Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church
     
 
Pastor Tim Janiszewski - "Living Beyond Rules & Regulations"

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Messages of Grace

(Past Recorded Sermons) 


















 
This Sunday
October 16, 2016



Sermon Title:
"Living Beyond Rules
& Regulations"



Scripture:
Romans 7:4-6
Galatians 6:14-16 
Picture
October 14, 2016
 
Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:
 
We continue with our fall sermon series entitled The Start of Something New. As our theme verse from Revelation 21:5 reminds us, our God is the God who makes all things new. In one of our two passages for this Sunday, we read that we serve the Lord in the new way that comes from the Holy Spirit, not in the old way derived from keeping the written code of the Law (Romans 7:6). The new way of the Spirit gives life beyond merely observing or ignoring or defying the rules and regulations.
 
At first glance, it may appear that this teaching is not particularly relevant or exciting; however, let's look a bit more closely. People across time have been surrounded by rules and regulations. For instance in Old Testament days, they were codified in the Law of Moses found in the first five books of the Bible. In Jesus' time, the Law of Moses had been expanded by the Teachers of the Law to include much more detail. Yet these ancient law codes look simple in comparison to the intricacies and endless extent of the law in the United States today. The evidence leads us to recognize that rules and regulations are part and parcel of human experience--both for better and for worse.
 
How do people react to these rules and regulations? Some try diligently to keep the law in detail. They live by the book. They defend the law as virtually sacrosanct. And because they do so, they give to the law the power to define who they are. Other people go to the other extreme by living in defiance of the law. They become rebels whose cause is to oppose the rules and regulations, thinking that in breaking them they will find freedom. Theirs is the way of anarchy when taken to its full extent. In a way, these people are defined by their conflict with the law, and they are identified as antinomians or as those who live against the law. Whether people are law-keepers or law-breakers, their lives are controlled by the influence of the law.
 
So we ask, is there a new way to live that goes beyond and rises above the level of law-keeping or law-breaking? Can we discover a fresh approach that makes the foundational point of reference for our living something other than rules and regulations?
 
The Apostle Paul not only tells us that there is a new way; he further argues that there needs to be a new way. As he writes in Romans 7:5, "For while we were living in our sinful nature, our passions were aroused by the law, bringing about in us the fruit of death." Law-based living--whether in trying to maintain or to violate them--is bound for death. It doesn't work. It's a blind alley that leads to grief in the end. So how do we get beyond a life in which we either try to "color inside the lines" or go off script to color outside them?

Pastor Tim

***** 

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