The Blessed Funeral: Living in the Freedom of the Spirit

• Freedom in Christ vs. The Flesh [00:01:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the 'flesh' (natural desire to sin) with the 'spirit' (freedom in Christ), using Romans 8 to establish that believers choose life and freedom over sin and death.
• Self-Deception and False Theology [00:04:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > He warns against claiming freedom while lacking the evidences of it, fearing that some may be standing on a false foundation of 'bad theology' that promises freedom without biblical transformation.
• Grace vs. Works [00:05:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explicitly contrasts salvation by grace with reliance on 'good works and good deeds and religious ceremony,' urging listeners to abandon the latter for the former.
• Breaking Generational Cycles [00:09:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > He discusses how believers are not bound by their upbringing, using his own experience as a 'chain breaker' from a non-Christian home to illustrate that past patterns do not dictate future behavior in Christ.
• Personal Faith vs. Religious Upbringing [00:12:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > He addresses those raised in church ('standard bearers'), warning that religious heritage does not guarantee salvation and that personal faith is required, rejecting the idea that one can 'go to heaven on your parents or your grandparents ticket.'
• Personal Faith vs. Religious Upbringing [00:12:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts those raised outside the faith who must fight sin with those raised in church who must fight to maintain their faith, emphasizing that salvation requires personal belief, not just parental influence.
• The Consequences of the Flesh [00:14:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the metaphor of 'guilt graveyards,' the pastor illustrates how living according to the flesh leads to the death of marriages, relationships, and careers, citing James 1 regarding desire and sin.
• The Blessed Funeral (Daily Denial) [00:17:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the concept of a 'blessed funeral' as a daily practice of denying self and submitting to God's will, citing Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane and Paul's teaching on crucifying the flesh.
• Practical Application in Marriage [00:22:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a personal anecdote about marital arguments to illustrate how invoking the 'blessed funeral' can de-escalate conflict and align spouses with Christ-like love rather than fleshly anger.
• Marriage and Sacrifice [00:24:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that husbands and wives must love unconditionally like Christ, treating their own will as a sacrifice ('funeral') rather than conditional on the other's behavior.
• Spirit of Adoption vs. Slavery [00:26:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > Based on Romans 8:15, the pastor contrasts the 'spirit of slavery' (fear, rule-bound, people-pleasing) with the 'spirit of adoption' (family, love, willing submission).
• Personality Types as Slavery [00:27:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor categorizes 'spirit of slavery' into four personality-driven sins: people-pleasing, pride/greed, rule-bound, and fear-based, urging believers to submit these traits to God.
• Ritual vs. Relationship [00:32:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor warns against the danger of performing religious rituals (like the Old Testament system or modern church attendance) while lacking an internal relationship with God, labeling this as idolatry.
• Works-Based Theology [00:34:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor critiques works-based salvation systems (faith plus good deeds) as fear-based, contrasting them with the security and freedom of being a child of God.
• Worship and Glory [00:38:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads a prayer acknowledging God's worthiness and glory.
• Spiritual Freedom and Bondage [00:38:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses the concept of being 'unshackled' from things that hinder true freedom, contrasting it with the belief that one is already free.

• Sermon Illustration [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his disc replacement surgery and titanium implants, joking that he is 'more of a robot than ever' and explaining his return to ministry after a planned four-to-five-week recovery.
• Sermon Illustration [00:02:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > He references the movie Braveheart and a quote from William Wallace ('it's all for nothing if you don't have freedom') to illustrate the concept of freedom, suggesting it should be a rite of passage for young men to understand fighting for freedom rather than being forced to fight.
• Sermon Illustration [00:10:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > He tells the story of being a 'chain breaker' in his family; raised in a non-Christian home, he was led to Christ by a basketball coach at age 13, received Christ upon hearing the gospel, and began preaching at age 16.
• Sermon Illustration [00:20:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about being a 'non-morning person' who is grumpy and unspiritual upon waking, using this to illustrate how the 'flesh' wakes up alongside the spirit, necessitating a daily 'funeral' for the flesh.
• Sermon Illustration [00:22:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal experience of making a 'barbed joke' about his wife's mother during an argument, which backfired and caused trouble, illustrating the danger of fleshly speech in marriage.
• Sermon Illustration [00:23:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a hypothetical scenario where a couple in the midst of a heated argument stops to declare they need a 'blessed funeral,' effectively shutting down the fleshly conflict and redirecting to spiritual love.
