Why am I still struggling with sin?

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for Monday, July the 25th. I am mark. I've got a cup of coffee and I am excited about this week because it is lectures week. And in fact it is double lectures week. Let me explain what I mean. Starting with Friday night, July the 29th west side will begin our 28th annual youth lectures. One of the best events of the year, if not our best event of the year, this year, our theme is I believe, and you should too. Jason harden and Kevin Clark are coming to speak Friday night. We start at seven o'clock, Saturday afternoon, Philip Shoemaker and Phil Robertson. We got the double fills on Saturday at beginning at one. And then on Sunday, Daniel Lee will preach. He'll be breakout sessions and classes during our Bible class hour. And I get to finish the lectures again this year with my lesson. I believe in hope. Our theme this year is exactly that I believe. And our speakers are coming to talk with you about the things they believe deeply in that will help you. And by you, I don't just mean young people come and be part of the west side youth lectures, but I said it's double lectures week. Why is it double lectures week? Well that's because of the coffee cup that I'm holding the coffee cup, I'm holding says be good and do good. And on the other side, it says, balancing the Christian life. This coffee cup comes from Kenny Emery's podcast, the balancing the Christian life podcast, wonderful, wonderful podcast. And Kenny has put together an online lectureship. It's an online lectureship, a special app is being used for that, so that there can be Q and a and all kinds of good things going on in the lectureship. And I am blessed with the opportunity and the privilege to speak Thursday night in that lectureship. If you have questions about that, if you'd be interested, there are more than 40 speakers. There's a bunch of different tracks, there's all kinds of stuff going on and you get into that lecture ship. There's a slight charge for that, with that software and so forth. And so on. You get into that. You have access to all of that and you can listen when you want to listen to that. So it will not conflict with the west side youth lectures, but there's just a ton of great stuff going on there. Balancing the Christian life.com is where you can get more information about that. I'll probably put some stuff about that on my Facebook page as well. I'm pleased to get the opportunity to talk about leadership. I think that's a huge area for the church today. Lots needs to be done in that area. I'm going to address that from the word of God. On Thursday night, lots of other guys talking on the leadership track, lots of guys working on Colossians. It was a woman's track. There's just a ton of great stuff going on. Balancing the Christian life.com Westside youth lectures, what a week we are about to have it is happening, but what's happening right now is a look back over my shoulder at what we talked about yesterday. Why, why am I still struggling with sin? Let's get some sermon notes and get some of that momentum from yesterday and shove it into the start of our week. Ready for that. Let's get started. One of the things I love about the podcast is I am able to give you some additional material that did not make the final cut and get into the pulpit with me. And I'm also able to give you a little behind the scenes to help you understand some of the thinking what's going on, what I'm going for. When I am preaching a particular lesson, I can do that here. I had a friend of mine who heard the sermon two weeks ago on killing sin and thought that was helpful and very important and the kind of material that we need to cover, but he wanted to know, okay, how come we can't just get it all killed? How, how come we still struggle with sin? And he asked me to talk about that and to think about that some, and so I looked at our Bible reading and here we come to Romans chapter seven and Paul is talking about struggles. As I said yesterday, I'm not really convinced that that is a picture of his Christian life, but at least he is talking about wanting to do right. Not able to do that. He is struggling there. And so it just seemed like a great place to come back and say, Hey, we talked about killing sin, but here are some things that we need to know as we try to do that and why we don't always get, if I can borrow from the killing sin sermon, where I talked about fire ants, we don't always get all the fire end mans out of the backyard. What's going on with some of that. And I really think it's important that we all just underline in our mind's eye in our hearts. The problem here more than likely is not, not that we aren't trying hard enough. I think that's where a ton of people land in this and they beat themselves up and they feel bad and they have all kinds of emotional issues about their Christianity because they are redlining it and they're not getting where they wanna get. And it is important for us to see that the Bible, while the Bible does talk about our need for diligence and some of the, it really doesn't say, you know what? Your problem is. You just need to give 110%. Why, why are you not just maxing it out? And then max out even some more, more, more, more is not the answer biblically