Romans 8:1-17
Getting on the Same Page as God about what we are free from
Introduction
A. In America we love our freedom
B. We are really proud, and should be, that we live in a free society
C. We have people over in Iraq doing what, defending our freedom
D. We have people who for 228 years now have been defending our freedom
E. We take our freedom very serious in this country, and that is a good thing
F. But what are free from in our Spiritual lives?
G. What are we no longer slave to?
H. We also know with freedom comes responsibility, freedom does not equal anarchy
I. That is why we have people defending our freedom
J. So what are our responsibilities in our Spiritual lives?
K. Today we are going to explore our freedoms and responsibilities
L. We are going to look at
1. Freedom from Condemnation
2. Freedom from our Sinful Nature
3. Freedom from fear
I. Free From Condemnation
A. Explanation
1. Verse one is one that we have heard many times, why? Because we sing the song, in fact we just sing it
2. The one word in there that is hard to understand because we do not use it that much today is condemnation
3. Condemnation means blame, guilt, shameful, stuff along that line
4. That law causes condemnation
5. However, because of what Christ did, dieing on the Cross and raising from the dead, we are free from the law
6. The law had no power to do what Christ did
7. The law as we have said the past couple of weeks is good at pointing out our sin but can not save us
8. Because we are guilty of breaking the law, there had to be some payment
9. And that is exactly what Christ did
10. Christ took on the sin of the world to meet the righteous requirements of the law
B. Application
1. Ok that is all good, but what does that have to do with me?
2. How many of you are ashamed of something you ever did?
3. Now if you were to examine the law and compare it with your life guess what?
4. You would find out that you broke the law many times, you would feel horrible you would have this heavy feeling of condemnation
5. However, we are not under the law
6. We are “In Christ Jesus”
7. That means that no matter what you have done
8. No matter what sin you have committed
9. No matter how many times you have messed up
10. You are free from condemnation
11. You are free from the burden of guilt
C. Illustration
1. When I ran Cross-country, the day of a meet I would sometimes wear ankle weights. I would walk around all day with these 5 lb weights on my ankle. When it was time for the race I would take them off and my ankles would feel really light. So I would be starting the race with “super light feet” which in turn would make me run faster
2. The same thing is true once we are “In Christ Jesus”
3. Here we have been caring this burden around caring this heavy load, basically just feeling the pressure of everything, and we turn it over to Christ
4. Suddenly we have light feet
5. Suddenly we have that huge burden lifted,
6. Everything that we had done in the past, wiped clean
7. All the bad stuff we really do not want people to know about, gone
8. We are free from Condemnation
II. Free From Sinful Nature (5-11)
A. Explanation
1. In these verse you have basically 2 Paragraphs, looking at this real quick you realize the one is a positive and the other is a negative
2. Paul is focusing on the sinful nature of our minds
3. When our minds are focused on anything other then God, we can not do good
4. Our minds are so corrupted that nothing good can come out of them
5. Look at verse 8 (read 8)
6. Now looking to the positive side of this, is being controlled by the Spirit
7. Interesting to note in verse 9 its says if the Spirit of God lives inside of you.
8. This being controlled by the spririt cannot and will not happen with First accepting Christ
9. That is why it is impossible to expect a non Christian to live up to Christian standards, it will not work, and can not work
10. Look at verse 10 and 11.
11. We get this picture of our earthly body being totally controlled by the Spirit of God
12. You find your purpose your meaning, everything, from the Spirit of God
B. Application
1. What does this all mean for me?
2. Look we are no longer slaves to our sinful nature we are free
3. But in order to be free we have to we have to turn away from the sinful nature
4. we have to leave it
5. Forget about it
6. Not even come close to it
7. Instead we need to focus all that energy on Christ
8. Set our minds on the things of Christ
9. Does that mean that you can not do this or that? If you are asking that question your missing the point
10. What you can do is follow God
11. Earnestly seek God
C. Illustration
1. We love to come up with “reasons” why we can do things. “We are too busy” I just don’t have time. I just have to much on my plate. So we use our business to not allow ourselves to be controlled by the Holy Spirit
2. Everyone here has time to do what they want; the question is what do you want?
3. I was talking with someone the other day about exercising, the told me that they did not have time, I quickly reorganized their schedule, in my mind at least, and I found that with a little rearranging the could go to the gym 5 days a week.
4. We have time, we have the ability, but do we want to be controlled by the Spirit?
5. Do we want to be constantly pursuing Godly things
6. Or do we want to continue to feed our sinful nature?
7. We are free from our sinful nature
8. Leave your sinful nature, become a slave to the Spirit of God
III. Free From Fear (12-17)
A. Explanation
1. Paul here starts talks about an obligation
2. Now of course we are familiar with obligations
a) Work, household chores, family, organizations that we are apart of
3. Our obligation is to live according to the Spirit
4. This is not just for the sanctified saints, the radical Christians, a Pastor, this obligation is for everyone
5. I do not know where this notion came from that only Pastors, only missionaries, only elders, have to “live according to the Spirit”
6. This command is for everyone
7. I think what happens, is we become afraid, afraid that people will mock us, persecute us, hurt us, tear us down
8. Paul realized that people would be living in fear because of these things
9. Paul, who the leading authority on getting persecuted, mocked, hurt, made fun off, we do not need to be a slave from fear
10. We have God
11. WE have God, who will protect us not matter what
B. Application
1. What does this mean to our lives?
2. Two words should never be used as synonyms: Christian and Fear
3. That should never happen
4. God will never let you be harmed
5. He will always protect you
6. When your in a situation where you don’t think you can get through, start praying
7. Who hear has ever been in a situation where God was not able to get them through it?
8. None of you. God is there
9. We can confidently live by the spirit as we are commanded to and have nothing to fear
10. Notice in verse 15, “abba Father”
C. Illustration
1. (If Chloe is here, grab Chloe, hold Chloe and see how long it takes her to cry for her daddy) (If not use story about how Kasha always would go to Dave)
2. That little one knows what to do when things get scary, when things get ruff, when things are not going her way
3. She goes to her Daddy and says Daddy protects me
4. What do you think that Daddy does, holds that little precious bundle of joy and says “It will be ok, Daddy here”
5. Understand, you might be 6’ 2” 207 lbs, 27 years old guy, and you can still run to Daddy, curl up in his lap, and he will hold you and tell you that it is ok
6. Nothing left to fear
7. God is always there for you
Conclusion
A. Life through the Spirit
B. Can we do something today? Can we stop asking what will it take to get me into Heaven?
C. Can we start asking how can I live life through the Spirit?
D. This is not about a series of obligations, this is not about a doing enough just to get by
E. This is out of “obligation”
F. Not just for the radical Christians, this is for every Christian
G. If you are hear today and you have not begun your Journey with Jesus. Come see me, I will tell you how to begin your journey
H. Maybe your hear and you fall under one of these three categories:
I. 1. Maybe you are still living a life of Condemnation, you feel guilty about what you have done and you have not been able to shake that feeling if that it is you I want you to come up here to this piece of wood, let Go and Let God, please if you see someone up here lend them one of your shoulders)
J. 2. Maybe you are here today and you have been living a life controlled by your sinful nature. If that is you, God wants you to stop. God wants you to get rid of those things in your life that is causing you to be controlled by sinful nature, Ever so often all of us go through our dressers and clean them out. While we are doing this we will look at some of our clothes and will say something like “what was I thinking” or “wow, this is really bad” and we will get rid of those items. I want you to look at your life, I want you to find those things in your life where you say “What was I thinking” or “wow, this is really bad” and then throw those things out. Get rid of them. Clean out your life.
K. 3. Maybe you are here today and you have been afraid, have been living in fear. Go ahead let it out, crawl up in God’s lap. Let him tell you “It’s ok, you do not need to be afraid, I am with you always.”
L. The question is are you on the same page as God about what we are free from?
