All right, let's get after it. We're in our Creed series, where we're looking at some foundational beliefs that we hold. And today we got people are sinners. So it's gonna be really cheerful, uplifting message. But let's be honest. There's some real idiots out there in there. I mean, you know who you are driving 55 in the passing lane. Big pet peeves. Especially here. We don't have a lot of parking spots, and there's sometimes people take up two parking spots. I've written license plates down before. No, I'm kidding. I haven't. But, I mean, you can google idiots at work and you'd have hours of entertainment looking at that. Now, we all know that we have a messed up world. There's a lot of just crazy problems in our world. You watch the news, you just live in our world. You get that? Well, I'm here to tell you that that that's brought to you by people. We contribute to that. And before you give yourself a pass, have you ever called yourself an idiot? You're like, oh, I'm such an idiot. Right? Anybody? Yeah. You felt like I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have said that. Well, maybe you're onto something I want. Abandon that thought too quickly. We got issues. Like, we have problems. Like, let me get more practical. Like, have you ever seen something you wish you hadn't said, or you've done something you wish you hadn't done? Like, if I could go back and do it, I would do it differently. Or have you ever done something that you wish you hadn't done? Promised yourself maybe other people, I'll never do that again. And then you. What? Did it again? Yeah, we have problems now. The world has a perspective, or a popular saying in our culture embraced that people are generally good. I think it's even in some country songs, right? Like, you get down to it, people are generally good. We're born good. But it's kind of a crazy world that messes some people up. But good compared to what? And good by which standard? So what the Bible teaches is that all people are sinners. Now, when you hear that, you might kind of repulse against that a little bit of like, I don't know if I like that. That seems harsh. That seems a little bit name calling, that all people are sinners. Now, everybody believes that, whether they recognize it or not. Even non christians believe that. See, the way the world says it is that nobody's what for. Yeah, nobody's for. Like, there's. We're admitting that there's a standard we don't measure up to. Like, nobody's perfect. Nobody's that good. Like, even secular people embrace that. Or another way that people put it, is your only, what? Human. That was more trickier. Like, I didn't know if I was gonna get that right. You're only human. Nobody says that after, like, this great accomplishment. Like, that's said after a failure. Like, it's permission for failure. Well, you're only human. What else would you expect? There's an expectation of falling short. There's an expectation of failure. There's an expectation of less than perfect, because nobody's perfect, and you're only human. So everybody embraces that idea. What scripture kind of takes it a little bit further implies that saying, yeah, everybody's a sinner. Now, when you hear the word sinner, you can tend to think of, like, those are drug dealers and prostitutes and murderers, and I'm not one of those, and I don't do that. Like, there's a lot of good people out there, or there's a lot of good people out there, right? There's people that, when you're gone, they're gonna wheel your trash cans back to your garage, they may mow your yard. When you need a meal, they're going to bake you a meal. When you're feeling down, there's going to be people that try to encourage you. Like, there's good people in our world, but even those people are only human. They're going to struggle with insecurities and jealousies and sin and lying and lust and greed. Like, your main problem is a sin problem. Your spouse's main problem is a sin problem. Your kids main problem is a sin problem. Your parents main problem is a sin problem. Our world's main problem is a sin problem. And we need to better understand sin. Now, when you apply it so broadly, there can be some pushback, because the waters that we swim in are just this kind of like, well, people are generally good, but let's get some scripture to kind of say otherwise. This is one john one eight. If we say we have no sin, like, no, that's not a problem I have. We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We're lying to ourselves. If that's the case, you go a couple verses down in one john, it says, if we say, we have not sinned, like, that's something, you know, you ever, like, confront a toddler for doing something wrong and you know they did it and they're like, I didn't do it. That's this, okay. If we say, we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Here's another one. James 417. Just got done going through James. Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is. What? Yeah. Sin is much broader than just doing bad things. A part of sin is also knowing the good you should do and not doing it. Here's another passage, since they're all so fun. Mark seven. And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within. Out of the heart of man come evil thoughts. Sexual morality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. It's like your heart is wicked. Like, it comes from within your own heart. Have you ever said something to somebody that was, like, really mean, and you caught yourself like, oh, I'm so sorry. I don't know where that came from. Jesus. Like, I know where it came from. Came from your heart. Like, there's stuff going on in there. Here's another one. Jeremiah 17 nine. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Hold on to that imagery. There's some sickness here. Who can understand it? One more, since we're all having fun. Ecclesiastes 720. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good, and never since. Because nobody's perfect and we're only human. And the Bible is saying, yeah, exactly. We all have this sin problem that's very pervasive. We are all sinners, and we've said this before, but it's important to get. And we're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. Like, it's our nature. The Bible talks about we have a sin nature. Like, we're born into it, like, we're infected by sin. There's a sickness, and it's like we were born with the disease, but everybody was born with this disease, so we don't know anything different. Like, this is just the way it is. Like, I don't know anything different. I don't see anything different. Like, we're just kind of born into it. And because it's so common, we can also see that or start to feel that it's not that big a deal. Like, sins in me, sins in you, sins in everybody. It's just normal. And normal becomes not that bad. But sin is awful. It's awful, and sin is not awful because of what it is, but who it's against. What makes our sin so awful is who we're sinning against. It's the holiness of our God that makes sin so awful. And it's hard for us to comprehend how holy God is. I mean, psalm 19 tells us the heavens declare the glory of God. Like, look up and try to comprehend our galaxies, but we struggle to comprehend that. But the awfulness of sin also points to the holiness of God. How grand and holy and glorious our God is, is seen, and how awful and offensive sin is, because it's not just the act of sin, but who it's being sinned against as the holy God, which makes it so awful. And we see this in the severity of sin. Sin is so awful that one act of sin against our holy God has led to all this corruption that we see and are experiencing today. Our sin is so awful that it took a perfect holy God taking on flesh himself and going to the cross to atone for this sin. Our sin is so awful that a just punishment of our sin is eternal torment in hell. Like it speaks to the gravity and weightiness and seriousness of sin. It's a big deal. And you may have heard of the term original sin back in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and their first disobedience. This is original sin. Well, that has led to a term that you may have heard of called inherited sin. Like you inherited it, you were born with it. It's a condition that you have, and everybody has it. In fact, romans 512 says this. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. He's saying, we all are infected with this sin and an evidence that we're all infected with this sin is everybody's sins. Like you see it, everybody's got it, and it's kind of spread everywhere. And what is the consequences of sin? Remember in the garden of Eden? Death. Right. He said, if you sin. Oh, thanks. Did I sound really bad? See, now I have the sin of insecurity. I appreciate it. You would surely die, right? So when they ate the fruit, did they die right away? No. No. Cause it wasn't. You're eating poisonous fruit and you're going to die. It's you're disobeying God. And in your disobedience of God, you're separated from God. And in our separation from God, we die because we're made to be with God in relationship to him. So think of it like a fish. You take a fish out of a fish tank and what happens? He eventually dies, right? They're going to flop around for a while and then die. You take a human being and you separate them from God. You're eventually going to die. You're going to flop around for about 70, 80 years, right, trying to satisfy your soul. But just like a fish was made for water, you were made from God and separated from God, you die. And sin affects every aspect of man. We're corrupted. Now, that doesn't mean that human beings can't be nice, can't do good things, aren't capable of stopping alongside the road to help somebody out. But it does mean that we are incapable of doing any spiritual good. Like, look at this passage. This is roman, or. Oh, I skipped this one. Let's read it. Oh, that's a good one. Isaiah 59. Two. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear you. So that's talking about that separation from God. Now let's get this one. Romans eight seven. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it what cannot. You can't do any spiritual good when you're dead in your sin. This infection of sin in our lives. Like, sure, you can be nice to people and you can say, but any spiritual good, like, we're dead in our sins. And understanding that is actually helpful in understanding the message we talked about last week on the sovereignty of God. Because when you're dead in your sins, you need somebody to come get you. You need somebody to come rescue you. We're not wounded in our sins, and we can kind of make our way back to God. No, we're dead in our sins, and we need God to be a first mover to come rescue us. In romans six, it says we're enslaved to sin, like, we're in this captivity of sin. And then in Romans seven, you get this picture of a struggle with sin. Paul saying, I do things I don't want to do. I don't do the good I do want to do. It's like, who's gonna set me free from this body of sin and death? Like, it's a struggle of sin. And then in Romans eight, it's kinda wild. He is addressing saints, Christians, who have been adopted by God. Yet he tells them that if you seek to gratify the desires of the flesh, if you live by the flesh, you're gonna die. And he's talking about a spiritual death. You're gonna perish. Now, how he can say that to christians? Maybe a message for