Leftovers - Romans 8:1-4

Here we go. Here we go. 1212 Yep, happy

Monday. Take 2A little with a little

extra on the intro because I forgot to arm a microphone.

That's my bad. It's fine.

You'll never know He was, Yeah, 10 seconds in, started over.

Pastor Matt's here with you on the ERC Leftovers.

Pastor Chris, wow, question. Yes, no, that's who I am.

That is who I am. And I will, I, I like saying it

that way. And if I stop saying it that

way, then man, our listeners would be so sad.

They'd be like why is Chris being so normal when he says his

name? I really, really drew it out.

Really drew it out. Added the question mark on the

end I. Can't go back now.

I've gone too far. I've done this too many weeks.

I would have to apologize for all of the former weeks if I

went backwards and I don't want to do that.

You shouldn't have to, and I know you're not going to, so I'm

not even not even going to ask you to do that.

Oh, man. But Speaking of things that make

me laugh, that you do. Come on.

Yes. Just another glimpse behind the

curtain here a little bit. It was only, it was only for the

first service, but I had brought up a few weeks ago, we, we

haven't always done this and we, it's not nearly a habit.

Haven't done it for a long time. I just every once in a while I

try to make sure that I know what page the, the scripture

passage for the messages and the in the Bibles that we have in

the sanctuary under the seats. And I got some feedback from a

few of that like that use those Bibles that like, that's really

helpful for me to just like, boom, count out the pages.

I know, I know where it is. I know where I'm going.

So I brought that up to you that hey, doesn't have to be every

week, but maybe a little more regularly.

We can be like, Hey, this is this is where we're at.

Helpful for a series like Roman. We're in Romans 8.

We're literally on the same like page now.

Now you know what page we're on and then we're on that.

We're on that page for weeks. But I wasn't I, I had the

feeling that you probably didn't have that ready to go in, in the

first service. So I quick, I get down from the

worship set and you're doing your intro.

Haven't gotten to the reading yet.

And I quick looked it up in the in the front, in the front row.

And I texted the guys back in the booth of like put a message

up there for Chris that the Bible number is is page 944.

So they put it up there and you're still, you're still doing

your like opening monologue, setting it up, setting the

context and everything. JT was actually back there like

under the TV, like pointing up at it, trying to get your

attention. And I look back and was like, I

was like, stop it because I know you're poker face.

Like if you see JT dancing around back there, like all hope

is lost. All hope was still lost because

you still just saw the message. And like, we got to make some

sort of rule that like any, anything on the screen, like

stays in your brain. It's not.

It's not a message broadcast for the whole room.

It's so difficult for me, I don't even know why, it just is.

It just broke the 4th wall just so hard.

I just. You know, Dang it, I don't know

how to do that very well. It was an endearing moment.

I feel like everyone like, yeah, it was.

It was funny. I, well, you know, I, I, I

suppose, if nothing else, when, when I am on stage on it on any

given Sunday, you are getting the real me.

It's true. Like, they're very true.

I'm not putting on a show, that's just who I am.

There's no doubt of that, yeah. So there you go.

You never have to question if the guy on stage is who he is

off the stage because yeah, I just flaws and all, there I am.

And what's even better, I didn't, I didn't cut that out of

the that's that's in you. You wanted the first service.

You wanted the first service to be posted on Spotify for your

message. So that little snafu is in there

because I don't usually nitpick those little edits.

It's it's fine. It'll be.

That's OK now. So fun fact, I don't, it's

unusual for me to go back into like listen to my own sermons

because I know it right now, I'm going to go back and listen to

at least the first couple minutes.

Here how that came out. Yeah, yeah, OK.

Spoilers. There's a little little

something in the a message from this week.

If you haven't listened to that or didn't catch the first

service, ah. Speaking of spoilers.

Spoilers. I have, I have a question for

you, OK. And this is a question that I

think is really important because it's about social

etiquette. It is.

It's really important social etiquette question in our

current day society. And the question kind of goes

like this. How long does a person have to

wait before they openly talk about the endings of movies and

TV shows like a mixed company? How long should you wait?

Wow. And so in books we're talking

about, we're talking about spoilers, endings of stories.

Yeah, endings of stories, books, movies, TV shows.

Like, how long do I have to wait until I just like, run my mouth

about so and so did this at the end and Oh my gosh, Can you

believe that twist? Well, I the the baseline, the

first thing that comes to my mind, and it's a little weird

because now we have, we kind of have like bingeable series.

It's funny how like shows have evolved.

You used to have to tune in like every before streaming.

Obviously you tuned in every Wednesday night at this time to

catch the show. And if you missed it, you better

pop your tape in the in the VCR tape recorder and, and have

yeah. Anyway, how far we've come now

you can bang next season of this show is out on Netflix and you

can just knock out 12 episodes in a day if you want, like.

