Position and Practice: Dead to Sin - Our Practice

Position and Practice: Dead to Sin - Our Position - 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
(Speaker: Sam Wilson)

A practical discussion of personal holiness.

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Sam: 00:06

Good morning, everybody. So, you know how sometimes, documentaries, have, disclaimers underneath? You know, any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental. If anybody feels picked on this morning, I am not picking on anybody in particular, but we are going to talk about being dead to sin and some situations that you may or may not find some common ground. But I'm not bringing up any names, nothing is targeted at anybody.

Sam: 00:40

It's targeted at me, perhaps most of all. So with that, in this series, we've been talking about the cross shaped life and what does it mean to live a life like our Savior lived and to live a life today in 2026 that will impact the world for Jesus Christ and for His kingdom as we're called to do. So that's our goal. And as we've been going through this series, we've had a lot of discussion about position and kind of our sermon series here is kind of built a little bit like the book of Ephesians where the first half of the series is a lot about our position in Christ and who we are. And then the second half is very practical.

Sam: 01:25

And so this kind of marks us turning the corner in our sermon series, not to say that nothing that has been brought up previously has been practical teaching because of course it has been, but we're going to get more more ground level as this series continues and hopefully to the benefit of all of us. And so we've been talking about our identity in Christ and last week with David John's sermon about being dead to sin. We heard all these amazing truths about being crucified in Christ being placed into his death being having died to sin being given a new nature and all of these wonderful truths and all of that is true. That is that is a beautiful rich text. He pulled a lot of that out of Romans chapter six, which we'll be going back into this morning as well.

Sam: 02:23

But I kind of want all of those things to still be in mind because all of the positional things have to be true of us in our lives if we're going to live out a life dead to sin. And so all the things we've talked about about our sainthood as believers, about our priesthood as believers, and on and on all the all the things we've talked about in this series so far, all of them tie in to the sermon today. So, that's really cool. So here's a few things I want to talk about here. Why are we doing a second sermon on being dead to sin?

Sam: 03:02

David covered all of the doctrinal truths last week. What more is there for me to talk about this week? Well, our positional knowledge without actually applying it practically to our lives is the same as what James would say about having faith but no works, right? And I think we're all familiar with that passage in James. And so that's what we're going to talk about today.

Sam: 03:24

We're going to talk about the fact that God has a purpose for us and living a righteous life. David certainly talked a bit about that last week and saying, you know, if God's grace is greater because of the greatness of our sin, then if we sin more, doesn't that make just make God's grace greater? And no, you know, we're not called to continue in sin. He's... He wants us to walk in righteousness, and he has a purpose for us in doing so.

Sam: 03:52

And then another thing we're going to talk about today is that living a righteous life has no downsides. There are no downsides to to walking worthy of the calling with which we were called as it says in

Sam: 04:07

Ephesians. And in fact, there's immeasurable reward for those who walk in the spirit and not according to the flesh.

Sam: 04:19

And so, I'm here to talk about these things today. There are so many scriptures that the Bible mentioned sin just a couple of times, you know, through the through the whole text. So I've really had to boil this down and condense it. But I want to talk about the the rewards of living for Christ today. And so then the big question becomes for us today.

Sam: 04:44

Why should I or we practice holiness? Why should we? Right? And we talked about already. Can't we just live in sin and let grace abound?

Sam: 04:54

So I've got an illustration for you guys, and you're going to have to use your imagination a little bit. But I happen to know that there's a fair number of soccer fans in the audience today. So picture for me, if you will, a soccer team made up entirely of like three and four year

Sam: 05:11

old little kids. Okay?

Sam: 05:13

Have you ever been to a soccer game like that? It's hilarious, right? All the little kids are chasing after the ball, and like, the ideas of like spreading out and passing to each other are loosely held ideas, the boundaries of the soccer field. Again, a notion that has to be enforced by the referee tripping over the ball. You know, we've all seen kids kick at the ball and just miss the ball entirely, right?

Sam: 05:42

Imagine this, right? And then imagine, again, because this is a made up situation, imagine you place on that team, the league allows us to put in a 20 year old Lionel Messi. The soccer superstar, maybe the greatest player of all time, we just drop him into that three to four year old team, and he's not motivated to go easy.

Sam: 06:05

Okay? And so all the kids

Sam: 06:08

that are on his team are super excited about this because they're up like a 100 goals to one at halftime. Right? One? Yeah. Probably not even one.

