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Welcome to the Hope Community Church! Hope is a multi-site church community with locations around the Triangle in Raleigh, Apex, Northwest Cary, Garner, and Fuquay-Varina. We are here to love you where you are and encourage you to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ! We strive to speak the truth of the Bible in a way that is easy to understand, helpful in your current life circumstances, and encouraging. No matter who you are or where you come from, you are welcome here!
Will you stand to your
Feet?
It's A good get good day to give God praise today.
And every day, Psalm 34 says,
I will bless the Lord at all times.
He said, I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord.
Let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me
and let us exalt his name together.
Church. That's what we're here to do,
to exalt the name of Jesus.
So put your hands together and don't
Hold back tonight.
Praise his name.
A song
day, the elder
creatures the lamb.
There's a sound of rising to the king.
Resound your children.
Hallelujah,
Won't hold back.
Magnifi
All magnifi,
all
Is the lamb.
Who the alpha omega
and on now forever.
Sing what we.
Praise. Praise.
We're honored. You're here today.
Go ahead and take a minute and say
hi to somebody around you.
I love you, Lord.
Your mercy never fails me.
All my days I've been inhale in your hands.
From the moment that I wake up to,
I lay my head oh
of the goodness of
in all my life.
You have been so, so
Good With every breath
of the goodness of God.
You have
I known you, I've known
in the goodness of
Goodness is after, It's
Running after
me. Your goodness
Is After, it's running after me
Laid Surrender, I
Your Goodness is running.
It's running after me. Come
after me,
after it's running after me,
My Surrender
after it, after
My life.
You have, do you believe that?
And all my life, you have been so, so
Good With every breath
that I'm,
Oh, I'm gonna sing
of the goodness of God.
So,
Oh, come on. Lift your voice
in Christ ing
Oh Christ, be magnified.
Let Christ be magnified.
Oh, come on singing.
Oh Christ, be magnified.
Human
Be magnifi.
C
cries
Jesus.
Jesus, Jesus.
And
is true cross of
with you is the
Resurrection And I
Suffering join you when you rise.
And when you return in glory with all
heart,
be magnified.
Let
sing.
Oh, come on your prayer,
magnified the
The name of Jesus.
Be lifted,
Be lifted.
You paid the ultimate sacrifice for me
so I could be free.
How could I not sing you praise?
How could I not sing
so thankful?
Praise the one who me free
death has lost its grip on me.
You have broken salvation.
Jesus Christ, my living
Home Who be magnified
Jesus, you're living
Home
Grip
salvation, Jesus Christ.
And then came
to
declare has no on me.
Oh, come on. That's good news. Oh, come on.
That's good news.
The
free
you
King Jesus.
Father, we thank you for your presence
and we thank you that we get to enter into that.
And God, I pray that we wouldn't leave
that without being changed.
God, as your word is open, as it's spoken of our lives
change our hearts as we leave this place.
We love you. It's our joy
and honor to worship you in your whole and we pray, amen.
Church, you can go ahead and grab a seat.
Amen. Hallelujah.
To the king of kings, Jesus Christ,
who is seated at the right hand
with the Father right now, and he is alive.
Amen man. What a great time of worship together.
My name is Jean
and I'm the Northwest Kerry campus Pastor, it's an honor
to be here with you, uh, today, and I wanna welcome you.
And for those of you who are new,
I wanna extend a special welcome to you
and say thank you for being here.
If you're in the room, we have an area
outside these doors called next steps.
We would love to meet you there.
If you're online, there's a a button that will pop up
and you can click on that and someone will reach
out and say hello to you.
Today we have, uh, our very own Dwayne Calvin, uh,
bringing the word preaching.
Yeah. And, uh, he is gonna be walking us
through what it looks like, uh, to walk in the spirit.
How we doing? Hope. Great.
Well, it is good to see you all. My name's Dwayne.
Uh, I'm one of the pastors here.
I'm excited to spend this time together today.
Uh, now if you are new to hope, I do want to say welcome.
We're glad that you're here today.
We're glad that the Lord led you to this place.
And today, uh,
you are stepping into the final message in
our series that we've been calling.
Now what? And man, it's been a good series,
can I get some amens around the room?
It's been a good series, praise God.
And for the past few weeks, uh, ever since Easter time,
we have been talking about the resurrection of Jesus
and what it means for us.