I've done that before. So that's a little bit because

it used to be even in the not so.

And I'm not saying it it I'm just bringing this up because it

was a very followable series societally.

Like Game of Thrones was huge. Like the world stopped.

I think it was Sunday night's game of Game of Thrones came out

and and Twitter social media was was just a Twitter with with,

with comments and every so like you knew there were these groups

of people just like following what was what was happening.

We're very far removed from that, right?

Like we have no real perception other than maybe like movie

releases. I know season 5 of stranger

things that just came out like that was a big the conclusion of

this, that there was a little more of a following.

So I think we still have glimpses of that, but like take

a take your house MD, the medical drama that was probably

20 years old by 15, at least that it that it ended.

Even if you've never seen it before, you even you watching it

for the first time, like there's probably a good portion of

people that you know that maybe have seen it before, but there's

also an equal portion who probably haven't.

But it's like, how do you distinguish what people have or

haven't seen? I don't know, mind.

And all that is to say my initial thought is however many

seasons the show is, it must be at least that far away from the

final season. So, So Stranger Things, it's

five seasons, right? Season 5 just ended.

You have five years from right now, 2031.

You can talk freely about everything that happened in

Stranger Things. Wow.

That's not really based on anything.

That's just I just I just made that up because I think there's

also a few other parameters obviously OK to Star Wars.

You can't you. Oh man.

OK, and now. Star Wars.

That's, I don't even know, just be.

Careful say, I don't want to say the spoilers that I was going to

say, but like you can't give away the spoilers in Star Wars

to like a 5 year old, right? Like no, like no matter how far

away it is from Star Wars, you can't.

The five year old has not had enough time.

True. Understand the ramifications and

the conclusion of Star Wars, right.

So there's a little bit of age if we're limiting it to like

peer-to-peer adults or even like, I don't know ±10 years of

yourself, something like that, 'cause even, I don't know, even

some of our high school students that are like more like 20 years

younger than me, 30 years younger than you.

That's a long time. Like I wouldn't, I wouldn't

necessarily expect them to have seen scrubs, let's say like I.

I really enjoyed Scrubs there's. No way that a 16 year old

nowadays has watched all those scrubs.

No, nor should, but like, but like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't

just drop that on the the conclusion of that on a

teenager. I wouldn't expect them to have

taken interest in it and known it.

So I think you have to you have to be mindful of the age thing

too. But let's just keep it to like

peer adults. What's your time frame?

Yeah, So I don't know if I have a specific time frame, but

because of the way society and culture has evolved with its

entertainment, I have become very aware of, OK, have you seen

this show? OK, if the answer is no, now

I've got a couple paths to work with here I can say I can kind

of describe the show. And if they're like, oh, that

sounds cool, then I'll say OK, then I'm not going to tell you

anything else. But if they're like, Oh yeah, I

don't know, I'm never going to watch that.

But they're still mildly interested in the conversation,

then I'll probably tell them the big review or whatever that

might be because yeah, I'm never going to watch that.

And I've done that with people because they're like, oh, did

you watch blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, but I don't

know. I probably wouldn't.

What's it about? How's it end?

And I'll just ask. I'm just like, just tell me,

Just tell me the thing. So for example, Stranger Things,

you brought it up. I, I watched like the first part

of Season 5 and then I'd heard enough about the second set that

they released that I was like, no, I'm not going to watch that.

And then when the third set came out, my son had kind of said,

and he was a big Stranger Things fan and he's like dad, that was,

that was pretty underwhelming. I didn't, I didn't really like

the ending. And so him and I are enough

alike that I'm like, man, if you didn't really like it, I

probably wouldn't love it either.

So just tell me He's like, no. And I was like, he didn't want,

he didn't want to. He's like, no, I can't.

You got to watch it. I was like, but you just said it

wasn't very good. He's like, I know, but you

should still watch it. And I'm like, dude, I'm not

going to, I won't do it. And so I was like, just tell me.

And so like it, it was. It was.

Difficult. He did.

OK, if he hadn't, would you have like gone on Reddit and I just.

Would have looked it up. Yeah, I'm not going to.

I don't know. I'm not going to watch.

It I kind of respect a little bit his responsibility.

If you care enough about it, you'll watch it.

Like, yeah. No, and even though it's not

very. Good if you want to know like

you'll watch it. Yeah, no.

So I, I appreciated his like, his demeanor in that moment of

saying, oh, no, no, come on, man, don't, don't, don't tell me

to tell you. And I'm like, no, just tell me.

So I think, I think because he's grown up only in the era of

streaming and all that kind of stuff that he's hypersensitive

to it. Yeah, whereas, like, people my

age in their 40s were just like, well, like you described.

