Redemption from Isolation and Pain.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] Over the past few weeks we’ve seen God create the earth. [0:03] We’ve seen Him speak it into existence so that it would bring Him glory. [0:07] And then of course we’ve seen that creation in a state where it brought God continual [0:13] glory, where we lived in perfect harmony with each other and with God. [0:18] It didn’t last very long because man decided that we didn’t really need to be dependent [0:25] on Him.

[0:26] But rather we could be dependent on ourselves. [0:28] And in that moment when man sinned, what it’s called is that’s called the fall of man. [0:34] And we’ve seen over the past few weeks what that has brought into our lives. [0:38] And quite frankly, I don’t believe this is a culture where I really need to spend any [0:43] more time explaining the fact that we are sinful, that something isn’t right. [0:49] That things are not always as they should be.

[0:51] That we walk often times with more sorrow than we do joy. [0:57] That a typical day sees more pain than it does hope. [1:02] That a typical journey through this life is one where as we get older we experience the [1:08] effects of sin even if we don’t know that it’s sin that’s doing it. [1:12] And it’s not just something that we wake up in the morning and we say, okay I’m going [1:16] to sin.

[1:17] It’s not something that we make a decision to do or a decision to be. [1:22] It’s just something that we’re born into. [1:24] Romans chapter 5 reveals to us that through Adam came death to all men. [1:30] Through one man’s disobedience came disobedience to all. [1:34] So now when we’re born, we’re just born on this journey where we are according to Ephesians [1:41] 2, we’re the walking dead.

[1:43] We’re people that walk disconnected from God. [1:47] And then last week we saw the glorious hope that we have in Jesus Christ. [1:52] That even though we walk in this life where we’re disconnected from God, where we try [1:59] to be self reliant, self sufficient, where often times we try to use religion in order [2:04] to replace God, where we try to live a moral life even though we continuously don’t live [2:11] to even our own standards.

[2:13] That in spite of all of that, as we have attempted to be self reliant, God in his mercy loved [2:20] us with this great love and he sent his son to redeem us. [2:26] Because we took a look last week where it says that the penalty of sin is death. [2:31] But the gift of God is life through Jesus. [2:34] And we saw last week, we unpacked how it is that God does that through Jesus. [2:39] Because first, he gives him as the perfect sacrifice, one sacrifice for all time.

[2:46] God himself defeating sin by offering his own life and dying. [2:52] That God defeated death with his own death. [2:55] That he defeated sin through the greatest sin of all time, the death of Jesus, his murder. [3:01] There cannot be any sin greater than that. [3:04] But what God does is, he turns Satan’s plan right on its head. [3:10] Where Satan had planned to defeat God through man, God through man sends his own son.

[3:17] Where Satan attempted to bring death, God said, well I’ll defeat death with my own. [3:23] Where God, even as Satan tried to defeat him through bringing sin, which is rebellion [3:28] from God, which disconnects God’s creation from its creator, God said, okay, I’ll use [3:33] that to bring me glory. [3:34] I’ll kill my own son. [3:37] Because the wrath had to go somewhere, so it went squarely on top of Jesus.

[3:42] But then, our hope comes in the fact that death could not reign over God. [3:49] That sin cannot reign over God. [3:52] And we see Jesus as he rises from the dead, winning victory over death and sin. [3:59] And it’s kind of interesting the way that we put it, where it’s like, oh, thank goodness [4:02] he won. [4:03] There was never any doubt where God was concerned.

[4:06] Even in Genesis 3, right after the fall of man, God looks to Satan and says, you have [4:10] bruised his heel, but he’s going to crush your head. [4:13] God from eternity past had planned the gospel for all time, to where now we can be reconnected [4:22] to the source of life that we were always created to be connected to. [4:26] We can live life again with our eyes wide open. [4:30] We no longer have to have the blinders of sin over our eyes, but rather God through

[4:36] Jesus takes them off. [4:37] And we can now walk in the truth of what life actually looks like. [4:43] Ephesians 2 says that we have now been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has [4:50] prepared beforehand for us to walk right into. [4:53] So no longer are we to live as people who experience condemnation, but rather we are [5:01] to live as people who are children of light.

[5:06] And it’s this great journey from death to life that each and every one of us necessarily [5:12] must be on if we confess that Jesus is our King. [5:18] But quite often what we do is, is we stop just short of believing that we can have [5:25] life in the here and now. [5:27] We stop just short of saying that we can experience victory over sin. [5:33] We stop just short of believing that we can experience full redemption.

[5:40] Sure, we want Jesus because we don’t want hell. [5:43] But what we do is, is we stop in the story and we stop connecting the dots after Jesus [5:53] because there’s a little level of discomfort when we say that Jesus is to reign over every [6:01] aspect of our lives. [6:04] When we make the statement that everything is spiritual, that Jesus didn’t come so that [6:08] we can erect walls and compartments where we give him a little bit of this and a little

[6:12] bit of that, but we keep this part for ourselves. [6:16] Well this part, I mean the gospel really can’t reign over that part, right?

[6:21] Well this morning what I’m going to do is, is I’m probably going to make a few of you, [6:25] maybe all of you, definitely myself, a little uncomfortable this morning because I’m going [6:30] to talk about tearing those walls down and giving Jesus everything in your life. [6:35] I’m going to talk about what it actually looks like to actually walk in victory. [6:40] To actually walk where you can look yourself in the mirror and you can say Romans 8, 1 [6:45] where you can actually say and believe, there is therefore now no condemnation to those

[6:48] who are in Christ Jesus. [6:50] Where you can actually believe that you’re alive.

