Where's Your Heart? - Killing Sin

Continue to pray - Privilege of prayer

Defining Sin

Not to establish religious piety

Not personality - “I’m not extroverted.”

Not finiteness - “I’m too tired.”

Not emotion - Energy that needs to go somewhere

Not reactions to you - Just because someone reacts negatively doesn’t mean you’ve sinned

Breaking God’s law

Romans 2:21–24 ESV

21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

James 4:17 ESV

17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

this can be harder than getting rid of addictions

Ignoring God’s glory

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

James 1:14–15 ESV

14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Desires that we fulfill apart from God’s ways because we have decided what’s right for us

Rejecting God’s plan for how we rule under Him

Blindness to why we want what we want

Where’s your heart? reveals our hearts tendency to define sin in a way we can control it or feel proud (or defeated) rather than trusting in Jesus.

Pharisees way - Add rules - Playing cards

You miss God’s heart.

No rules way - It’s just love.

The case of the Corinthian church in the New Testament is another illustration. They were embracing grace to the extent that they tolerated immorality within their community, believing grace meant freedom from accountability. Paul's letters confronted them sternly, affirming that grace should lead to a life reflecting God's holiness rather than diminishing His standards. This historical account warns us that grace must be understood in conjunction with truth.

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Big Idea: We must fight sin by surrendering to our unity in Christ.

1. Consider yourself dead to sin

Sin isn’t just behavior you do. It’s a state you’re in. A team you’re on. You are now playing for a different team.

You are never going back to the other team.

We died to sin in Jesus because we were sinners. We are no longer under sin’s rule because Jesus died and we are in him.

2. Submit to grace’s rule of righteousness

“I want to use my body right now to express the grace I have received.”

You won’t always feel like doing the right thing. Surrender.

You won’t always want the right things. Surrender.

Get out of your head. What does your body need to do to obey God right now? ex. Shooting free throws

Nick Saban

3. Remember Jesus and the grace of the Gospel in the Spirit

You won’t do righteousness perfectly and you will sin again.

Your bodily desires will sometimes take over.

God wants us to be free of sin.

Guilt is an emotion that should cause us to move to Jesus. We often yell at Jesus what we’re trying to do about it.

Arvin - Judo

Luke 14-16

Keep up the fight because Jesus has already won. Surrender.

James 5:16–20 ESV

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. 19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

needing others in our fight against sin

Call team up

WIll you surrender to your unity in Christ?

Will you trust in Christ?

[phone]

Community Group questions

What are ways you’ve seen yourself and others blind to sin in their lives? What causes the blindspots? What do you need to overcome blindspots?

Have you ever been accused of sinning when you didn’t believe it was sin? How did/would you go about thinking that through and handling it?

When we submit to grace’s rule of righteousness we seek to do good with our bodies. What are ways you feel burdened to pursue righteousness in the next month?

Sin often seems like it will never die. How does the Gospel strengthen us in the fight?

In Romans 7:21-25, Paul says that we get deliverance through Jesus. What does that mean for your fight against sin?

Romans 7:21–25 ESV

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.