"Discipleship Essentials" Pt. 2

Hi, this is John Ozanting, lead pastor of Evolved 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.

You can be a part of that.

But for today, I want to invite you back into Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

We're on a series right now called Discipleship Essentials.

Did you know that it is essential that we all know the essentials of following Jesus?

And we kicked off this series last week's Sunday.

If you were not in the room, hear your pastor for a moment.

I need you.

I've never said this before.

I need you to go back and listen to part one.

Why?

Because it matters that we're in alignment and in agreement on what are the essentials in following Jesus.

And so if you missed last week, you can always go back to our podcast or YouTube channel and watch or listen to the message there.

But we're working through Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Paul's teaching on the essentials of our discipleship to Jesus.

So we're calling this discipleship essentials.

And today we're in Romans 5, verses 12 through 21.

Romans 5:12–21

It'll be on the screen behind me if you want to read along there.

And it's subtitled Adam and Christ contrasted.

So you're going to hear a lot about Adam in the garden and a lot about Jesus and the contrast between those two people.

Starting in verse 12.

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.

And Adam's sin brought death.

So death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

All right, get excited.

Everyone's dead, everyone sins.

That's good.

Somebody's like, sure, I'm glad I came to church today.

Let's go.

Yes, people sinned even before law was given, but it wasn't counted as sin because there wasn't any law to break.

Still, everyone died from the time of Adam to the time of Moses.

Even those who didn't disobey an explicit commandment of God, like Adam did, now Adam's a symbol, a representation of Christ who was yet to come.

Are you confused yet?

This is an interesting peek at Adam and Jesus that Paul brings us into.

Verse 15, though, talks about a great difference between Adam's sin and God's grace.

There's a huge difference.

For the sin of one man, Adam, brought death to many.

But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.

And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin.

For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God.

Woo-hoo! Even though we are guilty of many sins.

And that phrase, made right with God.

We took a lot of time last week to understand what that means fully, which is why I'm not going to revisit it today, but I would love for you to know that.

For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many, but greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness.

For all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus.

Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.

Because one person disobeyed, many became sinners.

But because one person obeyed, many will be made righteous.

God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.

But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant.

So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through 21, God's word for us today.

Romans 5:12–21

In a moment, I'm going to invite you back into that text and talk about four ideas that kind of stand out from Paul's teaching on our discipleship essentials.

But to set it up today, I want to recap one thought from last weekend, from part one of this series, and that the idea was that Jesus is the embodiment of God's love.

We wrote it down, Jesus equals the fulfillment of God's love.

And I said it this way: it's essential that we know and experience a real loving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Not just know about, but experience.

And I asked this question, how's your love life?

How's your love life, you and God?

Incredible, Tyson says from the front row.

Incredible.

And if you think about it, like I thought about it through the lens of not my marriage to Nicole, but my relationship with my kids.

I mean, we've got three incredible children.

And as a father, I don't just I don't just want my kids to know about the idea that dad loves them.

I want them to experience dad's love.

I want that to show up in real ways, in real time, in real words, in real time together, in real relationships.

Like I want my kids not just to like, oh yeah, I've I've heard dad loves me.

I want them to experience that.

And I want I want that to grow over time.

As they age up, I want that to get more honest and more vulnerable and more intimate and more close and more real.

More close.

Is that a word?

Is that a phrase?

Closer.

How's your love life with God?

And this is an important um drawback to last week before we're invited into today's text.

And I'll put it this way: I think of parents who have a son or a daughter that's making intentional decisions to step out of relationship.

Like there's a deep pain for a mom or a dad who watch and bear witness to their child making self-destructive choices.

And that might be you as a parent, as a father or a mom in the room today, where you have a child and you've got a front row seat right now to seeing your child making self-destructive decisions and leading them down a path that's really hard to follow.

And there's an impact in that on the family dynamic and with siblings and with grandma and grandpa and with family friends.

It's not just an individual's choice, it's a deeper family impact when a son or a daughter makes self-destructive decisions and goes down that kind of path.

Maybe that means they're abandoning family values, or maybe that means they're walking away from a deep heritage of rich faith in Christ, or maybe that they're saying yes to an abusive or destructive relationship, or maybe they've fallen prey to a life of substance abuse or addiction.

There's deep pain in that for a mom, for a dad.

You know, and I've had a front row seat as a son and as a brother to a father who pushed the limits of love.

To do anything within his power to restore a relationship with a son.

As a family, we've had a season in our family's history where a family member was addicted to cocaine.

