Read Romans 8:3-4
Humans love to make rules and regulations. Church people are particularly good at this! We have even created a grading system for Christians and
But the law was never meant to lead us to salvation. The Hebrew people were enslaved in Egypt and were helpless. How ridiculous to think that God would have said to them, ‘Keep this law and I’ll save you from bondage and slavery.’ Rather, He saved them first. He brought them to Mt Sinai and then gave them the Law or Torah to show them how to live now that they had been saved.
In fact, the law could never save because it was weakened by our sinful nature. God had said that the punishment for sin was death. As soon as our federal forbearers sinned, we were all born under the power of sin. Our weak and biased human nature would ensure that all of us would stand condemned by the law. Each of us rightly deserves God’s punishment, which is death.
But God did what the law could not do. He simultaneously kept the law and metered out the punishment for transgression of the law. He did this by sending Jesus, His one and only Son, into our world. Jesus came as a man and as a man offered Himself as a sin offering. He gave Himself over to death to be the offering for sin. He became our substitute who wore the wrath of God for us.
To put it bluntly, we did the crime and He did the time. Even more so, Jesus’ perfection, His total and complete obedience, has been given or imputed to us. God looks at us through Jesus and sees the complete fulfilment of the Law. And so the complete requirements of the Law have been fully met in us.
So how should we live, given that Jesus has done everything for us? It would be very easy to conclude that because Jesus has done everything for me and because God sees me through Jesus’ perfection, then I can indulge all my passions and desires! But if I reach this conclusion then I show I have totally missed the point. Verse 4 sums up how we are to live. We ‘do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.’ What that means is that our hearts are to be so filled with gratitude and love for Jesus that we willingly want to live His way and not ours. But it’s more than just a ‘want to’ or a desire. The Holy Spirit equips us and enables us to live Jesus’ way and not ours. The Holy Spirit guides us and teaches us and allows us to do it His way, not our way. The Holy Spirit allows us to say ‘NO’ to our sinful passions and desires. Living according to the Spirit means living in Spirit enabled and Spirit led obedience.
Prayer:
Having read today’s passage and notes jot down various prayer points in each:
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
¨ Pray for the MOPS/Playpals program that meets on Wednesdays. Pray that the mums would be encouraged and blessed and led to Jesus in faith.
¨ Pray that God would provide the helpers and resources needed.
Obedience to God should always flow out of a heart filled with grace. If it’s not from grace, it’s probably from the wrong motive.
1. What avenues are open to a believer who struggles with their sinful desires and passions?
2. How can we tell if a desire or something in our heart is Spirit given or not?
3. What could you do if you had a leading that you thought was from the Spirit but wasn’t sure?
4. Share a time you have definitely been led by the Spirit and a time you thought you were but were wrong.
Intro: God loves it when we walk in obedience but even obedience has to come from the right heart. A wrong heart changes everything.
Discuss a time when you acted with a wrong heart. What were your motivations/goals? Share what God would have preferred in that situation.
Read 1 Samuel 16:7
How do you think this applies to the people you hang with?
How much attention should we give to our outsides - ie our body and looks?
Pray together that you would spend appropriate time building your insides as well as your outside appearance.
Intro: Boys/men often act without thinking. We often act on impulse in speaking or doing things. God wants us to think and to have a right heart as well.
Discuss a time when you acted on impulse. Share the results and what you would do differently if you could do it again.
Read 1 Samuel 16:7
How does this verse encourage us to be more like what God wants?
How can we keep a constant check on our heart?
Pray together for a heart that God loves and is happy with.
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