A New Spirit (April 27, 2008)

April 27 2008

Text: Galatians 5:22-24; Romans 8: 29

Title: A New Spirit

Big Idea: When we have the Spirit of the God we bear the fruit of courage and love (forgiveness).

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What is the most important sign that a person really is a child of God?

I.e. what is the most important sign that a person has moved from the being in the family of “Adam and Eve” and has been reborn into the family of God through the help of Jesus Christ?

Some people would say the true sign that a person really is a child of God is that they embrace truth or correct, “orthodox” Christian belief. Embracing truth and having “orthodox” Christian belief are important, but according to Scriptures that is not the foremost sign that a person is truly a child of God. The devil knows the truth about God, but obviously isn’t part of God’s family.

Others may say that the key sign that a person really is a child of God is that they have had some kind of spiritual experience. Spiritual experience is very important, and if a person really is a child of God, they will have had some kind of spiritual experience, but that is not the preeminent sign that a person really is a child of God.

Still others may say participation in some kind of mission or service is the sign that we are the children of God… This community is known for its involvement in justice and outreach, but participation in mission or service, as important as that is, is not the number #1 sign that a person is a child of God.

The sign, that a person really is a child of God, is that he or she reflects the character and Spirit of Jesus Christ. Paul says in Romans 8:29: 29 For those God foreknew (would come into his family) he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ…

If you’ve been called by God, you’re also destined to become like Jesus Christ.

Paul told the church at Corinth that all those who are the true sons and daughters of God are being gradually transformed into Christ’s image (2 Cor. 3:18). Martin Luther said that the true follower of Christ becomes a “little Christ.”

But what would it look like to become “like Christ”?

Part of what it means to become like Jesus is that we exert greater boldness, greater courage.

In the Gospels we read how Jesus created a whip from some cords and drove out the livestock and then scattered coins of the money changers, turned over their tables, because these money changers were marking up the prices of things that the poor needed to purchase in order to worship God in temple, according to some commentators, by several hundred percent.

We see in Jesus’ driving out the money changers a spirit of boldness and courage.

In Acts 4:31 we read that when the Holy Spirit came upon those new followers of Christ, they spoke the Word of God boldly. When the Spirit of Jesus, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us we will become bolder and more courageous.

In 2 Timothy 1:7, a favorite verse of many, we read that the Holy Spirit has not given us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of courage and of self-discipline.

One of my heroes is William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce is the man featured in the movie, Amazing Grace, the British man who for 45 years fought in England for the abolition of the slave trade. As a young Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, was a rising star… bright, eloquent, well-connected to the Prime Minister William Pitt, the Younger. Wilberforce was considered a leading candidate to become Prime Minister himself, but in 1785, when he was in his mid-twenties, he was powerfully converted to Jesus Christ, and as a result of that, Wilberforce made it his goal, working with other Christians, to see that the slave trade abolished. He knew that standing up in Parliament to oppose slavery would cost him the prime ministership of England, perhaps be an act of political suicide, because slavery was (in inflation-adjusted dollars) a multi-multi-billion dollar industry, considered absolutely essential to uphold British wealth and privilege. But Wilberforce wrote in his journal just before standing up in Parliament to oppose slavery, “My Christian conscience will not allow me to stay silent on this issue.” As a result of his efforts and of the efforts those he was working with, after 45 years of fighting against slavery, the Emancipation Bill was passed in Parliament on July 26, 1833 and millions of slaves across of the Empire were freed and 3 days latter on July 29 night he died…and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

A sign that we are becoming more like Jesus is that we are becoming more courageous.

Another sign that we are becoming like Jesus Christ is that we are growing in our capacity to love. One of the most counter-cultural and practical ways love is expressed is through forgiving others. In the movie, The Passion, I was so deeply moved by the scene where Jesus Christ is nailed to the cross and as he is being nailed to the cross, he cries out “Father, forgive them, because they don’t what they are doing!” One of the distinctive signs that the Spirit of God is at work in us is that we are able to love others, and specifically to forgive them. It does not mean that we are a doormat and doesn’t mean that we don’t hold people to account, but if the Holy Spirit lives in us we will have this new capacity to forgive…

Do you remember the story about Silas O’Brien from Cloverdale? Last month, apparently this 21-year-old guy Silas and two of his friends, Sam Dooley and Luke Stevens, were driving west on 16th Avenue in Aldergrove when they were intentionally run off the road into ditch by an angry man in a white Ford pickup. Driven off the road, but uninjured by the crash, the three young men scrambled out of the muddy ditch. Then the driver of the white Ford pickup truck apparently turned around and raced back. Two of the young men were able to get out of the way, but O’Brien was struck and killed and the driver sped off.

Of course, anyone who read that story was justifiably angry at the cowardice of the person who would hit Silas with his truck and then run off like that. But I was moved when I read the headline in the newspaper that Silas’ parents had forgiven the man who had slain their son, and I immediately thought they must be Christians… and sure enough they are devout Christians who attend a Christian Bible Church in Cloverdale.

For those who are followers of Jesus Christ, there seems to be this pattern of courage and the capacity to love and forgive.

I know this is a generalization, but people who are really bold by nature are often not gracious, or people who are really gracious, caring by nature are often not bold (btw, it’s probably generally true of dogs too. Our dog a Golden Retriever as some of you know is super loving, warm and gentle—but not very tough… I would bet on him in a sidewalk fight with another dog). One of the distinguishing marks of a person who really is a child of God is that they become like Jesus Christ—bold and gracious, tough and tender.

This combination was poignantly manifest in the lives of children who were part of that Amish school tragedy in West Nickel Mines Pennsylvania.
On October 2, 2006, was a dark day for the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. That morning as we know, a very troubled local milkman named Charles Carl Roberts barricaded himself inside the West Nickel Mine Amish School. He was armed with guns and over 600 rounds of ammunition. Roberts opened fire on 11 girls—all less than 14-years-old—killing 5. After these brutal acts, he turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide.
It was a dark moment; but there was also light in the tragic story… there were evidences of courage and love.
According to two of the survivors, when 13-year-old Marie Fisher began to understand what Charles Carl Roberts intended to do in the school room, she calmly stepped toward Charles Roberts and made a plea. "Shoot me first," she said, "and let the other ones go." He opened fire on her. She died.
Immediately after this request, Marian younger sister Barb added, "Shoot me second," she said. She stepped forward was shot, but survived the shooting.
According to Rita Rhoads, a local midwife close to the family of the two girls, their faith also affected their attacker. "Charles Roberts asked the Amish children to pray for him before he turned his gun on himself.” He recognized they had something he did not.
When we are filled with the Spirit of Jesus (this is the key), when we really are children of God, like those Amish children Marian and Barb, we become more like Jesus, we become bolder and more loving than we could be on our own, tougher and more tender that we are on our own.
But how do we become like this? How do we become like Jesus? How do we become the people we are destined to become—conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ?

The Book of Romans tells us that when we give our lives to Christ, Christ breaks the power of our sin nature, our shadow side. He deals it a lethal blow, it isn’t dead, but it doesn’t have the power over us that it once did.

The Book of Romans also tells us that when we give our lives to Christ, we experience the filling of the Holy Spirit… the Holy Spirit is in us… and, accordingly, when we are filled with the Spirit, we will bear in our character the fruit of the Spirit which the Bible describes as the fruit the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control… (in Gal. 5:22-23)…

But how do we encourage the Holy Spirit to pervade our being?
To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that we allow him to occupy and control every area of our lives…How much of you does the Holy Spirit have?
(illustration: bring two glasses of water and two packets of Alka-Seltzer. Drop a packet of Alka-Seltzer, with the wrapper on, into one glass. Then I plop an unsealed packet into the second glass, and watch it fill with fizz.
Both glasses have the Alka-Seltzer, just as all Christians have the Holy Spirit. But notice how you can have the Holy Spirit and not his fullness. Our goal is to live in such a way as to unwrap the packaging around the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us.
How do we unwrap the packaging around the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit?

A big part of the way we unwrap the packaging around the Holy Spirit so to speak is by drawing close to Jesus Christ, to use an expression from the Gospel of John—“ by abiding in the vine.”

Like in a human relationship, whether it is romantic, or otherwise, we can’t completely control our level of intimacy with a person, but we can do certain things to foster intimacy.

One thing we can do to foster intimacy in a relationship with a person is build trust.

Have you ever had a friend or acquaintance lie to you… how did you feel?

How did that affect your relationship?

Have you ever had someone hold back information you had a right to?

How would it feel if two months after being engaged you realized your partner had throughout your relationship also been dating someone else? Or how would you feel if two weeks after being married you found out that your spouse had a 100,000 debt?

Have you ever lied to a friend?

Or have you ever withheld information that your friend had a right to—which is a form of lying…?

When you did that, didn’t that create a sense of distance from that person?

If we want to establish a really close relationship with someone, it has to be build upon a foundation of trust which is built on a foundation of total integrity.

So, it is with God… we know we can trust God… We don’t always understand or like God’s ways… but we can trust God… but can God trust us? God has acted with integrity in relation to us… but have we acted with integrity before God?

One of the ways we draw close is by becoming a person of total integrity… bringing each area of our lives: Sabbath, our talents, our work, our financial lives, our relationships, our sexual lives…. in alignment with the will of God. I want to be pleasing to God, in much the same way I would want to please those whom I love and admire most… I don’t take advantage of God’s kindness and love…

Another way we can become closer to God is by spending quality time together…

Whether it’s a romantic relationship or a friendship in general—we know that we can do certain things to foster intimacy in our friendship. And that so it is with Jesus Christ.

There are certain things that we can do to foster our and deepen our friendship with Jesus Christ.

As Daniel Koromi shared last Sunday, it might be as practical as setting our alarm watch each day for 10 p.m. and taking time to process the day with God… the bad and the good… Tanya Komori shared last Sunday as a mom of a young one--as hard as it is to do--she steals some time alone with God every day… in Scripture and in silence… meditation..

How do you stay close to God?

A third way to stay close to God… is by having friends who are close to God…

I have a mentor whom I stay close with in part because I am friends with people who are close to him.

One of the ways we draw closer to Jesus is by walking with people who are close to Jesus. It’s not just about getting information from these people about Jesus, but absorbing the energy of these people who walk close to Jesus.

I think this is especially important for those of us who live in a place like Vancouver where there is a relatively small percentage of followers of Christ.

I regularly meet people here who say I have no Christian friends… I have many friends who aren’t Christians, but no Christian friends… In a place like Vancouver it really is essential that we do not try to go it alone—that we walk with others who know and love God.

I stay close to my mentor in part because we have mutual friends, but also in part because I fairly regularly introduce people I know who want to connect to an older, mentor figure to him, especially if they are going to his neck of the woods, Charlotte, North Carolina.

An important way we can draw closer to Jesus is by drawing others to Jesus.

For my a wife a big part of what has kept her close to Jesus both when living in Tokyo and Vancouver is helping people, who don’t know Christ, find Christ and/or helping people who are new to Christ grow in Christ… She will often say, if you want to grow as a Christian you must have a baby and take care of one… i.e. a baby spiritually…

It’s when we become a literal or spiritual parent and guide others in things that matter that we can experience transformation…

A man from Australia exhibits this transformation powerfully. Nick Vujicic has drawn close to Jesus and as I think you’ll agree he bears the fruit of the Spirit
Close by showing clip of Man from Australia (if I can).

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)

A New Freedom : Ronans 8 (April 20, 2008)

Romans 8 M4 April 20, 2008
Text: Romans 8:5-13
Title: A New Freedom
Big Idea: We can experience transformation by establish new habits.
Someone recently told me, "This church truly inspires me to be more than I am, and I know that with the help of God I can achieve anything." This person is in a process of making a commitment to Christ and is experiencing change.
A friend of mine told me recently that at her work, when the subject of church comes up, she says, "I go to church every Sunday and, if you want, you are welcome to come with me." She told me that the angle she uses to encourage people to consider coming to church is that coming here makes her, and anyone, a better human being.
In a city like Vancouver, people are not coming to church because it is the expected thing to do, or because they want to be "seen" in church because they think it might give them some kind of social advantage at work. People in Vancouver become part of a worshipping community because they want to experience some kind of transformation.
We at Tenth Avenue Church, to quote Gandhi, want to become the change that we would like to see in our world.
Experts on change like Alan Deustchman, the author of Change or Die, points out that 90% of the time people cannot, or will not, change. I believe that we here at Tenth Avenue Church an exception to that rule. We are a community of people who want to and who are experiencing the life-changing work of Christ in our lives.
We have been in a series here at Tenth on Romans 8. It is a very important passage in Scripture. It deals with how the Holy Spirit brings transformation in our lives. The Book of Romans describes human beings as natural-born sinners. We are descendants of our ancient forbears, Adam and Eve, who sinned in the Garden of Eden, and, as their offspring, we are born in the world as carriers of the sin virus. We are therefore under the "power of sin" (Romans 3:9). Being under the "power of sin" doesn’t necessary mean that we all sin in flamboyant ways, but it does mean that we are born with an inclination to organize our lives around something, or someone, other than God. It might be achievement in work, school, ministry, pleasure, recreational experiences, a relationship, family. What the Bible reaches us in Romans is that we are born into the family of Adam and Eve, so to speak, under the power of sin, but that we can be reborn with the help of Jesus Christ into the family of God.
When that happens (to review), Paul tells us in Romans 8 that we are set free from the power of sin. When Jesus Christ died on the cross in a mysterious way that we will never fully understand, our sin nature, our shadow side was crucified with him. Like a boxer who has been punched hard on the jaw, our sin nature through Christ’s work on the cross has been dealt a crushing blow. Our sin nature is not as dominant as it once was. When we give our lives to Christ, Christ’s work on the cross of crucifying our sin nature is made effective for us. When we give our lives to Christ, we receive the greatest of all gifts, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In Ezekiel 36 God says of this new work of His in us:
24 " 'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
We can be made new as we are cleansed from our sins and our idols, given a new heart, and a new Spirit—God’s Spirit.
Paul calls us to respond to this new reality that we find ourselves in. In Romans 6:13-14, Paul says, "Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as instruments of wickedness; rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life."
In Romans 8, Paul says that if we are in Christ, we are not controlled by our sin nature, but by the Holy Spirit, who lives within us.
In Romans 8:12-13, Paul says:
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live…
While we cannot experience deep transformation, unless we experience the mercy of God intervening in our life, we nonetheless have a role, in that we are able to respond to that mercy, to that grace, by establishing new habits…new practices…that are consistent with the way that the Holy Spirit is transforming us.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:7, that we are "train ourselves to be godly". In Philippians 2, Paul says that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling—meaning that we are to work at it, knowing that God is at work within us to will and to do according to his good pleasure. So we are to respond to the Spirit’s work in use by putting into practice the kinds of habits which are consistent with the kind of person that God is transforming us into.
In the Book of Galatians, Paul talks about sowing to the Spirit, rather than sowing to the sin nature. As we sow certain habits, we establish certain neural pathways in our brain that make it easier to act than in the way we have been acting: whether in good or bad way.
When I was in Grade 3, I began taking judo lessons. My mom was concerned that having moved to Canada, which though is general safe country is till relatively speaking more dangerous than Japan (the country where I was born). So my mom thought we would need to know how to defend ourselves. So she enrolled all of the 5 Shigematsu kids in judo, and later in karate. I remember doing drills week after week on how to fall properly (demonstrate?), how to roll properly (demonstrate?). Though that was many years ago, I find that, because I practiced those moves so many times as a kid, those neural networks were apparently established in my brain. So now, if I fall, whether it is on a ski hill or on some ice on the sidewalk, I always tuck my head like this (demonstrate). That neural network has been established.
So it is with us. When we practice certain habits, neural networks are formed and our brain is literally changed. If you are a musician and have trained for years, your brain has changed because of it. Those changes will show up on a brain scan.
As argued is the best selling book, The Brain That Changes Itself. Our brains can be rewired. Only a few decades ago scientists considered the brain to be fixed, or hard-wired. But neural scientists like Oliver Sacks, and others, have demonstrated that, through establishing certain kinds of practices or habits, the brain can actually rewire itself, like a muscle our brain can develop new capacities through training.
Do you know the Delancey Street Foundation in San Francisco? It is a remarkable residence where criminals live and work together as way to prepare to re-enter society after their sentences are complete. Most of them have been labeled psychopaths. They typically enter Delaney, after being involved in crime and violence for years, and with serious addictions to alcohol and drugs. They are usually the third generation of families who have known only poverty, crime and drug addiction. They have never led lawful lives. After staying at Delancey for 4 years, most of the residents "graduate" and live on their own in society. Nearly 60% of the people who enter the program and make it through sustain productive lives on the outside. Compare that to the fact that typically 7 out of 10 of their peers who didn’t go through Delancey, but through the regular prison system, return to a life of crime.
Part of the way they foster change is through relationships, and part of the way ____ change is by getting the inmates to work in businesses owned by Delancey and by volunteer work. Delancey also stresses dressing a certain way, walking a certain way, speaking in a certain way, and through those practices people become new from the "outside in."
Of course, the Bible emphasizes change from the inside out, but, as Paul also points out, we are to offer the parts of our body to God rather than to sin…that we are to sow to the Holy Spirit. We are to do certain things so that we are transformed from the outside in, as well.

