The Obituary of Self

 don't think that we would have to have our arms twisted behind our backs to say that we live in a pretty self-centered world, right? I think we can all basically kind of acknowledge that. In fact, we kind of live in a selfie world, if I could say it that way. In fact, the camera, or you know, the phone that I have is called an iPhone. Right? Now, I realize when Steve Jobs did that originally that i was supposed to stand for internet, but when he was asked a little bit more about that, he did confess that they wanted to market to a personal pronoun because everybody is so infatuated maybe with doing things on their own or for themselves. I don't know if you know this, but new research actually indicates that the average person who has a camera phone takes 450 selfies a year, 450 selfies a year. I usually take in the neighborhood of about two, and they're usually with my family somehow because I have a long arm, and I would do that, so about two, which means some of you are probably having to do like 5,000 or so to make up the difference so that we average out to be about 450. Now, if you took that number and you just extrapolated over the number of 18-plus-year-olds that are in the United States of America, there's like 260 million people in the United States who are 18 or older. I'm not assuming every one of them has a phone, but the vast majority do and can take pictures of themselves. And if they did that by average, it would be over a billion selfies a year in the United States alone. That is a lot of self pictures, man. I don't know if you know this, but this selfie market has grown so significantly that there are now things called selfie obituaries. Yep. You can just write your own obituary, and there are end-of-life planning services that actually market to people that you can write your own selfie obituary. Now, there's some things about that that I'm sure could actually be a positive, right? You could be a witness for Jesus, or you know, you maybe drop some really sound wise advice in there if you were writing your own obituary, or maybe even you were kind of taking the pressure off of family having to do that and you were doing it yourself. So there's probably some good things and some good motivations for doing that. But there's also 100% some really bad motivations for doing that, right? It's just things that appeal to the self. In other words, maybe doing a selfie obituary gives you the opportunity to have the last word about somebody, right? It's kind of like, "Okay, you know," and so you just kind of, you know, you just write your own obituary and then kind of just throw in there, "Oh, and by the way, Billy, Jimmy stole your car. I know you didn't know, but Aunt Melanie knew and she covered it up," right? That's something you could do, and I don't think that's a particularly good use of that necessarily. But maybe what's worse is that if we try to basically appeal to ourselves because we're the ones that are experiencing it when we're writing it, that it would seem like maybe doing a selfie obituary was the opportunity to curate your life one more time, just like everybody does right now. They curate their life. These are the photos I delete the ones I don't like because I want people to have this picture of me. I wanna make sure that people get this image of me. And so we could curate one more time our image, what we want people to think about us, what we want people to think that we did, how we want people to think how awesome we were, right? That that would be appealing to the self. Now, obviously, you die, and then it really doesn't matter, right? At that point, you probably don't care at that point, right? But you're fulfilling the idea of the self in that moment. Now, regardless of whether or not you'll ever consider doing a selfie obituary or not for good or bad reasons, there is something that I think we can learn from it. And it's that, as believers in Jesus, one of the things that we're reminded of when we actually dig into the scripture is that someone like the Apostle Paul has already written an obituary for our old selves. He's already done it, and we're gonna look in the book of Romans, and I would encourage you to turn there because we're going to be in chapter six to begin, and that's where we're gonna concentrate our learning this morning and our thought this morning. But I'm gonna peel back into chapter five just a little bit, but we're gonna be in Romans chapter six, that's in the New Testament. If you've got a hard copy, that's great. If you've got a digital copy, that's absolutely fine too, but I hope that you'll kind of get into the rhythm, if you're new to The Chapel or if you've been coming for a while, get into the rhythm of having something that you can look at. Some of you're going, "Well, I come here all the time and you put those passages up on the screen for me," so yep. But the screen doesn't go home with you, and the screen doesn't train you as to where that is in the Word of God, so I want you to be able to do that. And I encourage actually, and when people ask me my preference, as long as you're looking at the Word, it doesn't matter if you're looking that on a device or here. I'm fine either way. I would say this, that when you have this right here, I don't get any notifications when I'm looking at this. I'm locked in, right? I don't have anything distracting me. I don't have anything going off or buzzing me or any of that kind of stuff, right? So it's just a thought, it's just something if you wanna be able to concentrate your attention. But I want you to pay attention to what the Apostle Paul wrote in this obituary to our old selves. Here's what he says in Romans chapter six, beginning in verse five, "For if we have been united with him in a death like his," speaking of Christ, "we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin." Now, when we look at this passage of scripture, I think maybe the first question that we probably are asking is this. Okay, Paul says that we know that our old self has been crucified with Christ, right? And so we maybe have to ask the