Two Ways to Live: Life According to the Flesh or the Spirit - Darren Rowse

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, David.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Darren.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm part of the ministry team here and the morning I'm going to take you into the next verses that we're looking at in Romans 8.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm looking at seven verses today, almost double what Linda had last week, so buckling in,

[SPEAKER_00]: These verses have a lot of really great content in them, a lot of ideas in them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in them we actually see two different ways of life, two different ways of living.

[SPEAKER_00]: The light side and the dark side star was.

[SPEAKER_00]: The red pill and the blue pill matrix.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our pop culture loves to give two choices and the Bible does as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Back in June or on a meet chapter 30, Moses stands up in front of the people of Israel and says to them, I set before you life and death, blessings and curses, now choose life.

[SPEAKER_00]: so that your children may live.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the Psalms, we see two choices put forward time and time again, two ways of living.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Psalm one, we see the way of the righteous that flourishes like a tree, or the way of wickedness that withers away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus puts two ways forward as well, numerous times.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 7, he talks of a narrow road

[SPEAKER_00]: and a broad road that leads to destruction.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in Romans 8, we now find two ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're very similar.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're both lead to the same destinations as all of those other choices, life and death.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about today, the way of life, living according to the flesh,

[SPEAKER_00]: and living in accordance with the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to read to from Romans 8, verse 5, through the 11, but before we do, I just want us just to take a moment, just to post your ourselves before God's Spirit.

Romans 8:5

[SPEAKER_00]: We believe that God's Word is God-breathed.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's inspired by God.

[SPEAKER_00]: God-breathed into it in its writing, but also I believe it's,

[SPEAKER_00]: God breads into it when we read it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just want to give us a moment to just sit before the spirit to perhaps close your eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe open your hands as a physical sort of gesture of what's going on inside.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just still your minds, still your emotions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just in your own way, set up the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm here and I'm open to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll whisper it when you breathe into the reading of this ancient text.

[SPEAKER_00]: We illuminate to us what you want to say to each of us individually today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We guide us as we work through it this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus name, I pray I'm in.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm reading from the NIV version and the NIV version I've got it on the screen there actually has a word missing as the very first word all that almost all the other versions and that you could look up have a little word at the start and I don't know why NIV doesn't have it the Greek word is guy it means four.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it connects what's going on in this passage to what happened in the last passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we actually see the two ways of living, the way of the flesh, the way of the spirit, actually mentioned in verse 4, I'm Linda Reddit to us last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to add the word 4 if you forgive me.

[SPEAKER_00]: For those who live according to the flesh, have their mind set on what the flesh desires.

[SPEAKER_00]: But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mind, governed by the flesh, is death.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mind, governed by the Spirit, is life and peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

[SPEAKER_00]: you, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: If indeed the Spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: 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 because of His Spirit who lives in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Paul here is putting forward two ways of living.

[SPEAKER_00]: Life according to the flesh and life according to the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: These two words get used a lot in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's probably worth defining them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Flesh gets used six times here.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Greek word is sucks.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it can be translated in a couple of ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can be translated to be flesh like our flesh on our bodies, a physical thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It sometimes is translated body in scripture, but that's not what's been talked about here.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's been talked about here is the second way of defining flesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the orientation of someone's life away from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: John Piper puts it this way, flashes anything that is minus God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anything that's done not in reliance on God or not in pursuit of the glory of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the absence of God, the way of life that has an absence of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He goes on to say in his teaching that in the absence of God, something else is the focus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he puts forward that is the self.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love self-determination.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love to determine our own outcomes.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love self-actualization.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love self-belief.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love self-fulfillment.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love to hear stories of people following their passions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Self-preservation, self-reliance, self-gradification.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the end, it's self-worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's been talked about here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tim Keller picks up this idea in his sermons as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, anyone living according to the flesh, is someone whose life is controlled by a self-reliance.

[SPEAKER_00]: salvation project rather than God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love that idea of a self-servation project.

[SPEAKER_00]: We live in a world that says, if you do certain things, if you put your life orientated to certain things that they will save you, they will give you a good life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Put enough money in your bank and you'll be right.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll get through life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have enough good stuff, you'll be saved, you'll have a good life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have the right career, the right education.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make a family that looks a certain way, have a partner, have it the right experiences, the right pleasures in your life, have enough influence, have enough power.

[SPEAKER_00]: These things will save you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your life will be worth something.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a good life.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is the way of the flesh when we put our orientation towards self and things that save ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other way that Paul talks about is the way of the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can see he uses the Spirit, I think it's nine times.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, here there's a couple of choices in how you can translate the word Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Spirit can be the human spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what Spane talked about here.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's being talked about here is God's Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul uses at nine times and he uses them in different ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about the Spirit of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about the Spirit of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really clear that the way of the Spirit is life according to God's Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other word that we see a lot here is the word mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mind is used five times there, and the mind for us is very much about what's going on in our heads.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about our thinking, but that's not what's being talked about in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost could be translated hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mind is the core of a person.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is what's going on deep within a person.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so the mind here isn't about having good thoughts or bad thoughts, it's about orientating the core of your being towards either the flesh,

[SPEAKER_00]: or the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holy is talking about our orientation.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about what's right at the very heart of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he also uses the word governs there, which I think is a good word for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the core of us being governed by?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who or what is ruling us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who or what is controlling us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are we in the sway of?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are we being?

[SPEAKER_00]: dominated by some of the translations, actually, say, who is governing us?

[SPEAKER_00]: So we can be governed.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can be ruled by the flesh, by self, by our own selfish, fleshy desires, or we can be governed by the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the destination is clear.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the same destination that we talked about in juderonomy in the Psalms, in Jesus, in two roads.

[SPEAKER_00]: or death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul talks here about the mind coming by the flesh's death, the mind coming by the spirit is life and peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he goes on to say, the mind coming by the flesh is hostile to God again, opposite of peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peace isn't just a feeling, it's actually a peace in the relationship that we can have with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So at this point in the passage in verse 9, Paul stops talking about the theory of it all, and he actually gets really personal with the people he's writing to.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's writing to a group of Christians in Rome, and he addresses them directly.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He makes this really definitive statement here.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost similar to what happened last week when Linda preached, she preached about, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He declares it to the people he is writing to.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are not condemned.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not now, not ever.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in a similar sort of definitive way, he says to this group of Christians in Rome, you are not governed.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not in the jurisdiction of, you are not in the realm of the flesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are in the realm of the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is who you are, this is where you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have been transplanted from the realm of the flesh into the realm of the spirit because you have a faith in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is your new reality, that is your new identity, that is your controlling power.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though you make struggle with fleshly things, and he talked about that in Chapter 7,

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though you live in a fleshy world where things are put in front of you as alternative choices and you grapple with that tension, you are still in the realm of the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he paints a picture here of what that actually means.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've noticed it, but in this second half, Paul actually says the same thing for times.

[SPEAKER_00]: Four times he indicates that when you're in the realm of the Spirit, the Spirit lives in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says the Spirit lives in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit of Him who raised Jesus from their dead is living in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: His spirit who lives in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what are you doing here?

[SPEAKER_00]: We kind of gloss over it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I have to admit, I didn't even notice this until yesterday.

[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that four times, he actually says something very similar.

[SPEAKER_00]: What are you actually talking about here?

[SPEAKER_00]: We kind of gloss over it, I think, because in our kind of reading of Christianity, we kind of are quite comfortable with the idea that Jesus is alive in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We invite Jesus into our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We invite Him to, this is how I became a Christian, my parents said, you can invite Jesus into your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how I became a Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I was a teenager, my church went through a charismatic kind of renewal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we, I discovered that the Holy Spirit can be alive in you and he's alive in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We kind of are for me with this language, but what Paul is doing here is something really new.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where did God live before Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where did God dwell before Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: God dwells in the temple?

[SPEAKER_00]: And before the temple, God dwelt in the tabernacle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many scholars believe that what Paul is actually doing here is he's emphasizing this because he wants to emphasize that there's a new place that God dwelt.

[SPEAKER_00]: That we are the new destination.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is astonishing, this is radical, because for the whole of the people of Israel, they believe that God dwelt somewhere, and the spirit would come on certain people at certain times, but God dwelt in the temple.

[SPEAKER_00]: Entee Wright puts it this way, Paul sees those who live in accordance with the spirit as temple people.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see Paul use that language in 1 Corinthians 6.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the spirit of God is alive in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He lives in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he takes it to a whole new level.

[SPEAKER_00]: He climates as this whole passage by saying, but if Christ is in you, then even though your body

[SPEAKER_00]: Because of sin, the Spirit gives life, because of righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: 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, because of His Spirit who lives in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not only is the Spirit in you, but the Spirit is active in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit is actually bringing the life into you.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the same way that the Spirit rose Jesus from the dead, the same Spirit is doing something in you that's similar.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit is a Spirit who is resurrecting.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what the Spirit does.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brings things to life.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brings peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a promise here for those who are in the realm of the Spirit, that one day their mortal bodies will be resurrected.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think there's also a promise here in the present that the Spirit wants to do this sort of resurrecting work in those who are in the realm of the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is incredibly powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is astonishing stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same spirit that brought Jesus to life is in you, and he wants to do a work in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to be active in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think what is happening in these verses is actually an answer to the question Paul asked in Romans 7.

[SPEAKER_00]: Roman VII talks about the struggle that Paul has, the tension that he feels.

[SPEAKER_00]: As someone who's in the realm of the spirit, but still in a flashy body, who still struggles to live in this flashy world, he actually finishes Roman VII talking about this tension by saying this, wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: You notice he uses the same sort of language in Romans 810, but if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death, because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness, Paul's answering his own question, who will save us?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually Christ through the Spirit that will save us.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where we find life, even though we're living in decaying bodies.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what can we learn from this particular text?

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I've kind of glossed over it and there's a whole lot of stuff that I've purposely kind of missed just for trying to keep this to a 35 to 1 hour sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's three things that have kind of left off the page at me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to put them forward and maybe one of them will resonate with you, maybe all three, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing that, as I've been reading through this, is a question, and it's a pretty obvious question.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not doing anything here in asking this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is at the heart of this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe it's a question you're asking yourself right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: The question is, are you living according to the flesh or are you living according to the Spirit?

[SPEAKER_00]: Another way of answering and asking this question might be, who is governing your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who or what is governing your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who or what is ruling your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it the Spirit or is it...

[SPEAKER_00]: Self, is it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are we seeking salvation in the Spirit in God or is it a we seeking salvation in something that we're doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: What or who is your life orientated around?

[SPEAKER_00]: What are two or who are you pointing a life to and moving to?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who or what has captivated your heart?

[SPEAKER_00]: who will or what occupies your mind and your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: It may be that it's the spirit, or maybe it's the flesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if it's the flesh, if it's self, I hope you see that there's an invitation to another way here.

[SPEAKER_00]: The things that we orientate our life towards, that we think will give us life in this world, they can be good things, but they all decay.

[SPEAKER_00]: They all come to an end, but there's a promise here that the Spirit will bring life not just today, but also in the future as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: The second thing I want to emphasize that kind of leaps off the page at me is this truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're someone who is a follower of Jesus, then you live in the realm of the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I kind of want to hammer this home from them and I want to challenge you to take this truth into your week this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may struggle with fleshy thoughts, and you may struggle with fleshiness in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may struggle with living in a fleshy world that is says, you need to orientate your life to other things, but you are in the realm of the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a follower of Christ, then the Spirit is in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to challenge you this week to wake up every morning and to say to yourself the Holy Spirit is in me and it's the same spirit that roges Jesus from the dead, meditate on that truth this week and see how life is different.

[SPEAKER_00]: The last thing I want to say is that there's a challenge in this passage as well, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: We live, as I've said, numerous times today in this world, this point of tension between the flesh and the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: The technical term, I think, of Roman 7, the second half of Roman 7, that talks about this tension as simple.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that the right thing?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think Luther came up with that of all people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's we live simultaneously as sinners.

[SPEAKER_00]: and also righteous because of what Christ did for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: This symbol, we live in this place of tension.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this passage actually speaks into how we don't make this a part of our lives, how we're the wrestle with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today's passage and next week's, I think actually gives us some strategies on this.

