In the news in September, there was a story that came out about a young man named Davion Only. Davion was a 15-year-old boy who had grown up in the foster care system all his life; he had pretty much come to that place of resolve, "I'm ready to be adopted no matter what, and I've got to do something about it."
He communicated that to his case worker, who explained to him, "Davion, the older you get, the less chance there is of you being adopted. We need to work on some things in your life, and I'm not sure how we're gonna get the word out."
Between Davion and his case worker, they came up with a great idea: They would go to a church and ask if he could go to the microphone at the end of the service and tell them what he wanted. So, at this church in Florida, Davion got up at the end of the service, and here's what he said.
He said, "My name is Davion Only, and I have been in foster care since I was born. I know God hasn't given up on me, so I'm not giving up either. I want to be adopted." He goes on to say, "I don't care if you're old or young, you're just a dad or just a mom, you're black, you're white, you're purple, I don't care. I want to be adopted. I just want people to love me for who I am, to grab me and keep me in their house, and to love me no matter what."
This 5- or 7-minute little communication that he did caused everybody to be in tears. Eventually a reporter would pick up the story and put in the newspaper, and then people started interviewing Davion. Since that time, about six weeks' time, there have been over 10,000 inquiries from around America and the world of people who want to adopt Davion.
He put his heart out there, put his life out there, said "I have a need," and 10,000 people responded. Because you see, we're made for adoption. Whether it is to reach out and care for another as a rescuer or to be rescued, God has set us up for that scenario. And it moves people's hearts over and over again.
As we continue our series in the book of Romans, I want to read Romans, chapter 8, verses 1-11. If you didn't get a chance to read your Bible this morning, congratulations -- you're here at church, and we're gonna go through all 11 verses. In it, you see that rhythm of belonging and our response to God -- that God has everything for us, but there is a response, a way that we lock into that. So let's read that together. Romans chapter 8:
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. Sending his Son in the likeness of flesh, he condemned sin in the flesh so the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God; it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you."
So let's break it down. Let's take those first four verses, Romans 8: 1-4, and basically here's what it says: Jesus became sin on our behalf so that we might be set free from sin. He became an offering for sin once and for all, taking condemnation upon himself so that we would not have to live in condemnation. The doorway has already been made for us to be adopted, for us to be wanted, for us to be cared for. As one writer put it, "Those outstretched arms on the cross were his, and not ours. But that sin on him was ours, and not his."
The scripture is true when it says, "He made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus." Jesus paid it all; Jesus did everything that was needed for us, by grace, to come into a relationship with God. There is no one -- ever will, ever has been or ever will be -- other than Jesus who can take out sin. We cannot make ourselves better, we cannot rip it out or tear it out; we keep cycling without a Savior. And we have a perfect Savior, and His name is Jesus. Once and for all, He became sin on our behalf, that by us receiving His great love for us, we are set free to enter into that place of grace.
Beautiful truth. But what do we all feel about that? I said feel instead of think, because we can think about it and come up with the right conclusion: "Yes, Jesus died for my sins. Yes, I'm accepted. Yes, I'm loved because of what he's done. But I just don't feel like it." What most of us feel like is the beginning of verse 1 in chapter 8: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Most of us feel condemned. We struggle with shame, we struggle with a sense of worth and value.
Brené Brown is a researcher storyteller, and she did what is called a TED talk, a talk that's on YouTube. She thought maybe a few hundred people would pick up the talk. Well, 11 million people have now listened to this talk, and here's the essence of it. She did research, and she found out that the greatest struggle people deal with is shame and fear, and the fear and shame are related to, "Am I worth belonging to somebody else? Am I of value? Do I matter? Will anyone ever value me?"
She said, from the rich and famous to the poorest of the poor in our world, no matter what, it is the plight of all human beings, because it goes back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned, the Bible says their eyes would be opened to good and evil, and now the struggle was no longer just loving and responding to God; now it was assessing themselves day in and day out, and hoping that their good outweighed their bad. They became blinded from the grace of God. What sin did was it made us say, "Who am I? Who is God? Where does it all make sense?"
And even when we come to Jesus, though He has set us free from all that, it's like a residue that stays in our soul. "Who's gonna love me? Who's gonna take care of me? Am I worth something? Am I of value?" That breaks the heart of God, because that's why Jesus died -- so that you would know you're worth everything.
Many of you are familiar with the singing artist named Whitney Houston. Whitney died in 2012 of a drug overdose. From many people's perspectives, she was the greatest female vocalist of all time. For sure, her record sales would show that. But what most of us don't know is her upbringing and where she was coming from.
During her funeral, the famous actor Kevin Costner was called upon to do a eulogy, which means a talk about the person who has passed away. He spoke for 17 minutes, and as he spoke, he said, "You know, Whitney and I worked together in a movie, and I knew her as a friend." He said, "We really actually had a lot in common. I know you wouldn't realize that, but we both grew up in the Baptist church. We both grew up knowing that was the best place for us. The values that we learned there, the relationships that we had... Even there, we learned the plan of God for our lives. We were hoping one day to hear that voice from heaven that would call us to Himself."
It was stunning, the experience they had had as young kids. But as he would later describe, they both rebelled and went their own ways. But he was coming back to his roots in that moment; he was coming back to the grace of God. He talked about he and Whitney's conversations on the side, and he said, "There was something that always bothered me about her. Though I loved her dearly, on the movie set when I first met her, I remember her coming out and doing the scene and then going back to the room. She pulled me aside and said, 'Did they like me? Was I pretty enough? Was I good enough?'"
He said as he would go to a concert or be around her, she could sing in front of thousands of people, going out to millions of people, but she would always go backstage and ask, "Am I good enough? Did they think I was pretty? Did I do good?" He said she was like a little girl, reduced to her own fears and sense of shame and insecurity.
Whitney Houston had everything -- fame, power, everything that we think will bring value to us. She had beauty, she had talent, she had fame, she had money, she had every resource and access to anybody in the world. She was somebody, according to the world, but inside, she was a little girl asking the question, "Do they like me? Am I okay?" It drove her to addictions, and actually drove her to her death.
Kevin Costner explained this process as only someone like him could, knowing her closely, and he ends his eulogy this way. He said, "To all those young girls who are dreaming that dream, to be like Whitney, that maybe are thinking 'Are they good enough?' I think Whitney would tell you, 'Guard your bodies. Guard the precious miracle of your own life. And then sing your hearts out, knowing that there's a lady in heaven who is making God himself wonder how he created something so perfect."
And then he addresses Whitney, obviously in her absence: "So off you go, Whitney, off you go -- escorted by an army of angels to your heavenly Father. And when you sing before Him, don't you worry -- you'll be good enough."
There is something that Kevin Costner understands. It's God who makes us good enough. It's not what others say, it's not what we find in this world to add value. It's God. You're enough. You're enough for him! Created in His image, wanted by Him... I didn't say you were perfect; I said you were wanted! When we know we're wanted and we know we belong, we become anchored. And when we know we have value, then whatever God has given us to do, we can do that with all of our hearts, because we're not running with a question mark: "Am I okay? Am I pretty enough? Do they like me?" You know you're loved.
That's the intention of God through this passage. He wants you to know Jesus has done everything, so that you do not have to have a life of condemnation and of fear and of anxiety. Brené Brown, in her research that I talked about a few moments ago, said, "This driving force drives all of life for people." And for her, though I didn't pick up that she was necessarily a believer, she said the power of getting free from this kind of shame is what she called "extreme vulnerability" -- being comfortable with who you are and who you're not, being open with people and belonging to folks. Being connected to people.
She almost got it! Because ultimately people themselves, no matter how wonderful they are, though they do add value, they do create that sense of vulnerability that is called humility in the Bible, but it has to land in Jesus for ultimate freedom and healing from the brokenness of our lives.
Well, it's already been a good word, right? God loves me, he values me, Jesus has made a way for me. But again, I still think the question is, how do we lock into that? How do I access that? And the Scripture is so clear, that we don't access it just by thinking about it -- though we renew our minds -- we access it by the Spirit. So there is God's provision, and there is our response. And again, in this passage, it calls it "walking in the Spirit." Romans 8, verses 6-8:
"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God; it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Now hang on -- we just talked about being accepted by God. Now let's talk about how we walk with God. It begins by describing walking in the Spirit. Now, if you know Jesus, then the way that God clarifies that to you is He puts His Spirit within you. If you know Jesus, you are sealed by God -- you are in the family, and He puts himself in you through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit translates to you who the Father is, and who Jesus is. That's who you're walking with; you're walking with the Holy Spirit, and God is translating how to live life and communicating through the Holy Spirit.
