Romans 8 Part 3 - Led by the Spirit - Luke Kennedy

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:33

But yeah, great. Hey, just want to say a big warm welcome. If you are if you're new around here, new around Future Church, just want to say a big warm welcome. If we haven't met, my name is Luke. It's great to meet you. One of the pastors here. And yeah, amazing. My wife is still in Japan with her family living in the on sands and doing everything else over there, which is amazing. Getting making sure our kids retain Japanese. But it's great to be here, great to be back together again. And a lot of familiar faces, I'm seeing, and a lot of new faces. So welcome. It's great to have you here. We are in the middle of a series of talks around the book of Romans, chapter 8, which is really an introduction to how do you live life as a Christian through the Spirit of God. So I think it's going to be really helpful. I heard last week, I just want to give a big shout-out. I heard Josh did a great job last week. Really shared first time preaching, did an amazing job, and can't wait to hear more from him as we go further. And we're just getting a great team of guys who are. So we're going to jump into it. But I just there's something really exciting happening right now in our church. It's not just our church, by the way, it's happening across so many churches. People are just coming to faith in Jesus like I've not seen before. And by really randomly, the Spirit of God drawing people to come to faith. And I'm just really excited about it. I met a young man on Friday who um works across the street here, and he he rocked into a church. He didn't know this was a church, so because it looks like a studio. He went to a church down the street, walked in the door, and he said to the pastor, I've been thinking about God. Um, can someone read the Bible with me? And so the pastor read the Bible with him for an hour and he said, Well, I want to follow Jesus. How do I do it? And the pastor walked him through it and he prayed and he received Jesus into his life, and he's he's actually going to come and join our church tonight. But I thought that was an amazing, amazing thing. Um I heard also last Sunday night there was a young guy here who'd been reading the Bible by himself. He'd never been to church, he'd read the Bible by himself for a yeah, and then U version started doing this pop-up find the church near you thing, and it popped up, and our church popped up, and he said, Well, I think it's I've been reading the Bible for a year, maybe I should go to church. And then he came here last Sunday night for the very first time in church as a new believer in Jesus. Isn't this amazing what's happening right now? I thought we should be a little bit more excited about it. Um many of us have prayed for this in Australia, many of us have believed for this in Australia, and I think it's happening. It's not just here though, I've heard this from so many other pastors that something is happening in our city right now, um, in Australia. So um I'm I'm just excited. So we're gonna jump into Romans chapter eight. This is part three, Romans chapter eight, verse five, and I'm gonna get Hannah Kelly to come and read for me. Give her a big shout out, guys. Come and help. This is a little bit longer, so stick with us, it's gonna be on the screen.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

What accent should I do it in? Anyone? Melbourne one, really fast. Those who are dominated by sinful nature think about simple things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature, for sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature, you are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all. And Christ lives within you. So even though your body will die because of sin, the spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodily bodies by this same spirit living within you. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But through the power of the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature and you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you have received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him our father. For this spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory. But it but if we are to share this glory, we must also share his suffering.

unknown 6:07

Amen. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah, shout out. Amazing. A lot of big ideas there, a lot of big concepts, a lot of compounds sentences that Paul loves to speak in. And um I want to I want to break this down a little bit about talking about our mind and about the spirit of God and how it works together. Galatians chapter 5. Um, Galatians chapter 5, we're gonna put it on the screen. Um yeah, cannot fix it for me. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, it talks about the fruit of the spirit. Basically, what it's saying is when the Holy Spirit and God's spirit is at work within you, this is the natural results over time. Fruit doesn't just appear, but over time there is a fruitfulness, something that is produced in your life over time when the spirit is at work. This is the evidence that God is at work in someone's life. We like to focus a lot about gifting of the spirit, which is important, but the fruit of the spirit is just as important, almost like two sides, two wings of a bird. And one of the key ones, I underlined that it's not underlined in the Bible, is peace. Peace is a huge uh, I guess, marker of those who are being led by the spirit as you see them growing in this understanding of the peace of God in their lives. One of the things that we tried to do as a church was we tried to build a space where peace was really central and was kind of um was uh was like platformed. We wanted people to come in here and have peace. That's why the space is the way that it is. That's why it feels the way it is, that's the way um that's why there's not heaps of screens in this room, it's not it's not a distracted space or a stimulated space or a whipping you up into a frenzy space. It's a it's a space for you to come and learn how to be at peace with God. Because in an anxious generation, peace is a superpower. Peace is a superpower, young people. If you have peace, you're already way ahead of your generation. It's a superpower and it comes from God. Um, so this space is hopefully help helping you have peace. The rhythms of our church hope helpful hopefully um that we're not a really busy church. I hopefully that helps you have peace. But more than all of that, it's the Spirit of God at work in your life that gives you peace. It's the Spirit of God. And it's not something that we strive for, it's not something that you anxiously strive over peace or mark on a scorecard. I'm feeling seven out of ten peaceful today, all of you achievement people, project self people. Um it's a fruitful, it's it's the fruit of a life that's surrendered to God. It's in surrender to God that He's allowed to work peace, like someone working dough, work peace into my life. And peace is an extremely attractive thing. One of the very big distinctives that I've watched, especially in young adults, um, over the last 20 years of discipling young adults, is more and more the closer people get to God, the more healthy in their mind they become. This is an observation I've seen that's not like an outlier, it's the normal. The normal is the closer we walk with the spirit, the more at peace and the more healthy our minds become. And I've watched this over and over and over. How does the spirit do this? Let me read this in verse 5 and 6, Romans 8, verse 5 and 6. It says those who live according to the flesh have their minds set, or you could say their mindset is on what the flesh desires. It's basically it's whatever I feel, I do it, man. Well, I just I just follow my whatever I think, I just I just do that. That's uh that's the mind that leads towards death. It may feel like life in a moment, but it leads to death, is what the Bible's saying. It may be dressed up in Louis Vuitton and Prada, but it's still leading to death. But those who live according to the Spirit have their mindset on what the Spirit desires. God, what do you want for my life? God, what do you want? Because whatever God wants is leading to life. Life. Eternal life, the Bible says. And eternal life is not something about just about the time of life, it's about the nature and the quality of the life. The quality and the nature of the life that God wants to give you is eternal in nature. That's how big it is, and that is the quality of the life that Jesus is giving you. Not because it's something outside of God, but it's because it's who God is. And when God gives you Himself, you get life. This is what we see in Genesis chapter 2, where Adam is created by God. In the creation story, read this, and he is in Genesis 2, verse 7, it says, Then the Lord formed a man out of the dust of the ground, and he breathed the breath of life. This word for breath is the same word for spirit. The spirit of life comes and fills his nostrils, and the man became a living person. Meaning before this he was dead. And then John chapter 20, we see Jesus doing the same thing with his disciples in a new way. This is basically the start of what Jesus would say is a new humanity. And he's saying again, Jesus said, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that, he breathed on them, and he said, Receive the Holy Spirit. So just as God breathed into Adam, Jesus breathed into his disciples, and that same spirit is here today, and he wants to breathe into your life. Are you feeling dead today? I've got good news for you. The Spirit of God wants to come into your life and give you real life. Not just breathing, but a real life. The essence of what life means. That same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, hovered over creation, breathed into Adam, sent out the disciples, fell on Pentecost, did miracles all over the world. That same spirit is accessible to every single person here today. That is the good news of the gospel. So good, thank you. I was talking to a young man this week. I met him, I met this young guy about 10 years ago in Osaka. He's an American young guy, struggled deeply with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. We started reading the Bible together in a group. We started praying together. And over about a year, sort of dramatic transformation in this guy's life. Dramatic. I mean, he became like incredibly healthy in his mind over a period of time. He got married to a beautiful girl in our church who has also an amazing testimony. She was on my staff. And their wedding day, I remember their wedding day because I actually broke the heel off my shoe, so I had to do their wedding with one shoe on and kind of pretend that it was so it was memorable for me too. Beautiful couple got married. They and and years later they now have two beautiful children. Now they lead a church in Osaka, which is such an amazing story. And I was sitting with him this week, we're having sushi together, and and I was saying to him, How did you get how did you overcome all of this stuff that you were going through? He was incredibly messed up. He said, Even in childhood he struggled with depression and anxiety. I said, How did you overcome that? And he thought about it and he said, Do you know the only thing I don't know what to say? The only thing I can tell you is that Jesus came into my life and set me free. Jesus set me free from anxiety and depression. Jesus healed my anxiety and depression, and now I am free. And I am giving that freedom to other people. That's the good news of the gospel, guys. That's the good news of the gospel. I hope that you're receiving that today. I want to ask you: do you want to be free in your mind today? If you struggle with anxiety and depression, I'm not I'm not waving magic wands. I'm I'm introducing you to a God who deeply cares about your life and is powerful and wants to come into your life and give you peace. Do you want that? Because I want to pray for you that you would receive the Spirit of God to come into your life. You want that? Who needs that here? You're like, I need that. Yeah? I'm gonna pray for you now. All right, would you close your eyes? If you need that in your life, would you just just maybe open your hands to God and say, that's me. I'll just pray a simple prayer. God, we need you. And God, we just remember your words, Jesus, when you when you said this in John 14. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give you the peace as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid. I have overcome the world. So, God, I pray today for that peace to come and fill people's hearts and minds today. Set people free in their lives from fear and anxiety. I pray you would set them free today and bring peace into their lives by your spirit, God, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Verse 7, this is gonna get better. Verse 7 says, the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God and it does not submit to God's laws, nor can it. It just refuses to. Opposing forces, those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. It says they're hostile to God. Have you ever met a ever met a hostile Christian? Hostile Christian? Ever met one? Maybe online? Hostile Christian? In the comment section? Hostile Christian? It's not a natural state. Um, and one of the things that I I see very regularly is um the people who have maybe who are controlled by that old mind, one of the key characteristics that I often see is they have no joy. Have you seen that? No joy. Like you can look at a Christian and say, and they're believing the right stuff, that they're make that they got all their ducks in a row, but there's no joy. Like there's no evidence of the spirit working in their lives. Love, joy, peace. It's not evident. And that is not God's plan for your life. I think as we grow closer to Jesus, one of the things that should increase more and more is joy, is a joyfulness. And it's not a joy that happens by circumstances, it's a joy that comes from God. It's the Spirit of God. I met these two young guys on a train this week. I was on the on I was on a train in Osaka, and I I saw two young guys sitting on the train, and I just I just had it, I just had this thought. I bet you they're Christians. That's that's what that was my thought. I looked at them and I said, I bet they're Christian. Now there's less than 1% Christians in Japan, there's almost no Christians, right? So, but I could see, I I was watching them and I thought, I bet they're Christians. So I went and sat next to these two guys and I started saying, Hello, hey, I'm Luke, and we started, we had a chat. And then um I said to them, Are you a Christian? And they said, Yeah, I'm a Christian. Yeah, I'm both these guys are Christians. And I said, Yeah, I'm I'm a pastor. I planted a church in this city. And they they were so shocked, like, this that's crazy. How did you know? How did you know that we were Christians? And I said, I looked at you and I could see joy. And in a culture that is two-thirds of the country are on uh are on medication for for mind issues, I could see in your life there's joy. And they was they were overjoyed because they were on that train going to another city to help another church do outreach. And they said, it's so encouraging, it was almost like it was like God's encouragement to them that they were on the right track. And I said, What is your dream? And they were their content creators, and they said, their dream is to build a studio and to put a church in the studio so that Christian creatives can influence Japan. And I said, Do you mean like this one? And they said, I can't believe it. That's exactly what we want to do. It's almost like God had brought you here to encourage us in this dream. And I said, That's God. So, how did you become a Christian? He said, I became a Christian through this young man, and I said, Yes, that young man, I met him on the street, he became a Christian in my church. He led you to Jesus. Isn't that crazy? That's a pretty cool story. Joy is a marker of someone who knows Jesus, it's joyful. Even in suffering, they're joyful. That is weird. Christians being like joyful and suffering, that's strange, man. But it's a marker of the work of the spirit in someone's life. And if you're trying to discern, I would never follow a leader without joy. That's a good discernment tool. I would never follow a leader that has no joy. It's not normal in the kingdom of God for a mature person. Verse 9 says, You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but in the realm of the spirit. That's us here today. You're in the spirit, guys. If indeed the spirit of God lives in you, and if the spirit of him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead isn't living in you, he will give you life to your mortal bodies because of the spirit who lives in you. Even freedom in your body. You know your body's important to God. A lot of Christians don't have a very good theology of a body. They think um body's bad, only thing that matters is my heart. That is not the gospel. God cares about your body, it's really important to him. In fact, that is the temple of God. That's literally where God moved from temples to coming and dwelling, not even in a book, not even in the Bible, in your body. That's how important it is to God. Your body's important. God wants to come and give life to your body. This is good news if you're sick. God wants to come and give life to your body, and we will pray for that. Verse 12 says, Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. Let me read that again. You have no obligation to do what your urges tell you to do. I feel like doing this. You don't have an obligation to do that. You can choose. I'm not gonna do that. I'm going to leave. I'm going to. For if you live by the dictates, you will die. That's an inner death. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the sinful nature, you will live. What does obligation to the flesh look like? Addiction? Yep. Definitely. I have to. I can't stop it. I can't tell anyone about it because I'm so shameful and so guilty about it. Condemnation. I feel tied to it. I feel tethered to it. That's an obligation to the flesh. That is not God's desire for his people. I can tell you that. It's freedom. Freedom from that stuff. Like an elephant. You know, when you um when they train elephants, it's really nasty, but when they train elephants in the circus and different things, when they're babies, they tie them in these big chains and they they and so they can't move and they learn that they can't break the chain. And then when they're older, they can just put a tiny thin little rope on it. It's like tiny thin, and they put a little stake in the ground. That elephant could easily pull that out, but his mind, in his mind, he can't do it. In his mind, he's still back a little elephant that can't break this big chain. He is basically being taught to be a slave. He's been enslaved. That's what sin does in our lives. It enslaves us. And even for Christians, even though you are free, you still act like a slave. Still pretending to be a slave, still caught in slavery. The Spirit of God wants to come and set you free to really live your life with no shame and no guilt and no condemnation from the past. That is what God wants for you and for me. That's the invitation. Come to Jesus and bring him all of your shame and all of your guilt, and he will take it and he will set you free. That is the good news of the gospel, guys. That's what I want you to have. Please don't go through your Christian life managing your sin. I can just manage it and get by. I can get it to a point where it's just not affecting my whole life, but it's like I'm holding it a little bit, I feel a little bit guilty about it, but it's not to the point where I'm like, it's controlling me, and I'm like trying to live on this edge of like, what a terrible way to live. That's not your destiny. Freedom is your calling, freedom is what is on offer through Jesus. Freedom to live your life. So, um, and there's so many stories. I have so many stories, but I'm gonna finish in a moment, okay? Let me just get to verse 16 and 17. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are his children. Children of God. And if children, we are heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Spirit testifies you are God's children. And this is often what the enemy does for people is he tries to get you to say you don't really belong here. You ever heard that voice before? You're an imposter, you're not like the rest of these people. All these other people here at Future Church, they got it together, man. Except for you. You don't even belong here. Why are you here? You're a phony. You know the devil tells that to every single person, right? The devil says that to me. You just need to learn how to flick that voice off because that is a lie. Yeah? That is a lie. What the what the Bible is saying is if you're a child of God, there's a spirit of God inside of you, and it's trying to yell out to you, you are a child of God. How would your life look different if you started living like a child of God rather than someone who had no parents? How would your life look different? It would look very different. You're not guessing if you belong. The Spirit confirms it. So stop living like you don't belong in this family. I don't even say in this church, right? Even in this church, there's a lot of new people. Stop, even if you're new here, I would just say to you, stop coming here like you don't belong. Start coming here like you belong to the family of God. Get some confidence on the inside of you. It's not because of how good you are. God has chosen you, He has called you, He has saved you, He's filled you with His Spirit. You belong. Just settle it in your heart. I belong in the family of God. I'm not a second class Christian. I am a, there's only one, there's only one. Just I know it is or I don't. I'm filled with the Spirit of God or I'm not. If you are, start living like it. Start holding that promise from God. And I believe that God will answer your prayer in your heart. I was talking to a guy this week, um, a very good friend of mine. Um He's an amazing man, a very impressive man. Black belt and jujitsu, um, very impressive. Um, wealthy, very successful in many, many regards in his life. A man that you would look at and say, I would like to be like that guy. He's been on a journey of faith. Tim and I used to hang out with him a lot in Japan on the mats. He taught us both. Tim's actually good at Jesus, so though that's the difference. Um, and um we would go out together after and we'd have these deep conversations about God. And he was always open about that, but but not hungry. He was open to talk about it, like philosophize about it. Yeah, I'll talk about the philosophy of Christianity. Yeah, let's talk about that. Um, but not uh it wasn't like it was penetrating his heart, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I got back to um Kobe this last week and I was with him, and I I say, hello, it's great to see you, bro. And the first thing he says to me, I want to talk about God. And I've said, I'm here for it, let's go. The next three hours we start talking very deeply about the spirit of God and the nature of God and how he wants to change our lives. And I'm sharing my story and I'm sharing the gospel with him, and he's saying to me, Luke, just give it to me straight. What have I got to do to know God? Because I uh you're the only person that I can ask in this world, how can I know God? So just tell me how do I know God? I'm doing all this stuff, I'm committed, I can't know God because he's so far away, and I don't even dare to look at God, but I'm on this path, and how do I know him? And I said, I think the thing that you're missing is you can be a child of God. It's not just a path that you follow, you're joining a family. You can know God so deeply and so closely in your life. Would you have the faith and the risk and the trust to say, God, come into my life and fill every part of me. No more secrets, no more hiding, no more philosophizing, just come into my life, I surrender. And he looked at me and he said, I've never heard that before, that's what I need. And we're on the street, we're walking down the street late at night, in the middle of the city, it's buzzing, people everywhere. And I say, Can I pray for you to receive Jesus into your life? And he said, Would you? And he started to cry. This guy is looking around, making sure no one's looking. And we start praying together, and we're both in tears, and I'm praying for him to receive Jesus into his life. And he messaged me right after that, and he said, Luke, today was one of the most amazing days in my life. It was exactly what I needed. I've got God now. But let me finish with this last verse. How do you be filled with the Spirit? Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. It says, Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Or basically, it's gonna screw your life up. If you're someone who's getting drunk a lot, just get ready for a lot of pain. Get ready to um lose friends, to do things you you you're gonna be full of regret about. You know this stuff. But instead of that, that's a that's a that's a phony, that's a phony version of being filled with the spirit. But instead, be filled with the spirit. In the same way that the alcoholic keeps on going back to to alcohol to get a little bit more, just a you know, a kitchen simp sipper they call it in Japan. Kitchen sipper, someone who's like always got a bottle in the kitchen and they're sipping all the time. In the same way that that person is relying on that alcohol, we rely on the spirit. Keep drinking the spirit over and over and over and over. If I feel anxiety, I take a drink. If I feel doubt, I take a drink. If I'm going into a tough meeting, I take a drink. If I'm about to make a big decision, I take a drink. It's like constantly being filled with the spirit, it's always available to you. Keep drinking, keep drinking, keep drinking over and over and over again. This scripture says, be continually filled with the spirit. This is a a um a continual, um, a perfect continual is the verbiage. It's a keep on being filled with the spirit over and over. That's why we should be together in church. That's why I want you to be part of a small group. That's why I want you to read the scriptures for yourself and pray and learn how to hear from God because you need to learn how to drink when you need it, and we need it all the time. I need the spirit all the time. So we're gonna pray right now, and I'm gonna close. But I just want to um it's a moment, another moment to take it, take another drink of the spirit, if that makes sense. Take another sip, or maybe you need to just pour the tap on and just like just pour it over yourself because you're so dry in your heart that you just need God to come and fill your life, pour his grace all over your life in a deep way. Well, we're here for it, okay? We've got a few minutes. Let's pray together. Would you join me in prayer? Thank you, God. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Gotta pray that you would come and fill your people today. God, we need you. Come on, if you're hungry, would you just open your hands to God? If you're hungry to to drink from God, to you you know in your heart you're dry, you need it. God I pray today you'd come and fill every part, every part of our lives, every dark part, every shadow part. Your spirit, come and fill it. Those who their mind is just stuck, stuck on things of the past. Come to set them free. Come to set them free, God. Just receive it. Come on, just receive. You don't need to do anything, just receive. Just receive from the Spirit now. Holy Spirit, receive you. Give him your pain. Give him your junk. Receive, God. We need you. Oh God, we need you. Spirit of life. Come on, spirit of life. Come and fill this place, fill every heart, spirit of life, come on. We want you, God. As I was praying, I felt like there was maybe some someone here and you uh you know, in a workplace situation right now, you are being scapegoated, and you feel like you're being unfairly treated in your workplace right now. And I felt like God wanted to encourage you that God is gonna sort it out. God will sort it out for you. You don't need to worry about it. If that's an encouragement for you today, I pray that you just receive that. Thank you, God, for encouraging your people today. Those who don't know you, God, I pray, God, even as their heart leans into you, that you would show them how much you love them, care for them. And even those you would set them free. Come fill their lives with your goodness. Respond to their cries, God, you hear them. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.