[SPEAKER_00]: This passage basically is saying that we need to set our minds.

[SPEAKER_00]: It talked about mind set, the mind set of someone who lives according to the flesh and the mind set of those who live in accordance to the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to set our minds.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't need to do it alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit helps us to do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to actually set our minds if we are to live in this place of tension.

[SPEAKER_00]: I found a number of sermons and theologians thought on this particular passage really helpful this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's one sermon that I listened to, which was particularly helpful.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I listened to five sermons by the same person on this same passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you guess who it might be?

[SPEAKER_00]: Tim Keller.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, we'd talk about Tim Keller every week.

[SPEAKER_00]: He preached five sermons on this passage, and you can listen to them all, and I did this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: I listened to every single one of them, and it was fascinating to see how his teaching developed over the decades on this particular passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the things he did in most of those sermons was quote, a guy called John Stott.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I can't actually find the original quote from John Stott, but I found a quote of Tim Keller quoting John Stott.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is the quote, and I've credited both of them here.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is how Tim Keller described it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, if we had to walk in the spirit, we had to be involved in two processes.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, these are two of the big things, as Christians, we actually need to be taking action on.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to be active in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're kind of old fashioned in big words, mortification and aspiration.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we use mortification more to say we're embarrassed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm mortified.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an embarrassment, but it actually means to put something in the mortuary.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's to put something to death and aspiration.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about aspiring to things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually got something to do with breath as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So these two words express the proper attitude on one hand to sin and on the other hand to the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We must put to death the deeds of the sinful nature, which is mortification, and we need to set our minds on the things of the Spirit, which is aspiration.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both of these things are attitudes that we need to adopt, and then constantly and unreminigly for the rest of our lives maintain.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are two lifelong activities, modification, putting to death the things of the sinful nature, and aspiration setting our minds on the things of the spirit, the things that the spirit desires.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I found this really helpful because it actually gives us two things that we can actually be active in.

[SPEAKER_00]: We actually see these things side by side in this passage, and if you look into next week to passage, you particularly see mortification.

[SPEAKER_00]: Asperation, we actually find it in verse 5 and 6, and I'll read that to you again in a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 13, next week, it talks really explicitly about mortification.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to focus more on aspiration.

[SPEAKER_00]: But these two things actually are not just in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: This language might be for me, or to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: In some of Paul's other writing and other parts of Scripture as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: For example, in Ephesians 4, we actually see Paul say, you were taught with regard to your former self, your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.

[SPEAKER_00]: So mortification, put off your old self.

[SPEAKER_00]: and to be made new in the attitude of your mind and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, aspiration.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see it in Hebrews, Paul didn't write this one, we don't think, but it's similar language.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, mortification, and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: aspiration.

[SPEAKER_00]: Colossians 3, this will be the last one I'll give you, but it's in a lot of places.

[SPEAKER_00]: Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Christ, who is your life appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: And very next verse, put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he goes on to list some of the things you need to be working on, putting to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: So set your minds and hearts on things above aspiration, put to death these things in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see these two things sitting side by side in all kinds of places, it's in Galatians, it's in Philippians, it's in Corinthians, it's in Timothy, it's in all different places in different ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: These two things sit side by side.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this is something that we can begin to bring into the way that we practice our faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now these things don't just happen with us in our power.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are not things that we save ourselves with.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are things that the Spirit actually helps us with.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to just finish off today to go back to Romans 8 verse 5.

Romans 8:5

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where we see aspiration in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what does that actually mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does the spirit desire?

[SPEAKER_00]: The rest of Romans ate kind of unpack some of this and there's some really great stuff in it that will help us with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I just wanna finish by going back to John,

[SPEAKER_00]: and to return to Jesus' words, because Jesus speaks about the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: In John 1415, 16 and 17, which I'll now read to you, Jesus gives his an extended amount of teaching to his disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I'm going to leave you, and these are his parting words, and punctuated through these four chapters,

[SPEAKER_00]: Making these statements about who he's going to leave with them, the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He calls the Spirit the Advocate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to read three things that he says about the Advocate.

[SPEAKER_00]: So John 14 verse 26, he says, but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 14:26

[SPEAKER_00]: Then in verse 26 of chapter 15, he says, when the advocate comes, who I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the Holy Spirit will remind you of everything I have said to you, and he will testify about me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the Holy Spirit is going to point to the words of Jesus, and he's going to testify about who Jesus is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then in verse 13, I think it is 12, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will not speak on his own.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will only speak what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will glorify me because it is from me, he will receive what he has made known to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will glorify me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to remind us of Jesus, he's going to testify about Jesus, and he's going to glorify Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, the Holy Spirit's desire is to point to Jesus, and He's going to glorify Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that actually mean that the Holy Spirit's going to glorify Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Tim Keller said something that kind of hit me really hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, I think what this means is that the Holy Spirit's job is to make us fall in love with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus in our minds and in our hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to make Him glorious to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: by who Jesus is in a deeper way, in a way that goes beyond what perhaps you are taught in the Sunday School, in the knowledge we have about Jesus, where it suddenly goes, whoa, hit your deep down.

[SPEAKER_00]: The job of the Holy Spirit is to make us full in love with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's gonna take what you know about Jesus, and He's gonna hit you over the head with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to knock you for six with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to embed it into your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to take it from theory to experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to take it from knowledge to conviction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes this happens when we're reading the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've had moments this year where I've just gone, whoa, read that a thousand times and suddenly, wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it happens when we're unexpected, sometimes in conversation, it's happened to me in my small group a couple of times.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it happens when we're in church of all places.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we're worshiping, when we're taking communion, maybe someone says something from the front.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last time it happened to me was last Sunday night.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had the privilege last week of hearing Linda preached that sermon twice.

[SPEAKER_00]: First time, I was pretty busy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was taking photos, running around.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was responding to comments on a YouTube account.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was listening but nothing really went in because I was really busy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sunday night, I was sitting in the back.

[SPEAKER_00]: And something different happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every time Linda said the words, there's no condemnation and which must have been 20 times.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was like the Holy Spirit just took a hammer and a chisel on, just went ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no condemnation, chitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitchitch

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe it was the spirit embedding a truth that I've known for years into my heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that he was revealing something about Jesus, he was glorifying Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was resurrecting something inside of me that needed to be resurrected.

[SPEAKER_00]: I left Sunday night feeling really grateful for that moment, but also really aware that I spend my life racing around, filling my life with business.

[SPEAKER_00]: My life's really noisy, my life's really full, my life has many distractions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if I'm honest with myself, too often self-determines what I listen to, self-determines what I spend my time doing and thinking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: The way of the Spirit sets the mind upon what the Spirit desires, and we need to build time into our life, to build a relationship with this resurrecting spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps the Spirit who has alive in me is wanting me to elevate my mind to Him, to aspire, to aspirate.

[SPEAKER_00]: This morning we're actually going to create a little space for this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do this every three or four months in our church and we're going to give you an opportunity to come forward and to have a simple prayer of blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what I want to encourage you to do this morning, as you have this opportunity, is to in coming forward to the front and having someone pray for you to actually do this

[SPEAKER_00]: spending time creating space for the spirit of aspiration to setting our minds of the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to ask you to come forward if you would like prayer and our elders and our ministry team and some of our prayer team will be at the front and they're not going to say anything magical that don't have any big prayers or anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their prayers will be very simple.

[SPEAKER_00]: As they pray, I just encourage you to open yourself to the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: as a way of setting your minds on him in a tangible way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to encourage you to see this moment as a springboard into your week, where you can set your minds on the spirit in your week.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you can come forward, we encourage you to come down the outer aisles, not the middle one, someone will meet you there, and they'll direct you to an open prayer, and when you come to the prayer, just say your name, even if you know them really well, just say your name, just that helps us to pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as they pray for you, just open your hands, open your minds, open your hearts to the Spirit, to the resurrecting Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one who wants to glorify Jesus,

[SPEAKER_00]: and open yourself to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their prayers could come forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look, God, we just want to open ourselves to you in this time, in this tangible way.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to set our minds on you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We show us your desire, we show us your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We resurrect something in us this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus' name, we pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please come forward when you're ready for a prayer.