Message Highlights

• Jesus died to sin once for all time, He took on sin’s power and claim and He came out the other side, free! Because you are in Christ, sin’s claim on you has already been broken.
• Every time you are tempted, you are standing on one side of an equation: “sin is my master” or “I am in Christ.” The side you argue from settles the outcome before the fight starts.
• Grace rules you now, and the law does not. That is why Paul can tell you to consider, refuse, and offer. God supplies what he commands.

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Conversation Starter

• Think of a habit you kept long after the reason for it disappeared. What finally made you notice you were still doing it?
• Growing up, what did you think it took to be a good person, or a good Christian? Where did that idea come from?

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Core Discussion Questions

Connection Question: What stood out to you from today’s message about being dead to sin and alive to God?

Context Question: Where have you encountered Romans 6 before, and what did you understand it to mean?

Clarity Question: Anthony said the word “consider” in Romans 6:11 is an accounting word that means to reckon, to count as true what is already on the books, the same one Paul uses of Abraham in Romans 4:3. How does that change what Paul is asking you to do?

Application Question Anthony described two ways of arguing when temptation shows up. What would it look like this week to answer from “I am in Christ” instead of “nobody’s perfect, I’ve always been like this”?

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Additional Questions

• Anthony said he spent years trying harder, keeping a list, and doing good things while sin was still his master. Does any of that sound familiar? What did it cost you?
• Romans 6:13 names specific parts of the body. Which part of your life is hardest to hand over before the day starts?
• Anthony said sin will still knock, and you do not have to open the door. What does closing the door actually look like in your situation?

Exploring the Scripture

Main Scripture: Romans 6:9–14 (CSB)

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Paul wrote Romans around AD 57, most likely from Corinth, to a church he had never visited. The believers in Rome were a mix of Jewish and Gentile Christians, and Paul was writing partly to introduce himself ahead of a planned visit and partly to lay out the gospel in full. His letters tend to follow a pattern: he establishes what God has done first, then explains how that changes the way we live. Romans is the clearest example of it.

By chapter six, Paul has spent five chapters arguing that no one earns righteousness and that God credits it as a gift through faith in Christ. Chapter five closes with two representatives of humanity. Adam brought sin and death to everyone connected to him, and Christ brought righteousness and life to everyone connected to him. That sets up an obvious objection, and Paul states it himself in Romans 6:1: if grace increases where sin increases, why not keep sinning? Everything in chapter six answers that question.

Paul’s answer is not a rule. It is a fact about who you are. In verses 1 through 10 he argues that you were united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, which means the person who was enslaved to sin died. Verses 9 and 10 carry the weight: Christ will not die again, death no longer rules over him, and the death he died, he died to sin once for all time. Sin has no claim left against Christ, and you are in Christ.

Verse 11 is the first command in the chapter, and the order matters. “Consider” translates to a Greek accounting term, the same word Paul uses in Romans 4:3 when he says Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. It means to reckon, to count as true what is already on the books. Paul is not asking you to generate a feeling or talk yourself into something. He is asking you to agree with a settled fact. The commands in verses 11, 12 and 13 all rest on verse 14, where Paul gives the reason any of it is possible: sin will not rule over you, because God has placed you under grace and not under law.

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Questions for Study

1. Read Romans 6:1–10. What has already happened to you, according to Paul, before he gives a single command in verse 11?
2. Compare Romans 4:3 with Romans 6:11. Abraham’s faith agreed with what God had already declared. What is God declaring about you that you are asked to agree with?
3. Romans 6:12 says not to let sin reign. Paul assumes sin will still make a bid. What does that tell you about the difference between temptation and ownership?
4. In Romans 6:13, the word translated “weapons” can also be rendered “instruments.” What does Paul assume about your body, and why does he speak about specific parts of it?
5. Read Romans 6:14 slowly. Paul gives a promise and then a reason. What is the reason, and what does it say about where the power to obey comes from?
6. Read Romans 7:15–25 and then Romans 8:1–4. How does Paul’s honesty about struggle fit alongside what he claims in chapter six?
7. Colossians 2:6 and Colossians 3:1–3 say something similar in different words. What does Paul add there that Romans 6 does not spell out?

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Deeper Discussion Questions

1. Some people hear “dead to sin” and conclude that a real Christian no longer sins. Paul commands believers not to let sin reign, which assumes it will try. How do you hold both of those together honestly?
2. Read Romans 6:1-2. Paul asks a question he knows people are already thinking: if God's grace covers all our sin, why not just keep sinning? How would you answer that? Now read Titus 2:11-12. According to Paul, what does God's grace actually do in a person's life?
3. Anthony described believing he had to try harder and do better before God would be pleased with him, and said sin was still his master the whole time. How does effort aimed at earning God’s approval end up keeping a person under sin’s rule?
4. Anthony talked about a middle ground people invent, where you are not fully offered to God but you are not openly giving in either. Where have you seen that in your own life, and what makes it comfortable enough to stay there?
5. Our culture tends to treat desires as identity. Paul treats identity as something God assigned in Christ, and desires as something that can be refused. How does that difference play out in a real decision you have faced?
6. If your feelings and your standing before God disagree on a given day, which one does Paul say governs? What has to change in how you start your day for that to be more than a slogan?
7. Galatians 2:20 says Christ lives in me. If that is true, what are you actually asking God for when you pray about a sin you keep returning to?

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Living It Out

1. Start the day with the fact, not the feeling. Before your feet hit the floor, say the sentence plainly: sin is not my master, and God has made me alive in Christ. Do it every morning this week, including the mornings after you fail. Tell one person in your group you are doing it and let them ask you about it.

2. Name the argument you make. Write down the sentence you actually use to excuse one particular sin. It might be “nobody’s perfect,” or “this is just how I am,” or “I’ve always been like this.” Put it next to Romans 6:11 and decide which one you are going to answer from.

3. Make obedience specific in one relationship. Pick the setting where you compromise most easily, at work, at home, or with a particular friend. Decide now what you will do when it comes: end the conversation, close the screen, leave the place, make the call, or ask for help. Vague intentions do not survive the moment.

4. Offer the parts before you need them. Take the list in Romans 6:13 and pray through it by name: my eyes, my hands, my mind, my mouth, my time. Ask a friend or your spouse to check in with you at the end of the week on the one that is hardest.

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Prayer Focus

In today’s teaching, we were reminded: “This was never about trying harder. Your old, dead life was never capable of living the Christian life. It’s Jesus, alive in you.”

Romans 6:14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Thank God that he broke sin’s power over you before you ever tried to fight it. Then ask him to teach you to yield this life to Christ, so that he lives it through you this week.

We’re in a series called Freedom and today is the last week of our three-week series in Freedom. We’re working our way through Romans. Next week we’re gonna start a six-week series called Stuck. So what do you mean stuck? I mean just that. Have you ever felt like you’ve been walking through life, and no matter what you do you can’t fix it. You can’t change it. You can’t adjust it. You just feel, in every sense of the word, stuck. We’re gonna talk about some people in the Bible who were stuck in their circumstances, and what did they do?

For this week we’re finishing up Freedom. Now as we look through the New Testament, especially the writings of the Apostle Paul, you’ll find some things that, as the Lord under his inspiration uses Paul to pen words of Scripture, you’ll notice a pattern. It’s usually the first half of Paul’s writing is always theological. It’s deep. It’s rich in theology, and the second part of all of that is almost always practical.

And so when people read phrases in Paul’s writing like “in him” and “through him” and “in Christ” and “in Christ in me,” they don’t know what to do with those statements. They don’t know how to process some of those statements because they seem so abstract. And what I love about the Apostle Paul’s writing is he takes those difficult phrases, those theological things that are very difficult to understand, and usually in the latter part of his writing he breaks them out in the most practical way.

But what happens to us is we read phrases like that — “in him,” “in Christ,” “Christ in me,” “through him” — and we disregard them because we don’t understand, and when we forget just how important they are. Because the Christian life was never meant to be about doing your very best knowing that God is disappointed with you all along on an hourly basis and you’re just hoping that you can do enough good to get God to forgive you.

Listen to me this morning. If you’re a believer, if you’re in Christ, if you put your faith and your trust in him as your Savior, this is a very important reality I’m gonna give you. Sin doesn’t control where you go when you die, and sin doesn’t control how you live on this earth while you’re alive.

In this series we looked at Paul’s diagnosis of the problem — our problem, your problem, my problem — the thing that controls us that we don’t want to control us, the thing that causes that tension that we have of, here the things that I don’t want to do and here are the things that I do want to do, but I don’t end up doing these things and I end up doing the things that I know I shouldn’t do. And he says the problem is that we’re in Adam, and he gave us a solution. It’s realizing that we’re in Christ.

And today, throughout Romans chapter number six, Paul’s gonna tell us what we should actually do with that theology. And there’s gonna be three phrases that are gonna serve as an outline. The first one is consider yourselves dead. The second one will be don’t let sin rule, and the third one will be offer yourselves to God.

Romans chapter number six verse number nine says this, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. Did you see that right there? Death — it no longer rules over him. Now look at the very next verse, for the death he died, he died to sin once for all time. We talked about this last week, but the life he lives, he lives to God. To break this out, Christ death wasn’t only physical, was also death to sins claim, that he declared victory. He bore sins full penalty one time. He rose from the dead, that penalty was completed. It was paid for in full. Now remember, right behind sin, following after sin, is always this thing. It’s always death. And Christ took sin and death on and came through on the other side victorious and free.

Now knowing all of this, I want you to catch this. Here is what we begin to do. Because everything I just said is true, because everything we just read is true, look at verse number 11. So you too, consider yourselves dead to sin.

What are you supposed to do? But Anthony, there’s this thing in me that’s pulling me to this, to these actions, to this behavior, to these thoughts, to this, to this lifestyle, and I know it’s wrong, and I want to do this good thing over here, but I can’t seem to do it. I keep doing this bad thing over here. What am I supposed to do? Consider yourself dead to sin. Dead to sin. Since Christ died to sin, listen to me, you now must count yourself, consider yourself dead to sin as well, because you’re in Christ and dead to the power of sin.

This word “consider” that you read, it’s the same word that Paul uses in Romans chapter number four. You might say, well, what relevance does that have? Romans chapter number four verse number three says this, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. That word “consider,” it’s the same word here used as “credited.” It’s reckoning. It’s crediting to an account. It means this, consider yourself dead isn’t just positive thinking or willing yourself to some different mindset. It’s agreeing with a settled fact, the same way Abraham’s faith agreed with what God said would happen and he believed it. It’s the same idea, that we’re gonna consider ourselves dead not because we feel dead, and not because sin stops calling, but because God says we are dead to this power of sin and alive in Christ.

And the first thing that you have to do is to believe. Hey, sin doesn’t control me anymore. Sin isn’t my master. Now listen to me, not because it feels true, but because God said it, and in Christ sin’s power has already been broken.

Now the thought continues. Since sin isn’t your master, since you’re going to be considering yourself dead to sin, look at verse number 12, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body. Here’s the context of Scripture, because you’re dead to sin, because the power and the curse of sin have been broken in your life, because you put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, stop saying yes to sin. Consider yourself dead to sin. Look at what the rest of the verse says, so that you obey its desire. Don’t let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desire.

See, we describe our battling with sin, we say we wrestle with sin. I don’t know about you, I’ve used the phrase wrestling with sin, but sometimes I feel like it’s not really wrestling, it’s more like getting beat by sin. I mean, we know we shouldn’t say something, but you know, I kind of really want to. Listen, if I got credit for not saying things but thinking them, like, I would be a saint, okay. Because my problem is never ever ever not knowing what to say. I always know what to say. It’s I shouldn’t say it. Oh, I really want to do that. And we stop ourselves, what we say, oh, it would be nice, and we call this wrestling with sin.

Now hear me, when we wrestle with sin we do it from one of two positions. When we wrestle with sin we wrestle with sin from one of two positions. Watch this. We wrestle with it from, sin is my master. I’m gonna try and fight sin, but I’m really saying yes to sin on the inside, and sin is really controlling me even though it doesn’t have the power over me anymore because of what Christ did. I keep saying yes to sin. When we wrestle with sin we either wrestle with it from, sin is my master, or my new identity in Jesus Christ.

All too often what happens to us is we try and wrestle with sin, and we don’t know which position we’re actually fighting from or wrestling from. So let me kind of describe it to you, let me break it out for you. Wrestling from the standpoint of sin is my master, here’s how it sounds. Well, you know, nobody’s perfect. You know, I’ve always been susceptible to this. Well, you know, God just looks at all sin as the same. Listen, he looks at all sin as the same because he says we all have a sin nature, and our heart is so deceitful and desperately wicked that we can’t understand it. But if you actually read scripture carefully, he calls some sins an abomination. And before we get like really excited and really proud in church, be like, yeah, our country and there’s some abominations — gossip is on that abomination list.

I’ve always been susceptible to this. Listen, you’re wrestling from the standpoint that sin is your master. Another one, well, this is just natural for me. I mean, this is just my personality. This is what I do. This is what my family does. Hear me, if you argue from that standpoint you’ll lose every single time, because you’ve identified with someone that you aren’t anymore.

Now let me flip it. Wrestle from the standpoint of who you are in Christ, that your identity is in Christ. It’s an entirely different fight. So, well, what does it sound like? It sounds like, hey, that’s sin trying to rule me. I hear sin calling. Hey, that’s sin trying to rule me, that’s sin trying to conquer me. Listen, when someone says that, you’re free to sin and keep walking back into it, why would you do that? When you ask that question, why would someone say yes to sin when sin isn’t their master? Hey, that’s you wrestling from the standpoint of your identity in Christ. Start asking the question of, why would I embrace something built to hurt me after I’ve been set free? You say things like, I’m in Christ, and the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, why would I say yes to sin?

And every time you’re tempted, whether you notice it or not, you’re standing on one side of the equation. Sin is my master, and I’m saying yes to something that I have been freed from. Or, I’m speaking and I’m wrestling from this identity that I have in Jesus because I’m in Christ. And listen to me, whichever side you identify with decides the outcome before the fight even starts.

I’ve been counseling for a long time. That’s in a room with people, they’re saying, well, I’m just trying harder, and I’m trying harder, and I’m creating more discipline, and I’ve got better friends. Listen, you got better friends, let me know, okay. I could use a couple. I’ve got better friends, and I don’t go to those places, and I try all of these things, but I just keep failing again and again and again and again. I’m gonna tell you what the problem is, you’re wrestling, you’re fighting from the standpoint of who you used to be, when you’re not that person anymore. Your identity is found in Christ, and when we wrestle and we fight from our new identity of us being in Christ, the outcome is completely different. You can say no to sin, because the power of sin has already been broken by the power of Jesus.

Scripture says do not let sin reign in your mortal body. Don’t let sin rule, look at verse number 13, and do not offer any parts of it, any parts of what, your body, to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. Hey, don’t allow, don’t offer, don’t loan any part of your body to sin. Well, you know, it’s okay to look as long as I don’t touch. No, don’t, don’t loan your body. Don’t offer your body. Well, it’s okay to touch as long as I don’t embrace. No, don’t offer your body. Hey, what if we made a decision? Listen, my eyes, my hands, my mind, they belong to God because I’m in Christ. Hey, my heart, its desires, my mouth, my, my physical body, every part of me, where I go, where my feet take me, they belong to Jesus because I’m in Christ.

What if we made that decision that said, I’m not gonna offer my body to sin? Look what it says in the rest of the verse, but as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. Hey, instead of offering the members of your body to sin, offer them to God.

You see what we do is we say, well, I’m not gonna get involved in sin, I want to abstain from sin. Oh, we sound really spiritual, and we say this, I’m gonna abstain from the appearance of evil. But we never offer ourselves to God. We leave ourselves in this limbo, in this middle ground that we convince ourselves is safe. And it’s just not safe. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is telling you, he’s telling me, hey, the solution, don’t offer yourselves to sin, but it doesn’t stop there, offer yourselves to God. This is incredible. This is the life that’s available to us, surrendering the parts of our body to our Heavenly Father on purpose.

So what would it look like if we did that today? Oh, what would it look like if we did that daily? You say, well, how? The same way that you grow in him, through prayer, in his word, and you offer yourself to him daily. Lord, my eyes, they’re yours. With my mouth, my feet, with my physical body, it belongs to you. Listen, then when temptation comes, the answer, it’s already locked and loaded. When temptation comes, I’ve already offered myself to God. And so when it comes, I go, none of the sins not my master. Jesus is. No, sin doesn’t rule over me. I don’t belong to me, I belong to Jesus. I’m already devoted to God who brought me out of death and into life.

And Paul, he isn’t asking for a feeling. He’s asking you to make this decision in your real body today. Devote the parts of your life to God. It’ll make all the difference. So, I just already feel so devoted in my life. You know, we devote ourselves to a way, we devote ourselves to church, we devote ourselves to some devotional that we’ve picked up. And I’ve lived this kind of life. I mean, growing up, I grew up in a very legalistic church, and so I had a long long long list of rules, and I devoted myself to those rules. You know what never changed? The heart.

See, righteousness does not work itself from the outside to eventually affect the inside, it works itself from the inside out. Jesus says I want you, I want you to devote yourself to me, and sometimes what we do is we create this list of right and wrong, this list of things that maybe they aren’t bad, they’re still good ideas, but we put them in a place of no effect because we try to use them to make ourselves more spiritual. And I kept on trying to live this way, and live this way, and live this way, and it didn’t change anything on the inside. And what I thought I was doing was that I wasn’t, I was, I was trying my very best to not live like sin was my master, but I wasn’t living in the identity of who I was in Christ. I was living with some checklist, I was living with something to try and make me better. I thought I had some middle place, and eventually I would be devoted enough that I could be fully devoted to him.

But can you hear me this morning? If you’re not living and walking in the new identity in Christ, in his grace and in his power, can I tell you what we’re doing? We’re over here identifying with sin, even though we might be trying our very best, even though we’re following some good rules, even though we’re doing some really good things. In the Apostle Paul, in the book of Galatians, says it like this, and we studied it about last year, hey, walk in the spirit, you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. But if you walk in the flesh, you will not fulfill the fruit of the spirit.

I struggled with that, like, how do you do that? It seems so abstract, and was so difficult for me for so long, until I came across this verse in Colossians. Colossians chapter number 2, verse number 6, you’ll see it on the screen, says this, so then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him. Hey, when I read this verse I realized everything I was trying, it wasn’t gonna change me on the inside, and if it didn’t change me on the inside, it wasn’t gonna change me on the outside. Hey, what was gonna change me wasn’t my determination, and it wasn’t rules, and it wasn’t how hard I was gonna try, and it wasn’t how dedicated I was gonna try and be to some particular way. No, the thing that would change me, the thing that will change you, it’s not your friends, and it’s not more discipline, it’s always always always going to be Jesus in you changing you from the inside out.

And with all of that, look at what Paul continues to say in Colossians chapter number three verse number one. This goes so well with our study. So if you have been raised with Christ, if you’re in Christ, seek the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. You say, Anthony, there’s some things there that I’m supposed to do. Yes, but it starts off with, if you have been risen with Christ, if you are in Christ. That’s where it starts.

And you might say, well, how do I live the Christian life? How am I able to do these things? The only person that has is Jesus Christ. Listen, you can’t in your own strength, but he can, through you. You can live it, but not on your own and in your own strength. It’s going to be him through you. And it’s not just me saying that, Paul says it in Galatians, he says, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

So as long as I’m striving to somehow live up to a standard, to be everything I want to be, to be everything I think the Bible tells me I’m supposed to be, listen, as long as I do that in my own strength, I’m going to fail. I’m going to fail. I’m gonna fail. What we need to do is we need to learn to yield this life, this life that is now in Christ. We need to learn to yield that life to Christ himself so that he lives through you and through me. Because it’s never been about trying harder, now it’s realizing your old life is dead, and that old life that’s dead was never capable of living the Christian life. It’s Jesus alive in you.

So here’s what I would suggest, that you start every day with three things that are going to serve is our outline. But I want you to see how cool this is, because I love it, when I was studying out like this it just got me just so excited because it’s all in context of Romans chapter number six.

Here’s the first thing, consider yourselves dead. Verse number 11, so you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. Hey, every morning, what if we got up every morning and said this morning, I am dead to sin and I am alive in Christ, not because I feel it, not because I saw the sun shining and I felt victorious that morning when I woke up. No, but because God says it’s true, therefore I’m going to believe it as true. I am dead to my old ways and alive in Christ. And before temptation settles in, realize who you are in Christ. Hey, when temptation calls, realize who you are in Christ. When temptation knocks on the door, realize who you are in Christ, and don’t let yesterday’s failure tell you who you are today. Say it plainly, sin isn’t my master because I’m alive in Christ. Hear me, this isn’t pretending that the struggle isn’t real. No, it’s real. It’s agreeing with God that the struggle no longer defines you, that you’re defined by who you are in Christ. You might want to write this down, you do not fight sin to become free, you fight sin because Christ has set you free.

Here’s the second thing, don’t let sin rule. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desire. Hey, when temptation comes, listen, notice what side of the equation you’re on. Are you fighting sin? Are you wrestling with sin from the standpoint of sin is my master? Hey, if you do, you’re gonna fail. And if you fight from the standpoint of who you are in Christ, the power of Christ in you working through you, changing you, the outcome is already decided. So, well, I’m not really either one, I’m kind of fighting from the middle ground. There is no middle ground. You’re either fighting from sin, oh, you’re fighting from who you are in Christ.

See, but I’m just tempted, and every time I’m tempted I just feel so discouraged because I’m tempted. Listen to me, tempted is not proof that sin is your master. Temptation isn’t proof that sin is your master. It’s sin trying to reclaim a place that Christ has already taken. Some people get discouraged because they’re tempted and they said, well, if I’m tempted then I must be really bad. Let’s sin trying to reclaim something that Christ has already claimed.

So listen to me, stop calling to sin. Stop calling to sin and say, well, sin is just who I am. You know, it’s been in my family for generations, it’s, it’s how I was raised, it’s, it’s something I can’t help. No, stop defining sin in such a way that somehow makes it palatable for your life. No, call it what it is. Hey, that’s who I was when I was in Adam. That’s who I was when I was a slave to sin. But sin is not my master, and it’s not my master, not because I’m strong and not because I’m capable, sin isn’t my master because of who I am in Jesus Christ. So stop calling sin who you are. That’s speaking from your old identity.

And from that new identity, hey, let’s make obedience specific. From that new identity, hey, end that conversation. Walk away, run away, close the screen, close the browser. Hey, leave the place where you don’t belong. Confess the secret. You say, well, secrets are sometimes really good, you know, to hurt people. Hey, you know, sometimes when we hold things inside and we don’t tell anybody, we just keep falling into the same trap again. And when we hold things inside, I’m gonna tell you where we get it from, who we used to be, not who we are in Christ. So make the call, make the appointment, sit down and talk with somebody, make obedience specific. Not from who you used to be, but from who you are in Christ. And sin will still knock, but you don’t have to open the door. I’ve said this before in other messages in this series, don’t give the keys back to a master that Jesus has already defeated.

Here’s the third, offer yourselves to God. Romans 6 13, but as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. Hey, there’s no middle ground. He says, instead of playing the middle ground, instead of fighting from who you used to be, offer yourselves to God. Offer your eyes, offer your hands, offer your mouth to God before you’re tempted. All too often we wait until we’re tempted to try and do something spiritual, and don’t wait until you’re in the middle of temptation to decide who you belong to. Begin the day and surrender. God, my eyes belong to you. My words belong to you. My thoughts belong to you. My time belongs to you.

And this is where we find it so much easier. When we live in this new identity, we find it so much easier to spend time in the Word of God, to spend time in prayer, to spend time with godly relationships. So we find it easier to confess our faults to each other so that we can be healed. So we find it easier to obey. I talk to people so many times and they’re just like, you know, I want to do good, I want to do good, but, but I just don’t want to open my Bible. Yeah, I know. Because we’re saying yes to a master that isn’t our master anymore. I just find it so hard to pray, and so hard to just be around people where all they want to do is just talk about God. Because we’re being who we used to be, who obedience just seems so hard, like, I know what to do, I know what to do is right, but I just keep doing wrong. Hey, you’re wrestling from the wrong place. Offer yourselves to God. Do it in this way, a life offered to God leaves less room for sin to rule in your life.

We just said some things. We just said consider yourselves dead, don’t let sin rule, offer yourselves to God. You’re like, man, those things just seem so hard. Yeah, but here’s the really really really cool part, it comes with a promise. The next verse, for sin will not rule over you, because you’re not under the law but under grace. Sin isn’t gonna rule over you, because there’s a spirit of Jesus Christ that dwells inside of you, and you don’t walk in your own strength, and you don’t walk by your own rules, and you don’t walk by your own power. No. You walk in his grace, and his grace does something in you and through you that you can’t do yourself, that I can’t do myself.

And while his grace does that work that’s so amazing and incredible to me, he also changes me at the same time, from the inside out, not the outside in. And when he’s changing me, he’s not changing me to a better version of me. He’s not changing you to a better version of you. He’s changing us so that we would look less like us and more like Jesus. Now this isn’t a fourth thing to do, this is saying, listen, it’s all figured out. His grace is powerful. His grace is sufficient. So just yield to him and say, I’m not gonna try and do this in my strength, and I’m not gonna do it from my old identity, I’m gonna do it from your power, from your strength, because I’m in Christ. And I don’t belong to sin anymore, I belong to Jesus.

Hey, this truth that I’m teaching you, this truth throughout all three messages, it’s not about trying harder. It’s not about building on something, the thing that we get to build on is that God was rich in love and mercy and sent a solution for us. And it wasn’t a what? It was a who. He sent Jesus. And he took our sin, took on our shame, hung on a cross. So father, why have you forsaken me? The Bible says he died, was buried, three days later defeated the grave, defeated sin, defeated death, defeated darkness, and declared victory. And now you and I get to live in that victory.

Hey, the building that happens in us, the foundation of it is his love, his mercy, in his grace. Because if you look at these truths like, I just got to try harder, you’re gonna miss something. It’s God loved us so much that he set us free from who we used to be, and now because of his love we are alive in Christ who has victory. So let’s live that way. Let’s build our life on his truth and his love.

Heavenly Father, you’re so good to us. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for this truth. And Lord, would you have your will, in your way, in our hearts? I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

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