Victory Through the Spirit.

Steve Gentry

[0:04] Go ahead and have a seat. [0:06] Welcome to Village Church. [0:07] If this is your first time here, my name is Steve, one of the pastors here at Village [0:10] Church. [0:10] And as always, I am thankful and grateful to see almost all of you. [0:14] No, just kidding.

[0:15] Each and every one of you. [0:17] If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it to Romans chapter eight. [0:19] We’re going to be starting in verse 12 this morning. [0:23] You guys are the people that needed the most sleep. [0:27] So welcome to the late service. [0:29] How many hours extra did you guys get?

[0:33] But we’re in the third week of a seven-week series on the victory that we have through [0:37] faith in Jesus Christ. [0:40] You know, it’s easy to be a cynic in this world. [0:43] It’s easy. [0:43] There are reasons all around us by which we should lose hope, by which we should define [0:51] our lives by hopelessness.

[0:53] And the reality is that G.K. [0:56] Chesterton, the Catholic philosopher, once said that the doctrine of sin or the curse [1:01] of sin is one of very few doctrines that literally have thousands of years of evidence to prove [1:08] that it’s true. [1:09] And that is why it is so easy to be a cynic. [1:13] It is easier to lose hope in this world than it is to have hope for this world oftentimes.

[1:21] And if you have never suffered, if you’ve never seen the pain that you can experience [1:26] in this world, it probably means you’re either very young or you don’t know that many people. [1:32] But just keep waiting. [1:33] It’s going to happen to you just like it happens to everybody else. [1:35] And I, of course, I admit, I baptize it in the word realist. [1:40] I consider myself a realist.

[1:42] But that’s code language for cynic, by the way. [1:45] We there, you know, there are many things that in that where it’s like I always have [1:49] a plan B, plan C, plan D. [1:51] And it’s not necessarily because I’m that great of a planner. [1:54] It’s just because I don’t think anything’s ever going to work. [1:56] And so sometimes we think that that’s helpful.

[1:59] But it can also be very detrimental to your faith in Jesus Christ, because Christians [2:05] are people that should live defined by hope. [2:09] Followers of Jesus are to be a people that regardless of what is going on all around [2:14] us, we are a people who believe that there is coming a day where he will reign forever [2:19] and everywhere. [2:20] God will literally, he tells us in the book of Revelation, lower his kingdom down on

[2:25] top of the kingdoms of this world. [2:27] And so we are a people that are defined by a future of hope.

[2:35] But sometimes the present reality that is in front of our face is a louder voice than [2:42] the revelation that God has given us that is promised. [2:45] And so sometimes we are tempted to believe that our destiny is determined by what is [2:52] going on today rather than what God has promised will define our tomorrow. [2:57] And because of that, that’s where the idea of this series came from, is I just thought, [3:02] you know, we should talk about what it is to have hope in a cynical world, because it

[3:07] is a cynical world. [3:09] In the first week we started talking about the freedom from condemnation that we have, [3:14] that we have victory over the condemnation that we deserve because of our sin. [3:18] Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin, and we will never have to pay it if we trust in [3:26] Jesus Christ. [3:27] Therefore we said, he is our propitiation or he is our way from condemnation to no condemnation.

[3:36] And last week we talked about the victory over sin that Jesus gives us, and I think [3:41] that’s a little more tricky because so many of us, we believe that the penalty for our [3:46] sin has been paid, yet we also live lives as though we are still condemned to live [3:52] a life defined by sin. [3:57] But the text tells us something different. [3:59] It tells us that in Jesus we have the potential, not only that, we have the power to live

[4:05] a life in which we please God. [4:09] We have the ability in Jesus to live a life in which we can flee from temptation. [4:17] We can resist the devil. [4:19] We can live lives where we have the ability and privilege to obey God, both in the specifics [4:27] of what we do, as well as the identities that we find for ourselves. [4:32] We can live the life that God has designed for us to live because that is the victory

[4:38] that Jesus has gained us on the cross as well as in the resurrection. [4:43] That’s who we are. [4:45] And we touched on this a little bit last week, but I want to kind of go more in depth in [4:50] it this week as to how we do that. [4:53] We do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. [4:56] It’s this reality that I cannot, in the sense, white-knuckle my way to obedience to God.

[5:05] No more can I do that than I could white-knuckle my way to redemption from sin. [5:12] I couldn’t earn it. [5:13] I couldn’t work for it. [5:14] I couldn’t make it happen. [5:16] And I’m not just called by God, okay, Steve, you obey me, you do these things, you have [5:22] faith in Jesus, prove it.

[5:23] That’s not the story of the Scriptures. [5:25] That’s not the Christian life. [5:27] The Christian life is one in which God calls me to obey Him once I’ve been redeemed through [5:33] the work of Jesus Christ. [5:35] And then He empowers me by His grace through the Holy Spirit to be who He wants me to be, [5:42] to live as He has called for me to live, and to act as I was designed to act.

[5:48] It’s all of grace. [5:51] And that’s the victory that we have through the Spirit of God, and it is exactly what [5:56] He has won for me. [5:58] And here’s how we see that in Romans 8, starting in verse 12.

[6:43] 1.

[6:47] Number one this morning, you need to understand that Christians are free from the obligations [6:54] of sin. [6:56] Christians are free from the obligations of sin. [7:01] You are not condemned by your sin, therefore you are not to be condemned to live by that [7:10] sin either. [7:10] Now, I will admit that if you know anything about me, I love the ESV.

[7:16] I think it is one of, if not the most accurate and most readable translations that we have, [7:22] but there are a few issues within the translation. [7:25] And I think Romans 8.1 is one of those issues where I don’t think it’s as good as it could [7:31] be. [7:31] It could be gooder. [7:33] All right?

[7:34] In Romans 8 verse 1, the phrase that they, excuse me, verse 12, the phrase that they [7:39] use is, so then brothers, we are debtors. [7:42] Okay? [7:43] And my issue there is not that that’s not the word order, but if you understand Greek, [7:48] you understand that word order isn’t everything in the Greek. [7:51] So if you read that phrase, you are tempted to ask yourself a question that I don’t think

[7:55] the apostle Paul wants you to ask. [7:57] You read that and you say, well, then who am I in debt to? [8:01] And that’s not the posture that the sentence takes, nor is it the posture that verses 12 [8:06] through 17 take. [8:07] It does not go from you were in debt to sin, now you’ve got a debt to pay to God. [8:15] And that phrase gives that kind of, I think, understanding.

[8:20] In the original language, the commas aren’t there. [8:23] And so we have a different punctuation system than they had when Paul wrote this letter [8:28] to Rome. [8:28] There were no commas. [8:30] And so the word order is a little more difficult to do, but you base your word order on the [8:37] context of the sentence.

[8:38] And the word debt is there. [8:41] But as soon as he says debtor, the word no immediately follows. [8:46] And so I don’t think we are debtors is as accurate as saying we are not debtors. [8:52] And I think that’s very important. [8:53] Here’s how the Christian Standard Bible or the CSB puts it. [8:56] And I think the order in the CSB is better, but I don’t like the phrasing in the CSB.

[9:01] You didn’t know you were coming to a original language lesson. [9:04] All right. [9:05] In the Christian Standard Bible, it reads this way. [9:07] We are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh. [9:13] And I think that’s the idea he was going after. [9:16] But I also don’t like the term obligate.

[9:19] Excuse me. [9:19] I don’t like the term obligated because the word is literally debtor. [9:27] OK, it’s speaking of a debt that you owe.

[9:32] Obligations is a synonym, but I’ve been obligated to do a tremendous amount in my 39 years of [9:38] living that I have just completely ignored. [9:41] All right. [9:41] There’s obligations. [9:43] And I think sometimes in our context, in our culture, when you think about obligations, [9:47] you think about something you’re supposed to do, but you don’t necessarily have to do.

[9:51] And so that’s why I also don’t like that word there, because in the language that he’s [9:55] trying to get across to you is he wants you to understand that you are enslaved by your [9:58] sin. [9:59] You are a slave to sin apart from Jesus Christ. [10:05] It’s not an obligation that you can ignore if you choose to. [10:09] It is what defines you as a person.

[10:12] And in Jesus, you are no longer a debtor to your sin, so you are no longer enslaved [10:22] by your sin. [10:24] And the reason that’s better is because he does not follow this thought pattern of you [10:29] were in debt to sin. [10:31] Now consider yourself a debtor to God. [10:33] And you’ll see why I think that way in a minute, because he goes not to your in debt to God,

[10:39] but rather he goes into this thought of you’ve been adopted by God. [10:43] And I don’t know if you know anything about reality or history, but there’s a big difference [10:46] between being a slave and being a son.

