Sovereign Joy

/ adamrenken / Leave a comment
One of the most common topics of discussion between myself and others, both Christians and non-Christians centers on the topic of God’s sovereignty and suffering/evil.  Usually the conversation goes something like this:

Me:  Yes, one of the greatest sources of my joy as a Christian flows from truly believing that God is in control of all things
Them:  You mean to tell me that God was in control of the slave trade to America? God was in control of the Holocaust?  God was in control of 9/11?
Me:  Of course
Them:  If God is in control of that, then God is most certainly NOT good, and I want nothing to do with that “God”
Me:  Obviously those are horrible, horrible events in history.  What I want you to consider, however, is that if God is not in control of those things, what hope would the families of those affected by those awful events have?  If God is not sovereign over bringing about difficulties, pain, and suffering, then God is not sovereign over bringing about resolution, healing, and peace.  What good would prayer be to a God who does not have the ability to answer it?

Depending on how that conversation went, I would likely want to walk through some scripture from there.  The question that must be answered is – “If God is good, what is His good purpose in suffering and hardships?”

Paul begins Romans 5 with a declaration of our salvation in Jesus Christ, and then immediately turns to say that we will have suffering in this life as a Christian.

Romans 5:1-5 – “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”

So suffering should produce in us hope. 

We see this explained again just 3 chapters ahead in Romans 8:18-25 – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

We are God’s creation, we are a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:17).  Part of God’s purpose in suffering is to show that our hope is not in this world, but in Christ.  

God’s plan is to use our suffering as a means of comfort to others.  2 Corinthians 1:3-7 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.  If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.”

Let me put this into context.  Let’s say you have an auto accident and lose a child.  If someone comes up to you seeking to comfort you, would you rather be comforted by someone who has no children and therefore no true understanding of the pain you’re going through or by someone who has lost a child themselves and knows EXACTLY what you’re going through?  What if you lose a loved one to a long drawn out battle with cancer?  Would you rather be comforted by someone who has never gone through that, or by someone who themselves has been through the pain you are going through?  It’s not to say that you would not be appreciative of any efforts, but certainly you would lean more heavily on the person(s) who know what you’re going through, right?
Many of you struggle with coming to terms with past sin in your life, and the sin that you’re still battling today in your life.  My encouragement is not to make light of your struggle, but to put perspective on it.  Who you are in Christ is meant to be an encouragement to those around you who have similar pasts / struggles.  Someone who has had an abortion can comfort and encourage someone who has had an abortion in a way that I never could.  I can comfort and encourage a man who struggles with past relationships / immorality like no woman can.
If you have truly been saved, then Christ is in you; God, the Holy Spirit has made His dwelling in you.  Therefore, when you are able to comfort those around you because you have been through similar suffering and hardships, that is the will of God, and literally God in you comforting those people.  That is beautiful when it happens, and exactly what God desires.
In Romans 8:35-37 we are told – “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Bolded by me for emphasis)
Christ did not end tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword (violence).  Clearly those things still occur in the fallen world we live in.  We are the means of God to redeem those things.  More than just causing tribulation and suffering to cease, God uses it to accomplish a good purpose – strengthening faith, securing hope in Christ alone, and creating the means by which we can demonstrate God’s mercy and love to others.  This is how God causes all things to work towards good for those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28). 
Here’s my encouragement to you today.  Your circumstances in life are never going to be exactly how you’d like.  More than that, you are assured of difficult times and suffering in this life.  Our hope as Christians is that God has demonstrated his great love for us in Jesus Christ dying for sinners, and has promised that everything is working towards good for Christians who are called according to His purpose.  Therefore, as a Christian, know that whatever your lot in life today, God is not surprised by it; God has a good plan for you EXACTLY where you are.  Trust Him.  He has earned our trust in fulfilling every one of His promises to us in Christ, hasn’t He?  He bore all our sin on the cross, that we would be reconciled to Him for eternity.  He died that we would know His steadfast love and everlasting joy.  Know that He loves you, and seek His kingdom and righteousness in whatever situation you’re in.  In doing so, you will have the answer to how God is good and is sovereign over suffering.  In doing so, you will be able to find joy in the sovereignty of God today, and in the days to come. 
Grace and Peace,
Adam

A Hope That Never Fails

/ adamrenken / Leave a comment
Brothers and Sisters,

I spend a lot of time these days thinking about you.  I see evidences of God’s movement in the church as a whole around me, and that is cause for great joy in me.  At the same time I know that there are times in my own fight for faith where my hope in Christ is threatened.  There are times when you struggle to maintain your faith at all, let alone hazard any consideration of spiritual growth.  We all have those times.  I am reminded that we have an enemy that prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8).  These times of struggle will come for every Christian and I want you to know that you are not alone; you share the company of every true Christian that has ever lived.  I have spent hours, days, and seasons where I have been in such seeming darkness that I could not imagine that I was a Christian, let alone an object of God’s love.  Yet even in those seasons, God has sustained my hope in Him.  So, for a reason that is known only to God, I feel a great burden to encourage you and share with you that the greatest love of God experienced by myself, as a Christian, has been the means by which God works to hold you, to reach out to you, to draw you back to Himself.  If you are reading this, then consider that even this perhaps as a means by which God’s love is reaching out to you, reminding you of the gospel and His great love for you.

