Just a few days before Christmas one year, a postal worker at one of the main sorting offices found an unstamped, handwritten, messy envelope addressed to God. Curious, he opened it and discovered that it was from an elderly woman who was in great distress because all of her savings – $200 – had been stolen. As a result, she wouldn’t have anything to eat for Christmas.
The man went to his fellow postal workers and took up a collection for the woman. They all dug deep and came up with $180. Putting the money in a plain envelope, with no note or anything, the postal workers sent it by special courier to the woman that very day. A week later, the same postal worker noticed another unstamped letter that had been addressed to God in the same handwriting. In it, he found a brief note:
Dear God, Thank you for the $180 that you sent me for Christmas, which would have been so bleak otherwise. P.S. It was $20 short, but that was probably those thieving workers at the post office. (www.SermonCentral.com)
There are times when it seems we can’t do anything right. People criticize and complain no matter what we do, so a lot of us just give up.
Well, I’ve got good news this Christmas for all of us who believe in Christ. No matter what people say or think, God Himself does not condemn us. On the contrary, God has generously poured out on us His Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:6). The Holy Spirit is Christ’s gift to us this Christmas and all year round; and wow, what a gift He is!
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans 8, Romans 8, where we see just how wonderful it is to have such a gift. Up until now, in the book of Romans, the Holy Spirit has only been mentioned once (in Romans 5:5). But here in Romans 8, He is mentioned 19 times!
Romans 8:1-2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (NIV)
The Spirit sets us free! When we trust Christ as our Savior…
THE HOLY SPIRIT DELIVERS US.
He liberates us from the law, which could only arouse our sin and then condemn us for it. What a wonderful gift Christ has given us in His Spirit. Now, we are no longer trapped and condemned. Instead, we are free to live and be all that God intended for us to be.
Oswald Chambers once said, “The Spirit of God is always the spirit of liberty; the spirit that is not of God is the spirit of bondage, the spirit of oppression and depression. The Spirit of God convicts vividly and tensely, but He is always the Spirit of liberty. God who made the birds never made birdcages; it is men who make birdcages, and after a while we become cramped and can do nothing but chirp and stand on one leg.” (Oswald Chambers, “The Moral Foundations of Life,” Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no.13)
That’s where a lot of people are today. They feel cramped and trapped, because they are trying so hard to “be good." They are trying so hard to please somebody they know they could never please – whether it’s a parent, a spouse, or a god who is always frowning on them. It’s like they’re trying to be good so Santa Claus will bring them some nice presents. You know how the old song puts it:
You better watch out! You better not cry!
Better not pout, I’m telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He’s making a list and checking it twice;
Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He sees you when you’re sleeping.
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows if you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!
Santa is very performance oriented. You better be good, or else you might just get a lump of coal for Christmas. Well, God is NOT like Santa Claus. God does not base His gifts on our behavior. No! God has already blessed every believer with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). & We live out of the abundance of God’s blessing, not with a need to earn His blessing.
No believer EVER has to fear ANY condemnation whatsoever. That means God will NEVER punish ANY believer for his or her sins, because God has already punished Jesus Christ His Son for our sins. There is no double jeopardy with God. Our sins are already paid for. Jesus paid for them on the cross. So we are absolutely free from the penalty of sin.
But not only that, we are also free from the power of sin in our lives. God’s Spirit not only absolves us from all sin, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, He gives us the ability to do what’s right.
Romans 8:3-4 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, 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. (NIV)
You see, the law could not make me righteous. The law could not make me a better person, because my weak, sinful nature could not keep the law. So God had to intervene. That’s why He sent His Son to die on a cross for our sins – that takes care of the penalty for our sin. & That’s why God sent His Spirit to live in every Believer – that takes care of the power of sin in our lives.
You see, we become better people, not by operating in our own strength, but by operating in the strength of the Holy Spirit provided to each and every one of us.
[Pull a glove out of pocket and place it on the pulpit.] Tell me, can this glove pick up this book? Perhaps, if it tell it to it can. “Glove, please pick up that book.” (wait)
Hummm. Maybe I need to spell it out a little more clearly. “Glove, put your thumb on top of the book. Put the rest of your fingers under the book. Squeeze together, then lift. Understand? Now, go pick up the book.” (wait)
“Why aren’t you listening to me. I SAID, PICK UP THE BOOK! DON’T YOU HEAR ME, PICK UP THAT BOOK!”
Now I can scream and yell at that glove until I’m blue in the face. I can give it all kinds of instructions, even a list of do’s and don’ts. I can suggest all kinds of principles for picking up a book, but is that going to help the glove at all. NO!
How in the world is that glove ever going to pick up that book? Very simple. It’s going to happen only when I put my hand in it. Then when my hand is in the glove, that glove can do many things. [Pick up the Bible on the pulpit.] (Corrie Ten Boom in “Each New Day,” Christianity Today)
That’s the way it is with people. We tell them, “Be good,” and then wonder why they aren’t. So we give them practical principles and procedures we think might be helpful. Or we might even try screaming and yelling sometimes, but none of it does anybody any good, does it?
That’s because a list of principles never made anybody a better person. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. So if you want to become a better person, more like Jesus Christ, then live your life in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, not yourself. Every day, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you, as a hand fills a glove, and let Him do His holy work in and through you.
That’s Christ gift to us this Christmas and all year round. It’s the gift of the Holy Spirit who sets us free. He delivers us from the penalty and the power of sin in our every-day lives. More than that, when we trust Christ…
THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES TO DWELL WITHIN EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.
He lives in us. He makes His home in us.
Romans 8:5-9 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. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (NIV)
Everyone who belongs to Christ has the Spirit of Christ. If you have trusted Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in you! Literally, He makes His home in you. As a result, we have a different attitude about life. We have a different mind-set.
Those without the Holy Spirit have their mind set on things the sinful nature desires, on things that can only destroy us in the end, on things that don’t please God. But those who have the Holy Spirit have their mind set on the things of the Spirit, on things that bring life and peace, on things that DO please God.
Muriel’s childhood crippled her emotionally. So much so that she started entering hospital psychiatric wards in her teens. By her late forties, she had seen dozens of counselors, therapists, and psychiatrists. She was on a cocktail of psychotic medications so potent it could have subdued a blue whale. She had logged no fewer than 61 rounds of electric shock therapy, but nothing really helped.
People had done cruel things to her – malicious things, godless things – and it really messed her up.
Then one day she walked into the office of a new therapist. Muriel was cynical. She had low expectations. The therapist heard her story, and simply asked a question: “How would your life have been different if someone had come alongside you when you were 14 and showed you your strengths instead of telling you that you were sick?”
“In all those years,” she said, “I’d never considered that. And then I saw it: I wasn’t stuck in my life as I knew it. My life could be otherwise. I decided there and then to live it otherwise. I changed my mind about who I was, which allowed me to change everything almost instantly.” (Mark Buchanan, “Thy Kingdom Come,” Leadership, Spring 2010, p. 98; www.PreachingToday.com)
In essence, that’s what the Holy Spirit does for us. He comes into our lives and changes our minds about who we are, which allows us to change everything else. He tells us that we are no longer victims, stuck in a self-destructive lifestyle. & He shows us all that is possible as we depend on Him.
I like the way P. T. Forsyth once put it: “Unless there is within us that which is above us, we shall soon yield to that which is about us.” (P. T. Forsyth, quoted in Men of Integrity, March/April 2001; www.PreachingToday.com)
The Holy Spirit from above, if He dwells within, keeps us from giving in to the negativity all around us. He gives us a different attitude about life. And He assures us of a different destiny, a different future.
Romans 8:10-11 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (NIV)
Not only is our spirit alive because of Christ, but one day the Holy Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies. These dead and dying bodies will be changed. They will be raised from the dead with a new life that will never end.
In his book, Our Greatest Gift, Henri Nouwen imagines a set of twins – a brother and a sister – talking to each other in their mother’s womb:
The sister said to the brother, “I believe there is life after birth.”
Her brother protested vehemently, “No, no, this is all there is. This is a dark and cozy place, and we have nothing else to do but to cling to the cord that feeds us.”
The little girl insisted, “There must be something more than this dark place. There must be something else, a place with light where there is freedom to move.” Still, she could not convince her twin brother.
After some silence, the sister said hesitantly, “I have something else to say, and I’m afraid you won’t believe that, either, but I think there is a mother.”
Her brother became furious. “A mother!” he shouted. “What are you talking about? I have never seen a mother, and neither have you. Who put that idea in your head?
The sister was quite overwhelmed by her brother’s response and for a while didn’t dare say anything more. But she couldn’t let go of her thoughts, and since she had only her twin brother to speak to, she finally said, “Don’t you feel these squeezes every once in a while? They’re quite unpleasant and sometimes even painful.”
“Yes,” he answered. “What’s special about that?”
“Well,” the sister said, “I think that these squeezes are there to get us ready for another place, much more beautiful than this, where we will see our mother face-to-face. Don’t you think that’s exciting?”
The brother didn’t answer. He was fed up with the foolish talk of his sister and felt that the best thing would be simply to ignore her and hope that she would leave him alone. (Henri Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring, HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, pp. 19-20; www.PreachingToday.com)
He had no hope, no hope that the pain of his world could ever lead to something far greater.
It reminds me of what Christopher Hitchens said after he was diagnosed with cancer this last summer (2010). Hitchens is a popular author and atheist, but his words in the September issue of Vanity Fair reflect the hopelessness of his life. He wrote:
“I am badly oppressed by a gnawing sense of waste. I had real plans for my next decade and felt I’d worked hard enough to earn it… To the dumb question, ‘Why me?’ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: ‘Why not?’
“I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient. Allow me to inform you, though, that when you sit in a room with a set of other finalists, and kindly people bring a huge transparent bag of poison to plant into your arm [his chemotherapy treatment] and you either read or don’t read a book while the venom sack gradually empties into your system… You feel swamped with passivity and impotence: dissolving in powerlessness like a sugar lump in water.” (Christopher Hitchens, "Topic of Cancer," Vanity Fair, September 2010; www.Preaching Today.com)
How sad. How hopeless. But that’s the attitude of those without the Holy Spirit. They have no hope. We, on the other hand, know that there are better things ahead. We have the Spirit of God within who assures us that the pains of this life are but birth-pains pushing us into a far greater life ahead (cf. John 16:20-22).
What a wonderful gift Christ has given us this Christmas. It’s the gift of the Holy Spirit, who delivers us from the penalty and power of sin. He also dwells within us to give us a different attitude and the assurance of a different destiny. Finally, when we put our trust in Christ…
THE HOLY SPIRIT DIRECTS US.
He leads us. He guides us every day.
Romans 8:12-14 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (NIV)
The Spirit leads us to “put to death the misdeeds of the body.” In other words, he helps us to stop sinning. He assists us to live for God.
Just a few years ago, there was a headline in The Chicago Tribune which read, “Sober Companions Shadow the Stars.” Under it was an article that described the “sober companions” movie companies or concert promoters sometimes hire to stay with movie and rock stars who have drug or alcohol problems. They want to be sure a movie or concert isn’t scuttled by an out-of-control star.
Also known as “minders” or “clean-living assistants,” these “sober companions” stick to the stars like glue. They are there to make sure the stars are never alone or accessible to anyone who might slip them drugs or drink. One sober companion, Tim Tankosic, explains, “The point is to be a rock, a friendly face, a reminder of recovery, a safe person.”
The article explains that “on a typical movie location, Tankosic lives with the celebrity in a home far from the hotel that houses the rest of the cast and crew. In the morning, he rises with the star and they meditate together. After breakfast, he accompanies the star to the set, and then to a support group meeting. During off-hours, Tankosic said, he tries to make sure the star has fun, although he steers him or her clear of ‘slippery places’ – any locale where drugs or alcohol are available.” (Rachel Abramowitz and Dana Calvo, “Life In Hollywood: Sober Companions Shadow the Stars,” Chicago Tribune, 4-2-02; www.Preaching Today.com) My friends…
That’s what every believer has in the Holy Spirit – “a rock, a friendly face, a safe person,” who steers us away from trouble. All we have to do is depend on Him. He is always there, like a “sober companion” to keep us from sin.
The Holy Spirit directs us as He assists us to live for God, and He assures us that we belong to God. He tells us that we are God’s children.
Romans 8:15-17 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (NIV)
The Holy Spirit leads us to call God, “Abba” or “Daddy.” It’s a term of endearment that speaks of the intimacy we can have with our Heavenly Father.
In his book, The Christian Atheist, Craig Groeschel talks about the nature of our relationship with God. He writes:
“If you call me ‘Pastor Craig,’ chances are you might know a little about me. You know what I do, maybe you’ve heard me speak, and maybe you’re familiar with some of my favorite topics and my up-front personality. But your use of my title doesn’t mean that you know me personally.
“You might just call me ‘Craig,’ and I’d usually assume that you know me even better. My friends call me Craig. We’re close.
“Then there are those who possess exclusive rights to a few specialized, far more intimate forms of address. These are the six beautiful, small people, very dear to me, whom I allow to climb up in my lap. They rub their hands on my face and say things like ‘You need to shave’ and ‘You’re the best’ and ‘Can I have some candy?’ They call me ‘Daddy.’ The name reveals the intimacy.
“What do you call God? Your answer may be a clue to how well you know him. Or don’t. (Craig Groeschel, The Christian Atheist, Zondervan, 2010; www.PreachingToday.com)
The Holy Spirit within wants you to know God intimately. He leads us to call God, “Daddy,” and assures us that we are indeed His dearly loved children.
What a precious gift Christ has given every believer this Christmas and all year round! It’s the gift of the Holy Spirit who delivers us from the penalty and power of sin. He dwells within us, giving us a different attitude about life and a different destiny. & He directs us to know God intimately.
My dear friends, if you don’t know God in this way, I urge you to put your trust in Christ today. Then you too can have this wonderful gift, the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, the true Spirit of Christmas, all year round.
