Transcription
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If you're new this morning, we're in a series on the book of Romans. We started it last fall, we took the summer off, and we're in Romans chapter 8. So if you can grab your phone or grab your Bible, turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 8 as we come again to one of the greatest chapters in all of God's Word. The chapter starts with the words, "No condemnation." Romans chapter 8, verse 1. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
No, in this verse does not mean "less." A lot of Christians when they read that, they think, "Well, that just means less." And the reason why is because they feel a little bit condemned relative to their own failings and shortcomings. And it all is because they don't understand. No means not ever. Not now. Never will there be condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we've been learning about this gospel of grace, and honestly, it's very transformational. I gotta be, I gotta be honest, it has changed my life. I mean, just to see what God has done and to understand it and to watch the way that God is working not only in me but in all of you. God is doing an amazing, amazing work.
In Romans chapter 8, verse 1, "No condemnation." And now for the rest of the scripture and the rest of the passage, what it really is is the way to think of Romans 8. And we've talked about some different things than the last couple of messages on Romans 8, ways to look at this chapter. It starts with words, "No condemnation." Ends with the words, "No separation," talking about what an encouragement it is to the believer. But one of the things that I would just remind you, we talked about last time, is in the first seven chapters of the book of Romans, the Holy Spirit is mentioned one time. Romans chapter 8, the Holy Spirit is mentioned 20 times. So what you have in Romans chapter 8, after the mention of no condemnation, what it is is really from there on, it's a celebration and a recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit on our behalf.
The way to understand Romans 8 is now that you and I have died with Christ, we've been buried with him, we've been resurrected with him, we've died to sin, now that we're under the reign of grace, the Spirit of God is now working in our life to complete what was begun in us. And that is ultimately our glorification in heaven. The Spirit of God at work. Last time, we saw that the Spirit of God changes our thinking. We saw as well that the Spirit of God produces life and peace in and through us. We saw that the Spirit of God dwells in us. At the minute of salvation, you and I become the temple of the living God who lives in us, the Holy Spirit in us. Romans chapter 8, verse 11. We saw that the Spirit of God, that he is the active person in the Godhead who will resurrect us. The power that raised Jesus from the dead will raise us.
And now this morning, we're going to see something very, very exciting. That it's the Spirit who empowers us to victory over sin. The Holy Spirit working in us brings about a victory in our life over sin. Let's look at it. Romans chapter 8, verse 12. "So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. 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."
You just say this: these two verses are what many scholars say are the most important verses on sanctification in the entire New Testament. You say, "What is sanctification?" Let me give you a little definition. Sanctification is the continuing change worked by God in us, freeing us from sinful habits and forming in us Christ-like affections, dispositions, and virtues. It does not instantly eradicate sin, nor does it merely restrain or repress sin. So, in other words, sanctification is God working in us to change our desires, to change what we love, what we pursue, what we think, how we act. It is not where you, he touches you and you don't sin anymore. It is a gradual process, and it's not merely him restraining sin. It's not him repressing sin. It produces real transformation in you.
At the moment you and I become followers of Christ, we become a new person. But we still, as we're going to see, live in this sinful human body. We died to sin, but sin did not die to us. There's still that challenge of sin. Sanctification is God's answer, God's work in our hearts to gradually make us more like his Son, Jesus.
So as we look at it, I want, I want you to look at the verse again because I'm gonna point out a phrase that's really critical. "So then, brothers, we're debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. 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." That is the key phrase in all of this: "by the Spirit." Apart from the Spirit of God working in us, there's no victory.
And let me tell you why, and this is really important, because I would suggest that a lot of believers pursue a sanctification that is ineffective. They try to become Christ-like, but because they don't understand how God works sanctification in their life, they end up trying to do it themselves. Sanctification is not a do-it-yourself project. And here's why: apart from the Spirit, there can be no victory, because flesh cannot overcome flesh. You and I cannot change ourselves. All flesh can do is serve itself. All flesh can do is serve the law of sin. All flesh can do is try to reform itself, but it cannot change itself.
