Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I want to thank Katie for the good job she did last week.
[00:00:09] She didn't actually know she was going to be up here till I sissied out about 15 minutes before service.
[00:00:20] I'm very proud of what a remarkable woman she is.
[00:00:30] And how about a little oh this morning?
[00:00:35] Our dear Heavenly Father, we want to grow up in Jesus Christ.
[00:00:46] We want to be fully mature souls.
[00:00:50] We want something of the beauty of Jesus Christ to define our thinking, our affections and our choices.
[00:01:00] So I pray that you would teach us your way this morning.
[00:01:04] I pray that you would recreate us in the image of Jesus Christ.
[00:01:12] Pray that we'd be healthy souls, competent to be influential for good.
[00:01:21] In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:01:25] A couple of weeks ago, we began a study of Romans chapter seven.
[00:01:33] And in Romans chapter seven, Paul is trying to show a contrast between two kinds of lives.
[00:01:44] One life is lived under the law of sin, which means there is an encoding in us and that encoding is broken.
[00:01:58] And that's why we do so much wrong stuff.
[00:02:02] We don't do wrong stuff because of external temptation. We do wrong stuff because we have a broken code.
[00:02:12] And that broken code wants the wrong things.
[00:02:16] But that's not the only rule of life. There is another rule of life, and it's called the law of life in Christ Jesus.
[00:02:26] The law of life in Christ Jesus is a recoding of my soul.
[00:02:33] And so my soul becomes re encoded with the beauties and the qualities of Jesus Christ.
[00:02:41] And then I have to try to live the Christian life with the law of sin and the law of Christ competing for my attention.
[00:02:53] Tragically, religion introduced a third law.
[00:03:01] And this third law got put between the law of sin and the law of life in Christ Jesus.
[00:03:09] And it's the law of Moses.
[00:03:11] So it goes something like this.
[00:03:14] We all have the law of sin in us.
[00:03:18] Ah.
[00:03:19] And we all want to live under the law of Christ.
[00:03:23] So the way you live under the law of Christ is you start obeying the law of Moses.
[00:03:30] And if you obey the law of Moses, you'll be living a the life in Christ Jesus. But that is just not true.
[00:03:41] In fact, the law of Moses does the opposite. All right, When I am living in the law of sin, my focus is on myself, my own pleasures, my own stuff.
[00:03:58] When I'm living in the law of life in Christ Jesus, I've set my focus on things that are above.
[00:04:05] I'm thinking about the qualities of life in Christ. I'm thinking about what a wonderful life he lived. I'm thinking about the majesty of his character.
[00:04:16] I'M thinking about spiritual things.
[00:04:19] When I'm living under the law of Moses, I'm not thinking about spiritual things. I'm thinking about rules.
[00:04:29] My mind isn't focused on Christ. My mind is focused on the rules. The rabbis figured out There are about 630 laws in the Old Testament.
[00:04:42] The law of Moses is about 630rules, and it covers almost everything.
[00:04:52] And so the idea that if I would just live by the law of Moses, I would be living a spiritual life, you can see, if you think about it at all, it's not possible, because all you're focused on is the material world you're living in and this rule and that rule and this rule and that rule.
[00:05:14] So you haven't done anything at all to elevate your mind above this broken, fleshly world.
[00:05:22] In fact, you have double focused your mind on this world.
[00:05:27] So Paul says in Romans, chapter seven, verse six, but now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in a new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
[00:05:49] What then? Shall we say that the law is sin? By no means.
[00:05:54] Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.
[00:06:01] The law doesn't help me become a better person. It just reminds me of what a broken person I am.
[00:06:11] You see, the law doesn't make you better.
[00:06:14] Ah, here's one of the laws. You can't wear a robe that's made of linen and wool.
[00:06:21] That's one of the law of Moses.
[00:06:24] So you want to live by the law. So you look at all your clothes to make sure that none of them are made of linen and wool. All right, so how does that make you a better person?
[00:06:37] Exactly. What does that do for your soul?
[00:06:41] In the law of Moses, you're not allowed to eat pork. No bacon, cheeseburgers.
[00:06:49] All right, so you don't eat bacon with your breakfast.
[00:06:57] How does that make you a better person?
[00:07:00] Do you see the point that Paul's trying to make? Obeying the law doesn't change the quality of your personhood.
[00:07:09] In fact, all it does is it teaches you again and again and again what a failure you are.
[00:07:17] Do you see? Because no one ever lives up to the law.
[00:07:22] Paul said the same thing in Galatians. He just said it in a little bit different way.
[00:07:28] For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.
[00:07:33] For it is written.
[00:07:35] Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the Law. To do Them.
[00:07:45] Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law.
[00:07:50] For the righteous shall live by faith.
[00:07:53] But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. I All right, let's turn this into something I can use tomorrow morning.
[00:08:11] Very few people are going to get up tomorrow and have to worry about the Ten Commandments.
[00:08:24] So I doubt if any of you are going to get up tomorrow and say, I. I hope I don't murder anybody today.
[00:08:32] I've got my hopes up.
[00:08:35] I hope I don't rob a bank today. Thou shalt not steal.
[00:08:41] Very few of us are going to get up tomorrow and worry about am I going to break the Ten Commandments today.
[00:08:51] But that doesn't mean that we're free from the law.
[00:08:56] Ah.
[00:08:59] Once they said to Jesus, what is the most important of all the laws?
[00:09:07] And Jesus said, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord, he is one. Here it is the most important law. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and all thy strength.
[00:09:27] That's the number one.
[00:09:29] And guess what about every one of us break that almost every day.
[00:09:34] How many of us love Christ with that kind of intensity every single day?
[00:09:42] So do you see what Paul is saying? Paul is saying, don't think you're living this great life because. Because you don't break the Ten Commandments if you're breaking the commandment to love God with all your heart, everything else relative.
[00:10:03] Do you see what he's saying? And here's what he says. You're never going to live a spiritual life by obeying the law.
[00:10:12] The law of Moses is not a spiritual encoding.
[00:10:17] It is an external requirement.
[00:10:22] And Paul says it doesn't do anything to help us become more spiritual people.
[00:10:29] Listen what he says.
[00:10:31] I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet.
[00:10:41] But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.
[00:10:50] So thou shalt not covet is one of the big ten.
[00:10:53] Here's what Paul's saying.
[00:10:55] There was a time in my life that I wasn't even aware of coveting didn't mean that he didn't covet. It just meant that he wasn't aware of it.
[00:11:07] He wasn't sensitive to it.
[00:11:10] Excuse me.
[00:11:12] But he said, but then I went to the synagogue and the rabbi taught me, thou shalt not covet.
[00:11:21] And then I became aware of coveting.
[00:11:25] And the next thing I knew I recognized I was coveting this and coveting that.
[00:11:33] And then he said, when I recognized that I was coveting, I started coveting more stuff.
[00:11:42] In fact, the law made me hypersensitive to coveting. And it made me more and more aware of the things I coveted.
[00:11:52] And the more I coveted, the easier it was to covet.
[00:11:56] Do you see what he's saying? The law doesn't produce life in Christ Jesus.
[00:12:04] It partners with sin and makes my life more.
[00:12:11] Under the law of sin, I once was alive apart from the law.
[00:12:20] But when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
[00:12:25] The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
[00:12:31] For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it, killed me. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
[00:12:46] Let's take something easier.
[00:12:52] The Browns are playing this afternoon and the Indians are playing tonight.
[00:13:00] And I will bet, I'll bet if you go downtown tonight, say 10, 11 o', clock, there's going to be a lot of drunk people in Cleveland.
[00:13:18] Is that a safe bet?
[00:13:21] There's going to be a lot of drunk people in Cleveland tonight. All right?
[00:13:26] Now, tomorrow morning, some will get up and go to work and they'll say, man, you will not believe how plastered I was last night.
[00:13:38] You will not believe, okay? And that nighttime of drunkenness, they'll be proud of it.
[00:13:47] I've had buddies brag to me about, ah, how messed up they were, all right?
[00:13:57] And then there'll be other people who wake up tomorrow morning and go, man, I gotta quit drinking.
[00:14:03] I drank way too much last night.
[00:14:06] Ah, so there'll be two kinds of people. One, their nighttime of drunkenness will be something that they're proud of. And the other one, their nighttime of drunkenness will be something they go, man, I got to get my act together. I got to stop doing that. All right, so what is the difference?
[00:14:27] All right?
[00:14:29] In one there, the law, the spiritual law has said to them, ah, you can't be a drunk.
[00:14:44] Your life is more than drunkenness.
[00:14:51] This isn't right.
[00:14:52] All right? In the other one, there is not that awareness.
[00:14:57] And their heart doesn't say to them, being a drunk and thrown up on the sidewalk is not a good life.
[00:15:07] Do you see? In one, the law has made them aware of, Of. Of sin. In the other one, they are oblivious to that.
[00:15:20] It doesn't even dawn on them that that's not what they should be doing. All right, now here's what Paul says. This is true of every single one of us.
[00:15:32] The law is God's way of saying, look at your life.
[00:15:40] This, it's not working for you.
[00:15:43] This, the standard you're living by isn't working for you.
[00:15:51] Your own heart says to you, this is messed up.
[00:15:56] All right? The problem is the law can tell me where I messed up, but it is absolutely helpless to make me better.
[00:16:09] Do you see?
[00:16:11] It's one thing for the law to say, dude, you're a drunk and you're wasting your life.
[00:16:19] It's another thing for AA to say, here is a pathway to move you from where you are and don't want to be to where you can be and want to be. Do you see?
[00:16:36] The law is not a pathway to being better. The law is only a finger pointing at you again and again and again saying, messed up, messed up.
[00:16:49] All right.
[00:16:51] Then what happens is this law that says you're messed up partners with the law of sin and death.
[00:17:01] The law of sin is this encoding.
[00:17:04] This encoding. Ah, ah.
[00:17:09] To do wrong.
[00:17:11] And the law pushes on this encoding and says, you're never going to be any better.
[00:17:18] You're not only messed up now, you've been messed up a long time, and I don't see any hope for you getting better.
[00:17:27] Do you see what I'm saying? Have you heard the voice that speaks within you that says you're messed up. And I don't believe you're ever gonna get any better. Anyone ever hear that voice?
[00:17:39] That's the law of sin and death, working with the law of Moses. And all it does is condemn us. All it does is leave us full of guilt, shame, regret and remorse.
[00:17:54] They work together by the works of the law. Is no flesh justified.
[00:18:02] Ah, Paul.
[00:18:12] Paul's argument in Galatians 3 and his argument in Romans 7 is very close together. All right.
[00:18:19] Galatians was probably written about 50 or 20 years after the crucifixion and resurrection.
[00:18:30] Romans was probably written five or six years later.
[00:18:35] So for five or six years, Paul has been preaching all over the Roman Empire on this theme of, how do I live this? How do I live the Christian life?
[00:18:47] So over those five or six years, he, he, he got better at saying his message. So here's what he says in Galatians 3.
[00:18:59] Is the law contrary to the promise of God?
[00:19:03] Certainly not.
[00:19:05] For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
[00:19:14] But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
[00:19:24] Listen to what Paul is saying.
[00:19:29] The law points out to every Single person, their failure.
[00:19:42] Ah.
[00:19:44] And it's not possible for the law to help me become better.
[00:19:49] The pathway to being better is a pathway of faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:19:57] What happens is I have to take my focus off of myself.
