Killing Kryptonite (2)
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Overlooking Sin
Overlooking Sin
Devotional
There are three different scenarios when it comes to believers and sin.
First, there are professing believers who overlook sin because of hardened hearts.
Second, there are professing Christians who believe the lie that we are all by nature sinners, that the blood of Jesus is powerful enough only to free us from the penalty of sin, but not from bondage to it.
These two groups, being given to sin, are like kryptonite in the body of Christ, bringing weakness to the entire body because of their willful disobedience to Christ.
However, there is a third group—believers who are in a struggle to get free from sin. This is the group I want to talk to today.
The first thing I want to say is, Jesus will never stop forgiving you. He sees the torment your sin brings you every time you fall. He knows you truly want to be free. And by His grace, these words today can help you.
I have a friend who was part of this group for many years because of an addiction to pornography. He became addicted several years before coming to Christ and even after getting married and working in ministry, he could not get free. He once had one of the most well-respected ministers in America lay hands on him and pray for him to be delivered from his addiction. None of it worked.
His freedom didn’t come until he changed his priorities. In the beginning, He wanted God to set him free because he was worried that his sin would get in the way of his ministry. But then his heart shifted, and he began to focus on how his decisions were affecting his intimacy with Jesus. He started caring about how his sin affected God.
In , Paul contrasts two kinds of sorrows—Godly sorrow that leads to salvation, and worldly sorrow that brings death. My friends story illustrates both of these sorrows. At first, my sorrow was worldly, worrying about what would happen to me. But later, my sorrow became godly, concerned over how my sin hurt God and others.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Dear friend, God’s power is available to set you free from sin and give you a supernatural life.
Pursue godly repentance, receive God’s forgiveness, and boldly live your new life in Christ.
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12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
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Tolerance and Legalism
Tolerance and Legalism
Tolerance and Legalism
Tolerance and Legalism
The call for repentance needed in and from the church today is actually a call for what we need most: true love.
The lack of true love in the church is filling our services, ministries, and homes with two extremes — tolerance and legalism.
The deception of tolerance is that it can look so much like love. We use the Bible to define love as patient, kind, never proud, not rude, not demanding its own way, along with other attributes found in .
However, the love of the world can also have many of these characteristics.
What separates Christian love from worldly love is that Christian love obeys God’s commands.
“By this we know,” writes the apostle of love, “that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments” ().
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
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10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
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14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
This means, if I’m patient, not rude, not jealous, and not boastful, but am cheating on my wife or if I condone sexual immorality, I am not walking in the love of God.
This means, if I’m patient, not rude, not jealous, and not boastful, but am cheating on my wife or if I condone sexual immorality, I am not walking in the love of God.
True love is marked by both truth and love.
Truth apart from love directs us down the road of the letter of the law, that which kills—legalism. And, sadly, people react to legalism by swinging the pendulum to the other extreme, avoiding correction and scriptural warnings, which are crucial to the health and building of the church.
Let’s be honest — we view calling men and women to repentance as a lack of compassion, tenderness, kindness, and love. Yet consider this: If I see a blind man heading straight for a cliff that will cause him to fall to certain death, love demands that I call him to change course!
In our society, and with many in the church, such genuine love that calls for repentance is perceived as bigoted and hateful.
This stronghold has emerged because many are only considering their life on earth, and not eternity.
When we remember that this life is less than a blink in light of eternity, we live differently. We must view life in an eternal context to comprehend true love.
This is the love the church needs now—eternal love, true love—love that will confront sin and call for repentance, yet also a love that is patient, kind, and gentle.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,
3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
1 john
1 Timothy 4:1-5