And we have been talking about like, man,
every time we talk about the resurrection,
there is something that comes with that.
It's the question, now what,
because of the resurrection now, what
should we be living our lives differently
as a result of the resurrection?
Now, what, uh, should we know certain truths
about how we live?
Now what I mean, that question is a big question
now that Jesus has risen from the grave.
What is the actual difference that it makes in
how I live my every day life?
And we've been talking about a lot
of things when it comes down to the now what?
Because there are a lot of things associated
with that very question.
We've talked about how Jesus meets us in the
middle of our disappointment.
So if you have ever been disappointed, the now what
of the resurrection is that Jesus meets us there
and gives us new hope, right?
We've been talking about how now, uh,
because of the resurrection, we have a new purpose
and a new mission in how we live our lives.
We've talked about the fact that now what,
since the resurrection has happened,
since it actually occurred,
and Jesus is alive, we are never, ever, ever alone.
Because Jesus has said in his word in Matthew chapter 28,
that he will walk with us.
We have the presence of the living God with us.
And not just that we have a Christian community called the
church that walks alongside of us.
And today we learn on a question that every single follower
of Jesus has probably asked in their lives,
and it's associated with the now what.
And sometimes we ask the question quietly,
but sometimes we ask it desperately when we are in need,
when we are walking on the journey
and we don't know what to do.
And here's the question, how do I live in a way
that actually pleases God?
It's a tough question. Uh, like as far as questions go,
this is like an enigma wrapped in a riddle, uh,
because it's nested in a whole host of other questions.
Uh, like for instance, if I look at the question,
how do I live in a way that pleases God?
The first question I probably has to ask is,
do I actually want a life where God is pleased?
Like, do I actually care to live that way?
Uh, this is the question of my will versus the will of God.
I mean, you ever just feel like in your life you wanna rebel
against God because man, you don't even know if you want
to actually live a life that is pleasing to him or not.
And then there's this second question like,
can I even please God, can I actually do it?
Uh, this is the feeling of not being able to get there.
Uh, it often just kind of causes us to quit,
to throw in the towel and go, you know what?
This is too hard. I can't do it.
And then there's this other question,
what happens if I try?
What happens if I try
and I fail again?
What then? And this is the feeling of being defeated,
and I think that these are like really tough
questions, right?
And this, this might be a Sunday kind of environment,
but if we're honest, if we're honest,
these are like Monday kind of questions
because they hit us exactly where we live.
These are questions that we feel at the head level,
but they quickly penetrate to the heart level
because trying to please God is something that most
of us have at least tried to do
at different points in our lives.
We try to live that way.
And when we've tried, most
of the time we've tried in our own power, and we've tried
and we've tried and we've tried
and we've realized like, man,
this seems like an impossible task.
I mean, if you've tried to please God in your own power,
you know that it's a trap.
And the trap leads us down these two roads.
And the first one is the road
that I call the perfection trap.
And man, we try in the perfection trap really,
really hard to please God.
And we try to be perfect.
And so we hide our real issues from God.
And even oftentimes we hide our real issues from ourselves,
but we certainly hide our real issues
from everybody around us.
And we try to look perfect. I I got it all together.
Everything's going great, so I'm just gonna try
to be perfect and everything will be fine
and God will be pleased with my life when he sees
how perfect everything is.
And then there's this other trap that we fall into
that I call the performance trap.
And that's where we try to do a number of tasks.
We go about trying to do everything.
And what it actually ends up being is a whole lot
of nothing at the end of it.
It's a bunch of empty activity,
even if it's empty Christian activity,
because we try to perform or we try to live perfect.
And ultimately what it leads to is a life
where we're fuzzy at best about whether God is actually
pleased with our lives.
And it's this existence of exhaustion where we are trying
to keep our heads above water.
We're trying to keep up the facade
of performance or perfection.
And, and here's what we end up doing.
We just run ourselves to a place of fatigue.
We're really tired and really confused,
and we still have the same question.
How do we please God? Now, fortunately for us, the word
of God has a lot to say about a life
that is pleasing to God.
And one of the greatest implications of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is that we can indeed live lives
that please God.
Now, here's the spoiler alert, though we can't do it
apart from God's spirit.
Oh, oh, yeah. It's the spirit that gives us the power
to actually live a life that is pleasing to God.
