Romans 8: Our Champion (2- We Are Alive)

name we pray Amen, amen, one more time.

Come on, let's put our hands together, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

Well, good morning everybody.

Before you have a seat, I want you to high five two people and say happy summer at RLC.

Go ahead and tell them happy summertime at RLC.

Yes, happy summertime at RLC.

And you can tell it is summertime.

It is summertime.

All right.

For some of us, we're still mourning the fact that it is summertime, because it feels like summertime.

But we are so glad that you are here and we're so glad to be together and just to worshiping the Lord and just enjoying his word.

And so, if you have your Bibles and want to jump with me into Romans, chapter eight, man, we're going to dive right into God's word.

So I want to jump with me into Romans, chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Man, we're going to dive right into God's Word.

So I want to give you a moment.

Get your Bible journals out, get your notes out, all that good stuff, and you can also look at our mobile app.

And while you're doing that, if this is your first time joining us, thank you so much for being here with us today and we would love for you at some point to fill out your Connect card and you can drop that off at the Welcome Center, because we have a free gift for you.

But also, we would love to give you a free Bible so that next Sunday, when you're back, you can open your Bibles with us too.

Romans, chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And so make sure that you just say I just want the special.

And the special is all the things, all right, it's the Bibles, the journalists, all the stuff.

Okay, all right.

Well, as you are getting all that set and getting everything ready to go.

We kind of did this a couple of weeks ago, but we're going to do it again, and since what's been going on the past couple of weeks, I really think we need to do it again, and that is this I think that there's at least one thing we all come from different places and we all can kind of agree to disagree on so many different things, but if there's one thing I think that we all have in common is that we all agree with this, and that is there's a lot of bad news in the world right now.

Can somebody say amen?

There's like any number of things that could like trigger any one of us in here.

Let me give you a couple of things, if you don't already feel triggered, all right, here's the first one is our Facebook page got hacked.

Okay, if you didn't know, we do love the police, but we don't love them that much.

Okay, that's not us, okay, and so we're working on it.

But that's bad news, okay, because it is amazing how many people have texted me and said Pastor, did our Facebook page get hacked?

Yeah, yeah, of course it did.

All right, yes, how about this one Protest riots?

How about this one Middle Eastern conflict?

Oh, my goodness, that's bad news.

Look, there's bad news all over the place.

And then there's news you don't really know what to do with.

Right, there's news you don't know what to do with, like, for instance, somebody told me that football is nine weeks away.

I don't know, I mean, because nine weeks is a long time.

I agree, so I'm happy, but at the same time, I'm like nine weeks, it's like forever, all right, so I don't know what to do with it.

Another one I don't know what to do with is that it's summer at RLC, which number one, yay, I mean, we get to be together, we have life groups it's awesome, but also we get to experience all four seasons in this building every single Sunday, like when you first get here it's winter time, all right, and by the time we leave and lock up the doors, it is dead heat of summer around here, because we have a hard time keeping up, and so it's like I don't know what to do with it.

And so, whatever you're doing in your life, can we just agree?

There's bad news, all right.

There's also news we don't know what to do with, but I just want to give you some good news.

That's what this series is all about is about some really, really good news.

I'm going to give you some good news here.

That is that coffee exists.

Okay, that's good news.

If you don't like coffee, you need to be happy, because the rest of us need it, okay.

The only reason why some of us are nice to you is because we've had our coffee that day, so that's good.

Here's another one.

The smell of chocolate increases brainwaves that trigger relaxation.

You know why I eat coffee.

I mean why I eat chocolate.

It's just medicinal.

You know why I eat coffee.

I mean why I eat chocolate is it's medicinal.

That's the reason why I don't even I don't even want it, but it helps me relax.

That's a lie.

I like it All right.

Here's another one.

So far, you have survived 100% of your worst days.

Isn't that good news?

All right, let me give you another one.

Some cats are allergic to humans, you know.

That's great news is because I have an excuse to stay away from cats.

All right, it's not for me.

I don't want them to be in a bad way.

Okay, just in case.

Here's another one.

Kindness boosts your immune system, so when you're kind to somebody, it makes you feel better.

How about this one?

Most people will smile at you if you smile at them first.

You don't believe me.

Look at your neighbor and give him a big, old, toothy grin.

Watch what happens.

Some of y'all, it didn't work.

All right, that one, that's fine.

Most people, most people.

And then, how about this one?

The Durham's had a baby.

Isn't that great?

It was like baby number 20 for them, and they're already back in church.

It's great, all right.

Yeah, it's awesome.

So listen, there's bad news.

Let's just admit it.

All right, we go to real life church, where we try to keep it real as much as possible, so we're not lying.

There's bad news.

There's news I don't really know what to do with.

But there's actually some good news that's going on, and if you're a Christ follower, no matter what happens in the world, we actually have some of the best news.

And if you're taking notes, this is the is that the best news is Jesus has won our freedom.

That's the best news that we can give you is that he's already won.

He has won our freedom.

And so what we say as Christians, as Christ followers, is, yes, there's bad things happening in the world, but that's not all that's happening in the world.

Two things can be true at the same time.

Things can get dark, but Jesus brings light.

All at the same time, there's good things going on, and that's what this series is all about.

We've been talking about what it looks like to just kind of just enjoy understanding what the gospel is, and we talked about this in week one.

That really, you know, we're kind of coming into like three-fourths of the way through a story, because what the Apostle Paul, in spite of the Holy Spirit, has done is he has been talking for seven chapters what the gospel is, and it's about how we didn't know God and then God helped us understand how far we were from him.

But then, because we couldn't save ourselves, jesus came and paid the price that we couldn't pay.

And then chapter six is what it looks like when we receive salvation.

Chapter seven is all about what it looks like to start to understand what it is to be free.

And then chapter eight is what it looks like to live with our life full of the goodness of God, and that's what we're talking about is that Jesus has done all of this to win our freedom.

He is our champion, and what we're doing over the course of this series is.

It kind of reminds me of like a diamond.

You ever looked at a diamond and then you start to turn it and you see the light through it, and every time you look at it it's like you see a different picture.

It's just beautiful the way.

Every time you see it it's just beautiful all over again.

And that's what we're doing with the gospel.

The more we look at different angles of what Jesus did for us, the more beautiful it becomes, because salvation is not the end.

It is just the doorway into a life filled with Christ.

And in one area of that we looked at last time was in Romans 8, 1 through 4, actually it says we talked about how we belong to Jesus and now, because we belong to him, there is now no condemnation, which means we were under the sin, under the curse of death, but Jesus took our place and now we're free, and we are now free to follow him.

Today we're going to go even deeper and talk about where's he leading us If we're free to follow him, where is he taking us and what does that look like?

So if you have your Bibles and you're ready for Romans, chapter eight, verse five through 11, it says this.

It says those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about the things that please the Spirit.

So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

For the sinful nature is always hostile to God.

It never did obey God's laws and it never will.

That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature, you are controlled by the spirit.

If you have the spirit of God living in you, and remember that those who do not have the spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all, and Christ lives within you.

So, even though your body will die because of sin, the spirit gives you life, because you have been made right with God.

And the spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.

And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you.

Amen.

Somebody say amen.

That was a lot of words.

There's a lot of commas, not a lot of periods, and so, basically, what was he saying?

He was saying this and that is that because we belong to Jesus, we are alive and we are alive to walk in daily victory.

That he said that because we are under no condemnation and because we are now free to follow him.

Jesus is going somewhere and he has made us alive and because we're alive, we can walk in daily victory.

The reality is is that a life with Christ is a journey.

It's a daily adventure of following him into more and more freedom, and that journey will take us through mountains, it will take us through valleys, it will take us through valleys, it'll take us through everything in between, but the amazing thing is is that he goes with us every single step of the way.

And so here's the question of the day for us, and that is this how do these verses help us grow together Because that's our main focus this year and find joy in a world full of bad news?

How is it that, knowing that he helps us walk in daily victory, how does it help us find joy when we're surrounded by so much bad news?

Well, here's the reason why I'm going to give you a spoiler alert, and that is this that everyone you know has a private battle.

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

But here's the great news Everyone has a private battle, but Jesus came to walk with us and to lead us to victory.

So, in other words, yes, there's bad things going on in the world, but that's not all that's happening in the world, and two things can be true at the same time there can be bad things, but man, god is still good, and God is still so good to me and so good to you.

And so I want to give you a homework assignment.

We're going to say this a few times because I hope it sinks in, and that is this that this week, somebody meaning well, maybe not meaning well we're going to give them a benefit of the doubt.

They're going to start telling you all this bad news and then they're going to look at you as though now it's your turn.

