Sunday 01 • 07 • 18

Romans 8:12-17 — "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die but by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs of Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."

The word of the Lord.

Star Wars and the Enemy Within

Since Star Wars is back in the theaters again and the Star Wars story arc is on the brain for many people, I want to remind you of a scene from one of the earliest Star Wars movies, The Empire Strikes Back. Luke Skywalker goes to the swamp planet Dagobah to get training from Yoda, a Jedi master. One day, as Luke is training, he encounters what is known as the Dark Side Cave. It's misty and beckoning him to come in. He turns to Yoda and asks, "What is this?"

Yoda says to him, "That place is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In it, you must go."

Luke responds, "What's in there?"

"Only what you take with you," Yoda replies.

Luke brings in his weapons—a lightsaber and a blaster. As he walks into this cave, you get the sense this is a vision, not real. But he encounters his arch nemesis: Darth Vader. They light up their lightsabers and battle. Suddenly, Luke cuts off Vader's head. It rolls over, looking up at Luke. To Luke's horror, the face shield disappears and he sees his own image staring back at him—his own face.

The message is clear: Luke, your greatest enemy is not Darth Vader. Your greatest enemy is what's inside of you. The enemy within.

That's the theme of what we're looking at today.

Context in Romans

We've been going through Romans since September, and I want to remind you where we are. Chapters one through five detail how God makes the first move with every sinner. God reaches out into our darkness, our rebellion, and declares us righteous in His sight because of Jesus—a judicial act. Jesus's righteousness is credited to us. We're not just forgiven; we're declared right in His sight. That's justification.

Chapters five through eight tell us what sanctification is. How does a Christian who has been declared righteous—when God looks at you and says, "You look like Jesus to me"—how does that result in inner transformation? How does that person grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus? That's where we are in this passage.

Today I'm wrapping up a three-part sermon series on the enemy within in Romans. We looked at Romans 7—fighting the enemy within part one, a couple weeks ago. Today is fighting the enemy within part two. If you've missed some, go back and listen so you can catch up.

Here are my four points, and they all start with the same letter: The Players, the Power, the Pattern, and the Promise.

The Players in the Conflict

We tend to look at life as if the greatest problems we have are outside of us—our circumstances, our struggles, maybe our boss, maybe a significant relationship. We think our greatest problems are external to us. But the Bible tells us the greatest problems you face are on the inside. Just like Luke in the cave with the dark side, the greatest problems you face are internal to yourself.

Jesus told a parable about how we're like a person who can easily see the speck in someone else's eye while not noticing the gigantic plank of wood sticking out of our own eye. So we think, "My greatest problem is you." But the truth is, my greatest problem is me.

That's what Luke finds out in the cave. That's what we find out as believers from Romans 7 and 8. And I want to highlight this for you because when Paul describes the conflict of your life, he describes a conflict between flesh and spirit. And I know those are confusing terms. Those are not terms that we use all the time. And so I want to make sure we're all on the same page.

This is not a conflict that every person faces. Maybe some of you took psychology classes in high school or college, and you learned about Sigmund Freud and about the id and the superego and those being mediated by the ego so a person matures into adulthood—that is not what we're describing here. This isn't a baptized version of Freudian psychology. This is a specific battle, a conflict that Christians face. And here's how I know that: because Paul is writing this book to Christians. Romans—in fact, not really a book, it's really a letter. And even though it reads like a theological treatise, it is a letter written to Christians, and it starts in the very first chapter, first verse: "to the saints at Rome." He's writing this to brothers and sisters like us, and it's saying, there are two modes that you have. If you are a follower of Jesus, if you believe in Jesus, there are two modes that you have that you can live out of. You can live out of spirit or you can live out of flesh.

Now again, let me catch this all up. We've had three weeks off of Romans, so let's make sure we're all on the same page. Spirit is a word that we use in our culture—"spirit of the age," "spirit of the Olympics." When he talks about spirit here, he is not talking about being spiritual. He's not talking about spirit as a synonym for soul. He's talking spirit with a capital S—the Holy Spirit, that third member of the Trinity that is fully God. And at conversion, we read in Romans 5, the Holy Spirit is poured into the life of every Christian. Every Christian, if you name Jesus as your Savior, you have the Spirit in you. So that's Spirit.

