Diet of the Mind: Freedom
Rev. Michelle Manuel
February 3, 2019
I Corinthians 6:12; Romans 7:14-25

There are two lessons today, the first is the theme verse for this series. We’re going to read that together and then I will continue with the passage from Romans. Please join me as we read I Corinthians 6:12:
“Everything is permissiblefor me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12 (Christian Standard Bible)
And now we read Romans 7, beginning with verse 14:
For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:14-21 (NRSV)
I am so glad to be here guest preaching with you. You all have greeted me so warmly. Maybe some of you just got here because you like to sleep in, but the rest of the congregation has been so friendly to me and I’ve loved it. This choir was breaking me! I was sitting here crying. I don’t know if you noticed and I had to give myself a little pep talk to pull myself together. I was saying, “Pull it together! Pull it together!”
You may see me cry later but now is not the time.
I’m glad to be here. When Rev. Pace called me up he said, “I’d love to have you come guest preach.” He pitched the sermon series to me. It’s based on a line from the movie, “A Beautiful Mind.” Has anyone seen it? Who watched it in 2001 when it came out? Yes, we all did, we were there with our popcorn and stuff. Who has watched it recently on Amazon Prime? One of you. It’s you and me, sister!
So being a pastor has its challenges. There are seasons that prove challenging – like Advent or Easter. Send goodies to your pastors during these seasons! They are challenging times and there’s tough work in pastoral ministry. But when a sermon series is based on a movie, it’s good times. So, I did the hard work of popping the popcorn and I put on the stretchy pants. I pulled that cozy blanket up on the sofa and I pressed “play” on Amazon Prime, and I did the tough work of sermon series research – thank you very much! I had forgotten how 2001 was a rich time for these epic movies that lasted 2 and a half hours.
I’d also forgotten how corny movies were in 2001. Just a little corny. But this one was great. It was a great story. It’s a biography of John Nash and it talks about how he deals with this persistent mental illness. He’s a genius mathematician but he sees people who aren’t there. He struggles to know what is real and what is false and at the end of the movie describes his dealings with how he kind of makes sense of this thorn in his side. He says, “Like a diet of the mind there are appetites I choose not to indulge.”
So that’s where we are. We’re closing out this sermon series today. The passage that I chose and that I read I wanted every single verse read. And I have to say four for four every single reader didn’t stumble once. This passage in Romans 7:14 through 25 is arguably one of the most tongue twisting passages in the entire New Testament.
Homeboys say, “I do what I want but I don’t do what I want. I don’t know what I do but then I do it. There’s evil but then I don’t do it, but I do it. And I want to do it but then I don’t want to do it.”
It’s crazy – how many of you deal with “want to” and “don’t want to do” – and back and forth? It’s a fun passage to read but it’s a heavy passage to sit and really dig deep into. That’s where I’ve been for the past week and a half there in Romans Seven. And it’s heavy. This person that is being described here is in this place of torment. They know what they want to be doing but they can’t do it. It’s a heavy passage, both emotionally and spiritually, to sit with for a while.
It’s also a very heady passage. It’s Paul’s magnum opus, his life work, his theological treatise. From beginning to end he’s making this argument for salvation and he talks a lot about the law. There’s a shocker at the end where he says “Love fulfills the law” – and his name is Jesus.
It’s this knowledge-based kind of very intellectual type of book. Throughout this book he’s using this communal language, this we and this us language. If you’ve done any study, then it’s all throughout the book of Romans. He’s speaking to this group of Christians saying, “we…us… this is who we are. This is what we’re about…” Until chapter seven, and there he throws a wrench in it when he begins to use first person singular. He begins to use this I and me language.
So, what’s going on here? In a quick overview, if you’re just reading it quickly through, you might think, “Wow, thanks for sharing, Paul. That’s a weird little testimony you threw in there.”
Or you might think, “This is Paul’s testimony.” And that’s kind of a common teaching that this is Paul talking about his struggles. Have you met an “over-sharer”? Paul’s a good “over-sharer.”
By the way, I love a good “Over-sharer.” I love it. People are going to tell you what’s going on in their lives in a grocery store line? I love it! And some might call that being nosy, but I call it “pastoral.” My husband calls it, “Move it along, babe – move it along. Let’s go home. We have stuff to do. The groceries are melting.”
This is not Paul’s “overshare.” What he’s doing is to use a literary tactic. He’s using a specific method to point the reader and the hearer back to a very specific story. He’s using this method, these “I’s” and this “me” thing to point us to a very specific group of people, this group that Paul now belongs to. These people are the people of God. Paul here is pointing to our story, to our ancestors. He’s pointing specifically to Israel. Folks hearing this would know exactly what he’s doing, and they would know their ancestors’ story well enough to say, “Yup, that’s what they were up to in the desert.”
So, you know that story of the Israelites? Did anybody like that movie, “The Prince of Egypt” Remember back in the day when animated movies were cartoons that were hand-drawn? Now everything’s digital and that’s awesome but “The Prince of Egypt” was a hand-drawn cartoon and it was great. It taught me the story of the Israelites. They were held in captivity in Egypt and through a series of events God called Moses – you know the burning bush kind of thing. He called Moses to go call ... he had connections high up in the palace. So, he brought his people out of Egypt through the Red Sea that he parted. Lots of miracles in this story.
Once they got into Freedom it’s all cool. It’s like ponies and sunshine and rainbows? No, the Israelites failed time and time again. God gives them his law but, yet they seem to observe in their members another law is winning over. Paul writes, “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self.” They were there when God gave that law. He goes on, “But I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”
When we talk about this series, “The Diet of the Mind” we’re talking about things that could master us. The First Corinthian passage says: “I will be mastered by nothing. Though there are things that are lawful not all things are beneficial but I will be mastered by nothing.”
I like to envision the writer of Corinthians getting real sassy and saying, “I will not be mastered by anything!” Can you imagine it? “No! I will not be mastered by anything!”
So, these Israelites saw these two laws at play in their lives. They wanted in their inmost selves to obey what God had for them, to obey those laws, to live the way they were designed to live within the boundaries of God’s law. Yet they just couldn’t measure up. So, this is their story and it’s heavy and it’s sad and it seems like a tormenting kind of place to be.
Half way through the week I texted a pastor friend of mine. I told him, “This passage is killing me – it’s so heavy and I’m getting depressed. I don’t really know where this sermon’s going.” And he replied, “I know, it’s so sad. Good thing he wraps it all up and brings a bit of hope in Romans 8.”
I then remembered that passage... that’s right, that’s where I was going. Romans 8:1 – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
Christ didn’t come to abolish the law that God first gave the Israelites, but without Christ this law is kind of like sin management. And you can try but you really weren’t going to get a whole ton of victory. Then the law of sin would kind of win over occasionally. But we, through Christ Jesus, have the ability to tap into that spirit of victory, that spirit of life. Through Christ Jesus there is no condemnation for those of us who continue to struggle.
This story - I hope you’re hearing your story told, too. This is not a unique story for us. This is the human condition. We all have things that aren’t maybe sins for everybody, but they’re sins for us. I know this story all too well.
I am Michelle and I am a recovering alcoholic. That was the best thing I ever said about myself. It was so free to know what was wrong with me, to know the things that could bring me down, that were causing this slavery to sin and death.
I took my first drink when I was 14. That’s kind of hard to say – 14. You probably know some 14-year old’s – there might be some 14-year old’s in here.
I get a little nervous telling my story to youth groups. In fact, they’re the ones who invite me most often to tell about this amazing thing that God has done in my life. But I always get a little nervous, because I think, “This is really like adult stuff. It’s heavy stuff. I don’t want to tell kids about this.” And the Lord always so sweetly and so gently reminds me, “You were a kid when you were doing this stuff. So, you tell them that there is freedom for what they’re doing.” And there’s freedom for all of us.
So, at age 14 I began to drink alcoholically. Some people ease into it and then they eventually cross the line and they realize they’ve been mastered. But for me it happened like that! I was off to the races. And I lived a destructive lifestyle until I got into college, and I continued to live self destructively, dragging myself through the mud. Every value that I had I threw away; every moral line that I would draw in the sand for myself, I would cross it. Then I’d try to draw another one. It was absolute death and torment for me.
I knew Jesus all along. I was raised in the church. I thought I was okay, but I still couldn’t get free from this stuff. I saw that law of sin at work in my body, in my members, like the passage says. I would like to tell you that I got my calling to ministry in college at the Wesley Foundation at Texas Tech. I got my calling to ministry there and it was a supernatural, cataclysm moment when God told me who I was. He told me how he created me, and he said, “It’s time to come and work for me.”
So, I moved forward in life, pursuing a call to ministry. I would like to tell you a lightning bolt came down and I never drank again. That’s not my story. I continued to drink alcoholically. If it was around, I did not have a choice. I had a lifestyle that helped me not drink so much because I didn’t hang out with people who were drinking the whole time but if it was around, I couldn’t not partake.
I lived this kind of double life and it was terrible and dragging me further and further away from who I knew myself to be, and what God had for me. I eventually got accepted to Seminary and I was headed there so I packed up my car.
