Thank you. I’m glad people are here to keep me focused. Here we go. Is that about right? Yeah, that’ll work. That’ll work. Okay. So if you happen to have your Theology for Mondays book, if not, no big deal. But last week we talked about God’s sovereignty. And the big idea that Pastor Rusty went back to a few times was this idea that God is – nothing catches God by surprise. Nothing catches him by surprise. And his sovereignty, he knows what will happen. He’s omnipresent. He’s omniscient. He’s – what’s the third omni? There are 3 omnis. Omnipotent, that’s it. I was like, I just said 2, and then I forgot the 2 that I said. So God, nothing does catch God by surprise, which hopefully we have a positive reaction to that. Some people don’t, but I think that should give us a great deal of confidence, knowing that nothing bad, nothing good really catches God by surprise. So he asks a few really good questions, but I liked number 2. It says, what is one question you wish God would answer? Why? That’s a really good question.
Well, Terry picked the best question, so now we can move on. No, I mean, it’s true. Why? Like, why all of the things, the way that it’s unfolded from Genesis until Revelation until now, why is that the way that these things had to be? What else do you wish God would answer? Yeah. Yeah.
Than me. What are the next steps? I wonder that often. I don’t know what my life… Who knows what will change. From not wanting to do youth ministry and thinking all the youth ministry majors at school were goofballs to then being a youth pastor and then going and getting my MBA and loving those jobs but then missing the student side and then pivoting back to education of all things and then working on a counseling degree. It’s not… the path that I would have expected ever. So I do, I catch myself wondering that too. It’s like, what am I, am I doing what I’m doing forever? Is this going to change again? Like, I don’t know. We’ll find out, I guess, when we get there. But it does leave you wondering, like, God, what are you doing with this? Like, why am I, yeah. I think that’s a question that plays.
They’re so afraid of picking the wrong thing that it’s kind of that analysis paralysis. There’s so many options now, and they’re aware of all the options, so it makes it even harder for them to then settle on something because they’re petrified if they don’t pass this thing, they won’t get into that college, and then they won’t get that degree, and they won’t get that job, and then everything falls apart. We had spent so much time reminding them. We’re like, guys… We went to like not the most, I mean, there’s a lot of us that went to very normal, unimpressive colleges, and we turned out good. Like we can pay our bills. We have great kids. Quietly not listening. Hey, buddy.
Hi. But it’s such an important thing for us to grapple with that our plans typically we have to hold them so loosely because we just don’t know what to expect. It’s good to make them, but it’s good to also not hold on with an iron fist because God tends to use those to prepare us for what he has next.
The second thing that Pastor Rusty put in the notes was this idea that oftentimes, and Isaiah specifically, he was writing to the Israelites who were enormously tempted always, as we all are, to worship idols. They continually were going back to their idolatry over and over again. And the connection he was making in the notes and in the sermon last week False gods, idolatry is so easy to be deceived by and pulled into. But when we rest in God’s sovereignty, that’s kind of an antidote for idolatry. When we genuinely rest in God’s sovereignty. I think back, I’ve been watching this TV show way too much. You should watch it if you like funny things. It’s called The Promised Land. Has anybody seen it?
I mean, I just giggle the whole way through all the time. If you did not like The Office, it might not be your cup of tea. But my mom hates The Office, and she thinks The Promised Land is very clever. She never straight up told me she thought it was clever. She’s just later texted me and been like, what was the name of that show again? Because she’s telling people about it. And you’re like, hmm. You won’t admit that you liked it, but you’ll tell other people how funny it was. Nevertheless, there’s only 6 episodes. It’s on YouTube now for free. You don’t have to even subscribe to anything. But it’s kind of the funny other side of like post-leaving Egypt and then them in the desert. The reason I say all that.
We all know the story of when the Israelites were upset and scared and frustrated that Moses had been on the mountain for 40 days, and they really thought maybe he was gone. He wasn’t going to come back. What do we do now? And they talk Aaron into creating the golden calf for them to worship. And it’s one of those moments where I think when I read that question, this idea of the false gods that are easy to follow, Even in those moments when Moses has gone up on the mountain and I don’t know what the next step is going to be and I don’t know how it will play out, when I can trust in God’s sovereignty to know the future, to be in control, to want what’s best, it prevents me from being tempted to go worship the lesser things, just like the Israelites and Moses in that moment. So any thoughts from notes from last week’s sermon? Does anybody hate God’s sovereignty?
