"TMI? Study!" Sermon for Cason UMC, June 28th, 2026. Based on Romans 6: 12-23.

Did that Call to Worship seem familiar to you?  It should; it was déjà vu all over again since it was the same as last week. I intentionally had us repeat it because what I want to talk to you about today is built on what Pastor was teaching last week.

In this highly connected world, are you getting Too Much Information? Too Much Information to sort it all out? Too Much Information to know what’s true and what’s a scam? Too Much Information to know what to do? Do you risk an information overload that leads to paralysis? Perhaps it is safer to do nothing. But God never called nobody to do nothing.

I want to talk today about how to cut through the noise, how to clarify God’s voice amidst the cacophony of other voices, that is, how to read, listen, and learn. If you don’t know whether a claim is Christian or not; Learn to read and study the Bible. If you don’t know whether you are headed the right direction or not; Learn to read and study the Bible. If you don’t know whether certain behaviors are Christian or not; Learn to read and study the Bible. Perhaps you think that you are safer not getting involved. Remember the parable about the servant who did nothing with the talent that he had been entrusted with? It did not turn out good for him. God never called nobody to do nothing.  

What’s the plan? Reading, listening, and learning on a regular basis builds our mindset, reorients our worldview so that the Holy Spirit can use Biblical knowledge as a filter and a guide for living the life as a disciple of Christ. That took three years for the disciples, and then they barely got it. It takes a lifetime.

Anytime that we look at a passage, and we are focusing today on Romans 6: 12-23, the first question we always ask is: “Where are we in the story? Is this the beginning, the end, or the middle of what the writer is saying?" Another angle on that question is: “Do we have a whole story or just segment of a story in front of us.”

Our passage for today starts with verse 12 which begins this way: “Therefore….” That’s enough; stop right there. It says, “Therefore.” What do you make of that? Are we at the beginning of the story that the Apostle Paul is telling? Let me hear it. “No, we are not.” How do we know? Because ‘therefore’ always follows near the end of an argument or as a transition from one argument to the next.

Therefore, we have to look back to see what the topic is and how Paul is constructing his argument. “Let me explain... No, there is too much. Let me sum up” (Inigo Montoya, talking to Westley in The Princess Bride, 1987). This topic begins in the first few chapters. A highpoint is Romans 3: 23: “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

 How do we know that we have sinned? John Wesley called that God’s work of “Prevenient Grace,” grace that comes before belief. The Holy Spirit is at work convincing us of our sin and convicting us about the coming punishment.

Early in Romans, Paul says that “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things that he made” (Romans 1: 20). That’s a foundational truth; I am not going to spend any more time establishing this part of the context. We know we are sinners because we sin, we sin against God and against humanity; and God makes that all clear.

Second, although we can do nothing about our sad condition, Paul says that “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5: 8). Why did God do that? I don’t know.

Years ago when I was a professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, it was one day in the year 1973 that I started down the stairs at Old Main, an old building with one of those circular stairwells at either end. No one was around, so I started singing Andre Crouch’s new song (1971) out loud as I went down the steps: “I don’t know why Jesus loved me….” Suddenly, from several landings below, a girl’s voice came back to me: “Because you’re so cute!” I never found out who that adoring student was.

Though we didn’t deserve love, love is built into the character of God. Paul says that “now that we have been justified by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5: 9). This is the second foundation which Wesley called Justifying Grace. We get to walk scot-free right out the courtroom.

So, Prevenient Grace is the Spirit warning us, nudging us, calling us to repentance. Then if we repent, Justifying Grace pays the price for our sins. These are foundational truths. You know them, so I won’t spend any more time here.

That brings us up to today’s passage. Paul says, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires. No longer present your members to sin as weapons of unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and present your members to God as weapons of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but grace.”

You just walked out of the courtroom scot free. Do you think that you can now do whatever you want because someone else paid the penalty? If so, you have sorely misread Scripture and you badly misunderstand Jesus Christ. Paul reminds the reader of two things. First, there is no such thing as independence. I know, we have Independence Day coming up next weekend. But we never have independence. We are never alone, we have relationships.

