ROMANS: Why the Rules Don't Work

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I invite you to take it and open up to Romans chapter seven.

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row there.

I'm on page 943.

We're going through the book of Romans and we come to chapter 7.

And I want to uh I want to read the first six verses.

And when I read these six verses, you're going to see three things in them.

You're going to see number one, a question.

And then you're going to see this illustration about marriage.

And then you're going to see this application.

He asks this question, and then he uses this illustration about a woman in marriage, and then he applies it to these people he's writing this letter to.

And then I'll give you three takeaways from the text.

I want to read six verses, but I really just want to preach from one of them today, because I have smelled the cake, and I'm not long for this world.

Romans chapter 7, verse 1.

Romans 7:1

Here's what the Bible says.

He says, But do you not know, brothers?

For I'm speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.

Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives.

But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive.

But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new law of the Spirit.

Now let me explain to you what we just read.

He begins, he Paul is writing to the church in Rome.

It's got some Jewish people, very religious people in it.

It's also got some Gentile, which is not very religious people.

They didn't kind of grow up in church, they didn't have church clothes.

And he's writing to both of them, but the the Jews knew the law, the Mosaic law, and the Gentiles that kind of heard so much about it.

They were, it's kind of like people that I met a guy once, I was eating at Five Guys up here on the highway, because that's where spiritual people eat.

And by the way, if you're going to Five Guys this week for lunch, I'm available.

I was got in a conversation, and the guy at the table next to me and got to talking, I said, Have you ever just read the Bible and just, you know, and he said, Well, not really.

I read it once and I kind of I'm a screw up and I felt like even more of a screw up, and I thought, why do I want to read more of that?

And I said, It says more than you're a screw up.

And by the way, I'm a screw up too.

And he goes, Well, you're a preacher, don't you have it all together?

And at that point, people at all the tables around me began to laugh.

And I said, All these people go to my church.

And he's like, Oh, okay, keep talking.

But the Gentiles were the people that didn't know the rules.

They were kind of like the deaf kid at the dance.

They couldn't hear the music.

So they just kind of did what everybody else did.

And if they were dug in, teach me how to dug you.

They just do that.

But they couldn't hear it.

You okay?

Y'all like, white boy, don't do that ever again.

But that's what they would do.

They couldn't, they just kind of followed the rules mindlessly.

But here's what I want to talk to you about this morning.

I want to talk to you about why the rules don't work.

Why the rules don't work.

And I want to give you, because he he asked this question, he says, hey, you're bound to the law as long as you're alive, but when you die, you're released from the law.

And then to make the point, he talks about a woman and says, hey, when she's married, she's bound to her husband by the law.

And if she's with somebody else, then that's adultery.

She's an adulteress.

But if her husband dies, she's free to remarry and be with someone else.

And by the way, this sermon is not about marriage, but since we're on the topic of marriage, let me just say this.

Unless you have the experience of a healthy marriage the way God intended it to be, you will never have the context for the security of the relationship God created you for.

Now that was a mouthful right there, and some of you are like, uh-uh-uh-uh, what?

Unless you ever experience, now, not a perfect marriage.

I don't have a perfect marriage.

My wife's trying, she's doing her best, but I don't have a perfect marriage, okay?

Been together 20 years, but a marriage the way God intended it to be, where you can give and receive the truth for each other.

Every once in a while, my wife will say to me, just stop talking.

And I think your life is better if you listen to me, but if you're gonna cut yourself off from revelation like I'm bringing, okay, you're lost.

I did say to my wife one time we were in a disagreement, and I said that because preachers don't have arguments, we have disagreements.

I thought her logic was rather weak, and I just said, You're bringing Kool-Aid to a gin party.

That wasn't funny either.

But anyway, here's the thing there's things you think are funny, and then you say them out loud, and you're like, and Memota self, never say that ever again.

But here's the point.

Unless you have the experience of a relationship the way God intended it to be, one man, one woman, forever.

Marriage is hidden to be forever because if you can bail, if you can look over and see the eject the eject handle and just pull the ejector ejector seat and just boom, get out of there, that'll all, that'll, when it gets hard, that'll be the first thing that crosses your mind.

