Bringing Scripture to Life

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This past Sunday we discovered that Romans 8:1-2 not only acts as a perfect bridge from life as condemned sinners (Romans 7:5-25), to life as redeemed believers (Romans 8:1-39), but it also serves as an introduction as to how life in the Spirit impacts the child of God. And what is so amazing about life as redeemed believers, is the first thing that God would want us to know is that even though we are redeemed children of God, we still have an unredeemed body of sinful flesh chained to us, and because of this, we will experience failure as believers. And because of this, Gods Word intends to be crystal clear in the fact, that because of what Jesus has done for us, we are no longer condemned, even when we do find ourselves failing at times. The baggage of our past and present has not only been forgiven, it has been removed and therefore God no longer wants us to walk around with the baggage of condemnation weighing us down (Romans 8:1). In this past Sunday's sermon,...

This past Sunday, the third Life-Application we looked at was You can Leave your Baggage Behind because, we now have victory in ALL THINGS through our SAVIOR (Romans 8:28-39). In our second Life-Application, we learned that we will experience suffering as followers of Jesus. And just as we have discovered that life is full of inevitable suffering, we must face the reality that our suffering comes with enormous potential for us to become discouraged.  Therefore, Paul would now set our sights on the reality of our relationship with Jesus, and that because of our faith in Jesus, we are now more than conquerors in Christ, due to the fact that if God is for us, no one can come against us and win! This passage of Scripture from Romans 8:28-39 has got to be the single most important and powerful passage of Scripture in all of God’s Word, when it comes to helping us understand that God is sovereign in our lives, and will not allow us to be overtaken by any of life’s difficulties, no...

This past Sunday, the second Life-Application we looked at was You can Leave your Baggage Behind because, we now have victory over SUFFERING through our HOPE (Romans 8:18-27).  In this passage of Scripture from Romans 8:17-27, Paul deals with the reality of suffering and pain, that are a part of everyone’s life. The idea behind this painful reality is clearly emphasized by the fact that there are three “groaning’s” that are mentioned in this passage. Paul points out that crea tion groans (Romans 8:18-22), believer’s groan (Romans 8:23-25), and the Holy Spirit groans for believers (Romans 8:26-27). There were three main reasons why we as believers can have hope in the midst of suffering.  Read the following three passages in order to articulate where our hope rests: (1) Romans 8:18 (2) Romans 8:19-25 (3) Romans 8:26-27 (hint, hint, key words/themes to look for are, “glory, transformation, and the Holy Spirit interceding”.

This past Sunday, the first Life-Application we looked at was You can Leave your Baggage Behind because, we now have victory over SIN through the HOLY SPIRIT (Romans 8:1-17). Read Romans 7:15-24 in order to learn about how Paul saw about himself in comparison to God’s “holy, just, and good law” (Romans 7:12). What hope can we find from Romans 7:25-8:1-4? When reading through Romans 8:5-17, we realize; "It is Jesus who sets us free, and the Spirit of God that enables us to walk in victory." Jesus is the one who sets us free (Romans 8:1), and the Holy Spirit who allows us to walk in victory (Romans 8:5-14). As you meditate upon this throughout the week, I would encourage you to memorize Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

1. The Unfortunate Truth! 2. Victory over Sin! 3. Hope Brings us Victory! 4. Victory in ALL THINGS! 5. Life as Redeemed Children 6. Leaving your Baggage Behind Sermon

This past Sunday we looked at Romans 8 in a message titled, Leaving your Baggage Behind. We discovered in Romans 7, that Paul presents the unfortunate truth every one of us has to deal with in life and that is effects of our sin nature, and how helpless we are to overcome it no matter how committed we are to trying. We get the sense that it was with great frustration that Paul cries out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). We also discovered that it doesn’t matter how much effort we put into having a Christ-honoring attitude or how committed we are in trying to live like Jesus, we cannot in our own strength permanently resist the indwelling power of sin. And therefore we will repeatedly experience defeat and frustration. However, the hope we did find in Scripture, is the same hope that Paul himself had for overcoming the inner wretchedness that lurks within him, and that is that we can have victory through our faith in J...