http://bible.com/events/38881650

We are kicking off a series on relationships 

• To be clear…we are taking about ALLof our close relationships – friends, family members, church family, spouse, etc.
• Jesus commanded that we love each other. (John 13:34-35) 
• This series will look at 4 specific qualities needed for healthy relationships. In other words, you can’t “love one another” without committing to these four things.  
• We are sharing these attributes as rules, especially 4 rules to guide you in your relationships 

Rule #1

When it comes to relationships, it’s not about me.

Philippians 2:1-8

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, humility in value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. ⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in very natureGod, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very natureof a servant,  being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! 

• This letter is written to a church that was experiencing disruption within their relationships, and ultimately the source was a focus on self.  
  • Selfish ambition…working to advance self
  • Personal prestige….thedesire for the attention and applause 
• Often we see the example of someone looking for the interests of others above themself as extreme, but that is not the example of the extreme, but rather the standard. 
  • Why is this the standard? Because it is what Jesus did.
  • Why did Jesus do it? Because that’s what love is. (John 15:13)

Almost every sinful act begins with a focus on self. 

• The truth about selfishness is it’s a trait we hate in other people but justify in ourselves. 
• God wants to liberate us from the “me first” way of living and transform our relationships. 
• Imagine what a relationship could look like when each person has the other’s best interests in mind. 

Other Texts for Study/Reflection:

1 Corinthians 13 

If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Ephesians 4:29-32

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

http://bible.com/events/37680806

Romans 8:1-4

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set youfree from the law of sin and death.  ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

Romans 8:1-2 (week 1 review) 

• Paul is facing the battle between pleasing self and pleasing God
• Ultimately Paul cannot win this battle on his own, but because of Christ we have been set free and we are no longer condemned 

Romans: 3-4 (week 2 review) 

• The law alone could not save us.  We couldn’t be good enough, moral enough, or religious enough to save ourselves. 
• We understand the failure of the law, but also the success of Christ. 

Romans 8:5-8

⁵ 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. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

• There is a person whose mind is focused on flesh (on self)
  • I ultimately pursue what I want 
  • I take what I want when I want
  • Whatever makes me feel good 
• There is a life whose mind is focused on the spirit 
  • In step with what God desires 
  • In step with how God leads and directs 
• While there is nothing wrong with hard work and determination, our flesh alone has never had the power to transform us. The flesh cannot do what the Spirit alone can.  

• This section of Romans 8:1-8 is the “so what” section.
• (Part 1) IF there is now no condemnation for those in Christ……so what? 
• (Part 2) IF Jesus freed you, doing what the law couldn’t do……so what?
  • What do you do about that today?
    • The answer to that question is found in your mind
      • What you think about
      • Your response to your emotions
      • What compels you, what role you allow the Holy Spirit to play in driving you

Romans 12:1-2

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed  by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Bottom Line:

The change God wants to make in you starts in your mind

What would it look like to take an inventory of your mind….

• What do you spend your time looking at or listening to?
• What do you read and study?
• How do you manage your thought and feeling life? (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
• How do you respond to hardship or suffering?
• How would others describe you? (Faithful? Patient? Joyful?) (Galatians 5:22-23)

The Hope of Holiness is that holiness is not something we do, but something God does in us.  We believe it is a focus on our outward actions, cleaning up the outside. But God wants to transform us from the inside out. 

Other Texts for Reflection:

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Galatians 5:22-23

http://bible.com/events/32982985

Hope of Holiness Part 2

We’re spending three weeks on the Romans 1-8 Text

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 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. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God;it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Today, we focus on verses 2 through 4

2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

We are introduced to a couplet – two “laws”

> “The law of sin and death.” The Law of Moses. The Jewish Law. The Ten Commandments. The 613 rules, regulations and practices in the Old Testament – The Rule Book.

> “The law of the Spirit who gives life.” A gift of freedom THROUGH CHRIS JESUS

But, why does Paul make this distinction? Isn’t it obvious?

Do you know this “gospel of the rule followers” is alive and well today.
> Doing is what leads to SAVING

> You don’t need Jesus, you just need morals

> Do what’s right and Heaven is yours.

As you listen, think about the times when you judge yourself, and believe God determines your merit by your works.

What does it look like when you think you can or should earn your way into God’s acceptance?

Reading Romans 7 and 8 together paints a picture of the two “laws” at work.

In Romans 7 “the law” and its synonyms are mentioned 31 times and the Spirit only once. But in Romans 8 The Spirit is referred to 19 times by name.

(verse 3 & 4) 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin (katakrinō He sentenced sin to death)  in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
> The state of sin and death is not because of the law. It is because of US.
> People wouldn’t obey. From what felt like our very first moments on earth in that garden. And once that was evident, the Law couldn’t save us.

“The law is the light that reveals how dirty the room is, not the broom that sweeps it clean. ” 

 But: What we couldn’t do. JESUS DID.
That is the HOPE OF HOLINESS

But why? Ever thought about why it was like this?
> Why Adam and Eve only had to obey one rule and they were offered paradise? Yet they couldn’t even obey that simple command?
> Why through hundreds and hundreds of pages of the Old Testament we read about people promising great things. And then turning their backs on God?
> Why our lives have proven over and over again that we don’t have it in us?

Perhaps one reason is so that we will never forget Him.

That we will always remember, moment by moment, the breadth and depth of what Jesus did for us.

So we would ALWAYS remember Him.

Do you remember?
 

Supplemental Texts

Read Romans 7 and 8 back to back in one sitting, thinking about “the law of sin and death” as over against “the law of the Spirit who gives life.”

Romans 7:7
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. 

Matthew 5:17
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 

Philippians 2:8

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Romans 1-8 The Message Paraphrase

The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms
8 1-2 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. 3-4 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. 5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.