Hi Passionate Youth Reaching Out, today is Tuesday, July 19, My name is Grant and this is Start Up, helping you start your day with an upward focus. Today we see how Paul was willing to talk openly about his struggle with sin.
Romans 7:14–17 (HCSB)
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.
Paul is stating what mature Christians know to be true. Even though we are Christians who have been saved by Jesus from our sins, sin still continues to have influence in our life. It might be a temptation to pretend like this isn’t the case for you. You could pretend that you are a superhero Christian who never even considers sinning. You could tell everyone that you are above sinning, but that would make you a liar.
Our goal, of course, is to live our lives for the glory of God, and we know that sin does not bring glory. Paul isn’t making excuses for sin, he is simply saying that it’s a real issue.
The way that he goes about explaining this internal struggle is to say that even though he knows and loves God’s law, there is a part of him that is still willing to break it. He hates his sin, it’s a big deal, and Paul is saying that he needs help to win this fight.
A popular misconception is that once we learn God’s truth, we will no longer sin. What we are learning is that God’s law alone can’t save us from our sin. God’s law alone can’t make us Holy. We need God’s help. We can’t just reduce the Christian life to learning what Jesus taught and then be obeying it. We need to approach it as a loving relationship where we rely on him for everything that we need for living.
Never forget this about your sin. God hates the sin more than you could know, but God loves you more than you could dream. God’s love for you is so great that you should always go to him for your help and know that he will forgive you.
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/