1. Chapter of 8 is SO REFRESHING! – IN Christ…
• There is NO CONDEMNATION. NO BURDEN OF GUILT.
• There is freedom & power & strength in the Holy Spirit.
• These truths are where our minds dwell, where we love to hang out, we love to enjoy when we’re spiritually minded.
NOTE: Up to this point in Romans the Holy Spirit is mentioned really only once. But now in CH8 some 20 times! WHY?
• Because you and I can’t live the Christian life in the power of our own flesh… our own schemes… our own methods & habits.
• The life of the believer is lived by God in us & through us.
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
It’s not schemes… not methods… not a 3- year plan… it’s Jesus!
NOTE: This is especially hard for those of you who like to figure things out. Jesus said…
John 3:8 (NKJV) 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
• I’m going to figure this Christian thing out. I want to know the system. Teach me the right vocabulary. Show me the lists.
• I can do it. NO YOU CAN’T.
• You, me, all of us need the power of God’s Spirit in our lives.
Proverbs 3:5-7 (NKJV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
The Spirit of God works wonderfully in & through our lives…
John 16:13 (NKJV) However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
Acts 1:8 (NKJV) But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
And where the SPIRIT OF THE LORD is, there is FREEDOM/LIBERTY!
• V2 – The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free…
• Free from condemnation… free from the Law of Moses, the Torah
• Free in Jesus to soar to spiritual heights still yet unknown.
• BUT… yes, there is concern… it’s our flesh!
Galatians 5:17 (NKJV) 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
REMEMBER, Jesus made it clear that that man’s basic problem is NOT with what is outside of him but what is within him.
Mark 7.20-23 And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 "thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 "All these evil things come from within and defile a man."
APP: That’s why simply changing a person’s environment, improving an economic situation as good as they may be…
• WILL NOT solve man’s basic problem.
• The deeds are coming from within and the key to change is a heart change internally.
• READ THROUGH Romans 8:5-8
1. (8:5-6) To be carnally minded is DEATH!
a. If you live according to your flesh your mind will follow.
b. If you live according to the Spirit your mind will follow.
By this time some begin to think that it’s ok to live for the flesh.
• After all, in CHRIST there is NO CONDEMNATION.
• We are free from rules & regulations in living for God.
• So I guess it’s OK to just continue on in my carnal tendencies and fleshly activities…
• I mean I prayed a prayer right there in my chair, up there at the altar and so I’m ok with God right?
• And if I’m OK, then why should I change the way I live?
• He tells us in v6… to be carnally minded is death.
Jesus has freed you from the FLESH-LIFE, the things of the world, the material, the physical… & lifted you to a higher way of living!
• The physical, the material, the FLESH seems to have a constant tug downward in your life and mine…
• That TUG, that PULL… leads us AWAY from the things of God.
SO WHAT DOES LIVING CARNALLY MEAN? What does it look like?
• Jesus defined it for us… He said the “Gentiles” lived that way.
• Flip back to Matthew 6:31-32
Living for the world & its attractions… Living with a carnal mind…
• I know sometimes we think of the carnal mind as something twisted and perverse… but not always.
• What will we eat? What will we wear? Where will we go?
• The carnal mind is always thinking about these types of things.
• As a matter of fact they SET THEIR MINDS ON these things.
• Next to that you can write, “think on, focus on”
• It always involves the will, the affections, and the conscience.
• It’s all consuming!
IN CALIFORNIA we lived in an apartment building with a large empty church parking lot next to it. That’s where we parked our cars.
• Our neighbor across the street used to park his large, yellow monster truck there too… using 3 spaces!
• You could say he ‘SET HIS MIND’ on that truck.
• He would wash it constantly. He would take this part and polish that part. It was clear, he was consumed with it.
• He even had a T-Shirt that had a truck on it… just like his.
----I WAS A NEW BELIEVER… and so excited about Jesus! He saved my life. He cleaned me up was working in my marriage!
• It was great. I got up on morning, jumped in the car, put a tape in the tape deck and began to worship the Lord. Oh!!!
• I closed my eyes and began to pray right there in my little Hyundai ready for the day at work.
• Then without looking back I began to back up and heard a CRUNCH!!!! Yes… it was my neighbor’s yellow truck meeting the back end of my little Hyundai!
• OH man I learned just how much HE SET HIS MIND ON HIS TRUCK!
WHEN MAN was created, he was created in the image of God.
• God is a Trinity, 3 yet 1. Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.
• When God created you, created our kids, He created man in His image also as a trinity, although we are much lesser…
• He created man as Spirit, Soul, and Body.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NKJV) 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The SPIRIT is the deepest part of you that lives eternally.
The SOUL is your mind, your emotions.
The BODY is this shell we live in temporarily that gives place for us to animate and interact in meaningful relationships.
In the Garden… Adam & Eve enjoyed a beautiful connection with God, spiritually. They communed together in abundance of life!
• When Adam sinned, giving into his fleshly desire for the fruit that was off limits, he died.
• No longer controlled by his spirit, Adam now yielded to his flesh.
• And thus the battle began… who will control my mind?
• Will I be a spiritual man or a fleshly man?
What am I thinking about? My body? Where will I go? How will I be entertained? Wow, I’m hungry. I wonder what I’ll wear?
• Is my body controlling my thoughts, is my flesh dominating my thinking? If so, then I’m carnally minded.
• No wonder I’m not connected to God? Why the Word of God has been distant in my life. Why my prayers have been few!
Yet when my mind is consumed with the things of God, then there I life and peace.
• Lord what would have me to do today? How do you want to use me? Where would you have me to go?
• What are you teaching me here?
• You’re thinking about God’s Word, enjoying a Christian perspective on things… how sweet to be dominated by the Spirit.
APP: The battle goes on continually… who will control my soul?
• Will it be my flesh or will it be God’s Holy Spirit in me?
• You see if it’s my flesh, then I’ll be caught up with my hobbies, my career, my 401k, my next vacation… it’s death. WHY?
• Because these things lead to emptiness.
• Money dries up…
Proverbs 23:5 (NKJV) 5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
• Careers end. Hobbies consume time. Solomon would say:
Ecclesiastes 1:2-4 (NKJV) 2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” 3 What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun? 4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.
To live in the realm of the earthly and temporal will lull you to sleep spiritually.
Romans 13:11-12 (NKJV) 11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
1 Thessalonians 5:5-8 (NKJV) 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
NOTICE v7 again… the carnal mind is at enmity with God!
• The carnal mind doesn’t like God interfering with earthly plans.
• Carnal mind rejects Gods’ will, fights against the heart of God.
• So much so that v8, those in the flesh CANNOT please God.
John 6:63 (NKJV) It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
THE PURPOSE OF Your LIFE… of my life is to bring God pleasure!
• If you live to please God, then you will find a life that is rich & fulfilling & wonderful.
Psalm 23:5 (NKJV) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
BUT if you live to please yourself… you’ll never be pleased.
• You’ll always be wanting something more, something else.
• There will always been that nagging within, that demand to upgrade, to have more…
• It will feed in you a river of turmoil & frustration!
• Life has to be more than this… I I just had this then I would be happy. If I could just get that, then for sure happiness!
• But true happiness & contentment is a life that pleases God!
When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me;
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see
How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there
And I would not yield my will,
Shall I see grief in my Savior’s eyes;
Grief though He loves me still?
Oh, He’d have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While my memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I can’t retrace.
Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break
With tears that I cannot shed.
I’ll cover my face with my empty hands
And bow my uncrowned head.
No. Lord of the years that are left to me
I yield them to Thy hand.
Take me, make me, mold me
To the pattern Thou hast planned.
UNKNOWN - http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/r/regret.htm
V6 - For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
