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The Spirit

The Spirit - Sets Us Free

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 3 August 2025 · Romans 8:1-8 · 44:11 · 6,866 words

Romans S15 · 8:1-8 Holly

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The message explores Romans 8:1‑8, showing that believers are free from condemnation because of Christ’s sacrifice. It explains the contrast between living by the flesh and walking by the Spirit, and offers practical ways to set the mind on the Spirit: dying to self each day, meditating on Scripture, fighting the struggle through prayer, refusing to let setbacks define you, and keeping your eyes on eternal things. The listener is invited to embrace this freedom and make a daily choice to follow the Spirit.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

set 50 mind 50 spirit 71 eight 22 alarm 11 condemn 27 describe 24 captive 11 flesh 30 brain 10 meditate 7 daily 12

Topics

The Holy Spirit 20 Sin 14 Condemnation 12 The Law 4 The Flesh 4 Prayer 1 Freedom 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Sanctification 1 Mission & Evangelism 1 Grace 1 Obedience 1 Justification 1

Scripture referenced 39

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 8 3:05 Romans 8 3:59 Romans 6:23 4:24 Romans 6:23 4:30 Romans 8 6:05 Romans 1 6:28 Romans 7 10:11 Romans 7:1 10:25 Romans 7 12:43 Romans 7 14:22 Romans 7:1 15:30 Romans 7:1 15:30 Romans 7:1 15:35 Romans 7:1 15:35 Romans 8 15:49 Romans 8:1 15:49 Romans 8:2 17:07 Romans 8 17:45 Romans 8 18:26 Romans 8 18:37 Romans 8:2 18:37 Romans 6 19:29 Romans 7 19:29 Romans 8 19:29 Romans 8 19:56 Romans 3 19:56 Romans 3:17 20:04 Romans 3:17 21:50 Romans 5 25:01 Romans 5:5 25:01 Romans 7 25:15 Galatians 5 25:48 Romans 12 26:23 Romans 7 26:27 Ephesians 4 29:20 Ephesians 4:17 29:31 Romans 7:23 30:20 Romans 8 41:47 Romans 8 42:44

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:49. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Mitchell Holmes, and I want to thank you for checking out this message

today. We're so glad that you're here with us, and we want to connect with you and your family.

The easiest way to do that is to text the word RIVERCONNECT to 97000. There we can answer any

questions you may have, and even help pray for you. You can also visit our website at

theriverchurch.cc to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church. Finally,

if you want to support the work we are doing here at the River Church financially,

please head to our website and click the Give tab at the top of the page,

or you can text the amount that you want to give to 84321. Thank you again for joining us,

and we hope you're blessed by today's message. Good morning. Good to gather with you. Good to

worship and sing with you. If I don't know you, my name is Caleb. I am the pastor here, and it's

just great to gather together. Amen? Or if you agree, the rest are trying to figure out if it's

great to gather. It's always fun when you ask people questions. They're like, is he talking

to me? I am talking to you, I promise. So it is just great to be here, and

to sing and just praise the name of Jesus. I think sometimes we just kind of flippantly go

through that and go, oh, no, it's great to sing about Jesus. No, we get to lift up Jesus' name.

We gather in his name, and the Bible says where two or more are gathered, he is here. And so we

can confidently sing about the very presence of God being a part of us. And so hopefully that

encourages you today. And all in all, as we open God's word, if you're new or a guest or

trying to get a hold of us, we'd love to hear from you. We'd love to hear from you. We'd love to

figure out what we're doing. Well, we sing a few songs, and then we open God's word together. And

so we believe the Bible is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. It is where we

get our truth from, and it is a guide for how we live our lives. And so we ask for the Holy Spirit

to convict and guide and speak through his word. And so hopefully I get out of the way for the

people of God. And so I want to encourage you, as Pastor Noble talked about, the backpack drive and

the backpack block party, I think is what we named it. Love for you to come be a part of that. Be

talking to people in the community. I think they're going to be creating a Facebook event.

And so if you know people that you want to share that with or different groups,

we are using that as an outreach opportunity to speak.

And partner with another church as we hopefully proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ in the

community. And that is our goal. And so if you want to partner with us, that is great.

As always, be praying for that. Be praying that God uses our efforts in this event.

