This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our daily drive-time devotion to the book of Romans.
Romans chapter 8, this week we are looking together at Romans chapter 8 verses 4
to 7, talking together about how God gives us this incredible new life, a life
of no condemnation we talked about the last couple of days, whenever we feel
like I'm no good God says no condemnation, you have liberty, but God also has
something to say to us when we feel like I'm never going to change. You ever
felt like that?

You take a look at how you're growing as a believer or what's happening in your
family or what's happening in your spiritual life or how you see God working in
the day to day of your life and you think, you know what, I'm just never going
to change. God says I have a different kind of life for you, a life of no
domination, a life of victory. When we feel like I'm never going to change the
truth is I am going to change.

Yes, you are going to change. The reason is God has given you this Holy Spirit
and this passage that we begin to look at together today is one of the greatest
lists of what the Holy Spirit does for the life of the believer that you can
find in the entire Bible. In fact, these next three days we're going to talk
together about three reasons that we know will change.

What will change because we have a new nature, the Holy Spirit does that. Will
change because we have a new manager, the Holy Spirit is that. Will change
because we have a new father, the Holy Spirit affirms that.

Today, we will change because we have a new nature given to us by the Spirit.
Roman chapter 8 verse 4 beginning at the last part of that verse through verse
7, "Who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their mind set on what that
nature desires.

But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the
Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the
Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so. " These verses talk about our
new nature and they just lay out some facts about us. Fact number one, I choose
the source by which I live and the choice is I can choose to live by my sinful
nature or I can choose to live by the Spirit.

I can choose to live a self-controlled life or I can choose to live a
God-controlled life who do not live according to the sinful nature but according
to the Spirit. The phrase there is according to, that's my choice. What do I
live according to?

The idea of according is in unity with, in accord with. What do I choose to
connect to today? I can choose to trust in what God has done or I can choose to
trust in myself.

I can live a self-controlled life or a God-controlled life. As we walk through
these verses, these verses tell us a second fact about ourselves. Not only do I
choose the source by which I live but number two, my choice determines my
thinking.

The idea that we never are going to change, a lot of that revolves around the
way we think during the day and our thoughts resolve themselves into actions of
goodness and grace or sometimes our thoughts are led down paths of temptation
and evil. My choice determines my thinking and the Bible tells us that my new
nature can think differently. Because I have a new nature, those who live in
accordance with the sinful nature, they They have their mindset on what that
nature desires but those who live in accordance with the spirit, they have their
mindset on what the spirit desires.

To set your mind on the things of God, that's that old illustration of the
sailboat. Sometimes you can go out on a lake and you see two sailboats and
they're going in opposite directions. How does that happen?

The wind's blowing in just one direction. How do sailboats go in different
directions? It's all how they set their sail.

You and I have the choice to trust in what God has done and when we do that, it
determines the direction of our thinking. The self-powered life ends up being a
selfish life. You get out what you put in.

It's the natural result. The self-powered life ends up being a selfish life. The
God-dependent life ends up being a God-centered life.

That's the supernatural result. Look, depending on yourself in order to think
more about God is extremely frustrating. When you depend on yourself, you are
inevitably drawn to think more about the one you're depending on, yourself, not
more about God.

But when you depend on God, you are inevitably drawn to think more about God,
the one that you're depending on. That's just the way we work. That's the way
we're wired.

My choice determines the way that I think. If you find yourself thinking about
yourself all the time, then the source of your life, your life is being powered
that day by yourself. If you find yourself thinking much about God, go back to
the source and you'll find that you're living that day, most likely, depending
on God from the very beginning of the day.

My source can be chosen. I choose the source by which I live. And that source
that I choose, that source, that power of my life determines the way that I
think throughout the day.

And then number three, these verses tell us that my thinking determines my life
direction and my relationship with God during that day. It determines my life
direction. The mindset on the sinful nature is death.

The mindset on the spirit is life, these verses say. Not will be, but is. This
is not just about something that's waiting at the end of life.

This is about our present experience. When you, as a Christian, live by the
world's perspective, the result is death. You feel that death in your life.

Even though you know you're going to heaven someday, that day feels dead. You
feel dead inside somehow. Why?

You're living by the wrong power. When you plug into a dead power source, you're
going to feel dead inside. And the world's selfish power is a dead power source.

It doesn't go anywhere in the end. It's only God's power. It's only God's power
that's eternal power.

When I plug into His power, I have life. This is describing the present day
experience, an experience of death or of life. My thinking determines my life
direction day to day.

It also determines my relationship with God. The mindset on the self is hostile
toward God. The mindset on the spirit is controlled by God, is following God.

Now hostility to God can take a lot of different forms. A lot of people think
that means you have to be swearing at God all the time or angry at God or an
atheist. No.

Hostility to God simply means you're holding God at arm's length. You're saying,
"God, just keep out of that area of my life. I don't want you in right here.

" Whenever you do that, that is a hostility towards God. So these verses talk
about sinful ways of thinking according to our sinful nature and spiritual ways
of thinking according to our spiritual nature. Now before we end, I just want to
wipe out a couple of misnomers about this, mistaken ways of thinking about the
sinful nature and the spiritual nature.

When I say the term sinful nature, I think a lot of us mistakenly think that
means, "Oh, that means I'm having evil, ugly thoughts, murderous, lustful,
hateful, immoral thoughts continually. That's what sinful nature thinking is all
about. " No.

No. To think according to the selfish nature simply means you're thinking
self-powered thoughts. In fact, it could even be for the sake of others.

You could even be powering up in your own self for somebody else's sake, but the
power is solely from you. Spiritual nature. To have the mindset on the spirit.

There are some mistaken ways of thinking about that. When the Bible says, "We
are no longer sinful but now spiritual," we think, "Oh, I know what that means.
I forget about money or personal fulfillment or success.

I even forget about having fun. I just think about God all day long. And
whenever anyone asks me to do something, I am so busy thinking about God.

I'm so involved in spiritual things that I am too heavenly minded to be any
earthly good. I can't get my hands dirty with what's going on in this earth. "
And so you become a religious recluse.

You go around reciting scripture verses and telling people what's wrong with
their lives, and somehow you think that's being spiritual. Well, I think we all
know that is not what it means to have a mindset on the spirit. We've met people
who think like that, but we know intuitively that that is not the kind of life
that God produces.

The life that God produces in us is a life where the leadership of our life has
changed. Our gifts are used in a greater way. Our money is spent to God's
greater glory and greater success and more fun, genuine fun comes into our lives
because of who he is.

That is what God has in mind for you. So when we think about this new way of
thinking, thinking about thinking thoughts that are focused on drawing upon God
as our source of strength rather than self as our source of strength. And as we
pray today, as we talk to God, let's take a few moments just to depend on him
right now as a source of strength for this day today.

As you're praying, you might, you might tell God in prayer, God, here's a
problem I'm having right now with my life direction. Or here's a problem that
I'm having right now with a relationship. Here's a problem that I'm having right
now in my relationship with you.

As you talk to God about that, as we think about what Romans has taught us
today, in prayer, just say to God, God, these verses tell me that if I'm having
a problem in my life direction or in my relationship with you, that goes back to
a problem in my thinking. So God, I confess it. I haven't been thinking straight
lately.

I've been allowing my thoughts to go to things that have drawn me away from you
rather than close to you, that have drawn my life in the wrong direction rather
than the right direction. I can make a lot of excuses for that. I can blame a
lot of other people for that, but I'm not going to do that.

Instead, I'm going to, I'm going to confess Jesus Christ that my thinking has
drawn me away from you or has drawn me away from your direction. And right here,
right now, in this moment, I'm going to choose to live according to your
spirit's power, not my self-powered life any longer. I choose to live according
to, connected to, in unity with your spirit's power.

That's how you made me to live. That's the most joyous way to live. So, God, in
this moment, I connect to you and I ask you to give me the power and the
strength to live out the direction and the relationships that you have for me
today.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.