Paul would have agreed with Bob Dylan who, during his ‘Christian’ period, wrote and sang the song “You Gotta Serve Somebody.” Dylon says, “Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, But you’re going to have to serve somebody.”

As we say in Australia: “Too true.” That is what Paul is talking about next in this passage, “you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.” Now that you have been set free from sin, you can’t just walk away. You have to go one way or the other. You gotta serve somebody.

When God made Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden, did he walk away? No. God came by every evening and said to them, “Let’s take a walk together and talk about life.”

When God met with Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, did God then turn around and walk away? No. God said, “Come and walk with me aways and I will make your descendants a blessing to the nations.” Abraham asked, “Where to?” God said, “Walk with me and I will show you when we get there.”

When God met Moses in the wilderness at Mt. Horeb, God did not just walk away. God said, “I have come down to deliver the Israelites from oppression,” and then God added, “So come, I will send you to Pharoah.” Moses tried every excuse not to accept this mission, but God said, “I will be with you.”

God never called nobody for nothing. God saved us for a reason; to walk with him and talk with him. Relationship, like worship, changes the person. We become more like God in our character; more loving and kinder, more concerned with oppression and injustice, more filled with compassion for the poor and needy.

The first thing Jesus did in his ministry was to pick disciples to walk with him along the way. And the last thing that Jesus did in his earthly ministry was to walk with some disciples along the road to Emmaus. Why? So that they would begin to think about the meaning and significance of all the things that had happened to Jesus recently. So that they would embrace the role of the evangelizing mission which would be given to them a short time later. In fact, the first thing they did when Jesus left them was to run back to Jerusalem and tell the good news to the rest of the disciples.  

Paul says at the end of our passage: “Now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit that you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.”

As you study, pay attention to words that are the same or similar, words that are repeated, as well as concepts that are contrasted. If we begin at Romans Chapter 1 and read to this point in Chapter 6, we find that Paul has used the word ‘justified’ or ‘justification’ 8 times. He only uses that word 2 more times in Romans, both in Romans 8: 30. Paul is certain that we are justified by faith by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The word ‘sanctified’ or ‘sanctification’ occurs three times in Romans, two of them in our reading for today. What does sanctified mean? It means ‘to be made holy’.

“You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel: I am the Lord; I sanctify you” (Leviticus 22: 32).

We sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.” What happens when we come before such holiness? Nobody ever came to Jesus and remained unchanged. Either you reject him and go down the wrong path. Or, you accept Jesus and begin to be discipled by him, over a lifetime changed from sinner to saint. Did not Jesus say, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5: 48).

The Wesleyan Movement, which includes the Methodist church, is also called the Holiness Movement. The United Methodist Church has got the invitation right; come to Jesus as you are and he will accept you. The United Methodist Church is forgetting what comes next; come to Jesus and he will change you, he will make you holy as God himself is holy. That change is based on God’s sanctifying grace that produces a sanctified life.

So, there are steps to becoming a mature Christian, a progressive way of living life in the Spirit. As Wesley put it: God warns us through Prevenient Grace, God saves us through Justifying Grace, and God perfects us through Sanctifying Grace. It is all a work of God. Keep moving, there is nothing to be proud of here. We are proud only of what Christ has accomplished through us (Romans 15: 18). Remember that we are servants of God merely doing what we have been commanded to do.

God never called nobody for nothing. You gotta serve somebody. Nobody ever came to Jesus and remained unchanged. Live in the Spirit and feast on the Word of God. The Word is nourishing. You will grow up. And, as you grow up, then you will go out and do Kingdom work in your community.

We are saved for a reason. God has made possible this new time of walking and talking with him. “All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given us.” (Gandalf, in The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkein.)

BENEDICTION: Receive this blessing which Paul wrote to the congregation at Thessalonika. (1 Thessalonians 5:23).  “May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”