Romans Chapter 8:3-5

Jesus was the most others-centered person to ever walk this planet, and that's part of what He calls us to do. You walk others-centered. Well, Pastor, I can't do it. Yes, you can. Once God tells you to do something, it becomes possible.

It doesn't matter if it sounds impossible to your ears. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. You know, in life it's often hard to think about others first.

After all, we wake up in the morning and see ourselves in the mirror first thing. Find out today how you can be others-centered and yield to the Holy Spirit's prompting in your life as Pastor David continues his teaching in Romans chapter 8. But before we get into today's teaching, the devil is able to influence so many Christians today because they simply don't know their Bibles. And if the enemy can keep you ignorant about God's Word, he can keep you weak. That's why we want to send you Pastor David's DVD message, Romans from Rome, recorded in the heart of ancient Rome. This eye-opening teaching will show you beyond a doubt the historical accuracy of the Bible. Romans from Rome is our way of saying thank you for your gift today to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So go to crossthebridge.com to request your copy.

Again, that's crossthebridge.com. Now here's David McGhee with part two of his teaching, Choose Life and Peace. Romans chapter 8 verse 3, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.

God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. See, God came in the form of Jesus Christ, 100% man, 100% God. He was fully God. He was fully man. Why was, why did he live as a man? Because he had, as this verse points out, he needed to condemn sin in the flesh. He lived a perfect life. He's the only one.

He's the only one. And he died for our sins. He condemned, if you will, he condemned sin in the flesh is what it says. Let's look at verse four, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. It says, do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

What, what is he talking about? Your, your fleshful desires, your selfish nature. You have a selfish nature. If you've asked God to forgive you of your sins, you also have a spirit nature. And there's, there's a war going on. And this chapter is going to talk about that. And God is working in you, new living translation. This verse says, he did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the spirit. This chapter is such a wonderful balance in teaching the grace of God. And yet also teaching the new nature in that we got to let go of things and we need to let go of things. Those things will hold us down.

They'll crush us. And this chapter is, is filled with qualifiers. If you will, if you follow the spirit, the law has been fulfilled. When you come to Jesus, you just start to live different. You start to change your mind about God. You start to change your mind and your heart about church. We have a lot of people that come to church here, but then go to church before, but they came, they visited, they got saved.

And now man, they they're like here. Like before the sun comes up, I love church. Why you love church?

I just do. That's God in you, love and church. Your selfish nature would still have you at home in bed.

That's the new nature coming out in you. It isn't so awesome because it's not just, Oh God, forgive me. God, forgive me and give me the power to live for you. You don't have to live the way you used to live. You don't have to walk around angry and depressed and better and cynical and condemned.

I don't know about you, but I think the title good news certainly applies to this chapter, doesn't it? It's not a get out of hell card. I'll come to Jesus, ask him to forgive me. And I'll get this little, get out of hell free card.

Be awesome. Then I'll just do whatever I want to. And at the end of this life, I'll say, Hey, here's my car.

No, no, no, no, no. Jesus didn't say, follow me. And I get you out of hell free. Follow me.

I give you a ticket to heaven. He said, follow me. And he said other things. One of the things, uh, Matthew four 19. Then he said to him, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Follow me.

And I'll make you fishers of men. It's interesting what we do with some of these verses. I've sat and talked to people and they say, well, I'm, you know, I don't really tell people about Jesus. I'm not gifted in evangelism.

I didn't ask you if you were gifted evangelists. Jesus said, if you follow him, this is what's going to happen. You're going to start to have a passion for people who don't know Jesus. You're going to, you're going to want to tell them now, perhaps you're not going to be a person that sits up in front of hundreds or even thousands of people and proclaims the gospel. There are some people who are, who are gifted in that way, but, but we're all called as we follow Jesus. I mean, it could be simple as, as keeping these, you are invited cards on you and you may not be able to stand on platform and proclaim the gospel or be called to that, but you know what? You can hold these in your wallet.

You can put these on tables and invite people. So we're invited to this new life. Jesus said, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. This is what happens.

Healthy sheep reproduce. That's what happens. This is what's supposed to be happening. You're supposed to get a passion for the lost. You're supposed to care about the lost. You're supposed to pray for them.

