Romans 7: Wk 36

Un-Plugged: Bringing More Than a Song

(A 2023 summer series targeting the heart of God—from mine to His)

WELCOME...

The Cornerstone Family is excited that you have taken time to attend our weekend service!

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Cornerstone exists to “Bring Hope to Find and Follow Jesus.”

Thus, you will see us use a hashtag that says #hopeishere.

We believe that together—we can live stronger lives and change the World we live in through Jesus.

Thank you again for joining us today.

TODAY WE COME TO CELEBRATE GOD AND HIS WORD: WITH A FOCUS ON ROMANS Chapter 7

Head Change:

To know that righteousness—right standing with God—comes through faith in the gospel.

NOT WORKS!

Head Change:

To know that suppressing the truth leads to ungodliness and unrighteousness.

THIS WEEK WE ASK?

Who is this in me that keeps sinning?

“All of life is a battle between two selves,” says Timothy Keller, Presbyterian Pastor of Pastors.

He goes on to say...

”but there’s a different war before you become a Christian from the war that happens after you become a Christian”

And this Battle We Cannot Win, however it’s a Battle We Cannot Lose.

The Battle We Cannot Win and the Battle We Cannot Lose

Recite passage: Psalm 57

Psalm 57 NLT

For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time he fled from Saul and went into the cave. To be sung to the tune “Do Not Destroy!” 1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. 2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. 3 He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me. Interlude My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. 4 I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey— whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens! May your glory shine over all the earth. 6 My enemies have set a trap for me. I am weary from distress. They have dug a deep pit in my path, but they themselves have fallen into it. Interlude 7 My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! 8 Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. 9 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. 10 For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 11 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth.

SONG

O Come to the Alter

Hosanna

Worthy of it All/How Great is our God

FLOW HOLY SPIRIT

INTRO

In the 1800’s Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a novel depicting the battle within…

-The duality of human nature…

-the struggle of the inner man between good and evil.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Scientist, Dr. Jekyll experiments on the dark side of humanity

He releases his evil side

He tries to control it with a potion

Then the evil overrides

WE TOO HAVE A GOOD SIDE AND AN EVIL SIDE!

Tim Keller calls it...

The Battle We Cannot Win and the Battle We Cannot Lose

All of life is a battle between two selves, but there’s a different war before you become a Christian from the war that happens after you become a Christian…

What Paul is trying to show us here is there’s a war between the selves that happens before you meet Christ, and then there’s a war between the selves that happens after you meet Christ.

The war between the selves before you meet Christ is a world without hope.

You cannot win…The war after you meet Christ you cannot lose.

Head Change: To know that Christians still struggle with sin and our sin can be overcome.

BECAUSE....

Religious obedience divorced from the gospel leads to a heart at odds with the righteousness of God, NOT a changed heart.

It promises to bring about a right standing with God, but stops short as it enslaves and brings about religious bondage.

REMEMBER

The Law is like railroad tracks

The tracks point to the way you should go...

but cannot move the freight down the track

Similar...

The law shows you which way to go and what to do, but it is powerless to move you to a heart change that brings righteousness.

No ritual can change the Heart

we must have inward transforming grace!

given only by the Power of the Gospel has that Power.

JESUS!

Romans 1:16 NLT

16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.

Life Change: To obey God by resisting sin because we love him and believe that, in Christ, ultimate victory over sin is certain.

Romans 7 (NLT)

1 Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living?

2 For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.

3 So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.

4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.

5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.

6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.

9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life,

10 and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.

11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.

13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.

14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.

15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.

17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.

19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

22 I love God’s law with all my heart.

23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

The Moral Self wants to obey the law, but the Law-Breaking Self hates the law since it impedes fulfilling fleshly desires. What we need is not for the Moral Self to grow and overpower the law-breaking self. We can never get there. The two selves destroy one another. So, no matter how hard you work on the Moral Self over against the Law-Breaking Self, the Law-Breaking Self will always counter-attack. You might take two steps forward, but you'll always take another step back.

The Law-Breaking Self needs to die. But the Moral Self isn't the one to do the job. It just isn't sufficient. What we need is not fertilizer for the Moral Self, but poison for the Law-Breaking Self. We need a new birth. We can’t do what we want to do. We delight in the law in our inner being, but we see another law waging war against God and capturing us in sin. Who will deliver us?

The answer, of course, is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ becomes our peacemaker at the cross.

There, the ultimate Moral Self lays it all aside and puts on the Law-Breaking Self.

He becomes what he has never been so that he can kill what we can never kill.

He does the work on our behalf and gives us victory in his resurrection.

Paul breaks out in thanksgiving in verse 25,

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He has delivered us from this body of death and given us newness of life.

ALTER CALL

NEXT WEEK “Come Back Sunday”

AMEN

Labor Day Weekend...

Started in 1882 with Parade in New York to celebrate their members—20,000 people attended

President Grover Cleveland, signed Labor Day into law in 1894 after violence related to the Pullman Railroad Strike.

10% of the U.S. workforce in unionized, 14 Million people in 2021

Most trades along with Teachers.

Tradition says you are to stop wearing white and you should pack away all the Nantucket reds and boat themed clothing till next summer. But since COVID, fashion rules have been tossed out the window.

Plus, Labor Day also marks the unofficial end of hot dob season, but those people have never been to a hockey game or too our fire pit!

Proverbs 22:29 (ESV)

Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

Generosity and updates

Offering:

Why do we give? Does anyone have a story of giving?

2 Corinthians 9:8 NLT

8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

Proverbs 3:9–10 NLT

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. 10 Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.

prayer

UPDATES

cafe hope (a place to meet a friend, not just wet your whistle)

Worship Wednesday (MidWeek encouragement looking at the songs we sing)

New series next two Sundays as we celebrate... “Come Back Sunday”.

NEXT WEEK: Wear your Favorite Summer Shirt & invite a FRIEND

SEPT. 17: BRING FOOD & BRING YOUR FRIEND !!!

Looking to open the playground and throw up the Bounce House!

Our Daily Bread

Pick it up - Read it - Share it!!

DISMISS