Why Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace Represent and Important Genre

In short:

The "worship wars" are based on the faulty assumption that the church is a producer and attendees are consumers, and that the job of the church is to please the consumer by producing what they want.

There is nothing inherently sinful about traditional worship with hymns, and there is nothing inherently sinful about contemporary worship with new music and lyrics. There is also nothing inherently sinful about preferences for types of music. There is something inherently sinful about members of churches drawing lines between themselves based on externalities that are secondary to the gospel. When we create new churches or divide old churches into groups based on a style of music or even a social group, we do damage to the gospel. One of the implications of the gospel is that we can look past our skin color, our age, our socioeconomic status, and certainly our preferences to love, worship with, and fellowship with other believers. When we raise preferences to be primary (something about which we will divide from other believers), we believe and spread the lie that Jesus and His gospel lacks the ability to bring us together under His name.

All of that to say that movements, like Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace represent, that make the gospel central to our worship should be applauded and supported by Christians who are concerned with the divisions that we are so vulnerable to in our churches.

Other thoughts?

Concert Tomorrow Night at Wyatt Baptist Church!

Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace at Wyatt Baptist Church in El Dorado.

You can get directions here

We also have a Facebook Page set up for the event where you can RSVP and find out more information about the concert.

Later, I'm going to post an article about why Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace's ministry is an important response to bad philosophies that are prevalent in our churches today.

The Third Brother

This is a very interesting way of thinking about the parable of the prodigal son. Tim Keller has written a book on this parable called "The Prodigal God" exposing this wonderful parable.

Oh to be a third brother like Jesus.

Read the article here.

Why We Shouldn't Resort to Violence In the Fight Against Abortion

I had never heard this question addressed until now.
Here is the link.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/AskPastorJohn/ByTopic/47/3504/

I Know What You're Thinking....

"That's John Mayer!" Well, you may or may not be right. Come to Wyatt Baptist Church on February 24th at 7 PM and find out. Here is the Facebook page to RSVP.

The cost to attend will be a suggested minimum donation of $5, there will be a box at the door for those who have the means to give more.

Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace

This guy, along with the Indelible Grace band, will be playing at Wyatt Baptist Church on February 24th at 7 PM. This is one of my favorite bands. They take old hymns and set the lyrics to new music.

Visit the Facebook page and RSVP. If you are a youth leader or a pastor at a church, please tell your people about this. It is a great opportunity to bring together the younger generation and the older generation.

If you have questions please email me or call.

Thanks,

Thoughts on the Stimulus Bill

Observations from last night's television address by our President on the stimulus bill.

1. He seems to want to push this thing through without debating it much. I heard him say over and over again something like- "We must do SOMETHING. If you say we should do NOTHING, then we are never going to agree. The American people want us to do SOMETHING. We need to get this thing through. etc." It almost seemed like he wanted the Republicans to just fall in line without debate and without discussion and vote for this huge bill.
Uhhh... this is $800 Billion, you know, $100 Billion here and $100 Billion there and you're starting to talk about real money. This is an unprecedented amount of money to spend, and we need to get it right. Waiting a few days or a few weeks is not going to make or break it. Why in the world should we trust the government to spend this money responsibly? If we're going to pass something, which it looks inevitable that we will, we need to hash it out. His efforts to hurriedly push this through makes me nervous.

2. I have heard Obama come down hard on the corporate waste of Banc of America, Merrill Lynch etc., and rightly so. The ferocity of his attacks on them is fine, but for him to turn a blind eye to the Billions and Billions of dollars in pork that are in this barrell is a double standard, the likes of which can hardly be understated. He blasted John Thain for his $2 Million dollar spending spree that he actually paid back, but doesn't care that $650 million of this bill is earmarked for the switch from analog TV to digital, or the $50 million earmarked for the National Endowment for the Arts??? Please...

3. Speaking of pork, this bill has more of it than Hormel. Here is a partial list of the pet projects of the Obama Administration. By publishing this list I'm not saying that OBAMA IS USING THIS BILL AS AN EXCUSE TO PUSH HIS AGENDA!!!! but if he is truly trying to be bipartisan and enacting a new era of governmental responsibility, he is getting off to a terrible start.
Here's the list of some of the projects and their price tag:

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
$6 billion for university building projects
$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24
$1 billion for community-development block grants
$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities”
$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”
$150 million for the Smithsonian
$34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters
$500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities
$44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters
$350 million for Agriculture Department computers
$88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building
$448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters
$600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
$450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”)
$600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”)
$1 billion for the Census Bureau
$4.5 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
$850 million for Amtrak
$87 million for a polar icebreaking ship
$1.7 billion for the National Park System
$55 million for Historic Preservation Fund
$7.6 billion for “rural community advancement programs”
$150 million for agricultural-commodity purchases
$150 million for “producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish”
$79 billion for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund

By listing these I'm not saying that all of these things are bad, but this is a stimulus bill, not a "fund your pet project bill." It is supposed to create jobs, not fund Pell Grants, and fund poor artists who take pictures of crucifixes upside down in glasses of urine.

That last item, the $79 Billion dollar State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, goes to balance the budgets of states who have spent money like crazy. Basically they are taxing the fiscally responsible states and giving money to the states that spend money like John Edwards in a beauty salon. Hmmm... now which states are in financial ruin? California is the worst offender along with other left leaning states.

4. He said something like "I'm not going to take any lip about fiscal irresponsibility off of a bunch of people who Presided over the largest budget deficits in the history of mankind." As if to say "Our fiscal irresponsibility is excused by their fiscal irresponsibility." They wasted no time in balancing the books on that perceived inequity. We are set to have a $1 Trillion dollar deficit this year, which dwarfs any of Bush's deficits. It's as though I was at a strip club, pointing to the guys leering at the Victoria's Secret store to excuse my lap dance... give me a break.

5. Finally, the economics behind the proposition that spending massive amounts of money is suspect at best. I doubt even Keynes would agree that this is what we need to do in this case. Obama said that the party of spending is "over." I guess he meant after this one last party.

Needless to say, I don't think this stimulus bill is a responsible way to accomplish what they are trying to accomplish. It looks more like an effort to push an agenda. I hope I'm wrong but this is likely to either prolong the recession we are in or at least retard the rebound that is likely to happen soon. The market may recover, but I doubt it will have much to do with this bill. One reason they may want this bill to be pushed through is so that they can take responsibility for the recovery, and they will have been able to push through their spending projects. I hope I'm wrong about Obama on this and that he gets out his line item veto pen cutting hundreds of billions from this bill. I put that likelihood at about 15%.

Signs: Legitimate or Illegitimate?

A question came in about signs- "Are they a legitimate thing to ask for?"

As with many good theological questions, the answer is yes... and no.

Here are a few relevant texts:

"false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24)

"the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10)

"An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign" (Matthew 12:39; 16:4)

"Jews demand signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified . . . the power of God . . . " (1 Corinthians 1:22-23)

"And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." Acts 4:29-30

I see five truths about signs from these texts:

1. Signs can be done by demonic power. Matt 24:24, 2 Thess. 2:9-10

There is power in demonic forces to mislead people. We must be careful not to be deceived. Some people will be deceived into believing false things. This begs the question: "What is finally authoritative?" There must be a way for us to determine what is true.

2. Signs can become idolatrous and can be asked for with bad motives. Matt 12:39, 16:4.

You can be so rebellious that you will begin to find "signs" giving you the permission to do what you want to do, even if it is unbiblical. If you ignore clear biblical directives and instead seek out physical signs to determine a course of action, this is a sign of rebellion.

