A New Walk || Gabriel Guzman

Welcome to the Lesse Podcast. Here at LC we seek the loss, teach

the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by this

week's message. How are you guys doing this evening? You guys are doing

good. It's a great night. We have all our baptism people here right

here. It's a great night for celebration. I'm here with you guys tonight.

My name is Gabriel. I work here with abundant kids. So if

you've ever checked in your kids, maybe you've seen me. Maybe you haven't.

I run around a lot, but Pastor Garfield's over there holding it down

while I'm here talking to you guys. I won't talk for too long tonight

because we want to get to the main event and has to celebrate all the

baptisms tonight. So if you guys can do me a favor and stand for

the reading of God's Word. We're gonna be in Romans. We're gonna read

a little bit of Romans chapter five, but we're really going to be in

Romans chapter six tonight. But we need to get a little context, so

we'll read that together. So if you don't have your Bible, you can

follow along on the screens. But we're going to start in Romans chapter five,

verse eight. Team. It reads like this in my Bible. Therefore,

as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of

righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one man's

disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the

many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass.

But where sin increased, grace abounded, all the more so that as

sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal

life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What shall we say, then,

are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? How

can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know

that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order

that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,

we two might walk in newness of life. God, we come before

you right now, and we thank you for this place of worship. Lord,

we thank you that we come to a church that can celebrate baptism.

Lord, we pray right now God that we're not hearing from a man.

Nobody came here to hear from a man, but we came to hear from

you. Lord. I pray that I empty myself right now, God and

be a vessel for you to tell your people what you want them to know.

Tonight. God, we thank you when you praise you. Amen.

Amen, you may be seated. If you guys got your Bibles, that

would be great, but we should have it on the screens as well.

We're gonna be talking about what's on all the shirts and what's on the screen

behind me being made new, and I want to talk about that thing new.

There's just something about new that you can't really put your finger on.

You really can't fully describe it, but there's just something about new. You

know. We had a lot of movies come out this summer. We're kind

of getting out of the summer movie season, so I don't know if you

went to the movies at all, because there was a lot of new movies

I saw. I saw a lot of movies this summer. But there's just

something about a new movie. You're seeing new characters, you're seeing a new

plot, you're seeing new special effects that you've never seen before, and you

just can't put your finger on it, but you just feel something good inside

when you're seeing something new. You know, there's some people like Disney.

I don't want to throw them under the rug, but there's some people like

Disney who they'll come out with a new movie, but they might still have

a lot of old stuff in it. It's it's from an old it's like

a remake situation. They have a lot of old characters, a lot of

old plot points, but they do something new here. They'll put a new

special effect here, they'll make it live action there. But it's not the

same as seeing something brand new. When you see a new it's a little

different. It's there's something different about new. I don't know if you guys

like new clothes in here, there's something I heard over there. There's something

different about new clothes. I mean, I like new clothes. I like

a new shirt, I like new shoes. But you know there's some people

that like to go thrift shopping. That's a little different. I mean,

I'm not talking for budgetary reasons. But some people that's just their thing to

go and they find this this thing and thrifting. I mean, I don't

understand it. I don't get it. But it's not new. It's not

new, it's it's old. It's something used, it's not there's something about

a brand new clothes. What about a new car? You guys know that

new car smell. There's nothing like that new car smell. My dad bought

a new car back in twenty eighteen, and he had the strictest rules that

he didn't have any strict compared to growing up, but he had very strict

rules when he got this car. You couldn't go in with dirty shoes.

You couldn't have any food in the car. If you had a burp,

you had to roll down the window, you had to roll it back up.

He just he, I mean, he liked He loves not more than

me, I'm praying, but he loves a new car smell so much because

there's a you can tell the difference between an old car. Old car has

a smell. I have an old car and it smells, but then there's

a new car and it has a completely different smell. You just know it

when you smell it. There's something about new. Maybe you went on a

vacation this summer or had a new experience this summer. I just went on

a cruise this summer, and that was a brand new experience. I was

treated like royalty. I was seeing new shows, I was going to new

places. There's just something about experiencing you. And I know you guys already

know this because we talked about all the time. But God made you knew.