[6:57] [6:58] So let’s get right into it. [6:59] Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. [7:01] I have to get used to this new stage because in the old stage I couldn’t walk really far [7:06] but now I get so far away that I have to run back. [7:08] So open to Romans chapter 8.

[7:10] We’re going to start reading in verse 12 this morning. [7:14] Now what I want you to realize is that in this story that God is writing to us, this [7:19] story that is completely conclusive, that it includes everything that God wants us to [7:24] know, we saw that the main character was God and that the theme of his story is his glory [7:30] and the plot is God redeeming man for his glory and he just unfolds it over the centuries [7:36] where he begins with kind of a vague promise in Genesis chapter 3 but as history goes

[7:41] on he unfolds a little bit more and a little bit more to where throughout the story we [7:47] begin to see exactly what sin has cost us but more than that we begin to see how faithful [7:53] God is to keeping his promise to winning victory over sin. [7:57] And so quite often when we read through the Old Testament and then kind of look at the [8:00] New Testament it almost seems like there’s two different gods, one who was pretty angry [8:04] and the other who had a couple of different nations because he killed them.

[8:07] I mean if you were a Midianite, be honest, alright, you wouldn’t think God was your [8:11] best friend because he killed all of you. [8:13] Actually you wouldn’t be a Midianite because I think they’re all dead. [8:15] That happened in the Old Testament. [8:17] But throughout the Old Testament what we see is this God who’s killing people, this God [8:21] who is telling his chosen ones that they are to go into these different lands and kill

[8:27] and that they are to live a little bit separate so that they can become a great nation through [8:33] which he is going to bring redemption for all. [8:36] So what we see throughout the story of the Old Testament is this God who believes and [8:41] cherishes justice because of his holiness but what he’s doing is through this picture [8:47] of his holiness he’s actually unfolding how he’s going to use it and leverage his holiness [8:54] in order to redeem the nations, all people, not just Israel.

[9:01] Alright? [9:03] That he’s actually going to leverage his holiness in order that through Israel he will redeem [9:09] the nations. [9:11] So what happens is that God continues to protect, sends them into captivity, judges their sin, [9:17] shows how much distaste he has for sin and how much anger he has against it and how [9:22] much wrath he has against it where he sends them into captivity, redeems them from captivity,

[9:26] sends them into captivity and we’re like what is the story that God is telling here? [9:31] But then in Matthew when we actually see all of the prophecies of the Old Testament, find [9:36] their culmination, find their yes in Jesus according to 1 Corinthians, we see the climax [9:46] of the story. [9:48] We see inside of the story that the ultimate story that God is going to tell us about himself [9:56] and his holiness is through Jesus.

[10:01] And then it all comes to a head and we see the mountaintop on the cross.

[10:08] And for you to come with me this morning on the journey that I’m going to take you on, [10:12] as we take a look at redemption from isolation and pain, you have to understand that everything [10:18] rises and falls on the cross. [10:22] That without the cross none of this is possible. [10:25] That everything in the Old Testament was leading up to the cross of Jesus where God not only [10:30] shows the love that he has for us, a love so great that he was willing to sacrifice

[10:35] and kill his own son on our behalf, but in there you also have a declaration of just [10:43] how holy our God is. [10:46] A holiness so great that to appease the justice and the wrath against sin, God is willing [10:55] all sin had to be laid onto God. [10:58] That’s why in Hebrews last week we took a look and we saw that the blood of bulls and [11:04] goats could never remove the sin that taints us.

[11:10] The only sacrifice that could be sufficient for all time had to come through a sinless [11:16] savior who was actually God himself in the flesh. [11:22] And through that we have life. [11:27] I want to tell you this morning that that is something that you must leverage your [11:33] entire life on.

[11:37] That is not just simply something that you pass over very quickly so that you don’t [11:42] have to go to hell and so that you can go to heaven, but rather you must look and see [11:47] that everything in history is hinged on that event and that through his resurrection everything

[11:56] has changed.

[11:59] Through this one time over a period of just about a week we have everything changed. [12:08] We have death in us come to life in us. [12:15] What Romans chapter 8 is going to unfold for us this morning is what we are really [12:19] going to see is what our lives should look like. [12:22] What does it actually look like when our sin and our death has been taken away? [12:28] What does it look like for Jesus to actually be our propitiation?

[12:32] One of those big words that just simply means that the wrath that God had for us has been [12:38] appeased but more than that through it we have a way to God.

[12:45] What does that actually look like? [12:48] Because if you remember a few weeks ago I used the example of a tree branch. [12:55] That if you go into a tree into your backyard and you cut a branch off and lay it in the [13:01] center of your yard you are not going to see a branch that thrives and in the fall is [13:07] going to have leaves, excuse me in the spring that is going to have leaves that just grow [13:12] green.

[13:13] But rather what you are going to have is a dead stick that you are pretty soon going [13:16] to be able to walk up to and break with your bare hands. [13:19] Why is that? [13:20] Because it has been taken away from its very source of life. [13:26] When you take the branch away from the tree that branch has no source of life. [13:32] But what Jesus has done is he has actually brought us back when we cut ourselves off

[13:39] from our source of life and he has grafted us back in to where now in this life we are [13:46] receiving the very nutrients that we had never received in our sin.

