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The River ChurchSermons

The Spirit

Sons & Daughters of God

John Carter · Sunday, 17 August 2025 · Romans 8:12-17 · 48:00 · 7,154 words

Romans S17 · 8:12-17 Flushing

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Romans 8:12‑17 reveals that believers are not debtors to the flesh but are adopted as God’s sons and daughters. The Holy Spirit proves our relationship, empowers us to overcome sin, and guarantees an eternal inheritance with Christ. The passage calls listeners to recognize their identity, live by the Spirit, embrace suffering as part of faith, and love one another as family. Understanding this privilege, the sermon urges believers to walk in their new identity and share the gospel with others.

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.

daughter 21 identity 19 notion 15 children 24 slavery 12 son 30 father 27 spirit 50 inheritance 10 recognize 15 household 8 walk 33

Topics

The Holy Spirit 8 Adoption & Sonship 4 Sin 4 The Flesh 3 Suffering 1 Righteousness 1 The Gospel 1 Hope 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Death & Resurrection 1

Scripture referenced 35

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

Romans 8 1:06 Romans 8 1:12 Romans 8:12 1:15 Romans 8 4:45 Romans 8:12-17 4:45 Romans 6 5:23 Romans 8:14 6:52 Romans 8:15 7:44 Romans 8:16 10:43 Romans 8:17 11:41 Romans 8 15:55 Romans 8:15 15:55 Ephesians 1:5 16:44 Galatians 4:6-7 16:52 John 1:12 17:15 John 1:12 17:20 1 John 3 18:38 1 John 3 18:41 1 John 3 18:48 1 John 3 18:53 1 John 3:1 18:57 1 John 2 19:02 1 John 2:28 19:02 Romans 3 19:38 Romans 3:1 19:38 Romans 3:3 21:00 Romans 8 22:44 Colossians 3:5 23:38 Galatians 5:16 24:16 Genesis 3:10 26:05 Revelation 21 37:59 Revelation 21:5 38:18 Romans 8:7 39:23 Psalms 23 40:56 Psalms 23:5 40:56

Transcript

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

Pre-service announcement — 8 lines, 0:42. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Good morning, everybody. How's everybody doing this morning?

I told Nate that was probably the wrong song to do because now I'm amped up.

Anybody else? Holy smokes, man. I'm like, I don't know if I'll be able to contain myself.

I love it. I don't even know if I need to preach anymore, honestly.

Like, Nate did such a good job with that song.

Really, that song is what we're going to be walking through today in Romans chapter 8.

So if you have your Bible, go ahead and open to Romans chapter 8.

We're going to be in verse 12.

Man, this identity that Paul is walking us through to help us understand who we are as believers.

That's what this chapter or these passages that we're going to walk through is all about.

Knowing and recognizing that we have the Holy Spirit.

We talked about this last week, that it's the very proof of our relationship with God, right?

The indwelling Holy Spirit in our life.

The proof that we have a relationship with God.

It's also the very power source, if you want.

It's the power that allows us to overcome and battle this thing we call sin and the flesh.

We don't do it in our own strength, but we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit

that gives us the strength to endure and overcome the thing we call the flesh and sin.

And also this promise. We talked about this last week.

The promise that we have.

The promise that we have in the Spirit is not just a promise.

It is a promise for the resurrection, the day of the resurrection.

But as Paul uses it, it is a very present.

It is a promise for today, in the here, in the now.

That in this mortal body, using Paul's words, we have this promise that the Spirit is present in us.

And knowing that and recognizing that, Paul goes in.

And really, today's message is just a continuation of what we talked about last week.

In a whole lot more depth.

You see, what Paul's going to do, what he's going to help us understand, hopefully,

what he's going to help you and me really grasp, which is such an important thing for us to grasp,

is what our identity as believers actually means.

Nothing culminates that better than what Paul is going to lay down for us in these few verses.

It's probably some of my favorite scripture in all of the scripture.

This notion of understanding that we, as believers,

we're not just alive in Christ.

We are alive as his sons and daughters.

It's not just that we have been forgiven.

Yes, these are all true statements.

We have been forgiven.

We are made alive in Christ.

We're all of these things.

But not only are we forgiven, but God has now adopted us into his household as sons and daughters.

It's such a powerful, powerful understanding that we need to grasp as believers.

It's something that we need to recognize.

And what comes with this is this privilege, right?

Being born of the Spirit.

The privilege of being adopted into God's house comes with some responsibility.

And ultimately, as we're going to see as we walk through these passages,

we're going to see that we are promised an inheritance.

An inheritance of such enormous value.

Such enormous worth.

That it is something that we hold to, not just today, but also in the future.

And so this is really what we're walking through.

That this is what we have.

And Paul is telling us this is our identity.

So start living in this identity.

So let's begin by reading the text and then we'll pray.

I'm just going to read verses 12 through 17 of Romans chapter 8.

It says this,

So then, brothers, we are debtors.

Now, the way this is structured,

in our English language, might be a little confusing.

He's not actually saying we owe a debt.

It's a positive before a negative.

He's saying we're debtors, but we're really not debtors.

So if you say it in a much clearer way, he would say we are not debtors.

Continue into the next line.

We are not debtors to the flesh, right?

We owe the flesh nothing.

The wages, Paul says this earlier in Romans 6.

The wages, the cost, the inheritance, if you want to put it like that.

Of sin is death.

And because of the work of Christ on the cross,

we are no longer indebted to them, to it, to flesh, to sin.

So we are not debtors to the flesh,

nor are we indebted to have to live according to the flesh.

And he goes on and he says, and this is just a restatement,

but Paul's saying of stuff that he has covered earlier in Romans.

For if we live according to the flesh,

the wages, the cost, the inheritance,

what you get for living in that is, in fact, that you will die.

We're not talking about a physical death,

because we know everybody dies a physical death.

What we're talking about here is a spiritual death.

Then he goes on and he says this.

But if by the spirit, here's our responsibility.

If by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

The deeds of the flesh, the deeds of sin that exists within us.

Here he's saying the way to overcome that is by the very spirit of God.

For all who are led by the spirit.

Man, if you highlight, circle in your scripture,

if you have a digital Bible, man, make those words,

the next words so big and bold in your scripture,

because it is some of the most powerful words written in scripture.

He says, if in fact you are led by the spirit of God,

you are sons, that's also daughters, sons and daughters of God.

This is not a casual thing.

This is not a bone, so to speak, that you throw to some beggar.

No, this is legitimate entrance into the kingdom, the household,

not just the kingdom, but the very household of God himself.

He's like, you are now my sons and my daughters.

He goes on and he says in verse 15, just to affirm what he is saying,

he's like, hey, you did not receive the spirit of slavery.

That's not what God has given you.

God didn't give you this.

This is what sin was.

This is what the flesh was.

This is what relationship outside of Christ looks like,

is this bondage, this captivity, this slavery to this way of life,

this flesh, this sin that's in our life.

And here Paul is affirming you are no longer in the spirit of slavery

and the spirit of slavery, what comes with it is to fall back into fear.

Primary motivator when you are a slave, when you are being forced to do something.

Get it done or else.

So what do you do?

It's not maybe that you want to, but you're scared of the consequences.

So you do it.

That's not the motivator.

He says this in the following words, but you have received this gift that we get from God.

You have received the spirit of adoption as sons.

You've been given this opportunity, this privilege.

Paul might even.

Say this right to be called sons of God, daughters of God, by whom we cry.

See, this changes our whole conversation with who God is in our life.

By whom we cry, Abba, Father.

That is such a term, like I'm not going to dive into it super depth in depth today,

but that word Abba is such an intimate, loving, compassionate term that a child will call their father.

Jesus actually uses this when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane as he is about to go through some extreme suffering.

He calls out to his heavenly father in the terms, Abba, Father, may this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, he says, not my will, but thy will be done.

That is Jesus's cry in that moment where Jesus knows he's about to go through some hard things.

His cry, his plea is to his Father.

