Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I wanted to take a few minutes this morning to have a family talk. If we're going to be a spiritual family. We say that all the time. Sometimes you just need to have a family talk where you talk openly and honestly.
[00:00:15] There was a lot of response from people around what we did last weekend with regards to the murder of Charlie Kirk, what we did do, what we didn't do. And I just wanted to take some time to share a little bit of my heart and my reflections that on September 10th.
[00:00:33] Probably, like many of you, I can tell you where I was when I heard that Charlie Kirk was murdered. And it was shocking, it was sickening. And you could just see the ripple effects. It was a major tragedy in our country. And it just seemed like just another time where you just see the magnitude of the division, magnitude of the hatred and the violence in our country.
[00:00:57] I need to admit that I honestly didn't know a lot about the life and the work of Charlie Kirk. I knew who he was. I had read some things, but I'm not a big guy on social media, and so I didn't know everything about him. One thing that I didn't know was that he had a huge influence into the faith community.
[00:01:19] But honestly, even more important than that, that he had a huge influence on people that are part of our community, our church here at Journey, people that I love.
[00:01:31] This week, following last Sunday, I had the opportunity to get to sit down and talk with people young and old who had been greatly influenced by Charlie Kirk.
[00:01:43] And the thing that I heard over and over is they were. He was inspiring to them because he was so bold about his faith and the things that he believed in and that he was willing to take his beliefs and his ideas into the public arena.
[00:02:01] And he was willing to not use violence, but use discourse to talk to people that were his opposition. He gave the microphone to his opposition. He said, if you oppose me, I want you to come to the front of the. The line.
[00:02:15] Those were things that were inspiring to people.
[00:02:19] It wasn't just a distant tragedy for a lot of people.
[00:02:24] For some people, they had a very deep and personal connection to him. And when there is that deep and personal connection to something, the magnitude of the loss and the pain and the suffering is incredibly, incredibly great.
[00:02:41] If there's anything, anything, friends, that I'm called to do as a pastor and a shepherd of the people that call Journey their home, it's that I need to enter in to those places of pain and loss and suffering.
[00:02:57] And the truth is, is that I didn't do that last Sunday. I didn't give us the opportunity to grieve the way I think that we needed to grieve. I wished I would have done that to give us some hope in the midst of something that was so tragic.
[00:03:12] What needs to be true of us, friends, as a spiritual family? And not everybody felt the same way, but we are called to be a spiritual family where we rejoice with those who rejoice and we mourn with those who mourn. And that's what I needed to create space for last week, a chance for us to mourn with those who mourn. And I just regret that I didn't lead in that way just because I didn't know Charlie Kirk the way that other people knew Charlie Kirk. That didn't matter.
[00:03:44] What matters is that I know you and I love you. And I'm called to shepherd you.
[00:03:53] I mean, I do this all the time. I do funerals for people that I don't know. Memorials where people's lives have been taken tragically, sometimes even young people by suicide. I don't have to know who they are to love and care for the people who are dealing with hurt and loss and pain. And that's what I'm called to do.
[00:04:14] And I didn't do that last weekend.
[00:04:18] Some of you had reached out to communicate. And I just want to acknowledge that most people were very gracious in their comments, but there were words that they used over and over that I want to acknowledge today. They used words like this. I was disappointed.
[00:04:33] I was frustrated.
[00:04:36] I feel like we missed an opportunity.
[00:04:39] And I just want you to know that I hear you and I don't disagree. I think that those words are fair, they're accurate, and they're understandable.
[00:04:49] And I want to say this to you like I am not naive. I'm not thinking that just because I. I'm saying something today that that's gonna make everything all better for everyone. I know that that's. I know that that's not the case.
[00:05:04] But I just wanted you to know that if given the chance, I would have done things differently. I wanna be a good shepherd. I wanna know and love people.
[00:05:14] Well, there's one thing I. I do also wanna say, and I really prayed that this wouldn't come across in any kind of a spirit of defensiveness.
[00:05:24] But there were some things that people said that I just want to say aren't true. That there are a lot of people that said that the reason we did what we did was because we were afraid.
[00:05:33] We were afraid to offend people. And so we were silent. I just want you to know that wasn't true in any sense of the word.
[00:05:42] We are not afraid to offend people. I trust you. If you're afraid to offend people, you don't stand up and teach the Bible week after week. You can fill a stadium of people that I've offended in my life, but you want to offend people for the right reasons.
[00:06:00] You want to offend for the right reasons.
[00:06:03] Here's what I've been praying going forward. Like I said, I know that we're not going to just get this all back in the box and people are hurt and angry and frustrated. But here's what I'm praying.
