On the Holy Spirit

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The work of the Holy Spirit in preaching and worship has amazed me again and again this summer.  There is really no good way to describe it.  I faithfully research, pray, write, ponder, edit, and practice sermons, but it’s the Holy Spirit that gives a sermon wings.  It’s the Holy Spirit that gives me the words, but also the Holy Spirit that prepares hearts to hear it and applies it to each person’s life specifically. 

And the Holy Spirit often has taken threads of various parts of the service and gathered them together into one.  Yesterday, we heard from a group of young people who came back Saturday evening from a SERVE trip to Las Vegas about their “God moments,” many of which touched on the poverty they had seen and how blessed we are.  The children’s message was about how corn is planted in fields because one stalk by itself will get blown over by the wind.  I preached on Colossians 2:6-23 about false teachings that hold us captive and the freedom we have in Christ.  Two of the false teachings I identified were consumerism and individualism.  I didn’t know what either of the previous parts of the service would be like, but they all came together, thanks to the Holy Spirit.  It’s both humbling and comforting to be able to rely on the Holy Spirit and to expect things you weren’t planning to happen!