SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Road at Chapel Hills.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Road Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_01: My heart is to empower you to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: I hope this message impacts you.
SPEAKER_01: Here now is our guest speaker.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna be in this text very long, but really what it is, this is I want to start us in the dashboard.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of we're looking at our our um our lights, our emergency lights, um, kind of where we're at on things, and just here's a dashboard kind of checkup, and I want to start us in Matthew 13.
SPEAKER_00: You know this, it's the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_00: And what kind of soil do we have as we prepare for what God has for us today?
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna open there, but then we're gonna be spending the bulk of our time in another chapter, and I'll build into that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, parable of the sower, chapter 13, Matthew 1 through 9.
SPEAKER_00: On the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: The great multitudes were gathered together to him, so that he got into a boat and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
SPEAKER_00: Then he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the seed fell on stony places where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
SPEAKER_00: But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away.
SPEAKER_00: And some fell among the thorn, and the thorns sprang up and choked it.
SPEAKER_00: But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
SPEAKER_00: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: And so the challenge today, church, uh men and women, is just that we're taking a quick assessment about where our soil is in our hearts, and is it ready to receive, is it tilled?
SPEAKER_00: Are we in unity with the Father, with the Spirit, for what God has for us today?
SPEAKER_00: I think He has a powerful word, and I'm excited to get into this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but just a quick dashboard as we as we start to move in.
SPEAKER_00: If you're on the app, we're gonna be moving through my notes that are on there.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be going into a version that I use uh for this message will be New Living Translation.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're following along and you can switch over, great.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, patience if you're in other versions, but I'm gonna be teaching from the NLT today.
SPEAKER_00: And the conversation really, this is almost a two-part or a second follow-up, or a second part to what I spoke on a couple weeks ago, kind of that recalibrate.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a different lens and a different filter that I kind of want to look at here and dive into a good chunk of scripture as we think about halftime and going into the locker room and kind of what would be God's locker room speech for our lives as we go into the locker room.
SPEAKER_00: And halftime uh is is identified as the short period of time in between two parts of a sporting event.
SPEAKER_00: In this case, I'm gonna add to Webster's definition a life situation, struggle, competition, or fight.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you are to prepare for the second half of the event.
SPEAKER_00: And so you get a short pause here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we go in, uh play soccer, you go in for the orange slice.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think today uh it's gonna be more of a steak dinner, is what we're gonna get our teeth around.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot to digest, and I'm excited about that.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the question: You think through God's scripture, you come into halftime, you go into the locker room, and through your mind right now, you're probably playing like reels and highlights of like what are some of the great Hollywood moments of locker room species, or even like real time, you talk to players and their coaches, and what are they saying?
SPEAKER_00: Where are they getting motivated?
SPEAKER_00: What are they taking out in the second half?
SPEAKER_00: What are they doing in the first half, etc.?
SPEAKER_00: And so, what would God's halftime speech look like for us in the locker room about where we're at right now?
SPEAKER_00: And some of us are on this timeline where we might find ourselves actually right in the middle of everything.
SPEAKER_00: Uh numerically, we're just kind of right in the halftime of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Others of us are in a halftime in a specific event or a season or something hard or difficult, but we're in the middle of a process, and so in our lives, we're either going into or out of the locker room kind of consistently.
SPEAKER_00: And so wherever you're at in that process today, you guys kind of take your self-assessment and figure out what God has for you in this and what you're supposed to take from it.
SPEAKER_00: But we ask our students, um, I've even talked to some staff around this question, is that is if you had to choose one book of the Bible, you're going to the island, you're going to get stranded there, and you can only take one book with you, what's the book you're going to take?
SPEAKER_00: And it varies.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Psalms, Proverbs, you know, I want like the wisdom of Solomon, how to crack the coconut, how do I live off the land.
SPEAKER_00: None of the coconuts in there, and I will say that none of your students, rest assured, this is like good for you guys, good job, Mom and Dad.
SPEAKER_00: None of your students have ever chose the Song of Solomon as their book of the Bible that they would go to the island with.
SPEAKER_00: They're still waiting for that one.
SPEAKER_00: But if you had to take one book, and for me, this is like hands above, like, I'm gonna kind of feed, I'm gonna kind of stay here, uh, it's Romans.
SPEAKER_00: And and I love, I love Romans, I love where Paul's heart is in this process, and we see so much of his personality and his own struggle and the rescue that he gets in some of this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the question goes deeper.
SPEAKER_00: If I could take one chapter out of Romans, what would you take, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so that was the question.
SPEAKER_00: It goes deeper.
SPEAKER_00: So you get one book and you get one chapter.
SPEAKER_00: You're on the island, your book catches fire, you can only say one chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, that's that's that's where we're at.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, for me, heads above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else in that book, Romans 8 is like it's fire from book end, from starting in the opening verse to the end.
