Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the FBC Eldorado Sermon Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Taylor Guerin.
Speaker 1: I have the privilege of being the pastor here at First Baptist and I want to thank you for listening in to our sermon this week.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell you this if you're in our area and you don't have a church home, we would love to see you any Sunday morning at First Baptist, el Dorado.
Speaker 1: Will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
Speaker 1: This morning, I invite you to open your Bibles now to Romans, chapter 6.
Speaker 1: As we continue in this series through the book of Romans throughout the year, we're now in Romans, chapter 6.
Speaker 1: Last week, towards the end of Romans 5, we talked about this reality that John Newton spoke of, that indeed, you are a great sinner, but Christ is a great Savior.
Speaker 1: You and I, we are great sinners, but Christ is a great Savior.
Speaker 1: Now, paul was very good at this throughout the book of Romans, of anticipating the question.
Speaker 1: Anytime you and I are trying to persuade someone, help someone to see things our way, talk them into something, we want to anticipate the question and anticipate the objection so that I'm ready with the response.
Speaker 1: Paul does this time and time again, and it is in this anticipation that we see our first point today, which is this Our life in Christ changes how we view sin.
Speaker 1: Our life in Christ changes how we view sin.
Speaker 1: In 520, we saw this verse.
Speaker 1: Now the law came in to increase the trespass.
Speaker 1: But look at this, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
Speaker 1: Praise God.
Speaker 1: The last week we saw this reality that there is no sin too high or too deep or too wide.
Speaker 1: That means that I am too far from the grace of God.
Speaker 1: There is no amount of sin in which the Lord, jesus Christ and his grace cannot reach down and find me and save me and forgive me.
Speaker 1: And so, no matter how high the sin goes, the grace of Jesus Christ goes higher.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable news and we never forget that good news.
Speaker 1: But now Paul wants to anticipate what comes next, to anticipate the question, and it's this verse 1 of chapter 6.
Speaker 1: What shall we say then?
Speaker 1: Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
Speaker 1: There's the question.
Speaker 1: What shall we say?
Speaker 1: Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
Speaker 1: What is the question he's anticipating?
Speaker 1: It's simply this If my sin meant grace, grace that is greater than my sin.
Speaker 1: Well, does that mean that more of my sin means more of that grace?
Speaker 1: Mainly this does God's grace give me a license to sin?
Speaker 1: If some sin led to some grace, does more sin lead to more grace?
Speaker 1: Can I actually just increase the grace of God, the waterfall of grace that flows into my life, by just producing a waterfall of sin out of my life?
Speaker 1: Shall we continue in sin.
Speaker 1: That grace may abound.
Speaker 1: Now you're probably thinking what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1: Who in the world would ask this question?
Speaker 1: What kind of person thinks that way?
Speaker 1: Who among us would, out loud, look at the God of the universe and say you know, couldn't I just make your grace flow a little fuller by just sinning a little more and more?
Speaker 1: Who would say that I hope and pray that any believer in this room, that you and I would not say that, that we would not utter those words, certainly to the God of the universe.
Speaker 1: But the reality I would argue is this that you and I are tempted to live out those words every day, that we wouldn't say that out loud yet at times in our life, even as believers, we would live that out loud, because any time a believer enters into intentional, willful disobedience of God, they're really living out the words of chapter 6, verse 1.
Speaker 1: Anytime, as a believer, in the back of our minds, we're tempted to have this thought but won't God forgive me, won't God forgive this sin if I enter into this sin?
Speaker 1: Won't God be gracious over this?
Speaker 1: And let me be clear about something.
Speaker 1: First, John 1.9 tells me yes, god will forgive your sin.
Speaker 1: But what Paul wants us to realize throughout this passage is the grace of God, again, is not a license to sin.
Speaker 1: Verse 2, by no means.
Speaker 1: Verse 2, by no means, absolutely not.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: How can we who have died to sin still live in it?
Speaker 1: Mainly this if you are in Christ Jesus, you have a new address now, a new zip code.
Speaker 1: You live a new life.
Speaker 1: The old you is far behind you, the you that has died to sin which we'll talk more about in a minute that is dead and gone, and now you are alive in Christ.
