The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Galatians 5:25If we are living by the Spirit, by the Spirit we should also be walking, used to introduce the sermon's theme of keeping in step with the Spirit
25 If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Upper room discourse where Jesus tells his disciples it is to their advantage that he leaves so the Helper will come, and the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment
1 “I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble.
2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.
3 They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
4 But I have told you these things, so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment;
9 about sin, because they don’t believe in me;
10 about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more;
11 about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
12 “I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.
13 However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.
14 He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.
15 All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you.
16 A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me.”
17 Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?”
18 They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.”
19 Therefore Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, “Do you inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me?’
20 Most certainly I tell you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
21 A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world.
22 Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
23 “In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
24 Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.
25 I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. But the time is coming when I will no more speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
26 In that day you will ask in my name; and I don’t say to you, that I will pray to the Father for you,
27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.
28 I came from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.”
29 His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you are speaking plainly, and using no figures of speech.
30 Now we know that you know all things, and don’t need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
32 Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
33 I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Nathan opened with two stories from his early years at First Baptist, then walked the church through the first two steps of recovery as a lens for understanding what the gospel actually does. The sermon landed at the communion table, where the new covenant was held up against the old: the law shows us the problem, and Christ's blood is the provision.
What was said
Pastor Nathan had been trying to preach this message for about two months. After finishing a long walk through the New Testament and a stretch of sermons on self-examination, he felt the soil was ready. The goal for the morning was simple: cover the first two of the twelve steps, and show that they are thoroughly biblical, not a borrowing from secular culture.
He opened in John 16, where Jesus tells his disciples it is to their advantage that He is leaving. The reason is the Holy Spirit, who can be present in all believers at once rather than in one place at a time. One of the Spirit's roles, Jesus says, is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Pastor Nathan tied this to a key idea: when people lack a right reverence for God, they lose the ability to see their own sin clearly.
He then told the story of a man he called Ron, who stumbled into the church office on a January morning after twelve years of heavy drinking, a breakdown in the Oregon desert, and a night in his van in the Ranch Home parking lot. Ron had been told by the one woman he trusted to sober up, find someone to tell him about Jesus, and call her back. That is what brought him through the door. Pastor Nathan said he felt the Spirit pressing him not to rush to a formula but to introduce Ron to who Jesus actually is, so he printed out the Gospel of John in inch-and-a-quarter letters and they started reading together.
Ron's story did not resolve neatly. There were arrests, relapses, a flight from the courthouse, time at a program called Set Free in Riverton and Casper, and eventually a moment in the twelve steps where he had to go make amends with his mother before she died. Pastor Nathan said the last he heard, Ron was sober. The story was told not as a success story but as an example of what happens when a person finally admits, out loud, that they have a problem they cannot manage on their own.
That admission is Step One: we admitted we were powerless over our problem and that our life had become unmanageable. Pastor Nathan connected this directly to Romans 3:23, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and to Romans 6:23, that the wages of sin is death. The Roman Road, he said, is not just an evangelism tool. It is a description of the human condition that applies to everyone in the room, not only to people with dramatic stories like Ron's. He read through the works of the flesh from Galatians 5, noting that the list is representative, not exhaustive, and that it is always easier to spot these things in someone else than in yourself.
Step Two is the move from admission to belief: we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Pastor Nathan noted that Alcoholics Anonymous was wise to frame it this way, starting at ground zero without requiring a particular theology, because it meets people exactly where they are. The biblical grounding is Romans 5:8, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. God made the provision before anyone was asking for it.
The sermon closed at the communion table. Pastor Nathan framed the Lord's Supper around the contrast between the old covenant and the new. The old covenant put the responsibility on the person, and the bad news is that everyone has already broken it. The new covenant is in Jesus' blood, and it moves the weight off of us and onto Him. That, he said, is what the table represents: I have a problem I cannot fix, and God in His wisdom has made a way.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor McDaniel said that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, and that a lack of belief or reverence for God can lead us to think our sin is okay or not even sin at all. Where have you seen that play out, either in your own life or around you?
Ron came through the door saying 'tell me about Jesus' only after he had exhausted every other option and hit rock bottom. What do you think it takes for a person to reach that point of genuine openness, and what kept him from getting there sooner?
Have to go. And I was like, I do. Are you being, like, snide about it? Like, it just makes me because I I don't think you are, but you you mentioned because no. I'm packing a bag.
Get on the road. Come come this way. So but you know what I mean? It's like they just got home on Wednesday. We did the same thing in the first service.
We we chucked the last song. Okay. Whatever. However you wanna do it. Morning, everybody.
How are you? I've got a screw loose this morning in the podium. Jeff, am I on up there? Jeff? Sorry.
It's coming. It's coming. Alright. That timer, when it gets to the bottom, it just starts right back over. We got five more minutes.
Here we go. Okay. Now here we are. Would you stand with me? And we're gonna start off by singing God of our fathers.
Hymn number 809, if you have a hymnal in front of you. I lost it. Sorry. I I yodeled on the first verse and I lost it on the on the third verse. From war's alarms, from deadly pestilence, be thy strong-arm our ever sure defense.
Thy true religion in our hearts increase. Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace. And we'll start on the last. Refresh is the first word. Refresh.
And this one this one, it's July fourth week. So my country tis of thee. We sang this every morning at Flint River Academy. We did not practice it this morning. If I forget the words, it is on me.
Okay? They should be up on the wall and we'll sing it. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements actually. Next week, July 14, right out here on the green space.
How many of y'all were here a few weeks ago when we did this? It's great. It's a whole lot of fun. So 10:00 ish next week, first b b q will be outside here on the green space. We'll have, you know, whatever, slow cookers and and grills, and they'll make some sort of breakfast meats dish out there.
There'll be lots of it. We ran really low last time, but I happen to have 50 extra tortillas in my office. But we didn't have any idea. We probably doubled the biggest one we had last year at the first one this year. So we're we're prepping for it already.
So July 14 next week, 10:00 right out there on the green space. Games, food, fellowship, and just a lot of fun. The First Baptist camp out, there's Mike Demetrius standing at the back. He's one of the people to talk to. If you wanna know more about the First Beat camp out, July 19 and through the twenty first.
Come and stay for a day, come just in the daytime, come and hang around the fire and sing songs or do whatever. August 23 and twenty fifth is the second opportunity around Palisades. Mike thinks he has a spot picked out depending on the depth of the lake. Right? So if you want more information, you can talk to Mike or to Brian McCooey.
We have done this for years, but sometimes it's up in the park and this one looks like a good idea down at Palisades. Sound booth volunteers needed. If you feel like you are of the type that can understand this stuff and spin all these plates at one time, please let us know. Jeff is up there in the booth. This is his first solo run this morning, and I stepped on the words.
He was right. I was wrong, but he's doing a good job up there. He came in and got everything going this morning. But if you think, you know what? I I kinda know how to do that stuff and it's easy for me and I feel like I ought to serve the church in that way.
Let us know and we'll put you to work up there. Sunday school, we had kindergarten through second grade is having their meetings just like always with miss Crystal, and the third through fifth graders are welcome to join in all summer long. But Sunday school grades three through five for the rest of the summer, those are not gonna have their own separate class, so that's happening. But middle school and high school Sunday school still meets during the 9AM service during the summer in the library, so that's good. And is there anything else or is that it?
Hey, that was the last one of the announcements that's kind of the announcement announcements. I've got one more that's more of a prayer request and it is for the the Griffith family. It's a family that goes to church here. They almost always come to the nine. Precious family, Josh and Keira Griffith, Augie, and Kirier.
So, Augie is about 14 and Kirier is about four. They had a single car wreck that was a rollover pretty badly damaged. They are all alive and various stages of well. Kyrie clicked herself out of her car seat, no injuries whatsoever at four years old. The Augie had a couple of broken places in his vertebra, but they put him in sort of a clamshell brace and he was released the next morning from children's primary down in Utah.
Kiera spent the night in Rock Springs at the Memorial Hospital there. I rode down and hung out with her in the evening and then took her to the University of Utah Medical Center the next day. Josh is the most severely injured. Josh has worked like for us in the sound booth and he's done tech stuff for us for years. This is a great family that loves Jesus and I wanna pray for him.
I wanted you to be able to pray for him a little better informed. Josh had a couple of his cervical spine discs fused yesterday, came through the surgery very well, but he's very swollen, somewhat disoriented, and heavily medicated right now. But would you pray with me? God, thank you for the Griffiths and thank you for the ministry that you have given them in this community. I thank you for the dual immersion teacher, Kira, that has been so good with so many students over the years, and I pray that you would continue that work.
She is pretty jostled right now, Lord, and I just pray that you would heal all of the injuries that we cannot see. I pray and give thanks for Augie's release, and I pray that his back would heal, that that would heal quickly and would not limit his abilities to be able to move about. I thank you for KiriA and for for the protection there. And for Josh, Lord, we just pray for you to meet him in physical healing, in mental acuity, and astuteness and that you would, Lord, heal his whole body, mind, and spirit after this incident. In Jesus' name, we ask for your loving protection of them to continue throughout the healing process.
Bring them back to us, In Jesus' name, amen. And now would you stand? We kinda are working from the July 4 America theme towards praising the God that established us. Let's sing it again. The next is worthy of worship.
Worthy of praise. Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward. It is hot up here. Is it hot to y'all?
Can we open some of the windows? It's probably not going to hit me, the cross breeze, but maybe it'll cool some of y'all off. God almighty, we're thankful to be here this morning. Thank ful to be gathered in your house. Thankful just be gathered together.
Lord, that's where you are. You're right in our midst. So, lord, would you help in in specific? Lord, would you help me to not be rattled? Would you help me to kind of be centered on you and your will and your word and what it is that you're attempting to do among us this morning and not get rattled.
I'm feeling it. So in Jesus name, we ask that you do that and that you would bless all of these offerings, Lord, to do your kingdom's work. It would be exactly used exactly the way that you want it done. We wanna do your will, Lord, in your way, and we don't want for that to be hindered by our own humanness. So God, would you just move among us and through us and use this to advance your good gospel to solve the problems.
In Jesus name, for all who call out to you. We ask that lord in your name. Amen. Here that do know what that says. I know that there are.
I put it up there. I use this line sometimes in weddings and I when I'm talking about walking or walking a path together, it comes up in my mind a lot. What it says is, if we are living by the spirit and you could kind of, I don't think it's good to translate it since we are living by the spirit. I think that it's a rhetorical device that Paul uses to the Galatians and he says, if we're walking by the spirit, by the spirit, we should also be walking. If we're living by the spirit, by the spirit, we should also be walking.
He takes it from, okay, we believe and we've got the spirit living within us. Let's be walking that out. Does that make sense? One of the translations that I like is if we're gonna be walking by the spirit, let's be keeping in step with the spirit. So it's Galatians five twenty five and I say it because the pnuemati pnuemati right there, these two words are exactly the same.
The way the sentence is constructed is interesting. It says, it like I just translated. If we are living by the spirit, by the spirit. Right? By the spirit, by the spirit.
Really, if we're living by the spirit, then by the spirit, we also should be walking and that's kind of a progressive action of the way that we should be doing that. Step by step, I have been trying to preach this message for about two months, okay? I've warned you about it ahead of time. I've told several people, I think when I finish the New Testament, this is where we're going, but I haven't been able to get to it for feel like I had to kind of prepare the soil a little bit of of my heart and maybe y'all's too by going through a lot of self examination tour sorts of sermons and after having finished gone through going through the whole of the New Testament, I wanted to go back and hit the things that we just get repeated over and over. That God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble.
That sort of thing. And so we've been doing that. But step by step, steady as we go, today what I hope to do is take the first two of the 12 steps that you've heard about from 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous or 12 steps of narcotics anonymous or the 12 steps of recovery and I'm going take the first two of those. They are thoroughly biblical. If you're looking at me right now going, oh gracious.
He's just going the way of the world. No. It was started. It was very much started by people who found out that as they would surrender to God, he would transform their lives and so that's what we're going with. I'm going try to hit some things.
I want to I want to say though that in John 16, in the upper room discourse, just before the first last supper, right? The first time that they celebrated this kind of communion together at the institution of the Lord's Supper, this was the teaching immediately preceding that. But I tell you the truth, Jesus says to his disciples there and his words still ring to us. It is to your advantage that I am leaving. Now, to them, that was physically he has been with them for three years on earth for thirty, but he's been with these guys three years or so and he's saying, it's to your advantage that I'm leaving.
Now, there, he's their rabbi. They're following him. How could it be to their advantage? And he says, for if I do not leave, the helper, paraclete, Holy Spirit, will not come to you but if I go, I'll send him to you and whereas Jesus was available and in one place at a time, the Holy Spirit would be able to be all over and in believers lives and in their hearts and the communion when he gets to this is the new covenant in my blood. They had been looking forward to a time when God would take their hearts of stone and give them a heart of flesh and he'd write their law upon it so that it would be internal that they would know him very intimately and this is the method, the mechanism for that happening.
If I don't leave, the helper would not come to you, but if I go, I'll send them to you. And when he, the Holy Spirit comes, he'll convict the world regarding sins. That's one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is he'll convict of sin and of righteousness. He will convince of the righteousness of God and of judgment. Now regarding sin, it's because they don't believe in me.
I I hit something in the first service that a lack of belief or a lack of reverence for God, a lack of getting that part right leads us to believe that our sin is okay or that it's not even sin. Right? So regarding sin because they don't believe in me and regarding righteousness because I'm going to the father and you're no longer gonna see me. For those guys sitting there with him, you can't leave. Can you imagine?
That's the way he felt. It's like, no. You're our guy. You're our example. You're a rabbi.
You're the one. We know that you are. It already been seen to be son of God and they were like, no. We don't want you to pull away. We don't want for you to do that but he's saying, it's going to be better for you.
You're going to have to trust me. You're no longer going to see me but the helper will be here and regarding judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. Now, the devil has been judged and will be sentenced to eternal separation from God, but he is trying his best through lies and deceit to take as many down with him as he can. The truth of God sets free and the lie of the devil ensnares. And so this Jesus on the role of the Holy Spirit is very very important.
So Galatians five twenty five, I already walked through. If if we're living by the spirit, then let's be walking it out by the spirit. Galatians five nineteen through 23 is immediately preceding that passage and it shows us the works of the flesh which are evident. It says, we see em and it's pretty easy to spot em in other people especially, right? But the fruit of the spirit is over here and against these things, there's no law.
This is this is beautiful but the works of the flesh are evident. Now, I'm going to start off right here with a story. Actually, hang. Yeah, I'll just leave it up there. I don't know what the issue your issue is in particular.
I don't know what it is but I know there is an issue, right? I know that sin is the issue, overarching big thing, falling short, missing the mark. I know that. I'm gonna try to get to a blank slide. Here we go.
Here we go. I wanna tell a story too before I get going. When I first started here, it's the first I mentioned a few a couple weeks ago that my first pastor's experience was at the Ocean Park RV Resort when I was 19 for three months. Not a whole lot of pastoral experience upon arrival here. I had two quick stories.
One of em, I didn't think that I was much of an evangelist and I couldn't imagine that God would use me in that way and I'm I'm still wouldn't say that's my primary gifting but I was sitting here the very first week I started coming on Monday, Tuesday. Wednesday, I get a phone call and it's it's a guy that says, I feel like I need to be baptized and I thought, well, wait a minute. Let's don't get the cart before the horse. Why do you think you need to be baptized? And that guy accepted Christ over the phone.
I am not an evangelist. He called here. He didn't even live here. He lived in the only other town in Wyoming where I knew there was a pastor. Ain't that great?
What a reassurance for me feeling like I cannot do this. And then this guy accepts Christ over the phone on the third day. I'm at work. And he started going to the church in that city in Pinedale and he's been a member there since then. It's it's amazing to me.
Second one was less than a year later, I had a guy walk in. Well, I'll call him Ron, that's not his name but I'll call him Ron because I hadn't asked him about sharing this. I think it's been long enough that nobody that used to live here is still here. But Ron came stumbling through the door, it was a Friday morning and I'm sitting in the office early for some reason, really early and this guy comes through the door and kind of stumbles in and and says, tell me about Jesus. That does not happen very often.
Okay? I for for a Baptist preacher, that's the biggest softball you've ever been offered. Right? Just tell me about Jesus and I I was like, okay. Come on in.
Have a seat. Let's let's see what's what's the status. The bald guy, very badly sunburned, had a tattoo right here on the back of his neck in Chinese, Chinese characters. And as we're talking, he said, I have been drunk for twelve years. When I listed the things up there, this is just one of them.
This is not the only one. I I grew up Southern Baptist. This is not the only thing I'm preaching about today, but the story I think is helpful. He comes wandering through the door. He says, I've been drunk for the last twelve years and for several years before that and was left by my wife in my truck in the Oregon Desert and I burned up my eyes in the sun there and I can barely see and I'm not doing very well.
And last night, I hit a place where I felt like I it was the end. It was either gonna end and so I called the only person in the world. By the way, the Chinese, he said that what it said in Chinese was trust no one. I said, do you speak Chinese? He goes, no.
I said, was it a Chinese tattoo guy? He says, no. I said, well, you trusted at one at least one somebody. He wrote, trust no one on the back of your neck in Chinese. But he said, I actually do trust one person.
And this lady, I call her mom. She's not my mom but when I was wandering around the Oregon Desert, she picked me up and she took me to her house and she kind of put me back together and I left there angry and like I always do And he said, and I continued to just go and drink. But I called her last night. It's 17 degrees below zero here in January. It was a January morning.
And he said, I am living in my van in the Ranch home parking lot and he said, and I called her and I was very, very, very intoxicated and I was crying out that this is the end, I'm gonna end it. And she said, listen, sober up over the night, find somebody that'll tell you about Jesus in the morning and hung up. And so he still remembered that by the grace of God. And the next morning, he got up and he wandered down this way. He said he went by Saint John's.
It was too early for anybody to be there. Saint John's Episcopal. And he kept walking and he's just walking on the street and he saw the church and he came in and he stumbled in and we sat and talked all morning. Now, I could have gone to the Roman Road, right? I could've said, okay.
We all have sinned. Which is true. We all have sinned. And I could've probably done another, hey, let's just pray the sinner's prayer right now and get you covered, you know. But it felt like what the spirit was saying is, he needs to know who I am.
And so this was during the time the 12 long Bible study on the New Testament started with the book of John and I was just getting started in the book of John. And so I said, I tell you what, it would help me if you would come in and you would come in and just hang with me. Just plan on it took you a long time to get in this situation. It's gonna take you a long time to get out maybe, but it can start today. Let's get to it.
I I think we read the first 18 verses of the book of John. Some of the most confusing, difficult, deep, wonderful verses but we went through that and I said, now, from here on, it's going to be narrative storyline and you can just read that. He goes, I can't read. I can't read because of my eyes are bad. I said, okay.
Well, that does present a problem. Maybe audio book, that's probably not that great. How big would the letters have to be? Can you do a big print? He goes, there's not a big enough print.
I said, how big would they have to be? He said, probably this big. I said, about an inch and a quarter? Yes. I said, okay.
So, I printed out a gospel of John. It's 243 pages long. It's usually like twenty twenty two pages long and it's just on the printer, brought it back in, we started going through it, he was so excited, so excited and he felt like God was lifting his burden and he felt like he was gonna be okay. Now, it's it's a difficult thing. Alcoholism is a difficult thing.
And he felt like, okay, this is starting point. What time does the service start on Sunday? I'm gonna be here. I'll be here early. I'll help set up.
I'm like, services are at nine or eleven. I'm not expecting you there's there's nothing tied to this, but just hang with me, come in, we'll talk about it. And we will introduce you to Jesus and let you meet him and see who he is and but are you with me? Yes. I'll be here at 09:00 on Sunday morning.
I'll be here for the nine and eleven. Okay. That was Friday. Saturday, I was here finishing the sermon because that's what I do on Saturdays at 10:00 in the evening and at ten that night, I got a call from no caller ID. No caller ID typically means either jail or a mental institution or sometimes it's Nelson, a Jehovah's Witness that takes it under his purview to ruin Baptist Preacher's Day.
And he calls me behind no caller ID, Nelson. Seriously. He calls me and then when we get through, he calls Carl and then when he gets through with Carl, he calls Mike. It's every time. So Nelson calls behind no caller ID.
Oh, thanks, Nelson. Okay. My my understanding Greek is not good and I don't have. Okay. Thank you.
Alright, Nelson. Next time, bye. Carl Nelson's about to call you. But normally, no caller ID means it's the jail or it's a mental institution. So I always take those calls and when I picked up, they said, this is Teton County Jail, jailer so and so.
And I could hear in the background, I could hear she said, we got a guy here named Ron and I could hear this in the background. And Ron here says, I have to call you and I have to tell you that he swore that he was going to be there at 09:00 in the morning and I can tell you for sure he won't be. He's in jail. And the the banging that I was hearing, I said, what is that? And she said, he is banging his head on the wall until I've delivered this message.
And he had when I and I said, can I come see him? She said, I you know, we're not supposed to give in to what they ask and I probably should've just tied him up but I wanted to pass along that. He's been beating his head against the wall since then and I said, can I I think I could calm him down some? Can I come over? She said, in that effort, yeah, come on.
So, I went over there and I sat and talked to him. We couldn't get the little phone thing to work, so they moved to a cage. We're looking through a metal cage at each other. And he's he had a bloody place on the center of his forehead where he'd been hitting his head against the wall. And he said, I thought it was gonna turn around.
He said, but it's cold and I was there and I still had booze and I drank it and I went to the bathroom in the Ranch Home parking lot and when I in the in the bathroom there, he said, when I came back, there were policemen there and it was my car, my van, and it was running and I'm the owner and the driver and they arrested me for drunk driving. Now, wasn't actually driving, but it was according to statute, he was guilty. So they took him to jail. I'm not arguing against that. That's fine.
It's protecting I'm fine with that. But I think even not being a lawyer, I think I could have gotten him off some of those charges. And so he stayed in jail a few days and I went in when they did the Raymond and I heard what the judge had to say and it seemed like a good idea that he would be there for a while. But Teton County offered at the time a program where you could be released on your own recognizance if you agree to blow in the tube 07:00 in the morning, 07:00 in the evening which is a it's merciful and it's great. I think that's good.
Not drunk here, not drunk here, twelve hours apart each day. But if you're an alcoholic, it's really hard to do that for very long and it'll show back up and you go back to jail. And so, he was able to do alright. We met several times. He loved having that big print Bible.
He got some readers that helped a lot with being able to read it and then one day, he blew hot. Blew in the tube and the zeros were no longer there and he he had been drinking not if I forget anything that said in the first one, tell me. Alright? So, I didn't know I was going to tell the story till this morning. So, he he blew hot in the tube and they said, alright, sit right there.
We'll go get the paperwork. We'll get you back in jail and so he thought of, he left his Bible or his gospel of John. He left that in the car. He left his glasses in the car and he left his van in a place where it would be gone and towed away. So, he left there, moved the van, got the gospel of John, got his glasses, and came back but by that time, they already knew that he ran away and so he escaped.
So, that's a whole different set of charges And he was in legal trouble pretty bad. He stayed in jail for a while that time. And when it came time for a sentencing or for later on, he'd been in there a while. I went again and the judge said, Reverend McDaniel, do you have anything to say, character witness, what are you here I said, I'm here for whenever the court decides it's okay. And that's up to up to y'all, but whenever the court says it's okay for him to go to a program, he said, well, there are no beds in the state of Wyoming right now.
There are not there's not an outpatient program here. There's a good outpatient program but that's not what he needs and so, if you know of one, I said, I know of one in Riverton and in Casper. It's called Set Free. It's a church but they do have beds for people and it's pretty rough but I said, if I'm willing to carry him, if y'all will release him to me, I'm ready. He said, come back tomorrow and we'll release him at 07:00 in the morning.
You can take him. So, I did and he got set free. And the 12 steps help that process. Now, being literally under arrest probably helped a little bit, but having the threat of that over your head does not help. It does not help the alcoholic.
It really does not. He was able to go and get some time sober and then he relapsed again. And I got to take him again to Casper this time and he was there for a few weeks and then they called and said, hey, Ron left and I was kind of upset about it because I thought, golly, there's been so much effort expended and so much has happened here and he called me from the road and he said, I hit the place of having to make amends and I had to reconcile with my mama. Not the mom that rescued him, not the lady that he said he trusted. The mom who had abandoned him, the one that he'd never known his dad.
She was really holding this against her and he said, I hit a place of realizing that a lot of my stuff was because of what I was holding against her and so he went and he reconciled with her before she passed. Praise God. He got him there. Last time I heard from him, he was sober. I've got a lot of these stories over the last twelve years now of seeing people that get set free.
It is often times related to them taking these steps seriously. So, back to back. The Roman Road. Y'all know the Roman Road? Do you know this one?
This one's a good one. We learn this in church. We learn in Sunday school. It's really good. Last few months, we've been in Romans first be in the Bible, the Email that comes out every morning, five days a week, during the week weekdays and it comes out.
We've been walking through verse by verse or couple verses at a time through Romans and it's amazing to me how clear. You know, the gospel of John is clear on who Jesus is but how clear the situation becomes if you really take Romans seriously and look at it humbly. Chapter one, being that the irreligious are guilty. Chapter two being the religious also are guilty. And then chapters three twenty three just says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Now, James says, if you've broken the law in even one place, then you've broken the whole law and there's nothing that you can do about it. Right? There's nothing that you personally can do about it. Romans three twenty three is all of sin come short of the glory of God. Romans six twenty three says, and the wages of sin is death.
If you have sinned, then death is the consequence, the punishment. But Romans five says, while we were yet sinners, God had a plan. While we were yet sinners, Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, Jesus, who had walked out a perfect life in the flesh, fulfilled the law. The law that can only tell us how we go wrong, he actually did it right. Amen.
So, Romans five eight, God demonstrates his own love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, we weren't even asking or looking. Christ died for us. Romans six twenty three, after the wages of sin is death, it says, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord. Now, it goes on but today, I'm only covering the first two steps, okay? And the first two steps are I have a problem that I can't do anything about And if you really get this, it is life changing.
If you really understand and Ron, when he came in, he had tried everything. He had been through several different places, several different options. He had tried a lot of different ways to get out of it. But he hit a point that he was ready to end it. That's not a good way out of it.
Admitted that we were powerless over our problem. When he called that lady that he called mom and she said, go find somebody to tell you about Jesus. He was admitting that out loud whether he knew it or not. I've got something I can't do anything about. My life has become unmanageable and it's amazing the links to which people will go to not have to admit that my life has become unmanageable.
Right? So we admitted that we're powerless over our problem in Alcoholics Anonymous, let's say alcohol. In sex addicts Anonymous, let's say sexual sin stuff, sexuality stuff. Narcotics anonymous, I don't know what your problem is but according to Romans three twenty three, it says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So there is a problem in your life that you are not able to maintain on your own.
I'm not saying there's not a way to walk in victory, there is. But it requires that you know humbly that you're powerless before it, that your life has become unmanageable, and that I think that there's sufficient biblical grounding for that. The second step is this though, We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. My life has become unmanageable but there is a power greater than ourselves. Now, we know in this church, I showed up today expecting to hear about Jesus, expecting to hear about God.
Alcoholics Anonymous did a did a pretty radical and good good thing and that it kind of put everybody on the same playing field. It does not matter your theological understanding or background. It starts from the absolute ground zero. I've got something within me I can't fix. But I do believe that there's something greater than me out there.
There is a greater strength and we'll get to it next week when we get to turning over your will to the higher power to God. We'll get to it next week but there is some stuff that's outside of my control that God almighty can control, that he can help me with and so, we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity while we were yet sinners, Christ made the provision for our sin. He paid the penalty for our sin in that while we were yet sinners and humbly admitting that and looking to him for the power, that is the way. It's the mechanism by which he saves. That's how he delivers.
We came to believe the power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Now, at this point, I haven't even talked about. I'm asking him to do that. It's just an acknowledgement that, you know what? It's not all in my control.
When Ron stumbled into the office that day, he didn't know anything about Jesus that he was happy about. He had some church hurt in his past. He had some other stuff that would keep him from it but God be praised. He met that guy at the point of his need. I can't do anything about this God, would you?
And then, he did. So step two, we came to believe that power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. I don't know what is your issue. I'm not sure. And it might say, well, according to that, I mean, I haven't been I haven't been inebriated for twelve years.
That's pretty bad. But is there an area of your life where it's unmanageable? There are a lot of people talking about being addicted to stuff on their phone. There are a lot of folks who are addicted to images. There are a lot of folks that are struggling with I mean, let's let's back up to that slide.
Let's keep it biblical rather than just keep it like sexual immorality. That's a wide broad term. It might be that. Impurity. Mostly pure but there's this little thing right here that I'm not willing to give up, impurity.
Sensuality, it being all about the senses, idolatry, putting anything else in God's place including maybe ourselves, our own ego, sorcery. Well, I don't have that one. Wait a second. Sorcery is when you try to use anything, anything to manipulate the will of another. Didn't it?
A source, a sorcery is spells and whatnot where you're trying to to influence a spiritual war to get something that you want out of somebody else. Enmity In our time, there is so much enmity where you are enemies of another. Enmity is a problem that can make your life unmanageable. Strife, jealousy, fits of anger, fits of rage. Have you heard the term rageaholic?
Yeah. I don't ever want to do that again. I'll never do it again. I promise I'll never do it again but then before long, you're right back at that place where it feels like the what this situation needs is a real outburst. Maybe I'll break something, maybe I'll throw something.
It doesn't help. Rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness. It does make the list but it's not the only thing that this sermon is about. Orgies and things like these. This is a representative list.
It's not a conclusive all encompassing list. Actually, one of the list of vices in the New Testament that says, people who one of the vices is inventing new ways to do evil. Like none of the list can be all inclusive. Right? There are there will come a day when there's more that will make these lists but if you look at the works of the flesh which Galatians says are evident and everybody can see em.
It's really easy to see of another person's lack. It's harder to see our own. The best way to see our own is to humble ourselves before God and to say, God, would you show me? I've got a problem that I think is my problem. It's something that has making my life unmanageable.
All I do think about that whether I'm doing that or not, I'm thinking about it. Lord, lord is an acknowledgement that there is a higher power that can restore me to sanity. Now, next week, we'll talk about the next few steps but as we approach this table, I want to think about that. I want for you to think that the old covenant was do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that, and the law would show us how our sin shows up. We can see that we broke it but we can't do anything about fixing it.
It was for those people of the Old Testament. It was a way of them looking forward to the way that God would provide, right? Abraham and Isaac, that story is about the ram in the thicket, the way that God would provide. All of them had to look forward to the blood of Messiah the same way that all of us have to look back to the blood of Messiah being the provision that God made while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us.
As we approach this table today, we think about the old covenant and the new The old covenant in many ways, it's on you. Like, and and bad news, you broke it already. The new covenant is the new covenant in Jesus' blood. That's what we're about to celebrate. That I have a problem I can't do anything about but God in his wisdom has made a way that I can be forgiven.
He's made a way for me to be able to go forward in righteousness. Would you pray with me? I'm going invite the ushers to come forward. Not ask Judy if you would play something pretty. God almighty, we ask for your blessing of this little representative sample.
It's a cracker representing the blood of the body of Christ. It's a little plastic cup of grape juice representing his blood. God, I pray that for everyone here who's ever put their trust in you that they know that they are walking along, flawed but forgiven. They know that they're walking along, putting their trust in you. They're not trying to solve their sin problem without you.
Lord, this is an open table for anyone who's ever put their trust in you whether it's been tens of years ago or whether it's just right here today. It's open for all that Roman wrote says that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, delivered. So Lord God, ask that you would bless this little cracker as it's distributed lord that we would focus on the fact that you are able to walk out in complete submission and obedience to the spirit, the will of the father. In Jesus name, we ask that you'd bless this time of communion. For all who would partake and for those lord who know that that's not been a decision they've made, that's not something that they've done yet.
Lord, may may they also receive a blessing of knowing that the people around them love them and are drawing them into your family. In Jesus name, we ask your blessing. Amen. On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, that just that phrase alone. Like, there's human frailty all over that, right?
From the same night that Jesus was betrayed. Whatever Judas' motives were. He was trying to do it himself. Lord God, forgive us. On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after he had given thanks, he said to his disciples there, this is my body which is given for you.
Take this and eat of it and do it in remembrance of me. Lord Jesus, thank you for your perfect example. When we look at your life or when Isaiah looked at father God in the temple even surrounded. The first thing that he did was fall on his face and say, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips.
I'm dwell among a people of unclean lips. He recognizes own personal sin and recognizes need for a savior. Peter did the same thing. I'm a thoroughly sinful man. I think lord if we look into your eyes, we see ourselves clearly.
Thank you for that perfect example, that perfect record lived out in submission of the spirit of the will of the father. And thank you for your innocent blood that you shed voluntarily and sacrificially. It was what all of the blood of bulls and goats and sheep and lambs had been pointing towards all throughout the Old Testament. It was pointing towards that once for all, all sufficient sacrifice, your blood on Calvary. Thank you, Lord, for that.
We ask that you'd bless this little cup of grape juice as a remembrance. Oh Lord, as we distribute it. I pray that you would bring us to a new level of understanding of the sacrifice that was made and the almighty power available. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
And in the same manner that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup, common cup for them, representative little individual cups for us. And he said to them, this is the new covenant in my blood. It takes the onus off of us and it puts it on him. This is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink of it and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me.
Amen. Amen. Would you stand with me? We're gonna close with the doxology. Would you would you hit me a G chord over there?
May the Lord bless and keep you and establish you in his peace and may he make you a carrier of that peace which passes all understanding. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen.
