Listening During the Holidays

The holidays are hard on people who are mourning the loss of a loved one. Our sensitivity to their feelings is an important part of what it means to be the church. I think of Bible verses like, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” Jesus who came to show us who God is stood with Mary and Martha after their brother Lazarus had died. He spoke words of assurance to them. Then as he moved among those who were weeping he did that which was most helpful to them. “Jesus wept.”

You may not shed tears with those who are grieving this Christmas, but you may have an opportunity to listen to their story. When you are with a person who is in deep emotional pain, they don’t need you to give them explanations or soothing words. They need you to listen. Real listening is a powerful act of love, blessing both you and the speaker.

God came to be with us in Jesus. He was called Emmanuel, “God with us.” The most important work you do for God this Christmas may be just to be with someone who is mourning. Your presence may be the channel though which the love of Jesus flows.

What Moves Us to Give?

Christmas is a time when we tend to be a little more enthusiastic about helping people in need. Why is that? We gave more than normal to Halifax Urban Ministry and to our own Benevolence Fund this past Sunday, December 6. What got into us?

Jeanne Mathieson, chairwoman of our Benevolence Ministry, told me that our offering amounted to $160. That is a pretty good offering for just passing around two baskets during the announcements.

I delivered our Communion Sunday bags of food to Halifax Urban Ministry. The men who helped me unload my car were impressed with the amount of food that was there. They unloaded it into grocery carts. Usually it only takes one cart. This time it took two. We were standing in a slight drizzle of rain. The carts were full. I received more thanks directed to our church than ever before. One of the men told me with a broad smile about the more than 300 hams Halifax Urban Ministry plans to give to people in need this Christmas season. I drove away feeling good about the help our church gave.

What is it that makes us delight to help others at Christmastime? Is it that Charles Dickens made us want to avoid being like Scrooge? Is it that ministries on the front lines are good at making us aware of how much need is out there? Is it the Spirit of Christ reminding us that the Good Samaritan fulfilled the Great Commandment, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” by helping a man in trouble?

Or are we responding to what God did at Christmas? Are we moved to give because God gave to us? “God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son.”

Forgiveness Preparedness

On October 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV carried his guns and his rage into an Amish schoolhouse near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Five schoolgirls died that day, and five others were seriously wounded. These facts are stated in the preface to Amish Grace, an inspiring attempt to explain the Amish response to the killings. Within hours after Carl Roberts shot the girls and turned his gun on himself, Amish community leaders were visiting his widow, his father, and his grandfather to tell them, “We want you to know that we will not hold a grudge against you.” Then parents of two of the little girls who were killed invited Roberts’s family to attend their funerals, and many Amish people attended the funeral of Carl Roberts. Out of their compassion for Roberts’s wife and children, the Amish brought meals to them and gave them funds to help with their expenses.

The media began to focus on Amish forgiveness more than on the horror of the event. Donald Kraybill, one of the authors of Amish Grace writes, “When forgiveness arrived at the killer’s home within hours of his crime, it did not appear out of nowhere. Rather, forgiveness is woven into the very fabric of Amish life, its sturdy threads having been spun from faith in God, scriptural mandates, and a history of persecution.”

If we members of New Hope Baptist Church are going to be found faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ when the worst happens to us, we must develop a process that promotes spiritual growth. We are going to have to become fully devoted followers of Christ who are radically different from the nobody-tells-me-what-to-do, pleasure-seeking world that surrounds us. We are going to have to become a community with traditions, rituals, discipline, and ways of teaching that will produce more than casual, unconcerned Christians.

The grace extended by the Amish was in their hearts and minds before this terrible event ever happened. Their way of life did not make much of emergency preparedness, says Kraybill. It gave them “forgiveness preparedness.” Their story raises questions for us. Are we members of New Hope being shaped by our faith in God, by what the Bible demands of us, and by our life together? Are we preparing for the uncertainties of tomorrow? Are we allowing the Spirit and teachings of Jesus to be so woven into the fabric of our life together that we are being prepared to forgive and show compassion when our time of suffering comes? How do we promote forgiveness preparedness in our church like that of our Amish bothers and sisters in Christ?

New Hope New Year's Resolution

I met on Friday with Vernon Buchanan, our Church Treasurer and Bill Batchelor, our Church Council Chairman. We looked at the proposed budget for 2010, which will be presented to the Church Council on December 17. The Church Council will finalize the budget and present it to the Church for a vote to adopt it on January 20, 2010.

As Vernon and Bill and I discussed plans and budget needs for next year, I asked Vernon if he, as Church Treasurer, had noticed any increase in giving during or since the three Sundays I preached on giving. I expected to get the answer he gave me. “No. There was no increase in giving.”

I asked Vernon, our Treasurer, what we could expect in income this year as compared to last year. He said, “Last year our giving exceeded our budget by more than $2,000. This year it looks like our giving is going to fall $25,000 short of our budget.” That $25,000 which did not come in through the offering plates came out of our savings.

Our budget is a way of setting our goals for 2010. Where we spend our money is simply a reflection of the things we intend to accomplish as a church. We will be emphasizing Sunday School, Small Groups, Children’s Ministry, and Youth Ministry. If we make it our goal to serve more people in the name of Jesus than we did in 2009, we will set higher spending goals. To put it another way, the ministry of New Hope Baptist Church will cost more in 2010 than it did in 2009.

I am going to recommend to the Church Council that, once we vote to adopt our budget on January 20, we ask each of our members to pledge an amount they will give to support the 2010 Church Budget. When we set spending goals we must give the money to meet those goals.

How about this for a New Hope New Year’s Resolution? With the help of God we will increase our giving to meet our ministry goals for 2010.

Thankful Because . . . .

