A Real-Life Death

Real-Life Death – Romans 6:1-11

Please stand for the reading of God's word.

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.

This is the word of the Lord.

Audience: Thanks be to God.

You may be seated.

How many of you mess with your little siblings? Maybe tell them a joke or harass them. Or poke them hard enough they cry? Well, sarcasm is one of my love languages, and sometimes it comes out faster than I can think. A while ago, one of our members at our church got baptized! Which is such a cool moment and is so awesome. Well, the service ends, and one of our kids in the church comes up on the stage, and he looks in our baptism pool. Our baptism pool is in our sanctuary, and to be honest, it’s a glorified hot tub, but little Oliver looks in, and he sees all this dirt and grimy stuff. He looks at me, a pastor at his church, and with the cutest little voice, asks, “Hey Jake, what’s all that stuff in there?” And without any hesitation, I get down on one knee, look him in the eye, and say, “Buddy, that’s all the sins that Got washed off of people.” And got up and walked away.

How many of you have been baptized in the room? Raise your hand if you have. Maybe you got baptized here in one of those grace church famous horse troughs on a baptism Sunday, or perhaps you got baptized at camp? Do you remember what it was like? I remember a lot of it, but not all of it. More than anything, I remember how I felt. I remember feeling really anxious beforehand. When I was young, we went to a bigger church, and I honestly was scared to get up in front of that many people. What if I fell in the water? What if I forgot how to hold my breath? What if the person baptizing me forgot to bring me up out of the water? Side note: (I don’t know if you know, but the longer they hold you under the water, the more that you need extra cleaning from how much you have sinned.) Yet, at the same time, I was really excited. I had come to know the Lord primarily from Mr. Billy, my children’s pastor, and Sunday school, but more than anything, I came to know Jesus and who he was through my father, which is precisely why I chose him to baptize me. I came to understand the Gospel because of his sacrificial love. My dad is a great human being, and it was his arms, propelled by the Holy Spirit, that baptized me that day.

I remember coming out of the water, feeling lighter than ever. There was lots of clapping, and the music had just hit the crescendo moment. Everything was in slow motion, and I remember my dad giving me the biggest hug. I had done it! I had made it! I had chosen to become a part of God’s family! This was the moment! The rest of my life would be based upon this catalyst choice. I just knew I was going to be the best Christian ever. I had a new Bible; they even gave me a little cross necklace (that I definitely didn’t lose and have no idea where it is today) I just knew that this was going to go so well. I knew that nothing could stop me. I was going to read my bible every day and pray all the time. Me and the lord, We were going to be best friends. I had said yes to Jesus! Might as well add me to the kingdom worker team as a 9 year old because I was ready. It is time to live my faith in real life!

But do you know what’s weird?

Things didn’t get immediately better. The heavens didn’t open up. I didn’t start reading my bible every day. I didn’t pray like I said I would, and to be completely honest, I kept sinning after I got baptized after I had said yes to Jesus… like that day. And the day after that. And weeks after that, and years after that. And you know what? I’m pretty sure I sinned today.

But Jake! ARENT YOU A YOUTH PASTOR? YOU CAN’T SIN! You basically get paid to be a Christian! You are supposed to be the guy who doesn’t sin. Who spends so much time in his office drinking a lavender oat milk latte with extra foam on the top (because that’s how I like it) reading your bible all the time that there is no way you could sin!

Oh, dear friend. Yes, I can sin. And yes, I do, in fact, sin. I try very hard not to sin by setting up walls and accountability in community, but I do still sin. If you ever meet a pastor who denies that truth, you should run far, far away.

I sin all the time. I am rude to my wife; I am impatient with my son; I may or may not get annoyed by a middle schooler and talk back a little too quickly without grace, and you better bet that I can be mean to a high schooler who isn’t doing what I have asked them to do when they have repeatedly asked me for advice. I have even told Nate that his Hey Dudes are ugly and that if he wants to be treated like an adult, then he should dress like one. And look, those are just surface-level things. Of course, I am doing my best to look like Christ every single day and live a sinless life, but to deny that I sin is a sin within itself. I can often look like a Christian who doesn’t really live out my faith in real life. I might show up to church every day (cause it’s my job), I might get up on stage, I might say a sermon, but there are times when you wouldn’t know I was a Christian by the way, I was acting in real life outside of the church walls. There have been periods in my life where my real-life faith was more like a real-life bust.

And maybe you are like me. Maybe you have chosen to say yes to following Jesus. Perhaps you have found something your pastor called a peace that surpasses all understanding. Maybe you show up to church every time the door is open, and you know all the books; you would win at a Bible bowl and even get baptized. You wear the cross around your neck, and you wear the cool Jesus t-shirts, not even the ones your grandma bought from Mardel that say something along the lines of “Let’s taco bout Jesus” on it with a little taco with a smiley face, but like the cool minimal Christian brand you found on Instagram.

