Skip to content The Battles Over the Stagnant Places - Mehdi Chinouli Nov 10 · 44 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:13 Gonna just jump right into it. Is that okay? Let's do this. You know, so school started about, like, 3, what, 3 and a half, 4 months ago for some for some of you. So April and I made a deal.0:25 And the deal was we need to get more vegetables, this foreign object we call in our house, more vegetables into our bodies and less junk snacks and less,0:37 treats and sweets. Like, I'm a sucker. Like, if you tell me there was this doughnut shop that opened in, like, I don't know, New Haven, Connecticut, I'll be like, excuse me. Yeah. Just tell me the name because Google0:47 will tell tell me how to get there. And I'm a sucker for that because I'll go and I'll I'll bring a dozen before the children will wake up. That's that's my weakness right there. So the deal was0:59 if I stop actually buying junk, then the kids will not be able to eat junk because we blame it on the kids. Right? Well, I'm just buying the school snacks for the kids. And how many of you, those snacks were not just for1:11 the kids? I know. There was couple problems. I mean, I I realized, I had to restart my physical therapy on my knee and my quad, and everything was doing well except I just1:23 couldn't do PT, you know, to get my knee going. You know, my I had almost, a negligible left quad muscle.1:35 So the knee was good. The ligament healed. Everything is functioning well, but the quad was inexistent, and I had to do it because I, you know, start falling. I couldn't do the stairs. I couldn't do some moves, and I had1:46 to do this crazy PT. And you know what they do? They it's like, they just restrict the blood flow from your upper thigh so much so that it is so painful to actually1:58 sit, let alone stand. And the way they do is every time I show up, they put in more weight, and I get to do these these, sets, sets of 30. It takes 10 10 seconds, break and do a set of2:10 15, and and and it's so painful. By the fourth set, I'm ready to punch the guy. He's there to help me out. And I just the minute I see it coming down, 4, 3, 2, 1,2:22 I get up and I just start take because I just needed blood flow. And praise God, I regained full mobility of my knee, and I I can do stairs. I can jump sometimes. So if the Holy Spirit is kicking in today, you're gonna2:34 see some jumping. But it it made complete sense. In order for me to, do PT, I needed to lose some few pounds. Therefore, we need to axe out the the sweets and2:46 the, you know, the trips to our local favorite ice cream shop. But it was so hard. It was so hard because we had so many excuses over the past 3 months for our family2:58 to celebrate. Like, every time the kids did well in, dance class, like, we had an excuse to go to our local ice cream shop and get a treat. You know? Every time I happen to be driving by the ice3:09 cream place and there was an open spot, I had to I had oh, man. I gotta take advantage of that because that is a rare opportunity. That was the first clue that I knew there was a problem.3:21 The second problem, I was asking April, do we need to get a new dryer or new washer? Because only my clothes seem to be shrinking. I mean, it was great because I started3:33 buying, you know, clothes a little bit of larger sizes. Great. I have a new wardrobe, but I I realized I can't keep on doing that. So and and the thing is for the whole3:44 entire summer, we, my family, my wife, and kids had to watch, my 3 year old nephew. So every Friday, I had to live the duty of being the amazing uncle3:56 Betty. So I will take little Julian, and I will take the kids to our ice cream favorite local place and and and and not only get a treat, but you gotta watch. You gotta be ready for this. If you have a 3 year old,4:08 let him choose. Let him or her choose his own toppings. Like, that's, like, that's a sermon on itself right there. It's amazing. So it's gotten to be sad. I'm like, we4:20 gotta do something about this. Yes. I wanna do well, but, you know, I'm gonna keep on celebrating and going to ice cream shop. It's not gonna it's not gonna work. I so the second clue I knew was bad is that every time we4:30 went in as a family, people would say, here comes the Chinuli tornado. Here comes the Chinuli tribe. We're all coming in. And I realized this is this is pretty awesome. All the teenage kids that work in the ice cream4:42 shop, they start making my kids orders because they all know what we're gonna get. They all know, you know, 1 of my daughters got, like, a severe allergy, they you know, new scoops and all that. They scoop from a whole4:52 new tub. It's amazing. It's It's amazing, but it was a problem. Like, we can't keep on doing this. So and I know I can realize that it was a little bit quiet. Some of you are, you know, chuckled here and there, but5:04 I know I'm getting judged right now from you. I can tell. Like, it says it on your foreheads that I am being judged. But the good thing is, you know, I have a verse in my favor that I know all of you5:16 know. And here's what I know all of you know, is because I'm gonna start saying this verse that applies in my life, and you guys are gonna finish it. You ready? In my for my instance right now, you know,5:28 the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I told you I'm preaching to somebody today. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.5:39 It's a battle. It it is a battle battle, and I wanna talk to you today from God's word about the battles of these stagnant, unchanged places in our lives.5:52 Every believer fights these battles. I don't care where you are. You're a new believer, old time believer, in between believers, non believer. We all fight these battles. These are the spaces and cracks in our6:04 lives that don't necessarily really align with God's will for our lives. We all say, you know, I'm ready to sacrifice this, and I'm ready to sacrifice that, and, you know, I wanna surrender it all to6:16 Jesus, except just don't look at my fridge on Saturday night. Just don't look at my order history tab on my Amazon6:28 app. Am I preaching to somebody today? The book the book of Roman is a letter inspired by God, is written by the6:40 apostle Paul to some believers in Rome. That's how crazy. Like, I believe that because of Paul that we are here doing what we were doing today. The gospel was not6:52 just, you know, for the Jews. It actually spread all throughout Greece. It came all the way to Rome, North Africa. And you might think you're talking about Paul,7:04 and you're talking about struggles and battles and dark places and unchanged places. Like, isn't Paul, like, the goat of all the apostles? Like, isn't he, like, the guy who's responsible to write in7:16 66 percent of this New Testament? Paul was responsible for that. Like, no apostle can say that. His ministry was so powerful. He planted churches everywhere. And7:28 you tell me this guy did not have a hat did not have a halo on his on his head, like, didn't struggle? You tell me this guy had to struggle? Yes. He did.7:40 He did struggle. He struggled with his flesh. He struggled with sinful desires, which leads me up if you're following along with the notes. To a first fact of today's message. And7:52 the fact is that even the apostle Paul struggles with sinful desires. It's a fact, man, and he's gonna talk about it today. He did struggle. He did struggle with temptations just like you and I. He8:04 fought so many battles. Like, everywhere he went, a different culture battling different ideologies and what they think or not, how he can reason, how he can communicate the8:16 gospel to different cultures. Those are real battles. But our passage today is gonna teach us about the other battles and wars that Paul had to fight to keep up8:28 the good fight. Martin Luther, I love what he said about the book of Romans. Martin Luther says this about the the book of Romans. He says, it's the true masterpiece of the New8:39 Testament and the very purest gospel. It can never be too much or too well studied. It is a well of wisdom. So Paul8:51 highlights from the passage that we all read together. He he highlights the wars that we fight within ourselves that only Jesus can conquer.9:03 So that leads me to the first battle in your point. You're following along first point is the battle to become the person you aspire to be. Verse 14 says this,9:16 for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh. Pinch your neighbor. See if he's of the flesh. Pinch your neighbor.9:28 For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do don't pinch too hard. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Anybody ever felt like that?9:42 I don't understand myself. I wanna get healthy. I wanna eat right. I wanna exercise, not just to do PT, but to get be well. But I keep eating junk, and I keep9:53 demolishing ice cream after ice cream. And I hate myself after that. You know, like, when you take take you just finish your medium scoop that's supposed to10:05 medium? I mean, the thing is, this big. Like, what's up with that? The hating hating it after you're already done. It's like he's telling us that the battle inside10:16 me like, he says look at verse 16. Look what he says. He says, now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. He's talking about God's law here. He's saying, I10:28 know God's word is true. I know that God wants the very best for my life, and it it's calling us in in10:40 every area to to to bring in God's word and God's truth in our life, in every area, wherever we have appetites, you name it. So it's not just in eating, but it's in in in sex, in in relationships,10:52 in what we consume, what we watch, what we binge, in decisions that we make, in our choices that we make. You know, average person an11:04 average adult person makes between 35 to 40000 decisions on a daily basis. Those are crazy estimates. Have you thought thought of that before? And look what11:16 watch watch what Paul says in verse 17. It says, so now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Which leads me to talk about the second war we11:27 fight, the second battle we fight within ourselves. Point number 2 is the battle to accept and learn repeated mistakes. I know popular culture tells you that you are11:39 good. You are born good. You are generally good. The Bible says the complete opposite. It says that you and I created with the crooked frame.11:51 It's called sin nature. In other words, it's something deep inside of us inside of us that just doesn't go God's way. Like, we keep hitting12:03 we keep missing the mark. And hear me out. It's gonna sound a little bit we we are really good with words.12:15 Like, we make it sound a little bit harsh, and we say, our appetites got the bet the best of us. Saint Augustine says this about12:27 Paul. He says, I wish to have seen Christ in the flesh and Paul in the pulpit. Paul was so honest. He is little bit too honest. He's a little bit12:39 too frank. He's a little bit too not politically correct. Here's what he says on verse 18. He says, for I have the desire. This is the apostle12:51 Paul talking. Picture this. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want13:03 is what I keep on doing. He's like, I don't get it. Deep in my soul, I love God. I wanna obey Jesus. I wanna do the right thing. But there's something in13:14 me that rebels against that. Like, the best stuff I don't wanna do, that's the very thing I keep on doing. It's crazy. Does anybody relate? Am I preaching to anybody this morning?13:26 We live in this tension. A lot of Bible scholars call it the already but not yet. Oh, what does that mean? The end is certain. And if13:38 you don't know the end, you can flip few pages to Revelation, it will tell you the end. Jesus wins. And I and the the way I'm gonna describe it to you is the way I say it to my 5 year old. Jesus13:50 wins. We are on team Jesus. That means we win. But we we are still in the process. We are still in a journey14:02 until until the accumulation of time, until Jesus comes back. You know, I had a friend. His name is not Bob, but I'm gonna talk to him as he14:13 was a Bob. So I I met him, great guy, beautiful soul, beautiful family, amazing guy, extremely generous. He had addiction with the pills, man. And,14:25 you know, came into church actually, he came in here way before we even launched the South Coast, so, you know, part of a small group and all that, and things happened, and he came in. Amazing things happened14:37 in his life. He thought he got freed. He was freed. He got baptized, rededicated his life to Jesus, and and and you know what happened? COVID happened. Life happened, and,14:49 and it was hard. And it was hard. And and and few months ago actually, last time I I came here, I saw him, and I was like, hey, man. I miss you. I haven't seen you in a while. Like, how is things? He's like, actually,15:01 this is only my second, third time since COVID that I've been here. He's like, I I I relapsed. You you know, I I I fell back. And I said, what happened? I15:13 mean, you you like, you like, Like, I've I've heard you talk in in small groups. I've heard you like, the amazing things that's happened in your life. He said, man, I just I just couldn't do it. He says he's like, I came15:25 to church 2, 3, 4 times, and then I'm I sit in the parking lot for 20 minute listening to the lies in my head that tell me, you're a hypocrite. Why do you wanna go to church? Why do you wanna drag that thing in?15:37 Like, church is just for clean people. I was like, are you kidding? I was like, I know. I know that. I've heard you say that the church is for sick people, not a museum for the15:49 saints. He's like, I know. I know. But when it's personal, you you you deal with these lies and accusations, and and and he wasn't and he stopped going to life group,16:01 so it it just felt like he was cornered. But we sat there and, you know, we cried for a little bit. We gave him a nice hug, and and then he's back now, and he's just doing amazing. Praise God.16:13 Praise God for that. Let's praise God for that. Praise God for that. We all struggle, man. I told him. We all nobody's walking around with the hail over their head. Like, we all struggle. We struggle. Don't we struggle?16:25 We stumble sometimes. We wanna be, you know, strong, but we struggle. Like, for him, it spills. For somebody else, it's probably alcohol or, you know, some of you are addicted to spending. It's coming16:36 up. Someone said, you know, wake up. This is what I do. This is what I do. Because I have to go to bed early so I can wake up early and go to the So my plan is that before I go to bed,16:48 I say, okay. My plan tomorrow is that the first thing I do, I'm gonna do my bible reading so that I'm gonna have a great day. And here's what happened. When I wake up in the morning, I I gotta check my phone to see if16:58 anybody called out from work because I gotta find some backup plan. And next thing you know, 1 scroll after the other after the other after the other, you're like, oh, crap. I gotta get back to work. It's time to take a17:08 shower and get back to work. And and here comes my day, and there was no bible reading plan. And day after that, I just feel, like, yucky. I just feel, like, distant from God. I feel like there's nothing good pouring in17:18 my life. Paul says he relates to all of us who if you ever felt like that way, good news is Paul relates look at the few verses, and17:30 I'm gonna put it in the NIV translation. It says, now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find17:42 this law at work. Although I want to do e good, evil is right there with me. There's this paradigm that things are happening. Fights17:54 are happening. Those are real battles that we deal with. It's leading up to point number 3 on your, on your notes. The third battle we fight is the battle of confronting the reality of our internal18:06 battles. Sometimes we are in denial. Sometimes we wanna have this facade that says that, I got it, man. Like, do you know how long I've been coming to church? Do you know what my title is? Do you know how18:18 much I've been serving? Come on. You remember the Tom and Jerry? Yeah. Remember Tom and Jerry? Hey. When Tom is ready to kick the crap out18:30 of Jerry and, you know, there's like a a an angel on his right and a and a devil on his left, and 1 is feeding him, like, good ideas and good thoughts and God's wisdom and, like, let's not kill this guy, and the devil18:41 is, like, feeding him the complete opposite. And some of us, you know, feeding you accusation and lies. That's what happens.18:53 We all face that. We all have these voices. We all struggle with these voices. Let's continue to verse 22. It gets better. For my inner being, I delight in God's law. So19:05 he's acknowledging the battle, but look what he says about him himself. But I see another law at work in me, waging war. Everybody say waging war.19:16 Waging war. Say it 1 more time. Waging war. What you see is happening in the Middle East and and Russia and Ukraine, that's not19:28 the waging war he's talking about. This war is going after your soul against the law waging war against the law of my mind and making me a19:39 prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. The the reality of spiritual warfare is that we have this war waging inside of each 1 of us,19:52 and it's inside the battlefield of our mind and our hearts. And and Paul, he felt it. He felt conflicted. He cries out on verse20:03 24. Verse 24 says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? That's a desperate20:15 person right there. That's the guy who wrote 2 third of this New Testament. Look at his cry. And I love this. I love this when pastor Tim taught about this this verse. You know what he says?20:28 There's a who there. There's not a what. I'm glad there is a who. I'm glad there's a person there, not a program. Let's praise God for that who 1 more time. Let's give God the20:40 praise for that who. And I wanna show you something cool. It came up a couple weeks ago when I was studying this. The phrase that Paul uses,20:52 right, it says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Paul, remember this, was a a Roman citizen. He was Jewish, but he was a Roman citizen. So he knew the traditions and and the laws21:04 of Rome. And be so every Roman, if they were and this letter is to the Romans. Right? Every Roman, when they heard that word, the body of death,21:16 every Roman knew exactly what Paul is talking about. If you were if you killed somebody, if you were convicted with murder in ancient Rome and you got the death penalty,21:27 they didn't just execute you right away. Some of the higher ups took pleasure and splurge up and coming of different creative ways of killing that person. So before you got21:39 hanged or before you got mauled by lions, I'm gonna read to you what I found out about this this passage right there. It's it's raise your hand if you21:51 had breakfast already. It's gonna be a problem because it's pretty gruesome. Listen to this. It says the criminal is shackled to his victim. Eye22:03 to eye, hand to hand, waist to waist, foot to foot. The murderer, still very much alive, was forced to live out the remainder of his life22:15 directly bearing the weight and the putrefying stench of the dead body. In time, of course, the rotten flesh of the22:26 corpse will become rife with disease, infecting the killer and lead into a most horrible and grisly end. And no 1, no 1 was22:38 allowed to remove the dead body from the condemned criminal. He had to walk down the streets of Rome, dragging that dead body. And this22:50 is exactly what's happened in this verse. It's exactly what Paul is trying to tell us. He's describing to you and me the experience of every child of God, every believer.23:02 We all long for strength, and we wanna walk in the victory that that we know is true. We all wanna walk in freedom, in purity, in resilience.23:14 But at times, it does feel like we're dragging around a dead body of our sin nature. See? You know, people I find, some especially in23:26 alpha, like, they're surprised that when they give their life to God that their life does not instantly change. But here's the thing. Like, we, you know, pastors and elders and life group leaders and brothers and23:38 sisters sit in this room, we have to do a better job at reminding them of fact number 2 in our in in in your notes is that salvation is instantaneous. Amen?23:49 Amen. But the sanctification is a much longer process. Your process is different from her process, is different from his process, is different from my process.24:01 We're all different. Sometimes we judge each other. We're like, oh, well, it's been 2 years. This person should move from this step to this step. There's some truth to that, but let's not do it in24:13 a judgmental way. Let's do it in an encouraging way. Hey. Have you considered this? Hey. What about this? I know it's hard. You don't have to do it all by yourself. We can do it together.24:25 When you receive salvation, that's when you invite Jesus into your life. Right? Forgiveness happens. Forgiveness from your sins happen instantaneously right away. In that moment you in that24:37 moment, you are full fully forgiven by God. Your old self is literally died at the cross with Jesus. But understand this, that even though you are a new24:49 creation, the capacity to sin is still there with you. And so today, I'm going to ask a question. I'm25:01 wondering today, have you asked yourself this question before here in Northarborough in our online audience? Like, where is your unchanged,25:13 stagnant place that God wants to set you free from today? Have you asked yourself that question? I want you to think about that question seriously.25:25 And for my friend, he was popping pills. I mean, he sat there in the parking lot for 20 minute battling whether he should come in or not because, you know, Christians are supposed to25:37 look the part and speak the part and, you know, pretend the part. And even though he's he's saved, he he felt the shame. He was ashamed to walk and25:48 drag it in that addiction. It's still haunting him. He's still battling it. And I know I know I know I know you guys know this, but maybe today, it will be helpful if I26:00 say it 1 more time. That it it is hard to walk in freedom if we keep dragging in whatever addiction we have. Like, that equation doesn't compute. You can't keep dragging26:12 addiction and expect to walk in freedom. You keep dragging that anxiety. You keep dragging that spirit of fear. And I hope today26:24 this will be helpful for somebody. You know? Sometimes we treat that spirit of fear, anxiety, depression. We treat it as a little cute pups. We we26:36 put a leash on them, and we take them everywhere with us. Yeah. Yeah. They become family. You know, we give them names. They become part of who we are. We26:48 nourish them. We give them a safe home. They become part of us. And you know what we don't do on Sunday morning?27:01 Because we all drag those pups with us. We don't bring them to this altar here and and ask God to free us. We we leave them in the parking lot. You'll be amazed right27:12 now if you took on the spiritual glasses and walked the the the the parking lot. You'll be amazed to see what's what what you what you kept in your cars this morning. Some of us are afraid to give27:24 them up because they so identify us. Who will be without them? So we think we27:36 can control them by the leash, but we don't want to lay it at the cross. And those cute pups, they're really just27:48 rotten corpses. They're shackled to our bodies. They're not drawing us to life, but they're drawing us to death. This stuff I know is choking the life out28:00 of some of you. Sometimes you are filled with anxiety so much so you say, I I can't bring this to church. I I can't I can't go into church and bring in whatever I28:12 have and look the part, you know, worship Jesus, speak the part.28:24 But we how many know this? We walk to the beat of a different drummer. We're called to cast them out in Jesus' name, And you do28:36 not need somebody with the title to to do that for you. You can do it. You can ask a brother and sister here today. After this message, you can come and say, I got this that I'm dragging. I want freedom in28:47 Jesus' name. Get prayer for freedom for a breakthrough. And maybe, I know, some of you are dragging a church hurt, somebody hurt you, a28:59 Christian or a leader hurt you. But yet you had hadn't the courage to release them and and forgive them. Yes. It's in the past. Yes. You have asked29:11 God to heal you, but you're yet to forgive yourselves and you're yet yet to forgive them. I need you to listen to me. You know, as a pastor, what they did to you29:23 was wrong. But if you don't let it go, man, you will never be free. You need to stand up and live up your truth. Live up your purpose. Stample29:34 on those traps of the enemy, on those lies, and on those on those accusations. You know, if you've been part of Alpha, we talk about this our forgiveness part when it comes to the,29:47 talk about, why did Jesus die. Right? And and and we talked about it a couple weeks ago, and it was so powerful. Like, we went from talking about why did Jesus die to talking about29:58 unforgiveness. And there was this beautiful quote that we go through in in alpha. It says, unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die from it.30:12 And maybe you went through a divorce, a broken engagement, a betrayal from a friend or family member. And you know what? Here's the deal. Here's the deal. Maybe it was 9830:23 percent their fault, but your pride does not wanna let go of that 2 percent. Do you see do you see that unchanged, that30:35 stagnant place that cling into you? And then we wonder why we're sort of, like, kinda, like, limp through life. We we we we30:46 we are spiritually empty, exhausted, and we feel like we're distant from God. Like, what is your baggage today across all this30:58 room? And if you're watching on YouTube, what is your baggage today? God wants to free you from it today in Jesus' name. You know, every time I I31:10 I read the Bible, some parts cracks me up because I can totally relate. And sometimes it just demolishes some of the things that you thought about. So so so today, we're gonna talk about the 12 disciples. This31:22 is how they crack me up. There's a story in Luke that talks about when Jesus and his disciples, they wanted to go to Jerusalem, but Jesus took a shortcut. He wants to go right through the heart of a Samaritan town. And31:34 if you know anything about your Bible, Samaritans and Jews hated each other. They actually, like, will if they were walking down the road, 1 will go on 1 end, 1 will go the other, and, like, they each, like,31:45 spit on each other. That's how amazing those guys were. So this is that story. And then, let's let's look at Luke. Let's look at Luke31:57 chapter 9 verses 54 and 55. It says, when his disciples, James and John, saw it these disciples, by the way, they were, like, late teens, early twenties maybe.32:09 Okay? On the most accurate part will be, like, late teens, actually. So they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?32:22 It's kinda hilarious if you think about it. These guys were with Jesus 24 7 for 3 years. All they've heard him say is what? Pray for32:33 your love your Enemies. And the second they see32:45 Samaritans, they're like, Jesus, do you wanna do you want us to call down fire and just fry these guys? They didn't get it, man. And that's good because I feel like I belong to a club. Sometimes I32:57 don't get it. They believed in Jesus. They were saved, but yet they also had unchanged, stagnant places. It was full of they were full of anger and33:08 racial rage. And and and to be honest with you, we we still do it today. You know, we come into this church, and with the very same lips, we say, we we sing praises33:20 to God. God, you're good. You're faithful. You're more than able. You are a healer. But don't get me started with those liberals. For some of you, don't get me started with those33:32 right wingers. Do you want me to call heaven I mean, fire from heaven to consume them? Fill in the blanks. But33:46 guess what? Verse 55. But he turned and rebuked them. Jesus wants to correct that behavior. Many Christians, to be honest with you, we still carry around anger33:58 and hostility. Verses 17 and 20. This is beautiful. I'm gonna read that from the message translation. If34:10 the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help. I realize that I don't have what it takes. Amen. I'm raising my34:21 hand. I can will it. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it.34:33 I decided not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. My decisions don't34:45 result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. I love how the bible is so34:57 realistic. It's not fake, man. He's like, it gets the better of me every time. This is the apostle Paul again, mind you. Let me ask you this.35:09 What gets the best of you every time? Like, what would it be? Like, is it lust? Do you wanna live pure? But, man,35:21 couple clicks, and there goes that purity right there. It's in your pocket. But look at look at look at Paul in verses 21 and 23.35:34 It happens so regularly that it is predictable. The moment I decide to do good, the moment sin is there to what? Trip me up. I truly35:46 delight. So but even though he's speaking those things, he goes back to God's word. He says, I truly delight in God's command. I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm talking about. But it's pretty obvious35:57 that's not all of me joins in that delight. And then he says, parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least36:09 expected, they take charge. I've tried everything and nothing helps, man. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no 1 who can do anything for me? Isn't36:21 that the real question? Isn't that the real question this morning, folks? Does anybody feel like they're the end of their rope here in this room36:33 in our online campus? I wonder what deadweight you're dragging around. But today, Jesus came to free you from36:45 that. Hallelujah. Amen. Let's give God the praise. Maybe maybe it's shame. It's been following you around. You36:57 you know you've been forgiven by God, but you can't forgive yourselves. You carry around that toxic weight of shame, I don't know, for for for the37:08 abortion, for the way your kids turned out. They're grown. They're no longer living with you, but you still blame yourself for their choices,37:22 the voice of shame still follows you. And you know how we know it's a it's the voice of shame. It when it tells you, hey. It doesn't37:34 tell you, hey. You made a mistake. It tells you, hey. You are a mistake. And let me tell you something. That's not the voice of God. The Holy Spirit comes to convict but never37:45 to condemn. The devil condemns. The devil is a loser. The devil is a liar. He's persistent. You gotta give him this because he will37:57 follow you around and remind you of your worst mistakes. You didn't make that mistake. You are a mistake. And listen to me. Paul was a broken man. He38:09 was broken. He had a past, but he is a saint. He hated his sin. His constant struggle is following him. Remember what Paul did for sport when his name was Saul, not38:21 Port? He killed Christian for sports. He went he's like, I'm gonna be in charge of what I can just kill Christians wherever I go. And good news is38:33 it's coming in point number 4. Good news is the battle is won in the freedom Christ offers. Amen. Praise God. Paul answers his own cry. In verse38:44 25, he says, here's what we're gonna do. All of us in this room, with a loud voice from the depths of your being, we're all going to read verse 24. Can we38:56 do this? Alright. The verse in the screen, it says, thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes. Jesus39:09 came to set you free. Yes. And you know what Paul says? Paul says, it's time. It is time. It is time to cut the cord from the body of death that I've been39:21 dragging. It says on it says on Romans 8, and this is where I was gonna actually preach on. Look at this. It says, there is therefore now noShow more
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