You were listening to a live city church podcast and we hope you'll experience Jesus today We are excited to have you join our extended online church family If you would like further information or wish to access more content, please connect with us on our live city church Facebook page Or visit us at live city church calm. Well, good morning everybody. I don't think postopore realizes that most of my hair has fallen out So it doesn't matter for the little bits the left or gray because it'll be gone soon Please take your seats everybody, you know, I don't know I don't know if there's an energy in the room this morning or whether there's just this passion for Christ this morning Normally when I stand up here, I'm trying to get everybody to get up to my level of excitement about the word of God But I feel like this morning. I'm gonna have to catch up with you guys.
Am I right? All right, so as possible said, please lean in this morning's God has got a word for you this morning God wants to do something He doesn't want you to hear a story. He wants you to walk home feeling something that something has changed in your life This morning, I'm gonna start off by making a controversial statement Did you know that you were a slave? I told you it was gonna be controversial.
We are all slaves It's controversial because I wanted to get your attention But it's controversial because it's not the sort of thing that we want to be associated with when we think about the Rendous things that happen to real slaves in african-american and even today this slavery going on. It's a stain on human kind The stuff that happens and of course the fact that you are set free from Christ You do not want to be called a slave But I am talking more about a universal spiritual sense. You know you have these words darkness and light good and evil You are either a slave to sin or you are a slave to righteousness. Which one are you?
If you would turn with me, we're gonna go to Roman 16 if you got your smartphones or you got your Bible open quickly jump into Romans 16 to 23 We're gonna find out a little bit more about spiritual slavery Roman 6 16 to 23 The apostle Paul the speaking says don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves Your slaves of the one you obey Whether you are slaves to sin which leads to death or to obedience which leads to righteousness But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin you have come to you have come Sorry, I lost my way there you've come to obey from the heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your legions You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness So now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness When you were slaves to sin you were free from the control of righteousness What benefit did that reap at the time from the things you're now ashamed of? Those things result in death But now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves of God the benefit you reap leads to holiness And the result is eternal life for the weight is of sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord amen What's morning I'm gonna continue to be controversial We've all heard of the term slaves to sin. We've just heard it right now But I believe that God gives us the power to rule over sin If you're taking notes this morning, I want you to take this down as the title make sin your slave It's one thing to break free from sin, but it's another thing to rule over it In Genesis God speaks to Cain and says but if you do not do what is right sin is crouching at your door It desires to have you but you must rule over it, but we need to begin at the foundations First we need to break free from sin. I'm gonna give three points and then conclude The first one is this you are slaves to the one you obey You know in the physical when a slave was called to captured they were imprisoned by their master They were not their own After being punished they were then set back into slavery You are not your own a slave does not exercise the right to choose whether to do the master's work or not instead They must bend to the authority of the master You know many people caught in repeating sin they think to themselves that somehow I'm gonna get out of this somehow I'm gonna be able to do this They don't realize that they cannot you cannot learn by self-taught teachings You cannot learn by your own your own will because if you're under the authority of sin you will never break free from it It is your master.
There's nothing that you can do to break free from it. You see slavery is about authority It's about a master who has authority over you in the beginning Adam and Eve gave this authority our authority over to the devil and Ever since then you and me we were born as slaves to sin We were born as slaves by default How is slaves set free in the rear in really? They could escape but they were never set free They would run and hide but they were always enslaved by the fear of being caught They were always looking over their shoulder and the punishment would be greater So they were never free even if they escaped for a time because they were always caught The only way that a slave was set free by was by the changing of law That is what set them free When the law changed in in in America the masters had to listen to the law and give their slaves over And if they try to keep them they were found guilty and imprisoned and this is exactly what Jesus Christ did He changed the law You know sometimes we think that you know salvation is about the cross the work on the cross and we and resurrection was of course It is but we forget it's also primarily because Jesus changed the law Matthew 5 17 says do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets of the process I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them Jesus didn't discard the law he didn't abolish it because the law was good the law was righteous the law was holy It came from God Romans 714 says so the trouble is not the law for it is spiritual and good the trouble is with me For I am all too human a slave to sin so he doesn't abolish it, but he fulfills it another words. He completes the law You know we speak about prophetic words what happens when a prophetic word is fulfilled?
It's spoken about it. It's not worthy anything unless it's fulfilled once it's fulfilled. It's complete. It's done Whatever is supposed to have happened is done Jesus completes it to the point he meets the demands of the law He lives a sin free life and he pays the penalty for the demands of what the law has upon our behalf You know I love the fact that here in this church we offer decisions for Christ for salvation every week we do it Many churches don't I've been in a lot of churches.