[13:52] So what that means is now we know what life actually looks like and we are going to be [13:58] a changed people. [14:01] We are not going to value the same things again. [14:06] Look in Romans chapter 8 verse 12.

[14:10] So then brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. [14:17] For if you live according to the flesh you will die. [14:21] But if you live by the Spirit you will put to death the deeds of the body. [14:26] You will live. [14:28] For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. [14:32] For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.

[14:38] But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father. [14:45] The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and of [14:49] children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with [14:54] him in order that we may also be glorified with him. [14:57] Let’s stop right there for a few minutes. [14:59] What we are seeing through these words, what we are seeing through this passage right

[15:03] here is that Jesus has redeemed us from isolation.

[15:09] What happens here in this text is that two different lifestyles are contrasted. [15:13] The first lifestyle is what it looks like to walk in the flesh. [15:17] What the flesh is going to represent in scripture at this point is sin. [15:22] What it looks like to walk without the reality that Jesus has died for your sins and that [15:29] you are dead, giving you a new life and a new hope. [15:32] And he says if you walk according to the flesh you are living in slavery to fear which

[15:39] in this passage represents death. [15:42] There’s nothing worse than walking in fear. [15:45] There’s nothing worse than walking through your life with guilt, with condemnation, feeling [15:51] disconnected from others, feeling this great burden that life is not adding up to what [15:57] you wanted it to add up to. [15:59] There’s nothing worse than that.

[16:01] But if you go back to the beginning of Romans 8 and even back into Romans chapter 7, what [16:05] is revealed to us in this part of the story is that without Jesus the story that we are [16:11] writing with our lives are stories of condemnation, fear, sin, death, guilt. [16:18] Everything that is negative is the story that we are writing. [16:22] No matter how good we think we are, no matter how we view our lives with rose-tinted lenses, [16:29] our story can never get better than a story that is a self-fulfilling, selfish story that

[16:37] ends in our own death. [16:39] We can’t tell any other story than that because without God and without other people, because [16:44] we saw in the fall that that is what happened. [16:46] We’re disconnected from God and now we live kind of butting heads with each other, even [16:51] in marriage, where we just butt heads, nothing is perfect anymore. [17:00] The story that we write is just a really short story about us.

[17:06] That we can’t live for a purpose that is greater than just this. [17:10] Let me fill you in. [17:11] This isn’t that great. [17:13] This isn’t that interesting.

[17:16] We’re telling this story that is just me. [17:19] Me against the world, me against you, me against everybody. [17:23] If you’ve ever watched a child go through adolescence, they are really just at the apex [17:27] of what that looks like because no one is smarter than them, no one is greater than [17:31] them, everybody is against them. [17:34] It’s not fun, ask my parents.

[17:36] I went through it.

[17:39] But what we see that contrasted to is the life that we’re given in Jesus Christ. [17:47] Look back into the text.

[17:51] If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. [17:57] What did we see last week? [17:59] The deeds of the body are put to death by who? [18:03] Jesus. [18:04] So what Paul is doing here, he’s not unveiling something that we have to really just pull [18:09] ourselves up by our bootstraps and make happen.

[18:13] He’s unveiling to them just the truth of the situation when you have Jesus. [18:19] The truth of the situation is the deeds of the body are dead. [18:22] But what he’s saying to the Romans is don’t buy the lie that they aren’t. [18:28] What he’s talking about is when you actually have the realization that the deeds of the [18:33] body are the sins that you have committed, or the sins that you’re just born in, when [18:37] you actually believe that they’re dead, that you don’t have to deal with them anymore,

[18:43] your life must change because now instead of walking by the flesh, you’re walking in [18:48] this great connection to God. [18:51] And he unpacks it even more. [18:52] He says, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive [18:59] the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you’ve received the Spirit of adoption [19:04] as sons.

[19:09] And most of us will believe Jesus. [19:15] We read the Scriptures. [19:17] We come to church, sing the songs. [19:18] We may even go to community group, pray with others, unpack the life that we think we [19:23] should be living. [19:24] But as we go home, what happens is that Satan, who’s been around since Genesis 3, he whispers

[19:32] into our ear, you’re not walking by the Spirit.

[19:39] You sinner.

[19:42] You don’t deserve Jesus.

[19:45] You don’t deserve to be called a child of God. [19:48] You’re separated from him.

[19:52] And so when you read this, don’t read Paul saying, you better pick yourselves up by [19:57] your bootstraps, you dirty sinner.

[20:01] Because Satan, when he whispers that into your ear, understand one thing. [20:05] He’s right.

[20:08] You can’t do it. [20:10] When you walk under your own power, that is death. [20:15] But what Paul is saying is, God through his Son has brought you life. [20:24] And now when you hear the accuser accusing you that you are still dead, look back to [20:30] him and say, in Jesus, I’m a child of God.

[20:36] Look at the metaphor he uses in adoption.

[20:40] Understand that when Paul wrote this, the metaphor of adoption was very important. [20:45] It’s a little bit different than in our day, a little bit similar but a little bit different. [20:48] In Roman culture, it was a pagan culture, it wasn’t really that great, it was a little [20:53] bit different than the one that we live in. [20:55] When you had a child, when a husband and a wife had a child, they could just put that [20:59] child out on the streets.

[21:01] He had really no recompense for that. [21:04] You could just put him out on the streets and say, have a good one, you’re out of here [21:07] buddy. [21:07] But in Roman culture, a lot of children were, that happened. [21:12] So what would happen in Roman culture is that the affluent people, they would often [21:16] adopt children.

[21:18] But in Roman culture, if you legally adopted a child, that child was connected to you [21:25] until your death, and then even after your death, he or she was considered an heir. [21:31] So in the culture that Paul is writing to, when he says you have been adopted by God, [21:38] you are children of God, what he is saying is you have been legally adopted, not under [21:45] your own power, but under his power, as the God of the kingdom, as the heir of the kingdom, [21:51] you have been brought in, and you’ve been legally adopted, and he cannot put you out.

[21:58] Because he doesn’t want to. [22:00] Look at the great lengths that he went to, to redeem you. [22:04] You have been adopted as a child of God, and that is something that you can live claiming [22:09] for the rest of your days. [22:12] So stop living in the condemnation of your own sin. [22:18] Believe God and walk in life.

[22:21] Jesus has redeemed you from isolation from God the Father, to where now you are not simply [22:28] someone that is brought into his house to have a cup of tea, rather you are someone [22:32] that lives there. [22:34] You are someone that just walks around as if you belong, because you do. [22:39] Look over to John chapter 15.

[22:44] In John 15 verse 1, Jesus says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. [22:50] Remember the metaphor of the tree? [22:52] Jesus is saying, I am the vine, and my Father takes care of me. [22:57] But then look down to verse 5. [23:00] He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. [23:03] Whoever abides in me, and I in him, it is he it is that bears much fruit.

[23:09] For apart from me, you can do nothing. [23:12] Now, what I want you to do, is I want you to couple this metaphor with what Paul is [23:19] revealing in Romans chapter 8. [23:22] Compare what Jesus is saying to what Paul is saying. [23:24] Jesus says, I am the vine, you have been brought in, you have been connected, I am [23:30] giving you life, the Father takes care of the vine, you will be taken care of through

[23:36] his care, because of me. [23:39] Does the branch do anything under its own power? [23:44] No. [23:46] The branch doesn’t earn its own keep. [23:48] The branch doesn’t pay any bills. [23:50] The branch is just something that grew off of the vine.

[23:54] And Jesus says that is what his kingdom is like. [23:57] It is people who are receiving power from him. [24:00] And then go back to Romans chapter 8, where Paul actually unpacks and he says, what this [24:05] looks like, it looks like you are a child of God who has been given all of the rights [24:10] and the privileges of an adopted heir who doesn’t deserve it.

[24:18] Isolation from God has been pushed away and it does not exist anymore to those who are [24:26] in Jesus Christ.

[24:29] You say, but what do you mean? [24:31] I just struggle with sin and when I struggle with sin I just can’t pray. [24:36] When I struggle with sin I can’t get into the story. [24:39] I can’t get into the revelation of God to me. [24:41] When I live in a life of sin I just don’t feel like I have any power. [24:46] I feel like he hates me.

[24:50] Who is the center of that story? [24:54] I.

[24:56] I don’t feel it. [24:59] I can’t. [25:00] I won’t.

[25:03] The gospel says, you can’t, you didn’t, and you won’t. [25:08] But he does, he did, and he will do it again. [25:13] That’s the gospel.

[25:15] So when you are living this life, when you have a full trust in the gospel, and you [25:21] have those moments in your life when you say, I’m not connected to God anymore. [25:25] Say, absolutely not, because that’s not what the story God tells about redemption. [25:31] God says, I’ve been brought in and I am his child, I am his heir. [25:35] And look, a little bit further, it says, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery [25:41] to fall back into fear.

[25:45] How many of you are having fear control your lives?

[25:51] But you received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. [25:57] All right, now I know most of us didn’t grow up saying, Abba. [26:00] All right, I didn’t. [26:01] All right, I just called him Dad.

[26:05] But what Paul is using here, and some of you may know this, if you grew up in the [26:08] church, you probably do, but you struggle to proclaim this. [26:13] In Roman and Greek culture, Abba was the most personal and familial use. [26:22] It was pretty much just like our word, Dad.

[26:26] I know some of you sitting out here, you don’t know what it’s like to have a good dad. [26:30] Some of you out here probably don’t even know what it’s like to have a father.

[26:36] But what Jesus does is that Jesus brings us into the family of God and he says, [26:41] My daddy’s a good daddy.

[26:44] My father’s a good father. [26:46] He loves you. [26:48] He’s brought you in. [26:50] There’s no reason to be afraid of his presence anymore. [26:53] There’s no reason to be afraid of his wrath anymore. [26:56] Because I took it.

[26:57] I absorbed it. [26:58] It didn’t go away. [27:00] But I took it because I love my dad that much. [27:02] And he loves me so much that he allowed me to be a central part of the story that he [27:07] is writing so that he will receive the ultimate of glory. [27:10] Jesus redeems us from isolation.

[27:14] Believe it this morning. [27:15] Live in it as you walk out. [27:17] Do not walk through this life saying, Oh me, I’m not good enough. [27:22] I’m just a wicked sinner. [27:24] I’m just a sinner saved by grace. [27:26] We think that sounds good because we think through that we’re exalting the name of Jesus.