So it's a gift, the causes, the church and missions and whatnot that, that, that help reach out. That's the normal. Jesus, this is what will happen as you follow me. What if that's not happening in your life? You should be concerned because maybe you're following the ways of the world instead of following Jesus, because Jesus says, he doesn't say follow me. And some of you, I will make fishers of men. No, he says, follow me. I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 16, 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Who getting to the nitty gritty now, aren't we? Now we look at that and go, well, I can't do that. You're right.

You can't do that. The Holy spirit in you can do that more. We're just not programmed in our human nature to, to deny ourselves. So when we do, you can understand it's the Holy spirit. It's not you. It's the Holy spirit in you. If you're talking about you, if you're focusing on you and Jesus says, we're supposed to deny ourselves and following him.

That's another clue. Something's not right. See, we, you know, sometimes we'll get an email or something and, and it's filled with I me and it's like, Oh, and we simply asked the question, what are you focused on? Oh, Jesus. Jesus is only once in this email.

You are 37 times. What are you focused on? Deny ourselves, focus on others. Jesus was the most others centered person to ever walk this planet. He was not self centered. And that's part of what he calls us to do. You walk other center. Well, pastor, I can't do it.

Yes, you can. Once God tells you to do something, it becomes possible. It doesn't matter if it sounds impossible to your ears. Jesus, when Jesus tells you to do something, boom, it's possible. Jesus walked up to a layman and said, Hey, get up.

Now, you know, what went through that guy's mind. Get up. What's wrong with you?

I'm lame. But guess what? He got up, told a blind man to see, guess what? Why a man could say, I wonder had I been Lazarus laying in that tomb. And all of a sudden I heard Jesus say, Lazarus, come forth, get up.

I'm dead. But see, once Jesus said, come forth. That didn't matter. The impossible came into the realm of possible. So as you see this, we'll deny yourself, follow him, be fishers of men. That's not possible.

Yeah, you're right. And you, it's not possible. Jesus says it is possible.

It is possible. These follow me's are great. There's a bunch. You could do a word study.

I'll do one more. John in this, in this sense, he's asking about Peter at the close of John at the gospel of John. And he's saying, well, what about Peter?

What about Pete? John and Peter had this thing. We're not going to go back into John and Peter had a little bit of healthy spiritual competition.

And so part of the way I know this and I'll share that. So you don't think, well, he just doesn't like John and Peter. I love John and Peter. Great examples of following God. But if you look at the end of John, John mentions that when they ran, John and Peter ran to the tomb and it says, and then John ran on ahead and then it says, and John got to the tomb first.

And then it repeats it again. John who got there first three times, John tell us, tells us he won that foot race with him and Peter. And so we get to the end and John's going, what about Peter? What about John and Peter?

Jesus, John 21, 22 says, Jesus said to him, if I will, that he remained till I come. What is that to you? You follow me. Whoa. Well, there is no personal application in that verse. So no, no. If you're, if you're concerned about what other people are overly concerned about what other people are doing wrong, you can't be following Jesus.

If you're concerned about how other people have wronged you, you can't be following Jesus because as you follow Jesus, you have to keep your eyes on something. When I was a little kid and my dad taught me how to sail and stuff, he taught me something very useful. He said, you've got to pick out a point that doesn't move and head for it.

Don't, you know, I'm a young kid and then a teenager. So I'm about, you know, I'm just look at the point, focus on the point. This is where we're going. That's a great thing for a Christian. What are you focused on? I'm focused on what's going on around me.

Don't be focused on what's going on around you. Focus on Jesus because you can't be focused on both. You're either focused on Jesus and you're not focused on everything else or you're focused on everything else and you're not focused on Jesus. Jesus says, follow me.

What does that do you don't worry about this guy or that guy or this girl or that girl follow Jesus. You're listening to pastor David McGee on cross the bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's word in just a moment.

But first, so many people today are losing faith simply because they don't know how much real evidence there is for the truth of the Bible. We want to help you strengthen your faith so that you can live the abundant life God has for you by sending you pastor David's DVD message Romans from Rome. This insightful teaching recorded in the heart of the ancient city of Rome will help you see the book of Romans in its historical context and confirm your faith in the truth of God's word. Romans from Rome is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So go to cross the bridge.com to request your copy today.

Again, that's cross the bridge.com. Now back to today's teaching. Verse five, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit, set their minds on again, the new living translation brings it out like this. It says those who are dominated by the sinful nature, think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy spirit, think about things that please the spirit. New King James uses mind. So is King James. It's mind in the sense of Paul kind of uses these Southern tying kind of, I was born and raised in South.

My family's been here like 285 years in this area. And, and so I can talk about this. Paul says, mind here. And, and you may have heard this. If you grew up around here, that boy won't mind me. You're not from here. Like what in the world does that mean? That not a bad, not listening.

Boy won't mind me. He's not giving in. He's not being obedient. I was in California one time and the, uh, out there doing stuff and churches and speaking and stuff. And it was a really awesome worship leader, Duane Clark.

And we were fellowshiping together and, uh, and his wife came in with this book, how to speak Southern, you know, and they were like, say tire, say old, you know, and there she, and it was fun for the first two hours, but, but that whole thing don't mind me. Don't he, that boy's not obeying me. So mind the things of the spirit means to obey the things of the spirit. Be dominated by the things of spirit. Listen to what the spirit says.

Wow. Because it's not, you know, and I heard somebody that's obviously angry at God, call God a control freak. And I thought, how sad, man, but that's your perception. God's telling us the way we're wired, telling us how to live. It's not about him, his spirit getting control of us just to get control of us. It's about, this is the best way to live in victory.

The life lesson. We do not have to live defeated lives. We do not have to live defeated lives through the power of the Holy spirit. We can be overcomers. We can be victorious.

We can do that. We take the mind of the spirit. We yield to the spirit. As we yield to the spirit, we grow in the Lord or we make the choices and we go the other way. But if we yield to the spirit, we live the victorious life. I've lived a life and I've made, Oh, I've made a lot of bad decisions, but praise God through yielding to his Holy spirit.

I've made some good ones responding to God to start a home Bible study. That was the power of the Holy spirit. I had no idea what God was going to do. I'm amazed at what God has done. I'm blessed for yielding to the spirit, but that's not just me.

It's not okay. Well, I bless David is be yielded. No, God's saying, you know, I bless anybody who yields to my spirit. They will live a victorious life. They will feel they will have a joy filled life. They will have life and they will have it more abundantly.

And he makes that offer to everyone else. And the sad thing is some people know things in our fallen nature, there's body, soul spirit in our fallen nature. The body is first body, soul spirit, three parts in us that leads to death. When the body is in control, that leads to death. It leads to sin. If you allow your body to control your life, you're going to get in so much trouble.

I would get in so much trouble if I allowed my body to rule what I did, how I did it, when I did it, what I did, but see, when you get saved, you asked Jesus to come into your life as your savior. That flips now it's spirit. So body, and that equals life.

That equals life friend. Now, can we invert it? Yeah, we can. And sometimes we do, but this is what God purchased for us. This is what God offers. You're struggling with alcohol, struggling with pornography.

You're struggling with being judgmental, struggling with not loving people, struggling with bitterness, struggling with pain. You don't have to live there. Yeah, those things happen. I understand that. Life is tough sometimes and things happen that hurt, but you don't have to live there.

You don't have to set up your house there. Those things can happen and you can move on. Those things don't have to control you.

You can have control over those. And you need to understand, well, I can't fight my sinful nature. You're right.

Dead on bullseye. It's the final life lesson here. We cannot fight our sinful nature, but the Holy Spirit within us can. There's this war going on.

And see, the thing is, if you're fighting in a war, quit giving guns and ammo to your enemy. You're not going to win like that. Quit indulging in everything that you want to.

Quit gossiping and quit controlling your tongue, control your mouth, control your brain. You can do these things to the Holy Spirit. See, understand, God in this, we say, I can't. And God says, I can't. That whole thing of I can't do it, God just took that from you. Oh, I'm trapped by this? No, no, no, no, you're not. You may choose to be trapped by it, friend. But God says, no, you don't have to be. I'll set you free. I'll fight the sinful nature in you.

And I will overcome it. Friend, if you can get ahold of this, your life will be radically different from now on. Or you can hear this and go, I don't see how this is possible.

I can't figure it out. And I'm not sure this will work. Friend, take it from me.

It does. He will. But the decision is yours. You have a free will. You can choose to continue in the same way and give in to your old nature, or you can choose to yield to the Spirit and walk in freedom and victory and know a blessed life and be joyful.

And yeah, tough things will happen, but you'll rise above them. Power is God's. He offers it to us.

Not just some abstract, well, you know, we'll take you to a 10 week course or something. No, no. God's saying, I'm here right now. And if you're burdened and you're heavy laden, I'll set you free right now.

And maybe you're sitting there going, pastor, you know what? I've come to the Lord and I've given this one thing in my life a hundred times. Give it to him 101.

Give it to him 102. And you keep giving it to him until you don't take it back anymore. And he'll set you free. This is a scriptural principle, but one I've lived out one I've seen in my own life. Now understand, and let me be clear if you're here and you don't know Jesus as your savior and you're going, well, I can't live this new nature, right? And maybe you're sitting here and go, well, somebody told me you had to quit doing this and quit doing that before you become a Christian.

No, no, no, no, no. You become a Christian. You asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins. Then God gives you new desires and a new nature. And as you yield to them, you will live a spirit filled new life, but you can't fix you. And anybody that says, well, human wisdom can fix you. I'm sorry.

I've seen that fail over and over and over and over again. You can't fix you. I can't fix you.

God can. And he wants to be saying, look, here's a better way to live. Here's a better way to live. I know what the problem is, and I'm willing to forgive you.

And I'm willing to give you a new nature. I'm willing to forgive everything. And you may have done horrible things in your life, but you can walk without guilt and shame and condemnation. Those things don't have to control you anymore.

You can be pardoned from your past. You can have assurances about your future, and you can have the power of God for your life today. Maybe you've wandered off and it's time to come home. Perhaps you're sitting in here today and you thought trying to be a Christian was trying to do what's right.

No friend. It's coming to him who is right and watching what he does in you. Have you here today? You're listening.

Understand the preciousness of this moment. God is extending his hand towards you and inviting you to come to him. You have the ability to say, no, there's people no doubt about it. There are people in this place. There are people listening that God is calling and saying, come to me. And some will say, no, don't be one of those people. And please, friend, don't sit here and think, well, maybe next Sunday, maybe next Sunday, maybe, maybe not.

I'm not talking about doom and gleam. You're going to walk out of here and get hit by a train. But you know what? There are special times in the spirit where the spirit is drawing you and willing you. The Bible says you can't come to God unless the spirit is drawing you. And it also says in another place that the spirit's not always going to struggle with us. But today, right now, God's got his hand extended to us. If you've been struggling as a, as a believer, God's saying, Hey, I want to set you free.

I want you to yield to me. I want you to walk in this new nature that has all the things you've been looking for in the world. You've been looking outside thinking happiness is here and there. And God's saying, no, no, it's in me. It's in me. I'm always amazed when I think about Judas being so close and so far, when I think about Peter who messed up, but new to run home friend today, run to the cross. You can find your way home from there. God will empower you to live the kind of life that the Bible describes.

And I've been talking about, but no more weight, no more excuses. God's here. His hands extended and he's put the choice before you.

The pain is God's the power is God's, but the choice is yours. Don't wait. Some of you have been waiting too long.

You've been waiting and waiting going while I'll figure this thing out and it'll work. And then God is saying, come to me today. Don't walk out of here, burdened and held back friend. Do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life and I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days in Jesus name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him. And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous.

So congratulations, friend, you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Before we go, we want to help you strengthen your faith so that you can experience the power of truly knowing and believing God's word. That's why we want to send you Pastor David's DVD message Romans from Rome.

This insightful resource recorded in the heart of the ancient city of Rome gives you a much deeper understanding of the historical context of the entire New Testament, meaning you'll know God's word better. Romans from Rome is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So go to crossthebridge.com now to request your copy today.

Again, that's crossthebridge.com. You know each day comes with its share of stresses. So what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the Lord? Visit crossthebridge.com and sign up now for David McGee's email devotionals. Each devotion includes scripture and a message from the heart of David McGee. It's easy and it's free. Sign up today at crossthebridge.com. And be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge with David McGee to hear more from the Book of Romans. We'll see you then.