April 5-7, 2014 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Romans 8:11-18 “THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE!”

LENT 5

April 5-7, 2014

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Romans 8:11-18

“THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE!”

1.     So we can put to death our sinful nature.

2.     So we can live now as the children of God.

3.     So we have something to look forward to.

Romans 8:11-18 (NIV 1984) “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 through his Spirit, who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers, 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, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ""Abba," Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

          Death. It’s a reality. Something everyone has to deal with. Like taxes. Have you filed yours yet? Death isn’t easy to deal with. In the Gospel lesson you heard how Mary and Martha struggled at the death of their brother, Lazarus. In the Old Testament reading Ezekiel was presented with a vision of dry bones that represented the spiritually dead nature of God’s people at that time. Death is so final and impossible for us to deal with. How good it is to know that our loving Savior God rushes to the rescue of His people as they deal with issues of death. The Apostle Paul helps us see that in his letter as well. “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 through his Spirit, who lives in you.” The Spirit gives life. Let’s see what a blessing that is.

          First, the Spirit gives life so we can put to death our sinful nature. That’s a must. Paul went on to say, “Therefore, brothers, 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.” Putting to death our sinful nature is a matter of life and death. If you live according to or to please your sinful nature you will die eternally. Our sinful natures are like fires. As long as there is fuel they burn. They never say enough to sinning but want more and more. You see that happening in our changing American society as Jesus is rejected and fear of punishment wanes they type of sins get worse. Teen gangs years ago used to wear leather jackets, smoke, drag race and rumble. Now as more and more live according to the sinful nature they run drugs and shoot people. The immorality of our country years ago showed in affairs and folks jumping the gun before marriage. Now as more in our country live according to the sinful nature we have all that and the more of demanded rights to homosexual activity, we have child predators trolling the internet. It will keep getting worse. People who are living according to their sinful natures keep getting drawn further and further away from salvation in Jesus so that they really can’t tell right from wrong any more. Who sins? So who needs a Savior? The end game for that thinking is Hell. Here is the scary part. We each have a sinful nature that has the ability to lead us away.

          Here is the Good News. With the Holy Spirit we can put to death our sinful nature. That happens on a daily basis when as the Spirit leads us to own up to our sins instead of justifying them and in repentance turn to Jesus’ cross. Assured of our forgiveness we resolve to live for Christ. Don’t let that putting to death be a once a month or once a week thing. Our sinful natures are like weeds in the garden. If you don’t keep at them they take over. The Spirit is our gardener. With Him we cut them out. There are brothers and sisters who can testify that with the Spirit’s help they escaped from their sinful nature’s longing to abuse drugs or alcohol and sexual sinning and many more. The Spirit gives life.

          With Him we get to live as the children of God right now. “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ""Abba," Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.” We know that our country has a history of slave owning. None of us were alive during that time. Sadly many cultures have slave owning histories and slavery continues today. Most of the time slaves are obedient. They have to be or they get punished, starved, beaten. They live in fear. By nature we should live in fear of God. He has the right and power to punish us now and forever. Living and fear and obeying in fear is no fun. Ahh, but the Spirit gives life. He assures us we are the children of God. At your Baptism He was there writing your spiritual rebirth certificate to change things for you, to give you life. That means to enable you to live life now, not in a fear relationship with God, but a love one. Every parent here knows how proud they feel when their children obey willingly. Every parent knows how distasteful it is to get forced obedience by threat of punishment. That’s no way to live. So it is with God, our Father in heaven. He loves us unconditionally so that we will obey as children, out of love, not as slaves out of fear. At times we return to that fear. When we sin, like a naughty child, we may want to hide from Father and not see him when he gets home. But the Holy Spirit points us again to Jesus. Your sins are forgiven. Remembered no more. Yes, you can go to Father, call Him Abba, know that he still loves you unconditionally.

          And that helps with the difficult things in life. There too the Spirit gives life by giving us something to look forward to. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Since the Spirit lets us know we are the children of God we know we have an inheritance to look forward to. Most parents want to give their children better than they had it. Most parents hope they can give an inheritance to their children. That might include some special family mementos. Christian parents want to pass down the heritage of a Christian faith. It also includes something to make their life better in the future. Money. As children of God we have an inheritance better than money, the glory of heaven. And can you believe this? Not only are we heirs of heaven but the Spirit says we are co-heirs with Christ. Not sub heirs under Him the way it seems it should be but co-heirs, right along with Him.

          That best is yet to come knowledge the Spirit gives us so we can deal with hard things in life. Sometimes those hard things are in our bodies, sickness, chronic illness or pain, physical depressions. Sometimes those hard things hit our souls, like when the wicked or those who do wrong seem to prosper, seem to get away with it while those who try things God’s way get nothing. It’s unfair. These are our present sufferings. But the Spirit reminds us that they are not worth comparing to the glory that is in store for every believer in Jesus. I mean just think about what life is like without Him. You come in to the world wrinkly and you leave wrinkly. You come in helpless and leave helpless. You come in with nothing.  You leave with nothing. But the Spirit changes everything. He gives life. You come in with an imperfect body and once you leave your body will be perfect. You come in helpless to do anything pleasing to God but you live with the ability to do the right things for the right reasons. You come in with nothing but you leave with what God really wants and values and that is you, your heart freely given in response to His love for you in Jesus. You may live this life with what seems like not quite enough. In heaven we will have everything.  The Spirit gives life.

          So live with Him. A daily prayer life without a daily dose of God’s word is a one way conversation. Give God a chance to talk, the Spirit a chance to do His work. Only He gives life. He came into you at your Baptism. He works in the Holy Supper. He’s available every day in God’s Word. Spend some time. He gives life. Amen.