Sam: 06:20

Right? Yep. I agree.

Sam: 06:24

Right? So the kids are super excited about this. Okay? So... And then let's just imagine now that you ask one of these kids after the game, know, how do you feel about going into the next game?

Sam: 06:38

And they're like, we got messy, you know? And, you know, you go ask the goalie, know, hey, goalie, how worried are you about the team in the next game? And they're like, I'm not worried at all. We got Messi, right? And so they're just, they're full of confidence because of their position of being on Messi's team, right?

Sam: 07:01

That's kind of their position. So now let's take that same team and let's fast forward through their career as this team goes up through age leagues into high school, okay? And these kids have grown up now, the same kids have grown up for the last ten or twelve years playing with Messi on his team, okay? And human nature has kind of kicked in. And so these kids have got

Sam: 07:29

the greatest player on their team. So there's some

Sam: 07:32

of them that are now, like, when they show up to the soccer games, they just bring

Sam: 07:36

a chair. And they sit... They're on

Sam: 07:38

the field, but they're just sitting there because Messi's doing all the work. He's still just dominating everything. Okay? There's a couple of kids that are, you know, running around a little bit and making a little bit effort. And there's some kids who have realized what a valuable example they have in front of them.

Sam: 08:00

And so they've been training with Messi every day growing up, and they're amazing soccer players because they've been learning everything that they can from the greatest soccer player. But sadly, that's only, like, one or two of the kids on the

Sam: 08:16

team, and everybody else is just kinda slacking off because they can still win. It's so easy. Okay? Sometimes the Christian church can be a little bit like that kid's soccer team because we have Jesus. We have

Sam: 08:32

one John one:nine. I just have to confess my sins, and they're forgiven. It's over. It's done with. Right?

Sam: 08:38

I can have victory all the time. But that's not what God's purpose is for us. He wants us to mature. Right? And if...

Sam: 08:50

And human nature plays a huge part in how we think about this topic of holiness, right, and how we're going to mature. Because we could just bring a lawn chair to the soccer game and sit down and enjoy the victory and go to heaven. Right? Our eternity in heaven is just as secure. It's even more secure than Messi winning that imaginary soccer game.

Sam: 09:19

Right? But God wants us to mature, to grow, to develop, to follow His example. Right? We're to imitate Christ. And again, this is a flawed illustration.

Sam: 09:32

There's plenty of holes with it. Right?

Sam: 09:34

So don't take it too far. But

Sam: 09:36

God wants us to grow and mature, and you'd you'd look at one of those kids that wasn't trying at all on the soccer team, and you'd say, What are you doing? You have this amazing opportunity to play with the greatest soccer player of all time, and you're just letting him do all the work.

Sam: 09:51

What are you doing? Okay? So... And there's even some kids on

Sam: 10:01

that team that might even think, Well, it doesn't matter

Sam: 10:04

if I do that well because we got messy.

Sam: 10:07

Like, even if I try really hard, I'll still make mistakes. Right? And so maybe some kids are depressed because they're in the company of the greatest all the time, and they just don't... They feel like

Sam: 10:20

they don't measure up. Okay? Maybe that's some of

Sam: 10:23

us this morning. We just feel like we don't measure up. How could we? Right? We'll never be as good as Jesus,

Sam: 10:31

but that also doesn't matter because God wants us to mature and not quit and not give up.

Sam: 10:38

That's why he says, don't don't grow weary in doing good. There's so many passages we could go through that tie into this idea of personal holiness. Why should we live our lives dead to sin? And as we talk about this as well, I want to just emphasize that when I talk about personal holiness, okay, just like the kids on that soccer team, this is not legalism, right? We're not in the game to criticize one another, okay, and tear one another down and say, oh, there's all these rules that I just made up that you have to follow.

Sam: 11:17

Like, if you're if you're not getting up at 4AM to pray, what kind of Christian are you? Right? Or or or whatever. Right? Whatever made up legalistic thing we could do.

Sam: 11:27

Human nature is what it is. Right? We we... There's so many traps that we can think up and make up to fall into, but I'm not I'm not promoting legalism. What I'm promoting here and and what God is encouraging us to do is being dead to sin, laying aside the sin that so easily ensnares us, as it says in, in Hebrews.

Sam: 11:53

Right, but not adopting a legalistic outlook on things. It's not comparative or competitive, right, because when we're in Christ, we're part of His body. Okay, and the there's passage in the Bible that talks about, you know, it's not a competition between the hand and the eye as to be which can be more valuable to the body. We all need each individual part to function.

