Sermon Tone Analysis

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*ECF 7th September 2008 Romans 8:5-13
In 1921, Lewis Lawes became the warden at Sing Sing Prison.
At that time, Sing Sing was notorious as a tough and brutal prison.
And yet, when Lawes retired 20 years later, that prison had become a humanitarian institution.
Many people credited Lawes for the change.
But Lawes himself said something different: “I owe it all to my wonderful wife, Catherine.”
Catherine Lawes was a young mother with three small children when her husband became the warden.
Everybody warned her never to set foot inside the prison walls, but she didn’t listen!
And so when the first prison basketball game was held, she walked into the gym with her three children and sat in the stands with the inmates.
Her attitude was: “My husband and I are going to take care of these men and I believe they will take care of me!”
She insisted on getting acquainted with the men.
One convicted murderer was blind so she paid him a visit.
Holding his hand in hers she said, “Do you read Braille?”   “What’s Braille?” he asked.
And so she taught him how to read.
Years later he would weep in love for her.
Later, Catherine found a prisoner who couldn’t hear or speak.
She went to school to learn how to use sign language to communicate with him.
Then in 1937, she was killed in a car accident.
The next morning didn’t come to work, so the acting warden took his place.
The following day, her body was resting in a casket in her home, three-quarters of a mile from the prison.
As the acting warden took his morning walk, he was shocked to see a large crowd of the toughest, hardest-looking criminals gathered at the main gate.
But as he came closer he saw tears of grief and sadness.
He faced the men, “All right, men you can go.
Just be sure and check in tonight!” Then he opened the gate and a parade of criminals walked, without a guard, the three-quarters of a mile to stand in line to pay their final respects to Catherine Lawes.
And every one of them checked back in afterwards.
It is amazing what this one remarkable woman did in that prison.
She transformed it.
Not through stricter rules, or more painful punishments.
No.
She changed it from the inside out.
She changed it by her presence.
This morning I want us to think of an even greater transformation.
God wants to change our lives.
But he doesn’t do this by imposing stricter rules and by threatening punishment on us.
Instead he wants to transform us from the inside out.
He wants to come and live in us!  Read Romans 8:5-13
 * *
!
*1)      **He Indwells Every Believer in Jesus!*
Sometimes Christians have overlooked the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
At other times Christians have focused on him, but in a very limited way – on the more spectacular and exciting gifts he gives, on the ecstatic experiences some people have had.
But the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely crucial in our everyday lives as followers of Jesus.
!! *a)      **Two basic Groups*
All through this passage Paul divides people into two groups.
Those “who live according to the sinful nature” and those “who live in accordance with the Spirit.”
v5  These two groups live very different lives.
But who are these two groups and which one do we belong to?
 
Well Paul makes this clear in v9.
He says to his readers: “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if [or since] the Spirit of God lives in you.”
Paul is confident that these Christians live in accordance with the Spirit, because he knows the Holy Spirit lives in them!
Well how does he know this?
Well, because they belong to Christ.
Look at the second half of that verse: “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
v9  Receiving the Holy Spirit is not some secondary experience to trusting in Jesus.
The Bible clearly teaches us that if we have trusted in Jesus, then the Holy Spirit is resident in our lives!
Not as a temporary guest but as a settled and permanent resident.
“Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you.” 1 Corinthians 6:19  We become his home.
!! *b)      **The Hallmark of Authentic Believers*
The Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is the hallmark of every true believer in Jesus!
He is the seal that guarantees that we belong to Christ: “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”
Ephesians 1:13
 
Paul here calls him “the Spirit of Christ” v9.
And in the next verse Paul says that to have the Spirit of Christ is to have Christ in us (v10a).
So the presence of the Holy Spirit and our faith in Christ are intimately linked.
When we invited Jesus into our lives, he came in the person of the Spirit.
Of course there may be times when we experience his power and presence in fresh ways, when we are filled with the Spirit.
We’re encouraged to “be filled with the Spirit” Ephesians 5:18, to keep on being filled with the Spirit.
But receiving the Spirit is an initial and universal blessing for everyone who repents and trust in Jesus! 
 
!! *c)       **The Difference the Spirit Makes*
And so the contrast between two groups in this passage is not between two different kinds of Christians –spiritual versus carnal or worldly.
Rather it is between a Christian and someone who has not yet trusted in Jesus.
He is describing the difference that trusting in Jesus makes in our lives, because we receive the Spirit!
And so if we’ve trusted in Jesus, then this is what God is already doing through his Spirit.
If we’ve not put our faith in Jesus yet, this is the transformation that God wants to make in your life!
 
! *2)      **He Changes our Thinking*
How we think has a huge impact on how we live.
Someone has said: “Thoughts produce acts, acts produce habits, and habits produce character.”
Gary Collins has said that: “People become what they think about.”
The Holy Spirit transforms our lives firstly by changing what our minds are set on.
Look at v5.
This is talking about our way of thinking; our interests, passions, our priorities, ambitions; what drives us, what we concentrate on.
And this mindset reflects who we are.
!! *a)      **From Being Hostile to God*
“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires.”
v5  They haven’t the Holy Spirit because they haven’t trusted in Jesus.
And so their thoughts, their priorities, attitudes reflects their human nature with its sinfulness and self-centredness.
Their thoughts are against God, his kingdom, his will, his Son, his people and his word.
Paul says, “The sinful mind is hostile to God”  v7.
This hostility is seen in violence and hatred against Christians; in the dedication of some atheists to try to convince people that God doesn’t exist; in the swear words people use.
How many times a day do we hear God’s name taken in vain?
Maybe we’ve seen this in the ridicule we experience when we try to share Jesus with others.
We can also see this hostility in people’s rejection of God’s law.
This mind “does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
v7  Sometimes this is obvious in those who flagrantly reject God’s moral standards.
Other times its more subtle in a quiet rejection of God’s claims to be first in their lives, to be the only standard of truth, to be their rightful judge:
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:9
 
!! *b)      **To Wanting what God Wants*
But the Holy Spirit radically changes how we think.
“Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”
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