Adopted

Father, in your word, you tell us that the Holy Spirit will lead us.

Father, you know our hearts.

You know how skilled we are at quenching the Holy Spirit and ignoring the Holy Spirit.

And so, Father, we ask that in your mercy and in your kindness,

that your Holy Spirit would move in a mighty and powerful way as we read your word and think upon it.

Father, please, in your mercy, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.

Lead us by your Holy Spirit.

And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, yesterday I was in a Starbucks trying to do some more work on my sermon, Get It Ready for Today.

And I had sort of a shocking experience happen to me in politically correct postmodern Canada.

in a pleasant suburb.

I'm sitting at the window looking out of the parking lot.

And an obvious, a young man, I don't know, he probably looked like he was around 20,

but he was obviously mentally handicapped.

Like, obviously mentally handicapped.

And he was quite plump.

And he gets out of the car with his mom.

And as he goes around the car, his mom's walking a bit faster.

And as he tries to go to catch up to his mom, I guess his pants were drooping way down.

So, he was sort of doing this, like, waddling type run and trying to grab his pants and pull his pants up at the same time.

And that's not the shocking thing.

You know, many of us have to pull our pants up.

It's not particularly shocking.

What was shocking is that I was sitting beside a woman and her mother, and they made fun of the man and laughed at him.

Like, it was actually really surprising.

They said, look at that retard over there.

Look how fat he is.

Look at him waddle, pull up his pants.

And they're just going back and forth.

This is in Ottawa.

It was pretty shocking.

I felt both embarrassed for the young man and angry at what this, you know, probably looked like she was, like, in her mid to late 20s.

And the mom looked like she was probably around 50.

And making fun of this, which I thought was a really, in many ways, a tender scene of this young guy, obviously mentally handicapped, rushing to catch up to his mother.

And how many 20-year-old men reach out their hand to hold their mom's hand while they go into a store?

I thought it was really touching.

But it brought derision and mockery and laughter from these two women who were beside me.

And in many ways, this story, I think, shows a lot of what goes on in our culture.

That, you know, even though there's a lot of politically correct veneer that goes on, there's still mockery and cruel judgment made about relationships.

And even though there's a veneer of politeness and we know how to keep our thoughts private to ourselves and maybe just share them with our family or our friends,

there's just this mocking spirit which is still present in many of us, if we're honest.

And, you know, this story shows both the fact that, you know, many of us would probably long to have a relationship with our parents

where we could just still be that trusting and loving with them.

And yet, at the same time, we also know that there's mocking, just this whole combination of a desire for it.

Like, that young man had a secure relationship with his mom that many of us don't have with our own mothers or with maybe our kids.

And everything about this story, the desire for security and intimacy, mocking judgments.

Anyway, I just sort of thought it's a lot of that stuff is just going on all in this brief little thing that took one minute,

one and a half minutes for the guy to walk with his mom into Mark's work warehouse.

And so the Bible actually has a lot of wisdom to say about this.

And it would be a great help for me and a great help to you if you'd open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And Romans chapter 8, verse 14, and if you're a guest here,

Romans 8:14

one of the things that we do in Church of the Messiah is we want God's Word to form us as a congregation.

And so we preach through books of the Bible, and we're going through Romans, the book of Romans.

We started back in September, took a break over Christmas, and we're back in it.

And today we're up to Romans 8, 14.

And it would be a great help if you follow along.

Let's read the first few verses.

And, you know, it's in the middle of a big section, so it's going to be a bit surprising.

But it's really, really a precious thing that addresses our desire for security and attachment and belonging

in a world where cruel judgments are made and where we often make even cruel judgments about ourselves.

And here's how it goes.

Romans 8, 14 and following.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

I'm going to explain in a moment why I didn't say sons and daughters and why I didn't say child of God

and why the version of the Bible that I'm using says sons of God.

It's not being sexist and hateful of women.

I'll explain it later on.

I'll start reading again.

Verse 14.

This next verse is a verse that many people have memorized.

And it's often on cups and cards.

And it's for good reasons.

It's a very, very beautiful and powerful verse.

And it goes like this.

Verse 18.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Now, I know the passage goes to 25, but we just want to pause here for a second because, you know, that verse 14 is sort of a bit of an odd text for all who are led by the Spirit of God or sons of God.

