Romans 8:1-13 – Romans

So today's reading is Romans chapter eight, verse one to thirteen.

And the question for the kids is What does Paul tell us to set our minds on?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life 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, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh, it's death, but to set the mind on the spirit, it's life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh, it's hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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 then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

So reads the word of God.

Welcome to you if you joined us while we were singing.

If you're new or visiting and it's your first time uh seeing uh City Church do uh God's great family, uh you're welcome.

Uh we um we say that we we take our faith seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously.

Uh and so seeing uh grown grown men and women bopping away to God's great family and and hugging strangers beside them, that's just kind of who we are.

Uh so it's great that you're with us and have experienced that.

If we uh if you come back, then maybe you're one of us.

And if you don't, then I'm really sorry.

Um please uh please have Romans 8 in front of you.

Either you have a uh a Bible that's openable or you have one that's switch-onable.

Uh, you can look it up on your phone, just go to your web browser and Google uh Romans 8 ESV.

That's the version that we're in, that's the English standard version of the Bible.

And one of the things that you'll notice uh immediately um uh the third word of the reading is the word therefore.

Um and when there's a therefore, you must ask yourself what it's there for.

Uh and so you think, okay, this is this is relating back to stuff that has just been.

And if you were here last week, you'll perhaps remember or recall some of the things that have just been.

What we looked at in Romans chapter 7 is really this idea that uh the human beings, uh, whether you describe yourself as a follower of Jesus or not, the human beings are um are in some senses quite quite divided uh internally, uh at least into, if not more.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

Sometimes it feels like our internal life is like a uh a box of Christmas tree lights.

You know, you go up to the attic, you've put these tree lights away perfectly organized, and then whatever house elf lives in your attic uh sometime around about July has gone and then jumbled up all of the Christmas tree lights, and so they're all a big tangled mess.

And that's sometimes what your internal emotional life can can feel like.

Last week we used the the image of uh of Dr.

Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde, that that Robert Louis Stevenson short uh short novel, short story, about Dr.

Jekyll, the good, kindly uh medical doctor, who, in in it with a desire to suppress the more um selfish parts of him and and compartmentalize them for the evening so that he could do more good during the day, uh, takes this potion and the two halves of himself divide out into the uh the good Dr.

Jekyll and the the wickedly, murderously selfish uh Mr.

Mr.

Hyde.

And one of the things that we noted is that to some degree or other, we all uh wrestle with our Mr.

Hydes, uh, maybe even in sometimes in ways that we didn't know they were in there.

That's part of the reason why he's called Mr.

Hyde.

It's not until stress comes upon us that stuff comes out of us and we kind of stop ourselves, whoa, I didn't realize that that was in there.

Why did I not know that?

Well, because it's Mr.

Hyde, it's hidden.

That there's a there's a part of us that is that is kind and selfless and altruistic and loving and gentle, and then there's another part of us that that could be quite selfish and envious, maybe even callous and and cruel, at least in how we think about others.

The thing is that Christians aren't immune to that division.

It's not as though you become a follower of Jesus and suddenly Mr.

Hyde is gone.

In fact, if anything, uh once you become a Christian, the uh the fight this side of heaven becomes even more pronounced.

You think, well, why is that?

Well, the reason is because you finally have some some power in your corner in order to fight against it.

You now have the Spirit of God who is really making war against that Mr.

Hyde aspect of you.

And so the the civil war that breaks out in your uh in your internal life is is even more.

And so Paul at the end of Romans 17 kind of has this double cry, if you like, in verse 24, he cries, I wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death, who will deliver me from this Mr.

Hyde part of me?

And then immediately he answers his response and he says, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He's like, there is a an answer to the Mr.

Hyde divided part of my heart.

But the enduring presence of Mr.

Hyde, the enduring presence of sin in our life as Christians particularly it can take its toll on us, can't it?

One of the things that if you're a follower of Jesus and and you keep on, you're you're still wrestling with sin.

One of the effects that that has is it begins to shake your assurance, you begin to think, gosh, am I does God love me?

Am I even a Christian?

