Impossible Moments - Part 3

A Father's Faith, Noah - Genesis 6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Sermon Transcript

I am really excited this morning to keep going in our impossible moments series and really to talk about and share an incredible story about one amazing dad. And we, Pastor Andre and myself, we were working through this series to think through them. Like, what are we gonna talk about on Father's Day? And what fathers maybe from the Bible could we learn from or where examples are there? And we both kind of turned to each other and said this guy's name about the exact same time. And it was pretty awesome. And this morning I'm really pumped to be able to talk about Noah. And Noah is one amazing dad. And Noah had this incredible father's faith that changed the world. And if you know the story maybe of Noah, you maybe heard it with the ark and the animals and the rain and the flood and God saving humanity through this guy and his family, that you probably know some of the faith that was needed for Noah to press forward. And I wanna dive in a little bit here because the reality is that Noah is this outstanding example of faith and obedience, not only as a dad, but for all of us to be able to take something home with us today.

Oswald Sanders has this great quote on the story of Noah. And he says, "The construction of the ark was one of the longest, most drawn out tests of faith recorded in the Bible. Throughout the whole period, Noah's hard pressed faith is given no visible confirmation. His conviction that a flood was coming was shared by no one, but him and his family. Public opinion was solidly against him. There was no precedent to which he could appeal for reassurance. Never before had there been a flood, never before had there been rain. Both nature and experience were against its probability. Noah was regarded as an eccentric and his sons as fools. So on questioning faith, the man who walked with God accepted God's revelation and acted on it.

Noah was one incredible dude. And Noah in faith faced an impossible moment. And the only thing that he could do was believe in God through this challenge that he faced. And that's the premise of our series. We've talked about Moses. Last week, we talked about David and Goliath. This week, we're talking about Noah. We're going through the Old Testament, pulling out some of these stories this summer to see places where God moved when there seemed to be no hope. And yet God showed up when there was no light at the end of the tunnel. God shined the light. He acted, he saved, he rescued, he moved. And our hope and our prayer, Pastor Andre and myself in this series is that whatever you might be facing in your life right now, press into God, press into Jesus. He's got you, okay? So we're gonna jump in in Genesis chapter six, if you wanted to flip, tap, click over to that. And we're gonna be starting in verse five. And we're gonna come onto the scene here of, we are, we've come out the garden and Adam and Eve and it's been generations and there've been some different things that are happening. Not very good stuff, let's be honest. Not very good stuff has happened since Adam and Eve. It kind of went off the rails there and it never really got back on the rails. It kind of kept going further and further and further. And so we come onto the scene here in this moment.

And it says this in verse five, the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Doesn't sound too good, right? The Lord regretted that he had made humans on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race that I have created, and then the animals and the birds and the creatures that move along the ground, for I regret that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

God here looks down at the world, this floating marble in the sky, and sees just horrendousness. I mean, that's a word. There's gonna be a word today, okay? There's nothing good on earth. There is nothing good that is happening. It is just pure wickedness and God is greed. God's heart is breaking as he sees all of humanity. He sees this beautiful thing that he has created and it's just completely ignoring him. There's this emotional pain that God is feeling. And sometimes maybe we don't think about God like that, Right? We don't think about God having these emotions to feel this pain, but we know Jesus, who was fully God and fully man walked on earth. He felt emotional pain. We see that in scripture. And so if Jesus is God, then he shares the same characteristics with God, the Father, God, Yahweh, then we know that he can experience this emotional pain that he is being grieved. And he looks down and he's like, what is going on? It wasn't like God turned a blind eye and then like came back, like a dad would walk into the kitchen and it's just a mess. He's like, what happened? Like God has seen this the whole time happening. And he's saying, okay, I think we're gonna get back on here. Nope, no, the humans did that choice again. I think we're gonna get back here. Oh, and then they're over here. And so eventually they find themselves all the way over this way that in 611 of Genesis says, now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. There was nothing good that was happening in this. Humanity time and time again was choosing a path, a life apart from God. But then there was this one dude, this one guy who's trying to do it right. And it's Noah. And so Noah comes onto the scene as God is sitting here contemplating this thing of, I'm just gonna start over. I'm gonna hit the reset button, Wipe it out and maybe I'll recreate and we're gonna try this again. I don't know. I don't know what God was thinking at that point. All he knew that he was like, I can't continue to let the world operate in this way. And so this guy named Noah comes onto the scene and he is the only person on the entire planet, the entire planet that is living the way and walking with a heart of God that God desires. I mean, we take a look at the world around us today and we might read this scripture and go, "I don't know how far from this we are with the days of Noah," right? There's a lot in life that is not the heart of God. There's a lot of action. There's a lot of people's choices that are far from what we read about in scripture is the way of the life that Jesus calls us to. And so here we kind of question and ask, How do we even as Christians live in the world of 2023?

And I think Noah would know exactly what this is like. Noah knows exactly and probably way better than we know how to live a life for God, even in the midst of the world around us. Says this in Genesis 6a, it says, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." God is grieving over the loss of the human race. And he looks down and he sees one guy with a heart and a desire to please him, to live different and to live in a manner that is pleasing to God. I wanna talk through a couple things about who Noah is and then get into a little bit of what does this mean for us today?

But it says in Genesis 6, 8 through 9, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, a blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. First thing we see here in these two short verses is Noah's position with God. Noah finds himself in this place when the God looked down on him that he found favor with God. Another word to use here would be grace, that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found acceptance. God was pleased when he looked down and he saw Noah, how he lived his life, how he cared for his family, how he adored his wife, and the representative that he was to the world around him. Noah is standing before a holy God and seeing favor. and seeing favor. This is Noah's position. Now, I'm not going to say here that he was perfect. I don't think Noah was this perfect human being on earth, but as the Scripture says here, I think he demonstrates for us the life that we are called to live. Now, I would say that Noah probably let a few choice words fly when he smashed his hand with a hammer, building the boat. Maybe he came home from a long day working on the boat and Mrs. Noah asked to do some dishes and he said no. Or maybe he didn't love his sons as well as he could have, or maybe had as much patience as he might have after a long day in the field on the boat. But what the scripture tells us is that he was righteous. Noah's was human. Noah wasn't this perfect person, but Noah had a heart for God. And because of that, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Next part says here that Noah was a righteous man. We see here that is his character, Noah's character. This is the first time in scripture that these two words are actually used side by side for for an individual up to this point, a righteous man. What does that mean? Well, I think what it means is that Noah was a genuine person. He was real, he was authentic. He wasn't pretending just to be this good guy when he's out there and then come home and shut the door and he's a different person. He is living the life day in and day out, even when nobody is watching. That's the kind of character that Noah had. He wasn't just checking the box. Noah was through and through looking towards God for the way that he was to conduct himself and live his life. The third thing we see in here is that we see the phrase blameless among the people of his time. What does that mean? Well, that means that this verse, we're seeing this picture of humanity being pretty bleak, right? This picture of humanity and how they're conducting themselves and the wickedness and the selfishness and choosing whatever they please, they wanna do that moment from time to time, moment by moment just saying yes to themselves, saying no to God, pushing them away, not even thinking about him, not even acknowledging that he is even there. And yet this person, Noah, is following God. following God. I don't know that we can fully wrap our minds around this. That no one, no one apart from Noah is following God.

Another word and translation here, a blameless among the people of his time is of his generations, plural. Noah is the first to even attempt to live for God for generations, multiple generations have come and gone and nobody is living for God. And Noah comes on the scene and he draws a line and he says, I'm gonna push back to what the world is doing. I know this isn't right. I know that there's a God and I know I need to live my life different than the way that I'm living it in this what I see the example of the world around me. Noah is saying and pushing back against peer pressure. And he is saying, this is the life that we should live. I don't care if it's against what the society says. I don't care if it's against culture. I don't care what it is that I'm gonna push back with wisdom and strength and fight against this. Noah is a salmon. Guys know what salmon do? Swim upstream. I'm a salmon, just swimming upstream. Everybody's flowing this way. And Noah's like, "Nope, I'm going this way." And people would look at him and go, "You're crazy, dude. Are you kidding me? Why are you doing this?" But this is Noah's testimony. Day in and day out, Noah is out there banging away, building a boat. And people are looking at him and going, "Dude, you are nuts. You've completely lost it. But he's out there. He's faithful. He's walking each step. And it says, as in the scripture says, blameless.

Final thing we see for who Noah is, is that he walked faithfully with God. If you're looking to put something on your tombstone, Don't put Noah walked faithfully with God, okay? That'd just be kind of weird. But wouldn't that be amazing that your whole life is wrapped up with the phrase and Angus walked faithfully with God? Rich walked faithfully with God. Chris walked faithfully with God. Wouldn't that be amazing? a simple yet incredibly profound statement for one's life. Doesn't get much better than that, does it? Noah here walked in a way that was only really understood to this point by two people. One we read about a couple of chapters earlier in Genesis 5 24, it said the guy named was Enoch. He says, "Enoch walked faithfully with God, and then he was no more because God took him away." Enoch walked so close with God that one day he literally just walked up into heaven and he was with God. That's the type of walking with God. This is the type of fellowship that Noah has, this relationship that he has with God that each and every step of the way, he is right there in lockstep with God. Is it easy? Absolutely not. This isn't a nice little smooth stroll on the shade, on a paved path that's flat with no grade. We're talking uphill, both ways, in the snow, barefoot, just trying to truck along, struggling, fighting, clawing, kind of a walk. But it was a walk with courage. It was a hard, exhausting, draining, fighting walk, because no one else was walking that way. I heard this quote from a pastor, he's way smarter than myself. He says, "When a person walks with God, it necessarily means one cannot walk with everyone else around them." It's just impossible. The world is not going to walk the way that God wants us to go, at least not in everything.

But God was pleased when he saw Noah with his actions, his behavior, his choices and his character. So God comes up with this plan. He goes, "I'm still gonna destroy everything, but I want to save animals, I want to save humanity through this person Noah." And so God comes to this righteous man and and he begins to lay out this plan of what he wants him to do. He says, "My heart's greaved, I'm broken." He goes, "I'm gonna send a flood, And I'm going to send rain, something you've never seen before, water falling from the sky. He goes, "Just stick with me here, buddy." He says, "Now I want you to build a boat." Noah probably says, "What's a boat?" Noah says, "Well, let me tell you what a boat is." And so he begins to tell him these plans and how he's going to bring the animals to him, and they're going to load up. And through this faith of Noah to build this giant boat, that God is gonna save him and his family in an impossible moment. And gives them the synopsis of what's gonna play. And then he says, "This is the role, Noah, that I want you to play in all of this." And he gives them all the details. We fast forward a little bit into Genesis 6, and we see what Noah did. It says in 622, it says, "Noah did everything just as God commanded him." Noah and his content was obedient to the Lord. I think it's one thing to have the heart knowledge of what God wants for us, but it's something entirely different to live that out. I don't know, maybe you're like me, maybe you're not. You have all this knowledge in your head, but we don't necessarily bring that to action. Was it action is three fourths of the law of knowledge, right? That the fact that if we don't, we can know everything and that's fantastic. But if we never put it into action, it really doesn't mean anything. And we read here that Noah actually fulfills and follows what God asked of him. And not just followed a couple of things here and maybe a little bit here and maybe some stuff over here and kind of got creative with his build over here, but Noah did everything just as God commanded him. He did everything, absolutely 100%, every single little step of completion for God's plan. That's incredible. That's absolutely incredible.

And what happens? Animals show up, they load up, God says, get in the boat. Noah and his family loads up, God shuts the ark, and it starts raining, and raining, and raining, and raining. And it says in Genesis 7, 7, "And Noah and his sons and his wife and his son's wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood." You think, yep, that's it. That's how the flannelgraph story goes. put the little storm clouds up there and roll out the boat and the animals are behind the boat and the storyboard is all there and we're good to go and the waters go away and the Sun comes out and then the family gets off and the animals run off and then we the story continues on and we flip the page in Genesis over to the next story.

But I think there's so much more here than that and specifically for us today I want to talk about this in the terms of what it means to be a father. There's a lot, I think, here in the scripture that doesn't say about the details of it, but the reality is that God called Noah to an impossible task. But God didn't call Noah and say, "Hey, come back here, meet me at this rock with your family and your sons and your sons' wives. We're gonna have a conference call, and I'm gonna lay out all the details that everything is gonna happen, and I'll let you know so that everybody's on the same page. No, it didn't work like that. God told Noah. God didn't tell Noah's wife. God didn't tell Noah's kids. God didn't tell Noah's daughters-in-law. God told Noah.

And at some point, although the text doesn't tell us, at some point, Noah had to break the news to his wife. I'd love to fly on the wall in that conversation. Right? So, babe, got some news today from a big guy in the sky. So, you know this awesome weather we've been having for like ever? It's gonna end. And there's gonna be water that falls from the sky, and the earth's just gonna open up, and it's gonna flood. And God says, "I'm supposed to build this, how do you say it, boat?" And He's gonna bring a bunch of animals, and we're gonna load them up on the boat. And you, and me, and the boys, and the daughters in love, we're just all gonna load up, and we're gonna have an adventure. Mrs. Noah's there you go going what? And then he has to tell the boys because Mrs. Noah ain't telling them. Hey boys I got something we need to talk about which is never a good sign from dad right? Yeah so you know, this God thing and there's a water boat and you and your wives. Yeah, we're all gonna load up. We're gonna go on an adventure." And then the boys probably look to each other and go, "There's no chance I'm trying to convince my wife. You got to go break the news." So then he goes to his daughter's in law. Hey, so welcome to the family. So glad you're a part of it. I love you. I'm kind of the dad-in-law. I got some news. He goes through his pitch. I cannot even imagine. Yet Noah tells them a story and they believe. Why? Because Noah was a righteous man respected by those who knew him best.

See the best judge of our Our character is our spouse, our kids, our family, our extended family, 'cause they know the truth, right? We can come here, we can put the face on with church, we can say, "Hey, pastor, how's it going? Blessed be Jesus today. We're having a great Sunday, amen, hallelujah." And you go home and that door closes and then you go, "Oh, finally, I'm not around pastor anymore." And we let our real selves out, right? That wasn't Noah. Noah was the same guy that you knew in the market square buying lumber as he was the guy at home tucking the kids in for bed at night. When the kid would wake you up in the middle of the night for the 12th time, he was the same Noah. He was the same husband. He was the same father. And I think when we don't have others around, our real selves come out. We all get caught in this, it's okay. I get caught in it too. But behind closed doors, Noah was always Noah. And they knew and they believed, which is remarkable, this faith of Noah. Righteous man, respected by those who knew him best.

Find this interesting because we read the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible, which are written by Moses, recorded, that he's writing this historical record of the flood. And then we move on to Genesis 19. We come to this story, which kind of juxtaposed to the story of Noah and his faith as a father with this guy, with Abraham, and specifically his nephew named Lot, who if you guys don't know the story, Lot is this guy who's a family member of Abraham, Abraham at that point. They come from the land of Ur and the Calidees and they come to this promised land that God, the Holy land that God has told Abraham where he will make generations after generations after generations. But he's got this nephew with him. And they get into a conflict, an argument over where they're gonna settle. And so, Abram says, "Fine Lot, just pick what you want, go where you want, take your people, do your thing." And so Lot chooses to go the way that he wants and takes his crew and family and herds and he moves over to this land. And eventually he moves a little bit further and a little bit further and he starts getting closer and closer to this place called Sodom and Gomorrah. And eventually Lot finds himself headed to the city a couple times a week. Then he finds himself just hanging out at the city. He gets to know people and then eventually he's living in the city. And then eventually he's living in the sin and the selfishness of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. And again, God looks down and says, nope, this isn't right. He's had it up to here with it. So he sends a couple of messengers and he says to try to pull a lot out to go say, hey, I know you're not supposed to live your life like this. There is a better plan. I'm here to rescue you. Let's go. And Locke goes, hold up, hold up, hold up. He goes, let me go tell my family. So Locke goes and he tells his family, Hey, God has had it with Sodom and Gomorrah and the sin and the wickedness. He's gonna destroy the city. We gotta pack our stuff up and we're gonna head and we're gonna go meet up with Abram, Uncle Abram. We're gonna go join our herds together back again and live life with family again. And his family laughs at him thinking he's joking. Same scenario, same situation. God communicates only to the fathers, Noah and Lot. And with Noah, they believed because they knew the man of Noah. But then Lot's family rejects him because they knew the man who was Lot. Noah, which was righteous man, respected by those who knew Him the best.

Okay, closing real quick. Dads, I want to talk to you real quick. Everybody else can fall asleep. Still listen, fall asleep. Dads, I haven't been a dad very long on this earth, but I have an incredible dad, an example of a man, a godly man before me. And I try to walk in his footsteps because he walked in the footsteps of God. And we are called to this incredible task. an impossible task for us to be an example of righteousness to our spouse, to our children, to our families, to our communities. And just as Noah was to those around him in his life, this is our higher calling. This is, this is our higher calling to teach morals, to teach values, to teach virtues, Virtues like wisdom and justice and courage and self-discipline and ultimately grace, but the greatest of these of being love. To give to our children, to teach them from the Bible of how we live our life. Ephesians 6, 4 says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger or irritate them or turn them bitter or exasperate them by the way that you treat them. bring them up tenderly with loving kindness, nurturing them full of grace with the discipline and the instructions that come from the Lord. See the Bible is filled, filled with examples of teaching and instructions and the way we want to pass down to our children. And from time to time, from the time that they are new to this earth, to where they are children, to where they are teens, they are young adults, and even past the time when they are adults, we are called to this state of teaching them, loving them, caring for them, and ultimately leading them to Jesus. That's what it's about. And see, I don't think the parenting ends, I think the parenting changes, and I think the approach has to be ever morphing, but there will always be influence. The influence will always be there. I don't know how old Joseph's sons were. We know by the end when they load up that they're old enough to be married, and I don't know, somebody probably knows how long it took to build the ark and all the stats and all that stuff, so So the boys probably young maybe when this started. They got to the point where they had to still, as an adult with their own families, follow the leading of their father to get onto the boat. And what's amazing is that kids learn more from observing than hearing or reading. And that should be an amen from all of us dads, right? That it is our calling and an incredible blessing that we have to walk with the Lord and for them to observe us. That's what it's about. For us to walk daily with God to be an example as someone so they know how to walk with the Lord. OK, dads, thank you.

Everybody else, we can all wake up. But I hope you guys are listening because the reality is that, honestly, this is the calling of everybody. This is everyone's calling. This isn't just limited to dads. This is for moms, it's for those who hope to be a parent someday, it's for those who are spiritual dads or spiritual moms, it's for those people in our lives, it's for those who are married, those who are not married, single widows, someone with kids, someone with no kids, it's for those who are old, it's for those who are young, it's everybody of all ages, everyone right near on planet earth, if you got a pulse and breath in your lungs, this is your calling. to follow Jesus, to walk with the Lord. And we are called to live this out through the power of the Holy Spirit, to live a life of full character with our testimony before others, walking in fellowship with God, even if the world around us is going the opposite direction, even if the world might ridicule us for our priorities, Even if the culture around us is deserting Christ, and we are the only person left on the earth like Noah, we will walk with God. That's what it's about. See, I wonder if it wasn't the flood, or the 40 days, or the smell on that ark, or the storms, or the waves that toss the boat or the daily grind of checking in with those animals for those 40 days. Or I don't even think even the first step off of the boat was the hardest. I think for Noah, the hardest of his whole story of his life was the waking up every day and picking up his tools and going to the boat and building. Being ridiculed, mocked, just every word probably in the book thrown at the dude. Day after day after day. I think That was the hardest. To putting faith into action in the impossible moments. But Noah did it. Noah did it. And he didn't do it for himself. He did it for his family. He did it for his family.

So you and I may not understand why God is doing the things that he's doing, or what he's called us to do, or how we're supposed to just put one foot in front of the other every single day. But we've got to walk with God. You've got to obey God's calling on your life. Hebrews 11, called this the faith chapter, writes about those with just tremendous faith. And Noah's listed in there. It says in verse seven, "By faith Noah, "when warned about the things not yet seen in holy fear, "built an ark to save his family." Noah's family members were his only converts. And yet God deemed him a success. Dad's our first ministry. It isn't for others or friends, it's for our family. It's for those in our lives. And it was in the days of Noah, And so it is in our day that there's a time of wickedness and violence and sin.

But God's grace is sufficient for us fathers, right? And God's grace is sufficient for us all. Just as it was then, the truth still stands today. So may God enable us to win our families, our friends, neighbors, those where we live, learn, work and play. May we lead them in a life that leads them to Christ. To be that example. To see our communities saturated with the glory of God. Even when it seems impossible. Let us walk with God by first being saved and then second by obeying God in our lives. us faithfully witness for God. Amen?