It's an odd text in the sense that I've heard talks given on this, and they're very, very good talks.

But the problem is that they're wrong.

It's actually not what the Bible text is actually describing.

One of the things that my poor children have suffered under all their life is that on our holidays, we go to church.

And just after I—as I was preparing for ordination, I noticed that a lot of ministers when they were on holiday didn't go to church.

And I didn't want my kids to come away with the impression that Dad only went to church when he was up front.

And if Dad couldn't be up front, the center of attention, then, like, why bother going?

I wanted my kids to have a sense that I went to church because I was a Christian, not because I wanted to be up front.

So we would go to—we go to church on our holidays, you know, these beautiful August days.

And I don't know, I'm not trying to make any of you feel guilty, but you're all not going to church, and we trudge off to church.

We don't trudge.

We go.

I mean, maybe sometimes we trudge.

Anyway, I have to be honest, right, up front?

But so, anyway, so one of the things is I—so often after the service, my wife or my kids ask me what I thought of the service or what I thought of the sermon.

And I have to always—I try to be very, very careful about this.

One of the things I try to do, and I ask you to do this for me, especially as I'm going through the Book of Romans,

and as I shared in many other weeks, I find the Book of Romans unbelievably stretching,

and I never feel as if I'm going to actually be able to get us into the text in the way that it deserves.

It's just very stretching.

And so one of the things I do when I'm away on holidays and I'm listening to somebody preach is I pray for them.

And in fact, the worse the sermon is, the more I pray.

Not so I can stop listening, but just because I—you know, I know what it's like to be up front trying to do your very best

and maybe not doing a very good job with your very best.

So I pray.

Anyway, there's this one Sunday that I'm—it's sort of irrelevant.

We went to this church.

We're going home, and my wife asked me what I thought of the sermon.

And in that particular Sunday, I had very definite thoughts.

And I try to be polite, and I—you know, it's only my wife and my kids.

I said, well, he said a lot of really, really, really helpful Christian things.

Unfortunately, the text said the exact opposite of everything that he said in the sermon.

That if you just actually read the very next verses,

because it was a sermon about how if you have a vision of Jesus,

how it completely and utterly transforms your life,

and he uses the story in the Gospels of the Transfiguration.

But if you actually go on and you read right after the Transfiguration,

it didn't transform any of the disciples' life.

They were just as clueless, incompetent, ornery, backstabbing, fighting as they were before.

So I said, you know, he had really good things to say,

but that text actually says the opposite.

And then my wife said I was being too picky, which was probably correct,

because most people just went away with lots of very, very helpful thoughts

about wanting to see Jesus, which is very good.

But anyway, so here we have, so we're back up here.

Actually, why don't we put up a verse, no, no, we won't put it up yet.

So here we have this, this passage begins, verse 14,

for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

And I've heard lots of people talk about how we go to God because he gives us guidance.

Well, actually, that's not what this text is talking about at all.

That's true, God does guide us, but that's not what this text is talking about

in terms of whether we should go to graduate school or, you know,

whether we should date this young woman or this young guy or whatever.

That's not actually, there's other texts about this, but that's not what this is saying.

We have to sort of go earlier in the text to see the context about what the text is actually saying.

And it's telling us something very, very, very far more glorious

than whether or not God will actually give us some insight

about whether we should go to graduate school or not.

So if you go up to the very beginning of chapter 8,

in fact, Andrew, could you put Romans 8.1 up last week?

Those of you who were here last week, I just tried to hammer away at this one text.

Oh, Andrew's not here.

Adam, could you put up Romans 8.1? No?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

That's, well, here, if you have your Bibles, here's how Romans 8.1 goes.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And what Paul is doing, oh, there it is.

You found it.

Could you all say this with me?

Because it's just good sometimes to say the Bible together out loud, isn't it?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And it says, you know, there is therefore now.

And so Paul is sort of summarizing all, a lot of what he's talked about

for the first seven chapters of the book.

And he's talking about how there's no condemnation.

And in verse 2, it continues like this.

This is going to be relevant for us to understand verse 14.

For the law of the Spirit of life, verse 2,

has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do,

by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.

And what this text is saying, it's a very, very powerful type of image.

