Know Your Master

It was great to be with you in Westminster last weekend, live. I promise I won't wait four years to come back. And it's great to be with all of you today here in person. Let's go before the Lord. It really doesn't matter where we're sitting, what matters is that we hear God's word proclaimed among us. Amen? So let's pray, let's seek His face today. Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, all the honor and all the praise for who you are. And Lord, we ask in these moments, we have together that you would speak clearly to us. That's why we're here. Lord, we love praising your name. We love seeking you in prayer. Lord, we're loving that we're going to get to celebrate communion here later this morning. But Lord, we believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that it is you who are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord, Jesus Christ, speak directly to you who will believe what He says to you and who will by faith put into practice what He shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen, amen. We started this series by talking about how important it was that you know your enemy. We talked about three enemies that you have.

You have the devil, the world, and your sinful self. But we focused on our sinful self because it's the one we talk about the least. We talk about the devil's tempting us. We talk about how the world will fulfill us. But we forget the fact that even after we come to Christ, sin still dwells in us. So you need to be aware of that. And then last week we took a look at our identity. Last week we took a look at who we are and who God says we are. Why it's important that we call ourselves by the name that Jesus calls us and that we live for Him. And this week we wanna talk about how you need to know your master. You need to know who is it that you're answering to? Who is the one who's calling the shots? Now imagine you worked at a job with the worst boss imaginable. I mean, just a horrible boss. Some of you are looking at me like he's speaking right to me. You're working for a horrible boss that he doesn't pay you very well, doesn't always even pay you on time. It's scary to go into work 'cause you never know what's gonna happen if he's gonna erupt or come down on you or all these other things. You don't even really enjoy the work, but you're doing it just to make a living. And you've been getting by not just for one day, but for a few decades.

And you've been serving this boss. And then one day you find out your company's been bought. And new management comes in and says, this is no longer your office space. We have new office space a mile down the road. I'm your new boss. Welcome to our family. Here's how we do things. And the new boss begin to spell out ways that were very antithetical to how your old boss operated. This one wanted you to succeed. This one wanted you to do well. This one had opportunities for you to grow and develop and mature. Now how ridiculous would it be if when the next morning you woke up, you drove to your old building. Looking for your old job. Answering to your old boss. And yet as Christians, we do this all the time. When you become a believer in Jesus Christ, you transfer kingdoms. You transfer from the darkness of the satanic kingdom, and you become one of God's beloved children. You're not in the same camp anymore. And yet many of us go back to our old master and report for duty and wonder why the Christian life is not working. So today we want to talk about who's your master and how do you get to know your master.

And to do that, we're going to be in the book of Romans chapter six. We're going to finish that chapter. Romans chapter six verses 12 to 23. And I want to highlight three truths from this great section of scripture that will help you understand your master. Now as you're listening to this today, I want to be clear, this is very practical material. You're going to have a chance to put this into practice. Probably before you leave the building, certainly when you wake up tomorrow, certainly next week, you'll have an opportunity every day to put the things I'm telling you into practice. This is not theoretical, this is very practical material. Notice what he says. He's just gotten done talking about how we need to live out our identity and how we're dead to Christ. We talked last week how we've died with Christ, we've been raised with Christ, we're free in Christ, we belong to Christ. And because of that, he says this in verse 12, therefore, because all these things are true, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Here's the first thing I want to tell you to do. Stop letting resident sin reign. Stop letting resident sin reign.

Sin is still a part of you even after you come to Christ. When the reason that you know that, and the reason you could say amen, the reason you could say that's true, is even after you've been born again, even if you're repented of your sin, even if you're trusted in Jesus, and all of us have still sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, even after being a believer. So here's what he says, "Therefore, do not let it reign." It can be present, but it doesn't need to rule. Coming to Christ is more than having Jesus as your Savior. Coming to Christ is repenting and letting Jesus be the what? The Lord of your life. You have a new master. He's the Lord. That's why Jesus even asked His disciples. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? If He's really your Lord and His word is what speaks then the very things He speaks through His words are the very thing that you want to obey. He said, "Therefore, do not let sin reign "in your mortal body." Now, why is that important? We don't let it reign because sin is always gonna give an invitation to reign in your body. It's sin is always gonna come calling.

In Genesis chapter four and verse seven, "God said sin is crouching at your door. "Its desire is for you, but you must master it." Hebrews chapter 12 and verse one says, "Let us lay aside every encumbrance and every sin "which so easily entangles. "As believers, we have to let go of sin." You say, "Well, how do we do that?" I mean, you think about darkness. Darkness doesn't go away because you yell at it or scream or get really passionate against the darkness. But when you flip a switch and light comes on, darkness goes. So it's not this fleshy fight. We already talked about it, week one. You can't beat sin by commitment. You can't beat sin in your flesh. Your flesh is weak. Your spirit is willing. Your flesh is weak. So don't let sin reign. Don't let it rule your life. Let me give you another option. Think about this. How many of you have ever had a backseat driver in their car? The enemy in your flesh are a backseat driver. They will always talk to you about what you should do and where you should go and hey, look out the window that way and go this way and remember how good you enjoyed it there.

Remember how much fun that was and why are you going this way? Nobody else is driving down the road this way. Turn this, that's the backseat driver. That's your flesh. That's the enemy calling at you to go back to once you, what you once were, just like a dog returning to its own vomit, right? That's the call of the enemy. That's the call of your dead self and it never goes away. I heard a story this week. I don't think it's true. I can't validate that it's true, but it was so cool. I wanted to share it 'cause even if it's not, it has significance, but I heard about the theologian Augustine after he had come to Christ and he had been very immoral prior to his coming to Christ, which I know was true, but after coming to Christ, one of the women that he had been with was coming after him and calling him, saying, "Augustine, it is I." Augustine, it is I, and when he heard her voice, he turned and started running the other direction. And she started chasing, "Augustine, it is I." And he looked back over his shoulder, "Yes, but it is not I anymore who live." I'm getting away from this, right? Now, whether a story's true or not, the principle of that story's true, 'cause sin always comes calling. You like this, you like the way this tastes,

you like the way this looks, you like the way this feels, you like the way you emotionally are gripped by it. You love this, come back, come back, we miss you. We have a two-for-one sale right now, right? You understand what I'm talking about? Sin gives an invitation so you cannot let it rain in your body and what you have in your life after you come to Christ is a squatter that sits on your property, that has no desire to leave and your flesh is that squatter and you have to make sure that that squatter is not raining in your home. Amen? You have to make sure that that squatter is not taking up residence and telling you how you should live. You're, no, you're gonna tell it how it should live, amen? Because you're a new creation and you have a new identity. And I wish I could tell you, you know, at some point in time it just goes away. And the more you walk with Jesus, the less and less you'll feel it. I have not found that to be the case in my experience. What I've found is the closer I walk to the light, the louder the voice calls. And the more opportune time it waits to call. It knows when to call, it knows when I'm tired, it knows when I'm weak, it knows when I have an ability to be angry or sad.

It knows when to come calling to me, telling me something that I'll enjoy, which I know I won't enjoy, but in the moment it sure sounds like I will, right? It never goes away. It's like when you walk by a dog that's huge, like a rottweiler that's behind a fence chained that can't get to you, it'll still bark. That thing will still let you know it's there. And the closer you walk to your flesh and the closer you walk in your sin, the louder and louder it's going to be. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body. but I'm not letting it rule over me. I'm not giving it reign of my life. Jesus Christ is my ruler. Jesus Christ is my Lord. Jesus Christ is the one whom I serve. Amen? And so he says, "Do not go and present any members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." So when sin comes calling, don't go present yourself to the sin. Don't answer the call. I mean, when sin comes calling, it should be like caller ID. Don't recognize the number. Not answering, right? Or I recognize the number. I'm not answering. Sin has your name. It's calling you. It's relentless. It does not sleep. The enemy knows just how to tempt you, just how to stir up sin in your life, how to get you to be all off-kilter and all those other things. That's totally normal, but for the Christian, that's abnormal. A Christian is one who does not let sin reign in his or her life. Sin can be present. It's just not ruling anymore. It's under the authority of another ruler that paid for that sin by dying on the cross, and he's the Lord of my life, and he's more powerful than the sin that dwells in me. Amen? And so as a believer, we have to realize we're in a war. We're in a war every single day. We're in a war where sin is going to come calling and I can't let that resident sin that's inside of me reign. I can't let that resident sin rule. So you have to know who your master is, and this is point number two. If you're going to stop letting residents sin reign, you need to present yourself to your new master. You need to present

yourself to your new master. Notice what he says. Do not go on presenting members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and as members, as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. What's he saying? You're going to present yourself to someone. You're going to present yourself to your sinful self. You're going to present yourself to the devil, or you're going to present yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to present ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. When you wake up in the morning, and when you go throughout your day, it's not just a one-time thing. You are a soldier of the Lord, and you're reporting for duty. You're looking to Jesus. You're looking in His Word. You're seeking Him in prayer. You're desiring what He wants. You're saying, "Here I am. I'm willing to do whatever you have. I'm presenting myself to you. Before my feet hit the floor today, when I come out of my bed, I want you to know that you're my Lord, and I know I'm going to face a battle, and I don't even know what the battle's going to look like. I know that you do, so Lord, please guide my day. Please lead me. Please close my ears to the invitations of the evil one and my flesh and my sin. Lord, I want you. I want what you want. I want to demonstrate what it looks like to live a life completely for you. Amen? So I'm presenting myself. So it's not passive. When I hear people say, "Well, I'm just not reading my Bible. I probably need to read my Bible more. I probably need to pray more. I probably should go to church more." Okay. That would be like an infantry soldier saying, "I probably should get a gun. I probably should be looking for the enemy. I probably should listen to my commanding officer." You're like, "Dah, you're in a battle." I mean, when I hear people say, "I need to do that more," they don't realize they're already being taken out by their sin. You cannot defeat your sin on your own. We already talked about that. It's impossible. No matter how long you walk with Christ, there's only one who ever put on human flesh who did it. That's the God-man Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man. No one else is. So even as a born-again, spirit-filled Christian, I cannot defeat sin apart from Christ. So I need to present myself to him. I need to report to him. I need to be talking with him. I need to be listening to him. I need to be hearing what he says. Why? Because sin still lives in me. It's just no longer ruling in me. And really the way to look at this, notice the terminology it uses. It uses. The word

of God says this, "Do not present yourself as instruments of unrighteousness, but as instruments of righteousness to God." I mean, here's what I want you to see. The devil's either playing you as his instrument or the Holy Spirit is working in and through you as Christ instrument, but you are an instrument. You're not your own, you were bought with a price, therefore honor God with your body. We live in a culture that thinks, it's just me, it's whatever I want, it's whatever I think. My relationship with God is me and God, it's not. It's what the Holy Spirit is doing in and through you or what you are allowing the enemy to do with you. It's one or the other. There's no kind of halfway. It's either the enemy's ruling or the spirit of God is controlling. And there is no other way. And we have to realize that if we're not in a battle for the spirit to rule, the enemy and our flesh are winning. And no matter how long you've walked with the Lord, you walk with the Lord 30, 40, 50 years, no matter how long you've walked with the Lord if you don't stay in the battle, you can end up right back where you started. And you can wonder how in the world did I get here? How could I sin like that again? Well, because I forgot that I was still in a war. And what the enemy does to those of you who are a little more seasoned in the faith, here's what he'll lie to you and say, "You got this." I mean, look around you today,

you're way more mature than the people here. You can handle this. You know this, you know the word a little better, you pray a little bit, and he'll get you to forget that you're in the same battle you were when you first came to Christ. It never changes. It's the same for each and every one of us. So present yourself to your new master, amen? That's what he tells us to do. I mean, think about Romans 12 verses one and two. If you just flip over a couple of pages in your word, he says, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." He said, "What's worship look like? It's when I'm under the authority of God, when I'm presenting my body to him as a holy and acceptable act of worship. It's when I'm coming before the Lord and saying, 'You're my God, and you're my Lord, and you're who I serve, and I want my life to be representative of the values that you talk about and who you say you are in your word." That's who I wanna be. And that's what it looks like. And then it goes on to say in verse two, what? And do not be conformed to this world. Being conformed to this world means I'm doing

all the things that the world's doing. The world doesn't realize it's in a battle. So when the world is sinning, it's doing what the world does, but don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So you're presenting yourself to your master. I mean, David asked, how can a young man keep his way pure by living according to your word? I mean, I need the word of God, not just to study it so I can say, well, I know where all the passages are and I can list all 66 books of the Bible and I can tell you how many chapters there are and how many verses, and now I need this book because I need this book to instruct me how to live presently in my life. I need this book to tell me today how it is that if I'm not careful, sin is calling my name and asking me to report to duty. Now, a few weeks ago when we talked about being clay in the potter's hands from Jeremiah chapter 18 and we're talking about our nation, we too are clay in the potter's hands. And we present ourselves to him. What we're saying is this is the life you gave me. This is the body that you gave me. These are the gifts you gave me. These are the talents you gave me. These are the weaknesses you gave me.

This is all, like I'm not holding anything back, Lord. I'm yours, the resources I have. It's all yours, Lord, I'm in your hands. So do with me what you want to do. That's presenting yourself to your master. What the old self calls and says is, don't give anything away. Don't do it. If you give it all, don't give that away. If you give that away, he's gonna control you. He's gonna boss you. Jesus doesn't control our boss. He's the most loving master in the entire world and your soul will never be more satisfied than when you give him your full allegiance. It's the enemy and your sinful flesh that over-promise and under-deliver all the time. If you just do this, it's gonna work out great. It never works out great. It never works out great. You can pick your sin and you can see 100% of the time how that leads to guilt and shame. So present yourself to your new master. What do I present? Everything. My eyes, my hearing, my tongue, my touch, my taste, like my appetites, what I enjoy, what I'm influenced by. I present all of that to him because my old self says, oh, that's okay. You like the flavor of this.

That's okay. You can handle this. That's okay. You are able to watch that and it doesn't affect you. That's okay. You don't need to listen to whatever else says. They're just being like, you know, really, really difficult people. They don't understand. They're just being hyper-religious. No, you have to present everything to him. And I know in the sea, I wish I could say, well, I've done it, I have to continue to do it. And in the seasons when I'm doing it all the time, It's not a big deal for them, but it's a big deal for me, but I don't even have to know why it's a big deal because if it's a big deal to God, then He's doing something to spare me from something. So that's what I do. And that's why it's different for everybody. That's why we can't make a blanket statement like, this is what holiness looks like. Keep all these rules. That's what legalism does. Holiness is I'm presenting myself to God and I'm letting the living God tell me what He expects of me and I'm responding to obedience, not so that He loves me, but because He does. I'm responding from a different motivation. And notice what He says, "For you are not under law, but under grace." As a born-again believer, you're not under law because what's the law's purpose? The law's purpose is to point out the holiness of God. The law's purpose is to point out that you're a wretched sinner. The law's purpose is to be a tutor to point you to Jesus.

That's all the law can do. The law is a mirror. God's holy, you're not, you need Jesus. That's all the law can do, but when you come to Christ, you're not under that law anymore because I know God's holy and I know I'm wretched and I know I needed a Savior. So what do I need? I need the same grace that saved me to sanctify me. I need the grace of God that motivated me by Christ's love to grow me into holiness. I need the grace of God to truly let me live up my identity so that when I say that I'm holy because God says I'm holy, I actually act like it. To say that I'm loving, when God says I'm loving, I act like it. Do you understand what I'm saying? So I'm under grace because grace can do what the law can't do, grace can change you. Grace has the power to save you, grace has the power to sanctify you, grace has the power to glorify you one day. I need more grace. I'm never getting to a place where I'm not in need of grace. I always need the grace of God in my life. That's why in the Proverbs it says, Power 4, guard your heart, guard your mind. What am I presenting? I'm presenting everything. Lord is what I'm looking at pleasing to you. Lord is what I put in my mouth pleasing to you. Lord is what I drink pleasing to you. Lord is what I touch pleasing to you is how I live my life pleasing to you is my conversation pleasing to you when you begin to take ownership of every area of your life and then present it to him rather than how you used to live. Can I say something? God will speak to you. The word will come alive to you.

You will see in the word the very things he wants you to be. It will penetrate both soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It will judge the attitudes and intentions of your heart. And where Christians sometimes fail is they don't realize they're in a war and they just expect holiness and sanctification to just happen. God wants me to be holy. I mean, you saved me. I had nothing to do with that. I guess he wants me to be holy. I'll be holy. No, if you're not going to fight the battle and present yourself before him and not let sin rule and reign in your life, you can look just like a non-believer even when you're a Christian. And the problem that we have in the church is not that people aren't coming to Christ. The problem that we have in the church is the people that are coming to Christ aren't living like Christ, looking like Christ, and in the battle to be like Christ. That's a challenge. Right? It's not just, oh, they got saved. Everything's fine. I'll go live your life for the next 50 years and we'll see you in heaven. You got saved. You're a newbie in Christ. Let me teach you how to walk this because who you are right now is not at all who God wants you to be. And let me say this to you. If you know Christ for 50 years, who you are right now is not even close to who God wants you to be. Like we never arrive. We never get to a place.

Like, even if you see another Christian, you're like, oh, there's so much further down the road. And let's say they are. Let's say they're miles ahead of you, okay? Jesus is galaxies ahead of them. Like, no matter what person you're like, they're so far in the face, they're this much further than you. They're not that much further from a global scale, from an infinite scale of who our God is. And that's why all throughout the Scriptures, like in Colossians 3, 17, you've heard this first before, whatever you do, whether in Word or indeed do it all to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, like whatever you do, like if you play a sport, play it for God's glory. If you go to work, go to work for God's glory, if you're in a marriage, be in your marriage for God's glory, if you're dating, date for God's glory, if you have resources, you're going to spend it, spend it for God's glory. Like whatever you do, be presenting yourself to Him. Invite Him in. Now, this is a new concept for some of you. I know it was a new concept to me when I first started learning this. I started learning this in college. I met some people and then here's what they told me. They asked me where I lived and I told them where I lived. And I said, where do you live? And here's what they told me. We're praying about where God wants us to live. I'm like, you're what? Like you like pray about where God would have you live? Yeah. I thought that was the strangest thing, like what else do you pray about? We pray about everything. To me, I was just like, I made all my decisions and then I asked God to bless them.

[BLANK_AUDIO] So everything you can bring to Jesus, everything you present at all, the more you present to Him and you don't have to hide, the more you bring in the light, the more He'll shine on you. Do you understand what I'm saying? So don't let sin reign, the resident sin in your life. Don't just say, "Well, I'm a sinner, that's what I do." Don't let it reign, don't let it rule. And here's how you don't let it rule. It's not by, I'll keep the 10 commandments better. I heard Pastor Jeff today and I'm doing all these things wrong and I'm really going to try harder. Good luck. You won't make it to Wednesday. Some of you won't make it to the car, right? I mean, your efforts don't help presenting yourself fully to Christ and begging for His mercy and grace does. You're not under law, you're under grace. You have a new master, you're an instrument in somebody's hands. You're either in the hands of the enemy who is playing you or you're in the hands of Christ who is pouring His Spirit in and through you. But you're just not both, amen? So stop letting resident sin reign, present yourself to your new master. And then He's going to give us some information, not so much a command, but just so you understand

what we've been talking about, you serve whomever you obey. You serve whoever you obey. Notice what He says. What then shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace, may it never be? Now, Paul started this whole section, say what shall we say then? Or we continue to sin so that grace may increase. He was saying, hey, the more you sin, the more grace you're going to get. So they're like, hey, can we just live a lifestyle of sin then and just have God cover it all? He's like, may it never be? No way. But now he's talking about individual sins. Well, since we're not under the law, Pastor Jeff, and we're under grace, can we just sin a little? Can we sin sometimes? And he gives the same answer. Heck no, no way may it never be. Heaven forbid. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to the one whom you obey? Either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness. You are slaves to the one you obey. If you obey your sin, it's death.

You're going to see later, the wages of sin is death. Any sin that you partake in ultimately leads to death. It's a dead thing. It will bring shame, it will bring guilt. You can't, well, I'll just sin it more and then maybe the feeling will go away. You can't out-sin your sin. Like if you're serving your sin, you're unrighteous. If you're serving your sin, it leads to death. But if you're a slave to righteousness, in other words, I'm going to present myself to the righteous one, Jesus Christ. And I want him to work through me. I want him to live his righteousness through me. I've been given the righteousness of Christ. I'm robed in the righteousness of Christ. And now practically and experientially, I want to experience the righteousness of Christ. Then I'm going to do what? If I serve Jesus, I'll be a slave of righteousness. Here's what I want you to see. You're going to be a slave to something. You're going to be a slave to your sin or you're going to be a slave to Jesus and there is no middle ground. Not me, brother. That's why I don't go to church. I'm totally free. No, you are so bound in your sin. You don't even see it and you're blind to it, right?

I mean, that's what the Bible says to the world. They're slaves of sin. They're blind to it. They don't see it. They're dead and they don't know it. And that's why we have to proclaim the gospel so that dead people can be awakened by Christ and lost people can be found 'cause they're dead in their sins. But Christian, if you're still serving the master of sin, you're a slave to that and you're still going to be dead. That's why for some Christians, they live dead lives. They've genuinely been born again, but they haven't realized the way to grow in Christ is not by trying to commit to being better the way to grow in Christ is to present your members to Him 'cause you're slaves to the one that you obey. And Paul had no problem calling himself what? A slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he knew being a slave of Jesus was the freest he could ever be. And it didn't matter where he was. He could be as free in the prison as he could be in public because it wasn't about his environment that made him free. It was about who he was a slave to that made him free and the same is true of you. If you're a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're free. If you're a slave to your sin, you're in bondage and you need Jesus to break the chains and set you free, amen?

I mean, the devil is like a lion used car salesman. I said lion used car salesman. Some of y'all have used car salesman, you're good. I'm talking about the lion used car salesman. You know where he makes it look great, but he's turned back the mileage and he tells you the tires are this, but they're not bad. He tells you it's got a new engine, but it doesn't. And he's lying to you. That's what the enemy does. You break up with that person that God told you to break up with and you know it was the right thing to do. I don't have anybody right now. All I have is Jesus and he's available. She's available. I mean, maybe it was me. Maybe I need to understand what I'm talking about. Three of you, all of you married people are like, I'm glad I'm married now. But my point is no matter what sin you leave, like if you had a party spirit, you're going out with all your friends and you make the decision. I'm not doing that anymore. I'm going to go spend time with Jesus. I'm going to go to Bible study. They're going to come calling. The invitation is going to be there. The party spirit is going to be where are you? We're missing you. Oh, you're missing us. I mean, you understand anytime you leave sin, there's always an invitation to come back. And it's a lie that paints itself as something that looks good.

But the devil always over promises and under delivers. It's kind of like Black Friday. You know what I'm saying? I mean, there's things you don't even need, have never even thought about. You don't even want, but you can save $200 on Black Friday. If you get it at midnight, so off you run to the store and three months later, you don't even know where that thing is. You understand what I'm talking about? That's what the enemy does. That's what our flesh does. I mean, the enemy promises to build you this trophy case and fill it. And all you end up with is an empty trophy case with promises of the trophies you were going to have Jesus promises you a crown. Jesus promises you a crown of righteousness, a crown of life that you're going to get to lay before him and throw at his feet and he'll deliver on that promise. Amen. So what I'm telling you is your slaves to the one that you obey. So even as a Christian, if you're going to obey your flesh or you're going to obey the devil, you're a slave to unrighteousness. You're not free at all. You're totally in bondage. But if you present yourself to the Lord and you're a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're like, Lord, I'm just here to serve you and everything I have is yours. And every decision I make, I want it to be yours. I want to do it your way when we do stuff like that. That's when we understand how to grow in righteousness. Here's what he goes on to say, but thanks be to God. This is verse 17, that though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

So when you knew that Christ had conquered your sin and when you started submitting yourself and presenting yourself to the Lord, thank God, praise be to God. If you're living under his umbrella, that it's a beautiful thing. And notice what he says, he goes, I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. How many of you that are a little older, when you look back on your life, say, when I was seven, I never thought I would have sinned to the degree that I've sinned. Anybody? All right. Not all of you are being honest, but lines of sin too. But the point is, like when you experience sin and you experience sin and you grow in sin and all of us grow in sin until the Lord changes that, we could find ourselves doing things that we never thought we'd ever do or experiencing things we never thought we'd ever experience in the same way. When you become a slave to righteousness in the same way, when you present yourself to Jesus, you can become holy in a way that you never even drink possible. You can be a representative of the Lord in a way it didn't even seem fit. When God was calling me into ministry, I remember talking to my friends about that they needed to go into ministry. I remember two of my friends in particular, I'm like, you guys are really good speakers and you know the Bible way better than me. And I was feeling a call, but I didn't, I'm like, it's not me. These guys are way better than me. They need to go do it. You understand what I'm saying? I'm like, I could never be that. I can't walk with you like that. I don't know you like that.

Here's what I found. If you'll spend time with Jesus, he'll turn you into what you were ultimately destined to be. Like no matter where you are, there's a level of righteousness and holiness and truth that you haven't experienced yet. Like there's more. Like with sin, here's what the truth is. There's more. Like you think you're devastated now, you're not even close. The enemy can destroy you even worse. He can break you even further. He can deflate you even. I mean, keep on sinning. It can get it go from bad to worse and you think it's worse. It can go from worse to awful, but keep serving the Lord. It can go from good to better to great to incredible to you. You don't even know what's out there too. This is giddy that I get to serve the king and you know that when I breathe my last, I'm going to be in his presence. He's going to translate me into his glory and I'm going to be presented faultless before his father. And he's going to say, this is my beloved son, whom I'm well, please. And it's going to get better. [BLANK_AUDIO] It shows you that if you just go there, it's going to be fun. It's going to be good. You don't like it. It's going to be great. Jesus just says, "Follow me. I'll make you something.

Who are you going to trust?" The more you listen to the voice of God, the better off you're going to be. You serve whomever you obey. Well, here we are at church talking about obedience. We have to. We have to. You're being obedient to somebody. Even if you're being, "I'm totally disobedient," it means you're obeying the enemy. I don't have to obey all the rules. I'm free to do whatever I want. No, you're obeying your daddy, the devil, and he's got his thumb on your life and you're going to spend eternity in hell. That's who you're obeying and you're in total bondage and you don't know it. But when you've been freed from that, then you can serve the risen Christ. Then you can present yourself to him. And then you realize that every single area of your heart, every single area of your life, everything is under his lordship and how do you present it all to him so that he can change and mold and make you what he wants you to be. And when God brings conviction, he doesn't bring it to shame you. He doesn't bring it to say, "You're awful. You're horrible." He died for you. He loves you. You're eternally his. He brings it because he says, "I got better for you." You thought this was the best you get. I got more. I got something that tastes so good and experiences so much. Why don't you just come follow me? Amen?

The Lord's saying. So this is really practical stuff. Stop letting residents in, reign in your life, present yourself to your new master, and just recognize that you're slaves to the one whom you obey. That's why even back in the book of Joshua, he said in Joshua 24, 15, "Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve." Every day it's a choice. Jesus said in Matthew 6, 24, "No one can serve what?" Two masters. One hate the other, you can't serve two masters. James 4-7 says submit to God, resist the devil, and he'll do what? He'll flee from you. See, here's the problem that I have. I believe that all gifts are for today. I believe God can work supernaturally today. I believe God gives gifts today. I believe all that. What I don't believe is that sometimes we need to get these hyper-charismatic experiences to become who God wants us to be. I think we just need to be obedient to Christ. If you're a Christian, you don't need like this person's super spiritual and they can deliver me and they can pray, "Jesus can deliver you," but you have to make the choice that you're done living in your sin. I can pray for you until Jesus gets here, but if you still love your sin more than you love Jesus, nothing's going to change in your life. We have too many people that are looking for the special prayer, the special service, the special preacher, the special worship service, the special—it's going to get me out of this. That won't get you out of it. What gets you out of it is when you repent and you go to Jesus and you present yourself

to Him. When you start hanging out under the lordship of Christ, your life will immediately change. Amen? You're not looking for a magic bullet, a magic formula. Jesus Christ died on the cross that was sufficient. He rose from the dead that was sufficient. He's Lord over all that sufficient. He lives to make intercession for you, which means if you're born again, He's praying for you right now. You have all the weapons at your disposal. You have the word. You have prayer. That's all you need. You don't need somebody who's an elder or pastor to pray a specific prayer over you. Now the Bible does call that if you're sick and come to one of the elders to pray, that's fine. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about when you think there's a magic formula to get you out of your sin when you refuse to leave it. There's no such a pill for that. There's no such cure for that. You have to make the choice as to what you want to do. This leads me to the final point. You can receive the gift of Christ and so I tell you to do, receive the gift rather than chasing another payday. Receive the gift rather than chasing another payday. Notice what he says, "For when you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." So when people are sinning, when people are dead in their sin, here's what they're free from. They're free from the righteousness of Christ.

They don't have the righteousness of Christ. They don't have any of them. They're totally free from that. So when people tell you, "I don't want to go to church and I don't want to be a Christian, I want to be free from all this stuff," in some way they're telling the truth. They're just free from righteousness, which means they're steeped in their sin, which means the wrath of God is on them, which means they're setting themselves up to be eternally punished apart from Christ forever and ever. That's true. And when you're living in sin, that's true of you. But notice what he says. He says, "Therefore, what benefit were you then delivered from the things of which you are now ashamed for the outcome of those things is death?" Christian, what were the sins that you were living in before Christ that were so awesome There's none. There's none. There's no sin that you've sinned that's actually improved your quality of life. Never. I've never met someone. OK, so here's how just-- God designed sexuality to be between a husband and a wife till death do they part, OK? Which means if you're single, you're celibate. Which means if you're married, you're only with the person that you're married to. Everything that falls shy of that and building one another up in love in the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman is sinned. Everything.

Anything outside of that is immoral. So tell me, without going into the 750 million varieties of how we can sin amorally, which of those has been helpful to you? Which of those has built your relationship with Christ? Which of those has helped you to become more free? Which of those has helped you to become more pure about the gospel? Which of those has helped you to become a better evangelist? Here's the answer. None of them. Sin doesn't advance the cause of Christ. It puts you back in bondage. So Paul's saying this, if you know you were in bondage and you've been set free, why are you going back? Especially when-- listen, listen, listen. You don't have to. You don't have to. I'm just stuck. I just can't get out. No. You're choosing to be stuck. You don't want to get out, because all you got to do is call in the name of the Lord. You can pray these same three words Peter prayed. Lord, save me. That's how it works. But you've got to want Jesus in your life. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification.

And the outcome, it's eternal life. It's eternal life. See, it's either the gift or a wage. It's something that's earned or it's something that's given. He goes on to say, in summarizing the gospel, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's a gift or it's earned. Children do not earn Christmas presents. They receive them. Organ donors do not earn their organ. I really need a new heart. Well, if you can get up these stairs, maybe we can get you one. I mean, that's not how it works. You just receive the gift. And by the way, the only way you receive the gift is if someone dies in the same way. The only way you receive the gift is by Christ dying for you. And every sin you sin is what caused him death on the cross. So why would you want to live in it any longer if it costs Jesus his life? And I know this is true. Brides, you don't earn a ring. I can tell you what didn't happen to my family. I didn't tell my wife, hey, today we're getting married, but I'm going to see how you do for a couple decades. And if you prove yourself worthy, we're going to go to the jewelry store.

I promise you that did not happen. Right? I mean, we live in a culture where we think we need to earn everything. That's why every cult, there's an invitation to every cult, like Mormonism and Roman Catholicism and all these things where you do all these things to get right. Because our sin nature wants to know we did something to contribute. And friends, if you believe a cult religion that says, it was good that Jesus died. I like that. That helped a lot. And combined with my good works, we really made a good team. That's a false religion. See, when I get to heaven, it's like, this is all I got. I brought you all my sin. I didn't do anything. You did everything. You died. You rose. It was sufficient. It's finished. I'm placing all my faith in you. There's no good works I've ever done. That's the gospel. And that's why it's important that we get this. It's either a gift or it's something that we earned, right? A prisoner doesn't receive a pardon because he earned it. He got it because he didn't deserve it, right?

And here's what I want you to see, like, that it's a gift. The gospel's a gift. It's a gift. You don't earn the gospel. I'm not teaching you today. Hey, for those of you that called yourself Christians that are sinning, if you really, really, really work hard, God will be pleased with you. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying if you're truly repentant and believe the gospel, you're born again and Christ's love compels you and motivates you to want to serve him, to want to present yourself to him, to want to give everything to him. So instead of praying prayers, like, Lord, don't look on this or Lord, if you just get me out of this, I'll do that. It's like, Lord, you saw everything I did and I don't even know that I can quit and I don't even know that I want to, but I want to, but my flesh says I don't want to help. Just help me, God. Here's the gift. The gift is like, I can help you now. I just needed you to take your hands off of things. I needed to give you more grace, right? You're not under law, you're under grace. Friends, when you get to heaven, it's not that you get rewards good. I kept the 10 commandments better than something. You don't get rewards for that.

There's only one that's kept the entire law. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're in Christ, the law is fulfilled in you. So what do I need? I need grace. So that my life reflects my Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen? Amen? (audience applauds) Titus 3.5 says, "We were saved according to his mercy." John 3.16 said, "God gave us his Son." Ephesians 2.89 says, "We're saved by grace through faith." I mean, the gospel doesn't cost anybody anything. You don't pay for it. You don't pay for your justification. You don't pay for your sanctification. You don't pay for your glorification. Jesus paid it all. Amen? So all to him we owe. I mean, this is a very, very practical message. All these messages are because it's telling you right where you live. It's telling me right where I live. I gotta know my enemy, the devil, the world, and my sinful self. I gotta know my identity, but then I've gotta know. I've gotta know without question, my master. Who am I presenting myself to? Am I presenting myself to my old sin?

Am I presenting myself to the devil? Am I presenting myself to the world? Or am I gonna present myself to the Lord Jesus Christ? And if I present myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, that's where fulfillment comes from. That's where fruitfulness comes from. That's where faithfulness comes from. So today, as we end our message, I'm gonna encourage you to get your elements out that you picked up when you're walking. If you don't have them, you can raise your hand. One of our ushers will bring them to you so you can have them held in your hand because this symbolizes the body and blood of Christ. It's representative elements of it. And when we take this together as a body because it's what Christ asks us to do, we're proclaiming His death until He comes. We're proclaiming Jesus, you paid it all. We're proclaiming you're the one that sanctifies me. We're proclaiming Lord, I'm gonna be glorified in you and it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with you. So as the worship team, sing this over you, prepare your heart in any way that you want, then we'll come back up together and we'll take this as a campus family together and celebrate the Lord's Supper. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we do give you all glory, honor,

and praise for who you are. And Lord, we ask in these moments that we have that you'd remind us not only that we're sinners, we believe that, but you'd remind us that through the death of Christ and His resurrection from the dead and through our repentance and faith in Christ and our trust in Him, we've been forgiven our sins. We're no longer in bondage to our sin. Lord, there's some here today who have been living in bondage to sin that no longer want. And if that's you, here's how you can pray. Lord, free me from my sin right now. I present all my life to you. I give it to you right now. There's some here today who've never been saved who think they're getting to heaven 'cause of their good works. And here's how you can pray. Lord, save me. I believe your death, burial, and resurrection did it all. I just want you in my life. Come save me from my sin. Save me from the wrath that is to come. And Lord, for all of us, we just wanna say thank you, Jesus, for our life. We give you all the glory. We give you all the honor. We give you all the praise and the mighty and matchless name of Jesus.

Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING]