from Romans chapter six verses one through 14. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. Amen, please be seated. When we gathered yesterday morning to put up the decorations, We pulled out the nativity scene, and I remembered last year we talked about how the nativity scene is incomplete without two extra characters that are not normally in a nativity scene. So I have placed them accurately, because if you remember, we talked about this last year, there are four great birth stories, the three in the Synoptic Gospels, which is Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And then John, the Gospel of John doesn't have it, remember? Starts totally differently. But John does add it in in the book of Revelation. A very different take. on the whole thing. And he talks about the dragon who's trying to eat the woman and the angel that is guarding so that our salvation can happen. And so these have been perfectly accurately placed now. We are ready to go. There it is. You can see how it rolls. Makes it a little more dramatic, doesn't it? We are looking at the fruit of the Spirit. We'll begin with the actual fruit of the Spirit here after Christmas, but we want to get a running start because if you are familiar or have been in church, you know the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. But there are other fruit of the Spirit. Right? And so this maybe might make sense as I'm going to put the fruit of the spirit in Jell-O first. And we're going to like eat that. Do we do Jell-O molds anymore? People make Jell-O fruit salads? It seems like it's less of a thing. I could be wrong. I've eaten a lot of Jell-O in my day. I was, as a college student, I had 21 meal plan, every single meal in the dorms. And I always had Jell-O every single meal, without fail, even for breakfast. So I know good about Jell-O. Putting fruit in Jell-O is okay. Sort of bothers the Jell-O, in my opinion. But the fruit of the Spirit is how we reflect Christ to the world. Like we're gathering together on the Lord's Day, and it's really good for us to come together till we remind ourselves we're not alone in this journey of faith. We come and we see each other. We listen to the Lord, rest on the Lord, feed on Jesus, and then we go out into the world. It doesn't reflect the same values or attitudes. We go out in the world to serve and to listen and forgive and to honor, and we go out into the world with love. joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's how we live lives in Christ. How we live our lives to the world in Christ, because we are united to Christ. Amen. United to Christ. So we're going to talk today about our identity as we think about the fruit of the Spirit. We're going to start with who we are, our identity. We all have histories, right? our birthdays, our personal info, who our parents are, who our siblings are. You can probably remember where you've lived in the past. You know, you could like walk through a previous home in your head and make all the turns and see every single thing that was there, where you grew up. You could walk through that house. But, you know, not everyone has that. Some people don't know the day they were born. They get assigned a birthday. They don't know who their parents are. You know, my story is a normal story, however normal that is, with my normal parents. There are other Doug servants out there. You can Google them. Maybe they're more interesting. I don't know. But when we're talking about me, I sort of know what we're talking about. And we didn't have a family crest. So during COVID, I made a family crest. Things you can do when you're bored, right? And so I made it way too many things. I put every single thing I could think of on there. But it definitely has a rooster, of course, right? But these were words that I thought wanted to describe us as a family or that were aspirational. Love, serve, laugh, forgive, work, repent, play, create, believe. And so I have a couple of these hanging up to remind myself of who we are, what we're about. Some point, some Europeans came over to America. They ended up in Michigan. My parents met at a lake. They got married and moved to Detroit and then moved to Missouri. So that's how I got to be here. My history, my identity. Or think of Anna, who we just saw pictures of. Anna grew up her whole life minus two semesters in Oklahoma. Two semesters she was in Seattle her freshman year of college, but all the rest of her life has been in Oklahoma. She only knows Oklahoma. But then she met this guy named Ben. And now her life is very different, connected. She's united to another part of a story, right? She's a Goodson. Ben's dad is African American. He went to the Naval Academy. So this is a very different part of her story now, right? Now she's got a story that involves the military, that involves Marines. And now Ben is connected to our story. He's related to a Presbyterian pastor of all things. Our stories, our natures, our identities. I've maybe mentioned before my friend Wayland in Oklahoma. He's a black police officer. And that means because his family traced in Oklahoma that his relatives came to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears as slaves. great-great-grandfather is on the rolls of the freedman owned by Cherokees. Very different stories. That story involves trauma. Okay, so my point in identity is the fruit of the Spirit, when we get to the fruit of the Spirit, and we'll make this point over and over again, it's not about what you do only. It has to do with what you do. It is about what you do, but it's about who you are. The fruit of the Spirit comes out of who you are. In other words, apple trees make apples. Pear trees make pears. Ghost pepper trees make ghost peppers, right? You are what you are, and the fruit comes out of who you are. And Paul is talking about who are you in Luke, in Romans, Romans 6, 14. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace. We are not under law, we are under grace. If you're in Christ, you are under grace, not law. But so many of us, if you've grown up in the church, you have grown up under law. Honestly, a lot of us grow up in the church and we just think of instantaneously all the rules of what we're supposed to do and what we're not supposed to do. These lists, these lists, these lists. When I came to Christ in college, I was involved in a group called the Navigators. Maybe you've heard of them sort of like Campus Crusade is another version of this or InterVarsity. But in the Navigators, the founder of the Navigators was in the Navy, Dawson Trotman. And so he was a regimented, disciplined person. And so in the Navigators, we learned to have a quiet time every day. We had to call it a quiet time, I don't know. Quiet time every day. You had to memorize two verses a week, two Bible verses a week, and share the gospel with one person a week. That was the plan. That was what we did. And we all did it really good. Another thing you weren't supposed to do was date. No dating. I don't know why. Girls were trouble, I guess. There wasn't a lot of creativity. or passion, necessarily. It was rules and discipline and obedience. Now, we did talk about grace and mercy and repentance and forgiveness, but I ingested a lot of rules. It's just where I gravitated to. And so when Paul is talking about this passage, he starts it this way. What shall we say then? Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? So this is the opposite. It's the reverse image of the law. It's like, okay, no law, no rules, nothing. It's not how many laws that we have fulfilled. But the question here is, okay, if it's all grace, bring it on. I'll take as much as I can get, and the only way I can know I'm getting it is if I send more. The more I send, the more grace I get. It's a great economy. And Paul says in both ways, no, that means you don't get it. If you're living by the law, you don't get it. But if you think there's nothing that matters, you also don't get it. If you live by the law, you don't understand. If you ask this question, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means, you don't understand. If you reject loving and following God, you don't get it. Look at verse 5. For if we have been united with Him in death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. United. Nine times in this passage, united to Christ. You've died to sin, you're dead in sin, but sin doesn't define you anymore, does it? Sin is real, it's present, but it's not definitional, it's not your identity. Your righteousness is also not your identity unless it's in Christ. Christ's righteousness is your identity, but your own good works comes out of the fruit of the Spirit, comes out of who you are. You know, I just flew down to the Virgin Islands, and so I had my passport, I got my license. You know, all this says, this is me. This is how tall I am. This is what color my eyes are. How much I weigh, approximately. My hair color. These are my stats, right? This is me. I'm showing you me. This is me. Well, you don't have a beard in your picture. Well, beards grow and change, okay. Or is my resume me? Is that me? My accomplishments? All that I've done, all that I've achieved, my degrees, whatever, those are partly me. Part of me is being married. I have kids. I'm the oldest child. A part of me now is an O's fan, I guess. So I wear the clothes. When you unify with something, it changes what you do, right? It changes what you wear. Unity with Christ doesn't strip those things out, but what Paul's saying is that's the identity at its core is union with Christ. I have a friend, Robin. She's Korean, born in Korea, adopted from two white parents from Virginia, and she got assigned a birthday, January 1st. She has no idea what day she was born, who her parents are. She was in her 30s, unmarried, figured she would never be married. Beautiful, talented, delightful, fierce. But you know, when you grow up that way, sometimes you're like, there's something wrong with me. People didn't want me. The people who most wanted me should have wanted me didn't. And so I got assigned new parents, and I love those parents. So maybe there's something wrong with me. Maybe that's why no man wants me. There's something about me, my identity is broken. So she figured she'd be single her whole life. And then she met Rob, Rob and Robin, perfect, right? Rob grew up in the South. His middle name is Lee, Rob Lee. And he goes to seminary, ends up in Seattle planning a church and his wife left him. had an affair, left him. He limps back home to Virginia and is pastoring this church, figure his life is ruined. And he meets Robin years later, years later. Robin never thought she would get married. She certainly didn't expect to marry a Presbyterian pastor. Rob certainly didn't expect to get remarried. And now they're unified. They have a new story, right? And what is the fruit of that union? Oh, Miriam and Naomi, these two little girls, they are so awesome, beautiful, amazing. Fruit of their union. Now these girls know who they are. They're growing up in a very different story. So our identities come not just from who we are, our places, our politics, our religion, but fundamentally they come from our union with Christ. That's ultimately who we are. Paul is talking about. Not our works, not our law, not the sin. There's still sin and there is still sinners, but sin does not define us. Sin is autonomy from God going our own way. Sin rejects God and says, my way is the best. Sin is a perversion of what is good. It takes what is good and twists it. Sin is like a parasite sucking life out of what's good. Sin is also an ecosystem that we can live in and not even see it. In verse 6, Paul talks about how sin is an enslavement. In verse 9, Paul talks about how sin has dominion over us. So a dominion is a kingdom, it's a realm. And in verse 12, Paul talks about how it's obeying the passions of that realm. And in verse 13, he talks about instruments of unrighteousness. So there are instruments, implements. It's like we're in Lord of the Rings and we're orcs mining for Sauron. There's things that we're doing that are wrong. So in the midst of sin's economy and its kingdom and its pressure and its lies and its corruptions, Paul tells us, remember who you are. Remember your identity. Remember, you are unified with Christ. There's a song I've mentioned before by David Ramirez that says, when I lose my way. You remind me who I am. Even though I'm not whole. I'm not empty. And when I look at you and I see you, you remind me of who I am. It's important for us. I think I've mentioned before that I send that song to my friends who have lost their way and have a worst day of their life on the record. Something happened on the worst day of their life. There are many of these. And on that anniversary of that worst day of their life, I will send them that song and say, you, although you're not whole, you are not empty. I remind you of who you are, and who you are is not defined by the worst day of your life. And you all, we have all had a worst day. Maybe it was a worst day of something you did, maybe it was news that you received, maybe it was something you experienced or heard about. or said, or did, or an accident, or on purpose, that is not who you are. Paul says, that is not who you are. Who you are is unified in Christ. united to Christ. Sin does not have dominion over you. You are under grace, not law. And our identities, they're somewhat fluid, right? I can change my hair color. I can cut my beard off. I can buy new clothes. I can go through some fad or phase. Sometimes in my past, I've decided I'm only going to ride my bike. I'm not going to drive a car anymore. It lasts a couple of weeks. Okay, now I'm going to walk everywhere. I'm a walker. A little better sometimes, right? Okay, no dairy. We're cutting out dairy. I'm going to go vegan. No, I'm not going vegan. That's too far, right? But none of these are foundational to who we are. Paul says we are set free, loved, baptized in Christ, raised with Christ. As Christ was loved, so we are loved. He lived and died and rose again for you. All he has is ours. So we remember our baptism, Paul says in verse three. Remember our baptism. We remember that we're in the family of God, the covenant of God. The church can so often feel like an intellectual club where we debate ideas, or the church can feel like a service society where we do common good projects. It can be that. The church can feel like a safe haven against a brutal world. But Christianity, as Paul is telling us, is a whole different thing. It's not a club, it's not a society. We're in a whole new loyalty. And just like whenever you join a new team, okay, now I have Orioles gear. I still have my Sooners stuff. Who knows what'll be next? I'll get into cricket or darts or something, right? But we identify with something else and so we, it changes our patterns. And it affects what we wear and our movement and how much money we spend in our conversations. And so we start saying something like, I thought we had a great year. Or, wow, we're really disappointed. Who's the we? It's not like Mike called me up and we talked trades for the oils for next year, right? He's not on my speed dial. But we identify with what we care about. It changes our lives and our persons. And we try on different personas. We want to be the funny guy, girl, quiet one, the outgoing one, the fashionable one, the rebel, sporty spice, artsy, moody, hard worker, religious, nonchalant. And it's natural. It's natural to try these different identities, to unify ourselves with things. or personas or people. But what Paul is saying is this is supernatural. Being unified with Christ is not something you deserve, you can't just get. Grace is given to you, and that grace is foundational and motivational. And you know, when Rob and Robin were trying to see if they could make this work, Robin's so nervous about her story. I don't know who my parents are. I don't know when my birthday is. And Rob looks at her and says, I see you. I want you. I want to unify my life with yours. And we create a new story together. I see you. I love you. I want you. Let's lock arms and embrace. And that's the way our union is with Christ. Changes us. Gives us a new story, a new identity. Paul's union with Christ was amazing, wasn't it? Came out of nowhere. He didn't expect it at all. Peter's union with Christ was amazing. He didn't expect to meet the creator of the universe one day while fishing. To deny him three times and to be embraced and loved back. The Ethiopian eunuchs story. All of our stories, if we're unified with Christ, are amazing. And that's good news for us today. The fruit of the Spirit brings us into relationship with Jesus himself, so we can be unified with him. Amen.