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Welcome to the Gospel Focused Family Moment. I’m your host, Eric Novak. Each week we pause as a family to remember what matters most, the good news of Jesus. This podcast is brought to you by gospelfocused.com.
For our opening liturgy today, I’ll be your leader and ask a question, and then you follow along and repeat with your family. Christian family, what do we believe? We believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. We believe in the Holy Spirit, who gives us life and makes us one.
Today’s scripture reading comes from John 14:15–17. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” This is the word of the Lord.
Hello, listeners, welcome to the show. We’re studying the Apostles’ Creed together, and it’s a special document that was recited to those close to the beginning of the church so that they could learn what the church believed. Today it’s still recited in churches across the world. If you’ve been following along, or if you’re brand new here, a creed is basically a list of things that people believe. And you might even say a “Credo,” or an “I believe” statement, about your own family.
We believe in packing our lunches for church. Or we believe in not fighting in the car. That one’s a hard one to uphold. We believe in family fun on Wednesday evenings. That’s a credo, but it goes deeper in the church, because it’s about our belief and faith in God. So let’s read the Apostles’ Creed together, and then we’ll unpack our line:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Our line we’ll be studying today is “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” Now, it’s a short line, but it’s really important. At the opening of the show, you might have even recited the liturgy with your family. Christian family, what do we believe? We believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. We believe in the Holy Spirit, who gives us life and makes us one.
We’ve already said in this that we believe in the Father, and we believe in the Son, we believe in Jesus the Son. The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity, and fully God, because God is three persons, one God. When we think of the Holy Spirit, some people call Him the Holy Ghost. That’s just an old-fashioned word for Spirit, not a spooky ghost. But in the Bible, the word for Holy Spirit is closer to “wind” or “breath.” This picture reminds us that the Spirit is God’s own life and presence, given to the people that He loves most.
In Genesis, we hear that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And then God breathes life into the first man, Adam, and brings him to life. God’s Spirit continues from the book of Genesis to the empty tomb and beyond. And when Jesus ascends into heaven, He promises that He will not leave us alone, but will send us a Helper.
The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force. He’s not a feeling. When you listen to a worship song at church and get goosebumps, that good feeling is a gift, but it isn’t the same as the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is a person, and He’s with you whether you feel goosebumps or not. The Holy Spirit is a person given to you to align your heart to God. In fact, when you first trusted Jesus, that was the Holy Spirit changing your heart so you could know who God is and believe in Him.
First Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” And then Titus 3:5–6 says, “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
You know, the Trinity is amazing, because the three persons of God are in a beautiful community together, pointing to each other. The Spirit glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father, and the Father glorifies the Son, and together it’s all for the Father’s glory.
The last thing I want to say is to emphasize one point: the Holy Spirit lives inside you. The Holy Spirit is constantly working in us. The Bible says that He comforts us and is with us forever, and He makes us more like Jesus. If your family is growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control, you know you’re seeing the Holy Spirit at work, because those things don’t come naturally to us. But God wants us to be like Jesus, to align to who He is, and He makes that possible through the Holy Spirit.
Let’s have a moment of reflection before our memory verse and prayer, thinking about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We learned today that when the Holy Spirit is working in us, He grows good things in our hearts, things that the Bible calls the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So let’s go looking for Him. Think back over your day. Was someone in your family kind to you today? Did you see someone share, or forgive, or say “I’m sorry”?
Did you feel peace even when something went wrong? Were you patient when you really wanted to be grumpy? Did you choose to be gentle when it would have been easier to be mean? Here’s the amazing part. Every time you saw one of those things, big or small, you were seeing the Holy Spirit at work. Those good things don’t come from us on our own, they’re a gift. God growing us to be more like Jesus.
So let’s thank Him for that. Parents, you could name one way you saw the Spirit’s fruit in your child today. And kids, you could name one way you saw it in your mom or dad, or your brother or sister. Let’s carry that right into our prayer. Our memory verse for today is “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, will teach you all things.” John 14:26.
Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit indwelling us and enabling us to do good works. We thank you that you align our hearts with yours, slowly teaching us how to be more like Jesus. Sanctify us to walk in your ways, and in the oldest prayer of the church, come, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.
Thanks for joining us for this week’s Gospel Focused Family Moment. I’m your host, Eric Novak. Until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus and your hearts focused on the gospel. Go as a family in the peace of your Savior and closest friend, Jesus Christ. See you next week.
Thank you for being part of what we do at gospelfocused.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with a friend. Every person we reach brings us closer to our goal of sharing the gospel with every family around the world, by the grace of Jesus.
