Rebrand | Week 3 | Bill Bush

Well that's what we're gonna be talking about today when it comes to us living out this thing called the Christian life. Walking out life knowing the Lord is that we're gonna see that often times we're gonna struggle with this battle within. Of like feeling like two different people.

And we've been in this series in Romans rebranded, hey, know Jesus came to make us right with God. And when we put our faith in Christ we have been rebranded. We've been made new. We're a new creation. But it says we also still have this old self. This other part and we basically

battle with ourself because when it comes to this idea of salvation, as we've seen, salvation comes in three different phases. It comes in three different phases. There's justification.

That's what we've been talking about. That we're made right with God and when we put our faith in Jesus, Jesus died on the cross and he declares in the book of Romans, we have been justified

by faith through grace. Because of God's grace that if I put my faith in him, being justified means when Jesus when God looks at us, he does not see our sin anymore. He sees us as holy and righteous even though we still sin. See that's a past tense. That's already happened. It's in the past.

The bible also goes on to describe that when we die and go to go to be with the Lord or that Jesus comes back and sets up the eternal kingdom, that if we know Christ, we will be glorified at that moment. That means that old self,

that part of us that that doesn't wanna listen and follow God, that'll pass away and be completely gone, and we will truly be glorified. But we live in the present. And in the present, we're going through a process of life that the bible calls sanctification.

And that is we're learning to lean in and be the new person that God created us to be, but we still have the shadow of our old self. And that can create attention. It can create a could create a fight.

And what we're gonna see is as we have this battle within, we're gonna see today that trying to live out this Christian life can be hard. But the big idea is this, the Christian life isn't hard. It's impossible.

It's not hard. It's impossible. You're like, wait. That's a good sales pitch, Bill. You're telling people to come to isn't that the opposite of church? It's like comes like, yeah. It's hard. It's impossible. So let's just, you know, it's impossible. Like the cardinals having a good second half of the season.

It's not just hard. It seems to be impossible. We should just leave. Let's go home. It's impossible. Give up. Let's go. No. And that's really what Romans chapter seven is trying to do. Last week, we were in Romans chapter six. Daniel did an adequate job preaching through it.

I'm just teasing him. He did a fantastic job. And and and it ended. It was more about that idea of, okay, if we're truly justified, if we truly are saved by grace, it's we can't earn God's love because we can't be perfect if it's truly by his grace. And then when we sin, the more sin there is, the more grace there is.

He had to answer the question of people got this idea, well, if there's more grace, the more sin. Why don't we just believe in Jesus and do whatever we want? And Paul's answer was basically, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. You know, that's it's like it doesn't work that way. And what we saw was, you know, God's grace in our life through Christ

is not just a pardon from sin. It also comes with the power to win. And and we're gonna be talking about, well, how does that work? How do we win in in life? How do we trust God and have the power to to do what he wants us to do? But that really it shows us how in chapter eight.

So why chapter seven? It's like Paul leans in chapter six should end, go right into chapter eight, but he stops and takes this little baton hand off because he needs to explain a few things to set us up to know and understand how that works.

And there's a couple things he had to answer. One thing, and when he's talking about this idea of God's law, the written word of God that he gave to Israel so they knew, and he says that won't save you. That won't do it. Well, he had to explain some of that to the Jewish believers in this church.

So in the first part of chapter seven, what's going on is the whole bible is written for us guys, but it wasn't all written right to us. So everyone this is the book of Romans. It's written to a church in Rome. He's answering all this theology. He's explaining the gospel. It all applies to us, but you understand the flow of what he's writing, he's also trying to apply some very specific theology to a specific

group of people. And one of the issues they're running into while he wrote this letter was the church in Rome began with just Jews that had converted to Christ. Well then, they kept, you know, they pointed people to Jesus. They started leading Gentiles to the Christ in large numbers.

And and and so the church became mixed. And that created some tension really because you had the Jews wanting to hold off, hold on to like some of their Jewish heritage and make the church feel more that way. The Gentiles didn't know anything about that. And they were working through that. Well then the emperor

had had just expelled all Jews from Rome for a number of years. So now the church became all Gentile. And and and and and it had no Jewish tradition. Well, Paul's writing because in the meantime, the Jews were allowed back to Rome. They came back into the church, and now they're they're having tension.

