Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
We're going to be in Romans chapter eight, if you have your Bibles
turned there with me, Romans chapter 8.
And we are looking at a sermon series called why Theology Matters.
And really, at this point in time, I think all of us can agree
that what we believe matters.
Why?
Because what we believe affects what we do.
What we think about affects how we are going to live out our
lives as believers.
And so what the Bible says here in Romans is that there are
certain things that God tells us about Himself that we should know,
that we should believe.
There's certain things that God has done for us that we should
understand and that we should trust in.
And here in Romans chapter eight, we're looking at the confidence
that we can have in what God has done for us.
We're looking at the confidence in what we have in a Savior.
And here In Romans chapter 8, we looked at the first eight verses
last week, and we looked at this idea of having no more condemnation
when we are in Christ.
So those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior can know that
there is no more judgment upon our account.
We are no longer seen guilty in our sin, but we are deemed innocent
by God, justified by God because of the work of Jesus Christ
and because of the fact that we have trusted in his work and his
work alone for our salvation.
And so really, what Romans 8 is all about is the confidence that
we have in our salvation.
So.
So we have to roll back just a little bit and define, biblically
speaking, what is our salvation.
The Bible says that God loves us so much that he sent his only
begotten Son.
And what was His Son sent here to do?
Well, the Bible says in Romans 5, 8 that God demonstrated His love
for us in giving us His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross
for our sins.
And so when we trust in God, we're not just trusting in this idea.
We're trusting in who God is, in his love and in his character
to send his only begotten Son, Jesus.
By the way, we are told in Scripture that Jesus isn't just sent
by God, but that he is God.
Jesus says that he and the Father are one.
The Bible says that there is one way.
John 14:6.
Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
So if we want to know God, we know him and rest in him, and have
a relationship with him through our faith in Jesus Christ.
That's what the Bible says is the gospel.
But we know that Jesus didn't just die.
He was on a cross.
And he did die, but then he was placed in a tomb.
And then three days later, he conquered death through the resurrection.
And by the way, the resurrection is part of the gospel.
We can't wipe the resurrection out.
We must believe in the resurrection.
Why?
Because in First Corinthians, chapter 15, Jesus His.
His resurrection.
As Paul says, it's vital to believe in Jesus and his resurrection,
because without the resurrection, our faith would be
in vain, our service would be in vain, because Jesus would be just
another historical figure.
But the Bible says that Jesus is more than just an historical figure.
He.
He's more than just a good teacher.
The Bible says that he conquered death through the resurrection.
And then when we believe in that, when we trust in that, the
Bible says that in our faith, we are then indwelled by the Holy
Spirit.
And so as a believer, we don't just walk this world alone.
We have God, as it says here, living within us in the Holy Spirit.
And that's what we're talking about.
We're talking about how we as Christians, who can be indwelled
by the Spirit, who are indwelled by the Spirit, can walk
in a path of obedience to the Spirit or obedience to our flesh,
and we revert back to the old ways.
And that's what Paul's talking about in Romans chapter seven.
That's what he's talking about here in Romans chapter eight.
He says, hey, now that you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your
Savior, the Holy Spirit now indwells you.
Are you going to walk in obedience to the Spirit and follow
God and allow his power to guide you?
Or are you going to allow yourself to fall back into the bondage
of your flesh and live in that sin and live by the power of the
flesh.
Now, the Bible tells us that the power of the flesh brings pain,
suffering, death, separation.
The power of the Spirit brings us life, hope, and victory.
And so that's what we're talking about.
So when I reference the flesh, I'm talking about those things that
pull us back into the old way of the way that we used to live.
Before we were saved, all we knew was the flesh.
That's the only path that we could take.
And it's the only power that we can rely on.
But after salvation, we have the power of the spirit living in
our life.
And now we can tap in and be guided by the power of the Spirit
as we walk this crazy, crazy world.
I'm going to tell you here today that there's a lot of people
that are believers in Jesus but feeling as if they can't do certain
things, that they are limited or maybe even defeated.
And so the title of the sermon this morning is the Power of the
Presence of the Spirit in Our Life.
What does the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit mean
to us?
Well, we're going to look at that here this morning.
If you have your Bibles, look with me to Romans 8, verse 8.
This is where we left off last week.
Romans 8, verse 8.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God in the flesh
means I'm living in the flesh.
I'm, I'm reverting back to the old ways.
I'm trying to do things in my own strength, in my own power, whether
they be good things or bad things.
You know, I, I, I said this last week, and I think that so many
times I struggle with this is I try to do things that the Bible
tells me to do, but I do it in my own strength.
Like I try to read my Bible in the flesh.
Reading your Bible in the flesh is only going to bring back
what the Bible says is emptiness, hopelessness.
Trying to pray in the flesh for selfish things, trying to serve
in the flesh in a selfish way is always going to bring us back
to that separation that God says here that we cannot please Him.
So the only way that we please God, the only way that we honor God,
the only way that we can properly obey him is by walking in
the Spirit and walking in his will.
And so he says, to walk in the flesh means not to please God.
To walk in the spirit means to please God.
And to walk in the Spirit means to walk in faith.
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6 says it's impossible to please him
without faith.
And so to walk in the spirit means I believe that God says something,
and what he says, he will do.
And I'm going to trust in that and I'm going to walk in that way.
And so here in Romans 8, 9, we're going to see here that you
as a believer are different.
You don't have to live in the flesh.
It's not the only option.
We have a better option.
He says, but ye are not in the flesh that's not who you are.
You are not characterized by your strength, by your wisdom, by
your good deeds.
You are characterized by the power of God.
You are characterized by his strength, by his direction, by his
wisdom.
He says, but ye who are believers are not in the flesh but
in the Spirit.
You are living in the Spirit.
You have the Spirit.
You have the accessibility to know God and to walk in his truth.
And he says, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Now we need to stop here and we need to see what verse nine is
telling us.
What verse nine is telling us is this.
If you have the Spirit indwelling you, you are a child of
God.
If you do not have the Spirit of God in your heart, if you do not
have the indwelling of the Spirit, you are not a child of God.
There are some people that teach that, hey, religion and faith
is all about believing in God.
And then there's a second pouring out of the Spirit.
And so you can be a Christian and be saved without the indwelling
of the Spirit.
The Bible says here very clearly that if you are saved, you
are indwelled by the Spirit.
There is no middle ground.
There is no time where we need to wait for a second pouring out.
The Bible says if you have the Spirit, if you believe in God, you
are a child of God.
So you cannot be a child of God and not have the Spirit.
Being a child of God means that you have the Spirit indwelling
you.
And so for here today, there are two groups, groups of people.
In this context, there are two groups of people.
You have the people who are indwelled by the Spirit and the people
who are not indwelled by the Spirit.
The people who are indwelled by the Spirit are the children of
God who can choose to obey him and to choose to follow him and choose
to worship Him.
And then you have those who are not in the Spirit and they are
in the flesh and they cannot choose to worship God.
They cannot please God.
They cannot know God.
Now, there are many different types of people in this world.
But the Bible says, really, in verse nine, there are are two types
of people.
Those that are indwelled by the Spirit and those that are not
indwelled by the Spirit.
Now we will talk about how the believer can be indwelled by the
Spirit but not be filled with the Spirit.
We're going to get to that here in a few moments.
But the idea here this morning is this, if you believe that Jesus
is who he says he is, if you believe in the gospel, if you trust
in him, if you believe in the truth of the Word, you are saved,
you are justified, you are declared righteous, and.
And immediately the Holy Spirit indwells you.
So what does that mean?
That means that I can access the Holy Spirit, I can live in the
power of the Holy Spirit.
And so because the Holy Spirit is given to each believer when he
or she is born again, every Christian has within themselves this
idea that we can live in a power greater than the flesh.
And so a lot of people will overlook that.
They'll say, well, you know what?
I'm just flesh, I'm just a human.
I can't really overcome this problem or this temptation in my
life.
The Bible says no.
If you are a believer in Jesus, if you have trusted in him,
the Spirit can give you victory.
So, so how does one know that they have the Spirit?
Well, has the Spirit led you to Jesus?
Have you trusted in Him?
Has the Spirit put you with a new desire, with a new heart?
Is the Spirit manifesting itself by the fruit of the Spirit
in your life?
Well, the Bible says that if you're in the Spirit, go back to
verse number one.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus.
So to be in Christ Jesus means to have the Spirit.
Now, I say all that to say that we have to understand what it
means to be indwelled by the Spirit.
So go with me to a couple of other verses.
We're going to look at this this morning and then I'm going to
get to some application here.
John chapter 14, we read this morning in our scripture reading
John chapter 14, verses 15 through 18.
I think it's important for us to see this.
I'm going to build this idea that what it means to be a believer
means that the Holy Spirit indwells us.
And to be indwelled by the Spirit means that certain aspects
of our life will be changed, will be affected.
And so In John chapter 14, verse 15, Jesus is speaking to his
disciples and he talks about this idea of loving him means to
obey him.
And to obey him means to walk in the Spirit.
We can't obey him in the flesh.
We can try to obey him in the flesh, but it'll be useless, it'll
be vain, it will be hopelessness.
And so he says in verse 15 of John 14, if you love me, keep my
commandments, and I will pray the Father and he shall give you
another comforter.
Now that word comforter There in the Greek is paraclete.
It's the idea of the Holy Spirit.
It's the.
It's the person of the Holy Spirit.
He says that he may abide with you forever.
We're going to talk a little bit more about the sealing of the
Holy Spirit.
But when the Bible says the Holy Spirit indwells us, it doesn't
mean that the Holy Spirit will leave us.
The Holy Spirit will indwell us and live with us forever, abide
with us forever.
And then he says in verse 17, even the Spirit of truth, the Holy
Spirit always leads us to truth.
The Holy Spirit always leads us to the fact that the word of God
is our guide.
The Holy Spirit will always lead us through to the truth of who
Jesus Christ is, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive.
