Join us in this thought-provoking episode of ‘Connect with Skip Heitzig’ as we delve into the apostle Paul’s profound struggle with sin, emphasized in his letter to the Romans. Pastor Skip walks us through Paul’s personal journey from his early attempts to adhere to the law, his transformative encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road, and his ultimate victory through the Holy Spirit. Understand how these key moments not only shaped Paul’s ministry but also offer us a roadmap for addressing our internal conflicts today.
This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, we love to help you know God’s Word better and apply it to your life through clear, practical Bible teaching and real encouragement. And if you’d like to keep growing in your walk with Jesus, sign up for Pastor Skip’s free weekly devotional. You’ll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, and exclusive resource offers designed to help you stay strong in your faith, all delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick and easy, and you’ll be glad you did. Go to connectwithskip.com and join the list today. That’s connectwithskip.com. Now let’s dive into today’s teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.
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Verse 17 bears another look. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwells in me. Literally, the dwelling in me sin. It’s no longer me. It’s the dwelling in me sin. Now, this is not a cop-out. He’s not saying the devil made me do it. I’m a victim. I’m helpless. He’s not shirking personal responsibility. He is simply speaking of the struggle between what he desires to do, which is right, and and what he actually ends up doing. I think you could sum Paul’s life up into three sections. Section number one is his early life when he was a Pharisee, his growing up. He tried to keep God’s law. He failed at it. Second episode of his life, the Damascus Road experience. He meets Jesus Christ. He’s converted. He goes to Arabia for three years. There he dissects his struggle. unravels that struggle. And then the third section of his life is victory. The indwelling Holy Spirit enlivens him to serve God. And that’s Romans chapter 8. But here he’s telling you what he struggles with. And in verse 18, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. That’s a very important verse. It means that the evil corrupt nature inherited from Adam is something we all have. That’s our flesh, is the problem. And you cannot reform it. You can’t like give it self-help courses and fix the problem. It must be subdued, or the Bible calls it crucified, subdued by a different nature, a new nature. So look at verse 24. Let’s go all the way down, then we’ll kind of finish this part up. This is Paul the apostle, the great apostle writing, O wretched man that I am! Exclamation point. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Now, when I read that, it carries a note of exhaustion. He struggled so long. He’s saying, help. The New Living Translation renders it this way. Oh, what a miserable person I am. Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? This is Paul’s SOS signal. He’s at the end of his rope. He cries out. And he pictures himself as having to carry a dead corpse with him. Who will deliver me from this body of death? One translation says, who will deliver me from this dead corpse? Now, I’m going to tell you a story that I think is probably what is in Paul’s mind when he writes this. Okay, so where was Paul from? Anybody know? Tarsus. Paul was born in Tarsus. There’s a tribe in the area of Tarsus that sentenced murderers, murder criminals, to a very gruesome death. They would take the person that was the victim, the murdered victim, the dead corpse, and tie it to the murderer closely to his body and let him go. What would happen is the corpse would decay, decompose, infect him, and slowly kill him. He carried around a body of death. And perhaps when Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? He had that practice from Tarsus in his mind as he thinks about his old flesh. Okay, here’s the problem. Many Christians stop right here in verse 24. That’s their end game. They just come to the end of themselves. Oh, wretched man that I am. And that’s where they stop. The Bible has promised them new life. They keep returning to play in the cemetery. Playing with that dead corpse. Digging it back up. Like a washing machine caught in a spin cycle, they never get out of it. Only they’re caught in a sin cycle. Just keep going back and back and back to that practice. That’s verse 24. But in verse 25, notice this. He goes, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now there’s a change, a burst of thanksgiving. It’s as if he can see the beginning of victory. And where is the victory? Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then he launches into chapter 8, and it’s all about his victory. In the midst of his struggle, he sees the solution. Now, the solution he’s already given to us back in chapter six. That’s just how he wrote it. He gives us steps to victory in chapter six, his own personal struggle in chapter seven, and then the victory chapter in chapter eight. So we’re gonna go back to chapter six, and I’m gonna give you the third dynamic When it comes to addictive behavior, not only do we have a standard, not only do we face a struggle, but number three, we use a strategy. We use a strategy. And that is Romans chapter six. How do we win the war with sin? How do we stay as Dr. Jekyll when we feel like acting like Mr. Hyde? Romans chapter 6 will answer that for us. It gives us a strategy, and this strategy is winning the war with sin. I’m going to give you four words that sum it up. First step, winning the war with sin. Reason, reason, reason, thinking, your thought life. In verse 3, he talks about what we know, but look at verse 6 of Romans chapter 6. Knowing this, the very key word in that verse, knowing this, knowing what? That our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Then go down to verse 9. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over him. If you want to grow, you first must know this. Certain truths. Learning comes before living. Why is this so important? Why is knowing so important? Because you need to know what you have so you know how to use it. But you have to know what is at your disposal before you can use it. I mean, to do anything in life, you have to learn some skills, knowledge. If you want to be a mechanic, you got to know about engines. Though I’ve met a few mechanics, didn’t seem like they know a lot about engines. If you’re going to be a surgeon, please tell me you have gone to school first before you cut into me. You have to have a knowledge base that will give you the enabling to do so. And I’ve always thought that if Satan can keep you ignorant, then he can keep you impotent. So we need to know. We need to reason. There are certain things we need to know. Here’s a true story. 67-year-old man named Tomas Martinez lived in South America, Brazil, and Bolivia. Excuse me. He was in Bolivia. He was homeless, living out on the streets. His ex-wife died. They had been divorced. She left him. He went out on the streets, homeless. When she died, she left him the family inheritance. Obviously, she didn’t hold a grudge. She’s dying, so she’s not going to need it. So she left him the inheritance. Six million dollars. Here’s a homeless guy that’s worth six million dollars. What’s the problem? He doesn’t know he’s worth six million dollars. So the police go out to find Tomas Martinez. They spot him. He spots them. He runs and dodges them because he thinks they’re trying to arrest me. No, they’re trying to find you to let you know a very important truth so you can use it. Now, let me just insert this and say that often addiction is traced to some significant hurt in a person’s life, some painful experience, betrayal, rejection. And sometimes people just want to work on behavior, but it comes down to what we’re thinking. what goes on in our minds, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So there’s a lot of things we should know, but here’s a couple of things. We know our old life is powerless. Verse six says, knowing this, our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with. Katagero means put out of business. It’s as if Satan was doing business in your life. Jesus came to his shop and hung a sign over you that said, out of business. Satan, you have no business with this life. He was put out of business. Our old life is powerless. We should know that. I know you may not feel that, but you should know that first. You should also know that Jesus conquered death by resurrection, not a small feat. Verse 9, knowing this, Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more. Death, the principle of death, has no longer has dominion over him. If God can raise Jesus Christ from the dead, he can help you overcome sin and give you victory. That’s Paul’s point. You should know your old life is powerless, and Jesus conquered death by resurrection. So then, it’s what you should know. You are both dead and alive. Dead to the old, alive to the new.
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You’re listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, the generosity of friends like you helps make clear, practical Bible teaching available to families who are searching for hope, healing, and God’s truth. And this month, we wanna thank you with a powerful resource focused on restoring God’s design for family. When you give, you’ll receive Reconnecting with Family, Pastor Skip’s new book drawn from more than 30 years of biblical teaching and pastoral wisdom. It speaks honestly to the real challenges families face—financial stress, emotional distance, discouragement, and temptation—while pointing you back to God’s timeless plan for healthy, God-honoring relationships. We’ll send Reconnecting with Family as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support the ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now let’s return to today’s teaching.
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Dead to the old nature, the body of death, alive to the new nature. Might not feel that way. Feel powerless with the addiction, with the practice. It takes us to the second step. After reason, second step, reckon. Reckon. It’s a stronger word. Look at verse 11. Likewise, you also, what’s the word? Reckon. You also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Does this mean Paul was a Texan? Because he said reckon? Reckon. Nobody was from Southern Tarsus, so I don’t know if that helps. My grandmother and my uncle used to use this word. They used to say, I reckon so. And they moved, my dad moved them to California. And that didn’t translate there. Reckon, what is that? I reckon so, and that meant I guess so, I suppose so. When Paul uses the word reckon, it doesn’t mean that. It’s a very strong word. It means calculate it, count on it as being so. You might even say act on it as being so. I think the better word that sums up reckon is have a conviction about something. Big difference between knowing something intellectually and then having a conviction about it. So it’s a stronger word. Reckon yourself. Dead to sin. The longest journey you’ll ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart, it has often been said. Our theology must become our biology, and that only happens when we have deep-seated convictions about certain truths. It’s interesting when a Jewish, let’s say, son in a Jewish family becomes a born-again Christian. If it’s an Orthodox Jewish family, the parents are not open to that. In fact, a father might say, my son is dead to me. That’s the language they’ll use. My son is dead. Now, his son is not dead. He’s alive. In fact, he’s more alive than ever before because he’s received Christ. But the Jewish man will say, he’s dead to me. He is reckoning his son as dead, treating him as if he is dead. That’s the idea of reckoning yourselves dead to sin. So when you get attacked by the enemy, you go back to what you know, and then you say, I’m going to reckon this. I am not a slave anymore. I know I feel like it, but I am not a slave anymore. By the way, Paul didn’t say, feel as though you are dead to sin. He said, reckon. It’s not a feeling. You know something and you act on it. Okay, now so far, it’s all inward, right? You’re thinking, you’re knowing, you’re understanding, you’re reckoning, you have a deep conviction, but it’s all inward. The third step moves outward. So we have reason, reckon, third, resist. Resist. Verse 12. Therefore, here it is, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members. Your members are hands, feet, eyes, mouth. all your faculties do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. In other words, there is an element of personal control involved. There is an element of personal control where you say, okay, I know God, I have conviction about it. I’m not going to let this happen. Now, I’m going to stop right here. I’m going to stop myself. I understand some people have addiction so deep they cannot resist alone. They need help. They need people around them. They need a support group. They need counseling. In some cases, they need long-term rehabilitation counseling and centers to help them in this resisting. AA recognizes this principle and the need to resist. They’ll tell you, number one, you have to admit you are powerless when it comes to alcohol. You can’t say, yeah, I’m not great at it, but I can still. No, you have to admit you are powerless. Second, you need a group to hold you accountable, to help you resist. And number three, they always say you need a higher power. I want to correct that. You don’t need a higher power. You need the highest power. And that is the living God and his son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Okay. Thank you for clapping. Some of you are saying, great little package sermon, preacher. But how do I implement this? Let me give you a few suggestions, some practical ways. In resisting. Proximity. Maintain proximity. There needs to be a healthy distance between you and that sin or that event or time in which you find yourself susceptible. Maintain proximity. If you always live close to the edge, you know what’s gonna happen? You’re gonna fall off. If you’re saying, well, you know, I struggle with alcohol, but I’m gonna have my quiet time today in the local bar, You set yourself up for failure, and you could translate that into any addictive behavior. Maintain proximity. Second little tip, cut off opportunity. Cut off opportunity. What I mean is this. Even when you put distance between you and that practice, that temptation, you will find it can just present itself. when you least expect it. All of a sudden, there it is. There she is. There the substance is. There’s the opportunity. That’s where you have to cut off opportunity. What did Joseph do when a woman grabbed him and said, come to bed with me? He ran the other direction. He didn’t stand there and go, well, let me tell you about my testimony. He just got out of there because he knew he couldn’t handle much more. Cut off opportunity. The problem is many people flee temptation, but they give Satan their forwarding address. So proximity, opportunity. Third, accountability. Foster accountability. Enlist godly, stronger, capable people to help you and support you in whatever struggle it is. I’ve even discovered that just telling another Christian what you’re struggling with loses power in the temptation. Just me confessing that. I just feel like I have a burden off. Somebody else knows about it. Solomon said two are better than one. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And I love this. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. You get a brother, a sister, yourself, and Jesus Christ all wrapped together. That’s a strong rope. So reason, reckon, resist. But we have a fourth, and I’m going to close with this. Fourth step, replace. Replace. Verse 13, do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but, here it is, present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead. And your members, remember your members, eyes, hands, feet, all the faculties, your members as instruments or tools. What Paul does here is turns from the defensive position now to the offensive position. Best defense is a good offense. Best way to deprive your old nature is to cultivate the new nature. See, if you’re over here going, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to do that. Boy, I’m looking at it. I’m not going to do that. Yeah, boy, I really want to do that. Turn away from that. Replace it with something else. What do I mean? I mean, you become so engaged in serving God, serving God’s people, serving God’s causes, that you lose interest in gratifying the flesh. In fact, you just don’t have any time because you’re so busy serving the Lord, you are occupied in other things. One recovery website that I found, a lot of them say this, but here’s sort of a summary of their replacement ideal. And I’m quoting, one effective way to replace bad habits is to identify positive coping mechanisms that can fulfill the same underlying needs. Find healthy alternatives to manage stress, anxiety, or boredom, which may include activities like exercise, meditation, journaling, or hobbies that bring joy. Now, all of that psychobabble aside, the biblical plan, the better plan, is to present yourselves to God. Romans 12, I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God that you present yourselves to God. as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable service. By the way, it says your instruments, notice what it says, do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments. That’s a military term. It can be translated your weapons. Don’t give your weapons to the enemy. Can you imagine a soldier standing next to an enemy soldier saying, hey, could you hold my gun for a minute? I need to lace up my boot. No, that’s defeat. Don’t give Satan your weapons. Present them to God. Let the devil use. Don’t let the devil use your tongue, hands, mind, feet, eyes. Present those to him. So there’s an old song I remember. Sort of sums this up nicely. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. That song beautifully encapsulates replacement. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. Pursue him. Fill your time with pursuing and seeking first the kingdom. And the things of earth will go strangely dim. You will find the tugging, the gripping of the flesh weakened, weakened. Doesn’t mean you will ever be sinless, but you will sin less.
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Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember your generosity helps share God’s word with families around the world, offering truth, hope, and encouragement where it’s needed most. And this month, we’d love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you Reconnecting with Family, Pastor Skip’s new book focused on restoring God’s design for family and relationships. It’s filled with biblical insight and practical encouragement to help families grow stronger, even in challenging seasons. Give today at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip. Make a connection.
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Make a connection at the foot of the crossing.
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