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Amen and amen. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do. We're going to end up in Romans, chapter seven. We are in week four of this series that we have called Worship is War. And I hope you've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it. We're studying these old hymns that lead us to text to talk about how important worship is and why we worship and the theological realities behind why we sing what we sing. And. And one of the things that I will point out to you, we talk about war around here a lot, but we all get fired up when the war is out there somewhere, right? I mean, I do a lot. And it's easy to get fired up. There's a lot to be fired up about these days. There's no doubt about it. And I get all animated when the war is out there coming against God's people and against the church. All right, But I don't know if you know this, but most often the war is actually in here. Anybody ever notice that, like, the biggest war you're ever gonna face is not what you see on your nightly news? The biggest war that you're ever gonna face is what you see right in the morning when you look in the mirror, when you come eyeball to eyeball with the one that war is like against you in here. And the other reality is this. The church has often responded, rightly, when the attack is from the outside. I mean, have you seen the response of the church in the last couple of weeks with a martyrdom, the assassination of Charlie Kirk? How did the church respond? Not including writing, the church responded with prayer vigils. The church responded with one of the largest worship services ever in the history of America that hundreds of thousands of people got together. And what did they do? They sang worship songs by Brandon Lake and Chris Tomlin and Phil Wickham. These guys. How about this one? This will blow your mind. Politicians clearly shared the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, by the way, better than some preachers I've heard. It's crazy. And some news stations broadcast it for people to hear, so. And then there's always a group of critics. But you remember this. It's not the critic who counts, right? It's those of us in the arena. And so the church does pretty good when we're attacked from the outside. But faith is like a nail. The harder you hit it, bro, the deeper it goes. But what do you do when the war is not out there against you, but the war is actually on the inside of you? You see this is what leads us to this hymn. We sung it like three times. We're going to sing it again. It's called Come Thou Fount, one of my very favorite ones. And a part of the reason is because this very famous line we'll get to in it. And a lot of it, what it talks about is, what do you do when the evil attack is personal and private? All right, the story behind this hymn, Come Thou Fount, it was written by a guy named Robert Robinson. He was born in England in 1735, lost his father at a bad age, and he made very bad decisions. They were very, very poor, and he didn't make good decisions. He was such a jerk that his grandfather disinherited him. Think about how crappy you have to be. It's one thing when your parents don't like you because you suck, but when your grandparents don't like you, you gotta be terrible. He was terrible, all right. He was barber's apprentice to try to help out, but he didn't really make any money. And so he joined a gang in England. And the history books say that what this gang was known for was mocking religion, carousing, and causing trouble. So at age 17, this guy named George Whitfield, who would have been like the modern day Billy Graham back then, he was a traveling evangelist, he was super famous. He would go into cities, preach the gospel, bunches of people would get saved. George Whitefield, he was going to London. And so Robert's little gang decided that they were gonna go there just to disrupt the meetings. And so they filled their pockets with rocks. And their idea was when George Whitefield got on stage, they were gonna pull out the rocks and throw them at the dude and throw them at the people. And they were gonna disrupt everything and just make a mess. Well, when they showed up on the scene, and Robert begins to reach his hand into his pocket to grab the rocks, and George Whitefield sees him and quotes Matthew 3:7, looks right at him and says, o generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come. And he was frozen. Robert was frozen. He ended up just listening to the entire message. Shortly after this, our guy Robert Robinson surrenders his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ, decides to go into the ministry works at Baptist churches and Methodist churches for a little while. And then two years after his salvation, he. He writes the hymn that we know as Come Thou Fount of every blessing. And what he had intended for evil, God intended for good. He wrote that hymn for his local church for a Pentecost Sunday. It was about both prayer and confession. And Robert, his entire life, struggled with his feelings, being all over the place, even though he knew that Christ had saved him. And so here are the words to the song. It says, come thou fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing thy praise. Anybody ever notice that our hearts get out of tune with the Lord? You ever notice that? I mean, I don't play anything except the radio, but if you bang around a piano or bang around a guitar, it's not gonna go in tune. It gets out of tune. And when you live in this world, you get banged around by this world, our tune, our heart gets out of tune. And a part of what corporate worship does is we get here together and be like, lord, I need you to tune my heart to sing about your grace because this world wants me to tune my heart to sing all about me says tune my heart to sing thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise. Pastor Brit taught us last week that one of the key ingredients to, like, gospel God, glorifying, go to war kind of worship is gratitude that when we see God for who he really is, then we respond by making much of him. Then the first chorus says this Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. You realize that when we go to church to sing, it's just practice for what we get to do in heaven forever and ever and ever. We won't only sing, but there will always be singing. I hope you know this. It's kind of an old Baptist joke, like, if you don't like to sing in church, you ain't gonna like it in heaven. Because the elders get around the throne, lay down their crowns, and they never stop singing. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. Then he says, praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, Mount of thy redeeming love. Verse 2. He says, Here I raise my Ebenezer. And I know you don't know what Ebenezer is. This isn't like Scrooge. This is not what this is. Ebenezer means a remembering rock from the Old Testament. And what God would instruct the folks in the Old Testament to do is when God would move in a miraculous way, he would instruct the people to build an altar. It was usually like 12 stones, and the big one was an Ebenezer. And it was to remember so that in the next generation, when your kids were like, hey, dad, what's that altar doing there? You'd be like, oh, son, this is where God moved and our people crossed the Red Sea or crossed over the Jordan or did something like that. A part of what it is to worship is to remind us, the people of God, about the faithfulness of God. He says, here I raised my Ebenezer he hither. By thy help I've come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. It sounds to me like. And I kind of know the end of this guy's story is that he knows that he's shaky and his feelings are all over the place. So kind of like the psalmist, he's reminding his soul of the faithfulness of God, especially when he has a hard time remembering the faithfulness of God. Like, he wants to make sure he doesn't forget the loving grace of Jesus. Why you ever forget the loving grace of Jesus? I mean, don't we all have a tendency to get a little gospel amnesia? I mean, it makes no sense when we're in here at church and I'm preaching on Ephesians 2 or Romans 3, or Romans 6 or Romans 8 or basically the whole Bible, that we're not saved by works. We're saved by grace, through faith because of what Christ has done for us. And we say yes and amen and we pray about it and we raise our hands about it, and. And then by Wednesday, we screw up and we're like, oh, my gosh, do you even like me anymore? And we could just forget. And then he anchors this just in the gospel. The second chorus says this. Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God. How many of you know that's true? Like, you didn't find God. He wasn't lost. You were lost. I was lost. God was not sitting in heaven waiting for you to finally come to church two weeks in a row. But you before he said, oh, now you're acceptable. No, no, no, no. That he came on a rescue mission for us. He to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood. And then this is where I think these next two, four lines, whatever it is, I think this is why this song resonates with folks like you and me. Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be Let that grace now like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to Thee A fetter is like a ball and chain. It's like shackles. That you would shackle somebody up in prison so that they can't get away. And he is confessing God. I don't know what's wrong with me. But I need your grace to stick me to you. Cause it's the only thing that's gonna stick me to you. Because I'm not. And the reason I'm not is. Cause I had a real problem. And my problem is me. And here's my problem. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love so here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above anybody else. Prone to wonder See this sermon? If you're real churchy, you're not gonna like this one, that's fine. Nobody likes you either, so it's fine. But if you're real churchy, you're not gonna like this. Cause we're gonna talk a lot about this internal struggle with sin. And this is one of the few songs that I can find where the dude just says it. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. And then even in his own mind, he's like, it don't make sense, though. Cause I love God. Prone to leave the God I love. I think this is why this resonates with me so much. Because I am like you. Prone to wonder. Hey. And I'm gonna be honest. I love God a lot. I love Jesus. I read my Bible so much. Listen, how about this? I'm a professional Christian. You guys pay me to do this. Y' all are good for nothing. I make a living at this. You understand what I'm saying? I read my Bible. I hang out with Christians, I go on mission trips, I plan services. I share my all the things. And there are some moments where I love him so much, and I feel him so much, and I feel his presence so close. I feel like if I open my eyes, I'll see his face. And then there's other times where I'm just over here acting like I don't even know who he is. I'm like, what is wrong with me? You ever feel like that? This is why I'm telling you. This is going to bother church folks. Speaking of bothering church folks, Proverbs 26:11 says that. This is in the Proverbs. I didn't make this up. Ready? Proverbs 26:11. As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their volley folly. So when you see a dog eating vomit that it threw up, aren't you like, ugh? And the reason you don't do that is because you're not a dog. Okay, now, this illustration is a J.D. greer illustration, not mine. So if you don't like this, email him. He Gets plenty of emails. All right, ready? Can you imagine what did I eat last night? I can't remember. Pizza maybe. Alright, so whatever I ate. Hot dogs. I think I had a hot dog. Can you imagine if right now I was overwhelmed with a sick stomach and I vomited all over the carpets down here? Like little chunks of hot dogs, mostly chewed. Got it in your mind bun. I like chili with mustard and some onions. Got it. Do you know what we would not have to do? We would not have to say, hey, new rule. You're not allowed to come up and lick up pastor's vomit. You're not allowed. Because you would think I wouldn't even want to. That is sick. Who would want to do that? From heaven's perspective, when a saint acts like a sinner, like a dog returning to his vomit, so is a fool who keeps sinning. And heaven's like, what are you doing? And even right now, there are things in your world that seem sick and nasty to you. And even in your heart, during the last song, when you come down here and get on your face and pray to God and you. And you think, I'm never doing that again. That just seems terrible, doesn't it? And then by Wednesday you're like, man, that looks like vomit, that smells like vomit. Oh my God, I want it so bad. What is wrong with us? Here's what's wrong with us is that there is a war going on. But it's a civil war inside of us. There is this war between God's salvation and our own flesh. And it is at war. This is why we are prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. After 7:22, this girl comes up to me in the lobby. Sweet girl, love her so much. And she has repented of a rebellious lifestyle, walked away from everywhere, everything this world had to offer, and is walking with Jesus. Praise God for this girl's life and testimony. I love this girl so much. And she asked me, she goes, so am I a saint or a sinner? And I go, yep. And then somebody didn't like my answer and sent me an email and gave me many verses. And I go, that's adorable. I too have verses. So both of these things are simultaneously true. Now, positionally, the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have been justified and all of your sin has been paid for and you are holy and blameless. True. And yet John says, whoever says he is without sin is a liar and the truth is not without than him. Both of those things are simultaneously, positionally, you have already been paid for adopted, interceded with Christ at the right hand. And yet simultaneous sin still rules and reign is in your life. And it's tempting. Listen, man, if it ain't tempting, it ain't temptation, right? Anybody still struggle with temptation? Those of us with our hands up and the liar sitting next to you. So if that's your story, I got some great news. The apostle Paul writes Romans chapter seven. And fundamentally he's going to go. Anybody struggle with their walk with Christ, like what your heart wants for the Lord and what your flesh wants every day just don't seem to line up. Anybody else struggle? Paul's going to say, me too. Now some people will say, well, Paul wasn't a Christian when he wrote Romans 7. What? Okay, I think he was because, because of Romans 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. So when you go 6, 7, then you can say, I'm a Christian. You understand? That's what I'm saying. Romans 1. He says that I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. He says it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. He says, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And no one, by works of their own righteousness can be declared as justified by God. That we need somebody to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. That it is by faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved. And that there's only two categories of people. Listen, if you're really young, this is going to be offensive, okay? God is very binary. When he returns, there's only two categories. Saved, not saved. You were either in the camp of Jesus or Adam. And the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. So when you were baptized, it was a picture that you were buried with your old self in Christ. And just like Christ was resurrected from the grave, you have been resurrected to a newness of life. So what does those of us who have been buried with Christ have to do with sin? And the answer is nothing. We don't have anything to do with sin. And you're like, yeah, Paul, you get them until he gets to chapter seven. He's like, except you still struggling with sin. You're like, uh huh. He's like, well, good. Well let's talk about that for a little while. Romans chapter 7, verse 4 says, likewise my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ. In other words, and I know Paul can be very complicated to read by the way Peter in one of his letters says, anybody read Paul? Kind of hard to get your head around. And this was the apostle Peter who said that. So if you're a little slow on the uptake on the Bible study stuff, you could make a great disciple. I will explain. Okay, I'll put it like in bottom shelf. Dylan, vernacular about fourth grade education. Ready? Here we go. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ. In other words, the gospel is not if I obey, then I'll be accepted. The gospel is I have been accepted because of the obedience of Christ. And when I put my faith in him, it's my faith in him that drives me to obey, not the other way around. And then he explains it. He says, 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. While. 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. Let me explain, okay? The moment you put your faith in Jesus, the old you is dead and the new you has been resurrected. That's true. We talk about this all the time. This is not about an outside in obedience of the law. This is about an inside out. Put your faith in Jesus. Sometimes. I'll say it this way, going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than putting your heaven in the. I mean, putting your head in the oven makes you a biscuit. That's not how it works. It's an inside out thing, not an outside in thing. Okay? Some of the examples that we see in the Bible are things like In John chapter 11, when Jesus calls Lazarus out of the grave, the first thing he tells him to do is take off his grave clothes. Why? Because he's a living man and living men don't wear dead people clothes. He didn't take off the grave clothes in order to become alive. God made him alive and then he took off the grave clothes. You're like, yay, praise God. I get that. Or Mark, chapter two. Jesus says, hey cripple man, now you can walk. Take up your mat and walk. Why? Because you don't have to lay down on your mat. Because walking people don't lay down on crippled people mats. And we go, praise God for that. Only problem is about three weeks later we have a tendency to slip back into some grave clothes or we have a tendency to lay back down on that nasty mat, don't we? This is what Paul is addressing here. And by the way, anybody struggle with this? The answer is yes, we all do. The good news is this is what Paul is talking about. He is talking about that indwelling sin, that besetting, I love Jesus, I've surrendered my life to Jesus, and yet for some reason I can't live in the way that I think a Christian ought to live. Verse 7. What then? Shall we say that the law is sin? By no means. By the way, the Greek word there by no means is like profano or something like that, some Greek word that sounds like where we get the word profanity. So this would. He's saying like, heck no, that's Baptist cussing right there. Okay, that's what he's saying. He's like, no, here's what he's saying. Okay? So you can't think that the law is bad. The law is a gift to us by God. You see, when God gives us a law, the ten Commandments and all the commandments, all the rules, all the regulations, all that, this is what you should do and should not do. It is a gift from God. It is a gift from God. Why? Because God knows how to live life better than you know how to live life. And you're like, yeah, but I have chatgpt. Well, that's adorable. It's only as good as its inputs, and its inputs are sinful. Okay? But the law is not going to change your life. The law of God, the word of God is like a map and a mirror. It's the best way I know to explain it. It's a map to show us how we ought to rightly live before a righteous God. But it's also a mirror. So you look at it and you go, oh, there's a problem, but the solution is not the mirror. Do you know that? Like you've looked at your face in the mirror, like all of us today got up this morning and you looked at your face in the mirror and there's always somebody that's like, not me, brother, we could tell. You need to go to. You need to be in a group, get in a group. But when you see the problem in the mirror, first of all, you don't blame the mirror. You're not like, martha, look what the mirror's doing to my face. No, it's just revealing your face. And you also can't take the mirror off the wall and then clean your face with the mirror. That's just not what it was made for. This is the law of God, that the law is given to us as a guide, as a mirror to show us that there's a problem, he says. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. The reason God gives us these commandments is to know that we're commandment breakers. It's like the speed limit. Do you know how you know you're speeding because you broke the speed limit? Can you imagine if you pulled out on 95 and it just said, drive safely, good luck? And you just got to determine what that is. Some of you fools would drive 44 miles an hour in the left lane in front of me at 95 and cause me to sin. That's a different conversation. Some of you would drive 144 miles an hour while texting and putting on your makeup and feeling great about it. So the law has been established so that we know what it is to break the law. That's what he's saying. 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. Here's what he's saying. Do you ever. Not even thinking about doing a thing until somebody told you you couldn't do the thing, and now you just have to do the thing. You know what I'm talking about? Last week, we weren't here because Gretchen and I, we were with some friends. We were in Germany, and they have more castles in Germany than McDonald's, which is probably a good idea. And I don't love castles, but I love Gretchen. Gretchen loves a castle. So guess what? I love castles. So there we are. We're looking at the castles, and you walk into this castle, and they have all these old things by these rich people, you know? And I'm walking by, and it's like, here's the queen's jewels. Don't touch the jewels. And you know what I do? I'm like, God touched every time. And Gretchen's like, what is wrong with you? Are you a child? I'm like, maybe. But I'll tell you what I am. I'm American. Ain't no German queen telling me what I do. By God, I just touched the meat. I mean, that's what I do. Don't you ever do that. This is what he's saying. So there's nothing wrong with the law. The law just revealed. Something is wrong in me, he says, for apart from a lost 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. So the problem is not God's commandments. The problem is us. Verse 13. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. Again, the law is a map and a mirror. The law just can't cure you. 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. In other words, when you rightly read the Scriptures, the more you dive into the Bible, you're not going to find your wisdom, you're going to find your ignorance. You're not going to see your righteousness, you're going to see your unrighteousness. I hope you realize that. That the deeper you dive into the Word and the Word dives into you, you begin to realize, uh, oh, God, there's a real problem here. I can't do any of this on my own. Which Jesus, by the way, when he starts out his teaching ministry, he starts out with this. In Discernment on the Mount, he starts with this. Blessed are the poor in spirit. You know what that means? Blessed are you. When you realize I'm spiritually bankrupt and I can't get me out of this, I need somebody to do for me what I can't do, for I don't bring any merit to my salvation. And when you get to that place, that's when Jesus goes perfect. Because you know what? You need to be saved. You need, need. You see, what will actually happen in your life the longer you walk with the Lord is. I heard this. John MacArthur said this. He just passed away like a month ago or whatever. He was a preacher forever, like 250 years. Long time. And spoke a lot of truth. All right, a lot of truth. And not the most tender pastor you've ever heard in your life, but he was being interviewed, and it just popped up on one of my reels or whatever. And he says this. He goes, the more you dive into the Word, the more you mature as a Christian. Two things are gonna simultaneously happen. One, you're going to sin less, which is true over time. The Gospel, by the Spirit of God in you and the word of God over you is going to conform you more and more into the image and likeness of Christ. You're not going to be perfect, but you're going to stack up some victories, right? You're going to sin less and you're going to feel worse. Isn't that true when I first became a Christian in high school? Reagan, don't listen to this. When I first became a Christian in high school, if I just simply wasn't sleeping with somebody drunk or punching you in the face, I thought I might be up for sainthood any weekend now, okay? And now I get this gripping conviction, not even if I say or do something, if I just think something, I think, oh, no. Why? Because what the law is revealing is that I have a heart problem. And then verse 14, check this out. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. Has anybody ever noticed there's a serious disconnect in your lived experience between what I want and what the Word requires? And I love God, but there's a serious disconnect from the promises that I make God. I'm never gonna do that again. And then the things that I wanna do, I mean, anybody else here, like, you want to follow God, Then you get to parts of the Bible and you're like, ah, gosh, why is that in there? And Paul's like, yeah, me too. Paul's like, I'm still battling with the flesh and the devil and the world. And so when that girl asked me, so, am I a saint or a sinner? And I say, yes, it's because the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have been saved. You are being saved. And one day you will be saved. You have been saved from your sin once and for all. That's called justification that you have, that the penalty has been paid for the penalty of your sin and you are saved. One day when you breathe your last here on the planet and you are face to face with God, you will be glorified. Praise God. And you will be saved from the presence of sin. And we will get to be in the presence of God in our resurrected and glorified bodies. Can I get a Witness from the 50 and up crowd? Praise God. You hear that? Yeah. All you teenagers and 25ers or whatever, you're like, what are you talking about? That's adorable. God bless your eyesight, your flexibility, and your ignorance. All right? So everything in between your justification and your glorification is called sanctification. This Means there's a continual process by the spirit of God in you, the authority of the word of God over you. Like a hammer and a chisel chiseling out anything in you that does not look like Jesus. Because God is going to conform us into the image and likeness of God. So positionally we are. We are saints, holy and blameless. Practically speaking, we still struggle with sin, every single one of us. This next line is why I chose Romans 7 to talk about the verses from the song Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. Verse 15. I know it's been complicated so far. Paul is going to put this on the bottom shelf. I don't care what you believe. If this is the first time you've ever been in church in your life, you're going to understand what this means. Verse 15. For I do not understand my own actions, anybody. For I don't understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. You ever done that? I mean, forget the law of God and the promises that you made. The last week of saturated, the last day of saturated. Just think about this. Anybody just decide, I am going to get in such good shape. Oh my God. You don't even know the shape mama's about to get in this week. And then you're like, I know I shouldn't, right? Can't even do the thing you wanted to do or exercise until it gets sore. But I ain't doing nothing again. Or you know, you know, you need to quit talking to him. And you tell yourself you're going to. Then you keep calling him. Or how about this, parents. You ever promise you're never gonna use these words again? You know what I'm saying? You're like, baby, this time, listen, listen. Okay? When we're going on a trip with the kids, it was a trip, not a vacation. Cause the kids are there and you're like, we are not gonna scream at the kids the whole time, okay? Deal? Promise. So pray about it. Put worship music on. We're gonna hold each other accountable. We're gonna speak life into our children. You ain't even pulled out of the Chick Fil a drive thru and you'd be like, you demons from hell. You wanna turn around? I'll turn around. You know, you're like, what is wrong with me? I don't understand my own actions. You know, sometimes it's funny and sometimes it ain't funny. Sometimes it's life and death, man. You struggle with an addiction or know somebody or love somebody. Struggle with an addiction. They'll say it, man. They'll be like, I don't want to do this. I don't want to drink this. I don't want to look at this. I don't want to take that. I don't want to. And yet I can't understand. I do the thing I don't want to do. Why do we do this? Why do we do this? Now, here, now, listen, I got saved in the 80s, which is a really hard time to get saved, okay? There was a lot of rules, and we were trying to be cool. I'm too old to be cool now. I just want to be helpful. And I'd go to a lot of Fellowship of Christian Athletes things. I love it. I love fca. I love it. We support it. I'm all into it. But the problem was in the 80s, when I'm like a junior senior in high school, the only people that they would put at these FCA camps up in front their story, their testimony was, my life was hell. I met Jesus, and then it's been a Lego movie. Everything is awesome. And in my life was not that. I mean, they would have these outrageous. They would have some soccer champion, you know, and he would come up, he'd be like, he's from Mexico City. His name was like, Guadalupe or something. Awesome. And he's like, I was in a gang. I was selling drugs, and we attacked a nun, and I stabbed her in the neck with a butcher knife, and she bled out in the face of Jesus. And I saw the light, and I surrendered my life, El Salvador. And then I'm a soccer champion, and I lead the fastest growing church in the country of Mexico. And I was like, wow, I'm an 11th grader and my life doesn't look anything like that. And so my discipleship journey was not. My life was terrible. I met Jesus, and everything's up to right. My discipleship journey was more like, I love him and I prayed to ask him into my heart. That's what the language we used at camp. But my discipleship journey is like two steps forward, three steps back. Cha, cha, cha. I think I'm still in. Am I in? So our team found an actual video of my discipleship journey that I want you to see. This is what your pastor looks like in his discipleship journey. Follow me as I follow Christ. Anybody else? Now I'm not making light of sin. Christ had to die to pay the penalty for. I'm just saying my life ain't perfect, man. And I look at my own life And I go, I don't understand my own actions. There are times in my life and I don't even do what I want. But the very thing I hate. This is what Paul says. He says, now, if I do what I don't want, like jump back into the ditch, you know what that sheep is thinking? If I just jump higher, I'll get over it this time. Here we go. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Now, he's not saying it's not my fault or responsibility. He's not saying the devil made me do it. He's just saying there's something not lined up here. There's a civil war going on inside of me between my redeemed heart and soul that Christ paid for in my flesh that screams out loud for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. I'm here to tell you, you are not a mistaker in need of a life coach. You are a sinner in need of a savior. Every single one of us. You're not a bad person that needs to be better. That the heart of the problem is we got a heart problem. That's it. And I know this is gonna be a little offensive to you, but Jimmy cracks Gorn, and I don't care. Actually, I care a lot. The thing I get in trouble for or the most negative feedback. You'd be amazed at how little it impacts what I say. Cause people say, I can't believe you called me a wretched, black hearted sinner. Cause you are. Me too. And I know y' all grew up. You're like, but my kindergarten teacher said that I'm Puppy's breath and I'm a Skittle and I'm a snowflake. All right, Skittle, Let me tell you, your kindergarten teacher was a crooked and depraved liar. That was her problem, too. And if you don't know that, then you won't ever know you need a cure. Listen, if you went to a doctor and he was more concerned about your feelings than your health, is that a good doctor? I mean, if you go to a doctor and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, man, you got some serious medical issues here. You got heart issues, you got insulin issues, you got all kinds. I mean, if you keep doing what you're doing, you're gonna die. And you were like, yeah, but it's not my fault. I mean, I Didn't get hugged much as a kid, and I wasn't breastfed. So, I mean, what am I gonna do? Like, okay, just ice cream it to death then. Darling, you need a new doctor. If you are listening to a preacher and he cares more about how you feel than what is true, you need a new preacher. And it is love. It is love that tells somebody the truth so that they can find the cure. He says, for I have a desire to do what's right. Anybody? This is why pep talks won't work. Which sucks for me, because I'm good at pep talks, man. We can laugh, we can cry. I can get fired up about all kind of stuff. Here's the problem, though. Without the spirit of God working inside the believer, it's nothing but just an exercise in the futility of our own willpower for three or four days. That's gonna change nothing. We've all been down that road. The first thing we have to do is be honest and confess. God, I still need help. I believe in you. I got saved. And I still have these things in my life that seem to be haunting me. I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Ooh, that's some real talk, isn't it? You ever been there? Like God, you know, he's calling you to forgive, but by Wednesday, you talk yourself out of why it doesn't count for you. You know, he's calling you to be generous, but then you figure out a way where you don't have to be. You know, he's calling you to pick up the phone and start the hard, hard work of reconciliation. You know, you're not supposed to talk to her anymore. You know, you're supposed to put the drink down. You have the desire. You can't seem to pull it off. Verse 19. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Can you see the frustration? Can you see the civil war? That's what's going on now. He's not going to stop there. It's going to lead him somewhere. Verse 21. And so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. Some of you, this is the first time you've ever heard this talked about at church. Because at the church you came from, everybody had a bad case of the finitis. Everybody's Fine. But you knew them not at church, and they weren't fine. Paul's like, I ain't fine. There is a war going on on the inside of every single one of us. And here's the crazy thing, man. Okay? What Johnny Mac said is right. Even if you walk with Christ for a long time, you may sin less and feel worse because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But here's where some of you are right now. The most miserable person on the planet is the Christian living in unrepentant sin. Cause you can't enjoy either part of the double life you're trying to live. You can't even enjoy the party. You can't even enjoy the affair. You can't even enjoy the pornography. Cause the spirit of God lives in you and you're haunted by it. You're going, why am I doing this? And you can't enjoy the fellowship with God. Cause every time we try to sing a song about the goodness of God, you're just confronted with your besetting sin that you haven't repented of. And it's miserable. And God wants you to have freedom. Verse 22. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being. You're like, I love God. Especially right now. I mean, you're 40 minutes into a three hour sermon and you're like, I love God so much. But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. All right, so all of that is just set up. Anybody prone to wonder? Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. This guy Robert wasn't making it up. He gets it right out of Romans 7. And the conclusion is this. The gospel is not. God is good, you're bad. Try harder. See you next week. That is not the gospel. And God has given us this gift of worship to go to war. Not just out there, but go to war in here. Worship is war. Worship is war against the flesh. One of the things that we do when we declare war on the enemy and we worship God is this is that you celebrate what you value. And when we worship God, we're saying, God, I know there's a bunch of stuff in this world, but you, I celebrate you more. Listen, listen. Today is Regan Capri's 16th birthday. Right there, second row. Pretty one. 16 years old. Whoo. I feel like we've been celebrating her for six months. Bought her a Jeep. You know, why doesn't go that fast if she rolls it over, her buddies can roll it back over. She can make it home. You know what I mean? We did a birthday party on Friday night. We did one on Saturday night. And today after church, we're going to lunch. I'm not going to the lobby. I'm going to lunch with her. Do I love you? I love you so much. I love her more. I'm going to lunch with her. Okay. We got her a cake, we got her candles. We got all of that. We sing her songs. Why? Because you celebrate what you value when you get together as a church and you make much. Oh, so pick out where we're going to lunch. And so. And you celebrate God. That's what worship is a part of. What worship is war. When you're warring against your own flesh, is it declares God's victory over sin. Like, if you notice, we don't sing a lot of songs about us. We sing a lot of songs about the resurrected Christ, about the ruling, reigning Christ, about the death and rection of Christ. We sing songs like, Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger interpose his precious blood. When we worship together. Because the Bible says, do not. Do not neglect the gathering of the church. Because when we worship together, it reminds us we're not alone in this battle. Aren't you glad we all sing the same song at the same time? What if we did karaoke? Like, all right, dude, you're up. You're like, okay, this isn't good. And we're like, we know. Nah, we sing all together. And some of you are like, I'm not a good singer. We are aware we ain't giving you a microphone, but what you lack in talent, you just make up for in energy and volume. That's what I do. And we're gonna sing in just a minute. Prone to wonder. And see, you thought you were by yourself in this fight, and I want you to watch the hands. When we get to that prone to wonder thing, there's going to be a bunch of people testify going, me too. And you won't look around and be like, oh, my goodness. And do you know that we'll have about 100,000 people worship with us live this weekend? Between all of our services, our outpost and online, you can only see a portion of the testimony of people going, me too. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love but here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Another thing that worship does for us is why I love this so much. This is going to bother the church people again. Worship reminds the devil that he does not get the last word in your life. You see, the devil tries to continuously tell you that you're defined by your scars. Worship reminds us that Jesus defines us by his scars. You ever buy a used car and pull a Carfax on it? You know what a Carfax is? It tells you how crappy the car is. See if you want to actually buy it or not. You know Jesus ran a Carfax on you. You think he's surprised? You think he don't know that you leak oil and that your transmission don't work good? Do you think he doesn't know that if you let go of the wheels of your life, you're going to hit the ditch quick? He fully knows it all and yet demonstrated his love for us in this. He pulled the carfax. That thing said lemon busted up. Been in many wrecks, being held together by paint and Bondo. And he says, I'll pay full price with my very own blood. And. And then I'm gonna move into the driver's seat and begin the restoration process from the inside up. That's what worship reminds us of. And worship reminds us it's not all about us. We should be honest, there's no doubt about it. But if all you ever do in your Christian life is just focus on your own sin, you're not doing it right. Too many Christians, just too much self evaluation. And then you just get in groups and talk about how crappy we all are. Nah, man, worship reminds us. The focus isn't on me, that God has called me. God has redeemed me and God has appointed and anointed me to go and push back darkness for the advancement of the kingdom. I love this one. Worship is to remind the devil that he does not get to sit on the throne that Christ has reserved for us. If I ever write a certain worship song, it's going to be called Go to hell Devil because that's it. At the consummation of all things, when God finally puts me in my right place, which is seated on the throne with Christ as a co heir again, guess what, devil, you gonna go to hell where you belong forever and ever and ever and ever. So you can spit at me and gripe at me a little bit, but man, I'm gonna stomp your head. You understand? That's what worship does. And then worship helps realign our spirit to the truth that God's ways are better than our ways and that he is worth it. Our word worship means is just jamming together the words worth ship because God is worthy of our praise. So Paul looks at this. By the time you get to the end of Romans 7, Paul's like, okay, here's the gospel. God saves. I can't save, but something's wrong. What is wrong with me? I mean, I love him and I want to love him, but there is a problem and I don't think I'm the solution. Verse 24, he here's the diagnosis. Wretched man that I am. Now notice he says, wretched man that I am. He doesn't say, you people are wretched. Y' all should fix yourself and then come see me. No, no, no, no. I've told you this before. One of the worst ways to read the Bible is like a set of binoculars, like, ooh, look at all the sinners, Lord. Oh, there's one. Get them. The best way to read it is to hold it up and be like, uh, oh, there's a sinner. God, I need your help. That's what he says. Wretched man that I am. Again, his diagnosis is not, I'm a good person that needs to be, you know, do a little better. No, no, no, no. He's a crooked, wretched, depraved, black hearted sinner. But then, not only does he make the right diagnosis, but he's going to give himself the right cure. And it's in the question that he asks again. Again, don't go to a doctor that is afraid to put his hands on the place that hurts. And so he says, who will deliver me from this body of death? See, he realizes, you know what? The body of death is him. That's what he's been talking about. I got a civil war going on inside of me. I want to do evil. What is wrong with me? So I know I'm not the solution. I'm actually the problem. The question that he does not ask is, what must I do? That's the wrong question. Cause it's centered in me. There was this very famous story in the Gospels. There's this dude called the rich young ruler because he was rich and he was young and he was in charge of stuff and he thought very highly of himself. And he comes up to Jesus and he asks this question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Well, there's two things wrong with the question. First of all, apparently he doesn't know what an inheritance is. Cause what do you do to get an inheritance? You have to be a son or a daughter. Well, what do you do to be a son or a daughter? You can't do anything. Something has to be done for you. There's only two ways. It's by blood or by adoption. Well, I got some really good news that through the blood of Jesus Christ, everyone who believes on Christ for their salvation has been adopted into the family of God. And therefore we received as a gift the inheritance of God. So he thinks it's something to be earned. And then he doesn't understand. He doesn't understand Jesus sarcasm. And the answer? He says, what must I do to inherit the kingdom of God or inherit heaven? And Jesus said, oh, that's easy. You just obey all the commandments. You know what he's saying? Okay, here's how you earn it. You just be perfect. And you know what the guy says? Got him. Yeah, I'm nailing him. Jesus said, oh, okay. You know, there's one in there that says, thou shalt not lie. He's like, yeah, that's it. From my birth, I have obeyed them all. He's like, oh, have you? All right, well, there's just one thing you're missing. You gotta love me more than everything else. And for you. He doesn't say this for every single person. He says, your problem. You love your money more than you love anything else. So just go sell that, Give it away. Come and follow me. And the Bible says, he went away. Sad. You see, God's not looking for our begrudging submission. The Shema says that what God wants from us is to love him. No one has ever loved a. A substitute teacher that simply gives them credit for the grade that they earned. Make sense? Like, does anybody love the irs? When you get your tax return, do you open it? You're like, oh, my. I need to call somebody. Hey, guys, thank you so much for taking too much of my money, doing weird stuff with it, and then letting me get mine back. I love you so much. No, it's your money that you earned. They just gave back yours. That's what earning is. But what about a redeemer that saves you when you didn't deserve it? So Paul says, who will deliver me from this body of death? And then here's the answer, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That the question, when you say, what is wrong with me? The question to ask is not what must I do, but who will deliver me? And the answer is, the deliverer is God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the answer. And when you understand that, and if you're like me, Which, God bless you if you are seriously. And the enemy constantly whispers those lies of condemnation. You know what I'm talking about. Like, if they really knew the things you've done, the things you think, the things you struggle with, if they only knew that's the lie of condemnation. Because the enemy wants me to be defined by the scars of my past. And you get to this place and you go, you know what, enemy? You're right. I don't deserve. I don't deserve to be saved. I don't deserve to be the pastor. I don't deserve any of these things. But I asked the question, who will deliver me from this body of death? And Jesus decided to deliver me. That's how you get to Romans 8:1. Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Praise God. Condemnation is a building term. Condemnation means unfit for use. When I was in college, I've told you before, it's like my junior year of college, they condemned my fraternity house. Some experts looked at that, and they deduced humans should not live in there. And they were right. And they put a big old sticker from the city of Richmond, and it said, condemned, unfit for use. And the enemy wants you to say, you are condemned. You are unfit for use. God is done with you. And then through the gospel of Jesus Christ, he goes, whoa, whoa, whoa. Because of my life, my death, my resurrection. For anybody who would believe they received the right to be Son of God. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And in fact, 1 Corinthians 6 says, you were not your own. You were bought with a price. First Corinthians 6 says that your body is the temple of God. You know what the temple is? The temple is where the Spirit dwells. So God looks at the facility that the enemy said, like your body, he says, all right. The enemy says, you're condemned. Jesus says, no, no, no, no, she's not condemned. That's my temple. She is going to be my permanent residence here on earth. Because the Spirit of God, through the blood of Christ, is going to dwell in her. And so this is how we can say, oh, to grace. How great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be Let thy grace now like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to thee Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love the question is not all right so what do I do? Is here's my heart, Lord Take and seal it, Seal it for thy courts above here's what's kind of poetically sad about Robert, the guy that wrote this, these beautiful words, man, he struggled with it his whole life. He was a pastor, he worked in the ministry, and he struggled with the joy and the assurance of his salvation because he couldn't get it. He couldn't keep his feelings in alignment. And there's an old story from the history books that say there was a day late in his life and he was riding on a stagecoach, and this woman was singing this hymn. And she asked him what his opinion of this hymn is. And he said, madam, I am the unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago. And I would give a thousand worlds if I had them, if I could feel now as I felt then. And he'd wandered away. Well, I wish I could talk to Robert, but I can talk to you. I got some really good news. Your salvation is not based on what you feel like right now. That your salvation came through grace. It is by grace that you have been saved through faith. Now, you gotta hang in here for a second because this is theologically a little deep. Did you know it's not your faith that saves you? Your faith is a vehicle by which God puts his grace on you. Ephesians 2 says that we are saved by grace through faith and not of our own works, which means this. Some of you have got all kind of big faith. I mean, you get all fired up in here and, you know, especially after saturated in the last few weeks and you ready to attack hell with a water gun, let's go praise God. Big old faith. And some of you got. Because of the events of your world or what's going on inside of your heart, some of you feel like you're just maybe barely hanging on by a tiny, little, itsy bitsy thread of faith. And Jesus says, that's cool. If you've got faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move. And it's gotta listen, because we're saved by the grace of God through faith. Whether it's a ton of faith, like you. You're like, if you gave me the mic, I could explain it way better than you are right now. You probably could. Or if you're like, I don't even. I can't understand anything you're saying, but I believe when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And some of you have known Jesus for a while, but you've wandered away, like the hymn writer wandered away. Because you're prone to wonder. My invitation for you. Come home. Just come home. Because we serve the kind of God that celebrates when his prodigals come home. Just come home. Some of you've never put your faith in Jesus. And I'm. I'm not gonna. I'm not trying to make this thing sound easy. It is not easy to be a Christian. In fact, if your Christian life is easy, you might not be doing it right. Jesus said, this world's going to hate us. There's all kind of temptations. There's a lot. But it's so simple that even a child can believe. It's as simple as abc. It's as simple as A. I admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a savior. It's as simple as B, I believe. I trust that somehow when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And if that's you, the Bible says do see. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. The Bible says if you confess him as Lord, then you will be saved. And so I want to give our wandering hearts an opportunity to come home to the salvation through Jesus Christ. Would you bow your head? Would you close your eyes? And if that's you, if that's you and you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ. And today for the very first time, you were ready to admit it. I'm a sinner. I need a savior. You, you believe that when Christ died on the cross, somehow it counted for you. And today you are ready to confess him as Lord. I would like for you to make that confession by lifting your hand as high as you can and simply saying, God I call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that is a prayer that gets answered 100% of the time. If you confess Jesus as your Lord, then you will be saved. Lift that hand as high as you can. Our good and gracious heavenly Father. God, we love you more than anything because Christ, you first loved us. God, I thank you so much that you're not looking for begrudging submission. God, I pray against the devil and his lies and his whispers. Lord, I pray that we would be so overwhelmed by your love that we would put off the things of this world and that we would walk in alignment with who you say that we are. And God, I pray that it's by your goodness and your grace that you would chain us to you. And in those chains that's where we would find ultimate and complete life and freedom. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond? We gonna sing and I believe you gonna crush it. And you better. Cause I explained every word of the song we're gonna sing. And when we get to that prone to wonder part, if you can lift your hands, I would encourage you to. And we're going to bring our tithes and our offerings, because we're going to tell this world, you don't own me. God owns it all? And he gave his first and best for me? And so I bring my first and best in? And we gonna pray. And listen, we don't do this alone. A bunch of us who are prone to wonder need to sprint down here, get on our face and say, lord, I need help. Would you help me? And the answer is he will. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray, let's respond.