The Old You

Intro

Romans 1:21-32 NLT 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

This was written 2,000 years ago, but when you read it, you would think it was written last week. These words of Paul's were written to the Church in Rome. And when you read the beginning of Romans, Paul starts out writing about the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here Paul says that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes.

But then Paul shifts gears from talking about the good news, talking about how God has made humans right in his sight to addressing the elephant in the room, sin.

And he gets very specific about God’s feelings towards sin, and his feelings towards a society who has given itself over to sin.

The bible says that when humans choose to ignore God and worship idols, indulge in every kind of sexual immorality, and think it foolish to acknowledge God, eventually God will as it says in verse 24 abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. and at the end of verse 28 it says he let them do things that should never be done.

Listen friends, there’s something wrong with the world. Almost everyone knows this, no matter where you live or who you are. Addiction, violence, corruption, envy, strife, brokenness, the list goes on. This world is not a pretty place.

Sure we try to pretty it up a little here and there and depending on where you live you can sometimes live in a bubble and choose to ignore what is happening, but if you look, and I mean really look at the world we live in outside of the comfort of our dressed up American lives you will see the world is rotting with the stench of evil.

I mean we just had a missionary here last week who spoke about some of their experiences in the world of human trafficking and it turned my stomach to think about what these young girls are subjected to and those who perpetuate it.

The world is broken. There truly is something wrong.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

Throughout history humans have worked to correct what was wrong. The age of Revolution proposed that if we just overthrew monarchies and had democracies the world would become better.

The age of Enlightenment promised that if we just educated ourselves, human beings would become better people.

Science suggested that if we just advanced technology, civilizations would become more peaceful.

But what happened?

Revolutions and democracies still oppressed people.

Education made evil people more clever.

Science and technology brought about the atomic bomb, cybercrime, and tech addiction.

Democracy, education, and science are good things, but they won’t fix what’s wrong with human nature.

Beyond looking at the big brokenness of the world that humans have tried to fix, at a personal level we know there are areas in which we all have brokenness.

We have addictions that we can’t stop. We try to fill the emptiness in our lives with money, sex, power, stuff, relationships.

We fail to live up to even our own ideals. Our insecurities get the best of us, and we become prideful, envious, lacking any love for other people.

You might be a successful person in the workplace who seems to have it all together, but you can’t stop losing your temper with your kids, and you don’t know how to have self-control.

Or maybe you’re depressed over your body image, so you work out constantly, at the expense of your family, obsessing over your happiness and sense of worth.

The Bible is very clear what is wrong with the world: sin. Sin has corrupted everything. As we read in Romans this morning, sin corrupts our thoughts, emotions, and actions.

It causes us to think that what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right. It turns truth on its head and makes a mockery of justice.

Sin at its core is selfishness. Sin is a bent state that continually looks inward. Yet, the Bible has the ultimate remedy for this broken sinful state and that is Jesus. Jesus died on a cross and rose again to bring new life to humanity.

This my friends is the only thing that will fix our broken world. If you take only one things away from this message let it be this.

Human beings can strive to the fix the brokenness of their lives, only to fail. Only Jesus brings new life and a death to the old self and old way of living.

You might think, “Yeah, I know Jesus died so I can go to heaven when I die.” But Jesus came to give you new life now too. It isn’t just about where we are headed when this life is over, it is also about how we live this life until we get there.

Power in the Text

Paul writes in...

Ephesians 4:21-24 NLT 21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

So, if we are in Christ, we are to put off our old way of living. We don’t have to go back to that old brokenness. Paul says, “Be made new in the attitude of your minds; and … put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

The old you doesn’t just stop doing the bad things you used to do. You now have a new life, a new you. You are renewed from the inside out. You have a new way of living.

This new life exists because our identity is in Jesus.

When a person is baptized, it is a symbol of dying to the old way of living and rising with Jesus to a new existence.

Romans 6:3-4 NLT 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Your identity is now not in how much you have, how you look, or where you are from. The core identity you have is now in who you know, in the person of Jesus.

This is why water baptism is so important. It isn’t just a ritual, rather it has deep spiritual significance.

While water baptism doesn’t save you, your faith in the work of Jesus on the cross does that, it does demonstrate publicly a willingness to not only claim faith in Jesus, but a decision to let the old you die and allow the new you to take over.

But today we see a resistance in the Church to get water baptized. We treat it as optional or unnecessary. The truth is, it is command by God to be obedient in baptism.

But I think we treat it as optional because if we are being completely honest with ourselves we don’t really want a new life because frankly, we like the life we have, but we still really want to go to heaven someday.

Application/Closing

But you know, you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole. Do you remember that children’s toy where they have all these different geometric shapes. The goal is to take the shaped peg and line it up with the same shaped hole? It helps with toddlers learning their shapes and tactile skills.

They quickly find out that they cannot fit one shape in the hole of a different shape, sometimes to great frustration.

When we who have been given new life in Christ still try to live the old way, we also experience frustration. In Christ, we have a different shape to life, a different identity.

So, what do these old and new lives look like in contrast? For example something everyone talks about at the beginning or end of a year is weight loss and fitness.

The old you would see your insecurity about your weight or lack of fitness and would then strive to work harder to look like who you want to be. Not a bad thing; it’s good to have goals. But slowly you begin to obsess about it.

You go to the gym in the morning and at night, and you don’t spend time with your family. You obsess over your weight and how you look, because your identity is tied to your insecurity.

Now, for those who have new life in Christ, you have the same insecurities, and the goal to get in shape. However, your identity is in Christ, not in your weight or fitness level. Being in shape and losing weight when you need to are healthy things, but they aren’t the only thing.

Your new life in Christ helps you look at your brokenness in a way that shows God at work to transform you.

But listen, this new life is fueled by knowledge of God’s word and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

You have to know what is true to not be deceived. You have to know what God desires and expects from you in order to live this new life.

But knowledge alone means nothing if you don’t have the Holy Spirit enabling you to apply the knowledge.

If you aren’t reading God’s word regularly then forget about living a new life.

If you aren’t seeking the Holy Spirit’s direction, influence, and power through prayer and worship, then forget about living new life.

You alone won’t be able to fix the brokenness of our world, but when it comes to our everyday spheres of influence, we can have new life and a new identity in Jesus; the old way of living life doesn’t matter anymore. So stop living like it does.