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I want to welcome you to our look together through the book of Romans and our
daily tribe time devotions. Romans chapter 8 this week, our fourth day in our
look at this great chapter. We're looking today at verses 8 to 13.

Yesterday we began to talk about the fact that sometimes we feel like things
will never change and God says things will change. They'll change because we
have a new nature we looked at yesterday. But there's a second reason they'll
change.

And Romans 8 verses 8 to 13 talks about that. They will change because they have
a new manager. Listen to what God's Spirit does in our lives in these verses.

Verse 8, "Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You however
are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God
lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not
belong to Christ.

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is
alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you. Therefore,
brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the sinful nature to live
according to it.

For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the
Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. " How do you
live by the Spirit?

How do you allow the Holy Spirit's strength and energy and power to empower your
daily life? Well, there are three words in these verses that are incredibly
important. The word "control," the word "ownership," and the word "obligation.

" And if you get a hold of what those words mean, then you begin to learn and
see what it means to allow the Holy Spirit to manage your daily life. God's made
us to be connected to his Spirit so that the Spirit can manage and empower our
daily life. Control, ownership, and obligation.

Control. Control means you let go and you let God. Control is a big word in some
of our lives.

We like to have control of everything, and sometimes everyone, let's just admit
it. God says, "Control for me is not the same as it is for you. I'm not a
control freak.

I don't need to control so that I can feel better about myself. " God wants us
to give control because we are made to live in relationship with him. In fact,
verse 8 says, "Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

I can't please God by what I do disconnected from him. " Christianity is not
what we do for God. It's what God has done for us, and it's what he will do in
us.

For some, their faith in Christ has become some great thing of what they do for
God. Other people it's become some sociology, what they do for other people. For
other people it's become psychology, what I can do for myself.

God sent his Spirit so that I can live a life that's pleasing to him, and that
has to do with how I'm connected to him. These verses tell us that you and I are
controlled by the Spirit if the Spirit lives in you. Verse 9, "You, however, are
not controlled by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God
lives in you.

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. "
You might be reading that thinking, "Wait a minute. I know I'm a believer, and I
know because of that that the Spirit of Christ does live in me.

But there are days, I have to admit, when I don't feel controlled by the Spirit.
" So what does this mean? When the Bible says you are controlled not by the
sinful nature, but by the Spirit.

As a believer you still have a choice, and you can still choose to follow sin.
But the truth of the matter is the Holy Spirit has also given you a new choice,
a choice to live by his power. And every time I choose to follow sin, I am
rejecting his control, I'm rejecting his leadership in my life, his management
in my life to follow what I'm not made to follow.

When you think that the natural thing for you to do is sin, the obvious thing
for you to do is sin, the Bible here is saying, "No, it's not anymore. " The
obvious thing for you to do now that you're a spiritual person is to follow the
one who controls your life, the Holy Spirit. We all, because we have sinned in
our lives, have set down patterns, thoughts, ways of doing things, ways of
thinking that make us feel like, "Oh, that controls my life.

I have to commit that sin. I cannot choose but to follow that temptation. I've
done it so many times.

" And these verses say you have a new manager. Look at yourself in a new way
because you have a new manager. You are controlled by the Spirit who lives in
you.

So look to him for power today, control, let go, and let God. And then a second
word is used in these verses, the word ownership. We just looked at it.

If Christ is in you, though your body is dead because of sin, your spirit is
alive because of righteousness, why is that? Well, at the end of verse 9 it
says, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to
Christ. Without God's Spirit, I don't belong to Christ.

" But the opposite is true. When I have God's Spirit, it's a sign of the fact
that I belong to Christ. I've always liked what Warren Wiersbe says about these
verses in Romans 8.

He talks about living life on three levels in these verses. Level 1 is the level
where you have not the Spirit, verses 5 to 8. Level 2 is the level where you
have the Spirit, verses 9 to 11.

And level 3 is the level, verses 12 to 17, where the Spirit has you. That's
ownership. Without the Spirit, I don't belong to Jesus.

But through the Spirit, I belong to Jesus Christ. And if Christ is in me, then
my Spirit is alive. He has brought my Spirit to life.

Think of it this way. Before you came to Jesus Christ, you were spiritually
dead. By spiritually, I mean what the Bible says about spiritually.

Spiritually has to do with my Spirit, my ability to connect to God, to relate to
God. We use all kinds of words to define Spirit, but the Bible talks about our
Spirit being the part of us that connects with God. Before I come to Christ, I
cannot connect to God as He has made me to connect with God because there is
something dead in me.

Spiritually dead. That's what happened in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of
Eden, we died spiritually.

Our ability to connect to God as we should died. It doesn't mean we don't know
God exists. It doesn't mean you don't pray prayers and try to talk to God before
you become a Christian.

But the connection is not there as it should be because something is spiritually
dead. But now in Christ, we are spiritually alive. He has brought to life that
which is dead.

These verses are saying that to try to relate to God without God's Spirit,
without Christ is like trying to start a car without a battery or with a dead
battery that can never be recharged. You have to first replace the battery
before you can start the car. And our Spirit is dead without Christ.

But when Christ comes into our lives, He replaces that battery. He replaces that
Spirit. He gives us a new power to relate to God.

But not only that, these verses go on to say, you know, that's not only true of
our Spirit, but also He's going to do something with our body. He says to us
that not only is our Spirit brought back to life, but also He does something
with our bodies. These bodies that live in a world that is surrounded by sin,
where we have chosen to sin, someday He's going to give us new bodies,
resurrected bodies.

And these verses tell us that the same Spirit who brought back to life our
spirit, our ability to connect with God, is going to bring back to life our
bodies. Just like Jesus was resurrected by the power of the Spirit, God's
Spirit, we're going to be resurrected. This body that you have, this physical
body, don't think of it as just sort of like a soda can that when you're through
with the drink, you throw it away.

It's not only going to be recycled, it's going to be restored. It's going to be
resurrected someday. John Stott once said that the resurrected body will be the
perfect vehicle of our redeemed personality.

That has a lot to do with how we treat these bodies. They are temples of the
Holy Spirit. They are bodies that are one day going to be resurrected.

We are under new ownership. One of the signs that you should put around your
life, your heart, the moment you become a believer in Christ, is under new
management. We have a new owner now, God's power in our lives, control,
ownership.

You want to live a life directed and empowered by the Spirit. You also have to
understand a third word in these verses, the word obligation. We now have an
obligation not to the sinful nature, but to the Spirit, to the Spirit of life.

Let me read again for you those important verses. "Therefore," in verse 12,
brothers, "we have an obligation, but it's not to the sinful nature to live
according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. "
If you live according to the sinful nature, you will inevitably die. That has to
do with our obligation.

We therefore have an obligation to the Spirit. Obligation has two meanings
behind it. When you think about having no obligation to the sinful nature, it
means you are not obliged to follow the sinful nature, but it also means that
you are not obliged to make up for the wrong things that you've done in the
sinful nature through the sinful nature.

Neither obligation is true. When you are tempted and you feel like, "I cannot
help but follow that temptation," these verses remind us that through the power
of the Spirit, you are not obliged to follow that temptation. God has made a way
out, and you can now take that way out through the power of God's Spirit.

That is one thing that it means to not be obligated to the sinful nature. But
there's another thing that it means, and these verses talk even more about that.
It means that I am not obligated to make up for the wrong things that I've done.

A lot of people make the mistake, once they become a believer, of thinking, "Oh,
now I'm a believer in Christ, and I've done some wrong things in my life before
I became a believer. I've got to make up for those things. And so I'm going to
make up for them by my sinful nature, by my selfish nature.

" No, you have no obligation. Jesus Christ wiped out all of those sins. If you
live according to the sinful nature, you will die.

The inevitable result is death. But if by the Spirit you put to death the
misdeeds of the body, that means that through your trust in the Spirit, all
those things that you've done that are wrong have been put to death by Jesus
Christ on the cross. When I trust in that, I will live.

Control, ownership, and obligation. Give up control. Turn over ownership.

Accept your obligation. These are some deep verses as we walk through the book
of Romans, chapter 8, together. There are some things here that will leave you
scratching your head maybe for a few weeks, reading over these verses again and
again.

It really is a depth to God's Word. But as we read through the power of God's
Spirit in our lives, I want to do something very simple to close in our time of
prayer. Let's just do some spiritual breathing together.

If you've never done this, spiritual breathing is simply you breathe out, and as
you breathe out, you say to yourself, "Thank you, God, that you've forgiven all
my sins. " And then you breathe in. And as you breathe in, you pray in your
mind, "God, help me to live a life that is following, managed by the power and
control of your Spirit today.

Control, ownership, obligation. I give up control. I turn over ownership.

I accept my obligation. " That's spiritual breathing. In fact, do it right now.

Just, "Whew. God, thank you that you've forgiven me. " And then breathe in.

"God, I want to live by the power of your Spirit today. " Spiritual breathing is
sort of like physical breathing. When I breathe physically, I have to do it all
day long.

I can't do it once at the beginning of the day. One good breath and I'm ready
for the day. No, all day long I have to breathe because I need air all day long.

You need God's Spirit all day long. So throughout the day today, it's breathe
out, thank you that I'm forgiven, and breathe in. Thank you.

Thank you for God's Spirit. I want to live by the power and control of your
Spirit today. In Jesus' name, we pray this.

Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to be looking together at Romans 8 verses 14 to 17.