Child of God who Lives According to the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:12-17)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” May the same grace and blessing of God be upon the four regional churches worshiping with us, and if there are any people who are new to the church, may this be the greatest time of blessing. We will testify through the Word of God why this is the greatest time of blessing. A human is different from an animal; it’s not because of our intelligence level, it’s because humans have a spirit. Just like today’s praise, humans are created in the image of God, humans cannot live with just a high IQ level. Humans are different from animals because we are spiritual beings, and because God is spirit, the Spirit of God must dwell within our spirit for us to live a normal life. However, as soon as humans are born, we are born with our spirit in a dead state, so we just have our soul and our body. So in other words, our spirit does not have God, but we have our thoughts, our emotions, our mind, and our physical body that is living. Ever since a baby is born, everything they see, hear, and experience becomes programmed into their brain. Then, all of their thoughts, their emotions, their mind, their physical body lives without God.
Then, as they continue to live like this, one day, they get a scar in their thoughts or in their heart, and when a person gets scarred, then by natural instinct, they want to protect themselves, so they try to put up walls around them. There are some people who get scarred, and in order to protect themselves from being hurt again, they avoid people. Or, if someone grew up in poverty, maybe money becomes their goal. If someone is hurt because of their own powerlessness, then success becomes the goal of their life. There are some people who think, “What’s the point of living life, anyway? We’re going to die, so we may as well have fun and enjoy pleasure,” so pleasure becomes the goal and desire of their lives. In other words, people are living their lives for something that is not God; they have their own ideas of their desires, their pleasures, what will make them happy, and they live for that. Because their spirit is dead, Satan enters into humans and drags them along, so we cannot even control our minds by ourselves. Because we are seized and being dragged around by an entity, we cannot control our own mind, that’s the reason why we have mental suffering and mental problems. In that kind of state, people fall into addictions to alcohol, drugs, and gambling. The reason for all of these problems is that we are living our lives without God and we have no other choice. Humans want to be happy so much, but we live without knowing what true happiness is.
1. Debtors (Rom. 8:12)
1) Jesus Christ
(1) Sent in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3)
(2) Condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3)
(3) Redeemed us from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13)
That’s why the Bible gives us the answer today. Why must we believe in Jesus Christ? Because our spirit is dead, the only way for us to save our spirit is by Jesus Christ entering. Sin is not believing in Jesus Christ or God. We are not sinners because we commit a sin; we are born with Original Sin as sinners, and because we are, by identity, sinners, we have curses and disasters, and there is no way for humans to solve this problem on their own. God, Who has no sin, must come to earth and die to pay the price of mankind’s sin for us to be saved. That’s what we say, that Jesus Christ has redeemed us or atoned for us, He has bought us with the price of His death. Just as in the past when a master would buy a slave with money, and now, that slave belongs to the master, Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the price of our sins and has bought our lives.
2) Those who live according to the flesh – Death (Rom. 8:13)
(1) Those who live according to their sinful nature
That is why in Romans 8:12, it says we are indebted to Christ, we have an obligation to Christ because Christ died on the cross to pay the price of our sin, so we are obligated to Jesus Christ because He has bought us with the price of love. So then, how must we live going forward? It is not to live to the flesh, but to live according to the Spirit.
(2) Those who live according to the greed of their flesh
Then, what is the difference between living for the flesh and living for the Spirit? Living by the flesh means that you live without God, by your own desires and your own ways. In other words, instead of living for Jesus Christ Who is within us, we instead live for our desires and our greed; that is living for the flesh.
(3) Those who are dragged by the devil
The devil is continuing to lie to us, to drag us in that wrong direction by telling us that this is truly valuable and that this would make us happy, so we are being deceived and dragged without us even realizing it, but the Bible tells us, if we live like that, we will surely die. Yes, our physical body will always die, but I’m talking about the spiritual death.
3) Those who live according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:13)
For saved children of God, they must live as the saved children of God. The Spirit of God lives within us. A “nonbeliever” is someone who does not have the Spirit of God. The spirit is invisible and you cannot touch it; however, it exists. We cannot see electrical currents, but they are there; that’s how you can talk on the phone. Just because it’s invisible doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. God is Spirit and human beings are created as spiritual beings. So, the fact that we’re created in God’s image means that we were created to be in communion and fellowship with the Spirit of God. Then, the Spirit of God begins to work upon our thoughts, emotions, and heart, then your physical body will move according to that spirit of love, and it says the work of God is life and peace.
(1) Put to death the misdeeds of the body (Rom. 8:13)
(2) Earthly nature – Greed and covetousness (Col. 3:5)
(3) Life and peace (Rom. 8:6)
Do you have peace? If you receive the control of the Holy Spirit, then Christ Himself is life and peace. The life and peace of God will control our thoughts, our heart, and our emotions. Then, that life goes all the way into our physical body and even saves, physically. Everybody can get a disease or sickness, however, it also means that there’s a lot of stress and oppression on our thoughts, our heart, and our mind—in other words, our soul. If people live their lives under a lot of stress, it affects their nervous system negatively, and that is related to our physical health. Then, our nervous system is in trouble, our autoimmune system is in trouble, it affects our physical state. This is what makes up a human, however, if the Spirit of God comes into my thoughts, my heart, and my emotions with life and peace, then I will come to life. This doesn’t only affect our spirit and soul; it goes into our physical being as well, that’s how we were created to live, and that’s why He saved us.
So, if we want to talk about what true happiness is, it is the life and peace of God controlling us. We cannot create our own peace, the peace of Jesus Christ is transferred to us, on the other hand, there are also evil spirits that are influencing us, that’s why there are evil spirits of lust and theft; these are all spiritual influences, why? Because humans are spiritual beings. This world does not teach you spiritual things. This world tells you how to live a physical life. So, they teach you to follow your physical desires but because our spirit is dead, our mental state is in trouble.
If your spirit is not saved, your mental condition cannot be restored. If you have a mental problem, or a problem with addiction, it means that it actually started as a problem in your spirit. The Spirit of God works to restore love for God and love for people. If the relationships with the people in my life keep on breaking down, it means that my spiritual relationship with God is broken, too. It’s because you were so strongly living, centered on yourself. We were supposed to have a stronger relationship with God, but instead, I love myself more, then what happens? Then we ourselves cannot endure it, so human beings that were created in God’s image were created to live centered on God.
Therefore, live by the Spirit; our thoughts must be aligned to match God’s Spirit. If our walk of faith is not working out or our lives continue to face the same difficulties, more aligned with our greed and our desires. Then, our spirit dies and our mental state becomes afflicted. If we have problems in our mental state, then of course, we have problems in our physical body, too. So, you try to stop doing something, but it’s hard. Then when you get married, it gets harder, because when I was alone, I just had to deal with myself, but now, I have to adjust to somebody else. Marriage itself is hard, but then, I’m trying to exist in society as well, and now I’m adjusting to everybody? It’s even harder. And then, one day, you’re living like that, but you receive grace and come to church, and then church is even harder.
What is the standard for something being difficult for you? It’s because this person’s thoughts are not aligned with the spirit of God; it’s still aligned with their old greed. That person is still going to church for money, or they are going to church for their own happiness. Or they go to church for their own healing. It’s all about them so they’re not changing. “Well, then aren’t I important?” We must align ourselves with the spirit of God to be truly free. May you receive the blessing of the grace of God’s Word. If you receive the grace to understand God’s Word, then you will be set free, and I bless you to have that blessing. I bless you again, because if you don’t understand this, it will be very difficult. You will continue to live your life, chasing after your greed. If you think money or pleasure will give you happiness, you’ll chase after that. I must align with God, then God begins to work on me. That blessing is now worship, and continuing that life is our walk of faith.
If you’re able to have worship out in the world, it means that your thoughts and your heart are aligning to God in the world. That’s a life that follows the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but if you don’t align your thoughts to God, then you will align yourself to your greed, so you will live for the flesh, it will cause you death. A lot of Buddhist people try to practice asceticism to try to get beyond their greed; they try to get rid of their greed by living an ascetic life, or they try to practice meditation to try to get rid of their greed and their desires. But there’ s no answer there no matter what, because that cannot save my spirit.
What is the reason why people choose a religion? Either they choose it to try to get rid of their greed or they choose it to fill their greed. Buddhism is talking about getting rid of your desires, most religions believe in a God so they can get whatever they want or to fill their greed. But there are many people who go to church and they still think that’s faith, so they pray to get whatever they want, and they say, “When I get what I want, then I’m happy,” and they say, “If I get what I want, that’s an answer from God,” but they live a life of flesh completely. If you received the gospel, that is not the life you live. We are living a much higher level life, a spiritual life, we are no longer living or the visible things, but we align ourselves to the invisible things of God. Then, everything you desire will follow you naturally. The only thing we must do is align our desire with God’s desire.
2. Those who receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14)
1) Those who are contrary to the flesh (Gal. 5:17)
(1) Those who are not under the law (Gal. 5:18)
(2) Those under the law of the Spirit who gives life (Rom. 8:2)
(3) Those who have their minds set on what the Spirit desires (Rom. 8:5)
2) God’s son (Rom. 8:14)
(1) Does not have the spirit that makes you slaves and live in fear (Rom. 8:15)
So again, the Bible says, we did not receive a spirit of fear, but we’ve received a spirit of sonship. So, what does it mean, this spirit that makes us a slave to fear? It means that we’re so afraid, “If I do something bad, I’ll be punished. If I do something good, I’ll be blessed,” that’s the spirit of fear. A relationship of sonship is incredibly powerful. Even yesterday, I spent $75 to get my daughter’s hair dyed; she dragged me to the hair salon, she picked out the color, and at the end, she told me to pay. She said, “We have to go to Sally,” and I said, “Where’s that?” So I took her there, but she didn’t even let me go inside. She told me, “I’m going to pick out the color myself, and you can come in to pay.“
(2) Spirit of slavery under the law (Gal. 4:21-25)
(3) Received Spirit of sonship – Freedom (Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:22)
That’s sonship, you have power, then the Father, without budging, has to do what the daughter says. So she has freedom; if she needs something, all she has to say is, “Dad,” because that’s the kind of relationship we have, that’s the reason God saved us, to have that, so the Bible says that we can call Him, “Abba, Father,” so there’s no reason to pray anything else; if you just shout, “Dad,” then He will move. All the parents in the audience know what I mean. If your child says, “Dad, Mom,” then you have to say, “Okay,” and you have to do it.
3) God’s child (Rom. 8:16)
(1) Cry, ‘Abba, Father’ (Rom. 8:15)
That’s the relationship of sonship; we were not originally His Son but we’ve been adopted. And now, because His Spirit lives within me, I just have to align my thoughts with Him. Before I was a child of God, I had to figure out and solve everything on my own, but now that I’m His child, I just have to say, “Dad,” and because that “Dad” is all-knowing and all-powerful, He knows our state. That is a person who lives by the spirit; if you live by the flesh, it means you are not a son of God; it means you are still an orphan, having to live by your own strength, but for us, if we say, “God,” He already knows and He takes care of it, so if you face a problem, just say, “Dad,” and He knows. There are times when He doesn’t solve the problem, but He does that, to make you stronger and grow, and at the appropriate time, He will get rid of it for you. That’s how God moves and guides us on His own.
(2) Holy Spirit testifies – Marked in him with a seal (Rom. 8:15)
(3) Testifies with our spirit (Rom. 8:16)
Therefore, do not live by the flesh, but live by the Spirit. How thankful must we be for this? But the problem is that the relationship between my Father and me is twisted and broken. Let’s say, I have received salvation but I feel distant from my father, and even in that relationship, I misunderstand Him. The more you misunderstand God, the less you will call upon Him as your Father. The more distant your relationship with your dad is, the less you will look for him, right? So, what is our walk of faith? It is restoring the correct relationship between us and our God. When that relationship is restored, then God’s life and peace come upon us.
Why do you think you’re stressed? You’re stressed because you’re living by the greed of your flesh, however, when the Spirit of God comes upon you with peace, then that stress goes away. I’m not saying all stress will go away because sometimes stress is good, but this is how God designed for us to live. It’s normal for a person to become more and more peaceful, the more time passes. However, if somebody has a scar, then their thoughts become so twisted around that scar, that they try to show off and exalt themselves to protect themselves, and then in order to hide and cover their scars, they say, “Do you know who I am?” They show off by saying, “Oh, I have this much money, or this is who I am, and they show off at church too. If you’re a child of God, you don’t need to do that. If you’re the son of a president, there’s no need for you to boast, because everyone knows you’re the son of the president. It’s always the case that somebody who has nothing to show for themselves always packages themselves with extra, to show off. People say, “Just wait and see, I’m going to prove everybody wrong, and I’m going to become successful.” There’s no reason to live like that, you’re already a child of God, why would you live like that? So you live with this unnecessary greed, it’s because you don’t know God. Then if somebody lives like that, will it go well for them? No. Because first of all, they’re not able to succeed, but let’s say, they do succeed, internally, they’re collapsed so they have to do drugs or they’ve already fallen into sexual addictions. We cannot be normal like that. All you have to be is a child of God because everything that is God’s is mine.
3. Heirs (Rom. 8:17)
1) Child (Rom. 8:17)
(1) God’s heirs (Rom. 8:17)
That’s what it means in today’s scripture, that we are His heirs. Because I’m a child of God, the things of God are now mine, then you might be thinking immediately, “If the things of God are mine, then why am I living like this?” It means you must live with life and peace. A lot of you guys might first think about money, “If the things of God are mine, then why am I living like this?” God filled our need and so God knows whether what you have is adequate, because if God gives you more, then you’d run away somewhere else. God is giving you according to what your vessel can hold. If there is a child, then you can just give them two pieces of candy, but if they have a lot of greed, they’ll want five or six, but they can’t even eat it all, and if they hold onto it, they don’t want to let go of it, and then later on, they fall asleep with candy in their hands. That’s a baby faith, just like a baby, if all you think or care about is yourself, you’re like a baby. But then, you must grow and mature. An adult doesn’t hold onto candy like that. They make business plans, their vessel becomes bigger, and the bigger our vessel becomes the more God pours in. God is giving you a certain amount, you have to realize that’s the level of your vessel right now, you have to grow your vessel, you have to make your vessel large in order to follow God’s will because God’s things are mine.
(2) Co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17)
(3) God’s kingdom – Inheritance (Gal. 3:29, 4:30)
So, God fills the vessel that I have, I need to raise up God’s church, I have to save this world. Depending on the size of your vessel, God works accordingly, but instead, you think, “Only me,” that’s why God gives you enough to only eat three meals a day. Everything else, you work so hard to make extra money, but that’s the reason why you collapse. That person collapses and is destroyed because of that extra money, because they use that extra money in ways that kill themselves. “Oh, let’s try a higher class alcohol, let’s try a stronger drug, let’s try going to Vegas, and spend some money.” If anything, if you didn’t have money, you wouldn’t do that to begin with, so God is giving to you, adequately, but the things of God belong to His child, right? All you have to do is say, “Dad, Father,” but there are some people who really don’t want to do that. There are some people who are born without fathers or they have great scars against their fathers, so when they think about their father, they don’t want to think about God. I hope you will break free from those thoughts. Through Christ, we’ve become children of God, and He is not somewhere far away; He is inside of our spirit, and our thoughts and our heart must always go into our Father God. That is our walk of faith, if our thoughts and our heart are always going in the direction of our desires, then that will lead to death. God desires to have a relationship of Father and child, 24 hours, forever.
2) Abraham
(1) God is your shield (Gen. 15:1)
Because we are God’s heirs, he has given us His inheritance, what exactly is that inheritance? Abraham believed in Jesus Christ who was to come,” and God told Abraham, “I am your shield.” My dad is my shield, so when I say, “Dad,” He races to you, and when you are in danger, all you have to do is say, “Dad,” and he is your shield to protect you from danger. That is the legal definition of a father, and God called you as His child to do that. But instead of calling upon your dad to protect you as your shield, you try to build your own shield by making a lot of money or by becoming successful or making yourself beautiful, and that’s why Satan breaks through your shield. And then God also told Abraham, “I am your great reward.”
(2) God is your very great reward (Gen. 15:1)
God is our shield and our very great reward, and inside of Christ are hidden everything. Paul changed from before he knew this ad after he knew this. Moses changed before he knew this, and after he knew thus. Before Moses knew this mystery, even though he studied and worked in the palace, he ended up killing someone else. However, after he received the Spirit of God and became a child of God, he did the work of saving all of Israel. Same thing with the Apostle Paul; before he received the Spirit of God, he was the first one to kill Christians. There are some people who marry just to kill their spouse, and they live in society and think, “I have to kill everybody else for me to live,” that is before salvation, before the Holy Spirit is inside of us. After salvation, after the Holy Spirit came upon him, the Apostle Paul staked his life on saving people. How important are all of the people whom you’ve met? You need to change those meetings and relationships to become successful. If you don’t change those relationships to be successful, then of course, you will not be successful. In order to change your relationships to be successful, the life and peace within you must be relayed to them. That must become a meeting where it changes that person to become a child of God. How tremendous is that blessing? That is the inheritance.
(3) Those who have the covenant of Christ (Gal. 3:8, Jn. 8:56)
Psalm 2:8 says “You are my son today, and I have become your father,” and that means, “I will make the nations your inheritance,” so what is the inheritance God gives to His children? “I will make the nations your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession,” what is our inheritance then? All of the Gentile nations, those are our inheritance, testifying this gospel to the ends of the earth, that’s our inheritance, and inside of that, God promised to be with us with all power and authority until the ends of the earth, then this is your inheritance and your possession.
What is our inheritance? Our inheritance is saving the many people around us, the many different ethnicities. In order to save people around us, God gives us all the blessings, the money, the health, all of the opportunities. That is why Gal, 3:29 says that if we believe in Jesus Christ, we become descendants of Abraham and we receive God’s inheritance; that’s the blessing God gives us. For those who accept that through faith, we enjoy God’s inheritance; in other words, we enjoy God’s Kingdom. May that blessing be apparent in your life. People who are still stuck in their physical desires hold onto their desire if that’s their blessing, but that’s the reason your relationship with God is separating; then everything in your life will go astray. Your mental state will not be correct, and your physical life might not be good, either, that’s why you live in suffering, and then after death, you go to eternal suffering, there’s no need for us to live like that.
In Rom. 8:17, it says, “If we are children, then we are His heirs, to share in the sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.” Everything you do on earth for the Kingdom of God will become a reward or a prize in heaven. Nothing has no consequences; everything that I devote for the Kingdom of God changes into a blessing and a reward from God. And God blesses us while we’re on earth right now. But God blesses us while we also suffer as well. Why do we have to share in His suffering? Because people who don’t believe will persecute us, because I love and save people with the gospel, people will turn their back on me and persecute me. In the past, when I lived for my own physical desires, I got along with him so nicely because we both related to living for our physical desires, we related based on our greed for money and we were able to form partnerships for mutual benefit. But there’s no need for that. Now ,because you’re turning in the opposite direction, your old friends persecute you, even your parents can persecute you, but that’s actually the devil that is doing that. So even while you received that suffering, you are living with God’s glory.
3) God’s kingdom
(1) Meeting individually and with believers
(2) Works of God’s kingdom – Work that equips the believers (Ac. 1:3, Eph. 4:11-13)
(3) All nations – Evangelism, missions (Mt. 28:18-20)
If you go to memorials, you can see the glory of the people who have died for America. Then, even their grandchildren can say, “Our grandfather died for this nation,” they have this glory. Until that nation has fallen, we will always remember those people. It’s the same thing for the Kingdom of God; we devote ourselves to the Kingdom of God. Then, God remembers everything we devote, and He will give us the eternal reward, and that blessing goes down for 1000 generations, that’s the Kingdom of God. All we have to do is live according to the Spirit, because God’s Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and my thoughts must be aligned with the thoughts of the Holy Spirit. Then God’s peace and light will move me. Then, we can live for the Kingdom of God and for world evangelization. We will be used to raise up the Kingdom of God for the church.
Conclusion
1. Debtors
2. Guidance of the Holy Spirit – Overcome life of flesh
3. God’s heir – God’s kingdom
May you enjoy this blessing throughout the week. God, allow us to live by the Spirit of God, may our thoughts and our heart be seized by the Holy Spirit of God; may we be fulfilled with the Holy Spirit.
Message Prayer
Let us pray together.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We thank You for making us children of God by the gospel. We pray that You will work upon us so that the Holy Spirit of God will completely control and lead our hearts, thoughts, and emotions. God, we pray You will let us be used as your heirs to save the church and to do world evangelization. For that work, we have returned Your material blessings as offering. Everywhere this offering is used, may the Kingdom of God be established, and we believe you will bless the hands that have given the offering with the economy of light to do world evangelization and the work of God. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
God, we thank You. We pray you will allow the three newcomers and new believers to enjoy the blessings of being a child of God, and may the life and the peace of God be upon their lives. We pray You will use their lives as the heirs of God to raise up the church and do world evangelization. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Announcements
1. Bible reading, writing
2. LA Regional Young Adult Retreat, 10/11 at Whittier
3. Church meeting, 12:30 pm
4. Offering can be given to the church venmo: @Antiochmissionchurch
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, fellowship, working, and filling of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants and future generations who desire to enjoy and testify the blessings of being a child of God, be with them now until forever always, amen.