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SIN / SELF

Self Talk

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 27 July 2025 · Romans 7:13-25 · 48:19 · 7,120 words

Romans S14 · 7:13-25 Holly

Listen to this message

Romans 7:13‑25 is the passage examined, where Paul gives an honest, autobiographical sketch of the internal war between the desire to keep God’s law and the flesh’s pull toward sin. The speaker explains that the law reveals how powerless we are on our own and that believers face this battle daily. He calls the hearer to honest self‑examination, confession of the struggle, and surrender of the fight to Christ. The invitation is to trust in God’s grace and stop relying on personal effort.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

opposition 17 internal 13 battle 21 self 22 flesh 32 desire 25 war 16 golf 8 describe 17 inside 14 hulk 4 video 8

Topics

Sin 9 The Law 4 The Holy Spirit 4 Grace 2 Prayer 2 The Flesh 1 Salvation 1 Faith 1

Scripture referenced 32

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 7 0:51 Romans 7 0:51 Romans 7:13-25 0:51 Romans 7:13-25 1:28 Romans 7 10:12 Romans 3 14:10 Matthew 26 17:23 Romans 7 17:44 Romans 7:18 17:44 Romans 7:18 18:45 Romans 7:15 19:04 Romans 7:19 19:04 Romans 7:15 19:28 Romans 7:19 19:42 Romans 7:15 20:43 Romans 7:19 25:33 Romans 7:21 25:38 Romans 7:21 25:44 Romans 8 28:47 Romans 8:24-25 29:44 Romans 8:24 29:48 Isaiah 6 30:14 Romans 7 30:39 Matthew 5 35:16 Romans 7 36:54 Matthew 5 39:36 Romans 7:24 40:41 Romans 7 41:22 Romans 7 41:23 Romans 7 45:17 Romans 7 46:46 Romans 7 47:53

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:39. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

We are going to continue in our Romans series, and so if you have a Bible, a device, something to follow along or read along,

we're going to finish up Romans chapter 7, chapter 7 this morning, looking at the last 12 verses, verses 13 through 25.

And so I always encourage you to bring a Bible, bring a device.

If you're not sure what app to download, you can download the Bible app.

It's got a great way.

Or our River Church app has the Bible in it.

You can pull up different translations.

I read out of the English Standard Translation or English Standard Version.

And so you say, why do you do that?

Well, all of our curriculum is in that, and so we try to tie that all together.

And so we'll be looking at verses 13 through 25 this morning.

But before we get there,

I've loved preaching through Romans.

It has stretched me.

I've talked to some of you.

You're like, man, this is a great, great series.

I'm glad you are enjoying it because our goal really is to deep dive for, I think it's like 32 or 33 weeks, the book of Romans.

Again, we will not be able to deal with every single word and topic in this book.

It is so doctrinally rich.

There is so much in it.

And so I always encourage you to read along, follow along.

There's a daily devotion that gets sent out.

It's also on our app as well as a Bible study or a study guide that is a once a week look at what we'll be preaching and hopefully tying to exactly what the chapter and verses will be talking about.

And so let's look at verse 13 this morning.

This is the Apostle Paul again writing to the Christians.

In Rome says in verse 13, did that, which is good, then bring death to me by no means.

It was sin producing death in me through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might be come sinful beyond measure.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh.

Some of your translations may say.

I am unspiritual.

He that's that same translation.

Paul is is identified identifying himself as one that has sinned.

And he says, I am sold under sin.

For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not know what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good.

So now it is no longer what I no longer.

I.

Who do it, but sin that dwells within me, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out, for I do not do the good I want for the evil.

I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see my members and other law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.

Our Lord.

So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

Would you join me in prayer?

We'll look at that passage this morning.

God, we love you.

We praise you.

We honor you.

We glorify you.

God, thank you for your word.

Thank you for your church.

Thank you for your son, Jesus, dying on a cross for our sins.

God, thank you for your Holy Spirit sending him to guide and comfort and correct us.

God, I pray that you move in our hearts this morning.

God, I pray that you move through my words.

God, thank you for what you have done over the last couple of weeks.

I just stand amazed.

I stand amazed celebrating your work, what you've done.

We honor you, God.

We are here for you.

We sing about you.

We preach about you.

God, we're here gathered in your name.

We honor you.

God, we praise you.

We love you.

It's in your name I pray, in the name of Jesus.

Passage, and we'll get to it this morning.

And I really, really enjoy it.

And I was telling some of you already this morning just how excited I am to be able to preach this.

I love competition.

Some of you know me.

I love competing.

If we'd have tried to compete in eating pancakes this morning, I would have done everything I could to beat you, okay?

I love to compete.

Any sort of competition, if that's board games, my wife harasses me because I refuse to let my kids win.

And so if you are that kind of parent, that's cool.

I like to win.

That's all right.

And so she's like, really?

You're wrestling your four-year-old?

I know.

She is not pinning me one time, all right?

And so I love competition.

And so it's just something I've tried to as an adult.

You're like, really?

This is something you're still battling?

Tried to mature out of some of the stupidity that comes with that.

And some of the pride, honestly.

And so.

Working through that.

But there's a game that I have really fallen in love with over the last 10 years.

It's called golf.

And so if you've ever golfed, it is a game that will drive you crazy, okay?

You are competing against others, but much of golf is you are competing against yourself.

And so one day you'll look like a PGA professional.

The next day you look like you shouldn't be on a putt-putt course.

It really is.

It's hole-to-hole or shot-to-shot.

And so I really honestly strive to be better at it.

I'm not bad at it.

And so trying to get better.

And so it is a game that is just a lot, a lot of fun.

My wife has started to play a little bit.

And so a few years ago she said, hey, we'd like to, why don't we go out and play golf together?

I said, I'm not sure you want to do that, all right?

And so because it's a focused thing.

And for me, I'm just trying to.

I'm trying not to stink, honestly, all right?

And so we go out and I remember hitting a bad shot.

And there's this thing in golf.

It's looked off.

It's called self-talk.

And so you're like, what is self-talk?

For most sane people, it's somebody that's talking to themself, okay?

All right?

And you're like, you do this?

Well, I guess I'm guilty, all right?

And so sports makes you do that.

And no sport other than golf.

It's even close.

You begin to talk at yourself, okay?

You begin to self-talk.

And so my wife looked at me and go, what are you doing?

And so I'm talking to myself, all right?

And so it's this idea that you're self-talking.

Hey, do this.

Focus on this.

Don't stink, all right?

And so these are the things that happen.

And you're saying, do you do this on the golf course?

I do, all right?

And so this idea of self-talk.

I looked it up, actually.

Self-talk in golf refers to the internal and external dialogue

golfers use during a round.

I like this.

It can be positive or negative

and significantly impacts a golfer's mood,

body language, and ultimately their performance.

And so for some of you golfers, you know exactly.

Now you have a word for it.

Others of you just look at us like we're insane, okay?

All right?

I realize that.

But I...

I...

I share that illustration, this idea of self-talk.

Because I think as I read this passage,

I think the Apostle Paul is giving us an external look

at what is happening internally.

He's giving us a write-up of self-talk,

of what is happening in his life,

what is happening in his brain,

what is happening in his heart,

what this dialogue that is happening.

And much of Romans 7 is Paul allowing us to experience,

to really get an inside or a backstage

or a behind-the-curtain look

at the experiences in his life.

A real, true autobiographical sketch

of what is going on in his head.

And I know that's scary.

For many of us, you're like,

no one needs to know what's going on in my head.

I understand that.

But Paul, here in this passage,

is giving us a self-portrait, if you will.

He's describing himself as one that loves the law of God.

And longs to please the Lord.

I love that.

That's great.

I hope that's your desire this morning.

That's my desire.

I love the word of God.

I desire to please God with everything I say and do.

But the reality is,

I miss that mark more times than I would like to admit.

I miss that mark more times

than anyone really honestly needs to know about.

And I think that's the truth.

Let me rephrase that.

I know that's the truth.

Most of us in this room,

and Paul ends this chapter,

towards the end is this idea of failing or missing the mark

because he's trying to do it on his own strength

or his own merit.

The Bible describes our good works as filthy rags.

And so we strive to honor the Lord.

We strive to glorify him.

We strive to honor what God's word says.

And yet we are in constant, honestly, opposition to it

with our faith.

With our actions.

And Paul gives us much of,

and I use that illustration at the front end,

and I'll keep pulling us back to this

because Paul gives us what this self-talk looks like.

This is what's happening and going on in my life.

And I'm going to give you a preview.

And the truth of the matter is,

I think for most of us,

if we were to truly be honest with ourselves this morning,

we have this exact conversation with our own self-talk.

Or should we?

Paul gives us a look at this battle or war that is raging.

He describes that at the end.

This war that is raging between the battle of our spirit

and the battle of our flesh.

And you're sitting here today or joining us online,

wherever you find yourself.

What does that actually mean?

Well, we are born with a sinful flesh.

A flesh that desires everything in opposition to God.

Every single one of us.

Every one of us is born with that flesh.

I love the great illustration or an example.

You don't have to teach a toddler to be selfish.

They somehow are already learned to do that.

That word of mine and throwing a fit, right?

If you have toddlers, have grandkids, you have kids,

if you're trying to figure out what that is,

we'll pause and let you visit the nursery

just for a few minutes this morning, all right?

Right?

We've all watched that.

And the truth of the matter is,

is I'm 40 and I still throw fits.

Thank you.

I'm glad somebody else laughed because that's the,

you're like, oh, I think that's too truthful.

That's the truth of the matter is we are selfish.

We have this flesh inside of us

that desires to do things in opposition with God.

And so we are in opposition or at war

as much of the beginning of Romans describes.

The first three chapters are great descriptions

of our opposition, of our sin-filled lives.

I'm glad Romans 3 is very clear for all have sinned.

There's not one of us that is, hey, you know what?

I know everyone else struggles with this thing called sin,

but I've got it all together.

That would be a lie and you're sinning.

And for us is identifying and realizing

that this sinful flesh is in me.

And yet God in his great grace and his great mercy

loves me and desires a relationship with me

in spite of my flesh and send his son,

Jesus, to me.

Jesus, to die on a cross for my sins

so that I could be saved.

And then I came to the realization of my need

for Christ in my life and I confessed my sins

and I believe that Jesus Christ came,

died on a cross, rose again, and I was saved.

Many of you sitting here in this room this morning

have done that.

You've confessed your sin.

You believe that Jesus is who he says he is

and he's come to live inside your life.

And at that moment, the very spirit of God

comes to live inside of you.

And ultimately,

salvation, you begin with a declaration of war.

You're saying, really?

Yeah, not just to the devil,

not just to the spirits of darkness,

not just to hell,

but you've declared a war

with the spirit of God to your flesh.

And every single one of us,

and it's not simply just the old cartoon

of the good and the bad on your shoulders, right?

Was it black and white or sometimes it's red?

I don't know.

I forget the colors in it,

but you know what I'm talking about?

It's more than that.

It's really, it begins a internal struggle for us

as a believer in Jesus Christ.

And Paul gives us this internal struggle

with a self, very clear, biographical look.

Like, hey, this is what's going on in my life.

I'm gonna allow you to look at it.

There's some commentators or some that read this passage

that he's describing a church

or he's describing a,

one time struggle with believers.

I don't believe that.

I actually believe the apostle Paul in Romans seven

is giving us a look.

That's why he uses the word I so many times.

And we, I want you to get a good look

at what is going on, not only in my heart,

but in my head as I strive to serve

and to love and to honor God,

because you are going to go through the same struggles.

And I think Paul is giving us this look.

He's describing himself as a,

as a man of two natures.

Jesus even speaks to this as he is in the garden of Gethsemane

hours before he would lay down his life

for you and I on the cross,

be arrested, mocked, stripped and die for you and I.

He's in the garden.

He's praying, not my will,

but yours be done to his father.

What does he do to his closest followers?

He says, hey, stay here and pray.

He says in Matthew chapter 26,

the spirit indeed is willing,

but the flesh is weak.

He's describing this, this opposition, this battle.

Then he looks, I'm going to,

I'm going to go forward and then come back.

Okay.

We're going to look at verse 18 of chapter seven.

He says, for I know that nothing good dwells in me

that is in my flesh.

That is a monumental statement.

This is a cornerstone piece.

I believe of our understanding of our need for Jesus Christ,

in our doctrine of understanding who God is

and what his great love for us.

We have nothing good in our flesh,

meaning outside of God, I have no good.

I am a depraved sinner,

yet God in his great mercy and love loved me

and sent Jesus for me.

And so I've constantly, you may have heard me say this.

There's no good in me without the God in me,

because that is so important for us to understand.

Like, hey, you know what?

I've done some good things.

If it was outside of God, it's not good.

Meaning it came from my flesh.

And so at some level, there was no good in it.

It says, it continues in verse 18,

for I have the desire to do what is right,

but not the ability to carry it out.

I cannot in my flesh honor God, only in my spirit.

But then verse 15 and verse 19, they're very similar.

And I'm going to tie them together

because I think the only thing that I can do is to do what is right.

And I'm going to tie them together because I think the only thing that I can do is to do what is right.

This will connect with, I will say, a huge percentage of us this morning.

I have been excited to preach this passage all week

because it just speaks directly towards, I think, this self-talk,

this internal struggle that many of us have.

Verse 15, it says,

for I do not understand my own actions,

for I do not do what I want,

but I do the very thing I hate.

And then let's look at verse 19.

For I do.

Not do the good I want,

but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Man, I'll tell you this.

I read this and I connect with the Apostle Paul.

I think we see his humanity stand out here.

We can almost miss this and think,

oh my gosh, this is the Apostle Paul.

He wrote 13 books of the New Testament.

Wow, this is the Apostle Paul

where Jesus literally shone his light directly on him

on the road to Damascus.

It was incredible.

Incredible redemptive power story.

God did incredible things for him,

but you can almost miss out on his humanity here.

Paul, a human being.

Paul, one that struggled with sin.

Paul, one that still sinned.

He calls himself later in his writings,

a chief sinner.

One that battles this internal flesh

and his internal spirit.

And then he says in verse 15,

I don't even understand what I'm doing.

Why?

I'm trying to honor God.

I'm trying to glorify him.

I'm trying to follow him.

And then, this is Caleb's statement,

not Paul's statement.

And then I go do something dumb.

To go, what are you doing?

To the Lord, you just sang about him.

You just were baptized.

You just preached about him.

And then you acted, I'm sorry, like an idiot.

I'm giving you my internal talk, okay?

All right?

This is about balls.

So our response is going,

man, I want to serve the Lord.

I want to follow him.

And yet, do you understand why I did that?

I don't know if this happened.

I don't know if this happens in your life,

but it happens more than I would like

to talk about this morning.

Where things come out of my mouth and I go,

what in the world were you thinking?

You're supposed to be a pastor.

You're supposed to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

And you said that?

I love about this passage.

It's not a freedom to be one that struggles with sin.

That's not what this is about

because we preached on that a few weeks ago.

Don't continue to sin that grace may abound.

God forbid, right?

This is not an abuse of the grace of God,

but this is a real example.

A nation of understanding the grace of God

and going, God, I'm trying to serve you.

And yet, thank you for your patience with me

because there are so many times

that I will leave the gathering on a Sunday morning.

God, you did some incredible things.

You baptized people.

You got saved.

We were singing about you.

And then I get in my car

and somebody cuts me off on I-75

and I lose my mind.

That happens to all of us, right?

Or just the guy that just got done preaching.

Come on, love this.

And maybe I shouldn't love it.

I don't know.

I say that and I almost correct myself

because I think, man, I don't love that

the apostle Paul struggled with sin,

but I connect with it.

Connect with it and go,

man, I don't even understand my own actions.

I look back as I put my head on my pillow

and go, Caleb, what were you thinking today?

And then I think it gives us a real look

at the very grace of God

in a true understanding way.

God still loves me in spite of the stupidity that I do.

But still the struggle,

that's this internal flesh,

and the internal spirit battle,

and God's going, hey, you know what?

I still love you.

You're still my child.

You have victory over sin.

You have victory over death.

You have victory over the hell

by blood of Jesus Christ.

And yet you're still going to struggle

with this war that is waging inside of you.

One translation I read,

the apostle Paul describes this as

his flesh becoming an invader or a master.

And so it begins,

to have this internal battle.

I'm thankful for this internal battle

that I'm able to see written down by the apostle Paul

because it helps me begin to go,

yeah, this is happening inside of me.

I can connect with this.

I'm not sure if that's you this morning,

but I think it probably is most of us.

And I'm grateful when Jesus says

we can't serve two masters.

And a youth pastor that always says this,

which dog are you going to feed?

I always thought it's echoed in my head.

And I heard it 25 years ago,

probably long ago.

Which dog are you going to feed?

Because the more you feed a dog,

the more he wants to eat.

And there you're going to feed your flesh.

You're going to feed your spirit.

And feeding the things of the flesh,

you call it Galatians,

those fruit,

those fruits of the flesh

or fruits of the spirit.

Very clear.

Fruits of the spirit,

love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control.

Are those pouring out of your life

or are the things of this world?

Are we pouring them into our lives?

See, Paul says,

I don't even understand my own actions.

I do not do what I want.

I do not do what I want.

My desire is to honor God.

And then I do the thing that I hate.

Verse 19, he says,

I keep doing the evil.

But I love verse 21

because I think it,

verse 21 gives us a real look at,

I think,

this temptation that happens to many of us.

So I find it to be a law

that when I want to do right,

hopefully that's your desire this morning.

Hopefully that's our desire

as followers of Jesus Christ,

desire to do right,

to honor what God's,

law has commanded us to do,

to follow his word,

to glorify him

with everything we say or do.

Paul says,

when I find that I want to do that right,

evil lies close at hand.

Evil is in opposition

to your seeking to follow Jesus Christ.

This is not a,

I don't just use that word war

as something flippant.

You want to use conflict

that happens inside of you?

But I believe in every single believer.

As soon as you become a believer there,

you've declared war on the flesh

and your desire to honor God.

There's a battle inside us

on a constant basis.

And for us as followers of Jesus Christ,

we desire to honor him.

We desire to serve him.

We desire to worship him

with everything,

our words,

how we raise our kids,

how we love our wives,

how we love our husbands,

how we sing,

how we do our job,

how we do everything in our life

is to,

seek to glorify him.

And yet there is an opposition to that.

I wish I could get up and say,

hey, guess what?

You've received Jesus Christ.

You're never going to have any opposition.

But everyone in here would laugh, right?

Because that's not true.

If we really wanted to be very, very,

I would say real raw this morning,

we're not going to,

don't feel like,

don't put some pressure on you.

But every single one of us go,

man, I know the opposition

way more than I would like to admit.

And I know what that opposition looks like.

Man, I tried to honor God.

This week at work and man,

it didn't work.

It was an opposition to it.

Yeah, that's why the Bible describes

the devil as one that is seeking to devour,

to destroy your life.

That's not just for teenagers,

but it's teenagers at camp.

Yeah, the goal of the devil

is to destroy your life.

But guess what?

Husband, wife, grandparents,

follower of Jesus.

Guess what?

The devil's goal is to destroy.

He is in opposition to that spirit.

And for us is understanding

that there is an opposition.

There is a defense to that

and understanding.

How do we battle through that?

Much of August,

we're going to walk through Romans chapter eight.

It's what do I do with that?

There's a opposition.

Well, guess what?

You're not left helpless.

You're not left helpless as a believer.

It's like, oh my goodness,

I guess I'm just helpless to this.

No, no, no.

We are put on offense.

What?

By the very spirit of God living inside of us.

And so we have the Holy Spirit,

living inside of us

where the Holy Spirit has set us free,

makes us a son and daughter,

helps us in our weaknesses

and then gives us a victory.

That's what the spirit of God lives inside of us to do.

And the reality is many of us lose sight of that.

We misunderstand, okay,

what is this actually looking like?

And so stay with us through the month of August.

That's what we're going to talk about.

Those at that in each week

is what really the spirit of God does for us

and ultimately helps us to accomplish.

But where I want to land this morning,

just as we wrap up this morning,

look at verse 24 and 25.

Paul says in verse 24,

wretched man that I am,

who will deliver me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Then I myself serve the law of God with my mind,

but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

Paul here echoes the words of the prophet Isaiah

in Isaiah chapter six, five,

where he calls himself a wretched man.

When does he call himself a wretched man?

When he sees his sin.

The adjective here, wretched, means miserable,

distress, condition, or sin has destructed him.

What I love is Paul's understanding

at the end of chapter seven,

he comes to the end of himself,

comes to the end of himself.

I cannot do this on my own.

I am a wretched, broken sinner,

yet by the very grace of God,

this battle lives inside of me

and I want to empower,

and give life to the very spirit inside of me.

This week, one of my childhood heroes passed away.

I'm not talking about Isaiah Osborne, okay?

All right?

Hulk Hogan, come on.

I like, man, it's funny.

My dad picked me up from the airport yesterday.

He said, oh, your daughter, Colby, was asking your mom,

what were you like as a kid?

And who did you like?

And my mom knew one of my childhood heroes was Hulk Hogan.

And so I loved Hogan.

I loved WWF as a kid,

watched it on Saturdays.

And so, man, like, man, it's fake.

I know, so was the NFL,

but that's, we're not going to get to that, all right?

Just kidding, sorry.

Just kidding, just kidding.

All right, sorry.

We won't get off on that tangent, all right?

But I loved it.

And so my wife is like, I'm sitting in Rome.

We went to Rome for our anniversary.

And she's like, what are you doing?

I was watching video after video after video after video

about Hulk Hogan.

It's true.

And so she's like, really?

I said, yeah, I really,

it's, I told my brothers, I said,

if somebody gets some protection, I'm Mr. T.

Because if we lose him,

I don't know where he's going to be, right?

And so, but I love it.

And so I came across a video this week.

And I didn't, I had never seen before.

And it was Hulk Hogan's testimony.

And I watched it.

I was really, it was,

he shared a couple of testimony videos.

I shared it with a couple of friends

about him receiving Christ at the age of 14

and shared about his confessing.

And it's just, it was a good video.

And he talked,

he talked about living his life on his own.

Lived life on his own.

I wanted to do things that he wanted to do.

And I was like, man, doesn't that describe many of us?

So he had 14.

He describes this battle that began in him.

Then he describes one of the greatest days of his life,

his rededication.

I've seen the video maybe

where he was baptized 18 months ago.

I was a little Southern Baptist church in Florida.

And he describes it.

It just echoes and it tied directly to my message.

I just went, oh, this is so incredible.

He said, I just came to the end of all of this.

I thought, wow, isn't that what we're described to do?

Coming to the end.

I'm coming to the end of myself.

I can no longer battle this war.

I can no longer wage this war on my own.

I cannot do this.

See, the reality is for many of us,

we try to battle that war of spirit and flesh on our own.

And the truth of the matter is we struggle

and are defeated more and more.

More than we'd like to talk about.

Our flesh to dominate, to invade our desires.

We allow our flesh to destroy good intentions.

We allow our flesh to lead us in opposition to God

and never enable, empower,

or really surrender our lives to the very spirit of God.

Even preaching at you this morning,

you think, man, he's really passionate about this.

I'm passionate about it because this is something

that I've been battling with much of my life.

This internal self-talk, this internal struggle that,

yes, I desire to honor God.

Yes, and yet I constantly stumble and do something stupid

and then go, God, that was not my desire.

I'm thankful for your grace.

I don't know if you're cheering about the grace

or the stupidity, but we won't go there.

But for us, it's coming to that realization of

we've got to come to the end of ourselves.

We're our own.

If we lean on that, we will lose the very war.

We have to identify ourselves as wretched, broken sinners.

What does Matthew 5 say?

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of God.

That's the words of Jesus.

That's not the words of me.

That's not the words of a pastor.

No, that's the words of Jesus Christ saying,

hey, you have to come to that.

You have to come to that understanding.

You are lost, broken, and inept on your own.

You can't battle this war.

You have to come to the understanding of,

hey, I can't do this.

God, you can.

I'm coming to the end of myself.

It's yours because that's the only way

the kingdom of heaven is yours.

That's the power of God

that we have to come to the realization for.

I've shared some thoughts of a book

I read last year.

Last year, I started seeing accounts

and I was like, oh, my God,

I'm going to be a counselor.

And so, I felt like it was needed in my life

to really, I would say, deal with some of the things

that I've not really dealt with in my life.

And so, thankful for a friend

to really navigate some things in life.

And he said, hey, Caleb, you need to go buy

this book called The Cure by John Lynch.

Some of you have bought this book and read it.

I've shared it with some of you.

The book is really good.

It's short, which is helpful for me

that struggles to read.

The beginning chapters,

the author poses a question,

a question that I have never really thought through

until he asked it.

One that really is what the Apostle Paul

is talking about in Romans chapter 7.

He poses a question to this man

who he describes it much of,

similar to like a pilgrim's progress,

if you ever read that.

One that is journeying in their walk with God.

And he gets to a place called,

described as heaven in the book.

He says, you've got to do one of two things.

Do you desire to,

please God with everything you do,

or you desire to trust God?

I initially read that and went,

no, those are in opposite.

Those are like the same thing.

There, I really, I'll be honest with you.

I argued with the author.

I don't even know him, but I argued with him.

No, no, I want to do both those.

But as I continued to read,

much of this pleasing comes from my flesh.

Well, I will do it.

I can handle it.

I've got the ability.

I've got the strength.

I've got the plan.

I've got the thoughts.

I can do all this.

I have the desire to do this.

That's what Paul says.

He offers the second question.

Do you desire to trust him?

Initially you go, well, of course.

Yeah, I do trust him.

But then when you really,

the rubber meets the road in our lives,

when things don't make sense,

when I'm trying to do what I desire

and God, this is just messed up behind me.

I can't figure all this out.

That's when the very, very true trust in God says,

God, I'm going to live in your grace.

I'm going to trust you.

I'm going to live in your very mercy.

God, your plan is good.

God, I don't understand what you're doing,

but I'm coming to the end of myself.

Love this statement.

A believer who tries to please God

in his or her own strength

will always come to the disheartening

and aching frustration

that they cannot win the battle.

See, that's what Jesus says in Matthew 5.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

God, I can't do this,

but I trust you.

I lean on you.

I give this marriage.

I give my kids.

I give this health situation.

I give my finances.

I give this future.

I give this job.

I give this struggle.

I give this war that's battling inside of me to you, God.

I cast it on you.

Because that's 25.

It says,

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is the one.

He says it later in Romans.

He's made you more than a conqueror.

What?

Not by.

Not by your own ability.

Not by your own strength.

But your realization of,

yeah, I'm depraved.

I'm a wretched man.

Yet God in his great grace

and his great love

loved me and sent Jesus to die for me.

And I've come to the understanding

I can't do this on my own.

He asked the question in verse 24.

Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Who will deliver me from this flesh?

Who will deliver me from this battle that's happening?

I wish he would have responded.

Work harder, right?

Just try harder.

Wouldn't that have made more sense?

Come on, let's be honest.

Just, if you try harder tomorrow, you'll get it.

He didn't say that.

He said, thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God.

This is weak and I'll leave you with this this morning.

Romans 7, he says,

Romans 7 is a great description

of what we as believers

are going through constantly.

It's a description of what every believer

will go through many times

because sin has the power to deceive us

and cause us to sin.

And cause us to trust ourselves.

I read that and was so convicted.

I thought, well, sin is not trusting myself.

Sin is trusting me.

No, no, no.

Sin is trusting ourselves.

Even when we are not aware of it,

we are doing so.

The law is what will expose that evil force

and drive us to this place of wretchedness

that we must then to God.

By the Holy Spirit.

Lord, this is yours.

You take it.

Say, Caleb, man, that's so easy.

Easy to say, hard to do.

I'm not up here going,

oh, you know, it's no problem.

It's just do that.

And you won't have that opposition.

No, no, because what's he saying?

This is Paul's that constant self-talk.

I don't understand why I do it.

I do the very thing that I hate.

I don't even understand.

For some of us, it's examining the very roots

of that flesh in our lives.

Saying, well, what does that mean?

Yeah, you're looking at the root of sin

that has been able to entangle you.

Are there things in your life,

that you have to remove

to really look deep down

and examine a self-examination?

That's what Paul gives us here.

An autobiographical look, sketch.

How does that happen?

Well, I think the best is

finding yourself in a quiet place

and saying, God, as David said in Psalms,

search me, oh God.

Know my heart.

If you're like, man, I want to start with that.

Start with that.

The next thing, ask someone

that's real close to you.

Be careful with that one, right?

But for each of us,

is that understanding?

Danny, search me.

I'm examining myself.

That's much of what we do in communion.

Examine yourself.

Are there things that we've allowed

to take strongholds of sin in our lives?

Examine and cast it on you, God.

God, I cast it on you.

God, I give it to you.

God, it's yours.

Can't handle this.

I've come to the end of self.

Maybe today is the day

you've come to the end of self.

Saying, Caleb, this message is right.

Guess what?

It's been right on me

the whole time I prepped it.

I'm going to ask you to do this

around the room.

Even if you're joining us online,

would you bow your head

around the room?

I'm just going to pray for somebody.

Just close your eyes.

No one's going to embarrass you.

No one's going to come

and tap you on the shoulder.

No one's going to do any of that.

I'm just going to pray for you.

That's it.

You say, Caleb, I feel like

you were preaching at me this morning.

I feel like this message

of Romans chapter 7

is right up a real alley

of what I'm struggling with.

If that's you this morning,

would you do me a favor?

Would you put your hand up

and put it down as a self-declaration?

Thank you.

There's hands all over the room.

Right up, right down.

Right up, right down.

Right up, right down.

I'm looking.

I'm looking.

I'm the only one looking.

You can put it right up, right down.

This is a time between you and the Lord.

God, I come to you right now.

God, you saw the hands

of those in this room.

You saw my friends.

You saw my hand up, God.

Come to you in confession.

Confession that I struggle this war

and I've tried to take it on my own.

I've tried to battle it on my own

too many times.

I know there's others in this room

that have done the exact same thing.

But God, we confess

and we declare this morning

that today we've come to the end of self.

We've come to the end of our own strength.

We've come to the end of our own will.

We've come to the end of

what we think we want.

We've come to the end of

all the things we desire.

We've come to the end of

the things that we want.

God, we give it all to you.

God, it's yours.

You take it.

You use it.

You do it.

God, this self-talk

that the Apostle Paul gives us

in Romans 7 is,

you could replace his name with mine,

not even close to being

as good a follower as you.

But God, I understand

that he confesses

to doing things that he hates

and not even understanding

that flesh rears its ugly,

destructive head.

We allow it.

God, we seek to empower

your spirit in our lives.

Seek to surrender

to the very spirit of God.

Help us to feed it.

God, may your spirit guide us,

lead us, correct us, direct us,

place us in the spot of glory

glorifying you, God.

Stretch us, use us, God,

through your mighty word, God.

God, thank you for that.

Thank you for loving us.

Thank you for your grace, God.

I read Romans 7

and just more thankful for your grace.

God, I praise you.

I love you.

I glorify you.

In Jesus' wonderful name.

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