Life in the Spirit

We are in Romans.

We're continuing our journey through the Book of Romans.

This is week 7, but we're in chapter 8.

So if you have a Bible in front of you, turn to Romans chapter 8.

I want to show you something.

Here it is on screen.

This is our passage for tonight, Romans 8, verses 1 to 17.

You don't have to read it, it's too small.

Here's every time the word flesh appears in our passage, and every time the word spirit appears in Romans 8.

Any guess what Paul is talking about in this passage?

We've been talking for a couple of weeks now about sort of the dichotomy of two stories.

One way of saying that is the Adam story, the Jesus story.

Last week it was death and life.

This week it's flesh and spirit.

But rather than continuing to tell these two stories, at the same time, I just want to ditch the flesh story and focus on the spirit story.

So this message is titled Life in the Spirit.

Paul mentions the word spirit 17 times in 17 verses.

So we're going to look at what it is to have life in the spirit.

Life in the spirit means one, I am free from my past.

I set my mind forward.

I look for the spirit.

I crucify the flesh and I am a child of the father.

That's what life in the spirit means in Romans 8.

That's where we're going.

So let me pray.

Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you that we have it in front of us.

Thank you that your Holy Spirit is present in this room and will help us to understand the truth.

He is the spirit of truth and we ask him now to help us.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Life in the Spirit means I am free from my past.

That's the first part of Romans 8 of what Paul is talking about, this life in the Spirit.

Because of the Jesus story, in other words, the life, death, birth, ascension, resurrection, the Jesus story, because of that, I am free from my past.

That's what life in the Spirit begins with.

Locke just read out for us Romans 8, 1 to 4.

So I'm not going to read it again, but you have it on screen.

Just think of exactly what Locke just read.

Far better than anything I could do.

Paul begins one of the most epic chapters of scripture in the whole Bible with a word, therefore.

And of course, we have to ask, what's the therefore?

Therefore, very good.

Romans E7, obviously.

Romans 8:1 points back to Romans 7.

If you know Romans E7, it's that gritty, confusing, tragic lament of the pre-Christ life.

Rapal says this in Romans 7.14, and I'll skip a few verses for brevity.

We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

I do not understand what I do.

For what I want to do, I do not do.

But what I hate, I do.

For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil, I do not want to do, this I keep on doing.

And so I find this law at work.

Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

For in my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

What a wretched man I am.

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Romans E7 is the Adam's story if you want to call it that.

It is a pre-Christ, pre-spirit, pre-salvation, pre-born-again life.

Paul doesn't mention the Spirit once in Romans E7.

It's a story of no spirit, no hope, no Jesus.

Until that turning point, that hinge, that glorious turn of the tide, Romans 8:1, therefore, as in pointing back to all of Romans E7, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus.

Life in the Spirit means, firstly, I am free from my past because of the Jesus story, because of His birth, His death, resurrection, ascension, session.

I am free from my past.

When we read Romans 7, in fact, the entire first seven chapters of Romans, the word Spirit, as in reference to the Holy Spirit, appears, I think, twice or three times.

In seven chapters.

But as soon as we get to Romans 8, suddenly, he says Spirit 17 times, in 17 verses.

I think Paul draws a clear line that 7, Romans 7 is a pre-Christ life, and Romans 8 is the post-Christ life.

And yet, maybe you have discovered, like I have, that following Jesus feels a lot more like Romans 7 than Romans 8 at times.

For many of us, there are addictions that we just can't seem to break, or situations we can't get out of, relationships that consistently bring out the worst in us.

Life, even for a born-again believer, saved by grace, filled with the Spirit, can feel more like Romans 7 than Romans 8.

Many of us would know from memory, Romans 8 1.

There's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But there's often a gap, I think, I've discovered in my life, between what is true theologically and what is felt experientially.

Life can feel a lot more like Romans 7 than Romans 8.

So how could that be?

How could you live in these two places at the same time?

I think the answer is that old TV show, The Biggest Loser.

You remember that?

I remember watching that with my family when I was 7 or something.

And my favorite part of the whole show was towards the end of the season, when they had lost a lot of weight, and they're looking good, but they're not fully there, but they're close, they just need that final push.

They would, Commando and Shannon and the coaches would get them to climb a mountain with a backpack on.

And in the backpack was the exact amount of weight that they had lost up until that point.

They put the weight back on in a backpack.

