The following sermon was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia on June 7, 1981. The title is, Do You Have Trouble Being a Christian? And the scripture reference is John 7, 37-39. 

A week ago Thursday on Ascension Day we held a confirmation service here in the evening that was a very remarkable service in several ways. We had 143 people come for confirmation, which was the largest class in the history of the diocese. There were to be two bishops here, Bishop Hall, who is our diocesan bishop, and one of the retired bishops, but there was a confusion in his understanding of the schedule, and Bishop Chilton never made it.

So Bishop Hall had the whole service to himself. 143 people we had the junior confirmation class over on that side and the adults over here and Neil was presenting the junior high and I was presenting the adults and so we stood on either side of the central aisle there presenting them to the bishop and about halfway into the service I became aware that there was some sort of a disturbance going on amongst the kids and it seemed very disorderly to me and so I said, Neil, get him under control. And Neil, with a very refined liturgical gesture, said, Three years at seminary to learn that, right?

Terrific. so I left him and I went over and I decided I'd take care of it myself and it took only a moment to realize that they were not fooling around at all but that something very very special was happening amongst them that God's Spirit was visiting a number of the kids in that junior confirmation class in ways that they didn't expect that they had never experienced that He was coming upon them and touching their emotions and in fact touching them physically. They could feel a sense of His presence.

And they were bubbling with joy. One girl just began to laugh and it really was a holy laughter. And the other kids, of course, were aware that this was going on in their midst and they began to share the excitement.

How could they keep it in? And that is what was rippling among the kids. a sense of God visiting them and it wasn't confined only to the kids they just were a little bit more expressive about it God met many many of the adults in a similar way we should have expected it in fact we told people the night before come expectantly this isn't just an empty form it isn't just a ceremony come expecting that God wants to meet you and they did when the bishop lays his hands on a person's head at confirmation what he prays is this strengthen O Lord your servant and then he mentions their name strengthen O Lord your servant John or Judy or whatever it might be with your Holy Spirit empower him for your service and sustain Him all the days of His life.

Empower Him with Your Holy Spirit for Your service. You pray a prayer like that or you participate in the praying of a prayer like that with a real expectancy, you better duck. Because God might just answer it.

And He did. And our bishop had to stop the service every ten minutes or so and sit down and take a rest and ask us to sing a hymn while he sort of got filled up again to minister some more. In the Old Testament, it speaks about the fact that when the priests came into the temple, the glory of the Lord was so intense that they couldn't stand to minister before the altar.

We had a little taste of that. You know, some people think it's a very easy thing to speak on a Sunday morning. And the speaking itself is not difficult.

But when God is moving in an extraordinary way and uses the speaking, it's a tremendous drain. You end up with a strange sense of being filled up and absolutely drained at the same time. And many, many a Sunday I go home just wiped out.

I mean rejoicing and just wiped out. unable hardly to move. And Bishop Hall had that sort of an experience.

He said to me afterward, I'm so glad that Bishop Chilton didn't make it. He said, I would not have missed this for anything. And he said, I'm thankful that I've got a long drive home tonight to reflect on it.

I was never a part of a service like that. I'm never going to forget it. I remember when Bishop Festo was preaching to the clergy in Pittsburgh some years ago.

He described that this sort of thing happens with some frequency in African confirmation services. That people are touched with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He comes upon them so heavily that they literally can't get up again.

Sometimes He heals them dramatically in the midst of a service. Sometimes He gives to people a new language with which to praise Him right in the middle of a confirmation service. We're not looking for any of those things specifically, we're not asking God for any specific thing.

We're simply coming and saying, Lord, I'm available. Do in me what you choose to do. And sometimes he does extraordinary things.

And one of the clergy said, Bishop Festo, what could we do to make that happen? And Bishop Festo said, you know, it's not what you need to do to make it happen. You need to find out what's preventing it.

It ought to be happening all the time. that's what the service is about strengthen oh Lord this your servant with your Holy Spirit empower him for ministry and sustain him all the days of his life that's what it's about you know there are two mighty operations of the Holy Spirit in our lives one is to bring us new life in the Lord Jesus and liturgically, sacramentally we celebrate that in our baptism service. What we say even about a little tiny child is seeing that this child is regenerate, is regenerate, is made new.

Well, that child may need to move into that in his or her own personal experience. But we celebrate that in baptism. Becoming a new creature in Christ.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit. The other operation of the Holy Spirit is empowering us for ministry. Empowering us for ministry.