But the night before, I find myself in kind of a recovery community. I had been to this thing before. I was supporting friends; I was supporting people I was ministering to, supporting family members. But something was different, and I realized that I was in that meeting, in that place for me. That night I believe God called me into sobriety. There was something different that happened, so, I accepted this new way of life.
I said, “God, I can’t do this – I need for you to show me how,” and in that recovery meeting something shifted in my life.
The next morning, I got in my car with my mother and we drove 19 to move me to seminary. That is not recommended in your first 24 hours of sobriety. But the Lord is good and we both survived. She couldn’t seem to work the MapQuest – she was like touching the phone and turning it off. But we all survived.
I got to seminary and I dried out. I began to live a new life. I had a community of people around me who were loving me into wholeness in my Christian walk. I had a recovery community of people who were showing me how this new lifestyle would go.
I got a sponsor… Now, I don’t want you to think, “Oh, I don’t identify with that because I don’t have alcoholism and I don’t need a sponsor…” Look, you’re never too old to have a mentor. You’re never too old to sit at the feet of someone and say, “Hey, tell me how you’re living life. What are you doing that has you glowing like Jesus?”
Did you know some people are glowing like Jesus – I’m looking at you… I’m looking at you…
So, this new life of mine I want to leave you with “The Diet of the Mind” – we think of a diet in the ways of restriction, and there are things. For me it’s alcohol – I needed to get some distance from that and restrict it. But the rest of this “Diet of the Mind” was nutritious and I needed to add some stuff to my life. So, I partnered with God in my healing and my recovery by doing spiritual disciplines. And one of them was meeting with this mentor, this sponsor, every week.
I didn’t know her but I was desperate for a new way of life and so I went to her house every week and we met and had coffee for about an hour. We talked about things I did well that week, things that I could use some help on, goals I had for the future. She closed each meeting by praying, and it got weird, so weird. There in front of God, in front of me and no one else, but it felt very crazy.
At the end of the meeting she got down on her knees at her coffee table and she prayed for me. And that was so weird. I sort of melted into the couch and thought, “I have heard about Christians praying on their knees before…but doesn’t it just happen in church services? Not like right here – no one actually does that in their home! And no one does it in front of anyone – my gracious!”
She got on her knees and prayed. And as soon as she said, “Amen” I was up and out of there. I got out of there – I was feeling awkward. Next week we came back, we had our same conversation, and I said to myself, “She’s probably going to do that thing…”
She did. She got on her knees, she prayed. I started to think, “What is wrong with this lady? What is she doing?” I would never hear what she was praying, but after we met so often I started to listen to her prayers. She was praying for me – she was blessing me and asking God to be with me and to guide me. Then I started to sort of get mad at her, thinking, “Are you trying to manipulate me into kneeling? I’m not going to do anything I don’t want to do!” See this bobble head? I’m getting all crazy!
No – and then finally, maybe like 12 weeks in, she’s down on her knees praying. I’m sitting on the couch like a weirdo. And I have nothing else to think or to feel about this situation. All of a sudden, I realized that I wanted to kneel, too, that I wanted to submit my full self to the care of God. In that physical act of kneeling and praying, I wanted to give my whole life to Jesus. My addictions, my issues, everything. So, I got on my knees and I listened to her pray. It was beautiful and from that moment forward there was a shift in my prayer life.
I want to say to you this morning, this diet of the mind thing, is an inside job. When you hear this story, this amazing thing that God has done for me, don’t let it stay out here. Don’t romanticize it and think, “Oh, praise the Lord! He heals addicts, he brings them to Jesus.” He does that, but let my story get in you, and ask yourself questions. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind, where you might need a diet of the mind. Where you might need some healing and some wholeness.
Maybe there’s stuff that you came in here with and you’re fully aware of the things that have mastered you. Maybe something has come to mind – that’s a blessing from the Holy Spirit. Because when we feel that conviction you get to step into a path of freedom. When we feel that conviction we get to step into repentance to say, “I was wrong. I don’t want to do that anymore. I was wrong.” Then we get to step into a place of forgiveness, receiving God’s forgiveness and learning how to forgive ourselves, and then we get to walk forward in freedom.
I pray that God would do that in you this morning. Listen to that gentle hand of conviction, that gentle voice from the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to be mastered by anything. You don’t have to. If you want what I’m talking about, I’m going to invite you to pray with me.
Let’s pray. Gracious and loving God, we praise you for this law of life, this law of the Spirit of life that you’ve come to bring. And I pray now that you would minister to us in those places where we need help. Bring to mind those places so we can partner with you on the journey. But Lord, empower us to walk forward into freedom. Unite us with the Israelites, Lord, the people who gained freedom and help us continue to receive your life. In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit that I pray, Amen.