"Discipleship Essentials" Pt. 6

Hi, this is John Ozanting, lead pastor of Evolve Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Grab your notebook, grab your Bible, grab your pen, grab your smartphone if you forgot those other things, because you probably have a digital Bible and a way to take notes there.

Are we note takers as a community, as a family on mission?

Absolutely.

You better believe it.

We're in part six and final of a series of talks that we've called Discipleship Essentials, as we've been studying Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8, what many Bible scholars call the essential truths of what it means to be a Christian.

And we thought throughout May, June, and July, wouldn't it be great for us to be in alignment and to be together on some real core truths of what it means to follow Christ together as a family on mission?

If you're brand new in the room or newer, or you've showed up in the last couple of months and you've missed some of the first messages, can I compel you to go back, have a listen, either on our audio podcast or our YouTube channel?

You can watch messages or listen to the audio and allow uh these teachings from myself and Pastor Bennett to sort of settle in your heart.

But to begin today, I want to read you a letter that I wrote this week.

Is that all right?

All right.

To the saints at Evolve Church.

I'm curious to know what has stood out, what stood out to you as being very essential throughout the first five talks in this series.

On May the 18th, we began this conversation on the essentials of following Christ, the essentials of our discipleship to Jesus by focusing on Romans 5, verses 1 through 11.

Romans 5:1–11

We talked about grace.

If you remember, we define grace as God's undeserved favor.

There's favor from God that we don't deserve.

And I compared it to my son Caleb getting a sunburn after warning him.

He's in the room today.

I love you, son.

You know, we talked about the aloe vera gel.

If you missed it, it was great.

I paid him$5 for that.

I probably have to pay him another five bucks for giving him a shout out.

And in complete irony, we started this series by talking about undeserved favor and sunburns and aloe vera gel and the kindness and humor of God.

I mean, this morning I applied that same aloe vera gel to my right shoulder, collarbone, and forearm because I am so sunburned.

I hugged a guy between services, like, you are hot.

I'm like, thank you.

No, he's like, no, literally, you're hot.

And I was, I'm radiating heat.

Um, I'm so burned.

So, in the irony of undeserved favor, that aloe vera gel is serving your dad today, buddy.

We unpacked how through faith we're declared righteous.

We're made friends with God.

Not because of anything that we've done, but because of Jesus' sacrifice for each one of us while we were still sinners.

We also talked about how trials shape us, build endurance, build character, strengthen hope, a hope that's never disappointed, because it's rooted in God's love poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Most importantly, we reflected on the radical love of Jesus.

We began this series by talking about the love of Christ and how he laid down his life for even the worst of us sinners, showing us what true grace, what true undeserved favor looks like.

There was a penalty that sin required, and Jesus paid it sacrificially and willingly, and he did it for you, and he did it for me, and that is love defined.

And the challenge was don't settle for hope in something that's gonna fail you.

Don't settle to have hope in a job or in a relationship or in your identity.

Let your hope be anchored in Christ alone.

And then on May 25th, we explored what it means to truly become who God created us to be.

Sons and daughters, rooted in that love and in that grace.

Our identity isn't in what we do or who we're with or where we've come from.

Our identity stands set apart, unique.

We're children of God.

And I hope you've reflected on the power, powerful truth that that identity is the foundation for everything in your life and in mine, in our lives as the church.

You might recall the image of a father searching the streets for his drug-addicted child in a story that I shared, and that image represents the heart of the father who would lay it all on the line and pursue everything to redeem and restore just one.

We unpacked the rest of Romans 5, saw this really beautiful contrast between Adam's sin, which brought death, and Christ's obedience, which brings about life and righteousness.

I loved that talk.

This is the heart of our discipleship journey, bit by bit being transformed into the image of Jesus.

And I want to encourage us to take that question continually, seriously, throughout the rest of this summer, and ideally throughout the rest of our lives.

Who are you becoming?

Don't settle for defending old ideas or old identities that don't reflect God's best for you.

Instead, ask the Holy Spirit daily to reveal this ongoing truth of what it means to walk free, walk whole, walk redeemed and forgiven as a child of God.

This is not a quick fix, but a lifelong process of healing.

Remember, church, God's a farmer.

He's not a mechanic.

You're not a broken thing that needs to be quickly fixed.