Spirit is set against flesh. And again, we need to define the terms because the Bible is not speaking here of flesh as body, as bones. Flesh is rather the residue of the old you that is rebellious against God, that doesn't like His Word, doesn't want to do what He says, loves sin, doesn't like obedience. So flesh is opposed to Spirit. The Bible is not anti-body in this. It's talking about an internal condition in us. So flesh against Spirit.

This is the real conflict of your life. If you're like me, I tend to think of the biggest conflicts of my life as things like losing weight, managing my money, resolving conflicts. But what's really clear in Romans is the greatest conflict that you have is internal to you. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is your flesh versus the Holy Spirit. Those two are in conflict with each other. They're two different modes of living, and we have a choice every day—every moment of every day—whether we're going to live according to the flesh or whether we're going to live according to the Spirit. A Christian can live in either one.

The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde

Do you remember, maybe you had to read this in high school, a famous book by Robert Louis Stevenson called The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde? It came out in the 1880s, and it was both a bestseller immediately in England, but also deeply disturbing to the British populace. Because it's the story of Doctor Jekyll, a scientist who discovers one day he can create a serum that, if taken, will transform him into a different version of himself. And he names that different version of himself Mr. Hyde. And Mr. Hyde is characterized by living out every evil impulse that Jekyll has inside of him. So Hyde is cruel, and he's violent, and he's self-centered, and he's mean. And when Jekyll takes in this serum, he doesn't really remember what happens to him. He transforms into Hyde. Hyde does all these violent acts.

Well, over the course of the story, what happens is that Jekyll no longer needs the serum over time to transform. One night, he wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes he had been transformed into Hyde in his sleep. A couple months later, he transforms into Hyde in the middle of the day without wanting to. And he's resolved: "I've gotta stop, I've gotta stop, no more serum, I've gotta stop, I've gotta control Hyde." And what happens over the course of the story is that Jekyll eventually disappears. Hyde is all that's left, and all these acts of violence.

Now that's a helpful story in a couple of ways. I think it's helpful. Robert Louis Stevenson was incidentally the son of a Presbyterian pastor.

I think he was inspired to write this book based on Romans 7, which we read a few weeks ago, where Paul says:

I don't do the things I wanna do, in fact, I keep doing the things I don't wanna do. — Romans 7

He finds there's this thing at work in him, the flesh, that's really powerful. And I think that Stevenson's story here works really well as a cautionary tale to tell us there is a part of you, if you're a Christian, and a part of me, which if given the right circumstances, has the power to just reap all kinds of destruction in your life. There are things in seminal form in every person in this room that have the power to take over and destroy your best relationships, your intentions, your entire life. They have the power to wreck.

But here's where Stevenson is actually wrong. I find his story a little naive because personally, I can testify to this one. I don't need any serum to be in touch with my flesh mode. That's actually as natural to me as getting up out of bed in the morning. It is so easy to live according to the flesh. I don't need any help. I am really good at it.

But the way that this is really helpful is that Stevenson is showing us sin is really dangerous and flesh is really powerful. And we're naive if we think different. There's a writer who speaks of the danger of our sin, and he does so in language which is jolting for us. John Owen says:

Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

And Owen's words sound like, oh, Puritan old guy, he's a little kind of extreme about this. No, no, no. I think John Owen is actually more in touch with his own weakness and the strength of reigning sin in the life of a believer than most of us would be willing to admit. I think he's actually dead on.

How Do You Respond to Sin?

So here's my question for you. How do you respond to your sin? When you see sin coming up out of your life in your best relationships, when you see it and feel like it's taking over, how do you respond?

Let me think of it this way. There are two types of alarms that are common in our experience, but I think we respond to them very differently. Think of the difference between a car alarm and a fire alarm.

Let's say tonight when you go to bed, you're awakened in the middle of the night by one of your neighbor's cars. The car alarm is going off, and it's just going and going. Now, what do you do? Most of us probably don't jump up out of bed concerned that the car is being stolen. We're annoyed, we wanna block out the noise, we may say something not nice about our lousy neighbor and their car alarm. But nobody's reacting for the most part.

Different though with a fire alarm. If a fire alarm wakes you up in your home in the middle of the night, do you put your head over your pillow? You say something about your lousy people in your house who should turn off that alarm? No. No. You jump up out of bed, let's get everybody out. Where is the fire? Is this a real fire? There's a panic that sets in about us in response to that kind of alarm.