and as well. The answer biblically is not well. We just can't, we're, we're just effective. We're born to pray. That's Calvinism. That's just wrong from about 19 different standpoints. And so sometimes that leads people to just kind of give up, they shrug your shoulders and say, I send you sin. We all sin. I, you know, I'm just human. And, and so we just kind of accept it. No, we're, we're not gonna accept it. What are we gonna do? We're gonna work to kill sin, talked about that two weeks ago. And as we continue to struggle, what can we do? We can avoid extremes. We can avoid pushing this to one end or the other, this idea that, you know, if I tried harder, I, I just wouldn't have to sin. We don't have to sin or pushing to the other extreme. I just send all the time. So I'm just gonna kind of give up on that. That either side of that has created a lot of problems and all kinds of fussing. And that's really something that the Bible does not address. The Bible does not talk about some kind of academic or esoteric answer, some sort of philosophical or hypothetical situation. This is what could happen. We live in reality. And the reality is we do not have to sin, but we do. And what we have to do then is deal with the reality. And the Bible understands that tension. We talked about that from first John and from Galatians five and, and just, it's important to see that God's word understands that Christians are going to be frustrated and that Christians are going to seek to eliminate sin from their lives and find many times they're not able to completely do that. So what we can do then is we, first and foremost, we should eliminate persistence in if you're falling into the same sin over and over again, there there's a problem here. Something is seriously wrong. That's not where Christians are. Well, that is really good coffee. And the coffee is kind of older that I just made. And so maybe this balancing, the Christian life mug is making, is it making bad coffee at a good coffee? I kinda like that idea. Um, so we just don't wanna keep on in the same old sins. Mostly what we want to do is grow our relationship to God. We want to grow in our relationship to God. The answer, and we're seeing this in our daily operating in Romans is not more rules and regulations. That oftentimes is our response. We will just outlaw sin by making more rules against it. And of course nobody's ever successfully been able to do that. Holiness real purity begins when we start thinking about how to please and honor God even more than we think about, I don't wanna get caught. And I don't wanna go to hell. Not wanting to go to hell is fine. Motivation, spiritual. I should, I should be clear about that. So nice people will come up to me and say, you know, I'm operating mostly because I, I don't wanna go to hell. There's a reason. All that stuff is in the Bible. There's a reason the Bible talks about hell. The reason there's a reason that stuff is terrifying. There's a reason I preached on that last Sunday when we talked about death and that I could go to hell and that is somber and sobering and it ought to be, but we wanna grow. We wanna grow past that. We wanna grow beyond that. The reason I don't mistreat D is not because I'm afraid she's gonna divorce me. The reason I don't mistreat D is because I love her and want to honor her. And I want our relationship to grow better and stronger all the time. So then as well, yesterday, we talked a little bit about how our sensitivity descend really. That's a sign of growth. The fact that we're bothered by the fire amp, mounds that crop up in our backyard that says something about our level of care, our level of concern. And that's a good thing. We are worried about holiness because we want to please God, which then finally leads to the idea that what we really ought to do is shoot for the stars. But don't give up when you don't reach'em, we're gonna try to live above sin without sin in complete holiness. We are, we're gonna try for that. That's what we desire, but we're not gonna become disco, consulate and discouraged. When we don't reach that goal, we're gonna have to hold those things in tension. And we're gonna have to do both of those things at the same time. I want to do everything that God wants me to do all the time. Every time perfectly. Yes, I really do. But I recognize that many times I'm not gonna get there many times. I'm not gonna get there, but that doesn't keep me from trying, praying, wanting, developing my relationship with God so that I can be deeper and a better and stronger Christian, but I'm not going to allow failure to cause me to decide to quit. And, and maybe the, the place to finish all of that is out of first John three. And I read the first John three passage last week. And I'm glad to get the chance to read it again on the podcast, because I love what this says about eternity and what this means for our walk with God, as we look forward to heaven. And, and this is a good place for me to say, I, I didn't get a chance to say this in the pulpit last week when I was talking about, don't forget to die, can't say everything about everything. You have to say something for the podcast. Uh, I, I really struggle with people have a very materialistic viewpoint of heaven. I'm I'm gonna get to heaven and I'm gonna golf and get a hold in one every time. I don't know. Does that mean you shoot 18? I, I wear you with that. I'm you always gonna catch fish or just, everything's just gonna be, it's gonna be this great retirement home in the sky. And, and I'm just gonna have all this stuff and my life is gonna be amazing. And, and that's what heaven's all about. The, the Bible never, never says anything like that. What the Bible says is first John three, verse two, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. That is our hope and prayer. We want to be like Christ. I'm not like Christ every day. I need to do a better job of that. I'm trying to do a better job of that. And yet I'm still not like Christ every day. But when I get to heaven, that struggle will be over. That empowers me and strengthens me. Now, first, John, three, three, everyone who has this hope, everyone who and, oh, I can't even read. Try again, mark everyone who thus hopes in him. There it is everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. I realize I'm not gonna get there, but I'm doing everything that I can because I have this hope. That's what I'm looking for. And I like that verse a lot, because Sunday in the lectures, I get to talk about hope. And I think that's, what's missing from so many young people's lives. I think that's, what's missing from nearly everybody's life. Today. We live in such a hopeless society. Don't let your struggles with sin cause you to be hope less, be hope, full, hope full that you are in fact, going to make it to heaven where you will finally be like Christ. Isn't that amazing to think about? That is just wonderful. If somebody says, you know, I don't feel worthy of that. The reason you don't feel worthy of that is because, because we're not. And that's where God's amazing. Grace comes in. Hope. That's helpful to, you really have loved developing both of those ideas. Let's kill sin. Even as we sometimes continue to struggle with sin. I hope those both of those sermons were of value to you. And I think that's gonna dovetail pretty nicely with what Paul wants to talk about in Romans chapter eight, where we are starting our Bible reading this week, grab your Bible. Let's go to Romans eight. We are reading Romans chapter eight today for Monday, of course not the entire chapter today's reading is Romans eight versus one to eight. It'll take us four days to read this chapter. It is a monster of a chapter. Lots is going on here. And I do think sometimes that we get a little intimidated by Romans chapter eight. Everybody loves that in section, but the stuff that comes in front of it, we would like maybe to ignore that a little bit, because because of a couple of reasons, first and foremost, this does deal with the holy spirit. And there are very few topics. It seems that make us any more nervous than the holy spirit that comes because we've seen so many outrageous abuses of the holy spirit and teachings about the holy spirit. And we don't wanna be part of that. We don't want to be seen as part of that or anybody to misconstrue what we're saying. That we're part of that. Unfortunately, I think sometimes that's caused me personally to just be really reluctant to say anything about the holy spirit or every time I say anything about the holy spirit. I have to stop off and issue five pages of fine print and disclaimers. I'm trying to stop doing that. We have to talk about the holy spirit here because Paul talks about the holy spirit. He has only used that term five times up until now, and he will only use it about eight times after this, but in this chapter 21 times, Paul talks about the holy spirit and Paul doesn't have to stop off and say all kinds of things about this doesn't mean this or this doesn't mean that. And so I'm gonna just try to let Paul talk about the spirit. I think that would probably be my best choice here. Usually letting the Bible speak works out pretty good, doesn't it? That's sad. It's not even always clear if it's the holy spirit or man's spirit. Paul does not write with a capitals for holy spirit in a small lowercase as for your spirit and my spirit. That's not how the Bible was originally written. In fact, of course it was written in all capitals. That's how new Testament manuscripts were written. Everything was capitalized. So you can't go through, even if we had the original autograph that Paul wrote of Romans, you couldn't go through it and, and be able to comb out from that where he means the holy spirit and where he means mans spirit. We'll have to do that by careful study with the context. And it's probably good here for us to be reminded that one of the expectations in the last days in the time of the Messiah was that the holy spirit would be universally available in the old Testament. The spirit came on select individuals, but in Joel two, the passage that Peter makes use of on the day of Pentecost and acts to everyone who will follow after God is promised the holy spirit. That's an important thing for us to remember as Paul writes here in Romans eight, the other key, and maybe the other reason why we struggle with Romans eight is we forget how this goes with the message of Romans. Romans is about a church that is dividing. That's having some problems and I've really emphasized a lot. We need to see the Wes and the S's and