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SIN / SELF

The Line

Ryan Story · Sunday, 6 July 2025 · Romans 6:1-11 · 41:29 · 7,402 words

Romans S11 · 6:1-11

Listen to this message

Ryan Storys uses everyday examples—water balloons, fireworks, speeding—to ask where God’s line is for believers. He walks through Romans 5, showing that Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and Romans 6, emphasizing that those united with Christ must not keep crossing the line into sin. The sermon calls listeners to examine whether they truly know Jesus as Savior and to draw close to Him daily, letting the gospel’s love be the motive for righteousness.

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.

line 51 united 25 consequence 19 lord 70 show 28 oregon 5 step 17 start 27 live 49 fireworks 4 realness 6 christ 55

Topics

Sin 12 Baptism 4 Prayer 3 Death & Resurrection 2 Hope 2 Grace 2 Righteousness 1 Obedience 1 The Gospel 1

Scripture referenced 19

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

Romans 6 12:17 Romans 5:17 12:25 Romans 5 15:38 Romans 6 16:41 Romans 6 16:43 Romans 6:1 16:43 Romans 5 17:07 Romans 5:2 18:29 Romans 6:2 19:03 Romans 12 20:53 Romans 6 23:09 Romans 6 24:32 Romans 6:3 24:32 Romans 6:5-7 29:07 Romans 6:8-11 31:03 Romans 5 35:45 Romans 5:8 35:52 Romans 6:12 36:01 Romans 6:12 36:07

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, 0:43. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name's Rich, and thanks for checking out this message today.

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Well, good morning. How's everybody?

My name is Ryan Storys. I'm the family pastor here at the River Church.

Actually, while kind of introducing myself to you wonderful people in Lake Oregon,

someone's like, well, what is the family pastor?

And I was like, well, that's actually a pretty complicated question.

But basically, any ministry, zero doubt.

We have our River Kids Nursery. We have our River Kids Elementary.

We have our River Students. We have our River Young Adults.

So basically, I am the elder who is over all those ministries.

And if that's still not clear, I'm Elijah's boss.

Explain. We do, too. Sometimes. No, all the time.

Madison's in the room. She'll mess with me on the screen.

So no, absolutely, I will say, as a man who is after my own heart,

first time I ever met Elijah, I was like, I really like this guy.

He's a big old nerd like me, and he loves Jesus just like me,

and he loves doing ministry just like me.

So I was like, absolutely.

But honestly, for Lake Oregon, though, you are blessed to have a guy like Elijah.

I was texting him all the week during VBS to know that 50 kids were here through VBS the entire week.

You guys should give that up for him.

It's awesome to be able to see.

And Elijah's love style and my love style kind of clash sometimes

because I'm a little bit of a pusher.

So I'm like, you can get 50, and he's all,

we'll get there.

No, no, no, you're going to get 50.

We're going to pray to the Lord.

We're going to work hard.

And just to know that Elijah got to 50,

just to know that we had the opportunity here at our River Lake Oregon location

to preach the gospel every single night to 50 kids.

I remember one of the first weeks when the River Lake Oregon was kind of coming on our team,

I was talking to Miss Diane Duddles, and we were talking about the nursery,

and there's about four or five who kind of come.

And then to know there's like 20 who are sitting in the nursery right now.

So awesome families.

We're growing here, but to know that we were able to preach the gospel.

But again, for this weekend, I'm blessed to be able to fill in for Pastor Josh Yates.

So again, you guys got yourself a good pastor.

Him and Jeannie love this location.

They love the church.

They love the work and ministry.

But to be able to give them a week off,

I love to be able to pinch hit for location pastors just to come in and preach the gospel,

but to let them spend time with family and just to kind of like rest and recover.

So River Lake Oregon, if you're willing, let's pray.

Let's see what God has for us this morning.

Heavenly Father,

Lord, we love you so much, or thank you so much for our country or thank you so much that you bring us all together here,

where we can worship you or for all that's going on in the world where Lord where there's there's hurt down in Texas Lord.

We pray just right now that uh,

we focus our prayers that Lord you have your hands on the families and all that are impacted there.

