May 3, 2015
We need a guide!
This afternoon, the ladies will be celebrating another year of
their Spring Tea. It is not only a
festal time, but one where mother, daughter, granddaughter, aunt and cousins
and all the ladies can enjoy conversation and cordiality as ladies need.
One of the advantages that women have is that they are not afraid
to stop and ask for directions. Most men
if lost will drive either until they break down or run out of gas. Women on the other hand do not have a problem
stopping and asking for directions. They
are easily guided and even seek out a guide.
This trait is one of the reasons women are so well loved in the church.
In our Gospel this morning Jesus after allaying the fears of the
disciples and foretelling that their grief will be turned into joy, now
transitions and tells them, “One is coming to be our guide”! The One Jesus is talking about is none other
than the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. With the promise of the Holy Spirit, Jesus
wants us to understand three things.
First, we cannot do life alone, we need a guide. Unlike the machoism that the disciples
probably had of going it alone, Jesus is clearly telling the disciples, they
need a guide. They need someone to help
and to guide them along their journey.
So to we who gather here today need this same guidance. We need a guide. We like the disciples need the Holy Spirit to
poke and prod us to be the Children of God He has made us to be. Just as we need parents to be born, we need
the Holy Spirit to birth within each of us the desire to serve God. For we cannot do it alone. Left to our own devices, we do and will find
reasons to pull away, whether from family, friends and even the church. But the Holy Spirit as our Great Guide is
there to fulfill His role to as Martin Luther said, to “Call, gather and
enlighten” each of us and “keep us in the Christian faith”.
Guides are great, but even with a guide, we need to understand a
guide is only as good as the one following the guides directions. Whether the guidance farmers get from the
USDA office or the crop consultant, they are a guide for our economic
future. But we need a spiritual guide as
well. In essence, we need to do what our
spiritual Guide says. Since God sent the
Holy Spirit to guide us, we need to follow the directions, poking’s and
prodding’s of the Holy Spirit. It would
be like when spraying in our fields, gardens or yards and we read the
directions on the chemical of how to mix the spray. But when it comes down to it, we want the
expensive chemical to last longer so we only put in half the required amount of
concentrate. Then two weeks later when
the weeds come back and we either have to go back and respray or even when we
do spray again, the weeds don’t die, because they have become resistant, we
wonder why. It is because we have not
listened nor followed the directions of the manufacturer.
So to in our lives, God is our manufacturer and God sends His Holy
Spirit to give us the directions we need.
We aren’t called to doubt the Holy Spirit, because we ‘know better’, or
explain away someone’s action, because ‘they are that way’. God is calling us to follow and do His
bidding to reach the world, impact our community and lead our church as His
Children by doing what He is calling us to do as His followers and be guided by
the Holy Spirit to do what is right.
Not only do we need a guide and we need to follow what our Guide
says, but most importantly, we need to trust the Holy Spirit. Trust for some is very difficult. Whether it is because it has been violated by
our family or friends or even by the Shepherd God sent to lead the church. Trust is a commodity that some will only
give, if it is a last resort, like when we are dealing with cancer and the
medical community is the last hope for us.
Or when we take our tractor, combine, planter or vehicle we drive daily
to the dealership, we have to trust the mechanics to replace the parts needed
to keep it running so we can make the land payment, pay off the note after
harvest and even insure we can make it to town for groceries.
So to we don’t have to, but we need to trust the Holy Spirit in
our daily lives. God sends the Holy
Spirit to rebuild our trust and heal the trust that has been violated. For the Holy Spirit will not violate our
trust. For when we trust Jesus Christ
Words from our Gospel and we receive the Holy Spirit and trust the Holy Spirit
to guide us, we will be changed. The
change we will experience will be from the inside out.
For when we trust the Holy Spirit, God will change us and the Holy
Spirit will help us to pray for things that are not even on our radar. A question we all need to ask and answer for
ourselves is what kind of legacy do we want to leave? What is most important in our lives? What will we be remembered for? Is it having the most land that we farm in
Sherman, Cheyenne, Wallace or Rollins County?
Is it the best farmstead? Or is
our legacy to be a follower of Jesus Christ that follows God’s Word, listens to
the Holy Spirit and trusts God with everything we hold dear?
God has a simple goal in mind, our being with Him in heaven for
eternity. We can get there if we
remember we can’t do it alone, we need a guide, the Holy Spirit. We can’t get there if we don’t do what our
guide the Holy Spirit says. And finally
we won’t get to heaven, if we don’t trust in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as
our guide. For Jesus Christ came to die
on the Cross of Calvary in order to set us all free. This is God’s offer of Grace and a
demonstration of His love for each and every one of us. When we trust God and His Grace and His Holy
Spirit we then will be changed from the inside out and made new creatures that
have been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of
the world. This is what Jesus Christ is
offering each and every one of us who gather here today and believe. This is God’s gift for all of mankind, but
especially all of us saints gathered here this morning who trust in Jesus
Christ and the Holy Spirit as our guide for each of us today. AMEN.
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