And they were stealing from family, and they were on the street, and there were days and weeks where we didn't even know whether they were alive or dead.

And I saw someone who I know and love deeply as a father do everything within his power.

Wander the streets of Winnipeg late at night, searching for his son, wandering into bus shelters, wandering into homeless shelters, wandering into abandoned buildings, finding this family member curled up, and doing everything he could.

And I remember having that front row seat, feeling like there, when it comes to a healthy dad, there is literally no limit to a father's love.

There is nothing a father or a mom for that sake what would stir them up to accomplish for the sake of their child's well-being.

And I don't know how you stepped into this space today.

Maybe you're a parent in that kind of narrative, maybe you're a child in that kind of narrative, or a sibling or a friend, or a grandparent, regardless.

Here's what's essential.

As Christ's followers, it is essential that we know our identity.

It is essential as Jesus' followers in setting up Romans 5, 12, and on today, that we know our identity.

Your identity is not one of geography.

In other words, who you are.

You might be Irish, you might be Danish, you might be American, you might be Canadian, you might be a good Dutch boy like me, but that is not who you are.

Track with me.

Your identity is not one of vocation.

You might operate on people's brains or do science on rockets or make people coffee as a barista.

That is what you do.

That is not who you are.

Don't confuse your sense of self and worth and identity with what you do or your family origin.

Your identity is not one of sexuality.

You are not abused, you are not gay, you are not straight, you are not queer, that is not who you are.

You're a child of God.

Your identity is not one of life experience.

You might be divorced or abandoned or poor or wealthy, but that's not who you are.

That is not your identity, that's not where you attach your worth.

Your identity is not one of health, physical health, mental health.

You are not fit, you are not jacked or ripped or whatever terminology the cool kids are using these days.

You are not depressed, you are not a survivor.

That's not who you are.

That might be a part of your story, but that is not who you are.

All of those things matter to God.

Your sense of like family heritage and geography and vocation, sexuality, life experience, physical health, mental health, those things all deeply matter to the heart of God, but they are not who you are.

At its simplest at its best, when someone looks you in the eye and says, Who are you?

Here's the answer.

I'm a child of God.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Two thoughts.

You are a child, and you have a father, and he is good, and he is healthy, and he is kind and he is generous and he is thoughtful and he cares deeply.

He cares more than you could possibly ever know or imagine.

It is essential that we know and understand and walk in our identity as children of God.

Let's go back to the beginning.

Genesis 1.

God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God.

He created them.

Male, female, he created them.

And then God blessed, said, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, govern the earth, reign over fish and birds and animals.

Look, I've given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth, all the fruit trees for your food, given you every green plant for the animals, the birds, and the small and the scurry and the ground and everything that has life.

And that is what happened, Scripture reports.

Then God looked over all that he had made, and he saw that it was very good.

Not just that it was kind of good or mediocre, but it was very good.

And so you need to have it in your heart that it is very good.

That from the beginning, God's original plan was that he created you in his likeness as a son, as a daughter.

You were made in the image of God.

God created us uniquely, male, female.

Not only that, but he blessed what he made and he saw that it was good.

In other words, the story of Scripture, right from Genesis all the way to Revelation, is ultimately a love story.

Wait, the Bible's a love story?

Yes.

But what about all the death?

Track with me for a second.

What about all the rules?

Hang in there.

What about hang in there?

Here's what you need to know.

At its simplest and at its best, the Bible, from beginning to end, is a love story.

About a God, a father, and his people, his sons and daughters.

See how very much our Father loves us.

For he calls us children, and that's what we are.

Not just a father, not just any father, but like a good father.

The best father.

The ultimate healthy version of dad is God.

Jesus teaches it this way in Matthew 7.

Parents, if your child asks you for a loaf of bread, those must be teenagers.

Because children ask for a slice.

Teenagers ask for a loaf, but if your child asks for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

And the implied response is no, that would be mean.

Right?

Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?

Of course not.

So if you sinful people, born into sin, remember from the beginning, Adam sinned, and now everybody sinful dead.

Remember that?

That was our good news that we started with today.

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him?

In other words, if we as humans work and plan and desire for our children to walk free and to experience wholeness and the best that this life can bring, surrendered to Christ Jesus, or if we who are broken and born into sin know how to give good gifts to kids, don't you think that the God who conceived us in love will do even better?

Maybe you're not reacting because you're stunned because you didn't know it.

Maybe you're you're like Paul and you flew in from Ottawa at 3 a.m.

and you're sound asleep.

