The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 16: What is Wrong With Me?

Episode Date: May 6, 2018

We are not mistakers that need to try harder. We are sinners that need a Savior.

Amen, amen. How are we doing, church? Do it good? Good, good. I don't know if you're ready for this. Grab your Bibles. Romans chapter 7 is wherever we're going to be. Romans chapter 7. We're 16 weeks into this study in the book of Romans. And I don't know. How's it going for you? Is it going okay? I feel about the same way. Simultaneously, like they're parts of it. They're good. I've been encouraged. You know, God's challenged me like crazy. But if I'm quite honest, man, it is a butt kicker too. And if you don't like me saying butt kicker, you're really going to hate today's sermon, because we're going to talk real about what Romans 7 does to us. Because as, I mean, if you think it's hard to like listen to it, you should try preparing to preach it. And I particularly mean what Romans 7 is talking about. So I've been simultaneously encouraged by it, but also just beating down. It's almost like a really good workout.

You know what I mean? You ever getting one of those deals where you didn't mean to sign up for that class or something? You were just going to go jiggle with the rest of them for your 30 minutes and not really do anything to improve yourself physically. But you feel better about being at the gym for that 30 minutes. But then sometimes you get involved with some people and they're working out real hard and they push you and they challenge you. And you feel like this is the worst thing I've ever done until you get through it and then you realize I think that was good for me. This is what Romans 7 is for me. And since the moment we decided that we were going to preach the Book of Romans, I knew when we got to this chapter it would be something.

And so I'm going to do today something I was warned that I should never do in seminary. The good news is I don't do anything I was taught in seminary. So it should just kind of be normal. But I'm just going to kind of throw up all over the stage a little bit. And so it's cheaper in therapy. So if you're with me, you're going to really get into this and the Spirit will do his thing. If you need like a perfect pastor, you're going to hate today. And so that's where we're going to go.

One of the things I'm really excited about and what the church is and what God is doing through our church is not only is he doing stuff to us, but he is doing stuff through us. It's just true. Like the video we just saw, God is planting churches through us. Like docks of church that will be planted out of here later this year, and Anthem Church that was planted out of here earlier this year, and the campuses that we're going to continue to put all over the city, that's pretty awesome.

And the churches that God is planting all over the world through the Church of 1122. And not only that, what God did through us last weekend. Last weekend, we had our compassion weekend. and we sponsored 1,795 children. Amen? Just so you know that it's the number one compassion event in the Southeast in the history of Compassion International. And it could have been Reagan coming on stage. That was pretty manipulative, wasn't it?

But I don't care. It worked like crazy. But that means almost 1,800 kids were rescued from poverty in Jesus' name. And so if you were not a part of that, if you were not here, then we still have packets in the lobbies of all of our campuses. And so I feel like we need at least five more just to get to an even 1800. That's way better than 1795. And interestingly enough, during the weekend, last weekend, a girl named Prossy emailed me. Prossie is a girl that was one of our collective as a church.

She was one of our compassion kids. She was a part of the LDP program, which means that we sent her through college. She was like the best and the brightest as a packet kid. She graduated high school. She was like the top of her class kind of thing. And so we as a church sent her through college. And she just happened to, I don't know that she knew that we were doing Compassion Weekend, but she emailed me and said this.

This is the email. She says, hello, Daddy. She calls me Daddy because she didn't have a daddy and she doesn't have a mama. So she calls me and Gretchen, Mom and Dad. And in fact, she's changed her name to Procy Joby. Because she didn't have a family. She says, we are her family. And apparently she didn't understand how last names work.

But whatever, that's a different thing. So, whatever. So she says, hello, Daddy, well, well done. That means like, hey, in African, I guess. How is everyone? How is the ministry? I really miss my father regards to the entire family of COE-22 and my siblings, that would be J.P. and Reagan as well.

And I replied back, praise the Lord, Prossie. But this weekend is our compassion weekend, and our church has sponsored 1,795 Compassion Kids. And then here's how she responded. And by the way, we have a picture of Prossi. This is me and Prossi from two years ago, I think, or last year, a few of us were in Africa training some of the pastors of the churches that we plant. And so we showed up there to do a pastor's training, and Proste showed up to meet us.

And when I emailed her to let her know, hey, I'm going to be there. I'd love to see you. Can I send you some money to get you some bus fare or taxi fare over to the city? And she was like, I don't need money. I have a job. And she grew up in a mud house with no shoes. She got a first pair of shoes when she was eight years old. And now she has eight people working for her.

She can pay her own bills. I mean, it's just an incredible story. And here's what she emails me back. This week, she says, wow, talking about what God is doing through compassion, through our church. This is so amazing, Daddy. I am humbled. Glory to God. Send my gratitude to everyone who has stood with us.

And the us there means every child in poverty. She says, send my gratitude to everyone who has stood with us. with us and compassion at large. For sure, if it wasn't for God and compassion, I don't know how life would be by now. I can now testify for God's faithfulness and goodness that through compassion, my life was turned around for good and through God's grace. I am even speechless. I am a living testimony. My heart is full of joy unspeakable, which causes me tears. Not that I am hurt, but because I am happy and grateful. She's talking to you here.

You are great people to us. Sent from heaven, not just mere men, but extraordinary. I love you all. Hope to see you again soon. God bless you. Prossi. Amen. So to that I say, Church of 1122, well done.

Now it's not to our name, it's to one name under heaven whereby we must be saved, and there's one named it that deserves the glory. and the glory and the honor goes only to Jesus. But I hope it begins to stirring you this thing like, who am I and who are we, that we would be used by God to do such a significant thing? And so when I got those numbers back, that we had released almost 1,800 kids from poverty in Jesus' name, I would just say, church, I'm so proud of you as a church. I'm so more proud of that than the attendance numbers at Easter in that.

kind of thing. And it leads me to a place to just to just pray and thank God for what he is doing through this movement that is the Church of 1122. And then typically right on the heels of those kinds of moments where God does these incredible things, it's usually right about that time that I am most confronted by my total inability and unworthiness to pastor such a movement. And it could be because we dig around in Romans chapter 7. And Paul asked them like real questions in Romans chapter 7. There's this old dead missionary 200 years ago, and he wrote this down. This was his prayer.

Lord, let me make a difference for you utterly disproportionate to who I am. I've been praying that for a long, long time. Lord, let me make a difference for you that it's utterly disproportionate to who I am. And I think the Apostle Paul might see that prayer. And Paul would say, yeah, I would pray the very same thing. You see, by the time we get to Romans chapter 7, what happens when we get in this chapter, and when I read it, is two things simultaneously happen to me. I am simultaneously troubled like crazy at my own sin and sinfulness.

And yet, because of Paul's own trouble with his sin and sinfulness, it gives me great hope. You see, just to catch you up, here's where we're going to be. we are in the book of Romans. Chapter 1 was basically about this, that Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, that we are all without excuse, and that it is the grace of God, the kindness of God, the mercy of God, that he would convict us of our own sin. And then we get to chapter 2, which says, the kindness of God leads to repentance. That it's not just this outward obedience to religious rules, but it is an inward relationship with Jesus Christ. Then you get to chapter 3 and says, And the big problem, the big cosmic problem is sin.

But there is a bigger solution, and he is the Savior. That he is the just and the justifier. Then by the time you get to chapter four, Paul begins to introduce us to really the foundational idea of all of the book of Romans, that we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. In chapters 5 and 6 begin to talk about the implications of that justification by faith alone. That means that we are dead to sin and we are alive in Christ, that you're either on team Adam or your own team Jesus, and there are no exceptions.

And for two chapters now, we've been walking through what Paul is talking about when he says, Now you have been set free from sin. How can you who have been set free from sin still live in it? And there's just this theological realities over and over and over about being dead to sin and alive to Christ. to sin and alive to Christ. What shall we say? Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?

By no means for you. If you are dead to sin, how can you still live in it? And I don't know about you, but when I read through Paul's argument in the scripture on that, I think, yeah, that makes a ton of sense in my brain. And especially it makes a ton of sense when I'm kneeling down at the altar at the end of the service. All right, God, from now on, dead to sin, alive in Christ. Remember this? remember that sin has no power over you?

Remember I said that sin has no power over you and so you've got to remember that. You've got to preach the gospel to yourself. You've got to remind yourself that the body of your sin had been nailed to the cross and when Jesus says it is finished, it disarmed the enemy and sins power over you. So quit living in it.

Dead men take off or dead men wear dead man's closed. But if you're alive, you don't wear dead man's clothes anymore. Remember that? I hope so. I preach my brains out over it, and you're just looking at me like I'm speaking Spanish. What are you doing? And so we do that, and you feel super good. And then by Tuesday, you look at your own life, you're like, well, I thought I was dead to sin. How come I'm just like wading all in it again?

Remember I said sin has no power over you? It's like I was, these geese are in my yard, and my kids were with me. And we got in between, like, Mama Goose and whatever the little ones are called. and they were hissing. And at first I started to turn and run, then I remember, this is just a goose. You got no power over me. You don't even have, you don't even have like a beak.

You got a bill. It's not even sharp, you know, no talons. What's the worst thing to do? It was goose you? Remember that? Did the whole spiel on that? Well, about 100,000 people saw this event on a golf course two weeks ago and sent me these decks.

So what happens when the goose is wearing you out? Look at what happened to this kid. It's a high school golf match. Literally the week I talked about. The goose has no power over you. Next picture. It doesn't just stop there. One more picture.

I'm telling you. Well, so much for my illustration. All right, that's enough of that. That's crazy. So what happens when the goose is kicking your tail? I mean, you stand in here, and you go, I'm dead to sin. I'm alive in Christ. See, the problem is the kid run from the goose.

You don't run. You got to turn. That's a different sermon, all right? And so this is what we're going. what chapter seven is about. He ends chapter six, verse 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And so Paul is going to explain this idea of what does it mean to be dead to sin and alive to Christ. That's where we pick it up in chapter 7, verse 1. And really, the first 14 verses for me are like intro to where I really want to get, so you've got

to listen way fast, okay? Or do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law, this means church people, that the law is binding on a person as long as he lives. Now remember, he's not talking about physically lives. He's going to use that as an illustration. He's going to talk about the law, the Old Testament, the Bible. It's only binding on someone as long as you live under it. But we have died to the law. We have died to sin and we have been resurrected to Christ.

That's what he's talking about. Verse 2. Now, he's going to give an illustration here, and we're not going to spend very much time on it. And let me just warn you, the point of illustration is not the illustration. is not the illustration itself. He's going to be talking about marriage and remarriage and adultery and all this stuff. And so don't get all wrapped around the axle about what he's saying about marriage and remarriage here. We're going to spend a bunch of time on that this fall.

But just here's what the illustration is. For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives. For if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. In other words, if I die, Gretchen is free to date and marry whoever she wants to. You can't be faithful to a dead person. She is no longer under the law. till death do us part. And we died, we parted, all right?

And so if I die before she does, I hope she does get remarried. All right? So God's very rich and shortered me, all right? And so she's slightly disappointed her whole life. But whatever, okay? So that's my own pride. We'll talk about that later, verse 15. Verse 3, accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man

while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law. And if she marries another man, she is not an adult. So here's what she's saying. Here's what it's saying. If you're a Christian, okay? If you're not a Christian, just hang in there for a second. If you're a Christian, it means before you were in Christ, then you were married to the law.

Or in other words, your only hope for righteousness or a right standing before God would be called what we would call self-atonement, that every sin has to be paid for. And you are saying, okay, I'm going to pay for my own sin. And the way that I'm going to pay for my own sin is I'm going to achieve a right standing before God by obeying all the law. Turns out that doesn't work. So when we are in Christ, we die to that way of thinking, and we are married to or joined to a substitutionary atonement. Saying, okay, God, instead of me trying to earn my way to you, I'm going to receive the free gift of Jesus, that I'm saved by grace through faith, not in what I can do, but what he did.

So now I am dead to the law and sin. I am no longer joined to the law and sin, but like a marriage, I am now joined to what Christ did for me. Verse four. Likewise, my brothers. You also have died to the law through the body of Christ. You see, this is the message of the gospel. This is what I mean when I say, hey, listen, the message of the gospel is not, God is good, you are bad, try harder, see you next week. The message of the gospel is, God is good.

You're not bad. You're dead. and in Christ he has made us alive and we are joined together with him so that you may belong to another to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. So in other words, now that you belong to Jesus, you're not under the law and yet we should fulfill the law because we have been changed from the inside out.

A guy named Huck Ross, the dad of one of our staff members, gave me a present. sitting on my office when I got in today. And it says this, this is a little thing. It says, live your life so that the preacher won't have to lie about you at your funeral. That's what Paul is saying, all right. I think that's great. Verse five.

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. You get this? For while we were living in the flesh, before we knew Jesus, or it's just in our flesh, our sinful passions, like these things that are just in there, these things that we want, these things that we desire, these appetites that we have. Listen, they're all just there. And when you were married to the flesh or married to the law, then most often we are just obedient to those sinful passions, to those appetites.

In fact, this is the prevailing commentary. on our current culture, that you just need to do what you want to do. That if it feels good, do it. That in order for you to be true to your true self, then the only way for you to be true to your true self is to never tell yourself no, but to only tell yourself yes. Now, the problem with this, the problem with feeding this kind of appetite, is an appetite is never fully and finally satisfied.

And an appetite has a very, very limited vocabulary, more and now and that is it and so Paul is saying when you feed that appetite it will bear fruit but it bears fruit for death verse 6 but now we are released from the law having died to that which held us captive

so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code see if you don't understand this first this is the essence of Christianity especially if you're like a good old church person. So basically what Paul is saying here is that you have died to that which has held us captive

so that we serve in the new way of the spirit, not in the old way of the written code. You see, since we all know that we have these passions, these desires, these appetites that are not only not godly but not good for us, there are one of two ways to deal with it. You can obey the written code. And again, we all grew up with different written codes,

depending on where you're from. I grew up kind of in and around Southern Baptist land, and so the written code I grew up with is this, is that good Christians don't drink, smoke, or chew, or go with girls who do. That was our written code. There was some commentary on that, but that was basically it.

We were taught to believe that you just don't do anything worldly, like you don't go see a rated-ar movie. Because if Jesus returns while you're in the movie house, and it's a rated-ar movie, he ain't getting you. So I'm telling you, I can remember standing there at Terminator 2 going, is it worth it? I mean, it's two hours, but it's kind of awesome. I mean, I don't know, okay?

That's the written code. And he's saying that's the old way. It's not about you trying harder and being better. The other way is the new way of the spirit. That Christianity is not sin management. It's a debt paid. Those are two different things. That being of a Christian is not, all right, Jesus,

I'm going to obey your teaching. and if I obey well enough, then hopefully one day I will be accepted by you. That is not Christianity. That is what gets taught a ton, but that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus is, because I am accepted by you, not by anything that I have done, but because what Christ did for me on the cross, because I am first accepted, therefore that will drive my obedience. That's what Paul says in chapter 1, verse 5, that there is an obedience from faith, not an obedience it's for faith.

And honestly, I think week after week after week, we preach the gospel and preach the gospel and preach the gospel. It's not about what you have done. It's about what Christ has done for you. It's not try harder. It's stay closer because if you stay close, he begins to do stuff in you and that stuff in you begins to produce fruit on the outside of you. And I'm telling you, when I read it in the book, it makes so much sense.

In fact, sounds kind of easy. Just die to your old self and be alive in Christ. Therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So you go, yeah. Then we play an awesome song at the end, get the lights right, makes it feel awesome, doesn't it? And those times are important. The problem is, is when I walk outside, I walk out with me. And I begin to ask this question, which is what we titled the sermon,

what is wrong with me? What is wrong with me? You see, based on things like chapter 5 and chapter 6 that we are dead to sin and alive in Christ, people have said to me hey listen if you were really a christian you wouldn't struggle with the things that you used to struggle with to which i go uh-oh or here's a prevailing thing that i've heard taught when you really love jesus then you won't even love the things of this world anymore uh-oh because i'm gonna confess i'm really into this jesus thing i have been very committed for many many years i am and yet there are things of

this world that I know right now, especially right now, they seem gross. But at other times, they don't seem not gross. And I know they'll kill me, they'll kill my family, they'll kill our church, and yet there are these things that go on in me that somehow I'm just as tempted by those things as I was when I was 15 years old. Explain that to me. Then for almost 30 years I'm following after Jesus and yet some of these very things that I'm supposed to be dead to seem just as alive and well in my life as they've ever been. For, I don't know, a hundred years or so ago, there was a theology that began to be taught primarily in the United States and in western parts of Europe.

And it was called perfectionism that if you're really in Christ, then God would sanctify you to a point where sin had no hold on you anymore and you didn't even struggle with it. those things. And very smart people like J.I. Packer would look at that and think, uh-oh, then there is no hope for me. Is that what Paul's saying? In fact, what Paul's going to do is say, no, that's not at all what I'm saying. In fact, Paul goes the exact opposite direction. For the rest of this chapter, Paul is going to, can we just, can we just all agree here? Paul's a Christian at this point? I mean, he's halfway through the book of Romans. He's in, right? all right and he says this what then shall we say that the law is sin by no means yet if it had not been

for the law i would not have known sin for i would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet but sin seizing the opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness for apart from the law sin lies dead i was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Here's what he said.

Here's the way it would play out today. Pastor Jobi, if you just keep talking about how the gospel is not God is good and you're bad, try harder, but the gospel is that we're saved by grace, isn't that going to be produced the kind of church that everybody just is okay with their sin? I mean, if you keep saying it's not a list of rules, I don't know if you've read the Bible, there's a bunch of rules in here. So do you mean to say that you're throwing the Bible away and say, none, no, no, no, it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter at all what you do because it's just grace, grace, grace. This is what the opponents of Paul would say in this day too, and to which Paul is going to say, that's not what I'm

saying at all. And I would echo, that's not what I'm saying at all. That this law, when the Bible in Romans says law, it actually can mean a few different things, but we'll just go Old Testament law, just what the Bible says. That God gave us the gift of His word, really as two things. It's both a map and a mirror. That God gave us his law, first of all, as a map to show us how on earth we should live. To show us, you see, he is the author of all life, so he may know how to do life better than you do. Now, I know you're super smart, all right, and you're an executive VP somewhere, and you only took you two throughout trials through the eighth grade. I know you know a lot, but God's ways of doing all things are better than our ways. I mean, whether it's money or sex or

relationships or forgiveness or health or whatever it is, that this is a map to show us what it looks like to not only live right with one another, but to live right with him. And yet, It is also a mirror, a mirror that when we hold up to God's perfect standards and we see the reflection of who God is in His perfectness and in His holiness, and we see our distorted image compared to him, we go, uh-oh, there's a real problem. I mean, even if I just measure myself against the first Ten Commandments, it's just the most of the top ten, that I come up, oh for ten. And so Paul, are you saying, are you saying that the law is bad?

And Paul goes, no, no, no, the law was given to you as a gift so that you would see God's perfect holy standards and see that you don't measure up to it. In fact, how would you know that you were speeding if there was not a speed limit? There's not just this general drive safely on 95. Because again, some of you cats will go 46 in the left lane and create a whole level of sin in me that I don't want to talk about right now.

Some of you will go 106, putting on my own. make up while texting, feeling perfectly safe, while the rest of us may die from your craziness, all right? Therefore, there is a law established so we know what is over the line and not over the line. And a part of what he says here is this, that there's some things in me that I didn't even know were there until I was told that I wasn't supposed to do them. You ever been there? Look, all last week, Gretchen and I were in Scotland.

Okay, we were in Scotland. It's pretty great. I preached to the church there last week, and we visited a ton of churches and castles and all this and every place that we would go, you'd walk in this building and pretty much every sign said, don't touch this and don't walk on that. And every place, I don't know what is wrong with me, but every time I see a don't, I think that it doesn't mean me. That's what I think. It says, don't touch this. And I would just go, and Gretchen's like, she's such a rule follower, all right? She is. Like, if you play monopoly with her, she won't let you buy a hotel until you get four houses.

I'm like, who does that, all right? Anyway, she does, because that's what the rules say. You didn't even know that, cheaters. And so I would just touch stuff. She goes, why did you touch that? I was like, because it said, don't. I don't know, all right? It says, please keep off the grass. And I just, over the rope.

And I'm just, I don't know what is wrong with me that I feel like I have to do that. And you two, remember one time we built a barn in by backyard when I was growing up. My daddy was going out of town. He goes, whatever you do, son, don't get up on the barn. I had a tin roof. Don't get up on the barn. To which I thought, it did not even occur to me. to get up there.

And now I have to. I have to. I have to. And so I got up there and I thought I was, and I pulled the trampoline over to it, and I walked around on it, and I jumped off. And then when he got home, he was like, were you on the barn?

No way. He's like, you're lying to me. Dad, are you calling me a liar? He goes, nah, the dents and the tin roof are. All right? So, anybody with me, by the way? Am I the only person here? All right.

Welcome to 1122. So the law, so Paul uses that thing that goes on in us. So the law, or the Bible, is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. And the fact that there are things in the scriptures that confront us at the deepest level is evidence that there's a real problem. That you and I, we cannot live up to God's standards. Heck, we can't even live up to our own standards. And every time, not just when we read the Bible,

but when we really let it read us, then it lets us know, man, this book that he gave us is a gift. It is holy. It is righteous. It is good. Verse 13. Did that which is good then bring death to me by no means? It was sin producing death in me through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin.

And through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. Verse 14. that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. When you see that word sin, don't think about like us sin. Like you said a bad word, or you lost your temper with your kids or whatever. When you see this word sin, you think about this, almost like this force inside of you that is completely opposed to the rule in the reign of God. That's what he's talking about. And as we open up ourselves to the scripture and see the perfect, holy, good, righteous call of God on our life, what begins to happen is God's light begins to shine in us and we begin to see is there's a problem in here.

It's not that I was just, it's not that I was just greedy with my money that one time, but if I'm being honest, man, I'm just a greedy human being trying to keep everything that I can for me. And then even deeper than that, then I go on to you. to begin to justify my own greed to myself in light of who God is and his generosity through the cross. So when you see sin here, don't think about a mistake or a thing that we have done, but think about this sort of this thing going on inside of us. To which he gets to verse 15, and this is where it really turns up for me.

He says, for I don't understand my own actions. You ever been there? if I don't understand my own actions. You ever get busted for something and then somebody lovingly says, what were you thinking? And you legitimately go, I don't know. I mean, I wasn't. In that moment, I pretty much just thinking about me.

That moment, I pretty much was just responding like an animal to my own desires. In that moment, I was just saying, I don't care what you say. I do what I want with who I want, when I want. But as I look back on that moment right now, the question that I have is what Paul asked. I don't understand my own actions. Has they ever been there? You ever been there? And I'm going to tell you, man, part of the reason we started the church of 1122 is because my whole growing up as a Christian, I got saved as a teenager.

So the first couple decades, I wasn't really in church that much. But the times that I would go, I never once found one human being that ever admitted that being a Christian is hard. And I'm going to tell you, my own experience is being a Christian is not hard. It's impossible. I mean, it is fundamentally impossible. And I think what Paul is going to do in the rest of this section is Paul is going to go, me too. I don't even understand my own actions. I know what I want to do.

I know what the Bible says I'm supposed to do. I know the results of these actions if I were to do them. And I just want you to know this. If you've struggled, if you love Jesus, you really do, or at least you want to. And yet week after week after week, you find places in your life where you would just say this one, this half of a verse, I do not understand my own actions. Then I've got really good news for you. You were in the right place. Because let me tell you, let me tell you what I don't want this place to ever be.

I don't ever want this place to be a place where you feel like you have to fake it. Because we got to fake it, man. We just shut the whole thing down because God is worth more than us faking it on a weekend together. And listen, the fake you's doing just fine. And you know what I mean. Some of you driving here today, your day's not going good so far. And it's not even late yet. This is like the first thing that you've done today, and it ain't going good.

You fought in your house on the way, screaming and yelling and then you're just waiting in the car. And you're hung in the horn. You're coming? And then she's got to get the kids together and getting in you always late, just grumbling under your voice. drive here with the promise on the radio station, and you don't even say a word looking out of the window. And then you're like, what you're looking at? What's over there?

She's like, right, br-br-br-br-br. Kids quiet just on their iPods because they're freaking out. You park. You walk up to the door. People are like, good morning. How you doing? We're just blessed in Holly favored. You're a liar.

That's what you are. A liar. And then right now, you're thinking that she texted me. She didn't text me, bro. You know how I know. Let's just say I know too. Because I would say I don't understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

You ever been there? You ever do this thing and you go, what is wrong with me? What am I doing? I don't even want to do this. Why do I keep going back to it? Why do I continue to struggle with the same temptations that I did 10 years ago? Because listen, I've prayed, I've confessed, I had an elder prayed for me. They anointed me one time.

I wrote it on a card. I nailed it to a cross. I burned a thing. I threw it in a lake one time. I put a ring on. I made promises over and over and over. What is wrong with me? And what Paul is talking about is he intends to do the right thing.

