Session 27 – Romans; Romans 8:9-13: Mark Lanier, 03/22/26

ROM 027_Romans P27_PODCAST_032226
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[00:00:00] Thank you guys for being here this morning. I'm kind of excited. We're gonna start talking about Romans again. And it's been a while since I started trial. I haven't really had the time to put into the lessons, but this last week, the jury's been deliberating. And so it gave me a little bit of, of, uh, extra time to try and, and prepare these lessons.

And so, uh, uh, I have done, so now I started this PowerPoint on, on a. Uh, the idea being that maybe on Friday the jury would return a verdict, and many of you have been praying. Uh, uh, I do know that the, uh, Instagram influencer scrolling to death, the number two, uh, uh, uh, watched class last week because I referenced her.

Instagram when I was telling y'all, it's [00:01:00] an easy way to keep up with what's going on with the trial because she's, she's there every day and she's updating it. And she said that she had watched the class and, or at least the part where I talked about her. And so I don't wanna be too bold on that, but, uh, uh, it, it just, those of you who work hard to put this on the internet, those of you who work in the sound booth, those of you, uh, uh, who work these cameras, uh, those of you upstairs.

Thank you for all you're doing to make this something that works. We really appreciate it.

It's fascinating to go to court because every time you get out of the, the car and you start to walk into court, all of the cameras are, are there because the media's there and they want to know, do we have a verdict? Do we have a verdict? Do we have a verdict? And I'm generally saying, uh, no. Uh, we have a juror question or we have, uh, you know, something else with the court.

There will come a time though where the answer will be yes, [00:02:00] because the jury will say, we have reached a verdict and, uh, the jurors are not allowed to be photographed. By the way, that's not the actual jury. Don't, uh, panic there. Um, that, uh, Lanier took a picture in the courtroom. I'd be thrown in jail if I did.

Um. But something happens when the jury announces a verdict. The judge takes the verdict and she will read that verdict out loud. The jurors will be asked, is this in fact your verdict? Did you vote for this? Is this the, does this reflect your verdict? The jurors will affirm that. At that point in time, we know, did we win the trial?

Did we lose the trial? The lawyers for the other side know, did we win the trial or did we lose the trial? The lawyers do not have an ability to stand up and say [00:03:00] Mercy. We lost. So, your Honor, we'd like to call another witness. Can we, can we, can we just put another witness on the stand? Maybe we can. Get the jury to change their mind.

No, you can't do that. The evidence is in the verdict has been reached and you cannot say, uh, judge, I, I'd like to now call another witness. Can I have a new closing argument? There's a couple other things I think might have been better if I'd set 'em this way. You just can't. It's over. It's done. Oh, there you can go upon appeal, which I'm sure will happen.

You can, uh, ask the judge to disregard what the jury said because she knows better. Uh, uh, I'm sure they'll ask that, but, but realistically, the jury, once it's done, it's done. The verdict's been reached.

[00:04:00] Paul in Romans says, A verdict has already been reached. It's done. It's finished and he says it using this language in Romans eight verse nine. He says, you however are not in the flesh but in the spirit, and this is where you are. This is where you are right now. Now he's writing. To Christians if you're saying, I don't even remember what Romans is, or, I wasn't here for that.

Hang on, we'll get there together. This is just your teaser. This is like coming attractions for the show that you're about to, to get to watch or something. But Paul's writing this and Paul says, you are not in the the flesh, but in the spirit. And his verb here is in the present tense. That means right now this is where you are [00:05:00] and what does that mean?

We're gonna talk about, we're gonna call this occupied territory. We're gonna look at Romans eight verses nine through probably 11 or 12. I don't think we're getting to 13, so come back next week. Romans eight is a fascinating passage in the Bible. If you talk to a lot of people, you will find a lot of people say that Romans eight is their favorite chapter in the Bible.

It's like the peak chapter in the Bible. If you were to pick one chapter and say, what is the one chapter we, we have, um, y'all know me. We have a son, he's our eldest, and then we have four daughters. And so five children all together, and the youngest daughter, the, the, um, [00:06:00] the, the baby in the family, uh, will constantly, she, she's got this little game and what she'll do is she'll say, um, you know, there'll be four or five of us in a car, and she'll just say, Hey, uh, uh, out of, out of, uh, the five of us.

