Hope At 7 - Romans 7

Hope At 7 • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Intro

Hello friends. We’ll today is September 1st and I don’t know if you’re seeing what I’ve seen over the last few days on Facebook. If you haven’t there are many people in our world who are getting ready for Christmas, already. From what I hear from them it is ok now to be playing Christmas music and for some even getting trees out and ready? Like I don’t know about you but I just can’t believe that we are really that close already. Seems like only yesterday the pandemic started and now we’re talking about Christmas. We’ll tonight we’re going to talk about a pretty heavy topic.

I’m sure as a kid you’ve all been through that rhythm of what Christmas has become. Are you on the Naughty or Nice list? You see from what Christmas has become we know that we probably spent a bunch of time considering whether we’ve been good or bad during this year. Cause we know that if we’ve been good we’ll get good gifts and if we’ve been bad we’d get nothing or worse coal. Which is pretty funny cause if you think giving coal to a bad kid is a good idea you got something coming to ya. Like that’s the best thing for them to burn down something with. But I remember when I was a kid, writing my letter to Santa. And I remember writing these lists and I’m sure there were certain years that I’d be thinking pretty hard whether I was a good kid or not. Whether or not I was someone who followed the rules and stayed good.

But I come to a passage like the one that we have tonight and it stops me in my tracks a little. You see this passage hits at the core of our person and pushes us to look at our lives in the hear and now. For me it makes me stop and consider this idea of being good and bad and how that measures up to God. It makes me stop and ask myself why I do what I do, why I get trapped into the sins and things that I have and struggle with. And more importantly a passage like this makes me stop and encourages me to think about what the solution is for me, and more importantly who the solution is for me.

So the passage that we’re going to look at is Romans 7:14-25 and it says, “14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”

There’s a ton of really amazing stuff in this passage but what I want to focus on here tonight is asking us the question of whether there is a place in your life where you feel stuck. Let’s clarify this a little. Is there a situation or experience that you have that you know isn’t right but you find yourself doing it anyways? There are times and situations in our lives where we find ourselves doing things that we know is wrong, and we know doesn’t benefit our lives, but we find that we get sucked into this area and doing these things time and time again.

I know in my life there has been times and I’ve faced sins just like this. I’ve struggled with sins that I knew were wrong, I knew and heard time and time again that it wasn’t good for me, it wasn’t what I needed to be spending time doing. And the reality was, was that I was facing exactly what Paul was saying in this passage. In verse 15 he says, “15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” You see I knew it wasn’t right and what I should be doing but I found myself drawn to doing this thing. I even remember there were times were I’d tell myself that I’m gonna stop messing up and I might stop for a short time but I’d be dragged back to it. It was something that I kept fighting against and I found myself on the losing side time and time again.

But what I’ve realized over time is that what I was going through was this thing called sin that lives within me, that lives within each one of us. And this sin drags us time and time again into doing things in our lives that deep down we don’t want to do. It puts us in positions where we would have never imagined we’d be in, and it tells us that these moments and sins we find ourselves in are good and ok. But what we find is that we know that these sins these things are not good for us. But again we are drawn back into them.

It’s kinda like this thing called a rip tide or rip current. Have you ever heard of that. You might’ve if you’ve been at a beach on the ocean. You find this phenomena in the ocean where if you were swimming close to shore you’d find yourself being dragged out to sea and no matter what you do you can’t swim back to shore you just keep being dragged out. And what happens with these rip currents is that people get into major trouble when they panic and trying to swim toward shore, where there is safety, but are getting pulled further and further out by this rip tide. That’s sometimes what sin is like. No matter how much we want to do better and change we can’t seem to get it right and to stop doing what we do. You see we fight and push to do better and be better but what I’ve learned is that we can’t do it on our own. I’ve found this in my own life. When I’d fight to stop on my own I would fail and it wouldn’t take long for me to be back into this pattern that I hated and didn’t want.

Folks what I’ve found is what Paul talks about in his passage here, that the answer to my problem, the solution that I needed was Jesus. This is the power that Paul is talking about that can free us from this life that is dominated and controlled by sin. A verse in the bible, Psalm 46:1 reminds me of this it says, “1 God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” This was an answer that I knew in my mind already. You see I was in Youth Group and went to church and again knew that this wasn’t what I needed to be doing. I knew God didn’t want me to be in this position and to struggle with these sins. I knew that he wanted me to overcome this sin, the bible tells us this. But what I think my problem was was that I was fighting this battle on my own. I’d hear a message like this at Youth Group and say to myself that I’m going to stop. But to go back to my rip current example I was swimming to shore fighting this tide that was dragging me out and I’d slip back into doing what I was doing.

So what changed for me? What helped me to get through this time in my life? And I think this is something that we all need to consider and to spend time working through. And what I want you to think about as you leave here.

For me what it took was a friend, a Christian friend, that I trusted to ask me the question of what I was struggling with. To press into my life and ask me the hard questions. Not only that but it required me to be open honest with what I was struggling with and being willing to share what was going on in my life. I said before that I didn’t want to be stuck in the sin that I was in. I didn’t feel great after it did it and wanted to stop. But I found on my own that I struggled with this time and time again. And when I was open and honest with my friend, when I did this I was able to bear this burden with someone else. I was able to finally get some freedom and found someone to come alongside me. And this friend directed me to Jesus. He guided me to spend time in the bible, to actually pray, to read books that would be beneficial to what was going on in my life. The bible says in Ephesians 4:2, “2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” They were able to talk through this with me and to help me to consider ways to actually get out of this rhythm of sin in my life and to help me to stay close to Jesus.

You see what I’ve learned about Sin is that we should treat it like we do rip currents. To successfully get out of a rip current you don’t swim directly to shore. Cause you will get tired and get pulled out even further. What you do is you swim parallel to the shore line until you are out of the pull of the current. You see the rip tide is just a small section of the beach and so you swim across so you can get out of the pull and are able to swim to the beach much easier. You see instead of trying to face these sins on our own I think there are times where God provides for us people in our lives who we can go to to talk about what is going on. To bear our burdens with us, to go through these times with us. People who can help keep us accountable, people who can ask us the tough questions, and people who above all will direct us to Jesus. So that we can get our strength from him. And who can help to guide us into being able to swim back to shore and to navigate how to ease away from having this sin control our lives. This person or people will be able to come alongside you and continually direct us toward Jesus.

I think our response needs to be, what we need to bring to the table, is to be open with what is going on in our lives. To be willing to share with someone that you trust what your struggles are. Guys believe me when I say that it will help to ease the burden, to help you through whatever you’re going through. Do you have Christian friends you can talk to? Use them, allow them to help you, be honest and open with them. And let them help to guide you toward the only person who can give you the strength to get through this, Jesus.