My purpose is to be the Holy Spirit’s second witness calling God’s people in my care to surrender their lives to Jesus and to live in obedience to him.
Response Goal: Individuals prompted by the Holy Spirit will surrender their lives to God in prayer – at the altar rail if they want to prayer there.
REPENTANCE POINT {paradigm shifts or changes in our thinking}: Too many Christians settle for being forgiven and fail to recognize that dead sinners do not disobey God. We can live in obedience because we are alive to God and dead to sin.
PATTERN: TEXTUAL – EXPOSITORY
Visual/Sensory Illustration(s)
A new pencil and a new pocket calendar
This is a PDA and a Stylus
IDEAS for Bible Readings, Prayers or Songs
Wesley’s Covenant Prayer
___________________________
Introduction:
Did you hear about the old-time farmer who wanted to save money? He decided to teach his mule to eat less food. He cut the poor animal’s oat ration in half for a week. The faithful mule did the same amount of work as it had always done, do the farmer cut its oats in half again. The mule kept on working hard. The farmer was elated and after a few more weeks decided to see if the mule could work on no food at all. Two days later, he found the mule dead in the barn. The farmer whined, “Just when I got him down to working for nothing, he up and died on me. Now who will pull my plow?”
It’s true. Dead mules don’t work. No matter what the farmer may have tried, that dead animal would never pull a plow again. The Bible says people who follow Jesus are like that mule. Look up Romans 6:1-14 so we can read it together. (Page 1116 in the Blue Bibles in the bookracks)
Context:
Sometimes it’s easy for me to forget that many of the books in the Bible, like this one called “Romans,” are actually letters. A committed monk in a medieval monastery added the chapter and verse numbers to simplify Bible study for us. This morning we are jumping into a letter shortly before the middle. Let me quickly review the message of the first part of this letter to the Romans.
This letter is from the apostle Paul to Jesus’ followers in Rome. He was coming to their city and wanted to introduce himself to them. He points out that all human beings have sinned and the result is a deadly separation from God. Paul also notes that no one can do enough good to make things right with God – not Gentiles living by the sense of right and wrong we’re all born with, not even the Jews living by the Law of Moses. Our only hope is God’s grace and mercy. God promises to forgive our sins because Jesus died for us. If we believe his promise, we are justified or made right with God by faith.
Paul goes on later to say God has an absolute right to show mercy on whatever terms he pleases, and to withhold it from those who will not accept it on his terms.
In the verses right before the ones we will read together today, Paul says there is no sin too big for God to forgive. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more….” God’s sovereign choice to forgive our sins can stretch and expand forever. It has no breaking point. That thought brings us to Romans 6:1-14.
Text: Let’s read this passage together out loud.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Thesis:
People like us who follow Jesus and trust in God’s grace don’t live like they used to live. True disciples obey God to the best of their ability because they are dead to sin and alive to God. We think and act like Jesus.
Key Question:
Some one is looking at me and thinking, “I can’t believe this. My struggle with sin is too intense. I fail too many times. How can I ever measure up to this standard?”
I. LET’S START WITH THE FACT OF YOUR SPIRITUAL EXISTENCE. (v. 2, 5-7)
A. When you believed God would forgive your sins because Jesus died on the Cross for you, and when you asked him to come into your life, you died to sin with Jesus on the Cross and you were raised to live for God with him when Jesus left the tomb on that Sunday morning.
B. You are like the farmer’s mule. Once, sin controlled all of your thoughts and actions. Every part of your life was in rebellion against God because you refused to come to him on his terms. But when you trust God’s promise, you come to God on his terms and you die to that rebellious lifestyle. Dead mules don’t work and dead sinners don’t rebel against God.
C. Now just as surely as Jesus walked out of the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, you are alive to God. You are free to obey him and love him.
II. SINCE YOU ARE ALIVE TO GOD, YOU CAN LIVE A BRAND NEW KIND OF LIFE. (v. 4, 8-11)
A. Your new life is not simply the same old life with a clean slate. You are raised to a totally different kind of life.
B. This is a new pencil, but it’s not different from any other wooden pencil ever made. This is new pocket calendar. No one has ever written on it. However, it is like every other pad of paper ever made, used, trashed or recycled.
C. This is a PDA and a Stylus. They form an entirely new way of writing down to do lists and appointments. You have been given more than a clean slate – you’ve been given a completely new way of life. It’s not a matter of doing better than you used to live. God has given you a new way to live.
III. YOU MUST DECIDE TO LIVE OUT THE FACT. (v. 11-13)
A. Act like you’re dead to sin. Act like you are alive to God.
B. I’ve read news stories about elderly people who lived as though they had no money at all but when they died fortunes were discovered hidden in their run down homes. You are spiritually rich. Live like it. You are alive to God. You can obey him – so do it.
IV. YOUR DECISION TO LIVE THIS NEW LIFESTYLE BEGINS WITH SURRENDERING TO GOD AND CONTINUES WITH DAILY SURRENDERING TO HIM. (V.11-14)
A. Give your life to him once and for all. Give yourself to God unconditionally. Don’t hold anything back. Give until all you have and want is Jesus. Say, “I’m yours Lord. Everything I am. Everything I’m not. I’m yours, Lord.”
B. Keep on giving your life to him – one day at a time. Each decision, statement, and action is to line up with Jesus. Say, “God, use me in any way you please.”
C. The relationship between husband and wife is similar. In the wedding ceremony, they surrender their lives to each other. Before the service, they were single. Afterward, they have a new life to live together. The true test comes in their daily decisions. A wedding lasts for a few minutes, perhaps an hour. A marriage requires a lifetime of learning, growing, and adapting as they make the relationship work.
CONCLUSION:
A recent movie called, END OF THE SPEAR, tells the story of five missionaries who were killed by natives in South America and how their families established a church in the same village. One of the martyrs was Jim Elliot. He wrote this in his journal. “God has hemmed me into nothing, that I may have nothing, do nothing, want nothing save himself.”
Have you come to that place yet?
REPENTANCE POINT: How should we change?
Too many Christians settle for being forgiven. All they want is a clean slate but God gives them more. They settle for spiritual poverty when they can enjoy God’s greatest blessings. Please don’t fail to recognize that dead sinners do not disobey God. You can live in obedience because you are alive to God and dead to sin in Jesus.
NEXT STEPS: What are the first steps in this REPENTANCE POINT {paradigm shift or change in our thinking}?
How can I come to the place in my spiritual life that all I want is Jesus?
1. Read and study the Bible in order to know Jesus better.
2. Pray diligently for a deeper relationship with God.
3. Show up at church meetings with a searching heart.
4. Schedule quiet times with God for at least 5 times a week.
5. Find a mentor or accountability partner.
6. Do the right thing every time you have a chance. Little things add up.
7. Listen for God to call you to surrender to him.
RESPONDING TO GOD: What can we do right now?
Let’s pray. Feel free to pray here at the altar rail if you would like.
Here we are, Lord Jesus. You paid such an unbelievably high price for us on the Cross. And your resurrection gives us the priceless gift of life with God. Set your Holy Spirit loose in our lives. Point out attitudes and actions that need to change. Draw us closer and deeper to God. Amen.