There's agricultural work of the Holy Spirit that the Father longs to do, to revive and to heal and to restore.

Will you submit to the long obedience in the same direction?

And then we paused for two weeks to hear from Pastor Jamie Corcoran from Ireland.

How many of you were in the room with Pastor Jamie?

I blame him 100% for my new unapologetic love for the game of golf.

Indeed.

I have never golfed.

I've never liked golf.

I have hated golf.

And it I drove past the golf course yesterday and went, oh, look at those fairways.

I'm like, what has happened to me?

Side note, never golf with Darren Richards unless you're playing a scramble, because he'll make you look real good.

But um uh and then we heard from Pastor Nate Puccini.

That was awesome.

Side note, guys, we have a men's golf thing every other Tuesday, all summer long.

Every other Tuesday, we have a group of guys.

I think there's 40 guys in the WhatsApp right now, and we just golf nine holes together.

And it's we do scramble, it's super fun.

Get on Darren Richards' team if you can.

And uh, anyways, I digress.

Um, then June 15th, we tackled Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

What is the biblical view of sin and grace?

I was talking with a friend of mine who's been a part of our church pretty much since day one, in between services today.

Have so much tension as your pastor to talk about the grace and the undeserved favor and sin.

But I want you to know we're committed to holding both.

Because it really matters as Christ followers.

Water baptism symbolizing dying to sin, being raised to life in Christ.

We can't talk about being raised to new life without talking about dying to sin.

In what way should a believer actively consider themselves dead to sin and alive in Christ?

If you were in the room, we talked about counting the cost of being made new, made alive, considering ourselves dead to sin.

Consider yourself, right?

Now you remember.

And then on June 27th, we looked at Romans 7 together.

God's purpose of the law.

How does the Holy Spirit empower us as Christians to live differently, to live holy, to live set apart?

In what way did Christ fulfill the law's real purpose?

Maybe you remember the map of Winnipeg that I pulled out that Sunday.

I hope you remember the map of Winnipeg that I pulled out.

And then last week, Pastor Bennett equipped us with three powerful, challenging essentials from the first half of Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

What does victory over condemnation mean for believers?

Are we setting our minds on the flesh or are we setting our minds on the things of the spirit?

In what ways are believers, our Christians, heirs with Christ?

Paul in Romans 8 calls us heirs with Christ.

I love how Bennett said sometimes we get so fearful of the sin that we might commit one day that we miss out on the living for Christ that he has for us today.

It's a great talk, which brings us to today, part six.

What I'm lovingly calling the view from here.

And with that, I invite you back into Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 18.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later.

For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse.

There was a curse that took place in the garden.

And all of creation, including humanity, were subject to that curse.

Not because God is angsty or mean, but because humanity breached trust with the Father.

Human beings invited sin to be their God.

Scripture calls Satan the small g God of this world.

There is an enemy, there is a deceiver.

He's been a deceiver from the beginning.

His native language is lies.

That's the only language the devil knows.

And in the beginning, we see humanity being tempted to make a choice.

Did God really say?

Or, haha.

And humanity chose to believe the lie and deception of the enemy.

And as such, all creation groans under the curse of sin.

Not because God's mean.

Not because God is like a cosmic taskmaster with a long yardstick waiting to swat your hand when you step out of line.

No, because we disobeyed.

We did.

We breached covenant.

We didn't trust the Father.

We sinned.

And so all creation against its will.

But with eager hope, 21, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay.

There's something coming where we're going to be set free from the death and the decay of this world.

We know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

And we believers also groan, though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory.

For we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.

Whew! The older I get, the more I long for my 50-year-old body to be released.

We too wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he's promised us.

We were given this hope when we were saved.

And then this kind of brackets, P.S.

If we already have something, we don't need to hope.

But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.

18 to 25 is our first essential for today, and I put it this way: be confident and full of hope.

Something's coming.

T.

Wright, as he wrote about this passage in Romans 8, said that Paul begins in verse 18, where he left off in verse 17, where Bennett landed us last week, with the promise that the present suffering, though often intense, will be far outweighed by the glory that is going to be unveiled for us.

Note, unveiled for us.

Not in us, as though glorification were, after all, simply us looking pleased with ourselves.

