"SPIRITUAL MENTORING"

John 16:12-15

Sermon idea: Our spiritual growth depends on our mentoring relationship with God's Spirit.

Introduction: While I realize that the idea of mentoring is a new buzzword of the 90's it, nevertheless, is a valid concept for developing our potential at any age of our life. A mentor is someone who is themselves serving, giving, encouraging and skilled enough in life to help another person discover their potential of similar skills, abilities or attitudes. This has become especially effective in working with troubled children or teens. A Temple University study in 1996 of high risk middle school children in Philadelphia who had participated in being mentored by a positive adult mentor 65 years or older exhibited: less negative disrupted classroom behavior, better school attendance, improved relationships with adults and peers and positive changes in their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors concerning substance use and related life skills (National Mentoring Partnership).

Another study done by a Christian mentoring ministry called Kids Hope USA has found that one-on-one mentoring programs which focus on at-risk children help keep these kids from sliding into destructive behavior. Children who spend one hour a week with a mentor are much less likely to get pregnant, join a gang, drop out of school, or go to jail. The love and affirmation that a mature mentor provides can make a life-changing difference in the life of a child. Most of those served by Kids Hope are from single-parent homes and often come home to an empty house every day. Just one hour of involvement with a mentor each week exposes them to love and acceptance they've never before experienced.

The power and positive influence, especially spiritual influence of one other person cannot be underestimated. Does having a spiritual mentor make a difference? Does having a man or woman come alongside of you in life who will keep you growing, learning and focusing on your life goals help you grow as a Christian? Absolutely yes!

When I began my sophomore year as a student at OBU I was mentored by a person who is still today my best friend, Mark Baber. Baber had just gotten out of the Navy in May of 1972. He had become a Christian on board his ship about one year before. He decided to go to OBU and through a friend we decided to room together. Mark made me become a disciple. I was a believer who was alive with zeal but had no direction. He made me turn off the radio and TV, get up at 6:00 a.m. to read the Bible–even on Saturday ("God doesn't take a day off"), memorize Scripture, go to church, witness for Christ and seek to be wholly devoted to Jesus Christ. I can say that today other than my Lord, parents and my wife if there is anything of Jesus in me it began with my mentor, Mark Baber.

We can have mentors in all levels of our life. Yet is there available to all Christians someone who can mentor them to develop in them the maturity as a Christian they want and need? The answer is yes, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. In the verses we look at this morning Jesus further describes to the disciples the role that the Holy Spirit will play in His absence. He assured them that they would not be alone, but that the Spirit would come and guide them because He could no longer be with them.

If you are a Christian, then today you have that same Spirit with you. Holy Spirit is not an "it," but a person with knowledge, a will, a mind and emotions or affections. He can be lied to, resisted, insulted and grieved. He is not the "Force" of Star Wars, Popeye's spinach or New Age Karma. He is God within you to help you all of your life. From the moment you became a Christian until the day you enter heaven, Holy Spirit is with you and in you to help you or to mentor you to become all that God wants you to become.

What I want us to see today is that our spiritual growth depends on the depth of our mentoring relationship with God's Spirit. Christians can be "at risk" for failure. Today we will discover that being mentored by God's Spirit requires a teachable attitude, a desire to listen and results in our experiencing more of the greatness of Jesus.

I. Being mentored spiritually requires a willingness to be taught by the Holy Spirit. (vv. 12-13)

Jesus said in verse 12 that there was more he wanted to teach the disciples but they couldn't "bear" it now. What he was saying was that in one definite way they had all they could handle in what he had shown them in his three years with them. There was more but it wouldn't do them any good because it would be too much for their minds. But when the Spirit comes, " He will be your guide into all the truth.". The Spirit will be to you, he says, as one to instruct you, lead you and direct you into understanding what you can't understand now. Jesus doesn't mean that Holy Spirit will instruct you about everything that is true (astrophysics, chemistry, etc.) but everything that is true about Him!

What these words mean to me is that before I can learn anything from the instruction of the Spirit I must be willing to be taught.

Last weekend I worked a shift at the Trout Tank at the Rotary Club Sports Show sponsored by the Jonesboro Rotary Club held at the ASU Convocation Center. The Trout Tank is a long tank filled with water and about 1000 trout of various sizes. It was fun to watch the children who had never fished before do it for the first time. Most of them were willing to let an adult help them but some had to do it "myself." So they would try and then the frustration would be too much and a grown up would step up and help. When they were willing to be taught they were then able to learn.

Too many of us are like stubborn spiritual children. We can get an "attitude." We think we can do it ourselves, that we've basically "got this Christian thing down" and will do alright. We don't need to be taught until we discover, like a child at the Trout Tank–we paid our money, we're at the tank, we're throwing in the bait but nothing is happening. We can give our money, show up at church, and open up our Bible and come away with nothing. Finally, we look up at God and say, "I'm ready to learn." Then He says, "I'm ready to show you." Suddenly what was meaningless becomes the source of all meaning. What didn't touch you now transforms you. What seemed dead is flowing with life. Is the Bible different? Is the music different? Is the sermon better? Is the Sunday School teacher more profound? Are my prayers more beautiful? No, it's just that I'm willing to be taught by the One who is to be my spiritual mentor. Spiritual mentoring begins with a willingness to be taught by God's Spirit.

II. Being mentored spiritually involves a desire to listen to what the Spirit is saying. (v. 13)

Jesus expands on the guiding role that Holy Spirit will play in their lives. He moves from seeing the Spirit as a guide to understanding the Spirit as speaking to us. He says that He will not be creating a new source of information but whatever He hears God say that is what He will say. He will tell you, Jesus says, about "what is to come". This is not in the sense of the Second Coming but defining what it means to live as a Christian.

What Jesus is saying to us is to realize, recognize and remember that God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is speaking to us. He uses the Bible, prayer, the church, other Christians and circumstances to speak to our lives about what being and living as a Christian means. The problem is we are not listening. It's not that we can't hear spiritually, it's that we've become deaf to His voice in our heart.

One of the problems of my generation as we get older is that we are paying a price for the way we listened in the past. People in their 40's and 50's who grew up hearing "turn that stereo down" now have to turn it up to hear the words. Because of the noise we grew up with it has caused hearing loss that can't be recovered. In fact an entire profession has resulted from my generation who listened to their music too loud, they're called "recreational audiologists." A 50 year old man, for instance, finally admitted his problem when a fire broke out in his office, the alarm went off and he couldn't hear it.

The volume of the sounds of the world deafens our ability to listen to God's voice. God's Spirit is continually seeking to get us to listen to His voice, God's voice. The problem is our lives are so filled with noise we can't hear. Admittedly, the filling of our lives with actual noise (recorded music, TV, movies, video, cars…) can distract us. Also, the filling of our hearts with the "white noise" of stress, anxiety, worry, activity all dull our ability to hear. Somewhere you have must unplug from actual noise as well as emotional noise. You may need to go get in the car at lunch, or get up earlier, or go walk around the block to get "unplugged." The bottom line is being mentored spiritually involves a desire to listen to what the Spirit is saying.

III. Being mentored spiritually results in our experiencing more of the greatness of Jesus. (v. 14-15)

As impossible as it may sound the result of the Holy Spirit's ministry in the lives of these disciples was to enlarge the awareness of the greatness of Jesus. The Spirit would continually seek to find ways to convey more and more knowledge about Jesus to the disciples. He would "disclose" to them more about His coming as a human, His rising from the dead and His coming again. He would magnify the person of Jesus making God a reality to people.

The principle of how the Holy Spirit enlarges the awareness of the greatness of Jesus by conveying truth about him is seen in other areas as well. Recently on National Public Radio I listened to a National Geographic Radio Expedition about Sir Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton was a British explorer of Antarctica in the early part of this century. In 1914, after reaching the South Pole in 1908, he led an expedition to cross the continent from one side to the other. His expedition ship "The Endurance" was adrift for ten months before it was crushed by an ice pack. The 28 men then camped on an ice flow that drifted for 457 days. They then made it to another small island. Shackleton knew that there was a whaling station 800 miles away that might rescue them. He and a small crew sailed the distance, facing hurricane force winds and ice 15 inches thick on the boat. They reached the whaling station and returned to his crew five months later. Not one single person was lost.

When I heard that I was amazed at the greatness of this person. It made me want to know more. What I knew caused me to realize just how significant they really were. The more we learn about Jesus from the Holy Spirit teaching us the more we understand the greatness of Jesus. It's as if we can't have enough. Paul would write in Ephesians 3:14-21: "When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen."

We, like Paul, when we think of the greatness of Jesus and how little we know, discover just how much we need the Spirit's instruction. When he shows us one thing it's only a reminder of the more and more there is to knowing Him. Being mentored spiritually just creates an awareness of the true infinite greatness of Jesus.

Conclusion: Max Lucado describes the relationship we as Christians sometimes have with the Holy Spirit. "Let's imagine that you want to learn to dance. Being the rational, cerebral person you are, you go to a bookstore and buy a book on dancing. After all, a book helped you learn to program a computer, and a book taught you accounting–surely a book can teach you how to shuffle your feet.

"You take the book home and get to work. You do everything it says. The book says sway; you sway. The book says shuffle; you shuffle. The book says spin; you spin. You even cut out paper shoe patterns and place them around the living-room floor so you'll know where to step.

"Finally, you think you've got it, and you invite your wife to come in and watch. You hold the book open and follow the instructions step by step. You even read the words aloud so she'll know that you've done your homework. 'Lean with your right shoulder,' and so you lean. 'Now step with your right foot,' and so you step. 'Turn slowly to the left,' and so you do.

"You continue to read, then dance, read, then dance, until the dance is completed. You plop exhausted on the couch, look at your wife, and proclaim, 'I executed it perfectly.'

"'You executed it, all right,' she sighs. 'You killed it.'

"'What?'

"'You forgot the most important part. Where is the music?'

"Music?

"You never thought about music. You remembered the book. You learned the rules. You laid out the pattern. But you forgot the music.

"'Do it again,' she says, putting in a CD. 'This time don't worry about the steps, just follow the music.'

"She extends her hand and the music begins. The next thing you know, you are dancing–and you don't even have the book.

"We Christians are prone to follow the book while ignoring the music. We master the doctrine, outline the chapters, memorize the dispensations, debate the rules, and stiffly step down the dance floor of life with no music in our hearts. We measure each step, calibrate each turn, and flop into bed each night exhausted from another day of dancing by the book. Dancing with no music is tough stuff."

Trying to grow up as a Christian without being mentored by the Holy Spirit is like dancing with no music. You are going through the motions but you're getting nowhere. He's the music. Isn't it time you willingly admitted you need to be taught, listen to His voice and then as you grow you discover more and more the greatness of Jesus? Is it time for you to go one on one with your spiritual mentor? He's inviting you to dance and God is playing the music.

Sunday, February 14, 1999

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org