Loren Larson - How To Do the What To Do (Romans 6:15-18)

Because what we're going to be looking at, what we're going to be studying, what we're going to be teaching, what we're going to be proclaiming is really the sanctification process. We're going to be looking at it in an overview sense, which means that there's nobody here, including this minister right here, that is not somewhere in this process.

So I know that the message that I've got and the message that the Lord's laid on my heart for this service is needed by every person under the sound of my voice. Because if you're a believer, you're somewhere in this process. I said, if you're a believer, you're somewhere in this process.

Whether you're here in the sanctuary or listening by Sun Life Radio or later by recorded device, you are in this process. And I know that the whole thrust of this ministry, the whole thrust of the Bible college, the whole thrust of JSM is about teaching the body of Christ, proclaiming to the body of Christ the benefit of what Jesus did for us at Calvary. Now you could give the Lord a hand clap of praise for that.

and preaching out of Romans 6 in the last 10 years, I would s I would say 50 to 75 times in that many different locations. And every single time I open up the Bible to Romans chapter 6.

It all becomes brand new once again. So I'm excited this morning. Have you found Romans chapter six? Read with me, if you would, verses fifteen through eighteen. What then shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. Watch this. But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin.

But you have obeyed from the heart. That form of doctrine which was delivered you, being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness, being then made free from sin. Ye became servants of righteousness. Being, someone should get this this morning, being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. As I mentioned last night. In the body of Christ, holiness is not an option. Righteousness is not an option. The goal of Christianity is

that you and I would be conformed to the image of Christ. I don't stand in the office of a prophet, but yet I can say this with full assurance I know the will of God for every one of you in this room. And that is that you be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. For God has predestined that those who name the name of Jesus be conformed into the image of his Son. And so becoming a Christian isn't just all about what's best for me, even though it is.

It's not all about how I can get finances or how I can be blessed from the Lord, even though that certainly is a part of our redemption. It's not the focus. The focus of our relationship with God is that you and I would be changed. That you and I, the creature. The creation would be changed by the Creator into his image by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And wherever you go to church, wherever you've been raised in church, wherever you've experienced church on any level or any degree. They always told us what it was that was right and what it is that was wrong. And that is certainly correct. We need to hear what is right and what is wrong. We have an indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit which guides us.

But when that's confirmed from the pulpit, then the witness of the Spirit, the witness of the Word, and the proclamation of it bears witness in our heart and we realize maybe that's something I need to get rid of. Maybe that's something that I need to release. Maybe that's something that needs to change in me. Good old-fashioned holiness preaching. And I've got to tell you, we could use a little bit of good old fashioned holiness preaching today.

The world of the church has become so closely knitted to the fabric of the world that it's hard to tell anymore where the world ends and where the church begins. But part of the problem is we were told what we needed to do, but we were never told accurately biblically how to arrive there. We were told what was right and what was wrong.

But we were never told how biblically and accurately under the power of the Holy Spirit that we might arrive at where our hearts as born-again believers wanted to arrive. And last week in Panama City, Florida, visiting Brother Gene King and New Beginnings Church there, God laid this simple little message on my heart that I'm going to attempt to bring to you today. Because while we've been told what to do. Nobody's come along and told us how to do the what to do.

And as a believer, we need to learn how to do the what to do. And in an overview of sanctification today coming from Romans six.

I'm going to preach how to do the what to do. Would you pray with me this morning? Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word, I thank you for the gospel. And I thank you for those that are gathered here today in Family Worship Center. Also those that are gathered through the internet or the means of Sun Life Radio. And Father, I'm asking right now that the true preacher would come, the true teacher would come, and anoint me to speak your word as you would have it spoken.

And Lord, very simply and distinctly I ask that there would be anointing to hear, an anointing to receive, an anointing of understanding that would equip the hearts of your people from the very beginning of this message until the end. And Lord, I'll ask it in Jesus' precious name, and everybody said, Amen and amen. The Book of Romans is the greatest single treatise or explanation that exists as a whole on the Christian experience.

