Life in the Spirit: Beyond the Obvious

This week, Andy continued our series on “Life in the Spirit,” diving deep into what it truly means to be led by the Holy Spirit. He challenged our common assumptions, moving beyond ideas of just “hearing God” or “experiencing the Holy Spirit” to uncover a more foundational truth found in Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Andy opened with a vivid story from his recent trip to South Wales, where he and Angie encountered an ultra-marathon photographer. This photographer was positioned near the end of a gruelling 100-mile race, ready to capture the exhausted but exhilarated runners. He highlighted the crucial role of arrows pointing the way to the finish line, but more importantly, the extensive training the runners undertook to even begin such a race. This analogy set the stage: while guidance and exciting experiences are part of the Spirit’s work, there’s something far more fundamental – the “training” that equips us for the long haul of faith.

Turning to Romans 8:12-17, Andy explained that Paul, despite his own profound encounters with the Holy Spirit (like on the road to Damascus, Acts 9), doesn’t focus on visions or gifts when describing being “led by the Spirit.” Instead, he points to a radical, daily transformation.

The context of Romans 8, Andy reminded us, is the tension of living in the “now, but not yet.” As Christians, we’ve inherited a glorious future free from pain and death, yet we live in a present reality filled with challenges. The Holy Spirit, he explained, is actively at work in this tension, helping us navigate it.

Andy then broke down several key works of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the earlier verses of Romans 8:

• Freedom from sin and death (Romans 8:2): The Spirit sets us free from the old law of sin and death, establishing new consequences for our lives.
• A new mindset (Romans 8:4-5): We are called to live according to the Spirit, having our minds set on what the Spirit desires, not on our sinful nature’s desires. This is a profound shift from a self-centred life to a God-centred one.
• Life and peace (Romans 8:6): A mind controlled by the Spirit leads to life and peace, in stark contrast to the death that comes from a sinful mind. Andy emphasized the ongoing “war” within us, urging us to choose to follow the Spirit’s leading.
• Life for our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11): If the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us, He will also give life to our mortal bodies – a stirring promise of hope and resurrection power at work within us now.

The core of Andy’s message, drawn from Romans 8:13, revealed what it truly means to be led by the Spirit: “If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” This is strong language. It’s not about tolerating sin, burying our heads in the sand, or just “putting up with” our sinful nature. It’s about actively, with the Spirit’s power, killing off those self-centred desires and actions that cut us off from God’s plan and the fullness He has for us. Once something is dead, it’s dead. This is the “engine room” of our spiritual lives, the foundational work that enables us to grow and develop.

Andy then linked this to Romans 8:12, explaining our “obligation.” Before Christ, we were obligated to our sinful nature, driven by selfish desires. But now, having surrendered our lives to Jesus and with the Spirit at work, we have a different obligation: to live according to the Spirit. This isn’t about rules or duty, but about responding to God’s love and His desire to bring joy, peace, love, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and faithfulness into our lives.

The glorious outcome of being led by the Spirit in this way, as highlighted in Romans 8:14-17, is that we become children of God. We are no longer slaves to fear, but adopted sons and daughters, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, inheriting all that Jesus has. This relationship frees us from a life of duty and rules, inviting us into a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Andy concluded with practical steps on how to live this out:

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin: What does He want us to deal with?
2. Learn and stand on God’s Word: Memorize verses like Romans 8:11 to use as a weapon against temptation.
3. Kiss goodbye to feelings as a driver: Choose to believe God’s Word over fleeting emotions.
4. Fix our eyes on Jesus: Remember it’s about relationship, not rules.
5. Confess our sins: As 1 John 1:9 says, if we confess, God is faithful to forgive and purify. This breaks sin’s stranglehold.
6. Challenge assumptions: Don’t cling to “this is just who I am.” The Spirit has made you a new creation!
7. Stop dressing up sin: See it for what it truly is – a deceptive lie from the enemy.

Christ died to free us from everything opposed to God. To be led by the Spirit means a radical rethinking of our lives, learning to put sin to death and choosing instead to stand in the life Jesus promised. You are a son or daughter of God – it’s time to walk into more of your inheritance!

Bible References:

• Romans 8 (specifically Romans 8:2, 8:4, 8:5, 8:6, 8:10, 8:11, 8:12, 8:13, 8:14, 8:15, 8:16, 8:17)
• Acts 9 (implied, road to Damascus)
• 1 Corinthians (implied, communion)
• 1 John 1:9
• James (implied, confess sins to one another)

Transcript

pray for me in order to fit the microphone in the pocket of these trousers, I’ve had
to give my wallet to my wife. So, it’s always a risky thing. So, we’re continuing our series
this morning on what it is to, on what life in the Spirit is all about. Nick kicked it
off last week. If you’ve got a Bible or an app or whatever, you might want to turn to
Romans 8. We’re going to be looking at some verses in there in a minute. But I wonder
if I asked you a question, what does it mean to be led by the Spirit? I wonder what sort
of answers I would get because I kind of think probably most of us would say, well, it means
about hearing God, doesn’t it? It means about God guiding us. It means about experiencing
the Holy Spirit and getting a sense of what that is, which is kind of your initial reaction.
But as we’re going to see, actually, when Paul got the opportunity to write about it,
that’s not what he said. So, we’re going to look at that in a minute. Just a couple
of weeks ago, Angie and I had a chance to get away for a few days in Pembroke in South
Wales. And one of the days there, we were walking along the coastal path there. And
as we were walking along the path, we come across this guy sat on a chair, banging the
middle of the path. And he had one of these massive cameras with him. And I thought, oh,
he’s doing some wildlife photography or something like that. And so, we started chatting to
him. He wasn’t doing that, actually. He was a sports photographer. And apparently, there
was a race taking place. And he was sat there on the path because he was expecting some
runners to come. And he lined himself up to get a beautiful backdrop. And he’s really
sweaty runners to come around and capture their photograph. And it turns out there was
a race going on called an ultra. Who knew? Some of you probably do. And in an ultra race,
apparently, you run 100 miles. Whoa. And so, these were guys that had set off running
at midnight the previous day and were still running. And the race was going to finish
in the village next to where we were. So, he was set up near the finishing line to capture
if anybody actually made it. But Angie and I went and sat down. And actually, it was
quite a nice day. We sat down in the field and had a bit of lunch. And we could see the
runners coming along. And we noticed as they ran along the coastal path, you come to sort
of a stile to get to the next bit. And there were these big arrows on the stile pointing
them to go up the field and leave that coastal path. And the arrows, obviously, were really
important because if you run, like, 99 miles, you don’t suddenly want to find yourself going
the wrong way, do you? So, they were showing them the way to the end. And obviously, when
they got to the end, I mean, A, they’d be really exhausted, for sure. But you can just
imagine the sense of exhilaration, of celebration, and achievement, and excitement that you’ve
done about that race. And yet, as I thought about it, you know, that’s great, isn’t it?
But actually, what’s really important for those runners is they all had to do an awful
lot of training in the first place to get their bodies in the kind of shape and fitness
and stamina where they could cope with running 100 miles. And that in some ways is far more
important for them than the arrows pointing in the right direction or the sense of celebration
when they finish. Because if they put the training in, if they manage what they eat,
if they put the exercise in, they get up early and go practicing and they build up the stamina
to run that sort of distance, then they can go on and do it again and again and again.
And in some ways, what we’re going to see this morning is that, you know, we think about
the Holy Spirit being something that leads us, like those arrows, points us in the right
direction of where we want to go. Or we think about the experience of the Holy Spirit being
exactly that, something that’s exciting and stirring. But actually what we’re going to
see, there’s something far more fundamental, far more foundational, far more set up to
help us last the journey and cause us to grow and develop as we walk this race with Jesus.
Walk this race, I didn’t mean that. But, and it’s interesting because we look at, you think
about Paul who wrote these verses we’re going to look at. This is Paul who encountered the
Holy Spirit, encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. Wow, what an experience, right?
And it was blinded and then led to the house of Cornelius where he’s prayed for and eventually
he’s seized. This is the same Paul who writes in the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit prevented
us from entering Asia and preaching the word. This is the same Paul who says we saw the
vision of the man of Macedonia pleading with us to come over. And so in that sense he’s led by
the Spirit. This is the same Paul who is the only guy in the New Testament that gives us any detail
about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And yet when he writes about what it is to be led by the Spirit,
that isn’t where he goes. That’s not what he teaches us. So we’re going to get into this.
I’m just going to read Romans 8 verses 12 to 17 in the NIV if you’ve got that. And this is what
