Youve Gotta Serve Somebody

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Youve Gotta Serve Somebody

• Romans 612-23

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Or do you not KNOW that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized
into His death? Therefore we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death, so that as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory
of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of
life. Romans 63-4
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• Romans 61
• Are we to continue in sin so that grace may
  increase?
• Romans 615
• Shall we sin because we are not under law but
  under grace?

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Contrast between Romans 61 and 615

• Question Shall we remain in the realm of sin?
• Reasoning Since grace abounds in the presence of
  sin, we should remain there.
• Answer Nope. That is impossible.

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Contrast between Romans 61 and 615

• Question Shall we commit acts of sin?
• Reasoning Since we are not under law but under
  grace, we have an excuse to sin.
• Answer Nope. That is unnecessary and
  self-destructive.

• Question Shall we remain in the realm of sin?
• Reasoning Since grace abounds in the presence of
  sin, we should remain there.
• Answer Nope. That is impossible.

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• Even so CONSIDER yourselves to be dead to sin,
  but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• Romans 611

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PRESENT
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Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal
body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on
PRESENTING the members of your body to sin as
instruments of unrighteousness but PRESENT
yourselves to God as those alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness
to God. Romans 612-13
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Present

• Jesus is working to present us before His Father
• He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body
  through death, in order to present you before Him
  holy and blameless and beyond reproach
  Colossians 122

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Present

• We labor to present one another before our
  Father
• We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and
  teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we
  may present every man complete in Christ.
• Colossians 128

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Present

• We worship our Father by presenting ourselves
  before Him for service
• Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of
  God, to present your bodies a living and holy
  sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your
  spiritual service of worship.
• Romans 121

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Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal
body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on
presenting (lit. STOP presenting, or NEVER make
your members available) the members of your body
to sin as instruments (lit. weapons) of
unrighteousnessRomans 613
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The battle is a spiritual one, but it is fought,
and won or lost, in the daily decisions the
believer makes about how to use his body.
Douglas Moo, p. 383
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But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
Romans 1314
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but PRESENT yourselves to God as those alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God. Romans 613
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• Spiritual disciplines help to train us to present
  or not to present our members when opportunity
  arises
• Giving
• Serving in secret
• Study/meditation

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Motivation to Present

• It is unnecessary to serve sin 616-18
• It is destructive to serve sin 620-21
• There is benefit in Christ 622