God made you knew. If you're a believer, God made you knew.

And there's just something people can't put their finger on what about you it

is? But it's that you're new. You were made new, You're not

old. And so I think Romance chapter six is going to answer two questions

for us tonight. The first one is gonna be how were we made new?

How were we made new? And the second one is gonna be why

were we made new? So let's go to Romans chapter six. We're gonna

be in verse one. If you don't have it, you can follow along

with us. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin

that grace may abound? We kind of have to back up here because we're

jumping right into Paul's argument that he's making. Paul a deciple of Jesus is

writing this letter to some Roman Christians, and so he's talking to Christians here.

And that's why we kind of read at the beginning a little bit before,

because right before this chapter, Paul is comparing and contrasting two people,

Adam and Jesus. Right he says in Romans chapter five, by one man's

disobedience, the many were made sinners. By one man's obedience, the many

were made righteous. And so he's comparing contrasting Jesus and Adam, and he

talks about how where sin increased, God's grace came and covered it. So

wherever there was sin, God's grace came and covered it. And God kind

of shows off when he's able to show grace. He's kind of gloating,

Yeah, I can forgive that. I can forgive that, I can forgive

that. And so when Paul comes in here in Romans chapter six, verse

one, he says, hypothetically, well, what shall we say, then,

as Christians? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound,

so that grace may be shown off and grace can be there. Well,

Paul Are you telling us as Christians, we can't sin, we can't

make mistakes, we have to be perfect. Because he's asking a hypothetical question,

but that's not what Paul's talking about. My Bible says to continue.

That's a phrase in there that is sometimes used as someone's permanent residence, somebody's

home. Is how that phrases you. Sometimes, maybe your Bible says,

are we to live in sin so that grace may abound? And that's probably

a better way to understand it. Are we to live in sin? Are

we to have a lifestyle of sin? It's not just a one time act

or this way or another. It's like calling somebody that person's a liar,

that person's a cheater, that person's a drunk, that person's a gossiper.

When you call somebody that, you're not really just saying, yeah, this

person did it one time and that's why I'm calling him. No, you're

saying, this person has a lifestyle of that. And so Paul saying,

should we have this lifestyle of sin so that grace can come and cover us,

because we know it's there and it's going to happen. Should we do

that? Paul answers the question in verse two, by no means, by

no means is the strongest negation that can happen in the New Testament, and

Paul uses it a lot. He's saying, not in any way, not

in the least, not under any condition, not on your life. Should

that happen, how can we who died to sin still live in it?

And that's going to be the answer to question number one. How were we

made new? We were made new by death, That's how we were made

new. Now we know Jesus died for our sins, that's true. But

when Jesus died, I need to stay with me here. When Jesus died,

we weren't immediately made new when he died. We have to believe in

him, right, and then were made new? You guys understan Okay,

So when you believe in Jesus you died, did you know that you died

well? What do you mean you died well? Your sinful lifestyle, your

sinful self died when you believed in Jesus. What does that mean? When

before Christ we had no conviction. When it came to sin, we had

we had no shame. When it came to sin, we had no guilt.

When it came to came to sin. A lot of times we were

unashamed. We were proud of sin. Sometimes, depending on what sin it

was, we could be very proud about it. And so when you believe

in Jesus, now we have conviction when it comes to sin. Now we

have standards when it comes to sin. Sometimes we feel shame when it comes

to sin. It kind of depends. But sin isn't just something that we

like to do now as Christians. That doesn't mean you can't sin when you're

a Christian. It just means you're disposition towards sin has changed, right,

You look at it differently now. And so Paul says, are we to

continue and saying that grace may a bound? No, how can we who

died to sin still live in it? We were made new by death.

And so here's the second question, right, why were we made new?

So we know how we were made new, but why were we made new?

Verse three. Paul continues elaborating on his answer to the hypothetical question,

do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ,

Jesus were baptized into his death. Now we're getting to the baptism. The

baptism part of the night. So I want to be careful because Paul's not

talking about water right now. He's not talking about h two oh right now.

When he's talking about baptism. It's not there's nothing really special about the

water itself. It's all about the person that's in the water. It's all

about what it symbolizes when you're in the water. Okay, that's that.

We got to clear that. Paul is talking about our unity with Christ.

Our unity with Christ, so you can kind of read it almost interchange it,

you know, Uh, do you not know that all of us have

been united with Christ in his death and things like that. Paul kind of

explains it if you skip down a couple of verses to Roman six, verse

five. I think we have it for you, for if we have been

united with Him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with

him in a resurrection like his. So Paul is talking about how we are

unified with Christ in the salvation story, and so when you're baptized that you're

you're showing how you've been united with Christ in his salvation and work. He

goes on in verse four, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into

death in order that justice Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of

the Father, we two might walk in the newness of life. Baptism symbolizes

our total union, our total unity with Jesus in his work in salvation and

his death, in his burial and in his resurrection. That's what baptism is

symbolizing. And here's the answer to the second question. Why were we made

new? We were made new to walk new. God made us new so

that we can walk new. We're walking in the newness of life. I

recently got married. I have the ring to prove it. I recently got

married. You can clap for me. It's okay, it's she's beautiful.

She's beautiful. But I got married, went on the honeymoon. That was

the cruise I mentioned earlier. So it all connects. It's all connected.

We went on the cruise, we came back. I came back in the

office walking around, and Pastor Adam sees me walking and he says, hey,

you got a new walk. Now that you're married. You walk different.

You got a new walk. Before married, I walked like this.

I would look over people like them, and then I got married. And

I had a little I had a little step in it. After I got

married, it was a little different. I'm walking new. I'm walking new.

And God gave you a new walk when you when you believed in him.

God made you new, and he gave you a new walk to walk

in a new life, a life that is completely different from your old one.

Because you had an old life, an old life that just wanted to

send a new life. God gave us a new life, a life that

is completely different from our old one that only desired to sin. We only

desired sin. We were thinking about the next way we could sin before Christ.

But now we live new. Jesus died so that we can live new

live where sin is not our top priority in life anymore. That doesn't mean

we're perfect, it doesn't mean we're not going to mess up. But it

means that that will not be our ultimate goal. Our goal will be Jesus.

Our goal will be glorifying him. Our goal will be to have conviction

surrounding sin. Our goal is gonna be when we feel conviction about sin,

we might not do it, and if we do, we're gonna repent about

it. We're gonna confess it to somebody, We're gonna go to him.

It's it's different. It's a new life and you're walking new. And so

Paul saying, should we continue in sin so that grace may abound? No,

because you died, your old self died, and God died so that

you could walk new. So go ahead and walk new. Don't think about

going back. We should live in a way that doesn't take advantage of God's

grace, even though we know it's there, but we should live in a

way that honors it. We should live in a way that upholds it.

And so why will we made new? We were made new so that we

can walk new. Let's pray God, we thank you for tonight. Lord,

We thank you for everyone getting baptized into this place and what it symbolizes.

Lord. We thank you that as they go into the water, Lord,

that they are showing that they are united in his burial. Lord,

in your burial. God. We thank you that as they're getting pulled out

of the water, Lord, that they're being united in your resurrection. And

we thank you Lord that as they're walking away, they are symbolizing their new

life that they're walking in. God, we thank you for baptism. Lord,

We pray for us here who have been baptized, that as we're watching

these baptisms take place, God, that we be reminded of our unity with

Jesus, that we are reminded of the newness of life that you gave us.

God, that we can rejoice and celebrate with all these believers getting baptized

into this place, and we can be reminded that we declared that to others

as well, and that we can celebrate them in your name, we pray

Amen. We really hope you enjoyed the message, and if you said yes

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