ONE BIG QUESTION:
- Can I be a Christian and continue to struggle with the same sin?
Do you have a bad habit?
- Something you know you shouldn’t be doing and wish you didn’t do? Maybe it has become more than just a habit, it seems to control you: the way you act or think.
- Porn? Cutting? Smoking? Drinking? Depression?
- You know you shouldn’t, you don’t want to, you ask God for help BUT you still do it!
Romans 7:15-25 || “15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. [a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
- Understand that Paul was one of the Godliest men that ever walked the earth and yet he is seen here in Romans to be struggling.
NOTE: If you’re a Christian you won’t struggle with sin || WRONG || The fact that you struggle means that you are save and if you aren’t save you don’t struggle because you have no problem sinning.
- We MUST understand that we are in a waging war. With the fall we became broken people. Sin lives in us, making us prisoners.
- We are wretched people.
- 24 “…Who will recuse me from this body that is subject to death?” It’s okay to not be okay but it is not okay to stay not okay.
- Paul known there was, is and will always be only one who can recuse us! JESUS We cannot save ourselves.
- 25 “Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
BETTER QUESTION:
- Do I want to continually struggle with the same sin or do I want to be set free?
Here are a few tips!
- Call it a sin
- We like to call sin “mistakes” or “issues”
- If we don’t use the word sin because it seems to serious, maybe we aren’t serious about getting it out of our life.
- Confess it to God
- Why do I need to tell him if he sees everything? Good question! Confessing has nothing to do with information but everything to do with transformation.
- When you start to see how God sees sin you will start to realize why he sent his son for us!
- Proverbs 28:13 || “People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.”
- Confess it to others
- James 5:16 || “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
- The moment I told my friends my struggles, tears ran down their faces, and they said they struggled with the same things.
You are NEVER alone & there is always FREEDOM!
U N L E A S H 