Flora First Christian Church - Flora, IN

April 13, 2008

Romans 8:1 -11

Story of the Heart Patient

A heart patient visited his cardiologist for his two-week follow-up appointment after his surgery. He informed the doctor that he was having trouble with one of his medications, to which his doctor asked, “Which one?”
“The patch,” the man replied. “The nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours, and I’ve run out of places to put it!”
“What?,” the doctor thought to himself, something didn’t sound right. The doctor had his patient quickly undress and was flabbergasted. The man had over fifty medicine patches on his body! He didn’t understand that each time he put on a new patch he needed to remove the old one.

Paul: Putting on New Clothes

Throughout his New Testament letters, the Apostle Paul compared the new life given to us by Jesus Christ as taking off an old set of clothing that is soiled, tattered and worn and replacing them with a new set of clothing that is . . . noticeably clean. In Paul’s day, most persons didn’t own a dresser chest and a closet full of clothing as most of us are so blessed today. They didn’t need to live by the 2-3 year rule of clothes not worn –get ride of them. In Biblical times most men and women owned one set of clothing, maybe two, and that set was worn until it was “worn out.” When someone gained a new set of clothing it was indeed noticeable.

The Christian Life is to be Noticeable

The Christian life is to be one that is so noticeable that we are no longer live the same way and act the same after Jesus Christ has entered our lives as Savior and Lord.

Two Words Keep Occurring: Flesh & Spirit

Throughout the larger passage in our morning scripture lesson, two words occurred several times. Did you catch them? The words were flesh and Spirit.
Here the Apostle Paul used the word flesh in several contexts. In this passage he used the phrase “according to the flesh” as meaning “looking at things from the human point of view. When Paul is talking to Christians about their days “in the flesh,” he is speaking of those past days before Christ became Lord of their lives and the Holy Spirit took over. Paul is not using the term flesh to mean skin, bone and blood.
Here, also, he’s not speaking exclusively of sexual and bodily temptations and sins. Paul gives a list of the works of the flesh in His letter to the Galatians and Colossians that includes idolatry, hatred, wrath, strife, heresies, envy, anger, foul talk and murder. The “flesh” to Paul was not a physical thing but a spiritual understanding.

We Can’t Have It Both Ways

Paul makes it clear that we can’t live in two houses; we can’t live both ways, it just doesn’t work. We must take off the old patch of worldliness before we let God put on the new patch of life in the Spirit.
QUESTION: What does it mean to die to our sinful nature and to be alive to God? These are not phrases that fit into most peoples’ secular world-view. Let’s see if I can translate them into today’s realities. I believe that that are three words, which all begin with the letter R that gives understanding of what it means to leave behind a life that is not guided by God’s Spirit and to take on a life that is of God. This is not a “how to sermon” but a foundational sermon. These three R’s set the foundation of what must come out of our lives and what God must be added to to be changed or transformed into our Lord’s image. Two of these R’s speak to that which prevents us from growing in the Spirit and the third R speaks to that which leads to Spiritual growth. Christians often have a difficult time grasping who the Holy Spirit is. Allow me to put it simply. The Holy Spirit is God who we can’t see. The Spirit is God moving, breathing and living in our lives through Jesus Christ. That’s the 25 cent definition.

Risks we take: The Kind of Persons We Are

I read not long ago in “USA Today” that we have become a country of risk takers. There are all kinds of risk. In some ways we’ve become all-or-nothing risk takers. Meaning if things work out with our risk we GAIN EVERYTHING and if the risk doesn’t work out we LOSE EVERYTHING. We’ve seen this in the astronomical debt Americans have piled up on credit cards and the taking on of mortgages in which persons have only enough in the pay check to put toward interest. ABC News recently reported that Americans spend more than $300 BILLION a year on games of chance . . . and that doesn’t include weddings and political elections, the report said. (Dynamic Illustrations, July 2002) Folks often risk their mortgage payments, their utility and grocery money for the chance to earn what they think is quick and easy money. The gaming system doesn’t allow much more than a couple of percentages to win.
The first R word of a spiritual life is one we all understand. It’s the word, “risk.” This R deters our growth with God.

Life is short and Fragile

There are basically two types of risks and lots of “branch-off” risks from these two. There are those risks which are moral and spiritual temptations. And there are those risks were there is the potential for positive growth as well. Every risk has the potential for failure and for gain. When it comes to spiritual choices our bodies and our minds are fragile. Why in the world would we endanger our own well being for any momentary, fleeting feeling of pleasure? This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he used the words life in the flesh. No amount of peer pressure, no amount of coolness, and no amount of needing to fit in the group should make risk to one’s own well being acceptable behavior.

Story of Richard Exley

A few years ago a pastor named Richard Exley confronted a friend who was dangerously close to having an affair. “Bob” had allowed himself to become emotionally intimate with a colleague at work. It wasn’t long before “Bob” and his colleague divorced their spouses and married one another. At the time of his divorce, Bob was adamant that this new relationship was God’s will, and that he was happier than he had ever been. Just one year later Bob confessed that he was completely miserable. Bob said, “It’s not worth it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” In a voice numb with despair, Bob said, “I would give anything if I could undo the hurt I have caused my children.” (Richard Exley, Deliver me (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), p. 169.)

Unacceptable Risk For Christians: Damaging Witness

It’s rare that the people we love are not affected when we indulge in questionable behavior. There are behaviors that are unacceptable risks for the follower of Jesus, including the damaging witness we give to the world.

Some Risks are Positive

Please don’t misunderstand me. There are some risks that are positive. We can’t always play it safe and be effective in life at the same time. On the other hand it takes RISK to be a Christian and to leave the comfort of a former way of life and perhaps the acceptance of those who were friends. Two questions: What risk have you make that has put you into spiritual jeopardy, and what risk have you made or making that is leading you closer to God?

The Second “R”

The entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the story of people’s rebellion to God and God’s out-stretched hand to rescue us.
The first R is RISK. The second R is . . . REBELLION. There is a part of the human life that is in rebellion against God. Often it takes very little by God’s greatest adversary to whisper the idea of rebellion in our minds that we’re doing nothing that will hurt anybody, cause don’t we know best. Whatever makes us feel better is OK—even if it’s for a few moments.

Message of Adam & Eve: Forbidden Fruit

This message began with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
There is something within us that makes us long for forbidden fruit—that LURES us to fight against God’s will for our lives. There is something within us that prefers darkness—uncertainty . . . over light—God’s certain right ways. Paul writes, “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. YOU, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.” (NIV) Let’s ask ourselves another question “Am I rebelling in any way against God by my behavior?” What is it, will I now confess it, turn it over to God, and move on with His strength?

The Third “R”

Our Lord Jesus made it clear that being a disciple of His is not about membership, it’s not about believing intellectually that Christ existed so everything is hunky dory with me and God. Right? Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is about receiving the forgiveness of God that leads to a personal relationship with Him. Those first 12 disciples were learners, as the word means, but in the years they spent close to him they had a special relationship with Him. Our third R IS the word RELATIONSHIP.

A First Grader and His Computer

A first-grade teacher was watching her students experiment with their new desktop computers. One boy just sat there staring at the screen. The teacher, in her most reassuring voice, said to the boy, “the computer wants to know your name.’ She expected that he would understand to type in his name using the keyboard into the password box. Instead, the boy leaned toward the screen and whispered, ‘My name is David.’ No computer, however intricate, will be able to eliminate the personal touch. People have needs that the computer cannot meet. People hunger for relationships. We were created to be in relationship beginning with God. “Just A Thought,” Dr. Bill Bouknight, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2001, 0-000-0000-12

Only One Long-Term Answer

God’s Word puts it straight forward and simple: There is only one thing will make a long-term difference for eternity and that is a personal relationship with God. When we have a relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord only then does the Holy Spirit come into our lives and makes changes. Paul assures Christians that allowing the Spirit to take over will fill us so full that the old ways no longer have a hold on us. This is the promise of the Gospel. We cannot enter into a relationship with God on our own. Christ did it for us. God’s promise was NEVER accept Christ and life will be easy. The promise of God is that though our faithfulness to Christ, God will always be with us and God would then do the transformation. A third question: If you were someone on the outside of your life and was looking in, how would you see the Holy Spirit, living in you? What Growth have you seen in your own life as a Christian?

Story of Two Roses

Writer Patsy Clairmont tells of the time her husband surprised her with two lovely rosebuds. Over the next few days, one of the rosebuds opened up and bloomed into a beautiful full-bodied flower. The other rosebud stayed tightly closed. By the second week, both roses began to wilt and shed their petals. As Patsy contemplated her flowers, she felt sad that one rose had never opened up. It had never revealed its greatest beauty. It had died in the same form it had lived: closed. How similar to those roses are we humans? How many of us never grow to our full potential? How many of us never display the full glory of God? How many of us stay tightly closed against the world all our lives, and die never knowing what we could have achieved? (Patsy Clairmont. Normal Is Just a Setting on Your Dryer (Colorado Springs, CO.: Focus on the Family Publishers, 1993).

Life In The Spirit

The Spiritual Life is a life controlled by God and by His power God has put to death the deeds of the body—the old patches of life.

We now KNOW THAT through Christ our Savior, we can live in the FULLNESS OF LIFE THAT THE WORLD CAN NOT GIVE. Amen!