Romans Chapter 6:16-18

We are free to live for God. You didn't have that freedom before you came to the Lord and asked Him to forgive you of your sins. You couldn't live for God. It doesn't matter how hard you try.

Why? Because it's not you, gang. It's God in you. It's yielding to the Lord. It's yielding to the Holy Spirit. And once you come to the Lord, then you can have that freedom to live for the Lord.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. When we come to Christ, not only do we have our sins forgiven, but we're made free to live for God. Pastor David discusses this and more as he continues in Romans 6 today with his teaching, Power Over a Dead Life.

Here's David McGee. Paul in Romans chapter 6 is talking about, you know, living and dying and really important things and talking about, you know, death is separation. So let's jump in here. Romans chapter 6 verse 16. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? In other words, you're going to serve, no, Bob Dylan said it well, you're going to serve somebody. You are going to serve somebody. So understand, you have a choice as a Christian on who you're going to serve. You're either going to serve the Lord or you're going to serve your selfishness and your sinful desires.

God sets this choice before us and he says, okay, which one will you do? Of course, we think, well, if we serve ourselves, that's where real happiness and contentment are. It's not.

It's really not. See, we think, well, I'll be happy when this happens. I'll be happy if that happens. See, we think, well, if I had more money, if I had a different car, different house, different spouse, different kids, you know, whatever. That's not going to be happy for you. You're not going to find true joy in that. True joy comes not in living for yourself, but in living for the Lord.

Deuteronomy 13, 19 says this, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you that I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose a life that both you and your descendants may live. Now, when it's broken down to this, it's a much easier decision, isn't it? It's like, OK, life, death, blessing, cursing.

This is a tough one. Life, death, blessing, cursing, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. It's really an easy decision when it's broken down like that.

And it is really broken down like that. Living for the Lord. He promises not just a better life here, but he promises eternal life. But if you go your own way, at least the destruction and new living translation in that versus today, I've given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and cursings. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life that you and your descendants might live. So we should choose life. And notice the phrase again in verse 16.

It pops up again. Do you not know? Don't you know? Don't you know these things? And so there's a certain expectation.

We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. There was a certain expectation with Jesus when he was talking to people. He would say, have you not read this?

Have you not read that? There was an expectation that people knew the Bible. So we need to know this book, get to know the word of God. And that's part of what I do. And I want to partner with you to teach you the truth of this book.

Why? Because it's made such a radical and a revolutionary change in my life that I know it can and will in yours. So we're kind of walking this road together so that we can know these things. Because once you know these things, that will lead you to a more blessed life, a better life, a sacrificed life, but the joy of the Lord in these things. So again, look at these choices. One choice, spirit, blessing, and freedom, and life. The other choice is flesh, sin, bondage, and death. That's a tough one, isn't it?

Ah, man. Spirit, blessing, freedom, and life are flesh, sin, bondage, and death. But understand, when you choose sin, that's what you're choosing. When you choose God's way, you're choosing freedom. You're choosing life. At verse 17, So Paul here is saying, Paul wrote the book of Romans to the church there at Rome. And he says, thank God that you used to be slaves to sin, but now you've been set free by the truth that was delivered to you.

And these things are not necessarily things that you jump up and shout hallelujah over, but they're important to understand, to understand your beliefs and why you believe this and how you've been set free. Let me use a sports analogy. You were slaves of sin. In other words, you were playing for the wrong team. You were playing for the wrong team.

A lot of people come in and go, oh, you're playing for the wrong team. What you need to do is try harder. No, that's not the answer. Well, you need to hold your mouth right. No, no, no. You need to make seven promises and 12 steps. No, no, no, no, no.

That's not it. You're playing for the wrong team. What you need to do is switch sides and play for the right team, if you will. Change jerseys. I'm not going to live like this.

I'm going to live for the Lord. Let me ask you a question. You watch games on television.

Some of you do, some of you don't. But have you ever seen two teams playing one another and then a guy run off the field and go, wait a minute. I've got to change uniforms.

I'm going to play for the other side for a couple of plays. You ever seen that? No, I haven't either. Do Christians do that? Sometimes.

Sometimes. So we should live for the Lord. And, yes, we're going to mess up.

We're going to make mistakes. But to live for the Lord. And when you're convicted to come to the Lord and say, you know what? I messed up.

God, please forgive me. Because here's what Jesus said. Matthew 12, 30 says, he who is not with me is against me.

And he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. So it used to be that we were enslaved to sin. And if you've asked Jesus to forgive you of your sin, now you've been set free.

Now, how can you know that you've been set free? First of all, you've prayed the prayer that the Bible talks about. That is the truth of God. If you're here this morning, that is fruit of the Holy Spirit. How many of us, as we're following the Lord, our priorities begin to change? I don't know what friend you used to do on Sunday morning.

Maybe you've grown up going to church all your life. And that's great. That's a great spiritual heritage. But I know that for a lot of us, we didn't do that all the time. And now that we're doing that, that's an example that God is changing our heart.

And we need to be careful as the church continues to grow and God blesses the church that we don't become all about this building. See, God gives me a passion. I have a heart for the lost people.

I don't care where they are. Let's go where they are. That's why we're doing things.

And it's always been about reaching people and teaching them the truths of the Bible and how to follow Jesus. That's why we do the stuff we do. That's why we went over to Italy.

That's why we go to Peru. That's why we have a clothing closet. That's why we have a blessing room. That's why we do radio and television, internet stuff.

Why? Because it's important to God to reach people. And if it's important to God to reach people, should it be important to us? Yeah, it should be.

It should be. That's awesome. And I think we're united as a body because I haven't had anybody come up yet and say, hey, you need to quit that traveling. You got a pastor here. You need to quit that stuff. We'll pray for them lost people over yonder, but we're not sending you anymore. Nobody said that. If you sent an email, I hadn't read it yet.

So can't take an email back though, can you? What's important to God becomes important to us. That's what's supposed to be going on. Proverbs 10, 5 puts it like this. He who gathers in summer is a wise son. He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

There's a harvest going on. There's a harvest going on through this fellowship that just continues to blow me away. We hear through the television, through the radio, people coming to the Lord.

It's awesome. Friend, does it matter to you that there's people in this world that don't know Jesus as their savior? Does it matter to you that a lot have been driven away in the name of religion? Does it matter to you that all over even this country there's a lot of people that cannot enjoy the simple verse by verse teaching that we're doing this morning? Does that on any level bother you? It bothers me.

It bothers me. You know, when we have the connection, people come in and some people say, well, we drive from here, we drive from there. You know, some people drive like an hour and a half, two hours to come to church here. And part of me is like, praise God that they're willing to make that sacrifice to be here. But then my heart kind of breaks thinking they probably drive past 300 churches in that hour and a half.

And yet they say I can't find a place that teaches verse by verse. See, this is important, this concept of harvest. We're in this harvest season that started in Acts chapter 2. And in Acts chapter 2, the birthday of the church, if you will, they were celebrating the Feast of Pentecost.

This wasn't happenstance. It was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The Pentecost was a harvest festival. And it was the only festival where they actually had unleavened bread. The only feast they used unleavened bread.

We're still in that season of harvest. There's people all around us and they need us to care and they need us to tell them. Romans chapter 10 verse 14 says, but how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they've never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?

And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? So why am I saying all these things? Because this is part of dying to the old life and living the new life is taking on God's priorities in our life. Not only in our life, but also in our churches. Broken down simple, Jesus died for our sins, we should die to sin. He died for me, I should live for Him. Jesus died for you. Jesus died for you.

And yeah, I understand that, you know, maybe driving an hour and a half or an hour to church, or maybe we've got wee ones, and man, it's just like pandemonium to try to get to church sometimes. But Jesus died for you. Jesus gave His life so that you could live a life free from sin. Free from not only the stain of sin, but also its shame and its guilt.

And after what He did for us, shouldn't we be willing to do anything for Him? Start 2012 off right with the new daily devotional book from David Magee, Cross the Bridge Every Day. Pick up for yourself what has already helped thousands. Cross the Bridge Every Day features 365 daily devotionals that are sure to make everyday life a God-sized adventure. This book is perfect for your quiet time, lunch break, evening wind down, or can even be used as a small group resource. With a handy subject index, you can look up various topics on your life's unique circumstances to help encourage you to live every day for Jesus. Cross the Bridge Every Day is available for a donation of $25 or more to Cross the Bridge Ministries. To order, simply go online to crossthebridge.com or call our friendly representatives at 877-458-5508.

That's 877-458-5508. Cross the Bridge Every Day with David Magee and find hope along life's journey. Now let's return to our study. Verse 18 says, And having been set free from sin, you become slaves of righteousness. Now what does that mean, we're set free and we become slaves?

Understand, he's writing to Rome. In Rome, a third of the population were slaves. They were indentured servants, meaning they didn't have really a choice about what they did, how they lived, where they lived, anything like that. So as he's talking about slaves, he's talking about something that they understand. That's in the language of the day, that if you're set free from one, you would go and serve another one.

And that's what he's saying here. You've been set free from sin, which sin is a dark and deep and harsh taskmaster. You've been set free from that to become a servant of Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, my yoke is easy.

My burden is light. What was Jesus talking about? Well, part of it was whenever Rome conquered another nation, they would bring them back to Rome. They would show all the stuff that they really stole from them.

And they would have this big progression. And part of what would have to happen is the king and the leadership from that nation would have to pass under a yoke. A yoke was a wooden object that was, two bulls would pull or plow or mules or donkeys or whatever. And it means that you're now under our control. You're under our power.

And the power and the dominance of Rome was severe. It was harsh. And Jesus says, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. Who do you want to serve? You want to serve sin? You want to serve success? You want to serve fame?

Or do you want to serve me? That's a choice all of us are free to make. The life lesson here, we are free to live for God. We are free to live for God. You didn't have that freedom before you came to the Lord and asked him to forgive you of your sins. You couldn't live for God. It doesn't matter how hard you try.

Why? Because it's not you, gang. It's God in you. It's yielding to the Lord. It's yielding to the Holy Spirit. And once you come to the Lord, then you can have that freedom to live for the Lord, to yield instead of to sin and to bondage and to death and destruction, to yield to God. 1 John 5, verse 4 says this, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world that has overcome the world our faith. So, friend, you can live in victory by serving the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15, the big thing, the big fear factor, if you will, of everybody, I think is death. It's something we fear. And, you know, that's probably somewhat normal and healthy for a non-Christian. But a Christian doesn't have to fear death anymore.

The greatest enemy, the greatest unknown, you don't have to fear anymore. You can know. And I tell you what, I've, you know, I've attended funerals and I've preached at funerals where we knew that the person was with the Lord. That's a sweet thing. And I've also preached at funerals where nobody was really sure. That was a tough thing.

Why? Because this thing of death was there. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 54 says this, So when this corruptible is put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? I mean, that's awesome stuff, man. So Jesus was like, death, is that all you got?

Is that it? And he pops up out of the tomb. Death, you ain't got nothing on me. I don't know about you, but something appeals to me about following somebody that's been there, been to the grave, changed the grave into a changing closet and popped back out. It's like that story goes, they're talking to Jesus of Arimathea and said, Hey, he goes home to explain to his wife how he'd given the family tomb away. I gave the family tomb away. She said, you did what? He said, I gave the tomb away. She said, Joseph, we worked hard. We saved.

We had that place built us for the family tomb. How can you give it away to somebody? He goes, Oh, it's okay.

They only need it for the weekend. See, here's the thing. I was at one time a really bad sinner who was really good at sinning. I don't want to be good at sinning anymore. I want to live for the Lord.

I want to be a really good Christian. I want to live the victorious life. This life that Jesus talks about live life abundantly. The author, the creator of life itself came down from heaven, came here and said, Look, I'm not only going to tell you about it.

I'm going to show you how it's supposed to go. I'm going to share with you how you can know that you have life eternal, that you can know the joy of the Lord, that you won't be empowered and chained anymore. Of course, a lot of us are like, Yeah, well, whatever. John Chapter eight, verse 31. Jesus is speaking to some religious leaders and it reads, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, If you abide in my word and you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. What an incredible statement. Jesus, the creator, the author of life says, Hey, you know what? If you do this, if you abide in my word, you're my disciples, you'll know the truth and the truth shall make you free. What an incredible statement.

We refer to that often. What do you think their response was to such an incredible statement? Well, continues in verse 33. And they answered him.

Well, I'll read back through that again. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, If you abide in my word and you are my disciples indeed, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. They answered him. We are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you will be made free?

Jesus answered them most assuredly. I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin and a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Isn't there something in your heart today when you hear those words, free?

We call this country the land of the free and home of the brave for a lot of good reasons. And yet Jesus goes beyond that and he says you can be made free. How many of us say, no, no, no, I'm not enslaved to anything. I can quit any time I want.

There's a really sad commercial where this guy is an heroin addict and he's talking about how he can quit any time he wants and meanwhile they're showing the shanty that he's living in. Some of us think like that and talk like that. I'm good. These Jewish leaders said we're Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. What a statement. They'd been in bondage to the Babylonians. They'd been in bondage to the Assyrians.

At that time they were in bondage to the Romans and yet they're going to sit there and go, we're not in bondage. Quit any time we want to. Friends, some decisions are tough in this life, you know, who to marry and what job to do or not to do.

Some are real, real obvious. This falls in the camp of real, real obvious, the choice that you should make. Yeah, yeah, I recognize I should make this choice, but I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait until I'm ready to make this choice. Friend, you're here.

I'm here. You have the opportunity today to make the choice. Maybe some of you are going, well, yeah, you know, next week I'll make the choice. Friend, there's a lot of awesome promises in this Bible.

There are some really great ones. I'll never leave you, never forsake you, but you know there's one promise in here you will not find. That's the promise of tomorrow. Now, you may have that luxury, but it's not as a promise of God. Jesus stands before you right now and says, hey, these are the choices. I'm the one who created life.

I'm the one who created you. I came down to die for you that you can live for me. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven, and I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life, and I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you've prayed this prayer with Pastor David, receiving Jesus Christ for the first time, or rededicating your life to the Lord, please call and let us know. We want to send you our exclusive First Steps package for free. This package will help you grow in your new life. Receive your First Steps package by calling 877-458-5508.

That's 877-458-5508. Or visit us online at CrossTheBridge.com. When you call, let our Call Team representative know where you heard about our broadcast. If you enjoyed today's teaching and would like to hear more, we welcome you to join us Sunday mornings at 9 and 1115, as well as Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. at The Bridge in Kernersville. The Bridge offers contemporary worship, engaging fellowship, and David McGee's verse-by-verse teaching.

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