Speaker 1: The rest of you, if you have your Bible, why don't you go with me to the book of Luke. Luke. So in your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, then there should be one somewhere around you or underneath your seat as we begin a new study, not in the book of Luke per se, but but just a new short study that we're gonna do. I've said this over and over again, just to get again while the kids are leaving.
Don't forget today, sign up small groups. We're going start talking about those more and more as the time goes on. But if you want to grow in your faith, and we're going to talk about that this month really, then one of the best ways for you to grow in your faith and a deeper knowledge is walking in a small group. And so I would encourage you when you leave here, all those tables that are set up out there, you guys can can navigate that. For me, there's something I always enjoy about the New Year.
I don't know what it is, that this idea that I get to start something fresh, I think resonates in me. That this idea that the last year, no matter how good or how bad it was, is over, and there's a new year coming, that there's something in that thought process that throughout the years, it doesn't matter when I was saved or unsaved, there's something in that that always has resonated in my soul. Like this idea that I could start fresh in the New Year. And so, I've told you this before, I'm a big goal maker guy. Like I think if you don't have goals, then you have nothing to shoot at.
And so if you have nothing to shoot at, then you're always gonna miss. So so I'm a big, let's make goals. Matter of fact, it's it's 2026, so I'm gonna have 26 goals. That's how I roll. It's every year, I add another goal.
And and as I get older, some of those goals might just be, I just wanna get out of bed. And that might be a goal, or I just wanna make it through the night without peeing. That might be another goal as time goes on. I I get that those goals are gonna change as as I grow, but but there's something in this idea of goals or a new year that always seems to excite me. And it's one of the reasons why every year we start a new series starting in January.
Typically, start a new series called Pastor's Heart. We've been doing it for the last four or five years. It's really a short four or five week series on on an area or a topic that I feel like we as a church need to think through a little bit more. And so sometimes those topics are maybe our mission statement. A couple years ago, we did what we're about as a church.
As a church, we're about knowing God, loving His people, and reaching out to an unsaved world. That that's what we're about as a church. Everything we do and function in this church navigates around those three goals. We we wanna know God. We wanna know Him through His word.
We wanna know Him through worship. We wanna know Him through Bible study. We wanna know Him in a way that we never have before. And we wanna love His people. God tells us that that's how you know that you're my disciples, if you love one another.
And so we wanna learn how to love each other. That's why we have small groups, that's why we have bread breakers, that's why we have wisdom of the ages, because we're trying to figure out, man, how do we get all these people that are here on a Sunday morning, how do we get them together where we can see face to face, where we can ask questions, pray for each other, encourage each other, and we want to reach out to an unsaved world. We want to be mindful that there's people at your work, there's people in your neighborhood, there's people around you who do not know Jesus, And outside of knowing Jesus, the Bible says they're destined for hell. And so we want to be a people that are about the lost, that are about reaching out to those who don't know Christ. And in the past, we've done stuff on prayer.
This month though, I wanna do a real big crowd pleaser, I'm sure. I'm sure you're gonna be able to go home and say, hey, what did you guys talk about at church this week? And you said pastor Robbie decided we're gonna talk about respectable sins. That's always a a go getter. That that's a let's bring everybody in the church because everybody wants to talk about sin.
And so here's what I here's I'm gonna throw all my cards on the table. I am am am not so much looking at you. I spent the last couple months reading a book by Jerry Bridges called Respectable Sins. And really this this series comes out of that book. You can grab that book.
It's a great convicting book. But here's the deal. I got convicted by my own sin. And so I thought, you know what? This new year, if I'm gonna be convicted by my sin, I think you should join me.
And you should join me and want to be convicted as well. And so I'm not the only one. And so I thought I'm going to do a short four week series on respectable sins. And some of them, again, we listed up here. Anxiety.
We're gonna we're gonna talk about that next week. And for some of you, you're like, anxiety is not a sin. Well, it could be. It could be. Jesus tells us do not worry.
Matter of fact, we're even gonna do a series. We're gonna do a a Sunday school class coming in February. We're gonna do a four week Sunday school class on worry, on how to get through worry. And I would encourage you, if you are if you have kids, I would encourage you to be at that class. Statistically, seventy percent of most junior hires struggle with some sort of anxiety at this point.
And so if you're a parent of a high school or little kid, I would encourage you to be at that classroom. If you've ever struggle, matter of fact, something like eighty two percent of people struggle with worry or anxiety in some form or fashion. And so we're going to spend not only a sermon on it, but we're going to spend five weeks or so talking about it in a Sunday school class of where does it come from, what do I do with it, and how do I be free of it so it doesn't trap me? So I'm not stuck in it where I don't feel like I'm overwhelmed. And we're gonna, talk about some of these other stuff, immorality.
We're gonna talk about a few. We're not gonna talk about every, so called respectable sin. And that's a joke. I hope you get that respectable sin. Because there is no sin that's respectable to God.
He sent His son to die on the cross for us, and so we know that's not the case. But but I want us to be mindful of it. So today though, what I want to start with this, not so much the respectable sin part, but I want to start with with some questions we need to navigate before we we move into what are respectable sin. So one, we've got to know what is sin, where does sin come from, how do we overcome sin, and what does it look like to be conformed into the image of Christ? And so what I want to do is I want to start in the book of Luke.
So if you have your Bibles, go to Luke chapter two, and we want to start with Jesus. Like always, we're going go with Jesus, but we're not going to go with baby Jesus like we've been doing for Christmas. And we're not going to go with, I will say, mid age Jesus, which typically the Bible navigates us. We're going to start in Luke chapter two verse 39. We're going to look at boy Jesus, which is only the only passage in the Scriptures in Luke chapter two where we see Jesus not as a baby and Jesus not as a man, we see Him as a young boy is in Luke chapter two.
And, this will make some sense, hopefully, once we navigate through it. So, if you have your Bibles, let's go verse 39. Luke chapter two verse 39. It says, when Joseph and Mary had gone done everything required of the Law of the Lord and required of Galilee in their town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom and with grace of God was on him.
So this is Jesus. Mary and Joseph have have come back after the birth, and the baby's starting to grow. Jesus is growing in in wisdom. Jesus is is growing in in strong as a person. Verse 41, it says, every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.
When He was 12 years old, they went to the festival according to the custom. Now if you underline your Bibles, you want to underline that word custom. This is the same word that Luke uses later on to describe how Jesus would, it was His custom to go to the synagogue. In Luke chapter four verse 16, it says, And He went to Nazareth where He had been brought up on the Sabbath day, and He went into the synagogue as it was custom. Okay.
Meaning this, and listen to me. Jesus' parents, in a sense, gave Jesus, baby Jesus or young boy Jesus, a custom to follow. They took Him to the festival of the Passover. They took them to the synagogue or to church every Saturday, they gave them a custom. So parents, this is your circle word for today.
This is your custom. I'm always amazed, and here here's what I mean by this is, I'm always amazed that I always hear parents from time to time talk about how they don't want to make their kids go to church because they don't want their kids to hate it. I don't know if you've ever thought that or said that to yourself. Like like I don't want to force my kid to go to church. I don't want to force my kid to go to youth group.
I don't want to force my kid to go to Sunday school. I don't want to force my kid to do something because I don't want them to hate it. I don't want to make it a custom because I'm afraid they're gonna hate it. I hear it all the time in church. Parents come to me all, I just I don't wanna force them.
Now, I would never hear that parent say though that that same phrase in any other framework of of the world. They would never say, you know what? I really don't want my kids to go to math class because they hate it. I really don't think it's a good thing for them. I don't want them to hate math when they get older.
So I'm gonna allow them not to go to Brock's class because they don't like math. We we would we would never use that across the board. You know what? My kid hates chores, and I don't want them to hate doing chores. So you know what?
You don't have to do any chores. You would never say that to your kid. It'd be the opposite. You hate doing them, you can have double. We'll we'll give you two chores now.
We'll we'll get we'll get that out of you. Like like like you would never say if your kid goes, I don't wanna go to the dentist. Oh, great. Let your teeth fall out. That sounds great.
Yeah, let's go for it. And yet, in church, I hear parents say it all the time, I don't want to bring my kid. I want to make them come. I don't want to push them to do it because I don't want them to hate it. We would never say that with anything else.
Why would we say with the unspiritual things, the spiritual things that matter? It'd be the opposite parents. It becomes a custom. For Jesus, He grew up, His parents made going to church, going to festival a custom. It was what they did.
It was how they functioned. You keep reading after verse 43, says after the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking it was with their company, they traveled for a day, and they began to look for him among the relatives and the friends. And when they did not find him, they went back to look for him. Now you you can't give Joseph and Mary a hard time.
Because you know if you're a parent, you've lost your kid one time or another. Like you just have. Like like there's some part, maybe like, I've never done that. I have done that. Like I remember leaving church thinking one of my kids was with Shanie, and she's thinking one of the kids was with me, and we're like, where are the kids?
Like, they're still at church. Like, we better go pick the kid up kind of idea. Now, in this case, it was different. They would have they would have traveled in caravans. They would have traveled from Nazareth down to Jerusalem.
There would have been probably seventy, eighty, 90 family members traveling together. Remember Jesus is 12 years old. He's old enough to go with the adults, but still old enough to go with the kids. So, it would have been easy for them to go walking and just thinking, hey, he's with Joseph, Mary's thinking that, Joseph's thinking she's with Mary. All of sudden you get back home, you're like, where's Jesus?
He's not here. Alright, and so they they have to go back. It says after three days, they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, and He's listening and He's asking questions. Again, parents, let me point this out. Jesus is sitting, He's listening, He's asking questions.
My guess is this was their custom. I think they normally would encourage their kids to do just that, to sit, to listen, to ask questions. I would encourage you to do the same. That's where I think growth begins. Verse 47, it says everyone heard it was amazing and understanding of his answers.
And his parents saw this and they were astonished. And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us like this? You and your father have been anxious searching for you. Why are you search why are you searching for me? He asked he asked.
Do you not know that I had to be about my father's house? But they did not understand what he was saying to them. So until they come to Jesus, they find him, he's sitting there, he's listening, he's talking. Everyone that's listening to this 12 year old boy is amazed. They're like, oh my gosh, what's the 12 year old saying?
He's he's understanding what's going on. And and they get there, Mary and Joseph go, hey, what what are you doing? Don't you know how worried we were? And then Jesus says this remarkable thing, Did you not know I had to be about my father's business or my father's affair according to the King James says about my father's business or my father's house. See, what we see here is this weird thought process.
Like, I understand Jesus' incarnation, God becoming man as a baby. We just celebrated it. We spent the whole Christmas talking about Emmanuel, God with us, God who leaves heaven and comes down to be man. And I understand Jesus as God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word became God, and the Word became flesh, and built them money.
But it's hard for me to understand 12 year old boy God. Does that make sense what I'm saying? Like that part's hard to navigate. Especially right here when it says, He recognizes He has to be about His Father's business. What was His Father's business?
To send His Son to the cross was the Father's business. Of a sudden we get an inkling that Jesus had a young boy starting to recognize what it is that God the Father is going to call Him to do. Verse 51, When they went up and went down to Nazareth with them, He was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart, and Jesus grew in wisdom and statute in favor of God and man. And so we see this this idea of Jesus growing.
Now, I know this isn't the main part of the text, but do want to navigate it here. Jesus starts to grow, and so start making me think. So what does that look like then for you and I to grow? As Christians, what does it what does it look like for us to grow or mature in our in our faith? The Bible is is full of analogies of what this looks like.
Let me read a couple of them to you. In First Peter chapter two, Peter says it this way, like newborn infants long for spiritual milk that you would grow in your salvation. So Peter says, hey, if you want to grow in your faith, think about a baby. A baby all the time is is longing for milk. And they they tell you every hour or two hour or four hour or whatever cycle they're on, they're gonna let you know, hey, it's time to eat.
And Peter says, hey, like a newborn baby, you and I are to long for the pure milk of the Word so that we would grow in our salvation. So there's there's there's a part where you have to understand this. Listen to me, because this is huge. That you and I should be people who are looking to grow in our faith. And in 2026, as we roll into it, what does it look like for you to grow in your faith, to move from one spot to another spot in your faith?
Well, Peter says, we've got to long for the pure milk of the Word, we're going to grow. In one Corinthians chapter three, Peter Paul says it this way, I would give you milk I give you milk, but not solid food, for you're not ready yet. So so Paul tells the church of Corinth, hey, I want to give you some meat, but you're not ready for meat, you're still looking for milk. Right? For those of you who have kids, you know this.
You have this this this transition. They start with milk, and then they start with food that you eat, which is gross, and you put it on their plate. You ever done that to your kids? Maybe do baby food, you don't have any baby food, you're like, here you go. And then they they eat it, and and it's because they're they can't chew it all up.
Well, Paul is saying the same thing as a Christian. There's some of you that are ready for milk. You're ready for the baby things, the little things, the small things, the beginning things. That's good. That's where you're at.
You're a baby. You're ready for those things. But others should be ready for deeper things, meatier things, things you have to think through, chew on, think through concepts with when it comes to the Word. Babies and those are not babies. Milk and not milk.
In Ephesians, we read it today, Paul talks about maturity is not being tossed here and there. That those who are mature in their faith aren't overwhelmed by every wind and doctrine. Everything that comes up here, everything comes up there, a mature believer isn't a rollercoaster ride of emotions. God loves me. God doesn't love me.
God loves me. God doesn't love me. But like a mature Christian begins to walk in a way that's level. They're not high, they're not really low, but they have moments, but that's not consistently. That's a mature believer.
In John chapter 15, Jesus would say mature believer is one who who bears fruit, who has evidence that they're saved. There's evidence. People people around you going like, There's something different about that brother. There's something different about her. No, not people going, uh-oh, they're here.
They're gossipers. Let's not talk about them. Let's not say anything. But there there's there's fruit in your walk. I love how Paul says it in First Corinthians 13.
He says, When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put away childhood behind me. For now I see things in reflection in the mirror, and we shall say face to face, now in part I should be known fully.
What Paul is saying is is there was a time when I acted like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. That's what Paul is saying. I put them away. Now, now the best way though that I think is how would you describe a growing Christian really comes in in Romans chapter eight.
Okay? In Romans chapter eight, this is how Paul would say it. He says, For we know that all things work, that God works for good for those who love Him, who are called according purpose. Like every Christian loves that verse. I mean, you've been if you've been a Christian a long enough time, sooner or later, someone you're going to have a bad day, a bad moment, and someone's going to say, You know what?
God works all things out for good. You're like, Shut up. What they what they don't tell you is that the good is in the next verse, in verse 29. This is the good. God causes all things to work together for good.
And so what's the good? The good isn't you not having cancer maybe. The good isn't you getting a better job. The good isn't you having a a spouse. That's not the good.
The good is verse 29. That's what goes in context. In verse 29, look what he says. For the God who for for those who God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed into the image of His Son. That's the idea of the Christian.
What's the goal that if you leave here with nothing today, listen to this. What is the goal of the Christian? That's the goal. To be conformed into the image of His Son. That you and I, as we grow, we would start to look more like Jesus and less like us.
More like Jesus and less like you. That's the idea. That's the Gaia idea of growing in your faith. It's what theologians have called simply progressive sanctification. Now, that word sanctification comes from the word saint.
You see it throughout Paul's writings. Matter of fact, in in Romans and in first Corinthians and and first Thessalonians, Paul talks about the Christian not so much as a sinner, but he calls him a saint. Like that's crazy. Like that's how Paul starts his letters. To you, those who are saints.
Like when's the last time someone called you a saint? Now, you ain't calling each other saints. No one at home is calling you a saint. And yet Paul says, this is who you are. You are you are saints.
You are being sanctified. The idea behind the the word is holiness or set apartness or distinctness. This idea of being special. That's the idea of being a a saint. That's the idea of being sanctified.
Matter of fact, it's not it's a it's a one time thing, meaning that we are sanctified, we are saved, and yet it's an ongoing thing according to the Bible. This is what Paul would talk about in First Thessalonians chapter four. He says this is the will of God, your sanctification. And then the same thing in First Thessalonians, it says, now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. Like that's the point of sanctification.
And so, here's my question then. So what does sanctification look like? If the goal of the Christian life is sanctification, becoming more like Jesus, then then what's that process look like? What does it look like for me to become more like Jesus? Well, the Bible uses a lot of phraseology, but the main one over and over again is seen in places like Colossians chapter three.
It says, Do not lie to each other since you have taken off the old self with its practices, and you've put on the new self. Throughout the Scriptures, there's this idea that sanctification has this process. And the process is like this. There's an old self that you're taking on, and there's a new self that you're putting on. An old self taking off, a new self putting on.
You see the same thing, let's say, in Ephesians chapter four, when he says in the manner of your life that you lay aside the old self, in verse 23. And then in verse 24, and you put on the new self. You see the same thing in the book of Romans, in Romans chapter six, when Paul talked about this idea that the old self was crucified and the new self has been made alive. Now when I say old self, what I mean is your old life. The old ways you thought, the old ways you moved, the old ways your old desires, the old stuff, volume one of you.
We all have two volumes as a Christian. Volume one is your life before Christ. Volume two is your life after Christ. If you don't know Christ, then you're still in volume one. Volume one before Christ, volume two after Christ, which means the put off and put on.
But to put off and put on means you and I have to recognize what is sin. Sanctification means recognizing what is sin and putting off that sin. Taking off think of clothes, an old ragged clothes, you're you're taking it off and you're putting something new on. Matter of fact, one writer put it this way, to put off the old man is a vivid biblical expression describing the believer's active role of removing sin's stranglehold. Now, now the problem with you and me is that most of us, if you think about it, we don't even know, we don't even call sin sin anymore.
I mean, about it. When's the last time you said to somebody, even to yourself, I sinned? Like like we don't even use that word. I mean, we use words like this, I made a mistake. Or or we say things like, I have an issue.
I've got problems. I've got shortcomings. I've got baggage. I use that people use that one all the time. I got my baggage.
You've got a lot of sin. That's what you got. Or or triggers. That that's a good one. We all have triggers.
That triggered me to do something. No, that didn't trigger you to do nothing. You were already doing it. It was already already there. And so, we we don't even know how to how to define sin because we don't even know what it is.
So, so here's my question, what is sin? See, because sometimes we have this idea that sin is just a list or an action. But that's not sin. The Bible describes sin in different ways. One way the Bible describes sin is missing the mark.
This idea of missing the mark, think of a a archery, bull's eye, you shoot your life and your life misses the mark. Your your actions are constantly missing the mark. God's standards here and you're not even close. Like that's a weird thing. See, we have this weird idea that in our standards that we're we're kind of pretty good.
But the Bible would say that the opposite. Some think it's falling short of God's standard, which would be true, or walking in disobedience. But here's how I would define sin the best way. Sin is simply this, it's rebellion against God. Sin is simply rebellion against God.
It's you wanting to do your own thing, you wanting to have your own way, you wanting to walk independent of God. That's what happened in Genesis chapter three. Adam and Eve wanted to walk independent of God. They wanted to do their own thing. All sin is an accusation against God.
Every time you and I sin, every time we rebel in a certain area, what we're telling God is God, you're not good enough, you're not strong enough, you're not faithful enough. This is why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's rebellion. I love how C. S.
