The Spirit of Life

Life to the Fullest

We are beginning a new series today on the Holy Spirit and more specifically the life that we were created to enjoy through the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit within us. Now here is the thing, everyone is interested in life and life to the fullest. No one I know in their right mind says, “I want to live life half full, I want to have some regrets at then end of it all, and I’m content being unfulfilled and mediocre.” Now this is what we may settle for and countless people live life empty, constantly chasing after fulfillment, and having to deal with one regret after another. You see, living life to the fullest, in all of its abundance, in all of its glory is a universal human desire and everyone is trying in one way or another to experience it. This is why we have social phenomena like Yolo and Fomo and why movies like Dead Poet’s Society are timeless classics because we all want to carpe diem, seize the day. I found this humorous article in the New Yorker on this generation’s proclivity to try and live up to these slogans.

I can yolo, fomo, and wear a bolo tie simultaneously. I seize the day, and also seize throughout the day because my lifestyle choices have created an adrenaline imbalance that triggers my epilepsy. I’ll admit it. I’m an adrenaline junkie! Whether it’s drunk skydiving, highway parkour, or eating dangerously expired mayonnaise, I just can’t live without that rush. It’s an addiction that has destroyed every meaningful relationship I’ve ever had...I simply can’t explain my undying zest for life! There’s just something inside that fills me with joie de vivre, a je-ne-sais-quoi need to carpe-diem!

I’ll admit it. I’m an adrenaline junkie! Whether it’s drunk skydiving, highway parkour, or eating dangerously expired mayonnaise, I just can’t live without that rush. It’s an addiction that has destroyed every meaningful relationship I’ve ever had...I simply can’t explain my undying zest for life! There’s just something inside that fills me with joie de vivre, a je-ne-sais-quoi need to carpe-diem!

What this article is pointing out is everyone is trying to get the most out of life but we are not exactly sure how to get there and ironically along the way we destroy the life that we are trying to find. What you have to realize is that the path to true life isn’t wide and varied, it’s actually very straight and narrow and only the wise and faithful find it. You see, there is someone who is the source of life, the author of life, and it makes sense that only He can lead you to the life that you are looking for. Every other path will eventually lead to sorrow, pain, regret, and a life that is half lived. At it’s heart, Christianity is designed to not only answer the big questions of life but also to provide the power to live life as God intended. That’s what I would like for us to experience together as we go through this series. This morning, I want to begin with a short introduction to some of Paul’s thoughts on the Holy Spirit from his letter to the Romans.

Romans 8:1–4 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

.

Most people generally don’t associate the book of Romans with teachings on the subject of the Holy Spirit. This is the apostle Paul’s theological masterpiece and the magnum opus of all of his letters. And to tell you the truth, I have been afraid to preach out of this book because its hard to wrap your mind around some of the concepts that Paul is trying to present. This is the book where we get most of those Christian doctrines that people pretend they understand, justification, sanctification, glorification, predestination. Any Christian word that ends in ‘tion’ can probably be found here. But unknown to most Bible nerds is this weird fact: Paul mentions the Holy Spirit more often in Romans than in any other letter except for 1 Corinthians. And if you were to compare the content between the two letters, in my opinion, it’s Romans that has the more substantive teaching about the Holy Spirit.

I’m spending some time to bring this point up because people make the mistake that any talk about the Holy Spirit means that they have to check their intellect at the door. This letter by Paul clearly proves that our experience of the Holy Spirit should be properly thought through and understood both in the heart as well with the mind. Paul teaches us how to synthesize both the truth and the Spirit together so that we have a more robust faith. If you have truth without the Spirit, you have dead orthodoxy, a powerless Christianity. If you have Spirit without truth, you end up with a foundation-less Christianity that is open to error and heresy. So we need this marriage between Spirit and truth to properly live out the Christian life.

is the climax of Paul’s teaching on the Holy Spirit, which He actually begins in Chapter 5. These 4 four chapters represent one flow of thought in which Paul connects the finished work of Christ with the on-going work of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life. Just because you have received Christ as your Savior doesn’t mean that you get to cruise through life and wait for you ticket into heaven. There is this whole new life that needs to lived. The death and the resurrection of Christ makes that new life possible, in fact it is the prerequisite for it. But in order for you to go from potential to reality, you need the power and the presence of the Spirit of God. And here’s why…every good theologian (J.I. Packer) will tell you that the main role of the Holy Spirit is to make the ministry of Christ and the love of the Father an experiential reality. I want you to think about these two questions and answer them honestly to yourself:

1. Do you have a difficult time sensing God’s love for you?

2. Is it hard for you to live out the gospel, to feel like you are free from the power of sin?

If you are a Christian and you’ve come to honest terms with these questions and you are saying to yourself, “I haven’t experienced God’s love in a long time and I’m struggling deeply with sin”, I want to let you know that this isn’t a matter of not knowing enough. Ever believer knows that God is love and that He gave His only Son to free us from the penalty of sin. But as it has been said in many different ways, the longest distance in the world is the distance between the mind and the heart. Who God is and what He has done for you through his Son needs to be an experienced reality, it has to be a reality that touches the very core of your being and reaches the deepest parts of your heart. This is a supernatural work that can only be done through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, if you are not a Christian and you are interested in experiencing God’s presence and you are desperately looking for change and healing in your life, I believe that this is a series of messages that you won’t want to miss. I don’t want to give the ending away but here it is, if you unlock the truths that are found in these few chapter of Romans and you earnestly seek the presence of God, it will bring you to the mountain top of all religious experiences because on the top of this mountain, you will be able to echo the words of the apostle Paul found at the end of chapter 8:

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But before we are free to experience God’s love to this depth and make the gospel a reality in our hearts, there is this matter of overcoming the greatest barrier between you and God. The greatest obstacle that is preventing God’s love from reaching your heart is this little thing called self-condemnation. And whether you are Christian or not, we all struggle with feelings of condemnation and some of it might even be well deserved. This is the reason why Paul begins this chapter with one of the most important verses in all of the Scriptures:

But before we are free to experience God’s love and make the gospel a reality in our hearts, there is this matter of overcoming the greatest barrier between you and God. The greatest obstacle that is preventing God’s love from reaching your heart is this little thing called self-condemnation. And whether you are Christian or not, we all struggle with feelings of self-condemnation and some of it might even be well deserved.

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Martyn Lloyd Jones, who was a famous preacher in the 50 and 60’s, once said that most of the problems that Christians have realizing the full potential of their faith comes from not understanding this verse. But it makes so much sense, if you sit and think about it for a moment. If you have a relationship with me and you feel like I am condemning you, judging you, what are chances that you are going to believe that I love you? You are not going to believe me no matter how many times I tell and even if you do believe me a little, the feelings of being loved will be muted and it will be doubted. This is where many people get stuck in their relationship with God and the problem isn’t with God, it is with us. In the Bible whenever you see the word ‘therefore’, it means there is preceding thought that you need to look at. What is vitally important in understanding this verse is the personal struggle that Paul describes in the previous chapters.

Romans 7:19–24 ESV

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Romans 7:19-

Whether you are Christian or not, this is an inner dialogue that all of us can relate to. Why can’t I do what I know to be right? Why can’t I stop watching porn? Why can’t I love my children more? Why am I so angry all the time? Why can’t I stop eating taco bell? And the problem is there is two opposing laws at work within you. The first is the law of sin and death, and human beings for some crazy reason love to do things that destroy and sabotage our own lives. If left alone, we will eat, drink, work, or play ourselves to death. We are so easily addicted to every vice and pleasure, no matter how bad it is for us. Luckily for us there is an equal and opposing law, for Christians it is the law of God, for non-Christians we might call it natural law. Don’t steal, don’t lie, love your neighbor, honor your parents. These two laws create incredible tension in the human heart and the net result is this sense of condemnation and we think it is coming from God. But the thing is if you are a Christian, that condemnation isn’t coming from God, it’s coming from within! And if you’re not a Christian today, God doesn’t want to condemn you, this is why He gave us his Son, so that all the condemnation for sin would fall on Him and not on us. So that we would be free to experience the fullness of his love.

And this is where the power of the Holy Spirit has to come in. For much of our existence, we live being pulled in these two directions and it robs us of our joy, our energy, our faith, our hope, and ultimately our very life. We are handcuffed by these two laws but God speaks a better word and He gives us the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus who has set you free!

Romans 8:2–3 ESV

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Romans

A Thousand Condemnations

When I think back to the night I got saved, I’m beginning to realize more and more what exactly happened that night.

A thousands voices condemning me were silenced, the weight of a thousands condemnations removed from my shoulders, and the Spirit of love and forgiveness filled me with Life.

If you remember from the last series of messages, we defined discipleship as growing in the likeness of Christ and becoming more and more like Him in character, thought, and pattern of life. And most everyone, Christian or not, would have to agree that this is a goal worth pursuing. I’ve heard so many people talk about becoming the best version of themselves but to be honest, I’m not really interested in the best version of anyone because the best version of you, falls well short of what God intended for you and I hope that you realize this sooner than later. In fact, I don’t know even know what the “best version of you” even means and so I looked up some tips on how to become the best version of myself and here’s some of the recommendations I found:

Work out in the morning

Get up before the sun

Stop drinking alcohol for a month

Stop complaining and practice gratitude

Practice kindness and compassion

“Be content with being the best self you can be in each moment — because you will always be in the process of becoming. Make each moment your destination.” Anonymous

This quotes highlights the problem of this entire concept. This idea of the best version of you is a nebulous, moving target that can never be reached.

I guess according to this person, the best version of you is the lazy version. This quotes highlights the problem of this entire concept. This idea of the best version of you is a nebulous, moving target that can never be reached. And even if you were to reach it, there is no guarantee that you will be happy or that you would make those around you happy because there is a chance that the best version of you might suck.

So ask yourself this question, “Do you want to be the best you that is possible or do you want to become the person that God created you to be?”

Ask yourself this question, “Do you want to be the best you that is possible or

As we go through this series of messages, this is the truth that I want to come back to over and over again, the Spirit of God leads us to life in all of its beauty, all of its glory, in all of its fullness. And you might be asking yourself, why would God do this for me, what is in it for Him? St. Irenaeus gave us the best answer to that question, “The glory of God is the living man, and the life of man is the vision of God.” God is most glorified when you are most fully alive. He is as much vested in you living well as you are because He gets no glory if your life sucks. How vested is God in this? He gave you his only Son so that instead of death, you might have life. And in turn, Jesus poured out His Spirit so that we now have the power to walk in this newness of life that cost Him so much to purchase. Living a sucky life is not an option for the Christian!

I hope that this will get our hearts ready for the retreat and motivate some of you, if you have not signed up, to sign up this week.