Uh, if there was one person we could put out of the car, who, who would you put out?

Doug, you know, Sarah, this is classic, or she'd say, she'd say, dad, um, seriously, if, if you could only spend time with three of your children, which, which I, I mean obviously me, but who would be the other two? Or, or she was, I mean, she just comes up with these outlandish comparison games and she's just doing it to be funny.

But it's, and it, and it is kind of funny, you know, she would [00:07:00] come into this class and say, if there was one person in that class you did not wanna sit next to, who would it be? And you just said, I would sit next to any of these people. You know, I mean, she just, but the, the problem is she would be the one who would say, what is your favorite chapter of the Bible?

That, that's the kind of question she would ask, and you would be amazed at how many writers say the pinnacle, the apex, the the, it's not Easter Sunday. It's not the empty tomb, it's not resurrection. It's not the day of Pentecost for them. The pinnacle chapter of the Bible is Romans chapter eight, and it's because it is an awesome packed chapter of such great insight into.

The history of humanity, our relationship with God, our present day life, and the eschatological future of where we're headed. And one of the problems we've got in this [00:08:00] class is we tend to suffer if we chop it up too much. And yet, I'm a chopper. That's just what I do. I like to chop this up because I wanna know what each word is in each phrase.

Paul did not write haphazardly. The Holy Spirit did not inspire haphazardly. These words are important, and if you read Greek, you know the word order is important. And if you read Greek, you know the structure. Each verb of each noun. The function of each particle is important. Greek was not a language of, um, just a bunch of flowing easy words.

I mean, it was a, a lilting language. They sang it more than they spoke it in a sense, [00:09:00] but, but it was. It was a very precise language that rightly allowed Pythagoreous to be the father of mathematics that rightly allowed Aristotle to speak of Aristotelian logic and precision. It rightly allowed philosophy to flourish as, as logic and rhetoric became such important thing because the, the language itself very different than Hebrew.

Hebrew is a language of poetry and, and, and self-awareness in the sense that it's, it's a, so many Hebrew words are Rorschach tests where you find yourself reflected in that ink blot, but it, you can see a butterfly or you can see a dragon based upon how your psychological mood is at the moment in, in Greek.

There's a great deal of precision that's present, and so I do like to chop it up to get those precision points, [00:10:00] but in the process, if we're not careful, we forget the flow and the context, and so we get the slice of tomato, but we've lost the sandwich. It went on. So what I'm trying to figure out how to do, and the reason we stayed away from Romans, because I knew it was a hopscotch for me on where I was gonna have to jump each week and whether I could even get back from from trial is we, we run the risk if I just dive right in of forgetting the flow in the context of it.

So here's what I'd like to do. I'm going to give you just a Romans eight review. It's very important. Just reminds you it's got the same slides that I've used before. This is before we even get to the three main points of today. This is a three minute review of Romans. Romans is set up in its own courtroom and in Romans we have an understanding of what is rightly [00:11:00] termed the greatest verdict in history.

This is the greatest verdict, and I, I chose this slide. It's an AI generated slide, but I chose this slide because it shows the way an ancient trial in Rome would have been held. They were held outdoors, so the public could attend the, the, the judge would sit up on a dais elevated because he represents, or, yeah, it would've been a he back then the law.

The, the, the guilty, the accused comes before the judge. In chains, the lawyer may be present arguing for the accused. If the accused is, uh, fortunate enough to have enough money to hire a lawyer, you've got a stage set. And in Roman law, if you're found guilty, it's not, [00:12:00] uh, generally a fine. In Roman law, if you're found guilty, even for things that we consider to be super silly, ju just, here's an example.

You've got a stadium, and in that stadium there are seats because you're gonna go watch a theater show, or you're gonna go watch a game, or gonna watch a competition. Are you gonna go to a gladiator fight? Whatever it is, those seats. Are demarked out for your society rank. Now, let's say your kid's in the play and you're the proud parent or grandparent, you are gonna go see that kid in the play.