It says how the Holy Spirit leads people to Jesus to this point where when they put their

faith and trust in faith and trust in Jesus, there is no condemnation that comes from God that will ever,

you will never have any condemnation for the entire rest of your life.

And in this text, as I talked about last week, I'm just giving you a brief reminder of it for those of you who are here.

In this text, there's this very, very powerful image.

It's, you know, in the flesh and for sin and all that.

It's the language of the Old Testament sacrifices.

And some of you remember, I reminded you last week, the way the Gospel of John begins,

like in terms of the narrative bits, is when John the Baptist sees Jesus walking by and he points to Jesus and says,

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It says it twice.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And all of the Paul's readers who were Jewish, and they would have understood the Old Testament thing,

but actually pagans also did sacrifices, so they would have this as well,

that in sacrifices, what would happen is that you put your hands on the hand of the animal,

and in Jewish law, the animal had to be pure and without blemish.

And we all have a, there's an interesting thing in the National Post this week,

that one of the things that we don't like about cruelty to animals is that there's this sense of innocence around animals.

You know, to hurt an animal and hurt a young child, not that an animal and a young child are equivalent,

but that there's this innocence about them that just really strikes us at wrong at a far deeper level.

And so there's this animal without blemish, it's perfect, it's innocent,

and the person, the man or the woman, puts their hands on the head of the animal,

and there's this image then, it's being enacted in front of you,

that this, the, all of the things that I've done that are wrong

are being laid on the head of the animal.

And then the animal that is pure and innocent, its purity and innocence becomes mine.

And then when the animal is sacrificed and dies,

it's the animal, in a sense, paying the price in my place for the things that I've done that are wrong.

And I receive the purity and the innocence of the animal.

And for pagans and for Jewish people at the time,

they understood that you had to keep doing this over and over and over and over again.

And what Paul is summarizing here, which he's talked about in the book of Romans,

is what if God himself provided a true and greater lamb?

What if God himself, in and through the person of his son,

provides a true and greater lamb?

And so Paul is trying to get them to understand this unbelievable truth.

The Holy Spirit leads you to Jesus,

leads you to that point in life where you put your hands up, so to speak,

maybe just in your heart, maybe some of you even with your hands,

and you put your hands out and you call out to Jesus

to have a place in your life, to be your savior.

And you don't entirely know what it is that you're asking for when you ask this.

And you pour out your heart.

You say, Jesus, I really need you.

I don't know how to put it, but I see whatever it is in my friends.

I just have this sense of the Holy Spirit prompt me.

I put your hands out to Jesus.

And Jesus crosses the infinite distance from God to us and takes our hands.

And what Paul is telling us here is that in this remarkable moment,

there is an exchange that the Holy Spirit accomplishes in our lives

that is beyond what we knew or what we expected when we put our hands out to Jesus,

that Jesus actually reached down.

He takes our hands.

And when we put our hands on Jesus,

it is like you were putting your hands on that innocent lamb.

And all of that which you have done, which is wrong,

and deserves mockery and condemnation and justice,

and all of that is put on Jesus,

and the purity and innocence of Jesus is given to you.

And you don't necessarily know that at the moment,

but that is what the Holy Spirit does in your life.

And because he is God, the Son of God,

the true and perfect lamb,

and God knows every single thing there is to know about you,

he knows everything about you from the moment of your conception

to the moment of what for you is your future, your death,

with nothing left over,

all of that is placed on Jesus.

And all of Jesus' purity and innocence

and standing before God is given to you.

And so for the rest of your life,

when you are in Jesus,

there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

None.

At all.

Ever.

And the Holy Spirit leads you to Jesus.

It leads you to a faith in Jesus where that happens.

And so it's within this context,

everything in the rest of Romans 8 is all under that,

not the shadow,

but the bright light of this profound truth

for even the worst person who calls out to Jesus.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And then to explain what he means by that,

it's sort of encapsulating all of Romans,

for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus

from the law of sin and death.

And here the word law,

and so the version of the Bible that I'm using,

some of your versions probably say principle or logic or reason

or something like that.

One of the things that this version of the Bible does

is if there's the same word in the original language,

it likes to keep using it.

But sometimes, as we know,

the same word can have different meanings.