The most natural example would be the GPS on our phone. If you travel much, which I do, I always hand it over to the person with me in the car, usually, not looking at it myself. And they put in the address, we call it up, and everything's good, right? And the better these things are getting, the more you absolutely trust those things.
So, we were in Dallas the other day, trying to go to an address. Somebody looked it up, and we're listening to the lady: "Turn right." "Turn left." We got into a conversation, and we didn't hear her tell us to get off at the exit. We went on about another mile, and we looked around and said, "Hey, what happened? Did you call the deal?" "Yeah -- oh, she already said it; we just didn't hear her." And so now we had miles to loop back around, and had to listen to her for a really long time.
Sometimes that's our walk with God. It's not that He's not speaking; it's not that He doesn't know the way. He knows the destination, He knows what's best for us -- we just have to be quiet enough to listen. This little red dot is actually going to remind you of this this week. Every time you look down, you're going to say, "I belong to him. I'm listening, Lord. I belong and I'm listening." It's going to be a little reminder for you to get in that groove, to get in that flow of what's called walking in the Spirit.
Now, the first verse of this walking in the Spirit says, "If you walk in the Spirit, you have life and peace." It doesn't say that life will be perfect; it just says that God will be with me, and I'll experience life and peace. The way I know I'm walking with God is if I'm submitted, lowering all my emotions and passions under God and letting Him navigate life through me and with me.
The opposite of that, of walking in the Spirit, is walking in the flesh. Some of us just think, "I'm just being human, it's no big deal. I'm just being real, no big deal." So I'm just rantin' and raving, cussing and venting and doing my thing -- just being myself. Well, your "self" is called flesh, and your flesh stinks. We'd like you to walk in the Spirit, for all of our benefit.
So let me give you an idea of how bad flesh stinks. If you live in Texas, you're probably familiar with hunting, if not a hunter yourself. Yesterday was the opening of rifle deer season, for those who didn't know yet. What happens every year in our home is, either I go out maybe once with a friend -- I'm not a huge hunter -- I may go out once or twice, and every once in a while I'll get a deer, and then we'll process it and have deer meat for the year. And sometimes when I don't, my friends who kill everything possible will give us or sell us their deer meat. But we always have deer meat in the freezer.
So, this past summer, we had a lot of little kids around our house, and somehow -- nobody fessed up -- somebody unplugged the freezer in our garage, in June, that was filled with deer meat. Now, I don't know if you've ever had that experience... But the way we found out was Laura asked, "Hey, will you go down and get some meat? I want to make a stew tonight." And so I went dutifully downstairs into the garage, opened up the freezer, and WHOOOOOOOA -- just, bleeccch. I thought, oh man. I looked down, it's unplugged. It's warm.
I called Laura down and said, "Man, this is nasty. This is terrible." She said, "Well, you better take it out and go clean it up." I said, "Well, why don't you help me? Why don't we do it together?" So Daniel, our youngest son, was home, and Laura, Daniel and I got the freezer and picked it up in the back of the truck. And when we picked it up, the juice kind of flowed over the top. Once again, that stuff was nasty.
So we got out to some land near our house, a place where you can dump this stuff, and when we got to the place to dump it over, they cleared out of the truck. So I am dumping this and just, I mean, nasty. Holding on and not throwing up.
We wanted to keep the freezer, so we thought, "We'll just put a little Clorox in it, some water, let it sit for a day." We did that, dumped it out -- still bad. Somebody came with some special chemicals; they really knew how to clean it out. Put it in, next day we dumped it out -- still stunk. Eventually we had to throw the freezer out.
That's how bad rotten, stinking flesh is. It draws you away; it doesn't draw you near.
