I've Moved On

Good morning, Church!

Thanks for gathering in on this beautiful Sunday.

Broad River Church is One Church in Your Location.

Can we take a moment to give God thanks for:

those that are here today,

and across town at our SoNo Campus,

[and for all those joining us online?]

Come on, let’s give God praise!

If we haven’t met yet, my name is Mike Northrup.

I’m a part of the preaching team here at Broad River Church.

And on behalf of my whole family, we are so happy to be with you this morning.

I’d like to invite you to open your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 6.

If you’re using the Bibles that we’ve provided, it’s on page 942.

Today is Baptism Sunday!

If you’ve made a decision to follow Jesus, baptism is your next step.

If you’ve never been baptized,

or maybe you were baptized when you were very young,

baptism is your next step.

And I’ve got great news for you:

you can be baptized today,

even if you didn’t come here planning on it.

We have everything you need to take this next step in your faith journey.

We’ve got clothes for you to wear.

We’ve got brand new flip-flops for you to wear.

We’ve got towels for you to dry off with.

We’ve got the water ready.

All you need is a desire to go public with your faith.

That’s what baptism is—

followers of Jesus have been doing it for thousands of years now—

it’s an outward sign of an inward change.

So in just a few minutes:

I’ll let those folks who signed up to be baptized today know that it’s time to go get ready.

And if you want to be baptized, too, all you need to do is get up and move towards that back door.

Our team will meet you and get you ready.

Don’t wait until next time; get baptized today!

My message today is called I’ve Moved On

Turn to your neighbor right now and say, “I’ve moved on.”

“I’ve moved on.”

I’d like you to think back to a time in your life where your status changed.

Maybe you were a middle schooler, but then you became a high schooler.

That just happened for some folks in this room, and it’s a big deal!

You’re moving up in the world!

People treat a high schooler differently than they treat a middle schooler, don’t they?

There’s homeschoolers nodding along with me like they know what I’m talking about.

[Pause for laughter]

It feels good to be a high schooler after being a middle schooler.

But then, of course, you realize that as an eight grader, you we’re king of the hill, and as a freshman, you’re back on the bottom.

[Pause for laughter]

What’s another time in your life where your status changed?

Maybe you were single, but then you started dating someone?

Maybe you were a full-time parent, and then you became an empty-nester?

[Pause]

Did y’all feel that?

Romans 8:26, “The Holy Sprit intercedes for us through wordless groanings,”

and some of ya’ll just groaned to become an empty-nester.

[Pause for laughter]

It’s alright. It’s alright.

Hold on, sister, your time is coming.

[Pause for laughter]

We’re going through a status change in the Northrup Household right now.

Our youngest daughter, Chloe:

Lynne told me I shouldn’t call her stubborn from the pulpit.

Our delightfully unwavering three-year-old, Chloe,

just in the last week, has started using the potty.

[one]

Glory to God in the highest!

[Pause for laughter]

James 5:16, “The effective, fervent prayers of a [dad who is tired of shelling out for diapers] availeth much.”

[Pause for laughter]

I work from home, and every time she goes, she makes me come see it before she’ll let Lynne flush.

[Pause for laughter]

Ahh, parenting is weird.

But listen, this is a big status change for a little person!

What are the different statuses you’ve occupied in your life?

What I’d like you to try to remember is how different life was for you in those different statuses.

You were employed, then you were unemployed.

You were over tired, then you were retired.

[Pause for laughter]

Sometimes—almost overnight—your life completely changes as you move from one status to another.

There’s life the way it was —> and life how it is now.

There’s the old me —> and the new me.

What does it look like when your status changes?

What does it look like when you say, “I’ve moved on.”

I’ve moved on.

Let’s read our text together.

Romans 6:1-11 (ESV)

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let’s Pray

There’s an old story about a father and two sons.

Before the father is even all that old, the younger son (let’s call him Junior) comes to him.

And he twists his father’s arm and gets Dad to fork over his inheritance.

With money in-hand, Junior leaves town.

He moves out of the country and spends his inheritance just as fast as he can.

Broke, hungry, destitute, and desperate, Junior heads home.

Based on how things have gone, he expects that he’s coming home in disgrace.

