Romans 8 (Week 4)
Notes
Transcript
Recap
Recap
WOMEN’S GROUP (TONIGHT starting at 5:30pm)
LIFE GROUPS ( 37 in attendance this week!)
CAMPS (DATES & RSVP)
For the past few weeks, we have been looking at . We have seen the representation Paul depicts for the climax of the Gospel narrative for this largely Gentile, Christian audience.
We have been encouraged by the realization that judgment and the penalty of sin have been eliminated from our lives as a result of the completed work of Christ. The shift in our lives occurs as we, as believer and followers of Christ, choose to dwell our thoughts on the things of the Spirit, things above, and thus life out the life that God has both purchased for us but also called us to. The life He has called us includes an abundance of heavenly provisions as we experience what it is like to be a part of a royal family. The inheritance we have both in this life and fully experienced in the life to come is ours because of the adoptions we have into the family of God. Upon Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, a deposit was made in us guaranteeing that inheritance—the Holy Spirit.
Today, we will begin looking at Romans chapter 8, starting with the 14th verse.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
vs. 14 The imagery painted here is that of a shepherd and his sheep. If you remember the series from last year, The Voice, you will recall the nature of the true Shepherd that leads and guides us.
For Paul, the law is pictured as a tutor responsible for leading us to Christ.
24 The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.
Galatians
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
Once the law served its purpose of leading us towards Christ, however, it must hands over the guiding role to the Spirit, who guides us into all truth (). The Holy Spirit marks and distinguishes us as children of God.
STORY: I don’t know what your testimony was, but for me…the knowledge I had before of right/wrong, of sin, only pointed out the fact that I was indeed a slave to sin. The power of the law in my life couldn’t bring me freedom. The law never does and never will. Freedom comes through Christ and is sustained and manifest in our lives today through the Spirit of God.
vs. 15 I love how deep a line Paul draws between what we once had and experienced while far from God, even under the law, as slaves. There is nothing further from a slave relationally to the slave master than a son. And Paul says that is what we are. We do not relate to God as slaves, fearful of our master’s response to our presence, but instead have been declared as part of the family forever.
STORY: We are in the surreal process of adopting our second child, JoJo. Signing the paperwork with our attorney and DCS is always sobering when you see the name you are giving her on those legal documents for the first time. Over the next couple of weeks, we will swear in at the County Court House in the Judge’s Chambers in front of both family and friends to give Josie a Forever Home.
God has made an even more binding contract with us, bringing us into to His family forever.
Much like our justification with God being once and for all, our adoption as God’s children doesn’t need to be done repeatedly. It is a one time occurrence that has eternal impact. We once were lost, but now we are found. We once wandered, but now we have belonging. We once were homeless without direction, but now we have a forever home and know who’s we are.
vs. 15 (cont.) And so Paul says we have a Spirit of adoption to sonship, by which we now call God, “Abba, Father.” This is a repetition of the same word much like Jesus would use. He says Abba-the Aramaic for Father, followed by the Greek word for the same-Father. Saying, “Father, Father,” or “Daddy, Daddy.” Emphasizing the removal of approaching God with any fear because we come as family, adopting into the most royal dynasty. There is no place for fear here. This is better than if you had just come into this on your own, as if you were born into it. Instead, He CHOSE you. You have been ADOPTED to BELONG forever. There is no room for fear.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus is telling us that even in our fallen nature and evil state treat our children well. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
Matthew 7:
vs. 16 It is the Spirit of God that He gives generously to His children WHO ASK testifying with our spirit that we are God’s children.
FEAR: It is not new news to you this morning what is going on around the world and in our nation. Like you, I have seen the memes, the stats, the numerous reports. At the end, we operate with wisdom and common sense bolstering our hygiene and precautions responses to something that could affect those in our area with weak immune systems, respiratory issues, and our elderly.
I have heard FDR uot
I have heard FDR quoted during this season which bears repeating. On the heels of a dark season and economic depression, he said at his inauguration that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The paralysis of fear can do immense damage. It can halt societies in their tracks. It can damage the economy. It can weaken the physical body. It can display to our children an unhealthy way to respond to situations out of our control.
But what fear says to God may be even grander. It says, “We don’t trust you.” It says, “We don’t really believe we are your children, and that you will take care of us.” Fear can’t stand in the presence of legitimacy. And that is what you are. You are a son, a daughter. Fear has no place in your life or in your spirit because the Spirit of God dwells within you.
vs. 17 Paul traces our spiritual lineage through these verse. We were once a slave (to sin), then a child (of God), and are also heirs (with Christ our elder brother).
Galatians has much of the same language, addressing some of the same issues. I consider Galatians to be Romans little brother, shorter in length. Paul writes...
6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
7 As mature children in Christ, then, believers experience a new relational dynamic. Believers in Christ live out this obedience to the Father, with sins forgiven, walking in the Spirit and so fulfilling the law of Christ, which is the law of love (cf. Ro 13:10). Because they are now mature by virtue of incorporation into the person and work of Christ, believers are no longer slaves but have the redemptive-historical status of sons and heirs.
You are a son or a daughter in this place. Fear has no place as we stand in the full love of God: accepted, forgiven, and given freedom to be His children.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
This morning, I want the love of God to drive out all fear. Devil it has no place among the children of God. Media, culture, society, CNN, political officials, school headmasters listen carefully to our loud love. Listen to our lives as we live not according to the flesh and succumb to a life of fear but rather live according to the Spirit and exhibit a life of peace. The peace you will see in the people of God will not make sense. It will transcend understanding. It will be remarkable and point to the One who is able. We have a God, a Father who is able. He is a Good Father.
I believe the Lord is going to do something special in these moments of uncertainty. What is being removed from us is our ability to depend upon the economy and our finances. What is being removed from us is our ability to control what happens around us. BUT what we replace these things with will be vital to our soul as we choose to respond in faith, placing our trust in the One who has had it all along.
STORY: We took our youth this past Thursday to a movie premier for “I Still Believe”. And without spoiling what happens in the movie, Jeremy Camp’s wife says this about her faith. She says, “Suffering doesn't minimize faith it refines it.” And that is so true. We see this in James the first chapter, that it is the testing of our faith that develops within us that which will remain—perseverance, maturity, and wisdom.
Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble. But He didn’t stop there.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
We are connected, have found our forever family with the one who has overcome the world. The overcomer of anything and everything that we would ever face has put His Holy Spirit within us to live the life we were destined for all along—to overcome.
So don’t lose heart. Don’t grow weary. Tune your ears to what builds you up not tears you down. Now is the time to have our mind fixed on Him and walk in perfect peace.
3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
vs. 17 (cont.) For Paul, being an heir with Christ doesn’t only grant us the glamorous moments, but inherits for us the same process by which our faith may be purified, “if indeed we share in his sufferings.”
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:18-
vs. 18 Just as the impact of sin can’t compare to what Christ has done for us through redemption, so too our present sufferings can’t compare to the glory that will one day be revealed in us.
There is simply no comparison. It would be apples/oranges, Corona/Influenza, etc. It isn’t a comparison. Our suffering will pale in light of the glory that God is going to reveal in and through us.
PIANO MAN
vs. 19 The rest of creation recognizes the misalignment to the original order.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
When God created mankind He did so with a purpose, “so that they may rule over…fish, birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that move along the ground.” So that they may rule.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
He echoes this purpose again when God speaks a blessing of fruitfulness coupled with dominion. The hierarchy was to be God as supreme over all creation. All created things were intended to be subject to that which was created in His image/likeness, us. In representing God, we were to have dominion and rule over that which was on the earth (not speaking of other people, only created things).
All of creation feels the affects of sin from that original disobedience. The frustration of the animal and plant world is all part of the consequences of sin. But just as we all felt the affects of sin, so creation desires to feel the affects of redemption. Paul says that all of creation is eagerly awaiting for the revelation of the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Your created purpose has ripples. It will affect those around you, as well as the created order. We will begin to see Christ’s redemption bringing about full restoration in all areas. What was intended from the beginning for us to have dominion and rule will happen. If we continue to allow sin have a counterfeit dominion over us, we will remain slaves to sin and never experience the freedom which Christ has purchased for us. But, if we, through the Spirit, operate as children of God, when we walk in our created calling and purpose then also the rest of creation rejoices with the full order of all that He designed. Today is your day. Son and daughter of God, find your place created for you since the beginning. You are the head and not the tail. You are blessed and not cursed. And everything you put your hand to will prosper. This is God’s desire for His children.
PRAYER
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?
25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 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.
27 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.