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What If You Believed This One Verse?
19 Plays1 day ago
Vernon reminds us of the one truth that can be a game changer when it comes to walking free in Christ found in Romans 6. He also teases the new GraceTalk that is under construction that is titled, at this point, “Overcoming The Urge.”
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Transcript
00:00:22
Speaker
And welcome everybody this is Vernon and I thought I would begin this walking free episode. First with a reminder, I have to because we have a golf tournament coming up and this will be 32nd promo of the golf tournament. It's gonna be at Windermere Golf Club in coming Georgia on November 4th. That's Monday, it's coming up soon. Registration ah ends next week, end of next week. So if you wanna golf with us, support what we're doing at Grace Ministries, I encourage you
00:00:58
Speaker
to register ah for our event, and you can find it at our website, gmint.org, more info there. But it's gonna be fun, I look forward to it. We've got everything for if you wanna golf. If you don't wanna golf, you can just you can sponsor a whole, or we we have all levels of sponsorship, ah and all of it helps us provide financial assistance to those who can't afford the full cost of counseling. 75% of our counselors have some level of financial support. And that's a direct result from your donation. So we really appreciate it. So commercial over. Now,
00:01:47
Speaker
I thought we'd jump into this discussion on a, actually a grace talk that we are building, and it's going to be based on my book, Stop Fighting Start Living. And we're titling this grace talk, at least at this point, we may change it, but I like it right now. It's called Overcoming the Urge.
00:02:14
Speaker
Have you ever just felt that urge, whether it's the mouth just opens and blurts out something that, yeah, you wish you didn't, or overcome the urge when it comes to what you're looking at, or what you're eating, and it's this idea of how, how do I overcome the urge?
00:02:40
Speaker
and Today, I thought I'd give a couple of teasers, and some of this, you'll say, Vernon, this is old news, maybe. David always said, I wanna bring to my memory, my remembrance, these things. And I wanna remind you of a couple of things that are so important. My good friend Mike Quarles, who passed away recently, when he and I would do freedom from addiction webinars,
00:03:10
Speaker
he would always say this phrase, I read this and I read this and I read this, but when I believed half of a verse, he was set free. That's all it took for him. He just, he got it. It's like the Lord revealed it in this half of a verse. And I'm gonna share that again with you when we get started. So that's really the the driving force of this Podcast is Facebook Live. It's LinkedIn Live. it's It is the idea of walking free. And that's what we do at Grace Ministries is we help people walk free. And I have lined up. In fact, I talked to one gentleman today. He's a counselor on our staff named Ron. And he did a talk on depression.
00:04:08
Speaker
And he got an incredible response and we're gonna bring Ron on. Got another counselor, just a ah great sort great guy named Ed. Excuse me, trying not to cough. And Ed has got a lot of great insight and material.
00:04:28
Speaker
and whether we're talking about fostering and bringing in and parenting in that fostering environment. We may talk about that. We've got a lot of stuff that we wanna talk about. So I've got some folks lined up that will have some good ah perspectives and I hope you'll like it. But today, I wanna bring you back to a passage for just a couple of minutes ah and it's foundational to this idea of overcoming the urge. So let me just share my screen here and you will recognize this pack passage and I will make it just a little bigger here. And it starts out with what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? you know
00:05:26
Speaker
People talk, some folks, not a lot. I think this grace message has really got out to so many folks, and I'm so thrilled about that. But some might say, oh, you're talking about God's grace, grace, grace, you're giving a license to sin. No, folks, we're giving you a license to live.
00:05:47
Speaker
as God designs you. And that's what Paul's answering here. He says, are we to continue in sin so that we can get more grace? Because he just said in the prior chapter, or he was writing ah the the the prior paragraphs, he said that um that sin can never overtake God's grace. God's grace is greater, is always greater than your sin.
00:06:16
Speaker
But then he says, look, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, so do we just continue to sin so we get more grace? No. In fact, emphatically, he says, may it never be. That's not the point. It's not a license to sin. And then he makes the statement, how shall we who who die to sin still live in it? And he's gonna tease this out.
00:06:43
Speaker
and you think, died to sin. Some Christians really believe, and and I believe for the longest time, that it's my goal that I need to die to sin. I need to put myself up and and I need to die to sin every day. No. This is past tense, already happened. He says, how shall we who already die to sin still live in it?
00:07:10
Speaker
He goes, or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, that word baptism, that word means to just fully immersed into Christ? Well, we were immersed into his death. It's like, what? What are you saying? he so He says, therefore we have been buried with him through baptism and to death.
00:07:33
Speaker
so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might what? Walk in the vernacular of the podcast so that we might walk free. That's what this is all about. Walking free.
00:08:00
Speaker
He says, so we might walk in newness of life. And he continues teasing this out. He said, for we have become united with him in the likeness of his death. Certainly, we're gonna be in the likeness of his resurrection, right? So he said, look, if I just told you that you died in him, you were participating in his death,
00:08:28
Speaker
Well, doesn't it make sense? He's saying that you're gonna participate in his resurrection?
00:08:36
Speaker
He says, all right, let's bring it home here. Knowing this, that our old self, past tense, was crucified with him. That's what he said up in the beginning. Don't you know that you died to sin? Why would you live in it?
00:08:56
Speaker
and he's bringing it home here, knowing this, all that I just explained to you, our old self was crucified with him, quite literally. In order that our body of sin, this humanness that still has to deal with sin, our body isn't sinful, our body isn't evil, but our body has sin that is affecting it.
00:09:27
Speaker
He said, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, and that word done away with means to render it powerless. It's no longer effective like it was. This engine of death was crucified. this This self that had no life, no power was crucified.
00:09:54
Speaker
so that this body of sin is now ineffective.
00:10:01
Speaker
We still have the body, still around. It's just like, I'm done with that. It's not like it's it's like your body is gone and you got a new body. No, you're you still got this same body. What was crucified, this old self, the real you, it's that spiritual you, that nature,
00:10:24
Speaker
was crucified. And when you're crucified, what happens? Well, you die. That's the point. So that old self was crucified so that this body of sin that we have to deal with, and that's why this body is gets older and older and creaky and cranky. Well, cranky is is an attitude issue, I guess, but it starts to wither away You know, as I get older, it's like my body said, yeah, you can't do those quite what you did back when you were 20, even though I still try, especially at the gym. It's the guy thing, I guess. But by the very fact that our old self was crucified, it rendered this body that still has to deal with sin as powerless so that we would no longer be what?
00:11:23
Speaker
slaves to sin. Isn't that incredible? You are no longer, as a believer in Jesus Christ, a slave to sin. And here's the verse that just flipped a switch for Mike, verse seven. For he who has died is freed from sin.
00:11:52
Speaker
And when we talk about this new grace talk that we're gonna do, we wanna pack a whole lot into it, um into an hour or so when we get this grace talk finished. um One of the foundational ideas is verse seven. As a believer in Christ, you died, you died.
00:12:20
Speaker
and you were raised up, you participated in this resurrection, you were raised up. He says in 1 Corinthians 5.17, 2 Corinthians 5.17, a brand new creation in Christ. For he who has died is freed from sin. You're free from sin. Did you know that? Well, Vernon, I don't feel very free from sin. I know, I know, me either at times
00:12:49
Speaker
The truth is you are free from sin. And as we set the foundation for overcoming the urge, the foundation is you don't have to. You don't have to sin. You've got some memory patterns, you've got some muscle memory,
00:13:15
Speaker
that whether if you're in an environment, you're in a certain situation, you've got this muscle memory that just like you wants to knee jerk and just, yep, that's just what I do. Pause, timeout, think, McFly, well, no, bad, and bad one, think though and understand and realize, wait, I died. I'm not a slave to sin anymore, in fact,
00:13:46
Speaker
As we read further, I'm a slave to righteousness. And the beautiful thing is sin has no real power over me. It just doesn't.
00:14:06
Speaker
So let me just pause there and let that sink in. And I want you to remember this the next time that urge, whatever it is for you, I don't know what it is for you, whatever that urge is to lash out or to act out or to whatever.
00:14:25
Speaker
Remember verse seven, for he who has died is freed from sin. Did you die? Have you received Jesus Christ as your personal savior? Did you receive his forgiveness in life? Guess what? You died and you were raised a brand new you. That's my friend, Dr. Lewis Gregory, in his book, The New You. You're a new you, great book, I encourage you to buy it. and Because you died and you were raised up brand new and that means here you are free
00:15:04
Speaker
from sin, you don't have to. Doesn't mean you're not going to sin. Yes, as a human, you probably will at times. That's just part of the human condition. But you know, as you start to understand that you have died to sin, you're raised up brand new, and you're actually free from sin, you will sin less, not sin more.
00:15:30
Speaker
It's not a license, it's a realization, it's an understanding of the truth that you are free from sin. Isn't that incredible?
00:15:44
Speaker
And he says, now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we're gonna live with him knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him.
00:16:01
Speaker
For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. Even so, here's your part of the equation. Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. You don't consider yourselves to be dead to sin, to get more dead to sin.
00:16:28
Speaker
you You died past 10, it's done. But you consider yourself to be dead to sin because you don't always feel dead to sin. You have to realize the truth that you have died and that you are alive and breathe.
00:16:51
Speaker
And this is where the, when you're talking about walking free and talking about next steps, this is where you take a step of faith because it doesn't feel like it and you start to walk. That's why Peter says, he says, be holy. Why? Because you're holy. You don't go walk holy to make yourself more holy. He says, be holy.
00:17:20
Speaker
because that's just who you are. You have radically changed. And that's what I wanna remind you of. I just felt led. I said, I wanna do ah a podcast and a Facebook Live to remind you again. And I'm gonna, this is just the message. I'm gonna remind you over and over because we need to hear it. I need to hear it. Because there are times when I forget And the enemy, and there's an enemy, and there's a world that comes at us that says, you know, if you just do this, it's gonna meet your needs. You're gonna feel good. Come on, you need this. It's your right. Stand up for yourself.
00:18:11
Speaker
Even so, Paul would tell you, and to tell me in verse 11, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God and Jesus. So I'm dead to that. What is a dead person? What is sin? When sin is tempting you, if you're dead, what does that feel like? Well, I'm dead, right? What does an alive person look like? What does an alive person do? Well, if they go and do living things.
00:18:46
Speaker
Holy things, we are alive in Christ. What does a holy person do? Well, they go do holy things. If you're righteous, what does a righteous person do? They go do righteous things. Oh, I'm just, you want me to fake it till I make it? No. Jesus already made it for you on your behalf and he raised you up brand new. I just want you to go, I don't want you to be a hypocrite.
00:19:17
Speaker
In fact, when you sin, you are being hypocritical because that's not who you are. The devil wants to get you all twisted and wrapped around the axle thinking, oh, when I go do this, um I'm not being true to myself. Yeah, you are.
00:19:36
Speaker
If you're a believer in Christ, when you're going and loving and serving and giving and sacrificing, well, guess what? That's who you are. When you're ah kind and forgiving, that's who you are. He made you brand new. That's not being hypocritical. That's being true to the real you. Don't let the enemy twist it all around.
00:19:58
Speaker
You see,
00:20:03
Speaker
You died, you are free, and you are now alive. That's why Paul can say here, therefore, folks, don't let sin reign in your mortal body. This body that's mortal, it's dying, and that's just part of the curse of sin, right? This body's getting old and dying. Don't let sin reign. See now,
00:20:32
Speaker
there is a choice. You have this omnipotent God living on the inside of you who wants to express his life through you. The brand new you in union with him wants to express through these through this mortal body. He says, don't let sin reign in your mortal body so that you ab obey its lust Sin, lust, that's yours. You have a brand new water. You have a brand new you have a brandnew desires for holiness and righteousness. You don't have to do the old stuff. You know, so don't go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. You see, again, your body has muscle memory. There's all kind of stuff ah that's just lodged in our memory banks and our brain.
00:21:28
Speaker
And that's part of our journey, is uncovering the lies and holding on to the truth. Uncovering the lies, seeing them for what they are, and uncovering and holding on to, I should say, the truth. So I go, don't go on presenting. You're used to, it's kind of habit. You just stop. Remember, you're dead to that.
00:21:55
Speaker
He goes, but present yourselves, your members, your body, your words, your attitude, present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead. That's you. And that's why you don't have to come to God cowering. Oh God, i'm God says, what? You're forgiven and I've made you brand new.
00:22:20
Speaker
Present yourself to God as those alive, grateful, happy, thrilled with who you are in him, as alive from the dead. And present your members as instruments of righteousness. We have the privilege of walking on this planet and actions in and words of righteousness.
00:22:50
Speaker
Isn't that incredible?
00:22:54
Speaker
For sin shall not be master over you. You're not under the law. You're not under this this standard that you have to keep for righteousness. You're under grace. God's grace that has delivered you from all of that and given you his righteousness. So go on.
00:23:19
Speaker
Start presenting. It's okay to smile. It's okay to walk in holiness. That's who you are. It's okay to love. Go love. Go love the unlovable. Even if people don't understand what you're doing. And they might even say bad things about what you're doing. Go love the unlovable. Now folks, as as one who's in a counseling ministry, what that does not mean and and you know everyone wants to take things. we Let's look at all the extremes. um you know God tells us to turn the other cheek and and that's the sign and that's loving and to be submissive. and you know I mean, I don't have a voice. I would disagree with that. you know There's times in our Christian life
00:24:18
Speaker
that we can lovingly stand firm. There's times when we need to get out of situations to be safe, physically, emotionally, to be safe. And I wanna make sure you know that and you do that in a gracious and kind way. if You don't have to be walked all over. Presenting yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness,
00:24:49
Speaker
That means presenting yourself as who you are in Jesus Christ.
00:24:58
Speaker
That means presenting yourself as one who is confident, one that knows that he has been ah made capable in Jesus Christ, one who can stand in the confidence and love of his Savior and of her Savior. That means If you need to get out from a situation to be safe, then you can trust your loving Heavenly Father to be with you as you make that decision.
00:25:32
Speaker
I always like to just qualify that, because I seem to always get a question around ideas around that. And,
00:25:44
Speaker
He continues, what then? Paul just is going over and over here. Shall we sin because we're not under the law? I just said you're not under the law for righteousness, but you're under grace. So, shall we sin because of that? No. Because don't you know that when you present yourself to someone as slaves for obedience, you're slaves to the one to whom you obey either of sin, resulting in death, so if you present yourself and your body as an instrument of sin,
00:26:13
Speaker
If you get that old pattern kicks in and you just ah don't overcome that urge and you just bleh, it results in death. The wages of sin is always death, isn't it? Death in relationships, death in our finances, death in whatever that that area is. Or presenting yourselves, or of obedience.
00:26:41
Speaker
resulting in righteousness. And we're not talking about a list of dos and don'ts, but it's obedience to the truth of who you are in Jesus Christ. You know what the obedience is? Presenting yourselves as an instrument of righteousness because that's Paul's whole message here. It's the obedience of faith because you don't feel it. You don't even always see it.
00:27:08
Speaker
Lord, you said you made me righteous. I'm just gonna go and do that and trust you to empower me to do that. And I'm gonna walk that way. And Paul says, but thanks be to God that though you were past tense, slaves of sin, you became obedient what from the heart? That's the obedience. It's the obedience of faith to that form of teaching to which you were committed And having been, what, past tense, right? Freed from sin. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? Stop looking at your past. Stop looking at you know what I did just ah an hour ago. By the way, that's on the cross, forgiven. oh What? I don't have to beg God. know that that's He didn't miss that one. You're forgiven. That's God's grace. Now he wants you to go, thank you.
00:28:08
Speaker
Now I can just be who you made me to be, righteous and holy, having been freed from sin. Do you know you're now a slave of righteousness? God, the work is so complete, you are end by default righteous. That's just the default of who you are. In fact, when you sin, you're having to choose against your very righteous nature. And when you do sin, the cross of Jesus Christ covered it. How about them apples? You're a slave of righteousness. Go do that. Go do the righteous stuff. And when you feel the urge coming up inside that old pattern, let that just be a trigger. Say timeout, pause. I don't have to react. Lord, you are my life.
00:29:07
Speaker
I'm just gonna trust you for the words. I'm gonna trust you for this situation. And there are times when we do tolerate things. Paul talks about that. We can just kind of let things go. But there's times when things really hurt us and we need to choose to really forgive that and to release that. And there are times when I'm not in a safe situation, I need to back away.
00:29:38
Speaker
but you're a slave of righteousness. I want you to know that. Paul says, look, i'm I'm giving you all these human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurities, he's trying to just give you this something to hang on to as an example. You know, when you when you did that old stuff, which resulted in further lawlessness, he goes, now in this example,
00:30:02
Speaker
present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in what? Holiness, why? Because you were made holy. In fact, you know when you read how Paul addresses just about every epistle, he says, to the sinners at Corinth, to the sinners, no, no, no, no, to the saints, those who have been sanctified past tense. And when you present,
00:30:31
Speaker
yourself as a member of righteousness, you present your members as slaves to righteousness, it results in sanctified behavior, in sanctification, in the holiness. It's that holiness that God made just pouring out in that beautiful You are already made holy. And when you present yourselves and walk by faith in that holiness, it results in holiness that everybody can see. People can't see your heart, they don't see inside you. But when you just let it out, man, they're seeing that sanctification front and center.
00:31:14
Speaker
So I'm gonna stop with that. I don't wanna belabor it too long. I just wanted to remind you, remind me that you are free from sin. That half a verse that really the Lord spoke to my friend, Mike Quarles, when he learned in verse seven, for he who has died,
00:31:37
Speaker
is right now 100% freed from sin. The enemy it wants to lie to you and deceive you and tell you that you're not free. How can you be free? How can you be free from sin? You know what your response is? Well, I died and I was raised up a brand new creation.
00:32:05
Speaker
I am free. Take a moment and pause. That's what the enemy does not want you to do. He never wants you to stop and realize the truth. He wants you to rush ahead. Well, that's what part of this grace talk that we're building, which really is also looking at the battle blueprint, as I called it in my book, Stop Fighting, Start Living.
00:32:33
Speaker
and that whole process of temptation. We're gonna deep dive into that and power, really pack it into the grace talk and hopefully give you some good things to hang on to as we build this this workshop on overcoming the urge. So if that's of interest to you, drop me a note. vernon at gment.org and we'll keep posting more as we get closer to doing that webinar, that grace talk. It's gonna be a blast and I hope you look forward to it. So as I generally will say right at the end of a walking free podcast, I don't know where you are right now with the Lordsman dealing with you on, but I want you just to pause
00:33:25
Speaker
and ask the Lord, what are my next steps? If I truly am, and I am in Christ, freed from sin, what does that look like for me tonight, tomorrow? What is the Lord prompting you to do? Sometimes the Lord's prompting you to stop. Well, whatever that is,
00:33:53
Speaker
I want you to stop talking ah about it. Don't just talk it. I want you to ask him the next steps so you can start walking.
00:34:12
Speaker
You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries