Romans 1:21-32 (NLT) 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have relations and instead indulged in relations with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. 28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Satan knows if we don’t know who we are, we will never be able to defeat him.
Our society and culture keep trying to redefine things that God has already given definitions to.
Genesis 1:27 (NLT) So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Comparison is an identity killer.
You are not a sinner saved by grace.
We live out what we believe to be true about ourselves whether it’s true or not.
Three free gifts as a Child of God
Romans 8:9-16 (NLT) Vs9 - But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)
1. Freedom from Sin
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, all things have become new. (He makes all things new.)
Isaiah 54:17 (NKJV) - No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.
Vs10 - And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. 12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.
2. Resurrection Power
You’ve got resurrection power running through your veins.
We can come boldly to the throne – Sun stand still kind of prayers.
“God has privileged us in Christ Jesus to live above the ordinary human plane of life. Those who want to be ordinary and live on a lower plane can do so, but as for me, I will not.” ― Smith Wigglesworth (British Evangelist)
Vs 12 - You have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.
The answer to temptation is not to try harder but to rely on the resurrection power you have inside of you.
Vs14 - For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
3. Sonship
When you make Christ the Lord of your life, He adopts you as His child and calls you His own. That means He chose you! You are not a mistake, you are not an afterthought, He sought you out to be His.
The law of adoption is actually stronger than the law of biology.
John 1:12 (NLT) - But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God