[00:20:03] I have to take my focus off the law of Moses, and I have to turn my focus to Jesus Christ.
[00:20:11] Here's how it works.
[00:20:14] The next time the law reminds you of your failure, the next time the law reminds you of something you did or said that you regret in that very moment, you get a choice.
[00:20:28] You get a choice to focus on yourself and the law all over again, or you get a choice to say, ah, that's true, but that's not the whole truth.
[00:20:45] The whole truth is my faith is in Jesus Christ.
[00:20:51] The whole truth is I have a new encoding in me.
[00:20:55] When Christ died on the cross, he forgave everything that. That God had against me. And this thing I remember about myself that I'm. I'm unhappy with, God has forgiven it. And in fact, he's not only forgiven it, he's given me a different encoding. And I don't have to live that way anymore.
[00:21:19] That encoding is no longer dominant in my life.
[00:21:24] A new code is dominant. And that new code is. Is the life of Jesus Christ in me.
[00:21:32] Yes, that was once true, but it's. That's not the whole truth about me anymore. There is a new truth about me, and the new truth is I'm living under a different set of spiritual rules. And the rules I'm living under now are the rules that create life in Christ Jesus.
[00:21:55] Excuse me, I'm not living.
[00:21:59] I'm not living to perform all the right stuff. I'm living by faith and I'm trusting Christ and saying, there's something wonderful about who you are. And I want more and more of that to become part of who I am.
[00:22:17] Ah. I'm not living the way I used to live.
[00:22:22] There is a different guidebook for me now. And that guidebook is the character and the teaching and the wonder and the majesty of Jesus Christ.
[00:22:34] Do you see? All right, one more time.
[00:22:37] When I remember. When the law says, remember what a loser you are, I say in that very minute, ah.
[00:22:50] There is therefore no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
[00:23:03] Do you hear that, Church?
[00:23:10] This week when you remember something or this week when you do something wrong, okay?
[00:23:16] In the very moment of awareness, that's when you interrupt and you say, I have faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:23:25] And my faith in Jesus Christ makes me a different soul.
[00:23:32] And as a different soul, I have a different relationship to God. And I have a different guidebook for my life.
[00:23:41] And so I'm turning my focus away from myself and my failures, and I'm turning my focus to Christ's love, consistency, faithfulness, and goodness. Can you hear this church?
[00:23:54] All right. This. This works with temptation. Also.
[00:23:58] You're tempted.
[00:24:00] You can't sit and and focus on the temptation. You'll lose every time. You have to turn your focus away from yourself and away from the temptation. And you have to turn your focus on Jesus Christ. Isn't he so much better than the thing that's tempting me?
[00:24:18] Won't my life be better if I follow him? Won't my life be? Well, I will not have regrets tomorrow if I follow him. I will have regrets tomorrow if I give in to this temptation.
[00:24:31] Do you see what Paul is teaching? I'm turning away from one, and I'm turning toward the other one.
[00:24:40] Romans 10:4.
[00:24:42] For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
[00:24:50] I want us to contemplate this for a minute.
[00:24:55] Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes.
[00:25:04] What is the law's job? The law is to point out my sin.
[00:25:09] Christ says he is the end of the law, pointing its finger at me for everyone who believes.
[00:25:21] Do you get what that means?
[00:25:24] Those?
[00:25:25] The law can no longer keep pointing its finger at me and shaming me, because Christ is the end of the law.
[00:25:35] Because Christ is my Savior. Because Christ is the one that is in control of my heart. Because Christ is the one I focus on, the law loses its strength to keep pointing its finger at me and saying loser.
[00:25:52] Ah, now we're back. This is Galatians 3:23.
[00:25:58] Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming of faith would be revealed.
[00:26:09] So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
[00:26:18] Now, sometimes words make a big difference. And in this passage, the words that translated guardian, it's a much richer word than that. It's the Greek word pedagogog.
[00:26:31] Some of you who maybe did education majors to be teachers, you know that pedagogy is teaching children.
[00:26:44] Pedagogogogog is a compound word. One is peda, meaning child, and ago means lead.
[00:26:52] And in fact, this word was used for slaves who walked children to school.
[00:27:01] Ah, they didn't have public schools. They had private teachers. And if your family was wealthy, the slave Would get you up in the morning and. And walk you to school. All right?
[00:27:12] And Paul picks that word to describe the law.
[00:27:17] The law was a slave that its purpose was to walk us to school.
[00:27:27] And the school is Jesus Christ.
[00:27:31] The law was not designed to help me become a better person.
[00:27:36] The law was designed to get me to Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the one who makes me a better person.
[00:27:44] You see, here's what the law does. The law says, you're never gonna get this right by yourself.
[00:27:51] Here's what the law says. No matter how hard you try, you're gonna mess up.
[00:27:56] This is what the law says. Look at your history of mess ups.
[00:28:02] And eventually something in our heart says, this is hopeless.
[00:28:10] And in that moment, the Holy Spirit, that beautiful presence of God, comes whispering to our souls.
[00:28:20] And he says to us, there is a real and better way.
[00:28:26] And it is the law of life in Christ Jesus.
[00:28:30] And if you will put your faith in Christ, it will be the beginning of God recoding your soul to be everything he wants you to be and everything you dream of being that's good and healthy and whole.
[00:28:47] Do you see what Paul is teaching us here? All right.
[00:28:51] I recognize in my heart and in coding to do wrong, the law comes along and all it does is they wrong, wrong, bad, wicked, loser.
[00:29:06] Christ comes along and says, I have an answer for all this.
[00:29:12] I love you.
[00:29:14] You are beloved. I've already done the sanctifying work of God on the cross. I. I have everything you need.
[00:29:24] Now if you will put your trust and focus on me, this new encoding will grow in your soul and it will become more and more the normal thing for your soul. And the law of sin and death will become less and less the norm of your soul.
[00:29:42] Can you hear this Church?
[00:29:45] Ah.
[00:29:46] The law of sin. And the law of Moses condemns us.
[00:29:51] The law of life in Christ is an encoding in which we become more like Christ and in which we have this sense that we're headed somewhere good.
[00:30:07] Do you hear this?
[00:30:08] Under the law of sin and under the law of Moses, we always have the expectation that something bad is just about to happen.
[00:30:18] Do you hear it?
[00:30:20] Ah. The law of sin.
[00:30:23] Ah. Someday people are going to know what a loser you really are. So what the law of sin says.
[00:30:30] Ah. Ah.
[00:30:31] Ah.
[00:30:33] The law of Moses. Someday this is all going to catch up with you.
[00:30:38] Ah. The law of Christ. There is therefore no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. For the law of life in Christ. Listen. Has set you free from the law of sin and death.
[00:30:53] Are you hearing it church.
[00:30:57] Ah.
[00:30:59] Ah. Galatians 3:25.
[00:31:02] But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a pedagogog.
[00:31:08] We don't need a slave to walk us to school.
[00:31:12] For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
[00:31:18] For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
[00:31:23] This is what Paul says here.
[00:31:27] Under the law of life in Christ Jesus, I change the family that I'm in.
[00:31:36] Ah.
[00:31:38] Ah.
[00:31:39] Someone told me recently that somebody in their family had to have a bone marrow transplant.
[00:31:49] And when they had the bone marrow transplant. Ah.
[00:31:53] It.
[00:31:54] Their blood type changed.
[00:31:57] Can't remember who was telling me this story.
[00:32:00] Because they got bone marrow from a family member that had a different blood type than they did. Their blood type changed when they got the bone marrow transplant.
[00:32:11] And I thought that was fascinating.
[00:32:14] Maybe you guys who are medical can help me out with that. All right.
[00:32:19] But guess what?
[00:32:20] I didn't get a bone marrow transplant.
[00:32:23] I got a soul transplant.
[00:32:27] And it changed the family that I'm in.
[00:32:31] Before Jesus Christ, I lived under the law of sin. I was in the family of. Of. Of. Of brokenness. I was in the family of humanity. I was in the family of. Of hopelessness.
[00:32:46] But when Christ came, he changed the encoding of my soul and changed my family identity.
[00:32:56] And now I am a child of God.
[00:33:00] And now you are a child of God. Listen, what kind of love did God give to us that we get to be called the children of God?
[00:33:13] And we are.
[00:33:15] That's what the apostle John says.
[00:33:18] Without Jesus Christ, I'm lost in the family of brokenness.
[00:33:25] Without Jesus Christ, I'm lost and ruined with the rest of humanity.
[00:33:30] But when Christ re. Encodes my soul, he makes me competent to be a child of the living God.
[00:33:40] I'm no longer living by the family rules of brokenness. I'm living in the family relationship of love and kindness, acceptance, goodness and nurture. Because Jesus Christ has done for my soul what only Christ can do. Are you here in this church? All right.
[00:34:01] Now, I need to talk to some of you.
[00:34:10] What code are you living under?
[00:34:14] Tomorrow when you go to work, Who will you be?
[00:34:23] Tomorrow when you go to work, will the law of life in Christ Jesus have influence on how you think?
[00:34:35] Ah.
[00:34:36] Tomorrow, when you have to have that hard conversation, will the law of life in Christ Jesus Christ have influence on what you say?
[00:34:47] Ah.
[00:34:48] Tomorrow, when somebody needs help with the law of life in Christ Jesus, will it make you the Good Samaritan?
[00:34:59] Ah.
[00:35:00] You see, it's not about the theory of life.
[00:35:05] It's about the living of life.
[00:35:08] And Paul says we don't have to live under the code of the law of sin and death.
[00:35:16] He says we can't possibly live by the law of Moses. No one ever did.
[00:35:22] But there is hope. And that hope is living by the law of life in Christ Jesus. And it changes how I think about life. It changes how I feel, it changes my choices, and I become more of the person that Christ created me to be. I live more of the Christian life.
[00:35:45] When the law of Moses makes me aware of the law of sin in me and shows me I'm helpless without Christ, then and only then is it holy. And the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
[00:36:00] When the law shows me how desperately I need Christ, it's doing a good thing.
[00:36:06] When you think the law is able to make you a good person, you've misunderstood, and it's going to continue to corrupt you.
[00:36:15] All right, parents, I want to talk to you a minute.
[00:36:21] We have to teach our children the Christian faith.
[00:36:27] And when you teach your children the Christian faith, I know it's easy to say, ah, I have to teach my kids.
[00:36:39] They have to do this and they can't do that.
[00:36:42] I know that's our default setting.
[00:36:46] Okay.
[00:36:49] I raised five kids.
[00:36:51] One of the surest ways to get your kids to do something is tell them you don't want them to do it.
[00:36:57] Any parents.
[00:37:00] All right, okay.
[00:37:04] If I could parent all over again, this is what I would do.
[00:37:09] I would say to my kids, you know, there are two ways of living, and one way you're gonna end up enjoying life.
[00:37:23] And in the other way, you're going to fill your life with a bunch of regrets and remorse.
[00:37:30] Ah, I'd say to my kids, there are sources of life.
[00:37:38] If you feed the wrong stuff to your soul, you're going to kill your soul.
[00:37:44] You're going to be dead on the inside.
[00:37:48] Life is not. You're not going to look forward to tomorrow.
[00:37:52] But if you nurture your soul with the riches of Jesus Christ, you're going to end up liking the kind of person you are. You're going to look forward to tomorrow. You're going to have good influence on the people around you, and your life is going to be interesting and pleasing to God.
[00:38:12] I would say to my children, I want you to figure out in your life what is pleasing to God.
[00:38:23] I want you in your life to figure out what does it. What do I have to do to have a sense of the presence of God in my life?
[00:38:34] When my kids made a mistake I would sit down with them. Instead of scolding them and giving them a lecture and trying to figure out some disgusting punishment, I would sit down with them and I would say, ah.
[00:38:48] Ah.
[00:38:49] All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of the Lord.
[00:38:54] Let's pray and ask for forgiveness.
[00:38:57] Then I would say, what can we find to nurture your soul so that this ugly thing isn't attractive to you anymore?
[00:39:10] How can we find something more beautiful in Christ that is more attractive to you than this thing?
[00:39:17] Do you see, Parents, find ways to connect your children to life in Christ Jesus.
[00:39:27] Find ways to help them create a stronger and stronger faith in Christ's ability to make their life rich, full, beautiful and good.
[00:39:39] All right, spouses, I want to talk to you for a minute.
[00:39:46] This is in August. Shay and I started our 55th year of marriage.
[00:39:53] And.
[00:39:58] I know a thing or two about marriage. Okay?
[00:40:03] Much of it I learned the hard way. All right, you're going to fuss with each other.
[00:40:10] You're just going to fuss with each other. It's just life.
[00:40:13] Ah.
[00:40:14] All right, you're going to fuss with each other in that fussing, you can live under the law of life in Christ Jesus or you can live under the law of sin and death.
[00:40:32] Now, here's what it looks like to fuss under the law of sin and death.
[00:40:35] It's all about you.
[00:40:40] You deserve.
[00:40:42] You don't deserve. You deserve this and you don't deserve that.
[00:40:46] Ah. Ah.
[00:40:48] They didn't do the right thing again. They messed up, all right? That's the law of sin and death. And you're going to end up saying stuff you shouldn't say. Ah. All right, now here's how to fuss.
[00:41:02] Living under the law of life in Christ Jesus.
[00:41:13] On multiple occasions, I have disappointed Jesus Christ, and on multiple occasions he's found it in his heart to forgive me and not make me pay church.
[00:41:30] I've given him ample reason to be unhappy with me many times.
[00:41:35] I can say in that moment of fussing, I can say the law of life in Christ is I'm gonna treat my spouse when they disappoint me the very same way Christ treats me when I disappoint him. Because I'm living by the law of life in Christ Jesus, and that's the encoding of my soul.
[00:42:01] My soul is encoded to be gracious, not to have my own way. My soul is encoded to be merciful, not insist on being right. My soul is encoded to be gentle like Jesus Christ and not prove I'm right. I'm living by a different encoding. And because I'm living by a different encoding, it's drawing out of me a different quality of life. Can you hear me, Church?
[00:42:32] Living under the law of sin and death and living under the law of Jesus Christ.
[00:42:37] They're not theoretical paradigms. They are practical. Every day encoding on this is the kind of person I am and this is the way I live my life.
[00:42:50] The law of sin and death will always disappoint you. It'll make your life miserable. It'll make you hard to get along with the law of life in Christ Jesus. It will strengthen you. It'll make you. You be proud of yourself. You'll be happy to live the life you're living. You'll have less regret, less remorse. And the people around you will enjoy life immensely more.
[00:43:17] Our dear Heavenly Father, I know that you have.
[00:43:23] I know that you have figured this out.
[00:43:26] And I know that the way of the Lord is beautiful.
[00:43:30] I'm praying this morning that is only your Holy Spirit can do. We would have a sense of shifting from living under the encoding of sin and to begin to live more and more in the encoding of Jesus Christ.
[00:43:49] I pray not only would we live with this encoding, I pray that this encoding would begin to express itself in how we see Christ, in how we treat the people around us, in what we do at home and at work.
[00:44:03] And I pray that more and more Jesus Christ would be glorified. Amen.