So he's trying to unpackage what the gospel really is in the light of you being a church. And the Jews like, well, why aren't we doing it this way? Why don't we believe it? And and you know, they really have the law. And the Jews felt like we are better than Gentiles in many ways because we knew God. We had God's word. We had this. That made us we were God's promised people. And Paul's having to say, no. No. No. You got it wrong.

You understand. And so their question would be, if you're throwing all this out, then what was the point of the law in the first place? Why did God give that to us? Why did we even need and he's trying to say, well, it's not what you think it was.

You actually Jewish believers, when you followed the law, you were bigger sinners than the Gentiles. Because you knew more about what God wanted and what he expected, and you did it just as little as they did.

And so he's put him in his life. So what he's trying to set up is to understand how you have the power to win. You gotta understand Romans seven.

It's this transition chapter.

So it's it has two sections. I'm not gonna focus on the second section, but just a little fly by the first section. So how does he start talking about that? He opens up with an illustration that says, hey. It's like being married. If you have a spouse die, you're no longer obligated to that spouse. And and so

you died to the law when you died in Christ and put your faith in him. So you're no longer married to the law. You're now married to Christ. Now Christ exemplifies. He lives the law. He does the law. That's why saying, if I have the grace of Christ, I can just do whatever I want is dumb. You're not honoring your spouse.

But the difference is the law is like a spouse that only judges you. Law is like being married to someone who's perfect and you can never be perfect and all they do is remind you of how imperfect you are. And the more you try to be perfect like that, the more you fail.

And now the law was good, it's just it couldn't help you. Being married to Christ comes with the love, and comes with the holy spirit, and comes with the power, and the forgiveness. And then he explains,

then what was the point of the law? And bottom line with the point of law was you wouldn't know what truly was wrong without the law. You wouldn't know who God was really like without the law. And in the end he kind of says, and you wouldn't know how dark your sin is without the law.

If you didn't have the mirror to look in, you wouldn't know that you had you know lettuce in your teeth and your hair was messed up is basically what he's saying. So you needed to establish that. And then the last half of the chapter is where Paul gets very autobiographical.

He shares his own struggle and he talks about the battle within. This idea that if you think just now that you have Jesus you know, lot of people when you first come to Christ, you're like, well now I have the forgiveness. I have the love. I know him. Now it's gonna be great. And then you you you're excited to come to church today, but then all of sudden after a while life gets hard. You start slipping back in your old patterns. You start to struggle. And then you said, I guess I failed. God's not gonna love me anymore. Maybe he's not even really there and you wanna quit. He's trying to say, you gotta understand there's a pattern in our life that we are always gonna have this battle.

And if you don't understand the battle, you're gonna get discouraged. And so the last part I wanna look at and I wanna talk about these things he says. I believe there's five feelings here he describes about himself, and I think it's the same for us. It's five feelings of fighting yourself

that we have to understand if we're gonna understand how do we win. How do we really because you know what? The Christian life is not hard. It's impossible. Meaning if you try to do it in your own strength, in your will, in your power. In other words what he's saying is we have this old self.

And if we approach our Christian life as I'm trying to turn the old self into something better. I'm trying to reform my old self. I'm trying to well you understand. When you married your husband, it's what you've been trying to do with him your whole life. I'm gonna transform this into something else.

And for many of you discovering in your marriage that just ain't working. He's saying when it comes to our walk, we have to understand that there is two natures in us. But one of them is only a shadow, it's not who we really are. One of them is who we really are. And we have to understand that. And there's hope in that.

There's hope in that. Before I hop in and one last thing just to establish, know I knew a lot of setup here. The key thing to remember here is what we're gonna see is there's an old nature that does not honor God, that wants to do what it wants to do, the sinful nature. And then there's the new creation that we are,

the new nature.

You're gonna struggle all the time if you think of yourself, the part of you that wants to do the sin, if you think that's who you are, and you think coming to church is the way I got to force myself to not do that anymore, you will fail every time. Because here's the problem, that's not who you are anymore. You're not that.

If you know Christ, you are the nature that wants to honor God, that wants to do the right thing. And think about it as we go through this, how do you think of yourself?

When you sin, when you fail, do you think of yourself as I gotta stop doing that? I did that. That's really who I am. I gotta force myself. Or do you think of yourself as the one who even cares that that's a problem, that longs to do the right thing, that wants to honor God, that wants to do it, and that's just that you think of that as that's just the desire that I gotta force this self to be. Does that make sense?

That's not who you are. Meaning, Jesus came back right now and took us into eternity, the part of you that you think you are that's making you feel shame and guilt that you're trying to reform doesn't go. The part of you that wants to do it right, that's who you are.

That's cool to know. Right? But here's the problem. We're stuck with the old self still like a roommate. The roommate that you don't like that gets you to do bad ideas.

And and like, wow, that was a mistake. You wake up, naked on your dining room table, and you don't even know how you got there. And you're like, man, my stupid roommate, why do I listen to him? That was a really weird thing for a pastor to say, I suppose.

Nothing like that's ever happened to me. Well, exactly like that has ever happened to me. I'm just saying. Stuff like this only happens in this service. This is the weird one. So

what does this look like? The five feelings of fighting myself that if I can recognize them, I can find the hope. And we have to understand this before we get into next week. You do not wanna miss next week as we go into chapter eight. And we will really blast through there. So what's the first one? Verse 14.

So

the trouble is not with the law, God's law, who he is, what he's written word of of who he is. For it is spiritual and good, the troubles with me from all to human, a slave to sin. What he's revealing right there in his own life too is he's saying, I have a problem. You have a problem. I have a problem. We have a problem. So the first feeling is, man, I got a problem. The law is actually good.

The problem is me. The problem's not with God. It's not with him being right. It's not with this unrealistic expectation. I've met the enemy, but the enemy is me. Matter of fact, in Romans chapter seven, eyes used 27 times, me six times, myself two times. We have an eye problem, And we need to see it correctly.

And and and and understanding saying, you know, the problem isn't with God's love problem. You know what? He's actually admitting to the problem. We always think, well, the devil made me do it. The devil doesn't have to make you do stuff if you're listening to your old self. The devil is not our biggest problem, guys.

We are. Our old nature is our biggest problem. My biggest problem is usually me. And so he says, I have this problem. The first feeling is, wow. I got a problem here. The second feeling verse 15.

I don't really understand myself for I wanna do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead I do what I hate. So I wanna do this, but why do I end up doing that? Why do I get a birthday? You know what? Today I'm gonna eat good. Within ten minutes, I'm not eating good.

You know why? I always say I'm gonna eat good when I'm not hungry.

The second I get hungry, that goes out the window.

And and he's saying, not only do we have a problem, he's saying, I'm confused. Do you ever get that? You're like, man, I know what God says to do. I've listened to sermons. I've been I know that I wanna but why do I say, yes, I should do that? I wanna do it, but I still do this anyways.

That's confusing. He goes, I don't understand. He doesn't understand himself. Now maybe I'm a weirdo, but I find it incredibly comforting to know that the guy who wrote two thirds of the New Testament, who at this point had already been a believer for twenty two years, had started massive amount of church, and in the in his magnus opus of describing the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit is admitting like, you know what? I still don't get myself sometimes.

Does that encourage you at all to know that we're not alone? That that we wake up some days? Like, I'm not perfect. I still after all these years, I still have moments that I go, why do I still do this? It's confusing. It causes some confusion.

It's almost like he could sit there and go, man, the holy spirit talks to me. I'm writing the word of God. I'm starting churches. I understand God's word. I'm talking to him. If we're speaking the same language, but I'm still don't understand.

You ever done that? You ever been talking to someone and you know you're talking the same language, but somehow you are not communicating? Most of you call that marriage, but but that's another sermon.

When I was ordering, Louie, the day we walked 15 miles, we got back to the road, was like, I didn't even wanna go anywhere to eat. I was hungry. We were just like, let's do room service. Who cares that it's expensive? It's listed in pounds so it seems cheaper than it actually is. And

so I called down and there is one kind of rule I've noticed, and I guess it's even the same in other countries, is let's pick the person that doesn't understand what people say the most to be the one that answers the phone. Am I the only one that that's the way? Especially when you call help lines.

It's like, is it me that's seeking help or is it the person I'm trying to communicate to that needs help? But anyways, I called and and I I wanted to order two things. I wanted a steak. My wife wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. That's it.

So I I I go, okay. I'll take the scotch fillet. It's listed as a scotch fillet. And she goes, okay. Grilled chicken. That's literally what she said. Scotch fillet doesn't even sound like grilled chicken. And and I'm like, no.

Not grilled chicken. Scotch fillet, the steak. And then I started to doubt myself. Because that point I go, what is a Scotch fillet? Does Scotch mean chicken to them? Do they not like Scottish people? They're like the chickens. It's the Scotch fillet. It's chicken. You know, I I don't know. So I go, it is steak. Right? She goes, what is? The Scotch fillet that I ordered.

And she goes, yeah. It's steak.

Well, I want that. I don't want grilled chicken. Changed my mind.

Okay. And I go, okay. And I'll take a grilled cheese sandwich. And she goes, alright. Grilled chicken sandwich. Now that at least sounds close. And I'm like, no. Grilled cheese. Cheese. There's no chicken in this order.

And then I'm thinking, maybe she does understand what I'm saying? And maybe they she came in that morning and the manager that's in charge of ordering the food goes, I made a huge mistake. We have way too much chicken. Everybody push the chicken. Maybe that's what happened. I don't know. But anyways,

I'm like grilled cheese. And they go, okay. And I go with pastrami. Because that's one of the things that the the whole menu is only like a page and a half. And I was like, she should know the menu better than I do. I've looked at it for five seconds. I already know the whole thing.

And so it's grilled cheese and that's one of the lists. She goes, with what? With pastrami. Like it says on the on the menu. She's like, oh, okay. And then I made the biggest mistake of, does this come with french fries? I had ordered my side with the steak to be mashed potatoes, but now I'm complicating the order. I know I'm in trouble. And I go, no. It doesn't go with it. Oh, I want I want french fries on the side. And I'm like, cool. She finally gets right to hang up. I look at my wife. I go, there is a 0% chance our order is coming the way we ordered it.

I'm so hungry now I don't care. As long as it's not dog food, I'll eat it. And then I might even what does dog food smell like? I might still decide.

But so then she calls back like three minutes later, I just wanna get this straight. I'm like, well, I have it straight. I don't know about you. And if she says grilled chicken, I'm gonna be like and she goes, you want the scotch fillet done this with it? Yes. And you want a grilled cheese sandwich? Yes. And you want a pastrami sandwich? No.

Now I know what happened. The chef looked at that order and says, you gotta call them back. We don't have a pastrami sandwich on the menu. And, so I get that straight, hang up, comes back, finally get our order. Alright.

Only I got french fries instead of mashed potatoes. So still didn't get it right. Ignore that. That's been happening all morning. It's God just saying good job, Bill.

He's warning you to listen to me. No. So

Something called a brownout happened, and now our servers are all confused. Just like I said, where they fight within, they're fighting with each other. That's what the best way to explain it is happening. So this is kinda what your spiritual life could feel like. Sometimes the light's on, sometimes the light's off.

That's a better illustration of what I'm talking about right now anyways. And

we get confused. You know what that leads to? Like it's the idea of confused. He's actually saying, how do I stop doing bad things and how can I start doing good things?

And you know when you struggle with that, it leads to to to being frustrated. Look at verse sixteen and seventeen. But if I know what I'm doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I'm not the one doing wrong, it's the sin living in me that does it. So now he's like, I have this problem, I'm confused, but I'm actually frustrated.

Because I know the law's right. So why do I fight it? And he goes, it's this other nature that I'm listening to, and that gets frustrating. It's frustrating when the lights go on and off and on and off and on and off. And one of the things he's trying to share here is what he's realizing is if you try

to live the Christian life in your own willpower, to try to reform the old self, it's never gonna work. And you're gonna get frustrated. And then the enemy's gonna say it's because of you. It's because God doesn't really care. And then you're gonna give up. But you gotta understand, willpower will never work.

Matter of fact, I've done this before, I've been in this church for a while. It's called story time with pastor Bill. I wanna read you a story out of the old picture kids story book, Frog and Toad Together. Anybody know those? Knows Frog and Toad You're old.

Or you just had old parents that had this old book. Yeah. And and and this is a great story that'll sum up this idea of being frustrated and confused. Here it goes. Toad baked some cookies. These cookies smell good, said Toad. He ate one. They taste even better, he said.

Toad ran to frog's house. Frog, frog, cried Toad. Taste these cookies that I've made. Frog ate one of the cookies. These are the best cookies that I've ever eaten, said frog. Frog and Toad ate many cookies one after the other. You know Toad, said frog with his mouth full. I think we should stop eating.

We will soon be sick. You're right, said Toad. Let's eat one last cookie then we'll stop. Frog and Toad ate one last cookie. There were many cookies left in the bowl. Frog, said Toad, let us eat one very last cookie, then we'll stop.

Frog and Toad ate one very last cookie. We must stop eating, cried Toad as he ate another. Yes, said Frog, reaching for a cookie. We need willpower. What is willpower? Asked Toad.

Willpower is trying hard not to do something you really wanna do, said Frog. You mean, like, not trying to eat these cookies? Asked Toad. Right, said Frog. So Frog put the cookies in a box. There. Now we will not eat any more cookies. But we can open the box, said Toad.

That's true, said Frog. Frog tied some string around the box. There. Now we'll not eat any more cookies. But we can cut the string and open the box, said Toad. That's true, said Frog. Frog got a ladder. He put the box up high on a shelf. There, said Frog. Now we'll not eat any more cookies.

But we can climb the ladder, take down the box from the shelf, cut the string, and open the box, said Toad. That's true, said Frog. Frog climbed the ladder, took down the box from the shelf, cut the string, opened the box. He took the box out box outside. He shouted in loud voice, hey, birds. Here's the cookies.

Birds came from everywhere. They picked up all the cookies in their beaks and flew away. Now we have no more cookies to eat, said Toad sadly. Not even one. Yes, said Frog, but we have lots and lots of willpower. You may keep it all, Frog, said Toad. I'm going home to bake a cake. There's a lot of truth in that story.

Doesn't matter what you try to do with those cookies, even if you get rid of them, you'll find another way. You'll find another way. That's the problem with the battle within. If we live like we're the old self and we're trying to reform the old self through our own strength and willpower,

doesn't matter if you get rid of the cookies, you'll bake a cake. And that's frustrating. And I think there's a lot of us in this room and maybe online that that's how your Christian faith has been. You you you you you've just been trying to do it. It's what I do for God

instead of relaxing and relying on what he did for you. And you're trying to reform the old self instead of ignoring them. Because the old self is literally dead. You're just stuck with the shadow.

It's interesting and in this culture at time, the Romans, one of the punishments for murder they could apply to you would be if you've murdered someone, you would have to live with the body of the person you murdered chained to you until it literally rotted enough to just completely fall off.

Most of the time you died from that. You got diseased, you got sick, know, just imagine a rotting body. You had to sleep with it, you had to drag it around, eat with it. It was a constant reminder, but it was dead. That's kinda like the battle we have.

We're chained to our old self, but our old self is not who we are. It's just this dead body. But it reminds us, and oftentimes we go back to living the way we were when we were that. We're stuck with it, and there's a battle, and it's a problem. And it can cause confusion because you're like, who am I?

And it can cause frustration because if you try to do it by willpower to reform the old self, you will fail every time. But that leads to the next thing, verse 18. And I know that nothing good lives in me. That is in my sinful nature.

I wanna do what is right, but I can't. I wanna do what is good, but I don't. I don't wanna do what is wrong, but I do it anyways. But if I do what I don't wanna do, I am not really the one doing it doing wrong, it's the sin living in me that does it. I've discovered this principle of life that when I wanna do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to sin that is still within me.

In other words, I have a problem, I'm confused, I'm frustrated, and the reason that it's getting this way is because I realize I'm in a battle and I keep losing.

Now a little foreshadowing here. We're in this battle and we're losing. That's why we're frustrated, confused, have a problem, and many of us are about to walk away from our faith over this. There's a key ingredient here. Romans chapter seven, the holy spirit is not mentioned once. Romans chapter eight,

holy spirit is mentioned 19 times in 30 verses.

The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this and what he's trying to say is there's a key ingredient to what's happening in this chapter versus what we're supposed to be doing.

And we need to be able to rely on the Holy Spirit because we are in a battle and we will lose it every time we don't understand how it works. And when you realize you're in a battle and you're losing, look at verse 24. Oh what a miserable person I am. Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

You feel trapped. You feel trapped. And you feel trapped in your life like, I wanna love the Lord but it just doesn't seem to work. That word there for miserable is a Greek word that means cardinals fan.

You tell I have some issues to work out in my life.

It actually means worn out from exhaustion. It's a term used for a warrior. It means to worn out like you're in a battle and you don't even have the strength to hold your sword up anymore. You're done.

And that's where some of you, you keep coming to church, you keep hearing the messages, you hear what God says. He says, knowing Jesus is not just accept his forgiveness and then do whatever you want. So there is this battle, and if you are a Christian, you're convicted. You want to be in the battle. The problem is when you're living it out this way, when you're living in the old self, when you get you gotta understand this is gonna happen. We're gonna get sucked into this fight a lot, And

if we try to do it the way we try to do it, we end up with a problem that we can't beat. We end up confused, and we end up frustrated. We realize we can't win this battle, and then we get so exhausted we're done fighting. You wanna quit. You're done. Do you know if you've ever been a lifeguard at the beach?

At the David Hasselhoff School of Lifeguarding, they teach you how to look cool running down the beach, but then they also teach you what to do if someone's drowning out in the water. You have that little red floaty thing that you go running out there with.

And what they teach you to do, if you got someone's really kicking and struggling hard still, stay away from them. Stay close enough to talk to them and try to calm them down. But for the most part, if they are really going crazy, you don't get next to them because in a panic, they will drown you.

They will just push you down and do whatever because they're panicked. So what they teach you to do is if they do not calm down, they want you to wait until they literally don't have any fight with them and actually start to sink.

They they can't even paddle anymore. They are drowning. They literally go under. That's when you go grab them because now they're ready.

And that's kinda what Paul's describing. I get in this battle, get this in, and here's the problem. It's like, you end up if you try to live this Christian life, you try to live your life for God through this way, to try to reform the old self, you're gonna constantly be in this have this problem. You're gonna constantly be confused. You're gonna end up being frustrated. You're gonna realize you're in a battle, you keep losing over and over again, and you are finally gonna feel, I feel trapped, and you're gonna come to the end of yourself, and you're gonna drown.

But that's the moment you're ready to be rescued. That's the moment you're ready to be rescued. Because look what verse 25 says.

Who's gonna save me? Who's gonna do this? Verse 25. Thank God the answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thank God the answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is? In my mind, I really wanna obey God's law. Is he saying in my mind? The word for mind is not our brain language. It's the center of who you are in this tone. The word mind is that's the center of you are. In who I really am, I wanna do what is right. But because of my sinful nature, I'm a slave to sin. So this shadow sucked me back into it. Then the only answer

is Jesus. The only answer is Jesus. What he's really trying to say here is this, The Christian life isn't hard. It's impossible without Christ. Without Christ. And here's the struggle. So many of us come to church week after week or you know every other week or Christmas and Easter only and occasionally

every now and then. Or and you try to be a part of church. You say you believe in Jesus. You've prayed the prayers. You show up. You say and you're living this life that you call the Christian life and you're doing it without Jesus.

You're thinking like he died so I could get into this life, and now it's okay. He got me through the door. Now it's on me. You realize it says in the Bible that he who began a good work in me will then turn me loose to finish the good work on my own. Well, some of you read your bible. Good job.

Some of you are like, what is he talking about? It says he who began a good work in me will finish it.

So the one who started it is also the one who finishes it. It's not our job to finish. It's our job to hold on to Jesus. He's the one that does it. That's what next week won't how's the holy spirit working on this? How do I how do I forget trying to reform my old self and ignore the old self? That's really what baptism is. When you go on the water, you're like, I'm burying that old self, and I'm coming out of the water into the new self, and I need to embrace the understanding that I am not that old self. I'm not fighting to make that old self be different. I need to understand that's not who I am anymore. That's not my identity. That's not who I am. That's just a shadow that's sucking me back into this stupid mess.

And I'm always gonna have that battle till Jesus comes back. And that is why we wanna trust God. We need Jesus along the journey. He's not the one that just got us through the door. He's the one that takes us on his back all the way through. And he brings the Holy Spirit that we're gonna see how that works next week.

And so instead of just trying to make yourself do the things because you know I'm bad, I need to be a better person, I better go to church. Know, I better sing if Bill yells at me otherwise I'm just gonna watch everybody else sing. And

and or I'll I'll do this. I'll I'll get involved here. Maybe I should read my bible. Maybe if you think of it that way, it's useless. But when you understand that it's more like I am sick, but what's most sickness? It's something from the outside. It's not who we are. That virus in us is not who we are. That sickness,

you go to a doctor. The doctor helps you. At least he's gonna charge you like he helped you. But God, Jesus is the great physician. Coming to church thinking, reading your bible, that's not tasks you do to do the right thing. That's just keeping the appointment with the doctor that's gonna heal you. That's all it is.

I go, I want my healthy body. The real body. I'm not gonna reform a virus into being something good. That's what it's saying. And we'll that's all what next week's about, but I can't leave us hopeless here. So what do I do about that? A couple things you can start doing right now is first of all, starting point is prayer.

Talk to God. But how do you talk to God? By admitting your true feelings. Just like Paul, when you're stuck in this just say, got this problem and I know and I'm confused, I'm frustrated, I feel like I'm losing, I'm trapped.

And some of you are so trapped you're like, I'm not even sure I want to do what God wants me to do. But I still feel this conviction. Well you know what you can start with? God, I want to want to. At least want to want to. Be honest. It's okay to wrestle with your faith with God.

See, if you think of the legalistic way you're trying to prove yourself to God and you're trying to force your old self to do the right thing, then you're gonna always wanna pray the right prayers.

You're gonna wanna show up when you feel like it's like you got it together because you think church is the place that you already gotta have it together. So when you have problems you're gonna avoid the place.

It's okay to be messy. In other words, know, at church, you know where we should be here? The world sees us as we act like we're better than everyone else. And the truth is what they need to say is it's it's okay to not be okay sometimes, and that's okay.

Because that's the moment we're about to drown, and that's when Jesus can rescue us. So be honest with us. Start praying. Stop making your Christian faith about, well I'm gonna make this new resolution.

You do that sin that you keep doing over and over and again and you say, God, I'm so sorry. Thank you for giving me. I'm never doing it again. He's like, good luck with that. Not as long as you think it's you that's never gonna do it again.

Lean into me. Lean into my love. Lean into my presence. We'll unpackage it more next week when he talks about the power of the Holy Spirit and what does that look like. But for now, just start there

because you we all have these feelings of fighting ourselves and it comes down that that Christian life isn't hard. It's impossible without Jesus, without his spirit. It says he makes all things possible. There's a bible verses, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So many of people probably even in this room misapply that. You think that what that means is if I believe in Jesus, like if I wish upon a star hard enough, I can do anything I want. No. It's talking about everything Jesus has asked us to do to live the life he's created for us, I can do all of that as long as I trust him.

It's not turning Jesus into a genie. I can do all things through Christ. Everything I want through no. Everything he needs from us, wants for us, we can do. But you got to surrender to that. And the hope is this, if you get nothing else from what I said is, if you have put your faith in Christ,

what this is saying is that battle with the dark side that you don't want to listen to, you don't have to listen to the enemy bringing shame and guilt to you like that's who you really are. That's a lie. That's not who you are. That's not who you are.

You're the one that's wrestling with it, that doesn't want to do it, that wants to do the right thing. Have you ever do you honestly see yourself that way? That's how you have to reimagine

how you see yourself because that's what justification is. That's how God sees you. That's who's going to heaven. Not that messed up part. Don't buy the lie. But there is gonna be a wrestling match. That's the process of sanctification.

You know, there's an old native American legend. Some claimed it was from the Cherokee. They don't know. They just know it comes out of native American culture. And the story goes like this.

A grandfather was talking to his grandson, the grandson had done something that he did bad that he didn't want, he's like and he's talking about, you know, I wanted to do the right thing, but I didn't. And the grandfather

says, because you have the same issue I do and everyone does. And he goes, what's that? He goes, we all have two wolves fighting within us. He goes, one wolf one wolf wants to be selfish. It wants what it wants. It doesn't trust.

And everything it goes about envy and greed and slander and selfishness and all that. And it always ends in darkness and hopelessness. The other wolf runs after the light and love and its concern for the community and cares for others and it wants to do the right thing. And the problem is those wolves are always fighting.

And the grandson said, Well grandpa, which wolf wins? And he said, The one you feed.

That's actually pretty wise. That's really what Romans chapter eight's gonna be talking about. Which wolf, which nature do you feed? The old nature that's not even you anymore if you know Christ? Or do you choose to feed the new nature? If you think of the things you do trusting God as checkpoints

to do the right thing, to try to change your old self, it won't work. If you think of it as I just need to be fed.

I need to feed that wolf. I need to feed that spirit. It changes your whole view of why you're doing what you're doing and why you trust God. And you lean into who you really are and you get rid of the shame and you don't have to listen to enemy that says that bad stuff, the bad part of you, that's really you. That's not you.

Unless you only have one wolf in you. Just because you come to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Or starting ten and two will make you a good playoff team.

Thanks for the therapy by the way.

Of you have have only have that. You only have the I'm trying to do for God. I'm trying to reform myself. I'm trying to I'm trying to be a good person. But you can't please God in doing that. You've never put your faith in Jesus.

You've never become a Christian. You've done when the bible says born again. You've never turned and just surrendered to his love. You've never confessed that we are a sinner. That without Christ, we are only that old nature. We are. And it says the sin in us, we can never do anything right. We try to do good things, but it still does it. It's still from a selfish play. It'll never work right. Some of you have come to church and all you've done is look at church as a do and don't place to try to reform, and and you've never just turned your life over to Christ.

I wanna pray with you guys before we close and give you an opportunity to do that. But hear me now. The gospel is not just saying a prayer.

It's about realizing and accepting that the holy spirit is drawing you to the fact that you need the love of Christ. You are a sinner and you own that and you turn your life over and you put your faith in Christ. You say it in a moment, but then you really need to just embrace it. That all it is. Meeting Jesus is like

having a wedding ceremony. You still gotta have the marriage afterwards, but it is a moment to turn to him and to walk away and to become the new, to be rebranded and have that new nature. I wanna pray with you. And then I wanna challenge everyone in this room, those of you that just be pray with me right now

and any of you in the room that have known Jesus for a while but you've never been baptized, one of the first steps you can do is you're gonna walk out there and get baptized right after the service. We have towels. We have shirts. The water is moderately warm, it's better than it was yesterday.

Like the lights, the heat kept going on and off.

And if you are already a Christian and you've never got baptized, my fear is you've bought into the willpower version of faith. That's why you don't go get baptized. Because you think it's I have to clean up my act before I do it. That proves you're in that wrong fight and you're losing. It's simply

it's not the act of a mature person who's cleaned themselves up. It's an act of a sinner that knows, I am just saying thank you Jesus. It's representative of saying it's not an act of maturity, but it results in maturity. So I challenge you, go do it. If that's you, just go do it. But let's pray.

If there's anyone in this room or online that you've never really just put your faith in Christ, can just pray with me. Make it your own words, make it a commitment, make it between you and Jesus. But just pray something like this, dear God, thank you. Thank you that I am a mess. I'm in a battle I can't win. I'm losing.

And I have a nature in me, a sin in me, a willingness in me to always want to do my own thing. But right now by the power of your spirit, I see that. And I want to turn from that. And in the best way I know how, I put my faith in what Jesus did for me on the cross, dying and then resurrecting to provide a way for me

to be made new. So Lord, forgive me. Rebrand me. Make me new. I put my faith in you and you alone, and I thank you for that. And then help me go from this moment and walk into this battle in life of the battle within, and help me to lean into the fact that I am that new creation. I'm not the old self.

I don't have to listen to the old self. I can lean into the new self. Help me each day to be strengthened in that understanding and the power of your spirit. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpointe.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.