For the second week in row, my Wake Up Call sermon wasn't really about the sermon. Last Sunday, it led to my interview with Ron Hall. And yesterday, it served as the set up for an interactive time of "praying in the Spirit." I must say, the movements of breathing, raising, singing, and speaking worked even better than I thought they would. Our altar was full, people were lingering in prayer, and the atmosphere was thick in the room with the awareness of the Holy Spirit. I guess you could say that yesterday is why I decided to become a pastor.     ------------------------------------------------------------ So we’re in Wake Up Call and it’s about being awake to the Holy Spirit as we say around here and you figure that at some point there is going to be some kind of connection between the Holy Spirit and prayer, right?  They just seem to be like first cousins, maybe even closer relations than that.               And when we think about prayer – even for just a little bit – it’s kind of funny where we pray, isn’t it?  The places we pray.  Now: I know some of you don’t pray because you don’t believe (yet), and that’s fine, that’s OK.  But I am going to assume that if you are devoted enough to get up and come to church on a Sunday morning that a lot of you are also people who pray.  And the where of that praying, again, interests me.  Some people pray in the shower.  Some pray in their car.  Some pray in the fitness center or the Y.  Some pray in the bathroom, some in a jam, some in a chapel/church.  Some pray in an office.  That’s what I do – it is a preacher’s office, after all – but I always pray over my keyboard when I am preparing to write my sermon stuff.  (Like those words I just said were typed onto that keyboard on June 22!)  And then some people even after a dedicated, set apart room or closet or furniture piece that is a dedicated praying place.  And all that praying & all those places are good & right & healthy.  I’m glad you pray those places – unless it’s the car & it’s with your eyes closed.  Not so glad about that.               But just when we get somewhat comfortable about praying in a location, along comes the bible with this oddly disconcerting pattern.  Take a look at Eph 6:18:   And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.   Jude 20:  But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,   Revelation 1:10  On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet   Where are all these prayers either happening or being encouraged to happen?  In the Spirit               Oh, Lord, how do you get “in the Spirit”?  And didn’t this series begin with DE-WEIRDING the Spirit?  And now you’re talking about not praying in my bedroom – which I can see – and praying instead in the Spirit – who I can’t?  Oy vey!  You’re gonna make me do something weird like fall down, run the aisles, or play with snakes.  No thank you, Talbot / New Testament!  You just re-weirded what you had successfully de-weirded a couple of weeks ago!               And wouldn’t it be great if I could come along and say, “oh, no, no, no, no.  That’s not what I’m talking about at all.  Just keep doing what you are doing!  ANYTIME you pray, you’re praying in the Spirit!”  But no.  I can’t do that.  For one thing, that’d be a lie.  But maybe more important, I don’t want you to settle.  See, some of you have been a Xn for a long time and you figured that hell-busting, soul-shaking, Spirit-soaking prayer is something other people do and you’ll just watch.  You’re secretly glad other people do it and you’re even more glad that you don’t have to.  You’re coasting.  And in so doing, you miss out on a dimension of closeness to God and intimacy with God that God really wants to give you.               And if, on the other hand, you’re one of those people and who doesn’t even really believe in Jesus (yet) – much less the HS – and you’re not sure even how you track with this church, then in your case I don’t want to give you a bait and switch.  I don’t want to present authentic Xnty to you as something that I know it’s not.  Because authentic Xnty involves praying in the Spirit not just in the shower, and praying in the Spirit isn’t something that happens automatically or even easily.  I want you to know something of what’s involved and something of the benefit, and if you act right today, I may even give you a taste of it, up close & personal like.               Because what is this thing of praying not in the bathroom but in the Spirit, not in what is visible but in who is invisible?  I’ve wrestled with it and wrestled with it.  And I realized that when we pray in the car, shower, etc, we are typically looking for an ANSWER TO PRAYER.  Give me a job.  Give me peace.  Give me a mate.  Give me a BETTER mate.  We pray in all of our places, it seems, to get an answer TO OUR prayer.               And yet praying in the Spirit – which if you hold any idea of the bible’s authority at all, is a deal – speaks of something completely different.  It’s an approach to prayer and praying that is so dramatically different because its goal is so diametrically opposite.  I sense that when you pray “in the Spirit” you stop looking for answers TO the prayer and start celebrating the answer that IS the prayer. You become less interested in the answer he sends and more interested in the answer he is.  You don't talk to God; you speak with God. Get this: praying in the Spirit allows you to realize that those times when God delays answering a prayer at all – how many of you have been through that? Are going through that?  -- is at least in part to keep you praying!  If he delays the answer, you’ll stay in touch!  Stop looking for answers TO the prayer and start celebrating the answer that IS the prayer.               It’s so much like those times when I’ve been in a fix – or, more accurately, I’ve felt the church in a fix – and I’m praying over it with great agitation and I hear:  “Enough. Stop.  Stop trying to earn what is already yours.  You’re not a human doing.  You’re a human being.”  Yeah, in those brief moments where God reminds me to be, even reminds me to let him love me in prayer, I catch a glimpse of what it means to pray in the Spirit.                Or it’s like the 11^th Step of AA:  Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.  I love that!  Not more answers FROM God; understanding the answer IS God.  And look there – the will of God morphs from being some kind of fate that you want to escape but is instead something new and creative and life-giving that you want to enter.  Stop looking for answers TO the prayer and start celebrating the answer that IS the prayer.               So prayer and the Holy Spirit have been thoroughly re-weirded today.  And the reason I’m talking about this is that I don’t want to pastor a church full of people who ‘settle.’ Who settle for praying in the shower, in the car, or in the flesh . . . when they could pray in the Spirit.  I want to lead a group of people who know what it’s like to move & operate in the realm of the supernatural; who know that God is alive and he loves to communicate to and through his people.  And for the rest of our time today, I don’t want to talk ABOUT praying in the Spirit; I want it to happen.  I want to do a collective “in the Spirit” experiment.  Because I firmly believe that getting your body, mind, and soul ready to REFRAIN takes some intention, some time, some purpose.  So . . . for the next few moments we’re going to have some movements & amp up the RE-WEIRDING factor, but you’re going to be glad we did . . .               So it starts with some BREATHING.  See, it’s hard to be “in the Spirit” when your mind is still on the fight you just had with your mate.  When your adrenaline is still racing over the battle for a GS parking spot.  When your heart is still breaking over the relationship that just ended.  So settled in. And breathe.  Breathe IN THE SPIRIT. And breathe OUT THE ANGER.  Breathe IN THE SPIRT.  Breathe OUT THE RUSH.  Breathe IN THE SPIRIT.  And OUT THE GRIEF.  (Continue same pattern.)  Finally:  Breathe IN THE SPIRIT.  Breathe out EVERYTHING ELSE.               Not just breathing.  RAISING.  Keep your eyes closed, please.  But now open your palms.  Point them God’s direction.  Use those palms to, in a sense, lift praises God’s way.  Would you repeat these prayer phrases after me . . . and out loud?  Praise Jesus. You are awesome.  You are the only God there is. Honor your resurrecting power.  Praise you for creating the universe and for shaping me.  Praise you for sending your Holy Spirit.                And now, hear these words from 1 Timothy 2:8: Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.  Huh.  You don’t only raise a hand when you sing, but when you pray.  Would you, as you stay in this posture of prayer, with your eyes closed, just lift those hands to the heavens.  When you lift a hand in that way, you’re surrendering to the supremacy of the Lord and you are agreeing with what is being said or sung.  Now: open your eyes.  Yes.                But not just raising.  SINGING.  Your eyes are open, your hands are up. Why don’t you stand up & Chris/Randy will help you sing to each other. I’ve got one other thing to say . . . but sing.  (We sang Blessed Assurance TO EACH OTHER.)  Afterwards: oh yes, music helps move your Spirit so it is surrendered to God’s spirit.  I so encourage you – on your own and in your home – keep this spirit going, musically.             (Still standing) And one other reality.  SPEAKING.  Look at Romans 8:26: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  You don’t know and the Spirit rushes in to pray through you. That’s what happens.  That’s praying in the Spirit . . . you run out of words, out of concepts, out of energy, even, and yet you allow the HS to keep you praying and keep you speaking.  For some, it’s groans.  For some it’s simply more praying, asking for more of God more than more of his answer.  For some, it’s even a prayer language.  For all, it’s an invitation as we sing one more to come up and pray here at this altar, trusting the spirit to pray to you & through you. (Soft, acoustic song or songs to finish with an invitation to altar/steps prayer.)      

Maybe it's because we're in a series on the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's because I see the cultural and individual fallout from casual Christianity. Or maybe it's just because of what I see in the mirror. But the whole notion of a Jesus "bait and switch" is on my mind recently. Here's what I mean.  When those of us in church leadership talk to people who are considering an embrace of the Christian faith -- and these conversations happen at the altar, in our offices, or over a meal -- we say things like "you can invite Jesus into your life" or "would you like to ask Jesus into your heart?" or "let's pray to accept Christ, OK?" As if Jesus is an add on.  An accessory.  An important-but-by-no-means-exclusive part of self-improvement. But in contrast to that church-y language, here are the inspired words of Colossians 3:4: When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. "Christ, who is your life, . . ."  Not part of your life.  Not invited into your life.  Not your path to a better life.  Your. Life. So if at the beginning of people's journey with Jesus we use the language of the "part" rather than the "whole," should we be surprised when later on people are resistant to living fully surrendered and completely joyful lives in Jesus? We've baited them with what is partial and then become disappointed when they ignore the switch to what is total.  So at Good Shepherd, we're going to try to be brutally honest from the very beginning.  After all, we're not inviting people into a stagnant relationship with Jesus Christ but a living one. One that's neither baited nor switched but alive and vital and total.

The phrase "a steady diet" has been on my mind the last several weeks. That's because so many in the Christian world are on a constant quest for a a spiritual banquet -- the perfect retreat, conference, workshop, or worship service -- where we can have an authentic experience with God himself.  If we can just have the moment, the rest of our life and the rest of our faith will make sense. The problem is that it rarely happens that way. In our quest for a delicious feast, we overlook the fact that the way of Jesus is much more of a steady diet. A diet that includes . . .   Daily time in Scripture. Dedicated time in prayer. Consistent practice of generosity. Weekly occasions of fasting. The sometimes difficult work of bible memorization. Commitment not only to regular worship in rows but also to regular gathering in circles -- a LifeGroup that augments Sunday celebration.   None of those activities have the snap, crackle, or pop of a dinner at Ruth's Chris. But they have the consistent nutrition of a home cooked meal. A steady diet. And I'm convinced that a steady diet of spiritual habits wakes us up to the Holy Spirit's power more than any retreat, conference, or workshop ever could.    

As the Rio Olympics move to the track & field events this week, I remember a job that I used to think I'd have when I grew up. Professional long jumper. That's right.  In fourth grade, I thought I was a good athlete with an explosive vertical leap and so I thought the running long jump would be my forte.  I remember spending a few Saturday mornings in the broad jump pit of University Park Elementary School, practicing my approach, my set, and my leap.  It was like I was Bob Beamon with, as DC Talk says, a different shade of melanin. So that short-lived certainty made me consider other jobs that I was sure I would have when I grew up.  Here's a tour of five . . . 5.  Long Jumper.  See above. 4. Professional Tennis Player.  Many of you know this.  From fourth grade on through my senior year of high school, I was pretty sure this was my destiny.  I even have the trading cards to prove it! 3.  Attorney.  In my senior year of high school, my tennis game went into a prolonged slump (it had to be the racket's fault), and I realized I shouldn't turn down an opportunity to head to college up north.  Plus, my father had taught law at SMU and my brother was already a successful attorney in Louisiana.  Everything seemed set: college in New Jersey, return to Texas for law school, and then do whatever it is that attorneys do. 2.  Editor.  Midway through college, I realized my pull towards ministry was stronger than my pull to the law.  However, as a newlywed, I decided not to move right to seminary from college, so Julie and I set up a home in central New Jersey in the mid-eighties.  While I had a good job with the US Tennis Association, I grew a longing to become part of a New York publishing company.  I thought I could start as an editorial assistant and work my way up.  Guess what?  Not only did I never get that job, I never even got an interview. 1. Chippendale.  In the late 80s, it was that or seminary.  Sometimes I still struggle with whether or not I made the right choice.      

This sermon has its roots in a blog. Which, in turn, inspired an idea. Which then led to an interview with a living, breathing, resident hero of mine at Good Shepherd. So below you'll see a sermon designed to set up an interview which was to fuel enrollment in our LifeGroup Launch event. From early reports, the plan is working. You can only be spiritual if you are first religious.   ----------------------------------------------- It’s a little bit ironic, is it not, that in a series all about the Holy Spirit (and that’s what Wake Up Call is), I want to talk to you for a few moments about religion?  That in a series about the Spirit we have inserted an entire day called Religion Rehab?               Because is not Jesus the end of religion? Isn’t religion for people who are afraid of going to hell while spirituality is for people who have been there? Don’t we want to walk by the Spirit?  And isn’t this why so many people tell us – and probably you’ve said this yourself – that they are spiritual but not religious?  And I know that on more than one occasion when people have said that to me, I have answered back with “Great!  Neither am I!  I, too am spiritual but not religious!”  Because religion is supposedly man’s attempt to reach God while spirituality is the much more fluid truth of God’s reaching out to man.  So, actually, maybe since this is a series about the HS and we’re more into spirituality than religion, we should recite the modern mantra together: Recite: I’M S-N-R.               There.  Don’t you feel better?  Except, you’ve just uttered a load of bull.  Except, you totally don’t understand what you just said.  Except, when I’ve gone along with that notion of SNR, I’ve been clueless about what I was proclaiming and what I was condemning.  Because do you know where the word “religion” comes from?  It shares the same root word with “ligament.”  And what is a ligament?   What do ligaments do? Ligaments are connective tissue linking bone to bone. Ligaments purposely link one part of the body with another part of the body. Ligaments are the ultimate antidote to body isolation; they instead call out: “Everything here is linked, connected; nothing works in isolation!”  And here’s the cool thing – you have them working all over your body RIGHT NOW.               You know how you know how important ligaments are?  By realizing how destructive it is when one or more of them get damaged.  When a ligament gets damaged or torn – football fans here know that the WORST injury is a torn ACL (explain) – then your body is a mess and rehab is a beast.  Ligaments are so vital that when they have to be rehabbed and repaired, you’re gonna need tenacity & encouragement.  But don't believe me; here's a doctor to prove it.  (YouTube video about ligaments.)               Huh.  See, SNR is me, mine, my, personal and private.  Don’t you get in the way of my own understanding of God/The Spirit/Divinity, and I am good to get through all of this on my own.  But when you understand that “religion” and “ligament” share the same root and the same meaning, then you realize “religious” isn’t the enemy.  It is instead this beautiful, connected way of saying, “we’re in this together.  I can’t get God or faith or the Spirit or Jesus by myself.  On my own, I am a torn ACL!!  I need others in the community to help me figure life out and to help me understand Jesus.”  See, religion – the ligamentary connection bringing all kinds of people together – is behind Paul’s thinking in I Corinthians 12:12-14:   ¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by^[a] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.   Look at that!  Baptized by one Spirit into our own little enclaves, right?  Baptized by one Spirit into our private spirituality, yes?  No!  Into one body!  Connected by ligaments!  Religion!                 Paul is telling us you must follow Jesus for yourself, but you can never follow him by yourself.  He is telling us that bad religion is my religion.  But good religion is our religion.  He is saying that only when you are connected, ligament by ligament, to others in the Body will you experience the freshness of the Holy Spirit.  Religion (properly understood) and Spirit are not opposites and they’re not enemies. They are indistinguishable, inextricably linked.  Because here it is:  You can only be spiritual if you are first religious.                 And we are here, this month and always, to give you plenty of opportunities to connect with others.  To sort of “practice religion”  -- to be ligamentary! – so that you will be well positioned for spirituality to break out.  For you to know what the depth and joy and passion of a living relationship with Jesus Christ is all about.  But it doesn’t happen alone. It’s not all about transcendental meditation, you connecting with the universe.  It happens in community.  In small gathering who gather on purpose for a purpose.  On purpose for a purpose. You ever take your kids to soccer practice?  Bball?  Ever go yourself? Of course. That’s on purpose for a purpose.  And we at GS are exactly the same when it comes to your lrwJC – on purpose, for a purpose.  Gathering not in rows but in circles, groups of 8-12 people, making a big church feel small and making an alien library feel understandable.  We call them LifeGroups and they are our heartbeat. They are the connective tissue bringing life to this church.  They are the religious venue that, when you plug yourself into it, will pave the way for the Spirit to break loose.  You can only be spiritual if you are first religious.               You know who already gets this?  That when you get together on purpose for a purpose then growth happens?  AA.  NA.  GA.  Folks get caught up in behaviors – INFANCY! – that they can’t get out of alone and then the community helps them out of it.  They don’t gather because they all like each other.  They don’t.  They gather together because they know without it they’ll stay drunk.  That’s all.  And some of you are like, “yeah, but I’m not an alcoholic.”  Hey: we’re all powerless over something.  And we all only have power to grow out of it, beyond it by connecting.  Not just in rows but in circles.  They get religious so they can become spiritual.                Because you know what?  We all have ligament damage.  Somewhere, somehow.  Marriage in trouble, job on the chopping block, child who has gone AWOL, a faith you can’t quite trust.  But you don’t improve your damaged ligament by severing it all together!  But instead by going through re-hab, by reconnecting, by going through those massively small steps of realizing you’re only complete in faith when you’re connected to others.                Pastors need this.  Pastors learn this. Sometimes they learn it in the middle of great difficulty.  Sometimes their body literally has to break before they truly understand what it means to be in The Body.  That’s why I want you to meet my friend Ron Hall . . .   Interview ensues with Ron, an Assemblies of God pastor paralyzed by a rogue wave in the Pacific Ocean in October of 2013.  The interview explored all the ways COMMUNITY, not isolation, led to his rehabilitation.               So you’ve heard Ron & what other ligaments & even LifeGroups mean to him.  Here’s what we’re gonna do. We have a LifeGroup Launch event on Tues, Aug 23 and I want all who aren’t in a LG to be there. That’s where you’ll get in one.  Now:  And I know what some of you are thinking as I talk about LifeGroups.  #1  I don’t have time.  I gotta drive her to soccer and him to baseball and work and FB and stuff.  You’re right.  You don’t have time.  I don’t have time.  But you know what?  I bet that if you took your kids to fewer activities and the trade-off was your spiritual growth that resulted in a healthier marriage and stronger home . . . your kids would be just fine with that.  Because they are the collateral damage from your immaturity are they not?  Slow them down, slow YOU down, so you might relocate and reinvest your life into what’s truly important.  #2 I tried one once and didn’t like it.  So I’m not interested.  Have you ever gotten a bad meal at a restaurant?  So what’d you do? Vow never to eat again?  No!  You tried a different one!  Same with LifeGroups!  Yes!  SOME DON’T WORK AND SOME DON’T WORK FOR YOU AND SOME DON’T WORK BECAUSE OF YOU.  Welcome to life.  You try another one.  Because the principle doesn’t change. These sort of structured relationships are how God relocates us to where we belong in the body . . . and that’s the only way we grow.  You can only be spiritual if you are first religious.               You know what all this means for me?  (I love this!) Your main connection to this church ceases to be through worship, through music, through me . . . and becomes through your LifeGroup.  As your pastor, that’s terrifying . . . and liberating!  You won’t all know me . . . but you will all know Jesus and a small connection of fellow ligaments.  And that’s when, that’s when you’ll wake up to the Holy Spirit.  REFRAIN