Is Sin REALLY That Bad?

joy and found in your sins james 1 12-15 blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial meaning persevering enduring going not quitting or surrendering to the sin for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which god has promised to those who love him now let no one say when he is tempted doesn't say if you're tempted it says when you're tempted we're all going to be tempted to sin don't say i'm being tempted by god for god cannot be tempted with evil he himself tempts no one god's good not evil but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire he's talking there about the internal he's talking about your brain and your body there are things in you that long for things that harm you then desire when it is fully conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death brings forth death so what he's saying is this when you're under pressure when you're in a trial and your brain has a lot of anxiety and it's trying to process information to make decisions and keep you safe and control the future and protect everyone and everything that you hold dear there is something in you that is now more vulnerable to sinful temptation let me just say this friends we saw this this last year we're still seeing it under pressure people are drinking more people are eating more people are spending more people are online more people are shopping more people are more angry people are having more mental health people are making more short-sighted decisions more people are suicidal the vice is squeezing and as a result the flesh is responding and what he says is when those temptations come and they will come we all have them you're taking a test that you're either going to pass or fail if you pass the test you're steadfast he told us previously if you fail the test in sin you're unstable now the good news is this we've all failed our test and god is gracious we get to retake our test but what happens when we fail our test is we surrender to the sin we reach the point where it's like the trial is so great the anxiety is so high i just need to hit the dopamine center i just need to feel good for a minute i need to do that's where we get in trouble and then what we do he says we blame god now let me say there are various ways to do this but you'll hear people do this all the time well you know life is hard i'm in a hard season and i just i feel like you know god kind of didn't come through so i have a right to do some things that he says no to that i want to do because he didn't do what he was supposed to do you'll hear people say well like if they wouldn't have said that i wouldn't have said that if they wouldn't have done that i would have done that yeah that was my response but look at the external pressure i was under that excuses the behavior i've chosen and then we can even blame god this happens all the way back in genesis 3. so there's two people on earth adam and eve adam's supposed to be the leader his wife is supposed to be the co-leader god tells them okay you guys get along eat anything you want don't touch the don't don't eat that tree i'll be back in a little bit god leaves serpent satan dragon shows up they're eating everything blows up the earth is ruined god shows up asks for adam where are you because the man's the leader he's the head and immediately what does adam do he blames shifts he's like oh so glad you came this chick is crazy all right this chick is crazy right here this is the go-to line for every husband sense hey god i was thinking about it you made her you got a defective product here and you were you were gone i don't know like i was on my own i thought you were supposed to help and then some dragons showed up you probably made the dragon and the woman i'm the victim i forgive you you guys figure it out give me a new woman who could slay a dragon so he's just he's out he's he's blaming god well then what happens is eve she's going to blame satan and the point is everybody's going to blame somebody and only those who love god are steadfast own their own responsibility for their own decision-making and if you're looking at your external circumstances saying well let me give you my reason what happens out there does not determine the response in here you do they're responsible for what's happening out there but we're responsible for how we're responding in here and the lie is always this god is not that good and sin is not that bad god is not that good and sin is not that bad and here's the truth sin does two things it defies god and it damages us so we were like why do i got to do what god says because he loves you and he's trying to save you from yourself right any good parent makes rules not to constrict the freedom of their child but to preserve the life of their child like i i make some rules because i love you and if you disobey the rules you're going to hurt yourself god is a father we are his kids sin doesn't just defy him it damages you no one under a trial with anxiety who has chosen sin made their situation better we've all done this right you're like yeah i felt the pressure of the trial i was under anxiety i needed a quick dopamine hit to feel a little better so i made a short-term sinful decision for some sort of pleasure of rebellion and momentarily i got some physiological relief but then the holy spirit showed up and convicted me and that's not who i was made to be and it was very disappointing and it didn't make my life any better and people are making these kinds of decisions over and over and over and once you get into a habit you're now creating a neurofeedback loop in the brain to where every time that's your natural default unless you intentionally start a new process okay when i'm processing anxiety i'm going to turn off my phone i'm going to turn on my soul i'm going to meet with the lord i'm going to not just sit in my house all day i'm going to go get some fresh air get in god's creation have a conversation with him invite the holy spirit to give me wisdom do the james 1 5 ask for help rather than picking up the bottle i'm going to pick up the bible rather than watching porn i'm going to go to a life group like i am going to start some new habits and patterns because there's a triggering in me that leads to self-destruction and i've got to get out of that loop what's amazing is what james is encouraging and paul uses the language of put off and put on now the brain scientists will say is creating new feedback loops it's creating new neural pathways it's literally the renewing of your mind and this is possible for the children of god with the spirit of god and so how do you pass your test and we've all got our test and that is the temptation test the trial is out there the temptation test is in here the way you and i can pass the test when we are under pressure and we are tempted is two things first i want you to know that it's not a sin to be tempted some of you are tender conscience folks some of you you love the lord you want to do the right thing you're you're the people who you know you're trying to do what's right you're earnest in your intent and what happens is as soon as you're tempted the enemy whispers in your air i can't believe you're thinking about that i can't believe you're tempted by that i can't believe you're considering that i can't believe you like that i can't believe you desire that and you just feel immediately defeated you know that it's demonic when it's in the second person you that's not god talking to you that's the enemy talking to you he's the accuser of the children of god and he accuses them day and night revelation 12 10. what he's doing in that moment he's accusing you of sin and you haven't sinned you're taking your test but he's telling you that you've already failed and the truth is you're taking it it's not a sin to be tempted a temptation is a test and if you choose god instead of sin you actually pass the test there is a difference between temptation and sin and for some of you this is where you get so discouraged you're like well i thought about it i guess i need to do it i mean i you know i went on the date and i guess i'm going to sleep with that i've already run the intersection so i may as well just proceed forward no did jesus ever sin no was he ever tempted yes so temptation and sin are not synonymous they're not the same thing the bible says in hebrews that he was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin so jesus was tempted tested passed his test when you are tempted that is not a sin that is a test that you can pass if you say yes to the lord and no to the sin how do you say no to the sin he's got a word here desire it's a powerful word and this word desire it can be used positively or negatively in the new testament not to totally nerd out on you but often times when the word is used it's used in the context of desires of the flesh versus desires of the spirit the flesh versus the spirit so if you're under a trial you're feeling the pressure you have anxiety in the mind you're trying to amass information and make a plan and you feel overwhelmed or fearful or scared your body is now more likely to make a foolish sinful short-sighted short-term decision a desire rises up in you that is a temptation and it's a test and the frontal court your brain is just give me the dopamine hit it'll feel good for a minute then you ask the lord what are your desires because those are the desires of the flesh if you don't know jesus all you have are the desires of the flesh that's where non-christians don't even understand christians they're like well why would you not do that that feels good we're adults we like it it's great who cares you're crazy oh no there is another way it's the way of the spirit and it says in galatians that the flesh and the spirit are against one another and that the flesh wants to keep you from doing what you want to do if you're a christian this is such good news for you you have the holy spirit you have a new nature you're a new creation you're not perfect but you're new and you're in a process of being perfected and what you have are new desires desires that's where the holy spirit brings to mind it says early in one of peter's letters like a newborn baby you crave the milk of god's word a baby you don't have to give a kid a class on why they should eat when they're born they just have this appetite when you're born again you have this appetite you're like i want to learn the bible i want to pray you know i used to do these things that i was proud of and now i'm ashamed of we used to have parades for them and i've had a funeral for them because you've changed and your desires change so the way that you overcome a desire of the flesh is with a desire in the spirit because the desires of the spirit are the stronger desires that's why a sinning christian is a miserable christian the things that you used to do as a non-christian you're like i love that now when you do it you're like i feel really different after i do that that's conviction from the spirit because god loves you and it's it's it's the father looking at you and saying that's not who you are anymore that's not what you do anymore that's not what you desire anymore that's not who you're gonna be when i'm done with you so let's be done with this how many of you meeting jesus