Message Highlights

• The question we keep asking is “What will rescue me?” God never answered that question with a what. He answered it with a Who.
• The moment you put your faith in Christ, God took you out of Adam and placed you into Christ. Sin stopped being your master then. That is settled, and it did not depend on your performance.
• Considering it true is not the finish line. It is the starting line. Paul moves straight from what God has done to the next move: stop offering yourself to a master who no longer owns you, and offer yourself to God.

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Conversation Starter

• Think of something you already know is good for you and still avoid doing. What usually gets in the way?
• When you want to change something about yourself, where do you tend to look first for the fix?

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Core Discussion Questions

Connection Question What stood out to you from today’s message about the difference between looking for a “what” and being given a “Who”?

Context Question Where have you run into Romans 6 or the phrase “in Christ” before, and what did you understand it to mean at the time?

Clarity Question How did today’s message clarify or change your perspective on what actually happened to you the moment you believed?

Application Question Paul says to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. What would it look like to live that truth out in one specific relationship or situation?

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Additional Questions

• Anthony said sin no longer controls you unless you say yes to it. Where do you find yourself saying yes to something that no longer has any claim on you?
• Paul asks in Romans 6:2, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Why do you think that question needed to be asked of people who already believed?
• Which is harder for you to believe: that God forgave you, or that God freed you? What makes the second one harder to hold onto?

‍Main Scripture: Romans 6:1–14 (CSB)

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Paul wrote to the church in Rome around AD 57, near the end of his third missionary journey. This is the one major letter he sent to a church he had never visited and did not found. That shapes how he writes. He cannot assume shared history with these believers, so he builds his argument carefully from the ground up, and the result is the most systematic presentation of the gospel in the New Testament. The church was a mix of Jewish and Gentile believers, and a good deal of the letter works out how those two groups stand on the same ground before God.

Romans 1 through 5 makes one long case: no one can be made right with God by keeping the law, and God declares people righteous through faith in Christ rather than through their own record. Paul closes that section in Romans 5:12–21 with a comparison between Adam and Christ. One man’s disobedience brought sin and death to everyone connected to him. One man’s obedience brings righteousness and life to everyone connected to him. Two representatives, two humanities, and every person belongs to one or the other.

That comparison is what makes Romans 6 possible. Chapter 6 opens with an objection Paul knows his argument will provoke: if grace increases where sin increases, why not sin more? His answer is not a rule. It is a fact about who his readers now are. They died. The word Paul uses for “baptized” in 6:3 carried no religious meaning of its own in ordinary Greek. It meant to place into, to dip, to immerse. Paul is describing the moment the Holy Spirit placed a believer into Christ, which he names directly in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Because you are in him, what happened to him counts as having happened to you. His death is your death. His resurrection is the reason you can walk in newness of life now, not only after you die.

Notice the order in the chapter, because it carries a lot of weight. Verses 1 through 10 are entirely statements about what God has already done. There is no command anywhere in them. The first command does not arrive until verse 11, and it is not “try harder.” It is “consider,” which means to count as true what God says is true. The second command comes in verse 13: stop offering the parts of yourself to sin and offer yourself to God. God acts first and completely, and the response follows from what he already accomplished. Reversing that order turns the chapter into a self-improvement program, which is exactly what Paul is arguing against.

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Questions for study:

1. Read Romans 5:12–21 before Romans 6. How does the Adam and Christ comparison change the way you hear Paul’s question in 6:1?
2. Work through Romans 6:1–14 and mark every statement about what God has done, then every command. What do you notice about where the commands fall?
3. Romans 6:4 says we may “walk in newness of life.” Read Ephesians 2:1–10. What does Paul say there about the condition you were in and who changed it?
4. Romans 6:7 says a person who has died is freed from sin. What does that tell you about how God deals with the problem of sin, compared to how we usually try to deal with it?
5. Read Romans 8:1–11. How does Paul describe the Spirit’s role in the life he has been talking about in chapter 6?
6. Romans 6:10 says Christ died to sin “once for all time.” What does the finality of that say about God’s character and about how secure your standing is?
7. Read Colossians 3:1–5. Paul gives the same pattern there: a statement of what is true, then a response. How does he describe the response, and how is it different from self-improvement?

