Mission Hills Church
The difference between religion and relationship, when we’re talking about God, is what we’re following. If we’re following the rules, that’s religion, but if we’re following Jesus, that’s relationship. Following Jesus is about learning to rest in the grace of God’s love and respond to the life flowing from his Spirit. Join us for a faith-changing series about what it really means to follow Jesus from what many have called the most important chapter in the entire Bible – Romans 8.
The more we listen to the Spirit, the more we experience the life that’s coming… now
One of the greatest obstacles to listening to the Spirit is an inability to believe what the Spirit says to us/
Romans 8:12 NIV
Therefore brothers and sisters, an obligation we have - not! - to the flesh to live according to it. (Romans 8:12)
For followers of Jesus, sin is an option, not an obligation.
Why do Christians still chose the sin option?
1. We're uninformed.
2. We have bad habits.
3. We're weak
4. We're listening to the wrong voice(s).
Romans 8:13 NIV
As we live by the Spirit, we choose the sin option less and less.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. (Romans 8:14-15a)
Fear is not in the Spirit’s toolbox.
If what you’re feeling is fear, then what you’re listening to is not the Spirit.
Fear might be a good way to force compliance, but it’s a bad way to involve people in the mission.
God didn’t give us the Spirit to keep us in line but to bring us into the family..
And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15b)
And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15b)
The Spirit brings us to see God with affection, not fear.
Romans 8:16 NIV
The Spirit stirs our affection to God and speaks God’s affection to us.
The Son is the image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15)
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. (Hebrews 1:3)
God likes you.
Holy Spirit, help me feel my Father’s affection for me.