Flipside Christian Church

Morning, church.

How are we doing?

Morning, morning.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday.

Who we ruined for?
We room for the three. Pete.

Yay! Anyone out there?

No. How about for the Eagles?

Yeah, a little bit.

How about just.

We don't care who's winning.

We don't want our team next year. Right?

Although I will say
a couple of our high schoolers

who are on the platform this morning.

Syd on drums, which she's awesome.

Come get up for.

Said and Asher over here on bass
like their die hard Chiefs fan.

So for their sake,
I hope they get the three peat.

But it was interesting.

I was reading about the three peat and
and if you've heard the name Pat Riley,

he's an NBA guy. Legendary kind of figure.

Looks like the Godfather.

He, he he coined three.

He trademarked that.

And so he's
definitely rooting for the three peat

because if that happens
he is getting a huge payday from the NFL.

But this morning we're going to continue
in our series in the book of Romans.

So if you have your Bibles, turn to Romans
six while your smartphone's Romans six,

pastor calls did an amazing job,

going through chapters
one through five and and unpacking that.

There's
so much in the book of Romans, so much.

And we won't get through all of chapter

six today,
even we're going to hit on most of it.

But I encourage you to go back
and read it, this week sometime.

And I did this last time I was up here.

And so I'm going to do it,
I think every single time I'm up here,

if you have Pastor Kohl's number,
send him a text.

Right now.

I'm just going to continue
that that that tradition.

Just tell him you're thinking about him.

You're praying for him. He's with family.

He's visiting grandkids.

Cinematheque.

Tell me you're thinking about him.

You're praying for him.

I know that he he loves getting away
and spending time with family,

but he loves being here.

Like,
he has a real gift to to unpack God's word

and to share it with, with the church
every Sunday.

So, I'm definitely humbled to be up here
in his space.

My Bible titles, chapter six and know what
your Bible titles it mine says

Dead to Sin and Alive in Christ, dead
to sin and Alive in Christ.

And those.

That's pretty bold statement, right?

That we can believe fully and
with confidence that we are dead to sin

and alive in Christ.

And so this morning,

I want to I want to present to us
a four step process as I was reading

through the text and processing it, and,
and just kind of

praying about how to, how to,
how to walk through it this morning,

a four step process
so we can start living a new life.

So I want to put on the screen.

We will

we'll go through each step individually,
of course, but I want to put them up there

so you can start thinking about them.

And the first step is to know

how you and I, as followers of Jesus,
we have to know what God's Word says.

I'm not sure we can follow Jesus
and in his ways.

If we don't open up the Bible
and know what the text says.

So that's step one, right?

Very practical.

And then step two is to reckon,

reckon yourself, which is a word
we don't use, but it's just to decide.

It's one thing to know
what the Bible says.

It's another thing to decide to follow
in what it says.

That's like that belief part, right?

That head knowledge versus heart knowledge
that this is

this is for me, I believe it,
I believe it to be true.

I reckon it to be true.

I've decided it is truth.

And then that third step
almost feels natural.

We have to resist, right?

We have this desire to live for self
and to play God and to be on the throne.

And so we have to
we have to push back that urge of, of, of,

of being God and playing,
you know, Savior and realize that,

you know, we have to we have to push back
against it, against the culture

and against the things that distract us
and that influence us in a negative way.

And then fourth step is to replace, right.

What are we going to allow in?

What are we going to allow to
to speak to us?

What are we going to submit to?

What are we going to allow
to be an authority in our lives?

And so know, reckon, resist and replace is
what we're going to unpack this morning.

And as I was thinking, as I,
as we, as we jump in dead to sin and alive

in Christ, I was thinking this week
about this statement

that that the Christian life is a battle

and I thought you.

But it feels like a battle to me,
and it's one that we cannot give up on,

especially as a spouse, as a parent, as an
and an uncle, whoever.

You know that anyone that serves

this next generation, it is so vital
that we realize that it is a battle

if we're doing the things that that God
asks of us, if we if we are sacrificing

and we are tithing,
and we are giving our time

and our talents and our resources,

if we are submitting to God
and being in Scripture,

if we are in prayer,
if we're letting our kids go out

and just trusting
God with their lives like it is a battle

and it's one that we can't give up on.

We can't cut corners.

We can't, you know,
shave a little off this year.

We have to be so intentional

with the with the life that that Jesus
has given us, the Holy Spirit, the life

that he has redeemed

and I found

I stumbled on this quote this week
from from Charles Spurgeon.

I'm just going to paraphrase.

I'm not going to read the quote,
but it says this.

It says when someone is born again

through faith in Christ,

their life immediately day one, it enters
into a spiritual battle against sin.

And the world is not like,
get your bearings right, find a church,

find you know, understand Scripture
a little bit like a certain saint.

Day one.

There's this immediate battle
that you're thrust into because

now you're not dead
anymore. You're made alive.

And when you're alive, you have choice.

And when you have choice and you have
the Holy Spirit, it's this decision.

Are we going to live for God?
Are we going to live for self?

And that's the tension

I think Romans is presenting is
who are we going to live for?

And that Spurgeon is talking about?

I don't mean it happened day one

and you were with us in the fall.

Pastor Carl took us through judges.

It was a great series,
great study, a lot to pull from it.

And he shared this with the church,
and I was thinking about it a lot

the last couple weeks

that that you and I can be tired in it
and we should be tired.

And if if we're living for others
and we're sacrificing

and we're we're doing what
we're supposed to do, we should be tired.

But we can't be tired of it.

That's the charge. As a Christian.

Don't get tired of it.
Don't get lazy in your faith. Right?

I was talking to our our high school
students.

We're going through the book of Hebrews.

When we talk about
our faith is like a spectrum where

maybe we hear it's very legalistic
and we kind of add things to the cross

over here. It's very lazy. Our faith.

We don't want to be either extremes.

We want to be right in the middle
where Jesus is our fixed reference point.

And as we live this
Christian life, we don't.

God doesn't mind us being tired.

And it
we should be, but we can't be tired of it.

Because when we're tired of it, things
get sideways.

Sin creeps and temptation creeps.
And bless you.

When we get tired of it, we stop fighting.

We stop doing
the things we're supposed to do.

We stop.

We stop inviting God into our lives
and asking for his strength and his wisdom

and his discernment
and his his, his, his what he has for us.

Right?

And so, as cheesy as it is,
we have to be vigilant.

We have to be fighters, right?

Otherwise,

life can get a little bit weird on us.

As I was processing

the text, the Bible,
I think the Gospels this shares that

although our spirits regenerated
or made new, our flesh is not right.

And that means we have a warring, means
we have conflict.

We have tension within us

because we certainly want to serve a God
who loves us, who came down and took on

flesh and lived a life and then died
and paid the penalty that we couldn't pay.

We want to
we want to serve and we want to love him.

We want to live for him.

But then if we're being honest,
we also want to live for self

and other things that I want and I want to
pursue and I want to be in control.

I want to have the authority.

I want to me, me, me, me, me.

I think as we get married
and we have kids and we,

we are getting further removed
from that, you know, hope hopefully. But

but we have this conflict

and I think we have to acknowledge
the conflict that exists within us.

We don't ignore it
and we don't say it doesn't exist.

It does exist.

Bless you. Yep.

So as we jump into five, or chapter six
this morning, I,

I want to remind us, Pastor
Krall shared with us that

that the first five chapters has shown us
that all nations are guilty.

There's not anyone that doesn't that that
hasn't fallen short of the glory of God,

which is the beauty of, of
of of the cross.

Right.

And it's the beauty of
we don't look sideways and say,

you know, look at you and look at you,

and your sin is greater
and your sin is less, right.

And we're supposed to focus on the plank

in our own eye,
not the speck in someone else's eye.

But chapter
five has showed us that all are guilty.

All nations, all peoples were guilty
as charged.

Humanity is guilty.

But the good news is
that Jesus took the penalty for our crime.

He took it away. He made us righteous.

That's an amazing thing
that that Jesus became what we are

so that we could become what he is
blameless in the sight of God,

righteous because of the cross,
we are made new.

It's an amazing reality.

And so before we jump in,

I just want to put this on the screen
for you to think about chapters 1 to 5.

They they talk about being dead insane.

We're dead in our sin.

And what can you do
when you're dead in sin?

Not you can't do anything right.

But then it's sneaky.

You just sub one word in and one word out.

Chapter six seven, eight. It shifts.

Paul shifts his language.

He says, now we're dead to sin.

It's a big difference.

And this feels like it's our response.
How do we respond, then, to the sin

that is still in our lives
and in this world?

And so we're no longer dead

in Saint Paul's going to argue in chapter
six, we're dead to sin.

Right.

And so it's that's very proactive.

Now, what are we going
to do with our life?

What are you going to do with the life
that God has blessed us with and given us?

So I want to start with that
four step process, and we'll start with

the first word is to know
for the note takers, I'm talking about no.

And before we jump into six we got to
I got to remind you,

David just referenced it during communion.

Chapter five ends in this way
it says, but where sin increased,

grace increased all the more.

It's important to note, certainly worse
than increased grace has to increase

because the cross is complete,
it has to increase.

We can't outspend the cross right.

And so Paul, with that in mind,
is going to jump in to six

and acknowledge that right away.

So I want to read
the first couple scriptures.

It says this

in six verse one
it says what shall we say then?

Shall we go on sending
so that grace may increase?

Verse two.

He says, by no means
we are those who have died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer?

Verse three says, or don't you know that
all of us

who were baptized into Christ Jesus,
we were baptized into his death?

Verse four says,
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 have a new life.

So, Paul,
why is he talking? Any objections?

He's easy.

He's right away saying,

now we're just because grace increases
and grace abounds doesn't mean we.

We want to lean in
and live a selfish lifestyle.

Augustine said, love the Lord
your God and do as you please.

Right?

And Paul's saying no
when he's fighting every objection

here, he's saying, no, that's not
how we're supposed to live our lives.

All right?

We're not.

We're forced to push back to any desire

to live for self and to please self,
to think that sin right

should, should, should rule in our lives
and then we should give in to it.

Now it's important to know, does
unlimited forgiveness for standing exist?

Of course it does. It does.

But it doesn't mean we continue
to live in that space any longer.

But I liken it to like
the jail cell has been open

and we're just choosing to live
in that cell.

Like, why are the doors wide open?

We might walk out for a little bit

and then we find ourselves right
back in that cell. But the door is open.

We're dead to sin.

It means we should look and
live and act a different way.

But unlimited forgiveness for sin
does still exist.

Grace does abound.

But I think why Paul makes this argument,
why we're not supposed to live

in our old, broken
ways, is because of the cost of our sin.

We couldn't pay that cost.

So Jesus came down.

He paid that penalty for our trespasses.

I mean, I and I

just think of my own shame, my own guilt,
my own struggles, my own disgust at times

that Jesus bore that for me
on the cross times all of us

and the 8 billion people that live
and has ever lived and will ever live.

I mean, I just think
mine can be suffocating enough.

The things that I struggle with

and things I try to push back on
and and try not to indulge in.

And yet it's billions and billions
and billions of people more that

Jesus experienced that hurt on the cross,
that guilt, that shame, that disgust.

And so, in my view,
I'm just like, I can't keep living there

because in some ways it's like,
am I even valuing the cross?

Then am I even valuing the

the gift that is grace and salvation
and eternity with God?

It's like I have to start living right?

Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven, right here, right now, in my life

as it is in heaven, and flip sides
life as it is in heaven.

So we have to push back. We have to fight.

And I think what Paul's is

getting out here is this, that you and I
are supposed to walk in newness of life.

That's what

that's what verse three talks about, says,
or don't you know that all of all of us

who were baptized into Christ Jesus,
we were baptized into his death.

It was actually really important
to reflect on.

Right?

And we have to be pretty
convinced of this.

We have no theology.

We have to know what this is saying,
because so often

I think we say, no, I'm going to add
Jesus to my marriage, which is good.

I'm going to add Jesus to my finances.

I'm going to add Jesus to my parenting,
which are all good things,

but we don't add Jesus to us.

It says we're fully immersed in him.

I mean, you know, think of baptism, right?

Oh, we do baptism here in Carl's
pool, right?

Full immersion.

Jesus was fully immersed
when he was baptized.

And so we have to not fallen to the trap
of, oh, I'm going to add Jesus to me now.

We're fully immersed in him.

That means in all aspects of life,
we should have Jesus as our

as our reference point, as our as our,
you know, glasses that we look through,

like whether I'm at work
or at home or ballgame or

with my family or my friends or church
or whatever, that Jesus is

on my
mind always because I'm fully immersed.

You are fully immersed in him,
and it's easy to live contrary to that.

And that's why I think Paul's
hitting at this.

Don't forget, you're dead to sin.

You're dead to sin, not dead in sin.

And so we need to be mindful
that when we're immersed in Christ's death

right through
his, this baptism into his death.

And so Paul's again,
he's just hitting the point.

How can we live in sin any longer?

He's saying, you know, God, you know
the miracles, you know the teachings.

You know how he lived his life.

And in light of that,
and you know the cost of the cross,

how can we live there any longer?

And I want to say it one more time.

Again, we don't look left and right,
front and back.

We we look we search our own hearts when
it comes to the sin issues that we have.

The plank in my eye is the same size,
the plank in your eye.

But your eyes will look like a speck to me
because I'm not focused on yours.

I'm focused on my own.

I'm focused on me, doing better. Me,
me, me.

Growing in my faith
and living that out through my marriage

and my parenting in my,
you know, youth pastoring.

And so we're called to walk
in newness of life.

I'm going to continue.

We're gonna jump into verse five.

It says, for if we have been united
with him in a death like this,

we will certainly also be united
with him in a resurrection like this.

For we know that our old self
was crucified with him,

so that the body ruled by sin,
it might be done away with.

We should no longer be slaves to sin,
because anyone who has died

has been set free 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.

And this is important.

But the life he lives, he lives to God.

It's one thing to believe
that we're forgiven and experience that.

It's another thing to live our life

to God, to dedicate that life to God.

Christ as he lives this life,
he lives to God.

We are called to live to God,
to seek holiness because he is holy.

Right.

Verses 5 to 10 I think they share with us
that Christ died and rose again,

that Scripture assures that when he died,
we died.

And when he rose, we rose.

And so there's something really magical,
something really important,

something really mysterious
about the cross.

Because the cross,
what happened 2000 years ago.

But in 2005, I experienced the cross
when I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.

And you experienced

and whatever you're you experienced
that you became a believer.

So in that way,
the cross will be alive forever.

Because once we become a believer, once,
once the Holy Spirit regenerates

us, we experience that death and that
resurrection is really this magical thing,

that God is a gift
that he allows us to say.

That's a reality for me
in 2005 and beyond,

and for all of you
and whatever year you came to faith,

it's quite wild.

But if we do believe that we died with him
when he rose again,

and we do believe

that the sins of our lives and
the lives of those around us are forgiven,

and that means the power of our sin.
Nature also died.

The power of our sin nature is dead.

The power is gone. We don't need again.

Go back in and out of that jail cell.
It is gone.

It is done. We are dead.

It's interesting

if you think about right
this older self, this older Michael before

I was a believer and then you have to
we have to view him as dead.

I am a new person in Christ.

So that old version
of me is gone, is dead.

Our our junior highers are in Genesis.

We're going through the book of Genesis
and Revelation.

We're kind of like bookending scripture.

And we're going through

how God is using Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
to bring about the Messiah.

And and we just got through Esau
and Jacob twins.

But they're so different
in every single way.

He's always hairy.

He's a man of the country.

He connects better with his father.

Jacob is smooth skinned.

It says, he stays among the tents
and he connects with his mother.

And there's some family dynamics.

There's some hurt and brokenness. But.

But what we see
talked about here in Romans

six was actually first
talked about in Genesis with our story.

God told Rebecca, their mother.

He said that the older Esau
will serve the younger,

just like my old self,
my sinful self, my broken self, my dead

self is going to serve my new,
younger self.

That is spirit led and spirit driven.

And so we see this.

That's how we have to be in Scripture
because we see this connection,

the old version of me as Esau, he's
going to serve the younger version of me,

which is Jacob, right?

The oldest there, the new has come.

And so we're called in that way
to, to, to to reckon myself dead.

And we'll talk
about reckoning in a minute.

But we have to get this done
with the Norse theology.

We have to know that scripture
and all the connections

and all that end in the out,
because God talked about this very idea

back in Genesis, whatever, 20 something 26
but if we don't know

this, we're going to miss it.

And so our

old self should serve our younger self,
the broken flesh, and serve the spirit.

It's a really cool
concept, really cool idea.

And I think the one way to sum that up
is just to say this, that

that sin is rendered powerless.

The sin you have in your life that still
exists, it's still there, right?

Just because we're saved
doesn't mean we still don't have sin.

Pop up here and there,
but it's rendered powerless.

I think, as I process
in, I think the reality is

that we should spend less
as we as we mature in our faith,

and so we should sin less, but it should
also hit us more, should hit us harder.

It hit us heavier because we
we know how much we've been blessed.

We know how much God has done for us.

And so, although we have less than,
it should almost be like

we're more convicted and we're more hurt
and we're more broken over our sin,

less means more in
some weird spiritual way,

because we don't want to
walk in that way any longer.

But sin is better, powerless.

Verse five.

It shared that the body of sin
should be done away with, done away with.

Think of it like it's void.

It's completely void.

It's abolished.

It's out of business.

That old version of me, it's gone. Why?

Because we were baptized
into Christ. Death.

That old nature is voided.

It is gone.

But like I just said, the reality
is that our old self

still lingers around, still fighting for
its life, still wanting to find life.

Wanting to find out that hold on us,
wanting it, wanting

to kind of jump back into the picture.

And so I think very practically,

we just have to say, all right, God,
I need you more than I need me.

I need to get off the throne.

I can't keep playing
God. I can't keep going for self.

And verse 11 speaks of that.

It says in the same way, count yourselves

dead to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

So the first step,

I think, to, to, to living this new life
is to know what Scripture says, to know

the connection to the Old Testament,
the new, to know what Jesus said,

to know that our God has ultimate victory.

Although the Christian life is a battle,
a daily battle for you and for me,

we know the victor.

Our God is the victor.

And so we have to believe this stuff.
We have to.

We have to rather we have to know it.

And that's going to lead
hopefully to this, this deep conviction

and this belief.

And so that's what step two is,
I think this morning is to reckon yourself

never use that word in my life
before preparing this teaching.

I don't reckon, I've used that.

But you have to reckon yourself,

you have to decide that you're dead
to sin.

Yeah. Stupid joke.

If you decide that you're dead to sin,
you have to reckon it fully.

I am dead to sin and I'm alive to Christ.

And you have to own it.

If the first step is knowing,

the second self is believing fully,
all in wholeheartedly.

This is true.

As I wanted it.

I was thinking
I wanted to give us a definition

for reckon
just because it's not a word we use.

And so reckon is this.

It's a firm conviction reached by rational
thought on the basis of the gospel.

So the gospel is the
is the is the foundation.

But I love the first couple words.

It's a firm conviction.

To reckon that we're dead to sin
is to be all in fully believe it.

1,000% convinced.

It's not like I'm kind of lukewarm.
Or maybe it's true.

Maybe it's not. No, it's we're fully
there.

It's a it's a firm conviction
by by rational

thought on the basis of the gospel.

So reckon it's to count yourself to count
this deed already completely done.

This deed is done.

I am dead to sin.

Say it over and over if you need to.

I am dead to it.

And I think how I've.

I've come to unpack
this is we have to believe that.

That this new life is totally disconnected
from our past life, right?

This, that when you were placed in Christ,

you were completely disconnected
from your past. Right?

That Grand Canyon

seems like we are completely disconnected
in this world and how we live.

It's hard to get rid of our past
and the mistakes and the hurt

because we see the same people
or we experience the same things.

But but the hurt in Christ,
the hurt towards

God that existed,
it is fully erased because of the cross.

It's gone.

And we don't have to live in that hurt
space any longer.

All the stuff, the crap that maybe
is coming to mind that you like.

I still maybe struggle with this.

Give it to God and you are dead to it

fully and forever dead to it.

Now Galatians 220 is a great scripture
that speaks this truth.

It says, I have been crucified with Christ
and I no longer live.

I don't live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body
I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me,
gave himself for you.

I think you can see this played out
really in a really cool way

through Isaiah the prophet Isaiah.

If we go, if we jump in the Old Testament,
I'm not going to read per se,

but I want to give you kind of a picture
of what happens. Isaiah.

He sees a vision of the Lord.

He sees the cry of the servant,
and he sees that God is holy

in light of who he is.

You see, God is so holy.

And when Isaiah got this revelation,
he saw God's beauty and his majesty.

But it's important to know
how did he respond?

Isaiah says, woe is me,

woe is me, for I am lost.

A man of unclean lips.

Isaiah responds to God's holiness

for seeing himself
for what he really is sinful, wretched,

right, dirty.

And Isaiah cursed his own self
right in light of just who he is.

And that juxtaposition of like, God
is there and I am so far away from that.

I can never get there.

He was broken over his sinful nature
and the things of his heart.

And this morning,

I think in the same way, we have to be
broken of the things of our heart.

We do our hardest.

It's not always oriented towards God.

Even though we have this now
heart of flesh, it's still not always,

you know, focus in the right direction
as we broken over our sin.

Not in a way that leads to guilt
and shame, but in a way that leads to us

pursuing Christ more and in in

like an act of thanksgiving.

We have to we have to believe,

that that nastiness
that Isaiah describes is real.

And we have to reckon
that we're going to live for Christ.

Verse 14 or sorry, verse
12 speaks to this.

He says therefore, which means with
everything we've talked about in mind,

do not let sin reign in your mortal body

so that you obey its evil desires.

First step is to know Scripture, to know
God's Word.

Second is to reckon and believe.

It is fully and wholly true,

not to live in guilt and shame,

not to live looking left and right,

but to say, God,
help me with the plant in my eye.

Help me to look more like you.

And so our third step this morning

is to resist.

It's to resist.

And so maybe this scripture comes to mind.

Maybe not.

But James four seven says, resist
the devil and he will flee from you.

Resist the devil, he will flee from you.

So as a as a believer, if we're just going
progression right, we know Scripture.

We got to know it. We got to believe
fully. We got to be all in.

Then we got to resist.

We got to act.
We got to do something. Now.

But Isaiah or James rather
four seven actually starts,

you know, different than what I just read.

It doesn't start with resist
the devil. He will flee from you.

It starts submit yourselves into God.

Submit yourselves, then to God.

Resist the devil
and he will flee from you.

The order of operation is important

because I believe that thing.

If we do not submit,

the ability to resist is not possible.

And I know as Americans
we love our freedom.

If we do not like this submit,

we do not like even the word submission
feels kind of nasty at times.

I think we attach negative things to it,
but we're we're talking about submitting

to a God who was holy and just
and righteous and good and sacrificial.

Christ suffered on our behalf

because he never gave in to temptation
and sin.

And so submitting to Christ is best
case scenario, because his yoke is light,

his burden does not exist.
So where's ultimate freedom in Christ?

And so I think
as I as I process this week, if I want to

resist, I have to submit.

And if I have to submit,
I have to seek God.

And if I'm seeking God, then then that's
what we call sanctification, right?

Big church, fancy word.

But but it just means to separate,
to be set apart,

set apart from sin, and ultimately
progressively becoming more like Jesus.

That sanctification

that you and I over our lifetime
are going to look more like Jesus,

you know, in ten years and in 20 years
and in 30 years than we do today,

hopefully, you know, over the next,
you know, couple years,

maybe the next month or two.

But but the goal is to look more like
Jesus

every day,
which means he has to be on our hearts,

and you have to be on our minds,

and you have to be someone we seek
and something we someone we interact with.

The result of submitting to seeking and
seeking, I think, leads to sanctification.

And sanctification
leads us to this scripture.

It's it's second Corinthians 318.

It says, and we know
and we all who with unveiled faces

we should contemplate the Lord's glory.

Why? Because in that way we're going
to be transformed into his image,

and we're going to experience the ever
increasing glory

which comes from the Lord,
who is the spirit I.

But as I look at it

right, we're supposed to contemplate
the Lord's glory, seek his face,

and then it talks of this ever increasing
glory like the more we seek him.

I mean, there should just be more
revealing and more understanding and more,

more, more grace and more more of a freedom that we get to experience in Christ

growing in the Christian life.

Is it saying no to self and yes to Christ?

It's saying yes to repentance,
yes to Scripture, yes to prayer.

Yes to accountability.

Looking left and right and saying, hold me
accountable.

I need you to hold me accountable.

As long as today is called today, Hebrews
says we should encourage each other,

especially as believers,

because we're working so hard
and trying to please God and

and trying to do his work
and further his kingdom.

But it's difficult.

So we need to encourage each other.

But we're called to sanctify ourselves.

We're called to seek God
and submit to him.

You know, I like,
sometimes I'm going to the gym.

I want to lift heavy weights.

You know, I want to be mindful of
what I'm listening to.

And so

I have I call it aggressive worship.

Music, aggressive worship.

So it's it's like screamo singing music,
but it's the Christians that that lead it.

And I wanted to share.

I wanted to share one of their,
lyric with you.

It says this, it says you're born again.

You're a new life.

You are a new creation.

But there is to be progress.

There's to be growing.

There's to be growing
into the likeness of Christ.

We have to begin to conquer the flesh
little by little, day by day.

As you live, there is to be a progress
in in conquering the flesh.

This new life, this new man,
this new person that you are

has to begin to grow.

When we're placed in Christ,
we're separated from our past of

has to begin to grow.

I love that right.

You don't hear much of that either.

Google it because he's
just screaming the whole time.

But it's there.

It's there, the promise. It's there.

If you want the playlist,
I'll send it to you.

It's really good, I promise.

It's awesome.

I initially convicted me this week.

I want I want this for myself,
but I want this more for my family.

And so I wanted to talk to the parents
or grandparents

or aunts and uncles, whoever

has kids in their life
that they get to influence.

Right?

Because you know this, we can't take
everything into heaven with us.

We can't take the cars,
the house, the fancy toys, the nothing.

We can't. It's that's not how it works.

But we can stand before God, arms
wide open and say,

look what I did with the lives
you blessed me with.

Look, I do with seal, Jude, Levi, Logan.

I do with the lives you bless me with.

And in that way
we have to sanctify ourselves.

We have to seek God, because if we don't,
we will not do those things well.

You know what's true?

I think there's
what one generation sees as optional.

The next might see is unnecessary,

and we don't want our kids to see seeking
God and sanctifying ourselves

and knowing Scripture
and being in prayer and being in community

and encouraging each other
as optional kids, not it's not optional,

something that we have to have
this deep conviction in

deep like, love for

because life is busy and it is loud.

And sometimes you can look up
and like I have off my Bible in a week,

we have to take this seriously
and spend time in here in this thing,

and I love
I was one pastor, I was, I was listening.

There are a couple
I follow online on social media and and

and he was talking about sanctification
and he any, any

he shared threads
and I want to share with you this morning.

Oh, skip that one. My bed.

Oh wait. Where am I at?

There it is.

Sorry. I'm all over the place.

So the 3D god declares,

Satan denies and we have to decide.

I think back to the garden.

God declared,

how many of you are safe?

You're taking care of your good
like you're provided for.

I want to walk in the coolness of day
with you. Trust me, trust me.

I'm your God. I'm.

I'm your creator. I want to,
I want to do life with you.

But that one tree
where they're just a tree.

I'm not going to believe that one alone.

You don't need that. It's not.
There's no benefit to you.

I'm your God, and I'm going to.
I'm going to take care of you.

Trust me.

God declared these things,
and then Satan denies as we know, right?

He's like, I, can you believe
God is trying to be in controlling here?

Why would he?
Why would he keep something from you?

You know,
I just want you to be like him, right?

He just denies he tweaks it. Twist.

And then Adam and Eve had to decide.

And we know how that went. Right.

And so I guess the same thing
applies to us, right?

God is declaring these things to us.

And Satan might deny.

He might twist, he might turn.

He might say, Michael,
you can't really serve, right.

You I mean, you know what
you thought and done and things

that are of your own heart
and the brokenness that exists.

And then I have to decide,
am I going to believe those lies,

although they once were true?

Am I going to believe those lies and say,
well, God can't use me because I have

made mistakes in my life? No.

So we have
to decide, are we actually dead to sin?

Are you dead to sin?

Scripture is declaring
that God is declaring it.

You are dead to sin
and you're alive in Christ.

Don't believe anything short of that.

And so I think a good way.

It's sobering.

It's it's humbling

to to say, am I dead to sin or am I dead
in sin is to look at your lifestyle.

What does it show?

Is God's Word trustworthy to you?

Is is community valuable right?

Am I the king? Is Christ
the King? Who's leading this, this?

This thing?

Who's leading this show? You know.

Look at that lifestyle.

Look at what you pursue and the things
you are and who you're becoming.

Are you dead to sin?

Are you still dead inside?

My hope is my prayer
is that you are dead to it.

So in Corinthians is the scripture
that I come back to all the time.

It's something I,
I use when I was baptized at 21.

It says, therefore,
if anyone is in Christ,

a new creation has come, the old is gone,
the new is here. It's amazing reality.

It's amazing truth.

That means I'm not defined by my old self.

That means I'm not defined
by my own mistakes or my sin.

I'm not the same dude anymore.

I'm a new creation.

And if I'm a new creation and you're a new
creation, let's start living that way

with authority I.

We're defined by the cross,
and that's been our hope

and our faith and our trust in
Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.

And so much so that Paul in verse 13 here,

he's going to he's
going to make it super personal.

He says, do not offer any part of yourself
as an instrument of wickedness,

but rather offer yourself to God as those
who have been brought from death to life

and offer every part of yourself to him
as an instrument of righteousness.

So when we talk about us being baptized
into Christ, death, that's like full body.

But now we're talking about every member
of our body, every member,

like hands, eyes, toes, knees,
you know, whatever.

Like he's asking, what are you doing with
all these different members of your body?

How how are you pursuing me? How are you?

How are you living for me?

How are you using your hands and your eyes

and your ears
for my righteousness and for my glory?

Right is very personal.

It's very specific.

Our God wants us to be so intentional with
our faith that we answer that question.

And we can say, here's
how I use my hands for your glory.

Here's how I use my eyes for your glory.

I'm your ears for your glory.
Here's how I do these things.

To not just go through life
and not process how I'm being intentional.

Living for God.

It's important to process this now.

Our fourth point
this morning is to replace,

and I'm not going to read the last
all the last scriptures here,

but I want to jump into 16
in a couple others real quick.

It says in verse 16, don't
you know that when you offer yourselves

to someone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one you obey?

Whether you are slaves to sin,
which leads to death,

or to obedience,
which leads to righteousness.

I think verse 16 is asking the question,

like which nature are you feeding?

Which nature?

Like who are you living for?

Are you feeding the slave
the sin that leads to death,

or of obedience
that leads to righteousness?

Because what we feed is going to grow,

it's going to grow in
our life is going to manifest itself.

It's going to be known,
and it's going to be visible.

So what do you allow in in
what do you like to influence you?

What are you consuming?

What's what's what's

what's that look like for you
this morning?

It's important
to know what nature in my feeding.

And we jump into verse 21.

It says, what benefit did you reap at

the time from
the things you are now ashamed of?

So I think he's referring to,
like from your former life before you

and before you knew Jesus, that you were
ashamed of what benefit was there, right?

What benefit did you reap at the time
for the things you are

now ashamed of,
the things that result in death?

And so I think as I process
this scripture, it's

it's really challenging us to say,

don't look back at your life
before knowing Jesus with nostalgia.

Like, don't look back. It led to death.
There was nothing.

I mean, sure, you might have good memories
or good moments

and God redeemed some things
and guided you.

I'm not saying they're not valuable,

but don't look back at that old life
and think, I wish I had

what once I did before Christ
because it was leading to death.

There's no value.

Paul saying, he's saying, look forward.

Have your fixed reference point on Jesus
going forward.

Don't focus on where you were,
who you've been,

but where you're going
and where God wants to send you

what's coming next and include you.

Don't look back.
There's no benefit to that.

And then verse 23, this is just salvation
in a sentence writes grace.

Verse
23 says, for the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Remember, we can't.

We couldn't pay that penalty
for our trespasses.

We couldn't pay the cost.

It's great. It's too great.

But our God did pay it.
That's the reality.

He did pay it.

And we get eternal life with him.

And we should live as such here on earth.

We should live in a way

where we have that full confidence
in that full assurance

that the Holy Spirit
I have in me a new in you.

It is a deposit
guaranteeing our inheritance.

But it's a it's a deposit
that he's saying I want to use right now.

I want to cash in right here, right now.

I want to use you in the space
or in the ranchos or wherever you live.

I want to use you now.

Right.

It's not just for
you look into eternity. It's.

No, it's like,
what are you doing for me here and now?

2025.

We're going to have options.

We're going to live for self, for God.

We dead to sin. Are we dead in sin?

I want to end with a couple things.

Pastor Carl brought this up last week.

Which federal had.

Are you going to live under? Right.

He talked about Adam, which leads to death
or Jesus, which leads to life,

and it leads to, peace with God and access
to God's grace and even suffering.

Right?
Even even glory in our suffering. Right?

These are the things
that Christ offers us.

And I would ask the same thing
this morning, like,

not maybe as a federal headbutt, but
but what's

what are you going to believe the
the declaration,

the truth that you're dead to sin
or the lie that you're dead in sin?

What are you going
to believe this morning?

I hope it's that you're dead to sin.

You're not dead,
and then you're not stuck anymore.

God has redeemed you fully and forever.

And we have the freedom
to live in that truth.

So as we wrap up,
I just want to put back up

our four steps right to know,
to reckon, to resist and to replace.

Maybe ask the question,
where are you right now on this list?

Where are you? Where do you find yourself?

Are you still in the no stage where you're
like, I need to know what God's Word is.

I need to unpack it and process
in and walk and people to walk

alongside me to, to go through it.

Or have you gotten through that?

And you know it.
You feel like you know it.

And now you're like, I need to, you know,
I need to have deep conviction, right?

I need to believe that it's true.

Not just know what it says, but like,
I need this.

I need to apply this to my life.

Or yet there
was this stage where you'll be like, how?

And actively trying to be proactive
and seek God and and resist.

Or you just replace
and you're building up.

You're having good spiritual habit, habits
and disciplines to to protect yourself

with one

maybe most resonates with you
and which one feels most foreign.

I think that's also an important question
to ask.

Because. Because why is it foreign?

Why does it feel far off?

Why does it feel like it's something
that you you don't quite understand or me?

It's a good questions to ask.

You know, Pascale,
we were talking about this.

This, you know, this chapter
that the last couple weeks and

and he was saying, I think the Christian
life is often, often,

it's like,
you know, we're all swimming in a pool.

We're all hanging out or,

you know, swimming and
and sometimes we have, you know,

some of us are on the sideline
just kicking our feet in the water.

And we're saying we're swimming.

We're not
we're just we're still on the sideline.

And our God is fully inviting us

into this relationship
with him and saying, let me lead.

Let me guide, let me help you.

Let me, let me influence your thoughts
and your mind and your desires.

Let me do that for you.

You need to know and you need to reckon.

You need to resist
and you need to replace.

That's how we live out.

Jettison in life, in Christ.

Pastor Carl always asks,
you know, he said, reread

six with this framework
now, but read seven.

He'll be with us again next Sunday.

Read seven, but I want in with this.

Our series is greater than right, greater
than whatever, greater than your sin

or whatever you're talking
with. And I would say this morning,

grace is greater than your stubborn sin.

Grace is greater than your stubbornness
in the thing that holds

you back,
the thing that is just like that,

that lie in your head,
the thing that just caused you to stumble.

Grace is greater than that.

Your stubborn, annoying, irritating sin.

Don't live a lie that you are dead
and then you are dead to sin.

I hope that has been encouraging
to this morning.

I'm going to pray for us

and we're going to sing one more song
with the band.

Father, we thank you for this morning.

We thank you for everyone here.
We thank you for your word.

We thank you that you pursue us
and that you seek us

and that you have declared things over
us, these these truths, Lord.

But I pray that we would have a heart
to open up

your words, that we know these truths.

Father,

give us eyes and ears and toes and hands

and and help us to be so intentional
with members of our body

that we can say, this is how
I glorify you, this is how I glorify you.

This is how I serve you.

This is how I how I further your kingdom.

We are grateful for Paul
and how you spoke through him,

and we pray that we would have
a deep conviction this week.

So to know that we are dead
to sin and alive in you, Jesus,

please be with us this week.

Bring us back next week.

So we continue to further understand
your word and continue

to further grow in our

our role here in this community.

Please convict our hearts this morning.

Lord in love for you.

Visiting in Jesus. Amen.