So can you one up me?

Can you tell me even worse news?

What have you heard lately?

And here's the thing when you have bad news, you can say whatever.

But what if, instead, you said yes, that may be true, but God is still so good to me.

I want you to practice that.

When I count to three, I just want you to say God is still so good to me.

One, two, three, god is still so good to me.

That's meant to be a testimony.

That's saying, yes, there's things, but I never want to forget that God is still so good to me.

I want you to look at your neighbor and say God is so good.

God is so good to me.

Why?

Because he's already won our freedom and because we follow him.

We're alive in him and we can walk toward daily victory.

Let me tell you why that's good news.

If you're taking notes, here's three reasons why it is such good news that we're alive in him.

Here's the first one, and that is, that we're alive to walk in daily victory because of our new mindset, because of what God has done in our mind.

God is so good to me and he's so good to you because the Bible talked about there at the very beginning.

It was talking about this war that we have that we don't even realize we're in the middle of until we come to Christ.

He said it like this.

He said those who are dominated that word dominated means controlled, imprisoned by their sinful nature Think about sinful things, because those who are controlled by the Spirit but those who were controlled I know it didn't sound right by the Holy Spirit, think about the things that please the Spirit.

So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads nowhere good to death but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

And so what he was telling us is to life and peace.

And so what he was telling us is is he was saying that before you came to Christ, you didn't have a choice.

You were dominated, you were imprisoned by your sinful nature, but then something amazing happened and you now have an opportunity to have a new mindset.

Basically, he was saying our sinful nature means we were dominated by brokenness, because the thing is is that we wanted all the things that the Holy Spirit provides, that grows in us.

We wanted love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, self-control all the fruits of this.

We wanted it, but we didn't know how to get it, and so we continued to follow after our sinful nature, which led to more and more brokenness.

But then Jesus stepped in and the mental picture is like the spirit opens the prison doors and he leads us to free, to life and peace.

It's literally as though he opened the door and he said be free.

Well, how did he do that?

Well, god's word says we know that our old, sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives and we are no longer slaves to sin.

Somebody say amen, amen, for when we die to Christ, we die with Christ.

We were set free from the power of sin, and since we die with Christ, we know that we will also live with him.

In other words, what he's saying is is that when Jesus died on the cross, he was literally taking our place and he took all of our place and he took all of our sins on himself, and so the debt has now been paid and the power of sin no longer has authority over our life.

But here's the thing our spirit and our soul were saved, but there's a journey that needs to happen, because I don't know, maybe you don't have this question, but I do and that is this.

Wait a minute If I've been set free from my sinful nature, why do I still struggle with it on the regular?

Why is that?

And here's the reason why because freedom is a process, because when you get saved, he saves you.

Your spirit, your soul are now redeemed, but nobody presses the clear button in your brain.

So soul are now redeemed, but nobody presses the clear button in your brain.

So we still have negative thought patterns, we still have addictions, we still have all these things that God has now opened the door and we get to walk through them.

Well, how do we do that?

God's word says since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand.

Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

The realities of heaven is what he says, who he says our identity in Christ.

Look at somebody and say think about what you think about.

It's kind of a tongue twister, even though it shouldn't be right, but it kind of is.

It feels weird when you say it, but the reality is is that he has a whole different identity for us, and what he's saying is is when we allow our minds to be controlled by the Holy Spirit and we start thinking about who he says we are, that is when we slowly begin to realize where life and peace really is.

That's why we read God's word every day.

It's because for many of us, if we grew up not being around the things of God, we have got a lifetime of wrong programming in our brain, of telling us everything that we're not, and culture trying to define who we are.

And so we go to God's word every single day to figure out what the creator said.

The one who made us says this is who you are.

And when we do that we realize that life and peace come, when we realize that in him we are accepted, secure and significant.

And in the world, in the culture it says, all the broken things are what lead to acceptance, security and significance.

But the problem is is that they don't.

They lead to even more difficulty, they lead to more insecurity.

Only in Jesus do we find the things that our soul is truly longing for, and he wants to lead us into that process.

That's why we have to go to God's word every single day, because every moment we're not in God's word, we're being told who we are by culture, by other people, by all these other things, and so we have to always be going back to his word, where he says this is who you are, and the great thing is is he never stops doing that, and that's why the gospel is such great news is that Jesus has already won our freedom, and because we follow him, we are now alive.

