Overcoming Me Part 1

Preached by Jaren Singh on 1/5/25

Transcript

0:41

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) You know, I'm super excited about this series. We've been working, I've been working on it. I listened to a series of five talks, probably maybe in August or September. And my initial inclination was, let me send this to the whole church. And then as I thought about it, I said, well, why don't I just, why don't I just preach it to the whole church? And it's adapted. The heart though, is that we are going to talk through some pretty difficult spiritual topics. I hope that you leave this five part series with encouragement in your battle against sin. I hope that you leave with tools and perspectives in your battle. And ultimately I hope, I really believe that I've been praying that, that these series of talks and really the scriptures that we look at are going to be powerful enough for you to lean into. And then, and then it's going to help you overcome some of the stuff that's plagued your character for years and years and years. Certainly not everybody in this room is going to embrace these perspectives. I believe not everybody is going to do the personal work. And, but, but I do believe that there are some people that will, I believe you can think about it in this, in this church. I believe there's some people that are going to listen to these scriptures. They're going to write them down. They're going to sit with them. They're going to pray to God. They're going to embrace them. And I believe that their lives are going to be changed forever because of it. Certainly not the words that I'm saying, but the words that God is speaking. You know, you know what's so difficult in our lives and this is a struggle. It's this, this tension is that the Bible says, Jesus says that we are set free and, and yet we still do things that are unbecoming of, of Christianity, right? The Bible says, you, you've been set free. You're, you've over, I overcame the world. That's what Jesus communicates. And yet for us, we still battle with sin. The Bible says you're unchanged. You are, if you are a Christian, if you are in Christ, you're not bound to this sin. And yet the sin is right there, isn't it? You know, in my, in my mom's so my mom passed when I was young and she wrote me a series of journals, not, not, not, maybe not a hundred of them, but there was at least a half dozen different journal entries. Some of them were prayers that she wanted me to, to hear her, it was her and God. Some of them were just directly to me as I was, as I was five and six years old. And she, she commented in these journals and she said, you're, you're smart. You know how to read so good at six years old, but I'm concerned in how you look down on others. They, if they can't read, they can't do what you do. They go a little bit slower. You, you, you just, you look down on them. You make fun of them, or at least you come back from school and you're wondering how they're not, how they don't, they don't get it. You get frustrated at the kids when they're not able to read as, as at all, or as fast as you are. It was incredible. I'm 33 years old. I've been a Christian for over half of my life. I've been serving in the full-time ministry since I've been out of college. And so I've had 11 years now of, dedicated ministry work where my job is to pray for myself and other people and to spread the gospel. That's my job. And you know what I still struggle with? I still struggle to look down on people. How can it be that I've been a Christian for so many years that I've been following God for so many years. And yet I, when, when somebody does something where I'm like, that doesn't make any sense when they spend it poorly. I'm like, I would have never done that. That doesn't make any sense when they, when they make decisions in their parenting that, that have negative impacts. And I see it instead of my, my inclination is instead of saying, let me help you. Or, Hey, have you thought about this? My inclination is to say, wow, that's not my mess. I'm so thankful. That's not my mess. And my inclination is to look down on that person. When I see people doing stuff with their careers and I'm like, again, that doesn't make any sense. Like use your, use your brain. I, I look down on them. How could I, I would never have done that. There's no way I could do something like that. Just like that six-year-old boy did with the kids who couldn't read. My ego is in front of me now, like it is then. And I know you've had stuff too. I know you, I know you have stuff that has plagued you from, uh, from, from the time that, that you, you understood what was right and wrong. I know you have stuff in your character. And I know that for some of us, we felt like, man, when you get into the waters of baptism and you're like, I'm a new, I'm a changed man. I'm a new person. I'm not going to struggle with that same stuff. And then maybe that later that day, you felt like, Oh, what happened? I thought, I thought I was a new person. How can I struggle with the same things that I struggled with? How could it be that Christ gave all for us? And yet we still struggle with materialism. How can it be that Christ gave himself every day to everyone? And yet you're still so selfish. How can you serve the God of love and still struggle with, with your purity? How is it that we serve