receiving the holy spirit your desires changed and so what it is it is acknowledging the new desires feeding those nurturing those to create new neural pathways new feedback loops new response patterns so that you're now living in the spirit following the desires of the spirit not the flesh following the desires of the flesh because this leads to death and this leads to life this leads to slavery this leads to freedom this leads to self-destruction this leads to god's deliverance this is possible for you as the children of god so when you're taking your test and you're feeling your temptation you go to the holy spirit you're like okay what's the new desire that i need to choose to to then cast out the old desire and to replace it with the new desire so he's going to use three different analogies to talk about taking your temptation test sports fishing and motherhood each of these will give some insight so he talks about the crown of life in their day if you were an athlete in a competition if you won you got a crown so this is like their world series ring or their lombardi trophy this is if you win you get the crown of life and what he's saying is for those of us who are christians we need to wait for our reward when jesus christ evaluates our life and crowns us with the rewards that we have earned through our obedience and faithfulness now you can't earn your salvation but you can't earn your rewards jesus saves you to good works and then he rewards those who are obedient to the good works the worst thing you can do is quit in the middle of the game nobody likes an athlete when the team is on the field and they're all in the battle and one guy's like i'm done now and he just leaves it's like no no we we we fight to the end we struggle to the end because there's only victory for those who fight and persevere to the end and he's appealing like an athlete and he gives the language of fishing and he said our desires get us into trouble our fleshly fallen sinful desires when we are lured away that luring that's the language of fishing and a fishing lure is two things it's a hook and a bait and the key is to know this that everything god creates satan counterfeits so jesus looks at his disciples and he says you will be fishers of men and satan says that's a good idea i'll do the same thing with my demons and i'll send them out fishing and the way that they're going to be fissures of men and women is by luring them in now the difference between a fish and you is a fish doesn't have a brain and so what happens is a fish sees the bait pays no attention to the hook god gave you a brain and you need to know that the lure has a bait and a hook and the bait looks interesting but you need to pay careful attention and not overlook a hook and here's the deal different fish have different bait different people have different temptations and what sometimes happens is we sort of we judge their bait we sort of excuse our bait i can't believe you drink all the time i can't believe you're religious and judgmental so we're even so uh we've all got our thing for some of you it's sex it's money it's food it's comfort it's gambling it's diversion distraction it's people pleasing it's fear of man it's financial security we've all got our thing don't judge their thing you've got your thing their bait may be different than yours and it's not about the bait it's about helping one another see the hook and the lie that satan tells us is this is going to be enjoyable and it will be before it kills you that's the point of sinful temptation satan is willing to give you a little bit of pleasure to bring to you a tremendous amount of pain that's where he says don't be deceived the deception is that it's going to be okay and it's not the third is motherhood and what he says is uh he uses this uh language conceived and gives birth so again this anytime you're talking to the ladies it's dangerous so i'll just ask some more questions so ladies um in an ideal scenario if a woman wants to be a mother what would the hypothetical best scenario be for the pathway to that please find a man okay now we're talking crazy because we believe in men and women okay so create okay so low binary low binary thank you okay so a woman finds a man and then what married what about living and sleeping together no oh never even conceived of this just give me a moment to process all this new data so there's a man and a woman they don't live and sleep together until they're [Music] married and then they live together and they sleep together and then eventually a baby shows up in a marriage this is crazy that's the best place for the child to be it doesn't mean if a child is in another context that the grace of god is not there for them what he's saying is this in the same way that we birth life we birth death that is you meet your temptation and you flirt with it you date it you sleep with it and it gets you pregnant and it births death into your life okay that was a dad [Music] that was a dad so what happens is should you flirt with your temptation no should you date your temptation no should you sleep with your temptation no all it's going to do is birth pain and death so you you create a clear boundary say i don't flirt with it i don't date it i don't move it into my house and i don't move it into my bed or my life because it's going to birth death not life and what he's saying is this friends true or false when the trial is the strongest the temptation is the deepest and this is where under pressure we make some of our worst decisions and people are doing it in unprecedented ways and let me say this when people are choosing joy in their stuff or their sin what