By the way, the world has tried to replicate what happens with
the indwelling of the Spirit.
Now there.
There's a lot of people in the world that want to have the same
effects as what happens with a Christian's changed life.
But the world has tried to counterfeit what the Bible says is
the Holy Spirit.
There's a lot of people that want to show big manifestations which,
with actions or signs or shows or.
Or just living a good life and try to replicate in a worldly fashion
what it means to have a changed life through the Holy Spirit.
But all of those counterfeits will eventually fall.
Why?
Because they're not based in truth.
So he says, if someone is set in the world, they cannot receive
this type of guidance.
They cannot receive the indwelling of the Spirit.
Why?
Because it seeth him not.
Neither knoweth him, but ye know him.
For he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you.
And so the idea here is that the world does not understand this
type of indwelling of the Spirit.
There's a lot of churches who try to manifest some aspect of this.
But the true Holy Spirit transformation cannot happen unless
there is faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to the Word.
True change in a life of an individual does not come through
working hard.
It does not come through a set of rules.
It does not come through a program.
It does not come through a list of steps.
The Bible says that true change can only come through transformation
of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit indwelling and changing the
hearts of man, changing a heart of stone to a heart of flesh,
changing our mind to be set on the things above, not on the things
of this earth.
I want to Talk more about this idea of the change that happens in
the Spirit.
I want you to go to another Passage of Scripture, First Corinthians,
chapter 2.
It's going to talk more here about this idea of the wisdom and
the guidance of the flesh, of the world, and the wisdom and guidance
of the spirit in Christ.
First Corinthians, chapter two.
And we're going to look at verses 12 and 13.
It speaks of this idea that as a believer we receive the Lord, but
in receiving the Lord, we receive the Spirit.
And in the Spirit comes this change, this difference, this wisdom
that is not found in the world.
First Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 12 says, now we have received
not the Spirit of the world.
Again we see the contradiction of what it means to say that, hey,
I love God and I love his salvation, but I also love the world.
He says, no, you can't have those two things.
You can't say you love the world and love God at the same time.
Those do not coincide.
So he says here, verse 12.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given
to us, of God, meaning this.
We cannot understand what God has imparted to us.
If we are living in the ways of the world.
If we are focused on the material, we're focused on the here
and now.
If we're focused on the flesh, if we're focused on pleasure, if
we're focused on anything that the world emphasizes as being the
best thing, the only thing, then we cannot know the things that
God has freely given to us in his grace.
Verse 13.
Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches,
which means this.
The Bible says that man's wisdom will not teach us the things
of God.
It will not lead us to a place of truth, but which the Holy Ghost
teaches.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, the idea would be
this.
Don't expect to see the power of God, to see the guidance of God,
to see the transformation of God.
If we're living in the ways of the world, the church should not
look more and more like the world.
The other way around, it really should be that the world should
look more and more like the church if we're doing our jobs by
reaching the people in.
In our communities.
But the idea has been this.
We, we've said, okay, look, we know what the Bible says, but look
at the world today and look at the wisdom that it brings us.
Why don't we try to impart some of those things within our Christian
way of life, how has that gone for us?
It's not good.
When we deviate from the Spirit's guidance and when we deviate
from the word of God, we find our place.
We find ourselves in a place of danger and destruction.
We find our place.
We find a place of compromise.
We find a place of confusion.
And we get to a place where we're like, how did we get here?
How did we get so far away from what the Bible says?
Well, we've allowed ourselves to be guided by man's wisdom and
not God's wisdom.
We've been allowing the flesh to guide us and not the Spirit.
And so in First Corinthians, chapter two, it tells us, don't go
the wisdom of the world.
Don't go with the wisdom of the world.
Go with the wisdom of God, which comes from the indwelling of
the Spirit, as it says there.
More.
It says this in the book of Ephesians, some of you know Ephesians,
chapter 5.
18, Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 18.
I want you to see this because it doesn't just say here, be indwelled
by the Spirit.
When you're saved, you're indwelled by the Spirit.
That's something that happens immediately.
But I do want you to know that as a believer, we can be tempted
not to be filled with the Spirit.
Being filled with the Spirit is not something different that's
beyond our comprehension.
Being filled with the Spirit just means to be guided by the Spirit.
It means to obey the spirit.
Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 18.
It says, and be not drunk with wine, whereas in excess, but be filled
with the Spirit.
The analogy here is this.
When one is intoxicated with wine or whatever substance, that
substance controls them and speaks for them and dictates for
them the way that they should live.
And so he says, don't be drunk with anything.
Don't.
Don't allow yourself to be taken over by any substance.
Allow the Holy Ghost.
Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and to fill you and to control
you.
That's the way to go.
And so we understand the idea of allowing a substance to make us
do certain things.
What he says here is that really the filling of the Spirit
means allowing the Spirit to be the one who guides us and speaks
for us and responds for us.
And so the challenge for us as Christians is not to be indwelled
with the Spirit.
That happens at the moment of our faith.
Now, for those who might be here today that have not trusted
Jesus Christ as Savior, you need to trust in Jesus to have the
indwelling of the Spirit.