Richard Rohr emphasizing this says, "We don’t think ourselves into new ways of living—we live ourselves into new ways of thinking."
There is a couple who were part of our community for quite some time—Daniel and Tanya Komori—their lives have demonstrated the power of establishing new habits with the help of God as a means to experience transformation.
I am asking them to come and share now.
Daniel
I grew up in Calgary as the youngest of 4 children.
If I can pinpoint one experience that has shaped and defined much of my life, I would say it was an event that occurred when I was 12 years old.
During the summer of ’91, my oldest brother who was 17 at the time drowned in a river. He had just graduated high school and was the person I had looked up to most in my life.
When he died, my world really lost a lot of its color and joy.
I didn’t know how to handle this trauma, and there was nobody around me at the time to bring me any comfort.
My family never grieved together and I never saw my own father cry about the death.
And so I responded the same way.
I completely detached from my heart and emotions and they got buried in some deep cavern inside.
With nowhere to go I buried my heart.
As a result, I became a shell of a person, not knowing how to feel, and not knowing how to care about others or to let myself be cared for.
From that point on in my life, I turned to one addiction after another.
My addictions began first with drowning myself through the use of media and entertainment.
I would play video games endlessly, watch movies, and always be listening to the radio and having earphones in my ears.
But soon after, I also developed other addictions.
I was introduced to pornography, which became a hidden place of fantasy and shame for many years.
I also became quite heavily dependent on alcohol and drugs, so much so that I used substances on a daily basis and didn’t know how to feel alive in any other way.
I lived for years this way, and developed longstanding patterns of turning to my addictions in times of loneliness, disappointment, stress, and often simply to escape the dullness of life.
To be honest, as I look back on it now, I just found reality too difficult.
I had grown up in the church and I kept going to church the entire time.
But I never heard God’s voice growing up and I didn’t see how following God would be to my benefit.
But God broke through in my life began a process of rescuing and transforming me from that life for around 11 years now, and it’s still a process for me.
He’s done some amazing things in my life, but I want to highlight some of the ways that I have had to cooperate with God in what he wants to do.
I’m still very prone to addictive behaviors, and I have a tendency of escaping reality, and so certain practices have been vital in sustaining the new life which God calls me to.
Time in Reflection daily with God
My watch alarm would be set for 10:00pm and no matter what I was doing, I would stop and go to an extra room we had set aside for prayer.
For 20-30 minutes, I would go over my past day with God and to especially recall my emotional responses to things. I would recall before God the events of pain and joy.
Example: To recall feelings of rejection or aloneness, and to allow myself to feel those things in God’s presence.
To recall feelings of gratitude I had for interactions that day. Ways people had blessed me and spoken life giving words to me. And to let my heart feel FULL because of that.
This regular practice helped me to really connect with God with my heart as I began to know God’s love and presence with me so that I could face reality more.
In doing this regularly for a season of my life (I still do it but not as often) I live with a warm heart towards others and I don’t sink back in fear behind a posture of detachment and isolation.
The gradual practicing of God’s presence with me lessens my need to feel I want to escape from pain and difficulty as I discover God’s care for me in the everyday things.
That he truly cares for my emotions and my heart.
God’s essential love for me gives me a safe grounding out of which I have the freedom to live.
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Accountability
Because of my habits of turning to fantasy and sensuality in my times of need, I have built in the habit of meeting with someone for accountability.
I don’t have enough integrity in and of myself, and so I need someone to keep me grounded in truth and in being honest.
Accountability for me is the practice of being known in my struggles and to not stay hidden in shame about my weaknesses.
It provides a regular structure of confessing my sin to and to keep little failures and deviations from becoming big ones.
Nipping the sin in the bud so to speak.
The practice of having to admit my areas of weakness and failure on a regular basis is humbling, as I have to acknowledge who I really am and my actual powerlessness over my sin. But it keeps me from the illusion of my self-sufficiency and of seeing myself as more powerful than I really am.
I need have needed and continue to need these practices to keep me in the process of transformation.
Tanya
I grew up in a Christian home. When I was growing up, I quickly discovered the world of boys and I found that I was happy and felt fulfilled when I was around them. I wasn’t able to see it then, but as I look back, I can see how these relationships were motivated by my need for affirmation and love. These needs of affirmation and love are good and valid, but I chose to fill them by seeking it from men instead of God.
I went from relationship to relationship and was really blinded by my deep needs, so much so that it led me to stay in unhealthy relationships. It was in one of these relationships, that I was sexually abused. Despite the abuse, I continued to stay in the relationship because my need outweighed what I knew to be right. I eventually became pregnant and right when I found out, even though I was against abortion, I knew I had to have an abortion. It was like I was in a trap and the only way out was to cut off my leg.
Growing up, our family was really big on appearances and doing things that would make everyone believe we were the perfect family. And if you knew me then, I was the poster child for good Christian girl. I did everything that I was supposed to do and said everything I was supposed to say. And so, I was afraid of shame for not only on myself, but more so on my family. I couldn’t bear how my dad would look at me if he were to have found out, so I planned for the abortion in secret and said that I would take this to my grave. I shut down my emotions of knowing I was ending a life and that it was wrong. Shortly after, instead of finding time for myself to process what had happened, I chose again to be in another relationship where I found affirmation and love because it was easy. It was easier to numb my pain with someone than to actually face reality.
I remember my mom saying to me once that God doesn’t let go…and so even though I continued to keep up the appearance of going to church, inside of me, I had let go of God and tried to forget Him.
It was during this next relationship that I began to attend a women’s small group where I began to hear God’s voice again and He proved my mom right. He didn’t let go, and he wouldn’t. After attending the small group for a while and finding good and healthy relationships there, I chose to listen and obey God to end the relationship because I finally decided to choose God, to say yes to Him, even though doing so meant doing things that would cause me hurt and pain in the short run. This time in my life was very hard because all the emotions I had shut down from the time of my abortion came to the surface again, but although it was very hard I knew that God was with me. There were stretches of time spent grieving and grieving, but also during this time I became very aware of choices that I had made in my life to get to that point and I started to make some choices to be consistent and obedient.
In particular, I began to spend time in silence everyday to actually hear myself and to know what was going on in my heart. The reason this was so important is that I have the tendency to surround myself with people and busyness which blocks out any pain or hurts that I may have. So being silent for a time every day helped me to not only hear myself, but to hear God again and again and to give him space to speak to me.
Also, I learned the habit of sitting and meditating on a passage of scripture for a period of time. This practice was very important to me as I have the tendency to read something and quickly jump to what I think God may be saying, but really miss the mark. So learning to allow myself to slow down and listen while reading scripture has helped me really hear God.
Even though life has changed a lot since that particular time which was around 8 years ago (as now I’m married and have a baby), and silence and solitude has been harder to find, I still need these regular practices even more to stay rooted in who God says I am.
Close in prayer

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)

A New Master (Rom 8) (Apr.13, 2008)

Message Notes: Romans M3

Text: Romans 8:5-13

Title: A New Master

Big Idea: When we are in a relationship with Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin, but servants of Christ.

How many of you have seen Steven Spielberg’s movie Amistad?

It’s based on actual historic events.
Amistad is the name of a slave ship traveling to the East Coast of North America in the 1830s. It is carrying a cargo of once free Africans who have been abducted and sold into slavery. The conditions are absolutely horrible for the slaves and the captain has had 10 to 15 African men thrown overboard to lighten the ships load. Then Cinque, who was a tribal leader in Africa, breaks free of his chains and leads a mutiny and takes over the ship. They continue to sail, hoping to find their way back to Africa. After two months circling at sea, the ship is captured off the East Coast of our continent and the Africans are put trial on for rebelling against the crew.
Show the movie clip:
There’s a deep cry in the human spirit to be set free….
We human beings long to be set free from tyranny outside of ourselves as we saw in Cinque’s plea, but we also long to be free from tyranny within ourselves.

We long to be free from the things that imprison us from within:

Free from the tyranny of temptations that pulls us away God and into the worst parts of ourselves…

Free from tyranny of things that bring short-term pleasures, but leave us feeling emptier than before…

Free from the tyranny of bitterness, guilt, or shame

Free tyranny of fear and insecurity…

In the movie clip we saw Cinque, the slave, browsing a book containing pictures of a holy man who suffered much, was executed, returned from the dead, and showed people who were suffering the way to freedom in the kingdom of God. Without ever having heard a sermon, the slave finds hope in Jesus. Through the film, Cinque notices at various times the cross around him, and it brings him powerful hope.

The cross can bring us hope to.

In a mysterious way we will never fully understand, when Jesus Christ was nailed to that Roman cross we were set free.

How so?

One of things Jesus’ death on the cross sets us free from is our sin nature.

When Jesus died on the cross--our sin nature, our shadow side, was also nailed to that cross with him.

When we will give our lives over to Christ, the Bible tells in places like Romans 6 that our sin nature, our shadow side, is crucified with Jesus Christ.

Part of what this means is that our sin nature, our shadow side, though not dead, like a boxer severely weakened by his opponent’s punch, does not have the same power to be able to dominate us as it did before.

When we give our lives over to Jesus Christ, we are transferred from being part of the family of Adam and Eve, our ancient forbears who sinned in the Garden of Eden and from we inherited the sin virus, to being in the family of God. When we give our lives to Christ, we are move from the position of being under the power of sin to being set free. When we give our lives to Christ, we are taken from a place which the Bible describes as being “in the flesh” (which means vulnerable to all kinds of temptations to sin) to being in the Spirit.

That is why Paul says in Romans 8:1 that “those who are no longer in the realm of Adam, but in the realm of Christ, experience no condemnation” because those who are in Christ have experienced the forgiveness of sins, but the crucifying of their sin nature, and a new life that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit.

(transition) Then as Paul continues through Romans 8, he calls to think and live in way that consistent with our new status in being in Christ and our new nature… and Spirit.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Romans 8:5

In Romans 8:5-13, Paul says:
5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind controlled by the sinful nature [a] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The sinful mind [b] is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature but are in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life [c] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of [d] his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
In verses 5 and 6, the Apostle Paul is contrasting the person who is in the realm of Adam (the person who does not know Christ and under power of sin) to the person who is in Christ.
Paul says the person in Adam lives according to their sinful nature.
The person in Christ, however, lives in a way which is consistent with what the Holy Spirit desires. In verses 9 and 10, Paul makes it very clear that if we are in Christ we are not controlled by our sinful nature, but by the Spirit of God.
Now some of us may object here and say, “But I know some people who are not connected to God, but they are pretty good people.” And some of us might say, “In fact, before I began a journey with God, I too was a pretty good person.”
In the past a couple of weeks ago, I’ve said if we define sin only in dramatic terms such as doing drugs or sleeping around or stealing or murdering people, we may not regard ourselves as sinners. But as Soren Kierkegaard rightly points out in his book, Sickness Unto Death, the essence of sin is to put our identity or security in something or someone other than God. We intuitively know that we are made to put something other than ourselves at the centre of our existence, we know that the centre of our solar system ought to be God or something greater than ourselves. But we tend to build our identity on our achievement—achievements around work, or school, or pleasure, on money, or on a human being, on a family. The essence of sin is to build our lives on something or someone other than God. It’s human nature do that and when we do that we break the first, and most important commandment of having no God, but God…having no idols.
When a person truly gives their life over to Christ, their life become less centered on themselves and more centered on God. If we are in a relationship with Christ, we will also find that the power of sin is broken in our lives, that we are no longer under its power in the same way, but under the power of Christ and led by the Holy Spirit.
What Paul is saying in Romans 8 is this: If Christ is really in you, then your sin nature has dealt a lethal blow and the Holy Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead (vs. 11) is alive in you, giving new life to you. Therefore, he says in verse 12, we have an obligation to live not in compliance with our old sinful nature, if you live according to it, we’ll experience death, but we have a call to live in consistent of the Holy Spirit who lives with in.
A highly respected commentator on the book of Romans, Tom Wright, gives us a concrete image of what it is like to be controlled by Christ, as opposed to by flesh. I am going to paraphrase his illustration.
Imagine that you don’t have a lot of money—you are just barely scraping by financially and you find yourself renting an inexpensive apartment. It is a “hole in the wall,” but the only place you can afford. You discover that your landlord turns out to be a real bully. He barges into your apartment and demands that you pay extra money for heat when it is supposed to be included in the rent money, but he is so hostile and intimidating that you cave in and pay the extra money for the heating even though supposed to be included in the rent cost. And you really can’t afford to do that. Not only does he charge you extra but he also demands that, because you are paying such little rent for the apartment, you need to help him with him with various tasks in the building (doing some of the accounting work, doing some of the gardening). Again, this is not in the contract, but because your landlord is so intimidating, and so prone to violent outbursts, you cave and you do it. But what bothers you most of all is that the landlord has a habit of barging into your apartment while you are taking a shower, and keeps pressuring that you offer some sexual favors because you are getting a good deal for this little studio. You seem to be stuck. You do not have the money to move anywhere else and the only alternative seems to be that you would be sleeping in a park somewhere.
And then to your great relief, a wealthy aunt of yours discovers your plight and transfers several thousand dollars to your account so you can pay off whatever rent remains on your apartment and you find a new place. You pay off your obligation to your landlord…you owe your land lord nothing; you find a new apartment, nicer, cleaner, more spacious than before.
But to your horror, a few days later, the old landlord, shows up at your new apartment and barges in. He is angry and demands that you pay him more money and that you help him with some of the accounting work that he needs to get done. You are strongly tempted to do some of what he demands—to do some of that accounting work, just to get him off your back. But you know that you are not his tenant any more. You have seen the paper work. You have seen the final bill. Nothing more is owed. Perhaps you are trembling, but you get up and tell him to leave…to go home…he has no claim over you.
And what Paul is saying in Romans 6, 7 and 8 is that now you are in Christ, remember that you are no longer under the power of sin, but that you have been set free by Christ. You are no longer in Adam. You are in Christ. You are no longer under the power of the flesh, but under the power of the Holy Spirit within you. You have a new landlord and master—Jesus Christ.
You are free from the domination of sin which is a priceless gift… through the power of cross and the Holy Spirit…
Like actual slave who are set free in history, at first you may not really believe you’re free, but if you are connected to Christ you are free… you under the power Spirit..
You are no longer a slave to (fill in the blank) _________ whatever may have defined you in the past…you are no longer a slave to lust, anger, bitterness and their twins shame, guilt, self-doubt, fear… you are free…
If you belong to Christ, your sin nature, your dark side is not your master, it has been crucified with Christ, severely weakened… they are not your masters… you are filled with the Holy Spirit… When you are tempted to do something… you can say to yourself it is not my nature to do that…
You are no longer a slave to whatever may have defined you from you family tree… some kind of abuse…. Some kind of pathology.
When the governor of New York Eliot Spitzer was busted for his soliciting… high end prostitutes, racking up fees of $80,000, my wife and I talked about it… Could I be tempted to become a client of the Emperor’s Club VIP….? I said if I get an $80,000 invoice you’d better ask me about it… As I look at my family tree, I see powerful and influential men, who thought they were entitled to have extra-martial relationships… I could rationalize this kind of behavior is part of my “family genetic inheritance”, but I am now in Christ, so I say to myself, to myself, that is not who I am… to act that way, would be not consistent with my new nature in Christ… My new nature is to be faithful to God and to one I’ve promised to be faithful to.
We are free…
Let’s a take a moment to pray: Do you need to say to yourself in the presence of God, I am free from __________. It doesn’t mean you’ll never be tempted and that you’ll never struggle and succumb, but perhaps in this holy moment to you to declare are free from _____________.
We have been freed from the old slave master of sin, but not just that, we have been delivered to a new master who purposes for us are good… and enobbling…
In Romans 6:17 Paul says:
17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance (cross the Spirit). 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
When our lives are joined to Christ’s our sin nature been crucified are filled with the Holy Spirit and it is our new nature to love and serve this new master, Jesus Christ… we can be made new.
Wayne Codeiro is a pastor who serves in Hawaii and who encouraged me as I was beginning my work here Tenth.
Wayne says “When I was dating my wife, Anna, one thing I admired about her was her love for sports. I love sports too, but there are two sports I don't like. Forgive me if you like these, but I don't.
The first is bowling. I can't understand it. You pick up this cannonball and throw it on this beautiful maple floor that's tilted. And it goes down and disappears, thank goodness. All of a sudden—swbump!—it comes back again. You throw that thing down again, and it goes down and disappears. All of a sudden—swbump!—it comes back. All night you're trying to get rid of it. Finally when you're done and you try to leave, they make you pay for throwing that ball down on the ground. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
The other is roller-skating: four wheels, none of them turn, and they expect you to go around in circles.
This is a true story. On our first date, I knocked on Anna's door. I was so excited. I said, "Where would you like to go tonight?" She said, "Do you like bowling?" And she picked up her own bowling ball. She had her own bag. Now, I was in love, so when she asked if I liked bowling, my answer was, "I love bowling." And we went bowling all night. We had a great time.
The next week I knocked on her door. I said, "Where would you like to go this week?" She picked up her skates. She said, "Do you like skating?" I said, "I've been waiting for months for someone to ask me go skating. I love skating." And we skated all night.
We’ve all been influenced to become new in some way because we’ve loved someone…
Falling in love with Sakiko has instilled a greater love for dogs and art because she loves both dogs and art… When my siblings were meeting Sakiko for the first time, and we were talking about dogs, one of my sisters, said “Ken, your not a dog lover.” I said, “I am now.” I’ve told Sakiko, as a single person, I could not imagine, using our vacation time to visit art galleries. But we did just that a couple of years ago. I enjoyed that.
When we have Christ as our master, we are made us new and we experience a new love for things….
This quote has been attributed to Father Pedro Arrupe…
Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything.
As become people who not only realize we are set free from sin, but who love Christ we can be made new…
Whether you are female or male…
Single or attached you can become a person whose first love is Jesus Christ…
And a person who is therefore free from sin and new in Christ.

(The seron can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)

A New Nature: Romans 8 (April 6, 2008)

Romans 8 M2

Title: A New Nature

Text: Romans 8:1-4

Big Idea: We can change because Jesus breaks the power of sin and breaths His spirit into us.
Change or Die, what if you were given that choice for real?
What if a well-informed, trusted figure said you had to make difficult, lasting changes in the way you think and act? And if you didn't, your life would end soon. Could you change when it mattered most?
According to Alan Deutschman, author of Change or Die. The scientifically studied odds are: nine to one. That's nine to one against you.
Dr. Edward Miller, who has served as the dean of the medical school and CEO of the hospital at Johns Hopkins University has said that patients with heart disease is so severe that they must undergo heart bypass surgery, temporarily relieve chest pains but rarely prevent heart attacks or prolong lives. About half of the time, the bypass grafts clog up in a few years… the angioplasties, in a few months.
According to Dr. Miller many patients could avoid the return of pain and the need to repeat the surgery and arrest the course of their disease before it kills them--by switching to healthier lifestyles. But, very few do. Dr. Millers says, "If you look at people after coronary-artery bypass grafting two years later, 90% of them have not changed their lifestyle… Even though they know they have a very bad disease and they know they should change their lifestyle, for whatever reason, they can't."
Alan Deutschman, citing studies from medicine, business, and social service sectors says that 90% of the time people will not change. Markus Buckingham the author of the popular book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work, asserts that people don’t change at all.
This community seems to be an exception to that general rule. I’ve been encouraged coming out of our recent series on Sabbath and giving to hear a number of people tell me, “I’m starting to take a Sabbath—a 24 hour block of time off work each week or I’m going to start tithing, I’ll give the first 10 percent of my income to God…these are signs that the Holy Spirit is at work in you, but also a sign you are willing to change your life so that it is aligned to God’s will for you. This morning we’re going to look at the dynamic of how a person can change through a work of God in their life… but let me first take a moment to set up the context.

