Unforced Errors
Romans 8:1-4
The 2005 Wimbledon Tennis Championship concluded last Sunday. In the Women’s final Venus Williams defeated Lindsey Davenport. In the Men’s final Federer defeated Andy Roddick.
The French Open was held last month with the final championship men match between Federer (from Sweden) ranked number 1 in the world playing Nadal (from Spain) ranked number 5. Nadal only 18 years old defeated Federer. Why? Federer lost because he had twice as many unforced errors as Nadal.
Have you played any tennis this summer? Your opponent serves you the first ball and it comes at hundred miles an hour and hits the inside of the serving line. The ball whizzes past you before you can hit the ball. It’s an ace.
On the serve, the first ball misses and the second ball comes in and you hit it back. Your opponent returns the ball and you have an easy shot, but you hit the ball and it goes long. This is an unforced error.
An unforced error is a point given away that has nothing to do with your opponent. You have a miss-hit or choke and lose the point. You can’t blame the racquet or anyone else. It is your unforced error.
Errors in tennis and in life can make a big difference. A small percentage of errors can make a large impact. Pharmacies can get 99.997% of their prescriptions right and still make 3.4 mistakes per million or 200,000 per year. You only hope that you’re not one of the 3.4 per million.
Insurance companies in the United States lost 15 billion in one year because of errors in rating drivers.
A simple cut and paste error in a spreadsheet recently caused a Canadian power company to lose $24 million.
In Romans 8 the Apostle Paul gives guidance for minimizing the unforced errors of sin. No one is to blame for your sins of disobedience. No one forces you to sin. You alone are responsible.
(Romans 8:1) “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” “Therefore” refers to the previous chapters. Chapters 3-6 define the fact of sin and the origin of sin. Romans 3:26, “The wages of sin is death…” Romans 5:12, 19, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will be made righteous.”
Why is there evil in the World? You might ask, “Why is there evil in the world?” Why do we have to deal with evil?
Adam is the one man who brought sin into the world. God gave Adam and Eve a perfect world, free from sin and the consequences of evil. The continuing of the perfect world was conditioned on the obedience of Adam and Eve. They could eat of all the fruit and produce of the Garden of Even, but they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil.
Satan a fallen archangel took on the form of an attractive serpent and tempted the first couple to taste of the forbidden fruit. They yielded to temptation and sin entered the world and the perfect world became corrupt and evil. The origin of sin began with Adam and Eve. Within a short time Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain became jealous of his brother Abel and murdered him.
Satan takes on many disguises. Satan doesn’t identify himself as an evil person or presence. Jesus said, “Beware of the devil, I saw him descending from heaven as an angel of light.” He lied to Adam and Eve and he continues to lie today. His mission in this world is to defeat and discourage the people of God and keep non-Christ followers from becoming Christ followers. Satan has a fourfold strategy:
1. Satan’s strategy is diversion – he diverts your attention away from the things of God to pleasure, possessions, and lust of the flesh.
2. Satan’s strategy is delusion – he tempts people to believe they don’t need God…”I’m okay; I’ll go to heaven if anyone goes.”
3. Satan’s strategy is doubt – he would have you believe that God is only a figment of your mind. Why pray to someone that doesn’t exist? Why read the Bible, it’s a mere story book? Why go to church and waste your time?
4. Satan’s strategy is delay – he would tell you that “There’s no hurry. Wait until tomorrow to get serious about living for God – you will always have a tomorrow.”
Romans chapter 8 describes two kinds of walking in this world, flesh walking and Spirit walking. Flesh walking is of the devil and Spirit walking is of the Lord Jesus.
According to the New Testament there are only two kinds of people in the world, first, those living and walking in the flesh and Second, those living and walking in the Spirit.
Flesh Walking
Paul says in Romans 8:5 that “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires:” Verse 6, “The mind of sinful man is death.” Verse 8 “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”
When Paul is talking about walking according to the flesh he is not talking about the human body of flesh and blood. Flesh to Paul is the sinful desires and the sinful choices a person makes. Galatians 5:16-21 Paul describes the actions of a person walking according to the flesh: “The acts of the sinful natures are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery (morally corrupt) idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, faction 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.”
In Chapter 7 Paul describes how he lived according to the flesh. He lived as a religious Pharisee committed to persecuting the church and all Christ followers. Paul believed he was carrying out the true law of God as a Jew. Romans 7:15-17, “I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I didn’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that I am doing wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can’t help myself because it is sin inside me that makes me do those evil things.” NLT
As a Pharisee Paul was “working out” his own salvation. Religion is all about works. I asked a Jew when the Jewish nation stopped animal sacrifices for sin and how they find forgiveness of sin. I was told that when the temple of David was torn down the Jewish people believed God no longer required animal sacrifices. Now they find forgiveness by doing good works.
Ephesians 6:8-9 lays out God’s plan. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not of works, so that no one can boast.”
Romans chapters 7 and 8 give a clear contrast between religion and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Saul was highly religious and he believed he was honoring God and doing God’s will. He was sincere, but he was sincerely wrong. Saul tried to keep the law. But the law cannot give life. He said he was a slave to sin and dominated by sin. He says, “Oh what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (7:24-25)
Religion is about works. The Gospel is about a Person, Jesus Christ.
Romans 8 Paul describes the Life in the Spirit. Romans 8
Spirit Walking
Paul gives this promise to all Christ followers:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 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, 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.” (Romans 8:1-4)
Paul teaches that all Christ followers have a new lifestyle.
Romans 8:5 “Christ followers now live in accordance with the Spirit and have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” V. 6 …The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” V. 14 “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
In Romans 12:1-2 Paul gives the key to walking in the Spirit. Paul declares that “Surrender” is the key to a Spirit walking life. To surrender is to rely entirely on the Lord and not on your self sufficiency.
# During the 1970’s, Muhammad Ali reigned as the heavyweight boxing champion for most of the decade. And, no one was more aware of his greatness than Ali, himself. He could call himself King, Superman, God, and on countless occasions would remind everyone: “I am the greatest.”
After boarding an airplane one day, however, Ali met his match. The flight attendant was walking up the aisle making sure everyone had their seatbelts fastened, when she noticed Ali had not fastened his. When she asked him to do so, he just grunted: “Humph! Superman don’t need no seatbelt!” Unimpressed, the flight attendant just smiled and said, “Sir, Superman don’t need no airplane.” Ali buckled his seatbelt.
Walking in the Spirit means you are motivated to walk as Jesus walked. When we are motivated by selfish desires we are not walking in the Spirit. The un-surrendered self is filled with pride. The un-surrendered self refuses to apologize and admit when a mistake is made.
We walk in the Spirit when we say with the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
# A little girl was heard singing to herself, “Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise the Lord what YOU have done.”
Trying to walk in the Spirit with an un- surrendered self is like driving your car with the emergency brake on.
Romans 12:1 …To give our lives as a living sacrifice means we are willing to die out to our selfish ways and surrender to God’s ways. The tendency is to compromise and yield to the evil influences of this world.
## Following a two-day worship for the late Mother Teresa and some of her sisters, the workshop leader (a clergyman) and the good Mother were having a cup of tea together. Referring to her famous ministry to society’s rejects, the clergyman asked, ’What is your biggest problem, Mother?’ She quickly replied, "Professionalism." Her strange, one-word answer left the clergyman momentarily speechless. In his words:
"His jaw dropped. He had expected her to say something about the difficulties involved in trying to hold her community of nuns together. Or the difficulty of determining who would be her ultimate successor as the authority figure among the sisters. Instead, he got ’professionalism.’
"Seeing that he was dumfounded, Mother Teresa then spelled out her answer, saying, ’I have five sisters getting M.D. degrees and far greater numbers getting R.N., L.P.N. and M.S.W. degrees. But a funny thing happens. They came back from their education, they are concerned about titles and offices and parking privileges. So I take all of that away form them and I send them to the hospice of the dying. There they hold people’s hands, and pray with them and feed them. After six months of that, they typically get things straight again and remember their vocation to be a spiritual presence first, and a professional presence second." -- Richard Rice, "Priorities"
Walking the Spirit gives you a sure hope for the future. You are "...heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ."
# Back during the worst part of the Great Depression, a distraught lady walked into the office of a major insurance company. She did not understand how life insurance worked. Very sadly she said to the clerk, "I’m afraid I can’t continue to pay the premiums on my husband’s life insurance policy. He has been dead for six months now, and I just can’t afford it." The amazed clerk called the office manager. He looked over the policy and then caused the lady to almost faint when he told her that she would soon receive a check for $200,000. This lady thought she was poor, when indeed she was wealthy.
God has provided great resources in Christ Jesus and we fail to claim His Promises.
When you walk in the flesh you see life from a human point of view. But when you walk in the Spirit you see life from God’s point of view. You know you have all the resources of heaven at your disposal.
(Romans 8:1) “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
Let’s take God at His word and become Spirit Walkers. Let’s live and walk according to the Holy Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-25. You walk in the Spirit as you fully surrender to the Lord and obey his commands.
Service of Communion – Commitment to Walk in the Spirit and Power of Jesus
