Message Recap: Identity Theft – Part 3
This weekend we tackled the difficult subject of sin and our tendency to “control and manage” it, instead of conquering and killing it.
- 3 reasons why we tolerate, excuse, control, manage, and look for loopholes for our sins:
- Sin is pleasurable and desirable (for a season) so we make it excusable.
- Sin is enslaving and defeating so we make it identifying.
- Sin is ultimately more about who we are vs. what we do (identity-related, not behavior-related)
- Radical Depravity = born with the ability to sin but we are also not able not to sin
- The core problem is our identity, not our behavior
- Paul’s reaction to Christians continuing in patterns of sin in Romans 6:2 is understandable in light of the fact that we have been given a new identity in Christ.
- Romans 6:1-10
- This passage is about God’s grace which is amazing for 3 reasons:
- It is costly to God (but free to us)
- It is violent power (not just forgiveness but also deliverance!)
- It is transforming (grace by nature changes the equation from death to life!)
- This passage is about God’s grace which is amazing for 3 reasons:
- Romans 6:1-10
- Understanding the reality of the new identity for a Christian is crucial to conquering and killing sin
- Tolerating and being enslaved to sin is inconceivable and incompatible with new life in Christ.
- Romans 6:11 is the first command in all of Romans
- You can only kill/conquer sin that has been cancelled in Christ. This is why we can “consider” ourselves dead to sin and alive to God = because of Christ’s own death and resurrection.
- We see our sins and all sin on the Cross and through the lens of the empty tomb. They are dead and defeated.
- You can only kill/conquer sin that has been cancelled in Christ. This is why we can “consider” ourselves dead to sin and alive to God = because of Christ’s own death and resurrection.
- Application for conquering and killing your own sins:
- NEW CATEGORY: in Christ and against the Cross we can no longer excuse sin or stay in sin. This means all sin is moved from the “no big deal/just the way I am/everybody does it” pile to the “inexcusable/it killed Christ” category.
- This NEW PERSPECTIVE on SIN leads to an EMPOWERED WILL to FIGHT SIN with all the weapons of grace God has given us — His Holy Spirit, His Word, His Church, small groups, accountability, prayer, etc. etc.
- But we fight from a position of victory, not defeat.
- My personal routine for this:
- A-ADMIT I am powerless on my own and ABIDE in Christ (move to dependence on Christ)
- S-SURRENDER all to Christ and be SATISFIED with all He is
- K-KILL sin because is hurts my highest treasure and live for the His KINGDOM