Romans 8: Our Champion (3- The Gift of the Holy Spirit)

If you have your Bibles, want to open up with me.

We are going to jump right into God's Word as we are in a series called Our Champion, as we are walking through Romans, chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And so, while you're doing that, if you're new around here, I want you to take just a moment and inside your worship guide is a connect card, and I would appreciate it if, at some point in this service, if you wouldn't mind filling this out and at the end of the service, you can take it to the Welcome Center, because we have a free gift for you today and we would like to give you a free Bible.

That way, next time you're here and we say, open your Bibles, you'll have one, and so we can enjoy God's Word together.

And so, as you're getting ready for Romans 8, verse 12, we've been talking about this throughout the series and I kind of just want to bring everybody into the room.

Romans 8:12

We've been doing this the past few weeks and I think it's important, and that is this like one of the things I love about RLC is that we have people literally from just all over the place, various different denominations, and we all have these certain essentials that we believe about God's word and about who Jesus is, and that's awesome.

We also have some things that we believed together.

That is just generally true, right, and we've been talking about this and why we need a series like this, and that is this.

I have a feeling pretty much everybody in here, we would all be on the same page if we were to say this statement is true and that is that there's a lot of bad news in the world.

Anybody like agree with me.

There's like bad news right now.

Some of y'all just don't want to admit it.

I got you.

Okay, here's the thing.

There is like there's probably a word that I could bring up right now that would like trigger everybody.

I don't know, and I'm not going to do that on purpose, but like we got like the never ending tariff thing, we got like the middle East tension and I don't know about you guys just kind of going through all the stages of grief this past week.

You know, with like a one moment, the world's going to end Next moment, it's not the next moment.

I'm just confused.

Just all of that is going on.

And then, like the summer heat is here.

Like for some of y'all who don't know, there's something about Bowling Green that there's more humidity in Bowling Green than there is in Florida right now.

I have no idea.

But we got you covered.

At RLC I don't know if you noticed we installed three helicopters out front and we can just go to heaven if we need to, right, but it is.

There's things that are just bad news, right, but then I think we would also agree with the fact that there's this this is true, and that is that there's news we don't really know what to do with.

Right, like it's not necessarily bad, it's not good.

We're just confused.

Like, for instance, football is eight weeks away, like, for some of us, we're like yay, and for others of us we're like man, eight weeks is a long way.

So I'm not sure if I'm happy, and for some of you you're just like yay, sports, you just don't care.

Can I just be honest with you, just like just a moment, like between me and you, here's what I'm struggling with right now, and that is that somebody just told me earlier this week, someone said, that my hair is literally turning gray before their eyes.

I don't know what to do with that.

Like, on one end I'm happy because the fact that it's turning gray, which means it's not turning loose.

I mean that's a good thing, right, but at the same time, I don't know what to do with that.

But I'm dealing with it.

So that's like news, you don't know what to do with.

But here's the thing.

I think we would all admit that there's bad news.

There's like news, we don't know what to do with.

But here's the good news, and that is.

There is some good news, and you may have to dig to find it, but there's good news.

Let me give you some good news, in case you didn't know.

And here's the first one, and that is, if you're like what some would call a health nut, here's some good news.

Popcorn is considered a whole grain.

That means when you go to the movies next time you're eating healthy.

Okay, because you have got a whole grain meal right there in front of you.

Here's the next one, and that is that dark chocolate is considered good for your heart.

So when I eat chocolate, I'm just taking vitamins.

That's what I'm doing.

I don't know why you eat chocolate.

How about this one?

Taking a nap boosts your memory, praise the Lord.

And so, therefore, when I take a nap, I'm just trying to be healthy.

I don't know what you're doing right here.

How about this one?

Sincere laughter is contagious.

Notice, I said sincere.

You ever been around somebody who's like laughing fake?

You know?

It just makes you feel awkward.

That is not contagious.

Right, that's where you want to leave.

But sincere laughter is contagious.

That's good news.

Here's another one, and that is this petting a dog for 10 minutes lowers stress hormones, which means you know where I'm going with this.

Petting a cat for 10 minutes raises your stress hormones.

Yes, because here's the thing, it's not a matter of if the cat is going to attack you.

It's a matter of when he's going to turn on his friends.

Okay, that's what it is.

Here's the next one.

You were born during the time of wifi, air conditioning and cars.

Praise the Lord, okay.

And then here's one more piece of good news, and that is that, no matter how bad the day gets, every day is only 24 hours long.

Praise the Lord.

