Sermon
- The wages of sin is death
- Seems a heavy burden
- Life is a constant struggle to avoid sin and death
- Weighs on our souls like we are slaves to our own condemnation
- Not the intent of this passage
- Not dead in sin, but alive iin Christ Jesus
- 14 “sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
- We are already heirs of grace
- God’s light is already shining through the cracks in our broken façade.
- Our circumstances can lead us toward God, or lead us away from God
- That is, we can draw closer to the life that God has in store for us, which is deeply, deeply right. That’s what righteousness means – living in harmony with God’s plans for our lives
- Or, our circumstances can drive a wedge between us and God’s love. Sin is a noun, not a verb. It is not something we do, but something that exists. Anything that creates a barrier, a physical, spiritual, real barrier between us and God, is sin. And if God is life itself, then separation from God is death.
- What makes the difference? The way that we respond to the events in our lives.
- I was reading this passage with June and Eric Barker earlier this week, and I was reading from the CEV version. “your body is bound to die, so don’t obey its desires 13 or let any part of it become a slave of evil.”
- Playing soccer with the kids
- The parts of my body weren’t working the way that I expect them to.
- What then? Will this drive a wedge between me and God, or will it draw me closer? What makes the difference.
- Our habits make us who we are.
- We have an opportunity to give these things back to God. Our circumstances can be transformed by our habits. How we think, is how we will be.
- The good news is this: We don’t have to be a slave to sin and death
- We all have things that we would rather not have in our lives. Perhaps our habit has been to shove these deep down. To be angry or ashamed of what has happened to us. Of the things that we have done. It’s like we board up the windows in our lives, and don’t let these things see the light of day
- Friends, that will only ever come back to haunt us.
- I’m not saying that we need to go around shouting our most shameful failures from the rooftops, but I am saying that if we hide these things from God and from ourselves, if we shy away, and let the poison and shame set in, then we give ourselves up as slaves to whatever it is that separates us from God.
- I’m not saying that it is easy. I’m not saying that this is something that we can do by dint of effort. We need God’s love and grace to pour into the gaps that sin leaves behind.
- But the Good news is this: We can be slaves to righteousness
- Doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, but the more time we spend in God’s presenece, the more his holiness and deep down rightness will seep into our lives, and fill us with his righteousness and love.
- It’s like Dinn’s story from the video we’ve just watched – she was weighed down with fear and worry for the future. Spending time in scripture, meditating on God’s word, drew her closer to God’s love, and set her free from the things that were dragging her down.
- Her habit of spending time drawing close to God, made her a “slave” to righteousness, but set her free from the things that separated from the life of grace that we share in God through Jesus Christ and the presenece of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
- Cultivate closeness to God in your life
- Habits make us who we are
- Choose a passage, read it again and again, meditate on God’s word and draw close to him. If you don’t know where to start, pray about it. God will help you.
| · Sin/death | · Righteousness/holiness |
| · Sin= separation from God/life | · Holiness = contagious holiness |
| · Darkness | · Light |
- Jesus touched people – lepers, sick people, dead people, women, men, children, sinners and saints.
- Rather than being contaminated by their sinfulness, he infected them with his holiness, and set them free from the ties that bind.
- In his life among us, Jesus went around setting people free, spreading the light anfd life and salvation of God to all.
- Nothing has changes
- Rebecca Phillips – “The Darkest of all days” – read from Illustrated Gospel of Luke p.101
- So often in life we batten down the hatches.
- We get in the habit of closing off and hiding our brokenness and frailty.
- To preserve what we have
- To hide what’s inside
- Let God’s light in!
- Salvation is already pouring through the gaps!
- We are not under the law but under grace
- So open un the gates!
- Tear down the shutters!
- Draw close to God and let him shape you and make you new!
- Don’t be a slave to sin and death anymore, but be a slave to the deep down rightness of God’s love and grace. Because God loves you. Jesus saves you, warts and all. The Holy Spirit is already shining through the gaps in our facades, filling us with God’s light, and love and salvation
- Let’s listen to Dinn’s story once more. Let the brokenness of her home show you the brokenness of our world and be encouraged that God’s love is for you too, no matter how strong or weak you are.
