Most of us know what it feels like to try hard to be a good Christian, only to keep losing the same battles.
You start your day with sincere intentions: “Today I’m going to be patient. Today I’m going to be slow to anger. Today I’m going to love well.” And then, you fail. The guilt hits. The promises restart. The cycle repeats.
Today we’re sharing a sermon from Founding Pastor and President of Life on Life Ministries, Randy Pope. The sermon, based in Romans 6:1–13 (NASB), offers a life-changing reminder: Christianity is not primarily a willpower-based religion. The Christian life is learning to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit—to take hold of God’s strength by faith so that we can walk in “newness of life.”
You can watch the full sermon below or listen to the podcast here. Below, we’ll share a summary of the key points, but we highly recommend watching or listening to the full sermon.
Far too often, we ignore the power of the Holy Spirit in modern christianity, and it is to our detriment. This sermon explores the nature of mankind, our relationship with the Holy Spirit, and a simple approach to life transformation that is centered in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Two kinds of people, two different realities
Randy begins with a simple biblical framework: there are ultimately two kinds of people.
- The natural person: “in Adam,” living with one nature (the old sinful nature).
- The spiritual person: “in Christ,” living with two natures: the old nature (still present) and a new nature (given by God).
This matters because many believers get stuck thinking conversion removed the old nature entirely. But Romans 6 is honest: sin still tempts, desire still flares, and the flesh still pulls. The question isn’t whether temptation exists (it clearly does), it is whether sin still reigns.
Two certainties for every believer
Next, Randy highlights two truths that are always true for a Christian:
1) You are sealed with the Holy Spirit
When you trusted Christ, the Spirit of God came to dwell in you—sealed, never to depart. Ephesians 1:13 (ESV) puts it this way: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
In other words, God doesn’t “loan” you the Spirit. He makes you part of His family, and it’s permanent.
2) You are capable of being filled with the Holy Spirit
Being “sealed” is a certainty for believers, but being “filled” is a command and an invitation. Scripture calls believers to be “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18) and to “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16).
And when we walk by the Spirit, what grows in our lives isn’t just behavior modification, it’s fruit. As Galatians 5:22–23 (NASB) says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
The pain point is obvious: many of us look at our inner life and think, “I need to work hard so I can produce fruit.” Galatians, however, does not mention the “fruit of self” or the “fruit of personal willpower.”
This is really the heart of the sermon: we keep fighting spiritual battles with our natural strength, but instead we should be appropriating (grabbing or taking hold of) the power of the Holy Spirit..
Willpower Christianity will wear you out
Most of us spend our time living out of willpower. The problem with willpower isn’t that it is evil; it is just insufficient.
He illustrates it with an electric bike: many Christians ride the “bike of life” determined to conquer every hill by pedaling harder. We fail. We repent. We swear we’ll do better. We fail again. Eventually we conclude, “I just cannot do this.”
And that sentence, if it leads you to surrender, may be closer to spiritual breakthrough than you think. Why? Because the Christian life doesn’t begin with “I can.” It begins with: “Only He can.”
If we come to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit, then when we encounter the hills of temptation in life, we stop relying on our own efforts to get up the hill. Just like the electric bike enables people to zip up hills, the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to overcome temptation.
Three words from Romans 6 that teach you how to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit
Randy points to three key words in Romans 6:1–13. They form a pattern for daily, practical dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit.
1) Know (an informed mind)
Romans 6 repeats this idea: do you not know…knowing this…knowing that… (see Romans 6:3, 6, 9).
What are we to know?
- You have died to sin (death = separation; sin is no longer your master).
- You have been united with Christ.
- You have been raised to newness of life.
One especially helpful clarification Randy makes: Romans 6:6 says our “old self” was crucified. He explains this is not your old nature disappearing. It is the old “you” before Christ being put to death. The sin nature remains, but it has been rendered powerless as a ruling authority.
In other words, sin may still shout orders, but it no longer has legitimate command of our lives.
2) Consider (take it into account)
Romans 6:11: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
To “consider” is to bring truth back to the front of your mind. As humans, we have a tendency toward “brain leakage.” We know the truth, but we often forget it.
Considering is not pretending. Considering means we remind ourselves of the truth when our feelings argue otherwise.
3) Present (a surrendered heart)
Romans 6:13: “Do not present your members to sin… but present yourselves to God… as instruments for righteousness.”
This is where surrender becomes concrete. Your “members” include your whole self, your eyes, ears, mouth, hands, feet, affections, choices. Presenting yourself simple means saying, “Lord, this belongs to You. Empower obedience where my willpower fails.”
Randy drives it home with a push-up illustration: you reach the point where you truly cannot do “one more,” and you finally stop relying on yourself. To admit you can do nothing more is not defeat, but rather it’s the doorway to dependence.
Faith over feelings: don’t run toward the wrong bear
One of the most practical parts of this sermon is Randy’s warning about emotions. Feelings are real, but they’re not reliable guides for truth. What you believe shapes how you feel, and if you let feelings lead, you can end up running toward a “grizzly bear” while calling it a teddy bear.
In other words: obedience is often an act of faith, not an overflow of emotion. The Spirit empowers us to obey even when we don’t feel strong, close to God, or spiritually “ready.”
A simple daily prayer to start appropriating the Spirit’s power
Randy closes with a prayer pattern worth putting into your regular rhythm:
- Resolve to consider what you know
- Present the members of your body to God
- Ask the Spirit to empower obedience
This is a prayer pattern you can use when you wake up, when you mess up, or whenever you need to remember the power of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
If you’re tired of trying harder and still staying stuck in your faith, please watch or listen to this sermon. Instead of using all your energy and effort to attempt to bike up the hill in your own power, redirect your energy towards pursuing the Holy Spirit. Take hold of the power He freely offers to His people, and you will see fruit in your life.
Appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit is not something we do once in a lifetime, it should be central to our daily life. Remember the Romans 6 pattern: know, consider, present. Practice that pattern, and then watch to see what the Holy Spirit does in and through you.
If you haven’t yet, make sure to take time and watch the sermon >
Lastly, remember that you don’t have to do this alone. As we grow in our faith, we are called to invest in the lives of others to help them become mature and equipped believers as well. The power of the Holy Spirit enables us to make and train disciples, helping others grow in their faith and appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit themselves.