Nate Schlomann
[0:00] Go ahead and have a seat. [0:02] Once again, my name’s Nate, as Steve said, and we are so glad that you’re here with us [0:06] this morning.
[0:08] Obviously, I’m not the normal guy, right? [0:10] It’s been a while since I’ve been up here. [0:13] That means I can reuse some of my introduction jokes, which is a good thing for me. [0:17] I don’t have a lot of them. [0:19] I remember back before I was a pastor and a church planner, I’d be going to church, [0:24] and I’d be going every week, and I’d be inviting my friends every week.
[0:27] You gotta come. [0:27] You gotta come to church with me. [0:28] It seemed like every time they showed up, that’s the week. [0:31] I walk in the door, and somebody else is up on stage. [0:34] Or the band is completely different. [0:36] They’re like, oh, gosh.
[0:38] Inevitably, after church that Sunday, there’s all these conversations. [0:41] Well, that wasn’t the normal guy. [0:43] It was good. [0:43] It was really good. [0:44] That wasn’t the normal guy. [0:45] You gotta come back.
[0:46] I’m just saving you guys some trouble there. [0:48] Now your friends already know. [0:50] It’s all right. [0:50] We’re gonna have a good morning this morning. [0:52] I’ve got some things I’m really excited to share with you. [0:56] Steve took a much needed vacation with his family last week.
[1:01] He had preached, we just figured out, 40 weeks in a row up until then. [1:05] Now older and wiser pastors will tell you that you should not do that. [1:10] But they did the same thing when they were our age. [1:12] We don’t listen. [1:13] The cycle continues. [1:15] It’s been a great 40 weeks.
[1:16] We’ve seen just some amazing growth here at the Village in that time. [1:20] I mean, think of how it is for me. [1:21] When I last preached 40 weeks ago, it was like a big small group, basically. [1:25] The last row was like five rows back and I could see the people. [1:29] Now I can’t even see somebody out there. [1:31] It’s been a great 40 weeks.
[1:32] God has really blessed the preaching of his word at Village. [1:35] He’s blessed the community that we’re building. [1:37] And I’m excited for what the summer has. [1:38] Steve’s gonna be back next week starting our new series. [1:42] It’s called The Resistance. [1:43] You should have got some invite cards in your handout for that.
[1:46] Give those out. [1:48] Invite people. [1:48] It’s gonna be a great series. [1:50] It’s about resisting. [1:52] I’m not gonna tell you any more than that. [1:54] Well, actually, I do know.
[1:55] I’m just not gonna tell you any more than that. [1:57] Just look at how cool the graphic is. [1:58] I mean, come on. [1:59] You wanna be here for that. [2:00] Tell your friends the same thing. [2:02] Give them that same vague invite.
[2:04] It’s gonna be a great series. [2:05] Be here. [2:06] Invite people. [2:07] That’s how the church grows. [2:09] So I’m really looking forward to that this summer. [2:11] Next thing I wanna tell you about, and I’m gonna try to be the opposite of vague on this
[2:16] one, is Saturday we have our first Village Serve event. [2:20] In the last couple weeks I’ve been talking about that. [2:23] What it is, is basically as we’ve grown as a church, we’ve been trying to look for ways [2:27] that we can show our community in a more impactful, meaningful way that we care about [2:31] them. [2:31] As we grow and we have more people, one of the purposes of God in gathering his church
[2:35] together is that we can then go out in the community and impact the community in bigger [2:40] ways than we could ever do on our own. [2:42] And so along those lines, what we begin to do is have conversations with different organizations [2:46] in Chesterfield, Midlothian, just saying, what can we do to help you guys out? [2:50] What can we do to serve? [2:52] And actually the organization that was probably the most receptive to that was Chesterfield
[2:56] County Sheriff’s Office. [2:58] And they actually told us, which no one else did, hey, we’ve got something for you. [3:02] We actually have situations in the summer and fall when we have to go out and give [3:06] property code violations to people because they haven’t kept their property up. [3:10] And sometimes we go there, just lazy people, they don’t wanna cut their lawn, we give [3:14] them a violation.
[3:15] But sometimes they told us, we go to these places and we don’t wanna give them a fine [3:19] because it’s almost like kicking someone when they’re down. [3:21] Because we’ll go to this house, it’ll have violations and then we’ll find out, you know, [3:25] it was a widow there and she just didn’t wanna ask for help. [3:28] Or it was elderly folks who were having some sickness issues and it just kinda got out [3:33] of hand and they said, we wish we had an organization that we could contact and say, please help
[3:38] these folks so we don’t have to give them a fine. [3:41] And so we said, absolutely. [3:42] I mean, that’s what the church should be doing, right? [3:44] So we said, yes, let us know about that. [3:46] We wanna know about that. [3:48] Last week we got the first call.
[3:50] They called us, they said, we’ve got this gentleman, his name’s Stanley. [3:54] He’s mostly blind, he doesn’t get around very well, he’s got some violations on his [3:57] house, can you see if you can help? [3:58] So we went out there, we met him. [4:00] Very nice guy. [4:02] Loved to talk, doesn’t get a chance to talk a lot.
[4:04] Talked a lot to us. [4:06] But very receptive, very nice man. [4:09] And really appreciative of the help, because he just, he didn’t really even realize, I [4:13] think, how bad his property had gotten. [4:16] So we’re gonna go out there this Saturday from 8 a.m. till noon and we’re gonna help [4:20] him out.
[4:21] And what I wanna talk about this morning, though, is not so much just that. [4:25] I wanna announce that and I’ll get to that, but I wanna tell you why we’re doing it. [4:29] Because we’re doing it for a much bigger reason than just helping Stanley out. [4:32] We do want him to know that we care about him. [4:35] More than that, we want him to know Jesus cares about him. [4:37] And so we hope that that happens through this.
[4:39] But there’s a much bigger reason why we’re taking this initiative to get out in the [4:43] community. [4:43] And that’s because we want our community to know that we’ve been changed by Jesus. [4:48] We want our community to be able to see in a tangible, practical way that the gospel [4:52] makes us different. [4:54] And more than that, we want our community to be able to see the gospel in action.
[4:59] Not so much just that we’re cutting lawns. [5:00] Our goal is not to be a church lawn care service. [5:03] Our goal is to just demonstrate that the church wants to be there for people that can’t be [5:07] there from themselves. [5:08] So that’s what Jesus did for us. [5:10] And so our whole objective in this is to preach the gospel through it.
[5:14] Not through the work, but through the opportunity it lends us to share Jesus’ death, burial, [5:19] and resurrection. [5:19] That’s the gospel. [5:20] That’s the only gospel. [5:22] But going out in the community and doing things, serving the community, helping where help [5:26] is needed, allows us and gives us a bigger platform to do that.
[5:29] You know, we say around the village a lot that the church is God’s plan A for reaching [5:33] the world and there is no plan B. [5:37] And what that means is God intends to use his people to spread his message. [5:41] I think we kind of know that. [5:43] But we don’t a lot of times think of all the ways that that can happen. [5:47] And one of the reasons why gathering together as a body is so important is because God can
[5:51] do more through us together than he could do on our own. [5:55] And this is an example of that. [5:56] I mean, you could on your own find a neighbor, help them out. [6:00] But we want to initiate a program where we sustain bigger and more just things in our [6:06] community where the community can notice and see and the gospel can be amplified. [6:10] So it’s not just about taking the gospel out, but it’s about amplifying it in ways
[6:14] that we can never do on our own. [6:15] Together we are more than we are apart. [6:18] And God intended it that way. [6:19] That’s what the body is. [6:20] That’s the way he wants it. [6:22] So this is a first step in that.
[6:24] We hope it’s just a first step. [6:25] We hope there’s a lot more VillasServe projects after this of various and different degrees. [6:30] But I want you to be involved. [6:31] If this is something you can do, please come out next Saturday. [6:33] There’s sign up sheets out in the four-year after church. [6:37] There’s some equipment needs that we have.
[6:39] We obviously need you. [6:41] And we’re looking to get about 10 to 15 people. [6:43] We don’t have that many yet. [6:44] I think we will. [6:45] If we get more people than we need, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. [6:48] That’s not what I’m worried about right now.
[6:50] I want you to sign up if you can help out with this. [6:53] You can also sign up on Facebook. [6:56] So please do that. [6:57] And just please be a part of this. [6:58] This is your church. [7:00] And this is something that we’ve been wanting to do for a while.
[7:03] And so now we’re getting out and able to do it. [7:05] So help us make this a success. [7:08] All right. [7:08] Let’s go ahead and get into our text this morning. [7:10] We’re going to be in Romans 7. [7:12] You can go ahead and turn there now.
[7:14] What I want to share with you this morning really springs out of all the things that [7:19] we’ve been talking about the last six weeks in the Alive series. [7:23] It’s been a great series for me on a very personal level, just seeing all that Jesus’ [7:28] resurrection does. [7:30] And I hope if anything you haven’t missed, that Jesus’ resurrection changes everything. [7:35] And that’s been a theme just throughout these last six weeks.
[7:39] But Jesus’ death on the cross, it paid for our sins, but his resurrection defeated sin. [7:44] It defeated death and it changes our lives now and in the future. [7:48] And so we learned about that in a bunch of different ways. [7:51] We learned that Jesus’ resurrection allows us to worship, which is what we’re made to [7:54] do. [7:55] It sets us on mission, which is worship enacted.
[7:58] It allows us to be disciples and obedient and follow Jesus. [8:02] And ultimately it’s our hope. [8:03] And so we learned all these things. [8:04] And in the process of learning all these things, we saw a lot of very stark, vivid language [8:12] of death and life. [8:14] Before Jesus, we’re dead in our sins.
[8:17] After Jesus, we’re alive. [8:19] And nothing could be more opposite. [8:21] Death and life. [8:22] And then we saw this in many different ways. [8:25] The example of the branch in the vine. [8:27] So if we’re connected to Jesus, we’re a live branch connected to him and we’re bearing
[8:32] fruit. [8:32] The opposite of that is a dead branch that bears no fruit and it’s cut off. [8:36] And so we saw these stark images. [8:38] We’re either walking in the light or we’re walking in the darkness. [8:41] We’re either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. [8:44] It’s just these two polar opposites.
