{"id":1344,"date":"2002-07-07T00:41:41","date_gmt":"2002-07-07T00:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2020-12-02T12:10:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T12:10:23","slug":"taking-the-spirit-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/taking-the-spirit-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking the Spirit Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Romans 8:1-11<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 7, 2002\u20149:00 Worship<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When our kids were growing up in the early eighties, the only electronic car gizmos that they had were these first generation hand-held games that we got from relatives in Singapore. This was before Gameboys. I think it was getting a monkey to get the bananas off the tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is different. How many of you will be taking a road trip vacation this year? Or you recently came back from one? What kinds of gizmos and electronic gadgets did you have to past the time away?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I have heard that today\u2019s cars are like self-contained entertainment systems. There are MP3 players on the dashboard that plays 72 CDs. There are gadgets that can read you the newspaper or quote current stock prices or give you the scores of the Giants. There are built-in TVs with VCRs and DVDs, Playstations, and Gameboys. And, of course, there are the GPS navigational systems that connect you to satellites above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your car doesn\u2019t have all of this new technology, you can always wear your own wireless headphones and listen to your own MP3s without Mom or Dad ever talking to you for miles on end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the \u201cold days\u201d when the road trip was long and tiring, we would say, \u201cLook out the window and enjoy the scenery\u201d to pass the time away. The scenery outside is no longer a distraction anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a kid, we would play \u201cGeography.\u201d You would name a city, state, country and the next person would have to come up with another name beginning with the last alphabet of your geographical place. How about \u201cBaseball\u201d when the first number of the license plate of a car you past on the right is a base hit if it\u2019s a 1 or a double if it\u2019s a 2!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going on a long road trip is only bearable if we were distracted and could forget we were taking it in the first place. Just tell me when we get there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking with God<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans is the longest, the heaviest, and the most significant of his epistles. He describes the world\u2019s need for redemption. He discusses God\u2019s saving act in Christ and the new life that is now available to all who believe. In Romans 7<\/a>, Paul focused on the negatives that infiltrate human life even when there\u2019s a genuine attempt to follow the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in Chapter 8, Paul speaks about the positive and miraculous things for those who are in Christ Jesus. \u201cThere is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.\u201d (vs. 1) When someone becomes a baptized Christian, Paul is saying that the person now has the ability to understand the law in one\u2019s life. When the \u201claw of the Spirit\u2019s life\u201d is written in one\u2019s heart, you are following Christ Jesus. But the \u201claw of sin and death\u201d has caused us to not fulfill the \u201claw of the Spirit\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To remedy this situation, \u201cweakened by the flesh,\u201d God sent his Son to deal with sin. When we choose the journey in God\u2019s Spirit over the journey of the flesh, we fulfill God\u2019s plan for our lives and for the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if our life\u2019s journey is like our road trip vacations when we are distracted from what is happening during the journey, are we focused on God and walking according to the Spirit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking in the Flesh<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Paul uses the word, \u201cwalk\u201d to describe what\u2019s going on in our relationship with God. When you go on the walk, the journey, the road trip\u2014if you will\u2014you can take two routes: a walk in the Spirit or a walk in the flesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you walk in the Spirit, there\u2019s glory. When you walk in the flesh, there\u2019s destruction. The first is a journey of life, the second is a march of death. The first is an experience of peace; the second is hostility to God. The first is friendship with God; the second is enmity with God. The first is an experience of the indwelling God; the second is the futility of a self-filled life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Paul uses the word, \u201cflesh,\u201d he doesn\u2019t just mean our skin and our bodies. There are certainly many people who focus on the flesh that way\u2014undergoing countless cosmetic plastic surgeries, and covering up their appearance with layer upon layer of make-up. But as Paul uses the term, \u201cflesh,\u201d he means to say that a life that is focused on the flesh is one where a person spends his or her time concentrating not on things that are of God, but on things that are sinful and self-centered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we focus on the Spirit, we see God as being the center of our lives. But when we focus on the flesh that means that we look on ourselves as being the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our spiritual life, Paul warns us against distractions, against gizmos and gadgets that separate us from God. Paul calls us to leave distracting gizmos and gadgets behind and to look up and to look out through the window of the Holy Spirit and to do something in the world that will make Christ known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walk in the Spirit<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

When we turn away from walking in the flesh and turn to the Spirit, we find that that\u2019s easier said than done. Each day, we are tempted in every direction to engage in all kinds of sins and distractions. And when we look around, we don\u2019t see a whole lot of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

encouragement to follow in the way of the Spirit either. So we might be tempted to give up, figuring that what God asks of us is just too hard. But Paul\u2019s answer is that if we are focused on the Spirit, then God gives us the power to do what God wants us to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like when you\u2019re on a plane. Before taking off, the flight attendants go over the various safety instructions. One of those instructions tells you that if the cabin were to lose air pressure, oxygen masks will fall down in front of you. But you are told to put your own mask on first, before trying to help someone else. The idea is that if you don\u2019t have oxygen flowing through your lungs, pretty soon you\u2019ll become weak and won\u2019t be able to help anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God doesn\u2019t expect us to do what we aren\u2019t capable of doing. Instead God gives us power to live the way that God wants. God is saying that he will provide us with those oxygen masks first so that we will be prepared to help other and prepared to control the temptations that we have. We receive that power as we breathe in God\u2019s Spirit, as we focus on God and make God the center of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem that we have though is that even when we try to our best to focus on allowing the Spirit into our lives, sin doesn\u2019t instantly vanish. Paul said that sin is like a parasite. A parasite is something that attaches itself to a living creature. And unfortunately, sin is going to remain attached to us as long as we live. It is only when we die that sin lets go, because at that point, the sin figures that it has won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But by sending Jesus in the world, God has shown us that sin is not the winner. The worst that sin can do is make us die. But by raising Jesus from the dead, God shows us that God has the power to take death and to turn it into life, the kind of life that will never die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set Your Mind<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

We can live out our lives like it was going on a road trip vacation. We can be oblivious to everything that is going on outside and focused only on our music or watching a DVD movie. We want distractions so that we wouldn’t have to feel the pain of traveling through life. We want to be blind-sighted to the problems and sufferings outside in the world.  If we set our minds, again and again on gizmos of the flesh and allow our heads to be filled with distractions, then our hearts, following the world and not God, will never find peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we set our minds in the Spirit, we learn to seek God and to learn from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we set our minds in the Spirit, we begin to see the depth of love, the depth of beauty, the depth of joy, the power of hope, the power of courage and the power of commitment\u2014no matter where we might be on the road trip of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we set our minds in the Spirit, the journey is the experience and not the destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we set our minds in the Spirit, the scenery that we see passing by our car windows is God\u2019s world that he wants us to care and love. He wants us to put away those distracting gizmos and gadgets to catch a glimpse of the needs of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we set our minds in the Spirit, we will pull over and come to a complete stop on the side of the road, just like Christ came to a complete stop on the Cross, to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to recover sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walk It By Yourself<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an old spiritual that goes like this. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to walk that lonesome valley. You\u2019ve got to walk it by yourself. Ain\u2019t nobody gonna walk it for you. You\u2019ve got to walk it by yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s up to each one of us to choose which way we will take our life\u2019s journey\u2014walking in the Spirit or walking in the way of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precious Lord, Lead us to walk in your Spirit and set our minds on you as we journey through life in your name and for your service, we pray. Amen.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:1-11 July 7, 2002\u20149:00 Worship Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. When our kids were growing up in the earlyContinue readingTaking the Spirit Journey<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,14],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermons","tag-fcbc","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2285,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions\/2285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}