The River ChurchSermons

SIN / SELF

SELF - Incapable in Relation to the Law of God

Rich Sawicki · Sunday, 20 July 2025 · Romans 7:1-12 · 38:35 · 5,834 words

Romans S13 · 7:1-12 Holly

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The sermon is based on Romans 7:1-12 and explains that the law binds people only while they live, but through Christ's death believers are set free to belong to Him. It emphasizes that we are sinners in need of a Savior, and that only by God's grace through Jesus can we overcome sin and bear fruit. The speaker calls listeners to remember their commitment to Christ, to rebel against sin, and to trust in God's love even in struggles.

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.

law 46 follow 32 fruit 21 punishment 15 rule 16 fair 11 commitment 9 struggle 17 adulteress 5 rebel 7 bear 10 prune 3

Topics

Sin 12 The Law 10 Prayer 2 Freedom 2 The Holy Spirit 1 Salvation 1 Grace 1 Baptism 1 Faith 1

Scripture referenced 17

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

Romans 7 2:14 Romans 7 8:42 Romans 7:1-3 8:46 Romans 6 9:13 Romans 7 9:40 Romans 7 9:43 Romans 7 9:51 Romans 7:1-12 9:59 Romans 7 10:57 Romans 7:1 10:57 Romans 7:2 11:26 Romans 7:5 20:09 Romans 7:5 20:09 Romans 7 26:08 Romans 7:6 26:08 Romans 7:9 32:04 Romans 7:12 35:41