You can't access the Spirit without faith in Jesus Christ.
But for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, the challenge is
not to be indwelled with the Spirit.
That happens.
And by the way, the Bible says that we are sealed unto the day of
redemption with the Holy Spirit in us.
But the challenge is not to be indwelled.
The challenge is to be filled with the Spirit, to live a life of
obedience, to live a life of dying to my flesh.
And so I want you to see a passage of scripture here, because
I think a lot of times what Satan wants us to do is he wants
us to doubt our good works and make us feel like, you know what?
Maybe I've lost the Spirit.
Therefore, if I've lost the Spirit, how can I serve him?
Philippians chapter 1, verse 6 says this being confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
And so the idea here is that as God has promised us is that if
he has given us the Spirit, he will continue to give us the Spirit,
and we will be sealed.
We will be secured in Him.
And I think that that's important for us to understand because
so many Christians are living with a defeatist mindset, a mindset
that someone is going to take away our salvation.
The Bible says that no one can take away our salvation.
Ephesians, chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13 tells us that we are sealed in whom
ye also trusted.
Talking about trusting in Jesus after ye heard the word of
truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that
ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest or the down payment of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise
of his glory.
You're sealed.
And the Holy Spirit is a down payment of what it will mean one
day to be with God forever.
The.
The taste of the Holy Spirit being the guide for our life, the
comfort in our life, the teaching in our life is God's way
of saying, here, this is the down payment.
This is what it means to know me.
And one day you will be restored with me for eternity.
And that will be beautiful and that will be complete.
But until then, rest in the Spirit.
Understand that the Spirit brings us comfort, the Spirit brings
us peace, the Spirit brings us joy.
By the way, I think as a Christian, one of the marks of being
indwelled by the Spirit and filled with the Spirit is having
joy in our life.
We know that through understanding Galatians chapter five,
that one of the elements of the fruit of the Spirit is joy.
But I want you to see in First Thessalonians chapter one, we're
going to get back to Romans, but I'm trying to build this case
here.
First Thessalonians chapter one.
It's going to tell us that one of the elements of the indwelling
of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit would be that we would
have joy.
Says in First Thessalonians Chapter one, a bunch of different
things talking about the Gospel that that came to us.
Verse 5.
For our gospel came not unto you in the word only.
This is First Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 5.
For our gospel came not unto you in the word only, but also in
power.
We're going to talk about that here in a minute.
And the Holy Ghost and in much assurance.
By the way, the filling of the Spirit brings assurance.
Walking in obedience to the Spirit brings us assurance that God
is going to keep his word going further.
It says, and ye know what manner of men we were among you for
your sake, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord,
having received the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy
Ghost.
So to be filled with the Holy Spirit brings us assurance or confidence.
It brings us joy.
It brings us contentment in what he has done for us.
It brings us to a place where we're not complaining all the time,
but we're praising all the time.
Folks, there's a lot of reasons for us to in this world today,
complain and to be confused and to even question and maybe get
to a place where we would even be consumed with that type of fear
the Bible warns us against because of all these things that
are happening around us.
But.
But I would venture to say here this morning that instead of
being consumed with fear, we should be confirmed and comforted
in the fact that we have something bigger than the circumstances
around us.
We can have joy when all things are going bad.
We can have joy in the midst of pain.
We can have joy in the midst of conflict.
We can have joy in the midst of confusion.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit brings us clarity to know that we're living
for more than just this world now.
That doesn't mean we give up on the things around us.
Hey, my family's imploding around me.
Everyone's going away, and I'm just going to sit here and be happy
and just twiddle my thumbs and let it all go bad.
That's not what the Bible says.
We are to do everything that we possibly can to impact those around
us for the gospel and not to quit, not to give up, not to get
apathetic.
But at the same time, when things around us are quote unquote
out of our control, we allow God's control to take over.
And we say, look, I'm going to do what I can do and I'm not going
to get my eyes fixed on those things that consume.
But my affections consume my desires and my longing for Him.
And what can happen is this really weird thing that as we long
for God and our attention is on him, it can be deviated to the
attention of other things, good, bad or whatever.
And our affections for God can be turned to the affections of the
things of this world.
And we can miss out on the effectiveness that God has had for
us.
And that can lead us to joylessness and pain and sorrow.
And so here we see there's many blessings of being in the Spirit,
to be walking in and dwelled and filled by the Spirit.
So let's go back To Romans chapter 8, our main text, and we're
just going to take it down through verse number 11.
And we're going to see what Paul says here as we are to walk
filled with the Spirit.
What does that look like?
What does that bring us?
What is that in result to other directions that we could take?
So he says verse nine but you're not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit.
If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.
The Bible says that if the Holy Spirit indwells us, if we have
trusted in Jesus Christ as our Savior, our body, our flesh is dead.
But the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Now that's not the righteousness of our good works,
that's the righteousness of Christ imparted to us.
And so therefore we can have life in Him.
Paul's analogy here is life and death, Spirit and flesh.