But when Junior get close to home—to his total shock—his father sees him coming and runs down the road to meet him.

Dad throws his arms around him.

Dad throws a huge party in Junior’s honor.

Dad tells Junior, “You are my son,”

even though he didn’t deserve it,

and despite the grumblings of his older brother.

You might recognize this story as one that Jesus told:

one that we call The Prodigal Son.

Now come forward out of the story we know.

Imagine with me, the same father and two sons.

It’s been a couple of years.

Life has settled town.

Older brother tolerates Junior.

Dad is actually getting old now.

Junior has had a change in status, right?

He’s had a change in identity.

He was the Prodigal, now he’s Son.

It happened overnight.

And Junior remembers with a happy sigh:

how nice it was the day he came up the road,

and his father came out to meet him.

[Sigh and smile]

But imagine that Junior has this thought enter his mind.

Things are kind of boring around here.

What if I did it again?

Why not help myself to Dad’s bank account,

go party for a couple of weeks in Cancun,

and then play the sorrowful son when I return home again in disgrace.

Maybe I’ll get another party.

How does this new part of the story sound to you?

Ridiculous?

Junior moved on.

His status changed.

Would he really go back to being the Prodigal?

How does this new part of the story sound to you?

Unthinkable?

Listen it’s not that unthinkable.

This is exactly how a whole lot of people think.

This is exactly how a whole lot of people live their lives.

A famous 19th century poet named Heinrich HAI-nuh said:

“God will forgive me. It’s his job.”

And a lot of people today seem to think that the only words the church should ever utter are about forgiveness.

The word of the culture is Tolerance, right?

Culture says, “I don’t really need to move on.”

Culture says, “I don’t really need to change.”

[One]

Tolerance:

How can a church that is going to be tolerant lay down any moral laws?

How can we say that some things are right and some things are not?

Inclusion is another word of the culture, right?

Oh, we need to tell people that God accepts them exactly like they are.

It’s okay for them to continue in their sin.

Put another way:

“I don’t see why everybody feel as though that they gotta tell me how to live me life.”

That’s from another famous poet.

From the 20th Century.

You might know his by his first name.

Tupac.

[Pause for laughter]

Here’s some counterculture teaching for you today:

This isn’t even in my slides.

Culture says you don’t need to move on or change your status.

Jesus says: that’s exactly what I came to do for you!

Jesus said, “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.”

That’s the gospel, friends: God made it, we broke it, Jesus fixed it!

Paul, the author of Romans, heard a lot of this kind of talk.

I doubt he had anyone pull a Junior on him and actually say:

“Hey, since God’s love reached me while I was still a sinner, I’m going to keep sinning so that God’s love can keep reaching me.”

No, I think Paul encountered plenty of people who lived like this, though, through their actions.

“God will forgive me. It’s his job.”

“I don’t really need to move on.”

“I don’t really need to change.”

“God accepts me just as I am.”

Check out Paul’s response to the question in verse one.

What’s the question?

Let’s read it together.

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

In other words:

(NLT) …Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

AKA:

“Can I keep living my life the way I always have because God is going to keep forgiving me?”

Check out his answers in verses 2-4:

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Paul says:

When you become a follower of Christ your status as a human changes.

In following Christ, your old self dies and you rise again with Christ.

Write this down today if you’re taking notes:

In becoming a Christian, you move on from one type of humanity to another ,and you should never think of yourself as that other person again.

There’s this defining moment in the status change.

Paul points to it in verse 3.

Did you see it?

It’s baptism.

That’s the defining moment where you are joined with Christ.

You join him in his death, and are raised to new life.

If you haven’t been baptized yet, this is why it’s so important.

We are baptizing people today because it’s what Jesus said we should do.

It’s what people who have decided to follow Jesus have always done to go public with their faith.

The word of the culture is identity.

“I identify as this.”

“I identify as that.”

Baptism is the way we identify ourselves with Christ and his death and resurrection.

It’s how we publicly say, “I’ve moved on from my old life.”

“My status has changed.”

We go into the water just as Jesus went into the tomb.

We come out of the water in the same way that Jesus didn’t stay in the tomb.

We are raised to new life just as he was raised from the dead.

[Pause for response]

In just a few minutes, you’ll have an opportunity to be baptized today.

