Heirs with Christ

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Lord God, this day, we thank you for the gift of your spirit, that you personally are involved in our lives, Lord. You're not at a distance. You don't stay far away. In the midst of the mess that our lives can be, Lord, that you are right here. That you intimately want us to dwell with you, and not just with you, but that you dwell within us. And we just pray, Lord, this day, that the reality of who you are and what you have done for us in your Son, Jesus, would truly come from our lives into the lives of others. That all of your churches in Southwest Florida, Lord, the one Christian church on earth that we celebrate in a variety of ways, Lord, that across this area, that we become a more real witness to and testimony of your goodness and grace. And that people would be able to see you, Lord Jesus, for who you are. And bless, Lord, the many churches that worship this morning, all those gospel-centered churches around us, Lord. We pray that you'd be with those who proclaim and those who lead, and everyone who attends, and that you begin a renewal, a revival, a new reformation in our hearts and lives, that others, many more in our neighborhoods and communities, can come to know who you are. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So welcome. As I mentioned before, a couple of things. We are in our second week of a five-week series. We're going through the entire chapter of Romans 8. And I know it's a daunting task to consider memorizing scripture, to get anybody to memorize anything. And I kind of put it out there to say, hey, let's do this. And I don't say that lightly. I don't think I've gotten most people to try to memorize anything before this, have I? No. No. This is one of the most powerful passages in all of the scripture. It starts out, as we said last week, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Boom. That's a verse to have on your mirror, on a little card, in your car, anywhere. Because that is something so powerful and so needed for you to hear what God has to say to you every day. Nothing condemns you. No one can condemn you. I have spoken my word over you. Isn't that a great way to start the chapter? Let alone what's going on even today. So we're now in Romans 8, verses 12 to 17. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of the adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Wow, there's a lot in this passage again. And I said this whole series is called Hope in a Hopeless World. And hope is something that you absolutely need. And I need as well. You can maybe survive for a while without hope, but not really. You will not thrive. Viktor Frankl, as I mentioned last week, said this. Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how. And he said that after his experience of being in the concentration camps of World War Two. And he saw in those concentrations camps, those people who had hope, those people who found a purpose, even in the midst of suffering. Many of them survived, but the people who did not have hope. It just all fell apart very quickly. I think we were seeing this in spades in this world right now and in our in our. And we're not going through a lot of suffering. And yet there are a lot of people who are hopeless. Now, I also stated last week, too, that. Where do you find hope? You know how the the national news, how that works, you know, you get 30 minutes of pessimism. And then at the end, they always have that wonderful little story of some child who did or some mom or parent or you know how that works. Right. The last story is always this, because we want to give and we want to just give you a glimmer of hope in humanity. Right. We're still trying to find hope in humanity. And now the Bible has a contrary message. I maybe don't like this message. Like I said, it's hope in a hopeless world. The Bible does not find hope in humanity. It finds hope in the humanity and the divinity of Jesus Christ. And therefore, there's hope for humanity. OK. Our hope comes from outside of ourselves. And that is so important and so vital. And who brings us hope? How do we get that hope? How do we know who Jesus is and the reality of his humanity and divinity? And the answer is the Holy Spirit. And maybe that's why Romans 8, whether you realize it or not, there's only 39. I...