What do we want to live in?
Do we want to live in death or do we want to live in life?
Well, to walk in the Spirit means to walk in life.
And so this means that when a believer is indwelled by the Spirit,
there's, there's this misnomer out there that even though we're
indwelled by the Spirit and we're saved, we just walk in defeat.
No, the Bible says that we are walking in complete confidence in
him, we should be at least walking in complete confidence in
Him.
He's given us life and life more abundantly, as the Bible says.
And so because Jesus lives in us, the old man, the flesh, the body,
is dead, and the Spirit lives and rules in our life as we live
out his call for the believer, intentionally with purpose.
So we go to verse number 10.
He says, if Christ be in you, the body is dead, but the Spirit
is within you.
You live in righteousness and life.
Then he says something really interesting here in verse number
11.
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
or bring to life your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth
in you.
Now, if you did not catch what he said there, he says this.
The same power that rose Jesus from the dead is the power living
within you with the indwelling of the Spirit.
And we often think that the greatest miracle to ever happen throughout
all of history was, would be Jesus's conquering of death through
the resurrection.
Right?
I would, I. I would venture to say that there's a lot of amazing
things that have happened in this world, but the fact that Jesus
died on a cross and conquered death through the resurrection, that
tops the cake.
I mean, that's it.
That's.
That's amazing.
That's what gives us hope.
Go back to 1 Corinthians 15.
Paul says, we would have nothing outside of the resurrection.
The resurrection is the centerpiece to everything.
And he says, the same power, the same spirit that rose Jesus from
the dead is the one that's living within you if you're a believer.
And then we walk around saying, well, I don't know if I can
do that, folks.
If God has called you to do something, this is, this is not Pastor
Josh's opinion.
I can point you to Scripture.
If God has called you to do something, he empowers you to do
it in his will, in his way.
Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ.
That's not a verse to give people to say, hey, want to do anything
you want in this world?
Just believe that Jesus will give that to you.
That's not what Philippians 4:13 says.
Philippians 4:13 says, if God calls you to do something, even if
that's suffering, even if that's doing something outside of
your comfort zone, he will give you the strength, the power
to do it.
I, I use this as analogy quite frequently, but.
And it's Kind of like a humble.
You ever heard of a humble brag?
Humble brag means you're trying to tell someone something
that you did, but you want to make it kind of sound like you're
humble about it.
Well, I'm about to do it, so.
Okay, everyone be ready.
Everyone be ready.
So there was last.
Last spring, I ran a half marathon.
I'm not.
I'm only half crazy.
I ran Half Marathon, 13.1 miles.
And so we started out going, and just to be completely honest
with you, I hadn't been training the way I should have been
training.
It was.
I got complacent, and I started running.
And about mile two, I was like, oh, man, I signed up for this,
and I shouldn't be doing this.
Okay, this is not good.
Like, how.
How am I gonna make it another 11 miles?
This is just crazy.
And mile three, mile four, got a little bit easier, believe it or
not.
Mile five, mile six, got a little bit easier.
I'm like, okay, this is getting good.
Well, I got to about mile eight, and I started hitting that
wall.
I was like, man, I don't.
I don't feel good at all.
This is.
This is not right.
Maybe.
Maybe I should just quit.
Maybe I should just stop.
No one would know.
I was the only person there.
No one was watching me.
I was like, I could just quit.
I said, no, I'm going to push forward.
I'm going to do this for the principle of it.
So I'm pushing forward.
Pushing forward.
Mile nine.
Get there.
And there was this table, and they had, you know, like, water and
Gatorade and food, and that's what I needed.
Okay.
I just.
I took.
I took that in.
And when I did that and someone said something.
Hey.
They're like, hey, you're.
You're only.
And they said a certain amount.
You're only.
You're.
You're only like, 1.8 miles away.
And for whatever reason that gave me, it was weird.
It was like, yes.
And.
And it gave me that extra effort to push for it because I was
about to quit.
And praise the Lord.
I crossed the finish line, and then I paid for it for, like, three
or four days after.
And I got no sympathy because it was my decision to do it right.
The.
The idea is this, though.
There's going to be times in our life.
The Bible, by the way, calls the Christian life a race.
And it's not a sprint, it's a marathon.
There's gonna be times in the race when we're tempted to quit,
when we're Tempted to think that the power of God maybe isn't
enough.
You know, we're gonna feel every reason to quit.
We're going to say, you know what?
It's not worth it to raise my family in the truth of God in this
world.
It's not worth it to serve in this ministry.
It's not worth it to wake up on a Sunday morning and come to church.
It's not worth reading my Bible.
And we're going to have every earthly, fleshly reason to quit.
But then the Bible reminds us in Hebrews chapter 12.
I want you to see this here.
This is an amazing thing.
Hebrews chapter 12, that there is a reason to continue on.
There is a power bigger than ourselves that's challenging us,
encouraging us, and not only encouraging us, but empowering us
to finish the course.
Hebrews chapter 12, it says, wherefore, seeing also, we are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses.
Now, by the way, that's.
There's different interpretations of that.
