Conquering Inner Struggles! Series

"Conquering Inner Struggles!"

"More than a SURVIVOR" series part 4 of 4

Text: Romans 7:15-25 & Selected

Cross Creek Community Church

Pastor Dave Martin - May 20, 2001

www.crosscreekcc.org

God’s Word is Powerful, Relevant, and Life Changing!

Why do we do the things we do? What causes us to do things we really don’t want to do? Why do I struggle with not doing the things I really want to do? We will often do things we just can’t seem to explain or understand. Why when I do something, I feel good about it and yet when I do something else I feel bad about it? This morning we are going to look at our "inner struggles". Let’s look deep down into our being at our conscience which the Bible translators often translates heart. Conscience is our moral awareness that judges an action either right or wrong. It’s our inborn sense of right and wrong. Where did our conscience come from? How reliable is our conscience? What does God say about our conscience?

Stay with me as we see from God’s Word and paint a picture of the nature of mankind.

Understanding the nature of mankind...

1. God created us a Spiritual being with INNOCENCE.

Genesis 2:7 the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:15-18 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

18The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Genesis 2:25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

* Innocent - uncorrupted by evil, wrongdoing, sinless. Not guilty of an offense (sin)

* When God created man, he was perfect, sinless, and innocent before God.

* Adam & Eve was naked and felt no shame. Like little children today. Have you ever watched them?

* A sweet innocence with a sense of wonder.

* A perfect environment, perfect bodies, perfect thoughts, actions, motives, in perfect union with their Creator God.

2. Sin brought Spiritual separation with CONSCIENCE.

(OLD NATURE - spiritually dead, sinful, carnal, worldly)

Genesis 3:6-7

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

* A man never outlives his conscience, it stays with you your whole life.

* When Adam and Eve sinned, their "eyes" were opened - they lost their innocence and gained a conscience with a sin nature.

* We see Adam and Eve trying in their own feeble attempt to cover up their sin by sewing fig leaves in verse 7.

* Then hiding from God because they were scared, made excuses, sin separates - in verses 9-10.

* This separation from God continues to this very day.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-

* We can’t even begin to imagine the consequences of sin - just look at society.

* All of nature fell, animals, plant life, but the ultimate was, man died spiritually. His relationship to a Holy God was severed, unrepairable by human effort.

Ephes. 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

* Without Christ, our conscience can give us false readings, induced by events, socially, out of habit, etc.

* The more you do a particular sin the more your conscience is dulled toward God.

Conscience is like a Wheelbarrow - The trouble with the advice, "Follow your conscience" is that most people follow it like someone following a wheelbarrow-they direct it wherever they want it to go, and then follow behind.