We used to watch. There's a show on Wednesday

night, TuneIn on Wednesday. Figure it out.

And I guess with the movies, I feel like it's a little

different. Obviously there's not like the

season timeline that I, that I yeah, threw out there as, as

kind of a this show was five years long.

So you have 5 years from the end of that to give out spoilers

like like for someone RA someone between 35 and 45 years old.

If I was talking to someone and actually there's close friends

of mine who go to this church that I do not care about Star

Wars, then it's I always forget that when I I bring up Star Wars

things and they don't, they just don't know my.

Wife is one of those she just. But so that's I would not feel

even if she's I would not feel bad about Star Wars spoilers for

someone my age. I, I, I just, I wouldn't.

If you have, if you've made it into your 4th decade of life and

haven't seen that, I don't. There's no feeling of ruining

that for you for sure. I guess sure.

Yeah, that's. Fair, Yeah, Something that like

there was there was something a few years back when Avengers end

game came out, came out, there was there was a running back

with Sean McCoy in the NFL. He went and he went to like the

first showing on the East Coast of the thing and tweeted out

like tweeted spoiler to his millions of followers.

Like he he tweeted plot lines. Yeah, like you can't do that on

opening that, no. I I would write that guy hate

mail. Yeah, if I was sure.

Oh my. God, yeah, he got a lot of

ridicule for that. But like, that's, yeah, that's

crazy. Oh man, so by the way, Speaking

of all this, This is why movies that I really care about or

shows that I really care about. You see, first thing I.

I mean, so like for example, the you brought up Avengers, the the

next Avengers big, big movie Doomsday.

It's in my calendar. I am going on the Thursday it

releases because I am so afraid of hearing something that I want

to hear. Like I'm the kind of person,

like if I know I want to go see a movie, I don't even want to

watch the previews because previews are getting longer and

longer. They're 2 1/2, three minutes

long now. And it's like you already showed

me all of the best parts, like, you know, so I I don't even

watch previews for movies I want to see.

So what do you do? What do you do with?

So like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, there are epic

book series of these stories. And I guess, yeah.

So maybe it doesn't exactly apply because at the time there

are some people who had never read a page of either of those.

And we're just going to see the movies and that's how they

follow the story. But there's another hand of

people who have read all the books.

They know how it ends even though they haven't seen the

movies. What do you do with those

spoilers? But because you could like the

the rest of the story is available to you to go read, but

not so like someone going into Return of the King who hasn't

read the books. What what he as a person who has

read the books, am I under the same like spoilers scrutiny,

scrutiny there? Or is this hey, you could have

you could have finished the story.

I'm going to talk freely about this.

That's a great question. I don't know what the answer is.

Wow. For you bookworms out there,

like I feel, I feel like if you've done the work to read the

book. Well, you.

Get a, you get a pass. Yeah.

I mean, come on. Yeah, I'm with you on that.

I'm totally with you on that. What's also funny to me, just

cause. And actually maybe you can shed

some light on this. I feel like we give away

spoilers every week at church like.

OK. I don't, I can't.

I would like to meet someone who who actually like read the story

of Jesus and didn't know how it ended right.

Like, like we, we give away the end, but like give someone the

gospel of John who doesn't doesn't know, like how does that

because we give away spoilers every week.

Like we give away how it ends every week, right?

And then we kind of backtrack and talk about why it was

necessary for it to end that way or why it's great that it ended

that way and all the other stuff.

So. Wow, I don't know.

I have never thought about it that way.

I'm just saying every week we're giving spoilers, we're giving

Jesus spoilers. Wow, but.

And I'm not saying, I'm not saying it's essential, you don't

have to read it chronologically like that, but I just, I don't

know, in the spoiler discussion, that was an interesting part in

my head. That's intriguing.

You know what, now that I think about it, this is kind of funny.

So I'm I'm very like I'm very well pointed in like how I

produce like a sermon. So like every week I'll tell you

like, we're going here here, and then this is how we're ending.

So like there's no real not, I don't know if there needs to be,

but there's no real mystery in terms of like even my.

Sermon is. Yeah.

So like if you were in church yesterday, you, you know, that

we were going to end with freedom in Christ.

And I don't know if that, I don't know if that was better.

I don't know if that's better or worse for people.

I I have no idea. I guess I haven't thought about

it from that, from that angle. We're open to full blown

critiques any anytime, anytime in person in the comments.

That's what we're here for. Well, and actually, you know, in

seminary, or at least our seminary for sure, there's at

least two different kinds of sermon delivery styles that you

would learn about. 1 is in our like deductive, right?

And the other one is what? Inductive and one is more so

like I'm going to tell you where we're going.