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Deeper Discussion Questions

1. Today’s passage is sometimes used to argue that a person must be baptized in water in order to be saved. Read Romans 6:3–4 alongside 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Titus 3:4–7. What is Paul describing in Romans 6, and how does water baptism relate to it?
2. Some traditions teach that the sin nature is completely removed at salvation and that a believer can reach a state of sinless perfection. Read 1 John 1:8–10 and Romans 7:14–25. What does Scripture say about the ongoing struggle, and what does it cost a person to pretend the struggle is gone?
3. Here is a thought worth sitting with carefully. Before God placed you in Christ, there was no war inside you over sin. You were a prisoner to it with no ability to want otherwise. The tension you now feel between what you want to do and what you actually do is a tension you did not have before. What does the presence of that struggle suggest about what God has already done in you? Be careful with this in both directions: it is not a test to grade yourself with, and it is not permission to stay where you are.
4. You have probably heard the question, “Who is on the throne of your life today?” Read Romans 6:6–7 and 6:14. If the old master was crucified and cannot return, is “putting sin back on the throne” an accurate picture of what happens when a believer sins? What would be a more accurate way to describe it?
5. People often use the phrase “free will” to describe the human condition. Read Ephesians 2:1–3 and Romans 6:17–20. Before Christ, how free was the will Paul describes? Where does he locate real freedom?
6. Romans 6:1 raises the question of whether grace gives permission to sin. How would you answer someone who said that being fully forgiven makes obedience optional? Try answering it the way Paul does, without reaching for a rule.
7. There is a difference between what is true of you positionally, meaning your standing before God in Christ, and what is true of you practically on a given Tuesday. Both are real. How do you hold both without either despairing over the second or excusing yourself with the first?

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Living It Out

Name the access. Anthony listed places where sin gets a foothold: the secret, the relationship, the habit, the screen, the conversation, the place. Pick the one you would least like to say out loud. Write it down. Then decide on one specific step this week that cuts off access rather than simply resolving to do better, and tell one person in your group what that step is and when you will take it.

Answer sin with your identity, not your feelings. This week, when temptation tells you “this is who you are,” answer it out loud with what God says: “That is who I was in Adam. I am in Christ now.” Keep a note on your phone of when this happened and what you said. Bring that note back to your group.

Offer something specific. Romans 6:13 says to offer yourself to God. Choose one area, your work, your calendar, your money, your words, or a relationship that has been strained, and name a concrete way you will hand that area to God this week. “I will be more spiritual about work” is not a step. “I will not check email after 8pm so I am present with my family” is.

Ask someone to check on you. Verse 13 is not a solo instruction, and neither is the chapter it sits in. Ask one person to check in on you about your step in ten days. Give them permission to follow up more than once. If nobody comes to mind, tell your group leader that, and let them help you find someone.

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Prayer Focus

In today’s message, we were told, “Stop looking for a ’what’ when God has given you a ’Who.’” Thank God that He did not answer your deepest problem with a program or a plan, but with His Son. Then ask Him to make what is already true of you in Christ true of the way you live this week.

Romans 6:11
So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 7:25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

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We're in part two of a series called Freedom. Freedom where you can be free from that thing inside of you that leads you, that controls you to do the very things you don't want to do.

And how easily things control us. I was with my wife the other day, we were— she made breakfast for us and we went out shopping for just a little bit, because I'm a guy and that's all I can handle. Just short amount of time. And while we were away, I was like, oh, I'm hungry. Now, we could have eaten while we were out, but I'm Italian and I'm too cheap for that. So I was ready to go back home, and while we're driving home, like, I got immediately hungry. Like, I understand people that out of hunger have road rage and have difficulty and all that stuff, like— it all made sense in that moment. I was like the story of Esau and of him trading his birthright for a bowl. I was like, yeah, I get it, man. Cuz if you gave me some sausage and pasta right now, I'd give you anything.