[27:32] But what we’re doing is that we’re lying about ourselves and we’re making excuses about [27:36] ourselves as to why we cannot live in victory and why we cannot live in a transformed life [27:42] where we bring God glory by living his mission.

[27:50] You’re a child of God. [27:52] The story reveals it.

[27:57] But what happens is that what necessarily must happen is that in this life where we [28:02] are connected to the vine, where we have this unisolated relationship with God, where we [28:09] have perfect community with God, where faith is flourishing in our lives, alright, we’ve [28:14] been brought into the household of God. [28:16] When we’re in that house, when we’re living life, you know what tends to happen is you [28:20] tend to look around you and you tend to realize, Oh my goodness, I’m not alone.

[28:27] Jesus has other brothers and sisters. [28:31] God has other children. [28:34] And so what happens is that when we have community with God, the Father, guess what tends to [28:38] happen? [28:40] That community tends to translate into community with other people. [28:44] So isolation from God, when it is killed through Jesus, it kills isolation with other people.

[28:50] There’s no greater husband than a husband that believes the gospel because he can actually [28:54] be connected to his wife. [28:56] I just challenged some of you men, by the way. [28:59] There’s no greater wife than a wife that believes the gospel because she lives in [29:04] community with her husband. [29:06] Why?

[29:07] Because the sins that used to divide you, Jesus took them. [29:13] So now you can have a gospel-centered marriage where both of you are connected to God and [29:16] through God you’re connected to each other. [29:20] And so that isolation has been killed. [29:23] And some of you have isolation in other relationships in your life and the gospel says, I want to [29:27] end that too.

[29:29] God did not come to save just you as an individual. [29:33] He saves you as an individual and he says, your individualism does not reflect my glory [29:38] because I don’t exist like that. [29:39] I exist in a perfect trinity where we have perfect community. [29:42] So you’re going to have to stop being such an individual that’s so hateful and hates [29:46] other people and says, well, it’s all about me.

[29:47] So I’m just going to disconnect myself from everybody else. [29:50] And what happens is if you believe the gospel, you have to join with other people because [29:54] you have brothers and sisters in the gospel.

[29:58] And so what happens is that through the death and the redemption from isolation, redemption [30:04] brings life that forms community.

[30:08] No longer are our relationships simply about our common interests.

[30:16] No longer are our relationships simply about ethnicity.

[30:22] No longer are our relationships divided by age. [30:28] Now we have relationships that are centered around the gospel. [30:32] Now we actually live a life where we go and we seek people out because of the freedom [30:37] from isolation that the sin has brought to us. [30:42] And because God has brought us into community with the gospel, we are not going to be able [30:44] to live with him.

[30:44] We love it. [30:46] And you say, I don’t love it. [30:48] Well, then you redefine the gospel.

[30:53] Remember, whose story is this? [30:56] God’s. [30:58] Why are you making it about yourself? [31:01] Because all you do when you do that is isolate yourself from God.

[31:06] And the gospel makes us his adopted children. [31:11] And so when you live in the truth of the gospel, what tends to happen in your life is [31:17] his purposes become your purposes. [31:20] Because you love your dad. [31:23] You want to please your dad. [31:25] So his desire to redeem people becomes your desire to be redeemed and to see redemption in other people.

[31:32] His purpose to receive glory becomes my purpose to give him glory. [31:36] His mission to redeem people through Jesus becomes my mission to live in such a way to show others what redemption looks like and tell them how they can have it too.

[31:49] And you know, when you live this mission, OK, when you look at the very first command that God makes to people, he says, be fruitful and multiply. [32:00] OK, well, the fall kind of ruined that. [32:05] We now do it in the reproductive sense physically.

[32:12] But he’s not saying just have a bunch of kids.

[32:17] Because that doesn’t bring him glory in and of itself.

[32:23] What he’s saying is be fruitful and multiply so that I can get all the glory out of it.

[32:29] Remember, John 15? [32:31] What did Jesus say? [32:32] What happened when you are connected to the vine?

[32:37] He says, actually, he uses three different phrases throughout the John 15. [32:40] He first says, you’ll bear fruit. [32:42] Then he says, you’ll bear more fruit. [32:44] Then he says, you’ll bear much fruit. [32:46] Three different Greek words.

[32:49] So what happens when you are in the vine? [32:52] You become a fruitful person. [32:54] Throughout the New Testament, this metaphor of fruit comes over and over in comparison to what redemption actually looks like. [33:00] So we first see it in John 15 where Jesus looks to his disciples and says, when you’re connected to me, you’ll start bearing fruit. [33:08] What he’s doing is he’s taking them very back to the beginning of their Torah, to the beginning of the Pentateuch. [33:14] And he says, through me, you can be fruitful and multiply.

[33:19] Through me, you’ll begin to bear fruit. [33:21] And what we’ve done in our culture is such a travesty as to what bearing fruit actually looks like. [33:27] What we’ve done in our culture is we have said bearing fruit is not going to be rated in our movies. [33:33] Bearing fruit is not watching certain television shows. [33:35] Bearing fruit is not drinking or smoking. [33:37] Bearing fruit is to dressing a certain way, doing your hair a certain way.