You might be thinking, okay, well my society ranks seats me way back here, but that's my kid. I wanna see my kid, so I'm gonna sneak down. You get in the wrong seat. It's a crime [00:13:00] punishable by death.

You, you, you did not wanna go to court in Rome. The, the, the punishments could be severe compared to what we think. Punishments have always been severe in many societies. It's why our forefathers put in the Bill of Rights. A ban against cruel and unusual punishment, because without that, most societies historically have delivered what we would consider to be cruel and unusual punishment.

It's just, Hey, you don't fit into society. Fine. We'll just take you out. You're dead, or we'll put you into slavery. Boom, you're a slave. Th this, this is a, we live in a different society than was then, but you take [00:14:00] what Paul's writing about and when that judge assesses the judgment crema in Greek, Paul says that God as a judge.

Pulls us into his courtroom and is able to say over those who are in his family, those who are in Christ. He says The charges are dismissed, not guilty. This is Romans eight, one. There is therefore now no condemnation. That means not guilty. That's the verdict. Not guilty,

but crema in the, in the Roman court. That Greek concept isn't only not guilty. It also means there's [00:15:00] no penalty that's going to be assessed.

You are not guilty. There's no penalty. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ and, and it's not like someone can bring in new evidence. The verdict's announced. You can't say, well, yeah, but I'd like to call another witness. Yeah, I may be in Christ Jesus, but, but that was at, at a time where I was really devoted to the Lord, and since that time, I've kind of lost my way.

So maybe now I'm condemned. No, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. See? Yeah. But I haven't been living like it. We, well, we're gonna fix that, but we're fixing it with you being in a position where there's still no condemnation. God just doesn't want you living. You remember Charles Mickey sits right over there, Charles Mickey, you may not remember this.

I remember you preaching a sermon when I was in high school. [00:16:00] You preached a sermon on Jesus, um, uh, raising Lazarus from the dead. And when Jesus raises Lazarus from the Lazarus has been dead for like four days, he's all wrapped up in the barrel of clothes. He's starting to smell. His sisters are so upset and.

Charles preached that sermon and Charles said, Jesus, when he calls Lazarus out from the grave, Lazarus comes out and Jesus tells his sisters Take off his burial clothes.

And then Charles made the point, he said, how many of us have responded to the call of Jesus? And we have been born again, but we still walk around in our burial clothes. We need to take 'em off. And, and you may be saying, well, hey, I'm in Christ, but I, I, I, those are burial clothes. And what we're gonna do today is we're gonna take 'em off and put them where [00:17:00] they belong.

They don't belong on the resurrected. Now Paul knows that he's got a lot of people who are reading this, who are thinking well. Gee, God just took an eraser. I don't have a pencil up here, but he just took an eraser and just decided, Hey, I'll just let everybody off free and erase everything. No, God did something that the law could never do.

The law wasn't strong enough to give us a right relationship with God. You there is not a list. A legitimate list of godliness that you are able to do to be right with God if you live under guilt thinking, I'm just not good enough for God. Exactly. If you think you're good enough for God, your [00:18:00] arrogance and pride is your biggest stumbling block.

All of us need to have an understanding that we do not earn merit deserve. The love and affection of God Almighty, and yet we have it, but not because God just said, ta, I'm just gonna let everything slide. I don't give a rip about what they do. You killed someone. Well, people have gotta die somehow. I mean, God's not that way.

Paul said, God's done what? The law, which is weakened by our inability to do things could not do. God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned the sin in the flesh. So what we don't have, there is no condemnation for us. [00:19:00] The condemnation happened to Christ. Our charges were dismissed.

Our verdict was not guilty. Our sentence was no penalty. The charges were made and Jesus took the charges. The verdict of guilty was announced, but it was announced on Jesus, not on us. The sentence of death was proclaimed, but it was on Jesus, not on us. And God's goal was never ever to lower the standard of right and wrong so that we could meet it.

God's goal was never to take an eraser and just say, oh, well, boys will be boys. Girls will be girls. We'll just excuse the failures. God's goal was never to pretend that righteousness doesn't matter. God's goal was to fulfill what the law required. To meet all of the requirements of righteousness. Paul said [00:20:00] in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Flesh is is don't think of it as your human skin. Here, Paul's using it for a personal self-reliance, your own strength. Your own wisdom, your own fortitude, your own determination, your own self-control. You, you cannot on your own, walking out of the flesh fulfill the law with your self-reliant nature. You cannot.