But Lord as much as we know that there's bad things going on in life, Lord, we know that you were so good.

So Lord today, I pray that you quiet the voices that are inside of us that are just

blocking us out from you, Lord, I pray that tonight or today, Lord, just that we have receptive hearts Lord that are able to look at your text that is found in Romans Lord, we're actually able to respond, Lord, don't allow us just to hear the your word, hear your voice today, Lord, and leave without changing.

So Lord, I pray that the gospel or the work of your son, Lord, is the most prominent thing in our lives, Lord, and today, Lord, we're all able to read, hear, and change.

So Christ, we love you.

And Lord, we pray this all in your beautiful name.

So for me, uh, one of the things that I have is I have four small children.

So, uh, I got a, uh, eight, a nine, a six and a four, and I'm really excited for August.

Cause I can then say, then I have a four or six and eight and a 10 year old.

And that's just going to make more mathematical sense for me.

But for us this weekend is, is a lot of you who's watching you bring small children here.

Uh, this is a weekend of fun and excitement and buying fireworks and poppers and all that.

Other things.

So for me, uh, this weekend, my kids looked at me at about, uh, Friday and they're like, can we go buy water balloons?

It's 90 degrees outside.

If you're going to go outside, you're going to go play in the water.

Let's go get ourselves some water balloons.

But then when we went to like, uh, Sam's club, there was kind of like two packs that you could buy.

You could buy like that, that pack that like, again, I didn't have this as a kid when I was growing up, but those ones that you can just tie onto the hose and you'd get like 20 of them.

You drop them off and you're ready to go.

I'm like, oh, sweet.

Those are like 40 bucks.

And I'm like, that's going to be gone like that.

Like I was like, so like five minutes of fun.

Is that worth it?

Now, again, for my kids, yes, of course.

But then on the shelf below it, there was something I've never seen before.

And I don't know if you've seen these, but they're like almost like they're reusable water balloons.

Has anyone seen any of those?

Like they're, they're little plastic things.

They got like a magnetic strip.

You dunk them in water.

You put, put them together.

It makes like a magnetic sound and then they're good to go.

And then you just start throwing them around.

I'm like, oh.

Well, we could spend like 20 bucks on those and we could keep reusing that.

And me trying to be fiscal and responsible.

It's like, let's do those.

That's going to be more fun.

So we get home, we set up the hose and my kids are going out and they're, they're having a grand old time with that.

But then something starts happening.

And if you've ever seen little boys play in the way that little boys play, they, they first start playing in a normal civilized way.

So you know what I'm talking about.

But then as time starts going, they start adding complexity.

And they start adding different rules.

And sure enough, while I love my oldest son, him being a little bit more of the architect of the family,

he then goes into the garage and we bought our kids little lacrosse sticks.

So I'm sitting inside looking out the window.

I'm like, I want to see who this goes.

In my head, this is going to be, he's going to try flinging it.

It's going to be like too much.

And he's, it's actually going to break apart.

But that sure enough, like his invention worked.

And I'm like, okay, hold on a second.

I was like, I got to intervene before I get there.

So I kind of stick, stick my head out the window.

I opened up.

And again, while, while my, the dadism came out of me.

And then my wife had to turn around, like, you need to say that a little bit more softer.

And I was like, okay, let me, let me try that again.

But I looked at my son.

I was like, hey, I think we found the line.

I looked at my son.

I was like, okay, we're, we're, we're having fun just throwing the water balloons.

Now you're adding a lacrosse stick where you're going to be able to huck this thing probably like at 20 miles an hour.

It's going to hurt somebody.

I think we found the line.

And kind of while I was pondering the statement, like I, I really actually realized like we, we all fight.

We all fight this fight.

We all ask this question.

We all go through life.

And we're always trying to figure out where the line is.

Like, think about that.

Like, again, we're, we're constantly asking where the line is at.

Like, I'll start with this, like with fireworks.

Now I was, we were lighting off some sparklers and all that stuff with my kids yesterday.

But it went from like, here's one sparkler to can I have four?

Can I have five?

Okay, I think you're good.