Walter Shurden is teacher and friend to many preachers. In his latest “Preaching Journal,” which I am thankful to receive from him each month, he quotes from Wendell Berry’s novel, Hannah Coulter: “I was grateful because I knew I ought to be, sometimes because I wanted to be, and sometimes a sweet thankfulness came to me on its own, like a singing from somewhere out in the dark.” That provides three points on which I will preach, as Walter suggests.

1. Thankful because I ought to be: as I look at my life, my church, my family, all the care I have received, how could I be anything other that thankful. November is the month of Thanksgiving. For my family, it means gathering in Easley, SC at Fleda’s mother’s house on Thanksgiving Day.

2. Thankful because I want to be: when we list the things we are thankful for each Wednesday night at New Hope, we come up with a pretty long list just because we want to be thankful. There is joy in thanking God for good gifts he gives, and especially in thanking him for people.

3. Thankful because I couldn’t help myself: as I prepared for All Saints Day on Sunday November 1, I read these words from Henri Nouwen and realized that “sweet thankfulness” comes to me when I think about people I have loved who have died: “As we grow older we have more and more people to remember, people who have died before us. . . . Remembering them means letting their spirits inspire us in our daily lives.”

What ought you to be thankful for? What do you want to be thankful for? What “sweet thankfulness” has just come over you lately?

On All Saints Day

This year on All Saints Day we remember four New Hope members who died in 2009. We thank God that they lived among us: Al Bittel, Betty Myers, Kiyoko Bundens, and Guy Wells. All four of them loved our church. We have our memories of them and are blessed to have had them with us as brothers and sisters in the faith.

In his book, Bread for the Journey, Henri Nouwen wrote a brief devotional thought that he titled “The Companionship of the Dead.” When I read these words weeks ago, I marked them to share them with you on All Saints Day, because they define the meaning of this day in the Church Year better than anything I have read.

As we grow older we have more and more people to remember, people who have died before us. It is very important to remember those who have loved us and those we have loved. Remembering them means letting their spirits inspire us in our daily lives. They can become part of our spiritual communities and gently help us as we make decisions on our journeys. Parents, spouses, children, and friends can become true spiritual companions after they have died. Sometimes they can become even more intimate to us after death than when they were with us in life.

Remembering the dead is choosing their ongoing companionship.

Who are you remembering today? Whose ongoing companionship is important to you?

Blaming Others for Your Lack of Fulfillment

I have been watching more TV than usual as I recover from surgery. Joy Behar was talking to Valerie Bertinelli the other night. Joy, the host, said something like,
“Wasn’t there some messing around involved in the breakup of your marriage?” I know nothing about Valerie’s past, so I may have the details wrong, but this was the line that I clearly heard Joy say and then Valerie agreed:

“When there is messing around with someone else it means the marriage was already in trouble. You find somebody else because you were not being fulfilled by the relationship within the marriage.”

Immediately, I started thinking up arguments against Joy Behar’s statement. It is the kind of thinking that leads to one divorce after another. Whenever someone cheats on his or her spouse, it is wrong to blame the cheating behavior on not being fulfilled by the marriage. It is wrong for at least two reasons.

First, when we got married, we promised to take the other person as a marriage partner “for better or for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health as long as we both shall live.” In other words, we made a pledge: “I will love you unconditionally.” Not, “I will love you as long as you make me feel fulfilled.”

Second, the person who goes outside a marriage to find another sexual partner is not reacting to a lack of fulfillment in the marriage. He is reacting to a lifetime of emptiness and fear within himself or herself.

The lack of fulfillment was there inside before there ever was a marriage. When we don’t have an adequate supply of real love inside ourselves, we reach out for anything that will take away the pain. Sexual pleasure can be one form of imitation love meant to ease the pain. Praise from another person or power over another person can also bring temporary relief from inner pain.

Why is it important for us to learn this truth? Because we never help ourselves by blaming our lack of fulfillment on other people: our marriage partner, our friends, our church, or our job. If we will tell the truth about our emptiness and fear and learn not to blame our bad feelings on other people, we will open ourselves up the flow of God’s love. That flow comes through many human channels, and God’s love, real love drives out fear.

God's Mercy In Medicine

As I write this I am just beginning to absorb the news that I am going to have surgery. I have been plagued with diverticulitis since 1992. Dr. Michael Donahoe described this surgery to me today, September 25, as a “preemptive strike.” The antibiotics that I have been taking for a month have not cured the problem. As soon as I stop taking them, the pain comes back, because the infection continues to smolder in my colon. If I put this off, I could possibly have a serious enough problem that I would have to have emergency surgery. This one will come after days of preparation. It will be a laparoscopic procedure and will not require a large incision, though a portion of my colon will be removed.

I will be planning with New Hope leaders my time away for recuperation. My goal is get this over with before the holidays, and be back in full swing by Sunday, November 1, which is All Saints Day.

Fleda and I thank you for your prayers. We thank God for his mercy at work in medicine. So many things that go wrong with our bodies can be corrected. God is the Cure Giver. Human beings are the care givers, and you, my brothers and sisters at New Hope, are among the best care givers on God’s earth.

Being Prepared to Die

Since our long-time friends, Bill and Mary Anne Robinson, lost their 35-year-old daughter Leslie on Sunday, September 20, I have been thinking about how we all need to be prepared to die. News about the earthquakes in Indonesia and the tsunami and quake in American Samoa has also caused me to think. We don’t know how long we will live. Death often happens suddenly. It might come very unexpectedly.

I have found help in Bread for the Journey, a book of daily readings by Father Henri Nouwen. It was published in 1997 after his unexpected death at the age of 64 in 1996.

When we think about death, we often think about what will happen to us after we have died. But it is more important to think about what will happen to those we leave behind. The way we die has a deep and lasting effect on those who stay alive. It will be easier for our family and friends to remember us with joy and peace if we have said a grateful good-bye than if we die with bitter and disillusioned hearts.

The greatest gift we can offer our families and friends is the gift of gratitude. Gratitude sets them free to continue living without bitterness or self-recrimination.