Will God just get fed up with me coming back and and praying the same prayer over and over and over again?

Saying sorry for the for the same sin over and over and over again?

Will he finally just be wearied of me and change his mind about my being a child of his?

We also wonder whether we'll actually ever make progress, whether we'll actually ever spiritually mature.

Will it always be this hard?

Will it always be like this?

Is there a way that I can actually change?

One of the things that we saw last week was the way that we think we change, we can't.

The way that we think that we change is we think that we have to kind of apply more of our willpower to the rules.

So we come to God's law and God says certain things about how to live, and and so we simply kind of muster up more strength.

So I used the image last week of uh of the uh of the kind of perennial diets that I try and go on uh when I'm trying to shed to shed my my addiction to crisps.

Uh, and I think that what I need to do is I need to exert more willpower to in order to change.

And it works for a time, uh, but it doesn't actually change something in me.

And so how do we actually change?

Well, it is in the context of that that God speaks some of the most beautiful words ever written in scripture.

Many uh writers and theologians and commentators call Romans chapter 8 the uh the Mount Everest and high point and center of the Bible, that is the most glorious comforts and assurances to us as a Christian.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin what will be a month-long study in this one chapter now.

And so, to that fight and to that wrestling and to that division, God speaks, and he speaks two things this morning.

He gives us, first, a new way of understanding ourselves, he assures us with a new way to understand who we are, and then secondly, he strengthens us with a new way to grow.

So he gives us a new way to understand ourselves, and then he gives us a new way to grow.

That's what we're going to look at this morning in our time together.

So, first of all, he gives us a new way to understand ourselves, into all of the wrestling, into all of the failure, into all of the faltering and setbacks, into all of the anxiety about who we are, into all of the questioning of God's love for us, his goodness to us, his commitment to us, God speaks.

Romans chapter 8, verse 1.

Romans 8:1

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

You Christian who struggle and fall, no condemnation.

You Christian, fearful that God would turn his back upon you, no condemnation.

Look precisely at what he says.

There is therefore now no condemnation, not just a future promise, to work towards something that has taken place now.

That now can have two senses to it.

Let me bring them out.

In one sense, Paul's saying, finally, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Why?

Because the law couldn't save you for condemnation.

The law only ever compounded your guilt, it only ever exacerbated your sin.

That's why he goes on to say that God did what the law could not do.

And so, finally, now, in the sweep of human history, finally now, because of the stepping of Jesus onto the stage of human history, finally now there is no condemnation for you if you are in Christ Jesus.

And the second sense, already now, already now, this side of heaven, though we struggle, even though the civil war of Romans chapter 7 is raging in your life, already now, Christian, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

No condemnation, no debt to be paid, no penalty owed.

Yes, what?

Forever?

For good?

For all time?

Yes.

Yes, forever.

This word no kind of there's a very good way of um, a very simple way in uh in the original languages Greek of negating something, of putting the word no.

It's just by putting the word ma uh before the the um the verb that negates it, no condemnation, but that's not what Paul does here.

Paul gives a more emphatic word, which basically means no never any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And so I want you to I want you to settle in your mind that it's not the case of, okay, well, right now I'm kind of doing okay, but it feels like it feels like condemnation's kind of waiting in the wings.

Your condemnation is just kind of over here, and and I need to keep it at bay.

And if I if I don't, by my being spiritual and doing spiritual things, well, the the condemnation is just gonna, it's just gonna flood in over me again.

This is what Paul's saying.

Paul's saying that there is no never, never again, any condemnation for you.

No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Never again will it overwhelm your life, never again to crush you, never again to define who you are.

There is no condemnation.

For who?

For all those who are in Christ Jesus.

This is the promise that is given to all who follow and trust the Lord Jesus.

This is uniquely for all those who follow and trust the Lord Jesus.

Every other worldview, every other religion will lead you again into condemnation.

They cannot free you, they cannot free you from your uh from your anxieties and from the creeping condemnation that comes in of thinking, I haven't done enough.

What if these people reject me?

No, no.

This is set up only for those who love and follow the Lord Jesus, but for all those who love and follow and trust the Lord Jesus, who are in him.

