Reasons Not To Sin

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Romans 7:15-24 (New Living Translation)

15 I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.

16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 But I can’t help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things.

18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can’t make myself do right. I want to, but I can’t.

19 When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. 20 But if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am not really the

one doing it; the sin within me is doing it.

21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?

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WHY DO WE SIN?

•There is only one reason! We do not see sin as God sees it

•Like smokers / alcoholics / drug users – they enjoy the short-term pleasure but cannot see the long-term damage they are doing

•If we really want to be the children of God, we have to be insane to keep sinning! Sin separates us from God – and yet we sin!!

•“TO WHAT MAY A SINNER BE COMPARED? TO ONE WHO

BEHOLDS OPEN HANDCUFFS AND PLACES HIS HANDS INTO

THEM.” – The Jerusalem Talmud

•Here are some thoughts that will help you to drive the insanity from your mind and expose sin’s stupidity once and for all.

1. Sin Degrades and Humiliates

•Think about any public figure who has worked for years to gain respect and establish a solid reputation. What happens when they commit gross sin and are found out? Everything changes!

•You now look at that person differently – because sin stains!!

wife beater … an anointed preacher who is addicted to pornography

… a Nobel Prize winner caught soliciting boys for sex … a President

whose sordid activities are aired before the world

•The shameful reproach is never worth the sinful release!

•Ecclesiastes 10:1 - Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected

for wisdom and honor.

•Satan loves to mock the human race. He loves to see men and women, the pinnacle of God’s creation, putting needles in their arms, committing sodomy, shooting and stabbing each other, begging for money for another drink, dressing as transvestites, dying of sexually transmitted diseases, tossing and turning in their guilt, wallowing in their shame, drowning in their embarrassment. The devil loves to humiliate us!

•But Jesus loves to shower us with glory and honor! Serve Him!

2. Sin Steals Joy

•Never underestimate the importance of JOY!

•Nehemiah 8:10 - For the joy of the LORD is your strength.

•Psalm 16:11 - In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

•Proverbs 17:22, NLT - A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

•Proverbs 18:14, NLT - The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear it if the spirit is crushed?

•Sin bursts the bubble of joy and breaks communion with God.

•“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”

•Sin steals something that all the pleasure and money in the world

can’t buy. What fleshly pleasure is worth such a loss?

3. Sin Steals Our Confidence Before God

•Sin steals all purity and innocence, making us uneasy with people and uncomfortable with God.

•A man who just betrayed his best friend for the sake of a business deal and now can’t look him in the eye … the new believer who got drunk last night and came to church today drained of enthusiasm …

the sister who has no power to rebuke the devil’s attack because months of perverse TV shows have drained her authority

•The devil doesn’t flee from someone who is participating in sin – no

matter how loud they pray! But the good news is that we CAN live in

such a way that we have confidence before God.