======================================================================== THE SWEET RELATIONSHIP OF FATHER AND CHILD BEING BORN AGAIN by Sandeep Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into Romans 6:11, emphasizing the concept of considering oneself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. It explores the transformation from the old self corrupted by sin to being born again and experiencing a new relationship with God as a loving father. The focus is on the profound joy and fulfillment found in being alive to God, akin to a newborn experiencing the world outside the womb and the immense joy it brings to both the child and the parents. Topics: "New Life in Christ", "Transformation from Sin" Scripture References: Romans 6:11, John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Isaiah 43:1, Luke 15:7, Psalm 16:11, John 10:10, Genesis 3:8, 1 John 3:1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into Romans 6:11, emphasizing the concept of considering oneself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. It explores the transformation from the old self corrupted by sin to being born again and experiencing a new relationship with God as a loving father. The focus is on the profound joy and fulfillment found in being alive to God, akin to a newborn experiencing the world outside the womb and the immense joy it brings to both the child and the parents. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ So I also wanted to share a couple of thoughts from this verse, Romans chapter 6 verse 11. Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. As I was thinking about this, I was asking myself, who is dead to sin? And I was reminded of something that I think is important. Paul is talking here in Romans 6 about his old self, because we all know even after we've been Christians for many years, we will still be tempted by sin and we still have a selfish will that hates God and desires to sin by doing its own will all the time. But Paul tells me here that my old self is dead and I should remind myself of it and keep reminding myself that that old self is truly dead. So what is that old self that we should consider as being truly dead? And I would think of it this way. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, every single human being, they themselves and every single human being since then were corrupted. And that is what became that old self. Something happened to all of us because of what happened to Adam and Eve. And what happened? And I want to say it this way. We did not have the ability to have the sweet relationship with God as father and child. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge and good and evil, they didn't become evil people who went around beating each other up and hurting and killing people right away. That was not what was attractive to them about the tree of good and evil, tree knowledge of good and evil to begin with. But a hardness came in. So they still had the ability to do a lot of right things. And we still have the ability to do a lot of right things. But we cannot know God as a father. We cannot hear God and his voice singing over me. And we can't come to know his voice and say that is the voice of one who loves me infinitely. We cannot know God as a personal friend. And that old self, worst of all, we could do nothing about it. We couldn't fix it. But very simply, this old self could not have a relationship with God as a father. It is good for me as a parent to remember this because I can get my children to memorize a lot of Bible verses. And I should. It's very important. And I can get my children to be polite and respectful and obedient. And I should. But there's absolutely nothing I can do to create a sweet relationship between God the father and any of my children. That's what they need, though. That's what they need. And there's only one way for them to do it. And for them to have that relationship, they must be born again. And children, if you're listening, it's good for you also to remember this. We want to, as parents, want to teach you to do a lot of good things. But that old self may still be alive. You can know every story in the Bible, but your old self may be still alive. And you know that's alive because you don't know God. And God hasn't shown you that he's a father to you and that he loves you so deeply. And God has the ability to completely clean that or to kill that old self. And that happens when we are born again. And so for the children and for the adults, we are born again. That old self is killed. And we can have a relationship with God as a father if we repent of all our sins. Repent means to say, Lord, I don't want to be that way anymore. I don't want to act like that anymore, ever again. That's the part we have to do. And then we have to ask God to show us that he has accepted us and that I am not a servant in the kingdom, not in the kingdom and far away, but a child of his. And we must ask our parents to show us truths in the Bible with what God is saying to prove to us that he is our father. But when we are born again, something spiritual happens, not something feeling happens. When we repent of all our sins and surrender our lives to Jesus Christ in faith, counting on what he did, something spiritual happens. And God can confirm that spiritual thing through his words speaking to us. But this is what happens. God gives me a new person. God completely kills that old person that couldn't know God as a father and gives me a new person. And God can be a father to me. And God sends his Holy Spirit and births a Holy Spirit in me from the very beginning that says, God is my daddy. God is my dad. And because God is my loving father, he feeds me tenderly with his word and he shows me how harmful sin is. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, but he gives me that holiness by showing me his love and feeding me through his word. So this is what Paul is telling me. I must consider my old self to be dead if I'm born again. That means I don't have to ever doubt whether I'm a child of God. That old Sandeep that couldn't have a relationship with God as a father has been crucified by God. I don't have to do anything. He did it and it is done. And that old Sandeep had the ability to do a lot of good things, but he didn't have the ability to be secure in his relationship with God. He could do a lot of good things. He could know what was right, what was wrong as we heard. We could know a lot of good doctrine. But if I don't have a secure relationship with God, it's empty. It's what the Pharisees had. And God says, I can do that. I did that on the cross. I crucified that old Sandeep. And I can give you a new Sandeep that can have a secure, that keyword, secure relationship with God as a father. And God has created a new Sandeep that is alive to God. Now it's a relationship with me and God. We have direct access to God, just like Adam and Eve had before they sinned. God would walk in the cool of the day and they could have fellowship. Just like that, God can now have direct access to me, who is also created in his image. That old self has been killed with Jesus on the cross. And this new Sandeep is alive to listen to the voice of God as a father, not as a far away God. He's come near and he's made God near life to God in Christ Jesus. So God listens to me just like he listens to Jesus. And he pays attention to my needs, just like he paid attention to Jesus because it is in Christ Jesus. And he cares for my earthly needs, just like he cared for Jesus on this earth. So that's a tremendous transaction that I don't want to ever forget. And it did nothing on my part. He did it all to take care of this entire old self. I still have my flesh that I have to crucify every day, that selfish will. But that new person that can relate to God as a father, he did it all. And he crucified that old self. And that, as I have a relationship with God, he gives me and opens my eyes to how horrible sin is. And as I love him, as I see his love for me, and as I love him back, he gives me the strength to obey the commandments. And just a couple of other thoughts I wanted to share. As we think about this verse, we can see it this way, that we can say, okay, this is consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. That's how it reads. But I want to encourage all of us to see it this way. What do you focus on? We can focus it on, put the weighing balance and say, I want to spend most of my time on focusing on being dead to sin. And oh yeah, and also alive to God in Christ Jesus. It's very difficult, given our rule book mentality, to really put the weightage and to say, Lord, the gospel, the good news of the kingdom is, yes, I'm dead to sin. I need to obey all of your commands. But the way I partake of your divine nature is through your promises. And that is starting by saying that I'm a child of yours. And I want to see the massive garden of Eden, where God says, eat and eat freely of me and the tree of life to God in Christ Jesus. It's not a restrictive life. It is a very empowering life that I can have in Christ Jesus. So the focus is not on the clean, cleansed of sin life, because I can be clean of sin and empty and dry. Empty of sins and empty of God. What? That's the worst of all lives. If that happens, if I just focus on being dead to sin, period. But that's not the gospel. The gospel is not only the absence of sin, but the fullness, alive to God. I'm reminded of this story of this little boy, Johnny, who was raised in his family. And then he finally goes to school. And his teacher asked him, what's your full name? And Johnny says, my name is Johnny. No. Because all through his life, that's all he heard. Johnny, no. Johnny, no. Johnny, don't do this. Johnny, no. Johnny, no. Johnny, no. And he went to school. He thought that was his name. Johnny, no. And what a tragedy if we're living with God as our father, and that's all we hear. Sandeep, no. Sandeep, you didn't do this. Sandeep, you didn't do that. And yes, that's true. I am finding myself dead because of sin in this area, but there's no life to God in Christ Jesus. And so I pray that our focus may be the promises of God are yes in Christ Jesus, and we sign our amen. I hope that that will be the true relationship we have with God, that we do see a hatred to sin. We do know that we ought to be dead to sin, but there's abundant yes in Christ Jesus. And finally, who's most happy in the new birth? The baby can't express itself, but the baby is really happy. The baby is entering a brand new world, which is much better than the baby had in the womb. In the womb, it could hear the father's and mother's voice, but it was very garbled. You know, it was among all the embryonic fluid, and you're like, I know the mother and father's voice, but it's very garbled. Now it can hear the dad and mom's voice clearly. And when the child is still in the womb, it can sense, touch, and smell, but it doesn't know. Is that the father's hand? And when it comes out of the womb, the first thing, the child wants oxygen, the child wants milk, but what the child craves for is human to human touch. It craves for that skin to skin contact to be held. And it was getting a lot of nutrients in the womb. It was breathing to whatever extent it could. I would ever breathe in the womb, but it didn't have skin to skin contact in the womb. It was all amid that fluid. And when we're birthed, God says, come and sit on my lap. Let's have skin to skin contact. And when that happens, the child is overjoyed and is so tremendously satisfying. But despite all of that, the question still remains, who's more happy when a baby's born, the baby or the parents? Despite all the joy that the children have when it is born, it is nowhere near the joy that the parents feel. Theirs was the pain to bring the baby out of the womb. And the baby will never have an idea of how much pain the mother went through, but there's a so much greater joy that overshadows us. Dear brothers and sisters, we bring great pain into God's heart when we sin. But I believe the mind of Christ is this, that there's so much greater joy for God in heaven, for God in heaven than for the sheep, when a lost sheep is found and placed with skin to skin contact of the shoulder of the good shepherd. There's so much greater joy in heaven when a sinner repents and comes back to skin to skin contact with the father. Yes, the child craves skin to skin contact, but it pales in comparison to the joy that God the father has when we come home to him, alive to God in Christ Jesus. That is what it means, dear brothers and sisters, to be alive in God, in Christ Jesus. Why would we not want that? Why would we not choose that and live in that joy every day? Considering ourselves more than happy to consider ourselves dead to sin, quick to repent. This is the blessed path of repentance that we can choose every day and seek to have that skin to skin contact with the father every day. Listening, getting to know his voice better, seeing a God who's more and more saying, Johnny, yes, Sandeep, yes, my promises and you are, yes, the garden of Eden is full of trees for you to enjoy. And it's not a restrictive set of commandments that we have to stay away from, but the fullness of life of God himself that we can have fellowship. May God help us and may God show to the world and to those around us, to our families, that this is the kind of life that show to our children, that this is the life that we as parents are enjoying with Christ. And surely our children will want to have that grace of all lives. May God help us. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/VQGKTLrtz-Q.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/sandeep-poonen/the-sweet-relationship-of-father-and-child-being-born-again/ ========================================================================