That is that is where the Christian is located.

You think, oh, I'm sitting in quite a chilly cinema today.

Um but no, theologically, spiritually, you are in Christ Jesus, united to him.

That's what we've been looking at in uh five, six, seven, and eight quote steps.

Um uh sorry, that's a reference that people aren't gonna get um because you're not as old as I am.

Um that in row in chapter five, six, seven, and eight that Paul's been laying this out that we are united to Christ by faith, and the result is that we therefore face no condemnation.

Why?

Why no condemnation for all who would follow Jesus?

Verse 2 for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Why is there no condemnation for you?

Because you have been set free, set free from guilt, set free from shame, set free from the law which comes in and seeks to crush you and bring condemnation to you, freed from the power of sin, though its presence endures for a time.

Free.

How is it that we have been set free?

How is it that there is now no condemnation?

Well, Paul reminds us, and he again resummarizes what the good news of Jesus is.

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

How?

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

By sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the flesh.

How are we set free?

How is it that there is no condemnation?

Because sin has already been condemned.

Where was it condemned?

It was condemned on a hill outside of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

This is what the beautiful and glorious Jesus has done for each one who trusts in him.

He took on our flesh.

That is, that is what Paul means by the likeness of sinful flesh.

It's not that Jesus just looked human but wasn't.

Sometimes you can think of that Jesus is Superman.

He just looks human but isn't.

No, no, it's that he was human.

He looked like the rest of sinful humanity, but wasn't.

He took on our flesh and by his death paid the penalty for our sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh.

Whose flesh?

His own flesh.

His flesh on the cross.

And so we can sing that great hymn before the throne of God above.

Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free.

For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.

No condemnation.

Let's try and massage in some applications of this.

What does this all mean?

Why does any of this matter?

Verse 4.

The reason why God sent Jesus and condemned sin on the cross in his flesh, verse 4, in order.

Okay?

So consequence flowing from in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk according not to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Now this phrase, the righteous requirement of the law being fulfilled in us, can be taken in two ways.

And I'm going to say that both are true.

The first way that it can be taken is that God looks at you, follower of Jesus, looks at the Christian as though they have always perfectly obeyed God's law.

How?

Because of Jesus' sinless life.

This is one of the things that happens on the cross.

Is we kind of think that the cross is where uh simply where Jesus takes our sin, that's half the story.

It's not just that we have this, we have this debt, you know, if here's kind of balance zero, and so we're we're on our spiritual overdraft, as it were, and and Jesus comes along and he clears our overdraft and brings us back up to balance zero.

No, no, no.

What happens on the cross is not just that, though it is gloriously that, rather that Jesus' own sinless life, his credit, as it were, his perfect obedience is credited to your account.

And so you are looked upon and regarded by God the Father, not just as somebody who hasn't sinned, but as somebody who has always obeyed, always lived, lived perfectly under his rule.

You see this in Jesus' story of the uh um of the lost um um, sorry, the prodigal son.

The prodigal son, you uh, you maybe know the story, he he goes off and he squanders his wealth on uh on fast cars and loose women and uh and lives however he he wants to live, and is and is brought low and decides that he'll go back and ask his father to treat him like a slave, to treat him like a servant, a hired man in his house.

And and so he journeys back, and the father's looking for his son, and he sees his son in the distance and he runs to him.

And the son says, Treat me as one of your slaves, treat me as one of your hired men, but the father won't hear any of it.

And what is it he what does he do?

He says, No, no, no, go.

He calls to the servants, he says, Go, bring the best robe and put it on my son.

Bring a ring and place it on his finger, that identity of of sonship, bring the robe and the robe.

Who does the who does the best robe in a house?

Ancient house will belong to you, but it belongs to the Master, it belongs to the Father.

He's saying, Bring my robe and place it on him, cover up his dirt and his grime and all the cuts and bruises that he's bearing, and cover it in my robe.

And that is what happens on the cross.

That it is not just that Jesus takes our sin, but that he fulfills the law in us.

It's though we have already obeyed.

But the second sense is also true that having been set free from the power of sin and having this legal reality that God looks upon you as though you have always obeyed, you are now set free to live the way you are meant to live.

To use the law, not as something that comes in and condemns you, but to use it as something that teaches you how to live, teaches you what God is like, teaches you about your own nature apart from him and your need of him.

And so you're afraid then actually to live for him.

Let me give you further ways that this idea that you have there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

How else does this change you?

Can I suggest that if you believe that there is no longer any condemnation laid up for you because of what Jesus has done, it means that you're no longer defined by your sin.

What's that thing in your past that you don't want anybody to know about?

Every single person in this room is just going, oh, that.

Right?

If there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, that no longer defines you.

What's more is you can actually be open about your sin.

Why?

Because there's no condemnation for you.

You're set free from both the need to hide and the need to be recognized and seen as something better than you actually are.

You're set free from the need to prove that you are someone.

Why do we try and justify our existence, do you think?

Why do we why do we try and prove who we are?

Well, part of it actually comes from fear.

It comes from a fear that people will realize that we're not actually all that great.

It comes from a fear that that we won't get the recognition that we crave, that we'll actually end up being rejected.

But if there's no condemnation, then I no longer need to prove to everybody that I am someone.

I no longer need to hide my shame.

I hide my shame because I fear condemnation.

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

It also changes how you view your sin now.

No condemnation means that there is no longer any legal penalty for you.

Which means that when we sin, and when we sin against God, it's it's a lot less like breaking breaking the law and offending a judge, and it's much more like wounding a spouse.

No condemnation means that we no longer fear God as judge, but we live for him in the same way that we would live for a spouse.

You know, when you when you wound someone that you love, when you hurt someone that you love, you don't think, well, it was my duty to do this for them, and I have hurt them, I have, I have transgressed the law that they have laid down, and now I am going to face their condemnation.

Gosh, if that's the relationship that you live in.

That's not a relationship that is defined by no condemnation.

Rather, in a relationship where we are loved, no, we think, well, I want to please them because I love them.

And when I fail, it doesn't change how much they love me.

Do you see?

It's a completely different dynamic.

It further changes your obedience because of verse 8.

I love verse 8 because I love what verse 8 implies.

Can you see it?

Have you got it?

Let me read it to you.

It says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Oh, okay, that's not really a calendar verse.

Get a nice tattoo down the fore on there.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Well, that might be a reminder of your flesh, right?

But what's the inference there?

What's the opposite?

The opposite is that if you are in the spirit, that is, if you are in Christ Jesus, if you are a follower of Jesus, brothers and sisters, you can live a life that God delights in.

Do you know that?

That God delights in you.

Despite your failings, despite your questions and struggles, despite your sin, God delights in you.

He is pleased with you.

You can live a life which feels his pleasure.

What a thing.

That the God of the universe might be known to you as father and might delight in you as a good father should.

Would that not change what motivates your obedience?

So Paul is saying that we have a new way of understanding ourselves, that we now live in this space where condemnation can no longer break in.

We live in this space where we are no longer defined by our sin, so we can be honest about it.

We live in this space where we obey not out of fear of rejection, but because we are so consumed by love for all that he has done for us.

And when we let him down, he does not write us off or despise us.

No, he encourages us on and then delights in us.

A new way to understand ourselves.

Then, secondly, otherwise known as lastly, a new way to grow.

We said last week that it wasn't, it's not possible for people to become more like Jesus simply by exerting willpower in order to keep the law, because the law exposes our sin and our sin comes along and and kind of supercharges because of the law and becomes even greater.

It's like feeding the monster.

But now, therefore, because we have died to sin in Christ, we have this brand new way of growing and becoming more like Jesus.

Spiritual maturity, maturing as a person, changing as a person, is possible.

And Paul summarizes it this way in the rest of the chapter, he talks about setting our minds on the things of the spirit and not on the things of the flesh.

You see that.

Let's pick it up in verse five.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according sorry, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

The mind that is on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed it cannot.

For those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not on the flesh, but of the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you.

We'll pause there.

What does this mean?

What is setting our mind?

That's an odd phrase, you don't usually talk in those sorts of terms, mean?

And what does it mean to set our mind first on the flesh and on the spirit of God?

Well, that's first of all, set your mind.

We think of mind as our thoughts primarily, uh, because that's the kind of locus of of thinking.

It's slightly more than that in the uh in the Bible, in ancient writing, the mind is not just your thoughts, but it's it's much more your kind of your your core drives, the desires, the things that you long and yearn for.

It's the stuff that motivates you.

That's more what your mind is.

And the flesh here, the flesh in well, in all of Romans is not just the body, right?

It's not just Paul saying, well, don't for don't focus on on mucky things like food and sex.

No, no, that's not what the flesh is.

The flesh in Romans, we see it um kind of hinted at in verse 7, the mindset on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot.

Now, the flesh in Romans is the part of you that desires to justify yourself.

The flesh in Romans is the part of you that says, I will make my own way, and nobody and no one will tell me how to live.

That's the flesh in Romans.

It's the part of you that is supercharged in its autonomy and individualism.

It's the bit of you that is addicted to me, myself, and my.

It's the bit of you that bristles every time I talk about living under God's good rule.

You're like, oh no, I hate that.

Why are we talking about that?

It's the bit of you that is focused on being your own Lord, your own justifier, your own savior, that is consumed with proving that you are someone justifying your own existence.

And so, conversely, to set our minds on the spirit is not just, you know, you think, oh, set your mind on the flesh is being obsessed with with mucky things like food and sex.

And so what I need to do is I need to live this kind of monastic life and just kind of um I just need to be in in church all the time and uh constantly doing spiritual things.

It's not that either.

To set our mind on the spirit is to focus all of our desires and attentions not on proving who we are, but living out of who God has made us to be.

It is living out of the freedom that we have been given as a gift of grace in Christ Jesus.

So do I just I mean, what does that mean, Mark?

Do I again do I just let go and let God?

That's a silly thing to say.

I just say, just let go and let God.

Jesus take the wheel.

Um I just become a religious recluse.

Shouldn't have said any of that.

Let's move on.

No, you see, you might end up doing the same things, you might end up working just as hard.

You might end up exerting yourself just as much, but you'll do so with a completely different driver, completely different motivation, completely different mindset and desire.

This for me is is best illustrated uh in uh in the movie, in the in the book in Chariots of Fire.

Might not have seen Chariots of Fire, that's fine, it's really old.

And it's about running, which is not my go-to movie.

Um has to be has to be said more like Lord of the Rings, which is just basically a long walk.

Um that's more where I'm at.

I'll I'll walk to the lighthouse in Pulbeg.

I'll not I'll not run to it.

Uh but Chariots of Fire, you may kind of have some sort of cultural memory of what it is, but it's a story of uh of two sprinters.

Uh one called Eric Little, who's a uh who's a Christian.

He ended up um after competing in the Olympics, he ended up uh going as a missionary to China, and there he was uh imprisoned and killed for being a follower of Jesus.

And his his main competitor in in the movie Chad's of Fire is a guy called uh Arthur Abrams.

And there are a number of very telling scenes, but uh in the movie they they talk about their motivations and what what drives them.

Now remember, they're doing the same thing, they're doing the hundred-meter sprint, right?

But Abrams says in the movie, he says, I look up from the starting blocks and I see that corridor four feet wide, and I realize that I have ten seconds to justify my existence.

I have ten seconds to justify my existence.

Eric Liddell, if you ever see any of the pictures of him, this is based on a true story.

Ever see any of the pictures of uh of Liddell running?

He looks like an idiot because how he's running is he's got his face up, you know, to the to heaven, the hallway, and he's got his mouth open, right?

And what does he say in response to Abrams?

He says, God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.

Do you see?

They're doing exactly the same thing.

But one setting his mind on the flesh, and another is setting his mind on the spirit.

Abrams is crippled with this grinding anxiety, always gnawing at him, even when he wins, it doesn't satisfy him.

Have you noticed that?

You notice that when you've you've longed and yearned and exerted yourself in order to get somewhere, achieve something, uh, or uh be successful in some particular field, and then you get it, and you're like, oh, oh, I thought this would feel different.