they're really longing for is a blessing from him they really want a blessing from god on their whether they know it or not so he starts this section blessed is the one who steadfast under trial how many of you would like to be blessed being steadfast under trial those are the people that god promises to put blessing on them so let me say this your blessing is not in your stuff your blessing is not in your sin your blessing is only in his spirit now when we hear and think of this concept of blessing some of you will think well why does god bless them and not bless me let me say this god doesn't bless people he blesses a place that place is under his word that's where he's going to tell us coming up shortly do not merely listen to the word and deceive yourselves do what it says if you want to be blessed live in the place that god blesses that is obedience to his word there are people who live here and are blessed and they get sort of arrogant and they presume on the grace of god and then they choose sin for a while and they're like why is the blessing stop flowing because i've stopped obeying in the same way that a good parent doesn't reward bad behavior god cannot bless those who are in disobedience if you want to do what's wrong god won't help you if you want to do what's right god will help you but let me say this about blessing blessing doesn't always look like a blessing because oftentimes a blessing is wrapped in a trial and it takes faith to see it so talking about james who was his mom mary mary was a teenage girl in a rural town peasant family an angel shows up and tells her blessed are you here's the word that james uses his mom was told you're the blessed one isaiah said the virgin would be with child mary god's picked you she's blessed what did her blessing look like her reputation was destroyed everybody in the small religious town thought she was running around on her fiance and lied to him and he was an idiot so her whole life her reputation is destroyed in addition her fiance hears that she's pregnant they've not been together his first instinct is i'm not going to marry you i'm done with you oh gosh now she could be a single mom with a destroyed reputation in a small religious town true or false that's a trial for a teenage girl that's a big draw here's the other trial i got to be the mother of god maybe as a single mother with a destroyed reputation in a small religious town that's a trial she's raising jesus he goes into public ministry people hate him despise him oppose him attack him crucify him mary is at the foot of jesus cross watching her own son get murdered while people are cheering trial i mean incredible trial her son rises from the dead yay then goes to heaven and she doesn't get to see him anymore trial and then james her other son who writes this book jude her other son who writes another book of the bible simon another brother in church history they all become pastors they start preaching and teaching and they get used and abused just like jesus was now she's seeing all of her kids just get attacked and wrecked and maligned and destroyed and then they're murdering another son and they're trying to murder another son and her husband's gone joseph is a devout man he's there early on and then he disappears most people think he died she's probably a broke widow whose oldest son is in heaven whose two other sons she's planning the funeral for and people are still trashing her reputation the angels said blessed are you sometimes the blessing is wrapped in the trial and it takes faith to see the blessing in the trial i wrote this down for you as i was praying for you it'll take faith to believe that god will use something ugly to make your life beautiful it will take faith to believe that god will use something that should have destroyed you to deliver you it takes faith to believe that god would use something that should have broken you to heal you and this is how our god works and it takes faith to believe that when you have the worst trial out there you can have the greatest joy in here because our joy is not found in our stuff or our sin but in the spirit it doesn't come up from the world it comes down from the lord this is his concluding section joy comes from god more than it comes from life james 1 16-18 do not be deceived let me say this a lot of people are deceived they're just deceived my beloved let me just put this on you can i put this on you i i didn't do this in the previous i know it's gonna feel weird just do this okay let me put this on you beloved you're not a burden you're beloved you're not a burden you're beloved that's the father heart of god like here's my trials here's what i'm going through i've failed my test i've given into my temptation i've made bad decisions the stuff pastor mark is talking about uh it convicts me that's true god says good thing you're my beloved i'm here to help i'm here to put blessings on you i'm here to put the spirit on you i'm here to put joy on you i'm here to put hope on you this is the father heart of god i just want you to receive that you don't work from the love of let me say this you don't work for the love of god you work from the love of god god's love for you is not at the finish line it's at the starting line it's not for those who earn it it's for those who believe in jesus because he's earned it for us and we receive it and we live from it you are not a burden you are beloved i want you to receive that you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 723

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 9HyCwxmQzBU

Length: 26min 41sec (1601 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021