• Sermon Illustration [00:25:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a 'blessed funeral' every day to describe the daily death of self-will in marriage and parenting. He also references the historical Roman cultural practice of adoption, where an adopted person's name, inheritance, and debts changed, and their old father lost authority, to illustrate the total identity shift in spiritual adoption.
• Sermon Illustration [00:37:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his upbringing, stating he was 'raised in hell' but found 'heaven,' which motivates his voluntary, passionate desire to attend church and worship, contrasting it with being forced to go.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical story of the woman caught in adultery, contrasting Jesus's readiness to give grace with the religious leaders' readiness to throw rocks, illustrating the danger of being rule-driven rather than grace-filled.

• Pastoral Charge [00:05:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > Listen with an open heart and accept the freedom of grace offered by God.
• Pastoral Charge [00:07:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The band is instructed to play a specific song ('I Got Saved') at the end of the service.
• Pastoral Charge [00:13:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > Teenagers to thank God for their parents bringing them to church
• Pastoral Charge [00:23:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > Congregants to email the pastor with a story of using the 'blessed funeral' concept in marriage
• Pastoral Charge [00:28:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > Raise hands to identify which personality type (people-pleasing, pride/greed, rule-bound, fear-based) they exhibit.
• Pastoral Charge [00:26:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > Verbally declare 'I'm not going back' as a collective affirmation of not returning to spiritual slavery.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Let's give it up for the band leading us in worship today. Such a great day. It's also good to be back. For those of you that are guests, I had disc replacement surgery three weeks ago tomorrow and got titanium in me now. So now I'm more of a robot than ever. And so I was supposed to take off about four or five weeks, but I felt pretty good. So I wanted to come back and be with you. I got to be with one of our
[00:00:34] sister churches down in Keller last week. And I said, man, if I could preach to them, I might as well preach to our people. So I just want you to know that I miss you every time I'm
[00:00:42] gone. And I'm just so thankful to get to do this every week with you guys. And I also want to take a quick moment and thank Pastor Mark for holding up that standard while I'm out. At Genesis Metro,
[00:00:58] we are blessed more than you know, that we have so many gifted communicators that we can call upon, that we've equipped, that we can put on this stage, and they can preach God's Word faithfully,
[00:01:10] passionately, and persuasively. And so I'm really thankful that we've put some time in on that, and it really shows. And so a lot of churches, even our size, they just don't have, once the pastor's not there, it's like people are like, oh man, ah. And I feel like every time
[00:01:27] I'm not here, they're like, oh look, there's another person, you know? So I really do appreciate that. Today, we're going to be continuing the series that Pastor Mark kicked off in Romans chapter eight. And the whole context of Romans chapter eight is there's a distinction between
[00:01:46] the flesh and the spirit. And if you're not familiar in theology terms, flesh, that sounds kind of weird. We would call it maybe our natural desire to sin. That because Adam and Eve sinned, we have this flesh nature and it desires sin instead of wanting to do God's will. And so
[00:02:04] there's a difference between a free person and a slave person. And so there's a difference between a slave and a son. He's setting up all of these dichotomies and you get to choose which one you
[00:02:17] want of these two options. And he gives the consequences of each. You know, one, when we choose the spirit, we choose Christ, we have life, we have freedom. But one, when we choose the flesh,
[00:02:29] we have sin and we have death. And I really want as your pastor for you to get to experience this freedom. And I also want to say, I don't think there's anyone that walked in here today
[00:02:41] and was like, man, Tim, I don't want freedom at all. And to kind of line this up just real quick, one of my favorite movies of all time, I'm going to put up here a quote from William Wallace
[00:02:52] himself. He says, it's all for nothing if you don't have freedom. Now, I personally think this should be a rite of passage movie for all young men. Like at 13, you sit down with your dad and
[00:03:04] you watch Braveheart and you're like, that's what a man is, son. That's what a man is. And he's the one that stands up for freedom and he fights not because he has to, but because he wants
[00:03:14] to. And his men that fight with him fight because they follow him, they love him. And they're free men choose to fight versus made to fight for a King. And I think that's the kind of inspirational
[00:03:25] leader that we want to have. We want to, we want to be free and also free to choose. And when it comes to our relationship with Christ, he's saying, I want you to have freedom. And then that freedom
[00:03:36] would only lead you to one conclusion that you want to worship the God who gave you that freedom.
