Love Worth Finding
Love and life through the Spirit
Romans Chapter 8
Prayer-
Introduction-
Good Morning!
Last week we began a series called “Love worth Finding”
We looked at God’s Love for us and our love for God.
We agreed that this world is messed up and needing God to bring peace and bring order to chaos.
We realized we can do a lot of things but we cannot love others like God without God.
We will not be who we were created to be without being intentional with our relationship with the Lord.
For our churches and families to be all that God created them to be, we need to love others like God loves them.
The church needs to be the place of discipleship, the church needs to be a place that God can change us and use us as He sees fit.
We saw that if we would be the church that we confess to be that we would see people changed by the power of God working in us and through us.
The text this morning cannot be read and lived out without realizing and acting upon God’s love for us and our love back to God.
It is easy to say I love God with all your heart, easy to say with all your soul ,and all your mind, it is much harder to live it out.
Romans chapter 8:1-8:17
If you love God;
Your actions should show it by the things we do and the things we say.
We would allow the Lord to change us, we would want Him to transform us.
We would give Him permission to help us be different than what we were before we came to Christ.
At the time that we accept Christ, the transformation begins, for some we see an instant difference, for others it is a process.
For some it seems easy and for some it is very difficult.
For some it is the journey we have been through, it is harder to release our lives to God because we have been hurt in the past and that is not easy.
For some, it is we don’t really want to release things we know are bad for us.
Paul records in the first verse of our text-
“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Now, no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus of our past because we are now a new creation in Christ-
Our past has been bought by Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross.
We are able to not be ashamed of what the past is but redeemed from the past because of what Christ has done for us.
The Spirit of life- the Holy Spirit of God has set you free from sin and death- your past has no hold on you because of the power of Christ to overcome.
Illustration-
How many have seen the movie Tombstone?
Okay I will try to show you by illustration even if maybe some of you have not seen the movie.
The movie takes place in the wild west and a family of lawmen decide to retire from law enforcement and move west to become rich and successful, to find Gold and do it as a family. The famous lawmen Wyatt Erp retires with his brothers in Tombstone Arizona. Tombstone is the place where the great gunfight at the ok corral took place as these same men along with Doc Holiday were trying to better themselves. While they were doing their own thing, they developed a heart for the people in the town. Evil got out of hand in the form of an outlaw gang called the cowboys- they caused others to lose their freedom because they were overpowered by a force stronger than they were. They had the choice of doing what they wanted (Rich and successful) (The flesh) or help the people they come in contact with. (Spirit) Mort, the youngest brother gets shot and is dying, and he looks up at his older brother Wyatt, and says “Don’t let them get you brother.”
He realizes the fight is not about self but what is right and is willing to lay down his life for what He believes in.
The Spirit of God recued us from ourselves and from Sin.
The Spirit of the living God dwells within us to give us the power to overcome forces stronger than you and I.
We have an obligation- (verse12)- “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation- but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if we live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
Because of God’s love for us, our love should come back to God, we have an obligation to live our lives directed by the Spirit of God and we have an obligation to allow the Spirit of God to use us in the places that God puts us. Amen.
A while ago, I read a book called Eats with sinner by Arron Chambers- Good book recommended.
In his book he states;
Celebrating a wedding reveals your love of love.
Celebrating a touchdown is your love of sports.
What Jesus celebrated was when sinners were found.
What he meant by lost sinners was people who were not where they were supposed to be.
Lost people are suppose to be with Jesus for eternity
They don’t even know they are lost.
Believers are to help people find and get to where they are supposed to be.
While the Holy Spirit of God is directing and strengthening us, we are to be sensitive of those that are around us. (End Quote)
Are we the people who sinners want to be around? Are we showing them Jesus?
While we celebrate people’s weddings- realize they need Jesus.
While you are celebrating touchdowns of life and sports- realize that the people He has brought to you are in need of Jesus.
There is a lot of muttering in the Christian circle about things we don’t like.
Things we wish would change.
In a perfect world, we could just erase what we don’t like. It don’t happen that way, if it did, God would have created us robots and gave us big erasers.
Instead of doing that, He gave us His Holy Spirit to direct us and empower us to live the lives that He created us to live.
Lost people are looking for hope- We have the hope of glory inside of us and they need to see it in us.
Lost people are just journeying and while they cross our path, we have an opportunity to show them our Jesus.
God’s love transforms us-
He meets us where we are and takes us where we need to be.
His love changes us. The longer you are a believer, the more we should be like Jesus.
Changing, not just because we feel we have to, but being obedient because we want too.
Addictions change us- whatever the addition it is.
Wither is a chemical, emotional, physical. It takes over and the result is sometimes doing things that we would normally not want to do. It puts a mask on us, because depending what the addiction is, we do not want people to know that we have lost control and feel ashamed or out of place.
Addictions of this world want to change us…The Spirit of the Living God wants to change us-
Which will you allow to change you?
We were created to love God and mirror the things of God but because of sin we were born in sin and God desires is to change us by His Holy Spirit to what we were original designed and created for.
Here are some truths we need to have active in our lives if we are going to allow God to transform us into His image and be who we were created to be. To help us find a love worth finding.
Do not mirror this world but be transformed by your God
Romans 12:2
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Do not allow ungodly thinking. Ungodly thinking will cause you to do ungodly things- it will result in sinful behavior.
Zig Ziglar-
Stinking Thinking
Garbage in and Garbage out
The word in the Greek for Transformation is “Metamorphosis.”
It is the process of caterpillar to butterfly.
The gradual change that takes place inside produces the total change on the outside.
When God is involved, He will transform us to be what He intended us to be and not live life short of what we were created to be.
Protect your mind
1 Peter 1:13
“Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming.”
Be careful what you are seeing and what you are thinking, and what influences your actions.
It means that we need to be sharp in our thinking. Protect our minds , keep alert, ready to take action against wrongful thinking or influences.
2 Corinthians 10:5-
“We demolish arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
We pull down
We seek and destroy those things that take us away from God.
We take captive and Make our thoughts obedient to Christ.
How do we do it? Destroy it in its infancy in our mind and make it captive to the things of God before we put it to action in our lives. Amen.
Be Spiritually minded is peace and carnal minded is death
Romans 8:6-8
“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile toward God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
Be led by the Spirit of God
Carnal means that you are worldly minded and that what you do is controlled by the emotions and the sins of this world and not what is pleasing to God.
Are you a robot for God? No.
Do you think for yourself? Yes.
Spiritually minded means that you are allowing God to transform you and it is your desire to please God more than you want to please yourself.
No one wants to talk about it anymore because of political correctness- this is the life we get to build a relationship with God- if you do not want God in this life, He will give you the desires of your heart and you will not have him in eternity. Your choice being lived out. God love is offered… we choose if we accept it.
I call it between the dashes- life and death. That is the allotted time for us to accept the gift of God and what we will do with eternity. Some do not want to talk about it. But we had better!
To Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things
Colossians 3:2
“Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
As a believer, there has to be balance- we think only of heaven and we become no earthly good. We think only of this world and we miss the calling each one of us has to make an impact in people life and literally rescue them from the pit of hell by introducing them to Jesus.
Close with these thoughts-
Earthy things are the sinful things of this world- Paul is telling us that as new creations in Christ, these are the things pulling you away from Christ and not toward Him.
Set your mind on things above-
We cannot have the mind of Christ without knowing Christ.
We cannot have the Spirit of Christ leading us without a relationship with Christ.
It means as believers we desire to look at life and the things we go through and way through the eyes of Christ who has been raised from the dead and resurrected so that we may have eternal life.
We bring glory back to God by the way we live our lives
Having the mind of Christ is not for the “perfect”- those that have it all together. It is for those that know they cannot do it without the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in and acting on our behalf.
Step one- make sure you are a believer-That you have surrendered your life to Christ.
Step Two- Ask God for more of Him and less of you. That His power would be working in your life so you can be more the image of Christ and less of the sinful nature we were born into.
Enjoy your new spiritual heritage- child of God
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”
You were born of the Spirit
Sealed by the Spirit of God
The Holy Spirit Dwells in you
Baptized in the Spirit
Given gifts by the Spirit of God
Commissioned by the Spirit of God.
You are loved by God
“Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may share in his glory.”
Love and life through the Spirit of God
Amen.