John Piper says

"...seeking signs from God is wicked and adulterous when the demand for more and more evidence comes from a resistant heart and simply covers up an unwillingness to believe. If we are carrying on a love affair with the world, and our husband, Jesus, after a long separation, comes to us and says, "I love you and I want you back," one of the best ways to protect our adulterous relationship with the world is to say, "You're not really my husband; you don't really love me. Prove it. Give me some sign." If that's the way we demand a sign, then we are a wicked and adulterous generation."

3. The Word of God, the gospel in specific, is a higher order of revelation than signs. I Cor 1:22-23, II Tim 3:16

The Word of God is the highest and most authoritative revelation given to mankind. All other forms of revelation must be seen as subject to the Bible. Therefore, the responsibility of Christians is to know the Bible and allow it to determine what we do, and not primarily physical signs, or feelings.

4. Signs are done by God to demonstrate His authority. Acts 4:29-30

The primary purpose for signs in the New Testament was to establish authority. There are no clear examples of physical signs being a means to determining a course of action between multiple options. There is no example of something like someone saying "God please make that chair fall over if you want me to go to the store today." There are some examples of people casting lots in the Old Testament but it is never prescribed as a legitimate option for decision making.

The examples of signs in the New Testament are primarily for demonstrating authority. Jesus healed people because He loved them, but there was also an overall purpose in His miracles to establish and display His authority. The apostles performed signs and wonders so that people would know that what they were saying was authoritative.

5. Signs should be prayed for. Acts 4:29-30

Here's John Piper again:

"...if you come to God with a heart aching with longing for vindication of his glory and the salvation of sinners, and that's why you long to see him stretch forth his hand to heal and do signs and wonders in the name of Jesus, then you are not wicked and adulterous. You are a faithful wife, only wanting to honor your husband, Jesus."

God is authoritative, what He says goes. God sent Jesus as His most clear revelation. Jesus came and changed the world through twelve ordinary men, many of whom were inspired to write the New Testament. The Bible today is the revelation of Jesus Christ and therefore has authority in our lives. Most decisions we make should be pressed through the objective, and authoritative Word. There are other issues that are not directly addressed in Scripture, but there may be principles or implications that would give us our answer.

There are yet other issues for which we have neither principles nor implications. The classic example is- Bob likes two girls and they are both godly women, and nothing would rule them out as a suitable match for him. All things being equal, who should he pursue, and how should he determine which one? He should pray about it, asking God to direct his desires and then pursue the one he likes the most.

Discernment takes discipline, and trying to figure out physical or even emotional signs can be frustrating. The vast majority of difficult decisions we make should be done through understanding what the Bible says, and seeking to apply it to our lives. This is not to say that God can't speak, but it will always be in accord with the revelation of the Bible.

It is legitimate to ask for signs:
So that others will seek after God.
So that God's authority will be established.

It is illegitimate to ask for signs:
When you want to find a reason to do what you want to do.
When you put more stock in a feeling or a physical sign, than in the Bible.
When you require more direction on an issue that is clearly addressed in the Bible.

War With Sin Part II: Romans 8:13

War With Sin Part II: Romans 8:13

Introduction:

Two men are bound and are pushed into the ocean from a ship. One of the men is dead and the other one is alive. What is the difference in the way the two men act? The dead man is peaceful. He is just as content in the water as he was on the boat. The change in geography has had no effect on him. The man who is alive, on the other hand, fights and struggles. He recognizes his surroundings are going to kill him if he doesn’t fight against his bonds, and fight to get back to the surface where he can breathe. Fighting against sin is like the live man who fell in the water. Because he was alive, he fought to live. Dead men don’t fight in order to be alive. Alive men fight because that’s what you do when you’re alive. In other words, the man’s fighting didn’t make him alive, he was alive and therefore he fought. So fighting is evidence of life. That is what is being taught in this text. This shows the nature of living as fighting.

If there were barriers or people who were preventing you from seeing your children or your spouse, you would fight to get to them. The reason you would is because you see them as lovely, they are valuable to you. If you see Jesus as lovely you will fight against anything that prevents you from being in close fellowship with Him, whether that is “service” (as we saw this morning) or idolatry, or covetousness, or lust, or any other thing that is not the greatest thing, which is fellowship with Jesus. To say it another way, new life in Christ means that you recognize what is truly valuable, and what is not. You will fight against what is not valuable in order that you may see and savor what is truly valuable- Jesus. This shows the nature of living as treasuring Jesus.

Romans 8:13 If you live by the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

IV. Put to Death the Deeds of the Body By the Spirit- This is going to be an answer to the question "What does it mean to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit?"

1. The Nature of the Christian life as war- Not "let go and let God"
Here's what Ed Welch says about the warfare Christians are called to:
. . . there is a mean streak to authentic self-control. . . Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. . . . The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. . . . There is something about war that sharpens the senses . . . You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little of no sleep, war keeps us vigilant.

This is where I ended last time, and this is where I pick up again this week. Warfare in the Christian life is not optional. There are no conscientious objectors to fighting sin. Conscientious objectors get slaughtered.

We identified our enemy last time, and that is “the deeds of the body” which is anything in us that is against God. Not other people. As Christians we don’t fight against other people, but against anything in us that would cause us to hurt other people.
a. Texts on fighting- I Timothy 6:12, Philippians 2:12,
b. Present and Active- The first “live” and “put to death” are in the present active tense. “Die” and “Live” are future tense- yet another argument for this death and life being eternal and not temporal.
c. Part of the new life given to us by the cross is that we are aware of our surroundings and aware of our own sinfulness. In other words the Spirit opens our eyes to see our own sinfulness and to see it as something to be fought against. This is part of what the new life looks like.
2. The method: Fighting Sin "By the Spirit"- Not "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps."
a. The world says the answer is inside of you and Christianity says the answer is outside of you. Not asceticism, not self-help, not will power. There are people in many religions that put to death the deeds of the body, and they are successful in some ways. There are monks who empty themselves of all desire. Achieve nirvana, but this is by emptying the mind through meditation. What is different about Christian meditation?
b. Texts that indicate God behind our fighting- Philippians 2:13, Gal 3:3
c. I Peter 4:11- The way we fight should cause God to get the credit.
d. The offensive weapon of Christians- Ephesians 6:17. Wielding the word in the fight against sin. If what I said was true last time, that sin (at it's root) is unbelief in the promises of God. Then one of the primary ways to fight by the Spirit is to use the Sword of the Spirit to do battle with sin.

So which is it? Do we fight, or does God do the fighting for us? Well, I guess I would say that God’s Spirit enlivens us initially and continually empowers us to fight the fight of faith. God’s work in us to cause us to fight against sin is primary, our effort in the fight against sin, while necessary, is secondary. Romans 8:13 calls us to do, what we can’t do, but must be done for us- that’s the logic of Scripture.


3. The Goal of our Fighting and The Means of our Victory: Faith in God’s Promises
a. Fight to hear- Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17). (Romans 10:14),
b. Fight to See, (I Corinthians 13:12- I John 3:2, II Corinthians 4:4)
c. Ultimately you are fighting to rest in God. The goal is that you would be so satisfied with Christ that sin becomes unthinkable. Resting in Him makes being at ease with sin unthinkable.
4. Practical Strategies to Fight the Fight of Faith By the Spirit: Just because our fight is “by the Spirit” doesn’t mean that the Spirit doesn’t use means to accomplish His good work in our lives.
a. The necessity of the word in the fight. The Spirit works through the word to conform you into the image of Christ.
b. Fight fire with fire- Sins offer you pleasure, God offers you superior pleasure.
c. Fight with confidence- Because you desire to fight against sin, be encouraged and confident that God will complete what He started in your life.
d. Put yourself under the preaching of the word- God did not make us to thrive in a vacuum, but to thrive in community. Putting yourself under the preaching of the word is how faith is cultivated and matured.
e. Preach to yourself- Adam wrote a helpful note on this this past week. He quoted Martyn Lloyd Jones.
Psalm 43:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you . . ."

