Who am I?
- I am United with Christ. (Rom 6:1-5)
- I am Free from the power of sin. (Rom 6:6-7)
- I am Alive to God's purposes. (Rom 6:8-11)
- I am God's Instrument. (Rom 6:12-14)
Guest Speaker - Taylor Brown
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Well, I just wanted to take a little bit of time just to thank everyone for letting me speak again.
00:03-00:06
This has been one of the biggest highlights of my life, being able to preach at this church.
00:06-00:09
And it's just so encouraging to get texts from different people in the church.
00:09-00:12
They tell me they're praying for me and they can't wait to hear my message.
00:12-00:14
And you don't know how much that's meant to me.
00:14-00:15
So I thank you very much.
00:16-00:20
So when I was a little kid, I used to share a room with my older brother, Ryan.
00:21-00:24
And like most brothers, our favorite thing to do was what?
00:25-00:25
Wrestle, right?
00:26-00:31
So, sometimes it just started out as fun, but every single time it ended the same exact way.
00:32-00:34
Us trying to murder each other in anger.
00:34-00:38
And now my brother's four years older than me, so I literally had no chance of winning.
00:38-00:45
He would always be able to pin me with this move called the scissors, where he'd get me between his legs and squeeze as hard as he possibly could, and I wouldn't be able to breathe.
00:46-00:48
I had to tap out and beg for mercy.
00:49-00:52
And I remember this feeling like completely powerless against my brother in those moments.
00:52-00:56
I felt like no matter how hard I fought against him, I'd never be able to beat him.
00:57-01:02
And I think if we're honest with ourselves today, a lot of times this is how we feel about our sin, right?
01:03-01:08
No matter how much we struggle and fight against it, it always seems to constantly get the best of us.
01:09-01:14
It can feel like it's our boss and it's our bully telling us what to do, and we have no hope for change.
01:15-01:17
At least this is how I feel sometimes. I don't know about the rest of you.
01:18-01:30
But Romans 6 speaks powerfully to this idea that in Christ we are free from the power of sin and we no longer have to be victims any longer.
01:32-01:45
I've heard a lot of messages, I've heard a lot of sermons where the pastor yells at you and tells you to obey and tells you to follow the rules, but they're missing the key ingredient to true obedience, which is living out of your new identity in Christ.
01:46-01:56
See, I firmly believe that every single time We struggle with sin, we fall to sin, we're going through an identity crisis and we're forgetting who we truly are in Christ.
01:57-02:10
So I've simply entitled this message, "Be Who You Are in Christ." So you may be asking, "Who am I?" Well, I'm going to be showing you from Romans 6, 1-14, who you are because of Jesus.
02:11-02:15
And I believe the answer to this question has the power to change our lives.
02:17-02:22
As I read Romans 6, 1 through 14, will you please just bow your heads and close your eyes and just meditate upon these words?
02:23-02:28
And I know a lot of you have probably read this a lot, but just try to think on these words and it's like the first time you've ever heard them.
02:31-02:32
What shall we say then?
02:32-02:35
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
02:35-02:36
By no means.
02:37-02:40
How can we who died to sin still live in it?
02:40-02:46
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?
02:47-02:58
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.
02:58-03:05
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
03:06-03:22
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, for one who has died has been set free from sin." Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
03:23-03:27
We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.
03:28-03:30
Death no longer has any dominion over him.
03:31-03:33
For the death he died, he died to sin.
03:34-03:38
Once for all, with the life he lives, he lives to God.
03:38-03:43
So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
03:45-03:49
Let not therefore sin reign in your immortal body to make you obey its passions.
