WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.280 Well, happy New Year. 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:03.439 How are we doing on resolutions? 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:06.000 Yeah. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:08.000 That's how resolutions tend to go. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.000 Uh, I did some research on resolutions this week. 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:12.080 A Ugov survey says this. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:17.280 Uh, the most common New Year's resolutions, 25% of us want to exercise more. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:20.320 23% of us want to be happier. 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:24.239 So I'm not sure what the other 77% of us want. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:28.160 My real goal, unhappy. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:35.920 All right, 22% want to eat healthier, 21% want to save more money, which means, hey, we're gonna be fit, we're gonna be happy, we're gonna be rich. 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:37.600 This is gonna be really good for us. 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:42.560 So uh last week I added one more to your list, and I said, hey, let's begin this year. 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:49.119 Let's begin, and in January, let's study, let's learn about what it means to walk in the Holy Spirit. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:51.439 What does it mean to walk with the Spirit? 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:56.960 Last week we learned that the Holy Spirit lives in us as Christians and bonds us to Jesus. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:05.599 So it is not our commitment to Christ, our passion, our religious resume that keeps us with Jesus or pleasing to God. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:10.719 It is the Holy Spirit's commitment and bond to us. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:19.439 And then this week I read this sentence: the Holy Spirit reorders us as the Holy Spirit lives in us. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:21.599 I love that word reorders. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:24.400 My girls love the TV show, The Home Edit on Netflix. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:25.359 You don't know the show. 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:35.200 Two ladies come into messy, disorganized, chaotic places, and they they reorganize these rooms at very beautifully organized, color-coded, right? 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:37.840 Lots of containers and stuff in containers. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:43.680 One of my favorites is they go to Drew Barrymore's studio kitchen, which was just a mess. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:44.959 Stuff was everywhere. 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:50.319 There's no system, the room is chaos, there's no order, it's overrun. 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:52.079 And then the home edit happens. 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:56.239 The two ladies come in and they purge and they organize and they color code. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:58.640 And we get this ordered room. 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:01.599 They reorder the room, right? 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:05.439 They take chaos and then they turn it to order. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:10.000 This is what the Holy Spirit does in us over time. 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:31.599 The Holy Spirit takes the chaos of our minds and our hearts and begins a process of making order, revealing wrong values, motives, thoughts, and reordering them to right and good thoughts, motives, behaviors. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:35.199 Let's look at this incredible passage, Romans 8. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:37.039 Begin in verse 5. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:45.199 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.479 For to set the mind on the flesh is death. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:51.599 But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:57.120 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:58.719 Indeed, it cannot. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.599 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:08.080 Point number one is this we have two mindsets at work in us, flesh and spirit. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:10.800 Perhaps you have felt the tension. 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:14.319 The word flesh means more than muscle and bone. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:20.560 The word flesh is this Greek word sarx, meaning the sin-dominated inner self. 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:26.000 The inner self of you that is self-oriented, self-bent. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:35.120 Yes, we're created image in the image of God, we're created worthy, but that worthy self is struggling. 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:37.439 Always self-bent. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:38.960 What can I get? 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:43.280 How can I get pleasure without regard to God's ways? 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:51.680 Now the word spirit is the Greek word pneuma, and this is speaking of the Holy Spirit who now lives in you, right now, present moment. 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:56.719 Like breath, that word, like breath, the spirit lives in us. 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:15.360 So there's a tension, the flesh, which is dominated by that self-orientation, independence from God, my way, my things, the thing I want, or the spirit, which is working to make us whole, already deems forgiven and righteous, bonded to Jesus by the Spirit, that's already secure. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:26.160 In that security, the process of God helping us discover the wealth of our identity as sons and daughters. 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:33.600 And Paul says that your nature, my nature, what is true about us in our inner core determines our mindset. 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:42.319 The phrase set your mind in this passage, it means your thoughts, your interests, your affections, your purpose. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:46.160 Are we setting those in the way of the Spirit? 00:04:46.319 --> 00:05:03.120 The commentary words it this way: it is a question of what preoccupies us, of the ambitions which drive us, and the concerns which engross us, of how we spend our time and our energies, of what we concentrate on and give ourselves up to. 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:20.639 And Paul says that we play a role in that, an active role to set our minds on the things of the Spirit, but even in that role of ours that is empowered by the Spirit in us, as we continue to remember who we are as sons and daughters. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:22.720 Verse 9. 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.240 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:33.839 If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him, but if Christ is in you. 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:39.839 Although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:51.680 If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:59.120 Point number two is this the Spirit who is in you witnesses to our hearts, you belong to Christ. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.600 Verse 10, sin leads to death, but the spirit leads to life. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:06.800 So as Christians, we're more than the sin that's in us. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:08.800 We have the spirit in us. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:14.000 Verse 9, to be reordered by the Spirit, we begin with our identity. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:16.319 Who am I really? 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:18.399 What defines me? 