We get home, and, like, then she's going to make lunch. Let's see— I've got this good wife who knows me, or she just has self-preservation. And she made me a snack before she began to make lunch.

How easily we get controlled by things inside of us that that we think we need. But this isn't the kind of control we're talking about. No, we're talking about the control— the thing that wants to move us, control us from the inside to do things that we know are wrong. And there are things that we know are good, and we don't do the things that are good, and we end up doing the things that are wrong. And we say, what is wrong with me?

It's almost like we don't want to say it out loud, because we wonder if we're just the only one. Hey, can I tell you, you're not the only one? The Apostle Paul, arguably one of the greatest Christians throughout the history of time, he said the exact same thing.

I'm gonna read it to you. Paul said it like this. "I— I don't really understand myself. For what I want to do is right, but I don't. Instead I do what I hate. But if I know what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree with the law that it's good. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. But I want to do what's right, but I can't. And I want to do what's good, but I don't. I don't do— I don't want to do what's wrong, but I end up doing it anyway." And he goes, "wretched man that I am."

See, we know we ought to do good, we just— we just can't do it. We know we ought to do good, we just can't get ourselves there. We keep asking questions that don't address the real problem. I mean the real problem, that is inside of us. The real thing inside of us that keeps controlling us to do the things that that we don't want to do.

And so instead of addressing that problem, what we end up doing is we address the symptoms, all of the things on the outside. And we say, well, what can I do to change these things? What can I read? How can I change my behavior? When the real problem isn't the things out here— though, they are wrong— it's, it's what's in here.

And after we realize that the real battle isn't out here and trying to change the symptom of the problem, but actually address the real problem on the inside— once we realize the symptom is not the solution, we end up asking a question: what— what will rescue me? Which is what Paul asks.

And here's the truth. There is no what that will rescue you. There is no what that will save you. There is no amount of rules. There's— there's no amount of shifting your ideas and and shifting your behavior that will rescue you from that thing inside of you that wants to control you. There is no what that will save you. Listen to me carefully: it's a who.

Last week we— we saw what happened the moment that you believe, the moment that you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior— that you were taken out of Adam and you were placed into Christ. That's positional, that's settled. That's done once and for all. That's it.

This week's question is different. This week's question is not, how does it happen? But, how do I actually live like this is true? What rescues us?

And that's what Paul asked. Look at Romans chapter number 7 verse number 24. He says, "what a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?" And then he answers it in the next verse, number 25: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin."

And this is something you're gonna see throughout the rest of this series, today and— and next week. But if you read Romans, and you read some of the writings of Paul, you'll see these phrases again and again and again. It'll say "through Christ," or "through him," or "in Christ." And those sound like phrases that seem abstract, and, you know, I don't understand how they all work. And Paul is about to show us why these statements carry so much weight, and why they are so valuable to us, and how we live Christ— and how we live in Christ. Because "through Christ," "through him," "in Christ" are extremely valuable to our walk as a Christian.

And so the solution isn't a what. Listen to me, it's not you. There isn't anything in you that you can do that's going to change the circumstances of what's inside of you, of what desires to control you and the things that you do. And there's a lot of people, they just want to change themselves. They say, well, I'm gonna be more disciplined, and I'm gonna try harder in being disciplined, because of, I'm disciplined, then I'll be disciplined enough and everything will be okay. Listen, you can't discipline yourself enough on the outside to change yourself on the inside. You can't do it.

It's not better willpower. It's— it's not deciding with more enthusiasm. It's not changing all of the friends around you. And listen to me, everything that I'm saying— these are all good things, that is, believers at one point in time you'll end up having to do. But they aren't going to change you from the inside out. The answer— the answer is a person.