Sometimes I have wondered why I did not grow up in a home with two parents who loved Christ.  I wondered why after following Christ I had so much sin left in my life, even though I loved God greatly and hated my sin.  I wondered why God seemed to allow me to see clearly His glory from His Word giving me great joy and at the same time allowed me to fall into periods where I felt no joy at all. I wondered why God allowed me to see non-Christians flourish in happiness around me and to see non-Christians have gifts of marriage and family while I still did not.  These things I would call to mind and begin to lose hope.  My guess is that if we went around a room, many of you would have stories of much greater darkness and struggles than my own, where your hope in Christ has been challenged to an even greater degree.  I am not naive to think my experiences are unique.  In times of struggle, questions seem rise up from within.  How can a God who loves you allow this to happen?  How can you muster up any affection for God when life is not what you would have it be?  How can you preach the gospel to the world when you struggle to preach it to yourself?  How can you think about being salt and light to a dying world when the greatest darkness you see is in your own heart?  Satan would have you languish in those thoughts, but we have been given the Truth to combat his lies.

Lamentations 3:1-24 – “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.  He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.  He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.  He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.  He drove into my kidneys  the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.  He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.  He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”  Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!  My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”  
Let me bold enough to say that if you have never anguished over your sin and lack of joy in salvation, you are no Christian.  I say this not to out non-Christians, but to dispel any notion of pridefulness that might rise up to suggest that one Christian’s struggle for faith against sin is “greater” than another’s.  We are all broken jars of clay; our hope is rooted not in our strength, but in our weakness.  Jesus came to seek and save the lost, He is our great physician – a healer of those who are sick, not of those who believe themselves to be well.  So for you, my brothers and sisters who are battling today, who are struggling against sin in the fight for faith – be encouraged; Lamentations 3:31-32 – “the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;”  

Consider today that God knows you better than you know yourself.  Every ounce of your sin, past, present, and future was known by Jesus when he took your sin upon Himself.  His love for you is not contingent upon your actions, it is contingent upon who you are in Christ; an adopted son of God, an adopted daughter of God – clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus.  Now if God so loves you, to reconcile you at infinite cost to Himself – will He now cast you off because of your struggles?  No, the love of God to us was not a moment in time on a cross, but eternal past, present, and future.  

“God Himself is eternal, and God is love; therefore, as God Himself had no beginning, His love had none. Granted that such a concept far transcends the grasp of our feeble minds, nevertheless, where we cannot comprehend, we can     bow in adoring worship. How clear is the testimony of Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” How blessed to know that the great and holy God loved His people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that He had set His heart upon them from all eternity. Clear proof is this that His love is spontaneous, for He loved them endless ages before they had any being.

The same precious truth is set forth in Ephesians 1:4,5, “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love having predestinated us.” What praise should this evoke from each of His children! How tranquilizing for the heart: since God’s love toward me had no beginning, it can have no ending! Since it be true that “from everlasting to everlasting” He is God, and since God is “love,” then it is equally true that “from everlasting to everlasting” He loves His people.”  – A. W. Pink

Brothers and sisters, do not lose hope as you encounter trials in your faith.  The God of love, who loves us with a love beyond our understanding, has a good purpose for us in all things.  Romans 8:28-39 – “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If you are struggling in your faith, find hope in the words of the Master, our Lord Jesus Christ Matthew 5:3-10 –

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

May we all finish this life not confident of our own success, but in the success of Jesus Christ for us.  May our strength not be rooted in our power, but the surpassing power of God at work in us.  May we never hope in this world, but hope always in the One who overcame the world.  Every other hope is fleeting, but there is a Hope that never fails in the love of God in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross.  Tetelestai, it is finished.  God’s love extends over all our sin, over all our suffering, to reconcile us for all time to God.  His grace is enough, therefore let our hope be in Him.

I love you all, and my prayer and encouragement for you is the same as Paul’s was to the church at Ephesus:  Ephesians 3:14-20 – “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 40 – The Gospel of Peace and Joy in the Day of Trouble

/ adamrenken / Leave a comment
No one seemed to notice that my numbering was off on the last WFTD… so I take that to be a great encouragement at the grace of God that is flowing out from each of you!  We’re back on track with the numbering, as we are looking at Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, and how it shapes our understanding of ourselves, God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We’re all busy people.  Why do we spend time reading and studying the Word of God?  Why do we need 40+ messages on the gospel?  Shouldn’t we be busy living the gospel out instead of spending our time remembering what it is?  Allow me to share what my own experience has been and why I am convinced that study of God’s Word and the centrality of the gospel is essential to a Christian.  The day after I sent out my last WFTD, I was admitted to the ER with extended chest pains.  They actually started Saturday, but came to a climax early Sunday morning.  I sat in the ER, waiting on tests to come back, and was confronted with an array of thoughts and emotions – What plans for my life would go unfulfilled, what sin lay unconquered, and do I possess the depth of faith to endure until the end?  The answers to all of my hearts questions lay in the promises of God from His Word and the gospel.  The plans for my life are not eternal, the gospel is (Isaiah 40:8).  To the extent God has used me to be a messenger of His gospel, I can be sure my life’s most important work, God’s plan for me, had been fulfilled (2 Cor 5:18).  Though still a sinner, I was comforted that Jesus died for sinners (Rom 5:8), just like me, to reconcile us to God (1 Pet 3:18) – something I could never do and that is a gift of God (not dependent on my sin or “righteousness”) (Eph 2:8-9).  Would I possess the depth of faith to endure until the end?  Yes, God is faithful to see to completion what he has begun. (Phil 1:6)  All of this is the gospel of Jesus Christ from His Word.
Do you know what I was reading in my Bible before I went into the hospital?  I was reading Romans 7.  Do you know what I was reading while in the hospital?  Romans 8.  As Christians, we are not our own.  We have been bought for a price, the precious blood of Christ. (1 Pet 18-19)  If I have been purchased, my life is not my own, but in the hands of my master, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He gave me life and He can take it away, but He has promised to work all things towards good for those who love Him; for those whom He has called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28).  So whether I live or whether I die, that is not my concern, it is in the master’s hands.  My concern is not in how or when I die, but in how I live – to the glory of Christ.  The only way anyone can live to the glory of Christ is to be saturated in faith from His Word, being conformed to His image, and overflowing in love to others.
Romans 14:8 – “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
Romans 10:17 – “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 3:15-18 – “to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

2 Peter 1:3-7 – “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.  For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”

Some of you reading this I know very well, some I am only acquainted with, and others I may never know.  What I can say is that my heart is for your encouragement in the gospel of Jesus Christ from His Word.  My hope is that you do not grow weary in studying God’s Word and the gospel.  There is no greater threat to sin, no greater means of strengthening faith, than seeing and savoring Jesus Christ from His Word.  It is because of that, that satan and your indwelling sin will battle you at every turn to keep you from God’s Word.  Arm yourself with purpose and resolve to continue in the work God has given you. 

I just realized that my hope to continue in Romans 7 has gotten off-course.  That’s ok.  God leads, and this is more important.  There will come a day (for most of us when we do not expect) that God will call us home from this world to spend eternity with Him.  How are you arming yourself from God’s Word to sustain you in that day so that you finish the race well?  How are you being transformed by God’s image today from His Word so that the glory of God is being manifested?  How are you sharing the gospel with others that God has placed in your life?  I can tell you, the greatest peace and joy in life and death will be knowing that you have eagerly sought to know the Lord and make Him known in these ways.  Keep running the race with perseverance; the Spirit of God within you will grant you all the strength you need.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 39 – Unfathomable Sin and Unfathomable Righteousness

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Alright, I have to admit as I was reading through this chapter of Romans I went back and forth on how to approach this last section of scripture.  You can take it as a whole and get the overall picture of what God through Paul is trying to get across, but you will miss out on some gems that I really want everyone to see.  I also believe that the Lord rewards those who seek Him with their whole heart, and so I want to put in the work to try to get everything from this scripture that God has for us.  So, I’m going to split the rest of Romans 7 into 3 or 4 messages, and I truly believe it will be worth our time.  Hopefully you will as well.

Romans 7:12-15 – “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.  Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.  For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.”

Paul transitions here from explaining the purpose of the law (to point to the righteousness of Christ and our need for a savior), to explaining how this applies to him (and all of us) in a personal way.  I love this section of scripture, because you are able to see the heart of a Christian who loves God, who is running the race of faith, and who struggles with sin as we all do.  Please don’t read this just as another story, but know that this is a message from God to you.  Paul’s story and personal account is no different from where each of us are today.

If I said to you the words, bright, warm, shining, and “in the sky”, you would probably figure out that I was talking about the sun.  All of those descriptive words are true of the sun, but the fullness of their meaning is not found in the words, but when you look into the sky to see the sun, see it’s blinding brightness and feel the warmth it brings.  This is the same way with the law that was given to us from God.  It is descriptive of God’s righteousness, but the fullness of the law was found in Jesus Christ.
So the law that was given is holy, and the commandments we were given were holy and righteous and good because they were describing true righteousness, the holy righteousness of Jesus Christ.  So if the law that was given by God was a blessing, and we heard in previous verses that the law was meant to expose our sinfulness as we fell short of what the law required, does that mean that the law itself is the reason why we are condemned by God as sinners?  Did that which is good, bring death to us? Not at all.  Each of us is a sinner, we have bodies, but just as Jesus Christ is righteousness, and the law points to his righteousness, our actions are unrighteous, and they point to the fullness of our unrighteousness, the sin that is within us.  Does that make sense?  That was the dual purpose of the law, to point to the fullness of Righteousness in Christ, and to point to the fullness of sin in us.  Jesus Christ is not simply righteous, he is holy and righteous, he is righteousness in perfection, altogether different from what we can even fathom when we think of the word “righteous”.  We are not simply sinful, we are sinful in perfection, in our essence, altogether different than what we can even fathom when we think of the word “sin”.  Is that hard to accept?  It is because of our sin and pride that this doctrine is so hard to take in!
Isaiah 64:5-7 – “Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?  We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.  We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.  There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.”  If our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment, we do not understand righteousness, and even our best “good” deeds are stained by our sinfulness.
This is what it means when Paul is saying that “It was sin, producing death in men through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”  So, the law is spiritual, pointing to the very essence of true righteousness which is found in God alone, which is altogether beyond what we can measure.  We cannot understand this righteousness fully because we are not spiritual, but fleshly.  We are sold under sin.  In our fleshly nature, sin is our master, and we are slaves to it.  Every inclination of our heart, every thought in our mind, and ever action is in submission to our sinfulness.  That is man’s natural condition apart from Christ, and we who know Christ, who have His righteousness through faith still struggle with our flesh, even while we long for Christ and His righteousness in our lives.  How deep is our need for Christ!  What great victory is His on the cross to redeem sinners!  But more on that in the next message…
I hope this finds you well.  Know you’re prayed for, and I will close with the blessing given from God to Moses to give to the people of God – “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”  (Numbers 6:24-26) 
Grace and Peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 38 – The Grace of God is Greater than All Our Sin

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Romans 7:7-12 – “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”  But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.  I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.  For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.  So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”
Last time we talked about how the moral law of God found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.  We no longer need to look to the law to see the righteousness of God, we have the Righteous One, Jesus Christ to follow.  Today, Paul is again reinforcing the purpose of the law – which was never to be a means of salvation, rather to display our sin and need for a savior.  Today I’m going to press a bit on us all, because I feel like many professing Christians forget how desperate their need for Christ is.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is not something to be believed once and forgotten, but we live in the good news day to day, and into eternity to the praise of Jesus Christ.  I wonder sometimes if the lack of joy I see in Christian’s lives stems from forgetting to stand in awe of what Christ has done for us.  If a person understands how great the divide is between themselves as sinners and the righteousness of God, then their affections for God will be greater.  These are good affections, joy inducing affections, based only on the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is what the Master tells us in a parable in Luke 7:41-47 – “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”  Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”  Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
An amazing thing happens when you start to put the Cross of Christ before you each day.  You continually remember who you are apart from Christ, what Christ has done for you, and who you are now in Christ because of His finished work.  When this happens, and the light of Christ illuminates your heart and mind, you will see your sin with greater and greater clarity. It may even appear to you that your sin is increasing, because you see it more clearly.  At the same time, you will see the righteousness of Christ with greater and greater clarity.  It may even appear to you that His righteousness is increasing, because you see it more clearly.  All the while your heart and mind is being reminded that the righteousness of God is greater than all your sin.  You are confronted again and again with how great a sinner you are, how much you have been forgiven, and how great is our Savior.  Christ paid it all. 
It is only when you have done this for a signficant period of time that you can sing aloud with Paul, Phil 3:8-9 – “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
It is only when you stand amazed at the surpassing grace of God over your sin that you can understand and agree with Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 – “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Brothers and sisters, I am saying this for your joy and the edification of your faith – do not think higher of yourself than you ought, but continually rest in the shadow of the cross of Christ.  The law was given by God to increase our knowledge of our own sinfulness, so that we would not hope in ourselves, but in God who has mercy.  Do not rest in a past decision, but stand amazed that the God of all Creation, Jesus Christ saved you, a sinner today – right where you are.  2 Corinthians 6:1-2 – “Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  He must increase, and we must decrease – for our joy is not found in our own greatness, but in the surpassing greatness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  He is our treasure for eternity.  He loves us.  He is jealous for us to know Him.  Hebrews 12:1-2 – “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” 
Grace and Peace,
Adam

God’s Providence and Eternal Value

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I’m stepping away from Romans for today’s message.  In the US culture, you are raised up to believe that you can be anything you want to be.  Well, you know what I wanted to be?  I wanted to be a quarterback in the NFL.  I didn’t care much about which team, but I wanted to be out there, running the team – leading us to victory each week.  There was a problem with that plan though – I’m not 6’5″, I’m not particularly fast, and I can’t hit a receiver 40 yards downfield on the fly.  This is why (sad to say) I will never make it as an NFL quarterback, or even be the quarterback of a social league.

Now by the time people reach 30 or so, they have come to realize that certain dreams (like playing in the NFL) are just not going to happen.  They may lament this fact somewhat, but for the most part move on with their life and pursue other endeavors.  What I find fascinating, however, is that this desire for “grandeur” seems to replay itself over and over again, even within the church.  You have pastors who see other pastors with larger congregations and they try to emulate their style and “get funny”, you have lay persons within the church almost lobbying for leadership positions within the church, and you have a borderline competition amongst people who go on mission trips to see who can post the most pictures holding third world children on their Facebook page.  Amazing.  With all this striving, I wonder how much peace is actually present in these people’s lives.  My guess is not much.  So I wanted to take a day today, not to puff everyone up, but to remind you of your value in Christ, and hopefully allow you to rest in God’s providence.

There are two passages in scripture I want to look at today 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 which goes to why God chose us and Ephesians 2:8-10 which will touch on God’s providential plan for us.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 – “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

I hear it all the time from Christians… oh if only so and so famous person was a Christian, what an impact on God’s Kingdom they would have.  I want to ask that person… “really?”.  Do you really think that God is limited in any way by that person not following Him?  This is not chance, this is God’s plan! He has CHOSEN the weaker things of this world to show that the surpassing power belongs to Christ, not man!  Oh, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ, but sometimes I want to shake them and ask them – don’t you see?  This isn’t about you, or any one person, it is about Christ!  He must increase, and we must decrease!

Why didn’t God make me smarter?  Why didn’t God make me more attractive?  Why didn’t God make me rich?  What didn’t God make me famous?  “God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”  I am NOT against ambition, but what is your goal?  Do you realize that the glory of God is seen much greater when God accomplishes much out of little?  Was Jesus impressed by all the tithes that were coming into the temple of large amounts or of the small tithe of the widow?  Mark 12:41-44 – “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.  Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Did Jesus turn around and make the widow materially rich?  No.  God had chosen to make His glory known for all eternity through the poverty of this woman.  That is a greater reward than any amount of money.  This story although uniquely captured in scripture, is not unique in design – God has a plan for each of us.    Ephesians 2:8-10 – “by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

God has a plan for you.  It is a beautiful plan.  All of your past, all of your suffering, all of your giftings, is ALL going to be useful in accomplishing this plan.  God has chosen to use us as the means of advancing His kingdom, to speak light into darkness, to bring redemption and freedom to people who are slaves to sin through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is a weighty task with eternal implications.  If you are a Christian, you will bear fruit, and the fruit you bear will echo into eternity.  There will be people in Heaven because you shared the gospel with them, and loved them, and encouraged them in their faith.  With this in mind, let’s take a moment today to prioritize our efforts in life, to line them up with what is truly of importance.  Whether you are a stay at home mom, a janitor, a pastor, a businessman, a teacher, a social worker, a starbucks barista, or anything else, we all have the same amount of time in the day to make the glory of God known to a dying world.  God has each of us exactly where He wants us for this season in life, let each of us seek to make the most of the days God has given to us.  Love you all, know you’re prayed for, and I genuinely thank God for each of you.  Keep running strong.
Grace and Peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 37 – The Law of Christ

