Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Last week I started a new sermon series through the book of Romans and specifically looking at Romans chapter 8,

And last week be began looking at the topic of our salvation, understanding salvation is never the work of man, no it is always and only the Work of God through His grace extended to our lives.

Jesus came and born our sin upon himself that we might be free, the prophet Isaiah says By His stripes we are healed…

How wonderful is that my friends!

But today, Paul is contrasting life by the world, or life by the Spirit...

When you consider the world Paul is ministering in, there were lots of divisions among the people in regard to their thought and practice.

Philosophers urged people to empty their mind and thoughts in regard to the world around them.

The world they taught was temporal.

Instead they were to find the true meaning of life.

What really matters.

The Jewish people divided everything into two groups, Jew and Gentile, those with the promise and those without… They placed all that was important to them on the fact that they were God’s chosen… everyone else, well they were cut off… separated.

But here, Paul is contrasting life by Spirit and life by the temporal…the flesh.

Now today we are going to move on and looking at our next passage in the book of Romans, still chapter 8 of course but this time we will be examining verses 5-13.

So lets read the passage together, I hope you brought your Bibles today...

So lets read the passage together, I hope you brought your Bibles today...

A powerful message Paul communicates in this passage… so lets being and let me start by asking you a question...

1.

Where is your Heart and Mind Focused On....

if there is one point of view that seems to always block and hinder the growth of our spiritual man, our walk with Christ, it is our attraction to the world and to the things of the world.

It is the one thing that can steal us away.. the lure of what’s bigger, better and so on… it always does...

Let me share an example....

You find yourself watching something on TV or perhaps you’re reading a article in a magazine… Doesn’t matter how it comes about, but it distracts you from what you know is right or wrong.

And you think for a moment, its not bad, its not hurting me, let it go… and suddenly you have had a polar shift from one area to the next..

You have let your guard done on that particular issue or point.

Here goes: have you ever gone in to a store to shop and you see something that catches your eye, maybe a new fancy coffee pot , Your curious, perhaps you didn’t need it, but you run into a person, they demonstrate it and suddenly, you have it in your hands and out the door you go.

I’m not saying it is a bad purchase, what I am saying it is easy for us to be lured into by newer, bigger or better than what we have… when what we have works just fine…

That is why we must be so careful, for the natural mind, the flesh can easy be distracted and its possible at that point to be lured into something wrong.

Look at verses 5-7

Paul makes it clear that there are two clear and opposite forces here.

Those things which are by the flesh and the other by the Spirit.

One leads to life and the other, death.

Those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the flesh.

A persons thoughts are shaped by their nature, by their actions.

Paul is warning them, those believers there because it will be easy for them to be lured away if they are not diligent in their actions and thoughts.

Listen to the words Paul addressed to the church at Philippi..

And the outcome of being fleshly minded is death… it never glorifies God or honors Him.

In fact if you just go one verse forward to verse 8.. we see a pretty self explanatory description of life following the flesh.

But there is a great contrast here in the passage, verse 6b

No matter what you do, a heart that is set on the flesh

but to set the mind on the Spirit T] is life and peace.

But there is a great contrast here in the passage, verse 6b

“...but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

To set you mind on the Spirit is to set your mind on God and godly things, which brings life… The Greek word here, Zoe… is referring to the best possible life, physical life.

And that is what is exactly what Jesus promised.

“....I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”

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The next word, peace refers to the blessing of peace, His peace will reside upon our life.

And this speaks to what Paul has already side in verse 2, that we looked at last week.

So I guess the best question, what is your mind, your heart focused upon?

Why do you chase after those things?

Now what do you truly desire to do?

What stands in your way for life?

Now lets prepare to move on to the next thought....

2. The Spirit Brings Life...

The most beautiful work of the Holy Spirit is the life He brings to each believers life as they walk according to His leadership in their lives.

As He leads, we are called to follow...

So how does this happen… well lets listen to Paul as we speaks to the believers at Rome

Lets look at verse 9-11

Being a born again believer says that you are not in the flesh, but the Spirit.

You see the moment a person confesses their sin, humbles themselves as calls out to God for forgiveness and salvation, they are saved.

Being saved, you have received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Paul makes this abundantly clear in verse 9. You, the believers at Rome, and it can speak to us as well.

You are not in the flesh, instead you are in the Spirit.

You are saved< Jesus came into your heart and the Spirit filled you…is indwelling you.

Let me share with you...

And since our life is hidden in His, we live by faith and the Holy Spirit works in us to make us more like Christ, He works in us to change us, to make us more righteous.

Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian of the first great awakening said this...

“The Holy Spirit, in his indwelling, his influence and fruits, is the sum of all

the grace, holiness, comfort and joy.”

Even though the body was once dead in its trespasses and sins, in Christ, the Spirit has made us alive, in fact the Spirit is life because of righteousness, as mentioned at the end of verse 10.

The righteousness we have received, is that Christ has imputed righteousness to us through His sacrificial death on the cross, whereby He took my sin upon His own body.

He took our punishment so that our sin has been made right, the charges against us dropped and we were seen as Righteous and justified in front of God.

And at the moment of our conversion, He came into us, indwelling us and now we enjoy the new life of the Spirit.

And His Spirit has sealed us unto the day of redemption, .

and He is our deposit of what is to come, .

How wonderful it is that He is with us

And His Spirit has sealed us into the day of redemption, Ephesians 4:30

ephesians 4”30

The Spirit brings life because the Spirit is life....

Listen to the words at

And here is a great truth my friends Without the Holy Spirit inside of us, there can be no assurance of salvation.

There is only death without Him.

Do you have the Holy Spirit in your life?

Are you a born again child of God?

Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to lead your life?

Now lets consider this one last thought my friends.

If your heart and mind are focused on life and not death, the things of God and not the world, and if we know the Spirit brings life...

Then we are called to live according to the Spirit....

3. Live According to the Spirit....

If there is any one truth I recognize about our salvation and the preceeding work of the Holy Spirit, it is this, It is not my work.

its His work.

I am forever grateful that God did such a great work in our life, one that I can never repay.

In fact the Scriptures reminds me “I am a debtor to His salvation and grace....” Listen to Paul as He explains this....

Verses 12-13

So we are debtors to the work of the Holy Spirit, for He is the one who called you and convicted you of sin, to show us the need of a Savior.

And he did so not for sin, the flesh to have dominion over us, no… but so the Spirit would have dominion in our lives and with it the Spirit brings us life.

Our obligation is no longer to fall by the way of sin, but to walk in His grace and mercy each and every day.

Listen my friends, sin doesn’t have to control us, persuade us or lure us away, no, not at all, Paul says this in Romans 6:14

His grace has given us the advantage, sin doesn’t have to rule over us.. … listen my friends , I love this.. Greater is He that is in You than he that is in the world.

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Instead the Holy Spirit is the one who has dominion over us as we walk with Jesus.

Each day we are to continue to put to death the flesh, it is a ongoing work, and as this work happens by the power of the Holy Spirit in us, we overcome we grow in our life and we are blessed.