Thanks for sharing your thoughts on faith and trials last night. It’s fun to hear how one word can mean different many things to so many people, but somehow it’s all connected. I also wanted to thank each of you for sharing your stories and thoughts over the past few weeks. I am so blessed to be a part of something that is genuine, honest and fruitful. Each one of you add a unique element to our group and it wouldn’t be the same without you. I love what God is doing on Tuesday nights!!
We covered some challenging and interesting topics last night. I am still thinking through a lot of them!
I think we all agreed that faith is something we receive as a gift from God.
Using Hebrews 12 I presented faith in the context of a race. I suggested that faith is like a race toward sight. God divinely reveals something to us and persuades us that it is true (faith), and that is what carries and motivates us as we run toward the finish line where we will see what was revealed in faith become sight.
I shared four thoughts on how we can ‘encourage’ our faith.
- Be saturated with the word of God. Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ”. If faith is a word of truth revealed by God, study what He has revealed!
- Be set apart from sin. Hebrews 12 says, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith”. Sin hinders our ‘action’ responses to faith and causes us to doubt our faith.
- Be dedicated to pursuing Jesus. See Him as the one who will welcome you into the eternity He secured for you.
- Be activated by the Holy Spirit. Actively respond to faith. Trust God and _____. Whatever the Holy Spirit prompts you to do, trust God and do it!! Fill in your blank!
NOTES ON SIN!
In the next two chapters we will look at the battle between our sinful flesh and our new ‘nature’ in Christ. I mentioned that I had some notes about defeating sin so I wanted to intro them here. These are notes I wrote years ago based on a book I was reading at the time.
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13
Mortification is the process of killing the misdeeds of the body. Our body, or our flesh, has an inclination towards sin; it is the un-submitted part of us.
First of all, let’s talk about what mortification is not.
Mortification is not the complete eradication of sin or the propensity to sin. It is the subduing of sin NOT the concealment of sin.
Mortification is not just becoming more calm and tranquil. It is not in your temperament. Mortification is not the diversion of sin, so it is not legalism or judgment of those who do break the rules.
Mortification is not periodic victory.
That being said, what is mortification?
It is the habitual (steady) weakening of sin so that the power of sin is greatly diminished. It is the process by which the craving for sin becomes less consuming and by which you are freed from its control. Though there may be a consistent battle with sin (maybe even daily) you experience frequent victory.
Know This!
- Understand that mortification is the work of a believer. Only confessed and forgiven sins can be mortified. We are not defeating sin in efforts to impress God or to try to earn something from Him. Instead we are working with Him and His Holy Spirit to mortify our sin.
- Mortification is a war on ALL sin. I realize that the thought of defeating all your sin may be a bit overwhelming. I think that’s why God shifted my direction and deleted my ‘list of sins’. We sin because our heart is not abiding in Christ as it should. Though there may be many branches to our sins, there are only a few roots. We should target those. When we get our hearts right we get our lives right. Refer back to Number 1. We are not working alone. God and His Holy Spirit are attacking this thing as well!
Preparing for Battle!
Sin is relentless in its pursuit. Romans 6 tells us that it desires to reign over our bodies. As believers, we must wage a war against the sin that inhabits our lives. Not by establishing a set of legalistic rules, but instead by taking an active and decisive approach to directly deal with our sin.
PUT TO DEATH, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed. Colossians 3:5
Here’s how we can do that. (Based on John Owen’s Mortification of Sin)
- Assess the dangerous symptoms of your particular sins. Is there one that your heart defends? Is there one that lingers or one that frequently over takes you? Is there one that only the fear of being caught or confronted scares you?
- Identify your sin and get a sense of the vileness of sin in general. Romans 6:16 says that sin leads to death. Ask yourself, “Where can this sin lead?” Where does this addiction lead? Where does pride lead? What has happened in you and around you because of this sin?
- Realize the weight of your sin like David did in Psalm 51. Let conviction (NOT condemnation) set in. Yearn for rescue and cry out to God for deliverance.
I am a witness that God will grant deliverance to those who not only ask for it, but who have become desperate for it.
- Next, consider the road that leads you to that sin. Don’t just look at the presenting symptoms, look for the source. What is the root issue? What is the process that gets you to that sin?
Look into your heart to see the roots. Pray and ask God to reveal them to you.
Consider the events that lead to this pattern of sin in your life. Are there circumstances that lead to this behavior? Are they always the same? Listening to certain music? Watching certain things on the television. Reading certain books? Being around certain people? Spending too much idle time alone? Believing lies from satan?
- Strike first! Temptation (desire) leads to sin. At the first hint of temptation, shut it down!
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:15
- Don’t let things linger. It is better for you to deal with it while it is small.
- Then, meditate on your personal weakness. Realize that you cannot white-knuckle your way to sanctification or to deliverance from sin.
- Finally, we wait for the comfort of God. After we have confessed our sin to God and to a trusted group of believers, cried out to God for deliverance, and after we have identified and pulled the roots of that sin, we allow our merciful God to comfort us. We allow Him to restore us.
Be killing sin or it will be killing you!!
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