Hi Passionate Youth Reaching Out, today is Monday, July 18, My name is Grant and this is Start Up, helping you start your day with an upward focus. By the end of this episode, you will see that sin is worse than you thought.
Romans 7:13 (HCSB)
13 Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.
That’s a lot to take in, so Gaby is going to read it for you again, listen up.
13 Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.
Thanks, Gaby. Sin is far worse than I thought. That’s what I’m learning here. Sometimes I think that if I just try a little harder, that if I read my Bible more, that if I just really focus, that I can deal with sin. But I can’t. It’s a real enemy. God personifies sin as a wild predator, crouching at the door and ready to pounce on us, its unsuspecting prey.
That’s not how we tend to think of sin, though. We think of it as a bad choice or a mistake. We downplay its power and underestimate its far-reaching damages. This is probably true for our whole culture, we see sin as a little problem that we can deal with whenever we choose.
But if we look at today’s passage, we see just how vicious and crafty sin is. It can take the perfect and Holy law of God, and twist it in our minds to the point where it causes us to fall into sin. If it can do that with God’s perfect law, its not hard to imagine how sin could use almost anything in our lives to destroy us.
Obviously, we haven’t got to the good news part of this chapter yet. But the good news is coming. However, for now, this is a good opportunity for us to take a sober look at sin and to take a more serious approach towards it. We need to recognize that we can’t beat it on our own, we need God’s help. Good news, God’s help is available to anyone who will trust him.
Challenge
My challenge for you this week is to actively take note of sin’s deception in your life. Try to figure out how it has been lying to you. Some red flags will be places where you are becoming isolated in relationships, and were wrong desires and hopes are taking root in your heart. I challenge you to actually write these things down, making a list of sin’s plan to destroy you. My goal here is that you will be wise to sin’s strategies and that this information will help to not be deceived and therefore to not be harmed.
Invitation
Our next youth event is this Thursday, July 21, we are having a BBQ and sports night here at the Church. Grades 7-12 are invited, the cost is $3. I also want to invite you to church on Sunday, we have services at 9:30 and 11:00.
Thanks for listening to today’s StartUp, you can find all of the details about our youth group online at hbcyouth.ca. We are also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, just search for Hawkwood Youth.
https://www.facebook.com/HawkwoodYouthPYRO/
https://twitter.com/HawkwoodYouth
https://www.instagram.com/hawkwoodyouth/