Let's be so real and authentic Christians that our families are convinced Christianity must be true. Let's be that first example and lead them to faith in Christ by our example. Let's pray. Jesus we thank you for this morning. God thank you for your servant Noah who facing impossible odds impossible tasks still said yes to you who even by himself all alone all without anybody else continued to say yes to you God and to walk every single day in the lockstep with you. God we're so grateful we're so thankful for pillars of faith these patriarchs God of Christianity that came before us and walk the hard so that we can be encouraged when you ask us to walk the same. We thank you, Jesus. We love you. Amen. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 2

David v. Goliath - 1 Samuel 17

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm excited to continue in our new summer series today. we are talking about impossible moments. And Pastor Andre kicked us off last week. It was great talking about the story of Moses, who was saved as a baby, through just an incredible God moment that he then raised up this guy Moses, who would eventually lead the people out of slavery in Egypt and to the promised land. And so I am excited to continue this morning with a probably a classic that you guys might be familiar with. Anybody heard of the story of David and Goliath? Anybody? Yeah, yeah, we got some takers in here, sweet. So I am really pumped to be able to share. This is one of, not my favorite Bible story I'll say, but one of, I have a couple of different ones that I enjoy, but David and Goliath is one of my favorites. Who doesn't love an underdog story, right? That's the best part about this. But this summer series is taking time through this season to look into the Old Testament 'cause it is chocked full of some incredible stories, maybe familiar like David and Goliath and Moses, maybe unfamiliar with some of these different prophets we're gonna get into and talk about. But the idea of this is when all seemed lost, when your back is up against the wall, The odds are completely stacked against you. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. You have no hope, nothing, and yet God. And that's what I want our theme to be within this series of impossible moments is that, and yet God, God did something. He shows up in a person's life. He shows up in a people's life. We're gonna read about a story today, not just a story, but a historical event that actually truly happened where God showed up and beat the impossible odds. And I'm excited to share this morning. And I hope that you're ready to hear this morning. Anybody ready to hear a word from God today? Amen, let's go, come on, I love it.

So this story takes place in the 11th century or around the day of 1040 BC. We come into the scene here of the Israelite people, are facing a powerhouse of an army called the Philistines. And they are under their first king or a big king of the three big kings that we know of Saul, David and Solomon. And King Saul is leading the Israelite army into battle to take on the fierce Philistines to be able to really try to punch through from where they are into the Mediterranean Sea. So, because in that day, in that age, everything was driven by water. That was the fastest way of travel, it was the fastest way to connect with people. And on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, if the Israelites were able to get there and to get one, capture one of these port cities, they would have incredible opportunity to have trade, to have like agricultural forward movement. They were able to have so many advancements to be able to travel even the Mediterranean Sea itself, to visit so many different cultures and countries, but to open up doors for an opportunity for the Israelite people. And so they are marching towards the sea and they come up against the Philistines. And the Philistines are this like ragtag, like just group of random people of like five different random cities that had decided to kind of band arms together and to fight and to protect this land because they do want to have this water opportunity at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea for their own society. And so we come on scene, not at the first time that these two have run into each other, they're neighbors. And as you might have neighbors yourself, you have run-ins, right? Do we not? I have some fun neighbors and I have some not so fun neighbors. I'll tell you, in the name of Jesus, I love them, but they're not so fun neighbors. We're in a situation right now of a dog that keeps breaking down fences and it's really fun. So I have not so nice neighbors. No, I'm just kidding. She's really nice and she's trying to help, but she can't deal with this dog. God bless her. But the Philistines, but not my story today, but the Bible, okay? I'm processing through it. Thank you for coming to my session.

All right, so we come in, if you wanna turn your Bibles to 1 Samuel 17 is where we're gonna be. And if you have heard the story of David and Goliath, maybe you were a kid, maybe you're new to it, maybe you've heard it a thousand different times, I want to take time, and we're not gonna read it in one swell felt through, I'm gonna break it up. But I want us to read this together today. Am I together? It means I'll just read it to you, you just listen. You don't have to read it with me. You're like, "Oh my gosh." But this idea that sometimes when we have stories like these we hear them and maybe we mix some stuff up. Maybe remember things a little bit differently. Maybe we add some things to the story. It happens, we all have that. You think of a memory back in the day and you start telling the story again. And if you're like me, I have a wonderful person in my wife that'll correct me as I tell the story 'cause she remembers everything better than myself. And so I want us to have the Bible be the record for the story today so that we can hear how God moved in this impossible moment. It starts all 1 Samuel 17 verse one. It says this, it says, "Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp in Ephes Dammim between Sokoh and Azekah. Saul and the Israelites assembled the camp in the Valley of Elah and drew their battle line to meet the Philistines. The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another and the valley in between them.

So this is the opening scene of the movie, all right? I can see it, the camera comes flying in from one side. You see all over the armies and they're all lined up and there are horses and the chariots and they're all ready to go and then it swoops over to the other side of the valley and the Philistines are lined up and everybody's shouting, "Ah, we're all pumped up." And then they just like pans out and just like here it is set. On one side of the valley, you have the Philistines, on the other side, you have the Israelites and you just have this empty space, no man's land in between the two of them. Are you guys excited about the movie so far? Yeah, you pulled in, you pulled in, cool. So here's what it looks like. Here's a map of the situation of where we're at. We have five different of these cities associated with the Philistine Confederation. You have Gaza, Ashkelon, Arshod, Ekron, and Gath. And then the Valley of Elah is in between Azekah and Sokoh. And you have a Gibeah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Hebron. Okay? I just say it faster, the more it sounds like convincing that I know what I'm saying and we just roll with it, okay? So right here, the Israelites, They're moving from Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is where the temple is, where the kings are at in their empire. And they're moving towards this big blue thing over on the side, that's the Mediterranean Sea. And the Philistines over here are saying, "We ain't giving this to you, we're not giving it up." And they butt heads right at each other, right in the valley of Allah. And this is where our story begins. So if you were to have, here's a photo of present day, so you guys can kind of understand a little bit more. You have Gath all the way out there, in the far distance and Socoh, which you guys saw on the map. And then you have where you have the Philistine camp and then right behind them, that's the Mediterranean Sea. And then you have the Elah Valley and then you have the Israelite camp. So these guys clearly see each other. They see every single movement. They both have elevated positions. They can both look right down. There's nothing in the valley. It's completely wide open. So any move that either party makes, they can see coming from a mile away. And so they had the camps back up in the hills a little bit, and then every day they would ride down into the valley and they would line up to face each other and just hurl insults at each other.

And this is where we come into the story. Verse four, "A champion named Goliath, who was from Goth," remember Goth, far off in the distance, but associated with the Philistine. "A champion named Goliath, who was from Goth, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head. He wore a coat of scale armor, a bronze weighing 500 shekels. On his legs were bronze graves and bronze javelin that was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shekels. And his shield bearer went ahead of him. Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of the Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? Are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight me and kill me, we will become your subjects. But if I overcome him and kill him, you shall become our subjects and serve us." Then the Philistines said, "This day I defy the armies of Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other." on hearing the Philistines word Saul and all the Israelites, that's King Saul, King Saul, their fearless leader here supposedly, and Israelites were all dismayed and terrified. So they line up, everybody charges down to the battlefield, they all line up and they're staring at each other, and then comes this behemoth of a dude. He just comes out. So does anybody know what six cubits is equivalent to? nine feet and a span which is considered nine inches. So this dude, just under the height of a basketball hoop, marches out from, like, I don't think he like marches out or like sneaks out. You see him coming from Goth, like miles away. He comes out and basically the idea is, I know as Goliath, I can defeat anybody. There ain't anybody tall as me, there ain't anybody as strong as me, or anybody as big or as fierce or as crazy as Goliath. And he says, "Instead of letting you guys fight, let's do a one-on-one duel." A little Western, wah, wah, wah, just like you come out, this town ain't big enough for the both of us. You guys get the picture. The old school, Old Testament showdown. And so they're standing out there and Goliath comes out twice a day in the morning and the evening and taunts the Israelite people saying, "You don't have anybody that can beat me. Your God is not a God. I have my gods of Philistines behind me. I'm better than you, I'm stronger. I mean, the dude is wearing four pieces of like a brass armor. The guy has the helmet, he has all of the, what is it, he has the helmet, he's got the two like shin guards, he's got the chest plate, he's wearing a coat of chain mail that weighs like, what is it? It's like 155 pounds, okay? Then he has this shield with a guard, which I think is hilarious. Like this dude needs protection, really? This poor guy brings out the shield. It's probably as tall as him. And then he has this spear that weighs almost 20 pounds on it with a giant big old tree attached to it that I would assume, I don't know for sure, but I would assume this dude could probably wall up this thing across the football field. So like if I'm the Israelite people, yeah, I'm terrified. I'm scared, I'm afraid. I don't know what's gonna happen. My fearless leader, my King Saul is terrified as well. What are we supposed to do? We're stuck in this valley. If we run the Israelites back to Jerusalem, they're just gonna chase us back. If we try to fight them, we're probably getting walloped. And there's no way that we can even move forward whatsoever.

But the story continues. David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons. And in Saul's time, he was very old. Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. So the three oldest brothers are already there at the valley. The first born was Elab, the second Ananabeb, and the third Shema. David was the youngest, the little brother. The three oldest sons followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to tend to his father's sheep in Bethlehem. For 40 days, the Philistine came forward every morning, every night, and took his stand. Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take the epaph of roasted grain and 10 loaves of bread to your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along them 10 cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurances from them. There was Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah fighting against the Philistines. Early in the morning, David left his flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle position, shouting the war cry." So David shows up right as everybody's running out. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other like they had every day for the last 40 days, twice a day. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine, the champion from Goth, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance and David heard it. Whenever Israel saw the man, Goliath, they all fled from him in great fear. So every day they keep going out, They line up, they shout and yell at each other. Goliath comes out, Israelites get scared. They run back to their camp. They do it twice a day. I don't know why they keep doing this, but they keep doing this. Maybe they're hoping like Goliath like oversleeps his alarm and they're like, hey, we can take him while Goliath's sleeping. I don't know. But they do this every single day. And Goliath, he had given this title champion. You guys notice that in there? That word champion actually means the one in between. And the Israelites see Goliath and the Philistines see Goliath as this one that stands in between the two armies. But it's also understood that Goliath as man was the one who stood in between the gods and man. That Goliath himself was some sort of part God or like the gods because of his stature and his strength and no one had ever defeated him. And so they viewed him as this amazing godlike figure that lived on earth. And so David shows up and he's just trying to do something that good old dad told him to do. hey, go down to the battle. We don't have mail or email or text messages, just phone calls. You gotta send somebody old school on foot, get a note to my sons, let me see how they're doing. Let me know if they're still alive. Like that's the reality. Like we didn't even know if they were still living. And so David being the good son that he is, loads up and goes down there and shows up just as everybody is rolling out into the valley. And what's super important about this moment is because it isn't just any person who shows up, It's David. And prior to this, Samuel, who was kind of the head priest, the head pastor of the Israelite people in Jerusalem, had previously, if you read in chapter 16, he gets a word from God that the next king is gonna come soon and replace Saul, and it's gonna come from the family of Jesse. They didn't know it was gonna be David specifically, but there was this gonna be a new king in town, and it infuriated Saul. And I'm curious if part of this is why Saul decided, you know what, if I'm gonna keep my kingship, I'm gonna show everybody who I am, and I'm gonna march all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, and I'm gonna make the Israelite people put them on the face of the map of earth, and to say, I am king, look at me. And then he finds himself in this place, up against the battle of the Philistines. And so this is the point in the story, I believe, where Hans Zimmer would change the score to a minor key. 'Cause like, this is where like the tension starts building just even more in this moment.

We continue on. Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to a man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel." Pretty legit payout if you ask me. David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done to the man who kills the Philistine and removes the disgrace from Israel?" Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? You want an old school like comeback from the Old Testament? This is it right here. "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? They repeated him what had been said and then told him, This is what we done to the man who kills him. When Elab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You come down only to watch the battle." So like a good older brother, he marches in seeing little bro in the campsite going, "What are you doing here?" And I think there's probably a little like a pent up frustration from the past 40 days, little anger and what is he allowed to do? He takes it out on the little brother and just comes out and is like, "Why are you here? You're supposed to be home. What are you doing? Why are you in here?" And David, he's like, "Dude, back off, bro." He doesn't hold himself. He's like, "Who is this Philistine punk? Who is this dude that comes out and says all this slander, says all this blasphemy, says all this junk about my God. Who is this dude? And so he shows up and little does Elab know that little bro just didn't show up to watch a battle. Little bro showed up to battle. And so David here, and word's starting to get out in a camp of this guy, David, who's shown up.

It says now in verse 29, "Now what have I done?" said David, "Bro, what are you coming out? I didn't do anything. Can I even speak?" He then turned away to someone else and brought the same manner. And the men answered him as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul and Saul sent for him. David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of the Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him." Saul replied, "You are not able to just go out against this Philistine and fight him. You are only a young man. and he has been a warrior from his youth. But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it. I struck it. I rescued the sheep from its mouth. And when it turned on me, I seized it by the hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine. Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you." When Saul dressed, then Saul dressed David in his tunic, and he put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened his sword over the tunic and tried walking around because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.

So Saul brings in this kid who's talking smack in the camp, and word's getting out about who's this little bro showing up, mouthing off. Okay, well, let's put some money where his mouth is. Let's see who this dude is. So Saul brings him in and David's like, "Hey, don't worry. I got this." And I can only imagine Saul, like, seeing this kid, which he probably, he's probably in the range of like 13 to 15, because we know that his oldest three brothers were allowed to be in the army, and you could get in the army between 18 and 20. And so if you do the math on how many kids, and every year and all this, So you get to the point where he's in his middle teens, let's say. So yeah, this is a kid rolling in going, "Hey, I'm gonna take care of this giant." And Saul's like, "What?" And I think Saul here in himself is a little bit, even just tired himself. He's been going up against this dude 40 days, twice a day, exhausted. And he's like, "You know what? Fine, whatever. If you wanna do it, it sounds like there ain't gonna be anybody stopping you and me. I might as well put some armor on you so it looks like you might live 10 seconds longer than what you would just being out there wearing nothing. And so he comes to this point and David, he's getting bolder. You guys notice that? He's getting bolder. The more that he talks to these people, the more that you see this passion and this heart that he has for God. And he's like, "I've been there. I fought the lion. I fought the bear. I've taken out beasts, which if you could, honestly, a bear standing on its leg is probably nine feet tall as well. So David's taken out some legit stuff. Like he's given Saul his resume here. I took this out and that was okay. I took that out. And so Saul's like, "Okay, maybe this kid might have something. Maybe he might not. I don't know." But he gets to this point where that even when it seems like from the eyes of the world that all hope is lost, that the battle was already over. Saul didn't have any hope in David. Saul said, "I'm gonna cover my butt for a lawsuit, and I'm at least gonna put Jesse's boy in some armor, so at least he can't get mad at me for just letting his son run out there in a goatskin." But like, he's kinda given up. And I can only imagine the murmurs in the camp of just like, "Are you serious? This is our fearless fighter? This is the guy who's gonna go into the valley by himself. We're all going to line up and just watch this guy die. And then they're going to come after us. There's probably people in the camp packing up already. They're like, yeah, this is over. This is a good 40 days. Wasted my time. Guess I will get used to being in the Philistine control and under their slavery. I can't imagine what is going on. The odds are completely stacked against David. This is not looking good.

But yet, God. Remember that part? But yet, God. Verse 48. "As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him, reaching into his bag." Did I jump ahead? I did. Oh, jumped ahead. Back up. "Meanwhile..." This is a little flashback. You know, you watch those episodes. It was like five hours earlier, 30 minutes earlier. We meanwhile, the Philistine and the shield bearer were in front of him. They come closer to David. Then David looked over and saw that he was little more than a boy glowing with health and handsome. And he despised him. He said to David, "Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals." David then said to the Philistines, his boldness here, "You come against me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I will strike you down and cut off your head. This day, I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that this is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you all of it into your hands." So here's the movie scene. It comes down, the camera is right in David's face. I think of the, oh, what is it? The movie scene of, oh, who's the Scottish guy? Braveheart, Braveheart. He's like, "You might take our lives, but you will never take our Freedom." And they charge in a battle. I see this like being this epic, like this would have been a Grammy. Like it would have won every award, even like a Tony. Like they would have made a musical about it and it would have won it. Like it would have won everything. They would have swept the awards that year.

But this movie scene and Goliath comes out and he's like, "Who is this punk of a kid? Are you kidding me? This is a fly. I'm gonna flick him and he's gonna be gone." And then what are you gonna do Israel? And David steps up and gives this most epic speech in the world. Like I'm fired up right now. Like, can you tell? I'm fired right now. Just like I can take on anything for God right now. It's like, if you ever need like some fire at me, like eye of the tiger, like this is the original eye of the tiger in the Bible. And it's like this moment where God's like, I know and I serve this God who can do anything. And I know that because you've been sharing just flippant blasphemy against my God, I know that my God is gonna defeat you. And I don't care what God you come from, I don't care who you are, I don't care what background you are, I am 100% beyond confident that I know my God can take you out.

And as the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him. Reaching his bad, he took out a stone and he slung it, and he struck the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell face down on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. And without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword, drew it from the sheath, and after he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judah searched forward with a shout and pursued the Philistine to the entrance of Gath and the gates of Ekron. Their dead were sluned along the Sharon road and to Gath and Ekron, then the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines who plundered their camp. David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem. He put the Philistine's weapon in his own hand. As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, "Abner, whose son is that young man?" Abner said, "As surely as you live, your majesty, I don't know." The king said, "Find out whose son and young man this is." As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine's head. "Whose son are you, young man?" Saul asked. And then he said to him, "I am the son of your servant, Jesse of Bethlehem." And at that moment, Saul knows he's in trouble. (chuckles) This is like part one of this story. It's just like, that's like the after scenes credits from a Marvel movie of you bringing him in. He's like, I am son of Jesse. And then just to look on Saul's face, 'cause he knows this is the new king and I am done. So this whole scene is absolutely incredible. It's the underdog versus the champion. It's just the story that we love from our movies and TV and books that we read of just this God coming along, the one who is least likely to win.

But there's actually something bigger going on here. There is actually a God battle going on here. Because before this, the Philistines and Israelites had gotten into it with each other on multiple occasions. And just before this, the Philistines had actually beaten up the Israelites and stole the Ark of the Covenant. If you know from the story of the Bible, the Ark of the Covenant was where the tablets from Moses were the 10 commandments. I believe the staff from Aaron and Moses were in that. It was the treasure place. And it was the place that God physically dwelt on earth and the Israelites carry God with them. And so think about the most precious thing that you have has been taken from you. And you just are fuming with fury for these Philistines. And Philistines and their cockiness and their pride take the Ark of the Covenant actually into their temple with all of their many, many gods and put it below the God of what they call as Dagon or Dagon, Dagon. And they put the Ark of the Covenant below Dagon in a sense to mock this God of Israel, that our God is greater than the Israelite God. And God has some fun with them. They leave in the temple, they go home, they fall asleep, they wake up the next morning, they come in and Dagon has actually fallen down and is laying bowing towards the Ark of the Covenant. They think, oh, some little kid ran through here and bumped it and it fell over, let's set it back up. So they set it back up, they go to sleep, they wake up the next morning, they come in. Dagon has not just fallen over, but Dagon has fallen over, he's broken off his head and his arms, and God chose the Philistine people. I am God. So when we come to this battle, there's backstory and back history of this God fight. And David himself is representing God of Israel, Yahweh. And Goliath comes out and he represents the God of Dagon, who's actually the father of Baal, if you know any of your Old Testament gods. He is actually a father of Baal. And so he's kind of like their national God of Philistine. And so this story takes us to a place where there is a secondary battle. God has already showed the Philistines what's going to happen of your God, your champion, the one who stands in between, Goliath, is going to fall, and he's gonna lose his head. And it's gonna be by the power of the God, of the name of the God of Israel, Yahweh, that this victory will be brought about. And I sit here and I read this story and this account, and I'm just absolutely blown away. Because I think the reality is with some of this stuff is we follow what we worship. We follow what we worship. Goliath followed Dagon and fell down and was decapitated like Dagon. David followed the God of, he knew the God of Israel, the Yahweh, and was brought victory.

And David came in this boldness in the name of the Lord. I love what 1 Samuel 16, who Samuel himself is talking about the new king. And he says this, he says, "The Lord does not look at the things that man looks like. Stature, wealth, physical, strength." Just look at that. "The man looks at outward's appearance, but God looks at the heart." I think this is the piece that Saul knew he was in trouble because he was so focused on what David would look like when he went out to battle. Looking like what we would think would be the man, the strength, the strong warrior, the battle, but it was a kid. It was a kid and he didn't even have any traditional weapons. He had a sling with a stone. And I think in this, we see this incredible truth that God empowers faithful servants to beat the odds. God empowers faithful servants to beat the odds because it's more than just an underdog story. And the reality is that the odds don't matter. The truth is that God raises up underdogs for his mission and his glory. David wasn't about David. David was about God. David didn't care about himself. David was the one who burned with the most righteous anger in the camp to say, you guys have heard this for 40 days. I've heard this once and I know that this isn't right. And yet he's the one that steps up. He's the one that steps forward. He's the one that says, this is not okay because my God is God of all. And I don't care what God you come with. I don't care what strength you come with. I don't care what armor you come with. I don't care whatever you come with. It doesn't matter because nothing is a match for my God. My God is God of all. And David had this consuming concern for the cause of God to prosper. I think for us, maybe sometimes we read the story and we think, well, you know what? That's a huge thing. But I wanna tell you today that victory doesn't need to be dramatic to be real. This is an incredible dramatic story. It's one for the record books. It's told since the 11th century and will be told until the ends of the earth and throughout history in heaven of giving glory to what God has done. But victories don't need to be dramatic to be real. There's been times where I found myself in life against the odds. When I felt my back against the wall, when all hope seems lost, when everything seemed to be over and there was no coming out of it. And God showed up. God showed up in such powerful ways that I never saw coming. That's why I love these stories we're gonna talk about this summer.

Because God shows up in a creative, dramatic way that we can't even ever think about or understand. That's how creative our God is. And that's how all things are possible with God. Because we have a finite limited thinking about how we think God can answer our solution. God goes, "Ha ha ha, just wait." The Israelite people were thinking, "We're gonna have some warrior come forward and our King Saul, he's gonna be the one." God's like, "Ha ha ha, just wait. I'm bringing you a kid who's gonna take it out. And I'm gonna bring him to be an incredible leader and a king over my people, my Israelite people, who will lead them forward in battle and victory." And I think the reality is we don't fight with weapons of this world, right? I love what 2 Corinthians 10 reminds us about, that we fight with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there's a spiritual war that's going on around us. And we fight with the power of prayer. We fight with the power of community. We fight at the feet of Jesus. And there is victory that is brought in our lives, not for us, but for the glory of God. And that's what this story is about, is remembering that Jesus is fighting with the gospel of truth, no matter what the odds are. That's what's happening. And we have to ask ourselves the question of what are we called to? What are we called to? 'Cause I think when we read this story, we like to put ourselves as the hero, right? We like to think we're the one that shows up at the camp like David. No, no, no. I think we are the Israelite people in Saul from verse 11 that says on hearing the Philistines words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. All too often, we're the one terrified. We're the one afraid. We're the one dismayed. We're the one scared. And Jesus is just standing there saying, "Come to me, I got this. I am the God of impossible moments. I am your God. I am the God. I am Yahweh. And so I want you to be encouraged today that at the end of this and this moment, we are like the Israelite people that get to rush forward into the valley after Goliath falls and his head is chopped off. We share in the victory of Christ today. We get to share in the plunder and the riches and the spoils of eternity and heaven forever because of the sacrifice of God going before us, taking on the greatest enemy, death and Satan and winning. What Christ has done against the greatest enemy is nothing more than done with two pieces of tree. In Christ, the young king, we come before the gods of this age that they bow and defeat. Christ alone is the true son of David. And in his victory alone, we find our peace.

So how can you live more in the impossible moments that God wants for your life today. I think for some of us, it's taking time to remember those impossible moments that God rescued us from before, right? Remembering those victories. I think the Israelite people carried this through every single battle going forward for ages upon ages. The story was passed down. The story was told. The story was never forgotten because it reminded the Israelite people that the God that they serve is greater than anything that they could ever face. So how do we remember who is the source of our rescue? It's for us to decide. We remember who rescued us. 'Cause the reality is that we serve the same God, the God of Jacob, of Joseph, of David in this story. this story.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. God, we worship you. We live in your victory. God, help us to remember the truth that your servant David shouted back against that horrible Goliath. That when all hope seemed to be lost, when all seemed to be forgotten and gone, God, you showed up in such a way that nobody ever saw it coming. And that's you God. I love it. Thank you Jesus for who you are in our lives. Let's remember to share in the victory of you, not for us to be able to say look what we did, but to remember and to point back to you and say, that's the God who I serve. It's the God who loves me. It's the God who saved me. It's the God who went to the cross and died for my sins so I could be saved in a way that there's nothing ever I could do myself. That's the gospel, and that's the God that we serve today. We love you, Jesus. We praise you, we thank you. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 1

Moses’ Miraculous Childhood - Exodus 1:15-2:10

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

How are we doing today? Are we doing well? I'm just going to answer out loud. You can give the thumbs up, you can go like this, not so good. Totally fine. I hope this weekend, so far is going well for you, that you were able to take some rest. I know some of us are on, as Pastor Chris mentioned, summer schedules, so maybe kids are home now, and that's a whole other energy that we need to provide as parents. Or maybe the older kids are back home, and it's really fun to hang out with them again from college or whatever. But as restful as summer, we think it is, sometimes it's just a lot more energy that is given. So if you're here and you're tired, that's okay. Totally fine, God wants you here too. I wanna mention something about Sabbath. Hopefully this weekend and today is a part of your Sabbath. And Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote this. He says, "Six days a week, we wrestle with the world, "wringing profit from the earth. "On the Sabbath, we especially care, "we take care of the seed of our eternity "planted in the soul." So I love that phrase of taking care of the seed of eternity planted in our soul, taking special time on a weekend, on a Sabbath day, to mine for what's inside of us, what God has planted inside of us. And we hope as Spring Valley Church that Sundays, this time together as a church in the morning, is a part of your Sabbath. And I wanna take a moment right now to pray for all of us and to pray together.

So you guys bow your heads and close your eyes one more time. I want you to focus your heart and your mind on God and I wanna pray this prayer from LECTEO 365. So as we pray together it says, Lord show us what it means to care for the seeds of eternity in our souls. Help us to stop counting the minutes and to relinquish control. Inspire us to live and breathe with greater ease as an eternal being loved by you. God that's our prayer. That your spirit would guide and form us to be made more into the image of Christ. Help us this morning to listen with all that we have, that your word and your truth would grow deeper inside of us and that we'd have a deeper appreciation of understanding who you are and what you do in our lives. God, I pray that this Sabbath today would be restful and that we continue to rest in you and draw from your spirit. Be with us in this portion of our service. We pray this in your name, amen.

I have the joy of starting a new series this morning as we've been mentioning, Impossible Moments, where we're taking a break from our Roman series. We're going to continue that in the fall, so we only covered so many chapters in Romans. Don't worry, we're going to finish the book back in, or later in September. But this summer we're going to be looking into impossible moments in the Old Testament, looking at true historical biblical events where the situation or task was impossible through the human lens. In the eyes of the people in these accounts, there was seemingly no way forward, no means of success, no possibilities that would lead to their benefit. And yet, in God there was a way. Each scenario in this series tells of a story of a success or a victory that was only possible through the power of God. Throughout the Bible, God intervenes in lives and plans of people for their benefit, but ultimately, and more importantly, for God's glory. Sometimes it means defeating an enemy's army, other times it means bending the laws of physics, the way we understand them in the world, for the benefit of his people. And still other times it just means overcoming impossible odds to bring life and joy and righteousness into the world. Whatever the scenario, in each story, there is only one possible explanation, and that is God. Our goal in this series will be to learn and be reminded of what God has done and who He is, specifically in the Old Testament. In each impossible moment, there is something to be learned about who God is and how He operates in this world, and we wanna take a deeper look into the miraculous accounts but also learn what it reveals about God's character. We know that God is amazing, He is sovereign, all powerful, and He works in mysterious ways and in awesome ways. And so this series will showcase that mighty God that we worship and adore. By the way, as a heads up, this series does not follow any chronological order. So today we're in Exodus. Next week, we may be in the prophets. We may go back to Genesis. I'm gonna keep you on your toes. It's okay. Don't we know, by the way, I don't want you to know, like we don't know what we're doing. we do know what we're doing, we're just not going in chronological order. Yeah, relief.

We're gonna begin this series with a story that's been on my heart for a couple years, I'm so excited to finally get to preach on it, to talk with you about it, it's the story of Moses' birth, and how his life, from the very moment that he was born, was at risk. By human understanding, this situation and the circumstances should have meant that Moses would have died. It's by God's hand that Moses not only lives, but grows up in such unique circumstances that benefit him, his family, and all of God's people. So let's go ahead and read this story together and get into this impossible situation of Moses's miraculous childhood. If you wanna turn in your Bibles to Exodus 2, now we've been in Romans on one half of the book, we're going back to the beginning. Exodus 2, I'm gonna start in verse one. It says, "Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile." I'm gonna pause right there and just take this section at first. Moses is born under extreme circumstances. Mom here in this story is trying to keep baby Moses under wraps as long as possible. She knows that there is no possible long-term future for him to be alive, let alone a part of the family. And can we just pause here for a moment and put ourselves in this story and imagine the emotions here, the heartache, the feeling of loss and desperation of hurt and pain, anger. but what she does next seems to imply also that she has a bit of hope. In verse three, we see her in an act of desperation and hope, she tries to save her son. We'll come back to how that all works in a minute, but I first wanna ask and back up and kinda get some perspective.

Why is all this happening? Why is Moses' mother acting out of such desperation? Well, in order to find that out, we gotta go back a little bit in the book of Exodus to understand what makes this situation so impossible. And before we back up in the book, I just wanna give a brief history, just get us all on the same page, of how we got to this point here in scripture with Moses and everything. So, brief history lesson. The Hebrew people, the Israelites, had come to Egypt through Joseph, just a couple generations after Abraham. And Joseph was sold into slavery, and by God's hand came to be in second in command over all of Egypt. This is another impossible story that we might cover in this series, but Joseph is a man who's left to die in a pit by his own brothers and becomes the second most powerful leader in Egypt and really in the whole world. Joseph, after coming to that amazing seat of power, brings his whole family to Egypt and they dwell there, they put roots down and their family starts to grow. After Joseph dies, however, the relationship between the Hebrew people and the Egyptians becomes a bit strained. The new leader of Egypt, the new Pharaoh, has forgotten all of what Joseph did for the people of Egypt, and in the past, and the good that Israel brought to Egypt. And so this new Pharaoh is very fearful of what might be. There's no evidence of any threat that Israel poses to Egypt, but he just becomes paranoid. And he says, in his mind, he's thinking, If these Israelites who are growing and growing and growing, if for whatever reason, if they were to attack us, they could possibly defeat us because they're growing so rapidly, they might outnumber us soon. Did Israel do anything to threaten them? No. This Pharaoh is just becoming paranoid. They're multiplying, and so what does he do with this unfounded fear? Well, he oppresses the Israelites. He enslaves them. which I'm not totally sure, I've never been a dictator or world leader, but I don't know if the possibility of someone overthrowing me, if the right move would then be to oppress them. I feel like that would just ensure that they would become angry and an uprising would actually happen. So, Pharaoh, not sure what you're doing there, what you're thinking, but he enslaves the Israelites, and he and the conditions are just brutal, and the Israelites are crying out to God, crying out, "God, please save us. Do you see what's happening to us here? Please, please, save us from this. Pharaoh's efforts to slow down the growth of Israel backfire. In fact, Israel just grows even more. They are producing a lot of people, and now Pharaoh becomes even more fearful. And so I want to go back in Exodus, if you're in your Bibles, we're going to just go to the chapter before, chapter 1, and I want to read 15 through the end of chapter 1. It says, "The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, when you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him. But if it is a girl, let her live. The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live? The midwives answered Pharaoh, Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive. So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people. Every Hebrew boy that is born, you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

There's a lot to unpack here as we gain some understanding of the context of Moses' birth. Pharaoh is making a serious, wicked effort to thwart Israel's entire existence. His plan is that any Hebrew newborn boy (that's a tongue twister, by the way, say that three times) Hebrew newborn boy must be killed and anyone can execute that order. But before that, Pharaoh had confronted two midwives about what is going on. He wants to execute his plan through these midwives. And I just want to say and point out that the fact that these midwives are named is very significant. It's an honor in the Hebrew, by the Hebrew authors that they are remembered for their brave acts against a ruthless dictator. Their courage and belief in God is meant to be noticed by just their names being in the text. In fact, this whole passage is an amazing story of women in the Bible trusting and believing in God and having courage in the midst of terror, standing up against evil and doing what is right. God is obviously the miracle worker and the hero, the ultimate hero of this story, but the women in this story are also heroes. So these midwives, they're possibly the head midwives over all the midwives, or maybe they're just the two midwives over Israel, but they disobey Pharaoh. And in verse 17, they make it clear to the reader, to us, that they were never going to kill any babies. They hold to this sanctity of life. And it's an amazing stand of faith with Yahweh, God, against Pharaoh, who, by the way, considers himself a god. So from the beginning of Exodus, we see that there is a face-off between a lowercase god, Pharaoh, and Yahweh, the true god. Yahweh crushes, as the story goes on and further you read in Exodus, Yahweh crushes this lowercase god, Pharaoh. We often think that this battle between Pharaoh and God starts later in the story, but it actually starts right here in chapter 1. The Egyptian culture is one of many gods, and the ultimate god in that culture was Pharaoh himself. But this Pharaoh is fearful of what he cannot control, the Israelites, which already tells us that he is a lesser god, a lesser being than Yahweh, who fears nothing. Nevertheless, Pharaoh, he doesn't know it yet, but he is going toe to toe with the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the creator of the universe. And that's who the midwives fear. That's why they disobey Pharaoh's orders. In verse 18 of chapter 1, Pharaoh confronts them again because his instructions didn't seem to work. He told them one thing, they didn't do it, and so he calls them back, he's like, "Hey, what's going on? I told you to do this, and what's happening?" And in verse 19, they lie to Pharaoh. And I love this line that they tell Pharaoh that the Hebrew and the Israelite women are just built different. They're like, "Hey, sorry, Pharaoh, "like they're really strong "and they do it before we get there." Which I just appreciate that comment. It's just funny, it makes me chuckle in this story. Maybe it's true, maybe that really is true of the Israelite women, but I think more than that, they're just lying to Pharaoh for the sake of keeping life. They know who they really serve and who is really to be feared, and they know that Yahweh's purposes and power are not to be messed with. In verses 20 through 21 of chapter one, we see that God blesses the midwives.

In the ancient world, it was customary, it was a possible option for barren women to become midwives, and now God has blessed them with families of their own. It's another smaller example within this larger story of God addressing something that was impossible by human means and made it possible. These women who couldn't have families are then blessed with families and the only explanation is God. And in verse 22, it explains that Pharaoh continues this dangerous downward spiral of acting out of fear and the desire to be in total control, exercising his evil power. He doubles down and instead of just having the midwives carry out the orders, he puts it out there for anyone. Says every Hebrew baby boy must be thrown into the Nile and every girl should live. Pharaoh's plan here is multifaceted. Not only is he trying to weaken Israel by getting rid of their males, who in the future could be soldiers against Egypt, in his mind, they could be enemies, but he's also keeping the females in order that he can integrate them into Egyptian culture, so that they could marry Egyptian men and then give birth to more Egyptians. and Egypt would grow as Israel would lessen.

This is a god v. God moment here. Pharaoh thinking himself as a God, picking a fight with Yahweh. And this is the moment where it begins. And while we know who wins in the end after the plagues and after the Red Sea, this is still a very dark moment for Israel. This is the context for which Moses is born into. So let's jump back into our story now, and see the miraculous way in which Moses lives. If you want to jump ahead with me now to chapter 2 verse 3, we'll pick up again. It says, "When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. And then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying. She felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said. Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women "to nurse the baby for you?" "Yes, go," she answered. So the girl went and got the baby's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses saying, "I drew him out of the water.”

This is truly an amazing story that has God's fingerprints all over it. And even in the Hebrew text, if we were to read this in the Hebrew, it indicates to us that God begins to intervene in this situation. And so I just wanna take some time to go verse by verse, looking at the story through the lens of how a Hebrew would hear this story and see God's hand at work. Starting in verse three, where Moses is in a basket. Moses' mother, not named here, but we find out later her name is Jacobed, the J makes it sound like Jacobed, so I'm just gonna say Jacobed is Moses' mother. And she has made a basket out of reeds and made it so that she can put the baby in and protect the baby. Now, the Hebrew word for basket, little Hebrew lesson here, very important, the Hebrew word here for basket has only appeared one time in the Old Testament so far up until this point. And Hebrew authors are very intentional with their words. They love to paint images and they want you to, if you hear a word, they want you to draw the visual image in your mind. And so they're very intentional with it and this is very purposeful. And all who would have heard this would have thought of the previous use of this word. The word for basket here is the same word that God uses when telling Noah to build the ark. It's the word, it's ark. And as a Hebrew, imagine then what this tells us of the story of Moses because of what we know of Noah. A righteous man surrounded by the evil of the world, the wickedness and sin set apart for God's purpose and saved by God for his purposes. So like the ark with Noah, it was a little temple, right? Everything that God had created, some plants and animals was put on that ark, a little temple, in order that there could be a restart in a sense, a restoration of what was meant to be, a redeeming of God's creation. And now we have Moses in the midst of Pharaoh's wicked and evil scheme in a little boat, in a little ark, kept alive by God to restore and to restart, to redeem God's people. And so for the Hebrew, and for us now, God has entered this story. Now God is a character in this story, and we're ready to see God intervene and be at work in the midst of Moses' circumstances.

This was a mood setter or tone setter for the Hebrew people. Now having the miraculous situation referenced about Noah, they are anticipating that God will do something. It's kind of like in movies, when you watch maybe in a very intense movie and the good music starts playing. And even if the scene is very intense, there's good, you're like, okay, but I know this is good because the music is good. So it's gonna be good, it's gonna be okay. It's bad, even if, you know, when the bad music plays, you're just anticipating. The good music, always a relief. This is the good music in this scene. God is present. In chapters three and four, Moses is then set among the reeds in the Nile. And historians believe that this situation is equivalent to modern times when a baby is left at a hospital or a church. They want the baby to live. They're giving it the best chance they can, but it's the last resort. Jacob was giving Moses the best chance, away from the deep waters, away from dangers, the wild animals. but still this is not ideal. And while this is happening, his sister Miriam is watching over him, seeing what will happen. And then in verse five, Pharaoh's daughter comes into the picture, going down to the river and sees the basket and asks her servant to get it and retrieve it for her. And she opens the basket, this little ark, this little boat, and sees the baby and has pity. She knew it was one of the Hebrew babies. And what I want us to focus on is she knows the circumstances that are present. I imagine she put together quite quickly why she found a Hebrew baby boy in the river, knowing the decree that her father had given throughout the land. And yet her next actions are also what make her one of the heroes of this story. She doesn't execute her father's command. She doesn't kill the baby. She doesn't listen to her father's orders and throw him into the Nile, but instead she's remembered for drawing Moses out of the Nile.

It's another moment in our story where a woman chooses to disobey Pharaoh to save a life. Another example of God at work at his providence being on display. And just a small moment here, but I love that the story says that the baby cries. Usually babies cry, and I'm sure when Moses' mother had him for the first while that the baby was crying too, but imagine those circumstances and the fear that Moses' mother had every time the baby cried, knowing that that could give away what she had with her, and knowing that at any moment an Egyptian could come in and carry out Pharaoh's orders to kill that baby boy. And now, for the first time maybe, Moses is crying and it's okay. It's okay that the baby cries. There's no threat over him right now in the arms of Pharaoh's daughter. In fact, maybe that crying endears Moses to Pharaoh's daughter helps her have pity on him. What happens next is also no small miracle, but an incredible redeeming moment. And remember, we're clued in as readers to what God is gonna be doing in this story, anticipating when he will do his miraculous work, and it's starting and here's another big moment, verse seven. Moses' sister Miriam then approaches Pharaoh's daughter. She's been watching the basket, she sees all this happening and she says, she's seeing that this Egyptian princess, Pharaoh's daughter, has not killed the baby and says, "Shall I go get one of the Hebrew women "to nurse that baby for you?" I love, I mean that's courageous and brilliant by Miriam to say, "Hey, I see what's going on "and I'm sure that was God working in her "to even say those words." And Pharaoh's daughter says, "Yes, and praise God "she says that." And so Miriam goes and gets Jacob and brings the boy's own mother. And now we are right now in the Hebrews who are listening to the story are just breathing sighs of relief and maybe the emotion is washing over us and it starts to hit us just how amazing this story is, how impossible this situation was and how God orchestrated it to be better than Moses' own mother or anyone in the story could have ever predicted this outcome to be. Pharaoh's daughter says to Jacob, take this baby, nurse him for me, and I will pay you. So Jacob gets to raise her own son in safety and is paid to do so. I mean, the irony here is amazing. This is great. And this situation has completely flipped from one of fear and heading towards death and sadness to joy and relief and blessing. An important note about Jacob getting to raise Moses is that now he gets to hear about Yahweh as he is being brought up, which is instrumental for God's plans later in his life. So that later when God approaches Moses through the fiery bush, He has some frame of reference for who is talking to Him. It's not one of the many deities in the Egyptian culture.

This is the Israel, this is the God of Israel. This is Yahweh reaching out. And then in verse 10, the text tells us that Moses, when Moses was older Pharaoh's daughter took over the mothering duties and named him Moses, which means again to draw out of the waters. An amazing story, I just wanna recap for us this impossible moment in the Bible, and how one of the most influential leaders and priests in Israel's history almost never made it past infancy. The story is about how under the orders of infanticide, Moses survives through miraculous events, being in a little ark, his life is saved, he is rescued and is raised by his own loving mother, who had also just said her last goodbye to him. Moses was also raised under Israelite tradition for a while, even after being rescued by the daughter of Pharaoh, God continues to work by then orchestrating events that Moses' own mother would be able to raise him and teach him about the Hebrew culture. An impossible thought at one point in the story, now made possible. And then Moses being raised as an Egyptian royalty in the future, right underneath the nose with the very man who wanted him and every boy dead. God is bringing about an instrument of his redeeming plan that would be the downfall of Pharaoh and an unthinkable reality in anyone's mind becomes Moses' very life. This truly is a story of God making the impossible possible. And a couple of points I want you to take with you today. Number one is that God was inverting every human effort against him and his people to actually benefit his cause, his purpose, and his people. From that order of infanticide that was meant to wipe out Israel's future, God made it so that Israel actually prospered and grew in number.

He can do the same in your life. And maybe without you knowing in the moment, in life's most difficult circumstances, maybe he is inverting things and you don't know it yet, but he will bring you to blessing. I have no doubt in mind that we will all get to heaven one day and we're gonna have conversations with God and God will tell us about our life and we're gonna have these conversations that he's gonna reveal to us, hey, you remember that time that you were in this circumstance and it was really hard and then you got through it? Yeah, by the way, that was me. I was doing all these things behind the scenes that you weren't aware of. And so it led you to this. Or there's gonna be times where maybe we are tuned in, I'm like, "Hey, I think God was at work here and he's gonna confirm." Yes, that was me. I did this and all this that you weren't aware of to bring you to this place where you were even better than before. So God can invert every human effort against him and his people to actually benefit his cause, his purpose and his people. Secondly, God blesses those who live not out of fear of men, but with the fear of God. Think of the midwives, the pharaoh's daughter in this story. Think of Miriam, amazing women who acted with such courage, some of them faith, to disobey the orders of a tyrant, the man who thought himself God. God blesses those who live with the fear of God, not man. God blesses them. Sometimes the blessing is a reward that we get to experience immediately, like those midwives, God blessed them with families. So God blesses those who fear Him.

Thirdly, know that God is a part of your story and you can eagerly await for Him to move in your life. As we look back at this story of Moses, we can see the various ways that God was working, that God was orchestrating things and how God was present throughout all of it. Even though the Bible, the text doesn't say that God did this, God did that, we know that that was God moving and working in the story. You can be assured that God is working in your life, that God is present, that he is in control, he is a part of your story. In fact, probably the better way to say it is that really you are a part of his story. And he has a significant role for you to play. He has plans for you. He wants to use you for his kingdom. But you can await that God will be present and moving in your life. And then lastly, know that God is aware of your circumstances and more than capable of overcoming them. If you are right now in the midst of a difficult circumstance, a challenging time, know that God is aware. God knows. He still wants you to communicate with him, he still wants you to express what you're feeling, but he knows what you're going through. And he is more than capable of helping you overcome it, get through it. It may mean a total change in circumstances, miraculously. It may mean that you continue through the hardship, but you can do so with God's power and strength inside of you, getting through those times. If this sounds familiar, it's because this is what we've been covering in our Roman series too, right? The words of Paul remind us of the same truth that God is sovereign over all, the power of the gospel to transform lives in the midst of life's most challenging moments is real. God is aware and hears your cries and he's capable of helping you overcome whatever is in the way of his purpose of making you more like Jesus. We serve a mighty and powerful God. So I just wanna ask, do you believe that today? Do you believe that God is capable, can handle anything, that He has a plan and a purpose for you? Do you believe that even though you may not see a way forward, that you can't see how you're gonna get through the next moment, the next couple days, the next couple weeks, that God sees a way, that God knows that there's a way that you are gonna get through each and every moment? Then when you feel like there is no hope that you're on the brink of living out of fear constantly, do you know that God is able, that God is at work? I hope that as you dwell maybe this week on this story of Moses, that you are reminded that God is at work in your life, that He cares about you and that He loves you. Be encouraged, believe that today, believe in a God that can handle anything and make your impossible moments a possible future where he is blessing you, looking after you, and loving you.

Let's pray. God, thank you for this account of just amazing providence that you work in the life of Moses. And we see through multiple people in this story, even before Moses, how you are present in hard times, in impossible moments. I pray that we today would be reminded of that, that we would be encouraged, that we'd be empowered, that our souls would be uplifted, knowing that you are in complete control, that you are a part of our story. You know every single thing that is going on, every emotion that we are feeling. And God, I pray that we would rely on you, that we would trust you. to put our faith in you. That's an ongoing decision. I pray that in every moment that we would continue to believe, continue to have faith. So I pray that as we leave this morning, as we sing this last song, as we leave and go about our week that we would rest in you, that we would have faith in you, we would stand on your promises, God. We give you all the glory, amen. - Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.

Romans - Part 13

God’s Present and Future Work In Us - Romans 8:18-30

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Last week Pastor Chris had a wonderful message from the beginning of this chapter and he He spoke about our life in the Spirit and how we have a new identity, we have a new name and a new family. And it was a beautiful reminder of how transformative and powerful the gospel is. And the work that is done within us and for us by the Spirit of God. And this week, Paul is offering some perspective. If this entire series is like swimming in the ocean, today we come up for air a little bit and it's an encouraging time. It's gonna be a joyful passage about what's happening. And so Paul, we come up for air and he's gonna make sure that we're all on the same page, we know where we're going, and we know that we're all together, which is good. We left off last week talking about being co-heirs with Christ, and Paul said that we indeed share in Christ's suffering in order that we may also share in his glory. And now Paul turns his full attention to the future of the church. Knowing the tumultuous situation of the believers in Rome, He gives them an encouraging and yet measured response to what being a believer means now and what it means in the future.

So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Romans 8, or you can follow along on the screen as I read our passage this morning, starting in verse 18. Paul says, "I consider that our present sufferings "are not worth comparing with the glory "that will be revealed in us. "For the creation waits an eager expectation "for the children of God to be revealed. "For the creation was subjected to frustration, "not by its own choice, "but by the will of the one who subjected it, "in hope that the creation itself will be liberated "from its bondage to decay, "and brought into the freedom and glory "of the children of God. "We know that the whole creation has been groaning, "as in the pains of childbirth, "right up to the present time. "Not only so, but we ourselves, "who are the first fruits of the Spirit, "grown inwardly as we wait eagerly "for our adoption to sonship. "the redemption of our bodies. "For in this hope we were saved, "but hope that is seen is no hope at all. "Who hopes for what they already have? "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, "we wait for it patiently. "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. "And he who searches our hearts "knows the mind of the Spirit, "because the Spirit intercedes for God's people "in accordance with the will of God. "And we know that in all things, "God works for the good of those who love him, "who have been called according to his purpose. "For those God foreknew, "he also predestined to be conformed "to the image of his son, "that he might be the firstborn "among many brothers and sisters. "And those he predestined, he also called. "Those he called, he also justified. "Those he justified, he also glorified." Pray with me once more. God, we come before you eager to understand more of you. And as we come to your scripture this morning, we pray that you would reveal the truth to us in our hearts. Draw us closer to you, God. We seek understanding. We seek to be made more into your image. We're excited for what you're doing in this church through this series. And I pray that you continue the work that you started. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Paul addresses this tension that can exist between our present suffering and the hope of future glory, explaining why the redemption of the children of God and creation itself is only partially fulfilled right now. He even says that the world itself, the earth that we see around us, is affected by sin too, and it too will one day be redeemed. As Paul is connecting the reader to Christ, he wants to make sure that the Romans are not misunderstanding what they are inheriting and when they will inherit it. We know from scripture how difficult and challenging Christ's life was, ultimately leading to his death on the cross. Now, presently, Christ is glorified and sitting on the right hand of God in victory over sin and death. And Paul is making sure that the believers don't think that that's their inheritance immediately. That's not what they inherit here on earth fully. That is indeed in their future, but the present still looks different. Suffering and glory, they have a unique bond and connection. Our current understanding of glory that we will one day experience is often deepened when contrasted to the hardship of this world. While heaven will be a full experience of God's glory for everyone, our understanding of it right now is heightened when we have undergone pain and suffering. It's kind of like the situations that maybe you can relate to where you have something that you use every day, something common to you, and when you're without it, you don't realize how much you needed it and your appreciation grows. And when you get it back, you just are so thankful for that thing. So for, as an example, years ago, my wife and I were down to one car. I had gotten-- we had to get rid of one of our cars. And so I was working Granite Bay at the time, and I started riding my bike from Rocklin to Granite Bay every morning and afternoon. And at first, very excited, because I was like, what a better way to get in shape. And then by day two, I was like, this is no fun. This is no fun at all. This is very long, and I am sweating heavily at work, and it's no good. So I just didn't realize-- at first, I was like, yeah, no car, no worries. And then I was like, we need a new car. So a couple of months later, a couple of months went by, and then we're finally able to get a new vehicle. And I was very, very appreciative for that, yeah, for that reality. Now that example doesn't come close to what Paul is talking about because I was not suffering. I was just merely inconvenienced. And having a car isn't any sort of glory. But you get the idea that when contrasted to the pain and suffering, heaven seems even greater. Every hardship we face when held up to the future glory of being with God makes that picture of heaven even sweeter.

So Paul's first point in our passage this morning is that this present reality means struggle. This life in this world is full of hardship. We see this throughout these verses. 18, Paul says, consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed. Verse 21, creation itself will be liberated from its bondage. And 22 and 23 say, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning, "as in the pains of childbirth, "right up to the present time. "Not only so, but we ourselves groan inwardly "as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, "the redemption of our bodies." Paul is making it clear that suffering is a reality and it's to be expected. From the world around us that is also marked by the fall, we see this in evidence of like earthquakes and tsunamis and forest fires and other natural disasters, this world was affected by the fall, to our own physical bodies, the emotional and physical and mental hurdles that we face in life, be it anxiety or cancer, depression, back pain, migraines, abuse, and everything else that comes from being in this fallen world, suffering is a present reality. Life is a struggle. Now, what do we do on this earth? In the midst of the suffering, in the waiting, in the misery, what do we do? Well, Paul tells us three things that believers can do. And the first is, well, I'll tell you all three upfront. We can hope, we can wait, and we can pray. First is that we can hope. We hope because of what Jesus did. After his death on the cross, he ascended into heaven. He went to be with God. And because God has promised us to be co-heirs, as Pastor Chris preached last week, we look forward to that reality for us. We hope in the person of Christ and what he's accomplished. And we hope in his present reality, he being next to God in heaven. We want that for us and we can hope because we know that that will become our reality as well. Second is we wait. In our suffering, we can't assume that God will just end all hardships because we have faith in him. We must endure. We must persevere. We must wait. And waiting is really hard. I don't think anyone likes waiting. Some of us are better at it than others. Doesn't mean we like it. Waiting is really hard. Waiting means sacrificing our own desires and submitting to God's plan. It means embracing the struggle for a time.

Right now, we're trying to teach our daughter how to wait. and it's going, I don't know if it's going well, but we're trying. And so sometimes, the waiting, she doesn't have to wait very long, you know, for unwrapping a treat for her in that moment, but she still has these like gimme hands, where like, hey, yes, I can give this to you. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, right now, I want it right now. Like, just hold on, I gotta get it open. And other times, we'll tell her to wait, like, hey, after dinner, you can have that thing, and then she doesn't wanna wait patiently. She understands that she won't get it, but she's not patient about it. And I think we can be the same. We're praying to God, we're talking to God. God, I know that I think you're gonna get me through this, but I don't wanna wait for it. I don't wanna be patient about it. I'll wait, but I don't like this right now. Waiting and patience is hard. And Paul says that we can wait and we do so patiently because we have a certain peace and trust in who we're waiting in, and that's God. God is looking out for us and He loves us, and we know that we can trust Him, And we can be at peace because he gives us peace and we know his character. We know that he will eventually work all things out for our good, but it can be hard, but we just need to rely on him in those moments to wait and to wait patiently. The third thing is that we can pray. In the midst of sin and suffering, of pain and problems, in the middle of all the misery and muck of life, we pray. Sometimes we understand the challenges that we're in and the hardships that we face. We understand how our sin may have brought about issues or just understand the chaos of the world and we know exactly what to pray. So we may pray, we know, God, please help me with my recovery. God, please heal that person of cancer. God, please be with the victims of the wildfires. God, please heal me, give me patience. Sometimes those words are right there and we know exactly what to pray. Other times, we don't understand the challenges that we're facing, the hardships that we're in, or why it's happening at this time, and we don't know what to pray. We're not always, or whenever, we're not omniscient like God. We don't know all the reasons why things are happening. We don't have that infinite perspective that God does. And so sometimes we just don't have words to pray. And that is okay. Because that's when the Holy Spirit acts as our priest and stands before God on our behalf and prays the words that we can't seem to find, that we don't know that we even needed to pray.

Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit prays for us while we are suffering. Verse 26 says, "The Spirit himself intercedes for us "through wordless groans, because the Spirit intercedes "for God's people in accordance with the will of God." In our recent community group, we went through the spiritual practice of prayer, and we learned the difference between prayers of petition and prayers of intercession. Prayers of petition are when we pray for something going on in our own lives, and we petition before God to help us with it, or to change something about our current circumstances. We are petitioning for ourselves. Prayers of intercession are when someone else prays for us, or when we pray that God will what intercede in someone else's life, or when the Holy Spirit prays for us. John Mark Comer says this, he says, "We come as sons and daughters, "not as beggars off the street, "but as princes and princesses "who have been adopted into the family "through Christ our brother. "We come in the name and authority of King Jesus "with access to the full resources of his kingdom." That last phrase right there, "The full resources of his kingdom," I mean, that just struck me when I heard that and read that. That's amazing. God isn't withholding anything from us. If it is His will, He will go the full extent to make it a reality. At our lowest point, Jesus knows what we need. And through Jesus, we have the most intimate connection with God. And we have the full resources of His kingdom available to us in our lives. Theologian Walter Wink says, Intercessory prayer is a spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently faded by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present. In the midst of our deepest struggle, the Spirit is praying this on our our behalf, praying that God the Father would intercede in our lives. The Spirit is visualizing an alternate future to the one that we are currently in, praying that God would make that a reality. That alternative future may not mean a change in circumstances, I wanna be clear on that. It's not necessarily, it may, it may mean that God changes our circumstances, it may not, but what the Spirit is visualizing is us being made more into the image of Christ. Through whatever we are going through, God wants us to be formed more like Jesus. We'll come back to that in a bit. But the other part of the Spirit praying on our behalf is that He does so in wordless groans. J.D. Greer says, "In that groan, that groan from the Holy Spirit, we see not only emotion, we see wisdom." Paul says the Spirit prays for us according to the will of God, and that groan is something that you and I don't even know how to articulate. It's what God wants from this situation. He's praying God's will into our lives. Guys, do you realize this? In your moments of suffering, in your hardest, most challenging times that you've ever gone through, that the Spirit was interceding on your behalf, He was praying to God for you. He is in your corner, fighting and advocating for you. How incredible is that? I don't know if you've ever been in a time where you didn't know what to say. There's times, most of the time, it's when prepping for preaching, when it is late into the week and I do not have a sermon yet and I will sometimes be on the floor, just laying there being like, "God, I don't know what to preach." Like just groans. I'm not even really saying words, but I'm sure that God understands what I'm feeling in that moment. Maybe you have been somewhere, a similar position, where you didn't even have words, but you are directing your groans towards God for him to understand your emotion and where you're at. And in that moment, you don't have words, but the Holy Spirit has words that he is praying to God for you. The God of the universe is behind you, is for you, is praying for you, praying for needs that you are not even aware of. This is truly how the Spirit sustains us every day. So in the present, suffering and all, we wait, we hope, and we pray. And when we can't pray, the Spirit will pray on our behalf. Now the other part of this passage is about the future. And Paul says that the future means hope.

For the believer, the future is bright. The glory of God is ahead of us, at its fullest. And it's something to be excited about. It's something to anticipate and to desire. Paul writes, "I consider that our present sufferings "are not worth comparing with the glory "that will be revealed in us." Now to be clear, Paul is not minimizing our pain. but magnifying future glory. He's not trying to say that whatever you're going through right now is so small. Right now, whatever pain or struggle or suffering that you are going through, it is a lot. It's probably more than you can handle alone. You need Jesus through whatever you are going through. What Paul is saying is that he's trying to point to how great and infinite that future glory is. It is eternal, the magnitude of God's glory, of being made like Christ is so great that in that future, when we look back, the pain and suffering will appear small. It's a matter of perspective. As Paul brings the reader to think about glory, he mentions freedom in verse 21, the redemption of the body in verse 23, and the most important, sonship, being heirs with Christ in verses 19 and 23 and 29. Again, making sure that we connect our reality with what Christ endured. Paul is saying that we as believers should not be surprised that this life entails suffering. And while he's already covered some of this in chapter five, right now, Paul is trying to convey the sequence that we as believers follow.

For Jesus, glory only followed suffering. and it's for the Christians as well. That future glory only comes after we endure our time on earth. The future glory that we will experience comes after our time on this earth that is marred with sin and pain and suffering. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:50, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And here in Romans 8, Paul is talking about our mortal body being transformed and our bodies being redeemed. Theologian Douglas Mu writes, "It is the transformation of the body "that brings to fruition our sonship. "Only then will our sonship be revealed, "and will we be fully conformed to the image of God's Son." The life and future glory that is to come is not a distant dream, but it's partially present now. And the future will be complete, but some of it we can experience now. How? Well, Christians have some evidence of future glory in our lives already. It's the first fruits. And that first fruit is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. Theologian F.F. Bruce writes, "The indwelling of the Spirit here and now is the first fruits." In other words, the first installment or initial down payment of the eternal heritage of glory that awaits believers. I think sometimes we forget or severely underestimate the weight and power of the gift of the Holy Spirit within us. The fact that the Spirit dwells within us is evidence of what is to come, the future glory that God has in store for us. You can hope and anticipate and get excited about the future now because the Holy Spirit is in you now. The work that the Holy Spirit is doing is to make you more like Jesus. That will be perfected in heaven, but it is occurring right now. Right now as you sit here, the Holy Spirit is at work inside of you. That is the goal. That in the midst of all the suffering and pain that we endure, God's goal is not necessarily to alleviate you of that pain, but his ultimate goal is that through whatever comes your way, you would be made into the image of Christ. On another note, did you know that the future is bright for earth as well? This earth, like I said, is also marred by the fall. I was having a conversation with some of you last week about how some of the things on earth are clear evidence of the fall. Things like black widows, mosquitoes, cockroaches. I do not see any redeeming qualities of any of those. If there are, I'm sure we'll find out in heaven, but I think they're all evil, and I think that we will not see them in the new heavens and new earth. No biblical evidence, just my personal belief, you don't have to believe that. Evidence of the fallen world. On a more serious note, things like earthquakes and tsunamis, famine, drought, evidence of this world being fallen, the earth groans for wholeness too. Not just we as believers, but the earth itself wants to be made whole.

