We have been in a series of messages called, “We Are Free.” A series that comes out of the 8th chapter of the book of Romans. And today we are going to begin our journey together in Romans chapter 8, verse 12 through 17. As we talk to you today about how we are “Free in the Holy Spirit.” Free in the Holy Spirit.

Listen carefully to the reading of God’s Word in Romans chapter number 8, beginning with verse 12, reading through verse 17.

“So then brothers, we are not obligated to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, or if you live according to the flesh you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you do not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children also heirs, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. Seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

F.B. Meyer was a pastor and a minister of the gospel in the late 1800’s, and the early 1900’s. Meyer was a scholar. Meyer was a pastor; in fact his last pastorate was at Christ Church in the city of London. He ministered not only in England, but he also ministered as well in North America. Meyer wrote over 40 books during his life. He made many statements about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but I want to quote one of those statements today, and I quote, he said, “Do not pray for more of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and is not in pieces.” And then he gives this extremely powerful word, “Every child of God has all of Him, but does He, the Holy Spirit, have all of us?”

What an incredible question that is. Does the Holy Spirit have all of us? Does the Holy Spirit have the power to influence all of us in life? In the first 11 verses of Romans chapter 8, you see how God has laid out before us a contrast of a life in the flesh, and a contrast of a life in the Spirit. In fact, God has said in His Word when we make choices of the flesh they lead to one thing: sin, and ultimately death. But when we make choices of the Spirit, he talks about in these same 11 verses, then we make choices of life and peace.

In fact, he even writes in verse 11 of chapter 8 that the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead on the third day is the same Holy Spirit that comes to live in your life when you open your life and your heart to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

In all of that what we must understand is that he goes on to write, and he goes on to say that it is that same Holy Spirit that will one day raise us from the dead, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will one day raise us from the dead where we will always be with the Lord, that is if we have known the Lord in a personal way.

What I want us to do today is to work through the entirety of the Holy Scripture. And as we work through the entirety of the Holy Scripture, let me make a few things very clear up front. Do you realize today that we equate many times worship with some kind of freedom and expression in worship? That if we are free in the Holy Spirit it’s because we have freedom in worship, and that is what shows are freedom in the Holy Spirit? I want to say to you today while that might have a little merit, it is very little, and is somewhat shallow.

Also we sometimes equate freedom of the Holy Spirit with a sense of having an outward personality, and we are living our faith, and sharing our faith everywhere we go. Again, while that might have some merit, more merit than the first illustration, what we must understand is that still does not mean what it means in the scripture to be free in the Holy Spirit.

You see there is a biblical, theological, and even what I would call a spiritual reason, or reasoning that must go through this text in helping us understand what it means to be free in the Holy Spirit. So what does all that mean? Well today, we’re going to begin to work through the power of the text, and so I hope you will look with me into the scripture today.

First of all it means that:

1. You will experience spiritual life. The scripture is very clear that you

will experience spiritual life as you are in the process of being what God wants you to be by being free in the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Bible talks about it in the last part of the 13th verse, because as it uses the word “spirit” and it used the word, “life” in the same sentence. Therefore, what he talks about in spirit, he uses that word “pneuma” in the Greek language, which means to breathe, or it means the wind that is blowing in your life, or then he uses the word “life” or the word “zao” in the Greek language, which means to live. Therefore, what the scripture does, it puts it all in one verse, even in one sentence as the power of reasoning, and the power of illustration. Meaning what? That the Holy Spirit when He lives in you, He lives in you to bring you to a point where you can live completely with Him. In other words, the fullness of life, listen, is only found in the Holy Spirit.

But before you ever get there in the text, verse 12 talks about how each one of us, we are not obligated to live in the flesh because we are people of the flesh. What does he mean? This is what he means. Just because you are a sinner by your nature, and you make choices that are sinful, does not mean that you need to live like a sinner. That’s what he means. Just simply because you are born as a sinner does not mean that you need to live the rest of your life as a sinner. In other words, the Apostle here is saying we don’t have to live that way. There is a better way. And that better way is not to make choices of the flesh, but that better way is to make choices that lead to spirit life and peace.

