March 16, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
I love that phrase. It’s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise.
The word for spirit in Greek and Hebrew is ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek, and it means breath. The Holy Spirit, the breath of God.
So, Lord, come. Come, breath of God. Come, Spirit of Jesus, refresh us and fill us. Enlighten your word to us so that we may experience the transformation from death to life, from sinner to saint, from broken to healed, from lost to found.
That we may leave this building more like Jesus and every day become more like Jesus until at last this old body of sin and death is gone. And we join you in the resurrection. And we will be like you. We will behold you and be like you.
Thank you for your goodness to us for this great salvation. We give you thanks and praise in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
All right, dear ones, how you doing? Good. All good? All right. Well, I’m going to preach whether you’re good or not. So, Romans 8:17.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1, CSB)
Somebody whoop at that? Yeah, there you go.
2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. 6 Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. 10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you. 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs heirs of God and coheirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:2-17, CSB)
God, may the words of my mouth, the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock, our Strength, and our Redeemer. Amen.
All right.
Last week we had a problem. Wretched man that I am, who will set me free? Thanks be to God and Jesus Christ.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin. (Romans 7:24-25, CSB)
What are we being set free from? This problem of my mind agrees with God and the law of God. That is right and good and true. But my flesh still does the bad stuff and sin. We’ve got this memory, this track record of sin that still frustrates me and impedes my life.
And every Christian that I’ve talked to relates to that. It’s like the things I do are things I don’t want to do. And sometimes I want to do things, and I seem to lack the ability to do them or the courage to do them.
And so what’s the answer?
Well, in Romans 8, we’re given three answers. We’re given a past, something to look at in the past that gives us great hope and assurance in the midst of the struggle.
Then we’re given something in the present which is actually very practical help in the midst of the struggle. How do we get better at this? Very practical.
And then we get something in the future, which is a great hope for the future. Hope encourages and keeps us on our feet in the midst of struggle.
And so we’re given something in the past, something in the present, and something in the future. And here they are. So I’m just going to give them to you right now, and then we’ll go into detail on them.
In the past, we have this: no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Your past sins have been forgiven. You don’t have to carry that baggage with you anymore. It’s forgiven. It’s gone.
Second, we have been given the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit. It is the Spirit of God working in our lives on a daily basis. We’re no longer just controlled by the flesh, but now. I used the example last week of an airplane and gravity.
The law of sin and death is the law of gravity, but the law of the Spirit is the law of aerodynamics. The law of aerodynamics beats the law of gravity.
People can fly, they can get up in the air, all right? And then we’re given the hope of the future. And that is the future glorification, our ultimate glorification, where there will be no more sinful flesh and we will be free of it. And we will share in the resurrection of Jesus.
So that’s it? Sermon’s over? Kind of is. But, you know, if you ever want to be a public speaker, here’s the key. Redundancy is the key to communication, and so is repeating yourself several times.
Was I. Yeah, I’m sorry. Well, let me ask you this, Karen. Do you remember from 30 seconds ago what I just shared? Oh, okay. But what about? What were the three things that help us see?
This is why she’s my favorite student. And Aiko just got devastated. It’s like, no, I want to be your favorite student. You and Aiko are tied for favorite student and favorite prayer warrior. you’re both up there. All right?
Brian’s my favorite dad joke teller, and Isaiah is my favorite person to go for rom com advice. All right, now I have to tell everybody what they’re my favorite of. All right.
No, there’s no condemnation, people. And Paul has already covered this ground in Romans. In chapter three, he says, we’ve been justified by faith.
What we couldn’t attain by obeying the law because of the sin in us, we couldn’t attain righteousness. We couldn’t get our right standing before God because of our sin. We have now got righteousness, which is a right standing before God based on what Christ has done for us, not what we’ve done for ourselves.
And by faith, when we believe and trust in him and align ourselves with him, not just believe in the right doctrines, the devils do that. They don’t have faith. But when you trust him with your life and align your life with him, then you are justified.
Then God sees you, in a sense, as he sees Christ. The rest of our life, as we’re going to talk about in a minute, our life in the Spirit, is actually becoming who we already are in the heavenlies. God sees us here.
We feel like we’re here, and our life is doing this. But God’s saying, this is who I see you as, not this. All right? And so we’re justified by faith. And since we’re justified by faith, this huge dilemma that causes us angst, we don’t have to have that angst.
Wretched man that I am, the things I desire to do, I don’t do. And the things I don’t want to do, I do. And you know, we don’t have to have this huge angst over it because of what Christ has done.
The Bible says we now have peace with God. We can take a selah, we can take a breath and go “Ah.” This problem is temporary. And God does not reject me because I’m less than perfect. He recognizes that the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Listen people, we’re just broken. We’re broken physically, we’re broken emotionally. Our minds are broken.
This sinful world has done a number on us, and it’s done a number on society. It’s a number on culture, and human beings are just kind of born into this thing. It’s a yucky soup, and it has an impact on us.
You know, 95% of Americans when interviewed say, yes, I did grow up in a dysfunctional family. 95%. The other 5% were found to be compulsive liars.
All right, you know, my kids, you know, my son went to, you know, Jill and I, we did our best, but you know, my son went to therapy, and we got the phone call.
Alright, parents, just beware. your kids are going to go to therapy someday, and you’re going to get the phone call. They’re going to tell you, you did this wrong. My therapist said, you did this wrong, you did this wrong, you did this wrong. And we got the phone call from my son.
He was very gracious, but it’s like, you know, I gotta forgive you for some stuff. Great.
And I remember one time my daughter was a teenager, and she was throwing a hissy fit about something, and she stormed out of the room. I just turned to Jill and said, let her tell her therapist in 20 years.
It’s like I jacked up my kids and tried to, but my messed upness messed them up some. Be the best parent you can be, but you’re still gonna, you know, you’re still gonna mess up. It’s just a messed up world.
But we have peace with God. We know he’s making it right. Us, our kids, our grandkids.
You see, the law could not do the number. All the law could do was point out sin to us. Condemn us. And Paul says, in this crazy, sinful world, it even adds to our temptation.
But God did what the law could not do and what we could not do for ourselves. He sent Jesus Christ. And in his sinlessness, he’s the only one who didn’t succumb to this crazy world. All right? He didn’t inherit it. He didn’t.
He lived as human. Jesus is the most human being who ever lived. He’s the most human human being who ever lived.
There’s only been three people who have ever lived, at least for a part of their lives, a full humanity: Adam and Eve for a season, and Jesus for his whole life. Jesus lives humanity as humanity was meant to be lived, in a perfect, sinless state.
And then he becomes because. And Hebrews talks about this. He becomes because of that, the perfect sacrifice, the spotless lamb, and the perfect high priest. The high priest without sin.
He becomes both the one who is able to offer this sacrifice and able to be the sacrifice himself. And Jesus fulfills the harsh requirements of the law. If you sin, you will die. If you sin, you will be condemned. And Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.
We couldn’t do it, but he did. What the law couldn’t do, Jesus does in his flesh. Thanks be to God. That’s good news.
Now he does more than that. He does more than that. Now he gives us his spirit.
So not only are we forgiven, not only are we justified, not only do we have peace with God, but we have some help on the road to overcome this wretchedness, to overcome this struggle.
We have been given the Spirit of life. The law was powerless to make us better. But as Christ died and fulfilled the requirements of the law, setting us free, he now gives us the Spirit, and the Spirit lives in us, giving us new vision and power to live a different kind of life.
Listen, Christians, you don’t have to be perfect, but you got to be different. You got to be different. I mean, God’s got to make a difference. And the biggest scandal of Christianity is people who confess Christ, and there is no difference.
But there’s something. But authentic faith. the Spirit of God lives in us. And there’s something that begins to transform because now we walk in the Spirit. An often used metaphor by Paul. Walk in the Spirit. And to walk, you need to know where you’re going.
Homeless, crazy people, maybe, but if I’m going to walk, if I’m going to get up on the couch and walk, I’ve got a goal. I’ve got a place I want to get to. Typically, if it’s me, it’s the kitchen. I’m going to the kitchen. Or the doorbell rings, I’m going to the door, or I’m going down the street to get the mail, or I’m walking to get some exercise, or I’m walking upstairs to get my. You know, I’ve always got a destination in mind when I walk.
And so the Spirit gives us that destination.
The Spirit gives us that vision. It’s Christ. It’s Christlikeness. Walk this way and you’ll become like Jesus. If you walk by the Spirit, Paul says in Galatians 5, you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
So the Spirit guides us. How does the Spirit guide us? All sorts of ways. Dreams, visions, prophecies. But dear ones, it doesn’t need to be that mystical. Sometimes it is. God can do that.
Here’s a clever way. Read your Bible. People are like, pastor, I just need a word from the Lord. Lots of words in here. Start there.
The other ways aren’t out of bounds. Those people who say, well, God doesn’t give dreams and visions and trances and prophecies anymore. It’s all in the Word of God. Well, guess what? When you read the Word of God, it says all that stuff is in there. So it’s all good. But this is the foundation. God gave us a book, a revelation book that the Holy Spirit inspired. And so God guides us and then God empowers us. He gives us that thrust that we need to fly above the law of sin and death.
And that’s where prayer comes in. That’s where the means of grace come in. We want to connect with God, plug into his power so that we can be overcomers, so that we can be different. We’re no longer a slave to sin. Well, how do we walk free of that slavery? By walking in the Spirit. And I’ve told you this many times, the greatest prayer, right? Help. What happens when we say help? the Spirit of God helps. And this stuff doesn’t happen just automatically.
the Spirit of God is available to us, but we play a role here. We didn’t play a role dying for our sins, but we play a role walking in the Spirit.
You’ve got to walk. It doesn’t say, sit in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. the Spirit lives in us and he gives us the vision and power to live a new and different life. He gives us the mind of Christ. We have the mind of the Spirit.
We begin to think differently as Christians, we talked about this last week.
That’s one of the things that causes the dilemma, right? We begin to, you know, and here’s part of the problem.
We first become a Christian, we get the mind of Christ, and we recognize we’re sinners, but we think, oh, the deeper I go in the Lord, the more I’ll be free from that. But actually, the deeper you go in the Lord, the more you kind of realize the depth of your sinfulness.
I used to think I just had a little problem with sarcasm. And as I grew in the Lord, I realized, no, I got a big problem with pride. Why was I sarcastic? Because I wanted to look better than other people. Why do I want to look better than other people? Because I think I am. Oh, man, that’s a problem.
You people are actually great help with that for me, because I meet you and I hang out with you, and it’s like, I’m not better than these people. They’re better than me. So I appreciate it.
I appreciate you being such wonderful examples of Christ likeness that it humbles me. Thank you, Steven. Thank you. I appreciate it.
All right. You ever notice humility? Humility is great for godliness, but the minute you think you captured it, you lose it. Right? I’m so humble. Oh, darn. All right. But the Spirit gives us the mind of Christ, and we begin to walk in it.
And without the Spirit, our minds then are mostly in agreement with the things that lead to death. Now, there’s some good examples out there. And it’s not that.
It’s not that people who are caught apart from God never do a good thing. This idea that they never do anything good, they write, you know, there are kind people who aren’t followers of Jesus. There are people who carry some of those characteristics.
Why? Because we’re created in the image and likeness of God. And heaven and hell are both evident in this earth.
What sin does, sin does not make us totally what, have total inability to do anything good. He says, well, without the Spirit, you cannot please God. Ultimately, that’s true.
But if you look at Acts 10, there’s Cornelius, who wasn’t a Christian until Peter came and preached to him. But the Bible says that Cornelius’ sacrifices that he was making on behalf of the Jews were pleasing to God. So it’s not like non-Christians can’t please God.
But the trajectory of their life is the life of the flesh. The trajectory of our life is the life of the Spirit. And so ultimately, without the Spirit, our minds are in agreement with the things that lead to death. And that’s the trajectory we’re on.
Dead men walking. That’s what it means when the Bible says we’re dead in our trespasses and sins.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, CSB)
Some people interpret that as total inability to do anything good. It’s not total inability to do anything good. It is, though, that you’re a dead man walking. you’re on a trajectory without Christ that leads to death.
But with the Spirit, our minds are now changed to the things that bring life and peace. Our trajectory has been changed. And it doesn’t mean. Again, the same logic applies.
It doesn’t mean that people who are in the Spirit, who have Christ living in them, will live this perfect life and never do anything wrong. The point is the direction has changed. And when that gets stretched out to eternity, this direction and that direction, there might in this world be just a little separation between the two. In fact, the person who doesn’t have the Spirit might actually have better behavior than the person who does because they started at different places. But this person’s on this trajectory and this person’s on that trajectory.
And when that gets spread out to eternity, the difference is infinite life and death. So if you walk by the Spirit and have the mind of the Spirit, you will do things that bring life and peace.
Without the Spirit, one cannot live a life ultimately pleasing to God. But if you have repented, believe, then the Spirit lives in you. the Spirit indwells in us and gives us eternal life.
We talk about this when we become Christians, right? We say, I asked Jesus into my heart. Now because God is one. All this language is accurate.
Jesus lives in my heart or God lives in me are just as Jesus is one with the Father. I’m one with Jesus. So logically, I also am one with the Father. And all that language is accurate.
But the most accurate language is that we are in Christ and His Spirit is in us. Now, it’s fine to say Jesus lives in me. Just like when you’re coming to this meeting, it’s fine to say I’m going to church. Or it’s fine to talk about the church as a building. Oh, there’s the church.
You know, we don’t have to be legalists. All right? We don’t have to be legalists, you know, but I remember my grandsons used to call the place where we met the building. They were literalists. It’s the building where the church meets. Literally, it’s the Spirit of Christ who lives in us. But to say Jesus lives in my heart isn’t wrong. Because there’s no what? Disagreement between the persons of the Trinity. So Jesus does live in your heart through the Spirit. The Father does live in you through the work of Jesus by the Spirit.
So it’s all good, but literally, it’s the Spirit who lives in you. Anybody know the difference between a literalist and a kleptomaniac? By the way, all right, let me see if I get this right now. I forgot it. The literalist. The literalist literally. Oh, the literalist takes everything literally. The kleptomaniac takes everything literally. That’s the difference. What’s that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s just a comma. All right, there you go. I tried.
All right, so the Spirit lives in us. What happens? your body is a dead man walking. your body is a dead woman walking.
All right, Sophia, Isaiah, Mark, Micah, Megan. You don’t experience this to the same degree that some of us do. your body’s still your friend. You go to sleep at night and you wake up refreshed.
There’s a certain age where you go to sleep at night and you wake up with sores you did not have when you went to bed the night before.
And this old tent we’re living in is wearing out. We wear glasses, and we get hearing aids, and, you know, okay, so two years ago, this time of year, baseball season starting, my oldest grandson, Noah, has reached the point in his baseball life where you no longer have to pitch to him like this and lob. You can throw it, right? Alright, you can pitch.
So I took him down to the park. I had a bucket of balls. He gets up there. I don’t warm up at all. 64.
At 24, they tell you to warm up. I didn’t warm up at all. I just start. And baby, I was bringing it. I mean, I wasn’t throwing 90 or nothing, but I was throwing. No more lob ball for this kid. I was pitching, and I was throwing strikes. We had a great little batting practice, and we had fun.
Afterwards, I’m just thinking, right, my guy, I still got it. I still got it.
Next morning I woke up.
What I had was an incredibly sore elbow, later to be diagnosed as tennis elbow, which is an injury to the tendons. A tennis elbow. You know, my elbow still hurt for two years. My elbow still occasionally hurts. You know how long my elbow hurt regularly on a daily basis from throwing those 75 pitches? One year. I finally went to a sports doctor, and he said, oh, yeah, you got tennis elbow. And for tennis elbow, he gave me a wrist brace. I guess everything is connected. And it got better.
It’s not all better yet, but it’s got better, all right. Still hurts a little bit, but nothing like before. One year, not 24 hours, not a day, not a week, not a month, people.
I threw 75 pitches. I used to play baseball all the time, hundreds of balls every day. Why? Sin kills the body, all right? If we had not sinned, we’d be young and happy and fresh forever. But this old tent’s wearing out, people.
I had lunch with my wife today, and I thought I got to get some steps in.
I decided to walk around the mall. I got a sore back. You know, I’m doing some stuff for it. It’s a little better.
All of a sudden, just walking around the mall after lunch, I had pain in my hip joints that I’ve never experienced before. Brand new, for no reason. I’m walking around the mall. I’m not tired. My back’s not hurting that bad. I had to sit down because my hips were hurting so bad. What is going on, by the way?
Whenever I say what in the sermon and Jill’s in the house, she always scrunches a little bit. She gets what I call sphincter face. It’s like. Because usually, you know, what the. Something comes after what the that she thinks I’ll get in trouble for saying, but I didn’t say it did. I just said, what the is going on?
Sin kills the body. This old tent’s wearing out. But the Spirit gives righteousness and eternal life. You see, Christ rose from the dead, and now that life, that eternal life, the life of God, right?
Death could not hold the author of life. And now the life of God lives in us. the Spirit lives in us. So our consciousness, our spirit, the very essence of our life now is no longer married to this old, decaying, fleshly, sinful body. It’s now married to God. It’s married to Christ. the Spirit is living us. He’s the Spirit of God. That part of us cannot die. God doesn’t die. And so Christ’s resurrection is now also our resurrection. We’ll never die.
There’s a new owner in us, and we’re no longer obligated to live according to the flesh. We now live by a new principle. And this. This has just made so much sense to me, you know.
How is it that when we get to heaven, how is it that we’re going to live and still have freedom? How is it that we’re going to live sinless? How do we have that assurance that we’re not going to mess up?
You know, I look at my life and God probably mess up in heaven, right?
How is it that I’m not going to sin in heaven? Because the thing that carries sin in me is in the grave and it stays there.
You notice we get the Spirit of God who lives in us, and then what do we get after intermediate heaven is done? We get what? Resurrected bodies, resurrection bodies, the old bodies, dead. We get new bodies that don’t have all that sin history. All that messed up ness is gone.
And so is the tempter. So is the devil, so are the demons.
Everything that led to sin and death is now, it has now died. And we are re Eden. We are Adam and Eve back in the garden. But there’s no snake, all right?
And so this resurrection life is in you. So even though your body hurts, even though you may struggle mentally, even though that takes place, that’s part of your body, all that is perishing. And this life of Christ, this resurrection life is growing in us.
There’s a new sheriff in town. We’re no longer obligated to the flesh. Is this making sense?
This is such good news, people. By the Spirit, then we put to death the old way and live a new way. And this is just a daily process. It’s a daily process again. It doesn’t happen automatically, but we choose to orient our lives to Jesus by the means of grace, by saying our prayers, reading our Bible, you know, kind of doing what it says and paying attention to the Spirit and walking by the Spirit.
And as we do that, those old memories, those dead things that are trying to hang on, if I can say it, become more dead. And that life of Christ in us becomes more alive. And this is progressive sanctification. This is progressive, looking more like Jesus. And so we probably won’t get there in this world. Probably all those old things that are hanging on in our flesh won’t be gone. And we, we probably won’t be living out, walking by the Spirit perfectly. But as we simply apply this, we become more and more like who we are.
And so we started here. This is who we are. And our life in this world is three steps forward, two steps back. And dear ones, that’s the deal. That’s where we’re at.
You don’t have to beat yourself up over it because he’s alive in us and there’s no condemnation. He’s going to win his law. What Jesus did on the cross is more powerful than sin and death and the devil, so the stronger power in you wins.
We put the old way to death and we walk in the new way of life.
Finally, we have the future and the Spirit’s witness about the future. And the future is greater than we think. Again, I’ve said this a hundred times. You get sick of it. But you know what? When I’m dead and gone, hopefully you’ll remember some of these Kevinisms that are good.
It’s not about going to the good place. It’s about him. And we just don’t die and go to the good place. We become. We already are in Christ, God’s children. That just doesn’t mean he loves us like children.
That means, as Peter says, we have now taken on the divine nature. Okay, you’re not God. you’re never going to be the God of the universe. That’s not what I’m saying. you’re never going to be Jesus and die for the sins of the world, but you have God living in you. You know, children look like their parents, children act like their parents. My wife and I sometimes look at our three children and we’ll talk about them and we’ll say, oh, yeah, that’s like you, Jill. And that’s like me.
And none of the kids is exactly like her. Exactly like me. Megan Myolaus has this profound sense of justice. Oh, man, don’t mess with Sparky. You know, she’ll go. She’ll go after the phone company and spend two days getting back a dishonest nickel. They charged her. I married that person. My wife’s got this profound sense of justice. But Megan is also witty and sarcastic and funny. That’s me, right? Not that Jill can’t be funny, but, you know, let’s just be honest. I’m funnier than she is. I am. She’s not as funny as me.
She’s better than me, but she’s not as funny as me. What? So I’ve heard. She’s thinking about it. She’s thinking about it. But what happens is our kids take on our nature. Michael is uber responsible and conscientious and hard working. That’s Jill. Michael also loves to debate and talk about sports and theology. Da, da da da. Caitlin loves to read fantasy and have poetic and deep thoughts. That’s me. Caitlin is also very compassionate and loves animals. Yeah, that’s her mom. You got Jesus in you. You got the characteristics of your father.
You are children of God. Not only children of God, you’re heirs. Anybody here ever wanted a rich daddy? Right. When I was a kid growing up in California, there were two kinds of kids in school: those who couldn’t afford a swimming pool and those who could.
Now, those of you in Washington, let me explain. A swimming pool is a big concrete hole in your backyard that they fill up with water and a few chemicals to keep it clean, and they heat it.
And in the summer when it’s 100 degrees. Now let me explain something else to you Washingtonians. At 100 degrees you do not die, alright? You might think you do, but you don’t. You don’t die at 100 degrees. I know you think you die at 82, but you don’t. None of you have died at 82. You don’t even die at 100. But what you do is you get in the pool and it’s refreshing, alright? It’s like the sound, only it’s not quite as cold. And it’s much cleaner. And you’re just refreshed. you’re. And I always.
And we never could afford a pool. But I had friends with pools. Now I realize that’s much better. But back then I just wanted a pool all summer. I could have hung out in a pool. It’s 90 to 100 all summer. You just want to hang out in pools with your friends. It was great. I love swimming pools.
Guess what? My daddy wasn’t rich enough. But you know what the Bible says. Blessed are the meek, for they will what? Inherit the earth?
5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5, CSB)
Everything Christ gets, you get. You get it. You are heirs of God.
Co-heirs. It says this. It actually says this in the Bible. You are co-heirs with Christ. Christ. It’s in there. It’s better than going to the Good place. It’s going home to our Good Father and living there eternally.
We are co-heirs with Christ. And then it says if we suffer with him, we will also be glorified with Him. Alright? So, broken world, sinful world. Fallen humanity. Suffering is the real human experience. Everybody suffers. Good people. Baptist. No Karma. There’s no strictly retributive theology.
Now we teach our children, and rightly so.
There is a little bit. There’s some truth to retributive theology, all right? There’s some suffering you can avoid. All right? There’s some suffering that is brought on by stupid. Don’t be stupid. You might suffer less. Do the right thing and you’ll save yourself some suffering. But you won’t save yourself all of it. Sorry.
And if you’re a Christian, you will suffer in a particular way. Because as a Christian now, you have chosen to stand apart from every culture, every political system, the planet, every political system wants this from you. I don’t care.
Republican, Democrat, Communist, I don’t care. They want your allegiance. They want you to give them power by your allegiance. And what do we do? We make a political statement. That ought to make them all mad.
We make this statement. Jesus Christ is Lord, you will not get my ultimate allegiance. I may vote for you because you say 75% of the things I like, and the other person says only 25% of the things I like. So 75 is bigger than 25. So I’ll vote for you in an imperfect world.
I mean, I haven’t met the perfect candidate. Jill hasn’t run yet. Even her. I’d be a little scared she might fall down heavier on the justice side of things than the compassion side of things.
When Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, right after, he said he wouldn’t, and everybody’s up in arms and he said, hey, I’m a father and I got it.
I didn’t say I’d pardon him, but I said I understand that it’s your kid, you know. No matter how old and no matter how much coke he puts up his nose, you know, he’s your kid. You always love your kid.
And chill. She’s like, hey, do the crime, do the time, kid or not. Caitlin goes, mom, if I did something wrong, you’d send me to jail. She goes, well, you did something wrong. You sent Caitlin to jail. Well, she’s like, well, good thing you didn’t. That’s right. Never put that one to the test.
Listen, there are stupid things you do that make you suffer more, but you’ll suffer. And you’ll suffer as a Christian, because when you say Jesus Christ is Lord, you are giving yourself an allegiance that the rest of the world, A, doesn’t understand and B, does not want you to have, and you will be persecuted. I don’t care who you are or where you live.
If you lived in Saudi Arabia, the level of the persecution that you might face coming out as a Christian is probably, at least on the surface, far greater than it is in the United States.
But if you’re a Christian, no matter where you are, you will suffer for and with Jesus. That’s just how it works.
But the very next verse, we’re going to get to it next week, and Karen’s going to remember it. Not next week, two weeks from now.
So you’re really going to have to remember, Karen, for the sufferings of this present world cannot be compared. Glorification to the glory that is to be revealed in us.
The sufferings are real, and I do not want to minimize them. People have suffered horribly in this world. Jesus suffered horribly. But he said, I did it for the joy set before me. And I honestly believe this. And again, I’m not trying to minimize your suffering or anybody else’s.
From the perspective of eternity, when you’re there, it will be a gnat’s eyebrow compared to the eternal goodness.
And I say that not to minimize suffering or to make you feel like, oh well, you don’t know what I felt. Listen, no, I’m not trying to be non-empathetic or compassionate.
What I’m trying to do is to give you the hope that is in the New Testament. We will be glorified, raised, and glorified with him as we now suffer for and with Him. Some of that we even experience in this life, right? We experience the goodness of the Lord in this life.
Heaven does invade earth, but dear ones, eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of men and women conceived the overwhelming goodness of God that is ours, world without end. Amen and Amen.
And so the three ways we endure this wretched man that I am, this man who sees the right thing, does the wrong thing. He’s got this struggling with this dead flesh that keeps wanting to resurrect and these memories that are still ingrained in our mind and our bodies and in our systems. And yet our mind has been turned to Christ.
And we know that he is good, and we know that he is true, and we know that his words are righteous, and our desire is to follow Him.
And we’ve got this struggle. Three things that will help daily in that struggle. Number one. And they’re all, by the way, they’re all in communion.
Number one. Remember your sins are forgiven. Remember Jesus said, do this in remembrance. My body was broken, My blood was shed so that your sins can be forgiven. you’re justified by faith, and you have peace with God.
Communion is about the past.
It’s about remembering the second thing, the present. Walk in the Spirit. Walk through with the guidance and the power of the Spirit. And it’ll be better. you’ll have more victories than defeat. you’ll be more like Jesus.
You know, it’s like grass growing. I’ve never seen my grass grow. All I know is we had a sunny day today, and I’m going to go home, and tomorrow morning I’m going to look at it. It’s going to be like I got to mow it. Now I’m back to the six months of mowing.
The one thing I enjoy about Washington winters is I don’t have to cut the grass. Praise God. My grandsons are spending the night. Noah wants money. Don’t have to mow it tomorrow. Noah’s got it, but I’m going to have to mow it.
And dear ones, I hurt myself sleeping. You know, mowing, mowing is not as easy as it once was. I’m have to mow the lawn. I’ve never seen it grow. We don’t see ourselves grow as Christians, but I got to tell you, you walk by the Spirit.
Five years from now, ten years from now, you’re going to be more like Jesus than you are now. That also is in communion. This is food for the journey.
We’re on the journey. This, when we take it by faith, like all the means of grace, like reading our Bible, saying our prayers, going to church, serving others. This strengthens us, empowers us to be more like Jesus.
And then it’s about our glorification. Jesus says there’s going to be a feast one day.
He says to the Passover, I’ll not do this again until I share it with all of you in that glorious place. The wedding feast with the Lamb of God. This is an appetizer. I love appetizers.
All right. By the way, you guys all last pastors appreciation, you sent us out to dinner. We got gift cards and stuff. One of the places was Molly Ward. It’s in Poulsbo. It’s a little barn-like place with a garden. Yeah. And I’m thinking, man, that is foofy.
I don’t want to go to no foofy restaurant where they serve French food. You know, where can I get bottomless fries and a cheeseburger? That’s what I want.
But we had a nice… But, you know, pastor’s appreciation gave us a nice gift card. Joe was looking forward to it, and so we went. Best chicken I ever had. The meal was so good. So thank you. I had a wonderful time.
Once again, corrected me about being grumpy. Being grumpy. You know, it’s like best. It was. It was delicious. So appreciate it. All right.
Jill had an appetizer. I didn’t. Jill had an appetizer. She got some shrimp. She loves shrimp. And instead of cocktail sauce, they had horseradish. She loved her appetizer.
And here’s what appetizers are. Appetizers are this: you think this is good? Wait, the main dish is coming. You think coming to church and hanging out with you lovely people is good. And it is. I look forward to every Sunday night just being with you. you’re the prize. You know, when I come on Sunday night and I’m not. This is not flattery. It’s the truth.
I mean, I just love every I see love every. Seeing every one of your faces. You know, there’s no EGR in this room. There’s no extra, extra grace required, church, painting, the patootie, church person in this room. All right, some of you were, but you’ve gotten better. Not treating. It’s not true. You are. you’re right there with Karen and Iko. You all got A pluses. All the men are A minuses, but the ladies are A pluses. All right, so you think this is good. Wait. This is about hope.
This is about the future with Jesus and all the. And the. Our glorification.
So tonight, as you take this, remember his mercy and grace to you on the cross. Be strengthened as you’re nourished on the body and blood of Christ. And dear ones, be hopeful. Because the struggles, the sufferings of this present world cannot be compared to the glory that awaits us.
Amen. Amen. I invite you to come and eat.
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