We are going to continue in Romans. And so if you have a Bible, a device,

something to follow along or read along, we're going to be in Romans chapter 8 this morning,

looking at the first 8.

Verses, looking at just really the Apostle Paul, I would say having a progression or

a transition statement. We'll kind of walk through that. I've loved the series on Romans. I've told

many of you it's stretching as we look through chapter by chapter, almost verse by verse,

and sometimes even word by word. And so I've just really loved that. Many of you have gone,

man, Pastor Caleb, you have brought the heat.

This morning or you've, this is a heavy, heavy series. And I agree with you. Some of the, most

of the time, I won't even say some of the time, most of the time, I feel like I'm just preaching

at myself. And I know you're like, you really can do that. I do. As we kind of just look at

these topics, but Romans 8 is really where, not that it gets good because all of Romans is good

because it's the word of God, but it really starts, I will say to get good. You're like,

didn't you say it's not good? It really is, is a lot more fun to preach.

The Romans begins to really kind of build on itself as we look at our depravity of our sin

at the beginning and realizing that we're all lost in sin. And then we, we, we see the very

grace of God and his mercy and ascending his son, Jesus Christ is Romans 6, 23 for the cost of our

sin. We see that very, very clearly, but then the end of Romans 6, 23, but the free gifts of God is

eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And it's just a great writing of the apostle Paul,

actually inspired by the Holy spirit to communicate and watch the doctrine as we look and see how we

can develop our perspective and view of God. Last week, we, we talked about the interior battle

of the spirit and flesh and really seem, I was, I wrote this in my notes, our seeming defeat of sin

as the apostle Paul says, I desire to do good. I desire to, to do the things of the spirit. I desire

to live for the Lord. Yet I continue to sin. I can't figure out why I struggle. I'm thankful the

apostle Paul acknowledges that struggle that we all have. I wouldn't even say many of us have

that. We all struggle with this stinking thing called sin. And we look back and go,

what was I thinking? Why did this happen? And we can look at the very root of flesh and sin

in our life. But Romans eight, as I said, is a, is a transition. Romans,

eight has, I will say for a believer, for a one that follows Jesus Christ, a child of God

has some incredible encouragement for us to follow him. The beginning of Romans eight talks

about that. It says there's no condemnation. And we'll explain what that means. And at the

end of chapter eight, which I'll preach at the end of August, we see that what there's no height

or depth or, or things that will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And so

it opens with a no condemnation through those that are in Christ Jesus. And then nothing will

separate us from the love of Christ in Christ Jesus. And it's all about Jesus as we look at

Romans. So Romans chapter one, I'm gonna read the first eight verses. We'll look at them this

morning, just for a few minutes. Romans one or eight one says there is therefore no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life,

has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death for God has done what the law

weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for

sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be

fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit for those who

the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit

there set their minds on the things of the spirit for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but set

the mind on the spirit is life and peace for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God

for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Verse eight, those who are in the flesh

cannot please God. Let's pray and we'll jump into that passage this morning. God, we love you.

We praise you. We honor you. We glorify you. Thank you for this morning. God, thank you for your word.

Thank you for the encouragement of this passage. God, as we talk about setting our minds,

setting our minds on the things of the spirit versus setting our minds on the things of the

flesh. God, thank you for your grace. God, as we chew and stumble on this, as we navigate

this passage, God speak, may your Holy spirit work this morning, guide us, guide us to look more like

you. God, we praise you. We love you in Jesus. Wonderful name. Amen. As I I'll say precursored

or jumped ahead in my notes, which I I've been excited to preach Romans eight one since we started

on this series. It's one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible because it is really where we

grace of God. That's where we begin to see his mercy evidence in our lives. It's the outpouring

of what God's love ultimately means for us. It's not by accident. Okay. No, no, no. There is no

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That is a monumental statement. It is huge, but

if you pull it out, it's, it's special, but place it back in its context and you can read through

seven as, as I just kind of talked about where Paul talks about his struggles and the interior

fight in conflict in his life of his spirit and his flesh as he longs to live for the Lord yet

stumbles into the sin. And he describes himself not in Romans seven, but in another passage as

the chief sinner, as one that is struggling with this darkness that is feel surrounded by.

And so each of us struggling with sin can,

feel overwhelmed by sin, but not simply just overwhelmed by sin can feel judged by sin can

feel identified by sin can really see our future in sin. And so you can look at chapter seven and

go, yeah, wow. We struggle with sin. I just feel like it's an overwhelming guilt in my life,

but then don't just stop at seven. Look at verse one. There is no condemnation for there is

therefore now I like that word now, like, Hey, before,

before Christ, yeah, there was condemnation. Now that you've been in Christ, there is no

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That progression is a beautiful picture of the

very grace of God. Paul uses that word condemnation three times in the entire book of Romans.

It means not only guilt, but the punishment that comes with guilt. And so it's not just describing,

Hey, there's a condemnation is you're guilty, guilty of sin. It's the punishment that comes with sin.

As Romans six 23 for the wages of sin, the cost of our sin is death. And Jesus is through the Holy

Spirit communicating through Paul is, is dropping a hammer. There is no condemnation. You are no

longer guilty of that sin. You are no longer responsible for the very punishment of that sin.

Why? Because of the work of Jesus Christ. So when Jesus was on the cross, it is finished paid in full.

It was a demonstrative statement, but a declarative statement. He was communicating what that the debt

of sin was paid in full. He had done the work. He had taken it all on himself. The condemnation

for sinners saved by grace was no more. See condemnation came from Adam's sin through one

man's sin. Death entered into the world, but your sin, my sin, that condemnation,

the punishment, the guilt of it yet condemnation is no more. We explained this word a few weeks ago

through justification. Justification came to the work of Jesus Christ, a beautiful, beautiful love

and death and resurrection. And so when Romans eight begins, there is therefore now no condemnation

tie it to chapter seven and a beautiful picture. I was thinking about this, how to, how to

illustrate or communicate it even clearer, but looking at this, I thought of the idea of a,

of a pardon verse, a commutation, a commutation. If, if a prisoner is sentence is commuted,

they are removed or they are fast forwarded. So they are no longer in some sort of punishment

and the punishment is taken away. However, on their record, it will always say they have been

convicted of this. They, they, they were convicted. This is their identity. And so when a,

a prisoner or someone, their sentence is commuted,

it's usually fast forwarded or time served, but yet their identity is still as a felon or somebody

that's been convicted. But when someone is given a pardon, the record is expunged. It is white,

clean, everything that their past said they were is no more. It is clean white as snow. And so they

can move forward. Their sentence is forgiven. It is taken away and the conviction is removed.

That is what has happened with no condemnation. We have received the very pardon of God almighty.

Your record as a child of God has been expunged. And so when someone says, yes, you are a sinner,

you can say, yes, I was a sinner, but now I'm saved by the very grace of God. And now I can

live for him in the spirit as what Paul describes in Romans chapter seven. That's the beautiful

picture that Paul is painting here. The sad reality is for many of us, we've not very,

we struggle to embrace the very forgiveness in our lives. I was listening to a speaker this week

or a pastor this week. I love what he described this. He says, for many of us, we accept the very

forgiveness of God, yet we cannot forgive ourselves. We are reminded daily of the very

sin that we've struggled with in our lives or the sin that we struggle with daily. And it feels like

we're born in our face. Well, I can tell you this. That's from the father of all lies. That's from

Satan. The father of all lies says, well, Hey, you are this. What he's identifying you with your

sin. Yet when the Bible says there's no condemnation, I am no longer identified with my

sin. I'm identified with the very grace of God. And I'm a child of God. You are too. And so this

morning, as you read verse one, you're like, man, you're preaching a lot on verse one. I know I

could probably preach the whole message on verse one. It's so good. Verse one, for many of us,

seated here today or standing here today or joining us online today, I can say this Romans

chapter eight, verse one is a freeing verse. Some of you have been carrying around guilt and shame

from a decision you've made 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. That just seems to haunt you. Can I say this

to you? You as a child of God, if you've confessed your sin, you believe that Jesus Christ came,

died on a cross, rose again. You are a child of God. I can say this. You are under,

no condemnation anymore. And you can shed the guilt, the shame, the struggle that you've been

carrying around and walk out these doors today, free knowing that you don't have to carry it

anymore because of what Jesus did for you. I say that boldly and confidently, not I'm unsure. No,

as a child of God, you are under no condemnation. I heard a pastor say this. It was real good.