And this is really critical for believers to get a hold of. And here's why: because what happens is when a lot of people get saved, they're not really, really explained to them what happened to them at salvation. They're essentially told, "Listen, Jesus died for you, he forgave your sins, now you need to live for him." That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. Because Jesus did more than forgive our sins, much more, as we've seen. And the issue is that now, "All he's done for me, now what can I do for him?" Though that is true, what happens is if it's "what he died to forgive my sin, now you need to do all you can to live for him," in bare minimum, without further explanation theologically and without a firm foundation, people begin to come up with a rules-oriented Christianity and a legalistic approach to following God. So if I do this, and I do this, and I do this, and I do this, then, then it's good with me and God. And if I don't, then it's not. And so they spend all their time fluctuating between those two things. Or for the person who's very disciplined and leads a very straight-up life, they win at keeping the rules. They're just not very nice to be around. Have you ever been around one of those people? They're very good at the rules. They don't cuss, they don't chew, they don't go with girls who do, but you just wouldn't want to hang out with them. You know what I'm saying? And once a person returns back to the law, they've immediately given sin a base of operations in their life, as we saw powerfully in Romans 6 and 7.
Let me just remind you of a couple of things before we jump into the text. Romans chapter 6, verse 22: "But now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life." Three things I want to point out to you on that. First of all, we've been set free from sin. Remember Romans chapter 6, verse 2, "We died to sin." How can we live in it any longer? Paul says, "We died to sin." But sin is not dead. It still resides in our mortal body, and we're gonna talk about that. Second, would you notice he says, "We become slaves of God." And we looked at that. That's a, that is slavery because of our American history and because of the tension within our culture, becomes a very difficult analogy for a lot of people to process in terms of how they think about their service to God. Paul himself, you remember in Romans chapter 6, verse 19, recognizes the analogy has some inadequacy in it. But suffice it to say, we become willing servants of God. We've willingly, wholeheartedly, fully, 24/7, set our heart on seeking God, on following God. It's the desire of our heart that every ounce, every inch, every fiber of our being would be devoted to service to God. That's where Christian has to begin. I just want to use all of me to serve him. And then notice the third thing: "the fruit you get." Not the fruit you produce. Not the fruit you make, because flesh can't produce good fruit. Flesh can only produce rotten fruit. The fruit you get. How did I get it? If I got it, somebody gave it to me. If I got it, it came from somewhere outside of me. Do you follow what I'm saying? In other words, when I am coming to God, recognizing I've been set free from sin, recognizing that, you know what, I am radically, wonderfully changed. I just love the Lord and I want to live for him 24/7. All of a sudden, what happens is there is a sanctifying, there is a holiness, and that leads, that produces the fruit I get. It's holiness. It's righteousness. It's produced in my life by the Holy Spirit.
Let me say this: the Holy Spirit is the key to power in the life of the believer. Not just signs and wonders, but he is the key to power to live a transformed life. And the power that produces fruit in us. Remember the last time we looked at the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience. Galatians 5:22. Without his work in us, there can be no real transformation. Again, I'm not suggesting you and I don't play any part in this. I'm just saying the part that any believer plays in sanctification or salvation is fractional, is minuscule compared to what God does. But the part God plays in your sanctification, in your becoming more like Christ, is so much greater than the part you and I play.
And my concern is that oftentimes evangelical Christians, especially those from a holiness background, have been taught essentially this: "This is the way it's been taught to people. This is who you are in Christ. Now live like it." Which immediately puts the ball in the court of a believer. And any, any sincere believer is going to say, "Well, what does that mean? How do I do that?" And it's immediately gonna default to rules, because now it's like, "It's up to me." And if you come from a background where where you have been trained to think egocentrically about salvation, so it's about when you got saved, the decision you made, and all of that, then your salvation, your sanctification depends on you. And that is a very frustrating place to be. It's a powerless place to be.
But when you understand that God is the one who, long before, in eternity, before time began, was reaching out to save you, and he was lining up everything to bring you to a place where you would respond. The gospel is, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord." So you're gonna have to call on God, I get that. I'm just saying God did a whole lot before you ever, you ever even thought about it, including giving you the faith to believe in him in the first place. I says I just simply am wanting to encourage you because when you understand all that God is doing and all that he is working in you, and you begin to rest on his power and what he's done and what he's doing instead of your own human effort, you'll find yourself living in the Christian life in an entirely different way.
All that to say this: it's critical for you and I to understand that the Holy Spirit is at work making you like Christ. And if we try to do Christian transformation in our own power, in the words of John Owen, the Puritan, "we end up fighting a battle without victory and a war without peace." It's unproductive.
