Life in the Spirit Romans 8:5-17
-We now serve God in the new way of the Spirit
There is a bottom line when a Christian believer has placed God in the center of his life. Word does get out when God blesses and people want to see living examples of faith. In the book, Everyday Discipleship for Ordinary People, Stuart Briscoe wrote:
One of my young colleagues was officiating at the funeral of a war veteran. The dead man’s military friends wished to have a part in the service at the funeral home, so they requested the pastor to lead them down to the casket, stand with them for a solemn moment of remembrance, and then lead them out through the side door.
This he proceeded to do, but unfortunately the effect was somewhat marred when he picked the wrong door. The result was that they marched with military precision into a broom closet, in full view of the mourners, and had to beat a hasty retreat covered with confusion.
This true story illustrates a cardinal rule or two. First, if you’re going to lead, make sure you know where you are going. Second, if you’re going to follow, make sure that you are following someone who knows what he is doing!
Your testimony is either for God or against God. Will your testimony lead others to Christ and stir believers to honor Christ? Or will it lead some innocent souls down the wrong path of life and doom them for eternity?
I. The Principle of Life in the Spirit vv. 5-8
II. The Power of Life in the Spirit vv. 9-11
Percentage of senior corporate executives with a high net worth (defined as having a net worth of $1 million or more, not including primary residence) who credit their current financial status to:
Hard work—99
Intelligence and good sense—97
Higher-than-average I.Q.—83
Being the best in every situation—62
Luck—32
III. The Privilege of Life in the Spirit vv. 12-13
IV. The Promise of Life in the Spirit vv. 14-17
When Jewish psychiatrist Victor Frankl was arrested by the Nazis in World War-II, he was stripped of everything—property, family, possessions. He had spent years researching and writing a book on the importance of finding meaning in life—concepts that later would be known as logotherapy. When he arrived in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp, even his manuscript, which he had hidden in the lining of his coat, was taken away.
“I had to undergo and overcome the loss of my spiritual child,” Frankl writes. “Now it seemed as if nothing and no one would survive me; neither a physical nor a spiritual child of my own! I found myself confronted with the question of whether under such circumstances my life was ultimately void of any meaning.”
He was still wrestling with that question a few days later when the Nazis forced the prisoners to give up their clothes.
“I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn out rags of an inmate who had been sent to the gas chamber,” says Frankl. “Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in the pocket of the newly acquired coat a single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, which contained the main Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.)
“How should I have interpreted such a ‘coincidence’ other than as a challenge to live my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?”
Later, as Frankl reflected on his ordeal, he wrote in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, “There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.… He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.