He said, stop living in condemnation and start living in adoration of what God has done. I was

living a thankful heart as Thessalonians tells us to do, right? Every day thankful. What? Because I

was dead. Now I've been made alive and I praise God almighty for his work. So there is therefore

now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Verse two continues for the law of the

life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death for God has done what the

law weakened by the flesh.

Could not do by sending his own son and the likeness of sinful flesh for sin. He condemned

sin in the flesh in a, in order that the right righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled

in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. I introed it last week,

but chapter eight is much of how we can live for the Lord, not on our own might. That's,

we kind of wrapped up last week that we've have to come to the end of our

self realizing we can't live for the Lord by ourselves. We need a helper as Jesus describes

one that is described as the Holy spirit. Maybe you grew up in the Baptist world. You're known

as the Holy ghost, whatever you want to describe. It's the very spirit of the, of the Lord, right?

That's what's described here. Knowing that he empowers equips guides, corrects us to live for

the Lord. We can't do it on our own yet. It can be done. How?

By the power of the Holy spirit. That's what Romans chapter eight describes much of how we

can live our lives. And so I previewed it last week, much of August. We'll look at Romans chapter

eight, looking at what and how the spirit of God equips us. Romans chapter eight, verse two

describes the spirit of God as the spirit of life. Referring back to the creation spirit was a part

of the Trinity where the spirit of God moved across the waters to the deepest Genesis,

one in Genesis two described. I read this this week. What's interesting about this is Paul

in Romans six and seven describes the battle within that we as believers will face giving

good descriptions of our desires and our inability to foul. He does not mention the

spirit in chapter six. He mentions the spirit in chapter seven once yet in chapter eight,

where he shows us how we can have victory or how we can live a victorious Christian life

21 times. He mentions the spirit. The Holy spirit is our advocate, our helper, our only ability to

follow the Lord in our everyday lives. I love that description of it. And so we've been called

to be set free as by the spirit says Romans chapter eight describes first Corinthians chapter three,

verse 17 says, well, now the Lord is the spirit. And when the spirit of the Lord is, there is

freedom. There's freedom. God,

has done what the law could not do. So the law made us guilty by our sin. Yet the spirit of God

says, Hey, you know what? I've come to set you free Jesus through his work on the cross and his

fulfillment of the legal demands or obligations has fulfilled it. There's a phrase in here. It says

God sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh. This is important. And I wanted to preach a little

bit about this because it is so important. Jesus was fully God. That's an important phrase and

important understanding for us. And our doctrine is understanding God, the father, God, the son,

God, the Holy spirit, three in one that's the Trinity. And for us to, to, to really read this

passage as Jesus born of Mary was sent from God conceived of the Holy spirit and came to live a

of all the universe, sent his only son, Jesus Christ to be born of Mary, to live amongst a sinful

structure. That's what Roman or that's why John three 16 for God. So love the world that he gave.

He knew our need was there. I have that for God to love the world that he gave his only son,

whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. But verse 17, for God did not

send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world, the world, the world

might be saved through him. So God sending Jesus, Jesus being fully God and fully man living amongst

us. I've always looked at that and go, wow, that's incredible. But then you look and see,

how do you, how would you feel to be one of Jesus's half brothers, right? Or sibling like,

oh my goodness, he's always perfect. Literally always perfect. You're right. You're like never

making mistakes, not failing, like always obeying, like always like, oh my goodness, I'm never

going to live up to this. But yet some of his half brothers were able to write books of the Bible.

Why? Because of the very testimony of Jesus. Philippians two describes Jesus taking on flesh,

taking on the likeness of sinful flesh. He did not sin. He said, having this mind amongst yourself,

which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with

God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born

in the likeness of men. Hebrews four describes it for we not have a high priest who was able to

sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every ask or every respect has been tempted as we are

yet without sin. That is so important. He was the perfect atonement or the perfect sacrifice. Why?

Because he had no sin. Sin was not found in his mouth. The gospels describe. So Jesus came and lived a

perfect life and yet was tempted and did not give in to that, but ultimately paid the legal demands

as Colossians two describes. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your

flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the

record of debt that stood against us with this legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to

the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame.

By triumphing, triumphing over them in him. What a great passage. As we see the very purpose

and understanding the law, ultimately we are damned to hell because of our sin,

realizing we have all broken the law. We preached through that early in the Roman series yet,

by the very grace of God, he took the very legal demands for us.