How can we be prepared to die? By not having any unfinished relational business. The question is, Have I forgiven those who have hurt me and asked forgiveness from those I have hurt? When I feel at peace with all the people who are part of my life, my death might cause great grief, but it will not cause guilt or anger.

When we are ready to die at any moment, we are also ready to live at any moment.

Our Hope for New Hope

I am going to be preaching a series of sermons that I am calling, “Our Hope for New Hope.” The introductory sermon on September 27 will look at Romans 8:28. “God works together with those who love Him to bring about what is good.” How will we grow to love God more deeply and trust God to work together with us?

The first Sunday in October we will examine the story of Jesus telling his disciples not to prevent children from coming to him. He welcomed children and said, “To such as these belongs the kingdom of God.” I want us to see how we are welcoming children here at New Hope. We need to plan how are we going to serve their parents, especially those who are open to allowing our church to help them grow in God’s love and become better parents. How can we help people to have healthier families?

On Sunday October 11 we will look at Jesus’ interaction with the “rich, young ruler” who walks away from an opportunity to follow Jesus. I want us to think about what it means to be saved and how we are going to be helping people to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. How are we going to set before people the clear choice to believe in Jesus and give themselves to following Jesus?

The next Sunday we will look at what it means to serve others here at New Hope. In what ways are we already serving? How do you find your place of service in our church? How can we help those who want to serve to find their niche? What does a serving church look like in today’s world?

The final sermon in the Hope for New Hope series on October 25 will look at what it means for us to trust God to lead us into the future. What does God have in store for New Hope in the next 10 years? How can New Hope serve families with children and pass along a healthy church to them? How are we going to make an impact for God’s love in this lively, growing community of Port Orange? We will look at the future and thank God for giving us not a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.

When you pray, ask God to help me prepare this series of sermons. Ask God to use this series to give us a vision of New Hope Baptist Church loving and serving with joy.

Fear and Respect

Norman Jameson is editor of the North Carolina Baptist Biblical Recorder. He recently wrote about the Christian responsibility to respect the president of the United States. His words have inspired me to write this note about our call to reject fear in favor of respect.

I don't normally talk about secular politics here at New Hope, because I don’t believe it is as important as our call to love one another and serve Christ in our everyday lives. But I am following the lead of a Baptist editor because in the past couple of weeks there has been some hateful talk about the president. We ought to reject it and teach our children to respect the president.

Can you remember the days when people used to say to a child, "You could grow up to be president?" Jameson says, “We all knew the president held the best interests of the nation at heart and that we, as school children, were important to the nation -- and that from our ranks would one day rise the person to take his place. “

The president’s speech to school children encouraged them to stay in school, set personal goals and make a difference in society. Conspiracy theorists took the simple -- and not unique, since two recent Republican presidents also addressed nationwide groups of schoolchildren -- fact that the president was going to speak directly to students to incite fears that he had sinister intentions.

This is not a time for fear mongering. The Bible says in 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” Love is showing respect where respect is due. It casts out the fear that always leads to disrespecting and refusing to listen. Let’s teach our children to respect those who are in authority and all people, even when we disagree with them.

I have read President Obama’s whole speech given at a back-to-school event in Arlington, VA on September 8. Here are the closing words of it.

“So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.”

In those words of encouragement there is nothing to fear and plenty to respect.

Betty Myers

Betty Myers meant so much to us, because she loved this church and she loved us individually. We have our stories.

I will miss calling Betty. Her numbers are still in my cell phone. She had a distinctive answer-ritual. She would always say in a cheery voice: “Hello.” Then, when I indentified myself, “And how are you today?” With the emphasis on the “you.” She really cared how I was that day.

When I called Betty, it was usually either about someone in the hospital or about something related to deacon ministry. Betty was a wonderful deacon. Deacon is a Greek word, best translated “servant.” And Betty was that. She was forever asking, “What can I do for you?”

Betty believed she was called to live a life of service to others because of God’s love for her. God’s love is a love that flows through us to others. Betty grew in that love all along the way, and the love flowed freely. She worked hard at everything she did, but she did it out of a fullness of God’s love, not out of an emptiness that says, “Look at what I am dong. Be sure you give me credit for all my work.” No. Betty worked from the fullness of God’s love, because she was saved by the grace and love of God.

Jesus said, “I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.”

Betty placed her faith in Jesus, not passively as if she had bought a ticket to heaven and was just waiting her turn to go there. She followed him as the Way. She learned of Jesus as the Truth. She saw that what Jesus did and what he taught us is the way to Life before you die; and it is the gift of Eternal Life. In that sense, Betty is our proof of God. We don’t have any doubts that she is there in God’s presence and that we will have eternal life if we follow the Way she followed.

Using Your Gifts to Serve the Church

On Thursday, August 13, our member Erma Dreas was recognized on radio station Z 88.3 as “Woman of the Week.” I learned about this from her daughter Michelle Mills. She asked that we place an acknowledgement of Erma’s honor in our bulletin. I replied to Michelle, “Indeed we will put this in our bulletin for this Sunday. Your mom has and exercises the spiritual gifts of helps and mercy more than anybody I know. She is a blessing to many people. Thank you for letting us celebrate this with Erma. We love her and Garfield at New Hope.”

Michelle wrote me back, “Thank you! I have to agree. She is a very special person to many. I just get to be especially blessed ‘cause I can call her mom.”

Week after week, Erma and Garfield prepare our Wednesday evening meals. They do it voluntarily and lovingly. Erma is a fine cook. Last Wednesday when Erma had to be away caring for an Alzheimer’s patient, Garfield was in the kitchen preparing the tea, coffee, and pitchers of water for our covered dish meal. We are held together and strengthened as a church by their faithful service each week. They are exercising a spiritual gift, which God gives them “for the common good”(1Corinthians 12:7). The spiritual gift they both have is the gift of “helps.” Those who have this gift see something very practical that needs to be done in the church, and they jump right in and do it.