[33:41] Bearing fruit is being a good moral person who follows the Ten Commandments. [33:45] Where did we get that idea? Because it is not from the Gospel. [33:50] Now, don’t hear what I’m not saying. [33:52] Because I know most of you will.

[33:56] What I’m not saying is that morality is unimportant. [34:00] Because it’s pretty hard to be someone that’s obsessed with immorality and see redemption taking root in my life and other people’s lives. [34:06] But what I want you to hear is that if all you’re doing in your life is becoming more and more moral, [34:13] you need to spend some time reading Matthew 23 when Jesus looked at a bunch of people that were doing it and said, you’re whitewashed tombs. [34:20] Redemption isn’t taking root in your life. [34:22] Because you’re just becoming self-centered, self-sufficient, and self-righteous.

[34:28] That’s not redemptive fruit. [34:32] Redemptive fruit looks like you bearing the fruits of redemption where you’re redeeming more and more of yourself [34:38] so that you can see the mission go further and further in other people’s lives.

[34:45] So what happens through redemption is that we have a transformed life where we begin to actually believe [34:50] that we’re adopted and what that leads to is a transformed mission. [34:55] And then that leads to community with God and other people based on the truth of the gospel. [35:00] Do you know why you’re here this morning? Do you know why church is gathering crowds? [35:04] Because it’s only in a crowd that the gospel can take root in more than one person’s life. [35:09] Otherwise, it’s just you talking to yourself.

[35:13] And that’s weird.

[35:17] Look a little further. [35:19] Let’s flesh it out. [35:22] And if we’re children, in verse 17, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

[35:31] What a mighty caller.

[35:33] I’m an heir of the King.

[35:37] But look, provided, uh-oh, there’s a stipulation. [35:44] We don’t like those. [35:46] That’s a good place to stop. [35:47] That’s where a lot of churches stop. [35:49] We just jump around and we pray to God and we hoop and holler, heir of the King, heir of the King, claim your glory. [35:55] You should claim it.

[35:57] Provided. [35:59] I hate this part. [36:02] That’s how one redeemed I am, by the way. [36:04] Provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. [36:10] What?

[36:13] Now, when I’m an heir of the King, no suffering happens because I’m just in the kingdom wearing my robe and crown, right?

[36:20] Uh-oh. [36:21] I guess not.

[36:25] At some point in life, and this is where endurance becomes very important in the Christian life, especially in living the Gospel. [36:32] At some point, you have to walk out of the church service. [36:36] In our culture, that’s the only thing I can liken it to because it’s really easy to come in here and feel good. [36:41] It’s really easy to sing some songs and get the good butterflies in your stomach where you’re just like, yes! [36:47] Jesus!

[36:50] But what’s hard is when you walk out.

[36:53] Oh, I’ve got to go to work in the morning.

[36:57] I’ve got to see those people. [37:00] I don’t want to see him.

[37:03] Oh, I’ve got that boss. [37:06] I have arthritis. [37:08] I have cancer. [37:10] I have this. [37:11] I have that. [37:11] I have a child that’s very disobedient.

[37:13] It’s causing me a lot of pain. [37:15] I have a marriage that’s in shambles. [37:17] And it doesn’t seem like my belief that I’m not condemned and that I’m a child of the King, it doesn’t seem that that’s getting fixed. [37:25] It seems like I’ve still got some pretty bad stuff going on in my life. [37:29] And then, as we go home, reality checks in. [37:32] And then what happens is spiritual bulimia.

[37:36] All that good stuff we thought we had in the Holy Spirit, blah. [37:40] That’s gone and we’re starting to eat that condemnation again. [37:44] Because there’s a real life out there and you’ve got to live it. [37:47] I’ve got it too. [37:50] Had a baby crying at 1 a.m. this morning. [37:52] That’s not what I wanted to happen on a Saturday night when I had to get up this morning.

[37:56] Reality. [37:57] I did not wake up and say, oh, it’s okay, honey, we’re children of the King, just let him cry.

[38:03] No, somebody had to go hold him. [38:05] It wasn’t me. [38:06] But somebody had to.

[38:10] Hey, I’m learning. [38:12] I’m growing in my redemption. [38:13] All right. [38:15] But what happens is that we have to see the reality of our lives and the toughness of our situations and the realness of our pain. [38:24] Because the other thing to do is you just deny it and say that’s from the devil too. [38:30] But trust me.

[38:32] When you get hit in the face or when you hit your finger with a hammer or when you kind of stab yourself with a pair of pliers when you’re installing a mailbox like I did yesterday, it hurts.

[38:44] This is real life, real pain. [38:47] There’s real diseases out there.

[38:51] And what you have to understand is and what you have to really come to grips with is how in the world does that fit if I’m the child of the King.

[39:03] Because Jesus wants to redeem your pain. [39:07] That’s how. [39:09] Notice that I did not use the terminology Jesus redeems us from pain. [39:15] I was very careful with syntax I used here because I don’t want to mislead you.

[39:21] Jesus redeems our pain. [39:24] But we’re still going to have pain. [39:27] Jesus often says to his disciples, if I suffer, do you not think that you will suffer? [39:31] If the world hated me, do you not think that they will hate you even more? [39:35] He gives them phrases like he says, wide and easy is the road that leads to perdition or hell, but narrow and hard is the road that leads to heaven.

[39:50] See, this is where Christianity becomes real. [39:53] This is where we really need to believe the gospel. [39:55] And Paul says, verse 18.