Throughout our passage, Paul explains how the earth is groaning in anticipation for deliverance to the glory to be revealed. So not only will our individual lives experience the glory of God, not only will the church as a whole experience the glory of God, but this entire world will experience the fullness of God's glory in the future. Our Christian faith enables us to hope and wait for the culmination of God's plan of redemption. Dr. Gary Brashear says, "This whole passage focuses "on a work in progress, the cosmic redemption "he is working in and through the church." God's plan is a big one, and it's amazing because every part of it, he cares about to the fullest extent. He cares about what he's doing in our lives, he cares about what he's doing in the church, and he cares about what he's doing on the biggest, grandest level of this entire universe. Now that glorious reality that is in the future of being in heaven with God does not just happen randomly. It happens with purpose and with our sovereign Lord making it come to be. Paul reminds us of this when he writes in verse 28, and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. That theologian Mu writes again, it is important to insist that all things do not tend toward good in and of themselves, as if Paul held to a naively optimistic interpretation of history, rather it is the sovereign guidance of God that is presumed as the undergirding and directing force behind all the events of life. Good things don't just randomly happen in this world. The world just doesn't hope that good things happen to us or make good things, that is all God working behind the scenes. And we know this to be true through his word, through scripture, through our own experience, through other people's testimony. We know the character of God and we know Him to be good. And we know that God is working all things for His kingdom, for His purposes. Because it is God who is doing it, we automatically know that those things are good things. Paul describes a present struggle and a future glory. And then he describes in further detail the work that God is doing. And He does this to give us reassurance. Because He knows that the struggle is real, it's hard to have perspective when in the midst of pain and suffering. He talks so much about pain and suffering because often he's writing in a place of pain and suffering. He's writing from prisons, he's writing from affliction, and he knows that we too will face a similar reality. Paul's third point, God's work in us.

The end of verse 28 reveals who this all pertains to, who have been called according to his purposes. Verse 29, "For those God foreknew, "He also predestined to be conformed "to the image of His Son." Now, let me say this. Paul is not trying to start a theological debate when writing these words. He's not sitting there thinking, "Man, this is really gonna trip up the church "for the next couple thousand years. "Let me just write this and drop the pen." No. (laughs) Paul, in the context of this chapter, and this is what I wanna stress, in the present reality of suffering, Paul is trying to offer assurance. He is trying to assure the people that what God started, the work inside of us, making us into the image of Christ, He is going to finish. This idea of God foreknowing is to emphasize that what is happening is not surprising to God. God knew everything that would happen to you, the good and the bad, the struggles, the hardships, the impossible moments that you would face in life are not surprising to him. He began a work inside of you, and knowing all of that, he's still gonna finish that work. It says in verse 30, and those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified. Paul wants the church in Rome and the Christian today to understand that when you feel Like all hope is lost. When you are barely hanging on, when you are at the end of yourself, you feel empty. For those who believe, for those who believe in the gospel, you can know that God is not done working in you. God is not finished with you. You can be assured that this work, the calling, the justification, the glorification that believers will experience all that he does in someone, he will do in you. Jesus called you and he is gonna see you through all the way to glorification in heaven. He started to work and he's gonna finish it. He started before you were born. He knew what he was gonna do in and through you before the world began. And he wanted to make you into the image of Jesus. It is easy to get caught up in the theological debate, and we can have that another time outside of this sermon. But I wanna stress this morning, in the full context of this passage, why Paul wrote these verses. It's in light of all the suffering. And maybe for the believer at the time, the future is just too distant. It is too difficult to wrap your head around. Paul is saying, then rest assured in what you know of God, and who He is, and what He does. Notice who is doing all the actions in this passage. God called according to his purpose, God for a new and he predestined. He is conforming us into the image of his son. He justifies us. He will also glorify us in heaven. Look at all that God is doing. Look at the work that he is working in you. This is what God will continue to do and promises to do using all that happens, the good, the bad that you experience in life, He will use all of it to make you into the image of Christ. That is his work and that is his promise. That's why you can have hope. That through the most painful situations that you experienced, you can know that God is not finished with you.

So my question this morning as we end our time is where is your hope? Are you hoping in anything from this world, a person, relationship, that just the randomness of this world to help you out in life? Or are you hoping in Christ? Are you hoping in the future of being with God? Hoping in the work that He is doing? Or is your hope founded in the gospel? Do you hope because you believe that Jesus lived the perfect life, became the perfect sacrifice, taking all of our sins, taking the death that we deserved, and defeating death and rising again to be with God? Do you have hope that you are heirs with Christ? You share in that sonship. You are a prince and princess in God's kingdom. Now again, this may or may not end your current suffering, but it doesn't mean that we can't pray for that. We can certainly pray for healing. We can certainly pray for whatever hardship to end. By all means, bring your desires before God, but also pray in the midst of all that that you would be made more into Jesus, into the likeness of Him. Have hope, church, have hope. Be encouraged that Jesus is at work and He won't stop working in you. Amen?

Let's pray. God, again, thank you for your word. Thank you for who you are. And thank you for the hope that you give us. I pray that we would all be encouraged have hope this morning in you, in the fact that you have started a work, you have called us, and you know that you will see us through to the very end. And so we are with you in heaven, you will never leave us. Thank you for the work that your spirit is doing in our hearts to transform us, to make us more into the image of Jesus. That is our prayer, that is our desire. I pray that you would make that a focal point for all of us, that as we go throughout our day, as we go through life, despite whatever hardships we face, we would keep our eyes on you and that our deepest desire would be to be made more like Jesus. God be with us, give us hope, encourage us, and I pray that you would use us for your kingdom. We pray this in your name, Amen.

Romans - Part 12

Adopted in the Spirit - Romans 8:1-17

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in Romans. We got two more weeks and then we're taking a summer break. And so thank you for everybody who has been jumped in, who has engaged, who's been with us through, this is week 12, we're gonna be one more week next week. Pastor Rhonda's gonna wrap us up before break, so week 13. And so we are moving and grooving. And from everybody I've talked to, everybody's enjoyed this Roman series. And if you haven't, you haven't said anything to me. So we're just gonna say you enjoy it. So we're just gonna take that as your answer. So sweet. So yeah, so if you want, open up your Bibles, click, tap, flip over to Romans chapter eight. And this is where we're gonna be. We're gonna hit about halfway through chapter eight and then Pastor Andres is gonna wrap up chapter eight next week. And this chapter, chapter eight, some scholars would say is the pinnacle of this book of Romans. Paul, since the beginning, amen. Paul, since the beginning of his letter, literally opening verse, hi, my name is Paul. Boom, here's some theology. Paul has dropped some wisdom on us and he has been building this argument and has come to the point that I think if you're sitting in a courtroom, the attorney is putting this whole defensive case up to this point.

And after this chapter eight, he's gonna sit and say the defense rests. And he has been building to this massive point because after we get through chapter eight, Paul rolls into, so if all of this is true, all of this stuff that I've been talking about, saying this argument and this one and building and building, if all of this is true, this is how our life is different. And Paul's gonna roll the next set of chapters through practical application of what it means to live our lives out in the power of the gospel.

But before we get to that, Paul has one final big thing that he wants to say to us in this chapter. And so today we're gonna be walking through some incredible truths about our lives and how we physically, personally, intimately are changed by this power of the gospel. And what do I mean by the gospel? I mean the gospel is that Jesus came, he lived a perfect life, he went to the cross on our behalf, died, God raised him three days later and he conquered death. The one thing that was never defeated up to that point, he rose again and we live in his new life. That is the gospel in a nutshell. Is there more to it? Absolutely, there's so much more. If you just read Romans with us, there's so much more to it. But that is the nutshell. And so I wanna jump in this morning. We're gonna go to the first four verses and then we're gonna go kind of section by section and explain some of these things that Paul, this truth that Paul is laying out before us. And so here we go, Romans chapter eight, We're gonna start in verse one. I talk for a living, it's okay. Therefore, all right, you remember this? Therefore, what's it there for? Well, Paul again has been building this argument up to this point.

He says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Remember the gospel, those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did. I could just stop right there, amen, we go home, right? God did, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, 'cause Jesus came human, lived this life, but yet was blameless, right? Sinful flesh to be the sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who did not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

So it's right there, Jesus, he lived in the flesh, Jesus here, fully God, fully human, divine and earthly, and lived this perfect life in his resurrection, in his sacrificing, his death, His atonement, we might say, that we have new life in His blameless life, okay? Paul is gonna go really deep here, but he starts with this piece of the law. And what does he mean by that? Well, he means this word law, meaning the 10 commandments or the law of Moses that in itself, Paul, we talked about this last week. Remember this battle we have between wanting to be like God and yet we got this tension in us and that Paul is saying, I do not do what I want to do, but I do it and I do it and I don't wanna do it, but I still do it even though I don't wanna do it. Guys remember that? Paul here is saying that this idea of he didn't even know what was wrong until the law. And it was in the law that he understood, oh man, I'm sinning. I'm not living the life that God has called me to live and I'm not living in his truth. I'm living this life that's apart from that. And so in a sense, we see here this argument that in the law calling out sin, the law brought death. This is the law that called out those actions, brought death. But then Paul here is saying, no, no, no, no, there's something new here that I'm calling you into. There's something new that I have for you. And this is the law of the Spirit in Christ. And it takes what was this limited law of the 10 commandments and those laws that we read about in the Old Testament. It takes those and it fulfills those. And it actually in the fulfillment actually brings us to a new life, an eternal life, an everlasting life. This is the power of the Spirit in our life. This is what Paul is talking about. But how what was once a limited, hard hitting, calling us out. I don't know if you've ever read the 10 commandments. calling us out for what we had done, takes us into this place of life. Takes us into this new calling that we have for us. And it goes from this limited focus to this mobile ever present with us. What do I mean by that?

Well, there's two perspectives you can have on law. And it depends on your understanding of what is going on around you. I think of it this way. No offense. I recently, our kids got to take horseback riding lessons this last year and the year before. That's been awesome, they love it. But I went to them to see them ride for the first time a couple of weeks ago. And we went and there were these, at the farm you have the fences, you have the pens, right? And that keeps the horses where they're supposed to be. So we have this idea of say the law is offense. And if you had the perspective of the horse, The horse going, "I don't wanna stay in here." And they get creative. They get crafty. They start figuring out how to knock the latch on the fence. They figure out how to weasel their way through a little tiny opening. They get absolutely creative. Why? Because they don't wanna be confined. A lot of us look at the Bible and go, "Ah, just a bunch of laws, just a bunch of rules. God doesn't wanna let me live my life. He's trying to hold me down. He's trying to pull me back. He's controlling, he's just pushing into me, trying to keep me in my place because God, he just wants to control us. But there's another perspective. The second perspective of the law would be one of protection, of life, of security. What if we saw this fence or the law in our life of a place of keeping us safe from the outside? We went from seeing law as a way of holding us in to a law of there's protection. And this isn't just a fence, we're talking about a fortress. We're talking about secure, tall, thick, robust, strong walls. And when we understand that perspective, when we live inside of that, we don't worry about what's out there, right? We actually forget what's out there because we find ourselves comfortable. We feel safe. We're in a space where we know that God has got our back, a place without fear, a place where we can sleep in peace. How about you? I'm notorious at night for going around and checking all the doors. I have my routine at night. I go check, check, check, go all the way around. Why? So I can sleep in peace, not going, Oh, did I unlock that? Did that get locked? Is that? Oh man, you know what? Oh, I got, you know, that's, that door's gotta be unlocked. It's good. I can't sleep in peace. I'll get up, drives my wife nuts. I'll get up sometimes multiplying 'cause I'll get into bed, I'll lie down, I go, did I? Oh, dang it. All right, back up. Do my routine, hit the perimeter again. But I know where it takes me, right?

And that's what Paul here is saying. maybe another perspective would be stoplights, okay? We're trying to get where we wanna get, right? We're trying to go down the road, and especially if we're running late, notorious, we're hitting every stoplight, right? I think we've all been there. I think we can all agree with that, especially over here at Costco. Oh, Lord Jesus. That's Stanford Ranch intersection. The Lord is not present there, I tell you that much. All right? That's horrible. I'm kidding, the Lord is there, okay, so refreshing. But we have our singular perspective. We're trying to get from point A to point B, and the only way to do that, the fastest way to do that, is every single green light. But what about perspective from elsewhere? What about the perspective of the kid trying to cross the street, wanting that stoplight to safely cross? What about the family wanting to be able to turn and to make the left in their car. And without the stoplight, they would kind of be chancing it, right? And we see that when people don't obey what's going on, what happens? Accidents, mess, crunch, ouch, insurance. And this is the law. That if we see this as ways that God is trying to protect us to lead us into a place of living in a new life in the spirit, there's not only protection for us in our own car at a stoplight, but there's protections for others and there's cars at the stoplight as well. See this word, law, is a Greek word called nomos. And really what this Greek law word means, not just law, but law that brings life. A law in a sense that leads us to a place of where we are better than we were before without it. And Paul here is using these words to explain that it's not necessarily a law to hold us back, but it's a law that would rather lead us to a place of life within the Spirit of God.

Paul says this in chapter 8 verse 5, "Those who live according to the flesh have their mindset on what the flesh desires but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their mindset on what the spirit desires the mind governed by the flesh is death but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God it does not submit to God's own law nor nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

This law, this life rather, leads us to a place where we live in accordance with the Spirit. It leads us to a place where we're now in parallel with what God desires for our mind, but we have to change our mindset. We have to change the way that we think and bringing us into alignment with the heart and the leading with the Spirit. I love this quote by Hwee Hwee Tan, a Christian author and coach. She says, "You are what your mind looks at. You are what you contemplate." Hmm. Little quick self-assessment. What does your mind dwell on? What do you often find yourself thinking about? It's a perspective, it's an opening into our hearts. Is it the Spirit of God? Is it the Spirit of ourselves? And if that is true, then what Paul says there, that that Spirit is opposed to God. You've got to be careful what we're thinking about because the reality is when you and and I accept Jesus into our lives, and to say, I believe in this gospel, I want to receive this, I want you to change who I am. Jesus does that.

And he does that by giving us a new mind through the indwelling of God's spirit. Did you know that? If you believe in Jesus Christ, you call him Lord and leader of your life, you have the indwelling of God's spirit in you. You do. That God's in you, with you, forever continuing to be with you. And that in this, it takes us away from the flesh spirit and gives us God's spirit.

Romans eight, verse nine says, "You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but you are in the realm of the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God lives you, and if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.

Last week we had Paul's do, do, do, do, do. This week we have Paul's quadruple if, if, if. And it goes like this. It says if, so this is conditional logic here. If you guys know what that is, maybe computer programmers in the room, you know, the if, then, little JavaScript action here. If, Paul, the original writer of JavaScript, If the Spirit of God lives in you, then if Christ is in you, then even though you have this battle, remember this battle in life, back and forth of the sin nature pull, this pendulum, you still have life in the Spirit, why? Because of God's righteousness in you. And if the Spirit of God, whose side note here, raised Christ from the dead, the gospel, remember we talked about that, is living in you, then he, being Almighty God, who raised Christ from the dead will also give you life because of the Spirit that lives in you. You guys follow that? Paul here is setting up this understanding of, If all of this is true, all the way back, beginning Romans 1, 1, up to this point. Now remember, there's the letter read at one moment, one time, one sitting, not 12 weeks sittings. One sitting. So all of this stuff that Paul is just saying is so fresh in their minds, they're getting to this point and they're gonna like, okay, so that's true, that, okay, that means you're there, leads me there, therefore, therefore, therefore, Therefore, therefore, the Spirit of God indwells you. And we have new life because of that truth.

Paul continues on, verse 12, "Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh to live according to it. For if we live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misty to the body, you will live.

Here is Paul's final giant, therefore. I could see Paul writing it, taking up like half the letter across the scroll. Therefore, therefore, there is victory in the Spirit. There is victory. Paul says this idea, this word consequences, it's hard for us in our mind to wrap around consequences being good, right? We always think about all consequences are bad. Paul, you're saying there is a consequence of when we accept Christ in our lives, take on the title of Christian or disciple, there is a consequence in a good way that we have this new relationship and it affects our day to day as a believer. Paul isn't saying at this moment, maybe someday you'll have victory. Maybe future down the road, if you live your life perfect, you'll have victory. Or if you go to church every single week, you read your Bible, you tithe, you pray, you serve in the church, you love your neighbors, you serve in the community, maybe you'll find victory. Paul says, no, you have victory right here, right now, in this moment and forevermore. Come on. That was your moment to give an amen if you wanted to. All right? Paul here is saying that we have no obligation anymore. No obligation to live in the flesh, to live in the sin nature, to be, I'm caught up in this, oh, oh, I'm so, no. Stop it. Paul here is saying, stop it. You don't have to follow the way that your sin dictates. You no longer have to obey its will. This is huge, guys. This is huge. This is true freedom. And in this mindset change, remember the fence? We find ourselves now inside of a gated community full of protection and safety, and we get to live our life in victory in Jesus. Exactly. Thought of it this way. I don't know where I thought of it. I think I heard another pastor say this 'cause this is too smart for me. But I heard this. They said, "We've been given a new boss." That's Jesus. And it would be foolish to still show up to our old job, to return old emails, to put in office hours for an old boss, to punch the clock for them, to get their lunch, to get them their dry cleaning, to do your stuff for an old boss, is ridiculous. You no longer are employed by that boss anymore. You have a new boss. And yet what do we do? We find ourselves still working for the old boss. We still get caught following sin. I'm guilty of it, guys, I am. It's a struggle, it's a battle. Ask anybody in this room who's been a Christian for 500 years, they're gonna say, "I'm still fighting it." Because Paul here says it would be foolish, right? We would find ourselves for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Think about that. You have a new boss and you're still working for the old boss. Now you got two jobs you got to figure out. You're trying to balance the stuff. You're over here, you're over there, you're doing this. You're a late night, early mornings, you're running all over the place. What's it gonna do? It's gonna kill you. It's gonna kill you physically. It's gonna kill you emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And Paul gives us this warning here that you cannot live like this. You have a new boss, so act like it. Right?

Paul says in the second half of 13, "But if you live by the Spirit and you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." This is the good news, guys. This is the great news. This is the power of the gospel and Paul here is stressing our personal responsibility to conquer this domain of sin in our lives but Paul wants us not to forget that this is only possible by the power of God in Christ through the Spirit. A big word we might use here would be holiness in life. We come from a tradition here at Spring Valley Church of a holiness movement we call it and we focus on this that every single day is an opportunity to say more yes to Jesus in your life. That every single day is this moment for God to show up in our lives and for us to say yes to him. A big term here would be sanctification. That in this constant living out of the life that is placed before us and is led by the spirit, we have taken up residence in him.

A.W. Tozer has this wonderful quote. It says, "Faith is not a once done act, but the continuous gaze of the heart at the triune God. Believing then is directing the heart's attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind, remember, the mind or thoughts, to behold the Lamb of God and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives. At first this may be difficult, but it becomes easier as we look steadily at His wondrous person, quietly and without strain.”

This saying no to ourselves, every single step of the way, saying yes to God's Spirit will take us on a journey to a place that is absolutely incredible. It'll take us to a place where we are so focused and in tune with God's Spirit, we're not even really there anymore. that we just fade into the background and we live in lockstep with this continual saying, yes, I love that part, the continuing yes to the activity that does not even originate in ourselves, guys. It's just a spirit of God, which takes us to a place that God desires to change us at our core. So how is this even possible? Paul finishes up this section with three crucial, crucial verses that is as part of our core and our doctrine of who we are as Christians.

And he says this, he said, "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you receive does not make you slaves "so that you live in fear again. "Rather, the Spirit you receive brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, Father. And the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.”

This is our new spirit we are given. It's a spirit of adoption. And it's this new spirit you and I are brought in and welcomed into our new family. Did you guys know that? You have a new family. Some of you, that's better news than others. All right? But you have this new family and we are not only are given a family, but we are actually given an heir. We are brought in at the level of inheritance, sharing in God's full glory. But how do we get there? We are led by the Spirit. And when we are adopted into the family of God, our life is different, right? Our life is different in the way that our choices and how we conduct ourselves change, right? If we're brought into this new family, there's an expectation of how we conduct our lives. Are we living up to the family name? Or are we out just being led by our own spirit still? This whole new life in this new direction is determined by the spirit of God. I see this as an image in the Old Testament, okay? You guys, God saves the Israelite people out of slavery in Egypt, okay? Leads them across the Red Sea, and then they find themselves in this place in the desert, the wilderness, but they are continually led by God. The Bible tells us that at day it was a cloud and at night it was a pillar of fire. My goodness to see that today. But this idea of being led by the Spirit of God where? To the promised land, their inheritance. And so Paul here is making this connection with those who have been listening to this letter that may have been from a Jewish background ago and said, I remember my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandpa told me through the generations of stories about that pillar of fire and that cloud. And that Paul here is saying, "We are led by the Spirit into our inheritance, "which is eternal life with Christ Jesus in heaven "for eternity." That is our inheritance. And a part of this journey, just like the Israelites went through, was God leading us and teaching us and growing us and changing us and strengthening us and persevering us and protecting us and to this place that God says, "This is what I have for you. This is what I desire for your life." And it takes us to this place with, and somehow, I don't know how God does it, it's amazing.