[8:49] And obviously we trust in Jesus. [8:51] We believe in Jesus. [8:52] We’re alive, right? [8:53] We want to be alive. [8:56] And yet there’s a problem. [8:57] And it’s a problem that I certainly feel as I go through these passages.
[9:01] I know I believe in Jesus. [9:03] I know I trust in him. [9:04] I know I’m alive. [9:05] I don’t, it’s not talking about doubt this morning. [9:07] I don’t have doubt. [9:09] But I don’t understand why I still struggle with sin then.
[9:12] Why do I still struggle if I’m alive? [9:14] Because I’m not, I’m dead to sin and a dead thing shouldn’t still struggle with sin. [9:19] Why do I struggle? [9:21] So that’s a question that I’ve been asking really as we’ve gone through this series [9:25] and in this last week, just in looking at that question in the scripture, God has really [9:32] spoken to me through Romans 7.
[9:33] And so I want to share that with you this morning because I think Paul has some real [9:37] answers for that question. [9:39] And I think there’s some real wisdom, in fact, in learning how Paul deals with that [9:44] issue because he deals with it, I think, a little different than we usually do. [9:48] Now I should be upfront with you. [9:50] For a guy that doesn’t get to preach more than a couple times a year, by my own choice,
[9:54] definitely, and hasn’t preached in 40 weeks, I should not be tackling Romans 7.
[10:02] It’s a complicated passage because some things that Paul talks about in here seem to [10:07] contradict all those things that I was just talking about. [10:09] It seems to contradict it, but I don’t think it does. [10:11] And I think in seeing how it doesn’t, we’re really going to get a lot out of it. [10:17] So go ahead and turn there now. [10:19] We’re going to start in verse 15.
[10:21] Where we are here in the passage, Paul is talking about his relationship to sin and [10:25] the law. [10:26] And what you really need to know here before we get started is just before this in Romans [10:29] 6, Paul has just talked about all those things I just talked about. [10:32] Dead to sin, alive in God. [10:34] We’re no longer slaves to sin.
[10:35] We’re now slaves to righteousness. [10:37] So Paul has just finished talking about this. [10:40] And now he’s going to say some things that almost seem contradictory. [10:44] Start there in verse 15. [10:46] He says, [10:46] For I do not understand my own actions.
[10:49] For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. [10:53] Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. [10:56] So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. [11:01] We’re going to stop there for just a little bit. [11:03] Can’t you relate? [11:04] Just right off before we get anywhere else, can’t you relate to Paul?
[11:07] He says, I don’t understand my own actions. [11:10] I can just relate so well to him there. [11:13] When I sin, after I have this picture of I’m no longer dead in my sin, I’m now alive in [11:19] Jesus and then I still sin and I don’t understand my own actions. [11:22] I’m not doing what I want. [11:24] And so I think just right off the bat there’s some encouragement to understand that Paul
[11:29] is struggling with the same thing. [11:30] But then more than that, we need to keep going. [11:32] Look at verse 16 there. [11:34] And I think there’s something very important with the way Paul starts to deal with that [11:38] thought. [11:38] Because he has that thought, I don’t understand my actions.
[11:40] But then where he goes with it is what we need to look at. [11:44] He says, now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it’s good. [11:47] So what he’s saying there is there’s a difference between what he wants and what he does. [11:52] He agrees with the law. [11:53] The law is righteous. [11:54] The law is God’s righteousness.
[11:56] Paul agrees with that. [11:57] In his mind, as we’ll see in a little bit, he knows that that’s the right thing, but [12:01] he’s doing something else. [12:03] I think we understand that too. [12:04] But here’s where it gets a little weird. [12:07] All right.
[12:08] In a good way, I think, eventually. [12:09] Because look what Paul does with this thought. [12:12] Verse 17. [12:13] So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. [12:18] So Paul has taken this idea that he’s doing things he doesn’t understand. [12:22] And he’s taken it and now he’s said, it’s not me, it’s sin that dwells in me.
[12:27] Right off the bat, if we look at that, it’s almost like Paul’s passing the buck, right? [12:31] It’s almost like he’s saying, it’s not me, it’s sin. [12:35] I’m not doing this, it’s sin. [12:36] It’s sin’s fault. [12:37] Sin’s doing it, it’s not me. [12:39] But we have to understand before we go on and explore this even a little bit more,
[12:44] Paul is not trying to avoid blame for his sin. [12:48] That is absolutely not what he’s doing. [12:50] He hasn’t left that as an option for us, just with everything else that he’s written in [12:54] Romans. [12:55] I mean, first of all, the beginning, first couple of chapters in Romans, Paul is the [12:59] theological master of explaining that sin is in us, you know, we’re responsible for
[13:04] it and just our culpability for sin. [13:06] So he spent chapters talking about that. [13:08] Then just in chapter six, he’s answered the question, you know, should we keep on sinning [13:14] so that grace should abound? [13:15] And he says, absolutely not. [13:16] That’s absurd.
[13:17] By no means is what he says. [13:19] So he’s not trying to pass the buck for sin. [13:22] He’s not trying to say he’s not responsible for it. [13:25] He’s doing something else. [13:26] And I think in understanding what he’s doing, it can really help us know how to struggle [13:32] with sin.
[13:33] I think what he’s really doing here, and we’re going to read on and see, is he’s saying [13:38] that he doesn’t identify with sin anymore. [13:42] Let me keep reading and then I’ll explain that a little bit more. [13:45] Join me in verse 18.
[13:48] For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. [13:53] For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. [13:56] For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. [14:01] Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. [14:05] There’s that concept again. [14:07] So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
[14:10] For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. [14:14] But I see in my members another law, wedging war against the law of my mind and making [14:18] me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. [14:21] I know that was a lot. [14:23] But obviously Paul’s conflicted, right? [14:26] I mean he’s going back and forth.
[14:27] He doesn’t do the things he wants to do. [14:29] It’s sin that dwells in him. [14:31] It’s sin’s waging a war against his inner being, against his mind. [14:35] Paul’s conflicted right now. [14:36] He’s struggling with sin. [14:39] And this does seem to contradict the stark difference between being dead in our sins
[14:44] and being alive in Christ. [14:46] I mean for a little bit here, it seems like sin is not dead to Paul. [14:50] Sin seems very active in his life and what it’s doing. [14:55] But if we look closer, I think there’s a key difference in Paul’s response and reaction [14:59] to sin that shows that it is dead. [15:03] And it also gives us some keys on how we’re to struggle with it.
[15:08] For Paul, Jesus has so changed him. [15:12] And I mean he’s the perfect example for this because he’s writing Romans, right? [15:17] He’s taking the gospel to the ends of the earth and yet he says things like, [15:22] I have no ability to carry it out. [15:23] Well obviously he’s carrying things out. [15:25] He’s taking the gospel out.
[15:27] He says that nothing good dwells in me. [15:29] Obviously things good dwell in him. [15:31] He’s writing half the New Testament. [15:34] So what is he saying? [15:35] Because it does seem to contradict with things he’s just said about being dead to sin and [15:41] alive to Christ.
[15:42] And what I think it is, is there’s this understanding in Paul that Jesus has done a work in him. [15:49] Jesus has taken his sins. [15:51] He has paid for them and he has more than that, risen again and defeated them. [15:57] So in Paul’s mind, his sin, and this is what you really got to see, his sin is separate [16:03] from him. [16:04] It is in him.
[16:05] He’s responsible for it. [16:06] He has not said he’s not. [16:08] But it is a separate thing now because Jesus has removed it. [16:10] And the first thing I want us to see is when we are alive in Jesus, sin no longer defines [16:16] who we are. [16:18] For Paul, he’s not defined by his sin.
[16:21] But understand, before Jesus, we are defined by our sin. [16:24] We can’t separate the two without Jesus. [16:26] We are not just people who sin. [16:28] We are sinners. [16:30] Sin is in us. [16:32] Sin cannot be separated in the way Paul talks about in this passage before we put our trust
[16:37] and our faith in Jesus. [16:38] There would be no room to say, it’s not I but sin that dwells in me. [16:42] That is you. [16:43] But to Paul, something has happened. [16:46] And it has to do with this being dead, descended, alive in Christ. [16:50] To Paul, it’s almost as if there is this foreign entity now waging a war in him.
[16:55] And it is this sin that he sees and it’s not who he considers himself to really be. [17:00] Look at some of the words he uses that are who he thinks he really is. [17:04] He says, if you could put the verses back up there, in verse 22, [17:07] I delight in the law of God in my inner being. [17:11] So this inner being, this is who Paul considers himself to really be. [17:15] And he is alive.
[17:17] He follows Jesus. [17:18] He loves Jesus. [17:20] And then again, in verse 23, his members, in other words, the things that he does, are [17:26] waging a war against his mind. [17:27] So in Paul’s inner being and in his mind, he’s following Jesus. [17:31] But he still has this indwelling sin.
[17:36] And he’s struggling with it. [17:38] He’s fighting it. [17:39] He’s struggling with it. [17:40] But he doesn’t identify with it. [17:42] And that’s key. [17:42] And we’re going to get back there.
[17:44] But it is just key to understand. [17:45] Paul does not identify with that sin. [17:48] It’s a foreign thing to him that he’s got to fight. [17:51] But before we can fully understand, I think we need to come at this from one other angle. [17:56] I don’t think I need to convince you that we sin. [18:00] I mean, I think you know that.
[18:02] And I’m talking about believers now. [18:03] There are some that would say that believers can read a state of perfection. [18:08] They’re crazy because no one’s ever done it. [18:10] And so I just don’t even understand how you could hold that position. [18:13] But more than that, the scriptures speak against that pretty clearly. [18:17] So I don’t think the issue is so much, do we sin?
[18:21] We know we sin. [18:22] The issue is how much should we struggle with our sin? [18:25] Should a believer, a maturing believer struggle to the point that Paul shows here in Romans 7? [18:32] Or is this too much? [18:33] Does this conflict too much with these ideas of death and life and light and darkness? [18:39] And I don’t think it doesn’t.
[18:39] I want to go to a passage that’s going to show that. [18:42] But we’re going to go to 1 John chapter 1. [18:44] And it’s going to be up there on the screen, too. [18:46] But in verse 5, John says some things that people take actually to conflict with some [18:54] of the words Paul says in Romans 7, but they don’t. [18:57] You’ll see.
[18:59] John says, This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is [19:03] light and in him is no darkness at all. [19:06] If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice [19:10] the truth. [19:12] But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another [19:15] and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sins.
[19:21] So some people will take that and say, see right there. [19:23] Christians can’t walk in the darkness, right? [19:25] Christians are in the light. [19:26] They can’t walk in the darkness and have fellowship with God. [19:29] A Christian isn’t going to struggle with sin to the extent that Paul does. [19:34] Go to verse 8.
[19:36] Read on. [19:38] I promise you, people took that verse and didn’t go to verse 8. [19:41] I was studying. [19:42] Verse 8 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [19:47] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse [19:52] us from all unrighteousness.
[19:53] He’s talking to believers here. [19:54] If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. [19:58] My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. [20:02] But if anyone does sin, it’s just sin that they do. [20:05] We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. [20:09] John doesn’t disagree with Paul at all.
[20:11] John is actually paralleling Romans 7 in a lot of ways. [20:15] So he’s saying, yes, we are children of the light. [20:17] We need to walk in the light. [20:19] God can’t dwell in the darkness. [20:20] If we’re going to have fellowship with God, we have to be in the light. [20:24] That’s all true.
[20:24] That’s why we have to continually be repenting. [20:27] We’ve talked about that the last couple of weeks, a couple of times. [20:30] But then John says, but you’re going to sin. [20:32] That’s why we have Jesus. [20:34] All right. [20:34] That’s what he has done and that’s what he continues to do.
[20:37] That’s why he’s our advocate because we are going to sin. [20:40] He’s our advocate for that. [20:43] And so here’s the thing. [20:44] And this is where I’m going with this. [20:46] The Bible makes it clear that we’re going to sin. [20:49] All right.
[20:49] So that’s, that’s not the issue, but then you have to deal. [20:52] If it’s clear that we’re going to sin, even as believers, what does it mean to be alive? [20:58] You know, what’s death to sin and alive to Christ? [21:02] If we’re going to sin, it doesn’t mean that we never sin. [21:05] Does it mean that we sin less? [21:07] I mean, that doesn’t really make any sense.
[21:09] It’s death and life. [21:10] I don’t really get some degree of less from that. [21:13] How would we measure that? [21:15] It’s not what it is at all. [21:17] And I think what’s going on here is in Romans seven, Paul is really describing to us the [21:25] struggle of a believer with their sin.
[21:26] And he’s describing what it looks like to be dead to sin. [21:29] And it has a lot more to do with understanding what Jesus has done in our relationship to sin [21:35] that has drastically changed from life to death in sin and from death to life in our lives, [21:42] from what Jesus did on the cross. [21:44] See, Paul’s attitude towards sin in Romans seven is one of intense struggle with an [21:49] understanding that though we still have sin dwelling in our bodies, it’s not a part of
[21:53] who we are. [21:54] We don’t identify with that sin anymore. [21:56] It’s something separate from us that we fight and we struggle with. [22:00] And my concern and why I wanted to talk about this so much this morning is because I sense [22:05] and I feel that as we start to be aware, as we go through a series like this, it’s a live [22:11] series and we start to be aware of our struggles with sin.
[22:14] That is the time when we need to press in towards Jesus and struggle more with those [22:20] things and work more on those things and really push on like we see Paul doing in [22:25] Philippians three. It’s not on the screen or anything. [22:27] I’m just paraphrasing. But he says he presses on that he hasn’t already obtained it, but [22:31] he presses on. [22:33] That needs to be our attitude.
[22:34] But I’m afraid a lot of times when we start to struggle, we pull back because we don’t [22:38] like it. It doesn’t feel good. [22:40] It doesn’t feel good at all. [22:41] And so we pull back and we don’t struggle. [22:43] And I think Roman seven is there to show us how to struggle well. [22:48] So the rest of this morning, that’s what I’m going to be talking about.
[22:50] Let’s be talking about how do we struggle well with our sin in the example of Paul. [22:55] And the first thing that I’ll just say is if you’re struggling, that means you’re alive. [22:59] I have unfortunately, as I’ve become a pastor, had to have conversations with a lot of [23:05] people that have doubts about their salvation. [23:08] And I say, unfortunately, even though it’s a great joy for me to encourage them, because [23:12] I wish it wasn’t so.
[23:14] If you’re struggling, you’re alive. [23:16] Live in what Jesus has done. [23:18] Stop doubting your salvation. [23:21] Jesus has made you alive. [23:22] And that struggle is proof of that. [23:24] Dead people do not struggle.
[23:27] If there is this indwelling sin within you, that is this foreign object that you don’t [23:32] identify with, an alive person is never going to be cool with that situation. [23:37] An alive person is always going to wrestle with that. [23:40] If you’re dead, you’re not going to care. [23:43] It’s not going to be anything to you. [23:45] But if you’re alive, you’re going to struggle.
[23:47] And I don’t think we can continue to struggle unless we have the attitude of Paul where [23:52] he doesn’t identify with it. [23:54] I think we’ve got to have Paul’s attitude where he sees his indwelling sin is something [24:01] that he’s responsible for, but it’s not who he considers himself to be. [24:06] We’ve got to have this attitude if we’re going to struggle. [24:08] And here’s why.
[24:09] If we don’t have that attitude, I think what happens is we go through life, we struggle, [24:14] we hit situations, we get back up and we try again and we sin again. [24:19] And we keep struggling. [24:20] And eventually we get to the point where we raise our hands up and say, that’s it. [24:24] I can’t do it anymore. [24:27] I guess this is just who I am.
[24:29] I guess I just have a problem with this thing. [24:32] I guess this is my thorn in my side. [24:34] I’ve heard people say that. [24:35] I guess this is just my struggle. [24:38] Paul would never say that because sin is not who he is. [24:42] We can’t say that if we’re alive because sin is not who we are.
[24:45] And if we don’t understand this, this difference, this change that Jesus has made [24:50] where sin is still here and the reason sin is still here is because Jesus’ ultimate [24:57] hope is in our glory. [24:58] That’s where Paul goes on to talk about in Romans eight. [25:01] Our ultimate hope is that Jesus is going to come back and take that sin away. [25:04] It just hasn’t happened yet.
[25:06] And we’re going to get to that more in a little bit. [25:08] But if we don’t understand that, yes, we still have sin dwelling in us, but it’s not us. [25:14] We won’t be able to struggle for the long haul. [25:17] I think this is a struggle that we are called to for the rest of our lives. [25:23] And while that at first can sound discouraging, I think it’s supposed to be encouraging [25:28] because it’s not going away.
[25:30] And so if we didn’t understand that it would become the ultimate in discouragement. [25:35] And so we’ve got to learn how to struggle well with joy that doesn’t get defeated by our sin. [25:42] And that’s where Paul is going. [25:43] And that’s what he’s allowing us to do because he can see sin as something separate and foreign [25:48] to him. He doesn’t get defeated by it. [25:50] He doesn’t ultimately get discouraged by it, but rather he’s able to have this attitude of
[25:54] fight with it. [25:56] And that’s what I think we’ve got to get to for ourselves.
[26:01] Question that comes up is, you know, how much should a Christian struggle? [26:05] How much does a mature Christian struggle? [26:07] As we mature, shouldn’t we struggle less? [26:10] And I think the answer to that is yes and no. [26:12] I think in some ways we’re going to struggle less on the outside on what people can see. [26:17] But I think Paul in Romans seven is a mature Christian.
[26:20] He’s writing Romans while he says this. [26:22] I think in some ways, as we mature, we struggle more on the inside, because as we learn more [26:27] about Jesus and we grow closer to Jesus, we learn more about ourselves and about things [26:34] we don’t like. [26:35] And I think that struggle in some ways intensifies on the inside the more mature that we do [26:41] get. And so we’ve got to not see struggle as a sign of immaturity.
[26:45] In a lot of ways, it’s a sign of maturity when we’re wrestling with sin and thinking about [26:49] it the right way, as Paul does.
[26:52] So the way Paul struggles with sin is important. [26:55] And go over this one more time and then move on to some other stuff. [26:58] But he doesn’t dismiss it. [26:59] All right. He doesn’t dismiss his sin. [27:01] He doesn’t say it’s no big deal. [27:02] He is conflicted.
[27:03] He’s writing these verses where he is in anguish over his sin. [27:08] But then he doesn’t identify with it. [27:10] It’s not him. [27:12] It’s separate. [27:13] He fights it because it’s not who he is. [27:16] And that’s very key, I think, to how we can struggle with sin.
[27:20] Let’s go ahead and finish out Romans seven in verse 24.
[27:25] Paul goes on to say, Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. [27:30] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. [27:32] So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. [27:38] So Paul hates sin. [27:39] He knows sin is death. [27:41] Okay.
[27:41] He knows he’s just written about it. [27:43] Sin is death. [27:44] He’s alive in Jesus. [27:45] So he says, Wretched man that I am, who’s going to save me from this death. [27:48] And his answer is Jesus. [27:49] He knows that.
[27:52] And so that’s where Paul finds his source of hope. [27:55] But then as if one more time to let us know how he goes about struggling there in that last verse, [28:02] he says he himself serves the law of God with his mind. [28:06] So his mind, who Paul considers himself to be follows Jesus. [28:12] He loves Jesus. [28:12] He serves Jesus.
[28:14] But once again, it’s that indwelling sin with my flesh. [28:18] I serve the law of sin. [28:20] And then from there, this understanding, and you have to go back and listen to the podcast from last week, he goes in to Romans chapter eight. [28:28] It just ends up being this huge chapter of praise to God for the salvation he has in Jesus. [28:35] That’s what I want to do with the last few minutes we have this morning. [28:40] So I want to look at just a couple of ways we can struggle well, like Paul, and a couple of things that we learn from the way he struggles.
[28:47] And the first thing is it’s going to be quick. [28:49] And I’ll spend a little more time on the second thing. [28:51] For anybody who’s spent any time at the village, you will not be surprised by this one. [28:55] But the first thing I think you’ve got to do is you’ve got to struggle in community. [29:00] All right. [29:00] We talk about this all the time here, and it’s because that’s what we’re here for.
[29:06] All right. [29:06] The church does not exist to preach and sing songs. [29:12] Those things are vitally important. [29:13] And if the church stops doing those, that’s a whole other huge problem because we have to proclaim God’s message to the community and we need to worship him together. [29:21] But we exist to be a community of believers that are going through life together, taking the gospel to our community and supporting and encouraging each other. [29:30] You cannot do this thing on your own.
[29:33] And that’s why we talk about this so much on Sunday morning, because we so desire for you to be in this community with us. [29:41] And you will not be able to struggle with your sin outside the community. [29:45] You just will not be able to. [29:46] You might be able to try for a little bit. [29:49] It’s not going to happen. [29:50] You’ve got to be around other people that also think like Paul is thinking.
[29:54] You’ve got to be around other people that also consider their sin to be this foreign thing that they’re fighting. [29:59] You try to have that conversation with someone not in community. [30:01] It’s going to sound crazy. [30:03] All right. [30:04] You need to have that with other believers who are with you in this mission, with you in this life. [30:10] You’ve got to be in community to struggle.
[30:13] I’m not going to berate this point too much, but there are many avenues we have for you to get in community. [30:19] I’d love for you to figure some of those out. [30:22] I am the community groups coordinator. [30:23] I’d love my information’s in the handout. [30:25] I’d love to talk to you about ways you can get involved. [30:28] The groups are doing some different things during the summer.
[30:31] Contact me. [30:32] I’ll get you plugged in with the group. [30:33] It’s not the only way. [30:35] I mean, form some relationships. [30:37] Have me over for dinner. [30:38] That’d be nice.
[30:40] I’m available. [30:41] My wife, Katie, will come over.
[30:44] Stay after church. [30:45] Help us tear down. [30:46] Why do I say that? [30:47] Yeah, we need some help. [30:48] We always do. [30:49] We never won’t.
[30:50] That’s not the reason why, really. [30:52] I want to get to know you. [30:53] And if you’re hanging around after church for a half hour, we’re going to get to know you. [30:57] So do that. [30:57] It’s a great way to start building community. [31:00] But get involved.
[31:01] You can’t struggle with your sin on your own. [31:05] Now, the last thing, and we’ll be here for a little bit as I wrestle to explain this, because honestly, this is the thing that out of anything else I got out of Roman seven, this is what really impacted me this week. [31:17] But I feel like it is a little tricky to explain. [31:20] And I’m going to do my best. [31:22] The last thing I want us to think about how we struggle with our sin is we need to stop looking for heaven on earth. [31:30] Let me explain how I get here from Roman seven.
[31:33] I think one of the keys to pressing on in the Christian life into struggling well with our sin and to continue to follow Jesus is that we’re not obsessed with this life. [31:44] We’re not obsessed with making this life neat and tidy and perfect and just so and just how it should be. [31:51] And I see so many people and I see it in my life so many times where I’m so concerned with making my life in some way comfortable, you know, making my life seem nice. [32:05] And a lot of times I think we think if our life’s not going smooth, if we don’t have we use words like balance and we’re in a good groove. [32:13] If we don’t have these kind of things, somehow we’re not following Jesus in the right way.
[32:19] In Roman seven highlights for me how absurd and how dangerous that idea is. [32:27] Here’s why. I mean, we’ve seen clearly in Roman seven, if you’re a believer in Jesus, you’re going to struggle with sin, right? [32:34] You’re going to struggle with sin. [32:36] I do not understand, Paul says, the things that I do. [32:39] I do things I don’t want to do. [32:40] I have a feeling if you’re a believer in Jesus this morning here, you relate to that.
[32:45] You understand that. [32:46] I know I do. [32:47] And so we’ve seen that our reaction to that is to understand that we are dead to sin and sin is a separate thing from us that we have to struggle with. [32:55] But it still is indwelling there and it still happens. [32:59] We saw that in first, John. [33:02] It’s easy to understand that for ourselves.
[33:05] It’s easy to relate that to ourselves. [33:07] Where it can really start to change us is when we start to relate that to our community, to the people around us. [33:16] Because here’s the thing, if you relate to the fact that you struggle with sin, everyone around you in this room relates to the same thing. [33:24] And guess what sin does? [33:26] Sin causes our lives not to be just so. [33:29] It causes hurt.
[33:30] It causes pain. [33:31] It causes conflict. [33:32] It causes strife. [33:33] And we are not going to be rid of that strife until our final hope, which is Jesus. [33:38] Jesus is coming back. [33:39] He’s going to take that away.
[33:40] He’s going to clear up all that conflict, all that pain. [33:44] But that’s in the future. [33:45] And if we are obsessed with creating that heaven here on earth without that, we are never going to live the life that Jesus has for us. [33:52] We’re never going to live with an openness that God intends for us to spread the gospel because we arrange our lives around not getting hurt. [34:02] We can’t live like that. [34:03] And it’s absurd to live like that because it’s not reality.
[34:06] And what I’m talking about is not some hopeless downtrodden. [34:11] Oh, life stinks. [34:12] It’s never getting any better. [34:13] We better just deal with it. [34:15] I’m talking about the opposite of that. [34:17] Actually, I’m talking about real hope.
[34:19] If we try to arrange our life in such a way that our focus and our concern is everything just working out.
[34:29] The assurance of that failing means that that is a ridiculous hope. [34:35] It’s false. [34:35] It’s not going to happen anyway. [34:36] The only real hope is the hope that Jesus is coming back. [34:40] That is the only hope. [34:41] And it’s so assured that Paul can talk of his sin like it’s not him anymore.
[34:47] That hope is so assured that Paul says he’s dead to sin and alive in Christ. [34:52] So it’s only when we live in that hope and that we let that change us that we really start to get somewhere with struggling with sin and with living our lives. [35:03] I think it’s very easy to think that the changes that the resurrection brings in us, this hope that we have. [35:09] Very easy to think about that in terms of sending less and doing more stuff. [35:14] You know, we’re not going to sin because we know we have a future hope. [35:18] Yeah, absolutely true.
[35:19] We’re going to be on mission because we know we have a future hope. [35:23] Absolutely true. [35:25] But I don’t think we consider it enough. [35:29] It also gives us more grace. [35:31] I mean, this understanding gives us more forgiveness because we realize we are not living in a heaven on earth. [35:39] People are going to, just like we do, do things that they don’t understand and do things that they don’t want to do.
[35:46] And we can extend grace and we can extend forgiveness when that happens. [35:50] And this opens up a whole other life of community that God is calling us into. [35:54] And so I hope that you understand when you look at Romans 7 and you see the struggle that you have. [36:02] I hope you take that and I hope you don’t identify with your sin. [36:06] But I hope you extend that grace to your brothers and sisters here in this community. [36:11] Because not that we ignore wrongs that are done, it’s not ignoring.
[36:18] But we realize that we are all on this calling and this mission together to bring Jesus’s mission to the world. [36:23] And if we’re so stuck on what people have done to us and figuring out our lives so that we won’t get hurt, [36:29] we’re never going to take that mission out.
[36:33] So I’m not talking about a hopelessness. [36:35] I’m actually talking about our only hope. [36:38] Ultimately, the key to struggling, I think, is realizing that that struggle is because we’re made for what we don’t yet see. [36:45] All right, we are made now. [36:46] If you are a believer in Jesus, you are made for him. [36:49] You are intended for heaven and you’re struggling because you’re still here and you still have indwell sin.
[36:54] Well, Jesus is going to take care of that. [36:56] But you need to keep struggling because of that truth. [36:59] Your dissatisfaction with this life is because this life isn’t what you were made for. [37:04] But that changes how we live now. [37:06] It changes how we live because we live with a focus on eternity. [37:10] We live with an understanding as we struggle with our sin, this indwelt sin that we’re going to have until we die.
[37:18] And we wish we didn’t. [37:19] But here’s the thing. [37:21] If we didn’t have it, we wouldn’t be looking to Jesus. [37:24] And I don’t understand that. [37:26] But at the same time, I almost am starting to. [37:29] If I didn’t have this indwelt sin, that is this separate thing, I don’t identify with it.
[37:34] I don’t like it. [37:36] If you’re alive, you won’t. [37:38] But if I wasn’t fighting that, I wouldn’t need Jesus anymore. [37:43] I think that’s the point. [37:44] And I think that’s why we can struggle. [37:47] So my encouragement to you this morning, that’s all I’ve got.
[37:51] But my encouragement to you is to keep struggling, struggle well, and struggle together with us. [37:58] Let’s go ahead and pray.
[38:01] God, this morning, I just thank you for your word. [38:08] God, I ask for everyone in here. [38:12] You would teach us to struggle, God. [38:16] Help us to struggle not so that we can be better people in some way. [38:22] God, help us to struggle because we believe in your future glory, God. [38:27] We struggle because we long for heaven.
[38:31] God, we struggle because we long to be with Jesus and to be like Jesus. [38:36] And this life is not good enough. [38:39] That’s why we struggle.
[38:42] God, we pray all these things in Jesus’ name. [38:44] Amen. [38:46] We’re going to move now into a time of communion. [38:48] And we take communion every week here at Village Church. [38:51] And communion is a time to reflect on all that God has done. [38:56] It’s also a time to proclaim the gospel in your life.
[39:02] So if you’re a believer, this communion table is open to you this morning. [39:07] And what I’d like you to do as you’re reflecting on Jesus, as you take communion, [39:13] you’re proclaiming that you believe Jesus’ word. [39:16] And so proclaim that you are going to struggle with your sin because it’s not who you are. [39:23] That’s what you should be thinking about. [39:24] If you’re in here this morning and you’re not a believer,
[39:27] this table is not really for you because it doesn’t make any sense. [39:30] But the whole point of everything that we’re doing this morning [39:34] is if you’re not a believer in Jesus, if you still are dead in your sins, [39:38] you don’t have to be anymore. [39:40] Change like that. [39:42] Come up and talk to us if that’s the case.
[39:44] We’d love to talk to you.