he says. Paul says, Therefore brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the sinful nature
to live according to the sinful nature, but to live according to it. For if you live according
to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body,
you will live. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not
receive a Spirit again that makes you, the Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you
receive the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry Abba Father. The Spirit himself testifies of our
spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and
co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in
his glory. So the context of this chapter, Paul is explaining how as Christians we live in this
tension of living in the now, but the not yet. As Christians who have been born again,
who have encountered Jesus and have chosen to follow Jesus, we have inherited something and
we are heading towards a place where there will be no more pain, no more sickness, no more death.
And we’re heading towards all of that. And yet at the same time, we live in the tension of the now,
that goes on now. And when we pray for healing, we’re praying for the not yet to break through
into the now and things like that. And we’re called to do that, but it’s difficult, isn’t it?
Because we live in this tension, but that is the promises of God that we will enjoy. But right now
it’s a bit of a challenge. So Paul is saying in this chapter how living in that tension,
the Holy Spirit is at work in you and in me and helping us as we do that. Last week,
Nick was talking about the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to Christ in the first place
and how we choose to follow Jesus, the Holy, it’s that work of the Holy Spirit to cause us to be
born again in that language. What Paul is saying here, having done that, this is now the work of
the Holy Spirit in your life and in my life day by day. And I kind of wonder, this is almost like
the small print, right? Nicodemus got the headline story of you need the Holy Spirit to enable you to
be born again, but this is the small print. Once you’ve done that, here’s what’s going to happen.
And so as we read this, that’s what Paul is talking about. And so in the early part of the
chapter 8, he sets out a number of things that the Holy Spirit is doing in your life
and in mine. So in verse 2 we read, the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law
of sin and death. So the first thing, the Holy Spirit has set you free. Why not feel like that?
Well, come on to that. But the Spirit is at work in you. He has set you free from the law of sin
and death. There are different consequences to our lives. Now we are following the Spirit of God
than before we did that. In verse 4, Paul writes, we do not live according to the sinful nature,
but we live according to the Spirit. And in verse 5, we do not live according to the sinful nature,
having our mindset on what that nature desires, but instead we live according to the Spirit,
having our mindset on what the Spirit desires. So Paul is saying as we follow Jesus and if we’re the
Holy Spirit is at work in us, then what we are doing, we are thinking about, what is it that
the Holy Spirit desires? What does God desire for me? What does God desire for my life? What does
God desire for the people that I am involved with? What does God desire for the community where I
live? Because before we knew God, we had our mindset on what I want. And he’s making this
massive contrast between life following Jesus and life before we did that. And he goes on in
verse 6, the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace, but the mind of sinful man is death.
What is controlling your mind today? What is controlling my mind today? See,
what Paul is painting a picture here, there’s a war going on. And I think we all identify with
this, right? And there’s a voice saying, oh, this is what you should do. You should do what you want
to do. And then there’s another voice saying, hang on, Jesus gave his life for you and you’re trying
to follow him. You should be doing what he’s asking you to do. And Paul is describing this
war that goes on and this tension that goes on in our lives and how the Holy Spirit is at work. And
he’s making the point that he’s urging us to be men and women who choose to follow what the Holy
Spirit is saying to us in terms of how we live our lives. And he goes on in verse 11, if the
Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in us, he will give life to our mortal bodies.
If the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in you, he will give life to you, to me.
But I mean, that is such a stirring thing, right? We need to grab a hold of that and let that sink
in and come back to that. He makes all these statements about the work of the Spirit in our
lives in contrast to the works of what he calls the sinful nature, in contrast to a life that is
about pursuing what we want and a self-centered thing that drives us. And then we get to our
passage. And so in verse 14, we read, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons
of God. But when he says that, we need to understand what comes before because, right?
Because he says something and then he says because those who are led by the Spirit of God. So what
does it mean particularly to be led by the Spirit of God? And if we go back one verse in verse 13,
we see that. We read this, he says, for if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die.
But if by the Spirit of God you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Or in another