[40:00] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. [40:07] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. [40:12] For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. [40:25] And he says that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. [40:30] And not only the creation, but we ourselves. [40:35] Here’s what Paul believed.

[40:37] And you’re looking at a guy that knew what it was to suffer. [40:40] History tells us he was probably mostly blind because that’s what Jesus used to redeem him, was a bright light. [40:46] He was stoned a couple of times. [40:48] One time he was stoned, and I’m not talking about token up, I’m actually talking about he had stones thrown at him. [40:54] He was stoned, dragged out of a city because they thought he was dead. [40:59] And in Jewish culture a dead person cannot be in the center of the city.

[41:03] So to make it a legal killing, they dragged him out of the city, left him at the city gates, and Paul wakes up. [41:10] Oh, what a headache. [41:11] And he gets up, dusts himself off, walks right back into the city and starts preaching the gospel again.

[41:17] He was shipwrecked. [41:19] He was sick. [41:21] He had the 40 lashes minus one twice. [41:25] I mean, Paul knew what it was to hurt. [41:28] Paul knew what it was to suffer. [41:31] He lost all of his wealth when he became a Christian.

[41:34] Something that most of us, if any of us, have ever experienced.

[41:40] And Paul looks at his life and he says, I’ve got pain. [41:45] I know what it is to hurt. [41:47] I went from a Pharisee who lived in a lap of luxury to a guy that has to stretch out dead animal skins to make tents.

[41:56] He says, but the sufferings of this world cannot be compared to the greatness of what God has in store for me in His kingdom when I actually get to experience it for real.

[42:13] See what Paul’s doing there? [42:14] He’s not denying his pain.

[42:18] What he’s doing is he’s saying, what God does is, God brings us into community with us and He shares life with us and we have life with God. [42:26] But what He does is He leverages that life with us so that we take life to other people, which grows His community, which brings people in to receive His glory. [42:35] And don’t miss this. [42:36] And what He says is, you know what? [42:37] You still live in a real world of real pain, but I’m not going to redeem you out of it completely just yet. [42:43] And this is why God does not just take us to heaven as soon as He saves us.

[42:47] What He says is, in this real life, you’re going to have real pain, you’re going to be sick, you’re still going to experience the realities of sin and what it has brought through death. [42:55] But understand that you need to leverage the pain of this life for the sake of His glory so that the mission can go further. [43:06] Because you live with a blessed hope in the reality that this world is just temporary and you will at one point begin to experience a painless existence in perfect unity with God. [43:24] Where you’re not just an heir to the kingdom, but you’re living right in the thick of it and you get an inheritance that you cannot even count because you’re actually seeing God face to face. [43:37] And He says, leverage your pain. [43:40] And what happens is that we’re living in community with other people who are experiencing real pain too.

[43:47] And what happens is that through the gospel we come together and we have the gospel and we say, praise God we have the gospel. [43:55] But what happens is that we’re all going through real pain. [43:58] But what happens is that we can be authentic and honest with each other about our pain and we don’t have to be liars anymore. [44:05] Stop lying and pretending everything is okay. Stop lying and pretending that you don’t have any pain.

[44:12] Because you do. Because I do.

[44:17] What He says is that through that the community grows close.

[44:25] You have the gospel. You believe it. You preach it to each other. [44:30] You remind each other of your inheritance.

[44:34] But what happens then is that in that community hope starts rising up.

[44:43] And you remind each other, hey I know you’re struggling.

[44:48] But remember Jesus.

[44:52] So we become hopeful. [44:54] And that hope begins to pour out. [44:56] And the community goes from being a self-absorbed community to a missional community with enduring hope.

[45:12] So now instead of just anguishing in pain, you ask yourself the question, how can my pain be redeemed to the glory of God? [45:23] How can I use my pain to ease other people’s pain? [45:29] How can I use my pain to see the gospel go into someone else’s life? [45:35] How does God want to use my pain to write His story?

[45:41] And then that missional community breeds this hopeful endurance. [45:50] And it leads to fruit of mission in other people’s redemption. [45:59] Go a little further in Romans 8.

[46:03] And not only the creation but we ourselves, because we’re in pain. [46:06] But notice, who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. [46:17] For in this hope we were saved. [46:20] Now hope that is seen is not hope. [46:23] For who hopes for what he sees? [46:25] But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

[46:30] Do you notice that when you’re living in community, when you’re reminding each other of the gospel, what happens is that it breeds this hopeful endurance in each other. [46:40] And you begin to walk side by side into and through this world with a hope that is unexplainable apart from the love of God. [46:50] So your hope then translates into the hope of other people. [46:55] So then the vine is giving you a source of life that is over and beyond the pain that you’re actually experiencing in this life. [47:04] But then what I want you to do, go over to Galatians chapter 5. [47:10] And then we’ll wrap it up.

[47:13] In Galatians chapter 5 and in Luke chapter 10, Jesus tells us first in Luke 10, He says, [47:20] The greatest commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. [47:25] But then in Galatians chapter 5, Paul reminds us of that and he says that all of the law can be summed up in loving your neighbor as yourself. [47:34] Remember the fruit that we were talking about? [47:36] Okay, this is what the gospel does. [47:37] The gospel transforms you and puts you into community with other people to where you can actually love other people because of the hope that’s in you, because of how much God loved you.

