What Is Sin? with Rick Warren & Tom Holladay

if you take out your message notes inside your program we're gonna continue in a series that I started a long time ago on rethinking your life and if I were I want to begin with a question if I were to ask you what's the biggest problem in your life right now you might say well Rick I'm under some financial pressure or I've got a strain and a relationship having a little bit of conflict or I'm dealing with some tight deadlines I've got to deal with or I've got opposition or I've got limited resources or I've got competition and you might give me a list of different problems that you have in your life but that's not your biggest problem the truth is your biggest problem is you and I am my biggest problem you caused yourself more problems than anybody else does and so do I and you do it by the way you think because when you don't think correctly it causes you to feel incorrectly and when you feel incorrectly you tend to make bad choices and that causes all kinds of problems in your life the problems most of the problems in your life are caused by the way you think and you see you talk to yourself all the time you're doing it right now while I'm talking to you going I wonder if what Rick's gonna say today is gonna be interesting and and and you talk to yourself all of the time not everything you tell yourself is the truth the Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked who can know it in other words I've said this to you many times you lie to yourself we lie to ourselves far more than we lie to anybody else sometimes we tell ourselves things are better than they really are sometimes we tell ourselves that they're worse than they really are and not everything you feel well I feel it must be true not everything you feel is the truth not everything you think is the truth and as your pastor and your friend and your coach I want to tell you I give you permission to not believe yourself just because you think it doesn't mean it's true just because you feel it well I feel it doesn't mean it's true and when you act on thoughts that aren't correct and feelings that aren't correct you're gonna have behavior that's not correct and it's gonna cause all kinds of problems in in your decision-making now this is called your sin nature we all have it it's also called the law of sin it's called the power of sin in your life for instance even when you know the right thing to you to do do you sometimes not do it duh yeah of course you know the right thing to do most of the time doesn't mean you do it all the time and sometimes when you know something is not the right thing and it's not good for you and it's self-destructive and it's harmful do you still do it or eat it yes yes you do that is your old sin nature so what I want us to do today is talk about rethinking sin because when I uh we think of sin we often are we don't really understand what it's all about so I want us to do three things we're gonna define what really is sin and then we're gonna talk about what's the problem with it why it's a big deal and then the third this would be most important what's the solution this is gonna be a very practical very helpful very encouraging message when you can see here's how I break the grip of things in my life that I can tend to do over and over and over and I don't like doing them but I do them anyway and sometimes can't even stop myself so let's start with defining sin I mean I've talked as I've traveled all around the world I've asked people what what do you think sin is one guy told me sin is not saluting the flag another guy told me sin is not calling your mom on Mother's Day when we think of the word sin we usually think of behavior and we think of bad stuff like murder and adultery and rape and you know what when we they have said we think evil it could mean bad nasty behavior I don't drink smoke cussed you or run around with girls that do well you know what God if you read the Bible is far more interested in your thoughts and in your feelings and in your words then even in your behavior because when your thoughts are wrong and your feelings are wrong and your words are wrong it's gonna come out sideways in fact then the Bible has a whole lot more to say about sins of the tongue then sends of other parts of your body if you get my drift so what is sin pull out a pencil write these down here's four definitions for you number one sin is the opposite of good and God or God and good sin is the exact opposite of God sin is the exact opposite of good now God is always good he is never bad and so sin is the opposite of what God is let's look at some Bible verses Psalm 111 verse 7 everything God does is good everything God does good you know when God created he said it's it's good and fair and all his Commandments can be trusted he's a good good father look at this first up here on the screen Psalm 145 verse 9 says the Lord is good to everyone he showers compassion on all his creation now God's good to everyone are you good to everybody no am i good to everybody no I'm not like God God is good to everybody he shows compassion to all people I don't show compassion to all people neither do you God is the opposite of sin first Timothy 4:4 look at this one on the screen everything God created is good in fact when he made it he said this is good now well we do is we take what God created is good and we use it in bad ways it's not that what God created is bad it's what we do with it that that's bad we take the good that God has made and we misuse it and then we abuse it and then we lose it we misuse it abuse it and lose it now this is true with all kinds of stuff money money is neither good nor bad can be used for good it can be used for bad but we misuse it we abuse it and then we lose it you can do this with with food you could do it with you a sex sex isn't bad sex isn't dirty sex is holy sex is God's idea but we misuse it we abuse it and we can lose it and so what happens is we take what God has done created for it drugs drugs can be used to heal people when I was in pain in the hospital I was glad up for morphine in the right way it's a good thing ok that when after they sawed your stomach open that's a good thing but in the misused what happens is we divert it we subvert it we pervert it and then we get hurt we subvert pervert and get hurt because we misuse the good that God does sin is always a perversion of God's good gifts now the Bible says this in job chapter 34 verse 10 it is impossible for God