00:00: Father, we come into your presence right now, humbly recognizing that you are the God of all creation.
00:08: You are the God who reigns over the angels and people, even over demons.
00:15: There is not one atom, one molecule in all the universe that is not under your sovereign control.
00:23: And you are not distant, but are active, working all things according to the purpose of your will.
00:30: We come to you amazed that the grace of Jesus Christ has purchased our welcome in your presence, has purchased acceptance, your embrace and favor.
00:48: That our sin has been made null and void, paid for with the life of Jesus Christ given for us.
00:57: We come to you now as the one who is sovereign, asking that you would exercise that sovereignty in this moment, in our midst, for our good and for your glory.
01:08: Open our hearts and minds to your word that we might receive it as you mean it to be received.
01:14: That we might embrace Jesus more fully.
01:17: That we might live as those who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
01:21: And be a shining witness to the world around us.
01:25: We pray for your provision.
01:29: That you would give all that is needful for us as your people in this time and in this place.
01:35: In Jesus' name.
01:39: Amen.
01:39: Amen.
01:41: As you find your way to Romans chapter 13, as we continue to study the book of Romans, I thought I'd start off with a quick survey.
01:48: How many of you like going into debt?
01:53: Show of hands.
01:53: Anybody like going into debt?
01:55: Anybody like having an outstanding debt obligation?
01:59: I see zero hands.
02:01: I think we all typically feel that way, right?
02:05: We've had some braces in our family.
02:07: And in case you were wondering, the typical repayment period is about two years on braces.
02:14: If you want to buy a car, I looked it up.
02:16: The typical repayment period varies, but something in the ballpark of six years of debt obligation if you buy a car.
02:24: Mortgage, typically about 30 years, though also it can vary.
02:28: What about the debt?
02:31: When we embrace Christ as our Lord and Savior.
02:34: What about the debt obligation that becomes ours as Christians?
02:42: Now, I don't mean that we pay back God for the forgiveness and grace that he gives us in Jesus.
02:50: Couldn't do it.
02:51: Wouldn't be possible.
02:52: Wouldn't recommend it.
02:53: We're not even meant to try.
02:54: And I don't mean a debt to God that we repay to God.
03:04: Look in Romans chapter 13.
03:06: We're going to pick up in verse 8.
03:08: And I think you're going to see what I'm talking about.
03:09: At this point in the letter, Paul the apostle, led by the Spirit, is saying, Hey, fellow Jesus followers who've already embraced Jesus, how then shall we live?
03:21: What does it look like to be a Christian?
03:24: And he says, picking up in verse 8, Oh, no one anything except to love each other.
03:33: For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
03:37: For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word.
03:47: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
03:51: Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
03:54: Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
03:59: I like the way that the NIV has a kind of a parallel to that phrases it at the beginning of verse 8.
04:04: NIV says, Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another.
04:14: This debt that is there for every believer, every Christ-trusting person, every Christ-following person, is that we owe one another love.
04:28: And that is an outstanding debt.
04:30: I love seeing a loan be fulfilled.
04:33: I love seeing that knocked off.
04:35: Oh, no more braces payments, no more car payments, whatever it might be.
04:38: I love seeing that, and we all do.
04:39: But this debt is one that never goes away, nor is it meant to.
04:49: Love for one another is an ongoing debt to be paid.
04:54: We're meant to keep paying on this debt that we owe this to each other.
04:57: And it's not a repayment, per se.
05:00: It's saying this is what we owe to each other.
05:03: This is what we should be giving each other.
05:07: Right?
05:07: We see a similar thing within families, right?
05:09: Not because they've done something for you, but just because they're your family.
05:12: You love your family.
05:15: Sometimes parents have to work to help their kids understand that.
05:19: But we understand that.
05:21: Believers, we owe one another love.
05:25: It's not simply that, well, the Bible says we should love.
05:28: It's saying you owe this to the people around you.
05:30: You owe them love.
05:33: Why do we have that obligation to love one another?
05:36: Why is that an ongoing thing?