a God who gives peace that transcends understanding and yet you're still anxious? How can you serve a God who, who never lied to, to you and you still don't trust? How have you been a Christian for years and you're still lazy? How can, how can, how can you serve a God who fasted for 40 days and nights and you still struggle with gluttony? How could Jesus go on a cross and you still struggle with your forgiveness? How could the King of heaven and earth come into this life into his creation and be subject to all of it? And we still struggle with pride there. There's a tension that, that I hope that you feel into what God calls us and who we are and, and yet to what we struggle with. And I think I've heard it so many times on Sunday. One of these two things, either you are a wretched sinner and there's no hope or God sets you free. So live like it, go do your thing. And this, I hope, I hope you follow us through these, these next five weeks. I hope to marry these two concepts together, just like the Bible wants to marry these two concepts together. And I believe with my whole heart that somebody's life is going to be changed through these talks. Again, it's not, it's not, not my words. If anything, my words water down what scripture is communicating, but it's going to be the Bible that's going to help you along your, along the road in the battle against yourself. And so this is why we call it overcoming me. The first point is we're going to look at the, we're going to look at kind of four, four sections. We're going to look at the bondage of sin. We're going to look at the freedom from Christ. We're going to identify some of the tension between the two. And then we're going to look forward to the hope that we have in Jesus. Amen. Very good. Let's go over to Romans seven. A lot of our text over this, over this series is going to be Romans seven and eight. And there's, there's great encouragement that we can pull from this. There's some really intense theological theological undertakings that, you know, as you, as we begin to learn this idea of grace and as we begin to learn the sin, we, we just get to see the humanity. I've heard this scripture preached even in our fellowship of churches and I've heard it preached. Well, I've heard it preached incorrectly. And we're talking right now, this is Romans seven, and this is Paul talking about his struggles as a Christian. This is the greatest, perhaps the greatest Christian that ever walked this earth, right? He went from persecuting Christians, being witness to their death and approving of their death to, to being somebody who planted so many churches and who, who lived a life. He wrote a lot of our New Testament. He lived a life that was worthy of the calling. And yet let's read about his struggle. We're going to read 14 through 25. It says, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do for what I want to do. I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree the law is good as it is. It is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me for, I know that good itself does not dwell in me. That is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. And everybody who's ever been a Christian says, amen. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. 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 find this law at work. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I myself, in my mind, am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin. This is the greatest Christian who ever lived. And he is painting the struggle against sin to be something that we can all understand and we all sit with. And we want to do what's good. And maybe you woke up this morning and you said, you know what I'm going to do? Maybe you went to bed last night. You said, I'm going to wake up early and I'm going to read the Bible before I get to church. And then you slept in. Maybe you said going into this year, you said, I am going to give up this sin. I'm going to make a decision. I'm setting this pattern. And now it's day five. And you're like, well, maybe not on the weekends. Maybe you've set stuff. And how many times have we said, we're not going to do this anymore. I'm going to turn away from my anger. I am not going to gossip. And yet when somebody gets on your nerves or somebody does something that you need to tell somebody else, how many times have we said, we're not, we're done with it. We're done with sin. And yet we still find ourselves struggling with it. And every, every Christian who's ever lived, here's this scripture and, and, and we embrace it because it's the reality. This is so difficult, uh, you know, in this life, again, this, the greatest Christian is talking and he's, and he's sharing his struggles. And we, we identify those. He talks about, uh, this, the law of sin to be like, this is just a law. Like there's, there's a struggle that we have on a day-to-day basis to say no to sin. This has even helped. This has helped me in my understanding of, uh, of sin because I, for years, I'm like, I, I guess if the Bible says it, we can say no to sin. And, and in some ways the answer is yes, we can, but, but it's, it's not through, uh, it's not through our own doing. It's only, only by the grace of God. You know, there, the amazing thing is there are things in your character that, that perhaps you struggled with years ago that you no longer struggle