This summer, our pastor has been doing a phenomenal series on sin. He's titled it "Soul Poison", because that's exactly what my sin is and what it does... my sin is poison and it poisons my soul. It's black and awful and deadly and contagious and vicious and suffocating. And yet, it's against that awful blackness of my sin that God's grace shines brightest, shines truest, shines purest and is most utterly amazing. There's bad news, the news of sin which leads to death. But, praise God, it's followed by the best news I will ever hear- the news of the gospel and of God's grace.
Today's sermon was especially convicting and encouraging to me; I never want to forget some of the things that Pastor John said today, so I'm writing them here in hopes of remembering them more frequently.
- sin has 1 goal- to grow into a monster and destroy me.
- sin is most deadly when it is most quiet, for it's the stillest waters that run deepest.
- there are only 2 options each day- either be killing sin or it will be killing me. One will always be happening.
- I will always be living either in the flesh or in the spirit. There is no third option.
Sin will kill me unless I actively work with dependent (on the Spirit) discipline to kill my sin.
How can I go about killing my sin?
6 Ways to do so:
1. Deprive my evil desires from their power. Stay away from temptations that I know will tempt me to sin. I struggle with the temptation of discontentment with how much andrew is gone at school and frustration for how actively energetic my boys are. After reflecting on this sermon, praying, and talking to my guy about this, I realize that fb is a thing in my life that brings my sin of discontentment to life (seeing how someone's husband always gets home at 4 pm each day, seeing how orderly and calm and organized another woman's children are, etc). Again, after talking to Andrew, I think I need to delete my fb account after I tie up a few loose ends on there.
2. Directly attack my evil desires when they arise by immediately quoting a verse to myself (find a verse ahead of time that will do "battle" with this particular sin and have it ready to quote/preach to myself) and praying
like I mean it as soon I as realize i'm in temptation.
3. Depend on Holy Spirit. Actively concentrate on a fruit of the Holy Spirit to "put on" that is in direct contrast with the sin that I'm struggling with. If I'm faithful to keep putting on and keep putting on this fruit, my sin will grow weaker. Pray for the Holy Spirit's help
like I mean it. Soak myself in the Word, in prayer, in fellowship with other believers, with service in the church, ministry to saints. This is another reason why I'm feeling convicted to delete fb. I want the Bible to be my "go-to" when I have 10 minutes to spare instead of fb.
4. Think about the cross and Christ's death. It will make my sin seem uglier.
5, Diligently watch out for sin in my life. My sin intentionally deceives me. It mocks me. It celebrates when it defeats me and it's constantly searching for ways to kill and destroy me.
6. Decisively react to even the faintest smell of sin in my life. Repent. Seek forgiveness. Root it out, cut it off, put on fruit of HS, pray, and get in the Word.
Sin is not a small animal that I can keep under control, coddle, and take out to play with occasionally if I want to. Sin is a raging beast intent to absolutely destroy me and my family and kill me and completely ruin my life.
But... (don't you love "buts"??) "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
Praise the Lord!