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Romans 7:1-6 – “Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?  For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.  Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.  Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.  For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.  But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”
Why do you pay your debts when they come due?  Aside from not paying your debts being a form of stealing and the moral concern that raises, ultimately, if you don’t pay, then creditors can make all sorts of problems for you, right?
I’m not going to go into what all the “law” means today, because Paul is presuming the reader to understand, and I am presuming you to understand the “law” – at least as a standard of moral conduct.  Sufficed to say that it would include things that most people would attribute to morality like, do not steal, do not lie, don’t commit adultery, etc.  Paul uses the latter example of adultery to illustrate a crucial point about the law – that the power of the law ends with a person’s death.  Let me give you a modern day example:  If you owe a credit card company money and you don’t pay them, they can report you to the credit agencies ruining your credit score, they can send your amounts into collections to harass you, etc.  They can create all sorts of problems for you while you’re alive.  However, if you owe a debt and you die, the credit card company can’t do anything to you.  Could they send you to collections?  Yes, but what good would that do?  Could they call you asking for payment?  They’d have to speak REALLY loud!  They can still go through the motions, but the power they had over you is gone.
God gave us a good law in the Ten Commandments and Old Testament, that we should have followed.  The law gave us a glimpse into the righteousness of God.  The problem is that the law could only show us how far short each of us fell from what God required of us.  Thus the law proved only a means of condemnation for us and assured us of the righteous judgment of God.  The law could never save us, it was never meant to.
This series through Romans is called “Reconnecting with the Gospel” for a reason.  I have seen many professing Christians fall away from their faith because the gospel of Jesus Christ never takes root in their heart – it was merely something to be “believed” once and now that time has passed.  The gospel never bridges the gap between the actions of Jesus and your personal identity as a “believer”.  Now what I want you to see is that when you say you believe the gospel, that you are entrusting your salvation unto Christ through His death, burial, and resurrection.  You are identifying yourself with Him.  His death was your death.  His life is your life.  Now when we talk about identifying with the death of Jesus in the gospel, what are the implications of that for a Christian?  All of the power that the law had over you, to condemn and punish you, was borne by Jesus.  He paid our debt for everything we had done and everything we will do in full.  There is nothing left of the law that needs to be satisfied.  Having been satisfifed in full, it holds no power over us for whom Christ died.
Does this mean that we are no longer bound to the law or that we should ignore it?  Not at all. What it does mean is that we no longer have to fear the judgment of God under the law, and we have been given the fullness of the law in Jesus Christ.  No longer are we to model ourselves after the righteousness alluded to through the law, we have the Righteous One, Jesus Christ to follow.  Christ explains this in His sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 17, 21-48.  I won’t put all of that here, but in verse 17 he says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”.  In verses 21-48 he goes on to explain the depth of the law that extended beyond mere outward action, but was a matter of obedience from the heart.  None of us could ever meet that standard of righteousness, but in Christ as a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), we can.
So if you are burdened by your sin, you are burdened in your pursuit of righteousness through works, these words of Jesus are for you:  Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”   The fear of judgment died with Christ, it has been replaced by joy in salvation in the law of Christ – Love the Lord your God, Jesus Christ, with all of your heart, soul, and mind, and love others as yourselves.  You will not be alone, but the Spirit of Christ in you will be with you always.
Grace be with you,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 36 – The Sourness of Sin and the Sweetness of Salvation

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Happy Friday to all!  I want you to know that I worked hard on that alliteration in the naming of today’s message…  Today we’re wrapping up chapter 6 of Romans.  It has been very impactful to me personally, and my hope, prayer, and eager expectation is that it will be an encouragement and means of growth for your own faith.
Romans 6:20-23 – “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I love this section of scripture.  Many people are familiar with Romans 6:23, that the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Many would think that out of the four verses we’re covering today, that would be my focus, but it’s not.  That verse is the bow on the top of the real present to us – a message from God that includes an explanation of who we were, the futility of sin, and who we are now in Christ. 

Every person is born a sinner.  It’s not simply that they sin, it’s a condition – it is who they are.  In Genesis 6:5 we see a vivid explanation of the natural condition of man – “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  That condition was not simply true of that generation, but is true of every one of us from birth.  We are given a very similar description in the New Testament in Ephesians 2:1-4 – “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

How great a need we have of a savior!  Sometimes I wonder if the reason that we see so little joy in salvation from Christians, is that they forget how desperate their condition apart from Christ truly is.  It’s not simply that we do bad from time to time and sin… that’s what we convince ourselves into believing, but the truth of God paints a far darker, more bleak picture.  We do not simply sin every once in a while, we are sinners with every thought and breath and inclination of our heart.  Sin permeates our being thoroughly.  Not only do we sin, we are enslaved to sin.  We pursue it with our lives, thereby submitting ourselves to the prince of the power of the air, satan, as well.  Once enslaved, which we are from birth, there is no hope for freedom. 

The irony is that in such a bleak situation, sinners are actually convinced that their sin is good.  We convince ourselves that they way to happiness is through sinning more and more.  Back in Romans 1:24-25 where it says “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”  (bolded by me for emphasis), the “lie” is that we can find joy pursuing our own sinful desires, instead of worshipping God, where true joy is found.  Just before that, God calls these people “fools”.  I agree, but sadly each of us has been foolish in this way.

In Romans 6:21 a simple question is asked, and I want you to hear this as a question to you personally from God, because it is – “what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?”   Put another way, if you’re caught up in sin right now, how’s that working out for you?  Is your sin delivering on the promise of happiness and peace?  What benefit has your sin been to you in your life?  I’m not saying that we don’t have a battle to fight or that it will always be easy to deny your sinful desires to pursue Christ, but what I want to do is expose the lie – no amount of sin will ever make you happy of fulfilled.  As your sin increases, so does your appetite for greater sin.  It will never be enough, and the end state of a person who makes life a pursuit of sin instead of God is death – death to God, separation from Him, and despair at the removal of all hope.  It is better to strive hard after Christ who satisfies, than to run casually towards death and despair.
The best news of all, is that God loves us – He truly loves us, and doesn’t leave us alone in our sin, but is reaching out to us continually.  He is closer than you think, and is jealous for His children.  The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  He is there today for everyone who wants to come.  This life he offers is much more than physical life, it is a fullness of life, a fullness of joy in relationship with Him.  Psalm 16:11 – “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”   
God has given you a mind, that you should know Him; that you can see the lie of sin and run towards your Savior, and he has given you a heart that by His grace and mercy you should know a fullness of joy.  He is good, His steadfast love is new each day for you and never ends, and He offers true freedom from the slavery and futility of sin, that we might be willing, joyful slaves of God in righteousness to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I hope this finds you well.  Know you’re prayed for.
Grace and Peace,
Adam 

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 35 – The Obedience that Leads to Sanctification

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Today we’re going to be encouraged in how we are to fight for faith on a daily basis.  There are some who shout “GRACE!” in church and to others, but never submit themselves to the will of God for personal righteousness in following after Christ.  These people are not believers – they don’t truly know or love Jesus, they just want something from Jesus.  They don’t want to hear anything about obedience as a mark of true faith, they want to continue in their sin.  On the other side of the spectrum, you have some people who can make obedience and “being” a Christian into such a burden the the weight of “trying to do everything you’re supposed to” is unbearable.  These people may or may not be believers, but they are definitely Pharisees, unhelpful to themselves and anyone else truly wanting to grow in their faith.  Their constant focus works and “measuring up” would contradict our Lord Jesus Christ when He said “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
There is another way to live as a Christian, that does not remove the call to obedience but also exudes peace and joy in reconciliation to Christ.  This is what we see in scripture.  2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  That’s where we find ourselves in Romans today.
Romans 6:15-19 – “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”
The first part of the passage above confronts a topic that I believe needs to be preached on heavily, especially in the US – what is the gospel of Jesus Christ saving us from?  What is grace for?  Most people, if they are honest with themselves, see their sin, see that God is righteous and judges their sin, and see that Jesus died for their sin.  They embrace this gospel of salvation from the judgment of sin.  What many do not embrace is  the gospel of salvation from the power of sin.  Jesus preached one gospel – to repent and believe.  Mark 1:14-15 – “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 
The gospel of Jesus Christ is salvation from both the power of sin and the judgment of sin.  You can’t have one without the other, and you can’t want one without wanting the other and still claim to love Jesus and His salvation.  If you are identifying with the risen victorious Christ, then you must also identify with the death of Christ to sin.  Today though I want to be very practical.  My burden is not to expose false-believers or call out Pharisaical behavior.  What I want to focus in on is what it means to “present you members as slaves to righteousness” and how that leads to sanctification.  Hopefully you noticed something that was very important in that scripture – the ordering of things.  Your presenting your members as slaves to righteousness leads to your sanctification, NOT your sanctification leads you to present your members as slaves to righteousness.  This exposes the error that many Christians enter into, trying merely to “pray their way into sanctification”.  That isn’t to say we ought not ask God to continually change our heart, but we also have a role to play beyond that.  God has told us from scripture that He chooses to use the actions of men for His good purposes.  (Eph 2:10, 1 Cor 3:6, 2 Cor 5:20, and on and on). 
So in some way our actions of “presenting our members as slaves to righteousness” will lead to God accomplishing sanctification in us.  This is another example of the mystery of how man’s will (choices) and God’s sovereign plan are compatible, not contradictory.  Philippians 2:12-13 – “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” 
When you have a desire for righteousness to glorify God, rejoice, that is from God and evidence of the Spirit at work in you.  When you work towards personal righteousness, rejoice, that is God at work through you, for your good and joy. 
Now, I am confident that the great many of you reading this desire the righteousness of God in your life – how else could you manage to read through these emails all the time!  So what I want to exhort you in is how to “present your members as slaves to righteousness”.  I know I can be wordy at times, so this should a nice reprieve… I’m actually going to use bullet points below:
  1. Looking to Jesus, be continually building your understanding of the righteousness of God (Start in gospels in the life of Christ – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
  2. Be brutally honest with yourself about your current sin, including how it usually comes about
  3. Remind yourself of the weight of sin and that sin deserves (the wrath of God) 
  4. Quickly remind yourself of salvation through Jesus in the gospel from the judgment and power of sin
  5. Proactively remove those things that lead to sin from # 2 above, and replace them with things that help grow your affection for Christ and righteousness
  6. Repeat

Now the key here is being honest with yourself and not trying to see how close you can get to the edge of sin without sinning.  Meaning everyone knows that if you’re an alcoholic, going into a bar isn’t a good idea, but we need to go deeper.  If you general find your struggle with sin happening later at night, then start going to bed earlier and make it a point to redeem 30 minutes of time before you go to sleep in the Bible and prayer.  If you are struggling with anxiety/materialism with money, search for ways to start doing with less and giving more away.  Each of us have our own struggles, and the plan of attack will be slightly different for each of us.  Does this mean that we will never sin if we pursue this kind of life change to pursue righteousness?  No, but by the grace of God we might begin to grow closer in our fellowship with God, increase our joy, and grow in our sanctification.  We are all equals in this fight together and in love we need to be encouraging one another towards growth in righteousness for our joy and God’s glory.

I hope this finds you well, know you’re prayed for, and may God’s blessing be upon each of you today.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Reconnecting with the Gospel pt. 34 – Instruments for Righteousness

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Romans 6:12-14 – “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Now whenever you see the word “therefore” in the Bible you have to ask yourself the question, “what is it there for?”  So we have to look back to the last message from Romans 6:1-11, and we have our answer.  In church or among Christians, you may have heard people talk about their “identity in Christ”.  That’s what the last message from Romans 6:1-11 was all about.  As a believer in Christ Jesus, your identity is rooted in His death, burial, and resurrection.  You have been born again by the Spirit of God.  In the book of Revelation we are told that we are even given a new name by God (Rev 6:17).  Perhaps there is no clearer explanation of how as Christians our “identity” is in Christ than what we see in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”   

Romans 6:12-14 is all about believing, trusting, hoping in, the good news of Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord and manifesting your new identity in your life.  If your faith is more than words, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, there will necessarily be a disdain for sin and a yearning for Christ.  For you, Romans 6:12-14 will not be “work”, but a reminder that you are free in Christ and have the freedom to pursue joy in fellowship with Christ rather than your sin. 
My encouragement is by way of reminder that we as Christians are in the business of killing sin by pursuing joy in Christ.  Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.  There are three people I’m now talking to:
The first is the person who is actively pursuing Christ, yearning for personal obedience and righteousness for the glory of God.  Keep watch, keep going, and stay vigilant – we have an enemy that roams about seeking to destroy us. 
The second is the believer who was running well for a period of time, but now finds themselves engaging in sin, and their joy in salvation is diminished.  Stop believing the lie that joy is found in your sin and return to Christ.  Read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.  God is jealous for you and wants to restore you to Himself.  You are not alone, all Christians struggle, but each day is a new day and God is abundant in mercy and steadfast love.  Pray through Psalm 51, read your Bible, and surround yourself with some Christians to encourage you.
The third is the professing believer who loves their sin and wants to rationalize their sin rather than repent from it.  For you, this passage seems like a burden rather than delight.  It’s burdensome to you because you don’t really want Christ, you want your sin, and giving it up would seem very painful to you.  I have both a warning and an encouragement to you.  I would say as a warning that there is a mountain of scripture from God’s word in which we are told that as Christians have a battle to fight again sin and evil.  We are also told that there are some who profess belief, but their faith is not real and is evidenced by their sinfulness (Matt 7:21-23 and the entire book of 1 John).  Each of us should be on guard against our sin of immorality and self-righteousness, not because we seek to escape hell, but because we love Jesus and want more of Him in our lives.  If this is you, I would ask you to seriously consider 2 Corinthians 13:5 – “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”  

As an encouragement, I would tell you that Jesus’s offer of salvation from sin and joy in fellowship with Him is for you today.  Acts 2:21 – “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”.  I call upon the Lord every day, because I’m as much in need of Him today as ever.  “Today” is the day of salvation.  When tomorrow becomes “today”, it will be the day of salvation for me.  When next month becomes “today”, it will be the day of salvation for me.  We rest in the finished work of Christ “today” and everyday, “today” is the day for you to turn from your sin and enter the rest of Christ.

Hebrews 4:1-7 – “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.  For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.  For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “ As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.  For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “ And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this passage, “ They shall not enter My rest.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “ Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

Wherever you are today, as you read this today, know that as followers of Christ, the infinitely love of God rests on you.  Keep running with endurance, and know that you’re prayed for.

Grace and Peace,
Adam