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Message for April 11, 2010
Posted on 06-05-10 |
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MCC: 04.11.10
Text: Romans 8.1-17
Series: Freedom
Resources: Max Lucado, Fearless, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).
Freedom from Guilt
Intro) A) Terri and I have been married for almost seventeen years. When we got married, one of the few items of worth that I brought with me was a set of furniture—a chair, a couch, and a love seat. The couch got to the point where you couldn’t sit in it without risking being swallowed up never to be found again. What I liked best about the furniture is that it was a blue-grey fabric that didn’t show dirt. Or, perhaps it was so dirty that it didn’t matter. About six months or so ago, we bought new living room furniture which includes a couch made of a light green, suede-like material. I do have permission to sit on it but I do not have permission to eat on it. I tell that story in order to set up one of my favorite John Ortberg stories.
B) Ortberg writes: Many years ago, early on in our marriage, my wife and I sold our Volkswagen Beetle to buy our first really nice piece of furniture. It was a sofa. It was a pink sofa, but for that kind of money, it was called a mauve sofa. The man at the sofa store told us all about how to take care of it, and we took it home.
We had very small children in those days, and does anybody want to guess what was the Number One Rule in our house from that day on? "Don't sit on the mauve sofa! Don't play near the mauve sofa! Don't eat around the mauve sofa! Don't touch the mauve sofa!...Don't think about the mauve sofa! On every other chair in the house, you may freely sit, but on this sofa—the mauve sofa—you may not sit, for on the day you sit thereon, you will surely die!"
And then one day came the "Fall." There appeared on the mauve sofa a stain...a red stain...a red jelly stain. My wife called the man at the sofa factory, and he told her how bad that was. So she assembled our three children to look at the stain on the sofa. Laura, who then was about 4, and Mallory, who was about 2½, and Johnny, who was maybe 6 months. She said, "Children, do you see that? That's a stain. That's a red stain. That's a red jelly stain. And the man at the sofa store says it's not coming out, not for all eternity. Do you know how long eternity is, children? Eternity is how long we're all going to sit here until one of you tells me which one of you put the red jelly stain on the mauve sofa."
For a long time they all just sat there until finally Mallory cracked. I knew she would. She said, "Laura did it." Laura said, "No I didn't." Then it was dead silence for the longest time. And I knew that none of them would confess putting the stain on the sofa, because they had never seen their mom that mad in their lives. I knew none of them was going to confess putting the stain on the sofa, because they knew if they did, they would spend all of eternity in the "Time Out Chair." I knew that none of them would confess putting the stain on the sofa, because in fact, I was the one who put the stain on the sofa, and I wasn't sayin' nuthin'! Not a word!
C) The truth is this: We’ve all stained the sofa. We’ve all made mistakes, we’ve all made bad decisions. We’ve all intentionally done things that we knew were wrong. The Bible calls this “sin.” The apostle Paul writes in Romans 3.23, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We’ve all sinned. And some of us can’t get past this fact. We are enslaved by guilt, by constant thoughts of how we’ve messed up and ruined our lives or the lives of others.
D) We’re in a series of messages that I’ve entitled “Freedom.” We’re talking about how we can be free from a variety of human experiences that threaten to enslave us. This morning, we want to address how we can be set free from guilt. To do so, we’ll turn to the eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Here we’ll find three steps that we need to take if we’re going to be set free from guilt. The first is we need to
I) Receive our Forgiveness.
A) One of the reasons that we get enslaved by guilt is that we recognize when we’ve done something wrong that we deserve judgment, even if no one else realizes it. An organization in Los Angeles, California, operates the Apology Sound-Off Line. It's a telephone service that allows people to call in and confess their wrongs for the price of a phone call. They log 200 anonymous calls a day; people confess everything from adultery to murder. One lady who had caused a traffic accident that killed five people called in and said, "I just want to say I'm sorry. I wish I could bring them back."( Phillip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997), 35; quoted by Steve May, Say Goodbye to Guilt, preachingtoday.com).
B) Almost every person has this innate understanding that he or she deserves punishment or condemnation for the things that he or she has done wrong. And it’s a relatively short step from understanding that we deserve punishment to obsessing over the past and becoming enslaved by guilt. So, how we do address the guilt? We need to receive forgiveness.
C) That brings us to the first two verses of Romans 8. Since I’m not thrilled with the way that the New International Version translates Romans 8, I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version but you can still follow along on page 800 of the blue Bibles. Here are verses 1-2: 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
1) Paul writes that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2) We do not have to be enslaved by guilt. We can be set free, we can be forgiven of our sins, of our wrong-doings, of our mistakes, no matter how grievous they may be.