Speaker 1: And so, in Christ Jesus, you now live a different life.
Speaker 1: You don't live the same life you used to live, because the old you is dead and gone.
Speaker 1: So the question of letting grace be a license to sin it shouldn't even be in our minds, Because that's not us.
Speaker 1: Look with me as we continue Verse 3 and 4.
Speaker 1: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Speaker 1: We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life?
Speaker 1: How does Paul want to continue to make this point?
Speaker 1: He wants to do it by talking about baptism, baptism.
Speaker 1: We do it all the time here.
Speaker 1: The church, for centuries now, has gotten to give the visible representation of the gospel through baptism, of showing that individuals have moved from death to life.
Speaker 1: What is baptism?
Speaker 1: What does it represent?
Speaker 1: Well, it shows a picture of Jesus Christ going into the grave.
Speaker 1: Quite literally, those I baptize, we go under the water.
Speaker 1: You are buried with Christ in baptism.
Speaker 1: Christ himself has died, and in a spiritual sense, in the exact same way, you too have died to sin, but thankfully for everyone who I've ever baptized, I then bring you back up.
Speaker 1: You are coming out of the water, just as Christ has come out of the grave.
Speaker 1: In fact, what I say in baptism is straight from these verses you are buried with Christ in baptism, you are raised to walk in newness of life.
Speaker 1: Baptism is the picture of what Christ has done in our hearts and so it is a picture of the fact that, if you and I are in Christ Jesus, if we know him, that the old us, the old sinful person, is dead and gone and the new person has come.
Speaker 1: I want to show a picture now of the Bible.
Speaker 1: I got in first grade.
Speaker 1: There's a picture here and I wrote in it that's my handwriting there.
Speaker 1: I was saved on May 18th 1997.
Speaker 1: Now, when I got a older, I learned cursive in school and I got a little classy at the bottom and I rewrote it with my newfound cursive.
Speaker 1: I was saved on May 18th 1997.
Speaker 1: So if this morning we could go back in time to May 18th 1997, as I've told you before, to a first grade Sunday school class.
Speaker 1: Two interesting things happened on May 18th 1997.
Speaker 1: Now, early in the day, as I sat in that class, something unbelievable happened on that morning In a spiritual sense.
Speaker 1: A spiritual obituary was published.
Speaker 1: Now I know that sounds strange and maybe a little bit heavy.
Speaker 1: You know, six-year-old me.
Speaker 1: A spiritual obituary was written and in a sense, spiritually speaking, you know, here lies the grave of the old person, the old man, man, six-year-old boy, the old tailor, because the old hymn is dead and gone.
Speaker 1: So there was a spiritual obituary, but there was also this On that same morning, may 18th 1997, at about the same exact moment that obituary was published, something else was also published, a spiritual birth certificate that on that morning a new birth was published.
Speaker 1: Something else was also published, a spiritual birth certificate that on that morning a new birth was announced, the new man came out of the grave.
Speaker 1: And in this moment again, an old man died, a new man was born.
Speaker 1: That's what salvation is.
Speaker 1: That's what salvation is for each one of you in your story of death to life in Christ Jesus, that you have died to the old self and the new self has come.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 5 and 6.
Speaker 1: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Speaker 1: We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Speaker 1: So, christian, in Christ Jesus, the old you has died has been crucified with Christ, the new.
Speaker 1: You has been raised with Christ.
Speaker 1: You no longer dwell in the territory of sin and death and separation from God.
Speaker 1: That's the old neighborhood, that's the old zip code.
Speaker 1: You have a new life in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now you ask me this does that mean as a believer, if I don't dwell in the land of sin any longer?
Speaker 1: Is it supposed to be the case that I'm just perfect now?
Speaker 1: Is it supposed to be the case that I just no longer sin?
Speaker 1: Because, pastor, I've got to tell you, if that's the case, I'm in big trouble.
Speaker 1: I like how one professor said it.
Speaker 1: I remember him saying this to a class.
Speaker 1: He said that, believers in Christ Jesus, you will not be sinless, but you will sin less.
Speaker 1: Did you catch that?