We even have the choice that we can follow him in daily victory, and that's because we have a new mindset.

And the wonderful thing is is that we can see it in the Bible.

You ever heard of a guy named King Saul Not Saul, who became Paul, but the first king in the Old Testament?

You ever heard of him?

He's like a guy who went from hiding to a hero, and what happened was is it was time for them to have a king, a very first king.

Can you imagine how big a deal that was?

There was 12 tribes of Israel.

They were all great warriors and somebody had to step up and form them into a kingdom, and they tried to figure out who it was.

And so the Bible said they all got together and they were trying to figure out who it was, and Samuel already kind of talked to Saul and he said by the way, I think God's wanting you to be king, god's wanting you to be king.

So when it's time, when you're the one that steps forward, it's almost like the sun was going to shine on him.

It's like in that moment you step forward and it's like, ah, you know, the king is here.

That was what was supposed to happen.

But in the Bible what happened was is they are all together and finally Saul, the son of Kish, was chosen from among them.

But when they looked for him, he disappeared, and so they asked the Lord, where is he?

How about when the Lord tells on you?

The Lord said go, look, he's hiding in the baggage.

This joker was like, literally, it was supposed to be the big moment.

And they go looking for him.

There's nobody there.

He is back behind the luggage.

What is going on in your brain when you go?

Maybe, if they don't see me, they'll go away.

They just called your name out.

All right, can you imagine Samuel going over there to him, hitting him upside the head?

You're embarrassing me.

All right, get out there.

Hi everybody, I'm the king.

To literally, most of the people said that's not our king and they went home.

But guess what happened just a little bit later?

All of a sudden, the enemy started to come and the battle was about to happen and the nation of Israel looked like they were going to be destroyed and it was time for the king to rise up.

And the Bible said that first they were anointed by people, but when he got anointed by God, everything changed, because the Bible said that when he heard the enemy was coming, then the spirit of God came powerfully on Saul and he mobilized them at Bezek and he found that there were 300,000 men of Israel and 30,000 men of Judah who are ready to stand behind him.

When we try to live life by ourself, we can have some success, but when we allow the spirit of God to overwhelm us, then, man, we can do everything that God has called us to do.

And that's what's amazing is that nobody wanted to follow him when he had declared himself, but when the Holy Spirit did.

That's half a million people that said that's my king.

And that's what happens when we allow ourself to be controlled by the spirit of God.

And here's the news, and that is that daily victory begins when we find our true identity in Christ.

Daily victory begins when we allow our true identity to be found in Christ.

Can I tell you something?

Culture wants to tell you who you are, but can I tell you, you are not primarily your sexuality, you are not primarily your political party.

Somebody say amen.

You are not the past trauma that happened to you.

You're no longer a victim, because Jesus has overcome.

You know who you are.

You're God's child, you're his creation, you're fully loved by him.

It doesn't matter if nobody else loves you.

Jesus loves you and he sets you free.

And when we start to get that in our mind, that's where true victory starts to happen, when we start to have our primary true identity in Christ and in nothing else.

And so can I tell you, if you're letting the world define you, there's a next step for you, and that is that Jesus died and rose again and won our freedom so that you could be free, so that you could walk in freedom every day.

And the first step in that is letting our true identity be found in Christ.

That way, when somebody comes up to you and they try to tell you all the bad stuff that's going on, you say, yeah, that's true, but God is still so good to me.

Look at somebody and say God is so good to me, god is so good to me.

What do you mean?

God is so good to you.

Don't look like anything's going on.

Oh man, you don't know that he, he's already won my freedom and that I have the opportunity to be alive in him and my true identity is found in Christ, not what else is going on around me.

Jesus defines who I am and he kind of likes me, and so it's all going to be okay because God is so good to me.

Here's the second thing, and that is because of the miracle of a word you may never have heard until today, called regeneration.

Because of the miracle of regeneration.

Now, what in the world is that word?

That is a $10 word.

Okay, that means something that it's so amazing we didn't have a word for it.

So one day, a bunch of theologians got together and made up a word, because we didn't have one, and it's this right here.

The Bible says this that the miracle of regeneration is that you are not controlled by your sinful nature.

You are controlled by the spirit if you have the spirit of God living in you and Christ lives within you.

So, even though your body will die because of sin, the spirit gives you life because you have been made right with the spirit of God.

