INTRO.- Someone wrote: “Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is that you’re stupid and make bad decisions.” True. Stupid and sinful.
ILL.- June, 2012. The longtime girlfriend of Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger was sentenced to eight years in prison for helping him stay on the run for 16 years.
Catherine Greig showed no emotion when the U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock handed down the sentence. He also fined her $150,000. The 61-year-old Greig pleaded guilty in March to charges of conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud.
The 82-year-old Bulger is awaiting trial on charges he participated in 19 murders. Authorities captured the couple in Santa Monica, Calif., last June.
I would say that Catherine Greig was both stupid and sinful. I guess she thought her mobster friend/lover would always take care of her.
BUT WHAT A LIFE?! I’m sure they must have been looking over their shoulders constantly, wondering when the cops were going to nab them! That wouldn’t have been much of a fun life. What do you think? I’d much rather be able to live in peace, comfort and safety and have no fear of the law.
I think it would be much better to live a decent, honest, law-abiding life and be able to rest in peace at night, knowing that you were on the side of the law, instead of against it.
The same thing holds true in our relationship to God. Have you ever been on the wrong side of the fence when it comes to God? Sure, we all have, but hopefully, we didn’t stay there long. And even we though may occasionally step a foot on the other side of the fence, surely it doesn’t take long for us to wake from our spiritual slumber and get back where we are supposed to be!
Romans 13:11-14 11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Paul was writing to some Christians who needed to wake up. I know some Christians like that! They need to stop living for play, pleasure and the flesh and get right with Christ!
ILL.- Many years ago I knew a young couple in one church that had two beautiful little girls. This could seemed happy, in love, etc., but they started to run with the wrong crowd, the bar crowd and ended up in the divorce court. How sad! They knew better but they allowed the way of the world to get to them.
Sometimes sinful living is even disguised as meaningless or a harmless activity.
For example, I know of many people who got involved in the sports to the neglect of their relationship to Christ through the church. Their children were involved in various sports to the point where they stopped coming to church altogether. And one seemingly harmless sin leads to another and then to another until they become totally disinterested in Christ and the church. I’ve seen it happen many times.
One of my good preacher friends said when he was younger he lived near a lake so guess what took him away from the church. It soon became an every Sunday activity. He would wait until the people were in church and then he’d sneak out of town, pulling his boat behind him.
I’m not sure what shocked him and got him back to Christ and the church but something did.
The reverse of sinful living and being headed down the wrong road is being in Christ and striving to please Him as best you can. It’s called NO CONDEMNATION.
What is that relationship? Here are a few scriptures that tell of how it should be for us in Christ.
Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness....”
Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Who said those words?
Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
PROP.- Paul tells why there is no condemnation for us.
1- No condemnation - Jesus set us free
2- No condemnation - The Spirit empowers us
I. NO CONDEMNATION - JESUS SET US FREE
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
ILL.- June 2012. 68 year old bus monitor Karen Klein, of Greece, N.Y., talked on about being bullied by Greece middle school students while she was school bus monitor. Here’s more of her story. A video of four seventh-grade boys mercilessly taunting a 68-year-old bus monitor in New York state that went viral has turned the victim into an international fundraising juggernaut and opened her tormentors to an onslaught of threats and abuse.
From around the world, small donations for Karen Klein poured into the crowd-funding site indiegogo.com, at one point crashing the site and pulling in a staggering $605,000. The original goal was $5000.
At the same time, police in the Rochester suburb of Greece, N.Y., were stepping up patrols around the houses of the middle-schoolers accused of taunting her. Police didn't name the boys but their purported identities leaked out on the Web.
Greece Police Capt. Steve Chatterton was compelled to warn against vigilante justice. One boy received more than a thousand death threats and comments online were clear - and sometimes venomous - in their desire that the boys be severely punished.
The verbal abuse was captured in a 10-minute cell phone video recorded Monday by a student of Athena Middle School and later posted to YouTube. The video shows Klein trying her best to ignore the stream of profanity, insults and outright threats. One student taunted: "You don't have a family because they all killed themselves because they don't want to be near you."
Klein's oldest son killed himself 10 years ago. Eventually, she appears to break down in tears.
The stickier question is: How could the students be so cruel? One counselor noted that the kids are growing up in a world of harsh political debates and reality TV shows in which berating people is part of the entertainment. Meanwhile, taking videos of people in humiliating situations and sharing the images has become all too normal among many adolescents, "Kids are growing up saying, 'OK, this is how you treat your fellow human being and it's OK to do those things,'" he said.
Police said Klein does not want the boys to face criminal charges, partly because of the storm of criticism leveled at them.
People all across the US and the world did for Karen Klein did for her what the law could not do for her and what she could never do for herself. Those people let others know how cruelly she had been treated and they gave her a better life than she ever thought possible. This sounds like something Jesus would do, did do.
Jesus did for us what the law could not do. And Jesus did for us what we could not for ourselves. He set us free from the bully of sin and gave us a better life than we ever thought possible. Slavery is not good in any form and especially, when it’s slavery to sin. JESUS SET US FREE AND GAVE US JOY BEYOND DESCRIPTION!
II. NO CONDEMNATION - THE SPIRIT EMPOWERS US
5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
ILL.- June 2012 HONOLULU (AP) - Buying an inhabited Hawaiian island may sound extreme, even for a guy known for flaunting his fortune like a playboy - driving fancy cars, wooing beautiful women, flying his own jet and spending $200 million to build a Japanese-themed compound in California's Silicon Valley.
Larry Ellison won an America's Cup sailing in 2010, and then wrestled with San Francisco city leaders over his big plans for two waterfront piers. He owns a mansion atop a San Francisco hill with a sweeping view of the Golden Gate Bridge to the left and Alcatraz to the right. He has spent a fortune snapping up some of Southern California's most prized beachfront property in Malibu.
For Oracle CEO Ellison an island in the middle of the Pacific is right up his alley. He built Oracle Corp. with $1,200 in 1977 and is the world's sixth richest billionaire at 36B. He inked a deal to buy 98 percent of the island's 141 square miles.
While detailed plans for the island have yet to be revealed, he's likely to do something "epic and grand," said Mike Wilson, who wrote the first biography of Ellison, "The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison."
That Larry Ellison is some kind of guy, not exactly the kind of guy we should be, however. If Larry Ellison has the notion that he is God or some form of God, he’s way off base and headed for a certain fall just like Satan who got kicked out of heaven for his pride of wanting to be God.
It appears that Larry Ellison is a man possessed of a different spirit and some people in our world would say, “go for it,” but I would say, “Whoa! Watch out!”
ILL.- Henry David Thoreau, who wrote: "If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away. "
Brothers and sisters, we are supposed to be somewhat possessed, but by a different spirit than what we witness in this world. In the world we see the spirit of greed, lust, selfishness, pride, arrogance, etc. But we are to march to beat of a different drummer.
Galatians 5:16-26 16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
We are to be Holy Spirit controlled people! We are to march to His beat in our lives! How do we know when we are Holy Spirit controlled? We set our minds on the things of the Spirit. We are quick to read the Word, pray and praise. We are interested in people, in seeing people come to Christ and grow in Christ. We are excited about going to heaven rather than living on earth. We look forward to meeting our Savior in person because we have met Him here in spirit and in the Word. We are filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit rather than the spirit of this world!
CONCLUSION------------------
No condemnation in Christ. It also means that we’ve been set free from sin by Christ and are now empowered by a different spirit...the Spirit of Christ.
As Paul said....II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO
shepherd111@hotmail.com