I don't know.

Maybe you're just like, wait, is that actually true?

Is that actually true?

I see you, Paul.

Wide awake, by the way, wide awake.

I made a new friend this morning.

Um, if we who are broken and born into sin go, I'm not gonna give my kid a stone when he asks for bread, that would be mean.

Can you trust for a moment that when it's essential for you to anchor your life as a child of God, to your identity as a son or as a daughter, that it's within God's sovereign strength and ability to show up as healthy, kind, good father that blows your mind.

That was the plan from the beginning.

The story of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is ultimately a love story about a father who will do everything within his means and ability to restore relationship with every son and daughter.

That is the good news of the gospel.

And it's essential that you know and understand and walk in your identity as a child of God.

The lie of the enemy for many of us is like, well, can we go back to the garden?

Like where God came down in the cool of the day?

Can we go back to the beginning?

Perfect utopia, fellowship with God in the garden.

Why can't we be there again?

Or some of you are like, yeah, but eternity one day.

Can't we just fast forward and skip to the good part?

Perfect utopia, fellowship with God one day?

Like that wouldn't that be better than the pain and the suffering and the confusion of doing life on this planet?

Sometimes it's hard to serve God.

Okay, then there's a third option.

What if?

What if Jesus made it possible for us to walk in the fullness of our relationship with God today, here, now?

Supernatural presence, supernatural favor and fellowship and relationship with God by the power of the Holy Spirit, whom we have received.

And the answer is Jesus did.

Jesus made that very possible.

And it's essential that we know and understand that from a healthy place of who we are.

Who are you?

Somebody whispered it.

Ooh, say it again.

Come on, who are you?

Ooh, say it again.

Who are you?

Ooh, I like it.

Mufasa, say it again.

Who are you?

Child of God.

Child of God.

It's also essential that you know and understand and walk in that identity from a place of wholeness, from a place of healing and real life in the spirit and freedom that can only come by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I've just learned a lot of believers, when I start talking about God as Father, they're like, okay.

Have you met my dad?

That's real for a lot of Christians.

They're like, I really struggle to call God father.

Because my dad.

And there's a whole list of stories attached to dad.

That's where the Holy Spirit comes in and goes, I'm not asking you to see God through the lens of your biological father.

I'm asking you to see your biological father through the lens of God.

You just need to shift your perspective.

And only the Holy Spirit can do that.

And we struggle with God as Father, so then we go, well, let's just talk about Jesus.

I'm good there.

He's a historical figure.

He lived, he breathed, he ministered.

He he templated what it means to be our big brother and full of the Spirit.

And then he died and he rose again and grace and forgiveness and all that.

Let's just talk about Jesus.

But you can't talk about Jesus without understanding that when Jesus left, he said, I'm sending the same, same version of me to live and move and breathe powerfully within the life of everyone who calls on my name.

There is a Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ whom you have received.

And it's by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us and through us that we walk in the wholeness and the learning and the freedom and the growth and the discipleship and the healing and all of that.

And that's the workload for us as Christians.

That's the consistent heart work that is required.

There is an initial spiritual work where our spiritual condition is transformed from the inside out.

But wouldn't you know from the day we pray a prayer and believe in our hearts and speak with our mouths that Jesus is the Lord, right through until we're dead, there's wrong thoughts that we have to take captive and renew, and there's habits that have to be transformed, and there's relationships with family and friends that are still icky that we need to invite Jesus into so that we show up healthy as the unanxious presence of Christ.

That's the sum of our discipleship journey made in the image of God in Mago Deo, but bit by steady, faithful bit, 1 Corinthians 3, being transformed because of Christ into the image of Christ.

That's the heartwork.

That's the transformation.

And it doesn't happen in my behavior modification, and it doesn't happen in my intellect, and it doesn't happen in my genealogy or my vocation or my sexuality or my past or my physical health.

It happens in your heart.

We are transformed from the inside out by the renewing of our minds, not our behavior, not our intellect.

And that is why it is essential that we know and understand and walk in a deep sense of health and identity as children of God, from that transforming place of wholeness and healing in life that only the Holy Spirit can do.

Now, all of that to invite you back into our text for today, Romans 5.

And I would love for you this week, in your quiet time, here's your homework, to grab your Bible.

Grab your smartphone with different versions of the Bible.

And I love Eugene Peterson's message paraphrase of Romans 5, 12 through 21 is beautiful as he talks about the difference between Adam and Jesus, which is essentially the difference between sin and grace.

