Sermon Notes

Most followers of Jesus believe in the Holy Spirit, but very few actually depend on Him. To open our new series, What Are We Missing?, Brad Kirby goes back to John 14, Acts 1, and Romans 8 to show what the early church knew about the Spirit that made Him impossible to live without. He isn't a force or a feeling. He's a Person who is with us, gives us power, leads us, and changes us from the inside out. If following Jesus has felt like working twice as hard and going half as far, this message is a good place to start.

Key Takeaways

The Holy Spirit is a He, not an it. Scripture shows that the Spirit thinks, feels, chooses, guides, and even prays for us, and a force can't do any of those things. You can't hurt the Force's feelings, but the Spirit can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30).
You are never alone. Jesus called the Spirit "another Helper," the parakletos, someone called to your side, and He promised the Spirit would be with us forever (John 14:16–17). Jesus was with His disciples in one place, and now His Spirit is in every believer in every place.
The Spirit's power is for the mission. Jesus' first assignment for His disciples was to wait for the Spirit, because His power is given so we can be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). If everything we're doing for God could be done without God, it's worth asking whether we're on the walkway.
Stop rowing harder. Raise the sail. The Spirit leads us, He always agrees with the Word He wrote, and He always points the spotlight at Jesus. We can't make the wind blow, but we can raise the sail through the Word, prayer, and godly people.
Fruit grows; it isn't forced. In Romans 7, Paul says "I" and "me" 50 times and never mentions the Spirit, and in Romans 8 the Spirit is mentioned 20 times. Self-improvement strains to produce something, while the Spirit grows fruit from within.
Discussion Questions

When was the last time you consciously asked the Spirit for help, and what usually keeps you from doing that?
Does your relationship with the Holy Spirit feel like an advantage right now?
Where in your life do you most need to remember that you are not alone?
What's one thing in your life right now that would actually require the Spirit's power?
We raise the sail through the Word, prayer, and godly people. Which of those three is hardest for you to make room for, and why?
What struggle have you been trying to white-knuckle on your own that you need to bring to the Spirit, and to this group?

This Week's Challenge

Each morning before you leave the house, stop and ask the Holy Spirit for His help and leading for the day ahead.

Transcript

The Moving Walkway

There’s a group of people who bother me more than anyone: the people at the airport who walk beside the moving walkway. Picture DFW, Terminal D. A guy is dragging two roller bags, one with a bad wheel, plus a backpack, a neck pillow, and a Whataburger cup. He’s power-walking and sweating through his shirt. Then an eighty-year-old grandmother eating a pretzel glides right past him on the walkway.

We laugh at that guy, and then the Holy Spirit taps me on the shoulder and says, “Brad, you do that.” We’re loaded down with good things: the Word, the church, more resources than any generation in history. And we’re still walking beside the walkway. The Holy Spirit is the walkway.

What Are We Missing?

Today we’re launching a new series called What Are We Missing? The early church talked constantly about things the church today rarely mentions. What if the very things we’ve learned to live without are the things we desperately need?

Francis Chan asks us to imagine growing up on a desert island with nothing but the Bible, then walking into a typical American church. You’d expect the Holy Spirit to be as necessary as air. Instead you’d find great music, great coffee, and nice people who love Jesus, in churches that talk about the Father, sing about the Son, and barely mention the Spirit.

This first message isn’t about missing something. It’s about a missing Someone.

Believe or Depend?

Raise your hand if you believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now keep it up if, at any point this past week, you consciously depended on the Holy Spirit, asked Him for help, or listened for His leading.

There’s the issue. Most Christians believe in the Holy Spirit, but very few depend on Him. For a lot of us it goes like this: God, good. Jesus, better. Holy Spirit, forgotten.

In Acts 19:2, the disciples in Ephesus told Paul, “We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” At CityBridge we might say, “We’ve heard of Him. We’re just not sure what He is or what He does.”

He Is Not the Force

More than half of American evangelicals say the Holy Spirit is a force, not a person. Church, He is not the Force. He is not an “it.” He is a “He.”

Scripture says He thinks (1 Corinthians 2:10), He feels and can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), He chooses (1 Corinthians 12:11), He guides us into all truth (John 16:13), and He prays for us (Romans 8:26). You can’t hurt the Force’s feelings. You can’t lie to the Force. The Holy Spirit is not your conscience or Jiminy Cricket. He is God, a Person you know and follow.