And it was so amazing, they always say, oh, how did I live with this weight?

I can't carry it anymore.

Is this really what life was like?

The parallel with the Christian life is obvious, I think.

Many of us continue to carry the backpack of our past, even when we know, excuse me, we know that Jesus died so that we could let it go.

We choose to, and the flesh sort of creeps up on us, and we carry the Romans E7 weight of our past through life.

But if the gospel means anything, if Romans 8:1 means anything to us tonight, it means that Jesus died so we could take off the backpack.

We could walk freely and know that our past is in the past, and we don't have to carry the weight of our past anymore.

Romans 8:1, there is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.

No shadow of your past can touch you now that you were in Christ Jesus.

So, if we were to map Life in the Spirit onto a literal day, 24 hours or 12 hours of waking time, how would we live in the Spirit knowing that we are free from our past?

I think, I've observed in my life, just as you sleep and sink into the mattress, sink into the pillow, I feel like we tend to sink into Romans 7 as we sleep.

And so, we wake up and that backpack is on our shoulders.

And we think, how did you get there?

I didn't invite you, but we carry the backpack.

And so, I think, practically speaking, the first task of the day for those who want Life in the Spirit is to preach the gospel to ourselves of Romans 8:1.

There is now no condemnation for me, because I am in Christ Jesus.

And I take off the backpack every morning, and I say, I don't have to carry that weight anymore.

As soon as you wake up, preach the gospel to yourself.

I am free from my past because of Romans 8:1.

Life in the Spirit means, one, I'm free from my past.

Two, I set my mind forward.

The second part of life in the Spirit, as Paul teaches in Romans 8, is to set our mind forward.

Having woken up and preached the gospel to ourselves, taken off the backpack of our past, we need to set our mind forward.

Paul says this in Romans 8 verse 5.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires.

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, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

What we're talking about here is spiritual formation.

You would remember if you've been around for a year or more, we looked at a series called Wayform last year.

We had, I think, 10 weeks intensely focused on spiritual formation.

And this is spiritual formation.

And Paul goes, I think, out of his way to highlight the central role of the mind in spiritual formation.

A few chapters after Romans 8 and Romans 12, Paul will go on to say these words about the role of the mind.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

transformation is coming out of the renewal of our minds on the Gospel.

It's interesting to me and probably to the three others who read Greek in this room.

It's interesting, and we'll see if you find it interesting, the word Paul uses for mind here in Romans 8 is not the one he uses in Romans 12, but it's the word for name which has a sense of mind as in intellect, thinking, but especially of thinking with direction, thinking with consistency and direction.

If you're a science person, think of the difference between speed and velocity.

Velocity is speed with direction.

Paul's usage of for name, for mind is thinking with direction.

And so he says in Romans 8 verse 5 in the first half, those who live according to the flesh have their minds for name, their minds set on, and that sense of the word is consistently trained towards set on what the flesh desires.

In contrast, the second half of 8.5, those who live in accordance with the spirit, they have their minds set, directed like a compass, set on what the spirit desires.

Set on what the spirit desires.

Life in the spirit means your mind, as in your thinking with direction, is set like a compass on the things that the spirit desires, not on what the flesh desires.

So the question is, what are you thinking about?

What do you think about?

The consistent pattern of your thoughts, not just what have you thought about once or twice in that moment of temptation.

That's not the sense of what Paul is saying.

He's saying, what do you consistently train your mind to think about?

He's asking us that question.

A wise man once stood here and said, repetition rewires the brain.

And that is true.

At a neurochemical level, our brain rewires itself around our repeated thoughts.

So Paul's wisdom is to watch what we think about, because he knows a truth of life, that our life moves in the direction of our strongest thoughts.

Let me tell you a story from my life to prove this point.

My family were holidaying at Nelson Bay a few years ago, and we're all suppers, meaning sup, stand up paddleboard, this one.

And we were at Nelson Bay, and it was a bit of a windy afternoon.

The bay was quite choppy, but a few of us wanted to go out for a sup.

So, I've been supping since I was a teenager.

I've got pretty good sea legs.

I thought, I won't take off my hoodie and jeans.

I'm going to go out fully clothed, because I never fall in.

I never fall in, and you'll never guess where this story goes.

I'm out there supping, and I'm proud to say I lasted a really long time.

