Sunday Recap for 09.15.19 Big Idea: A New Way to Serve God

Sunday Recap for 09.15.19 Big Idea: A New Way to Serve God

On Sunday, September 15, 2019, Evident Grace Fellowship looked at Romans 7.1-6:

 

7:1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For 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. 3 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 that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

 

4 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. 5 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. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code

 

From those verses, we pursued this Big Idea and these three points:

 

Big Idea: A New Way to Serve God

 

We All Need Help Serving God

God Creates a Community of People Who Serve Him

Our Service is Spirit Empowered

 

We All Need Help Serving God

 

7:1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For 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. 3 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 that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

 

Paul makes an illustration about our relationship with the law. He uses marriage. If you are married, you are married. If you go and live with someone else while you are married, that is adultery. If your spouse dies, you are free to remarry.

 

That is your relationship with the law. You are bound to the law. If you don’t obey it, you are guilty of it. The only help you can receive to leave the constraints of the law is if someone dies. Christ is that someone.

 

God Creates a Community of People Who Serve Him

 

4 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. 5 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.

 

Christ obeyed the law perfectly. When He died, we died and are now free from the law. We now belong to another. We belong to our heavenly father, and we belong to one another. The body of Christ joins us the body of Christ, the church. Now, we have the help of Christ and the help of the church to obey.

 

Our Service is Spirit Empowered

 

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

 

Now, we are released from the law. We died to is captivity when we had faith in Jesus Christ. Now, we can serve in the Spirit and not in the written code. We can seek:

 

Transformation over reputation.

Faith over effort.

Heart over appearance.

 

Big Idea: A New Way to Serve God

 

We All Need Help Serving God

God Creates a Community of People Who Serve Him

Our Service is Spirit Empowered

 

Truth: Knowing that sinners are helpless and alone, God creates a spirit empowered and obedient people for Himself in the church.

 

Application: Live knowing that you are not alone in your struggle to obey God. You are part of a spirit empowered community who loves you and wants to encourage you.

 

Action: Don’t give up on obeying. Don’t give up on your church.

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