Romans #15 - Good Gifts: New Desires

[Music] [Music] you are new we've been going through the book of romans this year it's been a supernatural incredible extraordinary year the church has doubled real faith live online has doubled god has done some incredible things and this will be the last sermon in romans 4 this year and we'll pick it up again after valentine's day so we're in romans chapter 7 and the really great news that i have for you today is during this christmas season when we are buying gifts and giving gifts and receiving gifts god has good gifts to give to his children and today he's going to talk to us about one of the greatest gifts that is the gift of new desires that comes with the gift of the holy spirit and this is one of the great secrets of the christian life that non-christians quite frankly don't understand and that is that christianity is not a bunch of things that we have to do it's a bunch of things that we get to do because god changes our desires and ultimately the things of god are the things that we want to do that makes the christian life the most joyful life the most exciting life the most satisfying life but if we're honest there are also moments time seasons of struggle let me explain it this way when we were kids uh we played tug of war and have you ever played that game okay not not that i'm an adult i'm bigger i'd be much better at it but when i was a little kid played tug of war tug-tug-tug when you're an adult it's a different kind of tug of war it's literally a tug of war between heaven and hell and every day it feels like you're sort of the rope you're getting pulled and some days it feels like the spirit of god is pulling you up and you're getting closer to who you're going to be when you're in god's presence with jesus forever some days it feels like hell is winning and the flesh is really pulling you down and your character and your conduct they're getting a little darker and a little more dreary and we've all had this we all experienced this we all struggle with this how many of you right now it literally feels every day like your life is a tug of war and some days is better some days are worse some days you're winning some days you're losing sometimes it feels like you're getting closer to god and sometimes it feels like the temperature has been heating up and you're getting pulled toward hell that's exactly what he expresses in romans 7. so we're going to walk through it together we'll jump right in and he's going to talk about we either go down in the flesh or up in the spirit we either go closer to the lord or closer to separation from the lord he talks about it this way for we know that the law is spiritual law here he's talking about god's laws god's intentions for our conduct he says it is spiritual but i am of the flesh sold under sin for i do not understand my own actions how many of you this makes sense anybody ever walked up to you say why did you do that you're like i don't know i don't know why'd you say that i don't know what's wrong with you i don't know i know there's something wrong i don't know what it is okay and if you've never experienced this if you're married you've seen it up close and personal in your spouse we've all had this struggle how many of you this week you said or did something stupid and you don't know why you did it i'm about to tell you why you're welcome thanks for coming okay here we go for i do not do what i want but i do the very thing i hate how many of you this explains some of your behavior like i i hate that but i did it again [Music] now if i do not do what i want i agree with the law that it is good so now it's no longer i who do it but sin that dwells within me this is the tug of war this is the struggle and he's going to talk about law over us and when he's talking about law law sometimes refers to the ten commandments that is in god's word sometimes it refers to all of god's laws the first five books of the old testament are called the books of the law there's more than 600 laws in them here i believe he's using this concept of law in its greatest and grandest dimension meaning it's god's perfect unchanging moral standard for everyone okay god got it right the first time so he doesn't change his expectations from one generation or one culture to the next and ultimately what he's talking about is a universal standard of right and wrong things that you're supposed to do and things that you're not supposed to do and what he says about the law is number one that in chapter 7 verse 12 it is holy righteous and good what that means is god's laws they're good they reflect god the lawgiver they reflect god the lawgiver and today we live in this belief where there is no universal law but every time someone does something to us we appeal to it you can't do that that's wrong not you you didn't you didn't believe there was wrong until you were wronged and then you appeal to it because we all acknowledge it whether we like it or not okay and so it is ultimately good he says it is a good thing to have these laws and standards that oversee human behavior in addition it is spiritually says in 7 14 the law is spiritual and what he's saying in particular is god's laws they are spiritual in that they come from the holy spirit that ultimately this is the only perfect thing on planet earth this is the word of god and if you want a word from god you've got to open the word of god and what he says is that the laws of god the commands the decrees the expectations they're not only good they're spiritual meaning they come from god the holy spirit they are supernaturally delivered that god's laws in the bible are not things that people came up with most of us right let's just be honest how many of you you know at least something in the bible and there's parts you don't like there's parts that if you could be on the editing committee you would change them this is how we know that people didn't read the they didn't write the bible by themselves we wouldn't read it and write it that god is good we are bad it's all our fault there's nothing we can do to save ourselves and we're all going to hell and we're supposed to keep our pants on none of us would have voted for all of that amen so you would have been like no no you get saved by eating tacos with your pants off that's that'd be my religion if i was gonna pick a religion just sit around in your pajamas and eat tacos and then you get to go to heaven if i was gonna devise a religion it would be a lot funner than what the word of god says just to let you know right that ultimately and i say things i shouldn't and so come back and i'll do it again next week but if you're new what he's talking about here is that ultimately what god says is good but the problem is that we are bad and the fact that it is spiritual means people didn't come up with all