And that's exactly what we're gonna talk about today.
Uh, a life that's pleasing to God is possible,
but man, you can't do it without God's spirit.
And so when we want to know how to do that well, how
to actually live by God's spirit,
the best place we can go is to the word of God.
So if you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to open them
with me and we're gonna find some answers to the questions
of pleasing God with our lives.
And today we're gonna be looking at Romans chapter eight.
And now Romans chapter eight is a strong, strong text.
It is so strong that a few months back,
we did a whole series on the chapter, uh, of Romans eight.
I mean, it's like 25 sermons in one passage.
But today we're gonna look at just a small part of it.
Uh, Romans chapter eight, verses one through 11.
Again, if you have your Bibles,
go ahead and turn over there.
It's a strong text.
Romans has actually been called by some commentators,
the Mount Everest of the Bible.
Some have said that it is the strongest
chapter in the Bible.
It's Paul's strongest letter.
And man, it gives this summary of Paul's theology
that is strong.
So today, that's the passage we're gonna look at.
And this message is simple,
but this message is actually contrary to much
of our own humanly thoughts about God.
Now, let me give you again another spoiler alert.
Romans chapter eight declares this,
that if you are in Christ, if you're in Christ,
you are not condemned.
It declares that if you are in Christ, you are not alone.
It also declares that if you are in Christ
that you are not powerless, but you have great power
because you've been given God's spirit.
And these three truths reframe
how we think about pleasing God
because no longer is it about our power,
it's about God's power.
And when you read Romans eight, you quickly realize
that it's not performance,
and it's not perfection that pleases God.
It's the pursuit of living life by his spirit.
So let's look at Romans eight and let's read together.
Uh, Romans chapter eight, verse one says this, that there is
therefore now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit
of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law
of sin and death.
Verse three, for God has done what the law weakened
by the flesh could not do
by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order
that the righteous requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according
to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
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.
For to set the mind on the flesh is death.
But to set the mind on the spirit is life
and peace for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile
to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
It indeed it cannot, for those who are in the flesh
cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, 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, if he is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit of life
because of righteousness is in you.
And if the spirit of God who him
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he
who raise Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life
to your mortal bodies through his spirit
dwells in you.
I told you it was a powerful text.
You know, when you look at this text, man, it is
so much richness in it.
It is so full.
Like again, you could preach 400 sermons from
this, just this very passage.
And I want to kind of start at the end with the end in mind
because I believe the end sets the foundation for us
to completely, fully understand the text.
So let's look at verse 11. Here's what verse 11 says.
It says that if the spirit of him
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
he will also give life to your mortal bodies
through his spirit who dwells in you.
Now, let's just pause right here for a moment
because I wanna acknowledge something like this, this just,
this passage by itself, all the rest of is good.
But listen, church, this is good news.
I mean, like, this is really good news.
Uh, this just gets, I read this a lot as I was preparing
for this message, and this just gets gooder
and gooder all the time.
Like, like this is like, I had a lot of news this week,
but this is the goodest news I had all week long.
Like, this is good. And I can read good too.
My mother says I'm getting gooder at it all the time.
But this is good news because,
because here's what Paul is declaring Declar, he's declaring
that if you me, if anyone is in Christ,
if we trusted in the death and the burial
and the resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness
of our sins, then the same spirit, listen, the same spirit
that raised Jesus from the dead is living in us.
And I feel like I need to make a distinction here
because the Holy Spirit is not just with us.
The Holy Spirit is not just available
to us even though those things are true.
No, what Paul is declaring here is
that the Holy Spirit listen is in us.
And that's good news because that means
that we are not alone.
And more than that, it it means that we're not powerless.
But instead we are powerful above anything
that we could ever imagine.
And because it's not our own power, it's God's power, man,
we are powerful beyond, beyond measure.
And God's power is different than our power
because God's power is not concerned
with street feats of strength.
Uh, God's power is not power just to demonstrate power.
His power is to show us how to live in a way
that is Christlike and ultimately pleasing to God.
You know, I love the way that David Gar
and the great commentator talks about God's power
and God's spirit and how when it comes into our
lives, it changes things.
He says these words that the Spirit puts an end to the works
of the flesh and empowers believers
to manifest Christlike qualities.
