Are We Becoming a Dead Church
Romans 6: 11-14
Intro: Back in the early 1990’s there was a movie that came out about the Jamaican bobsled team that was trying to qualify to race in the Olympics. Now I know that sounds much like an oxymoron but it’s true. There was a Jamaican bobsled team. I don’t remember how well they did when they finally made it to the Olympics but there was a very memorable scene that I want to use as I introduce this sermon.
. As this team started out they would use something that looked much like a soap box derby car that kids would build to race in. In the scene I’m talking about, Derice Bannock and Sanka Coffie, the two teammates are practicing and using one of these soap box derby type sleds. They go down this steep hill and they lose control of the sled and crash really bad. Derice then calls out to Sanka as they are all banged up and bleeding and he says ‘Sanka, are you dead” and Sanka answers him “Ya mon, I’m dead”
. As I was preparing this sermon, and studying the scripture for this morning this question that Derice asked Sanka kept coming back into my mind. God kept asking me. Anthony, are you dead mon.
. You see, as our scripture tells us this morning, I must be able to say yes Lord I am dead.
. In order for you to have eternal life with our savior Jesus Christ, you also must be able to say yes Lord, I’m dead.
. In order for our church to be a living breathing organism that we call the body of Christ, we must also be a dead church.
. We must be able to say yes Lord we are a dead church.
. With all the love that a pastor can have for the church, I tell you this morning that my prayers for you are that you will die.
. I love you so much that I want you to die.
. Lets read our scripture
. Romans 6:11-14: 11So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.13Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.14Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
.Folks. in order to be a dead church, it’s members must first die to their sins.
. Paul writes that people who have accepted the free gift of salvation are dead to sin.
. Look at verse 11 again: 11So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
. In order to be a Christian we must die to our sin.
. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14b-17 that; Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.15He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
16So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!17This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
. The old life is gone; a new life has begun because we have died to our old life.
. We cannot try to cling to our old life.
. That life is dead.
. That old vessel that was filled with sin and shame is to be torn apart and a new person is to emerge.
. In order for this new creation to be built, the old must die.
. A read about a man who was selling an old warehouse. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Gangs had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and thrown trash everywhere.
As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.
The buyer smiled and said “Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.
. When we die to Christ all that is left of us is the site.
. Everything else must die and Jesus must take control and build a whole new creation in us.
. A dead church is one where the members are dead men and women walking.
. There was a movie by that title here a few years back. That’s what they called people who had been convicted of murder and were waiting on death row to be executed.
. Christians are dead men walking.
. They have died to their sins and they are allowing Jesus to resurrect them into a new life.
. When I baptize someone I say to them that they are buried with Jesus through baptism and they are raised with him into a newness of life.
. They have been reborn.
. Born again as Jesus told Nicodemus over in the third chapter of John.
. In order to be born again, we must first die.
. Churches can never flourish and be successful in it’s mission of making disciples until it’s members are dead people.
. Dead to sin
. Not only are we to be dead to sin, we must also be dead to self.
. Dead to self.
. Look at verse 12-13; Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.13Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
. Folks we have to die to self
. We have this new life that has been given to us through being born again the old life is dead.
. Our priorities change.
. What used to be important has changed.
. No longer are we to be the old selfish gotta have my way person.
. We have died to that old selfish life.
. We must die to ourselves.
. A great illustration of that is the Apostle Paul.
. We started a study of the book of Titus on Wednesday night and as I prepared for this study I concentrated on the first chapter thinking that the first chapter would be enough material
to cover the time that I had available.
. Folks we didn’t get out of the first verse of that fist chapter of Titus.
. There was so much there that we couldn’t get past it.
. My goal next week is to at least get to the fourth verse.
. This is what Titus 1:1 says; 1This letter is from Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives.
The King James translation translates slave as Bond Servant
. Paul writes that I am a slave or a bond servant.
. Now I googled bond servant and this is what I got. ( www.the bondservant .org)
. The best definition here is “devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests.” On its basic level a bondservant is simply following your master to complete disregard of your own will, emotions, desires.
. A bondservant disregards their own self interests. Their own will. Their own desires and even their own emotions.
. A bond servant was a slave as the NIV and the NLT translate the word but they were voluntary slaves.
. When we think of slaves we think of our history of slaves being captured in foreign lands and transported somewhere to be in bondage against their will.
. That’s not the slave that Paul is talking about.
. A bond servant is someone who voluntarily submits to another.
. If a person had been a servant for someone and had been treated well and they wanted to be bound to and provided for the rest of their lives they would voluntarily become a bond servant. The master would take an awl ant pierce their ear to signify that they were in voluntary servitude to him.
. They became utterly dependent upon the master.
. They gave up whatever rights and self that they had in order to serve the master.
. They die to themselves.
. This was saying a lot about Paul. This one seemingly small description of himself but if we look at this statement, he is describing death to self.
. Paul was a big deal in his former life folks.
. Before he died he was one of the up and comers in religious circles.
. If you remember, Paul was standing giving approval at the stoning of Stephen right after the death of Jesus.
. Paul was given the authority to drag Christians from their homes and punish them.
. All the religious leaders of the day knew who he was.
. Paul reminds Titus when he writes him that I have died to that person I used to be.
. I am no longer the man I used to be.
. I am a bondservant of God.
. I am his to do with as He pleases.
. I am dead to my own desires and wises. All that is important to me now is the will of God. Not.
. In the Garden as Jesus prayed to God that the cup of death pass from Him he said “not my will but your will be done” Father.
. When a person is dead to self that is their prayer. Not my will but your will God.
. When a church is dead, that’s their prayer also. Not my will around here God. It doesn’t matter what I want Father. What matters is what you want.
. We gotta be dead to our desires and wills and surrender to the will of the Father.
. That’s what a dead church looks like.
. Unselfish, looking only to follow Jesus.
. We must become dead to sin and dead to self if we are to become true followers of Jesus Christ.
. Paul writes in verse 13 here that if we become Dead to Sin and Dead to Self then we become :
. Alive In Christ
. Vs 13 says; 13Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
. The NKJ says, “present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead,”
. A dead person comes alive from the dead through Christ Jesus.
. A dead church comes alive from the dead through Christ Jesus.
. We must die to sin and to self in order for Jesus to be alive in our lives and in our ministry.
. A dead church realizes that it has no strength on its own.
. As we die to sin and self, the world sees us as Jesus wants them to see us.
. Alive in Christ.
. Three friends were talking about death one day and one of them asked the others a question. As people come to the funeral home for the final viewing, as they look at you one last time, what would you like for them to say?
. The first one thought for a minute and said “I would like for them to say that I had been a good man. That I was a man of integrity.”
. The second man thought for a minute and said “I would like for people to say that I was a good husband and father”
. They both looked at the third guy and said what about you. What do you want them to say?
. He pondered for a minute and said, I want them to look in my casket and say, Oh my God, he’s still alive. Look at him he’s alive.
. We need to look at ourselves as being dead to sin and self and let others look at us and see us alive in Christ Jesus.
. As a church we need to be dead as a church within the body. Dead to sin and selfishness
. When we are a dead church, people will look at us and say those people down at the creek are really alive to Christ.
. In order for that to happen, we need to be a dead church.
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources:
Original thought from Dr. Rusty Ricketson Luther Rice Seminary
The Holy Bible, NLT
The Gift of New Life, Jeff Strite
Alive In Christ, Steve Shepherd