another time, maybe we'll get in that, in that podcast. But he's saying, listen, if you're living to satisfy the desires of the flesh, that ain't Christian. And there's this real call to like, you need to take sin seriously. It's a serious issue, and it's an issue we need to take seriously. What exactly is it, though? See, I saw Michael this morning and he's like, what's your big idea? It's like, well, I got a lot of medium sized ideas, or a lot. I don't have one big idea. It feels like just a big download of information. But if you're a note taker, you may like it, but here's where we want to go. We need to have a better understanding of what sin is or a bigger understanding of what sin is. We need to have a greater intensity in dealing with our sin, and we need to have smarter attacks on our sin, okay? That's where we're going. A bigger idea of what sin is, a greater intensity in dealing with sin and smarter attacks on sin. And I think we can see that all in one text. So if you have your bibles, turn to Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three, or turn on your phone or whatever, but let's look at it together. Here we go. Verse five is where we're going to start. Put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and covetousness, which is what? What does he say? Idolatry. Like, that's interesting. He's saying, this is idolatry. These sinful acts, like, underneath these things, what the issue is is idolatry. Now, when we hear the word idolatry, we tend to think of, like, carved images and statues that you bow down to. And there's a reason that we tend to think that that's how it's addressed when we're getting the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 20, it says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water underneath the earth so you can finish the passage. But what he's saying is, don't make yourself a statue and worship it. Don't make it out of gold. Don't make it out of silver. Don't make it out of wood. Don't make it out of stone. Like, don't make some image and worship it as a God. That's what comes to our mind when we think of idolatry. And you might feel like, well, I don't do that. I'm good. But notice Paul is not talking about carved images or statues. He's talking about sexual immorality and impurity and passion and evil desires and covetousness, which is idolatry. So he's saying, okay, idolatry is not just carved images and statues that you bow down to. There's something deeper behind idolatry. And really, that's at the core of sin, that you have a worship problem. You're worshiping the wrong things. You have made an idol of money, or you've made an idol of status or success, or you've made an idol of your car. You've made an idol of your house, you've made an idol of sports. And you're like, I don't worship those things. Like, I don't go to my garage and bring the whole family. Like, we're gonna sing songs to the car now. Like, we don't offer money to youth sports. It's like, well, maybe you can argue that, you know, I'm not there, like, praying to the house. Like, I don't do that. But it's like, okay, but maybe you're misunderstanding idolatry. Maybe you have a smaller view of, like, Exodus 20, where you're just going to, like, carved images that you bow down to, and you need a colossians three idea of idolatry, where you're saying, it's deeper than that. Do you worship it? Do you love it more than you love God? Are you devoted to those things more so than you're devoted to God? Are you more passionate about those things than you are about God? You say that's idolatry. And when we tend to think about sin, we tend to just think of immoral acts, stealing, lying, murder, lust, greed, which are sin. But why are they sin? Who says it's sin? Well, God, he can. But to understand why those things are sin. They're sin because they go against the nature and character of a holy God. Okay, but what really makes it sin is that we would choose to offend a holy God. Like, why would we do that? Why would we offend a holy God? And I bet you're like, well, I never thought of it like that. I wasn't trying to offend God. I was just trying to please me. Exactly. Idolatry. I wasn't trying to offend God. The reason I looked at it because I wanted to look at it, the reason I did it, because I wanted to do it, the reason I said it because I wanted to say it right, I wasn't even thinking about God. Idolatry. Like, why would we go against the laws and commands of God? Because we put something ahead of God. We're seeking to please ourselves over God. That's idolatry. And Paul's saying, hey, you gotta understand what's underneath your sin here. More than immoral actions. There's an idolatry problem. Sin is ultimately a worship problem. It's ultimately a worship problem. In fact, we've shown these verses several times, but it's important to drive them home. This is Jeremiah 213, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. He's like, this is the root of evil. People are denying me or they're putting lesser things above me. They're trying to find satisfaction and value and belonging and fulfillment in things other than me. And he says, that's the essence of evil. Like, that's the core of sin. Or Paul in Romans 323 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And perhaps a lot of us know that passage, but to stop and think about what does it mean to fall short of the glory of God? Of course we fall short of the glory of God. Everybody falls short of the glory of God. Angels fall short of the glory of God. God has a glory we will never obtain. So what is Paul talking about? He's connecting it to sin and he's saying, guys, here's what sin comes down to. You're failing to glorify God as you