Entangled By Sin

Entangled by Sin

September 4, 2022 Morning Service

Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK

Rick Boyne

Message Point: Get your eyes off yourself and on to Jesus!

Focus Passage: Hebrews 12:1-2

Introduction: Have you ever tried to run holding onto something, like a stack of books or a bulky box or two? This is what comes to mind in Hebrews 12:1-2 where it says to get rid of the encumbrances and the sin which so easily entangles you and run the race with endurance, fixing your eyes on Jesus. An encumbrance is a burden or a hindrance. Something that holds you back from giving your all. Sin, however, is something that will cause you to trip and/or fall.

I. Get Rid of Encumbrances and Sin

a. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:11-13 NASB)

b. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:2 NASB)

c. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14 NASB)

II. Run with Endurance

a. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:3 NASB)

b. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. (Galatians 5:16-17 NASB)

c. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25 NASB)

III. Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

a. Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2 NASB)

b. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8 NASB)

Application/Call to Obedience: What is holding you back? What is the burden you bear that gets in the way? What sin do you have that trips up? The Bible says to give all your burdens to Jesus for He cares for you. The Bible also says “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10 NASB)