But let me just tell you something.

You, the the greatest source of transformation in your life will be your spouse.

I am a better man, I'm a better Christian, I'm a better person because I married my wife.

And because when it was hard, we just stayed at it and we just stuck it out.

Why do I tell you that?

Because unless you have the experience of that, and by the way, when you're married, you get all your needs met from your wife.

Men, you don't text another woman, you don't call another woman, you don't go to lunch with another woman, you don't ride in a vehicle when it's just you and another woman.

Why?

Because all your needs are met from your wife.

By the same token, ladies, when you're married, you do not spend time with another man, you don't text another man, you don't call another man.

Everybody that works with you knows that you're a one-woman man and your man ain't at work, so they ain't gonna get anything from you.

I thought y'all are by now you're thinking, I thought the sermon wasn't about marriage.

Here's the thing.

We kind of, and here's the the big picture.

Uh, it's not about marriage, but we we have this kind of really poor view of marriage, and you'll never understand the eternal nature of the relationship that God wants to have with you.

Because all through the Bible, God uses marriage as an analogy of his relationship with his bride, the church.

And if you're your your experience of marriage, and I'm not dumb in this room, or some of you are kind of like, hey, dude, it's my second or third marriage.

Some of you are like, I tried that once, I'll do anything but that ever again.

God knows that.

He's not standing over you with a stick, kind of going, yeah, you stink.

Okay, I'm gonna get you for that.

No, he's just saying, hey, still remains the context within which what I designed to happen happens best and most satisfyingly in this.

And he talks about this illustration of marriage, and then he says to these people in verse 4, and that's what I want to talk about, just one verse, verse 4.

Look at it.

He says, Likewise, my brothers, in the same way, just like this woman is bound to this man, this man to this woman, until one of them dies, then they're released for somebody else.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

Three things I want you to take away from the text this morning.

Number one, you were created for a relationship.

You were created for a relationship.

You say, what do you mean?

He says in verse 4, likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ.

Here's a part I want you to hear, so that you may belong to another.

See, by the simple use of the word another, Paul is kind of reminding us that we were intended, we were created for something more, something beyond what we have right now.

If you're not careful, you can just kind of make where you are right now.

You start thinking of it in terms of it's gonna be this way forever.

No, it's not.

Remember when you first got married?

How many of y'all have been married in this room more than 20 years?

Raise your hand.

Hold them up real high.

Remember, put them down.

Remember when you first got married, you had no money?

And you because you remember being broke and you just got married and you figured it out.

And so now you can be in Walmart and hear people you don't even know say, Yeah, we're just saving money.

One day we'd get married, but we can't afford it.

And you just burst into the conversation and go, You're never gonna be able to afford it, okay?

That's the fun part is eating craft macaroni and cheese and just hanging out and kind of going, hey, we're broke now, but we ain't gonna be broke forever, okay?

Let's just enjoy this.

And people walk away and they're like, What was your name again?

It doesn't matter.

I've been married 27 years.

I haven't got my husband on skim milk, okay?

That fat pig was drinking clotted cream when I first met him.

He hadn't seen red meats in 10 years.

It's turkey.

He doesn't know any better.

He just shows up and eats.

See, I didn't know they made ground turkey.

Until one day I went in the kitchen, my wife was cooking.

I was like, What?

What is this?

Well, this is better for you.

Which is, by the way, see how change happens so suddenly in a marriage?

That's the way your wife tells you you kind of gain in some weight.

They don't come out and say, hey man, you're large and in charge.

You got some junk in the trunk, okay?

Do something about that.

I got some ground turkey at the Whole Foods Market.

You want to try it?

No, not really.

Why does my wife hate me?

No, she loves you.

See, the Bible says that you were created for a relationship.

What do you mean?

Because the rules don't work.

If the rules worked, you would have no need for God.

Jesus would be the most non-sensical person that ever existed.

If you could be right with God, have a relationship with God, have inner peace and no purpose in this life by keeping the rules.

Jesus is the most unnecessary person that ever lived.

But since you can't, then Jesus becomes the most necessary person who's ever lived.

