John 14:16-17, 25-27

¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you… ²⁵"All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, good morning! Child of God, hear the good news! If you’ve been carrying big worries, if you’ve been stressed, if you’ve wakened nervous in the middle of the night, if the world is too much with you, if you don’t know how to get it done, hear the good news, child of God – you don’t have to do it by yourself!

Hear the good news, child of God. You don’t have to generate your own energy! You don’t have to generate your own steam. There is a helper and a comforter who is with you always. All you need to do is open the door and let God in.

Say, friends, I want to go back to our junior sermon about cell phones. Cell phones are wonderful devices. Almost everyone has one today. Do you own one? How did we ever live without these things? It’s hard to imagine the time when we didn’t have one. Think about all the things this phone can do. It can send love. It can convey news. You can get information. You can chat with a friend. You can talk to anybody in the world who has a phone.

But you know what? Every night, when I go home, I have to put the phone in its charger, because if I don’t, the phone is little more than a paperweight. Friend, the power of the Holy Spirit for you is what energizes you and puts life in you and puts power in you. If you feel stressed and overwhelmed, you don’t have to face it by yourself. My invitation to you is to just be open to the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, and the power of God will come flooding in for you. You don’t have to manufacture your own peace. You don’t have to manufacture your own joy or your own love. Just say, “Holy Spirit of God, flood my heart right now. I am open to Your energy and Your grace.”

That’s what Jesus wanted to tell us about the Holy Spirit. As we conclude this series of messages on the Holy Spirit, won’t you take away this one thing with you? God the Father says, “I created you.” Jesus says, “I love you.” And the Holy Spirit says, “I will help you.”  We do not do it alone.  We do not need to generate all the power from our own resources.  God is our refuge and strength, our ultimate resource.  What we need to do is open our hearts and minds to the power of His Holy Spirit, and let it come flooding into our lives.  It is more like turning on a water tap than working a pump.  It is not like cranking a generator; it's like turning on a light and having the light fill the room.  However, we must call upon it; we must invite the Spirit in; we must say yes to it.   Say, "Lord, I am saying yes to Your power and Your presence" --and let it come flooding in.

Sometimes it’s good to have a gesture that goes along with this. Won’t you try this? Simply put one hand over the other – one palm down, the other hand atop the back of that one, as one hand might comfort another – and close your eyes. Maybe there will be a time when you need that gesture. Let that be the symbol of your opening up to the Holy Spirit, of your letting Him flood you with His comfort, His counsel, His help, His energy. Let that be the symbol of your connection.

The cell phone is no good without its power station, and we are powerless without our connection to God. What are the power stations for you? My prayer is that one of them may be this church. When you come to church in the morning, I pray that it would do two things for you, that it would be your symbol of love for God and of your faithfulness, and I pray that you would receive a blessing for being here, that this might be your power station, that this might be the place where you can let the Holy Spirit recharge you, that you could lay your burdens down and feel that there is hope. Let the church be your power station.

What else? How about prayer? When you close your eyes in prayer and make the connection, just open up and let the Holy Spirit flood you and fill you and empower you. Bible reading – open up your Bible and leaf through it and read until something pops out at you. We do this in Bible study, and we are energized by the presence of the Holy Spirit that comes to us through the reading of the Bible.

What else? Music! Music has such power to let the Holy Spirit in, doesn’t it, when we sing our spiritual songs together? I had a wonderful experience in the car not long ago. There is a radio station, 99.1 FM, WAWZ. Any of you hear of it? Some of you listen to it. They played the most wonderful contemporary Christian music. And then they changed their format. They went to Christian rock. I thought, “Oh, they didn’t ask me about that!” I didn’t know how I felt about that. I didn’t much listen to it, until one day this summer when I was riding in the car with my wonderful godson Dylan. We were looking for a station, and he goes poking at the radio. And he said, “Listen, Star 99.1, WAWZ.”

And I said, “You like that station?”

He said, “Oh, yes!”

And as we listened to it, I said, “Why do you like that station?”

“Oh, because it has really neat songs about Jesus, like Sunday morning.” Wow, I’ve changed my mind. It’s speaking to him. It’s lifting his spirit. Music can lift your heart and be an entrance for the Holy Spirit to come into you.

Listen, friends, it’s not a matter of us doing it all. It’s not a matter of praying so hard to lure the Holy Spirit in. It’s not a matter of us working hard at prayer so that God will change us. It’s a matter of God being all around us. God is the energy source, and all we have to do is open up to Him, because God wants to do the work within us.

Music can be your power house, your power station. Prayer, church, music, talking to a dear Christian friend. Oh, can’t the Holy Spirit and strength and energy flood into you when you tell your story and when you feel the love of God through another person?

My prayer for you is that you just plug into that power station. May it be so for you.

Third, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one and inseparable. Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit, and He invited us to have this new counselor, this new helper, in our lives. Jesus is our doorway to God, and the Holy Spirit is the avenue and flow to us. Invite Him in, and new power will be yours. Friend, did you ever look at someone who was deeply afflicted and full of courage, and say, “I don’t know how they do it?” Yes, you do know – it’s the power of the Holy Spirit of God working in them, and lifting them up. It can be so for you, too.

Be open to God, because God is open, 24 hours, for you. God loves you. I do, too. Have a blessed week. Amen.