Shall we continue to Sin? 02182024
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Kids illustration dying to Sin
Kids illustration dying to Sin
I want to illustrate something for the church this morning and I think one of you could help me.
I need someone who can hold there breath
I need someone who can stay stiff like a board when I tilt them like I was baptizing them
I need someone who can make a motion to indicate you’re ready to be raised up again.
As I studied our passage today which is Romans chapter 6, it occurred to me that when we baptize people,
we baptise them too fast,
at least when we baptize by dunking people in water.
Usually it is done in one quick motion
I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
We shove them down under the water and then immediately pull them back up.
As a representation of
dying to self
dying to sin
dying to Godless
thoughts and desires
it’s a pretty quick death and recovery.
It occurred to me,
maybe some time when we’re baptizing some folks we should leave them under a little longer, just to make a point,
they are symbolically dying to sin, or publicly proclaiming they have died to sin.
In a second, I’m going to pretend to baptise our volunteer and
I want them to hold their breath until I bring them back up,
I want the other kids to also try and hold their breath too and
I want the adults to count how long they hold their breath.
Would an Adult or Teen want to lead us in counting until we raise up the volunteer that is pretending to be dead to sin.
Are you ready?
In pretend I baptized you in this body of water, in the name of God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen!
Start counting.
[lower them, hold them while counting is happening until they motion to come up]
Thank you
In the 1800, they didn’t have modern equipment to detect when people where not really dead, but in a coma.
It’s rumored that some cemetery's buried people with a pull chord near their head and a bell on top of the grave. They would leave that at the grave for a day or two, just in case someone woke up in their coffin and needed help getting out because they were not really dead. They could pull the chord to ring the bell for help.
Because we immerse people so briefly, I think we may loose some of the impact of dying to sin that Baptism symbolizes.
In today's passage, Paul has a lot to say to the Romans and us about dying and being dead to sin.
Let me pray for you children and you can then go upstairs.
[Pray]
Capter 5 of Romans taught us about being Justified by faith along.
That is, all we have to do, to be saved by Christ, is to believe in Jesus work
is to take Him as our savior and chapter six begings with this question
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
You know the answer, to the question don’t you, it’s in the first part of verse 2
The New International Version Chapter 6
2 By no means!
That’s a ridiculous thought but it has a kind of perverse logic to it.
Paul spends the rest of this chapter calling us to live better then that and we can summarize his answer in this way:
You Can’t
You Need Not
You Must Not
You Better Not
You Can’t
You Can’t
And why can’t they respond to sinful desires?
Because they are united in Christ.
Christ took our place dying to sin
so we can’t as Christians go there.
Let’s start reading the passage now and look into it.
2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
If you die and go to heaven, your body is not going to respond to sin, to temptation.
Dead men and women don’t respond to temptation.
If you chose to be dead to sin,
then be dead to sin.
Men, least we feel too guilty,
research has shown men can’t help noticing their environment,
be it movement of animals to hunt, rocks from enemies, or a person coming down the path,
men are especially geared to notice things.
Once they identify what caught there eye, then comes the choice to look away, or look longer.
Sometimes that choice will indicate if we really are living dead to sin or not.
Now that I know what caught my eye, will I turn away or keep looking?
There is a story told of St. Augustine.
One day his path crossed with his old mistress and she accosted him, tried to start a conversation.
Which means even St. Augustine had a past.
His former Mistress called out to him
Augustine, it’s me! It’s me!
As he was walking away, he answered back
“Yes but it’s not me”
Sounds like Augustine considered himself dead to his former sins.
Let’s look at the next verse
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
There is that emphasis again on
Baptized into His death.
Can Born Again and Baptized Christians continue their sinful habits?
No, we can’t go their.
Though of course we physically can, but in Christ we can’t.
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Is that verse saying that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead,
that power through God’s glory,
is available to us?
What did Paul say about that power?
The New International Version Chapter 6
we too may live a new life.
Amen and Amen
That same power, that raised Jesus from the dead,
is what is going to help us live the new life in Christ Jesus
if we are willing.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
If we are serious about being dead to sin,
than Christ will certainly be with us with His resurrection power,
power to change your life and mine.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Death of a spouse, frees us from our marriage vows, and we can marry again or remain un-married
Death to sin, frees us from bondage to sin and frees us to live better lives with Christ’s power
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Do you live with Christ in your heart?
Do you live LIKE Christ is in your heart?
Is there evidence?
Paul is going to teach us now something more about Christ
9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
So death no longer has a hold on Christ.
but what about us, are we unable to sin now if we are in Christ?
We still can, and so we have a choice to make
Paul says
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
That is a choice
count yourselves dead to sin,
that’s why I talked about taking longer in baptism to emphasis
that choice of being dead to sin
that we have to make,
sometimes over and over again.
Nope, I’m not going to go there.
that’s a choice.
Shall we continue to sin, so God’s grace will increase?
NO!
Shall we continue to sin, so God’s grace will increase?
NO!
Shall we continue to sin, so God’s grace will increase?
NO!
The word of God says, you can’t,
Why, because
You have been united with Christ!
Amen? Amen!
You need not
You need not
You need on go on sinning and here is way
Paul says
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
That is to say, you are free from your bondage to sin,
you don’t have to obey your old master (SIN ) any more.
you can live a better life
you can love yourself more
because Christ can help you live the new life in Him.
You must not
You must not
Shall we go on sinner
NO, you must not!
As it says
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
The thing about being a slave to God,
is that as you align your life with Christ’s will
Christ teaching,
your heart will change from duty to joy and
your service to Christ becomes what you like to do.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
That promise is true but as you delight yourself in the Lord, your desire become more aligned with God’s desires,
so they work together.
This section was called you must not
you must not go back to sinning because you can again become a slave to sin,
and you don’t want to go there,
whether it slave to drugs, or alcohol, or
your uncontroled temper
you don’t want to return to the slavery and bondage.
if you feel you want to, you are just wrong, the those that Moses lead in the wilderness who thought
life was better as slaves in Egypt.
they were just wrong, looking back at the good old days
that were not really that good.
You better not
You better not
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Please note, this is not a comparison of two kinds of wages
the wages of sin is
the wages of righteousness is
That’s because our best is never so great that we don’t need a savior, we always not Jesus Christ our savior
So what is the comparison
The wages of sin, and that leads to death and
is contrasts with the Gift of God.
As much as Paul is pulling and pushing for us to live new lives in Christ
HE NEVER WANTS US TO FORGET THAT
WE ARE STILL SAVED ONLY BY GRACE.
NEVER LOOSE THAT THANKFUL ATTITUDE FOR HIS GRACE.
Why is this section called you better not, because it’s a reminder what in store for those who go back to sin
The wages of sin is death.
You don’t want to end up with eternal death as your reward in the afterlife.
and besides, we come to Christ because living in sin is not fun, does not make us happy in the long run.
Buried with Christ
Buried with Christ
Now would be a great time to call the kids.
Before we take communion, consider your life,
is there anything you want buried with Christ this morning?
There are many ways you can choose to bury a sin with Christ,
one physical way is to write it on a slip of paper and nail it to the cross.
I invite you to do that this morning while the kids are coming, or after the service.
If God has put something on your mind today, why don’t you nail it to the cross, before we take communion?
Communion
Communion
We focused today on for reasons not to continue in sin, even though God’s grace covers our sins:
You can’t
You need not
You must not
You better not
But there is a story song that came to mind, illustrating just how we might feel in that seen before the great white throne. It is titled
This One's With Me Song by NewSong Lyrics
I was dreaming about Heaven
Dreamed I was standing at the Pearly Gates
We're all there and I was so scared
In the presence of One so great
I felt so worried and worthy
I felt like running away
I bowed my head and I turn to go
When I heard someone say
"Father, this one's with me
Part of the family
One of the reasons I died on Calvary
Father, welcome him in
I paid the price for him
Father, oh Father, this one's with me"
Aren’t you glad that Christ’s Righteousness will cover your sin and my sin too?
INVITATION
All you that truly and earnestly repent of your sins, and are in love and fellowship with your neighbors, and intend to live a new life, following the commandments of God and walking from henceforth in His holy ways, draw near with faith and take this holy sacrament at the invitation of Jesus Christ.
(Standing at the Lord’s Table the Minister may say:)
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Take the bread with thanksgiving to God
In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
(1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NIV)
Take the cup, that represents Christ’s lifes blood shed for you. Consider how your life has changed, or how you want it to change with Christ in your life and heart.
BENEDICTION
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God and
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.