But again, we see people who can get seriously injured when they don't know where the line is with fireworks.

And I want to be very sensitive to that.

That can happen.

We, we start thinking about where's the line when it comes to speeding.

Now everybody in Michigan knows you can go at least five miles over the speed limit when you're on I-75.

As long as you're in the far left lane.

Y'all need to repent to the Lord.

We render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.

Y'all know.

But we're constantly trying to figure that out.

Like, as I'm growing up, like again, like I, I don't know why I used to be able to down like fruity pebbles like a madman.

Now like one bowl of milk before bed.

Dude, the time runs, come on.

But again, you got to figure out where the line is.

The line is for eating.

You got to figure out where the line is for spending.

You got to figure out the line is for discipline.

What's too harsh?

What's, what's not harsh enough?

What's that line?

But as I was starting to think about this, as we're constantly asking ourselves the question, where is the line?

I, I think the thing that is naturally behind that is this idea of this balancing question.

And the thing that makes us stay away from the line is kind of like, what's the consequences?

So what keeps us away from crossing that line as we start going, what are the consequences?

Speeding is very simple.

We deem a hundred dollar ticket is worth speeding and we'll blame the cop.

If we get pulled over, we'll blame our alarm clock because we didn't get up on time.

But again, we, we start asking that question.

Well, what are the consequences of I speed?

What are the consequences if I eat something or I eat too much of something that I know I shouldn't?

I'll just deal with the stomach ache.

I'll take some Pepto-Bismol.

I'll be good.

Well, as we look at this, we got to make sure that the, the, the question of what are the consequences kind of really holds true in our life where we see this as a warning.

Because a lot of times when we start becoming habitual line steppers and we're constantly okay with jumping the line, it's because the consequences don't really matter to us.

Now I look at like fireworks.

My, my youngest son, I gave my four-year-old a sparkler at one point.

I was like, you have to hold on this end.

Let it, let them have fun.

Sure enough, what does a four-year-old do with a sparkler?

Eventually he touched the part that was hot and he burned himself.

Now again, was that something that he purposely did wrong?

No.

Is he okay?

But we have to make sure that because if we jump over the line, if we jump into that, hey, we're not actually answering that.

Like, what are the consequences?

We can hurt ourselves.

We can hurt others.

And as we've been tracking through the book of Romans, I love where we're at today because we're at the point where Paul is really kind of like now set a line for the believer.

Now I got to be very specific here.

When I say the believer, like this text that we're going to go over today is definitely for the church.

He's talking about the church.

He's talking about those who have accepted everything about the gospel up until this point.

Paul's not continually talking about those who are under the law.

He's not necessarily talking about those who are still struggling with Judaism, those who are Greek, have not repented and come to the Lord.

Like, he really is kind of at the point where he's really talking to people who know Jesus as their Savior.

And let me be very specific.

What does it mean to know Jesus as your Savior?

It's that you accept the fact that God sent his Son, his only begotten Son, who is absolutely perfect.

And he does.

He died on a cross for your sins, for my sins, for the sins of all of humanity.

And the reason why he died is to restore a relationship with the brokenness and the rebellion of humanity so we can have a relationship with God.

And to have a relationship with God, it's as simple as confessing your sins and knowing who Jesus is.

I hope you've done that.

Not just religiously, not just, hey, I come and I sit in a seat.

Hey, I've been part of this church for years.

I serve in a ministry.

No, I hope that you genuinely know.

I hope you know who God's Son is.

And I pray to God that your sins have been forgiven because of the work of Christ on the cross.

But where we landed last week, we wrapped up on a really, really heavy portion of Scripture.

And mind you, this is going to be a big chunk of Scripture, but it's really needed to know where we have to start before we go into chapter 6.

But in Romans chapter 5, verse 17, it says,

For if because of one man's trespasses, death reigned through that one man,

which much more will those who receive the abundance of grace in the free gift of righteousness reign in the life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to the condemnation of all men,

so one act of righteousness led to the justification, life, for all men.

For as by the one man's obedience, the many were made sinners,

so by one man's obedience, this is talking about Jesus here, just to make sure we're all on the same page,

and the many more will be made righteous.

Now the law came to increase the trespasses, and I love this last section,

but where sin increased, grace abounds all the more,

so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might be reigned through the righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

It's the gospel.

Because one man, Adam, Eve, they sinned.

But because God came, rich in his mercy, died while we were still sinners, to bring us life.

To bring us relationship.

And you look at all that comes through Jesus Christ.

Hope, peace, joy, worship, light.

Like, I hope you're there.

Because if you're not there, everything else for this sermon makes very little sense.

If you're still living in trespass, if you're still living in your sin,

if you're still living in, again, what would be considered like living in Adam,

it doesn't make sense from here.

So I want to implore you, I want to pray to God that the Holy Spirit moves in your heart.

If you're here and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord,

if you're joining us online,

and you don't know Christ as your Savior, as your King, as your friend,

it's as simple as calling out on him to be saved.

All this, I read in one of my commentaries,

in this kingdom of God, the reign of life, Jesus is Lord.

I pray you have that life.

But then this is where I love Scripture.

Because Paul, moreover, God's kind of spirit, God's direct in the pen,

goes from this idea of just landing on like,

all this life is found in Jesus Christ.

We can walk away from our sins.

We don't have to live.

We don't have to live in our sins.

And as if God knew 2,000 years later,

there's going to be somebody who's going to be like,

but what about this?

The very next statement that we see,

we see Paul turning around and addresses.

We see Paul, moreover, God knowing

that someone's going to say that you can have a life in Jesus Christ,

even though the sin entered the world because of one man,

the righteousness of one man, the obedience of one man,

who is Christ Jesus, our King.

All of that can be taken out.

Don't have to live in sin.

As if God knew.

God knew 2,025-ish years later,

there's going to be somebody who reads this text

that is found in Romans chapter five,

and they ask, but wait a second, but where's the line?

You're saying, I got grace.

You're saying Christ loves me.

But where can I go in sin?

Where can I step over a little bit?

When is it okay to get as close as I possibly can?

And as if this convo in this letter came,

Paul turns around and is like,

if you just got done with writing this,

and it depends on what Jesus has done,

and then what does it matter than how we live?

Paul knows that the instantaneous thing

that people are going to hear is like,

Paul's writing this letter.

Hey, you can live in Christ.

What do people start saying?

Well, it doesn't matter how I live now.

Because I know Jesus.

He paid it all.

I'm washed clean by the blood of the lamb.

Paul says, no, it matters how we live.

You've been justified.

Now it matters how we live.

And if you've got your Bibles,

we're going to jump in Romans chapter six.

In Romans chapter six, verse one, it says,

and then what shall we say then?

And I don't think Paul's trying to be petty.

I don't think he's got any shades of like,

trying to like sip the tea.

I don't think he's trying to gossip.

Like, I generally think he's being

very straightforward with people.

Who's going to say this?

He's not sarcastic.

He's just making sure that nobody,

after saying all those things

that he said in Romans chapter five,

he's making sure that, again,

moreover, God's making sure that, again,

there's no argument to what Paul's

trying to convince people of.

He says, what shall we say then?

Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound?

Where's the line?

Well, we know Jesus.

We know how much grace he gives us.

We know all the,

all the mighty works that he's done for us on the cross.

So if I keep living in sin,

that just shows that Jesus loves me more.

That just shows how amazing Jesus is.

If I continue to live in this sin,

if I continue to live in this insecurity,

if I continue to live in this doubt,

I continue to live in this faithlessness.

If I continue to live in whatever it might be

that is separating us from Christ,

if I can continue to live in this,

it just shows how amazing Christ is.

That's how we should live, right guys?

Paul says, what shall I say?

If I'm continually just finding that line,

and I'm stepping over it,

but just because it shows how great Jesus is,

we're missing the point of the gospel.

So again, can I still be a little bit of Adam?

Does it help me show Jesus more

if I allow him to continually show me more grace?

Does it help me evangelize

if I continually show how horrible I am

and how hard it is to live for Christ?

Love what verse two says, by no means.

Now I'm not a Greek scholar,

but I'm pretty sure that just means no.

By no means.

Shall I continue to sin so grace may abound?

Shall I continue to sin so I can show how awesome Jesus is?

No.

It says, how can we who are dead to sin still live in it?

You want to know a very unpopular verse

in today's modern Christianity?

It's Romans 6, 2.

Well, I know I've sinned.

I know I dropped the ball.

I know I have this, that, or the other thing.

And again, I'll let the Holy Spirit kind of point out to you

whatever line you'd like to step over.

But shall I continue to live this?

By no means.

So how can we who died to sin live in it?

But grace,

yes, sure, there's always forgiveness.

There's always mercy.

The Lord loves us more than we can ever comprehend.

But in the same right to continue to live purposely in sin?

By no means.

By no means.

We can't put ourselves in that spot.

Again, that's the line.

How can we who died to sin live in it?

There's the line.

If we know where the line is,

if we've been convicted by the Lord,

if we know we can't jump into watching this on the internet

or acting like this with our coworkers

or thinking this about God,

or thinking this about our spouse

or thinking this about people

or even being mad at that barista

who continually messes up your order

every single day at Starbucks.

Like, if you know those spots exist,

can I step over the line?

By no means.

By no means.

You who are alive in Christ

should not stay where you used to be.

So often we look at this and we're like,

but I struggle.

I get that.

This is the beauty of repentance

and this is the beauty of going back to the Lord,

but we can't stay where we used to live.

Calling out to Jesus for his saving grace,

calling out to Jesus to have a relationship

means that you don't live where you used to.

You don't think like you used to.

Why do we ask in Romans chapter 12?

Again, renewal of our minds.

There's change that comes into it.

I put in my notes here,

for a believer, we don't live in what Christ died for.

So if we know these things

and we understand that these things,

should we go live in those things?

By no means.

By no means.

I think one of the things that I got to is,

again, like how I said,

there's always a line.

But the thing that keeps us from the line

is understanding what the consequences are.

You tell a kid, don't touch a hot stove,

they're going to do it at least once.

You tell a kid, don't cross the street,

again, until something bad happens,

they don't know.

And stick a fork in the light socket,

again, they don't understand

until they actually do it and they get that zap.

You have to understand, what is the consequence?

So what are the consequences if we as believers,

we who know Christ the Savior,

we who have been, again, separated,

and we know him,

and we know that one day we,

we will have eternal life.

So what are the consequences if I sin?

I find this very funny because we have

high school and middle school camp

coming up in the next two weeks,

and that's actually a very, very popular question

that a lot of students will ask.

Well, how far can I go?

What's going to happen if I do it?

And you can't turn around and look at a high school kid

and be like, God is going to smite you

with his eternal wrath and judgment.

Keep it going.

Like, that doesn't work because it's not true.

God doesn't blow our worlds up.

God doesn't kill us.

God doesn't just like smote us out.

It's not Sodom and Gomorrah in our life

when we speak.

It's not God's speed.

Sometimes it can be,

but we see his eternal grace.

We see how much love he has for us.

So when we have to answer this question,

what are the consequences if we sin?

Because this can be hard to navigate.

And if, again, if a person has accepted Jesus truly

and they still live in sin in some way,

there's always consequences.

But do we see those?

So one thing, again, if we sin,

do we lose our justification?

Do we lose our standing with God?

No.

I'm in the camp, but again,

like you can't earn your way into God's hand.

That means you can't,

un-earn your way out of God's hands.

And Jesus says in John chapter six, verse 37,

it's like all that the Father gives me will come to me.

And I love this last verse.

And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

So even if you're messed up,

even if you screw up,

even if you sin,

even if you fall,

even if you struggle,

one, welcome to what it means to be a human.

The glorious grace of Jesus Christ

is he's never gonna cast you out.

The person who casts you out of a relationship with Jesus

is you because we walk away.

But Jesus is never gonna be like,

I'm sick.

I'm tired of that.

You keep doing that.

Get away from me.

That's not who he is.

That's not who Christ is.

But all who come in when Jesus says,

again, I'm not gonna cast you out.

So we don't lose our justification.

Well, that means Jesus loves me less if I sin.

That's not true either

because it says God so loved the world.

Jesus loves those who curse him and revile him and hate him

and they preach a false gospel.

Jesus still loves them.

He's not condoning what they're doing,

but he still loves them.

So what is the line?

What are the consequences if we continue to live in sin?

And sadly, the thing is for a lost person,

this is what scares me because they're like,

yeah, whatever, it doesn't matter.

But for a believer, what are the consequences if we sin?

In Romans chapter six, verse three, it 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 and 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 newness,

of life.

So what does that mean?

Again, Christ's death alone

is the thing that grounds our justification,

meaning that again, we're wiped free.

There's no more ledger against us.

And when we make it that our own faith,

we become united with Christ

and united with him in his death,

united with him in his burial

and united with him when we raise again.

That's why baptism is so important.

Buried in the likeness of his death,

raised in the likeness of his resurrection,

raised to a newness of life.

Because when you ask a person a question about baptism,

there's no marks that show whether someone's saved or not.

Because if there are,

I've graffitied up my arms

and that's going to be a really, really rough thing for me.

But we don't walk around with halos.

We don't walk around with an aura.

But when you ask somebody, are you saved?

It's not a physical external thing

that shows what's inside of your heart.

This is why baptism is so important.

Just to throw that out.

If there's somebody who has not taken their next steps

in baptism to be able to show that they know Christ,

because again, they're united with him.

The death, the burial, and the resurrection.

If you have not been submerged, if you have not been baptized,

awesome opportunity is coming up in the fair.

And I'm sure Josh Yates would love a bunch of emails

by the end of this gathering.

I want to be baptized.

But what do we see here?

Living in sin breaks something though.

What does it break?

It breaks that living in the newness.

It breaks that community with God.

Yes, you're living in his grace,

but you lose that united.

Because yes, I'm united with Christ.

Line's over here and I want to go sin.

You turn around and you're like,

I'm no longer Adam.

And again, I want to be saved over here.

I don't want to be my old self.

I'm with you, Jesus.

I'm walking with you, Jesus.

We're doing life together.

But I want to hop the line

because I actually want to go back and respond

how I used to respond before I knew you.

What is the consequence of sin?

We break that close union that we have with Christ

when we step over that line.

And for a lot of people, they're like,

oh, that's not that bad.

You would never look at your wife and say,

hey, I'm going to step over the line for a minute.

You would never look at your children and say,

I'm going to step over the line for a minute.

I'm going to step over the line

and I'm not going to be your dad or your mother right now.

But we can turn around and we can look at the one

who paid the price for all of our punishment.

We can take and look at the person

who paid the price for all of our sin,

who did so much for us that we can't even comprehend.

But we're going to be like, you know what?

I'm okay not being your friend right now.

You know what?

I'm okay stepping over this line.

Why?

Because that person really frustrated me.

Because my life isn't going the way I want it to go.

Because bills are mounting up right now.

What?

When we look at the consequences of what we lose,

when we step over that line,

shall I sin so grace may abound even more by no means.

But we lose something.

We lose that closeness.

Have you ever sat in your bed just asking where Jesus is?

Have you ever sat driving and just been like,

I don't feel as close to him as I used to be?

A lot of the times we start focusing on God and being like,

you moved away from me.

But that's not true, is it?

Because we know who moved away.

It's our hearts.

It's our faith.

It's our relationship.

Because we drew a line and we said,

you know what?

While I'm over here with you right now,

Jesus, you know what?

I'm okay stepping over this line because I want to go do me.

I want to respond like me.

I want to act like me.

Or even worse, we look over at God and say,

I don't think you have this under control because I like control.

I'm a little bit of a control freak.

I'm going to handle it myself by no means.

But we lose something.

In the next couple of verses, Paul starts talking about, again,

like those things that we have with him when we stay united with him.

In Romans chapter 6, verses 5 to 7, it says,

for if we've been united with him, again,

we get to be united.

We get to be united with our Messiah.

We get to be united with the Lord.

We get to be united with Christ.

When we are united with him in death, like his,

we shall certainly be united with him in his resurrection.

Ooh, we get to start looking like Jesus.

We get to start having life like Jesus.

And we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the

body of sin might be brought to nothing.

Oh, so you're saying that, again,

who I was and that Adam and that old self is gone?

Yeah.

But what about those scars that I had when I was a kid?

What about those scars?

Those scars that happened in the past, they gone.

We have that when we have Jesus.

But what do we do when we jump that line?

We go back to those things.

When we're united with Jesus, what do we have?

Newness of life.

The sin that held us down gets brought to nothing so that we would no longer,

and I love this,

we would no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died,

has been set free from sin.

Does anybody like being chained up to their sin?

Does anyone?

Does anyone like being chained up to their anxiety,

their low self-worth, their doubt, their frustration, their anger, their lust?

No one's going to raise their hand.

But what do we have when we have Christ?

What do we have when we get to unite with him?

That can be gone.

That can be obliterated.

That can be turned to nothing.

Dying to self, raising new.

That old self is gone on the cross because that's what Jesus did for us.

But let's hop the line.

By no means.

Then he continues in verse 8 through 11.

He says,

Now that we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

This is where it gets fun.

We get to live with him.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.

Also, if we're united with him and we live with him and we know that Christ will never die again,

it says death no longer has dominion over him.

And if we're united with him and we're walking with him and death has no dominion over him,

death has no dominion over us.

For the death he died, he died to sin.

And once for all,

but the life he lives, he lives to God.

And I love this.

So you also must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

One of my favorite things I came to the realization is those who know Christ right now,

did you know your eternal life has started?

Because a believer never experiences death.

We think, well, you die when this shell goes away.

But no, you never experience death.

You're always alive.

So those who know Christ, you have eternal life right now

because you are alive.

You will never experience death.

Why?

Because Christ, death no longer has dominion over him.

And those of us who are united with him,

while this might perish, we never see death.

But for us, because Jesus who offers us eternal life to the believer,

what are we turning around and saying?

Jesus, the consequences of jumping over the line for a little bit

isn't worth the life that I get to live with you now.

Because if it was instantaneous damnation, if we sin,

we would always stay over here.

What does Jesus want out of us?

He doesn't want to scare us.

He doesn't want us into a relationship.

He wants to love him so much that we stay close to him.

So what are the consequences of sinning as a believer?

You hurt your new self.

You hurt your relationship with the Lord.

You hurt your communion with the Lord.

And while I was sitting and looking at this,

I saw my son who decided he wanted to step over the line.

And the worst thing is while he stepped over the line,

it wasn't just him that he was going to hurt.

It could have been somebody else.

Parents, one of the most important things you get to do as a parent

is you get to reflect the realness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why should we never, by no means, be okay with stepping over that line?

Because we want to show the littlest.

We want to show that, let's be honest, parents,

you know what will happen if someone tries hurting your child.

We want to show our kids that.

Show our kids the realness of Christ.

And yes, we know we're going to struggle.

Yes, we know we're going to sway.

But in the same right, to show that unity, to show that love,

to show that relationship.

For me, I look at that and I'm like, okay,

so if it's not good enough to help you stay away from the line,

maybe it's enough motivation that you'll stay

away from the line for your kids, husbands.

Maybe it's one of the most important things that you stay away from that line

so you actually can show your wife who, you know, like,

you chose her, you bought a nice ring,

you stood in front of, like, a bunch of people.

But to show that unitedness, to show that closeness with Christ,

why do we not want to step over that line?

Because we know our marriage is better when Christ is at the center of it.

And then there's just us being Christians

who want to be able to reach the world with the gospel.

I want to be able to show people the realness of Christ

for those who are unsaved and they don't know who they are.

They don't know Christ.

How do we expect that Christ is going to be seen through us

if we're living in the side where we're like,

I'm just going to sin a little bit.

I've got to fit in.

No, that's not what we do.

We want to be able to show that we've been united with Christ,

that our old self has passed away,

because that's what we want every single person to know,

that your old self does not have to have dominion over you.

But to be able to show the realness,

the realness of the gospel,

that when we accept Jesus as our Savior,

we have eternal life.

There's hope found in that.

There's peace found in that.

So where do we start?

Where do we start?

It's always the thing that I try to land on.

In Romans chapter 5, it has so many good verses,

but where do we start?

Where do we start living?

We've got to start living like Christ is real.

And in Romans chapter 5, verse 8, it says,

But God shows his love for us,

that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.

We start there because, again, in Romans chapter 6, verse 12,

when Christ truly has died for us,

and we truly believe that in Romans 6, verse 12, it says,

We can show ourselves to God.

We can show ourselves to God.

We can show the realness of the gospel to God.

But how do we do it?

We've got to start with the fact that Christ died for us.

Is that the most precious truth you hold on to?

Is the gospel of Jesus Christ,

is the fact that he died for you while you were rebellious,

running away from him,

when you were trying to live life on your own power?

If you're here today and you don't know him,

well, I can just always step over the line,

and it doesn't really matter.

You have no idea how much it matters.

You have no idea what it's costing you

because it's costing you a relationship

with the person who loves you.

He loves you more than you will ever be able to comprehend.

And if you're here and you don't know Christ,

this isn't me trying to get emotional,

this isn't me trying to manipulate you.

Genuinely, if you don't know Christ,

and you want to keep hopping over the line,

it doesn't break my heart because you do that.

It breaks my heart because you have no idea

what life can be like when we stay united with Christ.

For those of us who know the mercy and the love of Christ,

we understand why we would never want to go back.

But for those of you who know him,

why do we want to go back?

There's nothing good over there.

The grass is never greener on the other side.

It never works that way.

When we look at this idea,

by no means do we understand that, again,

we get to know Christ and our life should be measured

by how closely we cling to him,

how fast we hold on to him.

Even in the hardest of times,

it doesn't matter where we're united with him

and where the past does not matter,

where we're united with him

and we get to go with him in the future

and we get to live with him forever.

If you're here today,

we know that sin has no limit.

We know that sin has no limit.

We know that sin has no power

that Christ cannot defeat.

It starts with us going back to him repeatedly,

repeatedly, repeatedly,

saying, Christ, I.

Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Lord, thank you for who you are.

Thank you for your love, your grace.

Lord, thank you so much

that we can worship you every day.

But Lord, on the day that we come

to worship you together, Lord,

Lord, where two or more are found,

Lord, we know that you're with us.

Lord, I don't know the struggles

that are in this room,

but Lord, I praise you so much that you do.

Lord, I don't know the complexity

of message that you put on my heart, Lord.

But Lord, I know you do.

Lord, thank you so much that you're the answer.

Lord, you're the solution.

You're the provider.

But Lord, thank you so much, Lord,

that we're always welcome to come to you.

Jesus, whatever is holding any of us back

from knowing you, living in you,

Lord, wanting to be more united with you.

Lord, I pray that whatever that is, Lord,

whatever individual is holding onto that,

Lord, I pray that they lay it down at your feet.

Lord, they lay it down at your cross, Lord.

But Lord, for all of us,

Lord, all of us who know you,

Lord, I pray that you would

Lord, I pray that we want to be so united with you, Lord.

We so want to be in communion with you, Lord,

that we don't want to let anything ever interrupt that.

Lord, I pray that you just destroy the self

that is inside of us, Lord.

You destroy the sin that is inside of us, Lord.

But for us, Lord, we just want to know you better.

Thank you so much for your verse in James.

It says, when we draw close to you, Lord,

you draw close to us.

Lord, allow all the hearts who are struggling,

struggling to stay away from that line, Lord.

Pray that they're able to turn towards you and draw close.

But Lord, thank you so much that

the moment they turn around, Lord, you'll be waiting.

So Lord, as we come back to worship you, Lord,

I pray you continue to move in people's hearts,

whether they're here or whether they're online.

But Lord, thank you so much for the gospel.

Thank you so much for setting us free.

But thank you so much that we do not have to live without you.

So Jesus, we love you.

And Lord, we pray this all in your beautiful name.

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