Not to us as though we're going to be spectators of glory like people watching fireworks.

The point of glory is that it means glorious, sovereign rule, sharing the Messiah's saving rule over the whole world.

And that is what the whole creation is waiting for.

It's waiting for us, for you and me, for all of God's children to be completely revealed.

And then at last creation will see its true rulers and will know that the time has come for it to be rescued from corruption.

All of creation groans because it's waiting to be released from the corruption of sin.

And this is why the local church matters.

This is why I hope that you've gathered in this room today, because left to our own devices, our own thoughts, our own hurt, we lose sight of the Messiah's saving rule over the whole world.

We get discouraged, we're open and susceptible to the lies and deceit of Satan.

We feel the weight and the pain and the anxiety of isolation.

And distance from the church creates distortion in God's people.

So here's the ask: join the work.

Join the work that the Lord's already doing.

Jesus invites each one of us to participate in the unfolding work that he's already done and currently doing for us while leading us faithfully into the one-day promise of his return.

Not in us, right?

This isn't an autonomous, individualistic work.

Me and Jesus, we're good.

I don't need the church.

No.

In us, he's revealing something for us.

My life, your life, our shared life together as a community of faith, as a part of Jesus' body, is either going to contribute to the revealing work of Christ or detract from that work.

You have to decide.

That's why I love what Paul wrote to the Church of Philippi in Eugene Peterson's message paraphrase, Philippians 1.

Meanwhile, live in such a way.

Note real quick, Paul's talking to a people, not a person.

Okay?

He's talking to a people.

He's talking to the church.

Live in such a way that you're a credit to the message of Christ.

Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not.

Your conduct should be consistently the same, whether I show up to see for myself or hear it from a distance, to the church in Edmonton, stand united, singular in vision, contending for people's trust in the message, in the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition.

Your courage and unity, and both because of God, will show them what they're up against: defeat for them, victory for you.

There's far more to this life than just trusting in Christ.

There's also suffering for him.

And the suffering is as much a gift as the trust trusting.

Because the suffering reveals the nature and character of our heart.

The suffering reveals am I willing to stay faithful even when it's hard?

Even when I'm groaning, even when I'm expecting, can I stay faithful?

Reminds me, I was in Lacombe a couple weeks ago on a day off on my Sabbath, and I took some silence and solitude and went out to the lake.

And on the way I stopped at this coffee shop in Lacombe called Anna.

And great, if you're ever go there, if you're ever passing through Lacombe.

And uh we've met the owner there and her daughter a few times, and and um the owner, uh, she's very, very pregnant right now.

And she doesn't know I'm talking about, or she's not even connected to our church.

But uh, but I sat there sipping a flat white and I watched she came in through the back door carrying like um three four-liter jugs of milk in in both, like she had three jugs of milk in this arm, three jugs of milk in this arm, and she's just like like I was like, she's about to go into labor.

She is she is pregnant, oh, she's pregnant.

And and I watched as she just kind of came into the cafe just like on purpose, and she literally squatted behind the counter and she starts putting milk into the fridge, and she's the boss.

I'm like, who is she's a superhuman?

Who is this pregnant lady?

She's working so hard, she's in the middle of expecting, and she is groaning, and she's working hard, she's still in it, even though she's pregnant.

She's still in it, even though she's about to pop.

It could happen right now.

And and I was watching, in fact, she reminded me of my wife.

When Nicole was pregnant, man, this girl, she outworks anybody, but she when she's pregnant, it's like she's got a superpower.

I'll never forget, even when our youngest was born, three days before Caleb was born, Nicole was at work.

She was, we were on staff at a church in Winnipeg at the time.

She's leading creative teams, and she's like, it was Mother's Day, big event, lots of cool things going on, and she's just like leading teams, just pregnant, just like walking around.

No, no, that's not right.

No, fix that.

She's just like, you know, she's in it.

And is that a pregnant ladies walk?

I don't know.

You're never gonna, you're never gonna forget this, right?

She's in it, and then three days later, she gives birth, and then she went right back to work.

I'm like, who are you?

I don't know.

I think I think Gen X was built different, is my opinion, right?

You guys know any millennial pregnant, right?

To each their own, but uh, I'm not gonna judge.

My point, my point, um my point is simply this.

