Episode 21: Freedom from Sin, Part 2 - podcast episode cover

Episode 21: Freedom from Sin, Part 2

Jun 28, 202340 minSeason 1Ep. 21
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Episode description

This week Brenton and Chris discuss the sermon from this past weekend on Romans 6:11-14. They talk about what it means to be free from sin and the  implications of that truth. Chris talks about why we as Christians don't always take sin seriously and the importance of confessing instead of hiding it. They end by talking about presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God.

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Transcript

00;00;02;16 - 00;00;23;25
Brenton
This is further a weekly show for the people of Harmony Bible Church, where we seek to revisit and expand on Sunday sermons with the goal of growing deeper in biblical truth that transforms our lives. Welcome back to Further. I'm Brennan Graham. And today we have Kris Kobach. Welcome back.

00;00;23;28 - 00;00;25;09
Chris
Good to be here.

00;00;25;11 - 00;00;36;19
Brenton
We continue our march through talking about sin. There's a lot of it. And I was as I've been everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah.

00;00;36;21 - 00;00;41;22
Chris
There's no end in sight when when you start to talk about sin for sure.

00;00;41;24 - 00;01;03;18
Brenton
Yeah. Necessary conversation. So I want to start kind of where we did last week. We spent some time talking about what it means to be a slave to sin. But this week, it kind of like to give the other side of that. So can you clearly define what it means to be free from sin?

00;01;03;20 - 00;01;33;03
Chris
I don't know if I can clearly define it, but I will give a give it a shot. I think maybe I would begin by saying it does not mean being perfect, at least in this lifetime. There certainly will come a day when we will be completely free from sin in every way. But for now, actually, the apostle John first, John tells us that if we say that we're without sin, we're a liar and the truth is not within us.

00;01;33;05 - 00;02;01;04
Chris
So we're never going to get to the place in this life where we don't struggle with. And and there have been and even, say, heresies where people we claim still do today that you can get to this place of perfection in your career in your Christian walk. So like I said, the Scripture would pretty clearly tell us that that's not the case.

00;02;01;04 - 00;02;40;06
Chris
We're going to see this in in Roman seven, where even Paul is saying, I do what I don't want to do. And he very much still struggle with sin. But what I would say that it means to be free from sin now means consistent victory. So not continuous all the time. Victory over sin, but consistent victory so that there will be times where you will stumble, but it will not be you will not live habitually in that sin or under that sins power.

00;02;40;08 - 00;03;09;17
Chris
And maybe they go back to the illustration that I used for my own struggle with anger. It used to be where that was something that I kind of fairly consistently would fall into and losing my temper and well, that will happen occasionally. Now. It's not a consistent part of my life. I do have a consistent victory over that sin.

00;03;09;20 - 00;03;21;27
Chris
And so I just I think those words are maybe the most most helpful thing I can say. It's consistent victory over a specific sin and all kinds of different sins in our lives.

00;03;22;00 - 00;03;46;20
Brenton
Yeah. Yeah. Kind of going back to your Christian perfectionism. Heresy is I did a little bit of a search on this. I was aware of it that the people had kind of believed it in the past. But man, it's it's a lot of different forms of it, and it's probably more common than we realized yet. The idea that if you are saved, you you will eventually become perfect on this, on this earth.

00;03;46;20 - 00;03;55;16
Brenton
And, you know, like I said, there's a lot of different forms of it. But yeah, Scripture clearly is not in favor of that idea.

00;03;55;18 - 00;04;27;14
Chris
And our experiences, not either. Right. Yeah. I mean, right. I have had conversations about this in the past with people, and I just don't think someone's being honest if they're they're saying the they never sin anymore. And I mean, there are a lot of godly people out there who are much more godly than I am, who externally, at least, are pretty close to that, it would seem.

00;04;27;17 - 00;04;38;09
Chris
But for someone to say that they never have a sinful thought or an attitude, I don't think people are being honest with themselves.

00;04;38;11 - 00;04;56;00
Brenton
Well, but some of that could be like kind of an expectation that is put on yourself. I mean, if other people are telling you that to be saved means that you are perfect or becoming perfect, I think you can kind of get stuck in a cycle there where, well, I must not be saved if I if I have these things.