The first place I met Erma when I came to be pastor of New Hope was in the Hospice Care Center. Later I visited in her home as she cared for two different patients who were nearing the end of their lives. She was exercising the spiritual gift the Bible calls “mercy.”

A large group of folks have used their gifts and abilities to build up this family of God. As we celebrate today, we thank God for adding brothers and sisters to His family. Thirteen years from now, there will be a 26th anniversary celebration of how God has used many people’s spiritual gifts of faith, leadership, teaching, administration, giving, encouragement, knowledge, wisdom, healing, discernment, mercy and helps to bless and strengthen New Hope Baptist Church. Let it be so.

How to Change the World

There is a story of an old man who said, "When I was young, I wanted to change the world. I found I could not do that, so I tried to change my community. I found I could not do that, so I tried to change my family. I found I could not do that, so I decided to let God change me."

The strange thing is God changed that man, and as a result, the world was changed. It became a better place.

Jesus is changing hearts today, at the price of his cross. He wants you and me to look at our own lives and tell the truth about our need to have him change us.

Like the old man in the story, our greatest temptation is to think so much about changing other people that we never think about our own need to change. I want to encourage you to look not at what you can criticize in others but at what you need to give over to God in your own life. Jesus used the image of trying to take a speck of dust out of someone’s eye while you have a huge chunk of wood over your eye. First remove the obstruction from your own eye, he said, and then you may be able to help a brother or sister who needs to change.

Tell God the truth about what needs to change in you. Jesus is changing lives today. Tell God today, even before you leave the church building, that you are ready to let him change you. Watch him make the world a better place.

The Joy of a Grandchild

This is the third year in a row that our granddaughter Madison has attended New Hope’s Vacation Bible School. Having her with us for almost two weeks has been, as her visits always are, a time of joy and learning. Forgive a grandfather’s bragging. She is interested in life in so many ways that she makes it more interesting for us. Our days and nights have been filled with the calls: “Grammy!” “Papa!” Madison takes me back to the days when our daughter was small. Sometimes I slip and call her Lydia.

We have tried to do the things that she wants to do around the house. Art is always important to her. So she took a toy guinea pig wearing a parachute that I bought her and outfitted him with a tool pack of binoculars, flashlight, pencil, and note pad which she made with paper and colored pencils. We watched lots of the Animal Planet Channel. We watched the movie “Wall E.” Madison enjoyed helping me feed the plants in the front of our house with Miracle Grow. We fed our neighbor’s pond gold fish.

The Bible says in Proverbs 17:6, “Grandchildren are the crowning glory of old men.” I thank God for my crowning glory. Fleda and I hope for the fulfillment of Proverbs 22:6 as we pray for our adult children and watch Madison and all the children in our church’s Vacation Bible School: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

The Holy Spirit Breathing in You

Don't grieve God. Don't break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don't take such a gift for granted. Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

Ephesians 4:30-5:2 Mssg

God’s Holy Spirit moving and breathing in me? How do I become aware of such a thing? How do I come to believe that the Holy Spirit is moving and breathing in me? Could the answer to those questions be in the paragraph about watching what God and then doing it – learning to imitate God as children learn proper behavior from their parents?

I would add to Paul’s analogy “and grandparents.” When our granddaughter Madison was with us week before last, she used some wrong grammar. She said something like, “Mommy and me went to the store.” Fleda said to her, “It would be Mommy and I.” I tried to explain that if you leave out the other person, you can get the correct pronoun. You would say, “I went to the store.” Not “Me went to the store.” So it is Mommy and I went to the store. Fleda who is Grammy to Madison encouraged her saying, “You will get it.” Last week Fleda talked to Madison on the phone and she said, “Mommy and I went swimming today. Did you hear that Grammy? I got it right.”

We are given an example of what it means to imitate God. “Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.” When you can forgive someone who has hurt you, you are imitating what God has done for us all.

I was talking with one of our members recently about our study of forgiveness on Wednesday nights. I had shown a brief report on the Amish story from Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. After a deranged man shot ten little girls in the head and killed five of them, the Amish community amazed the world by immediately going to his family to tell them that they did not hold a grudge against them and that they forgave the man who did the killing. As the church member and I talked, we agreed that forgiving someone whom you don’t know and don’t have to deal with anymore can be easier than forgiving someone in your family or in your church who hurts you.

When we think about how quick to forgive God has been, we stand amazed. His ability to forgive is downright startling. Last Wednesday night I asked the question, “When you think about Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who do you remember Jesus forgiving directly?” The first response was, “As he was being placed on the cross, he forgave those who were driving nails through his hands.”

Here is the amazing story. It gives us a clear image of forgiveness. We watch what God does in Jesus and then learn to do it ourselves. When the soldiers came to the place called "The Skull," they nailed Jesus to a cross. They also nailed the two criminals to crosses, one on each side of Jesus. Jesus said, "Father, forgive these people! They don't know what they're doing." While the crowd stood there watching Jesus, the soldiers gambled for his clothes. The leaders insulted him by saying, "He saved others. Now he should save himself, if he really is God's chosen Messiah!" The soldiers made fun of Jesus and brought him some wine. They said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!" Above him was a sign that said, "This is the King of the Jews."

One of the criminals hanging there also insulted Jesus by saying, "Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and save us!" But the other criminal told the first one off, "Don't you fear God? Aren't you getting the same punishment as this man? We got what was coming to us, but he didn't do anything wrong." Then he said to Jesus, "Remember me when you come into power!"

Jesus replied, "I promise that today you will be with me in paradise."

Look what an awesome display of forgiveness Jesus makes. First the very people who nail him to the cross are the ones he forgives. They don’t appreciate what he has done. In fact, they throw dice to see who will get his clothes. They poke fun at him and respond to his forgiveness with nothing but contempt as they toast him with sour wine. One of the criminals joins in the mocking, but the other criminal shows openness to who Jesus really is and says to him, “Remember me when you come into power.” Jesus responds immediately to his openness and says, “Don’t worry. I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”

I think of the hymn we used to sing a lot in the church of my childhood: “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be, How marvelous! How wonderful is my savior’s love for me.”

How is it that God’s Holy Spirit can be breathing in you? It happens as you learn to be like God and forgive those who hurt you. Didn’t we pray it again this morning? “Forgive us for our sins, just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.”

Who has sinned against you? Who do you need to forgive?

When you are dealing with somebody close to you, you have to let go of your desire to hit back,

to let go of thoughts of revenge

to release your anger.

It is like getting the poison out of your system instead of letting it continue to flow through your veins until, like snake venom, it kills you. Forgiveness is healing the hurt that you don’t deserve. You may have convinced yourself that you have some control over the one who has offended you if you don’t forgive and just keep on holding the grudge, keep on thinking about what a terrible thing she has done. You have to give up your desire to have control and give control over to God. It is not easy. That is why you need the Holy Spirit breathing in you, giving you the energy it takes to do what God does.

Here is one implication I see in this passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Christians: When you let the Holy Spirit move and breathe in you, God loves it. When you don’t, you grieve the Holy Spirit. Or to put it another way, God feels sad when you don’t let the Holy Spirit work through you as you imitate God, learn from God, and let God’s love flow through you.

So how do we make the Spirit happy? How do we not grieve the Holy Spirit? Look at the things we are called on to do in this part of the letter. We are to recognize that we are a community and celebrate our love for each other. There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian. I don’t stand alone. You don’t’ stand alone. We need each other. Look at the things we are asked to do for each other.

· Tell your neighbor the truth. Why? Because “in Christ's body we're all connected to each other. . .. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.

· Don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

· Get an honest job so that you can help others who can't work.

· Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth, but say what people need, words that will help others to become stronger.

· Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.

Look at that list. What is it all about? What is the reason

for telling the truth,

for not staying angry,

for helping those who can’t work,

for watching the way you talk and saying only words that will build people up,

for being kind and loving to each other?

It is all for the sake of building up the church. It is all for the sake of staying connected to each other in Christ’s body.

What the church is about is learning to love the way God loves us. Here is the way Paul says it.

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”

That is why we are here in this church. That is why you and I are here in this world. We are learning to love like God loves: not cautious but extravagant, not in order to get something for himself from us. Christ loved us in order to give everything of himself to us. That is the way we are learning to love.

Greg Baer writes, “This era in which we live has been called the Information Age, and certainly we are swimming in knowledge. Surrounded by computers, books, telephones, satellites, faxes, and television, we can learn almost anything while sitting in the comfort of our homes. In an instant, we can see the latest transactions of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, learn how to cure a myriad of diseases, or track the current migration of humpback whales.

But with this ocean of knowledge, are we genuinely happier? Ten to twenty percent of us are addicted to alcohol or drugs. We greedily pursue the pleasures of money, power, and sex. More than half our marriages end in divorce. Staggering numbers of our children feel unloved and alone. Clearly, something is missing.

Greg Baer is a counselor who has talked to many people about their need for unconditional love. One of these people was Matt, sixteen years old. He was a bright child whose behavior was utterly baffling his parents and teachers. He was rebellious and angry. He acted out in many ways that were socially unacceptable. He was often withdrawn and moody.

He spoke with Matt and was impressed with his intellectual tools and skills. He’d read a great deal and surfed the Net to acquire a broad scope of knowledge about many things. After a short time together, Greg took his face in my hands and asked him a question: “Who loves you without any conditions? Who accepts you completely no matter what mistakes you make? Who cares that you’re happy?”

This child dissolved in tears. No one had ever shown him that kind of concern. Instead they expected things from him, pushed him, and were disappointed in him when he made mistakes. Despite his wealth of knowledge, he didn’t feel loved and certainly didn’t know how to love others. He was a frightened and lost little boy who was acting out only to gain some feeling of power and place in the world.

Children and adults sit in front of their computers and televisions for staggering numbers of hours in a day. Exposure to all that information and entertainment, however, is worthless if we’re not happy, which comes from feeling loved and from loving each other.

Information itself isn’t bad, but we get distracted by it. The more we know, the easier it is to convince ourselves that we’re accomplishing something when we’re not really going anywhere that matters. Without receiving and giving unconditional love like God, the world is a dark place, no matter how much information we have.

I’ve stood at the bedside of many people as they approached the end of their lives. I don’t recall a single one of them wishing they’d spent more time on the Internet, or made more money. The only thing that matters to them is the people who love them and the people they love.

Our children and grandchildren, more that anything else, need our love. The time and acceptance we give them are much more important than computers and job skills. No amount of knowledge and power will give us the joy and peace God wants for us if we’re not loved and don’t know how to love others.

God is offering us the opportunity right here at New Hope, right within your life and mine to begin the process of finding love and learning how to share it with others. Then we can know that Holy Spirit breathing in us.

Being a Faithful Church

Our church is growing. I am grateful for those who are deciding to join us, to be baptized, to serve God alongside us. I find myself asking God what we are to do to be a faithful church for those who are becoming part of our family. These are some answers I think I hear God giving us.

We are to be the family of God. This means we focus our thinking and our actions on the relationships we are building. We want our church to be a family in which there is love that comes through knowing each other, accepting each other, and celebrating each other’s gifts and abilities.

We are to be grateful for the spiritual gifts God is bringing to New Hope. In the Bible are these words in Romans 12: “God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.” God is surely sending among us followers of Christ who have these gifts. Notice the list and think with me about how we can encourage all of our members to use their gifts to build up our church: prophesy (speaking out), encouraging others, giving, leadership, and showing kindness. God wants us to help our members to discover their gifts and put them to use.

