Make me a Servant (2)

Text Facing - Set free to serve God, we receive eternal life.

Audience Facing - We belong to Jesus, so give yourself to Him.

Little John was once his own man—strong, independent, living by his own rules. Then he met Robin Hood. After their famous staff fight on the bridge, something changed. Little John didn’t just lose a contest; he freely pledged himself to Robin. He left the path of serving only himself and became one of Robin’s most loyal men.

From that day on, Little John was no longer free in the old sense. He now served a new leader. Yet everyone who knows the stories understands this was not a step into misery. Serving Robin Hood gave Little John purpose, camaraderie, and a cause worth living for. He was more truly free in Robin’s band than he had ever been on his own.

That is a faint picture of what Paul describes. We were once slaves of sin, living for ourselves and producing only death. Then Christ claimed us. We were set free from the old master and brought into the service of a new one. We are no longer our own. Yet this new service is not bondage—it is life. We were set free to serve the One who is good, and in that service we finally find what we were made for.

Little John didn’t earn his place by serving; he served because he had already given his allegiance to Robin. In the same way, we serve God because He has already set us free and made us His. We have learned that we are united with God through faith in Him. Because we are untied with Him, we can be set free from the old cage of sin and walk in newness of life. the next thing Paul teaches us is that because we are united with Christ we move on from being set free to serve sin to willingly serve the one who showed us grace.

We cry out to God, make me servant. Not out of a list of more stuff to do but because of the grace God has shown us, we willingly serve because we are now His children. Are we willing servants of God, or are you still earning the wages of the old life? What does this even mean.

15-18 - Willingly serve

You are a servant of one thing or anthoer,. whether you like it or not, you have a master we are told. service of one thing leads to death, service of another leads to eternal life. We willingly choose to serve either the world or serve God, only one will end in eternal joy and peace.

Romans 6:15 ESV

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

We see by this that it is a continuation of the previous passage, and the answer to the question is the same as it was before, shall we continue in sin that grace may increase? of course not. This time it is framed around the fact that we are now under grace. What then we do is continue to live in the grace of God. Which enables us and allows us to be obedient to God.

Romans 6:16–18 ESV

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

It is a gift - You were slaves of sin → you have been set free → you became slaves of righteousness.

We are told again that we are slave to whatever it is we obey.

slaves to Sin - Who is the master in charge of your life? We learned a few weeks ago that we are born sin stained. we are born with the consequences of sin on our lives and become guity as we disobey God. There is no third option here that we are given, only two options your master is either sin or God.

but there is a distinction here. for children of God at least. you where once slaves to sin. we have a warning to make sure we have the right master, but for those that are united with Christ this is a joy to see what we are saved from.

Obedient slaves - We are not forced to serve anyone. Our choice to serve either master is our own. The ides of the obedient servant is that we willingly chooe to put oursleves under something.

mike winger - even as we are serving Jesus as our master we can still go back to chaining ourselves in our sin again.

Obedience establishes ownership - Did you know though as followers of Jesus you can willfully turn back to that old owner and say I want the chains back on. Kind of absurd to think about right. It is like willfully putting the chains back on our wrists and locking ourselves back up. But the beauty is that we once where slaves to sin and our current reality is we have been set free.

When Paul says “present your members,” he is not handing out a self-improvement plan. He is calling people who already belong to a new Master to keep yielding to Him. The power to do that does not come from willpower; it comes from staying near the One who accomplished the transfer.

One path is relentless and leads to death, , the other is to be set free and so because of that our response is to willingly serve.

What God has done is so powerful that Christian obedience becomes an automatic response. It is still God working through us.

The Indicitive (the Facts) - we are united with Christ

The Imperitive (The Command) - so be obedient to God. Become what You are - God takes the initiative through Grace

Lasting obedience does not come from trying harder, It comes when believers stay in contact with the God who has alreDY SET THEM FREE. tHE DISCIPLINES WE ARE CALLED TO ARE NOT THEN EXTRA RULES, BUT THE CHANNELS OF gOD’S GRACE IN OUR LIVES. I hope that makes sense. We are called to obedience and tha path that takes us there is the rgace of God. We are in contact with the one that set us free so then we become obedient to him.

There is no middle ground so present yourselves to God.

1. There is no neutral ground

You are always serving a master. Every decision to obey a desire, habit, or pattern is an act of presenting yourself. Ask regularly: “Who am I handing the controls to right now—sin or God?” Sin promises freedom and fun and party time but it lies. the moment you indulge this sin you realize that what was promised to you as total liberty ends up being a trap, ends up being shame and guilt.

2. Remember the transfer has already happened

You were a slave of sin. You have been set free. You became a slave of righteousness. Application starts with identity, not willpower. When temptation comes, speak the truth out loud: “I am no longer that person’s slave. I belong to a different Master by the grace of God. .”

3. Present your members deliberately

Paul moves from the indicative (what God has done) to the imperative (what we must do). Practical steps:

Eyes → what you look at Mind → what you dwell on Mouth → what you say Hands / time / money → what you give yourself to

Just as you once freely offered these to impurity, now offer them to righteousness. This is not passive; it is an active, daily yielding. build simple, repeated practices that channel grace: daily reading of the gospel (especially Romans 6 and similar passages), short prayers of yielding when temptation hits, and weekly worship that rehearses freedom in Christ rather than moral resolve.

Remember, we are presenting ourselves to something as our master. Stop telling yourself that you can not change and activley yeild yourself to God.

19-23 - Serving God leads to eternal life

As we yeild ourselves to God there is fruit that comes from this. A life lived for God yeilds fruit in our lives. We Obey God because of what He has done for us, not like trying to climb a ladder to earn our way up to God, but rather it is because of the grace of god we willingly serve and follow Him. it is a direct result of grace. But

Romans 6:19 NLT

Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

I like the NLT for the way they translated this next verse. Paul tells us here that he uses the illustration of slavery as a way to show how this all works. Though we are elsewhere claled to be slaves to God, he does this to help us understand. what this means is that we are williongly choosing to put ourselves under something.

Romans 6:20 ESV

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

As slaves to sin we did not need to worry about righteoussness or holiness. seems alright to some people but the result of it is scary.

Romans 6:21–22 ESV

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

That is the question, what fruit was coming from the things of the past life in whic we are now ashamed.

I like to think of this as how people give their testimonies, like a scale of look a tall the cool things I used to do, like we are glorifying the past. I am not saying that is what we do when we share our past life, but we should not glorify it either. And the crazy thing s sometimes we wish we had a cool testimony like that. I was never a gang member who gave up a life of crime. But if you ask most people like that, they would say do not be like me, do not do what I did.

The fruit of the old life leads to death

It may seem fun and safe right now, to live that old life, after all you think that you are not hurting nayone. but the path we where on leads to distruction. it leads down to a hole we can not get ourselves out of. Some people call it rock bottom when you reach that place where you realize you are stuck and can not go anymore. I have used that phrase before. but I was reminded this week in this life the only rock bottom there is is when you come to that realization you are done, but if you do not realize that then you just keep digging the hole deeper and deeper.

We have been set free to serve God.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

IThis is one of my favorite verses. Wages is something that we earn, something that is due us for the work that we do. So this is what this passage comes down to, 2 different masters, slaves to something or someone. There is fruit that comes from either one.

We earn wages from a life lived apart from God. It is the only thing that we can earn from trying to live right. When we serve the master that is the flesh and sin it may seem like it is fun and games fopr the time being but we will get precisley what we have earned. Our wages is death. But the thing is we keep putting on the chains of death, we keep thinking we can never change. When you are tempted to return to an old pattern, ask: “Where did that road actually take me last time?”

Trace the fruit - Paul asks, “What benefit did you get from the things you are now ashamed of?”

Look backward: the old path produced shame and death. Look forward: the new path produces holiness and leads to eternal life.

Live in the tension of gift vs. wages

Sins wages = death but Our gift from God is Grace unto Eternal Life

Sin pays wages—death. God gives a free gift—eternal life in Christ Jesus.

This keeps both pride and despair in check. You do not earn the new life, but neither do you treat it as optional. Grace does not lower the bar; it changes the Master and supplies the power.Our gift from God is grace leading to righteoussness with which we are told leads to holiness.

we must give ourselves over to righteouss living leading to holiness. We have already been set free, we are united with Christ. So dont climb back into the hole but willingly present yourselves for the point of becoming more and more like the child of God we were created to be. this is not a view of more rules to follow because we need more rules.

Do these things or God will be displeased / you will lose ground. The disciplines become a performance list. Motive is often fear, duty, or the desire to feel spiritual. Result is either pride (when you succeed) or discouragement (when you fail).

Though sometimes it is important to take certain steps to overcome sin and become holy, like casting away the things that are causing us to sin for a while, leaving the friends and the community that is dragging us to temptation until we are strrong enough in the grace of God to withstand. But to remember that what we are about is Grace.

Channels of grace

God has already transferred you from death to life and from slavery to sin to slavery to righteousness. He now invites you into practices through which He continues to supply power, assurance, conviction, and joy. The disciplines are gifts, not ladders. Motive is dependence: “I need to hear from You, talk to You, and remember what You have done.” Result is deeper freedom and organic obedience rather than forced behavior.

Freed by Jesus, we now give Him what is His.