Verse 13 talks about if you live for the flesh, and it’s continual fulfillment, something will happen. Do you know what verse 13 says will happen? You will die. You will die. In other words, the ultimate result of living a life that is so bent on the flesh, and the power of the flesh leads to death. But then he says if your life is willing to live by the Spirit’s power, the only way the Spirit’s ever going to live in power in your life is when you are constantly crucifying the flesh, when you are putting to death the choices that you want to make, the flesh actions that you want to take. You see, what we must understand today is that this flesh is powerful. This old body is powerful. And it stands up constantly claiming it’s own rights in our lives. And we must understand is those rights never lead us to a greater life; they lead us ultimately to sin, and to death.

You see there’s a point of battle here today that is seen in the scripture. The point of battle is the following: The flesh must die or you will die. That’s a battle that’s going to take place. You cannot get away from that battle ladies and gentlemen. Students listen today, you cannot escape that battle! The scripture here is telling us that there is a battle that goes on, and if you do not mortify your flesh, if you do not put to death your flesh, then ultimately you will die! So the battle is between life, what real life is, and what death is. The battle is that, is that which is going on, which is flesh-driven, is meaning choices that we make that, that do not honor God, but yet at the same time they’re choices that we make that we should make that can honor God. So what there is, there is a battle, and that battle is constantly raging.

You see, in your life or my life when we make choices that are spiritual choices, we are making choices to be what the scripture would say we want to be sanctified. Do you know what it means to be sanctified? It means to be in a process of being saved from our sin. So see, looking back, I look at the moment when I trusted Christ, I was justified. I was set free from my sin. But now I’m in the process of being sanctified. I’m in the process of living my life hopefully yielding to the Holy Spirit’s control, and every day I am, I am making a willful choice to be put to death the will of my flesh, and the choices of my flesh so much want me to make in my life.

In Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, the scripture’s very clear. Do you remember what it says? “I have been crucified with Christ; and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh,” listen to what he says, “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

So the passage here is telling us not only that every day it’s a battle, every day it is a crucifixion of the flesh. This morning in my office while I knelt down to pray right before I walked out to proclaim the Word the first time, I grabbed a hold of a little cross that is at the center of my alter, and I, I quoted Galatians 2:20, this very text I just read. “Lord I have been crucified with You! And the next hours, they’re not about me, they’re about you, and I want to die to who I am. I want to die to my flesh, die to my choices, and die to my will, and may the life that you have put in me, may it live through me, and overcome all of those flesh choices that I’m so prone to make in my life.”

You see, but not only does the text talk about a point of battle, the text talks about a point of life. And you talk about a powerful illustration, here it is: The more you kill the deeds of the flesh in your life, the more spiritual life you will experience. That’s what verse 12 and 13 is teaching you and me. The more that I am willing to die to the deeds of my flesh, the more spiritual life I can experience.

So many Christians, so many times they wonder why do I not have this sense of real spiritual life and vitality in me? What’s going on? Why don’t I feel that way? Well there’s one reason for that: because when you are so prone to make choices that fulfill what your heart desires many times, what your will desires, what your flesh desires, they don’t lead you to have more of God. Here’s what Paul is saying: If you want more of God in your life, then you’ve got to put to death you! You’ve got to die to you! You’ve got to die to your choices! You’ve got to die to you! If you want more of Me, God says, I’ll give you more of Me, but more of you has got to go! And that’s what Romans 8 is teaching us is that more of us has got to go!

Listen, you know folks, we are our greatest enemy in life. We have the biggest battles in life. Every one of us, we’re one choice away from disaster, one choice away from absolutely embarrassing ourselves, embarrassing God, ruining our families, we’re one choice away! One! And those choices we make every day in our lives, and if we don’t put to death those choices, guess what’s going to happen? We’re going to fulfill exactly what Romans 8 says, we will make choices that lead us to sin and to death rather than life and peace.