As your pastor, one of the gifts of doing life together is is this kind of generations, new life.

Even now we're holding, we're holding the tension of like families that have just given birth to a new child and things are great, and families that have given birth to a new child and things are hard, and families that are waiting for their miracle, years in the making, contending, believing God to become pregnant.

We hold this like wide, and in it all, there's waiting, there's prayer, there's disappointment, there's a promise fulfilled, there's anticipation, there's hopeful expectation, there's labor, there's pain, there's groaning, there's faith becoming sight.

There's nothing quite like holding your newborn child for the first.

It's like a kiss straight from heaven to hold that baby.

I share all this.

Why?

How we participate in the work while we're waiting for the end matters.

Even when it's hard, even when we're about to burst, if I can put it that way, even when there's suffering, be confident, have hope.

Something's coming.

How we stay in it, in a season of expectancy, in a season of waiting, in a season of hardship, in a season of pain, how we stay in it matters.

And so to the church in Edmonton, be confident, have hope.

Something's coming.

Paul moves at once to consider the present position of God's children in the light of this future.

We are, he says, longing for the time when we ourselves will be fully and finally redeemed, one day, when that is, we'll receive our promised resurrection bodies.

Get excited.

We groan and sigh if we know what we are about as we experience the tension between the glorious promise and this present reality.

There is a tension.

And this tension is encapsulated in the fact that the spirit is already at work within us, but has not yet accomplished the task of our full renewal.

We have the first fruits of the Spirit's life.

Paul uses this harvesting image of early sheaves offered to God as the sign of a great crop yet to come.

And we're left with a striking analysis of Christian hope.

Hope that, like faith, is not seen.

We can't see this hope, or it wouldn't be hope at all.

But that hope is certain nonetheless.

Groaning and waiting, eager but patient.

That is the characteristic Christian stance.

Somebody in the room just was like, oh, thank you.

The characteristic Christian stance is groaning, waiting, eager, but patient.

I have hope.

Of waiting and groaning, remember there's a great crop still to come.

This first essential from 18 to 25 in Romans 8 be confident, be full of hope.

Something's coming.

Essential number two, he's in charge.

Stop fighting that.

Starting in verse 26.

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.

For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for.

But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

I want to just quickly chase an evangelical charismatic rabbit trail, if I can, for a second.

Romans 8, 27, 26 is not about the gift of speaking in tongues.

Okay?

If you grew up in a tradition that used this to talk about uh the gift of tongues, can I just apologize on their behalf for a moment?

This actually isn't about tongues at all.

This is about the Holy Spirit praying for you and for me, with groanings that can't be expressed in words.

This isn't about your your voice making noise.

This is about the Holy Spirit and the Father who knows all hearts, knowing what the Spirit is saying.

The Spirit pleading for us believers in harmony with the will of God.

And the older I get, this allows me in moments where I don't know what to pray to sit in silence before the Lord and trust that the will of God is being contended for by the Holy Spirit of Christ within me.

It's a little rabbit trail.

Hope that's okay.

Verse 28, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good.

Who's quoted this?

Right?

This is right in the middle of, I don't even know what the hell is going on.

That Paul says, and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called.

Don't just pull that out as a bumper sticker.

Hold that right in the middle of the tension between this right now moment and what we're waiting for one day.

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his son, so that his son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, and having chosen them, he called them to come to him.

And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself, and having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

I love the ESV of Romans 8 27.

He who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit.

Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

He knows us far better than we know ourselves.

He knows our pregnant condition.

And the Holy Spirit keeps us present before the Lord.

Oh God, Lord God, my God.

You're in charge.

You see what I can't see.

You know what I don't know.

Would you come and be my heart searcher?

I trust you.

It'd be worth making a study of the various names, titles, and descriptions of God scattered liberally around the New Testament as well.

John's Gospel, Jesus regularly refers to God in terms of his own mission, the Father who sent me.

But here in Romans itself, God's been referred to as variously as the one who raised Jesus from the dead.

But now, in this passage, we have an equally powerful but more mysterious title for God, the searcher of hearts.

And Bishop Tom Wright says this is a disturbing and exciting idea.

And we ought to examine it a bit closer.

I want to invite us today to examine this name for God, the searcher of hearts.

How do we do that?

If we're going to pray a daily kind of commitment response, come, Holy Spirit, I trust you.

You're in charge.

Search my heart.

How do we do that?

Well, to begin, I'd love to give you permission today to see his glory, to sense his presence in moments that feel like weakness and groaning, in moments where you don't even know how to pray.

He's right there, right beside you, around you, within you.

And truthfully, if we're honest, in moments that feel like we're laboring and struggling and we don't even have words to cry out his name, what is the first thing we end up saying?

Where are you, God?

Is that just me?

Come on, real talk for a second.

In moments that we're groaning under the weight of like, ah, the tension of living on this earth, knowing something better is coming, it's hard right now.

There's labor pain.

We're groaning, there's weakness, there's struggle.

I find a lot of Christians are quick to say, Where are you, Lord?

And I'd just love to turn the dial, turn the heat up on that a little bit if I can, invite us to be a different set of parts kind of people.

That when we go through something hard, our quick response isn't, where are you, Lord?

But an understanding that He's present and faithful still.

We saw in the last section that the world is in pain.

The world, creation, groaning in the birth pangs of new creation, waiting for the new earth and the new heaven, the one day.

We saw too, the church shares in this pain, groaning in our longings for our own redeemed one-day bodies, suffering in the tension between the already of possessing the first fruits of the spirit and the not yet of our present mortal existence.

The church is not to be apart from the pain of the world.

Now we discover that God Himself does not stand apart from the pain both of the world and the church, but comes to dwell in the middle of it, in the person and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And as Christians, we're tempted to remove God or see Him distant when things are hard, or when we experience the pain of creation, remove ourselves and hope that somebody does something.

But here in Romans 8, it's clear, Paul says the Holy Spirit invites us as the Church of Jesus to be present in the middle of the pain, present in the middle of the laboring and the suffering and the groaning, and more often than not, when we're weak, when we groan and where prayerful words escape us, I don't even know how to pray.

We're quick to believe the lie of the enemy that God's distant and removed.

Consider this.

Consider a time in your own past or even in your present where this is true of you.

Weak, groaning.

I can't even pray, I can't even touch my Bible.

Where are you, Lord?

Right here.

Right here.

I often identify with the psalmist.

Psalm 44 is a great example.

Get up, God.

Are you gonna sleep all day?

Wake up.

Don't you care what happens to us?

Why do you bury your face in the pillow?

Why pretend things are just fine with us?

Here we are, flat on our faces, in the dirt, held down, boot on our necks.

Get up, Lord.

Come to our rescue.

If you love us so much, help us.

Ever prayed that?

Or something like it?

Come on.

Thank you for three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen honest people, nineteen honest people.

Thank you.

Come on.

Take your mask off.

Get real.

And if if you've never prayed this, here's the mic.

I'll take a seat.

It's why it's essential that we contrast this groaning with Romans 8, 29.

God knew us in advance.

He's like, I got you.

I'm already in what you can't see, what you don't know, what you can't feel, what you haven't experienced yet.

I'm already in it.

God knew us in advance.

God chose us to become like Jesus so that Jesus would serve as the template.

Jesus is like he's our big brother.

And you know how the oldest sibling's always perfect?

Yeah, same case with Jesus.

Jesus is like big brother, and we're he's the firstborn among us, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters.

And God, having chosen us, calls us to come to him.

Come on in close.

When when you're groaning, when when you're like, I don't know what to do, God come to me, come in close.

That was again terrible pregnant analogy, but chose us, called us, set us in right standing, made us righteous, paid the penalty of sin, restored relationship with him because of Jesus, and then having given us right standing, gives us his glory, gives us the same spirit that raised Jesus out of the grave, has made himself at home in you and I.

God chose you every low, every high.

You are faithful all the time.

Every low and every high.

Where are you, Lord?

Right here.

You're my church, you're my temple.

The Holy Spirit has taken up residence in you.

And so we pray, God, our God, you're in charge.

Even when I'm weak, even when I'm groaning, I still trust that you're here with me.

Would you come and be my heart searcher?

Check my heart that I'm staying rooted in Christ.

Check my heart that I'm staying aware of your presence.

Check my heart that my trust isn't in my past or in my future or in my identity or in my status or in what I think I need, but my trust is in the provider, not the provision.

I won't resist you.

You're in charge.

He's in charge.

Stop fighting that.

And third and final.

Nothing can separate us from his love.

31.

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?

Pause for a moment.

I want you to get the irony of that that that question.

Because Paul's just finished being like groaning, struggle, weakness.

You're chosen, you're set apart, you're made righteous, groaning.

What can we say about such wonderful things as these?

Like there's a there's a bit of humorous irony in in that because he's he's about to set up what what for many Christians is maybe their favorite part in the whole Bible.

Now, if you haven't read Romans 8 before, put your seatbelt on.

If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

Since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?

If he gave up, gave up his son.

Why are you worried about rent?

That's my paraphrase, but 33.

Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen?

No one.

For God himself has given us right standing.

Who then will condemn us?

No one.

For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he's sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

Note the language, for us, for us, for us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?

Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity?

Pause again.

I love that the first three questions, Paul answers it right away.

This third question can anything separate me from the love of Christ?

Paul takes a hot minute to sit in your story and in mine and say, hey, does it mean he no longer loves it, loves us if we're having trouble?

Because wouldn't the enemy love to convince you that when you're going through trouble or calamity, that God's far removed?

Are you persecuted or hungry or destitute in danger, threatened?

For your sake, we're killed every day, being slaughtered like sheep.

No! Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us.

And I'm convinced that nothing can either separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, neither our feels for today or our worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell itself can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky or in the earth below, indeed, nothing in all of this dumpster fire, aching, groaning creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that's revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing, no one, never.

It's essential that you remember and hold this as sacred truth.

That He is the same God, yesterday, today, and forevermore.

And maybe, just maybe in a season of waiting or weakness or lack of understanding or brokenness or unmet expectation or deep pain and trauma, he's faithful still.

And that his love isn't out there for somebody else, but it's right here.

Because that's the kind of God that he is.

Who can ever be against us?

Who dares accuse us?

Who then will condemn us?

Can anything ever separate us?

No one, no one, no one, no one, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, no.

I'll close with the story of a woman caught in adultery.

John 8.

Jesus bends down after the religious leaders bring him a woman who's been caught in the act of adultery.

How humiliating.

How detrimental to your story and your family and your future and your reputation.

Not that they heard she committed adultery.

Scripture reports she was caught in the act of adultery.

And it just speaks to a group of people trying to fulfill a law, trying to fulfill a written law.

It's so corrupt, it's so diseased, it's so broken.

Because I'm always like, where's the dude?

If she was caught, wasn't he too?

I think adultery takes two to tango, right?

Why just her?

That seems really unfair.

But she's caught and she's dragged, and they're questioning Christ and trying to trick him.

And Jesus bends down and writes with his finger in the dirt, and the scripture says they kept Adam badgering him.

Jesus straightens up and says, Hey, uh the sinless one among you, like he who is without sin, you go ahead and start the stoning of this lady.

If the perfect one, you go right ahead.

Throw the first stone.

And bending down again, he writes some more in the dirt.

And hearing that, they walk away one after another, beginning with the oldest.

The older we get, the more aware we are of sin's power in our life and how it's robbed us.

I think these wise older Pharisees exited stage left, and the younger ones, oh oh, you know, and this is the scene.

And the woman was left alone with Jesus.

Jesus stood up and spoke to her.

Woman, where are they?

Does no one condemn you?

No one, master.

I've been caught in the act of adultery and no one condemns me.

And hear the heart of our Savior, neither do I.

I asked the first service.

Um have you ever gone through something and your heart begins to be like, you know, one day when I'm in eternity and I come face to face with Jesus, I'm gonna ask him about this.

Have you ever done that?

I have.

Like I've gone through something really, really hard.

And then I I feel like when I step into eternity, that it's probably still gonna matter.

That's kind of goofy, but one of the things I've always thought about asking Jesus when I see him face to face is what did you write in the dirt?

What did he write in the dirt?

And Jenny Murnacle grabbed me after first service.

She says, Pastor, I have a theory.

I was like, I'd like to hear it.

She says, I think he wrote no one.

Nothing.

I was like, that's good.

She's standing there watching him write.

Does anyone condemn you?

No one.

Nothing.

Neither do I.

And here's the tension.

