SERMON

Living in the Spirit

Romans 8:13-17

Pastor Robyn Hogue May 31, 2015 Skyline Presbyterian Church

A hitchhiker was trying to get a ride one night in Los Angles. A car pulled over to pick him up. When the hitchhiker got into the car he saw the face of the driver and recognized him. The driver was film star Michael Douglas! The hitchhiker was shocked and all he could think to say to Michael Douglas was, “Do you know who you are?”   

 “When I found that . . . I was a child of God,” Maya Angelou once told an interviewer, “when I understood that, when I comprehended that . . . when I internalized that, I became courageous. I dared to do anything that was a good thing.” That’s a wonderful statement, isn’t it? “When I found that . . . I was a child of God . . . I became courageous. I dared to do anything that was a good thing.” If you truly come to believe that you are a child of God, it will change your life.

Let me give you an example: In January 1921 George Washington Carver was brought to Washington, D.C., to describe his work with the lowly peanut to the Congressional Ways and Means Committee. He was not prepared for the disrespect he was shown as a person of color by some men in that committee hearing. In 1921 there was far less restraint on the part of persons who were openly racist in their language. It was almost enough to cause George Washington Carver to turn around and go back home. But Dr. Carver had a deep faith in God. As he wrote in his autobiography, “Whatever they said of me, I knew that I was a child of God, and so I said to myself inwardly, ‘Almighty God, let me carry out Your will.’”

When Dr. Carver got to the podium he was told that he had twenty minutes to speak. He opened up his display case and began to explain his project . . . So engaging was his discussion that those twenty minutes went all too quickly and the chairman rose and asked for an extension so Carver could continue his presentation, which he did for an hour and three quarters. They voted him four more extensions so he spoke for several hours. At the end of his talk they all stood up and gave him a long round of applause. And all because he knew who he was and because he refused to be defined by the labels of his culture.” George Washington Carver knew who he was. He was a child of God. It is a powerful thing when a person discovers that he or she is a child of God.    

Paul writes in Romans 8, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 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. And by the Spirit we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” 

We need to know that we are not simply the children of an impersonal universe. We are the children of a loving God. There will never come a time when God will ever stop loving you. Even if you are prone to wander far, far away, God’s love for you is secure. Being a child of God is a permanent relationship. We say that our love for our own children, if we are so blessed, will never end. Imagine how much love God is capable of. It is so much that John declared in one of his epistles, “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Love defines God’s very nature. This is a profound truth.

As many of you know, among the fastest growing Christian churches in the world today is the church in China. Pastor Chin once told about a new convert who came to see him in deep distress. The new convert said, “No matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot seem to be faithful to my Lord. I think I’m losing my salvation.”

With much wisdom, Rev. Chin pointed to the family dog nearby and said, “Do you see this dog? He is my dog. He is house-trained; he never makes a mess; he is obedient; he is a pure delight to me. Out in the kitchen I have a son, a baby son. He makes a mess. He throws his food around. He fouls his clothes. He is a total mess. But who is going to inherit my kingdom? Not my dog; my son is my heir. You are Jesus Christ’s heir because it is for you that He died.” Pastor Chin, of course, was referring to this passage in Romans: “The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ . . .”

I’m thinking that among the biggest problem in many peoples’ lives today is that they do not know who they are. Their true identity is a mystery to them. It’s like the story of a man who approached another man in a restaurant. With a broad smile he said, “John! It’s so good to see you! You’re looking great. You’ve lost some weight, haven’t you?”

The other man said, “Look buddy, I think you have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Sam.”    

The first man paused for a moment and then said, “Why isn’t that great? And you’ve changed your name, too!”

It is clearly a case of mistaken identity. There are many people guilty of mistaken identity, and it is their own identity they are mistaken about. They don’t know who they are, and when that happens, they assume identities that are a poor substitute for their real identity.

Let me offer another illustration. This one comes from the West Coast: Father Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest who works with ex-gang members. Father Boyle has put together teams of physicians trained in the laser technology of tattoo removal. These teams are part of his ministry Homeboy Industries that takes the tattoos of ex-gang members and wipes the slate clean. For many, it is as crucial a service as it is merciful. To a former gang member, the gang tattoo fosters the attitude that the gang’s claim on that person’s life is permanent. It is a mark of ownership as much as identity. The process of tattoo removal is extremely painful. Patients describe the laser procedure as feeling like hot grease on their skin. Yet the waiting list grows of those who are willing to put up with whatever pain it takes to be transformed, to receive a new identity.    

You see, if you don’t know who you are, you are apt to take on a false identity. You take on the identity of any group that you are with. And before long you define yourself by that new false identity. All too often you become enslaved by that identity. A gang banger, a drug user, an adulterer, a racist, a materialist, a narcissist there are a host of enslaving tendencies in our society. Physical tattoos may be the easiest of the signs of slavery to remove, for they are simply removed from our skin. What about those signs of slavery that are tattooed on our souls?    

Do you know who you are? The day you understand that you are a child of God is the day you will learn what true freedom is all about.

My friend Pastor Julie Johnson in Atlanta told me about a retreat she once attended led by a woman named Tilda Norberg. At one point, Tilda asked the attendees to do something called “Speaking Truth to Lies.” She asked them to write down two or three lies about themselves that they needed to get rid of. Not ridiculous lies like: “My hair is blonde” or “I’m a professional body builder,” but the kind of lies we tell ourselves. Lies that we know in our head are not true, but that our hearts hang onto. Lies like:

“If I weigh more than 120 lbs., no one will find me attractive.” Or this one: “Because I can no longer move the way I used to, I will never be whole or well again.”

Or this: “I don’t have a problem with drugs or alcohol.”

Or this: “If I weren’t so needy or noisy or nosy, the abuse would stop.”

These are lies that we live our lives by. Lies that we die little deaths by.

These are the kinds of lies Tilda asked them to write down. And then she had them get into groups and to share some of the lies about themselves they had written.

Pastor Julie shared two of her own lies with the group. The two lies that held her in captivity were “I am not as important as my colleagues” and “My worth is dependent on what other people think of me.” Can anyone relate to those two lies?

Julie says that in her group there was a young Nigerian pastor named Michael. Michael later told her that, as a black man, when he sat in meetings with all-white pastors, he struggled with the same lies as Julie “I am not as important as my colleagues” and “My worth is dependent on what other people think of me.”

Michael held the written version of Julie’s lies in his hands, and he looked straight into Julie’s eyes, and he said words like these, “Julie, I declare with the authority of the gospel of Jesus Christ that these are lies; that you are created in the image of God; and that Jesus Christ abides in you and you abide in Christ. And this is where you get your worth. I declare with the authority of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you are every bit as much a child of God as anyone . . . I declare with the authority of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you will bear fruit for God’s vineyard, through the power of God that is within you.”

Then he handed Julie the two pieces of paper on which those lies were written. She says she ripped them into pieces, and threw them on the floor to show herself and everyone in the room that the power of God was removing those lies from her life.

Can you sense the power in that exercise? The world tells us many, many lies about who we are… loser, unlovable, unworthy, incapable, deficient. And before long we are telling those lies to ourselves. We need to replace those lies with God’s truth about us. We are children of the Most High God. We are loved with an everlasting love that gives us worth and confidence and a sense of purpose in life. We can walk through life with heads held high because of the One who calls us His own.

As we leave this place today, I hope that we will do so with our heads held a little higher and our shoulders a bit more squared because of the One who has adopted us as children. “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 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. And by the Spirit we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”