Some interpretation of that is we have people that have gone on
before us into heaven and they're cheering us on, saying, hey,
we've done this and you can do this.
There's other people that say that that's earthly witnesses, other
Christians.
Either way, either way you look at it, there are people that
have been there before cheering us on to say, hey, you can
do it.
This is good.
We have these witnesses.
Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which, which does so
easily beset us, and let us run with patience.
That word patience also means endurance.
Let us run with patience, the race that is set before us.
But if it just stopped there and said, okay, we're not going to
tell you how to do this.
Just run harder, try harder, that would be dealing with the race
in the flesh.
And the flesh gives us reasons to quit.
The flesh tells us lies.
The flesh tells us, hey, when I was running, hey, you're going
to pass out, you're going to die, you're going to tear a muscle.
You should just quit.
Your body tells you no.
The body says stop.
But the spirit tells us something more, that it's worth it,
that it's going to be okay.
And so verse two, this is the remedy to the struggle of doubting
whether or not God's power is enough in our life, whether or not
we can take the next step, whether or not we can conquer that
thing in our life that is causing us issues, whether it be
a sin, whether it be a fear, whether it be a doubt, whether it
be pain and suffering.
Whether it be concern for whatever might be coming before me.
It says here in verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, the creator and the sustainer of our
faith, we look to Jesus for the power to finish what God has
called us to do in our lives.
The word power in the New Testament in the Greek is a word
called dudamos, where we get the word dynamite, explosive power
from God that we can use for the call in our lives to do what
he has called us to do.
Now, some of us might not even be wrestling with a call because
we're still back at the very beginning trying to figure out what
it even means to believe in God.
But those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, those who have put
their faith in him and have allowed the spirit to guide them
into the word of truth, and you see what God has for you, and
you see what it means to be a Christian.
By the way, what it means to be a Christian is not just coming
to church on Sunday mornings even though, praise God, you're here.
I want more people to come.
Okay, but at the end of the day, being a Christian is more than
just coming to church.
Being a Christian is living for Christ, bearing our cross, dying
to our desires and dying to the world and living for him and
making disciples and professing the truth and having courage
in a world that preaches anti God, antichrist, like material folks,
we live in a world that preaches.
The world preaches everything opposite of what Scripture says about
everything.
Just test it, test it, go to it.
The world says opposite of what God says.
And the Bible says there will be a day when good is evil and evil
is good in the eyes of the world.
We're there.
When we live for Christ, we are considered evil, bigoted, narrow
minded, hateful.
And on the other side, it's loving to accept all of these worldly
philosophies that are divisive and destructive and demonic.
So what do we do?
We go to the power of God.
We go to Romans 8, verse 11 that says the same power that rose
Jesus from the dead, the same power, power that took the blind
and made them see the same people, same power that brought people
back to life like Lazarus is the same power living with us today.
And if we live in that truth, we can be bold for the gospel.
We can have joy, we can have contentment, we can have peace, we
can have excitement, we can have power in our lives.
Don't we want to be powerful Christians?
Don't we want to be powerful followers of Christ?
Well, the power doesn't come from me.
The power doesn't come from you.
The power comes from the Spirit who lives within us.
The Bible says in the book of Ephesians, one Spirit, the same Spirit
that lives within you is the same Spirit that lives within me,
the same Spirit that lives within that Christian.
And why is it that the same Spirit that lives within this Christian
and the same Spirit that lives within this Christian.
We see Christians fighting with each other.
We are shooting ourselves in our foot when we fight against each
other within the family of Christ.
Because if we say we're being led by the Spirit and this person
over here says they're being led by the Spirit, but yet they're
at odds with each other and their paths are at odds with each
other, I'm going to tell you there's someone in that process that's
failing.
And it's not the Spirit, it's the individual that's allowing flesh
to overcome the power of the Spirit and saying, you know what?
I'm going to die to me and live for him so that I can allow
myself to be aligned with his plan and his will in my life.
So what do we do?
We go back to what the Bible says here.
The same power, the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead
is living within me.
That should produce boldness and courage and unity and joy and
love.
And we're going to look next, well, not next week, I'll tell you
more about that later, but here in verse 12, we're gonna look
at what it means to be like literally, literally, literally getting
to the nitty gritty of what it looks like to be led by the Spirit.
I've talked a lot today about what it the overall viewpoint of
walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh.
But then we need to get down into specifics and, and what Paul
is gonna tell us in this passage is that essentially it's
not success, it's not people liking us that gives us confirmation
of the Spirit's guidance.
It's being joint errors with our Savior.
It's understanding that whatever is as God is his mind.
Abba, Father, I can call out to him.
All the blessings, all the riches, spiritually speaking, have
been poured out to me to access as a believer.
And someone, someone might say this morning, you know what?
I'm not special.
I don't know if I could preach the gospel.
I don't know if I can be what you're talking about here.
I'm going to tell you in the power of God you can be not everyone's
called to do everything, but everybody is called to do something
for the cause of the gospel.
Folks, we.
We like.
It's.
I think.
I think more than ever right now.
We're living in a world that the line is drawn in the sand.
It's very easy to see the line drawn.
Are we going to live for Christ?
Are we going to live for ourselves?
Are we going to keep playing this game, this facade that the world
has built up to say that this is what the American dream is.
Just live for money.
Get the house you've always wanted, get the vehicle you've always
wanted to follow that sports team that's always going to be there
for you folks.
I love sports.
I don't think there's anything wrong with driving a nice car, that
you should have a nice house if God has blessed you with that.
But if that's the goal, if that's the end game, we're missing
the point.
Jesus said.
Jesus says, who's willing to come and take the plow and get to
work?
That's what it means to be a disciple.
You're not worthy of it.
If you're looking back at what you were leaving.
Oh, but look at that.
Look how nice it could be.
Look how good it was.
Look where I should have been.
No, it's saying, lord, this is what it is.
This is what I want to be busy about.
I want to be courageous.
I want to be bold.
I want to speak the truth.
I want to live differently.
I want to live differently in the face of temptation.
Folks, I live so long thinking, well, this temptation is
here, okay?
I'm just going to give into it.
The Bible, I, who.
I can't fight it.
It's just the flesh.
The Bible says, and we have more time, we go here.
But first, Corinthians, chapter 10 says, there's always a
path out.
There's always victory.
God always desires us to die to that sinful temptation.
How can we do that?
Well, this is where we're going to end.
We rely on the power of the Spirit.
We understand that it's only the Spirit who can change my heart.
We understand that it's the Spirit who can.
Let me face a naysayer and be okay and just say, okay.
That's Jesus.
Love your enemies.
How can I love my enemy?
Power of the spirit.
How can I forgive someone who sinned against me?
The power of the Spirit.
How can I serve in this capacity?
I've never been a teacher.
I've never served in this ministry.
I've never done this before the power of the Spirit.
Ask God for wisdom, ask God for direction, ask God for comfort,
ask God for conviction.
Ask God for anything and he will give it to you if it's according
to his will.
And so what I'm going to say here today is tirelessly, fervently,
passionately seek after the guidance of the Spirit in your life.
Lord, what do you want from me today?
It's an everyday thing.
Die daily for the cause of the gospel.
Paul's going to say later on there's a reason for this.
Why?
He says, because one day, one day we're going to get to heaven
and we're going to realize that this little tiny bit of suffering
that we have in this world is nothing in comparison to the blessing
that we will receive one day with being with him.
And to hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
And to say, I was stressed about that as, as I've matured in
my life and as I've gotten older, there are things I used to
stress about that that now mean nothing.
I'm going to do a joke and it's self deprecating.
Okay, you guys ready for this?
You ready to hear your pastor cut on himself?
I remember back in high school, I was trying to press girls
and I would stand in front of the mirror every single day and try
to get my hair just right and say, you know what, man?
They're just going to get it.
And I thought that was, that's what I would live for.
I would say, you know what, man?
I just got to get it just right.
I got to get.
Because these girls are going to like me if I have that.
First of all, I'm not talking to any of those girls anymore except
one, who is my wife.
But obviously you guys see the joke.
I'm not worried about that anymore.
I'm not worried about either one of those two things anymore.
And that's how it should be as a Christian.
As we grow in our understanding of who God is and what
he has done and what the Spirit can do for us, we don't worry
about those things that held us back.
Well, what if someone calls me crazy for being a Christian man nowadays,
I'm welcoming that.
Just call me crazy, okay?
Call me different.
I want to be different.
And that's the difference today.
So as Christians, living in the Spirit isn't just.
Well, it's this like weird thing that I can't locate.
The Spirit is very clear.
The Spirit, he is always going to lead us to truth, always going
to lead us to Jesus.
And so next time we come back, we're going to talk about what it
means to be led by the spirit with the confidence of knowing that
we are in the family of God.
We were.
When I was growing up there, I had.
I have a lot.
I had a lot of fear.
I still have a lot of fear.
I'm afraid to talk to people, afraid to do everything and all that
kind of stuff.
And when my dad was with me, I was, like, completely, like, bold.
My dad's like, son, we're gonna go here.
I'm like, my dad.
My dad can beat up any guy.
So my dad.
So I'm not afraid of anybody.
Come on, dad.
And when my dad was with me, I was the boldest guy in the world.
My dad left.
I was.
I was afraid.
I was scared.
I was like, I don't know what to do next.
The next passage of Scripture says, the way we can walk in confidence
is because we got a dad who's all powerful, our Abba father, and
he's going to be the one that can take me forward.
So, folks, if you're struggling with something today,
allow the light of the Holy Spirit to shine on it.
You know what I've noticed recently?
I'm going to just go one more minute.
I know I say this a lot, but I'm just going to try to go one more
minute here.
The idea would be this.
I. I've.
I've noticed recently that if there's any type of confusion or
doubt, shine the light of the truth on it.
Someone comes to you and says, well, you know, I just have a problem
with this and this.
Let's be specific, let's be particular.
Where is the problem?