05:40: Well, first of all, it can't ever be used up.
05:42: You can't reach the end.
05:43: We don't ever reach the place where we can stand before God and say, I don't know if you noticed, God, but the last few months I have been loving my neighbors, my fellow Christians like crazy.
05:53: I think I'm done.
05:55: Right?
05:55: Like, that never happens.
05:57: You can never stand before God and say, I've loved a lot.
06:00: I'm going to consider that box checked.
06:03: Done.
06:03: No more loving for me.
06:05: No.
06:07: In fact, verses 8 through 10 tells us that part of it is that this is what God commands.
06:15: Right?
06:15: It's the fulfillment of God's command.
06:17: And when it talks about the law here, it's talking about the Old Testament rules.
06:21: We see that, first of all, when he cites these Old Testament commandments.
06:25: You shall not commit adultery.
06:27: You shall not murder.
06:27: You shall not steal.
06:28: You shall not covet.
06:28: Those are from the Ten Commandments.
06:31: And he doesn't have in mind just these few.
06:33: We know that because he says, and any other commandment.
06:37: Right?
06:38: Like, these are just a sampling.
06:40: They're all summed up in this one simple statement.
06:43: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
06:48: Loving people is what God's law requires of it.
06:52: Why?
06:52: For, because the one who loves others has fulfilled the law.
06:57: Meaning that the rules that God laid down in the Old Testament are about loving each other.
07:02: Right?
07:04: We don't always think of it in those terms.
07:06: But that's what it is.
07:07: Right?
07:07: When you have young children, don't hit your sister in the head with a block.
07:13: You know?
07:14: Drive the truck on the ground.
07:15: It's not for whacking your baby brother.
07:17: What?
07:17: Why?
07:18: Because it's not loving to whack your brother in the head with a Tonka truck.
07:22: Especially the ones from my childhood.
07:23: Those were steel.
07:25: Right?
07:26: We need to remember that all these rules are ultimately about love.
07:33: You'll notice that in verse 9, it says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
07:38: That's in quotes.
07:39: Because he's quoting from the Old Testament, Leviticus 19.18.
07:44: He's saying, let me show you, even from God's word back when, this is the point.
07:49: This is what it's all about.
07:51: Every one of you that has ever tried to read the Old Testament has struggled with it.
07:56: I know that you've been there.
07:57: I've been there.
07:58: I'm still sometimes there.
07:59: Sometimes when I read it, I'm like, what is this portion about?
08:02: But the reality is, it's not as complicated as we sometimes make it.
08:06: And Paul is showing us a key verse that is a key to unlocking God's word.
08:13: Saying, it's about loving people.
08:16: That's really what it's about.
08:18: Loving people.
08:20: Which is not just something that Paul came up with.
08:23: He's echoing the very teachings of Jesus himself.
08:25: When Jesus was quizzed by an Old Testament era Bible scholar about which was the most important commandment in the entire Old Testament, Jesus said that it was, Matthew 22, 37 to 40, his response was, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
08:43: This is the great and first commandment.
08:46: And the second is like it.
08:47: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
08:50: On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
08:57: In other words, Jesus said, the number one command of the entire Old Testament, love God 100%.
09:03: Number two commandment, love people like the way you love yourself, all in.
09:09: And then he says, the entire Old Testament boils down to those two things.
09:14: The entire Old Testament.
09:15: The rules and the teachings where God sent prophets to call the people back to God and so forth.
09:20: It's about loving God and people.
09:22: It's really that simple.
09:23: Paul is applying that to Christians as well and saying, you love.
09:29: You love.
09:30: That's at the heart of the whole thing.
09:33: Love seeks the good of the people around us.
09:39: Seeks the good of the people around us.
09:41: This isn't just sitting around doing nothing.
09:44: Love is not the absence of doing bad.
09:47: It is the presence of seeking the good, seeking the welfare, seeking the benefit of the one who is loved.
09:55: If I think, you know what, I'm going to treat my wife with absolute neutrality.
