Matt Chandler - God the Holy Spirit

For the last three years, I have felt significantly provoked by the times in which we live. What I have been provoked by is not something that you haven’t heard me say over the past three years. I am provoked and confident that the Church of Jesus Christ is built for a moment like this. We are put together for it; you and I don’t need to be anxious or afraid, but rather we need to step into and embrace the call of God on our lives, both corporately as a community and individually as sons and daughters of God Most High. I believe this; it’s in my bones. One of the ways I’ve tried to help us over the last three years is by drawing your attention to the reality that there’s an enemy behind your enemy. Are you tracking with me? There’s an enemy behind your enemy. The Church, as a whole, in the United States, is getting twisted right now, confused, and deceived. As we walked through the Book of Revelation, we saw that what the enemy does is lie, distract, and twist. I have seen the latest data on what’s happened post-COVID, which reveals how broken and unaware the Church in America has become regarding basic orthodox Christian faith.

Currently, we are learning that many Christians, post-pandemic, are choosing churches not based on theology but rather on ideology. They are literally leaving churches that are orthodox and gospel-preaching and instead finding ones that align with their ideology rather than their theology. That’s deceit; that’s being twisted. This indicates that we don’t really care about what we believe regarding the saving, atoning work of Christ in the orthodox Christian Church. Instead, we want others to align with us ideologically so we don’t have to feel uncomfortable around people who disagree with us. How in the world are we supposed to punch Satan in the mouth if that’s how we are building our battalions? I’ll tell you: that’s how you get your teeth kicked in—by weak ideological bonds. I’m not trying to link up with anyone on weak ideological bonds; I want the beautiful, steely, impossible-to-break bonds of the Godhead. That’s what I want, and that’s what we are going to try to build upon.

I assert that distraction is a primary enemy right now. If I were to ask you what you think the problem in the Big C Church is right now, we would say, «Oh, the increase of secularization, ” or „We don’t know what to do with the sexual ethic, ” or „I’m not sure about this, ” or „We have racism here, ” and so forth. I’m not belittling any of those; I think they are all significant, but I believe there are more pressing issues laying on top of the Church right now. Namely, we have no idea who God is. If you’re thinking, „Well, I think we do, ” my guess would be that if we sat down for a cup of coffee or a beverage of your choosing, and I asked you to tell me about God the Father, you would confidently respond, „Oh yeah.“ If I asked you about God the Son, you might say, „Oh man, Jesus, ” and if I asked you about the Holy Spirit, you might respond, „Who’s that?“

This is a painful quote from George Barna, a trusted pollster: nearly 60% of Americans who regularly attend—not just on Christmas and Easter, but those who regularly attend Christian churches—say there is no such thing as the Holy Spirit. They claim that the Holy Spirit is just a symbol of God’s power, presence, or purity. This means that 60% of regular churchgoers in America are non-Trinitarian, which places them outside the orthodox Christian understanding of who God is, how we’re saved, and what the mission we’re on is and how to carry it out. If the Holy Spirit becomes an impersonal force or some kind of mystical symbol of God’s power and purity, God help us, but He can’t because it’s God the Holy Spirit who helps us.

Here’s what I want to do: I want to introduce you to my friend, the Holy Spirit. Here’s what we won’t do—when you start talking about the Holy Spirit, you might be thinking, „Oh my gosh, tongues, dreams, visions, prophecies.“ No; we’re discussing the person of the Holy Spirit. Yes, He does things; yes, He gives things, but He is a person. He is a „He, ” and He is God. The more we understand that God is triune—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, distinct yet one—the more weapons we will have in our arsenal. So, I just want to talk about the Holy Spirit today. That’s what we are going to do—introduce you to my guy. We see the Holy Spirit right out of the gate; you don’t have to wait for Pentecost to meet the Holy Spirit. He’s here.