Even if you didn’t plan on it, we have everything you need.

It’s a status change and it’s a location change.

When we die to our old self and are raised to new life with Jesus, we are no located in our sin.

I’ve moved on.

Turn to someone near you and say, “I’ve moved on.”

God’s grace meets us where we are.

In sin.

God’s grace doesn’t tell us that we are alright the way we are.

No, he comes to rescue us and take us somewhere else.

God has no intention of leaving you where you were.

So how do we live out of the location change?

How do we live like this new selves we’ve become?

How do we live out this new identity?

Because I get that the new self is different from our actual life.

I get that this new identity can feel a bit like a pair of shoes that haven’t been broken in yet.

It looks good, but it feels awkward.

It’s hard for a lot of us.

We recognize that God has made us new, but we still have a lot of the old stuff to deal with, right?

How do you live like you’ve moved on?

First, it means recognizing that you’ve moved on from one type of humanity to another.

Second, it means bringing your actual life in line with the person you’ve become.

One of the best status changes of my life happened on December 27, 2015 when Lynne and I went from Engaged to Married.

Don’t let the grey hair in my beard fool you, but, I’m a millennials.

Myspace was just becoming a thing when Lynne and I graduated high school.

Facebook was the-happening-place when we were in our early 20s.

We still had a solid decade or so before it became the divisive wasteland that it is today.

Y’all hear me?

I say all that to say that:

As millennials

When Facebook was still cool

We wouldn’t wait any longer than necessary to update our relationship status on Facebook from Engaged to Married.

In fact, our wedding photographer captured the exact moment we did.

Do we have that picture?

There you go.

[Pause for reaction]

So there you have it:

One day we are Mike Northrup and Lynne Edington, newly engaged.

The next day we are Mr. and Mrs. Northrup.

We moved on into life together.

Why am I sharing wedding photos with you?

When someone gets married, they may not feel different at all.

But listen, there is a change that has happened.

Your status has changed.

Your identity has changed.

You’ve got a new set of responsibilities now.

And you have to—if you want to remain a married person—conform to that change.

Y’all tracking with me?

In marriage, promises have been made.

You can break promises, but you can’t unmake them.

You’ve gotta new status.

You’ve gotta new identity.

You’ve gotta move on!

In a lot of cultures…

When the father of a family dies,

the oldest son automatically assumes the responsibility as the head of the family,

whether he wants it or not,

whether he feels up to it or not,

whether he feels like doing it or not.

He’s gotta new status.

He’s gotta new identity.

He’s gotta move on!

Once you are baptized…

You can try to shrug it off.

You can push away your new responsibilities.

You can pretend that you don’t have a new status.

You can pretend that there’s no new you.

But what you can’t do is get unbaptized.

You’ve gotta new status.

You’ve gotta new identity.

You’ve gotta move on!

Jim Carrey might be famous for his ridiculous comedies…

But my favorite Jim Carrey movie is a drama he starred in:

A 2001 box office flop called The Majestic.

In it, Carrey plays a screenwriter who loses his memory after a car accident.

He finds himself in a small town,

has no idea how he got there,

doesn’t remember his name,

and remembers nothing of the his life prior to getting there.

That kind of amnesia is what I’m thinking about as we look at Romans 6.

This has to be disturbing,

not just for the person suffering the amnesia,

not just for the person who has no sense of identity any longer,

but also for the people trying to help that person.

What do you try to do in a situation like this?

You try to help that person discover who they are so that they can bring their lives back in line with their actual identity.

I wanna help you rediscover your identity today, but make no mistake:

The way you used to be isn’t who you actually are.

The new life in Christ isn’t some sort of alteration.

No, the new life in Christ is your actually identity.

The way you used to be is the alteration.

How does someone rediscover their identity?

That’s what’s happening here in these remaining verses.

Let’s see them one more time.

Romans 6:6-11

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

In Romans 5, Paul says there are two types of humanity.

There are Adam Humans.

Say “Adam Humans.”

And there are Christ Humans.

Say “Christ Humans.”

Stick with me, I’m trying to help someone today.

We all begin life as Adam Humans.

Just the way I am.

The way I was created.

I think many of us feel like we’re still there.

But here, Paul says that we aren’t.