with. And that's by the grace of God, is it not? This, anybody who's overcome, uh, any, any facet of sin and truly overcome it is not going to give themselves credit. They're going to give God credit. You talk to somebody who, uh, went from living a life of drunkenness or deceit and you talk to them now and they'll tell you if they've really repented, they'll tell you it's, it's by the grace of God. Did you, you did a lot of things though. You had to set up. Yeah, I did some of that, but it's by the grace of God because anyone who's repented, truly repented, overcome sin understands we can't do anything by ourselves. Like there's, there's no hope to overcome sin without Jesus. And this is what, this is what Paul is talking about then. The, uh, the, the, the other side of this is, is something that's, that's difficult as well, uh, because there's this freedom in Christ. And so on one hand, uh, if, if we said, amen, let's pray, you'd leave, you should leave feeling pretty discouraged at what we, what we just talked about because, uh, what's the point? I mean, we just, we talked about sin and we talked about how there's no, there's no good inside of us. This it's hopeless then, right? Like there's, there's no hope. And so what's the point of trying? And I don't want you to leave feeling that because there's freedom that's promised from Christ. And there's a, there's many scriptures that we could look at. We're just going to look at a couple. Um, these are really difficult for you to read, but it's in Romans six and then John eight. Uh, so we'll, uh, we'll, I'll read Romans six. If you want to go to John eight, that'd probably be, that'd probably be better, a better use of your time. I'm going to read Romans six. This is before, uh, before Paul talks about the struggle. He says, for, we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with that. We should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Right before that, Paul talks about this, uh, this baptism, uh, this baptism being the participation in Jesus's death, burial, and then resurrection. And he says that if you've died then in that way and through, through baptism, if you've died, then you also killed off your old self, the done away with sin. And so we would read that. And if all that we had was that scripture, we might leave feeling pretty again, like, man, we must not have gotten baptized. Like, like what, what's the point? Like I still am struggling with, with this sin. Anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Let's go over to John eight. If you're, if you're there, uh, if you're there already, if not, just, just listen, listen up again. All of these scriptures, I were, there's a bunch of scriptures we're going to look at. There's more that we're not going to look at that I'm going to put on the thread app. Uh, there's a, there's a few new faces. If you are interested, um, we, we use, uh, this app that, uh, there's, it's a kind of like a Bible study app. Basically. A lot of times there's some podcasts, uh, but for this series, there won't be any podcasts. They'll just be basically additional texts that you can read a bunch of scriptures for you to look at and refer to. Uh, if you, uh, if you have the information for that, great. If you, if you need the information for that, just talk to me, but it'll be up by the end of tonight. Um, some of these scriptures for you to look back on, uh, it's in John eight and 30, starting in verse 31, use the scripture all the time. Uh, maybe, maybe one of the first, one of the first Bible studies you looked at, I bet you, uh, had the scripture in it. It says to the Jews who had believed them. Jesus said, if you hold them, my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. They answered him. We are Abraham's descendants that have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we should be set free? Jesus replied very truly. I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the sun sets you free, you will be free. Indeed. We read the scripture. We say, Jesus has set us free. That's what he went on the cross and he set us free. And so there's, there's this, this, uh, this understanding that we have the opportunity then like Jesus set us free. He promised he's going to set us free. He set us free. And then years later in Romans, when it's written, he, Paul says, no, we understand. Like we, we were set free from sin and, and yet we're still, we're still bound to it somehow. Right. There's, there's this, this unresolved tension. And I don't want you to leave again. If you tune out right now, you might leave feeling like one, there's no hope, but two, what am I to do? Like if ever, if this is the natural state of everyone, then what's the point. And that's not where I want us to leave. That's not what the Bible, uh, that's not what the Bible communicates because this, this tension, uh, is, is something that we can see all over the Bible. And it's the hope that I want you to sit with and embrace and love. And this is, this should give you some faith to keep on going. It's that God has no problem declaring us free from sin before we have learned to live free from sin. God has no problem. You see it all over the Bible that God calls people that are not people that are before anybody sees that they can be that way. And so you say, how can I live a pure life? And God says, no, no, no, you can live