the alls and see how Paul is saying. All of you are sinners and all of you are saved the same way and all, all, all, all all. Well, I think part of the problem here is that Jewish Christians are saying that if the Gentile, Christians are not held by the law, if they're not brought under the law of Moses, there is going to be an outbreak of wickedness. These folks, they don't know how to act. They don't know what to do. They're gonna end up sending, sending, sending Paul. They have to have something to check that. And Paul has said effectively in Roman seven, that law doesn't do that. Law. Doesn't check sin. You can't. I love using this expression. You can't outlaw sin that isn't gonna fly, that won't work. And I've talked about that in the sermon on Sunday, when we talk about struggling with sin, and I'm talking about that now from Romans eight, because the answer is to build a relationship with God in the spirit. And that's our reading for today, Romans eight, there is no condemnation verse one for those who are in Christ, Jesus for the law of the spirit of life has set. You free our relationship with God. When we have the holy spirit dwelling within us, is what will enable us to have the kind of walk that we really want to have. And I should say here, when we start talking about the enduring of the holy spirit, there's some different ideas about that. Some would say that that just means for the holy spirit to control us through the word of God and as the word of God lives in us. And as we take that in, then we are able by that to make right choices and do right things. And, and to be what God wants us to be. I, I would have to say that I used to be very much a fan of that. And I, and I certainly think without any question that the word of God is the holy Spirit's chief instrument to operate in our lives. However, I'm not as content with limiting the enjoying of the holy spirit solely to the role and influence of scripture in our lives. And, and there's a couple reasons for that. One of which is that is kind of to fall back to the law thing that Paul has talked about in Romans chapter seven, there was a written law that wasn't checking sin. That wasn't enough. And furthermore, what then is Joel promising that we're gonna have more of something better, something greater in Christ in the kingdom? The spirit is going to be available, not just the written revelation. Again, Jewish people had a written revelation there there's something more. And I think as we read through Roman's eight, and I, I think as you look at that in some other text, as, as we've been journeying along in the new Testament, and Paul talks about the spirit dwelling in us in first Corinthians, for example, in other places, there's more to it than just reading your Bible. This has to do with a living relationship with God. And that in some sense, the holy spirit is dwelling within us. And I'm, you know, I just right here, I'm ready to issue all kinds of caveats. What that does not mean. I stop, stop, stop. I need to stop. You know, I don't believe, and I'm not teaching any kind of Pentecostal charismatic that's craziness. We're, we're not going there. But clearly Paul expects that the spirit can help us do some things that the law can't do for those who live according to the flesh, verse five, set their minds on the flesh. Those who live according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit, because the spirit is life and peace. Those who are in the flesh, can't please, God, tomorrow's reading Romans eight, nine. You however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you. So I borrowed a little bit from Tuesday's reading, but it just seems to me to say that there is something that God is doing for us and in us and through us, by his spirit that helps us. And Paul points to that as we think about where are we with sin? And Paul's answer to these Jewish, Christians is your Gentile brothers have the spirit of God and the spirit of God as they walk in the spirit. And as they develop their relationship with God, as they depend upon God, more, they will grow the fruit of the spirit in their lives, not the works of the flesh. That's a little bit of Galatians right there. They will be able to serve God by the power of the holy spirit. And I think that's what Paul is pushing for here. We'll see more of that tomorrow. I'll see you on Tuesday. It is Tuesday and we're reading from Romans chapter eight versus nine to 17. And this is where Paul really sounds out the joys and wonders of the spirit of God dwelling in us and leading us. And in fact, as we're looking along here, notice verse 10, if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. There's some ties there to Roman six to that new life in Christ. That's all going together for Paul. One writer said, however, we look at verse 10, whether the spirit there is the holy spirit or your spirit, probably I, I think maybe the holy Spirit's probably a better explanation in verse 10, but either way, this writer said the holy spirit is the source of our power over sin and our ability to stand against its attacks. That is Paul's main point. And that is exactly right. I do think sometimes we're thrown a little bit by this word in DWT. And I think maybe if we saw the word relationship that would help us remember to be