Squashing Sin

Greeting, Series Overview, Prayer, Introduction

Good Morning Church

Continuing in our Basic Christianity Crash course from Paul- We began with Faith, then Talked about Relationship with God, Today we are going to talk about Squashing Sin! This is going to be a challenging yet exciting morning!

Lets Pray about it!- Dear Father we thank you for the chance to gather this morning. We pray spirit that you would fall afresh in this place. That We would be tangibly aware of your presence Jesus and that you would work in our hearts through my words and most importantly your written word.

Introduction:

Paraphrase of 7:14-24

Sin! I’m full of it! What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, What’s the answer?

The power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I want to follow Jesus, but there are parts of me that obviously don’t want to. Its like I rebel against myself, when I least expect it. Sin is like a nasty weed that just keeps popping up or critters and ground hogs that destroy your crops year in and year out?

Do you resonate with this experience?

What are some sins that are like this in your life? things that just keep popping up?

How do we deal with them?

Deny, Defend them, ignore, them?

Transition: What does Paul suggest we do with Sin? How do we squash it? I want to pull 3 insights from this passage and then suggest a fourth.

We have four things we can do to squash sin. If you havent already please turn to Romans 6 and Follow along as we dive in!

Walking Through the Text: 3 Sin Squashers.

Reckon our Identity in Christ- Mental Shift- make sure we are putting our identity in the right place. if our identities in the wrong place everything else will be!

Tony Evans shares this story to illustrate this, there once was a guy who visited his therapist and said, I really need help with my diet. Whats going on? Well everytime I go to the grocery store I find myself wanting to eat dog food. Sometimes I go to the aisle and look at the pictures of the dogs playing and think how fun it would be to play with them. Then I get this inexplicable to eat the food. Sometimes I loose control and rip open a bag and start eating it right there in the store. Sometimes, I get so excited I want to bark.

Wow, the therapist said! When did this start happening? Since I was a puppy the man replied!

If you think youre a dog, you will act like one! All Jokes aside identity is a serious issue.

What identifies do we hold on to?

Positive: cashier, pastor, woodworker

Negative: not good enough, fraud, attention seeker.

These identifies wether good or bad, self assigned or not, effect how we live our lives.

We too often think about sin in terms of behavior modification, but the starting point is should be identity.

Satan attacks our identity first, in the wilderness- if you are the son of God- turn those rocks to stone.

On the cross- if you are the son of God come down from the cross.

Paul says in verse 3-5 our identity needs to so caught up in Christ that

We consider ourselves baptized with Christ, died with him, and raised with him.

its not like, but we are so connected to Christ- his experience become our experience. We died to sin, and now have new life.

Furthermore, its not about our story, but Christ’s.

Paul hammers this home by saying in 11, we need to reckon ourselves dead to the power of sin and alive to God.

if we are honest, this is incredibly difficult to consider because we all know we still sin and some days we dont feel that new life, Right?

Yet, Paul says later in Romans 8:11 that we have the power of the resurrection inside us. The same power that reversed not only the penalty of sin but the power of it is alive in us. We must reckon this identity.

How our identity effects our behavior-

Standford Prison Experiment- Psychology experiment on power and roles. College students- assigned guard or prisoner by flip of coin. They embraced their “identities” too well, the guards turned sadistic and torturous. The physical and psychological damage was so extensive that the experiment was abandoned after 6 days.

Paul is saying, in order to Squash sin, we must first reckon our identity in Christ.

Transition: When your identity changes so does the way you live!

Pauls second suggestion for Squashing sin is found in verse 12-14. He tells us to Allign our Priorities!

When it comes to sin we have to not let sin control the way we live anymore.

Imagine you have a terrible Landlord, Someone pays for you to move, landlord shows up at new house demanding the same as before- you have a new house!

When it comes to sin, we cant just prioritize not doing bad or doing good things, but have God priorities.

Examine your life: think about your priorities, then look at what Jesus does and says in the bible. Do they line up?

If we align our priorities with God, sin has a smaller chance to sneak in!

Paul says we have become slaves to a different power. Slaves to God

The word for slave here is not like slavery that we know that existed in our country for hundreds of years, and even today around the world

its a term meaning bondservant, where you willingly attach yourself to a Lord or Master to serve them.

Paul says we are not just free from the penalty of sin but the power of Sin. Yet, the power of sin still remains.

Sin in its very nature is a captor. It enslaves people. Yet sin just doesnt just look like obviously evil things. Sin enslaves by turning Good things into God sized things. vs 16 We are slaves to what we obey.

We can break down things we worship or that enslave us into 4 categories.

Power- money, influence, and status. Some people seek after that.

Control- they want things to go their way, or the right way, but it gets fouled up when you will do whatever to have control no matter another’s expense.

Approval- Everyone wants to be loved, accepted, and recognized, but it quickly becomes sin when its what controls your motivations and intentions, when who you are depends on what others think of you.

Pleasure- physical delights like!

Turn to the person next to you guess theirs! These things aren't bad in and of themselves but they become sinful when they become your center!

Tim Keller’s Litmus Test for your Masters are lies in three things

Anger

Worry

Sadness

What makes you the most…?

Angry- if this isnt right or you cant have it you explode?

Anxious- if this part of your life changed or you lost that you would be paralyzed

Sad- if you had to give up this or lost that it would put you into a state of depression where you couldnt live.

These things are what masters us. These are the things that drive us. These are the things Paul says dont let them control us

One of mine is Approval and recognition- What is one of your masters?

Vs 16 tells us those powers that arent God will lead where? Death!

Paul says our response should be that we should become slaves to God! Again we need to move our concept of faith from simple belief to allegiance. We are now bound to God in christ! No longer a slave to anything else.

So when we are faced with temptation this week we must remind ourselves of that reality!

The fourth and final way to squash sin is in Persistent and Focused prayer! Now, Joe how is prayer going to squash sin??

Prayer Transforms us!

“The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son.” ― Richard Foster

Prayer transforms us to look more like Jesus. The more we come before God the more we look like him!

We all fail to pray!

if we are honest, we all should pray more. We all fail, me, you and everyone. As a church in many ways we have failed to be a praying church. But there is Good news! Prayer is not a test! its not something you pass or fail!

Prayer is a journey- its a journey we take one step at a time! We just need to keep walking further along.

Prayer reveals our sin and heals our hurt!

“But when we pray, genuinely pray, the real condition of our heart is revealed. This is as it should be. This is when God truly begins to work with us. The adventure is just beginning.” ― Richard J. Foster

Prayer is the best thing for our church right now. It is the best remedy for our nation in the aftermath of hurt, division, disunity, distrust, annoyance, hatred. These emotions dont just exist out there but in here!

How many of you have felt these emotions in the past year? In the congregational meeting it was dreamed to have a unifying and healing conversation as a church, well if we want that we have to pray.

Prayer reveals sins we dont know weve done or dont want to admit. It reveals how we have hurt others or have been hurt. It is the first step forward. We see this all over the Psalms!

Psalm 139:23-24

Psalm 25:4-5,8-9,11

Psalm 51:1-11

We must ask God to reveal our sin

Then we can ask God to heal our hurt, and pray for the ones that have hurt us!

What would it look like to actually pray for people that hurt, annoyed, and upset us- not just dismissively forgive them, but pray for them!

We are going to enter into a season of prayer as a church.

I want us all to take this very seriously. The litmus test will be if we change.

We will need accountability. We need to be able to ask each other, what has God revealed in your prayer life this week. if we are focused and persistent. God will work in us.

We want to Grow- then we need to pray! Keith Weaver- at the heart of every thriving church was dedicated prayer!

Application

Recap- to Squash sin

Reckon our identity with Christ

Align our Priorities

Become slaves to God

Be transformed through Focus and Persistent Prayer

Prayer Focus this Week: God search my heart, test me. Reveal the identities I cling to that arent you. Jesus draw me closer to you as a disciple and help me to become bound to you until my life is no longer about me, but you. Spirit reveal in me the sin I dont see and dont want others to see. Heal me of where I have been hurt and cleanse the wounds I too eagerly defend. God in your presence make me new until I look more like you. Amen.

Imagine: imagine what it would look like if we took this prayer challenge seriously. Imagine what God could do in our hearts. Ill admit, I have been so discouraged that I havent been able to change this church family, often I have felt like a failure, but when I brought that before Jesus he said, Joe thats not your job, its mine. You just love them and point them to me.

Imagine: Diller Church Family, healed, whole, and full. Every person fully trusting the other. Every person building the kingdom with each ones gifts. Imagine how this church could grow if we got to our knees and let God work?

What your imagining starts with you! Be the change you want in the world church!