Understanding Sin: The Path to Spiritual Renewal

1. "And so yeah and look there's a lot in the Bible about sin and it's one of those things that when we come into Christianity and a lot of people will say when they come to church they go well I can't go into church because there's too many perfect people in church and I'm the only one that is bad and I had a revelation of that I've shared that with a few people about that is that we're all the same we're all covered by the blood of Jesus and not one person is perfect except for Christ in us and that's the important part we've got to understand that we do all this in the strength of Jesus Christ everything we do is in Jesus and that's why he talks about a relationship with him." [00:01:00] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Sin actually has no part in me since I've become a Christian how do I get rid of sin though? and it's a process called sanctification some of you might have heard that long word sanctification and it's a process of cleansing yourself how do I do that? how do I become free of sin? now my main scripture today is an interesting scripture if you look at it what they're talking about in the time that they were talking about it it's James 1 13 to 15 now I have Dennis commented I have paper notes and I have a bible and Tony we're going to have to get a bigger lectern so I can put so I can put my Bible in there I'm just teasing him he wants to get rid of it anyway that's okay so now James is talking to a group of people that were the Jewish church the church who were Jews who had been dispersed throughout the Roman kingdom and because of persecution the Rome was persecuting the church the Jews the religious Jews were persecuting the church and they were persecuting the church so they cleared out and they're all over the place and at the time the Roman kingdom went from Britain all the way through Asia in through Africa it was a huge kingdom huge nation and so that's where the Jews fled to but it was the church right Christian church and let's not forget that and so James is talking to them about sin." [01:14:40] (108 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "So how do we stop that process? It seems pretty logical, doesn't it? Don't have something that will resist. Don't have something that will receive that thought. Don't have something that will entertain that thought. How do we do that? We put the Word of God there. I said look at the example that Jesus gives. See, thoughts are not sin. This is the difference. Because, see, if thoughts were sin, then Jesus would have sinned. Because, see, the devil came and tempted Jesus. And you can't... Someone can't talk to you if you don't think what they've said. And see, it was... And it says that no sin was found in Jesus. Because you see the response that Jesus gives. He says, turn the stones... Because Jesus was hungry, right? He says, turn the stones into bread. He said, every word that comes out of the Word of God. Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Instantly, Jesus gives him the answer. And so, that's how it's done. There's nothing in me that will host that thought. Nothing in me." [01:21:06] (85 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "And see, the outward things, I would say that is... that person needs the love of God. You see someone saying, oh, that's obviously sin. I say, that person needs the love of God. That person needs you in their life. Because that's who you are. You're the love of God. You see someone doing something that's obviously not in accordance with the Word of God. And they'll say, no, I don't want to be with God. I'm happy doing my own thing. Well, there's something come to me about the Stockholm Syndrome. You know, when people get, they're held captive, and they're convinced after a while that their captive is better than the people that, where they got captive from. This is what we've got. We've got a group of people who are living in the darkness, and they're told that the light is bad for them. That's what happens. And so that's our job. It's our job. We've got to rescue those people. That's where we come in. The love of God rescues those people. Wounded in battle. And they don't know. Because if you tell people lies long enough, they'll believe the lie. And that's what you're up against. Because when you tell people the goodness of God, they won't believe you. Why? Because they've been told lies for so long. So that's our job. Our job is to see what we see with our eyes. That can be easily fixed. But the things you don't see, that's the hard part. And often it's never really addressed. It's bitterness. It's anger. Jealousy. It's where it starts. It's that little thought. It's a little bit that's in there. When the devil just puts a little thought, a little thought in, ooh, it gets you. And you start thinking about it. All of a sudden you've gone down a rabbit hole which you should never have gone down." [01:26:21] (132 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My sheep hear my voice and I know them. That hit me right between the eyes when I first read that. Because he was saying that, the Pharisees. He was actually giving them a bit of a serve. Because he said, if you were the sons of Abraham, you wouldn't treat me the way you are. He says, My sheep hear my voice. You see, so how am I going to know what the voice of the Lord sounds like? How am I going to know that the voice that comes, the thought that comes to me, is the voice of God? Well, there is actually one way that you are going to know. Because what's in you is going to receive it. What's in you will receive it and grow and get bigger and bigger and birth Jesus Christ out of you. The love of Jesus Christ. Because if something comes and it's not the things of God, it's going to fall and die. It will perish. Perish the thought. Right? You've heard that before. And that's what happens. If it doesn't find a host, it dies. You see, what's in you? What's in you? What's the thing that you love so much that courses through your veins? It's the Word of God. That's your remedy. The Word of God is your remedy." [01:30:53] (113 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "And when you hear these words, it starts to grow something inside you. It's the love of God. Right? Something else comes. It can't find something in you to actually start to grow. But depending on what you've been putting in there, what have you been putting in? Where have you been looking? What have you been feasting on? What is your main source of supply? What is your main source of intake? 15 % Bible. 80 % something else. 5 % something else. What is it? See, it's got to be... You've got to start building. 20, 30, 40, 50, 60. And build it up to where it's becoming. You know what this says. You will not be tricked. You will not be deceived. You will not be fooled. Whatever that word comes, you will know it is the Word of God or it's not the Word of God. Lying spirits come and say, I'm Jesus. Walk this way. No. There's coming a time when it's going to be tough. Spiritual persecution is one of the hardest persecutions because it's tricky. When someone's got a... The army walks down the street, comes into the church and says, rightio, the church is shut down. That's persecution. Everybody get out. That's persecution, right? That's pretty easy to see. But when it's sneaky and tricky and people telling you lies and some people believe it and some people don't and then you get groups of people ganging up on you when you make a decision, that's a different persecution. I'm going to believe what the Bible says and it might be tough in some days to actually stand on the Bible and say, I believe this." [01:33:15] (142 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "God has given you an avenue to break off sin. He's given you a way to break it off so it doesn't grow inside you. Thoughts come all the time. Thoughts come all the time. You cannot walk. Through this town, shopping center, anywhere, you haven't got thoughts coming at you. A hundred at a time. What's in there that's going to make it grow or die? That's the difference. That's the difference. You don't get condemnation from thoughts. You just get upset when you go, oh, it shouldn't have gone there. Fix it up. See, it says that we're in a new covenant. And see, when you come into God, there's no sin in this covenant. But when we make mistakes, it says God is faithful and just to forgive us who confess our sin. And that's our promise. You see, that's the promise we've got. We're not left alone to struggle by ourselves. God has given us a promise to fix that. And really what it's saying is, get to your father before the devil does and accuses you. So you make mistakes, get into God's house. Get into your father's arms. Say, sorry, dad. I messed up. That's what you do. That's the promise he's given us. He's never left us alone for one second. You're not out there by yourself. Thank you, Lord. He's a mighty, mighty God. I believe it's a positive message for us today in the sense that he's given us abilities and strengths. He wants to see us to advance, not to be diminished. He wants to see us strong in the work that we're doing." [01:40:00] (126 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)