The spirit is reliance upon God. Paul says, there are two different ways you can orient your life and each goes to its own destination. You can orient your life according to the flesh where you live with self-reliance, or you can orient your life [00:21:00] according to the spirit where you're dependent upon God.

Paul says, if you set your mind on the flesh, self reliances, that's death. If you set your mind on the spirit. God reliant. That's life and peace. Which brings up the question, if you pull out your ID card, which are you? Are you living self-reliant or are you living God dependent? And that's what we're gonna talk about today in three points.

You're not in flesh, you're in the spirit and the spirit. Who raised Jesus actually lives inside you, and this has real implications. Alright, let's look at this together. Paul starts out in Romans eight, verse nine, and he says this, [00:22:00] you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you.

Now, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ, does not belong to him. We could read this and just keep going, but we miss so much if we don't chop this up. Finally, you, however, are not in the flesh. If we were reading this in Greek, the Hema de Este in Sarky, your verb here has you already in it. The verb just says that.

That word right here, it says you are. That's you are present tense. But do you know what else we have? We have this word right here, a mac, that's another word for you. He says you twice and he starts the sentence with it. Now in English, we can add emojis, [00:23:00] we can underline, we can bold, we can italicize, we can draw circles, we can emphasize words very well in English with lots of little.

English processes. The princip. One of the principle ways in Greek to emphasize a word, is to put it first or to use it twice. We've got, here you are, but he puts the very first word, you, you, you are, or day means. However, here. But you are not. You are in the flesh. You are not in the flesh. You, and he wants them to be emphasized.

He's saying you twice there you, this is an emphatic you. This is a, this is [00:24:00] important stuff to you, you, this is a pay attention to the next few words because I'm emphasizing this is you. You need to know, not read this and keep going, not read this, and just let it fade out your ears. Pay attention to this.

This is you. This is you. YOUI. He doesn't say you, uh uh, Priscilla. Anybody who's reading this, who's in Christ Jesus, this is you, you, you are. He's got that present indicative Now in Greek, their verbs function in some really cool ways, and a present indicative means present tense. It's right now, this is just the way it is, and indicative means it's indicating something that's real.

This indicates a [00:25:00] present reality and the readers. Understood this. This is not just Paul saying you're not in the flesh. You however are not in flesh. But in the, this is you emphatic present reality, you're not in the flesh. This is a present reality. Paul's not saying, um, you need to become this. Paul's not saying you, you really ought to be this.

Paul's saying you are. Uh, uh, here's my example. I can say, um, leave the building. You know, leave the flesh and that means leave the bu. But if you're already outside you, you don't tell someone, leave the building. They're outside. If they've already left the building, you just say, and, and that's what Paul's saying.

He says, you, I'm not telling you to leave the flesh. I'm telling you, [00:26:00] you are not in the flesh. That's the present reality. That's the indicative. And the interesting part about the way Paul writes and I talked about this in Romans six, is he'll use these verbs that are indicative verbs that that indicate the reality before he gives his commands.

And we saw this in Romans six where Paul said, um. We have died with Christ. It's an indicative. This has happened. This indicates where we are. Therefore, imperative. Don't let sin reign. If you've gotta understand the reality before you follow through on the instructions. You need to understand your identity before you understand your obligation.

I'm sure y'all have been keeping up like me with, um, how Patrick Mahomes is doing, recovering from his injury. Okay. Maybe not. [00:27:00] Um, but technician is, um, but you take a football player, they need to understand which team they play on before they go out there and play. You got to know your identity before you meet your obligation.

Paul is making a declaration before he makes his demand. He's gonna, he's saying, you are not in the flesh, you're in the spirit. So instructing people put to death the deeds of the body. But if you don't understand your reality, you can't really do it. You can't get those out of order. We must understand.

Who we are in Christ. The greatest deception the enemy can ever paint on the canvas of your life is that you are anything less than a loved child of the king.[00:28:00]

And if he can convince you you're something less than that, you will not have the energy and the fortitude to follow his spirit and to give him all the glory for what happens. It's so important you don't say on your mark, go get set. You gotta get those in order. It's not ready. Fire, aim. They're in that order for a reason.

Paul is putting this in an order for a reason. You, however, are not present. Reality indicates where you are. You are not in the flesh, you are not. What does that mean in the flesh, but in the spirit, you know what happens this week?

Season opener Astros against the La La [00:29:00] Angels. You know, it would be really helpful for the players to know which team they're on before that first pitch,

to know your identity, before you know your obligation. If the Astros pitch. Thinks that he's on the angel's team when the angels are up to bat, and he's just got the luxury of being able to throw the pitch. Uh, the angels are gonna clobber us because he, he's pitching for the wrong, you know, so you got to know your identity to know your obligation.

Remember Paul said there are two orientations you can run in the flesh, and then you're running on your own, your own strength, your own wisdom, your own insight. Say, well, I'm, I'm really pretty good about that. Are you really? When you are faced with a decision, not just a, oh gee, what do I do, but a real decision, do you pray about it and seek the Lord's [00:30:00] wisdom, or do you act outta your own?

If we're running on our own wisdom, on our own strength, on our own power, we're running in the flesh and Paul says, we need to be running on the Lord. We need to run in the spirit. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. Now you're reading in English and you see this, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, and you may think, well, that may not be me.

That word, if I pair in the Greek I pair. Means if, but it also carries a sense A, a, a meaning of sense, and that's what Paul means here. Sense, sense, sense. The spirit of God dwells in you. You're not in the flesh. You are in the spirit since [00:31:00] the, it's a fact the spirit of God dwells in you. Since I pair, since this pan.

The spirit of God. And, and the word Paul chose for dwells. Here is an unusual word to use in this verb form. It's the, it's the form. Uh, it's rooted in the word oco, which is just home. The spirit of God has made his home in you. This is the way it is. You gotta know your team. You are not on team flesh, you are not on team self-reliant.

You are on team spirit. God reliant, God dependent. And if we understand that, then Paul kicks it up a notch and says, and oh by the way, the spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Isn't that some weak, [00:32:00] watered down milky baby formula spirit? We've got. We got the spirit of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, took him to be seated in the heavenlies with the promise He will come again and make things right.

That's the spirit of God who's in you. Paul says it this way in verse 10, if Christ is in you, and again, we've got the, uh, instead of I pair, we've got, um, uh, another word for if. But it's, it's the same idea. This is still the same idea of sense, sense Christ is in you, but since Christ is in you, since Christ is in you, Christ is in me.

Yeah, Christ is in [00:33:00] you. When you put your faith in Christ, Christ, come behold. I stand at the door and knock. Jesus said, if anyone invites me in, I will come in and up with him. But he comes in and takes residence. That means if you are there and we, we got King Jesus here, there's something really cool that goes on.

Scripture teaches a reciprocal in those who are in Christ, have Christ in. Them. Isn't that kind of cool? But if Christ is in you, even though your body is dead because of sin, he doesn't use the word flesh. Here he is got soma for body. He's talking about your body. Sin is the reason we die. We inherited bodies that will die.[00:34:00]

Uh, I blame my mom and dad. But you know, I can't blame 'em too much 'cause they're blaming their parents who are blaming their parents, who are blaming their parents, who are blaming their parents. We can take it back to Adam and Eve, but we've inherited these bodies that are dead because of sin that die. I can tell you this, God promises an imperishable body to us.

He will make right what went wrong in Eden so Christ is in you. Although your body's dead because of sin. The spirit is life because of righteousness. The pen, the spirit is life because of consciousness. Remember this whole setup? Paul [00:35:00] explained in the start of Romans, he gave, uh, what we would call a thesis sentence in Romans one 16 and 17.

He said that everyone needs to remember as the, the big picture of what we've got here. I am not ashamed of the gospel and the gospel. Good news is that Jesus Christ died for our sins, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf. Paul says, that doesn't shame me because the cross is God's power to save everyone who has faith.

The Jew first and also the Greek, because in it, in what? In the cross, in the gospel, in the cross of Jesus. The righteousness Dee of God is revealed through faith. For faith. This is where [00:36:00] we see the righteousness of God. So when we get to that Romans eight passage, this should be echoing in the brain. We knew this was the thesis sentence, the spirit is life because of Dee, in the same word, because of righteousness, because in Christ.

In the death of Christ, we have the righteousness of God expressed. We have the every requirement, every jot and tittle of the law is met. Um, one of my books that's like 70% done, but it's been 70% done for about 10 years, so I don't know if I'll ever finish it Is one on law. But it's biblical. See, law is an expression of the views and values and, and priorities of the law makers.[00:37:00]

So when we get laws handed to us from the government, those law makers produced laws that reflect their values, their morals, and their priorities. One reason the tax code gives a, a, a, uh, a, a different filing status if you're married filing jointly, is because way back when the tax code was written, the lawmakers valued marriage and wanted to make it something financially viable for people.

They valued home ownership so you can deduct the interest on a home loan. They want people. Law reflects the character, the morals, and the values and the priorities of the lawmaker. Now, if you go back to understanding this concept, and go back to the biblical idea of law. Moses had the law, but he didn't write it.

God wrote it. It was the law of God given through Moses. [00:38:00] That law reflected God's priorities, issues, and moralities for Israel at that time and place in which they should live. Some of those permeate through all time thou shalt not murder, but some were particular to show Israel as God's selected people as a testimony to the world, dietary laws.

You've got laws that, but if we understand that, then God's law in, in this ultimate sense, is a reflection of his morality and his character. And no one is ever gonna be righteous and truly live by the morality and character of God except Jesus Christ. And in Christ we see perfectly how God's morality and character are expressed.

That's righteousness. And the spirit is life because in the death of Christ, God's law is met with God's [00:39:00] love and mercy, and God does for us what we can't do. And God sets up a paradigm, a model where we can be in Christ. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but Christ is in us. Verse 10.

Now these aren't just words. These aren't just ideas, these are difference makers. I want you to go back to what Jesus said in John 15 for a moment and think about this now. Uh, coach Max was talking about how John's gospel was written probably around 90, 95 ad somewhere in that range. And, and I'm a late date John Guy who believes late date in the sense of 90 to 95.

Some would call that early date, but we have a fragment, by the way of the Gospel of John that's been found. It's the oldest fragment we have of the New Testament in Greek, and it was found in Egypt, a little [00:40:00] papyrus fragment that's probably dated to around 1 25. So by 1 25 ad we know that John's Gospels at least made it to Egypt enough to where we could actually find a fragment here low these thousands of years later.

But anyway, um, John, great gospel. John writes out of Ephesus, most likely the Ephesian region, which was heavily influenced by Paul John's writing his gospel some 30 or 40 years after Paul writes Romans and you can see both of them take these Jesus events and write them using some of the same ideas and concepts.

Coach was also saying with John, people say, well, nobody could have such a developed view of Jesus as John to have written something like that. Paul did. Anybody who read Romans would've, this is 30, 40 years earlier. [00:41:00] Look at what Jesus said. Alright, remember this is the model we're coming after. Lemme go back a slide.

You're in Christ and Christ is in you. The profundity, the profound thing that Paul's saying here in Romans eight that we're looking at. And so if we look at that, go to John 15. Jesus says, abide Mete you abide. You remain. You stay in me and I in you. That's Paul whole point. We are in Christ, and Christ is in us.

You abide in me and I in you. That's the only way you're gonna bear fruit. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. I cannot snip my grapes are coming out. I cannot snip, uh, uh, a piece of my grapevine and bring it into the house and wait for the grapes to grow. It doesn't [00:42:00] work that way unless it stays in the vine.

It can't. And Jesus said, you can't either unless you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branch. Whoever abides in me and I'm in him, whoever abides in me and I in him, same thing. He it is that bears much fruit. See, this makes a difference in how we live in what we do. Your ability to understand you are on team.

Jesus makes you a different husband, a different wife, a different father, a different mother, a different grandparent, a different friend, a different child, a different member of a church. If we understand our identity and we that we abide in Christ and that Christ abides in us, we can bear much more fruit.

We're gonna be living by the power of the [00:43:00] Holy Spirit. If anyone doesn't abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. That's the way it goes. But if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it'll be done.

The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, and this has real. Implications. I was supposed to slide down there. Hold on. I get really bothered when that stuff doesn't work. Right. Okay. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. This won't take but a second.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Go back. Boom, boom, boom. Okay. The spirit who raised Jesus lives in you. And this has real implications. [00:44:00] Sorry, quirk of the early morning. Paul says it this way with verse 11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and that if by the way is your same, I, uh, the same word.

Since. Since the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells in you. Now we need to shift scenes for a moment. I want to take you back to the last supper. This is the time of year where we are in the church calendar as well.

But at the last supper, Jesus has his final dialogue with his disciples. His apostles gathered as a group, and it's fascinating you read it in John [00:45:00] 14, 15 and 16. It's got the abide in me, uh, of stuff outta John 15. But if you read that, one of the things that should strike you. That the apostles are absolutely clueless.

I mean, they are rebels without a clue. They've got no concept of what's going on in John 14 through 16. If we look at it just briefly, um, uh, Matthew, mark, Luke, John, acts, John, John 14. Look at the way it even starts. Jesus. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me, in my father's house, there are many dwellings.

If it weren't so, uh, I would've told you and I'd go to prepare a place for you, and I'll come again and I'll take you and you know, the you and you know the place where I'm going. And then Thomas, the patron saint of Doubters, Thomas said to him, oh, Lord, [00:46:00] uh, we, we don't know where you going, where, where are you headed?

How are we gonna know the way, when, when, Hey, Jesus says, uh, just keep your eyes on me. I'm the way, I'm the truth. I'm the life. No one comes to the Father except me. Then Philip says, Philip, bless his heart. Oh, hey Jesus. Show us God the Father, if we'd be happy, Jesus. Niro, you have been living with me for the last three years.

Who do you think you've been seeing? Says, haven't I been with you this whole time and you still don't know who I am? Who whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you even say, show us the father? [00:47:00] Hello. Anybody in there, and I mean, this is, and it just goes on. It just goes on and on and on and, and you keep reading these chapters and they don't have a clue.

And then Jesus says something very profound. He says, look, you guys are clueless right now.

But I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit. In the future, God's gonna send the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes

gonna blow your mind gonna be a whole new world. Look at John 1415 through 17 if you love me. You'll keep my commandments and I'll ask the father and he'll give you another advocate. That's by the way, Greek word for lawyer, um, but also helper. And in this sense, I think means [00:48:00] helper or advocate to be with you forever.

This is the spirit of truth. The world doesn't get him. 'cause they don't see him. They don't know him. But you know him. Look at this. This is huge. You know him because he abides with you and he will be in you. He abides with you because he's in Jesus. Jesus and the spirit are one. In a Trinitarian sense, but, but Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit, so they know the Holy Spirit 'cause he abides with them just like the Father does in Jesus.

But Jesus says He will be future tense in you and when he comes to be in you, we have these passages and I've got a, in the sense of time, you can do your homework with this John 1420. When he comes to be in you, [00:49:00] you will look, oh, this is just too good. We may just need to stay here for an extra 30 minutes today, on that day, on the day you get the Holy Spirit, you'll know I'm in the Father, and you'll know that you are in me, and you'll know that I am in you.

This is what Paul's saying. The Holy Spirit's gonna do this. And if you want to take a picture, I'll put these up here real quick. You can put, take these home and go look these up. But these are four different passages where Jesus says, when the Holy Spirit comes, this is what's gonna happen. This is how it's gonna transform you.

Now you'll understand. Now you'll be empowered. Now your eyes will be opened. That's what happens when the spirit comes to dwell in you and these clueless apostles, including Peter, [00:50:00] Mr. In one breath, I'll chop off the year to save Jesus and in the next breath, uhoh, that didn't work. They've arrested him. I don't know the guy never seen him form.

Sounds like he's from Galilee. Never seen him for him life. Leave me alone.

One apostle manages to make it to the foot of the cross. Can you imagine how the apostles must have felt when Jesus told them all along what was gonna happen and they're not at the foot of the cross? They should have been down, down there saying, then sings my soul, my savior God to thee how great thou heart or beneath the cross of Jesus, I feign would take my stand.

Then they're like, and they're scared to death. They weren't at the empty tomb Wednesday or or Sunday morning.

Sunday, they could been there. They could had vigil. But they're clueless until [00:51:00] Acts two. On the day of Pentecost, God sends the Holy Spirit and all of a sudden these clueless people start standing up and explaining Old Testament prophecy from Joel, and this is what's going on here, and this is the resurrected Jesus, and he's coming again in power, and you've killed the Son of God and you, but that's okay because he loves you and he died for you.

And they're explaining all of this stuff because the Holy Spirit had come inside them. And if the Spirit. Him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you since the Spirit dwells in you. He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells within you.

You are in Christ and Christ is in you. And it is a difference maker, which is why we have points for home. So here are your points for home number one. Know your team. Know [00:52:00] whose team you are on. Know that you're not in the flesh, you're in the spirit. Know that. Go to the bank on it. You can. You can. You can bet your life on it.

And if that's your team. Let's be really careful not to treat the Holy Spirit that resides in us like a guest. Hey, it's Sunday. Lord, I'd like to honor you by, uh, letting you be my God today. Please till lunch,

at least till crisis hits. Feis in the Greek, that tense tribulation, at least until, you know, I'm [00:53:00] panicked,

do not be, you know, you remember the old, uh, fake story about the airplane pilot. He's trying to fly the plane in and the clouds and the lightning and everything's terrible. And the weather, and the wind gusts and, and, and he's just having trouble. Lord, please just help me land this plane if I just help me land this plane.

Please, Lord, and lightning, blah, blah, blah, and the plane, Lord, please. And then they break below the cloud cover and it's okay. And there's the runway. And the pilot says, I got it from here. Don't, don't, don't be that okay. The spirit of God dwells in you, makes his home in you, OCO, he, you are his home. We don't have a temple like Solomon built because the spirit of God is dwelling in his people.[00:54:00]

And so what do we do? We need to follow the leader. Paul will use a different verb. He'll say, don't quench the spirit. Don't take it like a water hose and crank it. The spirit's in you. Let it flow. Follow the spirit of God. You can be confident where he leads. You should follow. That's the right direction.

When he's inside you telling you, Hey, get yourself. Look, I got in so stinking late last night. I worked so hard on this lesson. I woke up this morning and I thought, I really desperately need more sleep, man. I don't wanna Ms. Church. Well, what I could do is just sleep 20 more minutes and I'd miss the singing, but I'd at least be there to show next support.

I thought, yeah, the [00:55:00] singing is time of worship. Am I really gonna sleep 20 more minutes? 'cause I guarantee you, when that alarm went off 20 minutes later, I'd be just as tired as I was at the time. It went off that 20 minutes

and I got this gnawing inside me that said, get yourself outta bed, get to church. Be with your brothers and sisters. Worship the Lord, and I'm so glad I did. The spirit will speak to you. You will discern and learn how to listen. You do need, as Judge Kincaid says, you need to know the difference between the Holy Spirit and a bad enchilada you ate.

But you'll learn to discern the difference, won't you? Gail? Gail's big on this. Talk to Gail Stanhart. She's big on this. She, there is a difference. You will learn to hear the voice of God in you, and you can follow it because the spirit is life. [00:56:00] That's what we want. We don't wanna walk around in our grave, in our Lazarus grave close.

He has brought us into life. So let's close with this. Here's your lunch topic. If you're going to lunch with anybody, here's your topic. What does it mean when problems arise that you abide in Christ? In Christ, abides in You? Talk about it. Alright. Lord, in the name of Jesus, I ask that your Holy Spirit will bless all of us with a greater sense of awareness.

Of His presence. Of your presence. Lord, may we abide in Christ as Christ abides in us. May we know what it means to be on your team, led by your spirit with all that that can do for not just us and our circle. But our world on [00:57:00] your behalf, things we want on your resume, Lord, use us to get them in the name of Jesus.

Amen.