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SIN / SELF

Union with Christ

Patrick Bicknell · Sunday, 6 July 2025 · Romans 6:1-11 · 40:23 · 6,083 words

Romans S11 · 6:1-11 Walled Lake

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The sermon stresses that following Jesus means a whole‑life commitment, because he is either everything or nothing. From Romans 6 it teaches that believers have died to their old self and are raised to walk in new life, a picture seen in baptism. The speaker warns against watering down the gospel and calls listeners to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God. He urges them to remember their identity in Christ through prayer, Scripture, and encouraging fellow believers.

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.

chain 16 united 16 jesus 80 old 26 sin 58 baptize 14 truth 29 self 14 gospel 29 dead 20 crucified 7 died 17

Topics

Sin 13 Baptism 8 The Gospel 5 Prayer 3 Faith 3 Death & Resurrection 3 Grace 2 Salvation 2 The Flesh 1 The Holy Spirit 1 Justification 1 Freedom 1 Sanctification 1

Scripture referenced 21

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

Romans 6 0:38 Romans 6 1:34 Romans 6 2:14 Romans 6 2:25 Romans 6:1 2:25 Romans 6 3:34 Romans 6 6:10 Matthew 16 10:20 Matthew 16:25 10:25 Romans 6 13:31 Romans 6:3 13:33 Galatians 2:20 18:59 2 Corinthians 5:17 19:21 Romans 6 20:11 Romans 6:5 20:11 Romans 6:6 23:35 John 8:36 26:35 Psalms 103:12 29:38 Romans 6 33:50 Romans 6:11 33:50 1 Corinthians 6 36:32

Transcript

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

I, for myself, the last few years, I've been getting super interested in World War II history.

And so I remember listening to a podcast, literally a 26-part.

Each episode was like an hour, hour and a half.

And I'm like, I'm going to mow the lawn again.

Jasmine's like, well, it's like the third time this week.

Are you sure?

And I'm like, yes.

I want to learn more about this.

Or if I'm like buying something, I will look at every single review possible, every single option.

I'll go to Amazon, Home Depot, whatever it is.

I want to make sure I know what I'm buying.

And then for my wife, she's like, oh, this looks good.

I'm going to just buy now.

Clicked on that, right?

Just one thing, call it good.

But are you that person who goes all in?

And so today, as we go to Romans chapter 6, continuing through our study of Romans,

this idea or this concept of all in, of it being everything, is going to be discussed.

Because when it comes to following Christ, when it comes to following Jesus,

he is either everything or nothing.

He either changes everything about your life or he changes nothing at all.

See, Jesus sometimes is portrayed as a good thing to add to your life.

He may be nice to you.

You may like him.

But that's not who Jesus is.

And so if we say that we're going to follow him, if he's going to be our life,

then everything about our life needs to change to follow him or we're lying to ourselves.

And we're going to see how.

So Romans 6 talks about this idea this morning.

So let me pray and then we will dive into the word.

So Lord, I love you so much.

And I thank you for who you are, for sending your son to this world.

And I pray this morning that as I get the opportunity to preach,

that it would be your Holy Spirit who is speaking through me.

And I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would penetrate our hearts this morning,

that you would convict us of sin, open our eyes to your truth, and help us to know you more.

So Lord, we love you and give you all the glory and the praise.

And we pray this all in the very precious name of Jesus.

So if you've got your Bibles this morning or you've got your phone or tablet

or want to follow along the screen, we are going to be in Romans chapter 6.

Like I said, we are going through our study of Romans.

We'll be in this for a lot longer.

And I love the book of Romans.

So Romans 6, starting in verse 1, we read this.

What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means.

How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Now Paul, who is the author of this book,

Paul is a very experienced man when it comes to ministry.

Because as we know, by the time that the book of Romans is wrote and distributed to the churches,

Paul has been in ministry for some 25 years.

And Paul has done all sorts of things,

like being a missionary, pastoring a church, planning churches, whatever it may be.

So Paul,

Paul has been around the block a few times.

And he's had many debates, many conversations.

He has evangelized the people.

So Paul knows when he's writing this book,

what some objections may be.

As people have them and as they start to think about them,

Paul has heard all of them.

And so the really cool thing about the book of Romans,

and we see it all throughout,

we've already seen it a few times up to this point in chapter 6,

we see that Paul likes to attack those objections

and say,

before people can even raise them.

And so he anticipates one of these objections.