It's really good.

I would love for you to soap in Romans 5, 12 through 21, in the message translation, that paraphrase.

Soap stands for scripture, observation, application, prayer.

If you're new to Evolve, that's how we read the Bible together.

But that's your homework to in the message paraphrase to read through our text.

But I want to invite you back into four ideas as we close.

Today, because we're children of God, because that's who we are, it's essential for us to know and understand that sin's wage has always been death.

Always.

From the beginning, from the garden, Romans 5 12.

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.

Adam and Eve, through their disobedience to a commandment that God had given them, allowed sin to usher in as the God of this world.

So death spread to everyone for everyone's sin.

That's the original sin, that's the sin condition.

When you pop out as a fresh cooked baby, you're born into sin.

Sin nature, it's rampant, it exists.

We see its work through sickness and disease and suffering and pain.

It still has its clutch on humanity.

Sin's wage has always been death.

God created human beings in his very likeness and in his own image, but then humanity believed the lie and the original lie that God wasn't as good as he said he was.

Did God really say?

The Satan twisted, deceived, lied, God's prize creation.

They slid out of relationship with their father and slid right into bondage and captivity to the sin condition.

That was the original sin in Genesis, and that's what every human being since then has been born into.

And sin's wage has always, if you get a full-time job in sin, it will pay out death every time.

Genesis 2 says, The Lord warned Adam, you may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, except just one tree.

And I see this as the loving kindness of his father.

Right?

It is not love when a parent says, Hey kid, do whatever you want, whenever you want, as long as he makes you feel good.

Like that is not love.

The world we live in wants to try and convince us that that's real life, but it's not.

We know that in the most loving homes, there's parents that are like, hey, listen to me for a second.

Don't touch the hot stove.

It's gonna burn you.

Well, who are you to tell me what to do?

Okay, just just trust me though.

Don't like we know that real love contains guidelines and boundaries and and rules for healthy flourishing and human flourishing.

Like we know this.

And so when when God the Father places Adam and Eve in utopia and says, hey, this is yours, like steward it, create, have fun, rule, reign, eat all the good things except this one tree.

It's just one tree.

Don't eat that.

But everything else, you get like that is the most loving thing that God did, and that and then the Satan comes along like he like he always does, and he lies and he deceives, and he's like, Did God really say?

And humanity was thrust into bondage to sin.

Telling your kids right from wrong and clear consequences of wrong is the most loving, thoughtful thing a father or mother can do.

So, because I'm anchored, because my identity as a child of God that Jesus makes possible, I can look at the the entire Old Covenant, the Old Testament or the first half of our Christian Bible, and I see it not as destruction and pain.

I actually I actually read it as a loving father doing everything within his power to restore relationship with his kids.

That might be a new perspective as you read through um some of the Old Testament writings and stories about God's people.

But I see it as like, hey, follow these laws.

I love you, I want you close.

Come on, kids, listen to these prophets and judges.

I love you, I want you close.

Come on, kids, don't worship these false gods.

I created you, I love you, come in close, heed my voice, heed my commandments.

I love you so much, come in close from the beginning.

I was so clear, sin leads to death, and I don't want my kids to have to pay that price.

Would you just listen to dad?

That's that's a new way to read the Old Testament, isn't it?

As a loving father doing everything he can to draw every child, every son, every daughter to his heart.

Romans 5, still everyone died.

From the time of Adam to the time of Moses.

Last week we talked about Jesus equals the Father's love because Jesus' death paid the wage that our broken sin condition owed.

Sin's wage from the beginning was always death.

And that's why the most loving thing that God could do was send his only son to pay that penalty once and for all.

Romans 6, 23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is essential that you know this truth.

The wage of sin has always been death.

But we have eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

So because we're children of God, it's also essential for us to know and understand that grace trumps sin every day.

I love that Paul writes in verse 15 there's a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift.

They're different.

In heaven's economy, one minus one doesn't equal zero.

I'm gonna say that again.

Track with me.

Somebody's like, oh, I have to do math in church.

Can I tune out?

No, just hang with me.

In heaven's economy, in heaven's kingdom, one minus one doesn't equal zero.

In other words, Jesus' sacrifice minus original sin didn't even things out.

It's far more spectacular than that.

Grace doesn't delete sin, it trumps it, it triumphs over it.

I put it this way.

I literally wrote this in my notes and they put it on the screen.

Oh no, I lost one dollar.

That's okay.

Here's a bakili big gazillion dollars.

Like that's the math.

That's the math.

I don't know, I don't know how to like how much somebody would, some some math would be like, actually, Pastor John was here's how you're supposed to say it.

Sin and grace aren't parallel.

Grace trumps sin, triumphs over.

There's a great difference between Adam's sin, which you and I were born into, and God's gracious gift of grace, which you and I can be born again into.

There's a big difference.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death dealing sin.

This is Eugene Peterson's paraphrase.

If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured out through one man, Jesus Christ, will do.

Just think what it'll do.

There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift of God's grace.

They're not parallel.

Grace trumps sin.

It's essential that you know that.

Because some of you stepped into this room today still in bondage to sin.

Some of you prayed a prayer when you were a child or a teenager, accepting Jesus into your life and declaring Christ as Lord.

But there's been like a habit or a condition or a sin that has held you in bondage.

So let this be good news for somebody in the room today.

It's not that grace and sin are side by side equals parallel.

No.

Don't diminish God's gift, free gift of grace.

It trumps it, it triumphs over sin.

Romans 5, 15.

And then they've got different results.

That's number three.

It's essential because you're a child of God, you need to know that sin and grace have very different results.

16 to 18.

The result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin.

Sin leads to condemnation.

You're awful, you're bad, you're terrible, you're always going to be that way.

You deserve what's coming to you.

You're condemned.

That's that's sin.

That's the result of sin.

But boy, how many of you are thankful that God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we mess up.

We're still in right standing, which is why daily dealing really matters as a discipline.

That every night before you go to bed, you clean the deck.

You say, Lord, I confess, I repent.

I showed up this way in my marriage.

I uh I sinned.

I apologize to your wife.

I showed up this way at work, I deceived somebody.

You you just own it every day, and you allow that grace to triumph over sin every day of your life.

One man's sin brought condemnation, but one act from Christ of righteousness brings a right relationship with God.

This is good news, and it's essential.

Oh, I went really high there.

Would you like fries with that?

Yes, finally.

Oh, it's essential.

I'm not sure I could do that again.

Let me put it to you this way.

The sculptor looked at the statue and was so pleased with what he had made.

Seeing this beautiful little seaside village, this statue stood at the center of the village in the town square, and it was so, so good, this statue.

The sculptor was pleased with what he had made.

And the subject of the sculpture had lived in this tiny seaside port for all of his life, and he'd become well known in town because over the years he organized the very first Coast Guard efforts in this seaside village.

And this had turned to fame for the subject of this sculpture when at great risk to his own life, he had rescued virtually single-handedly a boatload of people caught off the rocks of that town in a winter storm.

He dove straight into tragedy and rescued them all.

And the town was so grateful and commissioned this statue of him from the sculptor.

And it stood in the middle of town as a constant reminder of one man's sacrifice and one man's leadership and one man's bravery and what one man did for the sake of everyone.

But it wasn't long before trouble arrived.

The next summer, a gang of noisy teenagers came to the town.

I don't know why it's always teenagers in these stories, but I could say noisy senior citizens, and it probably wouldn't have the same impact.

But this noisy gang of youth showed up in town and and they they came in to cause trouble, and so they're walking through the village and and they're uh they're jumping and they're scaring people who are out shopping and they're picking up rocks and smashing windows, and they're just kind of leaving carnage as they walk through town, and they end up in the town square, and they see this beautiful sculpture of this man who who sacrificed so much, and they decide they're gonna have some real fun, and so they pull out some spray cans of red paint and then they begin to deface the sculpture, and then they start picking up rocks and hucking them at the sculpture, and it's chipped and it's breaking, and then they decide to just take turns and run and kick, kick this statue that had been made by this incredibly gifted craftsman, and as they're kicking it, it's not long before it doesn't hold the weight of those blows, and it falls to the ground and shatters.

And these teenagers have a good laugh and they run off, kicking and screaming and yelling and scaring and smashing, and then they leave.

And the town council ponders, what are we gonna do?

How what's our response?

So they call the sculptor back in, and they're determined not to be beaten.

They want to they want to remake the statue.

Could you please remake the statue exactly as it had been before?

But the sculptor had a better idea.

He would remake it all right, but in a much tougher material.

And it would look better too.

He wasn't just going to put things back as they had been.

This was the opportunity to do something really spectacular.

The story could go on.

I like to think of the youths themselves getting into trouble in a boat, being themselves rescued by the Coast Guard and coming to their senses.