When we walk in the flesh, it pushes people away, because it's not attractive. I didn't say YOU weren't attractive, I didn't say you weren't of value or worth -- I just said, when you walk in the flesh, it's a problem. That is not value or worth; God has made you in a certain way to walk, and when you walk that way it's sweet. It's righteous. It's good, it's clean. So it's not that we're perfect, but if we listen to the Holy Spirit, He'll tell us, "You're in the flesh; stop that. Go this direction." No big deal; just go the other direction."
Blake, come on up. Again, this is the most Holy Spirit-like person I could find in this service. No offense. So here's Blake, he's the Holy Spirit. So wherever I go, if I know God, the Holy Spirit is with me. And when we're in sync, there's just life and peace and happiness and joy; everything's wonderful. But in the Scripture that was just looked at, it says that those who walk in the flesh are hostile towards God, cannot subject themselves to the law of God -- aren't even able to do so.
It would be something like this. When I'm a little ticked off and about to rant about something, the Holy Spirit's trying to say, "Don't do that." And I'm saying, "No." In the spirit realm, I am hostile towards God; I just want to do what I want to do. Forget you; I'm gonna go look at what I want, do what I want, say what I want. I don't need you; I'm gonna go do whatever what I want to do. I don't care anymore. And then sometimes I'll just act like He's not there. "La la la la la. You're not there, Holy Spirit. I'm just gonna say and do what I want to do, and be who I want to be."
So here's the deal: He never leaves. But my fleshliness is hostile; it's me leaving Him, not Him leaving me. It's not that He's not present; it's that I don't experience His presence, because of the way I'm walking my life.
You see, what we want to turn it to is not Him following me around, because when I am walking with Him, His presence is with me. We want to do it the other way around -- where I follow Him. When I follow Him, He will only lead me into paths of righteousness, because He is holy -- He can't lead me anywhere else.
Please hear me: This is not about perfection; it's just about a relationship with God, and letting Him be the lead on it. Well, I gotta just tell you how the Bible says it. It says that our flesh is not only hostile towards God, but it says that we cannot please God when we walk in the flesh.
Now, hold on everybody; I did not say that you weren't wanted by God. I didn't say that you weren't in the family of God. I didn't say that God does not deeply care for you and is unwilling to forgive you and accept you in the middle of your sin. But what I did say is, it's not pleasing to Him when you walk in another way other than the way in which He created you. It breaks His heart, because it hurts you and hurts other people, ultimately.
It goes something like this. In raising our kids, the deal was, there were things they did that were displeasing. But when they did something that was displeasing, we didn't say, "Well, you're out of the family. We're done. I reject you." That didn't even cross our minds. "I love you so much that I'm actually going to follow through and discipline you and help you, because we need you to be a productive member of society when this family thing is done here. We need you to add value back to life. We need you to be able to have self-control so that you can be productive in this life. There are things that are needful, so we're going to press in even closer to relationship, not pull away. We're going to get even closer to you; we're even going to give you the privilege of staying home with us sometimes, because of some of your choices. Because being closer to one another is how we're going to work this thing out."
We never rejected our kids or sent them off on their own because of their sin; we always walked with them through it, in the context of relationship.
There were things they did that were not pleasing, and we said, "That's not good. That's hurtful. That's not right. It's okay that you're wrong in this situation, but that doesn't mean that you're out of the family." Does that make sense?
We picture in our minds that God is like us. When somebody bugs us, we reject them and want them out of our lives. But that's not like God. He is absolutely committed, cemented to you. You can't get rid of Him. He's put His Spirit inside of you; you're sealed for the day of redemption. You have an inheritance that can't be taken away. You can't get away from him, because He has chosen to initiate Himself, and He's with you. It's whether this is going to be pleasant or not, right? As we walk with God, we find the joy of God in the grace of God. We experience it by walking in the Spirit, and not in the flesh.
Last part of this passage. Romans 8, verse 9:
"However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."
I call this part of the passage "the power of belonging." It says, if you have the Spirit of God, you belong to God! The question mark is over with. If you don't have the Spirit of God, you don't belong to God, if you haven't chosen to trust Christ to cover your sin and given your life to Him. But if you have done that, then you belong to Him. If you haven't, then today is the day to do that.
But in this context, it's what researchers often call "the power of belonging." It's a powerful thing, what happens to people when they feel like they belong to a group or a people or are connected to something larger than themselves, versus those who are isolated and alone.