Those who have committed to follow Jesus,

those who have been baptized as a symbol of that decision,

You aren’t Adam Humans anymore.

Check out verse 6 again

Our old self was crucified with him… so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

You’ve gotta new status.

Your old self is dead.

You’re no longer a slave to sin.

You’ve gotta new identity.

Where does that leave us?

Somewhere between dead and alive?

Somewhere just left of Adam Human?

No, Paul says you’re in Christ now.

What is true of Jesus is now true for you.

You’ve gotta move on!

I know that seems unlikely when we look at our actual lives,

but what is true of Jesus is now true of you.

So what is true of Jesus?

What’s Jesus’ status?

Romans 6:9

9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

What’s true of Jesus is that he is alive again with a life that death can’t touch.

By the way, Jesus didn’t come back to the same life he had before.

That’s what happened to people in the Bible like Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead.

Spoiler alert: Lazarus died again.

But here’s what’s true of Jesus:

Jesus has gone through death and come out the other side into a new life that is beyond the reach of death.

“But wait, preacher. We aren’t just like Jesus. We haven’t been raised from the dead. That’s for the future right?”

Write this down today:

In Jesus, the future has come forward into the present.

We get to taste the reality of the future.

What God has in our future—

for each one of us—

in Jesus, we get to taste that while living in the present.

We’re not Adam Humans anymore.

We’re Christ Humans now.

We belong to Jesus.

The one who died, rose again, and lives forever.

So what about this new status of ours?

Verse 11 tells us how we should think about ourselves now.

Check this out:

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

You’ve gotta new status.

Dead to sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

You’ve gotta new identity.

You’re a Christ Human now.

You’ve gotta move on.

Live out the the truth of your new status and new identity.

Tell the old self: you’re dead.

I’ve moved on.

Now’s the time…

I want to release those that are getting baptized to go get ready.

We are just minutes away now.

And this is the time to respond, even if you didn’t come today planning on being baptized.

If you haven’t been baptized since you became a follower of Jesus, today is the day.

Don’t wait.

We have everything you need.

Anytime—starting right now—or over the next few minutes, you can get up and go meet our team.

Some of you here today aren’t yet sure about God.

You’ve got doubts about Jesus.

You’re skeptical of the church.

Listen:

We are so glad that you are here!

This is a place that you can belong even before you believe!

You showed up for a reason today.

Maybe it was to see a loved one get baptized.

Maybe it was just to check things out.

Or maybe its because you know that something is amiss in your life.

You’re looking for answers.

You’re looking for hope.

I don’t want anyone to leave today without having the opportunity to respond to the Good News of Jesus.

God created the world and everything in it and he said it was good.

Man rebelled against God and broke it.

Jesus, the son of God, came to fix it.

He really lived.

He walked on this earth.

Fully God, fully man.

He had friends and family.

He faced trials and temptations.

But he lived a blameless life and was brutally murdered on a cross.

He took the punishment of our sin, our rebellion, on his shoulders.

He rose from the dead three days later.

He defeated death, hell, and the grave, and bridged the gap between God and man.

God made, we broke it, Jesus fixed it.

Jesus paid the price, so you don’t have to.

He’s already forgiven you, you just have to accept it.

Those who put their faith and trust in Jesus today, will spend eternity in Heaven with him when they leave this life, rather than eternity in hell and torment separated from him.

And in Jesus, the future has come forward into the present.

He’s got an abundant life prepared for you right now.

He’s got hope for you today.

He’s got peace for you today.

He’s got healing for your soul today.

You don’t have to wait to get to heaven to enjoy the goodness of God.

Right now:

A new status, a new identity, a new location awaits you.

Are you ready to move on?

Salvation Invitation

If that’s you today, if you want to accept the gift of new life that Jesus has prepared for you, with every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to invite you to raise your hand so I know with whom I’m praying with.

Salvation Prayer

Will you join me in repeating this simple prayer?

Broad River Church, no one prays alone here.

Join with us:

Lord Jesus, Thank you for coming for me. Thank you for dying for me. Thanks you for your resurrection. And the new life I have in you. Now I give you my heart. Forgive me of my sins. I want to follow you. All of my days. In Jesus’ name. Amen.