And we celebrate that in our confirmation service. Again, you may need to move into that. It may happen in a dramatic way at the time of your confirmation, or you may not experience anything particularly dramatic, and only much later really begin to enter into it experientially.

But it's somewhat helpful to see that we do celebrate, we observe those two major dimensions of the work of the Spirit in our sacramental liturgy. I want to trace something through the Scriptures with you this morning. I ask you to look at several passages with me in the Bibles there in your pews.

Starting way back in the book of Exodus, chapter 3. We're just going to do this quickly. And I just hope to sketch out a pattern for you and you can explore it more fully on your own.

Exodus chapter 3 this is the time of God's calling Moses to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt out of slavery in Egypt go up and face Pharaoh and say let my people go and Moses' response to that call is who? me? maybe you can identify with that chapter 3 in verse 10 God says come I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt but Moses said to God who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt and God promises to be with him and to give him the sign that he's with him that after that happens he'll worship God here on this holy mountain if you read chapter 3 and 4 at your leisure you'll see that Moses has one objection after another after another.

God answers one and Moses has another. And finally we come to chapter 4, verse 10. Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since thou hast spoken to thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.

I don't know how you picture Moses. I frankly picture him as Charlton Heston. It's very hard for me to picture him as slow of speech and tongue.

But the real Moses, you could roughly translate that, I stutter. You picture God selecting out of all the people he had available a stutterer to be the oracle of His statutes and ordinances to declare His covenant to the people and to go and face Pharaoh with this demand for freedom. Can you picture that?

I stutter. I can't do it. And the Lord said to him, Who made man's mouth?

Who made him dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth.

and I'll teach you what you shall speak. Lord, I can't do this. I don't have any eloquence.

I can't speak. And God says, I will be in your mouth. Would you make your mouth available to me?

That's all I need is you would be willing to be used. Make your mouth available. I'll speak through it.

Do you see the pattern? God is calling Moses to a mighty task of leadership but he's saying I'm not calling you out of your own strength, out of your own wisdom, out of your own personal charisma, out of your own eloquence, having passed public speaking courses. I'm calling you simply to be available to me and I will speak.

I will anoint you. I will come into your mouth and speak out of it. Look over at chapter 31.

It comes time to build the tabernacle. You remember that first great place of worship? It was a traveling place of worship, a kind of a portable tent.

Very beautiful, very glorious, and yet portable. We referred to this passage at the annual meeting when I was commenting that Bob Van Houten is our own Bezalel. This is the real one, Bezalel.

Chapter 31, The Lord said to Moses, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah, and I've filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, in carving wood, for work in every craft. This is an extraordinary craftsman. He can handle metal, stone, wood, and he goes on to talk about tapestries.

He can do anything with his hands. But God says that's not enough. I do not call Bezalel to build the tabernacle simply out of his own craftsmanship, his own talent, his own natural resources.

I have filled him with the Spirit of God. Do you see that? It's not enough to be a good workman.

I fill him with the Spirit of God. And it's out of that resource, out of that anointing, out of that empowering that he does this job. Turn over to the book of Numbers.

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, chapter 11. Moses' leadership is being very much accepted at this point. His fame has grown.

People are really beginning to trust him. There are three million people looking to him for leadership. And they all want to come and talk to Moses personally.

come and decide our little disputes give us your counsel and God takes pity on Moses he says nobody can cope with that kind of a demand in Numbers 11 verse 16 we read this the Lord said to Moses gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them and bring them to the tent of meeting and let them take their stand there with you and I will come down and talk with you there and I will take some of the Spirit which is upon you and put it upon them. And they shall bear the burden of the people with you that you may not bear it yourself alone. Take some folks who have already begun to demonstrate leadership ability.

But that's not enough. I don't call them to leadership merely out of their own human ability. I call them to be anointed, empowered, strengthened, gifted with that same Holy Spirit whom I've given to you, Moses.

My call is a call to come under my anointing. And that's exactly what happens. Verse 24, So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them round about the tent.

And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the Spirit that was upon him and put it upon the 70 elders, and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. One of the evidences that the Spirit of God has come upon you is that when you speak, you're no longer speaking out of your own wisdom. But it's thus says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord. They prophesied when the Spirit of God came upon them. There's an interesting and somewhat humorous footnote to the story.

Now two men remained in the camp with the marvelous names of Eldad and Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. You understand that?

They were supposed to go with the others to the meeting at the tabernacle, but for some reason they stayed back in the camp. They weren't part of the service. The bishop came and laid his hands on everybody and they weren't there.

Only the bishop in this case was the Lord Himself. They weren't there. But the Lord sent His Spirit upon them anyway.

And they prophesied. They prophesied back in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying.

You've got to stop them. This isn't proper. They weren't at the service.

They didn't get ordained right. They didn't even go to seminary. And Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' right-hand man, agreed with him.

My Lord Moses, forbid them, he says. Note Moses' answer. Verse 29.

Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Do you think I want to keep this all to myself? He says, Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon all of them.

Would that all of God's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit on all of them. You can trace through the pattern. all the way through the Old Testament.

Moses comes to the end of his life and career, and God says it's time for Joshua to take over. And in Joshua chapter 1, the Lord says, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You've had the best apprenticeship that anybody ever had.

Forty years under Moses. That's not enough. I'm going to anoint you with my spirit.

Joshua comes to the end of his career, and we have a series of judges. Sort of like Supreme Court judges administering the affairs of the people. And one after another, after another, after another, it's absolutely consistent.

It says the Spirit of the Lord God came upon Othniel, came upon Gideon, came upon Jephthah, came upon Deborah, came upon Samson. They were not to judge. They were not to preside.

They were not to rule. They were not to lead out of their own wisdom or strength or insight. And it was not a matter of office alone.

It was the Spirit of God coming upon them and empowering them for that ministry. It comes to the end of the period of Judges and we have the first king, a fellow by the name of Saul, and it says the Spirit of God came upon Saul and he prophesied. He prophesied with all the prophets.

He was disobedient. And so God raised up a little shepherd boy by the name of David. And it says the Spirit of God came upon David, and he ministered.

Absolutely consistent. You watch it all the way through the Old Testament. The Spirit of God came upon him, came upon her, came upon him, came upon them, and they ministered.

Now that ought to raise a question for you. If that's the consistent pattern of the Old Testament, then what do you make of the comment of Jesus, And more particularly, the editorial remark that John adds to it that I read at the beginning. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. And John adds, lest there be any mistake, this he said of the Spirit, which they who believed in him were to receive, for as yet he had not been given. for Jesus was not glorified.

Now wait a minute. As yet He had not been given. Yet we've just looked at 2,000 years of history when He's been given and He's been given and He's been given and He's been given.

What's going on? Look at Jeremiah chapter 31. Just about dead center of your Bible.

Jeremiah 31. Chapter 31 and also verse 31. This is a pivot passage.

One of the most important passages in all the prophets. Chapter 31, verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.

A new covenant. You remember what Jesus said on the night that He was betrayed. This cup is the new covenant in My blood.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant, which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which 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 upon their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor, and each his brother saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. And I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

In all that Old Testament history, the pattern that you will find if you look closely is the Spirit of God comes upon the few. The leaders. prophets, priests, kings, occasional generals, occasional poets, occasional craftsmen like Bezalel, and occasional others.

The few, the leaders, are anointed by the Spirit of God for their leadership and for their ministry. But everybody else gets it second hand. you and I would get it second hand you want to know what God is up to you go talk to Moses you want to know what God is up to you go talk to Joshua go talk to Samson go talk to Othniel but as for the common people we have to get it second hand and God says behold the days are coming when I'm going to make a new covenant it's going to be different from the old covenant and this is the way in which it's going to be different.

No longer will you have to go to somebody else and say, tell me about it. But every single one of them will know me from the least of them to the greatest. Not just prophets, priests, and kings.

Chamber maids. Garbage collectors. You and me.

From the least of them to the greatest. I want to look at one more passage in the Old Testament. Joel chapter 2.

You find Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, chapter 2. Toward the end of the Old Testament. And it shall come to pass, verse 28, it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.

Do you see that? This is the passage that Peter quoted to the folks in the city of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. when these mighty events that we just heard about a few minutes ago visited that little band of apostolic Christians and empowered them with these mighty signs and wonders, gave them the gift of tongues, and they began extolling the mighty works of God in every possible language.

And people were saying, what in the world is going on? Peter said, this is what's going on. The fulfillment of what God promised in so many places, and in particular here in Joel.

It shall come to pass afterward that I'll pour out My Spirit on all flesh. Now that does not mean on each and every man, woman, and child who ever lived. What it means is on all sorts and conditions of people.

All those who come to My Son and put their trust in Him, be they male or female, be they adult or child, be they priest or chambermaid, Be they Jew or Gentile, be they black or white, be they well-educated or not educated at all, it doesn't make any difference. From the least of them to the greatest, I'm going to pour out My Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions. And even upon the menservants and the maidservants, in those days, I will pour out My Spirit, says the Lord. Do you begin to understand what I'm saying?

the birthright of all Christians is the anointing of God's Spirit. That's His will for us. That's His intention, His desire, and His good pleasure.

This is not an optional extra for the few. It is God's will that you and I enter into a relationship as intimate, as personal with Him as did Abraham, as did Moses, as did David, as did any of the greatest of the Old Testament. Then we don't have to go to each other and say, tell me about God.

They'll all know me, even men's servants and maid's servants, even your junior high class. Jesus Christ is His name. But His name includes a title.

Christos means the Anointed One. What do you suppose Christian means? The little anointed ones.

That's who we are. That's who God intends us to be. The little anointed ones.

The ones anointed with the same Spirit that rested upon Jesus. He wants to pour out upon us and empower us for ministry. Could I put it to you this way?

How many of you have ever had trouble being a Christian? God's will for you is that you have not one iota of trouble being a Christian. I have never had the slightest bit of trouble being a how.

Didn't have to work at it a bit. Because it wasn't my work. Being a Christian is not our work.

Do you understand that? being a Christian is a matter of opening your life and say, Lord Jesus Christ, fill me with Your Spirit and live Your life in and through me. I'm available to you.

You do it. I'll be in your mouth, He says to Moses. I'll be in your heart, He says to you and me.

I'll live out my life in and through you. I will equip you for your ministry. I will distribute amongst you gifts of my Spirit, mighty gifts.

to do absolutely everything that you'll ever be required to do if you'll simply be available to me. It's my work. Let me live in and through you.

Let me move through you. Don't misunderstand. You don't need to have an experience that parallels mine.

We're talking about a God who can't make two fingerprints alike. Yours is going to be your experience and mine is going to be mine. But it's all His.

It's all His. I'm reminded of the story. You may have heard it.

It's a true story about some men who were sailing off the coast of Brazil in a rather small sailboat and a terrible storm came up and it broke their mast, their main mast. They had no radio to call for help and they had very inadequate provisions. They expected only to be out for a few hours.

The hours turned into days. You can go quite a long time without food. You can only go about three days without water.

and they were in very big trouble. Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. And finally, as they literally were beginning to drop, somebody spied another ship on the horizon and they began to signal wildly and sure enough, they caught the other ship's attention and it came alongside and with a gasp, they called across, give us water.

And the answer came back, let down your buckets. let down your buckets they're mocking us in the middle of our desperate need they're mocking us anybody knows you let down your bucket and you bring up seawater it'll just kill you let down your buckets turned out that the place that they had run into trouble was off the coast of Brazil where the mighty Amazon River dumps into the sea the Amazon River puts out something like 12 times the amount of water that the Mississippi puts out 7 million cubic feet a minute and for 200 miles out into the sea there is a sheet of fresh water on top of the seawater water, water everywhere and every drop to drink and here they are dying of thirst that's a picture of the Christian church absolutely surrounded by the resources of God's Holy Spirit who would quench our thirst saturate us from the top of our head to the bottoms of our feet fill us with Himself so that we're overflowing out of His heart shall flow rivers of living water your own thirst so quenched that you can't keep it to yourself it flows out to others and we're dying of thirst let down your bucket friends let down your bucket come to the Lord Jesus Christ and drink of Him I've seen Him fill people with His Spirit in the middle of a service like this I've seen it at the laying on of hands of a bishop I've seen it afterward at the communion rail I've seen it with people who are absolutely all alone didn't even expect it and suddenly God came upon them I've seen it dramatically and sometimes it's been so quiet and so gradual that they hardly even realized it until they looked back and suddenly noticed where they'd come from the will of Jesus Christ is for you to stop trying to be a Christian and let him fill you with his spirit let him be himself in you and if he wants to give you dramatic gifts of his spirit say Lord I'm available and if he wants to give you quiet gifts of his spirit Lord I'm available you live out your life in and through me I let down my bucket to drink whatever you have fill me with your spirit for your great name's sake let's stand and pray together Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Melt me, hold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of living God, fall afresh on me. Lord Jesus, we would see You standing in our midst, inviting us again this morning as You did so long ago.

Come unto me and drink. Lord, we would see You reaching out Your hands, those hands which were broken for us, and touching us individually, personally on the head. And in that touch, giving to us an anointing of Your Holy Spirit, we would say, Come, Holy Spirit.

Be Yourself in Me. I'm available to You. Fill Me with Yourself.

For Jesus' sake. Amen.