up. I see you as pure. So how can I live a life with no deceit and no lying on my tongue? And God says, no, I see you that way. I'm calling you free from that stuff. How can I live a life that is not anxious, that is full of peace, that is trusting in the Lord. And God says, no, no, no, how can I know you? I see you in that way. God calls things that are not things that are before they happen. I'm not just telling you that Abraham was called the father of many nations before he even had a child. Peter was told you will be a rock before he knew how to stand on his own two feet. The disciples were called fishers of men when they still smelled like fish. Moses was called a great leader after he had deserted his people. Gideon was called a mighty warrior when he was still scared and not trusting in the Lord. David was called king when he was still tending sheep. And so we shouldn't be surprised then that we serve a God who calls us free from sin, although we've not yet learned to live free from sin. This tension should give us some hope. There should be some joy then as we walk about our day to day lives that God has called you free. We've not learned how to live free, but we're trying to then. There's an obligation. The other thing that it's talked about, and this is again, I'll add this on the app, but in 2 Corinthians 5, it says that you are a new creation. And so because you're a new creation, Christ's love should compel you. There shouldn't be this understanding that Jesus set us free, calls us free, and so now we just go about our day to day life. No, no, no. The Bible says if you're viewing God's love in the right way, that you should have no other choice but to live for him. Galatians 5 says the same thing. It says Christ, he sets you free, and so you have an obligation then to stand firm. So my encouragement, like what are we going to do with all of this? My encouragement is to stand firm. My encouragement is to fight and to struggle and to work on yourself. Certainly there are things outside of your control, but there's so much, even as I'm talking, I believe that each of us, we know that there's this thing. The goal is not to play patty cake with your sin. The goal is not to play patty cake here on Sunday. It's not to play, just to play church throughout our week. The goal is to fight and to succeed. You know, it's amazing as you see so many of the directions that the Bible gives regarding ourselves, it paints it to be a pretty big struggle. Our undertaking against sin is not seen as something that we just work for it a little bit and it's done, or we spend a little bit of energy and we figure it out and then we're enlightened. That's not what the Bible says at all. In Luke 9, it says whoever wants to be my disciple must deny yourself and take up your cross. Luke 14, this is going to fly in the face of so much of what the modern society is telling you it says, if you don't hate your own life, you can't be a disciple. In Galatians 5, it says those who belong to Christ, you crucify yourself. One of the more, one of the most powerful scriptures on the topic of fighting against sin, let's go to 1 Corinthians 9. The language of learning to live free from sin is to struggle and to fight and to pursue righteousness. This is what's communicated. It says in 1 Corinthians 9, in verse 24, don't you know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Listen up here. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly. I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I preach to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Paul is talking and he's saying that there's a prize. What's the prize? The prize is heaven. And he says, I'm going to pursue that with everything that's inside of me. I'm preaching and that's not enough. And I'm telling people what the truth is and that's not enough. And I'm, I'm helping other people and that's not enough because I still have to strike a blow to my body in order to make it my slave. This is, this, this is the, the, the communication of anybody who's overcome sin again is God did it all. And then you say, well, what did you do? Well, I worked for it, but God, God did it all. Like, like the, uh, there's, again, there's this, this tension that I hope you feel. It's amazing. The, uh, we're called, uh, we're called Israel or God's people, like the new Israel and Israel, the word literally means struggles with God. Like we're, we're going to be fighting through this and struggling with this day by day. So if you look at your salvation, you say, I'm saved. So what do I, what should I do now? Well, the goal is to fight against your sin, to resist it, to you wake up in the morning and to fight. You wake up in the morning, deny yourself. You wake up in the morning, pray, God, let me hate my evil desires. You wake up in the morning. God, let me love your law. You, you go in the middle of your day and it's been a tough, tough start. Don't let the tough start mean that you can't pursue righteousness in the afternoon. God, give me victory this afternoon. God, let me see the struggles before they occur. And let me choose righteousness in this way. And you're going to fail. You're going to fight and you're going to fail and I'm going to fail and we'll have to repent and we're going to have to confess our sin to God. And we're going to have to pray for forgiveness. And we're going to see in a greater way, how, how lost we are without Jesus's shining light. But God is, God is longing for you to fight. Whatever you've identified this morning, God is, God is longing for you to, to partner with him in the same way that, uh, that, that my daughter partners with, with me as we play basketball together. God is longing for you to partner with him in your battle against sin. Here, here's the, the hope here. It's in Romans eight says, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh. God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteousness, the righteous, rather the righteous requirement of the law might be met, fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit there, there is no condemnation. If you are living in Christ Jesus and the church said, amen, that's, that should not mean again, I believe we're understanding that shouldn't mean that there's no condemnation. Let me not try. Let me not pursue righteousness. No, no, no. There's no condemnation. So I can pursue righteousness with the freedom, knowing that I'm, I'm going to fail and make mistakes. You know, as a, as a, as a coach, there's something that, uh, that, that's your, you, you fight between two different things. One, there's a right way. A lot of times to do something on, on a basketball court. And yet, if you don't give, uh, the, a long enough leash, maybe you've been in that spot where you've been either on a court or you've been at work and there's not a long enough leash for you to make a mistake. And so you feel like, because I don't have a long leash to make a mistake, I'm going to, uh, I'm just not going to try very hard. I understand. And the, the, the Bible talks about, this is in the parable of the talents. Actually. He's like the guy, the last one, the one that he condemns, he says, Hey, I know you're a hard man. I know that you, you're, you're a strong guy. You know, what's going on. So instead of using your talents, using your money and making something good, come of it, I just hit it away. And, and he says, man, you are wicked for us. Like there's, there's, there's a really long leash. You know, like there's, there's a right way to go about this life for sure. There's, there's a long leash though, family. I hope that we feel the joy of knowing that you're going to mess up and that God still calls you safe. He still, he still says, no, you've been set free still. And so you mess up, you're going to mess up later this afternoon. And you're going to say, no, no, God, God, I'm also set free. God also calls you to be set free. And maybe you don't believe it. Uh, keep reading the Bible, like, like embrace it. I don't mean it in a, like a jokey way. I mean, pursue these scriptures. Then let's see what the Bible says about it. You keep reading. And at some point you're going to believe it. Amen. The last thing that I want to, uh, I want to bring up is that there's a question of how much do I need to struggle? That might be, uh, maybe you're not thinking it, but I thought of like, how much do I need to struggle then if there's this battle against sin, I know that I'm never, uh, I'm not going to fully overcome it. So then how come, like, how much do I have to struggle what's appropriate to God? And this is, this is the highest calling. I think we need to fight to live the way that Jesus called us. Uh, as we need to fight as hard as, as Jesus fought to maintain righteousness while he was on this earth. So we got some work to do. Amen. Uh, the Hebrews 12, it, he just, there, there's this, the Trump card that's laid down. He says in your struggle against sin, you have not fought to the point of shedding your blood. And that's true for all of us, except for the one who died on the cross for our sins. Amen. Please, uh, please follow us for these next, uh, these next five talks, four more talks. Uh, I, again, I believe that someone's life is going to be changed forever by it. Let it be you. Amen. Let's close with a prayer and then we'll be dismissed. Dear God, Lord, we're just, we're grateful for your scripture. We're grateful. We're grateful that this is a different type of, uh, this is a different perspective in than anything else that man can create. Lord, we don't, we don't understand all of it. We only understand a limited amount of it. Lord, I want to pray that in each of us, your scripture will, will speak loudly and boldly to us. Father, I pray that throughout this week, that whatever, uh, whatever, uh, glimmer of, of hope, God, I pray that you just, you grow that into this shining light. Lord, I pray that you will compel us. God, I pray that we'll view your love in the right way. And because of that, we'll be so compelled to turn away from sin and to pursue righteousness. Uh, Lord, I am so, uh, I'm, I'm thrilled to be on this journey with, uh, with my brothers and sisters. Father, please allow, uh, allow your spirit to move father pray that we do not, uh, God, I pray that we do not, uh, quench the spirit. Lord, I pray that we don't throw fire or throw, throw water on this fire. Lord, I pray that we'll allow this fire to, to well up in each of us. Father, you're so good, Jesus. This is in your name that we pray. This is in your name that we ask these things, God, we, we have no way to ask these things, Jesus, if you didn't die for us and raise again. And so thank you so much. Uh, this is in your name that we pray. Amen.