So, in other words, when we come to Christ, spirit of God, so in other words, when we come to Christ, he gives us the opportunity to walk in daily victory.

And now our identity is defined by who he is and that what that is is a miracle that we call regeneration.

So, basically, before we found Christ, we will be defined as hostile, rebellious toward God, lost, broken.

That's what the Bible says we are.

But when Jesus found us, we discovered this thing called regeneration.

And the definition of regeneration is the miracle of being made alive and new by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Can I tell you, if you want to see a miracle, look at your neighbor.

If they know Jesus, a miracle happened in them that they were once dead in their sin but now they have been made new and alive in Christ.

That's an amazing, amazing miracle that if you've been a Christian for a while, unfortunately we kind of take that for granted.

If you ever want to know how beautiful that is, go talk to somebody who just got saved and you tell them all your sins have been washed away.

What about that one?

Even that one, and watch what happens in their life and remember the beautiful miracle that we're now alive and made new.

How does that happen?

God's word says it like this that when you believe, somebody say believe.

When you believe, when you put your hope and trust in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and he has purchased us to be his own people.

Excuse me, the amazing thing is is that because of the gospel and because we have believed, we can now receive the miracle of salvation?

And can I tell you it is a miracle.

It's hard to describe.

That's why we tell people all the time that it's hard to describe to you what it's like to know Jesus.

But once you know Jesus, you know exactly what I'm talking about, because it's a miracle.

It's not just that we decide to follow Jesus, that's part of it.

But then the Holy Spirit does something amazing.

As a matter of fact, jesus has done the best job ever at explaining this, and it's still hard to get our minds around.

You know, even back then, when Jesus would talk about this, people would be like I don't get it.

I think I get it, but I don't get it.

And, as a matter of fact, in the book of John there was a time when there was a group of people who loved God.

They wanted to get to God, but they thought the only way they could was by being perfect, if they're perfect enough that God would accept them.

And now Jesus comes along and he talks about something that he's doing and they don't get it.

And so one night, a guy named Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he's like hey, listen.

Jesus comes to Jesus and he's like hey, listen, we know that you're from God because, well, you're awesome and you're healing a bunch of folks and that's really cool and all.

But we don't understand some of the stuff that you're saying.

And so Jesus tries to explain it and he says it like this.

He says I tell you the truth unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven.

And he's like what do you mean?

How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?

And the answer is, I agree, like not only does that not make sense, it's a little disgusting.

Okay, I don't wanna even.

That's weird.

Can you find another analogy?

And God's like no, that's the one that's gonna work.

He says this I assure you that no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit.

Humans reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

Now, what does he mean by water and the spirit?

Well, you know why we baptize people Is we baptize them as a representation of their commitment to God.

But back in the Old Testament, when someone wanted to convert over to worship Yahweh, then there was something they would do and they would be baptized.

And baptism for them was a sign of repentance.

It was a sign of I am no longer doing what I used to do.

Now I am following a different way.

And so he is saying that without being born of repentance and the miracle of the Holy Spirit, it don't work.

So repentance plus the miracle equals salvation, and that's what regeneration is.

And so can I tell you when there's bad things going on in the world.

The reality is that's not all that's going on, but because of Jesus, we've already received the greatest miracle ever, and daily victory begins when we realize we've already received the greatest miracle.

I'm telling you if you want to see a miracle, look to your right, look to your left.

Someone who knows Jesus they're a miracle.

I'm telling you, if you want to see a miracle, look to your right, look to your left.

Someone who knows Jesus they're a miracle.

They're all ready, ready for heaven, like one day when they pass away.

They don't die and just stay in the grave.

But the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and they get to experience the glory of God.

The only thing that we brought to our salvation was our sin and our surrender.

Jesus is the one who did the miracle and he washed away all of our sin.

And then here's the amazing thing he said then the Holy Spirit comes and lives with inside of us as a reminder that I'm never gonna leave you.

And so here's the thing you're never alone.

He says I don't want to start eternity one day when you die.

I want us to start our fellowship now, and so I'm going to go ahead and live within you for the rest of your life.

And so, no matter what you do, no matter what you go through, no matter where you go, I'm there too.

And so, no matter what you're going through in your life, you're never alone.

If you have Jesus, if you've received salvation the greatest miracle you could ever hope for you've already received.

That's why, when someone gives you bad news, you can say, yeah, that's true, but man, god has still been so good to me.

Well, what does that mean?