should. You're failing to worship God as he deserves. You're missing the glory of God and chasing after lesser things, like we saw in Jeremiah 213. That's the heart or the essence of evil or the essence of sin. It's a worship problem. And when you realize that, then we see the need to have a greater intensity in dealing with sin. I didn't just lie. I didn't just steal. I wasn't just greedy or self centered. I offended a holy God. And that takes a greater intensity at dealing with it. Look at verse five again. It says, put to what death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? And then he goes in this list now, put to death. That's some violent language. In fact, if you kind of fall into this Christianity of niceness and be like, I don't even know if that computes, it's like he's telling us to put to death to kill what is earthly in us. And he's not the only one to talk about this. It's other places in scripture. Here's romans eight. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to what death? Maybe more than six people. Next time you put to death, let's finish it. The deeds of the body, you will live. Here's another one. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet. Or in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. He's talking about, like, we should have a struggle with sin. And there is an imagery of an intense struggle with sin, like, don't give in. Like, there's a fault fight that you should have with sin, and it may lead to shedding of blood, literally or figuratively. Matthew five, he says, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out, throw it away. For it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better for you to lose one of your members than let your whole body go into hell. This is some intense stuff that's some violent language when it comes to our sin. John Owens, who's a famous puritan pastor, famously said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. Like, if you're not actively trying to put to death your sin struggles, it's gonna do some damage in your life. So we don't just try to manage our sin. We don't just try to control our sin. We don't just try to hide our sin. There's no such thing in scripture as responsible sinning. Right? People might think of responsible drinking, like, well, yeah, I do, but I have it under control. Right. I mean, it's just kind of on the weekends or. Yeah, I engage in that, but it's not affecting my job or it's not affecting my marriage, but I got this. It's not out of control. It's manageable. There's no concept of that in scripture. There's no responsible sinning when it comes to our sin. We're to kill it or to put it to death. There's a severity that we should have in dealing with sin. So if your struggle with pornography tends to happen on your smartphone, get a dumb phone, right? And if you're like, well, I need maps. Well, getting lost physically is a lot less than getting lost spiritually. Like, do you have that kind of severity to it? If you have a tv show that you watch and it just always makes you covet, don't watch the tv show. But I like it. But it's leading you to sin, so cut it off, turn it off. Or if I have a tv and the tv just makes me lazy and gluttonous, get rid of your tv. Or if I have friends and every time I hang out with these friends, I have a lot of fun, but I always do stuff I regret, hang out with different friends. Like, do you have a severity in dealing with your sin that you want to kill it, you don't want to manage it or control it, you want to put it to death. And to see the severity of our sin, we need to see it in light of God. Because when our only perspective is each other, sin is common, sin is normal. And when it's normal, it doesn't seem that bad. But we need to see our sin in light of God. Look at verse six. He says, on account of these, the sinful stuff he just listed, the wrath of God is coming. Like, this is the perspective Paul gives them. Like, I'm telling you to put this to death. And here's why. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming because you are offending a holy God in your sin, you are sinning against God. And you're like, you thought you just did that for fun, or you thought you just did that for revenge. Well, ultimately your sin is against God and his wrath is coming because of it. So there's this severity of our sin that it is against a holy God. When we understand that, it's like, oh, I can't just manage this. I can't just control this. I need to kill it. And to kill it, we have to see see it or see sin for what it is, because sin can present itself as very appealing. It's attractive, it's enticing. And as Christians, the scripture is like, helping us peek behind the curtain to get a better accurate view of sin, because when you have a better accurate view of sin, you have greater resistance to it. He's saying, hey, this sexual immorality these passions, desires. It's attractive. The wrath of God is coming because of that. Do you get that? Like he's trying to make this connection. So I don't know if this illustration will land. It's probably a bit disgusting, but that's the point. There should be some repulsiveness to sin, but we're all Iowans, so we can handle it. You guys know what a cow pie is? Yeah. It's not a pie. Okay? The reason it's called a pie is because it's in a circle. Now, when you think of sin, think of a candy coated cow pie. Like one big m and m. All right? As much as you like candy, you're not going to bite into it because you know what's in it, right? And you can like candy a lot, but if you're like, oh, but I know what's in it, so I'm not going to partake of it. Right? You're like, I love candy. I don't eat poop. Right? You're gonna have those standards. And when it comes to sin, there may be an appeal to it, an attractiveness to it, but it's like, okay, I get that. But I know what's in it, so I don't engage to it. I know because of it, the wrath of God is coming. I know the dam like, it's attractive on the outside, but I know what's inside it. And we have to start seeing sin for what it is. You can't just look at the appeal or the empty promises. You have to know what comes with it. We have to have a greater urgency to deal with our sin when we understand what it entails. And the wrath of God is coming because of it. And it leads us to not manage it, control it, try to handle it responsibly. You wouldn't say, I eat poop responsibly, right? Repentance, it's like, no, it's disgusting. I don't want that. You see in verse seven. I'm sorry. Like, finally, your junior higher's listening now. Okay, verse seven, it says in these, you too once walked. What does that mean? You once walked. You once lived this way, but you don't anymore. Like, there's been a repentance. There was a lifestyle that made sense when you were not. Were you not a believer? And there's a lifestyle now that makes sense because you are a believer in these two. You once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, there's real repentance. Guys. Christians don't just call sin sin. They go to war with sin. They repent of sin. They turn from sin. They don't manage sin. They don't just control sin. They kill it. They fight it. It's the fight we're called to now. So understand that sin is ultimately a worship problem. It's not just an immoral act. There's idolatry connected to that, that our worship is off. And we need to take a harsher approach to dealing with our sin. We need to kill it. But get me now. Scripture doesn't just tell us what sin is, and it doesn't just tell us to hate it. It tells us how to fight it. And if we want to see real victory over sin, we need to have smarter attacks on sin. You tracking with me? Because you can be somebody who understands that sin is ultimately a worship problem, and you can hate it, and you can constantly get your butt kicked by it because you fight foolishly. And the scripture tells us how to fight sin. I think we see this in this test. So I'm going to lay out four weapons we see in this passage when it comes to fighting sin. So let's go to verse ten. I'll go verse nine. Just because it's a running thought, he says, do not lie to one another. Seeing that you have put off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed. In what? Knowledge. After the image of its creator. The first weapon to fight sin is knowledge. This new self that we're supposed to put on gets renewed, gets strengthened, gets fortified, solidified in knowledge, in knowledge of the creator. Now, we understand as christians that we are to grow in our knowledge of God, and that's a good thing. And we understand as christians that we should fight and resist sin. But we often fail to connect the dots between the two, that you growing in your knowledge of God is a weapon in you fighting sin. Look back at the beginning of this chapter, the first two verses of chapter three. It says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things of the earth. Not to oversimplify it, but you can't set your mind on something you don't know. Like you can't dwell on a truth you don't understand. And if you're going to have big thoughts of God and his power and his love and his grace and his sovereignty. Like, you gotta know that. And the more that you dwell on God and the things above is connected to putting to death the things of this earth that are in you. Like, the bigger God gets in your mind, the smaller sin gets in your heart. But you gotta grow in your knowledge of God. And when you do that, when you learn more about God, your newness of life that you're called to put on gets renewed. It's strengthened. It's a way you fight sin. Look at verse eleven and twelve. Here is not a greek and jew circumcised and uncircumcised. Barbarian, cynthian slave free. But Christ is all and in all put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Let's stop there. The second weapon in fighting sin is identity. Knowing who you are in Christ is an important weapon in fighting sin. And Paul is saying, hey, you are not primarily a jew or Greek now, or a barbarian, or a cynthian or slave or free. That is not your identity. Who you are is chosen by God and loved by God. And you need to understand that if you're going to fight sin, you can no longer find your identity primarily in lesser things. You're not first and foremost a mother or a father, or rich or poor or successful or unsuccessful in the world. Like, you gotta stop finding your identity in those things. Because when you keep trying to find your identity in those things, you are very susceptible to sin. You love this world and you're not gonna put to death the deeds of this earth. You need to switch teams here and you need to understand what has been accomplished in Jesus Christ. You are no longer those things. You are a child of God. You are chosen by God and you are loved by God. And that is an important truth when it comes to fighting sin. In fact, you see Jesus live this out. When Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, do you know what happens right before that? He's baptized. And in his baptism, his father through the sky makes this loud announcement. This is my son, whom I love. Right. What strength to go out and face temptation when you just got reinforced. This is who you are and I love you. We fight temptation the same way you're going to go face temptation. Know who you are in Christ and know you're loved by Christ. Because if you miss that, sinning is is just about pleasing yourself, and you're probably going to do it all the time and not sinning is just about denying yourself, and you're probably going to eventually do it all the time. But if sinning is about offending a holy God who loves you and not sinning is about pleasing a holy God that loves you, that's a different ballgame. And Paul is saying, put that uniform on, put that on. Like, know which team you are, know what's been accomplished on your behalf, know who you belong to, know that you're loved. That's a weapon in fighting sin. When that's true, you don't just run away from sin, you start running to Christ. And that's a very different thing. So the last two are kind of intertwined together. But let's kind of read the text and look at them separately. Verse twelve, put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, to which indeed you are called into one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. The third weapon against sin is community. Notice what he's, this is the same context that put this to death. And then he's talking about, forgive one another, bear with one another, be in community with one another, sing songs with one another, show humility and kindness and patience to one another. So an important weapon in finding is in this community. Now, when I say community, I don't just mean community in general, because we all know that some community is not helpful at all. Proverbs 1320 that a companion of fools suffers harm. I'm talking about christian community. Paul's talking about christian community. Christian community is a group of people that care for your holiness. You may find community that cares for your happiness, but christian community cares for your holiness. They care for your closeness to God. And the paradox is, which is that's where happiness is ultimately fulfilled. But it's a group of people. It's like if you chase after sin, we're gonna chase after you. If you're falling away from God, we're going to confront that, we're going to teach, we're going to admonish to that. That's christian community. It's an important part of fighting sin. It's how we should do it wisely. And if you have this attitude, which tends to dwell more in dudes of, just like, I got this, I can do it. I can handle my own sin struggles, I'll figure it out. That is a way to get eaten alive. You ever seen a lion hunt and eat a kazelle? It's like, of course you have. Like, we televise that right at the nature channel, they try to separate it from the pack. The Bible talks about Satan as a roaring lion, prowling around, looking at, like, the same hunting tactics. Like, you get separated from community. You're more vulnerable in sin. And when Paul is saying, hey, you need to put to death what is earthly among you, you need to, like, kill your sin. It's in the same context of forgive one another, bear with one another, but don't over apply that or don't miss that, because a community of grace is not okay with sin. A community of grace isn't like, it's okay, you're forgiven. It's okay, we'll just bear with it. No, that same language is used. Admonish, point to Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Put it to death. And I'm telling you, when that happens, when you have a community that shows you grace in your struggles, that bears with you in your struggles, along with not being okay with your struggles, but saying, let's come back to Christ. Let's let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. That's a community that shrinks the attractiveness of sin and grows the attractiveness of God because, are you broken? Yes. Are you loved? Yes. Like, that's what the church needs to be. So we fight sin in community. Let's look at the fourth one. Let's read the same text, but put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. This fourth weapon in fighting sin is devotion. And you see it like in the same context of to put to death the deeds of the flesh or what's earthly among you, you find put on, bear with, be thankful, let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly sing songs and just kind of sum it all up in case I missed anything. Whatever you do in word or deed, do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Like a full hearted devotion to God is in the context of what it means to put to death what is earthly among you. What's earthly in you, basically, here's what Paul is saying. Putting to death sin in our lives is not about saying no to sin in the moment of temptation. It's about being devoted to God in all the moments leading up to temptation. You track with me there. Putting to death sin in our lives is not about saying no to sin in the moment of temptation. It's about being devoted to God in all the moments leading up to temptation. Temptation. So you want to fight sin in your life. Go to church regularly, sit under the word of God and sing songs of praise. Have a Bible reading time. Read your Bible every day, have a prayer life, memorize scripture. That is how you fight sin. And if, like, coming to church is just kind of like, yeah, it's something we ought to do, and we really like to make it when we can and we enjoy it, then you'll be here when it's convenient or when you can, and you generally make efforts. But when you see coming to, like, I need to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ to sing songs of praise, like, this is how I fight sin, then there's a greater urgency to this cause. Then it's like I feel my heart falling in love with lesser things. I need to come and praise God. I need to come and be with my church family. I need to come sit under the word of God. It's how you fight sin. I'm telling you guys, I'm not saying that if you do those things, you won't struggle with sin. I'm just saying it's how you fight sin. It's how you fight sin. And I'm telling you, devotion wanes before sin reigns. What I mean by that is, like, when you see somebody, it's like sin's just kind of taken over in your life. Like, it's just kind of your lifestyle now. Like, before that happened, like, man, you used to come to church, and now I don't see you too much anymore. And you used to be in a community, and now you're not involved in much anymore. And boy, you used to serve. And now you don't serve anymore. And you used to read your bible and you don't read your bible anymore. And you used to kind of have a prayer life and you don't really pray anymore. And before sin just kind of reigns in somebody's life, their devotion waned. And Paul's saying, you want to fight sin, you want to put to death. Therefore what is earthly in you like it's the simple everyday disciplines of a Christian, which is spiritual warfare. It's important for your holiness. So let me just recap here. People are sinners. Your grandma is a sinner. The nicest person you know is a sinner, you're a sinner. And it's not just about immoral acts. The heart of sin is a worship problem that we fail to honor and glorify and worship God the way he deserves. When we get that, we need to embrace a greater intensity in dealing with our sin. Don't manage it, don't try to control it. Don't think you can participate responsibly. Kill it, drag it into the light. Confess it, put it to death, repent of it, turn from it. But we also need to fight sin smarter. Grow in your knowledge of God. Don't be theologically lazy. Read good books that teach you about the nature and character of God. Understand his attributes, his grace, his goodness, his character. It is a weapon against sin. Know who you are in Christ. Understand exactly what Christ accomplished on the cross, that you have been purchased with the price that you have been adopted into his family, that you have been chosen and are loved by God. It is a weapon when you fight sin. Live in community. And this is an important one for church people, because the command is not to live around christian community, community. It's live in it. And just because you're in a connection group doesn't mean you have christian community. Just because you have christian friends doesn't mean you have christian community. Let people in. Confess your sins. Let them know your struggles. Let them know how to specifically pray for you. Let them know what's going on in your life. Let them admonish you and teach you and encourage you and spur you on. It's how we fight sin and be devoted. When you look at acts two, they were devoted to the apostles teaching. They were devoted to breaking the bread. They were devoted to one another. They were devoted to their gathering. Be devoted to God. Don't wait and think you're going to say no to temptation the moment it rises. When you've shown no devotion to God in the moments leading up to that, read your Bible. Come to church. Be devoted to that. When we sing, sing, your heart needs it. It's how we fight sin, but it's not how we fix sin. God does that, and God does that through what Christ accomplished on the cross. Let me leave you with this passage. This is romans five eight. That God declares to us, like, doesn't just or demonstrates to us. It's not just a declaration. It's a demonstration. Like, I want to show you that he loves us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And what that's saying is, hey, when God looked at you, at your worst as sinners, he said, I still love you, and I'm going to show you that I love you by sending Christ to the cross. Sinners ultimately need a savior. Not a plan, a savior. Now, there's a connection, because saved people have a plan to fight sin, but we ultimately need a savior. And every week when we come to communion, we're called to remember our savior. But have you ever stopped to think, especially if you've grown up to the church, have you ever stopped to think how grotesque communion is? It's a pretty disgusting remembrance that we're commanded. This is supposed to represent blood and flesh, and we're to eat and drink it. And there's a message in communion that's not just about the grace that we receive, but also a message of the severity of our sin and how serious God takes sin and how offensive sin is. And when we take communion, we ought to feel the weight of our sin. You want to know what a real regenerate heart looks like? You know what I mean by that? Like somebody was born again who has the spirit of God in them. Like, what's something that testifies to that reality? Well, when we want to put to death in us, what put Jesus to death for us, that's evidence of a transformed life. When you want to put to death in you, what put Jesus to death for you, you want to kill sin that shows a spiritual belonging to God, a shared hatred of sin. So when we take communion, would you remember the severity of your sin, the cost of your sin, the offense of your sin? Would it grow the hatred of your sin? And as you eat that cracker and drink that juice, would you be overwhelmed at the severity of God's love and his sacrifice and the sufficiency of his grace? Let's pray. Father, I confess that sin has become so common in our lives, in our society. It's all around us all the time, that we have become used to it, complacent of it, where we tolerate it, we manage it. And we have not taken a posture to kill it. Even though you modeled that when you died for it. I pray that you would give us a hatred of our sin and a love for you. That we would be people who don't just worship through song, worship through repentance. Pray this in your name. Amen.