And now we're able to triumph because what Christ has done in us and through us

where I want to really apply this in our lives this morning. This is, I'm hoping to be able to

preach and communicate this, how I have it in my notes, because I really feel this is really,

really good. Romans chapter five or eight verse five says 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, set

their minds on the things of the spirit. He parallels both here very much like chapter seven,

where the conflict,

the conflict is happening in us where I have a desire to honor God through the spirit. Yet my

flesh is weak and I stumble and fail. But Paul doubles down in this idea that we are to set our

minds on the things of the spirit, because if we set our minds on the things of the flesh,

we cannot please God. You're trying to go, okay, what would those things look like? Well,

look in Galatians, Galatians chapter five, 16 through 25, give us the fruit of the flesh,

flesh first, the fruit of the spirit. And those will give great characteristics for us. But as a

believer, as a child of God, you are given a new mind. I think the King James says you're given a

new robe, putting on the new robe. That's what I remember as a, as a kid singing a song about

putting on the new robe. It's an intentional decision daily that we realize that our minds

have been renewed. As Romans 12 says, you've been renewed.

Made new. And so the battle that we describe or understand in Romans chapter seven is battling.

Where's it begin? In our mind, right? It's in our mind. That's why I said last week for many of us,

most, I'll say this, all of us don't want someone else to know what's going on in our brain.

Is that a fair statement? Okay, good. Everyone's like, I think that's fair. It's fair. No one needs

to know what's going on in this crazy head, right? But you know what's crazy about this? God does.

He says he knows the thoughts and intents of our heart. He knows what's going on in our brain. But

yet there's a battle waging in our hearts, in our minds. But then the Bible tells us to what?

Take every thought captive. Take every thought captive. There's the application. It's not just

a freebie to go. It's only my mind. I didn't act it out. No, for many of us, most of the sin,

I won't say all of the sin, most of the sin we commit is premeditated. It's premeditated. I'm

not, I'm not talking about premeditated. I'm not talking about premeditated. I'm talking about

premeditated murder here. Okay. All right. And I was going to be tired of this. I'm talking about

premeditated sin, premeditated struggles. We begin to, to battle in our brains and it becomes

an outpouring in our lives. And so what happens is we have to take, taking every thought captive

as a literal decision. I use the idea of self-talk for many of us. We need to self-talk

as something hits our brain. We go, no, no, no, no. That's not okay to think,

God, forgive me of that. Remove that from my brain. Like, can I do that? Yeah,

that should be a daily thing that happens for us. I know it is for me. I know in reality,

as many times in my life, I'm going, oh my goodness, God, I don't even know why or how my brain got

there, but God, can you remove that? And I have to be reminded of that. And so taking every thought

captive, but the phrase doesn't just stop there to make it obedient, not to South there. He says

to make it obedient to Christ, to live in the spirit. And so placing our brains to take God,

I'm not sure how the,

the flesh spoke that into my brain, but I want to live in the spirit and I need to take that

thought captive. And so this week, as you begin to think, you go, God, what, and how can I take

my thoughts captive? There's a literal decision that you have to make. It's not just go, oh,

that's a figurative, imaginative thought process. No, no, no. I have to be practical to think

through taking my thought captive. So placing that new mind. I love what Ephesians 4, it encapsulates

this. I'm going to read a longer passage because it's perfect. It says in verse 17, now this I say

and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do and the futility of their

minds. They are darkened and their understanding alienated from the life of God because the

ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous and have given

themselves to the sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way

you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is

in Jesus to put off your old self, which belongs to the former manner of life and is corrupt through

deceitful desires. Here it is. Verse 23, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on

the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Holiness is not something that we are like automatic. It is the holiest set apart,

different, desiring to look more like God. That's through the very sanctification of the Holy Spirit

in our lives, drawing us out or, or drawing out the poison of sin in our lives. And for us,

as we look and say, God, I, I have to take these thoughts captive because this battle in my mind,

I have to harness them, harness them, be directed, guided by the things of the spirit. See, I'm

mind of flesh as Romans eight says, it's in the hostility towards God. It doesn't submit to God's

law. It says it can't. And so for us to take the very thoughts of our mind captive and not allow

our brains to get to places, they probably shouldn't. I'm not sure how much that happens

to you, but I know in my own life, I'm going, how did I get here? I've allowed my brain to go from

point A to point B and now I'm way down to point R and I can't figure out how I got here because I've

not taken that thought captive. Many of you are nodding your head knowing exactly what I'm talking

about. I'm thankful for that. And so for us to take those thoughts captive, God, I want to make

my thoughts, my mind obedient to the things of God. And that only happens through the Holy Spirit

as Romans eight describes. You're having a mind of spirit, one that brings life, the one that brings

peace, putting it on, making a daily decision. And so I want to challenge you this morning. Better

challenge us because I think Romans eight describes this perfectly to set your mind on the

things of the spirit, setting your mind on the things of the spirit. So I was thinking about this

week. Uh, we have a, we have a conflict that's happening in my house. My kids aren't here,

so I can talk very clear about it. Okay. So, um, I have a 16 year old. Um, and so it's kind of

crazy. Uh, almost 17, I'll be a junior in high school. And, um, he started to drive last year.

So, um, it's enough chaos and worry for himself. Right. So, I mean, you know exactly what I'm

talking about. And so, uh, started to drive. And so I, he's historically, uh, never been able to

get out of bed. You're like, really? Yeah. It's just something that drives me crazy. And so I'm

challenged and I'm like, and so he was, I won't get up, won't wake up. And I'm like, I'm not,

you're 16 years old. I shouldn't have to wake you up anymore. In a couple of years, you're going to

go get a job. You have to go to school, whatever you want to do, you're going to have to get

yourself up. And so we went out and I was like, I'm going to go to school. I'm going to go to school.

My wife and I looked on Amazon for the loudest alarms you could find. You think I'm kidding.

And so I said, is there one that electrocutes you to make you get out of bed? I'm not actually

kidding. There's one that actually shakes your mattress. And so we, I was like, can we set the,

can we set the smoke detector off? Maybe that'll help him. I was just trying to figure out how to

get them up. Cause I don't want to have to get up and walk downstairs. And so he now sets his alarm.

You know, what's bad. He sets it. He doesn't hear it. So he, he lives in our basement and

so my wife and I's room is upstairs and I don't get woken up by my own alarm anymore.

I get woken up by my dumb 16 year olds alarm that goes off in the basement every single day.

And you think I'm kidding. And I can't hear very well. And I can hear it still so clear.

See what, what Paul is describing us to set our minds is not just set an alarm clock and it

doesn't change us. And it does nothing. That's not what's described here. No, the practical application

to set my mind on the things of the spirit is that it will make a change in your life. And for us as

Christians, us as the church, us as believers, setting our minds on the things of the spirit

has to transform everything. Does it make us perfect? Does it make everything that I won't

struggle? Cause we talked about that last week, but as it began to set my mind on the things of

the spirit, things will change in my life. And so I'm not challenging us to go, Hey,

Monday morning, set that alarm for whatever time. Some of you are like, man, my alarm is coffee.

Awesome. You're awesome. Right? The rest of us set that alarm. And so as we get up on a Monday

morning, we don't set the alarm and nothing changes or nothing transforms. No, we set the alarm and

realize our Monday is now different because we've set it on the things of the spirit. We begin to

watch our interactions be different. We begin to watch our thoughts be different. We begin to,

uh, do our job different. We begin to love our wife, our husband. We begin to raise our kids

different. We begin to talk to our grandkids different. We begin to drive down the road

different. Things will start to change. Why? Because we begin to really not just, just this

checkbox. No, no, no. We've set our minds on the things of the spirit and watch the very outpouring

of the Holy spirit in our life change. So as we begin to think through setting our minds on the

things of the spirit, I wrote down these thoughts. I said, what does that actually look like? I don't

want to just go, Hey, set your mind on the spirit. Have a great day. Awesome. Which I think, I think

some of that's is great, but I'm not, what would that actually look like? I said, one, to set my

mind on the things of the spirit, I have to die to self daily. I have to die to self daily. You're

like, what does that mean? Well, I no longer become the main part of my day dying to self daily. I

really love the Lord with all my heart, my soul, mind and strength, love my neighbor as myself.

