Emancipated in Christ: Living Free from Sin's Mastery

``This is the emancipation proclamation of the New Testament. You've already been declared free, maybe nobody's ever told you. But I'm here to tell you, the bible says in Romans chapter six that slavery has been outlawed in your life if you've been buried and raised. Okay? Now, just like the remnants and the echo and oftentimes, the horror of racism raises its ugly head, so too does the horror of sin. It no longer rules, but it still resides. Right? Racism and slavery don't rule in this land, but it still resides. There are racist people who still live in this nation who rear that foul, disgusting, demonic, ugly head from time to time. Same thing is true about sin. Decimated, but not destroyed. Defeated, but still hanging around. [00:13:45] (58 seconds)  #EmancipationInChrist

We will continue to say this over and over and over that Jesus did not come to make bad people good, he came to give dead people life. This is about life. It's not about lists. It's not about legalism. Okay? This is about discovering what it really means to be alive. Okay? In the same way, count yourself dead to sin. You're dead to that. You know, amazingly, until the Emancipation Proclamation and the civil war, the greatest cause of freedom for a slave in America was death. They're finally free. They never knew freedom. They had to die their way out of it. And Paul is trying to obviously, we're thousands years after that, but think about that concept. How did you find your freedom? You died your way out of it. When did you die? When you confessed Christ and you got baptized. [00:19:24] (59 seconds)  #DeadToSinAliveInChrist

Who's leading in any given moment of your life? Who's leading? Your flesh or the spirit that's within you? Because the flesh desires what's contrary to the spirit and the spirit what's contrary to the flesh. And the true uncivil war is being waged now. And the battlefield is your heart. Your heart's Gettysburg. They're in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want. There you go. I love that. Shall we keep on sinning? Paul finally gets to enter. You should not do whatever you want. That would not make sense. You're feeding the flesh. Okay? [00:28:54] (41 seconds)  #HeartIsTheBattlefield

What shall we say then? To what? Having been justified through faith, we are now at peace with God. Your standing has eternally changed. You've been declared righteous. The entire due process of being saved has been fulfilled in your life. Due process required two things for every human being. You either needed to be perfect or you had to pay the payment. Christ fulfills both of those. Correct? That's why his perfect life was so important. He fulfilled the law by being perfect. He then took care of our obligation for having failed to fulfill. So he's both the perfect example and the perfect price. Okay? So that law is now fulfilled. Having been justified, you're declared righteous. What shall we say to that? [00:10:08] (51 seconds)  #JustifiedByFaith

It's a pretty reasonable argument, but it's really a fallacy. Okay? Paul says that you you can't. Come on. Is that logical to you? Because their thought was, because he says it in the end of five, if my sin gave God an opportunity to demonstrate his grace, then what would more of my sin do? Give him more and more opportunities to demonstrate the greatness of his grace. So I'm gonna go give God all the opportunity he needs to demonstrate his grace. Right? It's it's just it's it sounds right, but it's not right. Paul says, by no means. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know? [00:11:50] (46 seconds)  #GraceIsNotAnExcuse

The whole Bible, we talk about this so much, is based on a simple premise, either or. There's only two options in all of human history. There is not a third. It's either the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree you choose from dictates and determines your outcome. They ate from the wrong tree, therefore they died. So they stepped into the new realm, only two options, death and life. Then Israel refused to obey that, so they stepped into the new realm, blessings and curses. They refused to identify that, so we have in the Bible now wise and full. Just keep going going. Heaven, hell, narrow, wide. There's only two options, flesh, spirit. [00:27:24] (44 seconds)  #ChooseLifeNotDeath

Not, oh, well, I just come from a dysfunctional family and this you're just feeding the flesh. No. You don't under I do understand. You've been set free from that. You're making a choice to be enslaved by something you've been set free from. Quit lying to yourself. Own it at least. I'm doing what I do because this is what we've always done, and you're gonna still get what you've always got. And if you don't wanna stop getting what you've always got, you gotta stop doing what you've always done. Well, you don't understand. I understand freedom and slavery. That's what I understand. That's all I know. And am I free of everything? No. My Lord, you don't know me well enough. So but you only have two choices, flesh or spirit. Who's leading? [00:28:08] (46 seconds)  #StopExcusingSin

Okay? But there is still something I know it seems morbid in some ways, but it's hard to deny a distinctive moment in the funeral, especially when we lay our loved one to rest, it really does help with closure. Okay? And and I I believe it's not morbid. I think it's it's a necessary process to deal with the reality, And that would be true in the life of a follower. You you've got to go attend that funeral and realize that old person's dead. That old nature is dead. Now, Romans seven, it's still breathing. It's called rigor mortis. I mean, it still hangs around, but you've got to have the same closure. You do not have to surrender to your past cycles of choices. You don't have to surrender to your past any longer. [00:15:35] (52 seconds)  #AttendTheFuneralOfSin

Then you will know the pure, perfect, and pleasing will of God for your life. Have you ever wondered what God's will is? I can tell you how you figure that out, offer yourself to him. When you offer yourself to him as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord, you'll be able to discern and figure out what the pure, perfect, and pleasing will of God is for your life. Now, it's hard to think about it in ways that like, I talked about stop giving yourself to pornography, everybody say, amen. If I said stop giving yourself to social media, you'd be like, I don't like you anymore. Right? Because it isn't just absolute debasement and defilement that we're talking about here. Distraction works just as well. [00:22:07] (44 seconds)  #OfferYourselfToGod

Sanctification is not about a moral code. Sanctification is not about following new ethics, although that will be the output. Sanctification is understanding the declaration of God over your life, that you're both righteous and free. You're righteous and free. Now here's the opportunity. Do you wanna live like that? You must be willing to participate. This is where Christianity becomes a partnership with God. Okay? [00:18:30] (31 seconds)  #RighteousAndFree

Is sanctification a work of man or a work of God? Yes. Yes. It's a partnership. It's not a sole proprietorship. It's a partnership. The spirit is in you to empower you, guide you, and lead you, but you gotta surrender yourself to it. Right? [00:26:52] (19 seconds)  #SanctificationIsAPartnership

You're not that person anymore. You're a new creation. You get to go live a new life. But you've gotta be willing to participate because just because it's proclaimed doesn't mean it's going to be practiced until you start initiating as will end today in some of these steps. Okay? For if we've been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly, certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. In other words, you've already been raised from the dead, your spirit is now alive. You and I are back once saved, back in similarity to where Adam and Eve once were, and that they were able to have an intimate connection with God because they had a spirit and God could walk with them in the cool of the day. You and I have it even better because we have the spirit within us. He walks with us at all times. [00:16:33] (51 seconds)  #RaisedToNewLife

You know, and if you're offering yourself for ninety minutes a day, say to Instagram, you're not living freely, they're dictating. You're an algorithm now. They know more about you than you know about you. They know more about you than your spouse knows about you. They know more about you than all your friends and family know about you. Because there's things on Instagram you wouldn't tell anybody you looked at. And it doesn't even have to be like purely vulgar. You just want anybody to know that, you know, you were watching the Bee Gees video. You'd be like, no, I'm not into them. I like country. You know what I mean? You're listening to disco. You know what I mean? It's distraction as well. And so what we have to do is ask ourselves, what are we offering ourselves to? That's the beginning question of sanctification. Who's your master? Is it you? [00:22:52] (53 seconds)  #DontServeTheAlgorithm

And this is not about legalism. See, could so quickly get there. It's about freedom. It's about life. And you and I get to control that. Offer yourselves to God and offer, here's where the distract every part of yourself, okay, to him as an instrument of doing the right things for sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but you're not above it either. Huge distinction. It still applies to our life because it's the best thing for us. It just doesn't determine the outcome of your life any longer. If you're not in Christ, you're under the law. I can tell you the outcome of your life, eternity in hell. Period. That's where it goes. [00:25:15] (47 seconds)  #FreedomNotLegalism

It's completely different than the old one, but you gotta be willing to live that new life. For we know, we know our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with. You don't have to be ruled by. It resides, it remains, but it doesn't have to rule in your life any longer. You literally have the authority to determine whether or not you're going to participate in the deeds of the flesh. So we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Alright? So point one is we must be determined to put sin to death. You gotta put you gotta have the funeral, the sin nature, and the sin choices because they do become habitual patterns. And you you can break those. You you've gotta replace them, but you can do it so that we can develop the gift of life. [00:17:28] (60 seconds)  #PutSinToDeath

It starts with taking control of the mind and taking control of the bible says, take every thought captive to the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins to realize that focus determines direction. That that which I look upon dictates that which I think upon. As a man thinks, so he is. We begin to change our focus. We begin to find things. If you look in any given day, I guarantee you this, guarantee you this, you can find one of these things and you can focus on it instead. Whatever is true. I'll tell you what's true in this chaotic world right now. God is sovereign. The Straits Of Hormuz is confusing the world. It doesn't have God the least bit worried. He made that. So we got just just pump the brakes. We're good. What about oil? What about it? [00:38:29] (57 seconds)  #TakeEveryThoughtCaptive

What are you focused on? What are you looking at? You can't find anything that's lovely? Look right up here. You know you can find something admirable. And it doesn't have to be a world changing moment. It could be that your neighbor two houses down got on his lawn mower and mowed the neighbor's yard because she's just she's a widow now. Go stand at the window and watch him mow. Just go watch him mow. That's admirable. That is admirable. How about again, come next week with all those young men and women standing up here. Is anything excellent or praiseworthy? You don't think graduating last week was college. I don't even know how many were up here. Enough to field an offense and a defense and a football team, I'm pretty sure. But you don't wanna come and cheer these kids on who just graduated high school? [00:40:44] (58 seconds)  #FocusOnTheLovely

But just because it's hanging around, doesn't mean you have to allow its decimated authority to control you. You gotta make the decision. Okay? Do you want off the plantation? Why would it's and this is pretty harsh and I don't mean to be, but this is where the bible would go with it. Is have you attended the funeral for your old life? And as funerals are, they're stark. And I did one yesterday at 11:00 and and drove to Jeffersonville, Indiana right after that to do a wedding. I was burning up the highways yesterday. So if you saw a silver Toyota driving at an average rate of speed, that was not me. [00:14:43] (48 seconds)  #GetOffThePlantation

See, part of the the the mindset in Rome was, and it's not a bad idea, but you're not allowed to live like it. They thought, now listen, if my spirit has been resurrected and my soul has been redeemed and I'm getting a brand new container after death, then why does it matter what I do in this container? If this container doesn't matter, I may as well just do whatever I wanna do in the container. Because if the Bible says flesh counts for nothing, what are we making a big deal out of what I do in my flesh? Okay. It's called antinomianism, which is anti law. Like who can I thought the law was fulfilled? I'm just gonna go do what I wanna do. Why can't I do what I wanna do? I'm only doing it in the flesh. It doesn't affect my spirit. It doesn't affect my soul because I have been justified. [00:11:05] (46 seconds)  #RightStandingLeadsToRightLiving

Christ wanted them all to see, you must be in right standing, then you follow the standard because he was eternally in right standing with God. His standing with God did not change because of baptism. What he was showing everybody, and then what's he do? Go to the wilderness and then you have the Sermon on the Mount, which is the standard of the kingdom of God, is that the standard always follows right standing. The standard always follows right standing, not just in order, but in reality. Once you're in right standing, you are going to want to live according to this new standard because it's a better way of living. It's true freedom. Okay? And so if you've been justified through faith, you are at peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, [00:09:07] (45 seconds)  #StandardsFollowStanding