Sermons

    FILTER BY:

    ← back to list

    Dec 20, 2020

    We Need New Lenses

    Passage: Romans 7:25

    Speaker: Steven Cooper

    Series: What We NEED for Christmas

    Category: Sermon

    Message Summary:

    How we see our lives depends a lot on what we are looking for and what we expect. Many Christians believe that we should live the Triumphant Christian Life, and ongoing struggle is for people who are bad Christians or non-Christians. But Paul ends Romans 7 on a very different note. The normal Christian life is full of tension and ongoing struggle. It’s encouraging to know this for our own sanity’s sake AND to know that ordinary people who continue to struggle are exactly who God uses to impact the world. Christmas teaches us this when the Magi (wise men) show up. The Magi were changed by the life of Old Testament prophet Daniel, who brought his faith to work and influenced a group of people for 600 years.  

    Discussion Questions:

    1. How is the last sentence of Romans 7 surprising? How is it encouraging? How does it provide new lenses for you to see your life?
    2. What are some ways that your struggles with sin have helped you to get closer to God and His church?
    3. How did the Magi know the meaning of the star that they saw? What marked Daniel’s life at work?
    4. How does this encourage you to bring your faith to your workplace?

    VERSES: 

    Romans 7:15-25

    15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.  21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,  23 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. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. 

    Matthew 2:1-12

    Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,  2 saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."  3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;  4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.  5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:  6 "'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'"  7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.  8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him."  9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.  10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.  11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.  12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.