question, what is our old self? Now, for some of us, maybe the first place that we go in our minds, and by the way, you're gonna have to lock in with me here, because I'm coming today. I'm teaching today, and we're gonna dive a little deep today. And listen, it's imperative that you kind of stay with me. I'm gonna be digging a little bit. You're gonna get some theology, you're gonna get some breaking apart, what we call exegesis of the text. You're gonna get a little bit of history, you're gonna get a little bit of everything, a little grammar, all right, you're getting it all. But it's important, so stay with me, all right? First question we have to ask is this, what is the old self? For most of our minds, we probably think, "Well, the old self is a part of me and I've got, you know, I've got that part, and then I've got the new part, and they're just kind of coexisting together." And then you kinda have to ask yourself the question, "Well, does that mean then the new self was added to the old self, or did the new self completely replace the old self, and what does that exactly look like?" Well, let me stop you from that thinking for a moment. There are some places in the scripture where it talks about that idea and that war that goes on with who we are in our newness and the flesh that we have. But Paul's not talking about here a part of us. Paul's talking about the whole of us. When he says the old self, he's not referring to a part of us, he's referring to the whole of us, and let me explain why. Because Paul is not talking here practically, he's talking positionally. Now, the difficulty in kind of pulling that together in our heads is that we kind of say, "Well, I don't really know exactly what we're talking about when we talk about not practical, but positional." I understand, and what I'm gonna try to do is to back up a little bit into Romans chapter five so that you can begin to understand how Paul is talking about this idea. Because what he does when he talks about the old self in Romans 6 is he's calling back to Romans 5, and he's set up an idea, and this idea was that of the original Adam and then the new Adam who is Christ, all right? And then it's gonna help us to frame our position. So don't check out yet. I'm gonna help you. We're gonna see this, we're gonna get it, but it's gonna take a little bit. Let's back up into Romans 5 and watch what argument that Paul's making here, beginning in verse 12. He says, "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man," that's talking about Adam, "and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned." And then he kind of pauses and says, "To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses," that's where the law was given, right? Back up one second, that's where the law was given right there with Moses, right? So death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, "even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam." In other words, Adam did sin by breaking a command, as you remember. "And Adam is a pattern of the one to come." Alright? Now, Romans is really, really deep theologically. It is one of those books where you really have to dig in and begin to pull apart in order to understand. What Paul is saying here is that there is a category of people called in Adam, and the people that are in Adam are under the rule of sin and death. And then there's another category of people that is in the new Adam or in Christ, and those people are under the dominion of life and righteousness, okay? So in other words, you've got this picture, and I'll come back to this idea in a moment, of what we call in theology the federal heads of two different environments, the first Adam and the second Adam. So in other words, now when Paul in chapter six says "The old self," he's referring to being in Adam, positionally. And when Paul refers to the new self, he's referring to being in Christ. Now you're going, "Okay." Let's pretend for just a second that this table is super, super massive and high and it is an enormous wall and it is separating two different fields, we'll call them countries, okay? Over here on this side of the wall is the country that we call Adam. Every person is born in this country, but this country is the country where sin has its sway and death has its sway. We're living in the country of Adam. But there are people in the country of Adam that hear about the good news of Jesus. And when they believe in the good news of Jesus, they are mystically, not of their own power, but are mystically transported from living in the country of Adam to living in the country of Christ. And now all of the benefits and all of the responsibilities associated with that, but positionally, we are now living in a different place. We are not in the same place we were. We are in a different place. But there are still voices on the other side of the wall, and those voices still call out, "Hey, you live here still. Hey, nothing's really changed." But positionally, we have changed. We are no longer in that country and citizens of being in Adam. We are now in a new country in Christ. All right? Are you starting to follow this just a little bit? Now I realize that that illustration is imperfect, but it's helping you maybe put some handles on what we're talking about because what Paul is referring to here is our position based on the federal heads, Adam and Jesus, of these two different worlds. I like how the professor Douglas Moo said this. Here's what he said. He said, "What we were in Adam is no more, but until heaven, the temptation to live in Adam always remains." "What we were in Adam is no more, but until heaven, the temptation to live in Adam still remains." So I want you to jot this down. Here's the truth that we need to grab hold of that Paul's talking about, "For the believer in Jesus, the old self is dead." I'm gonna say this is emphatic, I'm saying this as emphatically as I can say it. And when I get to this word right here, the one that I'm pointing at, the word that says dead, when I get to that, we're all gonna say it together. For the believer in Jesus, the old self is-

- Dead!

- I believed you. I heard you on every campus. That was really good. For the believer in Jesus, the old self is-

- Dead!

- That's what we've got to learn today, and it is easier said than done. Why do I know that for the believer in Jesus, the old self is dead, why do I know that? Well, because I read the same verses that you just read a moment ago. In fact, I read them out loud while you were reading them. And so what I know is this, is that the old self is dead, first of all, because the old self was crucified with Christ. That's how I know it's dead. The old self was crucified with Christ. Look again with me in verse number six. Let's see what Paul said. "For we know that our old self was crucified with him." You wonder where I got that point. I got it right from here. I literally plagiarized it from Romans chapter six verse six. My job is plagiarizing the Word of God. That's what I do. I literally take it, I don't plagiarize it in the sense that I act like I wrote it, but I just take it, and then I say, "Hey, here's point number one, that." The reason that I know that our old self is dead is because it was crucified with him. Now here's what I get. You're probably thinking to yourself, "How does that work? Like, how does that work? Are we in a time travel? Like, can I go back 2,000 years and somehow be crucified with Christ?" No. You remember what we're talking about here is we're talking about not practical, but positional, right? Paul is talking about our position. That means that Jesus is the federal head of a new country, and Adam is the federal head of an old country. Now I'm using that terminology, it's theological, you know, nomenclature when we use federal head. What do I mean when I say that? It's kind of like power of attorney. When you give somebody power of attorney, you are allowing them to be your representative, to make decisions and to do things on your behalf. And see, that's what it means to be the federal head of something, that Adam is the federal head of this old country and Jesus is the federal head, or the new Adam is the federal head of the new country. What that means is is that they are our representatives. See, oftentimes when we talk about what Jesus has done, particularly with his crucifixion, we talk about him as our substitute, and we should, because Jesus was the substitute. He died the death we should have died. But listen carefully, he was also our representative. So watch this. As our substitute, Jesus went to the cross alone, because only he could do what needed to be done on the cross. But as our representative, he brought us with him. Are you seeing this now? See, we're talking positional, not just practical. You see, what Jesus did is he identified with our sin, though he was sinless, in order that we could identify with his life and righteousness, even though we were sinful, because he himself was not only our substitute, but was our representative. As our substitute, his sacrifice paid the penalty for sin. As our representative, what he did was fulfill the righteous requirements of the law to free us from the power of sin. You remember how Paul referenced the power of sin, right? In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 56, he says, "The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law." And so what Jesus did, listen to this, as our substitute, he freed us from the penalty of sin. And as our representative, he has freed us from the power of sin. This, I know you're kind of going, "Man, oh man, my mind is kind of like," but we have to understand what Paul is saying because we're going to build on it. You're gonna see that in just a minute if you'll stay with me and trust me. Sometimes you guys are like, "You know, sometimes you start out, and I just don't know where you're going. But you know what I've learned to do? I've just learned to put on my seatbelt and go, 'This is gonna be a fun ride.' Let's see what happens." Well, trust me, I'm gonna try and guide you into the right direction here. And I realize you're having to kind of grind in a little bit with your mind and thinking about this idea of how positionally we are located now. But trust me, what we're trying to determine here and what we're trying to reinforce and what we're trying to believe here is that, for the believer in Jesus, our old self is what?