Part of the reason why it is difficult for people to change is that we are born, as I said last week, according the Scriptures, natural born sinners. We born as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, our ancient forebears who sinned in the Garden of Eden and because we are their offspring we carry the sin virus. We human beings have the capacity to do good, but the propensity to do evil. We are told in Romans 3:9 that we are under the power of sin, and in Romans 7 that we are slaves of sin and therefore, under God’s judgment and condemnation.

In Romans 8, Paul describes a person who has been brought into a new realm. The person is in the no longer in the “realm of Adam and Eve, but in the realm of Jesus Christ; no longer under the power of sin, but set free.” So Paul says of this person “therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Romans 8:
Life Through the Spirit
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful humanity to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in human flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
If we are transferred out of the category of being in Adam and Eve’s family, and adopted into Christ’s family, we are set free (use chain as prop).
Paul writes in vs. 2 through the work of Christ Jesus and His Spirit we are set us free from the power of sin…
Then in verse 3, Paul says, “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the form of sinful humanity to be a sin offering… And so he condemned sin in human flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”
In verse 3, Paul talks about the fact that the law was powerless to change us.
Why? Because there was something deficient with God’s law? No. As Paul points out in Romans 7:12, the law of God is holy, just, and true. The law of God was powerless to change us because, as Paul says, “It was weakened by our sinful nature.” A law may be perfect, but it may have no effect on us because it is seeking to influence a person who does not have the character and the will to obey that law. We have all had experience--where we’ve known what the right thing to do is, but haven’t done it because had the will to do it…
So what did God do? God became a human being in Jesus Christ to become a sin offering on our behalf.
God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ as he died on the cross. When that happened…when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross and sin was condemned in his flesh… Jesus was crucified, mysteriously sin itself received a death blow.
In a boxing match, when two fighters are fighting, there may come a turning point in the fight when one boxer lands a crushing blow. It may not completely finish his opponent, but it in effect weakens the opponent so that the battle is essentially over.
When the then heavy weight champion of the world, George Foreman fought Mohammad Ali in Zaire, in 1974, Foreman dominated Ali (slide 1), pounding him with punches while Ali’s back was against the ropes. In round eighth round Foreman, though tired, continued taking the fight to Ali. Ali went to the ropes as he had in the rounds before. At the end of the eighth round, Ali caught an overextended Foreman with a combination followed by another stinging one two (show slides 2) the last punch a straight right to Foreman's jaw sent him to the canvas (show slides 3 and 4).
And so it was when Jesus Christ died on the cross. He did not completely obliterate evil in our lives (we know that from experience), but he dealt sin and evil a lethal blow.
When our lives are joined to Christ, evil no longer has the same power over us that it once did.
We can change because Jesus’ death on the cross breaks the power of sin.
Through his death on the cross, Jesus dealt sin a lethal blow, and he also opened the door for us to become people in whom the Spirit of God dwells.
The two are related…
Before the Spirit of the living God can blow through us, the power of sin evil in us first needs to be broken in us. That is exactly what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross. Sin was dealt a death blow in us and the door swung open for the wind of the Holy Spirit to blow through us.
We can change because Jesus breaks the power of sin in us and breaths His spirit into us.
What Paul is describes in Romans 8 is the new covenant, or the new way in which God now relates to his people. This new covenant is described in Ezekiel 36:24-27 (slide):
24 For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Ezekiel prophesizes there will come a day when God would sprinkle us with clean water and that we would be clean. The day when we will be cleansed from all our impurities and idols; when God would put a new heart and a new spirit in us, and he would move us to follow his decrees and be careful to keep his laws.
The reason that we can become new is two-fold:
Jesus’ work on the cross breaks the power of sin by absorbing our sin into himself and He breaths His spirit into us.
As a result according to vs. 4, we become people in whom the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met, who live not according old way of the Adam and Eve, the way of the old “flesh” but who live according the Holy Spirit.
Augustine, the great theologian of the church, said that “law was given, that grace might be sought. Grace was given, that the law might be fulfilled.” Law was given…and we couldn’t keep the law so we would seek God’s mercy and grace. Grace (God’s favour) is given so that we might be able to fulfill the law.
The church Father Athanasius said, “Christ became what we are, so that we might become what He is” (2x).
By becoming a human being and taking in his body the condemnation we deserved for our sin, Jesus breaks the power of sin and then breaths His spirit into us so that we become like Jesus, people who naturally, or rather supernaturally fulfill the law because we have been given a new heart and a new Spirit. This process is something that theologians describe as regeneration.