to do anything evil he cannot sin or do wrong and you know what as a result God wants us to be like him like father like son he wants his children to be like him so anytime I'm sinning I'm being ungodly I'm being the opposite of God because God is good and sin is bad alright let me give you another definition saying this not only the opposite of God and good sin is the opposite of love sin is the opposite of love sin is always unloving now a lot of times we think we're being loving but we're not really being loving it's not loving to lie to people and sometimes well I'm gonna say their their feelings and I'm not gonna lie I'm gonna lie to them sin is never loving you know Jesus was walking down the street one day and a guy comes up and says what's the most important command in the Bible and Jesus goes that's easy there are two of them love God and love your neighbor love God with all your heart soul - drink love your neighbor itself life's all about love now if that's the most two most important commands then sin is the opposite of those two commands not loving God and not loving your neighbors that make sense so look sin is always on loving Jesus said that as time goes on history goes on people gonna and as sin increases in the world he said love is gonna decrease in the world look at this verse Matthew 24 verse 12 as sin and evil increase in the world people's love will grow cold are we seeing that today our people more or less loving than they were twenty years ago they're more rude they're more critical there's trolls on the internet and and you know civilization is becoming less civil why because the sin increases love decreases it's there the opposite of each other all right all I'm saying to you is that sin is unhelpful it is unhealthy it is unfair it is unwise it is unreliable it is untruthful you don't want to be you don't be doing that kind of stuff now number three here's the third definition Tom why don't you take this one number three sin is always selfishness so it's always focused on me and Who I am and the truth is a lot of what we tell ourselves is really I'm doing it for other people I'm doing it for myself I say I'm working hard for my family and putting all these hours but it's really about how it makes me feel I say I'm doing this for you but it's really for myself and that's the center of sin it may not always look like selfishness we may not even tell ourselves it's selfishness but it is the center of what sin is James 3:16 wherever there is selfishness then you find disorder and every kind of evil sin and we see that in our lives we see that in our world we see that in our families how selfishness impacts us the Bible is pretty clear on this one Bible says that God didn't create you put you on this planet to live for yourself God put us on this planet for a reason and it's so we can love God and so that we can love others that's the reason that we're here if I'm just living for myself the Bible says that's the essence of sin Bible's really clear it says that you were created to know to to enjoy and actually serve the people that God's put around you that there's something bigger than you life is bigger than you and in recognizing that I'm recognizing what God made me for and whenever I send her my world down to just me just myself that's really the essence of sin in fact living for yourself is at the heart of what sin is really all about it's putting myself before God so that gets us to you know what the most sinful song ever written simple lyrics ever written were I know you're thinking of some you know sexed up you know rap song right now no it goes way back before that it's um it's the song that Frank Sinatra's saying now you know what it is I did it my way because it's all about me it's all about how I'm living my life you know I may have messed up I may have hurt you but I did it my way I may have hurt everybody in my life I may have been like this horrible horrible person but at least I did it my way I'm going to hell but I did it my way when you think about the essence of sin it starts with I it's not the action that's out here it's at the it's the I that's at the center of my life and whatever you Center your life around that's your God that's your God you can send your life around sports you can send out of your life around your business you can set your life center your life even around your family and that can become your God rather than God but when it comes to sin we got to be honest we tend to Center our lives around ourselves and who we are that's the truth about sin now when we talk about living in a different way we're living in a narcissistic culture a culture that says it's all about you I mean everything that you see everything that you're sold it's all about you I want to serve you and we got a we got a swim upstream in a narcissistic culture and live in a different kind of way you know growing up one of the lessons my dad taught me that I remembered he said son always remember that the middle letter of sin in English si n is I it's a visual representation that the eye centered life is the sinful life we all have an eye problem I want it my way I will do my thing I'll do it my way as you were saying and and the eye problem that we have creates so many other problems that are at the heart at the root of sin is self-centeredness I want what I want and I want it now and I want to be God I don't want God to be God in my life and so my dad said son remember that the middle that her sin is I and he said and remember that the middle letter of pride is i PRI de and he said remember that the middle letter of crime is I CR I M II all crime is self-centered I'm going to steal your stuff because I want it for me I'm gonna hurt you because I want to help me and so crime is always a selfish act it's a self-centered act so I thought I was thinking this week cuz it's preparing this message if sin and crime and pride all have the center letter I what other words have I at the center so I did a little looking around through through the dictionary and I discovered some interesting parallels that we could learn from for instance you know we had a lot of social problems in our world today and three of the groups that are causing the most social problems have I at the center looked up on the screen racist sexist and chauvinistic if I am a racist I'm saying I'm better than you or a sexist I'm better than you or chauvinist I'm better than you it's an i centered philosophy and that's the Bible says is sin so then I got to thinking what other sins happen when I start living a self-centered i centered life and I made this list of sins up here pride as I at the center whine when you whine you're putting yourself at the center it's all about me criticize I at the center gossiping means at that point you're being selfish I am at said lying I am at San Fifi I at center envious deceitful defiant I want at my way merciless because I want grace for me but not for you when you hurt me or I get furious that's I devious hastiness suspicion is I based negligent is I've been and when you're finish it's all about it I don't like my pancakes this way you're finicky you are showing yourself centeredness it's all about me it's all about I and then I thought well what kind of life happens when you live a self-centered life what are the results of living and I centered life here are the results anxiety with I at the center when you live for yourself you're gonna have high anxiety guilt creates an eye fatigue pessimism when I worry about how I look to you I get panicky phone enos because I'm wearing a mask because I don't want you to see the real me hostility toward other people life gets difficult because I'm at the center and most of all life becomes emptiness because you were made for something as Tom said far bigger than yourself you're made to live I've you've heard me say this many times you're made by God and you're made for God and until you understand that you'll never figure it out life because you weren't put on this planet to live for you and if you do you're gonna have that emptiness and all those other other things all right number four the fourth definition sin is not just selfishness in the opposite of love the opposite of God sin is always unbelief unbelief and specifically it's an unbelief in who God is at the root of every sin is at that moment I don't trust God I doubt I doubt something about God I'm doubting his love his compassion his wisdom his plan I'm doubting something about God unbelief is behind every sin it's the route it's a lack of faith what I'm saying is I don't trust God in this situation so I'm gonna have to take it into my own hands figure it out myself and Jesus says in John 16 he's talking about the Holy Spirit and the three purposes that the Holy Spirit is sent to earth and in verse 9 Jesus says the Holy Spirit will show that the world's sin is unbelief in me that's the root of all sin when I don't believe God is who he says he is then I don't believe that God will do what he says he'll do unbelief is the world's big sin everything else comes out of that now I could give you several hundred examples of this and we'd be here a long time but let me just give you three or four they're my sin whenever I said it reveals what I am doubting about God at that moment I'll say it again every time I sin it reveals what I am doubting my unbelief my lack of trust my lack of faith in God at that moment for instance when I become fearful or I become anxious anytime I become fearful or anxious you know what I'm revealing I'm showing my unbelief in God's promises there are over 7,000 promises in this book and if you claim them you wouldn't ever be fearful or anxious it's like knowing what's in the insurance policy when God says I'll be with you I'll help you I'll encourage you all do all I'm not gonna let you get harmed and on then you wouldn't be fearful or anxious when you become fearful it's because you're doubting God's promises and remember we were talking earlier about that that God is love and the opposite of God is sin well sin creates fear the by but the Bible says there's no fear and love perfect love casts out all fear anytime the sin in my life it creates fear if fear says I doubt that God will keep his promises all those things he said in his words what about when I'm impatient when I get impatient and that creates all kinds of problems what am i doubting I am doubting God's perfect timing not has a plan for your life and his plan he's not gonna get in a hurry he's not gonna go too fast not gonna go slow his timing is perfect but we often don't believe that we doubt it we have unbelief we so hey I'm not getting married as fast as I wanted to get married I'm not getting my job or promotion as fast I'm getting me I want us to have a kid by now I wanted to be at this level of income by now I don't like what's happening here and so I'm impatient I'm going to take matters into my own hands and when I get impatient I am doubting God's timing it's really a matter of unbelief what about this next one resentful or bitter anytime I get resentful or bitter it means that I am doubting or I am showing unbelief for God's wisdom God is a wise and good and loving God and he has a wise and good and loving plan for your life but you look at thing - wait a minute she got a promotion and I didn't he got married and I didn't he got the award and I didn't I don't like my plan I like their plan God you messed up you screwed up in my life and I'm resentful and I'm bitter about it and when I'm resentful and bitter I'm doubting God's wisdom and I'm even doubting that he can bring good out of bad anybody bring good out of good only God can bring good out of bad but when I doubt that when I doubt that all of the bad stuff that's happened in my life and I don't really believe that God can bring good out of it I get resentful it is a cause it is caused by unbelief what about carrying guilt a lot of people carry guilt right how long should a follower of Jesus Christ be guilty about one second that's how long it takes to confess a sin once you've done it sorry God that was wrong please forgive me boom it's gone it's forgiven but most people carry guilt around some of you are carrying guilt around from a year ago or five years ago something happened 20 years ago that's dumb God doesn't want you carrying guilt around like that but what does it mean when I carry guilt around like that it means I can't forgive my why because I doubt God's forgiveness and that's a sin doubting that God has forgiven you is a sin because God says I forgive you instantly completely and continuously and so God doesn't want you carrying guilt around all the time and when you carry a ground guilt or shame you're saying I don't really believe God has forgiven me it's unbelief what about when I feel inadequate when I feel like you know I'm just not up to the task it's it's too big a deal or I don't know if how long I can keep this up I don't know if I can maintain this standard um I'm starting to feel inadequate anytime you have those feelings of inadequacy what you're saying is I doubt God's power because God has said where you're weak I'll be strong God has said I will give you power my weakness but your power shows up best in your weakness God says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me God says if you have faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains and on and on and on any time I'm feeling inadequate it's because I'm doubting that God has the power and that he'll give me the power and that he's his presence and power will help me sustain it so it's really all about unbelief so what's the problem what is what's the problem with sin why is it I mean it is it really that big a deal I mean maybe it's not that big a deal well let me give you the six problems with it and then we look at the solutions number one the first problem is that I was born with the selfish desire to sin I was born with the selfish desire to sin that's called my sin nature now everybody knows this if you're a parent because you have examples of it running around at your feet did any of you parents have to teach your child how to lie no they learned it naturally did any of you have to teach your kids how to be self-centered and want the bigger piece of pie no it's natural okay anybody as a parent knows that human beings have a sin nature that we want what we want and we want to be number one and to think of ourselves now the classic passage on this and the struggle that goes on in my brain in your brain is in Romans chapter 7 Paul who was probably the greatest Christian who ever lived except for Christ himself says this Romans chapter 7 verse 14 and 15 verses 17 and 20 23 Paul says I feel that I'm a slave to my sinful desires sin masters me this is the guy who's right in the Bible okay I don't even understand the things that I do I want to do what's right but I don't do it instead I do the wrong things that I don't want to do sound familiar I can't help myself because of my sinful nature inside me it's a law at work in me and is at war with my mind in this series we're talking about the battle that's going on in your mind and there's a problem between your old nature and your new nature between your desire to do the right thing and the the natural human inclination to do the wrong thing that given a being right B being wrong we typically often choose B and so he says the problem is this is not just a new thing I was born with this tendency to make the wrong choices and every one of you could give an example of that here's the second problem with sin sin breaks my fellowship with God sin breaks my fellowship with God just like it breaks any relationship Tommen and earliest service talked about sin is pretty much a relational issue you know if if I hurt Kay's feelings my wife's feelings or I say something that's unkind the air just gets a little chilly in our home and there there's a natural break and if you were to walk in you know those guys connected right now why because when I sinned against my wife it breaks my connection to my wife that makes sense well same is true with God and and sin breaks our connection to God it's why when you pray you feel like your prayers aren't getting about the ceiling it's why you say I don't feel God in my life against do you got in mind the Bible says this Isaiah 59 verse 2 your sins are the roadblock between you and your God that's why it doesn't answer your prayers or let you see his face why you can't feel God's presence in your life and so we got to deal with this what's the promise in well I'm born with it and second it breaks my fellowship with you with God and with even with myself I don't even know my own identity and when I messed up that way number three here's the third problem every time I send something it dies inside me you may not have ever known this but it's true that every time I send something dies inside me just the Bible tells us that sin is a silent killer the Bible says the wages of sin is death you know that there was no death on this planet until sin entered the world vadoma neither had never sinned they would have lived on forever it was like paradise the Bible says sin and death go together we're all going to die because we live in a sinful world and it's broken and we've all done the wrong things we've all sinned sin and death go together sin is a killer I want you to write this down in your outline sin is self-destructive okay it hurts me more than it hurts anybody else sin is self-destructive it's it's it's a killer something inside me dies I don't know if you've ever thought about it but the English word evil is the exact opposite of live evil is live spelled backwards and so in life you're either gonna Li ve are you gonna do Evi l everytime I do Evi L I'm not living I'm dying every time I do evey il evil is the OP of live that's why Jesus said I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly so it's connected to to death here's what the Bible says James chapter 1 verse 15 our evil desires make a sin and when sin it is finished with us it leaves us what circle that it leaves us dead now I'm not just talking about physical death here a lot of stuff dies in your life every time you sin when I said my passion for God dies my my my dreams of being close to the Lord die my relationships die when I sin sin kills your potential you have enormous potential but sin kills your potential sin kills your joy sin kills your rewards in heaven that God wants to give you sin kills your true identity a lot of people are going around there I don't know who I am what am i who am i what am I supposed to be what's my identity why is your identity cloud it's clouded by sin and you and we get messed up in that abuse and misuse and you know aversion and perversion and and reversion and things like that do we we just don't we don't even know what we are because we're confused where's that confusion comes not from God it comes from from sin sin causes stuff to die with me you know this week I decided I would just do a survey of the whole Bible and make a list of all the consequences of sin and then I put them in alphabetical order I'm not gonna read your whole list because it take a long time but let me just read you a few things that send us in my life and in yours a a tizzy I'll just read some of them a sin causes anxiety it causes alienation alienation from God alienation from other people even alienation from myself it causes addiction be sin causes broken hearts we all know that broken bodies broken relationships and bitterness see sin causes compulsions d sin causes debt God gives me money and I misuse it I get in debt sin causes disease lots of diseases are caused by sin sin causes damaged reputation and death e sin causes eternal separation from God in hell F sin causes fear and the more cent I have in my life the more fear I'm gonna have fear of the past I might be found out fear of the present fear of the future what's going to happen it's connected to fear that's remember there's no fear in love that love is the opposite G sin causes guilt H sin causes injustice in the world we see injustice in our society all the time it's possibly sin L loss of joy loss of reputation loss of rewards in heaven M sin causes missed opportunities missed opportunities missed blessings in the Bible says sin causes national decline and destruction there are many many examples in the Bible that nations that are declining and are actually destroyed by their own sins many examples of national destruction o sin causes oppression causes people to oppress each other P sin causes pollution of creation there would be no pollution in our world if we didn't sin our sin causes relational conflicts s sin causes stress and suffering then why in the world would we think sinning is a good idea it's the opposite of good and it's the opposite of God now here's the fourth thing about sin write this down my sin may be a secret but it's never private my sin may be a secret but it's never private it always affects a people even if nobody else knows about it now the reason why it's it's never private is because first it's gonna eventually be made known it's gonna come out inevitably it'll need to come out now here on earth it'll come out at the Judgment Day but it's gonna be known numbers 32 verse 23 is one of the scariest verses in the Bible and it says this you may be sure that your sin will find you out every politician should memorize that verse and then they would realize that the cover-up is always worse than the sin you know Americans are pretty forgiving people and if somebody stands up and goes hey I blew it it was wrong I misspoke I was dumb I'm sorry I repent will you forgive me most American culture why not we're all in the same bucket we're all in the same boat we all blow it we're a pretty forgiving bunch but it's the person who covers it up there's a verse that says that if you cover up your sin you cannot be successful but if you confess it and forsake him you get another chance so you can't hide it but the other reason why it's never private is because everything that you do good or bad affects other people even if they don't know what's going on behind it if I'd stayed up all night and done some really immoral things all night and was up all night and came and spoke to you today you might not know what I did last time to go you know Rick's just not on today he's not very sharp he's he's tired he doesn't have that spark he's not it doesn't seem very authentic doesn't seem very real today you might not know what was there but you could see the results I've said this before that if I go a couple days without spending time with God alone reading this book the Bible and praying if I don't have a quiet time for a couple days I notice the difference in my life if I went four or five days or a week without doing that Cawood notice because all sudden I'm a little bit cranky then I'm just more edgy if I went a month without checking in with God you would notice Rick doesn't have the spiritual power in his life he used to have because he's not plugged in he's not connected you might not know what's going on but you would see the results everything you do affects other people all right the Bible says this in Romans 14 verse 7 up here on the screen none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone you know you'll hear people say you know really what's your problem with this it's my life and what I do with my life is between me and myself and as long as I'm not hurting anybody why should you care well the issue is you are hurting other people you don't even realize it but you are hurting other people because it limits your potential it limits the good that you can do and the good that you could have done isn't gonna be done because of the sin in your life you are hurting other people and everything you do affects other people that leads me to the fifth one write this down sin does long-term damage sin does long-term damage and we often think because I don't see the damage right away that maybe there won't be any damage but it's like planting a seed if I plant a seed I don't immediately see the sprout it takes weeks for the for the seed to sprout and push up through the ground and then it grows and it grows it becomes a bush and it might even become a tree and get really really big but you plant in one season and you harvest in another and if I'm planting sin in one season I'm gonna harvest it it just isn't in this season it's gonna come out later and there are long term results it's kind of like this let's say you and I went to New York City and we went up on the top of the Empire State Building and I have to return to you and I say you know I have to not believe in the law of gravity and you go will Rick it doesn't matter whether you believe it or not it's a law whether you believe it or not isn't gonna change it it's just like people that well I don't believe in God and I don't believe in the thin Commandments well it doesn't matter whether you believe it or not it nothing's gonna change that God set up the universe with the laws of physics for the physical well and God set up the moral laws for the spiritual realm and they both you don't actually break God's commandments they break you because they're unbreakable their laws of the universe just like the law of gravity so I say to you I don't believe in the law of gravity watch this and I jump off the Empire State but now I could be sincere I'm just sincerely wrong and as I'm floating down about 40 floors down somebody sticks their head out the winner goes hey Rick I go hi yeah how's it going I said so far so good but I'm gonna eventually hit bottom and I'm not gonna break the law of gravity it's gonna break me a lot of people are sinning right now and think they're getting away with it so far so good but they're only at the 40th floor and they haven't hit bottom the Bible says be sure your sins will find you out and so there's a long term result the Bible says it like this in Galatians chapter 6 verse 7 and 8 don't deceive yourself you can't make a fool out of God whatever you plant is what you will harvest you don't plant apple seeds and then get Tomatoes you don't plant bitterness and get love you don't plant criticism and get other people loving you back whatever you plan is what you'll harvest if you plant in the soil of your sinful nature you'll harvest destruction but if you plant in the soil of your spiritual nature you'll harvest ever lasting life you know we now know that when you do a behavior over and over and over and over and over it actually changes your brain this is new stuff science is finally catching up with the Bible we didn't even know this fifty years ago God has talked about four thousand years that the sins of the father can be visited on the children to the third and fourth generation if a month if a mom is addicted to crack cocaine and she has a crack baby and the baby is born addicted to cocaine it's not the baby's fault the baby's innocent but the sins of the mother are visited upon the child and the anger that you have and you when you are angry and you lose your temper with your kids you're setting them up to lose their temper with their kids sins get perpetuated in families multiple generations and not only does it work relationally environmentally it actually works physically we now know that your brain can actually be changed by repetitive behavior for good or for bad now we didn't know this fifty years ago everybody used to think that the brain was pretty much set in stone by the time you were an adolescent thirteen fourteen fifteen years of age and that your brain wasn't going to change after that that's just not true we now know every scientists know that what's called brain plasticity that your brain can be molded for good or bad now that's a good thing to know because it means if your brain has been naturally mold of this direction toward depression it can change or if my brain has been naturally molded to be angry and have a temper problem it can change and if my brain has been molded to be fearful and anxious it can actually change but I've got to change the way I think that's why we're doing this series on rethinking your life the Bible calls it repentance changing your mind and Jesus says you can change your mind and when you change your mind it changes the way you feel and when you change the way you feel it changes the way you act but when you sin you're not just affecting you you're actually if in future generations I'm sorry but some of you have reaped the results of sins of parents and grandparents and from their bad behavior and their addictions and things like that it harmed you and it predispose you in certain ways I'm sorry but here's the good news you can break the chain you don't have to keep perpetuating the family cycle of abuse or the family cycle of fear or the family cycle of anything in your life sin does have long-term circumstances so just because I think I'm doing it now I'm the only one that certain it's not I want to live my life in such a way in such a way that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren great-great-grandchildren can be blessed because of what I did see it works both negative and it works positive let me show you a positive look at this verse on the screen first Kings chapter 15 verse 4 says this despite a by jum's sin this is a guy named a by John he blew it we don't know what it is here but the Lord remembered David's love that's his ancestor King David despite abides have sinned the Lord remembered David's love and did not end the line of David's royal descendants he said I'm gonna bless this guy because of his ancestor as your pastors your coach is your friend I want generations two or three from now to be able to go I got blessed because my grandfather or my grandmother or my great-grandfather did the right thing they weren't thinking well I'm doing it in secret and I'm not hurting anybody you are and you can use it for good I want my grandkids and great-grandkids go I'm getting blessed because my great-grandfather was Rick Warren and he didn't do it all right but at least he tried he tried to do what's right he wanted to do his right his heart was in the right direction one more number six disobeying God is neither fun nor funny disobeying God is neither fun nor funny you know we we we fall for one of Satan's biggest traps Satan wants to make us laugh at sin because if we laugh at it it lowers our resistance to it anytime Satan wants to introduce a new sin to society you know how he does it through comedy through comedy and he'll he'll put it on a sitcom on stand-up comedy or in shows like Saturday Night Live where we laugh at sin and when you laugh at it then you go that's not so bad sin put Jesus on the cross that's how serious it is it's not a laughing matter but you know when we laugh if somebody's got drunk and there you know stumbling around it's not funny it's not funny at all it's tragic it's tragic now the Bible says this proverbs 10:2 a fool's fun isn't being bad and in that the truth today that on TV the bad people are the cool people the bad people have the fun the bad people are sexy the bad people are famous in fact I'm famous for being bad I'm bad I'm really bad bad bad the Bible says that's foolish they said the person who thinks doing wrong is fun is a fool proverbs 10:2 and the ESV version says doing wrong is like a joke to a fool now the Bible says that the fool takes pleasure in doing wrong do you enjoy going to movie and watch people commit adultery the Bible says that's foolish do you enjoy watching other people's sin the Bible says if you do you're a fool because Mostafa destroys people what you know I would never invite a couple over to my house say come on in and sit down and commit adultery in front of me but I can turn on a TV and watch it and the Bible says it's foolish to fill my mind with those kind of thoughts the fool takes pleasure in watching sin now why am i sharing us with you because I love you and there's a pastor when you love people you tell them the truth and so I've sometimes I have to tell you the hard truth and here's the hard truth Romans chapter 2 verse 5 to 8 it's talking about all of us because of your stubbornness in refusing to repent and turn from your sin you're storing up terrible punishment for yourself for there's gonna come a day of judgment when God will judge all people according to what they have done and we're not gonna be late for that and he will give eternal life to those who seek God but for those who are self-seeking and that's most of us a lot of the time and reject the truth and practice sin they will face God's anger that's pretty sobering nobody wants to read that verse but it's there and here's the good news you can skip the judgment you can bypass it because that's what the cross is all about Jesus dying on the cross is the answer to everything I just read in fact God so badly doesn't want you to go through that judgment that he came to earth himself to die on the cross for you now how do I break free from persistent sense I'm talking about stuff that I just keep stumbling I've stumbled in this area for years and years and years and everybody's got their own area that they stumble some of you stumble a banger you just lose your temper you fly off the handle some of you stumble and depression and you just you become a mute and you internalize it and you get sick and you get mad internally and you're Mary martyr and you hold onto it some of you is stumbling anxiety and you just worry all the time and you get you get sick from worry and you get sick from fear and some of you struggle with lust and all of us have compulsions and all of us have areas where and you know what Satan knows your area and he'll work on that and your area is not mine and mine's not his and on and on but how do you break free from those persistent things ago I just keep falling in this area and I don't want to do it I don't want to talk like that I don't want to be a gossip but I am I don't want gossip okay I don't want to be rude to people but I am you know how do you do that well there are four things you need to do write these down number one understand what Jesus did for me that's what we're gonna talk about in communion Tom once you teach us on this it's where it starts one of our greatest problems with sin is we want to solve our own sin problem mm that's we're still keep an eye in the middle I want to solve my sin problem but I'm the problem I've had it since I was born I'm living in debt I can't solve my own problem so there's this moment of humility there's this moment of great and glorious gratefulness where you understand what Jesus did for you look at first Peter 2:24 Jesus personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right we could talk about this for hours and hours the depth of the meaning here but look at that word personally it's personal he did this for you Jesus went to the cross for all mankind yes but for you and when you start to take it personally what he did for you you start to understand God's answer for sin in your life second Corinthians 13:4 says although Jesus died on the cross and weakness he now lives by the mighty power of God we too are weak but we live in him and we have God's power there's something a lot of believers don't understand even people that have been following God for a long time I think a lot of us understand that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins he took care of the penalty so I don't have to suffer death anymore so I don't have to be separated from God he dealt with the penalty of sin but a lot of us have never accepted understood that Jesus also dealt with the power of sin in our life he died to take away the power of sin in your life now I want to be really clear about this as long as you're on this earth you're never gonna be sinless we're all gonna struggle while we're on this planet but you can sin less you can find yourself growing you can find that God is by His grace by his power causing sin patterns in your life to stop that's how you deal with persistent sins by his power not by your power if you try to do it by your power you actually ingrain the habit deeper when you trust in his power he can deal with things that we could never deal with because he really died on the cross he was really resurrected he wants to bring that gift of what he really did to your life to my life so look what the Bible says in Romans 6 6 to 8 up on the screen our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ on the cross so that sin might lose its power in our lives we are no longer slaves to sin for when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin and since we died with Christ we know that we will also share in his new life so the way to deal with persistence and is to realize it's not my by my power it's by God's power this is so important we're gonna take communion which is the reminder of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and all of us as believers we know that Jesus Christ died to pay for our sins so we don't have to pay for him that's good news and if that's all there was that would be good enough news that everything I've ever done wrong the sins you haven't committed yet the ones you're gonna do next year in the next 10 years they've already been paid for Jesus paid for them on the cross that's called the good news it's called the gospel it's the best news of the world all the things I've done wrong the wages of sin is death Jesus died for me so I don't have pay for God did not want me to to judgment so he said I'm gonna come and die for your sins myself now that's good news but here's even better news the verse Tom just read said Jesus wants to set us free not just from the penalty of sin he wants to set you free from the power of it he wants to give you a new power so you can say no to sin because willpower is not enough we've all tried that one he gives you a new power because of what happened at the cross Friday night I was at an event with Lindsey Schneider who is the owner and CEO of in-and-out burger and she shared her testimony and she told his story about she said you know for a long time I thought like here's this power strip life is a power strip and you plug things in to the power strip you plug in okay here's my family life I plugged that in and here's my business life and I plugged that in and here's my social life when I plugged that in and here's my sex life and I plugged that in and you know here's all my spiritual life here's God and I plugged God in and I plug all these things in my life into the power strip she goes that kind of mentality doesn't work I finally realized God is the power strip and I have to plug everything in my life into him into him he is the power strip she also shared by the way her favorite way to get an in-and-out burger I wrote it down and immediately went to the nearest in-and-out and ate it all man was it good baby oh baby and if you come next week I might share it with you god is the power strip now Jesus didn't ever want you to forget the sacrifice that it cost him to pay for all your sins so you don't have to pay for him salvation is free but it's not cheap Jesus paid for it with his body and his blood and as you hold these elements in your hand I want us to begin first with a prayer would you bow your heads father it's hard to swim upstream as Tom talked about to live an unselfish life to live a god-centered life instead of an i centered life in a culture that is completely narcissistic and built on the worship of self we know how hard it is to be unselfish and a day-to-day basis to choose love instead of our own desires to think of others to be plugged into you instead of into ourselves but we pause as we take these symbols of your body and your blood to remember that you paid for all of our sins and more than that you paid to break the power of sin in our lives so that we don't have to say yes to it anymore we can have the power to say no a power that's not simply in our will but it's in the nature that you give us and in your spirit you put in us well their heads bowed now you pray say Jesus Christ thank you for paying for all my sins stealth Jesus Christ thank you for paying for all my sins I admit that I have lived selfish much of my life I admit that I've had unbelief and I've taken things into my own hands instead of waiting on you I have doubted your love your forgiveness I have doubted your power and your presence I have doubted your plan and your perfect timing and I'm sorry and I ask you to forgive me and today Lord as I eat this wafer and drink this this Cup I'm saying that I accept what you did for me and I give my life back to you I want to live the rest of my life for you lord not for myself and I ask you to accept my life as my sacrifice to you in your name I pray amen as you eat this bread I want you to say in your mind Jesus Christ thank you for sacrificing yourself for me the Bible says that on the same night he took the cup and he said this is the cup of the New Covenant in my blood and as often as you drink it do this to remember me and as you drink this cup symbolizing the shed blood of Jesus Christ for us I want you to say Jesus I give my life to you say that T as you drink this now our time is up but I know you hate to have unfulfilled unfilled blanks on your outline so I'm gonna give you the fill ins and make no comments on it if you can write fast I'll give you the last three steps and maybe we'll talk about this a little bit more next week the second key to breaking the grip of sin in your life is to let God give me a new nature let God give me a new nature the Bible says if you have the Spirit of God living in you you're controlled by your new nature now you don't just have your own nature which wants to do the wrong thing you got the new nature wants to do good thing and you have to say I want my new nature to win out number three change the way I think about sin change the way I think about sin it's not funny it's not fun it's not a joke it's not comedy it's serious it put Jesus on the cross I hope you'll go home and review these message notes because this is teaching you how to change the way to think about since its unbelief it's a lack of love all right it's the opposite of God so go home and review this it changed the way you think about sin you'll do it less and number four challenge the lie behind every temptation when we started this series I said there's a lie behind every sin and we think well if I do this I'll feel better if we do this I'll be happier if we do this things that work out great for me you need to ask what why am i believing right now that's creating this temptation you know it's no big deal it's not that big a deal everybody does it nobody'll ever know it's not that bad now my job as your pastor is to pray for your protection and so I want to close by praying a blessing on you right now and praying for your protection this next week would you bow your heads one more time father I love these people I look out on their faces and I imagine the faces of those at all of our campuses and I pray for their protection this week I know everything is coming against them that forces them to say live for yourself live for yourself don't live for God I pray you'll protect them from temptation this week I pray you protect them from suffering this week I pray you'll protect them from attacks this week from things that would discourage them Lord protect their mind with good thoughts as they spend time every day talking to you in prayer reading your word protect their bodies those who are having health issues heal their bodies for those who are struggling with their finances protect their finances so they don't have to worry about it that money would be a tool for good not a source of stress Lord for those who are in conflict right now and having tough relationships restore reconcile bring forgiveness bring restitution and joy where there's a there's a strain in a relationship for those who are confused give them clarity and for those who are there that are tired give them strength Lord made this week we be a little bit more unselfish may we be a little bit more God centered maybe this week we realize that you are the power strip and that every area of our life needs to be plugged into you I pray that you would bring great blessings to all that are hearing this prayer right now and I pray this blessing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and everybody said amen thanks for checking out this message on YouTube my name is J and I'm Saddleback's online pastor I want to invite you to take your next step by checking out our online community or help get you connected to a local Saddleback campus three things we have to offer you right now first learn more about belonging to a church family by taking class 101 second don't live life alone and get into community with others by joining an online small group or a local home group in your area third join our Facebook group to be more engaged with our online community through the week take your next step and learn where a local campus is near you by visiting Saddleback comm slash online or email online at Saddleback comm hope to hear from you soon

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 81,761

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Id: 8nt4S7oQhzI

Length: 63min 28sec (3808 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2019