Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : June 15, 2003
The Kind of Church God Wants Us to Be: A Church that Follows the Spirit's Lead
Trinity Sunday
General Dwight Eisenhower, the leader of the Allied forces during World War II and who later became president of the United States, had a great way of demonstrating leadership with something very simple -- a piece of string. Eisenhower would take his piece of string and put it on a table and say: "Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish to lead it. But push the string and it will go nowhere at all." Isn't that a great way to describe a good leader and a bad leader, who is really no leader at all? On Father's Day we especially think of how fathers lead us. Did you or do you have a good father who led you by example and showed you how to live your life under God, or maybe did you have a father whose idea of leadership was yelling all the time and whose only example was a bad example? If you are a father, which category to do you fall into?
This morning, as we continue to look at the kind of church God wants us to be, we will break away from our regular pattern of taking as our example the early Christian Church from Acts and will instead look at God's direction to us through Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. The reason is that this is not only Trinity Sunday but also Father's Day, and these verses from Romans really deal with both beautifully. Today we see that God wants us to be a Church that Follows the Holy Spirit's Lead. God tells us that we Follow the Spirit's Lead first of all as children of our Heavenly Father, and secondly, as co-heirs with Christ.
If you could think of one thing that our world needs today to make it a better place, what would that one thing be? More money? That's something that it seems like everyone is after. Just a few years ago we were in the best economic times our country has ever seen, and there were still all kinds of problems in our nation and in our world. Many would say that the source of all our problems stems from the fact that our families are falling apart. Fix the family, and you fix the world. I would tend to agree with that. What our world needs today is better families. Scripturally speaking, the only way to have better families is to have better leaders of the family, better heads, better fathers. Or maybe we should say, more God-fearing fathers.
There are many examples of good fathers in the Bible, but there are many more examples of bad fathers. One good one that comes to mind is Abraham. Abraham had wanted a son almost more than anything else, and God gave him that son. But when his son Isaac was still a boy, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his long-awaited son to show whom he loved more, God or his son. And Abraham, as amazing as it might seem, was about to sacrifice his son, but God kept him from doing so and instead provided a ram as a substitute sacrifice. Do you know why Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son? He thought God would raise his son back from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). He had such a great faith in God that he knew God had to keep his son Isaac alive, so Isaac had to live somehow. We would look at Abraham as a good father -- not because the Bible says "Abraham was a good father," because it doesn't say that in so many words, but because he trusted God so much. Abraham led his son to see God as his most important treasure. That made Abraham a good father -- he taught his son to be led by the Spirit in faith in living his faith.
Being led by the Spirit as God's children -- that is what our text is talking about. It begins: "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." That is an amazing verse considering what we are -- sons of Adam. Adam was an example of being a bad father. How? In not exercising his God-given headship in the family, he plunged the whole human race into sin. Because of it, you and I are born and conceived in sin, enemies of God, hostile to anything God wants and desires for us. And we are good sons of Adam, aren't we? We who are fathers, we look to things that make our lives easier instead of being the spiritual head. What do we find ourselves thinking of more -- getting a new TV or car, or how we can get our kids into God's Word? We who are fathers -- how often wouldn't we rather do something else besides having devotions with our family? We would rather show our kids how to fish or play football than how to read the Scriptures and serve God. We are good at serving ourselves. And dads, that shows that we all have Bad Dad Syndrome. When the kids are crying so much or getting you up in the night so much that you have that thought of taking them to Grandma and Grandpa's house and leaving them there for a year -- or until they're better, like about 28 or so. We're selfish as fathers, and it shows in how we think and act. But Bad Dad Syndrome has its form in every person -- bad moms, bad kids -- all because it's so easy for us to follow not God, but ourselves.
When we look at how often we have failed miserably to live up to the standards God has placed on us as fathers or mothers, or children for that matter, we have to despair. But that's where God came to our rescue. In sending his own Son as our Lamb of sacrifice, God our Heavenly Father showed the ultimate love better than any father could. By stepping between us and the wrath of God, God's Son, Jesus Christ, took all God's wrath against sin on himself -- every time we've shown by what we do that we have Bad Dad Syndrome, or Bad Mom Syndrome or Bad Kid Syndrome -- Jesus paid for that sin and every other one like it. The Bible says that the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from every sin. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross that took away all our sins has brought us into a new family through faith -- we are now the children of God, even we who by nature are his enemies. That's because God the Holy Spirit gave us all the blessings of what the Son did by reaching into our cold, self-centered hearts and kindling there the fire of faith to believe in Jesus as our Savior. Our triune God is our Savior God.
The words before us bring that out. "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." We are actually children of God through faith, instead of children of the devil. How can the Apostle Paul say that? Because of the next verse: "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship." We should be fearful of what our God demands of us because we know that we have fallen far short of it. We should fear God's wrath against sin. But we don't because of Christ and his work and because of the Holy Spirit and his work. We are no longer slaves to fear, but we are free from fear and free to serve God as his children. That's why Paul can say: "you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' " We can now approach God anytime as our father. "Abba" is how a child speaking Aramaic would address his own father. We would probably say, "Dad." Isn't it amazing that we can speak to the almighty, eternal, triune God of all as, "Dad"! And just like any 3-year-old who often barges in on any conversation without being given permission, we have access to God's throne of grace 24 hours a day. We can barge right in on God and demand that he hears us, and amazingly enough, God promises to hear us every time. It's almost as if he puts everything else on hold while he listens lovingly to us and takes care of our problem or concern or our praise or whatever.
The Holy Spirit leads us and through faith we follow the Spirit's lead as children of our Heavenly Father. But we also follow the Spirit's lead in our lives in another way, as co-heirs with Christ.
Paul says, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." Not only is God our Father, but Christ Jesus, God the Son, is our brother! What a thought! We who have messed up in countless ways should be awaiting only an inheritance of hellfire, but because of Jesus' sacrifice for us we have an inheritance in heaven, not by any good in us, but only by God's grace in Christ. Peter says in his first letter, (1 Peter 1:3,4) "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you." How great it would be to be heirs of a billionaire, like Bill Gates. We would get so much wealth that we wouldn't know what to do with it all. But we are heirs of someone and something much greater than any worldly person or any worldly wealth. We are heirs of God himself. We have God's estate of heaven as our inheritance. And it is assured. We don't even have to wait for it until we die. We have all the blessings of God's forgiveness and eternal life right now. But when we die, we will simply receive the full realization of that inheritance in heaven.
Does that make the life of a Christian, an heir of heaven, easy? No way. The world and the devil will be gunning for us with all the ammunition in their arsenals. But as children of our heavenly Father and as co-heirs with Jesus Christ, we will strive to be led by the Spirit. Because of that sure inheritance, we will gladly follow the Spirit's lead in our lives, even when that means we will suffer for it in this sin-filled world. But even our suffering is for our good because Paul said a few chapters earlier to the Romans, (Romans 5:3,4) "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." So our suffering is good, too, and serves for our eternal welfare.
On this Father's Day, as you think of how you can be a better father or mother or child, remember God's encouragement to you through Paul. Think of your childhood and how you used to play Follow the Leader. Any time you see how you've failed your family and God, play Follow the Leader -- follow Jesus to the cross and see what your Triune God did for you there. Then play Follow the Leader with your kids. You can't lead by pushing. You have to lead. A godly father does that as he himself follows the Spirit as he is into the Word and then living a godly life. As saints of God -- whether father, mother or child -- we Follow the Spirit's Lead as children of our Heavenly Father and as co-heirs with Christ. Amen.