00;04;56;01 - 00;05;00;22
Brenton
And so, yeah, I think that can be a dangerous belief.

00;05;00;25 - 00;05;23;29
Chris
It is a dangerous life. I mean, just think about what somebody is saying there, like the Apostle Paul said. Not that I'm already made perfect in Philippians chapter three. I press on for it. I'm I'm seeking certainly to become sinless. But but he he's you know, he didn't want sin to be part of his life at all. That that was his goal.

00;05;24;00 - 00;05;44;26
Chris
The other calling in Christ Jesus and all that. But he says, I'm not ready, I'm not already perfect. And this is probably the godless person other than Jesus who's ever lived. And so this idea that we're going to somehow be more sanctified than than Paul is, I honestly I think it's evidence of sin in our own life is a pride.

00;05;44;29 - 00;05;47;17
Chris
It's a pride and self-delusion.

00;05;47;19 - 00;06;24;10
Brenton
Right? Well, it can I suppose I haven't totally thought this out, but the the Catholic view is not not totally Christian perfectionism, but it is like kind of put these sins in different camps like these these sins are almost acceptable and the the more more egregious sins are, what's really going to cause you problems? Sure. Yeah, sure. Um, I guess to poke about what you said a little earlier about you won't have and maybe I'm misquoting you, but you won't have habitual sins in your life.

00;06;24;13 - 00;06;46;02
Brenton
What I think practically some of us have had, like, since we become Christians have had habitual sins. And I kind of have a question about this later, but what do you what do you mean by that? That you won't you won't have sins that are that are a habit in your life?

00;06;46;04 - 00;07;14;08
Chris
I. Well, the question was, what does it mean to be free from from sin. And so you to to be free from sin means that it's not a habit where you just continually give yourself to it is all that I meant by that. And I think we need to define, you know, we say sin, I'm talking about from us, you know, is that sin in general like or is it a specific and I'm talking about free from like a specific sin.

00;07;14;12 - 00;07;33;17
Chris
Yeah. And so, yeah, I just think that freedom from sin means that it's not going to be something that you just habitually give yourself to over and over again. If it is a habitual sin, then you don't have freedom over. And my answering your question there.

00;07;33;20 - 00;08;08;10
Brenton
I think so We'll get into a little bit later. Okay. Yeah. Um, one of your application points was that we must refuse to obey sin, and practically a step you gave was that we don't. We shouldn't tolerate sins in our lives, but we should grieve the sin in our life. Why do you think that it's so common for Christians to treat their sin like it's no big deal?

00;08;08;13 - 00;08;50;20
Chris
There's probably a number of reasons for that. One would be that we just don't want to admit that it really is a big deal. Partly that's probably because we enjoy our sin. It's comfortable to us. We don't want to do the hard work to actually turn from it and put it to death to refuse to obey it. I think it's also because it's a humbling to admit that your sin is a big deal in that you've given yourself to something that you shouldn't.

00;08;50;22 - 00;09;36;06
Chris
I think it can be because of shame. And we we just we don't like to deal with our shame and and understandably so. I think it's because we live in a in a world. And honestly, even someone in a Christian culture that allows us to think that our sins not a big deal. You know. And so I think there's a lot of different reasons that, you know, and, you know, it's just not it's uncomfortable to to talk about sin, to hear about sin.

00;09;36;08 - 00;09;44;09
Chris
And so it's easier or much easier for us just to minimize how serious it really is.

00;09;44;11 - 00;09;56;27
Brenton
Yeah. So how how do we stop? How do we kind of change that mindset in our in ourselves? And how how do we stop tolerating it in ourselves?

00;09;57;00 - 00;10;31;04
Chris
Is a great question. One thing that I would suggest, or at least one of the first things that came to my mind when when I saw this question would be Ephesians 426 and 27, where Paul says, Be angry and don't send, you know, let the sun go down your path and don't give the devil a foothold. And so the reason I bring this up is it's been a pretty important passage for me because in the way I kind of summarize it is keep short accounts.

00;10;31;06 - 00;10;59;13
Chris
And what I mean by that is that we stop tolerating sin when we begin to rather quickly confess it. And that doesn't necessarily mean all the time to other people, but like, okay, I've, I've sinned in the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit convicts us when we sin, and we really have a choice as to what we're going to do with that.

00;10;59;15 - 00;11;25;20
Chris
And the temptation and I basis again, I have a pulsating sensation is like it's no big deal, you know, And then if we don't respond fairly quickly to the Spirit's prompting, then later on, you know, as the time goes on, we feel that conviction less. And so we don't confess it, we don't turn from it. And so if you get in that and this I should even say this, we do get in the habit.

00;11;25;20 - 00;11;52;13
Chris
We do this all the time, like the spirit will like, convict us. We may be still feel guilty, and rightfully so. And instead of actually addressing that, we let it go. And when we do, Paul says, we give the devil a foothold and sin a foothold. I would say as well, those two are never too far from one another.

00;11;52;15 - 00;12;28;04
Chris
And so the and the thing is, I mean, it's true about so many other things in life. The more you tolerate it, the more you tolerate. Yeah. The more comfortable that you get. And and so, you know, I know just using the example here, the more you watch things that are graphic, whether language or things, you know, sexual situations, the more comfortable you will get, the more more you will tolerate it over time.

00;12;28;07 - 00;12;55;25
Chris
Mm hmm. And and so maybe I've gone a little bit further here longer than I want to. But I think that that's just a really practical way is like to yield to the to yield to the spirit when he convicts you and to take that to the Lord. If I could just say to everybody that's served that served me really, really well, somehow I learned that or had that ingrained in me pretty early on in life.

00;12;55;25 - 00;13;06;16
Chris
And it's it's not always been fun and I haven't always actually followed through with it. A lot of times I haven't, but it served me well when I have.

00;13;06;18 - 00;13;18;06
Brenton
Yeah, maybe. Maybe that's a call to more consistent prayer to, to, to kind of sure be in that conversation constantly. Mm hmm. When we when we need it.

00;13;18;09 - 00;13;50;23
Chris
So, yeah, I mean, I think it's also really important to have people in your life who you allow to call you call you out on that. And the wounds of a friend or faithful proverb says the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And so the the people who really care about you and love you are not the people who are going to tolerate your saying, but rather who are going to gently and graciously confront you with.

00;13;50;23 - 00;13;53;27
Chris
And so you need those people in your lives.

00;13;53;28 - 00;14;21;02
Brenton
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, kind of. Speaking of that, another thing you said was, don't hide your sin. Do confess your sin. And we've talked before about kind of practical things we can do to encourage confession like community groups or finding someone to keep you accountable, really just having community around you. But my question is, how do you convince someone that it's better to confess than than to hide it?

00;14;21;04 - 00;14;37;27
Brenton
I think all of our tendency is to keep our sin secret. But, you know, example, after example, in things even recently with high profile people, it just it shows that it's so much worse when we keep it in the dark. So what do you what do you think about that?

00;14;37;29 - 00;15;05;12
Chris
Well, I wish there was a really easy solution here. Yeah. I wish that I had, like, the silver bullet that I could say, Hey, here's how you convince people that it's better to confess their sin than to hide it. That would be worth, you know, so. So much research, so valuable. I don't have that silver bullet, but I have a couple of things that that might be helpful here.

00;15;05;14 - 00;15;30;28
Chris
One would be to tell kind of tell your own story and to just share with people about, you know, what's happened to you when you've you've hidden sin and not invested from a negative standpoint. And, you know, the damage that it's done. And then from the positive standpoint, hey, I did bring this into light. It was it was hard.

00;15;30;28 - 00;15;51;19
Chris
It was difficult, but I found freedom over it. And just to to share that people I mean, you can tell people to do something, but when you can bring them along in your story, that can they can be a really helpful way. I would say ask questions on a regular basis and we're not very good at doing this.

00;15;51;19 - 00;16;14;11
Chris
I don't think I'm very good at doing that. But just to regularly be curious. And so how are you doing and sometimes being right up front, what what he's struggling with and, you know, or how are you doing in this area of your life? And that doesn't mean that they won't they won't hide it, but it will make it harder to do so.

00;16;14;11 - 00;16;35;21
Chris
I think being bold and courageous again, gently, graciously, but asking, asking people how they're doing and and just giving them the opportunity so that, you know, if they're going to hide it, they're going have to work at it.

00;16;35;23 - 00;17;16;03
Chris
But then the biggest thing I would say, and above all is is really what I would say, having kind of a persona or just being a person of grace and having relationships with people where they know that if they confess that they're going to be met with judgment and condemnation and they're not going to be, you know, abandoned, but you're going to actually show them grace and mercy and help them to find healing.

00;17;16;03 - 00;17;39;10
Chris
You're not going to you're not going to leave them alone. You're going to walk through them. I'm going to be here for you. This is why it's so important for us as a church to develop a culture of grace and what I care about almost as much as anything is that harmony. Bible Church would be a place where people what we're known for, for grace.

00;17;39;13 - 00;18;14;02
Chris
And because here's my my experience and and I feel very confident about this, is that so many people have come from church backgrounds where there it's not been a background of grace. So it's not been to to use an overused word, safe. Yeah. For people to actually confess. Right. Because they've been mistreated. They've been shamed. They have people have literally seen this.

00;18;14;02 - 00;18;40;26
Chris
I mean, I've seen it. You've probably seen it like, we're going to make you stand in front of the church and, you know, and and those things and it just they just have to use another overuse where they have what I might call spiritual trauma. And their experience will tell them that if they confess, it's going to go poorly for them.

00;18;40;28 - 00;19;15;06
Chris
It's not going to be their sin, is not going to be met in a way where they feel, where they feel loved. And I know that person, whether they feel other or not, that's subjective. And sometimes they can be actually loved and they don't feel it. I get that for sure. But but they do have prime examples that they can look back at in in the church churches that they've attended where they just they've confessed, they've done what the Bible calls them to do.

00;19;15;06 - 00;19;33;10
Chris
And it's gone really, really badly for them. Right. And maybe it's not them. Maybe it's other family members or friends or things like that. And so that's that's what makes what I was talking about on Sunday, you know, and pleading for people to bring to light. It makes it really, really hard because they there's so many obstacles to overcome.

00;19;33;10 - 00;20;00;03
Chris
And one of them is I hear what you're saying, Chris, a mercy and grace, but I really have a turn time trusting that that's the case. So that's where we as a church to work really, really hard at this, at cultivating this culture. And it takes time and it starts in some ways in our own personal relationships where we show people, we show people grace.

00;20;00;05 - 00;20;23;00
Brenton
So yeah, I think it's got to happen on an individual level. I think corporately it will, but that will follow out of out of an individual level of showing grace. But I think from the perspective of a person that is just struggling with sin and even kind of repeatedly, I think it can you can build that up in your head of what the response is going to be when you confess that.

00;20;23;03 - 00;20;52;20
Brenton
And you're right, maybe that's informed from from experiences past, but it's it's really easy to kind of build that up and say, I just it's almost embarrassing at this point to say that I'm still doing this or whatever and some of that. I mean, maybe we need to be better at just being open about our sin struggles. You're right about telling, telling our own stories and how we've experienced grace.

00;20;52;22 - 00;21;21;27
Brenton
On the other side, though, I think that the the stories that haven't been success stories are good warnings for us. I mean, you look at Ravi Zacharias like what that situation turned out to be and what a mess that is like. That should be a warning to all of us that that sin a guy that seemingly had everything together got that wrapped up in and what he did.

00;21;21;27 - 00;21;33;21
Brenton
I think that should I don't know. That should show us that we're not Yeah we can we can end up there pretty easily too. And so getting ahead of it at the beginning.

00;21;33;21 - 00;22;01;23
Chris
Yeah well that's I mean that's we see those kind of stories and we shake our heads, and rightfully so, as long as it's shaking their heads over, you know, in sorrow and over grief and and not in our heads thinking that that couldn't happen to us. Absolutely. Because the seed, you know, saying the seed of every sin lies in in every heart.

00;22;01;27 - 00;22;26;17
Chris
And we if you know, pastor says, you know, take heed less you if you stay and take heed lest you fall you think you're standing you know be careful or Galatians six one you know those who you who are spiritual should restore those who have fallen the gently keeping watch over yourself that you aren't also entrapped by sin.

00;22;26;19 - 00;23;19;12
Chris
And so yeah we should we should see the stories like a Ravi Zacharias story and we should grieve over it. But we should also be warned of the dangers of of letting sin. And that's a maybe the a key thing to get across from the last two weeks and even this coming week we will talking about the subject again from a term on a different aspect but sin is never satisfied and like it it's not like he can give sin just a little bit of you know, it'll take all of you and I know you're not a a big MCU fan, but the the the Spider-Man with Venom.

00;23;19;15 - 00;23;42;05
Chris
Yeah. Never seen a movie. Never seen that. It's the Earth is the third one with Tobey Maguire where, you know, it gets a little bit of the venom and eventually gradually then an overtakes all of them. Yeah. And it's a pretty good illustration of what's in I mean and that then really is I mean it's a great picture of sin and that's what sin does.

00;23;42;08 - 00;24;02;01
Chris
It's never satisfied with just, you know, stain, you know, something that you can control. And that's where I've got this under control. Yeah. And before long, sin working will control you. That's why, you know, Johnno, you got to be killing center. I'll be killing you.

00;24;02;02 - 00;24;33;06
Brenton
Yeah, Yeah. And I am thinking through that in my head, like we we don't, we certainly don't want to convince ourselves that we can't end up there. We can't end up in a spot like that. But going back to the freedom that we have from sin in Christ. Mm hmm. Yeah, It's a it's an interesting conversation to see, like, someone that we would all call a Christian, someone that did have freedom from sin still ended up in that position.

00;24;33;06 - 00;24;36;24
Brenton
And so maybe that says something about the first proposition there.

00;24;36;24 - 00;24;48;28
Chris
But yeah, well, and I think maybe what you're saying is, is that person actually truly a believer then, right? Is that what you're getting at? Yeah.

00;24;48;28 - 00;25;10;02
Brenton
I mean, but yeah, I think, I think that is just maybe in the back of my head now that we've, we've talked about that, that we kind of feel like we're in a position where we're free from sin, or at least these things are true of us. But then we see someone that we would have assumed was free from sin as well.

00;25;10;03 - 00;25;11;23
Brenton
Mm hmm. End up there.

00;25;11;26 - 00;25;34;27
Chris
Well, I yeah, I think this is a really important topic, and you're hitting on something that we probably will even get into later on in chapter seven a little bit is that it is possible that you can. I think I believe it's possible that you could show that you're not actually truly a believer in the first place or.

00;25;35;03 - 00;25;38;22
Brenton
Yeah, yeah.

00;25;38;25 - 00;25;56;04
Chris
And so, I mean, there's a lot of warning passages in the New Testament, and the warning passages are one of the the purposes of them is to warn us away from false or false belief or false security.

00;25;56;06 - 00;25;59;12
Brenton
Well, back to first, John. They went out from us to prove that they were never.

00;25;59;12 - 00;26;01;14
Chris
Gonna love us. Right. That's.

00;26;01;17 - 00;26;37;18
Brenton
Yeah. Yeah. Good. Great heavy stuff. Um, I know sometimes even Christians can feel completely powerless over sin. And. And maybe there's. There has been one specific sin that has just kind of been constant for a long time. How would you counsel someone that. That has that that sin struggle and hasn't been able to get past it? It's just something that kind of keeps coming up, have some victory and then it comes back a.

00;26;37;20 - 00;27;30;20
Chris
Well, that's almost too generic of a question for me to get specific in it. I will give you the answer, but I'd almost have to know the circumstances and the situation and the specific kind of sin struggle and all that we're talking about to get, you know, to say exactly how I have a cancer council, that person. But with that said, here's here's my experience, something that I've I've learned probably over the last five, six, seven years, especially a lot of times there is a a root sin and a fruit sin and a lot of time that this what we can see on the outside, the the fruit sin, so to speak, is being driven

00;27;30;20 - 00;27;59;13
Chris
by a deeper root issue. And we can spend a lot of time kind of treating the the root sin and not actually be dealing with the with a fruit sin. What's actually going in the heart and why or put it this way, why are people you know, why are they sinning in that way? So use the idea of merit.

00;27;59;15 - 00;28;38;12
Chris
You know, a lot of times we were these days were medicating ourselves to drugs, alcohol. It can be entertainment. Certainly you talk about pornography and the porn, for example, is probably the easiest example, too, to come up with almost all the time when someone has a pornography addiction, it's not ultimately a lust issue. It's that they are trying to medicate themselves and deal with some other hurt and pain that they have because of something that that has happened to them.

00;28;38;15 - 00;29;13;05
Chris
Sometimes it's it's actually sexual abuse or because of something in regards to growing growing up, a relationship with a parent five times with a father, sometimes it's with a mother to something happen to them early in life, in in school or, you know, with sibling or they're just some something that has happened to them. Or even sometimes it's in a marriage, something's looking, you know, that something's missing out from there.

00;29;13;08 - 00;29;40;28
Chris
There's just a whole variety of things. And so, yes, the the sin is lust that it gets expressed. But I've I've seen this a lot of times as we we try to treat that by, hey, let's put covenant eyes on your phone and let's get you in an accountability group. And usually to study the Bible more and memorize Scripture and not watch this and all that kind of stuff.

00;29;40;28 - 00;30;27;04
Chris
And I'm like, I'm, I'm all for all of that, but seen a lots of experiences where people, they do all of that and it doesn't work. And so there's a deeper there's a deeper struggle, a deeper issue there. And until that can actually get addressed, they're going to really, really struggle to find freedom over that, that sin. And so my my answer to the question your question then is, is that I think a lot of times when somebody like is habitually struggling with sin over a long period of time and they're doing all of these, you know, other good, good things and they just can't, is that okay?

00;30;27;04 - 00;30;42;25
Chris
There's a there's a deeper issue. And a lot of times that's going to require some some significant counseling and some sometimes even professional help to try to address, figure out what that issue is so that that can actually be addressed.

00;30;42;27 - 00;31;04;06
Brenton
Yeah. And I think I asked the question kind of in hopes to get something practical for for listeners here, but maybe the practical step is if that's if that's where you're at or where you know someone else is, that could get them help, get them to go to to talk to someone, if that's actually the case.

00;31;04;08 - 00;31;34;00
Chris
Yeah. I mean, I just I think that well, I just want to emphasize that again and what you're saying is that it is exactly what we need to do, is we we need to get some we need to do some deeper work is what I would what I would call in. And that's going to escalate need somehow be, you know, this or, you know, celebrate things like celebrate recovery and other ministries like that come into play.

00;31;34;02 - 00;32;08;15
Brenton
Yeah, yeah, it's good. Verse 13. Um, of Romans six says Present yourselves to God is those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. The point that you brought out of this verse was that we need to offer ourselves in service to God. I'll try not to spoil much for later on, but it reminded me Romans 12, where Paul says, Present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

00;32;08;17 - 00;32;37;21
Brenton
Wholly unacceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. By testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And I was as I was kind of looking through that, the call there is to be transformed by the renewal of your mind and kind of applying that back to verse 13.

00;32;37;21 - 00;32;50;03
Brenton
Do you think that that is kind of the application point of of constantly renewing our mind to, to present ourselves to God?

00;32;50;05 - 00;32;58;10
Chris
Yeah. First of all, I want to say that you don't need to worry about spoiling for later on because we won't get the Romans 12 till 2024. So you.

00;32;58;10 - 00;32;58;21
Brenton
Got into.

00;32;58;21 - 00;33;43;00
Chris
Everybody will have forgotten, long forgotten this, but guess by then that's true. So yeah, I do think it's a great place to go for sure. And you know, chapters 12 through 16 of Romans are largely the application of Chapters one through through 11. So that that definitely is should should be a place that we can go here. Something that I don't think I highlighted enough on Sunday is that we need to focus or I would want us to focus more on the positive than on the negative.

00;33;43;02 - 00;34;08;07
Chris
And that really the best way to refuse to obey sin is to actually simply give yourselves and in service to God is, you know, it's is one of the best ways to help you. To say no is to say yes and to focus on saying yes rather than to focus on saying no. Do we need to say now?

00;34;08;07 - 00;34;38;29
Chris
Yes, absolutely. Very clearly in scripture. But the emphasis and this is Paul's emphasis in in 12 is like present yourselves as a living sacrifice, because as you do, you present yourself to God, then there's nothing to present to sin. Thomas Chalmers, a pure, another Puritan, has a quote that I love. He talks about the explosive power of a new affection.

00;34;39;01 - 00;35;07;14
Chris
He talks and his point is explosive is not a word we often use, but he's talking about the only thing that can remove really the love of sin in our heart is by driving it out by a love for something greater. And so the number one way to find freedom from sin, to put it to death, to refuse to obey it is not to focus on what you don't do, but rather to focus on what you do, do and give.

00;35;07;14 - 00;35;37;13
Chris
And the doing is in giving ourselves to God. And this is where the gospel comes in and is so powerful is the more that we understand and dive into the gospel and the greater the gospel becomes to us and the Thanksgiving enjoy it produces in our heart. That's what drives out this desire for lesser things, the desire for sin.

00;35;37;15 - 00;35;41;27
Chris
And so I think that that's exactly what Paul's Paskin to here.

00;35;41;29 - 00;36;08;04
Brenton
Yeah, I think that you're totally right and it creates such a better motivation in ourselves when we have something positive rather than negative. I think the negative side of that of just don't do this, stop doing this is so exhausting and, and not that that's not part of it because it needs to be part of it. There are a lot of things that we just need to stop doing.

00;36;08;04 - 00;36;14;09
Brenton
But but to say give the positive side of that I think is is really helpful. Yeah.

00;36;14;11 - 00;36;48;14
Chris
I appreciate seeing that. I'm totally right. So yeah, it's very affirming at this time. But I, I do think that we need to often in the church have given this idea that we're primarily about what we don't do right. And that we need to try to, you know, turn that around and we need to be a lot more about here's what we do do and we do give ourselves to God and we get ourselves to God.

00;36;48;16 - 00;37;09;05
Chris
I mean, I was trying to get at this is like that's what it means to be fully alive and to be truly human is saying yes to God. And that's where that's where we're going to find fulfillment, that that's what we're going to find when we look at what we're looking for. And it's not insane noticing that's part of it.

00;37;09;05 - 00;37;13;10
Chris
It's more in saying yes, yes to God.

00;37;13;12 - 00;37;47;12
Brenton
Yeah, yeah. One thing that you said on Sunday was that we need to remember the. Why do you remember saying that? Because it wasn't in your manuscript that I couldn't I couldn't find it today, but it stuck with me a little bit. You were kind of referring to, like, why? Why now? Can we live in a life that's free of sin and like that, that truth that that positive kind of side of it, that that should be our motivation, right?

00;37;47;15 - 00;37;57;26
Chris
Hmm. Yeah, I'm trying to remember saying yeah, saying that sometimes I get, you know, get caught up in.

00;37;57;28 - 00;37;59;19
Brenton
Your office and get most of me the.

00;37;59;20 - 00;38;31;04
Chris
Scripts and honestly, some of my off script moments tend to be the most powerful ones. Yeah. I mean, I think we've got to remember why God created us and why he saved us. And it's it is to to say yes to him and to and what a privilege and honor that is, is is to be able he made us to serve him.

00;38;31;06 - 00;39;08;07
Chris
And there's no greater privilege than that. And then now he creates for that. But then after we botched it horribly and continued to watch it, he he paid the ultimate price so that we could serve him again. And we're only going to find joy and satisfaction when we're doing what we were created to do. And and and so we've got to, you know, remember why we were created and why we were saved.

00;39;08;10 - 00;39;34;15
Chris
And we want to be our own. I mean, we want to be our own, you know, Master. But I point that that's not an option. You know, it's just not and it didn't work out too well for Adam and Eve. And so I don't know, you know, why do we think that that's going to work out too well for us?

00;39;34;17 - 00;39;39;21
Brenton
All right. Well, we'll wrap up there. I hope this is helpful to you guys. And we will talk to you next week.


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