in dwelt by sin. If you look at chapter seven and verse 17, it is no longer I who do it, but sand that dwells within me. What did that mean? That means that there is a relationship to sin. Sin is domineering. Sin is taking control. Sin is the one that is in charge. We wanna put the holy spirit in charge. We want the holy spirit to lead us. We want the holy spirit to dominate us. We want our relationship with God to be what is controlling us. We don't wanna be in the flesh verse 12, living according to the flesh means you just die. Verse 13, you die spiritually. Instead we wanna live in the spirit. We wanna be led by the spirit verse 14. And when you look at that, notice here that all this emphasis on the end dwelling spirit and how the end dualing spirit can help us. And we, we should be led by the spirit. All of that, certainly doesn't in any way, say that having the holy spirit, it makes you a puppet or that it's automatic and, and you just overcome every sentence over, oh, I'm spirit led. And so now I can never sin again. No, that's not the case at all. Instead, we have to seek the things of the spirit. We have to want the spirit. We have to invite the spirit to come and control us. And, and of course the chief way that we do that is by looking at the word of God, how else would we know what God's will is this isn't some better felt than told thing, but this is a yielding to God's way, a desire to be a child of God, to be adopted the spirit of adoption verse 15, and the spirit bears witness this isn't hunches or inward voices. But particularly this is the Spirit's tool. The word of God telling us what, what a child of God looks like, how a child of God acts, what we should be doing. And then I look at that standard and I compare myself to the word of God. And then I can know whether or not I'm a child of God. And if I am a child, then I'm an heir HES. That that's a word. That just means that there's a great inheritance coming. We don't have it all yet. Errors are gonna get, but they have not received everything yet, but there is assurance. There, there is assurance there that everything is gonna be okay. We are children and we are going to receive a great inheritance. And Paul will jump from that to talk about assurance beginning in verse 18, and the wonders that wait for the people of God. Welcome to Wednesday today, we will read in Romans chapter eight versus 18 to 28. So even though we are heirs, we still suffer. What's the deal with that? How do we understand that suffering before we deal with daily Bible reading? Let me just say a word about tonight's lesson. Tristan Genarro is coming from Tyler, Texas. And he's going to talk about insecurity, how that fits so well with our daily Bible reading. Tristan, tell us a little bit more please, about your sermon tonight.

Hi, I'm Tristan Gero and I'll be with you tonight. Preaching on Satan's tool of insecurity. Now you and I might not think that insecurity is a big deal, but we're going to look at king Saul, and we're going to see how Satan used his insecurities to drag him into all kinds of sin. So as you and I seek to follow Christ, we need to find security in God or else Satan will use our insecurities against us to undermine and destroy our faith.

That sounds marvelous. And I am looking forward to hearing Tristan speak this evening. Let's give our attention to our Bible reading then from Romans chapter eight, this is verse 18 to 28. And here Paul talks at length about how creation is groaning and waiting. The idea then is as creation has been subject to sin. And so as a result is broken and not what it ought to be. Then as creation is waiting for final redemption. So Christians are as well that's verse 19 creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God for creation was subjected verse 22 futility, not willingly, but because of him subjected it in hope. So, Adam and Eve not only hurt themselves in their sin. You remember from Genesis, the third chapter nature was cursed. Things were changed. Things were different after what they did. This is by the way, a big idea in Jewish writing between Malachi and Matthew. Now that writing is not scripture, but it does inform us about expectations and people's thought patterns and what they thought and were working with. And the idea is that sinful man really can't develop creation to its fullest purpose because their sin in the world, the world is broken. It's not what it could be or what it should be. So we have some hope here is that not only will we have an individual relationship with God, I think that's verse 21, but that creation will be renewed. It will be what God means for it to be. And that's not just some kind of fantasy. No, that is something that we are hoping for verse 24. And that we hope for in patience, as we wait in faith that with God's power to renew us and to help us overcome sin, God will also renew all things. And that takes us to verse 28, which is probably the most famous passage out of our section here. At least until we get to this closing climax at the end of Roman chapter eight, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, please don't read that to say that everything works out for the best. That is not what Paul means. And that's actually not what the passage says. The passage just says that God can work with any situation to produce something that is good. Even real tragedies can be used by God to make good. That is different than saying everything is good. Wickedness in this world is not good. School shootings, terrorism, drugs, although that's not good. That's not good at all, but God can still use what he is bad to bring good about. And maybe I should add here. That's probably not the passage you want to go and flog somebody with when they're in the middle of a real crisis or in the middle of terrible adversity. Oh, Hey, God's gonna do something great here. So isn't it marvelous that you had this terrible, terrible thing happen in your no, don't do that. Don't do that. That's outside of the context where Paul Paul isn't writing to somebody who's suffering in a terrible fashion. Romans eight is not written to job. Romans eight is written to a church where Paul is talking about the role of the spirit and how the spirit can cause us to do what's right and help us to do what's right by the power of the spirit. That's why we don't have to be under law. That's really where all of this is going and what Paul is developing. And then he will finish that thought by saying, with God being for us, we can get there. We can get to that renewed creation, the new heavens and the new earth. We can be the people of God. We can be children of God. We can receive the inheritance that as HES we want to receive, that is tomorrow's reading where Paul sounds the note of comfort and assurance because we walk in the spirit because of what Jesus has done, because God is for us. Christians can, can in fact walk with the Lord and please him. What a great way to finish this little section. And we'll finish that tomorrow. See you on Thursday. It is Thursday and we're reading Romans eight versus 31 to 39. This is an amazing section of scripture. It's kind of like Paul after teaching and preaching. So very much finally says let's stand and sing. And the real key here is the faithfulness of God. We can meet problems with courage. If we can remember that, God is for us. The capstone of this, the foundation of this is the goodness of God. And I think that is probably what most Christians who don't have assurance are missing. They don't think God is for them. It is as if God is standing at the gates of heaven, shouting down to hell to the devil. Can you get busy and get on this? Some people are sneaking through and actually getting into heaven. Do you believe that about God? Oh my, that is bla for me, God forbid, he gave his son, God wants you. God wants me so much to come to heaven. He's doing everything he can. And then some to get you and me there, people pose all these hypotheticals where it just sounds like God is gonna throw them out at home plate and just by a fraction of an inch and God's gonna grid and say, ha, I thought you were gonna make it. But I see that you're out of there. And that isn't God, and that's not the God of Romans 8 30, 1 to 39. God is for us. God is for us. God is good. And this chapter, this ending of this chapter says that like no other part of the Bible read Romans eight, read it again and again and again, and then read it some more until you believe God wants me to go to heaven. God is for me. And because of that, I can get there. That's what Romans eight is about today. Let's read that and let's be assured by it. See you tomorrow. It is Friday. It is youth lectures day. A ton of stuff is going on today. I can't wait for the lectures to start so much happening. Let's get our Bible reading done and start loading it up and getting ready to go to church tonight for our youth lectures. Romans nine is where we are. This is Romans nine one to nine. I, I should have figured out some way to chop Romans eight into five sections so that we just read that chapter for the week, because this really begins a whole new section. This doesn't tie to Romans eight. This begins a new section in the book of Romans, Romans nine, 10 and 11, where Paul is dealing with surprise, surprise division in the church at Rome. And some of that division is coming because Gentiles are feeling superior to Jews. It seems some Gentiles are getting a little bit uppity about their place in the kingdom. It would be only natural, maybe for them to feel that way because by and large in the main Jews are not turning to Christ. Jews are not becoming Christians. They rejected Jesus when he was here and in the main they're still rejecting Jesus. So it would be, it would be not surprising that there would be some Gentiles who would be thinking, you know, God is all done with you Jews, and you're not worth the whole lot. And it's all about us now. And you just kind of need to get out of the way. And it's it's us, us, us, and not you, not you at all. And in Romans nine, 10 and 11, Paul does some things to help Gentiles understand more clearly where they fit to help Jews remember where they fit and for them to have harmony in the kingdom of God that begins in Romans nine, verse one, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the holy spirit that I have great sorrow and UNES anguish in my heart. There's your one, a question. Your one, a question is how is Paul feeling? What is the emotional mood and temperature when he writes this in Romans nine, two tells you everything you need