- Dead.

- Dead. And we know that because our old self was crucified with Christ. And you know what that means then? Because it was crucified with Christ that sin doesn't rule us. That's what that means. Sin does not rule us. Look again in verse six. "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with." The body ruled by sin. Paul is saying, because our old selves have been crucified with Christ, sin doesn't rule us anymore. He personifies sin. Paul, Paul basically says, I'm gonna give sin a personality. And here's the personality I'm giving it: harsh ruler, dictator, tyrannical government leader. That's the personality that he gives to sin. And he says, "It's no longer our ruler or master." Lemme see if I can help you with this. Let's say that there's a soldier who lives and works under a dictator in a foreign tyrannical government. This soldier is to serve this dictator's pleasure. But one day, a sacrificial friend who did not live in that country enables that soldier to escape. And the soldier now has asylum in a different country and ends up becoming a citizen of that new free country. Years later, the dictator finds that soldier and starts to give him some orders. "You come with me, you will serve me. You are still a member of my country." To which the soldier replies, "You're not the boss of me anymore. Country I live in is free. And I don't have to take orders from you anymore because I live in a new country. I'm a citizen of that country, and I've got a new leader. So step off." Right? This is the picture that Paul is giving us about sin. Sin does not rule us. It is not our dictator anymore. And then he says it a different way. We're no longer slaves to sin. He just says this in a different way. We're no longer slaves to sin. Watch in verse six. "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." Now, I realize that Paul is just trying to reinforce the point that he just made about sin not ruling us. But it's important for us that we recognize that we don't live in the country of Adam anymore when we've been truly born from above. When we've been regenerated by God's grace, we don't live in the country of Adam anymore. We live in a different place, and we are free from the of sins in slavery. And if we don't get this, if we don't understand this, we just become like a dog with an electric fence. Anybody have a dog with an electric fence? I know you prefer to say, "We like to call it an invisible fence. It's an invisible fence that shocks dogs." So it's an electric fence. And you know how those work, right? Dogs wear these collars, and then you put up these kind of flags, and basically, you've got this electric current that's right around your yard as kind of an invisible fence. And the dog comes up and starts to go outside of it, and it's and it's like, I'm gonna back up and look for food this way, right? What's interesting about that is that, after a period of time, the dog becomes so conditioned that you can take the collar off and you could turn the power off and the dog's still not gonna pass those little flags. The dog's free and doesn't know it. That's where a lot of us are living. We're free and we don't even know it. We somehow think we are still living in the country of Adam. Paul says, "For the believer in Jesus, the old self is" what?

- Dead.

- And we know that because our old self was crucified with Christ, and that means that sin does not rule us. It means that we are no longer slaves to sin. And then Paul, just to top off his argument, basically says this, "Dead people are free from sin." How many of you know dead people that are sinning presently? You don't. You know why? They don't. They're dead. And listen to how Paul finishes this in verse number seven. He says, "Because anyone who has died has been set free from sin." Anyone who's died has been set free from sin. Paul's just reinforcing his earlier points, and making a general truth claim here, probably consistent with rabbinic tradition, 'cause the rabbis would always say that when we are dead, we're not subject to fulfilling the law, right? So Paul's just kind of capping off this argument. So for the believer in Jesus, the old self is what?

- Dead.

- Dead. And that's why Paul goes on in the next few verses to reinforce that exact truth. Listen to what he says in verse eight. "If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves," or some of your translations say, "reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." This is what Paul's trying to reinforce for us because for the believer in Jesus, the old self is dead. But here's the question, here's the question. Do you know that? Do you know that? In fact, this is the crux of the question, and so much so that Paul actually begins his argument this way. Notice what he says in the beginning of verse six. "For we know." I'm gonna do a lot of these. For we know that our old self was crucified with him." This is Paul. This is the word. In the Greek, it's ginosko. Not that you cared, but this word actually carries with it more than just intellectual understanding. The word ginosko to know means to believe, to experience, to take within myself. Like, it carries all of the weight of that. And Paul says, "We know that our old self has been crucified with Christ." But do you really know that the old self is dead? I remember these, heard about these two southern farmers, they dealt with chickens, and you know, obviously they chop the head off of a chicken 'cause you don't sell chicken heads to Kentucky Fried Chicken, right? It just doesn't go very well. You order that and you're like, "Oh, I got a chicken head. Not what I was looking for." So they cut the heads off of the chickens, and then the chicken runs around for quite some time. And so these two southern farmers are arguing as to whether the chicken is alive or dead. This guy over here is like, "That chicken's dead." The other one's like, "I don't think so. That chicken's alive and he's hauling all over the place." So they're just arguing and bickering back and forth. And then one of their other buddies comes walking up, and they said, "Hey, we need you to break the tie. I say the chicken's dead. He says, the chicken's alive. What is it?" And in that old southern drawl, he says, "The chicken's dead, all right. It just doesn't believe it." That's where we are. 

o for the believer in Jesus, the old self is what?

- Dead.

- Dead. And that's why Paul goes on in the next few verses to reinforce that exact truth. Listen to what he says in verse eight. "If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves," or some of your translations say, "reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." This is what Paul's trying to reinforce for us because for the believer in Jesus, the old self is dead. But here's the question, here's the question. Do you know that? Do you know that? In fact, this is the crux of the question, and so much so that Paul actually begins his argument this way. Notice what he says in the beginning of verse six. "For we know." I'm gonna do a lot of these. For we know that our old self was crucified with him." This is Paul. This is the word. In the Greek, it's ginosko. Not that you cared, but this word actually carries with it more than just intellectual understanding. The word ginosko to know means to believe, to experience, to take within myself. Like, it carries all of the weight of that. And Paul says, "We know that our old self has been crucified with Christ." But do you really know that the old self is dead? I remember these, heard about these two southern farmers, they dealt with chickens, and you know, obviously they chop the head off of a chicken 'cause you don't sell chicken heads to Kentucky Fried Chicken, right? It just doesn't go very well. You order that and you're like, "Oh, I got a chicken head. Not what I was looking for." So they cut the heads off of the chickens, and then the chicken runs around for quite some time. And so these two southern farmers are arguing as to whether the chicken is alive or dead. This guy over here is like, "That chicken's dead." The other one's like, "I don't think so. That chicken's alive and he's hauling all over the place." So they're just arguing and bickering back and forth. And then one of their other buddies comes walking up, and they said, "Hey, we need you to break the tie. I say the chicken's dead. He says, the chicken's alive. What is it?" And in that old southern drawl, he says, "The chicken's dead, all right. It just doesn't believe it." That's where we are. Regardless of what we think, the objective truth is that our old self is dead. That is simply the objective truth. That's why Paul speaks in the indicative. Now some of you're going, "Okay, you told me, you kind of warned me, we're getting theology lessons, we're getting grammar lessons now we're getting, you know, English lessons and now you're going into tenses and stuff." Stay with me. The indicative. Paul says this, "For we know that our old self has been crucified with Christ." That's indicative. Do you know what that means? The indicative just tells us what is. The indicative just tells us what's the facts, what's true. The imperative teaches us what to do, the commands, right? You do this, that's an imperative. I command you to do this. But the indicative just tells us what's true. The Gospel itself, this is why this matters. The Gospel itself is indicative. The Gospel's not a command. The Gospel is just a statement of truth. Paul says that "What I received, I passed on to you as a first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried, and that he rose on the third day according to the scriptures." Do you know what that is? That's indicative. It just is. It's just true. And do you know what comes from that? The imperatives. It flows from it. That's why Paul would write it another time when he was writing to the Ephesians, he would say this, "Forgive one another." It's command language. Imperative language. "Forgive one another just as God in Christ has forgiven you." What's he reaching for? The indicative truth of the Gospel sets the platform for the commands that are then given. Why am I walking through this with you right now? You're kind of like, "Why are you doing this?" I'll tell you why. Because too often we are trying to only live by the imperatives and we fail to understand the indicative. And it's amiss. You see, when we start only living by the imperatives, we think to ourselves, "Well, I do this, and I don't do this," but we conceptualize God like he is, like he's on his computer giving divine likes every time we do something right. And so we're constantly trying to feed our sense of self by impressing God with who we are. But God knows the indicative truth. Our old self is dead. We don't even live in that country of Adam any longer. We are in Christ. We are now new selves as opposed to old selves, positionally. And the reason it's important that we understand the indicative before we understand the imperative is because the indicative, what we believe is true, shapes our identity. We then do out of who we are, what we believe to be true. And this is paramount for us because the indicative shapes our identity and identity is what leads to action. I love how the Anglican British scholar, C. F. D. Moule, he went by Charlie, but I didn't know him, and he's smart. So I just call him C. F. D. Moule, right? Here's what he said. "The Christian indicative statement is not 'This is what you ought to be.' The Christian imperative is not 'Now be as much like this as possible.' Instead the indicative is 'You are already thus. Your true life is this.' And the imperative is 'Enter upon your possession.' In the familiar epigram so often used to describe the Christian position, it's a matter of this, become what you already are. And that is a strikingly different approach from try to be a bit better than you are." If we start to lock into this, we will start to get it. Now for the believer in Jesus, the old self is what?