Here's an example.

I stopped playing bridge to drive across the bridge

to go to the bridge before getting my bridge work done.

Bridge, a game.

Bridge that goes over a water or something like that

or another road.

The bridge, which is a church in Ottawa,

and bridge work, stuff done to your mouth.

Same word, okay, but slightly different meanings.

And here, in this particular case,

law means sort of, in a sense,

the intention behind the power,

the reason behind the power,

the goal behind the power,

the logic to the power.

And it makes sense because the Holy Spirit is a person.

In a sense, electricity or light,

it has no purpose.

I mean, it doesn't have any goal.

It just does things.

It's impersonal.

But the Holy Spirit is not like the force

and isn't just energy.

The Holy Spirit is a person.

Like, if you just jump down,

just before we come to verse 14,

look at verse 9.

But actually, could you put up the point for me?

The first point.

In every Christian,

there we go.

In every Christian,

the personal God is personally present

in the person of the Holy Spirit.

In every Christian,

the personal God is personally present

in the person of the Holy Spirit.

And that helps to explain this language.

Look at verse 9 and 11.

You, however, are not in the flesh,

but in the Spirit,

if, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ

does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you,

although the body is dead because of sin,

the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

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 you see,

it's this language of,

the Bible is always doing this,

that I am in the Holy Spirit

and the Holy Spirit is in me.

But that's how it works with persons, right?

Like my wife and I have been married for 34 years.

And in many ways,

I mean,

I am in her life

and she is in my life.

Those of you who've had a loved one die,

that when a loved one dies,

it feels as if there's almost a hollow place

in the center of you that's been ripped out.

Because people are in each other

when there's personal relationships.

And so,

that's why Paul in verse 2

can talk about how the Holy Spirit

has a principle,

a purpose behind his power

as he works in our lives.

And that leads us up here then

to verse 14.

So it's been a bit of a long aside,

but hopefully it's been helpful to you

in your spiritual life.

Look at verse 14 again.

So Paul's just continuing.

He's now going to give us

a second powerful image

of what it means to be a Christian.

And actually,

I think we have it.

We want to say verse 14 with me together.

I think I have it up there.

Is it verse 14?

Can we say it together?

For all who are led by the Spirit of God

are sons of God.

Let's say it again.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God

are sons of God.

And then in verse 15,

it continues.

For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery

to fall back into fear,

but you have received the Spirit of adoption

as sons by whom we cry,

Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit

that we are children of God.

And if children,

then heirs.

Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,

provided we suffer with him in order

that we may also be glorified in him.

There's a different image here.

If you could put up the next point,

that would be really helpful.

The Holy Spirit,

you see,

in the first part

that we talked about last week

is the Holy Spirit,

we should never want to quench

the Holy Spirit.

We should be asking the Father regularly

to pour out his Holy Spirit upon us

for more of the Holy Spirit.

Why?

Because the Holy Spirit brings us to the Gospel.

The Holy Spirit brings us

to an understanding

that we talked about last week

that there is no condemnation now

for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And here,

this same logic and power

of the Holy Spirit

is going to bring us

if we let him work in our lives

and don't quench him.

The Holy Spirit leads me

to a secure,

humble,

trusting knowing

that in Jesus,

God has adopted me

as his child

and his heir.

The Holy Spirit leads me

to a secure,

humble,

trusting knowing

that in Jesus,

God has adopted me

as his child

and his heir.

Now,

in the time that

the Bible passage was written,

around 57 AD,

in the Roman world,

adoption was usually

actually quite different

from the way it is today.

And in the ancient world

that Paul was writing to,

so all of these people

would be familiar with this.

As soon as they got this image,

they would get it in a way

that we wouldn't necessarily get.

First of all,

they often didn't adopt babies.

We want to adopt babies primarily

or young children.

But in the ancient world,

if there was a man

who was very rich

and he had no heir

or no suitable heir

to leave his vast fortune

and power to,

he would go looking around

and he would pick a man

to adopt.

Like,

it could even be somebody

as old as me

or it could be a young man.

So it would be as if

if we were back in ancient Rome

and I'll just use Ken.

I'm sure he won't mind me

using his name as an example.

And let's say Ken has no heir.

And Ken looks around

and he sees Andrew

and he says,

Andrew has 10 kids

and,

I can't remember,

how many of them are boys?

Anyway,

a few of them are boys.

Five boys.

And surely,

out of those five boys,

one would be a suitable one as well.

I'm going to adopt Andrew

with his 10 kids.

I'm going to adopt Andrew

as my son.

And Ken would pick Andrew.

If Andrew tried putting ads

in the personals,

I have lots of kids,

I'd like to be adopted.

It doesn't work.

And Ken would look at Andrew

and says,

you know,

Andrew looks healthy.

He looks like he's

a responsible person.

He would really,

I'm going to make him my heir.

And so,

in the ancient world,

the father,

in a sense,

the man chooses

and does all the work

to make the adoption possible.

And when Andrew

is adopted by Ken,

Andrew changes his last name.

He now has a different name

and a different identity.

He instantly,

once the adoption goes through,

is the heir of everything

that the rich man has.

All of his power

and all of his influence.

And on top of that,

Ken,

when he adopts Andrew,

undertakes on Ken now

every single debt

and everything against Andrew

now goes on the dad

in the Roman world.

and Ken is now liable

for all future actions

of Andrew.

They all go on the dad,

the new dad.

And the son

has an obligation

to honor

and please

and be with his father.

and this is all done

by the father

in this ancient world.

Now,

just,

I'm sure in the ancient world

it was a little,

I was listening a little while ago

to a tape of a man

who was a pastor

of a church

that only had male elders.

And he was telling this story

about sometimes

after the elders board

had made this decision

for the church,

one of the elders,

male elders,

would come up to the pastor

and say,

pastor,

I've been praying about this

and I think we need to reconsider.

And the pastor says,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I don't want you to lie in church.

You weren't praying about it.

You talked to your wife.

She disagrees.

Right?

And the guy said,

the man would often

get red in the face

and say,

yeah,

I wasn't praying about it.

I was talking to my wife

and she does disagree

for these reasons.

And then the pastor would say,

those are really good reasons.

Let's have a,

let's reconsider

the particular issue.

So,

you know,

in the ancient world

where there was all

just male,

male,

male,

you know,

knowing how men and women work,

that's probably not the way

it actually worked

on the ground.

Okay?

But legally,

then you see this profound image,

this profound image

of the father

choosing

a son

to be his heir,

giving him

a new name,

taking upon himself

all of the debts

and obligations

and charges

against the son.

And forever afterwards,

as long as the father

is alive,

being liable

for all of what

the son does

and a new name

and a new identity

and it's fixed

and it's solid

and it's all done

by the father

for the one

who is adopted

as his heir.

And that's what,

and that's what's being said

here in verse 14,

for all who are led

by the spirit of God

are sons of God.

For you did not receive

the spirit of slavery

to fall back into fear,

but you have received

the spirit of adoption

as sons

by whom we cry

Abba,

Father.

The spirit himself

bears witness

with our spirit

that we are

children of God

and if children

then heirs,

heirs of God

and fellow heirs

with Christ

provided we suffer

with him

in order that we may

also be glorified

with him.

Once again,

you put your hands

out to Jesus

and you don't know

all this theology,

you're not a complicated

guy or gal,

you haven't figured out

all this theological

imagery stuff,

I mean maybe today

after the sermon

it will be a little bit

different,

but you don't necessarily

know all of this stuff

and you just reach out

to Jesus

because you just have

this sense that you

need to be connected

to Jesus

and you put your hands

out to Jesus

and Jesus crosses

that infinite distance

down to you

and takes your hands

and what you do not know

is that as Jesus

takes your hands,

the father

has adopted you

as if you,

man or woman,

are his son

with all the rights

of inheritance

and all of the obligations

against you

are now on your father

and all of the things

that you will do

in the future

as long as the father

is alive

are on your father

and he adopts you

as his child

and you have his name

and he will never

let you go

or backtrack on that.