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: "Why art thou cast down" -– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: "Hope thou in God" -– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.”

f. Accountability- Again, just like the method of putting yourself under the preached word, we weren’t made to thrive by ourselves, but to depend on others. Accountability is a difficult thing to subject yourself to because you have to be honest, but the Spirit uses other believers to encourage and exhort us.
g. Fleeing- Yes, it would be nice to be able to face all of your sins and stare them in the face and say “no” but we must realize that because of our frailty, in a lot of cases the best thing to do is run like Joseph did from Potiphar’s wife.
John Piper:
“The great error that I am trying to explode in these messages is the error that says, faith in God is one thing and the fight for holiness is another thing. Faith gets you to heaven and holiness gets you rewards. You get your justification by faith, and you get your sanctification by works. You start the Christian life in the power of the Spirit, you press on in the efforts of the flesh. This is the great evangelical error of our day. The battle for obedience is optional, they say, because only faith is necessary for salvation.
Our response: the battle for obedience is absolutely necessary for salvation because it IS the fight of faith. The battle against lust is absolutely necessary for salvation because it is the battle against unbelief. Faith alone delivers from hell and the faith that delivers from hell delivers from lust.”
If you find yourself in a situation where you do not put to death the deeds of the body and never have. If you are the dead man in the sea who is perfectly content with his surroundings, wake up. Look to Christ. He is your only hope. Do not try to put to death the deeds of the body because you are going to do it in a way that does not honor God. Run to Christ, flee to Him. Hope in Him. Trust in Him. Seek after His righteousness. Give up on yourself.
If you are a believer, fight the fight of faith by the Spirit with confidence, knowing that Christ has won for you what you could never win for yourself. Leave the fleeting pleasures of sin and run to the deepest and most lasting pleasures that Christ has purchased for you.

Life By the Spirit

This is a sermon I preached about a month ago at Wyatt.

Romans 8:12-17 "Life In the Spirit"

Introduction:
A few months ago I preached on Indwelling Sin in believers as we looked at Romans chapter 7. In that passage we learned that as believers we all deal with the sinful nature that we have always had. We do what we don’t want to do, we don’t do the things that we know we ought to do. Before chapter 7 in Romans 1-6 we see that in our natural state we are in rebellion to God Romans 1:1-3:20. In Chapter 3 vs. 21-4:25 Paul shares God’s plan to rescue us from the sinfulness that we all find ourselves in. In chapter 5 we see another turn and that is the hope that we have as a result of God’s effort to save us. Chapter 8 describes the Christian life by the Spirit.
Jordan preached chapter 8 verses 1-11. Now I’m going to preach chapter 8:12-17. Next week I will zero in on verse 13.
I’m picking up tonight where Adam left off this morning, and talking about Life by the Spirit. Once we come to know Christ and therefore God the Father by the Spirit certain things will begin to change about us.

I am going to talk about three characteristics of Christians (those who live by the Spirit):
1. Christians are at war with sin.
2. Christians are heirs of God and therefore identify themselves with God as their Father.
3. Christians suffer with and for Christ.

I. Christians put sin to death. Vs 12-13 We are no longer debtors to the flesh. “So then” this goes back to what has previously been said.
a.12 a- Since we are no longer under condemnation and are in the Spirit, we are no longer debtors to the flesh to live by the flesh.
i.You owe the flesh nothing. So many of us are walking around as though we have debts to the flesh that you are trying to pay.
ii. The problem is that “paying the flesh” results in death. It’s like paying for the bullets that someone puts in their gun to shoot you with.
b. 12 b-We are dependent on the Spirit. We work to rest and depend on the Spirit. A big part of the Christian life is understanding what it means to rely on the Spirit. It is not a “Let go and let God” mentality, as though we are not engaged, but it is also not a “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” kind of life either.
c. 13 a- Living by the flesh kills. John Owen put it best “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” This is a matter of fact, if you live according to the flesh you will die. This is a real warning, and we should take heed lest we find ourselves in this category as one who “lives according to the flesh.”
d. 13 b-Living by the Spirit means putting to death the deeds of the body. This necessarily implies that there will be “deeds of the body” to kill. Therefore it is not the absence of sin, but the fight against indwelling sin that we learned about in chapter 7. The big idea that we should learn is that true Christians have sin to kill.

Next week we will zero in on this verse and answer a few questions about it.
1. What does it mean to live according to the flesh?
2. What are the deeds of the body? How does this apply to believers?
3. What does it mean to put to death the deeds of the body?
4. How do you do this by the Spirit?


II. Christians are identified and identify themselves as children of God. Vs 14-16
a. This is the second in this sections’ description of true believers. It seems like anytime Paul writes to churches He assumes that unbelievers, and merely professing believers are present. It’s as though Paul is saying. “Test yourselves here brothers, those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God, and those who are led by the flesh are not the sons of God. Which are you?”
b. How do we know we have received this Spirit? You say ok, the question about whether or not we are led by the Spirit is a little too subjective for me. I get that believers are those who fight against sin, but how do I know I am a son of God?
c. Paul goes further and says that this Spirit that we are led by, causes us to apprehend our adoption as sons and causes us to cry out to God “Abba, Father.” As opposed to a slave/master relationship, this is a Father/son relationship. The way you view your relationship with God determines how you will act toward Him. If He is merely your slave master, you may be tempted to fall back into fear. In slavery, your master could snap and kill you. How many of you fear that your father might kill you? There is a fundamental difference in God being your slave master and being your Father.
d. Believing that God is your Father is the work of the Spirit. The Spirit testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God- This is not a sentimental “feeling” but an earnest biblical assurance that comes from deep biblical meditation and understanding of what the Bible says about true believers. There are three main ways that we know we are God’s children:
i. The declaration of Scripture- Believe and you will be saved.
ii. The fruit of obedience- If you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
iii. The third way is verse 16. The Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are sons of God. Dan Wallace puts it this way. “I know I’m a child of God not just because the Bible tells me so, but because the Spirit convinces me so”
e. We cannot pull this one verse out of its immediate context and try to turn this into some kind of very subjective warm and fuzzy feeling inside. If you are not trusting in Christ, and have no fruit of the Spirit who supposedly lives in you, you cannot have any assurance if you just have some warm and fuzzy feelings that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

III. Christians Suffer With Christ Vs 17
a. The third description of a Christian in this passage is that Christians suffer with Christ.
b. How do we know we are heirs? We suffer with Christ. What does this look like in America?
i. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we suffer in persecution for bearing Christ’s name, though that will come in some way if we truly believe (sooner or later our faith in Christ is going to tick someone off).
ii. We can also suffer “with Christ” if when we have the cancer, or when we lose a loved one, or the degenerative disease leaves us crippled, we react in such a way that shows Christ to be sufficient.
iii. It is sometimes hard for us to think about suffering for Christ in any other way than persecution. How do you separate the pain of persecution for your faith that may be accompanied with getting beat up? Pain is pain, in one sense, and all pain in believers should be experienced “with Christ.” That is, the way you act under pain should make Christ look good, and should point to the fact that Christ is sufficient for you. Your joy in Christ should be more than the horror of whatever is causing your pain- whether it is a mob with sticks, a family member with a sharp tongue, or cancer. Christians suffer with Christ.

Children of God are not:
Debtors to the flesh
Passive about our sinfulness
Living by the flesh
Slaves to sin
Suffering with no reference to Christ

Children of God are:
Dependent on the Spirit
Active in the fight against sin
Living by the Spirit
Sons and heirs of God
Suffering With Christ

The call of the text this evening is to cast yourself on Christ. Seek out the kind of relationship in which you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Seek out the kind of relationship with God where you see Him as “Daddy.” Don’t waste your suffering, whatever kind it might be, and use it as an occasion to honor Christ by showing that He is more valuable than whatever you lost.