version, but if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature,
you will live. This is strong language. If by the Holy Spirit you put to death those deeds of the
sinful nature, that work of the sinful, if by the Holy Spirit you put to death those things that are
driven out of self-centeredness, that are driven out of what you want to do and that are not part
of what God has in plan for you. He says we are to kill it. We are to put it to death. We are to
get rid of it. You see, once something is dead, that’s it. It doesn’t come back. There’s no more
life. It is dead. He does not say, but through the power of the Spirit you put up with the sin in
your life. He doesn’t say through the power of the Spirit, don’t worry about that, just keep going,
don’t worry about those things that are part of the sinful nature. He doesn’t say through the
power of the Spirit just bury your head in the sand and carry on as if nothing happens. No,
he says through the power of the Spirit we are to be men and women who are putting to death those
things that are cutting us off from God’s plan for our lives and the richness and the fullness and
the love and the passion that God has for you and we are to put them to death. And then he says
that’s what it means to be led by the Spirit. Wow, so it’s a putting to death the deeds of
our sinful nature. It’s not about speaking in tongues, it’s not about having visions,
it’s not about seeing signs although those things clearly follow, but it is instead what Paul is
saying if we truly want to be men and women who are led by the Spirit then we are to be a people
working with the power of the Spirit in our lives to put to death what he calls those deeds of the
sinful nature and I kind of guess that most of you can think what they are in your own life.
It’s the Holy Spirit that is the active agent counteracting sin in our lives and a people
led by the Spirit are allowing that to happen. That’s why this is such a foundational fundamental
thing because we are to go through our lives this never stops right then we have to go through our
lives to keep doing this keep coming back to God keep coming back to Jesus and say Lord what else
is there something in my life that needs to be dealt with needs to be addressed and
then I want to trust the Holy Spirit to help me to put that to death.
And then if we go back one more verse, verse 12, he says therefore brothers we have an obligation
right if you rent a house you have an obligation to pay rent if you borrowed a mortgage to buy a
house you have an obligation to pay it back and Paul is saying we as Christians as followers of
we as Christians as followers of Jesus we have an obligation.
He says but it’s not to live according to the sinful nature so in other words before we were
a Christian before we chose to follow Jesus we were obligated is that a word I think so we were
we we had to follow the sinful nature there was no other option we had to follow our own selfish
desires we had to do what we want to do and if you’re outside of Jesus this morning afraid to
say that’s the way that life is lived it doesn’t take much to see that around us but Paul is saying
now we have surrendered our lives to Jesus and the Holy Spirit is at work in us we have a different
obligation we are now obliged to live according to the spirit you know so often it feels the other
way around doesn’t it when we’re battling with sin and we’re battling with stuff it feels like it’s
just so easy to see and it’s so easy to trip up or it’s so easy to give in and it almost feels
like the other way around which is why we got to stop trusting feelings but that’s why Paul is at
pains to point this out it’s such a massive issue for us as we go through following Jesus day after
day after day but it is such a massive win that Christ has won on the cross for us and poured out
the Holy Spirit in your life and my life to bring us to a place where we learn to put these things
to death and we are instead obliged to follow what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life
and in my life because he’s got a calling for you he’s got a purpose for you he’s got a plan for you
he is for you he desires to to give you good things he desires to see joy and peace and love
and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness growing in your
heart and in your life he’s for you and so he says we are obliged to live according to the
spirit this is what it means to be a people led by the spirit yes it is the same spirit that produces
the fruit of the spirit in our lives yes it’s the same spirit that gives gifts to the church
and it’s the same spirit that might give us visions or over experiences and encounters with
God but it’s like addressing this is like the engine room of the ship it’s where the action
happens it’s where the thing that matters you can have all sorts of stuff on a boat you know you
think these super yachts or these big cruise liners that are enormous these days it seems
to me with swimming pools and gyms and theatres and cinemas and everything else but actually if
the if the engine room wasn’t working that would all be irrelevant because that boat isn’t going
anywhere and so this is like the engine room of our lives that actually this is the place
where God starts to drive us where he is calling us to if we take him seriously about tackling
these issues in our lives are we feeling aimless this morning are we feeling we’ve lost direction
are we feeling we’re just drifting there may be that we need to look at the engine room of