D) Before moving on, notice what Paul does NOT say. He does not say, There is no condemnation (period). Many believe that God will never judge sin. The thinking is that God is up in the sky saying, “I’m OK. You’re OK. We’re all OK. OK?” We can live however we want. God is not going to judge anyone because God loves everyone.
E) God does love everyone. But there is sin and God will judge it. Hebrews 9.27 says, it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment. The writers of the Bible are clear that we will all face judgment for our sins. But Paul writes that there is “no condemnation” where? for those who are in Christ Jesus.. Our sins can be forgiven if we trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. As we saw several times in our series of messages leading up to Easter, Jesus Christ went to the cross and died on behalf of our sins. He took the judgment we deserve, the punishment that we deserve, the condemnation that we deserve. There is no condemnation in Jesus Christ. In verse 2, Paul writes,For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. It is Christ who sets us free.
F) Two chapters previous to this, Paul writes in Romans 6: 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
G) We don’t earn our salvation. Christ died for us. There is no condemnation in Christ. Our sins are washed away in Christ. We are forgiven in Christ. Paul goes on to say in verses 3-4: 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 to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
1) Throughout the letter of Romans, Paul makes his case that we don’t climb the ladder to God by obeying the Old Testament law or any other law you want to come up with.
2) It’s not because we don’t “drink or chew or go with girls that do.” Following the law won’t save us so God sent his Son Jesus Christ so that we can be forgiven.
3) If we’re going to get out of the guilt snare, if we’re going to be set free from guilt, we need to accept what God says to us—“You’re forgiven. You didn’t earn your forgiveness but I forgive you because of what my Son Jesus Christ has done of you.”
Trans) If we’re going to be set free from guilt, we need to receive our forgiveness. Next, we
II) Change Our Focus
A) Some of you are thinking, “Tim, I have received my forgiveness over and over and over because I keep sinning the same sins. I keep having the same bad thoughts. I keep spreading gossip. I keep losing my temper.”
1) I saw a TV ad last week where it appears that they’re doing a remake of one of the old horror flicks. I think it’s Halloween but it may be Friday the 13th or it may be Nightmare on Elm Street or Godzilla or one of them. I am not an expert on horror films but even a casual observer knows this. You can’t kill a villain in a horror flick. Whether he’s Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger or Barney the Dinosaur, you can’t kill him, you can’t kill the villain. You electrocute him and then you shoot him and you do all of these things and he keeps coming back.
2) A lot of us feel that way about guilt in our lives. One reason that we have a hard time getting rid of guilt is because we keep doing the same things that we feel guilty about— whatever it is in your life, gossip or anger or pornography, you can’t get rid of it.
B) A great many people are focused this week on a small city less than an hour from here, Augusta, Georgia. Bill Tanner will tell you that Augusta is worthy of such focus because of Sconyers Barbecue. But that is not why the world is focused on Augusta. Of course, it’s because of The Masters golf tournament. And, you don’t have to be a golf fan to know that there is even more attention being placed on The Masters than is usual. That is because Tiger Woods is golfing in his first tournament since his life imploded last November.
1) If you don’t know the story, where in the world have you been these past six months? I want to go there where you’ve been. But I’ll assume that most of us have some concept of who Tiger Woods is and what has happened in his life.
2) On February 19th, Tiger Woods issued a public apology. In part of the apology, he said, “I owe it to my family to become a better person…That is where my focus will be. I have a lot of work to do. And I intend to dedicate myself to doing it. Part of following this path for me is Buddhism…People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint” (http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/19/tiger.woods.transcript/index.html).
C) Even though most of us here are not Buddhists, we approach sin in much the same way that Tiger Woods said that he needed to approach the problems in his life. We need to “learn restraint.” We think that we need to take our bad habits and the sins in our lives and wrestle them to the ground. We focus on the reasons for our guilt and on our inability to conquer those temptations, and those weaknesses in our lives.
D) You may be surprised to find out that the apostle Paul had similar experiences to you. He also wrestled with issues in his life. In fact, in the verses immediately before the verses in Romans 8 that we’ve just read, he writes in chapter 7: For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Most of us have been there, haven’t we? We struggle with doing good even when we want to do good.
E) But now listen to what Paul writes in verses 5-6 of chapter 8: 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
1) One of the reasons that I’m not fond of the New International Version translation of this passage is that the NIV consistently translates the word “flesh” with the phrase “sinful nature.” But I don’t think that Paul is saying that our flesh is inherently “sinful.” It is inherently “weak” and when we focus on our flesh and on our weaknesses, then we give in to the same temptations over and over.
2) The New Testament scholar James Dunn puts it this way: (Paul’s words are) “not a denunciation of flesh as itself sinful but as a sober recognition that man as flesh can never escape the enticing perverting power of sin” (James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8: Word Biblical Commentary 38A (Dallas: Word, 1988, 421).
G) We get enslaved by guilt because we focus on our weaknesses, on our own inadequacies, on the way that we need to overcome temptation, and we end up failing miserably because our focus is on the wrong thing. To be set free from guilt, we need to change our focus.
1) In verse 5, he writes: those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set one’s mind on the things of the Spirit is a present tense verb. We do it day after day after day, focusing on God’s Spirit and on the way that God wants us to live rather than on our own inadequacies and failings and flesh.
2) Listen to how Paul concludes this section in verses 9-13: 9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- 13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
3) Focusing on our flesh results in death; but focusing on God’s Spirit results in life. When we focus on our flesh, we stay enslaved to guilt, and sin, and death. But when we focus on Gods’ Spirit, we are set free from guilt and sin and we’re given life.
Trans) To be set free from guilt, we receive our forgiveness, we change our focus, and we
III) Claim Our Inheritance
A) It doesn’t get any better than this. Let’s read verses 14-17: 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
B) Paul is using adoption language here. We usually think of adoption as something that occurs at birth. A young couple adopts a child when he or she is first born, or at least is very young. But Roman adoption could occur at any age. The Emperor Claudius adopted the full-grown Nero so that he could legally succeed him on the throne (Steve May, Make Up Your Mind to Be Holy, preachingtoday.com). When that happened, Craig Keener writes that the adoption “cancelled all previous debts and relationships, defining the new son wholly in terms of his new relationships to his father, whose heir he thus became” (Craig Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1993), 430).
C) We can be free of guilt not just because God has forgiven us. God has also adopted us as his children. Our debts are paid. Our lives are now totally defined in terms of our relationship with the Father. John writes in 1 John 3.16, How great is the love that the Father has lavished upon us that we should be called the children of God—and that is what we are!
1) We are God’s children. How about that? Now that does not mean as some tragically interpret it as meaning that we’ll get rich materially or that we’ll never be sick. In fact, Paul interprets sonship in verse 17 as meaning that we will suffer with Christ.
2) But it does mean that everything in our lives is now defined according to our relationship with the Father. God loves us. God forgives us. The stain on the sofa is forgiven if we’ll confess our sins and repent of our sins. We are the sons and daughters of God. We have a great inheritance and we need to claim it and when we do, the shackles of guilt will fall aside.
D) Years ago, I heard a tape in which Fred Craddock, a great preacher and preaching professor, told this story ({reaching Today Tape # 22). I’ve told it before but it bears repeating. Craddock and his wife went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for a vacation. They visited a restaurant and noticed an old man who made his way around the room, moving from one table to another, greeting each table. Craddock thought, “We’ve come to Gatlinburg to get away from people!” Sure enough, the old man made his way around the room and came over to their table. “Hi, where are you folks from?” “We’re from Atlanta.” “What do you do in Atlanta?” Hoping to put him off, Craddock said, “I am a professor of homiletics.” “Oh, you teach preachers how to preach!”
With that, the old man pulled up a chair and sat down at the table. “I have a preacher story to tell you. I was born and raised right here in the mountains of East Tennessee. I never knew who my father was. When I was growing up, my classmates at school made fun of me. Every Sunday, my grandmother took me to a little church nestled against the hillside. We would arrive just as the service started so we could avoid speaking to anyone. We would sit on the back pew. When the service was over, we would leave immediately after the benediction and scoot right out the door. We didn’t want to talk to anybody!
“The preacher was a large man, with a big booming voice. I was afraid of the preacher. One Sunday, as I started for the exit, I felt an enormous hand on my shoulder. I whirled around, and I was staring straight into the face of the preacher. The preacher asked me the question that I had dreaded for years, ‘Boy, who is your daddy?’ Then the preacher looked at me and said, ‘Oh, now I see the resemblance. You are a child of God. Go and claim your inheritance.’”
Fred Craddock looked at that old mountaineer and said, “Please tell me your name.” The old man said, “My name is Ben Hooper.” Then Dr. Craddock remembered the story of an illegitimate boy who grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee, a boy who became an attorney, a boy whom the people of Tennessee later elected to two terms as their governor. That boy was Ben Hooper (this version of the story from Kirk H. Neely http://msidemedia.org/msidedads/?p=2).
Conc) It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, you don’t have to be enslaved by guilt. You can be forgiven and you can change your focus. More than that, when I look at each of you, I see the resemblance. You are a child of God. Go and claim your inheritance.
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