Growing Closer to God Part 12
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Freedom
Freedom
ON January 6th 1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed congress on the state of the war in Europe. Like most speaches, and my sermons, much of what was said had been forgotten. Probably before lunch. However, one statement from that speech remains to be remembered and quoted. He states “to a world founded upon four essentials human freedoms.” He named four Freedoms 1) Freedom of Speech 2) Freedom of Worship 3) Freedom of want and 4) Freedom from Fear.
Over the next few weeks we are going to be discussing freedoms that we have in Christ.
Perhaps the saddest part of Christianity today, and the most promising part, is that most of us hold to these freedoms, we fight for these freedoms. and we will defend them until we die. However, In our passage this morning is the often forgotten Declaration of Christian Freedom. We want to state
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:15
A misconception of the verse has kept many Christians from experiencing the freedoms found in Chapter 8 just as the Spirit of Offense has kept many people from experiencing the American Freedoms.
If we take just this scripture it would seem as though Paul is telling us that we have no control over our sin. To state this though one would have to believe that Paul struggled with deliberate sins. Meaning that Paul, although he walked in such power of the Holy Spirit, purposefully sins. As many Christians put it—He simply couldn’t help himself. But if we take the entirety of Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 we being to piece together the true story of what Paul is saying.
See this quote is, was a overview of Paul’s life before Christ. Chapter 7 is all about how the Law cannot save you. Prior to Paul being Paul- Saul was trapped in a tail chasing battle of trying to obey a law that was to high a bar to successfully jump over. Paul is showing the frustrations that will overwhelm a person who bent on being a legalist as Saul was.
As we go through the first 4 verses of Chapter 8 Paul begins to explain what Christ does that the Law cannot do.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1-
Freedom from Condemnation.
We know from Chapter 7 that we are free from the law in Christ.
This freedom doesn’t mean there are no mistakes, no failures, or sins. Christians:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
I have seen one to many Christians hold onto failures like it’s a life raft.
“If I always remember the times I failed it’ll save me from failing again.”
“If I always remember the times I failed it’ll save me from failing again.”
You are not a Benedictine monk. Flagellation is the practice of whipping or flogging oneself to free themselves from the power of sin. The issue with this is that it’s bound under legalism and there is nothing that can be done apart from Christ to free you. Some of us need to stop beating ourselves up over past mistakes. You’re too busy holding onto all your failures that you have no room in your life for all God’s promises.
Failure is not the end: Failure is the hinge the door of grace swings on!
Under Christ there is no condemnation. Repeated sin takes us from under Christ into slavery, but some need to stop beating themselves up over mistakes they made in the past and begin to embrace the future God has for you. We already covered grace is not license to sin, but
Failure is not a license to quit!
Failure is not a license to quit!
Alexander Graham bell failed 31 times in his pursuit to make the lightbulb. But I love this quote. I didn’t fail 31 times. I just found 31 different ways to not make a lightbulb work. He could have held onto any one of those failures and never fulfilled what he set out to do.
“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?
What id God saying. If you fail-try again. Yes you went down the wrong path—you identified the wrong road. Great mark it off and turn around. Yes you swore after telling God you would never swear again! Pick yourself back up and continue not swearing.
Failure doesn’t have to be the end—it can serve as a new beginning.
Failure doesn’t have to be the end—it can serve as a new beginning.
Failure isn’t pointless. It shows you where not to go. Satan will try to convince you that failure disqualifies you for God’s call, but God says
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
What is God saying? That in our weakness God shows up.
Many have heard the healing testimony of my wife and scoliosis. God has completely touched her and she is free from this pain. Where there was once pain and weakness there is the touch and the power of God. We don’t boast of the things my wife can now do, we boast of the miracle touch of God.
The key to overcoming Failure is in verse 4
Romans
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Who walk not according to the flesh—sin but according to the Spirit. Most of you know that Carl Harris prayed for my wife, but it wasn’t in the power of Carl Harris that she was healed. Carl has the gift of healing given to him by God, but I love how we explains healing.
Car will be the first to admit you don’t need him for miracles.
The only way we can overcome the power of the flesh is through having the power of the word. To the extent that the word of God is inside you is the same extent that the power of God works through you.
Paul states in
Psalm 11:11
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Two things here:
1 )Store the word in your heart. I have been discouraged for many years because I can’t remember much. For me to memorize scripture word for word, including it’s address, is nearly impossible. However, I find that when I read the bible-I may not remember it exactly, but I hide what it says in my heart. I can give you the concept of many verses in the bible—matched with the power of google I can even give you the address. When struggles and failures overcome God takes the word I have hidden in my heart and uses it to strengthen me in my weakness.
But I noticed, if I’m not reading the bible it’s harder for me to even bring up the concept of scripture. It’s only when I am in the word that the word resides in me.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John Tell us that Jesus is the word. his life and power reside in these pages, but it’s only through the consuming of these pages can we get the nutrients from Christ.
2) This Power is the power over sin
To the extent that we seperate ourselves from sin is the extent of Christ in us. It’s all interconnected.
there is no condemnation—
not only are we not condemned, but God has given us the power to sin less and less the more and more we become like him.
The reason Satan wants you to condemn yourself in your failure is because he knows the closer you get to God the less failure there is to throw in your face.
Jesus-the word does what the law cannot—through he word we are freed from sin because through Christ we are freed from sin.
Why? So we can walk in the Power of the Spirit—not the flesh.