[00:06:14] We're in this series on the Holy Spirit and what I believe to be true, because the scripture tells me, is there something incredible that only the Spirit can do?
[00:06:24] The Bible tells us that we are, as a body of Christ, we're to try to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.
[00:06:33] The Spirit is the only one that can bring supernatural unity to a people and a sense of peace and a bond between people. And I'm asking him to do that.
[00:06:43] The kind of division and hatred and anger that we see in our country, I hope it's not lost on you that that comes directly from the evil one, our enemy. He is the author of hatred and division. When these things happen in our country, and there's a lot more things that happen than just Charlie Kirk. But when these things happen, he applauds. He is excited. That's exactly what he wants. But you know what he even gets more excited about, in my opinion, is when he sees it in his church, because he's. We are supposed to be a supernatural, unified body.
[00:07:21] He applauds when he sees it in the church. And I've just been praying that the evil woman would not get a toehold or a foothold in our church or any church based on things that the enemy is the source of.
[00:07:35] We're in this series on Romans, chapter eight.
[00:07:38] And so I'm gonna share a verse that we're not gonna get to for a few weeks, but I think it's important to talk about now. And that's Romans 8:28.
[00:07:47] Here's what Paul says. He says, and we know, not that we think or we hope or got our fingers crossed. He says, we know that in all things.
[00:07:59] All things.
[00:08:00] Not just some things, all things.
[00:08:03] God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
[00:08:11] I want to read really clear what it doesn't say.
[00:08:14] Paul does not say that all things are good.
[00:08:18] What happened on September 10th was not good. It was evil in the grossest sense of the word.
[00:08:26] But what it does say is that God can bring good even out of the things that. That appear to be the most tragic.
[00:08:35] God can work things for good.
[00:08:38] Just think about our faith story, our faith as followers of Jesus.
[00:08:45] This is where our story starts.
[00:08:48] A tragic crucifixion of a rabbi. An innocent man was crucified.
[00:08:55] Everyone was distraught.
[00:08:58] But it brought about a resurrection. And looking back now, we praise the reality of what happened there because of what God brought out of it. It's what we put our hope in.
[00:09:09] God can redeem things that are broken.
[00:09:13] I think about the very, very beginning of the story in the Book of Acts, when we see Stephen was martyred. His life was taken.
[00:09:23] But here's the deal.
[00:09:25] The Romans thought. They thought that they could stamp out this thing called Christianity by taking his life.
[00:09:33] But what they did was actually the persecution that they tried in the city of Jerusalem caused people to spread out beyond Jerusalem. People that were. What they were full of, the Holy Spirit. They were full of a holy message called the gospel. And what they tried to stamp out went to the ends of the earth.
[00:09:57] God can bring good out of things that are broken.
[00:10:01] That's the roots of our faith. That's our heritage.
[00:10:05] When I think about the stoning of Stephen, or when I think about. Actually, when I go back to what I observed following the death of Charlie Kirk, the thing that was probably the most grotesque to me, I didn't see this, but I heard about it, that there were people that actually, when they heard about Charlie's death, they cheered.
[00:10:29] They gave approval to it. And I don't care who you are or what you think about Charlie Crook, when you step back and you look at that, you think, what kind of evil and hate is in the heart of a person to cheer the death of another human being?
[00:10:46] But then I began to think.
[00:10:48] I started to think a little bit during a prayer time with some friends. We've been praying around the Kirk family and these events in our nation.
[00:10:57] I started to think about the murder of Stephen.
[00:11:02] There was a man that was in that audience that approved.
[00:11:10] I don't know if he cheered or clapped, but the scripture tells us he approved. He was all for it.
[00:11:18] His name was Saul.
[00:11:21] Saul of Tarsus.
[00:11:24] The Saul that we know now as the Apostle Paul.
[00:11:28] The Apostle Paul that wrote two thirds of the books of the New Testament. I'm going to be teaching from his words in the next 35 minutes to come.
[00:11:39] God can take things that are dark and he can turn it around. If he can take the heart of Saul that was approving the death of an innocent man, he can do anything because he changed that man's heart. And that man became the greatest missionary force that the world has ever seen. He took what could have been just a little small religion in Jerusalem, and he took it to the end of the Roman Empire.
[00:12:06] God can bring good things out of tragedy, but what it takes is a group of people that are willing to be united in the spirit and in that bond of peace, that are willing to say, I'm going to go all in for Jesus.
[00:12:23] I'm going to do whatever I can do to be bold about my faith, to take the message of the gospel to everyone in my sphere of influence and to the ends of the earth. God can turn this around for good.
[00:12:38] He did it before, friends.
[00:12:40] We need to pray that he will do it again.
[00:12:44] Let's pray.
[00:12:51] Holy Spirit, we need you.
[00:12:55] And not just a little bit.
[00:12:58] We need you in every way.
[00:13:01] Apart from you, Holy Spirit. We can do nothing.
[00:13:05] We need you in your person and your power and your presence to invade our hearts and to heal our hearts and to give us the perspective that we need to be a force for your kingdom in this world.
[00:13:22] You are the teacher, Holy Spirit. We acknowledge, you're the one that takes the Scriptures and illuminates it to our mind and pray that you will do that here in these moments going forward as we lift you up and we think about what you want to do in our hearts and in our minds.
[00:13:40] And all God's people said amen.
[00:13:46] No, no.
[00:14:02] It's always a little bit awkward to switch gears, but I want to start today where I ended last week.
[00:14:13] I asked you a question.
[00:14:15] We talked about the reality that the Holy Spirit, when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, when we bow our knee to him, put our trust not in our efforts, but in what he's done for us, and we become a follower of Jesus, God pours out his Holy Spirit into our life, the actual person of God, the third Person of the Trinity, his power and his presence into our life.
[00:14:43] But here's the question that I can't get around.
[00:14:46] Shouldn't it be true.
[00:14:48] Shouldn't it be true that there is actually a huge difference between somebody that has the spirit of God in their life and somebody who does not?
[00:15:02] This is the question that I threw out also to try to press just a little bit Further, if you were on trial and you needed to give evidence that the spirit lives in you, what evidence would you give?
[00:15:17] What would you say? And I didn't say that to try to paint you in a corner. But it is important for us friends to understand that we need to have an awareness of the work of the Holy Spirit in our life.
[00:15:28] Because one of the things the Holy Spirit wants to provide for us is what last week we called assurance that we can know that we know that we know that we know him and that we belong to God. But here's the deal. Assurance goes hand in hand. It's proportional to our awareness.
[00:15:45] Am I aware of what the Holy Spirit is doing in my life? And this was your assignment, was to take your antennas up.
[00:15:53] Take your antennas up and begin to think about where do I see the work of God, the Holy Spirit in my life?
[00:16:01] Well, here's what we're gonna do this week as we step into Romans chapter 8. Paul's gonna help us with that because Paul wants us to understand what I would say is one of the primary ways that we experience the Holy Spirit. And I would say this, that is the easiest and the most ongoing place that we will see the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. And it's this overcoming sin in our life, recognizing and overcoming sin in our lives.
[00:16:34] Do any of you struggle with sin?
[00:16:38] I see some hands.
[00:16:40] Just so you know, the answer's not no for any of us. I didn't ask you to raise your hands, but very honest people just went right for it.
[00:16:51] We talked about the first week that the reality is that for all of us there is a gap.
[00:16:56] There's a gap between this picture that is painted of what an all in Christ follower looks like in the Scripture. There's a gap between that often and our life.
[00:17:05] And that gap is evidence of the fact that there is sin and brokenness in our life.
[00:17:11] Can I ask you, can you think of at least one thing, just one, one thing in your life that creates that gap?
[00:17:21] Just one thing.
[00:17:23] Here's a place of encouragement for you.
[00:17:26] The Apostle Paul himself, he recognized gaps in his own life. He wrestled with that gap in his life. In fact, before we even get to Romans chapter eight, at the very end of Romans chapter seven, Paul talks about this battle, this wrestle, this struggle that he was having as it relates to that gap in his life. Romans chapter 7, starting in verse 21, Listen to just the tension that you hear.
[00:17:56] So I find this law at work. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
[00:18:03] For in my inner being, I delight in God's law.
[00:18:08] But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind. Put a pin in that. The law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
[00:18:24] He's frustrated, goes on. What a wretched man I am.
[00:18:30] Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
[00:18:35] Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[00:18:42] Paul's frustrated with the gap in his life.
[00:18:46] We, friends, we need to be frustrated with the gap in our life. But Paul asks a somewhat rhetorical question. Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
[00:18:59] And In Romans chapter 8, he gives us the answer. The answer is living according to the Holy Spirit.
[00:19:07] That's how we break the power of sin in our life, is by living according to the Spirit. Let's jump into Romans 8. Starting in verse 5, it says this.
[00:19:17] Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires.
[00:19:26] I want to create a picture for you around the things that Paul is teaching here because I think it will help you understand more all of what he's saying. Paul is talking about a reality.
