The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 14: The New You

Episode Date: April 22, 2018

When Jesus is your Savior, He not only saves your soul from eternal damnation in the next life, but He SETS YOU FREE from the slavery of sin in this life. BE FREE.

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church, doing all right? Everybody good? Hey, grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Romans chapter 6. And as you are going there, I just want to, that video is a really big deal around here at the church of 1122. Okay? Jesus told us that we are to go.

Now, he didn't tell us we have to stay. Praise God. I've been going and going and going, but I'll come home. The moment I go, I'm like, all right, 12 days and I go back home, all right? But we are to go to the very ends of the earth. It is the command of Jesus. And so how many of you by show of hands at all of our. campuses. How many of you have been on a mission trip? Raise your hand. If you've been on a mission

ship, all right, all right, look around, look around, look around at the hands raised, because at the end of the service, you might want to ask those people, what was it really like, okay? Because if you're going to be a 20 tour, we're going. We're going people, all right? That's what we do. Now, if you go to our website, COE22.com slash missions, there's a whole list of the places we're going. Places like Panama, Brazil, and Jamaica, and Uganda, and Rwanda, and Cuba, and all of these places. And so, pray a little bit and go for sure, all right, because that's what we do. And maybe you've heard me say this before. Let me say it again, just to confirm all the nasty rumors, all right? If you're going to be a 22 or you've got three years to go. Now, if you're not going to go,

then we need your seat. All right, and here's why, because Jesus makes disciples, he disciples for three years, and then he said, ready, go, all right? And they went. And so if you're not going to do that, I'm not saying you don't get to go to heaven, right? You just ain't going with us, because we're going. All right? We're going. We're going. going to take the gospel and it won't be as many people going with you to heaven because you didn't go on a mission trip. So here's what I need to do. And if you think that's mean, it gets much worse.

Stick around for a long time, all right? So I'm being serious. I'm not just in the show. Some people are like, I hate it's so funny. I'm not trying to be funny. I'm trying to be for real. So you need to go on a mission trip, all right? If you don't have money, no problem.

Every single one of us fall into one of three categories when it comes to missions, all right? We have players. Those are the people that go. We have prayers. That means this year, the people that aren't going are going to be praying for the people are, and then we have payers. So all of you're not going, you've got to pay for everybody else going. Does that make sense?

That's how this thing works. So go on the website, check it out. And seriously, in this year of deepening, trust me on this one. Nothing, nothing, nothing will help you deepen your relationship with Jesus. Like being on mission to help other people discover theirs. I'm telling you, you think you're going to do something for somebody. And these people that you go to serve, crazy thing is, God's already there.

And he will do more in you as you allow yourself for him to do things through you. For the sake of your own discipleship, I dare you to go on a missionary. All right. Stuff about that. Romans chapter 6. We're supposed to pick it up in verse 5, but I got to back up to last week's sermon because really I kind of overpreach last week. I kind of did half of this sermon in last week, but whatever. You can't remember.

I remember. And so essentially what we did, we spent the majority of the time last week talking about baptism, but baptism was just an illustration of what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 6. And so if you go back to one, he said this. He says, what shall we say then? And what he's talking about is in 520, he said, where sin increases grace abounds. And to kind of answer that own question, he says, what shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? That means no way, all right? This is an all caps text right there. Uh-uh. How can we who died to sin still live in it? That's what we talked about last week. And then he went to baptism as an illustration of what it looks like to die to yourself, to be joined with Christ and to join him in his resurrection and to walk in newness of life.

And that baptism verses right here in three and four were just an illustration. He says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized? Heatsdo, dunk, submerged into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. And so that's where we spent our time last week. And now he's back to the point of answering the question, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? And he's going, no way.

Now verse five picks it back up where he left off. Four, if we have been united with him, underline that in your Bible, united with him, in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. So when you become a Christian, what happens is that you and I are united with Christ. You can't tell where you end and Jesus begins, right? And you think, well, I can tell because I ain't like Jesus at all. Well, I understand. That's why you down on the cross for us because we're a wreck.

One of the most beautiful illustrations of this is in Jesus' story in Luke chapter 15. We know it as the prodigal son. And when the son, if you're unfamiliar with the story, there's this kid, goes to his dad, says, dad, you're dead to me, can you give me my inheritance now? and you know it's a Jesus story because in the story the dad gives him his inheritance. In my world, it'd be like, oh, you want to talk about dead, you're dead now. I mean, I'd be dead, right? Like, Daddy, what you're going to give me?

He's like, I'm about to show you what I'm going to give you. That's my daddy, all right? This daddy in Luke 15 is not the same kind of dad. This dad represents God. So this son is like, I don't need you. He rejects God. He runs out and does his own thing. The Bible says that he squanders away his inheritance on wild living.

It's like prostitution and all this. crazy stuff, he ends up feeding pigs, which is not, maybe that's a good job, maybe you think, what's wrong with that? Well, if you're a Jewish kid, you don't feed pigs. That makes you unclean forever and ever, right? Then the Bible says he comes to his senses and he comes home and he's practicing his apology and he's going to try to earn his way back into his dad's estate. And then here's a picture of the gospel. Here's a picture of being united with Christ by grace. the Bible says that the father sees his son who is long ways off and comes running to him. Jewish men didn't run.

So I don't run. Okay, I'm biblical. If you see me running, call the police, something that is going hard really wrong. Either for me or some fellow that I'm trying to chase down. You understand? No way no. And so this dad, at great shame and humiliation to himself, runs to his son, bows down, and embraces him and embraces him and unites himself with his son. Here's why.

Here's why. because in the first century anybody that shamed their dad that way there'd be an immediate stoning and so what the dad is doing here is when he unites himself with his son you can't tell where the son stops and the dad begins so if i try to stone you i can hit dad you see what's going on there that's that kind of uniting and then and then the dad does three things he says give the boy sandals because only sons had sandals servants didn't get sandals and he's saying no no no he's not going to earn he his way back. This is my son. And then we talk about this robe of righteousness all the time. He takes this robe and he wraps it around him. This is a picture of imputed righteousness so that when people see the boy, they don't see the filth of the pigsty. They see the perfect clean robe of the dad. This is what Jesus does for us at the cross when not only are our sins forgiven, but his perfect life is counted to us. And then the dad says put a signet ring on his finger. That was the family insignia. They were saying, here you go. That's my boy.

Now we have been united again. That's what happens when you surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ. Here's why this matters to you. Okay? Here's why this matters. The way John would say it is this. And this is love. Not that we love God, but that God loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sin.

Propitiation means a payment that satisfies. Which means that when Jesus pushes up on his nail pierce feet on the cross and says, it is finished. This means that the law and the righteousness of God is completely satisfied. And if Jesus is the payment that satisfies and you are in him, that means God is not dissatisfied in you. And I think if you're a parent, you have this image that God looks at you like you look at your kid. And I know you love your kid and I know you're a great parent. But for the rest of us, isn't there at least once a week where you look at your kid and you're like, really? Are you being serious, you know? Do you listen when I talk? I mean, you had this like, and so you think God

looks at you and goes, are you serious? Again, you said you weren't going to do this anymore? And yet, if you're united in Christ, if Jesus is the payment that satisfies, God is not dissatisfied in you. That his disposition towards his son, Jesus, is his disposition towards you forever and ever, amen. That is really good news. And so he says, when you've been united with him, in his death and a death like his when you surrender your life to Christ I love this we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like

yes now this is like this means that when just like Jesus came out of the grave he had a resurrected body there will come a day where the heavens crack open Jesus comes back and everybody that has been dead before his return that we will be raised up

in a resurrected body a glorified resurrected body I don't know what that means, but at 44 years old, it sounds awesome. I mean, it just does. Look, I just want, this is for my own benefit, all of our campuses. If you are my age or older, 44 years are older, women, you can lie a little bit if you won't do, but you've been, hey, man, you're justified. All right, so if you're my age or old, we just raise your hand, 44 and up, raise your hand, look around.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, okay, good, good, good, all right? If you are under 44, would you please raise your hand, just raise them up high, raise them up high, raise them up. High? Okay. All right. God bless you too. All of our campuses. If you're like in your 20s and early 30s, would you raise your hand? I just need to see this. Raise them high. Lift them up. All right. Thank you. Praise God. I'm glad you here. All right. Good. Man, God bless you in your 20s and early 30s. This doesn't mean a lot to you right now, but it's going to mean more. There's this idea in the scriptures of a resurrected body that our bodies will be glorified. Like we're not going to be spirits or angels. Angels are totally and other thing. We are going to have this glorified, resurrected body, like where there are no

aches and pains anymore. Can I get an amen for the 40 and upcraft? I mean, I wake up in the morning, and I'm like, oh, my God, oh. And Greg says, what did you do? I don't know. I don't, I don't know. Or the craziest thing, you'll be in your car and you'll like reach over with the wrong hand to the radio and you're like, ah, oh, okay, oh, right? Or you do these self-exams, you do this? You'd be like, oh my gosh, I got something right here. Oh, good. I got another one. I'm fine. I'm not going to die. I have two. I have two of these. They match. You do. So when you're 20, that's what's those coming, okay? And it gets worse. Like, by the, I'm talented, man. You age like a roll of toilet paper. Do you not? First slap around takes the minute. By the end,

it's like, and it's gone. I think that's in the Proverbs. I don't know if that's true, but I feel like it should be. But it's true, all right? And so if you're in your 20s, man, God bless you and your tight skin and your hair. Somebody asked me in time because my beard, you know, it's obviously getting pretty gray. And they're like, hey, you're going to color your beard? And I was like, for what?

Somebody had the nerve to look at me and go, to look younger. Why would I want to imitate a group of people I really don't want to emulate? You understand what I'm saying? No, man. What God has given you guys in things like flexibility and can stay up late, he has given us wisdom. Think past the weekend. Things like that, okay?

So, but anyway, so there is that that's coming one day for us all. Praise God. But it's not just united with him in a resurrection like his one day in the sweet by and by. There is also this union with him in resurrection in this life. Remember, that's how last week ended that we would be raised, just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of Father, that we too may walk in the newness of life. That means walk present tense right now. That currently we are joined with Christ in his resurrection. And his resurrection teaches us all kind of stuff.

We already sang at one time that the same power that rolled the stone away and they brought Jesus out of the grave, if you are in Christ, that same power lives in you. And that changes the way you live. If that power lives in you, then that changes the way you live. And it means at least three things. I can do 100 things. Here's what it means. You might want to jot these down. Number one, it means that it is finished.

That it is finished. The resurrection of Jesus tells us about our current life, it is finished. When Jesus on the cross said, it is finished. An earthquake hits Jerusalem and it cracks right through the temple. And here's why this matters. There was this curtain that separated the presence of God from the people of God. It was this little room called the Holy of Holies. And only perfect people could go in there, which means there's none.

One guy would sanctify himself for one day and go in there and do some stuff, all right? And if he messed it up even once, he was a dead guy. And when Jesus dies on the cross and the penalty is paid, this means that by the blood of Jesus, access to God is made available to anybody that is washed in the blood of Jesus. And so here's why this matters. This means that not only is the curtain torn, but Jesus ascends to the right hand of God the Father. And the Bible says he is at the right hand of God the Father talking about you right now. It says he is interceding for you.

That means Jesus is praying for you right now. You know that thing in your disciple group and it's really big to you, but you're too scared to talk about it yet. So you go, I haven't unspoken. Jesus is like, Father, let me speak it for you. This is what it is. This means that Jesus is pointing out to the Father, not that he needs pointing out, but this is how they like to roll. Every time that you are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but you point people to the cross, then Jesus goes, yep, there they go again. and that you and I, by the blood of Jesus, have access to the Father.

So here's the resurrection tells us, and if that is true, you should pray. You should pray. Why? Because the almighty sovereign king of the universe just happens to be your dad, and he says, come on, bring it on. Would you talk to me? Do you know how sometimes after the service there's a group of people that want to say hey to me for whatever reason, or me pray for them, or whatever it is? I don't know why in the world you would wait to talk to me, but whatever.

If you do, I ain't going to leave. I'll be the last one to leave. No problem. But guess who never waits in line? My kids. My kids can walk to the front and then go, I did teach them this thing. When I'm talking to an adult, you've got to do the hand on thing, right? And so they just put their hand.

They just go up there and got the hand on me. And then they'll be like, you know, they try to get my attention, all right? You have the access to your father too. Same way. And so because when Jesus says it is finished, access to God through his blood is made available, You should pray. And you should worship. You should worship.

You don't need me to worship for you. You worship. You have total access to the presence of God. It is what Peter will call the priesthood of the believer. Do you realize this? Those of you that grew up Catholic, I got crazy news for you. If you know Jesus, you're a priest. All right?

Confess to him. You've got to confess to somebody. Got it? And then not only that, you repent. And do you know why you repent? Because access to the Father has been made available. So when we sin, we no longer have to run from him. We can run to him.

Why? Because Christ is a perpetuation for our sin, and the payment has already been made. And when you run to him, you're not asking for forgiveness. You're actually confessing the forgiveness that has already been accomplished for you at the cross. This is what the resurrection teaches us. That's just one thing, that it is finished. The resurrection teaches us that he, is not finished with us, that God is not finished with us, that he sent the Holy Spirit as a deposit

in you to do a bunch of stuff. But here's a couple of things that the Spirit in you does. The Spirit comforts and convicts you, never condemns you. Therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But sometimes you're sitting in here, you've got the Bible open, you're listening and I'm talking about some stuff and you go oh gosh did you email him that's what you think all right and it's the spirit of God convicting you by his grace and mercy it's god's kindness that he would dig around in your soul and he would go bro you got to quit being so selfish and he comforts you like you have situations in your life and he gives you a peace that transcends all understanding why because he's not finished with you

you. And this is the way God Almighty disciples you. He may bring another human in your life to be an instrument of that discipleship, but the real discipler is the Holy Spirit of God. And then he also sanctifies and strengthens you. He sanctifies you. That just means that you, by the power of the spirit working in you, become more and more like Jesus over time, not overnight. And he strengthens you in order that you would be a strong member in the church to accomplish what God has called the church to do. And the way that he strengthens you is primarily in two ways. It's through gifts and fruit. Gifts and fruit. This is what the Spirit does in you. This is what the resurrection teaches us. What I mean my gifts is this is that you remember for some of you

when you were in elementary school, and you're sitting there just kind of minding your business, and the teacher would walk in and say, all right, all the gifted kids come with me. And then they would get up and leave. You were like, hey, where are they going? They're like, oh, those are the gifted kids. They're gifted, and they do special things.

What about us? What are we? Well, you're the rest of them. And here's some glue. Eat that. You know, that's kind of like that. I'm like, fine, all right? And then you just find those kids and beat them up.

That's what you do. But anyway, that's different. Well, guess what? If you're in Christ, congratulations. You're gifted. Every single believer in Christ has at least one spiritual gift, and no believer has all the spiritual gifts, therefore we need one another.

And then part of the way that the Spirit of God sanctifies and strengthens us is by what's called the fruit of the Spirit. That as we go deeper and deeper and deeper in our relationship with the Lord, then what begins to be produced from the inside out, not manufactured from the outside end are things like love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. Why? Four, four, the building up of his church. And then the third thing.

So the three things that the resurrection of Jesus teaches us is it is finished, but he ain't finished with us. And the mission is not finished. This is why Jesus says that we are to take the gospel to all people. And then he promises us this. And lo, I will be with you all. always even to the very ends of the age. This is a part of what it means in this life to be united with him in a resurrection like his. Verse six, this we're going to spend most of our time.

For we know that our old self, that word matters. It literally means old man. We know that our old man or old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. There's a couple of phrases. There's at least four phrases here that matter a bunch. The first one, old man. Old man.

Did you know that if you are in Christ, there is an old man and then there's a new man or an old woman and a new woman? And what this means is that the old you is dead and done. The old you has been crucified. This is what we talked about last week. It's the whole point last week. You don't have to do the things that you used to do

because you're not the person that you used to be. And what begins to happen, what will happen in the life of every believer is this. You may not have used this language, but you've experienced this. You ever get the whispers? You ever just, you know, things are going okay with you and the Lord. You show up here to church, you get stirred up. You sing for the very first time. You did the, like, you pledged allegiance to the Lord.

You know what I mean? Like, you were really into worship. And like, or you got stirred. He came to the altar. You made a promise. Lord, I'm going to do this different. Whatever. Praise God, man.

That's incredible. And by the time you got in your car, you begin to get the, hey, you can't do this. these are the whispers. This is the enemy lying to you. You know what happens to me? Mostly? Thursday afternoon. Sunday morning.

Then again on Monday morning. And here are the whispers. The whispers are, bro, why shouldn't anybody listen to you? If they only knew, and then the enemy just starts to drum up some stuff, some struggles, some sins, some temptation, some failures in my life.

And what helps me is for me to know what the old man is. So actually, when the enemy lies to you like that way and says, who do you think you are to talk about Jesus when you have? I find the best thing to do is just meet him right where he is and lean in and be like, oh, it's actually worse than you think, devil. You can only see the external things of what I've done. If you know how wicked I was in here, you'd really have a heyday. But guess what?

Man, the more you want to point to my past, can I just point you to your future? Because you're heading in one direction. I'm going in another one because that's the old me. The old man And by the way W. You messed it up. See, the things that you're bringing up, that's the old Jobie. He's dead.

He has been crucified with Christ. He don't even live no more. And so that's what this is. We know that the old man, our old self, was crucified with him in order that. The body of sin. You know what this means?

This is gross, which I love. In the first century, if you were convicted of murder, in many Roman cultures, what they would do is they would take the murdered body and they would strap it to you and you would and they'd be like all right you're good to go and you would have this dead guy that you killed on you and then they would say and they would make you tote the dead guy around as his body was rotting and decaying as a constant reminder that that was your you did that now you read that and you think oh that's pretty gross right well honestly

there's a lot of Christians that walk around like they've got the body of their old self still strapped to them. And what he's saying here is that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. That when Christ saves you, that sin that you've been toting around all your life, that he takes that thing and he takes it to nothing.

That he takes away that body of sin. And when it says the body of sin is brought to nothing, think of like, instead of body of sin, And think of like body of work. That you know that you have like a portfolio of sin. Some of you're like, I know it too well. Okay. Think about it that way.

That you have like a body of work when it comes to sin. If you were an artist or if you're in advertising, if you were an investor and I would just say, can I see your body of work? You'd be like, sure, here it is. And you've got like a portfolio of sin. And if you were to sit down with Jesus and he was leafing through it, he'd be like, oh, hmm.

Well, isn't that interesting? Oh, that's just gross. That's what he would do, right? And yet, when we know that our old self is crucified with him in order that, that body of sin, that portfolio of sin might be brought to nothing. Here's the way Paul would say it in the book of Colossians, chapter 2, verses 12 through 15. He says, very same language, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead, and you who were. dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. Now he's going to talk about this same body of sin or body of

work. Verse 14. By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to a cross. This is what Paul is saying here in Romans, that he took your portfolio of sin that you've been dragging around like a big rotten dead corpse on your back all your life and in Christ he goes hand me that and he takes the portfolio of sin the thing some things that we're proud of and we shouldn't be and a whole bunch of junk that we're ashamed of and he takes that thing and goes I'll take it and he cancels the record by nailing it to the cross that when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross if you put your faith in him that your portfolio of sin has been nailed to the cross. And then when that happens, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame

by triumping over them in him. Therefore, the enemy has no hold on you anymore. Why? Because he took that body of sin and he nailed it to the cross. Therefore, the enemy is weaponless. He is He is disarmed Is the way he says this

So he's got no power over you anymore So why do you let him You see sometimes we just have the wrong mindset We forget who we are The enemy comes after us with temptation And we forget who we are This would happen a couple years ago But I was, me and my kids were out

And we were feeding the geese Who's got like 10,000 geese in the front yard? All right, good, great. Why do you go on hunting trips to Canada? You could just kill them at my house, all right? So anyway. So we're out there feeding the geese, and then this one comes up, and it's kind of being aggressive. My kids are smaller, and she has some little baby ones.

And the baby ones are over there, my kids are trying to pet them, and then mama's over here and starts getting, you know, super aggressive. And at first, she's coming at me, she's, you know, and I'm like, I'm getting kind of nervous. And I'm like, oh, there she comes, and I'm getting my kids. And I start to run away. And then I think, hold on just a second. that's a goose it it don't have teeth it don't have it doesn't even have like a sharp beak i mean it's like a butter knife it doesn't have talons or claws or what's a goose going to do to me it has been somehow by the sovereign hand of god it has been disarmed what it's that's all they can do it can the worst it could

do on its best day is goose you just went and go oh okay you got me all right So in that moment, I realized who I am and who that is and turned around and thought, I don't think so, right? I didn't kick it far. So when you realize that you have been crucified with Christ, it's no longer you who live, but Christ that lives in you, then the enemy has no power over you. At best, he's like a goose. This is what he's saying when he says.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. That you're no longer enslaved to sin. This sin is not your master. Jesus is. Period. I mean, sin doesn't get to tell you what to do. Only Jesus does.

Sin doesn't get to tell you who you are. Only Jesus does. And the reality is, is that a human being, none of us own ourselves. We are all owned by something. and we were created to be owned by God, but he is the only master that does not oppress. This master sets us free.

This is what he's talking about here. Because you will belong to someone or something. And if you think not me, then you're probably a slave to your own pride. You want to know what you don't want to know what you belong to? It's where your heart's affection goes, is where your checkbook goes, it's where your calendar goes,

is what you worry most about, it's what you fear most, is where your hopes and dreams go. All of that points to what rules you. And what Paul is saying here is, your ruler is no longer sin. That if you have surrendered your life to Christ, your master is your father who loves you and sets you free. Verse 7.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. This means that you are free from the penalty. of sin. You are free from the power of sin. You are free from the presence of sin. You got to grab onto this. We're going to spend more time in Romans 8 on this, but you are set free from the penalty of sin. That's called justification. That means when you die in Christ, you hear well done, good and faithful servant. You are set free from the power of sin. This is sanctification. This is God transforming you over time, not overnight, where sin no longer reigns and rules over you, but Christ reigns and rules over you. So you don't, this doesn't, this doesn't,

doesn't mean you're perfect, but this means that Christ is perfecting you and that one day we will be set free from the very presence of sin. Not only will we be in our glorified bodies, but there are no tears, there are no aches and pains, there is no cancer, there's not even the presence of sin and the things that come along with it. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Verse 8. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you also must consider. That word consider means like, so you must also count or reckon or know or believe. Like if you're united in Christ and nobody here would think that Jesus is going to die over and over and over again, then you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The examples I use over and over and over, and I'm going to continue to use them because they're from Scripture. John chapter 11, Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus. He's been dead four days. He walks up to the tomb and the sisters are freaking out.

Literally in the King James it says this, but Lord he stinkest. That's what it says. And then Jesus says Lazarus come forth and the dead man is resuscitated. He's alive again, and he comes hopping out the grave. And then Jesus commands him, take off the grave clothes. Why? Because living people don't wear a dead man's clothes. And so this is what he's saying.

If you are dead to yourself and alive in Christ, then how could you possibly continue to walk around with the dead man's clothes? They don't fit you anymore. It's not just that sin is bad. It doesn't fit you anymore. That's not who you are. Greed and jealousy and covetousness and lying. It just doesn't fit you.

anymore, darling. You should clothe yourself in Christ because you are a new creation in him. Or at the pools of Bethesda, we talk about this all the time. At the pools of Bethesda, Jesus comes to a man who is a crippled man laying on a mat, a nasty, nasty mat. And he says, take up your mat and walk. And immediately the man gets up, rolls up his mat and he walks. And it would be crazy if three weeks later you bumped into the guy and he's laying on the mat again, you'd be like, what are you doing, man? That's gross. You don't have to lay back down in that. And so as a believer, when you have been set free from sin,

when we go back to those old ways from a heavenly perspective, that's what it looks like. What do you do and quit laying back down in that filth and that greed and that insecurity? What are you doing? You can walk. So pick it up and walk. Quit laying in it. See, that's different than quit doing bad stuff, isn't it?

Or how about this one? especially since it talks about Christ that he died to sin wants him for all but the life he lives he lives to God imagine if on the third day

when the disciples came like on Easter when the disciples came to the tomb and the stone was rolled away and they saw the angel and they're like and the angel said to them don't be afraid but he's still sitting in there

and they stuck their heads in and the resurrected Christ that's sitting in the grave. And they'd be like, hey boss, what are you doing? He's like, I'm alive. Whoa, what are you doing in here? I don't know. I think I'm just going to stay in here. And then 2,000 years later, we all go to Jerusalem on our tours, right?

And we go to see all of these, you know, the Sea of Galilee and Copernum and all this stuff. And then you go to the tomb and he's still in there. Hey, everybody. Lord? What are you still doing it? I don't know. I think I'm just going to stay in here. But isn't it's a grave and you're alive?

living people shouldn't hang out in graves. I just kind of like it. I think I'm just going to hang out in here. That seems crazy. I hope the Lord has a sense of humor for people like me, all right? But the reason I say that, you would look at that and you'd be like, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. What do you? Why are you, this is crazy.

God did not resurrect you from the grave for you to sit in this thing your whole life. There's a whole bunch of people that are good with just Jesus resurrecting them. But then you don't get on with living in the newness of life. He's just sitting in the same tomb that he resurrected you from. That would be crazy. What are you doing? Man, we have some people in our church, some amazing disciples of Jesus. There's this guy.

And I'm really not going to tell you who he is because I really didn't check with him. And he's been in our church for a while. And he was so moved by the stories that I've told about our compassion churches that we've planted. And in Brazil, there's some churches that we've planted around this. area and a whole bunch of the people in Brazil, they rummaged through the dumps, through the trash heaps to make a living, to eat out of the trash. And it's like families and generations of people have been doing this. And it's one of the saddest things I've ever seen. Literally children wrestling with vultures over a piece of meat. I mean, it's the saddest thing I've ever seen.

And so we've planted a bunch of churches around there to do something about it. Well, this brother in our church, he just happens to work for a trash company. And he ain't exactly drive in the truck. He's like the dude. He's the president, CEO of the whole thing. It's a big, big deal. And so in hearing about that, he was so moved that he went and joined the board of like the largest trash or the waste company in Brazil because he's going to do something about it. Now, hit pause right there. Let me give you just a one-off, a little free little sermonette. If you're a Christian and you find yourself in a position of power, whether it's economic power, racially, socially, whatever it is.

If you're a Christian, the matter of fault is irrelevant to us. The matter of responsibility is everything to us. So if you are a believer in Jesus and you find yourself in a position of power, the Bible says that we are to use a position of power for the sake of biblical justice. And biblical justice is not just striking down those in power or striking down those who have enacted injustice, it is also reaching your hand down to help up the people who have been treated poorly and to change the systems and structures in our world that we have authority and power over or influence over so that we not only declare the gospel

and we not only demonstrate the gospel in the way we treat each other, but we also display the gospel by bringing heaven to earth and making all things new. That's what this brother is doing down in Brazil. And dump by dump, they are changing things. He is starting, he's building recycling centers, these companies are building recycling centers right next to the dump, and they go into the dump, and they say, hey, you have a skill of sorting through trash and pulling out what is valuable. We want to employ you. So now you don't have to stand knee-deep in the trash anymore. Why don't you come working here in a clean, safe environment, and we'll give you a paycheck. That's what biblical justice is, by the way. Amen? This is legit. You know what the biggest

problem is? They can't keep the people from going back to the dump. And you scratch your head and you look at that and you'd be like, why? If you had this job and you had this new life and you had a paycheck, why in the world would you keep digging through the trash in the dump up to your knees and the waste? And heaven would look at Christians and go, yeah, we were going to ask you the same thing. We've been redeemed. We've been rescued. We have been taken out of the trash heap. And God has given us a new identity and a new job, a new person.

And yet the crazy thing is that we can go back, we can go back to the sin that we are dead to. This is what Paul is talking about. This is what sanctification is. verse 12 he says so let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions in other words he's saying your feelings your desires your cravings are no longer your lord and by the way believer you've been on that road before haven't you haven't you done the i'll do what i want with who i want when i want you've done that before how'd that work for you do you remember the deeply spiritual documentary back in the, I think it was the 90s, the Matrix, remember that?

Remember when Neo's in the car and he's the little thing came out of his bed, right before the belly button situation? And he's about to get out the car and it's raining hard. And he's like, I'm out of here. And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, here's what they say to him to go, you've been down that road before you know where it goes. This is what Paul's saying. Look, you have been down the road before of your desires, your feelings, your cravings, your appetites. When they lead you, it does not lead to life every time it leads to death it's like it's like feeding my dog cotton candy you ever feed you dog cotton candy they're like oh god that's awesome i mean they love it man they just lose their bond over it a lot of us do that man we see something we're like oh my god

have it and then you live on a cotton candy diet you die it's a sweet sweet death until that very end right when the stuff starts shutting down this is what he's talking about when sin reigns in your immortal body, it will kill you. You become a subject to your passions. It will kill you. And Jesus has given us life, is what he's saying. Verse 13, he's going to get real practical here. He says, do not present your members.

That means like the parts of your body. To sin as an instrument for unrighteousness. But present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death of life. And your members to God as instruments for righteousness. In other words, this is not just a philosophy. that we have to take action here. Like, you get to tell your fingers what to do, don't you? So if you struggle with pornography, the next time you sit down at your laptop, quit telling

your fingers to type in porn and tell them to type in preaching. This is what he's saying. Or if you struggle with just slothfulness and laziness and you're wasting these precious moments that God has given you. Tell your eyeballs before I waste my life scrolling through Facebook comparing the real me to the fake them. Tell your eyeballs. Now I'm going to look at Bible verses before I do that. This is what he's saying. That before you tell your hand to reach out and grab that bottle or bong or whatever that thing is you're going to grab, tell your hand instead, reach out and grab the phone and call somebody from my disciple group. Don't submit your members to

unrighteousness, but smit your members to God. Make these things work for you to work for the Lord. It's that kind of practicality he's talking about. I'm telling you, man, I'm in a great disciple group. I think our group text is better than our group. Can I be honest? This is what this means, man. Boy, if you saw my disciple group, you'd be like, is it working? So months ago, we get this text from this brother. And he's like, hey man, group text. This ain't private. This is more than a dozen of us. He goes, I'm at a convention in Vegas, and I'm single. There's a bunch of girls here. This girl's talking to me right now.

His tech, pray that I don't have sex with her. Some of you Baptist went, what? Because let me tell me what happened in your church. You couldn't say that? So the dude would be hooking up, and then he'd lie about it when he got home. And it would just be destruction in his life. Here's a brother that put his member, he submitted his members to the Lord and said, instead of these fingers going, hey girl, he took his fingers.

And he got on his text, I need help, brothers. You know what happened? Everybody, like every 30 minutes, what are you doing now? What are you doing now? What are you doing now? I mean, that's what he's talking about, man. That's accountability. This is what he's talking about.

Let me tell you, that brother was being serious about sanctification. That's what was happening. The fake you's doing just fine. The fake use doing just fine. Real Jesus died on the real cross for the real you. This is what he's saying. Verse 14, for sin, will not have no demeanor. dominion over you since you were not under law but you were under grace.

And you know what our problem is, man, we are prone to wonder. Prone to wonder. I don't know a lot of believers that wake up in the morning. You know what I'm going to do today? I'm going to ruin my life. Yeah, I've seriously, man. I've heard about this heroin. I'm just going to do it. Have you tried it?

I've never tried it before, but I'm going to do a lot of it right now. I don't know that guy. You know what people wonder, man. I don't know the guy that wakes up me. You know what? I never drank before. Today, today I'm becoming an alcoholic. No.

It's like a slow drink. I don't know the brother that wakes up and going, yep, custody battle for my kids. That's what I want. What are you talking about? You've been a faithful husband. I know, but I'm going to just throw it all the way right now. No. Prone to wonder.

Just like one little step at a time. Like a cow grazing. You know? You ever know, it's not a lot of cow crossing signs. They're not like deer. They go, chum, and jump across. They just eating a little bit here. I'm like, oh, look, there's some over here, and they eat that.

And then you know why you got to put up cattle guards and cattle crossings? Because they'll just wander out into danger. And we are prone to wonder. So what do you do? You don't get lazy. You fight. You fight. This is what he says.

For sin will have no dominion over to you. These are like battle terms. It's like there's a third. grown in your heart. If you were in Christ, you or the enemy was on the throne of your life. When you surrendered your life to Christ, then Jesus dethroned you and that enemy. And now he is the righteous ruler and reiner in your life. The problem is there's all these like insurgents out there around you. This is what we'll talk about when we get to seven, chapter seven.

And they still, they just won't let up on the attack. There's this war between who you are in Christ and this flesh that you still have that like war is against you. And you've got to fight. The way the reformers would say it and the old Puritans is you've got to kill the sin because it's trying to kill you. You know what a lot of us like to do? We like to tame our sin. We like to tame our sin.

I'm telling you, three times a year in the paper, somebody's pet, wild animal, eats their face off, and everybody's surprised. No way. Fluffy the cougar ate her face off? Uh-huh. If you have a cougar for a pet or a jaguar, as cool as that will be, it's going to eat you by the neck meat one night. That's what it does. And they're like, how good, it was so, listen, it was, it's a predator.

It's what it does. Sin is a predator. The enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy you. And so the theological term for this is called mortification. This means that you get to war over the things that are warring against you. And here's what you do. You better identify the lure that tempts you. If it's lust of the flesh, you better flee.

You better flee. Don't flirt. If it's lust of the eyes, that means you want to have stuff. You better be dang generous. You should write checks till it hurts to war against that greediness in your life. It's the pride of life. Like you want to be somebody. You better celebrate some other people in public.

You fight against those things that are trying to kill you. And you know the best way to keep weeds out of your yard is not just to pull weeds. You've got to pull weeds. But the best way to kill the weeds is have really healthy grass. Nobody has ever accidentally had the yard of the month. Nobody's ever neglected their yard into the yard. You don't walk out, especially in Florida, you don't walk out and be like, well, golly, look at these azaleas. They're beautiful.

How did that happen? I don't know. Watch the masters. I got azaleas. It's crazy. No, man, you neglect your yard in this state for a second. The chinch bugs go, it's gone. The same thing is true in your spiritual life.

So not only is there mortification, you kill the things that are trying to kill you, but there's vivification. You do the things that stir your affection for Jesus. I was going to give you a list of them, but we have a really great tool on our website. It's called the discipleship journey. If you go to COE22.com slash disciple groups, you can download this thing. There's a 10-minute video of me talking about it. Somehow, I think we've filmed it two years ago, and I look 12 years younger, so imagine that.

But, and all it is is a bunch of questions you should ask yourself. It will help you identify how to stir your affections for Jesus. And it's also on the app. Now, here's the truth. About six of you will do it. About six people are going to do it. And the problem with that is, here's the problem. man, because you'll look at something like this and you got, I got this.

I'm telling you, bro, you ain't got this. You'll never meet the person walking closely with the Lord that accidentally wondered into that. We are prone to wonder, not towards God, but away from him. And so here's the point. When Jesus is your Savior, he not only saves your soul from eternal damnation and praise God for that, but he not only saves your soul from. from eternal damnation in the next life, but he sets you free from the slavery of sin in this life. If you've been coming here for a while, what's the thing I say at the end of every single service?

Be free. That's not so you'll quit smoking. It's so that you will walk into freedom that Christ has purchased for you. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And Jesus says that I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly. You know what an abundant life is? John Piper says, heaven, heaven would be when you're in your glorified state, you wake up every day, not that you sleep in heaven, but this is just an illustration. He says, heaven is waking up every day and doing whatever you want and having zero regrets.

Because the things that you want to do is to glorify God. And that satisfies you more than anything else. So can you just imagine? Imagine living a life not marked by sin. Imagine no jealousy and no insecurity and no shame and no guilt and no greed and no fear and no loneliness and no unmet expectations and no no evil cravings no scarcity no regret and then instead imagine living a life marked by grace marked by an abundance Jesus said I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly imagine having an abundance of love whole what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us that we would be called the children of God imagine that you had such an abundance of love that it spilled off of you and everybody around you.

It kind of got on them and they would look at you and they'd be like, you're one of the most loving people I've ever met. And imagine having an abundance of joy. Like even in the worst circumstances that somehow that you had this deep, this deep okayness down in here that was not subject to your circumstances because you had subjected yourself to the Savior. And imagine having an abundance of peace, the kind of peace that when you got bad news somehow, you know, like, it ain't okay right now, but it's going to be okay, because it is well with my soul. And that peace was not rooted in the things around you, but peace was rooted in the person of Jesus. And imagine having abundance of things like gentleness and kindness.

Or how about this one, an abundance of self-control. Can you imagine that? An abundance of self-control. Like it wasn't even hard for you to look at some stuff that used to rule you and go, uh-uh. How about having an abundance of patience? Can you imagine? Apparently Lord's trying to teach me some patience, man, coaching baseball all these years.

I can't imagine that a life not marked by sin. And I would look at some of my baseball players. I told you years ago I'm coaching T-ball, man. I look over at third base. This kid is laying face first. on the sand, scooping up a mound of dirt with his hat. I'm going to be like, you know your parents pay for this, you know? I got a kid right now.

He's playing third base, man. He's out there like this. Base is loaded, two outs. I'm like, hey, bro, ball hit to you, step on third. Okay, coach. I'm six feet away. Ball hit to him. He gets it to the dugout.

I'm like, in that moment, I got to remember, okay, the jovie that would strangle him is dead. You're dead, man. That's dead. dead but an abundance of patient for that boy because here's the thing when i when i get impatient with that kid you know what i do you know what i forget how patient the lord is with me how loving the lord is with me how kind the lord is to me how self-control the almighty judge of the universe when i sin he didn't go all right you remember that wages of sin it's over for you no no no no no no even god was self-controlled towards me and that life that life that life is marked not by the

law, but marked by grace. Paul would say it this way in Philippians 3, 12 and 13, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I don't consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forget what lies behind me, that's mortification and strain toward what lies ahead. That's vivification. So, church, may you, may you, by the power. By the power. of the resurrected Christ in you. May you forget those things that lie behind. Why?

Because the old you is dead. And may you walk in the power of the resurrected Christ in you and do the things that stir your affection for him. And that's what it means to walk in the newness of life. Would you please stand and pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything

because you're the only one worth it. And God, I thank you that this is love. not that we loved you, but you loved us first. And you sent your son as the payment that satisfies on our behalf. And so, God, I pray for every single person. Lord, I pray that first and foremost we would find our identity in you. And as we understand that we have been united in you, that the same power that brought you out of the grave and back to life,

that same power lives in us and changes everything about the way we live. and that we would build our lives, not on the fickle things of this world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, but we would build our life on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Satan. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.