And he says, you know, you may be thinking,

hey, if this grace that Paul is talking about,

if it is free,

if it covers all sin,

if it saves everyone or can save everyone,

then why don't we just keep on sinning so that we receive more grace?

Right?

If God's going to forgive us,

let's just do all the things that we like,

because we can go to God and ask for forgiveness

and then receive grace.

Why don't we just keep doing that?

And now up to this point in Romans,

Paul, of course, has been laying out a clear defense of gospel truth.

And it has been shown how we are utterly depraved

and dependent upon God,

that we have this sin nature,

that we are stuck in our sin,

that we have rebelled against him.

And then he begins to work through justification by faith,

that our salvation,

is based solely on the grace of God,

that none of us can do anything to earn this salvation.

And so he knows after displaying those truths,

what those people might be thinking.

And unfortunately, I know for myself,

I was in that spot at one point.

Right?

I thought, you know, I know Jesus.

I know he died for my sins.

So when I was living a life that was just indulging in sin,

I thought, you know what?

I'll have my fun and then I'll come back to God one day.

Right?

I'll do what I want.

I'll do what I want.

I'll do what feels good to me,

but I know he'll forgive me,

so I'll just come back to him.

Now he answers this objection with another question.

And he states, no, we cannot live like this.

We cannot think like this.

And he says with a question,

how can we who have died to sin still live in it?

You know, as I've thought about this question in this verse,

I was studying about it.

It really just started popping out to me.

Or this question, I just couldn't get off it in verse two.

And I thought, you know what?

As I started to think about it,

I think what Paul is asking is saying,

do you understand how deep this gospel truly is?

I mean, do you understand what we are actually talking about?

So again, he's laid out all these truths up to chapter six.

Do you understand?

Because this grace that we're talking about

is not just some willy nilly,

get out of jail free card grace, right?

It's not this get out of jail free card

that God gives us and goes,

hey, now that you know me,

no more hell for you.

You can do whatever you want

and I will always forgive you.

And as I was thinking about it,

I really wish Paul had monopoly back then.

But I think that'd be a great point to end here, right?

He said, I think I have to get out of jail free card.

That's not the grace that we are talking about.

And when we talk about putting faith in Jesus,

right, believing in the gospel,

if we are going to say we believe

that Jesus Christ truly came to the world

and lived perfectly on our behalf,

died the death that we all were supposed to die for,

was buried and rose again,

if that is what Jesus did for us

and we're going to believe in it,

then what we are saying is

we are dead in our old way of life.

Who we were before we met Jesus

is dead and gone.

If we're going to say we believe in the gospel.

The sadness, the seriousness of the gospel,

it's so important for us

to take the gospel this seriously,

especially being in the 21st century Americans

in the culture that we live in,

it is so important for us to have

the seriousness of the gospel.

Because as I see all the time,

pastors online,

or maybe it's on social media or something,

they're having their podcasts,

or churches compromising biblical truths

happening all over the place,

allowing the culture to dictate what we teach.

The sad part is that the church in America right now

is watering down the gospel.

So many churches, so many pastors

are watering down the one truth of salvation

that we have.

And it is simply turned into,

you know, say you believe in God.

Jesus loves you no matter what.

There is no sin.

We can do what we want.

Just say these words, come to church,

and let's have a good time.

And we are watering down the truth

of what Jesus did.

And we are condemning people when we do that.

So many churches are pushing this way of faith

thinking, and what it does is it misses

the entire point of what the gospel is.

Because you see, the gospel is not just

a call to forgiveness.

That's a fantastic element of the gospel.

We do get forgiveness.

We get it in Jesus.

But what the gospel is, and what Jesus taught,

it's a call to a new life.

We once were ruled by sin.

All sorts of manner of living,

all who we were was permeated,

by sin.

But when the grace of God entered our life,

right, and we can think about those moments

when the gospel was preached,

maybe it was at a camp,

or it was a Sunday morning,

or it was a Bible study,

when your eyes were finally open to that truth,

and you knew that Jesus,

who they're talking about,

he saved me.

He's my savior.

That moment when that happened,

when we truly surrendered in faith,

then we now become dead

to our old sinful way of living.

We now,

have been born again.

Now, just because we use the word gospel,

doesn't mean it's actually being preached.

Because there are so many churches that will say gospel,

that will say Jesus loves you.

But if we don't preach sin,

if we don't preach being born again,

being dead to our old way of living,

then we're not teaching the whole truth

of what the gospel is.

It's exactly what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 16,

in verse 25.

Then Jesus told his disciples,

if anyone comes after me,

let him deny himself,

take up his cross,

and follow me.

First statement there,

Jesus says,

if you're gonna follow me,

right,

if we're gonna look to Jesus,

lift it up,

die for our sins,

if we're gonna say we follow him,

then he says,

deny yourself.

Deny your sinful passions.

Be dead to your old way of living.

Who you were before you came to him,

Because he says,

for whoever would save his life will lose it.

If you wanna hold on to your old way of living,

if you wanna hold on to this life we have

that makes us condemned before God,

you will lose it.

But whoever loses his life,

whoever lays it down to Jesus,

becomes dead to their old way of living,

for his sake will find it.

For what will it profit a man

if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Jesus makes it very clear.

If we're gonna say we follow Jesus,

and that's what saying believing in the gospel is.

If we're gonna say we follow Jesus,

it's not just uttering the words.

It's not just saying,

man, that Jesus sounds pretty good

and I like how Sunday mornings feel.

It is a full denial of ourself

and saying,

I'm giving my whole life to you, Lord.

We cannot water down the gospel.

And so that means in everything,

in preaching Sunday mornings,

in our kids' church,

in our Awana,

in our VBS,

in our growth communities,

we need to preach this truth.

Because if we're gonna see true spiritual change

here in Walled Lake,

in our community,

in your family's lives,

in your friends' lives,

we need to preach this truth.

Yes, the beauty of the gospel is

come as you are.

The gospel does not require us getting better

before we get saved.

It is come as you are.

Come in your brokenness,

come in your questions,

come as the sinful person that you are.

Because Jesus makes you new again.

But don't stay as you are.

When the gospel truly changes you

and comes into your life,

we are dead to our old way of living.

We are a new person.

We need to understand what we are saying

when we say,

I have faith in Jesus.

It is a complete life change.

Now Paul uses the analogy of baptism

to help show this truth a little bit more.

I think it's so important.

It's so perfect.

So continuing on in Romans 6,

verse 3 says,

Do you not know that all of us

who have been baptized into Christ Jesus

were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore with him

by baptism into death

in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead

by the glory of the Father,

we too might walk in the newness of life.

So he uses this analogy of baptism.

And I just,

I started thinking about VBS.

I hope you're excited

by what happened a few weeks ago.

But we had 30 some kids,

20 volunteers that got to hear the gospel

every single day of that week.

I mean, that's so, so wonderful.

As I shared last week,

we did the baptism.

I had the privilege of leading the part of VBS

where we talked about the message of the night.

And one of those nights,

it was so amazing

because I'm in the middle of teaching

and these kids just start asking questions.

Like good questions.

And at one point they say,

what about baptism?

What is that?

So I explain what baptism is.

And the one little girl is so sweet.

She goes,

do we need baptism to be saved?

And I go, that's a great question.

And I go, our salvation is in Jesus Christ alone, right?

It's in what Jesus did for us.

And I love using the example of the thief on the cross, right?

As Jesus is dying,

you can read it in the gospels.

He is crucified.

With two men,

one on his left and one on his right.

Both are cursing him, reviling him, mocking him.

But at one point,

something changed for one of those criminals.

And as he's up there dying,

I mean, he's on his last hour of life.

He looks at Jesus and he goes,

you truly are the son of God.

Just remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus looked at the man and he said,

truly today you will be with me in paradise.

Now that man was never baptized.

He was never in a Bible study.

He never went to a Sunday morning.

And Jesus looked at him and said,

you will be with me in paradise.

So we see there, I think it's so clear,

Jesus is our salvation.

But as I looked at the kids, I said,

none of us are on a cross right now, right?

None of us are being crucified in first century Rome.

We are still living.

We're still following Jesus.

And we are commanded in the scriptures to be baptized.

And so first and foremost,

if the scriptures commands it, we do it, right?

Our life is dictated by the scriptures.

By the words here, because it is the word of God,

fully inerrant, fully infallible.

It is our guide.

So the Bible tells us to get baptized.

But I think the more important reason why

is from these verses, right?

Why do we get baptized?

Because it signifies something so important.

And I think we just need to look at the picture

of what baptism is giving us here.

We are showing the world when we get baptized

that our old self is dead.

That when we go,

under that water, right?

So we get baptized, we go under the water.

We aren't just dunking you for the fun of it.

Because it is kind of fun, right?

Maybe sometimes there's that kid that bugs you.

I just keep it down a little bit more.

No, I'm just kidding, right?

We're not just dunking you for the fun of it.

It is a proclamation to anyone that can see

that you are saying your old self is dead.

That in the same way Christ died for your sins

and was buried, we are now dying with him.

Our old self was nailed to his cross.

Our old self was buried in his tomb and stays there.

Our old self stays dead.

But now, when we come up out of that water,

we are now showing how we have been risen with Christ.

That we are a new creature.

That we're living a new way of life.

It says to walk in the newness of life.

And so yes, the act of baptism isn't what saves us.

But oh, it's so important.

Because we are showing the world proudly,

boldly, that who we were before we came to Jesus

is dead and gone.

And we are a new person.

And so I'll say this in here for just a moment.

If you have not been baptized yet,

please come talk to me afterwards.

It is so important.

It is so essential for us to show the world,

the body of believers, we are a new person.

Or if you're in here and you have not surrendered

to that truth of the gospel,

and maybe you're still living that old way of living,

and you're looking to Jesus and you're saying,

I want that new life.

And you could do that.

You could do that today.

And today we can get baptized.

There's a lake right out there.

If you want to do it, we'll walk down there

and we'll get baptized.

But it's more about what it signifies.

Our old self is dead because Jesus died for us.

And we are now raised to walk in the newness of life.

Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live, I live in the flesh.

The life I now live in the flesh,

I live by faith in the Son of God

who loved me and gave himself for me.

2 Corinthians 5.17,

When we see someone get baptized, wherever it may be,

it's not because that person said the right words.

It is not just to have fun.

When someone truly gets baptized,

they're showing the world.

And that's why Paul gives us that analogy.

Our old self has died.

Jesus came into our life and there's no other response

but to be a new person.

Behold, the old has passed away and the new has come.

Continuing in Romans 6, verse five.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his,

we shall certainly be united with him

in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him

in order that the body of sin,

might be brought to nothing

so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Now, if we have died with Christ,

we believe that we also will live with him.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead

will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death he died, he died to sin.

Once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

Now, the reason why we have to live with him

and the reason I love that we are walking through this truth,

talking about this word sanctification

of being made new in Christ and following Jesus

is what it truly means to put our faith in Jesus.

It's because of these verses.

Paul is showing us the example of Christ

and he's giving us that imagery.

And I hope you're seeing it, how we are united with him.

And so we have just said that in the same way Christ died for sin,

we have died to sin.

Our old self was crucified with him.

But the next part, the next section of this chapter,

these verses, is the amazing truth of what happened to Jesus.

He rose again.

So Christ's death cannot be separated from his resurrection.

He died, but he didn't stay dead.

And when we put our faith in Jesus,

we are following in that example.

And when we follow that example,

our old self dies and it doesn't stay that way.

That's the amazing truth of these last few verses.

Because we now follow in the manner of our master, right?

Jesus is our master.

Jesus is our king.

And we follow in that way.

He rose again and so do we in the newness of life.

And also, because we're united with him

in the same way Christ defeated death,

defeated the power of death,

we now have that power living within us.

That is the truth of what it means to be,

united with Christ.

Isn't that amazing?

We are walking in the newness of life.

That's what it means.

And we learned last week how through Adam,

all of mankind fell into sin, right?

That original sin, when Adam and Eve committed it,

we committed it with them.

And so the stain of sin went and corrupted all of humanity.

And there's two main things that sin ended up doing.

It caused it to have power and control over us.

And what that means is,

we are enslaved to sin, right?

Apart from Christ, who we were, we're enslaved to sin.

And I just wanna go back to verse six.

I think it's so incredible.

We know that our old self was crucified with him

in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing

so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

When we lived our old life, right?

Who we were apart from Christ,

we were controlled by sin.

Our sin nature.

Who we were was under the enslavement of sin.

We followed the desires of our flesh,

lived in the passions of our sin,

rebelled against God.

Where sin went, we went.

That's who we were apart from Christ.

Now, many people give all sorts of ways

to overcome sin in this world.

And there's a lot of great places that help with addiction

and these sort of struggles.

And I'm very thankful for that.

The remedies that this world gives to sin without Jesus,

are only temporary.

They don't truly grant freedom for people.

Because every single person in this world

without the power of Jesus,

without being made new in him,

is under the enslavement to sin.

And if we are not set free,

if the chains aren't broken off of us by Jesus,

then we will continue to live in it.

We may stop one sin in this area,

but let's talk about the 99% of the rest of our life.

Right?

We are stuck.

We are stuck under sin.

We may stop it here,

but another one always arises.

And the only way to truly overcome sin in our life

is this idea of being united with him.

Being united with Jesus.

And that's why I love that Paul is showing us

the example of Christ.

And keep saying,

if we're united with him in a death like his,

then we will be united with him in a life like his.

And so the truth is,

the truth we get out of these verses is that

as we profess faith in Jesus

and die to our old self,

we become a new creature.

As we lose our life and surrender it to Jesus,

we gain a newer and better one in Christ.

As we surrender to Jesus and give everything to him,

we gain the freedom that Jesus provides.

The true freedom that lasts forever.

That's not just a temporary fix

and abandonment.

Abandoning over the situation.

These chains that sin has over our life

and keep us down and keep us controlled,

they are finally broken.

And as John 8, 36 says,

if the son sets you free,

you are free indeed.

That freedom comes through Christ.

That is what it means to be united with him

and alive in Jesus.

Now, that is all great and well to talk about.

But do you believe that?

Do you believe that is who you are in Jesus?

Because it's easy Sunday morning

when we're gathered around believers to hear

we are alive in Christ and to go,

amen, hallelujah, preach it, pastor.

That is easy for us to do.

But when you go home and it's just you and your phone,

what do you look at?

When life is stressing you out

and it feels like your world is crumbling

and that bottle starts to tempt you,

what do you do?

For some of us, we would agree,

we've put our faith in Jesus.

Don't feel alive in him.

Don't feel like those,

those chains are broken.

We don't feel like the power and control

that sin has over us

has been broken in our life.

Shame, guilt, temptations

have been ruining our life

and are keeping us imprisoned.

That's you, however, Christian.

Have, because the chains are broken.

That is the truth if we are in Jesus.

If we are united with him,

you have the power through Christ

to overcome any sin

that is in your life.

Jesus will give you the grace

every single day

to fight against that temptation

and to fight against that sin.

Before, there was no hope

of breaking those chains.

There was no hope

that sin could be destroyed in your life.

But now, in Jesus,

you have been set free.

And as we're talking about this unity with Christ,

that verse says,

death no longer has dominion over him.

And so for us,

it no longer has dominion

over us either.

We're united with Christ.

The power that raised him from the dead

lives within you.

If you put your faith in Jesus

and surrendered your life to him,

you need to run to Jesus

every single day

to get the grace you need

to fight against those sins

and to be reminded of the truths

of who we are in Christ.

Truths like Psalms 103.12,

as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove

our transgressions from us.

Believer, if you're in Christ,

if you put your faith in him,

you've been made new.

And that sin that was in your life,

he's removed it from you.

It's buried in that grave with Christ

2,000 years ago,

and it stays there.

It makes me think about this,

this illustration that I saw a couple years,

not a couple years ago now,

but when I senior year of summer camp.

I remember it so vividly.

And Pastor Jason was the youth pastor at the time.

He's the Waterford location pastor.

And now,

if you haven't seen him,

they call him the prop pastor.

He's always got something on stage

to help him explain his stuff.

So he brings one of the students up on stage,

and he has all of these chains,

like massive ones, small ones.

They're just all there.

And he doesn't say a word about it.

And so he brings a kid on stage,

and the kid's just standing there

as Jason's preaching.

And he's like,

okay, what's going on, you know?

And so as he's preaching,

he'd grab a chain,

and he'd put it on the kid.

And he started with the small ones.

So he gives a small chain,

puts on, still talking, still talking.

And then it's,

a bigger chain, still talking.

Then eventually that kid,

you can see him kind of wobbling,

and he takes this massive chain,

puts it on him,

and the kid just falls flat to the ground.

And Pastor Jason stops right there,

and he goes,

these chains weigh us down.

That is exactly what sin does to us.

Enslaved to it.

Nothing we can do,

but we are stuck in that place.

They weigh us down,

and they weigh us down,

and they weigh us down.

But he says,

if you put your faith in Jesus,

Jesus takes those chains off of us.

Jesus takes those chains off of us.

He takes those chains off of our life.

Breaks the chains of sin.

And I know sometimes you may not feel it.

I know it may not feel all the time

that these chains have been broken.

you have been raised with him.

If you're united in a death like his,

you are united in a resurrection like his.

Your old self has died,

the new has come.

And the same power that raised Jesus from the dead

lives within you.

Now it is a progression,

and any of us who have been following Jesus

for more than an hour

knows it's a progression.

It's a continual fight.

As we live in this world,

before we see glory with him forever,

we are gonna constantly be fighting against sin.

But the difference is,

before you were united with Christ,

there was no hope.

Even if you felt free,

you weren't free.

You were enslaved to sin.

But after we put our faith in Jesus

and are united with him,

we have the ability to overcome that sin.

If ever,

every day we go to Jesus,

it's constantly realizing we have this power,

but it starts and ends with this truth,

that our old self has been crucified with Christ

and has been freed in Jesus.

We can't fight against our sin and overcome it

without that truth and running to that truth

every single day.

And that is why a few weeks ago I said,

everything that we do here,

every time we preach Sunday morning,

whether it's me, Chris, Pastor Doc, whoever it is,

we are going to preach the gospel.

In our growth communities we're going to talk about the gospel.

Our kids' church is going to teach the gospel.

We don't move on from it.

It's not just this one and done thing.

It is what changes our entire life.

The gospel is everything.

Now to end with verse 11 in Romans 6.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin

and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

So as I read this final verse and as I was studying it,

those two words in the middle kept me awake.

Standing out to me, consider yourselves.

Hopped off the page, consider yourself.

And I think in the day and age we live

and how the church has grown throughout history,

we have forgotten the spiritual discipline of remembrance,

of remembering, of setting up intentional reminders

of the truth of who we are in Christ.

'Cause when you read through the Old Testament,

it was everywhere, right?

They crossed the Red Sea and set up rocks

so that they could just remember

as they walked past it what God had done for them.

Because when people hadn't seen the miracle that God did,

they could go, this is what God did for us.

They set up altars in the wilderness

to remember what God had done.

They had feasts all throughout the year

as an intentional reminder of what God had done for them.

And I think as a church, we should bring that back.

Let's start having some more feasts, good food.

What helps us remember what God did more than that.

But they had these intentional reminders set up.

So they would never forget the wondrous deeds

that God had done for them.

And I believe that's what Paul is telling us to do here.

Consider yourselves.

Remember that truth.

Remember who you are in Jesus.

It doesn't matter what the lies of the enemy

might be telling you,

or the lies within your own head might be telling you.

If you've put your faith in Jesus, remember who you are.

Yes, you used to be one way.

You used to live in utter sin,

but through the grace of God,

and putting faith in him,

you have died to that old way of living,

and have been made alive in Christ.

No lies can change that truth.

No feelings that you have can change that truth.

It is there forever and solid in Christ,

that who you are in him is a new creature.

You are freed.

You are forgiven.

And you are alive in Christ because of what he did for you.

Think about what Jesus has done,

and remember verses like 1 Corinthians 6,

9 through 11.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous

will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived.

Neither the sexually immoral,

nor adulterers,

nor men who practice homosexuality,

nor the greedy,

will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you.

We all were in that place,

but you were washed.

You were sanctified.

You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

and by the spirit of your God.

Such were some of you.

Remember who you were before Jesus came into your life

and changed everything.

And we all lived in this sin,

but Christ washed us,

and we are now a new creature in him.

Jesus changed everything,

and we are now alive in him.

So what was that?

How will that look like for you

to intentionally remember this week?

How will that look like for you?

Maybe to remember what Christ has done for you.

Maybe it's just spending time in prayer.

Don't set an alarm.

Don't worry about what else you got going on for the day.

Go in prayer and just thank him

for the salvation that he's provided.

Maybe you need to meditate on scriptures.

And what I love to do is just to say them out loud.

No purpose, no studying.

Just read those scriptures out loud

that remind you that

you've been freed in Christ.

Or maybe it's spending quiet time

to think about the reality of the gospel.

Go into nature and just sit there

and look at the world that he's created

and think to yourself,

this God loves me so much that he died for me.

Or how about this?

Go up to a fellow believer this week

and be that reminder for them.

Maybe they're going through a hard time.

Maybe life and the cares of this world

are weighing them down,

and they need you to go to them and remind them

who they are in Jesus.

Church, let's help one another in this.

Let's be a church that considers ourselves,

that reminds ourselves who we are in Jesus

and remind one another of what Jesus has done for us,

that we are dead to sin and alive in Christ.

Let's pray.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for this day,

and we thank you for this time to hear your word preached.

And Lord, any chance that we get to open the word,

to study it, to ponder you, Lord, is a blessing.

And I pray this morning that your spirit will be moving,

that if anyone here wants to come to you and surrender

or be baptized or take the next step in their walk,

Lord, I pray that you give them the courage to do that today.

And Lord, we pray that you would get all the glory

and all the praise.

We love you, and we pray this all

in the very precious name of Jesus, amen.

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