[10:50] Those are two completely different identities. [10:51] And Paul’s going to talk to you like you are a son, not a slave. [10:57] And so what are the obligations to sin that you don’t have any longer? [11:03] The idea here is that apart from God’s spirit and the power that he works in you, the only [11:09] thing you are capable of is sin. [11:12] You cannot please God without the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

[11:16] You cannot hope to obey God in such a way that God looks at your obedience and says, [11:24] that is an act of worship without the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. [11:29] You can be a moral person without the Holy Spirit. [11:33] You can. [11:34] There’s moral people all over the place. [11:36] By God’s grace, my neighbors haven’t eaten my family yet.

[11:39] That’s a moral choice that they have made against cannibalism. [11:43] And I am so thankful that they have made the moral choice not to eat my family. [11:48] All right. [11:49] So there is morality that they can do, but none of their morality and none of my morality [11:56] apart from the power of the Holy Spirit pleases God. [12:00] The Holy Spirit is required in your life to live a life that pleases God.

[12:08] And without him, you’re not just choosing to sin. [12:15] You have to sin. [12:17] It’s all that you’re capable of. [12:19] And that is why you need the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in your life so that [12:26] you can be empowered to live life under God’s design. [12:31] In Christ, you don’t have to serve sin.

[12:34] That is a beautiful reality. [12:36] Without Christ, you have nothing but debt. [12:41] Without Christ, sin is not just a problem. [12:44] Sin is a taskmaster. [12:47] Without Christ, sin is your overlord. [12:51] Sin is all that you are capable of.

[12:53] Everything in your life will be tainted by sin. [12:56] But the good news that he gives you is that in Christ, there is another way. [13:02] In Christ, there is another life. [13:05] In Christ, there are new potentials. [13:09] Without Christ, only condemnation. [13:12] Without Christ, only sin.

[13:14] And when I was a younger man, I started working in church ministry when I was 19 years old. [13:19] It’s over the past 20 years. [13:21] I’ve preached a lot, I’ve served a lot, I’ve discipled a lot, I’ve done quite a bit. [13:26] And when I was a younger man, it was easy to herald the condemnation apart from Christ [13:34] because it didn’t have faces, as many faces behind it. [13:39] And so I would look at someone who’s condemned in their sin, who is defending their sin,

[13:44] who believes they’re experiencing freedom because of their sin. [13:49] But here’s the deal. [13:49] You’re not experiencing freedom because of your sin. [13:52] You think that you’re doing whatever you want to, but you’re not. [13:55] You are only doing that which sin allows you to do, and that is the ceiling for you. [14:01] Sin.

[14:02] The reason that real freedom is found in Christ is because he has taken that ceiling away. [14:09] Now you have the freedom to live as you were designed to live. [14:13] And he doesn’t just make you a slave, he frees you from slavery. [14:19] But it’s easier to herald when you don’t have much life under you. [14:25] But over the past 20 years, I have walked with many people [14:30] who don’t just find identity in sin.

[14:32] They try to in some way mix following Jesus with sin. [14:36] They try to redefine Jesus by sin. [14:39] They try to experience freedom in their sin. [14:43] And I know while I watch them and while I walk them, they are just on a slow march to their demise. [14:51] But they refuse to understand that. [14:54] I’ve watched person after person, glory in their sin, defend their sin.

[15:00] I will tell you, my heralding gets no different because the message gets no different. [15:05] But I herald it in real pain for you. [15:09] See, I understand there are some of you in here that you are living a life in which you want [15:13] freedom from condemnation. [15:16] You want victory over the death that sin will bring. [15:20] But you’re not looking for the power of the Holy Spirit.

[15:22] You’re just looking for a way to excuse your sin. [15:26] Amen. [15:26] Friend, repent of your sin, trust in Jesus because that is the only path towards freedom. [15:32] That is the only path towards real life. [15:35] That is the only path where you will ever experience the real love and real life [15:39] that you were designed by God to have.

[15:44] And in that, there becomes this subcategory of people [15:47] who misunderstand the gospel altogether. [15:51] And Paul dealt with this in the church at Rome. [15:53] See, in the church at Rome, there was this group of people that said, [15:56] OK, so what you’re telling me is that no one is out of reach of the grace of God, [16:01] to which Paul would say, absolutely.

[16:03] No one is out of reach of the grace of God. [16:05] That’s good to know. [16:06] So you’re telling me there is no sin that is so big that God can’t forgive it, [16:11] to which Paul would, of course, say, absolutely. [16:13] There is no sin so big that God can’t forgive it. [16:15] And you’re telling me that God gets glory out of forgiving big sins,

[16:22] to which Paul would say, absolutely. [16:25] God gets glory by forgiving sin through the cross of Christ. [16:29] And so some people will form this philosophy for their lives and say, [16:32] well, if I want to give God glory, I need the sin bigger.

[16:37] All right. [16:38] If God gets glory out of forgiving sins, I’m going to give them a ton of sins to forgive. [16:43] And so they form this philosophy. [16:44] When you put it that way, it sounds silly. [16:46] But some of us have this mentality where it’s like, it’s not that big of a deal. [16:51] I can just pray later tonight and ask God for forgiveness.

[16:54] And he’s promised that he will. [16:56] I did that when I was a teenager and it got me out of a lot of pickles in my mind. [17:00] But look at what Romans chapter six, verse one says, the apostle Paul answers this conundrum. [17:05] He says, what shall we say then? [17:07] Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? [17:10] Or what that actually means is so that grace can just keep getting bigger than in verse two,

[17:14] he says, by no means. [17:16] Okay. [17:17] In Greek, there are multiple ways to say no. [17:22] All right. [17:22] Because and they’re all from different levels. [17:25] And in verse two there, Paul uses the most aggressive form of no that they had.

[17:32] What that means when it says by no means, it’s a phrase called meganoito. [17:36] He means he says that’s not even possible on the road map of life is what he’s saying. [17:43] That’s so impossible that it’s ridiculous sounding to the apostle Paul. [17:48] You’re not having a stroke. [17:49] The lights are flickering.

[17:54] Some of y’all like, I need to ask for forgiveness now.

[17:58] I’m seasoned or something. [18:01] All right. [18:03] I don’t know. [18:03] I’m not an electrician. [18:04] There’s nothing I can do. [18:06] All right.

[18:07] Then he finishes and he says, how can we who died to sin still live in it? [18:11] And he furthers that thought in Romans six, 12. [18:14] He says, let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. [18:19] Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, [18:24] but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life [18:28] and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.

[18:33] The apostle Paul furthers this then in Romans chapter eight, 13, [18:37] where he basically gives us an if then state, excuse me, statement. [18:41] If you follow after sin in your life, then you are dead is what he’s trying to get to you. [18:49] You need to understand there is no life ever to be found in sin. [18:57] Life is only ever found in following Jesus. [19:02] And the good news is God through the Holy Spirit has freed you from the chains of sin.

[19:11] Then in verse 14, point two, this morning, the spirit moves us from slaves to sons. [19:19] The spirit moves us from slaves to sons. [19:21] Now, I know it’s 2019, so I need to qualify here. [19:26] I purposefully didn’t say sons and daughters. [19:29] I originally was going to say sons and daughters because I was a coward. [19:33] And then I was like, well, it loses some meaning if you include the word daughters.

[19:39] And here’s why it’s not chauvinism.

[19:44] There are certain here’s the thing you need to understand. [19:46] This might actually be new to you. [19:48] Maybe you didn’t know this. [19:49] The Bible was written before the year 2000.

[19:53] It’s actually a really old book, you know, and maybe you didn’t know. [19:56] Maybe you’re like, wow, I didn’t know that. [19:58] But the Bible and specifically the book of Romans, [20:01] the book of Romans was written during the first century. [20:04] All right. And culture was different in the first century. [20:09] Now, a lot is the same because people are basically people,

[20:12] but a lot is tremendously different. [20:15] And so the word son you will see is vital for your understanding of all that you have in Jesus. [20:23] And I want to break that down piece by piece. [20:27] But first, I want to talk about the fact that the text says you were adopted by God, [20:33] because I think that is a handicap. [20:35] Sometimes people have in their discipleship is that you don’t see yourself as a child of God.

[20:42] Sometimes you struggle because you see yourself as someone who is in debt to God.

[20:48] And your discipleship is defined by guilt. [20:53] And when your discipleship is defined by guilt, [20:56] what you have done is you have discovered a new form of slavery, [20:59] and it is impossible to love God from a posture of slavery. [21:03] And God doesn’t want you to have that mentality over about him. [21:07] He doesn’t want you to view him as your cosmic taskmaster.

[21:11] Rather, he wants you to understand that he is your heavenly father. [21:17] God doesn’t put you in debt. [21:19] He adopts you into his family, and that is completely different. [21:23] I think some of the problem with the way people view God is because they have a bad view of family. [21:28] And I don’t think that’s anything that’s going to shock any of you that we live in an era [21:31] where family is not as important as it once was.

[21:36] Specifically, it isn’t as important as it probably was to the Roman people [21:39] at this stage in the game. [21:42] That they had a different understanding because we, number one, we push parenthood [21:48] and we push marriage and family further and further and further down the line [21:55] to where marriage and family is seen often as a burden rather than a joy. [22:02] But then secondly, some of us have baggage in our lives because we had a bad father.

[22:09] Now I didn’t. [22:10] I had a good dad, took care of me, loved me. [22:13] He still likes me pretty much most days.

[22:17] But sometimes we have baggage from our childhood that hinders our view of God. [22:24] And what you need to do is you need to understand that in every way that your earthly father fell [22:29] short, your heavenly father wants to redeem your view of fatherhood by being the good father for [22:35] you. You need to see that. [22:37] And so when he’s talking about adoption here, he wants you to understand that the posture of a son [22:44] is not a posture of indebtedness.

[22:47] But that exposes a third problem. [22:50] Some of you are bad parents.

[22:53] You just straight up are. [22:54] You treat your children as though they owe you something. [22:57] All right. [22:58] And if that’s you, I love you.

[23:02] Stop it. [23:03] Point blank. [23:05] Some of you are preparing your children for counseling.

[23:09] You need to cut that out. [23:12] You need to prepare your children to have a better view of God. [23:15] You are representing if you’re a Christian, you are representing the heavenly father to [23:19] your children. [23:20] When I had my children, I’ve got three children so far. [23:25] It’s I don’t go through as much as my wife does, so I let her have a little more saying how many

[23:29] we have. [23:31] I just stood there. [23:31] Now, my feet were hurting.

[23:36] And I was like, seriously, guys, I should get a bed. [23:40] Seriously, it’s ridiculous.

[23:45] Fathers, I know your pain.

[23:50] But when my oldest was born, my oldest son is almost 10. [23:53] My wife’s right there. [23:54] I say all these jokes in front of her.

[23:58] But when my oldest was born, after I asked the doctor about fixing the cone head issue, I [24:05] then looked. [24:06] I mean, it was ridiculous. [24:08] And it scared me. [24:10] I went in blind, totally ignorant. [24:12] He comes out, looks like Dan Aykroyd.

[24:16] And I’m like, oh, OK, we will get you good doctors. [24:20] We’ll send you to a special school, son.

[24:24] So.

[24:27] So I looked in that little they put them into this little way station. [24:32] All right. [24:32] It’s like a truck stop in the delivery room. [24:35] They’re hosing him down. [24:37] They got the air blower thing. [24:39] They’re making sure everything’s in the right place, getting all the Ick away.

[24:44] I wasn’t prepared for that either.

[24:47] But I didn’t look at him and say. [24:53] Welcome to my world. [24:54] You owe me. [24:57] I didn’t do that. [25:00] Like what kind of monster would do that? [25:04] But as he’s gotten older, I haven’t gained that mentality at all.

[25:09] When my children were born, it changed my life. [25:13] It’s like I’m not one of these guys that has a lot of highs and lows. [25:16] I’m mostly just low. [25:17] And so and so I don’t have like where these moments where it’s like, [25:23] and, you know, just the sun came out and it was everything’s great. [25:27] Now, but that’s there was three moments in my life I can point to to say these were three

[25:31] life changing moments for me. [25:34] First one was when I saw Rambo.

[25:38] Everything changed. [25:40] Second one was my wedding day. [25:42] And the third one was the was the birth of my let’s just say all three of my children’s life [25:47] changing moment, especially when my oldest one was born because I’d never been a father before [25:51] and it changed everything. [25:52] Also, I’m not going to tell you the order of importance of those three moments because

[25:55] my wife’s here, but.

[26:02] But when my son was born, it changed everything. [26:07] I gave him a blank check. [26:09] And I continue to give him a blank check. [26:12] I cannot give them enough of me. [26:16] I cannot if I could buy them everything I would if I could make every dream that my children [26:25] have ever had come true, I would make every dream that my children could ever possibly have

[26:32] come true because they have my everything. [26:38] Here’s the deal. [26:39] They didn’t ask to be born. [26:42] How could they ever owe me for that?

[26:46] I owe them. [26:49] I want to give my life to them because I love them to the level where there is not enough [26:56] of me that I could potentially give to them. [27:02] Because that is the posture that a father takes towards his child. [27:08] And your view of God needs to be transformed where God is a taskmaster to where God is a loving [27:16] father.

[27:18] God is not looking at you and every mistake that you make in every moment of your life. [27:27] Whenever you forget to read the Bible, he’s not looking to you and saying, [27:33] I sent my son to die for you. [27:36] Pay me back.

[27:40] He doesn’t have you in debt to him. [27:44] Rather, God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit to adopt you into his family. [27:56] And what’s fascinating about this, note what Galatians 4-5 says. [27:59] The gospel redeems those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

[28:10] You don’t gain adoption. [28:11] You receive adoption. [28:13] It is a gift. [28:15] Paul does though, and here’s where some people retort to me where I say, [28:20] you are not a slave. [28:21] You are a son.

[28:22] You say, but Paul identifies himself as a bond servant or a slave of Christ in other texts. [28:32] See, but that doesn’t fit the analogy that Paul is seeking to show here because Paul is not talking [28:37] about the posture that I take towards God. [28:39] Paul is talking about the posture that God takes towards me.

[28:43] When Paul identifies himself as a bond servant, he’s saying, I take the posture of a bond servant [28:49] as someone who must obey God. [28:54] But God doesn’t take the posture of a taskmaster to me. [28:57] He takes the posture of an adoptive father to me. [29:01] You see, to be a son then, an adopted son is a vital analogy for you to understand [29:08] for the Christian life for two reasons.

[29:11] The first one is the metaphor of legal adoption. [29:13] Now, our current adoption system does have similarities to the Roman adoption system, [29:20] but they are a little bit different. [29:22] To legally adopt a child in Rome was first initiated by the parent and second, [29:29] completely legally binding. [29:31] There are cases in our era where you can absolve an adoption.

[29:36] Not so in that era. [29:38] Once you adopted a child in that era, you were, as the parent, legally obligated [29:45] to that child for the rest of your life. [29:49] There was no undoing that adoption. [29:52] You were that person’s child. [29:57] And that’s vital.

[29:59] God has obligated himself to you. [30:04] He has promised he will never put you out of his family, [30:07] nor could he because it would be a denial of his character. [30:12] If you have faith in Jesus, you are legally adopted forever by God. [30:19] But there’s a second metaphor and it is the metaphor of sonship. [30:23] That is vital for two reasons.

[30:24] First, it shows that we are in the line of Jesus, the Son. [30:29] We are in his direct line. [30:31] God, the Son is the line that you have been taken into. [30:36] But secondly, it is also vital as in that era, the Son carried the family name [30:42] more than daughters did. [30:45] So even where inheritance was concerned,

[30:47] the Son had more right to an inheritance than a daughter had in that era. [30:52] So the aspect of Paul saying you are sons of God is a very important thing [30:59] because he is not saying this only applies to the guys in the room. [31:04] This is an inclusive thing for both men and women that if you are a child of God, [31:11] if you have faith in Jesus, you are in the direct line of the sonship of Jesus Christ. [31:19] And that is why it is vital that he tells you the future was set for sons.