Stanford researchers in 2007 came out with a study they had done for several years with 7,000 different people. In this research, they tried to label what belonging would look like: someone attached to their community, attached to relationships. They had some healthy markers of what belonging meant. And then they had unhealthy characteristics of what belonging meant. And then they said, "What happens to people when they feel like they belong? Or, when they don't belong?"
The ones who felt like they belonged, they found this: physical and mental health-wise: They were four times more likely to be healthy in every area of their lives if they belonged and were attached to people than if they were not, mental health and physical health. It was related to wholeness; belonging was so important that it affected our physical bodies and mental health.
Another survey that was done in this belonging study was, they infected 276 individuals with the flu virus. Then they did the same belonging study, and they said, "If somebody has community, does that affect their immune system to fight off sickness?" They found that they were three times more likely to not get the flu, even from the virus they were infected with, or overcome it earlier. Those who did not have a sense of belonging or community were three times more likely for the flu virus to have its full effect and for them to have long-range effects. Isn't that amazing?
They said you could smoke cigarettes every day, drink alcohol, and have community, and be healthier than someone who exercised every day, ate well, and was isolated. (That is no excuse for you to go out and drink and smoke, in the name of health.)
But you got the point. This sense of belonging is huge. It's huge for the human soul. It's value, it's worth, it's, "Somebody cares about me, I matter, I'm in sync with how God's created me." And isn't it the beauty of God that He's created you for Himself and for His people called the church? And without that sense of community on a natural level, and communion on a God level, you'll struggle. You'll struggle all your life.
No matter what happens externally... You know, we are the most addicted, we're the most obese, we're the most medicated generation in American history, maybe in world history. How is that? It's because we're looking for things to numb the pain inside of us that is not resolved with God and the community. That's the problem.
Dropping down in Romans, to 8:15, a familiar passage around here. We use it often. "For you have not received a spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons or daughters, by which we cry out, 'Abba, Father!' And the Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him."
An incredible passage. God has made a way for us to be adopted, for us to be loved, for us to be His. And then this little piece at the end says "if we indeed suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with Him." Now that can mean many things -- being willing to be persecuted or identified with Jesus -- but in simple terms today, it would mean this: It means that you've got to say no to self and yes to Jesus to enter into all that He has for you.
You're not earning it; it's already there. But you're entering into it by choosing the narrow way instead of the broad way.
I started the message this morning talking about Davion Only. Davion finally came to a place where he said, "I'm done. I'm done with being a drifter. I'm done with not having any roots. I'm done with not having a home. I'm done with not being adopted. So I'm gonna take a risk and step out beyond where I am comfortable, and I'm gonna go for it."
His case worker told the story that, as they were driving to the church for this grand plan, he said, "I don't think I wanna do this. I don't think I wanna do this. I don't like to be in front of people. What if everybody rejects me?" And she said, "Davion, you've come this far. Just go for it. Just go for it. You've come this far. Just go for it."
What I would say to all of us this morning... Somehow, you obviously want to know God. You have entered into the faith, or if you don't know Jesus today, today's a great day to know him. That's why you're here; that's why God brought you here. But don't just stop at salvation. Don't just stop because the door's open -- walk into the house! Live the life. Belong to Him, not just in your mind, not just judicially, not just for the day you die. Have a sense of the belonging of God in the now! And we do that by walking in the Spirit. And it takes a little effort. It takes a response to God instead of to our flesh.
Lastly, we're helping you with it. This little dot, every time you see it, you look down -- many of you guys are way too often looking at your phone throughout the day. Every time you see that dot, say "I belong to Him. I belong." Take that question mark off; say "I belong." If you want to add a little zip to it, say, "God, what are you saying? What are you doing right now?"
Because you see what happens... Let's say you're looking at the dot and you know you're in sin or something like that, it's not condemnation. It's like, "Get me out of here, Jesus." He doesn't have a need to condemn you; he has a need to move you on, into paths of righteousness. He doesn't have a need to get you away from Him; He actually has a need for you to come even closer to Him.
It's all about relationship, man. When that one gets nailed down, everything else takes care of itself. Let's stand together.