[00:19:37] He talks about our mind, but there's more than just our mind.
[00:19:44] There's our mind, our emotions and our will.
[00:19:52] And biblically, when we put all of those things together, oftentimes there's a word that the Bible uses to say all of those things put together is our heart, who we are at our core.
[00:20:05] Paul's talking about the mind, but he's also talking about something else that lives in us.
[00:20:12] He's talking about the flesh.
[00:20:17] When he says flesh, he's not talking about our physical flesh, but what he's talking about is this natural propensity that every one of us has that wants to live separate from God. We wanna live independently from Him.
[00:20:35] This flesh, this brokenness, it entered into the world way back at the beginning of the Bible, the story of Adam and Eve. Sin enters the world because they wanted to be God. They wanted to live independently of him. And we are. No.
[00:20:48] Everyone is born into the world with that same desire to live independently of God.
[00:20:55] So, friends, if we just do what comes naturally to us, we will live a life that tends to be worldly and self centered versus being godly and Christ centered.
[00:21:12] That is the role of the flesh in our life.
[00:21:15] But here's the good news. That's not all that's in your life right now. As a follower of Jesus. This was the good news from Last week, that when we become a follower of Jesus, we are indwelt, we are sealed, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit, God's presence in us.
[00:21:44] Romans 8:5, second half of that verse. He says, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
[00:21:58] You see the picture here? You've got this flesh that wants to live independently of God, and you've got this Holy Spirit, you've got him in your life that wants you to live surrendered to God.
[00:22:11] Here's the deal. The Holy Spirit. Friends, if I were to just put it in a statement. The Holy Spirit comes to free us, not just from. He wants to free us from the power of sin in our life.
[00:22:23] And I want to make a little bit of a distinction there, because if I go Back to Romans 8:1, where Paul says, therefore, there is now no condemnation. But for those who are in Christ Jesus, what the Gospel does is it frees us from the penalty of sin. We no longer stand in judgment before God. We have been given the righteousness of Christ. The penalty for our sin is gone. But what Paul is gonna talk about now In Romans chapter 8 is not only that we want the penalty for our sin gone. We want the power of sin to be broken in our lives. And what it takes for us then is that we live in accordance with the Spirit.
[00:23:07] Here's how Paul, as he continues to go on, this is what he says.
[00:23:11] Verse 6. The mind governed by the flesh is death.
[00:23:17] If your mind is tied to your flesh, Paul is saying, the fruit of that is death, death and destruction in our life. But the mind that is governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
[00:23:43] Verse 7. The mind.
[00:23:46] Again, the mind that is governed by the Holy Spirit.
[00:23:54] Verse 7. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
[00:24:01] Those who are in the realm of the Spirit cannot please God.
[00:24:08] You see this picture here?
[00:24:10] You see what Paul's talking about? There's a couple things in your life right now that are battling with one another.
[00:24:17] There is a battle every believer.
[00:24:22] This is what Paul was talking about in Romans, chapter seven. That frustration that he was feeling, the sense that there's a battle. I don't always do the things that I want to do. Sometimes I do the exact opposite of what I want to do.
[00:24:39] But Paul also makes it clear, this is the battle.
[00:24:43] Our mind is the battleground.
[00:24:49] There is a battle for our mind.
[00:24:53] We need to understand that.
[00:24:55] So who is it that is able to overcome the flesh in their life and live in accordance with the Spirit. It's those who have their minds, their minds set on the things of the Holy Spirit. You see this strong connection that Paul makes between the things that we think and the way that we live.
[00:25:17] What you have your attention focused on, what you have your mind set on, friends. That's what's gonna control your lifestyle. That's what's gonna determine your character. What is it that your mind is set on?
[00:25:32] What does it mean that our mind is set on something?
[00:25:35] It means that our mind is focused intently.
[00:25:39] Something. It's like we've got blinders on. This is the thing that I am putting forefront in my mind. Our mind is preoccupied with something. My attention and my imagination, it is captured by something in my life.
[00:25:55] What is the something?
[00:25:58] I would ask that of you.
[00:26:01] What is the something that your mind.
[00:26:07] Here's how I think we can discover that. When you find yourself in those places where your life is free of the chaos, free of the distractions, free from the problems of this world, what does your mind naturally gravitate toward?
[00:26:24] What are the things that you start to think about?
[00:26:29] That's what your mind set on.
[00:26:31] And I would even take it a step further. I would say those are the things that you worship.
[00:26:37] Those are the things that you actually worship in this life. Your life.
[00:26:42] Your life is shaped by what preoccupies your mind.
[00:26:47] And so we've continually got to ask the question, what is it then that the Holy Spirit would want to draw my attention to? To what are the things that he would want me to be captured by?
[00:27:02] I think that there are lots of things the Spirit wants to speak into our life. But today we're going to talk about one thing specifically that the Spirit wants to draw your attention to.
[00:27:13] And it's not necessarily fun, but it's incredibly important. He wants to draw attention to sin in your life. He wants to draw attention to the sin and brokenness of places where your flesh. You're wanting to live independently of God. That's what sin is, that I want to do what I want to do, not what God would want me to do. And the Holy Spirit. He wants to be the one that throws the flag in our life.
[00:27:36] He wants to be the one who talks to us about our sin. When Jesus was teaching his disciples about the Spirit that was going to be sent in John 16, here's what he says about the Holy Spirit. He says, when he comes, he is the Holy Spirit. He will prove the world to be in the wrong.
[00:27:54] Sometimes that phrase can Be translated convict.
[00:27:58] He is the one that will convict the world about sin and righteousness and judgment.
[00:28:05] The role of the Holy Spirit is he wants to bring attention to sin in your life, anything in your life that is keeping you from flourishing and living in fullness of who God wants you to be. So you want evidence.
[00:28:20] You want evidence that God's Spirit is in your life.
[00:28:23] Awareness of sin assurance comes by the Holy Spirit because we just see him dealing with sin in our life when he is in the role of convicting us of sin, righteousness and judgment.
[00:28:39] How do you experience as a follower of Jesus, the conviction of the Holy Spirit?
[00:28:46] Like, I just realized that I, as I was writing this sermon, I don't think I've asked people what that's like for them. I know what it's like for me when there's anger and bitterness in my life and the Holy Spirit convicts my heart, when there's criticalness and judgmental, when I'm unkind, when I say unkind things, when there's a lustful thought and in my mind and I don't have a theological word to describe what the Holy Spirit does, but this is how I would explain it to you.
[00:29:18] That's the best that I can come up with.
[00:29:20] It's just like sometimes it's just a little poke, sometimes it's a nudge and sometimes it feels like he's just taking a sword through my heart.
[00:29:29] But I know, I know that, I know when my chest goes that it's conviction of the Holy Spirit.
[00:29:39] So what do you do?
[00:29:40] What do you do when you experience the.
[00:29:44] In our life, Paul makes it really clear.
[00:29:47] Whatever the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, you put it to death.
[00:29:52] Verse 13.
[00:29:54] For if you live according.
[00:29:56] For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
[00:30:02] But if by the Spirit, you put to death by the Spirit.
[00:30:09] Did you hear that? Not by your willpower, not by your effort, not by your I'll do more, I'll try harder. But by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
[00:30:23] You hear this over and over with, Paul. We've got to understand this is life and death as it relates to what do we do when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and lies? We've got to take it seriously.
[00:30:36] We need to understand that word put to death means a ruthless, full hearted resistance to whatever it is the Holy Spirit is bringing up in our life that we would just reject totally everything that we know to be wrong.
[00:30:52] We would declare war on the attitudes and the behaviors that are causing us to live separate from him, bent away from him. And the fancy word for it, and I don't know if it's fancy, but the biblical word for it is repent.
[00:31:06] That when we feel that we would deal with it decisively and turn and go in another direction.
[00:31:13] Paul says, make war.
[00:31:16] He's saying, kill sin before sin kills you.
[00:31:20] That's what Paul wants us to understand.
[00:31:24] So this is what this means first and foremost, when you feel a in your life, don't mess around, don't play games with sin in your life.
[00:31:35] I know that sometimes we think like, ah, I can deal with this. I'll just, I'll just kind of slowly wean myself away from this over time and we get right up to the edge and we dip our toe in the water and we just think, I can deal with this. Paul says, no, deal with it decisively. Kill it before it kills you.
[00:31:56] So many times. We need to think not about getting close to sin. We need to think about how far away from sin we can be.
[00:32:05] Yeah, absolutely. We need to think about how not only the things in our life that are sinful, but even the things that we know in our life that lead to, to sinful behavior.
[00:32:15] Don't think that you can coddle this in your life. Like I, I can be strong with this.
[00:32:21] Paul's like, no, no, no, don't be strong, be fast, get away, turn away from it immediately. Kill sin before it kills you. Deal decisively.
[00:32:33] But that's only part of what Paul wants us to do. To kill sin, we've got to actually look at our heart and our motivation.
[00:32:42] And that's why I think it is no accident as we start this section in Romans chapter 8 that Paul starts with, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's a restatement of the gospel.
[00:32:58] Because if we're going to overcome sin, the reason that we want to overcome sin and needs to be pure and right and in line with the gospel.
[00:33:09] Because living a life that says no condemnation means that even in the midst of my brokenness, I know who I am and whose I am, I belong to him.
[00:33:22] That's the beauty of the gospel. So our motivation to kill sin in our life, it's not because I'm fearful of judgment that could come from God, you have no condemnation.
[00:33:34] But our motivation comes out of love and gratitude.
[00:33:40] That's why we do what God wants us to do because of what he has done for us. And as Paul says at the end of Romans chapter 8, it's because of the love of Christ.
[00:33:51] Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Our mind. Friends, if the battleground is the mind, our mind needs to be captured by the unimaginable, unfathomable, irrevocable love of Christ.
[00:34:08] Nothing can separate us.
[00:34:11] That's why, friends, I'm going to make it really clear to you. I want you to understand the difference between two words that I've been using. We've talked about the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings, but we've also talked about condemnation. What is the difference between conviction and condemnation? How do we know the difference between those two?
[00:34:33] Let me say this. Conviction is about what I have done.
[00:34:40] Condemnation is about who I am.
[00:34:45] Conviction, friends, it says what I did was bad.
[00:34:51] Condemnation says I am bad.
[00:34:56] Conviction, friends, it leads to life and to hope. It is helpful for us. It is a loving thing that God's Spirit does in our life. Condemnation is not helpful for you. It is unhelpful because it creates fear and distance from God.
[00:35:14] Think about it this way.
[00:35:17] Conviction is to the soul what pain is for the body.
[00:35:24] Is pain a good thing or a bad thing?
[00:35:28] It's actually a really good thing.
[00:35:32] If you were suddenly to lose your ability to feel pain, you would not survive long.
[00:35:39] Because the reality is that pain is something that is a gift from God to tell us that there's something wrong with our body. There's something that we need to pay attention to now. Pain becomes bad when it just goes on and on and on and there is no relief from it.
[00:35:57] In the same way, conviction is a good thing for our soul because it is the loving kindness of the Holy Spirit in us. Saying that you are starting to head down a road that is gonna lead to death and destruction, and I want you to flourish and have life.
[00:36:14] So the conviction is to turn us toward him and a life that is connected to Him.
[00:36:21] It's only when conviction lingers in the back of our mind over long periods of time that it actually has the ability to lead to condemnation.
[00:36:32] That's why when we experience conviction in our life, we need to respond decisively.
[00:36:40] How do you respond to in your life?
[00:36:47] Because you have an option.
[00:36:49] You have an option. You don't have to listen to the Holy Spirit in your life. You don't have to do anything with the conviction that he brings.
[00:36:58] In fact, Paul says a couple different times, there's some things that we can do when the Holy Spirit brings conviction to our life.
[00:37:05] In First Thessalonians 5:19, Paul says, Do not quench the Spirit Meaning we have the potential. We can try to quiet and quench that conviction in our life. We can throw a wet blanket on it, try to pretend that it's not there. And Paul says, don't do that. Do not quench the Holy Spirit. And in Ephesians 4:30, Paul says it in a different way. He says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you have.
[00:37:31] Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
[00:37:35] Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. A couple things I want to say about that. It's just a reminder. It's an emotion. Because the Holy Spirit is not a force. He's a person that feels things. And when you ignore him, it grieves him.
[00:37:49] It doesn't say it makes him mad, it grieves him. Why?
[00:37:54] Why would he have grief rather than anger? Because he's sad when he sees someone that he loves heading down a road to destruction.
[00:38:03] It's his loving kindness that brings conviction into our life. We need to respond immediately to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And, friends, that's what maturity is. When we experience conviction, there is a gap of time between conviction and our response of repentance.
[00:38:23] And what maturity is, is when that gap gets shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter. Until when the Holy Spirit goes to us, we respond because we trust Him.
[00:38:37] We don't want to go down a path of destruction. So we repent and turn and we come back to Him.
[00:38:44] So here's the deal.
[00:38:46] We've got to learn how to pay attention to the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our life. Because that's what this is all about, is learning to say no to our flesh and to say yes to the Holy Spirit.
[00:38:59] That struggle, we can win. We have the power to have victory over that. But we need to respond. And I wanna give you two practices to help you think about how you respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. There's two things that we need to practice doing. And the first one is this. Guard your mind.
[00:39:19] And when I say that, I simply mean pay attention to your thoughts.
[00:39:24] If this is the battleground, we have to realize we pay attention to the things that we are thinking. Think about what you think about.
[00:39:34] Don't just let thoughts run in and out of your mind. Think about the things that you're thinking about.
[00:39:41] Because here's what happens, friends.
[00:39:45] You sow a thought, you will reap an action or a behavior.
[00:39:52] You sow an action or a behavior, you will reap a habit.
[00:39:59] You sow a habit in your life, you will reap A character.
[00:40:05] You sow a character in your life, you will reap a destiny.
[00:40:11] Life or death.
[00:40:14] That's where it ends up. Life or death. A road of life or a road of destruction. That's why Paul is so serious. Kill sin in your life before sin kills you.
[00:40:26] I love how the Apostle Paul describes it in almost kind of a visual picture. In Second Corinthians 10, he says, we demolish.
[00:40:35] What does debolish mean?
[00:40:37] We crush it. We kill it. We deal with it decisively. What do we crush? Arguments. And every pretension. Pretension? Any false claim, anything that's running around in our mind. That's not true. It says we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive a thought or two here and there.
[00:41:03] No, he says we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
[00:41:09] Paul is saying that there are thoughts that are running down, running around in your mind.
[00:41:15] Here's what he commands us to do. That we would take every thought and we would take it captive. That we would slap handcuffs on it and we would look at it and we would ask ourselves, is this thought something that the Holy Spirit would be surfacing in my life? Is this drawing attention to who I am as a child of God? Or is this thought something that looks like the fruit of my flesh that would move me away from God? Take every thought captive, and it is not from God. He says, get rid of it. Kill it. Demolish it. Kill thoughts, kill sin before they kill.
[00:41:56] Police, guard the things that are going in and out of your mind. Think about.
[00:42:02] Think about what you think about.
[00:42:05] And the second practice, and I don't think you're going to like this one, is confess your sin.
[00:42:13] In my mind, there's no other practice probably that has more power to break the bondage of the flesh in our life than the confession of sin.
[00:42:26] Here's how. The brother of Jesus in James, chapter five, this is his command to us. He says, therefore confess your sins.
[00:42:36] And here's the part that we don't like to each other.
[00:42:43] Not a quiet. I'm going to have a little quiet time in the corner. I'm going to tell God what's happening in my heart. He already knows.
[00:42:49] And it's a good thing to talk to God about the things that are in our heart.
[00:42:52] I'm not dismissing that.
[00:42:55] But that's not what James is asking us to do.
[00:42:58] That's not his command. He says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other. Why?
[00:43:05] So that you can be healed, that there would be a breaking of the power of sin and flesh in our life, that. That we would be healed.
[00:43:17] And here's what you need to understand. Your flesh hates this idea.
[00:43:21] Your flesh does not want to bring itself, its brokenness out into the world for other people to see.
[00:43:29] Wants to be hidden. I love how Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in his book Life Together, he said, sin demands to have a man by himself.
[00:43:39] It withdraws him from the community.
[00:43:42] The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him.
[00:43:48] Sin wants to remain unknown, unknown.
[00:43:55] It shuns the light in the darkness of the unexpressed. It poisons the whole being of a person.
[00:44:06] Friends, confession isn't just about forgiveness.
[00:44:10] James and Paul are trying to help us understand that confession is about freedom, that we can break the bondage of sin in our flesh, in our life, when we bring it out into the open with people.
[00:44:25] Recently, I was in a place in life. And this wasn't long ago. This was like two weeks ago.
[00:44:31] Want to make it sound. Yeah, I want to make it sound better than it is. My flesh does.
[00:44:35] But I was in a place of deep, like, insecurity about some things. And I started to see this root of insecurity. It started to manifest itself in places of, like, jealousy and envy. And I could see that it was even starting to taint how I viewed a person. And I started to even think about how it was maybe even potentially affecting decisions that I would make because of this root of insecurity.
[00:45:02] But I didn't want anybody to know about it. But there was a morning that I was having coffee with my sweet bride, and this is going on in the back of my mind. And there it was.
[00:45:14] And I knew that God's spirit just said, tell her.
[00:45:17] Tell her what's going on in your life.
[00:45:20] I've got to be honest, like, she's my princess. I want to be the knight in shining armor. I don't want to show chinks armor.
[00:45:29] But the spirit said, tell her.
[00:45:32] And so I told her.
[00:45:34] And there was. There was a certain amount of healing that came just from bringing that out into the open and acknowledging my brokenness.
[00:45:41] I wish that it would have ended there. A couple days later, I was in a meeting with a couple of co workers, co workers in a church.
[00:45:52] Like the lead pastor. I'm supposed to look good, right?
[00:45:56] So we're in this conversation and I'm just seeing these things manifesting themselves in my life. This insecurity and how, like, this might even affect decisions that we're talking about and thinking about right now.
[00:46:11] The spirit said, tell him I didn't want to, but I did.
[00:46:17] And it gave him an opportunity to say some things into my life.
[00:46:22] Wish that was the end of it.
[00:46:25] Met on a few days later with a group of guys, same thing. Having a conversation. In some ways it felt unrelated, but in that space there was a.
[00:46:37] And I knew that the spirit wanted me to tell them and I didn't want to, But I'm so glad I did because I shared it.
[00:46:47] And it wasn't just that they acknowledged it. I mean, there's or tried to encourage me, but they actually started to speak into my life, speak words of truth over me. And they actually gave me assignment to try to replace this wrong thought, this wrong thought pattern in my life. And how I could do that. I can't explain to you how helpful that was for me. And so when I go back, I'm just like, I'm so glad that when I heard the.
[00:47:19] I didn't try to quench it. I didn't quench the spirit. I didn't grieve the spirit. So one in a row, I got it right.
[00:47:27] A Texas hot streak. That's what I've heard. One in a row is called a Texas hot streak.
[00:47:33] But confessing sin brought healing into my life.
[00:47:40] That's what James is telling us. That's what can come into our life.
[00:47:45] Well, here's my challenging question for you.
[00:47:48] When was the last time that you shared a sin with another person and asked them to pray for you?
[00:48:00] Can you. Can you think of one?
[00:48:04] I'm just gonna say this because I love you. If you can't think of one, I need to throw the flag.
[00:48:12] That's a red flag.
[00:48:14] Are you following?
[00:48:16] Are we following? What James is telling will bring healing to our life.
[00:48:20] It's important. Your flesh doesn't wanna do it, but Paul is telling us it's life or death. We've gotta kill sin, friends, before it kills.
[00:48:31] I want to leave on a word of encouragement from the apostle Paul. Galatians, chapter six.
[00:48:38] Here's what he says.
[00:48:40] Do not be deceived.
[00:48:42] God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please the flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life.
[00:48:58] Destruction, life.
[00:49:01] We see the theme over and over, but here's Paul's word of encouragement. He says, let us not become weary.
[00:49:09] Let us not become weary in doing good.
[00:49:15] What's the good?
[00:49:16] What's the good that Paul's talking about here? He's talking about the good of saying no to our flesh, saying yes to the spirit. He says it is a process and you've got to keep doing it over and over again. Do not quit. For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
[00:49:44] Are you giving up?
[00:49:48] Are you giving up?
[00:49:50] What are you facing right now? Where's a place in your life where you're experiencing the flesh in your life?
[00:49:58] You need a way out. You feel like you're in bondage.
[00:50:03] There's thought patterns that just keep going through your mind that you know are not from the spirit of God. They're from your flesh. You need help with that to break that bondage.
[00:50:13] Is there a compulsion or an addiction that is stealing your joy in your life? Is there a character flaw in your life that's ruining relationships all around you?
[00:50:25] Are you tired?
[00:50:27] Are you getting content with the gap?
[00:50:31] Are you willing to just ride it out and not have any expectation that anything will ever change?
[00:50:39] Have you grown numb?
[00:50:42] Grown tired?
[00:50:43] Are you discouraged?
[00:50:46] Paul says don't.
[00:50:48] Don't grow weary in doing God good.
[00:50:52] One thought at a time.
[00:50:56] Take it captive.
[00:50:58] One confession at a time.
[00:51:01] Bring it into the light. One conviction at a time.
[00:51:06] Respond to the Holy Spirit.
[00:51:09] Don't give up.
[00:51:12] Kill sin, friends, before sin kills us.
[00:51:17] Let's pray.
[00:51:26] Holy Spirit, thank you that you are with us, you are in us and that you speak to us.
[00:51:36] I thank you that you are willing to convict us of the sin and brokenness in us that is keeping us from experiencing fully who God made us to be.
[00:51:49] Holy Spirit, I am convinced and I know that you are the real teacher.
[00:51:55] You are the one that actually needs to do the work to move into the hearts that you indwell and to change people from the inside out. Holy Spirit, speak.
[00:52:06] We just want to hold our lives up to you right now and say whatever you want to say to us. The answer is yes. We want to respond immediately in repentance and forgiveness.
[00:52:17] We want to respond to you.
[00:52:21] Thank you for your provision.
[00:52:23] And all God's people said amen.