the work of the holy spirit in us what’s he calling to mind what’s he asking us to deal
with what’s he challenging us to say here is something you need to put to death and let’s
deal with this together you know maybe this is why paul writes um you know when he writes the
letter to the church in Corinth and he describes about communion he talks about the detail around
taking communion and he says this is why some of you have fallen weak and are sick because you’re
not addressing these issues of sin in your life and you’re carrying on taking the lord’s supper
and you know because he’s seen actually that we need to tackle this we need to be serious about
it and address it but then if we go forwards from verse 14 there’s more all right which is also just
as important paul says if we’re living like this if we’re led by the spirit in this way
and we’re putting to death everything that sets itself up against god in our lives then what then
you and i are children of god we are sons of god hallelujah you know that is good news it really is
we are adopted as children of god himself for all who are led by the spirit are children of god
no ifs there’s no buts there’s no exception clause if we are led by the spirit we are
children of god we’re no longer slaves to the form of things that enslaved our lives
you know that’s the argument that he’s stating we’re now children of god in fact he’s very
specific we’re no longer a slave to fear and for a lot of us even as christians we still get
enslaved to fears so often and paul is saying we’re children of god we’re led by the spirit
god has made available to you and to me the ability to put to death those things that lead
us into fear or anxiety or stress because in christ they can be defeated and so we’re no
longer slaves to the form of things before we were a christian we lived the slave to sin and
the enticements and seductions of this world but no more we’re now children of god heirs of god
and co-heirs with christ getting the inheritance of jesus wow right wow you know we’re of an age
when we’re thinking about inheritance for our kids as i’m sure some of you are and you know
and we’re going to inherit what is jesus because we’re co-heirs with christ so what does all this
mean what does all this mean it means we follow jesus and pursue righteousness in our lives not
so much by obedience to a set of rules as living out a new relationship with god as his children
conformed to the likeness of his son it’s very easy just to kind of zone zone out almost
and just pick and think this is about trying harder this is about i’ve got to do better
that’s not what it’s about it’s not about following a set of rules paul is saying it’s
in the context of a relationship with a loving heavenly father who gave his own son jesus for
you and for me that we then decide we want to choose to work this out we want to choose to
allow the holy spirit to address these things in our lives we want to choose to follow god for
this and and be changed from the inside out not because we have to or because there’s rules of
duty but because we are now children of the living god and god wants to set us free from following a
set of rules and instead he wants to be your father not with the shortcomings of an earthly
father hallelujah but as a loving father who gave his only son for us and that out of that
relationship everyone say lord i want you to deal with this stuff in my life i want you to deal with
the crap that trips me up time and time again and i want to address it because i believe you’ve got
something better for me you have something of greater freedom for me as being led by the spirit
is evidence that we are children of god we have moved from slavery to sonship and as he goes on
by him by that same spirit we cry abba father the spirit himself testifying of our spirit that we
are god’s children you see the holy spirit doesn’t doesn’t trample over our humanity or bypass it in
some way but he redeems it and now works through it in your life and in my life he nor does he
overtake or overwhelm us but he has come to do what the law could not do and write on our hearts
the obedience in such a way that as god’s people we want to follow god’s ways that’s the work of
what he’s doing in you and in me today that’s the that’s the stirring of the spirit that’s what it
needs to be led by the spirit paul is saying and so he’s at pains to point out that you are a
people that are led by the spirit because you are working with him to deal with those issues from
our old lives and that christ the son of god died and was raised to life to bring us to life and
he’s now poured out his holy spirit into our life to set us free from and to deal with the mess the
dross the things that trip us up don’t you realize the holy spirit is at work in you
verse 10 and 11 supports this but if christ is in you your body is dead because of sin
yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness and if the spirit of raised who raised jesus from
the dead is living in you he who raised christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies through his spirit at work in you there is so much hope in this passage in a world that
is crying out for hope how can i escape this how can i get out of that how can i stop doing it how
can i stop all of us there is so much hope in this passage that no matter what are the things
that trip you and i up there is hope that actually in god working with the holy spirit we can
deal with these things that’s what paul is saying here and he’s pointing out for us
therefore this means what does this mean practically well it means not putting up with
stuff in our lives that we shouldn’t be putting up with you know we can get to a place a plateau of
tolerating sin can’t we it’s a bit like it’s a bit like in your house right you can i don’t know if
you like me sometimes but you can just put off jobs can’t you david’s saying no you don’t put
some jobs is that right lennis you can put off jobs in your house in your cleaning jobs you know
or cleaning behind the sofa you know anybody do that no it’s like you always think you know if
someone comes and visits oh it’s nice it looks nice and clean but if they came and they pulled
the sofa out or they lifted the cushions up or you know well yeah we put off jobs like that
and in some ways that’s how we tolerate sin and stuff in our lives we just kind of put it off
we’re dealing with bigger issues we’re dealing with other things but maybe this morning the
holy spirit is putting his finger on something else you know we’re not to put up with it nor
are we to play with fire in that sense you know there are times i know in my life when you kind of
justify dabbling with sin you know we use the language like well i’m not as bad as that person
it’s not really harming anybody you know and we use language like that to kind of
accommodate it and yet what paul is talking about here there is a radical approach that we need to
take because of what god has been has done we need to stop being nice about sin in our lives
and name it for what it is those anxieties those fears and insecurities we need to allow the holy
spirit to deal with them and put them to death we need to walk away from statements like yeah
but this is me or i have always been like this this is just who i am the holy spirit has made
you a new creation in christ the old has gone the new has come and you can be new today even
through the work of the holy spirit if you only cry out to him this morning it means tackling
addictive patterns and habits and not managing them just in a medical sense but putting them to
death the opportunity is there through god’s spirit now how do we do this quickly at the end
very quickly we need to ask the holy spirit can you show us oh god stuff in my life that you’re
asking me to deal with that’s stopping me from growing on growing with you and going on with you
we need to ask lord what can you see that i can’t see like underneath those cushions of the sofa
or whatever that we actually does need to deal with we need to learn god’s word and stand on it
we need to hold verses that say things like the spirit of him who raised jesus from the dead is
living in you he who raised christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies and
when you’re facing the challenges and the differences and you’re being tempted you hold
those verses and as you memorize them and learn they become a part of you and you use them as a
weapon say no i don’t have to do this anymore because the spirit of christ the spirit that
raised christ from the dead is at work in me and we need to let that happen we need to kiss goodbye
to feelings as a driver for our life this used to be a nightmare for me as the young man it’s
terrible i don’t feel jesus loves me i don’t feel god loves me i don’t feel this i don’t feel that
and i had to learn to hold to memorize some of those verses that trump feelings time and again
and then make a choice and then choose not to believe feelings but choose instead to believe
the word of god even though i didn’t feel like it and we give too much sway to our feelings and our
emotions and we need to learn to bring them under the word of god we need to fix our eyes on jesus
it is about relationship and not about rules and we need to be free from seeing to do this as a
sense of rules and duty we need to pick ourselves up brush ourselves down and start all over again
when we trip up john puts it this way he says if we if we confess our sins god is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and purify us from all and we all trip up paul talks about that elsewhere
what do we do we we ask for forgiveness and we press on we need to we need to challenge
our assumptions like i said earlier i’ve always been like this i quite like my insecurities
it’s who i am it’s who god made me well guess what he’s made you a new creation now redeemed
by the death and resurrection of his son jesus for you we need to confess our sins to one another
james writes that’s a hard one but i tell you that is a hard one but there’s nothing like that
to break the stranglehold of sin in your life particularly personal private sins that you hold
on to and that you’re scared about telling others when you confess them to people it breaks the
hold in your life and we need to tell it like it is we need to stop dressing sin up in our
eyes as something glossy and okay and we need to see it because the devil is the father of lies
he is full of deceit and false promises and destructive and death is the only end and so
we need to stop dressing it up and see it as it truly is christ died on the cross to free you
from everything in your life that stands opposed to god to be led by the spirit means a radical
rethink about the stuff in our lives that is opposed to god it means living a life where
with the power of god’s spirit we are learning to put to death sin and its effects and we are
choosing instead to stand in the life that jesus has promised you are a son or a daughter of god
this morning it’s time to walk into more of your inheritance amen