Lewis puts it. He says, a fallen man is not simply imperfect creature that needs improvement. Listen to what he says. The fallen man is not an imperfect creature that needs improvement. You don't need a 12 step program.
What you need, he says, you are a rebel who needs to lay down his arms in front of God and bow down to him. That you and I are rebels in our heart. This is what the Bible talks about in Romans chapter three when it says we've all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We all do our own thing. We all go astray.
We all do not fear God. And because we don't fear God, here's what we do with sin, we belittle it. See, we we think our sin is not that big of a deal. I mean, comparably. I mean, come on now.
And we do it all the time. We do it in little things. I mean, about it like this. Let's say this. Let's say you're a young married, you're a young engaged couple and you're gonna come to me for marriage counseling.
Now have you ever sat in my office marriage counseling? Have a list of questions. Same questions I ask every young married couple. Question one, two, three, four, five. I get to question 10 in my little survey.
And my last question for every young married couple or engaged couple is, are you having sex? I'll leave that to the last one just to see how things are going. Young married couple, or young engaged couple comes in, are you having sex? They're like, ah, yeah, we are. Okay, did you know that's a sin?
Corinthians chapter six tells us that. Hebrews chapter 13 tells us that. First First Thessalonians chapter four tells us that. I think you need to repent of your sin. You need to stop doing this.
So I'm gonna ask you to go home and pray about that. I want you to come back and tell me where you're at. Are you gonna repent and then we'll continue on marriage counseling, or you just wanna keep doing your own thing? So let's say that marriage that that couple goes home and they're like, and we set up a date for Friday. Come back Friday.
They say, hey, we gotta go back and see pastor Robbie on Friday. And today's Monday. Okay. So that means we can have sex Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And then we'll repent on Friday right before we come to Robbie.
Are they in sin? Yes. Okay. So let's let's do it this way. Let's say someone else after church comes up to me and says, Pastor Rob, you know what?
I've really been struggling with self control. I use food as as a comfort. Man, I just I eat all the time. I have no self control. Here's what I want you to do, Pastor Bob.
I want you to pray for me so after the holidays, I'm gonna start a diet. Is that person in sin? Which sin is worst? They're same. See, even in our mind, we go, oh, I'll start you know what?
I'm really convicted. I need get my body in shape. After the holidays, I'm gonna start. I'm gonna start. I'm gonna work out.
I'm gonna get a plan. I'm gonna lose some weight because I know I need to. God's convicted me. I'm gonna do it after the holidays. And we all go, that's a great idea.
But the same person who's having sex said the same thing to you, be like, what are you doing? We belittle our sin. It's not that big of a deal. Compare. And that's what we we do with it.
We we don't see it as an affront against God. We don't see it. So what's the goal? Again, the goal is sanctification. The goal is putting off the old man and putting on the new man.
Now, to do this, we have to recognize some things about sin first. Okay. Again, before we start this whole concept about about respectable sin, we have to understand, number one, sin simply is you and I rebelling against God. It's saying, God, I want to do it my way. I wanna I wanna do it in the way I wanna do it.
I wanna have what I wanna have, and I don't care about what you say. That's what sin is in the end. It's rebellion against God. So now also sin is this. Want you to understand.
So if you're taking notes here again. Number one, you have to recognize sin is always an inside job. See, you see this in James chapter one. In James chapter one verse thirteen and fourteen, it says, when you're tempted, no one can say, 'God has tempted me, for God cannot tempt by evil nor does He tempt anyone. But each person when he is tempted, he is dragged away by his own evil desires and enticed.
Meaning every sin comes from within, not from without. That means you and I can never tell someone this, you make me so angry. That's a lie. They don't make you angry. Anger's already inside you.
All they did is expose it. That's the reality. That sin is inside you. The desires that you have give way to sin. It's an inside job.
It's not an outside job. It's it's not your parents' fault. It's not your past. It's not any of that. It's you.
That's what he's saying. It's a desire that gives fruit, that gives birth to sin. Now, is that desire always bad? No. These are desires that we take, and we take good, godly desires, and we use them for something else.
So we take, let's say, food, which is a great, glorious gift. I've been eating tamales all night in my house, bread. I love the holidays, but I take that gift and I use it for gluttony. Wanting to provide is not a bad thing for your family until you take that provision and you move it to greed. We take these gifts that God gives us, desires that He gives us, good and right desires, then we move them to a place they shouldn't be and to hold a weight they shouldn't hold.
And that's sin. That's rebellion against God. That's what James is saying, that your sin is an inside job. It's you. It's not someone else.
It's not your spouse. It's not your kids. It's not your job. It's nothing. It's you.
That's where the sin is is falling on, number one. Number two, we must recognize that sin is always gonna equal death. This is what James is saying. When it's fully grown, it gives forth death. When your sin is left to run amok, it is going to kill you.
When it's left to to fully blow or fully grow, it's gonna destroy you. Sin destroys your relationship with God, and sin destroys your relationship with other. Number three, we have to recognize what sin is. Sin is gonna be a battle to destroy. Your sin is going to be a battle to destroy.
In Galatians chapter six, Paul talks about this idea of the spirit and the flesh. He says, but I say we walk in the spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. The flesh meaning the old man. The flesh sets its desires against the Spirit, meaning in you and in me, there's these two things waging war. The Spirit wants to do the things of God, and the flesh doesn't want to do the things of God.
You ever been there? Where you go, man, I I want to do these things, but but I can't do them. I I don't know what's wrong with me. That's Romans chapter seven where Paul goes, why do I do the things I don't want to do? O wretched man, who can send me from this from the law of death?
That that's the struggle that you and I have in different areas, and we all have different areas in which we do. We see the same thing in Galatians chapter five verse 24, those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh. We see the same thing in First Peter. Peter talks about the same idea. Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against the soul.
See the same thing in Romans chapter eight. There's this idea that there's this battle going on in our souls between the flesh and the spirit. And yet there's something in us that seemingly wants to keep sin close by, or make it a pet, or make it not that big of a deal until it destroys us. Like I'm not a big social media guy, but I always love a good video that shows how stupid people are. Like there's just something that I maybe it's my sin, laugh at someone else's stupidity, but I'm like, at least it's not me, it's them, and that's kind of cool.
But every year there does not every year you get a video that comes out. Someone's in Yosemite, and every year there will be signs. Stay on the the trail. There'll be a sign. Do not feed the animals.
And all of sudden, you have this guy who's out there trying to feed the the bison, and all of a sudden, the bison is chasing the guy, knocking the guy over. Or don't feed the bear, and someone's trying to feed the bear, and the bear mauls them. And we're like, oh my gosh. I can't believe that happened. There was a sign.
Don't feed the bear. Stay on the road. There was a sign. They went off the road. Of course, they got eaten.
What did you expect? That's why we have the signs. And yet the Christians, we do the same thing. There's a sign. Don't do it.
Stay away from it. I don't know how my marriage got this way. You didn't function like you were supposed to. I don't know why my kids are acting that way because you're not following the sign. We don't follow the sign.
And then we sit back and wonder why is life so hard? Why is this a mess? What's going on? We're not following the signs. See, the Bible says that you and I are either gonna be mastered by sin or we have to master it.
I don't have time today, go home and read Genesis chapter four, the story of Cain and Abel. And God comes to Cain and says, why is your countenance changed? Why are you so angry? You sin is crouching at the door, he says, and you must learn how to master it. How to kill it, how to destroy it, or it will kill you.
There's a great book by John Owen called Mortification of the Flesh. In the book he says, you are killing sin or sin is killing you. There's no middle ground. Every day you take off from killing the flesh, it grows. Every day you take off of killing sin, and sin is literally killing you.
And so what's the answer? Well, the answer, we're going to get to this series quite a bit. But for today, let me leave you with this. The answer is really the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit's job is. You see this in passages like Romans chapter eight, when Paul reminds them that they don't have to live by the flesh, but they can live by the Spirit, the Spirit that grows in them.
Or you or you even better in Galatians chapter four, Paul says, but when you were but when the set time was fully come, God sent forth the Son, born of a woman, born of the law to redeem us under the law that we might receive adoption as sons. Because we are sons, God sent His Spirit of His Son into our hearts and His Spirit who cries out, Abba, Father, You are no longer slaves. He's saying slaves to sin, but now you're a child of God. See, the answer isn't in us just doing more work. See, my fear is we're gonna do this whole thing on respectable sin, you're gonna go, okay, that's it.
I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna stop looking at pornography. I'm gonna stop this. I'm gonna stop that. I'm gonna stop it.
And the reality is you've been saying, I'm gonna stop whatever it is that you're doing that you know is sin. You've been saying, I'm gonna stop it for years, and you've yet to conquer it. Why don't you try a new phrase? The Holy Spirit has to stop it. The Holy Spirit has to do a work in my soul to change me, to convict me, to mold me into His image.
Why don't you try to start praying that prayer? Holy Spirit, do a work in me. Change me, convict me, mold me. Let me be more like you. Not I'm gonna do it.
We've been adopted into God's family. Therefore, we have a new name, a new family, a new home, a new direction. But just because you're adopted doesn't mean you always feel it. Let me end with this quote, really a passage. It's from a devotional called Let Earth Receive as King.
I love how Alistair Beggs puts it. He says, Yet while such adoption may be legally official. So he's telling us this idea that you and I are adopted into God's family. And when adopted into God's family, God gives us a new name, a new direction, a new place to live, new clothes to wear. We get everything in that adoption.
He says, yet while such an adoption may be legally official, the illegality can exist without the child feeling a true sense of belonging in the family. It often takes time for the subjective experience to catch up with the objective reality. It's one thing for a child to come and live into a home, it's another thing to deep reality of fully experiencing, expressing, knitting together family to call one's parents mom and dad. The same is true in the spiritual adoption. We profess faith in Jesus while we are adopted while our adoption changes our status.
We do not immediately and completely change our character. God, however, thankfully isn't satisfied with simply a name change. He wants us to know what it means to be sons and daughters. He longs for us to have an experiential wonder of thinking of Him as our Heavenly Father. To do this, He has sent His Spirit of His Son to live in our hearts, to enable us to see our relationship with him as a child and him as a father or us as a child and him as a father.
The Christian experience is simply a legal transaction. Salvation is not just forgiveness of sin. Let me say this again. Salvation is not just forgiveness of sin. It is also the welcoming of the spirits empowering of transformation.
That god saved you to transform you. That God saved me to transform me into His image. That I would become more and more and more like Jesus every day. And the things that I want, the desires that I have, and the things that come out of my mouth, and the things that I want to see, that I would be conformed into His image. That's what growth looks like.
And that's our hope for me. In 2026, we would be a church that grows in our faith. But to grow in our faith, we've got to learn to put off and put on. To grow in our faith, we've got to learn to call sin, sin. It's not an issue.
It's not a problem. It's not baggage from your past. It's sin, and sin is an inward job that needs to be put off and God put on. Does that make sense? Alright, let's pray.
Father, I thank you again for today. I thank you for your word as a great reminder, Lord, that you desire to change us and mold us into your image. Lord, I pray that you would help us as we go through this hard topic of sin and wrestling with it that we would not shrink back. Lord, that we would call what our sin is, and that we would confess, that we would come to you, and we would trust that your spirit is able to change us. Lord, from glory to glory.
Lord, we pray today that you begin to do a work this year in us like you never have before. That we would not have respectable sins, that we would not have sin that we keep close to us, but we would take it off. Every sin and encumbrance that so easily entangles us, but we would take it off so we could run the race. That we'd fix our eyes on you, the author and perfecter of our faith, that we would trust that you who began a good work in us will complete it. Once I pray that you would help us not shrink back from this, but we would wage war, we would fight the fight, and we would trust in your spirit to do the work.
In your name we pray, amen.