Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #16206 - We Have To Face the Sin Issue - 1 John 1:7-10

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#16206 - We Have To Face the Sin Issue - 1 John 1:7-10 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Amen.
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First John chapter 1, would you open your Bibles?
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First John chapter one. We ran out of time last time, so
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we're going to pick up where we left off in verse 7.
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And I've been toddled our Bible study.
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We have to face the sin issue. We've got to talk about sin.
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It is a popular topic in the Bible and your sin, my sin is
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why Jesus Christ died on the cross.
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He died to forgive us of our sins.
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Sins a big deal. It's destructive, it's
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devastating in your life and mine.
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It's wreaked havoc on humanity since the fall in the Garden of
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Eden. And I know the topic, even the
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word sin is not a popular one, not one that immediately you
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would think, let's go to the church and learn about sin.
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But it's all throughout the Bible.
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It cuts right to the heart of what is wrong with humanity and
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what is wrong with us, what is wrong, period.
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Every single bad thing that has ever happened is tied directly
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to sin, to man's rebellion against his Creator.
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There's this prevailing thought in our culture that man is
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basically. Good.
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And a lot of decisions are made that way.
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Man is basically good, but the Bible teaches that we have all
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sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and we have a very
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bad issue to deal with in the decisions that we make.
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There is a wholesale denial of the issue of sin, and when you
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deny sin, you deny everything that is connected to sin, which
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includes redemption and salvation and forgiveness.
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The false teachers that John is writing, you know the backdrop.
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He's really writing to believers, encouraging them,
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talking about life and death, darkness and light,
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righteousness and sin. But there is a backdrop going on
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behind the scenes, and that is the false teachings of a group
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known as the Gnostics GNO. STICS.
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One of their main false teaching is that they denied sin.
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They made three false claims. If you're taking notes, number
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one, they taught that you could be in fellowship with God and
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continue to live in darkness. We dealt with that last time.
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They they claimed and taught that you could be in fellowship
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with God to be in Koinonia. We learned that word Koinonia to
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share in common with God and at the very same time walk or live
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in darkness. Chapter one, verse 6 deals a
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truth blow to that false teaching.
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Secondly, we'll learn in verse 8, it's answered, but they
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taught that you really didn't sin.
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They taught that you really didn't have sin.
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That's not an issue. And then the last thing they
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falsely taught was that even if you did have a sinful nature,
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they as Gnostics never sinned somehow.
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They were able to get. Around it, and John will answer
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that in verse 10. But for those of you that like
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Numbers, the topic of sin is unavoidable.
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It's mentioned so many times in the Bible, no less than 393
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times, or perhaps a few more. It's mentioned this topic of sin
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more than the topic of love that comes in at 321 times, more than
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the topic of grace comes in at 137, more than the topic of joy
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150, and more than the topic of forgiveness, which comes in at
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91. The Greek word for sin is
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harmatia. Harmatia.
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It means to miss the mark. The idea is that you take an
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arrow, bow an arrow, and you pull it back and you shoot at
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the bull's eye and you miss. When you miss, they would say
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that you've sinned, you've missed the mark.
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Using that from the practical realm now to the spiritual
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realm, you and I have missed the mark.
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And what's the mark? Perfection.
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Can I get an Amen? You guys all miss perfection.
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Like none of you. You can't stand.
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Up we go. I'm perfect.
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You just lied. So now you're imperfect.
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None of us, I mean, truly anyone that's being honest, an honest
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assessment of your life. I mean, you may not see everyone
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else sees it, but you should see it that we've all missed the
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mark. There isn't an innocent one
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among us. And because we've missed the
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mark not only in our nature but also in our action, this is the
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root of every evil thing on the earth.
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Someone once said man calls sin an accident, but God calls it an
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abomination. Man calls sin a blunder.
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God calls it blindness. Man calls sin chance, but God
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calls it a choice. Man calls sin an error, yet God
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calls it. Enmity and In our time in Bible
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study today, we'll look at the significance of sin.
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And it's remedy verse 7. But if we walk in the light, as
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He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and
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the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
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Let's walk in the light we learned in our previous study in
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verse 6. If we say we have fellowship
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with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and we don't practice the
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truth. Now in verse 7 he gives the
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contrast. But if we walk in the light, if
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we walk in unity and win relationship with God, when we
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make progress in our life of obedience with Jesus, when we
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walk in the light, so many good things happen.
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So much good comes from your obedience.
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And this is something whether you're a new believer or an
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older believer, this is something you have to learn.
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You ready, the believer has to learn how to walk in the light.
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You have to be able to assess what is good and what is bad
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what what is light and what is dark.
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We spent some time speaking to the Gray areas of life because
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it seems as believers get older and older, it's no longer so
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black and white. There's so much Gray now.
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And almost always someone that creates a Gray area always
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creates it in favor of their own behaviors, not someone else.
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They're very uncomfortable with other people living in the Gray
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area, but for themselves, the Gray areas where they choose to
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live. But God calls us to a higher
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level to reject darkness and to live and walk in the light.
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There is nothing more important for the Christian than living in
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fellowship with God continually. Jesus was saying John 15 to.
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Abide in Him to have the place and posture of your life, to be
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in Christ, to abide in Him, to be in fellowship continually
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with God. Tonight you have taken us a
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choice. You've taken a step toward being
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in fellowship with God, just choosing to be in Bible study.
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And then there's another step. Those of you watching online,
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you're close, but you're pressing in.
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You're not quite here, but you're pressing in.
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And then there's a whole other group that might be driving
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around town or doing other things, listening on the radio.
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You're close. You're pressing in toward God,
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perhaps even listening to this at a later date, catching up
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because you had to go to work. Yeah, you're pressing in.
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There is so many other alternatives than just receiving
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Bible study, so many other choices, so many other places
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that we could be on a night like this.
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So many other radio choices, so many other Spotify and iTunes
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and all sorts of options. Of where we spend our attention.
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But there's nothing more important for the Christian than
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living life in fellowship with God.
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The idea here in verse 7, if we walk, you want to circle that
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word. It means the idea behind the
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Greek verb is walking. Keep on walking.
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This is the manner of your life. You keep on walking.
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When we use the word walk, we're it's a euphemism.
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It's a metaphor. We're referring to the way that
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we live our lives. Your walk, it's a Bible word,
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your walk. It implies making progress.
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It implies you're going in a particular direction when you're
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walking. I don't know.
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I know you you when you overthink things or maybe you
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don't overthink things, but when it comes to illustration like
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that, you want to overthink it a little bit.
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When you're walking in One Direction means you're not going
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in another direction. When you're walking north,
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you're not going South or east or West.
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It's a very precise choice. Walking is a beautiful picture
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to describe our lives because we all have a different walk.
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We have a, a different gait, you know, we some walk with a limp,
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some walk fast, some walk slow. Some of you have very, very,
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very tiny legs. And so for every step that a
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tall person takes, you have to take two or three.
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But that's your walk. That's your walk.
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You make it, you'll get there. Essentially, we all have
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something different that and yet it's unique to us.
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But we're all together, we make progress and a Christian will
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experience steady progress in life whether you move fast or
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slow. Big steps are small.
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Choosing to forsake the world system.
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You have walked away from the world, you have walked away from
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sin and a sinful lifestyle, and you are now walking in the
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light, walking toward God, pressing into the things of God.
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You have a new hunger, new desires.
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God's working in you both to will and to do for His good
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pleasure. If you walk in the light as He
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is in the light. Today's a great example of that.
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You are walking in the light, even if some of you are
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struggling right now. You're in the building.
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You're listening to Bible. Study, but you got this.
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Wrestling going on with your you're listening, then you're
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fighting. You're listening, then you're
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fighting. Hey, you're walking in the light
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as he is in the light, and notice what happens.
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There's a benefit to walking in the light here, and that is we
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have fellowship Koinonia with one another, just spending time
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with each other. Isn't Koinonia in the Lord?
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You know, let's go to let's go have a cup of coffee after
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service. Well, if we have a cup of coffee
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after service and we don't talk about the things of the Lord,
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we're not in Christian Koenia. We could be sharing in common
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whatever we're talking about. You like the coffee you like the
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sports, you like what's going on in the world, sharing what we
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can have. We can share in common on a lot
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of things. But if you want to share in
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common, as the Bible describes fellowship, you want to use that
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word and you want to live it out.
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You have to walk in the light as he is in the light.
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Then you have. Fellowship with one another.
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So that your conversations are in the light nothing wrong.
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It doesn't mean that every single.
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Word you ever share is about the Lord.
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You can talk. About sports, you can talk.
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You can have friendships, but you can't call it Christian
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fellowship. You can talk about, you can call
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it 2 Christians talking about life, joining a cup of coffee,
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but if you want to experience true Koinonia, you need to walk
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in the light. That's why you could be in a
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church service like this in a building and not feel connected
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to people. One reason you have to ask
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yourself is are you? Walking in the light, How many?
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Times we hear, I hear this testimony all the time and I
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just don't want to come to church anymore because it makes
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makes me so uncomfortable. Well, why are you walking in the
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light? Well, come on, pastor, don't get
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all spiritual on me. Well, I am the pastor.
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What do you want me to do? Like maybe you're uncomfortable
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because you got some hidden sin because being in being in the
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environment of the teaching of the word of God or just the
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songs or the person next to you singing so loud and you don't
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want to sing because you're hiding sin.
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Could it be that it's not everyone else's fault?
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Could it be you're not walking in the light?
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It could be, doesn't have to be, but it could be because the
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Bible says if we walk in the light, we're going to be in
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fellowship with one another. We're going to share in common
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with one another. We're going to be brothers and
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sisters in the Lord together. We get to break the free of
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those things of darkness and sin and enjoy Jesus in the light.
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You know when you're walking in the light and somebody shares a
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testimony with you, you get happy about, you're happy for
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them. You don't get jealous of them.
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So you won't believe me. I just got to you won't believe
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me, brother. I want you to pray for me
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because I just got a promotion and your first thought.
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Is well, I just got laid off. I don't think I want to really
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pray. OK.
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Oh, Lord, thank you. I'm glad you got a job.
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I'm a job and I want his job, mate.
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That's you true fellowship is, yeah.
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I'm hurting right now. I'm going to rejoice with you
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with, I'm going to pray with you.
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I'm going to be happy with you. But but then you could.
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But bro, can you pray for me? Because my life's a little
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different than yours right now. And so you're happy with them,
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but you also have your need. You don't deny it, but you also
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don't get upset because somebody's blessed and
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somebody's encouraged. Somebody got the dream job or
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and you're struggling right now or you know something like you
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won't believe it. I finally got the car, my
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dreams. It's used but.
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It's new to me and it's everything.
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And there you are. You're riding a bike with one
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wheel. What do they call that?
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Unicycle? But it wasn't supposed to be a
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unicycle. You just lost your wheel on the
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way to church. You know whatever.
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And you're, you're, you're not able.
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You know when you're not walking in the light, nothing makes you
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happy. When you're not walking in the
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light, other believers and their joys and victories, they you
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can't celebrate with them when you're not walking in the light.
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Even the victories that happened in your local church family, you
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can't enjoy them. And you have to ask yourself,
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I'm not enjoying real Koinonia. I don't know all the reasons and
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I'm I'm not saying this is the only reason, but it's a big one.
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Because if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we're
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going to be together. We're going to share in common.
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I mentioned last time that this became a very important verse in
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the life of our church and our staff here because we had a
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season here where our staff like it was really bad.
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There was a lot of deception and a lot of lies.
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And I had to let people go. And it was.
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It did great. Damage to this church and as God
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was rebuilding and God was putting things back together,
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This is the verse, guys. Look, it doesn't matter what we
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face, what we go through. Guys and gal, we have to walk in
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the light. This is a church, for goodness
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sake. We need to walk in the light.
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God will not honor deception, and He will not honor lying, and
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He will not honor taking not only among us, but among those
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that are serving this church. He will not honor that.
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We have to walk in the light. Somebody asks like we got to
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tell the truth. We can't be hiding things.
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Why? Because we need to be in
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fellowship. What what do we say as a church?
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We we like to say we lock Shields here.
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We fight the real enemy. And as believers, we're not each
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other's enemies. There's a real enemy and it's
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not each other. It's Diablos, the devil.
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He's our enemy, the demonic realm and everyone that does his
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bidding. But believers, we're not each
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other's enemy. Just.
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Look at somebody. Just say you're not my enemy.
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Make sure they're not. You're not my enemy, you're not
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my. Just tell them.
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Tell them you're not my enemy. Say what?
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Confidence. Say it, Say it.
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Yes. No.
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Find somebody. It's like you look over here, I
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don't know, over here, I don't know.
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Find somebody. You know, we're we're brothers
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and sisters in the Lord and the way that we keep that unity in
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the spirit and the bond of peace as we walk in the light.
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You're not responsible for the person sitting next to you to
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walk in the light. Only you.
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You walk in the light. You make the choices.
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This is your life, how you present.
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Yourself to the Lord. When we walk in the light, we
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have fellowship with one another, and we want that.
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When we have fellowship with one another, we won't be backbiting,
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we won't be gossiping, we won't be trying to analyze and judge.
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Each other's walks, our lives won't be filled with compromise
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or excuses or attitudes that minimize the holiness of God.
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No, instead, we'll be in tune with one another.
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We'll fight the good fight of faith.
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We'll resolve our issues. We'll apply Matthew 18.
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We'll humble ourselves. We'll repent.
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We'll do whatever it needs. Because when we walk in the
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light, the light of Christ shines upon it.
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We are in His Holiness and we live with one another and we
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serve one another. Not only that, we experience.
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It says in verse 7, we're not only going to have fellowship,
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but that wasn't enough, which is a beautiful thing to be in
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fellowship with one another. But notice the blood of Jesus
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Christ cleanses us from all sin. Again, the Greek word for
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cleanses has the idea of continually cleansing.
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And this isn't being born again over and over and over and over
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again when you're continually cleansed by the blood of the
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lamb. A better way of thinking of that
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is that you get to enjoy. It you get to enjoy the eternal
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forgiveness of God, because when you're backslidden and you're
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backbiting and you're compromising and you're in the
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great, you're just a miserable person.
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It's just misery. When you're in sin, when you're
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hiding stuff, when you're found out, just miserable, there's no
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joy. You're faking it and you know
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you're faking it, and it's only a matter of time before we find
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out you're faking it. And then what?
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All that time is wasted serving the Lord, giving your life to
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the Lord. You're a believer, but you're
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not really living for Him. It doesn't make any sense.
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Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter 5 verse 8.
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Blessed are the pure in heart that cleansing, that purity.
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They shall see God. This progress in our lives comes
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as we choose to walk. In the light we enjoy fellowship
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with one another, we enjoy the forgiveness of God.
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This passage reminds us that there's always fresh forgiveness
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available. I came across first John 19 in
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putting this study together, kind of making up for what we
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missed last time. And I separated first John 19 by
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itself. That'll be our next study.
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I don't want to gloss over it. It's so important, but for the
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sake of our study today, notice it says if we confess our sins,
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He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
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cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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There's just so much available to you in the light.
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It's not just a theological idea or a set of doctrines to believe
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you actually blessed are you that are pure in heart because
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you see God, you're with him, you're enjoying his presence.
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He's transforming your life every day you live in the light,
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your one last day of your dark days.
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He's transforming you in the newness of life.
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You come to the point of giving up, looking at your life and all
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your failures and all your sins and all your weaknesses.
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You might have even been burned by other Christians who were not
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in. Fellowship with God, this
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passage reminds us. There's forgiveness even as
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Satan throws your sin in your face.
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The blood of Jesus Christ has covered that sin, and you won't
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experience the joy of forgiveness if you're walking in
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darkness. There's just no joy.
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There's nothing there in compromise.
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Just nothing. You're miserable.
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You wear it all over your face. You see it.
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You're just not walking with the Lord anymore.
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You say you are, but it's obvious that you're not.
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Things have changed. And then what happens?
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You know the the Holy Spirit's working in your heart, working
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through you. And what happens?
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Everybody's everybody else's fault.
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It's everybody else's fault. But now, now the people that
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were in your life that gets everybody else's fault.
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But now you're not in fellowship with them.
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Because if it's everybody's fault, you'd work it out.
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You've Matthew 18, somebody's offended, you go to him.
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You and him alone work it out. But instead you take the part.
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You know it's his fault. Hey, why don't you walk with the
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Lord anymore? Why don't you doing this
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anymore? I don't see you serving.
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Him. Well, you know.
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No. No, I actually don't know.
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Tell me. Well, you know, some brother
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offended me or some sister. Did this, or really that's all
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it took? That's all it took for somebody
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offend you, You don't want to serve God anymore.
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That's all it took. Was that the strength of your
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walk? A little offense?
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Well, yeah. You know, Pastor, I hop around
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from church to church. Why do you have so many
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churches? Oh, because I get offended
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everywhere. I wonder if that's a church
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problem or AU problem. I mean, why not look in the
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mirror, go am I walking in the light and let God answer That
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Psalmist even asked, you know, search me, try me.
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He asked, revealed to me if there's any unclean thing and
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then show me the way of righteousness, Show me the right
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way to go, because that's my heart's desire.
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Notice verse 8. Now he says, if we say that we
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have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
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in us. Again, the false teachers, the
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Gnostics, were dangerously teaching that no matter how they
21:09
acted, they possessed no sin. Nature.
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But the Bible is clear sin exists in our nature.
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It's a part of our makeup. We're going to go through quite
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a few verses. So if you're note taker right
21:20
now, you should. If you never had a a mini Bible
21:22
study on the topic of sin, I'm going to give you 1 so you can
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see the different places where sin is clearly taught.
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In Psalm 51 verse 5, it says, Behold, I was bought, brought
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forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
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Now this verse is not referring to the process of conception
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being sin, but that only sin sinners, you and me, when we
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conceive and have a child, we can only produce other sinners.
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We produce little sinners right in the beginning.
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Sinners, sinners can only produce sinners.
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He's not referring to well, you know my parents were in sin.
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We had this. Little thing with our son, my
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oldest son Eddie, because we were teenage parents, Marie and
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I and so technically I guess you could say that he was a product
22:13
of sin and we were teenagers in high school messing around and
22:18
and there we are Maurice pregnant.
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We have the child. God saves us.
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We're all. All good, we got it all cleared.
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Up he knew as a young, as young as he could understand.
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We let him know what a miracle. Child he was.
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And what kind of plan God had for his life.
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And God is greater than sin, and he knows what he's doing with
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his life early, earlier on, but. When the iPhones came out, they
22:40
had the autocorrect feature. How many of you love the
22:42
autocorrect feature? I hate it.
22:45
It almost always corrects the wrong way and I remember one day
22:49
this memory specific where I text my son I love you son and
22:53
autocorrect changed it to love you sin and his response was you
23:01
know something like that. I thought we already settled
23:03
this. You know I'm your son and not a
23:04
product of sin and it's. True, God has a plan.
23:08
Psalm 51 is not the process of making a child, it is the
23:14
reality of who. Is creating the child.
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He was born in sin, that's His nature.
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Galatians chapter 3, verse 22. But the Scripture is confined
23:25
all under sin. We just studied that.
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Galatians 322 that the promise of faith in Jesus Christ might
23:31
be given to those who believe. Human beings are prone by nature
23:37
to go away from God, to go away from His ideal, which is to
23:41
bring Him glory, to go away from His Holiness, which is to live
23:45
out in the light, and to go away from His perfect will.
23:49
Which is his desire. For men in Psalm 32, verse one,
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blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
23:57
sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
24:00
Lord does not impute iniquity and whose spirit there is no
24:05
deceit. There are 4 words that are used
24:08
to describe sin throughout the scriptures. 4 popular ones that
24:11
I want to give to you, and I want to give you the different
24:14
angle it's trying to show you related to sin.
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The first one is the word sin. Of course, we've already looked
24:20
at that. This speaks of the defect of
24:23
sin. This is the idea of missing the
24:26
mark, falling short of God's requirement.
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It's the defect that sin brings in our lives.
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We can never hit the mark apart from the righteousness of
24:34
Christ, never on our own. Sin #1 #2 is the word
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transgression. Transgression is used in the
24:42
Bible to describe the defiance of sin.
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Transgression. This transgression refers to a
24:49
deliberate rebellion. When you transgress, you do it
24:53
on purpose. Now a lot of people don't like
24:55
to admit that they've sinned, but most of the time when we
24:58
sin, it's a transgression. It was done on purpose,
25:02
willingly. And when that word is used, it's
25:04
described as willing, deliberate rebellion.
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The next word is iniquity. Iniquity.
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This speaks to the distortion, the distortion of sin.
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The word is perversity from a Hebrew word which means bent or
25:21
crooked. Human nature is warped and bent
25:24
out of shape instead of being straight, holy and perfect.
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So there's a twistedness that comes the distortion that sin
25:32
brings in our lives. And the final word is deceit,
25:36
deceit. This speaks of the deception of
25:40
sin. This speaks of the difficulty of
25:42
coming to terms with our own sin.
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Deception is horrible when we're deceived and we're lied to, but
25:49
the worst deception is self deception.
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When we lie to ourselves, especially when it relates to
25:57
sin, instead of admitting it and confessing it, we justify,
26:01
ignore it and pay the consequences.
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Now turn over to Isaiah chapter 14.
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How did sin enter in to creation?
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How did sin enter in to creation?
26:14
Through the rebellion of an Angel Lucifer, The rebellion of
26:20
an Angel. Go to Isaiah chapter 14 so you
26:24
can see. How did sin enter in to
26:28
creation? Isaiah chapter 14 Pick up with
26:32
me in verse 12 how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
26:39
son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who
26:44
weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart,
26:48
I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the
26:52
stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of
26:55
the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.
26:58
Verse 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be
27:03
like the Most High, yet you shall be brought down to shield
27:07
to the lowest depths of the pit. Do you hear that phrase repeated
27:11
over and over again? I will, I will.
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This is the root of sin, this rebellion towards God.
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Sin entered into the universe through the fallen rebellion of
27:25
the Angel Lucifer, who became the chief demon.
27:29
The chief arch demon who heads all of the demonic realm.
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I want you also to see and you can jot it down as a cross
27:38
reference. Ezekiel chapter 28.
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So it's going to be a few pages to the right now.
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Ezekiel chapter 28. It's very important that you
27:46
know these things related. To sin and understanding how to
27:50
answer these questions from the scriptures, the Bible has a lot
27:53
to say. This is a very popular topic.
27:56
God wants us to understand where sin has come from and where all
28:00
the problems that we face come from.
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Notice with me in Ezekiel chapter 28 verse 17.
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Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty.
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You corrupted your wisdom. For the sake of your splendor.
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I cast you to the ground. I laid you before kings that
28:17
they might gaze at you. You defiled your sanctuaries by
28:21
the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of
28:24
your trading. Therefore I brought fire from
28:26
your midst, it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the
28:29
earth in the sight of. All who saw you, all who knew
28:33
you among the peoples are astonished at you, and you have
28:37
become a horror and shall no be no more forever.
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If you back up to verse 14, notice actually pick up with me
28:46
for the context in verse 11. As you see, that's where the
28:49
paragraph starts. Moreover, the word of the Lord
28:51
came to me saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation for the
28:54
king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God.
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And this is one of those passages of Scripture has a dual
29:00
fulfilment. This is a direct word to the
29:03
king of Tyre. It is well as a description of
29:08
Lucifer's fall. Notice he says you were a seal
29:11
of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
29:15
You were in Eden, the Garden of God.
29:17
Every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, the Topaz
29:21
and diamond barrel and Onyx and Jasper, saspire, turquoise and
29:26
the emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels
29:29
and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.
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Can I pause there just for a second?
29:36
You may hear, maybe in a joking way or also in a serious way,
29:40
that Lucifer was a worship leader or a musician in Heaven.
29:46
And this is where you get it from, right here.
29:47
He was the workmanship of timbrels and pipes.
29:50
Some even suggest some commentators even suggest that
29:54
that this was his makeup, like he himself as an Angel was an
29:57
instrument, which is kind of cool if that's possible.
30:00
We don't quite know all the intricacies of the angelic
30:03
realm, but here you see he had a place before God.
30:06
He was the anointed. Verse 14 cherub who covers I
30:10
establish you. You are on the holy mountain of
30:12
God. You walked back and forth in the
30:14
midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways
30:18
from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you.
30:23
The Fall of Lucifer The second question as it comes to sin is
30:29
#1 how did sin enter the universe or in your creation?
30:32
Through the fall of Lucifer in the demonic realm, 1/3 of the
30:35
angels rebelled with him. We learn in Revelation, but how
30:40
did sin how, how are we, why are we dealing with sin?
30:44
And you can thank one person. You're waiting for the joke.
30:49
I'm not going to make it because his name is Adam.
30:54
It is not Eve. It's Adam.
30:57
Adam becomes the. Federal head of all.
30:59
Humanity and the reason being is is because if through one man
31:05
sin entered the earth and sin entered you and me, then by one
31:08
man sacrifice we could be forgiven.
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You see it in Romans chapter 5 verse 12.
31:15
Therefore, just as through one man centered entered the world,
31:19
and death through sin, and thus dead, and thus death spread to
31:24
all men, because all. Sinned.
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Adam's responsible. Yes, the temptation came through
31:31
Eve, but the responsibility came through Adam.
31:36
Men. You have a great.
31:38
Responsibility to be men in this culture and to lead well.
31:42
You're a single man? Then walk in the light and lead
31:44
well. You're a married man.
31:46
Walk in the light and lead well. God holds great responsibility
31:51
to the leadership He's entrusted to all of us as men, and this
31:55
world has lost a sense of not only the masculinity of men.
31:59
But the spiritual? Leadership of men, that's more
32:02
important than masculinity, whatever the new definition is.
32:05
You know what's more important in a man?
32:07
That he loves God. That he loves God and serves
32:10
God. No matter what your personality
32:12
is, no matter how you measure up in the world standards of what
32:16
masculinity is. A real man follows Jesus.
32:21
A real man follows Jesus. Notice if we say we have no sin,
32:27
then we're deceptive, we're deceiving ourselves.
32:29
The truth is not in US. Verse 10 if we say that we have
32:33
not sinned, so first it's the first, it's the the place of of
32:40
nature and who we are. But now it's action.
32:43
Verse 10. If we say we haven't sinned
32:46
another lie of the Gnostics, then we make God a liar and his
32:49
word is not in us. A result of our sinful nature is
32:54
that we naturally commit acts of sin.
32:58
John is writing to Christians and he's telling you we're not
33:01
going to be perfect. Sin continues on for the
33:04
believer. It is a real issue in the room
33:07
today. Sin, stumbling, willful
33:10
decisions, the choice to walk in darkness and not in the light.
33:14
You know what that is? Sin.
33:16
Sin is a big issue. It doesn't go away when you're
33:18
born again. As a matter of fact, the issue
33:21
of sin, it accelerates in your life because now you got so much
33:24
stuff in your life you didn't even know made God unhappy.
33:28
You had no idea you started reading ago.
33:29
I didn't even know this was a sin.
33:31
I had no idea this is what my family's knows how my house was
33:34
is my mom talked. That's how my dad talked to my I
33:36
had no idea this was this was disrespect and this was like I
33:40
had no idea I'm reading the Bible like Paul would even say
33:43
himself. I didn't even know covetedness
33:44
was bad. Until I read it right, the
33:47
essence of what Covetous does, Paul revealed through the
33:51
scriptures. And I see you and I would
33:55
probably see more sin in our lives as believers because now
33:59
we know it and there's a fight going on and now we have things
34:05
to forsake that we never knew. I can again speak for myself.
34:09
I walk into a church like this. I knew I was messed up.
34:12
I knew I was messed up. Nobody needed to convince me of
34:16
that. I knew I was a Sinner.
34:18
The problem, my problem is I didn't care, but I knew it.
34:23
But you know what happened when I was born again, I really
34:26
didn't know what a bad Sinner I was.
34:31
I really didn't know just how bad I was.
34:34
I didn't know that I was that bad because again, if I walk
34:38
into the room, it's like somebody invited me to church
34:40
and I'm like, hey, I'm not that bad.
34:42
I don't need church. I don't need, I'm not that bad.
34:45
I see myself as a moral good person.
34:48
I got my hang ups and sure I do things that don't make God
34:52
happy, whatever that means. But when I was born again God,
34:55
it's like Ed, every part of your life has been separate from me.
34:59
Every single you have been living a life as we'll learn in
35:01
Ephesians, you were a Walking Dead man.
35:05
You were alive physically, but you're dead spiritually.
35:09
And I know I'm describing some listen to me right now.
35:12
You're alive, but spiritually you're not alive.
35:16
You're dead. You can't walk in the light
35:19
until you're born again. Throughout the letter, John, he
35:23
draws a clear line. Even though sin will still be in
35:27
our lives, it will be episodic. It will not describe your life.
35:35
If you were a liar before, that will no longer be your identity.
35:43
You're a new creation in Christ. Yeah, but Ed, I lied last week.
35:46
I understand that you may have lied last week.
35:49
And you lived your whole life apart from Christ as a liar.
35:52
But in Christ, you're not a liar.
35:54
You're a believer that lied. And the very reason you're
35:57
having this conversation with me right now is because the Holy
35:59
Spirit's inside of you busting you for that lie, holding you
36:03
back from the second or from the third or in the very beginning
36:06
of the Bible study. You're so nervous right now.
36:08
You're so just like I just, I'm so uncomfortable because we were
36:12
talking about walking in the light and you're not walking in
36:14
the light. And it's troubling you.
36:17
The reason why it's troubling you is because God lives in you.
36:21
He dwells in you by the power and presence of His Holy Spirit.
36:25
But that doesn't mean we don't wrestle with sin.
36:27
Let me give you a great example. Notice in Romans Chapter 7.
36:30
Turn over there with me. It's actually one of those
36:33
shocking passages in the Bible. Romans Chapter 7.
36:36
The first time I read it many years ago, I couldn't believe my
36:38
eyes. It describes many times our own
36:41
lives. Maybe in one particular area or
36:44
in a season of life. Or you know, when I say season,
36:47
it doesn't mean months or weeks. It could be just.
36:49
One thing you're wrestling with just one thing like you're
36:52
fighting the good fight and and you your life sounds like this.
36:56
It sounds just like what is written here.
37:00
Pick up in verse 14 says for we know that.
37:03
The law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin for what
37:08
I am doing. I don't understand for what I
37:11
will to do that I do not practice, but what I hate that I
37:16
do. Now you may not use those exact
37:18
words, but perhaps you get to the place where you like.
37:21
When is it going to? Stop.
37:24
Why is this such a temptation? Why do I still get angry?
37:28
Why do I still lie? Or whatever it is?
37:31
Why is the bottle so do? Why do I still want to smoke
37:34
pot? Why?
37:36
Well, because there's a battle going on in your life.
37:38
We learned already in Galatians chapter 5 that the flesh lust
37:41
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and
37:46
the two are contrary to one another so that you do not do
37:49
the things that you wish. Believers wrestle with sin.
37:54
Our lives sometimes bring us to this place in verse 18.
37:58
I know that in me that is, in my flesh nothing good dwells.
38:03
For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good
38:06
I do not know. I think of a great illustration.
38:10
You're struggling with something and so you come leave Bible
38:13
study tonight, you're praying tonight, go to bed so encouraged
38:15
and you wake up in the morning. You say, OK, today I'm not going
38:19
to sin. And then you get out of bed.
38:23
It's like, what are you talking about?
38:25
You stub your toes. Oh, like that You.
38:28
In you, you don't have the power and the ability to live a
38:33
sinless life, not even for a second.
38:36
You and I have no ability. This is no good thing in my
38:39
flesh. Every good thing in me is from
38:43
the Lord. Every good success, every good
38:46
victory, every good, everything about my life that's good has
38:50
come from the Lord. And everything that's bad, I
38:53
take responsibility for. God did not do that to me.
38:57
Neither did you. Even if your behavior might have
39:00
tempted me, I'm the one that's sent and your behavior you.
39:04
Have to take to the Lord. But I have to take my own
39:07
behavior to the Lord you guys with me so far.
39:10
This is life giving stuff here in first John Romans Chapter 7.
39:14
If you can live, learn to live against the culture and stop
39:18
blaming and stop making excuses and stop playing the victim when
39:23
it relates to your own sinful life, you will experience more
39:26
and more victory. And you say what?
39:28
How do I do that? If we walk in the light as He is
39:31
in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood
39:35
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
39:38
We don't deny that we have sin. We don't deny that we do sin.
39:42
We bring it to the Lord and come clean.
39:46
If today you would say to me that you struggle, the reason
39:51
you say that is because God is inside of you, because before
39:55
you were saved you didn't really fight against sin.
40:00
You almost always participated in it.
40:02
What you may have felt was an unclean conscience.
40:05
But you know what happens when you have an unclean conscience
40:07
Long enough, the Bible says that you can sear your conscience,
40:10
like with a hot irony. You don't feel anymore.
40:14
You don't even feel it. You just ignore it and you
40:17
ignore it and you ignore it, and then that becomes your life.
40:21
The interesting thing about sin and the problem is, is that sin
40:24
can be very exciting and very entertaining and very
40:29
satisfying. I mean, why would any of us do
40:32
some of the things that we have done if we didn't think we would
40:34
like it? That's why temptations are
40:37
different in this room, that someone on this side of the room
40:39
would be tempted by something, but you over here would never be
40:42
tempted by it. It's not enjoyable to you.
40:44
There's a temptation for you, believe me, that is enjoyable to
40:48
you. That maybe isn't a temptation
40:49
over here. Remember what the Hebrews, the
40:52
author to Hebrews, I believe is Paul said about Moses.
40:55
He said of Moses that he chose rather to suffer affliction with
40:59
the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
41:04
Of course there's passing pleasures of sin, but just
41:08
emphasize the word passing because there are long term
41:13
consequences from sin. Sin creates deception in the
41:18
heart. Sin creates alienation from God
41:23
and each other. Sin obstructs the blessings of
41:27
God. You say, well pastor, where do
41:30
you get that? I'll give you one example right
41:32
now. God resists the proud, but He
41:36
gives grace to the humble. I would say the proud has their
41:40
life obstructed from enjoying all that God has.
41:44
Ultimately, sin brings death, physical and spiritual.
41:52
It's easy to give up in the fight.
41:54
So today, don't give up. Come to the Lord, Come clean in
41:58
the year strong. Let the Holy Spirit go deep.
42:01
Don't just take the words of a passionate pastor teaching you
42:04
the Word, but receive it from the Holy Spirit.
42:07
Read it in your own Bibles. Watch it right there on your
42:10
phone, those same words. Listen to it being read to you
42:13
on the way home. If you say you have no sin,
42:16
you're deceived and there's no truth in you.
42:19
If we say we haven't sinned, then we're making God a liar and
42:23
His word is not in us. Since we realized that sin
42:27
exists and it devastates, what are we supposed to do?
42:31
I mean, now that we kind of all agree man sins messed up.
42:34
It's going to mess me up, going to destroy.
42:36
I see so many people that are destroyed.
42:37
Now what am I supposed to do? That's where first John 19 comes
42:41
in. I just love it.
42:42
First, John 19, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just
42:46
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
42:49
unrighteousness. That'll be the sum of our whole
42:51
Bible study next time. This was a favorite passage of
42:55
my pastor, so I just wanted to pause because I got this thought
42:58
of how my pastor used to teach some of it.
43:00
And I'm like, yeah, I want to share that.
43:02
But here's the thing I want to emphasize today.
43:05
If we confess our sins, confession, that word means to
43:10
say the same thing. When you confess your sins,
43:13
you're agreeing with God about that sin in your life.
43:18
You're not born again again. Every time you confess your
43:21
sins, you're not born again again and again and again.
43:23
You lose your salvation. That's not what the Bible
43:26
teaches at all, but it is this. I agree with you, God.
43:30
I remember from where I've fallen confession.
43:33
Then I repent and I forsake it, and then I go back and repeat
43:38
the 1st works is what Jesus said.
43:41
We have this avenue of forgiveness and restoration and
43:44
real fellowship, real fellowship with God, a cleansing hope and a
43:49
fresh start. Amen.
43:51
But we want a fresh start. And whatever it is that you
43:54
would draw out from us the weakness of our flesh and the
43:59
reality of our lives. We don't want to live in sin.
44:01
We want to walk in the light. We don't want to be messing
44:04
around with darkness. We want to forsake darkness.
44:10
So I pray over the church family today, near and far, that there
44:14
would be confession tonight. True, real confession from the
44:18
heart. Like you would go deep, deep or
44:23
deep. We just leave it all at the
44:26
altar. Just leave it so we can have
44:31
fellowship with one another and be true brothers to each other
44:33
and true sisters that we'd see each other the way you see and
44:38
enjoy a fellowship that's in you, Lord, not just some of
44:42
these other things that we get to enjoy together.
44:46
And that as we close a year and enter into a new year, you know,
44:49
just a couple weeks, if you give it to us, that would be marked
44:53
by walking in the light, abiding in you, greater victory, greater
44:57
hope, greater strength. But as we learn greater, but
45:01
little by little, greater faith, greater abiding, greater
45:06
obedience, so beautiful, greater sacrifice, so much in our lives,
45:11
we can give more, Lord, we can yield more.
45:16
I just pray that over us. It's one of those studies.
45:19
Lord, I, I wish I had had it for the whole church, but this is
45:24
this is who you have gathered tonight.
45:26
This is for us. This is our word for us.
45:29
We receive it. We receive it tonight.
45:35
We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
45:37
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
45:41
prayer. Call us at 87730 grace that's
45:46
877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
45:52
integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
45:56
online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
46:04
this week.