Quit Dabbling with Sin
First of all, I'm just really proud you're here. Today, we're going to talk about sin. We are going to talk about how we're going to kick it in the booty in our lives because there is a war and life matters. We don't want to get stuck and dragged down by things that the devil wants to use to take us out. So let's go.
John 3:9, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed, abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God."
This is one of my favorite truths. I know you entered this and you thought this is going to be harsh, and she's going to be all hellfire and brimstone. I'm actually not. I could be about this subject, but that's not really what I feel about this subject. Everyday God gives us a choice. There's a better choice than sin and we're not making it, and I want that for you. I'm watching sin take out a generation, all different types of sin, including myself. I'm not above this. The sin of comfort, the sin of pulling away from the work of God and just being comfortable. The sin of greed, the sin of addiction to sex, pornography, food, alcohol, people-pleasing, you name it, we are addictive people. We love to zone out and cope with the issues that we don't want to take to God. Whether it is a lack of understanding the Bible and just being tossed about from wave to wave. John Piper has a great analogy about dolphins versus jellyfish, and how this is a generation of jellyfish that just get their food from the waves. Whatever they can get, they get it without working very hard, but dolphins are trained to go after what they need. We need to be a generation of dolphins - that know what we need and go get it.
When we are of God, we do not make a practice of sinning. The main reason that's true is because we love God and we don't want to choose things that are against God that He doesn't have for us. Running from sin is good for your life, and it is good for your life to run from sin. It won't feel good at the moment. It will feel the same way as this morning when I went to Orange Theory, and my husband wakes me up and says, "Hey, let's go!" I'm exhausted and I don't want to go because my body still hurts from working out the day before. It's not enjoyable to push my treadmill up higher than I am comfortable going, and it's not comfortable having my muscles work against this weight that I'm lifting.
I don't want to wake up early and do those things, but it is good for me. I know that I will feel better, even by later that day. I'm going to feel better than I would have if I hadn't shown up. This is tough medicine, but it's the medicine that actually makes your life work. God built this earth, He built us, and He set us on it with a plan and purposes. When we're living in those purposes, there's peace and there's life. Romans 8 says “when we are not living in those purposes, there is sin and there is death.” This is not as simple as punishment, this is just what happens when we reject God and we are away from him. God's ways are best for us.
This is actually an episode about dabbling with sin. This is an episode about picking up something that doesn't feel that dangerous, that you keep picking up. Now that could be something like pornography, or that could be something like an addiction to politics above God. Anything we love more than God is a sin because the greatest commandment is to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Now, this is a season about me saying hard and bold things to you. As we move out of the season of COVID into a season of thriving, I want us to move into the purposes that God has for us. When God says, “love the Lord God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,” that's a really bossy command coming from God himself on earth through Jesus's mouth. A very bossy commandment, love me most because you were built to love me most. In Ecclesiastes, it says,” eternity was set in our hearts.” That means there is something within us that is never satisfied unless we love God most.
You see it in John when Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well and He says, hey, I've seen you, I've watched you, you've chased all these things, all these men, you've been with all these different men, you're with one right now. I'm going to give you water that is going to cause you to never be thirsty again. Well, that woman wants that God. She realizes she will have her needs met. He's going to say, hey, leave this life, leave the sin, He says it over and over again, follow me and leave your sin. Repent from your sin. Turn and leave your sin. That's what repent means. It's not as simple as confess, confess your sin, repent from it, turn from it, get away from it, run from it, quit dabbling in it, get away from it. We don't live in a culture with very many people or voices telling us to do this, so I think it's important that some of us use our platforms and say the basic thing. I did this on Instagram yesterday. A girl was reading something I said, it's like, "God delights in you," and she said, "I have a hard time believing that because of my choices." I was like, "Well, repent from your sin, turn from it, run away, and you'll feel that delight."
We can't feel the delight of God over our lives when we're not in the covering and will of God. You're never going to feel delighted in sin if you're a Christian. Now those of you that aren't a Christian that are listening, you know what scripture says? It says that you won't feel conviction over your sin. It says that's who you are. I know this is bold. Don't quit me. You know I'm nice. I'm a nice human. I'm just telling you what the Bible says, and it says that all of us have sinned, every single one of us. So whether you're a believer or not, you are and have sinned, but we are not supposed to make a practice of it, those of us that are believers. Those of you that aren't, it says that you're a slave to sin, that you don't even have a choice, but that's what you do.
I think all of us do have some moral understanding of right and wrong, and that comes from God. I think a lot of you are making what appears to be good decisions, but to some degree, that Holy Spirit-filled power that God gives us at salvation is not accessible to you. Sometimes even just the conviction to know what is right and what is wrong is not clear. I want to say what's cool about Christianity, which we don't talk about enough, is that we are ALL sinners. There should be no judgmental Christians. There are only really, really grateful ones because we've experienced the freedom from sin, and we've experienced the power of God in our lives to heal and to forgive and to restore. We should be really grateful people who want to give that to other people.
I'm so sorry if you’ve only met judgmental Christians. That's not what the Bible calls us to be. In fact, it says very clearly, that's not your job. Don't go around looking at the speck in another person's eye when you've got a log in your own eye. Which let's be real guys, we've got some logs in our eyes. That's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about a few ways I see that happening. Number one, politics. God has never been a political God. He definitely addresses political structures, and He is not against politics. Those of you that care about politics and have given your life to it, well done. I was a Political Science minor with a Broadcast Journalism major, and I was going to go into that world.
What I've seen lately is people seem to be talking more about politics than they do holiness. They seem to be talking more about what is good for America than what is good for the Church. I'm not saying I don't care about these things. I see important work being done in and through government, and we need to all care about that. I'm just saying, where does that trust and priority fall apart? If an election or an issue that is being voted on is ruining your month or your day or your life, that probably means it's become more about your circumstances on earth than it has been about building the kingdom of God.
I just want us to be careful about it. I'm not saying that money and sex and food aren’t gifts from God. Governmental structures are gifts from God and were set up by Him immediately on earth, specifically after Noah. God is a God who cares about order and structures. God’s promise is not to redeem all the structures, but He will one day. His promise is that He's redeeming souls within the structures bring good on earth as it is in heaven, everywhere we can we bring redemption. I care about social issues in our day and I care about biblical issues in our day, but my hope is not in those issues. My hope is in eternity, my hope is in my God, and my hope is in obeying Him because He has the power to turn the hearts of kings.
He can accomplish absolutely anything through structures and kings. He's been clear about that, and He's done it. If something is not being accomplished, it's not that it pleases him, because he is pleased by holiness and righteousness. It's that we are to obey Him in the midst of it, and we are not make a God out of our circumstances. We are to make a God out of the living, breathing, holy God. I'm not saying politics are bad, just like money, sex, food, but I'm saying God has a priority for them in our lives. He is able to cause anything to happen. So if it's happened, then we need to go, okay, how do we live holy in the midst of this situation.
Limiting Negative Inputs Helps Us Walk with God in a Better Way
The second thing I want to talk about when we're talking about how to quit dabbling with sin is our inputs. Whether it is pornography or Netflix, guys, I'll just tell you right now, this is going to get some feedback, Bridgerton is a show a lot of people are watching. I'm going to tell you that I did watch it, and I fast-forwarded a lot of parts. I want to say about what I saw briefly in that is that that is porn, you were watching porn. I think we've got to use discretion, because I watched that and I was like, this is not okay, and it is a gateway to more.
I'm going to say it really clearly, you’ve got to notice what you're taking in. If you think about what offended you five years ago, or 10 years ago, it's probably not that offensive to you anymore. Everything has been watered down because sin is worse and getting darker. What offended you years ago is not as offensive to you now, and we really need to guard ourselves. We need to be people that are not putting junk into our minds all the time and then expecting the holiness of God to come out of our lives. We've got to be cautious and guarded. For me, those boundary lines are getting tighter as I get older. I'm more careful about what I watch today than I was five years ago, and it's because I believe the Holy Spirit is growing in me and convicting me. When I see something that is offensive to Him, it offends me.
It's not enjoyable to sit under things that offend God day in and day out. For you, that might be the news, that might be Twitter, or that might be social media. Noticing what we watch is crucial for us as Christians because the world is disciplining us. The world is disciplining you, and we've got to know how it is doing this. We've got to use discernment as to how our beliefs have changed from the Bible to what society thinks, and we've got to notice that and fight for it. It's not that we can't watch anything because I see God and themes of beauty as Dr. Kryder has talked about in this season. I see themes of beauty that are throughout music and plays, and even on TV. I see God in so much of the art in the world today, but I have to notice when I shift from observing social media to letting it transform me.
The enemy wants to get us y'all. If you're a Christian, he wants to take you down. Watch out for where that's going to come from. For some of you, it's just as simple as your view of yourself and your worthiness and who God says you are. This is being corrupted by social media that you've just got to take that app off your phone. I've watched my daughter Kate do this. She largely keeps Instagram off her phone. She will get on it, post, check-in on her friends, and then she takes it off her phone again because she does not want to spend her life scrolling and comparing. Be careful what you're putting in your mind.
The third thing I want you to be careful of is what you're putting in your body. I'm going to say this, I've said this before, alcohol, for some of you this has become an issue, specifically in COVID. We have got to be careful about what we put into our bodies. Whether that's food or alcohol, just being careful with our bodies and choosing to work out. I've got a personality that is pretty fun. I don't really want to do hard things.
When I do hard things, there's more joy in my life. When I do hard things, there's more fruit in my life, there is more God in my life, there's more love, patience, kindness, and the spirit of God. God has promised us that fruit will grow out of your life if we’re abiding with Jesus and limiting negative inputs - whether that's to my body or to my mind. It gives me more discipline in my life, it gives me more perspective, and my mind works better. I believe that there are little ways and big ways that the enemy is trying to take us out, especially after COVID. Because all of our disciplines were disrupted, all of our relationships were disrupted. All of our work and how we build and live our days were disrupted.
Getting these things back on track does matter, and it causes good and thriving in our life. Our life is short, and our bodies are failing. The more that we can submit them, beat our bodies into submission, and beat our minds into submission, the more fruit that's going to come out of our lives. That's what I care about, guys. I’m not a legalist. I'm going to side on not being disciplined, which is probably why a lot of this that I'm talking about is about discipline because I'm the type that will quickly go from a week of missing a workout to a year of missing a workout, that's how I am.
I hope this is encouraging to you and doesn't feel like too hard of a slap on the wrist. I do believe there is grace, there is grace for all of it. Maybe that's what I speak out of, is this understanding that I'm not pursuing holiness or not dabbling in sin because He hasn't forgiven that sin, or that I have to measure up to something. Romans 8:1 is clear about that, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” I actually want that discipline because there is so much freedom in my life that I don't want to take advantage of that freedom, and I don't want to take that freedom and use it for freedom’s sake or for myself. I want to be free and receive that freedom how it was meant to be. We are free to walk with God and to obey Him. That's what freedom was intended to be - freedom from sin, it wasn't freedom to do whatever we want.
I'm going to end with this quote from Tim Keller, "In our effort to make God more loving, we've actually made Him less loving. His love, in the end, needed no action. If holiness is optional, it was sentimentality, not love at all. The worship of a God like this will be at most impersonal, cognitive, and ethical. There will be no joyful self-abandonment, no humble boldness, no constant sense of wonder. We could not sing to His love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Only through the cross could our separation from God be removed, and we will spend all eternity loving and praising God for what he has done. Because of the cross, our sin is taken care of, and because that great cost was paid we actually get to enjoy God and walk with him forever. Let's choose it, let's want it, and let's walk with him and obey him every day that he gives us here.