[47:44] So God gives you this sign of hope, this sign of love, and that love then translates into other people and then you actually love other people. [47:52] But then what jumps out of you is called the fruits of the spirit. [47:57] Okay, and this fruit that he has, he says this is what it looks like in Galatians chapter 5. [48:02] It’s going to look like you’re loving people as much as you love yourself. [48:05] And I love me a whole lot, how about you? [48:07] That’s why I don’t like pain because it hurts me and I love me.

[48:10] But what he says is that this fruit that’s coming from Jesus, it begins to pour out of you to where you actually have now the ability to love other people as much as you love yourself. [48:21] And it’s authentic because the fruits actually start pouring out and the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control.

[48:29] And so what happens is this community isn’t just self-absorbed because these fruits of the spirit aren’t going to come when we’re just stagnant. [48:37] You ever tried to swim in a stagnant pond? Disgusting. [48:40] But you can swim in a river. Why? Because the river has current. The river is moving.

[48:49] And so what happens is these fruits of the spirit jump out of us. [48:53] And we’re just loving people. We don’t even know where it comes from. [48:56] Because we’re loving each other but more than that we want other people to join our community. [48:59] So we’re loving people outside of our community so that they’ll be a part of our community. [49:02] And what happens then? Well then the fruits of the spirit begin to look like what we just read in Romans chapter 8. [49:10] It begins to look like the first fruits of the kingdom.

[49:16] So we get fruit from Jesus which pours out into other people. [49:21] Which lets us experience just a little bit of what the future kingdom that we’re going to experience. [49:28] We just get to see a little glimpse of that in the here and now. [49:33] We see the first fruits because the first fruits is redemption. [49:40] That leads to mission. That puts you in community. [49:45] But then that hope pours out into the culture.

[49:49] So what you see is a community in the culture. [49:54] Seeing redemption take root in other people’s lives.

[49:59] And then you have this river of redemption that is flowing. [50:04] And it’s beautiful. And it’s wonderful. And you’re hurting. And you’re painful. [50:09] But it’s not anything compared to the joy that you get when you get to see redemption take root in other people’s lives. [50:17] Because a missional community that breeds enduring hope. [50:23] It forms a mission inside of that community that we cannot help but share with other people. [50:29] And I want you to see because it’s greatness is so huge.

[50:34] We’re seeing people redeemed in our community. [50:36] And it’s greatness is so large that we cannot help but share it with other people. [50:44] Understand this morning if you do not care about sharing the redemption that God has given you through Jesus Christ then you don’t believe the gospel.

[50:56] You say, well I don’t care about other people. This is all about me. You don’t have the gospel.

[51:01] I don’t want to see other people redeemed. Then our church will grow. You don’t have the gospel. [51:06] I wish it was just cozy fifteen of us. Once it’s thirty it’s too big.

[51:13] What New Testament are you reading? Because you’re not writing God’s story. You’re writing your story.

[51:21] Are you totally comfortable in a gospel where God never uses you to see anybody else redeemed?

[51:35] If that’s you, you’re writing a story about yourself.

[51:45] Because what redemption does is that redemption takes us and it puts us right into the middle of the story of God. [51:57] To where I have the privilege of watching God write some of his story through my life.

[52:09] Do you want that? Do you want to be caught in the middle of the story of God?

[52:21] Or are you satisfied with a story that’s just about you?

[52:29] It’s not natural for me to want to live a story that’s about more than me. [52:35] Because I just care about myself. I’ll be honest. I’ll be that transparent this morning. [52:40] I struggle to care about other people sometimes.

[52:46] But when I buy into that, I buy into the lie of isolation.

[52:57] I want to be a part of something that’s bigger than me.

[53:02] And I want you to do it too.

[53:06] Let me ask you this morning. What kind of story is our community writing?

[53:12] What kind of story are we telling? What kind of story are you finding yourself in?

[53:19] Are you finding yourself in the story of redemption where you’re seeing people redeemed through your life and you’re like, oh that can’t happen. That’s unrealistic.

[53:29] Not if we believe. Not if we live like Romans 8’s a reality.

[53:37] So this week when you’re at home, and you just believe in these lies,

[53:46] when you’re at home just relishing in how sinful you are, tell yourself the truth. [53:54] You’re a child of the king. Live to see others redeemed. [54:01] I pray for a day when we fill this auditorium. [54:05] I pray for a day when God uses us to bring his kingdom. [54:12] I want to see the first fruits of the kingdom.

[54:16] And we’re only going to see it if we believe Jesus. [54:19] Father, we come before you this morning and we praise you. [54:23] That you’re the God who’s above and beyond all circumstances.

[54:28] That you are the God who redeems sinners. [54:33] You do more than that. You redeem us to a place where we’re not even to look at ourselves like that anymore. [54:38] But rather we are to consider ourselves children of the king of God, heirs of his glory. [54:44] God, may you help the village begin to leverage the pain of this life and what you are taking us through. [54:51] That we would leverage it to see your purpose of redemption furthered more and more.

[55:01] And right now in our response as we come forward and we take communion, those of us who believe,

[55:08] may we preach the gospel to each other. [55:11] A gospel that’s more about victory than defeat. [55:15] A gospel that’s more about hope than pain. [55:18] A gospel that lives in the real world but knows that there’s coming a realer world in the kingdom of God.