What Are You Praying For? | Resurrection Life

Do you ever feel like you are just going through the motions of life?
 Do you look around and wonder why so many people seem exhausted or empty?
 Do you feel the pull between who you want to be and what you actually do?
 What if there is a real way to be fully alive?
 
 In Jesus, God meets us right in that tension with good news. Scripture says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus does what we could never do on our own. He frees us from sin and brings us into real life with him. The gospel is a foundation that steadies our souls, something solid to build on when everything else feels uncertain or broken.
 
 You are invited into more than survival or surface level living. Life in the Spirit is a life marked by peace, purpose, and growing freedom. It is a life where God brings new growth even in places that once felt dead. As you listen, consider where your life is headed and hear the gentle invitation of Jesus to walk with him. He is forming something new in you and through you, and he may even be calling you to share that life with someone else who feels far from hope.
 
 Scripture: Romans 8:1 to 2
 “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
 “The Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2
 
 Belong at First Pres by taking the first step: join us for worship on Sundays in person. https://firstprescos.org/belong

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the First Preds Sermon Podcast, where each week we dive into Scripture, wrestle with truth, and discover how faith intersects our lives. God's word meets us where we are, challenging, shaping, and calling us into something greater. No matter where you are on your journey, you belong here. And we're praying that this sermon might help you take a next step in faith towards Jesus. Hey, let's dive into today's message together.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Well, good morning. In 2011, the Center for Disease Control, the CDC, they launched a new campaign. It was pretty different from anything that they had done before. So it was called Preparedness 101, Zombie Pandemic. Okay. And so they, with that, they released this comic book, kind of telling this whole story, and they and they gave you lists and ways that you could really set up your home with your zombie preparedness pack. Okay. Did anybody see that and do that? No. Okay, that's all right. This this did kind of catch on, though. There were a whole bunch of people who really latched onto this idea of zombie apocalypse prep. And and even today, there's a car that drives around my neighborhood that it says zombie outbreak response team all over it. Okay. And it's nice to know they're there. I'm really, really encouraged. See, friends, this is important for us to talk about this morning. We're gonna be talking about zombies throughout the morning because really our world is filled with walking dead, with living dead. And and they don't have flesh falling off of them like in the movies. No, these are people that you see every day. These are the countless masses who are plodding through life, just exhausted and broken down, beat up. These are the countless who are who are living life with just a mild anger kind of buzzing under the surface, or those who are living life pursuing status and wealth and influence as a means to life or salvation. It's all those who are walking a path that is but a shadow of the true life that Christ offers us. And so this morning, I'm not telling you that you need to be worried about your neighbor biting you, although if that happens, please call somebody. We are talking today about whether we are on a trajectory towards life or towards death. And that's the question that we'll have on our minds as we look to Romans chapter 8. Let's go to the Lord now in prayer as we prepare to receive the word. Lord, you are good. You love us, you walk with us, you claim us as your own, and so we give you praise. And Lord, as we open your scriptures today, we ask that you would speak to us. Lord, that the soil of our hearts would be tilled up that we could receive that which you have. And so, Lord, hear us now as we give you praise in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Friends, let's look to Romans chapter 8, starting at verse 1. It says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires. But those who live according with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind is gov 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. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, 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, the spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, last week Pastor Tim talked, walked us through Paul's wrestling passage. Paul goes on and on about what he wants to do but can't seem to do. He says, In my mind, I am a slave to God's law. I belong to God's law. I long to do God's law, but in my flesh, I'm pulled to sin. I'm a slave to sin. I'm constantly pulled this direction. And anytime we approach that passage, I have to think of my desire to attempt to eat really healthy, okay? I mean, I know in my mind that I want a salad. Like I really do want salad. I would love to be a slave to a salmon salad with goat cheese and heirloom tomatoes. Like that sounds so nice, but but as all who have Chicago, Illinois stamped on their birth certificates, um, I am a slave actually to deep dish pizza, okay? And and somebody told me after the last service, counterpoint, maybe that is deep dish pizza is proof that God loves us and cares for like, okay, okay. But but Paul wrestles with this. Paul is going back and forth, and just like us, he's going back and forth, and he knows that sin, getting drawn to sin, sin leads us more to more than just needing to loosen a belt notch. Sin comes with dire consequences. He tells us that the wages of sin is death. Just like us, again, Paul is going back and forth. He has this desire to do what is right, he has this propensity to do what is wrong. But in the midst of that, he has good news to proclaim. Despite us deserving the consequences for our actions, despite us deserving condemnation for sin, Paul says, No, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Amen. So hear this there are consequences for sin. There is condemnation. Every person is on a trajectory towards death and estrangement from God, if not for Christ's intervention. And now, all those who are in Christ, there is no condemnation or death for them. Now, to be in Christ, it means to be in fellowship with him. It means to be in companionship, it means to be to be with him. To be in Christ, it's it's a bit like this piece of paper being in the Bible, being in my Bible. And anything now that happens to the Bible, it happens to this piece of paper. Anything that wants to get at that piece of paper has to has to go through this Bible. And so likewise for us, we who are in Christ, we are we belong to him. We are we are uh surrounded by him, we we are protected by him. We look to verse two once again. Maybe we can put verse two back up on the screen. See, often when we see you in scripture, we talk about that being a plural you. We talk about that being y'all or all y'all, but not in this verse. In this verse, in verse two of Romans 8, this is a singular pronoun. This is singular you. So Paul is not just just kind of speaking in broad generalities. Paul is is is trying to drive home this point that actually God's love is is personal, in individual. It's an individual application of God's love that is talked about here. So if you are in Christ Jesus, if you as an individual are in Christ Jesus, you have been set free from sin and death. You are invited to new life, resurrection life, life that is full and in step with Jesus. And the question is, are you in Christ? Verse 3 says, For what the law was powerless to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned the sin, sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who did not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The Mosaic Law, this law that was given to Moses, it was given so that the people could live in harmony with God. But as we as we look through the Old Testament, we see that the people know they can't do that. They've been impacted by sin, and all throughout Israel's history, they fail to do that. They can't seem to live out what God has put before them. The scholar Dale Brunery said that the old law told us what to do, but we did not have the strength to do it on our own. And so the good news that we see in this passage, the good news in Romans 8 is that God in Christ did for us what we were unable to do. Jesus took on the sin of the flesh into his own flesh, so that we who are living with the Holy Spirit could be made righteous. And so now, 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. Over and over, Paul is painting pictures, he's painting portraits of this two different life scenario. He's he's saying there's life in the flesh, and this is what this looks like, and there's life in the spirit. Two different portraits. The first one is a portrait of a person who's focused on the pleasures and the comforts of this world. Their attention is constantly drawn towards the fleeting things, the ways of the world. They're trying to develop their own salvation. They're trying to save themselves from the pain of this life, but they walk a path that ultimately leads to death. We have modern pictures of this, little caricatures. This is this is Don Draper in the TV show Mad Men. Say, Don, he's an advertising executive on Madison Avenue in the 1960s, and he spends his whole life building towards success and power and accruing wealth and status and women. But he goes through life just intoxicated and listless, empty, waiting for the whole house of cards to come falling down on him. This, if you think all the way back to sophomore English class, this is Jay Gadsby. Jay Gatsby, who's who's living a lie. He's he's building a fortune, trying to cut corners, and he's constantly throwing these lavish parties that people revere him for, but but inside he's he's empty. He's empty and miserable on the inside. This is Regina George from Mean Girls, okay? Working to craft this curated life based on status and image and control. But in reality, she's she's fragile and life is fleeting. And spoiler alert on this 25-year-old movie, she gets hit by a bus, okay? This is not this is not a path to life, okay? You don't want to be Regina George. Again, these are these are caricatures for us. These are these are the living dead, these are the zombies that we're talking about walking through life, seemingly alive, but in truth, very far from it. That's the first portrait that Paul paints for us. The second is different. He's he's talking about resurrection life. He's talking about someone who is governed by the Spirit, relying on Jesus for salvation and life, and ultimately someone who's able to find peace in Christ. We have examples of that as well that we know. This is this is Corey Ten Boom, who suffered in a concentration camp and years later stood eye to eye, stood face to face with one of the prison guards that she suffered under. And she stood in front of this person and forgave him and then preached forgiveness for the rest of her life. This is Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers. He's a Presbyterian minister. He saw children as made in the image of God, worthy of dignity and honesty. And he sought to share Christ's love with others, and he lived a life of quiet integrity and meaning. This is Martin Luther King Jr., sticking to Christian convictions, pursuing nonviolence, spending his life working towards justice. Paul says that you are not in the realm of the flesh, 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, the spirit gives life because of righteousness. And so that's what Paul paints for us. He he paints these two options: life in the flesh, life in sin, life that moves towards death, or life in the spirit. And living in the spirit means walking a Christian lifestyle, our lives will begin to bear fruit. It will be evident that we are walking in the spirit. It's not just about checking boxes or legalism or trying to be squeaky clean. It's about living more and more, always more and more, into the truth and the life that God has for us. And so Paul is saying, if you are swimming in and with the Holy Spirit, if you are swimming in and with Jesus, then you will have life. Then you will not be one of the undead, wandering the streets as a hollow shell. That won't be you. You will have life. And then Paul closes his section. He says in verse 11, which is our verse for the week, let's read this together. He says, And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you. Dear ones, if you have given your life to the Lord, if you have surrendered your heart to Jesus, then the same power that conquered the grave dwells in you. And knowing that the Holy Spirit is living in you should give you confidence to stand firm and face the things of this world in Christ. This verse, it also offers one of these, one of the incredible claims of Christianity. See, Paul and other New Testament writers, they affirm that God will resurrect bodies. That in an age to come, God will renew the physical mortal bodies of those who are filled with the Holy Spirit. That is what is to come for those who are in Christ. That is part of an answer to the question of if you were to die today, what would happen to you? But again, we think now, today, about what the shape of our lives is now. What trajectory are we on? What is the path that we are walking now? At