We are to know the whole truth and teach it love. Being there for people when they are going through difficult times is part of what God wants us to do. He also gives us a harder assignment. We are to teach people to obey the hard truths that Jesus gave us: “You cannot serve God and wealth.” “Your life does not consist of the abundance of things you own.” “Looking at the opposite sex with lust is adultery.” “Anger can be destructive; it is your responsibility to learn to resolve your anger quickly.” “Be honest and direct in your commitments to others.” “Forgive those who sin against you, otherwise God will not forgive you.” “Love your enemies.” “Don’t seek revenge.” “Put God’s work first and do what he wants.” All of these hard teachings are in The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and they are the path of life, the path Jesus places in front of us.

In God’s family we call New Hope Baptist Church we teach that the way to love God is to obey God. Nothing in the world is more important than loving God and letting God’s love flow through us to others.

Growth and Unity in Serving Christ

It was a good week. At our fourth annual Vacation Bible School, attendance was around 20. I enjoyed seeing some adults and youth working with children this year for the first time at New Hope, namely, Beth Gibbons, David Gibbons, Mike Wright, Nell Vandiver, Aloma Briggs, Elaine Hardy, Joanne Kirk, Sam Senatro, Kaytee Williams, and Toren Ford-Jones. Several children participated who were new to our VBS.

My prayer is that their experiences with us helped them to know how much God loves them.

This is the fourth year in a row that Leesa Holloway has taken on the important task of organizing and directing our VBS. We thank Leesa and all the workers she recruited.

I spoke with Dr. Doran McCarty the other evening. Dr. McCarty was my immediate predecessor as pastor of New Hope. I invited him to come and be our speaker for our 13^th anniversary celebration on Sunday, August 16, at 5:30. He graciously accepted. I am very thankful, and we all are fortunate. In that same conversation, I told him that we were holding our fourth VBS. I knew this would be good news to him since the first one was under his leadership as pastor in the summer of 2005. As I expected, Dr. McCarty celebrated with me. Together we expressed our admiration for the people of this church family and our gratitude that God is granting New Hope growth and unity in serving Christ.

I Love to Baptize People

We baptized Ruthann Nearons in her own swimming pool on Sunday afternoon, July 12. She and her husband, Pen, made it like a party by serving us hotdogs and hamburgers afterwards around the pool. Baptism is a celebration of a new life. Baptism means a lot to us Baptists.

We baptize those who are mature enough to think clearly about choosing to give their lives to following Jesus. We baptize believers in Christ as a way of symbolizing that they are making a personal choice to trust Jesus to save them and giving themselves to following him. We baptize by immersion under water because Jesus was baptized that way, because every baptism in the Bible is by immersion, and because it is a great way to act out the meaning of salvation. Romans 6:4-5 describes it this way:

Don't you know that all who share in Christ Jesus by being baptized also share in his death? When we were baptized, we died and were buried with Christ. We were baptized, so that we would live a new life, as Christ was raised to life by the glory of God the Father. If we shared in Jesus' death by being baptized, we will be raised to life with him.

When we go under the water, we die with Christ. When we come up out of the water, we are raised from death to our old life in order to live a new life with him. This is where we express our faith in Jesus not only as the one who will give life to us after we die, but also as the one who will give us life while we live. He will give us the power to change and live a new life.

What does this new life look like? Paul describes it when he lists the fruit of the Spirit of Christ in Galatians 5. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

I love to baptize people, because when we baptize them we are helping them to say, “I am giving my whole life to Jesus Christ. I’m changing. I’m growing. I am becoming a person more and more capable of having and passing along to others love, joy, and peace. I’m going to live that way in this life and the next.”

I also love to baptize people because dipping people under water is, quite frankly, a lot of fun.

What Teenagers Need from Us

I write as I am preparing to go to our retreat for our youth at Epworth By The Sea on St. Simon’s Island, GA. My prayer for this time with 8 youngsters who have been attending our Wednesday night youth meetings is that the Bible study, the fellowship, and the fun will convince them of God’s love and purpose for their lives.

I have been asked to teach them about the spiritual armor Paul talked about in Ephesians chapter 6. He says that we are in a fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. We are up against far more than we can handle on our own. This is the way the Message translation puts his instructions that I want to communicate to our youth. “Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.”

I have had many conversations over the years with parents about the struggles their teenage children were going through: feeling uncertain of their worth, engaging in risky behavior, experimenting with alcohol. Our church wants to help teenagers to defend themselves against the Devil’s campaign to destroy them. They need the love of Christ from us. They need to believe deeply that God loves them and has a purpose for their lives. They need us to teach them how to love others. They need us to teach them by our example and our words how to live responsible lives.

Blessings at New Hope

I meet every Thursday morning with a group of pastors. It is our tradition to talk to each other about “burdens and blessings” and then close with a prayer for each other. Last Thursday, I talked about how grateful I am for the blessings of faithful servant leaders. Thinking about church members serving our church faithfully gives me encouragement. I will list a few. This is not an exhaustive list, because there is not room to list them all, and because New Hope members are out there being faithful in ways that I cannot see. But here is my limited list.

Erma and Garfield Dreas are preparing our Wednesday evening meals with such good care.

Elaine Hardy is keeping our bulletin board up to date, keeping our book corner supplied, editing our newsletter, “Connections,” and helping us to get committed to Bible study.

Bill Batchelor is chairing our church council with attention to the details of typing up the agenda for the meetings, setting dates for the church to receive reports and recommendations, and making sure that all appropriate concerns are given time to be heard at the meetings.

Betty Myers is chairing our deacons with attention to how our members and friends are being called or visited by their deacons so that we are constantly strengthening the ties of caring that bind us together.

Leesa Holloway is leading Vacation Bible School workers to get ready to teach and love children when they come to us in a couple of weeks.

