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Today's reading is from Romans chapter 8, verses 14 to 17.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 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.
Well, thank you for providing the microphone so that I can move around. I don't like having to stand behind a lectern for too long, as some will be accustomed to knowing that. I was talking with Megan this morning and I just asked about the length of sermon time for the services. And I was reminded myself really that at the previous church where we were, at Glen Waverley, one of the, who was an intern, she became then a youth pastor and is now ordained in a church plant.
She used to sit in the front row and she would put her timer on her app, of her app, and she would just sit there with it like this. It was an agreed thing, so I'll push it now so it's started. When I left GWAC, she gifted me the app on my phone. Let me pray for us.
God, we thank you for the love that you have poured into our heart. We thank you for the reminder from your word that we are your adopted children and we revel in this reality. We ask Holy Spirit that you would open our mind, our heart, our inner being, our whole bodies to what you want to say, to what you want to do as your presence is realized with us, that we would be children wanting so much to have you continue to transform us as your children. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Living as Children of God
Well, it's lovely to be here. It's great to be able to see a number of faces that I know. It's been great catching up with a few people that I haven't seen for a little bit, although for various occasions that we've come back to here, we've very much enjoyed the reconnecting. But it's beautiful also to see some faces of people that I've got no idea who you are apart from that you are children of God. And we celebrate that together.
There is actually a very special part of personalizing children to child, and there are some songs that we sing that remind us of this, that I'm a child of God. But there is also an important aspect of the community, of the family, where we actually live into being children of God. And a key part of what I want to encourage us to be doing today is to be reflecting upon how do we, as children of God, receive the work of the Spirit from our siblings in God and be encouraged and nurtured and grow by what others offer us, challenge us in bringing it into our life.
Yes, we are a child of God, and yes, we are children of God in God's family. So how do we live out this reality that we are children of God and a child of God? Just from this short text, and I know that some of you know me well enough to know even though it's short doesn't mean Drew's going to have a short sermon. So I will keep it as short as I possibly can, which for those of you who know me, it doesn't mean much at all, really.
How do we live into our reality of being a child of God? It's actually important for us to take a level of ownership of living into this reality, because much of what goes on around us will not necessarily be encouraging us to live out being a child of God. So if you've got your Bibles available, then I'd encourage you to open up verses 14-17, is a text that I'm using, and the first point I'd like to make is that we need to be people that have the Spirit leading us and to live into this, be desiring it in our lives.
First point to make here within this one, be mindful of what the Spirit desires. If you've got your Bibles there, go flip back to verse 5 and 6.
Romans 8:5-6
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
What does it mean for you? To live into the reality of your mind in such a way that life and peace is the reality of who you are and how you live out and how you experience the living of others. There are times when you will not feel like you are a child of God. And there'll be times when, as Megan reminded us last week in the message, there is a voice inside your head that says you're not fit for purpose. But we are children of God. You are a child of God.
And while there will be much in our society that will take us away from that, there are opportunities for us to re-encounter the reality of who we are. Be mindful of what the Spirit desires for you as an individual and in community of God's people. What gives life to you? How is the life actually invigorated? How do you feel that you not only experience life, but can offer that life to other people? Live into that and stay away from the things that actually take away life, zap life, diminish life.
And what manifests peace for you? Peace of experiencing God's peace, but also where you can offer peace to others, where you can help them live into their experience of the peace of God that passes any sort of other understanding that we can be given from other sources. Have a mind that is full of wanting to live into life and live into peace. It will be different on different days for different people. We can't just write a list and say, this is what I want for today.
Keeping in Step with the Spirit
Part of what it means to live into the work of the Spirit in our lives is to be open to what the Spirit might lead us into, but it will always be life-giving and peace-giving. Secondly, we need to keep in step with what the Spirit is doing. When I first joined Victoria Police as a full-time chaplain, soon after, and I'm talking within a week, I had to, it was a privilege to lead, facilitate a police honours funeral. And then at the front of the hearse, it dawned on me, I don't know how to slow march. And there were hundreds and hundreds of people.
And the police honours entails an honour guard, where the chaplain would walk in front of the hearse, down the centre of View Mount Road, lined by uniformed police, respectfully honouring the sacrifice of the one. And I'm standing there thinking, I'm going to make a fool of myself. But it's about to start. And I was so thankful to the work of the Spirit in the life of the drill sergeant, who saw something in my face, and he walked over to me and he said, what's wrong padre? No, he said, what's wrong father? That's just how, he always just addresses me as father because he's from a Catholic background and that's respectful.
What's wrong father? I don't know how to slow march. What? I don't know how to slow march. Without blinking, which means this was not the first time this had happened for a chaplain. He said, watch the piper's feet. And I looked forward, and there's the piper. And the piper, because I had to listen for the command, and then you've got to go off on your left foot. But how do I be sure that I actually go at the right time? And so I watched and intuitively just realised what I needed to do, and so I started doing this. And then at the right time, I went off with the piper.
I watched the piper's feet like my life depended on it. And interestingly, my life almost did depend on it because as we walked out Viewmount Road through the ceremonial gates and then we turned south to walk down Viewmount Road, in front of me, I could see one of the horses had dropped the load. The horses walk in the middle of the road, the chaplain walks in the middle of the road. The piper and drummer were in front of me in the middle of the road. And this is what I saw. And at that point I said, thank God for the piper because I knew I was gonna squelch into that thing otherwise, but I watched the piper's feet.
We are encouraged to keep in step with the spirit and in what the spirit is doing. In Galatians five, we read first of all, what is not of the spirit, but then we have a wonderful pickup on what it means for us to be filled with the spirit. Look for the fruit of the spirit. You will have heard this, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Look for the fruit, pray for the fruit, keep in step with what the spirit is leading us into.
And we can be daily and multiple times in the day praying, Holy Spirit, in what I'm about to go into, I want to display the fruit that really matters for this situation. Please help me stay open to what that might be. How do I live out love, joy, peace, patience, kindness? How am I to be a person today in this situation with whatever it might be that you walk into to be someone who is in step with the spirit of God? The Holy Spirit will indeed lead us. That's what we're told.
As children, allow the spirit to lead us, but we need to position ourselves so that we can appropriately, contextually for the situation that you find yourself in, and it might be different to my situation, but apportion yourself, position yourself to be able to see the piper's feet. Just make sure you make the connection to the Holy Spirit. But are you watching the piper's feet? Or are you gleaming through your day and then at the end of the day think, gee, I didn't even give any thought to what God might be doing in and through me.
Living into Our Adopted Status
Secondly, what will help us live into being children of God is that we learn to live into our adopted status. There's two things here that we can bring out of this text. Verse 15, the spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And we are able, therefore, to cry out, Abba, Father.
The first thing I would like to encourage you to leverage is this. Live into the freedom you have of security in who you are as a child of God and not slip back to being a slave to fear. Fear is a debilitating experience. We can become so fearful of what someone might say or someone might think or someone might do in a whole gamut of life experiences. And it can be so debilitating that it almost freezes us from being able to not only receive from God what God wants to pour out into our lives by his spirit, but for us to also encounter and experience life with others within the community of faith.
And we end up thinking the worst case scenario and going down that rabbit warren because of fear. And so having this freedom of security, knowing I am a child of God and I will not succumb to the temptation of again becoming a slave to fear. The second aspect of this one is that we have the freedom to call out Abba, Father. In my third year of Ridley College back in the 1980s, that predates a whole lot of you. Well, a group from our year went on a study tour of Israel.
And when they came back, I asked one of them, what was the life-changing experience that you had? And I was expecting something profound from walking in the footsteps of Jesus. And he told me this story, he told us this story. He said, I was walking up a fairly steep incline and I walked past a guy that was fairly intent on and focused and so I moved slightly to the side. And as I moved to the side, I heard this little voice from a boy who was running down the hill going, Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba.
And he whizzed past him and so he turned around to see and the man that he had just passed before had turned around just in time as the boy launched himself into the arms of the man. They hugged and kissed and they had some words in Hebrew so he didn't know what they were actually saying. And then the boy went back up the hill and joined with what Paul assumes was his mother. And he said, that will forever be indelibly printed in my head. We have the freedom of calling out to our Father, God, Abba, Father.
There is intimacy there that we have and we are invited into that intimate ongoing relationship. How do we live into the reality of who we are as children of God? It is accepting that we have a heavenly Father who loves us, cares for us and provides for us. And we can launch into the arms of our Abba, Father, confident of his protection. The Spirit testifies with our spirit the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
The main point here is I wanna encourage you don't listen to the voice that undermines this reality. Don't listen to the voices that will take you away from this reality. The Spirit of God testifies to our spirit with our spirit that we are children. Of God and therefore we have an inheritance. Don't listen to the voices that will diminish who you are.
Now this, the Spirit testifies with our spirit is not about two spirits coming together, having a conversation and then deciding on how it's gonna play out. It's actually the Spirit of God testifying with our spirit, you are mine. And I'm empowering you to live as my child because you are an adopted child in the culture of the day. And that's why sonship appears first of all within what Paul says, but then he elaborates more of the term children of God because sonship was a legal term.
It was something that was grabbed a hold of when influential people who had money and had resources did not have children. They would adopt someone, choose who they wanted to adopt, adopt them and then they would be the ones who would carry on their name, it would be a male because that was the culture of the day. And Paul grabs a hold of this to give a legal imperative. This is how significant it is, but switches to children of God, sons and daughters becomes the focus. This is something that is for all of creation to live into.
You are children of God if you submit to God as your father. It's a beautiful position that we have and the Spirit testifies to our spirit, especially when we start hearing voices that diminish who we are in God. You're gods, don't let that happen. And the Spirit, lastly, guarantees our inheritance.
The Spirit Guarantees Our Inheritance
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. Psalm 23, I haven't got a time to preach a sermon on Psalm 23, let me give you the headline and you can go back and have a look yourself. Psalm 23 is a psalm of life. Starts out with clarity around the Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters.
