Adopted by the Spirit

I want to start this morning by looking at where we were.

And this is from the section of Romans 8 that we're looking at today, verse 14 to 15 in Romans 8.

You see, the Spirit is a mover.

He leads you.

He moves you from a place where you were stuck.

Now, some of you go, I could do stuck, like on the Cook Islands with unlimited shelter, food and water.

But that's not the kind of stuck that we're in, right? This is being stuck in a hellish place.

I mean, I'm back teaching in high schools at the moment.

I've never heard in 17 years of teaching in high schools, a student say to me when I finish year 12, I wanna be stuck in fear and slavery.

That's my goal.

because no one likes it, right? I mean, who had that plan for their life? Not me, not you.

I just want to be stuck, that's my goal.

I mean, I had one student that did say he wanted to go on the dole.

I said, dude, that's like aiming high.

Here's the reality, folks, we were all born into this.

You know, and at this point with Paul, when you're reading this from Paul where he's talking about the Spirit does not lead you to fear and slavery, you go, well, what kind of fear are we talking about? And look, what kind of slavery are we talking about? And there's a lot that Paul actually says about slavery and about fear, about being slaves to sin and locked into hostility to God and being unable to please Him.

And you can read...

Chapter 7 and the rest of chapter 8, you'll find out all about that.

But I think there's something going on here that's a little more specific than just a general kind of slavery or fear.

You know, come back with me to Genesis chapter 1 with the creation of humanity.

And you remember that in verse 26 there of Genesis 1, it says we're made in God's image.

And being made in God's image means isn't actually defined in Genesis 1, but one of your tips in Scripture when understanding Scripture is like, if you see some words in one section and it doesn't explain what they are, see if you can find it in other sections, because that will tell you what it means.

So in Genesis 1.26, it talks about image and likeness.

And if you go looking for those words, the next place that you're gonna find them is in a genealogy in Genesis 5.

When Adam had lived 130 years, this is verse three, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth.