Romans – Spirit vs. Flesh

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Well, we are in week eight of a 10-week series, a landmark long-running series for Access on the Book of Romans.

And I don't know about you, but for me personally, this series has been so impacting and challenging because I love just sometimes, you know, I'm going through my read through the Bible in a year and I'm trying to check it off.

I'm going fast.

I have loved taking a minute to stop and to pause and to really dig into the book of Romans.

Have you enjoyed that?

Yeah, I have really enjoyed that this week.

And uh I have the distinct privilegeslash impossible task of talking to you about Romans 8.

Uh before we start that, I want to tell you a few summers ago, my family took a vacation and we had our kids, and we said, let's go to Washington, D.C., let's show them the White House, the Capitol, all the things.

And so we did that, and then I had a childhood memory growing up of going to the sweetest place on earth, Hershey Park.

Has anyone ever been to Hershey Park, Pennsylvania?

Yeah, genuinely the sweetest place.

If you don't like chocolate, don't go.

It is like this is for chocolatey loving people, of which I am chief sinners.

Yeah.

So we went to DC, then we took a drive up to Pennsylvania.

It's not far.

It's not like Florida, where you drive for a day in the same state.

Up north, you'd be driving, you go through like 10 states.

Um, so we get on our way into Pennsylvania, we pass through like the Pennsylvania Dutch Amish country.

If you guys have been there, you know the food is good.

If no one has ever told you, stop.

Stop there.

And if there are horses and buggies outside, the food's gonna be lit.

Okay?

That's if you get nothing else from this message today.

I hope you get that.

Um, so we come across a place, and I'm kidding, on the way to our Airbnb.

I have to, I have to picture to show you.

It's called Shady Maple Schmorgesboard.

Okay?

Schmorg, everybody say schmorges board.

Yeah, if you don't get a shhmorgus at the beginning, you're not saying it right.

It's not smorgasboard, it's shmorgasboard.

Um, and I'm like, what is this beautiful place?

And so, you know, we keep going.

I think I have another angle of it.

Yeah, just you know, a different here it is, shitty maple, okay?

I look it up, and on the sign it says it's the world's largest smorgasboard.

So I'm intrigued, okay?

I'm intrigued.

There's horses and buggies outside, and I'm like, what is this beautiful thing that awaits us?

So we go inside, and I kid you not, this looks like a city, okay, of food.

Like y'all have been to like the Golden Corral or like, you know, I don't know, some buffet.

This is not a buffet, my friends.

To call this a buffet would be to insult the schmorgas board.

No, this was a city as far as you could turn.

There was food different.

In fact, I brought a picture of the menu.

Let me let me read this to you, okay?

Because I want you all to grasp the significance that for lunch, for just$14.49 plus tax only on Monday through Friday.

Um, okay.

Can I tell you if you can't read this, let me read this for you.

It includes, you ready, 46 salad bar items.

I don't know what are 46 things you could put on a salad, but Shady Maple does.

Um eight homemade breads.

Okay.

Like uh enrolls, five soups, six cheeses.

I don't know.

That one gets me.

Six cheeses, eight meats.

Okay, 14 vegetables.

I don't even think most of you could name 14 vegetables right now.

Ten, okay, so this is where it starts to get fun to me.

Ten cold desserts, but then four hot desserts, but then specifically eight pies.

So, so the eight pies is not included in the four hot desserts.

I don't even know.

Okay, so ten cold desserts, four hot desserts, eight pies, six cakes, Sunday bar, many beverages, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Okay.

This is unbelievable, right?

So we go in and I'm a little overwhelmed, okay?

I'm like, what where do I start?

You know?

And we just set the kids free with a plate.

We were like, you know, YOLO, have fun.

And so I'm with my plate, and like I'm not a psychopath, okay?

So I start at the salad bar like a human, um, because I'm not a monster.

And so I'm going and I get my salad and like a little bit of accoutrements, and just like whatever.

And all of a sudden, Jason just like whirls by with the biggest smile on his face I've ever seen on his plate.

He has a piece of steak, a junk hump of banana pudding, and a waffle.

And it just says, This is the best place ever.

And I was just like, okay, like he's just diving in.

He didn't do it in order.

He was just like, you know what?

I like this, I like this, I like this.

As soon as I got back to the table with my salad, like a respectable human, I Gavin had like a hot chocolate and a scoop of ice cream.

Like, no one cared that day at the shady maple.

Um, and I tell you all this to tell you that when Pastor Jason said you're gonna be speaking on Romans 8, this is a little bit how I felt.

Okay?

Romans 8, if Romans is like the crown book of the New Testament, Romans 8 as a chapter is a smorgasbord of incredible things.

Like I said, how am I supposed to preach on Romans 8?

There is so much in there to cover.

So I was looking at it and I said, Look, I can't come up with one thing.

Is it okay if I do things a little different today?

And he said, Yeah, sure.

And I said, I'm gonna give them five mini sermonettes, like five little devotionals, because there's too much good stuff.

And even then, I'm still not scratching the surface of how good this chapter is.

I cannot challenge you enough this week to go home.

Read it in every version.

So if you have the Bible app, this is what I love about it.

You could say, click NIV, click New King Dreams Version, click ESV, click NLT.

Do it, and you'll get something different out of it every time because this chapter is life-changing.

So we're gonna do it a little different today.

Is that okay?

All right, awesome.

Too late now.

What are you gonna say?

No?

Yeah.

You're like, no.

I'm like, okay, well, um, great.

Well, let's pray and then we're gonna dive into this today, all right?

Lord, thank you for this time together.

Thank you for your word.

Your word is so precious.

It's a feast to our minds and our hearts and our spirits.

So today we just say, Lord, come and have your way in this service.

We open up our hearts, we open up our minds, we open up our eyes to all you would have for us.

And especially, God, open our ears to hear from you today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I want to start right at the top.

Our first mini-sermonet is this no condemnation.

Say no condemnation.

This is right at the top of the chapter, Romans 8.1, it says this.

Therefore, Pastor Jason said a few weeks ago, if it says therefore, you get to ask what?

What's it?

Therefore.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What's it there for?

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

This is a very quoted verse of the Bible, yes?

This is a very, I gotta say, misquoted verse of the Bible, or probably abused verse of the Bible.

But let me go back, okay?

Pastor Jason said last week, by the way, he said last week, he's like, this is an Aliyo message, and I'm gonna kick it up, and then the person next week's gonna slam dunk it.

And I was in the front, like, don't say that.

Like, I don't, I make no guarantees that I'm gonna slam dunk anything, first of all.

Anyway, but this is what it is.

At the end of chapter 7, all right, Paul is writing to the Roman church here in Romans, okay?

Paul's the author.

At the end of chapter 7, I don't have it in your notes, but you can look, he ends in a state of despair.

In fact, he says, What a wretched man am I.

And then we get to eight, verse one, just a few verses over, and he's saying, There is no condemnation.

How did that happen?

Well, the Greek word here for condemnation is a word that means you would have been condemned to death.

Condemned for your sin to death.

And it says this in your notes that condemnation is the opposite of what?

Of justification.

This is sort of a legal term.

We've been justified by Christ.

What does that mean?

That means we've been acquitted.

If you're a lawyer, if you have knowledge of the courtroom, you've been acquitted of your sin.

Well, what does that mean?

That means that you no longer have to pay the price for your sin.

Why?

Because you are not condemned.

Why?

Because we have now the power to defeat sin.

Why?

Because Jesus came and died for our sins.

So we aren't condemned.

Now let me make this clear up from the front.

Not being condemned does not mean we don't feel convicted, right?

Not being condemned does not mean we go on sinning because it's like, well, I'm not condemned, so I can do it anyway, right?

No, no, no, no, no, no.

That's not what the verse means at all.

The verse means that before Jesus' sacrifice, you had a price to pay.

You were condemned to death because we were all born sinful, right?

But now we're not condemned because Jesus' blood came and he justified us, he acquitted us.

And yet, this is what's strange to me.

How many of us would say we still walk around living like we are condemned?

I see it in my office week after week after week, people who come in and say, You don't know about my sin.

You don't know what I've done.

And yet, if there is no condemnation, why do we as believers continue to live as if we are condemned?

Somebody may have walked in here today, feeling like Paul at the end of chapter 7, saying, I'm so wretched, what a wretched person I am.

In fact, you may come to church on Sunday in some effort to appease God, in some effort to gain God points and say, if I show up at church, he'll probably be a little less angry with me.

No, God is not angry with you.

God is saying there's no condemnation.

You are not condemned to death.

In fact, when you continue to live condemned, you know what you're doing?

You're laughing in the face of a great sacrifice that Jesus paid to die for your sins.

He died for you so that you don't have to be condemned.

So why would I continue to live like I am?

And I have to think, what changed for Paul?

Like at the end of chapter 7, he's going, I'm a wretched man, oh, this and that.

And then at the beginning of eight, he's saying, There is no condemnation.

Well, what what changed?

See, let me tell you about Paul.

If you don't already know, if you're new to the Bible or if you've been a while, Paul wasn't born Paul, he was born Saul.

And Saul was a great persecutor of Christians.

He literally had Christians put to death.

That's how bad of a wretched man he was.

And yet he has this incredible encounter with God.

God changes his life and in fact gives him a new name.

He says, You're not Saul anymore, you're gonna be Paul.

And if Paul can find out from his sin that he went from I'm a wretched man to there is no condemnation, then what are we all doing walking around condemned for our past?

Your past doesn't have power over you.

You have been acquitted.

And when you live condemned, you live like the sacrifice of Jesus meant nothing.

And we don't want to do that.

You are no longer condemned.

So let me ask you this question.

It's in your notes.

What would change for you if you lived like there was no condemnation?

What would change for you?

Would you maybe walk in here a little taller?

Would you maybe stop disqualifying yourself to serve because you say, oh man, you don't know about my past.

I uh you don't know how bad I messed up.

They they wouldn't have me in the church.

Would you stop condemning yourself if you really lived like you believed that God has acquitted you of your sin?

This is what I want you to do.

All through these sermonettes, I don't know, that's another word.

I don't know if it's a word.

It's cute, it's a sermonette.

Um, all through these, I have these little questions for you, and I want you to take them home all week, and I want you to chew on this.

It's homework, yeah?

This can't be it, guys.

I say this every time I'm up here, but this can't be your God time for the week.

You gotta go home and dig into this.

You gotta go before the Lord and say, Lord, what are you teaching me about this?

And ask yourself, what would change for me if I stopped living like I was condemned?

Because let me tell you, friend, you're not.

You are not condemned.

You have been acquitted and justified through Jesus' blood, all right?

Second one is this.

So, what a change for Paul.

Paul had discovered the spirit of God.

Your second one is this flesh versus spirit.

I think Paul had come to meet and encounter the spirit of God that within us takes us from the person who's condemned, the person who can't do anything in their own strength, to the person who realizes through God I can do all things, right?

Let me read for you in our chapter, Romans 8, verses 5 and 6.

Romans 8:5

It says, Those who live according to the flesh, that just means, you know, your base desires, who you are, who you're what you're what you want at your worst.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires, okay?

But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires.

The mind governed by the flesh is death.

Get that?

The mind governed by the flesh, the mind with no help from Jesus, the mind that just is left to its own devices literally leads to death.

But the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace.

So let me tell you this.

Sometimes I talk to people, I talk to Christians, and they're like, I don't understand.

I got saved, but I still want to do bad things.

And I'm like, honey, me too.

Like flesh versus spirit.

I'll put it this way: just because we are saved does not mean we don't or won't struggle with sin.

We are still humans of this earth with both a spirit and a flesh, right?

So you hear people talk about this is a person, they are mind, body, and spirit, right?

Well, your spirit is that part of you once you become a believer where God takes over and he lives in you and he fills you to do things you can't do on your own.

Sometimes I think we we struggle and we say, man, I really feel caught between what I know I should do and what I want to do.

That's very normal.

You're living in the in between.

We're here on this earth until we're with Jesus one day in heaven, and then we're perfect and there's no more sin, that'll be great.

But for now, you're gonna feel that pull, that in between.

That's normal, the urge and the desire to sin.

So we don't not struggle with sin, but instead we have a God who sends his spirit to help us.

In fact, later on in verse 26, it actually says that the spirit intercedes for us.

The spirit goes to God and says, help them, Lord, help them, help them.

Why would it even say that?

Because we're gonna need help, right?

We all have a spirit in us, but if we're saved, it becomes God's spirit in us.

I like the way it says uh in Galatians when Paul is writing and he says, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh.

Okay, so it's it's an understanding here that there's something that's gonna have to change in us when we become Christian.

We're gonna have to try to kill our flesh, right?

With its passions and desires.

And then in 220 it says, I have been crucified.

That's a very strong term, right?

It's it's it's saying it's it's kind of an understood emphasis there that there's going to be a death that has to happen.

It's not gonna be easy.

Sometimes I think we think, why am I still struggling with my anger thoughts?

Why am I still struggling with my jealousy, with my lust problems?

Well, because the flesh has to be crucified.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

So there's an understanding that we have to get rid of the flesh, right?

That the flesh is something we have to crucify.

I like that to think of it this way: flesh wants to satisfy itself with legalism.

Okay, I'm a big person like this, I'm an achiever, like the kind who wants to like be the teacher's pet, right?

And so if I had it my way, I would be able to come to God and be like, God, I did X, Y, and Z.

Look, I did it, I earned it.

And God would laugh at that, right?

What could I do and bring to God that would earn his delight, that could earn his forgiveness of salvation, his perfect sacrifice?

No, flesh wants to satisfy itself with legalism and the law, but the spirit takes surrender.

What do I mean?

Remember last week, Pastor Jason said there was a fight between the law and grace, and you're either married to one or the other?

Well, when I'm married to the law, I think I'm doing the law, I've got it, I've got my, I'm on my way.

No, the spirit says I surrender and I let the spirit live in me and do through me what he will.

So we often talk about the fruits of the spirit, right?

Have you heard this?

The fruits of the spirit, they're in Galatians.

Notice they're not called the fruits of the flesh.

My fruits of the flesh are not anything like the fruits of the spirit.

The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, right?

Those aren't that natural for me.

You?

Okay, some of you are amazing.

Good for you.

Um, but maybe you should be up here.

I'm not that good at it.

But they're not called the fruits of the flesh.

Why?

Because naturally we're sinful.

We come alive as babies, and the first thing we say is, feed me, give me, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, right?

So they're called the fruits of the spirit.

Why?

Because you're going to need the spirit to help you and live through you and do those things.

There's no way to do this without God.

No one is that good.

You can think of like the best person you know.

Trust me, they still have dark thoughts, bad days.

No one is that good that they could do all those things.

And if that feels hard to you, you're probably living in the in-between, that pull of flesh and spirit.

It's why daily we have to crucify our flesh.

Jesus says this in Luke 9.

He says, then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily, daily, and follow me.

Jesus said, You're gonna have to take up your cross daily.

Why would he say that?

Because he knows and lived as a human and he knew that the desires of our flesh would come alive.

And some of you walked in discouraged today saying, I wish I was further along in my faith.

Why am I still struggling with this?

Well, that's okay.

You have to daily deny yourself and crucify the flesh.

Sometimes, I'll be honest, you have to do it like hourly or after a bad fight, or you gotta go, ooh, Lord, let's do a restart.

Anybody have a restart?

Sometimes in my day with my kids, it's like we're on our way to school.

We already need two restarts, you know?

As a side note here, um uh I don't know if some of you saw, like a few weeks ago, I was on a game show.

Okay, so I I won some money and I talked on the game show about getting rid of my mom van uh because I've been in this mom van for eight years, all right?

So cool, no problem.

I have a son that'll be 16 in two months.

Get him a car, maybe I'll get me something cooler than the mom van.

Uh, but a lot of you have been coming up to me saying, Hey, what car are you getting?

What car are you gonna get?

I saw you win on the game show, and I'm here to tell you.

I'm not telling you.

Yeah, and I'm not telling you for the same reason that my car doesn't have an access sticker on it.

And that is that nowhere in my life do I feel the pull of flesh versus spirit more than in my car.

I get in my car with good intentions.

I listen to worship, and I'm like, and then somebody cuts me off.

And there's no spirit left, it's just flesh.

And it was a little easier when my kids are in the car, they're like little parrots, and they're like, Mom, that's a terrible word to say.

And I'm like, well, you can't say it, but you there's things you don't understand about the big world.

Or if I'm in the school car line and there's a whole bunch of us already in line, and you decide you are gonna cut right in there.

My thank you.

My flesh says, Who do you think you are?

You see all of us in line, you think you're gonna jump in front of us, you think you're better than us.

There's no spirit there.

So I will not be telling you what car I'm getting.

If you see me, I will probably not wave back.

There's a lot of people who look like me.

You don't know that it's me.

Keep driving and mind your business.

Um sorry.

It's just Jason's watching, and Honduras like, oh no.

Uh uh.

Um I just gotta be real.

For you, you know where your spot is, okay?

You know where your flesh spot is, okay?

That's mine.

All right.

Can I tell you this?

This isn't in your notes, but I want to encourage you with something.

You're not alone, okay?

If you feel the war between your flesh and your spirit, the doing what you want to do versus doing what you know you should do, you're not alone.

In fact, scripture says you need God's spirit in you to help you do that.

Flesh says, I'm a sinner, but the spirit says, I am a son or daughter.

Flesh says, I have to work to earn God's approval.

No, spirit says, He already paid it all.

The flesh says, I need to get even.

No, spirit says, God will fight for me.

God has my back.

What would it look like for you to live dead to your flesh?

And alive to God's Spirit.

Would you get nicer in traffic?

Would you be able to resist the temptations online?

Would you stop the affair you're in the middle of, knowing that you are breaking the heart of God?

Would you stop cheating and stealing and letting God's spirit be in you?

The third one is this we are chosen.

You are chosen.

Hope this is an encouraging message today.

Usually I preach about like suffering.

So this is a joy to get to talk about so many positive things.

You are chosen.

Romans 8, let's keep going, verses 14 through 17.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

The spirit you receive does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again.

Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Now, if we are children, then we are heirs.

Remember that, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

If indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share in his glory.

I love this.

See, we started the chapter.

Paul starts the chapter by saying, You're not condemned, but I want you to know you're not just not condemned, you are chosen.

You're not condemned, you're actually chosen.

I had something happen to me as a mom once.

I don't know if you guys have ever had this happen, but um I had to discipline my oldest son, and he's like very good, very bent on doing the right thing.

And so it devastated him when I had to discipline, and I was like, son, da-da-da-da-da.

He's like three or four, and then later he comes up to me and he's just like and he's sniffling, and he's got, you know, and every day he says, Mom, do you still love me?

And I was just like, son, of course I still love you.

Are you kidding me?

I would die for you right now.

Like, I love you.

I loved you the moment I saw you.

You're just this wiggly nine-pound, two-ounce ball of love.

Your dad was on the floor, passed out, but you I loved you.

I loved you and loved you first, in fact, I would say.

I was like, of course I love you.

Like, you literally, I said, son, there is nothing you could do that would ever make me stop loving you.

And why do we not, why do we have an easy time thinking of that as um children and parent relationships?

Yet when we come to God, we think every little mess up, God, do you still love me?

God, are you mad at me?

God, something's going bad in my life.

Does that mean you're mad at me, God?

Why would we live like that?

You know what I love about this verse?

They use the word heirs.

Have you guys followed all the like King Charles becoming the king after Elizabeth and all this fun stuff?

It's fascinating, and there's great hats.

Um, but there's a whole list of succession of heirs, right?

And they will just become that because of their birth.

It's given, yeah.

You are heirs and co-heirs with Jesus Christ because God chose you.

You are his.

And you know, I have three children of my own that I had biologically, but you know what I love about people who adopt and the adoption process?

I think it's one of the most beautiful, selfless things.

Why?

Because they didn't maybe have those children biologically, but they chose to love those children.

Yeah.

And being chosen?

Don't we all want that?

Don't we all want to be seen, to be known, to be chosen?

You are chosen.

Scripture says you are chosen, you're an heir.

So what would it look like if I lived like I was chosen?

What would it look like for you if you live like you belonged here, instead of stop sneaking in late because you're ashamed, you don't want anyone to see you, you think these people are holy people, I don't belong with them.

No, what would it look like?

What would it look like for you if you started to live in the realization that God chose you?

What would change for you?

Four, you are filled.

You are filled.

Keep going in Romans 8, 9 through 11.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, thank you, Jesus, but are in the realm of the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God lives in you.

And if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, then the spirit gives life because of righteousness.

And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you.

Are you living like God's spirit's in you?

Um, it doesn't seem like we are.

I feel like we magnify everything but God in our lives.

I feel like instead of living like we have the spirit of God in us, we walk around defeated, slaves to fear, slaves to depression, slaves to our anxious thoughts.

And scripture is telling you you have the spirit of the God who raised Jesus from the dead living in you, and you're walking around defeated, and you encounter a problem, and the first thing you do is worry, who can I call?

Where can I go?

Instead of realizing inside of you as a believer, you have the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead?

That should change some things.

That should make your life kind of miraculous.

We sang it this morning, you still do miracles.

He does still do miracles.

God is the same God yesterday, today, and forever, the scripture says, and you walk around defeated, not realizing you have in you the power that created and called the earth out of existence from nothing.

That should change everything.

That should change everything for you.

We're walking around by sight, not by faith.

We walk around and we let what we see determine how good we feel.

We walk around and we let our circumstance define how good we feel.

And meanwhile, the Spirit of God is in you.

You are chosen, you are filled with it, and you're not even using it.

How absurd is that?

Wouldn't it be crazy to walk around and say, man, I wish I had a band-aid, but you have a band-aid in your pocket, but you're not using it.

That's a dumb example.

I'm sorry, I was doing my best.

But you have in you the answer to your problems, and you don't tap into it.

You magnify every other thing.

And you are filled with the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

What would change for you if you lived every day like the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead was inside of you?

What would change?

The fifth thing and the last thing is this.

It's all things.

We had to touch on this.

Romans 8 28, one of the most quoted, most misused, if I'm honest, verses in all of Scripture.

But it says this, ready?

And we know.

Do we know?

And we know that in all things, say all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

You know this verse?

Uh, I think we have confused this verse.

It has been abused.

When we uh recently our family went on a cruise, and and and I don't know if you've ever been on a cruise, but when you get off the boat, they have this like it's almost like the minions, like the yellow guys, but they're running around getting the luggage off the ship.

It's fascinating, and it's this like beautiful way they do it.

So we were standing there waiting off the boat for our suitcases.

There's five of us waiting for five bags, and four bags come out.

The fifth is not there, okay?

So I'm getting nervous, and I guess whose bag it is, of course.

My bag.

So I'm in tears.

And I'm just like very upset.

And I'm like, where is this bag?

You know?

And so waiting for the bag, waiting for the bag, an hour goes by.

I am genuinely crying.

Jason's getting angry.

We're like looking out through all the other bags, and I notice in the spot where they told us to go look for our luggage, there's a bag that looks very much like my bag, but it's not my bag.

So I have the, after an hour and a half, god idea, to look at the tag, call the number, and say, Is there any chance you have a bag that says Liz Burns?

Because I have a bag that says your name.

They had been already an hour out of port.

Call us.

They have my bag, I have their bag.

Um they we arrange to meet up at the airport, right?

And I get my bag back and they get their back, and he's very apologetic.

I thought he should have bought me a coffee, he didn't.

Um, but it's fine, got my bag.

Um we switch them, right?

I remember thinking, like, okay, that was annoying, but I got my bag, right?

Okay, so when I think of this verse, okay, that all things work together for my good.

Um, I wound up my bag, so I was like, all right, that's fine.

Um, a lot of times, can I can I put it this way to you?

Good when we talk about all things working together for good.

Good doesn't always look good.

Now, in this situation, I'm like, why did that have to happen at all?

We wasted an hour and a half, it was dumb.

Well, it worked out.

Okay, that's a really superfluous example when some of you have walked through some really bad-looking good.

Do you know what I'm saying?

There's things in your life that don't look good that God is saying, I'll bring all things together for the good.

See, I think when we looked at that verse, we said, God is gonna make all things good for me.

Well, yeah, he's gonna make everything, all things come about for your good.

But sometimes those good things look anything but good.

And I won't be able to even recognize what is good and what is not if I'm living in the flesh.

See, when I have the eyes of the flesh, all I could see was, you wasted an hour and a half of my time.

I don't stop and think with the eyes of the spirit that says, that's okay.

Like, I got the bag, everything's fine.

What if it's a deeper than that for you?

What about like in my life when I was 23 years old and I was diagnosed with cancer?

That's not a good thing.

Okay?

10 out of 10 do not recommend.

Like, you can laugh, it's fine.

Um, but in that very, very, very bad thing, sickness, throwing up, losing my hair, that was our first year of marriage, treating it that way.

God put the dream for this church in our hearts during that time.

God made us empathetic during that time.

God broke our pride during that time because I remember a day when I was sick, not able to stand, and I remember God whispering to me, okay, now I can use you.

And I was like, what?

All things means all things.

And I said this was five separate sermonettes, but it actually does come together.

Because because of some of the things that some of you have walked through, you have lived condemned.

You have lived feeling like you're not chosen, you have lived like you're not filled.

And I'm here to tell you today that all things, even the things you'd rather have never happened in your story.

Like if God gave you a pen and said, write your story, you would have never included those dark, scary chapters, right?

But that in all things, He is working.

In all things, He is sovereign.

In all things.

And I'm not even saying that on this side of eternity we'll get to understand it all.

There's some things I don't understand.

And yet I know when I live in the spirit, not in the flesh, I feel the Lord whispering to me that in all things He's working, that in all things He's coming together.

We don't know how God is working.

But living like I believe this, living filled with the Spirit says, God, even when I don't understand you, I trust that you are working for my good.

Even if I never see it, even if it's something my children's children may finally go, oh, I get it.

I know that you are working.

What would change for you if you lived like all things, not just the good things, we're working for your good.

Would that change how you live?

Would that change how you perceive God is higher, he is greater.

It says his ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

I cling to that verse.

What would change for you if you lived that way?

I was thinking of the story of Lazarus this week and how Lazarus Jesus is like best friend.

And he Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick and he waits two more days to go to him.

And in the meantime, Lazarus dies.

And Jesus is sad.

Jesus, who could heal him, is sad.

And then Jesus later heals Lazarus.

And because of that, all these people come to know the Lord, and it says it was done for the glory of God, right?

That doesn't make sense to me.

But all things, when I think filled with the Spirit, when I realized that I'm not condemned, I'm chosen.

God changes maybe not my circumstance, but my perspective, my walk, and I can live in the spirit knowing he is always working.

Will you bow your heads with me?

Lord, today some of us have come in fighting the flesh.

We need to lay down our flesh today, maybe ten more times today, but pick up your spirit and say, God, give us the eyes of your spirit.

Help me to see as you see.

Help me to encounter everything that comes across my path as you would see it.

Give me that shift to live like I'm not condemned, like I'm chosen, like I'm filled, to realize all things are working.

This week I pray, God, you would challenge each one of us for that perspective shift, that we would start to see the fruit of it even in small ways, even if we're more patient in traffic, even if we're laying down our addictions because we say we know we can't do this, but through your spirit we can.