One of life’s simple pleasures is to feel, see and hear the wind blowing. That’s why I like to ride my bicycle. The wind makes me feel alive and free. Every time we experience the wind, let’s remember the Holy Spirit, the breath of God.

In The Book of Acts, we learn that the Holy Spirit came after Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. (Pentecost: “Feast of Weeks” is 50 days of Jewish harvest celebration w/o work.) But just before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his followers the Holy Spirit would come with spiritual baptism to give them power to be witnesses of him throughout the world. While they were being obedient -- waiting together in expectant prayer -- a mighty wind came into the house and filled everyone. The rest of Acts is a history of the birth of the church: how followers took the gospel to Jews and Gentiles, and how they established houses of prayer and worship, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how they lived their daily lives. This is our theme today: Living in the Spirit.

          In Paul’s Letter to the Romans, he wrote how spirit-filled Christians are to live. They are not slaves to God’s laws or to sinful desires because their salvation has been bought and paid for by Jesus. The same Spirit that gave the world Jesus and raised him from death lives in his followers. We are identified as people who think and focus on spiritual things. We are opposed to all things that are hostile and against God. If the spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, does not live inside us and is not welcome inside us, we do not belong to God. Life in the Spirit is about living righteously, obediently and peacefully before God. Life in the Flesh is about pleasing our sinful selves and death.

The same spirit that was powerful enough to raise Jesus’ body from the grave is the spirit that lives inside his followers. As Bruce Wood reminds those of us who are taking The Way of the Master class on Wednesday nights: discipleship is more than believing. If we’re in an airplane that is going down, it doesn’t make any sense to believe a parachute can save our lives. We have to put it on. Likewise, we have to do more than believe in Jesus. We have to put him on, invite him to live in us so that we can be saved from our sinful selves. When we do this, we don’t have to worry about death, not on Memorial Day or any other day. Verse 11 says that the same spirit that lives in Jesus lives in us. That spirit, God’s Holy Spirit, raised Jesus, and that same spirit will raise us. God’s breath will restore life to us at the Second Coming of Christ. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,” says Revelation 14:13. 

          I leave you today to think about this message of hope for our church and for our future: A month ago, the president of the UM Council of Bishops challenged her colleagues to stop thinking of our church as an institution, but to return to our Wesleyan roots “as a movement that responds to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.” This is a great challenge, not only for our denomination, but for Waynesville UMC.  I challenge us to be moved by the Holy Spirit -- not by sin. Pray for the wind of the Holy Spirit to move us. Things that are alive, MOVE. Acts 17, verse 28 reads, “For in him (Christ) we live and move and have our being….”  Things that are dead are still, are stunted, they shrivel up and dry out. They suffer from atrophy, like unused muscles they wither and waste away. They stop producing -- no sprouts, no fruit. They don’t grow, they don’t change, they don’t prosper. They don’t REACH UP, REACH IN or REACH OUT. 

          From the depths of my heart, I long for the wind of the Holy Spirit to rush through this place -- through you and through me -- to fill us up; to sweep out negativism and pessimism and gossip and past hurts and anger and stubbornness and plain, old mean-spiritedness and unforgiveness and disobedience and apathy and lust and prayerlessness. These are the sins we confessed during Lent. Well, it’s the season of Pentecost now. Let’s open ourselves to the wind of the Holy Spirit, and allow it to fill us with love, joy, peace and all the fruit of the Spirit. Welcome the Spirit to pour in a foundation of Spiritual Maturity on which to build effective Youth, Evangelism and Communication ministries. These are the recurring themes that emerged during our Christian Conversations. This is what can and will happen if the spirit of Christ lives, dwells, resides in us. Philippians 4:13 says, that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Yes, WE can. We can even take a leap of faith through the window of opportunity God has opened for us to own 2.3 acres next door. We can have future resources for our youth and our children, and this community’s children and youth and young adults, to have safe places & spaces to learn about Jesus and accept him as Lord and Savior, to invite their unchurched parents and grandparents and friends, and yes, to have good, clean and wholesome fun. 

Wednesday night’s Church Conference is not about stagnation and fear and the past. It’s about the future, the life of this church and the kind of church we want to be: loving, peaceful, gentle, faithful and extravagantly generous with everything we have; Christians who are excited about making new disciples for Jesus, and nurturing those who are already here. Church, there is Life in the Spirit. “May the wind of the Holy Spirit fill us, and this place, today and everyday” is my prayer. Let it be yours also. Amen? Amen!