You see, I get the thought periodically that we, that when we were in the middle of choices in life, and those kinds of…it’s almost like we want to play defense with our flesh. You know what it means to play defense with your flesh? Oh I’ve got to be careful. I’ve got to make sure I don’t make the wrong decision. I’ve got to make sure that I make the right decision on everything I do. And I can’t make this because of this, this, this…NO! You’re never going to get it. All that’s going to do is lead you to death. You can’t play defense with your flesh. Your flesh will win! Your flesh will whip you! Why? Because your flesh is powerful in you, but thank God much more powerful in you than your flesh is the power of the Holy Spirit! So the only way you’re going to defeat the flesh is doing what? You don’t play defense with it, but listen, you run a 2-minute hurry-up, no huddle offense constantly against your flesh! And you are constantly taking action by the Word of God, constantly taking action upon the obedience of the Holy Spirit, constantly putting that flesh to death because if you don’t put it to death it will rise up in you, and it will win every time.

I don’t know about you, but I’m telling you I struggle with it everyday. Do you? I promise you, you do. If you don’t sense you are, then maybe you don’t know the Lord. But I want to share with you today the real question in the heart of it is what F.B. Meyer asked: how much of you does the Holy Spirit control? How much of you does He influence? I want to challenge you this morning do not limit His occupancy, do not limit His freedom, do not limit His work in your life!

So the scripture teaches us that when we’re free in the Holy Spirit, you will experience spiritual life. But the Bible also says that:

2. You will experience leadership of the Holy Spirit. Leadership of the Holy Spirit. What does verse 14 say? Verse 14 talks about what? It says those who are led by the Holy Spirit, they are the what? The sons of God. Every one of us that are led by the Spirit, we are the children of God. We are the sons or the daughters of God. We think many times that when we are led by the Holy Spirit, it means that we’re led having various impressions, or various feelings. In fact I want to say to you today that you better be careful determining God’s leadership by the way you feel. You can get yourself in real trouble that way. I have screwed my life up many times going by my feelings, or what I sense I was suppose to do.

But what we must understand is the scripture here talks about being led by the Holy Spirit. That means that you are yielding your life willingly to God. Therefore, someone who lives with a willingness and availability to God through the Holy Spirit, that person is a child of God. One of the ways you can know whether or not you’re saved, one of the ways, Paul says in this text that you can know you are a child of God is that you’re lead by the Holy Spirit. In other words, what does that mean? That means that you are willingly yielding yourself to God every day, and you are willing to do what God wants you to do in your life.

I ask you today, do you make yourself willing to obey God in your life everyday? You see, so many times we think that it’s far more than what it really is. So what does it mean to be led by the Holy Spirit? How will the Holy Spirit lead you? Let me answer that today. This is so critical for us to understand, how will the Holy Spirit lead us?

First of all:

(1) By revealing His will through His Word. He reveals His will through His Word. Do you really grasp today that the Word is to be the center of your life? Do you see today that you cannot be led by the Spirit of God if you are not saturating your life with the Word of God? The Bible says this word is a lamp unto my feet. It is a light unto my path. And that if I will hide it in my heart, I will not sin against God. If it’s a lamp for my feet, and it’s a light unto my path, it is directing me, it is guiding me. What does it do? It is leading me to do the will of God.

Now how does that happen? Cause I want to read it. Because I want to study it. Because I want to grow in it. Oh dear friend, listen today, so many of us, we think being led by the Spirit is some kind of feeling, some kind of subjective mess that we put ourselves under, and we are trying to discern what all that means. Listen friend, you’ve got far more than even some of the great old prophets of the scripture, you’ve got the Word of God to guide you. You’ve got the Holy Spirit to lead you to the Word of God. And you cannot follow the leadership of the Spirit unless you are being led by the Word of God. He always leads you to the Word.

What’s really amazing to me, and quite honestly amusing sometimes is that people tell you, “Oh well the Holy Spirit’s led me to do this,” and it’s not even found in the Word of God. How in the world does the Holy Spirit of God lead you away from the Word of God? He’s not going to do that. You know I’ve got to do this so I can do this. I’ve got, you know the Lord, I’ve prayed about it. I’m going to leave my wife. I’ve prayed about it. Prayed about it? Prayed about it and you’re going to leave your wife? I mean where do you find that in the scripture? Well I prayed about it and I’m going to leave my kids and my husband. You know I’ve really prayed through this, and I believe God is leading me. Bite your tongue! Watch out Annanias and Saphira, God’s going to drop you dead! I’m going to tell you something that is not right! You can’t do that! You don’t be telling me that! You may want to do that that may be what your desire is, that’s because you’ve not learned to put to death your old flesh, your old body! That doesn’t honor God. God’s Holy Spirit will never lead you to disobey this book. Got it?

Oh well I prayed about it and there’s no way in the world I can, I can be a giver. What do you mean you can’t be a giver? You can be a giver when God talks about it in this Book to have a heart of generosity. Oh my friend be careful what you say. Be careful. But also, not only does it lead you by revealing the Word to you, but He also leads you:

(2) By sometimes using circumstances. And I want you to see that word “sometimes.” If I had a telestraighter today I would circle that word “sometimes” because I mean it, literally, sometimes. I don’t believe your circumstances always lead you to the will of God. But sometimes God uses your circumstances. Sometimes God realizes how shallow we are, and how much we need to see the quote “handwriting on the wall,” that He wants us to do something. I don’t know about you, but I wish that God would use a little more handwriting on the wall for me. Because sometime I’m real dense; I’m like a dumb sheep. Sheep are dumb and that’s why He calls us, we’re sheep who have been led astray, acting like we’re going to the slaughter. How many times have my choices led me to the slaughter? Wow! So many times!

But I tell you what, even greater than God’s handwriting on the wall, listen carefully; He has right now given to me the handwriting in my hand called the Bible. And He’s also able to give to me His handwriting on my heard through the Holy Spirit, whereby there are times when I will discern the will of God, always by the Word I hope, but there are times He even makes clear through the circumstances of life.

I guess what I really want you to get today, and I’m going to say something that might offend some of you, and if it offends you then I’m sorry, but yet I’m going to be honest with you today. The leadership of the Holy Spirit is not some ooshie-gooshie feeling you get when you pray, or some ooshie-gooshie impression you have in your mind. Now if you don’t know what ooshie-gooshie means, I don’t either, but that’s all I could come up with. Because sometime we think we’re suppose to have this emotion, this ooshie-gooshie feeling coming on that this is God’s will for me! You be careful! If He wants you to do it, He’s going to verify it in His Word, and He will confirm it at times even through His circumstances. Don’t try to make God shallow!

You know if you will understand that God is your parent, you can get through a lot of things. Many of you are parents, right? All right? Now most of you are proud about being parents, you’re glad you have kids. Some of you’ve got a few you’re not sure about you wish you had, but anyway, regardless, you’re a parent. What do you do about your parents? You want to make your will known to your kids. You know it’s not good when, I mean, you remember back when you were kid your momma and daddy say, you want to do something, and your dad says, “Well go ask your momma.” And you go to your momma, and your momma said, “Well go ask your dad.” And you know, as a kid you just wanted to say, “Wait a minute, you know, if ya’ll got an issue here, come on.” But you see, that’s not the way God operates. God doesn’t do that. God is not some trying to feel this emotion here, and feel that emotion there, God wants to make His will clear to you, and He’s given to you His Word for His will to be clear to you for your life.

So when I am willingly making myself available for God to lead me through His Word, and every now and then by those circumstances, it shows that I am a child of God. Therefore today, what does it mean for us to be led by the Holy Spirit? What does it mean for us to be, uh, experiencing the Holy Spirit? It means for us to be led by His precious Word. It means for us to experience His spiritual life. And it means for Him to lead us by His Holy Spirit. But let me tell you what else it means. It means that:

3. You will experience spiritual adoption. You talk about a powerful passage; verse 15 through 17 is a very powerful passage biblically speaking. In fact, in verse 15 he says God does not give us a spirit of slavery. In other words, when we yield ourselves to the flesh, rather than to the Spirit, we return to a spirit of slavery that we had before we ever met Jesus as Lord and Savior. Therefore, we begin to be under the lordship of our will, of our emotions, of our intentions, and of our choices of our flesh!

And what does He say will be the one word that indicates that we’re back into that lifestyle as a believer? Fear. You think about how much fear rests in your heart so many times in your life. Well that fear indicates one thing: you have chosen to go back to flesh ways, flesh responses, and flesh actions in your life. But notice what he says, you don’t have to live that way anymore. And then he writes you receive, in other words, there was a definite moment in your life when you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And the moment you received Him, listen to what He did for you, He gave to you, notice the word, capitalized, Spirit of adoption, meaning the Holy Spirit adopted you into the family of God.

The moment you gave your life to Jesus Christ, there was a divine transaction that occurred at that moment. And the moment you became a Christ-follower you were placed into God’s family. The Bible here talks about adoption, so not only have we been justified, been set from, free from our sin, not only are we being sanctified, being set free from our sin, not only one day when I die and Jesus comes again will be glorified, set free from the penalty and the power of sin forever, and ever, but he says right now something else has gone on, I have been given a Spirit of adoption. I was nothing more than a spiritual orphan that did not have a father, that did not have a daddy, that did not have anyone over me, but He adopted me!

Now what does that mean? Let’s look at that phrase a little more in depth today. That word “adoption” it indicates a new family relationship has occurred, with all the rights, with all the privileges, with all the responsibilities, therefore when Jesus Christ saved me, when the Holy Spirit came to live in my life, He adopted me into the family of God, and right now, I have all the rights, all privileges, and all the responsibilities of being a child of God.

Now why was this necessary? Very clear. Because I was a spiritual orphan, and so were you. Because I was living in my sinful flesh, I did not have a spiritual father, I did not have a spiritual family, so Jesus died so that I could be adopted. Jesus died so that I could be drafted, if you may. Jesus died so that ultimately I could live for Him, and I could come to the point, and the time, and the moment, when I have such that moment that divine transaction occurred, so now I could do something else. I could cry out to Him, “Abba, Father!” Right out of the text. So that I could cry out, “Abba, Father!”

What in the world does that mean? Josh sang about it a moment ago at our Pinnacle Hills campus. What in the world does it mean? The term “Abba, Father” means daddy, it means papa. It means that now that I can through the Holy Spirit, the moment I have left my, my orphan status, and I’ve been placed into, into the Kingdom of God, into the family of God, I can now talk to God, and I can say to God, “Daddy.” I can say to God, “Papa.” The emphasis is not on the name; the emphasis is on the term of meaning intimacy. It’s meaning dependence. It’s meaning this moment of deliverance. It means tenderness. It means that I have now because He is my daddy, and He is my papa, I am free from all worries, and I am free from all fears. Is that not exactly what happens when a mom and a dad go out here across the world and adopt a child? Exactly. That child no longer has any fears or any worries, but that child now has a daddy, whereby he can call that daddy, “Daddy,” or “Papa,” all because of the greatness of a mom or a dad.

You see the Bible says in verse 16 that the Holy Spirit witnesses that we are God’s children. He confirms to us that we are God’s children. Verse 17 says that because we are God’s children, we are heirs, we are co-heirs, once we are adopted into God’s family, listen, we are united with God completely. There’s nothing that can pry us apart. Not only will we receive salvation from God as a child of God, but we will also receive by grace the full inheritance Christ receives. We have that by divine right. That is absolutely amazing to me.

The Holy Spirit, He is one thing in you, He is your legal verification that exists in your life that you have been adopted into the family of God. Spiritual adoption by the Holy Spirit into God’s family is a powerful thing, and it shows also that you have equal opportunity with every other brother and sister in Christ that have also been equally adopted.

You know what, I want to let you know today as a pastor I am absolutely thrilled to see the movement by so many of our families going out across the world and adopting a child. I know probably some of you wonder about that, why in the world would they ever do that? Well you know what? As a little illustration here that ought to convince you there are more than a hundred and forty-seven million orphans in the world today. That’s a hundred and forty-seven million children that do not have a mother, do not have a daddy. They may be on the side of a street. They may be placed in some orphanage somewhere. They may be deprived and no one cares for them one moment. And when we see that one hundred and forty seven million number, it ought to break our hearts because in reality the book of James has called us to rise up as the Church of Jesus Christ and to live our religion, and to care for the orphans, and to care for the widows.

What in the world does that mean? All I know is this, that when a family looks out across this world, discovers a child, adopts that child, raises that child, they grant to that child the full rights, the full privileges, and the full responsibilities of their family. And now, that child can do what that child could never do before, they can cry out, “Daddy! Papa! I depend on you! I need you! Take care of me!” And no longer is that child’s life full of fear, but that child’s life can now be full of peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, students listen carefully, I am not sure there is a greater picture of the gospel than when a child is adopted into a family. This is what God did for us in Christ. And do you realize today that your spiritual adoption is the highest blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ? I have no one, now I have Him! I was full of fear, but now I have Him! I had nothing, but all that He has is mine! And one day when I die, and the Lord raises me from the dead one day, when Jesus so happens to come, then ladies and gentlemen I will begin to realize all God has done for me, and what all that adoption means for me like I have never been able to understand on this side of heaven.

Oh I tell you what today, I don’t know what God is saying to you about any of that, but I can tell you this today, there are so many, many, many blessings of spiritual adoption. It’s pretty overwhelming when you think about it. Heirs of God. Co-heirs with Jesus Christ. Being able to call God, “Father, Daddy, Papa.” Being able to trust Him in all things. Depending on Him through all things. And having the intimacy in that relationship that I can go to Him, listen to me today, anytime, anywhere, about anything. All because I have been adopted into the family of God.

Israel Houghton wrote the song, “I Am A Friend of God.” Just recently I read about that entire experience of his life, when all of a sudden, sitting in a group one day, working together he saw the phrase I am a friend of God, and he circled it, and others just like him were circling other words that meant something to them in their lives. And then all of a sudden, the facilitator, the leader, made them go around the room and say why did you circle those words. And so when it came to Israel’s time, as I said he had circled those words, I am a friend of God, and this is what happened. He said, “I circled the phrase I am a…” and he began to weep in an overwhelming manner. He couldn’t control himself. And after while, after he got himself together, he told them, “I’ve never thought about those words before.” He said, “But when I saw those words, I thought about the way I was raised. My mom and dad were good people. They raised me right. But they raised me in a very discipleship-oriented home.” In other words, it was pretty tough if you got out of line. “And they raised me to do right, but it was a very legalistic environment.” So he said, “I could have easily written a song I am afraid of God,” but he said, “When I saw those words, I am a friend of God, I became overwhelmed.”

And Houghton began, and continued to say, “That as I sat down, and I began to write those words out, God began to free me. The more I said I am a friend of God, I am a friend of God, I am a friend of God, it was like the chains of my legalism were being set free, and I was moving into intimacy with God like I had never experienced before in my Christian life.”

They’re great words. “Who am I that You are thinking of me? That You hear me when I call? Is it true that You are thinking of me, how You love me? It’s amazing. It’s amazing. I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God! He calls me friend.”

You know I’ve often wondered, honestly, I told Jeana this before Josh, and Bradley, there at Springdale today, why do they keep saying, “I am a friend of God?” It goes on and on and on, I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God. I am friend of God. I am a friend of God. It wears me out. [LAUGHTER] But you know what? I now know. And I’ll never sing the song again like it. Because what he was saying is the more that I say I am a friend of God, there was a loosening of my life going on, the chains were falling away, and I was beginning to understand something I had never understood before! When I read those words, I think here was a man who understood he was a spiritual orphan, and for some reason God used that phrase to take him to a brand-new level, and a brand-new depth in his life spiritually, because on that day when he circled that, little did he know, he was moving into a brand-new arena of honor and praise to God as the chains began to be loosened that legalism was not his answer. There was no need to be fearful because he could go to God and call him Abba, and call him Father.

Who am I that You are thinking of me? I want us to pray together right now…