There are times when the shepherd is leading us to be the people who are in inheriting all that God has for us, there will be times in life when what that means for us is that God is leading us clearly. We need to be praying that the Spirit of God will lead us today into whatever it might be that we're going to this afternoon. But there'll be times when the day shifts and what we need to be praying for is the Spirit of God will be the one who walks beside us. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you, O Lord, are with me. Beside me.
And there'll be times in our day when we are actually pushing on to something and into something and what we need is a God at our six. A God who has our back. And when you look at the end of that psalm, the psalm finishes up with a God who has our back, the goodness and mercy of God will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Spirit of God for the children of God brings us home. Ultimately, on the resurrection day, yes, but day in, day out and multiple times through the day, the Spirit of God brings us home.
And we will always be wherever we are, we can be at home with God because we are children of the household of God. It's no coincidence that Jesus then grabs a hold of the image and says, I am the Good Shepherd who lays down life for the sheep. As you live into what it means to be a child of God today and tomorrow, it may be that God leads you somewhere. It may be that you find yourself somewhere where you need God right beside you, speaking gently to you in a difficult circumstance.
And it may be that you are finding yourself where you've just got to push on. But knowing that you've got God, the Spirit of God at your six, who ultimately is going to bring you home, will enable you to get on with the task that's before you that God has given you. How are we going to live into the reality as children of God? It's by accepting that the Spirit of God promises to lead us, to be with us, to remind us of who we are, of our inheritance that we have, and of what's involved now and in the life to come.
When the Bible says that the Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance, it's not saying that the Spirit of God, we get a bit of the Spirit as a deposit. That's how we think of deposit. You get the whole Spirit of God as the deposit, as in the first part of what's going to come at the fullness of time. But you get the full Spirit.
So, some things just to quickly suggest to you, and then I'm going to ask you to stand. For those of you who like to actually have some action points, here's a few things that you might like to mentally write down, or with your phones write down, or with your phones take a photo.
- Mindfulness. Philippians chapter 4 verse 8. Think of these things. What's good, and right, and wholesome, and encouraging. Think of all the good things that come from the work of God in the life of God's people that we see displayed within Scripture. Think on these good things. Have your mind filled with these things. This is my reality. This is who God is, and this is what God wants to bring. I am going to focus myself on these things for me, and look to see how is God going to bring them out in my life. That's your reality, because it's part of being the children of God.
- Open this to the fruit of the Spirit. Pray into the list that we have from Galatians 5, and in particular times that go on throughout the day. God, I need your patience right now, and I thank you that you will deliver it for me, and I'm going to be patient regardless. I'm going to be patient regardless of what this person is about to say. And as they speak, thank you, Holy Spirit, for keeping me patient. I'm living into my reality of what you've promised.
- We need to be active in taking a hold of what God has given us. And throughout the day, how is the Spirit of God shepherding you? In different seasons of your day, is God clearly leading you? Live into that. Is God clearly walking beside you? Live into that. A hint, if you've got an experience of, I need you right beside me right now, God, don't hastenly take action. Right? Because if you take action too quickly, you'll walk away from God. If we want God beside us, slow it down. Take time. Live the moment, God's beside me. Why would I want to move? And see what God provides.
- And there'll be other times where it's the Spirit of God's voice is saying, you know where you gotta be? Go. Go. There's an exact example I can give you of this last week. Where I asked the Lord to give me understanding and appreciation. Be beside me, help me, quieten me, open my mind to what you want me to do. Then I got out of my car and I walked into the context that I had to go to. And I was focused and intentional and seeking opportunity to convey to the person, I'm here for you. I'm here for you. But I knew I had God at my back and God was going to bring me home.
And what I have in my mind that God is going to bring me home, what it does do is it reframes how I get about doing the things I have to do. Because I know whatever I need to do has to be consistent with where God's taking me. Otherwise, I'm not going home with God. I'm going home with Drew.
I'd like to invite you to stand, please. For the team to come up, ready for our next song. I want to lead us into a gentle time right now. Of being open to what the Spirit of God is leading us into collectively and you into individually. How is it that right now as you think about life, your day, relationships, where you're at with God, the things that are worrying you or concerning you, perhaps the voices that you are hearing that are speaking something that you know is not of where God wants you to be.
Remember last week with those words, in Christ there is no condemnation. And there's no separation. That book ends this chapter eight. So if you're hearing a voice that is somehow demeaning you and putting you down, it is not of God. It is not the Spirit of God. Listen to the voice of God by His Spirit. What is He saying to you? How is He leading you right now?
And I want us to be open to the infilling of the Holy Spirit as we determine today individually and as a community for you to determine. We're going to keep in step with the Spirit of God individually as I walk out of here. But collectively as a member of this faith community, I want to keep in step with you, Holy Spirit. I want to keep in step with you, Holy Spirit. So bless me now. Anoint me now. Wash through me now, Holy Spirit. For each of your children present. Work in their lives. Open their heart. Keep them mindful of the good things that you've spoken and promised. And lead them. Walk beside them. Have their back and bring them home into what it is that you have planned for them. Holy Spirit, we welcome you into this time right now.