But we've gone far enough for the main point to emerge, which otherwise we might not spot in the middle of Paul's dense and difficult writing here about Adam and Christ and sin and grace.

The main point is that what God has done in the one man, Jesus the Messiah, is far, far more than simply putting the human race back where it was before the arrival of sin.

The statue had been remade, and it is far more splendid than before.

It isn't a case of what they knocked down, God will put back up, nor is it a case of what they did wickedly, God will do graciously.

God has done far, far more.

And that is the point of verses 15, 16, and 17.

This from Bishop Tom Wright, N.

T.

Wright in his commentary on Romans.

Sin annihilated our relationship with God.

Grace not only reconciled us, but also had the audacity to call us righteous.

It did more than what sin had taken away.

And so the lie of the enemy pushing out our hearts is like, why is life challenging?

Why is life hard?

Why can't we have the garden?

Or why can't we have final Jesus come back soon?

Utopia, an intimate relationship with God.

And I want to say, stop believing either of those lies and know the truth.

Jesus made it possible for us to walk in the fullness of our relationship with God today, here and now, by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you can have fellowship with us.

And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Grace hasn't just forgiven you from your sin.

It's so, so much, much, more, more.

Supernatural presence, supernatural power, supernatural fellowship, relationship with the Father today.

And it's essential that you understand the difference between what sin brought and what grace brings.

And my fourth and final thought from Romans 5 is we choose.

We choose which king and which kingdom.

It's essential that when we understand that we're children of God, we're invited to choose.

From that place, from that identity as sons and daughters, we choose our king and we choose our kingdom.

Paul ends this chapter by talking about sin's rule versus grace's rule.

In verse 21, just as sin ruled over all people, now God's wonderful grace rules instead.

Or I like to put it this way: Grace rules, dude.

It's gnarly, it's totally tubular.

I riffed on that in first service, and there's some teenagers in the front row, and they just rolled their eyes at me.

These Gen Zs who like they don't say skibbity, they don't say any of those things.

So I was like, ask your parents.

We used to say like gnarly and totally tubular, or that totally rules, man.

Um, and that's how I read this grace rules, it's awesome.

Right standing with God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So much better than what sin could offer me.

And sin ruled over humanity and brought everyone death.

But grace rules because of Jesus, positioning us boldly as children of God in right standing with the Father, and made free and whole as citizens of that kingdom that has no end.

So we have to choose.

Whose rule will I be subject to?

Whose rule will I fall under?

Or who's my king and what's my kingdom?

We we have to choose.

Matter of fact, God loves you so much, He gave you the choice.

In the beginning, God didn't create robots, He created sons and daughters.

And the purpose of raising kids is they would flourish in maturity to begin to make healthy choices on their own.

So God wants you to choose.

Or there's a rule of grace.

Grace is better.

Can you listen to Dad?

And the key comes in our fellowship, our communion, our love life that the Holy Spirit makes possible.

That's why we love this ancient.

Do you want to learn some Latin this morning?

A prayer that's been prayed for generations.

Come, Holy Spirit.

I've heard Christians say, I don't need to pray for the Holy Spirit to come.

I already have the Holy Spirit.

I think that's arrogant.

I think like most things in my life, I leak.

I got holes everywhere.

I leak.

You leak too.

You wake up and you're like, I love you, Jesus, and by noon you're like, I hate the world.

You talk about you're laughing because you know it's true.

You leak.

And so on my knees before the Lord just to simply pray, Venny.

Song to spiritual, come, Holy Spirit, is like, I need you.

I can't do this on my own.

I slide back into sin's rule too quickly because the day I'm perfect is the day I'm dead.

Until then, bit by bit, I'm being transformed into the image of Jesus.

Come, Holy Spirit.

It's essential that we know, understand, and walk in our identity as children of God from that transformed place of wholeness, healing, life, and freedom by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Where I have daddy issues, and as such, I have a hard time showing up as a child of God.

Come, Holy Spirit.

When my kids are struggling to know God because my parenting sucks because of my family of origin.

Can I I want to pastor the rooms?

I love you too much to say, don't like level up, learn, find some other parents who are crushing it.

Come, Holy Spirit, be transformed by renewing your mind, changing the way you think.

You can't just try and modify your behavior or the things that you know.

Come, Holy Spirit.

And because I'm confident that a healthy identity as children of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is essential, these things are so true.

Sin's wage has always been death, but grace trumps sin every time.

Sin and grace have very different results.

So choose your king and your kingdom wisely.

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.