And if we want to grow in christlikeness, which is the goal
of every Christian,
and the only way we can do it is by God's spirit.
So it's not performance, it's not perfection,
it's the pursuit of God's spirit.
It is not just doing better that gets us there.
It's not just behaving better.
No, it's not behavior modification that gets us there.
It is spiritual transformation that gets us there.
And this power doesn't come from grit. It comes from grace.
Amen. It's not something that we earned.
It's not something that we deserve.
It's something that we receive because of his resurrection.
And it's a power that reminds us that if you are in Christ,
you don't have to perform or be perfect
because you've been given the ultimate helper that dwells
in you.
And that's good news. That power gives us great potential,
and it's the potential that allows us to please God.
It stops us from trying to please God under our own power,
but instead to to move by the spirit, not
by the flesh, but by the spirit.
Lemme show you what I mean. If you keep reading in verse
five, the apostle Paul continues by saying these words.
He says, those who live according to the flesh,
set their minds on things of the flesh.
But those who live according
to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.
And so he takes this just a step further.
And when you look at verse eight, he kind
of concludes this idea.
He says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
That if you live in the flesh, you can't do it.
This is really important
because Paul draws a clear contrast here.
And he's drawing a contrast between two mindsets,
two different ways of living.
He's talking about two different avenues that all
of us choose to pursue.
And it's not something that you just make
a decision on one time.
It, it's the way that we live every day,
every day we are all involved in a battle.
And the battle is between flesh and spirit.
And oftentimes we choose flesh.
And the difference between those isn't just our behavior.
The flesh is our self-centered mindset.
It's a sin dominated nature that we have.
And the flesh always seeks to gratify itself.
It is always trying to scratch the itch in our lives.
You name the itch, our flesh is trying to scratch it.
You ever see a kid go to bed without getting dinner?
You can watch that flesh just well up.
They start crying. They get upset
because the flesh wants that itch to be scratched it.
So the flesh is something that we always want.
It's always our thing. It's always our desire.
It's always, always what we want to fulfill.
But then the spirit is the opposite of that.
You see, the spirit is God centered, not us centered.
And it reflects Christ
even in the midst of difficult times,
even in the midst of our wilderness moments.
You know, those hard times.
The spirit is of God,
and it demonstrates a relationship with God.
And again, the difference between those two things is not
just our behavior, it it's our mindset.
It it's our heart posture.
It's about what captures our imagination,
what captures our attention, what captures our desires.
It is the things that we set our minds and our hearts on.
And our minds are a tricky thing
because they can get set on something pretty quickly.
You know, I love the way the great author
Tim Keller says it.
He says that to set the mind means to focus intently, to be
preoccupied, to have our imagination
captured by something.
Church, can I just ask right now,
as you look at your life, what has your imagination,
what do you think about?
What do you spend most
of your time thinking
What has your imagination, uh, what are you living by?
Are are you living by things that are eternal,
that are Christ-centered?
Because those are the things that the spirit
or are you, uh, seeking
to scratch whatever the next itch is?
Because those are the things that are of our flesh.
There's a lot of things that capture our imagination.
Uh, let me just give you a few,
and what I'm talking about, maybe these will sound familiar
in your life, is your mind captured by success?
Has success really become the thing
that you pursue at all costs?
And it doesn't matter who gets in your way,
you're gonna move 'em out because success has become the
most important thing to you.
Uh, that's the flesh. Uh, is it security?
Uh, do you seek to have security at all costs?
So you try to control every situation in your life,
because if you can do that, then everything will be safe
and secure and it'll be great.
That's the flesh. Is it comfort?
Uh, do you seek to live a perpetual state of vacation?
That's Comfort. That's the flesh too.
Is your mind and your imagination set on control?
And so you try to control everything in everybody
In Your life?
Or is it Christ? Is your mind set on Christ?
Is it set on pleasing God?
Uh, because what I know is that one
of these things is not like the other.
Uh, as a matter of fact, Colossians chapter three,
verse two tells us that if you set your mind on the things
that are above, then you won't set your mind on
the things that are on earth.
Because our minds are always in drive.
They never go into neutral.
And either we are pursuing the things of the flesh,
we're pursuing the things of the spirit.
There is no InBetween.
It's a hundred percent, a hundred percent.
You know how you know the difference on whether you're
pursuing flesh or spirit?
Uh, it is because the things of the spirit reflect the fruit
of the spirit, and they bear spirit fruit.
Like, like if you look at Galatians chapter five, verse 22
and 23, the Apostle Paul writes these words
about the fruit of the spirit.
He says that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.
And self-control and self-control.
You are living by the spirit.
Or are you living by the flesh?
You know, when you live life, when you live like this,
you start to truly please God.
When you live and the fruits
of the spirit are evident in your lives, you start
to really please God.
And, and ultimately that's the life that we wanna pursue.
And we start to understand that, that when we live that kind
of life, we are no longer limited by our past.
We're no longer stuck in our old habits,
but instead we are full of God's presence and God's power.
And that power brings a sense of real freedom
and knowing that we are now living lives
that pre please God.
And it's a different kind of freedom that happens with that.
It's not this silent kind of freedom.
It's a freedom that screams out loud.
You know, I love the movie Braveheart, this kind of freedom.
This is a William Wallace Braveheart kind of freedom
that just makes you wanna scream
because it's freedom in Christ
and you just wanna be like freedom.
Y'all know what I'm saying? Right?
That's a different kind of freedom.
It's spirit feel freedom.
It is a freedom that makes you wanna proclaim out loud.
It's the freedom that isn't performative.
It is a freedom that isn't perfect.
Uh, let's look at verses one and two
because it talks about this kind of freedom.
Verse one says this, it says, there is
therefore now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit of life has set you free.
You've been set free.
You are no longer condemned.
You know, when I started looking this word up, the idea
of condemnation, uh,
in our culture is most closely associated
with like buildings, right?
So when you hear the word, it's been condemned.
It's usually talking about construction
or some kind of building site.
And that typically happens when a property has some sort
of a defect or a problem, and they condemn it
because they say nothing can touch it,
nothing can go near it.
It no longer has any use.
It's a building that's dead.
Well, likewise, when we talk about being condemned
spiritually, it's the same kind of mindset.
It's the idea of being completely separated from God.
It's the final verdict, it's the penalty.
In other words, when we get to that kind of place
where we are condemned
and we are separated from God for all of eternity,
the Greek word for that kama,
it means finality.
It means the end.
It means no longer used for any good.
And I don't think we need to dwell
in the meaning here for too long.
Because what Paul is saying here, listen,
Is That you are not condemned.
If you are in Christ, you are not condemned.
And I need you to listen. Like, like,
like if you weren't paying attention, pay attention.
Now listen, if you're in the back of the room
or if you're in the front of the room,
or if you're on the left of the room
or the right of the room, or if you are watching at Get Hope
tv or if somebody sent this to you as an Instagram reel,
I need you to pay attention right now.
Listen, if you are in Christ, hear this clearly, you are not
condemned because
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You are not condemned, not on your worst day,
not on your best day, not when you fail,
not when you fall short.
You have been set free by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Come on church, right now would be a good time to say amen.
You are free, you're free.
Paul says that there is a new law at work.
Uh, there is a new principle at work.
Uh, the law could expose sin, but the law couldn't save us.
But Jesus did what the law couldn't do.
He broke sins grip,
and he did that through his death, burial and resurrection.
And you are now free, not just free from something,
but you have been set free for something.
You've been set free to live a life that is pleasing to God.
And I want to draw a distinction here
because I think when we throw around the word freedom,
we need to draw some boundaries on what the idea
of freedom is supposed to be about.
And why? Because our current, our current culture,
when we talk about freedom, it is usually in the vein
of being able to do whatever I want.
So when we say culturally that somebody is free,
we are talking about being able to have this life.
We do whatever we feel like.
But when the Bible talks about freedom,
it's not talking about that kind of freedom.
What it's talking about is freedom from sin,
not freedom to sin.
It is always freedom from something,
not freedom to something.
So we've not been given freedom to do whatever we want.
It's not freedom. It's for freedom's sake.
It's freedom to live a spirit-filled life
empowered by God's spirit.
Lemme show you what I mean by that.
A few years back, I watched, uh, a Disney reboot
of the movie Pinocchio, uh, and it was starring Tom Hanks.
If you don't know Tom Hanks, it's the dude
that did movie with the volleyball.
Um, that dude, right?
So there was this movie
that was a live action version of Pinocchio.
And can I just say like, I think we're all done
with live action movies, amen.
Like, I think we've had, it's okay. It's okay.
But this was a good one. This was actually a good one.
Like, uh, it was pretty good. And so I watched it.
I was was like, let me just check it out.
And then when you start looking at the story of Pinocchio,
you see this story of a boy who was a wooden puppet.
He was made by his maker.
Jato Jato was the character
that Tom Hanks played in the movie.
And so he makes this little puppet.
This puppet wants to be a real boy.
And he wanted it so badly
that he cut his strings from his maker.
He separated himself from his maker,
and they sing a song about it.
Ain't no strings on me, I'm free.
He cuts his strings, he rejects all of the lessons
that his maker gives him.
He says, I'm good. I'm gonna kind of do my own thing.
And then he chases his own version of freedom.
And, and y'all know what it's like to do that.
He lures himself, he gets lured over
to this place called Pleasure Island.
Now everybody has a different pleasure island,
but you know it when you see it.
Some of y'all was at Pleasure Island
yesterday, you know what I'm talking about?
And he's lured over the pleasure island
and everybody knows what it looks like
because here's what pleasure island has in common.
Uh, there's no rules, there's no responsibility,
there's no accountability.
And by your own standards, you get to do whatever you want.
So he goes over to Pleasure Island and he does his own thing
and he believes it's freedom.
And pretty soon he finds himself and enslaved
and turned into a donkey.
And so what he thought was freedom
quickly becomes bondage.
And I think matter of fact, I know
that's exactly what happens to us
when we pursue freedom apart from God,
when we pursue freedom apart from his spirit.
Uh, the freedom that comes from the spirit is a freedom.
Remember, it's always from sin
and death, not a freedom to do whatever we want.
And I love that story Pinocchio because man, he goes
after this thing and he finds out
that there's no freedom at all.
But right in the middle of that,
he calls out for his father.
He needs help. He needs help, he needs a change.
And so he calls out for his father
and his father rescues him.
He comes to get him. He risked everything to find him.
Listen, church, God did that for us.
The resurrection is the story of
how he rescued us through Jesus.
He, he sent Jesus on our behalf and he didn't stop there.
As a matter of fact, he brought us home in the same way
that Pinocchio was brought home,
and he made us home in the same way
that Pinocchio was made whole.
And he gave us a new, a new nature,
a new mission, a new hope.
And it gave us his spirit.
And his spirit lives in us,
a church who the sun sets free,
His Free indeed.
I love how second Corinthians in verse chapter,
chapter three, verse 17 says that where the spirit
of the Lord is there is freedom
because it's real freedom.
It's not the freedom to do whatever we want.
It's the freedom to live in a way
by God's spirit that pleases
Him.
Now, here's what I know, Even as I've had all
of this conversation about how we can live a life
that's pleasing to God, uh, what I know is
that our week is coming and,
and typically when we get to Monday morning
and we begin to calculate all of the things
that have happened in our lives, uh,
this still might feel like a hard sale.
Why do I even want to try to please God?
Like why would I even want to do it?
Where Romans chapter 15, verse two says this, that let each
of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up
for Christ did not please him self.
Listen, here's why.
Because Jesus lived not to please himself.
He pleased he lived to rescue us.
And in rescuing us through the cross,
and through that resurrection moment of that kind
of love sent a message to all of us.
It it should give us great gratitude.
And gratitude leads to obedience on obedience left to a life
of following Jesus.
When we followed Jesus, his spirit
Is In us, we begin
to understand that we are filled by his spirit.
Uh, we understand that we are no longer condemned, right,
and that we have new life in Christ.
We begin to realize that we have freedom
of freedom from sin,
and that we also have hope to live for Christ.
And that a life that's pleasing to God is possible,
not in our own mic, not in our own strength,
but only by His spirit.
So What do we do with that? Well, let me leave you
with a few questions to carry into this questions that
You have.
And the first one is this, right now,
are you trying to please God in your own strength?
Or are you living by the power of his spirit?
You know, a good indication that you have been trying
to please God by the flesh
and not by the Spirit is
as you look at your life right now, you're exhausted.
Are you trying to please God in your own strength
by the power of His spirit?
Uh, question number two. Uh,
what right now is actually shaping your mind?
What do you think about more often than not?
Like, like, what's consuming your mind?
Is it flesh that seeks to gratify itself
or is it spirit that seeks
to live a life that's pleasing to God?
It's like the table of life and the table of death.
When we live by the flesh, we eat from the table of death.
But when we live by the spirit, we eat from the table
that brings new life in Christ,
we ask another question.
Are you living in freedom or are you living in guilt?
Because freedom says that there's no condemnation for those
who earn Christ Jesus.
Nothing you've ever done is too big for God.
And what I know is that the sins that you have committed,
the sins that you're committing right now,
and the sins that will be committed, and if your faith
and trust and hope is in Jesus Christ
that he has washed you clean,
are you ready to stop performing?
Are you ready to stop trying to be perfect?
Are you ready to pursue the
spirit of the living God?
Because the resurrection has given us
good news that there is no
condemnation in Jesus Christ.
He rose so that we could live into our now what?
And he rose so that we wouldn't
walk in fear, but in freedom.
And if we place our trust in Jesus today,
you're not only forgiven, but you're filled with his spirit
and you're free from condemnation.
And we are all empowered to live a life
that pleases God.
Church, if you haven't placed your trust in Christ,
don't leave here today without doing so.
He's not asking you for perfection,
and he's not asking you for performance.
He's asking for you to pursue him with your whole heart,
to allow his spirit to transform you from the inside out.
How do we live a life that's pleasing to God?
Well, it's not by my might, it's never by my power.
It's only By his spirit. Come on, let's pray together.
Father, we thank you for the day.
Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy.
We thank you for your spirit that lives in us
and that teaches us how to live a life
that is pleasing to you.
Father, would you keep us near you?
Would you help us when we're wrestling with the decision
between gratifying the flesh or living by the Spirit?
And there may be some of us who are here today
who have never placed their trust in you.
Would you help us today to trust you as Lord
and Savior over our lives?
Because it's then
and only then that we step into freedom in Christ
and that we're enabled to live by the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
And as that spirit grows, we grow into more
and more the image that you have for us, an image
that reflects you and that ultimately pleases you.
It's the only way that we can do it.
Father, we pray for that kind of conviction
to settle into our hearts
and for response that leads to worship
In you.
In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. God bless you.
Amen. What a word. Praise God. Thank you, Dwayne.
You know this, uh, this weekend we are, uh,
celebrating baptisms again.
And, um, you know, we have a couple of baptisms.
This, this week at Northwest Kerry.
It's always you, this,
this super exciting time when people decide to step out
and, uh, in obedience
and, uh, step into new life, um, publicly in this way.
And this is actually something that Jesus, uh,
asks us to do.
It's a part of our walk with him.
So if, if you have accepted Jesus
and you have not been baptized, uh, I want
to encourage you, uh, to do that.
Uh, you can go to get hope.net/baptism.
Um, you can also talk to myself or Dwayne
or any of the pastors here.
You can also go to next steps and talk to somebody.
Um, but I just want to encourage you, uh, to take that step
of faith and to be baptized.
Uh, next week we are starting a new series, uh,
and we're gonna be going through the book of Titus.
It's called, uh, field Notes.
And you know, the book of Titus is in, in the New Testament.
And it's just a small little book, few chapters,
but it is power packed, it's jam packed, um, with truth
and what it looks like to walk
and follow Jesus in lots of practical ways.
So I'm super excited for that.
I would love to see you guys here for that, uh, next week.
And, um, before we go, I just wanna take a moment, um,
on Monday, um, is is Memorial Day.
And, um, we wanted to take a moment today to, uh,
thank those who, um,
sacrificed their life, uh, for our freedom.
And I know for some of you, uh,
that may carry a weight, uh, and a loss.
And so I just wanted to take a moment
and pray together, um, as a church, can we bow our heads?
Uh, father, thank you for, uh, freedom
and thank you for those who have, um, sacrificed their lives
and given their lives, um, for that freedom.
I pray for, uh, the families, um, that have lost.
And I pray that you would just be with them
and that they would, uh, seek your peace
and your comfort, uh,
and that you would continue, uh,
to work in and through them.
We are so thankful for who you are.
Uh, we pray all these things in the powerful name of Jesus.
Amen. Church, it's been great worshiping
with you, so thankful for you all.
We love you and we will see you next week.