No Swimming Series

RIP TIDE

5. No Swimming

(Should We Stay on the Beach?)

With all this talk about the danger of Rip Tides,

you might be thinking,

“I think I’ll just stay out of the water!”

But the water represents life.

Chris and Sarah went to their family’s river house

a few weeks ago,

and they brought back some crabs they caught there

and made us some crab melts!

I’m telling you, good things come out of the water!

The water is beautiful and fun to play in,

many good things come out of the water,

so don’t be afraid to live life.

There’s a lot of fun to be had in the water,

so have fun in the water

because that’s where everyone is!

As you probably remember,

I just needed to be a life guard for a few weeks

and warn you about the danger of the riptide.

I needed to make you aware of the pull of sin,

and how you should react to it.

God says that’s why He gave us the law

in the Old Testament.

He didn’t give us the law for us to be a slave to it,

but the law helps us to recognize sin.

Look with me at Romans 3:20

“Therefore no one will be declared righteous

in his sight by observing the law;

rather, through the law

we become conscious of sin.”

And then He goes on to say

that once we compare our lives with the law,

we will realize how much sin is out there,

and even how much we have in our own lives.

The good news is, that while sin increases,

so does the grace of God.

You can never sin so much

that the grace of God can’t cover it.

You can never fall so low,

that the grace of God won’t pick you up.

Romans 5:20

“The law was added

so that the trespass might increase.

But where sin increased,

grace increased all the more,

Now I really like this next part.

This sounds like something

one of our teens would say.

What shall we say, then?

Or in modern language, “So…………”

Shall we go on sinning

so that grace may increase?”

God’s answer? “NO.”

Shall we go on sinning

so that grace may increase?”

Romans 6:2

“By no means! We died to sin;

how can we live in it any longer?”

Don’t you just love it?

People always try to find the easy way out,

don’t they?

They say “If God’s grace grows with the sin,

let’s see how much grace we can get!”

But that’s not the way it works.

This isn’t a game,

and we don’t know how or when our life will end.

Now is the time to make things right.

God said, “Now is the accepted time.

Behold now is the time for salvation.”

Christ was crucified on the cross for us.

He died so we could experience freedom

from the rip tide of sin.

Romans 6:6-7

“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.”

Did you see that?

It said, “anyone who has died

has been freed from sin.”

This doesn’t mean a literal death.

It means we die to ourselves

and our own lustful desires.

It means we give of our time, money and talents

to help others.

It means we take care of other people,

and let God take care of us.

It means living your life

doing the things God created you to do.

Literally living on purpose for Him.

Romans 6:10-17

“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 it’s 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.”

What’s He saying here?

Leave the old way of life behind.

Remember, to get out of the rip tide,

you have to free yourself

from what is keeping you there,

then swim perpendicular to the pull.

This is our last message

in the sermon series Rip Tide.

I believe that each one of us

understands the concept

of the pull of sin in our lives.

I believe we know how to escape