Sam: 12:20

And so with with our walk with the Lord, it would be easy for us to fall into the trap of well, hey,

Sam: 12:33

I might not be the most holy person out there, but at least I'm doing better than so and so that I know is messed up. Right? And we kind of think, Well, at least if I feel like I'm doing a little bit better than the average across the whole church, right? That's good enough. Right?

Sam: 12:47

I can blend in. Nobody likes to stand out. The Lord doesn't grade on that scale. That's not what He's interested in at all. And so if we're thinking about our personal holiness in terms of the people around me, we're thinking about it completely wrong.

Sam: 13:05

God wants us to be holy for He is holy. That is His calling to us, and our holiness is between us and God. Certainly, has an effect on other people. We'll talk about that. But at the core of

Sam: 13:20

this, I'm talking about your core relationship with Jesus Christ himself and that your walk with him is not a comparison or competition with anyone else. So let's get into the the scriptures here on on the topic. And first, we're gonna

Sam: 13:45

go to James chapter one, an encouragement here, verses 21 through 25. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.

Sam: 14:33

This one will be blessed in what he does. There's a whole bunch of thoughts here, but some of the things I want to break down out of this path passage. You're going to see in all the verses and passages that I show up on the screen today. Almost all of them start with the word therefore. Okay, and the reason they all start with the word therefore is because it's tying back into a previous passage about our position in Christ.

Sam: 14:58

Okay, which I don't have time

Sam: 15:00

to go through all the all those passages today. However, what are

Sam: 15:05

we called to do? We're to lay aside all filthiness and overflow wickedness. And so that's on one hand, right? We can as Ephesians talks about we can walk like the Gentiles walk right in darkness of our minds as believers or we can lay that aside. Can put off the old man, But it's not just that we put off something and live in a vacuum.

Sam: 15:30

We put on the new man. And in this verse in James, it says, and we receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Obviously, there's a whole conversation we could have here about salvation and our forgiveness from sin through the Word at the beginning, which is true. But also, we need to read... It says, receive with meekness the implanted word.

Sam: 15:58

In other words, with the Holy Spirit coming into our heart, God is bringing his word into us through... And and through our study of the scriptures. And we have a choice. When we're confronted with the truth that is in the Word of God, we can look at it and be proud and say, oh, yeah, I measure up to that, or, oh, that applies to me in certain situations. I could see that.

Sam: 16:24

But if we don't receive with true humility and meekness, yes, this shows me how far short I am of God's perfection. If we don't start with a little humility in our hearts, we're never going to understand. And and the scripture says that plainly. It says, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble humble. So we need to receive with meekness the word which is able to save our souls.

Sam: 16:51

And then not only that, but once we've humbled ourselves and compared our hearts to the word of God, then what do we do about it? Right? You guys today, after I get done preaching, can leave the church and forget all about my sermon. Right? That is an option.

Sam: 17:11

But if we're doing that, then you're just like someone who comes and looks at their face in the morning. You know, can you imagine after your shower in the morning, you've just toweled off your hair, and you look at it and you think, good enough. Right? No. You see your hair is a mess.

Sam: 17:27

Right? And so

Sam: 17:27

you start straightening it out. That's what the word of God

Sam: 17:32

is like in our lives. It's supposed to show us we're a mess, and a lot of people don't like looking at it because you look

Sam: 17:38

in the mirror, it's like, I'm a mess. Of course, you are.

Sam: 17:42

Right? That's the whole point of the Word of God is to help us straighten out the mess. That's why he gives us his Holy Spirit. That's why he gives us the word to help straighten out the mess that is us. And it's funny, you know, whether it's James writing this or Paul or whoever, I'm sure they all completely identified with this.

Sam: 18:03

It's not like the the writers of

Sam: 18:04

the scriptures were any better, than we are.

Sam: 18:08

But when we look at ourselves and we see the mess, in verse 25, it says, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty in it and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. And I highlighted this word because I've read this passage. I don't even know how many times and most of the times I read it. I heard it. I I would read it is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word and I was reading the passage wrong.

Sam: 18:37

It's not word. It's work And that work is the work that God has for us to do in our lives as we are sanctified to become more and more like Jesus Christ. It's not just that I'm supposed to take in the word into myself and memorize it and think, alright, I've got the word now. There's a work for us to do a purpose that God has given each and every one of us. And we talked about this when we talked about, you know, the spiritual gifts or our service that we're supposed

Sam: 19:09

to do as believers and

Sam: 19:13

that's a whole separate sermon worth of content there about the things that God has purposed for us to do as part of his kingdom, but we need to be doing those things. We need to be involved in those things. And finally, this one will be blessed in what He does. There is a blessing, as I mentioned earlier, for as we walk with the Lord and grow more and more like Him, the blessings are infinite and unbounded. All right.

Sam: 19:45

Jumping over here to another passage that we started talking about last week in Romans six. Here's more encouragement out of the word of God for how we're supposed to live our lives. Starting in verse 12. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Sam: 20:19

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under

Sam: 20:23

grace. So I'm going to stop there for just a minute.

Sam: 20:29

Again, here's another passage that starts with therefore, right? We covered the previous part of this chapter last week, but we're not allowed to let sin reign in our mortal body. Okay? So there's a practical lesson for us right here. Where does sin reign?

Sam: 20:45

Okay? It doesn't reign in your spiritual realms. It reigns in your mortal body. This is what you're at battle with, your flesh. And it's really interesting to me as a complete aside.

Sam: 21:03

You know, we tend to think of ourselves either as like all physical or all spiritual, and we kind of don't realize that there's... We're actually a combination of the two. And there are clearly interfaces in our body between the physical, the flesh and blood, and the spiritual. One of the main interfaces, think, between the physical and the spiritual in our bodies is our brain. Okay?

Sam: 21:34

And this can be obvious to us in a second if we just think about it for a second, right? So scientists would like to tell us, Oh yeah, it's chemicals in our brains and our hormones and all of this influences our decisions and everything like that. And to them, I

Sam: 21:48

would ask, well then, where do ideas come from? Right? Where does an idea come from? You didn't have it before, a minute later, now you've

Sam: 21:56

got an idea. Where did that come from? Right? Was it just from a, you know, a potassium ion triggering something in your brain? I don't think so.

Sam: 22:05

Okay? We have a connection in our mind to the spiritual places. Okay? Now, I don't know how to explain all that. God doesn't give us a whole essay in the Bible about how the brain and the interfaces with the spiritual and the physical and the spiritual interact, but it's nonetheless true.

Sam: 22:26

I don't think it's the only interface in our body between the physical and the spiritual, but ideas come into our mind, and then there's a war that immediately happens because the physical side of us wants to act on the ideas that we have. Some ideas are good and some ideas are bad. I don't know if you guys have ever felt this, but have you ever been, like, standing on a high place, looking down, and the idea just springs into your mind, I wonder what it would feel like to jump, right? Some people have got it, some people don't got it, okay? I have that, okay?

Sam: 23:12

That's me, okay? Now, the rational side of my brain immediately kicks on, because obviously I'm still here. But I've stood on the top of 0.5 Dome three different times, out by the edge of 0.5 Dome, okay, in Yosemite. It's like 4,000 feet down from there,

Sam: 23:31

okay? If that inspiration, that idea, had sprung to my mind, Hey, I wonder what it

Sam: 23:38

feels like to fall off a half dome, I could have put that into action. But there's a rational part of us that says, You know what? That's probably not a great idea. Okay? But there's a battle, right?

Sam: 23:50

Some of those battles are really easy, right? That was not a battle I struggled with for any length of time. Okay? But some of the thoughts that pop into our minds get entertained for a lot longer than those fleeting little impulses, don't they? And so there's a battle that goes on, and that's right at the interface between the physical and the spiritual.

Sam: 24:13

Okay? And so what this passage in Romans is talking about is don't let those ideas reign

Sam: 24:23

or take leadership in our mortal body because those lusts will take over and drag us into darkness. Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness ascends. Our hands and our eyes and our feet, right? They can all be presented as members of unrighteousness. Okay, let me talk

Sam: 24:47

to the siblings right now. Okay.

Sam: 24:50

Have your have your siblings ever said something to you, and before you even know it, your fist is in a ball? Or maybe you've smacked them. Maybe you haven't, right? Where did that idea come from? Where did your hand present itself as a member of unrighteousness?

Sam: 25:09

Okay? Right? We all know it. It's the most human thing. We've all dealt with this.

Sam: 25:16

Okay? But in that moment, your hand has now become a member of unrighteousness. And Paul's saying, don't do it. Right? We have to have control over our body so that it is not presenting itself as a member of unrighteousness.

