John: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Eagle Community Church of Christ Podcast. My name is John Guenter. I'm the preaching ministry here. Again, we just want to thank you for listening and and hope that each one of these helps you in some way. This week, we are talking about fix your focus.
This is actually lesson 9. I think we're gonna go at least to 10. But today, we talk about Romans 7 and Romans 8 where Paul talks about, especially in 7, wanting to do the right thing but not doing it. Man, is that relatable. So hope this helps you.
Thanks again for listening. We'll see you soon. Each and every one of you here with us as we worship God together. We continue with our series, Fix Your Focus. I think this is episode 9, if you're keeping up with that.
But almost every week, we have started off in the same way, and we begin again with Colossians 3. Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. And so again, just as a reminder, this verse is written to church people, to Christians, people who have put on Jesus in baptism, But the reason Paul is writing is to encourage them to, again, have a faith with consequences, that we just don't be baptized and just go our own separate ways. That when we are baptized, we are pledging our allegiance to Jesus and that we decide that we want to live as He's asked us to live. And we read, another section of scripture from Ephesians 4, starting in verse 17. So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord.
Again, talking to Christians. I insist on this in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated. They are separated from the life of god because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
And so, Paul looks into the eyes metaphorically of the the church It says, it is now your responsibility to not live like this, like unsaved people. Because you are a saved people, there are ways that you need to live, and they're not the same as the old way. And so when he's writing this, he understands that even church people, even people who have put on Christ in baptism, can fall back into old ways of sin. That we can pursue things that lead us away from Jesus, not closer to him. And in doing so, we can do that little by little and eventually, again, in verse 19, lose all sensitivity.
We no longer even are bothered by that. It doesn't even feel like it's wrong. We've done it so long, it feels like part of life, but we can live in a manner that says, we have lost all sensitivity. Paul says something in Romans 7 that I think is one of the most one of the scriptures that I think I can most easily identify with. How about that?
And I don't know what other way to do it than just read the scripture to you. Again, from Romans 7 verses 14 through 25, Paul has just kind of gone through this conversation about what it meant to have the law, the old law, and again, dealing with people that came out of the old law and now are dealing with something else. The the new thing that that god has put in their lives. And so, he he's talking back and forth about that and here in verse 14, he says, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual. Soul is a slave to sin.
You ever felt like that? Soul is a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. Confused yet? For I do not understand what I do. For I what I want to do, I do not do. How many of you had that week this week?
You don't have to raise your hand. But you know if you did. Right? Like, I I know the way I'm supposed to live. We we John, we've read Colossians 3, for, like, 8 weeks now.
Okay? I I know I'm supposed to live different. This week didn't go so well. And I don't know why. And I I wanted to do good For for what I wanna do, I did not do.
But what I hate, I do. Because for some of us, we we haven't lost that sensitivity, but we're still making the poor choices, aren't we? That it does hurt, that I do understand that I did the wrong thing, but for some reason, I can't get out of that cycle. I just can't get out of it. I I I don't know why.
I want to do good, but I just keep doing things that are not good. He continues, as it is, it is no longer I myself who who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Yeah.
Yeah. I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. You see why I say I can identify with this. Some days are like this, aren't they? Something just went wrong.
You got cut off in traffic. The morning didn't start off right. We'd say things like, we got up on the wrong side of the bed. If I actually literally get up on the wrong side of the bed, something has gone terribly wrong because I've had my side of the bed for years. I know where it is.
Right? I have dreams about being in the wrong bed. Alright? I I've gotta be in my side of the bed. Anybody else left side of the bed people in here?
Okay. Too much information. My wife's not in here though. That's okay. But something went wrong and I didn't carry out the way I knew I needed to live.
Yes? Been there? So what are you gonna do about it? How do you get back on track? Because we understand if if we're honest, that we have a room full of people here, and hopefully, we all have the desire.
We haven't lost that sensitivity. We have the desire to follow God, to follow what Jesus has told us, to to fix our focus on Christ and to live our lives accordingly. But it seems like there's a bunch of stumbling blocks out there. I was having a good day until. Even had my coffee first.
Right? But some days just go like this, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot seem to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. You understand who's writing this? An apostle of Jesus Christ who personally met Jesus on the road to Damascus.
It it seems to have insight that nobody else has because of his relationship to Jesus. And he says, for I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. Now what I don't want you to do is is is to understand, yeah, this was me this week and beat yourself up. But I also don't want you to do what I don't want you to do is to take it lightly. That we need to change.
We need to feel it enough to know, no, I need to change. But what I don't ever want you to do is beat yourself down to the point where where Satan allows you those those, those words, those those things that he'll tell you, like, you're not good enough. Because if an if an apostle of Jesus Christ is having the same kind of thought, the same kind of dealings, Don't you think for a second Jesus understands us? Yeah. The reason Jesus came in the flesh to experience humankind humaneness, being a human like us, just like us, he can understand us even better.
And so, let's feel the things that we do wrong, but let's change them. Never beat yourself up so much that you don't feel like you can change or that God can't save you, because that is wrong. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being, I delight in God's law. I know it's good. I delight in what God has for me. But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. Now this the wording that we have in English may trip us up some, but man, don't you feel this?
I know what I need to do. I I I enjoy. I feel right. How many of you feel right? Like, when you're right with God, your prayer life is better, you're in his word.
I I've told you before, I love singing, being in conferences where there's just a lot of people together. I feel right with god, and I love it. But I still feel this, that that we're waging a war. Right? Something is going on.
There's a battle happening, and I want to live this way. But often, there's something pulling at me to live another way, again, making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? How can I get out of this?
Is what Paul is asking. And he answers it this way, thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. The church needs to say, amen. He doesn't say there's no hope for you. You're too bad.
There's no hope for you. That's 2 weeks in a row. He doesn't say that, does he? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our lord. So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
I understand that. I understand there will always be these temptations. I had, in in my church growing up, I had a a man that was probably in his late seventies, and he said one time, he said, you know what? He said, I just feel like as I've gotten older, I've had far less temptations. And I thought, man, how in the world can that happen?
And I think he followed that up with he doesn't leave the house much. And I was like, yeah, okay. That makes sense. Right? But we have temptations every time we open our eyes, don't we?
Every place we go, every interaction we have, am I gonna talk lovingly? Am I going to be a husband to my wife? Am I going to be a father to my kids in the way that Jesus would have me do it? Or am I gonna just use something else? Am I gonna go to the store?
Am I going to be a Christian there or because they don't know me, I can live a different life? Today, when I go to lunch, am I going to treat the the waiter or waitress in a certain way because they don't know where I go to church or that I go to church? Or am I going to choose to follow Jesus and be the Christian I'm supposed to be? Because you know she didn't fill that tea up quick enough. Right?
And man, that is it. No tip for you. I think I have shared before that when I worked at a restaurant in college, one of the things one of the waitresses said is they always hated to see somebody pray before a meal because they knew they weren't going to get tipped. Now I have actually asked that question to other waitresses that I have been at the restaurant before, and they did not have the same outlook, but it is very sad to me that that person did. That they would see prayer before meal as a sure sign that they weren't going to be tipped.
We choose the way we live, don't we? There's always going to be things waging war against us. And Paul changes his tone. One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Colossians 3. Another favorite chapter of mine is Romans 8.
Paul says this. He says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, church. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus? Are you in Messiah Jesus?
Or have you chosen a different road? Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. He has saved you out of that. If you choose to follow Him. This is your out.
This is the praise be to God. How do I get through this? I'm not good enough. And he said, you're in Christ. If you will but stay in Christ, walk in the light as he is in the light, as first John tells us, this is you He has set you free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law was powerless to do remember, he's he's talking about the old law versus now life in the spirit. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh. What Paul talked about in other parts of Romans chapter 7, was was talking about the law and talking about what laws and rules do to us. Because as soon as you lay down a raw a law or a rule, what do we wanna do?
We kinda wanna break it or at least find the line. Right? Tell me exactly where the line is. And that's part of that whole inner war, this this turmoil that we have. Right?
I'd really like to break. That's what that's what part of Paul's argument is there. But here, he's saying, look, the the law was powerless to to do the same thing because it was weakened by the flesh. But what God did was send His own Son in likeness of sinful flesh, and He became this sin offering, and so He condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus has taken it all away for you.
Amen. In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh, but according to, what? Spirit. And that's beautiful. And we decide, this is all a choice.
We live life again in the spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their mind set on what the flesh desires. Does it sound like Colossians 3 to you? He says, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. So what I would challenge you to do today is when you get upset about something or when you choose to do something today, ask the question, is this my desire?
Is this a desire that comes from the flesh or is this a desire that is faithful to and in the spirit? Because oftentimes, what we do is we do something out of the flesh, out of our desires, and this is how it ought to be. Right? Because I just have this thought. And we claim it as this is what the spirit desire.
It's almost like we take our our sinful well, I wanna do, and we try to baptize it and say, well, this is the spirit. And in that, we're not being faithful to what Jesus would have us do. What we're doing is, again, living life with fleshly desires. Verse 6, he says, the mind governed by the flesh is what? Death.
He didn't beat around the bush about it. Have y'all noticed this? The the mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. How can we live in a world like we live in and have life and peace? The Holy Spirit of God.
Because if we rely on the Spirit, we are not relying on flesh. Because flesh, every single time, will let us down. You understand that? Every single time, flesh will let us down, but the spirit being in the spirit, living life in the spirit leads to life and peace. Because no matter what happens here, we can have peace knowing that god has us, that we are in, capital I, capital N, Scott, Christ Jesus.
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. You understand that? It is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so. Again, back to the idea that we try to baptize our own, fleshly desires, because we are hostile to God.
We might not say that, but what the way we're living, the way we're acting is hostile. It is against what god would have us do, how god would have us live. He said, those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please god. That's why I can yell at you red face and call you names. Because this is what god would have me do.
Show me that scripture, please. It says, you, however, are not in the realm of the flesh. Again, talking to Christians. You are not in the realm of the flesh or you shouldn't be. But are the realm of the Spirit.
If indeed, the Spirit of God lives in you. When do you get the whole the gift of the Holy Spirit, church? Everybody but Cornelius received the gift of the Holy Spirit as they were baptized. I believe Cornelius was, just for, to be able to show Peter and everyone else. Listen.
He got the same thing we did. But everyone else receives the gift of the Holy Spirit at baptism. He said, you are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that's a tough one, they do not belong to Christ. And we still argue about whether or not people are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Paul's pretty clear on that, isn't he? If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. Did you catch that? Your body is subject to death because of sin, but because of your status, your being in Christ Jesus, life in the Spirit, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
And if the Spirit of Him, who raised Jesus from the dead, is living in you. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit who lives in you. Amen? Anybody looking forward to that? That you saw what the Spirit of God did for Jesus, that even death is not the final answer.
That though many people thought it was over and they had won, and Jesus popped up 3 days later. Some of you got a kick out of it. You know how I like to think and kind of put that into, you know, real life. Imagine being one of those people who celebrated Jesus' death. And 3 days later, you are walking down the road and think, Oh, that guy looked a lot like Jesus.
That might you might be in for some some bad nightmares after that, wouldn't you? But that happened. Paul tells us that he appeared to more than 500 people, not just a couple of people, hey, you should have been there. That one guy saw Him. Would anybody believe that?
No. He looked like Jesus, he wasn't Jesus. But more than 500 people saw Jesus after this, and because of this, we know that the Spirit of God is able, even in death, to give life to your body. That's what I desire. And I see the way that that God has loved us, that He sent His only Son for us.
But even though you know all the sins that you have, you know all the struggles, you know that war that we just read about, you know what it concerns, don't you? You know that battle that goes on every day, every week. But even though that happens, your status in Jesus is this, life eternal. Would you stand as we read our scripture together today? From Hebrews 12 verses 12.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is what Jesus has done for you, church. You'd like to see that, relationship restored. We'd love to pray with you to encourage you in that.
If you'd like to, begin that walk with him, we'd love to see you baptized this morning. Would you come as we stand and sing?