The Spirit With You

The first thing: the Spirit is with you. He is not distant. He is present. The night before the cross, Jesus promised, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” (John 14:16).

The word Helper is parakletos, one called to your side. Jesus didn’t just say Helper; He said another Helper. “Everything I’ve been to you, He will be to you. I’m leaving. He never will.”

Then Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away” (John 16:7). The disciples must have thought, “You walked on water. How is this better?” If that’s not our experience, could it be we’re missing something?

You Are Never Alone

When Jesus was on earth, you had to go to Capernaum to be near Him. Now His Spirit lives in every believer in every place. If you’re in Christ, you are never alone. You aren’t alone in the hospital room, in the conference room, or at 1 AM when you’re worried sick.

We’re never alone on the mission, either. Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples… I am with you always” (Matthew 28:19–20). The Holy Spirit is how He keeps that promise. We don’t make disciples for Jesus while He watches from a distance. We make disciples with Him.

The Spirit Upon You

The second thing: the Spirit is upon you. He is not optional. He is power. Before Jesus returned to the Father, He gave His disciples their first assignment: wait. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).

That word is dynamis, where we get dynamite. And the power isn’t for goosebumps. It’s for the mission. Ten days later, the same Peter who denied Jesus three times preached to thousands, and three thousand people came to faith. Soon the council saw that Peter and John were “uneducated, common men” (Acts 4:13). Same Peter. Different power.

What You Can’t Do Without Him

You can do a lot without the Holy Spirit. You can sing every word on Sunday, take great notes, and hand out full-size Snickers at Fall Fest. None of that is bad, but a nice, disciplined person who doesn’t know Jesus could do every bit of it.

What you can’t do without Him is love the person who hurt you and mean it, forgive the family member who never said sorry, share Jesus when you’re scared, or kill the sin you’ve fought for years. You can’t make a disciple without His power. If everything you’re doing for God, you could do without God, are you on the walkway?

The Spirit Ahead of You

The third thing: the Spirit is ahead of you. He is not a force you use. He is a guide you follow. “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Led. Not used.

In Acts, the Spirit sent Philip to a chariot, set apart Barnabas and Saul, and redirected Paul to Macedonia. Paul made plans, but he held them loosely and followed the Spirit closely.

Some of us are like our Student Pastor, Josh, last Sunday. His GPS told him to take a different route, and he said, “No, I know the way.” There was a wreck ahead. The early church turned where the Spirit said turn.

Raise the Sail

Following the Spirit doesn’t mean chasing feelings. The Spirit and the Word always agree, because He wrote it (2 Peter 1:21). The Spirit also has a spotlight ministry: He points it at Jesus (John 16:14). If what you’re hearing contradicts the Bible or makes much of you, it isn’t Him.

Think of a sailboat, not a motorboat. You can’t make the wind blow, and in Greek, wind and Spirit are the same word, pneuma. But you can raise the sail. Get in the Word daily. Pray, and listen. Invite godly people to weigh in (Acts 15:28). Stop trying to row harder. Raise the sail.

The Spirit in You

The fourth thing: the Spirit is in you. He does not improve you. He resurrects you. In Romans 7, Paul says “I,” “me,” and “my” 50 times and mentions the Holy Spirit zero times, and it ends with “Wretched man that I am!” In Romans 8 the Spirit is mentioned 20 times. It’s the same Paul with the same struggle, but a different power.

Those in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8), but with the Spirit, the impossible becomes possible. The power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you (Romans 8:11). Your anger, addiction, and shame are not bigger than an empty tomb. You can’t white-knuckle sin to death, but by the Spirit you can put it to death (Romans 8:13).

Works vs. Fruit

Paul contrasts the “works of the flesh” with the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:19–23). Works are something you produce. Fruit is something that grows. I’ve never walked past an apple tree and heard it straining. It just stays connected to its roots, and the apples come.

CityBridge, if the Spirit lives in us, people should see something: love for people who don’t love us back, peace where there used to be panic, self-control where an addiction used to run our life. We don’t produce that. We stay close to Him and let Him grow it. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

The Presence We Ignore