Sam: 25:34

There's many ways in which that plays out. But we have to present our members of instruments of righteousness to God. Again, if I just went through my whole day as a little kid just thinking, don't smack my brother. Don't smack my brother. Don't smack my brother.

Sam: 25:50

I'm just letting that thought dwell in my mind, and eventually, I'm going to smack him.

Sam: 25:55

Okay? And I have. So there you go. But

Sam: 26:06

we can't let

Sam: 26:07

that thought dwell in there forever.

Sam: 26:11

And so that's why he says, don't just... Don't present... He's not just saying don't present your your body as members of righteousness. He says, on the other hand, present yourself as members of righteousness to God. We've got to replace whatever, is dragging us into sin and the the circumstances and the thoughts.

Sam: 26:30

We've got to replace that with thoughts of presenting ourselves as members of righteousness to God. Verse 20, for for when you are slaves of sin, you are free in regard to righteousness. What that verse means is when you're enslaved to sin, you're answering to that master of sin. And so you weren't getting any commands to righteous. You were free in regards to righteousness because that's not who you were enslaved to.

Sam: 26:57

Okay, but now we'll we'll get to the contrast in just a second. Verse 21, what fruit then did you have in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. In other words, while we were slaves to unrighteousness, what good things prosperous fruit did we get out of being slaves to unrighteousness? Right?

Sam: 27:21

Nothing. There was no reward for that at all.

Sam: 27:25

But... And in fact,

Sam: 27:27

of course, as we know the wages of sin is death, which is the the next verse after this passage. Right? The end of those things is death. But now we believers having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God. You have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life.

Sam: 27:45

See, talked earlier about the rewards of living a holy life of presenting ourselves in service to God. As Romans 13 talks about of offering ourselves as a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable to God and the fruit of that is all around us. Right? Here in this church, the the the friendships that we have, the fellowship that we have, the building one another up in love, the community. Right?

Sam: 28:14

And in the end, everlasting life together in the presence of our savior, in the presence of all of his saints, seeing together with the angels, exploring the new earth that God will... Has created for us, serving in his kingdom,

Sam: 28:33

bringing the new earth into into dominion under us. Man.

Sam: 28:45

We have so much to look forward to, not just in this life, but in the next life as well. One of the things I don't even have time to talk about today is all the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ, right, when we're... When he rewards us for a life lived for him. Right? If we're not laying, emotional ties into thinking about that reward, if we're not looking forward to heaven, then...

Sam: 29:14

Well, then we're the saddest church that has ever existed. Okay? This is what is in our future, right? And too oftentimes, we're tempted to just think, Oh, that'll be someday. That'll happen eventually.

Sam: 29:26

This is certainty, folks. This is a certain future that we have ahead of us, right? Not just the the wondrous community and joy that we have here living for Christ, but also our future in heaven. If we don't have emotional ties, then I encourage you search the scriptures, search your own heart, and start thinking about what am I looking forward to in heaven? What do I want it to be like?

Sam: 29:55

Because God has so much so much better for us than we can ever think or imagine. But find something to get excited about because I guarantee you, if that's not there, something better will be, and so it's worth being excited about. All right. One final piece of encouragement here. Another, therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Sam: 30:22

No temptation has overtaken you except such is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. You see, of course, God allows temptations and thoughts to come into our mind. Right? The old nature isn't gone yet.

Sam: 30:45

It's dead, but it's not gone. It's still there. And so, of course, these things happen. We're all we're all dealing with it day by day, all of us together. Okay?

Sam: 30:58

But God promises, according to His faithfulness, which does not change, that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we're able. And so, going back to my analogy of the kids on the soccer team, right? Some of those kids on the team are trying, right? And you mishit a pass, or you try and kick it in the goal and you miss. Okay?

Sam: 31:24

We all make mistakes, but... And I've had great experience with this on Sunday night soccer, by the way. But if we just quit because we make mistakes, that's not what God wants for us. And He's saying, Look, I'm making a way of escape for you, and I promise that there's nothing that I'm going to throw in front of you that is going to be too great that you're just going to fail and you had no choice about it. Okay?

Sam: 31:51

And sometimes we try and use that as a cop out. Well, it

Sam: 31:54

was inevitable. Or, Well, if

Sam: 31:56

they just hadn't said that to me, I wouldn't have reacted like that. Okay? And you shift the blame for what you said to what they said before that. Okay. We there's not a person in this audience who can't identify with this.

Sam: 32:11

I know this. Right happens all the time. But God is

Sam: 32:17

saying you don't have to we are dead to sin. There is a way of escape.

Sam: 32:24

And so let's start talking about why we sin and how do we escape it. First one is is we get opportunities to fulfill our desires. Remember I talked about those thoughts and where they come from, right? We know that there's thoughts coming in that are good thoughts, and there's thoughts that are coming in that are bad thoughts. And when we allow an idea to become a rooted desire in our heart, that's when that sin will eventually find an opportunity.

Sam: 32:58

Right? And that applies across the board. Most people would talk about, like, sexual sins as being like, Oh, that started with a desire, and that's absolutely true, right? But did it start, you know, to use in the case of a man falling into sin, did it start when a woman showed up and tempted him? Maybe.

Sam: 33:24

But probably where it started was even before that, where he thought, Well, wouldn't it be nice if... Right? And then somewhere along in his life, that opportunity presented itself, and then he pursued that. Right? He allowed that desire way before.

Sam: 33:40

But it applies to way more areas than this, right? It applies with husbands and wives, right, and the way that we treat each other, right? If a wife is sitting there thinking, Well, I deserve this, okay? And maybe she never says it to

Sam: 34:00

her husband. Maybe she just lets that expectation live in her heart and create bitterness, And then one day, her husband does something,

Sam: 34:11

and she snaps at him and just says, Ah, I deserve this. Why aren't you giving this to me?

Sam: 34:16

Right? The sin didn't start with whatever he said in that moment, right?

Sam: 34:22

It started with her at the very beginning thinking months, years maybe, I deserve this, and then finally it came out and became a full blown argument, right, and hurt their relationship. Same thing happens on the husband's side, right? If a husband's thinking, I deserve this in my marriage because, you

Sam: 34:43

know, I go to work every day, and therefore I deserve this, right?

Sam: 34:49

And then that comes out. And it may take months, it may take years, but it's our desires that become our values that then become the way that we treat other people. And that's that's where sin starts in our heart. And that's why James one fourteen says, we're tempted when we're drawn away by our own desires and enticed, and then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. Right?

Sam: 35:12

That's when it becomes evident, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. The reason there's a step in between sin and death is because as believers, we have an opportunity to confess our sin, and we'll talk a little

Sam: 35:29

bit more about that later and repent of it before it brings forth death.

Sam: 35:37

We also sin when we just think, oh, nobody sees. Right? I can get away with this. It's no big deal. And so we take advantage of those opportunities and desires that are in our heart.

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You know, I was talking with Bill McDonald a long time ago. We were talking about the subject of prayer, and he said to me, he says, Sam, he says, one of the things that I prayer that I pray for is that the desire for sin and that the opportunity for sin would never coincide in my life. That's one of my prayers. There's lots of opportunities that's... That we find when we think nobody's looking to then bring a desire and and and make that an opportunity for that to come forth.

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But of course, God sees. And of course, we think that no one will be hurt. Right? Our sin is insignificant. Right?

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It's a white lie. And so it says in Proverbs verse 20... Sorry. Chapter 20 verse 17, bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth will be filled with gravel. You

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see, even if no one knows that that loaf of bread that we stole is missing,

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our... The destruction that it will wreak in our hearts and our souls because of the sin that we are pursuing is like chewing on gravel. Right? Think of the damage that that does inside your mouth, right, trying to chew on a mouthful of gravel. That's what sin is when we bring it in.

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We're just chewing on destruction. And so don't believe the lie. Sin tells lots of lies, right? That's what we saw from the Garden of Eden all the way to today. And we think that nobody's going to be hurt, nobody's going to see.

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It only affects me. It makes me feel better. And those are all lies. And then, of course, we justify it. Well, it's not that bad compared to whatever, right?

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Our heart is deceptive and evil above all else and desperately wicked, and that's one

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of the lies of sin. So let's talk about how we can be holy. First off, starting with prayer. We've talked

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about the word in James, right, and comparing our our hearts to the word. We can certainly do that through prayer. But one of the things that prayer really helps us do is bring our thoughts and desires in line with God's thoughts and desires. Remember Jesus prayed to his father, not my will, but thine be done. Right?

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Jesus commanded us to pray our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Right? And Jim Fleming just brought that up, what was that, three weeks or a month ago.

