Reckon Yourselves Dead to Sin

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark opened Memorial Day weekend by walking through the cost of American wars, then turned to Romans 6:1-14 and the question of what it means, in actual daily practice, to be someone who has died to sin and been raised with Christ. The thread connecting the two was death, specifically what it means that something is genuinely, finally dead. Memorial Day exists to remember those who died in...

Read together

1. Romans 6:1-14 the main passage for the sermon, read and expounded throughout
2. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15 quoted to illustrate the timeline of salvation, sanctification and glorification
3. 1 Corinthians 1:18 cited as the thesis sentence for Corinthians: the message of the cross is foolishness to those perishing but the power of God to those being saved
4. Galatians 2:20 quoted to illustrate being crucified in tandem with Christ: no longer I who live but Christ lives in me
5. 1 Timothy 3:16 described as one of the earliest hymns of the church and read aloud as a closing benediction: He who was revealed in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory

Talk about it

1. Pastor John mentioned that Memorial Day is specifically about those who died in service, not just those who served. How does sitting with the weight of actual death, rather than treating it as an abstraction, change the way you hear Paul's language in Romans 6 about dying to sin?
2. Pastor John described the diagram showing that our position in Christ and our practice as Christians do not always match. Where in your own life do you feel the biggest gap between who God says you are in Christ and how you actually live day to day?
3. The word 'baptizo' was explained as a change, not just a dipping, like a cucumber becoming a pickle. What does it mean to you personally that God is not just asking for outward changes in behavior but for a complete transformation of what you are?
4. Pastor John used the word 'reckon' from Romans 6 and said it is an accounting term about how you count things. He said we are to count ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God. What would it look like practically to start each day by reckoning yourself that way?
5. Pastor John said that when Christians look pretty much the same as the people around them, it does not help anyone, but that a life yielded to God makes a visible difference to the people nearby. Have you seen that in someone else's life, or experienced it yourself? What did it actually look like?