our house, we have this section of our backyard that uh is the back of the garage and then backs up to this fence, and it kind of creates this no man's land. And it's always been filled with overgrown bushes and weeds and this invasive tree species that's called the tree of heaven. And so last summer, I was feeling very confident, and I said, you know, it is time for me to do something about this. We've lived in this house eight years at this point. It's time, we gotta clean this out. This can't be good. And so I went through and I tried to clear out the mess. Okay. I I got my tools and so I started digging things out. I dug things out and I chopped things down. And by the time I was done with it, this this little patch of yard that we never go to, it looked like a horticultural graveyard. It was beautiful, okay? I'm talking dead stumps and soil that's all been flipped over and neat and orderly and clean and just everything in that back stretch was dead. And I was so proud of myself. I was very proud, very impressed. However, uh a couple of weeks ago, I said, I'm gonna go poke my head back there. I haven't looked back there in a while. And I was so confident that the winter would have just done more of the work that I started and just really killed all of it even more. But actually, what I found was horrifying. You see, see, in less than a year, this this patch, this little stretch that was dead, dead, dead. It now, when I look back there, almost every stump that was once dead, it has life coming out of it, it has shoots of green, there's there's limbs that are pushing up and out and growing into my garage shingles again. And I'm very upset about it. See, I I really did try to kill off everything in that patch. I really did try to kill off everything behind the garage. But that patch in our yard, it that patch of no man's land, it's it's actually kind of experiencing a form of resurrection life. And I'm against it. Friends, we though, we are resurrection people. Our lives, our hearts, they're like gardens in which the Holy Spirit takes something that is dead and shriveled and begins to flip it and burst new life out of our lives. We have new, vibrant, joy-filled lives when we are in Christ. And we are not alone in experiencing this. Okay, last week I was in Dallas for a Presbytery leader gathering, exciting as it sounds. It's awesome. And so we gathered with leaders from across the nation. And in first president, you need to know that we are part of a covenant order. We are part of a body across this nation that is experiencing flourishing. We had a we had a glimpse here a couple of weeks ago with our baptism service, just hearing over and over again how God has been stirring up new life, resurrection life in people in our congregation. And that is happening across the nation. We're part of that. There's this body that we are part of that's experiencing flourishing. And beyond that, we are part of a global expression, the body of Christ globally. Last week, again, we heard about the thousands and thousands of Christians in the global south and east that we're connected to as a as a body, as a network. And these this body is living out the gospel and proclaiming the kingdom of God in all circumstances around the world. And one of our national uh staff, Brian, was sharing with us about being with a group of African pastors and sharing with them about what is happening in our denomination, what's happening in our churches, and sharing about the convictions that we hold to, our theological convictions and and our values that we are consistently holding to. And one of the pastors out of that group stepped forward and said, I am so encouraged. We have been praying here in Africa, we have been praying for a remnant to rise up in the United States. We've been praying for a remnant to survive the new atheism and cultural wave that is just constantly pounding against the gospel. First present, you need to know, church, you need to know that there are people across this world who have been praying for you. There are people across this world that have been praying for resurrection life to be experienced, to be known, to be fostered, to be grown up in our community and in our church and in your life. Christians in other nations are praying for us to be awakened to the resurrection life of Jesus. They're praying that we would be in Christ, that we would be living spirit-filled, kingdom-oriented lives that are marked by love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. And so the invitation today, as we close, is to join in the prayer that has been going on around the world for us. To pray for resurrection life, to pray that the Holy Spirit would reform your heart and reform your mind. Pray that you would walk in Christ's in confidence and that the Spirit would bear fruit in your life. And then there's one more prayer to put before you. Remember, I was talking about my neighbor's car, right? The zombie outbreak response team vehicle. Well, you are now conscripted, you are drafted to the newly minted first. Zombie outreach response team. Okay. We're gonna get bumper stickers. It's gonna be great. The challenge this week is to be thinking who has the Lord put in my path? Who is is is walking dead in my sphere of influence? Who is God calling me to share resurrection life with? I pray that God would use you to water the seeds, to plant seeds, water seeds of resurrection life in the hearts of those who are lost in your life. Pray that out of a dead stump, new resurrection life would spring up both in your heart and in the hearts of those that you are called to serve. Let's pray. Lord, again, we come before you in awe of your grace and mercy, for which there is no parallel. Lord, you alone love us in the ways that we experience in Jesus. Lord, you alone are above all things and worthy of all praise. And so, Lord, we lift our hearts to you. Once again, asking for your Holy Spirit to move and turn our hearts more and more alive, turn our hearts more and more into the ones that you would have us be. Lord, you are good, and so we give you thanks in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Amen. Hearing God's word is just the beginning. What connected with you? What challenged you today? Maybe it's surrendering something, stepping into community, or simply trusting Him more deeply. Whatever it is, don't leave it for later. Act on it today. We're praying that this message moves you closer to Jesus. And we'd love to walk with you in that journey and answer any questions you've got. Connect with us by visiting firstprezcos.org. Hey, if today's message encouraged you, take a moment and subscribe so you never miss an episode and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Check in next week and we'll continue to grow in our faith together. See you next time.