Romans Chapter 8:18-18

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McKee. You know, since we've been adopted into Christ's family, we have a great life ahead of us, both now and for eternity. Find out more about this amazing life and children of God as Pastor David continues in Romans 8.

Here is David McKee. Well, we're looking at Romans Chapter 8, an incredible book it is, an incredible chapter, and I've encouraged you all every week to please read this chapter once a week. This chapter literally changed my Christian walk, and actually what I did is I read it every day for about a month.

So I would encourage you, if you can, to read it like every day because you'll begin to absorb the truths contained in it. So we stopped off with verse 15, so let's pick it up. Romans Chapter 8, and you know, we pick it up where we left off, and we will next week. Chapter 8, verse 15 says, For you did not receive the spirit of bondage, again, the fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. Verse 16, For the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. But the thing of adoption, and we talked about this a little bit last week, so I'm not going to go headlong into it, but you know, we walk, I hear people say that we're all children of God, and the Bible does, that's not what the Bible says.

And whenever you hear somebody say that, especially if it's somebody that's supposed to know the Bible or even a pastor, it's like, well, no, no, no, no, no. The Bible says that we're not all children of God because, see, that wouldn't make sense. If we're all children of God, what's the big deal with adoption?

Why do we call Him Father after adoption? If we're all children of God, can't we call Him Father before adoption? According to the Bible, we're not all children of God. We can be children of God. John Chapter 1, Verse 12, says, as many believed upon Him and received Him, He gave them the power to become the children of God. So we've got, you know, receive or believe, receive, and then this other verse talks about as many as are led by the Spirit of God. So we've got, you know, believe, receive, led, and you think, okay, was that like a three-step process?

No. When you believe, I'm not talking about just an academic acquiescence into the truths of God's Word. No, I mean when you believe, when you say, okay, my sins are holding me back, messing me up, and I'm sorry for them, and I believe that Jesus is the Messiah of the world. Well, once you come to that knowledge, then you want to receive the truth. You want to receive Jesus, and as you believe and then you receive Him as your Savior, you're now led by His Holy Spirit.

You're led by Him. Now, you can decline to be led by Him, but that's part of becoming a child of God and being a child of God. Jesus paid a price for our sins, and when we believe, receive, and are led by, we begin to let go of these things that hold us back and weigh us down. Romans 6, 1, 2 says this, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? So you begin, as you believe, receive, and are led by, you begin to let go of these things.

Well, not all at once. It'd be great if we did, but slowly over time, you begin to let go of these things. We've talked about the fact that some spiritually or lettuce plants, they pop up from seed and they're ready for harvest in 45 days, but a lot of us are more like olive trees, taking years and years sometimes to bear fruit. So we've got this being a child of God, being led by God, bearing witness with our spirit. Now, some of you are going, well, that, I'm not sure what that means, Pastor David, bears witness with our spirit. Well, let's remember God, we call it, refer to Him as a Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and then we are also made up, we are a triune in the sense of we are body soul spirit, okay? So when we're born again, our spirit is born again, born anew, and that bears witness that we are children of God. New Living Translation puts us like this, for His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children. Friend, whenever you read the Bible, it's kind of interesting as I study the Bible, sometimes I'm looking at it, what it says, and then sometimes I'm thinking about what it doesn't say. Here's what I mean by that. It doesn't say that we will always feel like we're children of God.

Doesn't say that. You know why? Because sometimes, friend, you won't feel like you're a child of God. Even though you know Him as your Savior, you have received, believed, and are led by, there'll be times when you just, maybe you mess up, or maybe you feel like you've drifted, and you just don't feel like you're a child of God, but we don't go on feelings, do we? As a little child and as a teenager, I messed up, you know, in life.

A little bit, just a little bit, just messed up a little bit. You'll never know all the gory details, praise God, but when I would mess up, my father never looked at me and said, you know what, that's it. You're no longer my son.