Because I'm never alone, because I have Jesus, because if I hear the worst news ever, I don't have to find a way to process it by myself, but I've already got Jesus there with me helping me process it, and so God is still so good to me.

So I want you to practice that.

I want you to look at your neighbor one more time and say God is still so good to me.

I want to say that because I want you to remember it.

I want you to remember because this week you may need it, because everybody be bombing everybody right now and you're going to hear about it.

Yeah, and then we'd be like, yeah, that's true, I got no idea what that's going to look like.

But God is still so good to me.

Why?

How do you?

Because he's already won my freedom.

I don't have to go win my freedom, he's already done it and I can't earn it, all I can do is receive it.

And that he has given me the opportunity to walk in daily victory.

That means that I don't have to have that old, sinful identity anymore.

But now I have a new identity in Christ and I read God's word, and every day I read his word.

He tells me he loves me.

He tells me that he's with me.

He tells me I've got a big idea for you.

I want you to walk out of all of those broken things.

I want you to walk in healing.

And when I read this book, I don't read a book of condemnation, I condemnation.

I read a book of healing because I know who the author is and he loves me and he loves you.

And then, because we walk in freedom, we have already experienced the greatest miracle ever, and that is, we have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus and we have a home in eternity waiting for us.

And then we have one more thing that I know may offend some of you, but I mean it the best possible way, and that is because of God's reckless love.

I know not everybody loves that phrase, but I mean it in the very best possible way that when is the last time we were just in awe that God loves us, that he would care for us the way that he does?

He didn't have to, but he does.

God said it like this in his word.

Remember he?

First he said that you are now have a new identity and that you also have received the miracle of salvation.

And then he says and the spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you, and just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same spirit living within you.

In other words, god moves in and then he goes to work and that he is going to spend the rest of our lives untying all the knots we have tied ourselves into.

And you know, what's amazing about that too Is, if we're not careful, we get this idea that it's almost like we had this time when we sinned and we didn't know Jesus and all of that.

And then we met Jesus and now we just are perfect after that and God just spends his time fixing the stuff we did before we got saved.

But afterward we're fine, and so once he does those things, it's good to go.

That's okay.

That's your world.

You polish your halo, but here's the thing I got more things I did wrong after I got saved than the things I did beforehand.

It's almost like as soon as God cleans up a mess, I've made another one.

That's reckless to me and the very best possible way, because here's the thing.

This is what God's word says.

It says, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and power to do what pleases him.

You know what that means.

That means that Jesus saved us and then he put in us the desire to follow him, and then he's the one who gave us the power to walk it out.

None of that is me.

All of that is everything that he has done, and then he wants us to do what pleases him.

You know what pleases him Our freedom, us walking out of everything we've walked our way into.

That's why I think it's the most amazing thing ever.

Like imagine, imagine like this.

Imagine you had spent all of your life.

For some of us, that's longer than others.

Praise the Lord.

All right, you spent all your life and you have been earning and saving and you now have your life savings, right, you have your life savings right, you have your life savings and it's very special and precious to you because it just represents years of hard work.

Right, and there's somebody over there that has no money.

They are terrible with money.

Everybody knows it.

They have nothing because they cannot manage their money very well.

And you say you know what I'm going to do.

I'm going to give them all of my money.

A wonderful friend would come up to you and they would say don't do that.

You know they're bad with money.

Right, I know that I know they're bad with money.

You know that they've lost everything they've had right?

Yes, I know that.

You know they can't be trusted.

Yes, I know that you know what I'm going to do.

Not only am I going to give them all of my money, I'm going to invite them to come live with me and I'm going to teach them how to do it right.

And every time they get it wrong, I'm going to forgive them.

I'm going to go rescue that.

We're going to do it again.

But you know they're terrible with money, which means they're going to lose all of it.

They can't lose it all.

I've got more than they can lose, but I'm going to stay with it over and over and over again until we figured out together.

If you were that person's friend, you would try to stop them.

Don't do that.

You're wasting your time.

They're hopeless.

That's what Jesus did for us.

It's where we would have saw hopelessness.

He saw his child and he said I don't care how long it takes, I don't care what it takes, I'm going to move them in with me and I'm going to teach them and I'm going to walk with me and they're going to see my goodness.

That's why, when you see the amazing love of God, that's why people write songs that say the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God.

It chases me down, it fights till I'm found, it leaves the 99.

I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it.

Still, you give yourself away.

Oh, the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God.

That's how much God loves us, and I don't mean this against anybody in here.

But we spend so much time asking God to do things for us.

When is the last time we stopped and remembered what he's already done for us and the fact that we're even still here, the fact that he forgives us every time we walk away, is another miracle.

That's reckless in the best possible way, that he loves us that much.

And so can I tell you, god is still so good to me and to you.

And so, yes, there's bad things that happen in this world, but that's not all that's happening in this world that God is still doing so many good things because he's already won our freedom, and we get to walk in daily freedom for this new mindset, as he has helped us find our identity in him.

And then not only that, but then he walks us to freedom and we get to experience the miracle of I was once one way, but now I'm another.

And then we get to experience his love over and over and over again.

As a matter of fact, when experiencing such terrible tragedy, jeremiah said this.

He said when I think of this, I dare to have hope that the love of the Lord endures forever.

His mercies never cease.

They are new every single morning.

Great is his faithfulness.

My portion is the Lord and I will put my hope in him.

If you're a Christ follower, the best news is you've got Jesus.

And when I think about that.

It makes me think about how we've been reading through God's word and we're going to start reading the book of Revelation this week.

Yay, yeah, I know.

Yeah, if you'd like to read everybody, it's not already.

If you'd like to read the Bible with us, we're going to read the book of Revelation starting this week.

You could text RLCBIBLE at 94000, or you can hit that QR code and can I tell you, I think this is coming at the best possible time and not for the reasons you might think.

Now, here's the thing there are some great podcasts out there that's going to talk to you about you know what you know the beast with 12,000 heads is, and you know, and the crowns and the things and the stuff, and there's bowls and there's lightnings.

All that's great, and there's a lot of great podcasts that's going to talk to you about those future things.

That's wonderful.

What we wanted to do is we wanted to go back to what the book of Revelation would have meant for the original audience, because it can't mean to us what it didn't mean to them, and I don't know if you know this, but the book of Revelation is intended to be a book of encouragement.

It's intended to be a book of hope to a persecuted church, because at the time this was written, between 94 and 96 AD, the church was under heavy persecution by a Roman emperor named Domitian, and while Rome was experiencing great wealth and prosperity, the Christians were being persecuted and taken into the Colosseum to be eaten by lions.

And at this point the church is being persecuted and they're actually being tempted to try to compromise with the world, because if they're willing to compromise, then maybe the world will accept them, and so then they don't have to experience such persecution anymore.

Sound familiar.

And at this point they've experienced so much bad news Paul has been beheaded, peter has been crucified upside down, all the other apostles other than John have been killed.

Timothy, at this point, had been trampled by a mob in the city of Ephesus.

They've had bad news over and over and over again.

And while they're in the middle of all of this bad news, they get a letter from John.

And John says guys, I saw Jesus and he wanted me to tell you.

He wanted me to tell you that all glory goes to him, who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us, and he has made us a kingdom of priests, for our God, his father.

All glory and power to him forever and ever.

Amen.

Look, he comes with the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him.

And what he starts to do is he starts to talk about two different things that's going on throughout the book of Revelation and in one he's talking about all the bad things and the judgments and the bowls and the things that's happening on the earth.

But while all that's happening in heaven, jesus is in control.

Jesus is on his throne.

Nothing is affecting anything going on in heaven, as the earth is being judged and made new, being ready for the coming of the king.

The king is sitting on his throne doing just fine.

And to the early church, what it would have meant is, no matter what bad things go on on this earth, jesus wins.

Jesus has already won and Jesus loves us and he has freed us from our sins.

And can I tell you that message is still for us today.

No matter what happens on this earth, no matter what's going on, no matter what things are happening wars and rumors of wars and all these kinds of things two things can be true at the same time.

Number one things can be bad over here.

But number two Jesus is still on his throne and Jesus is still alive, and that promise is to all of us.

When he says that when he died, he died to break the power of sin, so you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive in God, through Christ Jesus.

Through Christ Jesus, and can I tell you, sometimes we just need to remember how good God is.

That's what this series is all about.

That's what Romans 8 is all about.

It's about remembering who Jesus is and remembering that he's still in control.

And so this week you're likely going to hear some bad news, but when you do you remember that you can say, yes, that may be true, but God is still so good to me that two things can be true at the same time that there can be bad things going on here, but in heaven, Jesus is still in control and he still has all authority, and that, because he has already won our freedom, he has given us the opportunity to follow him into daily victory.