[00:03:42] So it's not out of duty. It's out of love. And so where it gets all mixed up, I think is that there would be some people who change the standard and they define their Christianity
[00:03:55] with different definitions than what God defines it by. So here's what I would fear. And here's the thing to watch out for today. Is it possible that people sitting in this room, they would say,
[00:04:08] I'm free. But then when we look at God's standard, and when we look at the evidences that are supposed to exist in somebody's life that has been set free? What if they said they were free,
[00:04:22] but they were missing all of the evidence? Wouldn't that be some self-deception? Maybe you've believed even a bad theology that would tell you you're free when you're not. And that would be really terrible because then someone would be standing on a false foundation. And I
[00:04:41] would hate that someday that was pulled out from under you when you realize, oh, what I was taught to believe isn't really biblical. And so today, does it matter what we're going to talk about? Yes. You should want to know exactly what God expects
[00:04:56] from you and how to be free. When Jesus said, I did not come just to give you life, but life more abundantly, life to the full. That's the kind of freedom that we're talking about here
[00:05:06] today. That in your marriage, you would have this type of freedom, that you're raising children underneath the banner of that type of freedom, that your money lives, your profession lives in that type of freedom. And so today you'll be able to take
[00:05:21] and you'll line up your life against the standard that God's word shares. And you'll be able to come to some conclusions. There might be some adjustments that are needed as a result of what you hear today. Now, for some of you, this might undo some theology that you believed all
[00:05:37] of your life. And I would say, looking at it from my side of the fence, that you would be free. I mean free at the end of today's message. So I hope that you would listen critically. And if I make
[00:05:48] the case for grace today and salvation, then man, if you're standing on the side of good works and good deeds and religious ceremony, then man, I hope, I hope you came with an open heart and I
[00:05:59] hope you leave here with the freedom that God desires to give. So in Romans chapter eight, with the context of there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ.
[00:06:08] And what the flesh could not do because of the law, the law found us guilty, guilty, guilty because our sin naturally does what is wrong.
[00:06:15] We sin because we are sinners.
[00:06:17] We don't sin and become sinners.
[00:06:19] And so it says what we could not do, God did.
[00:06:22] And we could just sit in that verse all day.
[00:06:24] I gotta preach the rest of this, but I'm just telling you, you should be so thankful that all the things that you could not do, You could not save yourself, you could not forgive yourself, you could not die the appropriate death
[00:06:39] on the cross that would pay for sin, and you certainly couldn't raise yourself from the grave.
[00:06:45] Now, what our flesh could not do, because it was weak, God did. Aren't you glad that you're sitting in a place that God made available to you, that you have a salvation that God has made available
[00:06:58] to you that all the things that you couldn't do for yourself, God did. That is a God worth praising this morning. We're going to sing so much different at the end of today's service. Matter of fact,
[00:07:14] I'm going to just tell the band, we're going to sing that song. I got saved to get at the end.
[00:07:17] I don't care what you got queued up. We're going to sing that Romans chapter eight. We left off in verse 11. We'll start in verse 12. So then brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to
[00:07:28] the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. Would you say that Paul was pretty ominous? Does that sound ominous to you? Like,
[00:07:41] if I looked at you this morning, like, if you do this, you are going to die. Like, if you ever went into the doctor's office and they were like, if you do this, you are going to die. I mean, it doesn't
[00:07:52] get more, uh, the, the, the stakes do not raise any higher than this. So I wanted us to think about that because I really honed in on the word obligated. It says that you are not obligated to
[00:08:05] the flesh to live according to the flesh anymore. Now, again, if you weren't here the first two weeks, he's saying those that are in Christ that have the Holy spirit inside of them at the moment
[00:08:17] of salvation. That's who he's talking to. So today in this message, if you're on the wrong side of the cross and you haven't received God's grace for the forgiveness of your sin, then this freedom
[00:08:28] is available to you, but you do not yet possess it. So point number one, sin does not have authority over saved Christians. Sin does not have authority over saved Christians. And the church said, Do you hear what I'm saying this morning? Nothing that is in your life that is sin
[00:08:53] has authority over you. What does that mean? That means that there is nothing that you have to do because you have always done it. There's nothing that you have to do because it was the way that
[00:09:08] you were raised. There's nothing in your DNA that makes you have to be anything or fulfill any desires that you may have because sin does not have authority over saved Christians.