What happens when the power of sin is broken in us and the Holy Spirit is breathed upon us?
When the Spirit of God comes upon us, like the sun shining on a garden, we can see things that we could not see before. When the sun shines upon a garden, a person can see the color of the flowers, the radiance of a green lawn. In the same way, when the Spirit of God comes upon us, we can see things that we never saw before.
John Newton put it in his hymn, Amazing Grace: “I once was blind but now I see, was lost but now I’m found.” “I was blind but now I see.” When a person experiences the life of the Spirit, their eyes are opened and they see new things….they see nature in a new way, as God’s creation…
They also see new things in Scripture—the Scripture becomes a book that is alive and there is a new desire to know and to worship God.
Before I became a Christian as teenager, I really didn’t read at all. But, suddenly parts of Scripture became this living reality to me. The Matthew 5 sermon of Mount, 1 John….
When I first experienced the Spirit indwelling me, my life began to change, it was not complete change overnight but there were some marked differences. For example, as a high school student I swore a lot, but when Christ came into my heart, one of my younger sisters noticed that I had stopped swearing (for the most part), and instead, for the first time in my life, I was singing, singing songs of praise. I was not a good singer then, and I am not now, but that was evidence (somewhat embarrassing for a guy from North Surrey trying really hard maintain a tough guy persona) that something was changing in me.
Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest theologians that North America has ever produced, notes that when a person is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they experience a new sense of love for God that is qualitatively different from they have experienced before. Edwards compares the two kinds of love, that kind of love the person had before and after conversion, to the loves that different people might have for a certain fruit (Use prop.)
Theologian Gerald McDermott extrapolates on this by asking us consider a person who is born without the sense of taste, and the second person very much enjoys sense of taste.
The first person, let’s say, could love a mango because of its beautiful colour and rich fragrance, but the other person loves a mango because of its colour and fragrance but primarily because of its great taste. Their “loves” are qualitatively different. It’s not that the second person loves mango more than the first but the second person’s love for the mange is of qualitatively different kind from that of the first person. So it is for the love of a person who has been regenerated with the Holy Spirit. A person who has not been regenerated can have some admiration for God or for Jesus Christ, but their love for Jesus Christ will be qualitatively different…
One of the signs that we have experienced the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is we have new and qualitatively different love for God…
When the Spirit of God comes to indwell us, though some people say it’s impossible for human beings to change, we actually can experience change.
Dr. Gerald May, a respected psychiatrist who wrote the wise and beautifully written book, Addiction and Grace (hold up) says when he was a young doctor said, “With all the energy that might be expected of a young doctor, I applied my best psychiatric methods to the treatment of addictions. None of them worked.”
Then May did some informal research. He identified a few people who had overcome serious addictions to drugs and alcohol and asked them how they did it. “All of them described some sort of spiritual experience,” he reports. “They said that they had gotten some professional help, but this was not their source of healing. What had healed them was something spiritual. It had something to do with turning to God.”
All testified to a power that came from outside themselves. (It is interesting also to note that in AA one of the steps in breaking the addiction cycle is to seek help from a higher power.)
Sound what happened to Augustine? A voice that came to Augustine when he was sitting in his lawn garden in the summer of AD 386. Augustine had battled the demon of sexual lust for years. He knew in his heart that sexual purity was right, but he was afraid that life without sex would be unlivable. Some years before his conversion, he prayed, “God make me pure… but not yet.”
Then one day, through a child’s voice… (who was nowhere to be seen) Augustine heard the words, “Tolle Legge. Tolle Legge. Take and read. Take and read.” He picked up a New Testament lying nearby, and the first passages on which his eyes fell said, “Make no provision for the flesh to gratify its lusts.” And through these words shone “a light of relief from all anxiety and all shadows of doubt were dispelled.” He became free through the grace of God that came to him outside himself. Augustine found the joy of freedom far outweighed the pain of sexual abstinence. For years, Augustine had tried to break on his own the power of sexual addiction but had failed. Only by God’s grace was he able to do it.
Our Cambodia vision team just came back to Vancouver. I was sharing how last year when I was on the vision trip from our church we had dinner with the staff of a Christian NGO called Food for the Hungry. One of the people we had dinner with that night was a Cambodian staff person who worked for Food for the Hungry.
Most people in Cambodia are not Christians; most are nominal Buddhists. How did this Cambodian staff member come to know Christ? The Cambodian staff member prior to joining Food for the Hungry had worked as a pimp. The young man described how he had been servicing a number of hotels as people working with the UN and a number of other NGOs had come into town. The pimp went around to each of the hotels, taking orders from people working with the UN and other NGOs for prostitutes. He was going door to door, asking people if they wanted someone working in the sex trade to service them. Pretty much everyone was saying “yes, yes. Bring me one tonight.”
He was doing a good business, but there was one man from Africa who declined night after night. This man from Africa really stood out because he was the one person who kept saying no to the pimp. The pimp was intrigued as to why this man from Africa would refuse a prostitute. So he went back to the man’s room and asked him, “Why don’t you want a prostitute?” The man Africa said, “My God will not allow me to do that.” The pimp asked him, “Who is your God?” And the man from Africa described how he had come into a relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ. As a result of that testimony the pimp gave his life to Christ and is now serving Food for the Hungry in Cambodia, massive pay cut….
Though… not nearly as dramatic my story has some similarities… As a teen, like many teens, I used to like drinking, getting high, wanted to look at Penthouse Magazine… I remember I assigned one of my good friends and teammates of the football team to buy a Penthouse magazine at 7-11 while I guarded the door to watch out for his parents… But after giving my life to Christ—I didn’t want be seen as a stick in the mud,--but I didn’t to get drunk, get high on drugs, I didn’t want to look at those magazines… I didn’t know anything about the Bible, but I intuitively knew these would compromise my new relationship with God.
Sometimes the evidence of the Spirit’s life is doesn’t deal with such a dramatic sin.
My wife, before becoming a follower of Christ, was a journalist with Newsweek. I find this hard to imagine, but according to her she had the ability and the tendency occasionally to eviscerate and take people down through her words (like some journalists do). Sometimes she used that skill in the context of a news story and at other times in the context inter-personal interactions. When Sakiko gave her life to Christ, her mom and sister who were then not Christians, noticed she stopped doing that and became kinder and gentler in her use of words.
When we recognize who God is, and we experience his forgiveness, which is made possible through the cross of Christ, not only will we not fulfill the desires of the flesh, but we will become people whose transformed lives can only be explained by the presence of the Spirit of God in us.
We can change because Jesus breaks the power of sin and breaths His spirit into us.
The change we can experience is not primarily about will power… though habit formations do matter as we’ll see later in the series, having a new nature….
Jonathan Edwards explained this new nature through the analogy of a pig. “A pig,” he said, “is filthy by nature. It loves to play and wallow in filth. A farmer may wash the pig one day and make it clean on the outside. He may even tie a fuchsia bow (show photo of pig) around its neck and make it look pretty, but that pig’s true inner nature is still to roll around in the nearest pile of mud getting as dirty as it can. Similarly we begin our lives pointing to Adam with a natural inclination to sin. We can try on our own efforts to avoid sin. In some areas of life we can achieve success. We can live outwardly moral lives and be well respected in the community, but no matter how much we are esteemed decency we know our identity and security in something other than God: achievement, money, people… But if the pig can experience a change of nature, there is hope for the pig. Put in a desire for cleanliness in that little pig’s heart and we’ll seek water rather than mud. And in the same way, when a person’s inner heart is transformed by the Holy Spirit, the outer life will change, as well.”
But this change does occur gradually. It doesn’t happen overnight. Even Augustine, the great theologian, admitted that, even as an older person, lust continued to be alluring to him. But we can change because Jesus breaks the power of sin and breaths His spirit into us.
Has this change happed for you? If not Seek God with all your heart… Imperfect as I am, as prone as I am occasionally to doubt, I know as surely as I stand it has happened for me—something from the outside has entered me and then changed me from the inside out…
One ways we seek God is by coming to his table and feeding on him in our hearts by faith….

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)