Giving up to Gain

Good morning and welcome to another week of Church here at the Bridge. I am so glad that we could be here together once more. I pray that this morning we can continue to open ourselves to what God has for us this morning. It is a special weekend this week. It is...

Memorial Day

Memorial day is an interesting holiday here in America. Casually for many it is the day we have the unoffical start of summer. Most schools our out by this time of the year and vacation season really starts. However, we all know this isn’t the real reason for memorial day.

On May 5, 1868 General John A. Logan the leader of an origination for Northern Civil War veterans called for a nationwide day of remembrance. They choose the 30th of May to strew flowers and decorate the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country. This date was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

IT began there and in 1971 the first official Memorial day took place on the last Monday in May.

Why talk about Memorial day this morning. First because we recognize the sacrifice of those who served and died in our armed forces and we hope to honor them. The second is that it draws us to a position that is really important.

Sacrifice

Memorial day reminds us the cost of our freedom in the united states. This is why Memorial day is an important holiday. Likewise we as Christians have similar times of the year that draw us back to the cost of freedom. Easter season helps us realize this cost more and more. The death of Jesus and the suffering he went through are the images that come to mind.

We as humans recognize a tremendous amount of power that comes with sacrifice. We know and see that it is a powerful thing to give up ones life for another. We hold true to verses like this.

John 15:13 NIV

13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

It is in this sacrfice that we often also find the truth of our walk with Christ and we must begin to realize that the life with the spirit is filled with it and it is powerful.

Let’s read some scripture this morning

Romans 8:12–17 NIV

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 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.

Our Obligation

In Verse 12 we see this word that stands out. Obligation. It is a interesting word choice here by Paul when he is referencing our lives. It was a word that captured my attention as i studied this passage.

Obligation—An act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound; a Duty or commitment

This idea that we have a moral or legal binding to something other than the flesh is a powerful idea. Think about that for a moment. The passage tells us that we have an obligation but it isn’t to the flesh or the sinful nature. It is interesting that it is not spoken what the obligation that we have. Yet, we know that we are bound to the Spirit. Paul is issuing a deep warning here about the dangers of being obligated to the life of the flesh. This is a passage that reminds us of what we have to be willing to sacrifice for our relationship with God. We are no longer to pursue the things of this world but we are to pursue a life after God. It is in this moment that we realize more and more that we can be people that are looking to gratify the things that we want and the things that we long for but we have to ask our selves the questions...

Are these things the Leading of the Spirit?

It is a challenge that we must ask ourselves on a regular basis as Christians. Are we living our lives in step with the Spirit? Are we growing in him?

The Life of the Spirit or the Life of the Flesh

Romans 8:13 NIV

13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

It is verses like these that challenge many of us. It is verses like this that are challenging for many people. The reality is that much of our faith is built around the idea of grace. We allow for grace more and more and for forgiveness. This is important because grace is an essential part of our faith. Yet, we realize that sinning for the sake of grace increasing is wrong.

Romans 6:1–2 NIV

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

This warning from Paul is an essential one that we must wrestle with in our lives. We have a the good book and the word of God that we believe and hold to be truth that there is instruction in here. This isn’t an easy thing to hear for may people because we want to think about Jesus and the love that he has for us. We forget that Jesus regularly called people to turn from their ways and follow after God. He called us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That statement is an interesting one.

I love myself by working to better myself in a life that follows after God. This makes me ask the question is the Spirit’s leading in my life of value to my neighbor. Is the Spirit leading me and challenging to better myself in life related to sin something that I should be sharing and helping others to see the problems with the way we are living.

The reality is that we long to indulge the flesh more and more. We long to take care of our own needs and not look to Christ for the answers and look to the great helper to lead us each and every day. This is the difference between the life of the Spirit and the life of the flesh. Ask yourselves. What is your intentions? Are they to seek your own benefit or are they longing to seek God. Some day when we stand before God and we have to give account for all the things that we have done are you able to stand before him and say I did my best to live a life in honor of you.

We are called to live a life by the Spirit forsaking the life of the flesh and live for him.

One other interesting thing that i want to mention about

Romans 8:13 NIV

13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

IS that this scentence is in the present tense. It is structured this way on purpose. It is a reminder that this is an ongoing action. It is not something in the past or only in the furture but is something that we are currently working on. That is the hope that we can have in this passage is that the grace of God is such that even as we work on ourselves his grace is enough but the truth is that we must be in the state of working toward living a life of the Spirit not of the flesh. It is here that we find the...

Freedom in the Spirit

Sometimes i don’t know if we really realize the gift that we have been given in the Holy Spirit. We have a great promise that if we believe in Jesus and what he did for us than we are apart of the Spirit. This is a great victory for us in this world and for the rest of eternity. It is in our belief in Jesus that we find freedom from the bonds of the flesh and sin. It is in him that we have that hope. It is in the Spirit the great helper that he sent that we are able to maintain this life and that we are able to live a new life that is free of the bonds of sin. It is in him that we can find hope.

We no longer have to be afraid of death because we can have confidence in the promises made by God and what he promised to do for us through Jesus. This is an amazing freedom. For me personally it makes it easier to feel free to follow after him and to commit to bettering myself and pursuing holiness. Verses like

Romans 8:15–16 NIV

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.

Give me a great hope because we know that we can lean on him and that we can have confidence that the Spirit is there cheering us on as we walk through this life and that we can cry out Abba and we can know that we are God’s children in our belief. This is an amazing freedom that allows us to know who God is and what our relationship is with him. Think about that for a moment. The creator of the heavens and the earth, the creator of all that we know wants to be in relationship with you and simply wants you to ask for his forgiveness and we can have this freedom. He wants us to recognize our need for him and in him we can know that we are his children whom he loves and protects. This is a comfort that makes life so liberating.

This does not mean that we won’t go through some hard times in fact we are going to experience suffering and hardship and it will always be a challenge for us and is something that we can count on as being a part of our lives because we still live in a broken and fallen world that sin is in. Yet, our hope is this.

Romans 8:18 NIV

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

The current suffering is nothing compared to what is to come. This is the hope we can look to. We know that he is there for us and his Glory is amazing and we will one day rejoice in it.

Memorial Day Part 2

Earlier we talked about memorial day and what it means for us as Americans. It is a day to remember the cost of our freedom. We see this day and we are reminded of that. As Christians we often look to a few days of the year to really remind us of that. That had me thinking. The reality is that living by the Spirit and following after God is about the reminder of what Jesus did for us on the cross every day. I challenge you to think about that for a moment. What if you for the next week each morning as you got up thanked God and recognized what he did for you on the cross.

Start your day saying,

Jesus thank you for the Cross. Help me to live a life in honor of what you did for me. Help me to examine myself and to pursue a life that is in constant pursuit of knowing you better.

What do you think might change? How do you think he might begin to work in your heart and your mind? It is time to step up and allow him to work and accept what he has done for us and follow after him.

Let us pray.