God takes these twists and turns, ups and downs, surprises and blessings in life. and he is slowly taking us and morphing us and changing us and molding us into who he desires for us in our lives. But this isn't something that can be taken lightly, guys. This is some serious thing that I want you to talk about because it's not just in name only. So it's not just Chris the Christian. It's not just Andre the Christian. It's just Eric the Christian, Gloria the Christian, Donna the Christian. This is, there's something deeper here, and it's in that word that said Abba Father. Paul here is using this word that is so personal for God. No other religion or belief system out there has anything close to this, 'Cause I think there is truth in this that says, you know God at a deeper level, at the same personal level that would be similar to a child crying out for their father to help them in a time of need. If you're a parent, you know that cry from a child. But you also know this other part of I love you, Daddy. You're the best dad ever. I love you, dad. This is the level of adoption, inheritance, personal relationship that you and I have through the spirit in Jesus Christ to say, "Hey, dad, thanks." Abba, Father. There's this closeness of personal, intimate, knowing and a connection. Does this line up with your view of God in your life? Maybe we need to change some things. I was reminded of this on Wednesdays. We've been just finished four weeks focusing on prayer and the practice of learning how to pray and to go deeper in our prayer life. And one of the sessions specifically was talking about learning the voice of God and listening to God.

And it was this beautiful image of understanding and how God knows us personally and desires to sit with us. How do we know this? Well, it says this. It says in John 10, 27, Jesus says, "My sheep listen to my voice and I know them "and they follow me." Did you guys know that sheep understand and know the voice of their shepherd? Sheep specifically know the voice of their shepherd. So in a moment when a fraud shows up to try to say, "Oh, come on sheep, come here sheep, sheepy, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep." They know to run away because it's not their shepherd. God here and Jesus is reminding us of He knows who we are and we know His voice to the intimate level level of dad. And for some of us it's hard. We didn't have the father figure that was supposed to be the father figure in our life. And we struggle with this. But God shows up here and says, "That was that, that's not me. "This is me. "This is who I am." And this talking about Pastor John Mark Comer reminds us that in this prayer, we begin to learn the voice of our Father and the Father knows our voice. And there are so many ways that we believers in Christ and disciples of Jesus hear the voice of God. You've probably heard the voice of God and you didn't even know it. 'Cause the voice of God shows up in our lives through Jesus, through scripture, through circumstances, through desire, through the prophetic and through listening prayer. And it's when we take time to focus and listen to God that we are learning more and more, getting to know our new family, our new father, our Abba Father deeper.

And I love what verse 16 here says. It says, "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." There is this deep, spiritual, heartfelt, inner soul, truth level that we are constantly reminded of our status with God. We're God's children. You're gonna hear one thing today to walk away. You are a son. You are a daughter of God. Do not forget that. And this is a beautiful truth. That's something that can never be taken away from us. And that's something that is ours here both on earth and in heaven for eternity. Because why? Because we are heirs. Verse 17. Now if we are children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Guys, you've been given a name change, you've been given a status change, you've been given an inheritance change, You've been given a mindset change. You are set free from slavery to sin, and you share in the glory of Jesus Christ. Live in your newfound adoption. That's what Paul is saying here. Live in this newfound adoption. So what does this mean for us?

Well, I have a couple questions I want to close here, and the worship team is going to come up. What might need to change in your life to live with this newfound understanding of being an heir with Christ? What might need to change? You ask yourself, are my actions each day one that is in lockstep with being in God's family? And then two, what might need to increase in your life knowing that you are a child of God? How can I live more freely in this truth as one who is inheriting the glory of Jesus? Because if we are led by the Spirit, our our actions are gonna be different than when we were led by ourselves, right? Should be different. So live in your newfound adoption into the family of God.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for your word. Jesus, we thank you for our new family. God, we thank you for the spirit that leads us every single moment of every single day, God. And that Jesus, I pray that this week we might live differently in this newly found understanding of you who is our Abba Father. who is our loving, caring, ever-present dad. And Jesus, that might come with some behavior changes. That might come with some different ways that we set up our calendar. That might come with different ways that we start our day or end our day. That might come with different choices that we need to make to live in this newfound family in you God so Jesus I pray even right now that your Holy Spirit would guide us in the areas that you want us to change that we no longer have no obligation to sin but we have victory through Jesus Christ God I may be led by the spirit each and every day of our lives to live in lockstep with what you have for us, God, which is the power of gospel to transform our lives. We love you, Jesus. Amen.

Romans - Part 11

A Battle for Life - Romans 7:1-25

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Yeah, happy Mother's Day to all the mamas here. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We are continuing in our Roman series today, and I'm excited to share with you and maybe take a little bit of a different path through scripture than most of the time. I don't tell my seminary professors, but I'm gonna go backwards through the chapter today. I mean, most people, you start verse one, you work your way through, I'm actually gonna go backwards today. And so I feel like Paul here in this chapter of chapter seven of Romans is setting up a really cool picture and image for us. And I love honestly how he finishes up the chapter. And so I kind of wanna start there and then we're gonna kind of work our way back up through and then end with actually the beginning of chapter seven. And so if you would, before we jump in, I'd love to pray for us and over us and we'll dive into God's word.

Heavenly Father, Jesus, thank you for today. God, thank you for being present here. Jesus, as I bring your word forward this morning, God, that you would ultimately be glorified, that you, Jesus, would be lifted and raised up from these scriptures, and God, that you would use me to communicate, God, what you desire for each and every one of us. God, you have a word for each of us this morning in this space. There's a reason that we're here today for this moment and for this time. So Jesus, I pray that through your Holy Spirit, you would reveal that to each and every one of us. Jesus, we love you, we thank you, amen.

So Paul here in chapter seven is talking about this two odds that are fighting one another. These two sides, this good versus evil side here that are fighting and constantly pulling back and forth. If you guys are familiar maybe with Paul's letter to Rome, you've kind of heard Paul write this before. He talks about how I want to do good, and yet I find myself not doing good. And because of that, I don't like myself. And it's interesting to find, because Paul here, I would say is one of the spiritual superheroes of the Bible. If we were to put up there some of those people that would be like, if I was to pattern my life after summoning the Bible, Paul would be pretty high up on that list. And Paul here yet admits, I don't always do what is right. And I have these two tensions inside of me that are pulling back and forth. Paul says this starting in verse 21. So I find this law at work. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law. But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. I want that to be our focus here this morning. That even in the midst of turmoil, whatever we're fighting, whatever we're going through, whatever we find ourselves in the face of this, that is only through Jesus Christ who delivers us. So if you wanna hear one thing this morning, Jesus Christ wants to deliver you. That's what I want you to hear this morning. That's what I want you to remember today.

But I see this illustration of Paul saying here, I got these two sides that are pulling on me. Someone say, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, but I myself would say the Hulk. This is where we find ourselves. That Paul here on the good side, Bruce Banner, a mild mannered brilliant scientist, finds himself at odds with himself and the fact of inside of him is this creature, the Hulk. This giant monster of a human that is just unbelievably strong at times comes out And to say the least is feisty, we'll say that. That in this moment, Bruce Banner and Hulk are fighting with each other. And if you guys have seen any of the movies or know anything about the Avengers series, that there are times when this Hulk character comes out at the worst moment possible. And then there's other times where they need this Hulk person to come out and it's just Bruce sitting there, this tiny little lanky guy that's like, "Hey, Mr. Hulk, guy inside, we need your muscles. Like where are you at buddy?" But this tension that Paul here says, there's two sides that are at odd with one another. And Paul here is saying, "At times I'm Hulk and I don't wanna be Hulk. At times I want to be Bruce Banner, but there's just something inside of me that pulls me and turns me into Hulk and I smash stuff. Paul here is saying that there is this battle that is going on in each and every one of us. And Paul is here to raise his hand saying, I am fighting this battle. Paul here isn't saying, well, you guys need to do this and you need to do that. I've already figured this thing out myself. No, Paul here is saying, I struggle with this immensely. And there's two battles that are going on right here. The first of which is the battle lost. This is the battle of the opposition that is coming out. That's at times, no matter how hard we fight, no matter how hard we try our best, we do everything that we can to set ourselves up for success, we lose. Paul says this in verse 14, "We know the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do for what I want to do. I do not do, but what I hate, I do. For if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but the sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is my sin nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. That's a lot of dos in there. (laughs) I would get lost here as Paul's scribe. I'd be like, bro, bro, bro, slow, slow it down, man. I do not do, do, do, not what, do, do what do? But Paul here is saying that I have this inside of me. I really want to do good. I really, really want to do good. I wanna do what God wants me to do. I want to live his life that he's called me to live. I want to live these things out. And yet I find myself this battle inside that I keep losing time and time and time again. And Paul says, I hate myself for this. Don't raise your hand, but I can relate with this. I can relate with this. Even this week, Lord Jesus, come on. I can relate that there are so many times I find myself with the absolute best intentions, the desires to do exactly what God wants to do. And I find myself in the midst of after my actions going, What did I just do? And this is what Paul is trying to communicate in the letter here going, we're all battling through this, but don't lose heart, okay? We gotta kind of get through some of this hard stuff here to try to get, we're gonna make a turn here. And I wanna talk about here specifically the battle that we cannot lose.

And what do I mean by that? I mean the battle that we are guaranteed to win. I'm talking about the victory in Christ Jesus. Guys, remember that verse, verse 25? "But thanks be to God who delivers me through Christ Jesus our Lord." Newsflash, credits have scrolled, everything is done, life's over, everything you've done. At the end, the post credit in the theme of Avengers, like they always have those post credit things, you're victorious. If you call Jesus your Lord and leader of your life, you will find yourself at the end being victorious in battle. And here's what Paul, this is exactly what Paul is trying to tell us in this letter. That even in the midst of this fight that we feel like we keep losing time and time and time again, Paul says, "Uh-uh, it doesn't end like that." You may feel beat up, you may feel frustrated, you may just be so overwhelmed with your own self in these moments that Paul says, don't lose hope. Because in the end, you're victorious. You are covered under the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ in your life. So matter whatever you're facing, when you run into that next battle, know that you're victorious. - Amen. - We'd fight different, wouldn't we? We'd fight a little bit different. if we remember that ourselves, but we forget it, right? I'm right there, I'll admit it, I forget it. It's so easy to forget 'cause we get so beat up and we're like, how, what, I don't know. But we are victorious and Paul wants to remind us that we are victorious, not in ourselves, but in Jesus. Well, how does this victory come about? How does all this come about? Well, there's this incredible thing that Paul here that talks about, it's the law. It's this, the gift of the law that gives us understanding. Verse seven in Romans, "What shall we say then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not. Nevertheless, I would have known what sin was, excuse me, I would have not known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would have not known what coveting really was if the law had not said, you shall not covet. Paul here is taking this and summarizing down. I never caught this before, but Paul here, if you were to take, say, go simple, law, 10 commandments, right? Think Moses coming down, tablets. I can't remember the guy's actor in the name. I'm just thinking of Moses. Charleston Heston, all right. You got Charleston Heston in your head. He's got the tablets, thou shalt not, right? We all, thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt. written in old English. I don't think Moses wrote it in old English, just saying, but they had the thou shalt nots, right? And Paul here in a sentence, whittles it all down to coveting. And I'd never taken time to think through that before, but that makes sense, right? Adultery is found in coveting. Stealing is found in coveting. Murder is sourced in coveting. You walk through these 10 commandments, I'm not saying all, I'm saying the majority of them dwindled down to this idea of covenant. And Paul says, "If it wasn't for the law, I wouldn't even know what sin was. I would just gone on about my business." 'Cause deep down inside, there's this fight, this selfishness that we counteract and we battle through every single day. And most of the time, right?

We just choose what we wanna do. Well, I want lunch. I'm gonna go get lunch what I wanna get. I wanna go on vacation. I'm gonna go on a vacation that I wanna go on, right? And we just choose what we wanna choose. And Paul here is saying that it's really the law that it breaks us down and shows us what is actually wrong. And it's because of that, that the law is great. Paul here is making an argument for some that might come at it. Well, if you're saying the law says this and the law says that, then really the law is the one that's bad. Paul here is saying, no, no, no, no, no, that's not right. Paul here is saying the law is actually what guides us. The law is like those guard rails on the freeway that we go down, flying down way over the speed limit, right, amen? And those guard rails are there not to stop us, but to bunk us back onto the road so we don't go flying off the road into somebody's backyard. That's what the law is. The law is here to guide us and lead us in the direction that we are supposed to go. And Paul here is saying that without the law, without the guard rails, I'd be way worse off. 'Cause I would know, have idea where the end of the road is at. Paul here is saying that the law is good. In fact, it is the law is how we know what wrong actually is. But not only that, the law actually brings us loss. God has this image of an idea of what our lives, he wants our lives to look like. And that is shaped, that is guided, that is put together, is guardrailed by the law. Sometimes in our selfishness, we wanna go off the road, right? We'll love some off-roading, okay? This is a bad analogy here, so we're not gonna talk about it. But there are times when off-roading is good, not in your spiritual life, but in real life up in the mountains, amen? All right. God wants to keep us on this path to life that he desires for us. And that is the structure of the law. And at times we go, well, if the law is calling what sin is, therefore the law is bad because the law, it's just, it's trying to control us. Law is just trying to pull me down. The law, it just rules that are made to be broken. You get some laughs from rebellious ones in the room. But that's not what Paul here is saying. Paul is here saying is that the law actually leads us to a place of life. And that's the law that shows us what is wrong. It's not the law that brings forth the sin 'cause it calls out transition, but it's my actions that are sin. I love this quote from Ignatius of Loyola that says, "Sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants for me "is only my deepest happiness." God's not this God that's controlling from on high. God isn't this God that's just a mean brute of a person that wants to just smash us down. God isn't this one that throws lightning bolts from the heavens. We read Old Testament, sometimes it has to get to that point to get some people's attentions, but God is a God that ultimately desires nothing but the best for our lives. And it's really us that gets in the way of that, right? It's really us and what we want that gets in the way of that because God ultimately wants to bring about life to our lives, true life.

I think of it this way. One of the aspects of God, I think, and I see, and I read in the scripture is coach God. Coach God. That is that God that deeply wants the best for us. I'm a big sports guy, and so I get into coaches and teams and coaching philosophies and leadership examples and all these different things. And the reality is that God just wants the best for us. And that's the same for a coach. Coach just wants the best for us. I don't know if you grew up playing sports, but a coach there who cares for us calls us out, right? Calls us out on our laziness, calls us out on our lack of preparedness, calls us out on our lack of effort, calls us out when we mess up not doing what we're supposed to do, or when we try to cheat, or when we try to cut corners, the coach there is saying, "Knock it off." That's not right. And they're really dangerous places to be when the coach stops calling us out. 'Cause that's when the coach goes, "All seems lost. They're just gonna do whatever they wanna do anyway. They're not receiving my coaching." What I love about God, He doesn't do that. God doesn't do that. God comes to us and shows us what it's like to be successful, to have this ultimate joy, this peace, this everlasting hope in our lives. And the law is like the playbook. The NFL just had their draft, and I think it was last weekend, they had what they call rookie mini camp. This is where all the rookies come in to the training facilities of all the teams across the nation, and they're handed a playbook. It's not really a book anymore, it's more of an iPad or a tablet, no rule of digital, but they're handed this and they're told memorize it. Every single document on that tablet is there to bring you success on this team in the National Football League. It breaks down all of their offense, all their different plays that they run. It breaks down all of the defense, all the schemes, all the trick plays, everything that they try to do, all the special team stuff from punts and kickoffs to returns to all of this stuff. It breaks it down into the simplest terms that says, run this far and turn. Run this far and stop. Go over here and stand. It breaks it down in the simplest terms, but it's up to the players to decide, am I gonna pay attention to what that has been given to me? I think this is what God communicates to us when he hands us this thing. He goes, here's your playbook, memorize it. Here's the offense, here's the defense. And even to the point, unlike the New England Patriots with Spygate, it actually has the opposition's schemes. It has the enemy's playbook in here as well, so that you not only can know how you are supposed to act, but you can also know how the enemy or the other person that you're facing, remember this inner battle, this fight of two sides, how they're gonna come at you so you can be even that much more prepared. And Paul says what? He says, practice it. Practice it, get together, run through your plays, get into the weight room, get stronger spiritually, study this, learn from your coaches, learn from those specialty trainers, learn from everybody in your life that is set up in this moment to bring you success. That's the biggest obstacle to most NFL players in the league, is whether they decide to go all in or not. They might have the greatest talent. They might be the strongest on the team. They might have the fastest time running a 40 yard dash. They might be able to jump the highest, run the longest, have the greatest stamina in the world. But unless they memorize that playbook and understand their piece in the greater picture of the role on that team, they will fail. And Paul here is telling us that I've given you a playbook. I've put you on a team and I've set you up for success with coaches and leaders and spiritual mentors and mamas in your life to help you succeed, to get to a place that is about complete understanding and purpose full of joy and hope.

But it's for us to decide. It's for us to decide ultimately, will we engage with worship? Will we take prayer seriously? Are we in the Bible every single day? Are we living life in a community? Have we faithfully committed ourselves to a church family? 'Cause the law gives us guidelines and the law gives us understanding, but ultimately it comes down to that victory is found in Jesus Christ, not ourselves. 'Cause that's the biggest factor here. Some of these most talented players will come into the NFL and they'll look at the play and go, I don't need that. I know exactly what to do. I was all team top pro, first draft, blah, blah, blah, blah. but this is the big leagues. And Paul is saying here in this idea, this phrasing he's using, this analogy of a battle is that this is serious stuff. This isn't a game like the NFL. This is our lives that are at stake. And that in this, we can find victory in Jesus Christ. Paul says this, starting in verse four through six. So my brothers and sisters, You also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to one another, in him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit of death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code. Paul here is saying that this victory in Christ is actually a rescuing from ourselves. Paul here is saying that we are the ones that actually pull ourselves down. We are the ones that limit our own potential by having the thoughts that we have. We are at times can be the limit of the amount of Jesus that we let him live in our lives. That we are the source of the biggest struggles in our old life. This battle lost. And we have to change our understanding, we have to change our minds. That's what Paul says. He had to change our minds to understand this battle that we face is a battle that we cannot lose because of the victory in Jesus.

You know the greatest part about this? We've done nothing to earn it and we do nothing to receive it. We let Christ come in and he takes care of it all. That's it. He takes care of it all and we find victory. I love this verse, verse six, "serve in the new way of the Spirit." That's what Paul is saying here, is that no matter when we face ourselves in this battle, no matter what side, whether we're Bruce Banner or we're the Hulk, that we have this victory in Jesus Christ. And not only that, not only victory, but to the victor goes the spoils.

And this is how Paul starts the chapter. He says, "Do you not know brothers? "For I am speaking to those who know the law, "that the law is binding on a person "only as long as he lives. "For a married woman is bound by law "to her husband while he lives, "but if her husband dies, "she is released from the law of marriage. "Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress "if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. "But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, "and if she marries another man, She is not an adulteress. Paul's main point at the beginning of all this, okay, we get all the way to the beginning of this chapter, Paul says this, he says, "I want you to point out that death separates someone from a legal obligation." That's what Paul is saying here. That in this moment, if you had traffic court next week, and you died tomorrow, you don't have to show up for traffic court. (congregation laughing) Don't know if you guys know that, but if you find yourself in a big, nevermind, just kidding. But Paul, you're saying, because we are no longer bound to the law, because we have died to its power over us, we now belong to another. Paul talks about marriage and a whole other part in all of his letters, so don't get lost in that point right there, okay? get focused in on this, is that we belong to Jesus, the one who was raised from the dead. And that's why they said, Paul is talking about this idea of dying to ourselves. 'Cause if we die to ourselves, like Paul is talking about this, then that obligation, that legal binding that we had to our sin nature is no longer binding, therefore we are then united with Christ. And not just united, but I'm talking about a united in a marriage that is loving, that is a committed relationship with our rescue or our deliver, our savior. That's what Paul is talking about here. Some of us need to have a little DTR with our sin. DTR stands for define the relationship. We need to have a serious talk with our sin because this relationship we have with sin is dysfunctional and this ex just won't go away. I love, Pastor Andre had this quote last week. It says, "Sin promises life, but gives death." Sin is stepping out on us. It's using us. It's telling you lies. It's manipulating us. and we need to break up with sin. Because we have the opportunity to be united in this beautiful marriage with Christ that leads us through the law to give us victory over our struggles and ultimately life, eternal life. Paul just uses this illustration of marriage just because it's very well understood in the early church.

Paul here is saying, I want you to have this kind of relationship with Jesus that is like a marriage that is healthy, that is life-giving, that is caring, that is truly loving. This is the kind of relationship that Jesus wants to have with us. And when we step into that relationship with him, we've died to our old self, we've died to our sin, we've died to our selfishness, and we find guaranteed victory in an abundant life that is even more than we ever could have imagined. I've talked to some of you here and in the different worlds that I've had of people who have been married for like 50, 60 plus years. And I sit there and I go, how? Usually the husband cracks some joke, the wife pokes him, it's usually how it goes. But ultimately deep down inside, there is this loving commitment of care for one another. That is what makes a marriage last. And Paul here is saying, Jesus wants to have this relationship with you that will last your entire lifetime. And it's even greater than what you could even think or come up with in your own mind. A kind of love that you can't even put into words. A kind of peace that the Bible says that passes understanding. The kind of joy that doesn't let anything knock it off. That keeps on going and going. and going and going, that gives us guaranteed victory, no matter where we find ourselves in the battle of life. That's the kind of relationship Jesus wants to have with us. So the question for us, when we close and the worship team can come up, are we committed to Christ as much as Christ is committed to us? That's the question. 'Cause a relationship is 100% and 100%. You probably heard 50/50, that doesn't even get you close, you're short still. Relationship is 100%, 100%, and Jesus here is 100% in. Always has been, always will be. The question for us, is that us? Are we committed as a lifelong, forever kind of relationship? That's what we have to answer for ourselves. 'Cause Jesus has this life that he wants for us. We have to figure out, are we 100% committed to Jesus? Paul here is saying there's a life out there greater than you ever could imagine, full of victory and love. We gotta say yes to Jesus every single day.

Let's pray. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for your servant, Paul. God, sometimes we get so caught up in his words and get lost sometimes in this train of thought, but I think it speaks to a level of excitement that he knows what's at stake. He understand what is on that other side when we finally say no to ourselves and yes to you, this kind of abundant love that isn't found anywhere else in the universe, but only found in you. And so thank you for your word today. God, I pray that this week we would think through this, that we might find ourselves in different battles and struggles and remember that we already have victory in you, not because it's something that we've done, not because it's something that we've earned, Not because it's something that we're so talented and gifted and we're so amazing, but it's because of our united love to you, Jesus, that we find victory. So Jesus, help us to be encouraged today. Help us to remember what you did for us on the cross. We thank you, Jesus. Amen. - Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.

Romans - Part 10

Captives for Life - Romans 6:15-23

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing our Roman series. And I wanna start today with a little history lesson. I don't know how many of you are history buffs or appreciate a good story, but you're about to get one. So, long time ago, I'm not a history person, so this is fun, but it's not my thing, but it's helpful. In the year 207 BC, long time ago, there was a war. There was multiple wars. So in the end of the Second Punic War, we're in Italy. just give yourself some geography, we're over in Italy, and the Roman army was pinned down into southern Italy by the ruthless general Hannibal of Carthage. And so by the way, if you are a history buff, I'm repeating someone else's account of this story, so if you have a problem with it, I am copying JD Greer, who's a pastor, who's the one who's doing this Roman series that we talked about every Sunday morning before the service. He gets the benefit of he's in Rome when he films it, so he's got like the historical background behind him. I have this wonderful stage so you can't see where the battle actually happened. So he's got to envision it. So we're in 207 and there's people that are pinned, the the Roman army is pinned down by general Hannibal of Carthage. But Hannibal's troops are exhausted, they've been fighting this war, they're depleted of supplies and so he's sent for his brother, has Drupal, who entered his armies from the north. So we have Rome pinned down in the south and we have an army entering from the north and so they do something unexpected and kind of risky. They rush all their forces to the north to meet Hasdrubal and they defeat him. They defeat Hasdrubal and just outside of Rome in 207 and historians will agree that pretty much at this point the war was over. Rome had won. It didn't officially end but pretty much this was the turning point, right? Rome defeating has Drupal in the north did not mean good things for Hannibal in the south. So everyone knew it, Rome had won, but for years small groups of Hannibal's forces would terrorize the Roman countryside in the south, still being present there. And so even though Rome had won, their victory had not yet been applied or recognized across every town and hamlet in the south south of Italy. And so, like I said, Pastor JD Greer shares this story to point out that this is exactly what sin does in the lives of believers.

Even though Jesus has defeated sin and death, sin still fights back in our lives and attacks the towns and hamlets of our lives. You didn't know that you had hamlets in your life, but you do. In Romans six, Paul is talking about this ongoing battle with sin for the believer. And Paul is really bringing the people of the church of Rome to this pressure point, helping them make a true and honest self-assessment of their spiritual status, making them look at what is in their hearts. This is such an important concept that Paul is gonna take as much time as he needs in this letter. So he's talked about the beginning of chapter six, we're continuing the same thought because it is so important. We also have to remember that Paul is writing to a certain Roman culture, and there are two rules when it comes to religion. The first is that everyone under the Roman Empire can worship any god that they want. Whatever religion, whatever god you have, you can continue to worship that god. The second rule is you just can't say that another god isn't a god. You can't say that there is only one god. You must accept the plurality of gods that is under the Roman Empire. Now, when I was prepping this sermon, I just thought, that's maybe similar to what we're going through today, right? Many religions are accepted or must be allowed to be present at the same time, but as soon as Christianity says that there's one God, then all of a one looks at us angry, and says, what are you talking about? No, no, no, and we're like, well, it's what we believe. It's the truth. And so we can maybe share in this reality with the early Roman church that Paul is talking to. He needs to make sure that the believers in the church of Rome, truly acknowledge, believe, and worship one true God. So if you guys would read with me, it's gonna be up on the screen, but Romans 6:15-23, you can follow along as I read out loud.

Paul says, "What then? Shall we sin, "because we are not under the law but under grace? "By no means. "Don't you know that when you offer yourself "to someone as obedient slaves, "you are slaves of the one you obey? whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, "So now, offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness, "leading to holiness. "When you were slaves to sin, "you were free from the control of righteousness. "What benefit did you reap at that time "from these things that you are now ashamed of? "Those things result in death. "But now that you have been set free from sin "and have become slaves of God, "the benefit you reap leads to holiness, "and the result is eternal life. "For the wages of sin is death, But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Would you pray with me? God, thank you again for your holy word given to us that we may know you, know your truth, know the pattern of truth. And God, I pray that you would open it up to us, open our hearts to receive your truth and your word. God, that it would form us to be more like Jesus and that we would leave this morning empowered and encouraged to live a life fully for you. Be with us this morning. and we pray this in your name, amen. Last week, we talked about a throne in our hearts. I don't know if you remember that. I mentioned this little throne that metaphorically sits in our hearts, and whoever sits on that throne controls our lives, right? They control our thoughts, our actions, our desires. And Paul starts off with a similar thought process as he, in verse 15. He says, "Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace by no means?" Do you remember what we said about "by no means"? This is the strongest way to say "no" in the Greek. This is an emphatic "no, definitely not." Verse 16, Paul is setting up the rest of this passage here. He says that no matter what, we are slaves. Now we might be naturally repulsed by that statement. On top of the negative feelings around slavery, We innately also have a natural response of, I am the captain of my own ship. I don't like, don't tell me that someone else is in control. It's not what I like. We don't like being controlled. We don't like when someone else is calling the shots for us. We want to be at the helm. We want to be making the decisions. We like a certain independence. The Bible, however, is pretty clear that that mindset, that desire, comes from sin. It comes from a place of rebelling against God, who we were made to be in partnership with, not independent from. So this is the question that Paul presents. Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey? Whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness. Paul is starting at the assumption that all are slaves to sin. There is no neutral starting point. I think this is often how we think about it. Well, I was free, and then I became a slave to sin, or I can become a slave to righteousness. Paul is saying no.

The starting point is we are all slaves. From the very beginning, we are slaves to sin. Theologian Leon Morris writes this. He says, "For Paul, the basic assumption is that "all are slaves before they become believers in Christ. "They are not free to do as they will, "for they are subject to the bondage of sin." Notice that he, Paul, is not saying that slaves are required to obey their master, he is looking at it the other way around. The master we obey shows who's slaves we are. Unbelievers are slaves to sin, and this leads inevitably to death. But believers are slaves to obedience. So he is saying our actions, our choices, the decisions we make reveal who we serve. Paul is very clear that there are two options here. There's just two. We talked a little bit about this last week too. It's either being slaves to sin, which leads to death, or being slaves to obedience, or to God, which leads to life. So I just wanna ask us this morning, whom are you serving? What do your actions, your choices, the decisions you make, who do they reveal that you are serving? We'll continue in verse 17. It says, "But thanks be to God, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey." This is a high moment in the letter to the Romans. This is a moment of encouragement. This is great. Paul is encouraging them in what has happened in their lives. And there's a couple of things I want us to process in this verse, specifically about the transformation that has happened within the believers. The transforming work that yields obedience to God comes in two parts. First, it is the work of the Spirit, and it also comes from knowing the truth. So the first part is the work of transforming hearts is the work that only the Spirit can do. As believers, we cannot work on our own hearts and make it into something good. That's the work of God, to come in within us, form us, to sanctify us. Ezekiel 36:26 says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. So the first part is the work of the spirit.

The second part is the pattern of teaching. The accepted Christian teaching, the truth of God. This is the knowledge that is transforming our minds, renewing our minds, rewiring how we process and understand the world around us, how to process life as it happens. So first we have the work of God in our hearts, and then through the teaching, through his scripture, our minds are also transformed. These are two essential ingredients for believers, a heart that has been touched by God, and a mind that is learning God's truth. They are present here in the Church of Rome, and Paul is expressing encouragement and gratitude, saying, "Hey, your church has experienced God. "I see it in your lives. "This is good, be encouraged." And a question for us this morning, is that present here at Spring Valley Church? I believe it is. Have you experienced the transforming work of the Spirit in your heart? Are you also learning the truth, the knowledge that renews your mind? Again, I hope the answer is yes. And now in the rest of the passage, Paul explains their reality to them with a bold new imagery He puts before them the situation that they have gone through. In verse 18, it says, "You have been set free from sin "and have become slaves to righteousness." Now I know, we read that and think, they went from slavery to slavery. That doesn't sound that great. That doesn't sound like a great situation. Slavery is bad, yes, slavery is bad. But again, Paul is using the situation they are familiar with to express their spiritual reality. So this is what he says at the beginning of 19, and he's building upon some assumptions here that make the situation more palpable and make it make sense to us.

In Paul's scenario, again, he's emphasizing, we didn't start from freedom and fall into slavery to sin. We were always slaves to sin. And I said that before, you're gonna hear it again. Paul's gonna say it again. It's so important for us to think that because we will always have this natural tension of control in our lives. It's part of the biggest issue with sin that we have. We want to be in control. It's the original sin of Adam and Eve, of Satan falling from, we want control. We want to be like God. And so we were always slaves to sin. That was our starting point. And Paul's also saying, we will always be slaves to something, either sin or obedience to God. So in verse 18, he is rejoicing that they are now slaves to God, meaning they will have eternal life. Their decision from their heart, from their mind, all those, their life now bends towards God. Verse 19, he says, "Just as you used to offer yourselves "as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, "now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness, leading to holiness. Paul needed to exhort them, instruct them to obey God, because just like that story at the very beginning of the enemy attacking, even when the war was, you know, pretty much over, that is our reality. Sin is still attacking. Sin is still looking for ways to get at us. And that thing, that person that you might have served before you were saved, that you might have worshipped, that might have dictated your life, isn't completely gone. So let's say you worshipped success in life, you valued success. You would make, even though maybe you are no longer a complete slave to success, you're now a slave to obedience, you can still struggle with that sin. And you can make every decision to experience success, even if that meant breaking God's law. If you worshiped money, that sin, that hold of money over your life might mean that in a moment you would do whatever it takes to maybe make more money, even if it meant breaking God's law. Or let's say there was a person that you wanted to please in life, you would do whatever it takes to make that person happy, even if it meant breaking God's law. So even though the believers in Rome are experiencing the transforming work of God in their hearts and knowing God's truth, they are still struggling to choose to obey God. They are still going back to old masters. That's a reality that we experience today too. If you are saved, if you believe in Christ, you are still dealing with sin in your life. The old masters still calling. And there are moments in our life where we choose to go and listen and obey that instead of God. I don't know if you've ever had a pet. Maybe some of you have pets, or specifically a dog. But you've probably had to train that dog. And training dogs, I only have one experience. I have one dog, only for six months. It's not about the dog, that was more about me. Dog was great. It was a season. But I started training that dog, and that was very hard. There was a lot of bad habits or natural habits for the dog to break. So like peeing inside or outside for the dog. You know, obviously outside. And it would get rewarded every time it did the right thing. You get a little treat, good job. Or something like chewing on furniture. It was puppy, so puppy phase of chewing on everything. My dog, I didn't necessarily give it a treat for not chewing, but it experienced my transforming love every time it did not chew on furniture. But still-- that's a joke. I don't know if I have transforming love for a dog. Obviously not, I don't have a dog anymore. But the dog still, even though if it knew the right thing, it still would tend to do the old thing. And I think that's what Paul is, it's going through Paul's head right here. It's like you still, you know, you've experienced the goodness of obedience in God, but we still, everyone smiles, still go back to sin.

Paul is coaxing them along in this letter saying, "You guys can do it, I know you can. "I see you slip every once in a while "and listen to that old master, "but keep doing the right thing. "Now that you know your minds are being transformed, "your heart has been touched by God, "keep choosing obedience to God." In verse 20 and 21 it says, "When you were slaves to sin, "you were free from the control of righteousness. "What benefit did you reap at that time "from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death. Paul makes it very clear that you are enslaved to sin from the beginning, and that being enslaved to sin only leads to death. Even if those things, those sins, where some brought you pleasure, felt good in the moment, it still leads to death. Wouldn't avoiding sin be a lot easier if there wasn't any pleasure involved? if it wasn't like, usually sin starts from a good thing, or something that we enjoy, and then there's too much of it, usually, most sins. It would be so much easier if sin was just like bad all around. It's like, no, of course I'm not going to do that. It's terrible. But experiencing success, wealth, pleasing a person, eating good food, all these things bring a certain level of pleasure to our senses. At some point God created those things for us to enjoy, but when we chase and serve and pursue Pleasure, we are no longer chasing and serving and pursuing God. God has become secondary to our desire for pleasure. Paul explains, again, their situation. He says that the believers in Rome used to be slaves of sin, and where did they get that? Or where did that get them? On the fast track to death. And this didn't mean a physical death necessarily, maybe, but more importantly, it meant the death of their soul. You see, sin corrupts, eats away at, and destroys our soul. What's that saying when you eat sweets? It's like a moment on the lips and forever on the hips. That's like sin, but like a million times worse. Like a moment of goodness, and then like your soul is destroyed. It's terrible. That will make you think twice next time you have that sweet. You're like, "Oh my goodness." Paul then again expresses this other option. So a moment of pleasure or sin, but at the cost of your soul.

The other option, verse 22, "But now that you've been set free from sin and become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." So what does being slaves to righteousness get you? Being made holy. Being made more and more into the image of Christ. Living a life that is closer and closer to what God intended. being the men and women that God created us to be. Whereas sin rots our soul and destroys and kills our soul, being slaves to God is life-bringing, renews our hearts and our souls. So obeying God, following God, brings life. Psalm 16:11 says, "You make known to me the path of life. "You will fill me with joy in your presence, "with eternal pleasures at your right hand." And then 1 John 5:12 says, is whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. Scripture is very clear that pursuing God brings life. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, there are stories upon stories of God bringing life. Sometimes it's a physical life. In the Old Testament, from Noah to Abraham to Moses to the Israelites to David, the only hope of a future, of a life even on earth was through Yahweh. He provided the only way for more life. And now in the New Testament, we talk about our eternal life and the only way is through Christ. For us today, entrusting our everything, our entire life to Jesus, is what brings life into our souls. On our own, without Jesus, our souls naturally just rot away and wither and die. And there was only one remedy. The only thing that can bring life to our souls is Christ. There's nothing else, nothing in this world, nothing that we can do on our own. The only remedy to sin is Christ. He is the source of life. Paul ends chapter six with this verse, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul is wrapping up this thought and trying to make it abundantly clear. German theologian H. W. Heidlin wrote, "Sin promises life but gives death." I love that summary, that what sin is actually doing. It looks good, right? Just like Adam and Eve in the garden. There's something appealing about something else. Again, we wouldn't want to sin. We wouldn't make that decision to sin. So sin promises life, but only gives death. Death isn't an arbitrary sentence, but the inevitable consequence of sin. It's a literal ending point for our lives. The other option is a gift, a free gift from God. And Paul uses the term gift here to emphasize the freeness found in this option. It's not a reward for the life that you have lived. You didn't earn it, but it's a complete gift from God. Paul is emphasizing the reality that slavery is not just a status, but a living experience. There's not just like in the book of life, your name, not the book of life, whatever book that, forget that analogy, it's not gonna work. (audience laughing) Whatever status is next to your name, it's not just slave to sin or slave to obedience. It is what you live, it is your experience. Dr. Gary Brashears, a professor and theologian, writes, "We have the first taste "of a number of eschatological blessings, "but the consummation and final fulfillment "is yet in the future." This is the idea that as believers, Heaven is already, but not fully yet. We have a glimpse, but not the full thing. And I think that's true of both eternal destinations, heaven and hell. For those living in sin, they are currently getting a taste of hell, a life void of God without His love and truth. Part of that reality is present. And for those who are enslaved to righteousness, they are getting a taste of heaven, a life full of God's presence, full of love, full of truth. I don't think we today often live in that reality, even as believers. The reality that our eternal destination is not so far in the future, that it doesn't affect us now. We tend to put it off and say, well, that's at the end. That's not right now. It's, I don't even think about it. Some of us are really future thinkers, future oriented, and we're great planners. You might have like a 5 to 10 year plan. You're like, I know general direction, where I'm going, and what should be happening. Others of us are not that way. Like, hey, what are you excited about this year? And you're like, I'm just trying to figure out dinner for tonight. I have no idea. I'm like somewhere in the middle, but lean towards what's for dinner tonight.

What would it look like for you to live your life with your eternal destiny, your presence with or without God at the forefront of your mind? How would your day be different if you were more present and aware of the life that Jesus is giving your soul each day? Or if you were choosing sin in that moment, or that day, or that season of life, what if you were more aware of the destruction and the corruption and the ruin that that sin was bringing to your life? Might we be more conscious of the decisions we make? And might we strive to take better care of our hearts and our minds, and be more intentional in what we allow in our hearts and what is coming out of our hearts. Maybe we'd be more thoughtful and careful about who is sitting on the throne within us. We might be more aware of the possible attacks of the enemy and how sin might be creeping back into our lives. So as I close, I just wanna ask these questions again. From verse 16, whom are you serving? What are your actions, your choices, the decisions you make, who do they reveal you are serving? And then from verse 17, have you experienced the transforming work of the Spirit in your heart? And are you learning the truth, the knowledge that renews your mind? And then from this last verse, 23, what would it look like for you to live your life with your eternal destiny at the forefront of your mind? Church, as you answer these questions right now, throughout this week, you ponder them, I wanna remind you that in your pursuit of God, you are not alone. The people in this room are also with you. This is your community, these are your people. And we are all looking to pursue God. We're all looking to chase after God. And I love this image of all of us, wherever we're at, some of us, 30 years of following God, some of us, six months of following God. All of us are heading towards him. And what an encouragement to see when someone slips to be like, "Hey, I got you. "Let me help you up. "Let's keep going." As we live to be more like Jesus, as we pursue him together, what a glimpse of heaven here on earth, where his kingdom is at the forefront of our minds. These are people in this room who you can be vulnerable with, you can open up with, who can encourage you and who you might need to encourage. So that's our prayer today, that God would use this church, this community for His kingdom. As it says on our wall, that He would saturate this community with His glory. Amen?

Let's pray. God, again, thank you for your Word. Man, we are so thankful for the work that you are doing in our lives. When you transform our hearts, God, in the continuing sanctification that we are going through, making us more and more like Jesus, we're so thankful for that. There's nothing we can do but allow you to work in us. And then, God, we just pray that you continue to put forth your patterns of truth, your word, God, through teaching, through reading, through singing, all these ways that we soak in your truth. I pray that it would truly transform our minds. The way we look at the world process would all be more like how you see the world. God, fill us with your love, with your grace, your compassion, and I pray that you would reveal to us who is sitting on the throne of our hearts. You would make that clear, and if it demands a change, God, help us to make that change. God, we wanna offer our lives as a sacrifice to you, that you would use us as instruments of righteousness, instruments for your kingdom. God, thank you for this church right here, Spring Valley. I pray that we would be emboldened and strengthened to come together to pursue you and chase after you. This is not a journey that is meant to be done alone, but to be done together as a body of believers. So help us to love our friends, our family, sitting next to us and across the room. God help us to have a mind and a heart that reaches out to them and wants to encourage them and help us to be open to receiving encouragement from others. God continue to transform this entire church that we may be a light into this community here at Rocklin. We know that you are working and we're thankful for it and we take joy and get excited about the work that you will continue to do as we look forward into the future. God, we give you all this. We sing your praises. Amen.

Guys, thank you for being here this morning. And we look forward to continuing our series. Look forward to seeing you midweek, but we hope you have a great weekend. All right. Be blessed. - Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.

Romans - Part 9

United with Christ - Romans 6:1-14

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in Romans, Pastor Chris, & I hope that you are enjoying this series. Even though each week we can only speak so far, we have 30 minutes each morning to talk about the passage, and there is so much. We hope that you are continuing your own study, that you're joining us for the Sunday mornings, where we can dive deeper and deeper in. There is just so much, but we pray and hope that it has been rich for all of you.

Just a little bit about myself. You may know this, I keep mentioning it. I do love movies, I love shows, I love movies. There's a theme of movies that has been common in the last decade, I would say, it's these origin stories. I love a good origin story. I think most often we see that in the superhero genre. You know, you're familiar maybe growing up with like Batman or Superman or Spiderman, whoever they are, and then the movie will come out called the origin story. And you get to tell, you get to learn in their story how they became who they are. This start, you know, where it all began. This transition of when did they go from ordinary person to superhero? You know, what happened in that moment? I think it's interesting to know, it's really fun. I'm also a sports fan, so I get intrigued with sports documentaries, like the 30 for 30s that come out. And you get to learn, you know, how did Jerry Rice become Jerry Rice? Or how did Michael Jordan become Michael Jordan? And again, there's just something intriguing about a good origin story, because I think that there's a part that we want to relate to. You know, if it could happen to them, could any part of that also happen to us? Not that I could have gone pro in any sport, but just, it's fun imagining, like, yeah, man, if I had worked hard, just like Michael Jordan did 24/7, yeah, maybe me too. There's just something relatable there. Like, could that happen to me? It's entertaining to think about an origin story. And again, it's that part of, they were just like a normal person at one point. And then we know them as the superstar or the superhero, And there's a period of time where they're learning and they're discovering that they're different. And there's something changing about them.

And that's kind of what we're covering here in our section this morning of Romans. That's where Paul is talking about in chapter 6. In chapter 5, Pastor Chris last week talked about how, again, sin infected humanity. And Pastor Chris was sharing Paul's words that the problem was dealt with. Sin was addressed through Jesus, Jesus' death, sacrifice, and resurrection, and now humanity can experience freedom. There's new life found in Jesus, one that is no longer bound by sin. And where last week was all about understanding the role of sin and humanity and its effects, and what we are to do to be freed from sin, today we're going to shift a little bit to cover the Christian's origin story, the new life that we have in Christ. We want to talk about the transition from ordinary sinner to blessed believer. For people who follow Jesus, hopefully this morning is a reminder of their new life, the new status, the transforming work that God is doing within you. And for those who may not yet believe in Jesus, this will hopefully shed some light on what it means to be united with Christ, to be a follower of Him. So if you could turn in your Bibles to Romans 6, I believe even though we're in new seats, there are still Bibles underneath some seats, if you want to pull that out, it'll be on the screen. But we're in Romans chapter 6, and you can follow along as I read aloud 1 through 14. Paul says, "What shall I say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, for we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God. "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, "but alive to God in Christ Jesus. "Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, "so that you may obey its evil desires. "Do not offer any part of yourself to sin "as an instrument of wickedness, "but rather offer yourselves to God "as those who have been brought from death to life, "and offer every part of yourself to him "as an instrument of righteousness. "For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Would you guys pray with me really quick? God, we are again thankful for our time of gathering this morning, and we are thankful for your word, your truth. And God, I pray that you would open that up to us, that our hearts and minds may be ready to receive your encouraging word and your instruction. I pray that we'd be drawn closer to you, formed more like you, and that we would walk away from this morning encouraged and empowered to live a life that is living in your freedom by your grace. We pray this in your name, amen. Paul has just finished his thought of sin abounding in life at the end of chapter five, and we can't fully get rid of sin. But he says, "But where sin increased, "grace increased all the more." So there's a lot of sin, but there's always more grace. And Paul, as he's done all throughout these chapters, does that thing. when he's writing this letter, he's going to anticipate the thoughts of the readers. They're gonna be like, hey, sometimes they anticipate this and that's good, I want them to go in that direction. And other times, he's anticipating their thoughts and they're like, they're gonna think that and I do not want them to think that. That's one of these times. So Paul's reading, anticipating their thoughts and he's saying, he's thinking that they're gonna say, okay, Paul, so no matter how many times I sin, no matter how much sin there is, God's grace is more. Oh, that's great, that's really nice. So glad that God's grace is more. And then he's anticipating that some of them who are drawn towards sin, that the wheels are going to start turning. And they're going to say, "Oh, so that means though, that however much I sin, God's grace is more. That's kind of convenient. That's kind of nice. That's great. I don't have to worry about anything. No matter what, I sin. God's grace is more." And Paul wants to combat that thought, because that really becomes a heart issue over sin and grace. And that's the first focus, place I want to focus this morning, is the sin and grace in verses one through three. So one says, "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" And Paul says in verse 2, "By no means." Now, we read that in English, and it's "by no means." Okay, that's great. But J.D. Greer, a pastor, and we watch his videos on Sunday morning, he brings up the point that this is the strongest way to say "no" in the Greek. This is as if Paul had added some expletives. Like, heck no! This is not what you were supposed to be doing. Heck no, just not very strong. But you get the point. Just because we know that God's grace is there to always cover our sin does not mean that we keep sinning. We just don't assume that God's grace is going to cover and forgive us. This would be an abuse of God's grace. It's not a free, get out of jail free card that we can just flash over and over again. It'd be like, "Oh hey God, it's me, your boy. Hey, I'm sorry, here. Yeah, I'd mess, I said some things, I did some things. You know me though, and we're good, right? Yeah, you're covering me again, here's my card. Sweet, I'll see you next time. No, that wouldn't be good, that wouldn't be right. That would be an abuse of God's grace. And we don't wanna be abusers of anything in this world. To abuse something is to misuse something, to treat with cruelty or violence, or to, it's the improper use of something.

God made us, humanity, to be representatives, to be as partners and coworkers in this world. And when we treat anything with cruelty or violence or misuse something that God intended for one purpose and we use it for another purpose, we are acting in direct opposition to God. We do not want to abuse God's grace. We don't wanna selfishly take advantage of God's grace because that would reflect a heart that is not united with God at all, but still serving self. own desires. So Paul says in verse 2, "No, how can we live in it any longer?" That's sin. He's just saying, "How can we live in sin anymore now that we have this other option?" We must understand the goodness of God and the evil of sin. He wants the readers to have this, how far away these two are, how good God is, and how evil sin is. If we don't have a proper view of God and a proper view of sin, we're never going to want to be in God's presence and we're never going to feel the need to stop sinning. I want us to pause and really think about that. If we don't have a proper view of God and a proper view of sin, we're never going to want to be in God's presence and we're never going to want to, we're never going to feel the need to stop sinning. We don't understand how evil sin is. We don't feel the priority or the need to get rid of it in our lives. if we don't understand how good God is, how necessary his presence is in our lives, we're never gonna make any effort to go towards him. Often people think of the transformative work of God, the process of being sanctified, being made more and more like Jesus. They think of it like dieting. And I'll explain in a second, there may be some truth to it, there's also ways to think of that that's not helpful at all. If you've ever been on a diet, I have, so I'm speaking from experience, not right now. It can be easy to justify certain cheats in foods and really bend the definition of your diet to benefit you in a certain moment, right? Yeah? I was on a diet and there was no sugars. I wasn't supposed to have any sugar. But I remember having this conversation often, especially the longer the diet went on, where I was like, the whole point of it is just to have less sugar than I was before. So some sugar right now is still overall better than where I was. And we can do something similar with sin, right? We can't view sin like dieting. So in this conversation, if you're having some processed sugar, isn't gonna kill me, I'm still being healthier, just not as healthy, I'm getting there. That works out fine in the dieting conversation.

If we apply that to our sin context, it might sound like, well, just some sin won't be bad, right? Jesus isn't expecting me to be perfect, but I'm getting better. I'm getting more and more holy. He's working in me. And there's some truth to that, but now we're on a slippery slope, right? And the next thought that can come later on could be it's just some sin. I'll be okay because of God's grace. And now we're not in a good place at all because we're starting to justify the sin in our lives. The diet mindset of sin in our lives is doing us a disservice. It doesn't take into account how we were enslaved to sin. Slavery is a loaded word and comes with a lot of its own history. But the point being that you had no control over your heart and your life because sin did. Paul reminds the believers in Rome that they are ones who have died to sin. Death being the only thing that would free a slave from their captivity, from their bondage. The only way out of slavery was death. And Paul is pointing back to Jesus' work on the cross, that His death and His defeat over sin signals the same for us. Paul is using baptism as the way to convey what is happening. The Bible Project, if you've seen any of their videos or listened to their podcast, has a great video on baptism. And I want to share this quote. It says, "Just as Jesus died, so going into the water becomes this personal connection that you now have with his death. And in coming out of the water, you, so to speak, come back to life with Jesus. So baptism is this sacred ritual that joins us to Jesus' death and resurrection. I just love that connection that it's making, that we are, it's a symbol, yes, but what it symbolizes is so real for us. So if you've been baptized or if you're planning on being baptized, or if you just wondered about baptism, Hopefully this will clarify some things for you. We are joined with Jesus in his death and resurrection, and baptism is the way in which we symbolize that new reality. And from here, moving forward in our passage this morning, Paul puts the reader together with Jesus in these significant moments in the believer's life, where Jesus and believers share in transformational moments full of rich spiritual implications.

So in verses four through nine, Paul lays out for the believers how we are connected to Jesus. Not just that we acknowledge and worship Him and He is our God, but how the actions of Jesus are also our own. So in the following, we are with Jesus. And the first is that we are with Jesus on the cross. This is another way of saying for the believer that the power of sin is broken over them. Paul says this in multiple letters. We have it here in Romans, also in Ephesians and Colossians. Ephesians 22 says, "You were taught with regard "to your former way of life to put off your old self," which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. In Colossians, he says again, "Do not lie to each other "since you have taken off your old self with its practices. "The old man," as Paul says, or the old self, "was a slave to sin." And now that is no longer the case. Christ has delivered us by his actions on the cross. So our old sinful enslaved self was crucified on that cross. We are also with Christ and that we died with him. You get that from verses 8 and 4 in our passage and buried with him. He also says this in 2 Timothy, he says, speaking to a significant moment in the process of becoming a believer, he says, "If we died with him, we will also live with him." So the death of Christ is a part of the basis for a whole experience of salvation. There's such an emphasis on Jesus's death and how it's connected to us, because that's the moment that Jesus turns away from sin. Not his own sin, but his relationship to sin, right? He bore all the sins of the world. And in his death, he has a final turning away from that. And for us, we also, in dying to sin, are turning away from sin. We would call that repentance, right? We repent every day of the sins we commit, but in a moment of salvation, there was a bigger repentance of saying, God, I'm no longer gonna live this life that is following sin. I'm gonna turn from that and I'm gonna head towards you. So we too die to sin. It is no longer having a hold over us. And our connection in our death with Christ is not the end because we are also with Jesus in his resurrection. It's found in verse five, Paul says that we are made alive in Him. Our spiritual lives are resurrected. He writes about this, again, in some of the other letters. Colossians 2:13 says, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all of our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross." In Ephesians, Paul writes, "God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions." Paul is saying we are united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. And that brings us into being with Jesus in new life. We were raised with Him and made to sit with Him in the heavens. I'm going to keep reading Scripture to you because it's just so good and so essential.

Ephesians 2 says, "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms with Christ Jesus." Paul also says later, we'll get to it in chapter 8 of Romans, "We are co-heirs with him." We share in his glory. He writes, "If we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in his suffering, we will also share in his glory." This is one of the most beautiful pictures in the gospel, one of the most exciting and glory-filled situations for the believer to think about. Remember, we've been saying this throughout our series that it's like Paul is teaching a course. And the first four chapters were Christianity 101, and now we're in Christianity 201. And so before, he would say that we have a life in Christ, but now he's expanding on that. And he's letting us into the reality those new layers of our new life. They are intricate ways in which, when we believe our lives, everything about us, our hearts, our souls, our minds, undergo a transformation. And we are then woven together in a special way with Jesus. To where what Jesus did on the cross, He did for us. To what Jesus experienced in His death and resurrection, we too experience that in our spiritual life. What Jesus experienced in his resurrection, we know that we will ascend to be with God in heaven. And to the ministry that Jesus accomplished after his resurrection, we know that we too have a new life and a new purpose once we have found him. I mentioned at the beginning that this is kind of the believer's origin story. And so if our spiritual journey was playing out as a movie, there'd be a scene where someone were to ask you, "How did you get to who you are today as a believer, as a Christian?" And you'd have to tell that story. There'd be flashback scenes of like, "Well, when I was this age, it'd be all hazy around the edges. It'd be really cool." We all have unique stories and experiences that bring us to God, but the work that God does is all the same. And so this part of every one of our movies would play out the same way. And we could share with this in this movie scene with whoever's asking well it started when Jesus reached me and I responded and my sin was on that cross with Jesus my old self died with Jesus on that cross and I was buried in the same tomb with him and I have new life just as Jesus has new life and I know that in my future I will ascend to be with God just as Jesus ascended. I get to be co-heirs with Christ. I get to be with God, my Father, reigning over just as God intended. That's the part that is true of every one of our stories. If you are a believer here today, that's the scene that you get to, that is part of your history. And every believer needs to understand the reality of their story, that they are dead to sin and alive to Christ. That's where Paul goes in the last four verses. Paul tells us once again that we should be dead to sin and alive in Christ. Now while Christ's death to sin speaks to the end of Christ being in the realm of sin and the death to his whole relationship with sin, for believers that's not necessarily our reality.

We still have a contest every day. We are still tempted by sin every day. We can still choose to sin. But before we didn't have a choice, right? We were enslaved. We only knew sin. Now we have a choice to follow God. And every day, multiple times a day, we're faced with this decision. Are we going to let sin rule our lives again or are we going to be alive in Christ? You may be asking like, Like what does alive in Christ even mean? It is a life that is singly devoted to God. It means seeing things the way that God sees them. It means living like Jesus. Well, how do we be like Jesus? Paul says in verse 12, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body." I really like this imagery of something reigning in our lives. It speaks to this part of humanity that we don't often think about anymore. And that is that we were made to worship and to serve. Paul knows that we as humans are meant to serve something or someone. And as sinners, we might have served a multitude of things, right? Might have served money, ourselves, success, power, whatever it is. And really, Satan's okay with any of those as long as it's not God. He's like, "You just worship anything but God, that's fine, I encourage it." But for the believers, this is a part of our humanity that is in process of being fully redeemed as we are now able to worship and serve God. We were made to be in relationship with God and sin ruined that, right? We were meant to be in close, loving relationship with God. And that imagery of that relationship brings us back to the garden, right? He created Adam and Eve in the garden, and that was the ideal. God partnered with Adam and Eve ruling over this earth. Sin breaks that relationship and that reality, and now humanity is enslaved to sin. And Paul is saying, for the believer, that reality has changed. Now the believer can choose to serve God. That relationship with God has been partially restored. It will be fully restored in heaven, where it'll once again be like the garden relationship. But there is a throne in our hearts. Just imagine, like a little kingly throne, whatever kind of throne you like. It's a big chair with like the big arms. You can sit and rule. There's one of those inside of you. And whatever's sitting on there dictates everything that you do. So if it is money on there, if it is success, if it is power, if it's yourself, it's a little you sitting on the throne of your heart, it will serve whoever's sitting on that throne. All of your actions, your thoughts will evolve around that thing in your heart. And if it's anything other than God, it will lead us astray, it will lead us into sin, and it'll lead us into ruin. But God, now for the believer, gets to sit on the throne of our hearts. And then we are alive in Christ. So it's at that moment when God is reigning in your life that you are alive in Christ.

Paul is exhorting believers to serve God because he is the best thing in their life. And someone who doesn't think that God is the best thing in their life, they probably don't have a proper view of who God is. There's a misunderstanding of who God is. Because if we do have a proper view of God, an understanding of who God is and what He does for us, we would choose to stop sinning. We would choose to follow Him. And we want other people to say, "Hey, I want you to be a part of this life. This life is amazing. God is the best thing in this life. You need to know about this." Verse 13, Paul says, "To offer everything of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness." This is about laying everything you have down before God for His glory. And again, this speaks to the partnership that God desires. This should be a part of our daily prayers, that God would use us for His kingdom, that we might be instruments of righteousness. So in whatever situation you're in, whether at work, at home, with friends, family, in whatever situation, ask yourself, how can you be a vessel for God's righteousness and blessing and grace and love into that situation? How can you be the source of Jesus for the people around you? And then Paul says in 14, we can even think, we can start to think like this and ask these questions all because sin is no longer our master. Paul is doing his layering thing here where he's building from earlier chapters and he's reminding, he just wants to keep putting it in front of the Romans, in front of us today, that we are no longer under the law, but under God's grace. So these 14 verses at the beginning of chapter six of Romans are meant to be filled with hope and to bring us joy and help us see how our spiritual origin story is really tied to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And I want us to right now lean into the work that God is doing, the transformational work that is happening in our hearts and souls. So I just want you to reflect right now and think, if it helps to close your eyes, feel free to close your eyes. But I wanna ask you a few questions. Is your heart enslaved to sin? Who is on the throne of your heart right now? What master are you serving? Is it God or is it anything other than God? Just take a few seconds and answer honestly. Be vulnerable with yourself. Are you living each day alive in Christ, devoted wholly to his purposes? And then ask yourself, what needs to change today in order for me to experience being united fully with Jesus? What needs to change? What is the Spirit prompting in your mind and in your heart that needs to have work done on it? I want to end by reading Jesus' prayer for all believers. This is a prayer that Jesus prayed. He prayed for His disciples, the 12, and then He prayed for every believer. And I want Jesus here connecting the dots for us that a spiritual connection we have and unity that we have as believers with Him and with God. So this is found in John 17. It's not gonna be up there. So I just want you, this is a prayer.

Close your eyes. This is Jesus praying for you. And He says, "My prayer is not for the disciples alone. "I, Jesus, pray also for those who believe in Me "through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, "just as You are in Me and I am in You, "May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent me. I have given them glory that You gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and You in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent me and have loved me, even as You have loved me. Father, I want those You have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me, because you have loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and that I myself may be in them." So God, that is our prayer this morning, that we would be one with you. We are so thankful for the ways in which we are united with Christ Jesus. We want to be instruments of You, for You, in Your kingdom. Use us to show others who You are, that they may come to love You and know You. And God, I pray that as we reflect on those questions, that there would have been something that came to the surface, that we would lay before You and say, "God, I need You to work this part of my life. I need your Spirit to refine me, to grow me. I want to keep putting that old self, those sins that I was once enslaved to, I want to keep putting them on the cross, that I don't serve them anymore, but I serve you, Jesus. For that you would do that work in all of us today, the next day, and the next. God, we want to give you our everything that we have. And we trust and know that you will use us for your kingdom, God. And we want to take such joy in that. However hard it may be, we're just thankful to be a part of you, God, and your church and your family. So it's with joy that we pray all these things in your son's name. Amen. Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.