My priorities begin to change, setting my mind on the spirit. For some of us that love control,

I got to figure out,

exactly what every single moment of my day should look like. Guess what? That no longer is there

either. God, you guide, you direct, you place me right where you want me to be. That's what setting

our minds on the things of the spirit looks like. Dying to self daily. I wrote in my notes in bold,

surrender control. That was for me. Two of us. Two, meditate on the word. You're saying meditate.

Is that just read God's word? No, no, it's more than that. This is not a yoga term that I get to

this is meditating. This is chewing on the things of God. Like really, what does that mean? Sometimes

it just sees, Hey, I'm going to be in God's word. I'm going to meditate and I'm going to be still

and know that God is God in this moment. I'm going to sit in silence in the busyness. I'm

going to put my phone aside. I'm going to turn the TV off and say, God, I want you to direct.

I want you to guide. I want you to speak in my situation right now. I'm going to meditate on this.

That is setting our mind on the things of the spirit. So dying to self daily, meditating,

on the word. Number three, fight the fight with prayer, fight the fight with prayer.

If you want to put fight the conflict with prayer, you, whatever you write down, whatever you think

or want. But as we begin to fight this fight, that, that Romans, the seven, seven describes,

yes, I want to set my mind on the things of the spirit. I'm going to focus God. What do you,

what do you have? Pray God. I'm praying over truth over my situation. I am pleading the very

promises of God in my life. I am praying, God, you were you guide you direct. I believe wholeheartedly.

There's power in prayer. If you don't man, I wish I could convince you right now is God. I am

petitioning you. Number four, don't allow stumbles to define what God can is doing in you. See what

happens is, is we can read this passage, setting our minds on the spirit. And then tomorrow, uh,

we set our minds on the spirit and we'll get in our car and we'll drive down the road and the road

will be closed. You'll really get to see if the rubber meets the road. If you set your mind on the

spirit or not, right? Come on, let's, let's be honest, right? It's what Paul describes in chapter

seven. He stumbles. I desire to do good. And yet I stumble. Yeah, it's just, it's just an outpour.

What will happen is, is we'll set our minds on the things of the spirit on a Monday, but then on

Tuesday we'll struggle and fail. And we'll go, guess what? I guess my flesh has won. I've given

up. Don't allow that because you can rewind it back to chapter or verse one. There is no

condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus. That does not define me. So don't allow that

stumble and last.

Value and keep your eyes fixed on eternal things. Value and keep your eyes fixed on eternal things.

Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. There it is. That's what in my,

just a, I just wrote these notes down. I thought they were real practical. What does it mean to

set our mind on the things of the spirit? Die to self daily, meditate on the word, fight the fight

with prayer. Don't allow my stumbles to define me. And I value and keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.

I just wrote this on my notes. I'm like, man, I got to begin to practically look and see how and why

and what would that look like for us to live for the Lord. Last week, I just, last week I had some

great conversations with many of you are like, man, Caleb, I felt like you preached last week's

message at me. And I'm like, no, no, no. I actually wrote that and preached it that I preached it at

myself. That stumble, that fight, that conflict. It just, it just is. It just feels overwhelming

at times, but then I allow that fight to define me. And then now I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm

reading chapter eight. You begin to go. No, no, no, no, no. There's now no condemnation. And this

is how I can live and set my mind on the things of the spirit in a real way by the power of the

Holy spirit in our lives. I think for many of us, we can go, Oh, that's cool. Sounds great. No, no,

no. The very spirit of God lives in you. Not like, Oh, that sounds great. No, no, no. It is sealed

your salvation. That's why Jesus says, Hey, there's a helper coming after me. I need to go away. So

I pray for you this morning. God, we love you. We praise you. We honor you. We glorify you. God,

this morning, as we begin chapter eight of Romans, thank you for being so clear. There's now no

condemnation. We can live free by the spirit. God, for many of us, we need to be reminded of that,

encouraged by that, obey that same encouragement, push us to set our minds on the things of the

spirit. And we can do that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do

that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that.

Not just on a Sunday morning for a few minutes as we gather with the church, but when the rubber

meets the road, when we're heading to work or we're driving the kids to this or that, or we're,

we're, we're, we're dealing with the weight of the world. Sometimes through our lives,

God, may we not just an alarm clock that we don't listen to set our mind on the spirit,

but a daily decision change and transform everything. Praise you. Love you. Thank you

for this morning. Thank you for your word. Jesus. Wonderful.

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