It starts from the beginning, chapters 1 through 3, declaring that all men are guilty before God. You have to know that you need a saviour before you reach out for a saviour. And so Paul the Apostle, in bringing that information to us, established forever that the church needs to declare that the lost are the lost and the saved are the saved, and there's a difference between the lost and the saved. And the first thing we have to understand about being saved is that we're lost.

And so Paul tells us we need a Savior. He tells it to the Gentile world in the last chap on the last half of chapter one, verses eighteen to the end. And he tells it in two chapters, two and three, to the world of the Jew. It's harder to convince people in church that they need to be saved than it is to tell the world they need to be saved. Now I need a little help in here this morning.

Those of you that are hiding from God, some of you have been hiding from God in church for a long time. And you've thought, well, because I attend church, I'm all right. But God the Holy Ghost has sent us your way this morning to let you know that your attendance in a church will not bring you an entrance into heaven. Your attendance into church and the acts of religion that we do in and of themselves, how be they are good, will not gain you entrance into heaven.

Only one thing will gain you entrance into heaven, and that's the acknowledgement that we are lost, that we are Separated from God. It doesn't matter what color, it doesn't matter what background, it doesn't matter what culture we come from. All of us come from. The culture of the lost, the culture of the world, and all of us that expect to make it to heaven have to be transformed from the kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light.

All men are lost. And so as man faces the dilemma of lostness, Paul continues to write in chapters four and five that God has resolved the dilemma. He has resolved the dilemma by concocting a plan that made it simple. For all men to be saved It had to be something that God would establish that would allow all men everywhere, regardless of age, regardless of their abilities in the mind, their intelligence or lack of it.

Their culture or lack of it, their uh understanding or lack of it. God had to make salvation so simple. That every single human being on the planet could take advantage of it if they so desired. And so Paul describes God's plan and describes it in the one word justification. Justification is God's plan for bringing man into proper relationship with himself. And it's based solely and singularly on exhibiting faith in what God has prov presented as a redemption plan.

In other words, what we need to understand about justification is that it is a decree. It is a legal decree made by a judge who sits behind a desk and bangs down the gavel and makes a legal declaration. A legal declaration of innocence. That's what justification is. God says, I know how I will bring man back. Into relationship with me, I'll produce a process of justification. I'll declare them legally innocent if of all charges pass. Present and future.

past, present, and future, if they will only accept my provision. If they accept my provision, then my verdict over their life is not guilty.

Honey, I went to bed justified as a result of my faith in Jesus Christ. I slept through the night justified by my faith in Jesus Christ. And this morning I didn't have to get up and try to earn and work and labor and come into a relationship with God before these size twelves hit the side of the

Carpet over the side of the bed. I was already in right relationship with God. He'd already thought about me all night long. His thoughts about me were as the sand on the seashore. He was already thinking of Of what good thing he could do for me, not because I was good, not because I had performed, not because I had been religious, but because my faith had simply been placed in his son and his. J verdict over me is not guilty. Justified!

Past, present, future. Past, present, future. Well, what happens if I sin? Not if, when. Don't lie to me this morning. It's not about if we sin, it's when we sin. That's why we've got to have justification in place because it's not an if, it's a when. In your life and in my life, it's not an if, it's a when. I said it's not. Oh, don't get holy on me now. No, that's the wrong word. Don't you dare get long nose.

Pharisaic, ugly on me. You're right with God because you said yes to Jesus and that's it. Hallelujah!

Here's what I know about my performance, and here's what I know about your performance. It ain't up to par. So holiness, righteousness is established by a verdict of justification as a result of your faith without any butts. But but but no butts. Leave the butts and the excuses at the door. We don't have'em because God has laid out his plan in the book of Romans as a plan of justification by faith. You can't make it any other way.

That is our growth. Things in you and I that need to be changed. There's things in me that need to be changed. Well, what are they, Brother Larson? Eat off your own plate. It's full. And if you say it's not, let me just talk to your wife a minute. Let me talk to someone who lives with you a minute. We'll find out what's on your plate, but I'm not interested what's on your plate. I'm looking at what's on mine.

I'm asking God, I need this changed about me. I need to understand more about how I'm being conformed. Why is this still a problem and what bothers me here needs to be eliminated and my response to this needs to be eliminated eliminated and my reaction see your Christianity should be judged by your reaction not your action Because when the crunch comes and you react instantly, that's you.

What you really are on the inside, what you really have on the inside, what you really have or don't have on the inside comes out when we squeeze the bottom of the tube. And out of the heart, out of the heart, we respond and we react. And it's my heart that needs to be changed. Oh, well I'm in control and I can dress myself up and look fine. I can get away with just about anything. But when Mama comes and says, Honey, I spent five hundred dollars we didn't have Okay, let me talk over here.

In your life. Okay, did you get what I just said? No singular experience will ever bring you to a place of total completeness. perfection and sanctification. It is a lifelong process that you and I have to embrace every day.

We have to embrace God's process. And so justification does not give us the uh ability to live in sin, justification is the framework and the foundation for the building of sanctification in the sense of ongoing perfecting. I'm so glad that he said in his word. That his spirit would continue to work in me until the day of Jesus Christ.

So today, I'm a work in progress. No matter how far I've advanced, I'm a work in progress. No matter where I am, I'm a work in progress. No matter what I've already experienced as a victory, I'm a work in progress. There's still Places for me to go, heights for me to climb, and depths for me to plumb in God that I don't know, that I don't have. And that's what makes Christianity exciting. It's not the same old day in and day out. There's a change coming.

Chapter 6, 7, and 8 talk to us about sanctification, about this growth process that we're in every single day of our Christian experience. And there are things that we have to understand, embrace every single day in order for this process. Of sanctification to continue. Now, the first thing that we need to understand about sanctification is given to us, at least that I'll cover today, is in Romans six, three through eleven.

And in Romans chapter six, three through eleven, there are four words that indicate this no. Or know it or reckon. So the first thing is you have to know something. If you want to grow, you have to know. Christianity is not just a feeling. It's not just a response to an emotion. It is a response to truth. You have to know something. You have if you're going to grow day in and day out, if you're going to go beyond that place where you are now, you have to know something.

The believer has to know in the dark night when you're laying with your head on your pillow saying, God, why did I act that way? You need to know something. Before you failed and after you failed, you need to know something. And what we need to know is given to us in chapter six and three through eleven. So the first thing we need to know is what we need to know.

We need to know something. Now, Paul tells us that the subject of sanctification surrounds the sin nature, and Brother Swigert said it. And I'm gonna just we're move through this fairly quickly today. But here's what we have to know about the sin nature. First of all, that sin nature, we all have one. We're born with it, and it bends us towards acts of sin. The sin nature in a person makes sinning easy.

And we're dominated by that sin nature. Like a king on a throne, he bends us towards acts of sin, bends us towards certain ungodliness, bends us towards certain thought processes that aren't right to God. But Jesus Christ did not come just to eliminate the penalty for sin in my life. He came to destroy the power of the sin nature. So that I would no longer be dominated by this power. And the Bible says this.

He said in chapter 3, don't you know that as many of us as were baptized. Now before he I go on to that, why does he say that? He says that because in chapter 6 and verse 2, he first tells you. He starts off, he doesn't explain it in chapter six and verse two How many of us as are dead to the sin nature should live any longer therein? You're already dead to the sin nature.

If you're a believer, you're dead to the sin nature. You gotta get this. This is what you have to know. If you're a believer, You're dead to the sin nature. The normal status for a believer is that you are dead to the sin nature. Now the natural question is how? How did I become dead to the sin nature? How did I become free from this bent toward sin on the inside of me? How did I get free from what did I do? You believed. And the moment that you believed, Paul.

Paul says, Don't you know you were baptized into Jesus? How did I get free from the power of the sin nature? You were united with Christ. The moment you said yes to him, you were immersed into Jesus. You were crucified with him. You were buried with him. And then you're raised up in him to live with him in a new power source. That's your existence. That's where you are. You need to understand that the reason that you can live free

From the sin nature is that when you were united, planted in Christ, baptized into Christ, the power of the sin nature was broken. He doesn't tell you go fight the sin nature. He doesn't tell you go break the sin nature. He tells you that power that was dominating you is all red. Broken. Because you were united with Christ. This is what we need to know. You were united with Christ, baptized with Christ, crucified with Christ. Well, how was I crucified with Christ?

The minute you were united with Christ, you became one with him. His present is your present. Don't you know that right now you're sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus? You look like you're in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at Family Worship Center. And with the smiles on your faces and the delight in your eyes.

I see it as I talk about Jesus. It looks like you're here, but in the spirit, you are in him. You are seated at the right hand of God. Seated in Christ in heavenly places. His presence is your presence. His future is your future. You will rule and reign with him. When he comes back, you will be with him. You will rule and reign with him. Your present is tied to his present. Your future is tied to his future. And if that is so because of your union with Christ, then your past.

Your past is his past. I am crucified with Christ. Where did you lose the power? Where was that power of the sin nature broken? When Jesus died on Calvary's cross, you were in Him by virtue of your union with Him. You were one with Him.

And the power of the sin nature was broken. Somebody shout yes.

When you say yes to Jesus, this is what you need to know. Well, look at verses six and verses seven, the second time the word know or knowing is used. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. The Bible says here that because of your union with Christ, the The body is no longer going to be used as a tool for the devil.

Because the body is now become under the auspices of God Himself. You need to know this that our old man, the man I was. Dominated by the sin nature, dominated by the power of sin, dominated by wrong desire, dominated by the wrong direction, dominated by wrong thinking, that the power of that thing has already been broken and now here's what I need to know. My body doesn't have to respond to it like it used to.

For he that is dead is freed from the sin nature. And I've already died in Christ Jesus. This is the second no that you need to be aware of. Am I boring you? Am I putting you to sleep? This is what you need to know. That I'm united with him, freedom from the sin nature. I'm united with him. This is where the body of sin is destroyed. It literally means to render idle or ineffective.

And it's the same word that describes the men. You remember the parable where the man came out into the square and hired those that were sitting around to go to work in his vineyard? And he came at one point in time and he hired them because he saw them sitting there.

And he hired them and he said, I'll give you a penny, go to work in my vineyard. A little while later he comes again. He says, Go to work in my vineyard, I'll give you a penny. You remember that? Each time that the the men are described sitting around, they're sitting idle. They're sitting unemployed. That's the same word described here about your relationship with the sin nature. You were once employed by the power of the sin nature, earning the wages that was yours, and the wages of sin is.

But now you are now unemployed.

Crucified with him, buried with him, and raised up into newness of life. Hallelujah. But the third note. Look at it in verses nine and ten, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more verse ten for in that he died he died unto sin once this is the third thing you need to know Jesus doesn't have to do this ever again

Well, Brother Larson, I just don't see it that way. That's the only way you can see it and interpret it right. You mean to tell me that you're just telling me that you're right and I'm wrong? That's what I'm telling you. You are exactly right. You are wrong if you don't accept what I'm preaching to you right now as the route to sanctification. To your own demise and failure and sin, you are wrong.

This is what we need to know. And I would challenge you to argue with Paul. Because I'm not coming up with my words or my ways. I'm telling you what Paul said you need to know. Jesus, when he said it is finished, this is what you need to know. You need to know that the sin nature was broken by your union with Christ. You need to know the second know that your union with Christ brought about the unemployment.

Unemployment of your body to acts of sin. You need to know thirdly that when Jesus died on the Calvary, on Calvary's cross. There was no thing else that he needed to do. All provision was already provided. And now I walk in the knowledge of that.

You will find that what Jesus deposited into your account is not the benefits that you have worked for, but the benefits of his perfect sinless life before God. If you look into the account that you have today, you are an inheritance. You have a you are an heir, a joint heir. With Christ Jesus. I hate to tell you this, but your inheritance is limited. It is limited to his riches in glory.

I saw it a few minutes ago when Brother Donnie was given the testimony. I could see the wheels turning in your brain thinking, Well, that's good for somebody who had a broker's commodity or a commodity broker. But I'm lucky to have five hundred dollars in the savings and checking account combined. Am I getting where you live? You don't understand it then. You do have a commodities broker. His name is Jesus.

And whatever it is you've got to have, he doesn't even have to already have it in existence to bring it to you. If you need it and it's not around, he can make it and bring it to you.

So Paul says you need to know these things, four things. You need to know how the power of the sin nature was broken through your union with Christ. You need to know number two, the second knowing, in verse six. that your old man is crucified, that you're that you are dead and freed from sin. You need to know this, number three, that when Jesus said it, it was finished. You don't have to worry about it.

not being sufficient for every failure in your life. And verse eleven, the fourth no, the reckon, you need to look into your account and see every single day that indeed your relationship with the sin nature has changed. It has been broken. And a new relationship has been entered into you are alive unto God, recreated, regenerated.

Changed by the power of Almighty God. You don't think the same. You don't walk the same. You don't talk the same. You don't you don't do anything the same because you're a new creation in Christ Jesus. I'm talking to believers this morning. This is what you are. Now, based on what we know, look at verses twelve through fourteen. Brother Swagert started this on Wednesday night. Not only do we need to know something, not only do we need to know something, but we need to apply what we know.

See, some of you been sitting around this radio station for five years. And you said amen, amen, and amen when we've preached what I've preached, but you still haven't learned how to apply. Well, Brother Larson, I guess I just need a greater revelation. What about what I just said, don't you understand? O que ele disse era simples. What about it? Do we not understand? He says, based on your knowledge, verse twelve, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.

Well wait a minute, I don't get it. If I'm dead to the sin nature Why does he say that I need to be sure not to let the sin nature reign? Because while he did it, he's left it up to you and I to apply by faith what it is that he's done. Oh, I get this all the time. You guys just been teaching that down there telling us we don't need to do nothing. No, I'm telling you, you need to by faith apply those principles of what you know to what God has said about you.

Stop letting this is a present imperative. Stop letting the sin nature reign. Well, Brother Larson, I thought that once I heard the message of the cross and agreed with it, I'd never have a problem. Stop letting. Stop letting stop after the explanation of what we need to know. He didn't say, Well, now it's just hallelujah, I know the cross and that's all there is to it from now on. I'll just send in my money and live like the devil. Stop letting the sin nature

Stop letting your mortal body be a tool for sin. But but but but but but but I thought that if I just had the knowledge No, you have to apply the knowledge. And you have to know how to do the what to do. You've got to understand what it is that's been given to you and put it into practice. Well, are you talking about works? No, I'm talking about faith.

I'm not talking about doing good. I'm talking about doing the right thing. Holiness is a matter not of an option, but it is a matter of how we approach it.

How do we approach it? First of all, there's only one thing in your life that will ever cause the sin nature to be resurrected. But it can be resurrected. Paul taught us that in Romans chapter seven. He said, when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. What does he mean when the commandment came? When you take your eyes off of what you're supposed to know and you trust in anything other And Christ and him crucified to sanctify you, you revive the sin nature.

Anytime you trust in your confession. To free you up. Well, I confess that I'm baptized. I confess that I'm immersed in. I confess that I'm crucified. Well, I confess you're not trusting in what he did. You're trusting in your confession.

Whenever I feel something, that's when I'll start quoting it. I reckon myself to be dead indeed unto God and alive to God, I'm dead indeed of the sin, alive to God. And all of a sudden now you're trying to conjure something up. What we're talking about living is a lifestyle.

It's a pattern of thinking that never changes. When I was in high school, they taught us how to shoot a basketball, and they said, you get the basketball and you bring it and you square it up with your body and you shoot at the top of your shot. And they would say, go through that motion over and over and over again until you don't have to think about it anymore. Square up, square the shoulders, get everything lined up with the basket, shoot at the top of your jump.

We didn't think about it. We just did it and did it and did it and did it and did it and did it and did it until finally when I got into the game, I didn't think. Let's see, get the ball, square the body, square the shoulder, shoot just the right. I just did it. Your knowledge gets you to the place where the way you think is a lifestyle. Don't wait till you sense something wrong.

Because in wanting to do that, which all of us try to do in some measure, what we do is we reignite, we allow the sin nature to become alive in us again. Oh God, I failed you now. I promise I'll do better. And we give him our list. Well now you've added insult to injury. Because even though you've repented of the act You've committed a sin you can't see. You've committed a sin of spiritual adultery. You were joined to the cross. You were joined to Christ. And now you say, I'll add.

My and you fill in your little blank. You fill in your little duty. When you fail as a Christian What you need to do is say, God, forgive me for my failure. And I still believe that everything that Jesus did for me at Calvary is sufficient to justify. It's sufficient to sanctify what I did was wrong. But I'm not going to add insult to injury and turn away from my union with Christ. And marry myself to another ideal routine or regimen that brings a revival of the sin nature.

And when the sin nature is revived, he cannot do in you or it would not do in you the same thing it used to do with you when you were not saved. The sin nature used to rule and reign over every area of your life. But now you're a new creation. When the sin nature revives cause you changed the object of your faith, generally speaking, there's a certain area he finds where you're weak and begins to hit you in that area.

Oh, I wish I was talking to somebody that knew you probably just got an email from somebody that knows what I'm talking about. And now in that one area, those two areas, you're a new creation. The sin nature doesn't dominate you all the time in every area, but there's that point, that thing. That's still surfacing.

And because you've turned from solely trusting in the cross The sin nature has revived, and now you've got that design and desire not being eliminated, but accentuated, gaining ground, becoming more powerful. And the answer is, God forgive me, not just for the wrong desire or the wrong action, but God forgive me for trusting in anything other than Christ and Him crucified.

But Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, who have just been reinformed as to how to live for God, are told of this portion of the dilemma. Verse sixteen. Thus I are you there, do you see it? I want you to see it with me. This I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not experience the lust of the flesh. Okay, read it again. Walk in the spirit and you shall not experience the lust of the flesh. What? Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the fulfill. Fulfill.

Notice what he didn't say, walk in the Spirit and you'll never experience the lust. Of the flesh. Walking in the spirit is placing your trust exclusively in who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. Walk in the Spirit and you'll not fulfill the lusts. See, some of you gotten confused because down in your own physical being, you're still experiencing, even though your faith is exclusively in Christ and Him crucified, you're still experiencing wrong design and desire.

Well I thought that when my faith was there I'd never experien no no, it didn't say you wouldn't experience the lusts of the result of being still in this physical frame. It said that God would give you the power not to fully. Feel see some of you were confused and you thought, Well, I must not know the message of the cross because my faith is in Christ and Him crucified. The power of God is changing me, but yet there's still something in me.

Oh let me talk over here. There's still something in me. Let me preach over here. There's still something. Something in me Brother Swaggert says it this way the clinging vines of the fall and I'm not really sure that I can define to you uh the the exact Definition of what it is that still isn't like Jesus. But I know it's in me. All right, boy, I just need a little help in here. I know it's in me.

My faith is in Christ and Him crucified, and yet I still My faith is in Jesus and him crucified, but yet I still have found that I

But he doesn't leave it. I gotta hurry. He doesn't leave it here. I'm just trying to teach you something here. You understand the message of the cross, and the sin nature is silence. You understand the message of the cross, and when different ungodly desires raise up in your heart, don't doubt the message of the cross. Don't say, Oh, I need another revelation. Say it like Paul said it.

I'm carnal, sold unto sin. I'm still in this physical body until Jesus comes back and redeems this physical frame and transforms it into an uncorruptible body, I'm still living in the form of corruption. And it's me that needs to be changed. The best you got is corruption being changed. Anybody still need a savior? Anybody still need a child depending on what he did?

Is the same word or yield is the same word in the King James Version that is uh translated present in Romans 12 and 1, present your bodies a living sacrifice. What's your answer to overcoming the lusts of the flesh or the revival of the sin nature. Present yourself to God as one who is alive from the dead. God, I'm crucified With Christ, nevertheless, I live. I can't change myself, but I know that what Jesus did for me at Calvary can change me. And this I present.

to you to do the changing. This I present to you in faith to do the altering. You're the only one that can change what needs to be changed. And so it's my job. It's my responsibility to present myself to him as one who trusts in his ability to change me because I've been crucified with Christ.

in what Jesus has done, and I present my body, my heart, my soul, my all to him who is able to change me. Every day, every moment, every hour. God, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live by the faith. Altyazı M.K. By faith you present yourself as one alive from the dead. By faith, you present yourself as one crucified with Christ. By faith, whether it's the lust of the flesh.

Or revival of the sin nature. You say, God, that's not what you want, and that's not where I want to be. So forgive me of all that's wrong with me, but I will not turn to self-helps. I will not turn to 12 steps. I will not. Turn to the government of twelve. I will not turn to confession. I will not turn to the latest fad. Instead, I will present. myself to God and say I'm one who's crucified with Christ. I'm dead to sin and I'm dependent on you.

You know, the kind of thing that makes you wake up in the middle of the night and dream about her. You think about where you might run into her the next day. Where she sits in your classroom or where she works at the work or where you just might see and your mind and your heart I'm starting to see smiles all over the congregation. And your mind and your heart is just inundated with her. I mean you're thinking, hmm

Mm. Mm hmm. Man, I gotta get my stuff. I gotta make myself look good. I gotta get my pants all cleaned up. I mean guys, for the first time you were single and you did laundry, I mean everything was cooking. I mean, you cleaned yourself up, you fixed yourself up just for the slight chance that she might walk by you in the hall. And you could say something cool like yo. Because your heart was smitten.

Man, this dominated your mind, your thinking. You c you went to sleep thinking about it. You woke up, you had dreams about it, and you followed everything. In your heart, you obeyed from the heart. And when you hear the message of the cross, God says, if you want to be free, obey. from the heart everything within you

You find the pearl of great price. Now watch this. You obeyed from the heart, not the action. but the form of doctrine, the pattern laid out for you. Teaching you were given Apostle Paul, you obeyed it. Didn't say go have a preacher lay hands on, you'll be free from lust of the flesh and the sinners. It didn't say go do something and you'll be free from these things. It said obey from the heart with everything within you. Put all your eggs in one basket, no exception at any time. Obey.

And the pattern that Paul taught us to be freed from the sin nature, to be justified, to be freed from the lusts of the flesh is this, Father. I present myself. As one who is crucified with Christ, I can't change myself. And I am in need of change. I am in need of help. I am in need of your supernatural supply just to live. And God.

will begin to do a work. I will close with this. Two thousand and one, we all watched as the planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York City. We watched In horror as the flames Destroyed the building and the collapse came. We watched in horror, all of us have the memories in our minds of watching it as the people raced away down the sidewalk and the big plume of white cloud and dust. filled sixteen blocks of rubble.

Three thousand lives were lost or thereabout. And every day As they came to us from what they called ground zero, the reporters would stand on an elevated position and we would see the scenes of ruin behind them. But there was something else happening. As you watched, there was a line of trucks. Filled with rubble, one after the other after the other, and really no comment was made but huge semis full of rubble removing the destruction from ground zero off to a dump site.

And we watched and we looked at that huge mass of rubble and we think, what in the world? They'll never Clear that up. But a year later.

And I don't know what you're struggling with this morning. I don't know what you are believing God to remove, but I came to tell you that if you won't grow weary in well-doing, And that sight, that ground zero of your heart is gonna be changed by the power of the cross. And this morning I'll give a simple invitation. And that's for us to gather ourselves together at the front of this sanctuary before you.

And willingly with all of your heart Everything that's within you, honestly in your own way. Present yourself to God. I give you who I am. Would you come as they sing it right now?