Does anybody love God’s sovereignty? It’s such a fun word, and it’s so hard to spell. Have you guys ever tried to, I mean, type it out? It’s like, I have to spell it out the way, or I have to say it, like, sovereign, oh, sovereignty, I don’t know, anyway. Antidotes with Brian. Okay, let’s pivot. Everyone loves a good Brian anecdote. All right, Romans. So we gotta dig in. Romans is getting good. If you recall last week, Last week we were in chapter 5. Chapter 5 was great. And chapter 5, it was a turning point in Romans because the first 4 chapters, Paul spends all this time making the case for the Romans, this is why you should believe the gospel. And then in chapter 5, we start to see this pivot point of like, this is now how you live it out. This is how it changes your life. This is how we should live in response to, you know, they called it a restored relationship. But it was verse, and we’ll just read this one verse and then move on to chapter 6. He said in verse 3, we also boast in our afflictions because we know that affliction produces endurance and endurance produces proven character and proven character produces hope.
And that was really where this – that was the big crux of last week was this idea that when we see our affliction in light of the kingdom of God, it changes everything. Not only does it give us perseverance, but it also gives us, in the end, hope. We are not led to despair. But when we see the opposite, when we see our affliction through the lens of the world and we meet it with unbelief, it leads to resentment and erosion of character and despair. And we see it around us all the time. So chapter 5 was when I think Romans got really, like, it was the gut punch. Today, though, we keep that trend, and we’re in Romans 6, and we’re going to read verses 1 through 14.
One through 14. All right. Verse 1. What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware of that? All of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless, so we may no longer be enslaved to sin.” Since a person who has died is freed from sin, now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you too, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, and do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness, but as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law, but under grace. So, there, yeah. No, you’re playing, you’re playing.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Very deep legal theological document. Mm-hmm. questions. So he’s answering, this is to the church of Rome, and I also think that it’s to Paul. So we know he’s probably locked up somewhere, held up, maybe in Ephesus, maybe in Corinth, there’s a couple places he could have been writing this to Rome, but he’s preparing himself for something else. He said, I’m going to go to Rome. Well, I He wouldn’t have needed this level of detail to go to Rome. He’s preparing himself to go to Jerusalem. I know he’s going to Jerusalem. His debate in Jerusalem will be far different than the debate in Rome. Yeah.
But this is, again, he’s organizing. This is how Christianity comes from, how we develop. Yeah. Yeah, of course, yeah. Yeah. No, that’s really good context, and it’s an important thing because a few weeks ago we talked about that in the beginning of Romans. It’s the most theologically dense letter Paul writes. By far it is the most over-explained section of expositing the gospel, which is why sometimes reading it is genuinely hard without the legal mind who can unravel the backwards. Really long sentences. Really long sentences. Yeah. Sentences that you think naturally, you’re like, oh, oops, there was a comma there. It just keeps going. Someone said that chapter 6 is experiential sanctification. That’s a good way of putting that. I like that. I’ll get my pen out. I like that. This is more insights with Brian.
If it’s a word that I don’t spell enough, I have to say it quietly under my breath. It’s bizarre. When kids will randomly be like, what is this? And I’m like, I have to write it down. I can’t tell you what it is. I don’t know. It’s like some sort of mental block. But anyway, anecdotes with Brian. Every time I say something dumb now, I think I’m just going to start saying anecdotes with Brian. This is neat too because when we look at the context of Romans –
Romans 6 is very much that this idea that like we are free an experiential sanctification I like to but it’s reminding us like you are not slaves to sin anymore Like you you’re not bound to sin. You do not have to sin anymore So it’s this chapter that reminds the freedom but then Romans 7 which we’ll get to next week talks about this this continued struggle listen you are free from sin, but you will still wrestle with sin and And then Romans 8 gets into the idea of how do we actually have victory over sin, which is very cool. So we see that, and it’s neat because I think those 3 chapters, which I think the next week is 7 and the week after is 8. Yep, it is. Are neat because it’s very much the daily tension we live in.
Which, again, really you could say all 3 chapters of that experiential sanctification. It’s learning how to live with this new freedom we’ve been given. And it makes sense. We saw that eons ago when we studied Exodus and Leviticus. The Israelites really had a hard time learning how to live as free people. Like they were so used to being bound in slavery and surrounded by paganism. The idea of actually worshiping God in spirit and truth was really hard. And we similarly will still struggle.
We just have the gift of the Holy Spirit. So there’s a question on 46. I like it. It’s a fun question. In what ways does the promise of freedom make you happy? How does freedom make you happy? Or what do you think about when you think about freedom? That I can do what I want. Yeah, that I can do what I want when I want. I’m in the season of life where freedom is the…
Oh, my goodness, there’s a Saturday morning where I don’t have to rush out the door. Like, you know, that’s like that’s the freedom moment. You’re like, oh, we can make pancakes and we can be slow and like a little bit lazy and get caught up versus, you know, leaving the house at 6:30 every morning. What other kind of freedom makes you happy? When you think about things, just being free that makes you happy. What’s that?
I thought someone said something. Relief. Yeah. There’s a sense of just a deep breath of I’m caught up. I don’t know about if you guys are to-do list people. I like my to-do lists. I have my sticky note to-do list. I have my to-do list on the fridge that are like the long house projects. I like the to-do lists. And they’re never…
Very rarely are they ever done. Even when I leave school at the end of the day, there’s always a handful that aren’t done. So they bump to the next day, which is fine. But there’s something so satisfying of like, oh, I crossed it off my list. I don’t have to think about that anymore. And usually it’s something dumb. My upper level classes are all dual credit. So through Missouri State, the kids can sign up and get college credit in high school, which is great. I didn’t get that. It’s really neat. But it’s not a big deal.
But I have to check the list like 3 times during enrollment in September to make sure there’s no errors on the list and everyone’s getting the credit they need. It’s not a big deal. But mixing it into the routine of the class just takes some finesse. And then you get the email, and then the email reminder, and then the triple reminder of like, don’t forget to confirm your list one more time. And it’s not, I mean, it takes 10 minutes. But it’s just one of those things that you have to stop what you’re doing, log into that system, which you have to go look up your password because it’s Missouri State, not Westminster. Again, not a big deal. But once it’s off my list, I’m like, oh, freedom. It’s Friday afternoon. Like, I can breathe. It’s dumb.
But we are that way. It’s nice to have things, to be free from things. You know, the Quarterly makes the comment about debt-free being something that’s such a happy thought for a lot of people, or hearing the words cancer-free or free time. We love it. Kids talk so often about their free periods. They get so excited, like, I have a free period. You’re like, all you do is sit there and just zone out anyway. And they’re like, yeah, but this one’s a free period. I can zone out anyway.
But we love the idea of freedom. So when we think about that, when have you felt the most free? Never. What about long trips? Is there a sense of freedom in just hitting the road?
Yeah, and after you’ve done it a couple times, you do get more comfortable with it. Yeah, that makes sense. That it’s like that becomes the norm. Yeah. Versus the first few are probably way more like, freedom. Yeah, that makes sense. A 15-hour trip coming home is good. Ooh, that’s a good point. Get me off this plane. Get me off the plane. Whenever the kids and I came back from California, I don’t remember how, it was a long day. Because we got to the airport at like 8 in the morning.
And then we had, like, that crazy layover at the world’s most expensive Chick-fil-A at the Phoenix airport. And the guy was mean. But, like, then we – I don’t remember how late we got home, but it was late enough that by the time I got home and, like, everyone’s in bed, I think I just laid face down on the bed for a while, like, under the fan and just, like, decompressed. Like, because it was utter freedom. Like, oh, we’re home now. Brian, I think that nature is very freeing. Me too. It’s like you’re out there and –
Things don’t matter as much. I wrote that in my notes. It’s been a long time since I was a backpacking guide, but getting dropped off by the camp van at a trailhead and knowing I only have to walk in the woods for 5 days was just the most relaxing ultimate freedom. And I know not everybody’s a backpacker, but the idea that I knew my phone didn’t work, and my phone was a flip phone then, but it still didn’t work. Kids don’t understand flip phones either, but…
And you had the food you needed for those days. Like most of it was just pouring hot water over a bag of dehydrated food. I mean it was just the most free feeling of knowing there is very little expected of me besides keeping these kids alive, which they were fine. I also thought maybe other free – like you had to go back in your mind to like when you were a kid. But like when you have a snow day that you wake up to that you didn’t expect –
When you’re kind of hoping it’ll come, you live in that tension all night. You don’t sleep good because you’re so worried. But when you go to bed and you aren’t anticipating a snow day and you wake up and it has snowed and there’s nothing on the agenda, it’s just the best freedom. Because you know you didn’t plan to do anything. You didn’t have a list. You’re just free. It’s a good feeling. And that’s… That’s kind of the preface for getting into this freedom that Paul is talking about that I think is helpful. Let’s reread 1 through 7. 1 through 7. I’ve got to keep watching the clock. Okay. What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore…
We were buried with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we had been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin since a person who has died is freed from sin.
I like the way that I made notes in here and I forgot to mention it before. I can’t see my chaotic notes. But the first bit, like especially verse like 2 and 3, when Paul says, how can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus were also baptized into his death? It’s neat because the way and he writes so smart. I know it’s not the best way to say that intelligently.
But he makes a theological statement there in the beginning. And he explains, no, no, no. You have died to sin with Christ. Like you were baptized into his death. Ergo, you were also raised with him in new life. And then it’s verses 4 through really 10. It’s as though he’s explaining. He’s expositing this idea that he has thrown out. He is helping them understand. Verse 4 starts even with, therefore, we were buried with him in order. It’s the same statement, but he’s explaining it more in depth.
And then he restates in verse 11, so you consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. I like the way that he unfolds that because it helps to understand. Here’s this big idea I want you to understand. Here’s how to unfold it so it makes sense practically. But then I restate it again. It’s good writing. So we see in those first 7 verses that we read, you know, Paul affirms that God’s grace –
does cover the increase of sin. But very quickly, he asked the question at the beginning, what should we say then? Do we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not. It comes right out of chapter 5 where Paul had just been talking about where sin multiplies, grace multiplies, you know, because grace is boundless. Grace is unlimited. But Paul’s quick to remind them it does not mean that we choose to live in sin. It just means that grace covers the sin. So it’s an important caveat he begins with. And I read somewhere, and I’m probably going to, oh yeah, those who do
We’ll come to that question. Actually, let’s just read it. Page 49. There’s a good question. It says, in what ways today might people misunderstand or misuse the concept of grace? Think about today, like how people misunderstand or misuse grace. Because we do it often without really meaning to. I don’t think we wake up and go like, I’m going to use my freedom today. I mean, I hope not. But why do we slip into that so easily or misunderstand what grace really means?
I like that. That’s a good analogy. Yeah. Or even like the get-out-of-jail freak. I mean, it’s just that… I like that. There. Yeah. And I think it’s very like, innocence is not the right word. It is still sin. But there’s that, I don’t have to fight quite as hard against the temptation.
Because I know that there’s a get out of jail free card. Like, I know that there’s grace. I don’t remember where I read this. It may have been one of the commentaries. But the thought for that question, that idea of misuse of grace, was that it proves we have a poor understanding of the gravity of sin. Like, that we really don’t understand the gravity and evil of sin. Because if we understood the gravity and evil of sin, we would not accidentally slip into this idea of like, well… I’m forgiven like it’s okay like it’d be like no this sin is is so agonizingly evil and horrible that i i want it away from me i don’t want to wrestle with this i don’t want to be frustrated by this i don’t want to to accidentally make those choices um but the simplest thing would be to pray take that away yeah
Yeah. He does. He does. It’s okay. I’ve already skipped ahead a couple times on accident. He does. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
And I think that moment is so purposefully ambiguous because then it’s relatable to every single human. We don’t know what Paul’s thorn in his side was. And we never, well, at least this side of eternity, we won’t know. And it doesn’t really matter because in the end, everyone has besetting sin that frustrates them. Everyone. The things that we would not want to speak of, the things we would not want people to know. But in the end…
When we actually grapple with those things, it reminds us of the beauty of grace. But if every temptation is removed, again, Paul says right before, the law came to multiply the trespass, but where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more. But it’s that phrase I’ve used a lot over the years, like when our sin is small, our Jesus is small. Like I don’t need a big savior who can actually save me from real things if I don’t actually really have sinned.
But when we have a real, sincere view of our sin, poor Glenda, when we have a real view of our sin, that gives us a real view and understanding of grace. And this is where I think it’s funny. I was talking to Pastor Rusty after he prefaced the series, and he was like,
“I really tried to make sure that I was keeping it fun because it’s a heavy…” I was like, “Theology is really important though. Because if we have bad theology, I don’t understand my own sin. I don’t understand how grace works. Like, I don’t understand the beauty of the cross without at least a decent foundational theology.” I think part of the struggle is that we don’t want to let go of the sin.
Yeah. I agree. You know, you could ask, would you pray and God would take away the sin? Well, I’m not so sure he would. I think that’s exactly, yeah.
I think it’s human nature. And so our human nature leads us to sin. And the big lie is, ooh, but it’ll be so much fun and it’ll be so good for me. And that’s the big lie. Or it’s not that big of a deal. Or I’ve got this under control. It doesn’t make anything better. Not at all. It makes things worse.
I don’t have it pulled up, so I won’t try and find it. The Devo I’ve been reading this year…
I really love J.C. Ryle. He was a pastor in England like mid-1800s and wrote really beautiful sermons. And this morning’s Devo was literally about how children are born into sin and how when children are left to themselves –
They’re not going to naturally become holy children. They’re going to lean towards sin because we’re born into sin. And he says it very well. I mean, I’m not doing it justice, but the idea that if we as parents aren’t guiding them or shepherding, they’re not going to naturally get there on their own. They’re going to naturally choose sinful tendencies, which is true.
They do naturally tend to go that route. But I think, Dane, you’re right. We don’t always want to get rid of it. And we wouldn’t necessarily say that. We wouldn’t make a list of them and be like, nope, not ready to get rid of it. But deep, deep within, it’s like we’re still holding on. We’re still grasping to it.
Yeah, Terry. The answer was to pray to remove the thorn, but Jesus said no. Mm-hmm.
And sometimes he has us grapple with the thorns in our life to keep us close to him. Amen. Amen. I think that goes back to last week, that progression. Where did I write that? Like seeing our affliction in the light of the cross, our affliction in the light of the cross leads to endurance. The endurance leads to character and the character leads to hope. Like we’re going to have affliction. Like we live in a world that’s broken. So affliction is coming one way or the other.
But I know I talk about high schoolers too much, but I’m just around them all day. I love them so much, but they make me tired. But when they see their affliction, and their afflictions, there are real things that happen. Like they’ve got bad stuff. But a lot of the time their affliction is like, oh, the line was so long at Chick-fil-A I was tardying a class. Like now I have a detention because I’ve been tardying too much. And you’re like, that’s not an affliction.
Like, that’s, you know, but again, if we let it be a tiny affliction, affliction with unbelief versus a belief in the cross leads them to be more resentful. It erodes their character, and it leads to cynicism and despair. But when we see our affliction rightly, it changes everything, which I think is such an important. I love this.
I know we have to only do like 1 chapter a week at best, but like I love the way that Paul builds over and over and over again. It’s hard for me not when I’m prepping to like accidentally reference future chapters because he asks questions and you’re like, oh, he’s going to answer it later. So like I’ll I will mention a few of those, but I won’t. I’ll try not to steal thunder from future weeks. Oh, there’s 1 more question that came to mind, but we got to keep moving. That’s OK. Let’s go ahead and reread 8 through 11, 8 through 11.
So much good stuff today. Okay, verse 8. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you too, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
I think verse 11 is like the punch. It’s the phrase that like, this is what I want you to understand. It’s like when your teacher or your pastor or someone’s like, if you literally zoned out and heard nothing else, this is the phrase. Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And it explains very succinctly, we are not bound to sin because we have died to the sin through Jesus.
But you are alive now to live for God because of Christ Jesus, because he says in Christ Jesus restates it so beautifully. So there’s oh, man, there’s a couple of really good questions here. How do you deal with temptation? Like what are the what have you found in your life to be the best ways to deal with temptation?
Like the old pastor said, you keep doing that, it’s going to cause you to go blind. I’m just going to keep doing it until I need glasses. Sometimes I wonder.
I feel like this is probably not true. Everyone in my family wears glasses. But as a 4th grader getting glasses, I always wondered, I’m like, did I read in the dark too much? My mom always told me not to do that, and I did it anyway. Was it my fault? I don’t think it was. My grandma was super blind when she did it. But still, you always wonder. But what is the common advice we give people when we say how to help them avoid temptation?
Yeah, run, flee. I mean, my small group boys last year at school, that topic came up quite a bit. They were actually shockingly honest. They were like, I don’t like that I make bad choices on the weekends at parties. Like, I don’t. I actually hate it. But I don’t know what to do. And I’m like, you run. Like, you literally run the other direction. Because they were grappling with it. They were like, okay, I’m going to Mizzou.
I don’t actually want to rush because I’ve gone to a few things like on visit weekends and it’s just bad news. Like I don’t want to be a part of that. And I know if I – like that was the right choice then. If you know that’s going to be a temptation, then you run the other way. And they were like, oh, okay. I’m like, why is this new news to you? But it reminded me. It was a good – it’s like we forget because we don’t always – we want to let go of the sin, but we don’t want to let go of the sin.
So it’s hard to run the other direction. How else do we encourage people to deal with temptation? I heard it said once that if, and temptations are very easily turned into idols. Like when we idolize the sin, when we cling on to secret sin. And I don’t know if I’ll say it right.
The only way to unseat an idol, or by extension, sin that leads to idolatry, is with a greater love. And the only thing that can rule over our hearts, besides idolatry, is Jesus. And it sounds very easy to say, well, the best way to deal with temptation is Jesus. Because it’s not practical, it’s very high. But practically speaking…
The more that we… Bill, we talked about this on Wednesday night, making the Bible our hobby. Not just the thing that we study once in a while, but that we actually learn to abide. Because abide does not mean, oh, I read it on Sundays. Abide means it’s the thing that I go back to over and over and over again.
It’s not unlike after the fire. Like I told you, I used to walk the parking lot at nighttime and I would just pray Psalm 23. That was the 1 I had memorized. So that was the 1 that just, when you didn’t know what to pray, that’s what came to mind. I genuinely do think memorizing scripture is 1 of the best ways to deal with temptation. Like I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen it work. People don’t like that answer though, because they’re like, oh, but there’s gotta be a new, fancier, better way now. It’s 2026. Nope.
Same 1. Same 1. And I still think it works. Writing scripture in our heart actually works. I forgot to go look into that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah yeah which is pretty cool i i need to figure it out i there’s an i don’t know my phone line there’s a oh it’s over there okay i lose stuff all the time this is why claire makes me wear an apple watch because otherwise i just leave stuff and it’s fine um
I didn’t eat it that bad anyway. But there’s an app that I have that I really like called Conform. And this guy has made it himself, like single guy, like not a big team of tech people. But he programmed this app that has – it has Bible reading. It has an audio Bible built in. It has a prayer section. It has all these nice features. And I think the other day it said in the update something about –
I don’t know what it called it, but whatever you’re describing, it sounded like that. Like, you could set a block. So, like, you had to read your Bible before you could go do anything besides, like, phone. There’s two or three apps that do that, but what I think is funny is they have, like, a 7-day free period, and they won’t pay so much a month to be able to keep yourself from going to your apps. Like, I don’t need to pay another, like… I’m like, I’ll pay another subscription not to do my other subscriptions.
Yeah. There was a, there was a, I think I saw a while back, I don’t remember their call, but it was like a little charging box for your phones and stuff. And the whole idea was that, you know, you put this pretty wooden box on your kitchen island, you can plug in everybody’s phones and then you close it and you get like points for not opening the box. But it’s not, it was not like, oh, I buy the $300 box and now I’m good. You had to buy the $300 box and pay like 90 bucks a year. And I’m like,
This is not worth 90 a year. 9 a year maybe, but 90 feels a stretch. It’s like I could also just leave my phone in the car. Or you could put it in there and just put a lock on it. Right, yeah. Oh, man. But I do genuinely think.
Writing scripture on our hearts and our minds, it’s 1 of the best tools we have. I mean, if it’s referred to, scripture refers to itself as the sword of the spirit, that it rightly divides truth from lie. It’s 1 of the best possible tools we have. It’s been given to us and never before have we had such amazing access to them. And we have even different versions. We have the super literal, we have the more paraphrased, we have audio Bibles, we have apps. There’s just no reason not to be deeply rooted in scripture.
And I think it’s our best tool against dealing with temptation. The question on 51, before we move on to the last section, says, what does it mean to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God? I like the second part of the question the best. What does this look like practically in our lives? So practically in our lives, what does it look like to be dead to sin but alive to God?
Dead to sin, but alive to God. You’re following his plan for your life. Yeah, I think that’s the simplest way to put it. You have this idea, and we’ll get to this in this last section here in a second. There is a way that our life looks when we’re dead to sin and alive to God. And there is a way that life looks when it is deeply rooted in sin. We know it. We don’t like it, but we know it. And practically speaking…
I think it’s easy to look at the extremes. We love extremes. But the middle in between, it’s black and white on both ends. All that gray in the middle is where we live. And that means we have to seek the discernment enough to know, where am I still… What sin do I need to destroy? Where am I still holding on? And that takes a great deal of humility and a lot of…
We don’t like that. We hold on to sin. We’ve hidden sin. It takes a lot of humility to say, yeah, this is real, and I hate it, and I need to weed it out. This needs to be put to death. But that’s the challenge that we’re called to. The quarterly makes this comment, but I like it because accounting language makes sense to me.
Believers must consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The word consider is actually an accounting term. It could be translated as count, credit, or think. So it carries the challenge to accept God’s words as true. We are dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus. If you remember from accounting class many, many moons ago, or if you never took accounting class, this is new information. Debits on the left, credits on the right when you’re looking at T-accounts.
And accounts have to end balance. And Paul’s using accounting terms because it was that clear and succinct the way he was describing this, that this was, you have now been, this has been taken, this has been given in the place of, and that was how we ought to live. Which leads us to the last few verses that we need to read because they’re just my favorite. So let’s read 12 through 14.
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires and do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you because you were not under the law, but under grace.
Man, I like this a lot because for all of the legal, very specific, detailed wording that Paul uses, this last bit, it feels the most practical. It’s the part that helps me to understand, okay, you just told me all this. Now what do I do with it? How do I live this well? So there’s a question I think is interesting and worth asking. It uses the word weapon, and it says multiple times,
Weapons for unrighteousness or weapons for righteousness? What do you think… What are weapons or tools that a soldier needs for battle? Like, what does a soldier need to be about? Like, maybe character or tool. Like, what does he need to be ready for battle?
Courage, discipline, and training. Yeah, those are huge. I mean, alertness. Like, courage is huge. Like, this…
What’s the word? It’s like tip of my, like resolve. Like I know what I’m doing and I have my orders and I go. A willingness to die for the cause. Yeah, a willingness to die for the cause. Ooh, that’s good. Think about now, how do we contrast that with what we need for spiritual battle? Think about like, so that’s soldier battle, but now spiritual battle. Like how does that maybe change?
There’s overlap for sure. It’s very Venn diagram. Well, as you said, I think it’s… Yes, deeply still need courage. That’s on the Venn diagram middle part. As you said earlier, I think you have to be in the word a lot. Yeah. And I think you have to be in prayer and an active conversation with Christ. Yeah. And listen to him. And actually listen. I wrote that down of like,
There has to be a posture of obedience. Not a posture of I’m going to push back all the time on you, God, but a posture of I want to obey. Because, again, it doesn’t mean we obey perfectly. We still sin and we mess up. But there’s a posture that, like, I want obedience to be my directive. Being in the word and in prayer and communication with God is our training for the spiritual battle. Amen.
Absolutely. I think the more we’re in the word and in prayer, we’re quicker to confess and repent of sin, which then prepares us to be more watchful for temptation in the future. And if I’m not in the word, I’m not in prayer, probably not going to be that watchful for temptation, which means it’s a lot harder to battle against temptation and choose obedience because I haven’t prepared. It’s an important thought that I think is worth mentioning.
wrestling with once in a while um so so paul in these verses when we look back i love when he uses the man never thought i would like the word therefore so much but the last few years it’s become a favorite word therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so you obey its desires like it can’t be the king like pursuing sin accepting that as as life should not be okay yeah terry
In verse 13, the New American Standard translates it, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. The verb tense there, presenting, once and for all event. Ooh, once and for all. Yeah. That’s good. You either do it or you don’t. You either do it or don’t. I like that. That’s a good way to translate. This is where…
Using I’m I like my paper Bible more than my digital Bible But I also really love the Bible app that I have because it is nice when you can like pivot back and forth from Like there are some passages reading it and a lighter translation Helps you get to the story more but then there’s others were like man going deep and pulling in the literal helps
Bless you. This was the if this, then that. Bless you. Of this moment. And it’s important to understand. I love that. Well, then when we read that, then it keeps going in 13. But as those who are alive from the dead, like we’ve been made alive. It’s easy to read it and just kind of like go on to the next little because of the comma. So you just keep going. But but as those who are alive from the dead, we are not dead to sin anymore.
Offer ourselves to God, all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. He doesn’t say the word redemption, but that’s redemption. Like previously, you were instruments or you were used as weapons for unrighteousness, living under sin. But now that you live in Christ, now you have not only the ability, but you have the power to actually live as weapons for righteousness.
It’s somewhere in the quarter that it made that comment, and I don’t know if I’ll find it fast enough. Yeah. Hopefully I find it. It makes the comment that…
We tend to think about this passage as, oh, I’m now free. That’s neat. Like I can live for Jesus now. That’s neat. It’s like, no, no, no. Not only are you set free now because of living in Jesus, you have the power to live righteous lives. And that’s something that’s just easy to forget because we still live in a broken, sinful world. So it makes sin excusable annoyingly. But he lands on verse 14 very emphatically for sin will not rule over you.
Because you are not under the law, but under grace. You know, grace is not just a nice thing that we get when we sin. Grace gives us power to obey. I’ll say, like, grace is not just the thing that’s good forgiveness. Like, yeah, you’ve been given grace. No, no, no. Like, grace literally is the power to obey, which is incredible. We’ll unpack it in a second. But there’s a question there on 53.
It says, in what ways do you still act as if sin is your master? How can you practically offer yourself to God today? What do you think? In what ways do we still get stuck living under the lordship of sin? We keep doing the same sin over and over again, and we don’t find ways to fight against that sin.
What else do we think? How do we practically, how do we turn that and offer ourselves to God and worship?
I think you have to recognize it and actually repent and say, oh, man, I messed up. And Jesus, will you forgive that? Yeah. Well, I mean, you have to. Yep. I think confession, this is a weird thought, and I’ve been mulling this for a few months. But the state of, like, American church today, I don’t know about the rest of the world, but at least American church today, I do not hear –
often spoken about confession and repentance. It’s very, this sounds mean, but it’s very consumer focused. It’s like, well, this is what Jesus does for you versus like, no, no, you need to humble yourself and surrender and confess the sin. Like, of course you have new life and grace and abundant grace and life under Jesus, under grace. But we kind of have, I don’t know. I think I’ve seen, like, as I’ve been mulling on this, like a shift in the last like I don’t know, this is 2026, probably like 40 years, that it’s gone from like a confessional faith to a very like me-centered faith. And our faith never should have been me-centered. It should have been Jesus-centered. But…
I don’t know. It’s weird. But, you know, we have iPads and iPhones. Like, I isn’t everything. Like, it’s all about us all the time. And I think that’s an even harder thing for believers to get out of the habit of. Everything’s about me. Even my log on to Amazon. Welcome, Brian. I mean, like, everything’s about me. Like, it’s, anyway, that’s my soapbox. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
*note — it seems to have cut off…