Transcript

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

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All right, good morning church.
0:45
Love it. You guys ready to do some church this morning?
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So for those of you that I haven't had the opportunity to meet yet,
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my name is Rich and I'm the Kids Director here at Holly.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for trusting me with your most valued possessions.
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The kids, right?
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It's an honor to teach them every day.
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And you know, kids are at that great stage of life where they're asking a lot of questions, right?
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And I'm happy to be there to answer those questions.
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It's always like, hey, why Mr. Rich?
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Why, why, why?
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But they're so excited, right?
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They got that energy.
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They're enthusiastic and it's amazing.
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You know, and God's placed so many great people in my life that, you know, have answered questions
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Helped me get through certain, excuse me, situations that I'm just thankful that I can be in that position.
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And parents, if you have any questions ever, please just know that I'm available.
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And anyone else, if you've got any questions, just come and talk to me.
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I'd love to have that conversation and possibly be one of those people to speak life into a situation.
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So this morning, we're going to be talking about Romans.
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We're in the chapter 7.
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We're going to be going 1 through 12.
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And we're going to be learning what, you know, Paul was teaching.
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But I want you guys to know what we're teaching the kids back there in Children's Church.
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So every week, I make sure that I teach the kids and our team teaches the kids.
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And that's most important is that I've got a great team back there because we can't do it all by ourselves.
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And the team makes sure that the kids know that they're loved.
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He loves each and every one of them.
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He loves them more than ruling over heaven.
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That's why he came to earth.
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He loves us more than just being a king.
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That's why he came here to serve.
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And he loves us more than life itself.
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That's why he was willing to lay down his life and die for us on that cross.
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Because he loves us.
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And that's important for the kids to know.
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But it's also important for every one of you to know today that we've got a God that loves us.
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He loves us.
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He loves us so much, church.
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So we're coming off of a couple great weeks.
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We had a really great week, the 4th of July.
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Did you all have fun?
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Yeah?
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You had a lot of celebration?
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We were with family.
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We were with friends.
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Right?
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Because there was sacrifice.
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But there was also rebellion, wasn't there?
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No.
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You know, I'm the kids director here.
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I want the kids to listen to the parents.
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But I am promoting to rebel against sin.
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And that's what Paul's message is about today.
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He's saying, it's okay.
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We're living a new life, a new way.
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And we're going to rebel against sin.
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And that's what God wants us to do.
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He wants us to be able to rebel against that sin and live a life that's pleasing to him.
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So that was one of the great weeks that we had, right?
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And then last week, we were at the fair.
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Who was able to make it to the fair?
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If you were not at the fair, I mean, it is tough to explain to people.
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When I told people, hey, I was at the fair this weekend, they're like, oh, great, you were at the fair.
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And I was like, no, we did church at the fair.
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No one has any idea what that looks like, right?
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It's a sea of people there, sitting on bleachers, sitting on the hill.
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We all come together.
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And I think there was over 2,500 people.
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And I think there was over 2,500 people to worship God corporately.
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And, you know, Dave was there, and while he was worshiping, he said something.
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And I've heard this before, but, man, I love being out in creation.
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I see God written all over creation.
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And Dave said, he goes, even the trees swaying back and forth worship God.
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And isn't that the truth?
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Because if we didn't worship God, what does Scripture say?
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Even the rocks would cry out, right?
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Right?
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And that's what we're here to do this morning, church.
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And I'm thankful for that.
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So, man, we're coming off two really, really great weeks.
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And, you know, at the fair, we worshiped together.
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But what about those baptisms, huh?
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Right?
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That's what I'm talking about.
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And we know that baptism, it's not salvation.
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We're saved when we believe that Jesus is sinless.
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He's God.
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He came to earth to take our sins.
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He took our sins in death and then rose from death to life.
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Right?
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That's not baptism.
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Baptism is when we show that we're ready.
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We're ready to show everyone that our lives have changed.
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Or we're just ready to follow Christ.
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And that was awesome, seeing that proclamation of faith there with everyone getting baptized at the fair.
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Celebrating that new life that we have.
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And I was blessed with the opportunity to baptize my grandson that day.
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And, yeah, it was emotional.
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My daughter was bawling her eyes out.
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And I was fighting those tears back, right?
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Because it's an emotional time, seeing someone make that commitment.
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And I don't know if, you know, you've been a Christian your whole life.
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If, you know, many people in your family have accepted the Lord.
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And you've been walking with the Lord forever.
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But it all starts with that one decision.
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That one decision that we realize that we're sinners in need of a Savior.
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And we've got a Savior.
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And His name is Jesus.
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And He came and He died on the cross for our sins and rose again.
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And we need to walk in that.
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Because there's freedom in that.
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There's rebellion from sin.
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There's rebellion from sin.
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And that should cause us to feel good.
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And we need to remember.
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We need to remember that day when we made that commitment.
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And me seeing those baptisms, and I point to the baptismal over here.
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Me seeing those baptisms at that fair.
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It reminds me of that commitment that I made when I chose to follow Christ.
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Now, I don't know about you guys.
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Most of you might be able to remember the day, the hour, the minute, the time when you accepted Christ.
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I don't remember that.
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I don't remember.
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I don't remember that.
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I remember that when I was in my 20s, I made a commitment to follow Him.
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And, you know, sometimes I did a great job.
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And other times I didn't do such a great job.
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But, 48 years old right now, and I'm still following the Lord.
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It's not about how much we do.
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It's if we continue to do it, right?
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And we've got to follow through.
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Because we've got a God that followed through for us.
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So, before we get to that, I want you to know that we've got a God that followed through for us.
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So, before we get to that, I want you to know that we've got a God that followed through for us.
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So, before we get into chapter 7, I kind of just want to give parents a heads up.
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In verses 1 through 3, they might touch on some marriage stuff.
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And you might get one of those questions.
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Why?
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Why?
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And it might be an awkward question.
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So, if you've got kids in here and you want to take them out, that's fine.
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If not, you know, hey, questions are good.
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Especially when it's about the truth, right?
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There's no bad questions.
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But, before we get into that.
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And he was talking about, we are no longer bound by that sin, right?
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And Paul gives an analogy of slavery, right?
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And we know what slavery is.
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It's we're in servitude.
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But, no longer do we have to serve sin.
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Because that's our old nature.
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And that's what we're going to get into in Romans 7.
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Romans 7 is talking about that new nature.
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So, with that, open up your Bibles or your devices to chapter 7.
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We're going to go verses 1 through 12 this morning.
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And I'm going to start off reading 1 through 3.
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Before I do that, let's pray.
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Lord God, Lord Jesus, thank you for this time that we get to spend together in your word this morning, Lord.
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Lord, we know it's all about you.
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But, so often, we put ourselves first.
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Lord, I just pray that.
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Lord, that we can see that all we do is for you.
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Lord, just let us glorify your name with how we live and how we treat one another.
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Alright, so in chapter 7, it starts off in verse 1.
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And it says,
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Or do you not know, brothers?
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For I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.
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Now, that's very important.
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Right there, that we remember that.
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The law is only binding.
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When?
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As long as we live.
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Right?
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Okay.
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Alright, you got it.
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He says,
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For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives.
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But, if her husband dies, she's released from the law of marriage.
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Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive.
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But, if her husband dies,
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she's free from the law.
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And, if she marries another man,
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she is not an adulteress.
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So, Paul starts out.
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And he's connecting.
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He's connecting with the people.
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Because they're believers.
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But, they're also fellow believers that followed the law at a time.
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But, they've since confessed Christ as their Savior.
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Now, he brings up the fact that there's a punishment, right?
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When we disobey the law.
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And we had read that,
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the woman's punishment is she would be called an adulteress if she violated the law. And Paul
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brings up marriage in this commandment because it was something that they experienced in that
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culture. We might not experience that in the degree they did back then, right? We've made
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exceptions to the law and they also made exceptions to the law. But does that nullify what the law had
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said? No, uh-uh, no. We know that there's a punishment when we don't follow the law because
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we're all under law. So, but, you know, getting back to the adulteress thing, what was the
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punishment for an adulteress back then? Death, right? Death. But she was free from marriage if
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her husband died, right? Women, ladies, don't get any bad ideas. There's a punishment.
