What It Means To Be Dead To Sin

He agrees to teach him all he knows about karate under one condition: Daniel must submit totally to his instruction, and never question his methods.

Daniel shows up the next day, eager to learn. The first thing Mr. Miagi has him do is paint a fence. Mr. Miagi demonstrated the precise motion for the job: up and down, up and down until the job is finished. It took him several days to finish the job.

Once he was finished painting the fence, he showed up again wanting Mr. Miagi to teach him all he knew about Karate.

Mr. Miagi asked him to scrub the deck using a circular motion, over and over, until the deck was clean.

This job also took several days to complete. Daniel wonders, “What does this have to do with karate?”

Finally, Daniel reaches his limit. He said to Mr. Miagi, "I thought you were going to teach me karate, but all you have done is have me do your unwanted chores!"

Daniel had broken Mr. Miagi’s one condition, and the old instructor became angry. He said. "I have been teaching you karate! Defend yourself!"

• Mr. Miagi thrusts his arm at Daniel, who instinctively defends himself, with an arm motion exactly like that used in painting the fence.

• Mr. Miagi unleashes a vicious kick, and again Daniel averts the blow, with the circular motion of scrubbing the deck

After Daniel successfully defends himself from several more blows, Mr. Miagi simply walks away, leaving Daniel to discover what the master had known all along: skill in karate comes from repeating the correct, but seemingly boring, actions over and over again.

The same thing is true in the Christian life. Skills in the Christian life are developed, when day after day it seems like we are doing the same thing.

This is why the Lord said in Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

The devil is constantly making all kinds of attacks on us, and God wants to teach us how to defend ourselves from these attacks.

Let’s look at this passage, and discover how we can daily live a victorious life in Christ.

There are two things for us to consider, first …

I. THERE IS SOMETHING WE NEED TO BE AWARE OF

Look at verse 13, “And you, being dead in your sins…”

The reason we Christians do not live in sin like the lost world does, is because we are DEAD to sin. A dead man no longer does what he once did. HE IS DEAD.

Illus: Dr. Bill Kanoy tells that in the small town where he was raised, the local funeral home was on Main street. As strange as it may sound, it was not only a funeral home, but it was a place where some of the men would gather from time to time, and talk, and cut up with each other.

In that same town, there was a man that was not so bright, and everyone in town knew it. Often, people in the town would take advantage of his childish mind.

This man had a routine he went through each day. He would dress up and walk around town for his daily exercise.

These men knew about this daily routine, and decided, with the owner of the funeral home, to play a trick on him.

One of the men got into an empty casket, and pretended he was dead.

The owner of the funeral home saw the man coming, and asked him if he could do him a favor. The man said, “What kind of a favor?” He said, “I have to leave the funeral home for a short time, and a family is suppose to come and look at this body in the main parlor. Would you mind sitting in the parlor, and show them where he is when they come?”

The man felt very honored to be asked to do such a thing. He was brought to a large room where the casket was. A man was laying in the casket, and the cover was open. The man picked up a newspaper, and sat across the room, and read the newspaper, while the other men were hiding in another room watching.

While he was reading, he heard a noise, and he looked across the room and saw the “dead man’s” arm had fallen out of the casket. He walked over and put it back in the casket.

He went back to reading the newspaper, and in a few minutes he heard some noise again, and the man’s leg had fallen out of the casket. He walked over and stuck his leg back in the casket.

The men in the other room were laughing so hard, they could hardly control themselves.