Romans 7:25 says, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And the Apostle Paul tells us how to find victory over the things that control us. Because he tells us how he found victory over the thing inside of him that controlled him.

Now, because this is a dense study— I mean, we're gonna get in the thick of it today. Here's the bottom line, before we look at the verses, so that I don't lose you. Just as a single act of an unrighteous man ensured that you were born as a slave into sin in Adam, the single righteous act of one man frees you from the power of sin, being placed in Christ. See, the death of Jesus on the cross already accomplished what we're describing right now. You were taken out of Adam and placed into Christ. You were free from the power of sin.

Now we're gonna talk about how this applies in a deeper way. Romans chapter number six verse number one says this: "What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?" There's a lot of people that are— said, well, you can't really just trust that once you believe in Jesus that you're gonna be saved and saved forever. Yes, you can, because Jesus does the saving and not you. He is the one that paid the penalty. He paid the way.

But they say, well, if you sin— if you get saved and then you sin, you just keep on saying— what's to stop you? And that's the question. That's the point that he's making right here. And then he gives an answer. He says, should we just continue to sin so the grace would just multiply? Look what he says in verse number two: "Absolutely not. How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

He's saying, you've died to sin. And he's gonna explain how you've died to sin, even though that you're alive and you've never physically died. He's gonna explain how all of that breaks out. But he's asking, hey, why would those of you have been freed from sin, why would you keep living in it? Why would those of you have been freed from the power of sin continue to live under the power of sin? Why would those of you whose sin was once your master— why would you keep making sin your master? Why would you keep saying yes to sin when sin no longer controls you?

Look at verse number three: "or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" And Paul's saying this— didn't you know? Hey, there's so much more to the fact that Christ died for your sins than you just go to heaven someday. That's true. We go to heaven if you've put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior. When you die, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We will be with him. But listen, that's just part of it. There's more to it, and this verse is gonna break this open for us on how there is more than simply, I go to heaven when I die.

You see this word "baptized." When we read this in Scripture, in this particular passage of Scripture, we think of water baptism that we're gonna celebrate here in just a little while. But this little word "baptized," it means something different. It doesn't mean water baptism. It does not mean the outward picture of salvation that we celebrate.

See, when somebody puts their faith and their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior, he gives them a new nature, he redeems them, he makes them a new creature. And we follow him in baptism— water baptism, that will celebrate today— and we declare what he has done in us to the world, that we are a follower of Jesus. But this verse is talking about something completely different.

This little word "baptized" right here, in its context, refers to the moment the Holy Spirit places a person into Christ at the time when they become a believer. In that spirit baptism, a new believer is unified with Christ, baptized into his death and made a part of his body. If you actually want to do some studying later on, you'll find that in First Corinthians chapter 12 verse number 13. But this word "baptized" that we see in Romans 6, it doesn't have religious meaning to it. It simply means to be placed in, to dip, to immerse.

And Paul says, don't you know that when you were baptized in Christ— the moment you called on him and asked him to save you and to redeem you— you were taken out of Adam, you were placed, you were baptized in Christ, and at the same time you were baptized into his death. Permanently changed.

Listen, when you were in Adam— when you were back here in Adam— need you to hear me: what was true of Adam was true of you. You were lost and without hope. You were separated from God. You are prisoners to sin's power, to sin's control. Sin was your master. But I want you to catch this. But when you placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you were taken out of Adam and you were placed into Christ. And now what is true of Christ is true of you.

When he died, it's as if you died. Oh— not physically, where you're stuck, not alive right here. No. The part of you that was in Adam, that part of you were sin controlled you— that right there died. And you were placed, you were baptized in Christ, and every benefit of his death belongs to you.

Romans chapter 6 verse number 4 says this: "therefore, because of that, we were buried with him by baptism in death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, so we too may walk in newness of life." You see that phrase right there, "newness of life"? I'm gonna mention that in just a second.

You see, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, everything that came with all of that, all of the benefits of that— all of that is true of you. Listen, because you're in Christ. Now, if you're not in Christ, if you have not put your faith in your trust in Jesus Christ to save you from your sin, redeem you from your sin— listen to me— you're still in Adam. And what was true of Adam, what is true of Adam, is still true of you. But if you put your faith and trust in Christ, what is true of Christ is true of you.

Now, let me just say it like this: all the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection have been applied to us because we're in Christ. And if you're a believer, this has already happened in your life. Jesus forgave you of your sin, you're heaven bound when you die. But what so many believers fail to realize is that it doesn't just apply after we die. The benefits of what Jesus did, they don't just apply after we die and we're in heaven. Listen to me, they apply now. Look at the end of the verse: "that we may walk in newness of life." Here. Newness of life, here.

Look at verse number six: "For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin." Hey, that fight that's taking place back and forth, that you feel like you never win, where you're being pulled this way to do things that you don't want to do, and these things over here that you do want to— just like the Apostle Paul, what we're reading about, what Paul is saying is, listen: what used to control you no longer has control over you. You can walk in newness of life.

Hey, that old self, that was who you were in Adam. But now you're crucified with Jesus, that once you're placed in Christ, what is true of Christ is now true of you, including his crucifixion. He says that you were crucified with Christ. I know this is deep, but I'm gonna try and make it simple here. If you've trusted Jesus as your Savior, you are in Christ, which is why you're saved— because you're in Christ. And the reason you're able to live that new life and walk in newness of life is not because you try harder, and it's not because you've done something good, it's not because you figured out some secret of keeping sin away from you that none of us have figured out. No, it's because you are in Christ.

The same reason that you're saved is the same reason you can have victory over sin. It's in Christ. And literally— here's what this means. It means that the part of you who's been ruled by sin is no longer under the power of sin. What that means is that we shouldn't live as slaves to sin.

Look at verse number seven: "since a person who has died is freed from sin." He said, when you're placed in Christ, everything about Christ is true of you. And in Christ, when you died in Christ, you died to this slave master of sin. Look at verse number 10: "for the death he died, he died to sin once for all time. But the life he lives, he lives to God." This happened once for all time.

Now, there's some bad theology that some rather popular religious organizations have run with, and they've said that every time you sin, and every time you mess up, Jesus has to die all over again. Listen, the Word of God is literally saying the exact opposite right here. This is why we don't follow religious institutions. This is why we don't follow people. This is why we at Northwest follow the Word of God— because I as a man will be wrong someday, and other men that get up will be wrong someday, but the Word of God is true and without error, and that's what we follow.

That was a good spot to hear— good job. But with that— hey, he doesn't have to die over and over and over again. No, the blood of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus was enough for all sinners for all time. That means all of your sin— past, present, future— because he died for all of it.

And because how amazing that is— because of all of that, here's the application of that. It's found in verse number 11: "So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin." Look at this. "And alive in God, in Christ Jesus." And just as sin was not Christ's master, sin doesn't have to be your master.

So how do I do that? You're to consider yourself dead to sin. Listen to me, dead to this thing over here that you can't stop yourself from. Dead to this thing— this seems to control you. Dead to this thing that seems to take you places you don't want to go and do things that you don't want to do. You're dead to this, the Bible says. And you are alive over here in Christ, baptized in Christ.

Look at the next verse, verse number 14: "For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace." And this amazing truth right here, it's life-changing. I want you to catch this. Considering it true isn't the finish line.

Because this is what we do in church, right? We sit here, we listen, somebody preaches, and we go, oh, I never knew that before, now I know that, so my life is all the sudden gonna be different because I know it. Listen to me, knowing it is not the finish line. Knowing it is the starting point.

And Paul doesn't stop with what's true of you. He gives you the very next move. He says this: sin no longer is your master. Sin no longer actually has control over you— unless you say yes to sin. And here's the problem: that's what we do. We say yes to something that doesn't have the control over us. We say yes to sin when it used to be our master and it's no longer our master.

Now, hear me: if you're saved, sin doesn't rule over you— until you say yes to sin. The problem is, is we say yes to sin. It was— if I say yes to sin, does that mean I'm not saved? No, that doesn't mean you're not saved. But it means you're saying yes to a master that isn't your master, because you're in Christ.

And this is our struggle. This is why we spend so much time trying to work on things on the outside. And, if I just don't go to this place, and I don't go to that place, and I've had— I don't talk to this person, and if I don't think this thing, then everything will be alright. And then all of a sudden you find yourself with a whole new list of problems. Because the problem isn't the place that you go and the people that you're around— the problem is in here. It's us.

And we keep saying yes to a master that is no longer our master. We keep saying yes to something that used to enslave us when we're free. And this is the tension that Paul describes in Romans chapter number seven. Listen: the things that I don't want to do, those are the things that I do. And the things that I do want to do, I don't end up doing these things. And I feel this pull, and my heart is over here, and I know this is what it's supposed to do, but my body and the rest of me keeps going over here and doing these things that I don't want to do. And he says, wretched, wicked, awful person that I am, who will deliver me? And we're finding out, in Christ Jesus.

Hey, we've been taken out of Adam, placed into Christ. Sin is no longer our master, our ruler. We have freedom in Christ. But the problem— the problem, just like all the other problems, they're right here. We keep saying yes to a master that's no longer our master. See, sin doesn't rule over you, sin isn't your master, but far too often we say yes to a master that's not our master.

You said, wait, Anthony, how— how do I fix this today? We're gonna finish it out next week, and we're gonna continue next week. But for right now, I want you to see this: stop looking for a what to change you when God has given you a who. Listen to me, stop looking for a what— the who will rescue you. It's, thanks be to God through Christ Jesus.

And your deepest problem isn't finding a new routine. It isn't creating new habits. It's not bringing in new rules to your life. It's not listening to a new podcast from somebody else that's gonna tell you the same truth in a different way that somehow gonna make you understand something that you never understood. No. Just like the Apostle Paul, you know what you shouldn't do, you know what you ought to do— it's just that you can't get there to do it. And the problem isn't creating some new rule. The problem isn't doing some new thing that you haven't thought of before. No, the problem is realizing it's not a what that's going to change you, it is a who that is going to change you. And that who is the same name of Jesus that we lift up. It is why he is holy, is why he is righteous, it's why he's worthy of all of our praise— because he who is the who that will deliver us from our sin.

And all too often what we end up doing is looking at all of the external symptoms, saying, what? What will save me, what will fix me, what will change me— when it isn't a what, it's a who. Listen to me, discipline is valuable. I'm not telling you to take rules in a routine and a podcast or anything else and disregard it because it has no value. No, it does have value. But it doesn't have enough to replace the work that Jesus does in you.

Listen to me, none of those things can save you. None of those things can set you free. None of those things can make you new. Jesus does that. Hey, and when you fail, stop reevaluating your what. When you fail, stop reevaluating— reevaluating your what— and run to Christ. Hey, your victory begins with what he has already done. Your victory begins with what he has done and who he is.

Let me say this: the answer to your sin is not a better version of you, it's the finished work of Jesus. Some people come to church hoping to find a better version of themselves. Some people come in this room hoping to hear something that's going to change— that's going to make them feel different or be different. The answer to your sin is not finding a better version of yourself, and it's not being a better version of yourself. It's the finished work of Jesus. That's what changes you.

I want you to see this next point: remember who you are before you respond to what you feel. Paul says, consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Christ. I'm going to get to the point. Temptation may still speak, but listen, temptation is not your master. You are in Christ. You're dead to sin, alive in Christ. Listen, your feelings may be strong, and your feelings may want to lead you some place you know you don't want to go. And this is why we are not led by our feelings. You're led by your identity of who you are in Christ. He leads you.