Dad, Dad, if there's any other way, if there's any other way that this can be done,

man, I would rather walk that.

But nevertheless, it's not my will, Father.

I will do what you need me to do.

And it is in this that we see this proclamation that Paul says,

that's not just a cry that Jesus can make to the Father.

That is also our cry to the Father.

That we can call him Dad.

And he goes on in verse 16 and he says,

the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit.

See, you have two different spirits here.

One is God's spirit.

The other is my spirit.

One is far greater than mine.

And the Father's spirit, the spirit of the Son himself bears witness.

It is him saying, yes, look at what he says,

to our spirit that we are, in fact, children of God.

It's not just me saying, yeah, I'm a child of God.

No, it's his spirit saying,

yes, you, John, you're mine.

I am claiming you as my own child.

And he says that not just to me,

but to everyone that will call on his name

and recognize who he is.

This is the privilege of being born of the Spirit.

Then he goes on and he says these words, verse 17,

and if we are his children,

there's always that conditional clause

that was the same thing that was in the previous verses,

the if-then clause.

If we are, in fact, his children,

then, look at what Paul says,

then we are also heirs.

We've been given this promise

of inheriting something magnificent and wonderful.

He says, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, our brother.

Then there's this phrase,

and in the American church,

we don't really like the next sentence.

The next sentence is not really comfortable to preach

in the American Western church.

It says, provided, provided we suffer,

in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Man, when we talk about Christianity

and what it means to be a believer,

what it means to be a child of God,

very, very seldom does anybody actually want to talk about

the difficulty of what it means to be a Christian.

And I'm not trying to hurt the church

or really degrade the church in any way,

but man, we have kind of lost sight of this notion

of what it means to suffer with Christ.

We have lost,

this notion of like,

like when I think about Christians in a foreign country

where there isn't what we have in this country.

And I'm not, I'm not saying I don't love the freedoms

we have in this country,

but sometimes we've made ourselves so cushy

and so comfortable that we walk in apathy

instead of really grasping this

and understanding this notion

of what it means to suffer, suffer with him.

The AC doesn't work.

Am I going to show up to church?

Honestly, man, I'm going to be sweating buckets.

There's no question.

And I'm not saying that that's a sign

of suffering, but man,

I've been in churches in Africa

where their walls are literally,

they're literally pallets.

There's no windows, there's no flooring,

there's no acoustic, there's no lighting,

and they're packed.

It's not comfortable, doesn't feel good.

Like you're, you're, you're, you're packed.

Standing, no sitting, just standing

to hear the word of God.

Now I'm not trying to do it.

I'm super grateful, right?

Like this is part of being a Christian.

I hope you understand what I'm saying.

I am super grateful that we have AC,

we have a comfortable seat, right?

I'm super grateful.

We have amazing acoustics and sounds

and a worship leader that loves the Lord

and leads us in this worship.

That's amazing.

And that's wonderful.

But man, the slightest little inconvenience

and it turns into complaining and grumbling

because maybe it's not the way you would do it

or the way someone else, you have this opinion like,

well, I know better.

And some, some of this notion of what Paul is saying here

and helping us understand and recognize is that,

listen, if we're going to be called children of God,

we have this privilege.

We have this responsibility

and we better recognize the inheritance

that comes with being a part of his family.

So let's pray.

And then we'll kind of walk through

these individual notions.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you.

We thank you for this passage of scripture.

We thank you for the promise

that you very clearly articulate,

not just here in Romans, but all through scripture,

the promise of being called sons and daughters of yours.

Lord, help us to understand this identity

that we now carry as believers

and to live it out in the fullest form.

The way we engage with others,

the way we communicate, the way we talk,

the way we show and express

the very love that you have given to us.

Lord, be with me this morning.

Help your spirit to lead my words and guide me.

I ask this in Jesus' holy name.

Go to verse 15 of Romans 8 here.

You see very clearly where the theme

of this section of scripture is landing.

This notion that we did not receive the spirit of slavery,

to fall back into this identity of fear,

but we have received the very spirit of adoption as sons

and this notion that we get to come to the Lord

and call him our father.

Listen, I'm going to give you a lot of scripture today.

It's not going to be on the screen.

If you want to write the references,

I would encourage you to do that.

I would encourage you to do that

because I want you to be in the word

and see it for yourself

what the scripture says about this identity

as being called daughters and sons of God.

Ephesians 1.5 says this, just real quick.

We are the adoption to himself as sons.

Galatians 4, verses 6 through 7.

God has sent the spirit of his son to this earth

on our behalf and to be no longer a slave, he says,

but a son.

This theme of being called sons and daughters

in scriptures is not a new concept.

In fact, in John, John chapter 1, verse 12,

it might be 1.

No, it's John 1, 12.

The right to become children of God.

See, this notion is talking about

we're no longer outsiders.

We're no longer looking into the home

and saying, man, I wish I was a part of that family.

We are being brought in.

We are called his children.

I want you to understand this.

We are called full members of God's family.

How many of you walk in that?

How many of you grasp the enormous privilege

of being called a son or a daughter?

It's overwhelming to me, just to be honest with you.

Like to think, I am considered by the creator of this world,

the greatest, wonderful, the almighty being of God.

I am considered to be his son.

It's terrifying in some sense,

but it's so wonderful in another sense.

What that means and how that works into my identity

and what that means to me.

What it means for us, I want you to see this.

Turn to 1 John chapter 3.

1 John chapter 3.

It's just before the last book in Revelation.

There's Jude.

1 John chapter 3.

You'll see 1, 2, and 3 were in the first book.

1 John chapter 3.

I want you to see this.

Actually, I'm going to read a couple verses back

just to give you some context.

Beginning in chapter 2, verse 28.

He says this,

And now, little children,

this is not a degrading term.

This is just recognizing one's identity.

Abide in him so that when he appears,

the promise of his second coming,

when he appears,

we may have confidence

and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous,

you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness

has been born of him.

Born of the Spirit.

He goes on and says this in chapter 3, verse 1.

See what kind of love

the Father has given to us.

That we, we who were once enemies of his household,

we who rebelled, rejected, denied him,

we would be called.

Look at this.

That we should be called children of God.

And so we are, he says.

And he goes on and he explains

the reason why the world doesn't know us

is that it did not know him.

Beloved, we are.

Look at the emphasis here.

We are.

God's children.

Not sometime in the future.

Not tomorrow, but right now.

That's what the Apostle John is saying here.

Right now, we are, in fact, God's children.

And what will be has not yet appeared.

We haven't seen the glorified state

of what that means to be a child of God.

But look at what he's saying.

We know that when he appears,

we shall be like him

because we shall see him as he is.

We'll see his full character.

We'll know every,

every element of who God is

in every way, shape, and form.

And I want you to see this in verse 3

because this is so important.

And everyone who thus hopes in him

purifies himself as he is pure.

You see, what John is saying

is the same thing

that Paul is saying in Romans here.

Hey, you have this enormous privilege

to be called a daughter and a son of God.

So then live like it.

So then live like it.

And Paul, when you go back to his

passage here in Romans,

this is where he says,

listen, because you have this spirit,

by the spirit put to death

the very deeds of the body.

You can't do that if you're not a son of God.

I'm just going to tell you that right now.

If you're not a daughter,

if you're not a child of God,

there's no way you're going to be able

to combat sin, flesh,

because you are its slave.

You haven't been set free.

All you can choose is sin.

All you can choose is the flesh.

Scripture is saying, man,

when you've been,

when you've been born of the spirit,

when you have been born of Christ,

you now have this incredible privilege,

which leads to this responsibility

as believers to behave,

to live as though we have this identity in Christ.

That we are, in fact,

children and daughters of the most high God.

We walk through this.

We move to the responsibility.

And this really comes back to Romans.

Romans chapter eight,

where we see him in the very first few verses.

He says this,

we are,

we are not debtors to the flesh.

We've been set free.

We don't owe sin a thing.