03:49-04:02
Do not present your members of sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
04:02-05:01
For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace God, I thank you so much for this word that you've given us through the Apostle Paul in Romans 6 Lord, I pray in this time you'd hide me behind your cross and your spirit would speak in and through me Lord I pray that any selfish motives are in my heart Lord You would just purge me of that Lord and my only motive would be to glorify you and to serve this church God, I thank you in advance for what you are going to do today In the powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen Well, I have a monumental task ahead of me if you've heard from this passage, it's a very long passage It's a very difficult passage I don't know, for some reason I keep picking very challenging and lengthy passages to preach I can spend three to four weeks on this one passage alone And I know this isn't the easiest text to understand I had to study a lot and I had to work on this a lot But I believe that it has the power to change our daily struggle with sin See, there's a lot of rich theology in this text.
05:01-05:05
I think a lot of times we're afraid to go into theology because we believe we can't really understand it.
05:06-05:12
But I pray you wouldn't check out during the next half hour because theology is vital to living the life God has called you to live.
05:12-05:15
Because right thinking leads to right doing.
05:16-05:19
So I'm not talking about dead and boring truths here.
05:19-05:24
I'm talking about life-giving realities which can give you the power to live in victory over your sin.
05:26-05:29
As you probably heard, Paul repeats himself a lot.
05:29-05:34
He says death 15 times, life 9 times, and sin 10 times.
05:35-05:37
See, Paul's repeating himself a lot in this text.
05:37-05:40
He's not trying to be annoying, he's trying to get a point across.
05:40-05:44
Because, I don't know about you, but I need to hear things a lot in order to get it through my stupid head.
05:44-05:47
I need to hear things a lot in order to finally understand it.
05:47-05:50
So Paul's trying to get a very important message across right now.
05:51-05:55
So he starts out by saying, "What shall we say then?" Okay, let's stop there.
05:55-05:56
What shall we say to what?
05:57-06:01
So in order to understand that, I had to quickly sum up Romans 5.
06:02-06:11
And in Romans 5, Paul lays out the gospel, which is simply that we're all sinners in desperate need of a Savior to make us right, but for a holy and just God.
06:12-06:20
And Paul writes in Romans 5, 8, God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
06:21-06:25
So out of pure love and grace, Jesus came to this earth and died.
06:25-06:29
So the penalty and power of our sin, the penalty of our sin could be laid on Him.
06:30-06:33
So we could stand right before God and be in relationship with Him.
06:34-06:37
Because while our sins were great, God's grace was greater.
06:38-06:41
And Christ was glorified in forgiving us.
06:42-06:46
See on the cross, all my sins, all the things I've ever done were placed on Christ.
06:46-06:49
And He was treated as if He lived the sinful life that I have led.
06:50-06:58
and his perfect righteousness was given to me, and I'm treated as if I live the perfect and sinless life that he did.
06:59-07:03
It'd be like if you had a debt you can never even begin to pay.
07:04-07:08
No matter how much you work, no matter how long you work, you can never even begin to chip away at it.
07:08-07:21
But then out of nowhere, a wealthy benefactor comes into your life and says, "You know what? I'm going to take your debt upon myself to pay, And not only that, I'm going to deposit all of my vast resources into your bank account.
07:23-07:25
This is love and grace to the uttermost.
07:25-07:27
It is scandalous by its very nature.
07:28-07:41
And people in Paul's day took this grace as an opportunity to keep on sinning because in their mind, they could keep on sinning and experience the grace of Christ at the same exact time.
07:43-07:46
They get the best of both worlds. They can enjoy all this world has to offer.
07:46-07:50
And God is simply bound to forgive them, and he will just forget about it.
07:52-07:55
See, for them, grace was simply as a free path to do whatever they wanted.
07:57-08:12
And Paul speaks to this and says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means?" Other translations say, "God forbid, may it never be." How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it?
08:12-08:24
Paul is saying that those who hold this view of grace as a free path to do whatever you want don't truly even understand what grace is because grace not only forgives us of our sins, it also delivers us from living in our sins.
