Cut It Out!

(Judges 2:1-5)

Introduction:

1. Illustration: Parents telling their child to “cut it out”

2. Did your parents literally want you to take a knife and cut your

eye/tongue/hand off?

3. The children of Israel were told to cut out the people of the land of Canaan

when they conquered it.

4. Their failure to do this command brought nothing but trouble for them.

5. As Christians we are called to cut out sin in our lives. (Rom. 6:1-4)

6. If allowed to continue it becomes a festering wound.

Body: I. The sin allowed to exist in our lives is a thorn.

A. A thorn causes nothing but pain to the one stuck with it.

B. Sin causes pain to the Lord and sometime to those around us. (Eph. 4:25-32)

C. Only through putting away sin and following Jesus Christ can we remove the pain of that thorn. (Jn. 14:6; Mt 11:28-29)

II. The sin allowed to exist in our lives is a snare.

A. A snare is nothing but trouble to the one caught in it. (1 Pet. 5:8-9)

B. If we allow sin to exist in our lives, we will be trapped in it. (Rom. 6:16)

C. Only in obedience to Christ can we be made free. (Rom. 6:17-18)

III. The sin allowed to exist in our lives is a curse.

A. A curse makes the one it is placed on filled with trouble.

B. Sin causes pain, captures us, and finally kills us. (Jam. 1:14-15)

C. Christ died so that we could be saved from the curse of sin. (Gal. 3:13-14; Acts 2:38)

Conclusion:

1. If sin causes all this pail and suffering then why are we clinging to it?

2. What good does sin do that makes it worth causing God pain, and

separating us from our God?

3. We can choose to cut out the sin in our lives and serve God or we can

serve sin and be cut off from God, but we cannot serve both. (Lk. 16:13)