We're very seldom it happens sometimes it happens some some I don't see it at all We do it here every single week because it is so important to us to have the lost saved This is what this church is about. This is what our hope is we want to see people come from under slavery and set into freedom But there's also a missing piece of the puzzle that is even more important Repentance you see a decision on its own as a starting point, but it actually cannot do anything unless it's counted with repentance X two seventeen says therefore let all Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ When the people heard this they were cut to the heart Church when we lost cut to the heart I'm being honest and sincere when was I lost cut to the heart when did my sin trouble me? When were we lost cut to the heart where we fell on the floor and said oh God? Save me and these people were like that they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter brothers.
What shall we do? Because they had no idea what to do they didn't know what to do and Peter replies Repent and be baptized he doesn't say make a decision for Christ He says repent and be baptized you see decisions for Christ is something that we offer a church But the repentance is on you you have to do it We give the opportunity as a church But you have to make that decision, you know we do the altar call and we read it out That is part of repentance But what you do is it's up to you if it if you're just saying the words and not doing it You see what actually happens is we afraid to repent because then we have to we have to let go of the sinful life that we want Listen what is baptism baptism is when the old man or the old woman goes under the ground and is buried and is dead That's where you have to get this please listen to this That's what repentance does when you ask for forgiveness the old person is buried and dead you come out of the water a new person If the old person is dead then so is the slavery dead If the new person is alive then the new person is set free a decision in Christ cannot do that only repentance can set you free from slavery of sin We have stopped at the decision to believe in the essential part of repentance a 12-year-old accidentally killed one of his family He's by throwing a stone figuring his parents wouldn't notice one of 24 that they had he buried it His sister saw his crime and said I saw what you did You have to wash the dishes for me every night of those I'll tell mom And of course the boy did the dishes every day terrified of what would happen One day he just said to sister. I'm not doing the dishes anymore and she said I'm gonna tell mom And he said I already told her and she forgave me and I'm free again It's repentance that sets us free that puts the old man into the grave and the new man is born free from sin Point them to you are free from the control of sin in the script you just read the possible says when you were slaves to sin You were free from the control of righteousness Meaning when you were slaves to sin righteousness had nothing on you you may have known you were doing the wrong thing But you were numbed to your conscience You didn't even care whether and and the more you got numb the more you don't care it has no control of your righteousness But the reverse is implied if you are slave to righteousness you are free from the control of sin Doesn't the word of God say that in every temptation there is always a way out if you are in the slavery They would be no way out you have to bend to its authority But God has set you free and so there's always it doesn't mean that you're not gonna be tempted Jesus was tempted in the devil himself in the desert himself by the devil and this doesn't mean that you're sinless either Just because you're free from being enslaved to sin the word of God tells us that we're all full short of the glory of God So let's just not kill ourselves. We're not sinless But just because you sin sometimes it doesn't make you a slave to it Repent and you're free again But if you are a slave to sin you just remain a slave to sin You see what's happened God's taken us out of slavery taking us out of prison and put us in a place Yeah, we may still sin but we are outside the prison now we're outside the prison walls And if righteousness has control of you, then you also have control and commanding authority I listen the power to make it your slave.
You can tell Satan get behind me. You can say I want to do that But I will not I want to do this. I want to take that but I will not you have the power to do that now Sometimes you may fail, but you have the control you have the authority to do so Point number three Do you see the the process set yourself free from slavery take control And then finally make yourself upon servant Make yourself a slave to righteousness. It's a weird thing.
I sort of the the idea that it's quite controversial to call yourself a slave But we need to understand something in typical reality a slave as somebody has been oppressed Somebody has been forced into slavery. God does not oppress you and make you his slave The word of God says that he knocks but he waits for you to open It is we who submit ourselves under his authority and make ourselves a slave to his righteousness That is the difference. It is my choice. It's your choice to do so Exodus 21 1 to 6 When you buy a Hebrew slave He will serve you six years The seventh year he goes free For nothing if he came in single he leaves single if he came in married he leaves with his wife If the master gives him a wife and she gave him sons and daughters the wife and the children stay with the master and he leaves by himself But suppose the slave should say I love my master and I love my children and my kids my wife and my kids I don't want my freedom Then his master is to bring him before God and to a door or door post and pierce his ear with an all A sign that he is a servant for life And sometimes we look at scripture.
I don't know if you guys do look at the scripture and I go what what's that all about? You know like, you know, I don't want to put a big, you know, and all is one of those big ugly nails like, you know They put into Jesus Christ in three's hands I don't want that going through my ear into the door and why is it going into the door post and why am I here? You know when you don't understand something the word of God you got to seek and find You got to scratch a bit deeper because God's purposes are always there and they're always beautiful Why the piercing and the all because Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross Why a door because Jesus Christ pulled him says I am the door of life into through me and you will be saved Why the earlobe because the priests Aaron when they were consecrated the blood was put on the earlobe as a sign of the guilt offering So as a guilty party Recognizing that you are still a sinner even though you've been set free you offer yourself to God you say God I'm guilty Put an all through my ear and put it to your door post that I may serve you for the rest of my life These slaves were set free after six years On the seventh year they were sorry on the seventh year they were set free six years they worked seventh That was set free. God created heavens and the earth six days seventh year Seventh day he rested in the book of Romans the apostle paul starts to see these things as foreshadows of what was to come And he says you have worked your whole life under the old law and trying to find righteousness for six days You've been working but you will never find that you have to enter into the rest and still today There's a place of rest that you can enter into which is salvation in Jesus Christ the seventh day is salvation in Jesus Christ And the seventh year and the seventh day we enter into Christ And as slaves we have done the same as we receive Christ As our slavery has shed off us As we've entered into him we have now been set free once again So what do you do with this freedom that you have now you've been set free you were once a slave you realize how good that is But now what do you do?
This is what the apostle was trying to say in the scripture He just as you used to offer yourselves a slave to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness So now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness You have a decision to make shall you return to your old master the devil and allow him to piece your ear to his all into his door A door of destruction just like the is right to his slaves in Egypt came out of God rescued them as slaves And was taking them to the promised land for a place of blessings They got halfway and started to moan and grumble and said to themselves we should return and become slaves again I urge you people If you resolve to be a slave to your passions then your passions will enslave you If you resolve to be a slave to drinking and drugging it will enslave you If you resolve to to lust and to pornography it will twist your mind so that you do not see creation in the way it was meant to be seen It will enslave you Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves you are the slaves are the one you obey You give up your authority And do not think for a minute that if you're freed but if you refuse to make a decision which master to sign authority that you shall remain in the middle ground You won't Because your lord god is a gentleman He will never force you into slavery, but the devil will The devil will tempt you and he will trick you and he will deceive you and before you know where you are you have regressed Back into slavery What happened to the person who was cleanse from an evil spirit I'm sure many of you know about the story that jesus spoke about and said there was a there's a woman who was had a demon within her And so the demon was cast out But then the wrong it says the wrong was swept clean And when the demon came back he found the wrong swept clean and he said this is great And he went back and got another horde of demons were worse than him and they began to live in that person made it worse for them But had that demon come back and found grace in that life and found faith in that life and the authority of jesus christen in life He would never have been able to enter He will rob you and steal from you if you sit in the middle ground waiting to make a decision Or should you rather turn into your father in heaven? I'm speaking to Christians here this morning Since they enslaved the sin loves their master so much The one who lies to them and deceives them since they cling to his calling even when he brings their misery How much more should you love yours? How much more should you bond yourself to your father in heaven who declares to you come to me? Oh you are weary and burdened and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn from you for I am gentle and humble and hot And you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light When jesus was led into the desert and tempted with ownership of all creation Why did he not receive them?
Because he had chosen the way of the cross He chose to surrender Jesus had already put his ear to the all And to the door If jesus would not free himself from service to his god even to the point of death Should we not also make up our minds to offer our ears to the all and to the door of christ And what a great service that would be If you want to make sin your slave And tell jesus tell Satan to get behind you You have to repent We should be repenting daily We sin daily It mounds up And we think we're christians And we think that because we made a decision at some point in our lives that it's all okay But it all bounces up on top of us and piles up We have to be a repenting nation of people the kingdom of god is about repenting people Submit yourself to god offer your ear to the commanding authority of god And obey his teachings Rejoice For your slave to righteousness And a slave to christ Thank you for joining live city church And we hope that you will bless and inspired by today's message If this ministry has made an impact on your life We'd love to hear from you Please drop us a line and share your story yet Thanks at livecitychurch.com Or email us your prayer needs at prayer at livecitychurch.com We'd love to connect with you and hear more about your story If you love the ministry of live city church You can make a financial gift to help us spread the good news of Jesus by going to livecitychurch.com And clicking the giving tab We hope today's message has spoken into your life and look forward to your next visit