08:26-08:46
See, why would we want to go back to, why we want to live in what brought us unbelievable shame and condemnation? Why would we want to go back to what our Christ, what our God Had to die for because our sin was so serious and deadly that Jesus had to die for it So, why do we want to enjoy living in that?
08:48-09:01
Paul goes on in verse 3 and says, "Do you not know?" He's speaking to these people who have this idea "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
09:02-09:38
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 Where if we have been united with him and a death like his We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his See, there's no better example of a Christian's relationship with Jesus than baptism See baptism isn't a source of salvation, but it is a symbol of our salvation Baptism is us identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
09:39-09:45
See, being immersed in the water symbolizes us being dead to sin, being buried alongside of Jesus.
09:45-09:49
It's simply our funeral. Our old self is dead and gone.
09:49-09:56
And then being taken out of the water is us being raised to new life alongside Jesus Christ.
09:57-10:02
This text discusses a very vital and important truth that we all need to understand.
10:02-10:07
It's one that's very ignored today in the church because it is complex and it is difficult to wrap your mind around.
10:08-10:09
But it is so important.
10:09-10:18
And this doctrine is called "Union with Christ." That when we become saved, we become united, we become joined to Jesus Christ.
10:18-10:22
Which means we share in His benefits and His blessings.
10:22-10:27
His death to sin becomes our death to the penalty and power of sin.
10:28-10:32
His resurrection to new life becomes our resurrection to new life.
10:32-10:37
His holiness and righteousness becomes our own so we can stand blameless before God.
10:38-10:43
I was trying to think of the best way to illustrate this and the best way I could think was the union of marriage.
10:44-11:16
So whenever you walk down that aisle, you stand across from that person you love the most and you vow to them that no matter what you will be faithful you will love them and you will never leave them or forsake them and then you put on that ring as a symbol of that union. See when that happens you're sharing your life together you're joined to that person. The Bible says the two become one flesh. You become one person. What's in your bank account goes into their bank account what's in their bank account becomes yours. Their problems become yours and vice versa You are tied together.
11:17-11:25
So, in the same way, if you are saved, then you are bound to Christ in an unbreakable bond, which has unbelievable benefits and blessings.
11:26-11:33
So please remember, baptism isn't a source of salvation, but it is a symbol of our salvation.
11:35-11:43
So I would just encourage you today, if you haven't taken the step of obedience to be baptized, I encourage you to please do that.
11:44-11:51
Because if you are ignoring this call, you are ignoring a vital blessing and encouragement in your life.
11:53-11:58
So I would pray that many of you would speak to Pastor Jeff and get signed up for our next baptism.
11:58-12:02
We would love to see you take the step of obedience.
12:04-12:05
I'm sorry, I actually skipped my first point.
12:05-12:06
I didn't even tell you what it was.
12:07-12:11
So I'm gonna go back and say, my first point was, okay, who are we?
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I am united with Christ.
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Sorry about that. You're gonna see that slide for like two seconds.
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Number two, I am free from the power of sin.
12:22-12:50
Paul goes on in verse six and 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 for one who has died has been set free from sin." See, through Christ, who we used to be has been put to death, as well as the sin which used to have dominion over us, which means it actually used to own us.
12:52-12:59
Paul is saying our old selves, who we used to be, along with its sins and desires, were crucified with Christ on the cross.
13:00-13:04
So we don't have to be who we used to be and do what we used to do.
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Amen?
13:06-13:06
Amen.
13:08-13:16
He goes on and says, "The body of sin might be brought to nothing." The body of sin, the rule of sin on our lives has been broken in Jesus Christ.
13:16-13:23
Sin used to be our boss and used to bully us and tell us what to do, but in Jesus Christ, our shackles to the enslavement of sin are broken.
13:25-13:28
I want to be clear here, Paul's not talking about sinless perfectionism here.
13:29-13:33
He's not saying once you become a Christian, you're perfect, you never struggle ever again.
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Because that's just doesn't, that's not even realistic.
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We all struggle, we all fail.
13:38-13:43
And Paul will even say later that we need to fight the remaining sin in our lives.
13:43-13:58
But what he is saying is the tyranny, the domination, and the rulership of sin in our lives has been broken, and we now have the ability by the grace of Christ to say no to our sin and choose maturity, and to choose to walk in Christ-likeness.
14:01-14:18
If I can just be honest and transparent with you, and to share my own struggles, In high school, I used to be heavily involved with pornography, and I lived in unbelievable shame and condemnation over my sin, and I hated what I was doing, but I felt like I was powerless against it.
14:19-14:29
I felt like the Apostle Paul later in the next chapter when he says, "For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate.
14:30-14:34
I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
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Every single time I would do it, I would say, "Never again.
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That's never going to happen ever again.
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God, I promise you, no, it's never going to happen." Be it a week, be it a month, be it a day later, there it would be again.
14:47-14:48
And that went on for years.
14:51-14:58
And I'll never forget the day when I just, I literally heard God speak to my heart and He said, "Taylor, why are you doing this?
14:58-15:02
This isn't who you are. I created you for so much more than this.
15:05-15:10
He changed my life that day. I'll never forget when God changed my life and freed me from that addiction.
15:12-15:18
So please don't believe your situation is hopeless. You may have struggled with this sin for months, years, maybe even decades.
15:19-15:23
But I believe that in Christ there is hope for freedom and for change.
15:24-15:28
I was enslaved to pornography for years, but God set me free. He can set you free as well.
15:28-15:33
So please don't leave this place and defeat over your struggle and your sin.
15:34-15:38
Please talk to Pastor Jeff, talk to myself or ladies, find a woman volunteer you can talk to.
15:39-15:46
Or if that's not comfortable for you, please find someone in your life you can share your struggles with and talk to and be 100% open with.
15:46-15:50
Because hear me, being unknown is very dangerous.
15:51-16:04
King David says in Psalm 32, "When I kept silent, when I kept silent about my sins, "My bones wasted away." See, if you keep silent about your sin, it'll literally eat away at you.
16:04-16:13
I remember those years where I was living in so much guilt and shame, and all I wanted to do was just hide it from everyone and not have anyone know, and it literally ate away at me.
16:13-16:19
I feel this text, "My bones were wasting away." See, I know it's uncomfortable.
16:19-16:31
I know it's awkward to share sins with other people, but even the book of James says that we are to share our sins with one another, to confess our sins and to pray for each other so we may be healed.
16:32-16:37
So I pray today you would find someone you can be 100% open and honest with.
16:39-16:40
Okay, so who are we?
16:41-16:43
We are united with Christ.
16:43-16:45
We are free from the power of sin.
16:45-16:48
And thirdly, we are alive to God's purposes.
16:52-17:01
As you've seen before in this text, Paul isn't just saying that we just die to the penalty and power of sin, but we also share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
17:02-17:06
Paul says in verse eight, "Now if we have died with Christ, "we believe that we will also live with him.
17:07-17:12
"We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, "will never die again.
17:12-17:14
"Death no longer has dominion over him.
17:15-17:35
"For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, "but the life he lives, he lives to God." So what Paul is saying here is that Jesus Christ died to break the power of sin in our lives, not that so we could just focus on not sinning, but so we could live for God's glory and His purposes.
17:35-17:39
So please understand this, it isn't just enough to not sin.
17:40-17:46
God's calling us to live for His purposes, live for His glory, and to be His witnesses for the gospel.
17:48-17:55
So if your Christian life is just focused upon not sinning by what you're not doing, you're missing the entire point.
17:57-18:04
'Cause you're not living in true freedom unless you live for what God set you free to live for in the first place.
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Let me repeat that.
18:06-18:12
You're not truly free from your sin until you live for what God set you free to live for in the first place.
18:13-18:19
So please don't just, don't gauge your spiritual maturity by how you're not sinning and by what you're not doing.
