Sermon Idea: God's Spirit causes everyone to ask how to be acceptable to God.

Introduction: When you begin to think about what we as humans know or understand about the world in which we live it is obvious that we know quite a lot. For instance NASA is launching a satellite that will gather information from the tail of a comet. What is remarkable is that it will use for it's propulsion the gravitational fields of the planets in our solar system. Further, it's course is so exactly determined that NASA scientists have planned the exact spot, date and time for it's return in the year 2006.That is an amazing ability. (They probably still get their kids to set the clock on their VCR but…)

Yet there are some things we as humans don't know. Stephen Hawking in his book A Brief History of Time explains in his conclusion that scientists can explain the way the universe works, they just don't know why it exists. He says, "If we find the answer to that, it would be the triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God." There are some mysteries that the minds of people will never understand.

As believers we are confronted like Job with things our minds can't understand. We wonder why the innocent suffer, why evil people prosper, why justice escapes those who deserve it? Like the song from the '60's says, "How people can be so heartless? How can people be so cruel?" Those are questions we ask God that we have to accept that we will not know the answer. There are some things God just doesn't tell us.

Are there things though that God does tell everyone? The answer is yes. There are certain realities that God wants everyone to know. Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, tells his disciples that in his absence that God's Spirit would be to them everything he had been and more. While he was going to return to heaven after he was resurrected and would no longer be with them, God's Spirit would be with them in ways he could not be. The "Helper", as Jesus called him, would come to them after he left. Yet he would not only come to them but he would convey to the world the reality of God and God's presence in the world. God's Spirit would cause the world to ask, " How can I be acceptable to God?" What I want us to see today is that there are three things God tells everyone. He tells everyone that he exists, that everyone needs his acceptance and that we as believers are to tell everyone how they can be accepted.

I. God's Spirit lets everyone know personally that God is. (Jn.16: 7-8)

7"But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment;

Jesus said that the Helper would "convict the world". That statement is very important because it describes another role of God's Spirit. Jesus has used the word "Helper" over and over to define the role of God's Spirit. That word is a very relational word meaning "Advocate". It's the way we would think of someone who would serve as our attorney in a legal matter. They represent us or defend us. Charles Ruff and David Kendall are the president's attorneys representing him before the Senate in the impeachment trial. They are his advocates, his defenders. That's the way Jesus has referred to God's Spirit. God's Spirit, whom we call the Holy Spirit, helps Christians in their relationship with God. He is our helper and the one who stands beside us to aid us as we seek to serve God.

Now though he uses another term to describe the Spirit and his role. He say's he "convicts he world". That is the word for a prosecutor or cross-examiner in a legal proceeding seeking to confront or prove the truth of something. It's as if the president's defenders took on the role of a Kenneth Starr as the president's accuser of impeachable offenses. What Jesus says is that the Holy Spirit works to convince the world of the reality of certain truths. One of those is that God is.

You see within human beings is an innate awareness that there is someone or something outside of themselves. That they are more than mere products of biological reproduction and genetic selection. Now that does not mean that all people understand God as you and I understand God to be as revealed in Jesus but that within people there is an idea that they are not alone. A member of a tribe in the Amazon rain forest has a concept that they are not alone as well as a Hollywood star on Oprah who talks about their spirituality. Even avowed atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair kept a Bible that had been given to her in 1968 by a group of schoolgirls from a Baptist church in Tulsa. Why? Was she like W.C. Fields who was found reading a Bible in his dressing room and replied, "I'm just looking for loopholes." Or could it be that even this one who took the time to mark out "In God We Trust" from dollar bills somehow wondered in those quiet lonely moments if there was not someone out there in whom she could trust?

God lets us know he is there in nature. The Psalmist said, "The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship."(Psalm 19 :1 NLT)

He lets us know he is there within our conscience and in principles of morality. Paul said, " Even when Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they show that in their hearts they know right from wrong. 15They demonstrate that God's law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right."(Rom.2:14-15)

He ultimately lets us know he is there in the person of Jesus Christ. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews said, " Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he made the universe and everything in it."(Heb.1:1-2)

Jesus said that there is an awareness that Holy Spirit gives to people that they are not alone. That beyond themselves there is someone or something bigger than themselves. That someone is God.

II. God's Spirit lets everyone know they are personally responsible to God. (Jn.16: 8-9)

And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; 9concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; 11and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

It is one thing to be aware that there God is , it is another issue to understand how that God can have a relationship with me as a human. Jesus tells the disciples and us that the Spirit of God creates an awareness that not only does God exist but that each of us have a personal responsibility to God about our behavior. Jesus said that the criteria for evaluation rests in three areas: sin, righteousness and judgment.

We might better understand them by asking three question about people. First, do all people believe that they are without any fault or failure? The answer is of course, " no" because only people with psychological problems believe that they are without any fault. Sane people will admit that at some point in their life they failed to meet a standard. They missed the mark. The Bible calls that sin.

Second, all people have some sense of a standard of what they believe is right or wrong. The idea of situations determining moral behavior brakes down in the face things like the ethnic cleansing of Serbia or Kosovo. The reason the world is reacting to the slaughter of innocent people is because there is no moral justification for genocide. People have within them some measure of what is correct behavior and what is not. The Bible calls this "righteousness".

Third, all people have a sense that it is wrong for someone who breaks the standard to not have to answer for their actions. For that reason the Republican majority in Congress feel that the best way to punish the president for his offenses is to forcibly remove him form office. The Democratic minority believes that his public embarrassment over his behavior is punishment enough. What neither side is saying is that they approve of the choices the president made. That feeling that someone must pay for the wrongs they have done is what the Bible calls "judgment".

Let me give some examples:

Lawrence Taylor who played linebacker for the New York Giants was recently selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There is no question that LT was the most effective defensive player in the last 15 years of the game. There has risen a controversy though because Taylor has been arrested twice for cocaine possession and has an ongoing drug problem. Some say he should not be in while others say he should. That says : There's a standard of what's right and wrong, he has failed to meet the standard, because he's failed he doesn't deserve the honor. Sin, righteousness and judgment.

The Olympic Committee that selected Salt Lake City, Utah as the site for the 2002 winter games has admitted taking bribes from people in Salt Lake to locate the games there. People are stunned and angry. Why? Because the Olympics have a standard, that standard has been violated , and now someone must pay for the violation of the standard. Sin, righteousness and judgment.

Today, people know when they let themselves catch up to themselves that somewhere they have failed. That there is out there is a standard of measure that they see as the goal but they haven't measured up. They know deep down that they are responsible for the mess they have made of their life. Sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Of all the things God's Spirit wants people to know is that they are personally responsible to God.

III. God's Spirit personally lets us know that we are to tell everyone that God offers a way out.

"But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.(John 16:7

It is not enough though to know that there is a God and that we are responsible to God for the ways we have failed him. The whole purpose of these words of Jesus was to show the disciples that in his absence they had a job to do. That task was not to persuade people by their power. The ultimate job of convincing was the job of the Spirit. Their job was to tell others that they could become acceptable to God because of his death on the cross. What is amazing is that when they would tell others that they should put their trust in a crucified Jewish criminal as the only way for all eternity to be acceptable to God , people did! How ? Because God's Spirit was using the voice of the teller as well as the heart of the hearer to understand the message. Their job was to tell. His job was to convince.

In nearby Jackson, Tenn. some of the sirens that were to warn of impending tornadoes didn't work during their recent storms. 8 of the 20 sirens failed to respond to the messages encoded into them from dispatchers after receiving the warnings from the National Weather Service. Six people were killed, dozens injured and hundreds of homes were destroyed during the storms. Requests to repair the system had repeatedly been rejected as too costly. When the systems that are to warn others of disaster fail saying you didn't have the money is hard to hear.

If you are a Christian then at some point before you trusted Jesus to be your Savior you were aware that you personally had broken God's standard of right and wrong. You also realized that somehow you knew that there was a price or penalty to be paid for that violation.

All around us are people who are living with the reality that they have failed to measure up to their own standards. They fear that they will be required to answer for those failures. They live with a guilt that they can't shake. They struggle with how they can be sure God will accept them. We have the answer in Jesus Christ. Our job is not to convince someone of their failure by the power of our argument. Our task is to be a voice telling of the acceptance we can all find before God because of the death of God's Son. God's Spirit does the rest.

Conclusion:

You have heard it said "nobody's perfect" well Gary Anderson, place kicker for the Minnesota Vikings, had been perfect all season long, kicking on real grass and fake grass, indoors and outdoors, perfect from all distances. He never missed a field goal, hitting 39 straight. And he never missed an extra point, going 67-for-67. The first kicker in NFL history to go an entire season without a miss.. Until the biggest kick of his career.

Amazingly, agonizingly, the person with more field goals than any kicker in NFL history, 420 for his career, hooked one barely wide left as Minnesota closed in on a trip to the Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game January 17. And that miss cost the Vikings their season.

It seemed like a gimme, almost automatic for the 29-year-old kicker who's been doing this for 17 years in the NFL. Sixteen of his field goals this season had been longer than 38 yards. He had a 53-yarder last month against Jacksonville and a 50-yarder against Chicago in September. He had kicked two against Arizona last week in the playoff opener and two more Sunday against the Falcons, the first from 29 yards and the second from 35. In all, 46 straight field goals since his last miss of any kind-–n December 15, 1997, while with San Francisco.

Gary Anderson said, "There are no words to describe how I feel…Six inches one way or another makes a difference."

When the Falcons got close enough, coach Dan Reeves turned the game over to his kicker. Morton Andersen lined up and nailed the winning field goal as Atlanta beat Minnesota in overtime 30-27. The distance was 38 yards–a distance the other Anderson will never forget.

You see Gary Anderson isn't perfect. He failed to meet the standard by six inches. It might as well have been a mile. He will live the rest of his life with the agony of missing the Super Bowl by six inches. Only time will diminish the pain and the memory. You are not perfect. You know that there is a standard before you and you haven't been able to measure up. You've missed it by a mile. You know that if things don't change that , well, there's "Hell to pay." You wonder how God can ever accept you. The only way is trusting that the death of Jesus on the cross makes it possible for the sin, guilt and failure to be removed. God's Spirit has been telling you this for a long time. This time it's personal.

Sunday, February 7, 1999

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org.