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Feb 07, 2021

NotMyMaster

NotMyMaster

Passage: Romans 6:1-14

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: All Things New

Keywords: righteousness, members, united, newness of life

All the things Jesus has made new we’ve covered so far--new hope, new covenant, new creation, new humanity, new commandment--are all meant to result in a new life. What does Paul mean by a “newness of life”?

Order of worship

OPENING PRAYER: The Lord’s Prayer
CALL TO WORSHIP: Ephesians 2:1-2a,4-5a,8-10
OT READING: Isaiah 6:1-6
MESSAGE TITLE: #NotMyMaster
CENTRAL TEXT: Romans 6:1-14
RESPONSE: Mission of the Church (adapted from The Book of Common Prayer)

Readings & Scripture

OPENING PRAYER: The Lord’s Prayer
ALL: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

For Thine is the Kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever Amen.

CALL TO WORSHIP: Ephesians 2:1-2a,4-5a,8-10
LEADER: 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

ALL: 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

OT READING: Isaiah 6:1-6
LEADER: 1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

CENTRAL TEXT: Romans 6:1-14
Rom. 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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 too might walk in newness of life.

Rom. 6:5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Rom. 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

RESPONSE: Mission of the Church (adapted from The Book of Common Prayer)
ALL: Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through the finished work of your Son. Inspire our witness to Him, that all may know and extend the power of Christ’s forgiveness and the hope of His resurrection; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

Psalm 119:9-15
Isaiah 6:1-9
Jeremiah 33:8
Ephesians 2:1-4
Hebrews 12:3-17

ILLUSTRATIONS:

InView Media 2.7.21Album

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. The question is not out to condemn but only to illumine: what are ways your life would be different today if you had not given in to sin in its various forms? 
  2. What prompts Paul to take up the subject he focuses on in the passage? What deduction was being made he thought it necessary to answer?
  3. On multiple occasions and in several ways, Paul says we have “died” to sin? What from the context do you think he means?
  4. Think about modern culture and discourse. Why do people who reject the idea of sin still assume its reality, in light of all that culture denounces and champions? In other words what happens when they refuse any transcendent idea to which we all must submit but then turn around and call loudly for universal acceptance of certain ideas?
  5. How is it that we have died to it (whatever that means)? Look closely--not just the obvious “He died for our sins.” What in the passage accounts for why we are dead to sin?
  6. So...if sin is a path both to offense and to being diminished, how would this passage instruct you when you’ve chosen sin? Why is it something other than merely a simple resolve to “do better”?

QUOTES:

  • I got power, poison, pain and joy inside my DNA. - Kendrick Lamar
  • Conscience is a good servant but a fearsome tyrant of a master. Give conscience the job of pronouncing absolution, and you will soon find yourself the victim of a merciless enemy. Conscience does not forgive; conscience accuses. Conscience does not free us from our sins; it binds us to them. It ties us tighter and tighter to our wrongdoing by setting it always before us: “This is who you are! This is what you have done.” And it’s that voice of the accuser which is finally silenced by Jesus Himself, the ascended priest. - John Webster
  • The terrible domination of the past, the whole muddle of what I have so far made of my life does not enslave me because I am forgiven, and that forgiveness is sealed, made effective and real to us, by the ascension of Jesus. - John Webster
  • The holy person somehow enlarges your world, makes you feel more yourself, opens you up, affirms you. They are not in competition. . . .these [holy people] are never people who make me feel complacent about myself, far from it; they make me feel that there is hope for my confused and compromised humanity. A holy person makes you see things in yourself and around you that you had not seen before, that is to say, enlarges the world rather than shrinking it. - Rowan Williams

BOOKS / DOCS

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