Now here's my question. When you see sin in your life, what is your response? Is it car alarm or is it fire alarm?

Far too many of us, included, are sort of car alarm people when it comes to seeing our sin. You know, I hope that'll go away. It's annoying. But we're not really upset and concerned. And here's the thing, this is where Jekyll was wrong and where you and I are wrong. We think we can handle it. We really deep down think, oh, we can manage this? I can control this. No, he couldn't. And many of us think, you know, I can manage this. I can control this in my life. And that, my friends, is deeply naive. We're unaware of how hostile the flesh is and how dangerous sin is.

So we better get to some good news in this passage. We better get to the power, because the power revealed in this passage is the Holy Spirit.

The Good News: The Spirit of God Is in You

Look at this. Here's the good news. The Spirit of God is in you.

For all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. — Romans 8:14

In another place in the New Testament, we read this:

Do you not realize this, that Jesus Christ is in you? — 2 Corinthians 13

And I honestly think most Christians would say, no, not really. Our daily experience does not reflect living out of this deep conviction, this reality that the Spirit of God is in you. I think we would be so much more free from fear, worry, discontent, feeling stuck, struggling. I think that those things would be so true in our lives if only we knew deep down in our bones, the Spirit is in you. The Spirit of God.

You know, if as I talk to people about, hey, why should you become a Christian? I can give you a lot of answers to that.

Become a Christian because Christians can be forgiven by God for our sin. That is great news. Become a Christian because Christians can experience this freedom in a way from guilt and shame that other people don't have resources for. That's great news. But here's my best: become a Christian because the Spirit of God is poured out in your life. I mean, that is profound. There is nothing like that. It means an intimacy which we can never grasp.

So let's just put the cookies on the bottom shelf. How many of us struggle for friendship? We just want to be known. We want someone who really gets us, and we struggle in relationships and friendships to feel like, you know, I really like him, I really like her, but they just miss. You have a forever friend inside of you. How many of us struggle with the sense of, I just feel alone all the time. Even in a crowd, I feel alone. Look, you have the Spirit of God poured into your life.

Romans 5

Poured into your life, never leaving, never forsaking, never pulling back, never hesitating. The Spirit of God with you on that level. That's profound. The Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit is what makes it possible that the God that we read about in scripture can be in charge of the universe and controlling galaxies and upholding everything by the word of His power, and at the same time know exact details and intimate concerns that you have and worries you have and know exactly what's going on in your life. Doesn't that blow your mind? How can He be in both places? Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is the answer to that.

I think the twelve disciples had this opportunity to be beside Jesus. They got to walk with him and talk with him and touch him and eat with him and ask all their questions. I know so many Christians who lament this and say, man, I wish, if I had lived back then, if I just walked with Jesus, I would believe like they believe. I would be one of those strong Christians. Well, the only thing I can think of that's better than Jesus beside you is Jesus inside of you. The Spirit. The Spirit.

The Neglect of the Holy Spirit

Sadly, I think most of us don't know much about the Spirit, maybe don't want to know much about the Spirit. I had a professor in seminary who did a lecture on the Holy Spirit in the Reformed tradition. He handed out a handout for it, and it was a blank piece of paper—sort of a joke. But it landed with me. There are lots of Christians who, having seen some abuses with regard to language and activities surrounding the Holy Spirit, some parts of the church are like, I don't really want to know. I don't really have any confidence. I don't really have anything to do with the Spirit. And that is to our incredible poverty. That is such a loss.

The Holy Spirit is not the redheaded stepchild of the Trinity. I know I'm not supposed to say that. I don't care. Look, the reason why maybe the Spirit seems less known is it's the Spirit's job to be less known. The Spirit's job is to promote Christ, throw light on the work of Christ, throw light on what He's done, apply that to the life of a believer. So for many people, they're like, I don't really know that much about the Spirit.

Listen to what Sinclair Ferguson says: "Having the Holy Spirit means nothing less than having incarnate, obedient, crucified, resurrected, ascended, reigning Lord within you wherever you go." Even those people who in our Christian family are most likely to speak of asking Jesus into your heart—this just doesn't land enough. We're just not there enough. How different would my life be? How different would your day to day be with a present, living reality, confident of Spirit with you?

