21 Jul I’m a Christian but I Still… | Part 2 “Sin”
WOONSOCKET PERMANENT LOCATION: As you know we have a permanent location for Woonsocket Campus – your talent is needed. If you have any experience in carpentry, HVAC, etc., let us know.
TESTIMONIES: Looking for your testimonies! If you have group wins to share from your Small Group, please email them to me! maparsons@waterschurch.org
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I’M A CHRISTIAN BUT I STILL…. | PART 2 “Sin”
THEME: Christians have not, do not and will not have it all together. The sooner we embrace that reality the sooner we can come to terms with the joy that is the journey of faith – moving ever closer to the goal of God’s glory.
Key Verse: 1 John 1:5-2:6
As Christians, we wrestle with the fact that we still have sin to deal with. It is not that we sin too much, but we don’t know what to do with the concept of sin and we fall into extreme views that are not biblical. Christians still sin, we don’t want to. The Bible has a lot to say about sin. The Church tends to do what the world says when it comes to sin. The world says our problem is not a sin problem, that it is an archaic notion, it is of the Victorian age. Preachers even adopt the world’s culture and bring it into the Church. The problem with the world is sin and the Chuch needs to speak the truth of God’s word whether people like it or not.
Two Disregarded Facts about Sin:
The Greek word for sin: “Hamartia”
1. SIN MESSES WITH MY ABILITIES.
The history of the word, ‘Harmartia’, was used in Greek mythology. It was the Greek god’s, Achilles, flaw. His heel was his ‘Harmartia’. It kept him from accomplishing what he was supposed to do. Superman’s ‘Harmartia’ is kryptonite. It is a weakness that keeps us from using our abilities.
Q. What is your ‘Hamartia’? What is a weakness (SIN) that has kept you or is keeping you from using your abilities?
The social effects of sin hurt people.
38% of Americans use some form of illicit drug
47% of Americans addicted to porn
1 in 5 Americans is molested in a given year
80% of Americans gossip
40% of Americans are obese
25% of American women experience domestic violence
1 in 5 American women are raped in their lifetime
Americans have One hundred billion dollars in gambling losses
American household debt is 1 trillion dollars higher than in 2008
2. SIN MESSES WITH MY PURPOSE.
As Christians, we get to know our purpose through scripture. Our purpose is to glorify God through our lives. We fall short.
In this case, the word ‘Harmartia’ is an archery term, to fall short. We all fall short of the glory of God. We seek only what God can give us. The world even seeks only what God can give them. We have to get back to doing what God wants us to do for Him. God wants us to become someone. We do what we do to show how glorious God is.
Q. How has sin messed with your purpose to glorify God (Example could be gossiping – when we gossip we are not glorifying God and showing others His goodness)?
THREE DENIALS & THREE SOLUTIONS REGARDING SIN
DENIAL #1: God is okay with how I live.
‘I can do what I want and God understands’. We think He is not talking about our modern version of our behavior.
We cannot still keep in the practices that God says are out-of-bounds for us and claim to be in God. Light is in God, not in us as Gnosticism says. Gnosticism says that our spirit and body are separate and what we do with our body does not matter. That is a lie and is damning. The light is only in God.
Q. What sins do you (or may have thought in the past) think God is okay with and why? Why is he not okay with sin no matter how small?
SOLUTION #1: COME INTO THE LIGHT of JESUS
“Cleanse” = “katharizo”
Catharsis – the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.
The emotions we wrestle with are sins: envy, jealousy, anger, etc.
Q. What are some emotions you wrestle with that makes it hard for you to walk in fellowship with other believers?
We are made to live in the light. Jesus is the light inside us that shines.
DENIAL #2: Being a Christian means I’m morally superior.
We sin even as Christians. No one is without sin.
1 John 1:8 (ESV); Romans 7:17 (ESV);Romans 7:20 (ESV); Romans 7:24 (ESV)
Q. What have you experienced in the way that someone thought they were morally superior because, in their thinking, their sin(s) were not as bad as someone else’s? Why is this dangerous?
SOLUTION #2: CONFESS SINS REGULARLY
“Confess” – “homologomen”- “to say the same thing as another.”
Confession is saying ‘I agree with God’.
Pastor Tim had given the example of getting a speeding ticket after visiting a sick member of the church in the hospital. He told the judge he was a Pastor and went on about visiting a member of his church etc. All that the judge wanted to know is if he agreed to the speeding violation or not. At this point, he could not lie (being a pastor and all) so he said ‘yes I was speeding’ and the judge wrote off the ticket. He agreed to the speed and the judge let him go.
DENIAL #3: Real Christians do not regularly struggle with sinful actions.
“If you were a REAL Christian, you’d be over this issue by now.”
C. S. Lewis says, “No man knows how bad he is until he has TRIED to be good.”
Q. How does this quote from C.S. Lewis ring true for you? How about for others such as children?
Repentance is seeing sin as destructive and costly and evil after the fact. As Christians, we care but non-Christians do not care and will sin and have no thought of evil.
Repentance is a change of mind. Some say they repent but don’t stop doing it.
Q. What is something you had repented about but still continued to do? Did you realize how destructive and costly it was? Why was this so difficult for you to stop?
SOLUTION #3: Jesus: our Advocate and Offering
We should not be trying harder, we should be looking to Jesus. Christ is the answer to all who have sinned. He is our advocate, our defense attorney, pleading our case before God. He is our propitiation for our sin. Taking away the anger God has toward us because of our sin that He took to the grave over 2000 years ago.
GOD IS NOT GOING TO GIVE UP ON US.
Make time for prayer and fellowship and allow yourselves to end on time.
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