Our staff is steadily serving: Dennis Bucher in worship planning, worship leadership, and solo singing; Armand Melnbardis in providing accompaniment and beautiful instrumental music for worship; Cheryl Secunda is preparing the next event to teach and love children and youth, drawing them in with her caring and constancy; Vernon Buchanan is cleaning, arranging, repairing, and improving our buildings and grounds.

These folks are representative of the self-giving that makes our church go. I am grateful to God for New Hope. I am going to close by borrowing and adapting Paul’s words in Romans 1:8, “I thank God in the name of Jesus Christ for all of you. I do this because people (all around the Port Orange area) are talking about your faith.”

Being the Family of God

The Lord’s Supper reminds us that we are the family of God. When we come together around the Lord’s Supper, we draw closer to each other, because we know that what God has done for all of us. We owe it to God to be a healthy family.

We know that on the night that he was betrayed into the hands of those who would kill him, “Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples.” In John’s Gospel he had already told them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” He was telling them and us, “You will find love, strength, and fulfillment in your relationship with me and with each other.” We symbolize our relationship with God and with each other by serving each other the bread. Jesus feeds us all and brings us together.

“He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’” The cup of grape juice is the color of blood, which is life. It draws us into communion with Jesus who gave his life for us. We are his people. He loved us enough to give his life for us. “This is how we know what love is,” wrote John, “Jesus Christ laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for each other” (1 John 3:16).

The covenant in the blood of Jesus brings about a relationship between God and us. We fulfill the covenant from our side by accepting his love for us and loving him back by doing what he tells us to do.

This is the day after the Fourth of July. As we thank God for the freedoms we have in America, let’s commit ourselves to leading people to turn to God as we know him in Jesus, and to turn away from the false gods of pleasure, power, fame, and selfishness. The sins committed in worshiping those false gods are destroying our country. We can best serve America by being a healthy church full of people who love and obey the true and living God and lead by example.

Fleeing toward Freedom

As we celebrate The Fourth of July, we celebrate the great gift of freedom. News reports of the crushing of protests against the outcome of the presidential election in Iran show us what a nation without freedom looks like.  There is death on the streets as the Iranian government uses violence to intimidate its people – no freedom of assembly, no freedom of speech, no freedom of the press.

Here is what Dr. Walter Shurden writes about the human desire for freedom.

“A casual reading of any kind of history – political, financial, religious – affirms the truth that humans constantly flee toward freedom.

Let Kings, congresses, and governments of any kind and of all kinds pass restrictive laws and watch its citizens flee toward freedom.  The settling of America, for example .

. .. Tie down the human soul to binding creeds, authoritative holy men, or repressive ecclesiastical establishments, and watch the soul flee toward freedom. Roger Williams’ flight from Massachusetts for Rhode Island, for example.

Deprive growling stomachs and thwart hope for one’s children and watch the flight toward economic freedom. The southern borders of the United States today, for example . . .. 

A sub-text, if not a major theme, of the Bible is the flight toward freedom. Exodus! Return from exile! The Prodigal eyes home!

I know! I know! Freedom has to be used responsibly. But that is another sermon for another day. For today, let’s celebrate freedom.”

As we celebrate the freedom we have in America this 4^th, we ask God to show us how to stand for freedom.  God grant that freedom may win out where humans flee toward it, especially in Iran.

What God Has Enabled Us to Accomplish

Sometimes it is good to stop and take a look back at what we have been able to accomplish together.  Look at some things God has allowed us to do in the last few years.

• Refurbished the A-frame so that we could use it for children and youth ministry
  
• Added eleven new members by baptism in the last two and a half years and 18 other new members by statement of faith or transfer
  
• Added handicapped parking spaces behind the sanctuary 
  
• Called a part-time director of children and youth ministry
  
• Added to our staff a part-time caretaker of our buildings and grounds
  
• Maintained a booth at Port Orange Family Days for the last three years
  
• Hosted an American Cancer Society Relay for Life in May
  
• Provided Vacation Bible School each summer since 2006
  
• Children’s activities every Saturday morning, Wednesday night, and Children’s Church on Sunday morning 
  
• Our youth group meets every Wednesday night and will be going on a retreat to St. Simon’s Island in July 
  
• Sponsor a Cub Scout Pack
  
• Celebrate residents’ birthdays at a local assisted living facility each month 
  
• Benevolence Committee oversees an active program to help people in need
  

By working together, using the gifts and abilities God has placed in us, and contributing our money, we have made great progress toward becoming the church God wants New Hope to be.  Fleda and I are thankful to be part of such a loving, serving church family.

                                                            

Aren’t They All Our Children?

Jim Wallis, in WHO SPEAKS FOR GOD tells about a sad and terrifying incident that occurred during the tragic war in Sarajevo not too many years back. A reporter who was covering the violence in the middle of the city saw a little girl fatally shot by a sniper. The reporter threw down his pad and pencil and rushed to the aid of a man who was now holding the child. He helped them both into his car and sped off to a hospital.

"Hurry, my friend," the man urged, “My child is still alive.” A moment or two later he pleaded, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing." A little later he said, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still warm."

When they got to the hospital, the young girl was gone. Then the reporter learned that she was not the daughter of the distraught man.  Amazed, he looked at the grieving man and said, "I thought she was YOUR child."

The man replied, "No, but aren't they all our children?"

Steven J. Goodier tells this story and then says, “I think that is one of the great questions of our age. Aren’t they all our children? It is a question that deserves an answer.

“Aren't they all our children? Those on our side of the border as well as those on the other side? Those of our nation no more or less than those of another?  Aren’t they all our children? Those who worship like us and those who worship differently? Those who look like us and those who do not? Aren’t they all our children?  The well-fed and the under-fed? Those who are secure and those who are at risk?

“Aren’t they all our children? Aren’t they all our responsibility? Ours to nurture? Ours to protect? Ours to love? Aren’t they all our children? If we say yes, can we ever again pit them against each other?”

