Sin is Serious....
- ...because it can INFLUENCE others. (Mk 9:42)
- ...because it can DESTROY you. (Mk 9:43-48)
- ...because it can rob you of POWER . (Mk 9:49-50)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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And we're going to be in Mark chapter 9, sorry, verse 42.
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If you would turn there with me, please.
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It was in the news about a year ago.
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A woman by the name of Sandra, and I'm going to try to pronounce this name carefully, Piovasan, from Salem in Westmoreland County.
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It came out actually September 23, 2013.
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Maybe some of you remember this story.
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Sandra Piovasan was found in a caged rectangular enclosure in her backyard, which was actually the home for her pets.
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She had nine half-wolves, half-dogs that were later euthanized.
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The autopsy found that the woman suffered multiple soft tissue injuries.
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The report says that aside from her animals, Sandra lived alone.
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She lived in the same white house for many years.
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neighbors said that she received visitors only rarely.
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Family members knew something was wrong when she failed to show up for a breakfast meeting that they'd arranged.
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Listen to this story.
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It says, "Ms. Povison treated her wolves like children and said as much when neighbors asked about them.
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The fenced-in area in her backyard was about the width of a three-lane road running the length of her house.
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And the area was divided into section, one for her wolf dogs and one for her pair of Rottweilers and another for wolf puppies, with whom she'd play and romp.
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She provided toys, a replica igloo, balls, a plastic playhouse.
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Her neighbor across the street had asked her before her passing about her attachment to the animals.
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And Ms. Piovesan said in response, "They give me unqualified love." neighbor also went on to say that she also had one wolf that lived in the house with her named Spirit. She had raised Spirit from a puppy and she kept that one in the house.
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The police officer, Officer Gower, who was covering this incident said, she said that that she liked the wolves because they were pretty.
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Why she would want them as pets?
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That's beyond me.
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That's a tragic story, isn't it?
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Here's a woman who had these wolves that were very cute.
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I would suggest like all furry animals, including humans, when they're very young and very small, they're very cute.
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True or false?
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Baby wolf pups?
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They're adorable.
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They were her children, so to speak.
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And she lived with them and one actually lived in the house with her.
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What you have to see from this story is her familiarity with the wolves reduced her awareness of the danger of the wolves.
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I want to say that again. Listen.
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Her familiarity with the wolves reduced her awareness of the danger of the wolves.
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that didn't reduce the danger itself.
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Do you understand that?
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She became familiar enough with them that she was no longer scared of them for what they were.
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When the fact of the matter is, they were just as dangerous as wolves always are.
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And her failure to recognize the danger killed her.
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This is a woman roughly in her own community.
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You know there's entire TV shows centered around this concept.
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What's it called?
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My Wife Watches.
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Is it Fatal Attractions?
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Is that right?
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It's on like the animal planet.
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But these people get these animals.
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Sometimes it's wolves.
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Sometimes it's tigers.
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Or vipers.
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And I'm sure initially there was a little bit of fear.
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I would be scared to have that thing bite me.
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And that fear goes to familiarity, which goes to - I even heard the story of a woman.
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A woman who kept a gaboon viper running around her house loose like a kitten.
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And it bit her and killed her.
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Because it was a viper, and she failed to recognize the danger, her familiarity reduced the awareness of the danger.
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And church, listen.
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This is what it's like with sin.
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This is what it is like with sin in your life and in my life when we start to get familiar with our sin.
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We start to get comfortable with our sin and at first it doesn't seem like that big of a deal and it might even seem a little cute and it seems harmless.
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We become so familiar with our sin that it no longer seems dangerous to us because it's just been a part of our lives.
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But the truth is, it hasn't lost its danger.
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There's one thing you need to leave here with today.
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And you know, we've been walking through the Gospel of Mark, and I certainly see some humorous encounters that Jesus had with people.
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But honestly, this passage that we're looking at today is anything but humorous.
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This is one of the most serious and sobering passages in your entire Bible.
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This is one of the most serious things that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, this is one of the most serious things that ever came out of His mouth when He was on this earth.
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And I would encourage you to take His words for as serious as they are.
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And I know we're in a warm auditorium, and I know some of us have had very busy weekends with picnics, but I would encourage you, one thing today, you have to leave with, it's on your outline, in your bulletin, here it is, this is what Jesus is communicating in this passage, sin is serious. Okay? Sin is serious. In church we've got to stop treating it like a wolf puppy. Sin is serious. Cute and harmless looking now, destructive later.
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Sin is serious. I encourage you to take some notes. Why is sin serious? Number one, I want I want you to write this down.
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Sin is serious because it can influence others.
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It can influence others.
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That was the first thing that Jesus said.
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Look at verse 42.
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Jesus said, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin..." Now stop here.
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Why is He talking about this?
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Well back up.
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about last week. He talked about receiving, the last couple of weeks actually, verse 37, whoever receives one such child in my name. And then last week, well what about these people that aren't part of our team so to speak and are doing ministry and Jesus said don't stop them. The one who is not against us is for us. And then he says in verse 41, Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward." So he's talking about other believers.
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And he launches that teaching into an extremely serious threat.
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He said, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him, if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." Jesus talked about receiving his people.
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He talked about not stopping whoever is for him.
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And something you have to see in this passage, sin is serious because it can influence others.
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And that's not even the most serious part of this verse.
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The most serious part of this verse is this, Jesus loves His people.
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Jesus loves His people.
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In fact, Galatians 2.20 tells us that Jesus is alive in His people.
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Jesus had already told us that how we treat His people is the way that we treat Him, and "Well, actually it's the way that you would treat the one that sent me." The way that you treat another believer is the way that you would treat God the Father Himself.
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Jesus loves His people.
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He's alive in His people.
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And He is very serious about the way His people are treated.
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He said, "If you, whoever, would cause one of these little ones who believe in Me..." Remember, He's not just talking about children, ok?
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He's talking about born-again people.
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He's talking about people that have dedicated themselves, have been born again in Him.
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He said if you would cause one of them to sin, you'd better have a great millstone.
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We're talking about a rock that was used to grind grain that would weigh tons.
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Tied around your neck and the rock thrown into the sea, you being dragged behind it.
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Here's the point, messing with Jesus' people messing with Him.
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And that is a bad plan.
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You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, what's this mean?
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If you cause someone to sin, what exactly does that mean with the whole millstone around the neck into the sea?" And my word for you today is let's not find out.
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For sure, it means this.
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not be the cause of someone else sinning.
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You're like, "Well, how does that happen?
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How can I cause someone else to sin?" I want you to jot this down.
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There's actually two categories.
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There's two categories.
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The first one, write this down, you can cause someone to sin indirectly.
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Indirectly.
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Like, what do you mean by that?
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What I mean is just by your example.
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Just by your example.
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Your pride, your self-exaltation, your self-centeredness, your materialism, your personal compromise about sin, your personal lessening the seriousness of sin in your life, and that being an example for someone else, that's causing someone else to sin.
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You can cause someone to sin indirectly by the example that you set.
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That is serious business.
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You're like, "Well, what I do, really it only hurts me." That's not true.
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You have eyes watching you.
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You can cause someone to sin indirectly.
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Or you can cause someone to sin directly.
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What's the mission of our church?
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Our mission is to make disciples, right?
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We want to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.
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In other words, our church is about making disciples.
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But you can disciple people the wrong way.
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You can disciple people.
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You can teach people about taking shortcuts in life.
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You can teach people that the integrity issues aren't really the important issues.
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People are watching you.
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And people are listening to you in your workplace.
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You are the representative of Jesus Christ in your workplace.
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You're like, "No, I'm not." You are.
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2 Corinthians 5 says that we are ambassadors for Christ.
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You're representing Jesus Christ to somebody if you bear the name Christian.
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And people are watching you.
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You are the representative of Christ in your neighborhood.
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Taking it real serious.
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You are the representative of Christ to your children.
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And there's not an arena of life where the influence is more direct or more consistent than in your own home.
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Because your kids are watching you.
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Your kids are looking for hypocrisy in you.
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You're looking for, "Well, Dad says this, but Dad does this." "Well, Mom says this is important, but Mom doesn't act like it's important." You're like, "Well, do what I say, not what I do." You're discipling your children to hypocrisy when you say that.
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Sin is serious because it can influence others.
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Jesus takes that very seriously.
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Secondly, sin is serious because it can destroy you.
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Sin is serious because it can destroy you.
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Look at verses 43 down through verse 48.
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Jesus said, "And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
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For it is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, the unquenchable fire.
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And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
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It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.
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And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.
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It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
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Sin is serious because it can destroy you.
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Now listen, do not misunderstand.
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Jesus is not saying that a believer can go to hell.
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He is not saying that.
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Okay?
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This is a call to salvation.
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Jesus had already made comments like this.
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If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself.
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He must take up his cross.
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He must follow Me.
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And certainly, this is a call to salvation.
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If you're sitting here today, and you have not come to Christ because you have found that some sin and your life is much more important to you.
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This is a word for you.
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You've got to cut it off.
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He says it's better to enter life maimed than to be whole and go to hell.
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But he's not saying that a believer will go to hell.
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Like, you know, you're a follower of Christ.
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You've just gone through a really tough season in your life, and you've fallen into sin, and now you're facing eternal judgment.
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He is not saying that.
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Everyone say, "He is not saying that." That is very important, ok?
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Nothing can rob you of your salvation.
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Nothing.
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However, Jesus is...
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Believers!
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Jesus is still emphasizing the seriousness of sin.
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Meaning this, obviously there are some disciples listening to this teaching, and here's the point, don't miss this.
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He's saying you need to get serious about sin when you come to Him, and you need to stay serious about sin in your walk with Him.
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John the Baptist comes on the scene. Matthew chapter 3 verse 8, John the Baptist said, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." So when we talk about repentance, I want you to think about repentance. Is repentance a one-time thing? Like you know what, when I I gave my life to Jesus, I gave my life to Christ back in 1995.
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That was like when I repented.
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Is that like a one-time thing?
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Is it a yearly thing?
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Every year at our church, we mark a week off of the calendar.
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It's like repentance week at Harvest Bible Chapel.
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Every year we set aside time to repent.
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Actually, I don't think either of those are the case.
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Repentance is a constant thing.
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Repentance is a constant thing.
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The word repent literally means to change your mind.
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In other words, change your mind from your earthly, fleshly, sinful way of thinking and think the way God thinks, but continue to think the way God thinks. You constantly are repenting. That's why John the Baptist didn't just say, "Repent." He said, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." And it's for Christians too. In the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, we talked about this. Jesus addressed the seven churches. To all but two of the churches, he said, "Repent. Change your mind. You're thinking about things wrongly.
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You need to change your mind. Think of repentance like a diet." Right? If you were going to go on a diet, he said, "My diet starts today. I'm going to eat healthy today. And that will set me on the course of health for the rest of my life. Because today, what is this, August 24th? August 24th I started a diet. I dieted on August 24th and that changed everything.
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So what happens tomorrow? The diet has to continue, right? You're changing your mindset about food and nutrition and what you should eat and the way you should eat. That mindset That has to happen tomorrow too, right?
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And the next day.
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If it's going to be effective, it has to be consistent.
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It can't just be like, "Well, I know that I'm healthy because I went on a diet when I was a sophomore in high school.
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So yeah, I'm on a diet." Like, "Well, where are you coming up with this?" The verbiage that Jesus uses in this passage is in the present tense.
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Meaning this, keep doing it.
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Keep dealing with your sin.
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Always, when it shows up, when it comes up, keep dealing with it.
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I think it's pretty obvious, don't you?
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Jesus talked about verse 43, your hand.
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Verse 45, your foot.
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Verse 47, your eye.
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He's talking about all areas of life.
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Some sin is in what we do with our hands.
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Jesus said if that's a source of your sin, you need to cut your hand off.
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Some sin has to do with where we go.
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Like I know I shouldn't go there, because every time I go there I act like an idiot and end up sinning and end up regretting it.
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Jesus says if your foot's taking you there, cut it off.
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For some it's, "Men, men, what you're looking at with your eyes.
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I shouldn't be looking at this.
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I shouldn't be watching this.
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It's causing me to sin.
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I shouldn't be watching these things." "Gouge your own eyeball out of your head," is what Jesus said.
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Do you remember the story of Aaron Ralston?
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You remember his story?
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Back in 2003 in southeastern Utah, Aaron Ralston was doing what you call "canyoneering." What's canyoneering?
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It's like traveling through a canyon.
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It's more than just hiking.
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It's also rappelling and swimming and rock climbing.
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And you remember the story?
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A boulder dislodged and trapped his right arm underneath it.
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Aaron Ralston took a dull knife and cut his own arm off.
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After being trapped for five days and seven hours, he cut his own arm off.
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After freeing himself, he still had to get on a 65 foot sheer cliff in order to reach safety.
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He actually attended Carnegie Mellon.
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Did you know that?
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Local flavor.
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They made a movie about his life called 127 Hours.
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You're like, "Wow, thank you for that gruesome story Pastor Jeff.
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Where are you going with this?" Well, you see the point, right?
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Aaron Ralston figured it was worth losing an arm if it meant saving his life.
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Here's the thing.
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Cutting off a body part is not going to stop you from sinning.
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Because ultimately, point to where sin originates.
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Point to where sin really affects.
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Everybody point. Where does sin?
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Right here, right?
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This is where the problem is with sin.
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It's a heart issue.
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Jesus made this clear. Remember Matthew chapter 5?
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You've heard that it was said, "Thou shalt not murder." But I tell you, if you hate your brother, you've committed murder in your heart.
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Jesus said murder isn't just the act.
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And here, Jesus said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Jesus said, "But I say to you, if you look at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart." is emphasizing is how seriously we have to deal with sin.
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Notice how many times Jesus mentioned hell.
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If you're sitting here today and you haven't received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have not accepted His death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin and His resurrection from the dead to give you eternal life to restore the relationship with God, The rest you have to look forward to is hell.
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And I'd rather not talk about that, but Jesus did.
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Hell is a real place.
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And real people are really going there.
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That's why Jesus gave a threat first about causing a little one to sin, And here He gives a warning.
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Your sin will destroy you.
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The word that Jesus used for hell is actually Gehenna.
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You can read about it in 2 Kings 16-21.
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It's also called the Valley of Hinnom.
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And it was a place where babies were sacrificed to Molech.
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It became a place of human sacrifice.
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People associated it with a place of death and destruction and screaming, crying babies murdered. A place so horrifying that you don't even want to think about it, let alone talk about it. Jesus said that's what hell is like. If you haven't received Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want to remind you again that you are one breath away from hell.
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And hell is not some boogeyman that the church made up in order to scare people into obedience.
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According to Jesus, hell is a real place.
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And real people really go there.
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And for Christians, those of you who have received Christ, we are not dismissing the seriousness of sin in your own life.
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Christians, listen to me very closely.
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Sin can still ruin your life.
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It won't send you to hell, but it will ruin your life.
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Sin will ruin your life.
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If you are entertaining your sin like a wolf pup, it is going to destroy you.
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You are one bad decision away from ruining your life.
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Did you know that?
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You are one bad decision away from ruining your life.
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Think about it. Married people.
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You get on social media The flame from the past gets in contact with you and you entertain the idea of just keeping conversation going.
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That's a decision that can destroy your marriage.
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You will look back at this time right now and think, man, I wish I would have listened.
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I wish I would have taken this more seriously.
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I wish I could go back to make a different decision.
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That's how serious sin is.
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It can destroy your marriage.
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You're one bad decision away from destroying your job, your livelihood.
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One little compromise here, one little shortcut here, one little integrity issue here.
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You're one bad decision away from losing your job, which could mean income, insurance, Benefits whatever.
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Families, that doesn't just affect you, does it?
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You could be doing some major damage not only to your life, but to the people that God has entrusted under your care.
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You're one bad decision away from allowing sin to wreck you!
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You are one bad decision away from allowing sin to destroy your health.
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up some habit, continuing some habit, overdosing through some habit.
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Your one bad decision away from a police record, going somewhere, drinking too much, shouldn't drive, going to do it anyways, man I wish I hadn't made that foolish decision.
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one bad decision away from doing some major damage in your life.
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You know, like, "Pastor Jeff, you're getting a little too serious on us today, okay?
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Can you go back to the jokes?" And no, because this is no laughing matter.
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I've been torn up over these last couple of months, reading stories of very prominent and popular pastors who have shipwrecked their ministries.
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I'm not going to mention names, but for the sake of sexual inappropriateness, for the sake of flat-out affairs and pornography and mistreating the people under these pastors' cares.
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I've been reading these stories heartbroken to hear someone that God used so mightily to bring so many people to Him have left so many people in a wake of jaded, cynical towards the church.
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And the reason I'm saying that, if that can happen to these guys who are rocking it with these churches of thousands and all these people around them with them and encouraging them and praying for them, if it can happen to these guys, it can happen to me.
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If it can happen to these guys, it can happen to you.
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Maybe keeping that wolf pup in the house isn't such a good idea.
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So Jesus gives a call to what some people call, and I like this term, "radical amputation." As I said, obviously you don't literally cut your arm off.
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But you certainly cut off some other things.
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I had a parent come to me years ago, distraught.
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This mother was just distraught.
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She said, "I found out my son was looking at pornography." I said, "Well, what's going on?" He said, "We have this computer in his room and I found out that he was getting on there looking at pornography.
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What should I do, Pastor Jeff?
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What should I do?" I said, "Throw his computer out.
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Take it out and smash it with a hammer." He's like, "Well, that sounds pretty extreme.
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Like Jesus said to cut your arm off if it causes you to sin.
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I think smashing your stupid computer is a little less extreme than that." For some of you, maybe you need to smash your stupid computer.
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Or at the very least, get some accountability blockers on it.
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You know, they have software that it'll send everything you look at on a computer, it'll send to somebody else to say, "Here's what he looked at this week." Parents, you should have stuff on your computer in your home that blocks that stuff from coming up.
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Cut it off.
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For some of you, maybe it's TV.
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A lot of that garbage on TV.
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Maybe you need to cut off the cable.
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Cut off your dish subscription.
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Cut it off.
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That sounds awfully extreme, really.
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As extreme as ripping your eyeball out of your head?
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Because that's how extreme Jesus said to get when it comes to dealing with your sin.
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For some of you, maybe it's a relationship.
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You've been kind of flirting, been kind of keeping it on a string, keeping the conversation going.
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You cut it off.
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This isn't appropriate and it's not right.
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Best of luck to you.
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Goodbye.
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Done.
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As I said, for some of you, maybe it's a place that you go.
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I know I shouldn't go there. I know I shouldn't go there. I shouldn't be around those people.
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I shouldn't go there. Stop going!
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Well, how do I do that?
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Don't show up!
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I call these spiritual insights.
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But come on, seriously people, is it that hard?
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Don't let sin entice you.
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You are not a slave.
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We just sang that this morning.
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You are not a slave to sin.
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You are a spirit-filled, born-again, adopted child of God.
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And for some of you, it's time to act like it.
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Sin is serious because it can influence others, because it can destroy you, and finally, because Because it can rob you of power.
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Because it can rob you of power.
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Look at verse 49.
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This is a tough verse.
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"For everyone will be salted with fire." Salt, what is he talking about?
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Salt.
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The Scriptures add, "And every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." What in the world is he talking about here?
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Jot this reference down.
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We're not going to turn there, but I want you to write this down.
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And we do have people on our hospitality team that make sure you write these things down.
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Right, Amanda?
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You're standing at the door.
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Let me see your notes.
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hitting, sort of.
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Write down Leviticus 2.13.
37:56-38:03
You know under the Old Testament sacrificial system, there are many different types of sacrifices, you know?
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There was like the yearly sacrifice, Leviticus 16, Day of Atonement.
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There were guilt offerings.
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And if you read Leviticus chapter 2, one of the offerings was called a grain offering.
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It was just an offering of devotion.
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It was just Israel's way of saying, "We're devoted to you God.
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We love you and we are dedicated to you.
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But there's an interesting thing that Leviticus 2 talks about, and it says that the sacrifices all have to have salt added to the sacrifice.
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Well, what's up with the salt?
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Leviticus 2 tells us that the salt symbolizes the covenant.
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In other words, salt symbolizes God's presence.
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It's not like we're offering some sacrifice to some generic unknown God concept.
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The salt represents the Lord Jehovah God's presence among us.
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That's what the salt represented.
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You're like, "Well, what does that have to do with me?" Romans 12.1 Christian says, "Present your bodies as a," who knows, yeah I heard a few people say it, right, "living sacrifice." In the Old Testament, the sacrifice was laid on the altar and it was killed and it stayed dead. But you and I, according to Romans 12.1, We are living sacrifices.
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If you can get that picture, we're on the altar and we get off the altar.
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Our lives are a sacrifice.
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Living sacrifice.
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Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
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Salt is God's influence on you.
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is that Old Testament sacrifice had to have the salt, the symbol of God's covenant, of God's presence. Here we are going to see that Christian salt refers to God's influence on you. In other words, God's salt in your life is walking by the Holy Spirit.
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To put it another way, let me ask you this. How much does God influence you? How much How much does God influence you?
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How much is God a factor in your life?
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How much does God's presence flavor what you do?
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Look at v. 50.
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Jesus said, "Salt is good.
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But if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?" The church, in other words, God is not salting you.
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If God is not the primary influence in your life, with what shall you substitute?
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With whom shall you substitute?
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If you're not walking by the Spirit, what is your plan?
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Is there a plan B?
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Like, well, yeah, God has some people walk by the Spirit, but God totally has me on this different track where I'm like still holy and righteous and really like awesomely godly, but it's a different way.
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not by the Holy Spirit. God has this different track for me. Is that true? Absolutely not.
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You've got to have the salt, man, right? You've got to have the salt. God's influence, God's presence. And Jesus said, "The salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?" Meaning there's no substitute. There's no substitute for it.
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You know, in the first century, sometimes they would mix salt with useless things like gypsum, which is sort of a filler.
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There's a danger for us in mixing God's salt, God's influence on our lives, and putting our worthless filler, or living in the flesh.
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That's the danger, isn't it?
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Living in the flesh short circuits what God wants to do in you.
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That's why Jesus said, "Have salt in yourselves." Just as the Old Testament sacrifices must have salt, you, New Testament living sacrifice, can't truly be a sacrifice without salt.
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Meaning God's presence, His influence, His flavoring, His permeation in your life.
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Look at the last phrase.
42:57-43:04
Jesus says, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." What's He talking about?
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Well, if you go back to verse 34, you see they were arguing.
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Arguing, fighting, bickering.
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Jesus was just making a direct application.
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Saying, one of the ways that to see God at work influencing your life is when you're at peace with one another.
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Stop the fighting.
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Ok?
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Let God have control of your life.
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Stop the fleshly, self-motivating, "I'm better than you" stuff.
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But I want to ask you, are you salty?
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Has God's influence in your life led you to treat sin But it is.
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Has it caused you to avoid being a sin-inducing influence?
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Which is deadly serious to Jesus.
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We're going to pray.
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Is there any area of compromise in your life?
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Is there any area of compromise in your life?
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Is there any area of your life where you have allowed the weakness of your flesh to dominate you?
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Any area of your life where you have refused to allow God to influence you?
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Do you have an area like that in your life?
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Where you're like, "God, I'm giving everything to you, but this one little thing in my life, nobody knows about it." I know you know about it, God, but this is something I don't want you to affect.
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God, can we just not talk about this area?
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We just keep this area, God, can we just keep this?
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I want you to have lordship over everything else, God, but just not this thing.
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What that thing is, is a wolf pup.
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This thing that you are shielding from God, this thing that you are guarding God's influence over is a thing that is going to harm you.
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But I am persuaded of better things for you.
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Let this be a day of repentance.
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Let this be a day of new things for someone.
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Let this be a new chapter in your life where you say, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, you're I've been holding on to this pup for too long and I am done.
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Come up and pray with us.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 9:42-50
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!
