The Believer’s Heart
Day of Pentecost – May 24, 2026
1 Corinthians 12:3-13 and John 7:37-39
By Pastor Jane Shelton, CRE
I never tire of reading or hearing our Corinthians verses explaining how we are blessed with the Holy Spirit sent by God. This Spirit was requested as an advocate for us by Jesus, the one who supports us.
I love hearing how we are all given different gifts that make up the body of the Church. Gifts that have been blessed by the Spirit to be nurtured and to grow so that we are able to realize both our full spiritual abilities and our spiritual potential to be united as one body in Christ.
Unfortunately, our humanness often gets in the way of allowing us to remain united. The human need to be seen and heard above others, the human need to be the one who is always right or has all the answers. The human need to be competitive.
All of these human characteristics divide us rather than unite us, and we forget that all of us serve the church in some way with the spiritual gifts that we have been provided for the purpose of being united in Christ as one body to worship and glorify God.
Spiritual gifts may include listening, comforting others, praying, teaching, and missions. Some of you have gifts of music that include the ability to play an instrument and lift a voice of praise.
Some of you are gifted with the ability to provide the beauty that we see when we enter the church, making sure paraments and flowers are placed, and the sanctuary outside is picked up and cleaned up for worship.
Some have gifts that include organization and management skills. You have gifts to show up and be present, either in person or online.
Some of you have gardening skills to help keep our Fellowship Garden looking wonderful so that many can reap the fruits and vegetables blessed by our Lord for all to enjoy.
Many of you are readers and others are greeters.
I could go on and on and on with the many varied spiritual gifts we have been blessed with here in this congregation.
And while I see all these things and many more in you here at this church building, I know, because I know you, that your gifts are not confined only to this property, and I especially thank God for each of you, because I know that you are sharing your spiritual gifts wherever you go.
For you see, this church body of Christ is not just a body when we are gathered here together in this place, but I believe we are a bigger body of Christ when we expand our reach beyond this place, whether we are one on one with someone we meet in our daily journey not affiliated with this church, or whether we are praying for and helping those within our congregation.
You see, the believer’s heart has no boundaries.
Ever since the first day the Holy Spirit descended from the hand of God to fill each person with the gifts of the Spirit, God’s work has continued day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute.
It’s a beautiful reason to celebrate Pentecost and to reflect, as we talked about last week, Christ supports us so much that he would ask for an Advocate for us so that we would not be alone and could continue our relationship with God.
This day is the birthday of the church! It’s about our second scripture reading, the day that Jesus promised his disciples and others with them.
This is the day the Holy Spirit came down from God to not just live among us, but to live within us. As Jesus promised, we have been clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Here, in this scripture we see more words spoken from Jesus, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
Jesus said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive once Jesus had been glorified and taken to Heaven by the Abba Father, God the Creator of the Universe.
Today, these words have been fulfilled not only in the Apostles and disciples of Jesus’ time, but also in each of us, all who have a believer’s heart. All who believe in Jesus as the Son of Man, crucified and resurrected. All who are thirsty and come to drink from the cup of Christ.
It is because of the Holy Spirit of the Triune God that we have been given that our believing hearts flow rivers of living water to each other and to those we meet in life.
We each have believing hearts shared with all believing hearts within our congregation, within our Presbytery, and within every Christian outside these doors in our community and in the world.
A believer’s heart has no boundary, and there are many we may never meet; however, believers’ hearts can be joined across this land and indeed the world by the Spirit of the Living Waters flowing freely across the universe. Together we are many members in one body.
Let us always remember to sacrifice our human need to be number one and lift each other up for the good of the body of Christ so that God, who is number one, may be glorified and his work through us can be fulfilled.
So let us come today, filled with the Holy Spirit, and celebrate the day of Pentecost, the day the Church was born, the day God sent down from Heaven the Advocate, the Holy Spirit requested by Jesus Christ who supports our believing hearts.
Let us sit just a moment with our believing hearts and feel the Holy Spirit within us. Feel the tingling in your toes and fingers, or maybe it’s a burning fire that is rising to your heart and mind leading you to move further away from the human need to be number one, and instead being united with this congregation of believers, and with believers outside these doors.
And may all we do be, not for us, but for the glory of God. Amen.