Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

INTRO: Have we not all known the conflict that comes from knowing what is right and doing what is wrong? Do we not acknowledge that certain things are WRONG, but we do them anyway? These Christian experiences are born of the conflict between the old sinful nature and the new people that we have become by faith in Christ. Even St. Paul experiences such conflict, and he said, "I do not understand what I do. For what I do NOT want is what I do. The things I want I do not do; but the things that I hate." The conflict became so intense that he cried out, "What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from the body of death? THAT was his question, but also knew the answer, "Thanks be to God through Jesus CHRIST. Our Lord!" Paul was able to claim the victory that is in Jesus Christ. ----- It I for us to CLAIM THE VICTORY and to give the Holy Spirit control of our lives.

YOUR OLD SINFUL NATURE WAS PUT TO DEATH ON THE CROSS THAT YOU MIGHT LIVE A NEW LIFE. That is what we want to do. As long as we live here on earth, however, the sin that is in us prompts us to do sinful things. The old sinful nature is not merely a part of us that is dirty and impure. It's what we are by nature. This old nature with all its meanness, affections and desires needs to be put to death on the cross.

BY FAITH IN CHRIST YOUR OLD SINFUL NATURE DIED WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS THAT YOU MIGHT LIVE A WHOLE new LIFE. Isn't that what we really want as children of God? In this present life however, we are engaged in a battle with the sinful nature, which keeps suggesting sinful things to do. THOSE suggestions come from the flesh and need to be put to the cross. We DO this---- (put do death the old sinful nature), when we repent of our sins and believe in Christ for forgiveness. ---- One of the most meaningful concepts in this matter is called spiritual breathing. In physical breathing we exhale carbon dioxide and inhale oxygen multiple times a minute. In "spiritual breathing" you exhale your sins to God in confession. You agree with God that what you have done in sin. Then you inhale God's grace and forgiveness. Then you LIVE by the Spirit, resisting what the old sinful nature and CLAIMING Christ's victory for yourself. Wrote St. Paul, "God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to me." (Gal 6:14) Where sin and temptations were concerned Paul regarded himself as being dead. God calls us to die to sin that we might live to God.

HERE THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS THE SUSTAINING, INSPIRING and ENERGIZING POWER IN THE new LIFE THAT WE HAVE FROM JESUS. As Christ-ians we are not merely biological beings. We are spiritual people. Nor is the Sp's work simply to make us tingle in raptures of ecstasy. God calls us to live the new life an ongoing, daily basis. In the book of Acts early Christians were called "followers of the way." Being a Christian involves a whole NEW way of thinking, living --- relating to God and to people.

THIS IS THE KIND OF LIFE THAT WE LIVE IN CHRIST IAN FREEDOM. What God desires from us is to live as a free people - not like mechanical robots. He calls us to be children of the King - not slaves to some merit system. In Christian freedom we serve God because we WANT to serve God - not because we HAVE to serve Him --- NOT in some vain hope of earning heaven by our good deeds. We serve in the freedom that comes from being loved by God. His freedom is never a freedom to do your "own thing." That would be an abuse of freedom. Neither is this freedom an escape from the responsibility of Christian service. ----- Marian Preminger married a handsome, young Doctor, and the marriage lasted only a year. She became an actress and while rehearsing for a play she met Otto Preminger. They fell in love, and soon they were married. They moved to America, and Otto became a movie director. Unfortunately, caught up in the glamour, lights and superficial excitement; Marian began to live a sordid life. When Preminger learned of it, he divorced her. Returning to Europe, she became a socialite in Paris. In 1948 she met Albert Schweitzer, the famed musician, medical doctor and theologian. He invited Marian to visit his hospital in Africa. She went, and there she found herself. THERE the girl who had been waited on by all the luxuries of spoiled life became a SERVANT. She changed bandages, bathed babies and fed lepers. In the process she became truly FREE. In her autobiography she wrote "ALL I ever wanted was everything." She did not get "everything," nor did she find satisfaction or meaning until she learned to GIVE everything. When she died in 1979, her obituary carried this statement, "Albert Schweitzer said that there are two classes in the world - the helpers and the non-helpers. I'm a helper." ----- Are YOU a helper? Last week it was my privilege to see many helpers at our Vacation Bible School in the teachers, helpers, and learners all working together cooperatively. It was inspiring to see. Ask God to enable you to become a helper.

TAKE GOD'S NEW LIFE IN YOUR HRT SERIOUSLY. You will find yourself saying, "This is something is something I feel called to do." "That is something I simply cannot do!!!" Paul makes a listing of some of these "can't do" things: adultery, fornication, and love of pleasure no matter the cost, idolatry, and sorcery. He puts into this same category of fleshly activities: party spirit, envy, malice, murders, drunkenness and rivalry. -------- Does it surprise you to hear envy, rivalry and murder in the same breath? These things are serious, and Paul warns that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. ------ After preaching on the future judgment a pastor received a telephone call from a young man one AM. "I have a small dispute between you and me, Pastor; and I thought I would call and settle it right away." "What is it?" asked the Pastor. "Why," said the young man "you say that the wicked will go into everlasting punishment, and I do not believe they will." "Oh, if that's all," said the Pastor, "there is no dispute between you and me. Turn to Matthew 25:46 (the picture of the last judgment). You will discover that the dispute is between you and the Lord Jesus CHRIST. I advise to go immediately and settle the matter with Him."

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NOT ONLY DOES PAUL LIST VICES TO BE AVOIDED. He also lists some of the fruits of the Spirit: ----- fruits like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Then with tongue in cheek he adds, "against such things there is no law." It's no accident that love heads the list. We now love, because God first loved us. ----- One of the most beautiful pictures of God's love is in the parable of the prodigal son. The Father loved his son enough to set him free. He loved him enough to give him his share of the inheritance in advance. He loved him enough to let him go. He loved him enough to watch down the long road by which his son left home; and He loved him enough to WELCOME him home again. He even He loved him enough to defend his own actions to the jealous elder son. What happened then? Oh How I wish I knew what Paul Harvey calls "the rest of the story." WITH all the joy and celebration at the party no one had more reason to rejoice than the younger brother who returned home to a hero's welcome. JOY reflects the confidence that we have in our relationship to our Father God. As someone put it, "Joy is the banner flying high over the castle of my heart; when the King is in residence there." To love and to joy Paul adds the other fruits of peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Such are the virtues that help us to live together in Christian commitment. They help us to be gentle, tender and respectful of each other.

WE BEGAN TO DAY BY ASKING ABOUT YOUR ECHRIST PERIENCE OF CONFLICT BETWEEN THE OLD, SINFUL NATURE and WHAT GOD WOULD HAVE YOU TO DO. Don't ever be discouraged by such conflict. It's evidence that the Spirit of God has been working in your heart. Let Him have His way in your life. Deny your old sinful self. Take up the cross of obedience, follow the Lord and CLAIM THE VICTORY that you have by faith in Christ. Then by the power of the Holy Spirit fight the forces of evil and strive to do what is right in the sight of God. Amen.