10:01: In fact, I'm going to so minimally engage with my wife that it's as though I wasn't even in her life at all.
10:08: That would not be love.
10:14: Love is actively seeking to make that person's life better, healthier, more joyful.
10:23: It seeks to bless, to encourage, to help.
10:32: If I love my wife well, she should be able to say, my life is so much better because Dylan is in it.
10:40: If you are loving the people around you well, they should be able to say, my life is better because this person is in it.
10:49: Love is about pursuing, acting for the good and benefit and betterment of others.
10:58: Now, look around because you don't exactly get to pick who this applies to.
11:04: One another in context is especially fellow Christians.
11:08: So these are your primary assigned people to love.
11:12: And if you look around and you're like, okay, I can love this one or that one.
11:19: Maybe you're just spotting your own family.
11:22: Or maybe you're thinking, anybody but my own family.
11:24: I don't know.
11:25: You work that out.
11:28: This whole church family is especially the ones that we are called to love.
11:34: There should be no orphans in the family of God.
11:36: No one overlooked.
11:37: No one left out.
11:39: No one unloved for whatever reason.
11:43: These are the people that we are especially called to pursue their good, their well-being, their success, their thriving as they follow Jesus.
11:52: And time is running out to do this.
11:56: Time is running out.
11:59: How many of you, well, I don't even need to ask.
12:02: I know how many of you.
12:03: Every one of you who has ever gotten to the stage of life where you have to set an alarm, whether it's for school or college or work, has also had the experience of missetting the alarm in some way, right?
12:17: You forget to activate it or you choose the AM and PM wrong or whatever.
12:21: And you wake up without the alarm going off.
12:24: And you're like, wait, what time is it?
12:26: And you look over.
12:27: And then all of a sudden your heart rate is 180 beats a minute.
12:31: Oh, no.
12:32: I didn't know it was that time.
12:33: And you wake up in a very unpleasant way, right?
12:37: We've all been there.
12:41: We often don't realize what time it is right now.
12:45: Paul tells us in verses 11 and 12, pay attention to when it is.
12:51: It's not when you might think it is.
12:53: He says, 11, besides this, besides the fulfilling of the law through love, besides this, you know that the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.
13:04: I hate mornings.
13:05: So that's not my favorite verse.
13:08: But he's not talking about mornings.
13:09: He's talking about calling Christians to spiritual wakefulness.
13:17: This isn't about, hey, non-Christians, wake up.
13:20: You need Jesus, right?
13:21: He's writing to a church.
13:23: He's writing to people that have already heard the gospel, already understand the gospel, have already committed themselves to following Jesus.
13:28: And he says, you Christians need to spiritually wake up.
13:33: It is all about calling them to live for Jesus.
13:38: It's saying, don't go through the Christian life rubbing your eyes, drowsy, ho-hum, do the Christian thing, gotta go to church, maybe I'll read my Bible this week, whatever, right?
13:50: It's not the Eeyore kind of Christianity.
13:54: It's not about cruising through the Christian life half asleep on autopilot.
14:00: God wants us to be more intentional about living the Christian life than same old, same old.
14:06: Wake up, live for God.
14:08: Right?
14:09: Specifically, notice what he says, 11 and 12.
14:12: You know that the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep for, here's the reason why, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
14:23: The night is far gone.
14:25: The day is at hand.
14:27: We're called to really live for Jesus because the return of Jesus is closer than ever.
14:31: He is coming back.
14:32: Christianity is not a philosophy for just, here's how to be a moral person, here's how to be a good citizen, etc.
14:39: It is about the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who has conquered death, risen from the grave, is redeeming the world and reconciling the world to God, and says, He is coming back and will remake the earth and the heavens, and will be present with His people as their God, and they will be His people, and it's all about Jesus.
14:59: Jesus, that's true, and that's coming, and it's happening, and we don't know exactly when, but it's closer now than it's ever been before.
15:08: So live ready for that moment.
15:10: Live like it could be here soon, because it will be here soon.