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:19.199 What governs me? 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:21.519 And Paul says, you're not of the flesh. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:22.800 You're spirit. 00:06:22.959 --> 00:06:25.279 There's more to you than that flesh. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:29.680 Yes, sin lives in us, but God also in the Holy Spirit lives in us. 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:30.720 Verse 12. 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:36.160 So then, brothers, and say, brothers and sisters, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:40.079 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:46.560 But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:54.160 Point number three is this as Christians, we can live toward destruction, or we can live toward life. 00:06:55.519 --> 00:07:00.000 Years ago, a church person, a guy in our church, he took me out to lunch. 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:02.560 We sat down at a sandwich shop not far from here. 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:07.120 And as soon as we sat down, he said, I want to tell you why I'm divorced. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:12.079 Young family, he was divorced, no longer with his wife, his children. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:19.680 We sat down and he begins to say, he says, I needed to text my wife's friend for a very practical thing. 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:21.680 So I texted her for that. 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:25.120 And then we kept texting. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:28.079 And at first it was just kind of playful. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:31.360 And then we got flirty, and then an emotional connection. 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:37.680 And he says, quicker than I could have imagined, we were in a hotel room. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:41.199 And he lost his marriage. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:45.360 He lost getting that day to day with his children. 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:48.079 Destruction. 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:50.959 Now listen to that verse again. 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:52.000 Verse 13. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:55.279 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:01.120 But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:08.879 There's a tension at play in us, and one way will lead toward destruction, even if you're still alive, but destruction. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:16.879 Even if you're still forgiven and righteous in Jesus, there could be destruction waiting for you that you're going to have to process and go through. 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:19.920 I've been a pastor for 23 years. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.240 I've pastored this church for 13 years. 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:25.759 The first few years of this church, nobody had a problem. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:30.079 It was unbelievable how everybody's life was, we were in great shape. 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:33.679 And I told my mentor that I said, I said, it's just a great group of people. 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:34.799 You know, there's no problems. 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:38.720 Then he said, ah, he said, he said, um, they just don't trust you yet. 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:45.759 And sure enough, sure enough, about year four, year four is when it began. 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:47.840 And the truth just started to come out. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:50.320 We all have problems. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:53.840 We're all a mess in some way. 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:59.360 We're all capable of making significant mistakes that lead to destruction. 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:02.399 Some of us are, some of us have. 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:09.600 Significant life trajectory, family destruction. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:16.320 And there's redemption, there's restoration, you are forgiven in Jesus, you are righteous in Jesus. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:21.600 God is pleased and cherishes you, and there can still be destruction that you have to process through. 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:29.759 And nine times out of ten, when I talk to that person, they say, Oh, if I can only do it over again. 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:35.600 So we should be begging the Holy Spirit. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:41.919 To walk in the Spirit, we should be begging the Holy Spirit to help me see evil as evil. 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:45.360 Here's how the commentary stated it. 00:09:45.519 --> 00:10:00.720 A clear-sided recognition of evil as evil, leading to such a decisive and radical rejection of it that no imagery can do it justice except putting to death. 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:02.960 That should be our prayer. 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:05.679 I'm gonna walk with you today, Jesus. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:13.440 Holy Spirit, reveal to me clear-sighted recognition of evil as evil. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:15.120 Alright, so what is that process? 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:22.000 What is the process of being aware and seeing and putting to death destructive motives and thoughts and behaviors? 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:23.919 Well, let's not rule out therapy. 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:25.440 Very possible. 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:29.360 But in a general day-to-day Christian life. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:38.240 First, we live in what we talked about last week, that we are held and secured and loved by God because of Jesus alone as a gift. 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:43.360 So we have that security, not my resume, not my goodness, but Jesus's. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:47.120 Okay, that's our beginning, the Holy Spirit's commitment and bond of us. 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:48.240 That's where I begin. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:57.200 Because I'm so secure, God is so kind toward me, I can begin to be aware and repent of my sin. 00:10:57.919 --> 00:11:00.639 And that's the negative side, which is repentance. 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:02.320 There's a negativity to there, right? 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:04.480 Like you're seeing a negative thing and you're repenting. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:08.000 So we see and discover our sin and our idolatries. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:17.519 We confess them, we reveal them over to the Lord, uproot them at a motivational level, the negative side of repentance. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:21.279 And then we pair that with the positive side of faith. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:26.399 If all you have is the negative side of repentance, you're exhausted, you're condemned. 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:33.360 But with the positive side of faith, we're reminding ourselves that we are righteous in Jesus alone. 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:37.519 We are his sons and daughters by his grace to us. 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.279 And this is that dynamic of the spiritual walk that we have. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:51.279 We uproot the idols in our hearts, evil as evil, and then we live out our identity as sons and daughters. 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:55.919 Let's see how Paul roots us into our identity, verse 14. 00:11:56.559 --> 00:12:02.320 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons, say sons and daughters of God. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:12.240 For if you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba Father. 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:16.799 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:25.600 And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:35.039 Last point, point number four, we don't have to live as orphans in the world when we are beloved children of the Heavenly Father. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:41.600 If you remember back at Thanksgiving, my dog brother, our labradoodle, he passed away. 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:46.240 It took about a month before I started to look at puppy pictures online. 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:50.000 At first, you know, you Google something, and then you know, Instagram reel something. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:54.799 Before long, every reel, everything on my Instagram be, it's all puppies. 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:56.240 Didn't see it happening. 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:00.320 I love a puppy with a baby. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:03.440 Like you put a puppy and a baby together. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:06.480 I can watch that stuff endlessly. 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:11.840 So those reels started to work on me, and then I said I was gonna wait a year or so for another dog. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.480 You know, give me some time to regroup. 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:18.240 But the reels were working, and then my girl started working on me. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:21.919 And so we started looking at burnadoodle puppies. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:25.840 When I was growing up, we bought a puppy. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:29.759 You went and bought a dog, you don't buy a dog anymore. 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:31.360 What do we do? 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:32.960 We adopt a dog. 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:38.559 That's right, which means they can charge us twice as much, is what I've learned it means. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:40.559 It's adopting a dog. 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:41.440 You're not buying a dog. 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:42.240 No, no, no, no. 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:43.519 You're adopting a dog. 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:45.519 And so this week we adopted a puppy. 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:47.120 He arrives February 4th. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:50.000 Here is Puppy Masterson coming February 4th. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:51.759 He's so cute. 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:53.360 You should see the videos. 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:57.840 He's the smartest in the litter, I can tell. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:02.720 He's the toughest, fastest, best one. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:09.120 All right, so imagine puppy, imagine Puppy Masterson comes into our family. 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:10.960 He is adopted. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:12.720 He's ours. 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:14.320 He is puppy master. 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:17.279 We provide him with love and food and a bed. 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:18.879 We snuggle puppy. 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:20.240 We play with puppy. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:23.039 We wake up with puppy in the middle of the night to take him out to potty. 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:24.240 We walk, puppy. 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:30.320 Imagine puppy gets everything he needs to flourish. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:32.559 Because he's adopted into our family. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:34.320 And that's what our family does. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:42.480 And then imagine that the puppy keeps trying to run from our family to just live homeless on the street. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:44.799 Well, first off, a doodle won't make it at all. 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:47.679 I mean, no chance. 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:52.480 But imagine he just is like, I'm going for it. 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:53.440 I don't want anything. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:55.759 I mean, that made no sense. 00:14:56.480 --> 00:14:57.360 That made no sense. 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:05.600 Why would you live as an orphan when you have the status as a child? 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.440 And Paul says, we don't have to live according to the sinful nature anymore. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:10.960 The Holy Spirit's in us. 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:13.200 Why? 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:14.559 Because verse 15. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:19.120 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:25.120 But you have received the spirit of adoption of sons to whom we cry Abba Father. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:28.240 That word Abba is a tender papa. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:44.639 That God could be like a tender Papa to you who wants you to flourish, setting your minds not on evil that leads to destruction, but setting your minds on the things of the Spirit that leads to goodness and flourishing. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:53.600 I close with two quotes by Sinclair Ferguson from his book, Children of the Living God, his theologian, pastor, incredible, incredible biblical scholar. 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:58.879 Here's what he writes Adoption is not a change in nature, but a change in status. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:04.080 If we fail to see this truth, we will reject the power of our adoption. 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:07.600 Adoption is a declaration God makes about us. 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:16.399 It is irreversible, dependent entirely upon his gracious choice, in which he says, You are my son. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:18.879 Today I have brought you into my family. 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:28.559 He goes on to explain, Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit, which brings us into deep-seated persuasion that we really are the sons of God. 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:42.080 If, in fact, that God has adopted us into his family, then the Spirit assures us that this is true and enables us to live in the enjoyment of such a rich spiritual blessing. 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:56.799 He sends his spirit into our hearts, bringing us the deep spiritual and psychological security that rests on the objective fact that our sins are forgiven and we belong to the Lord. 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:01.759 I love the phrase in there, the rich spiritual blessing. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:16.160 So God has gifted you this status as children, secured by the Holy Spirit who has pursued you, wooed you, committed to you, bonded you to Jesus. 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:21.279 And in that security, church, why would we live as orphans? 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:26.000 When we can live as sons and daughters of the Papa. 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:13.519 Help us to repent more and help us to rejoice more in the security we have as your sons and as your daughters. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:15.039 In Christ's name we pray. 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:16.240 Amen.