That is your new

identity and destiny

and that is what

happens to you

when you put your hands

out and you do not

realize that when

Jesus takes your hands

it is the father

adopting you

as his child

and heir

forever

and for the rest

of your life

one of the ministries

of the Holy Spirit

in your life

which is why

you should want

the Holy Spirit

to have as great

a role in your life

as you possibly can

is to bring you

to us secure

and humble

trusting

knowledge

that you

are God's

child

not weighing your

merits

that you

are God's

child

by adoption

and grace

this text

was actually

profoundly

subversive

I mean you

can just imagine

that the people

when they're hearing

Paul

and in the

congregation

there's some

estimates

anthropologists

have done some

work

and in the

it might very

well have been

that 70%

of the congregation

in Rome

were slaves

majority women

there were some

rich people too

and this would

have gobsmacked

them

that woman

over there

who's a slave

Paul has just

said

that she

inherits

as if

she is

the son

bam

that slave

woman

with no

status

the lowest

of the low

when she

puts her

faith and

trust in

Jesus

she

becomes

adopted

by the

creator

and sustainer

of the

entire

universe

as his

child

as if

she is

a son

it's a

very very

powerful

text

you know

you see

with

as the

Holy Spirit

leads us

to this

knowledge

of the

Father

you

realize

you

have

this

you

start

to have

this

sense

of the

security

that you

have

remember

I began

this

whole

sermon

by this

you know

plump

mentally

handicapped

young

man

probably

20

trying to

catch up

to his

mom

and the

son's

hand out

and the

mom's

hand back

like this

they

hold

hands

that's

your

father

with

you

the

security

you

long

for

is in

Jesus

in the

gospel

the

belonging

you

long

for

the

intimacy

that

you

long

for

the

Holy

Spirit

leads

you

into

crying

out

in pain

I don't

know if

you've

ever

been

maybe

in

your

neighborhood

or

maybe

you've

had

the

experience

yourself

but

the

kids

when

they're

a

certain

age

you know

maybe

three or

four or

five

and

maybe

the

dad

comes

home

after

a

day

of

work

and

one

of

the

kids

looks

out

the

window

and

they

say

daddy

is that

crying

out

as well

it's not

just

pain

father

is always

present

showing up

and

I saw

another

thing

in a

different

Starbucks

this

week

I

know

I

spend

a lot

of

time

in

Starbucks

you

know

how

slippery

and

slidey

is

outside

right

now

and

it

was

such

a

wonderful

thing

there's

this

mom

and

she

had

a

little

two

year

old

girl

and

the

mom

they

were

on

this

really

big

icy

patch

and

the

mom

had

the

little

girl's

hand

mom's

reaching

down

like

this

the

little

girl's

reaching

up

like

this

the

little

girl

had

the

biggest

smile

on

her

face

and

she

was

trying

all

these

cool

moves

on

the

icy

snow

you

know

as if

she

was

the

world's

greatest

figure

skater

adventurer

sliding

here

losing

her

feet

and

she

never

fell

the

mom

was

holding

her

in

this

text

we

see

that

there's

a

freedom

that

when

we

understand

as I

shared

last

week

if

my

next

five

sermons

suck

big

time

I

am

still

not

condemned

and

I'm

still

God's

adopted

child

if

I

have

some

great

failure

in

my

life

in

three

years

I

am

still

not

condemned

I

am

still

God's

adopted

son

if

I

decide

to

try

to

leave

the

church

in

some

way

of

making

some

difference

for

the

kingdom

and

it

fails

and

maybe

people

say

if

George

had

half

a

brain

and the

council

had

even

a

quarter

of

a

brain

they

wouldn't

have

tried

something

like

that

you

know

what

for

me

and

the

council

still

not

condemned

still

God's

adopted

child

this

profound

security

to

risk

like

this

little

girl

trying

out

all

her

cool

dance

moves

and

skating

moves

and

who

knows

I

was

through

maybe

she

was

going

I

don't

know

fighting

bad

Barbies

or

something

I

don't

know

all

secure

in the

mom's

hand

and

it's

also

just

profoundly

freeing

to know

that

what

the

end

of

the

day

all

Jesus

asks

us

to

do

is

to

bear

witness

to

him

because

only

the

Holy

Spirit

can

lead

people

to

Jesus

and

he

just

asked

for

words

Holy

Spirit

carries

the

weight

only

the

Holy

Spirit

can

carry

that

weight

you

can

try

to

carry

the

weight

of

conversion

it'll

crush

you

it'll

make

you

proud

and

arrogant

it'll

crush

you

being

proud

is

being

crushed

too

that's

a

whole

other

story

Holy

Spirit

carries

that

weight

now

just

in

closing

some

of

you

might

say

yeah

George

what's

all

this

stuff

about

suffering

though

what's

all

this

stuff

about

suffering

could

you

put up

Romans

818

we're

going to

read it

in a

moment

but

here

just

read

verse

17

and

then

join

with

me

in

reading

verse

18

and

if

children

then

heirs

heirs

of

God

and

fellow

heirs

with

Christ

provided

we

suffer

with

him

in

order

that

we

may

also

be

glorified

with

him

now

with

me

for

I

consider

the

sufferings

of

this

present

time

are

worth

comparing

with

the

glory

that

is

to

be

revealed

to

us

can

you

say

that

with

me

again

it's

a

profound

verse

to

memorize

for

I

consider

that

the

sufferings

of

this

present

time

are

not

worth

comparing

with

the

glory

that

is

to

be

revealed

to

us

for

the

creation

waits

with

eager

longing

for

the

revealing

of

the

sons

of

God

for

the

creation

was

subjected

to

futility

not

willingly

but

because

of

him

who

subjected

it

in

hope

that

the

creation

itself

will

be

set

free

from

its

bondage

to

corruption

and

obtain

the

freedom

of

the

glory

of

the

children

of

God

for

we

know

that

the

whole

creation

has

been

groaning

together

in

the

pains

of

childbirth

until

now

and

not

only

the

creation

but

we

ourselves

who

have

the

first

fruits

of

the

spirit

grown

inwardly

as

we

wait

eagerly

for

adoption

as

sons

the

redemption

of

our

bodies

for

in

this

hope

we

were

saved

now

hope

that

is

seen

is

not

hope

in

other

words

if

you

have

it

in

your

hand

for

who

hopes

for

what

he

sees

has

in

his

hands

but

if

we

hope

for

what

we

do

not

see

we

wait

for

it

with

patience

Andrew

could

you

I don't

know

if

I

have

this

in

the

right

order

could

you

put

up

our

theme

verse

for

all

of

the

book

of

Romans

can

you

say

this

with

me

together

those

of

you

who

aren't

maybe

this

is

your

guess

is

the

way

Paul

has

written

the

book

of

Romans

is

that

in

verses

16

and

17

he

trying

to

unfold

and

deepen

and

give

context

for

this

could

you

say

it

with

me

for

I

am

not

ashamed

of

the

gospel

for

it

is

the

power

of

God

for

salvation

to

everyone

who

believes

to

the

Jew

first

and

also

to

the

Greek

for

in

the

gospel

the

righteousness

of

God

is

revealed

from

faith

to

faith

as

it

is

written

the

righteous

shall

live

by

faith

and

here

Paul

is

in

jail

he

basically

says

in

2

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Timothy

chapter

1

part

of

what

2

Timothy

is

all

about

in

chapter

1

is

that

there's

always

going to

be a

choice

before

you

as

you

live

your

life

will

you

be

ashamed

will

you

suffer

for

the

gospel

or

will

you

be

ashamed

of

the

gospel

will

you

suffer

for

the

gospel

or

will

you

be

ashamed

of

the

gospel

Paul

writes

that

just

before

he

time

and

time

and

time

again

what

are

you

doing

today

well

do

you

tell

them

that

you're

on

your

way

to

church

or

you

tell

them

you're

doing

something

else

it's

all

sorts

of

things

just

the

ways

that

we

try

to

avoid

the

mockery

of

the

world

and

we

see

here

as I've

explained

how we've

made

clear

that

if

you

believe

that

there's

a

power

of

God

for

salvation

to

it's

revealed

from

faith

we

receive

it

by

faith

and

our

life

goes

from

faith

to

faith

from

faith

to

faith

from

faith

to

faith

and

Paul

here

is

now

wanting

to

have

us

to

understand

if

we

could

go

back

to

Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter

8

and

this

profound

verse

in

18

he

wants

us

to

understand

something

else

about

the

Christian

life

and

what

the

Holy

Spirit

does

in

our

life

in

closing

because

sometimes

the

Holy

Spirit

will

lead

us

into