So let's look at Romans chapter 8 and verses 12 through 13. "So then, brothers," a lot of translations say "therefore." In other words, because the Spirit has changed our thinking, because the Spirit has produced life in us, and peace in us, because the Spirit of God lives in us (Romans 8:9), because the Spirit of God will resurrect us. "So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh." In other words, what he's saying is, "I don't owe the flesh anything. It hasn't done anything for me." The idea is, "I owe God something." That when I recognize what God has done, this is the heart of every single believer. That when you recognize what God has done for you, the result is you just want to live for God with all of your heart. When you realize that God, are you serious? He forgave all my sin, past, present, and future. That he took my unrighteousness, clothed me with his righteousness. So when God looks at me, I am, he views me as righteous as Jesus. And that he gave me faith to believe. And that now he's working in my life. If I understand that, if I see all that God has done, and there's no condemnation, and all the things that we've been learning in Romans, all of a sudden, what happens is there should be in the heart of every single believer this desire to willingly, wholeheartedly serve God with all that we have. And we do it not through our own power, but through the power of the Spirit. So the Spirit energizes us.
Verse 13: "For if you live according to the flesh, you'll die." And we looked at that last week extensively, and we saw, you know, the mind set on the flesh, it can't please God. It's hostile to God. Won't submit to God's law. It's death. It's spiritual death. So we're not talking about fleshly Christians in Romans 8. We're either talking about people who are of the flesh because they've not been redeemed, or we're talking about people who are of the Spirit because they've been redeemed. And you simply, what he's saying is, if you live for this life, if you live with a worldly mindset, and all you care about is the world, the world you live in, you're just living for this life, you're gonna die. We're talking spiritual death, eternally hell. So we've covered that thoroughly.
But notice what he says next: "But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body." You say, "What are the deeds of the body?" The deeds of the body would be using our body. It could be our eyes, our ears, what we listen to, what we see, what we say, our hands, what we do, our feet, where we go. If we use it to sin, he said that that's the deeds of the body. When we are, when we are using, you have to put it, your body, the deeds of the body, to death. The sinful deeds of the body to death is what he's saying.
How do we do that? And what, what I want to do is I want to, in the balance, give you six ways by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body. Six ways. So it's not, not lengthy, not very complicated, but I think it's very profound. These are not rules, not "do this, don't do that." This is six spiritual principles. They make a big, big difference in your life.
Number one: Recognize the presence of sin in our flesh or our body. Look at it. Romans 8:13. "But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." So the Spirit is empowering us, but we have to cooperate with him. In other words, we can't just say, "God, take it away." There's some, and you're dealing with a sin of the body. And like, "I, I just, I'm just asking God to take it away." Well, ask on, but that's not how it works. Does God deliver people? Yes, but typically he does it by disciples to grow in him. I've seen people miraculously, in a moment, delivered from an addiction. But more often, I've seen people make a decision to follow Christ and watch the power of Christ over time, radically, wonderfully, powerfully change their life. It's a battle that the believer has to be willing to fight. But we're not fighting in our own power, we're fighting in his power.
But you see this throughout the New Testament. I mean, in Colossians, it says this: Colossians 3, "Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature." And then it lists all kinds of things, everything from impurity and evil and immorality and greed. Says, "You must rid yourselves of all such things as these." Then it goes on, "anger and malice and slander, filthy language from your lips. And do not lie to each other, since you've taken off your old self with its practices." In other words, it's saying, "I'm not going to use my body in sin. I'm going to stop it. I'm going to put it to death. I'm going to identify it, recognize it." John Owen, the Puritans, said this: "Be killing sin, or it will be killing you." Either we deal with sin, or sin has its way in us and destroys our lives. But the Spirit of God wants to empower us. He wants to work in us to help us overcome sin. And one of the things he does is he helps us recognize sin. He is, he is the one who points it out. Because honestly, it could be possible that, obviously, there are some sins that we all understand. Well, that's, and that's sin. But then there's other areas of our life that are maybe sins not of commission, but sins of omission, where there's, there's things that are happening that are not helpful to our walk with God and ultimately dishonor the Lord. What we have to do in those moments is we have to say, "Lord, I need you to show me in my heart, in my life, where sin is present." It's a good thing to ask the Lord. This is what the psalmist is saying in Psalm 139. He says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." God, are there things that I'm doing that dishonor you? God, are there things I'm allowing into my life that are displeasing to you? God, show me what those things are, and let the Holy Spirit guide you.
Number two: Refuse to entertain sinful thoughts. So the Lord begins to work in a heart, he begins to sanctify. Number two, refuse to entertain sinful thoughts. Look at it in James chapter 1, verse 14. "Temptation, when it comes, temptation comes from our own desires." So don't say, "Well, the devil made me do it." Don't say, "Well, you know, the, it's the world, the world is just tempting me." No, temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions, and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death." In other words, what James is telling us is that you have to stop sin at the point of desire. The best time to stop sin is when it enters your mind. I mean, if you, if you either don't check it there and act on it. So I'll give you a couple of examples. So let's say you're sitting around with people, and all of a sudden the conversation turns to gossip. It's about somebody and about what's going on in their life, and it's just gossip. And you know something that no one else in the group knows. And so you're just waiting for somebody to pause so you can interject your juicy little morsel into there and have a little more blood in the water for the sharks to circle. And so you know, you're saying, "Oh, I know this, and I'm gonna," and you're just getting ready. At that point, you've got to stop. You, you're like, "Man, I know I shouldn't do that." Stop. Don't act on it. You need to say, "You know what? That's wrong. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna do that."
Or the minute you're, you know, I'll use social media because I think social media is, for most people, a horrible. You say, "In what way?" I think it has a tendency to create false personas. I think it has a tendency to cause people to get caught up. It creates this dissatisfaction in people's lives because they only see everybody else's perfect life, which really isn't a real life. That's one big problem. I think it has a tendency to feed the ego. So people are looking for, whether they have likes, or how many likes did I get on this? How much did I get on that? I think that can be a very difficult thing for, for a lot of people. And then I think there's a whole host of temptations and things on social media that aren't good for people. Everything from, from whatever would be pornographic things that are on social media, to just simply the way I've watched through my pastoral ministry, people connecting with other people on social media in a way that has damaged their marriage, straight up. I think if you're on social media, you better be very, very careful. You better hold it like a snake, right out at arm's length. I'm not saying don't go on it. I'm just saying don't be unwise regarding the dangers of it.
So what happens, talking about desire, you're sitting there doing your Facebook thing, you're doing your Facebook thing, all of a sudden you see, "Oh, somebody friended me." And so now, the sudden that you're looking and you're thinking, "Oh, this is my, I, you know, we used to date in high school. Wow, imagine that." And so I wonder how they're doing. So you go on their page and you're looking at their life, and you know, you happen to be in your own certain season of life, unhappy, because, you know, what, sometimes life is lumpy, and sometimes there are seasons where you have to work a little harder at your marriage to keep it going, right? So you're, you're not in a great point in your marriage, but they are single, and they friended you, and you're remembering the good times you had, and you're like, "Well, I think what I will do." Listen, don't do it. You got to stop it at the point of your desire. Because your desire is for something. Your desire is to try to feel a need, fill a void in your life that's been created not just by your mate, but by your own actions, your own words, your own inattentiveness. But now you're trying to, you're trying to replace it. You're trying to put something in there. Listen, the desire, you got to start. But at the point of desire, you got to say, "No, I'm not going to do that. I am not going to go that direction." You should have never been on their page in the first place. The minute you saw it, the minute you started thinking, you said, "You know what? I'm not going to do that." If you don't stop sin there, you have very little chance of defeating it.
You're working, you're researching on your computer, something that is, is racy comes up on it. Listen, you got like, you got like a second to make a choice. You got a second to say, "You see it, you're like, 'What in the world?'" Get rid of it. Move away from it. You've got to stop sin at its point of desire. Because if you start, if you start fantasizing, if you start thinking about it, if you start coddling it in your mind, I'm telling you, this is what happens. "Your own desires will entice you and drag you away, and they will give birth to sinful actions, and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death." The Holy Spirit will help you in that moment because the Holy Spirit will say, "Don't do that." The Holy Spirit will be right there saying, "That is a bad idea. Don't say it. Don't go there. Don't click on that. Don't, don't give in. Hey, you're comparing yourself to somebody else." Holy Spirit is going to come and say, "Uh-uh." And you, at that moment, have to refuse sin. You cannot entertain it.
But let me take it a step further. It's more than a part of refusing that desire. We have to go farther than just saying, "Well, I'm not going to look at that anymore." You have to refuse it. You have to rebuke it. And you have to do more than ask God to remove it. You have to ask God to help you hate it. I'm gonna say this because, and I didn't say it quite in this way in the other service. Members say, because I really feel somebody needs to hear this. You're in a situation where you're fantasizing about life with a different person, and they're married, and that's wrong. And the issue for you in overcoming it is not going to be you not thinking about it. The issue for you is identifying for what it is in the power of the Spirit, that that's sin, and having God help you to hate it as much as he does.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this, and I think it's very insightful on dealing with sin at the desire point: "If you merely repress a temptation or this first motion of sin within you, it will probably come again still more strongly." In other words, just to repress it, say, "Well, I'm not going to think about that," is not going to win the battle for you. To that extent, I agree with the modern psychology. Repression is always bad. Well, what do you do as someone? Answer: When you feel that first motion of sin, just pull yourself up and say, "Of course, I'm not having any dealings with this at all. Expose the thing and say, 'This is evil. This is vileness. This is the thing that drove Adam out of paradise.'" In other words, what he's saying is, call it what it is. It's not just wrong, it's evil. And it's not just evil, but evil was so evil, it drove Adam out of paradise. And the rest of us are living in the backwash of his decision. Your sinful decision. That sin has a legacy. It will, it will hurt a lot of people. Realize that. Pull it out. Look at it. Talking about that decision. That sin can. Hate it for what it is. Then you have really dealt with it. You must not merely push it back in a spirit of fear and in a cowardly manner. Bring it out. Expose it. Analyze it. And then denounce it for what it is until you hate it. It's a good word.
You say, "Well, I thought you said don't think on it." You know what you're doing is you're thinking. You're thinking about how totally evil it is, how totally awful it is. And as you're doing that, you're saying, "God, by the Spirit, help me to see sin for what it is. Help me to hate it as much as you do, and as much as you can, and as often as you can." Don't give the enemy an opportunity. Romans chapter 13 and verse 14. Paul's going to tell us, "And don't let yourself think about ways to indulge or evil desires." I mean, if you're, if you're in your free time, your spare time, you're fantasizing about something or you're thinking about something, what you're doing is sin is getting a foothold. By the Spirit, don't let yourself think about ways to indulge evil desires.
Number three: Repent when you have fallen. Here's the fact: "No one's good about a thousand. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Everyone's gone to his own way." The Bible says. So what do you do when you sin? You acknowledge it before God. You acknowledge your situation before God. Psalm 32:5: "I acknowledge my sin to you, and in my iniquity I did not hide. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and you forgave the guilt of my sin."
What happens in that moment? You say, "God's already forgiven me of all my sin." So what do I need? Listen, what you're doing is, God's forgiveness is there, but you need to acknowledge your sinfulness and the violation of what you've done. And at the same time, remind yourself as you're in the presence of the Lord, "Lord, you did this for me. You died for me. You saved me. You redeemed me. And I've done this, and I acknowledge it to you. And I know that God, you have forgiven me of sin, and I'm grateful for that. And I'm a child of God. Lord, help me to live like that. But I acknowledge what I've done, and I want to make it right with you, and I want to make it right with the people I've wronged. God, I'm committed to doing that. And Lord, I'm asking you to free me from the guilt of my sin." And in that moment, what happens to a lot of people is because people don't acknowledge their sin, they never receive the relief from guilt over their sin. And over time, that compounds, and it creates a heaviness in their life, and it, it weighs them down. And then they have other issues in their life that really go back to all of the, all of the guilt of sin that's never been resolved.
Look at it. The Message puts that, "I then, I, I let it all out. I said, 'I'll make a clean breast of my failures to God.' Suddenly the pressure was gone. My guilt was dissolved." When you go to God, it will dissolve the guilt. Now, let me just say this, and this could be, we, you know, there's a lot that can be said. Really, essentially, it could be a whole message. When you go to God, on the one hand, don't heal yourself too quickly. Godly sorrow is a good thing. Godly sorrow doesn't work. It's good to be brokenhearted that you've offended God. If you treat sin lightly in your life, it will be difficult for you to live a life free of guilt. Because over time, you treat it lightly. You say, "Well, it's no big deal." And it'd be hard for you to turn from it. Let God do a work in your heart. Be brokenhearted over your sin. Just don't live there for a long time.
So you say, "Well, which is it? Is it?" It's both. You know, don't do it. Don't move. Don't heal yourself too quickly. And don't sit and wallow for weeks in your sin. But it's good to be sorry that you've hurt the Living God. In terms of the separation, there has been a gulf that's come between you and because due to your actions. That there's, when I say gulf, that's not really the word I want to use. It's good to acknowledge you've offended God. He loves you. He's there. But if you don't acknowledge your offense, you'll never deal with your guilt. And you'll perceive a gulf. So repent when you have fallen.
Number four: Remember to set your heart on God. Set your heart on God. I mean, the bottom line is, what's most pleasurable to your soul? What do you, what do you really care about in life? What's really important to you? What do you think about when you don't have anything else to think about? What is it that drives your life? What is it that fills your heart and your mind? If you're going to live, if you're going to see the Spirit of God work in your life, you've got to set your mind on him. Look at this: "Since, then, you've been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."
Now, people say, "Well, you do that, a person becomes so heavenly-minded, they aren't no earthly good." I have never met that person. I have met people who are so earthly-minded, they aren't much heavenly good. But I have not, I have not seen the other. And I'm just, I'm just simply saying that if you're going to see the Spirit of God work in your life to the degree you would desire, then you have to set your heart and your mind on him. You have to think about the things of God. To that end, that means that maybe there are some things you just have to look at. And there are certain things that any one of us can just have going either in the background or that we can give our time to that keep us from thinking about God. And you say, "Well, I'm not supposed to have any other life other than thinking about God." I probably wouldn't be a bad idea, but I realize that's not practical for most people. Most people want to do some other things. I'm just saying, be very, very careful what you fill your life with. To that end, I mean, I think it's good to think about about how your free time. Let your, put things around you that remind you of God, that cause you to think about God. Whether that's music, whether that's, you know, what, whatever it is that moves you that way. Conversation. In Galatians chapter 5, verse 16: "So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves." Let the Holy Spirit, you know, guide and direct you. Set your mind on him. Set your mind on what God is doing. Yeah, you know, it can be as simple as saying, "Listen, I'm going to, I'm going to think about what God has promised to me. I'm going to think about what God wants to do in the lives of people around me. I'm going to talk to him about that. I'm going to, I'm going to spend time in his presence." Set your heart on God.
Number five: Read the Bible. This is a great verse. Psalm 119:11: "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." So there's something about the Word of God in our life that has a sanctifying effect. Here's something that I've found over the years to be very useful for me. There's times when all of us hit moments in our life where we just realize that that we really just need an infusion. You need, you know, either what comes out of like the fast, you know, when you really set your heart on seeking God. But you just need, you need a freshness to your life with the Lord. Maybe it's a good way to say it. A great thing to do is just listen to the Word of God. Read it. Read the Word of God in large quantities of it, or listen to it. So, for example, just to turn on, just to get the YouVersion on your phone, that's a free app. It's got a bunch of different versions of the Bible. You pick the one you like. Different people reading it. If you like music, there's some that have music under it. And just push play and just listen to the Word of God. It's very interesting what that does to you. It changes you. As it just changes you, it changes your perspective. There is a difference in how you do life. Read the Word and watch the Spirit of God work through that to change your life and to draw you close to him.
Number six: Regularly talk to God. Paul says, "Pray without ceasing" in 1 Thessalonians. Jesus said this relative to defeating sin. He said, "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the body is weak." I mean, we all can have the want to. But what happens is we get out there, and our body is not as strong. Our body is unredeemed. And so Jesus is saying, the way to combat that is to spend time in the presence of the Lord, to pray, to seek the Lord. And as you're spending time with the Lord, and you're talking to the Lord, and you're saying, "God, I'm just asking you to help me." So as you're driving in the car, you're praying. You're saying, "Lord, help me with this. Go before me." You see an accident, you're praying, "Lord, help those people." You're thinking about, you're thinking about your family, you're thinking about your friends, you're thinking about your coworkers. You're praying for them. You're asking God to touch them. You're asking God to help them. As you do that, it will have a sanctifying effect. It will make you more and more like Jesus.
Now, all that being said, let me just say this: When you get to Romans chapter 8, verse 13, "If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." It's not talking about eternal life there. It's talking about you'll experience a vitality in your Christian life. You're gonna experience a joy in your Christian life. You're gonna experience a freshness of your faith in your Christian life. You're gonna experience an abundant, a satisfying life, a walk with God. You're gonna find yourself going from a dry, dusty experience to a time where where you're just like, "Wow, God is very real. God is working in me. God is moving me into a greater experience of his supernatural power working in my life." It's a growing life. It's an exciting life. It's the kind of life by which God does more than we can ask or we can imagine. And it all comes, if by the Spirit, you and I cooperate with him, do the things that will help us to overcome sin in his power, that we might know that exciting, abundant life that he promises to us in Jesus name. Amen.
[Applause]