[31:26] You are a son of God. [31:29] But note how you find that identity. [31:33] Many people in our era treat the power of the Holy Spirit and the experience of living [31:39] by the power of the Holy Spirit as though it is with the ebb and flow of emotional highs and lows. [31:47] So if you are experiencing an emotional high where you are listening to a song or you are [31:50] hearing a sermon and it just hits you because some hit you differently than others hit you

[31:55] and you get the feels, you are like, well, that is obviously the Holy Spirit. [31:59] Right? That is nowhere in the scriptures. [32:04] The Holy Spirit is never treated in scripture like a subjective feeling that comes over you [32:09] at a given time. Rather, the Holy Spirit is treated like an objective person with a mission [32:14] to fulfill in your life. And he is telling you about that mission in this passage. [32:19] He is saying, note in the text, look in verse 14. He notes that

[32:27] all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

[32:34] So a function of the Holy Spirit in your life is to lead you into the identity as an adopted child [32:43] of God. That is the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. But then he goes further in Galatians [32:49] look at verses 6-7. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying [32:57] Abba Father. So you are no longer a slave but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God. That [33:03] phrase, Abba Father. Now Abba is the Greek word there and they leave it that way in all the [33:10] translations for a purpose. That is the most familial word for father in the New Testament

[33:19] and in the Greek language. It is basically the equivalent of what my kids call me. Daddy. That [33:25] is the most important title I have ever had in my life. That is the most responsibility that I have [33:29] ever had in my life. And the greatest burden I have ever shouldered in my life is being someone’s [33:34] dad. And he wants you to understand that the power of the Holy Spirit comes into your life [33:40] gaining you access to God to where he is to be seen as your dad. Now here is the deal. [33:48] If you have children, alright, and you are a decent parent, I hope, do your children come

[33:55] into your presence and before they enter into the room they proclaim and herald, [34:01] Oh dearest Holy Sovereign Father, may I come into your presence I have alms to offer.

[34:13] No, no. So number one, why are you praying that way? Number two,

[34:22] why do you see God that way? You know my kids have 24-7 access to me. They come into my room [34:30] at 3 a.m. and if they don’t think their mother is there, they come to me.

[34:37] And they say, Daddy, it doesn’t matter what time of day it is, doesn’t matter what I am doing, [34:43] doesn’t matter if I am sleeping, they know they are welcome in my presence and they have [34:50] access to me all the time. But can I tell you something? This is a safe place. [34:57] Do you know my children have never added any value to my life? Not monetarily. [35:03] It’s just the truth. They have never contributed to the mortgage. Never. They just assume they [35:11] can stay. We have never gotten up to the checkout stand in the grocery store and had any of them

[35:21] pull out a checkbook. None of them have said, I’ve got this. I’ve never been at a restaurant [35:29] and any of my kids look at me and say, Dad, this one’s on me. Never. They don’t mow the grass. [35:39] I ask them to clean sometimes and somehow it’s dirtier when they are finished. They will find [35:45] a clean rug and I will say vacuum it and then I come and I say, where did you find dirt to put on [35:50] rug? It wasn’t even there before. They had no value. They take value out of my life. [35:58] My son flooded the bathroom last year. I still don’t know how he did it.

[36:04] I went up there, all the drains were working, yet there’s water coming downstairs.

[36:10] So they have stolen from me.

[36:17] But they don’t owe me because I’m their father. I gladly do everything that I do. [36:26] I gladly give into their lives everything that I give into their lives. I have a Wegmans [36:34] personality and because of them sometimes I have to shop at Aldi.

[36:42] It’s like going into the Soviet block when I go into that place, man. [36:47] It’s like you got one type of cheese. Wegmans has a cheese cave. It’s like mist is going over it. [36:55] They’ll give me samples. But I got three kids so I got no money. So I’m at Aldi.

[37:05] A couple years ago I had to buy a bigger house because I had more kids and I knew I realized [37:09] they were getting bigger but our house was not. But I have never gone into their room and said, [37:15] oh you like not having those bunk beds anymore, right? Yeah? You like having your own room? All [37:20] right, in ten years I’m going to come collect. Pay up sucker. All right? I’ve never done that. [37:25] I’ve never done that. Why do you have that view of God?

[37:32] Why do you live as though God is going to come collecting at some point? [37:37] Why do you live as though God is a cosmic creditor?

[37:43] You see, the text of Scripture gives us this beautiful metaphor and he says that you are not [37:49] to see God as some unknown deity, that you have to proclaim and herald something to go into his [37:56] presence. But instead God says, I’m your dad. When you go into the presence of God, he does not scowl. [38:06] If you have faith in Jesus Christ, when you go into the presence of God, there is joy on his face [38:13] and his response is not how dare you. His response is how can I help? That is the posture of the good [38:23] father towards his children. And number three this morning, the Spirit assures us of God’s

[38:29] faithfulness to his promises. The Spirit assures us of God’s faithfulness to his promises. He leads [38:37] us into the identity of an adopted child of God and then he assures us that that is never [38:45] going to change. Look in, excuse me, verse 16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit [38:54] that we are children of God. And I want to pause there.

[39:00] The work of the Holy Spirit in your life is not to be seen as some [39:07] un-understood ecstatic moment in which you get the feels. He has an objective mission [39:15] and purpose in your life. He is sent by the Father to speak into your life what your real identity [39:25] is. And he says the Holy Spirit speaks into your spirit that you are children of God. [39:33] But why is that an important task? Because of verse 17. [39:39] If children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him

[39:47] in order that we may also be glorified with him. The Spirit speaks into our lives who we are in [39:56] Christ because we don’t have all of God that we will ever have of God. Okay, in the adoption metaphor, [40:07] the children who were adopted were experiencing part of the privilege of adoption. They were [40:13] brought into the family. They could never be cast out of the family. They were a member of the [40:18] household. They could never stop being members of the household. But one great advantage of being [40:25] an adopted child in that era was that two days before death, the parents could not call the

[40:33] Republic to come over so that they could change the will. An adopted child had to receive a portion [40:43] of the inheritance that could never be changed in that parent’s lifetime. They were obligated [40:50] to that child even after they were dead. You do not receive your inheritance immediately. [41:01] There’s actually a parable in the New Testament where Jesus gives what would happen if you [41:06] received an inheritance prematurely. A prodigal son, you’d blow it, you’d ruin it, you’d make a mess of it. [41:12] There is an aspect of being God’s child that we cannot enjoy yet because we still live in a sinful

[41:18] world. You are going to suffer in this world. You’re going to suffer in this life. You will [41:30] endure great pain. Some of you are in the middle of a season of pain. Some of you, [41:37] I mean everything’s been rainbows and unicorns so far and I’m the most worried about you [41:42] because you’re probably convinced that you have some type of favor of God that someone else doesn’t [41:47] have. Just wait. You will endure pain. You will suffer. You’re going to suffer physically. You’re [42:00] going to suffer mentally at some point in your life, some of us more than others.

[42:09] Everybody wants resurrection but nobody wants the death that’s required. Did you know that? [42:16] To rise from the dead something has to come first. Death. That’s why the text says provided we suffer [42:23] with him because we are going to suffer. Why would you need to be assured if you never [42:33] experienced a moment of doubt? Why would you need a guarantee if there was never going to be a season [42:41] of struggle? See look at what the text says in Ephesians chapter 1. In Jesus you also when you [42:48] heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Jesus were sealed with

[42:53] promised Holy Spirit. Verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire [43:01] possession of it. That means you haven’t acquired possession of it yet. There is coming a day where [43:07] God will deliver his kingdom into this world and he will rule and reign forever and ever but it’s [43:23] on those hard seasons, on those hard years. Listen, I know for some of you those hard decades

[43:34] where you need a ministry in your life where someone looks at you and says you are a child of God. [43:44] Keep going. Don’t stop. The inheritance is coming. You are an heir of God. You are a co-heir of Christ. [43:56] The future is set. Heaven is yours. Don’t give up. And by God’s grace he has given that voice. [44:12] That is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and to the life of the believer. And if you have Christ [44:21] you have him and you always will. Every Sunday we reflect on the price that was paid to gain [44:30] us our inheritance. Jesus Christ, God the Son came to this world and the bread represents his

[44:38] broken body and the cup represents his shed blood. He on the cross through physical pain, [44:46] emotional pain, spiritual pain, mental anguish, suffered for your sin, died for your sin, [44:56] paid the penalty for your sin. But then three days later he rose from the dead to win victory [45:04] over sin and death. And that victory is yours through faith. [45:12] Friend, this morning if you have faith in Jesus Christ there are tables in the back [45:15] as well as in the front. And when you are ready and if you believe I invite you come,

[45:22] eat, drink, proclaim the victory that Jesus Christ has gained for you. But friend, please [45:29] go and live the victory. When you are ready, come.