Why I Must Fight My Sin:
- Because my sin Dishonors God. (Col 3:5)
- Because my sin Brings serious consequences. (Col 3:6)
- Because my sin Belongs in the past. (Col 3:7-10)
- Because my sin Ruins relationships. (Col 3:8-11)
Review: Psalm 16
Review: Romans 6:1-2
Review: 1 Cor 10:13
Guest Speaker - Taylor Brown
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:02
I always appreciate when Jeff and the elders invite me to speak.
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It's a great pleasure to be with you this morning.
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I just wanted to start out.
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I want you all to travel back in time with me to September 25, 2008.
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My family is celebrating my 18th birthday in the backyard.
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And so we had cornhole.
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We had ladder golf in the back.
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And we're playing and stuff.
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And all of a sudden, I notice there's a hornet's nest in the ground.
00:25-00:27
Has anyone ever seen one of those before, a hornet's nest in the ground?
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I think we have a picture of that.
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So I see this hornet's nest, right?
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And I'm like, you know what?
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This is my opportunity to prove to everyone I'm a man today.
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18 years old, I'm going to take care of this nest.
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So I go back to the garage.
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I get a can of gasoline.
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I get some matches.
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I go over to the hole.
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And I pour the gasoline into the hole.
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I throw a match in, light the whole nest on fire.
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So I'm standing there, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.
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I'm like, yeah, I did that.
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And then the fire starts going out.
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I start patting the flames out, right?
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And it seems like it's out.
00:59-01:01
Then I see some other bees clinging to life.
01:02-01:04
I'm like, OK, well, I'm just going to pour some more gas in there.
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So what do you think happened when I did that?
01:07-01:11
The stream of gas lit on fire, and then the spout was on fire.
01:12-01:16
And so what would the smart thing-- what should I have done in that situation?
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I should have thrown it and run, right?
01:18-01:19
I wasn't that smart.
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I started blowing on it.
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I was like, [BLOWING] And somehow, by the grace of God, it actually went out.
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how foolish would I have been if after that happened, I thought to myself, huh, that was weird.
01:32-01:32
That's not going to happen again.
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I just poured the gas back in.
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What would have happened?
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It would have caught fire again.
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I probably would have gotten really hurt, right?
01:39-01:40
Well, that sounds really ridiculous.
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How often do all of us do that when we sin?
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We get hurt and burned by a certain sin in our lives.
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Instead of learning a valuable lesson, we keep committing that same sin over and over, thinking that we won't get hurt again.
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We choose that sin in our lives that brought severe consequences into our lives and expect different results.
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We expect different results.
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I promise you it may take a few days, weeks, or months, but that sin will come back to haunt you and to hurt you in the future.
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Sin always destroys.
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It always brings consequences.
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And God doesn't want us messing around with it whatsoever.
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This morning, we're going to be studying the word the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3, 5 through 11, in which he commands us as followers of Christ to fight against our personal sin at all costs. Paul wants us to understand that Jesus Christ is so much better than the momentary pleasures of sin. So let's go before the Lord and ask him for his help this morning. God, we thank you so much for this awesome opportunity to come in your presence this morning to hear your word preached, to worship you in song. We thank you so much for this church, we thank you so much for the leadership here, Lord. Lord, help us all to be impacted by your word today. You promise that your word will not return to you empty, but it will go out and accomplish the purpose for which you sent it. You promise that you will watch over your word to perform it. I pray that today will be the day where some people release their grip on this certain sin in their lives and they would follow after you. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, so before we get started in Colossians 3, 5 through 11, I want to backtrack for a few minutes and set up the context. So all throughout the first two chapters of Colossians, Paul wants to remind the Colossian church of how Jesus has truly changed them. He wants to remind them of who Jesus truly is and what he has done in their lives. He present and future sins upon himself and paid the penalty on the cross. He's completely paid the penalty and Satan no longer has any power over them. He goes on to say they've been given a new identity and a new life through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. He wants them to understand that the Holy Spirit has radically transformed them from the inside out. At one point they were weak, powerless and without hope. They were not able to fight against their sin, but now they were made new in Jesus Christ and they had the desire and ability to fight against their sin, put it to death, and pursue after holiness.
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So Paul wants to remind the Colossian believers of why they must fight against their sin with all that they have. That's the context for Colossians 3, 5, through 11, and Paul says, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these too you once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, because Christ is all and in all. So Paul shows us why we must fight our sin and the first reason is because my sin dishonors God. First and foremost my sin dishonors God. Paul starts out with a really serious command here. He says, "Put to death what is earthly in you." That's some really serious language, right? Paul's not like, "Hey guys, I don't want to be a bother, but if you have some time, could you please stop trying to give in to your sexual temptations, your evil desires? I don't want to bother you, just if you have time." Is that what he says here? No, he says, "Put it to death, kill it, be merciless to it." It's very, very And the fancy theological word for putting your sin to death is called mortification. And Puritan pastor John Owen once wrote this really important line about killing our sin or mortifying it. He says, "Do you mortify, do you make it your daily work? Be always at it while you live. Cease not a day from this work." Catch this part. "Be killing sin or it will be killing you." Be killing sin or it will be killing you.
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And that is the duty and responsibility of every Christian believer, fighting their sin and killing it.
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For all of us, if we're honest, we struggle with putting our sin to death, don't we?
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We struggle with fighting against it.
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We trick ourselves into thinking that we can control our sin, we can manage it.
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We think we're stronger than we really are.
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We think we can mess around with sin without getting hurt or addicted.
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And maybe for you, the men in this room, you think you can look at pornography every once in a while but not get sucked in and addicted.
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So every couple of weeks you can look at it, it's not really a big deal.
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Or you entertain certain sexual thoughts, but you think it's not really a big deal because you don't act upon those thoughts.
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Maybe you tell lies every once in a while to your boss or to your family, but it's not really a huge deal because you just lie whenever you have to or you wanna avoid a confrontation.
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Maybe for you, you're never really satisfied, and you constantly complain about your life and how bad you have it.
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You think, you know what?
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I deserve to vent my frustration.
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I deserve to tell people how hard my life is.
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Listen, sin is like a wild animal.
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If you mess around with it and play with it, eventually it will turn around and bite you.
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It will hurt you.
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That pornography you're looking at, it will suck you in and get you addicted.
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Those sexual thoughts you allow yourself to have, eventually you'll act on those fantasies.
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Those little white lies you tell people will keep snowballing and snowballing until one day you realize you lie to everyone, even when you don't even have to.
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And that complaining attitude will snowball and get out of control and you'll be a bitter and angry person who is never ever satisfied.
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You cannot control your sin. You can't manage it. You're not strong enough to handle it on your own.
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As I just quoted, "Be killing sin or it will be killing you." You know, maybe for some of you, killing your sin looks like getting a filtering software on your computer.
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You can't handle that temptation, so you need to make sure that you have parameters around your life to make sure you won't fall into temptation.
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Or maybe your sexual addiction is so serious that you know how to get around these filters, so you need to get rid of your laptop or your smartphone for a while, maybe downgrade to a flip phone.
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You're like, "Taylor, I can't do that.
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I need my smartphone." What's more important to you, a convenience of a smartphone or a personal and thriving relationship with Jesus Christ?
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You're struggling with sexual immorality, find someone in your life who can hold you accountable in your area of sexual thoughts.
09:11-09:14
You need someone, you need people's help, you can't do it on your own.
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Maybe you just need to stop hanging out with certain people in your life.
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Every single time you hang out with them, you eventually make fun of other people, you you complain, you bad mouth other people, maybe you need to cut those people out of your life for a certain season, because you can't handle being around them.
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This afternoon you may need to tell your spouse that you've been lying to them for a long time.
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Tell a friend that you've been lying to them for a long time.
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You may be thinking, Taylor, there's no way I could possibly ever do that.
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I can't handle the embarrassment and shame that I would feel.
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Can't I just stop lying to them from now on?
09:50-10:53
You have to make it right today. Fighting sin and killing it, it's really uncomfortable, it's really challenging, it's hard, but you can't take shortcuts, you can't make excuses. The Apostle Paul tells us to do this because at its core, sin is idolatry. Sin is idolatry. Please catch this, when we sin, we are committing idolatry. What is idolatry? Idolatry is giving something or someone else the attention, honor, and glory that God alone deserves. When you sin, you are giving that attention and glory to sinful things instead of God. You're saying to God, "I don't need you to be happy. This will satisfy me more than you ever could." You may not say that out loud, but that's what you're thinking in your heart when you sin. You're thinking, "I don't need God to be happy. This will make me happy." You believe in that moment that sin is more satisfying than God.
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But don't ever believe that lie. Sin will not give you what you were looking for.
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Sin never gives anything to you. It only takes away from you.
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There is no true joy or lasting happiness in a sinful lifestyle. That David has this to say in Psalm 16 as he's singing to the Lord, "You make known to me the path of life.
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In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that all that you need is in Jesus Christ, is in a relationship with your God? Do you really believe that? Because you cannot fight against your sin and put it to death unless you believe that Jesus Christ is more satisfying than that sin that you with. It's impossible. You have to truly believe that Jesus Christ is better than your sin. Please don't replace the king of the universe with the momentary pleasure of sin, which will never make you happy. So why must I fight my sin? First, because my sin dishonors God. Secondly, because my sin brings serious consequences. My sin brings serious consequences.
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Paul goes on to tell us that sin brings pain and misery into our lives and on account of this sin he says that the wrath of God is coming. The wrath of God is coming. He's reminding us that one day Jesus Christ will return and with his return there will be a judgment day. This isn't a popular teaching to talk about on Sunday mornings but it's so important for us to talk about. Saying that there will be a judgment day and those who didn't turn to Jesus Christ for salvation and forgiveness from their sins will be sentenced to hell eternally to suffer God's just anger and wrath for their sinful lifestyles.
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But for those of us who have trusted in Christ, all the wrath and punishment that we deserve for our sin was poured out upon Jesus on the cross, and we don't have to face judgment anymore. Some of us may be thinking right now, Well, if my sin is covered and paid for, then I can just do whatever I want, right?
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I mean, I won't get in trouble. I can just ask God for forgiveness afterward. It's not really a big deal.
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Raise your hand if you ever thought that before.
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We've all thought that, right? Every single one of us. I mean, whatever. I can do this. I'll just ask God for forgiveness afterwards.
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But that's not an attitude that we as Christians should ever, ever have. That's a very God-dishonoring attitude.
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Paul says in Romans 6, 1 through 2, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
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By no means. How can we who have died to sin still live in it? We should never view God's grace as a free pass to do whatever we want without consequences. That's not an attitude we should have at all. Listen, God's grace not only forgives us of our sin, but also delivers us from living in our sin. God's grace not only forgives us of our sins, but delivers us from living in sin. Why would we want to keep living in those things which brought us shame and dishonored our God? We have to remember it's because of our sins, our mistakes, our mess-ups that Jesus had to go to the cross. The next time you're tempted to believe that that sin you're involved with isn't a big deal, just think to yourself, "This sin is so serious, it's such a big deal that my Savior had to suffer and die for it on the cross. He had to bleed out and have the wrath of his Father poured out upon him. That's how serious it is, no matter how small it looks to you or other people around you. God wants us to be truly heartbroken over our sin, not treat it casually or flippantly.
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So please don't mess around with those things that led Jesus to the cross.
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St. Paul tells us that sin brings eternal consequences, but it also brings negative effects in this life as well. You know, Satan tricks us into believing that sin is truly satisfying, but as James MacDonald always says, "If you choose to sin, then you choose to what? You choose to suffer, right? If you choose to disobey God's Word and do what it tells you not to do, you will suffer certain consequences. It's going to happen. It may take days, it may take months, it may take years, but you will be hit with shame over what you did, and you'll lose a closeness with God. If you keep choosing that sin over God every single day, you're not going to have that closeness and that really personal relationship that you want with Him. We'll talk about this later, but sin never just affects you, it affects everyone that you come into contact with. Some of you are living with the consequence of a certain sin in your life right now. Maybe you did something to another person and that relationship has been broken and you idea how to restore their trust. Maybe for years you've been choosing that certain sin over God and you haven't felt close to him in years and you don't know how to restore that. So please this morning learn from your mistakes and let these consequences be a reminder of what happens when you choose sin over the Lord. There's never been a time in my life where I obeyed God and I regretted it, but there are a lot of times where I've disobeyed him and I've always regretted of it. You know, sinning is like opening a door to a thief. It will just come in and steal all that you have away from you, all your joy, all your contentment, and all of your peace. So please remember that sin always brings consequences. Even if you can't see them right away, you can never truly get away with sinning.
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So why must I fight my sin? Because first, it dishonors God, it brings serious consequences. Thirdly, because my sin belongs in the past. My sin belongs in the past. So Paul goes on to say that sin belongs in our past because it defined who we were, but not who we are now in Jesus Christ. He writes, "In these two you once walked when you lived in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouths." Paul is saying every single one of us who are Christians here this morning, we all once lived a life of sin, but as Christians who have been made new, we have to begin to move on from those sins and pursue after the Lord. You know, when I was younger, I used to love playing with action figures and wearing costumes, and I used to have a lot of Batman action figures, Power Rangers, things like that. I would run around the house wearing like, you know, Buzz Lightyear costume, Batman costume, and I'd be up in my room, you know, having these epic battles, right? But there had to be a certain age where I had to put these things away to grow up, right? And if you talk to my sister, she'll tell you she could hear me when I was 16 years old playing with these toys in my room. That's a lie. Don't believe her. She'll also tell you I didn't learn how to ride my bike until I was 12, which is not true. So don't listen to what she says, okay? Don't talk to her about that. You know, but there had to be a time where I put these things away so I could grow up and become a man, right, and go to college and get married and everything like that. Now imagine if my wife Kate came home tomorrow And she finds me in the living room in a Green Power Rangers outfit, playing with my GI Joes, going like, pow, pow, pow, pow.
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But she'd be like, that's normal.
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No, she'd be like, what are you doing?
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I married a grown man, not a kid.
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Put your toys away.
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Right?
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Because those toys and those costumes belong in my past.
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They don't belong in my life now as an adult married man with no kids.
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In a much greater way, our sin doesn't belong in our present because it was taken care of by Jesus Christ on the cross.
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has no place in our new lives right now. We have to begin to move on from those sins that we struggle with. Paul goes on to write, "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self." So before we came to Jesus, we were dead in our sin, as I said before, and we had no hope. But Paul uses the metaphor here of saying that we were able to put off the old self and put on the new self. In Jesus Christ, our old selves were sacrificed, dead, buried, and we were able to put on a new identity in Jesus Christ. He's kind of used the metaphor of old clothing, right? We put off the old self like an old disgusting shirt and we put on the new self. So to illustrate this, I want you to imagine that this jacket is the old self, okay?
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Does this look really good to anybody?
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Does this look good?
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Anybody?
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This is our old selves before Christ, right?
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This is ourselves who are stained with our sin and our selfishness.
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But in Jesus Christ, when we were forgiven, we were able to take the old self off, right?
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We were able to take it off.
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And then Paul goes on to say that we were able to put on the new self.
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Let's see if I can get this on.
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Does this look a little bit better? A little bit better, right?
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So the Bible says we are to put on the new self, which is being renewed after the image of its creator.
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And the catch is, when you put the new self on, you can never take it off again.
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You can't lose your salvation, you can't undeserve God's grace.
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You know what you can do? You can cover it up with the old self. You can decide in moments of weakness that you miss the old self and you miss those certain sins you used to enjoy, and so you cover up the new self with your old self.
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Does this look good? Looks even worse, right? Nothing looks worse than a Christian covering up the person that God made them to be with the old sins that they used to love.
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All of us do that sometimes, right?
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We miss that certain sin we used to enjoy and we go back to it and we cover up the people that God made us to be.
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Paul's calling us in this passage to move on, to realize that we are new, we don't have to give into temptation, we don't have to do what we used to do.
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We can be new people in Jesus Christ.
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To Paul's heads here, be renewed with each passing day and become more like Jesus Christ.
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grow closer to him and choose to not give in to that sin any longer. Sin belongs in your past and has no place in your present. It's part of the old you, but not the new you.
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Okay, so lastly, why must I fight my sin? Because my sin ruins relationships. My sin ruins relationships. So throughout verses 8 through 11, Paul lists sins that ruin our relationships with other people. Anger, wrath, vengeance, malice, slander, lying, obscene talk. Is anyone guilty of those sins besides me? I think we've all done that, right? We've all committed all of these sins. We've all lied to people.
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We've all tried to take revenge on other people who have wronged us. We've all been angry at people for no reason.
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There are people here today who really struggle with anger.
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Anger is a really serious issue for you.
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People say this about you, oh, you don't want to get on their bad side.
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You don't want to see them when they're angry.
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They have really short views.
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Maybe you're having a really difficult time at work, and you're taking out your frustrations on your family.
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You might yell at your wife or your kids.
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You might even throw things in anger.
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But that's not the attitude we're called to have Jesus Christ, Paul says to put away anger and rage. So if that's you this morning, if you're struggling with anger and you suddenly just snap, talk to one of the elders today, talk to Pastor Jeff, or find a Christian counselor who can walk you through those issues because you cannot keep that hidden and bottled up anymore.
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That will lead to devastation for you and your family. So Paul says to put away anger and wrath. A lot of the sins that Paul lists here have to do with how we talk to each other. Lying, obscene talk, slander. We've all heard that phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Is that true? Is there any truth to it? No. Actually, words have the power to cause a greater injury to us than a physical injury. I think all of us can look back in our lives and have those things that people said about us really stick out.
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certain name that was given to you in high school or something a friend said to you in a moment of anger and you still even feel the pain of that to this day. Remember that how you speak to and about others is a huge deal and God cares about every single word that comes out of your mouth. The Bible even says that we're all going to be held accountable for every word that we speak.
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So let me ask you, how is your speech? How is your speech? Are you known as someone who is honest or someone who is dishonest and lies to get their way? Are you known as someone who builds up and encourages? Or are you known as someone who discourages and tears people down every single turn? You know what, we need to stop hiding behind the excuse of, "Oh, I'm just joking." Who said that this week? My hands raised. I said it to my wife the other day. I'm just joking. Does that really help at all?
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Does that really help heal somebody from the wounds that you caused to them with your words, it doesn't. It doesn't help at all. We need to stop hiding behind that excuse. Maybe at your church today you have to find someone in your life and apologize for something you said to them recently. Maybe that person is here in this room today. Don't let this day pass you by without apologizing and asking for forgiveness for the careless words you've spoken in the past. St. Paul ends this section by saying, "Here there is no Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all." What's Paul saying here? It's kind of a weird way to end the passage, right? What's he even talking about here? Paul is saying that sin leads us to pride, which causes us to think we are better than other people. He says there is no room at all in the body of Christ for pride. No one is better than anyone else. Paul says whether you're a Gentile, a Jewish person, a slave, whether you follow all the Old Testament rules, we're all equal in the eyes of God. And the same goes to this congregation. No one is better or more important than anyone else here in this room today. No matter what family you come from, no matter how much money you have in your bank account, whether you have a position of authority in this church or not, we're all equal in the eyes of God and equally loved by Him.
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All of us struggle with pride in one of its two forms. One of its two forms. We either struggle with self-exaltation or self-pity. We either think we're better than everybody else or less valuable than everyone else. And both those are prideful because we're focusing all of our attention and energy upon ourselves and our status. If you exalt yourself above other people, you'll think you're better than them and you won't think your sin is a big deal because you think you have it all together. So if that's you, if you struggle with that form of pride, come before the Lord this morning and say, "Lord, I need you to humble me. Help me to realize how much I need you every single day." I think a lot of us here, we fall on the opposite end of the spectrum, right? We think we're worthless and we think we have nothing to offer anyone. And that's an equally sinful thought.
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Because God loves you, God created you with dignity, value, and worth, and you have a purpose, and it's wrong to think otherwise, because you're telling God, "You're a bad creator, you made a mistake with me," and God never makes mistakes, ever. Pride has no room in the body of Christ. It will infect us and spread if we don't destroy it. So listen to me, your sin never just affects you, it affects everyone that you know. Sin is never just your problem, it's and private because it affects how you treat other people. Sin affects this church, you know that? The sin in your life affects this church. Sin always destroys and it always ruins relationships if we let it.
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I know in a room this size there are many people who feel like they are helpless to fight against a certain sin in their life. You're thinking to yourself, "Taylor, this all sounds really great, but you have no idea what I'm struggling with. I've been facing this sin and this temptation for years and I I have no idea how to get away from it.
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It's impossible.
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If that's you this morning, please know your situation isn't hopeless.
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Listen to this promise from God in 1 Corinthians 10.13.
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"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
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God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
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But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it." God promises that he will always provide a way of escape.
28:12-28:13
You never have to give in.
28:14-28:20
You have been made new in Jesus Christ, and you've been given the desire and ability to fight against your sin.
28:20-28:23
Call out to him this morning for his strength and his help.
28:23-28:27
Turn to your spouse, a family member, or a friend for their accountability.
28:29-28:30
You can't fight your sin on your own.
28:31-28:32
It's not possible.
28:32-28:34
Don't be embarrassed to ask for help.
28:34-28:34
You need it.
28:36-28:42
Today can be the day that stronghold in your life is torn down. Today can be the day where your shackles to that sin are broken.
28:42-29:29
Today can be a brand new start for you. The Bible says that God's mercies are new every single day. There may be some people in this room who don't know Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. If that's you, don't wait another day to repent or turn away from your sins and ask God to forgive you. Jesus says, "I will never send anyone away if they come to me." So if that's you, stop running away from the Lord, the Bible says today is the day of salvation. Turn to him for his grace and forgiveness. And for the rest of us who are Christians, realize that your sin dishonors God, it brings consequences into your life, it belongs in your past, not your present, and that will ruin relationships in your life if you let it.
29:31-29:55
Never look back in longing at the old self and go back to that sin which you used to enjoy. Instead, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, and run after him with all that you have. In Jesus alone is all that you're looking for. Don't look back at your old life and your old self. Fight against your sin by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.
29:58-30:33
Lord, we come before you this morning and we admit that fighting against our sin is really hard. It's difficult, it's challenging, and we feel so helpless to fight against it on our own. We thank you that you've made us new, you've helped us to put on the new self, to put off the old self. By the power of the Holy Spirit, you give us the ability to fight against our sin and put it to death. I know there are people in this room who've been struggling with a certain sin for months, maybe even years, would I pray you'd help them today to end it.
30:34-30:37
They would stop hiding it, stop keeping it private.
30:38-30:41
They would confess it to you and confess it to someone else and seek help.
30:43-30:51
I pray for people in this room who don't know you, that for the first time, they would admit that they need to be saved and that they can't save themselves.
30:51-30:52
They need you.
30:52-30:54
They need your grace and your mercy and your forgiveness.
30:56-30:59
Lord, let this be a brand new day for all of us.
31:01-31:02
In Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Colossians 3:5-11
When you sin, what are you telling God with your actions? Why do we at times
believe that sin is more satisfying than God? Why can sin never compare to a
relationship with Christ?
Even though we are new in Jesus, why do we choose to go back to our old ways
of living? How can we fight against the temptation to go back to the old self?
Does sin only ever affect us? How does it hurt other people? How can we help each other to fight against sin?
Breakout Questions:
Confess the recurring sin(s) in your life that you struggle with. Pray for one another and develop an accountability plan to grow in your support among each other.