of these ideas because people will never come up with an idea where they are the problem not the solution where they need help and they can't help themselves then ultimately we're totally and utterly dependent on god because we have all sinned and fallen short of god's standard in god's law so what he's saying is this here we are we all live our life over us is god's standard called the law it doesn't change so we're left with two choices number one are we going to try and change it or number two are we going to allow it to change us that's it those are really the only options you say okay well god wrote some things down either i'm going to want to change edit what he said because i think he got it wrong or i'm going to allow the law to judge me to show me my sins my faults my failures my flaws and i'm gonna change so the law is over us and the question is does the law change or do we change and you and i friend we make this decision every moment of every day we either make this decision in the flesh which pulls us down or in the spirit which pulls us up again this is the tug of war so he's going to talk about the flesh when we hear the word flesh we tend to think of the physical body it includes that but it's far more than that when the apostle paul here uses the concept of flesh he's not just talking about your physical body but he's talking about your deepest nature your strongest desires your inner person who you are in the guts and the core we use the language like seeing somebody's heart or getting to the soul of the matter that's akin to what he is describing it's the inner you it's the true you it's the deepest you and that heart of your being it affects all the decisions you make it affects all the desires you have it affects all the thoughts that you conceive that totally impacts who you are and how you live and what it is until we meet jesus all we have is something called the old nature or the old man and what he's talking about here is the flesh that is the name for the old nature or the old man and it is a seed of rebellion given us from our first father adam if you were here we looked at that in romans chapter five and what's curious is that even in the realm of secular psychology there is an understanding of the flesh so counselors psychologists and therapists who don't even know the lord or believe the bible they will talk about our shadow side have you heard that your shadow side and what they will say is that this is a dark part of you uh this is a deadly part of you this is a destructive part of you it's your shadow side it's the part of you that you're a bit scared of it's a part of you that you try to control it's a it's a part of you that you're fearful that other people will see and they'll see who you really are and what happens then is in the shadow side those who are psychologists and therapists they will say that it is an unconscious part of our being meaning we didn't choose it it chose us the difference between the bible and other social sciences is that the social sciences can diagnose our problem but they can't provide our solution so they can tell you what's wrong but they can't make it right because we have needs that only god can make we have changes that only god can make and so ultimately psychology and i'm not against it i believe in the social sciences it tells us what the problem is but rather than telling us then how to get a new nature and to overcome the flesh it tells us that the only hopes are medication and management that the flesh can't be removed and a new nature cannot be given so we need to have medication and management to try and keep the flesh the shadow side of you from utterly destroying you i'm not saying that management through good habits is a bad thing and i'm not even saying that in certain occasions that the problem could be at least in part medical could be hormonal could be physical could be chemical and that when we love somebody we want to see them whole in their mind with their thoughts in their heart with their emotions uh in their deeds with their actions in their body with their health but the difference is christians and non-christians can diagnose the problem but only god can provide the solution we don't want people just to be better we want them to be new we don't want them just to avoid pain in this life we want them to avoid the pain of eternal life and so what we need is not just to manage or medicate the old nature the flesh we need the spirit of god to remove that old nature and to replace it with a new nature and this is the great gift that god gives the christian during the christmas season this is why the greatest gift we can give is to tell people about jesus and that god would give them the holy spirit and that he would give them a new nature and he would give them new desires and he would give them new powers so that they didn't live in the shadow side but they lived in the spirit side of who god intends for them to be and so here then he's comparing and contrasting living in the flesh which pulls you down versus living in the spirit of god and he pulls you up and he's going to say this multiple ways in romans 7. some of you were poorly taught okay you were taught that god forgives you but he doesn't really change you so all you are is just the same old sinner that you were once you meet jesus and get a new nature he told us in romans chapter 1 that god sees you as a saint that he's done something in jesus christ to change your status in the sight of god and to change your condition in relationship to god this doesn't mean that you're perfect but it does mean that you're new and that god has begun a change process in your life to make you more and more like jesus and ultimately he is in romans 7 going to speak of life in the spirit where the spirit of god pulls us up toward heaven toward jesus toward the kingdom of god in obedience to god's commands and decrees and he explains it in three ways in chapter 7 22 he speaks of our inner being this is a new nature i need you to know that if you belong to jesus or you give yourself and your sin to jesus today he gives you a new nature literally the hardwiring in you is reset by god at the deepest level of your being the bible talks about that he would take out our heart of stone and he would give us a heart of flesh that he would be a new creation in christ that old things had passed away that all things would be made new that you would be born again that you were originally born with a nature of sin in the flesh you're born again of a new nature in the spirit for obedience to god so he talks about a new nature in chapter seven he also talks about new desires he said in 7 15 i do not do what i want to do have we ever felt that have you ever felt that you're like i wanted to do the right thing and i didn't i'll give you an example it's