Written by: Paul Niemiec – Church Army
Romans 6 v 15-19
So what should we do? Should we sin because we are under grace and not under
law? No! Surely you know that when you give yourselves like slaves to obey
someone, then you are really slaves of that person. The person you obey is
your master. You can follow sin, which brings spiritual death, or you can obey
God, which makes you right with him. In the past you were slaves to sin—sin
controlled you. But thank God, you fully obeyed the things that you were taught.
You were made free from sin, and now you are slaves to goodness. I use this
example because this is hard for you to understand. In the past you offered
the parts of your body to be slaves to sin and evil; you lived only for evil.
In the same way now you must give yourselves to be slaves of goodness. Then
you will live only for God.
Notes
OK. Straight choice – no messing. In or out, up or down - you choose. This
is pretty basic. The world has chosen sin, murder, sex, drugs, booze. OK,
so sex is good in the right place, and a little wine is good for the stomach.
BUT you know what you’ve been up to, so does God - stuff in private; use
of money; gossip; the way you treat people; the good stuff you and I don’t
do; what we think no one else knows about. God loves you so much that he
lets you choose - he gives us his word to guide us as to which choices are
best.
So we all need help. God’s Holy Spirit - again you choose. The example of Jesus - again you choose. The realisation that God loves you - again you choose.
He’s chosen you. Will you choose him and his ways in every area of life?
10,080 minutes in a week - how many for sin; how many for God?
Again! You choose.
Let’s pray
OK God, I need your help. Help me to ask and mean it, accept and mean it, and
live and mean it – as Jesus did. Thanks.
Romans 6 v 20-23
In the past you were slaves to sin, and goodness did not control you. You did
evil things, and now you are ashamed of them. Those things only bring death.
But now you are free from sin and have become slaves of God. This brings
you a life that is only for God, and this gives you life for ever. When people
sin, they earn what sin pays—death. But God gives us a free gift—life for
ever in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notes
I often look back – old music (which I collect); old body (which I have); old
photos (some of which I wish I didn’t have!).
Sometimes I look forward with hope - for me, for my family, for the world.
Sometimes I regret things past and fear for things forward. Often I’m ashamed of my ways and the world’s ways.
I know people who have nowhere to go with such feelings and they get depressed, sad, and even suicidal. We (and they!) can go to the cross of Jesus with ANYTHING and EVERYTHING - unload, be free, exchange and be empowered.
In Kenya there is a form of prayer where you stand in front of a cross and throw your prayers, thoughts, hopes, confession, indeed anything you want to, to the cross. You do this like a football (soccer) throw-in - hands and arms back, behind your head, and throw forwards. Try it. The physical comes together with the mental and spiritual - thus we throw our whole selves to the foot of the cross.
Let’s pray
Hey God, I need to know that I can be free. Show me, please - in ways I can
understand and respond to. Seems really difficult – this Christian stuff
sometimes. Help me to see clearly, and to get to the foot of the cross every
day. Thanks.
Romans 7 v 1-3
Brothers and sisters, all of you understand the law of Moses. So surely you
know that the law rules over people only while they are alive. For example,
a woman must stay married to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her
husband dies, she is free from the law of marriage. But if she marries another
man while her husband is still alive, the law says she is guilty of adultery.
But if her husband dies, she is free from the law of marriage. Then if she
marries another man, she is not guilty of adultery.
Notes
“All of you understand the law of Moses” (?). I don’t understand the offside
rule! – give me a break. I need help – big help - to understand law, grace,
love, lots of Bible stuff that I’m not used to.
Over the years (far too many!) God’s helped me with all I can take; helped me whenever I’ve needed it, just as Jesus did for others during his earthly ministry. Try reading the Bible – beyond these notes - particularly the gospels.
Faith has to be our sure and certain hope. I’m not sure exactly what it means, but the more I think about it, the more comforted I feel. Faith is something that all of us need, especially when the world around us lets us down so often.
To begin to understand the enormity of the wonders that God has for you, let him be God in your life. Plus he gives us his church and wise friends and leaders to help, plus his Holy Spirit, plus plus plus!
Go for it!
Prayer
Hi God – so much I don’t understand. Show me what I need to know in a way I
can take in and respond to – especially all the Bible stuff that I sometimes
struggle with. Thanks.
Romans 7 v 4-6
In the same way, my brothers and sisters, your old selves died, and you became
free from the law through the body of Christ. This happened so that you might
belong to someone else—the One who was raised from the dead—and so that we
might be used in service to God. In the past, we were ruled by our sinful
selves. The law made us want to do sinful things that controlled our bodies,
so the things we did were bringing us death. In the past, the law held us
like prisoners, but our old selves died and we were made free from the law.
So now we serve God in a new way with the Spirit, and not in the old way
with written rules.
Notes
Have you ever queued for ages for food, clothes, music, or had someone serve
you with the wrong stuff? This can be maddening. I just watched two guys
putting parking tickets on cars – folk had NOWHERE else to park, but the
ticket givers were serving on our behalf!
Serving isn’t easy, it’s not always fun, and it’s often not appreciated. But it is what God does for us and wishes us to do for everyone. Boy, are we gonna need help!