Speaker 1: You will not be sinless, but you will sin less.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: That, as believers, by the power of the Holy Spirit, sanctification is happening.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is doing a work in us that we would look more and more like Jesus Christ, and so the declaration of the Christian life should always be in our sanctification this hey, I may not be exactly where I want to be, but look what the Lord has done that.
Speaker 1: I'm not who I was one year ago, five years ago, a decade, two decades ago, that Christ is continually working in and through me to bear fruit in my life, that I may not be sinless but praise God I sin less, that the Lord is working on me.
Speaker 1: Let me just ask you this question Do you see the Spirit working on your heart, believer?
Speaker 1: Do you see the fruit of the Spirit in your life?
Speaker 1: I don't want to scare you this morning and make you wonder am I in?
Speaker 1: I'll just ask you this question when you sin, are you convicted of that?
Speaker 1: When you sin, do you like that you've sinned or do you know that you've sinned?
Speaker 1: Do you know that you need to run to the Father for forgiveness?
Speaker 1: Is the Holy Spirit working in a way in your life that the things that you used to struggle with years ago you struggle with less today?
Speaker 1: Or maybe you put an end to those today and you look more like Jesus than you did a week ago, a day ago, an hour and a half ago, a decade ago?
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, believer, is that your life?
Speaker 1: I pray that it is Verse 7 through 11, for one who has died look at this has been set free from sin.
Speaker 1: Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Speaker 1: We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.
Speaker 1: Death no longer has dominion over him For the death he died.
Speaker 1: He died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Speaker 1: So you also must consider yourself.
Speaker 1: Look at this dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: Believer, you have a new address.
Speaker 1: You live in a new neighborhood.
Speaker 1: The old you has died, the new, you has come.
Speaker 1: That is Paul's overarching argument here in Romans, chapter 6.
Speaker 1: And the idea is simply this that the one who would profess to know Jesus Christ yet is just living in unrepentant, willful, intentional sin again, with no desire to repent.
Speaker 1: That individual needs to really consider if they have truly understood the grace of God.
Speaker 1: Have you truly understood the gift of the grace of God?
Speaker 1: Have you truly understood the gift of the grace of God and what he has done for you and how he has purchased you and how he has forgiven you?
Speaker 1: Do you understand that?
Speaker 1: Because when you understand that, when you grasp that, you'll know quickly that God's grace is not a license to sin, it's a license to live.
Speaker 1: For him.
Speaker 1: It's the new life, the greater life, and it's what Jesus talked about often.
Speaker 1: I think about John, chapter 8.
Speaker 1: There's a woman caught in adultery and we don't have time to walk through the many layers of that story, fascinating story.
Speaker 1: This woman is caught in adultery and she comes before the religious elite for judgment.
Speaker 1: Jesus is standing there as well.
Speaker 1: The religious elite says we've got every right, it seems, to execute this individual for what she has done.
Speaker 1: And Jesus in a sense says okay, I hear you out.
Speaker 1: And he says this you can absolutely do that, but we'll do it this way.
Speaker 1: Let the one who has never sinned be the first to pick up the stone for judgment.
Speaker 1: The one who has not sinned, you go ahead.
Speaker 1: You're up and every religious leader slowly but surely walks away.
Speaker 1: Jesus looks at this woman caught in adultery and says is anybody here?
Speaker 1: The woman says everybody's gone.
Speaker 1: And he says this, this word of grace and pardon.
Speaker 1: He says well, neither do I condemn.
Speaker 1: This woman was rightfully standing before judgment.
Speaker 1: She had done wrong.
Speaker 1: There's more layers at play, surely, in this story.
Speaker 1: She had done wrong.
Speaker 1: There's more layers at play, surely in this story, but she had done wrong.
Speaker 1: And yet, in this moment, the Savior stands with a word of forgiveness, a word of pardon, and it's fascinating to me that, following this word of pardon in verse 10, jesus then says this now go and sin no more.
Speaker 1: Then says this now go and sin no more.
Speaker 1: That the unbelievable grace of Jesus in this moment.
Speaker 1: For this woman it was an unbelievable announcement of pardon.
Speaker 1: But it was not a license to sin.
Speaker 1: It was a license of an invitation to a life of obedience.
Speaker 1: That to this woman you don't have to go back to the old way.
Speaker 1: You've been forgiven of that.
Speaker 1: There is a new way Go and sin no more.
Speaker 1: Luke, chapter 19,.
Speaker 1: The story of Zacchaeus, the biggest con man in town, a tax collector.
Speaker 1: If you owed Rome $50, he'd tell you you owed Rome $70.
Speaker 1: Rome would get 50.
Speaker 1: He'd get20.
Speaker 1: He did this for a long, long time.
Speaker 1: Yet he knew Jesus was coming to town and he wanted just a little picture of what Jesus was all about.
Speaker 1: You may know the story or may know the song.
Speaker 1: He climbed the tree, he looked at Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus said I'm coming to your house today.
Speaker 1: They have a meal at the home and Zacchaeus is turned upside down by the grace of Jesus and he comes to have a personal encounter with Jesus.
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: Because of the personal encounter which, by the way, came first, the personal encounter with Jesus.
Speaker 1: What does Zacchaeus then do?
Speaker 1: He goes out and he starts paying back the people that he had stolen.
Speaker 1: From that, the unbelievable grace of Jesus actually causes this man to live differently.
Speaker 1: He doesn't go back to the old ways.
Speaker 1: In fact he tries to pay back the old ways in which he had stolen.
Speaker 1: I think of 1 John 2, verse 2, beautiful verse that if anyone does sin, he or she has an advocate with the Father, jesus Christ the righteous.
Speaker 1: That's good news, so that if you find yourself in sin, there is a Father who delights to show forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the forgiveness for you.
Speaker 1: That's the gospel.
Speaker 1: That's good news.
Speaker 1: Right before that verse, john does write this to believers, verse 1, I'm writing this so that you don't sin.
Speaker 1: And then he says but if anyone does sin, you have an advocate.
Speaker 1: I praise God for the grace of that.
Speaker 1: But from the start, john wants the believer to realize that you're dead to the old self.
Speaker 1: Your desire in the Christian life is to flee sin.
Speaker 1: Oh praise God, christian, that when we do sin, we have an advocate, but our desire should be to flee.
Speaker 1: I was reading this week out of a biography of Martin Lloyd-Jones, the preacher in the 20th century at Westminster Chapel in London, and he talked about a quote he had heard from a man and it just frustrated him.
Speaker 1: And it was funny because I was confused at first because it sounded like a great quote, one I might be tempted to say, but he overheard a man say this.
Speaker 1: He said 20 years ago I came to know Jesus Christ and I haven't regretted it one time.
Speaker 1: That was the quote.
Speaker 1: If I said this from this pulpit, you might say amen to that.
Speaker 1: 20 years ago I came to know Jesus personally and I haven't regretted it one time.
Speaker 1: So why in the world was Martin Lloyd-Jones frustrated with that?
Speaker 1: Martin Lloyd-Jones frustrated with that?
Speaker 1: Imagine this morning if I told you these words.
Speaker 1: 20 years ago someone gifted me $50 million.
Speaker 1: I haven't regretted it one time.
Speaker 1: No, I would say you wouldn't.
Speaker 1: 20 years ago, someone broke me out of a life sentence in prison.
Speaker 1: Not only that, but gave me full pardon.
Speaker 1: So I got to live as a free man in society, and that person did that for me.
Speaker 1: I haven't regretted it one time.
Speaker 1: I know what this guy's getting after, but, at the same time, all the benefits I've received have been, ultimately, the grace of Jesus Christ, who has given me wholly what I did not deserve, everything done on his end.
Speaker 1: Of course, I haven't regretted it.
Speaker 1: There's nothing to regret.
Speaker 1: There is only grace and favor that I do not deserve from the God of the universe and the person of Jesus Christ, the righteous, and what he's done for me.
Speaker 1: And so now, as believers, having received this grace that we did not deserve, we receive it not as a license to continue in sin, but as a license, as a joy, to say these words Jesus Christ, in you, completely undeserved, I have found everything I need for life, and now I want to live in all times, in all places, in all ways, in all of my life, in response to the grace that you've given.
Speaker 1: So, first of all, our life in Christ changes how we view sin, but I want you to see this too Our life in Christ changes how we flee sin, verse 12.
Speaker 1: Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.
Speaker 1: Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Speaker 1: Our life in Christ changes how we flee sin.
Speaker 1: I like this passage in John 6 because it really does follow that John 8 trajectory, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: The woman caught in adultery Verse 1 through 11, you have this amazing announcement of grace and pardon, and in those last three verses you then get the turn you saw in John chapter 8, go and sin no more.
Speaker 1: The same kind of idea.
Speaker 1: Having received this pardon, the new life you have in Christ Jesus now flee from sin.
Speaker 1: Let not sin reign in your mortal body.
Speaker 1: Now my question is this If we're called to flee sin, if we're called to not let sin reign in our body, how in the world do we do this?
Speaker 1: It's easy to say out loud from a pulpit or to hear in a pew.
Speaker 1: It's a lot harder to live out in real life, isn't it?
Speaker 1: It's a lot harder, and I would argue with this think about your motivation.
Speaker 1: I believe in every area of life, motivation really means everything.
Speaker 1: If you told me right now, taylor, I need you to run outside and run a six-minute mile, I'll start the clock For some of you, especially our cross-country folks.
Speaker 1: Six-minute mile.
Speaker 1: That's warm up.
Speaker 1: For you that's not an issue.
Speaker 1: For me that's an impossibility.
Speaker 1: But then if you tell me my daughter is in trouble and you've got six minutes to get there, I will see my daughter in four and a half minutes, because the motivation changes everything.
Speaker 1: So when the motivation to flee sin in the Christian life is this, that here's another rule that I've got to follow.
Speaker 1: Oh, I sure don't want to get on God's bad side this time.
Speaker 1: Oh, these are the things that I've got to do.
Speaker 1: Those are the things that I sure can't do.
Speaker 1: If that's your motivation, let me just stop you right now.
Speaker 1: You are going to fail.
Speaker 1: You'll make it a day, you'll make it a week, but then you will fail.
Speaker 1: But if your motivation is this, like we've discussed, I am an individual who, by no merit of my own, have been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ the righteous, and now a sinner like me, through the power of the cross, dwells in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, and that is now my new life, and now I get to live in response to that.
Speaker 1: We can go somewhere with that motivation.
Speaker 1: The Lord can go somewhere with this.
Speaker 1: So how do we flee sin?
Speaker 1: How does Jesus say to do it.
Speaker 1: Matthew 5, 29 through 30 in the Sermon on the Mount, in a moment when Jesus is actually talking about the lust of the flesh, he's talking to the crowd.
Speaker 1: If anyone finds themselves in adultery, I've heard it said you know, do not commit adultery.
Speaker 1: There's probably a lot of people in the crowd checking a box.
Speaker 1: I've been faithful to my spouse, I've done pretty good.
Speaker 1: But then in the crowd Jesus says something else.
Speaker 1: But I say to you, if anyone looks in lust after another individual, they've committed adultery in their heart.
Speaker 1: Suddenly the plot thickens and after that Jesus says these staggering words that if your right eye causes you to sin, what does he say next?
Speaker 1: Tell your eye, do better next time.
Speaker 1: Say hey, don't worry about it, you got it next time, champ.
Speaker 1: Is that what he said?
Speaker 1: No, no.
Speaker 1: If your right eye causes you to sin, what does he say?
Speaker 1: Pluck it out.
Speaker 1: If the right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
Speaker 1: Jesus takes fleeing sin seriously and I just want to ask you the question to the Christian this morning what is it in your life not tomorrow, not next week, but today that just needs to be cut off?
Speaker 1: What changes need to be made so that you don't run after the same old sins of the life that you no longer live.
Speaker 1: What needs to happen in your life?
Speaker 1: What does it look like to cut that thing off?
Speaker 1: And I just want you to get very, in your own heart, specific with that, not a general, I sure.
Speaker 1: Better flee sin, that's true.
Speaker 1: But in your own life, what is the specific sin that, even as a believer, you're just tempted to run back to?
Speaker 1: The specific attitude of the heart?
Speaker 1: Maybe the pride that sits there.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the lust of the flesh.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the gossip or the way you talk about others, or maybe it's the words that you use.
Speaker 1: Or maybe the envy that's shown in your life.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the time that you're giving to things that aren't necessarily bad but are just taking you from the most important things in your life.
Speaker 1: For everyone in this room it could be a hundred different things, but the calling this morning from Paul and from Jesus is simply this to make war against your sin.
Speaker 1: The old John Owen quote be killing sin or it will be killing you.
Speaker 1: Go to battle against sin.
Speaker 1: And also this, lest we think, even hearing these words, that it's all about me and what I can do now that I've got the motivation now that I know what I need to cut off lest we think that it's all about us first and foremost, in the beginning, in the middle, in the end and everywhere in between.
Speaker 1: Pray that by God's Spirit he would do in you what you cannot do for yourself.
Speaker 1: I wonder if there's a testimony this morning.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, I'm not gonna make you say it out loud, but I just wonder in your own heart if there's a testimony this morning of what the Spirit has done in your life, that you can look back on former days of your life and think about sinful roads you've walked down and by the power of the Spirit, you sit here this morning as someone that not only has run away from those sins, but the Holy Spirit has done such a work in your life that you don't even desire those old ways anymore.
Speaker 1: That's what the Spirit can do.
Speaker 1: You and I aren't able, but the Spirit can.
Speaker 1: And here's what's better.
Speaker 1: The Spirit delights to do this.
Speaker 1: The Spirit wants to do it.
Speaker 1: As we pray to the Father, lord, show me those areas in my life, the ones I see or the blind spots I don't see, and help me in this.
Speaker 1: Help me flee sin.
Speaker 1: The Father delights to do it, because, believer, the old person, that's not you anymore.
Speaker 1: You have been made new.
Speaker 1: Verse 14,.
Speaker 1: For sin will have no dominion over you.
Speaker 1: Look at this since you are not under law but under grace, everything about you is different.
Speaker 1: Today is my brother's birthday.
Speaker 1: I have a brother, scott.
Speaker 1: He's two years older.
Speaker 1: Today is his birthday.
Speaker 1: So into that camera I say happy birthday, scott.
Speaker 1: He's two years older.
Speaker 1: Today is his birthday.
Speaker 1: So into that camera I say happy birthday and also tell this story.
Speaker 1: I don't know what your game day situation on a football Saturday in the fall is.
Speaker 1: I don't know what university you enjoy when you go down there.
Speaker 1: If you've got the parking pass, the tailgate spot, if your parking pass is your driveway and your tailgate spot is your couch, that's fantastic too.
Speaker 1: I love those Saturdays.
Speaker 1: I don't know what your situation is, but I do know this my brother has you beat.
Speaker 1: When he was in college he had the best college football Saturday situation that I believe any human has ever had.
Speaker 1: He and four of his buddies lived in this unbelievable house.
Speaker 1: There's a picture, the first picture to put up there.
Speaker 1: It's like an aerial shot.
Speaker 1: That's obviously Donald W Reynolds Razorback Stadium, and just a shot of it, simple Google shot.
Speaker 1: But go to the next one.
Speaker 1: That yellow circle is his house.
Speaker 1: He and four guys in college lived right there, and now what you're probably saying is you know that's 80 million miles in the air on a Google satellite depth perception.
Speaker 1: How close is it really?
Speaker 1: The next is the Google street view.
Speaker 1: Every fall they hardly ever had to pay rent because all the guys in the house would drive their cars to the local elementary school and then all their parking.
Speaker 1: They would let people pay for parking and rent was covered for the whole fall.
Speaker 1: They made so much money parking cars and it was the best thing because we'd grill out before we'd hang out and then we just walk across the street, literally walk across one parking lot.
Speaker 1: At the time we'd watch Darren McFadden run for 300 yards.
Speaker 1: Then we'd walk right back and I loved the end of the day because we'd walk right back into the living room and we'd all sit there in the living room.
Speaker 1: We'd grab another bite to eat, we'd turn on another college football game that's still going, or watch the sports center highlights, and it was the best because outside of our window we saw on the street.
Speaker 1: We saw thousands flooding out, having to just flood out with another 20,000 people.
Speaker 1: We saw, you know, 200 people try to load up onto a shuttle that's made for about 45 people.
Speaker 1: We heard the sounds of the cars honking at one another as they're so frustrated, trying to just move an inch to get away from the stadium.
Speaker 1: And we were just inside watching football, loving life.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I never did during those days, when I got to the end of the day and I got into their living room and I grabbed my bite to eat and I sat down in front of the TV to watch other guys.
Speaker 1: I never did this.
Speaker 1: I never sat there and said you know what I'm going to take just a minute.
Speaker 1: I just want to remember what that shuttle was like.
Speaker 1: I just want to get back out there.
Speaker 1: I just want to do this and cram onto a shuttle again.
Speaker 1: If I could just get another taste of that traffic jam and let somebody honk at me, even though I've got nowhere possible to go, if I could just taste that again, if I could get in line with 20,000 other people trying to get to their destination, wouldn't that be?
Speaker 1: Not, I never did that.
Speaker 1: You know what I did?
Speaker 1: I sat there with my bike to eat.
Speaker 1: I watched my game and on a college football Saturday it was heaven on earth.
Speaker 1: Why, bringing it to scripture?
Speaker 1: I'm the new man now.
Speaker 1: You and I live a new life in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: We don't have to run back to the old ways.
Speaker 1: We don't have to go back to the old things, but instead we can find our life, our joy, our contentment, our hope in the presence of Christ Jesus, who has done the work for our salvation.
Speaker 1: Who has done the work that we might die to the old ways and live the new life.
Speaker 1: Believer, don't run back.
Speaker 1: And I wonder, if you're here this morning and for the first time you want to come to the Savior, that you know what it is to live in that sinful place and you've tried it all and it's all left you empty.
Speaker 1: I would love nothing more than to introduce you to the new life in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: I wonder, believer in the room, if you need to just come to this altar and pray.
Speaker 1: I'd love nothing more than to pray over you, to pray with you.
Speaker 1: You may say this.
Speaker 1: I've said it before if I come down after a sermon on sin, everybody's going to know I'm a sinner.
Speaker 1: I'm praying over my sin.
Speaker 1: Let me just tell you, if you come down, you're praying for the person next to you, not for you.
Speaker 1: That's what we'll tell them all.
Speaker 1: Okay, come down, I want to pray with you.
Speaker 1: I want to pray over you.
Speaker 1: Maybe you want to come join this church because you say this that I need believers to walk towards Jesus with.
Speaker 1: If I'm done with the old man and I'm living this new life, I need a family of faith that can live that life with me.
Speaker 1: Come down, I'd love nothing more.
Speaker 1: If you just need me to pray with you over anything, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: But however you need to respond, I'm going to be right here and I pray.
Speaker 1: I pray that you would Let me pray.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, thank you for the gospel.
Speaker 1: Thank you that in Christ we are new believers, that we don't have to run back to the old way, but you have raised us up to walk in newness of life.
Speaker 1: God, I thank you, I give you praise and I just pray for anyone in this room that the Holy Spirit, even now, is just pulling on their heart to respond.
Speaker 1: Lord, there will be a temptation to say I'll do it next week.
Speaker 1: There will be a temptation to say this is just a feeling, it'll pat.
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 1: Lord, if your spirit is tugging on their heart in any way, I pray that now they would do business with you and Lord.
Speaker 1: Any way I can help, lord, help me.
Speaker 1: If they need to come chat with me or another pastor, let it be.
Speaker 1: But, lord, let everyone in here that knows Christ personally know that they are the new person and let everyone here who does not know Christ Jesus know that they can be the new person and it can start now.
Speaker 1: Help us, lord, as we seek to flee sin.
Speaker 1: Convict us of sin.
Speaker 1: Show us our sin, the sins.
Speaker 1: We know the sins.
Speaker 1: We're blind.
Speaker 1: To Help us, lord, would we look more like Jesus, holy Spirit, as you work in us, and Holy Spirit, please, in our lives.
Speaker 1: Would you do what only you can do.
Speaker 1: We need you In Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1: Would you stand?
Speaker 1: We'll worship together and I'm right down front.