You Are What You Love

Preach God’s Word With Boldness

Read Romans 8:1-17

Main Idea: You are what you love. Spiritual Disciplines, litergies, and Rhythems invite us to experience our freedom in Christ.

Intro

Relativity and Words don’t have meaning, we give them meaning. That’s your truth, not mine. Cultures have different practices and expressions.

Paris Ohio Analogy

Scripture gives us meaning because it invites us into a narrative.

What we do reminds us of our love for God and the great witnesses who have gone before us and how they have loved God. Some practices point us to Jesus better than others.

Most of us have given up on our New Years Resolutions. They probably were horrible anyways.

I want to invite us to consider spritual practices and diciplines in a context that is a little foreign to our protestant understandings of Following Christ.

What do you do that reminds you of Christs Love?

Great Book Called You Are What You Love.

Romans 3. Living in the Spirit (8:1–39)

People’s decisions about how they intend to live determines how they think about things. Moral choice precedes and determines intellectual orientation. People do not think themselves into the way they act but act themselves into the way they think. Ethical decision, more often than misguided reason, lies at the heart of error.

Within our American Christian Context, we have spiritual disciples totally backwards.

Belief does not drive action.

Actions Drive Belief.

That is why spiritual disciples are an essential part of the Christian walk.

Romans 8:1-2

Paul’s Letter to the Romans (5. Life in the Spirit 8:1–13)

To be ‘in Christ’ means to belong to Christ and to live in the realm where his power and lordship are experienced

Roman’s is often treated as a systematic theological expression of Paul’s entire belief.

Scott McKnight, Reading Romans Backwards. This was written to a group of people.

This was written to house churches all over Rome. This isn’t just a theological work, this is practical and beneficial for us too.

Jewish banishment from Rome Ad 41-54

This letter stems from Jewish community coming back to a Gentile Christian Community that has different ways of practicing their beliefs.

Paul Focuses on Christ, Praising Christ, And Christ’s Work on The Cross& Resurrection.

Main Problem: Jewish Christian’s and Gentile Christians practice following Jesus very different.

ASK RHETORTICAL QUESTIONS

So Brian If there is no condemnation, why do we have to do things daily for Christ? Isn’t that works to earn God’s Love?

Why Can’t I just read my bible and be done with it all?

Romans 8:3-4

The Law was powerless because of our Sin, so Jesus dealt with it by becoming human and taking on the brokenness of our sin so we might be made right we God.

“Once again, If I am Righteous, I don’t need to do anything else right?”

Paul Doesn’t stop there, Vs 5-8

5-live by flesh is different

6-live by spirit is different

We could go crazy deep into this, I don’t want to....

vs 8....We can’t please God without first accepting the work of Christ.

That has huge implications.

Our works for Christ are worthless without Christ Spirit in us.

vs9-11

Read Vs 12 Therefore Are you ready for the answer?

Are you ready to apply this?

This section makes me uncomfortable because there is nothing for us to do. There is no answer. There is only meditation.

Romans 8 is all about what God has done for us.

There is no application until Chapter 12...

Do you know what Paul wants us to do? pause and notice

Jesus Pauses and notices all through the gospels.

Zaccheus in the tree

Woman who was bleeding for 12 years

woman at the well

The Bible Isn’t a Moralistic Handbook for Right Living, It is an invitation to understand your Identity In Christ and to join into his narrative.

Paul invites us to understand who we are in Christ. Freed, Children of God, Righteous Before God and others, No Longer Slaves to sin, Co-Heirs with Christ, Ruling and Reigning with Christ!!!!

Spiritual disciples is joining in part of God’s redemption narrative. We don’t do them to grow closer to God, we do them to participate in God’s Kingdom.

In The West he have a horrible view of disciplines. Disciplines are work that get us somewhere.

“I’m going to wake up at 5AM because that is what successful people do. I’m going to get to work 15 minutes early so I am noticed.”

In Christ’s Kingdom, we don’t read scripture, or fast, or prayer, or meditate, or give, because we get something, we do them ask actions that remind us of who we are.

Holy Ordinary Moments

Main Argument: Vs 8:3a The Law and Spiritual Disciplines are different. The Law was works of the flesh used as a trainer to lead people to faith. Spiritual disciplines are acts of faith through the empowering work of the spirit in response to grace.

Where do I go with this?

Pour over- do it. the whole process.

“Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind; he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings.”

Christ is not found in the extraordinary, He is found in the ordinary, in the breaking of bread over and over, in the constant prayers of the righteous, in the orientation of worship to God daily, following Christ is a reorienting our hearts towards Christ as Christ has expressed God’s heart to us.

3 Things I think you should do

1 look into the Lectio Divinia

Lectio 365 App

Holy Tradition that goes back to 3rd century and before.

Pause, Reflect, Ask, Yield

Incorporate Holy Moments into your life

Dish Washing, Night Time, Laundry

Where can God meet you?

Look into a Lectionary

Book of Common Prayer or another one

Lord’s Prayer, Maranatha (Come Lord Jesus), The Shema Deut 6 (jesus did it)

Find tools that build rhythems in your life. Every Christian for the past 1900 Years has, we are just to busy now.

All of these tools incorporate Multiple Disciplines that have been used by Christians for Years to follow Christ.

Spiritual disciplines cannot be spiritual without the working of the holy spirit. And our acknowledgement and work with Him.

We indeed are freed in Christ, but that Freedom is to now express our new identity in our daily actions as we orient our hearts to God.

Lets Pray