2/11/18 “BE ENCOURAGED (‘IF YOU SIN’)” – Pastor Shane Idleman

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Complete Sermon Notes

Be Encouraged “If You Sin”

FROM TIME TO TIME IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ASSESS SPIRITUAL HEALTH.

We can become unbalanced if it’s all about grace and license, but also if it’s always about doing, stopping, fasting, fighting, performing, maintaining…

We either become carnal or condemned; we either give in or we give up.
There is no church that perfectly balances grace and repentance.
If spiritual disciplines become rigid and mechanical…a system of works, then we will become very discouraged.

1 John 2:1 [ESV] My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Anger, Critical Attitude, Addiction, Jealousy, Gossip, Lying, Same-sex Attraction, Infidelity, Manipulating, Controlling, etc.

We get discouraged, feel condemned, and stay in a cycle of defeat.

1 John 1:7 [NKJV] But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

I’m in no way offering permission to indulge in the flesh; I’m illustrating the importance of getting back on track.

Like children, we are growing in our walk with the Lord. Infants learning to walk don’t quit when they fall – they get back up.

Eventually you’ll be walking where you use to be falling.

1. The more we pursue sin, the more entrenched we become.

Hebrews 3:12-13 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

HOPE – are you hardened, then turn to Him?

2. Sin doesn’t have to be your master.

John 8:34-36 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

HOPE – you are free: not under restraint….

…But many think, “I shouldn’t sin – I’ve been set free.”

Yes, set free from the BONDAGE but not the influence; free from the DEATH SENTENCE but not the impact.

3. Sin blinds and deceives (John 9:39-41). Humble yourself this morning – ask God to remove the deception.

Dan Delzell, in a riveting blog entitled, Google Executive’s Tragic Death Sends Somber Warning, wrote the following: “How do you go from being a devoted father of five and a successful Silicon Valley executive, into a 51-year-old man convulsing from a fatal dose of heroin on your 50-foot yacht, with a prostitute walking over your dying body to take a final sip of wine before leaving you to die?” He then presented the question, “How do tragedies like this take place?”

You think you’re hiding it, but it’s growing. You think it’s contained, but it’s not.

4. The echoing voice of conviction becomes harder to hear when sin abounds. (cf. Hebrews 3:12-13).

3x – “Today, if you hear His voice, do NOT harden your hearts!”

5. Only the truth will set us free (cf. John 8:32).

ROM. 5:18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.