to know about that. In fact, if that's not enough, try Romans nine, three, where he says, I could wish myself a cursed and cut off on Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsman, according to the flesh, it hurts Paul so much that Gentiles I'm dropping stuff. You may be able to hear stuff banging on the floor here, all kinds of stuff, just slid off on my desk. What a complete catastrophe is happening is I'm trying to record you some podcast stuff. Paul here says Paul here says, I, I, I would be willing to be cut off. If it would help the Jewish nation come to Christ. That is a powerful and strong statement. I, I, I can't say that. I, I, I'm not willing to be a cursed that some other group of people who don't want God who don't want Christ would come to him, but that is how strong Paul feels about this. They are the Israelites verse four. There are so many advantages, so many great things happen because you are an Israelite. The adoption glory, NCE verse four, giving of the law, the patriarchs verse five. Wow. And it's not that the word of God failed. Don't blame God, verse six. That's not the problem at all. The problem is these folks didn't want God. They didn't want God's way. They didn't want God's Messiah. They were stubborn and determined to have things their own way. The result of that verse seven is that not everybody who claims to be a child of Abraham is a child of Abraham. And you need to underline that. Not all are children of Abraham, because they are his offspring. You need to underline that and hold onto that. There'll be some stuff in nine, 10 and 11 that causes people, some real connection fits because they are just absolutely certain that Paul is going to end up saying that eventually all the Jews are gonna come around and that the physical nation of Israel will accept Jesus Christ. The Messiah, there's gonna be signs and wonders or something incredible, or there's gonna be Armageddon or there's something, something, something is gonna happen. That's gonna result in every Jewish person, physical Jew, turning to Jesus, the Christ. And that isn't what Paul is saying. That is not what Paul is teaching. That is not what is we're gonna see in Romans nine, 10 and 11. What we're going to see is that all who are true, Jews are going to turn to Christ. All the people have a heart for God. All the people who wanna do what's right. All who are Jews inwardly. Remember Romans two Gentiles can be children of Abraham. Paul said in Romans two, and now he is developing that idea further in Romans nine, be a true child of Abraham by being softhearted and responding to the word of God. That is what's happening. There's two different ways to use the term Israel or Jew or child of Abraham, fleshly and spiritual. You want to be a spiritual Israelite. That's what Paul is driving at. That's where those Gentiles are. And that's why some Jews are not serving God. They're not really children of Abraham. Oh, fleshly from the fleshly side of things, you know, you run out their family tree. Sure, sure, sure. They're they're related to Abraham. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Paul understands that, but they're not really of Abraham. Mm-hmm no, they're not like Abraham. Ready to be saved by faith. That's what he wants to develop. We'll see more of that next week. Well, thanks for reading the Bible with me. Thanks for being part of this Romans reading. And this year with Paul, it's really been a blessing to me and putting together the podcast, even as I'm dropping everything, I did not spill coffee. That's the thing that matters the most. Uh, all of that, all of this really helps me really helps me. You know, there's something about learning something, reading something, seeing something, well, you have to teach it. That makes a difference. That just takes it up to another level. So I appreciate you giving me an opportunity to think through this and to have the opportunity to talk about it with you over a cup of coffee. I hope to see you tonight at the youth lectures tonight, we start at seven tomorrow. Saturday, we start at one Sunday, our regular time. See the website for more information. Yes. We're streaming all of that, but it'll be better if you're there in person. So let me finish up. Thanks for listening. Hope that if you're liking the Monday morning coffee podcast, you'll follow or subscribe you'll rate and review it that helps other people find the show. Best thing you can do is tell somebody, Hey, I listen to this and it really helps me. I think it would listen to you. There's nothing like I think it would help you if you will listen to it is what you need to say. And there is nothing quite like word of mouth advertising. So until next time, may your coffee be delightful? I hope your Friday is gonna be amazing. Cuz if you go to the lectures, it will be. And may the Lord bless you today? All day, I will see you on Monday morning with a cup of coffee.

Thanks for listening to the Westside church of Christ podcast. Monday Morning Coffee with Mark. For more information about west side, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat dot IO that's upbeat with two P'S, U PP B E AT, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with us. And we look to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday,