INTRODUCTION
• Today, we will begin our new five-week series entitled Failing Forward[ Pursuing Spiritual Disciplines.
• When we think about the phrase "SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES," what comes to mind?
• We may think about prayer, meditation, scripture reading, and fasting, among other things.
• By the way, all of the things mentioned above are a part of spiritual disciplines.
• In this series, we will open the definition a bit and examine some other areas of spiritual discipline we may not consider.
• If we are not careful, prayer, fasting, Bible reading, and such can turn into items on a checklist.
› Big Idea of the Series: This five-week series explores how Christians can "fail forward" in life.
• In other words, we can grow through our failures.
• We can learn to grow from failure by understanding sanctification, the need to acknowledge brokenness, and how to forgive other believers.
• One of the issues we examined as we looked at suffering was the issue of free will and how free will impacts humanity from a negative standpoint.
• Free will is what we must possess to be able to love.
• Today, I want us to think about the fact that just because one is baptized into Christ does not mean free will ends.
• We must realize an initial decision to follow Jesus does not allow us to put our life on autopilot; we still have to make choices.
• Our new life in Christ that we receive when we are baptized (Romans 6:1-ff) is when the tough choices begin.
• For Christians, the subject of failure deals with sin, salvation, holiness, ethics, and what the Christian life looks like.
• Is the Christian life just one of constant failure?
• Are we helpless sinners who will never make progress?
• Aren't we supposed to be perfect?
• We are saved from something (damnation) but are we saved for something (sanctification)? (made holy)
• We must realize that choices have consequences, but we also need to know that since we are saved by God'sAren't grace, failure does not have to end our journey.
• Failure does not have to define us!
• Big Idea of the Message: To fail forward means to learn from mistakes. Christians can fail forward by knowing that sin is no longer our master.
• Today, we will examine three areas of our new life that will require us to choose.
• When we make the right choice in the first two, the third area will happen!
• Let's turn to Romans 6 together.
Romans 6:12–14 (NET 2nd ed.)
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,
13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness.
14 For sin will have no mastery over you because you are not under law but under grace.
SERMON
NEW LIFE IS ABOUT...
I. Choosing the right master.
• Before we get too deep into this, I want us to look at verse 11
Romans 6:11 (NET 2nd ed.)
11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• The context of this chapter up to this point is that when we have been buried with Christ in baptism, we are also raised up with Him into a newness of life (Romans 6:4).
• Because of what is written before verse 11, we are commanded to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to Jesus!
• This gives context to what we see in verses 12-18.
• THEREFORE verse 12 tells us that SINCE we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, there are two things we must make happen with the help of the Holy Spirit within us.
• Before we dig into those two areas, we need to see something.
• We need to remember that Romans was written to Christians.
• Now, WHY is Paul telling Christians about making a choice concerning who they are going to serve?
• Verse 11 is imperative, meaning that this command must be CONTINUALLY carried out.
• This is but one of many places where we see we are CALLED to make a choice.
• THIS CHOICE INVOLVES WHO YOU WILL CHOOSE TO BE YOUR MASTER, TO WHOM YOU WILL YIELD TO AND FOLLOW!
• Once you gain new life in Christ, God does not just take the wheel and tell you to sit back on it and go along for the ride.
• After we are freed from the bondage of sin in our lives, we must make a conscious decision as to what we will do with our lives.
• The first choice is to allow sin to reign again in our bodies.
• We know this is a choice WE have to make because, in verse 12, Paul says DO NOT LET, and in verse 13, he says NO NOT PRESENT your members to sin; then, later in the verse, he says to PRESENT YOURSELVES TO GOD.
• This tells us that once the slavery to sin has been broken, we STILL have a decision to make!
• The word "reign" is a word used of a king who has total dominion over his subjects.
• Once we let sin have dominion over us, verse 12 explains that we will then ALLOW sin to make us obey its passions.
• When we let sin creep into our lives, it only looks for an opportunity to present itself.
• The original text tells us a stop letting sin reign in our bodies.
• Christians still have problems with temptations and sin; otherwise, this appeal would be pointless.
• In Christ, we are no longer a slave to king sin in verse 6; so, therefore, we have a responsibility to resist and refuse to give in to temptation.
• The second choice we must make if we have chosen God to be our master is we have to choose to present ourselves to God and allow ourselves to be used as instruments for righteousness!
• In verse 13, we are encouraged to "present" our bodies to God.
• The word "present" implies a definite once and for-all commitment.
• The inner person that died and rose with Jesus is responsible for controlling the whole person's" behavior and putting oneself at God's disposal.
• Follow me here.
• In ancient times, you would have a King who ran the kingdom.
• The King had absolute rule or dominion over his kingdom.
• Under the King, you had lords who controlled little bits and pieces of the kingdom.
• Those Lords did not run the show, but they had control over parts of it and were still under the King.
• When we are baptized onto Christ according to Romans 6:1-ff, we are freed from KING SIN.
• That King no longer has dominion over us.
• What happens to us is that the little sin lords (individual sins) try to lord it over us, thus drawing us into various vices.
• Verse 14 is not dealing with KING SIN, which HAD dominion, but with the individual sins that harass, tempt, and trap us.
• I want you to hear me on this point.
• Sin would have ZERO authority over us if we would make it our purpose to NOT use our bodily members as instruments of unrighteousness but use them as instruments of righteousness.
• The only power sin has over the one who is dead to sin is the power we give it.
• The MORE we are committed to Jesus, the less sin draws us in.
• Until we understand that, we will ALWAYS struggle.
• The further from God we are, the more we struggle.
• I would venture to say that if your life is just one big fight with giving into temptation, if you are honest with yourself, you would have to admit you are not putting much into your relationship with Jesus.
• We will ALWAYS have struggles with sin, but as you grow closer to Jesus, that struggles become more manageable.
• Verse 14 reminds us that sin will not have mastery over you since we are no longer under law but under grace!
• The law will show us what acts, and desires are wrong, but it provides no help in dealing with them.
• The speed limit only tells us the limit; it does not help us obey it.
• When we are under the grace of God, we receive help dealing with temptations. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
• You have a choice to make, the sin master or Jesus.
• Let's look at verses 15-16.
Romans 6:15–16 (NET 2nd ed.)
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?
NEW LIFE IS ABOUT...
II. Choosing the right path.
• Verse 15 asks an interesting question.
• Shall we sin since we are not under law but grace?
• Our decision as to who to serve has some ramifications.
• Deciding to present ourselves to God to be used as instruments of righteousness impacts HOW we live or what PATH we follow.
• Telling or saying we chose to present ourselves to Jesus is not enough!
• In verse 15, we have the same question as in verse 1.
• The question is, since sin is no longer lord over us, then can the Christian sin and never pay the penalty?
• The answer, of course, is a resounding NO!
• It would be a misuse of freedom in Christ to suppose we can submit now and then to LORD SIN while simultaneously being in no danger of coming again under the bondage of slavery to KING SIN.
• In verse 16, we learn that when we present (the same word as in verse 13 (voluntary presentation) ourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, we are slaves of the one we obey.
• Since we changed masters, the former master (sin) has no authority over you.
• We are called to give our all to our new master Jesus.
• When we belong to Jesus, we are free to decide whom we will serve, but some implications come with our choice.
Matthew 6:24 (NET 2nd ed.)
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
• There is no middle ground. If you serve one, you will not get the benefits of the other.
• The sin in verse 16 refers to all the individual acts of sin done in obedience to the Devil.
• If a person continues to commit specific acts of sin while making no effort to stop letting that sin reign in his life, the result will be that eventually, we will sink back into the very slavery from which we were freed at baptism.
• The final outcome of serving each master is called either "death" or "righteousness."
• If you follow sin, death comes, spiritual death, and eternal death.
• If you present your body to God, then righteousness.
• The path we choose has implications, either good or bad.
• We have to choose!
Romans 6:17–18 (NET 2nd ed.)
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to,
18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
NEW LIFE IS ABOUT...
III. Enjoy your freedom.
• Paul gives thanks to God for the condition of being slaves to sin that it was a thing of the past.
• The general truth stated in verse 16 now gives readers personal application.
• We were once slaves to sin, but we have been set free!
• The world is wrong; in Christ, you experience true freedom!
• Think about how enslaved we were to sin when we were outside of Christ.
• The things people think they are "FREE" to do harms them and enslave them.
• Verse 17 tells us how the old slavery to sin is broken and how they have come to a new master.
• We obey from the heart that pattern of teaching entrusted to us.
• The word obey/obedience has been used four times in the last two verses.
• The word OBEY is an aorist tense verb that means obedience was a one-time past act with continuing results.
• The context of the chapter points to the time of their baptism.
• As Paul looks back to the time of their baptism, he thinks of them as both having understood what was involved and also having been whole-heartedly sincere.
• The word PATTERN in verse 17 means to shape, type, pattern, or model, or a mold cast into which molten metal is poured to take its shape.
• The idea that baptism is a model, picture, or teaching type is easy to demonstrate.
• The phrase ENTRUSTED TO means COMMITTED.
• The expression succinctly pictures what happens as the candidate allows themselves to be lowered into the waters of baptism.
• Putting verses 16 and 17 together, we are told that the pattern of doctrine is to be obeyed if one is to experience righteousness.
• We are driven to the conclusion that baptism is an essential part of the condition of faith that God requires for a person to be called righteous.
• The word FREED here is different from that used in 6:7, with the idea being the same.
• It is Pauls's doctrine that such freedom comes when one is baptized.
• Imagery aside, to be freed from sin is to be pardoned.
• To be pardoned, two things are necessary.
• Number one is obedience to the model of teaching.
• Number 2 hearty obedience.
CONCLUSION
• The beauty of life is that you get to make a choice, and once you make a choice, you must keep making that choice.
• God's way of saving man results in blessings for those who will take it.
• If you are struggling, remember, you can win with God.
• Truly present yourself to Him and see what happens.
• God knows we will struggle.
• Amid the struggle, God hurts with you.
• Decide today to fully present your life to God as a living and holy sacrifice!
• What a shame it would be to waste the blood Jesus shed for you on the cross by choosing not to fully give your life to Him.
• Do not waste the gift you have given or offered!
• If sin is allowed to lord it over us, it won't be long till it's King over us.
› Application Point: We are not bound to sin but can learn from our mistakes in our new life with Christ.