The other one is like, join me for the ride and let's see.

Where we're going to go to where we're going, Yeah.

So, yeah, OK, OK, that's interesting.

I. Don't know, I just.

Yeah. I've never met anyone who like

sees it that way. Like you gave away the end, bro.

After you like like you told me, you came.

Back from the dead. Right.

I've never, like, experienced that sort of spoiler outrage.

Yeah, so that'd be weird. I know, but like that's the one

time it's acceptable apparently. Apparently 2000 years.

That's the barometer dude. If it's if it happened 2000

years ago, spoilers. Were free 2000 years.

That's the line friends. Now you know.

There it is. Glad we came to that conclusion.

Yikes. All right, well, if you caught

the message yesterday or if you missed the message yesterday, we

are in Romans 8 all the way up and through Easter.

We're concluding the series on April 5th, Easter.

We have a couple things that Holy Week as well we're going to

have. So the Thursday before Easter,

we're going to have the Hillcrest Choir, which if you

don't know. So we're part of the Church of

Lutheran Brethren and that is a Lutheran Brethren High School

that is in Fergus Falls, MN, kind of where our synodical

headquarters are. And they do a spring choir tour

with their, with their high school choir and we're gonna

host them on Maundy Thursday of, of Holy Week.

I believe that's the first, the 2nd, April 2nd.

And then we do have a Good Friday service as well that

Friday evening. So Thursday, Friday and then

Easter Sunday morning we'll have a service at usual times of 9:00

and 10:45 on Easter Sunday, So only 9 Sundays away.

Oh. It's very close to now.

So, so a little plug for the Hillcrest Choir, that is they do

a phenomenal job. They are extremely talented and

and very well rehearsed. And so if that's something that

you're even kind of interested in, invite your friends because

that's wide open to our community for anybody to come.

And we would love for you to pack out ERC to support the

kiddos and just hear some really amazing music.

Yeah, very, very well done. Not your average high school

choir. They they do very well.

And you're actually you're hearing that first here.

We haven't announced that anywhere else.

I think so hey, podcast listeners, you get a little

inside scoop on stuff. So yeah, spread the word.

We are in Romans 8 and you backtracked a little bit to

Romans 7 because it is it is important what the therefore is

therefore none. Well, you said that the.

Therefore is there. Did I say that the Therefore is

there for? I thought you said that

yesterday that we we have to see what the therefore is there for

probably I. Probably.

I don't know. I probably would have giggled

that I said it, because that struck me as funny.

OK, maybe you didn't. That's how I've always said that

when it wherever, whenever there's a there for, you have to

see what the there for is there for.

That was Debian confirmation class.

That was. That was from him.

That stuck with me for 30 years. Anyway, because and it's just

with the therefore obviously none of the books of the Bible

start with therefore, like that's that's not the first word

in any of the books of the Bible.

There there therefore is declaratory based on what I just

said, right. So it's not, it's not a starter,

it's a it's a middle transition statement.

So we have to see why it's there.

You backtrack to verse 21 and Chapter 7.

I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies

close at hand. For I delight in the law of God

and my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging

war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law

of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of

death? Thanks be to God through Jesus

Christ our Lord. So then, I myself serve the law

of God with my mind, With my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

Wow. I, you know, I was just looking

and there's this, there's this cool little thing that it's on

the David Guzik Enduring word and anybody can access that.

It's just on the Internet. It's free to everybody.

And there's a couple of different people that he quotes

within these verses. And CS Lewis said this, anyone

who has tried to do good is aware of this struggle.

We never know how hard it is to stop sinning until we try quote.

No man knows how bad he is until he has to try to be good.

And the tension of that is so it's like palpable.

You can feel it, you know, and, and so I mean, in our life group

last night, we end up having a longer conversation about this

very thing of, you know, I, I know the right thing to do.

I, I know it like I'm, it's, it's obvious to me.

And yet somehow, somehow there is this kind of quiet ish desire

or want to just not do that thing.

And in fact, probably to do the exact opposite.

And what, what an incredible battle that is for all of us.

I think I hopefully it's a battle.

Hopefully it's not just, well, I'll just do the wrong thing

because that's what I feel like. Right.

And I thought you keyed in on that really well yesterday that

I mean, the words are there that this is a war against the law of

my mind, my my bodily members warring against the law of my

mind. So we are in this conflict, this

battle that that word captive to the law of sin you described as

as kind of prisoner of war is really more of what it is

because we have this, we have this conflict.

So yeah, there's it. It feels a little unnatural to

to say that. And, and Paul writes that in

other places too, Like why do I continue to do what I do not

want to do? I know I know what's right and I

know what's wrong and I continue to do the wrong thing.

You keyed in on the the the point there of it should feel

like a war, like it there should be conviction of even when

you're drawn into sin. The scariest place to be would

where would be where there's no longer conviction in that action

where we're sin feels normal or or unremorseful, right?

Normalizing sin is so dangerous. And I think we, I think it's

easy to do that, not because we don't love God, but because if

it is normalized in the entire culture around me, then I have

to be the big weirdo who's like, no, that's not what I'm doing.

So, you know, for example, there could be a movie or TV show, you

know, you brought up Game of Thrones.

So it could be a movie or TV show that seemingly the world is

kind of going after. And I'll just speak personally,

my wife and I, we watched, I don't even think we made it

through the first episode. And we're like, Nah, this isn't

for us. And then for the next several

years, I had to listen to people go, Oh my gosh, that was all,

dude, did you see that? And I, I did have this weird

nagging feeling of being left out.

But at the same time, my wife and I had together decided this

is not it for us. And so I had to stick to my guns

on that also while feeling left out, you know?

And so I think like the normalization of sin within our

society can make Christians feel left out when we don't normalize

what the rest of the culture is doing.

And that is another war, you know, of sorts that we have to

deal with. And not to make light of it the,

the, the FOMO fear of missing out that you're talking about

there. But I mean, again, if we turn to

scripture, Lord did not give us a spirit of fear, but a bit of

life and a freedom, right? So like FOMO should not be

governing your choices right there.

There's probably very little redeeming qualities and

something that you're feeling a fear of missing out for.

That's not the reason you should engage in that.

There might be redeemable reasons for whatever there there

might be. Hey, hey, you do you have a fear

of missing out on life group? Sure, you should like you should

you should act on that and you should jump into community.

That's that's a that's a holy fear.

But yeah, with those pair that with the do not let your mind

conform any longer to the pattern of this world.

Are are you fearing missing out the patterns of this world?

You should probably should probably let that be.

You should probably be OK with missing out on that.

So well and interesting that you bring up the word fear.

We don't make good decisions when we're fearful.

And actually, it's interesting in the financial peace class

that we're running right now, on Sunday afternoons, they were

talking about marketing and how marketers get you to buy things

that you don't really need. And a major play in that is

fear. Fear of missing out or fear of

not being prepared for something or whatever.

And so fear does not allow us to make great decisions in general.

So you're absolutely correct about that, Yeah.

So ditch the FOMO not formed by feelings continuing on Romans 8

verse one because of because of this, because of this war going

on, who will deliver me Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ

our Lord. So then I'm serving the law of

God with my mind, with my flesh. I serve the law of sin.

But because we have thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our

Lord, Romans 81. There is therefore now no

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of

the Spirit of life that set you free in Christ Jesus from the

law of sin and death. For God is done with the law,

weakened by the flesh, could not do freedom.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. So what does that say?

Removing the fear, removing the condemnation for who, how, why?

For those who are in Christ Jesus.

So being in Christ is something that I want if I don't want to

live in fear or condemnation, right?

Yep. And so then we, I did not have,

I didn't know. I probably should have, but I

didn't take the time yesterday to accurately describe.

OK, so if we're going to be using this phrase because Paul

uses it a lot in Christ, what does that actually mean to be in

Christ? What does that look like?

So there's some, of course, very surface level practical ways to

do that. You know, the Bible would tell

us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be

saved. OK, So as I call in the name of

Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, then the Bible would

therefore tell me I am in Christ because I'm putting my faith in

Him. I'm putting my trust in my hope,

and I'm putting my eternity in His hands.

That makes me in Christ. However, there's other ways that

I'm in Christ too. In my baptism, I am in Christ

because in my baptism God washes me clean.

He imbues me with the Holy Spirit in communion.

I am in Christ, in Christ is in me through the body and blood of

Jesus. And so there's these practical

ways that we become, you know, in Christ.

And that's just a few. And so this is this is from the

cause of commentary too. And during word, this in Christ

phrase imports that there is a mystical and spiritual union

betwixt Christ and believers. Wow, didn't think I was going to

wake up and say betwixt today, but there it is.

That's a good one. This is sometimes expressed by

Christ being in them and hereby they're being in Christ.

Christ is in believers by his spirit and his believers are in

Christ by faith, right? So those are the, that's the

kind of meat and potatoes of, of in Christ language, right?

You're you're in Christ. Christ is in us by his Spirit.

We talked about that a few weeks ago that the temple of of the

Holy Spirit, right. It's the the indwelling, the the

seal of salvation that the Holy Spirit is for the believer and

believers are in Christ by faith.

This then is there is therefore therefore now no condemnation

and that changes our state. It's not we're less guilty.

It's we are not guilty. Oh wow, that's a fantastic way

to put that. It's not less guilty.

It's not at all. Wow.

My goodness, Matt Schweitzer, that was that's really good.

I really like that a lot. No, I I just think, you know,

I'm not anybody who knows me. I'm not.

I think it's good to memorize scripture to keep that, you

know, squarely in your mind and your heart.

However, I myself am not a huge like I'm not in my office

looking at flash cards trying to memorize stuff so I can sound

really smart and whatever when people bring stuff up.

But if there was ever a verse to memorize to to make sure that we

are grounded in the grace of Jesus Christ, Romans 81 might be

the thing. Because for sure with this

struggle between our sin nature of the flesh and and what the

Spirit wants to do in and through us when we fail, man,

the accuser is right on the door.

Like, see, I told you you're, you're not what you say you are

and he's just pushing and poking all of the time.

And then I think you said it recently, maybe maybe during the

worship set, man, we have to preach to ourselves.

We do we have to preach the gospel to ourselves.

And if I need a gospel moment to preach to myself, oftentimes

when there is failure and there is sin in my life, well, guess

what? It should be Romans 81 because I

am not condemned, I am set free. I am I, I am declared not

guilty, the opposite of condemnation, right?

I'm declared not guilty in Christ.

And so to hold on to that with the tightest grip I possibly

can. So important.

Yeah, and that's so I read from Psalm 42 yesterday, which David

is also having this sort of wrestling sequence between,

between sin and and depression, anxiety, guilt from that and and

hope in, in that same preaching way I think that Paul is doing

here. He's he's wrestling in this war

between his mind and his flesh and and he's preaching to

himself. But I'm in Christ and there is

no condom. I'm, I'm in right standing

before God because of Christ. It's the same thing that David's

saying in Psalm 42. Why are you downcast on my soul?

Put your hope in God. He is he is my salvation and my

God. Like that's that's the same

thing in Christ. That's that's where I've been

sheltered and found because there's a flip side of this too.

This is this is another thought from from Charles Spurgeon.

If you are not in Jesus Christ, there is condemnation for you.

If if, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who

are in Christ, that means there is condemnation for those who

are not in Christ. He says it's no pleasant task

for it to have to speak of this matter.

But who are we that we should ask for pleasant task?

What God has witnessed in Scripture is the sum and

substance of what the Lord's servants are to testify to the

people. If you are not in Christ Jesus

and walking after the flesh, you have not escaped from

condemnation. Yeah, and well, and let's go to

John chapter 3. For God so loved the world that

John 3 · chapter mention

he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should

not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the

world, but in order that the world might be saved through

him. Verse 18 Whoever believes is not

condemned. And then here's the big punch.

But whoever does not believe is condemned already.

Ouch. Presently standing Condemned.

Yes, right. And and I mean, how much more

than do we need Romans 81 as we come into a fruition and

understanding of our sin nature and how badly we failed God.

I, I, I can't help but just totally feel like I understand

another human being who I've never met when Paul, you know,

says wretched man that I am in verse 24, wretched.

And The thing is like the closer I draw to Christ, the more I can

feel that, but it doesn't destroy me.

It doesn't destroy me. It just makes me cling to Jesus

all the more and so. And that's, and that's the thing

for Christians that we need to constantly get.

We need to be aware of our sin. We need to repent of it.

We need to know it exists. We need to all those things.

And Paul rightly declares himself wretched.

He and in that word can be also be translated.

I am a miserable being. Really.

Look at how miserable I am. Right.

So we can simultaneously declare that, while we also declare no

condemnation, while we also declare freedom, while we also

declare life. But we don't do that through Hey

man, I'm doing better than I was last week.

No, we do that through. I'm clinging on to Jesus for my

every moment, for my every need, because He's the one who

declares me through His work, righteous He is.

He has given that to me, despite the fact that I am wretched,

which shows His great and His unending and His steadfast love.

Amen. There it is.

So that brings us back though too.

We want to be, we want to be in Christ and that's the OK Spirit

dwells in him. You, you've professed faith in

there and therefore you are in Christ.

So the Spirit dwells in the believer.

But how do we, how do we arrive on that?

I think it's back to the, the John 3 passage that you were

just talking about, verse 15 and John 3.

Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal

life right there. So faith comes about by by

profession of belief. It's by grace through faith,

right? So declaring I'm a Sinner in

need of God's grace, Jesus Christ poured his life out on

the crossroads from the dead. That declaring that belief,

there's also the the sacrament of baptism, right?

There's we, we do baptize infants.

We'll baptize any any believer, but infant baptism, we do

believe there's a there's an outpouring of grace like it's

it's a gift of faith. Is it, is it the same faith that

is professed by the person? Well, in light of salvation?

Arguably, yes, right? Of course it doesn't get that.

We're not saying that baby has declared their faith, but also

that's possibly focusing on the wrong thing in baptism.

Who's who's doing the work? Do we, do we get the gift of

faith because of our work of declaring it?

Or is it actually a gift? And that's the picture we see in

baptizing an infant, right? It's God doing the work.

It's God imparting faith through grace, right?

By grace through faith. Yeah, so.

So. That's that's the the how the,

the how you are found in Christ. If you're not baptized and and

you're professing these things, yeah, we let's get you baptized.

Let's do it. If if you are parents of

children that you you want to dedicate, enter into this faith

that you possess. Yeah, baptize them now at the

the phrase in Matthew 28, the Great Commission is baptize and

teach. So yes, we can impart this gift

of faith by grace poured out in baptism.

And then they're in your household.

They're brought up in these things you talked about in the

past couple weeks, this generational inheritance of, of

faith, right. Like that's that's what family

under the lordship of of Christ is.

That's how it's designed. We're not, we're not baptizing

them as babies and hoping they figure it out on their own.

No, we should be, we should be enriching and imparting and

teaching these, these things, these these greater tenets of

faith. We're not just eating baby food,

right? We should be building them up,

teaching them up, bring it, bringing them into adulthood of,

of faith and a deeper understanding of things, right?

So. Very good.

Yeah. And so, I mean, The thing is,

like with infant baptism, we're also, we're, we are, we are

saying who's doing the work, right?

I mean, come on, like, I can declare it all day, but man,

it's still God who's doing the work in me to be able to declare

it. And so I mean, plus add, add the

fact that David makes it painfully clear that, I mean,

from the moment of his conception, he was sinful.

Even prior to breathing air, he was a sinful being because that

has been passed down to us through the generations, through

Adam and Eve. And so it is totally appropriate

to, through baptism, wash those sins away and give the Holy

Spirit so that in their more mature years, that child,

through teaching and through growing up in a church

community, can come to a mature faith that then can, by the Holy

Spirit declare that faith. But it is all done on God's

work, God's back, God's effort, never ours.

Yeah, washing and regeneration still necessary, needed.

That's that's the point that even that infant that that baby

is bad. So the washing and regeneration

in baptism is still absolutely applicable to to that little

life. So yeah, that's nuts and bolts

of in Christ. I think verse 2 in Romans 8, we

kind of worked through that. For the law of the spirit of

life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and

death. For God has done what the law

weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own Son in the

likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh. I want to OK, so I want to pick

your brain on this a little bit. This was part of the the small

group questions condemned sin in the flesh.

What what are we getting at here?

Because I think I think there's a couple different meanings that

you can like Garner from this phrase.

Well, the I think the most obvious one on the surface is

that and we talked about it yesterday during the Sunday

services, is that God did, Jesus did endure that condemnation in

his very flesh. And yes, Jesus is God and Jesus

is man. He is fully both.

And I think, you know, I've heard it elsewhere and I think

this is just ridiculous that somehow Jesus.

It's as if, like his, you know, his feelings were turned off and

so that way he wasn't actually feeling the pain of that

condemnation in his flesh. Baloney.

I don't believe that for a second.

No way. He couldn't be fully man if he

just turned off his those, you know, feeling receptacles and

like, yeah, he can't just turn off his nerve ending to be like,

well, just another day. No, like he is fully man.

And so again, I think the most obvious on the surface 1 is Yep,

he absolutely felt every single one of those lashes, every

punch, every kick, every, every time somebody he felt all that

stuff. And that is God literally

condemning sin in the. In being in the flesh, right?

The full, the fully man part of Jesus that was, that was fully

perfect and lived it up, but also endured that fleshly death,

right? That that's how he condemned sin

in in the flesh, being in the flesh for us, in our place,

right? Yep, and I mean, I don't think

it's, I don't think it's a coincidence that Paul uses the

word likeness when talking about Jesus as a man because we are

made in God's image and likeness.

Therefore 100% man, 100% God. God giving up his right and his

ability to say no, I've had enough.

No, he, he's like, I'm going to take this for you because you

need me to. So that's at least one way to

look at this. Did you have another thought

coming out of your life group? No, that was, I mean, that was

where we ended on. I just don't want to hear the

condemnation of sinning in the flesh right and and don't hear

don't hear what I'm saying there is condemnation for sinning in

the flesh for those who are not in Christ Jesus right that there

is losing that war to the law of sin with the flesh that he's

talking about in Chapter 7. Like that's yes, that that there

is condemnation for sin of the flesh in that but in Christ

that's that's where the victory is right because he came in the

flesh to condemn sin in his in his flesh.

By that verse 4, the righteous requirement of the law might be

fulfilled in US who are not walk not according to the flesh, but

according to the Spirit. That's the spirit in dwell part

right. Those are who have believed in

Christ, then have the spirit in them and by the Spirit Christ

has fulfilled the righteous requirement.

We're not again, we're, we're standing before God, not less

guilty, but not guilty at, at all, right?

So that's fulfilling the requirement of law.

We're standing spotless, perfect before God, because we're in

Christ. Well, and you know, to to walk

according to the spirit, you might ask, what would that even

look like? To which you could pretty

quickly. And there's, there's a lot of

different ways to describe this, but I think maybe the quickest

way to describe this is the person walking according to the

Spirit. You know what they're going to

do, they're going to produce fruit as the Bible would talk

about it. And so, you know, what are the

fruits of the Spirit? Joy, peace, patience, kindness,

etcetera, etcetera. And so, you know, for the person

who is walking with Christ, who's in Christ, we've talked

about this before. But if I declare Christ as my

Lord and King, and then I live the same way I've been living

like perfectly exactly, you know, as before I declared

Christ as my king. Am I walking in the spirit or am

I just using words? We do need to allow God to shape

what we do, how we act, how we speak to people.

And we're, you know, we say it all the time.

We're not going to be perfect at that, of course, because we are

still sinners. However, there ought to be a

change. There should be some kind of

change that people go that's different.

I would have thought that they would have reacted differently

to that moment based on what I've known about them

previously. But no, like if I'm walking in

the spirit, there's going to be a change in my behavior.

Yeah, absolutely. And that kind of rings me if, if

you have more thoughts we can bring those into.

But I wanted to get to this closing thought of the song we

did yesterday. We closed the service a little

differently, didn't bring the whole band back up and didn't

really do a it was kind of a hard song to follow along.

It was more of a or at least sing along with it.

It was more of a descriptive sort of prayerful reflection

song. It's called Barabbas.

It's by Josiah Queen. But I got AI got a question

about that, like why? And it's just a matter of

perspective. The the perspective of the song

is not that we are friends of Barabbas, It's that we are

Barabbas. Like the the perspective of the

song is sung from Barabbas watching Jesus take his put

quite literally take his place on on the cross.

That would have been for him. And that's what Jesus has done

for each and every one of us who are in Christ, right?

We are Barabbas. So that song is just kind of it.

It should be to some degree each and every one of our personal

testimonies. Why did he he didn't deserve to

serve my penalty. That's that's our perspective of

of Jesus. I'll never understand the

repercussions of my every sin. Is it hatred or is it simply

pouring out from bitterness? That's some of the questions

that that Paul's asking here. Why do why do I battle this that

why do I still do these fleshly things?

That is outright rebellion hatred.

Is it is it bitterness for something?

Is it retribution for for things.

So anyway, that was just that was kind of the heart by that we

are Barabbas. That is our perspective towards

Christ. But those who are found in

Christ then call him friend right there.

There's no condemnation for those who who have believed who

are calling him friends. So that's kind of the closing

line you took upon my cross. I'll never I'll never.

Oh man, I can't run away. That's what it is.

I can't run away from what I accuser say.

We said we still feel that right.

We still feel that tension. We feel that condemnation, but

because we're calling to Christ where we're in Christ, we're

believing in Christ. I am Barabbas, your friend.

That's where we can rest in, in not having condemnation.

I actually, it rang so true with me yesterday and even today as

you kind of repeated it. I can't run from what my accuser

say, man, you know what? I I could try and I have tried.

And when I try and maybe I've even feel like I succeed in

running away, all I've done is I've justified myself.

Instead of allowing Christ to justify me through what he's

done, I've just justified myself.

But here's the beautiful part about this.

I don't have to run anymore. I am free.

I can get off the treadmill of self.

You know of that denial and I can stop running away from the

truth about me and I can look at it in the face and say, Yep,

that was me. But in Christ I am a new

creation. And all the more come at me with

your accusations. I'll probably agree with you.

But I also have Romans 81. There's there.

There's now therefore no condemnation for me in Christ

Jesus. So I don't have to run anymore.

And that is real freedom. Yeah, that's it.

So if you haven't listened to Pastor Chris sermon from

yesterday again, I thought you just hit it out of the park,

man. Very well said.

Thanks for kicking us off in this series in Romans.

Thanks for tuning in, listening to some more thoughts, things

that we, yeah, just couldn't cram into the message yesterday

or some just. Yeah, points we wanted to

highlight from yesterday, too. Thanks for tuning in.

Share the leftovers with with someone if you'd like to Feel

free to comment on your thoughts of spoilers and why it's OK that

we do that at church, but also what the yeah, what the timeline

for things is, what's what's acceptable.

We'll be back with you next week.

Have a blessed week, Church.