STEPPING UP…THE JOY OF
OVERCOMING SIN
Every year, we laugh about all the New Year’s resolutions
people make and how quickly they abandon them.
But in our culture, the school year actually generates more resolutions
than the start of a new calendar year.
This
year, we’re not going to be so rushed in the morning.
…
we’re going to get to bed earlier.
…
we’re going to do our homework before any TV.
…
we’re going to do all our papers before the night before they’re due.
…
we’re going to work out before taking the kids to school.
…
I’m going to make better grades in every subject.
…
we’re going to win more games…practice piano every day…lose ten pounds…and so
on!
Nearly everyone wants to make a new start
and step it up a notch or two and do better than before. There is great satisfaction and a wonderful
joy when we succeed. In our spiritual
lives, why should we settle for anything less?
What has to happen in order for us to step it up in our walk with
Christ?
Our passage explains that we must lay
aside some things to step up the way we are running the race. It is not just a matter of trying harder to
be a better Christian…it is a matter of laying aside those weights which
encumber us and the sin which entangles us.
In our first study of this passage, we
talked about the encumbrances, the second study, the sin which entangles and
today, the joy of recognizing and overcoming that sin so that we can indeed lay
it aside.
THESIS: When we dare
step up to the joy of holy living, we will always have to step up to combat the
threat of sin to our spiritual well-being.
I. THE COSTLY SIN OF UNBELIEF
We need to…
…Step up in our hatred for
sin…our sensitivity to sin…our resistance to sin
II. THE COMMON ENTANGLEMENTS OF UNBELIEF
--Unbelief
entangles, traps and in many ways prevents us from stepping up in our walk with
Christ because it binds us and holds us back from any positive movement.
u Common
areas of entanglement…
A. Sin that
arises from lack of spiritual maturity and vitality…
1. Faithless – unwilling to trust or believe
--If
unbelief holds you in its grip, you will struggle with the problems associated
with a lack of faith, an unwillingness to trust that God’s Word is really true,
that His Ways are truly best and His Will is always right.
--Jesus
rebuked His disciples for being men of little faith when they failed to trust
Him in the middle of extremely difficult circumstances.
--Somehow,
we tend not to think of our faithless hearts as sinful hearts but God makes it
clear that living with a lack of faith is sin from His perspective.
2. Prayerless – not inclined to see prayer as
important
--One
of the manifestations of our faithless hearts is the conspicuous absence of
prayer—I don’t mean “saying your prayers” but genuinely praying, seeking the
Lord and believing that He can and will answer.
--If
we honestly believed that prayer was an integral part of God’s plan and the door
to His promises, would we neglect it as often as we do?
3. Graceless – lacking any evidence of godly
character
--How
can people who have been rescued by the grace of Christ from the condemnation
they deserved for their sins act so ungraciously in the way they deal with
others?
--I
am constantly amazed by how unkind…unforgiving…bitter…slanderous…critical…judgmental…divisive…and
so on Christians can be—and that is to one another!!
Some
Christian leaders I have known over the years have been well-versed in
Scripture, gifted in ministry, esteemed by many…but totally lacking in
spiritual maturity when it came to their graceless attitudes and harshness in
the way they treated, spoke to or held
grudges against others. I’m sorry, but
when someone speaks with great passion against sin in public but practices it
gracelessly in private, God will not honor that. All the praise they receive from their
ministries will be from men and women here, but none will come from their
Father in heaven who knows their hearts!
4. Listless – too lazy and unmotivated to try
--Without
any sense of purpose or calling, many drift along through life at a lazy pace
with no self-discipline, no motivation and no real effort to improve, grow or
change.
--Lazy
Christians demonstrate their unbelief by their refusal to trust God to
transform their lives, their willingness to profess but not practice their
faith.
--Bob
Barnes referred to held values and operational values as a way to
distinguish between what we say with our lips and the way we function in our
lives.
--If
we can get away with just saying what we believe, we can be lazy and not have
to do anything about it that would mean extra effort on our part.
B. Sin that
arises from loving the world more than the Father…
1 John 2:16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the
lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the
Father but from the world.
1. Sensual – inappropriate cravings of the flesh
--God
created us with appetites of a physical nature, but He also placed protective
measures in our lives to keep those appetites under the control of a pure and
holy heart.
--Lust
arises when we try to satisfy those appetites and desires in an ungodly way and
outside the bounds of what He has placed as limits over them.
--Therefore,
when we violate His terms and move into behavior that goes outside those
bounds, we fall into sensual sin and bring dishonor to His name and impurity
into our own lives.
--Stepping
up to a higher level of godliness means that we refuse to defile what God has
made to be holy, good and pleasing.
2. Materialistic – greedy longings of
selfishness
--Although
we never “outgrow” the problems of sensual sin, we do have a tendency to expand
the field and as we get older we become more adept at pursuing materialism as a
way to prove ourselves.
--Of
course, some seeds of materialism and the early indications of “the lust of the
eyes” can show up in our lives at any age.
--We
believe that we deserve a certain standard of living, should be able to have
what we want, and cannot understand when someone or our financial circumstances
tell us no.
--So
we either become consumed with acquiring what we want, or consumed with
jealousy and envy and covetousness for what we want and cannot yet have.
3. Delusional – mistaken ideas of
self-importance
--What
is this “boastful pride of life” (NASB) or “boasting of what he has and does”
which “comes not from the Father but from the world?”
--Thinking
that we are somebody of greater importance than we are, believing we have a
right to call the shots in our own lives and the lives of those around us, our
sin consists of the delusional thinking that everything and everyone revolves
around us.
Megalomaniac--“A mental disorder in which the subject thinks
himself great or exalted; delusions of grandeur, power, etc.” (Webster, 1994)
Controller—Try to run everyone’s lives—parents do that with their
children and even their adult children.
Power-Crazed—Constantly looking for ways to assert power and
exercise influence, even when to do so mean violating the character of Christ.
--When
anyone does this, they are guilty of sin, pure and simple, regardless of the
noble cause they think they are serving.
Most
of us have watched in amazement as Christians have chosen the church or
ministry venues as their place to assert their control and exert their
power. Divided congregations and wounded
relationships are left in the wake of self-righteous power mongers who claim to
do what they do in the name of Christ…but His Word and our hearts tell us the
truth—such behavior is sin and is not justified even if the result is one we
desire.
--Sin
for any reason, prompted by any source, is a grievous offense to God and a
serious entanglement in our lives which will keep us from stepping up to new
levels of growth in our relationship with Christ!
III. THE LIBERATING RELEASE FROM UNBELIEF
--It
would be unthinkable to identify sin in our lives and not address a way to
remedy the damage it has done.
--Because
of Jesus Christ we are no longer abandoned to deal with the consequences of our
sin alone.
--He
has provided the way of forgiveness for our failures, protection against our
temptations and focus for our future.
A. LAY ASIDE THOSE ENTANGLEMENTS
--How
do we do that?
1. Confess What You Have Already Done
--As
we noted already in a previous study, dealing with our sin begins with an
agreement with God that what He thinks is all that matters.
--Therefore,
confession is simply acknowledging to God that what He has declared to be sin
is the very thing we have done and we agree with Him that it is wrong, worthy
of punishment, and sufficient in itself to justify His judgment of condemnation
against us.
--But
when we come to confess our sin, there is His promise of forgiveness and
cleansing.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
2. Repent of What You Have Held Onto
--Repentance
is a matter of turning away, changing directions, and giving up the way we have
been heading in order to follow Christ.
--Often
when we have developed sinful habits, it is hard to see the wrong and so we
stubbornly hang onto what we want instead of being ready to agree, confess and
repent.
3. Walk Away from What Has Held Onto You
--At
other times, it is not a matter of us holding onto a particular sin, but that
sin which has its claws in us, leading to addictive behavior from which we
cannot seem to escape.
--In
Christ, the way of escape has been provided and a new way to walk releases you
from the grip and control of what once seemed to hold you permanently.
B. FLEE FROM THOSE ENTANGLEMENTS
1. Recognize the Temptation before It Entangles
You
James 1:14-15 But each one is tempted when he is carried away
and enticed by his own lust. 15
Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is
accomplished, it brings forth death.
--The
earlier we recognize temptation when it approaches, the better chance we have of
keeping its web from entangling us and tripping us up, causing us to fall.
--Most
of us have specific areas in which we are weaker than others and the
temptations and inclinations to move in those directions are usually very subtle and sneak up on us, or very strong and try to overpower us.
--Christians
who want to step it up in their walk with Christ have to learn how to become a
student of their own weaknesses and experts about their own tendencies toward
falling into certain kinds of sin.
2. Resist the temptation when it approaches you
--In
his little devotional book, Pierced by
the Word, John Piper gives a very practical antidote to the attack of lust
and a way to resist its temptation.
“ANTHEM” Approach (John Piper)
“A-
Avoid
as much as possible and reasonable the sights and situations that arouse
unfitting desire…
N- Say NO to every lustful thought within five seconds. And say it with the authority of Jesus
Christ...
T-
Turn
the mind forcefully toward Christ as a superior satisfaction. Saying no will not suffice. You must move from defense to offense...
H-
Hold
the promise and pleasure of Christ firmly in your mind until it pushes the
other images out...
E-
Enjoy
a superior satisfaction. Cultivate the
capacities for pleasure in Christ. One
reason lust reigns in so many is that Christ has so little appeal...
M-
Move
into a useful activity away from idleness and other vulnerable behaviors. Lust grows fast in the garden of
leisure...” (pp. 108-110)
C. PURSUE A PROFITABLE ENTANGLEMENT
--Thus
far, we have looked at the negative side of entanglements because that is the
meaning of the text, but there are positive entanglements—when your heart is
wrapped up by cords of love for Christ!
1. Focus Completely on Christ
Heb. 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of
faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
2. Surrender Totally to Righteousness
Romans
6:17-18 But thanks be to God that though you were
slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to
which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
3. Share Fully in His Holiness
Hebrews
12:10, 14 ...but He disciplines us for our good, that
we may share His holiness...Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification
without which no one will see the Lord.
Are you ready to step it up a notch or two in your spiritual
life as we start a new school year…a new ministry year? Will another month, another year pass without
any significant difference in how much you have grown in your relationship and
in your love for Christ?
It is more than just trying harder…it is
trusting God more by doing what He says we must do to run the race well. Certain encumbrances and all sin must be laid
aside, tossed off, stripped away, if we expect to run in such a way that we win
Christ!
Be it therefore resolved:
· I
want to step it up in my walk with Christ and will do whatever He shows me is
necessary for that to happen.
· I
will lay aside all encumbrances and every sin as He shows me what is entangling
me.
· I
must have Christ and nothing else will do!
There
is great satisfaction and a wonderful joy when we succeed and lay aside
everything that keeps us from gaining Christ!
When we do, we are able to “share fully in His holiness!”
Next week…”Stepping
up…the joy of the Father’s discipline.”
August 21, 2005
Providence Baptist Church
©
David Horner 2005
Sermon
outlines are copyrighted in the event of future publication.
They
may be used for preaching and teaching purposes
but
may not be published or sold.