Reasons for Confidence.
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What a week! It’s been a microcosm of 2020: confusion, craziness and frustration for many in our nation. But there are a few things that I know to be true always:
Jesus is Lord.
Our Hope is Sure.
Our Joy is Unbroken.
We Will Always Pray for Our Leaders.
TODAY, I WANT TO REVISIT THE TOPIC OF CONFIDENCE, BECAUSE IT’S POSSIBLE THAT THIS YEAR HAS TAKEN A SHOT AT YOUR CONFIDENCE.
Romans 8:1-4
English Standard Version Chapter 8
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 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, 4 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.
When We Lack in Confidence, We Often Encourage One Other By Saying: “You Got This!”
When We Say This, We Mean: “You Have the Capacity to Do This. I’ve Seen You Do This.”
Sometimes It’s Flattery, Sometimes, It’s Sincere.
Humanistic: You Got This.
Christian: The Lord has Equipped You to Do It. Paul Does this in 1 John 2:14 : Young men, “You are Strong!”
Church: Be Confident! You Have Great Reason For It!
Notice that we say “You Got This!” When the Other Person Doesn’t Feel It.
What We Are Doing: We Say What is True Independent of What We Feel. It’s Not Wishful Thinking, It’s a Reminder.
Today I Will Give 3 Reasons for Confidence in Christ. You May Not Feel It, But It Still is True. “You Got This!” Because God’s Got You.
To Be Clear: These Reasons are for Those Who Trust Christ.
It is Offered to All But Only True of Those Who Believe.
If Christ is the Reason for Our Confidence, You Can’t Have Confidence Apart from Christ.
REASON FOR CONFIDENCE #1: YOU ARE NO LONGER CONDEMNED! (Romans 8:1)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Condemnation & Confidence Cannot Co-Exist.
Condemnation Comes from Our Inability to Keep God’s Moral Law.
God’s Moral Law is a Reflection of God’s Own Character.
In an Age of Moral Relativism, We Must Resist the Temptation to Make Ourselves Feel Better By Cheapening God’s Moral Law.
We Understand that We Fall Short of God’s Moral Law, But Paul Says that the Perfect Moral Law was Weakened. What?
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.
Paul Means that it was Weakened in the Sense that it Cannot Save Us.
It’s Not Because the Law is Bad, But Because We Fall Short of It.
So, If the Law Cannot Save us, Something Else Must Be Provided for us to have Confidence rather than Condemnation.
3. Christians Believe that We are Condemned Unless God Does Something. Fortunately, He Did.
When Jesus Died on the Cross, Your Sin & My Sin was Condemned in Him.
I Remember Praying: “God What is So Great About the Gospel?” “What is so Good about the Good News?”
4. On the Cross of Christ, Condemnation was Finished. You Cannot Be Condemned for Something Jesus Paid For.
The Double Jeopardy Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for substantially the same crime. Jesus Paid Fully for Sin. You will never have to Bear the Weight of What He Endured. You are Not in Jeopardy of the Double Jeopardy Clause Being Jeopardized.
5. You May Have a Guilty Feelings & Condemning Thoughts Today. You Have Freedom From Them Right Now Because of the Cross.
Transition: It’s Good to Be Free of Condemnation, But It’s Not Everything. It’s One Thing to Take Away the Bad; It’s Another Thing to Embrace the Good.
I Have a Habit of Leaving Old Coffee in Travel Mugs. Liz Calls Them My Science Experiments. It’s One Thing to Clean Out the Cup, It’s Another Thing to Fill it with Fresh Coffee.
REASON FOR CONFIDENCE #2: YOU ARE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS! (Romans 8:3b-4a).
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.
During Advent, We Celebrate the Incarnation.
When God Became Man, He Did What No One Else Could: He Perfectly Fulfilled God’s Moral Law.
Yet, Though He was Perfect, He Died in Our Place. As We Said Before, Sin was Condemned in Him.
In Doing This, Paul Says that the Requirement of the Law was Fulfilled in us.
What Does that Mean? His Righteousness was Given to us.
Not Only is the Bad Coffee Poured Out, The Fresh Coffee is Poured In.
Now, Why is that Important? Because Righteousness is like a Credential.
Credentials Give us Access to New Things: a license allows us to drive; a degree might get us tenure; a certification might get us a raise. No license? No driving. No degree? No tenure. No certification? No raise.
When we are Declared Righteous, We Gain Access to God & This is a Great Reason for Confidence.
Why Does This Matter? God is Greater Than Any Government. Stronger Than Any Army. More Faithful Than Any Friend & More Sovereign Than Any Leader.
Transition: It’s One Thing to Have the Bad Coffee Poured Out & The Fresh Coffee Poured In, But It’s Another Thing Entirely to Share a Cup of Coffee with Your Favorite Person in the World.
REASON FOR CONFIDENCE #3: YOU BELONG TO GOD! (Romans 8:1).
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
My Sermons Often Lack in Application.
This is Largely Because I Get So Caught Up in Who God Is That I Just Want to Camp Out There.
I Tend to Operate with this Naivety That If We Know Who God Is, Application Will Take Care of Itself.
So Often, I Find That We Read Verse 1 & Love the Line: “There is therefore now no condemnation...” But We Forget to Finish the Line.
God is the Great Prize of the Gospel.
What is So Good About the Gospel? We Get God!
Being “In Christ Jesus” is a Greatest Reason for Confidence Because It Completely Reorients Everything in Your Life.
How You React to Personal Suffering.
How You Respond to National & Global Strife.
How You Respond to Loneliness.
How You Respond to Big Decisions.
How You Operate in Relationships.
We Have Many Reasons for Insecurity, But We Can Live Confidently, Because Our Confidence is in God.
You Belong to God.
Transition: Up to This Point, We Have Focused on What God Has Done For Us to Understand Why We Have Reasons for Confidence. Now, We’ll Shift to Our Part.
It would be pretty silly if after cleaning out the coffee cup, filling it with fresh coffee and sitting down with your favorite person in the world, you never took a sip.
CLOSING: UNDERSTANDING YOUR PART IN THE CONFIDENT LIFE (Romans 8:4b-5).
(we) who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Here, Paul Says that we are to Walk According to the Spirit.
He Says in Galatians 5:25: If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
It is One Thing for us to have Reasons for Confidence in Christ; It is Another Thing to Walk Confidently in Christ.
We Have a Part to Play in This: We Don’t Work for Our Salvation (the basis for our confidence), But We Are to Align Ourselves with the Holy Spirit.
Like I Said, You Have to Take a Sip of the Coffee. It is Yours, But You Have to Drink of It.
In the Next Section, Paul Unpacks What It Means to Walk According to the Spirit.
Let’s Just Focus on One Thing in Verse 5: For those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
What Paul Calls for Here is a New Mind Set.
We Will Never Live Confidently in Christ Until We Adopt a New Mind Set.
We Learn the Things of the Spirit By Committing Ourselves to Learning Scripture.
This is Why We Are Focusing on the Locked-In Initiative This Year.
There is a Massive Difference in My Day When I Read or Listen to Scripture & When I Don’t.
There is a Massive Difference in My Week When I Participate in Fellowship & When I Don’t.
There is a Massive Difference in My Week When I Haven’t Been Serious About Prayer.
We Won’t Adopt a New Mind Set If We Don’t Know What Our Minds are Supposed to Be Set On.
Today, I Gave Three Things to Set Our Minds On, But They Were Really Just the Appetizer. The Full Meal is Waiting for You in Scripture.