TOPIC: SIN

Romans 6: 12-14

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

POINTS:

I. Sin has the ability to reign in your life. It can make you obey its desires. So don’t let it! How? Sin comes in through temptations, temptations happen through our senses, we react to our senses according to our desire. How to alter it?

1.       Change your desire: Have the desire to please God, not your flesh.

"Lord, show me Your way. May I desire you the way I desire water and food. May I desire you more than I desire wealth, may I desire you more than I desire to please my self"

2.       Amputate anything that tempts you: Internet, movies, tv’s, magazines, malls, certain people, music, places... Go away on things that tempts you.

3.       Once you are tempted, immediately dislodge it in the mind. A temptation is telling you to sin. It's not sin in itself. And God has said (He will never lie) that He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can handle and will he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

4.       Then when a feeling to feed the flesh comes in, desire God once again. Be filled by His glory and make Him satisfy you. Read the Word and desire it. Jesus is the Living Water and the Bread of Life.

II. We have been given our body, our possessions and our talents. We are commanded to present it to God, not to present it or use it for unrighteousness. How are we going to present it to God? We do everything that will give Him glory. Give Him glory through our mouth, give Him glory though our hands, give Him glory through our eyes, give Him glory through our wealth, time, jobs, gadgets... We present it as an instrument for righteousness. We use it God's way.

III. We have the ability to do this because sin no longer has dominion over us. We have been set free, and died in sin. The time that Christ died is also the time that we have died from our old self. And when Jesus rose, we also have risen with a new self, new life, new desires and new purpose. We have been born again. But we can still have the tendency to sin if we obey it and listen to its lies.

Romans 6: 5-11

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self^[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free^[b] from sin. ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

You cannot have two Masters, you either love the one or hate the other.