Romans 6:12 - by Don Neuendorf
"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
Man, this is frustrating. I'm sitting here trying to come up with words for this weekend's sermon and I'm getting nowhere. Note: this is not a new experience. I've got soft instrumental music playing on the computer (I recommend www.pandora.com - it's great and free). I've got a cold soft drink to supply the caffeine. I've got a great text to work with (Matthew 10, about being sent out as sheep among wolves). But I don't know how to begin to put it all together.
Pursuing an idea for an opening illustration, I read through several recent commencement speeches. It discombobulated me - so that I am a mixture of depression, cynicism, irritation, doubt, and determination. In other words, frustration.
Or, to pick a much more accurate word... sin.
"Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies." Easier said than done...
We have such a shallow view of sin. Even when we know better, we continue to lapse into the view of sin as a "boo-boo", a little mistake, an incident that we can say, "It began at this moment and it ended at this moment here."
Sin is not like that. I've got a small pond in my back yard. Or, another word for it, a stagnant green mosquito machine. Sin is not like each individual mosquito larva floating in the green water (by the way, I do occassionally treat the water when it gets too bad). Sin is more like the green algae that is NEVER really absent from the pond. Sometimes, when we've just refilled with fresh cold water, it's not so visible. But it is ALWAYS there. And bits of dead algae too. The molecules of corruption float through this body of water like the molecules of sin float through my body, and my mind, and my bad attitude.
How can I write a sermon to preach God's Word to you when I am so permeated with sin and self-centeredness myself?
Here's the really miraculous thing. Even though we are shot through with sin, there is some way in which we are separate from it. Paul says, "Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin... you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."
When I plug in my little pump (I still haven't gotten the electrical wiring done) that sin-filled water gets swept up the pipe, algae and all, and it comes pouring down my little streambed and over the waterfalls in a beautiful cascade. Sin and all, when God reigns in our lives he is able to take us up and use us. (Funny thing - like the algae, the sin is hardly even visible when that's happening.) The sin cannot stop his work in us.
I'm full of algae today, but somehow between now and tomorrow night when I have to stand before God's people, he will do his work. And when his word is preached his Holy Spirit will speak to your spirit.
I'm satisfied.