Im Only Human

I want to start this morning by asking a few questions.

• Raise your hands, who owns a radio?

• How many listen to their radio?

• How many listen to their radio in the car?

• How many listen to their radio at home?

I belong to the group that listens mostly in the car.

• The only time I listen at home for the most part is when we are having storms.

One of my fondest memories of taking trips with my family

• Was that my dad loved to find old radio shows that were still being played and we would listen to them while we were driving.

• Shows like Amos and Andy / the Lone Ranger / But the one that would scare me the most was The Shadow

• For the younger ones that have no clue what I am talking about during the first 30 seconds or so it started out with silence / then there were footsteps / slow footsteps that were coming closer / until they reached the door / and I swear it took like 15 seconds for that door to open / creaking the whole time / then finally came the voice that said

• Who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men?

• Followed by the answer The Shadow Does.

If we were to try and come up with another word for original sin a good one would be The Shadow

• John Stanford once referred to it as the dark unwanted side of our personalities.

• The Shadow is made up of pieces that don’t fit

• The ones that don’t belong in the picture

Paul wrote that he couldn’t understand his own behavior.

• He said the things I love, I fail to do.

• The things I hate, I find myself doing. Instead of doing the good things I want, I carry out the sinful things I don’t want.

Think back to when you first became a Christian

• You felt great.

• Things began to turn around in your life

• You were full of joy / You began to have victories in your life.

• Life was good and you were happy.

And it went on like that for a while till;

• One day you woke up and it felt like the honeymoon was over.

• Once again things started to go wrong / and it felt like you were losing control.

• Even worse some of the old self had managed to sneak back into your life.

• Old habits were resurfacing.

• And you found yourself thinking that I want to do what is right but I can’t.

• It’s just not working out. / What’s wrong with me?

• There are things going on in my life that I don’t want happening,

• And I know God doesn’t want them happening.

• I know what is right and what’s wrong

• So why do I keep doing what’s wrong?

Why do we do the wrong things when we know there wrong?

• Every person here this morning that made a mistake

• Everyone has messed up in some form or another this week

• And we knew it was wrong when we were doing it.

So Why do we do it?

• It almost seems like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome.

• It’s like there are two people inside us that keep fighting each other.

• One wants to do the right thing.

• The other wants to do what makes us feel good, the sinful things.

Today we are going to look at Romans 7: 14-25

• Roman’s 7 is a picture of a struggling Christian.

• Its Paul’s autobiography.

Through the text today we’ll see that Paul is suffering through these same problems.

• So we see these problems aren’t just happening to you they happen to everybody.

• The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome isn’t new.

• It’s been around since the beginning of time,

• From the moment that Adam and Eve blew it in the garden.

• Here Paul is saying that inside each one of us there are two natures.

So that’s what we are going to look at today are these two natures.

First as Christians we have a new nature

Eph 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

• We must display a new nature because we are new people.

• When we decided to follow Christ

• When we decided to step over that line

• The bible says we are given a new nature.

• And this new nature wants to do what is right.

• This new nature wants to live for God.