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for that as well, okay? All right? But, you know, husbands, fellas, we got to be good to our wives,
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don't we? Right? If it's just following a list of rules over and over and over and always just
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doing what she says, it's going to come across as just a constant nagging, nagging, nagging.
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But if we're in it for love, if we're looking for ways that we can help her and be her,
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her soulmate and be her teammate, then that changes the situation, right? It's just not about
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a list of rules because our sinful nature likes to rebel against those rules. So if you see a list
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of rules, obviously you're gonna, you're not going to follow that list of rules. So we make
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commitments, right? Marriage, you make a commitment. You take a vow. You give your word. You go before
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God and you say, for better or for worse.
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For richer or for poorer. In sickness and health. To love and to cherish. And to love and to cherish
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is a lot more than just following a list of rules. But then we end it and we say, until death do we
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part, right? So it's ended upon death. And that's what Paul's getting at here. It all ends on death.
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That law ends on death. And that's really important because we know who died for us,
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right? Christ died for us. We know who died for us. We know who died for us. We know who died for us.
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Christ died on the cross for us. But then Paul's relating, right? He's still relating. And in verse
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four, he says, likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ
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so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may
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bear fruit from God. So there's a lot packaged in there. One, he's connecting with believers again,
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right? Because we're not going to be able to connect with people if we can't relate. One thing
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that we know that we can all relate with each other is, is that we're all sinners. And it's not
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bad. Paul tells us over and over that we're sinners, we're sinners, we're sinners. And we need
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to know that we're sinners because if you don't know that you're a sinner, you've got no need for
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a savior. And we all need to be saved from that sin because there's a punishment that comes with
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that sin for not following that law. But we know that Christ served that punishment. He, he died
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for that sin.
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Even though he was sinless. And that's the only reason he could take that sin punishment that we
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all deserved. But so now we're married to Christ when we make that commitment and there's no shame
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and there's no guilt. There's no punishment anymore because we died with Christ. So we
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celebrate, we celebrate life with him. And we were talking about baptisms earlier. That's what we
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But what does that mean to bear the fruit, that fruit from God? Well, Paul just got done talking
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about marriage. How many of you think that that fruit that he's talking about is about kids?
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You're looking at me. It's not. It's not. But kids are great, right? And if you can teach your kids
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about the Lord and you have that generational fruit growing, I would say that's fruit from God.
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Generation after generation. Having freedom from sin. You're going to be bearing that fruit
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because you're going to be living a different life, a different way. You're going to be living
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for God and putting him first. But we all know that fruit takes time to grow. Anybody got fruit
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trees here? I've got some fruit trees. I think it's been about six years now and I planted 20
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some trees. And over the six years, I think I've got like a half a dozen cherries, no apples,
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no plums. And it's hard. It's hard. You're waiting on that fruit to grow and you're waiting years.
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But the key is we got to stick in there, right? We're going to stick it. Eventually that tree is
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going to bear fruit. And there's things that we can do to help that tree grow. And God does those
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things for us. God fertilizes that tree, right? And what does that do? That starts working on the
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But we got to trust that God is continually working on us. He sends the rains and he waters
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that. He waters those trees. The Bible tells us that this is the living word, right? It's the
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water into our soul. We're watered by the word. We need to get full on that water because without
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water, what happens? We're going to wither up and die. So we need God's word. In church, we need it
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more than just on Sunday. We need it more than just on Sunday. We need it more than just on Sunday.
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And I'm not creating a list of rules for you to follow. But the more we do these things,
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the more we get closer to God, the better it's going to be for our relationship with God.
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What else can we do to help those trees grow? We can prune them, right? Nobody likes to be
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pruned by God. Nobody likes to be pruned by God. He said, God, cut this off. Cut this branch off.
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But if he doesn't cut those crooked branches off, if he doesn't cut those dead,
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branches off, nothing's going to grow. And the only way for those branches to be strong enough
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to bear the fruit that God's going to give you is if you go through a little bit of pruning.
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So those are just a couple ways that God's going to help us out in life and prune us and get us
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where we need to be. He's going to fertilize us. He's going to water us. And he's going to prune
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us. Now in verse 5, he starts talking about living in the flesh. So in Romans 7, 5, I'm going to read
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that. It says,
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While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our
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members to bear fruit for death. So he's not talking about bearing fruit for God. He's talking
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about bearing fruit for death. So now we see that we can bear two kinds of fruit, right? But what is
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that fruit? What's the fruit of death? Well, we know that death is separation from God. And that's
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separate us from God. But Paul's saying before Christ, the law showed him that he couldn't follow
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the law. It showed him he couldn't. We don't think about the punishment when we choose sin.
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I had a pastor tell me once that sin feels good. And if it doesn't, you're just not doing it right.
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And isn't that the truth? And that's why we choose sin, because it feels good. And we feel like we
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want it. Not only we feel like we deserve it, right? But we
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need to bear that fruit of God. And sometimes to glorify God, we got to deny that nature.
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And he's given us the ability to deny that sinful nature. So here's another example. When you're
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driving down the freeway, and you see a sign that says 70, what do you think? 75, right? If you're
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driving down a 55 mile an hour road, and you see that sign, what do you think? 50, right? I mean,
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it's just crazy. It's just crazy. It's just crazy. It's just crazy.
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We push that boundary. We rebel against the law, because we know we can get away with it. Now,
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is there a punishment? Absolutely. You can absolutely get pulled over for going five over.
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But we like to justify it, right? Like, everybody's doing it. Well, what's a five over ticket? Until
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you get those points on your insurance, then you realize that there's a cost for that punishment,
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right? But what do you do when you're going through a 25?
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As a trick question, you slow down, because you're in a residential area, and there's usually
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children around, right? So rebellion can get you in a lot of trouble. But we do push those
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boundaries. We push those boundaries to see where we can go. But Paul's saying, man, that law showed
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me sin. It showed me sin. So it kind of challenged me to break that law. And that's what we do with
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those speed limits. And that's what we do with those speed limits. And that's what we do with
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those speed limits. That's what I do when my wife sets some hot cookies out on the table. She'll
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tell me, hey, don't eat those. They're hot. You know, if you start eating them, you're going to
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get sick. And I weigh out that punishment. And I'm like, yeah, I can take it. My mouth will be burnt
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a little bit. But those cookies are good when they're warm, aren't they? Right? So in the
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punishment, the punishment ain't that bad. I'll worry about me being sick later. I'm going to
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have them cookies now. And that's what we do in life. We think,
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oh, we can have this now. And we just jump into it. We take the easy road. And let me tell you,
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church, you know it. Following Christ is not the easy road. It's not. It's going to be challenging.
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And it's going to be difficult. But you can do it. You can persevere through it. Because you're
24:24
not alone. You're not alone. And Christ loves you. We know that. He loves us. But sometimes
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we just don't see it when we're in the middle of all that stuff going on. Now, I start to
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telling you earlier about, you know, the last two weeks that we had. And they were great. I mean,
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they were great. But this week, this week, I was struggling, church. Anybody with me? Anybody
24:49
struggling this week? I mean, it was a tough week. I'm not going to lie. Everything was going good.
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I mean, I studied and I was good with that. But I had all this work that I had to get done.
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And so much. I mean, I haven't worked a Saturday in six months. And I had to work a Saturday
25:07
just to try to get this work done. And guess what, guys? I didn't get all that work done.
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And it's okay. And it's okay. I mean, we can work and work and work and work. And we can work on
25:25
whatever we need to work on. But if we're not focused on Christ while we're working, we're
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going to be struggling. And I was struggling because I put that work first. I needed to get
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that done to feel successful, to be successful, just to feel complete. But that's not what completes us.
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Christ completes us. And he's already done that for us. But it's okay. I mean, even I need that
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reminder. I need that reminder that it's okay to struggle and that we're not going to get it all
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done. And Paul is going to really hit on that here at the end of this chapter. So let's get there.
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In chapter or verse six, chapter seven, Paul says, now we're released from the law, having died to
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that which held us captive. So let's get there. Let's get there. Let's get there. Let's get there.
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Well, that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. So
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we've been talking about that old way of the written code. That was the law. That was the law.
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That's what we were under before Christ. And they were under that before Christ, but he's talking
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to believers and I'm talking to believers here now. So we're going to focus on that new way of
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the spirit, right? That grace, that grace that Christ gives us. And it's grace alone by faith
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alone in Christ alone. And that's what we need when we're suffering and when we're hurting. And
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when we feel like we got to measure up and hit that mark and we don't hit it, we got to understand
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that we've all got God's grace. We've got God's grace. And as long as you do your best, that's
27:11
all you can do at the end of the day, isn't it? So what does that mean to walk in the new way of
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the spirit? Does it mean that we got no rules? We don't have to follow anything? No. Does it mean
27:29
because we're born again, we can do whatever we want? No, uh-uh. No, we can't do whatever we want.
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Rules are there to keep us safe and to keep others safe. Could you imagine if we lived in a world
27:45
that didn't have any rules? There'd be chaos everywhere. Everybody would be doing whatever
27:51
they wanted to do for themselves. And that's not love. You see, God said that we should love others,
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right? We should put others before ourselves. We're not supposed to live
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by that old law and treat people how we've been treated because we've been treated bad,
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huh? We've had people treat us horribly and we want to lash out. And that's our sinful nature.
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And our sinful nature says we got every right to lash out. But when we accepted Christ,
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when we committed to following him, when we took that vow, we took that vow to love our neighbor
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as ourself, to love the Lord, our God with all our heart.
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With all our mind, with all our strength, with all our soul. And that means it's not going to be
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our way all the time. It means we're not going to be able to cheat and break those rules. We're
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going to have to follow some rules. And that's what's tough. But that's what it's like living
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a Christ-centered life. It's not easy. It's a tough life. And we can do it because we're not
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alone. He loves us. And that's what I liked, looking around that fair, seeing 2,500 people
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sitting there worshiping God. And that's what I liked, looking around that fair, seeing 2,500
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people sitting there worshiping God, trying to live the same kind of life that we're trying to
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live. We didn't take the easy road. We're not out there just doing whatever we want to do.
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We're trying to conform to what Christ wants us to be. We're trying to be obedient to God. And
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we're at a disadvantage because we have that sinful nature living in us. But we've got the
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greatest advantage. We've got Christ living in us as well. Because once we accept him, his Holy Spirit
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comes and lives inside of each one of us. And that's why we can have love and joy and peace
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and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and self-control. We can have all
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those fruits, not because anything we've done, but because of the one that lives in us. And he
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loves us, church. And we got to remember that. Now, Paul, he asked his questions. He asked questions
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to remind them of the commitments they made and the God that they follow. And he said,
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he starts out this section here in 7 through 11, talking about law and sin, right? Over and over
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and over, church. We hear about law and sin, law and sin. Let's get back to those good weeks where
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we're talking about freedom, where we're talking about the freedom of Christ, because that makes
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us feel good. But Paul's got us in law and sin right now. Again, because if we don't realize
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that we're sinners, we'll have no need for a savior. So I'm
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going to read 7 through 11. And it says, then what shall we say? That the law is sin? And Paul
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comes back and he says, by no means. Now, I was listening to Pastor Roy the other week, and that
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translation in the Greek isn't by no means. It's, are you out of your mind? Are you crazy? Do you
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not know what you're talking about here? No, the law is not sinful. We're sinful. So Paul gets into
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it, right? And he says,
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for I would have not known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet. But sin,
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Apart from the law, sin lies dead, right? No one cares about the law if they're not following the
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law. It just lies there dead. But when you're trying to follow it, you can never meet the mark.
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You can never measure up. And that's what Paul's trying
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to get across here. And in verse 9, he says, I was once alive apart from the law. But when the
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commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be
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death to me. For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through
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it killed me. And that's what sin will do every time. It'll kill us. It'll separate us from God.
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But we've got a savior that died and we got to walk in that newness of life. And just like
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Paul is here reminding the believers of the commitment and the God that we follow,
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we got to remember the God that we follow. When he went to the grave, when he died,
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he didn't stay there. He was victorious. He rose from the grave. Death couldn't keep him.
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He rebelled against sin and he won. Amen. So Paul,
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he's giving his testimony here, right? He's telling us what happened between him and sin,
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but he's got that relationship with the people so he can share his story.
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Now we know that Saul followed the law, right? He followed the law to the T. He was a Pharisee
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of Pharisees. He murdered Christians. Thou shall not kill, right? Thou shall not kill.
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But he murdered Christians to follow the law. It's thought that he,
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he was there at the stoning of Stephen. He followed the law and he found himself getting
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farther and farther and farther away from God. Guys, there's nothing we can do to get closer
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and closer and closer to God, right? We'll be struggling and struggling if that's the method
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that we're taking to try to work, to have a better relationship with God. I'm not saying
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don't work on our relationship with God. We should definitely do that as much as we can.
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As much as we can to grow closer to God. But again, it's all through what Christ did for us
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on that cross. It's by grace that we were saved. There's nothing that we can do. We can't work
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hard enough. We can't get it all done. And we got to remember that it's okay that we can't get it
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all done because we got a God that got it done for us. He was on that cross and he said,
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it is finished, done, complete. And that's what he did. He tells us that he didn't,
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come to abolish the law. The law is good. It was created by God. It's great. We should know those
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rules. We should follow those rules, but we should also know that we're never going to measure up to
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those rules. But just because we can't, doesn't mean that we could quit working, right? I'm not
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going to quit my job because I didn't get done all the things that I needed to get done throughout
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the week. It's okay to work hard. And I think we should work hard, but we just got to know that if
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we don't get it done, we're not going to get it done. And I think that's what we should do.
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It's okay. But Christ got it done for us. So we're going to close with the last verse here
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and it's verse 12. And this is Paul. Paul's ready. He knows he's about to speak truth and it's just
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simple. It's simple truth. And that's what we got to rely on when life gets stressful. When we're
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struggling, we got to rely on those simple truths that God loves you and he's never going to leave
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you. And Paul says, so the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
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Paul just went on and on for verses telling us how the law caused him to sin. But it all goes back
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to who God is and God's character. God is love and he loves you. The Bible, he gave us his word
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to help us through these situations in life that we struggle with. We just got to remember to get
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in there when we're struggling. And when we leave here today, church, I want every one of you to
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know that God loves you. And if you're struggling, I want you to know that God loves you. And if
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you're struggling, I want you to know that God loves you. And if you're struggling, I want you
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to know that God loves you. And if you're stressed out getting out of here, there's people here that
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want to talk to you. They want to connect. We want to share that love, but we want to be a family
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and we want to go through those struggles together, right? Because that's what family is,
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getting through life together. So thanks for coming out this morning. We're going to get
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through those struggles together. I'm going to close in prayer. Lord God, Lord Jesus, thank you
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for this time this morning, Lord. Thank you for your word. Lord, your word shows us the right things
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we should do. Lord, we don't always do what we should do. And we're sorry, Lord. Lord, we repent.
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Lord, we come before you and we ask for forgiveness. And Lord, you're faithful. You're faithful to
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forgive us our sins. And that's what you did for us on that cross. You forgave us our sins. Thank
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you, Lord. I ask that you bless everyone here this morning and watching online, Lord, as we go
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throughout our week. And know that if we're struggling, there's a church here that's willing to pray for
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each other and help talk and walk through those struggles. We're not alone. And we know that
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you're always with us. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen.