Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Dying to Live │ Msg 15 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Dying to Live │ Msg 15 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: We can live our lives thinking that we have figured
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Speaker 1: it out, only to discover later on how much we
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Speaker 1: had missed the major message. And this morning I want
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Speaker 1: to introduce to you an awareness that most Christians do
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Speaker 1: not have. But first a story. Two California Highway Patrol
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Speaker 1: officers were conducting speeding enforcement on I fifteen, just north
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Speaker 1: of the Marine Corps air station at Miramar. One of
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Speaker 1: the officers was using a hand held radar device to
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Speaker 1: check speeding vehicles approaching the crest of a hill. The
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Speaker 1: officers were suddenly surprised when the radar gun began reading
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Speaker 1: five hundred miles per hour. The officer attempted to reset
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Speaker 1: the radar gun, but it would not reset, and then
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Speaker 1: it just shut down just in. A deafening roar over
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Speaker 1: the tree tops revealed that the radar had in fact
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Speaker 1: locked into a United States Marine Corps F eighteen Hornet,
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Speaker 1: which was engaged in a low flying exercise near that location.
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Speaker 1: Back at CHP headquarters, the patrol captain fired off a
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Speaker 1: complaint to the Marine Corps based commander. The reply came
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Speaker 1: back in true Marine Corps style, thank you for your letter.
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Speaker 1: We can now complete the file on this incident. You
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Speaker 1: may be interested to know that the tactical computer in
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Speaker 1: the F eighteen had detected the presence of, and subsequently
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Speaker 1: locked onto your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a
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Speaker 1: jamming signal back to it, which is why it shut down. Furthermore,
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Speaker 1: an air to ground missile aboard the aircraft had also
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Speaker 1: automatically locked onto your equipment location. Fortunately, the Marine Corps
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Speaker 1: pilot flying the Hornet recognized the situation for what it was,
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Speaker 1: quickly responded to the missile system alert and was able
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Speaker 1: to override the automated defense system before the missile was
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Speaker 1: launched to destroy your hostile radar position. The pilot also
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Speaker 1: suggests that you cover your mouths when cussing at them,
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Speaker 1: since the video systems on these jets are very high resolution.
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Speaker 1: Sergeant Johnson, the officer holding the radar our gun, by
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Speaker 1: the way, should get his dentist to check his left
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Speaker 1: rear molar. It appears the filling is loose. Also, the
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Speaker 1: snap is broken on his handgun. Holster. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: your reply, super Fidelus. Sometime we think we've got it
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Speaker 1: figured out, when in fact there's a whole nother world
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Speaker 1: going on that we had missed in the process. I'm
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Speaker 1: referring today to slavery. That may surprise you, most of
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Speaker 1: us have never witnessed firsthand the raw reality of slavery,
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Speaker 1: human slavery. Oh, we've read about it, We've watched television
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Speaker 1: docu dramas on the subject. We're theoretically that it has
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Speaker 1: gone on. But chances are good the great majority of us,
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Speaker 1: if any of us, has ever witnessed it firsthand. But
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Speaker 1: it goes on every day amazingly in the lives of Christians.
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Speaker 1: But before I get there, back in the nineteenth century,
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Speaker 1: our sixteenth President realized there must be something done about it,
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Speaker 1: and so on New Year's Day in eighteen sixty three,
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Speaker 1: he declared what came to be known as the Emancipation Proclamation,
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Speaker 1: which was an official document condemning human slavery. I've always
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Speaker 1: found it amazing, as much as I love history, to
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Speaker 1: go back and read of the courageous lives of our
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Speaker 1: forefathers who fought, and some of them gave their lives
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Speaker 1: for our independence, our national liberty, the United States of America,
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Speaker 1: the land of the Free. And yet some of those
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Speaker 1: very people who fought for our independence deliberately enslaved others
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Speaker 1: and made them their property and held them as their slaves. Lincoln,
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Speaker 1: realizing that this is completely against human dignity, declared an
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Speaker 1: emancipation Proclamation, but little changed even though the slave was
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Speaker 1: officially declared free. You know, you read the stories the
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Speaker 1: plantation owners never informed them. The vast majority of them
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Speaker 1: couldn't even read, had no idea what the news was carrying.
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Speaker 1: There was no such thing as radio broadcasts and television
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Speaker 1: announcing those kind of things, And so for the longest
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Speaker 1: period of time, slavery went right on, even though it
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Speaker 1: had been officially abolished. Do you know when it was enacted?
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Speaker 1: I mean to the point where literally slaves left their
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Speaker 1: slavery and made their way toward freedom. It wasn't until
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Speaker 1: almost three years later, December the eighteenth, eighteen sixty five.
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Speaker 1: Lincoln had been dead since April of eighteen sixty five. Finally,
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Speaker 1: the word began to travel out of the streets of
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Speaker 1: Washington and down into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, across
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Speaker 1: the back roads of the Carolinas, and into Georgia and Alabama,
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Speaker 1: Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas, Arkansas. Those many states in
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Speaker 1: the South announcing what had been true for the longest
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Speaker 1: period of time. But the word somehow either wasn't believed
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Speaker 1: or it wasn't acted upon, and those slaves, thinking that
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Speaker 1: was the way they were to live, continue to live
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Speaker 1: as slaves, though they had been officially declared free men
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Speaker 1: and women since New Year's Day eighteen sixty three. Now,
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Speaker 1: if you think that seems shocking, let me tell you
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Speaker 1: there's something even or equally as shocking, and that is
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Speaker 1: believers in Jesus Christ living our lives still enslaved to
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Speaker 1: the domination of a power that no longer has power
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Speaker 1: over us. What has freed us is the great emancipator,
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, whose death on the Cross set us free
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Speaker 1: from the law of sin and the fear of death.
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Speaker 1: It's like an emancipation proclamation was made known to the
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Speaker 1: world at large. Satan is defeated, Sin is overwhelmed. Death
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Speaker 1: no longer has its sting truth be told. Some of
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Speaker 1: you still live your lives fearful of an old nature
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Speaker 1: within you, still thinking you have no control over it.
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Speaker 1: Songs are written about it. I detected a couple of
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Speaker 1: lines from the hymns we say in this morning, still
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Speaker 1: wandering still waywards, still giving in to the power that
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Speaker 1: no longer has control over us. And we were weard
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Speaker 1: like that. We were taught more about First John one
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Speaker 1: nine than we were about Romans chapter six that we'll
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Speaker 1: look at today. I remember one of the first verses
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Speaker 1: I memorized as a young Christian is that First John
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Speaker 1: one nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful
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Speaker 1: and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us
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Speaker 1: from all the righteous as everything wonderful about that versus scripture.
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Speaker 1: But uh, that's after the fact. There's a there's a
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Speaker 1: greater concept that we must learn and act upon as
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Speaker 1: believers in Christ. And I'm here this week to announce
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Speaker 1: it and to remind you of it, and to tell you,
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Speaker 1: let's live in the light of Romans chapter six. Neither
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Speaker 1: yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness under sin,
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Speaker 1: but yield yourself unto God as those who are alive
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Speaker 1: from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
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Speaker 1: under God. You can live above the drag and the
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Speaker 1: shame and the fear of sin's domination. I want to
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Speaker 1: show that to you right here in Romans chapter six.
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Speaker 1: If you haven't found your way there. Please do so
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Speaker 1: Romans chapter six, and I want you to see one
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Speaker 1: line out of chapter five. Then we'll move quickly into
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Speaker 1: chapter six. Look at the end of verse twenty in
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Speaker 1: chapter five, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
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Speaker 1: Now we read that, and in our souls we applaud that,
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Speaker 1: and we think, how good is that that we are?
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Speaker 1: We are now the recipients of God's grace, and sin
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Speaker 1: no longer has the can no longer trump our lives.
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Speaker 1: Grace and its overwhelming power has freed us. We are
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Speaker 1: emancipated from the control of sin. Doesn't mean sin isn't present.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't. Does it mean it's taken a holiday, It hasn't.
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Speaker 1: It simply means that you no longer have to live
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Speaker 1: your life as though you're a victim of your inner urgen,
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Speaker 1: of your old nature. You've you've been emancipated. You're free.
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Speaker 1: You're really free. You're free in the grace of God.
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Speaker 1: But of course with that there's risk. Let's go back
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Speaker 1: to slavery for a moment. One of the things that
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Speaker 1: kept the slave in the field and living in the
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Speaker 1: shack back behind the plantation house was what he would
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Speaker 1: have to face if he went out on his own,
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Speaker 1: the hatred of most of Americans, the prejudice that would
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Speaker 1: continue on on for decades and decades of time. And
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Speaker 1: wouldn't it just be simpler to live in the shack
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Speaker 1: and keep your family there at least somewhat intact, even
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Speaker 1: though you're enslaved. And the great message of Romans six
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Speaker 1: is don't live like that. You live like that before Christ.
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Speaker 1: There's no reason to live like that now that the
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Speaker 1: Savior has delivered you from the power of sin. And
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Speaker 1: that's the emphasis at the beginning of chapter six in
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Speaker 1: Romans begins with a question, and there's a similar question
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Speaker 1: to ask down at verse fifteen. They look like the
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Speaker 1: same questions, but they're different. The first question Chapter six,
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Speaker 1: verse one, what shall we say that are we to
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Speaker 1: continue in sin that grace might increase? That first question
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Speaker 1: addresses those who failed to live in the liberty they
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Speaker 1: have in Christ and continue to live like slaves. In fact,
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Speaker 1: verses one to fourteen talk about those who nullify the
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Speaker 1: grace of God, not in verse fifteen to the end
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Speaker 1: of the chapter, it's those who abuse the grace of God.
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Speaker 1: It's a different question entirely. Look at fifteen, What then,
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Speaker 1: shall we sin? Because we are not under law but
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Speaker 1: under grace? May it never be both questions or answered
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Speaker 1: the same way. May it never be one of the
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Speaker 1: versions says of perish the thought. I think it's the
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Speaker 1: it's the Phillips rendering. This says what a ghastly thought.
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Speaker 1: I've always liked that that answer. Shall we live? What
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Speaker 1: a ghastly thought? To live like slaves that were free
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Speaker 1: to live under the domination of a power that no
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Speaker 1: longer has power over us? What's the matter with people
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Speaker 1: that do that? They're ill informed. It's as if we
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Speaker 1: are illiterate. It's as if we've never read what's in
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Speaker 1: the passage. And it's based on a truth that is
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Speaker 1: rarely preached these days, called positional truth. When Christ came
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Speaker 1: to live in our lives at the time of our conversion,
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Speaker 1: the spirit of God took up residence within our lives.
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Speaker 1: Get this really clearly in your mind. The Spirit of
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Speaker 1: God no longer is apart from us, but is living
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Speaker 1: within us. We have his power, that's the power of
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Speaker 1: the Triune God living within us. And he comes because
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Speaker 1: we are freed from that old domination, and he comes
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Speaker 1: to give us a new kind of life. It's a
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Speaker 1: life lived on another plane, lived above shame, lived above
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Speaker 1: the realm of the fears of life. We are now
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Speaker 1: able to live as victors and not victims. So he
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Speaker 1: says that in verse two, may it never be that
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Speaker 1: we live as though there isn't such a freedom or
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Speaker 1: such a liberation. Now look at the change in management,
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Speaker 1: if you will, How shall we verse two, who died
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Speaker 1: to sin still live in it? When did we die
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Speaker 1: to sin? When Christ died? When we believed in Christ?
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Speaker 1: Listen to this positionally, theoretically, when we trust in Christ,
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Speaker 1: the same victory he gained over sin at the Cross,
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Speaker 1: we gain over sin in our conversion. Positionally we are
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Speaker 1: in christ. Ian Thomas put it this way. The life
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Speaker 1: that he lived qualified him for the death that he died,
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Speaker 1: and the death that he died qualifies us for the
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Speaker 1: life he lived. Some of you are going, what, let
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Speaker 1: me do it again. The life that he lived qualified
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Speaker 1: him for the death that he died. That's Christ, a
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Speaker 1: life of sinlessness, the perfect lamb of God who took
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Speaker 1: away the sin of the world, and the death that
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Speaker 1: he died. Domination over sin, destroyed, fear of death, removed
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Speaker 1: that death became my freedom, so that I'm able to
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Speaker 1: live my life in the same level of victory as
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Speaker 1: Christ lived his life. Now, of course, the difference is
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Speaker 1: we still have an old nature, and just like just
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Speaker 1: like the plantation owner didn't want his slaves informed of
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Speaker 1: the truth of freedom, your old nature doesn't want you
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Speaker 1: to be informed of what you're hearing today. So you
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Speaker 1: have to begin a process. It's a mental process. It
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Speaker 1: starts there, has to work its way down into our
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Speaker 1: being and ultimately into our wills. There's something we're to know.
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Speaker 1: There's something we must consider, and there's then something we
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Speaker 1: must present. Now where do I get those words right
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Speaker 1: out of the text? You got a penhandy? Look at
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Speaker 1: verse three, do you not know circle that word? It
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Speaker 1: says it again down in verse six, knowing this, and
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Speaker 1: again in verse nine knowing this. So there's something we
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Speaker 1: must know. We're going to live free of the control
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Speaker 1: of sin that has dominated us long enough, we must
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Speaker 1: begin with knowing the truth. We're under a new management,
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Speaker 1: We're under a new ruler, and the ruler now is Christ.
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Speaker 1: It's no longer the enemy of our souls, the devil,
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Speaker 1: and by the way, he's a sore loser, and he
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Speaker 1: won't give up control easily. He will. He will lead
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Speaker 1: you into superstition, he will lead you into fear. He'll
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Speaker 1: lead you into all kinds of uneasiness. Lest you go
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Speaker 1: too far with this grace. How rarely people go too
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Speaker 1: far in grace. More often than not, we don't go
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Speaker 1: far enough. But we'll get to that knowing, knowing knowing.
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Speaker 1: Now look at verse eleven. Even so, consider that's the
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Speaker 1: next word to circle. We'll get to it in a moment,
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Speaker 1: But first market consider the keywords are no verses three
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Speaker 1: through nine ten. Beginning at verse eleven, the word is
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Speaker 1: Consider that's eleven and twelve, and then you get out
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Speaker 1: of verse thirteen. You're not go on presenting your members
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Speaker 1: of the members of your body to sind as instruments
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Speaker 1: of unrighteousness. But there's the word present, present yourselves to
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Speaker 1: God as alive from the dead. This is all about
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Speaker 1: our identity with Christ. Now speak today to those of
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Speaker 1: us who are believers in Christ. I realize in a
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Speaker 1: group this large, we will have some of you who
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Speaker 1: have come along with friends or maybe family members, perhaps
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Speaker 1: your spouse. You've never met the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll
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Speaker 1: speak with you more and more as the week unfolds. First,
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Speaker 1: we're glad you're here. We are grateful that you came.
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Speaker 1: But you're going to hear truth that's going to hopefully
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Speaker 1: make you aware of what you're missing. Without Christ, you
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Speaker 1: can know nothing, you can consider nothing, you could present nothing.
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Speaker 1: You have no power to do any of that. So
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Speaker 1: for you, the first step is to come to the Savior,
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Speaker 1: to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to let
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Speaker 1: him take control of your life and to free you
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Speaker 1: the the clinging presence of a dominating force you've never
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Speaker 1: been able to deal with, or get rid of, or
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Speaker 1: even curb. But for us who are in Christ, everything
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Speaker 1: starts with knowing, and that is knowing our identity with Christ.
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Speaker 1: The reason I underscore it with such careful nunciation is
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Speaker 1: because that's the basic meaning of the word baptize. Baptizo
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Speaker 1: is to what literally means to dip, and the purpose
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Speaker 1: of baptism is to change the identity. In ancient days,
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Speaker 1: when you had a garment that was a light color
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Speaker 1: and you wanted it dyed to a dark color, you
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Speaker 1: took it to an individual who did that with fabric,
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Speaker 1: and it was called baptizing. The garment so that you
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Speaker 1: changed its identity. Interestingly, the same word carries over into
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Speaker 1: our Bibles today and look how it reads. Look at
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Speaker 1: verse three. This is something we must know, and I'm
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Speaker 1: informing some of you Christians amazingly for the first time
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Speaker 1: in your life, you're going to become aware of something
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Speaker 1: you've missed all these years. Do you not know that
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Speaker 1: all of us who have been identified with Christ had
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Speaker 1: been identified into his death, But you know that therefore
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Speaker 1: we have been buried with him through baptism into death
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Speaker 1: in order that Christ as Christ, was raised from the
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Speaker 1: dead through the glory of the Fathers, so we too
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Speaker 1: might walk a new kind of life, a newness of life.
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Speaker 1: There is a whole new life to be walked, to
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Speaker 1: be lived out. We no longer have to live our
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Speaker 1: lives as victims. We're no longer needing to be overwhelmed
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Speaker 1: or filled with fears, or every day preoccupied with the
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Speaker 1: sins that are sure to happen, and so I'll have
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Speaker 1: to just confess them again at the end of the day.
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Speaker 1: I always shock audiences when I say you can live
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Speaker 1: several days of your life without sinning. Some of you say,
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Speaker 1: you don't know my husband or you don't know the
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Speaker 1: people close to me. No, no, it's true. I'm not
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Speaker 1: saying we do that. I'm saying we can't do that.
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Speaker 1: I can live my life in such dependence on the
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Speaker 1: Spirit of God that the flesh does not get its
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Speaker 1: way for an extended period of time. Now I can
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Speaker 1: never live free of it because the old nature hasn't
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Speaker 1: been eradicated. But I can be on the side of
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Speaker 1: such victory in my life that I walk a whole
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Speaker 1: new kind of life. He goes even further in verse five.
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Speaker 1: If we have become you minded with him in the
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Speaker 1: likeness of his death, that's where victory over sin was won.
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Speaker 1: Certainly we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection,
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Speaker 1: just as we who were immersed in the waters of baptism.
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Speaker 1: When under the water is a picture of death to sin,
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Speaker 1: we came out of the water as a picture of
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Speaker 1: the resurrection life. We are now walking a new kind
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Speaker 1: of life. It's a sermon without words. Baptism is a
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Speaker 1: is a beautiful word picture of what happens to us. Positionally,
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Speaker 1: we who are in Christ now verse six, knowing this,
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Speaker 1: there we are with that word again. Our old self
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Speaker 1: was crucified with him, why that our body of sin
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Speaker 1: might be done away with that we should no longer
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Speaker 1: look closely, no longer be slaves to sin. You don't
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Speaker 1: have to sin. You know why you sin because you
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Speaker 1: want to. It's not to sound very profound, but it's
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Speaker 1: the ugly truth. Every time you sin, you wanted to.
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Speaker 1: You weren't forced to. It certainly wasn't the new nature
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Speaker 1: operating within you. You gave into the old nature that
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Speaker 1: you had been enslaved to so much of your life.
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Speaker 1: Because you're under the false impression many of you that
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Speaker 1: you know, as things have been, they will always be.
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Speaker 1: I'll always have to There's just that part of me,
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Speaker 1: and I just can't help it. I just I just
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Speaker 1: I just react like that. That's just the way I am.
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Speaker 1: But it's not the way you have to be. It's
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Speaker 1: the way you choose to be. I often illustrate it
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Speaker 1: this way. If you're driving in the mountains that you are,
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Speaker 1: you are coming to a very sharp series of curves
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Speaker 1: that the state officials who work with traffic signs and
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Speaker 1: all have have options. First of all, they can build
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Speaker 1: a clinic at the bottom of the of the curve
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Speaker 1: so that as you go over and you crash, they're
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Speaker 1: quickly emergency vehicles come and put you in there and
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Speaker 1: help you, you know, get you put back together because
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Speaker 1: you went over the cliff, or they could put up
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Speaker 1: a sign that says slow, curve ahead. Now first on
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Speaker 1: one nine is the clinic at the bottom of the hill.
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Speaker 1: It's after the fact, after you've said, thank God, you
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Speaker 1: are able to go to the Lord and say Lord, today,
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Speaker 1: I blew it, or I've lost my temper, I reacted
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Speaker 1: in a way that wasn't appropriate, or I lust it
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Speaker 1: or greed took over, and I walked through it at
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Speaker 1: the time, knowing completely that I was doing what's wrong.
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Speaker 1: But I went ahead and I lay that before ya,
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Speaker 1: confess that to you. That's the clinic. Now there's a
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Speaker 1: better way, and that's to read the sign that says, well,
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Speaker 1: wait a minute, you don't have to speed around this, kirkerve,
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Speaker 1: you don't have to go there. You slow down, realize
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Speaker 1: that there's a temptation that's occurring, and you don't have
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Speaker 1: to yield to it. Now, that's what it means when
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Speaker 1: it says we should no longer be slaves to sin.
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Speaker 1: He who has died, that means died in Christ. That's
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Speaker 1: our position. That's our position. He who has died is
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Speaker 1: freed from sin. Doesn't mean we're freed from ever sinning
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Speaker 1: means we're freed from its domination. Just as you could
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Speaker 1: say back in eighteen sixty five, you're freed from the
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Speaker 1: plantation owner. You don't have to serve him. The government
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Speaker 1: will protect you as you walk away from it. There
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Speaker 1: will be those who will help assist in your liberation.
27:08
Speaker 1: And here it is for us in spiritual terms, we
27:12
Speaker 1: who have died in Christ are freed from sin. Now
27:16
Speaker 1: if we have died with Christ verse eight, we believe
27:20
Speaker 1: that we shall also live with him that has lived
27:23
Speaker 1: that kind of life he lived knowing that Christ, having
27:26
Speaker 1: been raised from the dead, is never to die again.
27:29
Speaker 1: Death no longer is master over him. And what's true
27:33
Speaker 1: of him is true of me. Not a marvelous thought.
27:38
Speaker 1: Christ was able to live his life freed from the
27:41
Speaker 1: domination of sin, and you and I can live the same.
27:45
Speaker 1: And that's God's best for us. The death that he died,
27:49
Speaker 1: he died to sin once. For all the life that
27:53
Speaker 1: he lives, he keeps on living to God. Same for us.
27:57
Speaker 1: When I was a student of Dallas seminary. Vernon McGee
27:59
Speaker 1: was was a lecturer there. Some of you knowah doctor McGee,
28:04
Speaker 1: he being dead, still speaks and back in chaffer Chapel,
28:08
Speaker 1: I remember doctor McGee was waxing eloquent on Romans chapter six.
28:12
Speaker 1: He told his story that I later put in one
28:15
Speaker 1: of my books called Grace Awakening, told the story of
28:18
Speaker 1: a lady who lived in the Deep South and had
28:21
Speaker 1: a close relationship with her childhood's sweetheart. She fell in
28:26
Speaker 1: love with him and ultimately married him. Their life together
28:30
Speaker 1: was not perfect, but it was rewarding, delightful. There was faithfulness,
28:35
Speaker 1: and there were times of great joy. And they continued
28:38
Speaker 1: for years until he was suddenly taken by a heart attack,
28:43
Speaker 1: and she's now forced to live without him. Not being
28:48
Speaker 1: able to part with him visibly, this woman decided to
28:51
Speaker 1: do something very unusual. She had him embalmed, put him
28:56
Speaker 1: in a chair, sealed up in a glass, and placed
29:01
Speaker 1: him immediately inside the front door of their large plantation home.
29:06
Speaker 1: If you can imagine, every time she walked through the door,
29:10
Speaker 1: she smiled and said, good morning, John, how are you now?
29:14
Speaker 1: He didn't answer because he's a corpse. But he's sitting
29:17
Speaker 1: there looking straight ahead in this embalmed state. She would
29:22
Speaker 1: walk right on up the stairs, and it was as
29:23
Speaker 1: if they were still living together. Things walked along normally
29:27
Speaker 1: for a few months, and finally, after a while, she
29:30
Speaker 1: decided it was time for a trip, so she went
29:32
Speaker 1: to Europe. While she was in Europe, a delightful change
29:35
Speaker 1: of scenery, and she also met a charming man happened
29:39
Speaker 1: to be an American, also traveling in Europe. It was
29:42
Speaker 1: sort of a well overnight romance, and of all things,
29:49
Speaker 1: they got married in Paris. She never mentioned things at home.
29:53
Speaker 1: They honeymooned all over Europe, and finally they decided it
29:58
Speaker 1: was time to come back. They were going to live
30:00
Speaker 1: in her lovely home, traveled back the States, drove up
30:06
Speaker 1: the long winding road to the home, and this is
30:09
Speaker 1: his moment to carry her over the threshold. So he
30:13
Speaker 1: lifts his bride up and walks in. Right in front
30:18
Speaker 1: of him is old John sitting there in the chair
30:21
Speaker 1: looking at him. And of course the fellow says, as
30:23
Speaker 1: he drops his bride, who in the world is this,
30:27
Speaker 1: And she said, well, that's John. He was my old
30:30
Speaker 1: man from all his history. He is dead. So the
30:33
Speaker 1: guy goes out and has a big back o come
30:36
Speaker 1: up and down they dig a big old andy, drop
30:38
Speaker 1: him in there. The new husband immediately buried the former
30:43
Speaker 1: old man case and all said, Vernon McGee. And that's
30:48
Speaker 1: exactly what Christ has done, exactly what Christ has done
30:54
Speaker 1: with our dominating old nature. Now the nature's still there.
31:01
Speaker 1: I want to remind you, and you know that. But
31:05
Speaker 1: you don't have to talk to him, and you don't
31:07
Speaker 1: have to spend any time with him, and you don't
31:09
Speaker 1: have to yield to him, and you don't have to
31:11
Speaker 1: live in his presence. You live above that level if
31:16
Speaker 1: you really understand the grace of God. In fact, that
31:20
Speaker 1: that's what the verses is all about. When it says
31:23
Speaker 1: verse eleven, consider yourselves to be dead there it is
31:31
Speaker 1: to be dead to the domination of sin and alive
31:37
Speaker 1: to God in Christ. See the word consider. The original
31:41
Speaker 1: term means to calculate, to take into account. Well, I
31:48
Speaker 1: use the word calculated, I suddenly think of our GPS.
31:52
Speaker 1: The most familiar word I hear is recalculating. You have
31:57
Speaker 1: one of those that recal I expect it one of
31:59
Speaker 1: these days to say I'm not gonna say that one
32:01
Speaker 1: more time. You're lost, dummy finds your own way, but
32:06
Speaker 1: mine keeps saying recalculating, recalculation. This says, calculate, calculate. Consider
32:12
Speaker 1: I'm dead to sin, I'm alive to God. Say it
32:14
Speaker 1: to yourself, over and over again. The habits that have
32:18
Speaker 1: defeated me and discouraged me and deprived me of authority
32:22
Speaker 1: in life. Of all of those habits are gone. They
32:27
Speaker 1: have no control over me. And verse twelve is the command. Therefore,
32:33
Speaker 1: therefore Christian men and women do not live. Do not
32:38
Speaker 1: let sin rain see the word, don't let it be
32:43
Speaker 1: in control over your mind, your body, your life, that
32:47
Speaker 1: you should obey its lusts. You were there long enough,
32:53
Speaker 1: and you're no longer there. I had a terrific thing
32:56
Speaker 1: happened at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport. I don't know
32:59
Speaker 1: if you were aware of it, but that's one of
33:01
Speaker 1: the airports in the United States where when the soldiers
33:05
Speaker 1: come back from Iraq, folks often gathered to applaud them.
33:10
Speaker 1: And it's a it's a wonderful scene. It's often in
33:12
Speaker 1: our evening news and and the people are there, a
33:15
Speaker 1: number of them from our church and other churches, to
33:17
Speaker 1: thank these men and women who were coming back with
33:21
Speaker 1: the memory and some of them with the scars of
33:23
Speaker 1: battles still on them, and they and they get off
33:25
Speaker 1: the plane. I happened to have been there when that
33:28
Speaker 1: was happening. But what a lot of folks didn't notice
33:31
Speaker 1: is some distance away was a body of raw recruits
33:36
Speaker 1: that were about to go to the Marine Corps recruit
33:39
Speaker 1: depot and start their life as young Marines. And I
33:43
Speaker 1: guess the drill instructor had brought them to the airport
33:46
Speaker 1: to look at the at the few times in the
33:50
Speaker 1: Corps you're going to be applauded, and he wanted them
33:52
Speaker 1: to see what they had to look forward to. And boy,
33:54
Speaker 1: that drull instructor was taking these kids to task. It
33:59
Speaker 1: was great to stand in the background and wat's this.
34:01
Speaker 1: I remember when I was a marine. I remember there
34:03
Speaker 1: used to be the snot out of us when we
34:05
Speaker 1: were just boots. And I remember standing there thinking, there's
34:08
Speaker 1: that old run and they're still doing the same thing.
34:11
Speaker 1: And you know what. He walked by and I said,
34:12
Speaker 1: how are you doing there, Sorrge. He said, fine, sir,
34:15
Speaker 1: thank you. It's the first time a drill instructor ever
34:17
Speaker 1: said sir to me in my whole life. It's a
34:19
Speaker 1: great moment. Now, why would he do that? Because I'm
34:21
Speaker 1: not under his domination. Back in the fifties, I was
34:26
Speaker 1: no longer Now of all things, he says, sir to me,
34:31
Speaker 1: must be the hair. I don't know what it was,
34:33
Speaker 1: but there was something different. The difference is I'm not
34:37
Speaker 1: under that domination anymore. And I'd speak to him like
34:41
Speaker 1: I could anybody else. That's exactly what I must do
34:46
Speaker 1: with my old nature. Listen to me, Christian friend, you
34:51
Speaker 1: spent long enough living under the dominating thought that you're
34:56
Speaker 1: a helpless victim of the urge and the drives, as
35:02
Speaker 1: if you can't say no, when in fact, living within
35:07
Speaker 1: you is a power that exists for the purpose of
35:12
Speaker 1: giving you a whole new way of life and introducing
35:17
Speaker 1: you to a grace life style. And if I had
35:26
Speaker 1: one wish for the Body of Christ, it is that
35:29
Speaker 1: we would live in light of the victory we have
35:33
Speaker 1: in Christ, and let grace mark our lives rather than law,
35:40
Speaker 1: the old nature getting its way rather than the new
35:44
Speaker 1: nature smoothing our path. That happens when verse thirteen happens
35:52
Speaker 1: when I do not go on presenting my members as
35:56
Speaker 1: that is my drive, my urges, my thoughts, those innermost
36:04
Speaker 1: parts of my being, presenting myself to sin as instruments
36:08
Speaker 1: of unrighteousness, as if I'm this helpless slave, which I
36:13
Speaker 1: am not. But rather, look at this, present yourselves to
36:19
Speaker 1: God as those alive from the dead, and your members
36:25
Speaker 1: as instruments of righteousness to God. Don't miss that we
36:32
Speaker 1: can live our lives in such a wonderful way that
36:37
Speaker 1: sin takes a back seat, that grace can really unfold,
36:44
Speaker 1: and we can live in the liberty that Christ has
36:48
Speaker 1: allowed us to live in and all the blessings of
36:53
Speaker 1: freedom that go with it. Sin will not be master
36:57
Speaker 1: over you. Look at verse fourteen. You're not onunder law,
37:00
Speaker 1: but under grace. The Phillips paraphrates. Do not then allow
37:06
Speaker 1: Sin to establish any power over your mortal bodies in
37:11
Speaker 1: making you give way to your lusts, nor hand over
37:15
Speaker 1: your organs to be, as it were, weapons of evil
37:19
Speaker 1: for the devil's purpose. But like men and women rescued
37:23
Speaker 1: from certain death, put yourselves in God's hands as weapons
37:28
Speaker 1: of good for his own purposes. Sin is not meant
37:33
Speaker 1: to be your master any longer. Not any longer. Now.
37:39
Speaker 1: If you don't know Christ, all of this is simply
37:43
Speaker 1: chantalizing information. It sounds too good to be true. It
37:50
Speaker 1: is the truth that you're missing by not having Christ. Tragically,
37:55
Speaker 1: you're surrounded by Christians who live as though they don't
37:58
Speaker 1: have Christ. And more often than not, we yield to
38:03
Speaker 1: the things that we yielded to before we were saved,
38:06
Speaker 1: and now that we're in Christ, you can hardly tell.
38:09
Speaker 1: The difference. Is as if I'm I'm still in boot camp,
38:13
Speaker 1: still under the domination of an old drill instructor. Why
38:16
Speaker 1: not under his domination any longer I've been freed from that?
38:21
Speaker 1: The message reads this way. You must not give sin
38:24
Speaker 1: a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't
38:28
Speaker 1: give it the time of day. Don't even run little
38:32
Speaker 1: errands that are connected with that old way of life.
38:35
Speaker 1: Isn't not a good way to put it. Throw yourselves
38:38
Speaker 1: wholeheartedly and full time. Remember you've been raised from the
38:42
Speaker 1: dead into God's way of doing things. Sin cannot tell
38:47
Speaker 1: you how to live your life. After all, you know
38:51
Speaker 1: you're not living under the old tyranny any longer. You're
38:55
Speaker 1: living in the freedom of Christ. See the options verse fourteen.
39:03
Speaker 1: Not under law but grace. To be under law is
39:10
Speaker 1: to accept the obligation to keep it and live under
39:15
Speaker 1: its curse and condemnation and demands and requirements. We're not there.
39:22
Speaker 1: We're not there any longer. The law has done its
39:26
Speaker 1: work when it has brought us in submission to Christ.
39:30
Speaker 1: But the other side is but under grace, you and
39:37
Speaker 1: I need to train ourselves to change our thinking. Train
39:43
Speaker 1: ourselves to change our thinking. And it's to move from
39:49
Speaker 1: the way we've lived too long to the way that
39:51
Speaker 1: Christ is designed for us to live. Now, let me
39:57
Speaker 1: tell you a part of the problem in doing that is, Uh,
40:01
Speaker 1: You're you're you're gonna be misunderstood because most folks don't
40:10
Speaker 1: know how to live like this. They're gonna want you
40:13
Speaker 1: to be as miserable as they are. And so they're
40:17
Speaker 1: going to see you living in grace, and they're they're
40:20
Speaker 1: gonna be there to criticize you. Eugene Peterson. Peterson, in
40:26
Speaker 1: this book Traveling Light, puts it better than anybody I've
40:29
Speaker 1: ever read. Listen to this paragraph. There are people who
40:34
Speaker 1: do not want us to be free. They don't want
40:39
Speaker 1: us to be free before God accepted just as we
40:43
Speaker 1: are by His grace. They don't want us to be
40:47
Speaker 1: free to express our faith originally and creatively in the world.
40:52
Speaker 1: They want to control us, They want to use us
40:58
Speaker 1: for their own purposes. They themselves refuse to live arduously
41:06
Speaker 1: and openly in faith, but get this They huddle together
41:10
Speaker 1: with a few others and try to get a sense
41:13
Speaker 1: of approval by us it, insisting that we all look alike,
41:18
Speaker 1: talk alike, act alike, thus validating one another's work. They
41:26
Speaker 1: try to enlarge their numbers only on the condition that
41:30
Speaker 1: new members in their group act and talk and behave
41:35
Speaker 1: the way they do. Without being aware of it. We
41:40
Speaker 1: become anxious about what others will say about us, obsessively
41:47
Speaker 1: concerned about what others think we should do. We no
41:53
Speaker 1: longer live the good news, but anxiously try to memorize
41:59
Speaker 1: and recite the script someone else has assigned to us.
42:06
Speaker 1: In such an event, we may be momentarily secure, but
42:10
Speaker 1: we will not be free. I love that line. We
42:13
Speaker 1: will momentarily be a part of the group, but we
42:16
Speaker 1: won't be free. In such an event, we may be secure,
42:21
Speaker 1: but we will not be free. We may survive as
42:24
Speaker 1: a religious community, but we will not experience what it
42:28
Speaker 1: means to be human, alive in love and faith and
42:33
Speaker 1: expensive in hope, every free person who benefits from Paul's
42:38
Speaker 1: courage will continue vigilant in the resistance movement he founded.
42:47
Speaker 1: I have few things in my study that I have
42:50
Speaker 1: on the wall, but that statement is one of them.
42:54
Speaker 1: Are all kinds of people in this world that want
42:57
Speaker 1: me to be just like they are. They want me
43:02
Speaker 1: to be like their pastor. They want me to be
43:06
Speaker 1: as unhappy as he is. They want me to be
43:11
Speaker 1: as rigid as they are. They want me to live
43:15
Speaker 1: in that those boundaries they've set. All of that becomes
43:22
Speaker 1: legalistic demands. If I won't bow down to and I
43:27
Speaker 1: urge you not to either, I suggest we begin a
43:31
Speaker 1: resistance movement. Man, we could start something wild here, couldn't we.
43:34
Speaker 1: I mean, grace could kick in. You're liable to be
43:36
Speaker 1: free before you know it. Then you're gonna be on
43:39
Speaker 1: your own, and then you're gonna to start thinking. That's
43:42
Speaker 1: a fresh thought. We have people who write us at
43:45
Speaker 1: Insight for Living. They say, what does Chuck think about
43:48
Speaker 1: so and so? And some of our folks who answer,
43:50
Speaker 1: Some of our male will write back and say, actually,
43:53
Speaker 1: Chuck hasn't have a position on it, and we'll get
43:55
Speaker 1: an answer back. How are we supced? To know what
43:57
Speaker 1: to believe. If Chuck doesn't tell us, I don't have
44:04
Speaker 1: the answer for you in every point, I don't know
44:07
Speaker 1: your situation. You're free to learn and grow on your own.
44:11
Speaker 1: You're free to fail, You're free to discover. You're free
44:17
Speaker 1: to cultivate a grace oriented life that's filled with laughter
44:22
Speaker 1: and relief and joy and hope and yes, disappointment and discouragement.
44:29
Speaker 1: But you're free. I'm gonna tell you the truth. I
44:35
Speaker 1: about ruined our marriage first ten years. Seriously, I did
44:40
Speaker 1: everything and by power to make Cynthia a female chop
44:46
Speaker 1: Does that sound weird or why? And I remember her saying,
44:51
Speaker 1: that's not me? And I know, but you need to
44:54
Speaker 1: be like me. I mean, well it was like that.
44:59
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make it sound better than what it
45:01
Speaker 1: was terrible, And she resisted. She resisted that idea. She
45:07
Speaker 1: had every right to do that, because she's not me.
45:11
Speaker 1: Do you think of anything worse than two of me,
45:15
Speaker 1: one in the skirt and one of the genius. I mean,
45:17
Speaker 1: they're just not right one's and not sometimes too much.
45:24
Speaker 1: Stop trying to tell somebody else how to live their life.
45:28
Speaker 1: Why am I yelling? Why do we do that? Because
45:36
Speaker 1: we don't like what goes with freedom, the risk of it,
45:44
Speaker 1: the process of being unique and original, being an emissary
45:52
Speaker 1: of the grace of God, a model, a representative liberation
46:00
Speaker 1: in Christ. What you may not have you know, convictions
46:06
Speaker 1: about someone else will and what you have convictions about
46:09
Speaker 1: someone else. Wont leave it alone. No one died and
46:15
Speaker 1: left you in charge. You know, no one did. It's okay.
46:23
Speaker 1: Toward the end of his life, Lincoln wrote this marvelous piece,
46:29
Speaker 1: and he I think he had you'd been reading a
46:33
Speaker 1: little Melville when he wrote it. Listen to this. We're
46:37
Speaker 1: like whealers who have been on a long chase. We
46:42
Speaker 1: have at last got the harpoon in the monster, referring
46:46
Speaker 1: to slavery. We've got the harpoon into the monster. But
46:49
Speaker 1: we must now look how we steer, or with one
46:54
Speaker 1: flop of his tail, he will send us all into eternity.
47:00
Speaker 1: Twenty six, eighteen sixty three, the heart of the Civil War.
47:08
Speaker 1: We don't watch it. It's gonna wipe us all out.
47:14
Speaker 1: So I will tell you there is a price to
47:16
Speaker 1: pay for deciding to live in the grace of God.
47:19
Speaker 1: But the rewards far outweigh to Christ. I urge you
47:24
Speaker 1: to go there. I urge you to begin study of
47:28
Speaker 1: Romans six and seven and eight and let it be
47:32
Speaker 1: lived out. Live in light of your position in Christ,
47:36
Speaker 1: your identity with Christ, rather than you're fitting in too
47:41
Speaker 1: everybody else's expectations. One of the greatest decisions I ever
47:46
Speaker 1: made in my life is to stop trying to please everybody.
47:52
Speaker 1: I can't do it. I can't do it. My desire
47:58
Speaker 1: is to please Christ. And I've noticed when I do that,
48:02
Speaker 1: a lot of folks still aren't pleased because it isn't
48:05
Speaker 1: what they want. Truth be told, I don't care. I'm
48:12
Speaker 1: not here to please you. I'm here to answer to
48:15
Speaker 1: one other, and that's Christ, and same for you. The
48:18
Speaker 1: same for you. I'll tell you it's a wonderful way
48:20
Speaker 1: to live. Furthermore, you'll keep your marriage together. Some of
48:24
Speaker 1: you have become difficult to live with. And nobody called
48:28
Speaker 1: me or no wife wrote me. No husband said, when
48:32
Speaker 1: you have a chance, come down to heart on women. Okay,
48:37
Speaker 1: some wife about a husband. I just know how we're
48:41
Speaker 1: put together. Some of you are making the trip already,
48:44
Speaker 1: making it miserable for your spouse. Belas telling you to
48:49
Speaker 1: throw your cell phone overboard and you haven't done that yet. No,
48:56
Speaker 1: you're great. Let's about together. Father, Thank you for the
49:02
Speaker 1: fun there is in opening your word and seeing truth
49:06
Speaker 1: in a whole new light. Forgive us for the wasted
49:10
Speaker 1: years we spent doing stupid things like making other people
49:15
Speaker 1: happy because we're fulfilling their agenda, or helping them feel
49:19
Speaker 1: more secure because we're getting more like they are. Deliver
49:22
Speaker 1: us from being more like other people are, and guide
49:27
Speaker 1: us into being more like Christ. And remind us that
49:30
Speaker 1: because he lived his life as he did, they crucified him.
49:36
Speaker 1: They hated it. But what a magnificent model of your
49:42
Speaker 1: message to the world, a culture that's lost its way,
49:46
Speaker 1: in a world that's in a morass of a mess.
49:52
Speaker 1: May we become part of the answer, and may the
49:56
Speaker 1: joy that floods over us free us from the clutches
50:01
Speaker 1: and the power of an old habit and a way
50:05
Speaker 1: of thinking. May we yield our members as instruments of
50:09
Speaker 1: righteousness to you, no longer as victims of unrighteousness, in
50:16
Speaker 1: the victorious and magnificent name of the Savior. Because of
50:22
Speaker 1: his grace, we pray everybody said Amen.
50:30
Speaker 2: The preceding message, Dying to Live was copyrighted in two
50:34
Speaker 2: thousand and eight, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
50:37
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All rights are
50:41
Speaker 2: reserved worldwide