- Dead.

- It's why I keep coming back to it, but I realize that some of you right now are saying, "But it doesn't feel dead to me." I hear you on that, by the way. But let me ask you a question. Are you okay with allowing how you feel to dictate truth? I wouldn't recommend it because you'll find out every day of the week how bad that is. Like, just push me into the fall when we do the time change for fall back. And then we move into December, and in December, it's dark at 4:30. How many love that? Okay, no one, including me. Oh one kid loves it. That's awesome. It's like, "It's fantastic. I feel like I get to stay up later at night," right? "I feel like I'm supposed to go to bed but I don't have to, it's awesome." Right, so I come home from work, it's six o'clock. It feels like nine. Anybody know that? But I know that it's not. I know what time it is objectively. It's 9:00, I mean, it's 6:00 PM, but it feels like 9:00 PM. I can't let what it feels like determine what is. And so we have to make sure that we don't put ourselves in that kind of position to say, "Well, I don't feel like I'm dead to sin." What has God said is true though? That's what we have to bank on. So become what you are. Your old self that lived in the land of Adam is gone. If you've truly put your faith in Jesus, it is dead, positionally. We may still listen at times to the voices over the wall, but you are not your sin anymore. You're different. You live in a different place. Have you ever had somebody who's that you know real well, maybe you've even done it, and you've made a mistake, and maybe it's what people would consider an out-of-character mistake for you. And you've said this, "That's not who I am." Now I can't speak to how true or not that is when somebody says that just in the general populace. But I can say, for a believer in Christ, that's true. That's true. It's a huge difference from being a sinner who cannot help but sin because they are governed by it and being a saint who sometimes sins. Those are two different places to live. And it will shape our identity depending on which place we choose to believe we are. That's why what we need to do is we need to internalize this truth. If you are a believer in Jesus, your old self is what?

- Dead.

- You have to internalize that truth so you can begin to externalize sin and be able to have a conversation with sin. "You are not the boss of me! I have the power not to sin! I am not under your authority! I don't live at that address any longer!" This is where we have to find ourselves. And it's hard, I know. I know. And probably next week, no promises, but probably next week I'm gonna talk more practically. But maybe what you need to do to start dealing with this and start really landing in the place you ought to land because what you believe is gonna shape your identity, maybe you need to write a selfie obituary for your old self. I found a lady who did. I thought it was awesome. So I'm gonna read it to you. Her first name is also awesome. It's Punky. Those of you who are old enough to remember the show Punky Brewster, it's probably the only time you've ever heard the name Punky, right? She wrote an obituary to her old self. And remember she's just kind of making this up. She said, "The community of empty heart is mourning the loss of one of its most loyal supporters, Punky Leonard Tolson, who died at the age of 38. Throughout her brief old self lifetime, Punky struggled with a constant critical spirit within her, a nagging comparison of herself to others, and a deadly addiction to human love. A veteran people pleaser, she was often the life of the party and was most known for masquerading her obsessive hunger for love and acceptance with sarcastic humor. Punky was most known for her dramatic attempts to be what everyone else expected her to be, which naturally led her to a career in film, TV and theater where she earned critical acclaim in such roles as needy, desperate, adulterer, liar, and her award-winning performance as insecure in the Broadway musical, Who Am I Anyway? Through her battle with comparison and a self-critical spirit, she nearly completely wished away the life she was supposed to live. Finally in 1996, Punky succumbed to a dramatic fall into a slimy pit of despair where muck and mire pulled her under. But Punky is survived by the blood of Jesus, by the grace and mercy of God, by the kindness of her savior, by the power of Christ, by a true identity in him, and a ministry made out of her many messes. In lieu of flowers, investments of your life can be made to making disciples of Jesus Christ." Maybe you need to do the same. Believe the truth of the Word and write the obituary for your old self. Because for a believer in Jesus, the old self is what?

- Dead.

- Dead. Now brothers and sisters, become what you are. It's possible that some of you are still living though in the land of Adam, you've never been transported to the land of Christ. You can't do that on your own. No amount of trying to clean yourself up or trying to make yourself impressive in the land of Adam can get you over the wall. Jesus in fact said this, he said, "No one comes to the Father except through me, 'cause I'm the way, the truth and the life." So there's only one way and it's to turn from your sin and turn from trusting in yourself and put your faith and trust in Jesus who is both, will act as your substitute and your representative. And then when you put your faith and trust in him, you may close your eyes as you do it, and you will wake up in a different country. You will wake up in Christ, not in Adam. So if that's never happened in your heart and your life, I pray that this day you would respond to his invitation to receive him. Let's bow our heads together. We're dismissed in just a moment. But if you're here and you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus, then my hope is that when we dismiss in just a moment, you'll come and take one of the men or women who's gonna be down front here by the hand and just simply say, "I need to receive Christ. I need to know the forgiveness of my sins and my heart being made new. I need to be invited into a different country," so to speak. And one of these men or women would be delighted to be able to pray with you and send you home with something that's gonna help you in your journey of faith. So just take 'em by the hand, and let 'em know that you need Jesus. For those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, that we've really genuinely been transformed, regenerated, born from above, maybe we've been listening to voices on the other side of the wall for too long. We've kind of forgotten where we really live. And maybe we need to bathe in the truth of what the Word of God says about that and allow our identity to be shaped as a result. So Father, I pray by the power of your spirit, you would do your good pleasure in the hearts of every hearer. For those that need to know the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life, I pray they would come and take one of these folks by the hand and that they would understand that it is by grace that they can be saved because of God's initiation in sending his son to die for our sins and rise from the grave. And it is by our faith in that that we can be transformed because of who Jesus is. I pray you give them the courage to be able to take somebody by the hand and just acknowledge that, find the hope of new life and new citizenship in the kingdom of God. And for those brothers and sisters in the room who've allowed you to transform their life, who've surrendered themselves to you, I pray, God, for any area or space in our lives where we allow, we allow the temptations of what it was like living in Adam to still overwhelm us. But I pray that we would be able to speak to our sin and remind it that we don't live at that address anymore and that we are new. And would you allow us to walk out our identity as people who are made new, who will sometimes sin, but that we don't have to because we have the power of sin broken in our lives because of the power of Jesus' resurrection. Help us to walk in that. For your glory, we pray in Jesus' name. And all God's people said.

- Amen.

- Amen.