REMEDY
The Remedy for Helplessness
I see the right, and I approve it, too; condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue.”
-Roman poet Ovid, 8 A.D.
Key Scripture: Romans 6-8
Icebreaker: So, now what? You ever asked that question? Like after Christmas when you were a kid and all the excitement started to wear off. Inevitably you think, “So, now what?” Or like after you came back from your honeymoon with your spouse and had to go back to the daily grind of life. And after the first time he left the seat up or the first time she was too tired, inevitably, the thought had to come, “So, now what?” We’ve all asked that question at some point. We go through things in life, either good or bad, that change us and we get to the other side of that experience and wonder, “So, now what?”
Intro: In the first five chapters of Romans, Paul addresses the problem of sin, the reality of God’s wrath, and God’s remedy through Jesus. He then writes in 6:1, “What shall we say, then?” It’s his way of asking, after all he addressed in the first 5 chapters of Romans, “So, now what?” You can probably imagine how intrigued, how captivated, how offended, possibly, the readers of his letter must have been at this point. I mean, Paul pretty much just laid them out through the first 5 chapters of the book. He revealed the truth about God’s wrath against sin, how all of humanity is inherently sinful, and how there’s nothing humanity can “do” or “work towards” to have peace with God, only God sending His own Son to die in our place could do it. And only by having faith in His risen Son can we have it.
-Pretty heavy stuff, right? So then Paul gets to this point in the letter and just when the people reading it think they can catch a breather, he asks them, “So, what now?”
-Would you like to know? Good. Because we’re going to find the answer today in Romans 6-8.
(Prayer)
-Now, we could spend months in just these 3 chapters of Romans, but for the sake of our study, we’re going to condense it down to 3 main sections of one message today. And I think that if I had to give this section of Romans a title, it would be, “What to do with God’s message in Your Life.” Because that’s really what Paul delves into in these 3 chapters: What are we supposed to do with God’s message?
What to do with God’s Message in Your Life
-I’ve broken the message today down into 3 main sections, one for each chapter that we’ll be looking into.
Romans 6: Take the 1st Steps of Spiritual Awakening.
-And this is relevant to us, because a survey released last year of 1,400 U.S. adults who haven’t attended religious services in six months found that 72% nevertheless believe that "God, a higher or supreme being, actually exists." And that’s among people who haven’t set foot in a church building in the past 6 months. People in America today are more open to spiritual things than they ever have been.
1. Know what you serve, because everyone serves something. (verse 16)
Statement: Maybe you’re one of those people. If you are, you should really pay attention to what Paul says is the first step to spiritual awakening. The first thing you need to do is to know what you serve, because everyone serves something. What does Paul say in verse 16?
Scripture: Romans 6:16 (NLT)
“Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.”
-He says that we are slaves of what we obey. Whatever in our lives takes precedence, that is what we are serving. Some people obey food. Some people obey their sex drives. Some people obey alcohol. Some people obey drugs. You know how we obey things? They take first place in our lives. They become more important than anything else. We will do anything to make sure that that particular part of ourselves is satisfied. You see, we all serve something. And the sooner you come to grips with that, the sooner you’ll begin to really seek God in your life.
-You know why you’ll begin to seek God? Because the harder you look at those problems in your life, the more you’ll come to realize that the real problem is that all of those things really stem from one thing: Sin. Anything in our lives that we obey that is not pleasing to God is a sign that we are enslaved to sin.
-But Paul also says that we can be servants of obedience to God. We can obey God’s Word. We can obey God’s leading in our lives. We can let Jesus take precedence in our lives and serve Him.
2. Consider the advantages and end results of where your life is headed. (verses 20-22)
Illustration: I met Mandy on eHarmony.com. Have you seen those commercials? (Talk about the 1st time we went out together, how we sat in Starbucks for 3 hours just talking and at the end of the night knew that I wanted to pursue her. When I left her that night, I managed to choke out, “We should do this again, soon.” That was pretty bold for me. But I knew I had to. I knew that the end result could be very good.)
Questions: Can you think of some experiences in your life where you had to really consider the end result before you made the decision?
Statement: It’s the same way in taking your first steps towards God, too. Paul says this in verses 20-22 in chapter 6:
Scripture: Romans 6:20-22 (NLT)
“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.”
-I know a guy, a friend of mine, who has a brother who had never had much interest in God. He’s pretty much an agnostic, even now, at an old age. He used to not even be willing to talk about God, but lately he’s mellowed a bit. My friend told me that he was talking with his brother last year about Heaven and Hell. And like usual, his brother told him, “Oh, now you know I don’t believe in that Hell stuff.” To which my friend replied, “Ok, but what if you’re wrong? What if there really is a Hell?” His brother thought for a second a said, “Well…I guess I’d be in trouble then.”
-For a moment, my friend’s brother considered the advantages and end results of where his life was headed. But as far as I know, that was that. He considered it, and then just kind of let it slip from his thought process. And from what I know He’s still there. He’s never moved on to the next step of spiritual awakening. And many of us haven’t either. People can linger at this step for years. For decades. For lifetimes, even.
-Have you? Have you lingered here, considering the direction your life is headed but never making a firm decision about it? You know who you are. Let me just encourage you this morning: pay attention for the next few minutes, because you have GOT to move on from this step. There is nothing more important for you today than to get out of this rut. And Paul goes on to tell us how.
3. Die to your sin and live in Christ. (verse 11)
Questions:
Statement: And this is what Paul says is the next step that most of us never get to: Die to your sin and live in Christ.
Scripture: Romans 6:11 (NLT)
“So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”
-Pretty clear, right? There’s not a much stronger command that Paul could use than to say, “Die to sin.” What does that mean? It means stop sinning. Stop letting Sin be your master. Stop being obedient to it. Stop letting it run your life. Stop letting it infect your thinking. Stop letting it direct your heart. Stop letting it tell you how to act and believe. Stop letting it destroy your life. Stop letting it ruin your relationship with God. Stop letting it get in the way of what God wants to do for you and in you through you. You don’t have to take it!
-You don’t have to stay in bondage to sin! You can be free! You can die to sin and come alive in Christ. So die to it. Put sin in the grave, nail the casket closed, put the seal over it, and bury it six feet under the ground! And while you’re at it, put an epitaph on the tombstone that reads, “Sin. Born when I was. Died today.” And start a new life in Christ. It’s what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus that to be saved from sin he, “Must be born again.”
-Let’s stop right now. I don’t know where you are in your walk with God. But you do. And you know if you’ve never taken this step. I don’t know why God would lead me to do this right now, but I feel like we shouldn’t wait any longer. You need to get your relationship with God right, right now. You’ve considered the end results already, but you’ve never died to your sin and come alive in Christ. I want you to do it, right now. Put your sin to death.
-Let’s all stand. I can’t wait until the end of the message to do this. I know this is different, but you know the Gospel and you need to respond right now. If you would take that next step today, to put your sin to death and to be born again in Christ, I want you to pray with me here in just a second. Turn your life over to Jesus, today. Accept Him as the king of your life. Let Him have control. Let Him come in to your life and take the place that sin used to have. Let Him had precedence in everything you do.
(Prayer)
Romans 7: Understand What Makes a Christian Different. (verses 5-6)
-Listen, if you prayed that prayer today, if you’ve put sin to death in your life and have started a new life with Jesus, please let me know by marking that on your Connection Card. I’m not going to show up at your house or anything, but I do want to pray for you this week and shoot you an e-mail if you want me to.
-So Paul says that we need to take those first steps of spiritual awakening. But he doesn’t just stop there. He wants his readers to understand what makes a Christian different from non-believers. And this is important to understand, because many of us, even though we’ve put sin to death and made Jesus the Lord of our lives, have a hard time finding traction with our faith because we ask ourselves that same question, “So, now what?”
-Well, here’s how Paul answers that.
Scripture: Romans 7:5-6 (NLT)
“When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.”
-What does He say? He says that you used to live one way, but now you can live a different way, a better way. He says that we used to be dead to the things of God because of sin, but now we are dead to sin because of what Jesus is doing in us. And you know what that means for us?
1. We have a new master.
-We are free from our old master, which was sin. We’ve been freed from the bondage of tyrant and given spiritual freedom. And we will want to serve our new master out of joy, not obligation.
2. We have new motivation for living.
-Our very reason for getting out of bed in the morning changes because we have the knowledge that God has saved us! And so every day becomes another opportunity for us to express our gratitude with our lives.
3. We have new example to look to.
-We have a new example to look to. And guess what? It’s not me, it’s not anyone in this room. It’s Jesus! We look to Jesus now and see someone who served God with a pure heart, who came in love and who lived as a servant. So when we ask that question, “Now what?” The answer is always, “Live like Jesus.”
4. We have new power for the day-to-day.
-The power comes from God’s Holy Spirit, Himself! He comforts us when we hurt, He encourages us when we’re down, and He corrects us when we get off track, and He enables us to conquer the Enemy when we’re tempted.
5. We have a new way to measure success.
-Jesus introduced and new way to measure our success. It’s no longer about having more money, being more well-liked, looking a certain way, or anything else the rest of the world lives for. Jesus teaches us that there is beauty in being humble, that there is dignity in serving other people, and that there is joy in being gracious with others instead of condemning them. He was the first to suggest that “he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
6. We have a new reward to enjoy.
-Finally, we have reward that non-believers don’t have. And I’m not talking about Heaven, although that’s definitely a big plus. But I’m talking about the peace of knowing our hearts that we are living with the approval of God and knowing that we bring Him joy. Knowing that our Heavenly Dad is proud of us.
Romans 8: Experience the New Life for Yourself.
-So, what now? You might be asking that. You might be at the point in your walk with God where you have taken those first steps. Maybe you took them long ago. And maybe you’ve been living as best you can for Him, but you still feel like there’s something more, that you could be living a better life in Him or walking closer to Him.
-Paul knows exactly how you feel. And hey, you know what? It’s not any good if all we do is give our lives to Jesus but never grow in our walk with Him. Don’t get me wrong. You can give your life to Jesus and when you do that, you can begin a new life and experience part of what it means to live for Him.
-But the great thing about following Jesus is that we can always go deeper with Him. We can always walk a little closer to Him. We can always love Him better. It’s a process called sanctification, and it just means becoming more like Jesus.
-Does that like something you’d like to do? I don’t know about you, but I want to be more like Jesus. And Paul shares with us in Romans 8 how can continually become more like Christ.
1. Take your mind off of anything that doesn’t honor God.
(verses 5-8)
Statement: First of all, Paul says to take your mind off of anything that is not of God. Here’s what He writes in verses 5-8:
Scripture: Romans 8:5-8 (NLT)
“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.”
-Paul says that the mind that is set on the things that aren’t of God (Paul calls them “the flesh”) can’t possibly please God. If we let ungodly things creep into our minds and hearts, we’re going right back down the path of sin. It always starts in our minds and hearts. Paul says that we need to continually set our minds of the things of God. We need to set our minds on His Spirit. We have to lift ourselves up to a higher plane of thinking, a place where the things of the world don’t mean anything to us, but anything the pleases God means everything to us.
2. Set your mind on anything that does honor God. (Verses 5-8)
-In fact, that’s the next Paul says to his readers in chapter 8. He says that anything that is of God, think about it. Let that into your mind. Let that into your heart. This allows us to get really creative in our faith. That’s why I love following Jesus so much. Because every day is another day that I can find ways to be like Jesus. And this goes for you wherever you are. How could you be like Jesus better were your work? How could you be like Jesus better with your husband or wife? How could you be like Jesus better with your kids? How could you be like Jesus better in your church?
3. Walk in the power of God’s spirit. (Verse 10)
-Now, you might think that would get old after a while. Well, in our own power, you better believe in would get old. But listen to what Paul says in verse 10:
Scripture: Romans 8:10-11 (NLT)
“And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”
-Paul says that God’s Spirit will give us life. So as we walk in the power of His Spirit, He gives us newness of life. That’s every day. Every day, as we walk with God, He gives us the ability to live for Him and grow in Him by the power of His Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t just die and come back to life and go back to Heaven. He is with us, right now. His Holy Spirit gives us power to live for Him every day.
4. Live with the knowledge that you are God’s child! (Verse 14)
-Now, there’s one more thing. And this is just awesome. It always gets me fired up to read verse 14 of chapter 8:
Scripture: Romans 8:14 (NLT)
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
-When I read that, I just get giddy. I mean, “children of God???” Seriously? God has taken me from where I used to be, from being spiritually dead, to a place where now He has adopted me into His family? That’s unbelievable! But I believe it! What a God! What a Savior! What a Father! He calls us His children!
-And when you take those first steps towards Him, when you die to your sin and come alive in Christ, you become His child. So live with that knowledge. When you meditate on that truth, that the God of the universe has adopted you into His family…it will carry you through whatever life or the enemy can throw at you.
Conclusion/Invitation
-So as we close today, I just want to ask you a question: What in your life do you need to die to? Is there some sin that keeps hanging around your life? Do you find yourself still struggling in the same area of your life as you were a couple of years ago? If you are, I challenge you, today: stop it. Stop sinning. Yield to the Holy Spirit today. Allow God to come into to your heart and your life and bury that sin. And allow Him to not only do that, but to give you a new heart and a new life, today.
