The freedom to Choose

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​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ May 19, 2024)
Sermon Title – The Freedom to Choose
Text – Romans6:12-14
Rev. Cliff Jones 

​​We are all addicted to something. I’m not sure where I first heard that or when, but it’s stuck with me: we are all addicted to something. Do you think that’s true? I went on-line to see what I could find out. I came across an article from the Huffington Post that said, “We’re all addicted to something: it’s just a question of owning up to your own particular poison.” [“Is everyone addicted to something?” - BJ Gallagher (2011)]
 
According to author Anne Wilson Schaef, it’s “virtually impossible to grow up in the United States without developing some form of addiction.” Interesting….
 
And, in an on-line article in February of this year, Forbes Magazine says: “In one way or another, each person has at least one addiction….”
 
What would our addiction be? Well, there’s drugs and alcohol, of course. That’s what we think of when we think of addictions. But, there’s also gambling - a cousin of mine gambled away his kids' college fund; ya, that’s an addiction - also pornography, smoking. But, say I don’t have any of those compulsions, am I free from addictions?
 
Well, but wait; there are other addictions, too. Can you name some? How about coffee? I mean, I know people that get headaches if they don’t have coffee first thing in the morning. There’s texting and scrolling through your phone dozens of times a day, playing computer and iPad games over and over. Aren’t these addictions? Then, there’s chocolate (now I’m hitting close to home, aren’t I?) How about Netflix or Hulu binge-watching? There’s also running and exercising, compulsive buying, shop-lifting, taking risks to get adrenaline highs, worrying… worrying, the drive to succeed, perfectionism, day-dreaming, escapism, our need to look as good as we can, and certain what we may call ‘hobbies’. There are a lot of addictions going around.
 
Maybe we should pause and ask, what is an addiction? Here’s a definition by Dr. Carter Stout (goop on-line), that I think comes from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5): Addictions are a “range of conditions characterized by the compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences.” We want to do something and keep doing it, even though we know it will bring results we don’t like. I don’t know… sound like me, and you?
 
But, before we answer, we should ask what the Bible says about addictions. For us Christians, seeing what Scripture says is vital to every issue. It may surprise you, but the Bible actually talks about addictions. Yep, it does. Just listen to the Apostle Paul. You remember the apostle Paul, the sold-out, go-for-broke, willing to die for Jesus, putting everything on the line for Jesus’ apostle?
 
 
One of the great, great followers of Jesus of all time? Yes, that apostle.  He says, and I quote,  Romans 7:15 - “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”  Wow, did you hear that?  This man of God admitting that he does what he knows he should not do.  That sounds like an addiction, doesn’t it?  And, if Paul can’t escape an addiction, what hope do we have?  He goes on to say:  “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but Sin which dwells within me.”  What does he mean by ‘sin’? We think we know, but there is another meaning. Take a look with me at Romans 6:5-11:
 
         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 so that
         the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For he
         who has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
         also live with him. 9 For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die
         again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 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.
 
There are at least 3 things this passage tells us:
One - We are all addicted to Sin that enslaves us.
Did you hear the word, ‘enslaved’ in verse 6?  “That we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” Sin’ as used here, is a force inside us that enslaves us to its will.  We are not talking about individual acts that we call sin. For instance, we lie; that’s a sin.  We take a parking space that really another driver should have.  That’s a sin. We say something hurtful and uncaring. That’s a sin. And, that’s one Biblical understanding of sin, the specific, individuals acts we do that goes against what God wants. All these various sins are just symptoms, symptoms to a deeper force within us, what Paul here calls ‘Sin’, Sin with a capital S, a force inside us that directs what we do, what we say, and how we think. It is a fundamental urge within us of self-interest.
 
Think of an infant, let’s say a girl. She cries, because she wants or needs something. She doesn’t care what time of the day or night it is, or how inconvenient it is for the parents. No, she demands what she wants. Skip forward a couple of years. Now, let’s take the case of a 2 1/2 year old boy. Now, he can begin to verbalize wants and needs. He says, “I want milk.” It doesn’t make any different what time of day or night it is, or how inconvenient it is for the parents. He expects milk now! As time progresses, you and I were trained to be more polite, and even to learn patience, but one way or another, what we want is most important to us. And, as adults, even though some of us are more quiet in expressing our desires, or louder, or more passive or assertive, no matte our personality, or how we try to cover it, underneath it all, self-interest rules.  We are directed towards self. And, because it controls us, it is an addiction. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin,” (John 8:34)- Sin with a Capital S.
 
Think of it as a compass.  A compasses always moves towards, it is directed to the magnetic north. We have a compass inside us.  It directs us, not to North, but to self.  It directs us to go after what we want. It squeezes us to move towards what we think will give us happiness.  It forces us to act always, always for Self.  We may act kindly, generously, lovingly, but underneath it all, we are driven by the magnetic compass inside us to fulfill self.  Our compass pulls us, not to N for north, but to S for self. We are directed towards self.  This is the first fundamental truth that hits us from this passage in Romans: we are all addicted to Sin the enslaves us.  The second thing,
 
Two - Jesus died to Sin.
When Jesus died on the cross, his whole body died.  His heart stopped pumping, his lungs stopped expanding and contracting with air, his muscle mass began to decay.  Everything inside him died, and that included the force of sin inside, the internal magnetic compass that always points towards Self.  Just like us, Jesus was infected with the force of Sin.  The difference between us and him is that Jesus never gave in to Sin. (Hebrews 4:15)  And, when Jesus died, He died to Sin. The force of Sin inside him died as well. It was destroyed. So, when Jesus rose again, the magnetic compass of Sin was no longer inside him.  He broke the power of Sin inside him. Look at verse 10:
v. 10 - “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.”
 
Jesus rose victorious over death, over evil, and over Sin. He gained the victory over Sin! When Jesus died, he died to Sin. When He rose, he broke the power of Sin that enslaves us.
 
Three - And here is the marvelous truth.  Jesus’ victory becomes our victory.
When we become a follower of Jesus, his victory is applied to us and gives us the victory as well. Look at v. 6, 7:
v. 6, 7 - “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin.”
Like a thick, braided rope that tethers a boat to the dock, you and I are tethered to Jesus. His death becomes our death. His triumph over the force of Sin becomes our triumph, and for the first time in our life, we are free, free from the magnetic Self that compels to live for ourselves. We are free.
v. 8 - “But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”
That’s why Paul, in the agony of the struggle between Sinful self and God cries out, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” But, then he goes on to say, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Jesus has freed him and us from the enslavement of the force of Sin.
 
How do we respond to this? Let me tell you a story, a story about a man, 42 years old. He was convicted of 2nd degree murder and has spent 23 years in prison. Life has passed him by, as each day, he wakes up to a loud voice shouting over the P.A, system, washes his face in a bare, silver metal sink attached to the wall in his 10 x 10 cell. With a loud buzz, his cell door unlocks electronically, and he files out to eat an institutional breakfast with hundreds of other prisoners. He spends hours working at a menial job, maybe mopping the floor, or working in the laundry.
 
 
He breaks for an institutional lunch, and later, an institutional dinner.  His evenings, just drift,
maybe he watches TV, or just sitting in his cell, with nothing but a bed and a toilet, maybe one desk, and a cellmate. Each day, pretty much the same, drifting, locked up in his room, 22 years.
One afternoon, he has a visitor; not a new visitor, but this time, the visitor has the biggest smile he has ever seen. It’s his lawyer from the Innocence Project. His appeal has been granted and his
sentence commuted. He is free to leave. The prisoner is in a daze. Free to leave? After 22 years? He falls to his knees. Free. As the lawyer helps him get up, he hugs his lawyer, hugs him tight, and keeps saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you for believing in me, thank you for taking my case, thank you for spending months on my appeal even thought I couldn’t pay you.”
And, out into the sunlight of freedom he walks, so, so grateful.
 
Jesus is the focus of our gratitude. Jesus triumphs over the tyranny of Sin. You and I no longer need to live for ourselves, but for Jesus. It’s his will, his desires for us that now motivate us. Instead of our lives shrinking in on ourselves, our lives expand outward towards others. Now, we can answer the question, “Why am I still here?” His concerns become our concerns, his directions become our directions, what He wants becomes more important than what we want., even as we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth…” by me and you.  We experience what Paul says, (Colossians 3:20): “You have come to fullness of life in (Christ).” Praise be to God! Praise to Jesus for his death and resurrection that frees us to live differently.
Charles Wesley captures this immense gratitude in his hymn:
            Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
            Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.
            My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth and followed Thee.
            Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, should die for me!
 
But, when I say this, I think about a man named Max. Max was a prisoner in a State Correctional Prison. I knew him for 10 years during the time when I would go in almost weekly to lead a Bible study. The end of my 10 years coincided with Max’s soon release from prison. And, the
word began to spread, ‘Max doesn’t want to leave.’ What? An inmate pulled me aside. He said, “After so many years, Max would rather trade the comfort of the predictable for freedom.”
 
How about you? Do you want to live a predictable life, where you try to control what you really can’t? Or, are you ready for true freedom, that comes with responsibility. The freedom to live, not for yourself, but for Jesus? Jesus has set us free from the prison of our own selves. Every day, we choose whether to stay imprisoned in our own little cell with the door wide open, or we walk out, into the freedom Christ has called us to follow his whispers into our brain and his nudges.
 
How do we leave our Sin imprisonment? Well, if you worshipped last month with me, you’ll remember what I said , Pray “Lead me, guide me, Jesus. The Holy Spirit, which we celebrate today, is the Spirit of Jesus. As we practice throughout the day silently saying, “Lead me, guide me, Jesus”, we ask the Spirit to direct us to what He would have us do. And, then, we obey, obey, obey. And, as we obey, the Spirit enables us to do more than what we can do ourselves. You and I are free now, thanks be to God; so free, free to follow Jesus. Lead me, guide me, Jesus.  Then, obey, obey, obey.