He condemned people for being sinners. It means that Jesus, by His life, death and resurrection condemned sin as an intruder into human life. Sin’s days in this world are numbered. Its power over human life is already fatally compromised.

Verse four introduces the crucial idea of living according to the Spirit. Jesus Christ condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. As I’ve already said, the Holy Spirit is the strength that empowers the Church to fulfill its vocation. Our responsibility is to live according to the Spirit.

Living according to the Spirit is not automatic. Paul said, “Do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit, because it is possible for us to live according to the sinful nature. The dividing line between good and evil passes right through the heart of every one of us. We are not bad all through, but we are all torn between the good ways of God and our own evil desires; and we find within us a mysterious inclination at times to follow the evil desires.

The apostle warns us away from that alternative. Children can be neglected, and their potential goes for naught. The wind of the Spirit can be neglected, and we are like a boat at sea without power.

Verse five tells us how to catch the wind of the Spirit. It says that those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. We are to set our minds on what the Spirit desires. But how do we know what the Spirit desires, and how do we set our minds on it?

Those are questions Paul answers more clearly in Galatians 5:19-25. Verses 19-21 tell us what the sinful nature desires. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God . That is what the sinful nature desires, and it is humbling to think that I am capable of such behavior and might enjoy and defend that behavior. Paul did well to warn us not to live according to the sinful nature.

By contrast, verses 22-23 tell us what the Spirit desires. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. The Holy Spirit put those nine powers in us and is at work in us to bring them to maturity. That is what we are to set our minds on, if we want to live according to the Spirit.

Verse 25 tells us what to do about it. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. You will ask, “How do I keep in step with the Spirit?” We do it by referring back to the Spirit’s desires in verses 22-23 and practice, practice, practice the behaviors that the Spirit is at work in us to bring to maturity.

Last month, I talked about the human body as a kind of tool kit: eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet and the like are the tools at our disposal. Everywhere we go, we take this remarkable tool kit with us. Before Christ, we used these tools to indulge the desires of our sinful nature. In Christ we put them to new purposes: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
Now, how can we get our lives around these ideas in meaningful ways? One way is to get a good start on your day each day. C. S. Lewis offers help in doing that in his classic book, Mere Christianity. Here’s what he wrote.

“The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind” (p. 168).

Listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view might mean recalling a Bible verse you learned here, or something helpful you heard in a sermon or in a conversation with a friend. It might mean praying. It might be reading a passage from the Bible or The Daily Bread or some other Christian book. Whichever you do, it makes room for the wind of the Spirit to catch our sails.

Doing that kind of thing throughout the day is another matter. Your agenda for the day is full. Your work requires close attention. Where you work doesn’t feel especially holy. Shoving all that back, even for a few minutes, will seem awkward and unnatural at first. It may be a while before you can do it. On the other hand, you might be surprised to learn how strong the Holy Spirit has made you. You may be able to do more than you think, albeit in fits and starts.

But take the long view of things. Learning to catch the wind of the Spirit is a matter of decades not months. Two decades are barely enough to see a child from birth to responsible independence. God doesn’t violate our human nature. He made us to develop slowly, and He doesn’t hurry it, even when His own purpose and reputation are at stake.

Along the way, there will be growth spurts. They happen in spiritual life as surely as in childhood and adolescence. Something clicks that never clicked before about the faith. Someone you haven’t seen in years won’t be around you an hour before saying, “You know, you’re not the same guy I knew in Peoria . What happened to you?”

So, relax! If someone you know comes sprinting by you on their spiritual journey, rejoice with them, wish them well, but don’t try to keep up. Do what you can do at this point in your life, and be at peace. Most spiritual growth takes place out of sight, undetected. But the wind of the Spirit will catch our sails and bring us to many happy ports and then to home.