18:20-18:23
God created you so much more than just a sidestep big sins.
18:24-18:32
I think it's one of the biggest lies that Satan tries to throw our way, that all God wants for us is to focus on ourselves and be introspective and just focus on our own lives.
18:33-18:39
See, that pulls us away from seeing this world and its brokenness and going out and being restorers for the kingdom.
18:40-18:45
So I pray that we would rest in the fullness of this resurrection and new life.
18:46-18:48
We would live for God in that way.
18:50-18:55
Paul goes from an impersonal we to a very personal you.
18:55-19:15
In verse 11, he says, "So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." See, Paul is calling each and every one of us in this room to live and to walk in this reality, that we are dead to our sin and we are alive to God in new life.
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See, Paul's not calling us to make ourselves believe this, to trick our minds into following this.
19:22-19:26
He's saying to once again, remember and regain the truth of who we are in Christ.
19:27-19:29
See, God has given us an amazing new life.
19:30-19:32
Why would we wanna go back to what we used to do?
19:33-19:34
Why would we wanna go back to our sin?
19:35-19:40
It's like a married man or woman desiring to go back to their singleness.
19:40-19:45
I know this is something that all of us probably think about if you're married, that, "Oh man, I miss being single.
19:45-19:54
"I miss hanging out with the guys." But overall, you realize you found something so much deeper and you don't want to go back to your singleness.
19:55-20:03
And yet when you have these temptations to, maybe to not be as faithful to your spouse and to not be as responsible, you can remember the vows that you made.
20:04-20:12
You can remember the promise you made to your spouse and you feel the weight of your wedding ring, which is a symbol of your union with that person.
20:13-20:21
And you realize that you are taken and you don't want to live the life you used to live because you found something so much deeper.
20:22-20:28
In the same way, it's not impossible for a Christian to live as if they are still in sin, but why would you want to?
20:30-20:44
Famous pastor and theologian John Stott once wrote, "Christians should no more contemplate a return "to sinful living than adults to their childhood, "married people to their singleness, "or release sinners to their prison cell.
20:45-20:59
"For our union with Christ has severed us from the old life "and committed us to the new." So like a married person considering their wedding ring and the vows that you made, consider your baptism and all that symbolizes for you.
21:00-21:07
So I pray that this week we would all live in the reality that we are free from the power of sin and we are called to live for God.
21:07-21:35
Instead of reverting back to our old ways, going back to our old life, we would seek out ways to advance the gospel communities and to serve our church. If you're a member of this church, if you call Harvest your home, and if you're not involved already, get connected. Jeff, I'm not sure, do we need people? Right? Yes, okay. Yeah, we need people. Okay. So if you're not involved at this church, get connected. Or if you go to a different church, get connected there. You cannot be disjoined from a local body of Christ.
21:37-21:40
Seek out ways in your community to advance the gospel and to serve others.
21:40-21:46
So please don't think it's enough to just avoid sinning, 'cause God has so much more in store from you.
21:48-21:50
Okay, so I am united with Christ.
21:51-21:53
I am free from the power of sin.
21:54-21:59
I am alive to God's purposes, and I am God's instrument.
22:00-22:05
So even though we've been free from the power of sin, sin still remains in our lives.
22:07-22:13
And in verse 12, Paul says to us, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.
22:14-22:36
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness." See, Paul is calling us to make war against our sin in our lives, to fight it with everything that we have.
22:37-23:20
This word instruments can actually be translated in the Greek as weapons That our bodies and what makes them up, our mind, our hearts Even our different body parts are literally a weapon which can be used for great evil and destruction Or for great good and uplifting So Paul is saying don't offer your body, don't offer yourself up as a weapon for evil To be used by Satan, but instead offer yourself up as a weapon to God's purposes fight your sin, he could advance the gospel. See, every day we have the choice to offer ourselves to God and his purposes or to sin and for its purposes.
23:21-23:43
This is a daily choice and battle that we all must face. God has set us free from the power of sin, but before when we were a slave to our sin, we had no choice but to do what he told us to do. But now we have the ability in Christ to choose we're going to do? Are we going to choose to serve sin or are we going to choose to serve God?
23:45-23:53
So in verse 13, Paul commands us to not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.
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See, Paul is saying, don't give sin the opportunity to get the best of you.
23:56-23:59
Don't put yourself in situations where sin could trip you up.
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See, if you struggle with pornography, don't count the computer late at night by yourself.
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Don't search the web with a bad content filter.
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If you struggle with alcoholism, don't go to places where drinking is gonna be an option.
24:10-24:15
If you struggle with gossip, don't hang out with those people who live to put other people down.
24:17-24:26
To illustrate this point, I go to Geneva College and I share a room with five other guys and men in the room, what do guys love to do to each other?
24:27-24:27
Yell it out.
24:29-24:31
Pranks, right, prank.
24:32-24:35
I can't even list the number of pranks that have been pulled on me specifically.
24:36-24:38
I'm always the one who receives the pranks for some reason.
24:39-24:41
See, I used to not have a password block on my computer.
24:42-24:44
Bad idea. Bad idea.
24:45-24:47
And my friends took advantage of me in this way.
24:48-24:52
And they were somehow able to get into my computer and find some kind of number information.
24:53-24:55
My friend Robert helps, so you can talk to him after this.
24:56-24:59
But they were able to get some kind of information.
25:00-25:05
And they plugged it into my friend Seth's iPhone, and they were able to control my computer from his iPhone.
25:07-25:10
So I'd be at my desk working on a paper, watching YouTube or something.
25:10-25:13
All of a sudden the cursor would just go crazy, like all over the page.
25:13-25:16
And I'd try to grab the mouse, and it wouldn't obey me.
25:16-25:18
It would just like go all over the place.
25:21-25:28
And then one time I was working on something, then I see the cursor start moving over to Word, and it clicks it open, and it starts typing stuff out to me.
25:29-25:31
And it was like, I know your name is Taylor Brown.
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I know that your sister's a nurse.
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I know that this is your major.
25:34-25:36
And I was like, why are you doing this to me?
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And they're like.
25:41-25:44
Okay, well, so eventually I realized this is my friends doing this to me.
25:46-25:46
And I was pretty mad.
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But, 'cause it went off like four or five days.
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It wasn't even like a one day prank.
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It was like for like a week.
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I was pretty mad, but then I realized I couldn't be that mad because I kind of asked for it, right?
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but not having a passport protection on my computer in the room of immature, prank happy college students.
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I pretty much offered up myself to be taken advantage of, right?
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But on a more serious note, we do that every day.
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We offer up ourselves to sin to be taken advantage of.
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So please be discerning about what situations you put yourself in.
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'Cause even though we are free from the power of sin, we can still fall sway to temptation and we can still cave in to evil desires.
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So don't think too highly of yourself regarding what temptations you think you can handle.
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Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10-12, "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." So let anyone who thinks that they can handle a lot of temptation, thinks that they're good people, be careful because sin will trip you up and you will fall.
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So instead of offering up yourselves to sin as instruments for unrighteousness by surrounding yourself with people who will only tear you down and putting yourself in bad situations.
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Offer yourself as a weapon to God by surrounding yourself with godly friends, diving into the scriptures, being part of a local body of Christ, and by being devoted to prayer.
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This is the only way you can wage war against your sin.
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Paul ends this whole section by saying, "For sin will have no dominion over you "since you were not under law, but under grace." See, Paul isn't commanding us here in this verse.
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He is simply promising us that if you are in Christ, sin will not triumph over you.
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He's trying to comfort us by reminding us that we're no longer condemned by the law of God by how we fall short, by how we fail, and by how we sin, but we are instead covered by the grace of Jesus Christ, which is the only way we can really obey the law of God.
