Romans 8:1-11

Now, the power of the Holy Spirit has made [us] free from the power of sin and death. This power is [ours] because [we] belong to Christ Jesus.

The Law could not make [us] free from the power of sin and death.

It was weak because it had to work with weak human beings.

But God sent His own Son. He came to earth in a body of flesh which could be tempted to sin as we in our bodies can be. He gave Himself to take away sin.

By doing that, He took away the power sin had over us. In that way, Jesus did for us what the Law said had to be done.

We do not do what our sinful old selves tell us to do anymore. Now we do what the Holy Spirit wants us to do. 

Those who let their sinful old selves tell them what to do live under that power of their sinful old selves. But those who let the Holy Spirit tell them what to do are under His power. 

If your sinful old self is the boss over your mind, it leads to death. But if the Holy Spirit is the boss over your mind, it leads to life and peace. 

The mind that thinks only of ways to please the sinful old self is fighting against God. It is not able to obey God’s Laws. It never can. 

Those who do what their sinful old selves want to do cannot please God.                              

But you are not doing what your sinful old selves want you to do. You are doing what the Holy Spirit tells you to do, if you have God’s Spirit living in you.

 No one belongs to Christ if he does not have Christ’s Spirit in him. If Christ is in you, your spirit lives because you are right with God, and yet your body is dead because of sin. 

The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. If the same Holy Spirit lives in you, He will give life to your bodies in the same way.

message from Pastor Deborah

We are to be His disciples. We know that.

Some of us have learned that since we were waist high.

Of course there’s different takes on what that means…but in general we agree that it’s to be loving to others,

the joy of The Lord with them,

work to know Jesus more…

And that’s the tricky part. How do we know Jesus more?

Not all of us are seminarian elders.

Not all of us have time to put our noses into

the King James, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance,

and Aramaic for the Biblical Scholar… no.

That’s great, for those who do that,

but remember what Paul said about such travail, those who only study the law and don’t live it?

(1 Corinthians 3:6) Jesus has made us competent already…

as ministers of a new covenant—

not of the letter of the law,

but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

We are meant to walk in the freedom and life God has given us.

To follow the letter of the law means you must follow all the tenets of the law and obey them to be accepted in God’s sight.

I know this sounds like a daunting task and that’s because

it is an impossible task.

This is what we talked about last week: there are 613 commandments or laws in the Old Testament that were required to be followed.

Truth be told keeping the ten commandments is hard enough how are you going to manage following 613?

If that is not enough pressure let’s add this to the mix from (James 2:10).

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 

To follow the spirit of the law is

to not put the strict adherence of every jot and tittle

 above the people to whom the law is meant to serve.

Jesus gave the ultimate summary of the spirit of the law when he said this.

Following the Spirit of the law is to put the people above the thing that was created to serve the people.

The law was written to keep people safe.

But religion has often decided that the details are bigger, grander, more important than the point.

Jesus, in (Matthew 22:37-40) explained the Spirit’s purpose: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So, this should be a pretty good guide to how we ought to be disciples.

Let’s consider the the Pharisees in (Mark 3:1-6)

Jesus went into the synagogue,

a man with a shriveled hand was there.

The pharisees were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus,

so they watched him closely, critically, sternly, severely to see if Jesus would heal him on the Sabbath.

Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”

Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”

But the pharisees remained silent.

He looked around at them in anger and,

deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts,

said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”

He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

See, the Pharisees were looking for the “gotcha!” moment.

They wanted badly to be done with this guy who was setting people free

They were trying to trap Jesus.

They were more concerned about the letter of the law,

whether it’s lawful to heal on the Sabbath

than they were about the need and well-being of the man.

Jesus chose to shake off the jots and tittles, and do good and heal the man.

In the spirit of the law.

Remember, the law was created for US, to protect us & empower us.

   As much as the Pharisees observed the details of the traditions, when they left the synagogue they went and plotted how they would kill Jesus.

So much for observing the law.

Do We Forget the Spirit of the Law Today?

I’ve been struggling lately with a couple of moral quandaries… and moral judgments.

There are places that I disagree with new societal norms, really really REALLY disagree.

There are people that society holds up as heroes that I adamantly disagree with.

I wondered if I should name them here, as I am afraid

of being judged about my judgments,

but I’ve always told you I’d be open and transparent with you in everything…

so here’s my list of some of today’s heroes I don’t like.

I don’t like Maya Angalou. I don’t like Bob Marley. I don’t like John Lennon.

I don’t like Maya Angelou because when I read her biography I found out she was a prostitute and a pimp in her early womanhood.

I don’t like John Lennon and Bob Marley because they were womanizers, and both physically abused women in their lives.

I don’t like Woody Allen, or Harvey Weinstein, and I’m sure my list goes on…

Picasso… Lewis Carroll

These are easy people for me to “loath,” because I’m

not particularly attached to their art,

but I am adamantly against their sin.

Then I found out one of my favorite artists, Paul Gauguin,

abused the women, girls really,

…I thought he simply had learned to live amongst them in their villages.

I thought he’d been an observer, but no, he had been a user

…of these young tribal women…

That was hard. I like Paul Gauguin.

I didn’t want to know about his bad deeds.

But now that I know, what am I supposed to do with that?

I don’t know.

I’m trying to find out.

There was a time in my evangelical life when I burned all my rock and roll albums

The church I attended did it, we all did.

We didn’t like what the artists and the music stood for.

I wouldn’t burn albums today.

One, bad for the environment

But two, it’s silly. It’s just plain silly.

My burning albums or books or not buying a product because I don’t like what the company stands for isn’t going to impact the creators very much.

It might do something for my conscience, and that’s valid enough, but it’s not going to change the world.

So, rethinking that…I’ve listened to other’s opinions

I’ve been told that if we judge everyone by current standards, then we will reject all art

We will reject all music

We will reject all literature

We will live in emptiness…

This month I’ve had to ask myself, about people who behave badly

Did they grow up badly?

“what if I grew up with no support system, with generational disenfranchisement?

That reasoning doesn’t work for me, because I did grow up that way.

There is a man of colour who often spoke of this. He said,

“don’t use your past as an excuse. There are no excuses; we all grew up hard. You’re responsible for who you become.”

This man spoke about child rearing in the black community: how men had to stand up, be responsible, not be absent dads.

He talked about how doing drugs wasn’t becoming a strong black man.

Rioting, ransacking, and looting, wasn’t becoming a strong black man.

I liked him. I loved what he stood for.

I loved his comedy and his strength of character

His name is Bill Cosby.

Surprise.

Ouch

Here’s the thing: We must be what we speak.

I always believe that whatever truths you learn in Scripture have no real impact on your life until you apply them.

Let’s do this with this truth.

Here are three simple ways you can be certain you are living by the spirit of the law not the letter of the law.

Two of them Jesus already mentioned.

1 – Love God First
If we learn anything from what Jesus said is that loving God is the most important thing.

If you truly love God that will impact

your obedience,

your worship,

your prayer,

and how you treat others.

This will make the spirit of the law alive in your heart.

2 – Love People
The reason Jesus said to love people is that this affects how you deal with them.

 Think of all the ways the Bible describes love and all the things it does.

Patience, kindness, not keeping a record of wrongs,

and the list goes on.

Having love of people carries the spirit of the law from the heart to the hands.

3 – Depend on the Holy Spirit to help you

The letter of the law is really about you doing everything.

The spirit of the law is about God doing everything through you.

If you want to embody the spirit of the law then allow the Holy Spirit more room to work both in you and through you.

As you continue you to walk as the Spirit,

not only the law, guides you,

 what you will find is that you will be able to love God and love people better, and more.

This will keep you continuing in the spirit of the law and not falling into the trap of the letter of the law.

I think you will agree that life is far less complicated and much more enjoyable when you live by the spirit of the law.

It becomes even better when you allow the Spirit of God to help you do it.

Remember, the law kills and does not produce life in you because it requires something of you that you are not able to give.

don’t be constrained by trying to live to the jots and tittles,

 but live in the freedom & liberty God has given you.

This is not freedom without boundaries

but freedom without the bondage

freedom from adhering to all the tenets of all the minutia,

and living as Jesus did, in the Spirit and in Truth.

I leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul from Galatians 2

For through the law

I died to the law

so that I might live for God.

I have been crucified with Christ

and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body,

I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me.

 I do embrace the grace of God,

if righteousness could be gained through the law,

Christ died for nothing! 

And he died for something

HE DIED, AND LIVED, FOR US

AFTER CLOSING PRAYER we will sing:

the words and music of “The Trees of the Field” were both written by members of Jews for Jesus in 1975—

so if you ever thought the music resembled Jewish folk songs you may have heard like “Hava Nagila,”

it’s because it was deliberately written to do so. 

As you sing this, Listen—pray—imagine—and dance!

ask yourself this week:

              who does Jesus not love?