And listen, when sin says, this is who you are, this is who your father was, this is who your grandfather was, this is who you are, this is your whole heritage— listen, tell sin, I've got a new name. I've got a new identity. I'm not who I was. I'm who Christ has made me to be.

Listen to me, this doesn't mean that the struggle is gone. It just means we realize who we are in the struggle. It's choosing to believe God and what he says is true, and that sin is a liar. Let me say it like this: sin may still call your name, but it no longer owns who you are. Sin may still call to you— it's not going to stop.

Listen, there is an old, dirty, rotten sinner inside of this pastor, and there is a new nature that Jesus put in here. And the two war against each other, and they're going to war against each other until the day I die. And that's true for me, and it's true for you. But when sin calls my name, I got to remember that it doesn't own me. Jesus does. I've been placed in him, I've been baptized in him.

I want you to see this one: stop presenting yourself to your old master, and present yourself to God. Paul's instruction, listen, it's found in verse number 13: "do not offer the parts of yourself to sin, but offer yourself to God." Hey, we ought to stop giving sin access and stop giving sin control.

Listen, secrets— spiritually, they don't help you spiritually. Hey, that wrong relationship, it doesn't help you spiritually. You can be in Christ and try and allow all these things into your life. I'm telling you, if you're allowing all of these things, all of these wrong things into your life, and you're like, hey, yeah, but I'm over here and I'm putting Jesus on the throne, I presented myself to him as this living sacrifice and I'm doing really good— no, you're not. Just trying to do spiritual things while you're walking in your flesh. The two are opposed to each other, the Apostle Paul says.

Hey, so stop the secrets. Walk away from the bad relationship. Listen, walk away from the temptation, walk away from the habit, walk away from the screen. Walk away from the conversation, walk away from that place. But listen to me: make the obedience specific. Confess it. Cut off the access. Replace what feeds the sin with what feeds the new life in Christ. But realize this: you're making the decision not out of who you were, but out of who you are in Christ. You're walking in his strength and in his power, with his purpose.

Listen, then actively offer your mind, and say, Lord, my mind is yours. Lord, my body, it's— it's yours. Lord, my time, my time is yours. Lord, my relationships are yours. God, my gifts are yours. Everything I am and everything I desire to be, Lord, it's all yours.

There's our problem. See, we find ourselves fighting between these two places. I don't want to do this, I don't want to be this, I don't want to go there, I don't want the regret, I don't want the sorrow, I don't want the destruction, that all the stuff that sin offers— I don't want it. But at the same time, we don't offer ourselves to him and say, God, I'm yours. We still want to be our own. And we think somehow we can manage the tension of these two sides, all just being our own and doing our own thing. I'm telling you, we can't do this.

When I am on the throne of my life, Jesus isn't. When I'm on the throne of my life, I'm saying yes to the master of sin. I'm saying yes to a false master that I've been freed from.

Let me read this line to you: don't give the keys back to a master that Jesus has already defeated. Don't give the keys back to sin when Jesus has already defeated sin. Because I'm going to tell you what we're going to do: we're going to come in on Easter, we're going to get excited about Jesus— and he walked out of the grave, and he has the victory, and he's declared victory. We have victory because Jesus won the victory. And all the while, we keep giving the keys of sin, and the keys of being master, back to sin, again and again and again and again— when that victory that we celebrate— listen to me, that victory that we celebrate, that's how we walk in the new life. Now. Today.

Heavenly Father, thank you for how good you are. We thank you that you've declared victory, that you've won the victory. Lord, you help us. Because, Lord, I feel that tension of being pulled one way and desiring to be pulled the other way, but I'm still stuck. I'm still in that middle place so many times, where I'm the one on the throne and not you. And Lord, true freedom is found in you, it's not found in me. In order for people here, true freedom is found in you. It's not found in their best effort, in their wisdom and their ideas and their righteousness. No, Father, all these things are found in your Son, Jesus. So, Lord, would you help us to see this truth today? Lord, would you help us to live this truth today, to walk in that newness of life? I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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