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He says, do we do we pray that prayer? Do you pray that God's will would be done in your heart? Right? We have to replace those evil desires that are from our old nature with pure righteous desire to serve the Lord and to honor him. And there's only one way that that comes about, and that's through prayer, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit.

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We need to examine our thoughts and desires. Right? Just because a thought comes into your head doesn't automatically make it a good one. Just because someone said something to you doesn't make it true. Okay?

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We need to hold all of our thoughts and our desires and our impulses up against the mirror of Scripture, like it says in the next point. Right? Because the scriptures say that as a

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man thinks so is he. Right? Our thoughts are ultimately what becomes our lived out character.

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It says elsewhere that the... Through the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Right? Every word that comes out of our mouth is coming from what's in our heart. And so if our heart is not pure before the Lord, that will come out.

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And so that's an encouragement. Thinking before we speak, there's

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plenty of verses on this in the scriptures. Go take a dive into the Proverbs or the book of James and look at what the Bible says about the tongue. Right? Does it say in James be quick to speak? No.

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It says, Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger. Quite honestly, I would avoid so much sin in my life if I just thought before I spoke, Okay? And I think we can all identify with that. Be quick to apologize, right? If we find ourself in a place where we have sinned, where we've said something that we shouldn't have or done something that we shouldn't have, There's plenty of verses on confessing our sins to one another.

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And of course, this is the proper place for first John one nine. Right? Confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Right?

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Confession is cleansing. Right? When we go before the Lord and before the person that we've wronged and say, I was wrong. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that.

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That's what keeps sin from bringing forth death. Right? The most obvious illustration of this would be in a friendship. Right? If I say angry words to Alfred, right, maybe once he'll forgive me, but if I keep doing that over and over without apologizing, we're not going to be friends anymore, are we?

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Right? So I'm just trashing you every time we talk. Right? That death of the friendship, right, is that is that final fruit of sin. But repentance and forgiveness, that's, restorative, and that comes from the Lord first, ultimately, but then also through each other.

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And then finally, and I can't emphasize this strongly enough, we need to redeem the time because the days are evil. Right? If we're spending so much time, you know, browsing the Internet, scrolling through YouTube or TikTok or whatever, right? The algorithm is trained to give you what you want. And let me tell you, it's trained to give your flesh what it wants, right?

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And it's been trained by millions and hundreds of millions and billions of other people all interacting with it to give your flesh what it wants. So why would you present yourself to that over and over and over again as a member of unrighteousness? It will find you. Right? We need to redeem the time.

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We need to think, what can I best do with my time that serves the Lord's kingdom? You know, should I be spending time with my family? Should I be spending time with the church? Should I be at Sunday morning? Should I be at a Bible study?

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Should I be at a prayer meeting? Should I be doing whatever Ministry tasks I have to do? Right? Should I

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be, you know, I've got

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a free evening. Well, maybe I've got some time, you know, that we can go take an evening walk together and talk and encourage one another. Meet up at Panera Bread. I don't know. Something, anything to get us away from having spare time on our hands that isn't focused on God's kingdom.

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Right? We, I know, we here in Silicon Valley are super busy all the time, but we also have an incredible amount of free time on our hands that we we might not recognize, and we need to spend that time well. Otherwise, evil will find us. Sin will find us in our wasted time, and I'm not saying you can't relax and have a good time. Lord knows we need that.

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That's why he created the the Sabbath. Right? That's why he gave us Sundays to be with the believers to take some time off from work and the and the cares of the world to to fellowship. We need our time off, and I'm not not advocating for burnout, but we need the time spent restful and good and productive for the kingdom. And so here's here's my final encouragement to all of you this morning, and it's from Ephesians five, talking to husbands here, but I'm not I'm not, talking to the husbands here.

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I'm gonna focus on the picture of Christ in this passage. Ephesians five twenty five, it says, husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but

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that she should be holy and without blemish. This is God's love for you, His bride, that He is making more and more spotless day by day. And so I hope

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that you're all encouraged this morning and thinking about the love of God and living a holy life and that that's God's purpose for you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for your love for us. We rejoice in it. We think of a glorious future together with you.

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And Lord, we know our failings. We know that we, that the spirit is welling,

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but the flesh is weak. Lord, help

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us to walk with you. Help us to live holy lives. Help us to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us, Lord, and run with endurance the race that's before us. Lord, we love you as your as your bride. Lord, we worship you this morning.

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Jesus' name is your your name we pray. Amen.