Romans 6:1-14   Where to Find Daily Help for Holiness     Mar 11, 2007

   During the 1960s, Bobby Richardson played for 12 years with the New York Yankees as second baseman.  He achieved greatness in baseball as Most Valuable Player, a seven time All Star Player, and a five time Gold Glove Award winner.  Bobby Richardson always let it be known that he believed his great life was from God.  At a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he offered a prayer that is a classic in brevity and meaning: "Dear God, Your will be done in my life---nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen."

      We are in the midst of a sermon series on holiness.  Holiness is just what Bobby Richardson prayed--- the doing of God’s will in our lives so as to create something great of our lives.  This morning, I want to talk about the decision to be so alive in the Holy Spirit of God that we achieve the will, the plan, and the purposes of God in our lives.  It is wonderful to have Girl Scout Sunday this week.  One of the major goals of the Girl Scouts is the formation of greatness within girls and young women.  Yet that goal has grown more difficult in recent years.  Girls in the United States face a growing number of obstacles that stand in the way of their decisions and of them ever reaching their full potential in life.  During the last fifteen years, the Girl Scouts of America national leadership has confronted the brutal problems facing girls in modern America.  Instead of simply publishing booklets on camping, the Girl Scouts today offer creative materials on sensitive issues such as teen pregnancy and alcohol use.  New proficiency badges have sprouted in topics like math, technology, and computer science.  In every way, the Girl Scouts are seeking to reinforce the concept that girls are capable individuals who can decide to take control of their own lives and achieve great things in life.  I thank you who lead Girl Scouts for the impression you make on these girls that they can live a higher life.  Let’s talk about that higher life, that call to greatness, that decision to do of the will of God, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.   

        We saw last week that when we are united with Christ in faith then our lower, smaller self has been crucified with Christ.  And yet, we all know that sin still fights a guerrilla war against us.  The old habits, those obstacles to greatness, do not so easily surrender even when their regime has fallen.   But God provides us with daily help in the battle to live a higher life.

     First, we must understand that God does not leave us alone to do battle.  God has delivered us from the overall power of sin by the cross of Christ.  And God has made ample, full provision for us to win the daily skirmishes against our old habits.  Last week, we focused on Romans 6:11 to see that we are really dead to sin because the old has died with Christ.  Now look at the second part of that verse.  We are to count ourselves; we are to realize the fact that we are alive to God.  You see, God does not leave us suspended in some state of neutrality.  We have a new life from God and we need to realize that fact in our minds. 

      There are so many people today, even whole nations today, who always wish to remain neutral.  But to be truly alive requires we take a stand, make a decision.  It has been said that all that all it takes for evil to win in the world is for good people to do nothing.  Those who follow God are not neutral, doing nothing. We are dead to sin and alive to God.  The holy life requires decision.  Too many people want to remain undecided, leave their options open, to see what will come along.  Too often, when we remain neutral, nothing comes along in life.  There was a TV commercial just a couple of years ago where a twenty something young man is sitting on a worn out chair watching some old TV shows and smoking pot.  His grandmother whom he lives with is fussing at him.  He responds saying, “Aw, I’ve been doing this for years and nothing has happened to me.”  The commercial ends stating—nothing happens in your life when you smoke pot.  And nothing is a terrible waste of life.  Reaching to do God’s will requires a decision to be alive to God.

 Can we be fully alive to God?  Paul writes in I Thessalonians 4:7-8, “God did not call us to be impure but to live a Holy life, therefore, He…gives you His Holy Spirit.”  Being alive to God is not a battle I fight alone.  God provides His Holy Spirit and in my mind I need to realize and remember the Holy Spirit as I make my daily decisions.  The Holy Spirit is sent primarily to make us Holy.  Christians are so confused by the idea of the Holy Spirit.  So many think the Holy Spirit is sent by God to make us jump up and down in worship, to speak in tongues, to get excited.  Now all those may happen as we are filled with this power.  But the goal, the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to create the new habit in me of living more like Jesus, to become Holy, to achieve the great things of God.   

How do we form that new habit of greatness?   We count on, realize, have faith, think about these two facts—we are dead to sin and alive to God.  I have struggled with habits, sins, weaknesses, and doubts.  I have reached the point of hopelessness that nothing will ever change in my life.  Then I consider, I remind myself, I look in the mirror and declare aloud, “I am dead to sin and alive to God.”  This is no theoretical teaching.  It is something we practically accomplish.  Listen to me.  We literally change our ways of thinking—we change our mind—and form the habit of continually realizing that we are dead to sin and alive to God.  Repeat that.

 Paul writes in Philippians 2:13, “It is God who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose.”  Notice, before we can act, we must first will.  To have that will is to desire and resolve to live according to God’s good purposes.  Let me say at this point, only those who have a strong desire to be Holy, to make something special of their lives, will ever persevere in the painfully slow and difficult task of building a higher life.  The Girl Scouts know that girls do not achieve greatness by attending one meeting here on Thursday night.  It requires years of daily effort to realize the higher life that is within you.  Let me say, I am not here to be a salesman or motivational speaker who tells you that a higher life can be achieved in three easy steps without any effort.  A special life requires all we are and all we have.  Jesus said it is like a man who discovers that there is a treasure hidden in a field.  And he goes and sells all he has to buy that field.  All he has to buy that field.  Is this higher life worth it?  Is it worth all you have and all you are?  Yes, it is a treasure hidden in that field.  The path to a holy life, a great life, requires getting off the fence, making a decision to reach higher, and forming the new habits that will move you forward.  In the next two weeks, we will look closely at forming those new habits.  But for today, I urge you to decide, not to wait, but to decide and declare to yourself—I am alive to God and to God’s plan for my life.  Amen.