Clean House: Surrender Messages from New Hope Assembly of God, NuMine, PA
-
- Christianity
Spring has arrived! Most of us begin to feel the need this time of the year to clean house. We gather up sticks in the yard that fell through the winter to prepare to mow. We throw out stuff that we don’t use anymore. We organize the clutter found throughout our homes. We throw open the windows and do some serious deep cleaning.
It’s a lot of work, but it feels so good once that work is finished!
It’s so easy for that clutter and dirt to build back up again gradually over time, though… Things that we don’t even notice in our day-to-day routines or we’re just too busy to take care of them. It’s no different in our spiritual lives. Thankfully, we have an incredible helper when it comes to cleaning house spiritually; the Holy Spirit! He’s ready to get to work to do some spring cleaning in our lives and man do we need it!
Today, we’re tackling a tough topic that our flesh loves, but the Spirit hates. Anyone want to take a guess at what that might be? Our flesh loves it, but the Spirit hates it?
Sin! To sin is to literally miss the mark.
God created us on purpose and for a purpose, but also with the free will to choose how we live out our lives. We are stewards of God’s gift of life. God’s purpose is the bullseye on our life’s target. When we choose to live outside of that purpose, we miss the bullseye; we sin.
Our choice to sin does not only affect ourselves, but it also affects all of those around us.
Now we typically think of sin as intentionally doing something that we’re told not to do. God tells us to speak the truth, but we lie. God tells us not to covet, but we lust after what belongs to others. God tells us to work hard for six days and to take the seventh day off, but we either work on the one day of rest or we’re lazy and don’t work on the other six days.
Yes, sin is doing what God says not to do, but it is also not doing the things that God says to do.
James 4:17
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
There are some black-and-white topics that are sin for everyone at all times. Things that are never beneficial and never acceptable. However, since we were each were created for different purposes, there are some things that are sin for you and not for me and also sin for me and not for you.
I was not created to be an NFL linebacker. I just wasn’t. If I committed and dedicated my life to pursuing this purpose, not only would I live a life of failure, but also one of misery and discontentment and probably one filled with a whole lot of pain. I would be living a life of sin; completely missing my purpose!
There are also things that can be sin for us just in certain seasons of life. As we grow and mature in our faith, we are often granted freedom to do things that our conscience once forbade us to do beforehand. Paul teaches all about these arguable matters and uses meat sacrificed to idols as an illustration of this. It was a very hot topic at that time in the church in Corinth!
In fact in Acts 15, the church leadership all got together in Jerusalem to seek after God and figure out which of the Jewish laws and traditions carry over to non-Jew Christians and which did not. What was sin for a Jew, but not a Gentile? They came up with an extremely short list covered in just a few sentences.
Under the New Covenant, now with the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we can go even a step further from mere “doing and not doing” straight to the heart motive of our behaviors to define sin.
Romans 14:23
…everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Yes, even when we do the good things that we know we ought to do, but we do not do them because of our faith in obeying God, then it is still sin. If we do things to look good before others or to selfishly receive blessings from God for ourselves, then even doing good is sin.
Are we begi
Spring has arrived! Most of us begin to feel the need this time of the year to clean house. We gather up sticks in the yard that fell through the winter to prepare to mow. We throw out stuff that we don’t use anymore. We organize the clutter found throughout our homes. We throw open the windows and do some serious deep cleaning.
It’s a lot of work, but it feels so good once that work is finished!
It’s so easy for that clutter and dirt to build back up again gradually over time, though… Things that we don’t even notice in our day-to-day routines or we’re just too busy to take care of them. It’s no different in our spiritual lives. Thankfully, we have an incredible helper when it comes to cleaning house spiritually; the Holy Spirit! He’s ready to get to work to do some spring cleaning in our lives and man do we need it!
Today, we’re tackling a tough topic that our flesh loves, but the Spirit hates. Anyone want to take a guess at what that might be? Our flesh loves it, but the Spirit hates it?
Sin! To sin is to literally miss the mark.
God created us on purpose and for a purpose, but also with the free will to choose how we live out our lives. We are stewards of God’s gift of life. God’s purpose is the bullseye on our life’s target. When we choose to live outside of that purpose, we miss the bullseye; we sin.
Our choice to sin does not only affect ourselves, but it also affects all of those around us.
Now we typically think of sin as intentionally doing something that we’re told not to do. God tells us to speak the truth, but we lie. God tells us not to covet, but we lust after what belongs to others. God tells us to work hard for six days and to take the seventh day off, but we either work on the one day of rest or we’re lazy and don’t work on the other six days.
Yes, sin is doing what God says not to do, but it is also not doing the things that God says to do.
James 4:17
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
There are some black-and-white topics that are sin for everyone at all times. Things that are never beneficial and never acceptable. However, since we were each were created for different purposes, there are some things that are sin for you and not for me and also sin for me and not for you.
I was not created to be an NFL linebacker. I just wasn’t. If I committed and dedicated my life to pursuing this purpose, not only would I live a life of failure, but also one of misery and discontentment and probably one filled with a whole lot of pain. I would be living a life of sin; completely missing my purpose!
There are also things that can be sin for us just in certain seasons of life. As we grow and mature in our faith, we are often granted freedom to do things that our conscience once forbade us to do beforehand. Paul teaches all about these arguable matters and uses meat sacrificed to idols as an illustration of this. It was a very hot topic at that time in the church in Corinth!
In fact in Acts 15, the church leadership all got together in Jerusalem to seek after God and figure out which of the Jewish laws and traditions carry over to non-Jew Christians and which did not. What was sin for a Jew, but not a Gentile? They came up with an extremely short list covered in just a few sentences.
Under the New Covenant, now with the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we can go even a step further from mere “doing and not doing” straight to the heart motive of our behaviors to define sin.
Romans 14:23
…everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Yes, even when we do the good things that we know we ought to do, but we do not do them because of our faith in obeying God, then it is still sin. If we do things to look good before others or to selfishly receive blessings from God for ourselves, then even doing good is sin.
Are we begi