 "If we have no peace," said Mother Teresa, "it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and don’t keep them away.  To such children belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

The Judgment Seat of Christ

I came to Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5 expecting to find assurance about life after death. The assurance is there, but something else comes into the picture that I had not expected, namely, judgment. Paul says that while we are at home in our bodies, we are away from the Lord and that he would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. But the point of living and dying, he says, is not to be either in the body or home with the Lord. The point is to please the Lord. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive what is due them for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2Corinthians 5:10). The term “judgment seat” sounds more than a little foreboding. Who wants to be judged?

Well, there is something comforting about knowing we will face judgment if you look at this life as the time for sowing what we will reap. This life takes on meaning from knowing that it has eternal significance. Henri Nouwen wrote this about the meaning of life.

“Our short lives on earth are sowing times. If there were not resurrection of the dead, everything we live on earth would come to nothing. How can we believe in a God who loves us unconditionally if all the joys and pains of our lives are in vain, vanishing in the earth with our flesh and bones? Because God loves us unconditionally from eternity to eternity, God cannot allow our bodies – the same as that in which Jesus, his Son and our savior, appeared to us – to be lost in final destruction.

“No, life on earth is the time when the seeds of the risen body are planted. . . . This wonderful knowledge that nothing we live in our bodies is lived in vain holds a call for us to live every moment as a seed of eternity.”

We will face judgment after we die, and that is a good thing. We will receive what is due us for the things we have done while in the body in this life. God wants to give us good things. "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived— these things God has prepared for those who love him" (1Corinthians 2:9).

“Nothing we live in our bodies is lived in vain” if we are living it to love God. I want to be ready for my appearance before the judgment seat of Christ. How about you? Are you ready? How are you living your love for God?

Bible Study and New Hope 101

Sunday, May 31 was a good day for me because of our worship, our Bible Study assembly, and New Hope 101.

It was good to have our Bible Study Director Ruth Bradley gather some of us in the sanctuary for “Dive into Bible Study.” Under Director Ruth we got a broad overview of our Bible teaching program here at New Hope.
We have three adult Sunday morning classes taught by Ruth Bradley, Mel Lyons, and me. Vernon Buchanan is the assistant teacher in our one-book-of-the-Bible-at-a-time-class. The classes taught by Ruth and Mel use Smyth and Helwys material to give them guidance each week. We also have one Tuesday evening group meeting at Royal Palm Club House studying the Bible teachings of John Ortberg led by Boyd Frank. Youth and Children’s Bible study is taking place mostly on Wednesday nights with Leesa Holloway teaching the children and Cheryl Secunda teaching the youth. In addition, Evan Young and Leesa Holloway make youth and children’s Bible study available on Sunday mornings and Cheryl teaches children on Saturday mornings.

New Hope 101 met at 5pm and was attended by 12 people. Four were church members giving support and learning what I am teaching to define our church and our place among Baptists and other denominations. Five were very new to our church and used 101 as an opportunity to learn more about us. David and Beth Gibbons and Ruth Nearon had been attending and decided to sign the membership covenant and join New Hope. Here are the four promises of our membership covenant.

1. I will protect the unity of my church by acting in love toward other members, refusing to gossip, and following the leaders.
2. I will share the responsibility of my church by praying for its growth, building relationships with unbelievers and inviting them to attend, and warmly welcoming those who visit.
3. I will serve the ministry of my church by discovering my gifts, being equipped to serve by my pastors, and developing a servant’s heart.
4. I will support the testimony of my church by living a godly life, attending faithfully, and giving regularly and proportionately of my income.

Honor God with Your Strength

In Isaiah 6, the prophet sees God as the King, high on his throne. Isaiah feels his unworthiness before a holy God and confesses it. Then he is forgiven, and God says, “Whom shall I send?” Without hesitating, Isaiah responds, “I’ll go. Send me!” This story tells me that God wants to use you and me to serve his purposes in the world.

One of my favorite movies is “Chariots of Fire.” It is the true story of two British track athletes competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics. One is a devout Scottish missionary who runs for God. Eric Liddle, is from a Christian family devoted to their mission in China. Eric’s sister fears that his career as a runner will take him off the path of serving God. He tells her that before he goes back to China he is going to devote himself to Olympic running. She will have to manage the mission in China without him for a while. What he says to her is a classic statement about using your God-given ability to serve him with joy. “I believe that God made me for a purpose, for China. But he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. To give that up would be to hold him in contempt . . .. To win is to honor him.”

You and I have your own abilities, our opportunities to honor God. What ability is God calling you to use? Here is what I want you to do that will help you think about God’s call to you. Use Eric Liddle’s statement. Fill in the blanks. “God made me _________________________________, and when I _____________________________________, I feel his pleasure.”
For instance I answer, “God made me ___a caring listener__ and when I ___care about people___, I feel his pleasure.” A long time ago, I prayed that God would make me the best pastor I can be. I want to honor God by listening to and caring for people every chance I get.

Let’s look for God in our own experiences, give our entire attention to what God is doing right now in our lives. Let’s hear God’s call and respond using our best abilities to honor God.

Power from the Holy Spirit

Pentecost is the day the followers of Jesus were praying in Jerusalem and were filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem and said, “John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…. You will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” (Acts 1:5,6)

I want us to think together about what the Holy Spirit is giving us today. What power will the Spirit give you this week? What power will the Holy Spirit give us, New Hope Baptist Church?

First, the Holy Spirit will give us power to obey what Jesus told us to do.
“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)

Second, the Holy Spirit will give us God’s presence and comfort.
“But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:6-7)

Third, the Holy Spirit will give us power to speak the languages of those we are trying to reach and will enable us to be God’s family.
“And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” (Acts 2:6)
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1Corinthians 3:16)
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:44-47)