Message Recap: Identity Theft - Part 3

This weekend we tackled the difficult subject of sin and our tendency to "control and manage" it, instead of conquering and killing it.

• 3 reasons why we tolerate, excuse, control, manage, and look for loopholes for our sins:
  
  
  
  • Sin is pleasurable and desirable (for a season) so we make it excusable.
  
  
  • Sin is enslaving and defeating so we make it identifying.
  
  
  • Sin is ultimately more about who we are vs. what we do (identity-related, not behavior-related)
    
    
    
    • Radical Depravity = born with the ability to sin but we are also not able not to sin
    
    
    • The core problem is our identity, not our behavior
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Paul's reaction to Christians continuing in patterns of sin in Romans 6:2 is understandable in light of the fact that we have been given a new identity in Christ.
  
  
  
  • Romans 6:1-10
    
    
    
    • This passage is about God's grace which is amazing for 3 reasons:
      
      
      
      • It is costly to God (but free to us)
      
      
      • It is violent power (not just forgiveness but also deliverance!)
      
      
      • It is transforming (grace by nature changes the equation from death to life!)
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Understanding the reality of the new identity for a Christian is crucial to conquering and killing sin
  
  
  
  • Tolerating and being enslaved to sin is inconceivable and incompatible with new life in Christ.
  
  
  
  


• Romans 6:11 is the first command in all of Romans
  
  
  
  • You can only kill/conquer sin that has been cancelled in Christ. This is why we can "consider" ourselves dead to sin and alive to God = because of Christ's own death and resurrection.
    
    
    
    • We see our sins and all sin on the Cross and through the lens of the empty tomb. They are dead and defeated.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Application for conquering and killing your own sins:
  
  
  
  • NEW CATEGORY: in Christ and against the Cross we can no longer excuse sin or stay in sin. This means all sin is moved from the "no big deal/just the way I am/everybody does it" pile to the "inexcusable/it killed Christ" category.
  
  
  • This NEW PERSPECTIVE on SIN leads to an EMPOWERED WILL to FIGHT SIN with all the weapons of grace God has given us -- His Holy Spirit, His Word, His Church, small groups, accountability, prayer, etc. etc.
    
    
    
    • But we fight from a position of victory, not defeat.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • My personal routine for this:
    
    
    
    • A-ADMIT I am powerless on my own and ABIDE in Christ (move to dependence on Christ)
    
    
    • S-SURRENDER all to Christ and be SATISFIED with all He is
    
    
    • K-KILL sin because is hurts my highest treasure and live for the His KINGDOM