What's going on?
Let's shine light on it.
Let's shine the word of God on it.
When we shine the word, Word of God on things that are, like,
foggy and unsure, it's either going to reveal that there isn't
anything there, no problem, it was just someone's issue, or it's
going to reveal an issue of sin.
And we know that the Bible will reflect how to deal with that
sin, or it's going to reveal to us that maybe I'm the problem
and not that person's the problem.
Shine light on the truth.
Shine light of truth on the issue that you're going through.
So let's say, for example, marital issue.
Shine the light of truth on it right now.
Shine the light of truth on it.
What does the word of God have to say?
Not how I feel today, but the word of God.
Well, we got a lot of problems in this world, a lot, a lot of political
drama everywhere.
Shine the light of truth on it.
I got problems in my workplace.
Shine the light of truth on it.
I got a personal sin in my life that I don't know how to deal
with.
Shine the light of truth on it.
The Holy Spirit will reveal the truth if we are open to allowing
it to come in.
Darkness is not.
Darkness isn't anything.
Darkness is the absence of light.
So when we shine light on something, whatever is there will
be revealed.
I mean, at night when I was growing up, I'd look around my bedroom
and I thought everything was a monster because it was dark.
And all I had to do is flip the light on.
And I realized that's just the toy over there.
It's not a real bad thing.
But when the darkness was there, I was tempted to think that
there was something else there that wasn't really there.
And that's what happens when we shine the light of the Holy Spirit
on our lives.
We can see what's truly behind the darkness.
And many times it's things that we can handle.
Every time, it's things that we can handle in the truth of the
power of Jesus Christ.
And so encourage you to think about that here this morning.
Well, I'm going to ask for you to stand with us, every head bowed,
every eye closed as the music plays.
This morning, the challenge is very clear.
Number one, do you have the Spirit indwelling you?
Have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your savior?
The gospel is this.
I'm going to summarize it for you the way the Bible summarizes
it for you.
God loved you enough to send his son, Jesus Christ to come to
this earth.
He lived a perfect life.
He did not sin.
And because he fulfilled the law, he paid the price for us on
the cross.
He died on the cross for you.
But like I said before, he didn't stay on the cross.
He didn't stay dead.
The Bible says that he conquered death through the resurrection
and now is offering you the gift of grace to know forgiveness,
to no everlasting life, to no peace and comfort.
And so to be indwelled by the Spirit means to trust in him.
And then there's that transaction of the Spirit.
The Spirit now indwells you and you can understand what it means
to walk in this type of peace and joy and love and confidence,
to be sealed, to be promised.
So there's that decision.
But many of us have already made that decision.
But maybe we've been Tempted to not live in the spirit, to be
filled with the spirit, to be guided by the flesh, flesh, by the
whims and cares of this world, by the wisdom of man.
And we've fallen into the trap of that, and we've faced consequences
with that.
But, folks, the beauty is, is that there's no more condemnation.
So rid yourself of the pain of the judgment and get into what we
talk about in the idea of conviction.
With conviction comes clarity.
And with clarity comes comfort.
And with comfort comes victory.
And so it.
If you're dealing with that, if that's been characterizing your
life at any capacity, Maybe God's got 95%, but you've been allowing
that other 5% to be ruled by your flesh, by the world.
Today, give that over to him and say, lord, I want you to have
100% of everything.
I want to be guided by you in every way, in my personal life and
my professional life and in every degree of my Christian walk.
But maybe some of you are tempted as.
As you're running that race of life.
Maybe you're getting tired.
Maybe you're thinking there's a lot of reasons for me to stop,
for me to quit, for me to doubt.
Hey, look to the author and finisher of your faith, Jesus Christ.
Look for what he did for you.
He endured the cross.
He loves you enough to go to the cross.
He finished it.
He says it is finished.
You're not finishing it.
I'm finishing it for you.
Come with me.
And so this morning, maybe you just need that recharge.
Maybe you need that.
That extra measure of power and grace in your life to push forward
for the cause of the gospel.
So the challenge is there for you this morning.
Are you going to respond?
We're going to have an opportunity for you to come.
You can kneel here at the steps.
You can kneel there in the pew.
But do business with the Lord today.
Respond to the Spirit.
Hey, if you feel convicted today, if you feel that I stepped
on your toes today, that's not me.
That's the Holy Spirit.
So therefore, what I would do is I would respond to him today.
Don't neglect, don't delay, don't grieve.
The Holy Spirit.
Obey him today.
Follow him today.
It's the greatest, most amazing thing to walk in the freeness
of no burden.
No burden.
So come forward today.
Follow as the Lord leads.
Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, work in
hearts and lives.
Lord, I pray that today can be the day of salvation for some, Lord,
I pray that today can be the day of guidance of the Spirit.
Lord, I pray that some can just find the peace of the Spirit,
the comfort of the Spirit, Lord, the conviction of the Spirit.
Lord, I pray that you be with us today in this time.
In Jesus name, Amen.
As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here today it thank
you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
You would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch
dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow
along for future podcast and updates.
Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.