a minor example but i was walking in and i'm eating healthy this week because it's christmas and i i don't i don't want to blow up like a puffer fish so and i'm 50 and if it like if you're in your 20s enjoy carbs and eyesight all of that's about to change okay you you can't eat anything and you can't see anything you're just going to be big and blind that's where you're headed okay i'm walking in and there's a table filled with cookies in genesis 3 there was the knowledge the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they were told to walk by it i thought about that right after i ate the cookie okay so i'm full of chocolate chip cookies and i got up to my i i ate the whole thing in one bite grace says she's like what'd you do with the cookies like i ate it she's like between there and there yes all right one breath i just i ate the whole cookie in one bite and you know what i wanted to do i wanted to eat broccoli but i didn't because the inner man put up a real fight right and flesh is the greek word for baked goods so it all corresponds right here but he talks about new desires 7 15. i do not do what i want but i do the very thing i hate how many of you you intended to do the right thing you did the totally wrong thing and afterwards you're like what was i thinking okay and for some of you it's the weekend all right this was friday night welcome you know this is the struggle we're not perfect but we're new and the new part of us hates our old habits the new part of us hates our old behaviors the new part of us hates our old decisions and when we make them we hate them so he's talking about life in the spirit that pulls us up he talks about the new nature the new desires and a new power he said in romans 7 6 all in context of romans 7 we serve in the new way of the spirit the new way of the spirit not the flesh and where he is driving romans 8 if you want to read ahead this week we won't be there for a few months but romans 8 talks about life in the spirit all of chapter 8 is how to live by the person the presence the power of the holy spirit and the christian and the non-christian can both look at the life of jesus and admire it but only the christian can experience it there are many people who don't know jesus who admire jesus only those who have the holy spirit not only can admire him but can't experience the life that he lived by the power that he had and so ultimately the new nature has new desires and the holy spirit does all of this and he brings a new power so that you can live a new life in relationship to jesus christ that is increasingly more like jesus christ and again this is the primary difference between the christian and the non-christian is at the level of desire what do you want what do you want the christian at their deepest level wants to do what god says and they struggle with it because they're still fighting the flesh for the non-christian the deepest desire is not obedience it's disobedience it's not holiness it's unholiness it's not following jesus it's sinning against jesus so let me ask you this what changes if you are a christian what changes have happened in your nature your desire and your power some of you the power that's been unlocked and unleashed in your life it's supernatural some of you were addicted and then you were set free you say what happened you i don't know god took out the old nature put in the new nature put in new desires new power i don't know i just literally changed that's some of your testimony that god literally just re-hardwired you in an instant we even got a testimony from somebody recently i won't share any of the details but they were struggling mightily with suicide they met jesus a hundred days ago and have not had any thought of self-harm in a hundred days you know why new nature new desires new power okay because the flesh pulls us down to death and the spirit pulls us up to life it's very practical i want you to look at your life and ask okay where have i experienced the new nature the new desires and the new power for me i grew up in a catholic home religious home loved my parents wasn't their fault my mom loved the lord i didn't i didn't care i was totally indifferent i had nobody to blame but myself the age of 19 in college god saved me reading the book of romans in my dorm at a state university and then i went on a men's retreat and god spoke to me audibly told me to do four things mary grace who was my high school sweetheart and now the mother of our five kids and the flourish women's director and my best friend okay so he said mary grace preach the bible he said to me then train men and plant churches up until that point the only thing i thought about was mary and grace that was it it's like mary grace was like all right i mean if she'll put up with me i'm in okay preach the bible i have had zero thoughts in my whole life of doing that zero trained men i'm 19. i'm not even a man right i i how do i train men i'm 19 and then plant churches i'd never even heard of church planting what is that oh start a church from nothing zero times in my whole life had i thought about that but that was god's will for my life when i became a christian god gave me a new nature and then he gave me new desires and then he gave me the holy spirit to chase those desires okay so since age 19 i'm with grace i adore her i love her i am blessed to be with her we went for a walk yesterday it was sunny and warm out we're holding hands and i literally just couldn't believe how blessed i am i'm like i've got grace from god over me i've got grace alongside of me i'm just walking in grace upon grace and i get to preach the bible i'll let you guys in on a secret i really like doing this that's why i do it every week i've taken one week off in the last 55 weeks i really like teaching the bible i get excited every time i really enjoy it it's super fun for me in addition i have a tremendous heart for men our largest ministry is men's ministry i want the men to get set free i want them to be encouraged i want them to break generational legacies that are negative and curses and i want them to set new lives and legacies i want them to lead themselves and love their wives and lead and love their kids and win at work and make a difference in the world and i love seeing the men i love seeing the men grow and in addition um planting churches we planted one before we helped plan a number we took everything we've learned in basically 20-some years of ministry and we poured it into this great experiment at the trinity church and god's been exceedingly gracious just since we started romans we've we've added 630 kids to the kids roster we've doubled the church we've doubled the real faith live show we've baptized 117 new christians just since we started romans right so what is god doing he's giving people a new nature and he's giving them new desires and then he's giving them the power of the holy spirit to live a new life and i'll just tell you it's exciting it's wonderful it's the best thing to be in god's will and when you know god's will and you're not in it you're miserable like if i wasn't with grace i'd be miserable if i wasn't teaching the bible i would be miserable if i didn't have my kids i would be miserable if i didn't get to invest in men i would be miserable if i didn't get to lead this church i'd be miserable i'd still love the lord but those desires in me are so strong that i want to pursue them with full vigor and passion and anytime anything gets in the way or any time i trip over my own feet i'm super frustrated because that's not what i really want that's not who i really am that's not why i was really saved and if you're a christian you just got to ask what desires has god given you some of you you're like i want to change my life i want to learn the bible i want to pray i want to say i'm sorry for the first time in my life okay these are deep profound changes that god gives you with a new nature new desires and new power so you can live by the spirit and rise above the life that you had and it is this constant battle with this lingering remnant of the flesh that is always trying to pull you back and pull you down and again your life feels like that tug of war man we all feel it so then he's going to continue he has diagnosed the problem he's going to move into the solution and he's going to talk to us as an honest christian and if you're new there are some dishonest christians but paul here in romans 7 18 through 20 is an honest christian he says for i know he's confident of this that nothing good dwells in me that is my flesh the old you is all bad there's nothing good if some of you are like i want to take a little bit of my past and a little bit of jesus and put them together the answer is no okay who you were before jesus there's nothing salvageable there there's nothing redeemable there there's nothing good there jesus died for it so it needs to die and jesus came forward in newness of life and so the old you needs to die and the new you needs to walk away just like jesus did from the grave from who you were he continues uh that is in my flesh for i have the desire to do what is right if you are a christian the deepest desires you have are to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out this is the honest christian struggle for i do not do the good i want but the evil i do not want is what i keep on doing bad habits bad choices now if i do what i do not want it is no longer i who do it but sin that dwells within me there this is one of the most debated texts in the entire new testament if you're new the bible is 66 books written two-thirds in the old testament 39 books one third is in the new testament 27 books and that ultimately altogether it is the perfect word of god in the apostle paul here he is giving us a section of the bible that is one of the most debated controversial sections in the entire bible and all these teams come out and these conferences are held and books are written and shots are fired over who is talking and what he's saying i'll give you the summation of the three primary perspectives some would say he's referring to quote unquote the carnal christian the carnal christian the carnal christian is the one who jesus is their savior but not their lord that he forgives their sin but he doesn't rule their life that ultimately he has forgiven them but he's not really changed them okay this is inappropriate so i shouldn't say it um but i will the image that comes to mind have you ever been to a circus there's the elephants and then there's the guy following the elephants with the shovel this would be this view of jesus your life is a circus you just walk around and he just cleans up after you okay that he's you're the lord right and he's the savior you do what you want and his job is to follow you and clean up the mess you've made okay that's that view there was an organization called campus crusade for christ they changed their name to crew because crusades aren't real popular these days right is this a jihad for jesus no we're changing the name to crow okay good thank you um and so they changed their name and they would show three kinds of people there was a circle where um you're outs outside of the circle is jesus and you're in the circle you're the non-christian you're on the throne of your life so they'd show you on the throne and jesus outside the next one was a circle where you and jesus are in the same circle you're sitting on a throne you're the lord of your life and he's he's in the circle with you but he's not on the throne you are that's the carnal christian and then the third one was the spiritual christian you and jesus are both in the circle together and he's seated on the throne he's the lord and then they would ask people which one do you want to be i'll be honest with you i don't like the choices because let me tell you this jesus is lord whether you accept or acknowledge that or not we would say i made jesus lord no you didn't you also didn't make gravity or water wet those things are true whether you believe in them or not it's not like right now as we like um right now i'm gonna make uh i'm gonna i'm gonna make water wet i did it you know what it was wet before you voted um jesus was lord no matter what you vote okay so the bible doesn't say that jesus could be lord if we all vote for him the bible says that jesus is lord whether or not any of us vote for him when jesus comes back and we'll be like i didn't vote for you i don't really care you know we're not doing a recount i don't care what happened in georgia i just i'm in charge like i just like right the problem with this view is it leads to a hyphenated christianity right you're a liberal christian you're a progressive christian you're a gay christian you're uh whatever you're a red letter christian who only believes the parts of the bible that are in red you don't even believe all of those that ultimately you want jesus to forgive you love you serve you save you reserve a seat in heaven for you but not tell you what to do and what you're basically saying is i don't want a relationship with you i like the gifts but not the giver i want you to give me all the blessings but i don't want a relationship where i need to listen to you and you get to lead me and i would say that's not loving jesus that's using jesus that's an abusive relationship that ultimately jesus is very generous and jesus loves us so much that he'll take us as we are but jesus loves us too much to keep us as we are he told us in romans 2 it's the kindness of god that leads to our repentance what that means is jesus loves us and his love changes us what i'm saying is this you can't meet jesus and receive his love without starting to experience some change in your life that's what i'm telling you when i met jesus some things changed and they're still changing the closer i get to jesus the more change happens anyone you're in a loving relationship with that relationship should change you my relationship with grace has changed my life my relationship with each of my kids has changed my life my relationship with jesus has changed my life what jesus doesn't want to do is just forgive you he wants to love you he wants a relationship with you and he wants that loving relationship with him to change you and part of the truth is this that the christian faith is a fight it's a war he used this word in romans 7 23 war it's what he's using in context and what that means is this we are new but we're not in heaven yet we're still on earth we're new but we're not perfect yet we're in the fight and so what it is it's it's a war it's a fight the problem that i see with a carnal christianity is saying you don't need to fight there is no war you can have all your sin and jesus and you don't need to fight against your sin for jesus and i'm telling you the christian life it's a fight it's a war it's a war between hell and heaven between ultimately death and life between slavery and freedom and when you receive the spirit of god and you join team jesus you are in the fight and it is a war and it's not enough to say uh jesus i'm not going to change obey you or follow you i don't want to be like you but i want you to just forgive me the other erroneous view is something called uh the perfect christian and if you've ever met this person tell them they're not okay that's the perfect christian and some would say no he's not talking about the carnal christian who's living like a non-christian but really is a christian there's no change in their behavior there's no change in nature desire or power others would say no no he's talking about how he used to struggle with his sin until he reached that higher life victorious champion first round draft pick super christian and what he's talking about is i used to struggle with sin not anymore i'm above that and this is called higher life christianity i'm above sin and temptation it's called the victorious christian life i'm already you know what i'm ready for heaven in heaven i'm going to be perfect and i've made so much progress i'm pretty much already ready if you grew up in a holiness tradition a wesleyan church a methodist church a pentecostal church some charismatic churches this is where they go you can reach a state where you basically are sinless and perfect jesus has done the holy spirit has done so much work in you that you're so close to heaven that you're just one step away okay how many of you have met someone who thinks that they are pretty much perfect all right any of you met these christians first of all they're not fun they are not fun they're a little judgy these ones the last so the first time i saw one i was in college at a state university and i was walking by this street preacher who was out in open air yelling at people i don't believe in that i believe it yelling in people indoors okay so so it's not i'm different okay so um so he's yelling at all these cultures and he's got all these turner burn flipper fry signs all in the king james all scribbled out in hand typos i mean that guy right and so he shows up and he's just he's got a megaphone he's yelling at everyone and he's literally following students man did you pick that shirt that's not enough you're not you're not dressed modestly the bible says to dress he's just literally yelling at everyone about their sin you look hungover son were you drinking last night he's yelling at everyone so i stop and watch i'm a brand new christian i don't know what we're doing see what this is he is literally the picture of what paul here calls the law he's going to judge everyone he's going to condemn everyone he's going to publicly shame everyone and he did this for hours hungover frat guys tried to argue with him it was amazing it was before youtube which to me is heartbreaking it was missed gold that's what that was so finally one of the hungover frat guys comes up and he's like so you think you're better than me the guy with the megaphone is like yes i do i was like this is interesting so what the what the hungover frat guy tried to do he tried to turn the law on the guy because law-based people they just want to talk about your sin not their sin they wield it as a weapon they weaponize the word of god that's what they do they use it to shoot you so what the hungover frat guy is trying to do he's like he's trying to turn the weapon around well let's turn the law on you let's talk about your sins so the the hunger frank guy basically asked him well you think you're perfect now what what do you think the answer would be no here's what he said yes i was like maybe they're both hungover i don't know you know this is crazy i was like what he's like yes i am perfect what the heck i said uh so so he's yelling everybody and he said i haven't sinned and i think i think he said since 1972. i remember because i would have been two years old i was doing the math i'm 19 at the time and he says it was 1972 i saw susie in hot pants and i had a lustful thought and then i repented and i gave myself to the lord and ever since then i've never sinned again my first thought was what are hot pants are those the pants that the girls are going to hell are wearing you know i don't want to wear those pants but he literally said i have not sinned and thought word or deed everything i've said or done since 1972 has been perfect what do you think about that okay i'll let you in a little secret i doubt he was married i'll just let you know that that's a little hard to live with you're having a fight you're like oh i know it's not my problem not not my fault i'm perfect thank you you married jesus so talk to him about how you need to change okay so that'd be a little rough and immediately i thought number one he seems really proud true like really proud because he's he's telling us publicly how perfect he is that's not very humble secondly he's very judgmental he's not loving of people at all he's very unloving and what he's doing he's making it between himself and the people not between the people in jesus and so it's not about you and them it's about us and him and pride is the worst sin of all it's pride that got satan kicked out of heaven and that sometimes religious pride is the worst sin of all and sometimes the most wicked people tell you how holy they are and how unholy you are so i don't believe paul here in romans 7 is talking about the carnal christian who belongs to jesus but jesus has affected no change in their life i don't think he's talking about the perfect christian who has got the victorious higher life i think he's speaking as an honest christian and the honest christian knows this i'm not who i was but i'm not who i'm going to be when god is done with me i am new but i'm not perfect i made some progress but i'm not there yet if i look at how far i've come i feel pretty encouraged if i look at how far i have to go oh boy i see reality how many of you this explains your life right this is the honest christian life and the good news is this ultimately god is not done with you okay he's not done with you you're in the process you're in the fight you're in the struggle you're in the journey but when he says i don't do the things i want to do and i do do the things i don't want to do and i'm so frustrated what he's saying is that for the christian god changes the nature the desires and the power to such a degree that when we go down instead of up we hate it because our desires have changed how many of you there's things you used to love and you met jesus now you hate him there's things you used to live for and now you want to kill them it changes desire this is where if you're new i love to say christianity is not what we have to do it's what we get to do i don't have to read the bible i get to i don't have to pray i get to i don't have to sing i get to i don't have to tie i get to i don't have to serve i get to my new nature with the new desires that's what i want to do and when i don't i'm really miserable what this means is that the christian who's in the struggle or the fight is not the hypocrite the hypocrite is the christian who quits the struggle and gives up on the fight and i'll give you a story on the change of desires because what i want to use a physical truth to illustrate a spiritual truth so growing up how many of you like me i ate garbage i was the human equivalent of a goat okay i would eat anything that was me yeah to cool jim gaffigan huh pockets i mean that was like my that was my whole i ate uh microwave burritos i ate frozen pizzas i ate pop-tarts the closest thing i came to fruit was orange soda i just ate garbage i ate taco bell i ate mcdonald's which is the greek word for cancer and i just ate garbage but i i was a very active athlete okay and so when you're young and you're active you can burn some off well then i hit college not so active then hit my 20s not so young hit your 30s and not so active not so young i'm in bad shape i feel sick all the time i have got heartburn and intestinal ulcers and i've got brain fog and low energy and i've got heartburn and allergies and i'm a disaster i go to my doctor i say what's wrong he's like you're killing yourself he's like do you know when you put food in the microwave you kill all the nutrients i was like no i've not had any nutrients since the 70s you know so i didn't know he's like you've got to change your diet i said well i don't like those foods because he's like eat vegetables like oh my gosh they don't even know can we fry them you know and he's like no you got to drink more water you can't drink soda you got to stop eating fast food he's like you gotta have a salad salad what am i funny like i don't need a salad so i go to my wife grace who's discipled her body her palate she's got healthy nutritious lifestyle and she starts you know she's like do you want to eat what i eat i guess i need to you know so um i started eating it and at first it tasted weird okay so she she'd cook something i'd be like this tastes like the yard that's what i thought this tastes like the yard it's like what do you feel like if i went out and just like started eating a yard it tastes like that she's like that's what food tastes like i was like ah okay so so i start i i go to clean proteins i go to vegetables i go to fruit i change my whole diet i get rid of soda i stop eating junk food i change my whole diet and bit by bit i started getting healthier i started feeling better i was like oh i can i could sleep i can i don't have allergies i don't have a bloody nose i don't have heartburn this is awesome and then i did this for years next thing i know as i kept feeding the the new palette the new taste buds the new the new the new disciplines i started enjoying it more and more and i started finding that i was getting healthier and i was feeling better and better and then one day i was driving home i was driving by a mcdonald's okay and the flash rose up and there was a war with the spirit and i thought to myself i have not had mcdonald's now in years previously i would go hours i've extended years i'm driving by and i'm like okay well i remember i used to love a big mac and a shake and the fries and the fries they're good for 30 seconds they're amazing for 30 seconds but at 40 seconds they turn into shoelaces so you got to eat them really fast in the car and the milkshake isn't even on the periodic chart you could put the milkshake out come back 10 years later it hasn't melted that that's a sign right right this is the caulking you put in your tub you should not put this in your body this is not good for you you're gonna plug everything up okay so i pulled over and i got big mac fries and a shake and i'm eating it in the car before i get home because i know that grace will give me law that i know okay so i eat it quick now my whole car smells like the fries it's like oh lord i remember hey then i get home and i walk in and grace is like how are you doing i was like i don't feel good she's like well i was like i don't know i don't know i just maybe gotta touch us all co-veterans i don't know maybe i got something you know so don't feel so good and uh a few minutes later she's like are you okay i was like no i'm not good i went in i threw it all up a grown man and that's the last thing any grown man wants to do my body literally said no no we're not doing this anymore literally my appetite changed the last time i had a big mac how long ago was it a decade more than a decade i don't have a desire for it my appetite has changed and sometimes when i go back or i did once i realized that's not who i am now that's not what i'm doing now and what i used to like i don't like anymore here's what i'm telling you who you were before jesus is a big mac [Laughter] okay okay all right with fries and a shake brother okay so we're he's comparing and he's contrasting let me show you what he's done to romans up in this point he says we were unrighteous but now in jesus we're righteous romans 1 through 4. we were enemies of god now we're friends of god romans 5 1-11 we were fallen in adam now we are raised in christ romans 5 12-21 we were spiritually dead now we are spiritually awry alive romans 6 1-14 we were slaves to sin now we are free from sin romans 6 15-23 all this is at real faith.com in the notes we were under law now we're under grace romans 7 1-13 romans 7 14-25 we just looked at we were in the flesh now we are in the spirit so here's what he's saying is here's who you were you met jesus here's who you are and it's this tension that theologians uh theos is god logos of study theology is the study of god they will tell you it's the tension of the already but not yet the bible says we are seated with christ in the heavenlies and you're like it feels like scottsdale i know right because it's the tension of the already not yet god sees things as completed but we're still in the middle of the process and so it's certain but it's not yet completed and so all of life he is showing us is lived literally in this tension this is who we're going to be this is who we used to be this is the struggle that we're in the middle of this is the tug of war that we find ourselves in but here's what i want you to know the end is certain if you believe in jesus if you belong to jesus if you've received the spirit of god the end is absolutely certain guaranteed in a shirt there is going to be a perfect you a healed you an unburdened you with jesus like jesus filled with the spirit no longer fighting against the flesh in the kingdom of god the best version of you not the shadow side of you but the spirit side of you okay that's all certain and so you and i we want to move up we don't want to move down we want to go in the grace of god we don't want to sin against the law of god and that's the struggle that he articulates so my question to you would be insofar as going forward what's the next step what's this walk home look like for you is it bible reading is it prayer is it church attendance is it baptism is it wise counsel is it a christian friend is it right now giving yourself to jesus christ because here's what i know some of you you're feeling the effects of life and you're trying to figure out how to pull yourself up and out let me tell you this you can't it's not that you come up it's that he comes down this is the whole miracle of christmas we don't go up to god god came down to us and his name is his name is jesus we weren't going to go up to god we were going down to hell so god literally left heaven came down to the earth and grabs us from hell and he says i'll obey the law you've not i'll give you my righteousness you can't earn it i'll take out the old nature i'll give you a new nature i'll give you new desires i'll give you the holy spirit the same holy spirit that empowered my life will now empower your life and i'm going to start a change process with you because i love you and it's not going to end until i'm finished with you okay yay okay yeah right so so if you if you're if you're someone who's never given yourself to jesus that's why you're here you're here to say okay now i know the problem i don't need self-help i need god help okay i don't need to pull myself up i need god to pull me up that's what i need and if you'll make that decision right now to give jesus your sin and receive him as savior he is utterly faithful to take out your old nature put in a new nature take out your old desires give you new desires take out your old flesh and give you the new spirit and i just want to encourage you all of you who belong to jesus i want to quote this verse and i want to speak it over you paul says this in philippians i am sure of this that he who began a good work in you that's the new nature he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of jesus there is no one that jesus starts working in that he stops working in there is no one that god starts working on that he stops working on there's nobody that jesus forgives and then changes his mind and what i love about this section is that he ends by encouraging us and i want to end by encouraging you that the best is yet to come so i find it to be a law that what i want to do right evil lies close again how many of you it's easier to do the wrong thing than the right thing how many of you it's cheaper to do the wrong thing than the right thing for i delight in the law of god in my inner being he said i really love the bible you know you're a christian if that's happened but i see in my members in my body another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law sin that dwells in my members he's talking about the tug of war the struggle the war the fight wretched man that i am who will deliver me from this body of death he's talking about ultimately going to heaven where the battle has ended thanks be to god through jesus christ our lord so then i myself serve the law of god with my mind he said i know what i'm supposed to do but with my flesh i serve the law of sin i don't do what i'm supposed to do okay i don't want to beat you up i want to build you up so let me ask you some questions do you have new desires that want to do what god says if so you're in the fight do you trust the bible is god's word and do you want to learn it for your obedience if so you're in the struggle let me just encourage you right these sermons in romans have been an hour or an hour and 10 minutes the sermon is longer than most churches some of you are new and you're like when does it end never never ends it's like heaven it goes forever okay you are coming because you want to learn the word of god that's why you're here okay and and so you're coming because the new nature has new desires to learn the word of god and to live by the power of the holy spirit and since he tells us what to do and he empowers us to do it we want to hear what he says and we want him to help us do what he tells us to do that's why we're here is your inner being sometimes at war against your outer desires you're like i meant to do it ah lord is there a struggle between who you are at the deepest level and what you do because all christians struggle with temptation but the deepest desires are for the things of god and the weaker desires or temptations that remove that desire to follow god do you know what is right in your mind and get frustrated when you don't do it you're in the fight do you hate who you are in the flesh angry broken drunk violent disappointed shamed cowardly do you really prefer who you are in the spirit repentant clean hopeful loving gracious sober you're in the fight do you sometimes feel beat up and worn out by your battle with your flesh says like man it just feels like every day is a war and i'm my own worst enemy he uses the language of wretched man that i am what that is that's a weird in the greek text that is originally written that's a weary warrior that's like man i've been at war for a long time i'm exhausted this is where we need to live by the power of the holy spirit because the only way to overcome demonic spirits is with the holy spirit we in and of ourselves of our own power cannot overcome that which is evil we need the goodness of god to empower us to fight the good fight and then he says he talks about jesus christ our lord are you thankful that jesus is your lord and you see as i was praying for you uh this week and today i kind of saw a picture and i want to share it with you here's your life okay you're living your life on the earth some good days some bad days some wins and some losses some victories and some defeats over your life is the law the law of god but above the law is your lord and sometimes all we're looking at is the law am i good or bad did i obey or disobey yes we need to look at the law but we need to look through the law and see the lord who is the lord over the law so it's the lord the law your life and what he's been talking about is your relationship with the law and what he ends with is your relationship with the lord who is lord over the law his name is jesus and what he is reminding us is that if all we do is look to the law we see our sin but if we look up to the lord we see our savior and it is not that we live up to the demands of the law it is that our lord comes down and pulls us up so that by the power of the holy spirit we can start to obey the laws a couple of things i want to say for those of you who are parents your child has the flesh they've not yet received the spirit you need to know this as a parent this is why you can't just work on behavior modification but you ultimately need nature regeneration for your child this is why our goal is not to make our children better but for god to make them new they were born in your house they need to be born again into his house number two if you have a child and you love the lord they're growing up in a spiritual environment of grace and the holy spirit and that is a great blessing and gift to them because it will give them a comparison and a contrast between that which is of the lord and that which is not and ultimately here's what i found and the reason i just feel inclined to say this is it's the holiday season the kids are off of school you're going to get more time with them we've added a lot of kids to the roster added 630 kids during romans just to our church family it's amazing but ultimately what i saw with our kids is that as they were transitioning into their christian faith for themselves the flesh put up a last stand right we had let's say we had a kid here like oh they weren't too bad they're like oh my this kid is tear like oh my gosh like i i believe in the antichrist i think they have our last name you know like you're this kid is really rebellious sometimes the most rebellious seasons are where the spirit is pulling them up and the flesh is waging the last stand to pull them down and so in those moments parents don't get frustrated pray for your child don't yell at your child talk to them about who jesus intends for them to be not what they're being in that moment and for you as the children of god which we all are whether we are young or old here's what we need to know the law is good we are bad but the lord who is over the law he is good i want to close with this he talks about jesus christ our lord what he's trying to do is get our hearts and our minds and our hope and our future fixed on jesus let me just read in closing from romans 1 through romans 14. i just want to tell you exactly what romans says about jesus christ the lord i want to look up to him he says to all those who are loved by god and called to be saints grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man against whom the lord will not count as sin therefore since we have justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ see the law tells you all the things you're supposed to do and the lord tells you all the things he does for you he goes on to say if while we were enemies we were reconciled to god by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life more than that we also now rejoice in god through our lord jesus christ through whom we now have received reconciliation he says where sin increased grace abounded all the more so that his sin reigned in death grace also might reign through the righteousness leading to eternal life through jesus christ our lord the law shows us our problem the lord is our solution the law shows us how we fall short the lord is the one who comes to lift us up he goes on to say the wage of sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord he goes on to say thanks be to god through jesus christ our lord he says i'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers no height nor death nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of god in christ jesus our lord if you confess with your mouth that jesus is lord and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead you will be saved the lord is the same lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved oh the depths of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of god how unsearchable are his judgments how inscrutable his ways for who has known the mind of the lord or who has been his counselor goes on to say do not be slothful and zeal be fervent in spirit serve the lord put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires and then he closes with this in romans 14 for if we live we live to the lord if we die we die to the lord so then whether we live or we die we're the lords for this in christ died and lives again that he might be lord of both the living and the dead here's your life here's his law there's your lord we're going to worship him lord jesus we lift our eyes up to you we focus and fix our attention on you god we've looked at our life we see our sin we've looked at the law we see the demands we look up to jesus and we see our lord lord jesus thank you that we don't need to go up to you you come down to us thank you that we don't need to make ourselves better that you make us new thank you that we don't need to perform so that you would be pleased with us but the you came down and you lived a perfect life and you're pleased to love and to save and to seek and forgive us god i pray for these dear people i'm encouraged by their progress the best is yet to come and we claim that as a promise that he who began the good work in them will see it through to completion until the day of jesus christ our lord and lord god i pray favor on these people i pray blessing on these people i pray hope in these people i pray that new nature and those new desires would receive new power through the holy spirit so that they could live like jesus christ their lord that they could live with jesus christ their lord that they could live for jesus christ their lord until they see jesus christ their lord and whose name we pray amen

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 4,931

Rating: 4.9130435 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: zw5Q0ISngFY

Length: 62min 43sec (3763 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 21 2020