Is that is that it?

You were kind of in graduation season.

When people graduate, you know, you've you have just pour yourself out in dissertation and finals and all of these things, and then the moment comes where, well, what what's the what's the great adulation?

When somebody calls out your name and they hand you a piece of paper, and you think, okay, so what's next?

It's weird, isn't it?

Abrams that even when he won, the success was not enough.

Why?

Because he was setting his mind on the things of the flesh.

The idols of your heart will never satisfy you.

This is the thing about idols.

Idols always demand a sacrifice, right?

You'll sacrifice something of yourself, your time, your money, your treasure, your relationships, your comfort.

And they promise much and they deliver little.

But Liddell was able to run, and whether he won or he lost, he knew exactly who he was, and he knew that there was no condemnation for him in failure.

You see, you can do the same thing, you can do it with two completely different mindsets.

This is why Paul is setting out.

And he can, he, you know, he runs the game through in a sense.

He says, You set your mind on the flesh, it's death.

How's it death?

It'll crush you under the weight of that of that expectation, under the weight of that anxiety, and it'll ultimately lead you away from the God who offers you no condemnation.

And yet, to set our minds on the things of the Spirit are life and peace.

Even as Christians, we can set our minds back on the things of the flesh, can't we?

And we feel that condemnation creeping back in, not because it's coming from God, but because it's coming from the fleshly system that we have voluntarily stepped back into.

Those thoughts of, I'll never be good enough.

Look how much better that person did than me.

Couldn't I have gotten a better result?

Couldn't I have gotten a better program?

What will this person think?

What will my parents think?

And you condemn yourself.

You voluntarily give up the freedom that you've been offered in Christ.

That's yours for the taking.

But the promise result for all those who set their minds on the Spirit is life and peace.

This might not mean that the circumstances that you find yourself in change or have improved.

But what has changed is you.

What has changed is how you interact with them, whether or not you allow them to define you.

We need to push this further, don't we?

Because you're probably still sitting there and thinking, well, yeah, but what does it mean to set our minds on this?

But that's that's kind of that's kind of Christian ease.

What do I need to, what do I need to go away and do?

Carfal.

If the opposite is looking for your identity, your security, your acceptance in worldly circumstance and achievement, then to set your mind on the spirit is to focus not just our thoughts, but all of our desires and drives on who God is and what he has done.

Now stay with me, because I need to acknowledge here that we are in the realm not of science but of art, right?

Uh, that you're all sitting here going, yeah, but just give me, give me the checklist of what it means to set my mind on the things of the Spirit.

And it's not like that.

To ask that question is to say, give me more law, give me the law that will make me more spiritual.

It doesn't work like that.

It is about having one's heart enthralled by the beauty and goodness of Jesus.

And that can take place in 10,000 different ways.

And none of them are checkbox obedience.

It is about forming new habits and new rhythms.

It's about seeing your think of your mind, your heart, like a field of uncut grass, right?

And you're walking through that field, and as you walk through that field, you you begin to depress some of the long grass.

And the first time you kind of go through the line, it kind of springs back up a little bit, but the next day you come back around and you think, oh, I can kind of make out the way that I walk.

So I'll walk the same sort of way.

And you do that over and over and over again.

And what happens?

Well, you wear in a path.

That's what growing in spiritual maturity is like.

It's wearing in new paths for your heart to go, for your mind to go in all the circumstances of life, in all of the disappointment of life.

And again, that can take place in 10,000 different ways.

It's the song that reminds you of a time when you were at your lowest.

I can think of a very silly song.

You can ask, I'm not going to say it out loud because I'll just be too embarrassed and you'll not even know who they are.

I can think of a, I can think of a song that it through which God reminded me of his presence and goodness to me when I felt very alone.

It's the it's the book, it's the movie where you glimpse something of Jesus' sacrificial love and his care for you.

It's the it's the end of the iron giant, or it's the uh it's the final scene of uh of the railway children.

Again, I'm just full of outdated references today.

I'm really sorry.

Um but yeah, yeah, just what just YouTube, the final scene of the railway children.

Beautiful book, but the movie, so wonderful.

It's said during wartime, and uh and the daughter is on the is is on the station platform, and she she knows that her father is has come back from from war, and uh and everybody gets off the train and she can't see him, and the and the steam train is blowing out all over.

It's Steam and she can't see him.

And suddenly the fog clears.

And there he is.

And she goes, Daddy, my daddy.

She runs into her arms, and I like I'm a goner, right?

Uh, but then again, like you could come and tell me about some suffering that has happened in your life, and I will be emotional flat line.

Put me in front of a moon, put me in front of Mufasa dying, spoiler alert.

Um and I it's emotional diarrhea, right?

It is just, I just cannot cope.

That's my outlet.

I see that fathers and sons interacting in literature or movies cannot cope with it because I got daddy issues, but that's a whole other thing.

Uh but they remind me of the goodness of God.

It is where you allow your mind to go when something goes wrong.

You lose a job or you struggle to find a job, and you're you're tempted to become despondent and resentful and bitter.

Or you can remember that there is a God in heaven who sees you, who knows your need, who loves you, who is working in this patient season to make you more like Him.

Or it's when someone complains about your church and not wanting your church to meet in that space, in that building.

And you want to meet up with them and debate and reason and rage and point out how this is a kind of modern marginalization of believers, but then you pull yourself back and you think, no, I'm gonna set my mind on the spirit, I'm gonna remember that there's a God who's always shown himself to be faithful to City Church, and that, you know, I'm not the savior of the world, and you resolve to keep on looking and keep on praying, keep on waiting and keep on focusing on him.

And to set your mind on the flesh is to think, well, what's best for me?

What's best for me uh in terms of my own happiness?

What's best for me economically, what's most advantageous, what's most personally uplifting?

But to set our mind on the spirit is to ask, well, what would be the thing that would help me to most love God and love others?

And Paul says, I really need to finish very soon.

And Paul says, we have a new power to do this.

You see that in verse 11?

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.

You see, here's the thing: all this stuff, because it's it's not checkbox, feels like art, not science, but can happen in 10,000 ways.

You can sit there and go, I can't see how that's going to work, Mark.

Paul kind of understands that, and that's why he gives you verse 11.

He says, Yeah, but you've got the Holy Spirit in you, and if the Holy Spirit could bring the dead Lord Jesus back to life again, you setting your minds on the things of the Spirit really can change you.

What are some of the ways this week?

What are some of the circumstances that you find yourself in right now?

And you have been, you've realized this this morning, you've been setting your mind on the flesh, you've been setting your mind on the circumstance and what the person has done and what they said or didn't say or what they didn't do, and you're consumed by that, what would it mean for you to set your mind on the things of the spirit?

Or you find yourself in a season of pain.

Our family is grieving right now.

I have to leave after church to go and uh and and be with be with my family.

Because my my uncle died on Friday, and and so I'm thinking, thinking through how can I how can I be a presence where where I can I can help my family set their mind on the spirit and give them a hope where there hasn't been one for a long time.

Setting your mind on the spirit, knowing that you're free from condemnation.

This is how God will change you.

This is how we change individually, how we grow in spiritual maturity, and it's how we change as a church.

It is how we, it's how our children change, it's how our children are transformed.

It's not by law simply cleaning up their act, it's modeling to them, showing them, teaching them what it is in all of those moments of life when we're struggling, how we're setting our mind on the spirit, that's what will change them from the inside out.

It's what will change us as a as a community as we together grow in that space, in that reality, that there's no condemnation for us.

And so we can be honest about the things that we're struggling with.

We can honestly be honest about the things that have happened, knowing that because we have all received no condemnation, we don't condemn one another.

And we each help speak words of truth and life to set our minds together on the things of the Spirit.

How beautiful our witness would be if we together knew that freedom and set our hearts, set our gaze, set our minds on who God is and the joy and the freedom that He gives us.

And we experience more of the life and the peace amongst us as a community.

In what ways do you need to set your mind on the things of the Spirit today?

Thank you for listening to this week's sermon.

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