That's some good news for you If you didn't have anything else to celebrate.

But here's the thing If you are a Christ follower in here, if you're a Christian, the great news is is that there's one more layer that we've been talking about through this series.

You've got bad news.

You've got news you don't know what to do with.

You got good news, but, as a Christ follower, there's one more layer, and that is this that the best news is Jesus has won our freedom.

If you're taking notes with me, that's the first blank, and that is that, because of what Jesus did on the cross, he has won our freedom and there's so much more to salvation than we can imagine, and that's what this series is all about.

Kind of the best way I can think of this is I don't know if you've ever done this before, but have you ever gotten a gift bag?

And I don't know if you've ever done this before, but have you ever gotten a gift bag?

And I don't know if this happens to you, but whenever, every time somebody walks into a room and they have a gift bag like someone's, someone's going to have a good day, like you don't know if it's for them and they just got through receiving a gift or somebody else is about to get one, but you can, okay, watch this.

Next time you see somebody walking in with a gift bag, you will see people all around them going because it just might be for them, you know, and so the look is like is it for me.

And then then of course, it's really sad because then it passes them and they go from excited to not again.

You know it's like, no, it's okay, someone's being celebrated.

But here's the most amazing thing and I hope that you live long enough to have this experience, that you live long enough to have this experience and that is, someone celebrates you.

They bring you a gift bag and you get out the gift.

You're like, oh, I'm so thankful.

And then you set that down and then they look at you and they go wait, there's more in the bag.

And you go what More gifts for me?

Let's go.

And it's like you're even more excited because it was like one you didn't expect.

And can I tell you that's exactly what happens for so many of us when it comes to our walk with God.

For so many of us, when we receive the gift of salvation, we look at it and we're so thankful for it and we set it down and we polish it like it's a trophy when God is telling us all the time wait, you got to actually look in here and see there's so much more to your walk with God than you've ever imagined.

Salvation is not the end of the journey.

It's just the doorway into the kingdom of God.

And the more you dig, the more you find.

And that's what Romans 8 is all about is.

We've been digging in and finding out what it means for the champion to win our freedom and to know what it is to follow him.

And we've been talking about how, in week one, that one of the great things is that we belong to Jesus, there is no condemnation and we are free to follow him.

And then, as we dig down even deeper into what salvation is, we learned last week that we walk in daily victory, that God is walking us toward this freedom he has for us.

And then today, we're going to go even deeper and talk about one of the things that, if we're not careful, we don't understand to celebrate as much as we should.

So, if you're ready, we're going to dive into God's word verse 12, and just celebrate one of the things about salvation that is so precious, and that is this, therefore, since we are free to follow him into daily victory.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do, for if you live by its dictates, you will die, but if, through the power of the spirit, you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature.

You will live For all who are led by the Spirit.

Somebody say led by the Spirit.

For those who are willing to be led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God.

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you have received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children, and now we call him Abba, father, for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

And since we are his children, we are his heirs.

In fact, together with Christ, we are the heirs of God's glory.

But if we are to share in his glory, we must also share his suffering, and so what we've been talking about is, as we look deeper into what God has done for us with salvation, we learn that we can follow him, and then we learn that on that journey, he's walking us toward daily victory.

And then the next step he was talking about today is he's talking about another aspect of what it is to follow God that many of us overlook, but we're going to talk about it today, and that is that, because we belong to Jesus, we now experienced the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of a relationship with the Holy Spirit, the amazing opportunity that, as we are following God and we're going toward victory, we have a companion, a fellowship with the Holy Spirit, a walk with God, that we're never walking alone, and it's the gift of having the Holy Spirit living with inside of all of us.

And so that leads to the question of the day, and that is why is the fellowship or friendship of the Holy Spirit the best gift we could receive with salvation?

And so, if there was anything that we could have pulled out of that miracle of salvation, the greatest gift we could pull out is that we now have fellowship with him.

The reason why that is is what we're going to talk about today the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

But here's the thing there's probably many reasons why we don't talk more about the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and, if I'm honest with you, one of the number one reasons why I think a lot of people don't talk about that is because they're kind of afraid to.

And the reason why is because the bad press that the Holy Spirit has gotten from, to use the theological term, weird people, don't you look at me like you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Are you going to polish your halo?

All you want to, but can I just tell you the truth?

Here's the truth.

You've never heard it before.

Let this be the first place, and that is this If you see a weird Christian, they were like that before salvation.

The Holy Spirit didn't do that.

They were going to be weird, no matter what.

God's just trying to redeem that weird and to make it something holy.

Okay, but they were already like that.

The Holy Spirit doesn't make you weird, he makes you holy.

And the reason why we need the Holy Spirit in our life is because you may never heard this before, but everyone has a private battle.

Look at your neighbor and say because you may not have heard this before, but everyone has a private battle.

Look at your neighbor and say he's always talking about you.

He is, but here's the amazing thing that we miss, and that is.

But the Holy Spirit brings joy to the journey that once we receive salvation and we start walking in daily victory.

We were never intended to do this walk alone, but the Holy Spirit walks with us in daily victory.

That's why there's always good news, and so I want to tell you, this is kind of your homework assignment this week, and that is that it is possible that at some point this week you're going to encounter somebody on social media or the news or whatever and they're going to offer you some bad news, and that's okay.

But we've been talking about, you know, week one we said that we look at them and say, yeah, that may be true, I got 99 problems, but Jesus ain't one.

Last week we talked about how, yeah, that may be true, but God is still so good.

Actually, he said we are still so blessed because I just went ahead and messed it up and this week it is going to be yes, that may be true, but we are still so blessed.

And you gotta like really feel it or it doesn't come out right, all right you gotta like really realize the reality that, because you have the Holy Spirit, there's so many things that go wrong, but you're not doing any of it by yourself, you're not walking through any of it on your own.

But here's the thing If your neighbor isn't aware of that, then you're gonna be one of those weird Christians if you scream at them.

Okay, and I don't want anybody in here to be labeled as that yet.

We'll get to that in just a moment.

But right now I want you to practice.

I want you to look at your neighbor and just kind of whisper to them You're so more blessed than you realize.

You're more blessed than you realize.

Go and tell them.

You're more blessed than you realize.

If you're in here and you're a Christ follower, you're more blessed than you realize.

If you're in here and you're not a Christ follower, you're more blessed.

You know why?

Because you're going to meet him today.

You're going to have an encounter with God at the end of the service and you're going to know what we're talking about.

Because the greatest gift that we receive with salvation is that the Holy Spirit now lives within us and he reminds us of three things that we read in the scripture today.

Here's the first thing if you're taking notes and that is because the Spirit lives in us we experience the process of sanctification.

The process of sanctification.

If you're taking analog notes with paper and pen, I want you to circle that word process, because the process of sanctification is a journey that we're on and that word sanctification is where we have tried really hard to get fit into one word what it is that God does for us.

The moment that Jesus called being born again, a process begins in our life, and it's like this the Bible says.

Therefore, because of what Christ did, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.

In other words, you don't have, you don't owe anything to your old man anymore.

You don't owe anything to the life before you got saved.

You nothing to that, because if you live by its dictates, it will destroy you.

But if, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.

For all who are led somebody say led all who are led by the Spirit of God.

They are the children of God and what God wants to do is he wants to lead us through this life.

And that's a good definition for sanctification, if you're taking notes.

Sanctification is the process, the journey of walking in more freedom every day.

The reality of it is is that God wants us more free than we do, because he knows what it is for us to be free, and he wants to walk us in that journey.

The moment we get saved, he starts that process, and here's the reason why.

Have you ever noticed that when you give your life to Christ man, your spirit and soul are saved, but nobody hits the clear button in your brain.

And so you still got addictions, you still got attitudes.

I can't tell you how many times I've talked to a parent who their child, their teenager, receives Jesus, and they come back to me and go.

I thought they were supposed to look like Jesus.

Well, yeah, it's a process.

Okay, give them.

Give them more than 24 hours.

God's working on them and he's apparently working on you.

Real good too.

Right, and this is what God's word says.

It says, whenever the spirit of the Lord is a, wherever he is, there is freedom.

Somebody say.

Freedom that means it's available, but he makes us more and more like him and we are changed into his glorious image.

Therefore, we never give up.

Why would we tend to give up when it gets hard?

Because that change is sometimes uncomfortable, because, as he is changing us, he is working in our lives.

And here's the thing God loves you just the way you are.

He just loves you too much to let you stay that way and he wants you to find healing along the way.

And the truth of it is is that God will systematically go to war with every broken place and every idol in our lives until we are totally free.

And that sounds great when there's things that you don't want in your life anyway.

But what about when he starts working?

Because the things you don't want in your life anyway are the broken places?

But you know what idols are.

Idols are things we worship, and so it gets hard when he starts to attack the things that we love.

The problem is we love them more than we love him, and he will not be second place to anybody, but because he loves us, he takes us on this process of more freedom every day.

That's why we have to show grace with one another.

It's because the reality is is that every Christian is at a different growth rate and the Lord is growing them in ways we don't always see.

So we have to trust that, even though we don't see what's going on in our life, we know God is doing something.

It reminds me have you ever watched somebody who is like you're minding their own business and all of a sudden they just start doing that and you just kind of look around and kind of just clap.

It's like are they trying to keep up with the song?

They don't know what they're doing.

Or have you ever done this?

Somebody just walks around and they start doing ninja moves all over the place and all of a sudden you go what is wrong?

I'm trying to kill a gnat.

Oh, I thought I needed to call for help because they were in battle with something that you couldn't see.

That happened to my wife the other day and I really did wonder if she had had some kind of psychotic break, because she is like doing a ninja moves because this gnat was gonna die.

It was the day for that gnat and then I realized, because the gnat started coming to bother me and left her alone.

And the reality is many times in our walk with God, you know and left her alone.

And the reality is many times in our walk with God, we have no idea what God is doing in somebody else's life.

Some other Christian can come up to you and they can have a bad attitude with you that day, and the reason why is because God is touching a sore spot in their life and he's working that out in them.

And that's why we have to have grace with one another, because we're all at a different growth rate, but God is interested in helping us all find freedom, and we have to be patient with what God is doing, because God is doing something even when we don't know what it is, and that's the power of the Holy Spirit is that he is constantly leading us to freedom.

It reminds me of the nation of Israel, and one of the things I love about the nation of Israel is they had this opportunity that they got out of Egyptian bondage, and the journey from Egypt to the promised land would have possibly taken them like about a month, like they could have.

It would not have taken them very long to cross the wilderness and go over the Jordan River and been there.

And so can you imagine what that looked like for this massive nation, get the word from God from Mount Sinai and then wander around a wilderness for 40 years 40 years is a long time.

When it's right there, I mean it's just right over that river, way over there, and they're wandering.

Can you imagine being the neighbor to the Israelites and you're listening and going hey guys, why are you here?

Well, we're waiting to go to this promised land.

Where's the promised land?

Well, it's over.

You mean literally right over there, like it's there.

It's just literally like within two days you could get there.

I know.

Why aren't you there?

God's got us in the wilderness.

Why You'd have to ask him.

I have no idea, but I'm in the wilderness.

Can you imagine how it was to them?

They didn't know for 40 years why God had them in the wilderness.

It wasn't until the end of their 40 years of this wandering around, when Moses gave the book of Deuteronomy and they finally found out and God literally said to them remember how the Lord, god, led you through the wilderness for these 40 years to which they would go?

Yeah, well, guess what?

It was humbling you and testing you to prove your character.

Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to your ancestors.

Why did he do that?

He did that to teach you.

He was teaching them how to handle what he wanted to do in them, because what was going to happen is is they were going to cross over the Jordan River and they were going to have so many blessings and if they didn't learn to trust him, they wouldn't be able to sustain what he was wanting to do in them.

One of the great things about the process of sanctification is that God will teach us lessons so we can then handle what he's wanting to do in our lives.

And so that's why, when we look at the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we have the opportunity then to realize that, god, I don't always understand what you're doing.

I have no idea why I am still in this wilderness, but I trust you.

I have the opportunity to look at everything and realize that God works all things to the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, and one of the greatest things that we have is, because of salvation.

We have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

So we can trust that, because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we are one step closer to wholeness every day.

Like I don't understand why you're going through what you're going through.

I don't know why it hasn't worked out yet.

I don't know why your kids are the way they are.

I don't know why your spouse and you are struggling the way you are.

I have no idea why your finances are the way they are, but if you have Jesus, then I know for a fact that God is using it and doing something and he's leading you in more ways than you realize, and that you may not understand.

But you can just trust that, yes, today was hard, but tomorrow is going to be one step closer to freedom, tomorrow's one step closer.

How do you know that, pastor?

Because I know who lives in me, and it's the Holy spirit, and I trust him and I trust that, even though this is a wilderness, I trust that a promised land is just on the other side and I can trust him because his word is true and he teaches us his word.

And that's what Romans chapter eight is all about is that God has won our freedom and in that winning of our freedom, he has given us this wonderful gift of salvation.

And as we look into it, we realize that we are now free to follow him and he's leading us in victory.

And then today we're realizing not only is he leading us to victory, but we have the fellowship, the friendship of the Holy Spirit, and it's the Holy Spirit that is leading us through this process of growing in freedom every day.

So one day this week, someone's going to ask you you know, why is it that you're not losing your joy?

And you go yes, all that bad stuff may be true, but we are still so blessed.

Look at your neighbor and whisper to him and say you're still so blessed, you're still more blessed than you realize.

You're still more blessed than you realize.

You know why?

Because you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.

That means he is leading you toward freedom every day.

Here's the second thing, and that is that we get to experience the beauty of adoption, the beauty of this wonderful thing called adoption.

It's one of the most amazing things in the Bible that we don't always remember when it comes to salvation is that we are saved and we're on this process.

But also it's the Holy Spirit that reminds us constantly about what God did in all of us.

It says it like this.

It says so you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Somebody say slaves.

We're not fearful slaves.

Instead, you have received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children.

Now we call him Abba, father, for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm, to remind you that it's true, to tell you that it's what really happened and that we are God's children.

What I love about that is he is telling us that what the Holy Spirit comes in and he does is.

He reminds us about what Jesus did over and over and over again, because we have an enemy who wants to constantly lie to us and tell us that it wasn't real, that it didn't happen, that it was just a moment.

But it's the Holy Spirit that comes, lives with inside of us and he constantly affirms for us that, yes, you have been adopted into the kingdom of heaven.

Well, what does adoption mean?

Well, adoption means in this context that we are God's children.

We're no longer fearful slaves, but we're his children, not based on how we feel, but because of what Christ has done.

That we are now adopted into the family with nothing that we could earn, but we can receive it.

And that it was not just a prayer that you prayed, it was not just a moment in your life, but you literally went from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved son and you've now been adopted into the family.

It's one of the things I love about this scripture is there's a couple of different words in the Greek language that basically means adoption.

One of them is really like just someone's allowed to live there.

There's a word, and it's technically considered adoption, but they don't have any rights.

They maintain their old name.

Nothing has really changed other than they now have a right to like basically live in the living room.

Basically is what that means.

But there's another word that God's word uses for this word adoption, and it's actually a legal term to really get down into the point of what happened in our lives.

And the legal term is this word and you're allowed to try to say it probably will make you spit if you do because it's like but it means the full legal adoption of a child with complete rights of inheritance.

In other words, it's what happens when someone comes and adopts somebody else and they now take the same last name.

They're now on the wheel.

It's just as if they were born into the family.

That, right, there is what he is talking about.

He's actually using a legal term to say you were something, now you're something else, now you've been adopted into the family.

But what's even more amazing is he could have stopped right there.

But he said not only did you, in a legal sense, now belong to the kingdom of heaven, but it's not just that he wanted you to be in his family, but he wanted to get to know you.

That's why he uses that word Abba, father.

We don't really have an English word that's the same for Abba, the closest we have is a relational term close to it, called dad or daddy.

So in other words, he's saying I don't want to just bring you into my house, I want to know you, I want you to see me as father.

And that's hard for some of us because we didn't have a great relationship with our earthly father.

But thank goodness for Jesus, because you may not have had a great relationship with your earthly father, but your heavenly father loves you more than you can imagine and he has made it so that you are no longer a fearful slave, but now you are a child of God.

And the difference there may seem similar, but they're very different.

In the word of God, slaves obey out of fear, children obey out of love.

In God's word, slaves work under fear of punishment, but children understand that discipline is for growth, not pain.

Slaves are insecure and they think if I mess up, god, I could die.

Children are secure in their position in the family and if I mess up, I will be forgiven.

Slaves have to work and are given no honor.

Children are already fully honored and invited to serve.

It's very, very different.

And he is saying this is not you, you are not a spiritual slave, but you are a child in the very kingdom of God.

That's why we've got to realize that salvation wasn't just a moment.

It was a doorway into the kingdom of God, and God loved to do it that way.

God's word says this.

It says, even before he made the world, god loved us and he chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do.

I love this, and it gave him great pleasure.

Do you know?

What God loves Is that you're in his family.

When you gave your life to Christ, when you bended your knee to him, when you said, jesus, I want you to be my Lord and my savior, it brought great joy to you.

You ever heard somebody who and they mean it in a good way but they're basically saying that you know you've got this child, this child, and then you've got the oops baby.

You got the one that's like.

I didn't mean to like oops.

You know, can I tell you, in the kingdom of God there are no oops babies, there are no second class citizens.

In the kingdom of God.

There's no like.

We didn't really mean to.

But now here we are.

It's just like before you were even born.

God chose to love you and you bring him great pleasure that you're now adopted into the kingdom of heaven, and don't ever let the enemy tell you any different.

It reminds me of I had this wonderful opportunity.

There was an amazing family in our church and they gave myself and some other people the honor and privilege of being part of an adoption hearing, court hearing, and if you've never had the opportunity to do that, I highly, highly recommend it.

It's beautiful.

And we had this opportunity to be in the courtroom and to be at this hearing.

And there was a moment when the judge has to talk to the child and say hey, do you know why we're here?

You know what we're doing, because that's part of the process, right?

And the best of my memory what this child said is they looked at the judge and the judge said why are we here today?

And that child said because they love me and they want me to be in their forever family.

And I don't know what happened, but in that moment my allergies started messing up.

I mean, I don't know what was in the room, I don't know.

It got super dusty in there and I was just like that's Jesus right there.

I mean it was.

It was amazing and you know.

You know why is because I am enough of a Bible nerd that when we were going through that process, I was thinking about this verse and I couldn't help but think man, that's the most perfect way to describe what Jesus did to all of us.

You ever have somebody who comes along and go.

Why are you a Christian?

Why do you keep trying?

Why do you not give up?

You know what the best answer is.

Man, I don't know everything.

I just know Jesus loves me and he invited me to be in his forever family and I'm just thankful to be chosen.

I'm just thankful that he adopted me.

I'm thankful that I couldn't do anything to earn it.

I couldn't deserve it, but I had the opportunity to receive it.

Can I tell you that's the joy that you have.

This is who our God is, that he says he is the father to the fatherless, defender of widows.

This is God, whose dwelling is holy.

God places the lonely in families and he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.

The greatest news is God has won our freedom and because of that, we're able to follow him, walk in daily victory and we have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

And the great news is is that, because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we have been fully accepted into the eternal family of God.

You're not an orphan, you're not a spiritual orphan, but God loves you more than you can imagine.

That's why we want to look at salvation a little bit deeper is to realize that you are more loved than you can imagine.

That's why, when somebody looks at you this week and they have some bad news or they're wanting to read you something that happened on social media or something else is going on, you can just tell them yeah, that may be true, man, we are still so blessed.

I want you to try it one more time, but this time use your normal voice, look at them and say man, you are so blessed.

Now look at your neighbor.

Look at them and say you're really blessed, and they're really blessed because they're sitting by you in Jesus name.

All right, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Listen, we're so blessed.

I'm telling you, the joy of the Lord is where our strength is All right.

It's not in all this other stuff.

And you know what Joy and happiness are not the same thing.

I can be in a bad mood and still have joy, because happiness has to do with happenings.

Joy is a decision in my heart, and I've just decided to follow Jesus.

I've just decided that he's going to be my king.

I'm going to follow him in daily victory.

I've got the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and that's what he offers to all of us.

And as we do that, we know that he's leading us toward freedom.

Every single day, we know that we have been adopted, and every time the enemy wants to lie to us, it's the Holy Spirit that whispers and affirms that is really what happened.

You really are in the kingdom of God.

God really does have his hand on your life.

And so we experience that freedom journey, we experience adoption.

And here's one more, and that is that, because the spirit lives in us, we experience the hope of another hard word glorification.

That is the best effort of people who study this stuff to try to put into words the next verse.

We're about to read the word glorification, and what glorification is?

Is this amazing miracle that we don't understand so much of what God does?

We don't understand, and this is one of them.

This is glorification.

In a verse, god's word says for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

And since we are his children, we are his heirs.

In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory.

Somebody say glory, but if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

The amazing thing is is that when Jesus washed away our sin, we were adopted into his family and now we are heirs of the glory of God.

That doesn't mean that when we die we become gods.

That's heresy.

We don't become gods.

We become like him in that glorified state, and the best way to describe the word glorification is that we will be with him, that we will be with him where he is.

The Bible itself says this is a mystery.

You can read in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, where Paul is grappling with this to the best of his ability and he says behold, I tell you a mystery.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

We will all be changed in the moment in the before your eye can even blink.

They call it the twinkling of an eye.

We will be changed from what is corruptible to incorruptibility.

And can I tell you that, as Christ followers, we have this amazing miracle that we're waiting for called glorification, where we become able to handle his presence.

As a matter of fact, the Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

And here's the problem that corruptibility cannot inherit incorruptibility.

In other words, the Bible said in the Old Testament that we cannot see God face to face and live.

So how are we going to fix this?

It's because we've been adopted, and what happens in this wonderful mystery is that when we die in this life, the Bible says that we are changed in our spiritual body.

It calls it a supernatural body and we're able to stand in the very presence of God and not be destroyed.

And the $10 word for this is what they call the beatific vision.

It's the ability to look God straight in the face and handle it, even though, throughout the Bible, every time we even see an angel, we bow because it's so amazing and so awesome.

The best way to describe it is you ever been inside all day?

You've been working, sun's shining outside, but you've been working and all this different stuff.

And you have a chance to go outside.

And you go outside and the sun hits you in the face and it's just like blinding you.

Just like, stand there and just soak up the vitamin D.

Until then you feel your skin sizzling and you step back again because it's really hot in the summer in Bowling Green.

But the reality of is that's even like less than 1% of an idea of we're in this life.

And then we step into his presence and we're able to see him face to face.

It was that wonderful moment, on its way, that Peter had in his mind right before he's about to be martyred for his faith.

He's writing to the church and he says this.

He says, dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you're going through, as if something strange were happening to you.

Instead, be very glad for these trials.

Make you partners with Christ and his suffering so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

In other words, he's saying when things get bad down here, don't worry, all it's going to do is make that a little bit sweeter.

All it's going to do is make that a little bit sweeter.

All it's going to do is remind us that this life is not all there is, and we don't want to rush passing from this life one moment before God wants us.

It's just the sting of death is now gone, because, as a Christ follower, we no longer have to wonder what's going to happen.

We just don't necessarily know how it's going to happen.

We just trust that he's going to do it.

And that's why people write so many songs, because we don't know, but we can't wait to see.

You know that old song that says I'll be surrounded by his glory.

What will my heart feel?

Will I dance for you, jesus, or in all of you?

Will I be still?

Will I stand in your presence or to my knees, will I fall?

Will I sing hallelujah or just grab me so much I can't speak at all.

I can only imagine.

And the amazing thing is is that, no matter what our imagination can do, it doesn't compare, because the Bible says that eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor is it even entered into the minds, in our imaginations, the things that God has waiting for us just on the other side.

But the great thing is is the Bible gives us momentary glimpses just to prepare our hearts for it, which reminds me of what we've been reading right now in God's word.

And if you've been, if you've been reading God's word with us, we're going through the book of Revelation right now and if you want to read with us, you can text RLCBible to 94000.

And one of the things we've been trying to talk about as we've been reading together is in no way are we speaking against different podcasts and things that want to talk about the future prophecies of Revelation.

All that that's wonderful and there's a place for that, but what we really wanted to do with our study of Revelation is to talk about what it would have been like to the original audience Because so much of people that don't read Revelation because all they hear is bad stuff but to the first church, the early church, it was a book of encouragement and of joy and we read in that context.

We can see that the whole book is about Jesus wins.

And you imagine how this church it's a persecuted church.

They're being challenged to compromise the gospel, they're challenged to start worshiping the emperor and imperial missions in charge and they're being taken to the coliseums and a lot of people think that it was written around 95, 96 AD and so all this is going on and that means they've heard so much bad news.

They've heard that Peter was crucified upside down.

Paul has been beheaded, andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross, matthew was stabbed to death.

Thomas was pulled limb from limb in Ethiopia.

I mean, these guys have been martyred for their faith Bad news.

And then you imagine, one day they get a letter from John.

They're wondering what else is going wrong, maybe.

But what I love is they open up the letter and John says I had a vision, I saw Jesus and he wanted to tell you he wanted me to tell you he wins, that it's all gonna be okay.

This is the revelation of our conquering king, and that's what revelation is about as we start to see these two things happening at the same time.

You've got one where you've got the devastation and destruction and bad things happening on the earth that they can see, but just beyond what they can see, up in heaven.

The king sits on his throne, the king reigns supreme and heaven is worshiping the king.

And that two things can be true at the same time Bad things can be happening, but yet our king still reigns.

And there's a moment we're going to read it this week, I believe it's on Tuesday there's a moment where we get a glimpse of what you and I have to look forward to, and one day this will be us, god's word says.

After this, I saw a vast crowd that's us Too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne, and that's us.

The lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings, and they all fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God.

That's a glimpse of the glory of the Lord.

The Bible says that there was a place that one angel killed 186,000 people, and they can't even hardly stand to look at God face to face, but when they see his glory and they hear the song of salvation, they have to bow before the king.

That's us, one day, standing before his throne.

And it's the Holy Spirit, the fellowship and the gift of the Holy Spirit that reminds us about this over and over again.

And so when we go through bad times, it's the Holy Spirit that says I'm doing something in this, I'm leading you toward freedom every day.