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Because if you try to obey the rules and the law by yourself and your own power, trust me, trust me, you will fail and you will be frustrated.
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If you try to white knuckle obedience without the grace of Christ, your life is going to be very difficult.
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But if you rest in the grace of Jesus Christ and you trust in a new identity that has been given to you, you will finally be able to live in victory over your sin and fight your sin.
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Because a true understanding of grace does not lead to an acceptance of sin, but a rebellion against sin.
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This grace enables us to fight our sin and to set up barriers against it in our daily life.
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So please, unless you have a true understanding of grace, you will never live in victory and you will be living in condemnation and guilt the rest of your life.
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See, I love this passage in Romans because it reminds me of the reality that in Christ I am no longer a victim to my sin.
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And studying for this message, just to be honest with you, has been so life-giving and so encouraging to myself because there are a lot of days where I feel hopeless, where I feel like no matter what I do, I can't beat this sin.
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I'm just going to deal with it forever.
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But that's a total lie, that in Jesus Christ we've already been set free.
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The shackles have been unloosed, the prison cell door has been opened, but so many of us choose to stay in our prison cell, we're not bound to it anymore.
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The shackles are unloosed, the prison cell is opened, and we still stay in.
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God has given us the choice to either walk out and live in freedom or to go back and stay in bondage.
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So I know in a room this size, many of you feel the same way I do, hopeless.
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I am telling you, based on the authority of the Word of God, that there is hope and change in Jesus Christ.
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But no matter what you've done, Christ can free you.
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So please leave this place remembering who you truly are in Jesus Christ.
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Remember that you are united to Christ through His death and resurrection.
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You are free from the power of your sin.
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You are allied to God's purposes and you are God's instrument. You are God's weapon So we have a decision today, you have a decision today Are you gonna be walking in condemnation and guilt over your sin?
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Or are you going to embrace the new identity that has been given to you in Christ?
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Are you gonna keep hiding your sin and sweeping it under the rug?
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Are you gonna expose it to the light of Jesus Christ?
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Are you gonna believe what your sin says about you or what your Savior says about you? Let's pray God, I thank you so much for what you were able to do today I thank you that we serve a mighty and awesome God who has the power to deliver us from the power of sin God, I feel the words of Paul when he says I don't understand my own actions for I do not do the good that I want but the evil I hate is what I keep on doing.
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Lord, sometimes no matter what we seem like, we're failures and we'll never triumph over our sin.
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But God, through this passage, you're trying to tell us that you've already set us free.
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Lord, we're saying your word that for freedom's sake, you have set us free.
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So God, I pray for every single person in this room that you would convict their hearts, you would encourage them, Lord, that if they're living and struggle and living in defeat, Lord, you would free them.
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And if there are people here who are taking a step of obedience towards baptism, God, that you would lead them towards that, God, because it leads to such encouragement and blessing.
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God, I thank you so much for what you've done in this place today.
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I pray that this message and its effects just wouldn't be left in this room, but would go out with us and follow us all the rest of our lives.
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And the next time we struggle with temptation and sin, we would tell ourselves who we truly are in Christ and we would live in freedom.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Romans 6:1-14
Romans 6:3-5 talks a lot about baptism and its role in the Christian life. Why is baptism so vitally important to the Christian life? Share your baptism story with your group and how it has impacted you.
Why is being transparent and open about our struggles and sins with close Christian friends so important to living in freedom from sin on a daily basis? Why are we so afraid of being known by others and how can we combat against this?
Romans 6:11 declares, “So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” What does this look like on a daily basis and how can we pursue taking advantage of the new life God has given us everyday?
Romans 6:13 commands us to “not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and you members to God as instruments for righteousness.” How can we obey this verse and instead of giving ourselves over to our sin, give ourselves over to the purposes of God? What does living this verse out on a daily basis look like?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.