Just think of one or two things you could do to serve someone today – especially someone who could really do with it.
Jesus served all sorts of people in all sorts of situations. Some were thankful; some weren’t – but it didn’t stop him serving others, even some who were clearly not very pleasant people. Still, he was there for all people, he died for all people, he lived for all people, and he lives today for all people.
All people - including you - are made in God’s image. God made them all, and he wishes his people (that’s you and me!) to share in his task of serving.
Let’s pray
Hey God, show me who to serve, show me where to serve, and when and how … what
I should do, and most of all help me to understand why I seek to serve –
what’s best? Help me to listen to my church as they guide me to be clear
as to who I am being called to be and do. Please help. Thanks.
Romans 7 v 7-13
You might think I am saying that sin and the law are the same thing. That is
not true. But the law was the only way I could learn what sin meant. I would
never have known what it means to want to take something belonging to someone
else if the law had not said, “You must not want to take your neighbour’s
things.” And sin found a way to use that command and cause me to want all
kinds of things I should not want. But without the law, sin has no power.
I was alive before I knew the law. But when the law’s command came to me,
then sin began to live, and I died. The command was meant to bring life,
but for me it brought death. Sin found a way to fool me by using the command
to make me die.
So the law is holy, and the command is holy and right and good. Does this mean
that something that is good brought death to me? No! Sin used something that
is good to bring death to me. This happened so that I could see what sin is
really like; the command was used to show that sin is very evil.
Notes
Some stuff’s just really complicated. I read this passage – it did my head
in trying to understand. I need help (all my friends say so!).
Seriously, spend a bit of extra time on this passage. Ask and seek guidance from wiser people.
Sin will always return, try to take over, try to drive out love.
We need to seek God by knowing him and allowing him to deal with the sin in our lives. Only he can do it. Don’t try on your own - life will just get more complicated, like one lie leading to another and another.
He gives us: the example of Jesus; his holy word; his church; the Holy Spirit; fellow Christians; prayer; the example of the saints who have gone before; all his love; the wonderful provisions of his creation … come to think about it, he gives us everything! Is sin our best response?
Let’s pray
God, do me a favour. Please give me a hand with sin that gets in the way, and
sin that keeps coming back. I can’t sort it out on my own. Thanks.
Romans 7 v 14-20
We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not spiritual since sin rules me
as if I were its slave. I do not understand the things I do. I do not do
what I want to do, and I do the things I hate. And if I do not want to do
the hated things I do, that means I agree that the law is good. But I am
not really the one who is doing these hated things; it is sin living in me
that does them. Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me—I mean nothing
good lives in the part of me that is earthly and sinful. I want to do the
things that are good, but I do not do them. I do not do the good things I
want to do, but I do the bad things I do not want to do. So if I do things
I do not want to do, then I am not the one doing them. It is sin living in
me that does those things.
Notes
Help! Do; do not; do; don’t?!
We all need help – it’s all pretty confusing. All of us fail, all of us have problems, all of us need Jesus. ONLY Jesus ultimately can help us against sin.
We must learn and practice handing it over to him on a daily basis. Like a pond full of mud, we need to be cleaned out and filled with the living water, but the dirt will come back. Therefore, cleansing needs to be regular and thorough.
Just imagine clean, clear, cool, refreshing, safe, wonderful water. Now imagine the same, but this time living water for your soul - cleansing, cleaning, clearing, Christ. Without him - dirt, muck, mess. It isn’t easy. We need his help. You know you; he knows you; he knows what’s possible; he longs for you to want to find out - with him.
Let’s pray
OK, I need help. There you are, God – I’ve said it. I mean it. Please help
me in my sin, my confusion, my failure, my muddiness - take it away and fill
me with your living water today, and help me come to you every day and say
a similar prayer. Thanks.
Romans 7 v 21-25
So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me.
In my mind, I am happy with God’s law. But I see another law working in my
body, which makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law
working in my body is the law of sin, and it makes me its prisoner. What
a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death?
I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful self I am a slave
to the law of sin.
Notes
Hey God, this is all pretty tough. I’m not really into being a war zone. I’d
like peace, given the choice – but I know from those around me that this
is true: conflict; depression; sadness; anger; aggression; road rage; murder;
bullying; misunderstanding; confusion; lying; hatred; unhappiness; war in
individuals, churches, communities and the wider world.
What a mess it all seems when we think about it like this. Yet we know that you are wonderful, the world can be wonderful—just look at the beauty of YOUR favourite bit of creation! Imagine, just for a minute, what else might be possible with God - if only sin wasn’t always getting in the way!
How we all need God, his help, his guidance, his gifts, his love and most of all his freedom in Jesus Christ our Lord.
We need him to help us to put an end to the war of sin by accepting that Jesus is the victor.
Let’s pray
God, it’s tough being at war. Give me a hand, please – your hand that one of
the nails went through, that Thomas touched, the one that served the disciples
on the beach. The risen, conquering hand of the triumph over sin and war.
Help me, and others, make it our hand held out to all in love – just as yours
is. Thank you – SO much!
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes