Dealing with habitual sin

29^th October Jamie Featherby

Ephesians 4 v 3 to 5 v 5

Half of this passage encourages us to love, and the other half warns us against sin. Without the bit about love, the bit about sin is impractical.

Verses about love:-

Deut 10 v 17-18

Deut 10 v 19

Matt 5 v 43-44

Matt 5 v 40-41

Matt 5 v 42

1 John 3 v 11

1 John 3 v 14

1 John 3 v 16

1 John 3 v 17

1 John 3 v 18

1 John 4 v 7

1 John 4 v 8

1 John 4 v 9

1 John 4 v 11

1 John 4 v 12

1 John 4 v 19

1 John 4 v 20

John 4 v 21

Gal 5 v 6

Rom 13 v 10

Gal 5 v 14

We get the point! Love is not something in our head, it's something which needs to be worked out in practise.

And what about sin.

We all sin. Do any of us not keep on sinning? We all do. It's a problem for us on a continual daily basis. We have lost the ability to talk about this in a constructive way. We in Network are learning not to be judgemental, but how do we talk about sin without being judgemental.

We're also learning not to be legalistic, but if we're not drawing lines between what is right and wrong, how do we have the ability to talk about sin.

We see people struggling with sin all the time, people close to us and those in the public eye. We see the effects on the people and on our society.

Look at sin only through the lens of love, and in the context of love.

We don't want to ignore the very real effects of sin in our lives. But why should we not sin. For example if Jamie was a smoker and wanted to smoke 10 cigarettes a day, why should he not. He doesn't blow his smoke on other people, doesn't smoke in the office or restaurants. He knows there are health issues but that's his responsibility. Reasons such as your body is a temple, or love yourself, aren't reason enough to stop. But he would stop because his wife loves him. She doesn't want him to get sick and worries about the effect on the children.

Any sin – we know its effects are damaging, we know it displeases God, but that doesn't always stop us. We might stop sinning if we think that our father in heaven who loves us doesn't like it. Jamie would stop smoking because he loves his wife and doesn't want to upset her. Likewise if we keep sinning we are proving that our love for God is not complete.

If we love God we would not keep sinning.

Love is worked out practically. We can't divide the practical from the spiritual, they are inextricably linked.

How do we work this out in our society.

Eg sexual immorality. How rigorous are we in our standards of sex outside of marriage for us our families and society. Pornography, adultery, how rigorous are we in guarding ourselves against these temptations. Jesus set pretty high standards.

Let's not allow our consciences to be dulled. This is not a soft area because we see so much of it in the media, we need to keep our standards up.

Another example consumerism. Retail therapy, drinking too much. What are we hiding, we are damaging the environment.

Another example is how do we see other people, gossip, trying to make ourselves look better than others even in little ways. All this feeds 'the god that is me', setting myself up as important. Instead of securing myself to the love God has for me, he loves me and doesn't want me to behave like that.

Be ruthless when dealing with sin. Practical reasons why. If we keep on sinning it damages my faith and my self worth. It dulls my ministry, my usefulness, my capacity to speak on behalf of God.

Getting rid of a deep rooted habitual sin is incredibly difficult, it's often beyond personal choice. There s a physical compulsion and sense of well being which comes from doing whatever it is eg obsessive compulsive, self harm, alcoholism.

Do we have a tiny element of this, do we feel agitated if we don't keep repeating our bad habits.

How do we break bad habits- 4 things:-

1) See it in the context of love. In families we learn how to deal with inappropriate behaviour in the context of love. We have the family of fellow believers who love us and don't judge us and are sinners themselves, we can draw strength from them.

2. We have the amazing power of forgiveness, without it we would be sunk! We know the verses about forgiveness, about being a new creation, we know we can keep going back to the cross. God sees us as a perfect and beautiful creation.

3. We have the Holy Spirit to help us, he will draw alongside us, give us strength, counsel us, see us through.

4. Practical planning is needed. For example if you read the horoscope every morning, don't buy the paper which has it in. A travelling salesman had problems with sexual temptation when abroad, so he asked a friend to regularly phone him at an appropriate time and check that he was OK. If you need that relationship, ask a friend. Other sources of help – organisations like alcoholics anonymous. A good place to start with your practical plan is confessing in cell group, there is a spiritual power in confessing to brothers and sisters in Christ.

Suggested welcome question for this week's cell groups: what sinful habit pattern do I have that I'm fed up with that I want to stop, and how can I stop it.