Legs planted, knees bent, paddle always in the water, looking straight ahead, I was fine, rocking with the waves, until someone behind me in the group who was supping called my name, and I turned to look at them, and as I turned, my head tilted over the board, and I fell straight in, drenched, hoodie and jeans and all.

And I learned two lessons, just put the swimmers on.

It's not worth wearing hoodie and jeans.

But more importantly and more relevantly for us tonight, I learnt that your body moves in the direction that your mind sets.

I was fine when I was looking forward.

As soon as I turned my eyes away from forward the horizon, I looked backwards and my body followed where my thinking was set.

This is a truth of life, that our bodies, our life moves in the direction of our thinking.

That's Paul's point here.

He uses a word for mind as thinking with direction to get us to think about what we're thinking about.

What are you thinking about?

Again, not just the one-off, two-off thoughts that you have, but the consistent direction that your mind thinks on.

Paul gives us this wisdom in Philippians 4, 8.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

Paul says, find, like a compass, those things and fix your mind on them.

Set your mind on them.

Think on such things.

So how does this fit into a day of life in the Spirit?

I think we need to wake up and first thing, drop the backpack by preaching the gospel.

Secondly, I think we need to set our mind forward on truth.

For me, the way the Lord has made me, I do not find myself able to comprehend a Bible passage before I've had coffee or two coffees and been awake for three hours.

But worship music just taps into something in the way that the Lord made me, and it opens me up to the reality of God.

You might be a better person than me and you can comprehend the Bible early in the morning.

More power to you.

The point is, find a way of fixing your mind on truth early in the morning, however it works for you.

Think about what is true, what is noble, what is right, pure and lovely, as Paul says.

Life in the Spirit means one, I'm free from my past, two, I set my mind forward, and three, I look for the Spirit.

God is always wanting to do things, in us and through us, by the power of his Spirit.

But like a loving father, he doesn't want to force your hand, but he wants you to partner with him in the work that he wants to do through you.

And so I think life in the Spirit involves looking for the Spirit.

Paul says this in the third paragraph of Romans 8.

If you haven't noticed, and I haven't been clear, there's five paragraphs in Romans 8 and one point for each paragraph.

How nice is that?

The third paragraph, Romans 8 verse 9.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but 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, 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.

Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, Spirit.

Six times in three verses.

This is like the hot spot of Spirit language in Romans 8.

Paul goes out of his way to highlight and profile the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers in Jesus.

As I've said a few times, when you read Romans 1-7, seven chapters, it barely mentions the Spirit until Romans 8.

And Paul just lets loose in talking about the Spirit.

The Spirit, Paul says, is the mark of a follower of Jesus.

If you don't have the Spirit, then you're not in Christ.

So the Spirit is present in every one of us who have faith in Christ.

And yet, when was the last time you or I acknowledged the power, the presence, the productivity of the Spirit in our life?

As in, could you tell a story from last week of a time when the Holy Spirit did something?

I'll go first.

Not really.

The problem is, we haven't looked for the Spirit.

We don't look for the Spirit.

And we are ignorant of the work that He wants to do in us and through us.

And I think because we don't look for the Spirit in a practical day, when we go to work, uni, whatever the day brings, life has a tendency of drawing our eyes off of God, even if we start, you know, preach Romans 8 1, renew our mind on truth, life has a way of bringing our eyes back down to earth.

And when we do that, so easily, we can not look for the Spirit.

And when we don't look for the Spirit, we don't partner with Him in the work that He would do in and through us.

Paul says the mark of a follower of Jesus is the Holy Spirit in their life.

But we have to look for the Spirit.

You know the expression, the elephant in the room.

We know this expression, it means like a huge thing that no one's talking about that's just in the side of the room.

I'm not calling the Holy Spirit an elephant, but God himself is in this room.

Are we addressing him, relying on him?

God is the elephant in the room.

The truth is, every single room you walk into, as you leave this place, even this room, the Holy Spirit is already there.

He is at work.

He has filled that room and he has things that he wants to do.

And yet, here's me walking into a room whistling, no conception of God himself in the room.

We must enter every room and look for the Spirit.

Can you imagine a community of followers of Jesus who, together and individually, walk into every room knowing by faith God is in this room already?

I'm looking for how the Spirit is working.

And maybe the Spirit would prompt me to just bless my brother with a Bible verse and an encouragement, or a hug over here, or whatever.

Holy Spirit, He wants to do stuff in us and through us, but we are ignorant of Him.

So often, we don't look for the Spirit.

I had fun this week thinking room sounds like realm, kind of.

So try Romans 8 and 9 like this.

You, however, are not in the room of the flesh, but are in the room of the Spirit.

Every room you walk into, the Spirit is in already.

And He wants to do stuff in you and through you.

Life in the Spirit means one.

I'm free from my past.

I set my mind forward.

I look for the Spirit.

I crucify the flesh is the fourth point.

Jesus Christ was crucified once and for all.

It was a historical event.

It happened 2,000 years ago.

And in His death, Jesus totally and completely disarmed the powers of the world, the flesh and the devil.

And then He triumphed over them in the resurrection.

And in the death of Jesus, we who have faith in His finished work were crucified with Him.

As Paul says in Romans 6, 6, for we know that our old self was crucified with Him.

That's a past event.

We were crucified with Him.

And yet, even though our old self has been crucified with Christ, life in the Spirit for Paul involves an ongoing crucifixion of the flesh, an ongoing death to self.

We read this in the 4th paragraph, Romans 8, 12.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation.

But it's not to the flesh to live according to it.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

Last week, Jonathan unpacked for us this theme in detail.

I encourage you go to your podcast provider of choice and search NorthernLife Sermons, Die to Live was the name of the message.

The big idea in that message was die a little to live alone.

Exploring what it is that we die to in order to live in the Spirit.

Verse 13, again, says, put to death the misdeeds of the body.

Paul has earlier in Romans 8 talked about the mind, the role that the mind plays in life in the Spirit.

And now he turns, I think, to the body.

Try this.

There is no sin a person commits, which is outside of or not mediated through the body.

You can't sin outside the body, because the body is where sin happens.

So Paul says, put to death the misdeeds of that body.

James in chapter 1 verse 13 gives us, I think, the chain of events that results in bodily sin.

He says this, verse 13, When tempted, no one should say God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.

Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.

James sets out a chain of events, desire, sin, death.

Desire, sin, death.

I think so far in the Romans series, we have firmly secured and supported the sin equals death bit.

We've talked about that, but we haven't talked as much about the desire equals sin bit.

Can I get a show of hands?

Have you ever felt desire?

80% and the rest are not telling the truth.

That is 100%.

We have all felt desire for anything.

A strong desire of the flesh.

And I've found when the flesh desires something strongly, it will tell you, I will explode if I do not get this thing.

I will literally die.

I will pop if I do not get this thing.

That's what the flesh would say to us.

I just have to let it rip.

Let the flesh rip.

But it is a lie.

It's a lie that the world, the flesh and the devil tells that desire equals sin equals death.

The fact is, desire does not have to equal sin.

And because of Jesus, because he took the death part of our equation, sin does not have to equal death.

Paul says, desire does not have to equal sin.

In 1 Corinthians 10 13, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.

And God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Desire does not have to equal sin.

Contrary to what the flesh says, there is a way to have desire for something and for it to not lead to sin and not lead to death.

And I think part of the way that Paul thinks that we can fight this temptation, he says in Galatians 6,14.

I know it's a lot of text, but bear with me.

May I never boast, Paul says, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which, this is the bit, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

This is a dual cruciformity, a two-way crucifixion.

I have been crucified to the world and the world has been crucified to me.

Practically speaking, I think that means every engagement we have with the world, even with the flesh in us, we look at through a cross-shaped lens, knowing that the world has been crucified to me and it does not hold the allure that it once did.

And when the world comes for me, trying to get me to go along with it, I've been crucified to the world.

I'm a dead man.

They can't touch me because the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Steve Cuss has this book, Managing Leadership Anxiety, and he has this line that he uses in moments of temptation, which is so helpful you're going to want to pull out your phone and write it down.

He says, in the moment of temptation, Jesus died, so I don't need to blank.

And you actually, you articulate what the word is.

Jesus died, so I don't need to do this thing that the flesh is saying, I will explode if I don't do.

You can only say that by the Holy Spirit, but we have the Spirit.

Paul guaranteed us of that.

We have the Spirit who would prompt us, remind us, you don't actually have to do this.

That's a lie that the flesh is telling you.

Jesus died, so I don't need to.

In the afternoon of the day, as the body is getting tired, maybe the temptation thoughts start coming, we have less willpower to resist it.

Rely on the Holy Spirit and say, Jesus died, so I don't need to do this.

Life in the Spirit means I'm free from my past, I set my mind forward, I look for the Spirit, I crucify the flesh, and lastly, it's the shortest of the five points, I am a child of the Father.

I'm a child of the Father.

The last paragraph of the first half of Romans 8, Paul grounds the identity of those who have faith in Jesus as sons and daughters of the Father.

He doesn't say, because of the Gospel, you are now subjects of the King, citizens of the heavenly city, not slaves or servants.

But here, Paul highlights the fact that we are sons and daughters of the Father.

The last part of Life in the Spirit is to know that I am a child of the Father, Romans 8, 14.

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

The Spirit you received 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, 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.

Paul feels the need to wrap up this half-chapter exploration of Life in the Spirit by grounding Christian identity in the familial relationship that we have with the Father, that we are sons and daughters of the Father.

Life in the Spirit grows out of that soil of our identity as children of God.

As I love to keep saying, I got married seven weeks ago, seven weeks and one day ago, and my wife has pretty much just finished legally changing her name.

She's no longer a Haddon.

She is a Shanks.

Thank God.

Thank you, Lord.

But it's funny that we keep getting letters or writing her name down or typing somehow Courtney Haddon and we think that is not a person anymore.

She has a new name, Courtney Shanks.

That's the same thing the Spirit does in us.

The Spirit touches our spirit, the deepest part of our body and soul and reminds us you are not your old name.

You have a new identity.

Whatever the name was, whatever words people spoke over you, the Spirit reminds you that's not who you are anymore.

But you're a son of the father, a daughter of the father.

We have a new name.

I think that's a beautiful way to end a day, not to mention a sermon, and we are wrapping up soon.

Whatever the day brought, success, failure, giving into temptation, resisting it.

Whatever the day brought, to rest in a pillow metaphorically, but to rest in identity as children of God is a good way to end the day.

No matter what happened, whether it was a good day or a bad day, it doesn't matter.

You are so loved by the father.

Nothing we do, none of the obligation that we have to crucify the flesh comes in order that we might have a place before the father.

But before we did anything, in fact, while we were sinners, as Romans says earlier in the book, while we were sinners, Christ died for us and the father adopted us as sons and daughters.

And so now, we rest in that identity that we can call the God of the universe, Abba, Father.

That's where Life in the Spirit reaches its culmination and also where Life in the Spirit is lived out of that identity that we call God, Father.

And that will not change.

Life in the Spirit means I'm free from my past.

I set my mind forward.

I look for the Spirit.

I crucify the flesh and I am a child of the Father.

And I think that Life in the Spirit, these five points have a daily implication.

That firstly, we would wake up, first things first, as we feel the weight of that backpack of our past pulling us backwards, we preach the gospel to ourselves.

Romans 8:1 is a great one to lock away.

There is now no condemnation for me, for I am in Christ Jesus.

So by the power of the Spirit, I take off this backpack and I'm not putting it back on again.

Secondly, early in the day, in the morning of the day, set your mind on truth, a worship song, a u-version verse of the day, whatever works for you, set your mind on truth.

In the middle of the day, as you're at work, uni, whatever your day brings, and you walk into the room and your eyes have just looking at the surface level of what's happening.

Remember, the Spirit is in every single room that you walk into, and He is at work before you step in.

And He wants you to partner with Him to step into the work that He has.

Fourthly, when temptation comes, hold up a cross and say, the world is crucified to me and I am crucified to the world.

Jesus died, so I don't need to this anymore.

And at the end of the day, whatever the day brought, you can rest firmly and securely in the knowledge that we are sons and daughters of a loving father who loves us so much.

That's Life in the Spirit.

Would you like to stand as I pray to close and the band comes up?

Let me pray.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much that because of the finished work of Jesus, we can approach you and call you Father.

Your grace is amazing, and it's more than we could ever comprehend.

And so we, like it says in Hebrews, we boldly approach you to find grace, and we need grace to help us.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit, the hope of glory that would fill our hearts and our lives, and lead us in what it means to have life in the Spirit.

Help us to set our mind on truth, to remember the gospel, to crucify the flesh, to partner with you in the work that you want to do in every room, and remind us, as you always do, Holy Spirit, that we have a good Father who loves us.

Lead us, Holy Spirit, as we go from this place, because we pray for it, in the name of Jesus, amen.

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