But you walk out these doors on a Wednesday evening, and you look and act like a completely different person on Thursday morning. And to be honest, we probably don’t feel good about it. Like I know, because I was like that, you go to church, confess your sins to your pastor or your small group, and you say you aren’t going to do those things, or you aren’t going to act like that….but then life happens. Peer pressure happens. You don’t want to look stupid for not knowing what a vape is. You want to get invited to the party. You want to fit in. You want to belong. You don’t want to be ostracized for believing in Jesus, so you just kinda act like you don’t. Not because you don’t love Jesus or go to church but because you are embarrassed. You don’t want to seem like the weird kid. You don't want to seem like the goody two shoes. It’s just easier that way. Living out your faith in real life is not easy. And seriously, you have so many other things to consider, right? You have the chemistry test on Friday, the football game that same night, then you have cheer practice on Tuesday, and did that boy look at you? You should definitely try and get his snap. Did you see what Tiffany put on TikTok? I can’t believe her mom let her do that. Plus, I mean, you want to go to college, right? Well, then, you better be the best on the basketball team because there is no way you can go to that college without getting a scholarship. So you better do every basketball camp and make it to every practice, and you might as well play club basketball so you can known by all the coaches in town who have connections to the colleges. And you can just be an athlete; you must be a well-rounded student. So you better join the student council or key club. And plus, you have got to get good grades, but not too good of grades, cause you don’t want to seem like a nerd, and oh, did I forget to mention that on top of all that school pressure, your parents have been fighting worse than ever, and your pretty sure they are going to get a divorce, and you can’t seem to connect with your siblings anymore, cause your all too addicted to your phone, or maybe they moved out, and you’re the only one at home. And grandpa died last week, and your mom is always complaining about your dad’s mom.

Oh, by the way… don’t forget to live out your faith in real life. You should be praying. You should be taking a sabbath. You should be memorizing scripture. You should be in a small group. You aren’t doing a daily bible study? Don’t forget that you are supposed to be representing a two-thousand-year-old religion that has honestly been getting a lot of bad rep lately. You are supposed to act like what non-Christians think you are supposed to act like. All zen, reading your bible all the time, and loving everybody all the time. Don’t forget that you said yes to serving the God of the universe, the creator of the cosmos, the one who lived and died and rose for you.

No wonder we sin. We are exhausted. And self-discipline is a depleting resource.

I know that when I look around the room, I am looking at people who worry, who don’t trust God in everything, who smoke, who drink, who don’t have great sexual integrity, who worship things other than God. We are a bunch of liars, cheaters, and bullies. You probably punched your baby sister in the face before you got here!

I know that we are a bunch of idol-worshiping, lustful, porn-watching, indulging sinners. But guess what? Maybe you have felt the same way that I have. You were riding the camp high, and you felt all the emotions. You cried during worship, and when they asked who wanted to get baptized, you said yes! And you did! And it was awesome. You made an outward expression of an inward decision, and you did it in front of your community! Because baptism is just as much for them as it is for you.

But then…you did what you told yourself you would stop doing. You watched that thing. You said that thing. You drank that thing. You told someone that thing. You coveted that thing.

Since you did it once, you might do it again. Honestly, living out your faith in real life is exhausting, on top of all the other things you have going on in your life. And now, here you are years later, feeling even more guilty than before. Because this time, you are on the other side of telling everyone that you are a follower of Jesus.

We are sinners. We make mistakes. We choose things other than God.

We all require a savior, even if we have been baptized or have said yes to following Jesus.

We all struggle to live out our faith in real life.

But the great thing is that sinning isn’t just a 2024 thing. Humanity has been sinning since Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And because of Adam and Eve’s choice, humanity was doomed to sin. Adam allowed sin to come into our lives. Like a disease that we could not get rid of, and it affected every part of our body, mind, and spirit. Let me make this clear, though. From the garden, we can see that sinning is not just a no-no. It’s not just a bad thing. It’s not something that you just get grounded for or placed in the corner for a time-out. It is choosing something other than God, the giver of life. Every time you sin, you are choosing to follow Satan and not God. You are choosing to follow a path that leads to death and not life. This is why, as my son's storybook Bible says, God has always had a rescue plan. There has always been a purpose. God always knew what he was doing. And if you don’t believe me, it’s in Genesis. Just nine verses after they have eaten the fruit, God the Father rebukes and curses the serpent) and says this to him. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”Genesis 3:15 This is God prophesying that one day, he will crush the head of the serpent while he simultaneously bites his heel. This is the incarnation, the birth of Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary, and the hanging of Jesus on the cross and defeating death in the Bible's first three chapters. God has always had a plan.