Never said that. Now, at times, my behavior strained the relationship, messed up, and certainly sometimes our behavior can strain our relationship with the Lord, but He doesn't look at us and go, well, that's it, you're not my child anymore. It strains the relationship in the sense that we do stuff we shouldn't, we get involved in the stuff we shouldn't, and then the Lord's like, man, I wish you wouldn't do that.

That's going to hurt you. That's going to hurt people around you, but we're still His child. At times, we may feel like we're His child, but if you know Jesus as your Savior, you are His child.

Let's look at verse 17. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with them, that we may also be glorified together. Now, heirs, when you start talking about heirs, you're talking about an inheritance. So we're heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, joint heirs, meaning that we have a, we'll get into this deeper in another time, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, and that we're part of the family of God.

It's amazing stuff, man. Before we get to the part of what we inherit and how we inherit it, which, you know, you always see those movies, and then when somebody passes away, everybody, what do I get away? It's never like that in real life, praise God. But when, when, we've got heirs, but before we get to that part, let's, let's, let's look at something in here. Look at the second half of verse 17.

It says, if indeed we suffer with them. You know, I don't like that part. I'm going to mark through that part of my Bible, because I really don't like that. No, I'm kidding.

You can't do that. You can mark in your Bible, but you can't cross through verses. That's not good, okay? If you only take one thing away from here today, not good to mark through verses, but it's in there.

If indeed we suffer with them. Jesus one time is talking to Peter. Peter has this great revelation about who Jesus is.

It's a home run, man. And Peter's probably sitting there going, yeah, I got it right. You know, Peter didn't always get it right, but he got it right.

So he's probably feeling good, right? And then Jesus begins to talk about how he's going to Jerusalem, how he's going to die, going to be sacrificed, crucified, executed. And it says, Peter then goes to correct him. He wants to correct Jesus. Now, before you go, well, I can't believe Peter did that. Do you understand we do that sometimes?

And we wouldn't be as arrogant enough to speak it out, but sometimes when we pray, we go, God, well, you're doing it like this, and that's all wrong. That's not going to work. Let me tell you how to do it. Here's what you need, God. You need to do it like this instead of like that, because that is obviously not working.

You can't see that. So I'm praying that you do it like this. But when Peter said, begin to correct, he said, not so, Jesus. You know what Jesus told him?

Get behind me, Satan. And you want to talk about going from the highs of getting direct revelation to the lows of being called the devil in like 1.6 seconds. Why did Jesus say that to him? Well, because Peter was really saying, in order to be savior of this world, you don't have to go to the cross. And Jesus was rejecting that. As a matter of fact, if you remember, if you've ever read the story about the temptation where the enemy of our souls, the devil's offering Jesus this and that, and he's offering the world and all this, what was going on there?

Same thing. He's offering Jesus the world without the cross. Friend, when you get Jesus, you get the cross.

It's a package deal. You can't say, well, I want Jesus, but I don't want the cross. Now, there's a lot of people that preach what I would call a crossless gospel. And they avoid the cross. They avoid, they don't talk about pain.

They never talk about suffering. But that's a reality in life, isn't it? We suffer. We go through hard things. We go through tough things. We go through tough things. We go through difficult times.

Sadly, that's part of life. If indeed we suffer with him. The New Living Translation puts this verse like this, and since we are his children, we will share his treasures. For everything God gives to his son, Christ is ours too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his sufferings.

Hmm. So we will suffer some. To God's grace, we don't suffer as much as we deserve. But Jesus, in talking about the cross, said something to people. And it's kind of a, one of those sayings where you're like, hmm. Matthew chapter 10, verse 38 says, if you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you're not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it.

But if you give it up for me, you will find it. If you refuse to take up your cross. In other words, if you try to have Jesus without the cross, friend, that's not gonna work.

You won't get Jesus without the cross. Now I know what we do with this verse. We translate this into all kinds of silliness. I've talked to people, you know, we talk about their spouse and, oh, she does this and she does that. I guess she's just my cross to bear. That's amazing. She said the same thing about you.

No, no. That's why when we have marital counsel, we make sure both people are there. Because strangely enough, their stories are different. No, our cross is dying to ourself, letting the past go. When you come into contact spiritually with Jesus, you want to begin to let the past go.

You don't want to be weighed down and encumbered with all that. You want to be set free to live the new life that Jesus has for you and all its fullness and all its glory. Look what else this verse says though.

I'm just talking about suffering and joint errors. And so this is part of the transition, if you will. That second, it says, if you cling to your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will find it.

Don't raise your hand. But how many people in here really believe that verse? That if you cling to your life, you'll lose it. But if you give it away for his sake, you'll find it. Do you believe that? See, there's people in here that will say, yeah, I believe that.

And then they're clinging to their life. Jesus says, no, that's not the way you're going to find it. Thank you again for joining us for Cross the Bridge. We'll continue with our teaching in just a moment. You know what, friend? Marriage can be difficult, and yet it can be such a blessing. Now, if you've been praying or asking God for help, here it is.

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Or you can visit us online at crossthebridge.com. You'll be glad you got it. Now let's return to our study. In John 4, Jesus was talking to this woman at the well is what we call this Samaritan woman. He overcomes, he avoids a lot of arguments, which is kind of interesting. We'll save that for another time. But he avoids argument.

This lady keeps trying to pick an argument. But instead of arguing with the lady, he avoids the argument so he can deal with the issue of her eternal well-being in her soul. And she's talking about the water in the well. And he says something, just one of those life-changing phrases that Jesus was so always uttering. He said, whoever drinks of this well will thirst again.

I love that phrase. Whoever drinks of this well will thirst again. Make a great sign. We could make a sign out of that.

And we could put it like over the doors of Wall Street maybe, or maybe at the bank, or all the other things that life encumbers us with. Whoever drinks of this, you'll be thirsty again. You ever sit down with a thing of popcorn to watch a movie and you put all those things on popcorn that are really not good for you, and butter, and salt, and put all this stuff on there. And then as you eat it, what happens? You get thirsty.

Why? Because that's just what happens when you eat salty popcorn. And I've tried eating popcorn without the salt, and that's just gross.

If you want to do it, go for it. But so I put salt on my popcorn, and it makes me thirsty. You know what I found? Life makes you thirsty. I mean, as you just go through your life, man, there is a thirst for something more.

There is a dissatisfaction with the things of this world. And you can sit there and go, wow, I wonder what the key is. No, he's telling you what the key is.

He's saying this is the deal. If you just drink of what the world has to offer, you will always be thirsty, friend. And some of you are walking right now around parched. And Jesus is saying, come to me. Come and drink.

Come and drink all who are thirsty. Jesus has given you the keys to life. He's saying, look, this is how you discover what it's all about. You give yourself away, and still we cling.

Maybe through fear, fear of rejection, maybe fear of being discovered for the stuff we've done in the past or whatever. But Jesus wants to set us free. And he gives us this simple thing and says, hey, if you want to find your life, give it away. And you'll figure out how this works. Now, I'm not just asking for you to mentally agree with me on this point. I'm asking you to embrace it as a spiritual truth.

Or you'll suffer more than you need to. Mention joint heirs. Let's talk about that, because that's good stuff. Being a joint heir. What are we inheriting?

Man, awesome stuff. Redemption, glorification, all these things. Matthew 25, 34 says this, then the king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Inherit the kingdom? The kingdom of what? The kingdom of God. You can be an heir and inherit the kingdom of God.

Well, how do we do that? Well, you come to Jesus as your savior, you do receive, believe, and led by. And being led out of the old ways, out of the old paths, out of the old habits, and begin to set those new habits and new things. Give in to the new way of life. Because if you try to hold on to the old way of life, I don't know, friend, of a better way to ensure that you're going to have more suffering.

As you hold on to your life, you're going to lose it. Glorified together. Man, inherit the kingdom of God.

Awesome stuff. Verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Man, if you're in the King James, I'm reading in the New King James.

If you're in the King James, it says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time. I like that because I kid with, you know, my friends and stuff out west and California and whatnot. I tell them, see, that's how we know that the apostle Paul was from the south. Because he used the word, I reckon.

And you don't hear that out in California. You hear it here, you know, I reckon this, and I reckon that. Now, is Paul in that King James version going, I reckon this? Well, I'm hoping the New King James is going, I reckon this.

Well, I'm hoping. No, no, reckon is in the sense of an accounting term, a reckoning. And notice what he says and the way he says it. He doesn't say that the sufferings of this present time are really kind of outweighed by the glory, just a little bit. Just, you know, the sufferings are outweighed just a little bit.

There's a scale. And the sufferings, well, you know, it's more the glory that it, no, no. It's not a little race where one ekes out over the other. Paul uses the phrase, not worthy to be compared.

Wow. The sufferings of this present time. There's no need to get excited about the little things. They are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 2 Corinthians 4 17 says this, for our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long.

Yet they produce for us an immeasurable great glory that will last forever. This is written by Paul, 2 Corinthians. And he says, for our present troubles are quite small. So what was going on with Paul's quite small troubles? Oh, his quite small troubles were he was being beaten, whipped, thrown in jail, imprisoned, shipped off to Rome and ultimately executed. And he calls those small troubles. Well, if he calls those small troubles, you know what? I got tiny troubles. But yet we get excited about the little stuff, don't we? Are you going to be standing around here and go, oh, let me tell you something. One time I was at Walmart, lying to 15 people.

I went to this wrestling, this woman, 10 items or less, she had 12. You're not going to be talking about it then. So if you're not going to be talking about it then, why talk about it now? Well, because part of us likes to complain, doesn't it? There's only a couple of people on us in here saying, yeah, well, we do.

And the rest are going, not me. Yes, we do. We tend to complain. That's what, the Bible says not to complain. We tend to complain.

Why? We just do. We won't, you know, a little pity party, a little, feel sorry for me. Let me tell you a story. You feel sorry for me. We'll have a little pity party. I'll complain a little bit. Well, why do we complain? Because we get caught up in the here and now, don't we? Instead of being caught up about heaven instead of thinking about heaven and heaven, if you know Jesus, that's your ultimate destination. That's where you're going. How often do we talk about heaven?

Not enough. I'm one of these guys that when I, when I travel, you know, I, I, I don't know. I'm just in the details and I, you know, put the difference to how you do this, you know, and do this, you know, and I got to know where this is and where that is and how, how actually far is the Starbucks from the hotel? Is it 0.35 miles?

And how do you get there in a hurry? And so all these different things, right? And, and my wife's not like that. We took a trip not too long ago. We got somewhere. I had everything planned out and, you know, and she was like, where are we going now? And I said, you don't know where we got. No, I'm just following you. Well, I mean, praise God, she's following my leadership, but I asked her, I said, so what would happen if, if I wasn't on one of these trips?

She said, I don't know. I just show up for a little while, then go home, I guess. I don't, you know, some of you can relate to that. Some of you related to me and I, and I recognize, I recognize because of my planning, it's not always an asset because, you know, we go, if we, if we, when we've been to Disney world in the past, I've got like, there's a list. We do this, we do that. And we got to run the space mountain before the line forms. And we got to go back over here. But when I get there, I want to be ready to get there. When we get to heaven, I want to be ready to get there. I want to have looked forward to it. I want to have talked about it. I want to have focused on where I'm going.

Friend, you would never make a trip anywhere without some form of planning and looking forward and anticipation. Shouldn't it be like that with heaven? 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. 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. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you've prayed this prayer with Pastor David, receiving Jesus Christ for the first time, or rededicating your life to the Lord, please call and let us know. We want to send you our exclusive First Steps package for free. This package will help you grow in your new life. Receive your First Steps package by calling 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508. Or visit us online at crossthebridge.com.

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