And all of a sudden, what he says, there's significant weight placed on what he says.

You say, What do you mean?

Unless you understand that not just you're created for a relationship, but a relationship is the way God sees the world.

And he always has.

You say, What do you mean?

This week I'm driving down the road to go meet a friend of mine for lunch, and I'm hauling it down the Grand Parkway, which by the way, the speed limit on the Grand Parkway is not 70, it's 60.

Just in case you're wondering.

And if you know a good lawyer, see me after the service.

I need to get something taken care of.

But anyway, I'm going down the road, my phone rings, I look down, and it says, Dad, I almost wrecked my truck.

My dad, I'm 48 years old.

My dad's called me twice in my life.

Today was the third time.

He called me at the birth of my children, and he called me this this past week.

And I was like, if my wife is pregnant, she's got some explaining to do.

So I answered the phone, and I was kind of like, in my mind, I'm like, who died?

I was like, hello?

And it was my dad.

Hey boy, what are you doing?

I was like, hey, dad uh, hey, dad, what's up?

Hey, what is a companion Bible?

I was like, my dad's not a spiritual person.

My dad's a good man.

My dad will give you his last$20.

My dad can fix your car.

He's like MacGyver.

He can fix anything, okay?

The man makes hydraulic hose in the bathroom, all right?

He's a brilliant man, but he's not a spiritual person.

Doesn't go to church.

My dad thinks he's gonna do more good than bad, and God's gonna let him in.

And so I was just having all these surreal feelings, and my dad said, What's the companion Bible?

I said, Well, dad, it's kind of like a glorified study Bible, blah, blah, blah.

Why do you ask?

He said, Well, I'm old and I've done a lot of things in my life, and I want to read the Bible from beginning to end until I before I die.

I started in Genesis and I got to Numbers and I got confused, and I said, Welcome to the world.

By the way, when I read numbers, I get confused.

I said, That's really the Old Testament God.

It's not that it's not true, it's just that God's differentiating his people Israel from everybody else by on the basis of what they don't do.

So that he can earn the right to say, by the way, what's going to distinguish you down the road is the basis of what you do.

You can't say what you do, because that sounds bad.

And your kids snicker and you've got to get on to them.

And so my dad said, Okay, well, you think I could understand that?

And I said, Dad, I'll send you a companion Bible, but also I'm gonna send you a copy of a Bible, a translation of the Bible called the Message.

And I said, It's the same thing.

It says the same thing, but uses different words, because my dad's old school, okay?

My dad wears Red Wing work boots every day, tucks his pants down inside of him.

My dad now is like 78 or 79.

He gets up and puts on his work clothes to drink coffee.

He doesn't leave his house, but he just wears that around all the time because that my dad wears a Wrangler denim pearl snap shirt every day.

We're gonna bury my dad in one of those shirts with a pack of cigarettes in the front pocket.

Because, oh yeah, that brother smokes like wet wood, okay?

He's got emphysema or something now.

My dad's on oxygen, carries a little portable tank.

He'll take his oxygen cannula off and light up a cigarette and smoke it with oxygen going off the top of his forehead.

And we get around and I tell my kids, hey, get 50 feet from Paw Paul.

And they're like, Why?

Because he could explode at any minute, all right?

But if I try to say to my dad, hey, dad, that's not saying, hey, boy, I don't need you preaching to me, okay?

I raised you.

I'm like, I don't want to fight my dad, but just so we I said, Dad, just start reading in in the New Testament, starting the Gospel of John, maybe, and the message will help you kind of understand.

And my dad said, Well, I'm not very far.

I start in Genesis, I'm in Numbers, and God seems to say the same thing over and over.

I said, That's exactly right.

There are themes in the Bible that carry all the way through because God says, He's got, I'm going to relate to you this way from all from now forevermore.

And I said, That's the way God wants it.

He said, What do you mean?

And I said, like, one of the things you need to understand is relationship.

Unless you understand God's passion for relationship, you won't understand what God does because there are some things that only make sense in the context of a committed relationship.

Now I said that, and some of you are nodding, like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let me say it again, I'll demonstrate.

There are some things that only make sense in the context of a committed relationship.

You say, What do you mean?

It means that when you first got married, you thought, oh, nothing's gonna happen to us.

My husband's gonna be faithful to me, and I'm gonna be faithful to my husband, and it's gonna be like Disney World all the time.

And about 15 years in, somebody has an affair, and all your friends, ladies, are going, you kick him to the curb.

That man is lying, blah, blah, blah.

And there's something in you that says, I'm gonna forgive him.

And when you were in college, when you talked about, by the way, you feel how still it just got in here?

My my spleen just compressed right there.

Some of y'all are easy now.

You're talking to me.

I don't know your business, I'm not talking to you.

I just know people.

See, there are things that only make sense in the context of a committed relationship.

Some of you took your spouse back and you couldn't really tell why.

Someone said, Why'd you do that?

You're like, and you say, because you don't know what else to say.

You go, because I love him or I love her.

And your friends are like, Man, that is stupid.

Your friends have never been in a relationship.

See, God does what God does.

There's things that God does that don't make sense unless you realize God's passion for relationship, it's what he created you for.

And that's why some of the most familiar stories in the Bible don't make sense.

Like, for example, in Luke chapter 15, the whole chapter begins with this.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Don't turn there, it'll come up on the screen.

But this is the way it begins.

It says, now the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to him, Jesus.

Now just stop just for a minute.

Now keep in mind that Jesus was the kind of person that the sinners and the tax collectors, tax collectors, people hated tax collectors because they were their friends that worked for the occupying Romans who said, Yeah, I'll levy taxes, I'll skim 2% off the top.

It was the guy that lived in the big house and his kids went to the private school and you paid for it.

And when you saw him, you were like, I'm gonna get you when the Romans aren't looking.

You just wait.

Hated him.

And yet Jesus shows up, and people that were most unlike him were just drawn to him.

Not because he said, Hey, I'll pay your water bill or hey, I'll give you some grocery money.

Jesus wasn't a social gospel benevolence campaign.

It was something about him that you were just kind of like, oh man, when Jesus talks, my heart beats a little faster.

And look what happens.

The next sentence in the Pharisees, the religious people of the day, the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

You've been hit in the nose on a cold day.

Your eyes water, you're like, oh man, I haven't said cuss words in a long time, but I want to say them right now.

At least that was what my wife does.

But anyway, you know what I'm talking about?

You're just like your eyes water, and you're like, oh, hang on a second.

That hurts so bad I want to cry.

That's what Jesus does.

He just bluss them right in the mouth.

He said, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

And then Jesus hears this and thinks to himself, Oh, you think I welcome sinners and eat with them.

I'm fixing to tell you some stories gonna make you want to pull your beard out, you religious weasels.

And he does.

He tells three stories a story about a lost sheep, about a lost coin, and about a lost son.

Sorry, the lost sheep, he says, there's a shepherd who had 99 sheep, but he realized that one was way off.

He left the 99 and went and looked for the one.

You say, What's that got to do with me?

If you're in this room right now, okay, and relax, there's no pressure here.

If you're in this room right now and you think I'm a million miles from God, okay, I don't feel close to God at all.

Here's what you need to know about this God of relationship.

He's looking for you.

He's not sitting over the 99 and go, Yeah, Billy Bob thought you're smart and was.

Well, he can go to hell out there in the wilderness and tell you what, by God, we're gonna do fine without him.

One monkey don't stop no show.

Let's all sing it together.

No, he leaves the 99 and he goes out to that.

Doesn't make sense.

I mean, everyone operates with a profit margin.

You're gonna lose some stuff in business.

You got overhead.

It would just make more sense to say, hey, if I leave the 99 and go look for the one, I might lose the 99.

Why does he do that?

Because of relationship.

There's some things in life that don't make sense outside the context of relationship.

He tells a story about the lost coin.

Woman lost a coin, got up, turned on the lights, swept everything, found it, called her friends, and said, I lost my money, but I found it, and now let's rejoice.

Then he tells a story about a son.

Verse 11 of Luke 15.

It says, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate.

Give me my inheritance.

You're dead to me.

All you can give me is bling, so give it to me.

Let me go get my freak on.

And the dad did.

That doesn't make sense outside the context of relationship.

And at this point, I mean, they were just like, Can we kill this guy right now?

And Jesus says, the younger son got together all he had, not long after that, after he gave him his money.

Because students and young adults, if you think the best thing your parents can give you is resources, you'll turn them into a thing and not a person.

Not long after that, the Bible says his son got together all that he had, he went off in a far country and he squandered it all on wild living.

And he came to his senses.

Okay, mom and dad, look at me, okay?

If you rescue your kids from the consequences of their sin, they'll think about you the way they were created by God to think about God.

And that's called idolatry.

But it was so bad, here's a Jewish kid, had to go get a job feeding pigs.

And he's in the pig pen one day.

And he comes to his senses.

He says, How many of my dad's hired men have more than enough food to spare?

And here I am starving to death.

And then he has this a moment and he says, I will get up and I will go back to my father and I will say to him, I am not worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired men.

The first time in this story he uses the word I.

Personal responsibility is a fruit of repentance.

If you want to see if your adult children or your 20-year-old or your 23-year-old has repented, listen for them taking responsibility.

If they're blaming everybody, well, my friends, man, when we get together and they they tie me up and they put a bong in my mouth and make me smoke weed.

I wish I didn't have to, but I just I just start doing it.

That's not repentance.

That's excuse making.

He gets up.

Here's what doesn't make sense outside of the context of relationship.

The Bible says, why he's a long way off.

Like the one sheep that's a long way off.

And the father sees him, and the father just jumps off the porch and goes running out there.

And he sees his dad and he starts rehearsing his skilled guilt speech.

Remember when you would miss curfew and you and your friends would make up a lie?

Hello?

Okay, here's the deal.

Your car broke down, and then we got my car, and my car broke down, and then some aliens came down out of above.

No one says, Hey, mom, dad, we got hammered drunk and took our shirts off and danced on the table, and it was tequila or something.

I don't know.

I ain't got a leg to stand on.

I'm a little bus and I don't want to drive.

Can you come get me?

Y'all are like, uh, you don't know my parents, do you?

I don't want to get that call either.

I'm a parent.

But the dad was looking out and he sees his son, takes off running.

The son sees him, and the son says, Hey dad, I'm not worthy to be called called your son anymore.

Translation, I'm not worthy of this relationship.

I'm not worthy to be called your son anymore.

Just make me like one of the hired men, because man, I just you don't know what I've done.

And the father is just like, Shut up.

The Bible doesn't use that language, but basically that's what it says.

He's talking, and the father puts a ring on his finger and a robe on his back and sandals on his feet.

All signs of relationship.

And he says, Hey, let's have a big party, kill the fatty calf.

The son of mine is dead.

He was lost in his found, he was dead, he's now alive.

And so they had a big shindig.

You can hear Hank Williams Jr.

in the background.

We got the beer, we got a pig in the ground, and the beer's on ice, and all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight.

That's in the Bible.

Uses different language, but that's what it says about God.

I went to a crawfish boy yesterday, some folks in our church in their backyard.

And I was just standing there just shucking them and eating them.

I finally realized there's a big pile under me, and everyone's looking like, are we gonna have enough?

Because the preacher's eating like 60.

It's like, well, is there like a limit?

I thought we had okay, let me back away.

But that's the kind of thing that Jesus went to, and people were kind of like, that's a compelling Jew over there in the corner.

Why?

See, God does what God does because he realizes that you and I were created for relationship.

Nothing makes sense outside of this.

If you miss this, you miss it.

See, when we blow it, we're most mindful of the rules that we broke.

But when we blow it, God is most mindful of the relationship you've been missing out on.

So he comes to restore the relationship.

Second takeaway from verse 4 is simply this: make sure it's the right relationship.

In verse 4, after he says, Likewise, my brothers, you've died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another.

And then he describes who this another is to him who has been raised from the dead.

If we're not careful, we fill this relationship void in our life of what we think or what we feel.

And you will destroy yourself if you live at the mercy of what you think and what you feel.

That's why Proverbs says, though it costs you all you have, get understanding.

So what do you mean?

I don't know what you mean, Pastor.

We're going to destroy ourselves at the mercy of what we think.

Have you ever been in a relationship with another person and you thought at the time this is going to be the deal?

And now you look and go, What was I thinking?

Some of you just thought of your first husband.

Some of you thought of your first wife.

Some of you are thinking about the person sitting next to you right now.

I'll be available for counseling after the service right down here.

What am I saying?

I'm just saying that God doesn't leave it blank.

He says, You're created for a relationship, and he doesn't say, Go find one that fits.

Go find one that feels good.

Go find somebody that looks at you and says, You're my soulmate.

Run.

Run from that.

Augustine, the church father, says to God, he said, God, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.

John Calvin, the great theologian, said this.

He says that man's nature is a perpetual factory of idols.

We produce out of our appetites and our affections what we crave and what we love.

These idols.

It's like Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 13.

Jeremiah 2:13

God says that my people only committed two sins.

All of you in this room, good news for you today, you're not as wicked sinners as you may have thought.

You've only committed two sins.

Weren't you glad you came to church?

Yeah, like, uh it's what the Bible says.

My people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken me, number one, the fountain of living waters.

Just think about that.

When you forsake God, it's not going to go good for you.

When I say to, and I've never said this by the grace of God, but if any time I say to God, my wife's not meeting my needs, she's not available to me, we're not doing things, we you know, so therefore, I have the right to go.

I am digging for myself a well that holds no water.

It's a broken sister.

Two sins that humanity has committed.

Number one, we forsake God.

And number two, we take responsibility for being our own provider.

We dig for ourselves wells that hold no water.

And what you really end up doing is you're not digging a well, you're digging a hole.

That's why the 40th Psalm says what it says.

When it says, Of God, you took me from the miry clay.

And you've set me, you've given me a firm place to stand, and you put a new song in my heart, a song of praise to our God, and many will see and hear and put their trust in the Lord.

You see, when we forsake God, nothing good can happen.

He says, You committed only two evils.

That's why God doesn't leave the relationship void empty.

He says, make sure it's the right relationship.

Thirdly and finally, this morning, he says there's a purpose for this relationship.

Look in verse 4.

We're just about done.

You still with me?

Look at the last part.

This is one sentence out of the Bible.

See how consequential the Bible is when you understand it?

He says, hey, you've died to the law through the body of Christ.

So, number one, you may belong to another.

That's relationship.

And what is that relationship?

It's Him who has been raised from the dead.

You were made by God for a relationship with God.

Thirdly, there's a purpose for this relationship.

What is it?

So that, or in order that we may bear fruit for God.

The purpose of God's relationship with humanity is that you and I can live our lives in such a way that it becomes obvious.

That's what fruit is.

It's this outward indication of this inward reality inside of us.

I shouldn't have to tell you that I'm a preacher.

I mean, a Christian.

I'm not a Christian because I'm a preacher, and I'm not and I'm not a preacher because I'm a Christian.

You should be able to look at me and say, there's something about that guy.

He's not perfect, but there's something different about him.

You say, What do you mean?

There's a purpose for this relationship.

See, he says, in order that you may bear fruit for God, so that when you didn't know God, the way you lived was obvious.

Okay?

That's what the next verse is.

As a matter of fact, let's just read verse five.

Verse five, he says, For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

Hear it again.

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law.

In other words, the rules, being told, don't do that, don't even think about this, and for whatever you do, don't do that.

Well, when you hear that, what do you do?

You walk over and go, What's that?

And why can't I do that?

I want to do that.

That's human nature.

Doesn't mean it's right, but it's human nature.

You go back to the garden, that's what Adam and Eve did.

God said, You're free to eat of any tree in the garden, but of this one tree, don't eat, because when you eat of that tree, you're going to die.

Well, they do.

We want to eat of this.

We want to do the one thing we were told we couldn't do.

Why?

Because the rules drive you crazy.

And what happens is your life becomes about what you don't want to do instead of what you do want to do.

And maybe God has a different plan in mind.

Sometimes you read things like verse 5 in the Bible and says the law and we are aroused in our passions.

What does that mean?

That word passions is a little creepy, makes me awkward in church.

Here's what I want to end by asking you to think about today.

See, that's what the law does.

The law, when you get told no, you gotta wait, or you just you gotta wait, it's like so the focus is on what you don't get to do.

What if God's intent all along was to change the kind of change the format and the focus becomes what you do, what you are allowed to do?

Like we think of sin in terms of, well, it's the bad things that I don't do.

I don't do this, I don't do this, I don't do that, I don't do that.

And if you're not careful, you define yourself on the basis of what you don't do.

But yet the Bible comes along and says things like in James chapter 4, verse 17, it says, hey, to those who know good, to those who know good, uh and to do it not, to them it is sin.

James 4:17

So if you know the right thing to do and you fail to do it, for for that person, that's sin.

So the Bible says that sin is not just the bad things that I don't do or the bad things that I shouldn't do, but I do, that's not just sin, but the good that you know and you, for whatever reason, don't do, that's sin as well.

And so here's a question I want to ask you.

If what if God's intent was says, hey, you're free from the law?

It's not about the rules, it's about a relationship.

And here's how you know you're in this relationship.

You you find yourself fulfilling the rules, keeping the rules.

Just not by effort, by reflex.

It's just a natural expression of your relationship.

And let me ask you this: is it possible, do you think, maybe this is a community group question, do you think it's possible to so focus on unleashing good into our culture that the bad just doesn't even interest you anymore?

That you so think differently about sin that it just, hey, the thing that grieves you the most is you know what?

I was at work and there was a conversation and people were talking about God and Jesus and whatever religion, and you could say, hey, I just maybe insert just one little truthful phrase.

And you just I don't want to be a Bible thumper.

Neither do I.

You know what?

I've never been accused of that.

I've had a lot of people say, I never thought about that.

Wow, thank you.

Just maybe think that sin is not just bad and don't do it.

It's maybe, hey, we get to unleash good in this culture.

And maybe that's the thing that Jesus is, it hasn't God has in mind.

And Paul's talking to here in Romans 7, we says, There's a purpose for this relationship, that you bear fruit.

You may bear fruit in order that purpose clause, you may bear fruit for God.

Last thing I want you to think about is verse 6, and we'll be done.

He says, But we may release from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we will serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit.

That's one of those verses in the Bible you read and you go, I got no clue what that just said.

Had a professor in seminary that taught us that, hey, when you there's verses you don't understand, write it out longhand in your own words to help you get your head around it and understand it.

And so this is the way I wrote out verse six.

And this is this is the application.

This is one thing I'm asking you to do this week is read verse six and write it out in your own words.

This is my own words, one sentence.

Here it goes.

This is my version of verse six.

I am by nature a screw up and possess an infinite capacity to mess my life up.

However, the Spirit of God is in me, calling me to a different way of life, and the more I listen and follow, the more interesting it becomes.

I died and was released from the rules, and I'm now free to enjoy the most important relationship I could ever know.

And it is this relationship that informs and orients all other relationships in my life, while empowering me to mindlessly do the right thing, not out of effort, but out of affection.

And it's that last part I think God wants us to hear.

You think it's possible to mindlessly, without, oh, I need to do good today, but to mindlessly do the right thing, not out of effort, but out of affection.

It all depends if you love the person that you're in a relationship with.

That's why when the disciple says, Jesus, give us the bottom line.

What's the greatest commandment?

He said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And love your neighbor as yourself.

Because love always expresses itself.

It always does.

And it's about relationship.

Do you have that relationship with God today?

The kind of relationship that just effortlessly expresses itself.

Stand to your feet, I'm gonna speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Your whispering God has raised his voice today to remind you that it's about relationship.

He knows your behavior and he still wants a relationship.

He left the 90 and 9 to come find you.

And so if you're here today and you're out of relationship, know that he's looking for you.

Not to punish you, but to forgive you and love you and know you.

That's relationship.

That's what you were created for.

It's what he died and rose again to make available.

Taste and see that relationship with God is good.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.