00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Amen. Thank you, Brother Ken. I just, in the past three weeks,
moved my choir seat. Since I sit on the platform,
I have to be able to get out of the choir easily. And my seat
just happened to end up right next to Brother Ken. And we both
sing tenor. However, he's good and I'm not
and so I'm extremely intimidated by that But he just kind of he
he does this thing now you choir people you may or music people
you may know what it is. I Sometimes I think I get so
bad in my singing that I mess him up and here he goes like
this You know, have you ever seen anybody and do that? I think
you're shutting me off. Is that what you're doing brother
Ken? Are you? I wish I could have known. Every
time I saw him move, make that move to his ear, I kind of... I don't have to consider myself
to be... educated in the field of music. I love singing. Pastor
Phillips, you know, preached Sunday night about music and
singing. And I really do. I love singing, singing everywhere
I go, singing in the car, singing at home, singing at church, singing
in my office. I just love singing. It makes you feel happy inside.
And so I really do love it. I look forward to the opportunity
to preach this evening. I really do. I'm not necessarily going
to preach as much as I am going to try to teach. I enjoy standing
behind the pulpit of Faith Baptist Church. I most certainly do.
I don't have the opportunity very often, but it's something
that I do not take lightly, but I certainly, certainly appreciate.
And when Pastor Monty leaves, now that I'm on staff, part of
me is sad because it's nice having him around, but part of me is
happy because then I might have the opportunity to preach. And
so you may know if you're a preacher or been in the ministry, you
know where I'm coming from on that. I forgot to make one announcement
with the BYF. You know, she gave me that sheet
of paper and everything. And I had said one more thing. If you're
planning on going to the BYF Churchwide Chili Supper, you
are asked to sign up in the South Lobby, OK? And so if you want
to attend that, on the South Lobby out here, there's a sign-up
sheet. Just write your name down in parentheses. Put down how
many are coming with your family. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, depending
on the size of your family or how many are planning on coming.
And that'll allow them to prepare. adequately for that activity.
If you have your Bible, let's take that and turn it to the
book of Romans, chapter number six, the book of Romans, chapter
number six from Romans. Turn Mike on. OK, now you tell
me if I get it. OK, is it there or is it off? The sign went down. Is that a
good sign? OK. All right. You ready? Is it on? No? Oh, I'm going to have to take
it out and look at it. That's just tacky. I didn't want to do that.
Okay. Okay, how's that? All right, good. Can everybody
hear me now? It would have been sad if I would have, you know,
45 minutes later, standing up here saying, let's pray and nobody
responds. You've just been trying to hear what I've been saying.
Nobody knows what he's saying, what's going on. So I'm glad
you can hear me now and I can hear myself. I'm going to be
speaking tonight on a topic, a subject that I believe, in
fact, I'll say this, I know is not foreign to you. In fact,
I'm speaking on a subject tonight that I know is probably more
familiar to you than you wish it was. You are probably so familiar
with the subject that I'm going to be speaking on tonight that
it makes you uncomfortable at times. The familiarity, the response
that you have to what I'm talking about tonight. We're going to
be in Romans chapter number 6 and verse number 11. Let's just start
reading and then we'll jump right into it. Romans chapter 6 and
verse number 11 the Bible says likewise reckon ye also yourselves. To be dead, indeed, unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin,
therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members
as instruments of righteousness. unto God. You say, Pastor Lopez,
what is it that you're going to be speaking on tonight? I'm
going to be speaking on the subject of sin. You see, I would say,
knowing human beings, knowing our mortal flesh, that you and
I are a people who on a daily basis are coming in contact and
struggling with in our own lives this subject, this issue of sin. It would be wonderful if I could
stand up here and say to you that we don't have to worry about
sin. that sin is something we're never going to have to face,
or that we are absolutely free from any contrast or any grinding
against sin. We're absolutely free of that,
but we're not. You and I both know that we live in a world
that is inundated with sin. It's something we face every
single day. And the worst thing about it
is it seems like oftentimes the sin that we struggle with and
the sin that we face is introduced from within our own flesh, and
from within our own carnal hearts. And that's oftentimes the most
frustrating thing about sin. You say the world is a sinful
place. Avon, you can see the sin all over around. You can
see the sin across the seas. You can see the sin everywhere.
Yes. But the terrifying thing is you can also see the sin within
our own hearts, the sinful nature, the sinful lusts, the sinful
desires, and we must face those on a daily basis. It seems like
it never ends. See, the good news for you tonight
is you're not alone. Paul said, O wretched man that
I am. I think Paul experienced the
same thing. He says, In me dwelleth no good
thing. Even Peter in the Gospels, you
find him in situations and in times where he sins. Not necessarily
always based upon his outward situations or circumstances,
but often times because of something that was initiated inside of
his own self. You see, you're not alone. We
all face it. We all struggle. And we all try
to gain victory. But the thing about sin is oftentimes
when it defeats you, it doesn't just defeat you and walk on by.
When the sins that you face, and there may be some that are
coming to your mind right now that you know you face on a daily,
a weekly, a monthly, whatever it may be. You know you face
these sins. And they don't just defeat you
and pass on by. As though they defeat you, they
knock you down to the ground. They stand right above you with
its hands on its waist, looking down at you mockingly saying,
I am sin and I have defeated you. That's how sin is. It tries to make you feel defeated
constantly. And I may be speaking to a people
out here who are going through that very time in your life right
now. You may have been struggling
for weeks, for days, for months, maybe for years with either sins
of commission or omission, things that you don't do or things that
you do do, but you're struggling with sin. You've been struggling.
You've tried. You've fought against it. You've
tried to gain the victory. Attempt after attempt has ended
up in failure. And you're growing frustrated.
Maybe the question has crossed your mind. Can I really gain
victory over this sin in my life? Maybe it's something real small,
but maybe it's not. Maybe it's something that is
overwhelming to you. But you may be feeling so defeated,
is victory even possible? Is it within my reach? I'm going
to give you tonight from Romans 6, verses 11, 12, and 13. Each one will be one point for
us tonight. I'm going to give you three keys
to deliverance from sin. I want to help you tonight and
I want to encourage you to understand that the sins that you face and
the sins that you struggle with and those sins that constantly
seem to be right there knocking on your door are not sins that
have to defeat you over and over and over and over again. I'm
going to talk about this in a minute, but when sin gets your mindset
to think, I'm defeated, then it has you. And we're going to
talk about that tonight. How to gain deliverance from
my sin. And I can't even hardly begin to list a list of sins,
the possibilities of what you may be facing or struggling with,
because the list would never end. It could be wrong thinking. It could be negative thinking.
It could be lustful thoughts. It could be a lack of faithfulness
to Bible reading, to prayer, to church, not loving your spouse
the way you should, not loving God the way you should, not soul
winning, not tithing. It could be the television, the
radio, a certain CD. The list goes on and on and on. But I want to help you tonight.
To look at that list and not think like we do when we used
to be in school and we used to get a bad grade and think, not
again, I studied so hard for that test and all I got was a
C-. I wanted to get an A. We've all been there in our past.
Well, I don't want you to look at the list of sins that you're
struggling with tonight and have that feeling of defeat in your
heart. I want to uplift you and encourage
you and I want to tell you tonight that there is a way to gain deliverance
from those sins. Let me throw out a caution. If
you're sitting here tonight and you're thinking, well, Brother
Peter, I've tried this, I've tried that, I've tried this,
and every single time I fall flat on my face over and over
again, what you're going to tell me tonight I've probably already
heard and I know that it's definitely not going to work for me. Caution. Then you've already been defeated.
and I haven't even had the opportunity to share what the Scripture says
with you. So let me say this, keep an open mind and don't convince
yourself tonight that this is not going to work, because I
can guarantee you from the Word of God that it will. Romans chapter
number 6, verse number 11 is going to be our first point.
After verse number 11, I'm going to take us to a cross-reference
and I'm going to call it our helpful hint for the night. Then
we'll discuss verse number 12, which will be point number 2.
Following verse number 12, I'm going to take you to another
cross-reference, which you're not going to guess, but it's going
to be our second helpful hint for the night. Then we'll have
verse number 13. Verse number 13 will be our third
and final point. And then we are going to discuss
a helpful hint for the night. I want to help you tonight. That's
really what I want to do. Let's dive right into it. Romans
chapter number six, verse number 11. Likewise, reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed under sin. but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Point number one from verse number
11 is live in life and death. Live in life and death. Verse 11 says, to reckon also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. There is a death and then there
is a life. You have to live in the death
and the life. You say, alright, you haven't even said the first
two sentences of your first point and I'm already confused. Well,
let me clarify, it really is not difficult at all. Live in
death, first of all. What does that mean? How do I
live in death when it comes to this subject of sin? Here it
is. Consider yourself to be dead
to sin. Now, consider yourself to be
dead to sin. Here's what happens. Sin oftentimes
defeats us so many times that in our minds we determine, we
set it as a fact in our minds that sin is not able to be defeated. No matter what I do, how hard
I try, sin will always defeat me and I'll never gain victory
over it. I've tried, maybe for a day or
two, but I just can't gain the victory. What do I do? Listen,
consider yourself to be dead unto sin. Don't convince yourself. Don't allow sin to convince you. that you cannot defeat the sin
in your life. You just have to consider. Set
it in stone. Here's this. Make a factual,
concrete decision that sin's not going to reign over you.
Make a factual, concrete decision that sin's not going to reign
over you. factual and concrete. Here's what often happens in
the average life, and myself included, is when a preacher
is preaching a sermon and he hits something that we know we
are struggling with, the tendency for us is to feel an emotion
of, I'm trying to think of the right word, we feel an emotion
of hurt, guilt, We feel all of these things, we feel a disappointment
because we know we're disappointing God in a certain area of our
lives. And let's just throw out, for example, illustrations sake,
let's just say that we're struggling with something that is on the
television set, something that pops on at a certain time and
we know it is, we know it's going to be there, and we're struggling
with that. What will happen oftentimes is
a Christian will feel these emotions of guilt and hurt and disappointment,
and after the church service and the invitation is given,
they'll walk up and they'll kneel down at an altar, and when they
get to the altar, they'll sometimes even weep and cry and cry out
to God, and they'll say, God, these are the things I've been
doing. This is what I've been struggling with. You know what it is. Please
give me the victory over that. and they stand up and they walk
back to their pew, but oftentimes what happens is what just happened,
this event that just took place at the altar, is kind of a wishful
hope. Oh God, it'd be great if somehow
you could take this away from me. It's not necessarily a decision
that we make where when we get up off our knees, It is a factual,
concrete decision that will even change certain things about us. You see, when you make a decision
based on fact and based on this is just the way it's going to
be a matter-of-fact decision, then you're oftentimes willing
to do things to back up or to support the decision that you've
just made. So when it comes to you dying
to sin, You don't just make some wishful hope of, it'd be great
if I could overcome, if I could defeat the sin that I'm struggling
with. You make a factual, concrete decision. You say, I am going
to defeat this sin. This sin is not going to reign
over me. And then you absolutely do whatever
it takes for that to be so. But you reckon. You reckon. That
reckon is a key word. You reckon that this is the way
it's going to be. I searched in verse number 11,
trying to find something interesting, a little tidbit to bring out
for you. And when I looked at verse number 11, it says, likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. I looked
up the word dead, and I just wanted to find other places it
was used in the Scriptures. And you're not going to believe
it, but it took me to the Gospel of Luke, where there was a story
about a father who had two sons. The sons wanted their inheritance,
so the father gave it to them. One son chose to use it wisely,
the other son just chose to leave the country and to go out and
to spend it in righteous living. And after a while, he ran out
of money and his resources were all drained, and he ended up
living with the pigs. You know the story. What happened
when the son finally came to his senses, got up, he walked
out, he started walking, heading on that journey towards his father.
His father sees him. His father runs out. His father
hugs his neck. His father says something to
the effect of, we're going to have a feast. We're going to
kill the fatted calf. We're going to do all these things,
because this, my son, was... He says, this, my son, was dead.
Was the son lifeless? As far as physical life and body?
No, his son was still in existence. He was out of his presence, out
of his sight, not able to be seen, felt, heard, or anything
like that. It wasn't that he was physically
dead. He was just not there, not in his presence. You reckon
yourselves to be dead unto sin. That doesn't mean, it doesn't
mean that you're never going to sin. It doesn't mean you're
going to be perfect. But you consider sin, though it robes
you, consider sin not a part of you. It's something that's
not me. Sin is something that will not defeat me. Sin is something
that I don't have to live under the authority of this sin. You
consider yourself to be dead indeed unto sin. Don't convince
yourself that sin is undefeatable. Okay, now live in life and live
in death. What about living in life? But
alive, verse number 11 says, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Okay, you've determined that
to live in death means to determine. You stomp your foot and you say,
sin will not have control over me. I've made my decision. That's
living in death. Now living in life means you
are going to decide that your sole purpose for living is to
live for Jesus Christ. You see, you've decided, you've
made the decision, a factual, concrete decision that sin is
not going to reign over me. It will not have control over
me. I will not live a life of defeat
to sin. But then you must then decide
that my sole purpose for living is going to be to live a life
completely and solely for God. That means everything I do is
going to be for God. You say, what do you mean by
that? That means the education, the books that I read, the way
I try to educate myself is for God's purpose. How is that possible? Well, you can write. You can
read. You can witness. You can speak. The more educated you are, sometimes
the different people you're able to reach. Everything you do is
for God. That means you walk through the
store and you consider that your whole purpose for even existing
on this earth is for God. So as you walk through a store,
you see people not just like they're passerby's, but you see
people as though God wants you to see them, because after all,
all you are is God's tool that is walking around on the face
of this earth. Everything you do is for God. In 2005, that seems like an extremist
point of view. You mean God is supposed to consume
me? You mean God is supposed to be
my sole purpose of life? He is supposed to be everything
about me? Yes. Yes, that's what I mean. What makes the Bible Christians,
the Apostles and those guys so different from us? What makes
the first century Christians so different from the Christians
of the 21st? What makes us so different? Do
you know, we are often times so consumed by secular and worldly
and other things that we forget that God saved us and it's to
Him and for Him that we are supposed to live. Just look at our schedules. Look at our days. How much of
your day do you actually spend in thought and contemplation
about God? Well, I'm not saying read your
Bible and praying. I'm just saying how often does
God cross your mind through the course of a regular workday? It would vary in all of our lives.
But do you think the Apostle Paul or Peter or James or John,
or even some of the Christians that were understudies of these
guys, do you think that God only crossed their mind once or twice
or three or four, even five times a day? No. You see, I think they
were absolutely consumed with the thought that their life must
be lived for God. There is no other purpose. Society
today tells us our purpose is cars, houses, things, belongings,
prestige, popularity, position. And then all those things get
pushed to the top when we forget that our purpose is to live for
God. Is it wrong to have money? No.
But our sole purpose is to live for God. Is it wrong to have
a nice car? No. Our sole purpose is to live for God though. Everything
about us. So once you decide that you're
going to die to sin, you decide, I'm going to live for God. I
am really everything that I do, I am going to do for God. You
say, that's hard. I know why. And that's why at
the end of verse 11, I love it when it says, but alive unto
God. It doesn't say through your own
power, through your own will. Through who? Through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Here it is. Die to sin. Live for God. Everything about you for God.
But you don't have to do it on your own. You don't have to put
on your hiking boots and hike across the way of this world
all by yourself. You don't have to do that. Because
Jesus Christ allows you to live through Him, His strength, His
power. His leading for God. You don't have to worry about,
well, what do I do when I get up in the morning? Well, what
do I do when I get to work? What do I do when I'm driving
home? How do I live for God? If you decide that your sole
purpose is going to be for God, then when you get up in the morning,
you get on your knees and you say, God, I'm living today completely,
solely for You. Please lead me. And the Holy
Spirit of God, when you go through your day, will prod you and will
encourage you and will convict you and will guide you and will
say, this is how to live for God. It's difficult to know what
to do sometimes. I just started a new position
at this church. My first week here was probably
the busiest week I've had in a really long time. Because this
is why I felt like every day I walked into the office, I'm
taking on new responsibilities. Every day I walked into the office
and I sat down at my desk, I had a specific task that I wanted
to accomplish. I've wanted to accomplish it
since September and October. And as I sit there preparing
to accomplish this task, It's as though suddenly I start hearing
outside of my office, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, and it's almost
as though a dump truck is backing up into my office, and then somebody
says, listen, these are all your responsibilities, and they're
all over. and I'm thinking, what do I do?
It seems like I spent the first week here at the church just
trying to figure out what is what. I was climbing through
this mess of responsibility. But it was neat to have Pastor
Falls and Pastor Monty and Pastor Phillips, and all I had to do
was press a button on my phone and say, hey, sorry to bug you
for the 15th time today. I need to ask you a question.
And they said, well, this is what you do. Or they would say,
call so-and-so and they'll tell you what to do. There was some
way of assistance there. I didn't have to figure it all
out on my own. Well, when we say we're going to live completely
for God, sometimes we feel just like that. Oh, I'm going to have
to live for God. Oh, what do I do? How do I do
it? What do I say? How do I act?
What do I wear? What do I do? We just don't know. But that's not the way God plans
it. God says, you decide you're going to live for Me. And once
you make that decision, then the Holy Spirit of God through
Jesus Christ will lead you. Why do you think you have the
Holy Spirit within you to help lead you and guide you? And he
says, this is the way you get to where I want you. Do you see
how blessed we are? We don't just have this expectation
without assistance. God says, live for me. Here's
your assistant. And he's there to help you. So
we live in life. But we also have to live in death.
Let's let's look to our helpful hint. You think this is going
to go long. No, it's not. It's really not.
Romans chapter 8 is our helpful hint. Romans chapter 8 verse
number 5. A quick helpful hint. This won't
take but a few seconds. Romans chapter 8 verse number
5 and 6. I'm going to emphasize one word as we read these two
verses. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh. but they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be." Let's stop right there. Here's your helpful hint for
the night. Your mindset. Your mind will often affect your
living. If you determine in your mind
that sin It's just too much to handle. It's just the way I'm
going to live, Brother Peter. Defeated. Then you are going
to be defeated. Your mindset affects it. Mind
the things of God. Think. Consider the things of
the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God. And you'll never
believe, you'll never know the difference that that will make.
Get out of your mind the influences and the channels of the world
and of carnality in the flesh. and fill your mind with the influences
of the things of God, and it'll be a great aid to you. Okay?
Number two, let's go to Romans 6. Look at verse 12. Let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lust thereof." Number two, give no control to sin. Number two. This is, of course,
closely related to number one. Give no control to sin. For sin to reign in your body
is for sin to have authority in your life. And the reign of
sin in your life will lead to just that. A life of sin. It is possible for Christians
to live as Spirit-filled, or let me use another word, it is
possible for Christians to live with a heart full of love for
God. In 90% of the areas of our lives,
we love and are submitted to God completely. But it is possible
for to have a small fraction, a small 10% of our lives that
we hold back or that we know consistently we are defeated
by this certain area of our life. What could that area be? It could
be different things. It could be our workplace. We
know every time we go to our workplace that there's going
to be things that are said or an emphasis that are put on conversations
or on lifestyles that we always fall prey to. And it's an area
of our life where sin has some control. It's like, when I go
there, I'm going to mess up. And it's just the way we feel.
It could be oftentimes for teenagers, an area where control is had
by sin is relationships, oftentimes in teenagers. I've seen teenagers
that seem to love the Lord with all their heart, but for some
reason, when it comes to relationships, they just take the Bible, they
toss it out the window, and they say, I'm not going to worry about
what God says, because this is what I feel, and this is what
society teaches, and they just throw the Bible out. Well, they
love the Lord in so many areas, but sin has control over a certain
area of their life. Here is my admonishment to you.
Give no control to sin. Don't let sin have a hand. or a grab on not one single area
of your life keeps sin completely away. What if it's the area of
music? Well, find a way to not allow
sin to have control. Sometimes that means getting
rid of CDs. I always encourage kids at the
youth center to do that. Sometimes it means taking the
CD player out of your car. I don't know. What if it's, there's
so many things, I can't even begin. But give no control to
sin. You know tonight, if there's
a certain area in your life that sin continues to defeat you,
and it's often times in one or two very specific areas, then
give no control. Get rid of the TV. Get rid of
the VCR. The DVD player. Sorry, VCR probably
nobody has anymore. Get rid of the DVD player. Don't, I don't know, don't go
to the movie theater. Don't, I don't know, don't eat
at that restaurant. Just find a way not to give control
to sin. And it's very interesting. Let's go to our helpful hint
on this one and then we'll close off. Go to Ephesians chapter
four. This is very interesting. I hope you'll find it so. Ephesians
chapter number four. Look at verse number 27, Ephesians
chapter number four and verse number 27. The Bible says in Ephesians 4,
27, neither give place to the devil, neither give place to
the devil. The reason why I say this is
so interesting is because of the word place. Oftentimes, when
we think of place, we say, oh, that restaurant is a place, or
the church is a place, or there's certain areas or places. When
the scripture says neither give place to the devil, place almost
has a concept or a meaning of control to it, almost like a
military term. For example, If you were to go
into Iraq or Afghanistan or into other regions of the world, you
would find that there are certain areas, for example in Iraq, where
we have bases that are set up. These bases allow us to function
more locally and they allow us to be more efficient, more mobile,
more educated and intellectual in what's going on in the area.
And they really make us just more efficient all around as
a military. Well, that place is base. That's a place. It's a place
where we can work out of, where we can do our work, where we
can get things going. Neither give place to the devil.
Don't give the devil any area of your life, not one area of
your life, where he can, so to speak, set up base. where he
can have room to function, room to work, be more efficient, have
a stronghold in your life. Then it's as though the devil
has a base in an area in which is otherwise not friendly to
him, but he does have one single area that is his to control,
and he knows it. And if that's the case in our
lives tonight, we know it too. We know what that one area is.
It's coming to your mind probably right now, an area in your life
where the devil set up camp, he set up base, and he's working,
functioning from that area. And so many other problems come
because of that. Listen, don't give the devil,
give him no control to sin. Give absolutely no control to
sin. So what's the helpful hint? Give the devil no room to operate.
Absolutely none whatsoever. Don't give him any room. Let's
go to our last our last point. It's found in Romans chapter
six again, verse number 13. Romans chapter number 613. I
wanted to be brief tonight because it's often the brief speakers
that are the most liked, you know, and so If Pastor Monty
goes out of town and you know he is, and you open up that bulletin
to see who's speaking, oftentimes, you know this, you don't act
so spiritual that you're not like this. You open up that bulletin,
you think, oh, I hope it's so-and-so and so-and-so, because they're
the shortest. Then you open that up, and if someone's long, you
think, oh. And so, but I'm going to be brief,
OK? So next time Pastor Monty leaves
town, you say, hey, let's get the brief speakers up there,
OK? And I will hopefully be one of them. Pastor Paul's, of course,
would be the other, right? Sure. All right. Romans chapter
number 6 and verse number 13. The Bible says, neither yield
ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Don't yield your members, your
parts, as instruments for the usefulness of unrighteousness,
of sin, of carnality, of fleshly. But yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God. Number three is yield
completely to God's service. Yield completely to God's service. That means this. And this goes
more specific than point number one. Decide that every single
area of your life, one way or another, is going to be used
in God's service. You say, what do you mean by
that? Well, here's your hint. Keep every part of your body
busy for God. Everything about you, keep it
busy and working for God. You've heard the phrase, what
is it? A idle hands are a devil's work something. What is that?
Well, idle mind is a devil's workshop, right? There you go.
And an idle hands are devil's work tools. I just made that
one up. But it fits, right? It goes. It goes together. And
so, let's put that on... what's the internet site called?
Sermon Audio. Let's put that on Sermon Audio.
Could we, James? And that might become an original statement.
Spread the nation, okay? Alright, so let's do that. I
would really like that. Make sure my picture is next
to that. Just kidding. Just kidding. Yield. Yield completely to God's service.
Keep every part of your body busy for God. Now, here it is.
I'm going to start on a little list. And probably by the end
of the list, you're going to think, OK, stop. I've got your point. And that's the whole reason why
I'm going to give you this list. Because I want you to get my
point. Here it is. Your eyes. We can use our eyes for so many
negative things. Determine that you're going to
use your eyes for the service of God, to help you draw closer
to God. Well, what can I do? Well, read
a good book. That's one way to use your eyes
for the service of God. Use your eyes to draw yourself
closer to God. How? By reading a book. I have
books in my office that I love to read. I have several books
on Billy Sunday, and I know he was a man that had some flaws.
But I enjoy reading on Billy Sunday. And it has never happened
that I read a book on Billy Sunday and at the end of the book I'm
just bored with it. It's really the other way around.
When I finish reading a book on Billy Sunday, I am so excited
and motivated and I'm just thinking in my mind, you know, let me
go and do the things for God that Billy Sunday was able to
do. And there are other people that I enjoy reading on. John
R. Rice, I enjoy reading on him.
And there have been others that I read on them and it just excites
me and it says to me there are others that have lived for God
in a great way and I can do the same. But instead, so many people
are wasting their eyes on television and on the computer. And all
we do is we sit there for hour after hour after hour and it
has done absolutely nothing to improve our relationship with
God. Read a good book. What about
reading your Bible? That's the best book, right?
Read your Bible. How often do we spend reading
our Bible? We read it in the morning out
of habit and out of conviction and out of discipline. But what
about as the day goes on? What about that? I did this several
months ago. I've been meeting to start back
up. Maybe, Pastor Falls, if you want to join me on this, it'd
be a blessing and encouragement to me about accountability. But
I months ago I used to every morning I would I would get an
index card and I would write down a verse and I went by topics
sin heaven the rapture Anything the cross the blood Jesus Christ
God all kinds of things and for a week or two or three weeks
I would memorize a verse every day on That subject and so if
I couldn't do it every day, of course, sometimes that's impossible
Then I would just hold it in my pocket. So I memorized it
And I would carry this index card around and I would pick
that up and I would look and I'd say, okay And anytime I had an extra
opportunity, I pulled it out of my pocket and I try to memorize
it Oh, it wasn't something I flashed around everywhere. It was just
in my pocket And so when I'm sitting at when I'm standing
in Walmart in line and thinking oh man these people are I had
to be behind the lady that has 15 coupons, you know, that type
of deal. And so instead of just standing
there growing frustrated, you know how the leg starts going
and you're getting aggravated, then I could just pull out the
card and I was able to use the time that I had, that was unexpected
time, to read the Bible, to help memorize it. Or what about when
you get caught in traffic or when you're at work and you're
sitting there waiting to talk to the boss, you know, or something
like that? Do something. Do things like that that allow
your eyes to be used completely for God. What about your ears?
Well, there's so many things we can do bad with them. What
about for God, to help improve our relationship to God? Well,
listen to good, godly music. I am a firm believer that music
has a great impact on a Christian's life. You know, you cannot convince
me that music does not affect people, because it does. And
listening to the wrong kind of music will, as is logical, affect
you in a wrong way, in a bad way. Well, listen to good, godly
music. You have no idea how it will
affect your mind, I do that with even my boy. When my boy was
in my wife's womb before he was actually born, we always had
good music playing. Good, good, good. Just, you know,
the southern gospel that makes you tap your foot, you know,
that type of thing. Just kidding, Pastor Paul. Just
kidding, just joking. I'm just kidding, but good music,
good music. Only the kind of stuff that Pastor
Paul would play, I know, because we have the same taste. And so
I always had good, godly music playing. And even now that he's
born, I do the same. I think that that even is a distributing
way. What am I trying to say? Contributing. Yes. What am I thinking of? I
don't know. The distributor in the bus is probably what I'm
thinking of. That is a contributing factor. To my son and his have
you ever noticed his demeanor? He's he's more late I know the
second one's gonna come out like a like a wild man and everybody's
gonna say oh What you didn't listen to music now now don't
don't hold me to this and you can edit this off off the internet
side okay, you can edit this one out, but You know, I think
that contributed. I really do think so. And so
good godly music has an effect. What about preaching? You know,
get sermons on sermonaudio.com. There are hundreds of thousands.
I don't know how many sermons. Listen to good preaching. What
about the Bible on tape? I have that in my car. And while
I'm traveling somewhere, I just put that in there and I listen
to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. You'll never believe how something
will come up and your Bible on tape listening time will pop
into your mind and you'll remember a story or an incident or a saying
or something like that. What about your mouth? We know
we can use our mouth for a lot of bad things. Gossip, huh? Gossip
is one main thing. What about using our mouth for
witnessing? What about using our mouth for preaching? Not
necessarily women being preachers, but guys preaching in the way
of encouraging righteousness. What about singing? And what
about praying? What about your hands? We know
we can use our hands in a lot of negative ways. What about
for passing out tracts? I'm going to be giving a soul
winning challenge Sunday night. You know, Pastor Falls gave a
missionary spotlight. And at my soul winning challenge,
I'm going to talk a little bit about the even small ways to
spread the gospel. I'm going to be talking about
passing out tracts. And you'll never believe the difference
that that could make. Always, always have a track in your pocket.
Okay, I'm going to keep mine covered because I forgot mine
in my office for the service. Okay, so don't look in my pocket
right now, but always have a tracker with you in your purse or in
your pocket. And hey, just pass out tracks.
It's a good way to use your hands for the service of the Lord.
What about learning to play instruments? This church does a fantastic
job. Brother Ken was here late last night. I showed up. Was
it last night? I think that was. and he was here giving lessons
for the trumpet. And so, you know, using our hands
to play instruments, what about writing? Writing. I've tried,
and I haven't been nearly as consistent as I ought to be,
but I've tried keeping a journal, a Christian journal, and every
night before I go to bed, I write a little bit about my day. Prayer,
God answered. A small way that I saw God work.
And why do I do that? Well, primarily when I die, I
like for my boy to pick up those journals, a whole stack of them
at that point, and to look through those journals and to say, wow,
you know, Dad really tried to live for God. you know, writing,
using your hands to promote godliness and encouraging you too. Every
night you go to bed, you stop and just take a few moments and
write down how God worked in your life that day. Talk about
going to bed, you know, above the clouds. That's a certain
way to do it. What about your feet? Door-to-door soul winning.
What about bus visitation? I like that one, right? Bus visitation,
door-to-door soul winning. Use your feet in a way. Do you
see how I've gotten so specific But it works. It works. How do
I gain deliverance from sin? You live in life and death. Decide,
I'm going to die to sin and live to God. You determine that sin
is not going to have any control over you. It's all, I'm going
to push it out. It's not going to rain. It's going to have no
base. And then you determine, I'm going to go out and I'm going
to yield every part of my body for God. You see what we've just
done tonight, and this is the neat thing is you didn't even
know we were doing it. I was the only one that knew. But what
we've just done tonight is we've set up a beautiful military strategy.
How have we done that? Well, you know, we declared war.
We said, sin is not going to have control over me. And what
you have done is declare war. Sin is not going to have control
over me. And then we decided that we were
going to give no control to sin. We were going to push the areas
of sin that control us out of our lives. We were setting up
base. This is where we're going to work out of. This is where
our camp is going to be. We declare war. We set up camp.
Push all the areas out. Make it a safe zone. And then
we say, hey, let's go out and let's attack now. We're going
to yield completely for God. Everything about us. Our hands,
our feet, our eyes, our ears, our mouth. Everything is going
to be for God. You've just set up a military
strategy tonight and you had no idea, General Darren. You see that? Generals. We're
all generals. Because we've set up a beautiful military strategy
and if you put it into effect, it will work. Decide though. You're going to have to decide
for yourself. Listen, don't allow yourself to live day after day
and turning into year after year after year. And every single
time you just feel like sin has you down. Oh, don't come to the
end of your life and think, you know, My life was lived in defeat
with occasional victory. When I lay on my deathbed, I
want to say, you know, my life was lived in victory. An occasional
defeat, but in victory primarily. They said, what kind of life
do you want to live? You can gain deliverance from your sin.
Follow the Scriptures. Romans 6, 11, 12, 13. Meditate on them. Memorize them.
And they'll make a difference, have an impact on your life.
Let's pray. We pray that we would be faithful
to You. We ask, Lord, that we would not
let that sin, that sin that nailed Jesus Christ to the cross, continue
to have a reign over our mortal bodies. We would ask, Lord, that
You would help us to gain deliverance. We know that we have the most
wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit of God to lead us, to convict
us at times. We pray, Lord, that we would
Be very tender towards his leading. Make us all Christians of victorious
living in Jesus name. Amen.
Three Keys to Deliverance From Sin
I. Live in life and death (Vs. 11)
II. Give no control to sin (Vs. 12)
III. Yield completely to God's service (Vs. 13)
| Sermon ID | 2230594115 |
| Duration | 46:06 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Romans 6:11-13 |
| Language | English |
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.