[00:09:26] As a matter of fact, we're really tempted if you go into any counseling office, proverbially, you know, they're like lay down on the couch. The first question they're going to ask you is like, well it's not really a question it's a statement but so tell me about your your childhood right
[00:09:41] tell me about your childhood and why do we know that because so much of how we operate as adults comes from how we were parented and so I thought about that and then I was raised in a non-christian
[00:09:58] home and so I wanted to give hope to all those that were raised in unbelieving households just because I was raised in it doesn't mean I have to repeat it. Just because I was raised in it
[00:10:12] doesn't mean I have to repeat it. However, do you think it is likely, likely that if you grew up in a household that was dysfunctional, that had violence, that someone cheated, that didn't show love or affection that didn't have good communication skills or didn't provide well,
[00:10:35] do you think it is more likely or less likely that you will repeat that if you don't make intentional efforts to not, right? Overwhelming statistics is that you will repeat unless, unless something greater enters the picture. We would call these chain breakers. I'm a chain
[00:10:58] breaker in my family. There wasn't any of my family that followed Christ. I had never been to church a day in my life. And I had a basketball coach that led me to Christ and I got saved on
[00:11:10] that day. I received Christ the first time I heard the gospel. And then three years later, God called me to preach. And I started preaching at the age of 16. Therefore, I want to say to all
[00:11:22] of you, cause I've heard, you know what? Sometimes I actually hear kind of the skeptic atheist always says, well, God, well, I mean, that's the way they were raised. That's the way they were raised. And they say this and I'm sitting there looking, I'm just waiting for him to finish.
[00:11:34] And I'm like, yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So like, so like if someone wasn't raised in a household like that, that just had just be crazy. What would be your like reasoning for that? I guess
[00:11:43] that has to be God. Wouldn't that be a freedom moment for you this morning that just because it was the way you were raised, that you don't have to repeat it because in Christ, sin has no authority over you. You don't have to keep doing that. You don't have to keep repeating
[00:12:06] that. And sometimes it's not even the way you're raised. It's just a habit that you picked up.
[00:12:12] Now there's another side to this coin. What about the people that were raised in church? Like my wife. Let me give you the other statement. Just because I was raised in it doesn't mean I will
[00:12:23] repeat it. Just because I was raised in it doesn't mean I will repeat it. We're going to call these people standard bearers. In other words, we have the one side that wasn't raised in it and there
[00:12:36] they got to fight not to repeat it. Whereas a person that was raised in it has to fight to repeat it. And sometimes people think because I was raised in church that they're good. And let
[00:12:47] me tell you, you can't go to heaven on your parents or your grandparents ticket. You understand?
[00:12:53] Like you have to have your personal faith. And I see people sometimes they're like, you know, oh, my parents made me come to church, made me come to church.
[00:13:02] I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna get to the end of this message.
[00:13:03] I'm gonna preach that.
[00:13:04] I'm gonna just, oh, I'm gonna, dude, every teenager in here that's like, my parents made me come.
[00:13:08] You should get on your knees and thank God that your parents bring you to the house of God.
[00:13:19] When you think about it, that's the example that we wanna set.
[00:13:23] And they're setting an example that you want to follow after.
[00:13:27] Every parent in here, Shouldn't you want to be like the example that your kids can follow after and arrive at Christ, arrive at grace, arrive at forgiveness? Of course. So those of you that were raised in church,
[00:13:40] just because you were raised in it doesn't mean you will repeat it. You have to work. You have to believe. You have to put in the time. You have to pray. You have to read your Bible. You have to
[00:13:49] have a personal faith if you want to repeat the right example that was given to you. Number three, the flesh builds guilt graveyards. It says, but if you live according to the flesh, you are going
[00:14:03] to die. Grave guilt graveyards. I want you to think about it for just a moment. We all have these. We all have in our minds, these little tombstones of things that we allowed our flesh
[00:14:20] to enter into. Can you think about that for just a moment? Is there anything in your life that ever died as a result of the flesh, your flesh, someone else's flesh. Like there's a lot of
[00:14:34] marriage tombstones, isn't there? Where the flesh got involved and we said for better or worse, but that didn't, that didn't last. There's a lot of prodigal children that have tombstones in families' lives where they went away and they never returned. They weren't the prodigal that
[00:14:54] came back. They were the prodigal that never returned. Whenever we think about our profession, sometimes you have your professional tombstone where one day your flesh got involved, greed got involved and relationships that you thought, man, we built this business together. We could,
[00:15:12] it'll never get torn apart. And then because of one lie, because somebody wanted so much that it was going to be unfair, all of a sudden now everything gets blown up as a result of the flesh.
[00:15:25] Man, James had it right, right?