Your discouragements, your fears, your doubts, your guilt, your shame. See, this means, as the old confession says, you are not your own. You belong body and soul to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the bond that connects Jesus to us. Without the Spirit, the death and resurrection of Jesus—great story—has nothing to do with me. The Spirit is what applies the work of Jesus to my life. The Spirit is the only power strong enough to defeat the flesh. The only power strong enough.

And that is good news to people like me and like you who are struggling with sin in our lives. I mean, isn't the first part really sad if we don't have the Spirit? The player's flesh and spirit—it just sounds like two superheroes battling it out. Spirit is so powerful. And therefore, since we've talked about the players in the conflict—flesh and spirit—the real power to defeat the flesh, which is the Holy Spirit. Let's talk about the pattern then, the pattern of sanctification.

So how does God transform over time people like me so that what is declared over my life in my justification becomes true in my daily living every day, and I look more and more like Jesus? Here's what it is. That's called sanctification, and it can be summed up in one little phrase: become what you already are. Become what you already are in Jesus.

And this is how this works. Romans gives us a great picture of it, but it's a repeated pattern. So here's the Romans pattern. Romans 8 shows us this. Verse 1: no condemnation. You are declared righteous. You're justified in his sight. Then verse 9: you're given the Holy Spirit as a permanent possession.

Therefore, two things that you do. That's what God does. God declares you righteous. He gives you His spirit. Two things that you do: you set your mind on things of the spirit—that's the mind—and you submit yourself so that you kill sin in your life. That's about your will.

This is a repeated pattern in the New Testament. Let me show you. Ephesians starts out talking about how we are set free. We're made alive in Christ. We're given the spirit, and then goes on to say:

Therefore, in reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self, being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self in the likeness of God being created for righteousness. — Ephesians

Colossians says this: Hey, you have a new identity, you're alive in Christ, you've been given the Holy Spirit, therefore set your mind on what things that are above, and put off things that are in keeping with the old nature, put on things in keeping with the new one—the will.

Galatians says the same thing. New identity, new power in the spirit. Therefore, stand firm, and those who belong to Jesus Christ will crucify the flesh and its desires.

This is the New Testament pattern. Over and over again, the New Testament says: you want to know how you grow as a Christian? How do you come into conformity with Jesus? It is first what God has done—justified in Him and then given His spirit. And then two things that we do: setting our mind, something that involves the mind, and then responding with our will.

A couple weeks ago, we talked about the mind. We talked about how, because we have the mind of Christ, we can set our mind now on things that are in accordance with his spirit. That means when things come up in your life, when you're overwhelmed with worry, you hear the old voice. You should be freaking out right now. You should be overwhelmed right now. And you say, wait, wait, that's the old me talking. That's not new me. That's not how God wants me to. That's not what his voice sounds like. He doesn't want me to worry. That's not what he has for me. He's in control of all things. I can trust him as a provider. See, that's setting your mind on things above.

But today, we look at the second part of this: what it means to submit our wills to Christ.

Submit the Will

That's summarized in this phrase about killing sin in your life. When you see sin in your life, when it comes up, we should respond like people who find cockroaches in the kitchen. When you find a cockroach in the kitchen, you're not like, "Oh, there goes a cockroach." You're like, "Yuck. That's nasty. Kill the cockroach. Call pest control. Wipe down all the counters with that antibacterial stuff." You freak out. Nobody's like, "Oh, I love cockroaches."

So this is how we should respond. We're like, "I want that gone. I want that dead. I don't want to manage it. I want the cockroach dead."

Here's the question for us: Do you want sin dead in your life? Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired of the same things? Aren't you overwhelmed like, "Man, I'm so sick of the flesh"? I am.

Listen to these words: put to death. As the old theologians would describe it, John Owen, who I referenced earlier, he called that mortification. Mortify the flesh. Just put it to death. Kill the cockroach. It's a deliberate act of the will.

And I think it's helpful to cite here the parallel in Galatians, because Galatians says, crucify the flesh and its desires. Man, that is a not nice word, but it helps me. Because I sort of want a Jesus quick fix on dealing with ongoing sin in my life. I want three easy steps. Crucify the flesh doesn't sound real fun to me. Do you have a beta version of this Jesus that's got like a fun version of sanctification? No. Because it means—it's helpful for me to know that.

I hope it's helpful for you to know that. Like, crucifying the flesh is painful. It's hard. Think about crucifixion. It is a slow death. It is a gradual death. When we think about crucifying the flesh, we're not like, oh, I'll do that Thursday, and I'll be done by Friday. No, no. Your flesh is a fighter. Man, it is strong. And so like, to make decisions, I'm gonna submit this area of my life to Christ. I've struggled here so long, I've tried to manage, I can't do it. Jesus, come, you better come take over this part. That's gonna require a repeated act of the will to surrender yourself to Him. That's gonna require you to say, Jesus, I need you do this again today, and again today, and again today. It's relentless. You are not gonna strike a fatal blow to your pride or your enemy in the month of January. It's just not gonna happen. But I hear people say stuff like this. They'll say, oh, you know, I'm struggling with pornography, which means I'm looking at it all the time, and I'm not really fighting it. That's what that means. See, do we want this stuff dead? Aren't we tired? Aren't we worn out of this?

Now, some of you are like, wait, wait, wait. Didn't you just say that the spirit is the only thing that can kill the flesh? Now you're telling me this is what I do? Well, I'm glad you asked that question. Thank you. Right, so there are two errors that Christians make in this area. There's the let go and let God camp, and then there's the Nike just do it camp. Okay?

Two Common Errors in Sanctification

So the let go and let God camp are like, okay, yeah. I see stuff in my life, but Jesus knows my address. Whenever he's ready to come fix me, I will lay around and wait for him to come fix me. Just let go and let god and that group misses the command of verse 13.

Kill sin. You. — Romans 8:13

No, no, I'm talking to you. Like, you kill sin. There's an active call in that. The other group, the just do it camp, are like, alright, I'm gonna come up with all kinds of tricks and plans and charts in order to make myself a better Christian. And so this involves things like accountability groups and all kinds of software, things like, you know, all kinds of journaling and all that. All are good things. Do not hear me say they're all bad things. In fact, all those are great tools. But a lot of times, that camp, the just do it camp, ends up defeated and discouraged because they missed the little phrase in verse 13, by the—oh, you guys help me out—spirit. Spirit, right? You can't do that. You can't do it.

So some of you are like, which is it? You know the answer. It's both. This is what is so unique about the language of Romans 8. On the one hand, it's all about the spirit and his power. He is the only one powerful enough to defeat the flesh and to kill sin in us, and he will finish the job. And you hear the language there that makes it sound really passive—led by the spirit, receive the spirit, all language which makes me sound really passive. And yet on the other hand, it says, we have an obligation not to live as debtors to the flesh, but to put sin to death. Sounds really active. And Paul's saying, these two things go together. These two things absolutely go together.

On the one hand, we're passive benefactors. God takes the initiative. We belong to Christ. It's His grace. It's His power, His enabling. On the other hand, we're called to live as people who are like, I wanna follow Him, and that's gonna take decisive acts in my mind and my will. This is why sanctification is by grace and by the spirit, not by law. It's by grace and by spirit, not by willpower, by his power, by harnessing it. Not just do it, I can't change me. But over and over, submitting myself as an act of a will to Jesus.

Now you did this once. If you're a Christian, you've already done this one time. Maybe it was back in 1994 or 2006, and you remember the day, or you remember that season or you remember that year where you're like, this was the time when I came to a realization, I can't handle my sin. Jesus, you take control and you've done that once, but you are not one and done. This is a regular pattern in the Christian life. Jesus, this morning, I need you right here. There's this part of my life which is eating my lunch. Man, I need you right here. I'm submitting this to you again today. And over here, and in my thought life, and in this relationship, I mean, do you see it's a regular act of submitting the will to Him. Jesus, would you come in? I need You to handle this. I need You. I'm submitting myself. I'm holding the flesh down. You can't deliver the death blow spirit. You do this.

Now here's the promise, and this is where I wanna land the plane today. See, we talked about the players in the conflict, the flesh and the spirit. We talked about the power, the Holy Spirit's incredible power. We talked about the pattern, right? We talked about the pattern—new identity, new power, set your mind, release your will.

But here's the promise, and I can't let you out of here without giving you this. In verses 14 through 17, the Spirit will finish the job. He will finish the job.

Now, some of you as you read this have a question, and I know what it is—you're smart people. You look at verse 13 and say, "Bradford, doesn't it say 'if'? Doesn't it say, 'If you live according to the flesh, you'll die. If by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live'?" If, in a lot of our way of speaking, implies a condition. Does this mean we can lose our salvation? It sounds like it.

Here's why I'll tell you no. In this context, "if" can mean conditional, but "if" can also mean "when." Like, "If you heat water to 212 degrees, it will boil." That means that's what water does at 212. When you do that, it boils. In the same way, whether or not we live according to the flesh, the Spirit is proof that we are God's people for real or not.

A person who says, "Yeah, I'm a Christian, but never produces any fruit in keeping with repentance, never submits their will to God"—it's like, "Yeah, I'm in, but not really." That person's not alive spiritually. No matter what they've said at one point in their life, they're not a Christian. A person who is a Christian will, over time, submit themselves to Christ. It's proof that we're alive.

And here's how else I know this—context. The resounding promises of verses 14 through 17 speak so highly and powerfully of the Spirit's ownership of a Christian that doesn't let go. Listen to these things:

The Spirit guarantees that we're sons of God. The Spirit testifies to us that we are His children. The Spirit is not the spirit of slavery that we fall back into patterns before, but the spirit of adoption as sons where we gain an inheritance. — Romans 8:14-17

All incredible promises. The Spirit will finish the job. If you are His, it will be demonstrated to the end.

The Analogy of Growing into Righteousness

Here's an analogy that helps me picture what the Spirit is up to. Imagine a little boy whose dad's at work. He goes into his dad's closet and pulls out his dad's dress shirt and shoes and maybe his coat, and puts them on. He clumps around, stands in front of the mirror, talks like his dad, maybe pulls out the briefcase, acts like dad. The mom comes in and catches him.

In the same way, when you're a Christian, God clothes you in the robes of righteousness of Jesus. You are clothed in Him. Those shoes are put on your feet, that shirt's put on you, that jacket is put on you, and it doesn't come anywhere near fitting. It's how much it doesn't fit. And yet, like that little boy, that little boy will grow over time where he will fit into those clothes. The Spirit's job in your life over time is to grow you into a place where you will fill out that shirt. You will come into the family resemblance. You will look like Jesus over time, more and more as you grow.

You know, we have six sons, and a lot of people in our church don't know all our kids' names or know who they are. Occasionally someone may say, "Oh, wait, I think you're a Bradford, aren't you?"—and they don't know that—but they can tell by the family resemblance. They could tell because we talk the same, we carry our bodies the same way, we laugh the same way. We have the family resemblance. We look the same in different ways.

In the same way, the Spirit is growing us more and more over time so that we look like Jesus. That is His purpose. That is what He is up to in your life. And what we do in sanctification is agree with that and yield ourselves more and more to that. Man, that is so encouraging. Praise God that He's up to that.

A Call to Gracious Community

Can we therefore be a type of gracious community with each other that knows that everybody's in process? When we look at other people in our church, when you look at other people who name the name of Jesus in other churches and denominations and religious leaders—can we think the best? Can we know like, "Man, I am so much in process. I'm a little kid wearing a big shirt. God has so much work to do in my life"?

Our battle lines are so different from your battle lines. All of us are dealing with a battle with flesh and spirit, and all of those different battles are unique to who you are. Can we therefore learn to be gracious with each other?

In 2015 at the ACC tournament, there's a guy named Scott Park who won an all-expense-paid trip for a chance to shoot a half-court shot for a million dollars. Scott took that shot during a state game—y'all remember this—and it went viral. Not only was it an air ball, it was a nowhere-near-the-hoop air ball. It was pitiful. 5,000,000 views on that vine that weekend.

Well, after that, one of Scott's friends called ESPN and said, "You don't know this, but Scott has a rare blood condition that only four hundred people in the world have. It's a degenerative condition called catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome, which means his muscles are breaking down. That's why he can't shoot a ball."

The reporter took that information back and said, "We got a problem." They went back and filmed a new video with Scott Park where he tells his story. It's an E60 story—you can look it up when you get home. But it's such a great picture for me. It's such a great lesson in withholding judgment.

Because all of us are in different places. Everyone has a story. And everyone is fighting a battle with flesh, and man, there is not one of us who has arrived. There is not one of us where the spirit's work is just complete.

So can you imagine what it would be like to be part of a church community of people who had that level of graciousness toward one another? People who said, "What we need is compassion and help, not comparison and judgment." If we were that kind of community—not just for one another, but for our city—man, that would smell like Jesus to me.

May God give us grace to become such people and to become such a community. In the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.