The fullness of God in Christ, the most loving, gracious, humble expression of the Father's love, holds the tension of I don't condemn you in real time, as he also says the most loving thing he could say to her.

This is hard in the modern church.

We love to say, we love you, we accept you.

Come in close.

But but when somebody says, Because I love you, the most loving thing I can say is, Go and sin no more.

Then we're like, oh, that's judgy.

No, it's not.

It's actually really loving.

It's really loving to have somebody go, here's the way, let's walk in it together.

Come on.

We can't do this on our own.

Come on.

God has a best plan for us.

We get to trust him.

We don't get to choose our own adventure along the way and make up the rules for ourselves.

We get to look at Jesus, big brother, and then follow him.

Come on, come follow with me.

Something of that same air of surprise relief pervades this closing section of Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Astonishing words from Paul.

We look around to see who has condemned us and discover they've all gone.

Four times the question is asked, and each time the implied answer is resounding.

Who is against us?

No one.

God, after all, has given us his son and will give us all things with Jesus.

Who will bring a charge against us?

God himself has justified us, has already declared us to be in the right because of Jesus.

Who will condemn us?

Who will condemn us?

Jesus has died.

He's been raised and exalted, intercedes for us at the Father's right hand.

Who shall separate us from the love of the Father?

This time there are many contenders that might try.

There's so many contenders that might try and separate you from the love of Christ.

But the note of victory sounds out nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in King Jesus.

As we close today, there are many contenders that might try.

Pain, failure, hurt, suffering, sin, condemnation, trauma, the lies of the enemies, deception, disappointment, unmet expectations, but the note of victory still sounds out.

Because nothing can separate you and I from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

So I want to close today with this question.

As disciples of Christ, as disciplined followers, how can we make constant and consistent room for that note of Christ's victory to sound out in our lives?

How do we live that way?

How do we hold on to that?

A few thoughts.

We remember that through our faith in Jesus, we've been made righteous.

That's essential.

We can't forget that.

We remember that our identity is in Christ, nothing more, nothing less, certainly.

As sons and daughters of God, that's our identity.

It's essential that we remember that.

We remember that we're dead to sin.

And we're empowered and raised to new life by the Holy Spirit.

It's essential that we remember that.

And we remember to set our minds on the things of the Spirit rather than the things of the flesh.

Because we're joint heirs with Christ.

It's essential that we remember that.

And much like Romans 5 and Romans 8 are bookended in a picture of Christ's love through his sacrifice and nothing being able to separate us from that love.

I realized yesterday the last time we broke bread and drank of the cup and took the sacrament of communion together was on week one of this series, back on May the 18th.

So I want to bookend this conversation about our essential discipleship to Jesus with an invitation to stand with me.

For those of us that have surrendered our lives to Christ to come to the table, to take of the body of Christ broken and the blood of Christ poured out.

Nowhere is God so near to man as in the person of Jesus.

And nowhere is Christ so familiarly represented to us as in this holy sacrament that we're going to take together.

Because here we're called to sit with Jesus at his table as his invited and welcome guest to commemorate his sacrifice.

Amen.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he given thanks, he broke it.

And here's what Christ said: this is my body which is for you.

Do this, do this in remembrance of me.

And in the same way he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

There's an old one, here's the new one.

Do this as often as you drink of it, in remembrance of me.

And then this beautiful verse for as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

This is a part of the tension, this is a part of the waiting work, the sacrament, the disciplined reminder that Christ sacrificed and laid down his life for your redemption and for mine.

So come to the table of Jesus, our Redeemer.

Come.

He invites us here today as a part of his set apart, made holy people of God.

Come to the table humbly.

Not because you think you deserve it or you've earned a place here, but because you require mercy and grace for today.

Come to the table because you love God and want to love him more, but because Christ first loved us and expressed that love through self-sacrifice, humbling himself to death, even death on a cross.

Come because you want to be filled again with the Holy Spirit and filled again and filled again and filled again.

Come because you want to experience the mystery of God's undeserved favor.

It doesn't make any sense why he would love me, but he still does.

And come and receive this body of Christ broken for you, this blood of Christ spilled for your redemption.

And in receiving, sound aloud the note of Christ's victory.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit Evolvechurch.com.

We hope to see you soon.