Sermon Tone Analysis

. UNION WITH CHRIST

How do you get people to change?

Pychologist Jeffrey Kottler.

“I’ve spent the past 35 years writing books about change, interviewing people about their experiences, researching the features that are most associated with significant transformations that endure over time.

And here’s my conclusion: I don’t know.

Neither do you.

Neither does anyone else that I’ve encountered.

It is indeed a mystery, a process so complex and multidimensional that it defies understanding.”

If you could sell a product that was guaranteed to change your spouse, or child, your boss, your sports teammate, you’d be an instant billionaire.

I mean, c’mon who of you at some point haven’t wished, even thrown up a prayer, please, Lord, please just make them change.

I don’t know how much more I can put up with this.

Toothpaste splashing on the mirror.

Squeezing from the top of the tube instead of the bottom.

There’s a story of a wife who tries and tries to get her husband to squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom of the tube instead of the top.

Night after night, year after year she walks into the bathroom to clean her teeth, and with a huff and a roll of the eyes, she picks up the tube of toothpaste and squeezes it all the way from the bottom until it finally comes out the top for her to use.

Well after years of unsuccessful attempts, she finally gives up.

Until one day, she walks into the bathroom to clean her teeth as usual, expecting the usual disappointed routine, to find the toothpaste at the top of the tube.

She’s amazed, and inside fireworks of joy and happiness are exploding.

She doesn’t want to show it though, so she keeps it quiet, wondering if this change is gonna stay or not.

But sure enough, next night, it’s at the top again.

And the next.

And the next.

Until after 2 months she finally asks her husband, she can’t contain it any longer.

She asks him, what made you change?

To which he replies, I’ve decided not to brush my teeth anymore.

Is real change possible?

When we see someone genuinely and permanently change, we want to know how they did it?

So that we can replicate it, but the problem is, so often it only works for them.

As Kottler said, it’s a mystery.

But it’s not a mystery to God.

He knows what we need to truly change.

And this passage tells us.

So let’s go.

Last week we looked saw HOW MUCH MORE Jesus grace act OVERCOMES Adam’s sin act.

Even the WORST that sin can try and do CAN’T OUTDO God’s grace.

Where sin increased, grace OVERFLOWED all the more.

Jesus THOROUGHLY UNDOES all that Adam did.

He brings eternal life for all those who were once dead in Adam and in sin.

So we’re set free from sin, but do we really want to be?

But I’m sure you’ve heard this response before.

Don’t know about this.

I was once on a plane flight and was sharing with the guy next to me how Jesus grace overwhelms our sin, no matter who you are and no matter how bad you are.

And the guy responded, “But If you’re saying we’re saved by grace, not by a good life, that Jesus has done it all, doesn’t that mean you can just live however you want, cause you’ll be forgiven anyway?”

“Doesn’t God’s grace give people a licence to go and sin?”

For some Christians this attitude, which is called antinomianism, is an issue which needs addressing, but for us here this morning, the issue is often more with what is called legalism, and this needs addressing just as much.

What do you mean Ben?

Many of us love God’s saving grace, but deep inside we don’t like following his commands.

We want salvation, but we don’t want obedience.

We’ll do all the right things outwardly, but our outward obedience doesn’t match up with our inward attitudes.

Why is this?

Sinclair Ferguson points out that the same issue lies at the root of the person who lives an outwardly sinful life, the antinomian attitude, as the person who lives an outwardly holy life, but does it grudgingly; the legalist attitude.

What’s the issue?

Both actually have the same belief about God.

And the belief is; God is not good or generous.

The outwardly rebellious believer thinks that following God’s commands will cause them to miss out on the good life, just as much as the outwardly holy yet disgruntled believer.

The only difference is, the legalistic believer is more concerned about their outward appearance to others around them.

But the cure is the same for both sets of symptoms.

Because the disease is the same, just expressing itself in different ways.

It’s the lie we were talking about last week.

That God is a not to be trusted, because he doesn’t love me, false Father.

Therefore, why would we not want to pursue and follow all that he’s said to us.

All his commands are the key to living the good life.

Anything less than full obedience is only short-changing our own happiness and joy, and short-changing his glory.

God has set it up in such a way that his glory and our joy increase together.

Paul shows us this issue was present right from the start of the gospel message going out.

6 What shall we say, then?

Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

Do God’s commands truly give life and joy and freedom, or not?

Does God really have our best at heart when he asks us to do things?

We can fall into this trap if we’re not careful.

At the heart of this thinking is a misunderstanding of who Jesus is and what he’s all about.

Jesus frees us from death, so that we can live.

That’s why Paul’s answer is initially very simple

but EXTREMELY EMOTIONAL!

Ariel and I both worked for a while at Sherwood drug rehab, in Coffs Harbour, as the video showed.

We met many old seekers, who had been through the programme, who came back for visits and reunions.

And I got to hear a few of them share their story about how they came to know Christ while at Sherwood.

And that coming to know him and his gift of grace was far more than they ever imagined they’d get by going to a drug rehab.

And then they’d go on to say, and drugs has never had the place it had in my life before coming to Sherwood.

If I was to say to them, “But since you understood the free gift of grace, didn’t that motivate you to go out and just keep doing drugs?”

They’d be like, are you kidding.

Living back under the rule of that sin that ruined my life?

How could you ever suggest that I’d go back to that?”

I’m not that person anymore.

That was the old me.

I’m living for another now.

And this is Paul’s point.

V2: 2 BY NO MEANS!

Are you kidding!

Have you experienced life under the reign and rule of sin?

The guilt, the shame, the condemnation that it brought?

Have you experienced life under the reign and rule of Christ?

The forgiveness, the acceptance, the freedom and assurance that his grace brings?

It’s extremely unsettling to even be asking the question of whether we should go back to living in that place!

Christ didn’t just come to give us forgiveness, he came to free is from sin’s clutches.

V2: 2 BY NO MEANS!

May this never happen!

It’s the pull your hair out groaning kind of response.

Don’t even go there.

I can’t think of anything more opposed to God’s glory and your good!