Introduction
1. On Friday, Pastor Debbie was having trouble with her computer…
• And she asked me to help…
• With our new Helping Hands Ministry…
• I had planned to sign on to help with computer problems…
• So, I guess this was my first call for help!...
• In any event, what I found when I saw her computer was a HUGE mess!!
• Her computer had literally been taken over by spyware and adware….
• How many of you use a computer with regularity?
• Have you ever seen “popups”?...
• Popups are a result of small computer programs that are put on your computer…
• Sometimes without your knowledge…
• And, when you go to a certain webpage…
• Other pages just “pop up”…
• Usually trying to sell you something…
• Some of the biggies are pharmacy, mortgages, and sex.
• So, let’s say that you go to www.usatoday.com to check out the latest news…
• If your computer has been infected with spyware…
• You might get popups for buying anything from computers to Viagra to subscribing to sex sites.
• Of course their goal is to get you to come to their website and buy something.
2. In any event, Pastor Debbie’s computer was as bad as I’ve ever seen…
• As I was trying to help her…
• She was getting literally HUNDREDS of popups…
• It took gargantuan effort to be able to close all those popups and try to get anything done.
• Anyway, after that experience, I decided to make sure my computer was good and clean…
• And then I decided to send out a list of recommendations to keep your computer running smoothly…
• As I began to think about it…
• I began to realize that there was a correlation between what we are trying to do with our computers…
• And what we are trying to do with our lives…
• As with any illustration…
• It will break down if you try to take it too far...
• But I certainly hope to get some mileage out of this idea of comparing our computer to our Christian lives…
Read: 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
I’ve entitled my sermon, “Sanctification…does that compute?”
To be honest…whenever I hear someone trying to explain sanctification…I always cringe…
• I feel like we have made sanctification so difficult…
• And the more we try to explain it…
• The more confusing it becomes…
• But…when you finally experience it for yourself…
• It all becomes so clear.
But, in any event, I intend to take your computer…
• And use it to illustrate the sanctified life.
Body
1. Before we get saved…
A. Sin is in control of our lives…
o We do what WE want to do…
o Not what GOD wants us to do.
B. This picture of sin is the picture of someone’s computer completely taken over by spyware…
o All the popups are popping up…
o And we are following them to our own ruin…
o In some cases, it is exactly the same as the pop ups on the computer…
o Chasing after drugs…sex…and material gain…
o But, at some point, people will find that chasing after those things does not satisfy…
o That is true in real life…
o And it is true chasing after all those different pop ups…
2. So we decide to try something different…
A. We get saved!
o We give our lives to Jesus…
o Now, instead of chasing after all those things…
o We are saying “no”…
o “no” to sin…
o And “yes” to God…
o And so, in our computer allegory…
o We start to close down the pop ups…
o Each of those little windows that pops up…
o Has a little red “x” in the top right corner…
o So, whenever we get a popup…
o We start closing it down…
o But, as with salvation…
o AND with your computer…
o You haven’t yet dealt with the underlying problem…
o You are dealing with the sins…
o But not the SIN…
o and the sins just keep coming!
o Computer-wise, you keep getting pop ups…
o And you keep closing them down…
o But, as Pastor Debbie found out…
o It can still be quite a battle…
o Dealing with the pop ups…
3. The answer for the computer…
A. and the answer for the Christian…
o You’ve got to deal with the underlying problem…
o Computer-wise, you’ve got to deal with all those little programs on your computer that are causing popups in the first place…
o So, you use a spyware destroyer/blocker…
o It searches through your computer and finds all those little programs and it rips them out…
o And then, the good programs will provide on going monitoring…
o So whenever spyware comes your way…
o You get a warning….
o So you can stop it from ever getting on your computer.
B. For the Christian…
o The underlying problem is SIN…
o sins….(small “s”) are the sins you commit…
o those are the little popups…
o but SIN (big “s”) are the underlying programs causing the popups…
o and all sanctification is…
o is allowing God to search through your heart and life and rip out all that inbred sin!...
o God is THE GREAT SPYWARE DESTROYER…
o And…what’s great about God…
o Is that He will provide that ongoing monitoring…
o As you grow closer to Him…
o Through the reading of His Word…
o Through prayer…
o Through attending church and worshipping the Lord together with fellow Christians…
o God will let you know when you are letting sin crop up in your life.
Conclusion
1. Now…some folks may THINK that Bill Gates is god…
• He is the richest man in the world…
• He is the owner of Microsoft…
• And Microsoft has it’s fingerprint in probably 95% of ALL computers in the world.
• But, I don’t know that Bill Gates really cares if you have problems with popups…
• And I KNOW that he doesn’t care about me personally…
• And my computer problems…
• He’s certainly never come to help me when my computer crashed…
2. But God does care…
• He cares about YOU…
• He cares about the condition of YOUR “computer” (life).
3. Our text says…It is God’s WILL for you to be SANCTIFIED…
• It is God’s WILL for you to have victory…
• Not only over the sins…that pop up…
• But He desires for you to have VICTORY over the sin PROBLEM.
• Paul goes on to give you suggestions to avoid SIN rearing its ugly head in your life…
o avoid sexual immorality; (don’t even look at those popups)
o you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, (certainly don’t click on those links that will take you to places you ought not go).
o no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him
o God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life….
o God doesn’t want us to always be battling the popups…
o And the temptation that ensues…
4. Paul then gives a dire warning…”he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.”
• Now…I thought I had given some pretty good instruction on keep your computer up and running smoothly…
• But…if you choose to ignore it…
• The worst that will happen is that your computer won’t work very well…
• So, it won’t really bother me if you decide not to follow my computer recommendations…
• BUT…if you decide not to follow my SPIRITUAL recommendations…
• You aren’t rejecting MY instruction…
• You are rejecting God’s Word…
• And when you reject God’s Word…
• You reject God…
• And God’s the One who gives the Holy Spirit…
• And the Holy Spirit is the One who will Sanctify you wholly…
• The Holy Spirit is the One who will deal with the underlying SIN problem in your life.
5. Now, don’t misunderstand me…
• Just because you deal with the underlying sin problem…
• Doesn’t mean that everything is just hunky dory from that point on…
• It doesn’t mean that you will never succumb to sin…
• Just like getting your computer clean of viruses and spyware doesn’t mean that you never have to worry about it again…
• You have to be EVER vigilant…
• You have to be CONSTANTLY monitoring…
• You have to check every email that comes in…
• You have to be very careful what you click on…
• You have to be very careful what websites you go to…
• You have to address EVERY attempt at intruding into your computer…
• (and I’m talking about your life now…and not your computer!!)
6. It is God’s will that you be sanctified…
• It is NOT God’s will that you struggle with all the popups of life…
• So, let me ask you… “does that compute?”…
• Does that make sense?
• I can assure you that until you experience it for yourself…
• You will never truly understand sanctification…
• Just like salvation…
• You must experience for yourself to really understand.
7. But, maybe tonight, the Holy Spirit has used God’s Word to speak to you…
• To create within you the desire to get your “computer” (heart) clean…free…pure…and holy.
• Let God…the Great Spyware Destroyer get at the Sin problem in your life…
• It’s great when your computer is running smoothly…
• But that’s NOTHING compared to the glory of the sanctified life!
Sing “Glorious Freedom”