[00:15:28] He says, here's the pattern that you can watch out for so that you don't keep throwing away.
[00:15:36] Like, I would hate that God was trying to do something awesome in your life this morning, and because of your flesh, you got to go out and have another grave marker for something else that died
[00:15:47] that God was trying to make awesome in your life.
[00:15:50] James says that we're drawn away by our own desires, that our desire our sin nature desires things and we're drawn like a moth to the flame and then it says if we indulge that desire it gives birth to sin and then sin unchecked grows from a weed
[00:16:10] to a tree and the fruit of that tree is always death think about that for just a moment have you ever allowed things to grow up in your life and you look back and you say
[00:16:22] I cannot believe we are here have you ever got to a moment that like that in your life like like I never thought I would do that I never thought I would say that that is the unfortunate
[00:16:35] part about the sin concept sin unchecked leads to death and so this morning I hope that as we go through this process that maybe some of you are in that being drawn part that I could cut
[00:16:52] you off at the pass, that this sermon might be the flashing red light saying, Hey, that desire is going to cost you. And God is trying to save you from the consequences that you are considering
[00:17:05] this morning. Romans chapter eight, next verse says, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. I, we already preached that part, but I'm so glad God always gives the other
[00:17:18] side of the coin? He's like, this is the bad part, but here is the option. He says, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all of those led by God's spirit
[00:17:34] are God's sons. We're going to call this point the blessed funeral. The blessed funeral. It's where you end and God begins. This is what faith is typified by. I want to give you two concepts
[00:17:51] that are given theologically from Paul and Jesus, and then two quotes from Paul and Jesus. Number one, Jesus in Luke nine says that we are to pick up our cross. And he says that we are to do so
[00:18:05] daily. We're to take up our cross, deny ourselves daily. Paul called us in Galatians 5.24, he says, crucify the flesh. That means we have to put it to death. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15.31,
[00:18:20] I die daily, daily. And then Jesus said, when he was in the garden of Gethsemane shortly before he was arrested and subsequently crucified, he demonstrated his humanity when he said, father, not my will, but yours be done. So in other words, there's a place that Jesus demonstrated
[00:18:45] where he ended and where he submitted himself to the father's will. This gives us all of the ammunition we need to live out our Christianity. That we have to have this blessed funeral. And when I was reading this, I thought most people put verse 13 back up there. We'll try to make this a
[00:19:06] salvation verse. Because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. This is not a salvation verse. This is
[00:19:19] in context of, he says, but if by the Spirit, that means the Spirit is already deposited.
[00:19:24] That means that someone has already accepted Christ. You wouldn't have the Spirit if you had not accepted Christ. Ephesians 1.13, it says, at the moment of belief, the Holy Spirit seals our spirit, and that is the guarantee of our salvation. So it is by the Spirit, right, he says,
[00:19:41] that you are able to do this. So this is an ongoing process. As a matter of fact, I would tell you that this is a daily process, that this blessed funeral has to happen every day. Because
[00:19:56] when you go to bed at night and you wake up the next morning, your flesh wakes up right beside your spirit. Now this will be readily understood by all the people that are married to non-mourning
[00:20:13] people, right? Like raise your hand if you're married to a non-mourning, or if you just are a non-morning person. Let's do that. Yeah. Like I hate mornings. I hate mornings. Don't, don't ever like text me at 6 a.m. and say, pastor, pray for me. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do
[00:20:30] it. You text me about 1.30 and then the Holy Spirit will now have control and I'll be ready.
[00:20:38] Okay. But I don't wake up and like, I'm not singing hymns. I'm not like, you know, that's not how I wake up. I wake up and I'm grumbly, you know, I'm just like, and I got to have some time.
[00:20:51] I got to have some coffee. I got to get my senses about me, but I'm just naturally not a happy person in the morning. My flesh wakes up right beside my spirit and wants to pull me towards
[00:21:07] those places. You see, if I don't have a funeral every morning for my flesh, then I'll start the day and continue the day saying things and doing things guided by my flesh and not by the spirit.
[00:21:23] Jesus said, not my will, but yours be done. If you want to know what it's like pragmatically to have this funeral every morning, I'll give you a simple formula that we'll all be able to
[00:21:36] memorize right here today. Every day when you wake up, if you wanted to have this blessed funeral, if you wanted to give the glory to God, you could just simply say what Jesus said in the garden.
[00:21:47] Today, Father, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:21:51] Do you know how much would change in your life if you prayed that simple prayer?
[00:21:57] I want you to imagine, oh, this is so good.
[00:22:00] I'm gonna do some counseling.
[00:22:01] Just remember, it's about 150 to $200 a session for marriage counseling.
[00:22:05] So when we tithe here in a little bit, just remember that, okay?
[00:22:09] I want you to imagine the next time you really get into it, right? Like you really get into it. And I don't know if any of you fight, but Karen and I, we do. And so just, just imagine like you've got a good one going on. All right.
[00:22:20] And, and chances are substantively it's, it's really about nothing, right? It's nine times out of 10, it's about nothing, but you could take a nothing. You've been married long enough. You've learned how to construct that into something. All right. And, and now you're like, you're getting
[00:22:37] after it. And, and by the way, there's some of the things you never want to say, you know, like, oh, yeah, you're just like your mother, right? You don't want to say that, all right? Even if it's
[00:22:46] in there, and maybe you're going to throw it out as a barbed joke, and you just think it's going to be funny. Oh, you're acting just like your mother. No, do it. Don't do it. You're mortified.
[00:22:56] You got to put to death that funny man. And I know this, all right? I know this by experience, okay? Because I'm like thinking it's a funny day, and then I find out that we're not on a funny day.
[00:23:06] and now that was my wife. And then I, then I get in trouble for what yesterday was funny. Okay.
[00:23:17] So I want you, I want you to imagine the next time you're really into one, right? And you're like, you never, and you always, and you're like, you're just, you know, you're getting ramped up. Okay.
[00:23:28] And this is what I want to get this email. I still want to get this email. And I want one of your personalities in here. Please send me this email. I want one of you to look at the other person.
[00:23:39] And it just, I think we need to have a blessed funeral right now. I just want you to say it like, you know what? I feel like we're in our flesh clearly because we're not aiming at the
[00:23:50] fruits of the spirit right now. And we're in our anger and we're saying things. I think we need to have a blessed funeral. Now, what I imagine the other person looking at you like in this moment,
[00:24:00] right? I think in like, they're not going to like that, right? They're not like, you want to have a blessed funeral. Oh, we can have a funeral. But right. There's no real comeback to that. Cause
[00:24:14] like, what can they really say? They're like, no, I want this anger. I haven't got it all out of my system. I really want to destroy more. I want more destruction. See that you, you know,
[00:24:25] you're doing it. You know, you're out of bounds. You can't be saying those things and be saying not my will, but yours be done. Husbands, you can't be leading without loving like Christ loved the church. And guess what? He gave himself up for her while she was pristine and faithful and
[00:24:46] never frustrating him. Or were they always frustrating him and always going astray?
[00:24:55] See, you don't have a choice. You can't say I'm going to love based upon what they do for me or what if they, if they get it right. Wives, you can't say, you can't say like, here's my laundry
[00:25:05] list of objectives and then I'll give my love. That's not the way God loves. You can't be saying not my will, but yours be done in love like that. No, just imagine what would happen if we had that
[00:25:20] funeral every day. Imagine how much better your marriage would get. Imagine how much clearer you could see to parent your kids. For all of our students, imagine how much clearer it would be if you didn't have to choose between your friends, your parents, or social norms? What if you just
[00:25:41] had to choose what does God want? It simplifies so much in our life, this blessed funeral.
[00:25:50] Romans 8, 15, for you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Man, we're going to get into some bad theology here in just a moment. Instead, you received the spirit of
[00:26:04] adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father, and that is more of a term of endearment. It would be more like dad. Point number three, I'm not going back. I'm not going back. Man, I felt like
[00:26:21] that was like something like visceral in the statement. He said, you have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. And I thought, man, that just says so much. It's like a declarative statement. I'm not going back. Can we all say that together on the count of three?
[00:26:38] One, two, three. I'm not going back. You know what Paul is talking about here? He's saying that there was a system of religion that I got set free from and I'm not going back. I didn't,
[00:26:50] I didn't transfer the chains from the old Testament to transfer them to a new Testament system of chains. No, no, no. He said, I'm not going back. I'm not going back to the way that
[00:27:00] I used to think. I'm not going back to the way that I used to live. If you're going to be saved, if you're going to follow the spirit of God, you can't keep going back. The Israelites constantly
[00:27:11] wanted to go back. Our sin nature wants to go back into those old relationships. There are some relationships you don't need to go back to. There are some friendships you don't need to go back to.
[00:27:24] There are some places you used to hang out, you don't need to go back to.
[00:27:28] There are some places on the internet, you don't need to go back to.
[00:27:32] There are some social media platforms that you can't handle, and you just need to not go back to them.
[00:27:38] Because if you're going to say, not my will, but yours be done, what wouldn't you be willing to put on the altar of sacrifice?
[00:27:47] He says, the spirit of slavery.
[00:27:51] The spirit of slavery.
[00:27:52] And I wanted to define that for you based upon personality types.
[00:27:55] Number one, there's people-pleasing, there's pride-slash-greed-driven, there's rule-bound, and there's fear-based.
[00:28:04] All right?
[00:28:05] We're going to take our turns now, raising our hands, which one we are this morning, okay?
[00:28:09] Every person is one of these forms of slavery.
[00:28:12] If you say, I don't have any of those forms, you're number two, okay?
[00:28:23] So, people-pleasing.
[00:28:24] Who is into people-pleasing?
[00:28:26] Raise your hands.
[00:28:26] Yep.
[00:28:28] You see why they raise their hands?
[00:28:30] See, I said, if you're into people, please raise your hand.
[00:28:33] They're like, people, please.
[00:28:34] Yep, he said raise my hand.
[00:28:35] Raise my hand.
[00:28:36] Watch this.
[00:28:37] How many are pride and greed driven?
[00:28:42] There's less of those.
[00:28:45] Tell me I'm pride.
[00:28:48] How about rule bound?
[00:28:49] How many people are rule bound?
[00:28:51] Rule followers.
[00:28:52] Gotta follow, cross the I, dot the T.
[00:28:55] If there's a list, you never go out of order.
[00:29:01] You love a good spreadsheet.
[00:29:09] All right, how about fear-based?
[00:29:10] Anybody wanna raise your hand for that?
[00:29:12] Yeah, you wanna know how they raise their hand?
[00:29:25] Understand something, these personality types in their flesh, they will dominate you.
[00:29:32] They will drive every single action.
[00:29:35] They will drive every single relationship.
[00:29:38] And it's not that these don't have their good sides.
[00:29:41] Like a fear-based person is usually really conscientious.
[00:29:44] A rule-based person, obviously, they're gonna be on time.
[00:29:47] a pride burst pride based person is going to constantly achieve at a high level because they want their ego to be lifted up so accomplishments aren't bad people pleasing is good because they're considerate and they want everyone to be happy and have a good time so it's not that these things are
[00:30:08] bad but in the flesh they become slavery so you have to take that personality type and you have to submit it to God. And then you want to please God more than you want to please people. You trust
[00:30:23] God more than you fear the situation you're walking into. It's not about your glory. Now it's about his glory. Think about that when it comes to rules. And I need to hurry a little bit
[00:30:39] here. The destination, and I'm going to get there. Don't, don't rule people. Don't worry. I'm going to get you. Uh, the destination is not the forgiveness. It is the father that you see what he said there. He said, he said, the goal is not just to get the spirit and freedom and
[00:30:57] forgiveness. He said, but it's to, to follow the father. You see, your story can't just be, you ever asked somebody their story, like, how'd you get saved? And almost always it's dominated by this is the sin that I was in. And this is what I was forgiven of. This is the sin I forsook or
[00:31:15] the lifestyle I forsook. But sometimes what is absent is that they're not passionate about the second half. And that is that now I have a father that I follow and I submit to and that is the
[00:31:30] authority in my life and that he knows better for me than I know for myself. And I want to plant myself on this firm foundation that is storm proof, that is able to stand up when the rain
[00:31:42] and the floods come. Paul says that that first part is supposed to drive you to that second part that, that because of the forgiveness, the freedom, the eternal life being in Christ, that we are supposed to cry out to the father in worship. Now you say, Tim, where are you going
[00:32:06] with this? Okay. Let's think about this. The Old Testament system is what Jesus walked into. Does everybody understand that? There was an old way of doing things that God had given to Moses. And for all of those years, they followed that system. And that was given by God. This was the prescribed
[00:32:26] way to worship throughout the Old Testament. But when Jesus walked into that Old Testament system, were they still performing the rituals but was it devoid of a relationship right they were still doing all the outward things but he said that on the inside they were empty so they were able to
[00:32:51] do the exact thing on the outside that god had prescribed for worship and still be empty on the inside. Do you see the danger? Does everybody see the danger? Do you think that that malady or that
[00:33:10] system or that way of thinking is exclusive to the Old Testament? Do you think if it could happen to them, do you think it's possible that it could happen? Do you think it's possible it could happen
[00:33:22] to us? Do you think it's possible that people walked in here today and they were actually singing that song. I got saved. But on the inside, they're not saved. Do you think it's possible you
[00:33:35] could be in the house of God and you could hear the sermon? The truth is proclaimed clearly that it's not somebody else's faith. We can never elevate rituals above a relationship with God.
[00:33:47] We can't make it about things that man does. He says that you're not going back into a place of fear. You see in many, many, and I'm saying, let's say many, most evangelical denominations and in orthodoxy, they believe in a works based system where your salvation has to be either
[00:34:06] earned or maintained through your good works. So it's a faith plus a mixture of good deeds.
[00:34:15] Well, that system is fear based because I can't tell you how many people have told me I grew up in a church that if, if I sinned on the way home and I didn't ask God for forgiveness, I thought
[00:34:28] if I wrecked this car, I'm going to die and I'm going to go to hell. Or if I got saved in a revival on Thursday and they weren't baptized until Sunday and I died without being baptized, I was going to
[00:34:39] die and go to hell. Or if I didn't make it to confession and I died, I was going to go to hell.
[00:34:47] Does that sound like fear?
[00:34:49] Because that sounds like fear.
[00:34:51] That doesn't sound like family.
[00:34:53] He said, I did not give you the spirit of fear.
[00:34:55] He said, I gave you the spirit of adoption, where you become part of the family.
[00:35:02] Back to those rule-driven people.
[00:35:05] Man, wouldn't it be terrible?
[00:35:06] No, I can't stand this type of Christian.
[00:35:10] I can't stand you.
[00:35:12] That you could be in Jesus's presence, but if you're so rule-driven that you're a slave to your own system, your own personality, you know what you'd be?
[00:35:26] You'd be one of those people that picked up a rock and that you were ready to throw it at the woman caught in adultery.
[00:35:35] Literally, Jesus could be there ready to give grace and forgiveness and you'd be ready to throw your rock.
[00:35:43] See, it's not that rules are bad, but is there sometimes place to give grace where we set aside the rules and that there's a higher level of love that we can achieve when we give grace,
[00:36:00] when they deserved justice.
[00:36:03] You see, if you have the wrong view and you're a slave to your own system, your own sin, your own personality, even a worship system, anything that you substitute for God is idolatry.
[00:36:18] So you can make a religion idolatry, God's religion.
[00:36:21] You can make Christianity idolatry when you elevate the rituals above the relationship with God. It should be about the father. If it doesn't drive you to cry out with passion, father, because he did not give you the spirit of slavery. It says that he gave you the spirit of adoption.
[00:36:42] What happened in the Roman culture when someone was adopted, everything changed. Your name changed.
[00:36:48] Your inheritance changed. Your debt was canceled. The old father now no longer had authority over you. When it comes to belonging, it wasn't that you just joined the family on X date. It was that
[00:37:02] you were like part of the family all the time. Like everything in you was now under the identity of your new father. Guess what God offers every single person sitting in this room? It says that
[00:37:14] he did not give you the spirit of slavery, but the spirit of adoption. This morning he could change your identity. He could change your name. He could change your inheritance. He could change everything about you and he would do it all for free. So why do we worship? Not because we have
[00:37:31] to. The slave serves because they have to. The son loves because he wants to. Your worship in here should be because you want to. I have never been made to go to church a day in my life
[00:37:49] by the grace of God. I was raised in hell, but when I found heaven, man, I want to be here every single week because my heart cries out, Father, to you be the glory. Father, to you be the praise.
[00:38:10] father you are worthy of my best and my everything if you are led by the spirit and have something less this morning you might have walked in here believing you are free but maybe there's something that you need to become unshackled from all right we're going to
[00:38:31] do it anyway let's go band can i pray for you father we ask in the name of jesus band you better get out here. God, I pray for every single person sitting in this room that they might receive
[00:38:48] the spirit of adoption this morning, that if they grew up as I did, they get all of the hope in the world, the father they never had, the mother they never had, the community they never had. But God,
[00:39:07] can we press past all of the accolades and the amenities and say, but most of all, we get Jesus and he's pointing us to the father this morning and your hearts can cry out because it's not like
[00:39:22] he's just made you part of the family. He's going to treat you like you've always been part of the family. And if that doesn't touch your cold heart this morning, something is broken inside of you. And I pray that we might worship our way towards that fire that once burned so
[00:39:42] bright inside your soul. Would you stand? And for all to save, let's worship. The church said.