We don't owe our flesh a dime.

It's been paid for and bought for

by the blood of Jesus,

fully paid, fully released.

You're no longer in bondage.

You're no longer bound in sin.

You're free.

You're set free in the power of Jesus,

the work he accomplished for us at the cross.

So then let's start living like

we are actually free children of God.

So the question always comes back to it.

And I'm saying this,

and I know I'm emphasizing this,

but I want you to understand

what that looks like as a believer,

because that's really what Paul is walking us through.

Let me just give you some correlating passages

to help understand what Paul is walking through.

Colossians 3, 5, he says,

put to death what is earthly in you.

This is very common verbiage.

This is not just a one and done type of idea

that Paul is laying down.

In fact, this is a repeated theme

in a lot of Paul's letters to the churches.

So guess what we can grasp by that?

This issue of identity,

and what it means to be a child of God

is not just a problem in today's church.

It was a problem back in that time

when Paul was teaching as well.

It's a common reoccurring problem

that God's children lose sight of their identity

and what it means to be called a child of God,

and they walk wayward.

Galatians 5, 16, walk by the spirit.

If you do this, you will not gratify

the very desires of your flesh.

So we see the Roman church needed to hear this.

We see the Colossian church needed to hear this.

We see the Galatians,

the Galatian church needed to hear this.

The church in Ephesus needed to hear this.

So guess what?

We probably need to hear it too.

We probably need to be reminded of this notion

of what it means to be, in fact, a child of God.

What responsibility comes with that?

I love this Old Testament.

This isn't just New Testament thinking.

I love this passage in Ezekiel.

It's a prophecy from a prophet named Ezekiel.

In the book of, the 36th chapter of Ezekiel,

verse 27, there is this notion

where the prophet Ezekiel

the promise of the prophet speaking on God's behalf

says these words,

I will put my spirit within you.

That's the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit

that Paul is walking us into.

And then he says,

by having the spirit in you,

the spirit will cause you to walk in my statutes.

This is this notion that is being laid out

from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

It's a wonderful thing we have to grasp,

this notion of walking as children of God,

inheriting the spirit

and what it means to be a child of God.

And that's what that means.

So here's what it means.

As we look at that passage,

this notion of the spirit of slavery

versus the spirit of the Son.

When we have the spirit of slavery,

we walk in fear of judgment.

We walk in fear of rejection.

We often behave and act like Adam does

in Genesis chapter 3, verse 10,

where we go and hide in shame and guilt.

That is what happens when you are in the spirit of slavery

versus the spirit of a son walks in this notion

of being all filled,

has a reverence towards the Father,

not in fear,

knowing the character and behavior of the Father,

that he is loving, he is kind, he is forgiving,

he is patient with us.

I'm not saying we walk perfect, guys.

I'm saying we screw up a lot,

but we now walk in a different mode.

We now walk as sons that can go to the Father and say,

Dad, I screwed up, man.

I'm going to own it.

I'm sorry.

Father, with his loving, kind, gentle arms,

will wrap us in his arms and say,

hey, I love you.

You know you shouldn't have done that.

You know it.

You don't need me to condemn you.

You don't need me to judge you.

You don't need any of that.

You already know it.

I love you.

So let's start walking as my children.

He has expectations that he has for his children.

Like, hey, listen, just like we do on this earth,

I want you to think about this.

If you're a parent in this room,

you know what it feels like to be a mom or a dad.

And I want you to think about this.

When your kids are hurting, when they're struggling,

when they're walking through difficulty,

as a parent, like I think this is true for most parents,

you want your kids.

You want your kids to come to you and say,

hey, I'm going through this struggle.

Not because you're going to sit there and condemn them,

to destroy them or belittle them,

but to encourage them to know how to take the right steps,

to love them through some of the difficulties they go through,

whatever those difficulties may be.

Like, we get this as human, fleshly, sinful parents,

but man, the love of the father is so far beyond that.

Listen, when our kids, and I love,

this is one of the routines they have in my household.

So Bella's nine.

One of her favorite places,

the B, is right next to me on the couch.

Like, she'll move Liz out of the way.

If Lola's sitting next to me, she'll move them.

Like, that's her spot.

Because she knows that she can rest and that she is secure

and that she is confident in the presence of her earthly father.

What about when your kids have dreams and hopes?

Listen, there is an apparent, I hope not,

that is like, nope, I'm going to destroy that in my kids.

Their hope, I want to crush it in them.

That's me being, nobody says that.

I hope not, anyways.

As parents, no, our parents, as parents are like,

when kids come to you with their dreams, their hopes,

their ambitions, you're like, all right,

let's figure out how to make that happen.

Let's figure out what steps we've got to take.

I want to encourage you in doing that.

Now, if they're walking into a way that's dangerous,

obviously is the wisdom and maturity of parents.

We're going to say, hey, let's course correct that.

That's not a good step to be walking in.

We grasp these things.

We grasp and understand these things as earthly parents.

But for whatever reason, when it turns into a recognizing

our spiritual father, we lose total loss of sight of this.

That when we have need, when we are in the midst of struggle,

when we are battling things through,

we can confidently approach the father and say to him, father,

I need your help. I need your wisdom.

I need your guidance.

That's what we call prayer.

How many Christians struggle with being in the presence of God,

getting in his word and reading it and say, hey, I just want to spend time with you.

I mean, as earthly parents, when your kid comes to you and says, hey,

hey, I just want to be with dad.

Can we go like that?

Can we do a daddy daughter date?

It just makes my heart just overwhelmed.

She wants to spend time with me.

That's awesome.

But as children of God, sometimes we lose sight of this.

Do we actually spend time?

Do we prefer we do we hunger for the presence where we can go to him and rest in him?

Like, I'm going to spend time with God.

I'm going to get in this where I'm going to just I'm just I know there's a lot

of chaos around me in this world, but man, I know I am secure.

I am safe.

I am confident in his presence.

What about our hopes?

Do we hope in Christ?

Do we have this hope in Christ where we we pursue him, where we know that he has

promised us he's given us this new name, a new family, a new inheritance?

Do we walk in that identity as being called sons and daughters?

God sees the spirit of slavery is totally contrary to the spirit of sons.

Our slavery, the spirit of slavery, it leads to dread, hiding and paralysis.

We're stuck where sonship produces a confidence in us, a joyful obedience in us.

It produces in us this this expectation, like the familial likeness, right?

Like, I know my kids are not going to be exactly me, but man, they know what it means to be a carter.

We have those expectations in our household.

They know if they behave contrary to the expectations of my household, there are consequences.

That's not I'm sure you have the same expectations in your

household as parents. We think nothing of it.

We go, yeah, that's what we expect from from our kids in our house.

It's not any different for God.

God has expectations for us as his children, how we are to behave, how we are to engage.

What does that actually mean?

What that actually means is this.

When we understand our identity as children of God, we understand what that means.

It changes every single engagement we have in this world.

How I treat my spouse is not just me.

Treating my wife a certain way, whether positive or negative.

I am now talking to a daughter of God and I better treat her as such.

Same for husbands, right?

Like, yeah, there's the relational aspect, but he is also a son of God.

And there is this difference in engagement.

Listen, when we are engaging in the body and we're communicating with each other

within the body, we have to recognize we're not just talking to an acquaintance we know.

No, this is my brother.

This is my sister in Christ.

What does that mean?

That means we treat them with the same kind of compassion.

This is why the scripture is full of, hey, we carry one another's burdens when they're hurting.

We grieve with them when they're rejoicing.

We rejoice with them because just like in a family relationship, when when my you know,

what's the worst thing is the dad, let me just tell you, maybe you will relate to this.

He won't. I don't know.

Nothing is more difficult for me than having to go through a hard day's worth

of work and come home and I see my kids fighting with each other.

It's just difficult.

It's probably one of the most heart wrenching things as a parent to see.

They're human, they're flesh. I get it.

They're going to make mistakes.

But as a father, man, nothing tears me up more than when I have

to walk in and I see my daughters fighting with each other.

And when I get down to the root cause, man, it is such a minor deal.

They're going to hate that I say this.

I mean, it could have been like how they put the bread in the drawer.

I mean, like,

who cares? They were just they know how to push those buttons.

Reality is, if we are children of God and we recognize that identity,

the father isn't he grieves the same way we do when the body is fighting with each

other, when there is bickering, when there is this turmoil and this

disunity within the body, it breaks the father's heart like it crushes it,

like it would crush us when we come home or when we see fighting within the family.

We're like, whoa, whoa, why?

This isn't how this isn't how I trained you to.

Love each other.

Same issue occurs within this relationship

of fatherhood that we get to partake in as brothers and sisters in Christ.

See, this is why the scripture says edify one another, build up, encourage.

This is why the scripture says carry one another's burdens.

Listen, man, how many of you know of another believer in this room right now

that's going through something and instead of crushing them, you come next to him?

Say, hey, listen, I don't know how to help.

I have no clue how I can help.

Here's what I want you to know.

I want you to have this assurity.

Whatever you're going through, I will help carry that burden with you.

And that might just mean all I'm going to do is pray for you and your situation.

I'm going to help carry that burden for you.

This is what we're called as God's people to do, to love each other.

And this is what's amazing.

The scripture also says that by us doing this, by us engaging in this manner,

the world, the outside, those who don't know Christ,

see the way we engage with one another and they go, wow, I want that.

I want to be a part of that family.

I've never experienced it before.

I want someone to love me the way they love each other.

Wow. Paul continues with this promise.

You see, that's the responsibility we carry,

I believe, in scripture as sons and daughters of God, right?

We lose this identity of who we are.

We forget what we're called to do.

And we turn into this, quite frankly,

the way the flesh deals with things and we turn into bickering and fighting and

undermining and manipulating and all this other stuff that happens within

the churches and in the families, God's the whole the whole time.

He's like, man, that just breaks my heart.

It's not what I want to see for my kids.

We carry a responsibility there.

But I love that Paul ends with this in his last passage here.

In the last part of it, he says this.

If we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,

provided that we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him.

The promise of heirship, the promise of an inheritance.

I want to very clearly point.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Revelations.

I know that seems like a weird place to turn for this, but go to Revelation chapter

twenty one, Revelation chapter twenty one.

There is a very powerful passage here that really concludes what Paul is talking

about, what it is that we actually inherit and what it is that is promised to us.

I'm going to begin in verse five.

And he says and it says he who was seated on the throne.

That's our.

Our father, like recognize the seat that he sits in.

Our father sits in the throne.

Behold, I am making all things new.

Also, he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.

There's the guarantee of the truth, not something I'm fabricating.

It's not something the writer of this book fabricates.

These are the very words from the father.

And he said to me, it is done.

Very similar to the very words that Jesus spoke on the cross when he said it is finished.

It's done.

He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

Look at this.

This is his love and his compassion in his heart to the thirsty.

I will give from the spring of water of life without payment.

That's the gospel.

That's the free gift of the good news that comes with Jesus.

And then look at what he says.

Verse seven, the one who conquers will have this heritage, this inheritance,

the one who is able to endure that word conquer is the same word or very similar

to the word of suffering.

The one who has endurance, the one who perseveres,

the one who maintains, the one who goes through hard things in life.

I want you to see what the heritage with what the inheritance is laid out for us

in the very next verse, the very next sentence.

The promise is this the inheritance.

This I will be his God and he will be my son.

We are promised an eternal presence with God.

Grasp that.

Don't let that just walk through.

OK, yeah, we get to sit at the king's throne at his table.

We get to fellowship with the most high God.

And he doesn't just sit us there at his

table seat as someone that is just an acquaintance.

I had a very dear friend of mine from South Carolina send me an amazing passage,

an interpretation of a passage in Psalms.

I believe the passage is Psalms 23, verse five, going off what

I read, it's just such a powerful picture to help you understand what what is

happening here in that passage, it says it's that David says my cup overflows.

I sit at the table of the Lord in the presence of my enemies and my cup overflows.

You see, the understanding of that passage is easy to walk through because we don't

understand the historical context, but the historical context is this.

When you're sitting in the presence

of the king, how full your glass was, was determining how much time you had left

with the king.

So in other words, if you're sitting at

the king's table and the king would instruct the servers to go

fill that person's cup up, that means the king still wants to spend time.

He enjoys your presence.

If your cup and this is just talking about how they operate.

If your cup didn't have it, then you knew, oh, I better get I better say what I need

to say in the presence of the king because I'm running out of time.

It's going to be time for me to excuse

myself for the evening because the king has to conduct other business.

So when a person's cup was overflowing, it was

indicative of the king saying, I desire to be present with you so much.

Like I adore hourly.

I adore being in the same presence as you like.

You're so important to me.

That promise that David lays out in that passage is the same promise for you and

for me as his children, our cup overflows because God desires to be

with us in our presence, in our relationship.

And so often as Christians, we ignore this and we

choose our own way, we literally get up while our cup is overflowing.

We set it on the table and we choose to walk away.

I don't want to be in your presence.

I've got too many other things going on.

We lose sight of what it means to be God's children, what it means to go through

hardship. See, there's a parallel in what we've been

reading in Romans eight, beginning in verse nine to where we have

concluded today in verse 17, the spirit, it's the very proof that we

have this relationship with God, it's the very power that allows us

to change. It's his promise to be with us today as well as in the future.

Paul, as believers, is this to recognize our identity as children and really start

living, loving the way God loves where God didn't consider it to be a thing to hold

on to. This isn't an ego trip for us where we recognize the very character of God when

he gave up the position in heaven and came down and humbled himself, become a servant

and to take on the cross he chose while we were yet enemies.

The scripture says,

while we were yet enemies, he chose to die on the cross.

Greater love has no man than this, that a man will lay down his life for his brother.

This is what we're called to live out in our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And if you're here today and you're like, man, that's amazing.

I want to know how to be a part of that family, that family that will do that for

each other, that is willing to carry their burdens and their hardship and the

suffering of life that will love them even while they don't

have their life perfectly put together.

This is the promise of the gospel.

This is the promise that Paul lays out that, listen, the plea is this.

If you're not a part of the family, that means you're outside.

That means you're still captive.

That means you're still in bondage and you don't have freedom.

So Paul's plea, my plea, and I pray every man, every believer's plea should be this,

that if someone has to go to hell, if someone has to reject God,

that they would do it over our dead bodies, so to speak, that we would show them and give them every

opportunity to love and know the love of God in our actions, our tongue, our behavior,

the way we engage, the way we talk, that they would see something so unique and so

different in us that they're like, man, I want to be a part of that.

And so their entrance to hell is solely because, not because of us as believers,

solely because they themselves chose to willingly reject the free gift of God,

the love that we are called sons and daughters of God.

It is such an important identity.

And I'll be honest.

I've been inside of this myself.

So this was not meant to be a punch in the face type message.

I don't know if that's what it feels like or not.

This is really this hope that we as brothers and sisters, I'm a brother.

There's no there's no positional thing here.

But as brothers and sisters, we got to start living like we we belong to the family of God.

We got to start living like we love each other the way we're supposed to love each other.

We got to start carrying one another's

burdens the way the scripture tells us to carry each other's burden.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you.

We love you.

Thank you for the scripture here that's

laid out for us to recognize the very privilege we have to be born

of the spirit, to be born into your family.

Carry the name as a son or a daughter of yours, of the most high God, Lord,

that we would live, that we would walk and we would talk as representatives.

Paul uses this elsewhere as an ambassador of yours.

Lord, help us to realize we're no longer

bound in slavery to act and to behave and to engage in the way of the flesh.

But we are called to live as your sons and

your daughter, that we carry your character, your behavior, the way you would

engage with people as a very real way to reach the law.

Be with us this morning as we recognize you as our father.

We love you and thank you in Jesus name.

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