What does that look like?

By having the new mind and having our true identity found in Christ, by realizing that we have experienced the miracle of salvation, regeneration.

All we brought to our salvation was our sin and our surrender.

Jesus is the one who did the miracle and we walk in the wake of his glory and then to realize that, because of his goodness, we are sustained by his amazing love.

And so, yeah, there's things that God is still so good to me, and in just a moment, the band is gonna lead us in a song of worship and I just wanna ask you a question, maybe a little challenging question.

That is, if you forgot that God is still so good to you.

It's okay, because many times things can get in our way, and it's not that we don't still love God, it's just those private battles can become so big and so in front of us that we forget for a moment how good God is.

And, to be honest with you, the longer you're a Christian, the harder it can become because we get used to our freedom.

I want to challenge you today that we have this opportunity for worship Instead of praying over your needs first.

What if you just took a moment and said Jesus, I'm so thankful for salvation, I'm so thankful for your love, I'm so thankful that you are so good to me?

I just remember the wonders of the Lord and remember that, no matter what happens down here in heaven, jesus reigns supreme and that's the kingdom we're part of anyway, and the kingdom of God is moving forward and we're so thankful for that.

And while you're doing that, maybe there's somebody else in here.

You don't have that kind of love in your life.

You don't know Jesus.

Can I tell you, this world's a scary place if you don't know Jesus, because what hope have you got if you don't have him?

But if you have him, all these other things can happen.

But I've still got Jesus.

Can I tell you, he loves you more than you can imagine, and when he died on the cross, he died to take your place as well.

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

And it doesn't matter what you've done in the past, it doesn't matter what you're in the middle of.

Right now Jesus has enough grace, enough power and enough love to wash away all your sins.

But you got to come to him, you got to bring him everything and you got to bring him your surrender.

And you've got to say, jesus, if you'll take me, I'll give you all of me.

And he's going to say, of course I will, in just a moment, when we have our song of worship.

The greatest act of worship for you is to give your life to Jesus, and on your connect card, on the back of it, is the plan of salvation.

And what we would love for you to do is, as we're worshiping the Lord together, we'd love for you to get up out of your seat and to go back to our prayer table.

There's a prayer team back there and I want you to take this card with you and I want you to tell them.

I want to know Jesus, because we want to celebrate that moment when you're born into the kingdom of God.

There's no miracle like it and we want to celebrate with you and help you as you come home to Jesus.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, god, for your goodness and for your mercy.

Thank you, god, for your kindness.

Thank you, god, that you see us in this place.

And God, we're not making light of any kind of battle that anyone's facing right now.

And, god, we know that the enemy wants to take things that we're worried about and create fear out of them.

And there's battles that are real, legitimate in this place.

That's why we say God, two things can be true at the same time, legitimate in this place.

That's why we say God, two things can be true at the same time.

We can have a real battle but also have our hand holding on to our real God.

And, god, I know, many times the enemy wants to make the battle so big that we forget that you're so much greater, and so I pray that in this moment, holy Spirit, you'll give us a fresh vision of who you are, give us a fresh understanding of how great you are, the great things you're already doing in our life.

But for many of us, as we're reading your word, you're healing us of all those bad identities.

For many of us, god, as we get closer to you, we realize the miracle of salvation.

And, god, we stand back in awe at your amazing love for us.

God, I pray as we worship you, you'll remind us of that love.

Let us feel the closeness of your presence today.

Maybe for those, god, today, who are going to give their life to you, I pray you'll silence the voice of the enemy.

In Jesus' name and the Holy Spirit, you'll speak clearly to them that they are loved, they are valued, they are accepted in you, and now is the time to come home.

You'll give them the courage to take that next step.

The first step is the hardest.

The rest of them are full of freedom and as they take that step today, they'll come to know you.

In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen.

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

I don't know what next step you need to take.

Maybe, just where you are, you just need to take a moment and just think about the goodness of God and how good Jesus is.

Maybe you want to find a quiet place up here just to celebrate him.

Maybe lay something symbolically down.

Maybe today is your day of salvation.

I tell you, I'm already so proud of you for taking that step.

I want you to join us back at the prayer.

We want to celebrate with you as you come into the kingdom of God.

But whatever next step you need to take, we'll take the next few moments and worship the Lord together.