This is just a process of sanctification.

Don't stop walking.

And then, when the enemy wants to lie to us and try to act like that salvation wasn't anything and it wasn't important, it's the Holy Spirit that whispers and says oh no, no, no, no, you didn't just pray a prayer, you've entered into the kingdom of God, you've been adopted into the family of God and he wants to know you personally.

And then, when bad news comes and everything looks like it's falling apart, it's the Holy Spirit that whispers and says this is not all.

There is that one day we get to see him face to face and he reminds us of the gift of following him.

And that's why God's promise for us today is those who live to please the spirit will harvest everlasting life from the spirit.

So let's not get tired of doing what is good At just the right time.

We will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not give up.

I think that's what the Lord would say to maybe some of us today.

Now is not the time to give up.

Now is not the time to let bad news overwhelm you.

Now is the time to realize that two things can be true at the same time.

Yes, bad things can be going on, but God is also doing amazing things as well.

God is on his throne and that, as we follow him, he leads us in daily victory.

As we follow him, he reminds us of the process of sanctification, and that is reminding us that he's doing more than we realize.

And that is reminding us that he's doing more than we realize.

He reminds us that we're adopted into God's family, and he reminds us that this is not all there is, that we still have the glory of God to look forward to.

And I want to ask you this question before we pray.

The band's about to lead us in one more song of worship.

Which one of those promises do you need to hold on to today?

What is it?

The Holy Spirit is trying to speak into your life.

Maybe you've been going through a difficult season and it feels like the nation of Israel just rounding the wilderness for 40 years.

Maybe what you need to remember is that God has got a plan for your life, and then maybe in just a moment, your prayer just needs to be God, I pray you'll open my eyes to see what that is.

Open my eyes to see what you're doing.

I trust you and I'm going to continue to trust you, but open my eyes.

Maybe you're in here and the enemy's been lying to you.

He's been telling you that you don't know Jesus.

He's been telling you that it was all fake.

You don't know.

Maybe what your prayer needs to be is Holy Spirit, I pray that you will rise up within me and remind me that my adoption has nothing to do with what I could earn.

It has everything to do with what Jesus has already done.

You see, to pray for the Holy Spirit to remind you that you are in the family of God, and maybe you've just lost sight of what's coming.

I think a Christian should always be like somebody the day before vacation.

They're always slightly distracted because of what's on its way, and that doesn't mean that we hasten the end of this life one minute before God wants us, but we're always slightly distracted because we know one day we'll be with him.

Whatever, the Holy Spirit needs to speak into your life today.

That's what you need to do.

Maybe you're in here, though, and you don't know Jesus.

You don't have that promise of what happens one day.

You don't.

You don't have that ability.

Can I tell you, god loves you more than you can imagine.

He's not mad at you.

He's in love with you.

You've never been more loved than you are right now.

You've tried everything else.

It's time to come home to Jesus.

It's time for you to be born again in the kingdom of God.

On the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation and your next great act of worship.

While we stand in just a moment and we sing this song with our team and they lead us in worship, your next great act of worship is for you to give your life to Jesus.

You can go ahead and read what it's going to ask you to do, and that is it's going to ask you to give everything you have over to him, ask him to wash away all your sin and be your savior and your Lord.

And if you will take that step today, god wants to move in your life and as we are doing that, your next step is gonna be to step out of your seat, go back to our prayer table, because we wanna worship with you as you give your life to Jesus.

Whatever next step you need to take, let's prepare our hearts right now to worship the Lord.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, god, for being with us and being for us in every way.

God that no matter where we are, no matter what we're doing, lord, you see us in this moment.

You see those that need to be reminded that you're up to something and that you have a plan for their life.

You see those, god, that the enemy has been lying to them, but you, holy Spirit, are about to speak those words of assurance that they do know you and they have been adopted into your family, lord.

You see those who maybe, lord, they're struggling with what comes next.

Maybe they have a family member and there's some things that's going on that's hard to even put into words.

Holy Spirit, we know that you know all things and I'm thankful, lord, that the comfort and your assurance is on its way right now.

God, I pray for maybe somebody in this room that they don't know you, jesus, they're working on it, they want to know you and that this is their moment and this is their time as we worship you together.

I pray that you'll give them the courage to take that next step.

In Jesus name, we pray Amen, amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning as the band leads us in this song of worship?

Whatever next step you need to take, maybe you want to find a quiet place down here, maybe you need to receive salvation, maybe you just want to lift your hands where you are and just give God all the glory.

But whatever it is, take the next few moments and worship him.