Health Hearts Happy Homes
“Finding Freedom from Bondage”
Sunday February 1, 2004
Intro: In this series we are calling Healthy Hearts and Happy Homes we are focusing on a few of the main issues in life that either make your life good or make your life miserable.
Already we have talked about seeking healing for the lives most crippling hurts.
Last week we talked about how God actually wants you in control of your life.
This week we want to focus on one of the most fundamental of all human issues. Bondage to Sin
- How we can be free from destructive thoughts and behaviors.
- And focus on behaviors that will cause good things to come into our lives.
The Key to understanding the conflict in our hearts and in our behavior is to understand that as Christians we have two natures at work within us (Spirit or Sin nature)
- We are driven buy one of these two “command centers” at all times.
- Every thought, decision and action comes from one of these two command centers.
o These inputs develop our thoughts, motives, beliefs and therefore our behavior.
o We are receiving these messages loud and clear, but they don’t always agree.
o How do we know which to follow?
- One will lead to freedom in Christ and the other to bondage in sin.
- And both affect every single one of us sitting here today constantly. Constantly!
Main text:
Galatians 5:16-18 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Other Scriptures supports the presence of these two natures: Romans 6,7,8 and Ephesians 3,4
In all of these passages the writer is speaking to born-again believers AND he writes to them to acknowledge these two natures and our need to CHOOSE to live by the one that will bring life!
I. Can you hear me now?
Mixed messages from the “The Flesh” and “the Spirit”
- Upon receiving Jesus Christ as Savior of our lives, His Spirit regenerates our spirit
- The problem arises when we realize that although our sin nature (or Body) is dead, it isn’t silent. Dead here means unregenerate.
- These two are “Contrary” to one anther. Contrary in devotion, desire, and direction
- Which one will lead our decision-making?
a. Living by the flesh:
a. Every bad day, bad feeling, temptation and evil thing that comes your way will be able to drag you away, blow you off course or distract you from you calling.
b. The Bible says, if we live this way we will die.
b. Living by the Spirit
a. Romans 8:6 But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.
b. The Spirit MUST call the shots!
c. Living according to the Spirit is Listening and doing what the Spirit says.
Which of these two natures is tempted, feels isolated, gets offended, and produces sinful desires?
And which one wants to follow God?
Spiritual Alignment – when you set a train on a track and you connect the cars they are aligned on that track and they will be following one after the other, moving in the direction that the engine lead them. What happens when the train cars decide to go it’s own course? Derailment! A train can only operate safely by having one destination, one captain, and the engines pulling in one direction.
We would call this derailment a disaster. Something broke down and caused a lot of damage.
Now understand that our lives (Thoughts and behaviors) are also on a course.
- We have direction and a destination.
- We also need to be under one captain and all engines pulling in one direction.
- However, one of peoples KEY struggles is that they are being pulling in different directions.
- Opposing directions, living with opposing goals and not really understanding why,
“If they are Christians are their lives still miserable?”
- Not all misery comes from our own sin, but much does
What is difficult is that the messages that seem to be the strongest pulls are the ones you must ignore the most. What you see, hear and sinful desires and patterns of sin in our lives. We need to know how to determine the input’s source and then choose the right action and follow through in behavior.
I. Use your caller ID
a. Who is talking to you?
i. What you feel is not always Godly
1. This is were so many Christians walk in total defeat, because if your flesh or Satan can cause you to feel a certain way, your hooked!
2. If you live at this level you will die.
3. If you live at this level you will be jerked around all over the place, at any time by any stimulus that can cause you to “feel” something!
ii. What you think is not always Godly
1. If you accept what you feel as the truth then you will believe it in your mind.
2. If you believe it in your mind you will act upon with behavior!
3. Believing a lie leads to bondage, bondage leads to despair (despair is a lie!), despair leads to depression (Depression is a lie!), depression leads to isolation (Isolation is a lie!), isolation leads to anxiety (Anxiety is a lie!)
b. You don’t have to answer the phone!
i. You always have a choice in the matter!
ii. This power to choose is called self-control.
iii. We can use self-control to be God-Controlled.
iv. We can use self-control to stop being “outside-controlled or other-controlled”
v. And start walking in the Spirit.
vi. God does not leave us to fend for ourselves. He gives us Freedom to choose.
vii. To believe that you don’t have a choice is to believe a lie.
1. And believing a lie is spiritual bondage!
viii. Deciding who is talking to you is rarely rocket science!
ix. Determining God’s will between right and wrong is never hard.
What is hard is using self-control to walk in the Spirit.
The Devil doesn’t make cold calls.
- He knows what tempts ME
- Temptation is linked to desires in our hearts!
c. The Devil has your Number
i. Sin is not just something we do; it is not just behavior.
ii. It encompasses the roots of behavior as well.
Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
iii. Unresolved anger and hurt can turn into bitterness or lust.
Eldridge, “Sometimes a man thinks that what will really make him come alive is something unholy. At that point he should ask himself, “What is the desire beneath this desire? What is it I’m wanting that I think I’ll find there?”
Townsend / Cloud, “The person who is brokenhearted and not getting healed is in pain. Often this person will do something to ease the pain. He may feel strong “cravings” for sex or food or alcohol to make himself feel better. He may feel driven to work and achieve at the expense of his loved ones. He may lust after material things, or he may strive for power to cover up his feelings of being small. Whatever the “drug of choice,” unresolved hurt can tempt a person to sin. The hurt is not sin. The sin is the way that the person deals with the pain and emptiness. It is a result of trying to meet a valid need in a sinful way.”
Satan hits you:
- When you’re down. - He hits you were it hurts the most.
- Were you are least protected. - When you struggling with dependency on God
Sin is acted out opposite to the actual need. (Causing: Bigger wounds and bigger problems)
- Pride is most often worse in people will low self-esteem
- Sexual sin shows up in people who have difficulty with intimacy.
o Pornography (for men) and Romance novels (for women) give a sense of intimacy without actually meeting the real need.
o Young girls starving for the affection of their fathers give themselves away like meat to men.
- Cowards are the most violent
- Drunkenness helps you forget the real problems, but when you wake up your situation is worse.
- You tell a lie to avoid trouble and bigger trouble comes.
We must be ready to address the true issues that lead us to sin. What is the sin distracting us from? What sorrow, what grief are we avoiding? What disappointment, what selfish ambition? What are you trying to proof or gain? Whose approval are you seeking?
I. Hang up the phone!
Michael Brown, “Go and sin no more” 20 reasons not to sin
1) Sin does not satisfy
a. Proverbs 27:20 Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.
b. Hebrews 11:25 talks about, “the passing pleasures of sin,”
2) Sin leads to More sin
3) Sin Leads to Worse Sin
4) Sin Enslaves
Proverbs 6:27-28 Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned? 28 Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?
5) Sin Degrades and Humiliates
6) Sin Steals Joy
You behavior has huge impacts on your life! (Consider Esau!)
7) Sin steals our Confidence before God
8) The Wages of sin is death
9) God will punish sinners – in this World and the world to come
a. Esau refused to look ahead when he made the decision.
b. “He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.”
c. God will forgive, but you will still suffer loss.
10) Sin Hurts the Lord
11) Sin Hurts the sinner
12) Sin hurts the family and Friends
a. In thinking about sin, it is so easy to get “religious” instead of spiritual.
b. Sins become a lack of love for many people.
c. Love does its work where rules and commitment could not.
13) Sin Brings reproach – to the sinner, to the church, to the name of the Lord
Think about these last 4 reasons not to sin.
Think about the devastation that would be cause if I decided to have an affair.
- My Wife would be crushed. How would she support herself? Where would she live? She would have to start all over.
- What about my children? Researchers have shown that girls who grow up without a loving father in the home are much more likely to be promiscuous, insecure in dating relationships. These girls are driven to find a man’s acceptance and most of these girls look for this acceptance in destructive ways.
- They would be more likely to marry bums. Then my grandkids would have bums for fathers. How many generations would this carry through?
- Think about the damage that would be caused to our church. I would have to step down from ministry. The church would be without a pastor.
- Attendance would drop dramatically; offerings would too.
- The Church may default on is mortgage, putting undue burden on the District. That would cause every other Church in the district to suffer.
- The Media would have a hey day.
- How many Christians would loose heart because their pastor hurt them. Thousands of believers have walked away from Church because of the pastor’s sin.
- My witness would be worthless in to a lost and dieing world.
- How many of my unsaved friends would take another step away from God because of my example.
- How many marriages would be broken because if he couldn’t make it, how can we?
- The ramifications go on and on.
There are no victimless crimes. Think of how your behavior is affecting other people, and that will motivate you to stop when rules won’t.
14) Sin Makes light of the Blood of Jesus
15) Sin puts the sinner on the side of the Devil, Demons and the World.
16) Sin Sets the sinner against God, the Church, Holiness, life, blessing, and Victory
a. Twice the New Testament gives examples of people who where “delivered over to Satan” to be taught not to sin.
17) Sins Saps the anointing
a. The more you give in, the farther away you drift!
b. And you may not even realize it.
c. Sin will take you farther than you ever planned to go.
18) Sin Steals Time
19) Sin has eternal consequences
20) Your sin will Always find you out.
II. God’s customer support
Significant problems like addictions and other patterns of behavior do not give way to simple formulas such as “That is sin, I won’t do that anymore.”
- “Your body isn’t reliable for any spiritual battle.” Every man’s battle.
- The answers are not found in harsh treatment of the body, religious rules and regulation.
- Guilt doesn’t work; condemnation only makes things worse.
So how do you win against sin?
Here are seven steps in the growth process.
You never graduate and no matter how you feel in the midst of it, trust God!
The Spirit-filled life is a supernatural life that surpasses our strengths and abilities.
d. Admit God is right!
“The Word of God has given us the antidote. The Scriptures have provided the cure. There are biblical truths that can save lives from destruction. There are principles that can snatch souls from hell’s grasp. But these truths must be applied. You can drown with a life preserver within your reach. You can burn to death with a fire escape outside your window. You can die of snakebite with the antivenin sitting in a bottle on your shelf. The solution must be put to use. The way of escape must be pursued. The helping hand must be grasped. So I urge you, my friend, to listen and learn. Do it now, before it’s too late. These truths could save your life. They have certainly helped to save mine.” Michael Brown
e. Admit you are Powerlessness
i. Give up the flesh battling against the flesh (guilt battling sin)
f. Repent
i. Repent of all sinful actions and all sinful motives!
1. “Repent” means to have total change of mind, to think differently –
2. Entire turning around of our entire life, not just behavior.
3. To think differently about sin, to see it as destructive and producing death.
ii. There is a deeper sickness that only humbling oneself before God can cure.
g. Be set free by establishing a relationship with Jesus.
h. Seek heart level healing
i. Receive deep forgiveness.
ii. Guilt and condemnation must end for any change to take place.
Hebrews 12:18 “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
iii. “Get up you looser!” or, “I know you can make it!”
iv. Sin is not the deepest thing about you. John Eldridge
i. Ask God and Others for Help
i. We have come to light, life and love!
ii. Look at all the help he gives to us:
1. Eternal hope of Heaven!
2. Angelic help
3. The Church * Stay plugged into a supportive environment.
* Recovery group starting
4. God himself (Be dependant on God at all times.)
5. Spirits of righteous men (Following after not praying to)
6. Jesus the mediator
7. The blood of Jesus - Washing of blood replaces blood shed.
j. Walk by Faith
i. “Life that I live in the body, I live by faith.”
ii. We still have to step out in faith.
iii. Faith is choosing to do something that you know you can’t do and trusting that God will help you to do it
iv. You must really mean it.
v. We will not win because of will power, but we will not win without it either. We can literally set ourselves up to loose even before we begin. You see we leave for ourselves an escape clause, “If it’s too hard, I’m out!”
When we continue to do all these things, long-standing patterns of problematic behavior change.
Conclusion:
“If we would endeavor, like men of courage, to stand in the battle, surely we would feel the favorable assistance of God from Heaven. For he who giveth us occasion to fight, to the end we may get the victory is ready to succor those that fight manfully, and do trust in his grace.” - Thomas A Kempis
John Eldridge, “Life is not a problem to be solved; it is an adventure to be lived.”
God has saved us to LIFE. Sin is not the point, LIFE is.
But, to live we must gain the victory over what is killing us!