God’s plan has always been to save humanity through Jesus Christ, and that’s precisely what he did. Jesus was “ The second Adam.” Romans 5 is all about how there was once humanity that we defined by the choices of Adam in the garden of Eden, but now, because of Jesus and the fact that he lived a sinless and faithful life to God if we believe in him, we can become apart of that new humanity. We can be defined not by our sin, but by the cross, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can choose to live a life with God and not with Satan.

Let’s look at our anchor text this evening. We are gonna be in Romans 6:1-11. I'm in esv but Nate was to a low to to El me you were in NIV, so it might be a little different.

Who can you tell me who wrote the Book of Romans? Paul! Where? In Rome! Hence the name Romans!

Now, Romans is famous for being one of the most theologically dense books in the entire New Testament. And it is, but deep within Paul’s persuasive rhetoric is something that I think we need to hear.

Romans 6:1-11 vs 1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul is saying, so look! The outlook is kinda bleak! We are sinners! As my Spanish teacher in high school used to say, “We vacuum!” ( You can ask your youth leader what that means later) So, if that’s true, should we keep on sinning so that we will receive more grace? I mean, grace is a gift, right? And how do we get grace? By sinning? If we want to be good Christians, we need to have grace, and if we are already sinning, and honestly, it is hard to stop, wouldn’t it logically make sense that we should keep sinning to receive more grace from God? Paul says, 2 By no means!, which is ancient Greek for absolutely not, bro. What are you thinking?! “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

How can you who have said yes to following Jesus still sin? That’s the question. How is it that even though I said yes to Jesus, I am not really living out my faith in real life? How is it that even though you said yes to following Jesus, you are living a life that doesn’t look like the one you said you were going to live?

Here is the thing that we need to understand. Jesus teaches us how to live. Right? Jesus is the Second Adam; he is the father of the new humanity. He shows us that if we live like him, then we will be living like God had originally designed for us to live. In community with him, in relationship with him, through things like prayer, sabbath, and community, which are really just fancy words for talking to God, resting with God, and relationships in God’s family. And if we do that, we will be blessed, and I don’t mean like #blessed. I prayed last night, and now God gave me a million dollars, a Ferrari, and a girlfriend. I mean blessed in Greek. A better translation would be we will live the good life. If we live how Jesus lives, we will live the good life despite horrible circumstances we might encounter because we know that we are God’s children.

But Jesus doesn’t just teach us how to live; he also teaches us how to die.

But Jesus doesn’t just teach us how to live; he also teaches us how to die.

Mom! This weird guy in boots and a jean jacket came to church and told us that we should die.

No, listen.

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

Do you see what Paul is saying here? Have you ever listened to what they say when they baptize someone? Maybe you have heard Nate say something like, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” And as he dunks you under the water, he says something along the lines of “Buried with Christ in our sins,” and then he pulls you up and says, “and raised to new life in him.” Those aren’t just words that they say, they have deep meaning, and it straight from this passage.

Getting baptized is not required to become a part of God’s family. It isn’t required to become a part of the new humanity of Jesus. But there is beautiful symbolism in it. Paul is saying here that if and when you are baptized, you are baptized into Jesus’s death on the cross. You, your sin, have been counted as dead. That part of you, your flesh as the Bible calls it, your ego, is now dead. Listen when I say this: Jesus had to go through the thing that defined us, death so that we could be defined by what defines him. Life. Do you see what I am saying here? For God to save humanity from death, he had to go through death himself and defeat it so that we could too. So, Paul is saying here, that if we are baptized, then we were baptized into death, and that allows us to be raised to new life with him. Vs 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.”

as vs 6 says 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.”

Following Jesus really isn’t about dying and going to heaven, that’s only a small sliver of the gospel. Following Jesus, saying yes to Jesus is really about saying that you believe one day when Jesus comes back, you will be resurrected and live forever with God for all of future eternity. When you said yes to Jesus, you said yes to resurrection. When you accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your savior, you said yes to something that you might not have known. You said yes to dying. But maybe not in the way that you think. Because we yes, we understand that we will all die one day, but the whole thing about Christianity is that we will live forever with God. So if Paul is saying that we are dead to our sin, and the old self was crucified with Christ, in order that we would no longer be enslaved to sin, what does he mean?

Here is what I want us to hear tonight. If you have checked out because you fell asleep or were too distracted by the girl next to you, listen to what I am about to say.

God doesn’t just call us to live out our faith in real life; he also calls us to a real-life death.

Faith in real life requires a real-life death.

Let me say that again for the kid in the back who checked out even after I said to lock-in.

Faith in real life requires a real-life death.

Now look. I am not saying that God requires you to sacfrice an animal, for the sake of relationship with him. That’s OT stuff, right? You can put away your lambs and goats, and tell your momma that the sheeps are safe.

But what I am saying is this.Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Jesus isn’t only saying, hey, if you are going to follow me, you should probably get off TikTok. Jesus isn’t only saying hey, if you are going to follow me, you should have better sexual integrity. Jesus isn’t only saying hey, if you are going to follow me, you should stop talking back to your mom. Jesus is saying, “If you are going to follow me, then you have to deny yourself. You have to deny every selfish desire that leads you away from me. In fact, this will be so hard, you might as well pick up your cross, (not the cross necklace that your mom got you from James Avery) but the Roman torture device that was used to humiliate and kill people in the most brutal way possible. Jesus is saying that if you are going to follow me, you have to die to yourself. Your whole self. Not just on Wednesdays and Sundays and at church camp for a week. He is saying every day, every minute, every second, choose to die, so that I might live in you.

Vs 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.”

If you die to yourself, then you will experience the life that Jesus has to offer you now. You see what I am saying? Jesus didn’t just die and rise for you so that you could just live your life here in pain and bad cirucstmaces and then get to escape it one day in heaven. No he died and rose again, so that you, right here right now, could die to yourself, die to the sin in you, so that you could be a glimpse of heaven here on earth right now. Yes bad thigns will still happen. Yes, you will still be stressed out. Yes, you might still want to punch your sister in the face, but the difference is that you can find peace and comfort in God right here, right now. You don’t have to wait to go to heaven to have a faith that looks real. In fact when you are in heaven, faith won’t be required, because God will be there right in front of your face.

But if you want to experience heaven on earth, if you want to be live a life with God, you are going to have to die to yourself. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” That’s not just future tense; that is right right now, present tense. But you can’t experience that, you can’t do that, unless you die to yourself.

Faith in real life requires a real-life death.

I was baptized at nine years old at Hillside Christian Church by my father. And I sinned the very day I was baptized. And I have sinned every day since. But as I have come closer and closer to God, I have realized that all these things that I think give me a good life, the patterns of this world, like lust and addiction, don’t really do it. They just left me feeling even emptier than before. And I saw that If I take the truth of Jesus, the fact that Jesus Christ the son of God, died on the cross for me, and rose again 3 days later, and marry that to the way that Jesus lived, that I can live a life that God originally designed for humanity to live. If I can die to my own selfish desires, if I can choose him over everything else, then I can live a real-life faith.

But you might be asking how? How do I do this?

Let me say this as clearly as possible. The answer is not to try harder. You don’t mature in your spirituality by trying harder. You can’t just run a marathon by trying really hard. You don’t mature by trying; you mature by training. You mature in your spirituality by practicing.

And the thing about practicing is that, in practice, it is a safe place to mess up. It is a safe place to make the wrong decision. It is a safe place to sin and not do what you said you were going to do. But this community, this team, as they practice together what it means to follow Jesus, has to hold each other accountable to keep practicing. It’s okay if you miss praying in the morning. It’s OK if you don’t read your Bible every day, but this church, this youth group, is a place where you can learn the way of Jesus, and practice it together, and hold each other accountable to do that. To confess when you mess up, and know that your sin does not define you, but that you are defined and sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and to celebrate when you have practiced long enough to become mature in your faith.

Because Faith in real life requires a real-life death.

And just for a second here, I want you to imagine what would happen if we all started dying to ourselves. What would it look like if this youth group started living out their faith, not just at church, not just a youth group, but every day, in real life?

I can see a youth group that is on fire by the holy spirit for what the Lord has in store for them. I can see a small group that leans on each other as they become more like Christ and less like the shadow sides of ourselves that Satan wants to control. I can see a teenage girl who, for the first time in her life, lets her friends know that she is a Christian, and that means she isn’t going to do the same things that everybody else does. I can see a middle schooler who, for five seconds, decides he is gonna spend time with the lord instead of trying to get another dub on the fortnight, I can see a youth leader who chooses to love, even when it’s hard. I can see groups of kids deciding that they are going to impact their schools with their love for their neighbors. I can see Bible studies starting; I can see high schoolers making an impact on the poor in Amarillo. I can see this youth group choosing to live the way God intended us to live. I can see a church that doesn’t just exist in this building. But a church that is not defined by the walls that surround it but by the people who are in it and how they live.

Because Faith in real life requires a real-life death.

Pray