The Spirit As Wind Series

A. Let’s start today’s sermon with an illustration comparing two amazing women.

1. Katie Spotz and Laura Dekker have a lot in common – they are both endurance athletes and they both have boats.

2. Both ladies made headlines when they completed solo trips – Katie across the Atlantic and Laura around the world.

3. Yet for all they have in common, one of the biggest differences is that one lady rowed her boat and the other sailed her boat.

4. 23 year old Katie, rowed her boat from West Africa to South America – her 2,817 mile trip took her 75 days.

5. Laura became the youngest person to solo circumnavigate the world – she was 14 years old when she departed on her 5,600 mile journey that took 1 year and five months to complete and she was 16 years old when she finished.

6. As you can imagine, both young ladies faced many grueling and terrifying moments along the way, but both overcame them and completed their goals.

7. How many of us would be interested in attempting a feat like theirs? Not me.

8. But if any of us did decide to make such a journey, which would you choose? Rowing or sailing? I think I would choose sailing, how about you?

B. Let’s use that illustration as the launching pad to discuss the spiritual journey we have taken on.

1. Consider how long and challenging is the Christian trek we are on.

2. Consider the impossible task of our calling – “Be holy as I am Holy.” (1 Pt. 1:16)

3. More specifically, consider the stiff winds of God’s commands: care for the poor, forgive others, love your enemies, pray constantly, and serve unselfishly.

4. And the waves of God’s commands keep coming: be generous and good stewards of money, be good spouses, and parents, be good employers and employees, and be good neighbors.

5. And then there’s the challenges of ministry: find your gifts and use them, find the lost and reach them, find the hurting and help them, and find the prodigals and bring them back.

6. On top of all that there are the internal storms we face: control your temper and lust, greed and arrogance; and overcome your laziness and grumpiness.

7. Are you tired yet? The Christian journey is demanding and exhausting!

C. But there are two ways of approaching that journey and accomplishing that task that are illustrated in the picture of rowing and sailing.

1. Rowing and sailing both require knowledge and skill, but the power or energy to move the boat along come from two very different sources.

2. Rowing represents the person who is trying to live the Christian life by their own power.

3. Sailing represents the person who is trying to live the Christian life by the power of the Spirit.

4. We dare not think for a moment that we have the power, in and of ourselves, to be the person God wants us to be and to complete the mission that God has called us to accomplish.

5. The good news for us is that God doesn’t expect us to depend on our own power to become who we should be nor do what we should do.

6. We don’t have to row our way through the Christian life, rather we can sail our way being carried along by the wind of the Holy Spirit.

7. God has promised to empower us to be what He calls us to be and to do what He has called us to do! Hallelujah!!

D. This is the spiritual truth that Jesus explained to Nicodemus, the Jewish religious leader who paid Jesus a visit one night as recorded in John chapter 3.

1. The Bible says: 1 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.” (Jn. 3:1-2)

2. There were six thousand Pharisees in Israel and Nicodemus was one of them.

3. It appears that Nicodemus came to Jesus alone and we wonder how he was able to arrange a private meeting with Jesus, but there he was.

4. It has been assumed that Nicodemus came at night and away from the crowds so that he could converse with Jesus without being spotted with this upstart and controversial rabbi.

5. We notice that Nicodemus was tactful and began with a word of praise, but as tactful and complementary as Nicodemus was, Jesus responded somewhat abruptly and forcefully.

E. The Bible says: Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn. 3:3)