Romans Chapter 6:18-20

Have you ever noticed that when you do something good, what that feels like inside? Where's that come from? Your mom and dad didn't say, hey, whenever you do something good, just sit back, close your eyes and give yourself a warm fuzzy.

That's not what happened. God created you that when you do something good, you feel good about it. And He also gifted you with something equally important, and that's when you do something wrong that you feel bad about. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge near Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Let's join Pastor David in the service as he continues in the book of Romans chapter 6. Last week we finished up with verse 18, but we're going to come back to verse 18. Romans chapter 6, verse 18. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. In other words, you've been set free to do what's right, simply put. Now let's understand that you didn't have that freedom to completely do what was right before you came to the Lord. As a matter of fact, you were struggled in your power to do what's right.

And let's understand something, too. That struggle continues after you come to the Lord, but it's different. In the sense that now God has made His power available to you that you can yield to what God wants to do through you. You see, sometimes somebody will come to me and go, oh, Pastor Dave, I'm really struggling. This Christian life, it's hard.

And I encourage him and I correct him. I say, well, it's not hard. It's actually impossible.

Isn't that encouraging? No, here's what I mean by that. It's impossible for you in your strength and your power to do what God has called you to do. But, friend, God makes His power available to you so that you can do what He's asked you to do and the things that the Bible talks about.

Kind of think of it like this. I had a toaster one day and I was going to make a sandwich. I put the bread, you know, and clicked the little thing.

And, you know, got all the different things out. I'm thinking that bread should be up now. But, you know, it got all my things ready and bread still not up, you know, doing things, doing things. That bread's still not up. I mean, it was like a long time, like five minutes or something.

It was like, that shows something in my personality. I think five minutes is a long time. But anyway, I'm going, man, so I go over and the toaster's not plugged in. So, you know, I could have been waiting like days for the toast to get done. But, you know, of course, once I plugged it in, you know, now you'd be happy to know I bought a new toaster. And this thing, it does this really, I don't know how it does it, but it's pretty cool because when you go to push the button, it won't stay down if it's not plugged in.

So that's kind of cool. So, you know, it's not plugged in. So then I plug it in.

So why are you talking about toasters? You've got to be plugged into the power to get the job done. And if in your life you're not plugged into the power, guess what?

It's not going to happen. And see, God is not going to override you and make all the decisions for you. He still has given you the ability to choose.

Once you come to him and say, Jesus, forgive me of my sins, he doesn't say, okay, that's it. And now I'm going to violate your will and you no longer have free choice. No, he enables or empowers you to choose him to choose the right way. As a matter of fact, Paul has been talking about in this chapter of yielding to the Lord. It's not something that you have to do. You still have the choice. You can not yield to the Holy Spirit. The Bible talks about you can grieve the spirits or you can yield to the spirit. You can live the life that God has called you to do, called you to live.

But without the power of God, without being plugged in, if you will, simply not going to happen, folks. Now, speaking of, you know, being set free and slaves and understanding Rome at this time, about one third of the population of this city, which was large, probably over a million people at this point, were indentured servants or in slavery. They would live with the family.

They would work for the family. They were bought and sold and whatnot. And so they understood this concept of being slaves. One slave, Spartacus, tried to lead this revolt.

It ended not well. Yet here it says we can be set free. Being set free is an interesting thing. And it's interesting when people say, well, you know, as the good book says, and I understand part of the value of what we do here, going verse by verse, there's a saying that text apart from context leads to error. Now, here's what I mean by that is that sometimes people will take one verse out of this place and they'll go, oh, well, this really means that. But then when you read the chapter, you go, well, that's not even what it's talking about. See, but as we go through the Bible, that helps us to keep the context of the verse. People do this all the time and they, you know, as the good book says, now a lot of times when people say as the good book says, they're getting ready to tell you something that's not in the good book.

You know, the good book says, oh, you probably have your little, as the good book says, the Lord helps them who help themselves. That's not in the good book. As the good book says, cleanliness is next to godliness. You know, some, you know, I'm pretty sure that some well-intentioned mother came up with that one, you know, talking to her kids as they came in all nasty and dirty, cleanliness is next to godliness. Here's one place that people tear the text out of the context and they actually use a phrase that's in the good book, but it's been very misused and people say, well, the truth will set you free. You ever heard somebody just say that?

I mean, movies and television, the truth will set you free. It sounds great and it is in the Bible, but you have to see it in the context. Here's what Jesus actually said in John 8. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if. Now, when you see that word if, let this, it is a conditional statement. In other words, it's an if-then statement.

If this happens or if you do this, then the next thing will happen. If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. So there's more to it than just the truth shall make you free. You have to abide in the word and be a disciple and you'll know the truth and then you'll be made free. See, we have to know, K-N-O-W, know the word of God, know the truth so that we can say N-O, no, to those things that hold us back, those things that would bring us into bondage.

Now, understand, Jesus died for our sins, that we could be set free, that we can be forgiven. But a lot of times, here's what happens. Somebody says, okay, I do, I want to accept Jesus as my Savior and ask him to forgive me of my sins and all right, I do that, and that places you at the starting line of the race. Now you can join in the race. You can run the race and fight the good fight. But you know what happens with a lot of folks?

Maybe some people here. It's like you're at the starting line and you're like, okay, all right, all right. The starting gun goes off and you go, what was that noise?

I didn't like the way you held the gun. People running the race? You're running all wrong there, buddy.

Where'd you get those shorts? You're talking about the people that are running the race. Meanwhile, you're sitting still. Let me help you with something. We've gotten to the point where we think that we're supposed to be church critics. You're supposed to figure out what's wrong with the church. You know what?

You could go into any church in America and figure out what's wrong with it. That's not a gift. If you think that's your gift, you have the gift of criticism. That's not listed as a spiritual gift, friend.

It doesn't take long to pick it apart. Why? You know why? Because people are involved. God instituted the church.

He came up with it, not us. But when we got involved, you and I, problems came in. And so it's not a gift to come in and go, well, this is wrong and that's wrong. It's a gift to come in and go, you know, how can I help? How can I help change? How can I help improve? I'm ready to get involved.

That's a gift. We weren't designed to figure out what was wrong with the church. The church is designed to figure out what's wrong with us. Now, the bad news is we can figure out through looking into the Word and through the teaching what's wrong with us, but then it tells us how to fix it. See, the world can say, well, yeah, you're messed up, all right.

Ooh, boy, you're messed up. That's the best that it can do is say, well, yeah, you got a problem, all right. Can't fix you. Can't do anything. Now you go through 12 steps and seven promises and different stuff, but you know what?

We got to come to the Lord and God will do a work in our lives. I remember at a young age, 16 years old, going into what was supposed to be the best child psychiatrist in the state and sat with him. And I kind of, to be honest, I got a twisted little kick out of kind of messing with him a little bit, you know, and he'd ask me questions and I'd ask him questions back and stuff. And I was really, I mean, they call me a troubled youth is an understatement. But after seeing him for a few weeks, he looked at me and he said, you know what?

There is just something wrong with you and you're going to do drugs until the day you die. And, and so I thanked him for that little ray of sunshine and you know, but that was the best he had to offer. See, God is not just interested in saying, well, this is the problem. God says, no, this is the problem. Here's the solution.

Here's the solution. So today we're looking at the solution, not just that, you know, you're bound up or you can be ensnared, but that you can be set free. Start 2012 off right with the new daily devotional book from David McGee, 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 McGee and find hope along life's journey. Now, let's return to our study. Look at verse 19. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

What's all that saying? Well, before you came to the Lord, if you've come to the Lord here today and maybe you're still on the fence trying to figure out what Jesus is about, I'm glad you're here. I'm not going to hammer you or throw things at you or yell at you or anything. But if you're here and you've already made that decision, think back for a moment about your old life, the way you used to be and the things you used to do. Think back of really your kind of commitment, if you will, to sin for me and for some of y'all. It was quite the commitment. I mean, you know, every like whatever, Friday or Saturday night, I mean, you got paid, got money going to go out, going to hang out at the bar, going to be there for hours, maybe you dance or do whatever you think, spend a lot of money, expend a lot of energy, and you know, at some point the bar closes.

I don't know if y'all know that. They do close. At some point they look at you and go, well, you know, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here anymore. So and then what do you do? You wake up the next morning, you can't wait to do it again next weekend because you keep thinking that maybe one of these times something different will happen.

Maybe you'll see Mr. Wright or Mrs. Wright or it doesn't happen, but there's still that commitment to that lifestyle. Now it's interesting, God gets ahold of us, right? And then we're like, well, you know, I'll go to church, but I'm not going to like hang out after or anything. I mean, I'm not going to actually start serving or doing anything. Now think about that friend of you were at work and your boss came by and said, hey, I need you to do a little extra.

Most of you go, okay, fine, I'll do what I need to do. And yet God says, well, you're supposed to serve him. Oh my gosh, you know, we were willing to blow a lot of money in the world. I spent, oh, I don't even want to remember what I spent on sin.

A lot of money. I didn't mind blowing money for this or money for that. And yet when it comes to serving God with our finances, oh, wait a minute, churches are all about the money. Do you ever hear anybody, when you go to a restaurant, do you know what they're going to want at the end? They're going to want you to pay them. Have you ever heard anybody walk out of a restaurant and go, all the restaurants are just all about the money?

No, we don't mind paying for meals. We didn't mind paying for our sin, but somehow when it comes to spreading the word and spreading the gospel, amen or owe me. So Paul is saying, look, you know, you used to do this, you used to give yourself wholeheartedly to sin. Now give yourself wholeheartedly to God and begin to serve him when, and I shared this before, but you know, when I was a sinner, I, I, I was a bad center.

I don't know if there's, there's not really a good center, but I mean, I went with it. I went for it with a passion and then God, I got a hold of me and he got a hold of my heart and I've never been, you know, I got like, God just made me, I've got two speeds off and 180 miles per hour. And you know what? When I was going away from the Lord, I was going away from the Lord, a hundred, 180 miles an hour. But now that I'm serving the Lord, guess what? I'm more passionate about that than I ever was about sin, amen.

I want you to be passionate about him and to present yourself, look at what this says as slaves of righteousness for holiness. I thought I was being set free. You're being set free to be what you were created to be. You were created to have a relationship with God. You were created to do what was right. God created you like that. Have you ever noticed that when you do something good, what that feels like inside?

Where's that come from? They did not come from your mom and dad. Your mom and dad didn't say, Hey, whenever you do something good, just sit back, close your eyes and give yourself a warm fuzzy.

That's not what happened. God created you that when you do something good, you feel good about it. And he also gifted you with something equally important. And that's when you do something wrong that you feel bad about it. Where does that come from? It comes from God as well. It comes from the Holy Spirit. Now again, psychology and psychiatry, interesting studies, but they've tried to answer that whole sin question and the guilt complex and I've read some stuff and studied some stuff and some of it was kind of interesting, but none of it really ever answered that question of where these things come from.

They come from God. I remember as a young boy, you know, doing something good, feeling good about doing something bad and feeling bad about it. But you know what we do at a young age, we figure out, well, I feel bad about this. Gotta blame somebody. Gotta blame somebody else. I don't want to blame myself. I'm not going to take the fall here.

Now in my house, I had two older brothers, so that was pretty easy for a while. You know, who did that? I think Tom did that. Who did that? I think Bill did that. We had this thing one time and oh, anyway, I'll tell it, but you know, we were, we were camping out and we were, you know, kind of, and we were, I've already said I was a troubled youth.

Okay. So, you know, we were out and we had the idea that we're going to light a smoke bomb on somebody's porch and ring the doorbell and run. I know bad idea to begin with, but when we did that, the guy, the kid that opened the door picked up the smoke bomb and was going to throw it at us. And when he did, he burned his hand and he dropped it where it rolled down the stairs where his parents were having a party. So not good. And I felt really bad, you know, so I went to my dad the next day and I said, dad, this is what happened. I feel bad.

I'm sorry. And he said, well, do me a favor. I said, what? He said, don't talk to your brother about this. I said, okay. So meanwhile he's asking my older brother, did y'all have anything to do with it?

No. He didn't know I'd already fessed up and I feared my older brother, but I feared my dad more. So I didn't talk to him.

So after about three or four days of dad going, did you have anything to do with this? My brother Tom finally comes in and he goes, dad, I got to talk to you. He says, what? He goes, you know, you've been asking me about this smoke bomb thing. He says, yeah. He said, well, I just got to be honest.

I got to be open with you. I think David might've been involved now, you know, I, I did the same thing, blaming him for stuff and blaming my older brother for stuff that just, you know, it got harder as they went off to school and college and say, you know, and I remember as a little kid when they, they were off in school, I was still around the house and something would be messed up. And it's like, and mama go, well, who did that? And I was like, Tom's in school, Bill's in school.

Mr. Nobody, he went that way and I, you know, it worked for years. I didn't, I was like 22 when I stopped doing that and no, I'm kidding, but there was this blame thing. Why? Because I didn't want to admit that I'd done something wrong. You know, as we grow up and we grow older, there's a part of us that still doesn't want to admit when we're wrong, but see admitting that we're wrong and we've done something, something wrong is part of being set free from it. See, because as long as you're denying that it's a problem or an issue, you're still under its power. But the moment you say, you know what, God, this is an issue. This is a problem and I need you to set me free from it.

God will do it. God will set you free. Let's look at verse 20 for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So when you were serving sin, you weren't serving righteousness. You were serving sin. That's what you were doing. That's what you were about.

And keep in mind, we've, we talked about this, I think last week. You know what? You are serving somebody. You are serving something. Everybody in here is serving somebody or something. That old Bob Dylan song years ago, you got to serve somebody. It might be the devil. It might be the Lord, but you got to serve somebody. Doesn't matter who you are, what you're doing. You got to serve somebody.

You are serving somebody right now. It may be yourself. It may be materialism. It may be greed. It may be this.

It may be that. It could be something even worse or it could be the Lord, but it's, it's not a choice as far as if you're going to serve the choice is who you're going to serve. One thing about sin that's interesting, it's a hard master.

You look at people who live their lives kind of dedicated to sin and oftentimes it shows then God is an awesome master, a loving, kind, caring master sin is an incredibly cruel master. Jesus talking about two masters in Luke 16, 13 said this, no one can serve two masters for you will hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Now he's talking about God and money right there, but God has to come first. Anything that you put above God is idolatry and you're chasing something that you really weren't created to chase.

And even when you get a hold of it, you're going to be sadly disappointed. This passage is really speaks a lot of truth and it speaks to us as individuals. Now a lot of times we like to think, well, the problem's not really me, it's, it's really other people. Problem is with my spouse or my parents or my children or no, this is between you and the Lord.

It really is between you and the Lord. I don't know if you've ever heard the story, you know, they come to an deserted island because you know, I've actually heard people say, well, I, you know, I'd be a better Christian if I could just get away from people. People aren't the problem. People are showing you what the problem is in here. So they, they show up, this guy's on a desert island, there's three buildings on this desert island.

They show up and they go, well, what's the one thing? What's that one structure? So that's my house. I said, well, what's the second structure? So that's my church. They said, well, what's the third structure? So that's where I used to go to church.

God was by himself. So the problem is in here, but there's a solution. And that's what Paul is presenting here that we can know the solution. 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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