SPEAKER_00: He opens with a flamethrower and delivers the goods on the last chapter with like Napalm.
SPEAKER_00: And you're just like, what?
SPEAKER_00: So, like, you can't read this and not come out of the locker room, like jacked out of your mind, like you're pumped, you're ready for the work that God has for you.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna dive in, we're gonna go through the whole chapter, we're gonna take it verse by verse.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just real quick uh background.
SPEAKER_00: Right before this, to understand the context, we see Paul in a very human state in Romans 7.
SPEAKER_00: He's wrestling.
SPEAKER_00: He's wrestling with himself, beating himself up.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I do the things that I hate that I don't want to do?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I sinning?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do these things, and he's back and forth, and it's like, man, this guy, like, you want to give him like six sessions to like a like a solid Christian counselor just to help him get unstuck from this place in Romans 7.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but then it's like, I don't know if he just puts it to bed, wakes up with a revelation, and then like out of the gates, we're jumping right in to um Romans 1, or sorry, Romans 8, verses 1.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this, in my opinion, is the first chunk of this, so it's gonna break down into three sections as we move through the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have the life in the spirit, what I consider the fundamentals of the game.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get back to the fundamentals.
SPEAKER_00: How are you playing?
SPEAKER_00: Did you get away from your game?
SPEAKER_00: We need to kind of think through what our fundamentals are.
SPEAKER_00: The second, the middle section is kind of the future glory, the prize that we get.
SPEAKER_00: What are we fighting for?
SPEAKER_00: What are we playing for?
SPEAKER_00: What's the purpose?
SPEAKER_00: And then, really, the last section out of the gates, the third part of the chapter, is our war cry, it's our anthem, it's our declaration, and it's what we're headed back into the second half with.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll get to that.
SPEAKER_00: So, first half, uh coming out, we're kind of thinking through some things.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is headed into the locker room, thinking about like seven.
SPEAKER_00: It's on him.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to live this way, he's like, there's got to be a better way.
SPEAKER_00: And what am I gonna cling to?
SPEAKER_00: What are the truths that God's gonna bring through me?
SPEAKER_00: I think about Coach John Wooden.
SPEAKER_00: You guys know of him.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, uh he was the UCLA coach for basketball.
SPEAKER_00: He is considered the greatest basketball, he's considered the greatest coach, period, of all time.
SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't matter what sport, he's considered the greatest coach of all time.
SPEAKER_00: In a 12-year period, he won 10 national titles, and within that segment, he won seven straight consecutive titles.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about him is this fact of how he would begin each season.
SPEAKER_00: He would go back to the fundamentals, he would go back to the basics.
SPEAKER_00: He's recruiting nationally the best players from around the country to his school.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: These kids know how to play ball, they're there for a purpose, they're there to win, they know the game, or so they think.
SPEAKER_00: And he sits them down, and he doesn't care if it's their freshman year or if they're returning from the national championship team the year before.
SPEAKER_00: He sits them all down and he says, We're gonna start with how to tie your shoes.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: You know where I was playing, right?
SPEAKER_00: I want to stay title for my high school game, and all I can imagine the conversations these guys had.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, no, no, wait, stop.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start with the basics because if you guys don't know how to lace up your feet, your shoes, your most important equipment, you're gonna get blisters, you're not gonna perform well, and you're not gonna be the best that you can be for this team.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna start with how to lace your shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And he would go through that process with them, and everybody did it.
SPEAKER_00: And they repeated it, and they repeated it.
SPEAKER_00: But he built his game design on the fundamentals.
SPEAKER_00: So, here we are, right out of the gates.
SPEAKER_00: What are we gonna say?
SPEAKER_00: And uh on the notes, if you guys are in the notes in the app, uh this isn't highlighted yet, but when we post the notes, you'll have these.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna go through, and the way that I've taken this, and I'll cue you guys, have your pen and your uh, if you guys are following in your hard text or on your phone, you're gonna be able to do this.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna say where I've highlighted versus underlined, and we're gonna go through the whole chapter with that way.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll cue you with kind of how I've kind of chewed this uh chapter up.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight verse one, right out of the gates.
SPEAKER_00: Fire, hand grenade, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: So there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, pause right there.
SPEAKER_00: We need to grapple with this, we need to chew on it, we need to just absorb it to say, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of the voices in my head, regardless of what they think about me, regardless of what I think about me, my own self-condemnation, Jesus says, first of all, stop it right now.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do a quick hard reset on the hard drive.
SPEAKER_00: There is no condemnation if you are living in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you belong to me, you don't get to live under condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, and I highlighted that one.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2 is not, and because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from both the power of sin that leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's a lot here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and because you belong to him, first of all, now you're getting who you belong to.
SPEAKER_00: When you're gonna play the game, you've got to know whose you are, what team you're on, and who's your you know who you belong to.
SPEAKER_00: So he's just saying it right now.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to me, and the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, freed me completely.
SPEAKER_00: That means I'm no longer a slave.
SPEAKER_00: That means that even though I've been to the cross and I feel like I'm still gonna struggle, I'm still gonna think about things, and the enemy's gonna come at me, and I'm gonna partner with him.
SPEAKER_00: I've been completely set free, I've been completely freed from the power of that sin over my life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to walk in that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Underline verse 3 the law of Moses was unable to save us because of what the weak because of the weakness of our sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: So God did what the law could not do.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna show up like us to do the work that we couldn't do.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight, and in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: He's declaring an end to sin's control of us.
SPEAKER_00: There's a partnership that we make, that we still go back and negotiate.
SPEAKER_00: There's contracts.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, no, it's scorched, it's done.
SPEAKER_00: I'm declaring there's an end to this.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna build on this thought through the course of the text.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, highlight who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We have a decision to make here.
SPEAKER_00: We can take the full exchange and we can still kind of stay there.
SPEAKER_00: But what he's really talking about, what the exchange is, is we're getting a new wineskin.
SPEAKER_00: There's a new wine skin that's offered to us at Calvary that sometimes, right, when we stay in, we stay in our old wineskin, but God wants to put new wine in, and instead, when that happens, and we know from the verses, we know from the scripture, that when you put new wine in, that still has to grow and mature, gets power, it's going to expand, and it needs new skin to grow with it.
SPEAKER_00: When you put it in the old stuff, it bursts.
SPEAKER_00: There's a visual in my mind, like at some point, when we continue to travel down in the words that he's talking about, in the language that he's using, that leads unto death, it's where we keep our old wine skin and we try to put his new wine in us, and eventually we're gonna burst.
SPEAKER_00: Because the old person, the old man, the old skin isn't meant to hold the new wine that God wants to bring out in and through us for the world that needs his glory and his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so, are we willing to receive this new wineskin before we go back in to the second half?
SPEAKER_00: And let me just say, new wineskin right now, and I'm so proud of your students.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, we at tribe have been feeling just like a fraction of what God's been wanting to do through our country, through our world, through our nation, but they have been going hard this whole year after God, running after it.
SPEAKER_00: There's been a new wineskin, and there's been a new wine poured out over your youth group.
SPEAKER_00: Healings, uh, physical healings, where we've actually seen physical manifestation.
SPEAKER_00: New skin has regrown where kids have been cutting themselves, and there's been no evidence left of those harmful marks.
SPEAKER_00: They have been healed from depression, they've been healed from cancer.
SPEAKER_00: The list goes on and on.
SPEAKER_00: And if that doesn't get you excited about what God's doing, I don't know what is.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's new wine that he wants to pour out, and we are we are so excited and humbled to partner with him in this.
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's available, and he's making it he's making an offering.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, you don't have to live in the old wineskin, you've got to take on the new mantle, and this is how we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get our heads right first.
SPEAKER_00: So, calling us to live extreme, we're gonna look different from the culture.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have your new wineskin, and from you, I'm gonna develop a deeper faith, a deeper hope.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be healings coming on your land, and we're gonna experience the power of the Holy Spirit pouring out on a new wine in our country and in our communities and our schools and our homes and our families healing that God wants to do in us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're obedient here.
SPEAKER_00: Five, those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's pretty straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: We've already seen Paul wrestle with this.
SPEAKER_00: He's restating kind of where he was in chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: But this is where he puts the comma and adds the but.
SPEAKER_00: But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: There's a mind shift, taking thoughts obedient, making them obedient to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Number six, so letting high uh underline, so letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight, second half, but letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
SPEAKER_00: So we now see the transaction.
SPEAKER_00: There's an equation here, there's something that we're getting in this process.
SPEAKER_00: We get, when we when we let the mind, our mind be controlled by the spirit, it's leading us to life and leading us to peace.
SPEAKER_00: When we give our mind over to the sinful side of life, the things where our flesh wants to go, we get anxiety, we get fear, we get depression.
SPEAKER_00: All of those things that we start to also now try to understand and self-medicate, understand through the world's eyes, and we're going in the wrong direction from what the Spirit has for us, where he's promising peace and life.
SPEAKER_00: That's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Seven.
SPEAKER_00: For the sinful nature is always hostile to God.
SPEAKER_00: It never did obey God's laws, and it never will.
SPEAKER_00: It's light and dark here.
SPEAKER_00: He's just saying, hey, here's what it is, it's light and dark.
SPEAKER_00: This is never going to participate with God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It was never designed for that, and it never will.
SPEAKER_00: There's something that you can step in fully and completely today and live completely apart from the way that you have been living.
SPEAKER_00: Step into that.
SPEAKER_00: And for eight, underline, that's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
SPEAKER_00: We're never able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: It was never part of his design for us.
SPEAKER_00: We we confiscated or we we we got the earth confiscated from us.
SPEAKER_00: It's our choice to go back now and eat the apple.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to live under that, under that yoke.
SPEAKER_00: So, number nine, highlight you are not controlled by your sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: But you are not controlled by your sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: We let that sink in.
SPEAKER_00: We don't probably pause long enough in that space because we feel like we're controlled by it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I can do, I'm gonna do really good over here and with this and with that, but you know, with the areas, I just don't think I'm ever gonna get free from that.
SPEAKER_00: It's always gonna control me.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is that's completely garbage right now because this is where he heads into it.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are controlled, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit, think about things that please the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So letting your uh highlight that, highlight the second half of five, and then underline six.
SPEAKER_00: So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.
SPEAKER_00: You have life and you have death.
SPEAKER_00: He's just setting it right out there.
SPEAKER_00: This is very clear thinking, this is the reset.
SPEAKER_00: But letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
SPEAKER_00: I apologize.
SPEAKER_00: I got behind in my notes, so we're further down.
SPEAKER_00: Please forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: I apologize.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your grace on that.
SPEAKER_00: So where I was in nine.
SPEAKER_00: You're not controlled by your sinful nature, you are controlled by the spirit if you have the spirit of God living in you.
SPEAKER_00: And remember that those who do not have the spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.
SPEAKER_00: So now he's just saying, okay, if you don't have the spirit of God in you, you don't have access to all the things that we're going to be talking about and what is available to you and where to live from.
SPEAKER_00: Number 10, Christ lives within you.
SPEAKER_00: So even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight 11, the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: And just as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, he will give life to your immortal bodies by this same spirit living within you.
SPEAKER_00: So now we have access.
SPEAKER_00: We have access to life.
SPEAKER_00: We are raised to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We are raised to life with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 2.20.
SPEAKER_00: Uh right, I have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is no longer I who live, but him who lives within me.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul's talking about, and he's fully, he's fully realizing it.
SPEAKER_00: And and this is um some lyrics from the song that I really love.
SPEAKER_00: It's um right, by your spirit I will rise.
SPEAKER_00: From the ashes of defeat, the resurrected king is resurrecting me.
SPEAKER_00: In your name I come alive to declare your victory.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, I'm coming alive.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, I'm declaring his victory.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to struggle here, I'm coming out of it completely, and I'm gonna declare Jesus' name, and I'm gonna declare his victory because he's already gone there, he's already done what he had to do, and I have victory in that, and he's resurrecting me out of the ashes.
SPEAKER_00: We participate with his death at Calvary, so we will also celebrate and live in his victory over death with the resurrection and life that he's bringing us.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12, underlined.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do your sinful nature urges you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, pause there.
SPEAKER_00: We have to grab this, we have to really sink hold because there is this thing where we feel like we are pulled back or there's not this freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, No.
SPEAKER_00: 13.
SPEAKER_00: For if you live by its dictates, you will die.
SPEAKER_00: But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
SPEAKER_00: You will live.
SPEAKER_00: You have to put to death the sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: Now we look at the timeline of everything God has created.
SPEAKER_00: There's only been one thing that's been raised from the dead, and that's Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So when we bury and put to death our sinful nature, it is dead.
SPEAKER_00: It's dead.
SPEAKER_00: We put it at the cross and it's covered and it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to participate, we shouldn't have to struggle in that uh, you know, temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're gonna be tempted, but then we have the Spirit coming over us who's going to lead us.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he says in 14.
SPEAKER_00: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna put to death your sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight the second half of 13 and all of 14.
SPEAKER_00: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's this inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's just identified you.
SPEAKER_00: Now you know whose name is on your jersey, you know who you're leaving the locker room with, who's on your side.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even have to think about the victory that you're trying to secure in your own flesh because that victory has already been won.
SPEAKER_00: It's already happened.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna walk in that.
SPEAKER_00: 15 underlined.
SPEAKER_00: So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you receive God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children.
SPEAKER_00: Now we call him Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to live under the fear of the slavery of the old life.
SPEAKER_00: But that's where we try to get position.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the enemy tries to maneuver, get us around, get us out.
SPEAKER_00: He had to maneuver Adam and Eve out of the garden.
SPEAKER_00: He had to get them to do something that was a dictate and a decree that they shouldn't do, because he knew he couldn't harm them in that state.
SPEAKER_00: We have to sin, I have to get them to sin so then I can crush them, I can kill them, I can destroy them.
SPEAKER_00: And if I can just move them out of that space, out of God's protection, out of his covering, then I can achieve my goal.
SPEAKER_00: And that's his end game for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: So how is he trying to maneuver in your life and your heart to pull you out of God's covering, out of God's protection, out of God's promise, out of the cross of Calvary, out of the blood that he's already spilled, out of the victory he's already won, and the empty grave that he left?
SPEAKER_00: But Paul is reminding us that we have been adopted in now.
SPEAKER_00: I have good parents.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we had a life, you know, just like all of us too.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't perfect, they made mistakes, and they're, you know, we we all have that story.
SPEAKER_00: But with God of creation, the God of perfection, what he offers, what we get in the transaction, to have his name on the jersey, to step fully into all of his glory and kingdom, we can't really comprehend and we don't spend enough time thinking about this.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we get up and we're like kind of off to the races and we're thinking about, you know, uh, what I need to do today, what's my checklist, what is uh what's on my what's on my first meetings, what does all that look like, versus stepping in and going back to verse one and saying, wait, there's no condemnation here for me in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been redeemed and I've been atoned for, and I'm gonna step into today with the full knowledge of the power that I have available to me as a son or daughter of him.
SPEAKER_00: And I can call him Abba Father when we know that the translation of that, right, is daddy in today's language.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's this intimacy here that we get access, and he's reminding us call on me, call on me.
SPEAKER_00: Now we call him Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.
SPEAKER_00: We are grafting in.
SPEAKER_00: He's giving us his spirit because we're gonna need his spirit to take thoughts captive, to overcome the sin, to overcome the contracts and the negotiations we made with the devil to step into the complete covering and freedom that he's offering here.
SPEAKER_00: So he's going to graft his spirit in with us.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're his children.
SPEAKER_00: For his spirit is joined with ours to affirm that we are God's children.
SPEAKER_00: And since we are his children, we are his heirs.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: But if we are to share his glory, we must also share in his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: So he's grafting into us, he's bringing us along, and we have this, we have this beautiful gift.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is where it gets a little bit like he leaves us kind of there, and he's like, well, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: We must also share with his suffering, and it kind of like the needle leaves the record for us.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't sign up for that.
SPEAKER_00: I signed up for the good, you know, but I want the fun and this other the adventure, and that's all great.
SPEAKER_00: But then what about the suffering thing that you just said on the back end of that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that means for me.
SPEAKER_00: But this is where he goes with it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's 18, where this is where we enter the middle part of this, and it's the future glory.
SPEAKER_00: And I have the prize plus his victory equals our reward.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what is promised.
SPEAKER_00: This is where we go.
SPEAKER_00: Yet what we suffer underline now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.
SPEAKER_00: There's a glory that's coming that we get so focused in our immediate situation.
SPEAKER_00: I lost a job, I'm not sure I'm gonna pay the bills, I got really bad news.
SPEAKER_00: Family life is rough.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've got relationship issues, and everything is right here in front of us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, mass mandate.
SPEAKER_00: Do I vaccinate?
SPEAKER_00: What am I supposed to do with the information that's coming at me?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just getting inundated with it.
SPEAKER_00: And God's like, stop, time out.
SPEAKER_00: Let's come back into the locker room.
SPEAKER_00: Let's bring your head up and let's look at something.
SPEAKER_00: There's glory coming at the end of this life for you.
SPEAKER_00: There's glory coming.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to step into that.
SPEAKER_00: You need to understand, you need to refocus for the second half.
SPEAKER_00: For all creation is eagerly waiting for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
SPEAKER_00: Underline 20.
SPEAKER_00: Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse.
SPEAKER_00: See, we think about just humanity being broken.
SPEAKER_00: We don't sometimes give pause to think about that the world that we live in really isn't their original design, at least I haven't, consistently.
SPEAKER_00: The hurricanes, the tornadoes, the volcanoes, the droughts, the fires, all of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's broken.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the blueberry he intended for us, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's hurting and it's groaning.
SPEAKER_00: It wants to be restored back to its original glory as well, and we see that later in the text.
SPEAKER_00: But with eager hope, and he's talking about his creation here, with eager hope, the creation highlight looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, our earth is dying as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's dying with us and it's participating with us.
SPEAKER_00: We think about vacations and days at the beach where we get to go, and it's like it's the weather's perfect, it's like they're like whatever that temperature is for you, and the sea's rolling in, the tide, and it's it's like it's like perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is paradise, this is awesome, and you get it for like three or four days.
SPEAKER_00: You work through the year to get that, you know, get out to the beach.
SPEAKER_00: But really, what God said is that was supposed to be for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: That was the original design.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to take you back to.
SPEAKER_00: The earth is yearning and longing to come back to that.
SPEAKER_00: And some of the most beautiful places on earth that we go on vacation at can also be the most deadly.
SPEAKER_00: When the tornadoes and the hurricanes and the tsunamis roll in, they can be the most deadly, and our world is broken.
SPEAKER_00: But it wants freedom from death and decay.
SPEAKER_00: 22.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
SPEAKER_00: Underline 23, and we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: We too wait and with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
SPEAKER_00: In my former life, um was a banker and worked in the trust department, and so I'd sit down and deliver the bad news of the trust document, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, very rarely did I have like one beneficiary in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: You get it all, and it's all yours, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're like, um, no, you get this, your cousin's gonna get that, your brother and sister's gonna share the uh, you know, the Ferrari collection or whatever that was, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, that's you know, I love that.
SPEAKER_00: I watched that card, it's like, I'm sorry, I didn't write it, I just have to distribute the information.
SPEAKER_00: But what he's saying here is that we, because we're adopted sons and daughters, we get full rights, including the bodies that we deal with.
SPEAKER_00: And so you heard me talk about like kind of that turning the odometer after 40, and the factory warranty kind of starts to get into places where you're looking at replacement parts, right?
SPEAKER_00: In our bodies, and you're like thinking, uh, it's painful, it hurts, my neck, my back, etc., my knees, hips, joints, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But then, you know, uh, our vehicles can actually be kind of a uh an assimilation to what we're experiencing in our own bodies.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we put in them, we're changing the oil, we're putting in premium, you know, we're gonna do our best that we can with these things, but ultimately they're gonna break down and fail us.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying here is that there's coming the day where we're gonna get the full glory that God has promised us.
SPEAKER_00: We get restored back to that.
SPEAKER_00: We're given this hope.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight 24.
SPEAKER_00: We were given this hope when we were raised and when we were saved.
SPEAKER_00: We get this hope.
SPEAKER_00: If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it.
SPEAKER_00: 25.
SPEAKER_00: But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: He says, and confidently.
SPEAKER_00: We need to step into confidence of what is happening.
SPEAKER_00: We have the confidence that we are gonna get fully restored, we are gonna get fully redeemed, we are going to see creation made new.
SPEAKER_00: This is the long game.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're looking at out of the locker room.
SPEAKER_00: This is where we go face the second half, is that we don't stay broken.
SPEAKER_00: We don't stay in this broken place.
SPEAKER_00: We can be confident because of what Christ did at Calvary and what he did on the cross, that we have access to that there.
SPEAKER_00: He's already redeemed it.
SPEAKER_00: We're stepping into a second half that's already been won.
SPEAKER_00: It's how we're gonna walk through it.
SPEAKER_00: And we stop that we don't stop to think about that enough sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: We feel defeated, we feel beat up, we feel like we're kind of dying.
SPEAKER_00: This situation is like all over me, and I'm losing right now.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's like going, no, no, think about this.
SPEAKER_00: 26.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, been there.
SPEAKER_00: Don't know what I'm supposed to be praying right now.
SPEAKER_00: I know that there's something shifting in me, but I'm confused and I don't know, God, what's next.
SPEAKER_00: You do.
SPEAKER_00: You're writing my story, but what does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: Underlined, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings.
SPEAKER_00: God's spirit, part of the Trinity, prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
SPEAKER_00: 27, underlined, and the Father who knows all hearts, knows what the Spirit is saying.
SPEAKER_00: So the God of creation has now intertwined his spirit into my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We're grafting it in.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to pray, but the spirit's praying for me.
SPEAKER_00: His spirit's praying for me, and the father knows what the spirit is praying for me.
SPEAKER_00: This is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Because we sometimes get so conflicted in our minds that am I going the right direction?
SPEAKER_00: Am I doing this?
SPEAKER_00: Should I be doing that right?
SPEAKER_00: But what he's saying here is that we have God's spirit grafted in.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit knows how to pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: He's groaning with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He's pleading on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get another aid in this process, too.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit later down, we're gonna see a second part of the Trinity coming in where he's using some strong language.
SPEAKER_00: But the Holy Spirit is groaning for us, and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose for them.
SPEAKER_00: We're in harmony with God's will.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is, and I've seen this thrown out so many times, is we get verse 28 thrown out when somebody's in a hard season.
SPEAKER_00: Well, don't worry, brother, sister, it's gonna work out for your benefit, it's gonna work out for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: But what we don't unpack is the stuff in between on the front and back end of that, is that we have a Spirit of God grafted in with us who's walking us through that, who knows what this feels like, what this looks like, and we can look to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: How can God say this to us?
SPEAKER_00: How can he walk us through the hard parts in our lives where this seems insurmountable?
SPEAKER_00: It's the worst news I've ever had.
SPEAKER_00: How is he gonna turn this?
SPEAKER_00: How is he gonna pivot this to work to my good?
SPEAKER_00: How is he gonna work this to my benefit?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Because I've already done it.
SPEAKER_00: And I did it first, and I sent my son in flesh to the cross to work his death out for the good of all humanity.
SPEAKER_00: For you, and that's how I know this works out for you guys.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I can say this to you that in your current struggle, in your current position, in your current event, fight, battle, etc., I know how this is gonna work.
SPEAKER_00: Because I've already done it with my son.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't know the Cain, he didn't tap out, he didn't numb out, he went to the cross and fully experienced everything that we could experience and more by the most painful, humiliating death that humanity has ever known.
SPEAKER_00: Naked and dying on a cross, beaten to an inch of his life, bleeding out for all humanity.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how he can say, I know this is gonna work out for you.
SPEAKER_00: For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his son, so that his son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Underline 30.
SPEAKER_00: Having chosen them, he called them to come to him, and having called them, he gave them right standing with himself.
SPEAKER_00: And having given him right standing, he gave them his glory.
SPEAKER_00: If he's given us his son, he won't hold anything else back.
SPEAKER_00: We get access to everything.
SPEAKER_00: Now we head into this is kind of God's final, we're prepping up, we're getting ready to leave the locker room now, guys, and we're heading into the battle cry, we're heading into the anthem, our declaration, as we head into 31.
SPEAKER_00: And I just um I just want to say that, and I'm not gonna go through it in detail, but um I have a slide here.
SPEAKER_00: For me, coming out of the battle, coming into the second half, talking to you from a new wineskin today, I'm just gonna say that my mind has to have a compass and it's a reset for me.
SPEAKER_00: And you want to pull that slide up.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I put on the full armor of God.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be fully clothed.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that's an option.
SPEAKER_00: He supplies the armor, but you have to make the decision to put it on.
SPEAKER_00: You don't, he doesn't put it on for you.
SPEAKER_00: He supplies everything you're gonna need for the battle for the day, but you still have to make the cognitive decision to apply it to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And every day it's waiting for you on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't put on the armor, you're just walking in unprepared and preparing to be defeated, essentially.
SPEAKER_00: The classic quote, right?
SPEAKER_00: We don't prepare to fail, we just wait, no, we don't plan to fail, we just fail to plan.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's where I was going.
SPEAKER_00: So, in my compass, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is this is the internal compass, this is my spiritual compass.
SPEAKER_00: I'm never alone.
SPEAKER_00: Rescue Joshua 9, where God says at the end of that section, not only is he saying, be strong and courageous, my north, my north compass, my rescue, is that I know at the end, he said, wherever you go, the Lord God will go with you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord God is going with me wherever I tread.
SPEAKER_00: And with him going with me, I'm gonna stand in his victory.
SPEAKER_00: Not my own, not my own understanding, not my own creation of my victory.
SPEAKER_00: My east is my eternity focus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna just stay focused with what's right in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: The disposition, the depression, the bad news, whatever is the immediate situation drawing my heart away from God's glory, from his salvation, from his rescue from the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying, no, eternity focus here, right?
SPEAKER_00: What does Colossians 3.2 say?
SPEAKER_00: Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
SPEAKER_00: That's my east, my south, my foundation, my root, what I stand on.
SPEAKER_00: God's word.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is the light unto my path, lamp unto my feet.
SPEAKER_00: He, his word is what I stand on.
SPEAKER_00: That's my south.
SPEAKER_00: And my west is that I remain in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: I am a child of God because I'm washed by his blood.
SPEAKER_00: I'm washed by the blood.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 7, 25.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him.
SPEAKER_00: He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is interceding on my behalf, and I am saved for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: I'm washed by his blood.
SPEAKER_00: So now we're gonna step into it and we're gonna start the mantra of God calling this out.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be getting pumped up here in the last half of this, uh, the last one-third of this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: 31.
SPEAKER_00: What shall we say about such wonderful things?
SPEAKER_00: It's like a question.
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who could ever be against us?
SPEAKER_00: If the God of creation is for me, then it doesn't really matter who's out there trying to destroy me.
SPEAKER_00: Because I already know that he's gonna work things to the benefit of my good.
SPEAKER_00: He's already done the work, I'm gonna stand in his victory, I'm gonna stand in his perfect work, and if anybody's out there, they have no chance of standing against the God of creation.
SPEAKER_00: He's declaring this over himself right now.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, he's getting pumped up.
SPEAKER_00: 32, underline, since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for all of us, won't he also give us everything else?
SPEAKER_00: He's not holding anything back.
SPEAKER_00: He gave you the prize jewel of his kingdom when he sent his son down here for us.
SPEAKER_00: And if I gave you that, why wouldn't I give you all of this as well?
SPEAKER_00: 33.
SPEAKER_00: Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?
SPEAKER_00: I love how he opens the next two statements.
SPEAKER_00: No one.
SPEAKER_00: Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?
SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna accuse us as we are sons and daughters of him?
SPEAKER_00: No one.
SPEAKER_00: For God himself has given us right standing with himself.
SPEAKER_00: Who then will condemn us?
SPEAKER_00: No one.
SPEAKER_00: For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.
SPEAKER_00: Part two of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Underline and highlight, underline the second half of 34, and underline pleading and highlight pleading.
SPEAKER_00: So you have you have the Holy Spirit groaning for us.
SPEAKER_00: Now we have the Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father pleading for us.
SPEAKER_00: Those are some big kind of, those are, that's a lot of equipment to have in the tool bag as you enter in the second half, don't you think?
SPEAKER_00: We've got the grafting of the Holy Spirit into us.
SPEAKER_00: We've got God's Son sitting at the right hand of the Father, and he's pleading for us.
SPEAKER_00: So, but yet sometimes we head out of the locker room with this mental defeat.
SPEAKER_00: We're thinking, I can't, I can't overcome this.
SPEAKER_00: I can't, he's like, you have no idea what you can do.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what's be happening behind the scenes for you right now?
SPEAKER_00: The amount of resources and energy and the power that awaits you that you can walk in and step forward in and work with.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's available.
SPEAKER_00: We have to understand, and this is where the enemy's leverage is so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're broken.
SPEAKER_00: We were born into a broken place.
SPEAKER_00: It was broken when we got here.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't break it, but it broke us because it was already broken.
SPEAKER_00: And okay, there's sin and there's shame around that broken part of us.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the beautiful part that God wants to redeem and say, I see that son, I see that daughter, but there's belovedness here.
SPEAKER_00: You have no idea the belovedness that I see you with and that I value you with.
SPEAKER_00: So stand in that.
SPEAKER_00: Stand in that victory.
SPEAKER_00: Overcome the shame.
SPEAKER_00: Shame is not of my kingdom, that's a tool of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Quit negotiating with him.
SPEAKER_00: Quit thinking that you have to go back to that sin, the addiction, the lust, whatever it is, lies, you know, whatever we struggle with.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever the enemy has our number, that's just a contract that we've renegotiated after Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: Or you'd never stop negotiating if you've never been to Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: But that gets burned up at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We realize that the victory is already won.
SPEAKER_00: Because he secured it.
SPEAKER_00: Whom shall we fear?
SPEAKER_00: The God of all creation is for us.
SPEAKER_00: I could leave the locker room with that.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus was only borrowing the grave.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I only need that for like three days.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: Just, they're like, really?
SPEAKER_00: Three?
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I'll be back.
SPEAKER_00: I just need it for three days.
SPEAKER_00: Just gonna borrow it, you guys can have it back.
SPEAKER_00: It's all good.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes down, he goes to the pit of hell, and he looks at the devil.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I hate what you've done with the place.
SPEAKER_00: It's terrible, and I'm taking the keys back, and I'll see you in a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Do we stand there?
SPEAKER_00: Or do we think that the grave is like pulled us down and it's permanent?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The grave is temporary for Jesus and it's temporary for us.
SPEAKER_00: He's only borrowed it.
SPEAKER_00: We're only gonna borrow it, guys.
SPEAKER_00: He robbed the grave, he was never meant to remain there.
SPEAKER_00: 35.
SPEAKER_00: Underline, can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
SPEAKER_00: Can anything?
SPEAKER_00: Does it mean that he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death?
SPEAKER_00: As the scriptures say, for your sake we are killed every day.
SPEAKER_00: We are being slaughtered like sheep.
SPEAKER_00: 37 highlight?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No again, Paul's declaration.
SPEAKER_00: No, despite all of these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Jesus Christ who loved us.
SPEAKER_00: Overwhelming victory, you guys should highlight that, circle it.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight, circle, underline, nothing in all creation.
SPEAKER_00: Overwhelming victory is ours.
SPEAKER_00: 38 and 39 have been the foundational, quintessential verses for us in our high school program this year.
SPEAKER_00: It's the foundation of tribe.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we wanted for our students.
SPEAKER_00: We wanted them to know the undying love of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where he like just hangs it like exclamation point.
SPEAKER_00: Just bam! Fire napalm.
SPEAKER_00: And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Like you could drop the mic right there.
SPEAKER_00: Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor worries about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you still negotiating there?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you still letting Him get victory in that space?
SPEAKER_00: Not even the powers of hell can separate you from the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: No power in the sky above or in the earth below.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight, score, whatever you gotta do, nothing in all creation, which by the way, God created, so nothing in his creation that he's ever made will separate you from his love.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.
SPEAKER_01: My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.
SPEAKER_01: And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to the road.org.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you.