You ever do that? You ever wake up in the morning and go, all right, today's going to be. be different. I mean, today is going to be the day that I don't, whatever it is, and then before lunchtime, you're like, well, here we are again. I don't understand my own actions. For I do

not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, Paul does make a distinction here. He is not saying that the life of every Christian is just that of total defeat always. Because there's a bunch of you just doing things, but you don't hate it.

In fact, what you're trying to do is justify to yourself how God is okay with it. Now the problem there, you do whatever you want, okay? The problem there is if you're doing that and then Jesus is not your Lord. For Jesus to be your Lord, that means he tells you what to do and you do what he says, whether you agree with it or not. Agreeance is pretty irrelevant to Lordship. But what Paul is talking about here is the Christian, the person that has surrendered their life to the Lordship of Christ. And yet seemingly on an ongoing basis has this struggle between what they do and they do this thing and they hate that very sin that they have done. Now, what's interesting is I'm studying for this. There's a whole

bunch of commentators, Christian commentators, on these kind of passages, and they are completely, they are completely uncomfortable with this view of Romans chapter 7. There's a whole camp of very smart commentators, way smarter than me, which doesn't take much, but you know what I mean, really smart commentators that say, no, no, no, what Paul is talking about here in Romans chapter 7 is Paul is talking about pre-Christian, that Paul is talking about people that struggle with sin because they don't know Jesus yet.

And I think the problem with that is the text. Because there's a whole bunch of first personal pronouns where Paul is like, no, no, no, I'm talking about I. I don't understand these things that I do. And the other thing about this text that I'm glad Paul didn't do is Paul never goes into detail about what exactly he was struggling with. Because I think if he had listed that thing, there would be a whole section in Lifeway Bookstore

about how you're not supposed to do that one thing. But Paul just generally speaking says, I don't understand what I do. Because I don't do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. So let me ask you, you ever been there? You ever been there? We'll start easy, okay?

You ever do that on your diet? You ever promise? All right. All right. Okay. All right. Beach baptism is coming up. May 20. All right. People are going to be in skivies out there and I ain't going to look as fat as I do now. No. Here's what I'm about to do. I'm signing up for stuff. I'm not eating this. I'm only drinking that during the times. Come on. Hold me accountable. All right. And then and then you do so good for like 12 hours. And then somebody invites you to eat. And you're like, well, okay, we'll go eat. Because the Bible says fellowship. You're supposed to have fellowship. Somebody orders nachos. and like, you know what, I'm just going to eat this. And then as your hand is reaching out to do that thing, you're like, what am I doing? And it's so good until it ain't.

And you're like, what am I doing? Are you ever do this with sleep? You ever do this with sleep? Every day of my life. I wake up early in the morning, tired, every day of my life. And I go, tonight, I'm going to bed early tonight. I don't even care, all right? And then at night, Greta's like, all right, you ready to go to bed?

She goes to bed early, like 10 o'clock. I'm like, all right, 9.30, something like that. I'm like, cool. I'll be there in just a second. I'm like, look, Doug Dynasty, and I've seen this one before. I know, I'll stamp another two hours and watch stuff that I've already seen. Over and over. Now, it's one thing when it's stuff like that, but what about when it's other stuff?

Like you ever go to a meeting? And you're walking into the meeting and go, okay, okay, this meeting, I'm not even going to say anything in this meeting, okay, because I'm a jerk and I know it, and I'm not going to even say a thing. And then you get in there and you're like, all right, I got to say something. You're fired. And you're like, what is this is going to be the meeting? That's going to be nice.

Are you yelling at your kids? You're in the van on the way to your family trip. Remember, not a vacation if the kids are there. You're on the way to your trip. And you and your spouse, you agree. All right, stacking hands. We're not yelling at the kids on this trip. It's going to be a happy trip, all right?

You don't make it outside of Greater Jacksonville. And you were screaming, I'll turn around. You're like, no, we spent too much money. We ain't turning around. All right? You're screaming. Yeah, but sometimes it's like drugs and alcohol. And you promised and you set limits and you hate it and you hate what it does to you

and it's killing your family. And yet you do it again and again and then you wake up going, what is wrong with me? Or it's pornography and you go, what is wrong with me? Or it's pride and you go, what is wrong with me? You ever been there? That's what Paul is talking about. then he gives some more commentary on it. Now, if I do what I do not want, which is often,

then I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. And again, my sin, he means like this alien evil force. It doesn't line up with the way I feel at the altar at the end of the service. And he says, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. Nothing good dwells in us within our flesh. I'll tell you one of the things I get criticized foremost is me talking about the reality that you and I are wretched blackhearted sinners. And people say, why he calls wretched all the time?

I don't know, because you are. Like, well, is that the message? That's not the whole message. It's just like the beginning. But I'm going to tell you, our current culture is the opposite of that. Today, in our current culture, we live in a world that says you need to obey your true self. you need to obey your instinct. Well, currently we're finding out that a bunch of rich and powerful men have been obeying their true self,

obeying their instinct, and they have been abusing women. And the whole world is like, what's wrong with you? They're doing exactly what you've been telling them to do for two generations. Turns out our real self is really, really wretched. Turns out that the worst advice you could ever have is to obey your heart or follow your heart. No way. Here's what Jesus says about your heart. He says what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart

and this defiles a person for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. Turns out Jesus saw this abuse thing coming from 2,000 years ago and says, hey, if you just identify with your true self, then guess what? Then there's going to be some abuse and some sexual immorality coming from right here in this place. This is what Paul is talking about here. When he says, I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what's right, but not the ability to carry it out. Anybody in that camp? Me too. I can't tell you how many times at the end of a service, at the end of my own sermon, me listening to my own words, go in my ear, get into my heart, and go, I should probably do what I just preached. Come down to the altar, bend my knee, bow my head, fold my hands and say, dear God, this week, this is how I'm going to treat my wife.

This week, here's how patient I'm going to be with my kids. And I've even got the right words, not because I'm a patient person, but because the fruit of the spirit is patience. I'm going to buy it. I mean, I can preach it so good to me. I think, oh, yeah, I'm moving my own self. That's good. And then in just a second, I desire to do it's right, but not the ability to carry it out. Now, I hope and I pray that what this text does is encourages you, not kills you. Because this is the life of every believer in the Bible. This is the life of every believer in the Bible.

You see, you should look at the map and the mirror of God's Word and your reflection. Understand, there's not a good thing in me. And yet, because Christ is in you, this does not mean that you're damaged goods and God is throwing you away. But guess what? The guy that's writing this, God used in a profound way for his glory. I mean, you look all through the scriptures. Every single biblical hero had major, major sin problems and flaws.

I mean, Adam is a kind of absentee husband. Eve can't control what she eats. Abraham's pimping out his wife and getting drunk. Noah got hammered. Moses killed a guy. You know what I keep going? Samson had a long hair. Jeremiah was depressed.

Peter denied Jesus over and over and over. And yet these are the people that God decides to use. And so Paul keeps going. Verse 19, for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Verse 20, now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that we're going. when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand, for I delight in the law of God in my inner being,

but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Here's what I would say. Is that if you are not in a war internally, then I don't think you're doing this Christianity thing, right. If you are not in this constant war, now the good news is this is the victory has already been won. The battle is over. I've read to the end of the book, I've seen to the end of the movie, we win. So good news, we win. This means that we're fighting from victory, not for victory.

But the life, the daily life of the Christian is that of an internal war within you. This is what Paul is saying. This doesn't mean that you just, you're just okay with the sin. in your life. No, no, no. He calls the sin in his life evil. He says that he hates it, that there are some things about you that you still go. I cannot believe. I am so selfish. I am so greedy. I am so lazy. What is wrong with me? And there is this war. And if you're not in a war, it means one of two things. You either don't take the holiness of God serious enough or you don't take your sin serious enough. And what the gospel will do in each and every one of us is it will increase our awareness of the and the majesty and the bigness and the perfectness of God.

And simultaneously, it will make us more and more and more aware of our own depravity, of our own selfishness, of our own idolatry. And those things go bigger and bigger and bigger. The gap between the perfection of God and who I actually am. They get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. The more and more and more you walk with Jesus. And then the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the thing that covers the gap between the holiness of God and the wretchedness of man is the ever-increasing awareness of the gospel of Jesus

Christ in our life. It's not that I'm getting better. It's that when Christ says it is finished that that counted for me, which leads Paul to say this in verse 24, wretched man that I am. Wretched man that I am. You see, when we take the gospel seriously, when we take the holiness of God seriously and when you're honest about your own idolatry in your life it leads to this place where you your self-diagnosis is wretched man that I am so a question should a Christian feel that way I would say one yes and two don't stay there both of those things are true simultaneously yes you look at your life and you look at who God is and you go what is wrong with me but if you stay there you're just be spiritually depressed for your whole life.

You see, that is just the diagnosis. He then goes on to ask a more important question. He says, wretched man that I am. And then he says, who will deliver me from this body of death? The most important word may be who, not what? He doesn't say, what will deliver me? He doesn't say, well, what can I do about my wretchedness? I know, I'll kind of unwretch myself this week.

I'll make some promises. I'll do better. I promise. No, that's not what he says. He says, who will deliver me? And then he answers his own question. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, here's what he's saying. He's saying that you and I are not mistakers in need of a life coach. The message of the gospel is not, hey, you struggle with stuff, stop. If you would just put these things in your life, then you wouldn't be such a bad person. That is not what the scripture is saying. The scripture, the gospel teaches. us that we are not mistakers that need to try harder, but we are sinners that need a

savior, that we understand that we are wretched and we get to the place where we go, who, who will deliver me? Because I know that I need to be delivered. I've told you this story a hundred million times, but I just, I can't think of another one. When I as a kid, we grew up hunting a lot, lot, lot. And I had a little beagle puppy named Daisy Duke because I had a crush on Daisy Duke. And I thought, if she found out, we would, she would fall in love of me. and we would spend the rest of our days in the Duke, you know, in Hazard County, and it'd be glorious. And so I had a dog, and we rabbit hunted, and I know that makes some of you sad, but that's okay. And so that's what we did.

And I got my first shotgun when I was, I don't know, third grade maybe, something like that. Seems crazy now, but that's just how I grew up. And so my little brother, he had a little big old rabbit dog, too, named the Incredible Hulk. Those are our two dogs. And so we had the Incredible Hulk and Daisy Duke, and Daddy would take us hunting every weekend. That's why we didn't go to church. We either hunt or fish. So that's where we were.

And we lived in South Carolina, and it was super, super cold one time, sometimes. And so we're out in the woods, walking around. And there's this little creek. In my mind, it seemed huge, like the St. John's River. Probably was six feet across, you know. And it was frozen over. And so we're walking through the woods. The three of us are together.

My younger brother has like a BB gun. I think I had a 4-10, and then my dad had his 12-gauge. And so we're kind of walking through the woods, trying to kick up some rabbits, so the dogs will do what they do, and the rabbits will do what they do. and Daisy Duke goes walking out on the ice on this creek. And we called to her and she doesn't listen. And she doesn't know exactly what to do. And so the ice begins to crack and we're like, come here, come on, come on, come on.

And then the ice is not that thick. And boom, she falls through. And I look down, she's about six or seven feet up above me. And she goes through the ice and the current from the creek just draws her right past me. And again, I'm a little kid, man, a little elementary age kid, and I'm looking in there, and there is my dog who I dearly, dearly loved that Santa Claus brought me. And when my dad would go out of town, not only did we disobey his rules about the barn, we would disobey his rules about the dogs, and we would bring them into the house and, like, put them in our bed,

and they were hunting dogs. You're not supposed to do that with hunting dogs. So when we would go hunting, they would half-hunt and they would have lick us in the face. You know, it was that kind of thing, man. And there she is, and she's under the ice. She's trapped. And the thing is she's trying to do everything within her ability to break through the ice to get to life. And she's scratching and scratching and scratching.

Now the reality is the thing that got her under in the trouble to begin with is she didn't do what my dad said. If she'd just do what he said, then she wouldn't be under the ice to begin with. And there she goes. And I'm helpless and she's more helpless. And she's trying with everything she's made of. She just can't break the ice from the bottom. And I think she's gone. And luckily, my dad is standing, I don't know, 20 feet down.

And he's aware of what's going on. He sees what's happening. He sees me freaking out and crying and screaming for Daisy. He can tell that Daisy's like scratching, scratching, scratching, and he waits and waits and waits. And at just the right time with the butt of his gun, he breaks through the ice and he reaches down into what would have been her death, grabs her by the back of the neck,

and just brings her up out of her certain death, and sits her beside him, and now she is alive. And that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That you find yourself, really, by your own nature and doing, going to places that you were told, don't go there, but you just can't help it. You've got to go see if the ice will hold you. And then when your world falls apart,

and you're drowning in your own sin, and you're drowning in your own death, and you try and you try and you try, but you just can't fix you. And you've tried so hard, but it's just not working. You feel like you can't just take a breath. And in the gospel of Jesus Christ is this.

And then at just the right time, when you cry out, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from me? And the almighty sovereign king of the universe breaks through sin, breaks through death, breaks through our own idolatry, puts death to death, and reaches through with his mighty, merciful and gracious hand, and grabs us by the back of the neck and brings us out of death and sits us down next to him alive. Alive.

Which leads to the next chapter, the first verse. Spoiler alert for next week. Therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Amen. So what do you do? What do you do with this ongoing struggle of sin in your life? Can I tell you what happened from then on?

Daisy was not a very obedient dog before that moment. From then on, she did whatever my dad said. She did. He let her ride home in the truck. That was crazy. I thought Jesus was going to return, okay? It was crazy. He would pet her and give her treats,

and she would just listen to him and walk with him. Why? Because I don't know. Somehow innately she knew that she was dead. Now she's alive in him. And when you know that, when you know, it's by grace that you have been set free. When you struggle and when you fall and when you sin,

not if, when. when you struggle and when you sin and when you fall, when you look at the current situation in your life right now today and you go, what is wrong with me? Then with that you go running to the father you don't run from him. And so what that means is that the way we close our services matter a bunch. We give you an opportunity to run to him. So the bands that all of our campuses are going to come and sing a song.

And we're going to stand and we're going to sing with them. But during this time, I dare you. I dare you. if some of the words of Paul resonate with you, what is wrong with me? There's these things that I keep doing I don't want to do and the good things I want to do, I can't pull that off. What is wrong with me? Who will deliver me?

Then would you just run to the altar? Would you run to the altar? The fake you was doing just fine. Martin Luther said that the life of the Christian should be that of daily repentant. So maybe here is one more day where you ask the question, God, who will deliver me? and you bring it to him and watch him do his thing in you, that maybe you would experience the truth, that therefore now there is no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. Would you please stand and pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you're so good and you're so gracious. And God, you loved us first, and you sent Jesus to break through the barrier of sin between us and you. And God, we know that this church is not just full of people that make mistakes sometimes. God, it's full of people that are, that there's nothing good in our flesh, that we are wretched to our core.

And yet, Jesus, you came on behalf of us to change us, to rescue us, to rip out our heart and give us your heart. And so, God, when we stumble and when we fall and when we sin, may we be a people that because of the gospel runs too. you and not from you. God, I thank you that you invite us, invite us to come and seek you, not just as king and not just as judge, but you invite us to come and seek you as Father, not because of anything that we have done, but simply because Jesus has paid it all. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.