15:14: I can't help but think of Matthew chapter 25, the parable or story that Jesus told of the ten virgins or ten bridesmaids, depending on your translation.
15:23: These ten young women are waiting for the return of the groom or the bridegroom.
15:30: They know that He's coming back, but they don't know when, and so it turns out He comes back in the middle of the night.
15:36: And some of them are ready, and they've got their oil for their lamps, and some don't.
15:41: And the ones that aren't ready miss out.
15:44: They are called to live ready for when He comes.
15:48: And the point of that for us is the same thing.
15:50: Live ready for the return of Jesus.
15:54: That's in Matthew 25.
15:55: You go just a little earlier in Matthew's Gospel, back to 24, and he has multiple teachings on that same effect.
16:01: Live ready for the return of Jesus.
16:03: And verse 44 summarizes them well.
16:05: It says, Therefore you also must be ready for the Son of Man, Jesus, is coming at an hour you do not expect.
16:16: So brothers and sisters, it's time to live like Christians.
16:20: Jesus is coming back, and there are things that we need to be doing before He comes back and things we need to be doing when He comes back.
16:31: Let me make it real, real simple.
16:34: I'm going to summarize it as three things.
16:38: Greatest commandment.
16:40: Loving God with every fiber of our being.
16:42: Number two, loving the people around us like we love ourselves.
16:48: All in loving God, all in loving people.
16:51: And number three, the Great Commission.
16:55: Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded.
17:08: Those are our marching orders.
17:10: Love God, love people, make disciples, baptizing them, teaching them to obey Jesus completely.
17:17: That's it.
17:17: It's really that simple.
17:20: That's what we want to be doing as we prepare for Jesus' return, and that's what we want to be doing when Jesus comes back.
17:29: How great would it be to be in the middle of an evangelistic conversation telling somebody about Jesus when Jesus comes?
17:38: Hey, look, I was telling the truth, right?
17:40: That's what I want to be doing.
17:42: That's the kind of thing I want to be found doing when Jesus returns.
17:46: Or maybe it's not that evangelistic conversation.
17:48: Maybe it's helping somebody with a flat tire, or helping a shut-in, or whatever it is.
17:52: I want to be found faithful, doing what God calls me to do when he comes.
17:59: And the time is running out to do it.
18:02: Evangelism can only happen until the end.
18:05: And then eternity that follows, there's no more chance to turn to Jesus.
18:10: The time is now.
18:11: We need to be out representing Jesus to the world around us.
18:16: So if we understand our debt of love, to constantly be loving people around us, when we recognize the time is drawing to an end, and Jesus is coming back, well, then it's time to get dressed, focused on being ready to live the way he's calling us to live.
18:29: The night, verse 12, is far gone.
18:32: The day is at hand.
18:33: So then let us cast off the works of darkness.
18:40: The night, which represents the non-Christian lifestyle, characterized by sinful living, the night is far gone, and the day is at hand, meaning both the time for right living and Jesus' impending return.
18:53: It's transition time.
18:54: It's that going from night into day and saying, it's time to go from this to that.
18:59: And so the before is works of darkness.
19:01: The after is not works of darkness.
19:04: Cast off the works of darkness.
19:06: In other words, don't do the kinds of things anymore that you would be tempted to do at night, in the dark, where nobody can see you, nobody can catch you.
19:14: Don't do the sneaky stuff that you try to get away with without being busted.
19:20: Be done choosing sin.
19:25: If you knew that tomorrow you were on camera all day long and at any moment that camera could become a live feed to all your friends and family, I dare say you'd be intentional about what you did do and didn't do all day long, right?
19:42: You'd be attentive because like at any moment what you're doing could be out in the light.
19:47: There was no hiding, no secrecy of darkness.
19:51: And you would live differently.
19:54: This is the same issue that Paul had touched on earlier in the letter.
20:00: Romans chapter six when he said, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
20:05: By no means.
20:07: How can we who died to sin still live in it?
20:10: We Christians, are we supposed to just keep on sinning because then God's grace will cover it and we won't need to worry about being punished and God will forgive it and it's all good.
20:18: It's like no, you died to sin.
20:19: You're connected to Jesus.
20:20: His death is your death.
20:22: Sin's not for you anymore.
20:24: Sin is not for you, Christian.
20:27: Something like dating is not for you, married person.
20:31: That's completely out of bounds.
20:33: You don't go there.
20:33: You don't do that.
20:34: You don't play around even with the beginnings of it.
20:37: No.
20:39: This idea that we are utterly to reject sin is countercultural and it's going to make you feel out of place because you're going to have to keep saying, nope, that's not for me.
20:50: That's not for me.
20:51: This other thing is for me because I follow Jesus and it's going to put you at odds with the people around you and sometimes it's going to put you at odds with fellow Christians because some people around us in church might not actually be Christians and even if they are, they might be at a different stage in their maturity where they don't recognize what's going on yet and so just because a fellow Christian does X or Y or Z doesn't mean that we should be.
21:23: If somebody were to look at your life over the last year, could they find some examples that ought not to be emulated?
21:29: Absolutely.
21:30: All of us, right?
21:31: So just because some other Christian doesn't doesn't mean that you can say, oh, that's okay.
21:37: That's fine.
21:38: We have to be discerning and saying no to sin and yes to living for God.
21:43: We need to be ready to live right.
21:46: Verse 12 tells us, let us, Christians, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
21:56: I read that.
21:57: I was like, what is the armor of light?
21:58: He doesn't slow down to explain.
22:01: He doesn't unpack it.
22:02: I could go to Ephesians chapter 6 where it talks about the armor of God and if that's the same thing, maybe, then I could kind of import that but I don't think we need to do that because when Paul wrote this to the Romans, they didn't have access to the letter to the Ephesians.
22:16: He didn't mean for them to do some cross-referencing and figure it out.
22:21: I think it becomes straightforward.
22:22: The armor of God in context is the opposite of works of darkness and so it must have to do with the opposite of sinful living.
22:34: It must mean something like right living, godly Christian living.
22:38: Like, embrace that which enables you to live for God.
22:43: Right?
22:43: The armor of light would be something that protects you and or, depending on your translation, it can be weapons of light.
22:49: So something that protects you or that you can actively use to live for God.
22:53: Embrace that.
22:55: Be done with embracing sin and instead embrace right living.
22:59: That's the point of verse 12.
23:01: And it's basically a restating in a fresh way of the same thing that Paul told us at the outset of chapter 12.
23:08: Romans 1 through 11 is kind of the big theology message and in 12 he says, well, let's live like that, right?
23:14: Chapter 12, verse 1, I appeal to you brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
23:21: Holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.
23:25: He's saying, now we live for God.
23:27: We live day by day, our whole life, even our literal bodies in worship as a sacrifice to God.
23:35: In verse 13 of our passage here, 13, 13, Paul continues on the same line.
23:41: Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, right?
23:52: So this putting on the armor of light has to do with living like you do in the daytime where everyone can see what's going on.
23:58: You don't do that stuff when everyone can see what's going on.
24:01: One paraphrased translation of verse 13 reads, we should not go to wild parties, we should not be drunks, we must not have sex with anyone who is not our own wife or husband.
24:10: We must not do wrong things with our bodies, we must not quarrel, we must not be jealous of other people.
24:15: You can't be doing that stuff.
24:19: There's all manner of things that used to be common in your life that need to be eradicated.
24:29: That's true for every Christian from any time, any place, any culture.
24:33: It doesn't matter when they converted to Christianity, young age, teens, adulthood, senior, it doesn't matter.
24:39: There's always stuff that's there that we need to get rid of.
24:44: I'm struck by the sexual immorality and sensuality in particular and the drunkenness because those are some of the main things that we face here in Wisconsin, right?
24:57: Every year they publish an article about the most drunk cities in the United States and Wisconsin always shows highly.
25:04: Most of the big cities in the state rank in the top ten.
25:08: Not a point of pride but a reality.
25:11: Alcohol is a big deal in Midwestern and Wisconsin culture and it may well be a hidden factor in some lives even in this church.
25:21: And so the way that we use or don't use alcohol is relevant.
25:25: Sexual immorality, you can't look anywhere in our culture today and not see examples of it.
25:32: Or sensuality.
25:35: At first, you're like, what is that?
25:36: Sensuality.
25:37: Basically, it's pursuing whatever feels good.
25:41: Ooh, that hits close to home.
25:43: We all like to choose what feels good but that's going to get you into trouble.
25:48: Not every time but it won't be a rare thing evil just saying, this feels good, this is appealing, I'll do that.
25:57: In fact, that gets more explicit in verse 14.
26:02: But, instead of choosing those kinds of things that he just listed, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
26:16: But put on your new identity in Jesus Christ.
26:19: That's what it means to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
26:21: It doesn't mean somehow you strap Jesus to your back.
26:24: It's saying, be the Christian that you already are.
26:28: Live like the Christian that you already are because you have faith in Jesus.
26:31: You have a new identity, Christian.
26:36: It's not simply that you started going to church.
26:38: If you are a Jesus follower, a Jesus truster, your very identity is different.
26:45: How many of you have ever seen a TV show or a movie that involves a witness protection program storyline, right?
26:52: It's constantly.
26:53: If there are as many people in witness protection as there are in TV, like, all of you must have testified in some context against the mob.
27:01: I don't understand how it's so common out there in TV.
27:04: But when this happens, they set them up with a whole new identity.
27:08: You're not who you were anymore.
27:09: You don't go by that name.
27:11: You don't go by that background.
27:12: You don't talk about where you grew up.
27:13: This is the story of who you are going forward, right?
27:16: And they give you a whole new backstory.
27:18: Oh, you grew up in this town and you went and this is your work resume background and whatever.
27:24: And this is who you need to think of yourself as being from now on.
27:28: This is how you live in a somewhat similar way.
27:31: As Christians, we have a new identity.
27:34: We are not called to just kind of be the same person we always were but go to church.
27:40: We're not called to be the same person we always were but carve out some time to read our Bible and to pray.
27:44: We are called to be a whole new person because our identity, our worth, our value, the core of who we are is tied to who Jesus is for us.
27:54: Who is that?
27:59: Who are we in Jesus Christ?
28:02: We are forgiven.
28:05: That might sound like a, oh obviously, but pause and think about the moments that you're most embarrassed of.
28:17: Think about the worst thoughts that have ever gone through your mind.
28:22: Think about the times that you have most hurt or betrayed or wounded someone.
28:28: You're forgiven for those things.
28:32: Completely.
28:36: God considers you righteous.
28:39: He looks at you and sees you as having credit for the perfectness of Jesus.
28:45: Mind-blowing.
28:47: You're accepted.
28:49: You're not just out there in God's sight, eh, they're okay, I guess.
28:53: He embraces you.
28:55: He accepts you.
28:56: You are loved and adopted by God.
29:00: You're not just some person in God's economy.
29:03: You are his son or daughter and more loved as a son or daughter of God than you love any of your children.
29:12: And you are set apart or to use the biblical word, you're sanctified.
29:17: You're holy.
29:18: You are designated by God for God.
29:22: He says, I want you for me.
29:26: And you are sealed by the Holy Spirit.
29:29: He has, God has sent the Holy Spirit to take up residence in you to get you across that finish line because God knows you're not going to get there on your own.
29:38: There is no way you will make it to heaven if you've got to make that journey on your own.
29:43: God's Spirit takes up residence and says, I'm going to see you through.
29:48: We're going to do this together.
29:50: And God enables it and we cooperate and God gets it done.
29:56: And when we're stubborn and don't want to cooperate, God's Spirit messes with us until he gets us to the point where we say, okay, fine, I'll do it.
30:04: Right?
30:04: And that's grace.
30:08: And you are on your way to glory.
30:12: You're going to cross that finish line and enjoy the glory of God for eternity.
30:17: We sang this morning about wanting to experience God's glory.
30:19: You're going to someday experience in a way that makes the sermon or sorry, the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter and company saw Elijah and Moses and Jesus and he's glowing and we're going to experience something better than that.
30:33: We're going to live in that kind of context for eternity.
30:38: How do we know we're going to get there?
30:40: Romans chapter 8 that we already looked at.
30:43: 29 and 30.
30:45: For those whom he foreknew he also predestined.
30:49: For those he predestined he also called.
30:51: Those whom he called he justified.
30:53: Those he justified he glorified.
30:57: You will make it to the end because God's going to get that done.
31:01: So live like these things are true of you.
31:03: If you are a Christian they are true of you.
31:07: And part of what that means is, catch the end of verse 14, make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
31:17: Now when it says the flesh it doesn't mean make no provision for your body to gratify its desires.
31:21: Sorry you don't get lunch.
31:23: It's not talking physical flesh.
31:25: The Bible most often in the New Testament uses the term flesh to refer to our sinful nature.
31:32: That part of us that wants to be our own boss that says no to God that says I don't like God's way.
31:37: I don't like God's system.
31:38: God you better defend yourself to me.
31:40: Answer to me and I'll decide if you're up to snuff.
31:42: The part of us that says I want to be my own boss.
31:46: That is the sinful nature that it's talking about here.
31:48: The flesh.
31:49: It says make no provision for that.
31:51: Don't do anything to enable your flesh to have its way.
31:55: The part of you that wants to question God put God at a distance disobey God don't enable that at all.
32:04: I love the parenting analogy of come here.
32:08: Come here.
32:10: Timmy come here now.
32:12: Timmy I'm going to count to three and by the time I get to three you better be on your way here.
32:17: One.
32:18: Timmy's playing video games.
32:20: Two.
32:22: Timmy hasn't even looked up.
32:23: Two and a half.
32:24: Right.
32:25: We're making provision.
32:26: We're enabling that kid to disobey when we do that.
32:30: Right.
32:31: We teach our kids to obey right away.
32:36: Every time.
32:37: Just as we need to learn to obey God right away.
32:41: Every time.
32:42: Don't in any way facilitate sin.
32:47: Make no provision for that anti-God bent that we have to gratify its desires.
32:55: Don't enable the part of you that wants to do your own thing to get its way.
33:01: Inherent in that is this truth.
33:03: You want things that you should not want.
33:08: Every single one of us does.
33:09: Every single one of us has times that we want the things that we shouldn't want.
33:13: Or we want legitimate things in illegitimate ways.
33:17: And we have to learn to identify that and say no.
33:21: That is not the way it goes.
33:23: Our culture is on the other end of the spectrum right now.
33:25: If you want it it must be legitimate.
33:27: If you don't pursue whatever you want you're denying your humanity you're denying yourself.
33:33: No.
33:33: There's a part of me that wants good things I should say yes to that and there's a part of me that wants wrong things and I need to say no.
33:41: Do not believe the lie of our culture that if you want it it must be acceptable it must be embraced.
33:47: Instead measure it by the word of God and say is this something God is pleased with or is it not?
33:54: And if it's fleshly if it's not in line with God's calling on our lives we say no that's not for me that's not who I am anymore I've put on Jesus I'm in Christ that's not for me what does the Christian life look like brothers and sisters what does it look like today in October 2025 it looks like loving the people around us well recognizing that it's time to be intentional about loving well living well and putting God first in our lives and saying no to the old way of living and yes to following Jesus that's it it's not rocket science but we have to be told this over and over that's why the Bible keeps emphasizing these same things we're all recovering amnesiacs oh yeah yeah I know that and then we forget we go off on the side oh a and God's heart we want to say no to wrong desires that we may have and yes to God's desires for us show us where indwelling sin remains and let us yearn for Jesus and his will for us and lean on the spirit for the power to live rightly and to deny self and follow Jesus we pray these things in Jesus name Amen